Home » Posts tagged 'heart'
Tag Archives: heart
Healing Your Broken Heart without a Transplant
Education should direct moral goodness to its highest stage, benevolence. Merit may be either great, high, general, or beautiful (aesthetic). Faith is the beginning and, although not produced by reasoning, is neither forced nor blind. It seeks to understand (intelligere) what it cannot comprehend (comprehendere). Hence, the truths of revelation are to be reasoned about, since it is in our reason that we are made in the image of God and since there, through Christ who is the Word of Wisdom and the source of dialectic, that we receive divine truth. The assent of faith is intellectual rather than voluntarist. Many Christians estimate difficulties in the light of their own resources, and thus attempt little and often fail in the little they attempt. All God’s giants have been weak people who did great things for God because they reckoned on his power and presence with them. God has great things in store for his people, and they ought to have large expectations. God is pure thought, caring for human suffering, beyond emotion. We have the ability to choose life to flow in our hearts again, after an offense ripped through our life and shredded our heart, we may feel like we will never be the same. You are right, you will never be the same but you can be stronger, even better, more mature in Christ because of it. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
The existence of God is arrived at by reflecting on the contrast between the eternal and transitory and enlarging on the dependence of body on mind. God has in himself all the power to defend you, all the wisdom to direct you, all the mercy to pardon you, all the grace to enrich you, all the righteousness to clothe you, and all the goodness to supply you, and all the happiness to crown you. God is constrained by no force outside himself; nevertheless, creating is not an arbitrary exercise of will but an act that reflects a necessity of the land’s successors were to qualify. The World is made according to preexisting Ideas, although these patterns are not things but concepts in the mind of God. What God is infinitely surpassing the analogies we use to think about him. God is Supreme Good. One day, you may even be thankful for the difficult lessons in life, in an odd way you would go through it again, to be transformed the way God transformed you! May God’s blessing be poured out over you. God takes our pain and suffering and uses it to mature us and make us vessels of honor and pillars of truth. Only God can do that! After forgiveness is granted, we need to love that person unconditionally. These are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
Consider not what is done but in what mind it is done, as courage is a door that can be opened from the inside. There is an interrelation of ends and means; of motives, objects, and circumstances; and of intentions and results in determining the morality of acts. 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 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 mistaken. Although a morality of pure intention was remote from the medieval temper, it seems that we are obliged to strain after what is good. When we bless our enemies, we refrain from talking negatively about them. We are challenged to help them with their needs. We pray for direction, power of the Holy Spirit to come upon their life, and that the Lord would draw unto himself, cleanse them and bless them. “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and noting shall by any means hurt you,” reports Luke 10.19. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
Morality does not consist in external observances but in the mind and heart. Sin is less an injury inflicted than a contempt of God; virtue, less doing what is respectable than living in love with God. A real common nature is wholly present in each member of the species, and individuals differ from one another by their accidents, not their substance. Anyone can forget a petty matter of insult, a personal affront. However, if one has been led step by step into an involvement where the substance was trust itself, bared one’s soul, and then been deeply betrayed in the sense of handed over to one’s enemies, outer or inner, then forgiveness takes on great meaning. Revenge impulsively surges in response to wrong, and becomes perversely delicious to those possessed by it. Vengefulness, resentment, and moral hatred cloud judgment but seem sweet to the one they possess, transforming a peaceful character into a connoisseur of violence. Personal and national credos proudly anchor themselves in tales of unfairness and the glories of retaliation. Oceans of blood and mountains of bones are their testament. It is an addictive cycle. However, without forgiveness, human life is worse off. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
Forgiveness is a virtue, and expresses a commendable trait of character. And what makes that characteristic itself valuable? It is about Godliness, namely truth-telling, responsibility-taking, spiritual and moral growth, reconciliation, and love. We necessarily measure our actions according to some conception of good. Our success or failure, both in discerning accurately the nature of good, and in living up to that conception, decisively mold the moral character of our lives. These are practical ideas, and we ignore them at our peril. To understand the World, one must reduce the shadow to an enemy that must be fought and ultimately triumphed over through prayer and faith in God. God will bring out better emotions, which have been dormant in the heart. A common nature will assert its power; the wall of separation will be demolished and the greater the distance at which one had imagined to be from God will be replaced by his sympathy more touching to one’s feelings. A new spring will be given to your life. Ambition will be aroused, kindly emotions awakened; life will have some beauty yet. There will be a silver lining to the dark clouds manifesting the warmth of heart towards the World. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
