I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review VI Lesson 212

I Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created Me.

1. (192)  I have a function God would have me fill.

I seek the function that would set me free

from all the vain illusions of the world.

Only the function God has given me

can offer freedom. Only this I seek,

and only this will I accept as mine.

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I am not at body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I have a function God would have me fill. Forgiveness represents our function here. Forgiveness gently looks upon all things unknown in Heaven, sees them disappear, and leaves the world clean and unmarked slate on which the Word of God can now replace the senseless symbols written there before. Forgiveness is the means by which the fear of death is overcome and guilt is gone. Forgiveness lets the body be perceived as what it is: a simple teaching aid to be laid by when learning is complete. Only forgiveness can restore the peace that God intended for His holy Son. Only forgiveness can persuade the Son to look again upon his holiness. With anger gone, you will indeed perceive that for Christ’s vision and the gift of sight no sacrifice was asked and only pain was lifted from a sick and tortured mind. Who can be born again in Christ but him who has forgiven everyone he sees or thinks or imagines? Who could be set free while he imprisons anyone? Therefore hold no one prisoner. Release instead of bind, for thus are you made free. Our function is to walk in  forgiveness, accepting our identity as God created us in oneness and unity in Christ Jesus. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review VI Lesson 210

I Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created Me.

1. (190)  I Choose the joy of God instead of pain.

Pain is my own idea. It is not a thought of God,

But one I thought apart from Him and His will.

His will is joy and only joy for His beloved Son.

And that I choose instead of what I made.

I am not a body. I am free. for I am still as God created me.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I choose the joy of God instead of pain. Pain is a wrong perspective. When it is experienced in any form, it is a proof of self-deception. There is no form it takes which will not disappear if seen aright. Pain is a sign illusions reign in place of truth. Let us put these foolish thoughts aside. The time has come to laugh at such insane ideas. Nothing external to your mind can hurt or injure you in any way. It is you who have the power to dominate all things you see by merely recognizing what you are. Pain is illusion; joy is reality. Pain is but to sleep; joy is awakening. Pain is deception; joy alone is truth. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review VI Lesson 209

I Am Not a Body. I Am Free.

1. (189)  I Feel the Love of God within me now.

The love of God is what created me.

The love of God is everything I am.

The love of God proclaimed me as His Son.

The love of God within me sets me free.^[1].

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I feel the Love of God within me now. To feel the love of God within you is to see the world anew, shining in innocence, alive with hope, and blessed with perfect charity and love. It welcomes you, rejoices that you came, and sings your praises as it keeps you safe from every danger and of pain. It offers you a warm and gentle home in which to stay a while. It blesses you throughout the day and watches through the night as silent guardian of your holy sleep. Simply do this: be still and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is, all concepts you have learned about the world, all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad; do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. God knows the way to us. We need not know the way to Him. Our part is simply to allow all obstacles that we have interposed between the Son and God the Father to be quietly removed forever. God will do His part in joyful and immediate response. Through every opened door His love shines outward from its home within and lightens up the world of innocence. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review VI Lesson 208

I Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created Me.

1. (188)  The peace of God is shining in me now.

I will be still, and let the earth be still

along with me. And in that stillness, we

will find the peace of God. It is within

my heart, which witnesses to God Himself.

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. The peace of God is shining in me now. Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in you now. Enlightenment is recognition not a change at all. Light is not of the world, yet you who bear the light in you are alien here as well. It shines in you because it lit your home, and leads you back to where it came from and you are at home. The shining in your mind reminds the world of what it has forgotten. The peace of God can never be contained. In quietness is the peace of God acknowledged universally. For what your inward vison looks upon is your perception of the universe. Today we practice coming nearer to the light in us. We take our wandering thoughts and gently bring them back to where they fall in line with all the thoughts we share with God. We will not let them stray. We let the light within our minds direct them to come home. Instructions for this review instructs that no form of exercise is urged except a deep relinquishing of everything that clutters up the mind and makes it deaf to reason, sanity, and simple truth. We will attempt to get beyond all words and special forms of practicing for this review as I be still, and let the earth be still along with me. In this stillness we find the peace of God which is in our heart bearing witness to God Himself. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review VI Lesson 206

I Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created Me.

1. (206)  Salvation of the world depends on me.

I am entrusted with the gifts of God,

because I am His Son. And I would give

His gifts where He intended them to be.

I am not a body. I am free. I am still as God created me.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

For today’s personal notes  I am taking an excerpt from the friar patch www.eckiefriar.com, December 8, 2019 on Lesson 206 because I think Eckie did such a great job of covering all that would illuminate this lesson and the different forms of resistance Many of us face with flailing needlessly in deception of our God given purpose.

“In Lesson 186, verse one, Jesus says that this statement will one day take all arrogance away from every mind.  That realizing that salvation of the world depends upon me is a thought of true humility, which holds no function of my own but that which has been given me.  I take the part that has been assigned to me and I no longer insist upon another role.  That saving the world but acknowledges the Will of God being done on earth as it is in Heaven.  Doing this – saving the world, learning how to save the world, accepting that this, and this alone is the Will of God for my life, the function that has been assigned to me, unites all wills on earth in Heaven’s plan to save the world and restores the world to Heaven’s peace. 

In the lesson that we are reviewing today, Jesus urges us not to fight our function.  My whole life I have been fighting my function and trying to find my reason for being in all manner of other roles – the special relationship was especially calling to me, preying upon as many lovers as I could to eventually find “The One” who would make me special, would adore and cherish me, would put me above all others.  I wanted to be educated and have degrees.  I wanted to be a writer and travel first class and be loved and adored by people from all over the world, to go down in history for something, I just didn’t know what and I didn’t know how.  I knew that it would all end in loneliness, despair, and death and so I never put my all into it; I rather expected it to just happen – one day I would wake up and it would just come to me.  It did not seem to be a necessarily selfish goal.  I didn’t want to be famous or well-loved for doing anything evil or mean– it had to be something that brought goodness to the world.  I would pray to God, latch on to causes, put forth vision boards and visualizations, say special prayers, and make tremendous efforts, but the efforts in this direction never quite panned out because at the core of me, I knew that they were selfish goals even if they appeared to be good.  It was all about me, after all, and my unquenchable yearning to be loved, admired, to be the best at something. 

So it would stand to reason, one would think, that realizing that the salvation of the world depends on me, would satisfy that yearning for specialness, give me something for which the ego – who yearns to be a superhero, a rock star, a shining light in one form or other – could latch on to and go forth and do just that.  But the ego instead shrieks with panic and says “Eckie, this Course is madness.  You cannot save the world.   You are a big zero, a big nothing.  Who do you think you are?  You are going to end up just like your mother reading such BS and taking it to heart.  Put it away.  Enjoy the few years you have left.” 

And Jesus addresses this in verse six.  He says, “Arrogance makes an image of yourself that is not real.  It is this image that quails and retreats in terror, as the Voice for God assures you that you have the strength, the wisdom, and the holiness to go beyond all images.  You are not weak, as is the image of yourself.  You are not ignorant and helpless.  Sin cannot tarnish the truth in you, and misery can come not near the holy home of God.”

“Enjoy your special relationships,” ego says, “They are all you really have, after all.” 

Yes, those special relationships – the way they rise and fall, shifting between coldness, aloofness, snubs, and backbiting to warmth, closeness, secret-sharing, and seeming brotherhood – I know better than to ever consider enjoying a special relationship, ego!  And I laugh. 

I will do as God’s Voice directs.  And if He asks a thing of me which seems impossible, I will remember Who it is Who asks, and how then could I say no?  In verse 12, Jesus asks us to consider which voice is more likely to be right – the Voice that speaks for the Creator of all things, Who knows all things exactly as they are, or a distorted image of ourselves, confused, bewildered, inconsistent, and unsure of everything.

And then in verse 14, we find what saving the world really looks like.  In sentence five, Jesus states: “Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive.  Such is your function here.”  We are not asked to be different in any way from what we are, all we are asked to do is forgive.  So let us forgive.  And save the world.  Amen.”

Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review VI Lesson 205

I Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created Me.

1. (185)  I want the peace of God.

The peace of God is everything I want.

The peace of God is my one goal, the aim

of all my living here, the end I seek,

my purpose and my function and my life

while I abide where I am not at home.

I am not a body. I am free. For I

Am still as God created me.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I want the peace of God. In reviewing lesson 185 it states to say these words is nothing but to mean them is everything, if only for an instant there would be no further sorrow possible for you in any form, in any place or time. To mean you want the peace of God is to renounce all dreams. To not ask for compromise.  I devote my practicing today to my hearts request; I want the peace of God. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review VI Lesson 204

I Am Not a Body. I Am Free. I Am Still As God Created Me.

1. (184)  The Name of God is my inheritance.

God’s Name reminds me that I am His Son,

not slave to time, unbound by laws which rule

the world of sick illusions, free in God

forever and forever one with Him.

I am not a body. I am free. for I

Am still as God created me.^[1].

^{[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.}

Personal Notes:

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. The Name of God is my inheritance. Father, our Name is Yours. In it we are united with all living things and You Who are their one Creator. What we made and call by many different names is but a shadow we have tried to cast across Your Own reality. And we are glad and thankful we were wrong. All our mistakes we give to You, that we may be absolved of all effects our errors seemed to have. And we accept the truth You give, in place of every one of them. Your Name is our salvation and escape from what we made. Your Name unites us in the oneness which is our inheritance and peace. Amen. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review VI Lesson 203

I Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created Me.

1. (183)  I call upon God’s Name and on my own.

The Name of God is my deliverance

from every thought of evil and of sin,

because it is my own as well as His.

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I call upon God’s Name and on my own. As a father gives his son his name and identifies the son with him. Our Heavenly Father’s Name reminds us who we are. As we say His Name we invite the angels to surround the ground on which we stand, and to sing to us as they spread out their wings to keep us safe, and shelter us from every worldly thought that would intrude upon our holiness. Repeat God’s Name, and all the world responds by laying down illusions. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review VI Lesson 202

I Am Not a Body. I Am Free. For I Am Still as God Created Me.

1. (182)  I will be still a moment and go home.

Why would I choose to stay an instant more.

Where I do not belong, when God Himself

Has given me His Voice to call me home?

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. I will be still a moment and go home. A memory of home keeps calling to me, I will be still a moment and go home. My true Self only asks for a few instants of respite to return to breathe again the holy air that fills my Father’s house, within the peace that is His home, resting in silence and in peace and love. As I am still an instant the world recedes and I am in my Father’s home with Him in perfect stillness, silent and at peace beyond all words, untouched by fear and doubt. I will rest frequently with Him today. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review 6

Introduction

For this review, we take but one idea each day and practice it as often as is possible. Besides the time you give morning and evening, which should not be less than fifteen minutes, and the hourly remembrances you make throughout the day, use the idea as often as you can between them. Each of these ideas alone would be sufficient for salvation, if it were learned truly. Each would be enough to give release to you and to the world from every form of bondage, and invite the memory of God to come again.

2. With this in mind we start our practicing, in which we carefully review the thoughts the Holy Spirit has bestowed on us in our last twenty lessons. Each contains the whole curriculum, if understood, practiced, accepted, and applied to all the seeming happenings throughout the day. One is enough. But to that one, there must be no exceptions made. And so we need to use them all and let them blend as one, as each contributes to the whole we learn.

3. These practice sessions, like our last review, are centered round a central theme with which we start and end each lesson. It is this:

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me.

     The day begins and ends with this. And we repeat it every time the hour strikes, or we remember, in between, we have a function that transcends the world we see. Beyond this, and a repletion of the special thought we practice for the day, no form of exercise is urged except a deep relinquishing of everything that clutters up the mind and makes it deaf to reason, sanity, and simple truth.

4. We will attempt to get beyond all words and special forms of practicing for this review. For we attempt this time to reach a quickened pace along a shorter path to the serenity and peace of God. we merely close our eyes, and then forget all that we thought we knew and understood. For thus is freedom given us from all we did not know and failed to understand.^445.

5. There is but one exception to this lack of structuring: Permit no idle thought to go unchallenged. If you notice one, deny its hold and hasten to assure your mind that this is not what it would have. Then gently let the thought which you denied be given up, in sure and quick exchange for the idea you practice for the day.

6. When you are tempted, hasten to proclaim your freedom from temptation, as you say:

This thought I do not want. I choose instead__________.

     And then repeat the idea for the day, and let it take the place of what you thought.

7. Beyond such special applications of each day’s idea, we will add but few formal expressions or specific thoughts to aid your practicing. Instead, we give these times of quiet, to the Teacher Who instructs in quiet, speaks of peace, and gives our thoughts whatever meaning they may have.

8. To Him I offer this review for you. I place you in His charge, and let Him teach you what to do and say and think each time you turn to Him. He will not fail to be available to you each time you call to Him to help you. Let us offer Him the whole review we now begin, and let us also not forget to Whom it has been given as we practice day by day, advancing toward the goal He set for us, allowing Him to teach us how to go, and trusting Him completely for the way each practice period can best become a loving gift of freedom to the world.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

445. These meditation instructions are similar to what is described in lesson 189, where we empty our minds of all thoughts, words, concepts, images, and beliefs and hold in mind nothing but a wordless receptivity to God. they are also similar to the instructions for mediation in the introduction to part II and in the final lessons. This means that, starting here, we are asked to spend the remainder of the year meditating wordlessly.

Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 200

There Is No Peace Except The Peace of God

Seek you no further. You will not find peace except the peace of God. Accept this fact, and save yourself the agony of yet more bitter disappointments, bleak despair, and sense of icy hopelessness and doubt. Seek you no further. There is nothing else for you to find except the peace of God, unless you seek for misery and pain.

2. This is the final point to which each one must come at last, to lay aside all hope of finding happiness where there is none, of being saved by what can only hurt, of making peace of chaos, joy of pain, and Heaven out of hell. Attempt no more to win through losing, nor to die to live. You cannot but be asking for defeat.

3. Yet you can ask as easily for love, for happiness, and for eternal life, in peace that has no ending. Ask for this, and you can only win. To ask for what is false be true can only fail. Forgive yourself for vain imaginings, and seek no longer what you cannot find. For what could be more foolish than to seek and seek and seek again for hell, when you have but to look with open eyes to find that Heaven lies before you, through a door which opens easily to welcome you?

4. Come home. You have not found your happiness in foreign places and in alien forms which have no meaning to you, though you seek to make them meaningful. This world is not where you belong. You are a stranger here. But it is given you to find the means whereby the world no longer seems to be a prison house for you or anyone.

5. Freedom is given you where you beheld but chains and iron doors. For you must change your mind about the purpose of the world, if you would escape. You will be bound till all the world is seen by you as blessed, and everyone made free of your mistakes and honored as he is. You made him not; no more yourself. And as you free the one, the other is accepted as he is.

6. What does forgiveness do? In truth it has no function and does nothing, for it is unknown in Heaven. It is only hell where it is needed, and where it must serve a mighty function. Is not the escape of God’s beloved Son from evil dreams that he imagines yet believes are true a worthy purpose? Who could hope for more while there appears to be a choice to make between success and failure; love and fear?

7. There is no peace except the peace of God, because He has one Son, who cannot make a world in opposition to God’s will and to his own, which is the same as His. What could he hope to find in such a world? It cannot have reality, because it never was created. Is it here that he would seek for peace? Or must he see that, as he looks on it, the world can but deceive? Yet can he learn to look on it another way and find the peace of God.

8. Peace is the bridge which everyone will cross to leave this world behind. But it begins within the world perceived as different, and will lead from this fresh perception to the gate of Heaven and the way beyond. Peace is the answer to conflicting goals, to senseless journeys, frantic vain pursuits, and meaningless endeavors. Now the way is easy, sloping gently toward the bridge where freedom lies within the peace of God.

9. Let us not lose our way again today. We go to Heaven, and the path is straight. Only if we attempt to wander can there be delay and needless waste of time on thorny byways. God alone is sure, and He will guide your footsteps. He will not desert His Son in need, nor let him stray forever from his home. The Father calls; the Son will hear. And that is all there is to what appears to be a world apart from God, where bodies have reality.

10. Now is there silence. Seek no further. You have come to where the road is carpeted with leaves of false desires, fallen from the trees of hopelessness you sought before. Now are they underfoot. And you look up and on toward Heaven, with the body’s eyes but serving for an instant longer now. Peace is already recognized at last, and you can feel its soft embrace surround your heart and mind with comfort and with love.

11. Today we seek no idols. Peace cannot be found in them. The peace of God is ours, and only this will we accept and want. Peace be to us today. For we have found a simple, happy way to leave the world of ambiguities, and to replace our shifting goals and solitary dreams with single purpose and companionship, for peace is union if it be of God. We seek no further. We are close to home, and draw still nearer every time we say:

There is no peace except the peace of God,

And I am glad and thankful it is so.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

There is no peace except the peace of God. I ask Holy Spirit to help me not to delay today by seeking hell when I have only to look with open eyes to find Heaven lies before me, through a door which opens easily to welcome me. I no longer look for happiness in foreign places and in alien forms which have no meaning. This world is not where I belong. I am a stranger here, praise be to our Heavenly Father who has given us a means by which to see the world is not our prison house. Freedom is given us. Peace is the bridge we will cross to leave this world behind as we perceive the world differently through the eyes of Christ, with fresh perception leading us to the gates of Heaven and the way beyond. Peace is the answer to conflicting goals, to senseless journeys, frantic vain pursuits, and meaningless endeavors. Let us not lose our way again today. Only if we attempt to wander can there be delay and needless waste of time on thorny byways. There is no peace except the peace of God, and I am glad and thankful it is so. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 199

I Am Not a Body. I Am Free.

