103,025
edits
Changes
ACIM Workbook - Lesson 169 (view source)
Revision as of 22:55, 29 October 2014
, 22:55, 29 October 2014Created page with 'Image:lighterstill.jpgright|frame <center>'''By grace I live. By grace I am released.'''</center> By grace I live. By grace I am released. Grace ...'
[[Image:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:Acim_small.jpg|right|frame]]
<center>'''By grace I live. By grace I am released.'''</center>
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 you have work to do to play your part. The ending must
remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter. For your
part is still what all the rest depends on. As you take the role assigned to
you, 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 you
from holy instants you receive, through grace in your experience, to all who
see the light that lingers in your face. 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 you finally attain to it
forever, while a part of you remains outside, unknowing, unawakened, and
in need of you as witness to the truth?
Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant, and accept the gifts
that grace provided you. You carry them back to yourself. 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?
<center>''By grace I live. By grace I am released.''</center>
<center>''By grace I give. By grace I will release.''</center>
[[Category: Workbook I]]
<center>'''By grace I live. By grace I am released.'''</center>
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 you have work to do to play your part. The ending must
remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter. For your
part is still what all the rest depends on. As you take the role assigned to
you, 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 you
from holy instants you receive, through grace in your experience, to all who
see the light that lingers in your face. 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 you finally attain to it
forever, while a part of you remains outside, unknowing, unawakened, and
in need of you as witness to the truth?
Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant, and accept the gifts
that grace provided you. You carry them back to yourself. 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?
<center>''By grace I live. By grace I am released.''</center>
<center>''By grace I give. By grace I will release.''</center>
[[Category: Workbook I]]