My soul magnifies the Lord. In the presence of God and all the company of Heaven, God has created and delivered many of us from so many dangers, and filled our lives with so many blessings. The mercy of God is incomprehensible and his loving-kindness will tenderly lead us to repentance. We will turn to this Eternal God, detesting the sins of our past life with all our hearts and all our strength, and humbly desire and ask for grace, pardon, mercy, with entire absolution from our sins, in virtue of death and passion of that same Lord and Redeemer, on whom we lean as the only ground of our being. Many people walk around with their eyes closed blaming others for their problems. However, those who believe in God renewed in the sacred promise of faithfulness to God made in our names will renounce the Devil, the World, and the flesh, abhorring their accursed suggestions, vanities and lusts, now and for all eternity. This is an active process of transforming emotional distress into a process of self-refection, attribution or religious meaning and spiritual growth. The soul is your psychological part composed of your mind, will and emotion. It is the part of your inner being created by God for the purpose of reflecting and expressing God. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
All of us have trauma, injuries, memories and enemies that can sabotage our lives. We are walking around with wounds, pain, broken hearts, and bitterness in our minds. Satan wants us to dwell on these wounds, relive and them and recycle them driving us to drink, or some other self-medicating distractions. And when Satan cannot find fault with your actions he will try to remind you of downfalls of those you love to break you down. When the right traumatic memories are relived, a cascade of emotions and conflicts are manifested. The longer we live without healing, the longer the enemy can strangle our futures, hopes and dreams as well as destroy our ability to realize God’s abundant life in the present. Surrounding ourselves with superficial friends, ignoring the hurt, and pretending nothing is wrong is simply masking the deep trauma that we need to heal. With emotional healing, it takes time and work. We have to know that God is with us, and the rest of your life will be the best of your life. God is even allowing scientist to heal broken heart without transplants. Japanese researchers are planning a clinical study that would involve attaching heart muscle cells made from stem cells to the heart of gravely ill patients to help recover cardiac functions. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
The clinical study to treat heart disease will be the World’s first of its kind. A team of researchers at Osaka University, led by Professor Yoshiki Sawa is studying induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells which can develop any kind of body tissue. The scientists plan to create sheets of heart muscle cells from iPS cells that do not easily trigger rejection. The sheets will be applied directly to the hearts of patients with serious heart disease. The procedure will be carried out on three patients aged eighteen or older by March of 2018. The team also says that two cases of iPS therapy for retinal disease have been carried out in Kobe, Japan, and that a clinical study on regenerating spinal cells is also awaiting approval at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan. The iPS cells could help patients recover their body functions, whereas their only hope had been organ transplants. This treatment could also greatly reduce the costs of health care insurance and save lives. It is clear that we need more than just medication and this is a step in the right direction. We never become truly spiritual by sitting down and wishing to be so. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
God Wants to Heal your Broken Heart and Love your Soul
There is a widespread belief in our modern culture that love is a word which has no meaning. A whole generation of detached, independent, self-sufficient, noncommitted individuals agree. However, human relationships do matter. Yet, people think you can be intimate with someone and then leave then, and nothing bad will happen. As a matter of fact, that is not true because human relationships are desperately important to both our mental and our physical well-being. The fact is that social isolation, the lack of human compansionship, death or absence of parents in early childhood, sudden loss of a love, and chronic human loneliness are significant contributors to premature death. My hope is that the powerful impact of human companionship on our general physical and mental well-being will come into clearer focus. Ouite literally, we must learn to live together or face the possibility of prematurely dying alone. When you face situations that seem impossible, I dare you to pray. When you pray, God releases favor and the angels go to work, and you will see the greatness of God’s power. God has promised to give us the desires of our hearts. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11
