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Time Flies on the Wings of Lightning
God is an eternal being, what seems to us simple mortals as a drear immensity of wasted time is to him, but a twinkle of an eye. There are two fine things in the World: to be part of the News Press and to despise it. I do not hesitate for one moment as to what my choice had to be. Behavior is dependent upon or classified World. In a sense, some people have no choice: many have already committed themselves to a reverence for language, to a preservation and promotion of its purity and dignity; hence, the press, the official languages of commerce, of the profession, and especially the government, are our focus and cannot be our own vehicles. The names or class terms attached to aspects of the environment, both physical and social, carry meaning in the form of shared behavioral expectations that grow out of social interactions. From the interaction with others, one learns how to classify objects one comes into contact with and in the process also learns how one is expected to behave with reference to those objects. When people ignore an individual or their contributions this is called Totschweigetaktik—literally, the tactic of killing by keeping silent or ignoring, or the silent treatment. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
It is important to strive to be a shining light of integrity in a morass of dubious morality, a beacon of genuineness in a sea of spuriousness. While we may not only strive for ourselves, as we attain these lofty goals they may come at no small price to ourselves. If punishment is the price repentance asks, it comes at bargain price. Consequences, even painful one, protect us. So simple a thing as a child’s cry of pain when his or her finer touches something uncomfortable can teach us that. Except for the pain, the child might be consumed. There also is a mortal danger, through the debasement of language, to a person as a dignified and spiritual being. Let no corrupt talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that is may give grace to those who hear. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. National Socialism did not destroy the press; rather, the press created National Socialism. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
As the shadow of National Socialism fell over Germany and Austria in the early 1930s, the corruption of language corrupts morals and politics. The misuse of spirit and of language won the victory. That is why the news media is being used as a tool of propaganda. People know that if they can control the flow of news, they can control the minds of masses. That is why it is important to put away crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. One must be brave and occupy oneself with the study of language. It is important to pray. The World is only frightening only if we insist on denying the reality of evil and the beauty of religion, faith and spiritual resignation, denials which so deeply defiles a person. It is important to celebrate the dignity of the individual, regardless of one’s race, religion, or nationality. Among the class terms learned in interactions are the symbols that are used to designate positions, which are the relatively stable, morphological components of social structure. It is these positions which carry the shared behavioral expectations that are conventionally labelled roles. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
We are taught to show respect toward any person from whom one has learned, but a single letter. How, then, can I honor you enough? How deep should be my gratitude? It is readily confessed that we would find no peace, neither happiness nor safety, in a World without repentance. We do not know what we should do if there were no way for us to erase our mistakes. The agony would be more than we could bare. Persons who act in the context of organized patterns of behavior, i.e., in the context of social structure, name one another in the sense of recognizing one another as occupants of position. When they name one another, they invoke expectations with regard to each other’s’ behavior. An Atonement was made. Atonement is a satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury; amends. The doctrine concerning the reconciliation of God and humankind means that we are not damned nor cursed. We have a reconciliation with God. Every and always it offers amnesty from transgression and from death if we will but repent. Repentance is the escape clause in it all. Repentance is the key with which we can unlock the prison from inside. We hold that within our hands, and agency is ours to use it. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
Behavior is the product of a role-making process, initiated by expectations invoked in the process of defining situations but developing through a tentative, sometimes extremely subtle, probing interchange among actors that can reshape the form and content of interaction. We might object to people who conduct themselves without dignity and who abuse language—and to those physicians who use language of psychiatry to deprive people of their liberty and the language of psychoanalysis to deprive them of their individual and integrity. The adversary in cleaver ways manipulates our choices, deceiving us about sin and consequences. However, agency is ours. The greatest amount of freedom for each individual, limited only by consideration for the freedom of others. We look up, and in the Universe we see the handiwork of God and measure things by epochs, by eons, by dispersions, by eternities. The many things we do not know we take on faith. These values make life worth living. It touches the deepest emotion of gratitude and obligation. Our soul reaches after God, as he is our Lord and our Redeemer, our advocate. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Available information wisely used is far more valuable than multiplied information allowed to lie fallow. Imperfections of a person’s language mirror the imperfections of one’s character; and to purify our ethics and conduct, we must first purify our grammar and language. The connection between maltreated words and the maltreatment of human souls and bodies, and we avenge lives by restoring words to their state of integrity, health, and vigor in which, of their own accord, we could speak to the yet unknowing World how these things came about. Through one it is language itself that opens its mouth and speaks to those who use it deceitfully. However, they are forgers of lies, and all physicians of no value. The correct language is a religious matter. On the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak. We are accountable and will be judged for how we use what we have received. This eternal principle applies to all we have been given. There is a relationship between the control of language and of liberty, between the destruction of the human word and the human soul, between semantics and politics. An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Unmasking the Masker
The old World has three times as much water as land, but with all of its twisting and turning not a drop sloshes off into space. It Is important to guide people toward dignity and independence through love of and respect for language. Being informs us that everything is energy, it may exist in the form of electromagnetic vibration, and it is a vehicle of universal thought (a gratuitous addition), we are apt to think that perhaps everything is, in some obscure way, thought and hence in the mind of God. The human mind also has measurable power. It is well known that the brain is an electrochemical organ; researchers have speculated that a fully functioning brain can generate as much as 10 watts of electrical power. Other more conservative investigators calculate that is all 10 billion interconnected nerve cells discharged at one time that a single electrode places on the human scalp would record something like five millionths to 50 millionths of a volt. If you had enough scalps hooked up you might be able to light a flashlight bulb. Even though this electrical power is very limited, it does occur in very specific ways that are characteristic of the human brain. Electrical activity emanating from the brain is displayed in the form of brainwaves. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9
Bring people into society, and he or she is immediately provided with a mirror which one wanted before. It is placed in the countenance and behavior of those each individual lives with. This is the only looking glass by which we can, in some measure, with eyes of other people, scrutinize the propriety of our own conduct. There is not a thoughtless word that comes from people’s lips, but they will have to account for it on the day of judgment. For out of your own mouth you will be acquitted; out of your own mouth you will be condemned. Sympathy is the principle through which humans developed their sense of membership in and benefits to be derived from society, and through which they come to be controlled by others. Sympathy allows people to put themselves in the place of others, and see the World as these others do; and sympathy makes possible the communication that initially forms and subsequently reshapes (as we seek the approval of others) who and what we are. Our most important stewardship is the glorious responsibility our Father in Heaven has given us to watch and care for our own soul. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
Each person is born into a pre-existing association of human beings, and habit will consequently reflect a prior social order. Custom and habits are the necessary bases for reflection, for thinking, and occurs in the process of humans adjusting to their environment. Thinking is instrumental; it involves defining objects in one’s world in the context of activity and rehearsing possible lines of action in ways instrumental to adaption. Great things are happening because so many of you are faithfully acting upon the points of God’s laws and commandments. It is a privilege for us to witness in our lifetime such exciting progress toward fulfillment to the great prophecy that the kingdom may become a great castle and fill the entire Earth. We obey God’s commandments out of love for God. For if love of God is an adequate motive for moral behavior, why should not love of one’s fellows also be adequate? If we define situations as real, they are real in their consequences. We take the role of the other through the use of significant symbols and through this process engage in cooperative activity. We come to have minds, to think, through being part of a social process in which significant symbols emerge. These symbols provide the meaning of objects, the meaning to which we are responsible as we incorporate objects into our activities. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
Walk the path of faith and stand for that which is right and true and good. Social life is complex, and for it to proceed one must respond to an intricate pattern of related behaviors by multiple others. The brightest prize to which mortals or Gods can aspire is truth. One does so, of course, through the symbolic capabilities characterizing humans. Selves arise out of interaction of persons in organized groups; the prior existence of organized groups is thus implied. Society also shapes the self, so does the self shape society through the process of constantly being created and recreated; in contemporary language, social interaction is constructed. Suffer not yourself to be led away by any vain or foolish thing. Keep the commandments. In this there is safety and peace. Nothing this World has to offer can surpass the joy of living the gospel. We are accountable and will be judged for how we use what we have received. The principle of accountability also apples to the spiritual resources conferred in the teachings we have been given and to the precious hours and days allotted to each of us during our time in mortality. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