Freedom must be impossible as long as you perceive a body as yourself. The body is a limit. Who would seek for freedom in a body looks for it where it cannot be found. The mind can be made free when it no longer sees itself as in a body, firmly tied to it, and sheltered by its presence. If this were the truth, the mind would be vulnerable indeed!

2. The mind that serves the Holy Spirit is unlimited forever in all ways, beyond the laws of time and space, unbound by any preconceptions, and with strength and power to do whatever it is asked. Attack thoughts cannot enter such a mind, because it has been given the Source of love, and fear can never enter in a mind which has attached itself to love. It rests in God, and who can be afraid who lives in innocence and only loves?

3. It is essential for your progress in this course that you accept today’s idea and hold it very dear. Be not concerned that to the ego it is quite insane. The ego holds the body dear because it dwells in it, and lives united with the home that it has made. It is a part of the illusion which has sheltered it from being found illusory itself.

4. Here does it hide, and here it can be seen as what it is. Declare your innocence, and you are free. The body disappears because you have no need of it except the need the Holy Spirit sees. For this, the body will appear as useful form for what the mind must do. It thus becomes a vehicle which helps forgiveness be extended to the all-inclusive goal that it must reach, according to God’s plan.

5. Cherish today’s idea and practice it today and every day. Make it part of every practice period you take. There is no thought that will not gain thereby in power to help the world, and none which will not gain in added gifts to you as well. We sound the call of freedom round the world with this idea. And would you be exempt from the acceptance of the gift you give?

6. The Holy Spirit is the home of mind that seeks for freedom. In Him it has found what it has sought. The body’s purpose now is unambiguous, and it becomes perfect in the ability to serve and undivided goal. In conflict-free and unequivocal response to mind with but the thought of freedom as its goal, the body serves, and serves its purpose well. Without the power to enslave, it is a worthy servant of the freedom which the mind within the Holy Spirit seeks.

7. Be free today, and carry freedom as your gift to those who still believe they are enslaved within a body. Be you free, so that the Holy Spirit can make use of your escape from bondage to set free the many who perceive themselves as bound and helpless and afraid. Let love replace their fears through you. Accept salvation now, and give your mind to Him Who calls to you to make this gift to Him. For He would give you perfect freedom, perfect joy, and hope that finds its full accomplishment in God.

8. You are God’s Son. In immortality you live forever. Would you not return your mind to this?

Then practice well the thought the Holy Spirit gives you for today. Your brothers stand released with you in it, the world is blessed along with you, God’s Son will weep no more, and Heaven offers thanks at the increase of joy your practice brings even to it. And God Himself extends His love and happiness each time you say:

I am not a body. I am free.

I hear the Voice that God has given me,

And it is only this my mind obeys.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I am not a body. I am free. The mind is free when it no longer sees itself as a body, tied to it and sheltered by it. The mind that serves Holy Spirit is unlimited forever in all ways, beyond the laws of time and space, unbound by any preconceptions, and with strength and power to do whatever it is asked. Attack thoughts cannot enter such a mind, because it has been given to the Source of love. It rest in God. Let us not be concerned that to the ego this is quite insane. The ego holds the body dear because it dwells in it, using it to be sheltered from being found illusory itself. As we declare our innocence, we are free, seeing only the use of it as Holy Spirit shows us as a vehicle which helps forgiveness be extended to the all-inclusive goal that it must reach, according to God’s plan. Holy Spirit is the home of minds that seek for freedom. Let us be free today, that Holy Spirit can make use of our escape from bondage, to set free the many who perceive themselves as bound and helpless and afraid. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now.

Lesson 198

Only My Condemnation Injures Me.

Injury is impossible. And yet illusion makes illusion. If you can condemn, you can be injured. For you have believed that you can injure, and the right you have established for yourself can be now used against you, till you lay it down as valueless, unwanted, and unreal. Then does illusion cease to have effects, and all it seemed to have will be undone. Then are you free, for freedom is your gift, and you can now receive the gift you gave.

2. Condemn and you are made a prisoner; forgive and you are freed. Such is the law that rules perception. It is not a law that knowledge understands, for freedom is a part of knowledge. To condemn is thus impossible in truth. What seems to be its influence and its effects have not occurred at all. Yet must we deal with them a while as if they had. Illusion makes illusion. Except one. Forgiveness is illusion that is answer to the rest.

3. Forgiveness sweeps all other dreams away, and though it is itself a dream, it breeds no others. All illusions save this one must multiply a thousandfold, but this is where illusions end. Forgiveness is the end of dreams because it is a dream of waking. It is not itself the truth. Yet does it point to where the truth must be and give direction with the certainty of God Himself. It is a dream in which the Son of God awakens to his Self and to his Father, knowing They are one.

4. Forgiveness is the only road that leads out of disaster, past all suffering, and finally away from death. How could there be another way, when this one is the plan of God Himself? And why should you oppose it, quarrel with it, seek to find a thousand ways in which it must be wrong, a thousand other possibilities?

5. Is it not wiser to be glad you hold the answer to your problems in your hand? Is it not more intelligent to thank the One Who gives salvation, and accept His gift with gratitude? And is it not a kindness to yourself to hear His Voice and learn the simple lessons He would teach, instead of trying to dismiss His words and substitute your own in place of His?

6. His words will work. His words will save. His words contain all hope, all blessing, and all joy that ever can be found upon this earth. His words are born in God, and come to you with Heaven’s love upon them. Those who hear His words have heard the song of Heaven, for these are the words which all merge as one at last. And as this one will fade away, the Word of God will come to take its place, for It will be remembered then and loved.

7. This world has many seeming separate haunts where mercy has no meaning and attack appears as justified. Yet all are one: a place where death is offered to God’s Son and to his Father. You may think They have accepted, but if you will look again upon the place where you beheld Their blood, you will perceive a miracle instead.

8. How foolish to believe that They could die! How foolish to believe you can attack! How mad to think that you could be condemned, and that the holy Son of God can die! The stillness of your Self remains unmoved, untouched by thoughts like these and unaware of any condemnation which could need forgiveness. Dreams of any kind are strange and alien to truth. Yet what but truth could have a thought that builds a bridge to truth which brings illusions to the other side?

9. Today we practice letting freedom come to make its home with you. The truth bestows these words upon your mind, that you may find the key to light and let the darkness end:

Only my condemnation injures me.

Only my own forgiveness sets me free.

     Do not forget today that there can be no form of suffering that fails to hide an unforgiving thought, nor can there be a form of pain forgiveness cannot heal.

10. Accept the one illusion which proclaims there is no condemnation in God’s Son, and Heaven is remembered instantly, the world forgotten, and its weird beliefs forgotten with it, as the face of Christ appears unveiled at last in this one dream. This is the gift the Holy Spirit holds for you from God your Father. Let today be celebrated both on earth and in your holy home as well. Be kind to both, as you forgive the trespasses you thought them guilty of, and see your innocence shining upon you from the face of Christ.^437.

11. Now is there silence all around the world. Now is there stillness where before there was a frantic rush of thoughts that made no sense. Now is there tranquil light across the face of earth, made quiet in a dreamless sleep. And now the Word of God alone remains upon it. Only that can be perceived an instant longer. Then are symbols done, and everything you ever thought you made completely vanished from the mind which God forever know to be His only Son.

12. There is no condemnation in him. He is perfect in his holiness. He needs no thoughts of mercy. Who could give him gifts when everything is his? And who could dream of offering forgiveness to the Son of Sinlessness Itself, so like to Him Whose Son he is that to behold the Son is to perceive no more, and only know the Father? In this vision of the Son, so brief that not an instant stands between this single sight and timelessness itself, you see the vision of yourself, and then you disappear forever into God.

13. Today we come still nearer to the end of everything that yet would stand between this vision and our sight. And we are glad that we have come this far, and recognize that He Who brought us here will not forsake us now, for He would give to us the gift that God has given us through Him today. Now is it time for your deliverance. The time has come. The time has come today.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

437. Mark 11:25 (RSV): “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any one; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” In the above reference, forgiving another’s trespasses leads not to God forgiving us (since He has already done that), but rather to the unveiling of our own innate innocence.

Personal Notes:

Only my condemnation injures me. Only my own forgiveness sets me free. I practice to not forget that there can be no form of suffering that fails to hide an unforgiving thought. Nor can there be a form of pain forgiveness cannot heal. To sit and try to figure out what this one or that one did to us or why, is to judge them and recall the way it made us “feel”, to activate the past in this manner is to make it real instead of letting it go with all the rest of the mad illusory, delusional unreal world. I forgive it. I just let it go. I embrace the holy Sonship of God, the Brotherhood of Christ. What we did in return and retaliation means Nothing now. We are freed from this mad world; for whom the Son sets free is free indeed. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 197

It Can Be But My Gratitude I earn.

Here is the second step we take to free your mind from the belief in outside force pitted against your own. You make attempts at kindness and forgiveness, yet you turn them to attack again unless you find external gratitude and lavish thanks. Your gifts must be received with honor, lest they be withdrawn. And so you think God’s gifts are loans at best; at worst, deceptions which would cheat you of defenses to ensure that when He strikes He will not fail to kill.

2. How easily are God and guilt confused by those who know not what their thoughts can do. Deny your strength, and weakness must become salvation to you. See yourself as bound, and bars become your home. Nor will you leave the prison house or claim your strength until guilt and salvation are not seen as one and freedom and salvation are perceived as joined, with strength beside them, to be sought and claimed and found and fully recognized.

3. The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions. Yet your thanks belong to you as well, for its release can only mirror yours. Your gratitude is all your gifts require, that they be the lasting offerings of a thankful heart released from hell forever. Is it this you would undo by taking back your gifts because they were not honored? It is you who honor them and give them fitting thanks, for it is you who have received the gifts.

4. It does not matter if another thinks your gifts unworthy. In his mind there is a part that joins with yours in thanking you. It does not matter if your gifts seem lost and ineffectual. They are received where they are given. In your gratitude are they accepted universally, and thankfully acknowledged by the heart of God Himself. And would you take them back when He has gratefully accepted them?

5. God blesses every gift you give to Him, and every gift is given Him because it can be given only to yourself, and what belongs to God must be His Own. Yet you will never realize His gifts are sure, eternal, changeless, limitless, forever giving out, extending love and adding to your never-ending joy, while you forgive but to attack again. Withdraw the gifts you give, and you will think that what is given you has been withdrawn.

6. But learn to let forgiveness take away the sins you think you see outside yourself, and you can never think the gifts of God are lent but for a little while, before He snatches them away again in death. For death will have no meaning for you then. And with the end of this belief is fear forever over. Thank your Self for this, for He is grateful only unto God, and He gives thanks for you unto Himself.

7. To everyone who lives will Christ yet come, for everyone must live and breathe in Him. His being in His Father is secure because Their will is one. Their gratitude to all They have created has no end, for gratitude remains a part of love.

8. Thanks be to you, the holy Son of God, for as you were created you contain all things within your Self. And you are still as God created you, nor can you dim the light of your perfection. In your heart the heart of God is laid. He holds you dear because you are Himself. All gratitude belongs to you because of what you are.

9. Give thanks as you receive it. Be you free of all ingratitude to anyone who makes your Self complete. And from this Self is no one left outside. Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this Self. All that you do is given unto Him. All that you think can only be His thoughts, sharing with Him the holy thoughts of God. Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot the function God has given you. But never think that He has ever ceased to offer thanks to you.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

It can be but my gratitude I earn. [Colossians 3:23-24; And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.] All we do we do unto the Lord which in turn we do unto ourselves. So what could there be but gratitude. Our gratitude is all our gifts require, that they be the lasting offerings of a thankful heart released from hell forever. It does not matter if “someone” thinks our gifts unworthy, it does not natter if our gifts seem lost and ineffectual. In our gratitude they are accepted universally and thankfully acknowledged by the heart of God Himself.  For all we do we do unto the Lord with thanksgiving, in Him, to Him, Through Him. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 196

It Can Be But Myself I Crucify

When this is firmly understood and kept in full awareness, you will not attempt to harm yourself, nor make your body slave to vengeance. You will not attack yourself, and you will realize that to attack another is but to attack yourself. You will be free of the insane belief that to attack a brother saves yourself. And you will understand his safety is your own, and in his healing you are healed.

2. Perhaps at first you will not understand how mercy, limitless and with all things held in its sure protection, can be found in the idea we practice for today. It may, in fact, appear to be a sign that punishment can never be escaped, because the ego, under what it sees as threat, is quick to cite the truth to save its lies. Yet must it fail to understand the truth it uses thus. But you can learn to see these foolish applications and deny the meaning they appear to have.

3. Thus do you also teach your mind that you are not an ego, for the ways in which the ego would distort the truth will not deceive you longer. You will not believe you are a body to be crucified. And you will see within today’s idea the light of resurrection, looking past all thoughts of crucifixion and of death to thoughts of liberation and of life.

4. Today’s idea is a one step we take in leading us from bondage to the state of perfect freedom. Let us take this step today, that we may quickly go the way salvation shows us, taking every step in its appointed sequence as the mind relinquishes its burdens one by one. It is not time we need for this. It is but willingness. And what would seem to need a thousand years can easily be done in just one instant by the grace of God.^423.

5. The dreary, hopeless thought that you can make attacks on others and escape yourself has nailed you to the cross. Perhaps it seems to be salvation, yet it merely stands for the belief the fear of God is real. And what is that but hell? Who could believe his Father is his deadly enemy, separate from him and waiting to destroy his life and blot him from the universe, without the fear of hell upon his heart?

6. Such is the form of madness you believe if you accept the fearful thought you can attack another and be free yourself. Until this form is changed there is no hope. Until you see that this, at least, must be entirely impossible, how could there be escape? The fear of God is real to anyone who thinks this thought is true, and he will not perceive its foolishness or even see that it is there, so that it would be possible to question it.

7. To question it at all, its form must first be changed at least as much as will permit fear of retaliation to abate, and the responsibility returned to some extent to you. From there you can at least consider if you want to go along this painful path. Until this shift has been accomplished, you cannot perceive that it is but your thoughts which bring you fear, and your deliverance depends on you.

8. Our next steps will be easy if you take this one today. From there we go ahead quite rapidly. For once you understand it is impossible that you be hurt except by your own thoughts, the fear of God must disappear. You do not now believe that fear is caused without. And God, Whom you had thought to banish, can be welcomed back within the holy mind He never left.

9. Salvation’s song can certainly be heard in the idea we practice for today. If it can but be you you crucify, you did not hurt the world, and need not fear its vengeance and pursuit. Nor need you hide in terror from the deadly fear of God, projection hides behind. The thing you dread the most is your salvation. You are strong, and it is strength you want. And you are free, and glad of freedom. You have sought to be both weak and bound, because you feared your strength and freedom. Yet salvation lies in them.

10. There is an instant in which terror seems to grip your mind so wholly that escape appears quite hopeless. When you realize, once and for all, that it is you you fear, the mind perceives itself as split. And this had been concealed while you believed attack could be directed outward and returned from outside to within. It seemed to be an enemy outside you had to fear. And thus a god outside yourself became your mortal enemy, the source of fear.

11. Now, for an instant, is a murderer perceived within you, eager for your death, intent on plotting punishment for you until the time when it can kill at last. Yet in this instant is the time as well in which salvation comes. For fear of God has disappeared, and you can call on Him to save you from illusions in His love, calling Him Father and yourself His Son. Pray that the instant may be soon—today! Step back from fear and make advance to love.

12. There is no thought of God that does not go with you to help you reach that instant, and to go beyond it quickly, surely, and forever. When the fear of God is gone, there are no obstacles which still remain between you and the holy peace of God. how kind and merciful is the idea we practice! Give it welcome, as you should, for it is your release. It is indeed but you your mind can try to crucify, yet your redemption too will come from you.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

It can be but myself I crucify. I ask Holy Spirit to help me to keep full understanding and awareness of this fact as I go about my day to day living and showing this truth to the world to light the way for us all. As we teach our mind that we are not an ego the truth will not deceive us any longer and we will not believe we are a body to be crucified. Let us take this step today, to quickly go the way salvation shows us, as our minds relinquish its burdens one by one. Our Father is not our deadly enemy waiting to destroy us or blot us from the universe but quite the opposite waiting patiently for our return with arms of Love open wide. I understand that I can be hurt only by my own thoughts which I release to except God’s thoughts of love, peace, unity, and acceptance. Calling on Him to save me from illusions in His love. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 195

Love Is The Way I Walk In Gratitude.

Gratitude is a lesson hard to learn for those who look upon the world amiss. The most that they can do is see themselves as better off than others. And they try to be content because another seems to suffer more that they. How pitiful and deprecating are such thoughts! For who has cause for thanks while others have less cause, and who could suffer less because he sees another suffer more? Your gratitude is due to Him alone Who made all cause of sorrow disappear throughout the world.

