Day 181

Introduction to Lessons 181-200

Our next few lessons make a special point of firming up our willingness to make our weak commitment strong; our scattered goals blend into one intent. We are not asked for total dedication all the time as yet. But we are asked to practice now in order to attain the sens of peace such unified commitment will bestow, if only intermittently. It is experiencing this that makes it sure that we will give our total willingness to following the way the course sets forth.

Our lessons now are geared specifically to widening horizons, and direct approaches to the special blocks that keep our vision narrow, and too limited to let us see the value of our goal. We are attempting now to lift these blocks, however, briefly. Words alone can not convey the sense of liberation which their lifting brings. But the experience of freedom and of peace that comes as we give up our tight control of what we see speaks for itself. Our motivation will be so intensified that words become of little consequence. We will be sure of what we want, and what is valueless.

And so we start our journey beyond words by concentrating first on what impedes our progress still. Experience of what exists beyond defensiveness remains beyond achievement while it is denied. It may be there, but we cannot accept its presence. So we now attempt to go past all defenses for a little while each day. No more than this is asked, because no more than this is needed. It will be enough to guarantee the rest will come.

Today's Lesson:

I trust my brothers, who are one with me.

Trusting our brothers is essential to establishing and holding up our faith in our ability to transcend doubt and lack of sure conviction in ourselves. When we attack a brother, we proclaim that he is limited by what we have perceived in him. We do not look beyond his errors. Rather, they are magnified, becoming blocks to our awareness of the Self that lies beyond our own mistakes, and past his seeming sins as well as ours.

Perception has a focus. It is this that gives consistency to what we see. Change but this focus, and what we behold will change accordingly. Our vision now will shift, to give support to the intent which has replaced the one we held before. Remove our focus on our brother's sins, and we experience the peace that comes from faith in sinlessness. This faith receives its only sure support from what we see in others past their sins. For their mistakes, if focused on, are witnesses to sins in us. And we will not transcend their sight and see the sinlessness that lies beyond.

Therefore, in practicing today, we first let all such little focuses give way to our great need to let our sinlessness become apparent. We instruct our minds that it is this we seek, and only this, for just a little while. We do not care about our future goals. And what we saw an instant previous has no concern for us within this interval of time wherein we practice changing our intent. We seek for innocence and nothing else. We seek for it with no concern but now.

A major hazard to success has been involvement with our past and future goals. We have been quite preoccupied with how extremely different the goals this course is advocating are from those we held before. Ad we have also been dismayed by the depressing and restricting thought that, even if we should succeed, we will inevitably lose our way again.

How could this matter? For the past is gone; the future but imagined. These concerns are but defenses against present change of focus in perception. Nothing more. We lay these pointless limitations by a little while. We do not look to past beliefs, and what we will believe will not intrude upon us now. We enter in the time of practicing with one intent; to look upon the sinlessness within.

We recognize that we have lost this goal if anger blocks our way in any form. And if a brother's sins occur to us, our narrowed focus will restrict our sight, and turn our eyes upon our own mistakes, which we will magnify and call our "sins." So, for a little while, without regard to past or future, should such blocks arise we will transcend them with instructions to our minds to change their focus, as we say:

It is not this that I would look upon.
I trust my brothers, who are one with me.

And we will also use this thought to keep us safe throughout the day. We do not seek for long-range goals. As each obstruction seems to block the vision of our sinlessness, we seek but for surcease an instant from the misery the focus upon sin will bring, and uncorrected will remain.

Nor do we ask for fantasies. For what we seek to look upon is really there. And as our focus goes beyond mistakes, we will behold a wholly sinless world. When seeing this is all we want to see, when this is all we seek for in the name of true perception, are the eyes of Christ inevitably ours. And the Love He feels for us becomes our own as well. This will become the only thing we see reflected in the world and in ourselves.

The world which once proclaimed our sins becomes the proof that we are sinless. And our love for everyone we look upon attests to our remembrance of the holy Self which knows no sin, and never could conceive of anything without Its sinlessness. We seek for this remembrance as we turn our minds to practicing today. We look neither ahead nor backwards. We look straight into the present. And we give our trust to the experience we ask for now. Our sinlessness is but the Will of God. This instant is our willing one with His.

Miracles I'm noticing:

Today's lesson really reminds us that the Present is a GIFT! As we focus our perception on the present, we can have a much better view of the gifts that are all around us.

I reflect on this past week - and really this past month - and see that even in the midst of what see like dips or down times, there are gifts. Whenever - and I mean every single time - I hit a low - I'm worried about something or discouraged by something or less than totally fired up - there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I've gotten to the point where I actually welcome some of the downs because it means the ups are on the way. I just need to be more observant to notice what I notice.

The song that has come up more than once for me on XM radio (when I tune away from Oprah and Friends) is Diana Ross' "Do You Know Where You're Going To." For me that means I want to be more focused on setting my goals, while giving up attachment to the outcome.

That's my focus for next week. But until then - I'm in celebration mode! The Summit was a success and I met new friends. I'm truly blessed and duly grateful!!!

Day 180

Today's Review:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(169) By grace I live. By grace I am released.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(170) There is no cruelty in God and none in me.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Miracles I'm noticing:

As the Bigger Small Talk Summit wraps up (I'll take Pam back to the airport this morning), I am reflecting on all the miracles of the past week. Meeting Pam Thomas has been a miracle in itself. Her commitment to this event has been amazing. She never hesitated when this event came up for her and was here with bells on, all the way from Phoenix. When we met in person, it was like we'd known each other our entire lives. Pam showed me the power of the word and demonstrated integrity at every turn. Even as cancellations came in the day of the summit and my faith wavered a bit, Pam remained positive and optimistic about our vision and she was right - it was an outstanding event.

So, miracle #1 is Pam Thomas.

Dick and Melanie Richards were miracle #2. They flew into Minneapolis from Arizona and rented a car for the 4-hour drive to Fargo. They got a flat tire on the parking ramp coming out of the airport and it was 2 hours before they could even get on the road. But they never doubted my vision for the summit and our open space format. Each of them added so much to the first day, and Dick's presentation on Day Two was wildly successful, right down to our guided meditation which took people deep within themselves to have a conversation with their genius. It was magic and I'm extremely blessed and grateful.

Miracle #3 is my good friend David Meier and his almost-20-year-old daughter Jenny who made the trek to Fargo from Kentucky. Each year Dave takes his daughter on a two-week trip to an exotic location (Costa Rica and Alaska were two of their destinations). This year their vacation coincided with the dates of the summit, so they made Fargo their vacation destination! They flew in to Minneapolis and drove across South Dakota to Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills, across the corner of Wyoming and back up to Montana, and then through Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota and back to Fargo. It was a total pleasure to meet Jenny (what an amazing young woman!) and to see Dave again.

And I guess miracle #4 was the love I felt each day as I looked around the room and saw the people who were there and trusted my dream. I knew most of them, but there were some people I met for the first time during the Summit. The conversations we created on Wednesday and the geniuses we discovered on Thursday made this an amazing week.

We'll be planning next year's Summit in the coming weeks, but it will take a lot to top the energy and gratitude that emerged from this inaugural event!

Day 179

Today's Review:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(167) There is one life, and that I share with God.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(168) Your grace is given me. I claim it now.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Miracles I'm noticing:

Yesterday's event was a smashing success. My lesson: trust the process, trust the people. TRUST. Everything is as it should be. Whoever comes is the right people. It really works!! Love is much more powerful than fear and even when I have doubts, that is proven to me again and again. Why should I fear? Today's review makes it perfectly clear that I share this life with God and God is Love. What a miracle!

Day 178

Today's Review:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(165) Let not my mind deny the Thought of God.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(166) I am entrusted with the gifts of God.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Miracles I'm noticing:

It's always darkest before the dawn ... and although I received three more cancellations for the Bigger Small Talk Summit already this morning, I am committed to holding space for creating an awesome event for the people who do attend.

Thank you to everyone who has sent well wishes from as far away as the U.K., Nick! Let's create next year's event to be even bigger!

