November 29th 2014  Lesson 255

Part II  Introduction

• We will continue spending time with God each morning and night and at each waking hour, using all future lessons as introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain, and go to enter peace, calling to God when we have need of Him as we are tempted to forget our goal.  During these holy times, we will say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal Himself to us, as He has promised that He would when we invited Him.
  
  This is how our times with Him will now be spent:  we say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us.  Sit silently and wait upon your Father.  He has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will He do so.  We need only call to God, and all temptations disappear.  Instead of words, we need but feel His Love.  Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name.  Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. 
  
  Our lessons will now be preceded by a theme of special relevance that we should review before each lesson until another is given us.  They should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the holy times we sit in silence and wait for God to reveal Himself to us.  The next of these special thoughts follow and are relevant to lessons 251 - 260:

    4. What Is Sin

  Sin is insanity. It is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks to let illusions take the place of truth.  And being mad, it sees illusions where the truth should be, and where it really is.  Sin gave the body eyes, for what is there the sinless would behold?  What need have they of sights or sounds or touch?  What would they hear or reach to grasp?  What would they sense at all?  To sense is not to know.  And truth can be but filled with knowledge, and with nothing else.
    
  The body is the instrument the mind made in its efforts to deceive itself.  Its purpose is to strive. Yet can the goal of striving change.  And now the body serves a different aim for striving.  What it seeks for now is chosen by the aim the mind has taken as replacement for the goal of self-deception.  Truth can be its aim as well as lies.  The senses then will seek instead for witnesses to what is true.
    
  Sin is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue.  They are the "proof" that what has no reality is real.  Sin "proves" God's Son is evil; timelessness must have an end; eternal life must die.  And God Himself has lost the Son He loves, with but corruption to complete Himself, His Will forever overcome by death, love slain by hate, and peace to be no more.
    
  A madman's dreams are frightening, and sin appears indeed to terrify.  And yet what sin perceives is but a childish game.  The Son of God may play he has become a body, prey to evil and to guilt, with but a little life that ends in death.  But all the while his Father shines on him, and loves him with an everlasting Love which his pretenses cannot change at all.
     
  How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of sin?  Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children's toys?  How soon will you be ready to come home?  Perhaps today?  There is no sin.  Creation is unchanged.  Would you still hold return to Heaven back?  How long, O holy Son of God, how long?

  Lesson 255

  This day I choose to spend in perfect peace  

• It does not seem to me that I can choose to have but peace today.  And yet, my God assures me that His Son is like Himself.  Let me this day have faith in Him Who says I am God's Son.  And let the peace I choose be mine today bear witness to the truth of what He says.  God's Son can have no cares, and must remain forever in the peace of Heaven.  In His Name, I give today to finding what my Father wills for me, accepting it as mine, and giving it to all my Father's Sons, along with me.
    
• Invitation Prayer:  And so my Father, would I pass this day with You.  Your son has not forgotten You.  The peace You gave him still is in his mind, and it is there I choose to spend today.

---

Insights/comments:

• That we can choose to have a day of perfect peace may seem a bit optimistic and perhaps deluded, in the eyes of the world, but is this not what it means to create our own experience, and is this not an ability inherent in a child of God?  We have this ability, even though we have forgotten it, or choose to believe ourselves unworthy of it by denying our true identity.  It is God's Will that we be happy and fulfilled, and His Will provides the means for its fulfillment, which means we must always be as God created us.  Perfect peace must therefore be our natural state of being, and all else simply illusions, fantasies, and dreams.  We can choose either to remain in our natural state of perfect peace or choose illusions.  Let us today choose peace.

I and my Creator are One. 

November 28th 2014  Lesson 254

Part II  Introduction

• We will continue spending time with God each morning and night and at each waking hour, using all future lessons as introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain, and go to enter peace, calling to God when we have need of Him as we are tempted to forget our goal.  During these holy times, we will say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal Himself to us, as He has promised that He would when we invited Him.
  