As long as we are willing to rise up again and continue on the eternal path of enlightenment, we can learn something from failure and become better and happier. When Leo was learning to walk, he would fall and get up again, and he would do this over and over until he built his confidence in his stride. He did not let his frustration hold him back. There may be times in our lives when rising up and continuing on may seem to be frustrating. However, by having faith in God and the determination to keep trying. Even when we think we cannot rise up, there is still hope. And just like baby Leo, sometimes we may need someone to look us in the eyes, and take our hand, and say, “It is okay. You can do this.” If there is some stability to self, then reliable measurement becomes possible. The fundamental elements of symbolic interactionism include the meaning component in human conduct, the social sources of humanness, society as process, the voluntaristic component in human conduct, a dialectical conception of the mind, the constructive and emergent nature of human conduct, and the necessity of sympathetic introspection have fallen before is as our destiny. We all want to be respected and esteemed. We want to be champions without effort and discipline or without making mistakes. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
Our destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble, but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off, and try again. We all know this mortal life is a test. However, because our Heavenly Father loves us with a perfect love, he has given us a map that allows us to navigate the uncertain terrain and unexpected trials that each of us encounters. All varieties of symbolic interactionists take as basic premises that humans act toward things on the basis of the meaning those things have for them, that meanings emerge from social interaction, and meanings are modified and dealt with through an interpretative process used by persons when responding to things encountered. Godly sorrow leads to conversion and a change of heart. It causes us to hate sin and love goodness. It encourages us to stand up and walk in the light of God’s love. True repentance is about transformation, not torture or torment. The core of symbolic interactionism consists in the assertion that humans create, use, and communicate with symbols; they interact through role taking, which involves the reading of symbols used by others; they are unique as a species through having a mind and self, which arise out of interaction, and which allow for the interactions that form the basis of society. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9
Human beings must be studied on their own level, and reductionist efforts infer principles of human behavior from nonhuman forms are misguided; must fruitful approaches to the study of human social behavior is through an analysis of society; that the human infant enters life neither social nor antisocial, with the potentialities for human development; and the human beings is an actor as well as a reactor. One of the adversary’s methods to prevent us from progressing is to confuse us about who we really are and what we really desire. The adversary’s purpose is to tempt us to exchange the priceless pearls of true happiness and eternal values for fake silicone trinkets that is merely an illusion and counterfeit of happiness and joy. However, it is a great source of spiritual power to live lives of integrity and righteousness and to keep our eyes on where we want to be in the eternities. Even if we can see this divine destination only with the eyes of faith, it will help us stay on the course. Human like to plan, constructing plans out of bits and pieces supplied by culture. Things take on meaning in relation to plans; the meaning of a thing is its implications for plans of action being constructed, so a thing may have different meanings relative to different plans. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
When our attention is mainly focused on our daily successes or failures, we may lose our way, wander, and fall. Keeping our sights on higher goals will help us become better people. We plan toward things in terms of their meanings; a plan of action is executed contingent on the meaning for that plan of things encountered. Consequently, everything encountered must be identified and its meaning discovered. Even those who set their hearts upon divine goals may still occasionally stumble, but they will not be defeated. For social plans of action, meaning must be consensual; if meanings are not clear, they are hammered out through the rhetoric of interaction resulting in the creation of social objects. They trust and rely upon the promises of God. The basic thing to be identified in any situation is the person himself or herself; identities of actors in any situation must be consensually established. People of God will rise up again with a bright hope in a righteous God and the inspiring vision of a great future. Identity, meaning, and social acts are the stuff of drama; as drama involves parts to be played, roles implicit in the parts must be conceived and performed in ways expressive of the role. The construction of social conduct involves roles and characters, props and supporting casts, scenes and audiences. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
Every person has had one’s own personal experience with falling. Falling is what we mortals do. However, as long as long as we are willing to rise up again and continue on the path toward the spiritual goals God has given us, we can learn something from failure and become better and happier as a result. Thus, identification of persons is most often in terms of roles and characters. We identify by placing things in systematically related categories of role systems, status systems, systems of social types, or contrastive sets of social categories. There will be times when you think you cannot continue on. Trust God and his love. With faith in the Lord and the power and hope of the restored gospel, you will be able to walk tall and continue on. We love you. We pray for you. We are mindful of you. The Lord is mindful of you! We acknowledge that your path will at times be difficult. However, it is promised by God that one day you will look back and be filled with eternal gratitude that you chose to trust the Atonement and its power to life you up and give you strength. You are stronger than you realize. You are more capable than you can imagine. The distinguishing characteristic of our lives and work must be our passion for integrity. Personal integrity—to be good as one’s word—is the highest virtue. Purity of language is a measure of the purity of the speaker’s soul, and vice versa. We fundamentally should have a respect for language as we have a respect for persons. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
Earth—Marvelous Work and a Wonder
To cure spiritual diseases which throttle us and plague our lives, the Lord has given us a sure cure. Knowledge of God must be supplemented by revelation. If wisdom is God, who made all things, as is attested by the divine authority and truth, then the philosopher is a lover of God. The truth turns out to be the search for one’s own salvation, as a sparkling new presentation. Here then is a great truth. In the pain, the agony, and the heroic endeavors of life, we pass through a refiner’s fire, and the insignificant and the unimportant in our lives can melt away like dross and make our faith bright, intact, and strong. In this is the divine image, which can be mirrored from the soul. It is part of the purging toll exacted of some to become acquainted with God. In the agonies of life, we seem to listen better to the faint, Godly whisperings of the Divine. The wealth of insights that it brings will be unfamiliar to most. Is not aspiring to or seeking the Godlike transfiguration of one’s own soul, in and through the stern but invigorating exercise of justice and (merely apparent) sacrificial devotion, equivalent to the pursuit of the greatest of all conceivable goods for the very core of one’s own being? #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Since immortality and eternal life constitute the sole purpose of life, all other interests and activities are but incidental thereto. And since those objectives are the work and glory of God, they are the proper work of humans also and are the major reason for his coming to Earth. Of the two elements, the one great blessing immortality comes to humans without their effort, as a gift from the Almighty. The other eternal life is a cooperative program to be developed by the Lord and his offspring on Earth. It thus becomes the overall responsibility of human beings to fully within the Eternal God in accomplishing this objective. All people can stand adversity, but if you want to test a person’s character, give them power. To this end God created humans to live in mortality and endowed them with the potential to perpetuate the race, to subdue the Earth, to perfect themselves and to become as God, omniscient and omnipotent. Our Father in Heaven the sent to the Earth a line of prophets to keep humans in remembrance of their duties and their destiny, to warn them of dangers, and to point the way to the total victory of humans. The pursuit of truth is intrinsically valuable. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
To marvel at the wonders of the gospel is a sign of faith. It is to recognize the hands of God in our lives and in everything around us. On Earth we have the rich opportunities to discover the marvelous things of this World. We can visit the most significant monuments, historic sites, and natural wonders of the World. There is so much beauty in this World. However, sometimes when we have them constantly before our eyes, we take them for granted. We look, but we do not really see; we hear, but do not really listen. We are so privileged to live in an exceptional time. Our amazement also produces spiritual strength. It gives us the energy to remain anchored in our faith and to engage ourselves in the work of God. Clearly belief in miracles is already plausible if our enquiry may presume this view of things. The usual way of making this out might be described as supernaturalistic. God reveals his nature in part through observable phenomena. Divine actions are not changes in God as they are manifestations or expressions of his will, which is eternal. Being all-knowing God eternally knew renowned miracles would be necessary. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Seek and cherish the companionship of the Holy Ghost. In faith, we hold to the promise that of we seek, we shall find. To this day, healing remains the form that most claimed miracles take, and many of those miracles are associated with visitations to churches and the shrines of saints or the wilderness. Miracles remain an important and powerful dimension of religions and mystics. The word of God and sacred places are considered to be a fountain of knowledge that never runs dry. There is always something new to learn and feel. Nearly 90 percent of Americans believe in God, 84 percent believe in miracles, and nearly 48 percent reported that they have experienced a miracle in their own lives or in the life of someone else. Our amazement should be rooted in the core principle of our faith, in the purity of our covenants and ordinances, and our most simple acts of worship. Others recognize miracles as extraordinary occurrences. Miracles were designed by the creator for very specific purposes and, though contrary to the observable laws of nature, were instituted at the beginning of creation as part of God’s divine plan. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
