Leviticus 23
Beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month,[m] and continuing for seven days, everyone must celebrate the Festival of Shelters in honor of me. 35 No one is to do any work on the first day of the festival—it is a time when everyone must come together for worship. 36 For seven days, sacrifices must be offered on the altar. The eighth day is also to be a day of complete rest, as well as a time of offering sacrifices on the altar and of coming together for worship.
Richard: “Worship” and “altar” are the words that jump out at me. The modern day altar is the Blessed union of husband and wife in absolutely good sex. Visonroot Ministries will be offering STAR Leadership training to empower youth and young adults to lead the way in sexual abstinence and successful family formation: https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/star-interfaith-leadership-training.
Ezekiel 32
32 Twelve years after King Jehoiachin and the rest of us had been led away as prisoners to Babylonia, the Lord spoke to me on the first day of the twelfth month.[a] He said:
2 Ezekiel, son of man, condemn the king of Egypt and tell him I am saying:
You act like a lion
roaming the earth;
but you are nothing more than
a crocodile in a river,
churning up muddy water
with your feet.
3 King of Egypt, listen to me. I, the Lord God, will catch you in my net and let a crowd of foreigners drag you to shore. 4 I will throw you into an open field, where birds and animals will come to feed on your body.
Let Us Love Heaven and Become Patriots
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
March 1, 1959
If we can find an ideal nation on the earth, which nation would that be? We will call that nation “the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.” Only when that nation is realized can we realize the will of God’s blessing to Adam and Eve, “Govern all things when you have grown to perfection.” Only then can human beings emerge as the true masters of this earth. Only then can humanity become true brothers and sisters to each other and the true sons and daughters of God. Before God, we must become true sons and daughters of filial piety and loyal subjects. We must stand before the world as the true masters. When we accomplish this, God will pass to us all our rightful powers, not just external powers, but also the internal center of the heart. We will become sons and daughters in whom God can entrust everything and be at peace.
Such sons and daughters are greater than any patriot, woman of chastity, or son or daughter of filial piety. The day must come when we can be proud of these people before the world.
Although communists today have created models of ethics and heroism based on their own ideology, this is not what democracy has done. We must surpass them and honor those heroes who have made contributions for the fulfillment of God’s ideals and respect their characters. We must follow in their footsteps and possess their ideals to become people who can march toward the world of God’s ideals.
Dwelling inside this realm, we must march forward to the day when we can unite this world and humanity as one and attend the Lord of our hope, the day when we can become one with the creation on behalf of heaven and earth. God seeks those who truly love Heaven and their nation, those who long for that one day as they offer all they have and continue to battle with the determination to sacrifice everything.