predencia

I need but call and you will answer me.

I am not asked to take salvation on the basis of an unsupported faith. For God has promised He will hear my call, and answer me Himself. Let me but learn from my experience that this is true, and faith in Him must surely come to me. This is the faith that leads to Him. For thus I will be sure that He has not abandoned me and loves me still, awaiting but my call to give me all the help I need to come to Him.

Father, I thank You that Your promises will never fail in my experience, if I but test them out. Let me attempt therefore to try them, and to judge them not. Your Word is one with You. You give the means whereby conviction comes, and surety of Your abiding Love is gained at last.

Awake at 6 a.m. writing morning pages, doing Walking in This World tasks, meditation and ACIM lessons and readings. It took three and a half hours and I felt like I’d done a day’s work by then.

I ran out of creative space for the book, so cleared autumn leaves instead, and had a long chat with my friend’s daughter about changing schools.

Watched a couple of comedy films (Hotshots and Old School) and the long awaited but very disappointing last episode of Me and Mrs Jones on BBC 1.

I am forever an Effect of God.

Father, I was created in Your Mind, a holy Thought that never left its home. I am forever Your Effect, and You forever and forever are my Cause. As You created me I have remained. Where You established me I still abide. And all Your attributes abide in me, because it is Your Will to have a Son so like his Cause that Cause and its Effect are indistinguishable. Let me know that I am an Effect of God, and so I have the power to create like You. And as it is in Heaven, so it is on earth. Your plan I follow here, and at the end I know that You will gather Your effects into the tranquil Heaven of Your Love, where earth will vanish, and all separate thoughts unite in glory as the Son of God.

Let us today behold earth disappear, at first transformed, and then, forgiven, fade entirely into God’s holy Will.

I didn’t get a chance to read the lesson till this evening, as the Manchester trip was an early start and a late finish, but thankfully it was ACIM support group night, where we began with laughter – actual joke telling, and ended with the lesson. It was a lovely way to start, and set the tone for the rest of the night.

I had to pick my son up from MediaCity in Manchester and was astonished to see how much it has changed since I last visited the Lowry eight years ago. I’d like to go back and spend a bit of time exploring it again.

I had a massive example of the applications of yesterday’s lesson, that the things (and people) in my life reflects my thoughts. Now I have to make a decision to think different thoughts, project different ideas. Please Holy Spirit, give me strength, courage and guidance to do so.

All things I think I see reflect ideas.

This is salvation’s keynote: What I see reflects a process in my mind, which starts with my idea of what I want. From there, the mind makes up an image of the thing the mind desires, judges valuable, and therefore seeks to find. These images are then projected outward, looked upon, esteemed as real and guarded as one’s own. From insane wishes comes an insane world. From judgement comes a world condemned. And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world come forth, with mercy for the holy Son of God, to offer him a kindly home where he can rest a while before he journeys on, and help his brothers walk ahead with him, and find the way to Heaven and to God.

Our Father, Your ideas reflect the truth, and mine apart from Yours but make up dreams. Let me behold what only Yours reflect, for Yours and Yours alone establish truth.

I struggled long and hard with making a decision today, because I was aware that whatever I decided would result in one person being severely disappointed, and in fact in one case could lead to a minor financial loss to myself. The deliberations took up a lot of my creative space, and even after I’d made the decision I found it difficult to get back into the zone, as I was dealing with the practical implications of the decision. Consequently I only wrote 1000 words today, and the last 100 just before going to bed. It’s a shame because I’m really enjoying this story, and it’s unlikely I’ll be writing tomorrow as I’m going to Manchester.

I saw a client today, and helped her to understand the driving motive for the characters in the screen play. It made me realise how much I’ve actually learned, and how my prior knowledge of psychology can be put to another use. She said she’d learned more from me than from the tutors on her MA in Creative writing. Could there be a new career opening here?

I merely follow, for I would not lead.

Father, You are the One Who gave the plan for my salvation to me. You have set the way I am to go, the role to take, and every step in my appointed path. I cannot lose the way. I can but choose to wander off a while, and then return. Your loving Voice will always call me back, and guide my feet aright. My brothers all can follow in the way I lead them. Yet I merely follow in the way to You, as you direct me and would have me go.

So let us follow One Who knows the way. We need not tarry, and we cannot stray except an instant from His loving Hand. We walk together, for we follow Him. And it is He Who makes the ending sure, and guarantees a safe returning home.

