April 28, 2020

Lesson 119 – Review of lessons 107 and 108

Truth will correct all errors in my mind. (107)

2 I am mistaken when I think I can be hurt in any way. 3 I am God’s Child, whose Self rests safely in the Mind of God.   W-pI.119.1.1-3

Truth is a light that shines within our mind and heart. It is always present, never wavering, never dimming. It shines with a brilliance that cannot be disguised. The only action our mind can take against Truth is to block it from our awareness by distracting us with petty bits of unreality. We are Truth. This is a fact. Our willingness to see it is what allows us to be aware of it. Truth knows our wholeness, our completeness, our holiness – who we really are. Truth knows who we really are cannot be destroyed or diminished. The thought that we are less than whole and complete is the thought that needs correcting. And Truth will shine its light on any thought of “less than” and render it powerless. For Truth is all powerful – it joins all of us and all of Creation in Oneness. When we align our thoughts with Truth, any untrue thought fades into nothingness. The correction of error is that simple. We are mistaken when we believe we can be diminished. We are all equally and totally holy. We may act otherwise at times, but the Truth about us is unchangeable. The question for us is, “Am I willing to open my mind to the correction Truth brings to my awareness?” The Course reminds us many times that just a little willingness is all that is needed to correct our mistaken thoughts. Perhaps we can be willing to grant ourselves this gift.

To give and to receive are one in truth. (108)

2 I will forgive all things today, that I may learn how to accept the truth in me, and come to recognize my sinlessness.   W-pI.119.2.1-2

When we choose to be willing to  align ourselves with Oneness, we open a door for our Higher Holy Spirit Self to help us see clearly with Spirit Vision. In Oneness, all is shared by and with all. Nothing is divided. There is no part that is mine or anyone else’s. All of everything is everyone’s. This is not about the physical or the temporary. It is not about the temporal world we seem to exist in for a time. It is about Reality and all that is real. The Course asks us to look beyond the appearance of what we think we see to what is real.

Vision depends upon today’s idea. The light is in it, for it reconciles all seeming opposites. And what is light except the resolution, born of peace, of all your conflicts and mistaken thoughts into one concept which is wholly true? Even that one will disappear, because the Thought behind it will appear instead to take its place. And now you are at peace forever, for the dream is over then.   W-pI.108.1:1-5

Our happiness lies in this correction. The realization of our Truth brings contentedness with ourselves. Peace, Love, and Joy rise within our mind as we rest in the realization of our Oneness. The uneven existence of the world fades as we learn to look beyond the appearance of events and experiences in the world. As we perceive the world from an awareness of our Oneness, our thoughts about the world shift, allowing us to observe from a mindset of peace and understanding. Forgiveness allows us to ease up on ourselves just a little and allow a transformation of our thoughts to manifest a new attitude in our minds. Peace of mind is the result, and that is really what we are seeking. Let Truth bring that peace to your mind and you will find a happiness you forgot was within you.

April 21, 2020

Lesson 112 – Review of lessons 93 and 94

Light and joy and peace abide in me.   (93)

2 I am the home of light and joy and peace. 3 I welcome them into the home I share with God, because I am a part of God.   W-pI.112.1.1-3

I am reminded as I welcome this lesson review of who I really am. I am the light of the world. I am peace and joy. I am all of this even when I don’t believe it. My Higher Holy Spirit Self holds the memory of this until I am willing to believe and accept it again. It never goes away. T never stops being true. When I don’t see it within me, I have only blocked it from my sight and from my mind. It will remain blocked until I am willing to see it again. My feelings will alert me if I am willing to let them alert me. When I don’t feel peace, at any time I can choose to be peace again as I allow peace to rise in me again. At any time, I can stop, and look within to my Guide and refocus my thoughts. My real thoughts are peaceful, even n a world of chaos.

I am as God created me.  (94)

2 I will remain forever as I was, created by the Changeless like Oneself. 3 And I am one with the Changeless [God], and the Changeless [God] with me.   W-pI.112.2.1-3

This review lesson, as the previous, reminds me I am holy, I am complete, I am whole and I am limitless, as I was created. Nothing can take that away from me, even when I choose to block it from my awareness. I am changeless because I am One with the Changeless. Oneness means there is no and never was any separation. Separation is nothing more than a misguided belief that can do nothing more than block my holiness from my awareness. Even in the midst of a pandemic in this world I can be assured that my holiness is intact. No matter what condition my body experiences I this world, I am still whole in the formless world of Spirit and Oneness that is reality. I will operate in the world of form as I am guided by the holiness within me, for I am here only to be truly helpful. I am content to be right where I am, for I have a purpose for being here if I am willing to see that purpose through my own Spirit eyes. May I be willing to see and be the light, peace and joy that ae instilled in me at my creation.

April 14, 2020

Lesson 105

God’s peace and joy are mine. ACIM W.pI.105

Sunday was Easter. Easter is a time of resurrection, liberation, transcendence and awakening. It symbolizes our return to the awareness of who we really are. It is the return to the awareness of our holiness, wholeness, abundance and completeness. It is our return to the awareness of our Oneness, the end of our mistaken thought of separation. In this awareness is the realization that God’s peace and joy are ours as they have always been.