Day 177

Today's Review:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(163) There is no death. The Son of God is free.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(164) Now are we one with Him Who is our Source.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Miracles I'm noticing:

Today is a cloudy day and since we've had so many sunny days recently (well, I guess I've been in Florida for two weeks and it always seemed to be sunny in Florida!), it could appear as if the sky has suddenly turned gray. Sometimes that's how I feel, too, especially when I'm on the brink of the Summit for Bigger Small Talk, which seemed so much bigger in my imagination than it's turning out to be in reality. It could seem like a very gray day indeed.

But then I remember that the sky is always blue - the clouds just block our view sometimes, but that doesn't mean that that's the reality. I know that we all have to take our knocks before we taste success, so I'm looking at this as a future story I'll have to share with my audiences and clients.

I think somewhere in my subconscious I just assumed people would flock to our event. I wasn't even worried about that. Now as it's getting closer and I see that my idea was bigger than the reality and I'll be faced with some pretty hefty bills to pay, I realize that there is something tangible about having to "pay dues" to get to the next level. When I was playing it safe, it was just that - safe. Now that I'm stepping into bigger things, the risk is greater, but I trust that the payoff is greater as well.

LOVE, not FEAR. That's what I'm concentrating on today!

Day 176

Today's Review:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(161) Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(162) I am as God created me.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Miracles I'm noticing:

It's another bright and sunny morning here in Fargo and tomorrow people start coming for the Summit for Bigger Small Talk. I'm blessed and grateful and will keep today's message in mind throughout the week - I am as God created me, and I am Love!

I'm getting ready to go on the radio and TV to promote our events, so am visualizing a large and active audience. Whoever is here is the right people!

Day 175

Today's Review:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(159) I give the miracles I have received.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(160)I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Miracles I'm noticing:

The reviews here break what we're learning in this course down into simple chunks that really help me recognize the miracles all around. As I learn more about the things this course teaches, it seems more and more people around me are interested in talking about miracles and abundance and joy and peace than ever before. Maybe it's because I'm more aware of those topics and that's what I notice. Regardless, I'm loving this awareness and miracle mindedness!

Day 174

Today's Review:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(157) Into His Presence would I enter now.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(158) Today I learn to give as I receive.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I see more and more how everything is connected. When I'm looking for love, I see it. And that's what I choose more and more. Whenever something is causing a feeling other than a loving one, I know that I can change the results simply by changing my mind. It's such a miracle to be awake!!

Day 173

Today's Review:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(155) I will step back and let Him lead the way.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(156) I walk with God in perfect holiness.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Miracles I'm noticing:

Yesterday's text was very inspiring to me. It talked of the holy instant, which is all we really have. It's the present - the time at which we choose to let all littleness go. It's very simple, really. Complexity is of the ego, and the text says that it is nothing more than the ego's attempt to obscure the obvious. We could live forever in the holy instant, beginning now and reaching to eternity, but for a very simple reason. Do not obscure the simplicity of this reason, for if we do, it will be only because we prefer not to recognize it and not to let it go.

Today's text talks about the holy instant and special relationships. I love how it talks about judgment always resting on the past, and how judgment is impossible without the past. We are afraid to give up the past because we believe that without the ego all would be chaos. But the text assures us that without the ego, all would be love.

The text goes on today to say that because of guilt, all special relationships - those relationships that we deem separate from other aspects of relationships - those that we separate out and treat differently - have elements of fear in them. This is why they shift and change so frequently. They are not based on changeless love alone. And love, where fear has entered, cannot be depended on because it is not perfect.

The Holy Spirit knows no one is special, meaning apart from anyone else. Yet He also perceives that we have made special relationships, which He would purify and not let us destroy. We can trust that He will translate those relationships into holiness by removing as much fear as we will let Him.

The ego's use of relationships is so fragmented that it frequently goes even farther; one part of one aspect suits its purposes, while it prefers different parts of another aspect. Everyone on earth has formed special relationships, and although this is not so in Heaven, the Holy Spirit knows how to bring a touch of Heaven to them here. In the holy instant, no one is special, for our personal needs intrude on no one to make anyone seem different. Without the values from the past, we would see everyone the same and like ourselves. We would not see any separation between ourselves and them. In the holy instant, we see in each relationship what it will be when we perceive only the present.

God knows us now. We remembers nothing, having always known us exactly as He knows us now.

What a profound way to see all people - in the holy instant. That's a miracle for sure! Look around today and recognize the light in everyone you see, regardless of the past. Let's create and allow love and light to surround us in all our interactions today and notice what miracles that illuminates!

Day 172

Today's Review:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(153) In my defenselessness my safety lies.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(154) I am among the ministers of God.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I spent the past two days with Lisa Haneberg, author of Two Weeks to a Breakthrough, and throughout her talks she mentioned things that have happened as a result of her being on her motorcycle tour to promote the book. She has been able to connect many people with resources they need to achieve the breakthroughs they want in their lives. Fargo's stop was no different. We've had amazing turnouts for the four events she's created, and have seen the energy level rise in the community. I'm blessed and grateful to have had the opportunity to be with Lisa and everyone who came out to one of her events. It was a chance to witness how we are all among the ministers of God and represent the love that God is.

I'm up early this morning because I'm going to be on an early-morning television news show to promote next week's Bigger Small Talk Summit. Although registrations aren't what I had hoped, I'm still dedicated to this event, and am looking at it as the first annual, so am already thinking ahead to what next year will look like.

Blessed and grateful!

Day171

Review V

We now review again. This time we are ready to give more effort and more time to what we undertake. We recognize we are preparing for another phase of understanding. We would take this step completely, that we may go on again more certain, more sincere, with faith upheld more surely. Our footsteps have not been unwavering, and doubts have made us walk uncertainly and slowly on the road this course sets forth. But now we hasten on, for we approach a greater certainty, a firmer purpose and a surer goal.

Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still, and speak to us. We have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word, and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a little child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him.

So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, You will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us.

This is the one thought which should precede the thoughts that we review. Each one but clarifies some aspect of this thought, or helps it be more meaningful, more personal and true, and more descriptive of the holy Self we share and now prepare to know again:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

This Self alone knows Love. This Self alone is perfectly consistent in Its Thoughts; knows Its Creator, understands Itself, is perfect in Its knowledge and Its Love, and never changes from Its constant state of union with Its Father and Itself.

And it is this that waits to meet us at the journey's ending. Every step we take brings us a little nearer. This review will shorten time immeasurably, if we keep in mind that this remains our goal, and as we practice it is this to which we are approaching. Let us raise our hearts from dust to life, as we remember this is promised us, and that this course was sent to open up the path of light to us, and teach us, step by step, how to return to the eternal Self we thought we lost.

Let this review become a time in which we share a new experience, yet one as old as time and older still. Hallowed our Name. Our glory undefiled forever. And our wholeness now complete, as God established it. We are His Sons, completing His extension in our own. We practice but an ancient truth we knew before illusion seemed to claim the world. And we remind the world that it is free of all illusions every time we say:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

With this we start each day of our review. With this we start and end each period of practice time. And with this thoughts we sleep, to waken once again with these same words upon our lips, to greet another day. No thought that we review but we surround with it, and use the thoughts to hold it up before our minds, and keep it clear in our remembrance throughout the day. And thus, when we have finished this review, we will have recognized the words we speak are true.

Yet are the words but aids, and to be used, except at the beginning and the end of the practice periods, but to recall the mind, as needed, to its purpose. We place faith in the experience that comes from practice, not the means we use. We wait for the experience, and recognize that it is only here conviction lies. We use the words, and try and try again to go beyond them to their meaning, which is far beyond their sound. The sound grows dim and disappears, as we approach the Source of meaning. It is Here that we find rest.

Today's Review:

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(151) All things are echoes of the Voice for God.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

(152) The power of decision is my own.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

Miracles I'm noticing:

As I really internalize the review and the lessons here, everything in my outer world seems so much less important. The minute details that may have caused me upset before don't have that same effect on me.

The Bigger Small Talk Summit I've been so passionate about over the past three months is coming next week and over the last week people are steadily withdrawing from the event and asking for their money back. Their schedules just don't allow them to attend at this time. That means I am facing a dilemma: cancel the event or go forward in confidence that whatever happens is the only thing that could have. Although I have $6000 in expenses for the event and no assurance that the registrations will cover those expenses, I'm not rattled like I may have been without this course. I am confident that God will provide me the wisdom and creativity to allow a fantastic event for all who participate, and will help me find sponsors to help defray the expenses.

