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Study of Text, Chapter 11, I. The Gifts of Fatherhood, P 2. 8-6-15

I. The Gifts of Fatherhood, P 2

2 To be alone is to be separated from infinity, but how can this be if infinity has no end? No one can be beyond the limitless, because what has no limits must be everywhere. There are no beginnings and no endings in God, Whose universe is Himself. Can you exclude yourself from the universe, or from God Who is the universe? I and my Father are one with you, for you are part of Us. Do you really believe that part of God can be missing or lost to Him?

Journal
Jesus is appealing to my common sense. God is the universe, and has no limits. I am of God and in God, so I am the universe and I am limitless. There are no beginnings or endings in God and so God always was and always will be and therefore I always was and always will be. Can I undo this? Do I really believe that is possible?
What is this that seems to be happening to me and all around me? This does not appear to be God. It is not eternal and limitless. Did I actually succeed in destroying Reality and setting up my own world and my own rules? If that were true then I really did destroy God and my guilt and fear are justified. And yet, can I really believe that I have the power and will to do that?

This is the error we make, this belief that we are something outside God and that we have power separate from God. We are told that of ourselves we can do nothing, but through God all things are possible. So what I have done is nothing. I did it through the power that is God, but I did it of myself so I did nothing. I dreamed I did something. I made an illusion of something. But I did nothing, and so the fear and guilt are not justified, because nothing happened.

This nothing I am experiencing as if it is something, feels amazingly real because it is a real experience, but it is not Reality. However, the feeling of it, is what confuses me, and makes me think I have done this thing. I like to think of it like this. I (the Son) extended myself into an illusion of reality and am experiencing it as if it were reality. Can you imagine that? Can you see it in your mind?

I extend myself into the illusion. It is as if I am watching the best 3-D movie ever, and have the additional ability to put myself into one of the characters, to extend my being, my awareness, into that character. Now the movie is even more astounding, more realistic. In fact it is so realistic that I am lost in the character and the action and the story. But I cannot stay lost in it because that would be insanity and I am in God Who is not insane.

What is happening now for me, and for you, is that I am waking up from this dream story, and I am withdrawing my awareness from this character I am playing… from all the characters I have played and all the stories I have experienced. It is perfect that I do this, and perfectly natural. It is the only natural thing I have done since I started this, eons ago, and yet, not eons, since there is no beginning and no ending in God.

From within the story, timelessness and eternity are not understandable, but the story is not in eternity so it is coming to an end. I don’t need to understand how all this occurred or even what it all means in order to wake up from it. I only need to accept it is possible (and I think that is why Holy Spirit gives me these metaphors; he is helping me to understand and accept just enough to allow a gentle awakening.) When I am submerged in the story, Reality seems like a dream, but as I emerge, even a little, I glimpse a possibility of my true Self, and start to understand that I do not live in this story, but in eternity.

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 11: I: The Gifts of Fatherhood, P 1. 8-5-15

I. The Gifts of Fatherhood, P 1

1 You have learned your need of healing. Would you bring anything else to the Sonship, recognizing your need of healing for yourself? For in this lies the beginning of the return to knowledge; the foundation on which God will help build again the thought system you share with Him. Not one stone you place upon it but will be blessed by Him, for you will be restoring the holy dwelling place of His Son, where He wills His Son to be and where he is. In whatever part of the mind of God’s Son you restore this reality, you restore it to yourself. You dwell in the Mind of God with your brother, for God Himself did not will to be alone.

Journal
Jesus is right; I know I need healing. I know that my mind is sick with ego thoughts and beliefs, and I know I want to be healed. This desire for healing is all I want to bring to the Sonship. If I notice that I think someone else is guilty, I don’t want to bring this belief in guilt to the Sonship, but rather I will bring the desire that this thought in my mind be healed. If I believe in my brother’s sickness, this belief is not what I want to bring to the Sonship. Let me, instead, remember that sickness of the body is a projection of an untrue belief. It is not God’s Will, therefore, it is not real.

Let each untrue thought that I find in my mind be healed. And I know that it doesn’t matter where in the Sonship the thought is acted upon, each thought of which I am aware is my responsibility. When I read about a crime, I pray for the healing of my mind. I pray for the part of my mind that believes salvation lies in attack. When I am told of a brother living in poverty, I pray for the healing of the part of the mind that believes that God Son lacks anything.

This is what I am to do as my part in the restoration of the thought system I share with God. I dwell, with my brother, in God, but I have made a thought system that puts us outside each other and outside God. As I lose my desire for that thought system, it is undone for me. My part in this is to choose differently, and allow the mind to be healed and the thought system I share with God to be rebuilt for me. This is God’s Will and it is my will, too.

