Randolph Harris II International

Home » #RandolphHarris » A Verbal Contract is Not Worth the Paper it is Written on!

A Verbal Contract is Not Worth the Paper it is Written on!

Image

Pick your enemies carefully or you will never make it in Los Angeles. Sovereignty is indivisible for the same reason that it is inalienable. For either the will is general (for a will to be general, it need not always be unanimous; however, it is necessary for all the votes to be counted. Any formal exclusion is a breach of generality), or it is not. It is the will of either the people as a whole or of only a part. In the first case, this declared will is an act of sovereignty and constitutes law. In the second case, it is merely a private will, or an act of magistracy. At most it is a decree. However, our political theorists, unable to divine sovereignty in its principle, divide it in its object. They divide it into force and will, into legislative and executive power, into rights of imposing taxes, of justice and of war, into internal administration and power to negotiate with foreigners. Occasionally they confuse all these parts and sometimes they separate them. They turn the sovereign into a fantastic being made of interconnected pieces. It is as if they built a human out of several bodies, one of which had eyes, another had arms, another feet, and nothing more. Japanese sleight-of-hand artists are said to dismember a child before the eyes of spectators, then, throwing all the parts in the air one after the other, they make the child fall back down alive and all in one piece. These conjuring acts of our political theorists are more or less like these performances. After having taken apart the social body by means of a sleight-of-hand worthy of a carnival, they put the pieces back together who knows how. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

Image

This error comes from not having formed precise notions of sovereign authority, and from having taken for parts of that authority what were merely emanations from it. Thus, for example, the acts of declaring war and making peace have been viewed as acts of sovereignty, which they are not, since each of these acts is not a law but merely an application of the law, a particular act determining the legal circumstances, as will be clearly seen when the idea attached to the word law comes to be defined. In reviewing the other divisions in the same way, one would find that one is mistaken every time one believes one sees sovereignty divided, and that the rights one takes to be the parts this sovereignty are all subordinated to it and always presuppose supreme wills which these rights merely put into effect. It would be impossible to say how much this lack of precision has obscured the decisions of authors who have written about political right when they wanted to judge the respective rights of kings and peoples on the basis of the principles they had established. Anyone can see, in Chapters III and IV of Book I of Grotius, how this learned man and his translator, Barbeyrac, become entangled and caught up in their sophisms, for fear of either saying too much or too little according to their perspectives, and of offending the interests they needed to reconcile. Grotius, taking refuge in France, unhappy with his homeland and desirous of paying court o Louis XIII (to whom his book is dedicated), spares no pain to rob the people of all their rights and to invest kings with them by every possible artifice. This would also have been the wish of Barbeyrac, who dedicated his translation to King George I of England. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

May be an image of furniture and kitchen

However, unfortunately the expulsion of James II (which he calls an abdication) forced him to be evasive and on his guard and to beat around the bush, in order to avoid making William out to be a usurper. If these two writers had adopted the true principles, all their difficulties would have been alleviated and they would always have been consistent. However, sad to say, they would have told the truth and paid court only to the people. For truth does not lead to fortune, and the populace grants neither ambassadorships, university chairs nor pensions. The Third Wave does more than alter Second Wave patterns of synchronization. It attacks another basic feature of industrial life: standardization. The hidden code of Second Wave society encouraged a steamroller standardization of many things—from values, weights, distances, sizes, time, and currencies to product and prices. Second Wave business people worked hard to make every widget identical, and some still do. Today’s savviest business person, as we have seen, know how to customize (as opposed to standardize) at lowest cost, and find ingenious ways of applying the latest technology to the individualization of products and services. In employment the numbers of workers doing identical work grows smaller and smaller as the variety of occupation increases. Wages and fringe benefits begin to vary more from worker to worker. Workers themselves become more different from one another, and since they (and we) are also consumers, the differences immediately translate into the market place. The shift away from traditional mass production thus is accompanied by a parallel de-massification of marketing, merchandising, and of consumption. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