I am choosing to let go and let God ... and am envisioning a room full of engaged and happy people participating in an event which will change their lives and the lives of those in their circles.

Sending love to everyone involved is much more productive than hitting a terror barrier and stopping the momentum.

All is well!

Day 170

Today's Lesson:

There is no cruelty in God and none in me.

No one attacks without intent to hurt. This can have no exception. When you think that you attack in self-defense, you mean that to be cruel is protection; you are safe because of cruelty. You mean that you believe to hurt another brings you freedom. And you mean that to attack is to exchange the state in which you are for something better, safer, more secure from dangerous invasion and from fear.

How thoroughly insane is the idea that to defend from fear is to attack! For here is fear begot and fed with blood, to make it grow and swell and rage. And thus is fear protected, not escaped. Today we learn a lesson which can save us more delay and needless misery than we can possibly imagine. It is this:

You make what you defend against, and by your own defense against it is it real and inescapable. Lay down your arms, and only then do you perceive it false.

It seems to be the enemy without that we attack. Yet our defense sets up an enemy within; an alien thought at war with us, depriving us of peace, splitting our minds into two camps which seem wholly irreconcilable. For love now has an "enemy," an opposite; and fear, the alien, now needs our defense against the threat of what we really are.

If we consider carefully the means by which our fancied self-defense proceeds on its imagined way, we will perceive the premises on which the idea stands. First, it is obvious ideas must leave their source, for it is we who make attack, and must have first conceived of it. Yet we attack outside ourselves, and separate our minds from him who is to be attacked, with perfect faith the split we made is real.

Next, are the attributes of love bestowed upon its "enemy." For fear becomes our safety and protector of our peace, to which we turn for solace and escape from doubts about our strength, and hope of rest in dreamless quiet. And as love is shorn of what belongs to it and it alone, love is endowed with attributes of fear. For love would ask us lay down all defense as merely foolish. And our arms indeed would crumble into dust. For such they are.

With love as enemy, must cruelty become a god. And gods demand that those who worship them obey their dictates, and refuse to question them. Harsh punishment is meted out relentlessly to those who ask if the demands are sensible or even sane. It is their enemies who are unreasonable and insane, while they are always merciful and just.

Today we look upon this cruel god dispassionately. And we note that though his lips are smeared with blood, and fire seems to flame from him, he is but made of stone. He can do nothing. We need not defy his power. He has none. And those who see in him their safety have no guardian, no strength to call upon in danger, and no mighty warrior to fight for them.

This moment can be terrible. But it can also be the time of our release from abject slavery. We make a choice, standing before this idol, seeing him exactly as he is. Will we restore to love what we have sought to wrest from it and lay before this mindless piece of stone? Or will we make another idol to replace it? For the god of cruelty takes many forms. Another can be found.

Yet do not think that fear is the escape from fear. Let us remember what the text has stressed about the obstacles to peace. The final one, the hardest to believe is nothing, and a seeming obstacle with the appearance of a solid block, impenetrable, fearful and beyond surmounting, is the fear of God Himself. Here is the basic premise which enthrones the thought of fear as god. For fear is loved by those who worship it, and love appears to be invested now with cruelty.

Where does the totally insane belief in gods of vengeance come from? Love has not confused its attributes with those of fear. Yet must the worshippers of fear perceive their own confusion in fear's "enemy"; its cruelty as now a part of love. And what becomes more fearful than the Heart of Love Itself? The blood appears to be upon His Lips; the fire comes from Him. And He is terrible above all else, cruel beyond conception, striking down all who acknowledge Him to be their God.

The choice we make today is certain. For we look for the last time upon this bit of carven stone we made, and call it god no longer. We have reached this place before, but we have chosen that this cruel god remain with you in still another form. And so the fear of God returned with us. This time we leave it there. And we return to a new world, unburdened by its weight; beheld not in its sightless eyes, but in the vision that our choice restored to us.

Now do our eyes belong to Christ, and He looks through them. Now our voice belongs to God and echoes His. And now our heart remains at peace forever. We have chosen Him in place of idols, and our attributes, given by our Creator, are restored to us at last. The Call for God is heard and answered. Now has fear made way for love, as God Himself replaces cruelty.

Father, we are like You. No cruelty abides in us, for there is none in you. Your peace is ours. And we bless the world with what we have received from You alone. We choose again, and make our choice for all our brothers, knowing they are one with us. We bring them your salvation as we have received it now. And we give thanks for them who render us complete. In them we see Your glory, and in them we find our peace. Holy are we because Your Holiness has set us free. And we give thanks. Amen.

Miracles I'm noticing:

People just keep showing up in my life just when I need them. I'm so blessed and grateful now that I have a successful business that supports people in getting new results in their lives - at work and outside of work. I'm blessed and grateful that I have the ability to learn and grow and the desire to share what I'm learning with others. I blessed and grateful now that I am attracting people who are ready to make those changes in their own lives that will allow them and me to move to bigger topics of conversation that lead to shifts in the collective consciousness. I am blessed and grateful now that I can see that people who feel the need to attack simply don't know any better - yet. That any cruelty in the world is simply a cry for love and the way to alter that is to give more love.

That shift for me is truly a miracle!

Day 169

Today's Lesson:

By grace I live. By grace I am released.

Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth. It is the world's most lofty aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning, yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received; an altar clean and holy for the gift.

Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains, that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real.

Grace is not learned. The final step must go beyond all learning. Grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to waken. It is not shut tight against God's Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from experience with which it is familiarly at home.

We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation of the Father and the Son as one has been already set. But we have also said the mind determines when that time will be, and has determined it. And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God to hasten the experience of truth, and speed its advent into every mind that recognizes truth's effects on you.

Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say "God is," and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is.

We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God's has been completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness and the holy face of Christ. The Son of God has merely disappeared into his Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all. Eternity remains a constant state.

This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and learned, brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time the mind itself determined to abandon all but this is now at hand. We do not hasten it, in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means.

All learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete. He recognized all that time holds, and gave it to all minds that each one might determine, from a point where time was ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity. We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that is done.

For oneness must be here. Whatever time the mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state, forever as it always was; forever to remain as it is now. We merely take the part assigned long since, and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation's script in His Creator's Name, and in the Name of His Creator's Son.

There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of things beyond, and listen to words which explain what is to come is past already. Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and go to sleep by them?

Suffice it, then, that we have work to do to play our part. The ending must remain obscure to us until our part is done. It does not matter. For our part is still what all the rest depends on. As we take the role assigned to us, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God.

Forgiveness is the central theme that runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it runs directed and its outcome sure. And now we ask for grace., the final gift salvation can bestow. Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven, yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while.

The interval suffices. It is here that miracles are laid; to be returned by us from holy instants we receive, through grace in our experience, to all who see the light that lingers in our faces. What is the face of Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness, and brought a clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to bless the world? How could we finally attain to it forever, while a part of us remains outside, unknowing, unawakened, and in need of us as witness to the truth?

Be grateful to return, as we re glad to go an instant, and accept the gifts that grace provided us. We carry them back to ourselves. And revelation stands not far behind. Its coming is ensured. We ask for grace, and for experience that comes from grace. We welcome the release it offers everyone. We do not ask for the unaskable. We do not look beyond what grace can give. For this we can give in the grace that has been given us.

Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer. Yet in the world, what could be more than what we ask this day of Him Who gives the grace we ask, as it was given Him?

By grace I live. By grace I am released.
By grace I give. By grace I will release.

Miracles I'm noticing:

As I reflect on the past two weeks in Florida, I see how miracles really are everywhere - it's just our job to be awake to noticing them when they appear. If I think back to just one year ago, it was about this time in 2006 when I first watched "The Secret," and was taking it to my friends' homes and watching it with them. Little did I realize then that I would be studying with - and would have met in person - three of the teachers from that movie.

I am so blessed and grateful now that I have an amazing group of friends and mentors with whom I can share my learning and growing. My business is on the brink of really taking off, and I am speaking to many more organizations than I could have possibly imagined. What I'm learning now is that my mind really is unlimited, and by getting a clear picture in my mind of what I actually want, I will have every resource available to me to meet that picture. I already have all I need; I just need to tap into it.

