Home » Justice (Page 42)
Category Archives: Justice
The Former Allies Had Blundered in the Past by Offering Germany too Little, and Offering Even that too Late!
Become aware of the endless stream of paper that flows into your life on a daily basis that keeps you from concentrating on what is truly important. We spend untold hours: taking it in; glancing at it; sorting through it; reading it; stacking it on a corner of the desk; glancing through it again; setting it aside; then later trying to find it again; not knowing what to do with it; finally deciding what to do with it; filing it; passing it on to clutter up someone else’s space; setting it aside to clutter up our own space; or tossing it out. People forget how fast you did a job—but they remember how well you did it. In all expressions of gratitude towards others, the object of our thanks is usually visible. We know at least whom to thank, and what for, although we often do not know how to thank. However, there is also gratefulness that is, so to speak, without a definite object towards which to turn. This is so not because we do not know the object, but because there is no object. We are simply grateful. Thankfulness has taken hold of us, not because something special has happened to us, but just because we are, because we participate in the glory and power of being. It is a mood of joy, but more than a mood, more than a transitory emotion. It is a state of being. And it is more than joy. It is a joy that includes the feeling that it is given, that we cannot accept it without brining some sacrifice—namely, the sacrifice of thanks. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
However, there is no one to whom bring it. And so it remains within us, a state of silent gratefulness. You may ask—why is not God the object of such gratefulness? However, that would not describe what happens in many people—Christians as well as non-Christians, believers and unbelievers. They are grateful. However, they do not turn to God with direct words of prayer. It is just gratefulness in itself which fills them. If they were told to turn to God in prayer of thanks, they would feel that such a command would destroy their spontaneous experience of gratefulness. How shall we judge this state of mind that many of us may have experiences at some time? Shall we say it is thanks without God, and therefore not real thanks? Shall we say that in this state we are like the pagans of whom Paul says that “although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him?” Certainly not. The abundance of a grateful heart gives honor to God even if it does not turn to Him in words. An unbeliever who is filled with thanks for his very being has ceased to be an unbeliever. His rejoicing is a spontaneous obedience to the exhortation of our text—“Rejoice always!” It is then possible to understand out text when it says—“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything!” It certainly does not mean—“never feel sorrow, day and night use words of prayer and thanks!” #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
Jesus characterizes this way of imposing oneself on God as a perversion of religion. Then what do these exhortations mean? They mean just what we called the state of silent gratefulness, that may or may not express itself in prayers. We are not to tell God without ceasing what we wish Him to do for us or what He has done for us. We are asked to rise to God always and in all things. He shall never be absent from our awareness. Certainly, He is creatively present in everyone in every moment whether we re aware of it or not. However, when we are in the state of silent gratefulness, we are aware of His presence. We experience an elevation of life that we cannot attain by profuse words of thanks, but that can happen to us if we are open to it. A man was once asked if he prayed. He answered, “always and never.” He meant that he was aware of the divine presence, but only rarely did he use words of prayer and thanks to express this awareness. He did not belong to those who do not thank because they are never aware of the presence of the divine, and he did not belong to those who believe that being aware of God means addressing Him continuously. He thought that words directed towards God must come out of a state of elevation, of silent gratefulness. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
Another man was asked whether he believed in God, and he answered, “I do not know, but if something very good happens to me, I need someone to whom I can give thanks.” He experienced the state of grateful elevation, like the first, but he was driven to express his feelings in direct words of thanks. He had need of another to whom to sacrifice. Both men describe the fact that thanking God is a state of elevation without words and also a desire to sacrifice in words directed to God. In these two ways of thanking, two kinds of relationship to God are manifest: He is the other to Whom I speak in words of thanks; and He is above myself and every other, the one to Whom I cannot speak, but Who can make Himself manifest to me through a state of silent gratefulness. One of the great and liberating experiences of the Protestant reformers was their realization that our relation to God is not dependent on the continuous repetition of words of prayer and thanks directed to God, on sacrifices and other rituals, but rather on the serenity and joy that is answer to the good news that we are accepted by God because of His seeking us, and not because of anything we can do or say in and outside church. “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that they did prosper in the land; and I beheld a book, and it was carried forth among them. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21
“And the Angel said unto me: Knowest thou the meaning of the book? And I said unto him: I know not. And he said: Behold it procedeth out of the mouth of a Jew. And I, Nephi, beheld it; and he said unto me: The book that thou beholdest is a record of the Jews, which contains the covenants of the Lord, which he hath made unto the house of Israel; and it also containeth many of the prophecies of the holy prophets; and it is a record like unto the engravings which are upon the plates of brass, save there are not so many; nevertheless, they contain the covenants of the Lord, which he hath made unto the house of Israel; wherefore, they are of great worth unto the Gentiles. And the Angel of the Lord said unto me: Thou hast beheld that the book proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew; and when it proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew it contained the fulness of the gospel of the Lord, of whom the twelve apostles bear record; and they bear record according to the truth which is in the Lamb of God. Wherefore, these things go forth from the Jews in purity unto the Gentiles, according to the truth which is in God. And after they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have taken away. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
“And all this have they done that they might pervert the right ways of the Lord, that they might blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of humans. Wherefore, thou seest that after the book hath gone forth through the hands of the great and abominable church, that there are many plain and precious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb of God. And after these plain and precious things were taken away it goeth forth unto all the nations of the Gentiles; and after it goeth forth unto all the nations of the Gentiles, yea, even across the many waters which thou hast seen with the Gentiles which have gone forth out of captivity, thou seest—because of the many plain and precious things which have been taken out of the book, which were plain unto the understanding of the children of humans, according to the plainness which is in the Lamb of God—because of these things which are taken away out of the gospel of the Lamb, an exceedingly great many do stumble, yea, insomuch that Satan hath great power over them. Nevertheless, thou beholdest that the Gentiles who have gone forth out of captivity, and have been lifted up by the power of God above all other nations, upon the face of the land which is choice above all other lands, which is the land that the Lord God hath covenanted with thy father that his seed should have for the land of their inheritance; wherefore, thou seest that the Lord God will not suffer that the Gentiles will utterly destroy the mixture of thy seed, which are among thy brethren. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
“Neither will he suffer that the Gentiles shall destroy the seed of thy brethren. Neither will the Lord God suffer that the Gentiles shall forever remain in that awful state of blindness, which thou beholdest they are in, because of the plain and most precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb which have been kept back by that abominable church, whose formation thou hast seen. Wherefor saith the Lamb of God: I will be merciful unto the Gentiles, unto the visiting of the remnant of the house of Israel in great judgment. And it came to pass that the Angel of the Lord spake unto me, saying: Behold, saith the Lamb of God, after I have visited the remnant of the house of Israel—and this remnant of whom I speak is the seed of thy father—wherefore, after I have visited them in judgment, and smitten them by the hand of the Gentiles, and after the Gentiles do stumble exceedingly, because of the most plain and precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb which have been kept back by that abominable church, which is the mother of harlots, saith the Lamb—I will be merciful unto the Gentiles in that day, insomuch that I will bring forth unto them, in mine own power, much of my gospel, which shall be plain and precious saith the Lamb,” reports 1 Nephi 13.20-34. Those who see the divine essence see what they see in God not by any likeness, but by the divine intellect. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
For as things which are like one and the same things are like one and the same thins are like to each other. Hence to know things thus by their likeness in the one who knows, is to know the in their nature; whereas to know them by their similitudes pre-existing in God, is to see them in God. “For, behold, saith the Lamb: I will manifest myself unto thy seed, that they shall write many things which I shall minister unto them, which shall be plain and precious; and after thy seed shall be destroyed, and dwindle in unbelief, and also the seed of thy brethren, behold, these things shall be hid up, to come forth unto the Gentiles, by the gift and power of the Lamb. And in them shall be written my gospel, saith the Lamb, and my rock and my salvation. And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of they Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be. And it came to pass that I beheld the remnant of the seed of my brethren, and also the book of the Lamb of God, which has proceeded forth from the mouth of the Jew, that it came forth from the Gentiles unto the remnant of the seed of my brethren,” reports Nephi 13.36-38. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
The created intellect of one who sees God is assimilated to what is seen in God, inasmuch as it is united to the Divine essence, in which the similitudes of all things pre-exist. Some of the cognitive faculties form other images from those first conceived; thus the imagination from the preconceived images of a mountain and of gold can form the likeness of a golden mountain; and the intellect, from the preconceived ideas of genus and difference, forms the ideas of species; in like manner from the similitude of an image we can form in our minds the similitude of the original image. Thus Paul, or any other person who sees God, by the very vision of the divine essence, can form in oneself the similitudes of what is seen in the divine essence, which remained in Paul even when he had ceased to see the essence of God. Still this kind of vision whereby things are seen by this likeness thus conceived, is not the same as that whereby things are seen in God. “And after it had come forth unto them I beheld other books, which came forth by the power of the Lamb, from the Gentiles unto them, unto the convincing of the Gentiles and remnant of the seed of my brethren, and also the Jews who were scattered upon all the face of the Earth, that the records of the prophets and of the twelve apostles of the Lamb are true. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
“And the Angel spake up me, saying: These last records, which thou hast seen among the Gentiles, shall establish the truth of the first, which are of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, and shall make known the plain and precious things which have been taken away from them; and shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father, and the Saviour of the World; and that all people must come unto Him, or they cannot be saved. And they must come according to the words which shall be established by the mouth of the Lamb; and the words of the Lamb shall be made known in the records of thy seed, as well as in the records of the twelve apostles of the Lamb; wherefore they both shall be established in one; for there is one God and one Shepherd over all the Earth. And the time cometh that He shall manifest Himself unto all nations, both unto the Jews and also unto the Gentiles; and after he has manifested Himself unto the Jews and also unto the Gentiles, then He shall manifest Himself unto the Gentiles and also unto the Jews, and the last shall be first, and the first shall be last,” reports 1 Nephi 13.37-42. The concept of “the individual” can, by definition, exist only in relational terms. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
A person constructs a sense of identity in relation to family, peers and other people, cultural and community practices, gender, race, and ethnicity, socioeconomic class, social and political systems, sexuality, geographic locations, and physical and mental abilities. By engaging with these constructs, we are able to appreciate connections between individuals and the social, political, and cultural structures that impact the daily experiences of people. This is the foregrounds the lived experiences of people as a continual process and invites and encourages engagement with relevant topical issues such as relationships including the family, the community, as well as the intersections between race, class, gender, and other converging identities. Meanings are informed by culture, community, peer groups, and families, among others, and the meaning of human action depends on lived experiences. By exploring theoretical underpinnings of social relations in everyday life, it is our hope to better enhance understandings of people’s personal lives; their workplace experiences; their engagement and sense of belonging with the community; and the way they make sense of and engage with intersecting oppressions. This should enhance our understanding of the social and cultural issues and local contexts that play a part in developing and sustaining a theoretical understanding of human nature and experiences in justice with everyday life. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21
Just as an individual person constructs a sense of identity in relation to multiple others, they also acquire multiple layered identities that are derived from social relations, historical contexts, and power structures. Moreover, identities are fluid and changing over time an across situations and audiences; they are never static. People occupy multiple identities, are part of multiple communities simultaneously, and navigate experiences of oppression and privilege through, and in relation to, these institutions and identities. By acknowledging that people have multiple identities, theorists of justice have been able to advocate for laws and ideas about governances and economy that address these converging identities. The concept of intersectionality is used to grasp the many identities people have and seeks to bring to light the multiple contesting frames and situations of people’s everyday lives. We seek to deconstruct the ways in which people conduct themselves and carry out their mundane, ordinary, and important activities and relations in life. Intersectionality and intersectional analysis were first coined by legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw in “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color” (1991), where she documented that within the eyes of law, Black women were doubly marginalized. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
When bringing a suit against General Motors (GM), African American women claimed that they were discriminated against based on the fact that they were both Black and women. They were not able to obtain front office administrative jobs because they were Black and they were not able to obtain factory jobs because they were women. The court, on the other hand, in Degraffenreid v. General Motors, claimed that because there were women and African American men working for GM, discrimination was not occurring. The Court saw discrimination as a running parallel rather than as overlapping and therefore African American women were not seen as a group and their multiple identities (being African American and being women) were not considered under the law. In addition to legal definitions, social movements have tended also to focus specifically on one identity—feminism on gender, antiracism on race, LGBT movements on sexual orientation—but frequently these movements, and the scholarly theorists that wrote them, failed to comprehend the countless ways their constituents confront discrimination and oppression on multiple fronts and failed to acknowledge that disadvantage is based on the confluence of multiple dimensions of identities. For example, antiracism movements often did not address the sexism that women of color face and LGBTQ movements did not address the struggles of homosexual people of color. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
Because theories of justice are particularly concerned with whether, how, and why persons are treated differently from others, it is crucial that we reflect on the overlapping, intersecting, dynamic, and converging identities of people. This means addressing issues such as gender, race, socioeconomic class, power, disability, and sexual orientation. Many youth growing up, who have not experienced discrimination and oppression, and who may not be aware that their parents are, believe that because we have Constitutional Laws, Human Rights, and law enforcement that people’s are not subjected to illegal actions and they also believe that all professional abide by the law. Realizing that people have multiplicity of identities (including race, gender, class, sexual orientation, ability, and citizenship, among others) that are created, sustained, changed, and influenced by social structures (including family, community, institutions, and media), the justice theorists in this section engage in an intersectional framework in their attempts to understand how intersecting identities influence relationships with the social World. As you will see, the social construction of reality and the intersections of social relations all contribute to the ways people understand governance, laws, and economy. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
Only by beginning with a multifaceted understand of the way people interact with the structural and institutional powers that surround them can we begin to grasp how people view justice in relation to these others aspects of society. I can, while not on the spot, retrain my thinking by study and meditation on Christ Himself and on the teachings of Scripture about God, His World, and my life—especially the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels, further elaborated by understanding of the remainder of the Bible. I can also help my thinking and my feelings by deep reflection on the nature and bitter outcome of the standard human way in such situations, in contrast to the way of Jesus. I can also consciously practice explicitly self-sacrificial actions in other, less demanding, situations. I can become a person for whom looking out for number one is not the framework of my life. I can learn about and meditate upon the lives of well-known saints who have practiced continuously, in real life, Jesus’ way with adversaries and those in need. I can take a close and thorough look at the bitter World of legal adversaries—at how people learn to hate one another in court—to see if I want to be a part of that. I can earnestly and repeatedly pray that God will directly work in my inner being to change the things there that will enable me to obey his Son. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
And many other things can be done as means to fulfilling the vision of life in God that we intend and have chosen. What we need to emphasize here is simply that the means of spiritual formation are available to those who seek it. On the other hand, where there is no will (firm intentions based on clear vision) there is no way. People who do not intend to be inwardly transformed, so that obedience to Christ comes naturally, will not be—no matter what means they think of themselves as employing. God is not going to pick us up by the seat of our pants, as it were, and throw us into transformed kingdom living, into holiness. So the problem of spiritual transformation (the normal lack thereof) among those who identify themselves as Christians today is not that it is impossible or that effectual means to it are not available. The problem is that it is not intended. People do not see it and its value and decide to carry through with it. They do not decide to do the things Jesus did and said. And this in turn is, today, largely due to the fact that they have not been given a vision of life in God’s kingdom within which such a decision and intention would make sense. The entire Vision, Intention, Mission (VIM) of Christ’s life and life in Christ is not the intentional substance and framework of life. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
Those who minister to many people do not bend every effort to make it clear that we are to follow the ways of Christ. No wonder the example and teachings of Christ look, to many, more like fairy tales than sober reality. We now turn to some of the things that can be done with God’s assistance in each of the dimensions of our life and being to renovate the human heart and progressively form the inner, hidden World of the person so that the tree is good to the farthest reaches of root and branch. Behold, O Lod, how Thy faithful Jerusalem rejoices in the triumph of the Cross and the power of the Saviour; grant, therefore, that those who love her may abide in her peace, and those who depart from her may abide in her peace, and those who depart from her may one day come back to her embrace; that when all sorrows are taken away, we may be refreshed with the joys of an eternal resurrection, and be made partakers of her peace World without end; through Thy mercy, may the doctrine of Christ not be too deep for our intellect, and may we be proper people for the Lord to teach. Lead us not to put our ego forward, making no pretensions to spiritual superiority, yet may our wishes be to awaken other people to the idea that enlightenment is possible, worth seeking, and is accompanied by unparalleled felicity. It is possible for humans to realize their high aspirations. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21
However, will one then find that all is Heaven? How could that be when first one would become much more sensitive to the World’s miseries and sorrows and, second, much more aware that everything that is, including oneself, is merely a passing show—just like a dream of the night which vanishes in the morning? Will there not be a touch of melancholy in these two aspects of one’s awareness? The acceptance will be there, for one will be just as much aware of the Real which does not pass, but this acceptance will itself be touched with a kind of resignation. Is this what the religio-mystics mean when they so often admonish others to resign themselves to God’s will? The self-actualized has no desire to gain followers, only to give service. One’s happiness comes from within. One looks to nothing and nobody for it. Nevertheless, if faith and friendship are given to one, one is always grateful. And for such people one has the ardent wish that they too shall fully attain this great inward happiness and, in their turn, keep the presence of God alive in a materialistic World. When one has found the truth, one has nothing to decide. One will realize that the ALL, this whole teeming Universe, is oneself, that all creatures and all people are one. Therefore, their interests and their welfare become one’s automatically. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
Therefore, we will come back to Earth again and again to help all beings attain truth and happiness. The notion of choosing selfish bliss or unselfish service does not occur to those who have realized truth; it comes only to self-actualized who have experienced bliss in trance. However, the is not the highest goal or plane; it is the highest illusion. Lord Jesus, I am blind, be Thou my light, ignorant, be Thou my wisdom, self-willed, be Thou my mind. Open my ear to grasp quickly Thy Spirit’s voice, and delightfully run after his beckoning hand; and melt my conscience that no hardness remain, make it alive to evil’s slightest touch; when Satan approaches may I flee to Thy wounds, and there cease to tremble at all alarms. Be my good shepherd to lead me into the green pastures of Thy word, and cause me to lie down beside the rivers of its comforts. Fill me with peace, that no disquieting Worldly gales may ruffle the calm surface of my soul. Thy cross was upraised to be my refuge, Thy blood streamed forth to wash me clean, Thy death occurred to give me surety, Thy name is my property to save me, by Thee all Heaven is poured into my hearts, but it is too narrow to comprehend Thy love. I was a stranger, an outcast, a slave, a rebel, but Thy cross has brought me near, has softened my hearts, has made me Thy Father’s child, has admitted me to Thy family, has made me joint-heir with Thyself. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
O that I may love Thee as Thou lovest me, that I may walk worthy of Thee, my Lord, that I may reflect the image of Heaven’s first-born. May I always see Thy beauty with the clear eye of faith, and feel the power of Thy Spirit in my heart, for unless He move mightily in me no inward fire will be kindled. O God, Who by the power of Thy Majesty dispensest the number of our days and the measure of our time; favourably regard the service which we humbly render; and grant that our times, and those of our Bishop, may be filled with the abundance of Thy peace and the grace of Thy benignity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Lord Jesus Christ, Thou didst choose Thine Apostles that they might preside over us as teachers; so also may it please Thee to teach doctrine to our Bishop, in the place of Thine Apostles, and to bless and instruct one, that one may preserve one’s life unharmed and undefiled forever and ever. O Christ, the true Priest, Whose Priesthood never passeth away, let Thy power come to the assistance of Thy servants, and clothe them with glory and beauty, that they may carefully and excellently discharge their priesthood according to Thy pleasure; and as they have received their talents to be profitably employed, as the Spirit giveth ability, they may at last lay them on Thy table with abundant gain, hat they may become worthy to hear that voice full of hope, “Enter into the joy that has no end.” #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
May they go on, O Lord, from strength to strength; lift them up while they worship Thee; perfect Thy gifts in them, and crown their heads with a diadem, and in their hearts, as in an ark, may Thy grace be stored up; grant them Thine abundant help, and fill their labours with power. O God, Whose ways are all mercy and truth, carry on Thy gracious work, and bestow, by Thy benefits, what human frailty cannot attain; that they who attended upon the Heavenly Mysteries may be grounded in perfect faith, and shine forth conspicuous by the purity of their souls; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Lord God of powers, do Thou sanctify the Pastors and Prelates of Thy sheep; that our adversary the devil, overcome by their faith and holiness, may not dare to touch or violate the flock of the Lord; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ. O God, in Whose hand are the hearts of kings, incline Thy merciful ears to our humble entreaty; and govern with Thy wisdom our Queen Thy servant; that her counsels may be drawn from Thy fountain, and she may be well-pleasing in Thy sight, and pre-eminent among all Sovereigns; through Jesus Christ our Lord. We beseech Thee, Almighty God, that Thy servant Victoria, why by Thy mercy hath undertaken the government of the realm, may also receive the increase of all virtues, and, being beautified therewith, may be able to avoid the enormity of sin, and to attain to Thee, Who are the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and be acceptable in Thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21
Do not forget to get outside and get some sunshine! ☀️ It is easy to do when you have a backyard space like this one at #PlumasRanch. 😌 We recently released 7 cul-de-sac homes in the Bluffs community! The open floor plan and optional covered patio make this home a dream. Check out floor plans on our website. Link in bio! https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-riverside-at-plumas-ranch/
What is the true picture of your life? Imagine that there is an hourglass on your desk. Connecting the bowl at the top with the bowl at the bottom is a tube so thin that only one grain of sand can pass through it at a time. That is the true picture of your life, even on a super-busy day. The crowded hours come to you always one moment at a time. That is the only way they can come. The day brings many tasks, problems, strains, but invariably the come in a single file. You want to gain emotional poise? Remember the hour glass, the grains of sand dropping one at a time. Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed.
#CresleighHomes
Have I Ever Loved Anyone? I Do Not Really think I Have Ever Loved Anyone!
