Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Monday, March 30, 2020

A course in miracles day 94

Lesson 94
I am as God created me.
1 Today we continue with the one idea which brings complete salvation; the one statement which makes all forms of temptation powerless; the one thought which renders the ego silent and entirely undone. You are as God created you. The sounds of this world are still, the sights of this world disappear, and all the thoughts that this world ever held are wiped away forever by this one idea. Here is salvation accomplished. Here is sanity restored.

2 True light is strength, and strength is sinlessness. If you remain as God created you, you must be strong and light must be in you. He Who ensured your sinlessness must be the guarantee of strength and light as well. You are as God created you. Darkness cannot obscure the glory of the Son of God. You stand in light, strong in the sinlessness in which you were created and in which you will remain throughout eternity.

3 Today we will again devote the first five minutes of each waking hour to the attempt to feel the truth in you. Begin these times of searching with these words:

4 I am as God created me.
I am His Son eternally.

5 Now try to reach the Son of God in you. This is the Self that never sinned nor made an image to replace reality. This is the Self which never left its home in God to walk the world uncertainly. This is the Self which knows no fear nor could conceive of loss or suffering or death.

6 Nothing is required of you to reach this goal except to lay all idols and self-images aside, go past the long list of attributes, both "good" and "bad," you have ascribed to yourself and wait in silent expectancy for the truth. God has Himself promised that it will be revealed to all who ask for it. You are asking now. You cannot fail because He cannot fail.

7 If you do not meet the requirement of practicing for the first five minutes of every hour, at least remind yourself hourly:

8 I am as God created me.
I am His Son eternally.

9 Tell yourself frequently today that you are as God created you. And be sure to respond to anyone who seems to irritate you with these words:

10 You are as God created you.
You are His Son eternally.

11 Make every effort to do the hourly exercises today. Each one you do will be a giant stride toward your release and a milestone in learning the thought system which this course sets forth.

Sunday, March 29, 2020

A course in miracles day 93

Lesson 93
Light and joy and peace abide in me.
1 You think you are the home of evil, darkness, and sin. You think if anyone could see the truth about you he would be repelled, recoiling from you as if from a poisonous snake. You think if what is true about you were revealed to you, you would be struck with horror so intense that you would rush to death by your own hand, living on after seeing this being impossible.

2 These are beliefs so firmly fixed that it is difficult to help you see that they are based on nothing. That you have made mistakes is obvious. That you have sought salvation in strange ways—have been deceived, deceiving, and afraid of foolish fantasies and savage dreams and have bowed down to idols made of dust—all this is true by what you now believe.

3 Today we question this, not from the point of view of what you think, but from a very different reference point from which such idle thoughts are meaningless. These thoughts are not according to God's Will. These weird beliefs He does not share with you. This is enough to prove that they are wrong, but you do not perceive that this is so.

4 Why would you not be overjoyed to be assured that all the evil that you think you did was never done, that all your "sins" are nothing, that you are as pure and holy as you were created, and that light and joy and peace abide in you? Your image of yourself cannot withstand the Will of God. You think that this is death, but it is life. You think you are destroyed, but you are saved.

5 The self you made is not the Son of God. Therefore, this self does not exist at all. And anything it seems to do and think means nothing. It is neither bad nor good. It is unreal and nothing more than that. It does not battle with the Son of God. It does not hurt him nor attack his peace. It has not changed creation nor reduced eternal sinlessness to sin and love to hate. What power can this self you made possess when it would contradict the Will of God?

6 Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. Over and over this must be repeated until it is accepted. It is true. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. Nothing can touch it nor can change what God created as eternal. The self you made, evil and full of sin, is meaningless. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God, and light and joy and peace abide in you.

7 Salvation requires the acceptance of but one thought—you are as God created you, not what you made of yourself. Whatever evil you may think you did, you are as God created you. Whatever mistakes you made, the truth about you is unchanged. Creation is eternal and unalterable. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. You are and will forever be exactly as you were created. Light and joy and peace abide in you because God put them there.

