Holy Shift! (6 page)

Everyone you attack keeps it and cherishes it by holding it against you.

Whether he does this or does it not will make no difference; you will think he does.

It is impossible to offer what you do not want without this penalty.

The cost of giving is receiving.

Text-14. III. 5:4-8.

 

Perhaps you think that different kinds of love are possible.

Perhaps you think there is a kind of love for this, a kind for that; a way of loving one, another way of loving still another.

Love is one.

It has no separate parts and no degrees; no kinds nor levels, no divergencies and no distinctions.

It is like itself, unchanged throughout.

It never alters with a person or a circumstance.

It is the Heart of God, and also of His Son.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 127. 1:1-7.

 

There is a light that this world cannot give.

Yet you can give it, as it was given you.

And as you give it, it shines forth to call you from the world and follow it.

For this light will attract you as nothing in this world can do.

And you will lay aside the world and find another.

This other world is bright with love which you have given it.

And here will everything remind you of your Father and His holy Son.

Text-13. VI. 11:1-7.

 

Nothing beyond yourself can make you fearful or loving, because nothing
is
beyond you.

Text-10. Intro. 1:1.

 

Fear has made everything you think you see.

All separation, all distinctions, and the multitude of differences you believe make up the world. They are not there.

Love's enemy has made them up.

Yet love can have no enemy, and so they have no cause, no being and no consequence.

They can be valued, but remain unreal. They can be sought, but they can not be found.

Today we will not seek for them, nor waste this day in seeking what can not be found.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 130. 4:1-8.

 

Why wait for Heaven? It is here today. Time is the great illusion it is past or in the future.

Yet this cannot be, if it is where God wills His Son to be. How could the Will of God be in the past, or yet to happen?

What He wills is now, without a past and wholly futureless.

It is as far removed from time as is a tiny candle from a distant star, or what you chose from what you really want.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 131. 6:1-7.

 

Perhaps you think you did not make the world, but came unwillingly to what was made already, hardly waiting for your thoughts to give it meaning.

Yet in truth you found exactly what you looked for when you came.

There is no world apart from what you wish, and herein lies your ultimate release.

Change but your mind on what you want to see, and all the world must change accordingly.

Ideas leave not their source.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 132. 4:4-5 & 5:1-3.

 

You do not ask too much of life, but far too little.

When you let your mind be drawn to bodily concerns, to things you buy, to eminence as valued by the world, you ask for sorrow, not for happiness.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 133. 2:1-2.

 

Forgiveness stands between illusions and the truth; between the world you see and that which lies beyond; between the hell of guilt and Heaven's gate.

Across this bridge, as powerful as love which laid its blessing on it, are all dreams of evil and of hatred and attack brought silently to truth.

They are not kept to swell and bluster, and to terrify the foolish dreamer who believes in them.

He has been gently wakened from his dream by understanding what he thought he saw was never there.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 134. 10:4 & 11:1-3.

 

A healed mind does not plan. It carries out the plans that it receives through listening to wisdom that is not its own.

It waits until it has been taught what should be done, and then proceeds to do it.

It does not depend upon itself for anything except its adequacy to fulfill the plans assigned to it.

It is secure in certainty that obstacles can not impede its progress to accomplishment of any goal that serves the greater plan established for the good of everyone.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 135. 11:1-5.

 

Miracles enable you to heal the sick and raise the dead because you made sickness and death yourself, and can therefore abolish both.

You are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator.

Everything else is your own nightmare, and does not exist.

Only the creations of light are real.

Text-1. I. 24:1-4.

 

And as you let yourself be healed, you see all those around you, or who cross your mind, or whom you touch or those who seem to have no contact with you, healed along with you.

Perhaps you will not recognize them all, nor realize how great your offering to all the world, when you let healing come to you.

But you are never healed alone.

And legions upon legions will receive the gift that you receive when you are healed.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 137. 10:1-4.

 

Heaven is the decision I must make.

I make it now, and will not change my mind, because it is the only thing I want.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 138. 12:5-6.

 

There is no conflict that does not entail the single, simple question, “What am I?”

Workbook-p I. Lesson 139. 1:6.

 

So do we lay aside our amulets, our charms and medicines, our chants and bits of magic in whatever form they take.

We will be still and listen for the Voice of healing, which will cure all ills as one, restoring saneness to the Son of God.

No voice but this can cure.

Today we hear a single Voice which speaks to us of truth, where all illusions end, and peace returns to the eternal, quiet home of God.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 140. 10:1-4.

 

My mind holds only what I think with God.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 141.

 

Love is my heritage, and with it joy.

These are the gifts my Father gave to me.

I would accept all that is mine in truth.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 117. 2:2-4.

 

God indeed can be reached directly, for there is no distance between Him and His Son.

His awareness is in everyone's memory, and His Word is written on everyone's heart.

Yet this awareness and this memory can arise across the threshold of recognition only where all barriers to truth have been removed.

Manual for Teachers. 26. 1:1-3.

 

Love's Arms are open to receive you, and give you peace forever.

