February 15, 2022

Lesson 46 –

God is the Love in which I forgive.

Forgiveness is ne of the key ideas the Course uses to change the way we perceive or see the world and ourselves. Forgiveness is, in fact, a change in our perception. It is a healing of our thoughts, a healing of our mind. As we allow the higher Holy Spirit within us to guide our thoughts, we see the change in the way we think to a more correct thought system. This guidance is and always has been within us. However, we at some point blocked it from our awareness. Recent lessons have been teaching us about our holiness and sinlessness. To live in the awareness of our holiness is  simply Love, which is the essence of all reality. When we have difficulty in realizing our holiness, we can rely on forgiveness to guide us back to the awareness of Love. And Gid, or Oneness, is the Love that fuels the change in our thinking that is forgiveness.

God does not forgive because God has never condemned. And there must be condemnation before forgiveness is necessary. Forgiveness is the great need of this world, but that is because it is a world of illusions. Those who forgive are thus releasing themselves from illusions, while those who withhold forgiveness are binding themselves to them. As you condemn only yourself, so do you forgive only yourself.   W-pI.46.1:1-5

Forgiveness is a tool only in the illusion of separation.. It is a tool that is in illusion yet has a holy purpose. We believe so strongly in separation that we have lost all recognition of our real Identity. We have believed with conviction that we are sinful and are thus unholy, forever marred beyond all recognition. But we are not sinful ot unholy. We are as we are created in Oneness. Though we believe we are less than, we cannot undo our true nature. The Love in which we are created is strong and invincible. Once we decide to allow Spirit to guide our perception and lead us to correct thinking, our holiness rises to the surface from its previously hidden barrier. The joy of this recognition is unlimited. We arrive home at last as though we never left. Release yourself from the bonds of the illusion you have so long held as real and true.

Yet although God does not forgive, Their Love is nevertheless the basis of forgiveness. Fear condemns and love forgives. Forgiveness thus undoes what fear has produced, returning the mind to the awareness of God. For this reason, forgiveness can truly be called salvation. It is the means by which illusions disappear.   W-pI.46.2:1-5

Forgiveness is the tool we are given that undoes all that illusion has brought us. It is our salvation, simply the shift in our minds that returns us to the awareness that we are and always are Love. No longer need we be fearful. There is no fear, for fear is not real. It is now time to forgive our mistaken thoughts and allow the Love we are to rise in us, shininng its light for the world to join. Peace is abundant within us and joins with all to manifest the infinite peace of Oneness. So forgive and forgive freely, for it is the means by which all illusions disappear leaving us simply Love.

February 8, 2022

Lesson 39 –

My holiness is my salvation.

Salvation is an idea that can be very challenging. Most religious have some concept of what salvation is and why it is necessary. What if salvation were not necessary? Or, what if salvation is a concept that realigns us with our  innate wholeness? The idea for today, itself, points us to the idea that our holiness is already established within us and that is our salvation. All we really need do is realize we are holy and that makes us aware once again we are already holy and that awareness is our salvation. That’s merely a shift in our thinking, a change of mind about how we see ourselves.

If guilt is hell, what is its opposite? Like the text for which this workbook was written, the ideas used for the exercises are very simple, very clear and totally unambiguous. We are not concerned with intellectual feats nor logical toys. We are dealing only in the very obvious, which has been overlooked in the clouds of complexity in which you think you think.   W-pI.39.1:1-4

This idea may seem very difficult if not impossible. However, it is surely not difficult. The hesitation we may feel in answering is not due to the ambiguity of the question. Do we believe that guilt is hell? If so, we would see at once how direct and simple the message of the Course is and would not need it at all. No one needs practice to gain what is already theirs. We need simply look within to the truth about who we really are and release the mistaken beliefs we hold about ourselves.

Your holiness is the answer to every question that was ever asked, is being asked now, or will be asked in the future. Your holiness means the end of guilt, and therefore the end of hell. Your holiness is the salvation of the world, and your own. How could you to whom your holiness belongs be excluded from it? God does not know unholiness. Can it be He does not know His Son?   W-pI.39.4:1-6

Go easy on yourself. We have spent a lifetime learning and believing what we currently think abut ourselves. The holy purpose of time is to help us unlearn all those mistaken beliefs about ourselves. The more we resist letting them go, the longer it may take, but Spirit holds us in our holiness guiding us every step of the way. Our salvation from this mistaken belief is the recognition of our innate holiness. Nothing is wrong or broken about our real self. Be willing to turn to the holiness that we are and see a changed and healed world rooted in the Oneness of Love and Peace and Joy. This is our natural state of being. This is who we really are.