Most wonders of the gospel cannot be perceived by our natural sense. They are the things that the eyes have not seen, nor heard, the things which God has prepared for them that love him. When we have the Spirit with us, our spiritual senses are sharpened and our memory is kindled so we cannot forget the miracles and signs we have witnessed. Viewed this way, a miracle is an event that astonishes beholders (wonder) and at the same time conveys meaning (sign). Absent the sign factor, it is impossible to distinguish miracle from mere coincidence. Since signs are always signs of something, we can say that a miracle is an unusual event that discloses the meaning and power of the transcendent within the World of time and space. If a veteran from the Vietnam War gets Hodgkin’s lymphoma (a cancer of the lymphatic system), after being exposed to Agent Orange, and is given 3-5 years to live and told he cannot have kids, but he goes on to live beyond his projected lifespan and produced three biological children, the patient or others may claim that the patient’s sudden restoration to health and procreation are the result of prayer to God for a miracle. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Only after a board of physicians concludes that an unexpected healing has no known scientific cause does a board of theologians consider whether the healing is also a divine sign. Because of miracles, people have a reason to believe in the afterlife. Therefore, miracles are real and much more than just studies. This gives many people the faith to believe that God is real, Heaven is real, and the scriptures are not just stories that people came together and made up to control human behavior. The power to work miracles belongs to God as the creator and sustainer of the World. When we have the spirit with us, our spiritual senses are sharpened and our memory is kindled so we cannot forget the miracles and signs we have witnessed. The testimonies of miracles might dwindle without being constantly renewed by the power of the Spirit of God. And this is why it is important for us to thank God and focus on the good things in our lives, so we can give power to that which is edifying to our souls and experience on the Earth. Do not risk the loss of this precious and marvelous gift—the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Seek it through fervent prayer and righteous living. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Let us pray that we may always have eyes that see, ears that hear, and hearts that perceive the wonders of this marvelous gospel. Often, when we pray for miracles to happen in our lives, we are also praying for healing to happen in our lives as well. We see countless examples of miracles every day. Dear Lord in Heaven, please heal us in whatever you see needs healing. Heal us of whatever might separate us from you. Heal our memory, heal our heart, heal our emotions, heal our spirit, heal our body and heal our soul. Miracles are power testify that God’s touch is always a heartbeat away. It is important that we are conscious of God at work in our lives daily. Miracle power can happen in our lives when we have faith and trust that miracles can really true. Heavenly Father, we open our hearts wide to receive the love of God. We realize and accept your healing power of the Universe of love. God is limitless and abundant, we feel the outpouring of God’s love in our bodies and minds. We feel God’s love in all our affairs, and we know all is well. We would not be here without the power of God and without his miraculous power being at work. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
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Quest for Eternal Peace And Celestial Beauty
Feeling a strong desire for the manifestation of the glory of God, we make him the focus of our lives, in order to trace the continuity of pure logic. There are things going on that we cannot understand and do not know how to address, and our soul’s thirsts for God’s power and glory is an insatiable hunger, a search for something eternal, the unlimited development. Prayer is desire in its essence as response to the mystery in which we exist. God is the supreme desire of our hearts, and is supreme in everything. We long for fulfillment of the soul to feel God’s extravagant love at each turn, a desire for God to release Heaven’s fullness to overflow into our essence. Spiritual peace will lead to deep places in God’s heart, where he loves to meet our craving for him with abundance. God honors and blesses spiritual desire for union with him. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5.6). The sense of being hungry for God is painful, yet the mere wanting is felt to be somehow a delight. Other desires are felt as pleasures only if satisfaction is expected in the near future: hunger is pleasant only while we know (or believe) that we are soon going to eat. However, even when we do not know when this possible satisfaction will come, it causes us to pray and focus on God more intensely. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
We are drawn to God’s celestial beauty. The hunger for God continues to be prized, and even preferred to anything else in the World, by those who have once felt it. It is the quest for eternal peace. This hunger is better than any other fullness; this poverty better than all other wealth. The soul at the very moment is being rejuvenated, as it seeks and finds the will of God in the disposition of our life for salvation. May it please the Divine Wisdom to grant that we may always know God’s most holy will and find our peace and happiness in ever fulfilling it. With God’s health, we have to do everything in our power to get rid of sin and disorder in our lives. The courageous, and total acceptance of life and of oneself when everything tangible seems to be a mystery is the creating time when God’s blessing is coming to fruition. We can discover God in every human experience. Prayer is oneness of mind and heart in the presence of infinite mystery. Prayer is an opportunity to find God’s will as he communicates with us. God, thank you for creating our World, and giving us a chance to grow. Thank you for allowing us to appreciate life. God, thank you for the grace that has allowed us the gift of claiming responsibility for our loves, and teaching us to love ourselves as well as others. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
We are offered the possibility of losing ourselves in the past or in the crowd or of seizing new possibilities, especially those opened up by faith in God. Freedom is found in the grace of God. It is a blessing that we have the healthy power over our lives and circumstances. The religious philosophy for the hunger of God and immortality involves a mysterious sense of divine presence. The presence of God is found in a spiritual dimension of human existence, an ontological point where the divine and the human meet. This mysterious presence of the divine cannot be objectified; it takes form in an intuitive faith. It is the idea of the reciprocal action of the divine and human, of the penetration of the supernatural into the natural. To believe in God is to wish for him and be unable to live without him. God is the higher intellectual conscience, overseeing one’s ordinary conscience. That superior form of consciousness is an unerring internal court within each individual that gives us a sense of responsibility. A pure spiritual enlightenment outshines the simple mental admonition of knowing oneself. A spiritual enlightenment gives a white-hot divine flame that sears the heart, mind, and being—leaving behind a pure heart and consciousness. It makes us fit and pure utensils or vessels to greet the Most High. Layer upon layer are peeled away until only the soul, the true self remains. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
The essence of goodness consists in this that is some way desirable. Goodness is what we all desire. In nature there is nothing contingent, but all things have been determined from the necessity of the divine nature to exist and produce an effect in a certain way. Taking delight in God’s love will transform our experience. A we ponder God’s love and all that it means, it will help us, it will enable us. God’s love is unconditional, and his love is very different from human love. God’s love is not based on feelings or emotions. God loves us because he is love. He created us to have a loving relationship with him. There is no such thing as love without God. God’s love for us is spontaneous and unmotivated, revealing not that we merit that love, but that God’s nature is love. If God is truly our delight, then we will surely find him filling our thoughts, right? We will find that we remember him constantly. Then, when our minds are roaming freely in the night that our thoughts easily and naturally turn to God. Whatever is, is in God, and nothing can be or be conceived without God. The ultimate proper object of love is God, who is the highest good absolutely. However, God’s goodness is also revealed in every human person, given that every human being is made in the image of God. Thus, the proper object of love also includes human beings. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
Only acts that accord with rationality contribute to a human being’s moral goodness, and as far as a good human being is a moral one, a rational action is always a moral action. God loves human beings by helping them to maximize their capacity for reason, which is to love the good and act in accordance with it. However, the ultimate good is God, so the nature of human beings is fulfilled by loving and obeying God. Love desires the goodness of things, and since being and goodness are identical annihilation is an unloving act. A love of someone requires that we try to know that person as well as we can, to learn about his or her life as well as we can, and to respond appropriately to him or her. God loves us and this makes us valuable. God’s bestowal of love is the origin of all value. Love is a creative activity because it illuminates the beloved’s potential and allows him or her to become a better person. If someone loves me, then I am more likely to think of myself as a valuable being who is capable of much; if I am not loved, then it will be hard for me to recognize my own worth. When we love something, it means we are concerned for its well-being. As loving begins when we can respond to another person, and are able to experience his or her own desires and needs as being as import to our own, it helps to affirm that love is the fulfillment of human life. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
