Welcome to Active Meditation,
A Course in Miracles,
Lesson 169.
By Grace I Live.
By Grace I am Released.
Grace is an aspect of the love of God,
Which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth.
Grace is the world's most lofty aspiration,
For it leads beyond the world entirely.
Grace is past learning,
Yet the goal of learning for Grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance.
Grace becomes inevitable,
Instantly,
In those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received,
An altar,
Clean and holy for the gift.
Grace is acceptance of the love of God,
Within a world of seeming hate and fear.
By Grace alone,
The hate and fear are gone.
Grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains,
That those whose minds are lighted by the gift of Grace cannot believe the world of fear is real.
Grace is not learned.
The final step must go beyond all learning.
Grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain.
Yet we prepare for Grace,
In that an open mind can hear the call to waken.
It is not shut tight against God's voice.
Our mind has become aware that there are things it does not know,
And our mind is ready to accept a state completely different from experience,
With which it is at home.
So say to yourself,
Repeat in your mind,
By Grace I live,
By Grace I am released.
We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation of the Father and Child as one has already been set,
But we have also said the mind determines when that time will be,
And has already determined it.
We urge you to bear witness to the Word of God,
To hasten the experience of Truth and to speed its advent into every mind that recognizes Truth's effects on you.
Oneness is simply the idea God is,
And in His being God encompasses all things.
No mind holds anything but God.
We say God is,
And then we cease to speak,
For in that knowledge words are meaningless.
There are no lips to speak meaningless words.
There is no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that the mind is now aware of something not itself.
Our mind is united with its Source,
And like its Source itself,
The mind merely is.
We cannot speak,
Nor write,
Nor even think of this at all.
It comes to every mind when total recognition that the mind's will is in fact God's will has been completely given and completely received.
This recognition returns the mind into the endless present,
Where the past and the future cannot be conceived.
This recognition that our mind's will is in fact God's will lies beyond salvation.
When this recognition has been given and received,
It moves our mind past all thought of time.
This recognition moves our mind past all thoughts of forgiveness.
This recognition lies past the holy face of Christ.
The Child of God has merely disappeared into the Father,
As the Father has disappeared into the Child.
The world has never been at all.
Eternity remains a constant state.
This is beyond forgiveness,
The experience we try to hasten.
Yet,
Forgiveness,
Taught and learned,
Brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time the mind itself has determined to abandon all but this is now at hand.
We do not hasten it in that what you will offer was concealed from the One who teaches what forgiveness means.
All learning was already in God's mind.
The accomplished and the complete,
He recognized all that time holds and gave it to all minds,
So that each one might determine from a point where time was ended when it is released to revelation and eternity.
We have repeated,
Several times before,
That you make a journey that is already done.
For oneness must be here.
Whatever time the mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state,
A state forever as it always was,
A state forever to remain as it is now.
We merely take the part assigned long ago,
The part fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by the One who wrote salvation's script in His Creator's name and in the name of His Creator's Son.
There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand.
When revelation of your oneness comes,
It will be known and fully understood.
Now we have work to do,
For those in time can speak of things beyond and listen to words which explain what is to come is past already.
Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who still count the hours and rise and work and go to sleep by the words?
Suffice it to say,
You have work to do,
To play your part.
The ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done.
It does not matter,
For your part is still what all the rest depends on.
As you take the role assigned to you,
Salvation comes a little nearer,
Each uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God.
Say to yourself,
Say in your mind,
By grace I live,
By grace I am released.
By grace I live,
By grace I am released.
Grace is the central theme that runs throughout salvation,
Holding all its parts in meaningful relationships,
Directing the course it runs and making its outcome sure.
Now we ask for grace,
The final gift salvation can bestow.
The experience that grace provides will end in time,
For grace foreshadows heaven.
But grace only replaces the thought of time for a little while.
The interval suffices.
It is here that miracles are laid,
To be returned by you from holy instance you receive,
Through grace in your experience,
To all who see the light that lingers in your face.
What is the face of Christ but God's,
Who went for a moment into timelessness,
Who brought a clear reflection of unity back to bless the world.
How could you finally attain to it forever,
While a part of you remains outside,
Unknowing,
Unawakened and in need of you as witness to the truth?
Be grateful to return as you were glad to go,
And accept the gifts that grace provided you.
You carry these gifts back to yourself.
Revelation stands not far behind,
Its coming is ensured.
We ask for grace,
And for experience that comes from grace.
We welcome the release grace offers everyone.
We do not ask for the unaskable.
We do not look beyond what grace can give,
For we can give in the grace that has been given to us.
Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer,
Yet what could be more than what we ask this day of the one who gives the grace we ask,
As it was given to him.
By grace I live,
By grace I am released.
By grace I give,
By grace I will release.
Ponder on this.
By grace I live,
By grace I am released.
By grace I give,
By grace I will release.
Ponder on this.
You make a journey that is already done.
There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand.
When revelation of your oneness comes,
It will be known and fully understood.
By grace I live,
By grace I am released.
By grace I give,
By grace I will release.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