May we never let the things we cannot have, or do not have, or should not have, spoil our enjoyment of the things we do have and can have. As we value our happiness, let us not forget it, for one of the greatest lessons in life is learning to be happy without the thing we cannot or should not have. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks,” reports 1 Thessalonians 5.16-18. “In everything give thanks.” These are the words that we want to make the center of our meditation. Do we need this admonition? Is not “thank you” one of the most frequently employed phrases in our language? We use it constantly for the smallest services performed, for a friendly word, for every word praising ourselves and our acts. We use it whether we are grateful or not. Saying thanks has become a form that is employed with or without feeling. When we mean it, we must therefore say it with great emphasis and in strong words. Anyone who observes the behavior of religion groups—ministers as well as laymen—is familiar with their inclination to say “thank you” to God almost as often as to their neighbors. It seems important, therefore, to ask the reason for this behavior towards humans and God. Why do we thank? What does it mean to give thanks and to receive thanks? Can this event of our daily life, and of daily religious life, be understood in its depth and elevated above automatic superficiality? #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
If this proves possible, we might discover that the simple “thank you” can tell us much about what we are withing ourselves and our World. We might find that one of the most used and abused words of our language can become a revelation of the deeper levels of our being. When we ponder the experiencing and giving of love, which is related to giving thanks, I think of one governmental executive in a group in which I participated, a man with high responsibility and excellent technical training as an engineer. At the first meeting of the group he impressed me, and I think others, as being cold, aloof, somewhat bitter, resentful, and cynical. When he spoke of how he ran his office, it appeared that he administered it by the book, without any warmth or human feeling. In one of early sessions he was speaking of his wife, and a group member asked him, “Do you love your wife?” He paused for a long time and the questioner said, “O.K. That is answer enough.” The executive said, “No. Wait a minute. The real reason I did not respond was that I was wondering, ‘Have I ever loved anyone?’ I do not really think I have ever loved anyone.” A few days later, he listened with great intensity as one member of the group revealed many personal feelings of isolation and loneliness and spoke of the extent to which he had been living behind a façade. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
The next morning the engineer said, “Last night I thought and thought about what he told us. I even wept bit myself. I cannot remember how long it has been since I have cried, and I really felt something. I think perhaps what I felt was love.” It is not surprising that before the week was over, I had thought through different ways of handling his growing son, on whom he had been placing very rigorous demands. He had also begun to really appreciate the love his wife had extended to him—love that he now felt he could in some measure reciprocate. Because of having less fear of giving or receiving beneficial feelings, I have become more able to appreciate individuals. I have come to believe that this ability is rather rare; so often, even with our children, we love them to control them rather than loving them because we appreciate them. One of the most satisfying feelings I know—and also one of the most growth-promoting experiences for the other person—comes from appreciating this individual in the same way that I appreciate the Sun changing angles in the sky. If I can let them be, people are just as wonderful as what we call Sunsets. In fact, perhaps the reason we can truly appreciate a Sunset is that we cannot control it. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
When I look at a Sunset as I did the other evening, I do not find myself saying, “Soften the orange a little on the right hand corner, and put a bit more purple along the base, and use a little more pink in the cloud color.” I do not do that. I do not try to control a Sunset. I watch it with awe as it unfolds. When I can appreciate my staff member, my son, my daughter, my friends, in this same way, I like myself best. I believe this is an attitude of the self-actualized; for me it is a most satisfying one. It is important not to seek any reward, not even being reborn in a paradise. We must seek the welfare of humanity. I seek to enlighten those who harbor wrong thoughts. I cannot help teaching confidence in the laws of life or expressing joy in the inspiration of life. One cannot help making strong affirmations of the Soul’s dominion and power. One is exultant because one is in harmony with the Universe. Saying thanks is not always merely a form of social intercourse. Often we are driven by real emotions; we are almost compelled to thank someone, whether one expects it or not. And sometimes our emotion overpowers us and we say thanks in words much too strong for the gift we have received. This is not dishonest. It is honestly felt in the moment. However, soon afterwards we feel somehow empty, somehow ashamed—not much perhaps, but a little! #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
Occasionally, it also happens that for one moment we feel abundantly grateful. However, since for external reasons, we have no immediate opportunity to express our thanks, we forget it and it never reaches the one to whom we are grateful. Of the ten lepers who were held by Jesus probably none was without abundant gratefulness to Jesus, but only one returned from the priests who whom they had shown themselves to thank Jesus. And Jesus was astonished and disappointed. I have suggested way in which the performance of an individual accentuates certain maters and conceals others. If we see perception as a form of contact and communion, then control over what is perceived is control over contact that is made, and the limitation and regulation of what is shown is a limitation and regulation of contact. There is a relation here between informational terms and ritual ones. Failure to regulate the information acquired by the audience involves possible disruption of the projected definition of the situation; failure to regulate contact involves possible ritual contamination of the performer. It is a widely held notion that restrictions placed upon contact, the maintenance of social distance, provide a way in which awe can be generated and sustained in the audience, in which the audience can be held in a state of mystification in regard to the performer. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
How far it is possible for a person to work upon others through a false idea of oneself depends upon a variety of circumstances. As already pointed out, the person may be a mere incident with no definite relation to the idea of one, the latter being a separate product of the imagination. This can hardly be except where there is no immediate contact between leader and follower, and partly explains why authority, especially if it covers intrinsic personal weakness, has always a tendency to surround itself with forms and artificial mystery, whose object is to prevent familiar contact and so give the imagination a chance to idealize. The discipline of armies and navies, for instance, very distinctly recognizes the necessity of those forms which separate superior from inferior, and so help to establish an unscrutinized ascendency in the former. In the same way manners are largely used by people of the World as a means of self-concealment, and this self-concealment serves, among other purposes, that of preserving a sort of ascendancy over the unsophisticated. One night the King of Norway told me of his difficulties in face of the republican leanings of the opposition and how careful in consequence he had to be in all he did and said. He intended, he said, to go as much as possible among the people and thought it would be popular if, instead of going in an Ultimate Driving Machines, he and Queen Maud were to use the tramways. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
I told him frankly that I thought this would be a great mistake as familiarity bred contempt. As a naval officer he would know that the captain of a ship never had his meals with the other officers but remained quite aloof. This was, of course, to stop any familiarity with them. I told him that he must get up on a pedestal and remain there. He could then step off occasionally and no harm would be done. The people did not want a King with whom they could hob-nob but something nebulous like the Delphic oracle. The Monarchy was really the creation of each individual’ brain. Every person liked to think what one would do, if one was King. People invested the Monarch with every conceivable virtue and talent. If they saw the King going about like an ordinary man in the street, they were bound therefore to be disappointed. The logical extreme implied in this kind of theory, whether it is in fact correct or not, is to prohibit the audience from looking at the performer at all, and at times when celestial qualities and powers have been claimed by a performer, this logical conclusion seems to have been put into effect. Of course, in the matter of keeping social distance, the audience itself will often co-operate by acting in a respectful fashion, in awed regard for the sacred integrity imputed to the performer. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
To act upon the second of these decisions corresponds to the feeling (which also operates elsewhere) that an ideal sphere lies around every human being. Although differing in size in various directions and differing according to the person with whom one entertains relations, this sphere cannot be penetrated, unless the personality value of the individual is thereby destroyed. A sphere of this sort is placed around humans by their honor. Language very poignantly designates an insult to one’s honor as “coming too close,” the radius of this sphere marks, as it were, the distance whose trespassing by another person insults one’s honor. The human personality is a sacred thing; one does not violate it nor infringe its bounds, while at the same time the greatest good is in communion with others. It must be made quite clear, in contradiction to the implications that awe and distance are felt toward performers of equal an inferior status as well as (albeit not as much) toward performers of superordinate status. Whatever their function of the audience, these inhibitions of the audience allow the performer some elbow room in building up an impression of one’s own choice and allow one to function, for one’s own good or the audience’s, as a protection or a threat that close inspection would destroy. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
The matter which the audience leave alone because of their awe of the performer are likely to be the matters about which one would feel shame were a disclosure to occur. We have, then, a basic social coin, with awe on one side and shame on the other. The audience sense secret mysteries and powers being the performance, and the performer sense that one’s chief secrets are petty ones. As countless folk tales and initiation rites show, often the real secret behind the mystery is that there really is no mystery; the real problem is to prevent the audience from learning this too. Not only are we driven by a deep emotion to give thanks, but we also have a profound need to receive thanks when we have given ourselves in either a large or small way. When thanks is not forthcoming, we feel a kind of emptiness, a vacuum in that place of our inner being which the words or acts of thanks should fill. However, just as we feel ashamed when we use too strong an expression of gratitude, we feel uneasy when we receive it and we refuse to accept it, whether we say or not. It is always difficult to receive thanks without some resistance. The American reply, “you are welcome,” or the German reply, “please,” expresses the refusal to accept thanks without hesitation. “Do not mention it” is the simplest expression of this resistance to accept thanks, which, however, we do accept at the same time. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
These uncertainties in the simple act of giving or receiving thanks teach us something about our relationship to others, and our predicament. In every act of giving or receiving thanks, we accept or reject someone, and we are accepted or rejected by someone. Such acceptance or rejection is not always noticed, either by ourselves or by the other. If we are sensitive, we often feel it and react with joy or sorrow, with shame or pride, and mostly with mixtures of these emotions. A simple “thank you” can be an attack or a withdrawal. It can be the expression of giving someone a place within us, or a successful way of protecting ourselves from someone’s attempt to find a place with us. A word of thanks can be a complete rejection of one whom we thank, or it can be the unlocking of one’s and our hearts. However, probably in most cases, it is a polite form of stating that one whom we thank does not really concern us very much. The fiftieth Psalm says—“Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,” and “One who brings thanksgiving as one’s sacrifice honors me.” Here the original meaning of thanks shines through. Giving thanks is a sacrifice. Here the literal meaning of “thanksgiving” is felt. Thank is expressed through sacrificial acts. Valuable objects are removed from their ordinary use and given to the gods. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
It is an acknowledgement of the fact that humans did not create themselves, that nothing belongs to them, that vulnerable one was thrown into the World and vulnerable one will be thrust out of it. What one has is given to one. In the act of sacrifice one expresses one’s awareness of this destiny. One gives a part of what is given to one, but something that is ultimately not one’s own. In sacrificing thanks one witnesses to one’s finitude, to one’s trasitoriness. Every serious giving of thanks implies a sacrifice, an acknowledgment of one’s finitude. A person who is able to thank seriously accepts that one is creature, and, in acceptance, one is religious even though one denies religion. And a person who is able to accept honest thanks without embarrassment is mature. One knows one’s own finitude as well as that of the other, and one knows that the mutual sacrifices of thanks confirms that one and the other are creatures. In chapter 13, of The Book of Mormon, Nephi sees in vision the church of the devil set up among the Gentiles, the discovery and colonizing of America, the loss of many plain and precious parts of the Bible, the resultant state of gentile apostasy, the restoration of the gospel, the coming forth of latter-day scripture, and the building up of Zion. About 600-592 Before Christ. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
Remember Thy congregation, O Lord, which Thou hast created from the beginning; forget not the Church which of old times Thou hast predestinated in Christ; be mindful of Thy mercy, look upon Thy covenant, and bless us continually with the promise of freedom. “And it came to pass that the Angel spake unto me, saying: Look! And I looked and beheld many nations and kingdoms. And the Angel said unto me: What beholdest thou? And I said: I behold many nations and kingdoms. And he said unto me: These are the nations and kingdoms of the Gentiles. And it came to pass that I saw among the nations of the Gentiles the formation of a great church. And the Angel said unto me: Behold the formation of a church which is most abominable above all other churches, which slayeth the saints of God, yea, and tortureth them and bindeth them down, and yoketh them with a yoke of iron, and bringeth them down into captivity. And it came to pass that I beheld this great and abominable church; and I saw the devil that he was founder of it. And I also saw gold, and silver, and silks, and scarlets, and fine-twined linen, and all manner of precious clothing; and I saw many harlots. And the Angel spake unto me, saying: Behold the gold, and the silver, and the silks, and the scarlets, and the fine-twined linen, and the precious clothing, and the harlots, are the desires of this great and abominable church. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
“And also for the praise of the World do they destroy the saints of God, and being them down into captivity. And it came to pass that I looked and beheld many waters; and they divided the Gentiles from the seed of my brethren. And it came to pass that the Angel said unto me: Behold the wrath of God is upon the seed of my brethren. And I looked and beheld a man among Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land. And I came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters. And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise and I beheld the wrath of God, that it was upon the seed of my brethren; and they were scattered before the Gentiles and were smitten. And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance; and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people before they were slain. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
“And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them. And I beheld that the power of God was with them, and also that the wrath of God was upon all those that were gathered together against them to battle. And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone out of captivity were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations,” reports 1 Nephi 13.1-19. The blessed possess these three things in God; because they see Him, and in seeing Hi, possess Him as present, having the power to see Him always; and possessing Him they enjoy Him as the ultimate fulfilment of desire. God is called incomprehensible not because anything of Him is not seen; but because He is not see as perfectly as He is capable of being see; thus when any demonstrable proposition is known by probable reason only, it does not follow that any part of it is unknow, either the subject, or the predicate, or the composition; but that it is not as perfectly known as it is capable of being known. The whole is comprehended when it is seen in such a way that nothing of it is hidden from the seer, or when its boundaries can be completely viewed or traced; for the boundaries of a thing are said to be completely surveyed when the end of the knowledge of it is attained. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
The word “wholly” denotes a mode of the object; not that the whole object does not come under knowledge, but that the mode of the object is not the mode of the one who knows. Therefore one who sees God’s essence, sees in Him that He exists infinitely, and is infinitely knowable; instance, a person can have a probable opinion that a proposition is demonstrable, although one does not know it as demonstrated. The indwelling Holy Spirit, through His superior intimate knowledge, both prays for us and joins us in our praying, infusing His prayers into ours so that we pray in the Spirit. Jude 20 challenges us to cultivate and experience this wonderful Spirit-wrought phenomenon: “But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.” Praying in the Spirit is the will of God, and what God wills He empowers as we let Him. Two supernatural things happen here: First, the Holy Spirit tells us what we ought pray for. Apart from the Spirit’s assistance, our prayers are limited by our own reasons and intuition. However, with the Holy Spirit’s help they become informed by Heaven. As we seek the Spirit’s help, He will speak to us through His Word, which conveys His mind regarding every matter of principle. Thus, in Spirit-directed prayer we thin God’s thoughts after Him. His desires will become our desires, His motives our motives, His ends our ends. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
Further, as God shows our hearts which matter to pray for, He gives us the absolute conviction they are God’s will. The very fact hat God lays a burden of prayer on our hearts and keeps us praying is prima facie evidence that He purposes to grant the answer. When asked if he really believed that two men for whose salvation he had prayed for over fifty years would be converted, George Muller of Bristol replied, “Do you think God would have kept me praying all these years if He did not intend to say them?” Both men were converted, one shortly before, the other after Muller’s death. Such confident direction in one’s prayer life is not unusual. I had a similar conviction regarding my brother, who came to Christ after I had been praying for him for ten years! When God’s people truly pray in the Spirit, they receive similar direction and conviction, not only about people, but about events and projects and even whole nations. The second benefit or praying in the Spirit is that it supplies the energizing of the Holy Spirit for prayer, infusing tired, even infirm, bodies and elevating the depressed to pray with power and conviction for God’s work. People, learn to pray in the Spirit! To help myself to do this, I have written ‘Pray in the Spirit” at the top of my prayer list as a constant reminder to patiently wait on the Lord, asking the Spirit to give me prayers. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
Prayers is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to the Word of God, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God. Let us learn to pray in-Spirited prayer using the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit. The natural desire of the rational creature is to know everything that belongs to the perfection of the intellect, namely, the species and the genera of things and their types, and these everyone who see the Divine essence will see in God. However, to know other singulars, their thoughts and their deeds does not belong to the perfection of the created intellect nor does its natural desire go out to these things; neither, again, does it desire to know things that exist not as yet, but which God can call into being. Yet if God alone were seen, Who is the Fount and principle of all being and of all truth, He would so fill the natural desire of knowledge that nothing else would be desired, and the seer would be completely beatified. Unhappy is the person who knows all these (id est all creatures) and knoweth not Thee! but happy whoso knoweth Thee although he know not these. And whoso knoweth both Thee and them is not the happier for them, but for Thee alone. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
Complex personhood means that even those who haunt our dominate institutions and their systems of value are haunted too by things they sometimes have names for and sometimes do not. At the very least, complex personhood is about conferring the respect on others that comes from presuming that life and people’s lives are simultaneously straightforward and full of enormously subtle meaning. When seeking to understand justice, it is first important to begin from the simple premise, that power, personhood, and social relations are complex, contested, and often, fragile. By addressing social relations, we seek to put into focus the relationships between people and everyday life. Human nature is frequently constructed in binary terms—good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, selfish vs. self-interested—but, as theorists will argue, human nature is far more complex and dynamic than any dichotomy. We emphasize that human nature is complicated and discussion of human nature may be explicit and implicit and that human nature if one of many beginning points for deconstructing notions of justice and injustice. The means to that end are not all directly under my control, for some are the actions of God toward me and in me. However, some are directly under my control. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
Sovereign Commander of the Universe, I am sadly harassed by doubts, fears, unbelief, in a felt spiritual darkness. My heart is full of evil surmisings and disquietude, and I cannot act faith at all. My Heavenly pilot has disappeared, and I have lost my hold on the rock of ages; I sink in deep mire beneath storms and waves, in horror and distress unutterable. Help me, O Lord, to throw myself absolutely and wholly on Thee, for better, for worse, without comfort, and all but hopeless. Give me peace of soul, confidence, enlargement of mind, morning joy that comes after night heaviness; water my soul richly with divine blessings; grant that I may welcome Thy humbling in private so that I might enjoy Thee in public; give me a mountain top as high as the valley is low. Thy grace can melt the worst sinner, and I am as vile as he; a trophy of redeeming power; in my distress let me not forget this. All-wise God, Thy never-failing providence orders every event, sweetens every fear, reveals evil’s presence lurking in seeming good, brings real good out of seeming evil, makes unsatisfactory what I set my heart upon, to show me what a short-sighted creature I am, and to teach me to live by faith upon Thy blessed self. Out of my sorrow and night give me the name Naphtali—“satisfied with favour”—help me to love Thee as Thy child, and to walk worthy of my Heavenly pedigree. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
Cooking your favorite meal is great, but cooking it in a @hubapts kitchen is HEAVEN! These modern #Folsom apartments have everything you need to feel like a rockstar. Head to their profile to take a virtual tour! 👍 https://linktr.ee/hubapts
#HUBApts
#CresleighHomes
The Universe is Not Hostile, Nor Yet is it Friendly—it is Simply Indifferent!
I still believe that Joseph Barbera and William Hanna made the best cartoons ever when they formed Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. Charlotte’s Web, The Flintstones, The Snorks, The Jetsons, The Smurfs, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, Casper’s First Christmas, Richie Rich, Jonny Quest, and many more wonderful cartoons I enjoyed as a kid. One has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, worked hard, and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent beings and the love of all kinds of people; who has filled one’s niche and accomplished one’s task; who leaves the World better than one found it, whether by an improved garden, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of Earth’s beauty or failed to express it; who looked for the best in others and gave them the best one had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory a benediction. But we ask—how can we possess such wisdom? In the book of Proverbs, Wisdom says—“I was…rejoicing before Him always, rejoicing in His inhabited World and delighting in the sons of men…and now, my sons, listen to me…one who finds me, find life…but all who hate me love death.” To aspire to wisdom, or to despise it, is a matter of life and death. This could never be said of knowledge in the ordinary sense of the word. Those who know much and do not have life because of their knowledge, and those who know little; and do not try to learn much, do not prove that they love death. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
Wisdom is a matter of life and death because it is more than knowledge. It can be united with knowledge, but it can also stand alone. It belongs to a dimension which cannot be reached by scholarly endeavour. Wisdom is insight into the meaning of one’s life, into its conflicts and dangers, into its creative and destructive powers, and into the ground out of which it comes and to which it must return. Therefore, the preachers of wisdom tell us that the first step in acquiring it is the fear of God and the awareness of the holy. Such words can easily be misunderstood. They do not command subjection to a god who arouses fear. Nor do they advise us to accept doctrines about him. Suh a command and such advice would lead us straight away from wisdom and not towards it. However, our text says that there cannot be wisdom without an encounter with the holy, with that which creates awe, and shake the ordinary way of life and thought. Without the experience of awe in face of the mystery of life, there is no wisdom. Most removed from wisdom are not those who are driven by desire for pleasure or power, but those brilliant minds who have never encountered the holy, who are without awe and know nothing sacred, but who are able to conceal their ultimate emptiness by the brilliant performances of their intellect. No wisdom shines through knowledge of many people who play a great role in our academic and non-academic society. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
The wisdom at which God looks in the creation of the World, the eternal wisdom, calls them fools. There is a distortion of the 1 Corinthians 1-2. Two frequently cited but misunderstood texts relevant to the Christian mind are 1 Corinthians 1-2 and Colossians 2.8. In 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, Paul argues against the wisdom of the World and reminds his readers that he did not visit them with persuasive words of wisdom. Some conclude from this that human reasoning and argument are futile, especially when applied to evangelism. There are several problems with this understanding of the passage. For one thing, if it is in fact an indictment against argumentation and reasoning, then it contradicts Paul’s own practice in Acts and his explicit appeal to the argument and evidence on behalf of the Resurrection in the very same epistle (1 Corinthians 15). Second, this passage is more accurately seen as a condemnation of the false, prideful use of reason, not of reason itself. It is hubris (pride) that is in view, not nous (mind). God chose foolish (moria) things that were offensive to human pride, not to reason properly used. For example, the idea of God being crucified was so offensive that the Greek spirit would have judged it to be morally disgusting. The passage may also be a condemnation of Greek rhetoric. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
Greek orators prided themselves in possessing persuasive words of wisdom, and it was their practice to persuade a crowd of any side of an issue for the right price. They did not base their persuasion on rational considerations but on speaking ability, thus bypassing issues of substance. Paul is most likely contrasting himself with Greek rhetoricians. If so, then Paul is arguing against evangelists who spend all of their time working on their speaking techniques yet fail to address the minds of unbelievers in their gospel presentations! Paul could also be making the claim that the content of the gospel cannot be deduced by pure reason from some set of first principles. No one could start off with an abstract concept of a first mover and deduce that a crucifixion would happen from this information alone. Thus, the gospel could never have been discovered by pure deductive reason from self-evident first principles, but had to be revealed by the biblical God who acts in history. Paul was insistent that the intellect could assess whether nor not there was sufficient evidence to judge that God had so acted (1 Corinthians 15). So we cannot conclude from this passage that using reason is futile. The distortion of Colossians 2.8—in this passage, Paul says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this World rather than on Christ.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
Some take the distortion of Colossians 2.8 to be a command to avoid secular studies, especially philosophy. However, upon close inspection of the structure of the verse, it become clear that philosophy in general was not the focus. Rather, it is a certain sort of philosophy—hollow and deceptive philosophy. In the context of Colossians, Paul was warning the church not to form and base doctrinal views according to a philosophical system hostile to orthodoxy. His remarks were a simple waring not to embrace heresy; in context, they were not meant to represent his views of philosophy as a discipline of study. In fact, one of the best ways to avoid hollow and deceptive philosophy is to study philosophy itself, so you can learn to recognize truth from error, using Scripture and right reason as a guide. His is exactly what Paul himself did. Colossians reveals an apostle who was entirely familiar with the type of proto-Gnostic philosophy threatening Colossians believers, who possessed a thorough knowledge of that philosophical system and an ability to point out its inadequacy. And remember, Paul himself cited pagan philosophers approvingly in Acts 17.28. “’For in him we live and move and have our own being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring,’” reports Acts 17.28. Neither of these texts should dampen our enthusiasm to cultivate a Christian mind or use reason in our Christian walk. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
One who has encountered the mystery of life has reached the source of wisdom. In encountering it with awe and longing, one experiences the infinite distance of one’s being from that which is the ground of one’s being. One experiences the limits of one’s being, one’s finitude in the face of the infinite. One learns that acceptance of one’s limits is the decisive step towards wisdom. The fool rebels against the limits set by one’s finitude. One wants to be unlimited in power and knowledge. One who is wise accepts one’s finitude. One knows that one is not God. There is an area of my learning in interpersonal relationships—one that has been slow and painful for me. When I can let in the fac, or permit myself to feel that someone cares for, accepts, admires, or prizes me, I feel warmed and fulfilled. Because of elements in my past history, I suppose, it has been very difficult for me to do this. For a long time I tended almost automatically to brush aside any optimistic feelings aimed in my direction. My reaction was, “Who, me? You could not possibly care for me. You might like what I have done, or my achievements, but not me.” This is one respect in which my own therapy helped me very much. I am not always able even not to let in such warm and loving feelings from others, but I find it very releasing when I can do so. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
I know that some people flatter me in order to gain something for themselves; some people praise me because they are afraid to be hostile. However, I have come to recognize the fact that some people genuinely appreciate me, like me, love me, and I want to sense that fact and let it in. I think I have become less aloof as I have been able to take in and soak up those loving feelings. I feel enriched when I can truly prize or care for or love another person and when I can let that feeling flow out to the person. Like many others, I used to fear being trapped by letting my feelings show. “If I care for him, he can control me.” “If I love her, I am trying to control her.” I think that I have moved a long way toward being less fearful in this respect. Like my clients, I too have slowly learned that tender, beneficial feelings are not dangerous either to give or to receive. To illustrate what I mean, I would like again to draw an example from a recent basic encounter group. A woman who described herself as “an out spoken, sensitive, hyperactive individual” whose marriage was on the rocks, and who felt that life was just not worth living said, “I had really buried under a layer of concrete many feelings I was afraid people were going to laugh at or stomp on which, needless to say, was working all kinds of hell on my family and me. I had been looking forward to the workshops with my last few crumbs of hope—it was really a needle of trust in a huge haystack of despair.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
She spoke of some of her experiences in the group and added, “The real turning point for me was a simple gesture on your part of putting your arm around my shoulder, one afternoon when I had made some crack about you not really being a member of the group—that no one could cry on your shoulder. In my notes I had written, the night before, “My God, there is no man in the World who love me.” You seemed so genuinely concerned the day I fell apart, I was overwhelmed…I received the gesture as one of the first feelings of acceptance—of me, just the unenlightened way I am, sensitivities and all—that I had ever experienced. I have felt needed, loving, competent, furious, frantic, anything and everything but just plain loved. You can imagine the flood of gratitude, humility, almost release, that swept over me. I wrote, with considerable joy, “I actually felt love. I doubt that I should soon forget it.” This woman, of course, was speaking to me, and yet in some deep sense she was also speaking for me. I too have had similar feelings. Those of one’s followers who expect one to behave with impeccable propriety and are ready to leave and follow someone else if one does not will either be victims of, or gainers by their own judgment. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
If the teacher is really unified with God, any judging of one done by external standards will be only partly applicable. There is a point where neither one’s character nor one’s motives can be correctly measured by such standards, and beyond which they may be quite misleading. The mystical and cultist circles which talk much about these matters use the name “Master” to trail such an accumulation behind it of falsified facts, superstitious ntions, and nonsensical thinking, that it is needful to be on guard for semantic definitions whenever this term is heard. The mistake that some followers make is to fail to see that their demigod is recognizably human. The mistake that most non-followers make is to fail to see that one is, in one’s best moments, superhuman. The excessively critical attitude which seeks to find a flaw in a holy being and soon succeeds is as foolish as the excessively devout attitude which pronounces one perfect and continuously faultless. This hostility of the one leads to imbalance; the naivete of the other leads to expectancy. The holy being is still a human subject to limitations of one’s species. In order to minimize the risks, experiential confrontation must be done carefully, artfully, and with deep sensitivity to its effects. Use of the first person singular, for example, can minimize unwarranted overtones of accusation or punishment. The statements “I believe you can do more,” or “I do not but what you are saying” serve to illustrate this contention. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
Posing confrontations in the form of questions or descriptions can also enhance their impact. “You are scared out of your wits,” may reflect how a “hail-fellow-well-met” client felt! Alternatively, I often challenge clients to differentiate between cannot and will not at given junctures. “You mean you will not respond to that job offer,” I suggested to a client invested in her inadequacy; “You mean you will not make time in your day for a lunch break,” I remarked to another client invested in his invincibility. It is sometime useful, finally, to appraise clients of the difficulty of confronting their resistances, especially when those resistance are threatened with extinction. “A part of you is doing everything it can to keep you where you were,” I tell clients in such circumstances. “The most you can do is realize this and look at what is suggests.” To this, all humankind’s literature about wisdom is a witness. Wisdom is the acknowledgment of limits; it is the awareness of the right measure in all relations of life. However, in saying this, one must protect wisdom against a dangerous distortion of its meaning—the confusion of wisdom with philistine avoidance of radical decisions, with clever compromises and shrewd calculations of usefulness, all of which is far removed from the wisdom that comes upon us in the awe-inspiring encounter with the holy. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
