Lesson 158 ~ I am Safe with my Father.

I have received the Knowledge that I am Purely Mind.  I am part of the larger Mind of God.  I was created out of Love, Wholly Safe and Sinless.  I remain with my Source. This Knowledge has been given me and it cannot be taken from me.  This Knowledge cannot be learned, only Known.

In this world of dreams I undertake a journey that is already over, yet it seems to have a future still unknown to me.  Time is a trick, a sleight of hand, a vast illusion in which figures come and go as if by magic.

There is a Quiet Place in my mind made Holy by forgiveness and Love.  Here are all contradictions reconciled, for here the madness ends.  The Son of God is not a body lost in a world of chaos.  The Son of God is Safe with his Father in a State of Peace, Joy and Love. I have not "sinned" nor made mistakes; my mind is not haunted by terrible thoughts or hateful deeds; I am not separated from my Father.

While I seem to exist in the world of dreams, I will greet each "brother" as the Son of God acknowledging our Oneness.  All that I seem to see is a dream in my mind.  I will replace my thoughts of the world with Thoughts of Truth.  I will lay aside any emotion which is not Love and leave an open place for Heaven to fill.  My "brother" is myself in Oneness.  There is only one of us.  I am dealing with projections of my mind and interacting with characters my mind invented.  While I seem to exist in anything but Perfect Love, I am denying my Reality as God's Son.  Each "brother" I meet today provides another chance to offer the Love and Peace of God.

"I am Safe with my Father."

Lesson 157 ~ I am in the Presence of God.

Today is a day of silence and trust.  Heaven will shine on this day where echoes of Eternity are heard.  Today brings a new experience; a different kind of feeling and Awareness.  I have spent long days and nights celebrating "death."  Today I learn to feel the Joy of Life.

Reality is experienced, not "learned."  ACIM prepares me for that Experience.  Today brings me to the door where learning stops and I catch a glimpse of what lies beyond to experience a touch of Heaven.  I have come far enough along the way of salvation to rise above "time" and "space" and all the laws of the world of insanity.  This I will do increasingly more, as every lesson brings me to this Holy Place and leaves me, for a moment, to be my Self.

Today's idea will Light my mind and let it rest in Quiet Joy as the world of madness is left behind for a moment.  I am in the Presence of God.  I will think on this thought in quiet stillness.  I will let all thoughts of the world fade.  The world can harm me in no way, for it was I who created this fantasy of insanity.....this experience of being "apart from" God.   It is impossible to be apart from God, except in my imagination.

My only purpose now in the world of fantasy is to Awaken to Reality.  I cannot change the world by correcting errors out in the world.  That is like trying to change the outcome of a movie by adjusting the screen.  The world originates in my mind, so I must change my mind about who and where I am.  Am I a body, apart from God or am I the Son of God in Heaven with his Father?

As glimpses of Reality dawn on my mind, all goals of the world become of little worth to me and "the world" becomes a little closer to the end of "time"....a little more like Heaven in its ways. I will see glimpses of Heaven in the "world" until the world disappears and Heaven is All There Is.

"I am in the Presence of God."

Lesson 156 ~ Wherever I am, He is there.

Today's idea is simple Truth.  Truth is always simple.  The world of illusion is always complicated, chaotic and convoluted.  In the dream-world, there is always a price to be paid: a sacrifice of time, effort, pride, money....even Life itself; especially when "sin" is involved. Yet "sin" is impossible.  There is no cause for guilt because sin does not exist.

Ideas never leave their source. The "world" is an idea ~ a fantasy ~ in my mind, and the "world" remains in the only place it exists:  my mind.   I am an idea of God.  I am always in the Mind of God.  Only in dreams and fantasies can I exist in a world "apart from" God.  It is not possible that I walk alone and separate from God.

The ideas of Truth are Consistent and True, unlike the thoughts and ideas of the "world" which change with every breeze.  God is Life.  God is Love. Wherever I seem to be, He is there.  Nothing can be "apart from" God and live, for He is the very definition of Life Itself.  And where God Is, Holiness must be.  Every Attribute of God is shared with His Creation.  I could no more have the choice to be "sinful" than the sun could choose to be made of ice, the sea be separated from water, or grass grow with its roots suspended in air.

