The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order. If humans do find the solution for World peace, it will be the most revolutionary reversal of their record we have ever known. We must have the power to change ourselves, then things will change around us. Unreasonable and absurd ways of life are truly an offense to God. Christians desire to be like God and live a deep and fruitful Christian life. Our Lord is a God of reason as well as revelation. God is perfect in knowledge and, in fact, knows everything both actual and possible. The Son of God became incarnate as the Logos (Greek: “the word”), which some take to represent and emphasize this reasoned, omniscient aspect of God’s character, that is, the divine reason or wisdom that is made manifest and understandable in the God-man Jesus Christ. God exhibits wise intelligence in choosing the best goals and the best means of accomplishing them. So wise is He that Scripture calls Him “the only wise God,” reports Romans 16.27. He is the God of truth who cannot lie, and who is completely reliable. His very word is true and His church—not the university—is the pillar and support of the truth. God invites His people to come and reason together with Him by bringing a legally reasoned case against His actions to which He will respond. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

What a contrast the God of the Bible is with the god of Islam, who is so transcendent that his ways are inscrutable (beyond understanding)! How different God is from the irrational, fickle, finite deities of the Greek pantheon or other polytheistic religions! These mythological “gods” exhibit the folly of human emotions and the danger of ignoring revelation. The God of the Bible requires teachers who diligently study His Word and handle it accurately. He demands of His evangelists that they give rational justification to questioners who ask them why they believe as they do. On one occasion His chief apostle, Paul, emphasized that his gospel preaching was by way of words of truth and rationality when Festus charged that his great learning was driving him mad. No anti-intellectualism here! By contrast, the monistic religions of the East promote gurus who offer koans, paradoxes like the sound of one hand clapping, upon which to meditate in order to free the devotee from dependence on reason and enable one to escape the laws of logic. The Buddhist is to leave one’s mind behind, but the Christian God requires transformation by way of its renewal. Is it any wonder that we Christians started the first universities and have planted schools and colleges everywhere our missionaries have gone? #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

Is it any wonder that science began in Christian Europe because of the belief that the same rational God who made the human mind also created the World so the mind would be suited to discern the World’s rational structure placed there by God? God is certainly not a cultural elitist, and He does not love intellectuals more than anyone else. However, it needs to be said in the same breath that ignorance is not a Christian virtue if those virtues mirror the perfection of God’s own character. The opening charge in Ephesians 5 is a clear call to radical, sacrificial love: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,” reports Ephesians 5.25. This call to martial love was a bare-knuckled swing at the domestic commitment (or lack of same) of people of the day—just as it is today. Taken seriously, the unveiled form of these words, “love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,” is staggering! And honestly received, the punch it delivers flattens many Christian men…because they fall so short! The reason the punch hurts is because it is an obstructed call to love with a willingness to sacrifice, even unto death. Martial love is like death—it wants all of is. If you do not understand this, you do not know what marital love it. This does not mean marriage wants to kill us, but the love of a marriage wants to take over every aspect of our live and being, with no return. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

The realization of what this call means may at first be frightening, but it is also beautiful, because a being who embraces such a love will experience the grace of death to self. Marriage is a call to die, and a man who does not die for his wife does not come close to the love to which he is called. Christian marriage vows are the inception of a lifelong practice of death, of giving over not only all you have, but all you are. Is this a grim gallows call? Not at all! It is no more grim than dying to self and following Christ. In fact, those who lovingly die for their wives are those who know the most joy, have the most fulfilling marriages, and experience the most love. Christ’s call to Christian husbands is not a call to be doormats, but to die. As we shall see, this can mean a death to our rights, our time, our perceived pleasures—all liberating deaths. This is a truly male thing, a masculine thing—for it takes a strong man to die. When Christ “gave himself up” for us, He not only died, He suffered. And His suffering was not only the cross, but it was and is suffering which comes from identification with His bride, the Church. This is why Saul, who was fanatically persecuting the Church, suddenly heard Jesus cry, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Christ suffers with His bride, and husbands ought to suffer with and for theirs. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

