“Only my condemnation injures me.”
Injury is impossible. And yet illusion makes illusion. If you can
condemn you can be injured. For you have believed that you can
injure, and the right you have established for yourself can be now
used against you, till you lay it down as valueless, unwanted and
unreal. Then does illusion cease to have effects, and all it seemed to
have will be undone. Then are you free, for freedom is your gift, and
you can now receive the gift you gave.
Condemn and you are made a prisoner. Forgive and you are
freed. Such is the law that rules perception. It is not a law that
knowledge understands, for freedom is a part of knowledge. To
condemn is thus impossible in truth. What seems to be its influence
and its effects have not occurred at all. Yet must we deal with them a
while as if they had. Illusion makes illusion. Except one. Forgiveness
is illusion that is answer to the rest.
Forgiveness sweeps all other dreams away, and though it is itself
a dream, it breeds no others. All illusions save this one must multiply
a thousand fold. But this is where illusions end. Forgiveness is the
end of dreams because it is a dream of waking. It is not itself the
truth. Yet does it point to where the truth must be, and gives
direction with the certainty of God Himself. It is a dream in which
the Son of God awakens to his Self and to his Father knowing They
are One.
Forgiveness is the only road that leads out of disaster, past all
suffering, and finally away from death. How could there be another
way, when this one is the plan of God Himself? And why should you
oppose it, quarrel with it, seek to find a thousand ways in which it
must be wrong; a thousand other possibilities?
Is it not wiser to be glad you hold the answer to your problems
in your hand? Is it not more intelligent to thank the One Who gives
salvation, and accept His gift with gratitude? And is it not a kindness
to yourself to hear His Voice and learn the simple lessons He would
teach, instead of trying to dismiss His Words, and substitute your own
in place of His?
His Words will work. His Words will save. His Words contain all hope,
all blessing and all joy that ever can be found upon this earth. His
Words are born in God, and come to you with Heaven’s love upon
them. Those who hear His Words have heard the song of Heaven, for
these are the words which all merge as one at last. And as this one
will fade away, the Word of God will come to take its place, for It will
be remembered then and loved.
This world has many seeming separate haunts where mercy has
no meaning, and attack appears as justified. Yet all are one; a place
where death is offered to God’s Son and to his Father. You may think
They have accepted, but if you will look again upon the place where
you beheld Their blood, you will perceive a miracle instead.
How foolish to believe that They could die! How foolish to
believe you can attack! How mad to think that you could be
condemned, and that the holy Son of God can die! The stillness of
your Self remains unmoved, untouched by thoughts like these, and
unaware of any condemnation which could need forgiveness.
Dreams of any kind are strange and alien to the truth. Yet what but
Truth could have a Thought Which builds a bridge to truth which
brings illusions to the other side?
Today we practice letting freedom come to make its home with
you. The truth bestows these words upon your mind, that you may
find the key to light and let the darkness end:
“Only my condemnation injures me.
Only my own forgiveness sets me free.”
Do not forget today that there can be no form of suffering that
fails to hide an unforgiving thought. Nor can there be a form of pain
forgiveness cannot heal.
Accept the one illusion which proclaims there is no
condemnation in God’s Son, and Heaven is remembered instantly;
the world forgotten, all its weird beliefs forgotten with it, as the Face
of Christ appears unveiled at last in this one dream. This is the gift
the Holy Spirit holds for you from God your Father. Let today be
celebrated both on earth and in your holy home as well. Be kind to
both, as you forgive the trespasses you thought them guilty of, and
see your innocence shining upon you from the Face of Christ.
Now is there silence all around the world. Now is there stillness
where before there was a frantic rush of thoughts that made no sense.
Now is there tranquil light across the face of earth, made quiet in a
dreamless sleep. And now the Word of God alone remains upon it.
Only That can be perceived an instant longer. Then are symbols done,
and everything you ever thought you made completely vanished from
the mind which God forever knows to be His only Son.
There is no condemnation in him. He is perfect in his holiness.
He needs no thoughts of mercy. Who could give him gifts when
everything is his? And who could dream of offering forgiveness to
the Son of Sinlessness Itself, so like to Him Whose Son he is, that to
behold the Son is to perceive no more, and only know the Father? In
this vision of the Son, so brief that not an instant stands between this
single sight and timelessness itself, you see the vision of yourself and
then you disappear forever into God.
Today we come still nearer to the end of everything that yet
would stand between this vision and our sight. And we are glad that
we have come this far, and recognize that He Who brought us here
will not forsake us now. For He would give to us the gift that God has
given us through Him today. Now is it time for your deliverance. The
time has come. The time has come today.
Britney Shawley added:
Today we practice letting freedom come to make its home with you. The truth bestows these words upon your mind, that you may find the key to light and let the darkness end:
Only my condemnation injures me.
Only my own forgiveness sets me free.
Do not forget today that there can be no form of suffering that fails to hide an unforgiving thought. Nor can there be a form of pain forgiveness cannot heal.