I’ve been watching StarWars on DVD. Wow. It contains great lessons and great quotes.
From Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) to Anakin SkyWalker after he kills the whole tribe of monsters that killed his mother. Anakin is angry, a trait that Jedi Knights are supposed to have overcome, and she says to him:
“Anger is for human beings.”
From Yoda:
“Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless.”
And also this:
Today I learn to give as I receive.
What has been given you?
“The knowledge that you are a mind, in Mind, and purely mind, sinless forever, wholly unafraid, because you were created out of love. You have received all of this.”
Awesome, huh? It has been given and received.
You are the Mind of God. You were created out of love.
“The revelation that the Father and the Son are one will come in time to every mind.”
“Yet is that time determined by the mind itself, not taught. The time is set already. It appears to be quite arbitrary. Yet there is no step along the road that anyone takes but by chance. It has already been taken by him, although he has not yet embarked on it. For time seems to go in one direction. We but undertake a journey that is over. Yet it seems to have a future still unknown to us. There is a plan behind appearances that does not change.”
THE SCRIPT IS WRITTEN.
“When experience will come to end your doubting has been set. For we but see the journey from the point at which it ended, looking back on it, imagining we make it once again; reviewing mentally what has gone by.”
Did you hear that? Perhaps you read it … but did you HEAR IT?
Do you realize what this is saying?
Time is over. Your future has already been undertaken by you. This moment which you think is a new moment has already been acted out by you, a long long time ago. All the experiences that you think you will have in the future – still unknown to you – have already been taken by you. This is why you need not be concerned about anything at all. You need not be worried or afraid. The journey has already been taken and is over. You’re back home in Heaven.
It is possible to remember the future as easily as you remember the past since you have experienced them both already.
This is the reason it’s great advice to let yourself BE LED from now on. This saves time. The script is written. When you wander off, you are led back to your appointed task. It saves time to look at the script and see what you need to do next. You have a Guide who will tell you what to do in every moment.
You are whole and perfect as God created you. You need do nothing except remember that God’s Will is being accomplished through you. And that has already been accomplished!
This can seem mind-boggling. Like, huh????? What???? What do you mean????
You are remembering what is already over. All that you are doing right now – in this minute, reading this blog post – you have already done before.
The day is accomplished in God.
Before you even get started, it’s already accomplished!
Marvelous, right? You can relax and be led, lifted and transported. Wherever you need to go, the Holy Spirit will take you there.
Today we practice seeing with the eyes of Christ. You obviously can do this, and easily, because Christ is what you are. Let Him look through you today.
Let Christ’s eyes be your vision.
“Christ’s vision has one law. It does not look upon a body, and mistake it for the Son whom God created. It beholds a light beyond the body; an idea beyond what can be touched, a purity undimmed by errors, pitiful mistakes, and fearful thoughts of guilt from dreams of sin. It sees no separation. And it looks on everyone, on every circumstance, all happenings and all events without the slightest fading of the light it sees.”
Astonishing.
And very easy to do.
Into His Presence would I enter now.
I’m going to take this day and do what the lesson asks. “This is a day of silence and of trust. It is a special time of promise in your calendar of days. It is a time Heaven has set apart to shine upon, and cast a timeless light upon this day, when echoes of eternity are heard.”
This day is holy, for it ushers in a new experience, a different kind of feeling and awareness.”
I’ve run out of my own ideas. I don’t have a plan anymore for what I need to do or what I should do or what I want to do.
“This is another crucial turning point in the curriculum.”
So I can allow a day of “silence and of trust” and let a new experience come to me.
This makes me very happy. It’s a break in the continuity. You know how sometimes you can look back over your life and see crucial turning points? You can never see them when you are standing in them, but years later, you look back, and you can see clearly: “oh yes, right, that’s when everything changed. Yes. That’s when my life went off in a whole new direction.”
You’ll notice there is usually a small tiny miniscule event that proceeds the big event.
With my NYC boyfriend, years ago, the one I lived with for 4 years, looking back now I can see when it changed for us. We were walking down the street in Park Slope, Brooklyn and he was walking ahead of me. A nothing event, right? But I noticed it, and I thought: that’s weird.
After that, we never walked together side-by-side in unison ever again. Always I raced walked to catch up with him or I slowed down to be near him. It was never natural. Either he walked too fast or he walked too slow. We were never in synch again. The harmony was gone. But we stayed together for another year (while things went steadily downhill), until the BIG EVENT, when I made a huge dramatic scene and moved out. Which I should have done a year earlier, if I’d been paying attention to the signs.
