Love What Arises from Our Depths

“By loving everything that arises within you, you eliminate fear of yourself.  By eliminating fear of yourself, you eliminate fear of your experience.  By removing it [fear] from your innermost self, nothing and no one can make it arise again.”  COL bk.2, 19:II

Many of us studied “positive thinking” for many years.  But one thing that bothers me now is that we reject our negativism, and this takes effort.  This quotation would have us embrace anything and everything that arises in our consciousness.  We won’t have to judge ourselves so harshly for a stray thought that is not positive enough.  We will simply love it away.

If we love everything that arises in us, we won’t be afraid of our mind anymore.  Many of us have thought of our mind, especially our egoic mind, as the enemy.  And that may be true.  But rejection does not work, because what we resist becomes stronger.  We need simply to turn aside from thoughts that we don’t want.  Entertain something else, in the present moment.

If we are in a low mood, our thoughts will be negative.  At such times Richard Carlson counsels us simply to relax and invite a graceful response.  He says that if we don’t relax, we will be afraid of our own thoughts.  And this is exactly what today’s quotation warns against.

There is no reason to be afraid of what arises from the depths of our mind to be healed.  This rising from the depths is how we are prepared for Awakening, enlightenment, Christ-consciousness.  We must see, with God’s help, that the subconscious is cleansed from the bottom up.  This idea, from The Way of Mastery, makes perfect sense to those of us who have followed Freud.

Be gentle with ourselves today.  Let fear fall away in the only way possible, by embracing love.

Loving Consciousness

“Can you begin to realize that it is entirely possible to walk in this world without the slightest hint of fear?  This is possible—and necessary.  This can be achieved today, when you sincerely acknowledge that everything you feel in your heart and everything you think in your mind can and should be embraced by your loving consciousness.”  COL bk.2, 19:II

What a promise this is!  No hint of fear can be achieved today!  If we could only believe this strongly enough, I believe it would come to pass.

Again, love is the Answer.  Our heart and mind must be overshadowed by a loving consciousness.  And then we will see the evidence of what we read in today’s quotation.  We embrace all in our heart and mind, leaving nothing out.  But we don’t dwell on the past or the future, because we know that living in the present is the route to happiness.  And happiness we can have when we live in love and banish fear.

This quotation also tells us that to walk in this world without the slightest hint of fear is “necessary.”   We know that we cannot entertain Christ-consciousness as long as fear has a hold on us.  Fear and Christ-consciousness cancel each other out. 

Focus on the love that we already think about and feel.  And then ask to have this love enlarged so that it covers our whole vision.   Ask for the warmth of God to enfold us.  This is a palpable experience, possible for all (though experienced, perhaps, in different ways for different people).  If we trust enough, trust God enough, then we will know that we are safe in a sometime difficult world.  We will thank God for the gift of life itself, and our desires for more, more, more will fall away.

The only “more” we will want will be love.

Walk into Love, Away from Fear

“Given the energetic state of fear, the soul begins to grapple with it, just as the body does with a toxin.  It is a natural reaction.  Fear is so foreign and unnatural that the soul always seeks to eliminate it.  Fear is soul poison.”  COL bk.2, 19:II

These blunt words about fear will make us want to banish it forever from our mind and heart.   We can do so, though it takes patience and special dispensation from God.  If we love enough, we won’t have fear, because love always displaces fear.  But here, in this world, this degree of love is unusual.  Often we have to take tiny steps to displace fear, seeking calm, seeking peace, seeking tranquility.  Love, true love, comes later, because the vast majority of our love-seeking behavior has been bent on finding special loves that never become holy.  When our special loves transform into holy, then, yes, we are making progress.

Meditation and contemplation, prayer and communion with God, can hasten the arrival of true love in our heart.  These things mitigate against fear, makes us immune to its shrill beckoning.  If we really want to make progress in our walk back to God, we need to invite love into our every moment.  Fear comes from the ego, which we would give up.  Patterns of fear and patterns of the ego will haunt us, though, for a time even after Christ-consciousness has arrived.  We are just that stuck from eons of fear-ridden living.

Be patient.  The end is certain.  We will walk away from fear when that is our intention. 

And this soul poison will haunt us no longer.

From Fear to Love

“Living without fear is only possible when you live in certainty.”  COL bk.2, 19:II

To live in certainty is to know that we are One in God, sure of His love, knowing that all will be well.  To live in certainty is to experience, first hand, invulnerability.  Experiencing invulnerability first comes in glimpses of Awakening, and then in Awakening itself (on a constant basis).

We want to live without fear, and the way to woo this experience is to open ourselves more and more, as time passes, to love.  Love always cancels out fear, and all of us do know some ways to invite love into our daily lives.  We become more congenial as we go about our days; we cease the anger and hostility; we become peaceful.

Yet we aren’t always successful in making this transition from fear to love, because it takes God’s help to make a permanent change in our outlook.  We don’t do very well when we try to effect permanent change without any divine help.

Let divine help into our lives today.  Don’t try to alter thoughts and behavior by purely secular means, for these will all eventually fail.  If we have the certainty of God’s help, we have a Power on our side that will create a permanent change from fear to love in our outlook.

Give God a try today.  He is always willing to help anew and afresh, regardless of how long we have neglected Him.

Walk into the Present Moment for the Best Living

“[Y]ou need not heal the hurts of the past, nor project or plan a golden future of revenge for a baleful past.”  COL bk.2, 19:II

This quotation flies in the face of psychotherapy, which focuses very often on an attempt to heal the past by bringing it up for consideration.  But this does mean that we tend to live in the past, and that is a dead end.  We are often in low moods when we decide to consider the past, and this just makes our current predicament seem insurmountable. 

There is a better way.  Consider the past only in lifted moods, and then what we experienced is more likely to stay in the past, where it belongs.  We do not have to dwell in the past at all.  It was what it was.  “Healing” the past all too often keeps us tied to it, and we want to walk into the sunlight with Jesus holding our hand.

We certainly don’t want to plot revenge, which is the opposite of forgiveness.  Largely the reason that we don’t need to heal the past is that it only needs our forgiveness.  If we offer that, the past ceases to bother us.  And we are on the road to a happier life.

Let the past remain in the past.  Don’t try to relive it; don’t try to reform it.  Just realize that the secret to good living is remaining in the moment.  This moment. 

Our past doesn’t have to drag us down unless we make a decision for it to do so.  Let the past drop from us like chains that have bound us.  And the chains will miraculously fall from our body.

Peaceful Mind & Loving Heart

“Fear is unconsciousness; once you begin to accept that fear is unconsciousness of your true self, you will inevitably take the next step, which is to become aware that unconsciousness is simply the denial of something that you feel or have felt in your heart, or what you think or have thought in your mind.”  COL bk.2, 19:II

We feel with our heart; we think with our mind.  And both are necessary to good living.  Fear turns us aside from good living.  Here, in Choose Only Love, we see fear described as “unconsciousness.”  Certainly we are not in our right mind and not feeling blessed in our heart when we fear.  And so many of us have fears that just won’t leave us alone.

A friend gave me a lovely prayer that is apropos to this situation: “May I have peace in my mind and love in my heart.”  She recommended this maxim as a mantra to help in drifting off to sleep.  But it can be used anything that fear rears its ugly head.  We can’t get over all our fears just by wishing them away, but over time, when we walk back to God, fears diminish and eventually fade from view.

