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Lesson 330. I will not hurt myself again today. Let us this day accept forgiveness as our only function. Why should we attack our minds, and give them images of pain? Why should we teach them they are powerless, when God holds out His power and His Love, and bids them take what is already theirs? The mind that is made willing to accept God's gifts has been restored to spirit, and extends its freedom and its joy, as is the Will of God united with its own. The Self which God created cannot sin, and therefore cannot suffer. Let us choose today that He be our Identity, and thus escape forever from all things the dream of fear appears to offer us. Father, Your Son can not be hurt. And if we think we suffer, we but fail to know our one Identity we share with You. We would return to It today, to be made free forever from all our mistakes, and to be saved from what we thought we were. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? ~ M. Street. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lesson 330. "I will not hurt myself again today. *This is another significant lesson that reminds us of our need to recognize how we continually hurt ourselves by holding on to thoughts of specialness. Persistently engaging in thoughts and behavior we know will hurt us -- despite the ego's lies that they will give us pleasure -- it is a way of saying: "I want to hurt myself, because that establishes my existence without being responsible for it." We thus need to do to be aware how we are the cause of our own suffering.* (1:1-3) "Let us this day accept forgiveness as our only function. Why should we attack our minds, and give them images of pain? Why should we teach them they are powerless, when God holds out His power and His Love, and bids them take what is already theirs?" *The images of pain are what we experience as bodies, but they are only shadows of the pain of the mind's guilt. Jesus asks us to question our having made the mind powerless, which we do whenever we identify with the body's suffering. If the body suffers and we blame it on another, we deny the mind's power to choose pain. We thus make the dream figure real, for we wish to conceal the mind's role as dreamer. Recognizing our mistake, we no longer want to teach our powerlessness, but rather that our suffering comes from the mind's choice -- the world can never hurt us, but we hurt ourselves by our mistaken decisions.* (1:4) "The mind that is made willing to accept God's gifts has been restored to spirit, and extends its freedom and its joy, as is the Will of God united with its own." *Jesus helps us bring the image of pain, which is experienced in the world and body, back to the mind that is the seat of all power. Thus we can choose again to accept God's gifts instead of the ego's -- freedom and joy instead of imprisonment and pain.* (1:5-6) "The Self which God created cannot sin, and therefore cannot suffer. Let us choose today that He be our Identity, and thus escape forever from all things the dream of fear appears to offer us." *Recall this lovely line depicting the turning from fear to God's Love, which is our Self: "Do not think that anything the gifts of fear hold out is worth an instant's hesitation, when the gate of Heaven stands before you and the Christ of God is waiting your return." (The Gifts of God, pp.121-22).* (2) "Father, Your Son can not be hurt. And if we think we suffer, we but fail to know our one Identity we share with You. We would return to It today, to be made free forever from all our mistakes, and to be saved from what we thought we were." *Implicit in this statement is the purpose of all suffering -- perceived in ourselves and others -- preventing us from knowing our Identity. When we remember who we are as God's one Son, we are no longer the ego -- a special, unique, and individual self. Therefore, to ensure that we do not remember, we need only suffer, and

Lesson 329. I have already chosen what You will. Father, I thought I wandered from Your Will, defied it, broke its laws, and interposed a second will more powerful than Yours. Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will, extended and extending. This am I, and this will never change. As You are One, so am I one with You. And this I chose in my creation, where my will became forever one with Yours. That choice was made for all eternity. It cannot change, and be in opposition to itself. Father, my will is Yours. And I am safe, untroubled and serene, in endless joy, because it is Your Will that it be so. Today we will accept our union with each other and our Source. We have no will apart from His, and all of us are one because His Will is shared by all of us. Through it we recognize that we are one. Through it we find our way at last to God. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from his book set: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? ~ M. Street. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lesson 329. "I have already chosen what You will." *We come to another lesson on the theme of oneness -- the unity of our will and God's. Our Creator has willed we forever be a part of Him, not separate, and what He wills can never not be so.* (1:1-4) "Father, I thought I wandered from Your Will, defied it, broke its laws, and interposed a second will more powerful than Yours. Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will, extended and extending. This am I, and this will never change. As You are One, so am I one with You." *We believed we accomplished the impossible in the separation, having wandered into the ego's far country of separate wills. Our guilt, born of the thought we had sinned against our Father, caused us to become its children instead of Love's. The truth, however, is that is that as an extension of God's Will we never left our Source, and so we gladly recognize the mistake of having believed in illusions, happily accepting the truth of our creation in their place.* (1:5) "And this I chose in my creation, where my will became forever one with Yours." *I earlier referred to the important section "The Secret Vows," where Jesus speaks of God's promise to us that we would forever be His Son, always one with His Love. The Son forgot "he replied 'I will," though in that promise he was born (T-28.VI.6:4-6). In that lovely passage, Jesus poetically expresses what happened at our creation, and he refers to it here as well -- we, as God's Son, are eternally at one with His Will.* (1:6-7) "That choice was made for all eternity. It cannot change, and be in opposition to itself." *We can dream we are in opposition to God and His Will, but in truth nothing happened to disturb our dwelling place in Heaven: "Think not that you can change Their [God and His Son's] dwelling place. For your Identity abides in Them, and where They are, forever must you be. The changelessness of Heaven is in you, so deep within that nothing in this world but passes by, unnoticed and unseen." (T-29.V.2.1-3) * (1:8-9) "Father, my will is Yours. And I am safe, untroubled and serene, in endless joy, because it is Your Will that it be so." *What greater joy can there be in our world of separation than learning we are perfectly safe -- anywhere and everywhere -- because our will and God's are one.* (2) "Today we will accept our union with each other and our Source. We have no will apart from His, and all of us are one because His Will is shared by all of us. Through it we recognize that we are one. Through it we find our way at last to God." *If we are sincere in our desire to return home and awaken to our Identity as God's Son, we cannot see ourselves as separate from anyone else. The Sonship of God is one, on earth as it is in Heaven, and remembering this happy fact <is> the way to reach our Father's house.* Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? Religious and educational materials promoting understanding and applic