We truly cannot love God if we do not love our fellow travelers on this mortal journey. The great test of life is obedience to God. God has the power to bring us into loving fellowship with the him and one another. Humanity that is expressed both affirms and evokes the ultimate value of human life and the sense in which we all belong to each other as a part of the greater community of men and women that cannot be denied. We need to continually deepen our knowledge of and obedience to Heavenly Father. Our relationship with God is eternal. We are his beloved children, and that will not change. We shall love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, and will all our soul, and with all our mind. Every day of our lives, we are given opportunities to show love and kindness to those around us. Forgiveness should go hand in hand with love. In our families, as well as with our friends, there can be hurt feelings and disagreements. Again, it does not really matter how small the issues was. It cannot and should not be left to canker, to fester, and ultimately to destroy. Blame keeps wounds open. Only forgiveness heals. As we rise each morning, let us determine to respond with love and kindness to whatever might come out way so that we might have eternal life. As we come to understand this incomparable gift, our hearts will be filled with love for our Eternal Father. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
God Almighty, we thank you for our lives, and ask you to allow us have pure experience in life, knowledge of the eternal. Grant us absolute free will and access to the eternal now, and let perpetual light shine upon us. May our souls be given compassion, and teach us to love our hidden spiritual life with you. May we see all things in God and have knowledge of the Divine ideas. Let us have truth, be proud, and high-minded. May the affection of God arrogate to great force and penetrate our minds as to go about to comprehend and determine what God can, and ought to do. So that if we would but carry about us this thought, that our minds are to be considered as finite, but God as incomprehensible and infinite, there would be no further difficulty in any of their objections. The immediate cause of pleasure for us is God, who is, therefore, the sole and proper object of our love. Happiness consists of the enjoyment of pleasure, guided by the exercise of reason towards the greatest happiness, that is, God. We attribute the way of intuition to the most perfect beings, God and Angels. Please give us the great privilege of Heaven, and encourage both desires and hopes of that perfect state. May we express our devotion as to comprehend under it faith, hope, love, fear, trust, humility, submission, honour, reverence, adoration, thanksgiving in a duty to which we owe God. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Unit it Sleeps Enter Sandman
Say your prayers, little one and do not forget, my son, to include everyone. Something is wrong, shut the light. Heavy thoughts tonight and they are not of Snow White. We are living in a most interesting and remarkable age, when the Spirit of the Lord is being poured out on the face of the Earth abundantly; but it is also an age of permissiveness, when many people’s hearts are set upon Worldly treasures, pleasures, and affluence. The act of real assent achieves our intellectual orientation toward the domain of concrete existents and their values. It does so by furnishing a concrete image of the individual being under consideration and by establishing the relevance of that imaged reality to the inquirer’s own personal life. Real assent does not necessarily ensure action, but it does furnish a necessary condition for our practical responses by directing our mind toward the real existent, grasped in an image that can appeal to our passions and will. One of the great challenges facing us today is to develop sufficient wisdom, understanding, and inner strength so that we can live happily and successfully in our complex and difficult World and not be caught up in the delirious scramble for the material things and pleasures. Human’s relationship to God is not yet one of direct vision; hence we must engage in inference. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
Seek not for riches but for wisdom, and behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, one that has eternal life is rich. Since theistic inquiry concerns a real existent, it is not enough to employ formal inference, even though its resources must be used to analyze and test our arguments. A concrete personal mode of reasoning is also required in order to proportion our inquiry as fully as possible to the situation of human’s search after the truth about God. Our aim must be the complex one of attaining some definite and well-grounded propositions to which we can legitimately give our notional assent, and also of forming a concrete image of the personal, morally good, and providential God to whose reality we can then give our real assent and practical attachment. Many people probably need to change their priorities in life and seek after wisdom rather than after so many material things and pleasures. Seek out the best books, words of wisdom; seek education, even by study and also by faith, and also teach one another words of wisdom. We should learn the preexistent state, purpose of this life and a life hereafter. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
The scriptures promise we obtain wisdom, and the mysteries of God are unfolded to us as we seek God and study his words. Our aim must be the complex one of attaining some definite and well-grounded propositions to which we can legitimately give our notional assent, and also of forming a concrete image of the personal, morally good, and providential God to whose reality we can then give our real assent and practical attachment. It might be interesting to note that frequently, even when we seek after wisdom rather than riches, the Lord blesses us with wisdom and riches, as he did King Solomon. When this occurs, we have the great opportunity and responsibility to use our material wealth in the building up of the kingdom of God. We can realize a synthesis of intellectual acts bearing on the being of God. The meaning of human existence and history is important to our moral life. To reach the transcendent, personal God, it is important to be moral. It is here that we have the experience of conscience, of being under command to do and not to do, of being responsible to a just and caring person who transcends our human reality, but does so in a way that keeps him personally concerned about or conduct. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
Conscience as a commanding act disclose the full human situation of our responsibility toward the good God. One of the great needs today is increased love and solidarity within families. It is our responsibility to set an example in our own homes and as home teachers to encourage and motivate our families to do likewise. All of you who are holding family homes evenings can testify that there is greater love between the parents, and the children, and between the children. Let us continue to emphasize this inspired family home night program. Another concern is that majority groups are responsible to accept the underrepresented groups living within their area and to provide full fellowship and encouragement, if you feel comfortable, so that they can receive the blessings resulting from such activity. Three features of the living command of conscience, as the best way of achieving real as well as notional assent to God: its intentional character, its personal significance, and its practical ordination. The dictate of conscience by its very structure refers the conscientious human beyond oneself, pointing one toward the reality of the supreme lawgiver and judge of our moral actions. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
We must set a course of righteousness and follow it. This is not purely abstract orienting of our mind but involves a concrete image of God as our concerned Father. Another advantage of the way of conscience is that the moral relationship in which it consists is personal in both poles of reference. Conscience engages us precisely as a personal self; hence it enables us to give a real assent to God as a morally concerned person. Finally, the acts of conscience relate us to the personal God in a concrete way that leads to moral and religious actions. Hence the approach to God from the conscience encourages us to assent to the truth about God not only notionally but really, not only in respect to our propositions but also in respect to the persona, provident reality of God himself as the practical goal of our knowledge and love. We must find time to share with others and provide examples of courage and integrity for many who sorely need that assistance. We are vitally interested in and proud of the examples and contributions of our faithful community. Let us magnify our real assent to God, as the Lord of conscience furnishes a frame of reference for wrestling with the ungodly, and discerning God’s providential presence. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
May we so live that we may be worthy of these blessings of wisdom, happiness, peace, and eternal life. A mind that is carefully formed upon the theistic implications of conscience interprets what it sees around it by this previous inward teaching, as the true key of that maze of vast complicated disorder; and thus it gains a more and more consistent and luminous vision of God from the most unpromising materials. Thus, conscience is a connecting principle between the creature and our Creator. We must secure first of all the inward principle of interpretation provided by the personal and moral relation of people to the Lord of conscience. The work of this principle is not to soften or gloss over the power of evil, but to bring in the other considerations concerning God and moral people that will enable us to understand and work with hope against physical and moral evil in our World. God lives and may we magnify him, and may we also sustain him in every way. Help us God to know our position in your kingdom, to declare your word over our lives, and become closer to you. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
God, help us to claim our heritage in you, and move beyond the notion that we soul be satisfied with what life throws at as, which is exactly what people are telling us to do when they say things like: these are the last days, or it is a sign of the times. God, help us therefore, not to settle for mediocrity, but always seek to raise the standard, for your desire is for us to move up higher. In the mighty name of God, we come against anything or anyone conspiring against our personal advancement. We declare that we are on the upward path, no weapon formed against us shall prosper. We can grasp the intentional structure of basic human meanings only through studying their various perspectives, forcing them to enter the battlefield of critical discussion, and sometimes embodying them in visible, powerful social institutions. Dear Heavenly Father, you have seen us labor. We have been faith over small things. Please help us to be faithful over large things. Expand our territory. Promote us to the next level of responsibility. Guide our steps and priorities. Increase our faith, as we wait on you to move obstacles out of our path. Lord, you have a plan and purpose for our lives that no person can alter. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
God, give us a vision that shows us the path that you want us to go, and please continue to speak to us in our dreams. Give us your clear direction and help us to be strong and confident as we perform our responsibilities. God, I thank you for increase. Thank you for your spiritual growth and material growth. Help us to give you the glory and honor in everything we do. Use us in a mighty way. God, have your way in our lives. Thank you for all that you have done in our lives and we are expecting to see blessings for us and our families for years to come. God, we thank you for the opportunity to honor you and give you the glory. God, you have promised to take the pain of our lives and turn it into blessings, to give us beauty for the hardships, and pay us back double for anything lost. We have made up our minds to endure until the end, knowing you restore health and give new opportunities and new relationships and new perspectives. Even though it is painful for a time, it is not the end. A full life is still in front of us. We believe you have more to come in our futures. God, you are going to make the rest of our lives the best of our lives. One the way to our victories, we will always face the weariness test. Thank you for the renewed strength. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
