IA´s Journal

LESSON 288

"Let me forget my brother´s past today."

"This is the thought that leads the way to You, and brings me to my
goal. I cannot come to you without my brother. And to know my
Source, I first must recognize what You created one with me. My
brother´s is the hand that leads me on the way to You. His sins are in
the past along with mine, and I am saved because the past is gone. Let
me not cherish it within my heart, or I will lose the way to walk to
You. My brother is my savior. Let me not attack the savior You have
given me. But let me honor him who bears Your Name, and so
remember that It is my own."

Forgive me, then, today. And you will know you have forgiven me
if you behold your brother in the light of holiness. He cannot be less
holy than can I, and you can not be holier than he.

Love

LESSON 289

"The past is over. It can touch me not."

Unless the past is over in my mind, the real world must escape my
sight. For I am really looking nowhere; seeing but what is not there.
How can I then perceive the world forgiveness offers? This the past
was made to hide, for this the world that can be looked on only now.
It has no past. For what can be forgiven but the past, and if it is
forgiven it is gone.

"Father, let me not look upon a past that is not there. For You have
offered me. Your Own replacement, in a present world the past has
left untouched and free of sin. Here is the end of guilt. And here am I
made ready for Your final step. Shall I demand that You wait longer
for Your Son to find the loveliness You planned to be the end of all his
dreams and all his pain?"

Love

LESSON 290

"My present happiness is all I see."

Unless I look upon what is not there, my present happiness is all I
see. Eyes that begin to open see at last. And I would have Christ´s
vision come to me this very day. What I perceive without God´s Own
Correction for the sight I made is frightening and painful to behold.
Yet I would not allow my mind to be decieved by the belief the dream
I made is real an instant longer. This the day I seek my present
happiness, and look on nothing else except the thing I seek.

"With this resolve I come to You, and ask Your strength to hold me
up today, while I but seek to do Your Will. You cannot fail to hear
me, Father. What I ask have You already given me. And I am sure
that I will see my happiness today."

Love

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

The real World is a symbol, like the rest of what perception offers.
Yet it stands for what is opposite to what you made. Your world is
seen through eyes of fear, and brings the witnesses of terror to your
mind. The real world cannot be perceived except through eyes
forgiveness blesses, so they see a world where terror is impossible,
and witnesses to fear can not be found.
The real world holds a counterpart for each unhappy thought
reflected in your world; a sure correction for the sights of fear and
sounds of battle which your world contains. The real world shows a
world seen differently, through quiet eyes and with a mind at peace.
Nothing but rest is there. There are no cries of pain and sorrow heard,
for nothing there remains outside forgiveness. And the sights are
gentle. Only happy sights and sounds can reach the mind that has
forgiven itself.
What need has such a mind for thoughts of death, attack and
murder? What can it perceive surrounding it but safety, love and joy?
What is there it would choose to be condemned, and what is there
that it would judge against? The world it sees arises from a mind at
Peace within itself. No danger lurks iin anything it sees, for it is kind,
and only kindness does it look upon.
The real world is the symbol that the dream of sin and guilt is over,
and God´s Son no longer sleeps. His waking eyes perceive the sure
reflection of his Father´s love; the certain promise that he is
redeemed. The real world signifies gthe end of time, for its perception
make time purposeless.
The Holy Spirit has no need of time when it has served His
purpose. Now He waits but that one instant more for God to take His
final step, and time has disappeared, taking perception with it as it
goes, and leaving but the truth to be itself. That instant is our goal,
for it contains the memory of God. And as we look upon a world
forgiven, it is He Who calls to us and comes to take us home,
reminding us of our Identity Which our forgiveness has restored to us.


LESSON 291

"This is a day of stillness and of peace."

Christ´s vision looks through me today. His sight shows me all
things forgiven and at peace, and offers this same vision to the world.
And I accept this vision in its name, both for myself and for the world
as well. What loveliness we look upon today! What holiness we see
surrounding us! And it is given us to recognize it is a holiness in which
we share; it is the Holiness of God Himself.