Lesson 328: I choose the second place to gain the first. What seems to be the second place is first, for all things we perceive are upside down until we listen to the Voice for God. It seems that we will gain autonomy but by our striving to be separate, and that our independence from the rest of God's creation is the way in which salvation is obtained. Yet all we find is sickness, suffering and loss and death. This is not what our Father wills for us, nor is there any second to His Will. To join with His is but to find our own. And since our will is His, it is to Him that we must go to recognize our will. There is no will but Yours. And I am glad that nothing I imagine contradicts what You would have me be. It is Your Will that I be wholly safe, eternally at peace. And happily I share that Will which You, my Father, gave as part of me. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This (below) is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson from his book set called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? ~ M. Street. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lesson 328: "I choose the second place to gain the first." *This thought comes from the famous biblical statement that the last shall be first and the first shall be last (Matthew 19:30;20:16a), and pertains to the bedrock of the ego thought system: <one or the other> -- God is second because the ego is first. This would obviously mean that God is no longer God, and so has been destroyed. However, we can recognize our mistake and realize we are much better off in second place. Once we accept this -- "God is the Cause and I am the Effect" -- we are automatically in the first place, because <there is only one place>. Thus Jesus says in the text, referring to the Trinity: God is first, but there is no second (T-14.IV.1:7-8), because only perfect Oneness is real. In truth, then, there is not a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Heaven -- only perfect Love. Moreover, the instant we choose the second place -- letting go of the ego and choosing Jesus as our teacher -- we realize there is only the unity of Father and Son -- no competition, no battleground, no one <and> two. Only One.* (1:1) "What seems to be the second place is first, for all things we perceive are upside down until we listen to the Voice for God." *If I say I am second, someone else must be first. For example, no sports team wants to finish second, for that means another team won -- the upside-down perception of the world. To the Holy Spirit, however, when you are second you automatically become first, because, again, there is only one. Thus when you learn that God is your Cause and not the ego, the memory of God and His Oneness returns. * (1:2) "It seems that we will gain autonomy but by our striving to be separate, and that our independence from the rest of God's creation is the way in which salvation is obtained." *In capsule form, again, we see what we have done to God and what we believe we have done in the world, reflecting the ego's principle of <one or the other>. By striving to be separate we are on our own -- autonomous and free, but at a price that God must pay with His life. Since this principle established our identity, we carry it into our dream. Consequently, we need to be independent of everyone else -- it is <we or they>. The ego thus cautions us to be on our guard, lest others take back what we believe we took from them. This, then, is the essence of the special love and hate relationships: others are perceived as having what we lack and want, and we must get it from them, otherwise we cannot survive.* (1:3-6) "Yet all we find is sickness, suffering and loss and death. This is not what our Father wills for us, nor is there any second to His Will. To join with His is but to find our own. And since our will is His, it is to Him that we must go to recognize our will." *Jesus wants us to recognize these are the effects of choosing to be number one, the unhappy results of the specialness that might mak

Lesson 327. I need but call and You will answer me. I am not asked to take salvation on the basis of an unsupported faith. For God has promised He will hear my call, and answer me Himself. Let me but learn from my experience that this is true, and faith in Him must surely come to me. This is the faith that will endure, and take me farther and still farther on the road that leads to Him. For thus I will be sure that He has not abandoned me and loves me still, awaiting but my call to give me all the help I need to come to Him. Father, I thank You that Your promises will never fail in my experience, if I but test them out. Let me attempt therefore to try them, and to judge them not. Your Word is one with You. You give the means whereby conviction comes, and surety of Your abiding Love is gained at last. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? ~ M. Street ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lesson 327. "I need but call and You will answer me." *We call and God answers us, because His Answer is already present in our minds. We wandered away and chose the ego's answer instead. Calling on God now is to realize our mistake, and so we return to the decision-making part of our minds and choose correctly. God automatically answers because we have placed ourselves in the presence of His Answer.* (1:1-4) "I am not asked to take salvation on the basis of an unsupported faith. For God has promised He will hear my call, and answer me Himself. Let me but learn from my experience that this is true, and faith in Him must surely come to me. This is the faith that will endure, and take me farther and still farther on the road that leads to Him." *Jesus is telling us here as we will see in the prayer below, that this is something we need to practice. Our experience that God's Love replaces the ego's hate will teach us that everything in A Course in Miracles is true, but until this experience is chosen there will remain a part of us that will doubt what it says. It is only when we put the ideas into practice -- realizing that hatred, judgment, and depression were simply mistaken choices -- that we realize: Yes, all this is true, and I choose to follow the road that takes me home.* (1:5) "For thus I will be sure that He has not abandoned me and loves me still, awaiting but my call to give me all the help I need to come to Him." *Because I believe I abandoned God, I believe He has abandoned me, a mistake His Voice corrects in this inspiring close to The Song of Prayer: "Do not abandon Love. Remember this; whatever you may think about yourself, whatever you may think about the world, your Father needs you and will call to you until you come to Him in peace at last." (S-3.IV.10:6-7) * (2:1) "Father, I thank You that Your promises will never fail in my experience, if I but test them out." *Jesus is saying: "You have given the ego many chances and it has failed you miserably. Please give me a try. Test out what I am saying, and see how much better you feel when you let go of judgments. Recall my words: "You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment." (T.3.VI.3.1). Try it. You can always retain judgment if you want. First, however, test these thoughts and you will see how much better you feel without your specialness.* (2:2-4) "Let me attempt therefore to try them, and to judge them not. Your Word is one with You. You give the means whereby conviction comes, and surety of Your abiding Love is gained at last." *This means we will at least temporarily accept God's promises, without judging them. Again, we can always return to the ego if we wish. Yet the fact we have failed so miserably on our own, and have been so unhappy throughout our lives should demonstrate that our thought system does not work. * Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? Religious and educa