Men, when you properly hitch your life to another, you are in for a wild ride with huge ups and downs. Just as when you really love God you will undergo difficulties foreign to an unloving heart, so it is in marriage. You will share her experienced injustices, cruelties, and disappointments. You will experience her upsets, insecurities, and despairs. However, of course, you will also know an index of joys beyond the range of the unloving. You will ride through some dark valleys, but you will also soar among the stars! The question then is, how does spiritual power work, how is it related to physical and psychological power, and how is it related to the compulsory element of power? For hundreds of years people have discussed the meaning of the concept of justice. Since earliest times justice has been symbolized in myth and poetry, in sculpture and architecture. Nevertheless, its meaning is not unambiguous. On the contrary, its legal meaning seems to be contradicted by its ethical one, and both the legal and the ethical meaning seem to be in conflict with its religious meaning. Legal justice, moral righteousness, and religious justification seems to struggle with each other. Aristotle speaks of justices as a proportion, both in distribution and retribution. This raises several problems. First, one must ask whether the terms “distributive” and “retributive justice” constitute a valid distinction. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

Distributive justice gives goods to everybody according to one’s just claim; and one’s just claim is determined by one’s social status, which is partly dependent on the status one has received by historical destiny in Universe and society, and partly by one’s own merits in actualizing one’s status and its potentialities. Retributive justice takes place if one diminished one’s status and its just claims by not fulfilling its potentialities or by acting against the social or cosmic order in which one’s status is rooted. Retributive justice then appears as punishment and produces the problem of the meaning of punishment and its relation to justice. Is punishment a purpose in itself, determined by retributive justice, or is it the negative implication of distributive justice, or is it the negative implication of distributive justice and determined by it? Only an ontological consideration of justice can lead toward an answer. The same is true f the meaning of justice as proportion. The term “proportional justice” implies degrees of justified claims. It presupposes a hierarchy of standing and claims. It presupposes a hierarchy of standing and claims for a just distribution. On the other hand, the word “justice” implies an element of equality. How is the hierarchical element in proportional justice related to the equalitarian element in it? If we consider the fact that the status of a being in Universe and society is subject to continuous change, the question becomes even more difficult. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

The dynamic character of life seems to exclude the concept of a just claim; it seems to undercut even the idea of proportional justice. Is there a type of justice which transcends and restricts the kind of justice described by Aristotle? Can perhaps the proportional element be taken into dynamic-creative type of justice? This again demands assumptions about the relation of the static to the dynamic character of being; it demands ontological assumptions. None of the concepts of love, power, and justice can be defined, described and understood in their carried meanings without an ontological analysis of their root meanings. None of the confusion and ambiguities in the use of those three concepts can be removed, none of the problems intrinsic in them can be solved without an answer to the question: How are love, power, and justice rooted in the nature of being as such? In view of all we have said about the detached person’s human relationships it will be clear that any close and lasting relation would be bound to jeopardize one’s detachment and hence would be likely to be disastrous—unless the partner should be equally detached and so of one’s own accord respect the need for distance, or unless one is able and willing for other reasons to adapt oneself to such needs. A Solveig who in loving devotion patiently awaits Peer Gynt’s return is the ideal partner. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

Solveig expects nothing from Peer. Expectations on her part would frighten him as much as would loss of control over his own feelings. Mostly he is unaware of how little he himself gives, and he believes he has bestowed his unexpressed and unlived feelings, so precious to himself, upon the partners. Provided emotional distance is sufficiently guaranteed, Peer may be able to preserve a considerable measure of enduring loyalty. He may be capable of having intense short-lived relationships, relationships in which he appears and vanishes. They are brittle, and any number of factors may hasten his withdrawal. Relationships that involve pleasures of the flesh may mean inordinately much to one as a bridge to others. If they are transitory and do not interfere with one’s life, one will enjoy them. They should be confined, as it were, to the compartment set aside for such affairs. On the other hand, one may have cultivated indifference to so great a degree that it permits of no trespassing. Then wholly imaginary relationships may be substituted for real ones. All the peculiarities we have described appear in the analytical process. Naturally, the detached person resents analysis because indeed it is the greatest possible intrusion upon one’s private life. However, one is also interested in observing oneself and may be fascinated by the greater vista it opens upon the intricate process going on within one. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

