Posted by Roberta Grimes • July 03, 2021 • 30 Comments
Book News, Human Nature, The Teachings of Jesus
Some may come and some may go. He will surely pass.
When the one that left us here returns for us at last.
We are but a moment’s sunlight, fading in the grass.
Come on people now, smile on your brother.
Everybody get together, try to love one another right now.
-Chet Powers (1937-1994), From “Get Together” (1967)
Strictly following the Gospel teachings of Jesus raises our personal consciousness vibrations away from fear and toward more perfect love, with the goal of achieving the spiritual level of the kingdom of God while we are still on earth. Yet as simple as those teachings are, and never mind the fact that Jesus insists that following His teachings is essential, the religion that bears the Lord’s name has for almost two thousand years ignored what He said and considered Him to be nothing more than a human sacrifice. And this is true, even though He makes such an emphatic point of the fact that if we don’t do what He tells us to do, we have no right to call ourselves His followers. He says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (JN 14:15). “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him” (JN 14:21). And even, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My word. And the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me!” (JN 14:23-24).
So we have been trying here, insofar as we can, to understand the peculiar love that Jesus taught. As we said last week, in Chapter Fifteen of A Course in Miracles Jesus leads us to renounce all “special” relationships so we can discover the only genuine love at the center of the heart of God. This week, in Chapter
24 of the Course He teaches us to forgive universally because our brother is forever holy. No matter how flawed someone might seem when we look at him through the lens of our special hatreds, he is God’s stainless and eternally perfect Son. When you are seeing your brother truly, then your love for everyone will be pure and from the heart. Your forgiveness of everyone, no matter what they do, will be automatic and joyous. This chapter is easier to shorten than was the crucial chapter that we read last week; and the under-linings are my own.
ACIM Text Chapter 24: The Goal of Specialness
VI. Salvation from Fear
1. Before your brother’s holiness the world is still, and peace descends on it in gentleness and blessing so complete that no trace of conflict still remains to haunt you in the darkness of the night. ²He is your savior from the dreams of fear ….
3. Nothing is lost to you in all the universe. ²Nothing that God created has He failed to lay before you lovingly, as yours forever. ³And no Thought within His Mind is absent from your own. ⁴It is His Will you share His Love for you, and look upon yourself as lovingly as He conceived of you before the world began, and as He knows you still. ⁵God changes not His Mind about His Son with passing circumstance which has no meaning in eternity where He abides, and you with Him. ⁶Your brother is as He created him. ⁷And it is this that saves you from a world that He created not.
4. Forget not that the healing of God’s Son is all the world is for. ²That is the only purpose the Holy Spirit sees in it, and thus the only one it has. ³Until you see the healing of the Son as all you wish to be accomplished by the world, by time and all appearances, you will not know the Father nor yourself. ⁴For you will use the world for what is not its purpose, and will not escape its laws of violence and death. ⁵Yet it is given you to be beyond its laws in all respects, in every way and every circumstance….
5. Look on your brother, and behold in him the whole reversal of the laws that seem to rule this world. ²See in his freedom yours, for such it is. ³Let not his specialness obscure the truth in him, for not one law of death you bind him to will you escape. ⁴And not one sin you see in him but keeps you both in hell. ⁵Yet will his perfect sinlessness release you both, for holiness is quite impartial, with one judgment made for all it looks upon. ⁶And that is made, not of itself, but through the Voice that speaks for God in everything that lives and shares His Being….
7. Choose, then, his body or his holiness as what you want to see, and which you choose is yours to look upon. ²Yet will you choose in countless situations, and through time that seems to have no end, until the truth be your decision. ³For eternity is not regained by still one more denial of Christ in him. ⁴And where is your salvation, if he is but a body? ⁵Where is your peace but in his holiness? ⁶….
8.Your brother’s holiness is sacrament and benediction unto you. ²His errors cannot withhold God’s blessing from himself, nor you who see him truly. ³His mistakes can cause delay, which it is given you to take from him, that both may end a journey that has never begun, and needs no end. ⁴What never was is not a part of you. ⁵Yet you will think it is, until you realize that it is not a part of him who stands beside you. ⁶He is the mirror of yourself, wherein you see the judgment you have laid on both of you. ⁷The Christ in you beholds his holiness. ⁸Your specialness looks on his body and beholds him not….
