Acts 3
3 The time of prayer was about three o’clock in the afternoon, and Peter and John were going into the temple.[a] 2 A man who had been born lame was being carried to the temple door. Each day he was placed beside this door, known as the Beautiful Gate. He sat there and begged from the people who were going in.
3 The man saw Peter and John entering the temple, and he asked them for money. 4 But they looked straight at him and said, “Look up at us!”
5 The man stared at them and thought he was going to get something. 6 But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold! But I will give you what I do have. In the name of Jesus Christ from Nazareth, get up and start walking.” 7 Peter then took him by the right hand and helped him up.
At once the man’s feet and ankles became strong, 8 and he jumped up and started walking. He went with Peter and John into the temple, walking and jumping and praising God. 9 Everyone saw him walking around and praising God. 10 They knew that he was the beggar who had been lying beside the Beautiful Gate, and they were completely surprised. They could not imagine what had happened to the man.
Job 19
I am skin and bones—
just barely alive.
21 My friends, I beg you for pity!
God has made me his target.
22 Hasn’t he already done enough?
Why do you join the attack?
Let Us Become Beloved Children and Receive the Seals
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 14, 1958
Who shattered our father-son relationship with God? Sadly, this relationship cannot be restored with heavenly strength or with our strength alone. There must be nothing that provokes your anger more. We should be the children who can feel the sorrow, pain and grief of losing the loving Father and being unable to serve, meet or follow the parents who should be served eternally. Coming down the road of misfortune, God has been trying to find people who could share joy as His children, but we knew nothing about His sorrow. We are unable to be called children of God due to our fallen lineage, though theoretically we are sons with an inseparable blood relationship. In real life, we have countless elements of the enemy within us.
Thus, God has two kinds of sorrow. One is having lost the son and the other is not being able to regain the relationship. We should feel that we are the sinner of sinners and the debtor of debtors to have generated such woe in God. We must repent and work hard for having put God through 6,000 years of toil.
The relationship of father and son is based on Shim Jung, which can never disappear from the heart, even with all the denials and unworthiness of being called a son. The relationship centering on eternal love flows on as the affectionate Shim Jung that even God cannot deny. The tragedy is that even with such a Shim Jung, God cannot freely call us sons and daughters.
Our sorrow is nothing compared to that of God. Do not rejoice over having much money. Having good external conditions does not gladden the heart. You should know that the more material affluence you have, the more indemnity conditions you will incur, which will bring you down. Is there anyone on the earth who can confidently say, “I can be a child of God because I have given up everything”?
Looking at the sky, we should be able to feel the grief of humankind, which prostrates itself and cries out before the tears of God. We should be able to feel the woe of all things, which scream out, pierced by God’s tearful Shim Jung and sighs. We should also experience the Father’s sorrow and pain. We must know the mistreatment He has suffered. Only when we dominate the earth with the ideal of Heaven can we fulfill His will.
Since this world is fallen, you cannot meet God. Since there is the heavenly principle of creation and the cosmic heavenly standard, God cannot come directly to man, ignoring these principles. Thus, in the Old Testament Age, humankind and animals were connected through sacrificial objects. In the New Testament Age, Jesus was the sacrifice. Through Jesus, humanity and all things and humanity and Jesus were to make the connection. Heavenly blessing was attained by Jesus, the son of God, going through an extremely sad situation. This made the connection between Jesus and humankind.
Now what needs to be established is the relationship of father and son. For this, the father must be struck for the sake of the son. This way, the connection should be made from all people to the subjects, and from the subjects to the son, and from the son to God. This is the law of God, who is restoring happiness, glory and the ideal.