That realization is surely a miracle, which will assist me in seeing all the other miracles that are so abundant in my life - and in the lives of everyone I come into contact with.

Day 168

Today's Lesson:

You grace is given me. I claim it now.

God speaks to us. Shall we not speak to Him? He is not distant. He makes no attempt to hide from us. We try to hide from Him, and suffer from deception. He remains entirely accessible. He loves His Son. There is no certainty but this, yet this suffices. He will love His Son forever. When his mind remains asleep, He loves him still. And when his mind awakes, He loves him with a never-changing Love.

If we but knew the meaning of His Love, hope and despair would be impossible. For hope would be forever satisfied; despair of any kind unthinkable. His grace His answer is to all despair, for in it lies remembrance of His Love. Would He not gladly give the means by which His Will is recognized? His grace is yours by your acknowledgment. And memory of Him awakens in the mind that asks the means of Him whereby its sleep is done.

Today we ask of God the gift He has most carefully preserved within our hearts, waiting to be acknowledged. This the gift by which God leans to us and lifts us up, taking salvation's final step Himself. All steps but this we learn, instructed by His voice. But finally He comes Himself, and takes us in His Arms and sweeps away the cobwebs of our sleep. His gift of grace is more than just an answer. It restores all memories the sleeping mind forgot; all certainty of what Love's meaning is.

God loves His Son. Request Him now to give the means by which this world will disappear, and vision first will come, with knowledge but an instant later. For in grace we see a light that covers all the world in love, and watch fear disappear from every face as hearts rise up and claim the light as theirs. What now remains that Heaven be delayed an instant longer? What is still undone when your forgiveness rests on everything?

It is a new and holy day today, for we receive what has been given us. Our faith lies in the Giver, not our own acceptance. We acknowledge our mistakes, but He to Whom all error is unknown is yet the One Who answers our mistakes by giving us the means to lay them down, and rise to Him in gratitude and love.

And He descends to meet us, as we come to Him. For what He has prepared for us He gives and we receive. Such is His Will, because He loves His Son. To Him we pray today, returning but the word He gave to us through His Own Voice, His Word, His Love:

Your grace is given me. I claim it now. Father, I come to You. And You will come to me who ask. I am the Son You love.

Miracles I'm noticing:

This past week was incredible. I spent it in West Palm Beach, Florida studying under Bob Proctor and getting certified and licensed to deliver several new programs for my business. I believe this training was some of the most significant work I've done for myself - maybe ever. I had a chance to hear Rev. Michael Beckwith in person, and together with his wife Ricki, they were a powerful team. As I studied with Bob and met all the other participants in this work, I really began to see the power of the Law of Attraction as well as the other universal laws.

I don't think it was an accident that on the first leg of my flight home I didn't have an exit row (I almost always request an exit row for my long legs) and I moved to the only available seat in an exit row when no one was sitting there right before the plane took off. The gentleman seated next to me (Michael) was very nice, and we started talking right away. It turns out he lives in a small town in Wisconsin and is going to be moving to West Palm Beach. He attended Luther College in Iowa (I went to Concordia in Minnesota, but they are very similar private colleges). He is a year older than I am and still plays club rugby (I played basketball in college). Through the course of our conversation it became very clear that it was no accident we were seated together. He had never heard of The Secret, but as we were talking, the woman in the seat next to him overheard what we were talking about and asked if we had heard of the movie The Secret, so she joined the conversation. I'm learning that that will really open doors for me as I'm starting to market my new certification.

I just happened to have my newly autographed book (The Secret) in my carry-on bag, so I loaned it to Michael and he started reading it. He didn't get done with it when our plane landed, but we were going to be on the next flight together, too, so he kept it for that leg as well. When we got on that plane it turned out we were seated one row apart (no coincidence there, either). I told Michael about the training I had attended, and he was very interested, so I think he might see about joining a mastermind group in West Palm when he goes back (I'll put him in touch with Paul, the director of the center where we were certified).

That's surely the Law of Attraction in action - and proves that miracles are simply a shift in perception from fear to love. If I had been afraid to tell Michael about what I had learned, we would have never made the connection we made. When he handed me back my book as we landed in Minneapolis, he saw things in a new light and was very excited to learn more. He had already been practicing some of these ideas without really knowing all of the story so for him it was validation for what he already knew.

Watch for ways people "just happen" to come into your life. What were you being that attracted them to you? Or how did they attract you to them? You'll see that there really are no accidents when you become more aware and awake.

Day 167

Today's Lesson:

There is one life, and that I share with God.

There are not different kinds of life, for life is like the truth. It does not have degrees. It is the one condition in which all that God created share. Like all His Thoughts, it has no opposite. There is no death because what God created shares His life. There is no death because an opposite to God does not exist. There is no death because the Father and the Son are one.

In this world, there appears to be a state that is life's opposite. We call it death. Yet we have learned that the idea of death takes many forms. It is the one idea which underlies all feelings that are not supremely happy. It is the alarm to which we give response of any kind that is not perfect joy. All sorrow, loss, anxiety and suffering and pain, even a little sign of weariness, a slight discomfort or the merest frown, acknowledge death. And thus deny we live.

We think that death is of the body. Yet it is but an idea, irrelevant to what is seen as physical. A thought is in the mind. It can be then applied as mind directs it. But its origin is where it must be changed, if change occurs. Ideas leave not their source. The emphasis this course has placed on that idea is due to its centrality in our attempts to change our minds about ourselves. It is the reason we can heal. It is the cause of healing. It is why we cannot die. Its truth established us as one with God.

Death is the thought that we are separate from our Creator. It is the belief conditions change, emotions alternate because of causes we cannot control, we did not make, and we can never change. It is the fixed belief ideas can leave their source, and take on qualities the source does not contain, becoming different from their own origin, apart from it in kind as well as distance, time and form.

Death cannot come from life. Ideas remain united to their source. They can extend all that their source contains. In that, they can go far beyond themselves. But they can not give birth to what was never given them. As they are made, so will their making be. As they were born, so will they then give birth. And where they come from, there will they return.

The mind can think it sleeps, but that is all. It cannot change what is its waking state. It cannot make a body, nor abide within a body. What is alien to the mind does not exist, because it has no source. For mind creates all things that are, and cannot give them attributes it lacks, nor change its own eternal, mindful state. It cannot make the physical. What seems to die is but the sign of mind asleep.

The opposite of life can only be another form of life. As such, it can be reconciled with what created it, because it is not opposite in truth. Its form may change; it may appear to be what it is not. Yet mind is mind, awake or sleeping. It is not its opposite in anything created, nor in what it seems to make when it believes it sleeps.

God creates only ind awake. He does not sleep, and His creations cannot share what He gives not, nor make conditions which He does not share with the. The thought of death is not the opposite to thoughts of life. Forever unopposed by opposites of any kind, the Thoughts of God remain forever changeless, with the power to extend forever changelessly, but yet within themselves, for they are everywhere.

What seems to be the opposite of life is merely sleeping. When the mind elects to be what it is not, and to assume an alien power which it does not have, a foreign state it cannot enter, or a false condition not within its Source, it merely seems to go to sleep a while. It dreams of time; an interval in which what seems to happen never has occurred, the changes wrought are substanceless, and all events are nowhere. When the mind awakes, it but continues as it always was.

Let us today be children of the truth, and not deny our holy heritage. Our life is not as we imagine it. Who changes life because he shuts his eyes, or makes himself what he is not because he sleeps, and sees in dreams an opposite to what he is? We will not ask for death in any form today. Nor will we let imagined opposites to life abide even an instant where the Thought of life eternal has been set by God Himself.

His holy home we strive to keep today as He established it, and wills it be forever and forever. He is Lord of what we think today. And in His Thoughts, which have no opposite, we understand there is one life, and that we share with Him, with all creation, with their thoughts as well, whom He created in a unity of life that cannot separate in death and leave the Source of life from where it came.

We share one life because we have one Source, a Source from which perfection comes to us, remaining always in the holy minds which He created perfect. As we were, so are we now and will forever be. A sleeping mind must waken, as it sees its own perfection mirroring the Lord of life so perfectly it fades into what is reflected there. And now it is no more a mere reflection. It becomes the thing reflected, and the light which makes reflection possible. No vision now is needed. For the wakened mind is one that knows its Source, its Self, its Holiness.

