Home » soul (Page 72)
Category Archives: soul
Do Not Settle for Good Enough
My heart aches when I learn of those who turn from the faith of their pioneering predecessors. As the best institutions are liable to be abused, so are the best people to be vilified. For a few fleeting favors now, will they forget and forfeit eternal life? As poisonous adders lurk beneath the cover of the most delightful shrubberies, so falsity and deceit are concealed under alluring language. We must not let sin drive an ever-widening wedge between ourselves and God. A person may cry out against sin, of policy, but one cannot abhor it but by virtue of a Godly antipathy against it. When we are hungry for God and his presence, we will do whatever it takes to get close to him. The place of intimacy is where we will attract not only the revelation God wants to give us, but we will also charm his heart. Even the desire to seek God is a gift from him. Because we have a spirit as well as a physical body, we also have spiritual roots that go way back. They form our values, beliefs, and faith. Spiritual roots guide our commitment to the ideals and teachings of the Lord. Our noble ancestors were brought to the knowledge of the truth, according to the spirit of revelation and of the prophecy, and the power of God. Their forebears were converted unto the Lord and never did fall away. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
God wills to know the actual, lived-out reality of our preference for him over all things. And he wills that we have the testimony of our own authenticity through act of actual preference of God over his gifts. For the most part, the human mind cannot attain to self-knowledge otherwise than by making trial of its powers through temptation, by some kind of experimental and not merely verbal self-interrogation. In other words, we easily deceive ourselves that we love God unless our love is frequently put to the test, and we must show our preference not merely with words, but with dedication. It forces us to ask repeatedly: Do I really hunger for God? Do I miss him? Do I long for him? Or have I begun to be content with his gifts? How do progenitors feel about the drift of their descendants? Their disappointment will likely turn to sorrow, for people detached from their spiritual roots cannot long survive. Many people are attracted by God by virtue of faith. This faith is plentiful and powerful. From God we get love, joy, peace, fortification, gentleness, and goodness. We pursue an education knowing that the glory of God is intelligence. Rewards are reaped from the Word of Wisdom by obedience to it. We are eternal beings. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
Sometimes we might feel like a cyclone ripped through our houses, knocked things around and threw them out. We may not be sure how to put them back. We came to this mortal experience to acquire a body, to be tried and tested. We are to form families and sealed in holy temples, with joy and loving relationships that endure eternally. The true Christian life is a call to manifest God in our lives, that is only way what we carry inside of us can become obvious to the people around us. The first disciples of Jesus spent time with him and that reflected in their attitude of life. They manifested God’s character through their lives. They were brave and bold for God; they intrepidly spoke of God. God delights in us spending time with him so that we can have the opportunity to see and understand his ways, to comprehend his decision, his reactions, and his nature. Love is a way of being. It is the energy that radiates when are motivated by kindness. Love facilitates healing. It transforms life. Forgiveness is an aspect of love that allows us to see life events from the viewpoint of grace. Love empowers us and the people around us, to do things that we would not be capable of otherwise. God will heal us, and cast out dark energy in our lives. To these everlasting truths, we are personally rooted. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Let us not waste the precious time God has given to us! Let us cease every opportunity we have to manifest God in every place we go. The possibility of demonstrating does not depend upon environment, condition, location, personality or opportunity. It depends solely upon our belief and our acceptance, and our willingness to comply with the law of God through which all good comes. God will never deny us anything, unless we conceive that it is possible for us to think of something that is impossible for God to produce! Everyone who asks receives, according to one’s beliefs. God’s work and his glory is to bring to pass the immortality of eternal life of human beings. We can dwell with God and our families forever. Those blessings will be granted to the faithful in God’s own way and time. Reason wants to get to work to amend the present evil environment and pave the way for nature’s good environment. Each of us has an understanding of the truth. The subtlety of God is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding. With this self-consciousness comes the possibility of affirming an ideal for oneself and of the failing to live up to that ideal image of oneself. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all humankind may be saved, by the obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. Saved means to be resurrected and returned as a sanctified, celestial, immortal soul to the presence and society of God, there to pursue and endless course of eternal progress. Humans are a soul, a dual being, a spirit person clothed in a tangible body of flesh and bones. God is a perfected, saved soul enjoying eternal life. He is both immortal and exalted to the highest glory. He is enjoying that blessed condition which humans may attain to by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the God and his eternal glory. Legions of saved souls enjoy God’s society. Family relationships prevail there; spirit offspring are born there; our spirits were born there. Modern revelation affirms the fact that all the inhabitants of the World are begotten sons and daughters unto God. God our Heavenly Father is in fact and reality the Father of our spirits. We are his offspring. The spirits of those who are righteous will be received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