One may be intrigued by the artistic quality of dreams or by the aptness of one’s inadvertent associations. One’s joy in finding confirmation for assumptions resembles the scientist’s One is appreciative of the analyst’s attention and of one’s pointing to something here and there, but abominates being urged or “forced” in a direction one has not foreseen. One will often mention the danger of suggestion in analysis—although factually there is less danger of this in one’s case than for any other type, because one is fully armed against “influence.” Far from defending one’s position in a rational way by testing out the analyst’s suggestion, one tends, as is one’s wont, to reject blindly, though indirectly and politely, all that does not fit in with one’s own ideas about oneself and life in general. One finds it particularly obnoxious that the analyst should expect one to change in any way. Of course one wants to get rid of whatever is disturbing one; but it must not involve a change in one’s personality. One is almost as unfailingly willing to observe as one is unconsciously determined to remain as one is. One’s defiance of all influence is only one of the explanations for one’s attitude, and not the deepest one; we shall become acquainted with other later on. Naturally one puts a great distance between one’s self and the analyst. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the World. For a long time the analyst will be only a voice. In dreams the analytical situation may appears as a long-distance call between two reporters on different continents. At first glance a dream like this would seem to express the remoteness one feels toward the analyst and the analytical process—merely an accurate presentation of an attitude that exists consciously. However, since dreams are a search for a solution rather than a mere description of existing feelings, the deeper meaning of such a dream is a wish to keep one’s relationship to the analyst and to the whole analytical process away from one—not to let the analysis touch one in any way. Maturity is the ability to live in peace with that which we cannot change. Managing change in complex organizations is like steering a sailboat in turbulent water and stormy winds. If you are on a course to some destination and the wind is blowing at gale force dead broadside; you have to make a number of critical choices. If you head into the wind, you will lose speed and direction although your probably can ride out the storm. If you let the wind carry you too far, it might blow the boat over; and if your let it go a little less far than that, it may well drive you off course. If you decide to hold rigidly to your course at all costs, you may find that the winds rip the sails and even break off the mast. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

The true sailor, knowing these choices, works with the wind. He or she will bring the boat up close between gusts, “fall off” a little on the next gust, and come back up to the course in such a way that the boat stays on the compass heading towards its destination through many short-term decisions, which go with or against the prevailing winds in an appropriate combinations. We live in a time of paradox, contradiction, opportunity, and above all, change. To the fearful, change is threatening because they worry that things may get worse. To the hopeful, change is encouraging because they feel things may get better. To those who have confidence in themselves, change is a stimulus because they believe one person can make a difference and influence what goes on around them. These people are the doers and the motivators. Change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future. It is nice to not have to wait on the clock to change to change our own actions, as humans, we have free will and the ability to constantly be improving and leaving behind ideas, thoughts, actions, situations and people who no longer support the person one is becoming. Now it is a remarkable phenomenon in our culture that people do not fully acknowledge or—perhaps we should say—are not fully conscious of what a grave affliction boredom is. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

Take someone in solitary confinement or, to use a less drastic example, take someone who simply does not know what to do with oneself for whatever reason. Unless such a person has the resources within oneself to engage in some vital activity, to produce something, or to call one’s intellectual powers into play, then one will perceive one’s boredom as a burden, an encumbrance, a paralysis that one will not be able to explain by oneself. Boredom is one of the worst forms of torture. It is a very modern phenomenon, and it is spreading rapidly. A person who is that the mercy of one’s boredom and unable to defend oneself against it will feel severely depressed. You may feel moved to ask here why most people do not notice how grave a malady boredom is and how much suffering it causes us. I think the answer is quite simple. We produce today so many things that people can take to help them cope with their boredom. We can temporarily sweep our boredom under the rug by taking a tranquilizer or drinking or going to one cocktail party after another or fighting with our spouses or turning to the media for amusement or devoting ourselves to pleasures of the flesh. Much of what we do is an attempt to keep ourselves from fully acknowledging our boredom. However, do not forget that uneasy feeling that often overcomes you when you have watched a stupid move or repressed your boredom some other way. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