May be an image of kitchen

Consumers begin to make their choices not only because a product fulfills a specific material or psychological function but also because of the way it fits into the larger configuration of products and services they require. These highly individualized configurations are transient, as are the lifestyles they help to define. Consumption, like production, becomes configurational. Post-standardized production brings with it post-standardized consumption. Even prices, standardized during the Second Wave period, begin to be less standard now, since custom products require custom pricing. The price tag for an Ultimate Driving Machine or any other automobile depends on the particular package of options selected; the price of a hi-fi set similarly depends on the units that are plugged together and on how much work the buyer wishes to do; the prices of aircraft, offshore oils rigs, ships, computers, and other high-technology items vary form one unit to the next. In politics we see similar trends. Our views are increasingly non-standard as consensus breaks down in nation after nation and thousands of “issue groups” spring up, each fighting for its own narrow, often temporary, set of goals. In turn, the culture itself is increasingly de-standardized. Thus we breakup of the mass mind as the new communications media come into play. The de-massification of the mass media—the rise of mini-magazines, newletters, blogs, and small scale, often Xeroxed, communications along with social media, email, text messages, WiFi, wireless cable, digital video and music streaming, and computer—shatters the standardized image of the World propagated by Second Wave communications technologies, and pumps a diversity of ideas, symbols, and values. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

May be an image of table and indoor

Not only are we using customized products, we are using diverse symbols to customize our view of the World. Art News summarized the views of Dieter Honisch, director of the National Gallery in West Berlin: “What is admired in Cologne may not be accepted in Munich and a Stuttgart success may not impress the Hamburg public. Ruled by sectional interest, the country is losing its sense of national culture.” Nothing underlies this process of cultural de-standardization more crisply than a recent article in Christianity Today, a leading voice of conservative Protestantism in America. The editor writes, “Many Christians seem confused by the availability of so many different translations of the Bible. Older Christians did not face so many choices.” Then comes the punch line. “Christianity Today recommends that no version should be the ‘standard.’”Even within the narrow bounds of Biblical translation, as in religion generally, the notion of a single standard passing. Our religious views, like our tastes, are becoming less uniform and standardized. The net effect is to carry us away from the Huxleyan or Orwellian society of faceless, de-individualized humanoids that a simple extension of Second Wave tendencies would suggest and, instead, toward a profusion of lifestyles and more highly individualized personalities. We are watching the rise of a “post-standardized mind” and a “post-standardized public.” Because of what one is and what one seeks to do, the quester has special trials, special experiences and temptations, apart from the ordinary ones which accompany all human activities. Elaborate traps are set at intervals along one’s road, made up of a combination of one’s own weaknesses with persons or events related to them. One must be wary of replacing into complacency. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

Image

Complacency can cause an individual to become sick. When a person is sick, one may be affected with disease or ill health, queasy, nauseated; spiritually or morally unsound or corrpt. One could be disturbed by strong emotion, filled with disgust or chagrin, morbid, highly distasteful, lacking vigor, badly outclassed, incapable of producing profitable yields of a crop; outstandingly or amazingly good or impressive. Whatever the case maybe, the individual needs to be prepared for tests and temptations in a variety of forms before being released to the public. The rise of a “post-standardized mind” and a “post-standardized public,” this brings its own social, psychological, and philosophical problems, some of which we are already feeling in the loneliness and social isolation around us, but these are dramatically different from the problems of mass conformity that exercised us during the industrial age. Because the Third Wave is not yet dominant even in the most technically advanced nations, we continue to feel the tug of powerful Second Wave currents. We are still completing some of the unfinished business of the Second Wave. For example, hardcover book publishing in the United States of America (the best books to buy), long a backward industry, was just reaching the stage of mass-merchandizing that paperback publishing and most other consumer industries attain more than two generations ago, until audio books and electronic books came about. However, there is a class of docents who want to keep Americana alive and are encouraging Americans to still buy hardcover books and use as many physical library resources to do their reports, and to also recycle books and build their own libraries. (By the way, Thiftbooks.com is a great place to buy new, used, and collective books and other media items.) #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

