Read by the Master Teacher. Click to watch:
Message from Carrie Collins
I am compiling a book of God stories. I need your help to make it happen. This will not be a religious book. I intend it to be of a universal nature, so it does not matter your religion or your system of devotion, or your spiritual path. It does not matter what name you use to identify our Source.
I am requesting a story of your own personal experience with God. It could be a story of awakening, or a story of being guided by Spirit. Or, an inspirational experience in which you knew without a doubt that God, a Supreme Being or Creator is real. I will also accept stories of feeling one with creation, an experience of miraculous healing and stories of Angels helping or guiding you.
Your story needs to be true and about your personal experience. Please do not judge your story, just send it.
Send your story to Godstories.cc@gmail.com
You may send your story in a Microsoft Word attachment. Please include your name, age, profession, city and state and country. I will also need your address which will be kept confidential. I will need to send you a letter granting me permission to publish your story if it will be included in the book. If you do not wish to have your name published, please let me know and your name will not be published. I would, however, like to give you credit for your story.
Also include in your story the circumstances surrounding your experience.
You may read my personal God stories in my blog and specifically the post titled, ‘Fear, who cares”, lightburdens.blogspot.com/2008/03/fear-who-cares.html
I hope to receive stories from all over the world, from people of different religions, cultures, backgrounds and ages. I will gladly accept stories from children as well. Stories from children will be included in this book or a different book, depending on how many I receive.
The goal of this book is to heal and inspire. I want people to know that it does not matter where you live, what you do or who you are, that everyone is entitled to receive the divine love of our Source. And that we are all within and at one with the same Source.
I hope you will join with me to fulfill this goal.
Love, Carrie
“Every moment of your life is infinitely creative
and the universe is endlessly bountiful.
Just put forth a clear enough request,
and everything your heart truly desires must come to you.”
- Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization
Just to let you know I’ve been invited to give a 90 minute talk tomorrow night on Paltalk.com – ACIM Gather – at 8:30pm EST.
I’ll be talking about PURPOSE and FUNCTION.
if you don’t already know about paltalk.com, you need to download the free program, and then search A Course in Miracles. The room name is ACIM Gather.
I hope to see you there.
love, lisa
YOU ARE EXTREMELY VALUABLE!
This post was written by Monica Dubay and it’s awesome.
Check out her ACIM blog for more great articles: Resurrected Mind
by Monica Dubay
I was on a flight to visit my father, who was spending some time in Florida visiting the places he used to go with my mother before she died. I decided it would be better if he had some companionship. As I was sitting there, reading a book I happened to pick up the airport, a voice spoke to me. It said, “You are extremely valuable!”
I’ll never forget it. It took my by surprise and I felt the import of the words. I let them change me, right then and there. And I really took it to heart. I have to recognize that I am being helped. I can really feel these awakened masters with me and I know that I am not ever alone. When guidance comes in this strong, I pay attention.
Listen to this from Chapter 18, “Littleness and glory are the choices open to your striving and your vigilance. You will always choose one at the expense of the other. Yet what you do not realize, each time you choose, is that your choice is your evaluation of yourself.”
Isn’t that amazing? Your striving is always either toward glory or toward littleness. Ideas of lack or limitation in your mind are killing you. They are literally denying you your true nature.
What if I am here to be a totally glorious awakened teacher of God in service to mankind because of my commitment to the truth? What if that were true?
Well, it is. I am extremely valuable.
I am perfect and whole as God created me and I have nothing to say about it. My ideas of denial are nothing. It doesn’t even make any sense to anyone, especially me. I know that I am happiest when I am giving to someone. When I have stopped to ask myself, do I really like myself and what I am doing right now? Do I enjoy this? Do I like what I spend my time doing? Do I like my partner, my children? Am I feeling glorious, or small? Is this working or not? Do I feel appreciated, loved, cared for. Am I appreciating myself? Loving myself?
This is really important. Because after two marriages, I have to pull myself up on how I let myself stay in unhappy situations too long. How I worked at a job not because I liked it, but because it paid the bills. I have to recognize that I have been making the choice for littleness and that my true desire is to experience the glory of my Self and extend that into the universe. I have to value myself entirely and recognize that I am whole.
My entire reference for my life has shifted. I no longer tolerate unkindness from anyone. Period. And I refuse to be unkind to anyone. I have to be admonished for impatience and mistrust. I have to see that I have tried to find happiness outside of me, in relationships or external circumstances. None of which has worked.
I am whole and perfect as God created me. That means I am honest, faithful, trusting, giving, and joyful. I must accept that these are the attributes I want to experience. Nothing less than happiness, which is a constant state, by the way. Consistency is honesty. And true happiness never wavers. I can experience happiness all the time if I am vigilant in my mind to be who I really am.