Lesson 326. I am forever an Effect of God. Father, I was created in Your Mind, a holy Thought that never left its home. I am forever Your Effect, and You forever and forever are my Cause. As You created me I have remained. Where You established me I still abide. And all Your attributes abide in me, because it is Your Will to have a Son so like his Cause that Cause and Its Effect are indistinguishable. Let me know that I am an Effect of God, and so I have the power to create like You. And as it is in Heaven, so on earth. Your plan I follow here, and at the end I know that You will gather Your effects into the tranquil Heaven of Your Love, where earth will vanish, and all separate thoughts unite in glory as the Son of God. Let us today behold earth disappear, at first transformed, and then, forgiven, fade entirely into God's holy Will. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? ~ M. Street ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lesson 326. "I am forever an Effect of God." *This lesson is also important in establishing Who we are as the Effect of God's Love. It restates the Atonement principle that nothing has changed -- none of our sad or sinful dreams has changed the fact that we remain at one with our Source.* (1:1-5) "Father, I was created in Your Mind, a holy Thought that never left its home. I am forever Your Effect, and You forever and forever are my Cause. As You created me I have remained. Where You established me I still abide. And all Your attributes abide in me, because it is Your Will to have a Son so like his Cause that Cause and Its Effect are indistinguishable." *We have never left our Father's Mind, because <ideas leave not their source>. We recognize that the ego's thought system was a mistake, and thus choose to remember the Thought that created us and which shares it attributes of changelessness, formlessness, love, and eternal life: "Now is the Son of God at last aware of present Cause and Its benign effects. ... His Cause is Its effects. There never was a cause beside it that could generate a different past or future. Its effects are changelessly eternal, beyond fear, and past the world of sin entirely." (T-28.I.14.1,5-7)* (1:6-7) "Let me know that I am an Effect of God, and so I have the power to create like You. And as it is in Heaven, so on earth." *In Heaven, God extends His Love -- the meaning of creation -- establishing us as His Son. He is thus our Cause and we His Effect, creating as He created -- the circle of creation: "Thus, the Son gives Fatherhood to his Creator, and receives the gift that he has given Him. It is because he is God's Son that he must also be a father, who creates as God created him. The circle of creation has no end. ... in itself it holds the universe of all creation, without beginning and without an end." (T-28.II.1.4-6,8)* (1:8) "Your plan I follow here, and at the end I know that You will gather Your effects into the tranquil Heaven of Your Love, where earth will vanish, and all separate thoughts unite in glory as the Son of God." *Again, God does not literally have a plan, which is really the Holy Spirit's Atonement, reflecting His Love. Still an illusion, yet does the Atonement not oppose the truth, as other illusions do. At the journey's end, God gathers His Effects in the last step that follows the Second Coming and Last Judgment. In other words, the separated Sons rejoin as one, as God lifts him unto Himself, reuniting the Son with the Source He never left.* (2) "Let us today behold earth disappear, at first transformed, and then, forgiven, fade entirely into God's holy Will." *This is the process: We remain in the world, but look differently -- forgiving it and ourselves -- and then all disappears as the Will of God ascends in the Son's healed and holy mind. And he is home, where God would have him be. (T-31.VIII.12:8).* Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? Rel

Lesson 325. All things I think I see reflect ideas. This is salvation's keynote: What I see reflects a process in my mind, which starts with my idea of what I want. From there, the mind makes up an image of the thing the mind desires, judges valuable, and therefore seeks to find. These images are then projected outward, looked upon, esteemed as real and guarded as one's own. From insane wishes comes an insane world. From judgment comes a world condemned. And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth, with mercy for the holy Son of God, to offer him a kindly home where he can rest a while before he journeys on, and help his brothers walk ahead with him, and find the way to Heaven and to God. Our Father, Your ideas reflect the truth, and mine apart from Yours but make up dreams. Let me behold what only Yours reflect, for Yours and Yours alone establish truth. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? ~ M. Street. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lesson 325. "All things I think I see reflect ideas." *Its strong theoretical basis makes this lesson unique to Part II. It recalls the early lessons, where Jesus teaches that everything comes from thought: "All things I think I see reflects ideas." What we perceive outside comes from a thought within. If we perceive anger, loss, or sin, we but see a shadow of the separation thought we made real in our minds. Similarly, if we perceive only love or calls for love, we see a reflection of the Atonement we chose for our truth within the dream.* (1:1-2) "This is salvation's keynote: What I see reflects a process in my mind, which starts with my idea of what I want. From there, the mind makes up an image of the thing the mind desires, judges valuable, and therefore seeks to find." *Do we want the ego's individuality or the Holy Spirit's Atonement? Do we want to remain in our dream of specialness or to awaken and return home? Our wrong mind seeks and finds sin, because this proves the ego's separate existence is real.* (1:3-5) "These images are then projected outward, looked upon, esteemed as real and guarded as one's own. From insane wishes comes an insane world. From judgment comes a world condemned." *Listening to the ego, we look around and see sin throughout the world, but not in ourselves. Even if we were able to see sin within, we would be quick to attribute it to someone else's sin, beginning with our parents. We seek to find sin because, again, it means our separation from God is real, and thus are our individual identities real as well. Seeing sin in everyone else allows us to escape responsibility for it. On the other hand, when we realize we made a mistake and there must be another way, we choose the Holy Spirit's forgiveness and perceive a totally different world, as we now read:* (1:6) "And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth, with mercy for the holy Son of God, to offer him a kindly home where he can rest a while before he journeys on, and help his brothers walk ahead with him, and find the way to Heaven and to God." *When we have forgiven totally, the "gentle world" turns into the real world. All we need do to recognize which choice we made is pay attention to our thoughts about others. The world's value is that it reflects our choices back to us. We initially chose wrongly, but once recognized, we can ask our Teacher to reinterpret our perceptions, helping us to choose again. Thus we need to be especially vigilant of what we are seeing in others and ourselves. Another's body is no more real than our own, and therefore what we project onto another's is what we project onto ours. Again, becoming aware of our judgments and attack thoughts helps us realize our mistake, so we can return to its choice in the mind and correct it.* (2) "Our Father, Your ideas reflect the truth, and mine apart from Yours but make up dreams. Let me behold what only Y

