 Okay, welcome everyone. Welcome to Course in Miracles Workbook Lessons Live. And today we have lesson number 50. And also I'll read a little bit from chapter one in the text afterwards. This lesson just touches my heart so deeply. It is a lesson I remember when I first read it many years ago, maybe 37 years ago. I just felt such permission and allowance given by Jesus to truly trust and follow. So let's go through it today and let this lesson bring the blessing of release and of freedom to the mind that's asleep, that it may wake up. Lesson number 50. I am sustained by the love of God. Here is the answer to every problem that will confront you today and tomorrow and throughout time. In this world you believe you are sustained by everything but God. Your faith is placed in the most trivial and insane symbols, pills, money, protective clothing, influence, prestige, being liked, knowing the right people and an endless list of forms of nothingness that you endow with magical powers. All these things are your replacements for the love of God. All these things are cherished to ensure a body identification. They are songs of praise to the ego. Do not put your faith in the worthless. It will not sustain you. Only the love of God will protect you in all circumstances. It will lift you out of every trial and raise you high above all perceived dangers of this world into a climate of perfect peace and safety. They will transport you into a state of mind that nothing can threaten, nothing can disturb, and where nothing can intrude upon the eternal calm of the Son of God. Put not your faith in illusions. They will fail you. Put all your faith in the love of God within you. Eternal, changeless, and forever unfailing. This is the answer to whatever confronts you today. Through the love of God within you, you can resolve all seeming difficulties without effort and ensure confidence. Tell yourself this often today. It is a declaration of release from the belief in idols. It is your acknowledgement of the truth about yourself. For 10 minutes, twice today, morning and evening, let the idea for today sink deep into your consciousness. I am sustained by the love of God. Repeat it. Think about it. Let related thoughts come to help you recognize its truth and allow peace to flow over you like a blanket of protection and surety. Let no idol and foolish thoughts enter to disturb the holy mind of the Son of God. Such is the Kingdom of Heaven. Such is the resting place where your Father has placed you forever. That is so dear to me because it is being given a direct invitation from Jesus to join in the prayer of our heart to know God and to realize that in order to know God we have to become as little children. As the Bible said, and become as little children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven means that little children, infants are very dependent on their parents for everything. And likewise, we are to be that dependent on the Holy Spirit for everything that we experience in this world. It's about, you know, take no care for the things of this world for he care for you. He care for our mind and he will reach our mind in way that uses the symbols of this world. So while we believe we have needs, we see the miracle showing us that those needs are met, oftentimes in very unconventional ways and ways that don't necessarily meet up with our past learning. That's why sometimes they're called miracles. They're out of pattern experiences. But this lesson today is really a lesson in divine providence. I think that is to me the central lesson because until you trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit and you trust that everything without exception is provided, then there's still going to be a reliance on the past. And you can't forgive the past if you still rely on it. If you still believe you've learned enough personally or enough in this world from the world's curriculum to survive as a body, survive as a person. Why would you open your heart to complete dependence on God, to dependence on the Holy Spirit. There's a workbook lesson that says I choose the second place to gain the first and really that's what it's talking about. I have to learn to trust in God to supply everything that I think I need so that I can see in the end that I am the Christ, the living Christ. I am a creation of God and I have no needs in God. Believing in this world, there obviously are ego needs that are part of the ego's belief system and lack and yet to be unwound from that belief system in a very practical way is just to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. To follow Jesus with all your heart to just let Jesus lead the way and show you that your seeming needs are met and that in the end you're more than a character in this world. You're more than a person, you are a mind and you've been dreaming this dream and if you can dream it, you can let it go as well. And first have a happy dream, a dream of non-judgment and then let that dream go, you know, to open up to direct experience of God's love and light. So, today I thought to jump back to chapter one. Chapter one, section five is kind of a context for everything. I mean, when you do the lesson for today, lesson 50, I am sustained by the love of God. You may notice as you're practicing the lesson today that the ego will come in with its chatter and this chatter will be saying, come on, be realistic. Actually, this is the most realistic idea you could ever embrace. I am sustained by the love of God. There is nothing more realistic than this idea. As Jesus said this, today's idea will sustain you today and tomorrow and throughout time. So when he says that it gets my attention. I'm really paying attention to the idea for the day. It will handle every problem that I seem to have day and tomorrow and throughout time. Yeah, that's got my attention for sure. So, I'm just going to go through this section five in chapter one because I think it gives us a beautiful context for today's workbook lesson. In fact, it just puts everything in perspective. It kind of holds the lesson up and says, yes, this is true. And here's a context for it. Yeah, you should put all your faith in the love of God to sustain you. Chapter one, section five, wholeness and spirit. The miracle is much like the body in that both are learning aids for facilitating a state in which they become unnecessary. When spirits original state of direct communication is reached. Neither the body, nor the miracle serves any purpose. While you believe you are in a body, however, you can choose between loveless and miraculous channels of expression. You can make an empty shell, but you cannot express nothing at all. You can wait, delay, paralyze