Lesson 196

It can be but myself I crucify.

To attack another is to attack yourself.

The hopeless thought that you can make attacks on others and escape yourself has nailed you to the cross. Maybe it seemed like salvation, but really it only reinforced your belief of God being real, an enemy separate from you and waiting to destroy you and blot you from the universe.

If you accept the fearful thought you can attack another and be free yourself, you are mad.

Until this form is changed, there is no hope. Until you see that this is impossible, how could there be escape? The fear of God is real to anyone who thinks this thought is true.

Question it! From there you can at least consider if you want to go along this painful path. Until this shift in thinking, you cannot perceive that it is but your thoughts that bring you fear, and your deliverance depends on YOU.

Once you understand it is impossible that you be hurt except by our own thoughts, the fear of God must disappear. God, Whom you had thought to banish, can be welcomed back within the holy mind He never left.

The thing you dread the most is your salvation. You are strong, and it is strength you want. And you are free, and glad of freedom. You have sought to be both weak and bound, because you feared your strength and freedom. Yet salvation lies in them.

Once you realize that it is YOU you fear, the mind perceives itself as split. The enemy is not on the outside. It is within YOU. You perceive a murderer within you, eager for your death, intent on plotting punishment for you until the time when it can kill at last. Yet in this instant is the time as well in which salvation comes. Fear of God has disappeared. And you can call on Him to save you from illusions by His Love, calling Him Father and yourself His Son/Daughter. Pray that the instant may be soon, - today. Step back from fear, and make advance to love.

There is no Thought of God that does not go with you to help you reach that instant, and to go beyond it quickly, surely and forever. When the fear of God is gone, there are no obstacles that still remain between you and the holy peace of God. How kind and merciful is the idea we practice! Give it welcome, as you should, for it is your release. It is you your mind can try to crucify. Yet your redemption, too, will come from you.