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depth of our perception which varies in accordance with the depth of our knowledge of God."
From the book we've learned that our knowledge of God is best enhanced by knowing the life of Jesus and how he lived it. Similarly we've learned that communication with our Thought Adjuster is best promoted by use of the alter ego method. But why make a fuss about worship? Isn't just trying to be like Jesus enough?
In seeking an answer to that question I came across this from the revelators: "Worship is the highest privilege and the first duty of all created intelligences" and "Worship is the highest joy of Paradise existence."
The clue to why the revelators place such a high value on worship may be in these words, "Man aspires by worship to be better--and thereby eventually attains the best." Is it not true that when we truly admire someone or perhaps someone becomes an object of our hero worship, there is a natural tendency for us to want to imitate them, to be like them. So can it be that our sincere worshipping of God virtually automatically means that we will strive to be like God? If so, what qualifies as worship? Surely it has to be more than singing or shouting God's praises. Let's see what else the revelators have to say about worship:
Worship is the conscious and joyous act of recognizing a personal relationship with our Creator.
Worship is a transforming experience whereby the finite gradually approaches, and ultimately attains, the Infinite.
Worship is both a measure of the soul's detachment from the material universe and its attachment to the spiritual realities of all creation
Realizing God, recognizing the reality of God, and seeking to be like God is both a spiritual experience and an act of worship.
In worship, we enter the domain of divine fellowship and spiritual values.
Worship is effortless attention, true and ideal soul rest, a form of spiritual exertion.
Worship is the technique of looking to the One for the inspiration of service to the many.
True worship is for its own sake. There is absolutely no self-interest element. God is worshipped simply for what we comprehend him to be.
Knowing God as Father, enthroning God in our hearts, experiencing the good, realizing the unity of truth, beauty and goodness, all form part of a valid worship experience.
Worship is self-forgetting--superthinking.
Jesus' whole life was a worship experience.
The simplest form of worship is a sincere: "Thank you, God, for just being you." [not from Urantia Book]
So worship isn't just singing praises to God. We actually worship God whenever we think about him with sincere gratitude, admiration, or awe in our hearts and a desire, even if unconscious, to be like God.
At the other end of the scale from where we are, there is Paradise worship.
"All the arts of all the beings of the entire universe which are capable of intensifying and exalting the abilities of self-expression and the conveyance of appreciation, are employed to their highest capacity in the worship of the Paradise Deities. Worship is the highest joy of Paradise existence; it is the refreshing play of Paradise. What play does for your jaded minds on earth, worship will do for your perfected souls on Paradise. The mode of worship on Paradise is utterly beyond mortal comprehension, but the spirit of it you can begin to appreciate even down here on Urantia, for the spirits of the Gods even now indwell you, hover over you, and inspire you to true worship." (304)
During preparation of this talk a couple of thoughts came to mind that are "shareable." We've been informed that worship is an innate component of Cosmic Mind that fosters the personal realization of divine fellowship. And discussing personality, the book has:
"Personality cannot survive well in isolation. Man is innately a social creature; he is dominated by the craving for belongingness. It is literally true, 'No man lives unto himself.'" (1227)
Particularly in early adulthood, many of us develop an overwhelming yearning to find the perfect partner to share our lives in happiness and bliss, and we load onto this imaginary partner a set of impossible-to-be-achieved attributes of our own making. On reading about our craving for belongingness in the book, and having also read about the congenital urge we have from Cosmic Mind for divine fellowship, it struck me that our youthful desires to find the perfect partner is possibly an instinctive but misplaced yearning stemming from the combination of our desire for belongingness and our innate, constitutive urge to find God--in other words, even though we didn't know it, God was the real goal of our youthful yearning--which often long persists into adult life.
Another thought that came to mind during preparation is "What might happen if a goodly proportion of Urantia Book readers undertook the diligent practice of the alter ego method, exactly as it is recommended to us by the revelators?
Obviously the idea has been given to us for a reason--it is not just idle chatter on the part of its authors? So why is it there and what were the revelators expectations? A miracle maybe!
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