Lesson 324. I merely follow, for I would not lead. (1) Father, You are the One Who gave the plan for my salvation to me. You have set the way I am to go, the role to take, and every step in my appointed path. I cannot lose the way. I can but choose to wander off a while, and then return. Your loving Voice will always call me back, and guide my feet aright. My brothers all can follow in the way I lead them. Yet I merely follow in the way to You, as You direct me and would have me go. (2) So let us follow One Who knows the way. We need not tarry, and we cannot stray except an instant from His loving Hand. We walk together, for we follow Him. And it is He Who makes the ending sure, and guarantees a safe returning home. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? ~ M. Street. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lesson 324. "I merely follow, for I would not lead." This is the second appearance of this thought, and it will re-appear again shortly. Lesson 317 stated, "I follow in the way appointed me," and we shall soon see Lesson 328, "I choose the second place to gain the first." All three lessons present the same teaching -- our gratitude for not being in charge; for being second and not first. In other words, we are grateful we are the creation of God, not the Creator; the effect, not the Cause. The ego obviously wants to be number one, which means it has to push God off the throne of creation. Usurping God's role, the ego is left alone to proclaim itself as the Deity: "God's creations are given their true Authorship, but you prefer to be anonymous when you choose to separate yourself from your Author. Being uncertain of your true Authorship, you believe that your creation was anonymous. This leaves you in a position where it sounds meaningful to believe that you created yourself." (T-3.VI.8:7-9) At this point, then, there is nothing left but to follow the ego, until the pain becomes too great and we finally accept the fact we were mistaken. Moreover, we gladly realize there is Someone Whom we can now follow along the gentle path of forgiveness. (1:1-4) "Father, You are the One Who gave the plan for my salvation to me. You have set the way I am to go, the role to take, and every step in my appointed path. I cannot lose the way. I can but choose to wander off a while, and then return." This is our mistake, right at the beginning. Jesus says we can choose to wander off "a while," because from where he is -- outside time and space -- a billion years is nothing. As he says of God and Christ: "What is a hundred or a thousand years to Them, or tens of thousands?" (T-26.IX.4:1). (1:5-7) "Your loving Voice will always call me back, and guide my feet aright. My brothers all can follow in the way I lead them. Yet I merely follow in the way to You, as You direct me and would have me go." We saw this idea expressed in Lesson 155, "I will step back and let Him lead the way." Truth is ahead of us, calling us out of the dream. As we follow truth's call, its memory in our minds calls to others through our peace, love, and kindness. Jesus makes the same point of the psychotherapist: "The psychotherapist is a leader in the sense that he walks slightly ahead of the patient, and helps him to avoid a few of the pitfalls along the road by seeing them first. Ideally, he is also a follower, for One should walk ahead of him to give him light to see." (P-2.III.1:1-2)* (2) "So let us follow One Who knows the way. We need not tarry, and we cannot stray except an instant from His loving Hand. We walk together, for we follow Him. And it is He Who makes the ending sure, and guarantees a safe returning home." Thus we walk with Jesus, along with all our brothers. The ego does not know the way, and to follow it <is> to walk alone, because its theme song is <one or the other>. Following the Holy Spirit, however, we walk with everyone, for we <are> everyon

Lesson 323. I gladly make the "sacrifice" of fear. Here is the only "sacrifice" You ask of Your beloved Son; You ask him to give up all suffering, all sense of loss and sadness, all anxiety and doubt, and freely let Your Love come streaming in to his awareness, healing him of pain, and giving him Your Own eternal joy. Such is the "sacrifice" You ask of me, and one I gladly make; the only "cost" of restoration of Your memory to me, for the salvation of the world. And as we pay the debt we owe to truth, -- a debt that merely is the letting go of self-deceptions and of images we worshipped falsely -- truth returns to us in wholeness and in joy. We are deceived no longer. Love has now returned to our awareness. And we are at peace again, for fear has gone and only love remains. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? ~ M. Street. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lesson 323. "I gladly make the "sacrifice" of fear." *The term <sacrifice> is in quotation marks because in truth we give up nothing. We are not giving up something we deem valuable -- a behavior, ritual, or an addiction, for example, that we think makes us feel better -- for Jesus is asking us to let go of the fear that is the core of all dreams. We let go of it simply by stepping back with him and looking at the thought system of separation that gave rise to this fear and sustains it. Realizing at last that all this makes no sense, we gladly "sacrifice" it for the truth.* (1:1) "Here is the only "sacrifice" You ask of Your beloved Son; You ask him to give up all suffering, all sense of loss and sadness, all anxiety and doubt, and freely let Your Love come streaming in to his awareness, healing him of pain, and giving him Your Own eternal joy." *We are asked to give up only our misery and unhappiness. The problem is that we do not believe that is all Jesus wants from us, for we do not accept that holding onto our special identity, judgments, and being right is the source of our pain and suffering. We continue to maintain we are right and Jesus is wrong -- the world does indeed hold something we want, and we will find it: "The first illusion, which must be displaced before another thought system can take hold, is that it is a sacrifice to give up the things of this world. What could this be but an illusion, since this world itself is nothing more than that? ... It takes great learning both to realize and to accept the fact that the world has nothing to give. What can the sacrifice of nothing mean?" (M-13.1:6-2:2).* (1:2) "Such is the "sacrifice" You ask of me, and one I gladly make; the only "cost" of restoration of Your memory to me, for the salvation of the world." *The world's salvation is nothing more than the extension of salvation in my mind -- or giving up fear for love, illusion for truth.* (2) "And as we pay the debt we owe to truth, -- a debt that merely is the letting go of self-deceptions and of images we worshipped falsely -- truth returns to us in wholeness and in joy. We are deceived no longer. Love has now returned to our awareness. And we are at peace again, for fear has gone and only love remains." *Christianity has taught that our sin against God demands payment to Him, a debt paid through sacrifice, suffering, and death. Jesus is once again reminding us that such thinking is upside down and backwards. The only "debt" to be repaid is to ourselves, by letting go of the illusion, which, again, is nothing. Recall: "The statement "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord" is a misperception by which one assigns his own "evil" past to God. The "evil" past has nothing to do with God. He did not create it and He does not maintain it. God does not believe in retribution. His Mind does not create that way." (T-3.I.3:1-5) Thus do we sacrifice the god of vengeance and hate for the God of Love. Wholeness has returned to replace separation, and truth rises

Lesson 322. I can give up but what was never real. I sacrifice illusions; nothing more. And as illusions go I find the gifts illusions tried to hide, awaiting me in shining welcome, and in readiness to give God's ancient messages to me. His memory abides in every gift that I receive of Him. And every dream serves only to conceal the Self which is God's only Son, the likeness of Himself, the Holy One Who still abides in Him forever, as He still abides in me. Father, to You all sacrifice remains forever inconceivable. And so I cannot sacrifice except in dreams. As You created me, I can give up nothing You gave me. What You did not give has no reality. What loss can I anticipate except the loss of fear, and the return of love into my mind? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: http://www.facim.org/ ~ M. Street. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lesson 322. "I can give up but what was never real." *Lessons 322 and 323 deal with the important theme of sacrifice. While it is not a major theme in the workbook, it is prominent in the text and deserves some discussion here. Sacrifice is the reigning principle of the ego's thought system -- if we are to get what we want, someone or something must be sacrificed: <one or the other>. In the beginning, it was God's Love that was sacrificed in order to secure our individuality. Following the law of projection, once sacrifice was made real we believed it would be used against us, and that God would in turn demand sacrifice of His sinful Son. Moreover, as the principle behind the birth of our individual identities, sacrifice also governs the world, not to mention being the ego's mode of self-preservation. Therefore, all selves emanating from that thought system share the belief that salvation means sacrifice. If, for example, the ego's God is to be saved from my sinful attack on Him, He is going to demand I sacrifice. Thus we believe God asks us to give up something that is ours. This is the basis of many world religions, and has been a crucial theme in Christianity: Jesus had to be sacrificed so we could be forgiven by God and share His eternal life. The ego thus has us believe that in order to retrieve God's Love we have to pay for it by returning the life we stole, thereby paradoxically regaining it in the hereafter. However, we do not want to give it all back, because then we would disappear, and so we do it piecemeal: a little bit of happiness, pleasure, or the body's blood -- but never everything. Since we believe God demands we give back the separated selves we have judged to be real, Jesus needs to remind us that we give up a thought system that was illusory from the beginning. Thus he explains in the text how this course "requires almost nothing of you. It is impossible to imagine one that asks so little, or could offer more" (T-20.VII.1:7-8). He tells us all he requires is for us to let go of the ego which is essentially nothing. To us, of course, the ego is everything; and so letting it go is deemed sacrificial. People in religious life -- and unfortunately this goes for students of A Course in Miracles as well -- have shifted the focus of sacrifice from the <content> to the <form>. Consequently, they believe that God demands they give up pleasure -- sex, food, money, and comfort. Thus does the ego twist the concept of sacrifice in its favor and has us give up certain behaviors, which leads us to believe we have accomplished something meaningful. However, the underlying ego thought system remains intact, the ego's motivation from the beginning. Jesus explains many times that sacrifice has given rise in the strange idea of martyrdom (e.g., T-3.1; T-6.1), wherein we become martyred to salvation. That is why people struggle to give up addictions, habits, and relationships, for they think this is what is asked of them. However, if we give up the <form> and retain the <content>, we have given up nothing. That