We need only look at the great figures in whom people of all periods and cultures recognized wisdom, the people who gave new laws to their nations, the teachers of new ways of life for continents, the people who withdrew to the deserts of nature and the deserts of the soul to return with abundance. None of them kept to the middle of the road; they had to find new roads in the wilderness. You cannot find wisdom in those who always avoid radical decisions and adjust themselves to the given situation, the conformists who have decided to accept the accepted opinion of society. Wisdom love the children of men, but she prefers those whom come through foolishness to wisdom, and dislike those who keep themselves equally distant from foolishness and from wisdom. They are the real fools, she would say, because they were never shaken by an encounter with the mystery of life, and therefore never able to see the unity of creation and destruction in the working of the divine wisdom. In those, however, who have recognized this working of wisdom, and become wise by it, artificial limits are broken down, often with great pain, and the real limits, the true measures, are found. When wisdom comes to humans, that is what happens. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
Therefore, wisdom comes to all humans, and not only to those who are learned. You can find quiet and often great wisdom among very simple people. There may be wise ones among those with who you live, and those with whom you work, and those whom you encounter as strangers in crowded streets. There is wisdom in mothers and lonely women, in children and adolescents, in shepherds and cabdrivers; and sometimes there is wisdom all in those who can have much learning. They all prove their wisdom by creatively accepting their limits and their finitude. However, who can accept one’s finitude? Who can accept that one is threatened by the vicissitudes of life, by infirmary, by death? Who can take into oneself the deep anxiety of being alive without covering it up with pleasure and activity? In the book of Job, which powerfully expresses the mystery of life, the question is asked and an answer given that is not an answer in the ordinary sense of the word. Only in the confrontation with eternal wisdom in all its darkness and inexhaustible death can humans accept the misery of one’s finitude, even if it is as extreme as Job’s. In our encounter with the holy, facing with awe the ultimate mystery of life, we experience a dimension of life that gives us the courage and the strength to accept our limits and to become wise through this acceptance. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
The created light is necessary to see the essence of God, not in order to make the essence of God inteligible, which is off itself intelligible, but in order to enable the intellect to understand in the same way as a habit makes a power abler to act. Even so corporeal light is necessary as regards external sight, inasmuch as it makes the medium actually transparent, and susceptible of colour. Nephi sees the Spirit of the Lord and is shown in vision the tree of life—he sees the mother of the Son of God and learn the condescension of God—he sees the baptism, ministry, and crucifixion of the Lamb of God—he sees also the call and ministry of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb About 600-592 Before Christ. “For it came to pass after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I have never before set foot. And the Spirit said unto me: Behold, what desirest thou? And I said; I desire to behold the things which my father saw. And the spirit said unto me: Believest thou that thy father saw the tree of which he hath spoken? And I said: Yea, thou knowest that I believe all the words of my father,” reports Nephi 11.1-5. This light is required to see the divine essence, not as a similitude in which God is seen, but as a perfection of the intellect, strengthening to see God. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
Therefore it may be said that this light is to be described not as a medium in which God is seen, but as one by which He is seen; and such a medium does not take away the immediate vision of God. “And when I have spoken these words, the Spirit cried with a loud voice, saying: Hosanna to the Lord, the most high God; for he is God over all the Earth, yea, even above all. And blessed thou believest in the Son of the most high God; wherefore, thou shalt behold the things which thou hast desired. And behold this thing shall be given unto three for a sign, that after thou hast beheld the tree which bore the fruit which they father tasted, thou shalt also behold a man descending out of Heaven, and him shall ye witness; and after ye have witnessed him ye shall bear record that it is the Son of God. And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me: Look! And I looked and beheld a tree; and it was like unto the tree which my father had seen; and the beauty thereof was far beyond, yea, exceeding of all beauty and the whiteness thereof did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow. And it came to pass after I had seen the tree, I said unto the Spirit: I behold thou hast shown up me the three which is precious above all. And he said unto me: What desirest thou?” reports 1 Nephi 11.6-10. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
The disposition to the form of fire can be natural only to the subject of that from. Hence the light of glory cannot be natural to a creature unless the creature has a divine nature; which is imposible. However, by this light the rational creature is made deiform. “And I said unto him: To know the interpretation thereof—for I spake unto him as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he was in the form of a man; yet nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another. And it came to pass that he said unto me: Look! And I looked as if to look upon him, and I saw him not; for he had gone from before my presence. And it came to pass that I saw the Heavens open; and an Angel came down and stood before me; and he said unto me: Nephi, what beholdest thou? And I said unto him: A virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins. And he said unto me: Knowest thou the condescension of God? And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things. And he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh. And it came to pass that I beheld that she was carried away in the Spirit; and after she had been carried away in the Spirit for the space of time the Angel spake unto me saying: Look! #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
“And I looked and behold the virgin again bearing a child in her arms. And the Angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of this tree which thy father saw? And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore it is the most desirable above all things. And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul, reports 1 Nephi 11.11-23. “In Thy light we shall see light,” reports Psalms 35.10. Everything which is raised up to what exceeds its nature, must be prepared by some disposition above its nature. However, when any created intellect sees the essence of God, the essence of God itself become the intelligible form of the intellect. Hence it is necessary that some supernatural disposition should be added to the intellect in order that it may be raised up to such a great and sublime height. It is necessary that the power of understanding should be added by divine grace. Now this increase of the intellectual powers is called the illumination of the intellect, as we also call the intelligible object itself by the name of light of illumination. And this is the light spoken of in the Apocalypse (Apoc. 21.23): “The glory of God hath enlightened it; the society of the blessed who see God. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
By this light the blessed are made “deiform”—id est like to God, according to saying: “When He shall appear we shall be like to Him, and because we shall see Him as He is,” reports 1 Jon 3.2. “And fater he had said these words, he said unto me: Look! And I looked, and I beheld the Son of God going forth among the children of men; and I saw many fall down at his feet and worship him. And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod of iron, which my father had seen, was the word of God, which led to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God. And the Angel said unto me again; Look and behold the condescension of God! And I looked and beheld the Redeemer of the Redeemer of the World, of whom my father had spoken; and I also beheld the prophet who should prepare the way before him. And the Lamb of God went forth and was baptized of him; and after he was baptized, I beheld the Heavens open, and the Holy Ghost come down out of Heaven and abide upon him in the form of a dove. And I beheld that he went forth ministering unto the people, in power and great glory; and the multitudes were gathered together to hear him; and I beheld that they cast him out from among them. And I also beheld twelve others following him. And it came to pass that the Angel spake unto me again, saying: Look! #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
“And I looked, and I beheld the Heavens open again, and I saw Angels descending upon the children of men; and they did minister unto them. And he spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked, and I beheld the Lamb of God going forth among the children of men. And I beheld multitudes of people who were sick, and who were afflicted with all manner of diseases, and with devils and unclean spirits; and the Angel spake and showed all these things unto me. And they were healed by the power of the Lamb f God; and the devils and the unclean spirits were cast out. And it came to pass that the Angel spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked and beheld the Lamb of God, that he was taken by the people; yea, the Son of the everlasting God was judged of the World; and I saw and bear record. And I, Nephi, saw that he was lifted upon the cross and slain for the sins of the World. And after he was slain I saw the multitudes of the Earth, that they were gathered together to fight against the apostles of the Lamb; for thus were the twelve called by the Angel of the Lord. And the multitude of the Earth was gathered together; and I behold that they were in a large and spacious building, like unto the building which my father saw. And the Angel of the Lord sapke unto me again, saying: Behold the World and the wisdom thereof; yea, behold the house of Israel hath gathered together to fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
“And it came to pass that I saw and bear record, that the great and spacious building was the pride of the World; and it fell, and the fall thereof was exceedingly great. And the Angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Thus shall be the destruction of all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, that shall fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb,” reports 1 Nephi 11.23-36. We beseech Thee, O Lord, to guide Thy Church with Thy perpetual governance; that it may walk warily in times of quiet, and boldly in times of trouble; through our Lord. O Lord, Thou knowest my great unfitness for service, my present deadness, my inability to do anything for Thy glory, my distressing coldness of heart. I am weak, ignorant, unprofitable, and loathe and abhor myself. I am at a loss to know what thou wouldest have me do, for I feel amazingly deserted by thee, and sense thy presence so little; Thou makest me possess the sins of my youth, and the dreadful sin of my nature, so that I feel all sin, I cannot think or act but every motion is sin. Return again with showers of converting grace to a poor gospel-abusing sinner. Help my soul to breathe after holiness, after a constant devotedness to Thee, after growth in grace more abundantly every day. The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a great lie than to a small one. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
O Lord, I am lost in the pursuit of this blessedness, and am ready to sink because I fall short of my desire; help me to hold out a little longer, until the happy hour of deliverance comes, for I cannot lift my soul to Thee if Thou of Thy goodness bring me not nigh. Help me to be diffident, watchful, tender, lest I offend my blessed Friend in thought and behaviour; I confide in Thee and lean upon Thee, and need Thee at all times to assist and lead me. O that all my distresses and apprehensions might prove but Christ’s school to make me fit for greater service by teaching me the great lesson of humility. May Thy Word, O Lord, Which endureth for ever in Heaven, abide continually in the Temple of Thy Church; that the presence of the Inhabitant may be an unfailing glory to the habitation; through Thy mercy and love. Remember Thy congregation, O Lord, which Thou hast created from the beginning; forget not the Church of old time Thou hast predestinated in Christ; be mindful of Thy mercy, look upon Thy covenant, and bless us continually with the promised freedom. The Dodo never had a chance. He seems to have been invented for the sole purpose of becoming extinct and that was all he was good for. There is no greater grief than to recall a time of happiness when in misery. However, the marines have landed, and the situation is well in hand. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

It’s the details that make the difference. Barn doors are just one of many features you’ll find in #BrightonStation at #CresleighRanch. Look at floor plans and check out virtual tours over on our website. 🤩 (Click the link in our bio!) https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/residence-4/virtual-tour/
Life, Like a Dome of Many-Coloured Glass, Stains the White Radiance of Eternity!
Love and time—those are the only two things in all the World and all of life that cannot be bought, but only spent. History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They finally won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats. Disappointments acted as a challenge. Do not let difficulties discourage you. To know the finite as such, is also to know the infinite. All or nothing is one idea. Each point of space, of time, each feeling in the ego, each quality of being, is clamoring, “I am the all—there is nought else but me. The sense of a universal mirage, of a ghostly unreality, steals over us, which is the very moonlit atmosphere of much thought. What wonder then if, instead of converting, our words do but rejoice and delight, those already baptized in the faith of confusion? Truth lies open to the view in depth beneath depth of almost blinding evidence. The mind sees all the logical relations of being with an apparent subtlety and instantaneity to which its normal consciousness offers no parallel; only as sobriety returns, the feeling of insight fades, and one is left staring vacantly at a few disjointed words and phrases, as one stars at a cadaverous-looking snow-peak from which the Sunset glow has just fled, or at the black cinder left by an extinguished brand. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
We college-bred gentry, who follow the stream upon some old-established journal, or some voluminous native author, whose names are never heard of in our circle, but who number their readers by the quarter-million. It always gives us a little shock to find this mass of human beings not only living and ignoring us and all our gods, but actually reading and writing and cogitating without ever a thought of our canons and authorities. Facts are there only for those who have a mental affinity with them. When once they are indisputably ascertained and admitted, the academic and critical minds are by far the best fitted ones to interpret and discuss them—for surely to pass from mystical to scientific speculations is like passing from lunacy to sanity; but on the other hand if there is anything which human history demonstrates, it is the extreme slowness with which the ordinary academic and critical mind acknowledges facts to exist which present themselves as wild facts, with no stall or pigeon-hole, or as fact which threaten to break up the accepted system. Each of us is in reality an abiding psychical entity far more extensive than one knows—an individuality which can never express itself completely through any corporeal manifestation. The self manifests itself though the organism; but there is always some part of the self unmanifested, and always, as it seems, some power of organic expression in abeyance or reserve. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
The total consciousness is like that spectrum prolonged by the inclusion of the ultra-red and ultra-violet rays. In the psychic spectrum the “ultra” parts may embrace a far wider range, both of physiological and psychical activity, than is open to our ordinary consciousness and memory. At the lower end we have the physiological extension, mind-cures, stigmatization of ecstasies, excreta; in the upper, the hyper-normal cognitions of the medium-trance. Science, like life, feeds on its own decay. I myself, as American agent for the census, collected hundreds of cases of hallucination in healthy persons. The result is to make me feel that we all have potentially a subliminal self, which may make at any time irruption into our ordinary lives. At lowest, it is only the depository of our forgotten memories; at its highest, we do not know what it is at all. The whole subject of immortal life has its prime roots in personal feeling. What the laboratories and hospitals have lately been teaching us is not only that thought in general is one of the brain’s functions, but that the various special forms of thinking are functions of special portions of the brain. When we are thinking of things seen, it is our occipital convolutions that are active; when of things heard, it is a certain portion of our temporal lobes; when of things to be spoken, it is one of our frontal convolutions. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
In other special convolutions those processes of associations go on, which permit the more abstract processes of thought, to take place. Diminished or exaggerated associations with the other regions accounts for the complexion of our emotional life, and eventually decides whether one shall be a callous brute or criminal, an unbalanced sentimentalist, or a character accessible to feeling, and yet well poised. Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass, stains the white radiance of eternity. The body is treated as an essential condition to the soul’s life in this World of sense; but after death, it is said, the soul is set free, and become purely intellectual and non-appetitive being. The death of the body may indeed be the end of the sensational use of our mind, but only the beginning of the intellectual use. The body would thus be, not cause of our thinking, but merely a condition restrictive thereof, and although essential to our sensuous and terrestrial consciousness, it may be regarded as an impeder of our pure spiritual life. Our finitenesses and limitations seem to be our personal essence; and when the finiting organ drops away, and out several spirits revert to their original source and resume their unrestricted condition, will they then be anything like those sweet streams of feeling which we know, and which even now our brains are sifting out from the great reservoir for our enjoyment below? #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
Such questions are truly living questions, and surely they must be seriously discussed by future lecturers upon this foundation. I hope, for my part, that more than one such lecturer will penetratingly discuss the conditions of our immortality, and tell us how much we may lose, and how much we may possibly gain, if its finiting outlines should be changed? For our ancestors the World was a small, and—compared with our modern sense of it—a comparatively snug affair. Six thousand years at most it has lasted. In its history a few particular human heroes, kings, queens, ecclesiarches, and saints stood forth very prominent, overshadowing the imagination with their claims and merits, so that not only they, but all who were associated familiarly with them, shone with a glamour which even the Almighty, it was supposed, must recognize and respect. These prominent personages and their associates were the nucleus of the immortal group; the minor heroes and saints of minor sects came next, and people without distinction formed a sort of background and filling in. The whole scene of eternity (so far, at least, as Heaven and not the nether place was concerned in it) never struck to the believer’s fancy as an overwhelmingly large or inconveniently crowded stage. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
One might call what was taking place an aristocratic view of immortality; the immortals—I speak of Heaven exclusively, for an immortality of torment need not now concern us—were always an elite, a select and manageable number. For our minds, though in one sense they may have grown a little cynical, in another they have been made sympathetic by the evolutionary perspective. Life is a good thing on a reasonably copious scale; but the very Heavens themselves, and the cosmic times and spaces, would stand aghast at the notion of preserving eternally such an ever-swelling plethora and glut of it. Our Christian ancestors dealt with the problem more easily than we do. We, indeed, lack sympathy; but they had absolute antipathy for these alien human creatures, and they naively supposed the Deity to have the antipathy, too. Being, as they were, heathen, our forefathers felt a certain sort of joy in thinking that their Creator made them as so much mere fuel for the fires of hell. Our culture has humanized us beyond that point. God, we can then say, has so inexhaustible a capacity for love that his call and need is for literally endless accumulation of created lives. He can never faint or grow weary, as we should, under the increasing supply. His scale is infinite in all things. His sympathy can never know satiety or glut. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
How, then, should it be consulted as the peopling of the vast City of God? Let us put over our mouth, like Job, and be thankful that in our personal littleness we ourselves are here at all. The Deity that suffers us, we may be sure, can suffer many another queer and wondrous and only half-delightful thing. The heart of being can have no exclusions akin to those which our poor little hearts set up. The inner significance of other lives exceeds all our powers of sympathy and insight. If we feel a significance in our own life which would lead us spontaneously to claim its perpetuity, let us be at least tolerant of like claims made by other lives, however numerous, however unideal they may seem to us to be. Let us at any rate not decide adversely on our own claim, whose grounds we feel directly, because we cannot decide favourably on the alien claims, whose grounds we cannot feel at all. That would be letting blindness lay down the law to sight. “The psalmist offers another solution. “I praise Thee for the awful wonder of my birth; Thy work is wonderful. For Thou didst form my being, and weave me together in my mother’s womb. None of my bones were hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret and molded in the lowest parts of the Earth.” Using the old mythological idea that people are formed in the abyss below the Earth, he points to the mystery of creation, not to the creation in general, but to the creation of his own being. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
The God Whom he cannot flee is the Ground of one’s being. And this being, one’s nature, soul, and body, is a work of infinite wisdom, awful and wonderful. The admiration of the Divine Wisdom overcomes the horror of the Divine Presence in this passage. It points to the friendly presence of an infinitely creative wisdom. It is this mood which runs generally throughout the Old Testament. A great scholar, with whom I conversed once on the will to death in every life, exhibited the same mood, when he said, “Let us not forget that life is also friendly.” There is a grace in life. Otherwise we could not live. The eyes of the Witness we cannot stand are also the eyes of One of infinite wisdom and supporting benevolence. The centre of being, in which our own centre is involved, is the source of the gracious beauty which we encounter again and again in the stars and mountains, in flowers and animals, in children and mature personalities. However, there is something more to the psalmist’s solution. He does not simply consider the creative Ground of his being. He also looks to the creative destiny of his life. “Thine eyes saw the sum total of my days, and in Thy book they were all written. They were counted before they ever came into existence.” The psalmist uses another old mythical symbol, which is the record of Earthly events in an Heavenly book. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
He expressed poetically what we call the belief in an ultimate meaning of our life. Our days are written and counted; they are not merely accidental. One Who sees us most intimately looks at the vision of our whole life. We belong to this whole; we have a place of the utmost importance within it. As individuals and as a group, we have an ultimate destiny. And whenever we sense this ultimate destiny, whether or not it appears as great or insignificant, we are aware of God, the Ground and centre of all meaning. We can join in the psalmist’s cry of admiration: “How mysterious Thy thoughts are to me, O God! How great the sum of them is! If I were to count them, they would outnumber the sands; and if I were to come to the end of them, the span of my life would be like Thine!” The psalmist thus conquers the horror of the all-reflecting mirror and of the never-sleeping Witness by one’s recognition of the infinite mystery of life, its Ground and its meaning. However, suddenly, at the climax of one’s meditation, the psalmist turns away from God. One remembers that there is a morbid element in the picture of one’s life—enmity against God, wickedness, and bloody deeds. And since this element disturbs one’s picture, one asks God to eradicate it. In a sudden rage, one shouts, “If Thou wouldst but slay the wicked, O God, and make them people of blood depart from me, who oppose Thee in their thoughts, and utter Thy name in their crimes! Should I not despise them? I hate them with the deadliest hatred. They are also my enemies!” #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
These words should disturb anyone who thinks that the problem of life can be solved by meditation and religious elevation. Their mood is quite different from that of previous words. Praise turns into curse. And the trembling the heart before the all-observing God is replaced by wrath towards humans. This wrath makes the psalmist feel that one is equal with God, the God from Whim one wished to flee into darkness and death. God must hate those whom he hates; and God’s enemies must be his enemies. He has just spoken of the infinite distance between his thoughts and God’s thoughts; but he had forgotten. Religious fanaticism appears, that fanaticism which has inflamed the arrogance of Churches, the cruelty of the moralists, and the inflexibility of the orthodox. The sin of religion appears in one of the greatest Psalms. It is that sin which has distorted the history of the Church and this vision of Christianity, and which was not fully avoided even by Paul and John. Of course, we whose religious experience is poor and whose feeling of God is weak should not judge too harshly those whose lives burned with the fire of the Divine Presence and spread this fire ardently all over the World. Nevertheless, the sin of religion is real; and it contradicts the Spirit of Him, Who forbade His disciples again and again to hate His enemies as the enemies of God. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
Yet, a change of thought and feeling brings the psalmist suddenly back to the beginning of one’s poem. He feels quite obviously that something may have been wrong in what he has uttered. He does not know what is wrong; but he is certain that God knows. And so he concludes with one of the greatest prayers of all time: “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any false way in me; and lead me the perfect way.” At this moment he asks God to do what, according to the first words of the Psalm, he does relentlelessly anyway. The psalmist has overcome his wavering between the will to flee God and the will to be equal with God. He has found that the final solution lies in the fact that the Presence of the Witness, the Presence of the centre of all life within the centre of his life, implies both a radical attack on his existence, and the ultimate meaning of his existence. We are known in a depth of morbidity through which we ourselves do not even dare to look. And at the same time, we are seen in a height of a fullness which surpasses our height vision. That infinite tension is the atmosphere in which religion lives. In that tension, when Luther discovered in Christ the Crucified the perfect symbol for our human situation, he conquered his hatred for God. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
It is the tension in which modern humans live, even thought they may have lost the way to traditional religion. A human being can be ultimately judged by whether or not one has reached and can stand that tension. To endure it is more horrible and more difficult than anything else in the World. And yet, to endure it is the only way by which we can attain to the ultimate meaning, joy, and freedom in our lives. Each of us is called to endure. May each of us have the strength and the courage to bear that vocation! For it is to that vocation that we are called as humans. Wisdom is not easy to find. It remains a divine mystery in site of its presence in all parts of the Universe. Wherever wisdom has been praised in literature, its mystery has been recognized. The book of Job asks—“Where shall wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding? Humans do not know the way to it and it is not found in the land of the living. The deep says: Not in me and in the sea says: not in me. It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air; only abyss and death say: we have heard a rumor of it with our ears.” This means that wisdom is not a human possibility. The praise of wisdom is not a praise of humans and their power. Only abyss and death—the boundary line of human existence—point to wisdom, but even they cannot give it. Only from a distance have they heard about it. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
Wisdom is not a matter of intellectual power; rationality is not wisdom. Death says more about wisdom than life; but death does not have the answer. Although manifest in everything that is, why is wisdom so hidden? It is because in everything that lives there are two forces at battle with each other—creative force and a destructive one, both of which emanate from the same divine Ground. As the book of Job says—“With God is wisdom and might; He has counsel and understanding. If he tears down, none can rebuild, if he shuts a human in none can open. Power and providence belong to Him, He is behind deceiver and deceived; he strips statesmen of their wits and makes a fool of councilors…He will extend a nation to destroy it, He will enlarge a nation to enslave it….Should not His majesty cause you to shudder?” No one can doubt that this is the way life is, but our poet knows that behind all this is the mystery of divine wisdom. Wisdom is in both creation and destruction. This is the deepest insight the Old Testament (OT) reached. Without it the beings of the News Testament (NT) would not have been able to endure the cross of Him Whom they called the Christ. Without it Paul could not have broken into the words—“O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God”—just after he had spoken with an aching heart of the rejection of his nation for the sake of the Gentiles. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
Wisdom and mystery do not exclude each other. It is wisdom to see wisdom in the mystery and the conflicts of life. Lehi predicts that the Jews will be taken captive by the Babylonians—he tells of the coming among the Jews of a Messiah, a Saviour, a Redeemer—Lehi tells also of the coming of the one who should baptize the Lamb of God—Lehi tells of the death and resurrection of the Messiah—he compared the scattering and gathering of Israel to an olive tree—Nephi speaks of the Son of God, of the gift of the Holy Ghost, and of the need for righteousness. About 600-592 Before Christ (BC). “And now I, Nephi, proceed to give an account upon these plates of my proceedings, and my reign and ministry; wherefore, to proceed with mine account, I must speak somewhat of the things of my father, and also of my brethren. For behold, it came to pass after my father had made an end of speaking the words of his dream, and also exhorting them to all diligence, he spake unto them concerning the Jews—that after they should be destroyed, even that great city Jerusalem, and many be carried away captive into Babylon, according to the own due time of the Lord, they should return again, yea, even be brought back out of captivity; and after they should be brought back out of captivity they should possess again the land of their inheritance. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
“Yea, even six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem, a prophet would the Lord God rise up among the Jews—even a Messiah, or, in other words, a Saviour of the World. And he also spake concerning the prophets, how great a number had testified of these things, concerning this Messiah, of whom he had spoken, or this Redeemer of the World. Wherefore, all humankind were in a lost and in a fallen state, and ever would be save they should rely on this Redeemer. And he spake also concerning a prophet who should come before the Messiah, to prepare the way of the Lord—yea, even he should go forth and cry in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight; for there standeth one among you whom ye know no; and he is mightier than I, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose. And much spake my father concerning this thing. And my father said he should baptize in Bethabara, beyond Jordan; and he also said he should baptize the Messiah with water. And after he had baptized the Messiah with water, he should behold and bear record that he had baptized the Lamb of God, who should take away the sins of World. And it came to pass after my father had spoken these words he spake unto my brethren concerning the gospel which should be preached among the Jews, and also concerning the dwindling of the Jews in unbelief. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
“And after they had slain the Messiah, who should come, and after he had been slain he should rise from the dead, and should make Himself manifest, by the Holy Ghost, unto the Gentiles. Yea, even my father spake much concerning the Gentiles, and also concerning the house of Israel, that they should be compared like unto an olive tree, whose branches should be broken off and should be scattered upon all the face of the Earth. Wherefore, he said it must needs be that we should be led with one accord into the land of promise, unto the fulfilling of the word of the Lord, that we should be scattered upon all the face of the Earth. And after the house of Israel should be scattered they should be gathered together again; or, in fine, after the Gentiles had received the fullness of he Gospel, the natural branches of the olive tree, or the remnants of the house of Israel, should be grafted in, or come to the knowledge of the true Messiah, their Lord and their Redeemer. And after this manner of the language did my father prophesy and speak unto my brethren, and also many more things which I did not write in this book; for I have written as many of them as were expedient for me in mine other book. And all these things, of which I have spoken, were done as my father dwelt in a tent, in the valley of Lemuel. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
“And it came to pass after I, Nephi, having heard all the words of my father, concerning the things which he saw in a vision, and also the things which he spake by the power of the Holy Ghost, which power he received by faith on the Son of God—and the Son of God was the Messiah who should come—I, Nephi, was desirous also that might see, and hear, and know these things, by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of God unto all those who diligently seek him, as well in times of old as in the time that he should manifest himself unto the children of men. For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all people from the foundation of the World, if it so be that they repent and come unto him. For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round. Therefore remember, O human, for all thy doings thou shalt be brought into judgment. Wherefore, if ye have sought to do wickedly in the days of your probation, then ye are found unclean before the judgment-seat of God; and no unclean thing can dwell with God; wherefore, ye must be cast off forever. And the Holy Ghost giveth authority that I should speak these things, and deny them not,” reports 1 Nephi 9.1-22. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
O God, Who are both the Restorer and the Ruler of humankind; grant, we beseech Thee, that Thy Church may ever be increased by a new offspring, and grow up by the devotion of all the faithful; through Jesus Christ our Lord. My Father, when Thou art angry towards me for my wrongs I try to pacify Thee by abstaining from future sin; but teach me that I cannot satisfy Thy law, that this effort is a resting in my righteousness, that only Christ’s righteousness, ready made, already finished, is fit for that purpose; that Thy chastising for my sin is not that I should try to reform, but only that I may be more humbled, afflicted, and separated from sin, by being reconciled, and made righteous in Christ by faith; that a sense of my sufficiency and ability in Him is one means of my being immovable; that I can never be so by resting on my own faith, but by trusting in Thee as y only support, by faith; that if I cast away my faith I cast away Thee, for by faith I apprehend Thee, and as Thou art very precious, so is my faith very precious to me; that I shall short of the purity Thou requires, because in thinking I am holy I do not seek holiness, or, believing I am important, I do no more. Humble me for not being as holy as I should be, or as holy as I might be through Christ, for Thou art all, and to possess Thee is to possess all. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
However, to make the creature something is to make it stand between Thee and me, so that I do not walk humbly and holily. Lord, forgive me for this. And may we pray in the spirit, for this gives of the first element of petition—in-Spirited or Spirit-directed prayer. How does prayer in the Spirit occur? In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And one who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. O God, Who hast made all those that are born again in Christ to be a royal and priestly race, grant us both the will and the power to do what Thou commandest; that Thy people who are called to eternal life may have the same faith in their hearts, and the same piety in their actions; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O Almighty God, we humbly beseech Thee, Who art of boundless goodness, and to be feared for Thy mercy, that by Thine assistance all trials, produced by Earthly sin or secular danger, may depart from us; and that in Thy Church of Latter Day Saints religious devotion may ever continue undefiled; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
BRIGHTON STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH
Rancho Cordova, CA |
Now Selling!
