ACIM Lesson 180b Review 170

Your mind holds only what you think with God. Your self-deceptions cannot take the place of truth. No more than can a child who throws a stick into the ocean change the coming and the going of the tides, the warming of the water by the sun, the silver of the moon on it by night. So do we start each practice period in this review with readying our minds to understand the lessons that we read, and see the meaning that they offer us. All quotes are from A Course in Miracles, copyright ©2007, Third Edition used with permission from the publisher and copyright holder, the Foundation for Inner Peace, 448 Ignacio Blvd., #306, Novato, CA 94949, www.acim.org.

Transcript

Welcome to Active Meditation,

A Course in Miracles,

Lesson 180,

Review,

Lesson 170.

There is no cruelty in God,

And there is no cruelty in me.

Steady our feet,

Father.

Let our doubts be quiet.

Let our holy minds be still,

And speak to us.

Lead our practicing.

We will listen to your word,

And make it ours.

We accept the word you offer us,

To unify our practicing,

As we review the thoughts that you have given us in these lessons.

God is love,

Therefore so am I.

No one attacks without intent to hurt.

There are no exceptions.

When you think that you attack in self-defense,

You mean that you believe to be cruel is protection.

You mean that you believe you are safe because of cruelty.

You mean that you believe to hurt another brings you freedom.

How thoroughly insane is the idea that to defend from fear is to attack.

Today we learn a lesson which can save you from more delay and needless misery.

The lesson is this.

You make what you defend against.

Draw your own defense against it.

You make it real and inescapable.

Love now has an enemy.

Love now has an opposite.

Fear now needs your defense against the threat of what you really are.

Lay down your arms,

And only then do you perceive it false.

Say to yourself,

Say,

In your mind,

I make what I defend against.

By my own defense against it,

I make it real and inescapable.

So I lay down my arms,

And then I perceive it false.

Ponder on this.

I make what I defend against.

By my own defense against it,

I make it real and inescapable.

So I lay down my arms,

And then I perceive it false.

The final obstacle is the fear of God himself.

You have reached this place before,

But you have chosen that this cruel God remain with you in still another form.

And so the fear of God returned with you.

Fear is love by those who worship it.

The worshipers of fear perceive cruelty now as a part of love,

And love appears to be invested now with cruelty.

Say in your mind,

Father,

We are like you.

No cruelty abides in us,

For there is none in you.

Your peace is ours.

We bless the world with what we have received from you alone.

We choose again.

We make our choice for all our sisters and brothers,

Knowing that they are one with us.

We bring to our brothers and sisters your salvation as we have received it,

And we bring it now.

We give thanks for those who render us complete.

In them we see your glory.

In them we find our peace.

Free are we,

Because your holiness has set us free.

We give thanks,

Amen.

Now fear has made way for love,

As God himself replaces cruelty.

There is no cruelty in God,

And there is no cruelty in me.

Nothing real can be threatened.

Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God.