Lesson 321. Father, my freedom is in You alone. I did not understand what made me free, nor what my freedom is, nor where to look to find it. Father, I have searched in vain until I heard Your Voice directing me. Now I would guide myself no more. For I have neither made nor understood the way to find my freedom. But I trust in You. You Who endowed me with my freedom as Your holy Son will not be lost to me. Your Voice directs me, and the way to You is opening and clear to me at last. Father, my freedom is in You alone. Father, it is my will that I return. Today we answer for the world, which will be freed along with us. How glad are we to find our freedom through the certain way our Father has established. And how sure is all the world's salvation, when we learn our freedom can be found in God alone. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? ~ M. Street. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lesson 321."Father, my freedom is in You alone." *The ego tells us our freedom lies in itself alone, for to remain with God is to be the slave of a tyrant who strips us of our will and independence. The ego thus entices us to choose against the Holy Spirit, promising that thus we will be free to be the unique individuals we are.* (1:1) "I did not understand what made me free, nor what my freedom is, nor where to look to find it." *Recall that the underlying theme running through the lessons in Part II is recognizing our mistaken choices. Here Jesus tells us we were wrong in thinking we knew what freedom was, not to mention where to find it.* (1:2) "Father, I have searched in vain until I heard Your Voice directing me." *This is what occurs when I am finally able to say: "There must be another way. I no longer want to be directed by my specialness needs, but by the Voice that will lead me home, restoring the awareness of my freedom as God's Son." * (1:3-4) "Now I would guide myself no more. For I have neither made nor understood the way to find my freedom." *Jesus clearly feels that the prayer closing Lesson 189 is important -- "Father, we do not know the way to You. But we have called, and You have answered us" (W-pI.189.10) -- as he refers to it many times, and once again here.* (1:5-9) "But I trust in You. You Who endowed me with my freedom as Your holy Son will not be lost to me. Your Voice directs me, and the way to You is opening and clear to me at last. Father, my freedom is in You alone. Father, it is my will that I return." *Realizing we were wrong, we joyfully choose the freedom that comes from re-uniting our Will with God's: "When you have learned that your will is God's, you could no more will to be without Him than He could will to be without you. This is freedom and this is joy."(T-8.II.6:4-5)* (2:1) "Today we answer for the world, which will be freed along with us." *This is another expression of the oneness of the Son's mind, and the world with it. The world must be freed because the world is nothing more than a projection of our thoughts.* (2:2-3) "How glad are we to find our freedom through the certain way our Father has established. And how sure is all the world's salvation, when we learn our freedom can be found in God alone." *This "certain way" is forgiveness. Releasing our brothers from the prison house of guilt, we find our freedom, joined with theirs.* Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? Religious and educational materials promoting understanding and application of the teachings of A Course in Mira... Love and Blessings, Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822 http://www.mlynjohnson.com/ https://www.facebook.com/sweedreamz ACIM Gather for "A Course in Miracles" Students & Teachers

For those doing the lessons, this special instruction is to be read daily before the next ten lessons. 11. What is Creation? (1) Creation is the sum of all God's Thoughts, in number infinite, and everywhere without all limit. Only love creates, and only like itself. There was no time when all that it created was not there. Nor will there be a time when anything that it created suffers any loss. Forever and forever are God's Thoughts exactly as they were and as they are, unchanged through time and after time is done. (2) God's Thoughts are given all the power that their own Creator has. For He would add to love by its extension. Thus His Son shares in creation, and must therefore share in power to create. What God has willed to be forever One will still be One when time is over; and will not be changed throughout the course of time, remaining as it was before the thought of time began. (3) Creation is the opposite of all illusions, for creation is the truth. Creation is the holy Son of God, for in creation is His Will complete in every aspect, making every part container of the whole. Its oneness is forever guaranteed inviolate; forever held within His holy Will, beyond all possibility of harm, of separation, imperfection and of any spot upon its sinlessness. (4) We are creation; we the Sons of God. We seem to be discrete, and unaware of our eternal unity with Him. Yet back of all our doubts, past all our fears, there still is certainty. For love remains with all its Thoughts, its sureness being theirs. God's memory is in our holy minds, which know their oneness and their unity with their Creator. Let our function be only to let this memory return, only to let God's Will be done on earth, only to be restored to sanity, and to be but as God created us. (5) Our Father calls to us. We hear His Voice, and we forgive creation in the Name of its Creator, Holiness Itself, Whose Holiness His Own creation shares; Whose Holiness is still a part of us. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this section, from his book set called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: http://www.facim.org/ M.Street ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 11. What is Creation? We have in this summary another example of Jesus appearing to speak out of both sides of his mouth. He describes <creation> as perfect oneness, at the same time he speaks of creations and Sons of God. The explanation is that on one hand he is stating the pure truth, which is that Christ is perfectly unified and at one with His Creator. On the other hand Jesus is reflecting this truth to us in our separated state, in which we clearly believe that the Sons of God are many. Thus both descriptions are true, depending upon Jesus pedagogical purpose and emphasis. (1) "Creation is the sum of all God's Thoughts, in number infinite, and everywhere without all limit. Only love creates, and only like itself. There was no time when all that it created was not there. Nor will there be a time when anything that it created suffers any loss. Forever and forever are God's Thoughts exactly as they were and as they are, unchanged through time and after time is done." Again, Jesus says <Thoughts> because we believe God has many Sons. In saying "There was no time when all that it created was not there," he is teaching us once again that the separation never happened. We experience loss only if we do not believe we are the creation of God. In that <un>holy instant of insanity we believed we were the ego's creation instead. All experience of loss originated in that mistaken belief, while the truth of our Identity as Thought awaits our sure return through the Holy Spirit, as we recall: "God created His Sons by extending His Thought, and retaining the extensions of His Thought in His Mind. All His Thoughts are thus perfectly united within themselves and with each other. The Holy Spirit enables you to perceive this wholeness now." (T-6.II.8:1-3) We cannot know the wholeness of the Kingdom until we rec