When we are truly ready to relinquish fear, the right reading will find its way into our library.  And we will know the right prayers to pray, the right form of communion to invite with our God.  When we live in the moment, conscious and aware of our being in this world, we invite fear to leave us.

Ask today for a lessening of fear.  When love takes over, fear always scurries away.

Turn to More Awareness by Giving Up Fear & Judgment

“Judgment is a turning away from consciousness out of fear.  Thus you are urged again and again not to judge.”  COL bk.2, 19:II

Judging makes us unhappy, too.  As a fearful reaction, it is nothing to be desired. 

The New Testament was very clear about a non-judgmental attitude.  Now we see the same in Choose Only Love.  And the same in A Course of Love, where both fear and judgments were prohibited if we were to make progress toward Christ-consciousness.

We need full consciousness in our lives, and we cannot have this blessing if we have restricted our thinking and our feeling out of fear.  Fear contracts the soul, and who would have that?

We often have to evaluate things in our lives, but evaluation is not the same as judgment.  Judgment has a denunciatory aspect that evaluation does not.  When we denounce another, we suffer in our attitude.

Keep our mind clear today of judgment. 

We will know a release in daily life that has been denied us previously.

Return to Loving Consciousness

“You return to the Father’s house, that is, to the loving consciousness that you are, whenever anything that arises from your being is embraced in it [i.e., in our being].”  COL bk.2, 19:II

If we embrace all that arises in us, arises from our being, then we metaphorically return to the Father’s house.  We don’t need to reject any part of ourselves; resistance just makes the negativity cling to us.  If we embrace, we are enfolded by God Himself, Who teaches us that all things are either from Him, or allowed by Him.

We do have a loving consciousness, but we are often unaware of it.  Yet love is the great panacea of all that ails us.  And being conscious of love will cure the negativity that rejection of that negativity does not.

I would embrace my being today, my being as a loving consciousness.  Tell me, dear God, how to do this.  Don’t let me get lost in my own little mind, a little mind that doesn’t know which way to turn.

If I turn to You, You will guide me to embrace all parts of my being, and this action will always heal me.

Calm Center of Our Being

“Being always what you are means not to disconnect from anything that happens within yourself.”  COL bk.2, 19:I

We don’t need to judge ourselves harshly when thoughts arise from the depths, where all is peace.  This is what is actually happening “within” ourselves.  We do need to turn aside from negativity, analyzing our conflicts, getting ourselves overwrought by frightening ourselves with our own thoughts.  Much of these last attitudes are either the ego or egoic patterns that have not yet left us.

But the ego will leave when we invite his demise, and the egoic patterns will also, eventually, cease.  We must have patience with ourselves.  We didn’t get all tangled up in an instant, and it will take more than an instant to start out on a better pathway.

When we look within, we see an equanimity that stands us in good stead regardless of what is happening external to ourselves.  Or what we perceive as happening outside ourselves.  Actually, A Course in Miracles says that projection makes perception, and so we are still projecting our outside world, what we are experiencing.  When we don’t like what we see, we need simply to delve more deeply within our mind and heart, to the calm center of our being.  This allows us to be who we really are.

Turn inward for a while today, connecting with our inner being.  We may not yet be able to sustain this stable look at our real Self, but we can form new habits that will allow us to live as this real Self.

And then we are home free.  Safe in the arms of God.

Becoming More Aware of Our True Self

“This essential matter of being aware of your true self is what will make fear disappear forever from your sight, reduced to the memory of an unpleasant nightmare.”  COL bk.2, 19:I

What does it mean, to be “aware of your true self”?  I think this message in Choose Only Love means that we are to drop egotistical leanings, just resting in God’s grace as we approach each day.  Our true self is our Christ-Self, and this Self has been hidden in our depths for a very long time.  The ego did this to us.

But now we would walk a different way.  We would drop the ego from our experience.  When we rest in God’s grace, we approach life with a soft focus.  We don’t drop into analytical nightmares, trying to make sense of our world from a stressed and difficult attitude of mind.  We rest easy.

What a promise we have when we become aware of our true self!  Fear will disappear, becoming only an unpleasant nightmare.  We may not see how this is possible, but this word from Jesus does indicate that fear will not be a factor for us any longer.

Let us take Jesus at his word.  If we feel the need for help, let’s simply ask him to hold our hand as we walk along.  A Course in Miracles says that doing so will be no “idle fantasy.”

Joy on the Horizon

“What joy it is to live in the uncreated truth.”  COL bk.2, 19:I

Truth is “uncreated”?  This assertion attributed to Jesus in Choose Only Love is telling us that truth is eternal, not something that came to be in our world, but originated outside our world, yet immanent in it.  We did not, in other words, “make” truth when we fell into the ego.  We will not even “create” truth when we are living in Christ-consciousness.  Truth is not of the personal self, nor the Self that is differentiated from God.  Truth is of God.

Knowing this, we can walk a green earth.   There are some things that don’t change as we go forward into evolution.  And truth is one such static thing.  Let us ask to be made aware of the eternal truth that we have heretofore not known.  God is not trying to keep secrets from us; He is perfectly willing to share His truth.  It is our own limitations, emerging fresh from an egoic past, that hinder us.

Yes, joy—joy!—is in our future.  If we let the thoughts of our finite mind flow in and out, in peace, we will not get so tangled up.  This way of living will keep us constantly in God’s shadow.  We will listen to what He says, in His silence, and know.  Just know.  This is the Christ-Self speaking to us, the essence of who we are.

Let’s listen well today.

Serenity Will Heal

“The impulse to struggle and defend is the impulse that moves the egoic world because the ego is only concerned with its survival.”  COL bk.2, 18:II

Perhaps we can read in this quotation from Choose Only Love the implication that to struggle and defend are false issues for us.  Certainly struggle is not God’s way with us.  His way of speaking to us is all peace.  And defending our little territory of mind and heart in this world is not the way, either.  Yes, struggling in vain and defending our way as the only way are both signs of an egoic leaning.

The ego would like to continue to lead us around.  But its days are numbered.  In A Course of Love, as we read through it meditatively, we discover that the ego has left us.  If we latch onto a new way of living, we will not build a new ego on the ashes of the first one.  And we would not choose to do that, for such a futile choice would take away all our gains.

When tempted to struggle with an issue, go within and get quiet.  In the silence, God will speak to us.  He knows that serenity is one of our greatest blessings.  And He will bring serenity to our personal issues in life.  Serenity irons out the difficulties, and we will walk a smooth pathway as we go along.

Defenses do what they would defend, as A Course in Miracles tells us.  So a defensive attitude in life is not the way either.  Drop our defenses today.  We will be the better for it.

Give up the ego and egotistical leanings as bad choices.  Let the subconscious mind be cleansed as we pray for help. 

This in itself will go a long way toward saying good-bye to the ego.

The Living Christ

Note:  If you like this blog, “Miracles Each Day,” I have others that you might want to view; go to this blog, and click on “Blogs – Online Books – Print/E-Book – Personal Web Site” at the top of the screen.  Thanks! — Celia

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“The truth is that only you exist.  Your being, the true being that you are, the living Christ who lives in you, is the only reality.  All else is fiction, all else is illusion.”  COL bk.2, 18:II

This quotation is saying that we are all One, one being, and that being is the essence of God Himself.  Of course, this is a mystical understanding, and we are certainly limited in our entity who lives on earth.  Here we are simply a “part” of God, and we are sometimes lost and confused because of our finite nature.  But the truth is that we are one with the All, including all of our brothers and sisters who share this world with us.  We are blessed beyond description.

