Author: Richard Urban

How Much Have You Empathized With God’s Situation?

Watch or Listen to the podcast of the Richard Urban Show from May 7, 2020: Moral Posturing Does Not Improve Our Health: https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/08/is-governor-justice-moral-posturing/ .

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2007

Do you know where the providence
has come to at the present time? The
first goal is to have the basis on which
we can bring about the restoration of the
homeland in heaven’s nation and liber-
ate God’s Kingdom on earth. This must
be done even if you have to sacrifice time
with your family and relatives. Even if
you end up as a refugee, this must be
accomplished. (300-309, 1999.4.11)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1059

You should offer all your devotion in
witnessing to your parents. There is no
greater happiness than receiving heav-
en’s blessings with them, in the presence
of God’s will, and creating a protective
fence as a Blessed Family. (16-329, 1966.7.31)

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

Divine Love and Compassion

3. God’s Loving Heart toward Humanity

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and burning incense to idols. Yet it was I that taught Ephraim to walk, I took him up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.
Hosea 11.1-4

In the perilous round of mortality, In continuous, unending misery, Firmly tied to the passions As a yak is to its tail; Smothered by greed and infatuation, Blinded and seeing nothing; Seeking not the Buddha, the Mighty, And the Truth that ends suffering, But deeply sunk in heresy, By suffering seeking riddance of suffering; For the sake of all these creatures, My heart is stirred with great pity.
Lotus Sutra 2 (Buddhism)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

How hard is it to educate just one child? Children share their parents’ flesh and blood. Their hearts are linked to their mother, so when mother cries they cry too. Their hearts are naturally connected to their father, so they respond to his cares and sorrows. Even so, it is still extremely hard to teach and raise them, is it not?
Then consider the magnitude of God’s task. Today’s human beings are not God’s children. Although God cries out in bitterness, they act as if they do not hear anything. Although God weeps with grief and sorrow, they just ignore it. This is because human beings stem from Satan’s flesh and blood. They may sense God’s grief, yet all they do is praise Him. They may notice that other people are perishing, yet still they laugh and make merry.
Think how difficult it is for God, who has to train workers and raise leaders from among such people. Without a heart of utmost compassion, God would not have even a foothold to develop His providential work. Yet it is God’s heart to consider every single detail—from one to one hundred to one thousand to even ten thousand—in arranging things for you. (42:257, March 21, 1971)

God elected Cain and Abel, Noah, and many other families as He pursued the providence of restoration. At every dispensation God led of this providential history, His heart was fretful beyond description. Nevertheless, controlling His feelings, God endured with great patience.
Who on this earth today feels the fretful heart of our patient God? Who would hug God and weep with Him? Anyone who knows God’s heart like this and shed tears would understand: God rejoiced at the time of the creation of all things in heaven and earth, but due to the Human Fall God now grieves; His sorrow encompasses all in heaven and earth. (4:239, May 18, 1958)

[Until the coming of Jesus], what had been God’s heart toward humanity? He did not have the attitude to live for His own sake. Although we fallen human beings deserved to suffer and die, God poured out all of His heart and strength to save us. Persevering through the four thousand years of Old Testament history, He fought every step of the way to separate humanity from Satan. You should understand the nature of God who loved us, persevered for us and fought for us with an unchanging heart…
During Jesus’ life of 33 years, he did not try to distinguish himself before the people, but in silence he sought to experience the heart of God… At difficult moments Jesus might have felt the urge to seek his own welfare, but because he was ever immersed in God’s heart, he could not even think of doing it. Jesus knew that God had persevered for four thousand years for the purpose of finding one man—Jesus himself. Knowing that, Jesus spent thirty years preparing himself, so that he could emerge as the man of substance who could liberate God from that history.
God never made excuses for His situation or complained about His suffering, not to anyone. Because Jesus was trying to understand everything about the heart of God, when he was lonely he too persevered and never made any excuses. You should follow the example of his life. (1:78, May 27, 1956)
Even though human beings sinned, God does not accuse us, saying, “Hey, you! Why did you sin?” He knows the situation of sinners. He cares about humanity more than for Himself. He comes in sorrow to sorrowful people, in suffering to suffering people, and in sympathy with those who feel victimized and angry.
How much have you empathized with God’s situation? God comes into our sphere of life in this way. Not only that—he comes to us with His heart: “Although you betrayed Me, I am your Father. With a father’s heart I have been searching for you for six thousand years.” (9:231, May 29, 1960)

Father! We have been like pitiful orphans,
knocked about this way and that,
ignorant of our purpose, our direction, and our historical situation,
unable to grasp the center of life, pushed here and there—
still Thou didst hold on to us.
Yet we did not know that Thou wast there,
sorrowful when we were sad,
not averse to toiling day and night to seek us out,
even as we were ensnared and groaning in the realm of death. (5:337, March 8, 1959)

God Drives Away Flies for a Cow that Has No Tail

Watch or Listen to the podcast of the Richard Urban Show from May 7, 2020: Moral Posturing Does Not Improve Our Health: https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/08/is-governor-justice-moral-posturing/ .

