Ministers & Their Articles

CMC Active Ministers (159)

Sunday, 28 February 2021 02:17

Moving Forward with Determination

Written by

Dear Miracle Workers,

A friend was in pain. She’d been through cancer and then hip surgery and now painful, red, swollen and itching hives covered her. As an A Course In Miracles student, she wondered, "What darkness am I harboring that I keep manifesting all of this pain?" Her question isn’t unique. Somehow we’ve come to believe that an “unhealed” body is the sign of an unhealed mind. The truth is something else.

Bodies are "a learning device for the mind...and not lessons in themselves." (T2.VII.6:3) The idea that our painful bodily circumstances show how far we have to go in our healing journey, really makes no sense. If you are “here” – or at least think you are – you are, by definition, “unhealed.” If you are here, it is your job to be “here” AND unhealed and to work on healing. As a result, you will display “unhealed” thoughts, behavior, and bodies. If there were no reason for you to do so, you wouldn’t be here.

Rather than signifying an unhealed mind, they point instead to a mind seeking a way to speed up the curriculum. They are witness to a determination to find a unity of everlasting peace. It makes no sense to ask, what does this say about me? You are a perfect child of God, Love itself embodied. Ask instead, “What is this trying to tell me?” The message is always intensely personal.

Some months earlier my friend had declared, “I’m not going to repeat these life lessons anymore. I’m going to get it now!” meaning in this “lifetime.” Seen in that light, those angry, red welts – that’s the universe coming to help a strong and determined soul meet her goals. Instead of symbolizing how far off the path she’s fallen, they show she is moving forward with determination. You go, girl!

(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #268, Jan. 7 2021)

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A Course in Miracles tells us that even our preferred dreams are obstacles to our ultimate goal which is to awaken from all illusions. "The dreams you think you like would hold you back as much as those in which the fear is seen." (FIP.T.29.IV.2:1) It is clear then that we must recognize this so we can experience our reality which is peace, joy, and love. My talk will focus on coming to terms with this form of escapism so we can be in the mental space which allows for the miracle to occur thus reinforcing our belief and experience of our Truth or Infinite Reality. 22 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE

Wednesday, 17 February 2021 22:49

Stop Telling the Story of Your Body Life

Written by
Dear Miracle Workers,
 
Let us challenge ourselves. Let us now live our lives from a higher order of being. Let us live our lives by grace. We no longer need to believe the common story of human existence, body life – born at a precise time, on a certain day, in a specific year. The story tells how we are then, destined to die at another time, on a different day, in some future year. "[The body] takes the central place in every dream, which tells the story of how it was made by other bodies, born into the world outside the body, lives a little while and dies, to be united in the dust with other bodies dying like itself." (OrEd.Tx.27.77)
 
This body life story is an hallucination. The fact that this story seems real, it just that – a fact. That fact doesn't make it real. “What the world is, is but a fact. You cannot choose what this should be. But you can choose how you would see it. Indeed, you must choose this.” (OrEd.Mn.11.1) The fact of body life only makes body life something that can be talked about and communicated to others. That communication is also something that keeps the hallucination going. Every time we rehearse and repeat the story of our body lives to ourselves, and to others, we strengthen our belief in it. We make the body life hallucination more solid. A first step to stopping the imprisonment to physical body life is to stop telling the story.
 
Contrary to popular belief, it is always the story that comes first. The word is always where it begins. "In the beginning was the word." (Jn.1.1)
 
(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #274, Feb. 17 2021)
Thursday, 11 February 2021 22:43

Being "Active Workers"

Written by
Dear Miracle Workers,
 
One of the biggest challenges of the ACIM student is how to deal with the world that we seem to find ourselves in. (There’s a key right there. We only SEEM to find ourselves in this world. LOL) The different approaches here are as varied as are ACIM students themselves. Some believe that ACIM would not have us engage in the world at any level. They would tell you that ACIM is a mind discipline and is not involved with the world at all. Practice to them is only about forgiving their misperceptions (hopefully with the help of the Holy Spirit) and staying as “normal” as possible.
 
I get a slightly different message from ACIM. To start, there is the early passage about us all joining the Great Crusade with its slogan of “Listen, learn and DO!” The full quotation reveals more support for world engagement, "The slogan for the Crusade is ‘Listen, learn and do’: Listen to my voice, learn to undo error, and do something to correct it. The first two are not enough. The real members of my party are active workers." (OrEd.Tx.1.31) This is quite clear that listening, and even learning, are not enough for us in the atonement. True members of Jesus’ team are “active workers.”
 
I surely understand, and am in agreement, that the first step is to identify misperceptions and then offer them to the Holy Spirit for correction. However I believe then we must be open to be led by Holy Spirit as to how to effectively engage in the world and we need to be willing to do it. "In everything be led by Him and do not reconsider." (OrEd.Tx.13.81) The “everything” I interpret as meaning – ah – EVERYTHING. That includes our activities and behaviors in the world.
 
(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #273, Feb. 11 2021)

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The message of the Course is very consistent on this issue. The world we experience is an internal mental construct of our own making. There is no one actually out there but ourselves. "... you will begin to learn and understand ... when you met someone else, you had thought that he was someone else. And every holy encounter in which you enter fully will teach you this is not so." (OrEd.Tx.8.22) Actually there is no “out there” at all. It is all a dream, or better yet, an hallucination our mind is having. "What if you recognized this world is an hallucination? What if you really understood you made it up?" (OrEd.Tx.20.73) Let’s treat the question asked here as literal and not rhetorical. What would our experience of life be IF we understood that we made the world up? I believe then we would walk the world as Miracle Workers like Jesus did, and this is exactly what ACIM is calling us to do.

