[acimlessons_list] Lesson 349 - December 15

Tue Dec 14 07:25:10 EST 2004

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ COMMENTARIES ON LESSONS FROM THE WORKBOOK OF A COURSE IN MIRACLES
+ by Allen Watson, with Practice Summaries by Robert Perry, 
+ of The Circle of Atonement
+ Visit our website at <http://www.circleofa.com <http://www.circleofa.com/>
>
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Lesson 349 - December 15

"Today I let Christ's vision look upon 
All things for me and judge them not, but give 
Each one a miracle of love instead."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Purpose: To take the last few steps to God. To wait for Him to take the
final step.

Morning/Evening Quiet Time: as long as needed.

Read the written lesson.

Use idea and prayer to introduce time of quiet. Do not depend on the words.
Use them as a simple invitation to God to come to you.

Sit silently and wait for God. Wait in quiet expectancy for Him to reveal
Himself to you. Seek only direct, deep, wordless experience of Him. Be
certain of His coming, and unafraid. For He has promised that when you
invite Him, He will come. You ask only that He keep His ancient promise,
which He wills to keep. These times are your gift to Him.

Hourly Remembrance: Do not forget.

Give thanks to God that He has remained with you and will always be there to
answer your call to Him.

Frequent Reminder: As often as possible, even every minute.

Remember the idea. Dwell with God, let Him shine on you.

Response To Temptation: When you are tempted to forget your goal.

Use idea as a call to God and all temptation will disappear.

Reading: preceding one of the day's moments of practice.

Slowly read "What is...?" section.

Think about it a while.

Overall Remarks: Now, in this final part of the year that you and Jesus have
spent together, you begin to reach the goal of practicing and of the course.
Jesus is so close that you cannot fail. You have come far along the road. Do
not look back. Fix you eyes on the journey's end. You could not have come
this far without realizing that you want to know God. And this is all He
requires to come to you.

(See also Part II Introduction)

COMMENTARY

"The law of love," mentioned in the second sentence, has been referred to in
lessons 344, 345, and 346. We are likely to forget how Lesson 344 defines
it: "Today I learn the law of love; that what I give my brother is my gift
to me." The law of love is the law that giving and receiving are the same,
that generosity and loving extension is a practical way of life because what
I give, I receive. Understanding what the law of love is, the words of this
lesson make perfect sense:

"So [by not judging, but giving a miracle of love instead] would I liberate
all things I see, and give to them the freedom that I seek. For thus do I
obey the law of love, and give what I would find and make my own" (1:1-2).

Do I want others to refrain from judging me, forgive my mistakes, and offer
me miracles of love? Let me give what I seek; let me give what I want to
find for myself.

Each time I accept a gift of God, I have added to my repertoire of miracles
I can give (1:4-5). Each time I give that miracle to another, I have
solidified my learning that the miracle belongs to me (1:6). And thus I
remember God.

Let me not judge today, but offer miracles of love instead. Let me give what
I want to receive.

WHAT IS A MIRACLE? (Part 9)

W-pII.13.5:1-3

In stark imagery, the lesson refers to our world as "a dry and dusty world,
where starved and thirsty creatures come to die" (5:1). The Course says,
more than once, that we came to this world in order to die; we sought death
by coming to a place where everything dies. For instance, "You came to die,
and what would you expect but to perceive the signs of death you seek?"
(T-29.VII.5:2) " It is not will for life but wish for death that is the
motivation for this world" (T-27.I.6:3). We came out of guilt, believing in
our own sin and seeking our own punishment. We came because somehow, in the
twisted logic of the ego, death is the ultimate proof of our success at
separating from God. We made this world as a place to die in, and then we
came to die in it.

But "Miracles fall like drops of healing rain from Heaven" on this parched
land we have made, and the miracles turn it into a paradise. "Now they [the
starved and thirsty creatures, which are ourselves] have water. Now the
world is green" (5:2-3). Miracles, then, transform the world of death we
made into a place of life. Chapter 26 of the Text, in Section IX ("For They
Have Come") extends the same images:

"The blood of hatred fades to let the grass grow green again, and let the
flowers be all white and sparkling in the summer sun. What was a place of
death has now become a living temple in a world of light. Because of Them.
It is Their Presence which has lifted holiness again to take its ancient
place upon an ancient throne. Because of Them have miracles sprung up as
grass and flowers on the barren ground that hate had scorched and rendered
desolate. What hate has wrought have They undone. And now you stand on
ground so holy Heaven leans to join with it, and make it like itself. The
shadow of an ancient hate has gone, and all the blight and withering have
passed forever from the land where They have come" (T-26.IX.3:1-8).

We open to miracles when we open to forgiveness and love, when we open to
God."They" and "Them" in this Text section refer to the face of Christ (the
sight of our brothers' innocence) and the memory of God. When we allow
ourselves to see the face of Christ in our brothers, the memory of God
returns to us. When that happens, the "scorched and...desolate" ground of
this world becomes a garden, a reflection of Heaven.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Commentary by Allen Watson
+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
+ Available in book format from The Circle
+ of Atonement (Vol. 1 reprint due by end of 2004, write us for info)
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