There is a Light in me which cannot die; Whose presence is so Holy, that even the "world" is sanctified because of me.  The world of madness also offers gifts to the Son in gratitude and gladness, even among the chaos: the scent of flowers is their gift to me; the waves bow down before me; the trees extend their arms to shield me from the heat and lay their leaves before me on the ground that I may walk in softness, while the wind swirls in whispers around my Holy head.

The Light in me is what the "world" I created longs for.  All Life recognizes the Son of God in me.  The Holy Light in me will transform all things into Its Own Likeness and Purity.  This is the way salvation works.  As ego steps back, the Light in me steps forward, blessing the world.  It tells me that sin will not end in punishment and death. In lightness and laughter It tells me that there is no sin!  Sin's quaint absurdity is seen: a foolish thought, a silly dream, not frightening ~ ridiculous perhaps ~ but why would I waste an instant thinking myself apart from God for such a senseless whim?  Yet I have wasted many, many "years" on just this foolish thought.  Thoughts of the "past," past "sins" and past "wrongs" keep me bound no longer.

The approach to God is near.  I may doubt a little longer, perhaps lose sight of my Reality, but here is a question that I should ask myself a thousand times a day, until Certainty has ended doubt and established Peace:  Who walks with me?  Today I will lay aside doubt.  I walk with God in Perfect Holiness.  My Reality is that I exist with God as His Holy Son.

"Wherever I am, He is there."

Lesson 155 ~ Let Him lead the Way.

The world is an illusion.  I have chosen illusion and continue to choose it with each decision I make and every thought I think.  Yet I cannot hide from Reality forever. What other choice is really there for me to make?  There is nothing else.  To let illusion walk ahead of Truth is madness.  Today I will let Truth be what It Is, making the choice for Sanity.

At times I chose to renounce the world, yet continue to believe in its "reality" and suffer from a sense of loss I do not understand.  If Truth demanded I give up the world, it would appear that I am being asked a great sacrifice.

There is another road that leads away from loss of every kind, with sacrifice and deprivation both quickly left behind.  This is the Way that is appointed for me now. This road leads past illusion.

All roads lead to One in the end.  Sacrifice and deprivation are paths that lead nowhere.  I will walk with Truth to find my Self again.  I will walk Safely yet carefully now, for the path of salvation is new to me.  I may still find that I am tempted to let illusion be my guide.  I do not know where it is I go, but One Who Knows goes with me.  Let The Divine lead the way.

When dreams are over and time has closed the door on all things that pass, and miracles are no longer needed, the Holy Son of God will make no journeys.  There will be no wish for anything other than Truth.  Today I will step forward along the Way that Truth leads me.  This is my final journey.  I cannot lose my way.

I walk to God.  Pause and reflect on this.  Could anything be Holier or more deserving of my effort, of my Love and my full attention?  Nothing else could content the Holy Son of God.

My feet are Safely set upon the road that leads to God.  I will no longer look to illusions that lead me in all different directions.  Dreams are not a worthy guide for God's Son. God has placed his hand in mine and given my dreams a new purpose that leads to salvation.  My path is Certain and my goal is Secure.  I will not fail.

God asks that I think of Him a little while each day, that He may speak to me and tell me of His Love.  In my name and His Own ~ which are the same ~ I will gladly practice this thought today:

"Step back and let Him lead the way."

Lesson 153 ~ Today I lay down all my defenses.

I feel threatened by a changing world; its twists of fortune and its bitter jokes, its brief relationships and all the "gifts" it gives, only to take away.  The world provides no safety.  It is founded on attack and all its "gifts" are illusions.  It attacks only to attack again.  No peace of mind is possible when danger is a constant threat.  I will remember this lesson well.

