My thoughts* on ACIM Workbook Lesson 193, for July 11, 2024. All things are lessons God would have me learn.

All things are lessons God would have me learn.

* Bear in mind that it is actually an ‘unlearning’ and it is going to be active in that fashion for quite some time.

* Now, ‘time’ is an interesting thing because time only ‘holds us back’ when we allow the past to inflict injury on the present that causes fear for the future.

* From within the Atonement where God is recognized as Father to All That Is as His Only Begotten Son, the Holy Spirit is able to use all experiences as lessons to undo the belief in separation from Him and the rest of the Sonship of Christ.

1. God does not know of learning.

²Yet His Will extends to what He does not understand, in that He wills the happiness His Son inherited of Him be undisturbed; eternal and forever gaining scope, eternally expanding in the joy of full creation, and eternally open and wholly limitless in Him.

* Happiness is the witness/knowledge that all are free to be in and through God whether they understand that today or not.

* God’s Will ~ IN/THROUGH ~ His Son, “…eternal and forever gaining scope, eternally expanding in the joy of full creation, and eternally open and wholly limitless in Him.”

* noun; the extent of the area or subject matter that something deals with or to which it is relevant: “we widened the scope of our investigation” · “such questions go well beyond the scope of this book” Similar: extent, range, breadth, width, reach, sweep, the opportunity or possibility to do or deal with something: “the scope for major change is always limited by political realities” (* THAT makes me chuckle. I would cringe if I thought it was REAL. Note these next words.) Similar: opportunity, freedom, latitude, leeway, capacity.

* Now, I am not saying that I KNOW what our opportunities, freedom, and creativity look like outside of the confusion of the ego but I have confidence that it is JOYFUL and will be a DELIGHT to experience because I feel these things today and KNOW that it will be even greater when the confusion is cleared. Even the Love of God is (which is the ONLY LOVE THERE COULD BE BECAUSE HE IS ALL THAT THERE IS) unfathomable to us at this time but it does not need to be something to worry about. TRUST in the JOY that your Creator DESIRES FOR you.

³That is His Will.

⁴And thus His Will provides the means to guarantee that it is done.

2. God sees no contradictions.

²Yet His Son believes he sees them.

³Thus he has a need for One Who can correct his erring sight, and give him vision that will lead him back to where perception ceases.

* The (W)Holy Spirit gives us this.

⁴God does not perceive at all.

⁵Yet it is He Who gives the means by which perception is made true and beautiful enough to let the light of Heaven shine upon it.

⁶It is He Who answers what His Son would contradict, and keeps his sinlessness forever safe.

3. These are the lessons God would have you learn.

²His Will reflects them all, and they reflect His loving kindness to the Son He loves.

³Each lesson has a central thought, the same in all of them.

⁴The form alone is changed, with different circumstances and events; with different characters and different themes, apparent but not real.

⁵They are the same in fundamental content.

⁶It is this:

⁷Forgive, and you will see this differently.

* Do not think that this is the forgiveness of the ego that seeks gain to itself. It is a forgiveness that allows God’s Reality into your consciousness to the extent that you allow Him to Guide you Home to Him in full awakening and into Heaven.

4. Certain it is that all distress does not appear to be but unforgiveness.

²Yet that is the content underneath the form.

* There is ROOM for an expression of frustration even in the heart of one who knows NOTHING but JOY is REAL because NOT EVERYONE understands this yet! Just sayin!

³It is this sameness which makes learning sure, because the lesson is so simple that it cannot be rejected in the end.

⁴No one can hide forever from a truth so very obvious that it appears in countless forms, and yet is recognized as easily in all of them, if one but wants to see the simple lesson there.

* It truly IS SIMPLE, folks! God lifts the burdens you thought you had to bear. Let God be “responsible.” You just forgive, CORRECTLY!

5. Forgive, and you will see this differently.

²These are the words the Holy Spirit speaks in all your tribulations, all your pain, all suffering regardless of its form.

³These are the words with which temptation ends, and guilt, abandoned, is revered no more.

⁴These are the words which end the dream of sin, and rid the mind of fear.

⁵These are the words by which salvation comes to all the world.

6. Shall we not learn to say these words when we are tempted to believe that pain is real, and death becomes our choice instead of life?

²Shall we not learn to say these words when we have understood their power to release all minds from bondage?

³These are words which give you power over all events that seem to have been given power over you.

⁴You see them rightly when you hold these words in full awareness, and do not forget these words apply to everything you see or any brother looks upon amiss.

* I suggest that “looked” was meant to be there.

7. How can you tell when you are seeing wrong, or someone else is failing to perceive the lesson he should learn?

²Does pain seem real in the perception?

* There is no need to see an event as individualized. It is an entirely different paradigm that we want to adopt. One that recognizes God as REAL and responsible for the well-being of His Son.

* This should NOT be difficult for a species who has lived with television for this long. We are in a dream of awakening, nothing more. Kick back and relax. You will be taken care of in the forgiving of it ALL.

* Does that mean that you will not move or be motivated and inspired to do? No, because the Holy Spirit will lead you to that which will enhance your learning and increase your joy.

