My Case for Study Groups

By Joel Wood, Lawrence, Kansas, USA

As you journey toward your Paradise goal, constantly acquiring added knowledge and enhanced skill, you are continuously afforded the opportunity to give out to others the wisdom and experience you have already accumulated…you are not reckoned as having possessed yourself of knowledge and truth until you have demonstrated your ability and your willingness to impart this knowledge and truth to others (279:13) 25:4.12

I treasure The Urantia Book. I enjoy reading and rereading it, but I especially enjoy studying it with others.

My favorite parts of the Book are Jesus' wise, loving answers to questions – even foolish questions. Jesus was the master of knowing what to say and how to say it with the appropriate non-verbal communication. Regarding non-verbal communication, do you remember what the book says after Jesus spoke privately with the man who was mistreating his wife at the ships landing at Tarentum? It says: "It was not so much what Jesus said that touched this man's heart as the kindly look and the sympathetic smile which Jesus bestowed upon him at the conclusion of his remarks." "[N]ever did Jesus say, 'Whoso has heard me has heard God.' But he did say, 'He who has seen me has seen the Father.'"

The Urantia Book is an incredible text – spiritually enlightening and intellectually challenging, which is why I love study groups. Questions are asked and answered. Study groups give us the opportunity to be both teachers and students. New readers gain understanding and insight from experienced readers, who glean fresh perspectives from novice readers.

We wouldn't have study groups if we could have the same experience from reading the book alone. The fact is that we need one another. Our minds need to be poked and prodded in order to learn. "There is no growth without psychic conflict and spiritual agitation." (1096:6) 100:4.2 We need to hear each others' opinions. We need to struggle and grasp for words to express concepts and feelings. We need one another. We need study groups.

Cherish your study group if you have one. If you don't have one, consider joining or starting one. You won't regret it.

A social group of human beings in co-ordinated working harmony stands for a force far greater than the simple sum of its parts. (1477:1) 133:5.7