The world of fantasy requires defensiveness.  Threats bring anger, anger makes attack seem reasonable, honestly provoked, and even righteous in the name of self-defense. Defensiveness is weakness.  It proves that I believe I am separated from God, I deny Christ (my Sonship), and I fear my Father's anger, if God could possibly feel anger.  What can save me now from my delusions if God is an angry god, whose fearful image I see at work in all the evils of the world?

Defensiveness "proves" that I am weak and helpless, lost and alone, in a world "separated from" God.  Defenses "prove" that I am not the Son of God;  I am far away from God and possibly lost forever; trapped in a body to be set free only by "death."

Attack, defense; attack, defense becomes the bitter song of the world, trapping my mind in the madness of a dream.  My defenses are hiding Reality from my Awareness. I do not realize what I have done to to sabotage my Self.

Defenselessness is Strength.  It proves that I recognize the Christ in me.  The choice for salvation is simple.  I choose between Heaven or hell, Sanity or insanity, Love or fear, Strength or weakness.  I choose between the Strength of the Sonship ~ the Christ-Strength ~ or ego's weakness.  Defenselessness can never be attacked because it recognizes a Strength so Great that attack seems foolish; like a silly game a tired child might play when he becomes too sleepy to remember what he wants.

I will not play childish games today.  My new purpose in the world of dreams is forgiveness....forgiveness of all that I seemed to have created...forgiveness of that which does not exist.  Why would I let my Happiness slip by because a fragment of a senseless dream crossed my mind?

I will look past dreams today and recognize that I need not defend myself, because I am created in the image of God Himself with all the Eternal Strength, Joy, Happiness, Unity, Peace, Love, and Serenity that my Father Wills for me to have.  I will have no faith in a dream, but have perfect faith in the Reality that is mine. There is nothing I need fear when I realize I exist in Perfect Peace.

I will not experience Light until I offer Light, for giving and receiving are one and the same.  While I continue to "see" others, I will treat them as I would treat myself, and forgive them as I would forgive myself.  I will offer forgiveness to every person, every situation, and every thought that is not Perfect Peace.  My Happiness is fully guaranteed by God. Salvation is needed by my insane mind; salvation is like a game that happy children play, designed by One Who Loves His Children, and Who replaces their fearful toys with Joyous games, which teach them that there is only Love.  His game instructs in Happiness because there are no losers.  All who play must win.  The game of fear is gladly laid aside when children come to see the benefits the game of Happiness brings.

It used to be that I played a game where I was lost and alone, abandoned by my Father, left in terror in a fearful world, made insane by sin and guilt.  The game is over.  I will be Happy now.  I will put away toys of guilt and lock those quaint and childish thoughts of "sin" away forever from the Pure and Holy mind of God's Son.  I will take my Rightful Place in Reality.  So is the story ended.  Let this day bring the last chapter of this sad fairy tale to an end.  God's Own Angels have come to Awaken me from the dark dream that has terrified my confused, bewildered mind.  As God's Son I have learned that what I thought was my "reality" is not true.

Twice today I will think on today's thought as long as I can.....15 minutes is ideal to give attention to my salvation.  I will also devote a few moments each hour.  Every minute adds to my increasing Peace.  Sometimes I will forget.   At other times I will allow the world to close in on me.  Yet when I can, I will turn my thoughts to God and sit quietly and wait on His Voice and learn what He would have me do.  In time, with practice, I will never cease to think of Him and hear His Loving Voice guiding my footsteps.  I will recognize that Heaven is with me at all times.

Today the theme is Defenselessness.  I will cloak myself in It as I prepare to meet the day.  I will call on the Strength of God each time I feel the threat of my defenses undermine my certainty of purpose.  There can be no doubt I will reach my final goal.

"Today I lay down all defenses."

Lesson 152 ~ Wait in silence, for God to reveal Truth.

I cannot suffer loss unless it is my own decision.  I cannot suffer pain unless it is my choice to do so.  I cannot grieve, fear or be sick unless these are outcomes I want. Death is possible only by my own consent.  Everything that seems to occur represents my wishes. Here is my world complete in all the details.  The "reality" of my choosing. Yet here, too, is my salvation.