Miracles I'm noticing:

This has been a very transforming week for me. I'm finally back home in Fargo after 2 weeks in Florida. I learned so much, and will be looking forward to integrating my new learning into my current business. Perhaps the biggest thing I learned is that I've been on this path all along. As I let Spirit guide me, and really listen to my higher Self, I realize more and more that regardless of the specifics, there is only one destination. Spirit may use my personality or my individual gifts to assist me on my own path, but the destination is always assured.

By keeping my eyes on love and being awake to Spirit as opposed to asleep in ego, I can't go wrong! That's a miracle!

Day 166

Today's Lesson

I am entrusted with the gifts of God.

All things are given us. God's trust in us is limitless. He knows His Son. He gives without exception, holding nothing back that can contribute to our happiness. And yet, unless our will is one with His, His gifts are not received. But what would make us think there is another will than His?

Here is the paradox that underlies the making of the world. This world is not the Will of God, and so it is not real. Yet those who think it real must still believe there is another will, and one that leads to opposite effects from those He wills. Impossible indeed; but every mind that looks upon the world and judges it as certain, solid, trustworthy and true believes in two creators; or in one, himself alone. But never in one God.

The gifts of God are not acceptable to anyone who holds such strange beliefs. He must believe that to accept God's gifts, however evident they may become, however urgently he may be called to claim them as his own, is to be pressed to treachery against himself. He must deny their presence, contradict the truth, and suffer to preserve the world he made.

Here is the only home he thinks he knows. Here is the only safety he believes that he can find. Without the world he made is he an outcast; homeless and afraid. He does not realize that it is here he is afraid indeed, and homeless, too; an outcast wandering so far from home, so long away, he does not realize he has forgotten where he came from, where he goes, and even who he really is.

Yet in his lonely, senseless wanderings, God's gifts go with him, all unknown to him. He cannot lose them. But he will not look at what is given him. He wanders on, aware of the futility he sees about him everywhere, perceiving how his little lot but dwindles, as he goes ahead to nowhere. Still he wanders on in misery and poverty, alone though God is with him, and a treasure his so great that everything the world contains is valueless before its magnitude.

He seems a sorry figure; weary, worn, in threadbare clothing, and with feet that bleed a little from the rocky road he walks. No one but has identified with him, for everyone who comes here has pursued the path he follows, and has felt defeat and hopelessness as he is feeling them. Yet is he really tragic, when you see that he is following the way he chose, and need but realize Who walks with him and open up his treasures to be free?

This is our chosen self, the one we made as a replacement for reality. This is the self we savagely defend against all reason, every evidence, and all the witnesses with proof to show this is not us. We heed them not. We go on our appointed way, with eyes cast down lest we might catch a glimpse of truth, and be released from self-deception and set free.

We cower fearfully lest we should feel Christ's touch upon our shoulder, and perceive His gentle hand directing us to look upon our gifts. How could we then proclaim our poverty in exile? He would make us laugh at this perception of ourselves. Where is self-pity then? And what becomes of all the tragedy we sought to make for him whom God intended only joy?

Now do we live, for now we cannot die. The wish for death is answered, and the sight that looked upon it now has been replaced by vision which perceives that we are not what we pretend to be. One walks with us Who gently answers all our fears with this one merciful reply, "It is not so." He points to all the gifts we have each time the thought of poverty oppresses us, and speaks of His Companionship when we perceive ourselves as lonely and afraid.

Yet He reminds us still of one thing more we had forgotten. For His touch on us has made us like Himself. The gifts we have are not for us alone. What He has come to offer us, we now must learn to give. This is the lesson that His giving holds, for He has saved us from the solitude we sought to make in which to hide from God. He has reminded us of all the gifts that God has given us. He speaks as well of what becomes our will when we accept these gifts, and recognize they are our own.

The gifts are ours, entrusted to our care, to give to all who chose the lonely road we have escaped. They do not understand they but pursue their wishes. It is we who teach them now. For we have learned of Christ there is another way for them to walk. Teach them by showing them the happiness that comes to those who feel the touch of Christ, and recognize God's gifts. Let sorrow not tempt us to be unfaithful to our trust.

Our signs will now betray the hopes of those who look to us for their release. Our tears are theirs. If we are sick, we but withhold their healing. What we fear but teaches them their fears are justified. Our hand becomes the giver of Christ's touch; our change of mind becomes the proof that who accepts God's gifts can never suffer anything. We are entrusted with the world's release from pain.

Betray it not. Become the living proof of what Christ's touch can offer everyone. God has entrusted all His gifts to us. Be witness in our happiness to how transformed the mind becomes which chooses to accept His gifts, and feel the touch of Christ. Such is our mission now. For God entrusts the giving of His gifts to all who have received them. He has shared His joy with us. And now we go to share it with the world.

Miracles I'm noticing:

This lesson is so powerful that I really don't need to add much here. I've just spent an incredible week with some very amazing people at Bob Proctor's Life Success Consultant training and I am transformed as I return home today. As I read today's lesson and really internalize its message, I realize that my fear only holds the world back. As I change my mind, I prove that anyone who accepts the gifts they have been given can never suffer anything. As I shift, the world shifts.

That's my miracle for today!

Day 165

Today's Lesson:

Let not my mind deny the Thought of God.

What makes this world seem real except our own denial of the truth that lies beyond? What but our thoughts of misery and death obscure the perfect happiness and the eternal life our Father wills for us? And what could hide what cannot be concealed except illusion? What could keep from us what we already have except our choice to see it not denying it is there?

The Thought of God created us. It left us not, nor have we ever been apart from it an instant. It belongs to us. By it we live. It is our Source of life, holding us one with it, and everything is one with us because it left us not. The Thought of God protects us, cares for us, makes soft our resting place and smooth our way, lighting our minds with happiness and love. Eternity and everlasting life shine in our minds, because the Thought of God has left us not, and still abides with us.

Who would deny his safety and his peace, his joy, his healing and his peace of mind, his quiet rest, his calm awakening, if he but recognized where they abide? Would he not instantly prepare to go where they are found, abandoning all else as worthless in comparison with them? And having found them, would he not make sure they stay with him, and he remain with them?

Deny not Heaven. It is ours today, but for the asking. Nor need we perceive how great the gift, how changed our minds will be before it comes to us. Ask to receive, and it is given us. Conviction lies within it. Till we welcome it as ours, uncertainty remains. Yet God is fair. Sureness is not required to receive what only our acceptance can bestow.

Ask with desire. We need not be sure that we request the only thing we want. But when we have received, we will be sure we have the treasure we have always sought. What would we then exchange for it? What would induce us now to let it fade away from our ecstatic vision? For this sight proves that we have exchanged our blindness for the seeing eyes of Christ; our minds have come to lay side denial, and accept the Thought of God as our inheritance.

Now is all doubting past, the journey's end made certain, and salvation given us. Now is Christ's power in our mind, to heal as we were healed. For now we are among the saviors of the world. Our destiny lies there and nowhere else. Would God consent to let His Son remain forever starved by his denial of the nourishment he needs to live? Abundance dwells in him, and deprivation cannot cut him off from God's sustaining Love and from his home.

Practice today in hope. For hope indeed is justified. Our doubts are meaningless, for God is certain. And the Thought of Him is never absent. Sureness must abide within us who are host to Him. This course removes all doubts which we have interposed between Him and our certainty of Him.

We count on God, and not upon ourselves, to give us certainty. And in His Name we practice as His Word directs we do. His sureness lies beyond our every doubt. His Love remains beyond our every fear. The Thought of Him is still beyond all dreams and in our minds, according to His Will.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I'm off to spend the day at a seminar with Bob Proctor AND Michael Beckwith. That's surely a miracle!

Day 164

Today's Lesson:

Now are we one with Him Who is our Source.

What time but now can truth be recognized? The present is the only time there is. And so today, this instant, now, we come to look upon what is forever there; not in our sight, but in the eyes of Christ. He looks past time, and sees eternity as represented there. He hears the sounds the senseless, busy world engenders, yet He hears them faintly. For beyond them all He hears the song of Heaven, and the Voice for God more clear, more meaningful, more near.