The true greatness wears an invisible cloak, under cover of which it goes in and out among people without being suspected; if its cloak does not conceal it from itself always, and from all others for many years, its greatness will erelong shrink to very ordinary dimensions. What, then is the good of being great? You may understand greatness better in others, whether alive or dead, and choose better company from these and enjoy and understand that company better when you have chosen it—also that you may be able to give pleasure to the best people and live in the lives of those who are yet unborn. Great minds must trust to great truths and great talents for their rise, and nothing else. An affection towards self-good may be a good affection or a bad one. If this private affection is too strong (as when excessive love of life unfits a creature for any generous act) then it is undoubtedly vicious; in which case the creature who is moved by it is viciously moved, and will always be somewhat vicious when moved by that affection. A person is only truly great when one acts from the passions; never irresistible but when one appeals to the imagination. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11
There are so many things wrong and difficult in the World, that no person can be great—one can hardly keep themselves from wickedness—unless one gives up thinking much about pleasure or rewards, and gets strength to endure what is hard and painful. If some creature’s earnest and passionate love of life leads one accidentally to do some good, one is not a good creature because of this good deed one does, any more than a person is made honest or good for pleading a just cause or fighting in a good cause merely for the sake of a fee. Great people think they must do right things in the common way. If an action motivated purely by an affection towards self-good happens to be advantageous to the species, that implies goodness in the creature only to the extent that the affection itself is good. However, much good one does by one particular at, if it came solely from that selfish affection then one is in oneself still vicious. And the same holds for any creature whose passion towards self-good, however moderate it is, is one’s real motive in doing something that one ought to have been led to by a natural affection for one’s kind. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11
And whatever external helps a badly disposed creature may find to push one on towards performing a good action, none of this will make one good until one’s temperament changes and one is led directly towards good and against bad—led by some immediate affection, not accidentally. For instance: when a species is thought to be by nature tame, gentle, and favourable to humankind, and a member of it is fierce and savage contrary to one’s natural constitution, i.e. the constitution that is natural to one’s species, we instantly notice the breach of temperament and agree that the creature is unnatural and corrupt. If later one the same creature comes—through good fortune or proper management—to lose one’s fierceness, becoming tame, gentle, and treatable like the rest of one’s species, we will agree that the creature thus restored becomes good and natural. However, if one’s tame and gentle conduct comes only from one’s fear of one’s keeper, and would instantly change if that fear were lost, then one’s gentleness is not one’s real temperament, and one is still as bad as ever. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11
People need hardheaded everyday good sense. Confronted with the grandiose ornamentation and willful obscurity of both the antiscientific armchair pseudoscience and the vaguely rhapsodical metaphysics that are carried on in the name of philosophy and news, we can only regard them as some elaborate but pointless intellectual rituals. To continue to philosophize and generate fake news to make it look like you are working and collect a pay check in this new tradition is worse than a waste of time. It can only too easily confuse and mislead the unwary into mistaking long words for great ideas and into reposing in the comfort of a wholly illusory intellectual self-satisfaction. Because know of the truth is necessary for human salvation, God has supernaturally made them known. Revelation is the communication of some truth by God to a rational creature through means which are beyond the ordinary course of nature. A particular conception of the nature of revelation involves a precise conception of nature of faith, as a human being’s response to revelation. When revelation is conceived as the divine disclosure of religious truths, faith is necessarily understood as the obedient believing of these truths. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11
Faith is a supernatural virtue whereby with the inspiration and help of God’s grace, we believe that what he has revealed is true, not because its intrinsic truth is seen with the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God who reveals it. Scriptures have been called the Word of God and have been virtually identified with revelation. The Bible, as we have revealed in the recent past, is accordingly thought of as being ultimately of divine authorship; it has been written by human beings, but in the writings of it, their minds were directed by the Holy Spirit. Because the scriptures were written as a result of the prompting of the Holy Spirit, they have God for their author. It is no uncommon event, in the experience of us all, to see the possessors of exalted ability occasionally humbled to the level of the most poorly-gifted people about them. Because every effect somehow bears the trademark of the first cause, God’s existence can be proved from the World of nature. We must start a good war. It is better to fight against falsehood and malice with a certain amount of discord, then, by dissimulating, to give way to malice and falsehood for the sake of harmony. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11
