Simple ACIM
Original Edition
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v1.0 · Course text used under CIMS license
Workbook for Students
Contents
Opening
Introduction
Wb.In
Part I
Lessons 1 - 50
50 lessons
Part I
Review I [51 - 60]
10 lessons
Part I
Lessons 61 - 80
20 lessons
Part I
Review II [81 - 90]
10 lessons
Part I
Lessons 91 - 110
20 lessons
Part I
Review III [111 - 120]
10 lessons
Part I
Lessons 121 - 140
20 lessons
Part I
Review IV [141 - 150]
10 lessons
Part I
Lessons 151 - 170
20 lessons
151.All things are echoes of the Voice of God.
Wb.151
152.The power of decision is my own.
Wb.152
153.In my defenselessness my safety lies.
Wb.153
154.I am among the ministers of God.
Wb.154
155.I will step back and let Him lead the way.
Wb.155
156.I walk with God in perfect holiness.
Wb.156
157.Into His Presence would I enter now.
Wb.157
158.Today I learn to give as I receive.
Wb.158
159.I give the miracles I have received.
Wb.159
160.I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.
Wb.160
161.Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.
Wb.161
162.I am as God created me.
Wb.162
163.There is no death. The Son of God is free.
Wb.163
164.Now are we one with Him Who is our Source.
Wb.164
165.Let not my mind deny the Thought of God.
Wb.165
166.I am entrusted with the gifts of God.
Wb.166
167.There is one life, and that I share with God.
Wb.167
168.Your grace is given me. I claim it now.
Wb.168
169.By grace I live. By grace I am released.
Wb.169
170.There is no cruelty in God and none in me.
Wb.170
Part I
Review V [171 - 180]
10 lessons
Part I
Lessons 181 - 200
20 lessons
Part I
Review VI [201 - 220]
20 lessons
Part II
Introduction
Wb.pII.In
Part II
Lessons 221 - 230
10 lessons
Part II
Lessons 231 - 240
10 lessons
Part II
Lessons 241 - 250
10 lessons
Part II
Lessons 251 - 260
10 lessons
Part II
Lessons 261 - 270
10 lessons
Part II
Lessons 271 - 280
10 lessons
Part II
Lessons 281 - 290
10 lessons
Part II
Lessons 291 - 300
10 lessons
Part II
Lessons 301 - 310
10 lessons
Part II
Lessons 311 - 320
10 lessons
Part II
Lessons 321 - 330
10 lessons
Part II
Lessons 331 - 340
10 lessons
Part II
Lessons 341 - 350
10 lessons
Part II
Lessons 351 - 360
10 lessons
Part II
Lessons 361 - 365
5 lessons
Closing
Epilogue
Wb.Ep
Back
Part I · Lesson 170
There is no cruelty in God and none in me.
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1No one attacks without intent to hurt. This can have no exception. When you think that you attack in self defense, you mean that to be cruel is protection; you are safe because of cruelty. You mean that you believe to hurt another brings you freedom. And you mean that to attack is to exchange the state in which you are for something better, safer, more secure from dangerous invasion and from fear.
2How thoroughly insane is the idea that to defend from fear is to attack! For here is fear begot and fed with blood, to make it grow and swell and rage. And thus is fear protected, not escaped. Today we learn a lesson which can save you more delay and needless misery than you can possibly imagine. It is this:
3You make what you defend against, and by your own defense against it, is it real and inescapable. Lay down your arms, and only then do you perceive it false.
4It seems to be the enemy without that you attack. Yet your defense sets up an enemy within—an alien thought at war with you, depriving you of peace, splitting your mind into two camps which seem wholly irreconcilable. For love now has an "enemy," an opposite; and fear, the alien, now needs your defense against the threat of what you really are.
5If you consider carefully the means by which your fancied self-defense proceeds on its imagined way, you will perceive the premises on which the idea stands. First, it is obvious ideas must leave their source. For it is you who make attack and must have first conceived of it. Yet you attack outside yourself and separate your mind from him who is to be attacked with perfect faith the split you made is real.
6Next are the attributes of love bestowed upon its "enemy." For fear becomes your safety and protector of your peace, to which you turn for solace and escape from doubts about your strength and hope of rest in dreamless quiet. And as love is shorn of what belongs to it and it alone, love is endowed with attributes of fear. For love would ask you lay down all defense as merely foolish. And your arms indeed would crumble into dust. For such they are.
7With love as enemy must cruelty become a god, and gods demand that those who worship them obey their dictates and refuse to question them. Harsh punishment is meted out relentlessly to those who ask if the demands are sensible or even sane. It is their enemies who are unreasonable and insane, while they are always merciful and just.
8Today we look upon this cruel god dispassionately. And we note that though his lips are smeared with blood and fire seems to flame from him, he is but made of stone. He can do nothing. We need not defy his power. He has none. And those who see in him their safety have no guardian, no strength to call upon in danger, and no mighty warrior to fight for them.
9This moment can be terrible. But it can also be the time of your release from abject slavery. You make a choice, standing before this idol, seeing him exactly as he is. Will you restore to love what you have sought to wrest from it and lay before this mindless piece of stone? Or will you make another idol to replace it? For the god of cruelty takes many forms. Another can be found.
10Yet do not think that fear is the escape from fear. Let us remember what the course has stressed about the obstacles to peace. The final one, the hardest to believe, is nothing, and a seeming obstacle with the appearance of a solid block, impenetrable, fearful and beyond surmounting, is the fear of God Himself. Here is the basic premise which enthrones the thought of fear as god. For fear is loved by those who worship it, and love appears to be invested now with cruelty.
11Where does the totally insane belief in gods of vengeance come from? Love has not confused its attributes with those of fear. Yet must the worshippers of fear perceive their own confusion in fear's "enemy," its cruelty as now a part of love. And what becomes more fearful than the heart of Love Itself? The blood appears to be upon His Lips; the fire comes from Him. And He is terrible above all else, cruel beyond conception, striking down all who acknowledge Him to be their God.
12The choice you make today is certain. For you look for the last time upon this bit of carven stone you made and call it god no longer. You have reached this place before, but you have chosen that this cruel god remain with you in still another form, and so the fear of God returned with you. This time you leave it here. And you return to a new world unburdened by its weight; beheld not in its sightless eyes but in the vision that your choice restored to you.
13Now do your eyes belong to Christ, and He looks through them. Now your voice belongs to God and echoes His. And now your heart remains at peace forever. You have chosen Him in place of idols, and your attributes, given by your Creator, are restored to you at last. The Call of God is heard and answered. Now has fear made way for love, as God Himself replaces cruelty.
14Father, we are like You. No cruelty abides in us for there is none in You. Your peace is ours. And we bless the world with what we have received from You alone. We choose again and make our choice for all our brothers, knowing they are one with us. We bring them Your salvation as we have received it now. And we give thanks for them who render us complete. In them we see Your glory, and in them we find our peace. Holy are we because Your holiness has set us free. And we give thanks. Amen.