May be an image of sofa and living room

Other Second Wave movements seem almost quixotic, like the one that urges us at this late stage to adopt the metric system in the United States of America to bring American measurements into conformity with those used in Europe. Still others derive from bureaucratic empire building, like the effort of Common Market technocrats in Brussels to “harmonise” everything from auto mirrors to college diplomas—“harmonisation” being the current gobbledygook for industrial-style standardization. Finally, there are movements aimed at literally turning back the clock—like the back-to-basics movements in United States of America schools. Legitimately outraged by the disaster in mass education, it does not recognize that a de-massified society calls for new education strategies, but seeks instead to restore and enforce Second Wave uniformity in the schools. Nevertheless, all these attempts to achieve uniformity are essentially the rearguard actions of a spent civilization. The thrust of the Third Wave change is toward increased diversity, not toward the further standardization of life. And this is just as true of ideas, political convictions, proclivities dealing with pleasures of the flesh, educational methods, eating habits, religious views, American cultural attitudes, musical taste, fashion, and family forms as it is of automated production. An historic turning point has been reached, and standardization, another of the ruling principles of Second Wave civilization, is being replaced. This is creating a lot of interpersonal problems for many members of the human and animal communities. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

May be an image of furniture and living room

Social anxiety arises when people are motivated to make a desired impression on others but feel that they may not be successful in doing so. Two components of social anxiety can be distilled from this perspective. First, social anxiety occurs when a person has some motivation to leave a desired impression on others. Second, social anxiety involves some subjective probability, reflecting the anxious person’s doubt about one’s ability to succeed in making that impression. Some of the components of social anxiety may be functional when one considers the evolutionary basis for the need to belong. The emotional distress that people sense when they feel that they have made undesirable impressions on others can deter them from making such impressions in the first place, make them interrupt what they are doing to make he undesired impression, and/or motivate behaviours to repair the damage caused by their behaviour. All of these are functional for humans as social beings who depend on others for their livelihood and survival. Unfortunately, for some people this emotional distress becomes crippling; I has the effect of drastically reducing their social contacts and/or producing exactly the kind of disastrous social behaviour that worries them. It is tantalizingly hard to effect the passage from the lower to the higher state. For between them lies an intermediate zone of consciousness which possesses an ensnaring quality and in which the ego makes its last desperate effort to keep one captive. Hence this zone is the course of attractive psychic experiences, of spiritual self-aggrandizements, of so-called messianic personal claims and redemptive missions, of great truths cunningly coalesced into great deceptions. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

May be an image of sofa and living room

A human may travel quite a distance on the way towards this goal of self-conquest and then, as success begins to appear on the horizon, may fail and fall from it in the last few tests. One’s very success may begin to generate vanity, pride, self-importance, ambition, and arrogance. In this way one’s ego is once more stimulated instead of being subjugated. Thus one steps aside from the path although one has already gone so far along it. Self-presentational concerns are at the heart of all socially oriented anxiety problems (exempli gratia, social anxiety disorder, communication apprehension, shyness, public speaking anxiety, reticence). In the context of an interpersonal paradigm, one must ask these questions” “What leads people to feel that they will not be able to make a desired impression on others? Ans what are the interpersonal consequences of such feelings?” As in all psychosocial problems, the answers to these questions are multiple; they involve problematic experiences in the family or origin, poor social skills, maladaptive reactions and interpretations of social encounters, rejection from others, and loneliness. If impulsiveness is present, certain negative tendences of one’s character, by now controlled and largely suppressed but still laying latent in the subconscious, may rush up to the surface at intervals. When one is taken off one’s guard, they appear in speech or even action until one recovers oneself. The damage is done and although one returns to normal freedom from these faults, the consequences may remain and make one suffer for a disproportionate period. The farther one advances, the more important is the lapse. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