As Son of God, I have Everything.  Can loss be Real?  Can pain be part of Peace, or grief be part of Joy?  Can fear and sickness enter a mind where Love and Perfect Holiness abide?  I will accept no opposites and no exceptions, for to do so is to reject Truth.

Salvation is the recognition that Truth is True and nothing else is true.  Truth cannot have an opposite.  I cannot think about this too often.  Truth is hidden behind a vast array of choices that do not appear to be entirely my own, nor completely chosen by me. But know this: I am doing this to myself.

I remain the Son of God, in a state of Perfection with my Father.  Shifts in feeling and changes in condition are impossible.  My Reality is Perfect Peace and Joy.

To admit that I myself created this world seems to be arrogance.  Is this not strange? For what does God know of sin and guilt, fear, suffering and loneliness?  What does God know of minds that live in bodies and eventually die?  I accuse Him of insanity to think He made a world where such things seem to have "reality."  God is not insane. Only madness would make a world like this.  Humility would see at once that these things are not of God.

Today I will be truly humble.  The power of decision is my own.  When I accept my place as creator of this insanity, all I think I made will disappear.  Only ego can be arrogant. Truth is humble.  I will lay aside the arrogance which tells me I am a sinner, guilty and afraid, ashamed of what I am.  I will lift my heart in True humility to Him Who create me Immaculate, like Himself in Power and Love.

Today I give up all self-deception and accept myself as God created me to be:  His Son.  I humbly wait in silence and ask that this Reality be revealed to me.  God's Voice will answer.  He will substitute His Own Peace for all my frantic thoughts and illusions of myself.

"Wait in silence, for God to reveal Truth."

Lesson 151 ~ All things echo the voice for God.

I do not seem to doubt the world I see. I do not seem to question what I see with the body's eyes, nor do I ask why I believe what I see, even though I learned that senses deceive. Yet I believe my senses to the last detail and trust them implicitly.  My judgment rests on the witnesses my senses offer me.  Yet no witness was more false.  I place pathetic faith in what my eyes and ears report.  I think my fingers touch reality and close upon truth.  I think what my senses show me is more real than the Eternal Voice of God Himself.

ACIM urges me to avoid judging, not because it is a right to be withheld from me, but because I cannot possibly judge anything.  All ego's judgments are false. The world is a witness to the impossible.  My senses can only show me how weak and limited I am.  Ego guides my senses and ensures that I am helpless and afraid, black with "sin" and wretched in my guilt. Ego tells me a "body" is myself and I believe it with stubborn certainty, embracing the despair and guilt it offers.

Do not listen to ego!  The witnesses ego gives to prove my sinfulness are false.  I must learn to doubt its evidence and let God alone be the Judge of what I believe.  Let Him alone be Judge of everything I seem to experience in this world.  His lessons will bridge the gap between illusion and Truth.  He will remove all faith I have placed in pain, disaster, suffering, and loss.  God gives me Vision which looks beyond these grim appearances, beholding the Gentle face of Christ (the Sonship healed and Whole) in all I see.  Only Good can come to those Beloved of God.  He will Judge all happenings and teach the single lesson they all contain.  He will select elements in them which contain Truth and disregard those aspects which reflect only idle dreams.  God will Reinterpret all I see from His Frame of Reference, so that I see the Love beyond the hate.

Life has nothing to do with what I seem to "see" with the body's eyes.  God will show me the face of Christ in everything. I well let Him evaluate each thought that comes to mind and remove the elements of dreams, and give them back to me as Clear Ideas that do not contradict His Will.  I give Him my thoughts and He will give them back Purified.

Spend 15 minutes twice today to listen to God's Voice, and briefly every hour in between. The Peace of God is mine.  I only need choose It.

"All things echo the Voice for God."

Lesson 150 ~ Review IV

My mind holds only what I think with God.