Remember the hangover that hits you when you realize that what you did for diversion actually bored you do death and that you have not made use of your time but have killed it. Another remarkable thing about our culture is that we will go to any lengths to save time, but once we have saved it, we kill it because we cannot think of anything better to do with it. There exists in the World today a gigantic reservoir of good will toward us, the American people. The Constitution does not provide for the first- and second-class citizens. It is important that we notice who presented Christ as this sacrifice of atonement. God presented Him. The whole plan of redemption was God’s plan and was undertaken at God’s initiative. Why did He do this? There is only one answer: because of His grace. The atonement was God’s extending favor to people who deserved not favor but wrath. The atonement was God’s bridging the awful “Grand Canyon” of sin to reach people who were in rebellion against Him. And He did this at infinite cost to Himself by sending Jesus to die in our place. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this World and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

“Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. However, because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved,” reports Ephesians 2.1-5. Again we see the contrast drawn so sharply between our ruin and God’s remedy. In verses 1-3, Paul described us as dead in our sins, under the sway of Stan, captivated by the World, prisoners of our own sinful lusts, and objects of God’s holy wrath. Could any picture be more morbid, any background more contrasting? However, against this dark background Paul once again presented the flawless diamond of God’s grace. However, God intervened! We were dead in our transgressions, but God intervened. We were in bondage to sin, but God intervened. We were objects of wrath, but God intervened. God who is rich in mercy intervened. Because of His great love for us, God intervened and made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions and sins. All this summed up in one succinct statement: “It is by grace you have been saved.” Our condition was hopeless, but God intervened in grace. “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. However, when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous thing we had done, but because of his mercy,” reports Titus 3.3-5. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

Again Paul draws a gracious contrast between our ruin and God’s remedy. The contrast could not be more bold and complete. Our foolishness, disobedience, and enslavement to all kinds of sinful passions is met by God’s kindness, mercy, and love. The utterly unrighteous are declared righteous (justified) by His grace. God’s grace really is amazing. God’s grace, then, does not supplement our good works. Instead, His grace overcomes our bad works, which are our sins. God did this by placing our sins on Christ and by letting fall on Him the wrath we so richly deserve. Because Jesus completely paid the awful penalty of our sins, God could extend His grace to us through complete and total forgiveness of our sins. As is so often the case, there is an interesting and instructive parallel to the spiritual life of the individual in the historical events of the Old Testament. The descendants of Abraham became a distinct people in the furnace of Egyptian slavery. Though God was, as always, at work in the larger scene, the Israelites lived, so far as they knew, under total domination of a god-system focused in the Pharaoh. That is, in Egyptian slavery they were “dead” to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He meant nothing to them, had noting to do with them—so far as they knew or cared. At the proper time, he approached them through and outcast (Moses [Acts 7.37-40]), as he approached us through an outcast (Jesus [Acts 7.52; Hebrews 13.12-14]). #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

By an act of intervention into their deadness (Deuteronomy 11.1-7) he brought them (and later us) to a new life of interactive (covenant) relationship to him. This interactive, covenant relationship is eternal life (John 17.3). It is what it means to have been “born from above”—which Nicodemus, as a teacher in Israel, was supposed to have understood, but could not because he had only “the mind of the flesh” and so could think only in terms of “the natural” (see John 3.10). However, this eternal kind of life is not a passive life. Passivity was for the Israelites, and it is for us one of the greatest dangers and difficulties of our spiritual existence. The land promised to them was one of incredible goodness—“flowing with milk and honey,” as it is repeatedly described. However, it still had to be conquered by careful, persistent, and intelligent human action, over a long period of time. In the beginning of the conquest of the Promised Land, the walls of Jericho fell down, to make clear God’s presence and power. Welcome to the kingdom! However, that never happened again. The Israelites had to take the remaining cities through hand-to-hand warfare, though always still with divine assistance. What was then true of the Promised Land of the Israelites was then and is now true of individual human beings who come to God. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