How we live our lives can speed up or delay the manifestation of God. God has called, equipped and empowered us. He put his own love on the inside of us. He shed his love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. God never planned for us to try to keep any of his commandments on our own. He intends to keep them for us, with us and through us by the power of his spirit. Dwelling in us. And he is well able to do it. God is able to fulfill the command of love through. We draw finite quotas of force from the inexhaustible supply of God. By this process, according to which only finite amounts of energy are subtracted from an infinite accumulation of force, we are able to explain both the eternity of celestial motion and the fact that this motion does not occur instantaneously (ininstanti), as motion under the effect of an infinite cause should do. This shows clearly that the notion of force signified not only the immediate cause of motion or acceleration, but also its cumulative determination, or energy content. God is a force, a moving agent independent of and separated from a constantly rejuvenating source, a notion essential for the future conception of the Universe as a clockwork in action without the need of a constant supply of additional energy. God will manifest himself to us and through us. Let us keep his commandments and commit ourselves to stay in love with one another no matter what. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Let us walk in manifested love and bring the blessing to a planet full of people who are in desperate need of it. And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of the wicked shall be cast out into outer darkness. This is the state of the souls of the wicked, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; this they remain in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection. An immortal soul will be arraigned before the bar of God’s justice and receive a final judgment based on one’s performance during one’s mortal probation, the verdict will turn on obedience or disobedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. If these laws and ordinances have been complied with during mortal life, the candidate will be cleansed from the stain of sin by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ and saved in the celestial kingdom of God, there to enjoy with God eternal life. Those who have not complied with the laws and ordinances of the gospel will receive a lesser reward. Good enough is not your destiny as a child of the Most High God. Be determined to become everything God created you to be. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
On the Successive Advances in the Human Mind
Every second of life is precious. Humans are a mechanism of adjustment. There are people who read in books to convince themselves there is a God. Nothing but vast wisdom and unlimited power should dare to sweep off people in multitudes; for it is only the one that can know the necessity of the judgment; and what is there, short of the other, that can replace the creatures of the Lord? Morality does not consist in external observances, but in the mind and heart. To love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is all consuming and all encompassing. People reap only the harvest they have sown in the World, even in this life, God is just. Sin is less an injury inflicted than a contempt of God; virtue, less doing what is respectable than living in love with God. There is vice in the concupiscence of the flesh and in the concupiscence of the soul; sin, however, does not lie in these inclinations, but in the intentions and consents that grow out of them, and so virtue is also exercised by not consenting to what should not be done. The deed itself adds nothing to the morality, good or bad, of what is purposed. This is a matter of personal conscience, which is binding even when it is mistaken. We are obliged to strain after what is really good. Our desires, be they spiritual or temporal, should be rooted in a love of the Lord. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9
The soul selects its own society, then it shuts the door. We never know how high we are until we are caused to rise; and then, if we are true to God’s plan, our statures touch the skies. A person possessed by love of beauty is to progress from bodily beauty to beauty of the mind. The intellect is incorporeal and constructs likeness, effigies, of things outside of it. To all who have faith in God, know that you are a solid connection for powerful blessings to those in your life and the future generations. If we are steadfast and do not waver in our faith, the Lord will increase our capacity to rise ourselves above the challenges of life. Ask with shameless persistence, the importunity that will not be denied, returns with the answer in hand. If we will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and serve hi with all diligence of mind, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver one out of bondage. When one would conceive of that great Being truly and fully, one must be able to realize the duration of eternity, obliterate the little periods of time and chronology, which require a starting and a resting-place in our human minds—soar out of the reach of the sickly atmospheres which surround these little planets, and stand erect in the broad and fathomless light of God’s own atmosphere. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
Superiority to fate is difficult to learn. It is not conferred by any, but possible to earn. A pittance at a time, until, to one’s surprise, the soul with strict economy subsists until paradise. Life up your self-esteem, and rejoice, and put your trust in God. Look to the future through the eyes of faith and replace your fears with the optimism of hope born of faith. Do not waver in placing your trust in God regardless of circumstance. All our difficulties are only platforms for the manifestations of God’s grace, power, and love. Mortal life is a period of testing where we will be proven to see if we will do all things that the Lord God shall command us. This will require unwavering faith in Christ even in times of great difficulty. If anyone would tell you the shortest, surest way to happiness, one must tell you to make it a rule to yourself to thank and praise God for everything that happens to you. It will require that we press forward with steadfast faith in Christ, being led by the Spirit and trusting that God will provide for our needs. For it is certain that whatever seeming calamity happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn into a blessing. The true peace of God begins at any spot a thousand miles from the nearest land. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