I wasn’t looking forward to continuing story number 6 today as, according to the plan, it was going to be a heavy one. However, after an early rise, morning pages, ACIM lesson and nearly an hour of dancing I sat down to have a most amazing other story unfold. I was so excited I wanted to write every minute of the day to get it finished. No such luxury though as I had a client, who was an equal pleasure, and reminded me that we all have courage inside, all we have to do is uncover it. It was also a reminder that without adversaries we would have no opportunity to uncover our courage. At the moment my courage muscles are being given plenty of opportunities to develop.

This must all be part of the plan for my salvation, that at this point of my life I would need to dig out more courage. I just need to keep reminding myself that I cannot lose my way.

I gladly make the ‘sacrifice’ of fear.

Here is the only ‘sacrifice’ You ask of Your beloved Son. You ask him to give up all suffering, all sense of loss and sadness, all anxiety and doubt, and freely let Your Love come streaming in to his awareness, healing him of pain, and giving him Your Own eternal joy. Such is the ‘sacrifice’ You ask of me, and one I gladly make; the only ‘cost’ of restoration of Your memory to me, for the salvation of the world.

And as we pay the debt we owe to truth, – a debt that merely is the letting go of self-deceptions and of images we worshipped falsely- truth returns to us in wholeness and in joy. We are deceived no longer. Love has now returned to our awareness. And we are at peace again, for fear has gone and only love remains.

There were two sides to the day. One where I was immersed in my writing and one where I needed to lean heavily on the lesson to give up all sense of sadness, loss, anxiety and doubt. In fact, it was interesting that when I was writing all the other things that threatened a sense of loss anxiety and doubt was pushed completely out of my mind. Only when I stopped writing and had to attend to them did they become real. The trick for me was to face them head on, no procrastination.

So, having said there was no sacrifice in yesterday’s lesson, today’s asks us to sacrifice fear, I like the twist.

I wrote over four thousand words today. Only two more stories to write before the editing process starts.

I can give up but what was never real.

I sacrifice illusions; nothing more. And all illusions go to find the gifts illusions tried to hide, awaiting me in shining welcome, and in readiness to give God’s ancient message to me. And every dream serves only to conceal the Self which is God’s only Son the likeness of Himself, the Holy One who still abides in Him forever, as He still abides in me.

Father, to you all sacrifice remains forever inconceivable. And so I cannot sacrifice except in dreams. As You created me, I can give up nothing You gave me. What you did not give has no reality. What loss can I anticipate except the loss of fear, and the return of love into my mind?

The sun shone brightly. I cleaned, clearing away last week’s old energy and making the house ready for the new energy of the coming week, and found myself writing 2500 words on the book. It was easy, it was effortless, done to music and in sunshine. Sacrifice was indeed inconceivable. Some may see it as me giving up a Sunday, or doing work on a non-work day, but I’ve come to accept that all kinds of work take place at all kinds of time in all kinds of places. It was such fun.

What is creation? (Reading)

 Creation is the sum of all God’s Thoughts, in number infinite, and everywhere without all limit. Only love creates, and only like itself. There was no time when all that created was not there. Nor will there be a time when anything that it created suffers any loss. Forever and forever are God’s Thoughts exactly as they were and as they are, unchanged through time and after time is done.

God’s Thoughts are given all the power that their own Creator has. For He would add to love by extension. Thus His Son shares creation, and must therefore share in power to create. What God has willed to be forever One will still be One when time is over; and will not be changed throughout the course of time, remaining as it was before the thought of time began.

Our Father calls to us. We hear His Voice, and we forgive creation in the Name of its Creator, Holiness Itself, Whose Holiness His Own creation shares; Whose Holiness is still a part of us.

Lesson 321

Father, my freedom is in You alone. (Lesson)

I did not understand what made me free, nor what my freedom of, nor where to look to find it. Father, I have searched in vain until I heard Your Voice directing me. Now I would guide myself no more. For I have neither made nor understood the way to find my freedom. But I trust in You. You Who endowed me with my freedom as Your holy Son will not be lost to me. Your Voice directs me, and the way to You is opening and clear to me at last. Father, my freedom is in You alone. Father, it is my will that I return.

Today we answer for the world, which will be freed along with us. How glad are we to find our freedom through the certain way our father has established. And how sure is all the world’s salvation, when we learn our freedom can be found in God alone.

Oh blissful day! Four hours at the gym and spa, a walk around Cannon Hill Park, one final look at the Rivers of Birminam exhibition and an opportunity to listen to the filmed narrative, late, late lunch, with a pot of green tea and a good book. This is freedom! Even managed a few hundred words on the church book, and ended the night with some comedy – Live at the Apollo. Did I mention BLISS!