We are the living Christ, for “Christ” is a plural term when it refers to the children of God.  Jesus started us down this pathway 2,000 years and more ago.  And he helps us still.  Just ask, and he will be holding our hand.

The “all else” that is fiction is the ego, something we want to shed from our consciousness.  This is the illusion that we have been hamstrung by for eons. 

But when we turn to God, eliminate fear and judgment, and envelop our being with the Love Who is God, we are saved for something better.

Let us ask today to be saved for that something better.

Sweetness of Love

“We contemplate our sleeping brothers and sisters with the sweetness of love and treat them always with tenderness, understanding that their acts are nothing other than the movements of those terrified by nightmares.”  COL bk.2, 18:II

A quotation that encourages us to forgive, and to forgive each and every time—knowing that sleeping brothers and sisters are terrified by nightmares.  What a poignant image!  May we remember it now that times seem so tough for us.  May we remember this image often.

Some of us reading this have still not awakened fully, and so we too sleep part of the time, at least.  When we do sleep in waking life, we need to be forgiving of ourselves, too.  We lapse into fears that overwhelm us.  We lapse into anger and attack, twin negatives that are caused by our unconscious fear.  Treat ourselves with the “sweetness of love,” and we will hasten full Awakening into Christ-consciousness.  The oscillations are sometimes great, from fear to love and back again.  But remember that we have mighty companions accompanying us. 

The “movements of those terrified by nightmares” need not cause us to fear.  As bad as things get, still we have our heavenly Father with us.  It is true that He does not intervene in human matters by robbing us of our free will.  Consequently, some in this world get into real trouble.

But there will come a glorious day when all, simply all, are in the presence of God, home in Him. 

Our faith and trust in God will bring that day closer in time.

Awakening

“At first you wake up slowly.  Then you begin to walk-awake and you meet those who have awakened, and finally are ready to receive with serenity and peace those who are waking up.”  COL bk.2, 18:II

This is the pathway to Awakening, spelled out for us in Choose Only Love.  We do wake up slowly at least most of the time, when we have been reading channeled works from Jesus.  With him, the pathway is smooth.  With his guidance, the way is sure.

We do meet those who have awakened, though they may be reticent about telling us that they have awakened.  Genuinely awakened people do not brag; the ego is gone from them.

And then, ultimately, we help others who are awakening.  We are led to them.  We react with serenity and peace, sure of what to say and what to do, knowing that we have help from the celestial realm.

Awakening is the same as Christ-consciousness, the same as enlightenment.  Eastern religions have long known about this, but the West is just learning.  And from the best teacher, Jesus himself.

Let us listen and be assured that all will be well when we walk this gentle pathway.

Walk the Path of Life Hand-in-Hand

“Now you know who you are, and who is speaking.  Now we walk the path of life hand-in-hand, and you know for sure that you and I are the same being.”  COL bk.2, 18:I

We know who we are, when we have walked the path of life back to God.  We are one being with Jesus, for we share the Christ as the All of who we are.  ALL of us are One, and this is what this message, attributed to Jesus, really means.  We share one being as children of God, and the fact that Jesus has walked farther ahead of us does not actually matter.

This one being is the Christ-Self, something discussed at length in A Course of Love.  It is an inner being who is just now coming out from our depths.  No longer living an egoic life, we are primed to enjoy our merger with the Christ-Self from within.

It is very reassuring to know that we were never intended to be alone, but to be One with the All.  This All includes God, but it also includes our brothers and sisters with whom we share this world.  Let us never forget the glue that binds us together is Love—Love of God, love of each other, love of ourselves. 

We are walking hand-in-hand, and this makes all the difference.  We will not lose our way again.  We will walk peacefully back to our God—holding hands, always holding hands.

Seek to Attract Love

“You attract everything that happens in your life.”  COL bk.2, 17:III

This quotation, attributed to Jesus in Choose Only Love, is a firm affirmation of the law of attraction.  Taken on the surface, it doesn’t seem to make any sense.  Surely we don’t attract the awful circumstances with which many of us are faced this day?  On some level, we may.  But it is not the level of the personal self; if anything, if we can believe this assertion, it is on the level of the soul—a soul who sees more than our vision can give us while on earth.

If this is true, and I believe it is, then we need to put more time into attracting love in our lives.  The way to do this is to practice faith and trust in God, the kind of faith and trust in God that we saw emulated by Jesus in his life on earth.  He set the example that we all need, all must, follow.  When we follow faith and trust to their logical conclusion, we have to realize that a loving God has allowed the things that happen to us.  And this is because he has never for a moment contemplated removing free will from the gifts he gives to us.

Seek to attract more loving thoughts by accentuating faith and trust in God today.  The love will make all the difference.  The love will save us.

Jesus: “Certainly Everything Will Be Fine”

“Certainly everything will be fine.  Do not doubt this.  God and you, your being and my love, are always the universal winners, not in the sense of triumph of the egoic thought system, but in truth.”  COL bk.2, 17:II

We do need this reassurance now!  It is attributed to Jesus, in the new series of books, Choose Only Love, and the words were channeled within just a year or two ago.  We need to hear, “everything will be fine.”  And we are not to doubt!

We are not talking about an egoic victory, but something much, much grander—the peace that the end of separation from God actually gives.  We are heading into Awakening, Christ-consciousness, enlightenment—all of us.  And when we have traversed the barriers of fear and judgment, we will have that which we desire, a peace that passeth understanding virtually all the time.

For reasons that we don’t understand, it is easier to reach Christ-consciousness now.  We have grown through our travails, and now we are ready.  Devote time to contemplation and meditation, prayer, and simply loving our brothers and sisters.  We will find our walk in life will go much easier when we have done these simple things.

We need to cooperate with God as He seeks to bring us home to Him.  He would have us turn from the insanity that is egotism.  When we do this, we will have that which we most long to have, and for many of us it is peace and joy.

May the peace and joy of God’s blessings reach us, wherever we are, today.

God’s Plan for Us

“That which you see before your eyes, or takes place as if it were a movie, is nothing other than God’s plan for you.”  COL bk.2, 17:II

Hugh Prather once made an analogy of our lives as a movie being shown in a theater, a movie that we wrote.  And if we are part of God, this scripting is actually true.  And we are a part of God.  He lives in our depths, and He lives through us.

If we can see the drama of our lives as something meaningful, always attuned to the Universal, then we are less likely to become upset by the vicissitudes of our daily lives.  We are not promised a smooth walk in every particular.  It is true that as we attune ourselves to God’s plan, our lives lose some of the devastating drama that is egoic.  And eventually the ego falls away, leaving us soothed and at peace.

Our understanding of God is often flawed, for we blame Him when things go wrong.  But our free will is at issue here, and He would never take that from us.

Be at peace today.  We are simply watching a movie unfurl in the theater that is our world.

Kernel of God’s Love Awaits

“You attracted to yourself everything that was necessary, so that what was not true could crumble and give way to what is.”  COL bk.2, 17:I

I see this quotation, attributed to Jesus in Choose Only Love, as an affirmation that love wins out in the end.  When we are asked to wait through hard times, we gain patience, an essential virtue.  When we wait patiently as the years unfold, we truly do get ready for an explosive affirmation of Love from God Himself. 

This is “what is” in our world.  What has not been true in love just crumbles away, and then we are left with the kernel of God’s love for us.  The period of rejection is over, and now it is time for the blessings to descend upon our heads.