Long may it remain in this mixed World a point not easy of decision, which is the more beautiful of the Almighty’s goodness—the delicate fingers that are formed for sensitiveness and sympathy of touch, and made to minister to pain and grief, or the rough hard hand, that the heart teaches, guides, and softens in a moment. God blesses us according to our faith. Faith is the source of living with divine purpose and eternal perspective. Faith is a vital, living force manifest in our soul. Reason, properly working, enables human beings to discover, or rediscover, Nature beneath the concealing corruptions of religion, social structure, convention, and indeed, beneath the often-misleading impressions of sense experience not properly organized by reason. Though the average enlightened individual would not admit this, this nature is in part a hypostatized conception of the beautiful and the good. It must be understood against two antitheses. First, there is the super or supranatural—the miracle, the revealed truths of religion. For the enlightened, all these are simply figments of the imagination, nonexistent, indeed at bottom priestly inventions designed to keep people ignorant of the ways of reason and nature. Second, there is the unnatural. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
Unlike the supernatural, the unnatural does indeed exists. The unnatural, the artificial, the burdens of irrational customs and traditions accumulated through historic time, are for the enlightened the form evil takes in the World. It must be noted that in simple naïve logic the enlightened had as much trouble over the problem of the origin of evil as did the Christian. How the natural got to be unnatural was a question as difficult to answer as how an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good God allowed Adam to bite into the apple. It is cruel that, as every advance made by the human species removes it still father from its primitive state, the more discoveries we make, the more we deprive ourselves of the means of making the most important of all. Thus, it is, in one sense, by our very study of human beings, that the know of people is put out of our power. It is natural to think that, while the condition of some people grew better or worse, and they were acquiring various good or bad qualities not inherent in their nature, there were others who continued a longer time in their original condition. Such is doubtless the first source of the inequality of humankind, which it is much easier to point out thus in general terms, than to assign with precision to its actual causes. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
Nature is quite simply the good—a set of ethical and aesthetic goals or standards. In specific content, these standards are not in fact greatly different from those of the Judeo-Christian tradition. There always comes of time of moral looseness, cynicism, and corruption among a few circles; and in such circles, there often cropped up what we should call the strain of social consciousness. However, enlightened people are hardly self-indulgent sensualists and there is a touch of puritanism in the enlightened, as in almost all who really hope to make humanity over completely. There has once been on Earth a state of nature in which people lived free from evil. Through reformation we are trying to recapture a past we believe is much superior to our present. Many want to return to a state where the Earth is left to its natural fertility and covered with immense forests, whose trees were never mutilated by the axe and we can experience natural salvation—the attainment by everyone of immortality in this flesh on this Earth. A climate of favorable enterprise. This model—an optimistic, this Worldly belief in the power of human beings, brought up rationally from infancy on as nature meant them to be, to achieve steady and unlimited progress toward material comfort and spiritual happiness for all people on this Earth is what many would like to manifest. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9
God is a highly rationalistic construct—the clockmaker God, who had to exist in order to start this Newtonian World machine running, and guaranteed that it would never run down. We place all of our trust in God and in the teachings of his prophets, and renew our covenants with God. It is important to serve God with all of our heart, regardless of the complex situations of life, and by the unwavering faith in Christ, we will become free from the captivity of sin, doubt, unbelief, unhappiness, and suffering. Faith will allow us to receive all of the promised blessings from our loving Heavenly Fathers. God is real, he lives, and he loves. God listens to our prayers at all times. God produces light from the womb of darkness. Anything good, however bitter, which shows us that there is such a law as retribution, that we are not the sport of blind chance or a triumphant fiend, but that there is a God who judges the Earth—righteous to repay every person according to their works. What are the comprehensible terrors of human compared with the interlinked terrors and wonders of God! Once we are convinced that there is a God, and that we are here to save our souls, it is surely folly to think of anything except God. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
Nothing is ever wasted in the Kingdom of God. Not one tear, not all our pain, not the unanswered questions or the seemingly unanswered prayers. Nothing will be wasted if we give our lives to God. And if we are willing to be patient until the grace of God is made manifest, whether it takes ten years or one hundred, it will be worth the wait. God Almighty is just and gracious, and gives not his assent to rash and inhuman curses. It times of difficulty, one should keep smiling and pray even more for God to apply justice and salvation in our lives. Though some may wish that in the very long run the masses could perhaps become fully enlightened, these people are also convinced that for the foreseeable future, ignorance and superstition has so far corrupted ordinary men and women that the only hope is to reform their whole environment from above. However, do not focus on the problem. What we focus on, we tend to magnify. The best thing to do is envision the outcome you want and focus on God so that you can magnify God in your life. Many people are like who long need shepherds—good shepherds because the urban masses are hopelessly corrupted. Therefore, be a cultural engineer, as it may be necessary to compel people to be free. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
