
THE CHOICE IS YOURS: HEAVEN OR???!
We have a choice to make every second of the day: Am I to believe this thought that is crossing my mind? Is it a thought of inclusion or separation? How does it make me feel? Am I at peace. Can I look at this thought and say…..”No….not interested.”
A thought can lead us to pain and suffering OR Peace!
We can change it with the power that is given us and ask for HELP to see it differently.
We have help via ‘A Course In Miracles’ Lesson 151, All things are echoes of the Voice for God.
In paragraph 4.2.”You have often been urged to refrain from judging, not because it is a right to be withheld from you. You cannot judge. You merely can believe the ego’s judgments all of which are false. It guides your senses carefully, to prove how weak you are; how helpless and afraid, how apprehensive of just punishment, how black with sin, how wretched in your guilt.” Do we listen and believe it?
The ego has our attention but that need not be! We have judged others and ourselves our entire life and believe we are right and know what is true. We were born with a gavel in our fat little hand, leveling judgments as if we were sitting on the “Judge’s bench” knowing everything there is to know about something or someone.
That gavel was bestowed to our hands by the ego, the split off part of our mind that separated from God. And not knowing any better, we listened and believed it. We never thought to question that maybe the stream of thoughts emanating were not really our thoughts! We didn’t know any better. I know, it sounds complicated but just remember: You are Loved and God’s Son regardless of how you see yourself.
Then the Course says that the ego “projects itself onto you.” “This thing it speaks of, and would yet defend, it tells you is yourself. BUT “It is itself alone that it condemns. It is within itself it sees the guilt. It is its own despair it sees in you.” The ego projects its inadequacies and condemnations onto YOU. It does not know anything because it is unsure of itself!
It’s kind of like a blustering Cowardly Lion in Wizard of Oz, so unsure of himself but can never let anyone know his secret….He’s scared and unsure!
But we have believed the thoughts of separation; sin i.e. error, guilt and fear and have done the ego’s work of projecting the ego’s condemnation and despair out onto the world and onto others to get rid of it. We just pass the ego’s judgments along like a puppet doing its bidding UNTIL we decide “Enough of this Ugliness” “STOP with the Baby Business, like Ken Wapnick tells us!!”
I find this to be amazing…….all my life listening to the wrong voice and believing it, until I came across the Course In Miracles, and I know I still listen to it because I catch myself….a lot!! I am responsible for what I think or what I believe from the ego point of view. I must over-ride those thoughts. Like Byron Katie asks: Is that True??? If coming from the ego it is NOT True!
So….now what! Lesson 152. The power of decision is my own! No one can suffer loss unless it be his own decision. No one can grieve nor fear, nor think him sick unless these are the outcomes that he wants. No one dies without his own consent.” And in paragraph 9. We lay aside the arrogance (of the ego) which says that we are guilty, and afraid, ashamed of what we are; and lift our hearts in true humility instead to Him Who has created us in power and in love.” We CHOOSE to drop the hand of the ego and reach for Jesus’. We stop believing the ego thoughts! Now!
“And in humility the radiance of God’s Son, my gentleness, my perfect sinlessness, my Father’s Love, is my right to Heaven and release from hell, is joyously accepted as my own.” Take this in and own it!
We have the power of choice! It means freedom! We are a Decision Making Mind, and we can stop believing the stream of lies that are fed to us. We can encourage our frightened mind with this:
“The power of decision is my own.
This day I will accept myself as what my Father’s Will created me to be.”
“Then will we wait in silence, giving up the ego’s self-deception as we humbly ask our Self that He reveal Himself to us. In patience wait for Him (the Holy Spirit) throughout the day, and invite him hourly. He will substitute the peace of God for all your frantic ego thoughts ( of worry , fear, doubt, guilt) the Truth of God for self-deceptions, and God’s Son for your illusions of yourself.”
Little by little we become the Light of the World as we undo the blocks and recognize Love’s Presence is within, waiting to be acknowledged.
You are Loved!!
Here are the lessons – close your eyes, quiet your Holy Mind and play to listen to them.