The Israelites were saved or delivered by grace just as surely as we are. However, in both cases “grace: means we are to be, and are enabled to be, active to a degree we have never been before. Paul’s picture of grace is, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed,” reports 2 Corinthians 9.8. We therefore live in “hot pursuit” of Jesus Christ. “My soul followeth hard after thee,” the psalmist called out (68.8). And Paul’s panting cry was, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,” in order to participate in the life of his resurrection reports Philippians 3.10-11. What are we to say of anyone who thinks they have something more important to do than that? The work of spiritual formation in Christlikeness is the work of claiming the land of milk and honey in which we are individually and collectively, to dwell with God. The old hymn rings out: “On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand and cast a wistful eye To Canaan’s fair and happy land, where my possessions lie.” However, the real Jordan, the spiritual “Jordan,” is not physical death, as has usually been supposed. We need not and must not wait until we die to live in the land of milk and honey; and if we will only move to that land now, the passage in physical death will be but one more day in the endless life we have long since begun. That is exactly what Jesus meant when he said, “If anyone keeps my words one shall ever see or taste death,” reports John 8.51. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Even when a teacher is found one may be a master of one pat only and unable to guide aspirants properly along those with which they have individual affinity and for which they have the requisite mental or emotional or volitional capacity. Another false idea is that the masters seek out disciples, make the advances towards them, whether “astrally” or physically. On the contrary, aspirants must take the first step themselves, must request acceptance. The illuminate does not have to engage in a lengthy conversation to find out whether another being is also illumined. “And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God. And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ same, who could no be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad,” reports Ether 12.18-19. Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we who amid so many adversities have fainted through our own infirmity, may be relieved by the intervention of the Passion of Thine only-begotten Son; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that we who are incessantly afflicted by our own transgressions, may be delivered by the Passion of Thine only-begotten Son; Who with Thee one may achieve personal influence and develop idea patterns. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

O God, praise waiteth for thee, and to render it is my noblest exercise; this is thy due from all thy creatures, for all thy works display thy attributes and fulfill thy designs; the sea, dry land, Winter cold, and Summer heat, morning light, evening shade are full of thee, and thou givest me them richly to enjoy. Thou art King of kings and Lord of lords; at thy pleasure empires rise and fall; all thy works praise thee and thy saints bless thee; let me be numbered with thy holy ones, resemble them in character and condition, sit with the at Jesus’s feet. May my religion be always firmly rooted in thy word, my understanding divinely informed, my affection holy and Heavenly, my motives simple and pure, and my heart never wrong with thee. Deliver me from the natural darkness of my own mind, from the corruption of my heart, from the temptations to which I am exposed, from the daily snares that attend me. I am in constant danger while I am in this life; let thy watchful eye ever be upon me for my defence, save me from the power of my Worldly and spiritual enemies and from all painful evils to which I have exposed myself. Until the day of life dawn above let there be unrestrained fellowship with Jesus; until fruition comes, may I enjoy the earnest of my inheritance and the firstfruits of the Spirit; until I finish my course with joy may I pursue it with diligence, in every part display the resources of the Christian, and adorn the doctrine of thee my God in all things. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

Cresleigh Homes

Cresleigh honors the delightful fairy-tale of the story book houses by the architecture they conjured in Rocklin Trails. The development has an eclectic European feel with Cresleigh’s signature sophistication and style. These homes enhance the pristine landscape by having the homes open to a greenbelt, which is unobstructed by cars. This is a community where people feel welcome, and the main entrance opens up to a garden, which can also be enjoyed from your private patio off the kitchen. There is also a garage in the rear of the house and a backyard. The interior of the house sounds great and looks great with its open concept design, which is perfect for entertaining or spending quality time with the family. There are 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, and 1,747 square feet.

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