“By grace I live. By grace I am released.”
Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state
prevailing in the Unity of truth. It is the world’s most lofty aspiration,
for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning yet the goal
of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for
true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who
have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly
received; an altar clean and holy for the gift.
Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of
seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for
grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains
that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not
believe the world of fear is real.
Grace is not learned. The final step must go beyond all learning.
Grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for
grace in that an open mind can hear the call to waken. It is not shut
tight against God’s Voice. It has become aware that there are things it
does not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely
different from experience with which it is familiarly at home.
We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the
revelation of the Father and the Son as One has been already set. But
we have also said the mind determines when that time will be, and
has determined it. And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word
of God to hasten the experience of truth, and speed its advent into
every mind which recognizes its effects on you.
Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being He
encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say
“God is,” and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are
meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind
sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself.
It has united with its Source, and like its Source Itself, it merely is.
We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes
to every mind when total recognition that its will is God’s has been
completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into
the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It
lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness, and the
holy face of Christ. The Son of God has merely disappeared into His
Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all.
Eternity remains a constant state.
This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness,
taught and learned, brings with it the experiences which bear
witness that the time the mind itself determined to abandon all but
this is now at hand. We do not hasten it in that what you will offer
was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means. All
learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete. He
recognized all that time holds and gave it to all minds that each one
might determine, from a point where time has ended, when it is
released to revelation and eternity.
We have repeated several times before that you but make a
journey that is done. For oneness must be here. Whatever time the
mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a
constant state, forever as it always was; forever to remain as it is now.
We merely take the part assigned long since, and fully recognize as
perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation’s script in His
Creator’s Name, and in the Name of His Creator’s Son.
There is no need to further clarify what no-one in the world
can understand. When revelation of your Oneness comes, it will be
known and fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in
time can speak of things beyond, and listen to words which explain
what is to come is past already. Yet what meaning can the words
convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and go
to sleep by them?
Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The
ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does
not matter. For your part is still what all the rest depends on. As you
take the role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each
uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God.
Forgiveness is the central theme which runs throughout salvation,
holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it runs
directed, and its outcome sure.
And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow.
Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace
foreshadows Heaven yet does not replace the thought of time but for
a little while. The interval suffices. It is here that miracles are laid; to
be returned by you from holy instants you receive, through grace, in
your experience, to all who see the light that lingers on your face.
What is the Face of Christ but his who went a moment into
timelessness, and brought a clear reflection of the unity he felt an
instant back to bless the world? How could you finally attain to it
forever, while a part of you remains outside, unknowing,
unawakened, and in need of you as witness to the truth?
Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant and
accept the gifts that grace provided you. You carry them back to
yourself. And revelation stands not far behind. Its coming is ensured.
We ask for grace and for experience that comes from grace. We
welcome the release it offers everyone. We do not ask for the
unaskable. We do not look beyond what grace can give. For this we
can give in the grace that has been given us.
Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer, yet in the
world what could be more than what we ask this day of Him Who
gives the grace we ask, as it was given Him?
“By grace I live. By grace I am released.
By grace I give. By grace I will release.”
Britney Shawley added:
Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth. It is the world's most lofty aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning, yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received; an altar clean and holy for the gift.