People are not really free when they are sinning, so many enlightened people feel that they are not really free when they are behaving contrary to their clear dictates of reason. When we hold on to things that we should let go, refusing to forgive, remembering the worst, we only poison our own lives. The root of bitterness will always produce bitter fruit. Bitter people do not have good relationship. They are too negative. When we are bitter, it affects our attitudes and taints everything about us. That is why some people you know are suffering extreme hardship do not show it publicly. People pick up and energy and energy affects others. If you are around someone who is pleasant, you are more likely to be happy and have good feelings towards them. Therefore, do not let feelings of bitterness take root. No one owes me anything. I am not at a disadvantage. I did not get left out, shortchanged, passed over, nor cheated. I am equipped, empowered, and dignified. Nothing can stop God from operating except the lack of faith in the reality of truth. All the forces of darkness cannot keep me from my destiny. No matter what comes my way I am not going to be bitter, angry, offended, nor will I seem to be angry all the time because I have been treated unfairly or feel I am not as good as other people. My situation may not be fair, but I know a secret. My God is still on the Throne. He will may my wrongs right and I will keep moving forward. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
Eternity Enables the Endeavoring Again
Exists in every human nature a goal. When I was younger, we lived in a large house, and my dad would give me twelve, one hundred dollar bills. One for everyday of the twelve days of Christmas. That was his way of showing love. He believed that money and God was the foundation of happiness. Kindnesses is the essence of a celestial life. Gentleness is how a Christlike person treats others. Consideration should permeate all of our words and actions at work, school, church, and especially in our houses. It is true that fear can have a powerful influence over our actions and behavior. Fear is so pandemic in our society that in sometimes constitutes the predominant ruling emotion of our World, as we know it. For many people, fear is so all-pervasive that their life really constitutes one giant set of compensatory devices to conquer their troubles. Nevertheless, the influence tends to be temporary and shallow. People who are fearful may say and do things, but they do not feel the right things. They often feel helpless and resentful, even angry. Overtime these feelings lead to mistrust, defiance, and even rebellion. Unfortunately, this is a misguided approach to life, and it grieves me to hear people who exercise unrighteousness in their interactions with others. Often times people may condemn bullying in others, but they cannot see it in themselves. There may be moments when we are tempted to justify our actions by believing that a good outcome excuses any wrong committed to attain it. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Psychoanalysis has been justly called the psychology of depths because it emphasizes the role of the of the unconscious mental processes. Illness can result from a conflict from the ego and the super-ego. Fear rarely has the power to change our hearts, and it will never transform us into people who love what is right and who want to obey the Heavenly Father. We live in ignorance of the desires that offend morality, the desires that nature has forced upon us and after their unveiling we may well prefer to avert our gaze from the scenes of our unrighteousness. As a result, the Heavens will withdraw themselves and the Spirit of the Lord is grieved. In every society customs are pervasive, concerning with almost every aspect of life, yet many are concerned with describing how to do something rather than with dictating that we should do it. They determine the right ways of doing things. For instance, customs do not tell us what we must eat, but tells us only when, where, and how to eat. This suggests that customs may, perhaps, serve the same function with regard to morality by telling us how to do what morality tells us to do. Recognizing this, customs are a means for standardizing behavior so that we will be able to know what to expect from our fellow people. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
Is Heaven a physician? Our Father in Heaven loves us, his children, and this love surpasses our ability to comprehend. This does not mean that God condones nor overlooks behaviors that are bad. However, God wants to change our behavior, nature, and heart. God wants each of us to believe in him and confront our fears and become stronger and righteous. By kindness, and pure knowledge, we shall greatly enlarge our soul with privilege and love, and we will be in a better position to attract the powers of Heaven for ourselves, our families, and the others in our lives. The function of laying down standardized action patterns is, of course, not exclusively fulfilled by custom. It is also a function of law, of professional and social organizations, and even of advertising. God motivates through persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, and love unfeigned. God is on our side. He loves us, and when we experience hardship, he wants us to rise up, try again, and become stronger. For instance, The Jefferson’s is successful situational comedy that was filmed in the 1970s. The main character, George Jefferson, grew up in a housing project for economically challenged people and he remembered how miserable it was. Some days, his family could only afford one meal a day. So, George made a promise that no one would ever suffer in the apartment he grew up in. George had faith that God would answer his prayers, and was thankful for life. George did not see his struggle as a waste of time, but a jounery toward enlightenment. Our loving Heavenly Father knows that choosing to develop a spirit of gratitude will bring us true joy and great happiness. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