  This is how our times with Him will now be spent:  we say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us.  Sit silently and wait upon your Father.  He has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will He do so.  We need only call to God, and all temptations disappear.  Instead of words, we need but feel His Love.  Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name.  Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. 
  
  Our lessons will now be preceded by a theme of special relevance that we should review before each lesson until another is given us.  They should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the holy times we sit in silence and wait for God to reveal Himself to us.  The next of these special thoughts follow and are relevant to lessons 251 - 260:

    4. What Is Sin

  Sin is insanity. It is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks to let illusions take the place of truth.  And being mad, it sees illusions where the truth should be, and where it really is.  Sin gave the body eyes, for what is there the sinless would behold?  What need have they of sights or sounds or touch?  What would they hear or reach to grasp?  What would they sense at all?  To sense is not to know.  And truth can be but filled with knowledge, and with nothing else.
    
  The body is the instrument the mind made in its efforts to deceive itself.  Its purpose is to strive. Yet can the goal of striving change.  And now the body serves a different aim for striving.  What it seeks for now is chosen by the aim the mind has taken as replacement for the goal of self-deception.  Truth can be its aim as well as lies.  The senses then will seek instead for witnesses to what is true.
    
  Sin is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue.  They are the "proof" that what has no reality is real.  Sin "proves" God's Son is evil; timelessness must have an end; eternal life must die.  And God Himself has lost the Son He loves, with but corruption to complete Himself, His Will forever overcome by death, love slain by hate, and peace to be no more.
    
  A madman's dreams are frightening, and sin appears indeed to terrify.  And yet what sin perceives is but a childish game.  The Son of God may play he has become a body, prey to evil and to guilt, with but a little life that ends in death.  But all the while his Father shines on him, and loves him with an everlasting Love which his pretenses cannot change at all.
     
  How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of sin?  Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children's toys?  How soon will you be ready to come home?  Perhaps today?  There is no sin.  Creation is unchanged.  Would you still hold return to Heaven back?  How long, O holy Son of God, how long?

  Lesson 254

  Let every voice but God's be still in me.  

• Invitation Prayer:  Father, today I would but hear Your Voice.  In deepest silence I would come to You, to hear Your Voice and to receive Your Word.  I have no prayer but this:  I come to You to ask You for the truth.  And truth is but Your Will, which I would share with You today.
     
• Today we let no ego thoughts direct our words or actions.  When such thoughts occur, we quietly step back and look at them, and then we let them go.  We do not want what they would bring with them.  And so we do not choose to keep them.  They are silent now.  And in the stillness, hallowed by His Love, God speaks to us and tells us of our will, as we have chosen to remember Him.
  

---

Insights/comments:

• The voices we hear and give heed too are usually the voices of our ego, the self we think we are or wish to be.  But there is another voice, a small quiet Voice we hear most clearly when we are deep in silence, but it is with us at every moment.  It is this clear calm Voice that reminds us of our true identity as a child of God, of love, and of our true purpose here.  This the Voice we want to hear and heed above all other voices for this is God's Voice in us, and as us.  Let us practice listening to His Voice, first in our moments of silence, then in every moment.  God’s voice speaks to us of Truth and Love and Joy and Peace.   Our ego is concerned with doubt, fear, and conflict, so choose wisely to what voice you listen. 

I and my Creator are One. 

November 27th 2014  Lesson 253

Part II  Introduction

• We will continue spending time with God each morning and night and at each waking hour, using all future lessons as introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain, and go to enter peace, calling to God when we have need of Him as we are tempted to forget our goal.  During these holy times, we will say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal Himself to us, as He has promised that He would when we invited Him.
  
  This is how our times with Him will now be spent:  we say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us.  Sit silently and wait upon your Father.  He has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will He do so.  We need only call to God, and all temptations disappear.  Instead of words, we need but feel His Love.  Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name.  Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. 
  