11. Specialness is the function that you gave yourself. ²It stands for you alone, as self-created, self-maintained, in need of nothing, and unjoined with anything beyond the body. ³In its eyes you are a separate universe, with all the power to hold itself complete within itself, with every entry shut against intrusion, and every window barred against the light. ⁴Always attacked and always furious, with anger always fully justified, you have pursued this goal with vigilance you never thought to yield, and effort that you never thought to cease. ⁵And all this grim determination was for this; you wanted specialness to be the truth….
13. You who believe it easier to see your brother’s body than his holiness, be sure you understand what made this judgment.²Here is the voice of specialness heard clearly, judging against the Christ and setting forth for you the purpose that you can attain, and what you cannot do. ³Forget not that this judgment must apply to what you do with it as your ally. ⁴For what you do through Christ it does not know. ⁵To Him this judgment makes no sense at all, for only what His Father wills is possible, and there is no alternative for Him to see. ⁶Out of His lack of conflict comes your peace. ⁷And from His purpose comes the means for effortless accomplishment and rest. (ACIM, T-24.VI.1:1–13:7)
My guide, Thomas, insisted in 2011 that I learn to use the Gospel teachings of Jesus to raise my personal consciousness vibration. Those teachings released me from lifelong fears and rages to such an amazing extent that at his insistence in 2016 we wrote The Fun of Growing Forever. The Lord’s teachings work fast and amazingly well! But I was troubled by the fact that we had based so much of that book on our experiment with one flawed individual. So then Thomas set out to conduct for me a more dramatic experiment of his own.
With his encouragement, six years ago I began a business venture with someone I came to love and trust as a very dear friend. I had considerable savings intended for the advancement of this work of enlightening the world, and as I was investing in a project with her that looked solid, I kept checking with Thomas. He always said, “It will be fine.” But then in early May my friend was indicted for having defrauded a great many people. My experience through this has been the interesting part. At the moment I learned of her arrest, Thomas swooped in and enveloped me in a cocoon of warm light. It was an astonishing feeling! Still, I ranted at him. How could he have let this happen? Immediately and fiercely he said:
He told me I would be telling this story often. In the heat of my first indignation toward him I said, “Never!” But immediately I realized I had already forgiven the greatest wrong ever done to me. And now I am already telling the story, barely two months after my friend’s arrest. This woman who stole from me an unimaginable sum of money is my holy brother, the beloved Son of God, and I will not see her as less because if I do that I am judging against the Christ. Now I understand what He meant when He said, “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two” (MT 5:39-41). And, “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (LK 6:35-36). Jesus wasn’t telling us to grit our teeth and submit to the bad behavior of others. No, he was telling us that as we grow spiritually, we will start to think and behave this way as a natural fruit of our vastly 
expanded spiritual horizon. This at last is the love that Jesus taught! Without His teaching, we would let the occasional bad behavior of others destroy our peace and create an ever wider chasm between us and God. If I hadn’t used His teachings to raise my personal consciousness vibration, I would have let this wound inflicted on me by someone I had loved and trusted trouble my peace forevermore! Instead, I knew from the moment it happened that in fact I had suffered no actual wound. And all I ever have felt since that day is the triumphant joy of my more perfect understanding.
I sought my soul,
But my soul I could not see.
I sought my God,
But my God eluded me.
I sought my brother,
And I found all three.
–William Blake (1757-1827)
Dearest Roberta,
I’m so sorry this devastating experience happened to you, but oh, the valuable lesson it provided!
Recently while walking outside at 9pm, so immersed in deep thought that I completely missed stepping up over the curb, I biffed it big time! That’s never good for a 60 year old woman. I instinctively reached out to stop my fall and came within an inch of smashing my nose on the sidewalk as every internal organ was shockingly jolted! I jumped up and demanded my Guides explain the reason for that little adventure.
“You need to be more consciously aware and remain in the NOW, which is all you have. You are not seriously injured; no bones are broken. Do you understand ‘NOW’?” I had bruises, sore muscles, knee and palm scrapes, and most importantly, a new understanding of a profound truth. Painful lesson!