This is the law of attraction in effect.  We could not appreciate the love well unless we had lived through its opposite, the rejection of our proffered love.

Now we are primed for a new, good beginning.  We have waited, we are ready, we have grown by the ending of something that wasn’t meant to be at all.

Now we are overcome with Love, and God, this time, makes sure that we get the message.  Love is the Answer, the one true Answer to what is.

Love

“You can never be inside my heart enough.  That is the same as saying you can never love too much or be too loved.”  COL bk.2, 16:I

The panacea for what ails us is always and ever the same:  love.  I fear that we hear this ode to love so often that we tune out, not seeing the wonderful implications.  It is true that hearts can be hardened to love, and love then does not transform negative actions.  But we never know when this is really true.  The offer of love may take root in a hardened heart at any time, softening it and turning it to the positive.

This is another quotation from Mary.  Her channeled writings always are filled to the brim with her love.  We often see her as the “mother,” and mother love is known to be all-inclusive, all-forgiving.  So we are “inside” Mary’s heart, and she would have us be there forever.  This is a particularly wonderful way of saying that Love means everything to our well-being.

Love does not mean that we accept abuse.  We have a concept called “tough love,” that is effective in some cases when faced with a particularly obstinate person.  But we must be careful that tough love does not hide a refusal to forgive, because forgiveness is the greatest message of A Course in Miracles.  The right overture from a heart filled with love will transform the most awful situation.  We just have to give love a chance.

When faced with a hard decision, ask, “What would God’s love do now?”  This is the same as the oft-repeated injunction to ask, “What would Jesus do now?” or “What would Mary do now?”

Contemplating this question will do much to see that our heart remains in the right place.

Knowing Heaven

“[I]f you knew the Heaven that awaits you here and now you would cry of happiness.”  COL bk.2, 16::II

Here we are considering a series of quotations attributed to Mary, mother of Jesus.  She constantly reminds us of joys that we could know, if we weren’t so obtuse.  We can even know Heaven, she says here, and she adds, we can know Heaven “here and now.”

What a glorious promise!  We would be happy beyond compare if our world were to open up into an experience of Heaven.  And this can come true, regardless of outer circumstances.  Of course, it takes some mental adjustment on our part.  We need to turn inward, not outward, because within is where the treasures are. 

We turn inward not in a self-centered way, but in a way that opens up God’s treasure house for our enjoyment.  We touch God when we clear our mind, open our heart, and listen to the gentle, quiet promptings from inside.  Then Heaven really does begin to appear outwardly, too, for we are projecting our vision from the inside, making for the perception of a better world.

A Course in Miracles tells us that projection makes perception.  And it is this truth that allows us to see how Mary’s promise can come true in our lives—even when things seem darkest.  We are not fooling ourselves when we see a better world.  We really do see a better world, for we are not adding our pain to that world. 

Our happiness is seeded from within.  And there too we find Heaven on earth.

Ever More Love

“The more you love, the more free you will feel.”  COL bk.2, 16:II

We do want to feel free, to be free, even in the midst of circumstances that might seem to hem us in.  And if we give ourselves up to love, this quotation, from Mary, says that we will feel more free, and the more we love, the more free.

We can soften our hearts even in the midst of a bad day, or turmoil, or suffering, or just pain.  We don’t have to let agitation take us over.  When we soften our hearts, we are opening up to love, and love will take us back home to God. 

It is just that simple.  Turn to the love in our hearts, and know that God is acting on our behalf all the time.  He would have us taste freedom.  And here we are getting the instructions that we need to experience the freedom that we want.

We Need to Experience Unconditional Love

“I need you above all human understanding.  You are always in my heart.  Please meditate calmly on this message.  My love is not poetry, although it can be expressed in that way.  It is not philosophy, either.  My love is truth.”  COL bk.2, 16::I

In a statement attributed to Mary, this quotation suggests that she needs us.  Actually needs us.  And this need is above our understanding.  If she holds us in her heart, we know that we are in a safe place, being with her.  Her love, she says, is “truth.”

The scribe, Sebastian, is Roman Catholic, and his religion has had a history of revering Mary.  We might, whatever our religion, take to heart these messages.  Her words do indeed sound like poetry, though that is not how she describes her love.

If we know that we are truly loved, we can gain a good bit in our daily lives.  Part of the problem of our world is the fact that people do indeed feel unloved.  We can see this in everyday life, and a paucity of love has dire implications.  When things get desperate enough, tragedy happens.  The truth of love often cannot be heard in such circumstances.

Let’s take a step back and realize that God’s Love is always available to us.  And Mary is an apt messenger of that love, being, as she was, the mother of Jesus.  This quotation does not say it, but love of this nature is definitely unconditional.  And it is unconditional love that our tired ole world needs most keenly.

We Have the Company of Heaven with Us

“You are never alone and have never been alone.  I refer not to the company of the world, which is transient, but to the company of Heaven, which is eternal.”  COL bk.2, 16:I

What a wonderful comment to read:  that we are never alone and have never been alone!  We may be isolated in our daily lives now, but we have the “company of Heaven.”  And this company is eternal.  Who is involved?

Angels, of course.  And entities we have known who have passed over to the Other Side.  Plus advanced souls who seek to help us from their greater knowledge.  And especially, in the company of angels, the particular beings assigned to us, our guardian angels.  And then there is God Himself Who listens in on our prayers with patience, knowing that there is nothing that we need, but realizing that we don’t know this. 

Our needs are answered at the point that these needs are recognized.  Of course, we can’t see this, and we often think ourselves in a worse place than we are.  But if we settle down, calm our overwrought mind and heart with praying to the One Who loves us beyond all imagining, we will succeed at being enveloped by peace.  And this peace, if we woo it, will stay with us indefinitely.

We are never alone.  This in itself is a great way to soothe a troubled breast. 

Yes, we have the company of Heaven.

Drowned in Perpetual Ecstasy

“Sweet son!  Sweet daughter!  If you were aware of the ocean of love that gushes uncontrollably from my core and flows towards you, you would be drowned in perpetual ecstasy and you could not stay alive in the body.”  COL bk.2, 16:I

This statement is attributed to Mary, from Choose Only Love.  The statement exudes with love, overflowing love from a full heart. 

We can ask to accept such love in our depths, and this will make all the difference.  We need simply to open to the experience, to dwell on the positive, to drop our worries and concerns and realize that there are other entities who look out for us and bless us.

Mary’s statement is heartwarming in the extreme.  It is a way home to God.  Knowing that the mother of Jesus, chosen by God for that experience, wishes us well, is a great blessing.

Open our mind and heart a bit, and realize that this may just be the truth, to hear from Mary in the dailiness of our lives.

Accept the Essence of Love in Our Lives

“Now that you are ready to walk the Earth as gods, in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, go through the world carrying love.”  COL bk.2, 15:III

What can this ever mean, to “walk the Earth as gods”?  This statement from Choose Only Love is a new way of phrasing how we will walk in this new era, the time of Christ.  I think the reference to our being “gods” has nothing whatsoever to do with egoic notions, that being a “god” happens when we have walked the pathway back to our Maker, God Himself, and we are living as Christ-conscious beings.

Other words in this quotation are unusual:  the “Immaculate Heart of Mary” and the “Sacred Heart of Jesus.”  We have to realize that the scribe is a very faithful Roman Catholic, devout in his practice, and he reveres Mary and Jesus.  Sebastian seeks to inject a sense of holiness in all that he writes, and here we see this sense of holiness magnified.