The world fades easily away before His sight. Its sounds grow dim. A melody from far beyond the world increasingly is more and more distinct; an ancient call to which He gives an ancient answer. We will recognize them both, for they are but our answer to our Father's Call to us. Christ answers for us, echoing our Self, using our voice to give His glad consent; accepting our deliverance for us.

How holy is our practicing today, as Christ give us His sight and hears for us, and answers in our name the Call He hears! How quiet is the time we give to spend with Him, beyond the world. How easily are all our seeming sins forgot, and all our sorrows unremembered. On this day is grief laid by, for sights and sounds that come from nearer than the world are clear to us who will today accept the gifts He gives.

We will not judge today. We will receive but what is given us from judgment made beyond the world. Our practicing today becomes our gift of thankfulness for our release from blindness and from misery. All that we see will but increase our joy, because its holiness reflects our own. We stand forgiven in the sight of Christ, with all the world forgiven in our own. We bless the world, as we behold it in the light in which our Savior looks on us, and offer it the freedom given us through His forgiving vision, not our own.

Open the curtain in your practicing by merely letting go all things you think you want. Your trifling treasures put away, and leave a clean and open space within your mind where Christ can come, and offer you the treasure of salvation. He has need of your most holy mind to save the world. Is not this purpose worthy to be yours? Is not Christ's vision worthy to be sought above the world's unsatisfying goals?

Let not today slip by without the gifts it holds for you receiving your consent and your acceptance. We can change the world, if you acknowledge them. You may not see the value your acceptance gives the world. But this you surely want; you can exchange all suffering for joy this very day. Practice in earnest, and the gift is yours. Would God deceive you? Can His promise fail? Can you withhold so little, when His Hand holds out complete salvation to His Son?

Miracles I'm noticing:

I have met the most incredible people at this training! I've just spent breakfast with the person who is teaching yoga on the beach, a woman who is transforming the inner city life of families near LA and a man who has studied this course for 2 1/2 years at a academy where they studied 4 hours a day, 6 days a week. I'm blessed and grateful to be in this space at this time.

I also hear for myself the power of today's lesson. As I give up and let go of the things I think I want, I can then accept the gifts offered to me. Acceptance does not equal suffering - I can choose to give that up. And the gifts of Spirit will be there to fill any voids I think there will be.

That is truly a miracle!

Day 163

Today's Lesson:

There is no death. The Son of God is free.

Death is a thought that takes on many forms, often unrecognized. It may appear as sadness, fear, anxiety or doubt; as anger, faithlessness and lack of trust; concern for bodies, envy, and all forms in which the wish to be as we are not may come to tempt us. All such thoughts are but reflections of the worshipping of death as savior and as giver of release.

Embodiment of fear, the host of sin, god of the guilty and the lord of all illusions and deceptions, does the thought of death seem mighty. For it seems to hold all living things within its withered hand; all hopes and wishes in its blighting grasp; all goals perceived but in its sightless eyes. The frail, the helpless and the sick bow down before its image, thinking it alone is real, inevitable, worthy of their trust. For it alone will surely come.

All things but death are seen to be unsure, too quickly lost however hard to gain, uncertain in their outcome, apt to fail the hopes they once engendered, and to leave the taste of dust and ashes in their wake, in place of aspirations and of dreams. But death is counted on. For it will come with certain footsteps when the time has come for its arrival. It will never fail to take all life as hostage to itself.

Would we bow down to idols such as this? Here is the strength and might of God Himself perceived within an idol made of dust. Here is the opposite of God proclaimed as lord of all creation, stronger than God's Will for life, the endlessness of love and Heaven's perfect, changeless constancy. Here is the Will of Father and of Son defeated finally, and laid to rest beneath the headstone death has placed upon the body of the holy Son of God.

It is impossible to worship death in any form, and still select a few we would not cherish and would yet avoid, while still believing in the rest. For death is total. Either all things die, or else they live and cannot die. No compromise is possible. For here again we see an obvious position, which we must accept if we be sane; what contradicts one thought entirely can not be true, unless its opposite is proven false.

The idea of the death of God is so preposterous that even the insane have difficulty in believing it. For it implies that God was once alive and somehow perished; killed, apparently, by those who did not want Him to survive. Their stronger will could triumph over His, and so eternal life gave way to death. And with the Father died the Son as well.

Death's worshippers may be afraid. And yet, can thoughts like these be fearful? If they saw that it is only this which they believe, they would be instantly released. And we will show them this today. There is no death, and we renounce it now in every form, for their salvation and our own as well. God made not death. Whatever form it takes must therefore be illusion. This is the stand we take today. And it is given us to look past death, and see the life beyond.

Our Father, bless our eyes today. We are Your messengers, and we would look upon the glorious reflection of Your Love which shines in everything. We live and move in You alone. We are not separate from Your eternal life. There is no death, for death is not Your Will. And we abide where You have placed us, in the life we share with You and with all living things, to be like You and part of You forever. We accept Your Thoughts as ours, and our will is one with Yours eternally. Amen.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I got up at 5 a.m. this morning and went out to the beach (we're right on the Atlantic) where we were doing group yoga at 6. It was so peaceful out there with the sliver of a moon shining on the water and the waves crashing softly on the shore. As people started making their way out to the beach, it became more evident that I wasn't alone in sharing this experience, and that we were all of like mind. As the sun started to come up and we took our places on the sand, I started to understand even more the universal Mind and the power of collective consciousness. Although I've never done yoga before, I can see that I will join the group again tomorrow to connect with myself - and my Self - as well as with the others who shared the experience.

I will think more about today's lesson throughout the day today and will reflect more tomorrow.

I'm on my way to spend two hours in a small group with Bob Proctor - talk about sitting at the feet of a master!

Miracles to report tomorrow!

Day 162

Today's Lesson:

I am as God created me.

This single thought, held firmly in the mind, would save the world. From time to time we will repeat it, as we reach another stage in learning. It will mean far more to us as we advance. These words are sacred, for they are the words God gave in answer to the world we made. By them it disappears, and all things seen within its misty clouds and vaporous illusions vanish as these words are spoken. For they come from God.

Holy indeed is he who makes these words his own; arising with them in his mind, recalling them throughout the day, at night bringing them with him as he goes to sleep. His dreams are happy and his rest secure, his safety certain and his body healed, because he sleeps and wakens with the truth before him always. He will save the world, because he gives the world what he receives each time he practices the words of truth.

Today we practice simply. For the words we use are mighty, and they need no thoughts beyond themselves to change the mind of him who uses them. So wholly is it changed that it is now the treasury in which God places all His gifts and all His Love, to be distributed to all the world, increased in giving; kept complete because its sharing is unlimited. And thus we learn to think with God. Christ's vision has restored our sight by salvaging our mind.

We are honored today. Ours is the right to perfect holiness we now accept. With this acceptance is salvation brought to everyone, for who could cherish sin when holiness like this has blessed the world? Who could despair when perfect joy is ours, available to all as remedy for grief and misery, all sense of loss, and for complete escape from sin and guilt?

We are as God created us. These words dispel the night, and darkness is no more. The light is come today to bless the world. For we have recognized the Son of God, and in that recognition is the world's.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I really resonate with today's lesson. I do believe that if each of us accepted those words - "I am as God created me" - we really could change the world. I've spent so much of my life trying desperately to be what I'm not - to be what I thought others wanted me to be - and have had to reacquaint myself with who I really am.

Today's text talks about the truth. It says that the search for truth is but the honest searching out of everything that interferes with truth. Truth is. It can neither be lost nor sought nor found. It is there, wherever you are, being within you. If you hide it, it becomes unreal to you because you hid it and surrounded it with fear.

That truth is who we each are - and we are as God created us. That is the truth. We have been defining ourselves as we are not created. Our creation was not a point of view, but rather a certainty. Uncertainty brought to certainty does not retain any conviction of reality.

The text goes on to say that our emphasis has been on bringing what is undesirable to the desirable; what we do not want to what we do. We will realize that salvation must come to us this way, if we consider what dissociation is. Dissociation is a distorted process of thinking whereby two systems of belief which cannot coexist are both maintained. If they are brought together, their joint acceptance becomes impossible. But if one is kept in darkness from the other, their separation seems to keep them both alive and equal in their reality. Their joining thus becomes a source of fear, for if they meet, acceptance must be withdrawn from one of them.