Acts 20

20 When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia. 2 He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, 3 where he stayed three months.

Johah 2

2 1 [a]From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 2 He said:

“In my distress I called to the Lord,
    and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
    and you listened to my cry.
3 You hurled me into the depths,
    into the very heart of the seas,
    and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
    swept over me.
4 I said, ‘I have been banished
    from your sight;
yet I will look again
    toward your holy temple.’
5 The engulfing waters threatened me,[b]
    the deep surrounded me;
    seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
    the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God,
    brought my life up from the pit.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

Divine Love and Compassion

2. Divine Mercy

God is All-gentle to His servants, providing for whomsoever He will.
Qur’an 42.19

God is the best to take care of man, and He is the Most Merciful of those who show mercy!
Qur’an 12.64

If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.

2 Timothy 2.13

No one is more patient over injury which he hears than God.
Hadith of Bukhari and Muslim (Islam)

God drives away flies for a cow that has no tail.
Yoruba Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted
beyond your strength, but with the temptation
will also provide the way of escape, that you may
be able to endure it.
1 Corinthians 10.13

God charges no soul save to its capacity;
standing to its account is what it has earned,
and against its account what it has deserved.
Our Lord! Take us not to task if we forget, or
make mistake.
Our Lord! Charge us not with a load as that
which You laid upon those before us.
Our Lord! Burden us not beyond what we have
the strength to bear. Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy on us.
Qur’an 2.286

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

What is God? God is the existence that absolutely lives for others. (175:158, March 16, 1988)

No matter what happens in the human world, God is patient because He is who He is. He sees tragic and heart-breaking things, yet He remains calm and composed, never losing His dignity. If God were to open His mouth and express His suffering, He could pour out tragic stories for millions of years, weeping all the while. Would God weep out of self-pity? No, God weeps only for humankind, His
children. (124:60, January 23, 1983)

What kind of being is God? Does He say, “I am God Almighty! I created you to serve Me, to love Me and sacrifice everything for Me”? Such a being cannot be God.
In fact, God has set the tradition of humbly serving and loving the world. His tradition is that of changing diapers and cleaning up the baby’s feces, and washing the dirt off a sick and infirm old man. That tradition should form the core of our education. (116:90-91, December 20, 1981)

God, the Creator of the universe, still remembers the wonderful process by which His creation unfolded, how each creature arose and what He did to further their development. He invested such great love for His creation; love was the motivation, and love the goal. Even though humankind fell, God just cannot put aside His abiding love for human beings; to do so would be against His Principle and His standard of love. Therefore, when He sees fallen people living
in misery, He does not condemn. Rather, He is merciful to them. (115:320-21, November 29, 1981)

God Needs Object Partners

Watch or Listen to the podcast of the Richard Urban Show from May 7, 2020: Moral Posturing Does Not Improve Our Health: https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/08/is-governor-justice-moral-posturing/ .

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2138

We were originally to grow up so that
men and women would meet each oth-
er to become kings and queens, and, as
heavenly princes and princesses, inherit
everything in God’s Kingdom. For this,
we must start at the bottom of hell and
work our way up through the eight-stage
indemnity process until God’s Kingdom
is established, which is possible only
through the Blessing of the True Par-
ents, who come as the Messiah.
Therefore, blessed couples should
become ‘plus’ couples who take the ini-
tiative in serving the world. To be com-
pletely reborn, we should practice abso-
lute faith, absolute love, and absolute
obedience centering on God. I have per-
sonally practiced this throughout my
life.
When creating the universe, God did
so with absolute faith. He went on to cre-
ate us to be the absolute partners of His
love. Absolute obedience means invest-
ing ourselves completely to the extent of
total self-denial. Furthermore, we for-
get about the investment we made and
reinvest; such a process continues until
reaching the zero point without any con-
cept of self. If our love were rejected, we
would continue to love even more; even
if we have already invested, we should
continue to invest everything that we
have, until we can make our enemy sur-
render voluntarily. God walked such a
path, and the Parents of heaven and earth
have also walked such a path. The person
who invests love continuously without
expecting a direct return becomes a cen-
tral being, the one who inherits every-
thing, and the child of greatest piety. In
a family with ten members including the
grandparents, the one most exemplify-
ing altruism will be its center. The same
principle applies with respect to patriots
in the nation. The more we invest with-
out expecting a direct return, the higher
we can rise as loyal citizens, saints, and
God’s holy sons and daughters.

