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13 Your Guest
has come. You asked Him, and He came. You did not hear Him enter, for you did not wholly welcome Him. And yet His gifts came with Him. He has laid them at your feet and asks you now that you will look on them and take them for your own. He
needs your help in giving them to all who walk apart believing they are separate and alone. They will be healed when you accept your gifts, because your Guest will welcome everyone whose feet have touched the holy ground whereon you stand and where His gifts for them are laid.
CHAPTER 29: THE AWAKENING
III. The Coming of the Guest
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Workbook for Students
Part II
What is the Second Coming?
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1 Christ's Second Coming, which is sure as God, is merely the correction of mistakes and the return of sanity. It is a part of the condition which restores the never lost and re-establishes what is forever and forever true. It is the invitation to God's Word to take illusion's place, the willingness to let forgiveness rest upon all things without exception and without reserve.
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Workbook for Students
Lesson 306
The gift of Christ
is all I seek today.
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1 What but Christ's vision would I use today when it can offer me a day in which I see a world so like to Heaven that an ancient memory returns to me? Today I can forget the world I made. Today I can go past all fear and be restored to love and holiness and peace. Today I am redeemed and born anew into a world of mercy and of care; of loving kindness and the peace of God.
2
And so, our Father, we return to You, remembering we never went away, remembering Your holy gifts to us. In gratitude and thankfulness, we come, with empty hands and open hearts and minds, asking but what You give. We cannot make an offering sufficient for Your Son. But in Your Love the gift of Christ is his.
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Course in Miracles
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Text
Chapter 29
The Awakening
III. The Coming of the Guest
par 10-19
[TEXT READING PAUSED FOR WEEKEND]
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10 Why would you not perceive it as release from suffering to learn that you are free? Why would you not acclaim the truth, instead of looking on it as an enemy? Why does an easy path, so clearly marked it is impossible to lose the way, seem thorny, rough, and far too difficult for you to follow? Is it not because you see it as the road to hell instead of looking on it as a simple way, without a sacrifice or any loss, to find yourself in Heaven and in God? Until you realize you give up nothing, until you understand there
is no loss, you will have some regrets about the way that you have chosen. And you will not see the many gains your choice has offered you. Yet though you do not see them, they are there. Their
cause has been effected, and they must be present where their cause has entered in.
11 You have accepted healing's Cause, and so it must be you are healed. And being healed, the power to heal must also now be yours. The miracle is not a separate thing which happens suddenly, as an effect without a cause. Nor is it in itself a cause. But where its cause is must it be. Now is it caused, though not as yet perceived. And its effects are there, though not yet seen. Look inward now, and you will not behold a reason for regret but cause indeed for glad rejoicing and for hope of peace.
12 It
has been hopeless to attempt to find the hope of peace upon a battleground. It
has been futile to demand escape from sin and pain of what was made to serve the function of
retaining sin and pain. For pain and sin are one illusion, as are hate and fear, attack and guilt but one. Where they are causeless, their effects are gone, and love must come wherever they are not. Why are you not rejoicing? You are free of pain and sickness, misery and loss, and all effects of hatred and attack. No more is pain your friend and guilt your god, and you should welcome the effects of love.
13 Your Guest
has come. You asked Him, and He came. You did not hear Him enter, for you did not wholly welcome Him. And yet His gifts came with Him. He has laid them at your feet and asks you now that you will look on them and take them for your own. He
needs your help in giving them to all who walk apart believing they are separate and alone. They will be healed when you accept your gifts, because your Guest will welcome everyone whose feet have touched the holy ground whereon you stand and where His gifts for them are laid.
14 You do not see how much you now can give because of everything you have received. Yet He Who entered in but waits for
you to come where you invited Him to be. There is no other place where He can find His host nor where His host can meet with Him. And nowhere else His gifts of peace and joy and all the happiness His Presence brings can be obtained. For they are where He is Who brought them with Him that they might be yours. You cannot see your Guest, but you
can see the gifts He brought. And when you look on them, you will believe His Presence must be there. For what you now can do could not be done without the love and grace His Presence holds.