Image

Deep down in the lowest layers of the subconscious nature there, luck evil tendencies and evil memories belonging to the far past and not yet wholly wiped out by the spiritual rebirth. It is these tendencies which rise to the surface layers and challenge us at crucial moments when we seek initiation into the Higher Self or when we seek acceptance from a Master. In their totality they have been named by the Western Rosicrucians as the “dweller on the threshold.” No human can be taken possession of by one’s Higher Self or enter into a permanent relation with a Master unless and until one develops within oneself sufficient calm and sufficient strength to meet and overcome these arisen tendencies, whose character is marked by extreme sensuality or extreme cunning or extreme brutality, or even by a combination of the two or three of these. They are crude remnants and ugly reminders of the savage violence which one has inherited from pre-human reincarnations. One’s failure follows inevitably from one’s attempt to serve two masters. The ego is strong and cunning and clamant. The Overself is silent and patient and remote. In every battle the dice are loaded in the ego’s favour. In every battle high principle runs counter to innate prejudice. People with social anxiety tend to exhibit deficiencies in social skills. As in the case of depression, a model of social skills deficits has emerged as one of the theoretical paradigms in the explanation of social anxiety and social phobia. According to this perspective, people with poor social skills are expected to experience negative outcomes from their interpersonal encounters. Over time this causes these people to dread social interactions and anticipate negative responses from others. Of course, this anticipation may create a self-fulfilling prophecy. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

May be an image of furniture, living room and bedroom

If the ego cannot trap one through one’s vices, it will try to do so through one’s virtues. When one has made enough progress to warrant it, one will be led cunningly and insensibly into spiritual pride. Too quickly and too mistakenly one will believe oneself to be set apar from other humans by one’s attainments. When this belief is strong and sustained, that is, when one’s malady conceit calls for a necessary cure, a pit will be dug unconsciously for one by other humans and one’s own ego will lead one straight into it. Out of the suffering which will follow this downfall, one will have a change to grow humbler. The risk is greater because a human emissary of the adverse element in Nature will automatically appear at critical moments and consciously or unconsciously seek hypnotically or passively to lead one astray as one has gone astray. Our own World-wide experience, embracing the written reports and spoken confidences of thousands of individual cases of mystical, and occult seekers, both Old World and Occidental, has gravely taught the need of this warning. Furthermore, the avoidance of social interaction that often follows social anxiety may lead to an atrophying of social skills, which can only further worsen the circumstances. Thus far, research evidence is generally supportive of the hypothesis that social anxiety is linked to poor social skills, although the causal ordering of these variables has yet to be definitively established. Whoever seeks to tread this path such as the one shown here will sooner or later find that these forces set themselves in opposition to one’s interior journey. One’s way will be blocked by external circumstances that entangle one in hopeless struggles or heart-breaking oppressions and enslavements, or by physical attacks which seek to sweep one off one’s feet and destroy one’s higher aspirations. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

May be an image of sofa and living room

On general measures of social skills, people with social anxiety rate their own social skills more negatively than their nonanxious counterparts do. People who know and/or observe the social behaviour of socially anxious people also rate them low in social skills. Even parents rate their socially anxious children’s social skills more poorly than the parents of nonanxious children rate their offspring’s skills. Although socially anxious individuals may exhibit problems with social skills, they tend to perceive these problems more negatively than others do, suggesting that they may be unduly negative in their self-evaluations. Persons in one’s immediate environment may be moved by these invisible forces to work against one, causing uprisings of hatred and misunderstanding; one-time friends may turn into treacherous enemies more virulent than the poison of a cobra. Public critics will appear and endeavour to nullify whatever good one is doing for humanity, or to prevent its continuance. The single aim and object of all these attempts will be to prevent one’s alignment with the Overself, to render mental quiet impossible, or to keep one’s heart and mind crushed down to Earth and Earthly things. One must needs suffer these things. Their power, scope, and duration may be diminished, however. The path is best not only by pitfalls arising out of one’s own human failings, but at critical times by unconscious or conscious evil beings in human form who seek to destroy faith through falsehoods and to undermine reliance on true guidance through sidetracks and traps. “If you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the Earth. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

Image

“For [as far as this World is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in [the splendour of His] glory,” reports Colossians 3.1-4. We must continually choose to keep our minds set on the higher things. Notice again that there is something we are to do—we must continually choose, day in and day out, twenty-four hours a day, to keep our minds set on the higher things. What are those things that are above, the higher things? Quite simply, they are the beneficial things of God. The apostle Paul provides a great list by which we can evaluate our thoughts: “Whatever things are true. Whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things,” reports Philippians 4.8. Learn to look for he best in every situation. If you look hard enough and keep the right attitude, no matter what you are going though, you can find something good about the experience. If you get fired from your job, you can choose to be negative and bitter and blame God and your coworkers. Or, you can say, God, I know You are in control of my life, and when door closes, You always open a bigger and better door. So Father, I cannot wait to see what You have in store for me. One must thank the Lord for His guidance and protection and for keeping us perfect in His will. One must make a choice to keep one’s mind focused on the better things. It is not going to automatically happen. One must be determined and put forth some effort to keep one’s mind set on God’s best. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