God never made a promise that was too good to be true, and we must also keep our promises. When George Jefferson grew up, he married and became a successful businessman. He owned seven dry cleaning stores, and was able to afford a three-bedroom apartment in a luxury high-rise building, located in Manhattan, New York USA. George sent his son, Lionel, to college, and he became a prosperous engineer. George remembered how meager his existence was in his youth and would send the family that now lived in the apartment he grew up in $400.00 a month, and gifts for Christmas and a tree. The family that lived there was also suffering economic hardships. The father used the money to go to TV repair school, so he would be able to get a career that would allow him to provide for his wife and son and move into a middle-class community. That is how the love of God works. We are here to share our blessings and help uplift others. How crucial customs are for communal living becomes apparent if one tried to imagine what it would be like to be thrown into a society where one knew everything expect its customs. Without knowledge of customs one would not be able to fulfill some of the simplest of moral injunctions, like the injunction to love and respect others. One would not know what one’s commitments were or how to honor them. One would not know how to show gratitude or solicitude for others, how to be decent and honest, or how to avoid hurting the feelings of others. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
We are blessed beyond measure to live in a day of unparalleled prosperity, enlightenment, and advantage. Most of all, we are blessed to have the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which gives us unique perspective on the World’s dangers and shows us how to either avoid these dangers or deal with them. When I think of these blessings, I offer praises to our Heavenly Father for his never-ending love for all of his children. God does not want his children to be fearful nor dwell on the evils of the World for God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Let us in word and in deed share with our fellow humans the amazing and awe-inspiring message of God’s plan of happiness. May our motive be our love for God and for his children, for they are our brothers and sisters. This is the beginning of what we can do in return for so much. There is one thing we can do to make life sweeter, more joyful, even glorious—we can be grateful! General requirements of morality transcend every particular group, but they cannot be executed apart from customs. We have to operate within the context of custom. As disciples of Christ, we are commanded to thank the Lord our God in all things, and let our heart be full of thanks unto God. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
In many times thought peace had come, when peace was far away. It can be easy to succumb to the temptation of describing the practices of other societies, particularly primitive ones, as customs, while refusing to do so for our own practices with regard to the same matters. When we do not understand the reason for a procedure or practice, we assume that it must be just a custom, that has no reason except tradition. Some people wonder what they have to be thankful for when their World is falling apart? It is hard to develop a spirit of gratitude if our thankfulness is only proportional to the number of blessings when can count. We can choose to be grateful, no matter what. This type of gratitude transcends whatever is happening around us. It surpasses disappointment, discouragement, and despair. When we are grateful to God in our circumstances, this custom is a precept whose claim to validity is based solely on the contention that it is generally acknowledged and practiced by the community and is of ancient origin. It is justified because when we are grateful to God in our circumstances, we can experience gentle peace in the midst of tribulation. In grief, we can still lift up our hearts in praise. In pain, we can glory in Christ’s Atonement. In the cold of bitter sorrow, we can experience the closeness and warmth of Heaven’s embrace. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
When we do not understand the reason for a procedure or practice, we assume that it must be just a custom, that it has no reason except tradition. We sometimes think that being grateful is what we do after our problems are solved, but how terribly myopic is that. We will miss much of life by wanting for our prayers and dreams to be fulfilled. Being grateful in times of distress does not mean that we are pleased with our circumstances, it means that through the eyes of faith we look beyond our present-day challenges. This is a gratitude of the soul. It is a gratitude that heals the heart and expands the mind. We do not understand the trials of life, but we must trust that one day we will. In the end, we will have glorious, perfect, and immortal bodies, unburden by sickness or disability; and the tear of sadness and loss will be replaced with an abundance of happiness and joy. Unchangeable truth and certainty enjoins us in the pursuit of the common good and assures us that by pursuing the common good we achieve happiness and personal perfection. As the great joy of life comes into our souls, it will flood us with it wondrous light, and all sorrow and sadness will feel. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7 
When God Will All Winds Bring Rain
We are accustomed to attach great importance to the universal belief of human kind, it is accepted by us as a convincing argument, that there are gods we infer from the sentiment engrafted in the human mind; nor has any nation ever been found, so far beyond the pale of law and civilization as to deny their existence. God wants to provide for you, as a gift, because he loves you and wants to put the light of truth in your soul, and supply you with a right image of God and a right image of yourself that will establish love, faith, compassion and grace in your soul. The first thing you need to remember is that God knows you, and such knowledge is too wonderful. God wants you to know that he understands. God knows how you think, what you dream about, recognizes your motives, and knows your fears. God knows the things that happened in your life and how exactly you will respond and why. You are understood by God. He is there, he is interacting, and working. God knows infinitely more than you know yourself. Belief in God is instinctive. I believe in some blending of hope and Sunshine sweetening the worst lots. I believe that this life is not all; neither the beginning nor end. I believe while I tremble; I trust while I weep. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