LESSON 320. My Father gives all power unto me. The Son of God is limitless. There are no limits on his strength, his peace, his joy, nor any attributes his Father gave in his creation. What he wills with his Creator and Redeemer must be done. His holy will can never be denied, because his Father shines upon his mind, and lays before it all the strength and love in earth and Heaven. I am he to whom all this is given. I am he in whom the power of my Father's Will abides. <Your Will can do all things in me, and then extend to all the world as well through me. There is no limit on Your Will. And so all power has been given to Your Son.> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: http://www.facim.org/ ~ M. Street. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LESSON 320. "My Father gives all power unto me." *This statement is another reinterpretation of a biblical saying referred to in A Course in Miracles. In the New Testament, Jesus says "All power is given unto me in earth and heaven (Matthew 28:18), which means God gave Jesus all power, <not anyone else>. His is the power because he is God's Son. In the Course, Jesus says that God does indeed give all power unto His Son, but we <are all His Sons>. At the beginning of this lesson, Jesus refers to the limitlessness of the Son of God, yet in the ego's Christian thought system the Sonship of God is limited, for there is only one true Son: the rest of us are adopted (Ephesians 1:5). We accept this second-class condition as true and project it out, seeing everyone as more limited than we -- the specialness that is at the core of the ego's power.* (1:1-4) "The Son of God is limitless. There are no limits on his strength, his peace, his joy, nor any attributes his Father gave in his creation. What he wills with his Creator and Redeemer must be done. His holy will can never be denied, because his Father shines upon his mind, and lays before it all the strength and love in earth and Heaven." *The strength of God's limitlessness is the answer to all problems perceived here: "The oneness of the Creator and the creation is your wholeness, your sanity and your limitless power. This limitless power is God's gift to you, because it is what you are.... There is no circumstance it cannot answer, and no problem which is not resolved within its gracious light." (T-7.VI.10:4-5;T-26.VII.18:5).* (1:5-6) "I am he to whom all this is given. I am he in whom the power of my Father's Will abides." *Again, following from Lesson 319, this is not arrogance but the humility that says this power is not in me alone, and individual lording it over others. It is the power of Christ, God's one Son as He created Him, and I know the power is truly mine when I share its strength and love with the world: "To use the power God has given you as He would have it used is natural. It is not arrogant to be as He created you, nor to make use of what He gave to answer all His Son's mistakes and set him free. But it is arrogant to lay aside the power that He gave, and choose a little senseless wish instead of what He wills." (T-26.18:1-3).* (2:1) "<Your Will can do all things in me, and then extend to all the world as well through me." *When my mind is healed, God's Son is one, and since <ideas leave not their source>, the world is one with me as well.* (2:2-3) "There is no limit on Your Will. And so all power has been given to Your Son.>" *The conclusion of Helen's "The Singing Reed" nicely expresses this unity of Father and Son: "How holy are my footsteps, which but go To do the Will of God, Whose Son I am. And how forever perfect is my will, Which is in no way separate from His Own." (The Gifts of God, p.3)* Love and Blessings, Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822 http://www.mlynjohnson.com/ https://www.facebook.com/sweedreamz ACIM Gather for "A Course in Miracles" Students & Teachers

LESSON 319. I came for the salvation of the world. (1) Here is a thought from which all arrogance has been removed, and only truth remains. For arrogance opposes truth. But when there is no arrogance the truth will come immediately, and fill up the space the ego left unoccupied by lies. Only the ego can be limited, and therefore it must seek for aims which are curtailed and limiting. The ego thinks that what one gains, totality must lose. And yet it is the Will of God I learn that what one gains is given unto all. (2) <Father, Your Will is total. And the goal which stems from it shares its totality. What aim but the salvation of the world could You have given me? And what but this could be the Will my Self has shared with You?> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? ~ M. Street. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LESSON 319. "I came for the salvation of the world." Recall the earlier lesson, "Salvation of the world depends on me" (W-p1.186). As Jesus tells us, this is not a statement of arrogance, but of humility. (1:1-3) "Here is a thought from which all arrogance has been removed, and only truth remains. For arrogance opposes truth. But when there is no arrogance the truth will come immediately, and fill up the space the ego left unoccupied by lies." Our function is to be aware of the ego's arrogant interpretation of "I am the salvation of the world," realizing its insanity, and ask Jesus' help to look at it differently. Through his eyes we realize we are the salvation of the world, not because of something we do, but because of the unity that is our Self. Our humbly bringing the arrogance to the truth allows truth simply to be. (1:4-5) "Only the ego can be limited, and therefore it must seek for aims which are curtailed and limiting. The ego thinks that what one gains, totality must lose." This is a wonderfully succinct statement of what happened in the original instant. Because of the principle of <one or the other>, winning our individuality meant totality lost: the ego and world were thus born and saved when we believed we killed wholeness and perfect Love. Yet true salvation of the world comes in realizing all this was a mistake, with no true effects. (1:6) "And yet it is the Will of God I learn that what one gains is given unto all." The rock on which salvation rests, Jesus tells us in the text, is that no one loses and everyone gains. To be God's Son does not mean God has to be destroyed. It means we are at one with our Father, as is every other seemingly separate fragment. Thus we read how the Holy Spirit converts the ego's insane world of separation to a sane world of forgiveness, undoing the ego's belief in <one or the other>: "The Holy Spirit has the power to change the whole foundation of the world you see to something else; a basis not insane, on which a sane perception can be based, another world perceived. And one in which nothing is contradicted that would lead the Son of God to sanity and joy. Nothing attests to death and cruelty; to separation and to differences. For here is everything perceived as one, and no one loses that each one may gain." (T-25.VII.5). (2) " <Father, Your Will is total. And the goal which stems from it shares its totality. What aim but the salvation of the world could You have given me? And what but this could be the Will my Self has shared with You?>" To remember that God's Will embraces mine, as well as the Sonship as a whole, I must share the single purpose of forgiveness with my brother. Thus are we saved together, and the world along with us: "You and your brother are the same as God Himself is One, and not divided in His Will. And you must have one purpose, since He gave the same to both of you. His Will is brought together as you join in will, that you be made complete by offering completion to your brother. See not in him the sinfulness he sees, but give him hon