Image

We must be especially on guard during times of adversity, in times of personal challenges. When trouble is on the horizon, often the first thoughts that come to mind are not higher thoughts; they are not good thoughts. Negative thoughts bombard us from every possible angle. Right there, we must choose to trust God and not allow ourselves to get down and discouraged or just give up. We can determine by our own choices which way our lives are going to go. If you choose to stay focused on the beneficial and keep your mind set on the good things of God, all the forces of darkness are no going to be able to keep you from moving forward and fulfilling your destiny. However, if you make the mistake of dwelling on the negative, focusing on your problems and your impossibilities, it is basically backing away from the success God has in store for you. One must decide which way one wants to go. Psychologists are convinced that our lives move in the direction of our most dominant thoughts. Throughout this day, engage your minds in thoughts of joy, peace, success, abundance, and blessings, and one will move toward those things, drawing them to oneself at the same time. Now that is a magnetic personality! Father, help me to see as much as I can in every person and in every situation. I choose to have an optimistic outlook on life. O Father, just and always to be Praised, the hour comes for Your servant to be proved. O Father who must be loved, it is the right time—this very hour—that Your servant suffer something in Your behalf. Father Perpetually Venerated, my time has come—You knew it already from all eternity—that Your servant should lower one’s public profile for a while and live only the interior life with You. For the briefest time one will be treated as dirt, humbled and homeless, trod under the feet of Humankind, writhed by one’s passions, wreathed by one’s sargassos. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

May be an image of furniture and bedroom

All that so one may rise again with You in the dawn of new light and be clarified in the Celestials. Holy Father, so You ordained, and so You wished. This is a fact, and I perceive it as so. Recently in group therapy with Amanda and Ken, a forty-year-old woman declared her frustration with life. “Next week I am going to a twenty-year reunion of my high-school class. Only I am terribly embarrassed because I have accomplished exactly nothing in the last twenty years!” She had raised several children. However, she still felt lacking because in many ways her life had been completely dominated by her possessive and dictating husband. She had tried many tactics over the years, including fighting, pouting, or keeping silent. Now all feeling for her spouse was gone, and while the couple continued to occupy the same house, there was no emotional or intellectual communication. An important thing that the group fed back to her was the possibility that the next twenty years would not have to be a repeat of the last twenty. She could find the power in herself to change, even in basic ways, if she desired it enough to give her fears and helplessness. This was hard for her to believe. The key turning point for her came when she finally admitted a deep desire to make something out of her life, and expressed a willingness to face her many fears. Among them were fears that she was too old to find an occupation, that her marriage would dissolve, that her children would reject her, and that no one could like her. Fear and anxiety are built into human existence. We must all learn to cope with them. Fear is also known as basic anxiety; free-floating fear. Through a variety of adverse influences, a child may not be permitted to grow according to one’s individual needs and possibilities. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

Image

As a result of being stifled, the child does not develop a feeling of belonging, but instead a profound insecurity and vague apprehensiveness, for which I use the term basic anxiety. It has one’s feeling of being isolated and helpless in a World conceived as potentially hostile. The cramping pressure of one’s basic anxiety prevents the child from relating oneself to others with the spontaneity of one’s real feelings. Fear is the reason so many people get stuck in life and stop growing. Or, more specifically, inordinate amounts of fear cause a person to stop growing. Everyone experiences basic anxiety. It is how we handle the basic anxiety that is so important. Do we use the fear as a catalyst for growth, or do we become paralyzed by it? Love, ager, strength, and weakness represent four basic polarities. Humans, however, are like the amoeba. The amoeba is a one-celled creature that constricts when a threat or danger arises. When fear is present in people, they, like the amoeba, often constrict to the center of the polarities. Do it is with the deteriorating personality. The resistance to expressing feelings is manifested by a feeling of basic anxiety (fear). It is as if the fear exists at the zero-point of the polarities of the core. This is the point of indifference, deadness, or apathy, where many people prefer to remain, thus avoiding risking feelings that are needed for being in touch with others. People must often begin to express their feelings by expressing their fear, for in the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. In expressing their basic anxiety of feelings, people paradoxically begin to risk moving out from dead center to the various levels of feeling expressions. Prayer is the key to Heaven’s storehouse, but faith unlocks the door. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

