Matthew 22
22 Once again Jesus used stories to teach the people:
2 The kingdom of heaven is like what happened when a king gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 The king sent some servants to tell the invited guests to come to the banquet, but the guests refused. 4 He sent other servants to say to the guests, “The banquet is ready! My cattle and prize calves have all been prepared. Everything is ready. Come to the banquet!”
5 But the guests did not pay any attention. Some of them left for their farms, and some went to their places of business. 6 Others grabbed the servants, then beat them up and killed them.
7 This made the king so furious that he sent an army to kill those murderers and burn down their city. 8 Then he said to the servants, “It is time for the wedding banquet, and the invited guests don’t deserve to come. 9 Go out to the street corners and tell everyone you meet to come to the banquet.” 10 They went out on the streets and brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike. And the banquet room was filled with guests.
11 When the king went in to meet the guests, he found that one of them wasn’t wearing the right kind of clothes for the wedding. 12 The king asked, “Friend, why didn’t you wear proper clothes for the wedding?” But the guest had no excuse. 13 So the king gave orders for that person to be tied hand and foot and to be thrown outside into the dark. That’s where people will cry and grit their teeth in pain. 14 Many are invited, but only a few are chosen.
Jeremiah 49
I once was pleased
with your famous city.
But now I warn you, “Escape
while you still can!”[t]
26 Soon, even your best soldiers
will lie dead in your streets.
I, the Lord All-Powerful,
have spoken.
Let Us Be Persons of Forbearance
Sun Myung Moon
May 18, 1958
24 After Jesus left the temple, his disciples came over and said, “Look at all these buildings!”
2 Jesus replied, “Do you see these buildings? They will certainly be torn down! Not one stone will be left in place.”
3 Later, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him in private and asked, “When will this happen? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world?”
4 Jesus answered:
Don’t let anyone fool you. 5 Many will come and claim to be me. They will say that they are the Messiah, and they will fool many people.
6 You will soon hear about wars and threats of wars, but don’t be afraid. These things will have to happen first, but that isn’t the end. 7 Nations and kingdoms will go to war against each other. People will starve to death, and in some places there will be earthquakes. 8 But this is just the beginning of troubles.
9 You will be arrested, punished, and even killed. Because of me, you will be hated by people of all nations. 10 Many will give up and will betray and hate each other. 11 Many false prophets will come and fool a lot of people. 12 Evil will spread and cause many people to stop loving others. 13 But if you keep on being faithful right to the end, you will be saved. 14 When the good news about the kingdom has been preached all over the world and told to all nations, the end will come.
Prayer
The time now is similar to when the Israelites were in confusion 2,000 years ago. It is the time when the Messiah must come. We know that in such a time as this it is difficult to distinguish between the true and the false. There have been many teachers who toiled in the course of history in the past. Men have attended many leaders. However, today we are losing the center of mind which we can rely on.
Since we know that the Father knows humankind is in a state of confusion today, Father, please allow us to get our lives under control. Let us get our minds straight and make our ideology clear. Let us live relying upon our innate disposition. Thus, we shall attain happiness. Although many people are seeking that day, there has been no one yet who could say, “I have found it.”
Although many people attest to that day, the people who truly make the Father happy are extremely rare. Please allow those of us who live in this confused world to be able to attest to the ideology that our minds and bodies should establish and express our gratitude. By doing so, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You allow us to receive praise and blessing as the sons and daughters the Father desires, the sons and daughters who have completed the mission of restoration.
Father, please supervise our minds. Our minds know better than anyone the path we have to take. Our minds wish to walk the true path of the original nature. Father, by granting us the truth and the religion that can materialize the hope of our minds, please guide us to attain the will of the providence of salvation.
Beloved Father, please look at this pitiful nation with compassion. Please look with compassion at Your sons and daughters who have lost their way and are wandering about. Please look with compassion at those of us who are marching forward toward that victorious day. Please be with us that we may accomplish the Father’s will.
Now the time has come for us to accomplish the Father’s will, even if we encounter difficulties. Please allow us to equip ourselves with a mind and body that behold the Father’s glory, going beyond those difficulties. Please guide us so that many of Your sons and daughters can come forth who are concerned about the Father’s heart, who have built a hidden altar about which others do not know, having overcome the difficulties alone. Let us offer everything to resemble the Father’s mind, to experience the Father’s heart. Father, I pray all this from the bottom of my heart.
For this great purpose, our religious order, our denomination does not matter. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow us to realize that the secret of the truth and the whole of the truth is to go forth having the internal heart that the Father can sympathize with, the ardent Shim Jung which can experience the Father’s mind. Since the whole religious world is in chaos, having divided into many denominations, Father, please look upon us with compassion. Are there sons and daughters of the Father who are being pursued by enemies? I trust that You will give encouragement to them. Please allow us to attest to the Father’s will by experiencing their heart. I ardently wish and desire that You allow the day of happiness to come to this earth as quickly as possible, the day when the lonely group of people can stand together as the Father’s true sons and daughters.
Father, please look with compassion at Your beloved sons and daughters who are gathered now. Since You let them gather here, Father, please be responsible for them. Please take in our unchanging minds. Allow each of us to feel in this hour the impulse of devotion, in our minds and bodies, which is being felt through the Father’s heart of the original nature. Beloved Father, I pray from the depth of my heart that You allow the Father’s direct works to be unfolded, so that we can find the way of our own accord.
Please allow us to be the sons and daughters who can feel the appearance and manner of Jesus who came 2,000 years ago and sympathize from the bottom of our hearts with his sorrow. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow us to become the Father’s true sons and daughters by having a childlike Shim Jung. Let us feel the sorrow that is in the Father’s mind from the bottom of our hearts. Let us feel happiness, too, since happiness is with the Father.
We earnestly hope and desire that You will allow this to be an hour when we reveal before the Father all the doctrines, opinions and conventional conditions that we hold. With a childlike Shim Jung, we ask for the Father’s love.
Please allow the mind of the deliverer and the minds of the receivers not to become two. Since we know that Satan always watches the gap in minds between the deliverer and the receiver, please allow us to be equipped with the appearance and manner of a little lamb, and according to the will for which You wish, let us receive the grace of being re-created according to the word of the Father’s command. From the beginning of the hour to the end, we pray with a most sincere heart that You alone will rule. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.