Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now
Lesson 99 Salvation is My Only Function Here.
- Salvation and forgiveness are the same. They both imply that something has gone wrong; something to be saved from, forgiven for; something amiss that needs corrective change; something apart or different from the Will of God. Thus do both terms imply a thing impossible but yet which has occurred, resulting in a state of conflict seen between what is and what could never be.
- Truth and illusions both are equal now, for both have happened. The impossible becomes a thing you need forgiveness for, salvation from. Salvation now becomes the border land between the truth and the illusion. It reflects the truth because it is the means by which you can escape illusions. Yet it is not yet the truth because it undoes what was never done.
- How could there be a meeting place at all where earth and heaven can be reconciled within a mind where both of them exist? The mind that sees illusions thinks them real. They have existence in that they are thoughts. And yet they are not real, because the mind that thinks these thoughts is separate from God.
- What joins the separated mind and thoughts with Mind and Thought which are forever one? What plan could hold the truth inviolate, yet recognize the need illusions bring, and offer means by which they are undone without attack and with no touch of pain? What but a Thought of God could be this plan, by which the never done is overlooked, and sins forgotten which were never real?
- The Holy Spirit holds this plan of God exactly as it was received of Him within the Mind of God and in your own. It is apart from time in that its Source is timeless. Yet it operates in time, because of your belief that time is real. Unshaken does the Holy Spirit look on what you see, on sin and pain and death, on grief and separation and on loss. Yet does He know one thing must still be true; God is still love, and this is not His Will.
- This is the Thought that brings illusions to the truth and sees them as appearances behind which is the changeless and the sure. This is the Thought that saves and that forgives, because it lays no faith in what is not created by the only Source it knows. This is the Thought whose function is to save by giving you its function as your own. Salvation is your function, with the One to Whom the plan was given. Now are you entrusted with this plan, along with Him. He has one answer to appearances; regardless of their form, their size, their depth, or any attribute they seem to have: Salvation is my only function here. God still is love, and this is not His Will.
- You who will yet work miracles, be sure you practice well the idea for today. Try to perceive the strength in what you say, for these are words in which your freedom lies. Your Father loves you. All the world of pain is not His Will. Forgive yourself the thought He wanted this for you. Then let the Thought with which He has replaced all your mistakes enter the darkened places of your mind that thought the thoughts that never were His Will.
- This part belongs to God, as does the rest. It does not think its solitary thoughts and make them real by hiding them from him. Let in the light, and you will look upon no obstacle to what He wills for you. Open your secrets to His kindly light and see how bright this light still shines in you.
- Practice His Thought today, and let His light seek out and lighten up all darkened spots, and shine through them to join them to the rest. It is God’s Will your mind be one with His. It is God’s Will that He has but one Son. It is God’s Will that His one Son is you. Think of these things in practicing today and start the lesson that we learn today with this instruction in the way of truth: Salvation is my only function here. Salvation and forgiveness are the same. Then turn to Him Who shares your function here and let Him teach you what you need to learn to lay all fear aside and know your Self as love, which has no opposite in you.
- Forgive all thoughts which would oppose the truth of your completion, unity, and peace. You cannot lose the gift your Father gave. You do not want to be another self. You have no function that is not of God. Forgive yourself the one you think you made. Forgiveness and salvation are the same. Forgive what you have made, and you are saved.
- There is a special message for today which has the power to remove all forms of doubt and fear forever from your mind. If you are tempted to believe them true, remember that appearances cannot withstand the truth these mighty words contain: Salvation is my only function here. God still is Love, and this is not His Will.
- Your only function tells you you are one. Remind yourself of this between the times you give five minutes to be shared with Him Who shares God’s plan with you. Remind yourself: Salvation is my only function here. Thus do you lay forgiveness on your mind and let all fear be gently laid aside, that love may find its rightful place in you and show you that you are the son of God.[1]
Notes and Personal Application: There are times I feel as if I am swimming in a sea of murky waters while all manner of tormenting fantasies inform me of the dangers on every side. It is to this sense of fear and lurking danger that we can say with all confidence: Salvation is my only function here. God still is Love, and these thoughts are not His Will.
When beloved family members tell stories of my mistakes and share none of my virtues, instead of letting thoughts of injustice, self-pity, attack, or defense distract me from my function, I can stoutly claim with all confidence: Salvation is my only function here. God still is Love, and this is not His Will. When special relationships prove not to be so special, again we can say our lesson idea for the day with impunity, with no sense of shame, sorrow, or vengeance. When we are tormented by talks of viruses and germ warfare and economic collapse: Salvation is my only function here. God still is Love and this is not His Will.
Something went wrong. God’s Will seems to have a strong opponent, something happened by accident or with ill-intent. It can be anything that causes us distress, sorrow, or pain. The impossible happened! Love was overcome by fear, by hatred, by the green-eyed monster and its demon cousin, discontent. Lies become equal with truth, the ego as strong and willful as God Himself. We fall into the murky sea of nightmares, imaginations, and dark shadowy creatures with growling bellies and blood-stained choppers. It is us against all the thievery, whispered meanness, and outright viciousness of the world.
When we have let that murky sea become as strong as God within our minds, we have fallen for the ego’s simulation of reality. We have made the ego’s reality, our reality. In our minds, we have forgotten the invulnerability of who and what we really are. We have taken on our body image and with it, we have accepted the “scam,” as my holy brother Laurie called it.
Salvation and forgiveness are the same. We have one function. You may call your only function forgiveness. I can call my only function salvation. They are the same function; Jesus teaches us today.
In our troubled minds where the ego’s scam and the reality of God both exist as equal and warring factions, there is separation, there is need for a return to the Mind and Thought which are forever one. What can undo such mad beliefs with no pain, with no attack, with no hint of duress?
Our troubles do not trouble Holy Spirit. There is no gossip, estrangement, abandonment or neglect, virus, injustice, misconduct that Holy Spirit looks upon and does not know that God is still Love, and this is not His Will. Jesus says that this is the thought that brings all illusions to the truth. This is the vision that sees through the ego’s scams to the certainty of God.
We think of salvation and forgiveness as saving us from something real. Something so savage that Jesus had to pay God for with His blood. Jesus says that salvation and forgiveness saves us from an illusion that we made real by believing in bloodshed, death, and lies. By allowing ourselves to be brainwashed by our adversary, we think death is stronger than life, that fear is greater than love, that dark shadows can swallow light. We have fallen into an illusion that would take the place of truth and steal our very identities from us.
In this time-bound illusion, salvation is our only function. God is never going to stop being Love. God’s Will is never undone or broken. Anything that is not God’s Will is an impossibility, a lie, an illusion. Salvation and forgiveness deliver us from the lie.
Jesus is telling us that what we perceive in the flesh with our senses is not reality. We have been tempted away from truth and turned into creatures of meat and blood. We have blinded by the lies of the ego and removed ourselves from God. God cannot and will not force us to come back. In fact He does not even want us back until we recognize who and what we really are. As long as we want to dabble in lies and content ourselves with half-truths, gossip about others rather than inspire them, hold grudges instead of offer forgiveness we can stay put. As long as we are content to call the ego’s deception our reality, we need forgiveness and salvation. We are split and not one. We are separate and not united.
Today when you are tempted to believe the egos deceptions, when doubt and fear present themselves to you as truth, remind yourself that salvation is your only function here. God still is Love. And this heartache, this worry, this trouble, this fear…is not real. It will pass in the mists of time, it will go away and never be again, because it is not His Will.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 99 Salvation is my only…Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992). pp. 177-179.
the friar patch 