  Our lessons will now be preceded by a theme of special relevance that we should review before each lesson until another is given us.  They should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the holy times we sit in silence and wait for God to reveal Himself to us.  The next of these special thoughts follow and are relevant to lessons 251 - 260:

    4. What Is Sin

  Sin is insanity. It is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks to let illusions take the place of truth.  And being mad, it sees illusions where the truth should be, and where it really is.  Sin gave the body eyes, for what is there the sinless would behold?  What need have they of sights or sounds or touch?  What would they hear or reach to grasp?  What would they sense at all?  To sense is not to know.  And truth can be but filled with knowledge, and with nothing else.
    
  The body is the instrument the mind made in its efforts to deceive itself.  Its purpose is to strive. Yet can the goal of striving change.  And now the body serves a different aim for striving.  What it seeks for now is chosen by the aim the mind has taken as replacement for the goal of self-deception.  Truth can be its aim as well as lies.  The senses then will seek instead for witnesses to what is true.
    
  Sin is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue.  They are the "proof" that what has no reality is real.  Sin "proves" God's Son is evil; timelessness must have an end; eternal life must die.  And God Himself has lost the Son He loves, with but corruption to complete Himself, His Will forever overcome by death, love slain by hate, and peace to be no more.
    
  A madman's dreams are frightening, and sin appears indeed to terrify.  And yet what sin perceives is but a childish game.  The Son of God may play he has become a body, prey to evil and to guilt, with but a little life that ends in death.  But all the while his Father shines on him, and loves him with an everlasting Love which his pretenses cannot change at all.
     
  How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of sin?  Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children's toys?  How soon will you be ready to come home?  Perhaps today?  There is no sin.  Creation is unchanged.  Would you still hold return to Heaven back?  How long, O holy Son of God, how long?

  Lesson 253

  My Self is ruler of the universe.  

• It is impossible that anything should come to me unbidden by myself.  Even in this world, it is I who rule my destiny.  What happens is what I desire.  What does not occur is what I do not want to happen.  This must I accept.  For thus am I led past this world to my creations, children of my will, in Heaven where my holy Self abides with them and Him Who has created me.
    
• Invitation Prayer:  You are the Self Whom You created Son, creating like Yourself and One with You.  My Self, which rules the universe, is but Your Will in perfect union with my own, which can but offer glad assent to Yours, that it may be extended to Itself.

---

Insights/comments:

• God is one and there is nothing that is other than God; nothing that is not God nor apart from His one Self.  This is the unity of life at its core and the basis for the truth that my Self is ruler of the universe.  Certainly we have little doubt accepting the fact that we are the rulers of our individual bodies, each of which is a universe of between 30 to 100 trillion cells.  We are the rulers of the universe of our bodies just as our Higher Self—that part of us that always knows its true identity as one with God—is ruler of the universe as God created it.  What this means, whether we acknowledge it or not, is that God's Will and our ours are one.  Furthermore, it means that we are powerful beyond measure and to deny our power, is but to limit our full potential.  Yet, even in this denial is proof that we are indeed powerful beyond measure, for we are powerful enough, even to choose to experience ourselves as powerless.  Just as it takes a truly conscious actor to play the role of an unconscious drunkened character, so it takes a very powerful being indeed to play the role of being powerless.  God loves us and supports us in whatever we wish to experience, knowing that He is always with us, and that we cannot ever diminish the perfection He created us to be.

I and my Creator are One. 

November 26th 2014  Lesson 252

Part II  Introduction

• We will continue spending time with God each morning and night and at each waking hour, using all future lessons as introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain, and go to enter peace, calling to God when we have need of Him as we are tempted to forget our goal.  During these holy times, we will say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal Himself to us, as He has promised that He would when we invited Him.
  
  This is how our times with Him will now be spent:  we say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us.  Sit silently and wait upon your Father.  He has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will He do so.  We need only call to God, and all temptations disappear.  Instead of words, we need but feel His Love.  Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name.  Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. 
  