NOW SELLING! Brighton Station at Cresleigh Ranch is Rancho Cordova’s newest home community! This charming neighborhood offers an array of home types with eye catching architecture styles such as Mid-Century Modern, California Modern, Prairie, and Contemporary Farmhouse.
Located off Douglas Road and Rancho Cordova Parkway, the residents of Cresleigh Ranch will enjoy, being just minutes from shopping, dining, and entertainment, and quick access to Highway 50 and Grant Line Road providing a direct route into Folsom. Residents here also benefit from no HOA fees, two community parks and the benefits of being a part of the highly-rated Elk Grove Unified School District. https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/move-in-ready-home-site-84/
To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, we are currently closed to the public through April 7th. Like many other Bay Area businesses, closing our doors until April 7th will severely impact the employees who maintain the estate. That’s why we are offering a ticket voucher that can be used any time in the future – with no blackout dates or restrictions. Come when you are ready, but please come! Vouchers are only $26 ($13 off the box office price!) and can be purchased now. Good through May 1st, 2021! https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/membership/
God Moves in a Mysterious Way, His Wonders to Perform Gives Life All its Flavour!
Finding a way to live the simple life is today’s most complicated problem. In the traditional family the politics of the situation is very clear. The father’s authority is backed by religious and legal sanctions. They only way that family members can to any degree live independent lives is to do so secretly, deceiving him. In the usual present-day family, control is theoretically unified in the hands of both parents, but in practice they often disagree. This opens the way for a power struggle between family members, with temporary or permanent factions forming. Subtle strategies are used by the children to set the parents against each other. The sanctions for parental authority are no longer strong, further weakening the control structure. Consequently one of the most frequent characteristics is a continual wrangle over decisions involving control. “Why do I have to help with the dishes?” “Why can I not have the ultimate driving machine tonight?” “I want to wear my blue jeans!” “Why do I have to come home at eleven, when my friend Brady can stay out till midnight?” The children are struggling for more independence of parental authority. The parents are in the position of a weak government, alternatively being very firm and then giving in to demands. The politics of the family is very unstable. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
I am disappointed when I realize—and of course this realization always comes afterward, after a lag of time—that I have been too frightened or too threatened to let myself get close to what I am experiencing, and that consequently I have not been genuine or congruent. There immediately comes to mind an instance that is somewhat painful to reveal. Some years ago I was invited to be a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. The Fellows are a group of brilliant and well-informed scholars. I suppose it was inevitable that there is a considerable amount of one-upmanship, of showing off one’s knowledge and achievements. It seems important for each Fellow to impress the others, to be a little more assured, to be a little more knowledgeable than one really is. I found myself doing this same thing—playing a role of having greater certainty and greater competence than I really possess. I cannot tell you how disgusted with myself I felt as I realized what I was doing; I was not being me, I was playing a part. I regret it when I suppress my feelings too long and they burst forth in ways that are distorted or attacking or hurtful. I have a friend whom I like very much but who has one particular pattern of behavior that thoroughly annoys me. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
Because of the usual tendency to be nice, polite, and pleasant I kept this annoyance to myself for too long and, when it finally burst it bounds, it came out not only as annoyance but as an attack on him. This was hurtful, and it took some time to repair the relationship. When I have the strength to permit another person to be one’s own realness and to be separate from me, I am inwardly pleased. I think that is often a very threatening possibility. In some ways I have found it an ultimate test of staff leadership and of parenthood. Can I freely permit this staff member or my son or daughter to become a separate person with ideas, purposes, and values which may not be identical with my own? I think of one staff member this past year who showed many flashes of brilliance but who clearly held values different from mine and behaved in ways very different from the ways in which I would behave. It was a real struggle, in which I feel I was only partially successful, to let one be oneself, to let one develop as a person entirely separate from me and my ideas and my values. Yet to the extent that I was successful, I was pleased with myself, because I think this permission to be a separate person is what makes for the autonomous development of another individual. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
I am angry with myself when I discovered that I have been subtly controlling and molding another person in my own image. This has been a very painful part of my professional experience. I hate t have “disciples,” students who have molded themselves meticulously into the pattern that they feel I wish. Some of the responsibility I place with them, but I cannot avoid the uncomfortable probability that in unknown ways I have subtly controlled such individuals and made them into carbon copies of myself, instead of the separate professional persons they have every eight to become. From what I have been saying, I trust it is clear that when I can permit realness in myself or sense it or permit it in another, I am very satisfied. When I cannot permit it in myself or fail to permit it in another, I am very distressed. When I am able to let myself be congruent and genuine, I often help the other person. When the other person is transparently real and congruent, one often helps me. In those rare moments when a deep realness in one meets a realness in the other, a memorable “I-thou relationship,” as Martin Buber would call it, occurs. Such a deep and mutual personal encounter does not happen often, but I am convinced that unless it happens occasionally, we are not living as human beings. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
God has given us the strength, truth, love, and peace and we must share what we have received, or at least proclaim its existence. It is a compassionate obligation to share the fruits of such a rare attainment with less fortunate seekers. However, only individuals of large generous natures can recognize this obligation. The self-actualized does not ask for service from others, but only to be allowed to serve them. One does not seek to attach them to oneself, but only to God. The illuminate never achieves perfect happiness because one is well aware that others are unhappy and that they are not alien to one. When the wonderful compassion wells up with in human, one can no longer remain enthralled by the satisfactions of one’s own personal peace. The cries which come to one’s ears out of the great black night which envelops humankind tell one that all is not well with such a self-centered life. One may not turn away from them by uttering the alibi that God is in His Heaven and all is well with the World. No! One realized that one must go down into the very midst of that darkness and somehow give out something of what one has gained, offer true hope to a hopeless epoch. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
It is impossible for the materialist to perceive that we live and move and have our being in a universal Mind. However, the self-actualized, knowing this, knows also that this universal life will take care of one’s individual life to the degree that one opens oneself out to it, to the extent that one takes a large and generous view of one’s relation to all other individual lives. Amidst peaceful landscape in calm forests retreats or beside lonely seashores, where the attractions of Nature are all-powerful to one and where one could gladly spend the remainder of one’s life in solitude, a stinking phenomenon will mark itself repeatedly on memory. Again and again, faces of different people will float up and confront one. Some will be the faces f friends or people known to one but others will be the faces of strangers. All call to one to leave one’s solitude and give up one’s silence. It is not difficult to understand this occurrence. The mountain eyrie, the jungle retreat, or the forest cottage may continue to attract one powerfully, but the awakening of one’s fellow people into truth must eventually seem a worthier objective than one’s own external peace. So long as there are others acutely conscious of their spiritual need, so long must one go out among them. One does not do this by an external command but only by an internal one—the command of compassion. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
One no longer feels for oneself alone but also for others. Indeed one cannot help doing so, for the same reason that Jesus could not help proclaiming the gospel of the Israelites, even though he foreknew the end would be impalement upon the Cross. One’s service is done out of the pure joy of giving it. The self-actualized does not have to be told to help humankind in its struggles toward the light. One is a helper by nature. One’s compassion overflows and it is out of this, not out of condescension, that one works for them. However, one’s help will not necessarily take the particular forms that humanity in its unenlightened states expects from one. Actualized being or life unites dynamics with form. Everything real has a form, be it an atom, be it the human mind. That which has no form has no being. At the same time, everything real drives beyond itself. It is not satisfied with the form in which it finds itself. It urges toward a more embracing, ultimately to the all-embracing form. Everything wants to grow. It wants to increase its power of being in forms which include and conquer non-being. Metaphorically speaking, one could say that the molecule wants to become a crystal, the crystal a cell, the cell a centre of cells, the plant animal, the animal human, the human god, the weak strong, the isolated participating, the imperfect perfect, and so on! #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
In this drive of evolution, it can happen that a being, when transcending itself loses itself. It can happen that it destroys its given form without attaining a new form, thus annihilating itself. Life meets this threat by creating forms of growth. The self-transcendence of being occurs in forms which determine the process of self-transcendence. However, this determination is never complete. If it were, one could not speak of self-transcendence. One would have to speak of self-expression. The incompleteness of the laws of growth produce a risk in everything living. In transcending itself a being may fulfill and it may destroy itself. One could call this risk of creativity. Symbolically, one could say that even God, in creating, took the risk upon Himself that creation would turn into destruction. In the vision in which Parmenides receives the answer to the philosophical question, it is dike, the goddess of justice, who introduces him into the truth about being. Justice is not a social category far removed from ontological inquires, but it is a category without which no ontology is possible. In the poetic fragment of Parmenides we have an archaic ontology of justice. Heraclitus, in his words about the logos, the law which determines the movement of the kosmos, applies the concept of the logos both to the laws of nature and to the laws of the city. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
According to Plate, justice is the uniting function in the individual person and in the social group. It is the embracing form in both cases. Their power of being depends on it. In Stoicism it is the same logos which works as physical law in nature and as a moral law in the human mind. It judges as principle of justice all absolute laws. It gave the Roman Stoics criteria for the formulation and administration of the Roman law. It was seen in its absolute, cosmic validity, whatever the consequences of its execution may be. Whenever the ontological foundation of justice was removed, and absolute interpretation of law was tried, no criteria against arbitrary tyranny or utilitarian relativism were left. In the fight of Socrates with the Sophists this was the decisive point. In the defence of the “rights of humans” against cynicism and dictatorship, the same fight is going on today. It can be won only by a new foundation of natural law and justice. A glimpse at the Old Testament shows that in spite of the unmetaphysical character of prophetic thinking, the principle of justice they pronounce governs not only Israel, but also humankind and nature. In later Judaism the law is hypostasized in the eternal realm. Only its manifestation is temporal. This implies that it is the form of being which is valid for everything in every period. Obedience to it gives power of being. Disobedience involves self-destruction. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
If justice is the form in which the power of being actualizes itself, justice must be adequate to the dynamics of power (as discussed before). It must be able to give form to the encounters of being with being. The problem of “justice in encounter” is given with the fact that it is impossible to say before the encounter happens how the power relation will be within the encounter. Many possibilities are given in every moment. Each of these possibilities demands a special form. A wrong, unjust, power relation may destroy life. In every act of justice daring is necessary and risk is unavoidable. There are no principles which could be applied mechanically and which would guarantee that justice is done. Nevertheless there are principles of justice expressing the form of being in its universal and unchanging character. Nephi makes two sets of records—each is called the plates of Nephi—the larger plates contain a secular history; the smaller ones deal primarily with sacred things. About 600-592 Before Christ. “And all these things did my father see, and hear, and speak, as he dwelt in a tent, in the valley of Lemuel, and also a great many more things, which cannot be written upon these plates. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
“And now, as I have spoken concerning these plates, behold they are not the plates upon which I make a full account of the history of my people; for the plates upon which I have given the name of Nephi; wherefore, they are called the plates of Nephi, after mine own name; and these plates also are called the plates of Nephi. Nevertheless, I have received a commandment of the Lord that I should make these plates, for the special purpose that there should be an account engraven of the ministry of my people. Upon the other plates should be engraven an account of the reign of the kings, and the wars and contentions of my people; wherefore these plates are for the more part of the ministry; and the other plates are for the more part of the reign of the kings and the wars and contentions of my people. Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not. However, the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of humans; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen,” report 1 Nephi 9.1-6. The angelic intellect is not defective, if defect be taken to mean privation, as if it were without anything which it ought to have. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
However, if the defect be taken negatively, in that sense every creature is defective, when compared with God; forasmuch as it does not possess the excellence which is God. The sense of sight, as being altogether material, cannot be raised up to immateriality. However, our intellect, or the angelic intellect, inasmuch as it is elevated above matter in its own nature, can be raised up above its own nature to a higher level by grace. The proof is, that sight cannot in any way know abstractedly what it knows concretely; for in no way can it perceive a nature except as this one particular nature; whereas our intellect is able to consider abstractly what is knows concretely. Now although it knows things which have a form residing in manner, still it resolves the composite into both of these elements; and it considers the form separately by itself. Likewise, also, the intellect of an Angel, although it naturally knows the concrete in any nature, still it is able to separate that existence by its intellect; since it knows that the thing itself is one thing, and its existence is another. Since therefore the created intellect is naturally capable of apprehending the concrete form, and the concrete being abstractedly, by way of a kind of resolution of parts; it can by grace be raised up to know separate subsisting substance, and separate subsisting existence. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
Now participated existence is limited by the capacity of the participator; so that God alone, who is His own existence, is pure act and infinite. However, in intellectual substances there is composition of actuality and potentiality, not, indeed, of matter and form and participated existence. Wherefore some say that they are compose of that “whereby they are” and that “which they are;” for existence itself is that by which a thing is. However, human morality and submission to God’s law are entirely different in principle, though they may appear to be similar in outward appearance. Human morality arises out of culture and family training and is based on what is proper and expected in the society we live in. It has nothing to do with God expect to thee extent that Godly people have influenced that society. Submission to God’s law arises out of a love for God and a grateful response to His grace and is based on delight in His law as revealed in Scripture. When the societal standard of morality varies from the law of God written in Scripture, we then see the true nature of human morality. We discover that it is just as hostile to the law of God as is the attitude of the most hardened sinner. Sanctification begun in our hearts by the Holy Spirit changes our attitude. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
Instead of being hostile to God’s law, we begin to delight in it. “For in my inner being I delighted in God’s law,” reports Romans 7.22. “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us,” reports Romans 8.18. This radical and dramatic change in our attitude toward God’s commands is a gift of His grace, brought about solely by the might working of His Holy Spirit within us. We play no more part in this initial act of sanctification than we do in our justification. As Paul said, “All this is from God.” When the Angel of devotion has gone, the Angel of prayer has lost its wings and it becomes a deformed and loveless thing. Our previous study was about our devotional wings (meditation, confession, adoration, and submission). Now, wings formed and stretched in flight, we come to petition, the offering of our requests to God. It is my hope this study will instruct and motivate us to a soaring life of petitionary prayer which will call down God’s power upon our lives and the Church. The Scriptural setting for the classic text on petitionary prayer could scarcely be more dramatic—it is a soldier preparing for battle. One’s heart pounds boom, boom under one’s metal breastplate. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
As one steadies oneself, one hitches up one’s armor belt and scuffs at the Earth like a football player with one’s studded boots, testing one’s traction. One repeatedly draws one’s great shield across one’s body in anticipation of the fiery barrages to come. Reflexively one reaches up and repositions one’s helmet. One gingerly tests the edge of one’s sword and slips it back into one’s scabbard. The enemy approaches. Swords pulled from their scabbards ring in chilling symphony. The warriors stand motionless, breathing in dreadful spasm. And then the believing soldier does the most astounding thing. One falls to one’s knees in deep, profound, petitionary prayer—for one has obeyed one’s divine instructions to take of all-prayer. The Holy Scriptures themselves portray this weapon: “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints,” reports Ephesians 6.18. We are charged with five elements necessary to fully experience the power of petitionary prayer. “And he who searches our hearts know the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will,” reports Romans 8.27. Then the vision and the solid intention obey Christ will naturally lead to seeking out and applying means to that end. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
Here the means in question are the means for spiritual transformation, for the replacing of the inner character of the “lost” with the inner character of Jesus: His vision, understanding, feelings, decisions, and character. In finding such means we are not let to ourselves but have rich resources available to us in the example and teachings of Jesus, in the Scriptures generally, and in one’s people. Suppose, for example, we would like to be generous to those who have already take away some of our money or property through legal process. Pure will, with gritted teeth, cannot be enough to enable us to do this. By what means, then, can we become the kind of person who would do this as Jesus Himself would do it? If we have the vision and we intend (have decided) to do it, we can certainly find and implement the means, for God will help us to do so. We must start by discovering, by identifying, the thoughts, feelings, habits of will, social relations, and bodily inclinations that prevent us from being generous to these people. Our education and teachers should help us here, and perhaps they do to some extent—but nearly always insufficiently. We might with a little reflection identify resentment and anger toward the person who needs our help as a cause of not helping one. And then there is justice. Ah, justice! Perhaps in the form of “I do not owe it to him. He has no claims to me.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
Or perhaps we feel the legal case that went against us and in his favor was rigged. Or again, perhaps we think we must secure ourselves by holding onto whatever surplus items we have. After all, we may say, who knows what the future holds? Or perhaps we think giving to people what is unearned by them will harm them by corrupting their character, leading them to believe one can get something for nothing. Or perhaps it is just not our habit to give people with no prior claim on us—even if they have not injured or deprived us. Or perhaps our friends, including our religious friends, would think we are fools. And so forth. What a thicket of lostness stands in the way of doing a simple good thing: helping someone in need, someone who just happens to have previously won a legal case against us, possibly quite justly. At this point it is the all-too-customary human thinking, feeling, and social practice that stands in the way. And, truthfully, it is very likely that little can be done in the moment of need to help one do the good things that Jesus commands. This is characteristic of all his example and teaching. When my neighbor who has triumphed over me in the past now stands before me in a need I can remedy, I will not be able on the spot to do the good thing if my inner being is filled with all the thoughts, feeling, and habits that characterize the ruined soul and its World. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
Rather, if I intend to obey Jesus Christ, I must intend and decide to become the kind of person who would obey. That is, I must find the means of changing my inner being until it is substantially like his, pervasively characterized by his thoughts, feelings, habits, and relationship to the Father. Almighty and everlasting God, Who hast revealed Thy glory, by Christ, among all nations, preserved the works of Thy mercy; that Thy Church, which is spread throughout the World, may preserve with stedfast faith in the confession of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Incomprehensible, great, and glorious God, I adore Thee and abase myself. I approach Thee mindful that I am less than nothing, a creature worse than nothing. My thoughts are not screened from Thy gaze. My secret sins blaze in the light of Thy countenance. Enable me to remember that blood which cleanseth all sin, to believe in that grace which subdues all iniquities, to resign myself to that agency which can deliver me from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Thou hast begun a good work in me and canst alone continue and complete it. Give me an increasing conviction of my tendency to err, and of my exposure to sin. Help me to feel more of the purifying, softening, influence of religion, its compassion, love, pity, courtesy, and employ me as Thy instrument in blessing others. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
Give me to distinguish between the mere form of Godliness and its power, between life and a name to live, between guile and truth, between hypocrisy and a religion that will bear Thy eye. If I am not right, set me right, keep me right; and may I at last come to Thy house in peace. “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of the sinful person is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God,” reports Romans 8.5-8. O God, of unchangeable power and eternal light, look favourably on Thy whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; and, by the tranquil operation of Thy perpetual Providence, carry out the work of human’s salvation; and let the whole World feel and see that tings which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and all things are returning to perfection through Him from Whom they took their origin, even through our Lord Jesus Christ. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
#PlumasRanch is your future home! 🏡 And now you have even more choices with the release of seven cul-de-sac lots in the Bluffs community! This is the first release for Bluffs, with homes starting at $319,000. 😍
Our floor plans include modern design elements like open floor plans, large kitchen islands, and flex spaces to make you feel like a superstar. Click the link in bio to explore the Bluffs community virtually, and reach out if you’d like to schedule a tour of a model home! https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-bluffs-at-plumas-ranch/
I Have Dreamed, or in Other Words, I Have Seen a Vision—I Have Reason to Rejoice in the Lord!