The essential point of this quotation is the oft-repeated injunction to love.  I fear that many of us don’t get the full meaning of love because we have heard this injunction so often.  If it were a new and strange word, never before tried, we might accept more readily, acknowledging our lack of understanding previously.  (This is an idea from other channeled writing.)  But we can’t change the word to something novel.  We just must humbly realize that we have not comprehended the essence of love in our lives heretofore.  It is incumbent upon us now to change that, to accept the essence of love as the most vital factor in our lives.

Seek a reverent attitude in devotionals today.  The holiness of Sebastian’s writing joins with the union that we will know with Jesus and Mary, for we will then, one day, all be joined with the omnipresent Christ soul.  Christ is a plural word in the new era, and it always includes the potential in us to be Christ-conscious, Awakened people.

Compassion

“Compassion is what will make you able to integrate your human nature with God.”  COL bk.2, 15:III

I have never read this statement anywhere else in recent channeled writings—that compassion will integrate us with God.  But I can believe it, for compassion is an explication of love.  It gives us something to cling to when times are tough.  It gives us the right attitude toward our brothers and sisters in this world.

I think compassion is particularly potent when we have anger.  The way to transmute anger is to realize compassion toward the one who seems to be giving us grief.  Thich Nhat Hanh says a great deal about this in his classic book entitled, simply, Anger.  If we realize that the one who attacked us is suffering as we are, our anger at the attack will dissolve, and in its place will be compassion, which is healing.

But Choose Only Love takes this concept farther along.  We actually “integrate” our human nature with God when we exhibit compassion.  And who among us does not want this?  We want to be One with God, as He intended. 

It is not hard to give compassion the highest place in our mind and heart.  All of us deserve compassion when we slip up and hurt another person in our circle.  We deserve to give compassion to ourselves, which will lead us to forgive ourselves.  And then we turn this compassion outward, to the one who has hurt us, and then forgiveness heals.

Meditate a bit on compassion today.  I think we will find gems there, gems that will enhance our living.

Tenderness

“Tenderness counteracts anger.  No war can stand against it.  Purity appeases and banishes the evil intentions that sometimes creep into the heart of the child of God.”  COL bk.2, 15:III

If we ever face anger in our relationships, here is the antidote:  tenderness.  Here we read that no war, even, can stand against tenderness.  When we are tender, we are expressing a purity that is lost to us when we give in to anger.

A Course in Miracles says that anger is never justified.  But that does not mean that we will never experience anger.  We are still living in this world with feet of clay, and as long as we are finite creatures, I believe that there will be misunderstandings that cause hard feelings.  ACIM also says that forgiveness is the Answer.  And when we forgive, we must not leave ourselves out of the equation.

So here we have it, from two sources combined:  Tenderness and forgiveness will lead us aright.  Tenderness and forgiveness will right the negative pattern that might creep into our relationships.

Sometimes we will need this reminder, because we are still in need of God’s help as we walk this world.  Anger will come, but anger will also go.  And here we have the message from Choose Only Love that will heal our overwrought feelings.  Negativity cannot stand when we listen to God’s solution.

Delights of God’s Heart Embellish the World

“Let us observe together how the delights of God’s heart embellish not only the soul, but the whole world.  To make them present in the world is to bring Heaven to Earth.”  COL bk.2, 15:III

Sometimes we get so caught up in our own neuroses that we forget that there is a whole world out there needing our help.  This, with the coronavirus, is such a difficult time for just about everybody.  But God is still God, and His way is joyful.  If we listen to the promptings, the quiet promptings, of our heart, we will know the truth of a joy that never ends.

If we seek to embody God’s joy, we will necessarily be a good force in this world.  And the world is crying out for understanding and comfort now.  Let us let go of our own hang-ups and instead walk the happier path, metaphorically holding God’s hand, remembering His delights.

God is not responsible for the bad things that happen in our world.  Our mindset has fallen, even as our free will has remained constant.  And God does not interfere with free will.  That is an axion never broken.

If we open our hearts to a never-ending love, we will understand what these “delights of God’s heart” really are.  And, as the quotation says, not only will our own soul be embellished, but also the whole world.

The world needs us now.  Let us reach out and heal, first ourselves, and then our circle in this world, and then, beyond that, to the much larger community.

We can do this.  It just takes the proper mindset. 

And with have within our power the means to uplift our mindset.

Delights of God’s Love

“As you go along this path, painting your being with the delights of God’s love, you will begin to enjoy life much more, whatever your life is like and wherever you are.”  COL bk.2, 15:III

This quotation is very true.  When we hunger for greater enjoyment, thinking of the things in our life that give us joy, we really do see an increase in our joy, more things to be happy about.

This experience is independent of actual circumstances.  Many people in the world in impoverished circumstances are actually happier than we, in our materialistic culture, are.  And this holds true even though we are living now in the midst of a scary pandemic.  We have the wherewithal to rise above our difficulties, with God’s help, and when we do so in tough times, we will be the better for it when times smooth out again.

When we “paint” our being with the delights of God’s love, we are walking the pathway that will lead us to Christ-consciousness.  God would have us find pleasure in everyday occurrences.  And this change in our outlook is eminently possible.

It is just a prayer away.

Harbor Only Thoughts of God

“Those who live in God do not harbor thoughts that are not of God.  This is essential for those who follow this path.”  COL bk.2, 15:III

How do we know what is “of God”?  We turn to our past, what we have learned of God.  And we learn that He is all Love.  So if any of our thoughts leave out love, then we are misguided.

It is not easy to turn aside from the negativity that is not God.  Our anger, hostility, resentments—all have to go as we walk along the path back to Him.  These inferior thoughts can be avoided if we listen to our heart, which is the beacon taking us to love.  Let the mind rest awhile in God’s peace, listening to what the heart is trying to say.  Let the heart speak to us.

Knowing that every aspect of our thoughts and feelings that are not of Love is not of God should help us move closer to Awakening/Christ-consciousness/enlightenment.  Give the soft answer if rebuffed.  Retreat within ourselves to heal wounds of speech and action.  Know that many in our circle struggle mightily; give them some slack.  And when giving slack, don’t leave out ourselves.  We need to forgive ourselves for our lapses into negativity. 

God is not through with us yet.

Delights of Love

“The delights of love are tenderness, purity, affability, sincerity, integrity, nobility, and compassion.  Gather them all.   Hold them always in your hands, and walk the path of life, carrying the bouquet of flowers that God himself has given you. . . .”  COL bk.2, 15:II

A couple of these adjectives to describe love are new to channeled writing, namely, affability and nobility.  Let’s see what might be meant by these two new words.

Affability is an open attitude with a relaxed manner.  When we exhibit affability, we are warm to our brothers and sisters in this world.  We don’t take offense.  We accept.  We are easy to get along with.  We don’t stress and strain.  We live and let live.

Nobility is perhaps best understood as an attribute of our being when we have moved into Christ-consciousness.  It is not an egoic attribute, therefore, though we may have previously thought that we were better than others, and this is a form of believing in nobility.  Nobility in Christ-consciousness is different; there is no hint of egotism.  We carry ourselves well in this world, knowing that we are Sons and Daughters of God.

We are warned in A Course of Love not to form images of ourselves.  And so there is implied here a warning not to “attempt” to develop qualities of mind and heart just because they are good qualities.  An image is an idol.  This attempt smacks of egoism.

