Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now
LESSON 188 The Peace of God is shining in me now.
- Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. Light is not of the world, yet you who bear the light in you are alien here as well. The light came with you from your native home and stayed with you because it is your own. It is the only thing you bring with you from Him Who is your Source. It shines in you because it lights your home and leads you back to where it came from and you are at home.
- This light cannot be lost. Why wait to find it in the future, or believe it has been lost already, or was never there? It can so easily be looked upon that arguments which prove it is not there become ridiculous. Who can deny the presence of what he beholds in him? It is not difficult to look within, for there all vision starts. There is no sight, be it of dreams or from a truer Source, that is not but the shadow of the seen through inward vision. There perception starts, and there it ends. It has no source but this.
- The peace of God is shining in you now, and from your heart extends around the world. It pauses to caress each living thing and leaves a blessing with it that remains forever and forever. What it gives must be eternal. It removes all thoughts of the ephemeral and valueless. It brings renewal to all tired hearts and lights all vision as it passes by. All of its gifts are given everyone, and everyone unites in giving thanks to you who give, and you who have received.
- The shining in your mind reminds the world of what it has forgotten, and the world restores the memory to you as well. From you salvation radiates with gifts beyond all measure, given and returned. To you, the giver of the gift, does God Himself give thanks. And in His blessing does the light in you shine brighter, adding to the gifts you have to offer to the world.
- The peace of God can never be contained. Who recognizes it within himself must give it. And the means for giving it are in his understanding. He forgives because he recognized the truth in him. The peace of God is shining in you now, and in all living thing. In quietness is it acknowledged universally. For what your inward vision looks upon is your perception of the universe.
- Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light within you is sufficient. It alone has power to give the gift of sight to you. Exclude the outer world and let your thought fly to the peace within. They know the way. For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream of worldly things outside yourself, become the holy messengers of God Himself.
- These thoughts you think with Him. They recognize their home. And they point surely to their Source, Where God the Father and the Son are one. God’s peace is shining on them, but they must remain with you as well, for they were born within your mind, as yours was born in God’s. They lead you back to peace, from where they came but to remind you how you must return.
- They heed your Father’s Voice when you refuse to listen. And they urge you gently to accept His Word for what you are, instead of fantasies and shadows. They remind you that you are the co-creator of all things that live. For as the peace of God is shining in you, it must shine on them.
- We practice coming nearer to the light in us today. We take our wandering thoughts, and gently bring them back to where they fall in line with all the thoughts we share with God. We will not let them stray. We let the light within our minds direct them to come home. We have betrayed them, ordering that they depart from us. But now we call them back and wash them clean of strange desires and disordered wishes. We restore to them the holiness of their inheritance.
- Thus are our minds restored with them, and we acknowledge that the peace of God still shines in us, and from us to all living thing that share our life. We will forgive them all, absolving all the world from what we thought it did to us. For it is we who make the world as we would have it. Now we choose that it be innocent, devoid of sin and open to salvation. And we lay our saving blessing on it, and we say: The peace of God is shining in me now. Let all things shine upon me in that peace And let me bless them with the light in me.[1]
Personal Notes and Application: Why wait for Heaven indeed? There are times that this world gets to me – first it reels me in with its mysteries and its stories of death and despair, and then once in I forget about the peace of God. Instead I rail upon Him. How could He let this happen? Where is all this love and devotion He is supposed to have for us. Why would He let us dream such a dream, experience, even vicariously the torments of such a dark and despairing realm?
This is me in the world. I have known from the time I can remember that it is a dangerous place and to survive I must use my wits against all who would come up against me. And yet I am so drawn to its darkness, to its fearful tales and cryptic lies. The very stories that draw me in crowd out my love and trust in God. The illusions of the world enchant me and then like an unfaithful lover, leave me dangling in a state of confusion, despair, and disbelief.
But today Jesus says that we do not have to wait for Heaven. We do not have to cover our eyes with the dark fables of murder, espionage, revenge, and kidnapping. All we have to do is let our light shine, the light that came with us from Heaven when we came to the world, the light that can never be extinguished, the light that leads us back to our true home.
When we let our light shine, it reminds the world of all it has forgotten, and when the world remembers it reminds us as well. When we stand with Christ, we add our light to His light. Jesus tells us today that the peace of God is shining in us right now, it is shining in all living things, and it is in the quietness of our inward vision that Christ’s vision becomes apparent to the universe.
Today we sit for our little while with our eyes closed to the forms of the time-bound world. We sit quietly and let our thoughts take wing and transport us to the peace of God within each of us. Our thoughts, Jesus says, untainted by the world outside of us, are holy messengers of God. It is these thoughts which think with God. They take us home. They bring us to that state of oneness and unity to remind us where we came from and how we must return.
When we refuse to listen to our Father’s Voice, it is these thoughts, these inward, holy thoughts that heed His Voice. These thoughts are the ones that gently urge us to turn off the bloody, screaming, angry, sad, despairing images on our screens and accept ourselves not as humans trapped in flesh and blood but as Sons of God, co-creators of all things that live, accepting of the peace of God shining in us all in spite of what our programs would have us believe about ourselves.
In our quiet, solitude we practice getting in touch with our inner light. We take all thoughts of the world outside of ourselves and bring them in line with all the thoughts we share with God. We have betrayed our thoughts with strange desires and disordered wishes to chill out with stories of death, of lies, betrayals, and the petty drivel of the world. But for our devotional times, we train our thoughts to God. We see that the peace of God still shines in us and in all living thing. We absolve the world from all the pain we thought it brought to us. The thoughts we think with God bless and save the world.
Father, the peace of God shines in me! Let all living things shine on me in the peace of God. Let me bless all living things with Your light which shines in me. In Jesus name. Amen.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 188. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
Audio credit: http://www.eckiefriar.com
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