Interview with Barbara Fuller, Candidate for the Jefferson County, WV Board of Education-May 10, 2022
Interview with Andrea Elliot, Candidate for the Jefferson County WV Board of Education-May 10, 2022
See Stacey’s Rheama (was missing yesterd) here.
Cheon Seong Gyeong 2188
If your mother and father are disloyal to God’s will, then you should counsel them. “Mother, Father, why are you acting in this way? The way of God’s will is such and such, and God’s will is like this, so why are you acting the way you are? You should be going out like this – what are you up to? What are you doing fighting every day?” You have to try to persuade them. This is the right thing to do. It’s a big problem if your mother and father go the wrong way. (100-153, 1978.10.9)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 964
You should complete the blessing of 160 or 180 families. Those who fail to do so will be left out. The time has passed when you can assert that you are a 36 couple, or whatever you may be. Since the age of equalization has come, the issue now is who will be the first to enter with the accomplishment of those numbers. In the Unification Church you benefit if you have many people in your clan. (286-247, 1997.8.11)
Testing
2. Trials Are to Prove that We Belong to God
And verily We shall try you until We know those of you who really strive and are steadfast, and until We test your record.
Qur’an 47.31
Prove me, O Lord, and try me;
test my heart and my mind.
For thy steadfast love is before my eyes,
and I walk in faithfulness to thee.
Psalm 26.2-3
We will test you with a bit of fear and hunger, and a shortage of wealth and souls and produce. Proclaim such to patient people who say, whenever disaster strikes them, “We are God’s, and are returning to Him!” Such will be granted their prayers by their Lord as well as mercy. Those are guided!
Qur’an 2.154-57
Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
mes 1.12
Every soul must taste of death, and We try you with evil and with good, for ordeal. And unto Us you will be returned.
Qur’an 21.35
With ten trials Abraham our father was tried, and he bore them all, to make known how great was the love of Abraham our father.
Mishnah, Avot 5.4 (Judaism)
After these things God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
Genesis 22.1-2
And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob’s thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” “Jacob.” “Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Tell me, I pray, your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.”
Genesis 32.24-30
After the death of Ravana, Rama sent for Sita… When Sita eagerly arrived, after her months of loneliness and suffering, her husband received her in full view of a vast public. But she could not understand why her lord seemed preoccupied and moody and cold. Rama suddenly said, “My task is done. I have now freed you. I have fulfilled my mission. All this effort has been not to attain personal satisfaction for you or me. It was to vindicate the honor of the Ikshvahu race and to honor our ancestors’ codes and values. After all this, I must tell you that it is not customary to admit back to the normal married fold a woman who has resided all alone in a stranger’s house. There can be no question of our living together again. I leave you free to go where you please and to choose any place to live in. I do not restrict you in any manner.”
On hearing this, Sita broke down. “My trials are not ended yet,” she cried. “I thought with your victory our troubles were at an end…! So be it.” She beckoned to Lakshmana and ordered, “Light a fire at once, on this very spot.”
Lakshmana hesitated and looked at his brother, wondering whether he would countermand the order. But Rama seemed passive and acquiescent. Lakshmana gathered faggots and got ready a roaring pyre within a short time. The entire crowd watched, stunned, while the flames rose higher and higher. Still Rama made no comment. He watched. Sita approached the fire, prostrated herself before it, and said, “O Agni, great god of fire, be my witness.” She jumped into the fire.
From the heart of the flame rose the god of fire, bearing Sita, and presented her to Rama with words of blessing. Rama, now satisfied that he had established his wife’s integrity in the presence of the world, welcomed Sita back to his arms.
Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda 118-20 (Hinduism)