2. It is insane to offer thanks because of suffering. But it is equally insane to fail in gratitude to One Who offers you the certain means whereby all pain is healed, and suffering replaced with laughter and with happiness. Nor could the even partly sane refuse to take the steps which He directs and follow in the way He sets before them, to escape a prison which they thought contained no door to the deliverance they now perceive.

3. Your brother is your “enemy” because you see him the rival for your peace, a plunderer who takes his joy from you and leaves you nothing but a black despair so bitter and relentless that there is no hope remaining. Now is vengeance all there is to wish for. Now can you but try to bring him down to lie in death with you, as useless as yourself, as little left within his grasping fingers as in yours.

4. You do not offer God your gratitude because your brother is more slave than you, nor could you sanely be enraged if he seems freer. Love makes no comparisons, and gratitude can only be sincere if it is joined to love. We offer thanks to God our Father that in us all things will find their freedom. It will never be that some are loosed while others still are bound, for who can bargain in the name of love?

5. Therefore give thanks, but in sincerity. And let your gratitude make room for all who will escape with you: the sick, the weak, the needy and afraid, and those who mourn a seeming loss or feel apparent pain, who suffer cold or hunger, or who walk the way of hatred and the path of death. All these go with you. Let us not compare ourselves with them, for thus we split them off in our awareness from the unity we share with them as they must share with us.

6. We thank our Father for one thing alone: that we are separate from no living thing and therefore one with Him. And we rejoice that no exceptions ever can be made which would reduce our wholeness, nor impair or change our function to complete the One Who is Himself completion. We give thanks for everything, for otherwise we offer thanks for nothing, and we fail to recognize the gifts of God to us.

7. Then let our brothers lean their tired heads against our shoulders as they rest a while. We offer thanks for them. For if we can direct them to the peace that we would find, the way is opening at last to us. An ancient door is swinging free again; a long forgotten Word re-echoes in our memory and gathers clarity as we are willing once again to hear.

8. Walk, then, in gratitude the way of love. For hatred is forgotten when we lay comparisons aside. What more remains as obstacles to peace? The fear of God is now undone at last, and we forgive without comparing. Thus we cannot choose to overlook some things, and yet retain some other things still locked away as sins. When your forgiveness is complete you will have total gratitude, for you will see that everything has earned the right to love by being loving, even as your Self.

9. Today we learn to think of gratitude in place of anger, malice, and revenge. We have been given everything. If we refuse to recognize it, we are not entitled there therefore to our bitterness, and to self-perception which sees us as in a place of merciless pursuit, where we are badgered ceaselessly and pushed about without a thought or care for us or for our future. Gratitude becomes the single thought we substitute for these insane perceptions. God has cared for us and called us Son. Can there be more than this?

10. Our gratitude will pave the way to Him, and shorten our learning time by more than we can ever dream of. Gratitude goes hand in hand with love, and where one is the other must be found. For gratitude is but an aspect of the love which is the source of all creation. God gives thanks to you, His Son, for being what you are: His Own completion and the source of love, along with Him. Your gratitude to Him is one with His to you. For love can walk no road except the way of gratitude, and thus we go who walk the way to God.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

Love is the way I walk in gratitude. I am thankful to lay aside comparison between myself, my brothers and what the world would dictate of me. To walk in gratitude for the love our Heavenly Father has for us and all of creation, I am thankful for the love of God in my heart for all His Creation, for making a way where there seemed to be no way to be united as One with Him and all Creation. I practice reminding myself and reinforcing this idea for the day as often as possible and encouraging all my brothers to do the same that we may All escape the prison we thought had no door. Replacing hate and fear with love and gratitude of our Heavenly Father and All of Creation. Love is the way I walk in gratitude. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 194

I Place The Future in The Hands of God.

Today’s idea takes another step toward quick salvation, and a giant stride it is indeed. So great the distance is that it encompasses, it sets you down just short of Heaven, with the goal in sight and obstacles behind. Your foot has reached the lawns that welcome you to Heaven’s gate, the quit place of peace where you await in certainty the final step of God. How far are we progressing now from earth! How close are we approaching to our goal! How short the journey still to be pursued!

2. Accept today’s idea, and you have passed all anxiety, all pits of hell, all blackness of depression, thoughts of sin, and devastation brought about by guilt. Accept today’s idea, and you have released the world from all imprisonment by loosening the heavy chains that locked the door to freedom on it. You are saved, and your salvation thus becomes the gift you give the world because you have received.

3. In no one instant is depression felt or pain experienced or loss perceived.^412. In no one instant sorrow can be set upon a throne and worshipped faithfully. In no one instant can one even die. And so each instant given unto God in passing, with the next one given Him already, is a time of your release from sadness, pain, and even death itself.

4. God holds your future as He holds your past and present. They are one to Him, and so they should be one to you. Yet in this world the temporal progression still seems real, and so you are not asked to understand the lack of sequence really found in time. You are but asked to let the future go, and place it in God’s hands. And you will see by your experience that you have laid the past and present in His hands as well, because the past will punish you no more, and future dread will now be meaningless.

5. Release the future. For the past is gone, and what is present, freed from its bequest of grief and misery, of pain and loss, becomes the instant in which time escapes the bondage of illusions, where it runs its pitiless, inevitable course. Then is each instant which was slave to time transformed into a holy instant, when the light that was kept hidden in God’s Son is freed to bless the world. Now is he free, and all his glory shines upon a world made free with him, to share his holiness.

6. If you can see the lesson for today as the deliverance it really is, you will not hesitate to give as much consistent effort as you can, to make it be a part of you. As it becomes a thought that rules your mind, a habit in your problem-solving repertoire, a way of quick reaction to temptation, you extend your learning to the world.^416. And as you learn to see salvation in all things, so will the world perceive that it is saved.

7. What worry can beset the one who gives his future to the loving hands of God? What can he suffer? What can cause him pain or bring experience of loss to him? What can he fear? And what can he regard except with love? For he who has escaped all fear of future pain has found his way to present peace and certainty of care the world can never threaten. He is sure that his perception may be faulty, but will never lack correction. He is free to choose again when he has been deceived; to change his mind when he has made mistakes.

8. Place, then, your future in the hands of God. For thus you call the memory of Him to come again, replacing all your thoughts of sin and evil with the truth of love. Think you the world could fail to gain thereby, and every living creature not respond with healed perception? Who entrusts himself to God has also placed the world within the hands to which he has himself appealed for comfort and security. He lays aside the sick illusions of the world along with his, and offers peace to both.

9. Now are we saved indeed. For in God’s hands we rest untroubled, sure that only good can come to us. If we forget, we will be gently reassured. If we accept an unforgiving thought, it will be soon replaced by love’s reflection. And if we are tempted to attack, we will appeal to Him Who guards our rest to make the choice for us that leaves temptation far behind. No longer is the world our enemy, for we have chosen that we be its friend.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

412.This seems to mean that it is only when the mind is identified with past and future that it can experience depression, pain, or loss. When it is fully in the present—the present “instant,” which here seems to be a reference to the holy instant, a moment in which we experience a changeless reality beyond time and space—these are impossible.

416. This sentence is primarily about response to temptation—dispelling upsets by repeating the idea for the day. It envisions you having a “problem-solving repertoire”—a collection of statements from the Course that you mentally keep at hand because you have found them especially helpful in dispelling your upsets. It sees today’s idea becoming such an important part of that repertoire that applying it to temptations becomes an automatic “habit.”

Personal Notes:

I place the future in the hands of God. I release the future, the past is gone, and what is present is freed to shine the glory of God upon a world made free to share in holiness. Although my perception may have times of being faulty, I will not lack correction, and I am free to choose again in what I may have been deceived, to change my mind when I have made a mistake, because I have placed my future in the hands of God. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 193

All Things Are Lessons God Would Have Me Learn.

God does not know of learning. Yet His will extends to what He does not understand in that He wills the happiness His Son inherited of Him be undisturbed, eternal and forever gaining scope, eternally expanding in the joy of full creation, and eternally open and wholly limitless in Him. This is His will. And thus His will provides the means to guarantee that it is done.

2. God sees no contradictions. Yet His Son believes he sees them. Thus he has a need for One Who can correct his erring sight and give him vision that will lead him back to where perception ceases. God does not perceive at all. Yet is He Who gives the means by which perception is made true and beautiful enough to let the light of Heaven shine upon it. It is He Who answers what His Son would contradict, and keeps his sinlessness forever safe.

3. God offers no forgiveness, for He know no sin is possible. And yet He let His holy law of love be given form in which it can be offered to the world. And He created One Who could perceive what form this law should take, to be received by every mind which had forgotten it as it exists in Heaven and in God. Thus He encompassed what He could not see or understand, by giving of His love and making answer to a question which, though meaningless, His Son had asked of Him.

4. The One Whom God created to replace the foolish thought which crept into the mind of His most holy Son with peace and joy fulfills His function now. He redirects each lesson you would teach in hate to one in which forgiveness enters, and returns the hate to love, so that the fear is gone. And now guilt cannot enter, for its source has been excluded as the purpose of the lesson has been changed to guiltlessness; the hatred has been rooted out by love.

5. These are the lessons God would have you learn. His will reflects them all, and they reflect His loving-kindness to the Son He loves. Each lesson has a central thought, the same in all of them. The form alone is changed, with different characters and different themes, apparent but not real. They are the same in fundamental content. It is this: Forgive, and you will see this differently.

6. Certain it is that all distress does not appear to be but unforgiveness. Yet that is the content underneath the form. It is this sameness that makes learning sure, because the lesson is so simple that it cannot be rejected in the end. No one can hide forever from a truth so very obvious that it appears in countless forms, and yet is recognized as easily in all of them, if one but wants to see the simple lesson there.

7. “Forgive, and you will see this differently.” These are the words the Holy Spirit speaks in all your tribulations, all your pain, all suffering regardless of its forms. These are the words with which temptation ends and guilt, abandoned, is revered no more. These are the words which end the dream of sin and rid the mind of fear. These are the words by which salvation comes to all the world.

8. Shall we not learn to say these words when tempted to believe that pain is real, and death becomes our choice instead of life? Shall we not learn to say these words when we have understood their power to release all minds from bondage? These are words which give you power over all events which seem to have been given power over you. You see them rightly when you hold these words in full awareness and do not forget these words apply to everything you see or any brother looks upon amiss.

9. How can you tell when you are seeing wrong, or someone else is failing to perceive the lessons he should learn? Does pain seem real in the perception? If it does, be sure the lesson is not learned, and there remains an unforgiveness hiding in the mind which sees the pain through eyes the mind directs.

10. God would not have you suffer thus. He would help you forgive yourself. His Son does not remember who he is. And God would have him not forget His love, and all the gifts His love brings with it. Would you now renounce your own salvation? Would you fail to learn the simple lessons Heaven’s Teacher sets before you that all pain may disappear and God may be remembered by His Son?

11. All things are lessons God Would have you learn. He would not leave an unforgiving thought without correction, nor one thorn or nail to hurt His sacred Son in any way. He would ensure his holy rest remain untroubled and serene, without a care, in an eternal home which cares for him. And He would have all tears be wiped away, with none remaining yet unshed, and none but waiting their appointed time to fall. For God has willed that laughter should replace each one, and that His Son be free again.

12. We will attempt today to overcome a thousand seeming obstacles to peace in just one day. Let mercy come to you more quickly. Do not try to hold it off another day, another minute, or another instant. Time was made for this. Use it today for what its purpose is. Morning and night devote what time you can to serve its proper aim, and do not let the time be less than meets your deepest need.

13. Give all you can, and give a little more, for now we would arise in haste and go unto our Father’s house. We have been gone too long, and we would linger here no more. And as we practice, let us think about all things we saved to settle by ourselves, and kept apart from healing. Let us give them all to Him Who knows the way to look upon them so they all will disappear. Truth is His message; truth His teaching is. His are the lessons God would have us learn.

14. Each hour spend a little time today and in the days to come in practicing the lesson in forgiveness in the form established for the day. And try to give it application to the happenings the hour brought, so that the next one is free of the one before. The chains of time are easily unloosened in this way. Let no one hour cast its shadow on the one that follows, and when that one goes, let everything that happened in its course go with it. Thus will you remain unbound, in peace eternal in the world of time.

15. This is the lesson God would have you learn; There is a way to look on everything that lets it be to you another step to Him and to salvation of the world. To all that speaks of terror answer thus:

I will forgive, and this will disappear.

     To every apprehension, every care, and every form of suffering, repeat these self-same words. In them you hold the key that opens Heaven’s gate and brings the love of God the Father down to earth at last, to raise it up to Heaven’s gate and brings the love of God the Father down to earth at last, to raise it up to Heaven. God will take this final step Himself. Do not deny the little steps He asks you take to Him.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

All things are lessons God would have me learn. I will forgive, and this will disappear. I surrender all to God asking for help of Holy Spirit not to leave any stone unturned to reveal any block of unforgiveness that may be hidden in me that I may not delay my time or others of the freedom, love, peace, and joy that is our inheritance in Christ Jesus. When I am tempted to believe that pain is real, I will remember to say these words I will forgive, and this will disappear. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 192

I Have a Function God Would Have Me Fill.

It is your Father’s holy will that you complete Himself and that your Self shall be His sacred Son, forever pure as He, of love created and in love preserved, extending love, creating in its name, forever one with God and with your Self. Yet what can such a function mean within a world of envy, hatred, and attack?

2. Therefore, you have a function in the world in its own terms, for who can understand a language far beyond his simple grasp? Forgiveness represents your function here. It is not God’s creation, for it is the means by which untruth can be undone. And who would pardon Heaven? Yet on earth you need the means to let illusion go. Creation merely waits for your return to be acknowledged, not to be complete.

3. Creation cannot even be conceived of the world. It has no meaning here. Forgiveness is the closest it can come to earth, for being Heaven-born, it has no form at all. Yet God created One Who has the power to translate into form the wholly formless. What He makes are dreams, but of a kind so close to waking that the light of day already shines in them, and eyes already opening behold the joyful sights their offerings contain.

4. Forgiveness gently looks upon all things unknown in Heaven, sees them disappear, and leaves the world a clean and unmarked slate on which the Word of God can Now replace the senseless symbols written there before. Forgiveness is the means by which the fear of death is overcome, because it holds no fierce attraction now, and guilt is gone. Forgiveness lets the body be perceived as what it is: a simple teaching aid to be laid by when learning is complete, but hardly changing him who learns at all.

5. The mind without the body cannot make mistakes. It cannot think that it will die, nor be the prey of merciless attack. Anger becomes impossible, and where is terror then? What fears could still assail those who have lost the source of all attack, the core of anguish, and the seat of fear? Only forgiveness can restore the peace that God intended for His holy Son. Only forgiveness can persuade the Son to look again upon his holiness.

6. With anger gone, you will indeed perceive that for Christ’s vision and the gift of sight no sacrifice was asked, and only pain was lifted from a sick and tortured mind. Is this unwelcome? Is it feared? Or is it to be hoped for, met with thanks, and joyously accepted? We are one, and therefore give up nothing. But we have indeed been given everything by God.

7. Yet do we need forgiveness to perceive that this is so. Without its kindly light we grope in darkness, using reason but to justify our rage and our attack. Our understanding is so limited that what we think we understand is but confusion born of error. We are lost in mists of shifting dreams and fearful thoughts, our eyes shut tight against the light, our minds engaged in worshiping what is not there.

8. Who can be born in Christ but him who has forgiven everyone he sees or thinks of or imagines? Who could be set free while he imprisons anyone? A jailer is not free, for he is bound together with his prisoner. He must be sure that he does not escape, and so he spends his time keeping watch on him. The bars that limit him become the world in which his jailer lives along with him. And it is on his freedom that the way to liberty depends for both of them.

9. Therefore hold no one prisoner. Release instead of bind, for thus are you made free. The way is simple: Every time you feel a stab of anger, realize you hold a sword above your head. And it will fall or be averted as you choose to be condemned or free. Thus does each one who seems to tempt you to be angry represent your savior from the prison house of death. And so you owe him thanks instead of pain.

10. Be merciful today, the Son of God deserves your mercy. It is he who asks that you accept the way to freedom now. Deny him not. His Father’s love for him belongs to you. Your function here on earth is only to forgive him, that you may accept him back as your identity. He is as God created him, and you are what he is. Forgive him now his sins, and you will see that you are one with him.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I have a function God would have me fill. Forgiveness represents our function here. On earth we need a means to let illusion go. Forgiveness gently looks upon all things unknown to Heaven, and sees them disappear, and leaves the world a clean and unmarked slate on which the word of God can now replace the senseless symbols written there before. Only forgiveness can restore the peace that God intended for His holy Son. As we practice our function of forgiveness we set the world, our brothers, and ourselves free as God Created us to be. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 191

I Am The Holy Son of God Himself.

Here is your declaration of release from bondage of the world. And here as well is all the world released. You do not see what you have done by giving to the world the role of jailer to the Son of God. what could it be but vicious and afraid, fearful of shadows, punitive and wild, lacking all reason, blind, insane and sad? What have you done that this should be your world? What have you done that this is what you see?

2. Deny your own identity, and this is what remains. You look on chaos and proclaim it is as yourself. There is no sight that fails to witness this is you. There is no sound that does not speak of frailty within you and without, no breath you draw that does not seem to bring you nearer death, no hope you hold but will dissolve in tears.