8 In our longer exercise periods today, which would be most profitable if done for the first five minutes of every waking hour, we will begin by stating the truth about our creation:

9 Light and joy and peace abide in me.
My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.

10 Then put away your foolish self-images and spend the rest of the practice period in trying to experience what God has given you in place of what you have decreed for yourself.

11 You are what God created or what you made. One Self is true; the other is not there. Try to experience the unity of your One Self. Try to appreciate its holiness and the love from which it was created. Try not to interfere with the Self which God created as you by hiding its majesty behind the tiny idols of evil and sinfulness you have made to replace it. Let it come into its own. Here you are. This is you. And light and joy and peace abide in you because this is so.

12 You may not be willing or even able to use the first five minutes of each hour for these exercises. Try, however, to do so when you can. At least remember to repeat these thoughts each hour:

13 Light and joy and peace abide in me.
My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.

14 Then try to devote at least a minute or so to closing your eyes and realizing that this is a statement of the truth about you.

15 If a situation arises that seems to be disturbing, quickly dispel the illusion of fear by repeating these thoughts again. Should you be tempted to become angry with someone, tell him silently:

16 Light and joy and peace abide in you.
Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God.

17 You can do much for the world's salvation today. You can do much today to bring you closer to the part in salvation which God has assigned to you. And you can do much today to bring the conviction to your mind that the idea for the day is true indeed.

Saturday, March 28, 2020

A course in miracles day 92

Lesson 92
Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.
1 The idea for today is an extension of the previous one. You do not think of light in terms of strength and darkness in terms of weakness. That is because your idea of what seeing means is tied up with the body and its eyes and brain. This is why you believe that you can change what you see by keeping little bits of glass or other clear material before your eyes held in a frame or placed against the eye.

2 These are among the many magical beliefs that come from the conviction you are a body and the body's eyes can see. You also believe the body's brain can think. If you but understood the nature of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. It is as if you thought you held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth or that you had the universe imprisoned in your hand, securely bound until you let it go. Yet this is no more foolish than to believe the body's eyes can see, the brain can think.

3 It is God's strength in you that is the light in which you see, as it is His Mind with which you think. His strength denies your weakness. It is your weakness that sees through the body's eyes, peering about in darkness to behold the likeness of itself—the small, the weak, the sickly and the dying, those in need, the helpless and afraid, the sad, the poor, the starving, and the joyless. These are seen through eyes which cannot see and cannot bless.

4 Strength overlooks these things by seeing past appearances. It keeps its steady gaze upon the light that lies beyond them. It unites with light, of which it is a part. It sees itself. It brings the light in which your Self appears. In darkness you perceive a self that is not there.

5 Strength is the truth about you; weakness is an idol falsely worshipped, and adored that strength may be dispelled and darkness rule where God appointed that there should be light. Strength comes from truth and shines with light its Source has given it; weakness reflects the darkness of its maker. It is sick and looks on sickness, which is like itself.

6 Truth is a savior and can only will for happiness and peace for everyone. It gives its strength to everyone who asks, in limitless supply. It sees that lack in anyone would be a lack in all, and so it gives its light that all may see and benefit as one. Its strength is shared that it may bring to all the miracle in which they will unite in purpose and forgiveness and in love.

7 Weakness, which looks in darkness, cannot see a purpose in forgiveness and in love. It sees all others different from itself and nothing in the world that it would share. It judges and condemns but does not love. In darkness it remains to hide itself and dreams that it is strong and conquering, a victor over limitations that but grow in darkness to enormous size. It fears and it attacks and hates itself, and darkness covers everything it sees, leaving its dreams as fearful as itself. No miracles are here, but only hate. It separates itself from what it sees, while light and strength perceive themselves as one.

8 The light of strength is not the light you see. It does not change and flicker and go out. It does not shift from night to day and back to darkness till the morning comes again. The light of strength is constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself away because it cannot give but to itself. No one can ask in vain to share its sight, and none who enters its abode can leave without a miracle before his eyes and strength and light abiding in his heart.

9 The strength in you will offer you the light and guide your seeing, so you do not dwell on idle shadows that the body's eyes provide for self-deception. Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its own. Such is the meeting place we try today to find and rest in, for the peace of God is where your Self, His Son, is waiting now to meet itself again and be as one.