If anyone is in need support and wants help in looking, we are here for you. It seems like the perfect time to help each other look at projection on collective and or individual themes (which we all have/had). Projection makes perception individually and collectively. Here are some Q & A s relating to our collective dream. I posted this in 2017 #87922 You can purchase the entire Q & A collection at: https://facim.org/online-learning-aids/questions-and-answers/ With Gratitude, Marcy (J always offers his hand whenever I think I've fallen and can't get up) What can be done? In form you may want to vote differently or not. Is your reasoning re guns because they are coming too close to you? Was this shooter or any other in your town, near you or your family of friends? When do we tend to take action? When do we care about all of our brothers? Am I aware of what is happening in every single area in this world? Or is that seemingly not about me? Obviously there is a lot we can question. In form there are things one can do to attempt to increase gun control. There are many groups you can get involved in in form and there is much to look at on the level of mind. What is the purpose of guns? Safety????? Protection? Vengeance? Control?/Power? To steal from another? To save another? The list goes on and on..... Here are some Q & A s from http://www.facimoutreach.org/ that may help one look at the issue regrading form/magic: to do or not to do about gun related incidents/guns themselves.....and looking on the level of mind/content. For ACIM it is never about the form, but rather the content in the mind. We begin by looking at our judgements about form. What I accuse _______of, I 1st accused myself of the same (in content). Happy Reading, Marcy Q #1237: I know that I must be lost in level confusion, but terrorism has been on my mind. As did Hitler, they target some people but also kill their own. Regardless of whether they are a projection of our collective mind, I do think that they must be purged in the same way that all fascists must. I read about how monks and other devout groups prayed for the peace during the holocaust, but peace (relative though it was) came only with war. Of course, this is causing my already split mind to separate like orange sections. A: Your perception of terrorists is the critical factor in resolving your dilemma; and as the Course teaches, perception can be either right-minded or wrong-minded -- the same behavior (form) can flow from either the right mind or the wrong mind (the content). From what you say, you apparently perceive terrorists and fascists as victimizers, which means you have chosen the ego as your teacher. The ego never lets us in on this, but perpetual conflict, not enduring peace, is the inevitable outcome of its thought system, because it rests on the divisive principles of one or the other, kill or be killed. There must always be an external enemy of some kind for the ego itself to survive, and we are thus lured into thinking that if we can just get this person or this group out of our lives, everything will be better. But as you have observed, the peace that follows war is partial and never lasts. This will always be the case until we turn inward and see the insanity of this thought system, and then reconsider our choice for the ego as our teacher. This is where A Course in Miracles is most helpful, as its focus is on training us to make the connection between our experience and the thought system we have identified with in our minds. This is why Jesus tells us, “Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world” (T.21.in.1:7). The insane belief system in our minds that claims peace can be attained through war and that we can stop hostility and hatred by killing people is the problem. The “other way” presented in the Course rests on the premise that we are all one as God's Son, and that there are no exceptions to this. Terrorists and fascists are part of the Sonship the same as everyone else, and therefore to condemn them in our minds is to condemn

LESSON 318. In me salvation's means and end are one. (1) In me, God's holy Son, are reconciled all parts of Heaven's plan to save the world. What could conflict, when all the parts have but one purpose and one aim? How could there be a single part that stands alone, or one of more or less importance than the rest? I am the means by which God's Son is saved, because salvation's purpose is to find the sinlessness that God has placed in me. I was created as the thing I seek. I am the goal the world is searching for. I am God's Son, His one eternal Love. I am salvation's means and end as well. (2) <Let me today, my Father, take the role You offer me in Your request that I accept Atonement for myself. For thus does what is thereby reconciled in me become as surely reconciled to You.> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? ~ M. Street. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LESSON 318. "In me salvation's means and end are one." This title recalls the lovely statement at the end of Lesson 302: "He the End we seek, and He the Means by which we go to Him." In that lesson, God is both the Means and End. In this lesson, <we> are the means and end -- the end is God's Son as Christ, and the means of reaching Him is God's Son's choosing to forgive himself. (1:1) "In me, God's holy Son, are reconciled all parts of Heaven's plan to save the world." Traditional Christian theology has taught that the Son of God -- Jesus -- was the one who reconciled sinful man to God's Love. Thus Jesus takes the same idea and applies it to God's Son in all of us. This Son is not the magical figure named Jesus Christ who came into the world to atone for our sin through his suffering and sacrificial death. Rather, it is God's Son -- again, <all of us> -- who reconciles God's Son to himself. This means that <we> undo the belief in sin, the prerequisite to realizing our oneness with God. (1:2-3) "What could conflict, when all the parts have but one purpose and one aim? How could there be a single part that stands alone, or one of more or less importance than the rest?" The <parts> refer to the seeming fragments of the Sonship. Elsewhere in the Course, refers to these as <aspects> (e.g.,T-13.VI.6:4). The value of using neutral terms such as <parts> or <aspects> is that it emphasizes that God's Son is not only homo sapiens, for every separated fragment -- animate or inanimate -- is a fragmentary shadow of the one sleeping Son. Each part of the Sonship shares one purpose and goal, which marks the end of separation's specialness. As you go through your day, therefore, try to see how often you take sides and judge the parts of God's Son as better or worse or less important, more or less spiritual. And then ask Jesus to help you see the inherent sameness in God's one Son. (1:4-8) "I am the means by which God's Son is saved, because salvation's purpose is to find the sinlessness that God has placed in me. I was created as the thing I seek. I am the goal the world is searching for. I am God's Son, His one eternal Love. I am salvation's means and end as well." The <end> is to realize I am God's Son as Christ, and the <means> of attainment is to see God's Son in everyone, including myself, recognizing our single purpose and goal. Seeing at last that we share one Self. Thus, I <am> God's Son, and I <seek> God's Son. (2:1) "Let me today, my Father, take the role You offer me in Your request that I accept Atonement for myself." Strictly speaking, it is not God Who makes this request, but Jesus or the Holy Spirit -- our Teachers of forgiveness. (2:2) "For thus does what is thereby reconciled in me become as surely reconciled to You." We become one through forgiveness, the meaning of <reconciled>: one as God's separated Son, one as Christ, at one with His Source. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 10. What Is the Last Judgment? Christ's Second Coming gives the Son of God this gift: to