  Our lessons will now be preceded by a theme of special relevance that we should review before each lesson until another is given us.  They should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the holy times we sit in silence and wait for God to reveal Himself to us.  The next of these special thoughts follow and are relevant to lessons 251 - 260:

    4. What Is Sin

  Sin is insanity. It is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks to let illusions take the place of truth.  And being mad, it sees illusions where the truth should be, and where it really is.  Sin gave the body eyes, for what is there the sinless would behold?  What need have they of sights or sounds or touch?  What would they hear or reach to grasp?  What would they sense at all?  To sense is not to know.  And truth can be but filled with knowledge, and with nothing else.
    
  The body is the instrument the mind made in its efforts to deceive itself.  Its purpose is to strive. Yet can the goal of striving change.  And now the body serves a different aim for striving.  What it seeks for now is chosen by the aim the mind has taken as replacement for the goal of self-deception.  Truth can be its aim as well as lies.  The senses then will seek instead for witnesses to what is true.
    
  Sin is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue.  They are the "proof" that what has no reality is real.  Sin "proves" God's Son is evil; timelessness must have an end; eternal life must die.  And God Himself has lost the Son He loves, with but corruption to complete Himself, His Will forever overcome by death, love slain by hate, and peace to be no more.
    
  A madman's dreams are frightening, and sin appears indeed to terrify.  And yet what sin perceives is but a childish game.  The Son of God may play he has become a body, prey to evil and to guilt, with but a little life that ends in death.  But all the while his Father shines on him, and loves him with an everlasting Love which his pretenses cannot change at all.
     
  How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of sin?  Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children's toys?  How soon will you be ready to come home?  Perhaps today?  There is no sin.  Creation is unchanged.  Would you still hold return to Heaven back?  How long, O holy Son of God, how long?

  Lesson 252

  The Son of God is my Identity.  

• My Self is holy beyond all the thoughts of holiness of which I now conceive.  Its shimmering and perfect purity is far more brilliant than is any light that I have ever looked upon.  Its love is limitless, with an intensity that holds all things within it, in the calm of quiet certaity.  Its strenght comes not from burning impulses which move the world, but form the boundless Love of God Himself.  How far beyond this world my Self must be, and yet how near to me and close to God!
    
• Invitation Prayer:  Father, You know my true Identity.  Reveal It now to me who am Your Son, that I may waken to the truth in You, and know that Heaven is restored to me.

---

Insights/comments:

• The knowledge that God is my source, my creator, my identity, my Self saves me from the illusions of the world.  We cannot be in this knowledge and still believe in the circumstances of the world, even though they appear so real to our senses.  We are Spirit and of God, this alone is true and only this knowledge is needed for our salvation.  We have but to put it into practice when facing the multitude of situations in the world, by remembering that we cannot but be as God created us, perfect, Spirit, free, and from this knowing, act.

I and my Creator are One. 

November 25th 2014  Lesson 251

Part II  Introduction

• We will continue spending time with God each morning and night and at each waking hour, using all future lessons as introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain, and go to enter peace, calling to God when we have need of Him as we are tempted to forget our goal.  During these holy times, we will say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal Himself to us, as He has promised that He would when we invited Him.
  
  This is how our times with Him will now be spent:  we say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us.  Sit silently and wait upon your Father.  He has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will He do so.  We need only call to God, and all temptations disappear.  Instead of words, we need but feel His Love.  Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name.  Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. 
  
  Our lessons will now be preceded by a theme of special relevance that we should review before each lesson until another is given us.  They should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the holy times we sit in silence and wait for God to reveal Himself to us.  The next of these special thoughts follow and are relevant to lessons 251 - 260:

    4. What Is Sin

  Sin is insanity. It is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks to let illusions take the place of truth.  And being mad, it sees illusions where the truth should be, and where it really is.  Sin gave the body eyes, for what is there the sinless would behold?  What need have they of sights or sounds or touch?  What would they hear or reach to grasp?  What would they sense at all?  To sense is not to know.  And truth can be but filled with knowledge, and with nothing else.
    