We also learn that light cannot enter darkness when a mind believes in darkness, and will not let it go. Truth does not struggle against ignorance, and love does not attack fear. Wat needs no protection does not defend itself. We make defense. God does not know it. Because we've made defense, the Holy Spirit will use defenses on behalf of truth. This is the role of the Holy Spirit - to use the defenses we have made to turn our self-destruction to means of preservation and release.

We are not asked to do these mighty tasks by ourselves. We are merely asked to do the little the Holy Spirit suggests we do, trusting Him only to the small extent of believing that, if He asks it, we can do it. We will see how easily all that He asks can be accomplished.

This is such a relief! We are simply to bring Him all those secrets we have locked away. He holds the light and we the darkness. They cannot coexist when both of Us together look on them. We cannot see alone. Sharing perception with Him Who God has given us teaches us how to recognize what we see.

I am as God created me. That realization and acceptance is a wonderful miracle!

Day 161

Today's Lesson:

Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.

Today we practice differently, and take a stand against our anger, that our fears may disappear and offer room to love. Here is salvation in the simple words in which we practice with today's idea. Here is the answer to temptation which can never fail to welcome in the Christ where fear and anger had prevailed before. Here is Atonement made complete, the world passed safely by and Heaven now restored. Here is the answer of the Voice for God.

Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind. But part of it is now unnatural. It does not look on everything as one. It sees instead but fragments of the whole, for only thus could it invent the partial world we see.

One brother is all brothers. Every mind contains all minds, for every mind is one. Such is the truth. Yet do these thoughts make clear the meaning of creation? Do these words bring perfect clarity with them to us? What can they seem to be but empty sounds; pretty, perhaps, correct in sentiment, yet fundamentally not understood nor understandable. The mind that taught itself to think specifically can no longer grasp abstraction in the sense that it is all-encompassing. We need to see a little, that we learn a lot.

Bodies attack, but minds do not. This thought is surely reminiscent of our text, where it is often emphasized. This is the reason bodies easily become fear's symbols. We have many times been urged to look beyond the body, for its sight presents the symbol of love's "enemy" Christ's vision does not see. The body is the target for attack, for no one thinks he hates a mind. Yet what but mind directs the body to attack? What else could be the seat of fear except what thinks of fear?

Hate is specific. There must be a thing to be attacked. An enemy must be perceived in such a form he can be touched and seen and hear, and ultimately killed. When hatred rests upon a thing, it calls for death as surely as God's Voice proclaims there is no death. Fear is insatiable, consuming everything its eyes behold, seeing itself in everything, compelled to turn upon itself and to destroy.

Who sees a brother as a body sees him as fear's symbol. And he will attack, because what he beholds is his own fear external to himself, poised to attack, and howling to unite with him again. Mistake not the intensity of rage projected fear must spawn, It shrieks in wrath, and claws the air in frantic hopes it can reach to its maker and devour him.

This do the body's eyes behold in one whom Heaven cherishes, the angels love and God created perfect. This is his reality. And in Christ's vision is his loveliness reflected in a form so holy and so beautiful that we could scarce refrain from kneeling at his feet. Yet we will take his hand instead, for we are like him in the sight that sees him this way. Attack on him is enemy to us, for we will not perceive that in his hands is our salvation. Ask him but for this, and he will give it to us. Ask him not to symbolize our fear. Would we request that love destroy itself? Or would we have it be revealed to us and set us free?

Today we practice in a form we have attempted earlier. Our readiness is closer now, and we will come today nearer Christ's vision. If we are intent on reaching it, we will succeed today. And once we have succeeded, we will not be willing to accept the witnesses our body's eyes call forth.
What we will see will sing to us of ancient melodies we will remember. We are not forgot in Heaven. Would we not remember it?

Select one brother, symbol of the rest, and ask salvation of him. See him first as clearly as you can, in that same form to which you are accustomed. See his face, his hands and feet, his clothing. Watch him smile, and see familiar gestures which he makes so frequently. Then think of this: What you are seeing now conceals from you the sight of one who can forgive you all your sins; whose sacred hands can take away the nails which pierce your own, and lift the crown of thorns which you have placed upon your bleeding head. Ask this of him, that he may set you free:

Give me your blessing, holy Son of God. I would behold you with the eyes of Christ, and see my perfect sinlessness in you.

And He will answer Whom you called upon. For He will hear the Voice for God in you, and answer in your own. Behold him now, whom you have seen as merely flesh and bone, and recognize that Christ has come to you. Today's idea is your safe escape from anger and from fear. Be sure you use it instantly, should you be tempted to attack a brother and perceive in him the symbol of your fear. And you will see him suddenly transformed from enemy to savior; from the devil into Christ.

Miracles I'm noticing:

As I read through today's lesson, I'm reminded of something my friend Sharon told me on Friday night. Although she was raised Jewish, she was married in the Catholic Church and has raised her daughters Catholic. She says her husband is a recovering Catholic, so I think they see the world as bigger than either of their religions. She said from all of the awakening she's seeing and hearing about in the world, she thinks the second coming of Christ is the awakening of Christ consciousness in all of us. After all, the Bible (and probably the Koran and Torah and whatever other holy books are out there) tells us that we can do everything Jesus does and more. That would support the notion that our awakening is part of the Christ consciousness.

I used to think that Jesus and Christ were the same thing - the same person - but now I understand that, according to the clarification of terms in the back of our course book,

the name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his self from Self, as all illusions do. Yet who can save unless he sees illusions and then identifies them as what they are? Jesus remains a Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true. And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusions.

As we try to reconstruct the life of Jesus from a historical perspective, we find that it's not as easy as reading the New Testament. There is a lot more to Jesus than what our Christian Bible tells us. Again from the course:

In his complete identification with the Christ - the perfect Son of God, His one creation and His happiness, forever like Himself and one with Him - Jesus became what all of you must be. He led the way for you to follow him. He leads you back to God because he saw the road before him, and he followed it. He made a clear distinction, still obscure to you, between the false and true. He offered you a final demonstration that it is is impossible to kill God's Son; ore can his life in any way be changed by sin and evil, malice, fear or death.

And therefore all your sins have been forgiven because they carried no effects at all. And so they were but dreams. Arise with him who showed you this because you owe him this who shared your dreams that they might be dispelled. And shares them still, to be at one with you.

Is he the Christ? O yes, along with you. His little life on earth was not enough to teach the mighty lesson that he learned for all of you. He will remain with you to lead you from the hell you made to God. And when you join your will with his, your sight will be his vision, for the eyes of Christ are shared. Walking with him is just as natural as walking with a brother whom you knew since you were born, for such indeed he is. Some bitter idols have been made of him who would be only brother to the world. Forgive him your illusions, and behold how dear a brother he would be to you. For he will set your mind at rest at last and carry it with you unto your God.

Is he God's only Helper? No, indeed. For Christ takes many forms with different names until their oneness can be recognized. But Jesus is for you the bearer of Christ's single message of the Love of God. You need no other. It is possible to read his words and benefit from them without accepting him into your life. Yet he would help you yet a little more if you will share your pains and joys with him, and leave them both to find the peace of God.

That might sound heretical to mainline Christians; however, what in that passage goes against traditional Christianity, other than that there might be other paths to God than in Jesus alone? Everything else supports mainline Christianity without the fear that seems to prevail throughout any mainline religion. As I recognize my own fears from my traditional Christian upbringing, I can shift those fears to love by trying to understand the perspective from which those thoughts came. I can use my intellectual faculties, as I'm learning from my Bob Proctor materials, of reason, will, perception, memory, imagination and intuition to understand love as opposed to fear. And that, for me, is a definite miracle!

I'm reminded of the new Martina McBride song "Anyway," which, itself, reminds me of a poem by Mother Teresa. Here are the words to that song:

You can spend your whole life building
Something from nothin'
One storm can come and blow it all away
Build it anyway

You can chase a dream
That seems so out of reach
And you know it might not ever come your way
Dream it anyway

God is great
But sometimes life ain't good
And when I pray
It doesn't always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway
I do it anyway

This world's gone crazy
It's hard to believe
That tomorrow will be better than today
Believe it anyway

You can love someone with all your heart
For all the right reasons
In a moment they can choose to walk away
Love 'em anyway

God is great
But sometimes life ain't good
And when I pray
It doesn't always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway
Yea - I do it anyway

You can pour your soul out singing
A song you believe in
That tomorrow they'll forget you ever sang
Sing it anyway
Yea - sing it anyway

I sing
I dream
I love
Anyway

CHOOSE LOVE, NOT FEAR. That's the miracle!