A Course in Miracles is about paying attention. It’s about staying alert. You allow yourself to listen, to see, to hear, and to follow instructions.
“He will direct your practicing today, for what you ask for now is what He wills.”
I cannot tell you how many times in the course of that hellish last year with my boyfriend I heard the word “LEAVE.” But I wasn’t listening. I wasn’t paying attention. And I dragged through hell for one whole year, crying every single day.
He was just being himself. He wasn’t actually doing anything at all to me. He was living his life the way he wanted (partying, staying out late, not calling, not coming home) and I stayed with him out of fear, thinking the situation would change and we would go back to how it was in the beginning.
How does this apply to today’s lesson?
You need to start taking quiet moments to pay attention. Often the tendency is to go through life with blinders on. You are so caught up in the routine that you never actually see what is directly in front of you. You are receiving signs and instructions all the time, every day and every minute … but are you paying attention??
Today’s lesson is asking you to be quiet – to let go of all your former ideas and plans – and to let a new experience come to you.
“From this day forth, your ministry takes on a genuine devotion, and a glow that travels from your fingertips to those you touch, and bless those you look upon. A vision reaches everyone you meet, and everyone you think of, or who thinks of you.
FOR YOUR EXPERIENCE TODAY WILL SO TRANSFORM YOUR MIND THAT IT BECOMES THE TOUCHSTONE FOR THE HOLY THOUGHTS OF GOD.
I love this lesson.
“Your body will be sanctified today, its only purpose being now to bring the vision of what you experience to this day to light the world.”
“We cannot give experience like this directly. Yet it leaves a vision in our eyes which we can offer to everyone, that he may come the sooner to the same experience in which the world is quietly forgot, and Heaven is remember for a while.
Ready? …
“As this experience increases and all goals but this become of little worth, the world to which you will return becomes a little closer to the end of time; a little more like Heaven in it’s ways; a little nearer it’s deliverance.”
“And you who bring it light will come to see the light more sure; the vision more distinct.”
“The time will come when you will not return in the same form in which you now appear, for you will have no need of it. Yet now it has a purpose, and will serve it well.”
“Today we will embark upon a course you have not dreamed of. But the Holy One has dreamed for you this journey which you MAKE and START today, with the experience this day holds out to you to be your own.
You make and start the journey today.
Into Christ’s Presence we enter now.
I walk with God in perfect holiness.
Today I have a treat for you: Today’s lesson in song form.
It’s Kevin singing, with Ellie on backup, Guy on the drums, Eric on the guitar (in the hat), Cammie on the guitar, and Bastiaan on the piano.
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
I walk with God in Perfect holiness
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.
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.
I walk with God in perfect holiness.
Who walks with me?
This question should be asked a thousand times a day, till certainty has ended doubt and established peace.
I walk with God in perfect holiness.
Tanja wrote something awesome yesterday on her blog, The Light Has Come, and I want to share it with you:
“What stands out for me is the temptation to walk ahead of truth. The truth is here, but I can speed up my pace and stay right in front of it and look ahead to the illusion. All I have to do is stop and stand still. Let the truth be my guide. And then be willing to undertake any action that is required.
“It is an interesting thing to look at the idea of standing still. It is a true thing. But all too often I have been told over and over to stand still in a particular spot and at some point you have to ask yourself: how long am I supposed to stand here? Be careful to not let the idea of standing still be an actual fear of action. You can be frozen in one spot for a very long time, and that is not what Jesus asks of you. Stand still, ask for help, and then be willing to make the move that is required.
“You are walking a new path and it is designed for you personally. This is an inward experience, that expresses itself naturally. You will find children running up to you in a store. They recognize your light immediately. Animals will come up to you. Suddenly a 12-year old walking down the street will look you right in the eyes and say: “Hey!” These are all so-called strangers, but you will soon find out that there is no such thing. They are all you.”
“Let Him lead you and then follow Him. Don’t be afraid. Just take one step after the other and trust.”
-Tanja Seely, The Light Has Come
I will step back and let Him lead the way.
I am in a funny space for the past few weeks, which is thrilling and scary in equal measures but mostly it is just an EMPTY SPACE.
It’s an interruption between what came before this moment and what is to come after this moment. I like it. I’ve never been here before. I can feel all my cells tingling. I have butterflies in my stomach every day. It’s waves of energy moving in me and through me.
All I know for certain is my commitment to my Father’s Will. I am here to inspire and to help as many people as possible find their way back to God.
I’m a servant of God and a disciple of Jesus.
That’s as far as I get in the details, and that feels good. It feels right.
