Month: December 2017

God’s Grieving Heart throughout History

Stacey, Sarah and I wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Numbers 8

This ceremony will show that the Levites are different from the other Israelites and belong to me in a special way. 15 After they have been made acceptable and have been dedicated, they will be allowed to work at my sacred tent. 16 They are mine and will take the place of the first-born Israelite sons. 

Song of Solomon

My dearest, the cities of Tirzah
and Jerusalem
    are not as lovely as you.
Your charms are more powerful
than all of the stars
    in the heavens.[a]
5 Turn away your eyes—
    they make me melt.
Your hair tosses about
as gracefully as goats
    coming down from Gilead.
6 Your teeth are whiter
    than sheep freshly washed;
they match perfectly,
    not one is missing.
7 Behind your veil are hidden
    beautiful rosy cheeks.[b]

Let Us Be Persons of Forbearance

Sun Myung Moon
May 18, 1958

Matthew 24: 1-14

God had no choice but to hold onto Adam and Eve and start the providence of restoration. For that reason, God chose Cain and Abel and Noah. By electing and establishing many other families, God has unfolded the work of the providence of restoration. The heart of God as He led the dispensation of this providential history was fretful beyond description. Nevertheless, controlling His feelings, God has endured with great patience.

Yet how many people on this earth today feel the fretful heart of the enduring God and seize God and shed tears? If there was a man on this earth who knew God’s heart like this and shed tears, he would be able to understand that while God rejoiced at the time of the creation of all things in Heaven and earth, God’s grief due to man’s fall encompassed all of the creation in heaven and earth. Continue reading “God’s Grieving Heart throughout History”

God Experienced Grief at Adam’s Fall

CSG 291

You don’t know how rigid religious
dogmatists can be. Syria belongs to the
Islamic cultural sphere. I brought an elite
group of leaders from Syria to East Gar-
den and we shared the Divine Principle
with them. Our Unification Church is
not a branch of Christianity but its main
trunk. Because Jesus brought salvation
by being sacrificed in the role of the son,
Jesus himself must have parents, and
because Jesus did not have a son of his
own, his authority as a parent must be
restored. For this reason the term “True
Parents” is so wonderful.
Established Christian churches are
making a big fuss because I said that
Jesus is my disciple, but they will see
everything when they go to the spirit
world. Why do I say such things, when I
know clearly that doing so will cause me
to be inundated with curses?
How about the established Christian
churches? Through Unification Church
members, I will clean up anything that
is unclean in their back rooms and
hold worship services transcending all
denominations. After this, I will go to
the spirit world. I will go there after com-
pleting that trans-denominational wor-
ship. You may not know this, but there
are already a large number of ministers
using our Principle. Some of them read
the Divine Principle on a blanket and
when a deacon or elder comes in, they
quickly hide it underneath the blanket,
and then take it out again when they
leave, and read it all night. They memo-
rize it and diligently use it.
Autumn leaves do not fall all at once.
Do they fall all at once? They do not.
They fall one by one, rather than as a
whole bunch. Although they fall one by
one, before long the tree, once clothed
with green, is left with no leaves. Wheth-
er they know it or not, I am dealing with
things in that way. (213-34, 1991.1.13)

CSG 1954

Now you must not think about any
success or goal that centers on your own
self. The reason I demand Japan’s suc-
cess is to obtain success for the entire
world. If you, of all people, can stand
together and carry out the heavenly
mission of restoring Japan, we would
not need even twenty more years. Sac-
rificial offerings will be needed contin-
uously in order to fulfill that mission.
Sacrificial offerings should not be made
from their own subjective viewpoint. In
dealing with the whole, they should be
determined existentially centering on
God. That is the mission of a sacrificial
offering. To become a sacrificial offering
you must absolutely refrain from put-
ting forth your own subjective perspec-
tive. (15-84, 1965.9.29)

Let Us Be Persons of Forbearance

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
May 11, 1958

The title of the sermon today is “Let Us Be Persons of Forbearance.”