10 Let us give 20 minutes twice today to join this meeting. Let yourself be brought unto your Self. Its strength will be the light in which the gift of sight is given you. Leave, then, the dark a little while today, and we will practice seeing in the light, closing the body's eyes and asking truth to show us how to find the meeting place of self and Self, where light and strength are one.

11 After the morning meeting, we will use the day in preparation for the time at night when we will meet again in hope and trust. Let us repeat as often as we can the idea for today and recognize that we are being introduced to sight and led away from darkness to the light, where only miracles can be perceived.

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

A course in miracles day 91

Lesson 91
Miracles are seen in light.
1 It is important to remember that miracles and vision necessarily go together. This needs repeating and frequent repeating. It is a central idea in your new thought system and the perception which it produces. The miracle is always there. Its presence is not caused by your vision; its absence is not the result of your failure to see. It is only your awareness of miracles that is affected. You will see it in the light; you will not see it in the dark.

2 To you, then, light is crucial. While you remain in darkness, the miracle remains unseen. Thus you are convinced it is not there. This follows from the premises from which the darkness comes. Denial of light leads to failure to perceive it. Failure to perceive light is to perceive darkness. The light is useless to you then, even though it is there. You cannot use it because its presence is unknown to you. And the seeming reality of the darkness makes the idea of light meaningless.

3 To be told that what you do not see is there sounds like insanity. It is very difficult to become convinced that it is insanity not to see what is there and to see what is not there instead. You do not doubt that the body's eyes can see. You do not doubt the images they show you are reality. Your faith lies in the darkness, not the light.

4 How can this be reversed? For you it is impossible, but you are not alone in this. Your efforts, however little they may be, have strong support. Did you but realize how great this strength, your doubts would vanish. Today we will devote ourselves to the attempt to let you feel this strength. When you have felt the strength in you which makes all miracles within your easy reach, you will not doubt. The miracles your sense of weakness hides will leap into awareness as you feel the strength in you.

5 Three times today, set aside about ten minutes for a quiet time in which you try to leave your weakness behind. This is accomplished very simply, as you instruct yourself that you are not a body. Faith goes to what you want, and you instruct your mind accordingly. Your will remains your teacher, and your will has all the strength to do what it desires. You can escape the body if you choose. You can experience the strength in you.

6 Begin the longer practice periods with this statement of true cause and effect relationships:

7 Miracles are seen in light.
The body's eyes do not perceive the light.
But I am not a body. What am I?

8 The question with which this statement ends is needed for our exercises today. What you think you are is a belief to be undone. But what you really are must be revealed to you. The belief you are a body calls for correction, being a mistake. The truth of what you are calls on the strength in you to bring to your awareness what the mistake concealed.

9 If you are not a body, what are you? You need to be aware of what the Holy Spirit uses to replace the image of a body in your mind. You need to feel something to put your faith in, as you lift it from the body. You need a real experience of something else, something more solid and more sure, more worthy of your faith, and really there.

10 If you are not a body, what are you? Ask this in honesty, and then devote several minutes to allowing your mistaken thoughts about your attributes to be corrected, and their opposites to take their place. Say, for example:

11 I am not weak, but strong.
I am not helpless, but all powerful.
I am not limited, but unlimited.
I am not doubtful, but certain.
I am not an illusion, but a reality.
I cannot see in darkness, but in light.

12 In the second phase of the exercise period, try to experience these truths about yourself. Concentrate particularly on the experience of strength. Remember that all sense of weakness is associated with the belief you are a body, a belief that is mistaken and deserves no faith. Try to remove your faith from it, if only for a moment. You will become accustomed to keeping faith with the more worthy in you as we go along.

13 Relax for the rest of the practice period, confident that your efforts, however meager, are fully supported by the strength of God and all His Thoughts. It is from Them your strength will come. It is through Their strong support that you will feel the strength in you. They are united with you in this practice period in which you share a purpose like Their own. Theirs is the light in which you will see miracles because Their strength is yours. Their strength becomes your eyes that you may see.

