Genesis 47
13 The famine was bad everywhere in Egypt and Canaan, and the people were suffering terribly. 14 So Joseph sold them the grain that had been stored up, and he put the money[a] in the king’s treasury. 15 But when everyone had run out of money, the Egyptians came to Joseph and demanded, “Give us more grain! If you don’t, we’ll soon be dead, because our money’s all gone.”
Isaiah 44
I am the Lord All-Powerful,
the first and the last,
the one and only God.
Israel, I have rescued you!
I am your King.
7 Can anyone compare with me?
If so, let them speak up
and tell me now.
Let them say what has happened
since I made my nation
long ago,
and let them tell
what is going to happen.
8 Don’t tremble with fear!
Didn’t I tell you long ago?
Didn’t you hear me?
I alone am God—
no one else is a mighty rock.
Humankind Wanders In Search of the Truth
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
December 21, 1958
7 Don’t condemn others, and God won’t condemn you. 2 God will be as hard on you as you are on others! He will treat you exactly as you treat them.
3 You can see the speck in your friend’s eye, but you don’t notice the log in your own eye. 4 How can you say, “My friend, let me take the speck out of your eye,” when you don’t see the log in your own eye? 5 You’re nothing but show-offs! First, take the log out of your own eye. Then you can see how to take the speck out of your friend’s eye.
6 Don’t give to dogs what belongs to God. They will only turn and attack you. Don’t throw pearls down in front of pigs. They will trample all over them.
7 Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8 Everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And the door will be opened for everyone who knocks. 9 Would any of you give your hungry child a stone, if the child asked for some bread? 10 Would you give your child a snake if the child asked for a fish? 11 As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give good things to people who ask.
12 Treat others as you want them to treat you. This is what the Law and the Prophets[a] are all about.
Prayer
Father of love, human beings were to oversee the ideal garden of love and hold Your love in high regard. Yet ever since we rejected the heart of the Father, who wished to build the ideal garden of love, we have been leaving sorrowful footprints of blood and tears throughout several thousand years of restoration history. Please forgive us.
We are aware that now is the time when we must yearn for the Father’s lost love. The final day of restoration is coming near, when we cannot help standing on the Father’s side, having discovered the Father’s heart. Father of love, please raise us today and newly give us counsel. Since You have called us, please admonish us anew. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will allow us to bow in the presence of the Father with a blissful and glorious countenance, having eliminated the sorrow of restoration.
Please do not allow our minds and bodies to remain only as our own. Please allow all things, from the emotions that we feel to the concepts or doctrines or assertions that we have, not to be ours. We know that nothing originated from us and that all things were affected by Heaven. Father of love, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You allow us in this hour to offer up the whole to the Father.
Please allow us to understand that even if each of us assert ourselves, we cannot appear before all things proudly with our mind and body such as they are nor can we appear before humankind. Please guide us to acknowledge that none of us can step forth before the whole universe in a self-congratulatory way, regardless of what we have. Please allow each of us to lay aside all that we have and transform it into the Father’s heart, by receiving the Father’s heart of resurrection. Guide us to delve into and enter the Father’s heart. Father of love, I ardently wish and desire that You allow us to be eager to receive the words of re-creation with blissful hearts.
Father, since these young people are gathered here in this hour, please govern our minds. Although it is our duty to offer a gift when we prostrate ourselves before the dignified presence of the Father, we were unable to bring anything. Please forgive us. Since we have only our ardent minds to offer before You, please accept these minds as Your own. Since we offer these bodies, please allow them to be a living sacrifice. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You allow the ardent Shim Jung, the Shim Jung of high regard, to appear over the Shim Jung and minds of those gathered here.
Father! Please govern every mind among Your sons and daughters gathered here. The circumstances, the emotions, and the course of the past days in which blood and sweat were shed differ from one another since each of us is different. Our conjectures also differ, since our opinions differ. Yet please govern us to be embraced in the Father’s heart and ardent mind, even if for this one hour only. By doing so, please allow us to be a sacrificial offering for the sake of the one purpose by gathering us into one. Father, I pray from the depth of my heart that You allow no element of which Satan can take advantage to enter into any mind in this audience.
Father, we thank You for granting us this opportunity. We have become conscious of the mission for which we must be responsible. Father, since we have made the Word public before this people, please allow many to appear bearing a heart of high respect toward Heaven because of it. Please allow a large number of people to appear in this nation who pray ardently to You, holding onto this Word.
I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow us, in the last days, to equip ourselves with a victorious altar to realize the glory and Will of Heaven. Thus You will let the day of the Father’s victory come as quickly as possible. We understand that it will not be difficult for the Father’s glory to bear fruit. Father, I pray sincerely that You will allow us to be devoted internally, as well as externally, in making preparations for this task.
Please allow us to know now that this is the time in which we must pray, offering all our minds and bodies. Allow us to bear the Word You are going to deliver in our minds and bodies. We know that if we put these words into practice responsibly, the fruits will be manifested in this nation. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You attain Your Will and Your glory through this nation.
Since this is a holy day, the day You promised You would bless all of humankind, please bless every altar where people are gathered in ardent supplication before You. We have gathered in the Son’s name before the Father, having each become a blood vessel in one heart. Please allow each of us to be united to the whole. Please allow us to embrace Your heart and to be concerned about the Will of the Father.
Father, please look with compassion at Korean Christianity. Although they are seeking the path of life, they do not know which way to go, and they do not have confidence. Please bless the religious orders. Father, please direct the light of life before those who are straying, not knowing where to go. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You allow these people to boast as the Father’s sons and daughters in the presence of all humankind, one day revealing the glory of victory before the whole macrocosm.
Father, since we understand that through this Will You must drive us out into a lonely position, please allow us to be a sacrificial offering in sight of the nation. We know that the duty of a sacrificial offering is to rejoice after You and all of creation have rejoiced. In addition to that, Your sons and daughters gathered here understand that a sacrificial offering has the responsibility to live peacefully for the sake of the Father’s Will, having revealed all of its flesh and blood.
Please allow these sets of minds and bodies to become altars and sacrificial offerings before You by venerating Your heavenly compassion. Beloved Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can sing the glory of the Father and offer comfort in solitude to the Father by becoming the Father’s substantial holy temples.
Please be present with Your sons and daughters scattered throughout the country who are fighting to fulfill the responsibility entrusted to them under all kinds of persecution and difficulties. Since You have led them until the present, Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart You will guide them, so that they may bear fruits which may be realized in the Father’s bosom.
We now offer our devotion, however insufficient it may be. We have prostrated ourselves in front of Your knees. Father, if there is inadequacy, please strike us. Yet, if there are still children who can fathom the Father’s heart, I pray from the depth of my heart that You allow this to be the hour in which they can embrace one another and pour out the Father’s situation, the Father’s heart.
Please take charge of all things of this day and rule over them. I pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.