  The body is the instrument the mind made in its efforts to deceive itself.  Its purpose is to strive. Yet can the goal of striving change.  And now the body serves a different aim for striving.  What it seeks for now is chosen by the aim the mind has taken as replacement for the goal of self-deception.  Truth can be its aim as well as lies.  The senses then will seek instead for witnesses to what is true.
    
  Sin is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue.  They are the "proof" that what has no reality is real.  Sin "proves" God's Son is evil; timelessness must have an end; eternal life must die.  And God Himself has lost the Son He loves, with but corruption to complete Himself, His Will forever overcome by death, love slain by hate, and peace to be no more.
    
  A madman's dreams are frightening, and sin appears indeed to terrify.  And yet what sin perceives is but a childish game.  The Son of God may play he has become a body, prey to evil and to guilt, with but a little life that ends in death.  But all the while his Father shines on him, and loves him with an everlasting Love which his pretenses cannot change at all.
     
  How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of sin?  Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children's toys?  How soon will you be ready to come home?  Perhaps today?  There is no sin.  Creation is unchanged.  Would you still hold return to Heaven back?  How long, O holy Son of God, how long?

  Lesson 251

  I am in need of nothing but the truth.  

• I sought for many things, and found despair.  Now do I seek but one, for in that one is all I need, and only what I need.  All that I sought before I needed not, and did not even want.  My only need I did not recognize.  But now I see that I need only truth.  In that all needs are satisfied, all cravings end, all hopes are finally fulfilled and dreams are gone.  Now have I everything that I could need.  Now have I everything that I could want.  And now at last I find myself at peace.
    
• Invitation Prayer:  And for that peace, our Father, we give thanks.  What we denied ourselves You have restored, and only that is what we really want.

---

Insights/comments:

• We have been emphasizing that only the truth is true and nothing else is true, because this is the key to our salvation.  If we but recognize that what we believe to be real is in reality false, then we have hope.  If we but recognize the truth that our life in the world is but a dream and that we cannot sin, then we have hope of salvation.  The peace of God is eternal and unchanging; it is with us always, and we have only to stop and be still a while and we will know this to be true.  We have God's peace; this is the truth so we are in need of nothing else.

I and my Creator are One. : )

November 24th 2014  Lesson 250

Part II  Introduction

• We will continue spending time with God each morning and night and at each waking hour, using all future lessons as introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain, and go to enter peace, calling to God when we have need of Him as we are tempted to forget our goal.  During these holy times, we will say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal Himself to us, as He has promised that He would when we invited Him.
  
  This is how our times with Him will now be spent:  we say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us.  Sit silently and wait upon your Father.  He has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will He do so.  We need only call to God, and all temptations disappear.  Instead of words, we need but feel His Love.  Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name.  Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. 
  
  Our lessons will now be preceded by a theme of special relevance that we should review before each lesson until another is given us.  They should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the holy times we sit in silence and wait for God to reveal Himself to us.  The next of these special thoughts follow and are relevant to lessons 241 - 250:

    3. What Is the World

  The world is false perception.  It is born of error, and it has not left its source.  It will remain no longer than the thought that gave it birth is cherished.  When the thought of separation has been changed to one of true forgiveness, will the world be seen in quite another light; and one which leads to truth, where all the world must disappear and all its errors vanish.  Now its source has gone, and its effects are gone as well.
     
  The world was made as an attack on God.  It symbolizes fear.  And what is fear except love's absence?  Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son could be apart from Him.  Here was perception born, for knowledge could not cause such insane thoughts.  But eyes deceive, and ears hear falsely.  Now mistakes become quite possible, for certainty has gone. 
    
  The mechanisms of illusion have been born instead.  And now they go to find what has been given them to seek.  Their aim is to fulfill the purpose which the world was made to witness and make real.  They see in its illusions but a solid base where truth exists, upheld apart from lies.  Yet everything that they report is but illusion which is kept apart from truth.
    
  As sight was made to lead away from truth, it can be redirected.  Sounds become the call for God, and all perception can be given a new purpose by the One Whom God appointed Savior to the world.  Follow His light, and see the world as He beholds it.  Hear His Voice alone in all that speaks to you.  And let Him give you peace and certainty, which you have thrown away, but Heaven has preserved for you in Him.
    