3. Deny your own identity, and you will not escape the madness which induced this weird, unnatural, and ghostly thought which mocks creation and which laughs at God. Deny your own identity, and you assail the universe alone, without a friend, a tiny particle of dust against the legions of your enemies. Deny your own identity and look on evil, sin, and death, and watch despair snatch from your fingers every scrap of hope, leaving you nothing but the wish to die.

4. Yet what is it except a game you play in which identity can be denied? You are as God created you. All else but this one thing is folly to believe. In this one thought is everything set free. In this one truth are all illusions gone. In this one fact is sinlessness proclaimed to be forever part of everything, the central core of its existence and its guarantee of immorality.

5. But let today’s idea find a place among your thoughts, and you have risen far above the world and all the worldly thoughts that hold it prisoner. And from this place of safety and escape you will return and set it free. For he who can accept his true identity is truly saved, and his salvation is the gift he gives to everyone, in gratitude to Him Who pointed out the way to happiness that changed his whole perception of the world.

6. One holy thought like this, and you are free: You are the holy Son of God Himself. And with this holy thought you learn as well that you have freed the world. You have no need to use it cruelly and then perceive this savage need in it. You set it free of your imprisonment. You will not see a devastating image of yourself walking the world in terror, with the world twisting in agony because your fears have laid the mark of death upon its heart.

7. Be glad today how very easily is hell undone. You need but tell yourself:

I am the holy Son of God Himself.

I cannot suffer, cannot be in pain.

I cannot lose, nor can I fail to do

All that salvation asks.

     And in that thought is everything you look on wholly changed.

8. A miracle has lighted up all dark and ancient caverns where the rites of death echoed since time began. For time has lost its hold upon the world. The Son of God has come in glory to redeem the lost, to save the helpless, and to give the world the gift of his forgiveness.^395. Who could see the world as dark and sinful when God’s Son has come again at last to set it free?

9. You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear this: All power is given unto you in earth and Heaven.^396. There is nothing that you cannot do. You play the game of death, of being helpless, pitifully tied to dissolution in a world which shows no mercy to you. Yet when you accord it mercy will its mercy shine on you.

10. Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. In error it began. But it will end in the reflection of his holiness, and we will sleep no more and dream of death. Then join with me today. Your glory is the light which saves the world. Do not withhold salvation longer. Look about the world and see the suffering there. Is not your heart willing to bring your weary brothers rest?

11. They must await your own release. They stay in chains till you are free. They cannot see the mercy of the world until you find it for yourself. They suffer pain until you have denied its hold on you. They die till you accept your own eternal life. You are the holy Son of God Himself. Remember this, and earth and Heaven are one.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Persona Notes:

I am the holy Son of God Himself. Here is our declaration of release from bondage of the world. And here as well is all the world released. As we let today’s idea rest in our thoughts today, we rise above the world and all the worldly thoughts that hold it prisoner. And from this place of safety and escape we will return and set it free. Let us be glad today how very easily is hell undone, as we tell ourselves. I am the holy Son of God Himself. I cannot suffer, cannot be in pain. I cannot lose, nor can I fail to do all that salvation asks. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 190

I Choose The Joy of God Instead of Pain.

Pain is a wrong perspective. When it is experienced in any form, it is a proof of self-deception. It is not a fact at all. There is no form it takes which will not disappear if seen aright. For pain proclaims God cruel. How could it be real in any form? It witnesses to God the Father’s hatred of His Son, the sinfulness He sees in him, and His insane desire for revenge and death.

2. Can such projections be attested to? Can they be anything but wholly false? Pain is but witness to the Son’s mistakes in what he thinks he is. It is a dream of fierce retaliation for crime that could not be committed, for attack on what is wholly unassailable. It is a nightmare of abandonment by an Eternal Love, Which could not leave the Son whom It created out of love.

3. Pain is a sign illusions reign in place of truth. It demonstrates God is denied, confused, with fear, perceived as mad, and seen as traitor to Himself. If God is real, there is no pain. If pain is real, there is no God. for vengeance is not part of love. And fear, denying love and using pain to prove that God is dead, has shown that death is victor over life. The body is the Son of God, corruptible in death, as mortal as the Father he has slain.

4. Peace to such foolishness! The time has come to laugh at such insane ideas. There is no need to think of them as savage crimes or secret sins with weighty consequence. What possible effects could come of them? Who but a madman could conceive of them as cause of anything? Their witness, pain, is mad as they, and no more to be feared than the insane illusions which it shields and tries to demonstrate must still be true.

5. It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. Nothing external to your mind can hurt or injure you in any way. There is no cause beyond yourself that can reach down and bring oppression. No one but yourself affects you. There is nothing in the world which has the power to make you ill or sad, or weak or frail. But it is you who have the power to dominate all things you see by merely recognizing what you are. As you perceive the harmlessness in them, they will accept your holy will as theirs. And what was seen as fearful now becomes a source of innocence and holiness.

6. My holy brother, think of this awhile: The world you see does nothing. It has no effects at all. It merely represents your thoughts. And it will change entirely as you elect to change your mind and choose the joy of God as what you really want. Your Self is radiant in this holy joy—unchanged, unchanging, and unchangeable, forever and forever. And would you deny a little corner of your mind its own inheritance and keep it as a hospital for pain, a sickly place where living things must come at last to die?

7. The world may seem to cause you pain. And yet the world, as causeless, has no power to cause. As an effect it cannot make effects. As an illusion it is what you will. Your idle wishes represent its pains. Your strange desires being its evil dreams. Your thoughts of death envelop it in fear, while in your kind forgiveness does it live.

8. Pain is the thought of evil taking form and working havoc in your holy mind. Pain is the ransom you have gladly paid not to be free. In pain God denied the Son He loves. In pain does fear appear to triumph over love and time replace eternity and Heaven. And the world becomes a cruel and bitter place, where sorrow rules and little joys give way before the onslaught of the savage pain that waits to end all joy in misery.

9. Lay down your arms, and come without defense into the quiet place where Heaven’s peace holds all things still at last. Lay down all thoughts of danger and of fear. Let no attack enter with you. Lay down the cruel sword of judgment that you hold against your throat, and put aside the withering assaults with which you seek to hide your holiness.

10. Here will you understand there is no pain. Here does the joy of God belong to you. This is the day when it is given you to realize the lesson which contains all of salvation’s power. It is this: Pain is illusion; joy reality. Pain is but sleep; joy is awakening. Pain is deception; joy alone is truth.

11. And so again we make the only choice that ever can be made: we choose between illusions and the truth, or pain and joy, or hell and Heaven. Let out gratitude unto our Teacher fill our hearts as we free to choose our joy instead of pain, our holiness in place of sin, the peace of God instead of conflict, and the light of Heaven over the darkness of the world.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I choose the joy of God instead of Pain. Nothing external to our mind can hurt or injure us in anyway. As holy, righteous sons of God we have the power in us to dominate all things we see by merely recognizing what we are. As we perceive the harmlessness in them, they will accept our holy will as there’s. And what was seen as fearful now becomes a source of innocence and holiness. Let gratitude to my Teacher fill my heart, as I am free to choose my joy instead of pain, my holiness in place of sin, the peace of God instead of conflict. And the light of Heaven for the darkness of the world. In Jesus Name, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my Friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now.

Lesson 189

I Feel The Love Of God Within Me Now.

There is a light in you the world cannot perceive. And with its eyes you will not see this light, for you are blinded by the world. Yet you have eyes to see it. It is there for you to look upon. It was not placed in you to be kept hidden from your sight. This light is a reflection of the thought we practice now. To feel the love of God within you is to see the world anew, shinning in innocence, alive with hope, and blessed with perfect charity and love.

2. Who could feel fear in such a world as this? It welcomes you, rejoices that you came and sings your praises as it keeps you safe from every form of danger and of pain. It offers you a warm and gentle home in which to stay a while. It blesses you throughout the day and watches through the night as silent guardian of your holy sleep. It sees salvation in you and protects the light in you, in which it sees its own. It offers you its flowers and its snow in thankfulness for your benevolence.

3. This is the world the love of God reveals. It is so different from the world you see through darkened eyes of malice and of fear that one belies the other. Only one can be perceived at all. The other one is wholly meaningless. A world in which forgiveness shines on everything and peace offers its gentle light to everyone is inconceivable to those who see a world of hatred rising from attack, poised to avenge, to murder and destroy.

4. Yet is the world of hatred equally unseen and inconceivable to those who feel God’s love in them. Their world reflects the quietness and peace that shines in them, the gentleness and innocence they see surrounding them, the joy with which they look out from the endless wells of joy within. What they have felt in them they look upon, and see its sure reflection everywhere.

5. What would you see? The choice is given you. But learn and do not let your mind forget this law of seeing: You will look upon that which you feel within. If hatred finds a place within your heart, you will perceive a fearful world, held cruelly in death’s sharp-pointed, bony fingers. If you feel the love of God within you, you look out upon a world of mercy and of love.

6. Today we pass illusions as we seek to reach to what is true in us and feel its all-embracing tenderness, its love which knows us perfect as itself, its sight which is the gift its love bestows on us. We learn the way today. It is as sure as love itself, to which it carries us. For its simplicity avoids the snares the foolish convolutions of the world’s apparent reasoning but serve to hide.

7. Simply do this: Be still and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is, all concepts you have learned about the world, all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad; of every thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto you God.

8. Is it not He Who knows the way to you? You need not know the way to Him. Your part is simply to allow all obstacles that you have interposed between the Son and God the Father to be quietly removed forever. God will do His part in joyful and immediate response. Ask and receive. But do not make demands, nor point the road to God by which He should appear to you. The way to reach Him is merely to let Him be. For in that way is your reality acclaimed as well.

9. And so today we do not choose the way in which we go to Him. But we do choose to let Him come, and with this choice we rest. And in our quiet hearts and open minds His love will blaze its pathway of itself. What has not been denied is surely there if it be true, and can be surely reached. God knows His Son, and knows the way to him. He does not need His Son to show Him how to find His way. Through every opened door His love shines outward from its home within, and lightens up the world in innocence.

10. Father, we do not know the way to You. But we have called and You will answer us. We will not interfere. Salvation’s ways are not our own, for they belong to You, and it is unto You we look for them. Our hands are open to receive Your gifts. We have no thoughts we think apart from You, and cherish no beliefs of what we are or Who created us. Yours is the way that we would find and follow. And we ask but that Your will, which is our own as well, be done in us and in the world, that it become a part of Heaven now. Amen.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I feel the love of God within me now. To feel the Love of God within you is to see the world anew, shining in innocence, alive with hope, and blessed with perfect charity and love. Let us bless this day, ourselves, and others with what we have received of our Heavenly Father. To tap into this love within us to shine out on all we see with the eyes of God’s Love, seeing a world of mercy and love. Let us be still, laying aside all we thought was God, the world, ourselves, and others; quieting and opening our hearts, mind, and hands to hear, receive and give what the Father has already placed in us. Calling upon His will one with ours be done in earth as it is in Heaven this day. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 188

The Peace Of God Is Shining In Me Now.

Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in you now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. Light is not of the world, yet you who bear the light in you are alien here as well. The light came with you from your native home, and stays with you because it is your own. It is the only thing you bring with you from Him Who is your Source. It shines in you because it lit your home, and leads you back to where it came from and you are home.

2. This light cannot be lost. Why wait to find it in the future, or believe it has been lost already or was never there? It can so easily be looked upon that arguments which prove it is not there become ridiculous. Who can deny the presence of what he beholds in him? It is not difficult to look within, for there all vision starts. There is no sight, be it of dreams or from a truer source, that is not but the shadow of that seen through inward vision. There perception starts and there it ends. It has no source but this.

3. The peace of God is shining in you now, and from your heart extends around the world. It pauses to caress each living thing and leaves a blessing with it which remains forever and forever. What it gives must be eternal. It removes all thoughts of the ephemeral and valueless. It brings renewal to all tired hearts and lights all vision as it passes by. All of its gifts are given everyone, and everyone unites in giving thanks to you who give and you who have received.

4. The shining in your mind reminds the world of what it has forgotten, and the world restores the memory to you as well. From you salvation radiates with gifts beyond all measure, given and returned. To you, the giver of the gifts, does God Himself give thanks. And with His blessing does the light in you shine brighter, adding to the gifts you have to offer to the world.

5. The peace of God can never be contained. Who recognizes it within himself must give it. And the means for giving it are in his understanding. He forgives because he recognizes the truth in him. The peace of God is shining in you now, and in all living things. In quietness is it acknowledged universally. For what your inward vision looks upon is your perception of the universe.

6. Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light within you is sufficient. It alone has power to give the gift of sight to you. Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts fly to the peace within. They know the way. For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream of worldly things outside yourself, become the holy messengers of God Himself. These thoughts you think with Him. They recognize their home. And they point surely to their source, where God the Father and the Son are one.

7. God’s peace is shining on them, but they must remain with you as well, for they were born within your mind, as it was born in God’s. They lead you back to peace, from where they came but to remind you how you must return. They heed your Father’s Voice when you refuse to listen. And they urge you gently to accept His Word for what you are instead of fantasies and shadows. They remind you that you are the co-creator of all things that live. For as the peace of God is shining in you, it must shine on them.

8. We practice coming nearer to the light in us today. We take our wandering thoughts and gently bring them back to where they fall in line with all the thoughts we share with God. We will not let them stray. We let the light within our minds direct them to come home. We have betrayed them, ordering that they depart from us. But now we call them back and wash them clean of strange desires and disordered wishes. We restore to them the holiness of their inheritance.

9. Thus are our minds restored with them, and we acknowledge that the peace of God still shines in us, and from us to all living things that share our life. We will forgive them all, absolving all the world of what we thought it did to us. For it is we who make the world as we would have it. Now we choose that it be innocent, devoid of sin, and open to salvation. And we lay our saving blessing on it as we say:

The peace of God is shining in me now.

Let all things shine upon me in that peace,

And let me bless them with the light in me.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

The peace of God is shining in me now. Lets not wait for Heaven anymore. Enlightenment is but recognition, not change at all. The light came with us from our native home and stayed with us because it is our own. The shining in our minds reminds the world of what it has forgotten. As we sit quietly and close our eyes, the light within us is sufficient. It alone has power to give the gift of sight to us. As we exclude the outer world and let our thoughts fly to the peace within, these honest thoughts untainted by the dream of worldly things outside ourselves, become the holy messengers of God Himself. As our minds are restored with them, and we acknowledge that the peace of God still shines in us, and from us to all living things that share our life. We will forgive them all, absolving all the world from what we thought it did to us. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 187

I Bless The World Because I Bless Myself.

No one can give unless he has. In fact, giving is proof of having. We have made this point before. What seems to make it hard to credit is not this. No one can doubt that you must first possess what you would give. It is the second phase on which the world and true perception differ. Having had and given, then the world asserts that you have lost what you possessed. The truth maintains that giving will increase what you possess.

2. How is this possible? For it is sure that if you give a finite thing away, your body’s eyes will not perceive it yours. Yet we have learned that things but represent the thoughts which make them. And we do not lack for proof that when we give ideas away, we strengthen them in our own minds. Perhaps the form in which the thought seems to appear is changed in giving. Yet it must return to him who gives. Nor can the form it takes be less acceptable. It must be more.^383.

3. Ideas must first belong to you before you give them. If you are to save the world, you first accept salvation for yourself. But you will not believe that this is done until you see the miracles it brings to everyone you look upon. Herein is the idea of giving clarified and given meaning. Now you can perceive that by your giving is your store increased.

4. Protect all things you value by the act of giving them away, and you are sure that you will never lose them. What you thought you did not have is thereby proven yours. Yet value not its form. For this will change and grow unrecognizable in time, however much you try to keep it safe. No form endures. To value form is but to worship death. It is the thought behind the form of things that lives unchangeable.

5. Give gladly. You can only gain thereby. The thought remains, and grows in strength as it is reinforced by giving. Thoughts extend as they are shared, for they cannot be lost. There is no giver and receiver in the sense the world conceives of them. There is a giver who retains; another who will give as well. And both must gain in this exchange, for each will have the thought in form most helpful to him. What he seems to lose is always something he will value less than what will surely be returned to him.

6. Never forget you give but to yourself. Who understands what giving means must laugh at the idea of sacrifice. Nor can he fail to recognize the many forms that sacrifice may take. He laughs as well at pain and loss, at sickness and at grief, at poverty, starvation, and at death. He recognizes sacrifice remains the one idea that stands behind them all, and in his gentle laughter are they healed.

7. Illusions recognized must disappear. Accept not suffering, and you remove the thought of suffering. Your blessing lies on everyone who suffers when you choose to see all suffering as what it is. The thought of sacrifice gives rise to all the forms that suffering appears to take. And sacrifice is an idea so mad that sanity dismisses it at once.

8. Never believe that you can sacrifice in what has any value. If the thought occurs, its very presence proves that error has arisen and correction must be made. Your blessing will correct it. Given first to you, it now is yours to give as well. No form of sacrifice and suffering can long endure before the face of one who has forgiven and has blessed himself.

9. The lilies that your brother offers you are laid upon your alter, with the ones you offer him beside them. Who could fear to look upon such lovely holiness? The great illusion of the fear of God diminishes to nothingness before the purity that you will look on here. Be not afraid to look. The blessedness you will behold will take away all thought of form and leave instead the perfect gift forever there, forever increase, forever yours, forever given away.

