Here we are approaching another review and 110 days into the year! Amazing. As we think about the days and years and the changes we are going through we think that this is reality. We believe in change. We believe in time. We believe in death. We believe that our problems are real and that the problems of the world are equally real and must somehow be solved. Yet this lesson says that there is nothing we can do or have done that has changed our eternal reality. We have not changed what God has created. We are love. We are beautiful, divine beings. We are whole, complete and innocent in the truth of ourselves as the Son of God.

Yet how often do we sink into fear, misery, judgment and attack? We believe that time will ultimately ravage our bodies and turn them into dust. And indeed it will, but we are not these bodies. Our consciousness continues. Jesus asks us " is it not madness to think of life as being born, aging, losing vitality and dying in the end?" (M.27.1.2) And yet, this is exactly how we think of our lives. This lesson assures us again, that there is no death and that the purpose of our lives is to use every situation, every event, every relationship to help us wake up from this dream that we have separated from Love. " I am as God created me,"  means that I am eternal. God did not create that which dies and decays. If He did, it would be impossible to think of Him as loving. " The reality of death is firmly rooted in the belief that God's Son is a body. And if God created bodies, death would indeed be real." (M.27.5) Instead we must realize that we are guiltless now and forever. " For this one thought would be enough to save you and the world if you believed that it is true." (W.110.1.2) What it would mean is that we have not changed ourselves and indeed that our bodies are not who we are, but only illusory projections of the guilt that is in our minds. (W.110.1.3) And if this is so, then healing the guilt in our minds would have the effect of changing the reality of our bodily experience.
 

We do feel that we have corrupted ourselves by our sins. We believe that we have changed reality. Our individual existence seems to be a witness to that and now we have accumulated even more guilt.  We believe that we are " the home of evil, darkness and sin," (W.93.1.1) and every change is linked to time. Yes, we have made many mistakes and as a result we do feel terrible. These mistakes assume the reality of time. And now we think we need time to heal our guilt...to atone for our many sins. Jesus says "no!" The idea presented here is enough to heal the past, let the present be, and free the future. Just getting this idea will release us from it all. There is nothing to atone for, no debt to pay, only to accept the thought that we cannot and have not changed what God created as pure and holy. Our purity and holiness is there in our minds. It was placed there at the moment of separation so the memory of God is in our right minds and each forgiveness lesson teaches us how to access this memory. It is always about getting in touch with the unconscious guilt in the mind.
 

The Christ Self has never left the mind. It is with us still. This lesson is about getting in touch with that truth about ourselves. It is about giving up our belief that we must use time to atone for our sins while we keep wracking them up with all of our attacks. Give up the idea that you have to make yourself better and that there is something to be fixed. Yes, the image that I think I am, my self-concept, the me that I think of as Sarah is the self I think I made. I also believe that this self was, and is, being shaped by others. So now I think that this image has replaced the divine Self. But no, it is an idol and not at all the perfection created by God. The belief that I hold is that I have corrupted the Self, screwed it up, and destroyed its innocence. This is what maintains the guilt. We think  of ourselves as sometimes kind, sometimes attacking, sometimes loving, sometimes judging, sometimes smart, sometimes clever, sometimes stupid, sometimes capable,  in addition to many, many beliefs and attributes some of which we like  and some of which we dislike. These are attributes of the self image...the idol.  This is the graven image that we worship. " Let graven images you made to be the Son of God instead of what he is be worshipped not today." (W.110.9.2) The Self that is the truth about who I really am, that is in my mind and never left my mind, is what is unchanged and unchangeable. And releasing the false attributes of my self-concept and accepting the truth is what this lesson is about. The trick is that we can't release what we don't see, don't acknowledge and have denied in ourselves.
 

" The healing power of today's idea is limitless. It is the birthplace of all miracles, the restorer of the truth to the awareness of the world." (W.110.5.1-2) So today we affirm that we really can't suffer because we are God's Son. Affirmations, in and of themselves, will not heal the guilt. By bringing guilt to light, we can experience the miracle. The miracle offers us evidence that there is another way. That our way of trying to fix things in the world just doesn't work. With every attack comes fear and counterattack. Look at the world. Every day we see that peace does not come as a result of war, whether in our relationships or on the world stage.  Whenever we take sides in attacking those we see as wrong, we contribute to the problem. Peace is not something that happens to you, but THROUGH you.  To point fingers and believe that anyone or anything is the problem is to miss a very important opportunity.
 

Each one of us needs to be the SOURCE of the solution, not the effect. And we do that by embracing today's idea with gratitude. And all sorrows end with realization of the truth of who we are. Practicing the idea is always about giving over our own false perceptions by being willing to look at them and bring them to the truth so that the miracle can shine forth. It means giving over our thoughts of worry, our anger, fear, concerns, and bringing our focus to the place within where we can feel the unchangeable nature of our Being. The ego is always calling our attention to painful memories and hurts, but these are thoughts that can never define us. They are not who we are.