"I will accept God's Plan for Awakening."   My mind is consumed with a fantasy.  I will not trust my own good intentions to find my way Home.  In fact, relying on my "self" is what this whole fantasy has been about:  being separated from Everything; a dream of independence from God.  It is not possible to be separate from God in Reality. In dreams anything is possible, yet it still remains a dream.  This dream has lead me on fruitless searches for a joy and happiness just out of reach.  It is time to let God lead the way and in doing so, recognize my Unity with Him and All There Is.

"Only God's Plan will "cure" once and for all."    God's Plan works on healing my mind.  When my mind is healed, I will Awaken from the dream and be at Home in Unending and Eternal Perfect Joy, Peace, Love, Serenity and Wholeness.  The only cure for what ails the "world" is to heal my mind.  The world is a dream in my mind.  Will I settle for a fantasy, or will I accept Everything God Wills His Son?

Lesson 149 ~ Review IV

My mind holds only what I think with God.

"When my mind heals the "world" heals."   The world is a dream in my mind.  It is my mind which needs healing.  When my mind heals,  the world heals, then I Awaken to Reality and the world is no more.

"Heaven is a decision I must make."   I have been choosing dreams with each choice I make.  With ACIM I learn to choose Heaven, and I learn that every decision I make and every thought which I indulge, is a choice for Heaven or a choice for illusions.

Lesson 148 ~ Review IV

My mind holds only what I think with God.

"If I defend myself, I am attacked."   If someone cuts me off traffic, I consider it a personal attack and I counter-attack with with a curse or a fantasy of running them off the road for "their" stupidity.  My counter-attack seems entirely justified and reasonable.  Yet ACIM tells me I am the actor, producer and director of this fantasy, and I am doing this to myself.  I am creating all the scenarios,  creating the characters, directing the action......then telling myself that it is "happening to" me...forgetting that I am in charge.  All of it is happening in my mind.  If I experience anything but Perfect Peace, I am choosing a dream.  In the world it seems that I defend myself only after an attack.  Yet in the world of dreams my mind is always in defensive mode. I am just waiting for the attack that I myself have created.  I can replace defensive thoughts with the Thoughts of Truth in my daily lessons.  My Reality is Perfect Peace.  Through ACIM I am training my mind to remember Reality.

"Sickness is a defense against Truth."    The world was created as a fantasy of separation from God.  My investment in the world and all its problems distract me from Reality.  The world is not Real, bodies are not Real, death is not Real and therefore sickness cannot be Real.  Sickness and death are witnesses to the "reality" of illusions, keeping my mind focused on dreams.  There is no need for me to convince anyone else of this, for there is no one else.  I need focus only on my own mind.  When my mind heals, the world heals until it is no more.

Lesson 147 ~ Review IV

My mind holds only what I think with God.

"I will not value what is valueless."   If nothing exists outside of me, and everything that seems to exist outside me is just a fantasy, why should I give it any of my time and effort at all?  While I seem to see a world outside me, I need live by the rules I created for it, but I learn to no longer value wealth, fame, notoriety, special love relationships, jealousy, envy, the body, or possessions of any kind.  I let go the "specialness" that seems to make me different from everyone else.  To put a value on being "different" or "special" keeps me apart and separate from the Kingdom of God; it indulges and values only the dream of separation.  Whether that "specialness" is "good specialness" or "bad specialness;"  whether it entails being "the child of an alcoholic;" a "millionaire;" a "bank robber;" "mentally ill;" a "great athlete;" "African American;" a member of the "Taliban."  I am not different or special; nor is the Son of God split into many bodies.  Why do I settle for so little?  I am the Son of God to whom the Father has given Everything, yet I choose to limit myself to a few "special" things and imprison myself in a body in a world of dreams.  I will no longer put value on the dream of limitation, when I am the Son of God who has Everything.