It’s not easy. Here in this place I always feel a little bit afraid of people. I just do. It comes from a knowing that I do not belong here. And I am trying to find a way to be here. I have to earn money because I have children and I really enjoy seeing them. Working is giving and I have learned to enjoy working. I hate just sitting around or just watching movies. I am not entertained by this world any more. The only joy I really feel is in extending.
You might think it impossible to be happy all the time. I do want it, though. I want to experience only that. Only peace, only joy and only love.
In my awakened state, I know it’s true. Yet, I die daily. I allow all my ideas to come into my awareness, admit them, and then let go. I am challenged by the practice I live by, which is to constantly surrender each unloving thought. In that choice, I am willing to be utilized. I want to know myself as I truly am. I am free to be myself. It has nothing, NOTHING to do with anyone else.
Freedom is freedom from judgment. Period. I no longer worry about what others think of me. I am MY SELF.
I have chosen to be in my glory. I simply have to accept that God is love. If God is love, so am I. There is no such thing as conflict or fear. Period. I don’t tolerate it.
Finally, enlightenment is a choice to be the love that you are. A recognition of the truth of you. You are extremely valuable! And you have nothing to say about it. The sooner you experience it, the happier you will be. You might as well accept it right now. Don’t allow any doubts to enter. Just be free of all the nonsense for a moment and let your light shine before men.
What have you got to lose?
Blessings.
Monica
Resurrected Mind Blog
Thank you Angel.
Hi Lisa,
I have been a course student for about 15 years. I have been guided to write to you especially after reading your post today. I have been reading your blog and listening to your audios. And I love them. I had read one of your posts where you said you wanted to have amazing experiences and be active and have money to support yourself. (I don’t remember exactly what you said but it was something like that). I remember feeling my heart sing and I knew that was exactly what God wanted for you. Then I read another post where you said you were being accused of serving two masters, between God and Money. I felt that the two masters were not between God and Money but between God and maybe some guilt you have about Money. I believe God would say to you Lisa keep your desires and get rid of the guilt. The whole point of the course is for us to get rid of the guilt, and to be our free and innocent selves. And to remind us that we are not separate from God, when you keep as king God what he wants for you you are putting him outside of yourself where he is not. Listen and follow your heart that is where the real God lives.
And I say this in complete love.
Love Angel
This is lifted from Kristen’s Illuminate Mind blog, which was lifted from Joel Goldsmith ….
and definitely worth reading:
by Joel Goldsmith:
The most important thing for students.
The main concern at this moment is this:
It isn’t the Infinite Way, that’s not your concern. The world, that isn’t your concern. The affairs of this world that is not your concern. At this moment there is only ONE thing that is your concern and that is the degree of your God Contact. If you never heal a case, if you never teach a student, if never play a part in the world affairs, none of that’s important, not a bit. There’s only one important thing and that’s YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.
You owe nothing to this world, and you have nothing to give this world. You owe nothing to your patients or your students. You owe NOTHING to the Infinite Way. You owe to yourself one deep debt. And you’re never going to be out of that debt. You owe it to yourself to make your God Contact and to maintain it and to see that you make it everyday of the week and that you maintain it every day of the week. That is your function in life.
Make that God Contact and keep it!
Forget the world, forget trying to save the world and forget your patients and forget your students and forget The Infinite Way. Forget everything. Have only ONE goal and ONE ambition. And that is to make and maintain your individual relationship with God, your individual contact with God. Then, out of that contact if the opportunity presents itself to you to do healing work, to do teaching work, to do lecture work, to support this activity in any way from material dollars to spiritual support, do it. But, do it only as an ADDED thing, as an extra thing. Do it only as a consequence, as a direct result of your daily, spiritual contact.
Now, I can say this to you, because truthfully, this has always been my attitude. I have no feeling of wanting to save the world. I have no feeling of wanting to save even you. I have no feeling about students or patients. I have no feeling about this world at all. I have only ONE feeling and that is that I can’t live separate and apart from my God Contact. And the minute I come out of it a little, I am in misery. And I have to get back into it. And, it so happens that through that God Contact, this work has developed and been drawn to me and I fulfill it.
If I had the nerve, I’d run a thousand miles away from it, ten thousand miles and hide. But, I’m just afraid to for fear of what my Papa upstairs will do to me if I renig. But, for my own sake and my own comfort, be assured of this that going into class work is more punishment for me than taking a physical whipping. I don’t seek it, I don’t look for it. And not all the profits or money that could be involved in it can make me do it more than when I can’t get out of it. And that’s a strange thing.