Build a Bridge to Our Lonely Hearts
Perhaps our life in a loving premortal World set up our yearning for true, lasting love here on Earth. When we enter, we can see the eye of our soul, above (or beyond) our minds, the light unchangeable. It is it is not the common light of day that is seen by the eye of every living thing of flesh and blood. What one will see is something quite, quite, different from any light we know on Earth. It shines above our minds. It is above us (or higher), because it is itself the Light that made us, and we were below (or lower) because we were made by it. All who know the truth of this Light, and all who know this Light know eternity. We want to be encircled in the arms of our Heavenly Father’s love and guidance, and so we put his will first and with a broken heart plead that God will pour streams of cleaning light into our souls. At first in may trickle in, but as we seek, ask, and obey, it will become abundant. This living light will begin to fill us, and shine with God’s love, and we will be able to share the contents of our soul with others who thirst for healing, hope, and belonging. As our souls become clean, our Earthly relationships begin to heal. Drawing near God will mean learning his truth through scriptures, and striving to do his will more completely. God, by the power of the Holy Ghost, can give us needed insight into relationships. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
When we quest for reality, we shall see the Light as God: The Light already shines in the darkness, in the night, and in the day, in our hearts and minds. God is Light. Those who have not seen this light, have not seen God: for God is light. If we hope to enter his kingdom, we cannot regard the commandments as if they were optional. If we are unkind, unclean dishonest, or cruel; if we are hypocritical and appear pious when in fact our hearts are wicked, we throw our hope of salvation to the four winds, unless we truly repent. Light is expressed as human love: the soul is seen as being ravished by perfect harmony. When the Lord comes as a consuming fire, his presence is understood in the power y which the soul is changed. The light illuminating the intellect comes through narrow apertures, and the soul is perceiving the infinite metaphysical reality of light. And what is charity in its true sense? It is the pure love of God which helps us to love others. God expects us to become as perfect as he is. The very object of our existence as children of God is to become like him. However, no unclean thing may enter his presence. Therefore, we must perfect ourselves, beginning here in mortality, keeping in mind that we cannot achieve perfection through imperfect means. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
When we give our hearts to God, we change our World—even the circumstances around us change. There has always been light in our spirits, and not with external eyes can one always see it. That is why God is so strict. That is why he cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. We must serve God with all of our hearts and do unto others as we would be done by as we travel to this journey of eternal life. The light which we possess is not located, but yet is more brilliant than the Sun, it is called the cloud of the living light. And when I look upon it, every sadness and pain vanishes from my memory, so that I am again as a simple person. We need to continually deepen our knowledge of and obedience to Heavenly Father. Ravishing away from the darkness, gives the light, as our relationship with God is eternal. How are we going to wholeheartedly accept his invitation to draw near to him and this enjoy the blessings he longs to give us in this life and in the next World to come? God has loved us with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness God has drawn us. It is important, with desire, to see others in their true light. For without light, we shall not be able to walk in the way of truth. The soul ought to go on with all zeal to the perfect light. We are on this Earth to grow, and the most important learning and growing will come from our covenant connection to Heavenly Father. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Gazing into an Angel’s eyes, there was a radiantly bright, so searing to the eyes it strikes upon. My hard feelings softened, my heart started to change, and my eyes needed must close before such piercing light. The light was encompassed us; in veil so luminous we were enwrapped that naught swathed in such a glory, could we see. Light we beheld which as a river flowed. There was a circle of yellow light at the center of the Celestial, the light of God’s glory, the lumen gloriae. The eternal light. There is a point that is sent forth so acute a light, that anyone who faced the force with which it blazed would have to shut their eyes, and any star that, seen from Earth, would seem to be the smallest, set beside that point. Around that point, a ring of fire wheeled. The Highest Light (or Light Supreme), we set our eyes on the Eternal Light so long that we spent all our sight on it! Whoever sees the Light is soon made such that it would be impossible for him or her to set that Light aside for other sight; because the good, the object of the will, is gathered in the Light; outside that Light, what there is perfect is defective. From our faithful relationship with God comes Godly knowledge, love, power, and capacity to serve. We are duty-bound to learn all that God has revealed about himself. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
We are divinely designed to give love and be loved, and deepest love comes when we are on with God. The Living Light at which we gazed—for it is always what it was before…Eternal Light, you only dwell within yourself, and you know you; self-knowing, self-known, you love and smile upon yourself. Can you feel the depth of the love running through God’s preparations for our joy and growth? We need to know that Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation is that we obey the laws and ordinances of the gospel and gain eternal life and thus become as God is. This is the true and lasting happiness Heavenly Father offers us. There is no other true and lasting happiness. Our challenges can pull us off this course of happiness. We can lose our trusting connection to God if trials drive us to distraction instead of sending us to reflect upon the miracles of God. We must love, even when loving is most difficult. The light of our minds for learning al things is the same God himself by whole all things were made, and he sees humankind as one in the City of God: all humankind are citizens of God. He seeks to understand the experience. The Infinite reality is light, in the order of the Universe, which can be known behind the normal mind. In its oneness immortality and eternity can be found. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Simple love, honestly expressed gives hope and value to others. Beloved Father and Shepherd of our souls, we come to you today with gratitude in our hearts for the gift of family. We know you designed families to present a perfect picture for you and your work. However, so often, God, we are sorrowful people in shattered relationships. We pray that you heal our family bond. Please breathe your unity throughout each family. Where hatred reigns, let love prevail. Where anger rises, let peace endure. Where selfishness chokes, let sacrifice come forth. And where bitterness poisons, let the sweet balm of your Spirit whisper truth, light, and life. Lord, you know the deep needs of each family touched by this prayer. Some have relatives who do not know you. Some have family members who do not communicate with them anymore. Some have loved ones who have passed into Heaven, have afflictions, or have taken other paths into deceitfulness of sin. We ask for your grace to allow each one to stand strong amid these trials and ask for your compassion to flow in and through every unique situation. Protect us from harm, and knit the hearts of our families together even as you knit our own hearts more closely to you. Build a bridge to our lonely hearts, increase our discernment, confidence, and faith. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
God Loves Us Because of Who We Are
God waits for you to communicate with him. Our entire lives can be seen as a pilgrimage to the Kingdom of God. In the process towards illumination, the fear and obedience of God melts into a passionate interior love of God that is carried with it the hope that union with him might be grained through leading a righteous life. This interior knowledge is the Light of God, which lights the Heavens and the Earth; his light is like a niche wherein there is a lamp, a lamp encased in glass, the glass as it were a glistening star. We receiver the radiant light with the gaze of love, and become worthy for the doors of our heart to be opened by the workings of God’s divine attraction, descending from the unseen. Upon us is peace, the manifestation of the attributes of grace and of love, and the path we trod is that of concern for the well-being of others, as we fully contemplate that the World and the gracious assistance it receives will increase. The spirit, when returning to its proper World, has the need of the soul, for it cannot go on foot. When it came into this World, it inhaled the spirit. Were it not for passion, none would travel a path to God. When the soul becomes assured, it gains mastery over the two attributes of passion and anger. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
God loves humankind and all life on Earth so much. When passion desires to ascend, it become all love and affection; and when anger strives upward, it becomes all zeal and high aspiration. The soul turns to the Divine Presence with love and affection, and in its zeal and high aspiration refuses to stop at any station to pay attention to the Almighty Presence. When we were still in the World of spirits, the spirit was without these instruments (bodies), and was like the Angels, satisfied with its own station. It was content to perceive a single light and glow from the candle of the Majesty of Unity, we were appointed stations, and dared not to step beyond our own station because we would be burned. However, when the spirit became acquainted with Earth, the soul was born as the offspring of its union with the four elements, and from the soul was born. The divine grace attached itself to the soul as companion. The relationship of the heart to the body is like that of God’s Throne to the World. In the same way that the Throne is the place of manifestation for the repose of the attribute of compassion in the macrocosm, so too the heart is the place of manifestation for the repose of the attribute of spirituality in the microcosm. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
