Changes

==Session==

==Session==

===Opening===

===Opening===

Music: "[http://www.metrolyrics.com/here-i-am-lyrics-bryan-adams.html Here I Am]" – Piano solo, Dorenda

Music: "[https://www.metrolyrics.com/here-i-am-lyrics-bryan-adams.html Here I Am]" – Piano solo, Dorenda

Prayer: (Matthew) [prayer joined in [[progress]] as the recording device was not in the correct mode to record the beginning of the [[prayer]]]

Prayer: (Matthew) [prayer joined in [[progress]] as the recording device was not in the correct mode to record the beginning of the [[prayer]]]

Elena: Yeah. I have a question about a situation that I can’t quite shake. No matter who I talk to -- [[mother]], and I talked to my sister, and everyone about and I felt this [[morning]] it turning around a little bit, and I think it might be a good thing to [[share]] with the group.

Elena: Yeah. I have a question about a situation that I can’t quite shake. No matter who I talk to -- [[mother]], and I talked to my sister, and everyone about and I felt this [[morning]] it turning around a little bit, and I think it might be a good thing to [[share]] with the group.

I have a friend who I feel relatively close to. I really like her very much. I had the [[feeling]] that we were honoring and respecting one another’s spiritual [[paths]] forward – certainly I was hers. And this week – she’s a member of a more [[fundamentalist]] kind of group – and this week I sent an email to her and a couple of other people at work – something I’ll probably NEVER do again! -- but I got kinda lambasted by her and just showered with [[scripture]] with red letter highlighting of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Bible King James Version] and she said that the phrases in our lessons were changing the [[quotations]] of Jesus and that this (our [[studies]]) was the [[devil]]’s work and mentioned that I was participating in a [[cult]] – and I just - whoa!

I have a friend who I feel relatively close to. I really like her very much. I had the [[feeling]] that we were honoring and respecting one another’s spiritual [[paths]] forward – certainly I was hers. And this week – she’s a member of a more [[fundamentalist]] kind of group – and this week I sent an email to her and a couple of other people at work – something I’ll probably NEVER do again! -- but I got kinda lambasted by her and just showered with [[scripture]] with red letter highlighting of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Bible King James Version] and she said that the phrases in our lessons were changing the [[quotations]] of Jesus and that this (our [[studies]]) was the [[devil]]’s work and mentioned that I was participating in a [[cult]] – and I just - whoa!

I’ve been trying to shake this off and I haven’t been able to yet. Frankly – in the email, I prefaced it saying by that I wasn’t pushing this toward anyone, but that we’d gone through (at work) such a [[difficult]] two-week period that this particular lesson from [[Abraham]] might be helpful to somebody else, too. And whoa! I got it right between the eyes. This person can just kinda [[dissect]] me and eviscerate, – ya know? – in all directions. I feel like I need to be more [[focused]] myself, but I’m still having difficulty just shaking it off.

I’ve been trying to shake this off and I haven’t been able to yet. Frankly – in the email, I prefaced it saying by that I wasn’t pushing this toward anyone, but that we’d gone through (at work) such a [[difficult]] two-week period that this particular lesson from [[Abraham]] might be helpful to somebody else, too. And whoa! I got it right between the eyes. This person can just kinda [[dissect]] me and eviscerate, – ya know? – in all directions. I feel like I need to be more [[focused]] myself, but I’m still having difficulty just shaking it off.

Esmarelda: Well, I just think people are short on understanding and some are very narrow minded.

Esmarelda: Well, I just think people are short on understanding and some are very narrow minded.

Menopah: I’ve had to [[abandon]] some my own beliefs that were instilled in me since I was a little kid. My grandparents were staunch [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Baptist Southern Baptists] – they are [[fundamentalists]] by-and-large – and I’d been taught and come to believe that it was absolutely necessary for Prince [[Michael]] to abdicate his Godly attributes and come to this earth because of the SINFUL condition of man – passed on to us – We didn’t commit the [[sin]] in the [[Garden of Eden]] but [[Adam and Eve]] our forebears did, – and so I thought that was passed on to us and it was absolutely [[necessary]] for Christ to come in order to tip the scales back and make them even. And, well, I don’t know about that. I really don’t. Not now, I don’t.