Today’s lesson confirms all this for me. It says “I will step back and let Him lead the way.”
Yes, indeed.
I will step back and let Him lead the way.
I am not going to fill this empty space with my ideas. I’m going to allow everything to be revealed to me now, and to let Him lead me. He knows the Plan. He will give me perfect specific instructions if I am still and listen.
Wherever God wants me to go is where I want to be.
“All miracles mean life, and God is the Giver of life. His Voice will direct you very specifically. You will be told all you need to know.” – ACIM Principles of Miracles, Chapter 1.
I am moving out of my little room on June 11th. I’ve been extremely blessed. I’ve lived here (in church housing) for 5 years, and I have no idea what is to come next. I have not made a single plan. I’ve just been boxing up my things. I don’t have much. All I know is that the church said they needed housing for new brothers coming into the Academy this summer, and they asked if anyone would be willing to give up their room to make way for the new guys coming in. I immediately thought: “yes, why not? Of course.”
Jump off the ledge. It feels good. People have been asking, what are your plans? Where will you go? What will you do?
All I can say is “I have no idea.”
And it’s true. I have no idea. I am stepping back and letting Him lead the way.
My experience throughout my life is that often I do not know what I need or want as far as the future goes, but I let every moment guide me and show me. When I received the letter describing the housing crunch, it was specific instructions for me. The letter asked me if I was willing to take a step – “to give as I have received” – and my immediate reaction was: “yes, of course, definitely.”
So you say “yes” and you don’t even know what you are saying “yes” to, but it feels right. Jesus said “Follow me” and 12 guys dropped their fishing nets and followed him.
They didn’t ask where they would be living next or how they would be provided for or compensated. They didn’t ask questions. He spoke, and they followed.
I am a minister of God. Every day I am reminded of my function as a communication vehicle for the light of Heaven, and then I let the Holy Spirit work through me. I put all my faith in Him Who leads me. This is today’s lesson. Step back and let Him lead the way. It can be very scary, but it’s always pure grace. Just step back. Stop. Trust. Don’t fill the space with your ideas or plans. Just step back.
And let Him lead.
I’m practicing gladly today.
“Your feet are safely upon the road that leads the world to God. Look not to ways that seem to lead you elsewhere. Dreams are not a worthy guide for you who are God’s Son. Forget not He has placed His Hand in yours, and given you your brothers in His trust that you are worthy of His trust in you.”
WALK SAFELY NOW, YET CAREFULLY, BECAUSE THIS PATH IS NEW TO YOU.
“And you may find that you are tempted still to walk ahead of truth, and let illusions be your guide. Your holy brothers have been given to you, to follow in your footsteps as you walk with certainty of purpose to the truth. It goes before you now, that they may see something with which they can identify; something they understand to lead the way.”
I love it.
“You know not where you go” - THAT’S TRUE! – “But One Who knows goes with you. Let Him lead you with the rest.”
I want to follow Jesus. He leads. I follow. He’s my Guide. He leads me home. He leads me where I want to be.
I am among the ministers of God.
So, there you have it. You are a minister of God.
You don’t need 4 years of theology school. You don’t need a degree or credentials. Unless, of course, you want to work in a church, and yes, they do have their own rules and requirements.
The word “minister” is Latin for “servant.”
The word minister is etymologically rooted in a Latin word meaning “to serve, “to be a servant,” or “to be near at hand to offer assistance.”
So, there you go. If you decide you want to be in service, a servant, or to be near at hand to offer assistance, then you are a minister of God.
God needs teachers, and the Voice for God has called your name.
This world needs help.
It needs you.
I love The Urantia Book which describes the life of Jesus. It says that Jesus went into the desert for 40 days to think and make decisions. He did not go there to fast. He went the first 2 days without food but only because he was so preoccupied in thought that he forgot to eat. On the third day he went looking for food. It says he was not tempted by the devil but he was confronted by his own thinking.
“The 40 days in the mountain wilderness were not a period of great temptation but rather the period of the Master’s great decisions.”
The time BEFORE the 40 days are described as Jesus’ personal ministry when he traveled and met people, and studied the human condition, the urges, desires, feelings and thoughts of people so that he could better understand them and help them and AFTER the 40 days is known as his public ministry.
The 40 days in the wilderness was the space between Jesus’ personal ministry and his public ministry. It was a time of communion and prayer, where he went alone to make all the decisions about how to conduct his public ministry and how to proceed with the rest of his life while in the flesh.
He made 6 decisions out in the wilderness.