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 11: Introduction, P 4. 8-4-15

Introduction, P 4

4 My brother, you are part of God and part of me. When you have at last looked at the ego’s foundation without shrinking you will also have looked upon ours. I come to you from our Father to offer you everything again. Do not refuse it in order to keep a dark cornerstone hidden, for its protection will not save you. I give you the lamp and I will go with you. You will not take this journey alone. I will lead you to your true Father, Who hath need of you, as I have. Will you not answer the call of love with joy?

Journal
“Oh, Jesus, I love you so much! Thank you, thank you!”

Jesus has given us the lamp and goes with us; we are not alone in this journey. Oh my gosh! I want to walk that path with him. I want to go home. I will shine that light on every dark corner of the mind, and do so gladly. I ask that I be shone any dark thought that I have been hiding from myself. One of them came up recently and I wrote about it this morning in my Daily Lesson journal.  Here is a link if you are interested. http://tinyurl.com/nbl6juj

I used to be nervous about asking for dark thoughts indiscriminately, because I was afraid I would be overwhelmed. I have come to fully trust Holy Spirit, though, and so I am not afraid to ask. He will give me exactly what is right for me now, and will never lead me to look at something I am not ready for. Also, I have experienced this looking business enough to know that I will come out of it unscathed, and very likely, healed.

There is the belief that I must keep my dark thoughts hidden to protect myself. Just as I have thoughts I don’t want you to see, I have darker thoughts I don’t want even myself to see, much less, God. This is ridiculous, of course, as “my” thoughts are the thoughts in the one mind. There are no private thoughts. And could there be something unknown to the Holy Spirit? Really, I hid only from my own self, and that self is only pretending not to know what is there.

Jesus is telling us that we don’t need to be afraid of the thoughts in the mind, no matter how dark they might be. My experience has been that looking at them with the Holy Spirit dispels the fear and guilt associated with the thoughts. They often become laughable after my mind is healed, and sometimes I cannot even bring them to mind. It seems that when the thought is removed from the mind, it is truly gone. If I remember the thought at all, it has no meaning to me, no charge. It is like I am remembering something I read about some character in a book.

So I encourage us all to take Jesus up on his offer. Let him give us the lamp and walk with us through this process of looking with the Holy Spirit at every dark corner of the mind. We all know what happens to darkness when the light comes on. When the light is focused on all that is in the mind, it will reveal to us our Father and our relationship with Him. We will see that, truly, there is only God and we are in Him. This will no longer be an idea, a lofty concept, but will be our experience. Can you imagine!

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Text, Chapter 11: Introduction, P 3. 8-3-15

Introduction, P 3
3 You make by projection, but God creates by extension. The cornerstone of God’s creation is you, for His thought system is light. Remember the Rays that are there unseen. The more you approach the center of His thought system, the clearer the light becomes. The closer you come to the foundation of the ego’s thought system, the darker and more obscure becomes the way. Yet even the little spark in your mind is enough to lighten it. Bring this light fearlessly with you, and bravely hold it up to the foundation of the ego’s thought system. Be willing to judge it with perfect honesty. Open the dark cornerstone of terror on which it rests, and bring it out into the light. There you will see that it rested on meaninglessness, and that everything of which you have been afraid was based on nothing.

Journal
Jesus tells us that we must look at our dark thoughts with the Holy Spirit before they can be removed, and in this paragraph he explains it in a different way. He says that the ego thought system is dark, while God’s thought system is light. The closer we get to the center of His thought system, the clearer the light becomes, and the closer we get to the ego system, the darker and more obscure becomes the way.
But, while the Great Rays may be unseen, we do have a little spark in our mind, and it is enough. We can approach the darkness in our minds with confidence as we hold this light to the ego’s dark foundation. I am reminded of the song that says, “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.” So what does this look like in my life?

I woke up in the night with a bad headache. I lay there watching my thoughts about this. I moved toward the ego and thought how often this happens, and how often I have other pains and misery in the body. I thought how often I have tried to see this differently and yet, here it is again. I felt discouraged by the whole thing. I wondered what it all means and thought I should just get up and take an aspirin, and what difference does it make anyway.

Then I shined my little light on these dark thoughts and I waited for the light to show me what the darkness had hidden. I began to notice A Course in Miracles playing on my iPod. As I listened, I felt soothed and then encouraged by the words I was hearing. The headache receded to the background and no longer felt important. Again, I thought about getting an aspirin, but decided to wait to see if I really needed it. I fell back to sleep listening to Jesus’ words.

I woke up happy, the confusion and darkness of the ego thought system shined away. I sit here now writing about this and feeling waves of peace and joy flowing through me. I didn’t need a lot of words or explanations last night. I just needed to experience the Light of God shining in me, and that was enough to know everything else was meaningless.

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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