We still do not know one-thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. I can complain because the rose bush has thorns or rejoice because the thorn bush has roses. Lehi sees a vision of the tree of life—he partakes of its fruit and desires his family to do likewise—he sees a rod of iron, a strait and narrow path, and the mists of darkness that enshroud humans—Sariah, Nephi, and Sam partake of the fruit, but Laman and Lemuel refuse. About 600-529 Before Christ. “And it came to pass that we had gathered together all manner of seeds every kind, both of grain of every kind, and also of the seeds of fruit of every kind. And it came to pass that while my father tarried in the wilderness he spake unto us, saying: Behold, I have dreamed; or in other words, I have seen a vision. And behold, because of the thing which I have seen, I have reason to rejoice in the Lord because of Nephi and also of Sam; for I have reason to suppose that they, and also many of their seed, will be saved. However, behold, Leman and Lemuel, I fear exceedingly because of you; for behold, methought I saw in my dream, a dark and dreary wilderness. And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed in a white robe; and he came and stood before me. And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me follow him. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
“And it came to pass that as I followed him I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste. And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies. And it came to pass after I have prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field. And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy. And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that had ever seen. And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit. And as I cast my eyes round about, that perhaps I might discover my family also, I beheld a river of water; and it ran along, and was near the tree of which I was partaking the fruit. And I looked to behold from whence it came; and I saw the head of thereof a little way off and at the head thereof I beheld your mother Sariah, and Sam, and Nephi; and they stood as far as if they knew not wither they should go. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
“And it came to pass that I beckoned unto them; and I also did say unto them with a loud voice that they should come unto me, and partake of the fruit, which was desirable above all other fruit. And it came to pass that they did come unto me and partake of the fruit also. And it came to pass that I was desirous that Laman and Lemuel should come and partake of the fruit also; wherefore, I cast mine eyes toward the head of the river, that perhaps I might see them. And it came to pass that I saw them, but they would not come and partake of the fruit. And I beheld a rod of iron, and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to the tree by which I stood. And I also beheld a strait and narrow path, which came along by the rod of iron, even to the tree by which I stood; and it also led by the head of the fountain, unto a large and spacious field, as if it had been a World. And I saw numberless concourses of people, many of whom were pressing forward, that they might obtain the path which led unto the tree by which I stood. And it came to pass that they did come forth, and commence in the path which led to the tree. And it came to pass that there arose a mist of darkness; yea, even an exceedingly great mist of darkness, insomuch that they who had commenced in the path did lose their way, that they wandered off and were lost. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
“And it came to pass that I behold others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree. And after they had partaken of the fruit of the tree they did cast their eyes about as if they were ashamed. And I also cast my eyes round about, and behold, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the Earth. And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit. And after they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost,” reports 1 Nephi 8.1-28. Intelligence penetrated like an eagle’s sight beneath the World-illusion and saw it for what it is—a cosmic process of continual change which never comes to an end, a Universal movement whose first impetus and final exhaustion will never be known, a flux of absolute duration therefore unimaginable. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
And the self-actualized who attains to the knowledge of THAT which forever seems to be changing but forever paradoxically retains its own pure reality, for one as for the ignorant, the flux must go on. However, it will go on here on this Earth, not in the same mythical Heaven or mirage-like Hell. He will repeatedly have to take flesh, as all others will have to, so long as duration lasts, that is, forever. For one cannot sit apart like others while their compassion is too profound to waste itself in mere sentiment. It demands the profound expression of sacrificial service in motion. We live in a World which is full of misery and ignorance, and the plain duty of each and all of us is to try to make the little corner one can influence somewhat less miserable and somewhat less ignorant that it was before one entered it. The escape into Heaven for one is only the escape into the inner realization of the truth whilst alive: it is not to escape from the external cycle of rebirths and deaths. It is a change of attitude. However, that bait had to be held out to one at an earlier stage until one’s will and nerve were strong enough to endure this revelation. There is no escape except inwards. For the self-actualized is too compassionate to withdraw into proud indifferentism and too understanding to rest completely satisfied with one’s own wonderful attainment. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
The sounds of suffering of human, the ignorance that is the root of these sufferings beat ceaselessly on the tympana of one’s ears. What can one do but answer, and answer with one’s very life—which one gives in perpetual reincarnation upon the cross of flesh as a vicarious sacrifice for others. It is thus alone that one achieves eternal life in God, not by fleeing forever as one could if one willed—into the Great Unconsciousness, but by the suffering forever the pains and pangs of perpetual rebirth that one may help or guide one’s own. The mystic arrives at treating all people alike through the emotion of love; the illuminate arrives at it through the knowledge of reason. The first is likely to be changeable, the last permanent because emotion is variable, reason firm. People forget how fast you did a job—but they remember how well you did it. The present is the point at which time touches eternity. Well, obviously, none of this had been unimpeachable to the critics over the years. “Words like “irrationality,” “Illusion,” “willful and heroic dedication”—these rub many people the wrong way. They have hardly helped make our World any better, especially in modern times. We must be animated about the demonic crisis of the times, and be wary of life-enhancing illusions. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
It is precisely at this point that the science of humans comes in. We know that Nazism was a viable hero system that lived the illusion of the defeat of evil on Earth. We know the terrifying dynamic of victimage and scapegoating all across history, and we know what it means—the offering of the other’s body in order to buy off one’s own death, the sadistic formula par excellence: break the bones and spill the blood of the victim in the service of some “higher truth” that the sacrificers alone possess. To treat the body with the same scorn that God seems to treat it is to draw close to Him. Well, we know these things only too well in our time. The problem is what to do with them. People cannot abandon the heroic. If we say that the irrational or mythical is part of the human groping for transcendence, we do not give it any blanket of approval. However, groups f men can do what they have always done—argue about heroism, assess the cost of it, show that it is self-defeating, a fantasy, a dangerous illusion and not one that is life-enhancing and ennobling. The great question is: If illusions are needed, how can we have those that are capable of correction, and how can we have those that will not deteriorate into delusions? #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
If humans live in myths and not absolutes, there is nothing we can do or say about that. However, we can argue for nondestructive myths; this is the task of what would be a general science of society. This admission of the need for guiding heroic myths, and at the same time the plea to be wary of their costs, reconciles a long-standing argument in social theory. Reason is a guide in social life. I have argued elsewhere that one very graphic way of looking at mental illness is to see it as the laying onto others of one’s own hyperfears of life and death. From this perspective we can also see that leaders of nations, citizens of so-called democracies, normal people are also doing the very same thing all the time: laying their power-expiation immunity trip onto everyone else. Today the whole World is already becoming uncomfortable with the repeated war games and biological-weapons test by nations of power trips, test that lay their danger onto innocent and powerless neighbours. In a way it is the drama of the family and the Feifferian love affair writ large across the face of the planet, the “family” of nations. There are no particular leaders or special councils of elite to blame in all this, simply because most people identify with the symbols of power and agree to them. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
The nation offers immortality to all its members. It is wrong to argue that psychically crippled people, what some call “necrophiliac characters,” do evil thing by valuing death over life and so lay waste to life because it makes them uncomfortable. Life makes whole nations of normal people uncomfortable, and hence the serene accord and abandon with which people have defeated themselves all through history. This is the great weakness, as we have now discovered, of Enlightenment rationalism, the easy hope that by the spread of reason humans will stand up to their full size and renounce irrationality. The Enlightenment thinkers understood well the dangers of the mass mind, and they thought that by the spread of science and education all of this could change. The great Russian sociologist Nikolai Mikhailovsky had already singled out the hero as the enemy of democracy, the one who causes others to yield their wills because of the safety it offers them. The thing that had to be done was to prevent society from turning the individual into a tool for the sake of social efficiency and safety. How could the infringement of the individuality be overcome? Mikhailovsky answered in the same vein as modern humanist psychiatrists: by giving the individual the opportunity for harmonious development. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
At about the same time that other great Enlightenment man, Emerson, made his famous plea for self-reliance, for persons with full and independent insides so that they could have the stability to withstand herd enthusiasms and herd fears. This whole tradition was brought up to date by Herbert Marcuse in a brilliant essay on the ideology of death. He argued that death has always been used by leaders and elites as an ideology to get the masses to conform and to yield up their autonomy. Leaders win allegiance to the cultural causa sui project because it protects against vulnerability. The polis, the state, God—all these are symbols of infallibility in which the masses willingly embed their fearful freedoms. There we have it: the culmination of the Enlightenment in a proper focus on the fundamental dynamics of mass slavishness. On the highest level of sophistication we know in detail what people fear and how they deny that fear. Enlightenment rationalism is too easy a creed, and so we would expect to see this weakness in all its thinkers. Some believe that the ultimate cause of all anxiety is death, and this sustains unfreedom. Humans are not free as long as death has not become really one’s own, that is, as long as it has not been brought under one’s autonomy. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
Alas, the fact is that humans do not have any autonomy under which to bring things. This great and fundamental problem for the whole career of Enlightenment science states that whether the individual is at all in a position to grow beyond some kind of transference, some form of moral dependence, and to affirm and accept oneself from oneself cannot be said. Only in the creative type does this seem possible to some extent. However, it can be said that even the highest, most individuated creative type can only manage autonomy to some extent. The fact is the people cannot and do not stand on their own powers; therefore they cannot make death their own. Moral dependence—guilt—is a natural motive of the human condition and has to be absolved from something beyond oneself. One young revolutionary saw that his guilt was absorbed by submission to the revolutionary cell. The weakness of the Enlightenment, then, was that it did not understand human nature—and it apparently still does not. We must ask for the good conscience to be a coward, the uprooting of heroic sublimation. However, this is too easy: even if people admit they are cowards, they still want to be saved. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
There is no harmonious development, no child-rearing program, no self-reliance that would take away from people their need for a beyond on which the meaning of their lives. There is a fallacy in the minds of many that overlooks the depth and universality of the fear of death. The other fallacy is to fail to see the naturalness of existential guilt—and this also fails. The task of social theory is to show how society aggravates and uses natural fears, but there is no way to get rid of the fears simply by showing how leaders use them or by saying that people must take them in hand. People will still take one another’s heads because their own heads stick out and they feel exposed and guilty. The task of social theory is not to explain guilt away of to absorb it unthinkingly in still another destructive ideology, but to neutralize it and give it expression in truly creative and life-enhancing ideologies. Let me move on to some learning that I would like to share with you. I like to be heard. A number of times in my life I have felt myself bursting with insoluble problems, or going round and round in tormented circles or, during one period, overcome by feelings of worthlessness and despair. I think I have been more fortunate than most at these times individuals who have been able to hear me and thus to rescue me from the chaos of my feelings, individuals who have been able to hear my meanings a little more deeply than most I have known. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
These persons have heard me without judging me, diagnosing me, appraising me, evaluating me. They have just listened and clarified and responded to me at all the levels at which I was communicating. I can testify that when you are in psychological distress and someone really hears you without passing judgment on you, without truing to take responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels darn good! At these times it has relaxed the tension in me. It has permitted me to bring out the frightening feelings, the guilts, the despair, the confusions that have been a part of my experience. When I have been listened to and what I have been heard, I am able to reperceive my World in a new way and to go on. It is astonishing how elements that seem insoluble become soluble when someone listens, how confusions that seem irremediable turn into relatively clear flowing streams when one is heard. I have deeply appreciated the times that I have experiences this sensitive, empathic, concentrated listening. I dislike it in myself when I cannot hear another, when I do not understand one. If it is only a simple failure of comprehension or a failure to focus my attention on what one is saying or a difficulty in understanding one’s words, then I feel only a very mild dissatisfaction with myself. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
However, what I really dislike in myself is not being able to hear the other person because I am so sure in advance of what one is about to say that I do not listen. It is only afterwards that I realize that I have heard what I have already decided one is saying; I have failed really to listen. Or even worse are those times when I catch myself trying to twist one’s message to make it say what I want one to say, and then only hearing that. This can be a very subtle thing, and it is surprising how skillful I can be in doing it. Just by twisting one’s words a small amount, by distorting one’s meaning just a little, I can make it appear that one is not only saying the thing I want to hear, but that one is the person I want one to be. Only when I realize through one’s protest or through my own gradual recognition that I am subtly manipulating one, do I become disgusted with myself. I know too, from being on the receiving end of this, how frustrating it is to be received for what you are not, to be heard as saying something which you have not said. This creates anger and bafflement and disillusion. When I try to express something which is deeply me, which is part of my own private, inner World, and the other person does not understand, I am terrible frustrated and shut into myself. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
When I take the gamble, the risk, or trying to share something that is very personal with another individual and it is not received and not understood, this is a very deflating and a very lonely experience. I have come to believe that such an experience makes some individuals psychotic. It causes them to give up hoping that anyone can understand them. Once they have lost that hope, then their own inner World, which becomes more and more bizarre, is the only place where they can live. They can no longer live in any shared human experience. I can sympathize with them because I know that when I try to share some feeling aspect of myself which is private, precious, and tentative, and when this communication is met by evaluation, by reassurance, by distortion of my meaning, my very strong reaction is, “Oh, what is the use!” At such a time, one knows what it is to be alone. So, as you can readily see from what I have said thus far, a creative, active, sensitive, accurate, empathic, nonjudgmental listening is for me terribly important in a relationship. It is important for me to provide it; it has been extremely important, especially at certain times in my life, to receive it. I feel that I have grown within myself when I have provided it; I am very sure that I have grown and been released and enhanced when I have received this kind of listening. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
Does adoration lead to anything else? Yes—the presentation of our bodies—our entire lives—in an ultimate act of worship. This is how Isaiah capped his great experience with God: “Here am I. Send me!” reports Isaiah 6.8. Similarly, after the great Paul sings in worshipful doxology—“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen,” Romans 11.36, he immediately calls us to submission: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—which is your spiritual worship,” as reported in Romans 12.1. As thou wilt; what thou wilt; when thou wilt. Our devotion must culminate in a conscious yielding of every part of our personality, every ambition, every relationship, and every hope to Him. This done, we have reached the apex of personal devotion. As I cautioned when we began, personal devotion cannot and must not be reduced to a few principles such as meditation, confession, adoration, and submission. Neither can it be put in a logical straitjacket. Sometimes we may be called to confession and submission only. Other times, adoration may occupy an extended time, or our devotions will probably be confined to petition only. There will be times when all of it takes place in twenty minutes. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
However, one thing is certain—it will not happen without discipline. The reason many people never have an effective devotional life is, they never plan for it. They do not know what it is because they have never taken the time to find out. They do not pray because the do not set aside the time. Their character never rises to that of Christ’s because they do not expose their lives to His pure light. Their wills stay crooked because they do not tie into Him. The question for prayerless men is a very masculine one: Are we man enough to meditate? To confess? To adore? To submit? To sweat and endure? Give me, O Lord, purity of lips, clean and innocent heart, and rectitude of actions. Give me humility, patience, abstinence, chastity, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance. Give me the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and Godliness, and of Thy fear. Make me ever to seek Thy face with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind; grant me to have a contrite and humbled heart in Thy presence—to prefer nothing to Thy love. Most high, eternal, and ineffable Wisdom, drive away from me the darkness of blindness and ignorance; most high and eternal Strength, deliver me. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
Most high and eternal Fortitude, assist me; most high and incomprehensible Light, illuminate me; most high and infinite Mercy, have mercy on me. God of the publican, be merciful to me a sinner; this I am by nature and practice, this Thy word proclaims me to be, this I hope I feel myself to be; yet Thou hast not left me to despair, for there is no peradventure in Thy grace; I have all the assurance I need that with thee is plenteous redemption. In spite of the number and heinousness of my sins Thou hast given me a token for good; the golden sceptre is held out, and Thou has said “Touch it to live.” May I encourage myself by a sense of Thy all-sufficiency, by faith in Thy promises, by view of the experience of others. To that dear refuge in which so many have sheltered from every storm may I repair, in that fountain always freely open for sin may I be cleansed from every defilement. Sin is that abominable thing which Thy soul hates, and this alone separates Thee and me. Thou cannot contradict the essential perfections of Thy nature; Thou cannot make me happy with Thyself, till Thou hast made me holy like Thyself. O holy God, make me such a creature as Thou cannot take pleasure in, and such a being that I can take pleasure in Thee. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
May I consent to and delight in Thy law after the inner man, never complain over the strictness of Thy demands, but mourn over my want of conformity to them; never question Thy commandments, but esteem them to be right. By Thy Spirit within me may my practice spring from principle, and my dispositions be conformable with my duty. David said in Psalm 40.8, “I desire to do your will, O my God.” Why did David have this desire? It was because, as the remainder of the verse says, “You law is within my heart.” David found a law written in his own heart corresponding to the law written in God’s word. There was an agreeableness between the spiritual nature within hum and the objective law of God external to him. It is that way with a person who is a new creation in Christ. There is a basic though imperfect correspondence between the law written in a believer’s heart and the law written in Scripture. This does not mean we can discard the law written in Scripture, because the law written in the heart is not self-directing—that is, it does not tell us what to do. It only agrees with and responds to the law written in Scripture. This instantaneous act of God by which He begins sanctification in us is just as much a gift of God’s grace as justification. God does not wait until we surrender all, make a second commitment to Christ’s lordship, or anything like that. God gives sanctification by His grace. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

Having nowhere to go isn’t a problem when you’re all curled up in this #BrightonStation Residence 4 home! Just how we like it. 🙌 What’s been your go-to activity to keep busy?https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/residence-4/
I am in Earnest—I Will Not Equivocate—I Will Not Excuse—I Will Not Retreat a Single Inch—And I Will Be Heard!