Day 160

Today's Lesson:

I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.

Fear is a stranger to the ways of love. Identify with fear, and you will be a stranger to yourself. And thus you are unknown to you. What is your Self remains an alien to the part of you which think that it is real, but different from yourself. Who could be sane in such a circumstance? Who but a madman could believe he is what he is not, and judge against himself?

There is a stranger in our midst, who comes from an idea so foreign to the truth he speaks a different language, looks upon a world truth does not know, and understands what truth regards as senseless. Stranger yet, he does not recognize to whom he comes, and and yet maintains his home belongs to him, while he is alien now who is at home. And yet, how easy it would be to say, "This is my home. Here I belong, and will not leave because a madman says I must."

What reason could there be for not saying this except that we had asked this stranger in to take our place, and let us be a stranger to ourselves? No one would let himself be dispossessed so needlessly, unless he thoughts there were another home more suited to his tastes.

Who is the stranger? Is it fear or we who are unsuited to the home which God provided for His Son? Is fear His Own, created in His likeness? Is it fear that love completes, and is completed by? There is no home can shelter love and fear. They cannot coexist. If we are real, then fear must be illusion. And if fear is real, then we do not exist at all.

How simply, then, the question is resolved. Who fears has but denied himself and said, "I am the stranger here. And so I leave my home to one more like me than myself, and give him all I thought belonged to me." Now are we exiled of necessity, not knowing who we are, uncertain of all things but this; that we are not ourselves, and that our home has been denied to us.

What do we search for now? What can we find? A stranger to ourselves can find no home wherever he may look, for he has made return impossible. His way is lost, except a miracles will search him out and show him that he is no stranger now. The miracle will come. For in our home our Self remains. It asked no stranger in, and took no alien thought to be Itself. And It will call Its Own unto Itself in recognition of what is Its Own.

Who is the stranger? Is he not the one our Self calls not? We are unable now to recognize this stranger in our midst, for we have given him our rightful place. Yet is our Self as certain of Its Own as God is of His Son. He cannot be confused about creation. He is sure of what belongs to Him. No stranger can be interposed between His knowledge and His Son's reality. He does not know of strangers He is certain of His Son.

God's certainty suffices. Who He knows to be His Son belongs where He has set His Son forever. He has answered us who ask, "Who is the stranger?" We are to hear His Voice assure us, quietly and sure, that we are not a stranger to our Father, nor is our Creator stranger made to us. Whom God has joined remain forever one, at home in Him, no stranger to Himself.

Today we offer thanks that Christ has come to search the world for what belongs to Him. His vision sees no strangers, but beholds His Own and joyously unites with them. They see Him as a stranger, for they do not recognize themselves. Yet as they give Him welcome, they remember. And He leads them gently home again, where they belong.

Not one does Christ forget. Not one He fails to give us to remember, that our home may be complete and perfect as it was established. He has not forgotten us. But we will not remember Him until we look on all as He does. Who denies his brother is denying Him, and thus refusing to accept the gift of sight by which his Self is clearly recognized, his home remembered and salvation come.

Miracles I'm noticing:

My conversations are definitely getting bigger. I spent a couple of hours last night with my friend Sharon, who lives here in Palm Beach Gardens. I met Sharon in 2004 when she was in my coaching certification class, which we completed entirely by phone. We feel as if we know each other very well, but we had never met in person. It didn't matter - we immediately delved into very deep and meaningful conversation - even though we were at Chili's, and directly behind a table of women having a lot of fun.

We talked about this Course, which Sharon is familiar with, but has not studied. We have so much in common! We will get together again this week in between my Bob Proctor studies.

I'm certain I'll have a lot of opportunities to apply what I'm learning here with what I'll learn next week. But for today, I'm going to relax!! Beach - here I come!

Day 159

Today's Lesson:

I give the miracles I have received.

No one can give what he has not received To give a thing requires first we have it in our own possession. Here the laws of Heaven and the world agree. But here they also separate. The world believes that to possess a thing, it must be kept. Salvation teaches otherwise. To give is how to recognize we have received. It is the proof that what we have is ours.

We understand that we are healed when we give healing We accept forgiveness as accomplished in ourselves when we forgive. We recognize our brother as ourself, and thus do we perceive that we are whole. There is no miracle we cannot give, for all are given us. Receive them now by opening the storehouse of our minds where they are laid, and giving them away.

Christ's vision is the miracle in which all miracles are born. It is their source, remaining with each miracle we give, and yet remaining ours. It is the bond by which the giver and receiver are united in extension here on earth, as they are one in Heaven. Christ beholds no sin in anyone. And in His sight the sinless are as one. Their holiness was given by His Father and Himself.

Christ's vision is the bridge between the worlds. And in its power can we safely trust to carry us from this world into one made holy by forgiveness. Things which seem quite solid here are merely shadows there; transparent, faintly seen, at times forgot, and never able to obscure the light that shines beyond them. Holiness has been restored to vision, and the blind can see.
This is the Holy Spirit's single gift; the treasure house to which we can appeal with perfect certainty for all the things that can contribute to our happiness All are laid here already. All can be received but for the asking. Here the door is never locked, and no one is denied his least request or his most urgent need. There is no sickness not already healed, no lack unsatisfied, no need unmet within this golden treasury of Christ.

Behold the store of miracles set out for us to give. Are we not worth the gift, when God appointed it be given us? Judge not God's Son, but follow in the way He has established. Christ has dreamed the dream of a forgiven world. It is His gift, whereby a sweet transition can be made from death to life; from hopelessness to hope. Let us an instant dream with Him. His dream awakens us to truth. His vision gives the means for a return to our unlost and everlasting sanctity in God.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I spent a good portion of the evening last night at a Starbucks close to my hotel (not the nicest hotel, but what do you do on the road? :) ) where I experienced a lot of joy. This is a rather small community near Clearwater, Florida, called Palm Harbor and last night everyone seemed to know everyone. I don't normally hang out at coffee shops in the evening, so I didn't really know what went on after I go home (I'm usually in coffee shops during the day). It was like being at a bar where people hang out, except no one was drunk, the music was at a very pleasant level (and this Starbucks music is fabulous - right now I think it's the Doors playing ....).

Everyone who came in was joyful and pleasant and I had a great time catching up on emails and other work while feeling like a part of the community. I experienced firsthand, without anyone realizing I was observing, the power of BEING and what a positive effect that has on everyone in the vicinity.

This morning at the same coffee shop, the feeling is similar, but not the same. The person who took my order wasn't quite as pleasant - maybe because it's a lot busier here this morning than it was last night. But the people who are in the shop still seem to know each other and are patiently waiting for their drinks. I'm having a great time just observing the effects of giving the miracles we have received.

I'm not sure how many people are actually aware of today's lesson - and I'm thinking about the distinction if we all were. If it's this powerfully energetic without the knowledge, what would it be like with that knowledge? But as I typed that, I realized that there really isn't an "us and them" - they're all merely reflections of me to me. As I notice the miracles, they become very obvious to me. I really can affect the entire room with my awareness.

I'm reminded of the movie "The Peaceful Warrior" where Nick Nolte's character Socrates takes Daniel outside and has him look around and tell him what's happening. Daniel looks quickly around the campus and says, "Nothing's happening." Socrates has Dan look more closely and tells him "There is never nothing happening." As Dan looks around again, he notices thousands of details that had always passed him by because he wasn't awake to seeing them.

That is how we can continue to see miracles right in front of our eyes every single day.

Just notice one miracle in your life today and write to us about it. I'm betting you'll see dozens and dozens.

Today's lesson reminds us that we can't give away what we don't have. But when we really think about it, there's pretty much nothing we can't give away ... so we have so much more than we realize. As we give, we really don't lose that which we give. Take a smile, for example. If you give away a smile, you receive smiles back tenfold. Try it today. Give away a smile. You can't give it if you don't already have it. And it will amaze you how many you get back.

That's as complicated as miracles are. And there are MILLIONS of them all around. Just notice!