15 Such is the promise of the living God—His Son have life and every living thing be part of him, and nothing else have life. What
you have given "life" is not alive and symbolizes but your wish to be alive apart from life, alive in death, with death perceived as life, and living, death. Confusion follows on confusion here, for on confusion has this world been based, and there is nothing else it rests upon. Its basis does not change, although it seems to be in constant change. Yet what is that except the state confusion really means? Stability to those who are confused is meaningless, and shift and change become the law on which they predicate their lives.
16 The body does not change. It represents the larger dream that change is possible. To change is to attain a state unlike the one in which you found yourself before. There
is no change in immortality, and Heaven knows it not. Yet here on earth it has a double purpose, for it can be made to teach opposing things. And they reflect the teacher who is teaching them. The body can
appear to change with time, with sickness or with health, and with events that seem to alter it. Yet this but means the mind remains unchanged in its belief of what the purpose of the body is.
17 Sickness is a demand the body be a thing that it is not. Its nothingness is guarantee that it
can
not be sick. In your demand that it be more than this lies the idea of sickness. For it asks that God be less than all He really is. What, then, becomes of you, for it
is you of whom the sacrifice is asked? For He is told that part of Him belongs to Him no longer. He must sacrifice your self, and in His sacrifice are you made more, and He is lessened by the loss of you. And what is gone from Him becomes your god, protecting you from being part of Him.
18 The body that is asked to be a god will be attacked because its nothingness has not been recognized. And so it seems to be a thing with power in itself. As something, it can be perceived and thought to feel and act and hold you in its grasp as prisoner to itself. And it can fail to be what you demanded that it be. And you will hate it for its littleness, unmindful that the failure does not lie in that it is not more than it should be but only in your failure to perceive that it is nothing. Yet its nothingness is your salvation, from which you would flee.
19 As "something" is the body asked to be God's enemy, replacing what He is with littleness and limit and despair. It is His loss you celebrate when you behold the body as a thing you love, or look upon it as a thing you hate. For if He be the sum of everything, then what is not in Him does not exist, and His completion
is its nothingness. Your savior is not dead, nor does he dwell in what was built as temple unto death. He lives in God, and it is this that makes him savior unto you, and
only this. His body's nothingness releases yours from sickness and from death. For what is yours cannot be more nor less than what is his.
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Sarah's Reflections
Lesson 306
The gift of Christ
is all I seek today.
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Sarah's Commentary:
A Course in Miracles truly is a radical path. There is no grey area. Truth is true and nothing else is true. In this Lesson, we affirm that Christ is
all
I seek today. We are reminded that there is nothing else of value but to know our true Self. Separation is the decision not to know who we are. Now we choose to know the Self and to recognize that only what is eternal is worth seeking. Yet for most of us, there are still other things we seek. It is not helpful to feel guilty about this, but we simply need to acknowledge how much fear and resistance we have to the love, holiness, and peace that is our natural inheritance. Jesus tells us,
"And if you find resistance strong and dedication weak, you are not ready.
Do not fight yourself."
(T.30.I.1.6-7) (ACIM OE T.30.II.2) Putting demands on ourselves is not helpful. Jesus never demands. All demands come from the ego. What is helpful to our journey through this Course is to trust the process.
"You are perfectly safe as long as you are completely unconcerned about your readiness, but maintain a consistent trust in mine."
(T.2.V.4.209) (ACIM OE T.2.III.64) With dedication and consistent practice, when you are ready, the truth will dawn on your mind.
Most of us still look outside of ourselves for happiness in the belief there are still things in the world that will complete us. We are not yet convinced that all we want to know is the Christ Self that we are. Our minds are split, and while we continue to follow this path and still seek outside of ourselves for completion, we will feel increasing conflict. Yet as we step more and more firmly on the path to awakening, we experience more and more peace until our desire for things to go our way increasingly falls away.
It is possible to attend to events in our day and continue to watch our thoughts so the events of the day can serve as a helpful backdrop to our awakening. As we go about our day, judgments, grievances, and perceived needs can all be given over to the Holy Spirit when we notice them arise in our minds. If we want a peace that can't be disturbed, no matter what is going on outside of us, a peace that is deep, quiet, and wholly changeless, and one that cannot be found in this world, we need the miracle to shift our perceptions.