14 Five or six times an hour at reasonably regular intervals remind yourself that miracles are seen in light. Also, be sure to meet temptation with today's idea. This form would be helpful for this special purpose:

15 Miracles are seen in light. Let me not close my eyes because of this.

Sunday, March 8, 2020

Shroud of Turin: Interview with World’s Leading Expert Who Happens To Be Jewish

Shroud of Turin: Interview with World’s Leading Expert Who Happens To Be Jewish https://townhall.com/columnists/myrakahnadams/2020/03/08/shroud-of-turin-interview-with-worlds-leading-expert-who-happens-to-be-jewish-n2563389 

THE SHROUD OF TURIN: DEBUNKING THE DEBUNKERS


THE SHROUD OF TURIN: DEBUNKING THE DEBUNKERS

A course in miracles day 90

Lesson 90
1 For this review we will use these ideas:

[79] Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.

2 Let me realize today that the problem is always some form of grievance which I would cherish. Let me also understand that the solution is always a miracle with which I let the grievance be replaced. Today I would remember the simplicity of salvation by reinforcing the lesson that there is one problem and one solution. The problem is a grievance; the solution is a miracle. And I invite the solution to come to me through my forgiveness of the grievance and my welcome of the miracle which takes its place.

3 Specific applications of this idea might be in these forms:

4 This presents a problem to me which I would have resolved.
The miracle behind this grievance will resolve it for me.
The answer to this problem is the miracle which it conceals.

[80] Let me recognize my problems have been solved.

5 I seem to have problems only because I am misusing time. I believe that the problem comes first, and time must elapse before it can be worked out. I do not see the problem and the answer as simultaneous in their occurrence. That is because I do not yet realize that God has placed the answer together with the problem, so that they cannot be separated by time. The Holy Spirit will teach me this if I will let Him. And I will understand it is impossible that I could have a problem which has not been solved already.

6 These forms of the idea will be useful for specific applications:

7 I need not wait for this to be resolved.
The answer to this problem is already given me if I will accept it.
Time cannot separate this problem from its solution.

Saturday, March 7, 2020

A course in miracles day 89

Lesson 89
1 These are our review ideas for today:

[77] I am entitled to miracles.

2 I am entitled to miracles because I am under no laws but God's. His laws release me from all grievances and replace them with miracles. And I would accept the miracles in place of the grievances, which are but illusions that hide the miracles beyond. Now I would accept only what the laws of God entitle me to have that I may use it on behalf of the function He has given me.

3 You might use these suggestions for specific applications of this idea:

4 Behind this is a miracle to which I am entitled.
Let me not hold a grievance against you [name],
but offer you the miracle that belongs to you instead.
Seen truly, this offers me a miracle.

[78] Let miracles replace all grievances.

5 By this idea do I unite my will with the Holy Spirit's and perceive them as one. By this idea do I accept my release from hell. By this idea do I express my willingness to have all my illusions be replaced with truth according to God's plan for my salvation. I would make no exceptions and no substitutes. I want all of Heaven and only Heaven, as God wills me to have.

6 Useful specific forms for applying this idea would be:

7 I would not hold this grievance apart from my salvation.
Let our grievances be replaced by miracles, [name].
Beyond this is the miracle by which all my grievances are replaced.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

A course in miracles day 88

Lesson 88
1 Today we will review these ideas:

[75] The light has come.

2 In choosing salvation rather than attack, I merely choose to recognize what is already here. Salvation is a decision made already. Attack and grievances are not there to choose. That is why I always choose between truth and illusion, between what is there and what is not. The light has come. I can but choose the light, for it has no alternative. It has replaced the darkness, and the dark is gone.

3 These would prove useful forms for specific applications of this idea:

4 This cannot show me darkness, for the light has come.
The light in you is all that I would see, [name].
I would see in this only what is there.

[76] I am under no laws but God's.

5 Here is the perfect statement of my freedom. I am under no laws but God's. I am constantly tempted to make up other laws and give them power over me. I suffer only because of my belief in them. They have no real effect on me at all. I am perfectly free of the effects of all laws save God's. And His are the laws of freedom.

6 For specific forms in applying this idea, these would be useful:

7 My perception of this shows me I believe in laws which do not exist.
I see only the laws of God at work in this.
Let me allow God's laws to work in this and not my own.