THE GIFTS OF GOD — Sondra Ray and Markus Ray on A Course in Miracles

ODE TO THE CHRIST is a free verse poem by Markus Ray inspired by two paintings — "The Crucifixion" by Jacopo Tintoretto, in the School of San Rocco in Venice, and "The Resurrection" by Mathias Grünewald, a panel of the Isenheim Altarpiece in the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar, France. Markus Ray has done pilgrimages to both paintings in person. 

This Ode is an account of those events, The Crucifixion and The Resurrection, written from the point of view of an observer present at the  time. 

It clearly captures the feelings of the moment, the details of the main players, and the miraculous events as they transpired. 

THE END OF CONFLICT happens when we make our will one with our Creator's Will. There is no conflict in the Universal Will of God. When we are "aligned" with that, no conflict can exist in us. Fear produces conflict and binds the world to conflict; forgiveness sets us free of it.

Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict in us. What brings a sense of "conflict" is a projection of fear, something that is not even there. in reality.

Forgiveness gives us the Gifts of God. Peace and joy, which forgiveness offers us, give us a state of being whose nature is consistent with God's Will. Lessons #331-#334 make these things clear.

The truth of JESUS—CHRIST is shared from the Manual for Teachers in it's Clarification of Terms #5. The Face of Christ is held out to see, instead of our "dreams of sin and guilt." We see instead our Reality. This vision begiins our Resurrection of God's Son—who is actually us!

We have to see that we are the Son or Daughter of our Loving creator. We are ETERNAL LOVE in this Self that God made.

We bring with us all those with whom we have been entrusted. These people are all those with whom we have contact in this life time. All become our brothers and sisters in this ascension toward Heaven, out of the "hell" we made up.

SALVATION FROM FEAR depends on how we see our brother. If we maintain his "specialness" and see his personality traits, his body "looks," and the limitations and judgments we have placed on him, then we will not escape seeing our own shortcomings. 

We have another way of looking at him—with the eyes of Christ. We can see his hoilness instead of his ego traits. This is a decision we can make that will liberate us from fear. 

Fear is the basis for our judgments, attack thoughts, grievances, and unforgiveness toward our brother. And these maintain our fear. Only through the vision of our brother's holiness can we escape from the world of fear and attack and death. The choice is always ours. 

I CHOOSE THE JOY OF GOD INSTEAD IF PAIN is Lesson #190 in the Workbook of ACIM. This is a sobering assessment of the cause of pain being our own negative thoughts. How do we shift our minds ?

FIRST, we have to take responsibility that we have caused ourselves the pain. The thoughts we had prior to having the pain were illusions that resulted in pain.

SECOND, we have to be willing to forgive ourselves for these negative thoughts and beliefs. Even in the midst of feeling the pain we must go in the direction of forgiving ourselves.

THIRD, we have to trust there is a Spiritual Healing Power that can help us to change our minds and release the pain. This may require patience—and some time. It needs our FAITH. The pain could have taken a long time to develop, and the release of the pain may also take time to release.

CORRECTION: Lesson #223: Let us see the face of Christ instead of our mistakes, for we who are Your Holy Son are sinless.

CHOOSE ONCE AGAIN the Self God Created us to be. There is no peace and joy greater than this homecoming of our true Self in us. The Holy Christ is born in us today.

It is not a coersion or a decision made from guilt that allows us to accept the Christ Self in us, but rather from an awakening to the only Truth worth living by.

We Choose Once Again the only choice we ever came here to make—the heaven of the Christ, Whom God created whole and unified, instead of the hell of the ego that we made in the illusion of separation.

THE SAVIOR'S VISION is one of total and complete forgiveness. Wholeness is the realization there is only Innocence in the Self God Created, and we are all one in this Self.

Our holy vision sees all things as pure. Christ's Vision is our inheritance. We can claim it by accepting complete forgiveness.

We RECOGNIZE THE SPIRIT as our Self, or we limit our identity to a body. These are our only alternatives.

Why would we limit ourselves to merely a physical entity? This Section VI helps us to see beyond the body to our True Self in Spirit.

The SELF-CONCEPT we made up is not who we really are. The SELF God created is fully intact, even though we forgot this SELF.

We can restore our awareness of the SELF God created when we stop projecting all "self-concepts."

In THE REAL ALTERNATIVE we see that we have a real decision to make in seeing there is no real escape from conflict in the choices of the ego's thought system.

We tend to keep our problems. Making a Decision for the Holy Spirit is the only real alternative.