"In gratitude and thankfulness we come, with empty hands and open hearts and minds, asking but what You give."
(W.306.2.2)
Every personal goal I have today is secondary to the primary purpose for the day. Our only purpose today is to
"go past all fear, and be restored to love and holiness and peace."
(W.306.1.3) In any situation where I find myself today, I will try to remember that it is the gift of Christ I seek in every encounter. It changes the kind of day we have if we can remember our purpose, regardless of what seems to be happening in our day. It is good practice to commit the mind to remembering purpose whenever fear arises in any form. We are called to remember that we will be
"restored to love and holiness and peace"
(W.306.1.3), when we go past all fear. It all depends on our willingness. There is nothing to seek. The love, holiness, and peace are already in us. Our fear and resistance keep us from being aware of our eternal condition.
Our own goals are based on the belief that there are things in the day that can bring us something we want. They are based on the illusion that we are in control of our lives. Yet events seem to just happen. We can't plan for what is given. We need to trust that everything happening in our lives provides the opportunity to continue to learn to forgive. Thus, everything is orchestrated for us, and by us, for our good. We will be much more willing to accept whatever shows up when our purpose is held firmly in the mind. Jesus tells us there is nothing we can offer ourselves that will ever substitute for the peace already in us.
"If you would be a happy learner, you must give everything you have learned to the Holy Spirit, to be unlearned for you."
(T.14.II.6.1) (ACIM OE T.13.VII.61) This means that we must give him our judgments and misperceptions to be translated for us. When we hold firmly to our purpose, and when we are willing to trust that all things work together for good, we can stay focused on recognizing the ultimate good that can come out of any situation. It is not an intellectual perspective, but one we can actually apply in every circumstance, whatever it may be. It is to remember that the only truth is peace and love. The light is always with us and in us. Purification, as discussed in the Course, is letting go of what was never true so the light in us can shine forth. Purification is a necessary part of this process.
"Miracles are everyone's right, but purification is necessary first."
(T.1.I.7.1) (ACIM OE T.I.7)
When we describe a situation, we each see it from our own unique perspective. Yet the experience of Christ's vision is all the same. When we have the experience of Oneness, we have the experience of the only thing that is real and true, which will be experienced by everyone in the same way. We can
"see a world so like to Heaven"
(W.306.1.1) when we are completely willing to do so. It is there for us at this very moment. This experience of Heaven is the experience of the real world, which is described as a world of mercy and care, loving-kindness, and the peace of God. When we have this experience, we will remember that we never left. Then an ancient memory returns to us. This is the forgotten song, calling us to return home.
"Listen,---perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar, like a song whose name is long forgotten, and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered."
(T.21.I.6.1) (ACIM OE T.21.II.8)
"And so, our Father, we return to You, remembering we never went away; remembering Your holy gifts to us."
(W.306.2.1)
Today, I am grateful my way of seeing is wrong, and I turn to the Holy Spirit, asking for help to see through the eyes of Christ. I am grateful there is nothing to seek. The truth of what I am is already present in my mind. I am grateful for the willingness to do the work of uncovering the blocks to the truth I hold in my mind. I am grateful that I am patient with myself in this process, knowing I am using time for the purpose of healing. I am grateful for whatever shows up in my day, recognizing that it can all be used for healing. There is nothing good or bad about my day. I can be a happy learner, allowing it all to be used for healing purposes. I am grateful that I can look at my dark thoughts without judging myself for them, knowing they can be healed only when I am willing to bring awareness to them. I am grateful that I can always turn inward for inspiration because what I use for hate, the Holy Spirit uses for love. I am grateful that I can always rely on His Love within me. All power of our Creator is in each one of us. The gift of Christ is all I seek today.
Love and blessings, Sarah
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Allen Watson's
Workbook Commentaries
Allen joined Robert Perry in forming the Circle of Atonement in 1993 in Sedona, Arizona where Allen led retreats and workshops and authored many books based on “A Course in Miracles.” One of his most popular books is:
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