1. to go on living as a man among men. He would not utilize supernatural powers. He would simply be a man proclaiming the truth of God to his fellow brothers.
2. As far as his personal necessities (food, shelter, physical necessities), he deliberately chose to pursue the path of normal earthly existence. He decided against a policy which would transcend, violate, or outrage his own established laws. Thus the part in the bible where he says he will not turn stones into bread.
3. In the face of personal danger, he decided to exercise normal watchcare over his human safety and to take reasonable precaution to prevent the untimely termination of his career in the flesh but to refrain from all superhuman intervention when the crisis of his life in the flesh should come.
4. “The next great problem with which this God-man wrestled and which he presently decided in accordance with the will of the Father in heaven, concerned the question as to whether or not any of his superhuman powers should be employed for the purpose of attracting the attention and winning the adherence of his fellow men. Should he in any manner lend his universe powers to the gratification of the Jewish hankering for the spectacular and the marvelous? He decided that he should not. He settled upon a policy of procedure which eliminated all such practices as the method of bringing his mission to the notice of men. And he consistently lived up to this decision. Jesus very wisely foresaw that the working of miracles and the execution of wonders would only call forth outward allegiance by overawing the material mind; such performances would not reveal God nor save men. He refused to become a mere miracle worker. He resolved to become occupied with but a single task – the establishment of the kingdom of heaven.
5. The fifth decision had to do with the “methods he would employ in the proclamation and establishment of the kingdom of God. How should he organize his followers for effort and intelligent co0operation?” The Jews were expecting a Messiah who would come in miraculous dazzling power – but Jesus fully decided against such a plan. He had come into the world only to declare the Will of the Father, and to finish the work as he had begun it, as the Son of Man. “Jesus has formulated a program for the establishment of the Father’s kingdom. He will not cater to the physical gratification of the people. He will not deal out bread to the multitudes as he had so recently seen it being done in Rome. He will not attract attention to himself by wonder-working, even though the Jews are expecting just that sort of deliverer. Neither will he seek to win acceptance of a spiritual message by a show of political authority or temporal power. In rejecting these methods of enhancing the coming kingdom in the eyes of the expectant Jews, Jesus made sure that these same Jews would certainly and finally reject all claims to authority and divinity. Knowing all this, Jesus long sought to prevent his early followers alluding to him as the Messiah.”
6. “On the last day of this memorable isolation, before starting down the mountain to join John and his disciples, the Son of Man made his final decision. In his words he said, “And in all other matters, as in these now of decision-record, I pledge you I will be subject to the will of my Father.” And when he had spoken, he journeyed down the mountain. And his face shone with the glory of spiritual victory and moral achievement.”
And thus his public ministry began. As far as the water turned into wine at the wedding, and the fishes and loaves turned into food for the multitude, Jesus was the most surprised of all when it happened. He did not will it to happen. It just happened by God Himself. But everyone attributed it to Jesus himself, but actually Jesus was the most surprised of all.
His only task while he was on earth in the flesh was to proclaim the kingdom of God, to bring hope to men, inspire them, and give them an alternative to their downtrodden broken lives.
Which is obviously something anyone can do!
This is something you can do!
Which is what makes you a minister.
You know how to be truly helpful. You have the ability to be in service. You can easily talk about God’s Love for all humanity. You know how to be in communion and pray.
From the bible, Matthew 22:35-40
35Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him (Jesus) a question, tempting him, and saying,
36Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38This is the first and great commandment.
39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
That’s it. There’s your schooling.
1. Love God with all your heart, mind and soul.
2. Love your neighbor as yourself.
How simple.
In Jesus’ day, he found 12 guys who wanted to follow him, and he told them to go out and minister the message to anyone who would hear it.
He made them ministers on the spot.
All that is necessary is dedication, devotion and a willingness to love and give.
This makes you a minister of God.
Anyone can do it. You can do it.
Lesson 154 from A Course in Miracles says: “Whatever your appointed role may be, it was selected by the Voice for God, Whose function is to speak for you as well. Seeing your strengths exactly as they are, and equally aware of where they can be best applied, for what, to whom and when, He chooses and accepts your part for you. He does not work without your own consent. But He is not deceived in what you are, and listens only to His Voice in you.”
“You are now the messenger of God, receive His messages. For that is part of your appointed role.”
“Today we practice giving Him what He would have, that we may recognize His gifts to us. He needs our voice that He may speak through us. He needs our hands to hold His messages, and carry them to those whom He appoints. He needs our feet to bring us where He wills, that those who wait in misery may be at last delivered. And He needs our will united with His Own, that we may be true receivers of the gifts He gives.
