The will of God is a creative act

The creative power of God and His creations is limitless, but they are not in reciprocal relationship.

You communicate fully with God, as He does with you.

This is an ongoing process in which you share, and because you share it, you are inspired to create like God.

Yet in creation you are not in a reciprocal relation to God, since He created you but you did not create Him.

I have already told you that only in this respect your creative power differs from His.

Even in this world there is a parallel. Parents give birth to children, but children do not give birth to parents.

They do, however, give birth to their children, and thus give birth as their parents do.

The apostles

 
As you read the teachings of the Apostles, remember that I told them myself that there was much they would understand later, because they were not wholly ready to follow me at the time.

  I do not want you to allow any fear to enter into the thought system toward which I am guiding you.

I do not call for martyrs but for teachers. No one is punished for sins, and the Sons of God are not sinners.

Any concept of punishment involves the projection of blame, and reinforces the idea that blame is justified.

The result is a lesson in blame, for all behavior teaches the beliefs that motivate it.

The crucifixion was the result of clearly opposed thought systems; the perfect symbol of the "conflict" between the ego and the Son of God.

This conflict seems just as real now, and its lessons must be learned now as well as then.

God is with me

 He is my Source of life, the life within, the air I breathe, the food by which I am sustained, the water which renews and cleanses me.

He is my home, wherein I live and move; the Spirit Which directs my actions, offers me Its Thoughts, and guarantees my safety from all pain.

He covers me with kindness and with care, and holds in love the Son He shines upon, who also shines on Him.

How still is he who knows the truth of what He speaks today!

Father, we have no words except Your Name upon our lips and in our minds, as we come quietly into Your Presence now, and ask to rest with You in peace a while.

Everyone

Everyone in the world must play his part in its redemption, in order to recognize that the world has been redeemed. 

You cannot see the invisible.

Yet if you see its effects you know it must be there.

By perceiving what it does, you recognize its being.

And by what it does, you learn what it is.

You cannot see your strengths, but you gain confidence in their existence as they enable you to act.

And the results of your actions you can see.

Masterpiece

  
Accept God's frame instead of yours, and you will see the masterpiece.

  Look at its loveliness, and understand the Mind that thought it, not in flesh and bones, but in a frame as lovely as Itself.

Its holiness lights up the sinlessness the frame of darkness hides, and casts a veil of light across the picture's face which but reflects the light that shines from it to its Creator.

Think not this face was ever darkened because you saw it in a frame of death.

God kept it safe that you might look on it, and see the holiness that He has given it.

Complexity

Choosing is easy just because of this.

Complexity is nothing but a screen of smoke, which hides the very simple fact that no decision can be difficult.

What is the gain to you in learning this?

It is far more than merely letting you make choices easily and without pain.

Heaven itself is reached with empty hands and open minds, which come with nothing to find everything and claim it as their own.

We will attempt to reach this state today, with self-deception laid aside, and with an honest willingness to value but the truly valuable and the real.

Investment

The ego is afraid of the spirit's joy, because once you have experienced it you will withdraw all protection from the ego, and become totally without investment in fear.

Your investment is great now because fear is a witness to the separation, and your ego rejoices when you witness to it. 

Leave it behind! Do not listen to it and do not preserve it. 

Listen only to God, Who is as incapable of deception as is the spirit He created. 

Release yourself and release others. 

Do not present a false and unworthy picture of yourself to others, and do not accept such a picture of them yourself.

Forgive

The forgiven are the means of the Atonement.

Being filled with spirit, they forgive in return.

Those who are released must join in releasing their brothers, for this is the plan of the Atonement.

Miracles are the way in which minds that serve the Holy Spirit unite with me for the salvation or release of all of God's creations.

Fearless

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.

God's Will

God's Will does not oppose. It merely is.

It is not God you have imprisoned in your plan to lose your Self.

  He does not know about a plan so alien to His Will.

There was a need He did not understand, to which He gave an Answer.

That is all. And you who have this Answer given you have need no more of anything but This.

