Lesson 99: Salvation is my only function here.

Salvation is a promise, made by God, that you will find your way to Him at last. It guarantees that time will have an end, and all the thoughts that have been born in time will end as well. God’s Word is given every mind which thinks that it has separate thoughts, and will replace these thoughts of conflict with the Thought of peace.

The Holy Spirit holds the plan of salvation for you, exactly as it was received of Him within the Mind of God and in your own. Unshaken, the Holy Spirit looks on what you see; on sin and pain and death, on grief and separation, and on loss. Yet he knows none of it is true. He also knows one thing that must still be true: God is still love, and this is not His Will. Your Father loves you. All the world of pain is not His Will. Forgive yourself the thought He wanted this for you. Then let the Thought with which He has replaced all your mistakes enter the darkened places of your mind that thought the thoughts that never were His Will. It is God’s Will that your mind be at peace with His.

Lesson 100: My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation.

You are indeed essential to God’s plan. Without your joy, His joy is incomplete. Without your smile, the world cannot be saved. While you are sad, the light that God Himself appointed as the means to save the world is dim and lusterless, and no one laughs because all laughter can but echo yours. Your joy on earth calls to all minds to let their sorrows go, and to take their place beside you in God’s plan.

God’s messengers are joyous, and their joy heals sorrow and despair. They are the proof that God wills perfect happiness for all who will accept their Father’s gifts as theirs. So do not let yourself be sad. For if you do, you fail to take the part assigned to you. Sadness is the sign that you would play another part, thus do you fail to show the world how great the happiness He wills for you. So you do not share it because you do not recognize it is yours to share.

God asks you to be happy, so the world can see how much He loves His Son. He wills you to have no sorrow, no fear, no confusion and no upset – only peace. So it is your function to find happiness by welcoming it and letting it arise in you according to your Father’s Will and yours. And then you are His messenger. You bring His happiness to all you look upon, His peace to everyone who looks on you and sees His message in your happy face.

Lesson 101: God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.

This is a key idea in understanding what salvation means. Do you still believe salvation asks for suffering as penance for your “sins”? If you are carrying around the insane belief that a loving God would curse you with the cruel idea of sin, then realize now that this is not so. Allow Him to remove this heavy load you have laid upon yourself. God’s Will for you is perfect happiness because there is no sin, and suffering is therefore causeless.

Joy is just, and pain is but the sign you have misunderstood yourself. Do not fear the Will of God. But turn to it in confidence that it will set you free from all the consequences of all your mistakes. Today escape from madness. You are set on freedom’s road, and now this idea brings wings to speed you on to go still faster to the waiting goal of peace. Tell yourself as often as you remember:

"God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.

This is the truth, because there is no sin."

(W-101.7:6-7)

Lesson 102: I share God’s Will for happiness for me.

Your goal is to reach the happiness God’s Will has placed in you. You may still believe that suffering buys you something, and may still believe a little that it buys you what you want. For example, unhappiness is your “excuse” to be less loving to your brother than God is. It is your “excuse” to distance yourself. “I do not feel well, I want to be left alone.” Or “How can I open my heart to you in love, when I am so unhappy?” You prayerfully ask God to remove your misery, your depression, your despair, and your wretched tiredness – and you wait, forever if necessary, for it to miraculously disappear without asking Him what He would have you do.

Yet this belief in suffering is surely shaken now, at least enough to let you question whether or not it has any merit and whether or not you still want to martyr yourself to it. The idea now lacks the deep roots that once secured it tightly to your darkened belief system. In fact, pain of any kind (mental, emotional, physical) is purposeless, without a cause and with no power to accomplish anything. It only offers you more pain. If you chose pain in the first place, it will take the opposite choice to be free of it. Surely you are ready now to welcome the idea of freedom from pain – enough to choose a miracle in its place? Be free of it today and join the Will of God. Rise up and be happy.

Yes, choose to be happy and allow yourself to be wholly loving. Your function here is happiness, do you know that? And remember, you are not trying to make yourself happy. You are always already happy. It came in the package (creation) called “The Son of God.” Happiness is YOURS.

Lesson 103: God, being Love, is also happiness.

Happiness is an attribute of love. It cannot be apart from it. You cannot experience happiness without experiencing love. Love is everywhere. Joy is everywhere. You can deny this, and perceive a “gap” in love where you experience pain instead of joy. Yet there are no gaps, no exceptions to love. Love is EVERYWHERE ALWAYS. Look at the quote below and then decide if you would choose innocence or guilt, peace or pain, joy or depression, love or fear, truth or illusion:

“If God knows His children as wholly sinless, it is blasphemous to perceive them as guilty.

If God knows His children as wholly without pain, it is blasphemous to perceive suffering anywhere.

If God knows His children to be wholly joyous, it is blasphemous to feel depressed.

All of these illusions, and the many other forms that blasphemy* may take, are refusals to accept creation as it is.

If God created His Son perfect, that is how you must learn to see him to learn of his reality.

And as part of the Sonship, that is how you must see yourself to learn of yours.”

(T-10.V.12:1-6)

If you have chosen to be other than happy, joyous and free – do not despair. The Holy Spirit is ready to help you choose again. Place Him in charge of your change of mind and He will quickly help you to see the world differently. And Those Who have also chosen happiness will help Him to help you return to love. Simply say this:

"This holy instant would I give to You.

Be You in charge. For I would follow You,

Certain that Your direction gives me peace."

(W-361-365)

And if you need a word to help you, He will give it to you. If you need a thought, that will He also give. And if you need but stillness and a tranquil, open mind, these are the gifts you will receive of Him. He is now in charge by your request. And He will hear and answer you, because He speaks for God your Father, and His holy Son.

* Blasphemy: 1. The act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God.

                       2. Irreverence toward something considered sacred or inviolable

Lesson 104: I seek but what belongs to me in truth.

Joy and peace are not idle dreams. They are your right, because of what you are. You have placed other “gifts” upon the holy altar where God’s gifts belong. “Gifts” of conflict and guilt and pain and sickness. Dispense with those “gifts” which do not serve you in happiness, and choose God’s gifts of peace and joy instead of them. His are the gifts that are within you now, for they are yours throughout time and beyond. You do not have to wait to have them. You do not have to do anything to merit them. All you have to do is CHOOSE them, ACCEPT them as yours for them to BE yours. Joy heals. Peace heals. One truly joyful person can heal all those around them, along with all open minds in the universe. One truly peaceful person can bring calm to everyone. Choose to be that person. Choose what belongs to you. Choose peace and joy NOW. Why wait another instant?

Lesson 105: God’s peace and joy are mine.

The gifts of peace and joy increase as they are received, and again as they are shared. Heaven’s peace and joy intensify when you accept them as God’s gift to you, and so does the joy of your Creator grow when you accept His joy and peace as yours. Think for a moment of those brothers who have been denied by you the peace and joy that are their right under the equal laws of God. By denying them what is rightfully theirs, you set the law for yourself and deny yourself what is rightfully yours. Now you must return and claim them as your own by removing the block that denied them to your brother, and by choosing again what you would give and what you would receive for they are the same. Now your mind is free of all that would prevent success in receiving what rightfully belongs to both you and your brother. Always, only, give what you would receive.

If a brother seems to tempt you to deny God’s gift to him, just see it as but another chance to let yourself give and receive the gifts of peace and joy, and bless your brother thankfully and say:

"My brother, peace and joy I offer you,

That I may have God’s peace and joy as mine."

(W-105.9:6)