In my defenselessness my safety lies.
You might as well hear it:
“The world provides no safety.”
Somewhere, you already know this is true. Anything could happen at any moment – a car crash, a house burning down, sickness, death, terror, war, poverty – and usually does occur just when you least expect it.
The reason is because “the world is rooted in attack, and all its “gifts” of seeming safety are illusionary deceptions.”
Okay? Got it?
So the only thing to do is to get out of the world. Rise above it. Get with God.
In your defenselessness is where your safety lies.
You won’t find it in the world. All you will find in the world is despair and sorrow.
But as you align your mind with God, with the thinking of God … you are perfectly safe.
Lesson 153 is an accurate (horrifying) description of how the human being constructs itself in time & space. It says:
“Defenses are the costliest of all the prices which the ego would exact. In them lies madness in a form so grim that hope of sanity seems but to be an idle dream, beyond the possible. The sense of threat the world encourages is so much deeper, and so far beyond the frenzy and intensity of which you can conceive, that you have no idea of all the devastation it has wrought.”
Did you read that? I want you to read it again.
“The sense of threat the world encourages is so much deeper, and so far beyond the frenzy and intensity of which you can conceive, that you have no idea of all the devastation it has wrought.”
At some point – hopefully today – you WILL see it, and you will suddenly get a glimpse, an “idea of all the devastation it has wrought” and from that moment of clarity, where you recognize you are the cause of the devastation which “is so much deeper, and so far beyond the frenzy and intensity of which you can conceive” you will take responsibility for all your public and private thoughts, and allow the purification process to begin.
It’s quite simple, once you see the picture clearly.
“We look past dreams today, and recognize we need no defense because we were created unassailable, without all thought or wish or dream in which attack has any meaning.”
“Now we cannot fear, for we have left all fearful thoughts behind.”
And in defenselessness, we stand secure, serenely certain of our safety now, sure of salvation; sure we will fulfill our chosen purpose, as our ministry extends its holy blessing through the world.
Be still a moment.
Be still a moment, and in silence think how holy is your purpose, how secure you rest, untouchable within its light.
God’s ministers have chosen that the truth be with them.
Who is holier than they?
Who is holier than you?
“It is the function of God’s ministers to help their brothers choose as they have done. God has elected all, but few have come to realize His Will is but their own.”
God has elected all. He has elected you. He has called your name to take your place as a minister, as a teacher of truth, to help your brothers choose as you have done.
Will you answer? Will you accept?
“And while you fail to teach what you have learned, salvation waits and darkness holds the world in grim imprisonment. Nor will you learn that light has come to you, and your escape has been accomplished.”
For you will not see the light, until you offer it to all your brothers.
You might as well hear it.
Salvation is not serious business. It is a “game that happy children play.”
It is a game “designed by One Who loves His children, and Who would replace their fearful toys with joyous games, which teach them that the game of fear is gone. His game instructs in happiness because there is no loser.”
I love this lesson. It is in my Top 10 favorites.
“You who have played that you are lost to hope, abandoned by your Father, left alone in terror in a fearful world made mad by sin & guilt; be happy now.
And the “other things” you should turn your attention to is God and helping others find their way.
Try it, and see. Happiness will come finding you.
“We pause but for a moment more, to play our final, happy game upon this earth.”
“And then we take our rightful place where truth abides and games are meaningless.”
So is the story ended.
You are a minister of God. You have been ordained.
From Jesus:
“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”
- John 15:16
“We will observe our trust as ministers of God, in hourly remembrance of our mission and His Love. And we will sit quietly by and wait on Him and listen to His Voice, and learn what He would have us do the hour that is yet to come; while thanking Him for all the gifts He gave us in the one gone by.
You see? Stay in unbroken communion with God. It is possible to keep the Thought of God in your mind every moment of every day.
“In time with practice, you will never cease to think of Him, and hear His loving Voice guiding your footsteps into quiet ways, where you will walk in true defenselessness.
For you will know that Heaven goes with you.
Nor would you keep your mind away from Him for a moment, even though your time is spent in offering salvation to the world.
Think you He will not make this possible, for you who chose to carry out His plan for salvation of the world and yours.
I really love A Course in Miracles.
Today our theme is defenselessness.
Your practicing will now begin to take the earnestness of love, to help you keep your mind from wandering from its intent.
Be not afraid nor timid.
There is no doubt that you will reach your final goal. The ministers of God can never fail, because the love and strength and peace that shine from them to all their brothers comes from Him.
These are His gifts to you.