yourself or reduce your creativity almost to nothing, but you cannot abolish it. You can destroy your medium of communication, but not your potential. You did not create yourself. The basic decision of the miracle minded is not to wait on time any longer than is necessary. Time can waste as well as be wasted. The miracle worker therefore accepts the time control factor. Gladly, he recognizes that every collapse of time brings everyone closer to the ultimate release from time in which the son and the father are one. Equality does not imply equality now. When everyone recognizes that he has everything individual contributions to the sonship will no longer be necessary. Atonement has been completed. All talents will be shared by all the sons of God. God is not partial. And all his children have his total love and all his gifts are freely given to everyone alike. Except you become as little children means that unless you fully recognize your complete dependence on God. You cannot know the real power of the son in his true relationship with the father. The specialness of God's sons does not stem from exclusion, but from inclusion. All my brothers are special. If they believe they are deprived of anything, their perception becomes distorted. And this occurs the whole family of God or the sonship is impaired in its relationships. Wow, that's that's that answers just just everything. All my brothers are special. If they believe they are deprived of anything, their perception becomes distorted. So it's not that we should make a big deal about any differences that we perceive in persons, places and things. It's not that there is a specialness in this specific thing or that specific thing, even though that's the way it seems in this world to be. There is this belief in lack and deprivation that's underneath where we should be celebrating the symphony, all of the different instruments in the symphony, the percussion, the brass, the violins, the string section, every completely seemingly different instrument can all be played in the symphony and we appreciate the symphony we appreciate the harmony we appreciate the sound we appreciate the fullness. We enjoy all of it. Even occasionally if if part of the symphony is just a solo, we appreciate the solo as well, because it's not so much about the form. It's about experiencing the wholeness of mind that God created us as whole and complete and when we hear a symphony and our hearts swells with with happiness and joy and we are lifted up and transported. And we really were partaking and enjoying the whole symphony. And, and the only thing that could keep us from really appreciating the whole is this belief in deprivation and lack. So, again, I'll say it again, Jesus says, all my brothers are special. I'm not too often spoken from the course, but all my brothers are special. If they believe they are deprived of anything, their perception becomes distorted. It's only deprivation that distorts perception. Yeah, nothing else. Ultimately, every member of the family of God must return. The miracle calls him to return because it blesses and honors him, even though he may be absent in spirit. God is not marked is not a warning, but a reassurance. God would be marked if any of his creations lacked holiness. And that's from from the Bible. Some of you are familiar with that that term that phrase from the Bible God is not marked and Jesus is saying no, it's it's not a warning it's a reassurance. God would be marked if any of his creations lacked holiness. The creation is whole. And the mark of homeless is holiness. And miracles are affirmations of sonship, which is a state of completion and abundance. So, you can see the miracles are coming from a whole mind they're coming from oneness they're coming from unified mind unified awareness. And God believes in lack and deprivation, block the awareness of miracles and miracles we have a storehouse of miracles to give away. And what seems to be our lifetime we have unlimited miracles that we can give away because they're reflections of the homeless and the spirit that we are. And they all reflect the state of completion and abundance so wholeness is completion and abundance. There is no lack. There is no need. There is nothing missing. Our, our spirit is whole and complete. And of course in the era makes sin means missing the mark. If we're not aware of our wholeness and completeness and God's love then that's where the concept of sin missing the mark comes in. And that's a mistake, an error that has been corrected by the Holy Spirit we just have to open our hearts up and accept the correction from the Holy Spirit. Whatever is true is eternal and cannot change or be changed. Spirit is therefore unalterable, because it is already perfect. But the mind can elect what it chooses to serve. The only limit put on its choice is that it cannot serve to masters. If it elects to do so the mind can become the medium by which the spirit creates along the lines of its own creation. If it does not freely elect to do so, it retains its creative potential, but places itself under tyrannious tyrannous rather than authoritative control. Under the ego, the tyranny of the ego instead of the authoritative control of Christ. The mind needs to be under Christ control to be at peace and be in his creative function. And it imprisons because such are the dictates of tyrants to change your mind means to place it at the disposal of true authority with a capital A. That's that's Christ control. The miracle is a sign that the mind has chosen to be led by me in Christ's service. The abundance of Christ is the natural result of choosing to follow him. All shallow roots must be uprooted because they are not deep enough to sustain you. The illusion that shallow roots can be deepened and thus made to hold is one of the distortions, which the reversal of the golden rule rest. As these false underpinnings are given up the equilibrium equilibrium is temporarily experienced as unstable. However, nothing is less stable than an upside down orientation, nor can anything that holds it upside down be conducive to increased stability. Sometimes people say, you know, can't I chase after my goals in the world and still follow Christ and Jesus is talking here about shallow roots. All shallow roots must be uprooted because they are not deep enough to sustain you. Okay, what does that mean? Well, let's maybe flip back to our lesson, our workbook lesson, you know, Jesus, you know, can you give me some examples of shallow roots that must be uprooted? You know, isn't this a question you have for Jesus? You know, it's like, he's talking about all shallow roots, roots must be uprooted and then, oh, that's right. That's in today's