Well,
I’ve done it again, frittered away the time without getting a blog posted. I am now in South Carolina having made the
journey here without incident. Since the
last entry I visited a study group at Indian Rocks Beach, Florida that meets
right on the Gulf, and also visited another in the Florida Panhandle at Panama
City, visited friends in Louisiana, did some exploring there and then moved on
to Ladson, SC. While here I visited a
nearby state park and am working on the next booklet. Guess we had better get started.
The
theme for the quotations in this posting is faith, they are among quotations I
have gathered for the next booklet, “Mature Faith -- Faith of Jesus Part 3.” I will give a notice when it is finished.
Belief has attained
the level of faith when it motivates life and shapes the mode of living. The
acceptance of a teaching as true is not faith; that is mere belief. Neither is certainty
nor conviction faith. A state of mind attains to faith levels only when it
actually dominates the mode of living. Faith is a living attribute of genuine
personal religious experience. One believes truth, admires beauty, and
reverences goodness, but does not worship them; such an attitude of saving
faith is centered on God alone, who is all of these personified and infinitely
more.
The Urantia Book (1114.5) (101:8.1)
Thanks
to The Urantia Book I have faith.
Indian
Rocks Beach Study Group, Back row: Ann, Susan B, Peter, Dawn, Ernie, Joe, Betty
Lou; Front row: Joan, Susan M, Wandering Urantian
Betty
Lou visited me briefly in Dade City Florida to install some fancy, programmable
colored LED lights inside my house on wheels (a Coachman Wyoming fifth
wheel). Her son has a small startup
company, hookedup Inc. that sells the lights and a program to control the color
patterns; if I get to your area stop by so I can show them off. While she was there we drove to Indian Rocks
Beach, which is west of St. Petersburg on the gulf, for a study group meeting. As you can see from the photo it was well
attended. We read from Paper 5, “God’s
Relation to the Individual,” starting at section 2, “The Presence of God.” It was a joy to participate in the
interesting discussions; this is a good group and I hope to visit them when I
am again in the area. We even found a
good Mexican restaurant on the way back to Dade City.
I
have visited Meda’s group in Panama City several times; they meet in a small
building, called the Capstone House, which has all sorts of spiritual classes
and such: including Reiki healing and meditation classes as well as a regular Urantia
Study group. Meda is an excellent
facilitator, but sometimes her attendance is a bit low. On my way there I stopped at my usual
restaurant, Salty Sue’s for seafood.
Cemetery at Grace Episcopal Church, St. Francisville,
LA
From
there I moved to Livingston, Louisiana for a couple of weeks. I visited Virginia and Charles in Baton Rouge
as well as went exploring in Tickfaw State Park. Virginia and I visited a study group in
Mandeville on Lake Pontchartrain; it meets in Vianne’s Tea House, a lovely tea
shop with countless kinds of tea, which we sampled during the meeting. Peter and Ed, two long time readers, are
there every week and have fascinating discussions. Virginia and I also drove a bit north of
Baton Rouge to St. Francisville to meet Michael at a small town coffee house;
he is a long time reader and we had a good conversation that we truly
enjoyed. St. Franscisville is a quaint
town that has been bypassed by a bridge over the Mississippi River; formerly
there was a ferry near the town, requiring tourists to go through the town to
get over the river. The Grace Episcopal Church
was started in 1827 and the Union general who shelled it during the Civil War
is buried in its Churchyard. We learned
this from somebody we met and talked with during our visit to the church,
actually he was a beekeeper, but that is a long story. Instead of bats in the belfry they had bees
in the eves. James Audubon lived in the
area and there is an Audubon museum nearby; I hope to return there on my northward
trip next spring.
View from my kitchen window, KOA Campground, Ladson, SC
As
stated above, my journey here was uneventful; that is much better than last
year when I had three tires blowout on my house on wheels, thankfully only one
at a time! One interesting occurrence this
time northward happened on I-75 north; I was driving in the right lane and there
was a SUV ahead of me in the next lane over.
Suddenly cloud of black stuff came out of the bottom of its engine compartment
and I had oil all over my windshield. I naturally
slowed down to let him pull over but my windshield wipers were squeaky for some
time afterwards. The azaleas are in full bloom here, even in the campground,
and that is a nice view out my kitchen window, no? Nearby Summerville had its annual azalea
festival last weekend; it can be quite beautiful there with all the spring
flowers but I prefer not to deal with the crowds of visitors they have at this
time.
Salamander at Old Santee Canal State Park, Monks
Corner, SC
I
took time out from working on the next booklet to take a walk in the woods at
Old Santee Canal State Park, which is about 25 miles away in Monks Corner. I fear I inadvertently upset this critter’s
mating ritual, sorry about that. I saw a
small salamander and crouched down to watch her; she had her eyes fixed on
something closer to me. When I saw where
she was looking I spotted this male showing off, doing his pushups and
displaying. I stayed perfectly still for
quite a while but I guess my presence made him nervous or perhaps he was shy. At any rate he watched me instead of tending
to his business. She lost interest and
wandered away so the least I could do was take his portrait.
The consciousness of
a victorious human life on earth is born of that creature faith which dares to
challenge each recurring episode of existence when confronted with the awful
spectacle of human limitations, by the unfailing declaration: Even if I cannot
do this, there lives in me one who can and will do it, a part of the
Father-Absolute of the universe of universes. And that is “the victory which
overcomes the world, even your faith.”
The Urantia Book (59.5)
(4:4.9)
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