There is a way that we can incorporate these characteristics without forming images.  In the right way, we don’t “try” so hard to be something that we are not, or something that we have not yet become.  We let personality change evolve.  We are patient.

Today let us contemplate these virtues of personality, keeping in mind that we don’t want to give the ego another carrot stick to aid its continued development. 

Let us instead ask in prayerful consideration how we might incorporate all that is good into our very Self.  We will then hold God’s bouquet.

Freedom

“Can you start to see how many feelings and thoughts you have drowned?  How little spontaneity has remained after ‘growing up’?  How many games have you stopped playing, pretending to look serious and mature?  The time has come when that is past!  Now we replace seriousness with freedom.”  COL bk.2, 9:IV

A Course in Miracles says that seriousness is of the ego.  And A Course of Love says that the patterns of the ego will linger even after we have given up egoic living.  These patterns may hold us back now.  Choose Only Love is saying that it is time to give up seriousness entirely, to move ahead in our lives with the freedom that a child of God deserves.

If we listen to the whispers on our mind and heart, we will know how to find freedom.  Nothing will hold us back any longer.  Certainly we will not attempt to be “mature” because we think games of life are no longer warranted.  Life is meant to be limitless and joyous.  This is what our new freedom will mean to us.

Get guidance for the next step by listening to these whispers that I am talking about today.  Whispers come to all of us, and if we are open to them, we will stop and take a look at the subtle thoughts that they are.  These gentle thoughts will give us a new life.  Choose Only Love calls it “freedom.”  A Course in Miracles calls it “limitless” and “joyous” living.  Are the two received books not saying the same thing?  Talking about the same incredible journey that lies ahead of us?

Be reintroduced to spontaneity in our pathway toward the future.  God’s guidance, the guidance of the inner Christ, and the Holy Spirit all will take us to a new place of contentment and peace. 

We won’t lose anything when we turn aside from seriousness, turn aside from egoic ways of living.  Take the high road as we give up our desire to hold the reins of our life so tightly. 

Be flexible in our decisions, turning on a dime when we receive guidance. 

Experience true freedom for the first time since childhood.

REVERENCE BORN OF LOVE

 An Appreciation of Book One from Choose Only Love

Published in Miracles magazine for May – June 2020 (Jon Mundy, publisher); also on Amazon.

Reviewed by Celia Hales

Miraculously receiving in Argentina from the angelic realm, Sebastian Blaksley has bestowed upon us a marvelous gift in Choose Only Love:  Echoes of Holiness.  This book, the first published in a series of seven by Take Heart Publications, is emblematic of all great books that inform us of ultimate truth.  We will be primed to move to Awakening or Christ-consciousness through an infusion of the energy of Love.  Reading it, we will discover that few other books touch us with such an overwhelmingly reverent, worshipful feeling.

Sebastian describes himself as merely a “pencil in the hands of the love.”   His Roman Catholic faith brings passion to the words of the book.  I “hear” words coming through a very devout individual, one “in the world” but not “of it,” a man whose sincerity is palpable.  Yes, Choose Only Love:  Echoes of Holiness will move us to a receptive frame of mind and heart, inviting the mellow feeling that characterizes Awakening. 

            Sebastian’s experience of channeling is unique.  He hears choirs of angels singing, then finds himself in the company of Archangels Raphael and Gabriel.  Jesus and Mary are present from time to time in the channeling.  Sebastian absorbs the message from the Voice of Christ, then later transcribes it into words, first Spanish, and then he receives again, this time in English.  The Archangels oversee that the meaning is correct.  Afterwards Sebastian rests, for he is very fatigued from the influx of great energy.

            Each of the 21 chapters begins with the words, “A message from the Voice of Christ through a Choir of Angels in the presence of Archangel Raphael and Archangel Gabriel.”  As we proceed, we find quite a bit of metaphysics, an explanation of ultimate reality.  We come to understand how and why we were created by God, and we discover what caused our illusory separation from Him. We find that Love can transform, and, indeed, end all suffering.  We read that creation is actually neutral, that what we experience we write upon it.  Our purpose is to “be who we are,” not to struggle to become an ideal image of ourselves.  In other words, we do not actually have to labor to change ourselves.  We are beloved by God just as we are.  We are heading into an experience of freedom as Awakened individuals, a blessed state of mind and heart that has been overshadowed by the ego and its fear for eons.  We are invited just to “be” the Self who we are, and that Self is Christ.  Many of us keep hearing that Love is the Answer, and this book echoes this idea with certainty.  Its heartfelt message will help us to absorb Love deeply, taking us to the truth of what Love can do for us.  If we are devotees of A Course of Love, as Sebastian is, we will see the influence of that gift first received by Mari Perron around the turn of the century 2000 (also published by Take Heart Publications). 

Jesus, the risen Christ, and Mary, his mother (equal to her son), are greatly revered by the angels who visit Sebastian.  The angels recognize purity of love.  We are encouraged to follow Jesus and Mary as we seek to walk more closely with God.  And, yes, Jesus and Mary are only a call away from us.  We can believe as does Sebastian, who has heard from Jesus: “Our love story will never end.”

If we want an intense spiritual experience in the moment, we could do no better than read Sebastian’s gift slowly and meditatively.  In my estimation, this series is a prime choice for our morning and evening devotionals.  We cannot read it rapidly, or its beneficent meaning will be lost to us.  But we can read at a measured pace, and our receptivity will bloom.  We will live the words.  Remember:  Read slowly.

Thank you, Sebastian, for your faithfulness to this calling from God, this calling from Love, to contribute a universal message to humankind.

Clear Mind and Warm Heart

“Brother, sister . . . let me tell you that you are ready to heal fully.”  COL bk.2, 9:IV

The context of this quotation is that we have let the ego go and that we are merging with our Christ-Self.  If we have taken steps to eliminate fear and judgment, the two forbidden aspects of our thoughts that keep us back, then we are ready to heal—and to heal fully.  Healing is what is happening when we reach Christ-consciousness.  And healing is what happens when we have let neuroses go.

What a blessing this statement really is!  If we can be neurosis-free, then our minds will have learned from our hearts, and we will be walking a flower-strewn pathway.

Much of this philosophy of this post comes from A Course of Love, a received writing that came around the turn of this century.  We need to let our hearts, which have never doubted God, have full ascendancy over our minds, which are characterized by The Way of Mastery, as being “very stupid servants.”  While we may not agree that our minds are stupid, we certainly can know that we haven’t ever doubted God so much in our hearts.  It is only our minds that have given us problems, intellectual problems, about a God we cannot see.

But we can intuit God, and that is what I am asking you to do today.  Listen to the heart.  Know that it does not lie.  And the heart does not need the proofs of God’s existence that the mind seems to throw up while we are in the throes of the ego.

Be ready to heal fully, clear mind and warm heart, and accept this promise of full healing as our birthright.

To Enjoy!

“Start enjoying the journey of life.”  COL bk.2, 8:IV

Yes!  It doesn’t make any sense to make ourselves miserable, even when times are tough, and tough times come to all of us.  The journey of life is meant to be a healing adventure in which subconscious, fearful thoughts give way to love.  When we open up to love in our lives, we know all the difference.  And we start to enjoy what we are experiencing.  What a difference this makes!

We can start right away.  There is no need to wait for a rainbow to appear in our lives.  We can offer our thanks for the many blessings that we have, and the act of doing so will enhance our experience.  Just saying the words throughout the day will actually make the blessings grow.  We will see all manner of things, good things, that we have overlooked before.

