[acimlessons_list] LESSON 258 - September 15

Susan Carrier suelegal at theteks.com
Tue Sep 14 06:13:03 EDT 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 258 - September 15

"Let me remember that my goal is God."

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

Have you noticed we are into a series of "let me remember" days? There are
four "let me remembers" in a row, starting with yesterday's lesson:"what my
purpose is," "that my goal is God," "that there is no sin," and "God created
me." There was one earlier lesson (124) also: "Let me remember I am one with
God."

That is one of the things Workbook practice is all about: remembering. How
often during the day does the lesson for the day cross my mind? How often do
I pause to reflect on it for a minute or two? How often does my state of
mind reflect my only purpose, or God as my goal, or the reality of my Self
as God created me? And how much of the time does my mind reflect something
else, something quite contrary? The purpose of deliberate hourly
remembrances, set times in the morning and evening, is to retrain my mind to
think along the lines of the Course. There is no question, in my mind at
least, that we need such training and such practice.

"All that is needful is to train our minds to overlook all little senseless
aims, and to remember that our goal is God" (1:1). The "little senseless
aims," however, loom large in our consciousness, and do not seem little to
us; they preoccupy our minds, and keep them from their true goal. So
training is "needful." The memory of God is in us already (1:2); we don't
have to dig for it. "Give up gladly everything that would stand in the way
of your remembering, for God is in your memory" (T-10.II.2:4). All that we
need to do is "overlook" or give up "our pointless little goals which offer
nothing, and do not exist" (1:2); they are obscuring the memory of God
within us. With them out of the way, the memory of God will come flooding
back into our awareness.

The "toys and trinkets of the world" that we so avidly pursue cause "God's
grace to shine in unawareness" (1:3). God's sunlight is shining, but we do
not see it; we go shopping. Not just in malls for things, but in
relationships for specialness, in the marketplace for power and influence
and wealth, in the bars for sex, and with our TV remote controls for
entertainment. Do I want the memory of God? All that is needful is that I be
willing to train my mind to stop blinding me to It.

"Let me remember." Oh, God, let me remember! "God is our only goal, our only
Love. We have no aim but to remember Him" (1:4-5). What else could I want
that compares with this? Each time today that my heart is tugged to "shop"
for something else, let it be a signal to my mind to stop, and to remember:
"My goal is God."

A poem I learned in my Christian days pops into my mind. Some of those folks
knew what they were talking about:

My goal is God Himself. 
Not joy, nor peace, nor even blessing, 
But Himself, my God. 
At any cost, dear Lord, By any road.

A friend in the Course, last year, sent us some baseball type caps imprinted
with the letters: MOGIG. They stand for, "My only goal is God." I think I'll
wear that hat today as I work; it will be a good reminder.


What is Sin? (Part 8)

W-pII.4.4:4

While we are all deeply involved in the drama of this "childish game,"
Reality continues. It has never changed. "But all the while his Father
shines on him, and loves him with an everlasting Love which his pretenses
cannot change at all" (4:4). Our "pretenses," the childish game, the playing
at being bodies that suffer evil and guilt and death, has not and cannot
change the deep, abiding reality of God's Love; the endless, perfect safety
in which we dwell in Him.

"The changelessness of Heaven is in you, so deep within that nothing in this
world but passes by, unnoticed and unseen. The still infinity of endless
peace surrounds you gently in its soft embrace, so strong and quiet,
tranquil in the might of its Creator, nothing can intrude upon the sacred
Son of God within" (T-29.V.2:3,4).

"The Son of God cannot be killed. He is immortal as His Father. What he is
cannot be changed. He is the only thing in all the universe that must be
one. What seems eternal all will have an end. The stars will disappear, and
night and day will be no more. All things that come and go, the tides and
seasons and the lives of men; all things that change with time and bloom and
fade will not return. Where time has set an end is not where the eternal is.
God's Son can never change by what men made of him. He will be as he was and
as he is, for time appointed not his destiny, nor set the hour of his birth
and death" (T-29.VI.2:3-12).
 
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+ Commentary by Allen Watson
+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
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