One who every morning plans the transaction of the day and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide one through the maze of the most busy life. However, where no plain is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign. Learn to value your time alone—when you value something you are keener to protect it. Inside of each one of us is a place where we live all alone and that is where one renews one’s springs that never dry up. We hardly have a compete catalogue of culturally codified heroics, but it is a god representation of the ideologies that have taken such a toll of life; in many examples of masses of human lives there have been piled up order of the cultural transcendence to be achieved. And there is noting “perverse” about it because it represents the expression of the fullest expansive life of the heroic being. We can talk for a century about what causes human aggression; we can try to find the spring in animal instincts, or we can try to find them in bottled-up hatreds due to frustration or in some kind of miscarried experiences of early years, of poor child handling and training. All these would be true, but still trivial because people kill out of joy, in the experience of expansive transcendence over evil. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23
This poses an immense problem for social theory, a problem that we have utterly failed to be clear about. If people end the lives of others out of a heroic joy, in what direction do we program for improvements in human nature? If humans work evil out of the impulse to righteousness and goodness, what are we going to improve? If people are aggressive in order to expand life, if aggression in the service of life is human’s highest creative act, what kind of child-rearing programs are we going to promote? If we were to be logical, these childhood programs would have to be something that eliminates joy and heroic self-expansion in order to be effective for peace. And how could we ever get controlled child-rearing programs without the most oppressive social regulations? The cataloguing of maddening dilemmas such as these are, for utopian thought, could probably be continued to fill a whole book let me ass mere a few more. We know that to be human is to be neurotic in some ways and to some degree; there is no way to become an adult without serious twisting of one’s perceptions of the World. Even more, it is not the especially twisted people who are most dangerous: coprophiliacs are harmless, people who physically force others into pleasures of the flesh do not do the damage to life that idealistic leaders do. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23
Also, leaders are a function of the “normal” urges of masses to some large extent; this means that even psychically disabled leaders are an expression of the widespread urge to heroic transcendence. Dr. Strangelove was surely a psychic cripple, but he was not an evil genius who moved everyone around him to his will; he was simply one cleaver computer in a vast idealistic program to guarantee the survival of the “free World.” Today we are living the grotesque spectacle of the poisoning of the Earth by the nineteenth-century hero system of unrestrained material production. This is perhaps the greatest and most pervasive evil to have emerged in all of history, and it may even eventually defeat all of humankind. Still there are no “twisted” people whom we can hold responsible for this. I know all this is more or less obvious, but it puts our discussion on the proper plane; it teaches us one great lesson—a pill that for modern humans may be the bitterest of all to swallow—namely, that we seem to be unable to approach the problem of human evil from the side of psychology. Dr. Freud, who gave us the ideal of the psychological liberation of humans, also gave us many glimpses of its limitations. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23
I am not referring here to Dr. Freud’s cynicism about what people may accomplish because of the perversity of their natures, but rather his admission that there is no dependable line between normal and abnormal in affairs of the human World. In the mist characteristic human activity—love—we see the most distorted reality. Talking about the distortions of transference-love, Dr. Freud says: “It is to a high degree lacking in regard for reality, is less sensible, less concerned about consequences, more blind in its estimation of the person loved, then we are willing to admit of normal love.” And then he is forced to take most of this back, honest thinker that he is, by concluding that: “We should not forget, however, that it is precisely these departures from the morn that make up the essential element in the condition of being in love.” In other words, transference is the only ideality that humans have. It was no news to Dr. Freud that the ability to love and to believe is a matter of susceptibility to illusion. He prided himself on being a stoical scientist who had transcended the props of illusion, yet he retained his faith in science—in psychoanalysis—as his particular hero system. This is the same as saying that all hero systems are based on illusion except one’s own, which is somehow in a special, privileged place, as if given in nature herself. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23
Rank got right at the heart of Dr. Freud’s dilemma: “Just as he himself could so easily confess his agnosticism while he had created for himself a private religion, it seems that, even in his intellectual and rational achievements, he still has to express and assert his irrational needs by at least fighting for and about his rational ideas.” This it perfect. It means that Dr. Freud, too, was not exempt from the need to fit himself into a scheme of cosmic heroism, an immortality ideology that had to be taken on faith. This is why Rank saw the need to go “beyond psychology:” it cannot by itself substitute for a hero system unless it is—as it was for Dr. Freud—the hero system that guaranteed him immortality. This is the meaning of Rank’s critique of psychology as “self-deception.” It cannot contain the immortality urge characteristic of life. It is just another ideology, which is gradually trying to supplant religious and moral ideology, but is only partially qualified to do this, because it is a preponderantly negative and disintegrating ideology. In other words, all that psychology has really accomplished is to make the inner life the subject matter of sciences, and in ding this it dissipated the idea of the soul. However, it was the soul which once linked human’s inner life to a transcendent scheme of cosmic heroism. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23
Now the individual is stuck with oneself and with an inner life that one can only analyze away as a product of social conditioning. Psychological introspection took cosmic heroics and made them self-reflective and isolated. At best it gives the person a new self-acceptance—but this is not what humans want or need: one cannot generate a self-created hero system unless one is mad. Only pure narcissistic megalomania can banish guilt. It was on the point of guilt, as Rank saw, that Dr. Freud’s system of heroism fell down. He admonishes Dr. Freud with the didactic mocking of one who possesses a clearly superior conceptualization: “It is with his therapeutic attempt to remove the guilt by tracing it back ‘causally’ to the individual’s childhood that Dr. Freud steps in. How presumptuous, and at the same time, naïve, is this idea of simply removing human guilt by explaining it casually as ‘neurotic!’” Exactly. Guilt is a reflection of the problem of acting in the Universe; only partly is it connected to the accidents of one’s birth and early experience. Guilt, as the existentialists put it, is the guilt of being itself. It reflects the self-conscious animal’s bafflement at having emerged from nature, at sticking out too much without know what for, at not being able to securely place oneself in an eternal meaning system. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23
How presumptuous of psychology to claim to be able to handle a problem of these dimensions. It all culminates once again in a recognition of the magnitude of the problem of cosmic heroism. All neurosis is vanity. Neurosis, in other words, reflects the incapacity of the individual to heroically transcend oneself; when one tried in one way or another, it is plainly vain. We are back again to a famous fruit of Rank’s work too, one insight that neurosis “is at the bottom always only incapacity for illusion.” However, we are back to it with a vengeance and with the broadest possible contemporary understanding. Transference represents not only the necessary and inevitable, but the most creative distortion of reality. Reality for humans is something one must imagine, search out in the eyes of one’s fellows, with their gleam of passionate dedication. This is also what Karl Jung intimates about the vitality of transference when he calls it “kinship libido.” This means that people join together their individual pulsations in a gamble toward something transcendent. Life imagines its own significance and strains to justify its beliefs. It is as though the life force itself needed illusion in other to further itself. Logically, then, the ideal creativity for humans would strain toward the grandest illusion. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23
One of the greatest difficulties for people lays in dealing with their negative feelings. We are voluntarily submitting ourselves to emotions of which we cannot really approve of, and we sometimes write down fantasies which often strike us as nonsense, and towards which we have strong resistances. For as long as we do not understand their meaning, such fantasies are a diabolical mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous. It costs some of us a great deal to undergo them, but we have been challenged by fate. Only by extreme effort are we finally able to escape from the labyrinth. In order to grasp the fantasies which are stirring in us “underground,” we may know that we have to let ourselves plummet down into them, as it is. We could not only feel a violent resistance to this, but a distinct fear. For many are afraid of losing command of oneself and becoming a prey to the fantasies—and as a psychiatrist I realized only too well what that meant. After prolonged hesitation, however, I saw that there was no other way out. We have to take the chance, have to try to gain power over them; for if we do not, they run the risk of gaining power over us. A cogent motive for making the attempt is the conviction that I could not expect of my patients something I did not dare to do myself. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23
The excuse that a helper stood at their side would not pass muster, for I was well aware that the so-called helper—that is, myself—could not help them unless he knew their fantasy material from his own direct experience, and that at present all he possessed were a few theoretical prejudices of dubious value. This idea—that I was committing myself to a dangerous enterprise not for myself alone, but also for the sake of my patients—helped me over several critical phases. Now I would like to cite the example of a sadist who did much worse things than just control others: Heinrich Himmler. I am going to read you a short letter that he wrote to a high-ranking SS officer, Count Adalbert Kottulinsky. “Dear Kottulinsky, You have been very ill with a serious heart ailment. In the interests of your health, I am hereby ordering you to stop smoking completely for the nest two years. After these two years are up you may submit to me a physician’s report on the state of your health. On the basis of that report I will decide whether you may resume smoking or not. Heil Hitler!” That is not only exerting control over another person but humiliating him as well. Himmler treats this adult like a stupid schoolboy. He writes in a way deliberately designed to humiliate. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23
Himmler assumes control over Kottulinsky. He does not even let the doctor do the controlling and make the decision on whether Kottulinsky may or may not smoke again. Himmler arrogates this decision to himself. Another trait of the bureaucrat as sadist is that one treats people like things. They become objects. One does not relate them as human beings. Another characteristic is that only helpless individuals waken one’s sadistic interest, not ones who can defend themselves. Also, many sadists are people who themselves suffered abuse, still talk about it like it is still happening, and want to inflict that pain onto others, which is why some are still talking about historic events as if they are current. A sadist up against a superior is usually cowardly, but someone who is helpless or can be made helpless—a child, a sick person, or, in certain political circumstances, a political opponent—those are the people who incite the sadist. One does not feel pity, as any normal person does, nor does one share the normal person’s revulsion at the very idea of hitting someone who is defenseless. On the contrary, helplessness is the quality that stimulates the sadist, because it puts the possibility of absolute control within one’s reach. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23
Another trait of the sadist in bureaucrat’s clothes is an excessive preoccupation with order. Order is everything. Order is the only sure thing in life, the only thing over which we can exert complete control. People with an excessive need for order are usually people who are afraid of life, because life is not orderly. It brings surprises; spontaneity is crucial to it. The only thing we can be sure of is death, but what life brings is always something new. The sadistic individual, though, who cannot relate to others and who sees everyone and everything in life as mere objects, that kind of person hates anything living, because it poses a threat to one. However, one love order. It was therefore characteristic for Himmler to keep a diary—for ten years starting with his fourteenth year—filled with the most banal of entries. He notes how many rolls he ate, whether his train arrived on time or not. Every last little thing he did had to be recorded. Even as a young man he kept records of his correspondence in which he noted every letter he wrote or received. That is order. And we should add that it is the orderliness of a certain type, the orderliness of the old-fashioned bureaucrat for whom life means nothing but order and rules mean everything. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23
It is interesting to note in this context that when Eichmann was asked in Jerusalem whether he felt any guilt—he was interrogated by a very humane psychiatrist, and he apparently felt he could speak quite freely—he said yes, he did have some guilt feelings. And when asked what it was he felt guilty about, he replied; For having played hooky from school twice when he was a boy. That was not very clever of him as a defendant in the situation he was in. If he had wanted to be clever he could have said he felt guilty because he had ended the life of so many people. However, he was perfectly honest, and it was quite natural for him to think of an indigence when he had broken the rules. For the bureaucrat, there is only one sin, and that is to violate the established order, to break the established rules. It would seem that the soul is human. For it is written in 2 Corinthians 4.16, “Though our outward person is corrupted, yet the inward person is renewed day by day.” However, that which is within humans is the soul. Therefore the soul is the inward person. Further, the human soul is a substance. However, it is not a universal substance. Therefore it is a particular substance. Therefore it is a “hypostasis” or a person; and it can only be a human person. Therefore the soul is a human; for a human person is a man. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23
However, when we reflect deeper, it is clear to see that humans are not a mere soul, nor a mere body; but both soul and body. First, that human is a soul; though this particular human, Sokrates, for instance, is not a soul, but composed of soul and body. I say this, forasmuch as some held that the form alone belongs to the species; while matter is part of the individual, and not the species. This cannot be true; for to the nature of the species belongs what the definition signifies; and in natural things the definition does not signify the form only, but the form and the mater. Hence in natural things the matter is part of the species; not indeed, signate matter, which is the principle of individuality; but the common matter. For as it belongs to the notion of this particular human to be composed of this soul, of this flesh, and of these bones; so it belongs to the notion of humans to be composed of soul, flesh, and bones; for whatever belongs in common to the substance of all the individuals contained under a given species, must belong to the substance of the species. It may also be understood in this sense, that this soul is the man; and this could be held if it were supposed that the operation of the sensitive soul were proper to it, apart from the body; because in that case all the operations which are attributed to man would belong to the soul only; and whatever performs the operations proper to a thing, is that thing; wherefore that which performs the operations of a human is a human. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23
However, we have shown that sensation is not the operation of the soul only. Since, then, sensation is an operation of man, but not proper to him, it is clear that man is not a soul only, but something composed of a soul and body. Plato, through supposing that sensation was proper to the soul, could maintain humans to be a soul making use of the body. A thing seems to be chiefly what is principal in it; thus what the governor of a states does, the state is said to do. In this way sometimes what is principal in man is said to be man; sometimes, indeed, the intellectual part which, in accordance with truth, is called “inward” man; and sometimes the sensitive part with the body is called man in the opinion of those who observation does not go beyond these senses. And this is called the “outward” man. Not every particular substance is a hypostasis or a person, but that which has the complete nature of its species. Hence a hand, or a foot, is not called hypostasis, or a person; nor, likewise, is the soul alone so called, since it is part of the human species. O God of love and peace, Who for the salvation of humankind did endure to be hanged on a Cross, and did pour forth Thy Blood for our redemption; favourably and benignantly receive my prayers, and bestow on my Thy mercy; that when Thou shalt command me to depart from the body, the enemy may have no power over me, but the Angel of peace may place me among Thy Saints and elect, where light abides and life reigns, World without end. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23
Nephi writes of the things of God—Nephi’s purpose is to persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham and be saved. About 600-592 Before Christ (BC). “And now I, Nephi, do not give the genealogy of my fathers in this part of my record; neither at any time shall I give it after upon these plates which I am writing; for it is given in the record which has been kept by my father; wherefore, I do not write it in this work. For it sufficeth me to say that we are descendants of Joseph. And it mattereth not to me that I am particular to give a full account of all the things of my father, for they cannot be written upon these plates, for I desire the room that I may write of the things of God. For the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade people to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved. Wherefore, the thing which are pleasing unto the World I do not write, but the things which are pleasing unto God and unto those who are not of the World. Wherefore, I shall give commandment unto my seed, that they shall not occupy these plates with things which are not of worthy unto the children of humans,” reports 1 Nephi 6.1-6. The height of devotion is reached when reverence and contemplation produce passionate worship, which in turn breaks forth in thanksgiving and praise in word and song. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23
I had vehement longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break. I spent most of my time in thinking of divine things, year after year; often walking alone in the woods, and solitary places, for deep prayers, soliloquy, and prayer, and converse with God; and it was always my manner, at such times, to sing forth my contemplations. Prayer seemed to be natural to me, as the breath by which the inward burnings of my heart vents. Bach’s music is universally regarded as Christian mediation transposed into musical form. The hymns and spiritual songs of the Church are the richest sources of poetic praise set to music, with words by the likes of Bernard of Clairvaux, Paul Gerhardt, Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, George Herbert, and Jon Donne. “A palace to every song you have ever heard and been unable to endure without tear? The marble shines in the Sun. Such richness as this cannot be made by human hands. This is the temple of Heaven,” (page 58 of Violin by Anne Rice). Lord, I love You, and I thank You for this World. Lord, glorify Your name through me. May the mind of Christ my Saviour live in me from day to day, by His love and power controlling all I do and say. We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread, and long to feast upon Thee still, we bring of Thee, the Fountainhead, and thirst our souls from Thee to fill. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23
“Mozart was always my happy guardian, the Little Genius, I called him, Master of His Choir of Angels, that is Mozart; but Beethoven is the Master of my Dark Heart, the captain of my broken life and all my failures. This is relentless music. This person is not going to give up. Onward, upward, forward, it does not matter now—woods, trees, it does not matter. All that matters is that you walk…and when there comes just a little bit of happiness again—the sweet exultant happiness of the plateau—it is caught up this time in the advancing steps. Because there is no stopping. Magnificent assurances the Beethoven tried to make, it seemed, to all of us, that everything would someday be understood and this life was worth. It even seemed all right for the Little Genius, Mozart perhaps, the bright safe glow of Angels chattering and laughing and doing back flips in celestial light. Death is not death as I once thought, when fear was trampled underfoot. Broken hearts do best forever beating upon the wintry windowpane. It struck me—a great formless thought, unable to take shape in this atmosphere of slow lovely embracing music—that that was the power of the violin, that it sounded human in a way that we humans could not! It spoke for us in a way that we ourselves could not. Ah, yes, and that is what all the pondering and poetry has always been about. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23
“It seemed the rain and this music would kill me. I would die quiet without a protest. But I only dreamed, sliding down down into a fullblown illusion as if it had been waiting for me. For surely I was dreaming. I had to be. But I was here, imprisoned in this, as if transported body and soul into it, and something in me sang, do not let it be a dream. I thought again very specifically of him, the ghost, refurbishing in my imagination his slender tall figure and the violin which he had held, and trying as best as my unmusical mind could do to recall the melodies he had played. A ghost, a ghost, you have seen a ghost I thought. The crows was magnetized by him; they were so totally in his thrall that I went unnoticed. I only want you, you of all people, you who worship these names as if they were household saints—Mozart, Beethoven—I want you to know I knew them! These higher notes were to thin and pure, so bright yet sad. I lifted the violin, and brought the bow down in a searing cry over the E string, the high string, the metal sting, maybe all song is a form of crying out, and organized scream; a violin as it reached for a magic pitch is as sharp as a siren,” (Pages: 6, 7, 11, 25, 51, 55, 56, 75, 113, 122, 151, 155 of Violin by Anne Rice). So holiness or sanctification is more than just our standing before God in Christ. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23
It is an actual conformity within us to the likeness of Christ begun at the time of our salvation and completed when we are made perfect in His presence. This process of gradually conforming us to the likeness of Christ begins at the very moment of our salvation when they Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us and to actually give us a new life in Christ. We call this gradual process progressive sanctification, or growing in holiness, because it truly is a growth process. The holiness we have in Christ is purely objective, outside of ourselves. It is the perfect holiness of Christ imputed to us because of our union with Him, and it affects our standing before God. God is pleased with us because He is pleased with Christ. Progressive sanctification is subjective or experiential and is the work of the Holy Spirit within us imparting to us the life and power of Christ, enabling us to respond in obedience to Him. Bot aspects of sanctification, however, are gifts of God’s grace. We do not deserve our holy standing before God, and we do not deserve the Spirit’s sanctifying work in our lives. Both come to us by His grace because of the merit of Christ. Progressive sanctification begins in us with an instantaneous act of God at the time of salvation. God always gives justification and this initial imparting of sanctification at the same time. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23
Th author of Hebrews described this truth in this way: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then he added, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more,” reports Hebrews 10.16-17. God promises to put his laws in our hearts and write them on our minds. That is sanctification in principle or, as I like to express it, sanctification begun. Then he promises to remember our sins no more. That is justification. Note that sanctification and justification are both gifts from God and expressions of His grace. Though they are each distinct aspects of salvation, they can never be separated. God never grants justification without also giving sanctification at the same time. I think of justification and sanctification as being like the jacket and pants of a suit. They always come together. A friend once wanted to give me a suit. He took me to a clothing store, and I walked out with a jacket and matching pants—a complete suit. Neither the jacket nor the pants alone would have been sufficient. I needed both to have the suit that my friend wanted to give me. Sometimes we think of salvation as more like a sports coat and a pair of slacks. We think God gives us the sports coat of justification by His grace, but we must “buy” the slacks of sanctification by our own efforts. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23
However, salvation is like a suit. It always comes with the jacket of justification and the pants of sanctification. God never gives one without the other because both are necessary to have the complete suit of salvation. The personal traits of the spiritual guide may repel the seeker. Yet if no one else is available who has the same knowledge, it is the seeker’s duty to repress one’s repulsions and enter into the relationship of a pupil. If one does not, then one pays a heavy price for one’s surrender to personal emotion and sensual superficiality. If walking in secret, a master would not necessarily be recognized as such, not even by those who are looking for one and have real all the books about one. That a person wearing quite ordinary clothes whose face was clean shaven, whose hair was quite average length, could be an adept is much less likely to be thought by most persons, then one who was theatrical-looking and conspicuously dressed. In the Worldly life a successful person usually seeks to give others the impression of one’s success but in the spiritual life an unassuming person may be a great master. The aspirant is not ordinarily in a position to judge what illumination really is, and who is a full illuminate being. One can only form theories about the one and use one’s imagination about the other. We feel and know that we are all eternal. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23
Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small; love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. Thou art worthy, Thou art worthy, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, glory, and honour, glory and honour and power; for Thou hast created, hast all things created, Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are created: for Thou art worthy, O Lord. I love you, Lord and I lift my voice to worship you, oh my soul rejoice. Take joy, my king in what you hear may it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear. Oh Lord, I am a shell full of dust, but animated with an invisible rational soul and made anew by an unseen power of grace; yet I am no rare object of valuable price, but one that has nothing and is nothing, although chosen of Thee from eternity, given to Christ, and born again; I am deeply convinced of the evil and misery of a sinful state, of the vanity of creatures, but also of the sufficiency of Christ. When Thou would guide me I control myself. When Thou would be sovereign I rule myself. When Thou would take care of me I suffice myself. When I should depend on Thy providings I supply myself, when I should submit to Thy providence I follow my will, when I should study, love, honour, trust Thee, I serve myself; I fault and correct Ty laws to suit myself; instead of the I look to a human’s approbation, and am by nature an idolater. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23
Lord, it is my chief design to bring my heart back to thee. Convince me that I cannot be my own God, or make myself happy, nor my own Christ to restore my joy, nor my own Spirit to teach, guide, rule me. Help me to see that grace does this by providential affliction, for when my credit is good Thou does cast me lower, when riches are my idol Thou does turn it into bitterness. Take away my roving eye, curious ear, greedy appetite, lustful heart; show me that none of these things can heal a wounded conscience, or support a tottering frame, or uphold a departing spirit. Then take me to the cross and leave me there. God’s ultimate goal for us, however, is that we truly be conformed to the likeness of His Son in our person as well as in our standing. This goal is expressed in Romans 8.29: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that he might be the first born among many brothers.” All though the New Testament we see this ultimate end in view as the writers speak of salvation. For example, Paul said that Jesus “gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good,” reports Titus 2.14. Jesus did not die just to save us from the penalty of sin, nor even just to make us holy in our standing before God. He died to purify for Himself a people eager to obey Him, a people eager to be transformed into His likeness. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23

We are still working hard to build your dream home at #PlumasRanch! While our sales centers may be closed to drop-in visitors, we are still available to answer any questions via phone, email, and/or video conference. Head to our website to find contact info for each community. https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-meadows-at-plumas-ranch/
#CresleighHomes
For within You is the Light of the World—the Only Light that Can be Shed Upon the Path!
Do not say you do not have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Harriet Tubman, Robert E. Lee, Empress Dowager Cix, Michelangelo, Aaliyah, Thomas Jefferson, Kobe Bryant, and Albert Einstein. Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them work, family, health, friends, and spirit—and you are keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. However, the other four balls—family, health, friends, and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance. If this seems to you a little too sentimental or overdrawn, I would like to share with you an experience I had recently in a basic encounter group with fifteen persons in important executive posts. Early in the very intensive sessions of the week they were asked to write a statement of some feeling or feelings which they were not willing to share with the group. These were anonymous statements. One man wrote, “I do not relate easily to people. I have an almost impenetrable façade. Nothing gets in to hurt me but nothing gets out. I have repressed so many emotions that I am close to emotional sterility. This situation does not make me happy, but I do not know what to do about it. Perhaps insight into how others react to me and why will help.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
This clearly a message from a dungeon. Later in the week a member of the group identified himself as the man who had written that anonymous message, filling out in much greater detail his feelings of isolation, of complete coldness. He felt that life had been so brutal to him that he had been forced to live without feelings, not only at work but also in social groups and, saddest of all, with his family. His gradual achievement of greater expressiveness in the group, of less fear of being hurt, of more willingness to share himself with others, was a very rewarding experience for all of us who participated. When, in a letter a few weeks later asking me about another matter, he also included this paragraph: “When I returned from [our group] I felt somewhat like a youth who had been seduced but still wound up with the feeling that it was exactly what I had been waiting for and needed! I am still not quite sure who was responsible for the seduction—you of the group, or whether it was a joint venture. I suspect it was the latter. At any rate, I want to thank you for what was a meaningful and intensely interesting experience.” I was both amused and pleased by this admission. I think it is not too much to say that because of several of us in the group were able genuinely to hear him, he was released from his dungeon and came out, at least to some degree, into the sunnier World of warm interpersonal relationships. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
Too many seekers create a supernatural halo around the master’s personality. Too many wrap it in dramatic and romantic garb. Too many expect too much from the first meeting with the individual. The consequence of all this is often a tremendous emotion let-down, and unreasonable disappointment after the reality of an actual meeting, and they lose their balance altogether. It is inevitable that a close-up view of the master will not prove so striking as a long-range one seen through romantic glasses. From a distance it is easy to bestow admiration and feel awe for a being they have almost turned into a deity. However, drawn into close contact with one it is just as easy to swing in the opposite direction and turn the master into a human. They do not notice how brief is their firsthand acquaintance with one, how few are the appearances that constitute the data for their conclusions, how conceited it is for spiritual pygmies to think they understand a spiritual titan. Because what they appear to have found does not correspond with the mental image they have previously conceived of one, one is judged to be no master at all. Nor are these the only reasons for such a failure. Equally important is the fact that such a meeting, or the period immediately following it, becomes the signal for opposition by adverse force. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
Evil spirits may find their opportunity just then to lead one astray, mischievous ones may try to bewilder one’s mind, or lying ones may give untrue suggestions to one. One’s own weaknesses of character and faultiness of judgement may become greatly magnified and foist an absurdly wrong estimate of the master upon one. One may even feel personal antagonism toward the master. All this is of course a test for one. If one thinks one is judging whether this person is fit to be one’s master, life in its turn is judging whether one is fit to have such a master. Here then are some of the answers to the question, “Why, if we concede that the adepts have a right to hide from the multitude, do they also seem to hide from the earnest seeking few?” The adepts are confident that those individuals who are really ready for them will meet them when the right time comes. They know that this will happen not only under the direct working of karma, not only under the impulsions of the seeker’s own higher self, but also under the wise laws which govern the quest itself. These are high and hard truths. However, they are the realities of life, not dreams for those who like to be self-deluded. Whoever rejects them for such a reason does so at the risk of being harshly shocked into awakening one day. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21
They approach such a being with a kind of awe, if not reverence. It may or may not be justifiable: that depends first, one the being’s quality and second, on one’s mood. It needs clear eyes to see the truth about these spiritual teachers, eyes such as both their ardent followers and intolerant critics do not possess. Most people are simply not competent to select a guru properly; they are too governed by outer appearances, physical impression, and emotional reactions. An attitude is an expectation, and enduring selectivity in central action which, because of its enduring quality, can steer the organism in directions which experiences have determined to be in the animal’s interest. There is central reinforcement of sensory processes: It seems that there can be no explanation of learning and problem-solving in any mammal without reference to the persisting central neural influence that sustains activity in one particular direction. Even in a bird, learning continually shows this selective responsiveness to one aspect or part of the environment. In higher forms, where expectancy has been most clearly demonstrated, it seems often to be organized by an expectancy of a particular reward or goal. This is clearly not sensory but a conceptual process (to which, however, sensation must continually contribute). #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
Persisting central neural influence well defines what attention is. Established conceptual structure can, through reverberation, cause certain messages to have particular impact, more than others: the attention has been directed. Central organization can be so strong that we attend only to what we expect to see—we do not attend to what we do not expect to see. There is something wrong with the three statements: Paris in the the Spring, Once in a a lifetime, Bird in the the hand. (The puzzled reader is requested to read the statements aloud.) Incidentally this is a good example of not seeing something which is there to see, without there being any repression—a point which will become important soon. In the higher animals, expectancy = meaning, and meaning can refer to the process by which an enduring structure causes us to expect and search for (that is give our attention to) particular events in otherwise ambiguous stimulus situations. In identifying triangles for the purpose of counting them, we have to focus on lines which but a moment ago we had to ignore. We have to stop the eye from travelling more than halfway along lines which but a moment ago the eye pursued to the end. Lines can be organized into figures in one way, or in another way, or not at all. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
We may draw the conclusion that something in us creates the perception of triangles out of what is not immediately apparent as a collection of triangles, or, to put this in different language, that something in us makes concepts apparent to us where these are not immediately obvious; and that we select, search for, attend to certain things we have set ourselves to pay attention to. The exercise also helps us to realize how much percepts and concepts slip and slide into one another. Another exercise is to look at a box divided into triangles: can the reader see the letter X? The letters E? N? Z? How many other letters can the reader see in the figure? If we think of each letter as a different concept, we can see that concepts are loess tidy, less clearly bounded, less neatly separable from each other, more overlapping, more blurry, then the inner objects and relationships are. This will also become very important later in our narrative. One more example, to demonstrate just how powerful the steering, directing, and motivating aspect of central functioning can be. Reversible figures can often show two different pictures in one image, depending on what the audience focuses on. To make the meaning change from the one to the others, we make ourselves attend to (focus on) a bit of the picture which we know to belong to the meaning we want to evoke—this activates a system of associated structures and the whole reverses itself. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
No wonder that this propensity of the human mind is used to systematize tests for differences in personality or mood. The subject is presented with simple pictures or inkblots and required to make up stories about them. The stimulus materials tend to be interpreted differently by different individuals and thus reflect their learning history, personality traits, and emotional preoccupations. In short the responses given by the subject reveal the sets [id est attitudes] one has built up during one’s life history, and the influences these have on one’s present perceptions. Under the heading of words like “values,” “interests,” and “expectancies,” we encounter the influences of set upon selective perceiving. This is not exactly the way psycho-analytically minded people tend to approach a person’s reactions. They rend on the whole to think of symbols as acquired through a process of internalization. To this we will return to at a later time. We have constructed a perceptual and conceptual apparatus which can direct behaviour. We must now look more closely at the directing process. Values, interest, and expectancies point the way—we must look for yet higher levels of organization and yet more central functions. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
When rules about how to feel and how to express feelings are set by management, when workers have weaker rights to courtesy than customers do, when deep and surface acting are forms of labour to be sold, and when private capacities for empathy are warmth are put to corporate uses, what happens to the way a person relates to one’s feelings or to one’s face? “If they could have turned every one of us into sweet quiet Southern Belles with velvet voices like Rosalyn Carter, this is what they would want to stamp out on an assembly line. Our smiles are not just painted on. So smile your way,” reports Reese Witherspoon. “When you see them receiving fans with that big smile, I do not think it means anything. They have to do that. It is part of their job. But now if you get into a conversation with a celebrity….well…no…I guess they have to do that too,” reports Paul Brunton. When worked-up warmth becomes an instrument of service work, what can a person learn about oneself from one’s feelings? And when a worker abandons one’s work smile, what kind of bond remains between one’s smile and oneself? Display is what is sold, but over the long run display comes to assume a certain relation to feeling. As enlightened management realizes, a separation of display and feeling is hard to keep over long periods. A principle of emotive dissonance, analogous to the principle of cognitive dissonance, is at work. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
