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Grace is our
natural state.
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Grace is the
natural state of every Son of God. When he is
not in a state of grace, he is out of his natural environment and does not function well. Everything he does becomes a strain because he was not created for the environment that he has made. He therefore
cannot adapt to it, nor can he adapt
it to
him. There is no point in trying. A Son of God is happy
only when he knows he is with God. That is the only environment in which he will not experience strain, because that is where he belongs. Par 108
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ACIM OE TEXT
CH 7 CONSISTENCY OF THE KINGDOM
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Workbook for Students
Part I
Review II
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1 We are now ready for another review. We will begin where our last review left off and cover two ideas each day. The earlier part of each day will be devoted to one of these ideas, and the latter part of the day to the other. We will have one longer exercise period and frequent shorter ones in which we practice each of them.
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Workbook for Students
Part I
Lesson 86
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1 These ideas are for review today:
[71]
Only God's plan for salvation will work.
2 It is senseless for me to search wildly about for salvation. I have seen it in many people and in many things, but when I reached for it, it was not there. I was mistaken about where it is. I was mistaken about what it is. I will undertake no more idle seeking. Only God's plan for salvation will work. And I will rejoice because His plan can never fail.
3 These are some suggested forms for applying this idea specifically:
4
God's plan for salvation will save me from my perception of this. This is no exception in God's plan for my salvation. Let me perceive this only in the light of God's plan for salvation.
[72]
Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation.
5 Holding grievances is an attempt to prove that God's plan for salvation will not work. Yet only His plan will work. By holding grievances, I am therefore excluding my only hope of salvation from my awareness. I would no longer defeat my own best interests in this insane way. I would accept God's plan for salvation and be happy.
6 Specific applications of this idea might be in these forms:
7
I am choosing between misperception and salvation as I look on this. If I see grounds for grievances in this I will not see the grounds for my salvation. This calls for salvation, not attack.
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Lesson ARCHIVE
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Course in Miracles
Original Edition
TEXT
Chapter 7
The Consistency
of the Kingdom
XI. The Confusion of Strength
and Weakness
par 101-106
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101 You no more recognize what is painful than you know what is joyful and are in fact very apt to confuse the two. The Holy Spirit's main function is to teach you
to tell them apart. However strange it may seem that this is necessary, it obviously
is. The reason is equally obvious. What is joyful to you
is painful to the ego and, as long as you are in doubt about what
you are, you will be confused about joy and pain. This confusion is the cause of the whole idea of sacrifice. Obey the Holy Spirit, and you
will be giving up the ego. But you will be sacrificing
nothing. On the contrary, you will be gaining
everything. If you believed this, there would
be no conflict.
102 That is why you need to
demonstrate the obvious to yourself. It is
not obvious to you. You believe that doing the
opposite of God's Will can be better for you. You also believe that it is possible to
do the opposite of God's
Will. Therefore, you believe that an impossible choice is open to you and one which is both very fearful
and very desirable. Yet God
wills. He does
not wish.
Your will is as powerful as His because it
is His. The ego's wishes do not mean anything, because the ego wishes for the impossible. You can
wish for the impossible, but you can
will only with God. This is the ego's weakness and
your strength.
103 The Holy Spirit
always sides with you and with your strength. As long as you avoid His guidance in any way, you
want to be weak. Yet weakness
is frightening. What else, then, can this decision mean except that you
want to be fearful? The Holy Spirit
never asks for sacrifice, but the ego
always does. When you are confused about this
very clear distinction in motivation, it can
only be due to projection. Projection of this kind
is a confusion in motivation and,
given this confusion, trust becomes impossible.
104 No one obeys gladly a guide he does not trust, but this does not mean that the
guide is untrustworthy. In this case, it
always means that the
follower is. However, this too is merely a matter of his own belief. Believing that
he can betray, he believes that everything can betray
him. Yet this is only because he has
elected to follow false guidance. Unable to follow this guidance
without fear, he associates fear
with guidance and refuses to follow
any guidance at all. [If the result of this decision is confusion, this is hardly surprising.] The Holy Spirit is perfectly trustworthy, as
you are. God Himself trusts you, and therefore your trustworthiness
is beyond question. It will always remain beyond question, however much
you may question it.
105 We said before that you
are the Will of God. His Will is not an idle wish, and your identification
with His Will is not optional, since it
is what you are. Sharing His Will with me is not really open to choice, though it may seem to be. The whole separation lies in this fallacy. The only way
out of the fallacy is to decide that you do not have to decide
anything. Everything has been given you by
God's decision. That
is His Will, and you can
not undo it. Even the relinquishment of your false decision-making prerogative, which the ego guards so jealously, is not accomplished by your wish. It was accomplished
for you by the Will of God, Who has not left you comfortless. His Voice
will teach you how to distinguish between pain and joy and
will lead you out of the confusion which you have made. There
is no confusion in the mind of a Son of God whose will
must be the Will of the Father because the Father's Will
is His Son.