All the faculties and feelings of our minds and bodies have their appropriate objects; and the possession of the faculties supposes the existence of those objects. In the eyes, in its very structure, there is light to be seen, and the ear would be unaccountable and inconceivable without the existence of sound. In like manner, our religious feelings and aspirations necessitate the existence of God. The yearning for some kind of God does point toward an in-built hunger in each of us—a hunger has its normal gratification. This is true of physical hunger, of love, and sleep, and of our craving for beauty. If, similarly, our religious hunger did not have its proper gratification, it would be difficult to see how it got built into our natures in the first place. What is it doing there? Very often there is an insatiable instinct that demands friendship, love, and intimate communion, but is forced to pine in empty forms; a hunger of the heart, which finds there is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human heart. May not all human characters frequently be traced back to impressions made at so early a period, that none but discerning eyes would ever suspect their existence. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
The belief is that the human mind was made by God, who would not deceive his creatures. There is in fact no race without religion and even where there is belief in plurality of gods, it is invariably found that the religion recognizes a supreme deity, the rulers of gods and humans. The supreme deity of primitive religions often lacks some of the characteristics attributed to God by Christian and Jewish monotheists. However, this does not affect the argument, since an idea of God does not cease to deserve that name because it is variant. A person may be said to believe in God if he or she believes in a Supreme Being, personal and intelligent, to whom humans owe honor and reverence, regardless of what else one also believes or fails to believe. God, himself, goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. And God cannot lie (you will find that in truth). God’s will at times seems distant and quiet, but, in his wisdom, he can use that to draw you close to him. Do you seek him out at those times? It is possible you feel God is not by your side because you have turned your back on or walked away from him? This is not the ground of our own faith. We do not reason ourselves into belief that there is a God; human beings are religious by nature and God-seekers. They know in their hearts they can trust in God’s promises and rejoice in his presence. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
The hunger for God is an expression that invariably develops as a result of certain deprivations and traumatic experiences. People who suffer from insufficient contact with other human beings and who do not find the natural World satisfying will tend to experience longings for something supernatural. They will know that God is on their side and his love for them has not ended. God has remained on your side. You can never feel lonely among people who love you; they may not understand what you are going through, at least not entirely. However, there is someone who understands your heart completely and that is God. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46.1). So many troubling situations in life can leave you feeling alone and insecure, but God is a very present help at all times. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Somewhere deep down in us is stored the secret, and when we are searching the wrong place, we know it. The secret wants to be discovered and will not let us go in peace a way that is not ours. A person believes in God’s existence and it seems quite plain that one is believing in something—that there is such a thing as what one believes in, and that this something is God’s existence. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
God’s unity, God’s will, God’s knowledge and thought, and God’s wisdom and goodness, God’s many names, and God’s relation to creation are open to the passions that have taught reflection and perfect love. God is a type of poetry which can exalt the relations of the humblest human beings. The lover of God is always called happy, and happiness is considered as a well-fleshed indifference to sorrow outside. I am glad at least in my life that I have found God, who is here forever to see me though. I have found strength in God. I only pray that I have shown you a brighter day because that is all that I am living for. Do not worry what is to come because in my mind we will always stay here always in love. Divine providence, prophecy, and immortality are not dependent on intellectual perfection, but rather on the love and reverence for God, which is the purpose of the Divine Law and the Universe. It is the substance of the soul itself, rather than the acquired intellect, which survives death. What God says is best; is best, though all the people in the World may be against it. There is just too much evidence to deny what is happening. It is happening every day. See, all your angry enemies lie there, confused and humiliated; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
Unending Existence—Not Dead, but Sleeping
The word individual, as applied here on Earth, is a misuse of language. It is absurd to call that an individual which every hour divides. The Earthly stage of the human life is so small that there is room for but one of the persons of an individual upon it at one time. The past and future selves have to wait in the side scenes. Immortality is eternal life, the ability to live forever, a state of condition free from both death and decay. The Bible affirms that only God by nature had immortality. It is also a potential state for human beings, as long as they follow the divine laws. Human beings failed to obtain this state because of sin, the wages of sin is death, but immortality is given to righteous persons. To make everlasting life available is at the heart of Jesus’ mission: “I have come that they may have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,” John 10.10. Some people believe that death will not be our terminus, but the beginning of a new journey. However, scientists are trying to achieve life extension, retroactive immortality, and regeneration of the body that allows it to heal any injuries, even fatal ones, preventing one from dying. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Some scientists believe that in the near future, because of ongoing research being done into repairing the effects of ageing, we can produce preventative treatments that would allow humans to live as long as 1,000 years. Health insurance provides important financial protection in case you have a serious accident or sickness. Though great progress has been made in medicine, current evidence-based and palliative treatments are increasingly unable to keep pace with patients’ needs, especially given our aging population, and health insurance is very expensive. There are few effective ways to treat the root causes of many diseases, injuries, and congenital conditions. In many cases, doctors and nurses are only able to manage patients’ symptoms using medications or devices. However, we should not simply be looking at treating sickness and injuries, but do more research on preventing ageing. Ageing is the World’s most important problem. The human body is a machine and it accumulates damages throughout life as a consequence of normal operation. The damage makes our bodies frail, and contribute to the rising degradation and ill-health. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