Menopah: I’ve had to [[abandon]] some my own beliefs that were instilled in me since I was a little kid. My grandparents were staunch [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Baptist Southern Baptists] – they are [[fundamentalists]] by-and-large – and I’d been taught and come to believe that it was absolutely necessary for Prince [[Michael]] to abdicate his Godly attributes and come to this earth because of the SINFUL condition of man – passed on to us – We didn’t commit the [[sin]] in the [[Garden of Eden]] but [[Adam and Eve]] our forebears did, – and so I thought that was passed on to us and it was absolutely [[necessary]] for Christ to come in order to tip the scales back and make them even. And, well, I don’t know about that. I really don’t. Not now, I don’t.

Paula: Well, Carl’s (Menopah) heard me say many times that the [[Bible]] is a great book, it’s a wonderful book, but we have to stop and [[remember]] that it wasn’t written by somebody with their finger coming out of the [[sky]]. It was written by men! People. Just ordinary people. Well they were good and [[holy]] I guess.

Paula: Well, Carl’s (Menopah) heard me say many times that the [[Bible]] is a great book, it’s a wonderful book, but we have to stop and [[remember]] that it wasn’t written by somebody with their finger coming out of the [[sky]]. It was written by men! People. Just ordinary people. Well they were good and [[holy]] I guess.

TOMAS: I’m going to interrupt, if I may. This is Tomas and I have thoroughly enjoyed your [[discussion]]. I encourage discussion of this ilk in the [[future]]. I am not [[meaning]] to stop your discussion, but to commend the way you have comported yourself in this gathering. In the interim it has given us all a fine [[opportunity]], from this side, to observe the complications of the condition of the [[religious]] status of your [[civilization]] in the realm in which you work. Not that we were not aware of that already, but as it relates to you, the [[students]], that we work most intimately with.

TOMAS: I’m going to interrupt, if I may. This is Tomas and I have thoroughly enjoyed your [[discussion]]. I encourage discussion of this ilk in the [[future]]. I am not [[meaning]] to stop your discussion, but to commend the way you have comported yourself in this gathering. In the interim it has given us all a fine [[opportunity]], from this side, to observe the complications of the condition of the [[religious]] status of your [[civilization]] in the realm in which you work. Not that we were not aware of that already, but as it relates to you, the [[students]], that we work most intimately with.

The [[evolved religions]] all have contributed greatly to the advancement of [[spiritual]] concepts and even more recent religions which have emerged, not excluding [[Islam|Mohammedanism]], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahai Bahiaism] and the many modern ‘[[isms]]’ of a spiritual nature. These all reflect the [[values]] inherent in the time and place of the peoples who convened together to create the religion, to support the [[culture]] that developed around those core spiritual needs, in that geographic area at that point in time.

The [[evolved religions]] all have contributed greatly to the advancement of [[spiritual]] concepts and even more recent religions which have emerged, not excluding [[Islam|Mohammedanism]], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahai Bahiaism] and the many modern ‘[[isms]]’ of a spiritual nature. These all reflect the [[values]] inherent in the time and place of the peoples who convened together to create the religion, to support the [[culture]] that developed around those core spiritual needs, in that geographic area at that point in time.

These [[differences]] now are a result of the many ways the Spirit has developed. None of them are wrong. And for anyone, obviously, as you have [[discovered]] in your [[discussions]], to testify that this is right not only for me but for you as well, is in fact extending beyond the [[boundaries]] of civility that show respect for the [[personality]] of man, and that includes his religious [[background]] and personal [[commitments]] -- to deity any other important aspects of Life that presents a Value sacred to that individual and/or that group of individuals.

These [[differences]] now are a result of the many ways the Spirit has developed. None of them are wrong. And for anyone, obviously, as you have [[discovered]] in your [[discussions]], to testify that this is right not only for me but for you as well, is in fact extending beyond the [[boundaries]] of civility that show respect for the [[personality]] of man, and that includes his religious [[background]] and personal [[commitments]] -- to deity any other important aspects of Life that presents a Value sacred to that individual and/or that group of individuals.