10. Now are we one in thought, for fear has gone. And here, before the altar to one God, one Father, one Creator, and one Thought, we stand together as one Son of God. not separate form Him Who is our Source, not distant from one brother who is part of our One Self Whose innocence has joined us all as one, we stand in blessedness and give as we received. The Name of God is on our lips, and as we look within, we see the purity of Heaven shine in our reflection of our Father’s love.

11. Now are we blessed, and now we bless the world. What we have looked upon we would extend, for we would see it everywhere. We would behold it shining with the grace of God in everyone. We would not have it be withheld from anything we look upon. And to ensure this holy sight is ours, we offer it to everything we see. For where we see it, it will be returned to us in form of lilies we can lay upon our altar, making it a home for Innocence Itself, Who dwells in us and offers us His holiness as ours.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I bless the world because I bless myself. We can only give what we have already received. The world asserts having had and given you have lost what you possessed. The Truth maintains that giving will increase what you possess. If we are to save the world, we will first accept salvation for ourselves, belief will come as we see the miracles it brings to everyone we look upon. Thoughts extend as they are shared, for they cannot be lost. What may seem as loss is always something we will value less than what will surely be returned to us. Coming to an understanding of what giving is, surely, we must laugh at the idea of sacrifice. In our gentle laughter we are healed. Illusions recognized must disappear. I ask Holy Spirit to help me learn, not to except suffering, to remove the very thought of suffering. Receiving my blessing that I may bless the world. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 186

Salvation of The World Depends On Me.

Here is the statement that will one day take all arrogance away from every mind. Here is a thought of true humility, which holds no function as your own but that which has been given you. It offers your acceptance of a part assigned to you, without insisting on another role. It does not judge your proper role. It but acknowledges the will of God is done on earth as well as Heaven.^376. It unites all wills on earth in Heaven’s plan to save the world, restoring it to Heaven’s peace.

2. Let us not fight our function. We did not establish it. It is not our idea. The means are given us by which it will be perfectly accomplished. All that we are asked to do is to accept our part in genuine humility, and not deny with self-deceiving arrogance that we are worthy. What is given us to do, we have the strength to do. Our minds are suited perfectly to take the part assigned to us by One Who knows us well.

3. Today’s idea may seem quite sobering until you see its meaning. All it says is that your Father still remembers you and offers you the perfect trust He holds in you who are His Son. It does not ask that you be different in any way from what you are. What could humility request but this? And what could arrogance deny but this? Today we will not shrink from our assignment on the specious grounds that modesty is outraged. It is pride that would deny the call of God Himself.

4. All false humility we lay aside today, that we may listen to God’s Voice reveal to us what He would have us do. We do not doubt our adequacy for the function He will offer us. We will be certain only that He knows our strengths, our wisdom, and our holiness, and if He deems us worthy, so we are. It is but arrogance that judges otherwise.

5. There is one way, and only one, to be released from the imprisonment your plan to prove the false is true has brought to you: Accept the plan you did not make instead. Judge not your value to it. If God’s Voice assures you that salvation needs your part and that the whole depends on you, be sure it is so. The arrogant must cling to words, afraid to go beyond them to experience which might affront their stance. Yet are the humble free to hear the Voice Which tells them what they are and what to do.

6. Arrogance makes an image of yourself that is not real. It is this image which quails and retreats in terror as the Voice for God assures you that you have the strength, the wisdom, and the holiness to go beyond all images. You are not weak, as is the image of yourself. You are not ignorant and helpless. Sin cannot tarnish the truth in you, and misery can come not near the holy home of God.

7. All this the Voice for God relates to you. And as He speaks, the image trembles and seeks to attack the threat it does not know, sensing its basic crumble. Let it go. Salvation of the world depends on you, and not upon this little pile of dust. What can it tell the Holly Son of God? Why need he be concerned with it at all?

8. And so we find our peace. We will accept the function God has given us, for all illusions rest upon the weird belief that we can make another for ourselves. Our self-made roles are shifting, and they seem to change from mourner to ecstatic bliss of loved and loving. We can laugh or weep, and greet the day with welcome or with tears. Our very being seems to change as we experience a thousand shifts in mood, and our emotions raise us high indeed or dash us to the ground in hopelessness.

9. Is this the Son of God? Could He create such instability and call it Son? He Who is changeless shares His attributes with His creation. All the images His Son appears to make have no effect on what he is. They blow across his mind like windswept leaves that form a pattering an instant, break apart to group again, and scamper off. Or like mirages seen above a desert, rising from the dust.

10. These unsubstantial images will go, and leave your mind unclouded and serene, when you accept the function given you. The images you make give rise to but conflicting goals, impermanent and vague, uncertain and ambiguous. Who could be constant in his efforts or direct his energies and concentrated drive toward goals like these? The functions which the world esteems are so uncertain that they change ten times an hour at their most secure. What hope of gain can rest on goals like this?

11. In lovely contrast, certain as the sun’s return each morning to dispel the night, your truly given function stands out clear and wholly unambiguous. There is no doubt of its validity. It comes from One Who knows no error. And His Voice is certain of Its messages. They will not change nor be in conflict. All of them point to one goal, and one you can attain. Your plan may be impossible, but God’s can never fail because He is its Source.

12. Do as His Voice directs. And if It asks a thing of you that seems impossible, remember Who it is that asks, and who would make denial. Then consider this: Which is more likely to be right? The Voice that speaks for the Creator of all things, Who knows all things exactly as they are, or a distorted image of yourself, confused, bewildered, inconsistent, and unsure of everything? Let not its voice direct you. Hear instead a certain Voice Which tells you of a function given you by your Creator, Who remembers you and urges that you now remember Him.

13. His gentle Voice is calling from the known to the unknowing. He would comfort you, although He knows no sorrow. He would make a restitution, though He is complete; a gift to you, although He knows that you have everything already. He has thoughts which answer every need His Son perceives, although He knows them not. For love must give, and what is given in its name takes on the form most useful in a world of form.

14. These are the forms which never can deceive, because the come from Formlessness Itself.^380. Forgiveness is an earthly form of love, which as it is in Heaven has no form. Yet what is needed here is given here as it is needed. In this form you can fulfill your function even here, although what love will mean to you when formlessness has been restored to you is greater still. Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive. Such is your function here.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

Salvation of the world depends on me. This is the thought of true humility which holds only the function that has been given me by our Heavenly Father who also gives us the means by which to perfectly accomplish it. I lay aside all false humility today to listen to the Voice of God reveal to me what He would have me do. This is the one and only way to be released from the imprisonment my plan has brought me. I accept the plan I did not make instead. The Voice of God assures me, that I have the God given strength, wisdom, and holiness to go beyond all images. Salvation of the world depends on me, and not this little pile of dust. Here we find our peace as we accept the function God has given us, not the illusion or the weird belief we could make another for ourselves which is always changing form and inevitably leaves us lacking, distraught, with no peace in sight. As we join in oneness of will and purpose with God these unsubstantial images will go and leave our mind unclouded and serene as we accept the function given us. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 185

I Want The Peace of God.

To say these words in nothing. But to mean these words is everything. If you could but mean them for just an instant, there would be no further sorrow possible for you in any form, in any place or time. Heaven would be completely given back full awareness, memory of God entirely restored, the resurrection of all creation fully recognized.

2. No one can mean these words and not be healed. He cannot play with dreams, nor think he is himself a dream. He cannot make a hell and think it real. He wants the peace of God, and it is given him. For that is all he wants, and that is all he will receive. Many have said these words, but few indeed have meant them. You have but to look upon the world you see around you to be sure how very few they are. The world would be completely changed should any two agree these words express the only thing they want.³⁷³

3. Two minds with one intent become so strong that what they will becomes the will of God. For minds can only join in truth. In dreams, no two can share the same intent. To each, the hero of the dream is different; the outcome wanted not the same for both. Loser and gainer merely shift about in changing patterns, as the ratio of gain to loss and loss to gain takes on a different aspect or another form.

4. Yet compromise alone a dream can bring. Sometimes it takes the form of union, but only the form. The meaning must escape the dream, for compromising is the goal of dreaming. Minds cannot unite in dreams. They merely bargain. And what bargain can give them the peace of God? Illusions come to take His place. And what He means is lost to sleeping minds intent on compromise, each to his gain and to another’s loss.

5. To mean you want the peace of God is to renounce all dreams. For no one means these words who wants illusions, and who therefore seeks the means which bring illusions. He has looked on them and found them wanting. Now he seeks to go beyond them, recognizing that another dream would offer nothing more than all the others. Dreams are one to him. And he has learned their only difference is one of form, for one will bring the same despair and misery as do the rest.

6. The mind which means that all it wants is peace must join with other minds, for that is how peace is attained. And when the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it is given in a form each mind which seeks for it in honesty can understand. Whatever form the lesson takes is planned for him in such a way that he cannot mistake it, if his asking is sincere. But if he asks without sincerity, there is no form in which the lesson will meet with acceptance and be truly learned.

7. Let us today devote our practicing to recognizing that we really mean the worlds we say. We want the peace of God. This is no idle wish. These words do not request another dream be given us. They do not ask for compromise, nor try to make another bargain in the hope that there must yet be one which can succeed where all the rest have failed. To mean these words acknowledges illusions are in vain, requesting the eternal in the place of shifting dreams which seem to change in what they offer, but are one in nothingness.

8. Today devote your practice periods to careful searching of your mind to find the dreams you cherish still. What do you ask for in your heart? Forget the words you use in making your requests. Consider but what you believe will comfort you and bring happiness. But be you not dismayed by lingering illusions, for their form is not what matters now.^375. Let not some dreams be more acceptable, reserving shame and secrecy for others. They are one. And being one, one question should be asked of all of them.

Is this what I would have in place of

Heaven and the peace of God?

9. This is the choice you make. Be not deceived that it is otherwise. No compromise is possible in this. You choose God’s peace or you have asked for dreams, and dreams will come as you requested them. Yet will God’s peace come just as certainly, and to remain with you forever. It will not be gone with every twist and turning of the road, to reappear unrecognized in forms which shift and change with every step you take.

10. You want the peace of God. and so do all who seem to seek for dreams. For them as well as for yourself, you ask but this when you make this request with deep sincerity. For thus you reach to what they really want and join your own intent with what they seek above all things, perhaps unknown to them, but sure to you. You have been weak at times, uncertain in your purpose, and unsure of what you wanted, where to look for it, and where to turn for help in the attempt. Help has been given you. And would you not avail yourself of it by sharing it?

11. No one who truly seeks the peace of God can fail to find it. For he merely asks that he deceive himself no longer by denying to himself what is God’s will. Who can remain unsatisfied who asks for what he has already? Who could be unanswered who request an answer which is his to give? The peace of God is yours. For you it was created, given you by its Creator and established as His Own eternal gift. How can you fail when you but ask for what He wills for you?

12. And how could your request be limited to you alone? No gift of God can be unshared. It is this attribute which sets the gifts of God apart from every dream that ever seemed to take the place of truth. No one can lose and everyone must gain whenever any gift of God has been requested and received by anyone. God gives but to unite. To take away is meaningless to Him. And when it is as meaningless to you, you will be sure you share one will with Him, and He with you. And you will also know you share one will with all your brothers, whose intent is yours.

13. It is this one intent we seek today, uniting our desires with the need of every heart, the call of every mind, the hope that lies behind despair, the love attack would hide, the brotherhood that hate has sought to sever but which still remains as God created it. With help like this beside us, can we fail today as we request the peace of God be given us?^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I want the peace of God. I seek the peace of God with deep sincerity. I do want it above all else for all my family, loved ones, self, and all of creation. Dear Heavenly Father please give us your peace and your sight to see it in all of creation. In Jesus Name, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 184

The Name of God Is My Inheritance.

You live by symbols. You have made up names for everything you see. Each one becomes a separate entity, identified by its own name. By this you carve it out of unity. By this you designate its special attributes, and set it off from other things by emphasizing space surrounding it. This space you lay between all things to which you give a different name, all happenings in terms of place and time, all bodies which are greeted with a name.

2. This space you see as setting off all things from one another is the means by which the world’s perception is achieved. You see something where nothing is, and see as well nothing where there is unity; a space between all things, and between all things and you. Thus do you think that you are given life in separation. By this split you think you are established as a unity which functions with an independent will.

3. What are these names by which the world becomes a series of discrete events, of things ununified, of the bodies kept apart and holding bits of mind as separate awarenesses? You gave these names to them, establishing perception as you wished to have perception be. The nameless things were given names, and thus reality was given them as well. For what is named is given meaning and will then be seen as meaningful, a cause of true effects, with consequence inherent in itself.

4. This is the way reality is made by partial vision, purposefully set against the given truth. Its enemy is wholeness. It conceives of little things and looks upon them. And a lack of space, a sense of unity, and vision which sees differently become the threats which it must overcome, conflict with, and deny.

5. Yet does this other vision still remain a natural direction for the mind to channel its perception. It is hard to teach the mind a thousand alien names and thousands more. Yet you believe this is what learning means; its one essential goal, by which communication is achieved and concepts can be meaningfully shared.

6. This is the sum of the inheritance the world bestows. And everyone who learns to think that this is so accepts the signs and symbols which assert the world is real. It is for this they stand. They leave no doubt that what is named is there. It can be seen, as is anticipated. What denies that it is true is but illusion, for it is the ultimate reality. To question it is madness; to accept its presence is the proof of sanity.

7. Such is the teaching of the world. It is a phase of learning everyone who comes must go through. But the sooner he perceives on what it rests, how questionable are its premises, how doubtful its results, the sooner does he question its effects. Learning which stops with what the world would teach stops short of meaning. In its proper place, it serves but as a starting point from which another kind of learning can begin, a new perception can be gained, and all the arbitrary names the world bestows can be withdrawn as they are raised to doubt.

8. Think not you made the world. Illusions, yes! But what is true in earth and Heaven is beyond your naming. ^371. When you call upon a brother, it is to his body that you make appeal. His true identity is hidden from you by what you believe he really is. His body makes response to what you call him, for his mind consents to take the name you give him as his own. And thus his unity is twice denied, for you perceive him separate from you, and he accepts this separate name as his.

9. It would indeed be strange if you were asked to go beyond all symbols of the world, forgetting them forever, yet were asked to take a teaching function. You have need to use the symbols of the world a while. But be you not deceived by them as well. They do not stand for anything at all, and in your practicing it is this thought which will release you from them. They become but means by which you can communicate in way the world can understand, but which you recognize is not the unity where true communication can be found.

10. Thus what you need are intervals each day in which the learning of the world becomes a transitory phase, a prison house from which you go into the sunlight and forget the darkness. Here you understand the Word, the Name which God has given you, the one identity which all things share, the one acknowledgement of what is true. And then step back to darkness, not because you think it real, but only to proclaim its unreality in terms which still have meaning in the world which darkness rules.

11. Use all the little names and symbols which delineate the world of darkness. Yet accept them not as your reality. The Holy Spirit uses all of them, but He does not forget creation has one Name, one meaning, and a single Source Which unifies all things within Itself. Use all the names the world bestows on them but for convenience, yet do not forget they share the Name of God along with you.

12. God has no name.^372. And yet His Name becomes the final lesson that all things are one, and at this single lesson learning ends. All names are unified. All space is filled with truth’s reflection. Every gap is closed and separation healed. The Name of God is the inheritance He gave to those who chose the teaching of the world to take the place of Heaven. In our practicing, our purpose is to let our minds accept what He has given as the answer to the pitiful inheritance we made as fitting tribute to the Son He loves.

13. No one can fail who seeks the meaning of the Name of God. Experience must come to supplement the Word. But first we must accept one Name for all reality, and realize the many names we gave its aspects have distorted what we see but have not interfered with truth at all. One Name we bring into our practicing. One Name we use to unify our sight.

14.  And though we use a different name for each awareness of an aspect of God’s Son, we understand that they have but one Name which He has given them. It is this Name we use in practicing. And through its use all foolish separations disappear that kept us blind, and we are given strength to see beyond them. Now our sight is blessed with blessings we can give as we received.

15. Father, our Name is Yours. In it we are united with all living things and You Who are their one Creator. What we made and call by many different names is but a shadow we have tried to cast across Your Own reality. And we are glad and thankful we were wrong. All our mistakes we give to You, that we may be absolved of all effects our errors seemed to have. And we accept the truth You give, in place of every one of them. Your Name is our salvation and escape from what we made. Your Name unites us in the oneness which is our inheritance and peace. In Jesus Name, Amen.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I have never approved of labels, but this lesson takes it a step further and reveals a sound basis for why not to like the names we have made up to identify the world, ourselves, and our brothers. I choose the inheritance that God provided for me and me brothers not what we have made of the world to give us as an inheritance. The Name of God is my inheritance, this I choose this I want, love peace, joy, unity not separation. All my mistakes, errors of thought, word, and deed I lay down. To receive True Vison of Christ Jesus. I accept the Name for all reality as mine, One Name I use to unify our sight. Calling on our Heavenly Father in Jesus Name is our salvation and escape from what we made, His Name unites us in the oneness, which is our inheritance and peace, Thank You Jesus! I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 183

I Call Upon God’s Name and On My Own.