Regenerative medicine is a life changing area of medicine with potential to fully heal damaged tissues and organs, offering solutions and promise for people who have conditions that are currently beyond repair. If we are able to apply regenerative medicines to repair the damage of aging at the level where it occurs, we can remove, restore, replace, or render harmless the cellular and molecular damage that has accumulated in our body, organs, and mind with time. Regenerative medicine is not new. In the 1970s, liver transplants were not yet possible, but now they are, along with other solid-organ transplants and bone marrow transplants. Rejuvenation is the ability to increase the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Much like after you cut your skin, it heals within a few days, the goal is to get the specialized cells constituting the heart, lungs, nerves, and other organs to remodel and possess the same ability to self-heal. Stem cells are a key component of regenerative medicine as they have the ability to develop through a process called differentiation into many different types of cells, such as skin cells, brain cells, lung cells, and could possible help to heal the body. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
The unfolding of God’s plan is revealed in stages. The resurrection of the dead is listed in Scripture as one of the basic doctrines of true Christianity. Someday, everyone who has ever lived will come to life again. Self-resurrection is the ability to completely heal fatal injuries and resurrect upon death if they body is not entirely destroyed. Through regenerative medicine, organ transplants would no longer be required. Your own cells, in the future, could be collected and reprogramed in a laboratory, then delivered back to your body to treat your disease. A lot of people may be wondering will they also look younger if stem cell treatment can be used to regenerate their organs and cure illnesses? Yes. The skin is your largest organ, so when scientists are able to heal or cure you through stem cell treatments, it will also regenerate your skin to keep it youthful. Regenerative medicine is working in vivo and in vito procedures. In vivo means studies and trails performed inside the living body in order to stimulate previously irreparable organs to heal themselves. In vito treatments are applied to the body through implantation of a therapy studied inside the laboratory. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
By reconstructing the composition of the living machinery of our tissues and organs, these rejuvenation biotechnologies will restore the normal functioning of the body’s cells and essential biomolecules, retuning aging tissues to health and bringing back the body’s youthful vigor, and restoring normal function. A small percentage of people all over the World have a condition called Spina Bifida, which is a birth defect. Some patients must manually empty their bladder by compressing it with their hands from the exterior,which will eventually case the bladder to harden and basically die. And while some people may think it is funny, it is not. Imagine if you could not urinate at will, or even regulate the buildup of urine, the backup of urine into the kidneys could cause a ripping infection, creating life-threatening damage, and it could also cause your bladder to fill until it ruptures. However, a series of child and teenage patients have received urinary bladders grown from their own cells. The laboratory-grown organ transplant placed into a human was all made possible by regenerative medicine. This powerful new technology is being used to create new body parts from a patient’s own cells and tissues, and the success of these efforts will eliminate the concept of tissues rejection from transplants. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Regenerative medicine has already successfully grown heart valves from human cells. In the past, heart valves were taken from the heart of pigs and transplanted into humans. Well, with new technology, the need to test on animals and prematurely end the life of an animal to extend a human life is no longer required. With the use of biomaterials to create a mold, scientists engineer the cells to grow in the form of a heart valve. Once mastered in clinical trials, any transplant patient will be able to receive a heart valve that is essentially their own. And with the advancement of regenerative medicine, we will be able to repair these valves without even having to perform surgery. Stem cells can even be used to treat leukemia. The umbilical cord, usually discarded at birth, holds blood vessels that contain about a half cup of blood that belongs to a newborn child. That blood contains many stem cells and our body uses stem cells as one way of repairing itself. By collecting and storing that blood, there is a possibility that those cells might be used in the future to help your body remain healthy. Regenerative medicine has the potential to cure other conditions like heart disease, valvular disease, and diabetes, which will save lives and billions of dollars. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Regenerative medicine has the potential to heal or replace tissues and organs damaged by age, disease, or trauma, as well as to normalize congenital defects. Regenerative medicine can abet maladies occurring across a wide array of organ systems and context, including dermal wounds, cardiovascular disease and traumas, treatment for certain types of cancer, and more. There will no longer be a need to wait for an organ donor and possibly face severe immune complications with regenerative medicine. The human body will have an innate healing and advanced repair mechanisms that will extend life, keep us youthful and healthy and lower medical costs. And with the cost of living being so high, people do need more time to generate wealth and enjoy life. We are essentially composite beings. Besides the more familiar corporeal element, the body, there is also something else, different in kind—the incorporeal soul. For the duration of a life the soul is somehow attached to—incorporated into or imprisoned in—its body. Perhaps the substance of the soul is stem cells. Essentially, in the future self-resurrection will be possible. “There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away,” Revelation 21.4. RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Surprise is an Emotion that Enfeebles Not Invigorates