  Let us not rest content until the world has joined our changed perception.  Let us not be satisfied until forgiveness has been made complete.  And let us not attempt to change our function.  We must save the world.  For we who made it must behold it through the eyes of Christ, that what was made to die can be restored to everlasting life.
  
  

  Lesson 250

  Let me not see myself as limited.  

• Let me behold the Son of God today, and witness to his glory.  Let me not try to obscure the holy light in him, and see his strength diminished and reduced to frailty; nor perceive the lacks in him with which I would attack his sovereignty.
    
• Invitation Prayer:  He is Your Son, my Father.  And today I would behold his gentleness instead of my illusions.  He is what I am, and as I see him so I see myself.  Today I would see truly, that this day I may at last identify with him.

---

Insights/comments:

• Forgiving our brothers for what we perceive as weakness or shortcomings in them is possible only when we first recognize that we also are capable of these same shortcomings, and therefore whatever judgment, condemnation, and punishment we justify they be subjected to, the same must apply to ourselves as well.  Yet, if we can find it in our hearts to forgive our brothers, we have also found the key to our own salvation, for they are one and the same.  We are as God created us, perfect, Spirit, free; let our prayers be to look for this in our brothers and in ourselves, and look past anything that is contrary to it.  This recognition of our one eternally unified brotherhood now becomes our salvation.

I and my Creator are One. 

November 23rd 2014  Lesson 249

Part II  Introduction

• We will continue spending time with God each morning and night and at each waking hour, using all future lessons as introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain, and go to enter peace, calling to God when we have need of Him as we are tempted to forget our goal.  During these holy times, we will say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal Himself to us, as He has promised that He would when we invited Him.
  
  This is how our times with Him will now be spent:  we say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us.  Sit silently and wait upon your Father.  He has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will He do so.  We need only call to God, and all temptations disappear.  Instead of words, we need but feel His Love.  Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name.  Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. 
  
  Our lessons will now be preceded by a theme of special relevance that we should review before each lesson until another is given us.  They should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the holy times we sit in silence and wait for God to reveal Himself to us.  The next of these special thoughts follow and are relevant to lessons 241 - 250:

    3. What Is the World

  The world is false perception.  It is born of error, and it has not left its source.  It will remain no longer than the thought that gave it birth is cherished.  When the thought of separation has been changed to one of true forgiveness, will the world be seen in quite another light; and one which leads to truth, where all the world must disappear and all its errors vanish.  Now its source has gone, and its effects are gone as well.
     
  The world was made as an attack on God.  It symbolizes fear.  And what is fear except love's absence?  Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son could be apart from Him.  Here was perception born, for knowledge could not cause such insane thoughts.  But eyes deceive, and ears hear falsely.  Now mistakes become quite possible, for certainty has gone. 
    
  The mechanisms of illusion have been born instead.  And now they go to find what has been given them to seek.  Their aim is to fulfill the purpose which the world was made to witness and make real.  They see in its illusions but a solid base where truth exists, upheld apart from lies.  Yet everything that they report is but illusion which is kept apart from truth.
    
  As sight was made to lead away from truth, it can be redirected.  Sounds become the call for God, and all perception can be given a new purpose by the One Whom God appointed Savior to the world.  Follow His light, and see the world as He beholds it.  Hear His Voice alone in all that speaks to you.  And let Him give you peace and certainty, which you have thrown away, but Heaven has preserved for you in Him.
    
  Let us not rest content until the world has joined our changed perception.  Let us not be satisfied until forgiveness has been made complete.  And let us not attempt to change our function.  We must save the world.  For we who made it must behold it through the eyes of Christ, that what was made to die can be restored to everlasting life.
  
  

  Lesson 249

  Forgiveness ends all suffering and loss.  