As always, thank you Roberta, for your beautiful teachings. oxox
Oh my dear Kitty, I’m sorry you took such a fall! I think that your experience and mine give us a useful reminder about out guides: they are not here to make our lives easier. Rather, they are something like the devoted parents of wayward children. Their role is to coach and prod us to hit our marks in our lifeplans, and to help us get the most in terms of spiritual lessons out of this lifetime.
My Thomas seems in addition to still not especially like the fact that he is guiding someone he knows as a close male friend, but she is a woman at the moment so his need to be strict with his friend clashes with his chivalrous urges, perhaps? Who knows? But it does seem to be an issue for him.
Our mortal body may suffer horrible insults of the flesh and its ego, but our soul belongs only to God and no one can harm it. We live with our mortal needs and wishes blinding the reality of our eternal, imperishable soul.
Dear Jack, I think our separation from the body – the fact that it is no more “you” than your old Toyota is “you” – is a central message of A Course in Miracles. “I am not a body. I am free, for I am as God created me.” When you really get that, it does transform your attitude about a whole lot of things!
Hi Roberta, hi everybody! This is a complex passage so I decided to take it in at first by scanning just the underlined passages. I suggest starting there. These words highlighted by Roberta are a powerful summation of the divine rationale for forgiveness.
PS-I have always loved William Blake’s work, and in particular that poem you have chosen to close your frame.
Dear Mike, the Course is full of this attitude, this complete certainty that our whole problem is that the universe is a pure illusion, the separation between people is an illusion, and the things that we get angry with people about are our problem to get over but we have to do it or we stay stuck in the illusion. Students in study groups say things like “There is only one of us here. And that one is you.” They say, “The miracle is forgiveness.” “Miracles have no size.” And on and on. I did the Course in a study group 15 years ago because Thomas insisted – and that was long before I met him in the flesh, so he had to literally materialize a copy of the book in front of me so I would do it.
I have come to suspect now that learning the prevenient forgiveness that he taught me is the literal key to quicker spiritual growth! Once you are forgiving at that level, the love that Jesus taught takes over your life – it becomes your natural state.
Dear Roberta,
Thank you for sharing a poignant vulnerable honest experience with us. And to read and absorb what Thomas explained to you! Wow! They certainly see things from a higher perspective. Even more captivating is your sharing of some resistance to what he was telling you; how many of us feel that in our daily lives? Sigh, I know I do. And I’ll argue and fuss with them over perspective, until I just shut my mouth and quiet my mind, and sheepishly acquiesce to their much greater wisdom, and find a deeper joy in the understanding of it.
I find that seeing the holy in my fellow Christ family is truly a focus right now, and daily I try to observe my typical reactions and feelings.
Ironically, this morning I woke from a dream of meeting a long ago business colleague who I parted ways with after a tumultuous time at work. In the dream, she greeted me with peace and told me I did nothing wrong, and I knew she meant it. I read your post and smiled, for in contemplating my dream, I heard an inner message, “You know, it’s time to let all of that old stuff go.” In your sharing of personal “betrayal” from your friend, and the forgiveness-grace that came with it, I felt a deep gratitude for your experience as I know what that’s like, having deeply and sincerely prayed and cried to Jesus to help me forgive someone who abused me for many years, finding myself demanding that this soul be healed and joyfully received into the Light (they were approaching crossing over). I prayed and cried and demanded till I was spent, in complete surrender. I awoke the next day to golden sunlight in my room and a deafening quiet that I knew something was different at a soul level, and as I sat quietly, understanding dawned: there was forgiveness and peace over the person. It was almost surreal, an experience I fail to find perfect words for. I was privileged to be there with them at their passing, witnessing them see the real home/other side and see and hear the child like wonder on their face and in their exclamations of how beautiful it is, tending to them, and most awe inspiring-to witness with my own eyes, a beautiful golden orb leave the room after their passing. I often wondered why I was so blessed with this experience until recently, upon reading Brian Longhurst’s work, saw that when we ask with true deep surrender and sincerity, it seems all the forces of Light rush to us, and there is a grace beyond measure.
I am so grateful for yours and Brian’s and so many others’ courage and passion to put words and life lessons to what our beloved Messiah earnestly urged us to think about, consider, act upon.
And we keep moving forward in hope and faith!
Fran
Oh my dear Fran, this is absolutely beautiful! It should be a blog post in itself – thank you so much for sharing it here. You ought to be teaching at this level of wisdom!