May be an image of furniture and bedroom

A prayer without faith is like a key without a hand to turn it. In 1 John 5.14-15 we find some great truths about prayer: “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, he heareth us: And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” Let us read it again and look at some key words. “This is the confidence.” Or, this is the faith. We have this confidence in Him, that if we ask anything, according to His will, He hears us. “And if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” Notice that two key words here are anything and whatsoever. John said you can ask anything that you desire and have whatsoever you ask. If we know that He hears us, we know that we have whatsoever we desire of Him. If God hears you, if you get an audience with Him, you already have granted to you as your present possession what you ask. This is the confidence that we have in God, that, if we ask anything, God will present you with your request. Let say it this way so you can see it, “If you ask according to His will for asking.” His Word is His will. This passage is not dealing with God’s will for you to have or not to have a certain thing. This is not even involved in this verse of scripture. Many have thought it was and it has held them in bondage for years. They said, “If I pray for something that is not God’s will, then I will not receive it.” Therefore they did not take time to find the will of God, but prayed saying, “Lord, if it be Your will.” There was no faith in that prayer. No need of praying that prayer. You are wasting your time. You do not know whether God has heard you, so you cannot release faith in your prayer. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

Image

That prayer will produce for you because it des not qualify on the basis of God’s rules for asking. Answered prayer is governed by spiritual laws (God’s Word). Many times our prayers have gone unanswered because we did not determine the will of God before asking. Therefore we could not release faith in that prayer. Then on other occasions we have prayed beyond God’s ability to answer. If He did do what we ask, He would violate His Word. God’s will concerning your having or not having does not mean you should pray for just anything whether it is God’s will or not, but you can do that. The Bible says you can. If you know He heard you, you will have whatever you desired, you will have the petitions you requested—right, wrong, good, bad or indifferent. It is very dangerous for a person to pray for something assuming that it is God’s will. You can believe and receive things that are not God’s will. Israel received a king to rule over them. It was not God’s will, but they requested it. Now there are some things that are immaterial with God. Whether you drive a blue Ultimate Driving Machine or a red Ultimate Driving Machine does not matter to Him unless it matters to you. According to the Word in Mark 11.24, if you desire a red one, pray for a red one Do not pray for just a car—be specific! God has set a spiritual law before us. If we will learn to operate under the rules of His law, we will get our prayers answered. If we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, the idea present in verse 14 is to ask according to God’s will for asking. I want to show you why you cannot interpret that verse the way most people have, namely, “if it is God’s will for you to have it.” #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

May be an image of furniture and bedroom

The Bible says in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established; so let us go to the Word of God and find some more witnesses. Let us learn to interpret the Word of God in the light of the rest of the Bible. Do not just take one verse of the scripture and say, “That is what He said and that is all there is to it.” That can hold you in bondage. For instance, here it seems to be saying something that it really does not say. If you ask anything according to His will, He hears you. He is talking about your asking according to God’s rulebook for asking, His will for asking. What is God’s will for asking? “Let one ask in faith, nothing wavering. For one that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that human think that one shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded human is unstable in all one’s ways,” reports James 1.6-8. That is one of the rules for asking anything from God. The insight, once caught, and however briefly, will leave behind a calm discontent with the triviality of ordinary life, a lucid recognition of its pathetic futility and emptiness, as well as a calm dissatisfaction with the human oneself. One will, at the least, win an enlarged conception of life, and at the most, an ennobled character. Better still, one will feel for the first time what it is like to attain an inner equilibrium. The glimpse may give one a dynamic charge of power, or leave one bereft of all aggression—depending on the particular need or phase of the moment. The door of one’s inner consciousness has opened; the regeneration of one’s moral nature have begun. The truth will come into the innermost chambers of one’s consciousness, sometimes abruptly but sometimes sluggishly. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

