My thoughts* on ACIM Urtext Lesson 289 for 16 October 2023.
The “past” may be more than we have imagined.
My thoughts* on ACIM Urtext Lesson 289 for 16 October 2023.
Caution: Possible Triggers
The past is over. It can touch me not.
* It occurs to me that “the past” might include not only “my personal past in this lifetime” but also throughout time, including the present wars and atrocities that are presented around the world, AND all that lies in the future that is not in alignment with Father’s Will, as well.
* That actually makes it a bit easier for me to go to sleep tonight after reading some of the news of terrorists. That does not stop my heart from sending out prayer for all of those who suffer or to ask Father, Jesus, and anyone else who is able to intervene on behalf of the suffering if possible to do so.
* It has been said that “suffering is good for the Soul.” And I would like to speak to that for a moment. YES, it is but ONLY because we must identify with those who suffer as if it was upon our own selves so that we might get our fill of suffering and be willing to look to God because THIS IS NOT what Father intended for His Son to endure.
1. Unless the past is over in my mind, the real world must escape my sight.
* All that is not of God, past, present, and future must be seen as the unreality that it is for Heaven to appear which is the real world that the Holy Spirit would show us. (as per my understanding at this time)
²For I am really looking nowhere; seeing but what is not there.
* As tragic and heartbreaking as it is and YES, we must mourn with those who mourn! If we do not we are in ego’s clutches and have swallowed his lies that think ourselves “separate” and “better” than another.
³How can I then perceive the world forgiveness offers?
* Through the Holy Spirit’s Vision we see both and know that what we see with our natural eyes is not true but that hope is always before us because of the forgiveness that revealed God’s LOVE for His Son.
⁴This the past was made to hide, for this the world that can be looked on only now.
* NOPE. That is not so. BOTH MUST BE SEEN with the vision provided by the Holy Spirit.
⁵It has no past. ⁶For what can be forgiven but the past, and if it is forgiven it is gone.
* IT STILL STANDS BEFORE US EVEN ONCE WE ARE IN THE ATONEMENT.
* But we know that it is illusion and that Christ is there and, as Christ, we are a part of the correction that must be made on this level.
2. Father, let me not look upon a past that is not there.
* I know that Ken went through this Course “word by word” and that he had the ability to “bully” both Helen and Bill. It is passages like this that can be so upsetting because they are misunderstandings, but truly, from within the Atonement, WE KNOW THAT ALL THINGS ARE IN THIER PROPER PLACE AND TIMING.
²For You have offered me Your Own replacement, in a present world the past has left untouched and free of sin.
* Ken was full of pain and fed up with the world he saw when he became aware of the Course. Helen and Bill would not commit to the witness of God and the Son which would have given them the authority and courage to stand up for what was being taught. I am not trying to point fingers, I am stating what I see as I study the history of the Course’s origins. And doing my best to convey the Course material in the manner that I know that Jesus, of Nazareth, would have brought it to us.
* God does give us a “New Earth” to dwell in once we accept the Atonement because we are “eternal thought entities” and mentally, we grow in the understanding that what Jesus has shared with us here in the Course is TRUE and VALID.
* Then the Holy Spirit helps us to undo the habits and erroneous patterns that the ego has taught us and allows us to be of assistance to our brothers as we sojourn here among them in the flesh; while we understand Who we truly ARE and Who they ARE as well.
³Here is the end of guilt.
* Yes. Well, actually, the end of guilt came with forgiving the Original Error. Here is how we assist one another but that has NOTHING to do with the end of guilt. THAT can only occur by forgiving the Original Error of belief in the possibility of separation from God. Period!
⁴And here am I made ready for Your final step.
* That “Final Step” has been taken by forgiving the Original Error and allowing ourselves to recognize that God NEVER left His Son and by accepting the Guidance offered by the Holy Spirit to clean up/correct the mistakes that reveal themselves on this “second level” of form and physicality, here on the “old earth.”
⁵Shall I demand that You wait longer for Your Son to find the loveliness You planned to be the end of all his dreams and all his pain?
* I am able to accept this doorway to Heaven right now through the Atonement. I have seen guilt and shame absolve into nothingness which is all that it ever was. I behold the Face of God when I look at my brothers. (* You see there is no need of “wombs” in Heaven because God’s Love perpetuates and extends eternally therein. So, where is my sister if not in my brother and vice versa?)
(ACIM, W-289.1:1–2:5)
The past is over. It can touch me not.
1. Unless the past is over in my mind, the real world must escape my sight. ²For I am really looking nowhere; seeing but what is not there. ³How can I then perceive the world forgiveness offers? ⁴This the past was made to hide, for this the world that can be looked on only now. ⁵It has no past. ⁶For what can be forgiven but the past, and if it is forgiven it is gone.
2. Father, let me not look upon a past that is not there. ²For You have offered me Your Own replacement, in a present world the past has left untouched and free of sin. ³Here is the end of guilt. ⁴And here am I made ready for Your final step. ⁵Shall I demand that You wait longer for Your Son to find the loveliness You planned to be the end of all his dreams and all his pain?
(ACIM, W-289.1:1–2:5)
Till next time, God bless, debi.