The heart is possessed of awareness and capable of progressing. When God Almighty’s sustaining grace reaches the world of bodies, it is through the attribute of compassion. May God’s compassion encompass the World for all creation benefits from the attribute of compassion, whether friend or stranger, animate or inanimate. Compassion is a divine attribute, but mercy is a human attribute. When some part of the grace of the attribute of compassion is dispatches to the World of bodies, the first body to receive it is the Throne, for it is the closet of all bodies to the World of Dominion. One of its faces is turned toward the World of Dominion, and it is by means of this that it receives God’s grace. It is also by way of the Throne that the grace is distributed, for the Throne is connected with all corporeal beings by a series of channels that conduct the sustaining grace of each class of being. This flow of grace is continuous and makes possible the survival and permanence of all beings; were the sustenance it provides to be interrupted for a single moment, nothing could remain in existence. This is the inner meaning of “Everything shall perish, but God’s face.” Since the Throne was fitted to receive the sustaining grace of the attribute of compassion, it was honored with the compassionate reposed on the Throne, although unaware of this high fortune. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
Similarly, one face of the human heart is turned to the World of spirituality, and the other face to the World of the bodily frame. It is for this reason that love is mysterious because the heart contains within itself two Worlds, corporeal and spiritual, and constantly turns from one to the other. Now, just think about that for a moment. Love is not just physical, but it is also divine, so that means each and every one of us has a soulmate. If we try to force a relationship, are only lustful, or just seeking stability, we could miss out on the love of our life, which could have mystical consequences. All sustaining grace received from the spirit is distributed by the heart; delicate veins connect it with each member and serve as channels for the grace of the spirit. Thus, all grace received by the heart is distributed by it in such a manner that each member receives a fitting share. Were the sustenance of that grace to be severed from the heart, even for an instant, the bodily frame would stop functioning and all life would cease. Likewise, if its sustenance were to be severed from a member on account of some obstacle in the veins that are the channels of grace, the member would be unable to move and would be paralyzed. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
It is thus clear that the relation of the heart to the microcosm is the same as that of the Throne to the macrocosm. The heart, however, has a property and nobility that the Throne does not possess, for the heart is aware of receiving the effusion of the grace of the spirit, whole the Throne has no such awareness. For the grace of the spirit reaches the heart in the form of attributes, and the attributes of the spirit bestow upon the heart life, knowledge, and intelligence, so that the heart is able to perceive grace. In like manner, the light of the Sun, which is also its attribute, may pour into a room. The room will then be illumined with the flowing light of the Sun, and light will appear in it, so that it acquires the attributes of the Sun with respect to luminosity. By contrast, the grace of the attribute of compassion comes to the Throne only as action and power, not as an attribute. The Throne is sustained thereby, and bestows upon all beings a trace of the action and power it has received, sustaining the, in turn. Life does not appear in them, however, nor does knowledge or gnosis, which are the attributes of God. Similarly, when the Sun pours down the attribute of luminosity on a mountain, the mountain acquires the attribute of luminosity. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
However, when the mountain in turn bestows this light upon the ruby and agate within the mine, through its own workings and effects, the ruby and agate do not acquire the Sun’s attribute of luminosity, and react instead to the workings of the Sun by acquiring the attributes of ruby and agate, respectively. Furthermore, when the heart is purified in accordance with the code of the Path, it has the capacity to become the place of repose of the attribute of compassion, in the same way that it is the place of repose of the attribute of spirituality. Indeed, when through nurturing, purification, and direction toward God it reaches perfection, it becomes the locus for the manifestation of all the attributes of divinity. God put something in you to give you an advantage—his favor, his blessing. There is something about you that makes you stand out, something that draws opportunity, something causes you to overcomes obstacles, to accomplish dreams. There are certain of God’s children who attain perfection of the heart after purifying and training their hearts through follow our gracious God Almighty of the First and the Last; and then the ocean of light of the attributes of beauty and splendor will exalt the God Almighty and will be made manifest to our hearts several times in the course of a single night and day. This is the support through God’s grace. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
What, now, is the heart; wherein lies its purification; how is it to be trained, and how to attain perfection? Know that the heart has an outer form, upon whom be peace, as flesh. There is also a spiritual heart, a heart that is derived from the light of love and not possessed by everyone. Thus, God said: “Truly therein is a reminder for him or her who is possessed of a heart.” That is, the one who has a heart enjoys familiarity with God. God did not affirm that everyone possesses a heart. The vein of the spirit was pierced with love’s lancet tip; a drop fell down, and they called it the heart. Love and affection, a heart full of passion. No pain is pleasure. Mystical experience then typically involves the intense and joyous realization of oneness with, or in, the divine, the sense that this divine One is comprehensive, all-embracing, in its being. The soul is longing for its return to God. However, it is also keenly appreciative of the beauties of nature. Farther God, we come into your presence so aware of our human frailty and yet overwhelmed by your love for us. We thank you that there is no human experience that we might walk through where your love cannot reach us. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
Teach us today to love more. Help us to rest in that love that asks nothing more than a simple trusting heart of an innocent. God is our Father. He loves us. He values us beyond measure. We are all unique. One of a kind, made of the eternal intelligence which gives us claim upon eternal life. Let there be no question in your mind about your value as an individual. The whole intent of the gospel plan is to provide an opportunity for each of us to reach our fullest potential, which is eternal progression and the possibility of Godliness. God’s love is infinite and it will endure forever. No one can make us feel inferior without our consent. God assures us that when we have virtuous thoughts, he will bless us with confidence, even the confidence to know who we really are. Remember the Worth of souls is great in the sight of God. May our hearts be filled with love. As we remove the distractions that pull us toward the World and exercise our agency to seek him, we open our hearts to a celestial force which draws us toward God. As the Savior lifts us to higher ground, we can see more clearly not only who we are but also that we are closer to him than we ever imagined. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
Every Step of the Way to Heaven is Heaven
Out of darkness is born the light. The courageous person fears things that we all struggle to endure, but faces them as one should. What we need, in order to live well, is a proper appreciation of the way in which such goods as friendship, courage, pleasure, virtue, honor, and wealth fit together as a whole. Practical wisdom cannot be acquired solely by learning general rules. We must also acquire, through practice, those deliberative, emotional, and social skills that enable us to put our general understanding of well-being into practice in ways that are suitable to each occasion. We are asking what the good for human beings is not simply because we want to have knowledge, but because we will be better able to achieve our good, if we develop a fuller understanding of what it is to flourish. Everyone will agree that the potential to live a better life, is our capacity to guide ourselves by using reason. If we use reason well, we live well as human being. Furthermore, if we use reason well, we live well over the course of a full life, that is what happiness consists in. Doing anything well requires virtue or excellence, and therefore living well consists in activities caused by the rational soul in accordance with virtue or excellence. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
There are many courageous leaders in our World today who are very courageous and in control of their emotions. Self-mastery requires self-determination and strength of character. It enhances our own gifts and talents in a remarkable way. It is the power of a noble being. Every human soul has the challenge of controlling his or her thoughts, appetites, speech, temper, and desires. Self-mastery cannot be bought by money or fame, it is the ultimate test of our character. It requires climbing out of the deep valleys of our lives and scaling our own Trump Tower. We learn great lessons from self-mastery. We learn to get up, to work when we should work, and to go to bed when we should go to bed. Achieving good character is a process of clearing away the obstacles that stand in the way of full efficacy of the soul. What the person of good character loves with right desire and thinks of as an end with right reason must first be perceived as beautiful. Hence, the virtuous person sees truly and judges rightly, since beautiful things appear as they truly are only to a person of good character. God determined to please us by benevolent actions; and when nothing interferes with the moral sense, we count benevolence a virtue. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
The soul is standardly thought and spoken of as the distinguishing mark of living things, as something that is the subject of emotional states and that is responsible for planning and practical thinking, and also as the bearer of such virtues as courage and justice. Spirits on the other hand are physically indivisible, can penetrate both other spirits and material objects, and can initiate motion. These properties it shares with God; along with God being eternal and infinite. Since spirits can penetrate both other spirits and material object, contracting and expanding like Newton’s aether, as the occasion makes necessary. Aether is the raw essence of the Universe and it permeates the innermost recesses of all matter. Thus, God, an individual mind, and a material object can all be present in the one place without losing their independence as substances. Spirit can be regarded as a sort of fourth dimension; a body which contains a spirit has a certain spissitude, or density of substances. Spirit exist at various levels and are the true cause of all activity. This is what is meant by demonstrating there is a God. Spiritual forces are at work in the World. We have the Greatest God of Heaven and Earth. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
