February 27, 2018

Is it really possible that we are afraid of love? We are the ones who place the obstacles to peace in our own way. It makes no sense whatsoever, but we do it anyway. Perhaps we are afraid of the power of real peace and love. Perhaps we are afraid of happiness. Perhaps we have become so accustomed to the misery in our lives that we are afraid of anything different. What if there were nothing to blame anyone or anything for? Perhaps it’s just too impossible to imagine a reality where we are complete, whole and filled with love and peace. The perfect world we seek is already within each one of us waiting for us to allow it to rise in our consciousness.

What messages do we send out consciously or unconsciously? Who and what are the messengers we project in this temporal world we seem to see around us?

Love’s messengers are gently sent and return with messages of love and gentleness. The messengers of fear are harshly ordered to seek out guilt and cherish every scrap of evil and of sin that they can find, losing none of them on pain of death, and laying them respectfully before their lord and master. Perception cannot obey two masters, each asking for messages of different things in different languages. What fear would feed upon, love overlooks. What fear demands, love cannot even see. The fierce attraction that guilt holds for fear is wholly absent from love’s gentle perception. What love would look upon is meaningless to fear, and quite invisible.   T-19.IV.A.11:1-7

We have a choice. We can choose what we want to attract in our consciousness by sending out that message. The Course tells us that what we believe we will see. What we send out we will receive back. One of the principles of the Course states that giving and receiving are the same. When we give peace, we will receive peace. Similarly, when we believe we are peace, we see peace. What we put out there we will get back. The light within us is all powerful. When we choose to let it shine, all darkness vanishes in light’s presence. The obstacles we made to block peace are merely insubstantial shadows waiting for the light to shine them away.

Our relationships in this world reflect how we see this world. Our view of the world is determined by what we believe about it. It is totally about our perception of the world. The real world is beyond the world we think we see. The real world is perfect, whole, peaceful and filled with love. Look beyond the appearance of the world you see to the real world. It is there, within each of us, waiting to be recognized, so it can rise in our awareness whenever we choose to allow it to manifest. Look to your relationships with one another to begin the healing journey. We have a reservation at the banquet.

Love, too, would set a feast before you, on a table covered with a spotless cloth, set in a quiet garden where no sound but singing and a softly joyous whispering is ever heard. This is a feast that honors your holy relationship, and at which everyone is welcomed as an honored guest. And in a holy instant grace is said by everyone together, as they join in gentleness before the table of communion. And I will join you there, as long ago I promised and promise still. For in your new relationship am I made welcome. And where I am made welcome, there I am.   T-19.IV.A.16:1-6

The banquet is set. It has always been set. Spirit invites us to sit with infinite gentleness. There is no need to hurry, for the invitation is in the present now of eternity, yet we still delay. As Spirit extends the invitation to us, extend the invitation to another in your holy relationship. Watch as the obstacles to peace vanish in the light of your invitation and peace fills your relationship and the world around you. You – we are home at last.

February 20, 2018

We are Peace. We are the essence and expression of Peace in this world. We are the center from which Peace radiates outward to call all others to peace. We are the home of Peace. We are its quiet home from which Peace gently reaches out, but never leaves. The Course puts it this way:

The first obstacle that peace must flow across is your desire to get rid of it. For it cannot extend unless you keep it. You are the center from which it radiates outward, to call the others in. You are its home; its tranquil dwelling place from which it gently reaches out, but never leaving you. If you would make it homeless, how can it abide within the One Child of God? If it would spread across the whole creation, it must begin with you, and from you reach to everyone who calls, and bring them rest by joining you.   T-19.IV.A.1:1-6

Why do we deny the Peace within us? It must be insanity. Or perhaps it is a fear of stepping into the reality of who we really are.  In reality, eternity, Peace cannot be subdued. Yet, we can block our awareness of that deep Peace abiding within us by placing obstacles to it in our minds.

Each obstacle we have believed separates us from Peace is really nothing. It has no real power whatsoever. It is merely an illusion in our minds and holds no reality other than that which we give it by believing it is real. We are the only obstacle to Peace in our lives. Only by releasing that belief will we allow Peace to extend beyond the limitations we placed on ourselves and flow across the world. Simply allowing Peace to extend from its dwelling place within us to flow across our relationships will those relationships be transformed and be recognized holy. In the miracle of our holy relationship, without this barrier, is every miracle contained. We offer the miracle of the awareness of Peace in every encounter. Let the resistance to this Peace within you fall away. Why would you ever want to get rid of Peace?

There is a hush in Heaven, a happy expectancy, a little pause of gladness in acknowledgment of the journey’s end. For Heaven knows you well, as you know Heaven. No illusions stand between you and another now. Look not upon the little wall of shadows. The sun has risen over it. How can a shadow keep you from the sun? No more can you be kept by shadows from the light in which illusions end. Every miracle is but the end of an illusion. Such was the journey; such its ending. And in the goal of truth which you accepted must all illusions end.   T-19.IV.A.6:1-10

Peace is within us, Light is within us. Love is within us. We are Peace, Light, and Love. We are the Ones who extend all that is real to all those who have hidden from their own reality. We need not change their minds or change anything they may or may not believe about themselves. We need only offer them the miracle of recognizing their holiness within them. By allowing the Peace within us to extend to another, we reveal the Peace already dwelling in them to arise in their awareness. As what is already within them rises to their awareness, they realize – as we do – that we are all One, joined in the unity of Oneness. Let the obstacles to Peace fall away, for they have no substance. Peace is waiting to radiate from within you to spread its Peace to all the world. Let this be so.