God’s Name is holy, but no holier than yours. To call upon His Name is but to call upon your own. A father gives his son his name, and thus identifies the son with him. His brothers share his name, and thus are they united in a bond to which they turn for their identity. Your Father’s Name reminds you who you are, even within a world which does not know, even though you have not remembered it.

2. God’s Name cannot be heard without response, nor said without an echo in the mind which calls you to remember. Say His Name, and you invite the angels to surround the ground on which you stand, and sing to you as they spread out their wings to keep you safe, and shelter you from every worldly thought that would intrude upon your holiness.³⁶¹

3. Repeat God’s Name, and all the world responds by laying down illusions.  Every dream the world holds dear has suddenly gone by, and where it seemed to stand you find a star, a miracle of grace. The sick arise, healed of their sickly thoughts.^362. The blind can see, the deaf can hear.^363. The sorrowful cast off their mourning, and the tears of pain are dried as happy laughter comes to bless the world.

4. Repeat the Name of God, and little names have lost their meaning.^364. No temptation but becomes a nameless and unwanted thing before God’s Name. Repeat His Name, and see how easily you will forget the names of all the gods you valued. They have lost the name of god you gave them. They become anonymous and valueless to you, although before you let the Name of God replace their little names, you stood before them worshipfully naming them as gods.

5. Repeat the Name of God, and call upon your Self, Whose Name is His. Repeat His Name, and all the tiny, nameless things on earth slip into right perspective. Those who call upon the Name of God cannot mistake the nameless for the Name, nor sin for grace, nor bodies for the holy Son of God. And should you join a brother as you sit with him in silence and repeat God’s Name along with him in silence and repeat God’s Name along with him within your quiet minds, you have established there an altar which reaches to God Himself and to His Son.

6. Practice but this today: Repeat God’s Name slowly again and still again. Become oblivious to every name but His. Hear nothing else. Let all your thoughts become anchored on this. No other words we use except at the beginning, when we say today’s idea but once. And then God’s Name becomes our only thought, our only world, the only thing that occupies our minds, the only wish we have, the only sound with any meaning, and the only Name of everything that we desire to see, of everything that we would call our own.^366.

7. Thus do we give an invitation which can never be refused. And God will come and answer it Himself. Think not He hears the little prayers of those who call on Him with names of idols cherished by the world.^367. They cannot reach Him Thus. He cannot hear requests that He be not Himself or that His Son receive another name than His.

8. Repeat His Name, and you acknowledge Him as sole Creator of reality. And you acknowledge also that His Son is part of Him. Creating in His Name. Sit silently and let His Name become the all-encompassing idea which holds your mind completely. Let all thoughts be still except this one. And to all other thoughts respond with this and see God’s Name replace the thousand little names you gave your thoughts, not realizing that there is one Name for all there is and all that there will be.

9. Today you can achieve a state in which you will experience the gifts of grace. You can escape all bondage of the world and give the world the same release you found. You can remember what the world forgot and offer it your own remembering. You can accept today the part you play in its salvation and your own as well, and both can be accomplished perfectly.

10. Turn to the Name of God for your release, and it is given you. No prayer but this is necessary, for it holds them all within it. Words are insignificant and all request unneeded when God’s Son calls on his Father’s Name. His Father’s thoughts become his own. He makes his claim to all his Father gave, is giving still, and will forever give. He calls on Him to let all things he thought he made be nameless now, and in their place the holy Name of God becomes his judgment of their worthlessness.

11. All little things are silent. Little sounds are soundless now. The little things of earth have disappeared. The universe consists of nothing but the Son of God, who calls upon his Father. And his Father’s Voice gives answer in his Father’s holy Name. In this eternal, still relationship, in which communication far transcends all words and yet exceeds in depth and height whatever words could possibly convey, is peace eternal. In our Father’s Name, we would experience this peace today. And in His Name, it shall be given us.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I call upon God’s Name and on my own. As a father gives his son his name, and thus identifies the son with him. I practice but this today, to repeat God’s Name slowly again and still again. To hear nothing else. Let all my thoughts become anchored on this. Let the thought of your Name Heavenly Father be the only word that occupies my mind today. I repeat your Holy Name my Heavenly Father acknowledging You as sole Creator of reality. Our Father who art in Heaven Hallowed be Thy Name, They Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven, in Jesus Name, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 182

I Will Be Still a Moment and Go Home.

This world you seem to live in is not home to you. And somewhere in your mind, you know that this is true. A memory of home keeps haunting you, as if there were a place which calls you to return, although you do not recognize the voice, nor what it is the voice reminds you of. Still do you feel an alien here, from somewhere all unknown. Nothing so definite that you could say with certainty you are an exile here; just a persistent feeling, sometimes not more than a tiny throb, at other times hardly remembered, actively dismissed, but surely to return to mind again.

2. No one but knows whereof we speak. But some try to put by their suffering in games they play to occupy their time and keep their sadness from them. Others will deny that they are sad, and do not recognize their tears at all. Still others will maintain that what we speak of is illusion, not to be considered more than but a dream. Yet who in simple honesty, without defensiveness and self-deception, would deny he understands the words we speak?

3. We speak today for everyone who walks this world, for he is not at home. He goes uncertainly about in endless search, seeking in darkness what he cannot find, not recognizing what it is he seeks. A thousand homes he makes, yet none contents his restless mind. He does not understand he builds in vain. The home he seeks cannot be made by him. There is no substitute for Heaven. All he ever made was hell.

4. Perhaps you think it is your childhood home that you would find again. The childhood of your body and its place of shelter are a memory now so distorted that you merely hold a picture of a past that never happened. Yet there is a Child in you Who seeks His Father’s house and know that He is alien here. This childhood is eternal, with an innocence which will endure forever. Where this Child shall go is holy ground. It is His holiness that lights up Heaven, and that brings to earth the pure reflection of the light above, wherein are earth and Heaven joined as one.

5. It is this Child in you your Father know as His Own Son. It is this Child Who knows His Father. He desires to go home so deeply, so unceasingly, His voice cries unto you to let Him rest a while. He does not ask for more than just a few instants of respite; just an interval in which He can return to breathe again the holy air that fills His Father’s house. You are His home as well. He will return. But give Him just a little time to be Himself, within the peace that is His home, resting in silence and in peace and love.

6. This Child needs your protection.^358. He is far from home. He is so little that He seems so easily shut out, His tiny voice so readily obscured, His calls for help almost unheard amid the grating sounds and harsh and rasping noises of the world. Yet does He know that in you still abides His sure protection. You will fail Him not. He will go home, and you along with Him.

7. This Child is your defenselessness, your strength. He trusts in you. He came because He knew you would not fail. He whispers of His home unceasingly to you. For He would bring you back with Him that He Himself might stay, and not return again where He does not belong and where He lives an outcast in a world of alien thoughts. His patience has no limits. He will wait until you hear His gentle voice within you, calling you to let Him go in peace along with you to where He is at home and you with Him.

8. When you are still an instant, when the world recedes from you, when valueless ideas cease to have value in your restless mind, then will you hear His voice. So poignantly He calls to you that you will not resist Him longer. In that instant, He will take you to His home, and you will stay with Him in perfect stillness, silent and at peace, beyond all words, untouched by fear and doubt, sublimely certain that you are at home.

9. Rest with Him frequently today. For He was willing to become a little Child that you might learn of Him how strong is He Who comes without defenses, offering only love’s messages to those who think He is their enemy. He holds the might of Heaven in His hand and call them friend, and gives His strength to them that they may see He would be friend to them. He asks that they protect Him, for His home is far away and He will not return to it alone.

10. Christ is reborn as but a little Child each time a wanderer would leave his home. For he must learn that what he would protect is but this Child, Who comes defenseless and Who is protected by defenselessness. Go home with Him from time to time today. You are as much an alien here as He.

11. Take time today to lay aside your shield which profits nothing,^359. and lay down the spear and sword you raise against an enemy without existence. Christ has called you friend and brother. He has even come to you to ask you help in letting Him go home completed and completely. He has come as does a little child, who must beseech his father for protection and for love. He rules the universe, and yet He asks unceasingly that you return with Him and take illusions as your gods no more.

12. You have not lost your innocence. It is for this you yearn. This is your heart’s desire. This is the voice you hear, and this the call that cannot be denied. The holy Child remains with you. His home is yours. Today He gives you His defenselessness, and you accept it in exchange for all the toys of battle you have made. And now the way is open, and the journey has an end in sight at last. Be still a moment and go home with Him, and be at peace a while.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Footnote 359. John 6:63 (KJV): “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.”

Personal Notes:

I will be still a moment and go home. This world I seem to live in is not my home. I will be still, listening for my Father’s voice to lead me there. Today we speak for everyone who walks this world, for he is not at home, as he goes in endless search, seeking in darkness, let us light the way that we have found in Christ Jesus. Asking for but a few instants of respite, which we can return to breathe the holy air that fills our Father’s house, resting in silence and in peace and love. As we are still in our Father’s presence the world recedes, valueless ideas cease to have value in our restless mind and then we will hear His voice. I take time today to lay aside my shield which profits nothing, laying down the spear and sword risen against an enemy that does not exist. Christ has called us friend and brother. Today I come in defenselessness accepting His defenselessness in exchange for illusions of war I had made, to be still and at peace a while. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 181

I Trust My Brothers, Who Are One With Me.

Trusting your brothers is essential to establishing and holding up your faith in your ability to transcend doubt and lack of sure conviction in yourself. When you attack a brother, you proclaim that he is limited by what you have perceived in him. You do not look beyond his errors. Rather, they are magnified, becoming blocks to your awareness of the Self That lies beyond your own mistakes, and past his seeming sins as well as yours.

2. Perception has a focus. It is this that gives consistency to what you see. Change but this focus, and what you behold will change accordingly. Your vision now will shift to give support to the intent which has replaced the one you held before. Remove your focus on your brother’s sins, and you experience the peace that comes from faith in sinlessness. This faith receives its only sure support from what you see in others past their sins. For their mistakes, if focused on, are witnesses to sins in you, and you will not transcend their sight and see the sinlessness that lies beyond.

3. Therefore, in practicing today, we first let all such little focuses give way to our great need to let our sinlessness become apparent. We instruct our minds that it is this we seek and only this, for just a little while. We do not care about our future goals, and what we saw an instant previous has no concern for us within this interval of time wherein we practice changing our intent. We seek for innocence and nothing else. We seek for it with no concern but now.

4. A major hazard to success has been involvement with your past and future goals. You have been quite preoccupied with how extremely different the goals this course is advocating are from those you held before. And you have also been dismayed by the depressing and restricting thought that, even if you should succeed, you will inevitably lose your way again.

5. How can this matter? For the past is gone; the future but imagined. These concerns are but defenses against present change of focus in perception. Nothing more. We lay these pointless limitations by a little while. We do not look to past beliefs, and what we will believe will not intrude upon us now. We enter in the time of practicing with one intent: to look upon the sinlessness within.

6. We Recognize that we have lost this goal if anger blocks our way in any form. And if a brother’s sins occur to us, our narrowed focus will restrict our sight and turn our eyes upon our own mistakes, which we will magnify and call our “sins.” So, for this little while, without regard to past or future, should such blocks arise we will transcend them with instructions to our minds to change their focus, as we say:

It is not this that I would look upon.

I trust my brothers, who are one with me.

7. And we will also use these thoughts to keep us safe throughout the day. We do not seek for long-range goals. As each obstruction seems to block the vision of our sinlessness, we seek but for surcease and instant from the misery the focus upon sin will bring, and uncorrected will remain.

8. Nor do we ask for fantasies, for what we seek to look upon is really there. And as our focus goes beyond mistakes, we will behold a wholly sinless world. When seeing this is all we want to see, when this is all we seek for in the name of true perception, are the eyes of Christ inevitably ours. And the love He feels for us becomes our own as well. This will become the only thing we see reflected in the world and in ourselves.

9. The world which once proclaimed our sins becomes the proof that we are sinless. And our love for everyone we look upon attests to our remembrance of the holy Self Which knows no sin, and never could conceive of anything without Its sinlessness. We seek for this remembrance as we turn our minds to practicing today. We look neither ahead nor backwards. We look straight into the present. And we give our trust to the experience we ask for now. Our sinlessness is but the will of God. This instant is our willing one with His.^[1.]

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

Basically then what I am doing is training my mind to think only thoughts of love and acceptance and guiltlessness for myself and all brothers.  It is not some magical experience then that comes down and changes me and fills me with bliss and ecstasy and transforms me into something else altogether.  I have to do it.  I have to practice it.  I have to know what I am “giving up” – hatred, ill will, resentment, judgment, superiority/inferiority, jealousy, old wounds, imagined wounds, sad stories, sorrowful stories, imagined prophesies, a know-it-all attitude, bluff, arrogance, and littleness – and exchanging it bit by bit for tiny holy instants of innocence, purity, goodwill, blessing, forgiveness, and Atonement.  I am preparing my mind for the Kingdom of God, and I am preparing it with focus, with intent, with knowing what the blocks are to my attainment of them.  I am thankful for the Course in Miracles.  I had expected a miracle – as in a cloud of holiness and purity and innocence that would sweep through me in an instant and change me, and I feel a little bit of disappointment that it is not that easy but rather instead “work.”  It is work.  It is a practice.  It is a preparation.  It is a school where I learn about what has befallen me and the deception that has tricked and seduced and held me captive and how it is me, and me alone that has to be called out from it, who has to reach for the truth, who has to ask to be saved from it, and then has to work along with my Savior in the process (at least in time) of my salvation.^[2]. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

[2]. Excerpt from www.eckiefriar.com

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Introduction to Lessons 181-200

Our next few lessons make a special point of firming up your willingness to make your weak commitment strong; your scattered goals blend into one intent. You are not asked for total dedication all the time as yet. But you are asked to practice now in order to attain the sense of peace such unified commitment will bestow, if only intermittently. It is experiencing this which makes it sure that you will give your total willingness to following the way the course sets forth.

2. Our lessons now are geared specifically to widening horizons, and direct approaches to the special blocks which keep your vision narrow and too limited to let you see the value of our goal. We are attempting now to lift these blocks, however briefly. Words alone cannot convey the sense of liberation which their lifting brings. But the experience of freedom and of peace that comes as you give up your tight control of what see speaks for itself. Your motivation well be so intensified that words become of little consequence. You will be sure of what you want and what is valueless.

3. And so we start our journey beyond words by concentrating first on what impedes our progress still. Experience of what exists beyond defensiveness remains beyond achievement while it is denied. It may be there, but we cannot accept its presence. So we now attempt to go past our defenses for a little while each day. No more than this is asked, because no more than this is needed. It will be enough to guarantee the rest will come.

Personal Notes:

I am dedicated to practice, to lift all blocks that would limit my vision. To experience the freedom and peace that comes as I give up my tight control of what I see speaking for itself. To experience what exists beyond defensiveness. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now.

Review V

Lesson 180

God Is But Love, and Therefore So Am I.

1.  (169)  By grace I live. By grace I am released.

2.  (170)  There is no cruelty in God and none in me.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

Daily Prayer for Review V:

Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still and speak to us. We have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him. So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, you will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us. In Jesus Name. Amen.

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

By grace I live. By grace I am released. Grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received, an altar clean and holy for the gift. Grace is acceptance of the love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains that those whose minds are lightened by the gift of grace cannot believe the world of fear is real. We prepare for grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to waken. It is not shut tight against God’s Voice. “By grace I live. By grace I am released. By grace I give. By grace I will release. There is no cruelty in God and none in me. No one attacks without intent to hurt. This can have no exception. How thoroughly insane is the idea that to defend from fear is to attack! It may seem the enemy without that you attack. Yet your defense sets up an enemy within; an alien thought at war with you, depriving you of peace, splitting your mind into two camps which seem wholly irreconcilable. Love would ask you to lay down all defense as merely foolish, and your arms indeed would crumble into dust, for such are they are. The choice we make today is certain. We have reached this place before, but have chosen this cruel god remain with us in still another form, and so the fear of God returned with us. This time we leave it, and return to a new world unburdened by its weight, because not in its sightless eyes but in the vision that our choice restored to us. Now do our eyes belong to Christ, and He looks through them. Now our voice belongs to God and echoes His. And now our heart remains at peace forever. “Father, we are like You. No cruelty abides in us, for there is none in You. Your peace is ours. And we bless the world with what we have received from You alone. We choose again, and make our choice for all our brothers, knowing they are one with us. We bring them Your salvation as we have received it now. And we give thanks for them who render us complete. In them we see Your glory, and in them we find our peace. Holy are we, because Your holiness has set us free. And we give thanks, in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review V

Lesson 179

God Is But Love, and Therefore So Am I

1. (167)  There is one life, and that I share with God.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

2.  (168)  Your grace is given me. I claim it now.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

Daily Prayer for Review V:

Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still and speak to us. We have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him. So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, you will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us. In Jesus Name. Amen.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

There is one life, and that I share with God. There are not different kinds of life, for life is like the truth. It does not have degrees, yet we have learned the idea of death takes many forms. It is the alarm to which you give response of any kind that is not perfect joy. All sorrow, loss, anxiety, suffering and pain, even a little sigh of weariness, a slight discomfort, or the merest frown, acknowledge death. And thus we deny we live. Let us today be children of the truth, and not deny our holy heritage. We will not ask for death today in any form. His holy home we strive to keep today as He established it and wills it be forever and forever. His Grace is given me. I claim it now. If we but knew the meaning of His love, hope and despair would be impossible, for hope would be forever satisfied, despair of any kind unthinkable. His grace is answer to all despair, for in it lies remembrance of His love. The Course teaches us in this final step of salvation God leans to us and lifts us up Himself. As we as ask of God His gift of grace He comes and takes us in His arms sweeping away the cobwebs of our sleep, restoring all memories the sleeping mind forgot, all certainty of what love’s meaning is. It is a new and holy day today, for we receive what has been given us. “Your grace is given me. I claim it now. Father, I come to You. And You will come to me who ask. I am the Son You love. In Jesus name, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend.