The birthplace of vision is the recognition that we are as God created us. And with vision we see the Christ in each brother. And no matter how things look today, no matter what problems seem to be coming at us, the Answer is within us at every moment. The Answer is in the right mind within where truth resides. The ego is the image maker that has fooled us into thinking that we are a body. The task now is to go into the place in us where the quiet center resides, where the Holy Child awaits us. By stilling those thoughts that bubble and boil on the surface of our minds, by seeing that these thoughts do not define us and are not who we are, we sink into this place where miracles are given birth. Yes it does take some effort on our part.

Yes, the ego puts up a lot of resistance to our attempts to know the truth of our reality. Regardless of its attempts at distraction and resistance to the truth, what the ego can't do is replace the truth that is already in our minds. It can only keep us unaware when we identify with it. It is our choice. We can choose not to listen to the voice of the ego and choose instead to bring our attention to the Voice of Truth that is in our minds. The Holy Spirit will give us another interpretation to the one given by the ego for any situation that we encounter. This Voice will never shout down the ego. It is the quiet truth behind the illusion that waits for us to still its raucous shrieks.

What we must remember is that those things that bring fear into our minds have not occurred. They are part of the dream. They may need attention from us, but we can choose to address them from a place of peace. The ego would shriek its requirements when confronted in any situation, while the Holy Spirit quietly listens, watches and is still. In every situation, we have that choice. We recently returned from Bavaria where our flight information was all screwed up. It was such a temptation to become angry and distressed, yet in these situations, the opportunity is there to make a new choice. We need to remember that we are still love and this is not the truth. We are as God created us. We are His Son and can suffer nothing. And " deep in our mind the holy Christ in you is waiting your acknowledgment as you." (W.110.9.4) Until we do, we will stay lost and the Self that we are will not be known to us.
 

We remind ourselves frequently today that " I am as God created me. His Son can suffer nothing. And I am His Son." (W.110.6.2-4) When the belief in our bodily identity is released by releasing the unconscious guilt in our minds, and with it, all of the concepts and beliefs that we hold, truth will dawn on our minds. This is what accepting Atonement for ourselves is all about. It is a choice in our minds that we must make truly and sincerely. When we choose to see our brother guiltless and keep asking for help from Jesus rather than the ego, we step through the doorway from our belief in guilt to the truth of who we are.

 

Love and blessings, Sarah

TEXT

⁶⁸ Unless you know something, you cannot dissociate it. Knowledge therefore precedes dissociation, and dissociation is nothing more than a decision to forget. What has been forgotten then appears to be fearful, but only because the dissociation was an attack on truth. You are fearful because you have forgotten. And you have replaced your knowledge by an awareness of dreams because you are afraid of your dissociation, not of what you have dissociated. Even in this world's therapy, when dissociated material is accepted,it ceases to be fearful, for the laws of mind always hold.

 

⁶⁹ Yet to give up the dissociation of reality brings more than merely lack of fear. In this decision lie joy and peace and the glory of creation. Offer the Holy Spirit only your will to remember, for He retains the knowledge of God and of yourself for you, waiting for your acceptance. Give up gladly everything that would stand in the way of your remembering, for God is in your memory, and His Voice will tell you that you are part of Him when you are willing to remember Him and know your own reality again. Let nothing in this world delay your remembering of Him, for in this remembering is the knowledge of yourself.

 

⁷⁰ To remember is merely to restore to your mind what is already there. You do not make what you remember; you merely accept again what has been made but was rejected. The ability to accept truth in this world is the perceptual counterpart of creating in the Kingdom. God will do His part if you will do yours, and His return in exchange for yours is the exchange of knowledge for perception. Nothing is beyond His Will for you. But signify your will to remember Him and behold! He will give you everything but for the asking.

 

⁷¹ When you attack, you are denying yourself. You are specifically teaching yourself that you are not what you are. Your denial of reality precludes the acceptance of God's gift because you have accepted something else in its place. If you understand that the misuse of defenses always constitutes an attack on truth and truth is God, you will realize why this is always fearful. If you further recognize that you are part of God, you will understand why it is that you always attack yourself first.

 

⁷² [All attack is self-attack. It cannot be anything else. Arising from your own decision not to be what you are, it is an attack on your identification. Attack is thus the way in which your identification is lost because, when you attack, you must have forgotten what you are. And if your reality is God's, when you attack you are not remembering Him. This is not because He is gone, but because you are willing actively not to
remember Him.]³  

 

⁷³ If you realized the complete havoc this makes of your peace of mind, you could not make such an insane decision. You make it only because you still believe that it can get you something you want. It follows, then, that you want something other than peace of mind, but you have not considered what it must be. Yet the logical outcome of your decision is perfectly clear if you will look at it. By deciding against your reality, you have made yourself vigilant against God and His Kingdom. And it is this vigilance that makes you afraid to remember Him.

 

⁷⁴ You have not attacked God, and you do love Him. Can you change your reality? No one can will to destroy himself. When you think you are attacking your self, it is a sure sign that you hate what you think you are. And this, and only this, can be attacked by you. What you think you are can be hateful, and what this strange image makes you do can be very destructive. Yet the destruction is no more real than the image, although those who make idols do worship them. The idols are nothing, but their worshipers are the Sons of God in sickness.