One thing that surprised me when I first began to put together all that I was learning about arriving back home after dying on earth was that so often people would encounter someone – this often happened at the big welcome-back party we all have – and they would realize this longtime eternal friend had actually been their worst enemy in the earth-lifetime just ended. It took me a while to come to see that people plan these awful experiences with people who are their eternal friends! And I wonder about this now. I felt an instant connection with the woman who wronged me, and that peculiar connected feeling remains. I’ll find out eventually, but I suspect now that it wasn’t a last-minute planned detour but it may have been a part of my plan all along.
2 things Roberta, first, you have included that Jesse Colin Young song in your prelude a couple of times. I always loved that 60’s song but never really paid much attention to the lyrics. But now after reading them in your post, I see how they match up with what you’re saying perfectly! 2nd: With me, when the author gives me personal examples when presenting something it always hits home the best for me. I don’t forget when someone describes a personal experience like you did, with the embezzlement and that you still forgave this person following Jesus’s teachings. Thank’s you sharing that with us.
Dear David, as you know, I am glad to share everything in my life that might be useful to you. And glad to add that anyone can learn to forgive at this level. It isn’t even hard to learn! And the degree to which being able to forgive this way enriches your life is extraordinary. Forgiveness really is the gift that you give yourself!
I think anyone who sincerely forgives anyone who has come close to ruining their life deserves all the credit in the world, as this is definitely not an easy thing to do. If someone can do this, they can usually handle whatever hardships come their way, so in a sense, they are doing themselves a favor by their ability to forgive
My dear Lola, prevenient forgiveness turns out actually to work! A Course in Miracles tells us that the miracle – forgiveness – has no difference based on size, and that turns out to be true: once you learn to forgive before the wrong even happens, you really can forgive anything! And the plain fact is that – as the Course tells us – when you can forgive completely, the person you really are freeing most of all is yourself.
Dearest Roberta,
In the past, you have written about prevenient forgiveness, which I had read and tried to practice, but I had never imagined that you would be put to the test quite so dramatically. I do imagine that when you were planning your present life someone, Thomas? suggested murder of a family member and you pushing back forcefully.
What an example for all of us.
Hello, David Button.
One thing I don’t like is this was not just part of the plan for her life. Thomas was actively giving her false information over a period of five years to help put her in this situation, and then took no responsibility when it blew up in Roberta Grimes face. This was a betrayal of trust.
I also read the affidavit by the FBI on this case, a betrayal of trust perfectly describes the situation, to the point where she was defending this person to others based on false information.
Dear Jason, I have voluntarily made my life an open book to all of you, and I don’t mind that you have done your own investigation, but you don’t know even half of what you would need to know in order to make the claim that you have made here. And it is very important to the spiritual lessons involved for all of us that you not draw such an inaccurate inference!
To be perfectly clear, Thomas NEVER gave me false information. EVER. He simply answered my questions, which always amounted to the same question: “Is this going to be okay?” And his answer to that was always, “It will be fine.” And it IS fine. It never has not been fine. He has never told me anything but the absolute truth!
I am not yet ready to share more of the story. It hasn’t even entirely played out. But as it does, I can see that Thomas seems to have been working to prevent any actual harm to me, to my family, to my work, and even to the perpetrator. His care in this taken to prevent any real harm seems almost surgical, the more I see of it. He has since then told me that there are spiritual lessons in these events for a great many people, and I am seeing those lessons begin to play out as well.
And what happened to me has had these two early, wonderful effects:
1) It has made me rethink the next stage of this work in ways that are more humble, more creative, and less money-dependent. I think the project will be better as a result. But even more importantly,
2) He has just given us all dramatic and incontrovertible proof that the teachings of Jesus truly do work beautifully to raise our personal consciousness vibrations! My God, think of it!! I never have had even a moment of anger against this woman whose every word ever spoken to me has been proven to have been a lie! I forgave her at once and completely and I feel genuine compassion for her. The former Roberta Grimes who in 2011 first used the teachings of Jesus as they clearly are intended to be used would have been spiritually destroyed by this experience. But instead I feel something like the way I think it must have felt to have seen the crucified and reanimated body of Jesus unexpectedly walk through the door. When Doubting Thomas put his hand into the Lord’s side and believed, he exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” And so have I been exclaiming, repeatedly. I now believe in and will be proclaiming the glorious truth of The Fun of Growing Forever! We will be putting out new editions of all my books, and that one will be last because I will be including a discussion of this experience. I needed more proof. Now I have that proof!