There is no bent of heart or turn of thought which any person holds by virtue of an unalterable nature or will. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that one may know what is the hope of one’s calling, and what the riches of the glory of one’s inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of God’s power to us who believe, according to the omnipotence of his mighty energy, which he wrought in Christ, when God raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the Heavenly places, far above all principality, and regency, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this World, but also that which is to come. We are at once the creatures and the arbiters of destiny. Redemption is the process of grace rising above sin, the conscious choosing of the better options. When faith and reason work harmoniously, the providence of quantum grace is sufficient to redeem the deficits of original sin. It symbolizes the search for healing and restorations of body and soul, enlightenment, repose, and salvation. The path is the way back to purity and innocence. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
God conceived of things and created them, and hence they were thought of as existing in the mind of God. Perhaps the marker of adulthood is the ability to create an effective and independent life. Whereas children and adolescents are generally supported by parents, adults must make their own living and must start their own families. Furthermore, the needs of adults are different from those of younger persons. Although the timing of the major life events that occur in early and middle adulthood vary substantially across individuals, they nevertheless tend to follow a general sequence, known as a social clock. The social clock refers to the culturally preferred “right time” for major life events, such as moving out of the childhood house, getting married, having children. People who do not appear to be following the social clock (e.g. young adults who still live with their parents, individuals who never marry, and couples who choose not to have children) may be seen as unusual or deviant, and they may be stigmatized by others. A person born blind being made to see, would at first, have no idea of distance by sight; the Sun and stars, the remotest objects as well as the hearer, would all seem to be in one’s eye, or rather in one’s mind. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
The object intromitted by sight, would seem to one (as in truth they are) no other than a new set of thoughts or sensation, each whereof is as near to one as the perceptions of pain or pleasure, or the most inward passions of the soul. This thing we call existence; is not a something which has its foundation far down below in the dark, and its branches stretching out into the immensity above, which we among the branches cannot see? Not a change jumble: a living thing, a One. The thought gives us intense satisfaction, we cannot tell why. Despite the challenges of early and middle adulthood, the majority of middle-aged adults are not unhappy. These years are often very satisfying, as families have been established, careers have been entered into, and some percentage of life goals has been realized. Even the most extreme ancient skeptics admitted that we must live; and since reason cannot tell us how to live, they recommended that we follow nature, under which appearances of things, and the traditions of one’s city. Civilization is the beginning and end of social development and political organizations. Human beings are born naturally sociable. Society rises through a person’s ability to cooperate with other beings for the satisfaction of their natural needs. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
Country people or nomads in primitive or tribal societies seek the satisfaction of their elementary need for food; town’s people in urban and more complex societies pursue higher economic, intellectual, and spiritual needs. Pain has an element of blank; it cannot recollect when it began, or if there were a day when it was not. It has no future itself, it has infinite realms containing, it is past, enlightened to perceive new periods of pain. It is impossible even to think without a mental picture. The effects of illusion point beyond themselves to the causal and psychological processes that underlie perception and constitute its most serious theoretical problem. When someone imagines the face of an absent friend, one is supposing that the friend is present to the individual, which ex hypothesi the friend is not. A person who forgets that one is imagining, that one’s thought is supposal, not fact, is creating their own reality. There is no mistaking the expression of a death-wound on the human countenance, when the effect is direct and not remote. Nature appears to admonish the victim of one’s fate. Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the sense but the soul. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
To understand the nature of consciousness makes enlightenment possible. This essentially entails the realization of the difference between duality and nonduality and how to transcend the realm of duality. Duality is the product of perception, which itself is limited. Intellection and perception can be refined and perfected to the level of genius. Qualities of experience which are of crucial importance to human life, such as love, inspiration, respect, joy, happiness, peace, satisfaction, completion, and fulfillment, have been relegated by science to emotions that feel good, but are questionable realities. The visible World is therefore the World of effects and the interactions of forces. It is out of inspiration and volition that actions arise by assent of the will, which has the capacity to activate possibilities or options. We have great opportunities at the university of knowing human nature from books, the calm result of the wise people’s wisdom. Is the soul a shadow seated in the house of sin? Or is the body really in the soul? The separation of spirit from matter is a mystery, and the union of spirit with matter is a mystery also. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
Randolph Harris II International Institute 