106 Miracles are
in accord with the Will of God Whose Will you do not know because you are confused about what
you will. This means that you are confused about what you are. If you
are God's Will and do not
accept His
Will, you are denying joy. The miracle is therefore a lesson in
what joy is. Being a lesson in sharing, it is a lesson in love, which
is joy. Every miracle is thus a lesson in truth, and by offering truth you are learning the difference between pain and joy.
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Course in Miracles
Original Edition
TEXT
Chapter 7
The Consistency
of the Kingdom
XII. The State of Grace
par 107-113
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107 The Holy Spirit will
always guide you truly because
your joy is
His. This is His Will for everyone because He speaks for the Kingdom of God which
is joy. Following Him is therefore the easiest thing in the world and the only thing that
is easy, because it is not of the world and is therefore
natural. The world
goes against your nature, being out of accord with God's laws. The world perceives orders of difficulty in everything. This is because the ego perceives nothing as wholly desirable. By demonstrating to yourselves that there
is no order of difficulty in miracles, you will convince yourselves that in your
natural state there is no difficulty because it is a state of grace.
108 Grace is the
natural state of every Son of God. When he is
not in a state of grace, he is out of his natural environment and does not function well. Everything he does becomes a strain because he was not created for the environment that he has made. He therefore
cannot adapt to it, nor can he adapt
it to
him. There is no point in trying. A Son of God is happy
only when he knows he is with God. That is the only environment in which he will not experience strain, because that is where he belongs. It is also the only environment that is worthy of him, because his own worth is beyond anything he can make.
109 Consider the kingdom
you have made and judge its worth fairly. Is it worthy to be a home for a Child of God? Does it protect his peace and shine love upon him? Does it keep his heart untouched by fear and allow him to give always without any sense of loss? Does it teach him that this giving
is his joy and that God Himself thanks him for his giving? That is the
only environment in which you can be happy. You cannot make it any more than you can make yourselves. It has been created
for you, as you were created for it. God watches over His Children and denies them nothing. Yet when they deny Him, they do not know this, because they deny
themselves everything.
110 You who could give the love of God to everything you see and touch and remember are literally denying Heaven to yourselves. I call upon you again to remember that I have chosen you to teach the Kingdom
to the Kingdom. There are no exceptions to this lesson, because the lack of exceptions
is the lesson. Every Son who returns to the Kingdom with this lesson in his heart has healed the Sonship and given thanks to God. Everyone who learns this lesson has become the perfect teacher because he has learned it of the Holy Spirit, Who wants to teach him everything He knows. When a mind
has only light, it
knows only light. Its own radiance shines all around it and extends out into the darkness of other minds, transforming them into majesty.
111 The Majesty of God is there for you to recognize and appreciate and
know. Perceiving the Majesty of God
as your brother is to accept your
own inheritance. God gives only equally. If you recognize His gift in anyone else, you have acknowledged what He has given
you. Nothing is as easy to perceive as truth. This is the perception which is immediate, clear, and natural. You have trained yourselves
not to see it, and this has been very difficult for you.
Out of your natural environment, you may well ask, "What is truth?" since truth
is the environment by which and for which you were created.
112 You do not know yourselves, because you do not know
your Creator. You do not know your creations, because you do not know your brothers, who created them
with you. We said before that only the whole Sonship is worthy to be co-creator with God because only the whole Sonship can create
like Him. Whenever you heal a brother by recognizing his worth, you are acknowledging
his power to create
and yours. He cannot have lost what
you recognize, and
you must have the glory you see in him. He is a co-creator with God with
you. Deny
his creative power, and you are denying yours
and that of God, Who created you. You cannot deny part of truth. You do not know your creations because you do not know their creator. You do not know yourselves because you do not know
yours.
113 Your creations cannot establish your reality any more than you can establish God's. But you can
know both. Being is known by sharing.
Because God shared His Being with you, you can know Him. But you must also know all He created to know what
they have shared. Without your Father, you will not know your fatherhood. The Kingdom of God includes all His Sons and their children, who are like the Sons as they are like the Father. Know then the Sons of God, and you will know
all creation.
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ACIM Edmonton
Sarah's Reflections
Lesson 86 ~ Review II
[Review Lessons 71-72]
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Sarah's Commentary:
I came across the Lord's Prayer translated from the Aramaic, which struck me as to how different this version is from our current version. It speaks to the issue of how much is lost in translation over time. It makes me grateful we have such a pure form of teaching from Jesus through the words of the Course.
O Birther! Father—Mother of the Cosmos
Focus your light within us—make it useful
Create your reign of unity now
Your one desire then acts with ours, as in all light, so in all forms
Grant what we need each day in bread and insight
Loose the chords of mistakes binding us as we release the strands we hold of others’ guilt
Don't let surface things delude us
But free us from what holds us back
From you is born all ruling will,
the power and the life to do,
The song that beautifies all, from age to age it renews
Truly power to these statements
May they be the ground from which all my actions grow.
Amen
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Love and blessings, Sarah
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Allen Watson's
Workbook Commentaries
Allen joined Robert Perry in forming the Circle of Atonement in 1993 in Sedona, Arizona where Allen led retreats and workshops and authored many books based on “A Course in Miracles.” One of his most popular books is:
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