[acimlessons_list] Review V, Lesson 177 - June 26

[Sue Roth]

Review V, Lesson 177 - June 26

"GOD IS BUT LOVE, AND THEREFORE SO AM I."

(163) "THERE IS NO DEATH. THE SON OF GOD IS FREE."

(164) "NOW ARE WE ONE WITH HIM WHO IS OUR SOURCE."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See Review V practice instructions.

COMMENTARY

<Paragraph 9 of the review introduction:>

Four more days of this review; four more days of our "gift" to him. Of
course, every moment we connect with our right mind, every moment we taste
the one holy instant, is a gift as well. This paragraph has a wonderful
flavor to it: our hearing his words; us giving them to the world; Christ
working through us to save the world; walking together to God with him;
taking the hand of our brother as we go. A wonderful connective energy, all
part of a magnificent whole which is our Self, sourced from God. The energy
flows to us and through us, from us to our brothers and from them to us,
weaving us all together in the divine fabric. We are one with Him Who is our
Source.

"For this alone I need; that you will hear the words I speak, and give them
to the world. You are my voice, my eyes, my feet, my hands through which I
save the world" (9:2-3). This is the real purpose of my existence and my
experience here in the world. I may feel confusion, day to day, about my
purpose and the form it is taking. I may have my doubts about those with
whom my life is now interacting, wondering how in Heaven's name they could
ever be part of any divine plan. I may wonder the same about myself. But
Jesus speaks in these words from the Course saying, in effect, "My only need
is you. I need your physical presence to reach through you to the others who
are lost in the illusion of bodies."

How can this be? How, in the mess I find myself in, can this happen? I don't
know. But I believe that the Holy Spirit knows. All I can do is to make
myself available, to be willing for it to happen. Let me remember that these
thoughts of anxiety, doubt, lack of trust, and sadness are all just forms of
the belief in death, and let them go, placing them in His hands. Let me
place myself in His hands as well, remembering that I am one with Him Who is
my Source; I am Love as God is, I am the extension of His Being, as are we
all. If I can believe this I am free.

Donna Cary has written a wonderful song, one of many based on her experience
with the Course. The chorus of it repeats over and over, "He's asking me to
give myself to Him, Calling me to give myself to Him." The song speaks of
the fear that arises when we hear this call. Can I say, today, "He needs me.
He wants my hands, my feet, my eyes and my voice. Father, I am frightened,
but here I am. Use me"? Let me be the instrument of His peace. Or, in the
words of a Christian poet of the last century, Amy Carmichael:

<Love through me, Love of God.

Make me like Thy clear air,

Through which, unhindered, colors pass

As though it were not there>.

God is nothing but Love, and "therefore, so am I." Let that Love flow
through me, unhindered by anything. Let me be clear and clean. Remind me,
God, that I am free today; there is no death, there is no opposite to Love,
or to life. Let my life be an expression of that truth.