February 13, 2018

Peace lies deep within each and every one of us; no exceptions. It is there, even if we don’t recognize that it is there. Peace dwells there within us waiting for us to allow the obstacles we have placed between our separated self and our real Self to be gently removed and fade away into nothing. The obstacles to peace within us may seem to come from many places outside us, but they are really obstacles we have placed between our mind and the awareness of peace within us. Here’s what the Course tells us about this:

As peace extends from deep inside yourself to embrace all the One Childship and give it rest, it will encounter many obstacles. Some of them you will try to impose. Others will seem to arise from elsewhere; from others, and from various aspects of the world outside. Yet peace will gently cover them, extending past completely unencumbered. The extension of the Holy Spirit’s purpose from your relationship to others, to bring them gently in, is the way in which Spirit will bring means and goal in line. The peace Spirit lay, deep within you and others, will quietly extend to every aspect of your life, surrounding you and others with glowing happiness and the calm awareness of complete protection. And you will carry its message of love and safety and freedom to everyone who draws nigh unto your temple, where healing waits for them. You will not wait to give them this, for you will call to them and they will answer you, recognizing in your call the Call for God. And you will draw them in and give them rest, as it was given you.   T-19.IV.1:1-9

All this healing peace and love is there within all of us and all we need do is allow it to extend from us to others. Is it really this simple? Yes, it is! But we have placed obstacles to it in our minds. And we can just as easily allow those obstacles to be gone. Let the peace within you expand and flow across these obstacles we placed before it. We can and will do this, for nothing we undertake with Spirit can be unfulfilled. There is nothing outside us we can be sure of or rely on but the resting place within us we offer Spirit where we, then, can rest in Spirit. There we find peace and the holy blessing with which Spirit fills every relationship.

The gratitude you owe to Spirit, Spirit asks but that you receive for Spirit. And when you look with gentle graciousness upon others, you are beholding Spirit. For you are looking where Spirit is, and not apart from Spirit. You cannot see the Holy Spirit, but you can see others truly. And the light in them will show you all that you need to see. When the peace in you has been extended to encompass everyone, the Holy Spirit’s function here will be accomplished. What need is there for seeing, then? When the One has taken the last step, the Holy Spirit will gather all the thanks and gratitude that you have offered and lay them gently before the Creator in the Name of the most holy Child. And the Creator will accept them in Their Name. What need is there of seeing, in the presence of Their gratitude?   T-19.IV.3:1-10

Open your eyes. Open your Spirit eyes and see what is really in others.  Recognize Spirit within each and every one of them. Perhaps some of them do not seem to be exhibiting Spirit as you gaze on them in this world. Take a moment and gaze again beyond the appearance of things in the holy instant and see them in the eternal now. You will see the miracle of healing in them as you see them as they really are – the One Holy Child of Oneness. Let us begin to see with Spirit Vision and begin to remove the obstacles to Peace.

February 6, 2018

The belief in sin has, as a necessity, the notion that sin is more powerful than God and Oneness. It assumes that it can make its own reality different than that of Oneness. It has, at its core, the belief that we are not as we are created and that it is possible to create a reality other than love and peace and joy. It believes we can create a reality different from reality. Does that sound insane? It is, yet we believe it is possible. We seem to want to create a world of misery for ourselves, even if it costs us our happiness. Separation is unhappy simply because we deny much of ourselves and who we really are in order to see ourselves as separate. As we blame others and/or God for our unhappiness, we increasingly block our mind from happiness and reinforce our belief in our separateness. We continually deny our happiness found naturally in the Oneness of all Creation.

If our separated identity were real, each part of this fragmented “creation” would have a different will, opposed to the Creator’s will, and in eternal opposition to the One and to each other. Our holy relationship has, as its purpose now, the goal of proving this is impossible. Heaven has smiled upon our holy relationship, and the belief in sin has been uprooted in its smile of love. We see a fragmented world still, because we do not realize that its foundation has gone. Its source has been removed, and so it can be cherished but a little while before it vanishes. Only the habit of looking for it remains.

And yet you look with Heaven’s smile upon your lips, and Heaven’s blessing on your sight. You will not see sin long. For in the new perception the mind corrects it when it seems to be seen, and it becomes invisible. Errors are quickly recognized and quickly given to correction, to be healed, not hidden. You will be healed of sin and all its ravages the instant that you give it no power over anyone else. And you will help them overcome mistakes by joyously releasing them from the belief in sin.   T-19.III.9:1-6

Again, we find the promise of the holy instant waiting to give us a glimpse of Heaven’s smile. It may come when we’re least expecting it. Look deeply beyond any appearance of sin to the smile of Heaven beyond.

In the holy instant, you will see the smile of Heaven shining on both you and another. And you will shine upon them, in glad acknowledgment of the grace that has been given you. For sin will not prevail against a union Heaven has smiled upon. Your perception was healed in the holy instant Heaven gave you. Forget what you have seen, and raise your eyes in faith to what you now can see. The barriers to Heaven will disappear before your holy sight, for you who were sightless have been given vision, and you can see. Look not for what has been removed, but for the glory that has been restored for you to see.   T-19.III.10:1-7

 Look to Spirit within you and behold what would be shown to you in each other, and do not allow sin to arise again to blind your eyes. The belief in sin would keep you separate from them, but Spirit guides you to look upon another as yourself. Your holy relationship is now a temple of healing; a place where all who are weary can come and rest. Here is the rest that waits for all, after the journey. And it is brought nearer to all by your healed and now holy relationship. Sin is not real. The sooner we let go of our belief in sin, and see its unreality, the sooner we rejoin Heaven in Oneness and return to the peace, love and joy that has always been within us. As the blinders of our belief in sin fall away, we step into the awareness of our holy Oneness and the Grandeur of Heaven. This is our reality, this is our true Home in eternity.