Lesson 163 ~ There is no death.

Death is a thought that takes on many forms.  Often these forms go unrecognized as sadness, fear, anxiety or doubt; as anger, faithlessness or lack of trust; concern for my body or other bodies; envy, jealousy, and all forms in which I call forth witnesses to the idea of being ''separated from" God.

In the world of dreams, only death seems to release me from the suffering of the body and the world, and so it seems that death is my "savior."  Death seems to hold all living things in its withered hand.  The frail, helpless and sick bow down before its image thinking death alone is real, inevitable and worthy of my trust;  for death I can count on.....it is the only thing that will surely come.  All things except for death are unsure.  Everything else is uncertain in outcome.  Death, I can count on.  It will come with certain footsteps when the time has arrived.

Death is the god to which I bow.  Death seems to be mightier than God Himself, for death consumes all 'life," taking the good with the bad.  The Will of Father and Son are finally defeated and laid to rest beneath the headstone death has placed upon the body of God's Holy Son.  If God's Son can die, God Himself is vulnerable to death's certainty.  The epitaph death wrote on the Son's tombstone is this;  "Here lies a witness that God is dead." And it writes this again and still again, and the worshippers agree.  Kneeling down with faces to the ground, they whisper fearfully that it is so.

ACIM tells me: There is no death.  Death seems real in the world of dreams, but ACIM tells me:  There is no world.  I am dreaming a dream; lost in a fantasy; caught up in a story of madness.  IF death were Real, it would be complete and total, even God Himself would be subject to death.  Either all things die, or they Live and cannot die. No compromise in Reality is possible.  If I am Sane, I must accept the only Sane answer.

The idea of the death of God is so preposterous that even in my insanity I have difficulty believing it.  In the world of dreams, Christianity tells me that God, in the form of the Son, was once alive but killed by those who feared His message.  Momentarily, the world triumphed over God's Son, and in that moment, Eternal Life seemed to give way to death, and the Son and Father both perished.  In the world of dreams I worship death, which seems to offer the only relief from the suffering of the body and mind.
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There is no death. There is no world.  There are no bodies.  I am Safe with my Father, dreaming of exile to a world of insanity.  Like the story of the Prodigal Son, I realize it is time to return Home.  Today I renounce death in every form.  God did not make death, and what was seemingly created "apart from" God does not exist.  Whatever form death takes ~ fear, hatred, anxiety, worry, lost love, temporary joy, grief, sadness ~ is an illusion.  This is the stand I take today.  This Holy Knowledge is given me today.  When I accept it and project it outward in my thoughts, words and deeds, it is made complete, for receiving and giving are One.  Today I will look past death and see the Life beyond.

My Father will bless my eyes today and I will see the Glorious reflection of His Love, which shines in everything.  I live and move in my Father.  I am not separated from His Eternal Life.  There is no death.  Death is an illusion.  A world "apart from" God is an illusion. Insanity is not God's Will, therefore it is not so.

I exist where God has placed me......in the Life I share with Him and all Living Things. I accept God's Will and God's Thoughts as my own.  I am One with Him Eternally.

"I am Free"