But, it’s the truth and it always has been the truth. Class work and lecture work is punishment to me. And I do it only because this inner urge forces me to it. And the people keep writing and writing and phoning and wiring and cabling and coming and I just feel I can’t go back on it or neglect it, because that’s why I was given this God Contact to begin with.
And so, as many times as I promised to stop it, the next thing you know, I’m back at it again. But, believe me, it isn’t a thing that you would want to go into voluntarily. It isn’t. Because it’s, whatever it is, it is, anyhow and it isn’t nice. The fruitage is beautiful, but it really and truly tears you to pieces inside…probably because of the responsibility.
-Joel Goldsmith
Dear Friends -
I have been invited by David Fishman over at ACIM Gather/Paltalk.com to express my gratitude tomorrow night, Sunday March 9th at 8:30PM EST.
The topic I will be discussing is Chapter 2 of A Course in Miracles and Chapter 2 in Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth.
I hope to see you there. It will be live. You can ask questions and I’ll answer them.
The room is: ACIM GATHER.
For Mac users (or if you simply do not want to download the Paltalk software), you can listen in by clicking here: http://www.acimgather.org/radio.htm
Love, lisa
Okay, I want to be part of this. I think they have already taped the entire show (and announced the winner) even though the show officially starts on Sunday March 2nd on ABC. I watched the clip and it seems like taping is already over. But I still love the idea.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU HAD THE POWER TO CHANGE SOMEONE’S LIFE FOREVER?
Contestants are given a bunch of cash (but I don’t know how much. $1000? $10,000? I have no idea) and they have 5 days to change someone’s life forever. And the one who gives the most wins.
I love this idea.
I have no money, but I still love this idea, and I still want to participate. I want you to get involved also.
Change someone’s life in 5 days.
And then let me know what happens.
MAKE DREAMS COME TRUE FOR TOTAL STRANGERS.
Will wrote:
I’m still on yesterdays blog with the emails you received. How do you do your forgiveness? Not how the Course says but what goes on inside your mind so to speak. Also if you would like to comment what has been the process (not sure that’s the right word) over the years of forgiveness with you. How has it changed if at all. Again not what the Course tells us so much as how YOU do it.
Thanks
w.
My response:
Dear Will,
I am grateful for your comments and dedication. Thank you!
The way i do forgiveness is to realize the total IMPORTANCE of salvation – that I literally keep the world in chains & pain & suffering whenever I hold a grievance. It has taken me great practice, although now I see that there really is no “process” involved and at any time I could have made a decision to forgive and forget.
For me, it’s like pushing a delete button in my mind. I just delete every grievance, sometimes even before I feel the sting of pain.
For the Love of God, and for the love of Jesus, and for the love of my brothers.
I do it because I’m the savior.
I’m responsible for this world, and realizing I’m the cause of it … I’m willing to do what Jesus is asking.
He says love, give and forgive. Don’t judge. Give your brother your coat and your cloak and walk with him twice as far as he asks you to go. Love your enemy. Love your neighbor.
Once you begin thinking like this, it gets easier and easier.
and then miracles start occurring, and then it gets really fun, and you wouldn’t want to hang onto a grievance not even for a million dollars!
I’m actually at a point now where it’s physically impossible for me to be mad. I can’t do it. I still have moments of passion (hey, I’m Taurus!) – a little temper tantrum or outburst but anger is rare and it doesn’t last. I see that I’m only hurting myself, and I don’t want to do that to myself anymore. So I take total responsibility for everything that seems to occur. I don’t hold onto grievances, because it’s just not worth it.
Plus, holding grievances (anger, upset, sadness) never solved a single problem for me, so they are completely useless emotions and a waste of energy.
for me a couple things happened – one is the lesson “I want the peace of God”. I had read that lesson many times over the years, but suddenly, one day, I really really really wanted the peace of God. I really meant it. It wasn’t just like reading words on the page. I really was finished with conflict and had the willingness to do ANYTHING to avoid it – including being wrong about everything, and to stay in an action of constant forgiveness.
I just want to be happy.
the other thing is a line in the text that says “forgiveness does make lovely, but it does not create.”
!!!!!!!!!!!!
when I read that sentence, I knew instantly that forgiveness is still within the realm of being human. You forgive, you say you’re sorry, you kiss & make up, but you are still short of CREATION.
And creation is what I really wanted. To be in that space where miracles were happening naturally, always, as a direct result of the purity of my own mind.
So that how it works for me.
I hope this is helpful.
Have you had a chance to read my book? Gorgeous for God? It’s the last 3 years of blog posts and if you like what I write in this message and on the blog, you will probably enjoy the book.