• Forgiveness paints a picture of a world where suffering is over, loss becomes impossible and anger makes no sense.  Attack is gone, and madness has an end.  What suffering is now conceivable?  What loss can be sustained?  The world becomes a place of joy, abundance, charity and endless giving.  It is now so like to Heaven that it quickly is transformed into the light that it reflects.  And so the journey which the Son of God began has ended in the light from which he came.
    
• Invitation Prayer:  Father, we would return our minds to You.  We have betrayed them, held them in a vise of bitterness, and frightened them with thoughts of violence and death.  Now would we rest again in You, as You created us.

---

Insights/comments:

• Forgiving ourselves for thinking that we are less than the perfection God created allows us to begin to act differently with respect to the circumstances of our lives.  The illusions we perceive are not the reality that God created and so cannot be true, but our belief in these illusions convince us that God's creation is frightening, perilous, painful and that we must defend ourselves as best we can.  Such thinking is only madness, for God's creation can only reflect the perfection that He is.  With this understanding, we can now begin to see the illusions for what they are and so respond differently to them.  We are as God created us, perfect, Spirit, free.  This is the truth, and all else is illusion.

I and my Creator are One. 

November 22nd 2014  Lesson 248

Part II  Introduction

• We will continue spending time with God each morning and night and at each waking hour, using all future lessons as introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain, and go to enter peace, calling to God when we have need of Him as we are tempted to forget our goal.  During these holy times, we will say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal Himself to us, as He has promised that He would when we invited Him.
  
  This is how our times with Him will now be spent:  we say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us.  Sit silently and wait upon your Father.  He has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will He do so.  We need only call to God, and all temptations disappear.  Instead of words, we need but feel His Love.  Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name.  Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. 
  
  Our lessons will now be preceded by a theme of special relevance that we should review before each lesson until another is given us.  They should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the holy times we sit in silence and wait for God to reveal Himself to us.  The next of these special thoughts follow and are relevant to lessons 241 - 250:

    3. What Is the World

  The world is false perception.  It is born of error, and it has not left its source.  It will remain no longer than the thought that gave it birth is cherished.  When the thought of separation has been changed to one of true forgiveness, will the world be seen in quite another light; and one which leads to truth, where all the world must disappear and all its errors vanish.  Now its source has gone, and its effects are gone as well.
     
  The world was made as an attack on God.  It symbolizes fear.  And what is fear except love's absence?  Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son could be apart from Him.  Here was perception born, for knowledge could not cause such insane thoughts.  But eyes deceive, and ears hear falsely.  Now mistakes become quite possible, for certainty has gone. 
    
  The mechanisms of illusion have been born instead.  And now they go to find what has been given them to seek.  Their aim is to fulfill the purpose which the world was made to witness and make real.  They see in its illusions but a solid base where truth exists, upheld apart from lies.  Yet everything that they report is but illusion which is kept apart from truth.
    
  As sight was made to lead away from truth, it can be redirected.  Sounds become the call for God, and all perception can be given a new purpose by the One Whom God appointed Savior to the world.  Follow His light, and see the world as He beholds it.  Hear His Voice alone in all that speaks to you.  And let Him give you peace and certainty, which you have thrown away, but Heaven has preserved for you in Him.
    
  Let us not rest content until the world has joined our changed perception.  Let us not be satisfied until forgiveness has been made complete.  And let us not attempt to change our function.  We must save the world.  For we who made it must behold it through the eyes of Christ, that what was made to die can be restored to everlasting life.
  
  

  Lesson 248

  Whatever suffers is not part of me.  

• I have disowned the truth.  Now let me be as faithful in disowning falsity.  Whatever suffers is not part of me.  What grieves is not myself.  What is in pain is but illusion in my mind.  What dies was never living in reality, and did but mock the truth about myself.  Now I disown self-concepts and deceits and lies about the holy Son of God.  Now am I ready to accept him back as God created him, and as he is.
    
• Invitation Prayer:  Father, my ancient love for You returns, and lets me love Your Son again as well.  Father, I am as You created me.  Now is Your Love remembered, and my own.  Now do I understand that they are one.

