The Peace of Heaven/Heaven is THE Decision
TEXT, CHAPTER 13, XI. THE PEACE OF HEAVEN
Our ACIM Study Group in Madison studied this passage last night ~
“You will not remember change and shift in Heaven. You have need of contrast only here. Contrast and differences are necessary teaching aids, for by them you learn what to avoid and what to seek. When you have learned this, you will find the answer that makes the need for any differences disappear.”
Contrasts and differences. How else can I tell peaceful from unpeaceful, silent from chatter, light from dark? All are very elementary but am I not a child here, playing with dangerous toys? Soon I will put them all away and need not the distraction of change.
I will come to peace and know nothing but peace. There will not be an opposite because in Heaven there is only peace. An opposite is only imagined and certainly not real.v
Holy Spirit shows me this each day. Each day I spend in quiet and devotion to mind healing flows along peacefully. Each day I react and become irritated to show me where forgiveness if needed.
He only wants for my success. And it is assured because it is already done. The Will of God is that I be in Heaven with Him and not in the world. I can attempt to shield myself from Him with my wildest imaginings but “they will not prevail against the peace God wills” for me.
Why keep fighting the peace?
I can have it now.
It is mine to have.
I shall reconcile with truth and know that is where Heaven lies.
What I would add to this is that we opened with Lesson 138 – Heaven is the decision I must make. After we read the lesson, we took this into our meditation period. There was some confusion at first in this idea of a decision and some were stuck on certain paragraphs, however, one member brought up the idea of reading the first sentence of each paragraph, and voila! it was much clearer. So here it is, here is the first sentence of each paragraph:
1. In this world Heaven is a choice, because here we believe there are alternatives to choose between.
2. Creation knows no opposite.
3. Choice is the obvious escape from what appears as opposites.
4. You need to be reminded that you think a thousand choices are confronting you, when there is really only one to make.
5. Choosing depends on learning.
6. In this insanely complicated world, Heaven appears to take the form of choice, rather than merely being what it is.
7. So we begin today considering the choice that time was made to help us make.
8. These mad beliefs can gain unconscious hold of great intensity, and grip the mind with terror and anxiety so strong that it will not relinquish its ideas about its own protection.
9. Heaven is chosen consciously.
10. The conscious choice of Heaven is as sure as is the ending of the fear of hell, when it is raised from its protective shield of unawareness, and is brought to light.
11. We make the choice for Heaven as we wake, and spend five minutes making sure that we have made the one decision that is sane.
12. Before we close our eyes in sleep tonight, we reaffirm the choice that we have made each hour in between.
And finally, the crux of the lesson: Heaven is the decision I must make. I make it now, and will not change my mind, because it is the only thing I want.
So clearly, Heaven, to us here, SEEMS to be a choice only because of what we learn in the idea of contrasts and differences as our Text reading says. We need to make this decision here in the world, but when we look at what the TRUTH is, we do not need to make a decision at all because there is only Truth and that is, Heaven. Now I just need to wipe away with Holy Spirit’s help, everything that is not of Heaven so I may experience it and that is what Forgiveness is for.
Love,
Rev. Deb
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