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review V

Lesson 178

God Is But Love, and Therefore So Am I.

1.  (165)  Let not my mind deny the thought of God.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

2.  (166)  I am entrusted with the gifts of God.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

Daily Prayer for Review V:

Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still and speak to us. We have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him. So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, you will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us. In Jesus Name. Amen.

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

Let not my mind deny the thought of God. What but our thoughts of misery and death could obscure the perfect happiness and the eternal life our Father wills for us? The thought of God created us is ours eternally. By this we live, it is our source of life, holding us one with it and everything is one with us. In this calm awakening is safety, peace, joy, and quiet rest. Let us not deny Heaven today it is ours for the asking. Let us practice hope today, knowing our doubts are meaningless for God is certain, and the thought of Him is never absent, His love remains beyond our every doubt. I am entrusted with the gifts of God. All things are given us. God’s trust in me is limitless. He knows His Son and gives without exception, holding nothing back that can contribute to our happiness. Yet unless our will is one with His, His gifts are not received. As we remember our Father and His Great Love for us we feel Christ touch upon our shoulder and know we are not alone, that our identity is in Him with Him as one. The gifts are not for us alone but entrusted to our care to give to all who chose the lonely road we have escaped. We teach them by showing them the happiness that comes to those who feel the touch of Christ and recognize God’s gifts. Help us Father not to allow sorrow to tempt us to be unfaithful to your trust, but to become living proof of what Christ touch can offer everyone. In Jesus name, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review V

Lesson 177

God is But Love, and Therefore So Am I.

1.  (163)  There is no death. The Son of God is free.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

2.  (164)  Now are we one with Him Who is our Source.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.^[1].

Daily Prayer for Review V:

Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still and speak to us. We have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him. So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, you will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us. In Jesus Name. Amen.

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

There is no death. The Son of God is free.^312.  Death is a thought which takes on many forms, often unrecognized. It may appear as sadness, fear, anxiety, doubt, anger, faithlessness, or lack of trust, concern for bodies, envy, and all forms which the wish to be as you are not may come to tempt you. I find it very helpful to remind ourselves and others that these sneaky little things we may allow into our thoughts are a choice for death not life. God made not death, whatever form it takes must therefore be illusion, let us take a stand today to look past death and see life beyond. “Our Father, bless our eyes today. We are Your messengers, and we would look upon the glorious reflection of Your love, which shines in everything. We live and breathe in You alone.³¹⁶ We are not separate from Your eternal life. There is no death, for death is not Your will. And we abide where You have placed us, in the life we share with You and with all living things, to be like You and part of You forever. We accept Your thoughts as ours, and our will is one with Yours eternally. Amen.” Now are we one with Him Who is our source. As we enter His presence the world fades easily away, its sounds grow dim. A melody from far beyond the world grows increasingly more distinct as our Father answers our call. In our holy practicing He gives us His sight and hears for us. In this quiet time we spend with Him beyond the world, all seeming sins forgot and all sorrows unremembered, grief is laid aside to accept the gifts our Father gives. We stand forgiven in the sight of Christ, with all the world forgiven in our own. We bless the world, as we behold it in the light in which our Savior looks on us and offer it the freedom given us through His forgiving vision not our own. Help us Father to not let today slip away without our consent and acceptance of the gifts you hold out to us to receive and give that we may help change the world in our acknowledgement of them. In Jesus name, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now.

Review V

Lesson 176

God Is But Love, and Therefore So Am I.

1.  (161)  Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

2.  (162)  I am as God created me.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

Daily Prayer for Review:

Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still and speak to us. We have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him. So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, you will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us. In Jesus Name. Amen.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

Give me your blessing, holy Son of God. Today we take a stand against our anger, that our fears may disappear and make room for love. Fear is insatiable, consuming everything its eyes behold. Today we seek to come nearer to Christ vision, not excepting the witnesses of our body’s eyes. Asking to be set free to see ourselves and our brother in His perfect love through the eyes of Jesus. “Give me your blessing holy Son of God. I would behold you with the eyes of Christ and see my perfect sinlessness in you.” I am as God created me. These words are sacred, for they are the words God gave in answer to world we have made. By them it disappears, and all things seen within its misty clouds and vaporous illusions vanish as these words are spoken. For they come from God. In remembrance of this thought we learn to think with God. I am as God created me. These words dispel the night, and darkness is no more. The light is come today to bless the world, for we have recognized the Son of God, and in our recognition is the world’s. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review V

Lesson 175

God Is But Love, and Therefore So Am I.

1.  (159)  I give the miracles I have received.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

2.  (160)  I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

Daily Prayer for Review:

Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still and speak to us. We have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him. So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, you will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us. In Jesus Name. Amen.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I give the miracles I have received. To give is how we recognize we have received, the proof that what we have is ours. There is no miracle we cannot give, for all are given us. Lets receive them now by opening the storehouse of our mind, where they are laid, and giving them away. Christ vision is a miracle. It comes from far beyond itself, reflecting eternal love and the rebirth of love which never died but has been kept obscure. I am at home. Fear is the stranger here. Fear is a stranger to the ways of love. Identify with fear, and you will be a stranger to yourself. Hear His voice assure you, quietly and sure, that you are not a stranger to your Father, nor is your Creator stranger made to you. Whom God has joined remains forever one, at home in Him, no stranger to Himself. Today we offer thanks that Christ has come to search the world for what belongs to Him. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review V

Lesson 174

God is But Love, and Therefore So Am I.

1.  (157)  Into His presence would I enter now.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

2.  (158)  Today I learn to give as I receive.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

Daily Prayer for Review:

Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still and speak to us. We have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him. So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, you will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us. In Jesus Name. Amen.[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

Into His presence would I enter now. Today I learn to feel the joy of life. Today I am given to feel a touch of Heaven. I ask Holy Spirit to direct my practicing today. Nothing is needed but today’s idea to light my mind and let it rest in still anticipation and quiet joy, wherein I quickly leave the world behind. Today my ministry takes on a genuine devotion, and a glow that travels from my fingertips to those I touch and blesses those I look upon. A vision reaches everyone I meet, and everyone I think of or who thinks of me. For my experience of time spent in God’s presence will so transform my mind that it becomes a touchstone for the holy thoughts of God. Into Christ presence I enter now unaware of everything except His shining face and perfect love. Today I learn to give as I receive. The teacher does not give experience, because he did not learn it. It revealed itself to him at its appointed time. But vision is his gift. This he can give directly, for Christ’s vision He can give to anyone who asks. Our concern is with Christ’s vision. This we can attain. It beholds a light beyond the body and idea beyond what can be touched, a purity undimmed by errors, pitiful mistakes, and fearful thoughts of quilt from dreams in sin. This can be taught and must be taught by all who would achieve it. Today I learn to give as I receive. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review V

Lesson 173

God Is Love, and Therefore So Am I.

1.  (155)  I will step back and let Him lead the way.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

2.  (156)  I walk with God in perfect holiness.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

Daily Prayer for Review:

Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still and speak to us. We have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him. So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, you will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us. In Jesus Name. Amen.^[1].

[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

I will step back and let Him lead the way. I accept salvations call of truth and let it go before me lighting up the path of ransom from illusion. I walk safely, yet carefully, that I would not be tempted to walk ahead of truth and let illusion be my guide. I step back in faith and let truth lead the way. I may not know where I go, but the One who knows goes with me. I let Him lead me with the rest. My feet are safely set upon the road that leads to God. I will not look to ways which seem to lead me elsewhere. I walk with God in perfect holiness. I cannot walk the world apart from God because I can not be without Him. He is what my life is. Where I am He is. Where He is Must be holiness as well as life. I accept His Holiness Itself which walks with me, transforming in Its gentle light all things into Its likeness and Its purity. As I step back, the light in me, steps forward and encompasses the world. I walk with God in perfect holiness. I light the world, I light my mind, and all the minds which God created one with me. This I pray for Holy Spirit’s help in Jesus’ name, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review V

Lesson 172

God Is Love, and Therefore So Am I

1.  (153)  In my defenselessness my safety lies.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

2.  (154)  I am among the ministers of God.

     God is but love, and therefore so am I.

Daily Prayer for Review:

          Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still and speak to us. We have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him. So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, you will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Personal Notes:

I will not sabotage my holy peace of God by defensiveness. Defenselessness is strength and testifies to recognition of the Christ in me. I leave all fearful thoughts behind, in defenselessness I stand secure certain of my safety, sure of salvation, sure I will fulfill my chosen purpose as our ministry extends its holy blessing through the world. I am among the ministers of God. My part is cast in Heaven, not in hell. Whatever my appointed role may be, it was selected by the Voice of God, Whose function is to speak for me as well. I am among the ministers of God, and I am grateful that I have the means by which to recognize that I am free to share this freedom to light up the world as I give what I have received. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review V

Lesson 171

God Is But Love, and Therefore so Am I.

1. (151)  All things are echoes of the Voice of God.

God is but love, and therefore so am I.

2. (152)  The power of decision is my own.

God is but love, and therefore so am I.

Daily Prayer for Review:

     Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still and speak to us. We      have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him. So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, you will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, a s we review the thoughts that You have given us. In Jesus Name. Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Review 5

Introduction

We now review again. This time we are ready to give more effort and more time to what we undertake. We recognize we are preparing for another phase of understanding. We would take this step completely, that we may go on again more certain, more sincere, with faith upheld more surely. Our footsteps have not been unwavering, and doubts have made us walk uncertainly and slowly on the road this course sets forth. But now we hasten on, for we approach a greater certainty, a firmer purpose, and a surer goal.

2. Steady our feet, our Father; let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still, and speak to us. We have no words to give You. We would but listen to Your Word and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a little child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him.

3. So do we bring our practicing to you. And if we stumble, You will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us.

4. This is the thought which should precede the thoughts that we review. Each one but clarifies some aspect of this thought, or helps it be more meaningful, more personal and true, and more descriptive of the holy Self we share and now prepare to know again:

God is but love, and therefore so am I.^347.

     This Self alone, knows love. This Self alone is perfectly consistent in Its thoughts, knows Its Creator, understands Itself, is perfect in Its knowledge and Its love, and never changes from Its constant state of union with Its Father and Itself.

5. And it is This That waits to meet us at the journey’s ending. Every step we take brings us a little nearer. This review will shorten time immeasurably if we keep in mind that This remains our goal, and that as we practice it is This Which we are approaching. Let us raise our hearts from dust to life as we remember This is promised us, and that this course was sent to open up the path of light to us, step by step, how to return to the eternal Self we thought we lost.

6. I take the journey with you. For I share your doubts and fears a little while, that you may come to me who recognize the road by which all doubts and fears are overcome. We walk together. I must understand uncertainty and pain, although I know they have no meaning. For a savior must remain with those he teaches, seeing what they see, but still retaining in his mind the way which led him out and now will lead you out with him. God’s Son is crucified until you walk along the road with me.

7. My resurrection comes again each time I lead a brother safely to the place at which the journey ends and is forgot. I am renewed each time a brother learns there is a way from misery and pain. I am reborn each time a brother’s mind turns to the light in him and looks for me. I have forgotten no one. Help me now to lead you back to where your journey was begun, and make another choice with me.

8. Release me as you practice once again the thoughts I brought to you from Him Who sees your bitter need and knows the answer God has given Him. Together we devote our time and effort to them. And together we will teach them to our brothers. God would not have Heaven incomplete. It waits for you, as I do. I am incomplete without your part in me. and as I am made whole, we go together to our ancient home, prepared for us before time, immaculate and safe, as it will be at last when time is done.

9. Let this review be then your gift to me. For this alone I need: that you will hear the words I speak and give them to the world. You are my voice, my eyes, my feet, my hands, through which I save the world. The Self from Which I call to you is but your own. To Him we go together. Take your brother’s hand, for this is not a way we walk alone. In him I walk with you and you with me. Our Father wills His Son be one with Him. What lives but must not then be one with you?

10. Let this review become a time in which we share a new experience for you, yet one as old as time and older still. Hallowed your name. Your glory undefiled forever.^348. And your wholeness now complete, as God established it. You are His Son, completing His extension in your own. We practice but an ancient truth we knew before illusion seemed to claim the world. And we remind the world that it is free of all illusion every time we say:

God is but love, and therefore so am I.

11. With this we start each day of our review. With this we start and end each period of practice time. And with this thought we sleep, to waken once again with these same words upon our lips to greet another day. No thought that we review but we surround with it, and use the thoughts to hold it up before our minds and keep it clear in our remembrance throughout the day. And thus when we have finished this review, we will have recognized the words we speak are true.

12. Yet are the words but aids, and to be used, except at the beginning and the end of practice periods, but to recall the mind, as needed, to its purpose. We place faith in the experience that comes from practice, not the means we use. We wait for the experience, and recognize that it is only here conviction lies. We use the words, and try and try again to go beyond them to their meaning, which is far beyond their sound. The sound grows dim and disappears, as we approach the Source of meaning. It is here that we find rest.^[1].

^{[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.}

^{Footnote 347. 1 John 4:8 (KJV): “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” The above reference both intensifies this—“God is but [only] love”—and also draws out its implications—“and therefore so am I.”}

^{348. Matthew 6:9, 13: (KJV): “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed by thy name….For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” As the Course often does, it applies these lines from the Lord’s Prayer to us: Our name is hallowed; our glory is forever.}

Personal Notes:

This review introduction spoke such volumes to me and left me feeling such an abundance of love I have no thoughts to add to it. Just to reread and meditate on what is here, letting Holy Spirit speak to you and guide you. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 170

There is No Cruelty In God And None In Me.

No one attacks without intent to hurt. This can have no exception. When you think that you attack in self-defense, you mean that to be cruel is protection; you are safe because of cruelty. You mean that you believe to hurt another brings you freedom. And you mean that to attack is to exchange the state in which you are for something better, safer, more secure from dangerous invasion and from fear.

2. How thoroughly insane is the idea that to defend from fear is to attack! For here is fear begot and fed with blood, to make it grow and swell and rage. And thus is fear protected, not escaped. Today we learn a lesson which can save you more delay and needless misery than you can possibly imagine. It is this:

You make what you defend against, and by your own defense

against it is it real and inescapable. Lay down your arms,

And only then will you perceive it false.

3. It seems to be the enemy without that you attack. Yet your defense sets up an enemy within; an alien thought at war with you, depriving you of peace, splitting your mind into two camps which seem wholly irreconcilable. For love now has an “enemy,” an opposite; and fear, the alien, now needs your defense against the threat of what you really are.

4. If you consider carefully the means by which your fancied self-defense proceeds on its imagined way, you will perceive the premises on which the idea stands. First, it is obvious ideas must leave their source. For it is you who make attack and must have first conceived of it, yet you attack outside yourself and separate your mind from him who is to be attacked, with perfect faith the split you made is real.

5. Next are the attributes of love bestowed upon its “enemy.” For fear becomes your safety and protector of your peace, to which you turn for solace, and escape from doubts about your strength, and hope of rest in dreamless quiet. And as love is shorn of what belongs to it and it alone, it is endowed with attributes of fear. For love would ask you lay down all defense as merely foolish, and your arms indeed would crumble into dust, for such they are.

6. With love as enemy must cruelty become a god, and gods demand that those who worship them obey their dictates and refuse to question them. Harsh punishment is meted out relentlessly to those who ask if their demands are sensible or even sane. It is their enemies who are unreasonable and insane, while they are always merciful and just.

7. Today we look upon this cruel god dispassionately. And we note that though his lips are smeared with blood and fire seems to flame from him, he is but made of stone. He can do nothing. We need not defy his power. He has none. And those who see in him their safety have no guardian, no strength to call upon in danger, and no mighty warrior to fight for them.

8. This moment can be terrible. But it can also be the time of your release from abject slavery. You make a choice, standing before this idol, seeing him exactly as he is. Will you restore to love what you have sought to wrest from it and lay before this mindless piece of stone? Or will you make another idol to replace it? For the god of cruelty takes many forms. Another can be found.

9. Yet do not think that fear is the escape from fear. Let us remember what the course has stressed about the obstacles to peace. The final one, the hardest to believe is nothing, and a seeming obstacle with the appearance of a solid block, impenetrable, fearful, and beyond surmounting, is the fear of God Himself. Here is the basic premise which enthrones the thought of fear as god. For fear is loved by those who worship it, and love appears to be invested now with cruelty.

10. Where does the totally insane belief in gods of vengeance come from? Love has not confused its attributes with those of fear. Yet must the worshippers of fear perceive their own confusion in fear’s “enemy”; its cruelty as now a part of love. And what becomes more fearful than the Heart of love itself? The blood appears to be upon His lips; the fire comes from Him. And He is terrible above all else cruel beyond conception, striking down all who acknowledge Him to be their God.