---

Insights/comments:

• The truth is true and nothing else is true.  If I believe this then it becomes easy to deny what is false, but if I do not it becomes quite difficult to distinguish what is real from what is unreal.  Without this clear distinction, what is false may appear to be true and vice verse, and I may find myself believing what is false to be true.  Since my experience depends on my thoughts and beliefs, it becomes even more crucial that I make this distinction correctly, so that I can experience Heaven instead of hell, peace instead of strife, joy instead of pain, and everlasting life instead of death.

I and my Creator are One. 

November 21st 2014  Lesson 247

Part II  Introduction

• We will continue spending time with God each morning and night and at each waking hour, using all future lessons as introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain, and go to enter peace, calling to God when we have need of Him as we are tempted to forget our goal.  During these holy times, we will say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal Himself to us, as He has promised that He would when we invited Him.
  
  This is how our times with Him will now be spent:  we say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us.  Sit silently and wait upon your Father.  He has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will He do so.  We need only call to God, and all temptations disappear.  Instead of words, we need but feel His Love.  Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name.  Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. 
  
  Our lessons will now be preceded by a theme of special relevance that we should review before each lesson until another is given us.  They should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the holy times we sit in silence and wait for God to reveal Himself to us.  The next of these special thoughts follow and are relevant to lessons 241 - 250:

    3. What Is the World

  The world is false perception.  It is born of error, and it has not left its source.  It will remain no longer than the thought that gave it birth is cherished.  When the thought of separation has been changed to one of true forgiveness, will the world be seen in quite another light; and one which leads to truth, where all the world must disappear and all its errors vanish.  Now its source has gone, and its effects are gone as well.
     
  The world was made as an attack on God.  It symbolizes fear.  And what is fear except love's absence?  Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son could be apart from Him.  Here was perception born, for knowledge could not cause such insane thoughts.  But eyes deceive, and ears hear falsely.  Now mistakes become quite possible, for certainty has gone. 
    
  The mechanisms of illusion have been born instead.  And now they go to find what has been given them to seek.  Their aim is to fulfill the purpose which the world was made to witness and make real.  They see in its illusions but a solid base where truth exists, upheld apart from lies.  Yet everything that they report is but illusion which is kept apart from truth.
    
  As sight was made to lead away from truth, it can be redirected.  Sounds become the call for God, and all perception can be given a new purpose by the One Whom God appointed Savior to the world.  Follow His light, and see the world as He beholds it.  Hear His Voice alone in all that speaks to you.  And let Him give you peace and certainty, which you have thrown away, but Heaven has preserved for you in Him.
    
  Let us not rest content until the world has joined our changed perception.  Let us not be satisfied until forgiveness has been made complete.  And let us not attempt to change our function.  We must save the world.  For we who made it must behold it through the eyes of Christ, that what was made to die can be restored to everlasting life.
  
  

  Lesson 247

  Without forgiveness I will still be blind.  

• Sin is the symbol of attack.  Behold it anywhere, and I will suffer.  For forgiveness is the only means whereby Christ's vision comes to me.  Let me accept what His sight shows me as the simple truth, and I am healed completely.  Brother, come and let me look on you.  Your loveliness reflects my own.  Your sinlessness is mine.  You stand forgiven, and I stand with you.
    
• Invitation Prayer:  So would I look on everyone today.  My brothers are Your Sons.  Your Fatherhood created them, and gave them all to me as part of You, and my own Self as well.  Today I honor You through them, and thus I hope this day to recognize my Self.

---

Insights/comments:

• Forgiving our brothers for what we thought they did or didn't do to us, becomes easier if we practice forgiving the parts of our physical, emotional, and mental selves that manifest our unforgiveness in the form of pain, heartache, worry, depression, anger, etc.  Everything that we experience is a direct result of what we believe and think, and we can change this only by first acknowledging and owning the experience, and through forgiveness allowing it to be released.  Denial will do the opposite, and keep the experience alive in us but blind us to its presence.

I and my Creator are One.