* We want to allow our lives to be “lived by God” to the “undoing” of the errors. Your opportunity is to observe and be delighted! Back to the lesson:

³If it (*pain seem real?) does, be sure the lesson is not learned.

⁴And there remains an unforgiveness hiding in the mind that sees the pain through eyes the mind directs.

8. God would not have you suffer thus.

²He would help you forgive yourself.

³His Son does not remember who he is.

⁴And God would have him not forget His Love, and all the gifts His Love brings with it.

⁵Would you now renounce your own salvation?

⁶Would you fail to learn the simple lessons Heaven’s Teacher sets before you, that all pain may disappear and God may be remembered by His Son?

* Do you hear that? Pain disappears, or really BELIEF in the REALITY of PAIN disappears when the Sonship of Christ is forgiven.

9. All things are lessons God would have you learn.

²He would not leave an unforgiving thought without correction, nor one thorn or nail to hurt His holy Son in any way.

* Joy is your heritage. Bliss is your REALITY.

³He would ensure his holy rest remain untroubled and serene, without a care, in an eternal home which cares for him.

* God wants to live through you that you might have JOY.

* “His holy rest” is NOT death, non-existence, or unconsciousness. It is Resting in the Arms of the Father as life unfolds and fulfills your every desire beyond your ability to imagine.

⁴And He would have all tears be wiped away, with none remaining yet unshed, and none but waiting their appointed time to fall.

* Do not get confused by that flowery or academic language. Sorrow is not something that I experience anymore, because I know what is real and what is not.

⁵For God has willed that laughter should replace each one, and that His Son be free again.

* Be careful here. This laughter construct has been misused. I propose that it is always in poor taste when used outside the Complete and Universal witness of the Innocence of the Son of God and that the only Reality could be God’s Love.

* The rest of this gets very “flowery” and I do not trust taking it literally. Remember that the scribes are describing something that they know NOTHING about.

10. We will attempt today to overcome a thousand seeming obstacles to peace in just one day.

* You can be released from ALL obstacles the moment you decide that God is REAL above all of the obstacles and frustrations that you could imagine.

* This “attempt” idea is NONSENSE! You either turn on a light or you do not. There is no “attempt” there is doing or not.

²Let mercy come to you more quickly.

³Do not try to hold it off another day, another minute or another instant.

* Note the use of the word “instant” here. And instant is all it takes to choose to remember God. All you have to do is give the idea a possibility, and you have given the Holy Spirit permission to Guide you and released your fixation on YOU being the “end-all” creator of your reality.

⁴Time was made for this.

⁵Use it today for what its purpose is.

⁶Morning and night, devote what time you can to serve its proper aim, and do not let the time be less than meets your deepest need.

11. Give all you can, and give a little more. ²For now we would arise in haste and go unto our Father’s house. ³We have been gone too long, and we would linger here no more. ⁴And as we practice, let us think about all things we saved to settle by ourselves, and kept apart from healing. ⁵Let us give them all to Him Who knows the way to look upon them so that they will disappear. ⁶Truth is His message; truth His teaching is. ⁷His are the lessons God would have us learn.

* Note that we give them “all to Him” Who is the Holy Spirit. “Disappear” is NOT the correct word here. You still must engage with them but you understand that they have no “reality” or “impact” because God IS.

12. Each hour, spend a little time today, and in the days to come, in practicing the lesson in forgiveness in the form established for the day. ²And try to give it application to the happenings the hour brought, so that the next one is free of the one before. ³The chains of time are easily unloosened in this way. ⁴Let no one hour cast its shadow on the one that follows, and when that one goes, let everything that happened in its course go with it. ⁵Thus will you remain unbound, in peace eternal in the world of time.

* THIS cannot begin to happen until the Original Error of belief in separation from God has occurred and God is allowed to be Remembered by His Son.

* From #8 of this lesson, “⁶Would you fail to learn the simple lessons Heaven’s Teacher sets before you, that all pain may disappear and God may be remembered by His Son?” And, “³His Son does not remember who he is.”

* The idea that it can be done without that is SIMPLY INSANE.

13. This is the lesson God would have you learn: There is a way to look on everything that lets it be to you another step to Him, and to salvation of the world. ²To all that speaks of terror, answer thus:

³I will forgive, and this will disappear.

* This is not going to happen immediately. Even from Heaven one is able to see what other parts of the Consciousness of Christ thinks it is doing to itself. You are the sanity that bears witness that they are a part of Christ and that God is ALL there could EVER BE.

⁴To every apprehension, every care and every form of suffering, repeat these selfsame words. ⁵And then you hold the key that opens Heaven’s gate, and brings the Love of God the Father down to earth at last, to raise it up to Heaven.

* When in peace you look on the corruption of the ego and know that it has NO basis in Reality you bring God’s Love in. Or rather, you reveal God’s Love to yourself.

⁶God will take this final step Himself. ⁷Do not deny the little steps He asks you take to Him.

* I will say, “I know this is not real.” Whether I say it out loud or just in my mind I will leave up to the Spirit to direct.

(ACIM, W-193.1:1–13:7)

Till next time, God bless, debi.