God’s peace and joy are yours. Today we will accept them, knowing they belong to us. And we will try to understand these gifts increase as we receive them. They are not like to the gifts the world can give, in which the giver loses as they give the gift; the taker is the richer by their loss. Such are not gifts, but bargains made with guilt. The truly given gift entails no loss. It is impossible that one can gain because another loses. This implies a limit and an insufficiency.   W-pI.105.1:1-8

This is a new concept of giving to us. We have believed that we must achieve peace and joy from God through some means, some deed or action. Nothing could be further from the truth. Peace and joy, and love are freely given us in our creation. They never go away and we can never corrupt them. They are inseparable from our being and are infused in every essence of our identity. We can awaken to the awareness of all this simply by being willing to see and share in our Oneness. Our being is fluent. Our being flows freely through all of Oneness and thus all of Creation. The freer we allow these gifts to flow, the more aware we are of their presence and abundance within us.

As Heaven’s peace and joy intensify when you accept them as God’s gift to you, so does the joy of your Creator grow when you accept your Creator’s joy and peace as yours. True giving is creation. It extends the limitless to the unlimited, eternity to timelessness, and love unto itself. It adds to all that is complete already, not in simple terms of adding more, for that implies that it was less before. It adds by letting what cannot contain itself fulfill its aim of giving everything it has away, securing it forever for itself.   W-pI.105.4:1-5

Every encounter in this world is an opportunity to practice this lesson – an opportunity to extend, share peace and joy and love. Each one is an opportunity to remember we are One, ending the idea of separation. If another seems to tempt you to deny God’s gift to them, see it as another chance to let yourself receive the gifts of God as yours. Then bless this One thankfully, and say:

My friend, peace and joy I offer you,
That I may have God’s peace and joy as mine.   W-pI.105.9:6

Peace and joy are our natural condition. Think of a world where peace and joy are the norm. When we can’t feel peace and joy, no matter what the world is showing us, we can make a choice to see differently and ask Spirit to show us another interpretation. What we need is within us. It always has been. Make the choice to accept peace and joy, always abundant within you, and offer it to another. The miracle is there for the sharing.

April 7, 2020

Lesson 98

I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation. ACIM W.pI.98

Do we have a part in God’s plan for salvation? The word “salvation” can sometimes trigger some old thoughts. Do I really need to be saved? Am I that damaged? Those old thoughts rear their ugly heads from time to time. The Course gives a different way to look at salvation. There is nothing in reality we need salvation from. Yet, we are attached to a mistaken idea about ourselves (and each other) that does need changing. God’s plan for salvation is a plan to help us return to the awareness of who we really are. To return to being the whole, complete, loving and peaceful state that we really are. We have done nothing more than block our own awareness of our holiness and wholeness by believing we are something different – something less than. This “something different” is the belief we are separate from God and each other – that we are not connected. Are we willing to dedicate ourselves to something new and certain?

Today is a day of special dedication. We take a stand on but one side today. We side with truth and let illusions go. We will not vacillate between the two, but take a firm position with the One. We dedicate ourselves to truth today, and to salvation as God planned it be. We will not argue it is something else. We will not seek for it where it is not. In gladness we accept it as it is, and take the part assigned to us by God.   W-pI.98.1:1-8

How happy to be certain! All our doubts we lay aside today, and take our stand with certainty of purpose, and with thanks that doubt is gone and surety has come. We have a mighty purpose to fulfill, and have been given everything we need with which to reach the goal. Not one mistake stands in our way. For we have been absolved from errors. All our sins are washed away by realizing they were but mistakes.   W-pI.98.2:1-6

God’s plan for salvation is simply the process of changing our minds. It is a process of releasing the thoughts about ourselves that are mistaken and accepting the truth about who we really are. Th Course teaches us we are One with our Source and that we can never be anything else. We are created incorruptible. How could we be anything but the perfect being we are created? The thoughts we identified with once we believed we were separate are changeable. These thoughts are made by our egoic thought system which is invested in our belief in separation – our belief in illusion. Spirit dwells within us waiting for us to allow It to show us a different way – a different perception of ourselves.

They [the guiltless – our brothers and sisters] will be with us; all who took the stand we take today will gladly offer us all that they learned and every gain they made. Those still uncertain, too, will join with us, and, borrowing our certainty, will make it stronger still. While those as yet unborn will hear the call we heard, and answer it when they have come to make their choice again. We do not choose but for ourselves today.   W-pI.98.4:1-4

Once you are willing, set aside all earthly tasks, all little thoughts and limited ideas, and spend a happy time again with the One, your Creator. Reaffirm your decision once more that you accept your part in God’s plan for salvation. This choice is not just God’s, for we made this choice with our Creator. We – in Oneness – made this choice when we co-created this plan of salvation the instant we chose to think we were separate. Return to the awareness of who you really are, for this is truly who you really are. Return home today, for it is your destiny.