11. The choice you make today is certain. For you look for the last time upon this bit of carven stone you made and call it god no longer. You have reached this place before, but you have chosen that this cruel god remain with you in still another form, and so the fear of God returned with you. This time you leave it here. And you return to a new world unburdened by its weight, beheld not in its sightless eyes but in the vision that your choice restored to you.

12. Now do your eyes belong to Christ, and He looks through them. Now your voice belongs to God, and echoes His. And now your heart remains at peace forever. You have chosen Him in place of idols, and your attributes, given by your Creator, are restored to you at last. The Call of God is heard and answered. Now has fear made way for love, as God Himself replaces cruelty.

13. Father, we are like You. No cruelty abides in us, for there is none in You. Your peace is ours. And we bless the world with what we have received from you alone. We choose again, and make our choice for all our brothers, knowing they are one with us. We bring them Your salvation as we have received it now. And we give thanks for them who render us complete. In them we see Your glory, and in them we find our peace. Holy are we, because Your holiness has set us free. And we give thanks. Amen.^[1].

^{[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.}

Personal Notes:

“There is no cruelty in God and none in me.”  Today I lay down my arms, that I may see with the eyes of Christ, hear with the ears of Christ, speak with the voice of Christ. I choose today to lay down the idol of fear to return to a new world unburdened by its weight with the vison of Christ restored to me by choice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 169

By Grace I Live. By Grace I Am Released.

Grace is an aspect of the love of God which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth. It is the world’s most lofty aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received, an altar clean and holy for the gift.

2. Grace is acceptance of the love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains that those whose minds are lightened by the gift of grace cannot believe the world of fear is real.

3. Grace is not learned. The final step must go beyond all learning. Grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to waken. It is not shut tight against God’s Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from experience with which it is familiarly at home.

4. We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation of the Father and the Son as one has been already set. But we have also said the mind determines when that will be, and has determined it. And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God.^330. to hasten the experience of truth, and speed its advent into every mind which recognizes its effects on you.

5. Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His being He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say “God is,” and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There ae no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united its Source, and like the Source Itself. It merely is.

6. We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God’s has been completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness, and the holy face of Christ. The Son of God has merely disappeared into his Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all. Eternity remains a constant state.

7. This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and learned, brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time the mind itself determined to abandon all but this is near at hand.^334. We do not hasten it in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means. All learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete. He recognized all that time holds, and gave it to all minds that each one might determine, from a point where time has ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity.

8. We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that is done. For oneness must be here. Whatever time the mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state, forever as it was; forever to remain as it is now. We merely take the part assigned long since, and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation’s script in His Creator’s Name, and in the name of His Creator’s Son.

9. There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of things beyond and listen to words which explain what is to come is past already. Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and go to sleep by them?

10. Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter, for your part is still what all the rest depends on. As you play the role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God. Forgiveness is the central theme which runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it runs directed and its outcome sure.

11. And now we ask for grace, the final gift forgiveness can bestow. Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while. That interval suffices. It is here that miracles are laid, to be returned by you from holy instants you receive through grace in your experience to all who see the light that lingers on your face.

12. What is the face of Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness and brought the clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to bless the world? How could you finally attain to it forever, while a part of you remains outside; unknowing, unawakened, and in need of you as witness to the truth?

13. Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant and accept the gifts which grace provided you. You carry them back to yourself. And revelation stands not far behind. Its coming is ensured. We ask for grace and for experience that comes from grace. We welcome the release it offers everyone. We do not ask for the unaskable. We do not look beyond what grace can give. For this we can give in the grace that has been given us.

14. Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer, yet in the world what could be more than what we ask this day of Him Who gives the grace we ask, as it was given Him?

By grace I live. By grace I am released.

By grace I give. By grace I will release.^[1].

^{[1.] A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.}

^{Footnote 334. Matthew 4:17 (KJV): “From that time Jesus began to preach, and say, Repent: for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This paragraph seems to be another attempt to reconcile the paradox that we are trying to hasten something whose time is set already. the resolution seems to be that while our forgiveness seems to speed experiences of truth into our minds, those experiences are actually just the signs that the time of awakening the mind has already set is “near at hand.” Again, somehow both are true—we are hastening something that is already set. Again, the resolution of this may require a vantage point that is outside of linear time.}

Personal Notes:

“By grace I live. By grace I am released.”

.” I prepare my mind today with help of Holy Spirit to lay the gift of grace on the clean and holy alter of my mind, lightened by the gift of grace their will be no belief in the world of fear to be real. Oneness is the idea God is. And in His being, He encompasses all things. I take the part assigned me, recognized, and fulfilled by Holy Spirit Who wrote salvation’s script in Our Creator’s Name, and in the Name of Our Creator’s Son. I accept my role in the salvation of the world as my special function^337. with gladness. Forgiveness being the central theme which runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course directed and its outcome sure. What we ask Is given us. By grace I live. By grace I am released. By grace I give. By grace I will release. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 168

Your Grace Is Given Me. I Claim It Now.

God speaks to us. Shall we not speak to Him. He is not distant. He makes no attempt to hide from us. We try to hide from Him, and suffer from deception. He remains entirely assessable. He loves His Son. There is no certainty but this, yet this suffices. He will lose His Son forever. When his mind remains asleep, He loves him still. And when his mind awakes, He loves him with a never-changing love.^325.

2. If you but knew the meaning of His love, hope and despair would be impossible, for hope would be forever satisfied; despair of any kind unthinkable. His grace His answer is to all despair, for in it lies remembrance of His love. Would He not gladly give the means by which His will is recognized? His grace is yours by your acknowledgment. And memory of Him awakens in the mind which asks the means of Him whereby its sleep is done.

3. Today we ask God the gift He has most carefully preserved within our hearts, waiting to be acknowledged. This the gift by which God leans to us and lifts us up, taking salvation’s final step Himself. All steps but this we learn, instructed by His Voice. But finally He comes Himself and takes us in His arms and sweeps away the cobwebs of our sleep. His gift of grace is more than just an answer. It restores all memories the sleeping mind forgot, all certainty of what love’s meaning is.

4. God loves His Son. Request Him now to give the means by which this world will disappear, and vision first will come, with knowledge but an instant later. For in grace you see a light that covers all the world in love, and watch fear disappear from every face as hearts rise up and claim the light as theirs. What now remains that Heaven be delayed an instant longer? What remains undone when your forgiveness rests on everything?

5. It is a new and holy day today, for we receive what has been given us. Our faith lies in the Giver, not our own acceptance. We acknowledge our mistakes, but He to Whom all error is unknow is yet the One Who answers our mistakes by giving us the means to lay them down and rise to Him in gratitude and love.

6. And He descends to meet us as we come to Him, for what He has prepared for us He gives and we receive. Such is His will, because He loves His Son. To Him we pray today, returning but the words he gave to us through His Own Voice, His Word, His Love:

Your grace is given me. I claim it now.

Father, I come to You. And You will come

to me who ask. I am the Son You love.^[1].

^{[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.}

^{Footnote 325. Jeremiah 31:3 (KJV): “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.”}

Personal Notes:

“Your grace is given me. I claim it now.”

It is a new and holy day today, for we receive what has been given us. Grace is usually seen in the Course as a free gift from God that asks nothing of the receiver, or as a state of pure innocence and ease in which no sacrifice is required. In this lesson it takes on a more specific meaning. It is what God gives us in the final step, where He reaches down and lifts us into the perfect knowledge of Him. The next lesson suggests that what we are really asking for is a foretaste of that final awakening, a temporary experience of divine union: “Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while. His grace is answer to all despair, restoring all memories the sleeping mind forgot. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 167

There Is One Life, and That I Share With God.

There are not different kinds of life, for life is like truth. It does not have degrees. Life is the one condition in which all that God created share. Like all His thoughts, it has no opposite. There is no death because what God created shares His life. There is no death because an opposite to God does not exist. There is no death because the Father and the Son are one.

2. In this world there appears to be a state that is life’s opposite. You call it death. Yet we have learned that the idea of death takes many forms. It is the one idea which underlies all feelings that are not supremely happy. It is the alarm to which you give response of any kind that is not perfect joy. All sorrow, loss, anxiety and suffering and pain, even a little sigh of weariness, a slight discomfort, or the merest frown, acknowledge death. And thus deny you live.

3. You think that death is of the body. Yet it is but an idea, irrelevant to what is seen as physical. A thought is in the mind. It can be then applied where mind directs it, but its origin is where it must be changed if change occurs. Ideas leave not their source. The emphasis this course has placed on that idea is due to its centrality in our attempts to change your mind about yourself. It is the reason you can heal. It is the cause of healing. It is why you cannot die. Its truth established you as one with God.

4. Death is the thought that you are separate from your Creator. It is the belief conditions change, emotions alternate because of causes you cannot control, you did not make, and you can never change. It is the fixed belief ideas can leave their source and take on qualities the source does not contain, becoming different from their own origin, apart from it in kind as well as distance, time, and form.

5. Death cannot come from life. Ideas remain united to their source. They can extend all that their source contains. In that they can go far beyond themselves. But they cannot give birth to what was never given them. As they are made, so will their making be. As they were born, so will they then give birth. And where they came from, there will they return.

6. The mind can think it sleeps, but that is all. It cannot change what is its waking state. It cannot make a body, nor abide within a body. What is alien to the mind does not exist, because it has no source. For mind creates all things that are, and cannot give them attributes it lacks, nor change its own eternal, mindful state. It cannot make the physical. What seems to die is but the sign of mind asleep.

7. The opposite of life can only be another form of life. As such, it can be reconciled with what created it, because it is not opposite in truth. Its form may change; it may appear to be what it is not. Yet mind is mind, awake or sleeping. It is not its opposite in anything created, nor in what it seems to make when it believes it sleeps.

8. God creates only mind awake. He does not sleep, and His creations cannot share what He gives not, nor make conditions which He does not share with them. The thought of death is not the opposite to thoughts of life. Forever unopposed by opposites of any kind, the thoughts of God remain forever changeless, with the power to extend forever changelessly, but yet within themselves, for they are everywhere.

9. What seems to be the opposite of life is merely sleeping. When the mind elects to be what it is not, and to assume an alien power which it does not have, a foreign state it cannot enter, or a false condition not within its Source, it merely seems to go to sleep a while. It dreams of time, an interval in which what seems to happen never has occurred, the changes wrought are substanceless, and all events are nowhere. When the mind awakes, it but continues as it always was.

10. Let us today be children of the truth, and not deny our holy heritage. Our life is not as we imagine it. Who changes life because he shuts his eyes, or makes himself what he is not because he sleeps and sees in dreams an opposite to what he is? We will not ask for death in any form today. Nor will we let imagined opposites to life abide even an instant where the thought of life eternal has been set by God Himself.

11. His holy home we strive to keep today as He established it and wills it be forever and forever. He is Lord of what we think today. And from His thoughts, which have no opposite, we understand there is one life, and that we share with Him, with all creation, with their thoughts as well, whom He created in a unity of life which cannot separate in death and leave the Source of life from where it came.

12. We share our life because we have one Source, a Source from Which perfection comes to us, remaining always in the holy minds which He created perfect. As we were, so are we now and will forever be. A sleeping mind must waken as it sees its own perfection mirroring the Lord of life so perfectly it fades into what is reflected there. And now it is no more a mere reflection. It becomes the thing reflected and the light which made refection possible. No vision now is needed. For the wakened mind is one that knows its Source, its Self, its holiness.^[1].

^{[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.}

Personal Notes:

“There is one life, and that I share with God.” I choose today to identify with truth as the child of God that I am. I do not ask for death in any form. I accept freedom from all thoughts of bad dreams and sleep that is not real. I choose to abide in this one life eternally set by God Himself with all creation, with their thoughts as well, whom He created in a unity of life which cannot separate in death. We have been given a choice, I choose life, and all that encompasses in Christ Jesus, in the Love of God Himself. Ideas leave not their source. I am an idea that has not left my Source—God! God has established me as one with Him. This is the one life I share with God; holy, righteous, loved, protected, joyous, limitless, and the list goes on as one with my Creator. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love

Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 166

I Am Entrusted With The Gifts Of God.

All things are given you. God’s trust in you is limitless. He knows His Son. He gives without exception, holding nothing back that can contribute to your happiness. And yet, unless your will is one with His, His gifts are not received. But what would make you think there is another will than His?

2. Here is the paradox that underlies the making of the world. This world is not the will of God, and so it is not real. Yet those who think it real must still believe there is another will, and one which leads to opposite effects from those He wills. Impossible indeed, but every mind which looks upon the world and judges it as certain, solid, trustworthy, and true believes in two creators—or in one, himself alone. But never in one God.

3. The gifts of God are not acceptable to anyone who holds such strange beliefs. He must believe that to accept God’s gifts, however evident they may become, however urgently he may be called to claim them as his own, is to be pressed to treachery against himself. He must deny their presence, contradict the truth, and suffer to preserve the world he made.

4. Here is the only home he thinks he knows. Here is the only safety he believes that he can find. Without the world he made is he an outcast, homeless and afraid. He does not realize that it is here he is afraid indeed, and homeless too; an outcast wandering so far from home, so long away, he does not realize he has forgotten where he came from, where he goes, and even who he really is.

5. Yet in his lonely, senseless wanderings, God’s gifts go with him, all unknown to him. He cannot lose them. But he will not look at what is given him. He wanders on, aware of the futility he sees about him everywhere, perceiving how his little lot but dwindles as he goes ahead to nowhere. Still he wanders on in misery and poverty, alone though God is with him, and a treasure his so great that everything the world contains is valueless before its magnitude.

6. He seems a sorry figure—weary, worn, in threadbare clothing, and with feet that bleed a little from the rocky road he walks. No one but has identified with him, for everyone who comes here has pursued the path he follows, and has felt defeat and hopelessness as he is feeling them. Yet is he really tragic, when you see that he is following the way he chose, and need but realize Who walks with him and open up his treasures to be free?

7. This is your chosen self, the one you made as a replacement for reality. This is the self you savagely defend against all reason, every evidence, and all the witnesses with proof to show this is not you. You heed them not. You go on your appointed way, with eyes cast down lest you might catch a glimpse of truth, and be released from self-deception and set free.

8. You cower fearfully lest you should feel Christ’s touch upon your shoulder and perceive His gentle hand directing you to look upon your gifts. How could you then proclaim your poverty and exile? He would make you laugh at this perception of yourself. Where is self-pity then? And what becomes of all the tragedy you sought to make for him whom God intended only joy?

9. Your ancient fear has come upon you now, and justice has caught up with you at last. Christ’s hand has touched your shoulder, and you feel that you are not alone. You even think the miserable self you thought was you may not be your identity. Perhaps God’s Word is truer than your own. Perhaps His gifts to you are real. Perhaps He has not wholly been outwitted by your plan to keep His Son in deep oblivion and go the way you chose without your Self.

10. God’s will does not oppose. It merely is. It is not God you have imprisoned in your plan to lose your Self. He does not know about a plan so alien to His will. There was a need He did not understand, to which He gave an Answer. That is all. And you who have this Answer given you have need no more of anything but this.

11. Now do we live, for now we cannot die. The wish for death is answered, and the sight that looked upon it now has been replaced by vision which perceives that you are not what you pretend to be. One walks with you Who gently answers all your fears with this one merciful reply: “It is not so.” He points to all the gifts you have each time the thought of poverty oppresses you, and speaks of His companionship when you perceive yourself as lonely and afraid.

12. Yet He reminds you still of one thing more you forgotten. For His touch on you has made you like Himself. The gifts you have are not for you alone. What He has come to offer you, you now must learn to give. This is the lesson that His giving holds, for He has saved you from the solitude you sought to make in which to hide from God. He has reminded you of all the gifts that God has given you. He speaks as well of what becomes your will when you accept these gifts and recognize they are your own.

13. The gifts are yours, entrusted to your care, to give to all who chose the lonely road you have escaped. They do not understand they but pursue their wishes. It is you who teach them now. For you have learned of Christ there is another way for them to walk. Teach them by showing them the happiness that comes to those who feel the touch of Christ and recognize God’s gifts. Let sorrow not tempt you to be unfaithful to your trust.

14. Your sighs will now betray the hopes of those who look to you for their release. Your tears are theirs. If you are sick, you but withhold their healing. What you fear but teaches them their fears are justified. Your hand become the giver of Christ’s touch. Your change of mind becomes the proof that who accepts God’s gifts can never suffer anything. You are entrusted with the world’s release from pain.

15. Betray it not. Become the living proof of what Christ’s touch can offer everyone. God has entrusted all His gifts to you. Be witness in your happiness to how transformed the mind becomes which chooses to accept His gifts and feel the touch of Christ. Such is your mission now. For God entrusts the giving of His gifts to all who have received them. He has shared His joy with you. And now you go to share it with the world.^[1].

^{[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.}

Personal Notes:

“I am entrusted with the gifts of God.” Let me not forget today who I am, Who goes with me, before me and empowers me in all I put my mind and hand to. I will focus today on the fact that I am entrusted with the gifts of God, to share with the world that all will see and know we are never alone, never without every resource needed for this journey. I receive Christ’s touch to be a witness in happiness, accepting God’s gifts that I may share His joy with the world. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love