"This day my mind is quiet, to receive the Thoughts You offer
me. And I accept what comes from You, instead of from myself. I
do not know the way to You. But You are wholly certain. Father,
guide Your Son along the quiet path that leads to You. Let my
forgiveness be complete, and let the memory of You return to me."

Love

LESSON 292

"This is a day of stillness and of Peace."

Christ´s vision looks through me today. His sight shows me all
things forgiven and at peace, and offers this same vision to the world.
And I accept this vision in its name, both for myself and for the world
as well. What loveliness we look upon today! What holiness we see
surrounding us! And it is given us to recongize it is a holiness in which
we share; it is the Holiness of God Himself.

"This day my mind is quiet, to receive the Thoughts You offer
me. And I accept what comes from You, instead of from myself. I
do not know the way to You. But You are wholly certain. Father,
guide Your Son along the quiet path that leads to You. Let my
forgiveness be complete, and let the memory of You return to me."

Love

LESSON 293

"All fear is past and only love is here."

All fear is past, because its source is gone, and all its thoughts gone
with it. Love remains the only present state, whose Source is here
forever and forever. Can the world seem bright and clear and safe
and welcoming, with all my past mistakes oppressing it, and showing
me distorted forms of fear? Yet in the present love is obvious, and its
effect apparent. All the world shines in reflection of its holy light,
and I perceive a world forgiven at last.

"Father, let not Your holy world escape my sight today. Nor let
my ears be deaf to all the hymns of gratitude the world is singing
underneath the sound of fear. There is a real world which the
present holds safe from all past mistakes. And I would see only this
world before my eyes today."

Love

LESSON 294

"My body is a wholly neutral thing."

I am a Son of God. And can I be another thing as well? Did God
create the mortal and corruptible? What use has God´s beloved Son
for what must die? And yet a neutral thing does not see death, for
thoughts of fear are not invested there, nor is a mockery of love
bestowed upon it. Its neutrality protects it while it has a use. And
afterwards, without a purpose, it is laid aside. It is not sick nor old
nor hurt. It is but functionless, uneeded and cast off. Let me not see
it more than this today; of service for a while and fit to serve, to keep
its usefulness while it can serve, and then to be replaced for greater
good.

"My body, Father, cannot be Your Son. And what is not created
cannot be sinful nor sinless; neither good nor bad. Le me, then, use
this dream to help Your plan that we awaken from all dreams we
made."

Love

LESSON 295

"The Holy Spirit looks through me today."

Christ asks that He may use my eyes today, and thus redeem the
world. He asks this gift that He may offer peace of mind to me, and
take away all terror and all pain. And as they are removed from me,
the dreams that seemed to settle on the world are gone. Redemption
must be one. As I am saved, the world is saved with me. For all of us
must be redeemed together. Fear appears in many different forms,
but love is one.

"My Father, Christ has asked a gift of me, and one I give that it be
given me. Help me to use the eyes of Christ today, and thus allow
the Holy Spirit´s Love to bless all things which I may look upon,
and His forgiving Love may rest on me."

Love

LESSON 296

"The Holy Spirit speaks through me today."

"The Holy Spirit needs my voice today, that all the world may
listen to Your Voice, and hear Your Word through me. I am
resolved to let You speak through me, for I would use no words but
Yours, and have no thoughts which are apart from Yours, for only
Yours are true. I would be savior to the world I made. For having
damned it I would set it free, that I may find escape, and hear the
Word Your holy Voice will speak to me today."

We reach today what we would learn, and that alone. And so our
learning goal becomes an unconflicted one, and possible of easy
reach and quick accomplishment. How gladly does the Holy Spirit
come to rescue us from hell, when we allow His teaching to persuade
the World, through us, to seek and find the easy path to God.

Love
ia

LESSON 297

"Forgiveness is the only gift I give."

Forgiveness is the only gift I give, because it is the only gift I want.
And everything I give I give myself. This is salvation´s simple
formula. And I, who would be saved, would make it mine, to be the
way I live within a world that needs salvation, and that will be saved
as I accept Atonement for myself.

"Father, how certain are Your ways; how sure their final
outcome, and how faithfully is every step in my salvation set
already, and accomplished by Your grace. Thanks be to You for
Your eternal gifts, and thanks to You for my Identity."

Love