It’s available from Amazon.com:
I love you.
lisa
Here I am!
haha
This clip is from a few months ago (and I look like I’m wearing my pajamas) and you might have already seen it, but just in case you haven’t seen it, here’s the link. There are also lots and lots of other great teachers of A Course in Miracles talking about their experiences.
click here to watch:
Lisa ACIM Youtube Quickie – and other Teachers of A Course in Miracles.
I am totally in love with Christine Kane. She is the perfect role model, the perfect woman, the perfect friend, and she totally inspires me.
She wrote a great blog post yesterday about being courageous. Read it by clicking here. Here is her list of 66 Ways to Build Courage:
1 – Paint your nails green and leave them that way for a week. If you’re a guy, you get extra credit for this one.
2 – Look at your life as an experiment. This takes the ego out of new things you try.
3 – If you’re always spontaneous, plan something in advance and stick with it. If you’re a meticulous planner, do something spontaneous.
4 – Quit your job.
5 – Start a blog.
7 – Take a painting class.
8 – Learn a new language.
9 – Join Toastmasters.
10 – Begin yoga.
11 – Do something ridiculously tourist-y in your own town.
12 – Get up in the morning after having a bad day yesterday. Encourage yourself to begin again.
13 – Give money away.
14 – Invite your friends over for dinner and don’t use silverware.
15 – Look into people’s eyes when you’re in public – on the street, buying groceries, etc.
16 – Hire someone to do a regular task you can’t stand doing. (i.e., mowing the lawn.) Use that time to write or draw.
17 – Play music more. Watch TV less.
18 – Get rid of everything in your home that’s not an Absolute Yes. Everything!
19 – Put on a goofy smile and look at other drivers when you stop at lights.
20 – Write a novel in a month.
21 – Think of one thing you’d love to ask one of your heroes, and then call her office – and ask her the question. (The goal is not necessarily to get through – but to let go of the fear of not getting through!)
22 – Ask for what you want – rather than complaining about not getting it.
23 – Go bowling.
24 – If you never host parties or dinners – invite friends over once a month for dinner.
25 – Teach a workshop on something you know how to do.
26 – Start a mastermind group with at least two other people.
27 – Learn to invest your money.
28 – Decide that your desire to be happy is an adequate reason to say no to requests of your time. (I knew someone who had cancer who said, “The best part about cancer is that now I get to say no to things and have a great excuse.” Don’t wait until you have this kind of “excuse.”)
29 – Be bad at something. Do it anyway.
30 – Make requests. Don’t complain.
31 – Join a writer’s group.
32 – Hire a life coach.
33 – In a social situation, sit in one place and allow people to come talk with you instead of running around the room “networking.”
34 – Worry less. Act more.
35 – Take a last-minute trip overseas.
36 – Enter a writing contest.
37 – Start your own business.
38 – Ask someone out on a date.
39 – Start a podcast.
40 – Sign up for my January Great Big Dreams e-Seminar. (Email christine@christinekane.com for details.)
41 – Make a business card for yourself.
42 – Eat at an ethnic restaurant you never considered before.
43 – Respond. Don’t react.
44 – Get some music from another culture. Sit down and listen. Really listen.
45 – Listen more. Talk less. Especially to your kids. (Remember that listening doesn’t mean waiting to say your piece.)
46 – Take a swing dance class.
47 – Hire a physical trainer.
48 – Start a book club.
49 – Test-drive a luxury car. Act as if you could buy it if you wanted it.
50 – End a relationship that drains you or hurts you. You deserve to be happy.
51 – Start a prayer list – and pray every morning.
52 – Go to a nursing home and visit people who need company.
53 – Quit smoking.
54 – Take different routes to work each day.
55 – Get lost on purpose. (When I first moved to my town, this is how I learned my way around. On Sundays, I’d drive into the downtown area and give myself an hour to get lost and then found again.)
56 – Wake up at 5am and write.
57 – Assumptions are the enemy of success. Question them often.
58 – Excuses are the enemy of action. Stop making them.
59 – Admit when you are wrong.
60 – Write a fan letter to someone who’s not famous – a teacher, a grocery store clerk – anyone who delights you or touches you.
61 – Pick one incomplete in your life (cluttered attic, article you want to write, craft you want to begin) and do it for 15 minutes a day. It’s more courageous to do something for a small chunk of time and do it again the very next day – than it is to sit back and say it can’t be done because you don’t have enough time.
62 – Participate in an open-mic night.
63 – Join a spiritual circle – a church, a center, a class. Don’t worry if it’s the “right” one – just try it out.
64 – Go vegan.
65 – Pay the toll of the person behind you. (Or for their coffee!)
66 – Run for President.