Ask to enjoy our lives.  We may have many lives, but we experience each one only in the Now.  And if we rue the Now, we rue our lives.  Negativity also kicks in, and with it the law of attraction, which says that what we focus upon grows.  We can get ourselves going downward in spiral of lamentable happenings.  This we don’t want.

So the advice to “enjoy” our journey is solidly based in a law of the universe.  God’s law.  And it behooves us to take heed and do what we can to lift our spirits on a constant basis.

Turn any fretting over to God.  He is much better equipped to handle it than we are!  And He is not burdened by the fretting, as we are.  He will take our current state of mind and heart and lift them to new heights.

Just enjoy the scenery on our journey through life.

Covenant of Souls

“Sons and daughters of truth, you summon to yourselves in time that which you have agreed to outside of time, in the covenant of souls.”  COL bk.2, 8:III

This word from Choose Only Love seems to say that we put together a contract ahead of time for the lives that we will live.  We decide the outline of our life.  If this is true, and I think it is, then this reassurance is helpful in the extreme. 

We can know that what we live through was, at least partially, thought through in advance.  What happens may come as a surprise when we are on earth, but not in another realm.  We knew in advance what we were signing up for.

The law of attraction is also in operation here.  We “summon” to ourselves what we will experience.  This too is reassuring.  Nobody is doing this to us.  We are doing it to ourselves, and if this is true, we can change what we do not like.  A contract can be modified if we find ourselves lapsing into negativity, and thereby attracting bad things to ourselves.

I don’t believe that we would have chosen things on the Other Side, before birth, that would be detrimental to our soul’s advancement.  And so we can realize that we are only gaining from the experiences that we have.

Let us take the overarching view today.  Let us imagine that what we are experiencing is only for our ultimate good.

And if we want to change our attitude about what happens, this is only a thought away.  Others will help, for, after all this is a “covenant” of souls.  We agree to our part in this covenant.

Eternally Extend Perfect Love

Note: After this post, I am going to take a brief break from posting. Thank you for your views.

“Everything has been created for the same purpose:  to eternally extend perfect love.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 15:I)

Everything is an extension of God, and God is perfect Love.  So, when we are living right, we are extending love.  If we don’t do this, we will be falling down on the job.  We simply need to reassess and decide that God’s way is the way that we want to go.  That is all.  It will be enough.

But this is “perfect” love, and not many of us feel that we live up to that.  At least not often and not in every situation.  Pray today to live a more perfect love.  That too will be enough.

We are eternal beings, never to lose life at all.  We move into and out of form in this world, and possibly others as well.  The only evidence of eternity in our world is the “now,” and so it would be very good to live in the present on a constant basis.

So:  What are we about, but to love and be loved, living with our focus in the here and now?  This should be easy enough.  Why, oh why, do we make it so hard?  God would not have it so.  His way is easy and non-conflicted.  Let us ask to walk His way now and every day.

Loving Everything that Arises within Us. . .

“[L]oving everything that arises within you is the key to bringing love to the world.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 15:I)

We think we see so many things in ourselves that we want to reject as not being worthy.  We are very hard on ourselves.  Here, though, we read that we ought to love everything that arises in us.  How can this be so?

It is so because, regardless of how many mistakes we have made, we are still innocent in the eyes of God.  We don’t reject tiny children when we have to reprimand them; we see their innocence.  And we are tiny children, at least sometimes, in the eyes of God.  Certainly He knows that we try, and little children do not try without sometimes falling into error.  A wise parent does not turn against the child because that child is not perfect.

Being innocent is not the same as being perfect.  We fall down, and we will continue to fall down, but we ought to give ourselves some slack.  We get up, and we try again.  If we stay down, we aren’t able to live in God’s light.  Eyes on the ground, we see only darkness.

If we can love ourselves, then we can bring love to others, to the ones in our circle in the world.  If we despise ourselves, we are ignorant of what love is, and we cannot meaningfully give it to another.

Know that love saves us, from ourselves and also from the rejection of others.  We need instead to wrap the world with open arms, sure of our love, blessed by the love that God has taught us to feel.

Crystallize Our Love in the World

“If what you think you perceive is uncontrolled anger, tell it also, just as you would with a very angry girl, ‘I love you, you are part of me, you are very beautiful.  I love you as you are, because you are a part of me.’ 

“This exercise is not a banal.  It is the exercise that will crystallize your ability to bring love to the world.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 14:III)

All of us have expressed anger and hostility on some occasions, often when we are feeling very hurt.  I read this quotation as the reaction of a girl in pain.  She is being told that she is actually a part of the one who speaks to her.  Yes, all of us are One.  We may also have counterparts in the world, soulmates who speak to us in ways that resonate through and through.

We write a contract before we enter this world, and we may write rejection and pain into it.  Why?  We won’t know the “why” of suffering while in this world.  These ultimate questions cannot have an Answer here that we would accept.  But it is in the overcoming of anger and hostility, even when we are in pain, that strengthens us in ways we cannot comprehend.  It is in the overcoming that we grow into our own.

When we overcome our anger, we are primed for the love that has actually enfolded us without our knowing, but only with our acquiescence. 

This love will save us now.  This love will save us each and every day.

Fill Our Heart with Love

“The screams of the world, those echoes of the past that you still hear, are telling you in thousands of different ways:  Brother, do not deny me love.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 14:II)

We do hear screams in the world right now, echoes of a past that was filled with anguish.  Perhaps we know that today is filled with anguish also. 

But there is an Answer, and it is the age-old response to worry and fretting—just fill our heart with love, and spread that love out on the world that we see.

If we love enough, there will be absolutely no space for fear and judgment.  According to A Course of Love, fear and judgment are the two impediments to Christ-consciousness.

We need to move into the next dimension of Christ-consciousness.  This will happen when we are so filled with love that anxieties have taken a back seat.

Yes, as hackneyed as it sounds, Love really IS the overwhelming Answer.  The screams of the world recede into nothingness when we are able to sense God’s Love for us.

He is ready and willing.  Are we?

Sign of True Hope

“Observe how the world seems submerged in panic.  The state of terror to which many are subjected is a visible manifestation of the arrival of the time of light and truth, and that everything is being healed.  It is a sign of true hope.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 14:I)

This quotation exemplifies a paradox.  How can we see hope, when all around us things seem to be falling down?  Our world seems in chaos.  We seem in chaos.

But this quotation says that actually this is a “sign of true hope.”  And that “everything is being healed.”  If we listen to these words, perhaps we will have peace.  The chaos won’t seem unsolvable any longer.  It will not be unsolvable any longer.

We can let our panic and our terror go.  If it is darkest just before the dawn, maybe the dawn is even now on the horizon.  We want to see the arrival of the time of light and truth, and if we stand steadfast in our faith, this quotation is saying to us that light and truth will be what we will experience.  Not a long way off, but very soon.  Delay is only of the ego, and the ego is gone from many of us now.  A Course of Love says this.

Let us take this passage to heart, sure of our God, sure of His promises.  It truly is darkest just before the dawn.

I think I can see a ribbon of light on the horizon even now.

Always & Only Love

“This message invites you to remember that your function is to bring love to the world.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 14:I)

Life would be so much simpler if we just realized most of the time that we are meant to bring love to the world.  A single, all-embracing purpose such as this also gives meaning to our lives.