May be an image of indoor

And because it comes in this way, because it comes from the God within one, it will be dynamic, creative, powerful. As one becomes aware of this sublime influx, so will one son become aware that character is aletering with it, and so will others become aware that one’s conduct is shaping itself around nobler standards. When a human discovers that one oneself is the bearer of divine forces, one ceases to run hither and thither in search of other humans. Once the soul has revealed its lovely self to one, one cannot help adoring it, cannot help the feeling of being carried away in lifelong pursuit of it. The attraction is not of one’s own choosing. It is as natural and inevitable as the movement of the sunflower towards the sun. The soul’s power of control has a distinct and useful place in the human life and constitutes a valuable aspect of God’s grace. Consciousness of the Spirit is obtained through prayer. Deep peace of the shining stars to you, which stay invisible till darkness falls and discloses their pure and shining presence beaming down in compassion on our turning World. Deep peace of the shining stars to you! Deep peace of the watching shepherds to you, of unpretentious folk who, watching and waiting, spend long hours out on the hillside, expecting in simplicity some Coming of the Lord. Deep peace of the watching shepherds to you! Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you, who, swift as the wave and pervasive as the air, quiet as the Earth and shining like a star, breathes unto us His Peace and His Spirit. Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you! Remember one whose ask ‘mid sedge was drawn from edge of water, Thy shepherd son who could not sleep before his sheep had water. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

Image

And when Thy flock did likewise burn with thirst and yearn for water, he struck the rock, there gushed a rill, to give their fil of water. For Moses’ sake send water! Remember one, Thy Temple-priest, who hallowed feast with water. Atonement’s sun declined to night with fivefold rite of water. The Law was read, and then afresh he laved his flesh with water. Remote, in dread, he served his folk that swiftly broke Like water. For Aaron’s sake send water! Remember last the tribes who fled across the bed of water. Thy chosen caste for whom turned sweet the bitter sheet of water. For Thee their race have ever shed their hearts’ best red like water. Without Thy face their spirits whirl as in a swirl of water! For America’s sake send water! For Thou art the Lord our God who causest the wind to blow and the rain to descend: for a blessing and not for a curse. Amen. For life and not for death. Amen. For plenty and not for famine. Amen. Sovereign of Universe, as we count the days of the Omer, we recall the time when our people were established in the land of America. May this observance serve as another reminder of the need to reclaim the soil of the Holy Land so that it may again flow with milk and honey and provide a homeland for our scattered folk. May our love for America’s land quicken our love for the Constitution of the United States of America, the Holy Bible, The Ten Commandments, and The Book of Mormon, America’s heritage. As in the past, may God and His Beloved Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit become the center of our spiritual life from which again shall come Thy word, O Lord, revealing Thy will to all humans. Lo, I am about to fulfill the precept of the Counting of the Omer, as it is written in the Torah: Ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the day of rest, from the day that ye brought an omer of grain as a wave-offering, seven complete weeks they shall be; until the morrow of the seventh week shall ye number fifty says. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

May be an image of furniture and outdoors

CRESLEIGH HAVENWOOD

Lincoln, CA | from the mid $600s

Now Selling!

Image

We’re so excited about our new community at #Havenwood! Four distinct floorplans give multiple options for outdoor entertaining; like this pergola/porch combination.

May be an image of furniture and living room

Now selling! Cresleigh Havenwood features four distinct floor plans ranging from 2,293 – 3,489 square feet and offering up to five bedrooms.  Each plan has been thoughtfully designed and includes great features such as single story homes, guest suites, optional offices, garage workshops, and more!

Image

Get the most out of your new home with Cresleigh’s All Ready smart home featuring all the connectivity needed to keep your house running. Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes with owned solar included! It’s never been this fun to entertain!

May be an image of furniture and living room

Located off of Virginiatown Road and McCourtney Road, residents of the 83 homesites of Cresleigh Havenwood will benefit from a brand new neighborhood in the charming City of Lincoln. Palo Verde Park, is  just down the street and there’s plenty of recreation to take part in all around town. https://cresleigh.com/havenwood/new-home-lincoln-homesite-14/

#CresleighHomes