“Truth is God’s Will. Share His Will, and you share what He knows.”   …ACIM

What is truth; what is life? I try to write my posts about my beliefs concerning these two subjects. In doing so, I often refer to The Course In Miracles, which means I quote it often to reinforce my own thoughts. Therefore, I have to accept the message contained therein as the truth. About itself, The Course says: This course will be believed entirely or not at all. For it is wholly true or wholly false and cannot be partially believed. 

I searched for many years for spiritual truth but could never find what I was looking for until I discovered The Course In Miracles. But I’m not going to say that I found the truth in The Course. What happened was, for some reason I can’t explain, after just one reading I accepted the idea That Jesus Christ was its Source.

I already had accepted the idea concerning his declaration that he is the way, the truth and the life. Or as I see it, his message and his teachings are the way that leads to the truth and the truth leads on to the understanding that there is nothing but life. Because of this I made the decision to accept The Course as being wholly true and I also decided to believe it entirely. 

What does it mean to believe something? If we believe something, it matters not what it is, it means we don’t know. For knowing goes beyond belief. If you know something you don’t believe it, you know it. Abraham, the group of nonphysical beings that extend packages of thought to Esther Hicks tells us that a belief is simply a bunch of thoughts you keep thinking until they become true for you. If I already knew what The Course teaches then I wouldn’t believe it, I would know it. And then The Course wouldn’t be of any use to me. To believe it was a decision I had to make.

“All beliefs are real to the believer.”   …ACIM

I have decided to believe in The Course and its teachings, therefore, I absolutely must see no discrepancies in it. In other words, I must be consistent in what I believe and share concerning its teachings. And I’ll admit right now that sometimes that is not an easy task. For example consider the following: “The body is outside you, and but seems to surround you, shutting you off from others and keeping you apart from them and them from you. It is not there.” But then, in another place it says: “There is nothing outside you. That is what you must ultimately learn, for it is in that realization that the Kingdom of Heaven is restored to you.”

During my early years of studying The Course I found these sorts of seeming discrepancies to be very serious conundrums for me. Seemingly contradictions like this gave me pause and caused me to think. How can it be that my body is outside me but yet nothing is outside me? I made the decision that Jesus was the Source from which The Course came and therefore, I decided that I was going to believe it completely. And I refused to believe that Jesus would contradict himself. How then, could these two phrases be reconciled, for they sure seem like contradictions?

“The truth is true. Nothing else matters, nothing else is real, and everything beside it is not there.”   …ACIM

The truth is true. I don’t think anyone can dispute that statement. As I’ve already mentioned above, I searched for many years for spiritual truth but could never find what I was looking for until I discovered The Course In Miracles. As I also said, I didn’t find the truth in The Course. What I did find in The Course was a road map, so to speak, that pointed me to the only place where truth can be found, which is within myself. There is no truth to be found outside of yourself for as The Course says, there is nothing outside you. Whatever it is, if it’s true it’s within you, if it’s false it’s outside you, for if it’s false it’s not real and it’s not there. In other words, it’s an illusion. 

It’s very difficult for humans to accept the idea that this world and everything in it, including your body, is all illusions. But The Course says, truth is without illusions and therefore within the Kingdom. Everything outside the Kingdom is illusion.

“You have been assured that the Kingdom of God is within you and can never be lost.”   …ACIM

Some phrases conjure up all types of scenarios in our minds. And none more so than the Kingdom of God. When we think of a Kingdom we think of a country or some other organization ruled by a king or at least a strong leader. But the Kingdom of God is not that. The Course tells us plainly what The Kingdom of God is: “The Holy Spirit will always guide you truly, because your joy is His. This is His Will for everyone, because He speaks for the Kingdom of God which is joy.” 

The Kingdom of God is no more – but it is not less either – than a state of mind in which Love rules. It is a state of pure joy, happiness, wellness and peace, which is what you are. It is your inheritance as a child of God. That’s why it can be found nowhere else but within you.

“You are not sick, and you cannot die. But you can confuse yourself with things that do.”   …ACIM

It’s truths like this that require a powerful faith in consistency. For it’s here that consistency must raise its awareness to a new and different level. In order for The Course to be worth any more than the paper upon which it is written it absolutely must be consistent with truth from cover to cover. If one sentence in it is erroneous than the whole of it is as worthless as that one sentence. 

I have made my decision to accept The Course as wholly true and to believe it wholly. Therefore, I have no alternative other than to believe that both sickness and death are the results of confused minds that look upon illusions and believe them to be true. I base this conclusion on my acceptance of the following information from The Course: “When God created you, He made you part of Him.”

As I contemplate upon that information I can see no avenue that leads beyond the very ludicrous idea that if I’m sick then a part of God is sick. How could it be any other way if I’m part of Him? And if I can die then a part of God can die. Again, how could it be any other way if I’m part of Him? Can you not realize just how ludicrous such an idea really is? There’s no compromise possible in this, either I’m part of God as The Course says or I’m not. And if I’m not then, again, The Course is worth less than the paper upon which it’s written.

“When you are tempted to yield to the desire for death, remember that I did not die.”   …ACIM

The Christian world has just recently celebrated Easter which is done in remembrance of Jesus’ death and resurrection. In many places in The Course Jesus gently steers us away from this practice, especially the crucifixion, or the erroneous belief that he actually died. The above quote being just one of such nudgings to change this erroneous belief. He also uses some stronger words as he admonishes the practice of remembering and revering his so-called death: “Repetition compulsions can be endless unless they are given up by an act of will. Do not make the pathetic human error of ‘clinging to the old rugged cross.’”

The writer of the hymn, The Old Rugged Cross, referred to the cross as the emblem of suffering and shame. But a cross symbolizes far more than even that description. It symbolizes one of the worst forms of fear, cruelty, suffering and death that the separated mind can imagine. The one and only purpose of life is joy. I’m sure that  clinging to such a depressing symbol will not help in discovering that purpose. 

Jesus went on to say: “The only message of the crucifixion was that we can overcome the cross. Unless you do so, you are free to crucify yourself as often as you choose. But this is not the Gospel I intended to offer you. We have another journey to undertake, and if you will read these lessons carefully, they will help to prepare you to undertake it.”

“You are as God created you, and so is every living thing you look upon, regardless of the images you see.”   …ACIM

It takes great faith to stay consistent in the truth at all times while we hold the belief that we’re in this world. The images you see in this world cannot be real if you are as God created you. That’s why Jesus urges us to not make the pathetic human error of ‘clinging to the old rugged cross.’ To do so means you’re clinging to an illusion and allowing yourself to become inconsistent with the truth. It means you’re giving in to the idea of death for that’s all the cross can symbolize. Jesus plainly refutes this idea with these words, I did not die. 

Being consistent with The Course means we must hold this truth consistently throughout. We cannot believe that our Creator created us as part of Himself and also hold the belief that we can be sick or die. For these ideas are mutually exclusive of each other. They both cannot be true. 

I’m going to close this post with a rather long quote from The Course:  “What you behold as sickness and as pain, as weakness and as suffering and loss is but temptation to perceive yourself defenseless and in hell. Yield not to this, and you will see all pain in every form wherever it occurs but disappear as mists before the sun. A miracle has come to heal God’s Son and close the door upon his dreams of weakness, opening the way to his salvation and release. Choose once again what you would have him be, remembering that every choice you make establishes your own identity as you will see it and believe it is“.

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Thank you for visiting this site. I Am truly grateful. May God richly bless you

“Your safety lies in truth and not in lies. Love is your safety. Fear does not exist. Identify with love, and you are safe. Identify with love, and you are home. Identify with love, and find your Self.” …ACIM