      

Values

Today we practice letting go all thought of values we have given to the world.

We leave it free of purposes we gave its aspects and its phases and its dreams.

We hold it purposeless within our minds, and loosen it from all we wish it were.

Thus do we lift the chains that bar the door to freedom from the world, and go beyond all little values and diminished goals.

Pause and be still a little while, and see how far you rise above the world, when you release your mind from chains and let it seek the level where it finds itself at home. It will be grateful to be free a while.

Sincere

And gratitude can only be sincere if it be joined to love.

We offer thanks to God our Father that in us all things will find their freedom.

It will never be that some are loosed while others still are bound.

For who can bargain in the name of love?

Therefore give thanks, but in sincerity.

And let your gratitude make room for all who will escape with you; the sick, the weak, the needy and afraid, and those who mourn a seeming loss or feel apparent pain, who suffer cold or hunger, or who walk the way of hatred and the path of death.

All these go with you. Let us not compare ourselves with them, for thus we split them off from our awareness of the unity we share with them, as they must share with us.

Renewed

I am renewed each time a brother learns there is a way from misery and pain.

I am reborn each time a brother's mind turns to the light in him and looks for me.

  I have forgotten no one. Help me now to lead you back to where the journey was begun, to make another choice with me.

Release me as you practice once again the thoughts I brought to you from Him Who sees your bitter need, and knows the answer God has given Him.

Reception

Creation and communication are synonymous.

God created every mind by communicating His Mind to it, thus establishing it forever as a channel for the reception of His Mind and Will.

Since only beings of a like order can truly communicate, His creations naturally communicate with Him and like Him.

This communication is perfectly abstract, since its quality is universal in application and not subject to any judgment, any exception or any alteration.

God created you by this and for this. The mind can distort its function, but it cannot endow itself with functions it was not given.

That is why the mind cannot totally lose the ability to communicate, even though it may refuse to utilize it on behalf of being.

Gentle

Be not afraid, my child, but let your world be gently lit by miracles.

And where the little gap was seen to stand between you and your brother, join him there.

And so sickness will now be seen without a cause. The dream of healing in forgiveness lies, and gently shows you that you never sinned.

The miracle would leave no proof of guilt to bring you witness to what never was.

And in your storehouse it will make a place of welcome for your Father and your Self.

The door is open, that all those may come who would no longer starve, and would enjoy the feast of plenty set before them there.

And they will meet with your invited Guests the miracle has asked to come to you.

Grace

Grace is not given to a body, but to a mind. And the mind that receives it looks instantly beyond the body, and sees the holy place where it was healed.

There is the altar where the grace was given, in which it stands.
Do you, then, offer grace and blessing to your brother, for you stand at the same altar where grace was laid for both of you.

And be you healed by grace together, that you may heal through faith.

In the holy instant, you and your brother stand before the altar God has raised unto Himself and both of you.

Lay faithlessness aside, and come to it together. There will you see the miracle of your relationship as it was made again through faith.

And there it is that you will realize that there is nothing faith cannot forgive. No error interferes with its calm sight, which brings the miracle of healing with equal ease to all of them.

  For what the messengers of love are sent to do they do, returning the glad tidings that it was done to you and your brother who stand together before the altar from which they were sent forth.

Happiness

This course has explicitly stated that its goal for you is happiness and peace.

Yet you are afraid of it. You have been told again and again that it will set you free, yet you sometimes react as if it is trying to imprison you.

You often dismiss it more readily than you dismiss the ego's thought system.

To some extent, then, you must believe that by not learning the course you are protecting yourself.

And you do not realize that it is only your guiltlessness that can protect you.

Key

For truth is true.

What else could ever be, or ever was?

This simple lesson holds the key to the dark door that you believe is locked forever.

You made this door of nothing, and behind it is nothing.

The key is only the light that shines away the shapes and forms and fears of nothing.

Accept this key to freedom from the hands of Christ Who gives it to you, that you may join Him in the holy task of bringing light.

For, like your brothers, you do not realize the light has come and freed you from the sleep of darkness.