Text-20. VI. 10:6.

 

The question, “What do you want?” must be answered.

You are answering it every minute and every second, and each moment of decision is a judgment that is anything but ineffectual.

Its effects will follow automatically until the decision is changed.

Text-5. V. 6:2-4.

 

Have faith in only this one thing, and it will be sufficient:

God wills you be in Heaven, and nothing can keep you from it, or it from you.

Your wildest misperceptions, your weird imaginings, your blackest nightmares all mean nothing.

They will not prevail against the peace God wills for you.

Text-13. XI. 7:1-3.

 

There is no order of difficulty in miracles.

One is not “harder” or “bigger” than another.

They are all the same.

All expressions of love are maximal.

Text-1. I. 1:4.

 

It is not danger that comes when defenses are laid down.

It is safety. It is peace. It is joy. And it is God.

Manual for Teachers. 4. VI. 1:11-15.

 

Those who offer peace to everyone have found a home in Heaven the world cannot destroy.

For it is large enough to hold the world within its peace.

Text-25. IV. 4:9-10.

 

The song of prayer is silent without you.

The universe is waiting your release because it is its own.

Be kind to it and to yourself, and then be kind to Me. I ask but this; that you be comforted and live no more in terror and in pain.

Do not abandon Love.

Remember this; whatever you may think about yourself, whatever you may think about the world, your Father needs you and will call to you until you come to Him in peace at last.

Song of Prayer-3. IV. 10:2-7.

 

Wisdom is not judgment; it is the relinquishment of judgment.

Manual for Teachers. 10. 4:5.

 

No one can suffer loss unless it be his own decision.

No one suffers pain except his choice elects this state for him.

No one can grieve nor fear nor think him sick unless these are the outcomes that he wants.

And no one dies without his own consent.

Nothing occurs but represents your wish, and nothing is omitted that you choose.

Here is your world, complete in all details.

Here is its whole reality for you.

And it is only here salvation is.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 152. 1:1-8.

 

Today our theme is our defenselessness. We clothe ourselves in it, as we prepare to meet the day.

We rise up strong in Christ, and let our weakness disappear, as we remember that His strength abides in us.

We will remind ourselves that He remains beside us through the day, and never leaves our weakness unsupported by His strength.

We call upon His strength each time we feel the threat of our defenses undermine our certainty of purpose. We will pause a moment, as He tells us, “I am here.”

Workbook-p I. Lesson 153. 19:1-6.

 

Child of God, you were created to create the good, the beautiful, and the holy.

Do not forget this.

Text-1. VII. 2:1-2.

 

If you knew Who walks beside you on the way that you have chosen, fear would be impossible.

Text-18. III. 3:2.

 

“Who walks with me?”

This question should be asked a thousand times a day, till certainty has ended doubting and established peace.

Today let doubting cease.

God speaks for you in answering your question with these words:

I walk with God in perfect holiness. I light the world, I light my mind and all the minds which God created one with me.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 156. 8:1-6.

 

Into Christ's Presence will we enter now, serenely unaware of everything except His shining face and perfect Love.

The vision of His face will stay with you, but there will be an instant which transcends all vision, even this, the holiest.

This you will never teach, for you attained it not through learning.

Yet the vision speaks of your remembrance of what you knew that instant, and will surely know again.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 157. 9:1-4.

 

In the ego's language, “to have” and “to be” are different, but they are identical to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit knows that you both
have
everything and
are
everything.

Any distinction in this respect is meaningful only when the idea of “getting,” which implies a lack, has already been accepted.

This is why we make no distinction between
having
the Kingdom of God and
being
the Kingdom of God.

Text-4. III. 9:4-7.

 

Christ's vision is a miracle.

It comes from far beyond itself, for it reflects eternal love and the rebirth of love which never dies, but has been kept obscure.

Christ's vision pictures Heaven, for it sees a world so like to Heaven that what God created perfect can be mirrored there.

The darkened glass the world presents can show but twisted images in broken parts.

The real world pictures Heaven's innocence.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 159. 3:1-5.

 

Not one does Christ forget.

Not one He fails to give you to remember, that your home may be complete and perfect as it was established.

He has not forgotten you.

But you will not remember Him until you look on all as He does.

Who denies his brother is denying Him, and thus refusing to accept the gift of sight by which his Self is clearly recognized, his home remembered and salvation come.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 160. 10:1-5.

 

Select one brother, symbol of the rest, and ask salvation of him.

See him first as clearly as you can, in that same form to which you are accustomed.

See his face, his hands and feet, his clothing. Watch him smile, and see familiar gestures which he makes so frequently.

Then think of this: What you are seeing now conceals from you the sight of one who can forgive you all your sins; whose sacred hands can take away the nails which pierce your own, and lift the crown of thorns which you have placed upon your bleeding head.

Ask this of him, that he may set you free:

Give me your blessing, holy Son of God. I would behold you with the eyes of Christ, and see my perfect sinlessness in you.

Workbook-p I. Lesson 161. 11:1-8.