LESSON 317. I follow in the way appointed me. (1) I have a special place to fill; a role for me alone. Salvation waits until I take this part as what I choose to do. Until I make this choice, I am the slave of time and human destiny. But when I willingly and gladly go the way my Father's plan appointed me to go, then will I recognize salvation is already here, already given all my brothers and already mine as well. (2) <Father, Your way is what I choose today. Where it would lead me do I choose to go; what it would have me do I choose to do. Your way is certain, and the end secure. The memory of You awaits me there. And all my sorrows end in Your embrace, which You have promised to Your Son, who thought mistakenly that he had wandered from the sure protection of Your loving Arms.> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? ~ M. Street. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LESSON 317. "I follow in the way appointed me." This lesson is of great importance, and its theme is echoed in two lessons that we will see in the next series. "I follow in the way appointed me" means I do not want to be first. As one of these later lessons says, "I choose the second place to gain the first" (W-pII.328). At the beginning we told God: "I am First Cause and You follow me -- I have the power and I am in charge." This belief is the motivation behind the mantra found in New Age circles: "I am God." None of us wants to follow, for we want to be number one. In this lesson, therefore, Jesus brings us back to the humility we must practice as students of his course: "I will follow the way my teacher instructs so I can come to God, Who is my Creator -- I am not His, He is mine." (1:1) "I have a special place to fill; a role for me alone." Here we have another example of Jesus using the word <special> for the Holy Spirit, when almost always it is reserved for the ego. Our <special> place is our <special> function, which is to forgive our <special> relationships, as he explains in the text: "Here, where the laws of God do not prevail in perfect form, can he yet do one perfect thing and make one perfect choice. And by this act of special faithfulness to one perceived as other than himself, he learns the gift was given to himself, and so they must be one." (T-25.VI.5:1-2). (1:2-4) "Salvation waits until I take this part as what I choose to do. Until I make this choice, I am the slave of time and human destiny. But when I willingly and gladly go the way my Father's plan appointed me to go, then will I recognize salvation is already here, already given all my brothers and already mine as well." It is our choice and no one else's. Once again, our only role is to forgive, which has nothing at all to do with behavior or anything external. (2:1) "Father, Your way is what I choose today." This is yet another reference to the closing prayer in Lesson 189, "Father, we do not know the way to You." Our Father calls through His Voice, and we will follow -- the essence of humility. (2:2-4) "Where it would lead me do I choose to go; what it would have me do I choose to do. Your way is certain, and the end secure. The memory of You awaits me there." The focus again is on our choice, and we now gladly choose God's way. The journey ends with the return of His memory -- the real world -- achieved by the forgiveness that excludes no one from the Sonship. (2:5) "And all my sorrows end in Your embrace, which You have promised to Your Son, who thought mistakenly that he had wandered from the sure protection of Your loving Arms." The world arose from the belief we had indeed wandered from God's loving Arms. The ego told us these Arms were not loving, and that we were not loving, and that we were wise in running away -- if we had stayed, God would surely have destroyed us. Jesus tells us, however, that we are not sinful, but we did indeed make a mistaken choice, reflectin

Lesson 316. All gifts I give my brothers are my own. (1) As every gift my brothers give is mine, so every gift I give belongs to me. Each one allows a past mistake to go, and leave no shadow on the holy mind my Father loves. His grace is given me in every gift a brother has received throughout all time, and past all time as well. My treasure house is full, and angels watch its open doors that not one gift is lost, and only more are added. Let me come to where my treasures are, and enter in where I am truly welcome and at home, among the gifts that God has given me. (2) Father, I would accept Your gifts today. I do not recognize them. Yet I trust that You Who gave them will provide the means by which I can behold them, see their worth, and cherish only them as what I want. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the following site: Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? ~ M. Street. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lesson 316. "All gifts I give my brothers are my own." My brothers and I are joined, and so the gifts of forgiveness given others through extension reinforces its presence in me -- God's Son is one. (1:1-3) "As every gift my brothers give is mine, so every gift I give belongs to me. Each one allows a past mistake to go, and leave no shadow on the holy mind my Father loves. His grace is given me in every gift a brother has received throughout all time, and past all time as well." By forgiving the sins we perceived in our brothers, we let go of the shadows they cast through projection: our attacks and grievances. They are thus forgotten as we gently remember the gifts our Father gave us. (1:4-5) "My treasure house is full, and angels watch its open doors that not one gift is lost, and only more are added. Let me come to where my treasures are, and enter in where I am truly welcome and at home, among the gifts that God has given me." My right mind is the "treasure house" in which God's gifts are found. When we seek for treasures in the world -- objects of specialness to delight us and give us happiness, peace, and pleasure -- we are saying God's treasure is not enough, nor is the Holy Spirit's Atonement. Again, it is not that we should feel guilty for seeking the treasured objects of specialness, but we do want to recognize what we are doing and why. Gratitude for the classrooms of our lives will inevitably follow, for they have provided the opportunities that enabled us finally to realize where our treasure is. The statement "let me come to where my treasures are" is clearly a prayer to our decision making selves: we are the ones who wandered into the ego's far country, and we are the ones who must choose to return. And we are glad and grateful to do so, as Heaven sings its song of gratitude. (2) "Father, I would accept Your gifts today. I do not recognize them. Yet I trust that You Who gave them will provide the means by which I can behold them, see their worth, and cherish only them as what I want." The means of true perception is forgiveness, which allows us to accept God's gift of love. Unless we give it, we shall never know we have received it. Therefore to deny His Love anywhere in the Sonship is to deny it in all, including ourselves. Yet to accept it in one accepts it in all, including ourselves. Thus Jesus encourages us to give as God gives -- without limit or constraint: "Could any part of God be without His Love, and could any part of His Love be contained? God is your heritage, because His one gift is Himself. How can you give except like Him if you would know His gift to you? Give, then, without limit and without end, to learn how much He has given you. Your ability to accept Him depends on your willingness to give as He gives." (T-11.1.7:1-5). Foundation for "A Course in Miracles"? Religious and educational materials promoting understanding and application of the teachings of A Course in Mira... Love and Blessings, Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822 http://www.m