There is pleasure to be reaped when we have a Holy Faith because he holds the pure light and those who understand are unwilling to turn from the Sun and its beauty in the delightful colours and how it perfectly lifts our minds. The Divine image supplies of with glorious wisdom and goodness of God, which is fairly drawn out and skillfully envisioned in excellence. This delights us because God has revitalized faith through the inner life, and this leads many people to understand that they are of the same substance as God. Every person is capable of becoming divine. God is beyond good. He makes people feel like that of an Angel. Through the darkness of their time, God provides them with gracious genius that sheds a soft radiance. There is a winning expression, a fund of good spirits. God responds not in words, but in the communication of love and sorrow in their souls. God is a bridge that is stretching from Heaven to Earth. It is a delightful connection to the soul and pleasing to us in prayer, which is made in the house of self-knowledge and knowledge God. The soul is united with God. We are granted union with God in response to constant or continual prayer. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
The Lord begins to give us his kingdom on Earth so that we may truly praise him and hallow his name. Those who prayer the Prayer of Quiet enter a state in which nothing distresses them and they are overwhelmed and absorbed by the joy and delight which they experience. It captivates the will and fills the soul and body with ineffable sweetness and delight. The Prayer of Quiet gives the soul an actual possession and elated fruition of the sovereign excellence. The will is completely captivated and absorbed in God. The soul is in a state where it does not seem to lack anything, it wishes to express love. Moreover, during the Prayer of Quiet, God may grant the soul the favor of a peace that can last for a lifetime. Those who experience this state are full of this joy without understanding the reason. In this state the will is absent because it is united with God. God implants himself in the interior of the soul in such a way that, when it returns to itself, it cannot possibly doubt that God has been in it and it has been in God. Be who God meant you to be. Although the duration may differ on the nature and the extent of the union, God penetrates all the turnings and windings of our hearts. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Every step of the way to Heaven is Heaven because of the hunger and desire for the soul’s salvation. We experience an epiphany of God’s love, where the sound of the exterior World is not necessary. As in human relations, the conversation of love needs no words and love may be felt through the mere presence of the beloved. This is also true in prayerful communication, no words may be needed. A response to divine love, felt in prayer or otherwise, may not be a rush of ecstasy, but the peace of loving acceptance, essentially a quiet epiphany. The soul is in the intuitive state of love because love follows the intellect, and the more it knows the more it can love. We taste life of eternal. So you see, the eye of the intellect has received supernatural light, infused by grace, and day by day this happiness grows as God flows into these souls, more and more as the hindrance to his entrance is consumed. Our love becomes infinite, and we wish much more to see the secret of the heart. The soul is in God and God in the soul, just as the fish in the sea and sea in the fish. This is a gentle and loving World, and our desire in this life is to see the honor of God. Self-mastery is the ultimate test of our character. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
The Winchester Mystery House
Can the living communicate with the dead? Does prayer work? Are astrology and psychic readings accurate? A tour through The Winchester Mystery House might make sense of these mysteries and many more. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
God Holds Your Future in His Hands
Humans are born to be good to each other. For each of us, life is a journey. Heavenly Father designed it for us out of love. Your life as it is lived, your experiences, feelings, deeds, these are the embodiment of your ideal plan for your individual life. Each of us has unique experiences and characteristics, but our journey began in the same place before we were born into this World. However, many of us never expresses our plan of life perfectly because there is always more to do with our cause. The purpose may not be so much on self-understanding. Instead, perhaps, the true and ultimate focus is to know God and to establish a pleasing relationship with God. We can make choices every day and almost every hour that keep you walking in the light or moving away toward darkness. It is in our power to become virtuous, because assent is in our control; we decide how we act. Suffering, as unpleasant as it is, often has a bright side and that is compassion. Compassion is an emotional response when perceiving suffering and involves an authentic desire to help. Human suffering is often accompanied by beautiful acts of compassion by others wishing to relieve it. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
With each other is the path to living the good life. Compassion is a natural tendency since it is essential for human survival. Communities, which include the greatest number of the most sympathetic members, will flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring. Because babies are the most vulnerable offspring on the face of the Earth, it rearranged our social structures, building cooperative networks of caretaking, and it rearranged our nervous systems. Humans have become the super caregiving species, to the point where acts of care improve our physical health and lengthen our lives. One can see our natural connectivity and compassionate instincts in how our brains react to pain. When we are physically hurt, the anterior cingulate region of the brain is activated. It has also been discovered that when we see someone else suffering, that very same part of the cortex in our brain activates. Therefore, many of us have the same pain response to other people’s pain as we do to our own experiences of suffering. Remarkable tendencies toward kindness, play, generosity, reverence and self-sacrifice are vital to the classic tasks of evolution—survival, gene replication and smooth functioning groups. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
With situations like the shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada USA that happened 1 October 2017, which left 59 people dead and injured 515 individuals, that is a misrepresentation of the evolutionary study of human goodness. Humans are a social and caring species. For instance, there are organizations out there trying to see the 200 million children in Africa who are starving, get the food, shelter and medical care that they need, and that is just one of many examples that exemplifies that we have compassion for humans, and life in general. We are prone to feel emotions that promote altruism, compassion, gratitude, love, and happiness. It is our love that defines us today, and always will forever. These good emotions can be readily cultivated in familiar ways, bringing out the good in others and in oneself. When praying about compassion the left hemisphere of a brain, a region associated with happiness, becomes active and boosts the immune functions. When we praise the Lord, and thank him for our blessings and talk about what we are grateful for, this boosts happiness and social well-being and health. Experiences of reverence in nature or around morally inspiring society improves people’s sense of connection to others and sense of purpose. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
Compassion may have ensured our survival because of its tremendous benefits for both physical and mental health and overall well-being. Laughing and playing in the face of trauma gives an individual perspective upon life’s inevitable difficulties, and improves resilience and adjustment. Connecting with others in a meaningful way helps us enjoy better mental and physical health and speeds up recover from injuries and other ailments, and it may even lengthen our life spans. The reason a compassionate lifestyle leads to greater psychological well-being may be explained by the fact that the act of giving appears to be as pleasurable, if not more so, as the act of receiving. Inflammation is at the root of cancer and other diseases and is generally high in people who live under a lot of stress. We might expect that inflammation would be lower for people with higher levels of happiness. People who are happy because they live a life of purpose or meaning (eudemonic happiness) have low levels of inflammation. A happy life helps to act as a barrier against stress and compassion may boost our well-being because it broadens our perspective beyond ourselves. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
Every child of Heavenly Father born in the World is given at birth, as a free gift, the Light of Christ. You have felt that. It is the sense of what is right and what is wrong and what is true and what is false. That has been with us since our journey in life began. We were given the right to have the Holy Ghost as our companion. The Holy Ghost is a powerful source of light to recognize truth, to follow and love the Lord Jesus Christ, and to find our way back to God. This kind of religion and science gives many hope for the future. Our culture may shift from a consumption-based, materialist culture to one that privileges God and the social joys. Executives are learning the wisdom around the country of emotional intelligence, respect, and building trust. Heavenly Father, please grant us the peace of mind and calm our troubled hearts. Help our souls to find peace and balance in our lives. Give us the strength and clarity of mind to find our purpose and walk the path you have laid out for us. We trust your Love God, and know that you will heal this stress. Just as the Sun rises each day against the dark of night, please bring us clarity with the light of God. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
Miraculous and Blessed Manifestations of God
I once told someone I know God’s first and last name. She asked me what is it? I said his first name is God, and his last name is Almighty. She disagreed with me, but I realize not everyone will always share the perspectives we have about life and that is fine. It is necessary to be as certain about things as we can be in our own Worlds. Our expectations and assumptions—whether generous or hopeful, pitiless or woebegone—constantly bend and even wrap the World we see. Uncertainty is a lack of information about an event and is characterized as an aversive state that people are motivated to reduce. Uncertainty during an emotion event makes unpleasant events more unpleasant. We have all been there at one time or another, stuck in uncertainty. It is an uncomfortable place to be, and can leave an individual feeling out of control, hopeless, and helpless. Humans love a sense of order and predictability, chaos and the random nature of life can be very scary. By gaining information, organisms learn to predict and control their environment, conferring an adaptive advantage. Consequently, uncertainty is generally viewed as an aversive state that organisms are motivated to reduce. The state of curiosity, for example, in which people desire more information about something in their environment, is viewed as a negative drive state that produces pleasure only when it is satisfied. The more people that understand an event—what it is, why it occurred, how it fits into their self-concepts—the more quickly they adapt to it. #RandolpHarris 1 of 9