lesson today. Lesson number 50. He says your faith is placed in the most trivial and insane symbols, pills, money, protective clothing, influence, prestige, being liked, knowing the quote right people, and an endless list of forms of nothingness that you endow with magical powers. So, this is where you start to really develop faith. You start to realize that all those things that Jesus just mentioned are the shallow roots, and they all must be uprooted in every situation. When you are hungry or thirsty, when you need warmth, when you need seeming helpfulness in this world, in something of the world, we'll say the resources of the world, are you going to let the Holy Spirit bring them to you freely from your prayer? Or are you going to believe that you're a person and you have to figure out how to get these shallow roots, these things, because everything that Jesus mentioned in that has faith has been placed in, trivial and insane symbols, those seem very practical from a worldly perspective. When we talk about money, that's probably of all the things he listed, money is so exchangeable for goods and services, and when you have a belief in need and lack, then money becomes extremely important, and that's why jobs, careers, you know, professions seem so, so important. These things are, the belief in the need of money runs through the fabric of all of time and space, and so certainly whether you can talk about the body needing, you know, air to breathe, but also food to eat and that nutrients to drink and so on and so forth. That all is part of perception, and what Jesus is saying is these symbols will be provided to you and for you in your purpose, in your special function that's given you by the Holy Spirit, which means how it seems to look as you forgive, how it seems to look as you are in the miracle. And the big difference is, instead of being dependent on the past and past learning to provide these things, these symbols, you start to realize, no, I don't want to put faith in the things of this world, I want everything to flow and be given to me in my experience as I go forth as a miracle worker as a teacher of God. As I go forth to shine my light, I would rather things just showed up as props for this. You start, you can see everything as props, you can see clothing as props, you can see a house, or an apartment, or a tent, or a hotel room or anything as props. You can see cars as props, you can see airplane as props, you can see words that come to you and songs that come to you as just props. They're just props. The glory is the moment, is the glee of being God dependent and joyful in the moment. That peace and that love and that joy is everything. And then whatever the props are, they're just the props. They're just the symbols that the Spirit is using to free the mind of these ego beliefs. And I can assure you, there is no lack or deprivation in the miracle. If you give yourself over to Jesus to be a miracle worker, you know, wow, what a ride, what a great adventure. That's what I love about this, this lesson and I am sustained by the love of God. I remember how my heart just led up and I remember how I was just, I just dove into it, like I want this so much to be true and then my faith grew very strong and my trust grew very strong. And the doubt thoughts were washed away, rinsed out of the mind, because as you're having that faith that you'll be guided and led and all things, all the props that you need will be just given. It will show up. The means are given. God wouldn't give you an end to go for the atonement without the means to reach it, which are miracles. And then when you read in the course, you know, the atonement is the first miracle and the last miracle and all the miracles in between. You're like, oh my gosh, this is why he calls it a course in miracles because miracles are very, very practical. You know, when you seem to have forgotten the light and you've forgotten divine love, miracles are a practical way of readying the mind through deciding to allow the miracle to come through. They clean the mind, they rinse the mind, they leave you with the glow of heaven. What else do you want? What else could you want? What else could you need? But the glow of heaven in your heart. So, wow, carry this with you as you go through the day. If you have a cell phone or whatever, then you might try putting an app on it so you can just be reminded I am sustained by the love of God. Here is the answer to every problem that will confront you today and tomorrow and throughout time. Wow. And we actually have a new app that my friend Fabi has designed. You can see it down at the bottom there. It's ACIM now. If you look on it over here, on this other side here, lower right, ACIM now. And you can just go to our courseinmiraclesnow.com website and then as you see there's a little link to a new ACIM reader. And just, yeah, it's easy to just save it on your phone. Just save it as an icon on your phone. Just put it right on the front of your phone. And then whenever you click on it and you've saved it to the home page, then of course you're in it. And it's got an oracle in there which has text from, of course, the miracles. There's a video oracle too. So if you just feel like you need some inspiration and you click on a video oracle, then it will spin and swirl and give you a YouTube video or video right there for you to watch on the spot. They're not really long ones, but they're very inspiring video clips that go into the depth of what you need in the moment. And what I love when people use these apps like this and they pray, they close their eyes and they pray and then they click on maybe the oracle or the video oracle. They receive the answer in a very practical way like me in the early years, 37 years ago, just taking the book, holding it like an oracle, closing my eyes, my eyes praying and then opening the book and receiving my nourishment, my guidance of the moment. My, my inspiration, you know, really was, was heightened by this daily practice. So we always encourage a daily practice of Jesus's teachings, whether you're using the Bible, whether you're using a course of miracles or an inspired text. There's very many inspired texts with Jesus's teachings, but, but these are particularly helpful. I think you'll find that the reward is amazing. Your state of mind reward as you get lifted up and lifted up to that, that holy realm in mind, and you recognize your own holiness and the holiness of everyone that you meet and perceive and even think of. Okay, thank you. Thank you for joining me. I love this lesson. I am sustained by the love of God. And I always remind myself and nothing else that helps wipe away all that's learning to. Okay, lots of joy.