Unfortunately, we have heard “love” mentioned so often in this context that we zone out because it seems like the same concept, over and over.  If we had taken this concept to heart, this might be understandable.  But the problem is that we have not taken this concept to heart.  We “play” at love, often special love, an inferior rendering to love that has plenty of drama, including low points.  Our holy love, one to another, will save us now.  It is the only thing that will save us.

I have found that if I focus on just giving my husband love in this time of isolation, I am walking a green earth.  We are happy in the midst of quarantine.  May we take this knowledge with us, out into the world, when the quarantine is over.

A Course in Miracles says variously that forgiveness and happiness are functions for us.  But Choose Only Love makes it simpler for us.  If we focus on love, the forgiveness and happiness will happen all of its own accord.

What more could we ask?

Sense the Love of Our Hearts

“Let yourself be carried away by love and you will feel safe.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 13:IV)

Who among us does not want safety?  Who among us does not want to feel safe?

These are the same questions.  And the Answer is the one that we have heard all of our lives:  just to love.  Let us be “carried away” by love.

The Way of Mastery, another received work, this one from Jesus, says that if we were told that scientists had discovered something new in the universe, never before known, and if it were called some exotic name, we would be more likely to listen than when we say that that this something new is love.  It is new because love has never been tried on a large scale.  We have loved in our families, perhaps, though this love has often been conditional and therefore imperfect.  We have loved our significant others, though often we have special relationships that do not become holy, and therefore fail us in the long run.  We have loved our friends, but often this too is fickle.  Whatever are we to do?

For love to work for us, we must sense love in our hearts.  This is the only way.  When we are enthralled by love in our hearts, we will know, finally, that we are safe in this earth.  Even in this earth that is fraught with dangers.

Safety is not always a physical thing.  But it can always be a “feeling” thing. 

Our hearts know the Answer, the Answer to one of our greatest needs—to know that we are safe in the arms of God.

Be the Love that We Truly Are

“Letting your whole life be lived by the Christ who live in you, will release you from the fear of loss forever.  You will realize that the only thing you need is to be the love that you truly are.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 12:II)

We fear loss of love from other people, but it is the love in our hearts that will save.  If we live the Christ-Self in us, we will be filled with the presence of love all the time.  We will know what it is to live in love.  We will be at peace, tranquil, relaxed, sure of God’s blessing on us.  When we live this love, we are “being” love.  This insulates us from rejection by others, something that we often experience as a loss of love.

I have long felt that rejection from other people is my Achilles’ heel.  I want so much to be accepted as a part of the group.  This builds confidence in me, gives me comfort.

But the only comfort actually comes from the love of God in us, and the Christ-Self is the inner manifestation of Him.  The Christ-Self still needs to learn things, of course, for it is finite.  But when we attune our minds and hearts to God through our inner essence, He responds.  We know no more rejection.  We live a serene existence.

So:  If we feel alone today, know that the love in us is the panacea.  When we love another, it is actually the love in ourselves that we are feeling.  It is because there is something in us that can love fully, in holy love.  This is the secret of holy relationships, the transformation that we all undergo with our brothers and sisters from special love to holy.

We must be this love.  If we invite God to act in our innermost being, we will in fact be this love.

Let’s do so today.

Perfect Harmony with God

“You are not where you are by chance. . . .You are in this time because you chose to be in it, in perfect harmony with the will of God.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 13:III)

There are no accidents in God’s universes.  We are not victims of fate.  We choose, on some level, our soul level, where we will be and what we will experience.  In consultation with God, we make these decisions.  We will make a contribution, for good or ill, that we could make at no other time in the history of humankind.  God agreed to our coming now, for nothing occurs that He does not allow, on some level of our experience.

No accidents.  No chance.  But we can improve our circumstances whenever we like.  We do not have to lie down in the dust and assume that because things might be bad, we are fated to go through them.  We can always make a bad situation better by a better attitude.  If depression is a problem for us, we can take tiny steps toward emerging from the chaos in which we find ourselves.  And we need not fool ourselves:  We know how to do this.

We are in perfect harmony with the will of God by choosing to be in the here and now.  We could not make such a decision on our own.  It took divine guidance and divine help. 

Let us make the best of our situations.  Our environment will ease when our minds are at peace and rest

Gather the Harvest that Is Ours

“Everything you attract in your life is perfect because, in agreement with God, it is what you have created as your experience on Earth. . . .[W]e are remembering today:  to stop spreading guilt and to start gathering the harvest that is already yours. . . .”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 8:I)

We are living a perfect life.  Oh, I know it might not seem like that, but it is the truth—for everything that happens to us has been ordained by God for our lifting up into Christ-consciousness and salvific living.  Even if we are in pain, still this is true.  Even if we are suffering, still this is true.  If we wrap our minds and hearts around this idea, we will know a peace that has eluded us until now.  We will know that all is right in our little world.

A Course in Miracles says that it is not necessary to learn through pain, that learning through rewards is more lasting.  If we can believe this, we can alter the pain and suffering that we sometimes bring to ourselves.  Often our guilt is what has attracted the negativity, and guilt is a false witness to the love of God.  If we gather our harvest, we will know that there is no good reason for us to punish ourselves anymore.  We are blessed children, creations, of God, and it is time that we started believing that and living it accordingly.

Accept this truth of being into our being today.  Live with God in our minds and hearts, and He will do all the rest.  God needs only our cooperation to bring everything good into our lives.

Living in Love—and in Eternity

“In your souls is a deep yearning to live in eternity.  To fully satisfy that desire, you must live in love.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 12:II)

We dip below time when we are experiencing real love.  We see a glimpse of living in eternity, for the things of love are the things of eternity.  In actual fact, only love is true reality in our experience.  Otherwise, we are living an illusion.  If we place our faith in illusion, it will always let us down.  Love that is true and good never lets us down.  Even a presumed end to a relationship is not the real end.  A Course in Miracles tells us that all who meet will someday meet again, that it is the result of love never losing sight of itself.  All relationships are meant to become holy.

If we live in love, we are safe from all that might trouble us.  Sure, we still experience painful happenings, but they don’t have the staying power that they once did.  We rise above pain and suffering when we live in love.  Love is the great panacea for all manner of ill.

We need to recognize that our yearning for permanence in eternity is actually a desire, a longing, for love.  And when we experience love, even fleetingly, we will never be satisfied with living any other way.

Love is God.  Love makes itself known in an eternity that can be experienced even on this earth. 

Ask to experience this eternity, in Love, today.

Cling to Love, Harmony, Peace in This World

“Clinging to the transient as if it were eternal is painful. . . .If you cling to what sooner or later will no longer be. . .you will fear its loss.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 12:II)

Love is eternal, and even though we know that the lives of those we love do end on earth, they continue in another plane.  So here we are not talking about love, for love is not transient.

There are many things that are, though, and we adore them to our peril.  This truth helps us to see why we have such fears, fears that keep us from enjoying life to the full.  We fear the loss of what we have valued, when what we have valued is not going to last.  The material blessings of our lives fall into this category, a place where loss might certainly happen.

We have to put our faith in what does last, and these are all intangibles.  The intangibles are love (as we have said), harmony, peace, joy, contentment, happiness.  It is true that some of these things wane from time to time, but we are much better off putting our trust in their continuance, lest we create a self-fulfilling prophecy of loss.

Avoid the pain of clinging to the transient.  Ask to put our faith in the intangible, and our lives will blossom evermore into something beautiful.