Jesus told His disciples not to be so smug about being sons of Abraham. He said something like, “From these stones God can raise up sons of Abraham!” And in the days soon after her arrest, Thomas was telling me that from these stones God can raise up whatever money is needed. After this experience, I don’t doubt that at all!
Dear David, this is amazing, don’t you think? Prevenient forgiveness absolutely does work!! But I think this likely wasn’t a part of my original life-plan. The fact that we and everyone around us all have free will means that we have to keep tinkering with our life-plans, and this may have been one of those tinkerings. But yes, around the conference table where this was worked out, I was almost certainly one member of the “we” to which he was referring as having decided on this instead of something more awful.
Dearest Roberta,
This is simply a superlative blog! I intend to read ‘Loving’ Part One and Part Two several times. In fact I’ll read them together because they are part of a single, magnificent conversion of Our Lord with each of us personally.
As to the serious personal betrayal that you share with us my dear, I have the feeling that most of us here send you a big hug and wish you love.
Gladly, you felt being cocooned in love at the time of learning about the betrayal by a longstanding friend, and have actually been deeply enriched as a result of your response to the experience. Now here you are Roberta, sharing your experience with your blog family in order to help us. Truly as Thomas said all is fine; you have managed to turn lead into gold. 😉
And I am ‘nudged’ to realize that the drastic situations that have occurred in my life have been agreed to by myself, in conjunction with my ‘home team,’ in my planning before being born. I cant remember my plan details in waking life, but I’m assured by my Guide in Spirit that by own agreement was freely given. Terrible things sometimes happen for our learning. I guess ending separation from God and approaching Oneness is just so very, very important.🙏🏼❣️🌅
Dear beautiful Efrem, thank you for your hug! As you have shared your story here, too, over many months it has been beautiful to see you stretching and growing and willingly sharing what you were going through in sometimes painful ways. I have often felt for you as well! But you have handled it so wonderfully, and you are clearly so much happier and living now on a much more profound level!
It saddens me to report that I have heard from a few people whose egos were made vastly uncomfortable by my openness. The ego fights this information with its entire being! It needs the illusion of separation to survive, which is why doing ACIM on a deep level generally brings on an ego crisis and the need to achieve “extinction of the ego” in order to begin to achieve real growth. Now I’m thinking about how we might help them, too.
Dearest Roberta,
This post is so relevant for me right now in my life. I was slighted last week again in my job, and it really tears at my self-worth and self-confidence. But through your blog, I am able to let go and forgive my company and those who make these decisions. On top of that we are rebuilding from a house fire, nothing too serious but it totally upends everything in your life, especially when you work from home. The fire has taught me important lessons on many fronts. First, after being separated from everything we own for a 6 weeks, I really do not miss any of it. Secondly, after many pushes and pulls from my current situation, I really do think I need to make a change in my career and living location. I have not made any rash decision yet, but the only thing keeping me from doing so is fear. Fear of being poor going into retirement, Fear of change, Fear I have no value for a new employer. I know not to make any premature decisions in the aftermath of my current crisis. But, thank you Roberta for sharing, and God bless you.
Timothy, I feel for you and what you are going through right now. It is awful how key things can be problematic at the same time in life. I’ve always found it difficult when stressors accumulate. I often think: Why can’t the tough things at least happen one at a time?!
My friend, I reckon that the answer may be the same as it was for me; this is a period of life change, where you move into a new phase that will be better and to your lasting benefit. 🌄
May change see you freer and happier!
In terms of value, you are perfectly loved and precious to God – forever.
Timothy, I wish you every triumph and I know God will help you and bless you. 🙏🏼🕊🌅
Efrem,
Thank you so much for your kind words. It’s easy to lose hope sometimes, but sometimes not knowing what will come is better than trying to micromanage each detail, and still being disappointed.
Oh my dear wonderful Tim, thank you for sharing your story so openly! I’m sure that everyone who reads it really feels for you, and many are identifying with you because so many have had similar crises of personal worth in their own lives.
