Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now
Lesson 156 I Walk With God in Perfect Holiness.
- Today’s idea but states the simple truth that makes the thought of sin impossible. It promises there is no cause for guilt and being causeless it does not exist. It follows surely from the basic thought so often mentioned in the text; ideas leave not their source. If this be true, how can you be apart from God? How could you walk the world alone and separate from your Source?
- We are not inconsistent in the thoughts that we present in our curriculum. Truth must be true throughout if it be true. It cannot contradict itself, nor be in parts uncertain and in others sure. You cannot walk the world apart from God because you could not be without Him. He is what your life is. Where you are, He is. There is one life. That life you share with Him. Nothing can be apart from Him and live.
- Yet where He is, there must be holiness as well as life. No attribute of His remains unshared by everything that lives. What lives is holy as Himself, because what shares His life is part of Holiness, and could no more be sinful than the sun could choose to be of ice; the sea elect to be apart from water, or the grass to grow with roots suspended in the air.
- There is a light in you which cannot die; whose presence is so holy that the world is sanctified because of you. All things that live bring gifts to you and offer them in gratitude and gladness at your feet. The scent of flowers is their gift to you. The waves bow down before you, and the trees extend their arms to shield you from the heat and lay their leaves before you on the ground that you may walk in softness, while the wind sinks to a whisper round your holy head.
- The light in you is what the universe longs to behold. All living things are still before you, for they recognize Who walks with you. The light you carry is their own. And thus they see in you their holiness, saluting you as savior and as God. Accept their reverence, for it is due to Holiness Itself, Which walks with you, transforming in Its gentle Light all things unto Its likeness and Its purity.
- This is the way salvation works. As you step back, the light in you steps forward and encompasses the world. It heralds not the end of sin in punishment and death. In lightness and in laughter is sin gone because its quaint absurdity is seen. It is a foolish thought, a silly dream, not frightening, ridiculous perhaps, but who would waste an instant in approach to God Himself for such a senseless whim?
- Yet you have wasted many, many years on just this foolish thought. The past is gone, with all its fantasies. They keep you bound no longer. The approach to God is near. And in the little interval of doubt that still remains, you may perhaps lose sight of your Companion, and mistake Him for the senseless, ancient dream that now is past.
- “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.[1]
Notes and Personal Application: Today Jesus is urging us to deeply consider who and what we are in God. God has breathed Himself into us. We are part of Him as He is part of us. In God there is no sin, no guilt, no shame. As part of God and His holy creation, we, too experience no sin, no guilt, no shame.
For those who cherish the idea of sin, of guilt, of shame, this is not good news. This is not the gospel of Christ for those who choose to make the world – and all that is done it – a reality. Flesh and blood are their reality – and the world then is the proving ground for those who are worthy of God’s Kingdom and for those who have so little value that they will burn in hell. All manner of strange and insane dogmas are devised to make the world real, to make unholiness an option for the creation of God.
In our lesson, Jesus states that the light within us cannot sin, cannot separate itself from God, cannot die. The light within each of us is holy. It is the only real thing about us – it is everlasting, it offers salvation to the world, all of creation caters to the light within us, because we are of God.
Salvation works by letting the self of this world go and letting our oneness with God, the light within each of us, step forward and lead the way. In this holy light our whole perception of God changes from that of a senseless, ancient dream full of rage, vengeance, banishment, and punishment to the reality of His love and devotion to us. The light within us calls to us and draws us to Him as He really is – not what the world’s self has made Him out to be.
When we give up the thoughts of sin and shame, we recognize who and what we really are in Christ! We do not have to change our ways, live by a code of ethics, follow a bunch of rules, worry about letting the wrong words escape from our mouth, or try to win souls for Christ. We are not required to fast, pay tithes and offerings, build cathedrals, or go on holy treks. We can do all of that if we choose to do it, but do not kid yourself – God is not requiring this from us. We are freed from all the man-made prescriptions that would pose for our salvation as soon as we realize that the world is only a dream.
The Voice for God is calling us to open our eyes, to wake up. If you have concerns about your holiness, rest assured, you will never be holy in the flesh; any attempts to please God with your world self will come to naught. Whatever you do in the dream world stays in the dream world. It is God Who walks with us in perfect holiness. We are one with Him. Through Him, we light the world. When we wake up, we wake up others without even trying. We light our minds and all the minds God created are lit as one.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 156. Foundation for Inner Peace. Second Edition (1992).
Audio credit: http://www.eckiefriar.com
the friar patch 