Thus, anything that impedes understanding, including uncertainty about the nature of the event, will prolong affective reactions to the event. Researchers typically induce uncertainty by depriving people of information. There are well-documented associations between job insecurity and health issues. The University College London looked at the effects of changes in job security in more than 3,300 civil servants. There were three groups of participants (those who lost job security during this period, those who gained it, and those for whom employment prospects remained uncertain), and found that of the three groups the worst health problems were reported by the participants whose work status remained uncertain. Sadly, even those whose jobs became secure still reported lingering problems two years later, particularly psychiatric disturbances such as low moods. This is not surprising, psychologist have noted that individuals are more likely to suffer lasting psychological disturbances—in particular, low self-esteem and depression when formed to live with aversive events they feel they cannot control. All the of the health problems were not mental either. Some people got sick, suffered severe headaches, bone fractures, loss of appetite, hair falling out, insomnia, bruises, chronic fatigue syndrome, digestive issues, inflammation, bruises, felt more pain that they had in the past, and a few of them even passed away because they lost their purpose to live and/or the stress was too great to endure. Some even attempted suicide, which is not surprising. During the Great Depression 1929-1941, 324,000 Americans committed suicide. At that time, the population was only 123,000,000 people in America. When a person is uncertain how they will care for themselves or support their household, their families also suffer because they love the individual and see how hard the stress is on them and it impacts the lives of others who care. The stress was also detrimental to relationships. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
When you are living with uncertainty and feel like some of your power in life has been taken from your hands, how do you cope? How do you manage to live in that ambiguous place without falling apart or dissolving into stress or worry? Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in Heaven and in Earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in Heaven and in Earth; believe that humans do not comprehend all things which the Lord can comprehend. Try to be good and follow protocols so one can make sure that one has done everything in one’s power to prevent an adverse reaction from happening. Later on, if the matter is not addressed in a reasonable or timely manner, also pray about a good resolution every day, for hours, and thank God for the blessings that have been provided. It helps to reduce a great deal of stress. You do not have to experience the sorrow caused by sin, the pain caused by others’ actions, or the painful realities of morality alone. Authentic faith is not about easy answers. Rather, it is about finding the courage and wisdom to live with uncertainty. Faith can help turn uncertainties into blessings. In fact, uncertainty can ultimately sustain and make our faith even stronger. Sometimes we compartmentalize. We pray about one thing and worry about something else. We seem to limit the ability of the Lord to help us in every aspect of our lives. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
God has overwhelming love for human beings, and we need to receive this love. There is a sense of an infinite loving kindness in the World, and we can tune into this more as we develop our faith. The original creations of the Heavenly Father constitute a truly wonder-filled World. Our greatest advocate is Jesus Christ. He is like our lawyer and is correcting barriers in our lives and creating opportunities as we pray and thank him. Faith is the assurance which people have of the existence of things which they have not seen, and the principle of action in all intelligent beings. As the key to our salvation, our individual faith, then becomes of absolute importance to us. Faith is the realization that the Lord can help us with all things. We are living in a time in which we shall see things both wonderful and awful. When we find ourselves in stressful circumstances, we should still be cheerful. If our attitude towards life depends upon the praise of people, the level of interest rates, the outcome of a particular election or athletic contest—we are too much at the mercy of humans and circumstances. Nor should our gratitude for the gift of mortal life depend on appearances. Jesus calls on us to have a deliberate trust in God’s unfolding purposes, not only for all humankind, but for us individually. And we are to be of good cheer in the unfolding process. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
The Lord knows our bearing capacity, both to coping and to comprehending, and he will not give us more to bear than we can manage at the moment, though to us it may seem otherwise. God is the absolute maximum or infinite being, in the sense that he has the fullness of perfection. There is nothing outside of God to oppose him or to limit him. He is the all. God is the infinite being, all opposition is reconciled in perfect unity. Creatures add nothing to divine reality; they are simply limited and partial appearances of it. As a face reproduces itself more or less perfectly in a number of mirrors, so God reflects himself in various ways in his creatures. In this case, however, there are no mirrors. God transcends the Universe, but is also immanent in it, as a face is present in mirrored images. Each creature is also present in every other, as each image exists in every other. The love of God is the reason for joy. This love of God is precisely what the first Christians did feel. God is love and love is meaningless except between persons. Almighty God, we bless you for our lives, we give you praise for your abundant mercy and grace we receive. We thank you for your faithfulness. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
Where there is great love there are always miracles. A miracle is merely some event which astounds the speaker, with perhaps some presumption that others will or should react to it in the same way. The wonder is that a miracle will consist in an overriding of the order of nature. A miracle is something which would never have happened had nature, as it were, been left to its own devices. A miracle can be worked only by God or by his specially deputed agents. Lord Jesus, we ask you to give us all around peace in our mind, body, soul, and spirit. We want you to heal and remove everything that is causing stress, grief, and sorrow in our lives. Please guide our paths through life and make our enemies be at peace with us. Let your peace reign in our families, at our places of work, businesses and everything we lay our hands on. Please let your Angels of peace go ahead of us when we go out and stay by our side when we return. Please build systems of miracles in our lives that are larger than truth. Produce miraculous events in our lives. Heavenly Father, open our hearts wide to receive the love of God. As we receive God’s love as universal supply, may all our affairs be healed. We realize and accept the healing power of the Universe as love, and allow the healing power of love to penetrate our lives. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9
Miracles come as we yield to the enticings of the Spirit, put off the natural humans, and are filled with the love of God. We accept the healing power of love in our lives and know that as love, God is our limitless and abundant supply made manifest. We feel the outpouring of God’s love in our bodies and mind. Bless us with the faith to always believe, to affirm the Supreme Power of Your miracles, be they physical, financial, or spiritual in nature. Grant us the aptitude to instantly perceive the source of all supernatural occurrences, so only your excellence shall be glorified. Lord, we are praying for only what you can do. We are praying for a miracle. The source from which it will come is from you, great God. We trust you to send us a sign. Teach us, dear Lord, to know your wonder and splendor. And, if you are willing, we are waiting, ready to receive our miracles today. We ask that you come against negative influences, spiritual attacks, and bondages. We believe you have the miraculous power and strength to conquer the darkest enemy, break the strongest barrier, and silence the greater deceiver. God, you are worthy, glorious, almighty in power and we claim victory today in your name. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
Miracles are not differing from nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature. Send us a miracle which will create faith. God, help us to remember the reason we began. Help us to see the purpose behind your place. Please provide the necessary grace. Keep us set upon your face, to find strength for the next step, to discover faith to keep increasing and to believe that miracles are possible today and in all circumstances. Send your mightiest warriors to fight this battle for us. God, to you, the darkness shines as bright as day. Shine your light upon us, free us, give us peace, and snatch us back from the enemy’s grip. Impossible situation can become possible miracles. Seeing, hearing, and feeling are miracles, and each part of us is a miracle. We believe in a God of miracles. We can all bear witness to miracles. We know children who pray for help to find a lost item and find it. We know of young people who gather the courage to stand as a witness of God and feel his sustaining power. We know friends who pay their tithing with the last of their money and then, through miracles, find themselves able to pay their tuition or their rent or somehow obtain food for their family. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
In this beautiful time of year, we remember that restorations and renewals are gifts from God. There are multitudes of little miracles every day: a collapsed lung heals, and then, despite the odds, continues to function properly. God of miracles loves his children and desires to bless them. Our family also has faced the passing into Heaven of loved one, serious illness, the trial of divorce, and children and adults who are choosing another path. We do not always under the reason behind the tests that come with morality. However, our faith has grown, and perhaps yours has too, as we have watched loved ones, friends, and people we know only by reputation endure with faith in the Lord the most severe trials. They, too, know the God of miracles and witness in their extremity that whatever the future holds for the, the Lord knows them and loves them and is blessing them. We are all sealed to God and to each other forever, and are willing to submit our wills to God’s. God can heal us of our sins, and he can and will bless us, his children, in our daily lives. God lives and loves. God is a God of miracles. Among the signs of the evidences of God’s work in the World, which are the manifestations of his power which we are unable to explain, but we know they are divine acts and special blessings. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
CRESLEIGH HAVENWOOD
Lincoln, CA | from the high $600,000s
Now Selling!
No appointment needed! Cresleigh Havenwood features four distinct floor plans ranging from 2,293 – 3,377 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! 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!
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/
Randolph Harris II International Institute 