"Let me perceive forgiveness as it is."   Forgiveness as perceived in the world of dreams reinforces the "reality" of the crime.  In other words, I say, "yes your sin was real and it really hurt me, but I am the better person and I forgive you for what you did."   Which is insane because if the Son of God could be injured in any way....if God could be offended....if Life could be "snuffed out," then God would not be God, and Heaven would be a fantasy.   God's Plan for Awakening to Truth tells me there is no sin, Life is Eternal, nothing happened, and what I think "real" is only a dream. Forgiveness according to God's Plan Awakens me to Reality by recognizing that the dream is only a dream.  I am Safe in Heaven dreaming of exile to a place "apart from" my Father.  The Father honors my choice to dream, but Gently reminds my weary mind that it is only a dream and I can Awaken to Reality when I choose.

Lesson 146 ~ Review IV

My mind holds only what I think with God.

"I cannot fail to reach Truth."   If I am looking for Truth, I will find It.  It is as simple as that.  Yet if I look for dreams and illusions I will find those too, but I cannot have both at the same time.  Only one is True and It Awakens me to my Reality of Eternal Peace, Love, Joy, Serenity and Wholeness.  The other brings a dream of separation from Reality, and gives me everything completely unlike Reality.  It is not death that will bring me relief from insanity, sickness, war, hatred, judgment, and chaos.....but only a Gentle Awakening to Reality.  If I choose death as a way out of insanity, it will only bring more insanity. Death is an illusion within the illusion. There is no death, there is only Life. I have chosen to forget.

"I release the world from all I thought it was."  The world's purpose is to provide an experience of separation from God/Love/Joy/Peace/Unity.  The Son of God seems to be separated into many. It seems that Love can end in separation or death.  It seems that Peace can be shattered by envy, judgment, anxiety, and restlessness. It seems that Joy can end in sorrow and grief....it seems.  My mind is the director and producer....the world is like a movie projected from my mind onto a screen that seems to be outside of me.   I cannot change the action from the screen, but only from its origin, MY MIND.  I am doing this to myself!  Change my mind about the dream and I change the dream.  While I practice replacing thoughts of insanity with Thoughts of Truth, I will continue to see the dream, but with God's Holy Plan, I use the dream, not for an experience of separation, but to Awaken to Reality.  It can take an instant or it can take multiple "lifetimes."  Time is an illusion, it is my choice.  God will never force His Own Will on His Son.  If the Son wants to have an experience of separation, the Father honors the will of the Son.  It is a painful experience that I need not suffer except by my own choice.  I dream a dream of separation, though Safe with my Father in Reality. There is nothing and no one outside of me.  I Awaken to Reality by replacing thoughts of madness with Truth.  With every choice and decision I make, and with every thought I indulge, I choose Truth or I choose illusion.  The choice is mine.

Lesson 145 ~ Review IV

My mind holds only what I think with God.

"Beyond this world is another world I want."  This tells me I have something Sure and True as my goal.  It would be difficult to let go of the world of dreams without having something else to hope for.  I remind myself I am not "giving up" anything.  I replace the world of dreams with EVERYTHING.  And in this exchange I receive Unending Love in place of the dream-love that ends in death/loss/abandonment; Unity with all those I Love in place of separation; Eternal Peace in place of judgment/hatred/war; Happiness that never changes to sadness/doubt; a Serenity that replaces boredom/restlessness/jealousy/envy.


"It is impossible to see two worlds."  I cannot hold a thought of anxiety in my mind along with a thought of Perfect Peace.  I am either very anxious or completely at Peace.  I can think a thought of anxiety and then let that go and quickly think a thought of peace, but they cannot both be in my mind at the same time.  Even in the world of dreams I can understand this.  I will hold a thought of illusions or Truth, but not both at the same time.  One brings chaos, the other Peace.  I can test this idea and experience its Reality for myself.  I will replace any dream-thought with ideas of Truth whenever I feel unsure, anxious, restless, bored.  Practice this over and over throughout the day.  ACIM is a Course in mind-training.  My mind is chaotic;  jumping from thought to thought in the world of dreams.  I am training my mind to Awaken to the Heaven that surrounds me.  So practice!

How do ya get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice! Practice! Practice!

Lesson 144 ~ Review IV

My mind holds only what I think with God.

"There is no Love but God's."  