There are premonitions of the last days in the Bible. The fact that it is difficult to lead a life centered on faith in the last days is thus recorded. Therefore, to become a champion in overcoming this difficult period of confusion, each of you must become a person who forbears to the end. I pray that this may be the hour when, knowing this fact yourselves and feeling it from the depth of your hearts, you may receive the blessing.

We may easily think of God as the master of glory. We may also easily think that since God is almighty, He should be in control of all the activities of humankind. However, even after having gone through 6,000 long years of history, God has not yet realized one day of glory. He has not had even one day when He could practice His authority in governing humanity. When we think of this, we must remember that God has deep apprehensions, deep sufferings and deep pains that no one can ever comprehend. Continue reading “God Experienced Grief at Adam’s Fall”

At the Second Coming There is an Invitation to a Wedding Banquet

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

Matthew 24: 1-14

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. Continue reading “At the Second Coming There is an Invitation to a Wedding Banquet”

Understand Jesus’ Heart at the Mount of Transfiguration

CSG 629

What is more, we are born and live
with consciousness, pursuing goodness
and higher value as well as experiencing
the grief of others? All these attributes
did not originate from human beings
but from the origin of humankind. We
can say that human life is a process of
going towards the resultant world which
leads us to the origin.

CSG 2015

All you members here have aban-
doned your countries to come here.
You threw away your own homelands.
Why? You did it for the territory of the
homeland that God originally desired,
and for the restoration of that home-
land. No matter how great America is,
if it does not listen to me, it will perish.
I may be making a dogmatic judgment,
but the one who is saying this is not just
a guest who is passing by and making
some comment. I am saying this because
I have done all these things. I am not a
braggart. I came here having completed
everything.

At a Field Service

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
May 11, 1958

Each of us today is inexpressibly precious. For that reason, if one person goes wrong, the trace of bitter resentment will remain with posterity for eternity. Therefore, we must become qualified in accordance with the central standard that is unchanging throughout history and eternity. By inheriting the will Jesus cherished, we should become testifiers to history, the current age, and the future. Furthermore, you should become people who attest to the fact that Jesus came forth forming relations of victory, no matter what kind of age or environment you are in. Continue reading “Understand Jesus’ Heart at the Mount of Transfiguration”

Act for the Good of the Nation and World

CSG 565

You should think that you might
possibly die soon, perhaps within a year.
Therefore, you should make all prepara-
tions during this short time. You should
live with such thoughts. The shorter
the time you think you have, the hap-
pier you will be, and the less you have
to lose. Your sincere preparations dur-
ing this time become the building blocks
of your home for your eternal life. Have
you ever loved God with such a short
time in mind? You want to become one
with Him and love Him, but you can
not. God says to you, “Love Me!” If you
die after having lived this way, then you
will become the master of eternal life.

John 6

22 The people who had stayed on the east side of the lake knew that only one boat had been there. They also knew that Jesus had not left in it with his disciples. But the next day 23 some boats from Tiberias sailed near the place where the crowd had eaten the bread for which the Lord had given thanks. 24 They saw that Jesus and his disciples had left. Then they got into the boats and went to Capernaum to look for Jesus. 25 They found him on the west side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

26 Jesus answered, “I tell you for certain that you are not looking for me because you saw the miracles,[g] but because you ate all the food you wanted. 27 Don’t work for food that spoils. Work for food that gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food, because God the Father has given him the right to do so.”

28 “What exactly does God want us to do?” the people asked.

29 Jesus answered, “God wants you to have faith in the one he sent.”

At a Field Service

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
May 11, 1958

Matthew 17: 1-18

Jesus did not enjoy himself at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration. It must have been a tragic scene. You today should not perceive this fact centering on yourselves.

Seeing the figure of Jesus shine with luminescence, at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration Peter suggested that Jesus stay there forever, saying, “Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. (Luke 9:33) Although the three disciples tried to enjoy themselves in the environment, Jesus’ heart was not like that. Although the environment that appeared at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration was a good one, Jesus’ heart in that environment was pierced with the internal historical sorrow and the grief of the future. However, the three disciples were not far-sighted enough to know that the heart of Jesus was overcome with this kind of grief. Continue reading “Act for the Good of the Nation and World”