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This is a famous phrase used by the British television comedy sketch group Monty Python in the 1970s. It was used to introduce something that was possibly bizarre, and had no relation to the previous segment. ACIM sometimes speaks of possible “future” states that seem quite bizarre and have no relation to the current world and its science as we know it. Look at this phrase from ACIM, "[The Real World] is not lit with artificial light, and night comes not upon it. There is no day that brightens and grows dim." (OrEd.Tx.12.59) This is not talking about Heaven or Reality, but the healed world, the last step before Heaven. Yet how could this be? Perhaps this teaching from A Course of Love gives us a clue, "This is a harmony and cooperation that might one day extend to the sun and a demonstration that the sun need not rise – or perhaps need not set – and the earth would still be safely spinning in its orbit." (D:6.12) I call on everyone to let go of what seems scientific and possible, and to prepare for something completely different – something truly miraculous.

Thursday, 21 January 2021 22:04

A Peaceful Transition of True Power

Written by
Dear Miracle Workers,
 
Today, January 20th we witnessed a display we call “the peaceful transition of power.” The 45th President, Donald Trump, left the White House and Washington DC. Last night he gave a dignified farewell speech. He called us to pray for the new administration, and he extended our whole country's “best wishes” to them. Today Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President and Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first female and woman of color Vice President.
 
Many were worried, fearful, that this peaceful transition would not happen. This fear was repeated and repeated. Millions felt the effect. Yet, it did happen and it was dignified on both sides. It was also creative and beautiful. Garth Brooks sang an emotional a cappella "Amazing Grace". Lady Gaga sang a powerful "The Star Spangled Banner". What had been predicted as a private, indoor inauguration event turned out to be a fairly normal, outdoor, public event. President Biden was clear, powerful, pertinent, and inspired.
 
Hopefully those who were so worried will see this as a manifested healing, a “miracle," a demonstration of the goodness of people. As inspiring as all these events are, I am choosing to see this as merely a symbolic reminder of the true, peaceful, transition of power that we all are involved with, the transfer of the power we gave to the ego, to the true power we now see flows unlimited and eternal from the Holy Spirit. Let us open up to that transfer and accept it with open mind and heart. "You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep, and suffer pain, hear this: all power is given you in earth and Heaven. There is nothing that you cannot do." (OrEd.WkBk.191.11)
 
(originally published in Miracles Weekly #270, Jan. 21, 2021)

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Recent events in our world suggest that we must attack, because we have been attacked. We must erect barriers, fences, barbed wired and call in the armed forces in a show of overwhelming force. Of course, some of this is required and necessary, but what we cannot overlook is how the recent happenings in the dream projection reveal the diabolical work of the ego. The ego relishes the drama and the intense emotions of fear, guilt, and blame that we now can see. The Holy Spirit gently reminds us to choose Again. Any form of an attack thought is a call for love. As miracle workers we are called to bring the light and forgiveness to all calls for love. My talk we expand upon these ideas that touch on all aspects of our perceptional lives gently reminding us to go within and forgive.  26 min. SUBSCRIBE & SHARE

Thursday, 14 January 2021 22:38

Catch Me If You Can

Written by

Dear Miracle Workers,

In 2002 Catch Me If You Can, a film by Steven Spielberg and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, was released. The movie was based on a real life con artist who was expert at outsmarting law enforcement. The ego is much like our protagonist in this movie. The ego seeks to constantly play the con game with us through a multitude of deceptions. These deceptions seem so real! We experience an argument in one of our relationships. We turn on the news and our sacred democratic institutions seem to be under assault. We experience people dying due to a once in a century pandemic. The ego/con is serving up the drama of deception. How do we know?

A Course in Miracles tells us "I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace." (OrEd.Tx.5.96) We can tell when we are upset, sad, anxious or any of the myriad ways of not being at peace. Jesus challenges us to out the con of this thought system by observing our reactions to all external stimuli! This is simple but not easy for most of us. We know on some level this is a con that we are perpetuating on ourselves, "The secret of salvation is but this: that you are doing this unto yourself." (OrEd.Tx.27.86) This is an amazing insight, but it's difficult to understand when we are in the middle of the ego con. What to do then?

Well, we ask for help in exposing the ego's cons. We ask Jesus for the miracle with great desire or as much desire as possible. As we do this more and more, we begin to see the cons faster and heal them more quickly. A Course in Miracles reminds us what Jesus would have us do, "He bids you bring each terrible effect to Him that you may look together on its foolish cause and laugh with Him a while." (OrEd.Tx.27.85) Join with Jesus by laughing at the con with him and you will experience the miracle and the love of God.

(originally published in Miracles Weekly #269, Jan. 14, 2021)

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This past week we were challenged by the image of sisters, brothers, and others, storming the USA Capital building in Washington, DC. Armed force had to be used to turn back the people. Violence erupted and some people appear to have died. One woman was apparently shot and killed inside the Capital building itself. Surely we all want to be a healing influence in this situation. The Song of Prayer says, "You first forgive, then pray, and you are healed." (So.3.IV.4.1) Forgiveness is always the first step - but I see that many have formed strong, special hate relationships that they are very invested in. People will challenge their special love relationships much easier than the special hate ones. I know we all want to be part of this healing, then it is time to do the unthinkable, forgive the unforgivable, and then start trusting the world. "The teachers of God have trust in the world, because they have learned it is not governed by the laws the world made up." (OrEd.Mn.4.3)

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