If love is not Eternal and Unchanging, how can it be Love?.......more proof that the "world" is a dream.  Real Love never ends, dies, withers nor changes with the tides.  I am consumed with a dream.

"The world I see holds nothing that I want."

I will invest my thoughts in ~ and believe in ~ the dream as long as it seems to hold the things I want.  The world of dreams will keep me searching and searching, yet will never satisfy.  My Happiness can never be limited to a certain person or a particular object. There is nothing and no one outside me.  What I see is a projection of my mind.

"...I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known, don't know where it goes, but it's home to me and I walk alone....I walk this empty street on the  boulevard of broken dreams where the city sleeps and I'm the only one and I walk alone...(I Walk Alone Lyrics, Green Day)"

In the world of dreams I do seem to be separated from all others, walking a path of my own.  The world is a path of broken dreams because I created it to be a world separated from Reality.  To attempt to fix a broken world is like trying to change the plot of a movie by adjusting the screen.  I can only fix the problems where they originate, in this case, in my mind.   Heal my mind, and the world will seem to heal until I am Awakened to Reality and the world is no more.

Lesson 143 ~ Review IV

My mind holds only what I think with God.

"In quiet I receive God's Word today."   Only when I quiet my mind and put aside thoughts of the world, am I able to hear Truth.  Every thought of the world gives me an experience of "separation from" God and distracts me from Reality.

"All I give is given to myself."  There is nothing and no one outside myself.  Whatever I give is given to myself.  If I give judgment and hate, I give it to myself and perpetuate the dream.  If I give love and forgiveness, I give it to myself which leads to my Awakening.

Lesson 142 ~ Review IV

My Mind holds only what I think with God.

"I am grateful for God's Gifts to me."  I allow myself a moment to spend with the gratitude I feel when I learn the Lessons of Truth:  I am not in a world of insanity, I am Safe in Heaven with my Father; there is nothing outside of me; the world that seems so real is nothing but a dream; the things and people I love and cherish which seem to be outside of me are really inside of and a part of me in a Real and True way that could never be possible in dreams.  I am grateful that the insanity that seems to permeate the world with war, chaos, hatred, jealousy, destruction and death, are only my own thoughts of guilt projected outside of me; I am grateful these thoughts can be changed, changing the dream itself.  I am grateful and relieved.

"I will remember that I am One with God."  The thoughts I have in the world of separation come and go and change with each person and situation; for instance......I am happy, then I am sad....I feel loving, then I am jealous...I am content, then I am annoyed.  Thoughts that change with the tide can do nothing but keep me insane.  My True Thoughts are the ones I think with God; Thoughts of Peace, Love, Joy, Unity, and Serenity which never waver nor wane.  I am Safe in Heaven with my Father, dreaming of exile to madness.  I am learning to Awaken from the dream.

Lesson 141 ~ Review IV

The thoughts I think in the world of dreams are thoughts of madness.  A world of dreams seems to be my "reality," while Reality seems to be a "dream."

My Real Thoughts are the ones I think with God.  Preoccupation with illusions keeps my Real Thoughts hidden from me.  My mind holds only what I think with God.  Self-deception cannot take the place of Truth anymore than throwing a stick into the ocean can stop the coming and going of the tides, the warming of the water by the sun, or the reflection of the moon on it at night.

I will open my mind and clear it of all thoughts that would deceive me.  Five minutes will be enough to prepare the day for God's Plan, to place His mind in charge of all thoughts I will receive today.  They will not come from my mind alone, for they will be shared with God.

Simply read the two ideas assigned today.  Then close my eyes and repeat them slowly.  There is no hurry, for I am using "time" not for my purposes, but for the purpose given it by God Himself.  Let each word shine with the meaning God has given it.  Let each idea give me the Gift that God intends for me to have.  I need no more than this to give me Happiness, Rest, Endless Quiet and Perfect Certainty.  This day will be a special time of Blessing and Happiness as my perception is restored from darkness to Light, grief to Joy, pain to Peace and sin to Holiness.

Twice today for five minutes, and briefly every hour in between, remind myself of Truth;

"My mind holds only what I think with God."