Maintaining a difference between feeling and feigning over the long run leads to strain. We try to reduce this strain by pulling the two closer together either by changing what we feel or by changing what we feign. When display is required by the job, it is usually feeling that has to chance; and when conditions estrange us from our face, they sometimes estrange us from feeling as well. Take the case of major movie stars. Corporate logic in Hollywood and streaming services creates a series of links between competition, market expansion, advertising, heightened audience expectations about rights to display, and company demands for acting. When conditions allow this logic to work, the result is a successful transmutation of the private emotional exchange–feeling rules, surface acting, and deep acting—are now arranged in a different way. If moves from stage to movie screen (act as if the movie screen were your own living room) as does the actress or actor’s use of emotion memory. Private use gives way to corporate use. In the movie industry of the 1950s and 1960w, a remarkable transmutation was achieved. However, certain trends, we will discuss later, led this transmutation to fail in the early 1970s. An industry speed-up and a stronger union hand in limiting the company’s claims weakened the transmutation. There was a celebrity slow down. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
Worked-up warmth of feeling was replaced by put-on smiles. Those who sincerely wanted to make the deeper offering found they could not do so, and those who all along had resisted company intrusions of the self, came to feel some rights to freedom from it. The lost of truly Hollywood glam caused a loss of profits and prestige. When the transmutation succeeded, the celebrity was asked to take pride in making an instrument of feeling. When it collapsed, celebrities came to see that instrument as overused, underappreciated, and susceptible to damage. When a person has attained a stage of perfection one may truly rest, for Nature has achieved her task in one. Yet, if one chooses the path of self-actualization one must henceforth work harder than ever before! For one must now work incessantly through repeated rebirths for the enlightenment of others. Whether or not a person will serve humanity after one attains self-realization is not an attitude one can completely decide upon or predetermine before one attains it. For the matter is then surely taken out of one’s hands altogether. The question whether one shall share one’s knowledge with others or withhold it from them, will not be a real one to one. Its answer was settled long before, by destiny, by one’s character, by one’s past, by the World-idea. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21
Helping others to attain what one has attained, guiding seekers to reach safely the glorious summit where one now stands, is not decided for one by personal temperament or choice but by the overpowering sense of a primary and paramount duty. For within you is the light of the World—the only light that can be shed upon the Path. If you are unable to perceive it within you, it is useless to look for it elsewhere. It is beyond you; because when you reach it you have lost yourself. It is unattainable because it forever recedes. You will enter the light but you will never touch the Sun. Do not desert the great orphan Humanity. Remain here and help others reach that threshold. Thus by one’s altruistic activity, deep and meaningful prayers, and intellectual penetration one continuously earns a title to that utter absorption of one’s ego in the unutterable Absolute which is Heaven, but by one’s continuous self-giving for suffering humankind one never actually attains this goal. This extraordinary situation may be represented mathematically by the asymptote—a line which is drawn on a graph to approach nearer and nearer to a given curve but which never actually touches it within a finite distance. Only a person who feels with and for fellow creatures will dare to make such a tremendous sacrifice of the supreme peace which one has won. How much more generous, how nobly grander is this example of ever-active altruistic service than that of ever-idle prayerful reclusiveness! #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
All are to be judged by the theological norm. No statement in any source is infallible. No council or pope or biblical excerpt is, as such, a standard. Yet all are sources insofar as they speak of the New Being in Jesus as the Christ. The biblical message would not have become a message for anyone, including the theologian oneself, without the experiencing participation of the Church and of every Christian. In this sense, tradition is valuable, though by no means normative in its own right. Like the Bible itself, it may be the occasion for perceiving the theological norm, whatever the power of the New Being is sensed in it. This follows logically from the nature of the theological norm. Catholic theology would consider traditional elements as normative only insofar as they share in the power of the New Being. However, no theologian would rely on oneself alone to discern that power; one would trust the collectivity of the faithful appeal to the totality of Christian experience. At the very heart of adoration is contemplation. Numerous Psalms call us to contemplate God as seen in His creation. They never suggest that God is in His creation, but that His excellencies can be seen in His created works. The glory of God, is visible though the visual medium of a great thunder and lightning storm. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
Psalm 19 begins with these majestic words: “The Heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge,” repots vv.1, 2. Listen to God speak through his macrocosm, says the Psalmist! Celebrate God’s omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence in the microcosm of the human mind and body. Nature radiates and breathes the glory of God. If we take notice, the very trees do this. Have you seen your backyard tree for what it is: full of light, each cell shining with light, so bright they take your breath away, and opens up your heart to the wonder of God. Hebrews 10.10, 14 helps us see this objective aspect of sanctification—the holiness we have in Christ alone. Verse 10 reports, “And by that will [of God], we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Not that we have been made holy. This speaks of a completed work. The emphasis here is on the holiness we have in Christ through His once-for-all sacrifice. Verse 14, on the other hand, reports, “By one sacrifice He [Christ] has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” This verse mentions being made holy—the work of the Holy Spirit in progressive sanctification. However, this verse also refers to our completed, objective sanctification in Christ when it speaks of those He has made perfect forever. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
So, in one aspect of sanctification you are already holy because Christ’s holiness is imputed to you. You have been made perfect forever. In another aspect, you are being made holy day by day through the work of the Holy Spirit imparting Christ’s life to you. You have been made perfect forever. In another aspect, you are being made holy day by day though the work of the Holy Spirit imparting Christ’s life to you. Holiness should be an objective for your daily life. However, to live by grace, you must never, never look to the work of the Holy Spirit in you as the basis for your relationship with God. You must always look outside of yourself to Christ. You will never be holy enough through your own effect to come before God. You are holy enough through your own efforts to come before God. You are holy only through Christ. Two parallel passages in Paul’s letters to the Ephesians and Colossians should encourage all of us: “For Christ chose us in Him before the creation of the World to be holy and blameless in his sight,” reports Ephesians 1.4. And, “However now one has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation,” reports Colossians 1.22. The vision of life in the kingdom through reliance upon Jesus makes it possible for us to intend to live in the kingdom as He did. We can actually decide to do it. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
Of course living in the kingdom of Heaven means first of all to trust Christ, rely on him, to count on Him being the Anointed One, the Christ. It is through Him that the revelation and the gift of the kingdom come to us individually. If we do not count on Christ as “the One,” we will have no adequate vision of the kingdom or of life therein and no way to enter it. He is key to open the doors of Heaven; he is the way to the right path. Fins another whoever can. Consentingly, we intend to live in the kingdom of God by intending to obey the precise example and teaching of Jesus. This is the form that trust in him takes. It does not take the form of merely believing things about Him, however true they may be. Indeed, no one can actually believe the truth about Christ without trusting Him by intending to obey Him. It is a mental impossibility. To think otherwise is to indulge a widespread illusion that now smothers spiritual formation in Christlikeness among professing Christians and prevents it from naturally spreading Worldwide. If only Christains would live according to their belief in the teaching of Jesus, we all would become Christians. We know what this means, but the dismaying truth is that the Christians are living according to their belief in the teachings of Jesus. And clearly many of them do not believe him! #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
Moreover, knowing the right answers—knowing which ones they are, being able to identify them—does not mean we believe them. To believe them, like believing anything else, means that we are set to act as if they (the right answers) are true and that we will do so in appropriate circumstances. And acting as if the right answers are true means, in turn, that we intend to obey the example and teachings of Jesus the Anointed. If we believed Christ is who His people through the ages have declared Him to be, what else would be intend? Perhaps the hardest things for sincere Christians to come to grips with is the level of real unbelief in their own life: the unformulated skepticism about Jesus that permeates all dimensions of their being and undermines what efforts they do make toward Christlikeness. The idea that you can trust Christ and not intend to obey Him is an illusion generated by the prevalence of an unbelieving “Christian culture.” In fact, you can no more trust Jesus and not intend to obey hum than you could trust your doctor and your auto science engineer and not intend to follow their advice. If you do not intend to follow their advice, you simply do not trust them. Period. (Of course in this case you might well have good reason.) Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come up to the ears of Thy gracious mercy; do not cut us off in the midst of our days, but grant us, as those who make for a well-known goal, to finish our course of holy living; and by a hearty pursuit of sanctification in the few days of our present life, to win the eternal kingdom of glory. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21
O God the Father, of Heaven; have mercy upon the soul of Thy servant. “Nevertheless I went forth, and as I came near unto the house of Laban I a man, and he had fallen to the Earth before me, for he was drunken with wine. And when I came to him I found that it was Laban. And I behold his sword, and I drew it forth from the sheath thereof; and the hilt therefore was of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine, and I saw that the blade thereof was the most precious steel. And it came to pass that I was constrained by the Spirit that I should end the life of Laban; but I said in my heart: Never at any time have I shed the blood of man. And I shruck and would that I might not slay him. And the Spirit said unto me again: Behold the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands. Yea, and I also knew that he had sought to take away mine own life; yea, and he would not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord; and he also had taken away our property. And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me again: Slay him, for the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands. Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bright forth his righteous purposes. It is better than one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief. And now, when I, Nephi, had heard these words, I remembered the word of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that: Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
“Yea, and I also thought that they could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the law of Moses, save they should have law. And I also knew that the law was engrave upon the plates of brass. And again, I knew that the Lord had delivered Laban into my hands for this cause—that I might obtain the records according to his commandments. Therefore I did obey the voice of the Spirit, and took Laban by the hair of the head, and I smote off his head with his own sword. And after I had smitten off his head with his own sword, I took the garments of Laban and out them upon mine own body; yes, even every whit; and I did gird on his armour about my loins. And after I had done this, I went forth unto the treasury of Laban. And as I went forth towards the treasury of Laban, behold, I saw the servant of Laban who had the keys of the treasury. And I commanded him in the voice of Laban, that he should go with me into the treasury. And he supposed me to be his master, Laban, for he hold the garments and also the sword girded about my loins. And he spake unto me concerning the elders of the Jews, he knowing that his master Laban, had been out by night among them. And I spake unto him as if it had been laban. And I also spake unto him that I should carry the engravings, which were upon the plates of brass, to my elder brethren, who were without walls. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
“And I also bade him that he should follow me. And he, supposing that I spake of the brethren of the church, and I was truly that Laban whom I had slain, wherefore he did follow me. And he spake unto me many times concerning the elders of the Jews, as I went forth unto my brethren, who were without the walls. And it came to pass that when Laman saw me he was exceedingly frightened, and also Lemuel and Sam. And they fled from before my presence; for they supposed it was Laban, and that he had slain me and had sought to take away their lives also. And it came to pass that I called after them, and they did hear me; wherefore they did cease to flee from my presence. And it came to pass that when the servant of Lagan beheld my brethren he began to tremble, and was about to flee from before me and return to the city of Jerusalem,” reports 1 Nephi 3.7-31. Holy Lord, how little repentance there is in the World, and how many sins I have to repent of! I am troubled for my sin of passion, for the shame and horror of it as an evil; I purpose to give way to it no more, and come to thee for strength to that end. Most people give vent to anger frequently and are overcome by it, bringing many excuses and extenuations for it, as that it occurs suddenly, that they delight not in it, that they are sorry afterwards, that Godly people commit it. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
They thus seek peace after outburst of passion by entre forgetfulness of it, or, by skinning over their wound, they hope for healing without peace in Christ’s blood. Lord God, I know that my sudden anger arises when things cross me, and I desire to please only myself, not Christ; there is in all wrongs and crosses a double cross—that which crosses thee; in all good things there is somewhat that pleases me; somewhat the pleases thee; my sin is that my heart is pleased or troubled as things please or trouble me, without my having a regard to Christ; thus, I am like Eli, the subject of punishment for not rebuking sin; whereas I should humbly confess my sin and fly to the blood of Christ for pardon and peace. Give me, then, repentance, true brokenness, lasting contrition, for these things Thou wilt not despise in spite of my sin. To give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do Thy will. Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity. Love and time—those are the only two things in all the World and all of life that cannot be bought, but only spent. The great dividing line between success and failure can be expressed in 5 words: “I did not have time.” #RandolphHarris 21 of 21
Mills Station at Cresleigh Ranch | Residence 2
Vaulted ceilings and loft space await you at #MillsStation Residence 2! We especially love how open the great room is with all that light. 😍
Looking to make a move? Our sales offices are open by appointment only, but model homes are available for viewing. Head to our website to find contact info for each community. Link in bio! https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/residence-2/
#CresleighRanch
#CresleighHomes
When He Had Opened the Seventh Seal, there Was Silence in Heaven About the Space of Half an Hour!
Precision of communication is important, more important than ever, in our era of balances that are liable to change suddenly, when a false or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act. People love to talk but hate to listen. Listening is not merely not talking, though even that is beyond most of our powers; it means taking a vigorous, human interest in what is being told us. One can listen like a brick wall or like a splendid auditorium where every sound comes back fuller and richer. The greatest git one can give another is the purity of one’s attention. It would seem that the soul is a body. For the soul is the moving principle of the body. Nor does it move unless it is moved. First, because seemingly nothing can move unless it is itself moved, since nothing gives what it has not; for instance, what is not hot does not give heat. Secondly, because if there by anything that moves and is not moved, it must be the cause of eternal, unchanging movement; and this does not appear to be the case in the movement of an animal, which is caused by the soul. Therefore the soul is a mover moved. However, every mover moved is a body. Therefore the soul is a body. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
Further, all knowledge is caused by means of a likeness. However, there can be no likeness of a body to an incorporeal thing. If, therefore, the soul were not a body, it could not have knowledge of corporeal things. Further, between the mover and the moved there must be contact. However, contact is only between bodies. Since, therefore, the soul moves the body, it seems that the soul must be a body. On the contrary, the soul is simple in comparison with the body, in as much as it does not occupy space by its bulk. To seek the nature of the soul, we must premise that the soul is defined as the first principle of life of those things which live: for we call living things “animate,” [is est having a soul] and those things which have no life, “inanimate.” Now life is shown principally by two actions, knowledge and movement. The philosophers of old, not being able to rise above their imagination, supposed that the principle of these actions was something corporeal: for they asserted that only bodies were real things; and that what is not corporeal is nothing: hence they maintained that the soul is something corporeal. This opinion can be proved to be false in many ways; but we shall make use of only one proof, based on universal and certain principles, which shows clearly that the soul is not a body. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
It is manifest that not every principle of vital action is a soul, for then the eye would be a soul, as it is a principle of vision; and the same might be applied to the other instruments of the soul; but it is the first principle of life, which we call the soul. Now, though a body maybe a principle of life, as the heart is a principle of life in an animal, yet nothing corporeal can be the first principle of life. For it is clear that to be a principle of life, or to be a living thing, does not belong to a body as such; since, if that were the case, every body would be a living thing, or a principle of life. Therefore a body is competent to be a living thing or even a principle of life, as “such” a body. Now that it is actually such a body, it owes to some principle which is called its act. Therefore the soul, which is the first principle of life, is not a body, but the act of a body; thus heat, which is the principle of calefaction, is not a body, but an act of a body. As everything which is in motion must be moved by something else, a process which cannot be prolonged indefinitely, we must allow that not every mover is moved. For, since to be moved is to pass from potentiality to actuality, the mover gives what it has to the thing moved, inasmuch as it cases it to be in act. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
However, there is such a mover which is altogether immovable, and not moved either essentially, or accidentally; and such a mover can cause an invariable movement. There is, however, another kind of mover, which, though not moved essentially, is moved accidentally; and for this reason it does not cause invariable movement; such a mover, is the soul. There is, again, another mover, which is moved essentially—namely, the body. And because the philosophers of the old believed that nothing existed but bodies, they maintained that every mover is moved; and that the soul is moved directly, and is a body. The likeness of a thing known is not necessity actually in nature of the knower; but given a thing which knows potentially, and afterwards knows actually, the likeness of the thing known must be in the nature of the knower, not actually, but only potentially; thus colour is not actually in the pupil of the eye, but only potentially. Hence it is necessary, not that the likeness of corporeal things should be actually in the nature of the soul, but that there be a potentiality in the soul for such a likeness. However, the ancient philosophers omitted to distinguish between actuality and potentiality; and so they held that the soul must be a body in order to have knowledge of a body; and that it must be composed of the principles of which all bodies are formed in order to know all bodies. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
There are two kinds of contact; of “quantity,” and of “power.” By the former a body can be touched only by a body; by the latter a body can be touched by an incorporeal thing, which moves that body. Scripture repeatedly acknowledges the existence of natural moral law: true moral principles rooted in the way God made things, addressed to humans as humans (instead of to humans as a believing member of the kingdom of God) and knowable by all people independently of Bible (Job 31.13-15, Romans 1-2). Among other things, what this means is that believers need not appeal to Scripture in arguing for certain ethical positions, say, in legal debates. Indeed, in my own view, the church is to work for a just state, not a Christian state of theocracy. We are not to place the state under Scripture. However, if this is true, where is the source of moral guidance for the state to be just and to punish wrongdoers as Romans 13.1-7 teachers? The answer is the natural moral law. God has revealed enough of His moral law in the creation for the state to do its job. The church preach to unbelievers what Scriptures says about some topic, but when believer argue for their views in the public square of defend them against those who do not accept the Scripture, they should use general principles of moral argument and reasoning. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
This is precisely what the prophet Amos did. In chapters 1 and 2 of the Book of Amos, he denounced the moral behaviour of several people-groups outside of Israel, and he never once appealed to Scripture. Instead, he was content to rest his case with an appeal to self-evident moral principles in the natural law, which he assumed were known by those without Scripture. However, when he turned to rebuke the people f Israel, for the first time he said that they had violated the “law of the LORD” as reported in Amos 2.4, knowing that they had a familiarity with Holy Scripture. Amos appeared to common ground in all these cases, just as Jesus did in reasoning with he Sadducees, as reported in Matthew 22.23-33 and Paul in evangelizing the Greeks, as reported in Acts 17.16-31. The second aspect of scriptural teaching about extrabiblical knowledge is, Scripture shows people qualified to minister in God’s name in situations that required them to have intellectual skills in extrabiblical knowledge. In Daniel 1.3-4, 2.12-13, 5.7, we see Danial and his friends in a position to influence Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, only because they showed “intelligence in every branch of wisdom.” These men had studied and learned Babylonian science, geometry, and literature. And because of this, they were prepared to serve when the occasion presented itself. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
I remembering being in a meeting with Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, shortly after Ronald Reagan had been elected president. Dr. Bright came into the meeting late because President Reagan had called to ask him to confer with other evangelical leaders in order to suggest a list of qualified evangelicals to serve in his presidential cabinet. With sadness in his heart, Dr. Bright said that after numerous phone conversations with other evangelical leaders, they had concluded that there simply were not many evangelicals with the intellectual and professional excellence for such a high post. C. Everett Koop was all they could think of and, as we know, Mr. Koop got the position of surgeon general. Had evangelicals valued the study of extrabiblical knowledge the way Daniel and his friends did, things may have turned out quite differently. How, then, should this attitude toward extrabiblical intellectual training inform parents and youth groups when they prepare Christian teenagers to go to college and tell teens why college is important? According to various studies, increasing numbers of college freshmen, on the advice of parents, say their primary goal in going to college is to get a good job and ensure a secure financial future for themselves. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
The goal of higher education for career advancement and a successful future, this parallels a trend in the same students toward valuing a good job more than developing a meaningful philosophy of life. Given this view of a college education, it is clear why the humanities have fallen on hard times. It is equally clear why the level of our public discourse on topics central to the culture wars is so shallow, since it is precisely the humanities that train people to thin carefully about these topics. What is not so clear is why Christians, with a confidence in the providential care and provision of God, would follow the secular culture in adopting this approach to college. How different this approach is compared to the value of a college education embraced by earlier generations of Christians: A Christian goes to college to discover one’s vocation—the area of service to which God has called one—and to develop the skills necessary to occupy a section of the cultural, intellectual domain in a manner worthy of the kingdom of God. A believer also goes to college to gain general information and the habits of thought necessary for developing a well-structured soul suitable for a well-informed, good citizen of both Earthly and Heavenly kingdoms. If the public square is naked, it may be because Christians have abandoned the humanities due to a sub-biblical appreciation for extrabiblical knowledge. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
Some people pledge themselves to the spiritual service of ignorant unawakened humankind. For this ideal one sacrifices oneself to the point of stopping one’s own liberation just when it is about to be realized. One who is delivered from sin and free from illusion, who is emancipated from suffering for all time because the flesh can catch one no more, has earned the right to infinite rest in the eternal life. However, one has also the power to choose otherwise. One may stop at its very threshold and renounce the reward it offers. Since the phenomenal World has nothing to offer one, the only reason for such a choice can be compassionate thought for the benighted creatures one is about to leave behind. If one refrains from the final mergence into the kingdom of Heaven, it is not only because one wants to be available for the enlightenment of one’s more hapless fellows, but also because one knows that one has been in a Heavenly state from the beginning and has never left it. Among those who have attained this higher life, who feel its power and sense its peace, there are some who wish that others shall attain it too. We say some for the very powerful reason that not all are able to find it in their hearts to return to this bleak Earth of ours, with its unwellness and morbidity, its sins and sufferings, its evil and ignorance, when there stretches invitingly before them the portals of a diviner World, with its sublime harmony and beauty, its burden-free peace and goodness. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
The greatest sacrifice a being can offer is that of wisdom, which means simply that the enlightened person should give oneself and use one’s wisdom for the benefit of others. This is also why the greatest charity is to give the truth to humankind. Therefore, the noblest self-actualized beings give themselves secretly and concentratively to a few or openly and widely to the many to enlighten, guide, and inspire them. They know that this twofold way is the one in which to help humankind, that public work is not enough, that those who wish to do not only the most widespread good in the time open to them but also the most enduring good, must work deeply and secretly amongst a few who have dedicated themselves to immediate or eventual service in their own turn. Thus, compassion is rendered more effective through being guided by intelligence. To the few in the inner circle, the self-actualized transmits one’s best thought, one’s hidden knowledge, one’s special grace, one’s most mystical power. How grand is the service such a sage can render all those who accept the light of one’s knowledge! Then indeed is one, in Shakespeare’s phrase, “The star to every wandering barque.” Do not fall into the error of believing that, if one speaks openly these doctrines to others, or writes of them publicly, one is seeking to make proselytes. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
The religious missionary eagerly seeks to proselytize, but the philosophic expounder cannot. This is because one is not governed by the emotional desire to witness a large number of conversations but by the clear understanding of evolutionary operations—an understanding which enables one to see what is and is not possible, what is and is not suitable, at each stage of those operations. One is not, like the missionary, seeking any personal satisfaction by making an emotional or intellectual conquest. The illuminate has a cosmic outlook. One thinks and feels for all creatures no less than for oneself. So you think that these ancient illuminati, full of high intimations and carrying great lights in their hands, appeared before the World out of their silence and solitude to suffer its ridicule and contempt because they wished to brag about themselves or to amaze them? They came because they dared not disobey compassion’s call save at the pain of being false to all that they knew to be true. The self-actualized makes the highest conceivable sacrifice in willing to return to Earthly life for times without end solely for the benefit of all creatures. People sometimes ask why anyone should give up even a part of one’s time to unpaid service. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
However, the truth is that the self-actualized is always paid by the friendship and gratitude, the trust and affection, which those one has helped return one. And if it be further said that these are mere intangibles which do not pay for the time and energy one gives, the answer is that they often are convertible into the most tangible of things. For if one is in real need of a home, a machine, a piece of domestic furniture, or a form of personal service, one has only to express that need and those whom one has helped will provide it. Nay, there are times when one need not even express it, when the silent magic of thought will prompt someone to offer the provision quite spontaneously and voluntarily. Anyway, the self-actualized does not give one’s service with any thought about the getting or non-getting of rewards. One gives it because one thinks it right to do so and because one enjoys the satisfaction of giving a helping hand to the spiritually needy. One is doing what one likes. Now we have to take a closer look at what we mean by specifically human aggression. The first is, biologically programmed type, the same defensive mechanism that in animals. The latter type takes the form of human cruelty on the one hand and, on the other, of that passionate enmity toward life, that hatred of life what we call necrophilia. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
The biologically programmed human aggressiveness, which is identical to animal aggression is relatable because the animal’s neurophysiological organization, which is the same in humans, makes it react aggressively if its vital interests are threatened. A human being responds the same way. However, in humans the reaction, this reactive or defensive aggressiveness, is much more extensive. There are three reasons. One is that the animal experiences only present threats. All it knows is: “At this moment I am threatened.” The human being, with their mental powers, can imagine the future. Consequently, one can experience a threat that may not exist now but may well exist in the future. One therefore reacts aggressively not only to threats existing at the moment but also to one’s future. That provides the reactive aggression with a much larger field in which to function, for the number of human beings is very large, as is the number of situations in which a threat to them may exist in the future. Another reason why reactive aggression has a larger playground in humans is that humans are subject to suggestion while animals are not. You can convince a human being that one’s life or one’s freedom is threatened. You use words and symbols to do that. An animal cannot have its “brain washed,” because it lacks the symbols, the words, essential to brainwashing. It makes no difference to one’s reactions that one only believes oneself threated. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
I do not have to speak at any length about the many cases in which wars were made possible because people had been made to believe they were threatened. The power of suggestion had created the aggressiveness needed to drive people into battle. Then there is still a third and final reason. A human being has special interests that are closely linked to the values, ideals, and institutions which one identifies. An attack on the ideals or persons central to one’s life, on the institutions that are scared to one, can be as threatening to one as an attack on one’s life or on one’s source of food. Any number of things can be so precious to one: the idea of freedom, the idea of honour, one’s parents, one’s father, one’s mother, in some cultures one’s ancestors, the state, the flag, the government, religion, God. Any of those values, institutions, or ideals may be as important to one as one’s own physical existence. If they are threatened, one reacts with hostility. If we put all three factors together, we can understand why defensive hostility in humans is so much more extensive than it is in animals, even through the mechanism in which it is based is identical in human and animal. Humans experience many more threats, or experiences more things as threats, than the animal possibly can. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
If we have put off admitting our sins to God, confession may need to come first in our devotional time. There is also the probability that during Scriptural meditation, or even during adoration, further hidden sins will come to light. So our moments of devotion may be filled with repeated confession. It is instructive to notice that Psalm 139, which systematically contemplate God’s omnipotence and omniscience, ends with a prayer for divine investigation of the Psalmist’s soul: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” reports Psalm 139.23, 24. Likewise, as Isaiah was worshipped he cried out in confession, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live along a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty,” reports Isaiah 6.5. If you are concerned about our own spiritual formation of that of others, this vision of the kingdom is the place we must start. Remember, it is the place where Jesus started. It was the gospel he preached. He came announcing, manifesting, and teaching the availability and nature of the kingdom of the Heavens. “For I was sent for this purpose,” reported in Luke 4.43. That is simply a fact, and if we are faithful to it, do justice to it in full devotion, we will find our feet firmly planted on the path of Christian spiritual formation. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
Scripture speaks both of holiness we already possess in Christ before God and a holiness in which we are to grow more and more. The first is the result of the work of Christ for us; the second is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit in us. The first is perfect and complete and is ours the moment we trust Christ; the second is progressive and incomplete as long as we are in this life. The objective holiness we have in Christ and the subjective holiness produced by the Holy Spirit are both gifts of God’s grace and are both appropriated by faith. However, the perfect holiness we have in Christ is the answer to our dilemma of how we can appear daily before a perfectly holy God, when even our best deeds are stained and polluted. Our lack of understanding of the distinction between the holiness we do have in Christ and the holiness we want to find in ourselves caused some to say that we mistakenly hope to find in ourselves something that can be found in Christ alone. The kingdom of God is the range of God Himself, from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 103.17; see also Psalm 93.1-2; Daniel 4,3; 7.14; and so on). The planet Earth and its immediate surroundings seem to be the only place in creation where God permits His will to be not done. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
Therefore we pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven,” and hope for the time when that kingdom will be completely fulfilled even on Earth (Luke 21.31; 22.18)—where in fact it is already present (Luke 17.21; John 18.36-37) and available to those who seek it with all their hearts (Matthew 6.13; 11.12; Luke 16.16). For those who do so seek it, it is true even now that “all thing work together for their good,” reports Romans 8.28, and that nothing can cut them off from God’s inseparable love and effective care (Romans 8.35-39). That is the nature of a life in the kingdom of the Heavens now. “And behold, it is wisdom in God that we should obtain these records, that we may preserve unto our children the language of our fathers; and also that we may preserve unto them the word which have been spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets, which have been delivered unto them by the Spirit and power of God, since the World began, even down unto this present time. And it came to pass that after this manner of language did I persuade my brethren, that they might be faithful in keeping the commandments of God. And it came to pass that we went down to the land of our inheritance, and we did gather together our gold, and our silver, and our precious things. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
“And after we had gathered these things together, we went up again unto the house of Laban. And it came to pass that we went into Laban, and desired him that he would give unto us the records which were engraven upon the plates of brass, for which we would give him our gold, and our sliver, and all our precious things. And it came to pass that when Laban saw our property, and that it was exceedingly great, de did lust after it, insomuch that he thrust us out, and sent his servants to slay us, that he might obtain our property. And it came to pass that we did flee before the servants of Laban, and were obliged to leave behind our property, and it fell into the hands of Laban. And it came to pass that we fled into the wilderness, and the servants of Laban did not overtake us, and we hid ourselves in the cavity of a rock,” reports 1 Nephi 3.19-28. O God, Who in Thy loving-kindness dost both begin and finish all good things; grant that as we glory in the beginnings of Thy grace, so we may rejoice in its completion; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O Lord, when the World’s unbelievers reject thee, and are so forsaken by thee that thou calls them no more, it is to Thine own Thou does turn, for in such seasons of general apostasy they in some measure backslide with the World. O how free is Thy grace that reminds them of the danger that confronts them and urges them to persevere in adherence to Thyself! #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
I bless thee that those who turn aside may return to thee immediately, and be welcomed without anything to commend them, notwithstanding all their former backslidings. I confess that this is suited to my case, for of late I have found great want, and lack of apprehension of divine grace; I have been greatly distressed of soul because I did not suitably come to the fountain that purges away all sin; I have labored too much for spiritual life, peace of conscience, progressive holiness, in my own strength. I beg thee, show me the arm of all might; give me to believe that Thou can do for me more than I ask or think, and that, though I backslide, Thy love will never let me go, but will draw me back to Thee with everlasting cords; that Thou does provide grace in the wilderness, and can bring me out, leaning on the arm of my Beloved; that Thou can cause me to talk with Him by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein I shall not stumble. Keep me solemn, devout, faithful, resting of free grace for assistance, acceptance, and peace of conscience. Almighty and everlasting God, Whose paths are always mercy and truth, grant, we beseech Thee, that we who are fostered by Thy tenderness may also grow up with an increase of piety; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
Pick your style when you live #MillsStation at #CresleighRanch! We offer an array of home types in eye-catching styles like Mission, #MidCenturyModern, California Modern, and Contemporary #Farmhouse. Explore all of them on our website. Link in bio. 👍 https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/residence-2/
God’s Infinite Liberality Will Always Exceed All Our Wishes and Our Thoughts—God is Always Giving!