 

⁷⁵ God would have them released from their sickness and returned to His Mind. He will not limit your power to help them because He has given it to you. Do not be afraid of it because it is your salvation. What Comforter can there be for the sick Children of God except His power through you? Remember that it does not matter where in the Sonship He is accepted. He is always accepted for all, and when your mind receives Him, the remembrance of Him awakens throughout the Sonship. Heal your brothers simply by accepting God for them.

 

⁷⁶ Your minds are not separate, and God has only one channel for healing because He has but one Son. His remaining communication link with all His Children joins them together and them to Him. To be aware of this is to heal them because it is the awareness that no one is separate, and so no one is sick. To believe that a Son of God can be sick is to believe that part of God can suffer. Love cannot suffer because it cannot attack. The remembrance of love therefore brings invulnerability with it.

 

⁷⁷ Do not side with sickness in the presence of a Son of God even if he believes in it, for your acceptance of God in him acknowledges the love of God which he has forgotten. Your recognition of him as part of God teaches him the truth about himself, which he is denying. Would you strengthen his denial of God and thus lose sight of yourself? Or would you remind him of his wholeness and remember your Creator with him? To believe a Son of God is sick is to worship the same idol he does. God created love, not idolatry. All forms of idolatry are caricatures of creation, taught by sick minds which are too divided to know that creation shares power and never usurps it. Sickness is idolatry because it is the belief that power can be taken from you. Yet this is impossible because you are part of God, Who is all power.

 

⁷⁸ A sick god must be an idol, made in the image of what its maker thinks he is. And that is exactly what the ego does perceive in a Son of God; a sick god, self-created, self-sufficient, very vicious, and very vulnerable. Is this the idol you would worship? Is this the image you would be vigilant to save? [Are you really afraid of losing this?] Look calmly at the logical conclusion of the ego's thought system and judge whether its offering is really what you want, for this is what it offers you. To obtain this you are willing to attack the divinity of your brothers and thus lose sight of yours. And you are willing to keep it hidden and to protect this idol, which you think will save you from the dangers which the idol itself stands for, but which do not exist.

 

⁷⁹ There are no idolaters in the Kingdom, but there is great appreciation for every Soul which God created because of the calm knowledge that each one is part of Him. God's Son knows no idols, but he does know his Father. Health in this world is the counterpart of value in Heaven. It is not my merit that I contribute to you but my love, for you do not value yourselves. When you do not value yourself, you become sick, but my value of you can heal you because the value of God's Son is one. When I said, "My peace I give unto you," I meant it. Peace came from God through me to you. It was for you, although you did not ask.

 

⁸⁰ When a brother is sick, it is because he is not asking for peace and therefore does not know he has it. The acceptance of peace is the denial of illusion, and sickness is an illusion. Yet every Son of God has the power to deny illusions anywhere in the Kingdom merely by denying them completely in himself. I can heal you because I know you. I know your value for you, and it is this value that makes you whole. A whole mind is not idolatrous and does not know of conflicting laws. I will heal you merely because I have only one message, and it is true. Your faith in it will make you whole when you have faith in me.

 

⁸¹ I do not bring God's message with deception, and you will learn this as you learn that you always receive as much as you accept. You could accept peace now for everyone you meet and offer them perfect freedom from all illusions because you heard. But have no other gods before Him, or you will not hear. God is not jealous of the gods you make, but you are. You would save them and serve them because you believe that they made you. You think they are your father because you are projecting onto them the fearful fact that you made them to replace God. Yet when they seem to speak to you, remember that nothing can replace God, and whatever replacements you have attempted are nothing.

 

⁸² Very simply, then, you may believe you are afraid of nothingness, but you are really afraid of nothing. And in that awareness you are healed. You will hear the god you listen to. You made the god of sickness, and by making him, you made yourself able to hear him. Yet you did not create him because he is not the Will of the Father. He is therefore not eternal and will be unmade for you the instant you signify your willingness to accept only the eternal. If God has but one Son, there is but one God. You share reality with Him because reality is not divided. To accept other gods before Him is to place other images before yourself.

 

⁸³ You do not realize how much you listen to your gods and how vigilant you are on their behalf. Yet they exist only because you honor them. Place honor where it is due, and peace will be yours. It is your inheritance from your real Father. You cannot make your father, and the father you made did not make you. Honor is not due to illusions, for to honor them is to honor nothing. Yet fear is not due them either, for nothing cannot be fearful. You have chosen to fear love because of its perfect harmlessness, and because of this fear, you have been willing to give up your own perfect helpfulness and your own perfect Help.

 

⁸⁴ Only at the altar of God will you find peace. And this altar is in you because God put it there. His Voice still calls you to return, and He will be heard when you place no other gods before Him. You can give up the god of sickness for your brothers; in fact, you would have to do so if you give him up for yourself. For if you see him anywhere, you have accepted him. And if you accept him, you will bow down and worship him because he was made as God's replacement. He is the belief that you can choose which god is real. Although it is perfectly clear that this has nothing to do with reality, it is equally clear that it has everything to do with reality as you perceive it.

 

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