Join us for the Urban Life Training Chapter Workshop, online or in-person on July 3rd 2020. Learn materials that teach about the physical, intellectual, emotional and long term benefits of sexual abstinence before marriage. Learn about setting up a Chapter of Urban Life Training to teach this material to middle and high school youth: https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/109-training/351-urban-life-training-chapter-workshop .
Ephesians 1
9 I want you to know about the great and mighty power that God has for us followers. It is the same wonderful power he used 20 when he raised Christ from death and let him sit at his right side in heaven. 21 There Christ rules over all forces, authorities, powers, and rulers. He rules over all beings in this world and will rule in the future world as well. 22 God has put all things under the power of Christ, and for the good of the church he has made him the head of everything. 23 The church is Christ’s body and is filled with Christ who completely fills everything.
Isaiah 63
13 He led his people across
like horses running wild
without stumbling.
14 His Spirit gave them rest,
just as cattle find rest
when led into a valley.
The name of the Lord was praised
for doing these things.
World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon
Chapter 3
The Purpose of Human Life
For God’s Good Pleasure
As creatures, human beings are created with a purpose determined by their Creator. The monotheistic religions in particular recognize that God created human beings to serve, love and glorify Him. We can thus find fulfillment through service and obedience. However, as our heavenly Father, God would also want us to be children who reflect His image and likeness in the world by spreading love and benevolence throughout the human race.
God is the Enjoyer of all phenomena in some texts; specifically, we can speak of God’s joy when His purpose of creation is fulfilled. It is our privilege as human beings to return such joy to God. Father Moon explains God’s purpose for creating human beings as a creative partnership, where we take after God’s loving nature and God in turn rejoices to see countless images of Himself as we establish loving families and relate to one another and to all God’s creatures with divine love. Nevertheless, due to the Fall of the first ancestors, people do not form loving families or treat the creation with love. Therefore, God has never experienced the fullness of joy. (See Chapter 6: God’s Grief.)
- Our Purpose Is to Serve God
I have created the jinn and humankind only that
they may serve Me. No sustenance do I require
that they should feed Me. For God is He who gives
all sustenance, the Lord of Power, Steadfast.
Qur’an 51.56-58
All that God created in His world He created
only for His glory, as it is said, “All that is called
by my name, for my glory I created and fash-
ioned and made it” (Isaiah 43.7).
Avot 6.11 (Judaism)
There is one God, the Father, from whom are all
things and for whom we exist.
1 Corinthians 8.6
The greatest bliss is the good pleasure of God:
that is the supreme felicity.
Qur’an 9.72
Why, is he better who founds his building upon
the fear of God and His good pleasure, or he
who founds his building upon the brink of a
crumbling bank that will tumble with him into
the fire of hell? And God does not guide the
people of the evildoers.
Qur’an 9.109
If you obey the commandments of the Lord
your God which I command you this day, by lov-
ing the Lord your God, by walking in his ways,
and by keeping his commandments and his stat-
utes and his ordinances, then you shall live and
multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you
in the land.
Deuteronomy 30.16
Do not try to develop what is natural to man;
develop what is natural to Heaven. He who
develops Heaven benefits life; he who develops
man injures life.
Chuang Tzu 19 (Taoism)
If it be your wish, O people, to know God and to
discover the greatness of His might, look, then,
upon Me with My own eyes, and not with the
eyes of anyone besides Me. You will, otherwise,
be never capable of recognizing Me, though
you ponder My Cause as long as My Kingdom
endures.
Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh 127
(Bahá’i Faith)
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
Originally, human beings were created to be happy, full of life and joy before God their Parent. Our existence should be for the glory of God. (52:36, December 12, 1971)
What should we human beings set as our purpose? Rather than setting our purpose on the individual, family, community, nation, world, or even the cosmos, we should set our purpose on God. Our purpose should be to bring God and humankind together. (41:323, February 18, 1971)
For what purpose were we born? What should be our center as we go through life, and what should be our ultimate goal? These questions absolutely cannot be answered if we exclude God. Without God, our life will have no connection to the Cause. Even if he makes some success in his life, a person who lacks a connection to the Cause cannot reap the result, and the value of his result cannot be recognized. A building is constructed according to a blueprint created by an architect. A building built without a blueprint cannot become what the Architect intends. (21:100, November 17, 1968)
My life is for the sake of God and the world. You also should think to live for God and the world. You should not think to live merely for yourself… Always check how closely you are aligned to the life that God wants you to live. (147:115, August 31, 1986)