My day job is as an attorney advising the owners of closely-held businesses, and I am generally called in when things go wrong so I have many times been at the place where you are with a business owner going through a crisis and expressing similar anxieties. I have come to call this sort of crisis “the gift of divine desperation.” When something – a business, a career – has been stable for a long time, it can take a lot of upset in it to convince us that it’s time to make some big changes! In my experience, though, the changes that we eventually make are very much for the better. I so much wish that for you!
Thank you Roberta – have a great day !
Wow Roberta! I felt so bad for you in what you went through, but at the same time in awe of the way you handled it. That seems like some sort of graduation from one grade in school to another. I’m certainly not at the point where I could be so graceful in the face of such betrayal. It reminds me of Judas betraying Jesus. Maybe I’m wrong, but didn’t Judas have a lot to do with the finances of the group? Whatever the case, Christianity may not have survived to reach us today without the ensuing events. I pray that there will similarly be some unforseen positive outcome for you and your work from this apparent disaster. It sounds like Thomas may see it that way.
That quote from ACIM on forgiveness is pretty profound. I’ll need to read it several times and see how much I can absorb. Forgiveness is certainly a central spiritual principle,
and one of the greatest tests we face. I thought I’d write you a little consolation poem, even though you have already answered it’s challenge with a resounding yes, but just the same I can’t really bring myself to call this a congratulations poem. I cobbled it together with a few things from my team:
Central Principle
With testing time at hand,
Will you see,
Terrible things appropriately?
Can you remember unity,
Be prepared to see the Divinity,
Of the man, who does not undestand?
Lots of love and wishes for the highest outcome from this situation.
My dear lovely Scott, thank you for your poem! It is clear that seeing the divinity in each individual – and even the deeply toxic ones – is the only way that any of us really can handle any situation well. Forgiveness of others really is the greatest gift that we can give to ourselves! Bitterness, anger, hatred, fear, wishing harm on evildoers, and all of that cesspool of negativity into which being wronged can so easily plunge us turns out to be the real risk to us in all of these situations. And the risk is huge! We can allow what is a manageable and recoverable problem to destroy our lives! Or we can forgive, remain whole, and in a surprising number of such situations we can actually create an even better outcome than what would have been possible without the harm. It does seem to be a pretty easy choice 🙂
This, I feel, is the fundamental lesson of forgiveness. It all comes from a Divine Source and it is all Divine Growth.
I think you’re right Mike. It all boils down to our essential unity, as hard as it can be for the ego-mind to wrap it’s head around. I’m still working on it. In the deep oral Jewish tradition that Jesus would have known of, when one reaches the point beyond faith, or better put trust, of the mind, and trust of the heart, and has reached the trust of every cell of the body, one has reached the level of miracles. The little known story, celebrated by some on the 7th day of passover, of Nachshon ben Aminadav parting the Red Sea by simple walking in until his hesd was under water because his faith was at that level while Moses and everybody else were dithering about what to do is a perfect example, and I encourage everyone to look it up. I wish more people knew about it, and wonder if there is any connection to how A Course In Miracles was named. It reminds me of when Jesus talked about moving the mountain. When we all, or at least most of is, can be at that level, maybe we really would be able to create heaven on earth.
Dear Scott, I think there are a number of reasons why Jesus chose to be born into Judaism, and this is one of them: while Judaism is ultimately just another flawed religion worshiping another human-made god, there is a strong strain in it of healthy spiritual ideas that the genuine Godhead on earth could build on to give us His essential teachings of what are important genuine truths. And one of these truths is the extraordinary powers of our minds when they are fueled by our own beliefs! I think that is why He claimed early in His teaching ministry that He had come only to the Jews. He thought they might be the only ones who really could understand what He was saying. It seems to have surprised and delighted Him to find that His teachings also made sense to Samaritans and to others as well!
Yes, dear Mike. Or as A Course in Miracles assures us, forgiveness is our pathway out of the illusion. And it is the only way out! The whole “miracle” that the Course teaches is forgiveness, which is quite literally the key to enlightenment. Learning to forgive every wrong is ultimately what each of us is going to have to do, whether in this lifetime or after a hundred more lifetimes. The Course tells us that it is a “mandatory course,” but when we choose to take it is up to us; so since it is mandatory, let’s all take it now and be done with the illusion right away!