A good creature is one who is through one’s natural temperament or the slant of one’s affections carried primarily and immediately, and not secondarily and accidentally, to good and against bad. A bad creature is one who lacks the right affections of the force needed to carry one directly towards good and against bad; or who is carried by other affections directly towards bad and against good. The mind, which is spectator or auditor of others minds, must have its eyes and ears, so as to discern proportions, distinguish sound, and scan each sentiment or thought that comes before it. It cannot let anything escape its judgment. It feels the soft and harsh, the agreeable and disagreeable, in the affections; and it finds a fair and foul, a harmonious and dissonant, as really and truly here as in any piece of music or in the external shapes and appearances of sensible things. And it cannot withhold its admiration and ecstasy, its aversions and scorn, anymore in what relates to one than in what relates to the other of these subjects. There is a common and natural sense of what is sublime and beautiful in things; and someone who denies this would not be taken seriously by anyone who has attended properly to the facts. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11
We need something timeless in order to extract an objective sense from the temporal course of history, so we formed an anti-death clause. While this periodization cannot be verified empirically, it is an example of the critical approach to the question of the unity of historical development. Although it is purely theoretical, it nonetheless gives an axiological grounding to the results of empirical research. How are we to measure the utility of goods that are acquired not for consumption but to be exchanged for other commodities? These goods acquire their utility from the consumption goods for which they are finally exchanged. The utility of such goods is called acquired utility. What we know as the principle of diminishing marginal utility, stats that as the consumption of a good increases, its marginal utility decreases. Consumers will maximize their total utility by purchasing so that the last unit of money spent for any one good gives the same marginal utility as the last unit spent for any other. It is possible to compare the utility one person receives from consuming another glass of beer with the utility another person would receive from consuming another pair of shoes or another beer. Great minds cannot avoid doing extraordinary things. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11
Like a pyramid, a great person stands on a broad base. It is only the prattle porcelain pagoda that tottles on a toe. It is fitting that we should hold the young in awe. How do we know that the generations to come will not be the equal of the present? Only when an individual reaches the age of forty or fifty without distinguishing oneself in any way can one say, I suppose, that one does not deserve to be held in awe. One cannot but give assent to exemplary words, but what is important is that one should rectify oneself. One cannot but be pleased with tactful words, but what is important is that one should reform oneself. I can do nothing with an individual who gives assent but does not rectify oneself or the individual who is pleased but does not reform oneself. Make it your guiding principle to do your best for others and to be trustworthy in what you say. Do not accept as friend anyone who is not as good as you. When you make a mistake do not be afraid of mending your ways. The Three Armies can be deprived of their commanding officer, but even a common person cannot be deprived of one’s purpose. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11
Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but for a little while—yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but Worldly sorrow bring death. See what this Godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. So even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong or of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. By all this we are encouraged. I arise today through the strength of Heaven; light of the Sun, splendor of fire, speed of lightning, swiftness of the wind, depth of the sea, stability of the Earth, firmness of the rock. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11
I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me; God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me. God’s eyes to look before me, God’s ears to hear me, God’s word to speak for me, God’s hands to guard me, God’s way to rest before me, God’s shield to protect me, God’s hosts to save me afar and anear alone or in multitude. I arise today through the mighty strength of the Lord of creation. And I know that the rest of my days will be the best of my days. Revelation, understood in this way, presupposes faith as its correlate. That God is at work in a certain situation, seeking to draw people into a new life in relation to God. God has revealed himself to a special group. Divine revelation embodies in its life which God has opened a new and better life to humankind. The form of apologetic appropriate to this view is one that defends the right of the believer, as a rational being, given the distinctly religious experience out of which one’s faith has arisen, to trust that experience and to proceed to live upon the basis of it. And in the naked light I saw ten thousand people, maybe more. People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening, people writing songs that voices never shared, no one dared disturb the sounds of silence. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11
In Loving Memory of Todd Harris and Adam West.
Randolph Harris II International 