Spread your arms to those with needs, and serve with joy and zest; fill each day with golden deeds, and give your very best. Our beliefs about what we are and what we can be precisely determine what we will be. The real art of communication is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. The force of words, being (as I have formerly noted) too weak to hold people to the performance of their covenants; there are in humans true nature, but two imaginable helps to strengthen it. And those are either a fear of the consequences of breaking their word; or a glory, or pride in appearing not to need to break it. This later is generosity too rarely found to be presumed on, especially in the pursuers of wealth, command, or sensual pleasures; which are the greatest part of humankind. The passion to be reckoned upon, is fear; whereof there be two very general objects: one, the power of the spirits invisible; the other, the power of those people they shall therein offend. Of these two, though the former be the greater power, yet the fear of the later is commonly the greater fear. The fear of the former is in every person, one’s own religion: which has place in the nature of humans before civil society. The later has not so; at least place enough, to keep people to their promises; because in the condition of mere nature, the inequality of power is not discerned, but by the even of battle. #RandolphHarris 1 of 17
So that before the time of civil society, or in the interruption thereof by war, there is nothing can strengthen a covenant of peace agreed on, against the temptation of avarice, ambition, lust, or other strong desire, but the fear of that invisible power, which they every one worship as God; and fear as a revenger of their perfidy. All therefore that can be done between two people not subject to civil power, is to put one another to swear by the God one fears: which swearing or oath, is a form of speech, added to a promise; by which one that promises signifies, that unless one perform, one renounces the mercy of one’s God, or calls to Him for vengeance on oneself. Such was a heathen form, “Let Jupiter kill me else, as I kill this beast.” So is our form, “I shall do thus, and thus, so help me God.” And this, with the rites and ceremonies, which every one use in one’s own religion, that the fear of breaking faith might be the greater. By this is appears, that an oath taken according to any other form, or rite, then one’s, that swears is in vain; and no oath: and there is no swearing by any thing which the swearer thinks not God. For though people have sometimes used to swear by their kings, for fear, or flattery; yet they would have it thereby understood, they attributed to them divine honour. #RandolphHarris 2 of 17
And the swearing unnecessarily by God, is but orphaning of his name: and swearing by other things, as people do in common discourse, is not swearing, but an impious custom, gotten by too much vehemence of talking. It appears also, that the oath adds nothing to the obligation. For a covenant, if lawful, binds in the sight of God, without the oath, as much as with it; if unlawful, binds not at all; though it be confirmed with an oath. “We do not think about it enough. We spend too much time cursing time—time waits for no man, time will tell, oh, the ravages of time, time flies! We do not think about the gift of time. Time gives us the chance to make mistakes and correct them, to regenerate, to grow. Time gives us the chance to forgive, to restore, to do better than we have ever done in the past. Time gives us the chance to be sorry when we fail and the chance to try to discover in ourselves a new heart. How we use this time means everything. Will we take the opportunity to transform ourselves, to admit our hideous blunders, and become against all odds, the people of our dreams? That is what it is about, right?—becoming the people of our dreams,” (page 375-376, The Wolves of Midwinter by Anne Rice). #RandolphHarris 3 of 17
One day a patient accused himself bitterly of being ungrateful, of being a burden on the analyst, of not sufficiently appreciating the fact that the analyst treated him at a small fee. However, at the end of the interview he found that he had forgotten to bring the money he had intended to pay that day. This was only one of many evidences of his wish to get everything for nothing. His profuse and generalized self-accusations had here as elsewhere the function of obscuring the concrete issue. Another example which may serve as illustration of many is a mature and intelligent woman felt guilty about having had temper tantrums as a child, although she knew, intellectually, that they had been provoked by her parents’ unreasonable conduct, and although in the meantime she had freed herself of the belief that one must think one’s parents beyond reproach. Nevertheless her guilt feelings on this score persisted so strongly that she was inclined to take her failure to make erotic contacts with men as a punishment for her hostility toward her parents. By blaming an infantile offense for her present incapability of making such contacts she disguised the factors factually operating, such as her own hostility toward men and her having withdrawn into a shell as a consequence of a fear of rejection. #RandolphHarris 4 of 17
The self-recriminations not only protect against the fear of disapproval but also invite absolute reassurance, by provoking reassuring statements to the contrary. Even when no outside person is involved they provide reassurance by enhancing the neurotic’s self-respect, for they imply that one has such a keen moral judgment that one reproaches oneself for faults which others overlook and thus ultimately they make one feel that one is really a wonderful person. Moreover they give one relief, because they rarely concern the real issue of one’s discontentment with oneself, and therefore factually leave a secret door open for a belief that one is not so bad after all. A defense that is directly opposite to self-recrimination, and nevertheless fulfills the same purposes, is forestalling any criticism by always being right or perfect, thus leaving no vulnerable spots for criticism to find a foothold. Where this type of defense prevails any behaviour, even though glaringly wrong, will be justified with an amount of intellectual sophistry worthy of a cleaver and skillful lawyer. The attitude may go so far as to make it necessary to be right in the most insignificant and trifling details—to be always right about the weather, for example—because for such a person being wrong in any detail opens up the danger of being wrong altogether. #RandolphHarris 5 of 17
Usually a person of this type is unable to endure the slightest difference of opinion, or even a difference of emotional emphasis, because in one’s thinking even a minute disagreement is equivalent to a criticism. Tendencies of this kind account to a great extent for what is called pseudo-adaptation. This is found in persons who in spite of a severe neurosis manage to maintain in their own eyes, and sometimes also in those of the people around them, an appearance of being “normal” and well adapted. In neurotics of this type one will scarcely every go wrong in predicting an enormous fear of being found out or disapproved of. A third way in which the neurotic may protect oneself against disapproval is to take refuge in ignorance, illness or helplessness. I encountered a transparent example of this in a French girl whom I treated in German. She was one of the girls I have already mentioned who were sent to me under the suspicion of feeblemindedness. During the first few weeks of analysis I was doubtful myself about her mental capacity; she did not seem to understand anything I said, even though she understood Germany perfectly. I tried to say the same things in simpler language, with no better results. #RandolphHarris 6 of 17
Finally two factors clarified the situation. She had dreams in which my office appeared as a jail, or as the office of a doctor who had examined her physically. Both ideas betrayed her anxiety at being found out, the latter dream because she was terrified of any physical examination. The other revealing factor was an incident in her conscious life. She had forgotten to present her passport at a certain time, as required by law. When at last she went to the official she pretended not to understand German, hoping in this way to escape punishment—an incident she related to me laughingly. She then recognized that she had been using the same tactics toward me, and for the same motives. For this time on she proved to be a very intelligent girl. She had been taking shelter behind ignorance and stupidity to escape the danger of being accused and punished. In principle the same strategy is pursued by anyone who feels and acts like an irresponsible, playful child who is not to be taken seriously. Some neurotic persons adopt this attitude permanently. Or even if they do not behave childishly they may refuse to take themselves seriously in their own feelings. The function of this attitude may be observed in analysis. #RandolphHarris 7 of 17
Patients on the verge of having to recognize their own aggressive tendencies may suddenly feel helpless, suddenly act like a child, desiring nothing but protection and affection. Or they have dreams in which they find themselves small and helpless, carried in the mother’s womb or in her arms. If helplessness is not effective or applicable in a given situation, illness may serve the same purpose. That illness may serve as an escape from difficulties is well known. At the same time, however, it serves the neurotic as a screen against the realization that fear is making one recoil from tackling a situation as one should. A neurotic person who is having difficulties with one’s superior, for example, may find refuge in a server attack of indigestion; the appeal of disability at such time lies in the fact that it creates a definite impossibility of action, an alibi, so to speak, and thereby relives one of the realization of one’s cowardice. A final and very important defence against disapproval of any kind is a feeling of being victimized. By feeling abused the neurotic wards off reproach for one’s own tendencies to take advantage of others; by feeling miserably neglected one debars reproaches for one’s tendencies toward possessiveness; by feeling that others are not helpful one prevents them from recognizing one’s tendencies to defeat them. #RandolphHarris 8 of 17
This strategy of feeling victimized is so frequently used and tenaciously maintained because it is in fact the most effective method of defense. It enables the neurotic not only to ward off accusations but at the same time to put the blame on others. We must show our Scriptures not be in conflict with whatever [our critics] can demonstrate about the nature of things from reliable sources. In fact, it is safe to say that throughout much of church history, Scripture and right reason were considered twin allies to be prized and used by disciples of Jesus. “Nobody knows the actual day on which Christ was born. But December twenty-fifth was a great feast to the pagans of the ancient World, the day when the Sun was at its lowest ebb and people would gather in the fields, in the villages, and in the depths of the forest to beg for the Sun to come back to us at full strength, for the days to lengthen once more. And for warmth to return to the World, melting the deadly snows of Winter, and gently nourishing the crops of the field once again. That is the meaning of all the candles of Christmas, the bright electric lights on our Christmas trees. It is the meaning of all the celebrations throughout the season, that we have the hope always and forever of being better than we are, of triumphing over the darkness that might have dfeated us in the past, and realizing a brilliance never imagined before,” (pages 374-375, The Midwinters Wolves by Anne Rice). #RandolphHarris 9 of 17
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak—courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. “Think about it for a minute. Think about what it means to renew, to repent, to start all over again. We human beings always have the capacity. No matter how badly we stumble, we can get up and try again. No matter how miserably we fail ourselves and God and those around us, we can get up and start all over again. There is no midwinter so cold and so dark that we cannot reach for the shining light with both hands,” (page 374 The Midwinter Wolves by Anne Rice). While listening may be the most undervalued of all the communication skills, good people managers are likely to listen more than they speak. Perhaps that is why God gave us two ears and only one mouth. It does not matter what you intend to communicate, but how it is heard that counts. “I am grateful with all my heart that time is once more stretching out before me, providing me again with the chance to somehow—somehow—make amends for the things that I have done. God puts in our paths so many opportunities for that, does he not?—so many people out there who need so much from each and every one of us. He gives us people to help, people to serve, people to embrace, people to comfort, people to love. As long as I live and breathe, I am surrounded by these limitless opportunities, blessed by them on all side,” (page 376 The Midwinter Wolves by Anne Rice). #RandolphHarris 10 of 17
Words have a magical power. They can bring either the greatest happiness or deepest despair; they can transfer knowledge from teacher to student; words enable the orator to sway one’s audience and dictate its decision. Words are capable of arousing the strongest emotions and prompting all people’s actions. In order that all people may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it. “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord gives no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for the that they may accomplish the thing which he commands them. And it came to pass that when my father had heard these words he was exceedingly glad, for he knew that I had been blessed of the Lord. And I, Nephi, and my brethren took our journey in the wilderness, with our tents, to go up to the land of Jerusalem. And it came to pass that when we had gone up to the land of Jerusalem, I am my brethren did consult one with another. And we cast lots—who of us should go in unto the house of Laban. And it came to pass that the lot fell upon Laman; Laman went in unto the house of Laban, and he talked with him as he sat in his house. #RandolphHarris 11 of 17
“And he desired of Laban the records which were engraven upon the plates of brass, which contained the genealogy of my father. And behold, it came to pass that Laban was angry, and thrust him out from his presence; and he would not that he should have the records. Wherefore, he said unto him: Behold thou art a robber, and I will slay thee. But Laman fled out of his presence, and told the things which Laban had done, unto us. And we began to be exceedingly sorrowful, and my brethren were about to return unto my father in the wilderness. But behold I said unto them that: As the Lord lives, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord have commanded us. Wherefore, let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; therefore let us go down to the land of our father’s inheritance, for behold he left gold and silver, and all manner of riches. And this he has done because of the commandments of the Lord. For he knew that Jerusalem must be destroyed, because of the wickedness of the people. For behold, they have rejected the words of the prophets. Wherefore, if my father should dwell in the land after he has been commanded to flee out of the land, behold, he would also perish. Wherefore, it must needs be that he flee out of the land,” reports 1 Nephi 3.7-18. #RandolphHarris 12 of 17
Christianity is to be identified neither with any Christian Church nor with Christendom as a whole. It embraces both Jesus as the Christ and what is called the “Logos spermatikos.” Every theology knows that there is a sense and a manner in which God is not limited by the Church, that Christ reaches humans outside of those who are official members of the Church. Whether they are aware of it or not, Christ is the unconditional concern. It has to do it even when it is impossible to call him by his name. Every ultimate concern, every protest in the name of the Unconditional against any kind of idolatry—of things, of nations, of doctrines—implies a share in the Christian witness. This explains the messianic eloquence that is it the faith itself in the New Being in Christ which seeks expression in the most meaningless situations as it brings justification in the heart marked by sin, in the mind smeared by unbelief. Christ as the Revelation of the Unconditional among humans must be accepted as the one to explain the contents of the Christian faith, and the datum has to be focused upon as the norm adopted by theology and streamlined according to the norm. O God, Who orders things in Heaven and Earth alike for the assistance of humankind; we beseech Thee that while we are labouring in the lower part of the Universe, Thou would mercifully refresh us by the protection of Thy ministers from above; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 13 of 17
And here is the widespread failure to attain Christian maturity among both leaders and followers, referred to earlier. Those who are Christians by profession—and seriously so, we must add—today do not usually have, are not led into, the VIM (Vision, Intention, Means) that would enable them to routinely progress to the point where what Jesus Himself did and taught would be the natural outflow of who they really are on the inside. Rather, what they are inwardly is left substantially as it was, as it is in non-Christians, and they are left constantly to battle with it. That is why today you find many professing Christians circling back to non-Christians sources to resolve the problems of their inner life. Instead of inward transformation, some outward from of religion—often today even called a spirituality—is taken or impsed as the goal of practical endeavour. What is then important is to be a “good____” (you can fill in the blank). And the respective social group—the “good____s”—wiill enforce that importance, on pain of disapproval or exclusion from the group. Or the individual even enforces it upon himself or herself as what is “obviously” right. However, whatever the detail, authentic inward transformation into Christlikeness is omitted. It is not envisioned, intended, or achieved. #RandolphHarris 14 of 17
Not so in the call of Jesus to live with one as one’s student or apprentice in His kingdom. By contrast, for Him and for His Father, the heart is what matters, and everything else will then come along. And the process of inward renovation starts from the stark vision of life in the Kingdom of God. There can be no ongoing devotion without confession, which can take place anytime. Ideally it ought to take place whenever we sin. However, all too often we are too proud and emotionally charged to acknowledge our sins at the time we commit it—for example, when we lost our temper in an argument. However, if we are overloaded with guilt, devotion is impossible. To live by grace is to live solely by the merit of Jesus Christ. To live by the grace is to live solely by the merit of Jesus Christ. To live by grace is to base my entire relationship with God, including my acceptance and standing with Him, on my union with Christ. It is to recognize that in myself I bring nothing of worth to my relationship with God, because even my righteous acts are like filthy rage in God’s sights (Isaiah 64.6). Even my best works are stained with mixed motives and imperfect performance. I never truly love God with all my heart, and I never truly love my neighbour with the degree or consistency with which I love myself. #RandolphHarris 15 of 17
Yet God requires perfection. Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect,” reports Matthew 5.48. When we take Jesus’ words seriously, we are forced to say with the psalmist, “Thy commandment is exceedingly broad,” reports Psalm 119.96. What is the answer to out dilemma? All Christians recognize that we are justified—that is, declared righteous—solely on the basis of the righteousness of Christ imputed to us by God though faith (Romans 3.21-25). However, few of us fully recognize that we are also sanctified through faith in Christ. Sanctification, or holiness (the two words are virtually interchangeable), is essentially conformity to the moral character of God. We normally think of sanctification as progressive, as an inner change of our character whereby we are confronted more and more to the likeness of Christ. That is certainly a major part of sanctification, but not all of it. O Living God, I bless thee that I see the worst of my heart as well as the best of it, that I can sorrow for those sins that carry me from thee, that it is Thy deep and dear mercy to threaten punishment so that I may return, pray, live. My sin is to look on my faults and be discouraged, or to look on my good and be puffed up. I fall short of Thy glory every day by spending hours unprofitably, by thinking that the thing I do are good, when they are not done to thy end, nor spring from the rules of Thy word. #RandolphHarris 16 of 17
My sin is to fear what never will be; I forget to submit to Thy will, and fail to be quiet there. However, Scripture teaches me that Thy active will reveals a steadfast purpose on my behalf, and this quietness my soul, and makes me love Thee. Keep me always in the understanding that saints mourn more for sin than other people, for when they see how great is Thy wrath against sin, and how Christ’s death alone pacifies that wrath, that makes them mourn the more. Help me to see that although I am in the wilderness it is not all briars and barrenness. I have bread from Heaven, streams from the rock, light by day, fire by night, Thy dwelling place and Thy mercy seat. I am sometimes discouraged by the way, but though winding and trying it is safe and short’ death dismays me, but my great high priest stands in its waters, and will open me a passage, and beyond is a better country. While I live let my life be exemplary, when I die may my end be peace. O Light of light, O Brightness indescribable, Christ our God, the Wisdom, Power, and Glory of the Father, Who didst appear visibly to all people as the Word made flesh, and having overcome the prince of darkness, did return to Thy throne on high; grant to us Thy suppliants, amid this dark World, the full outpouring of Thy splendour; appoint the Archangel Michael to be our defender, to guard our going out and coming in; and admit us to place on Thy right hand, to receive the crown from Thee. #RandolphHarris 17 of 17
BRIGHTON STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH
Rancho Cordova, CA |
Now Selling!
2,054 sq. ft. – $514,243
Fully finished 2,054 square foot, single-story home located in the growing Cresleigh Ranch community! This sleek and modern home features a contemporary kitchen with white slab cabinetry, quartz counters, tiled back splash and stainless steel farm sink!The open floor plan is full of natural light and durable LVP (Luxury Vinyl Plank) flooring with the Great Room opening to the landscaped backyard! The Master Suite is tucked away at the rear of the home and includes a private entrance to the back yard. Two additional bathrooms connected by a Jack & Jill bathroom round out this home! https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/move-in-ready-home-site-84/