Richard: What did God have faith in? Himself? Hardly. He has faith in us, created as His images, that we will (eventually, and hopefully sooner than later) fulfill His original ideal of creation. Doing Home Church work definitely involves having obedience (to your conscience) and pushing your own self/ego down. And what is real love. Giving and investing without expecting a direct return.

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1617

Between you and me, who is supe-
rior? In what respect? Why would one
be superior to another when all of us
are of the same mind? The only differ-
ence between us is to what extent we
put into action what our mind tells us
to do; otherwise we are no different at
all. Our minds are all the same. The
basis of the person and of the mind
is the same; the only difference lies
in the degree to which we follow the
instructions of our minds, how much
we convert our thoughts into action,
and how much we cultivate our envi-
ronment. (222-303, 1991.11.6)

Richard: Again, Home Church is all about cultivating your environment: https://inspiration.visionroot.org/2020/01/21/only-through-home-church-can-you-return-home/ .

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

Divine Love and Compassion

1. Love: The Essence of God

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God knows everything. Omniscient and omnipotent, He is the Supreme King of knowledge and power. Omnipresent, He exists everywhere. What does God need? Diamonds? He can make them any time. Gold or jewels? No. What God needs is love. Dwelling all by Himself, would God say, “I have love and it’s great” and laugh? No, there is something that God needs. God is a personal God; then He should have a mouth, shouldn’t He? He also should have anose, eyes, ears, hands and feet, a mind—and a heart. Surely, God must have them, because He isa personal God. (142:30)

God is the Original Being of love, and out of love He created human beings. A solitary being cannot love. Therefore, there is one thing that even God absolutely needs: a partner whom He can love. He can only love in a relationship with a counterpart. God, the Original Being of love and heart, created the universe with love as His motivation. In doing so, He created human beings in His image as His substantial object partners, as it is recorded in Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” God is our eternal, formless and internal Parent, and [he created] Adam and Eve to be perfected as our visible and external parents. (135:10-11, August 20, 1985)

If what God needs is love, then He needs object partners with whom He can relate and share love. What sort of beings could these be? Animals? God would love beings that resemble Him. If God’s partners are indeed human beings, then we are led to the conclusion that God has a human-like personality. God, who is in complete harmony within Himself, must also have attributes that can harmonize one hundred percent with the innate faculties of the human mind and body. Hence, God must have intellect, emotion and will. (162:271, April 17, 1987)\

Love cannot be completed without a partner. Even God absolutely needs a counterpart in order to attain the most precious love; that is why He created. God seeks out a partner, so that He can experience absolute love through relating with another. In this sense, God exists for human beings and human beings exist for God. True love begins when we live for the sake of another. What is the origin of human beings? God’s love. We were born for love. Love is the origin. Life is not the most precious thing. Our life derived from God’s idea of love; therefore, love precedes life. Love is the root of life. We are born from love, grow up in love, and meet a partner for love—that should be our life. If God is the first generation, then human beings are the second generation. God always loves us, His sons and daughters, but do we experience God’s love? Human beings need to experience that love if we are to become God’s perfect partners. (143:310, March 21, 1986) 

God Exists for Love

Watch or Listen to the podcast of the Richard Urban Show from May 7, 2020: Moral Posturing Does Not Improve Our Health: https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/08/is-governor-justice-moral-posturing/ .

Luke 2

3 Suddenly many other angels came down from heaven and joined in praising God. They said:

14 “Praise God in heaven!
Peace on earth to everyone
    who pleases God.”

Jeremiah 50

37 Then your chariot horses
and the foreigners in your army
    will refuse to go into battle,
and the enemy will carry away
    everything you treasure.
38 Your rivers and canals
    will dry up.

All of this will happen,
because your land
    is full of idols,
and they have made fools
    of you.

Richard: We see in the reading above that those who honor God will prosper and those who oppose God and worship “idols” (money, power, godless ideologies, etc) will perish.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

Divine Love and Compassion

1. Love: The Essence of God

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God is the Lord of love. He exists to spread love throughout the universe and make it eternal.
(298:304, January 17, 1999)

God is the Womb of love. He is the Source of love’s emotion, out of which emanates parental love, children’s love, sibling love, love of kin and love of country. These different kinds of love are like branches and leaves growing from the main trunk. They are like waves that eventually turn into ripples. The further away from the Source, the fainter the emotion becomes.
(50:267, November 8, 1971)


How does it feel to experience the realm of God’s love? It is like walking through a garden on a warm spring day. You see all different kinds of flowers and become intoxicated with all their fragrances. Lying on the grass, you feel something indescribable as you look up at the sky and see the towering cumulus clouds shaped like clumps of cotton. You feel your cells dancing, breathing. God’s love is the wellspring of power and happiness for all beings; it endows each one with the
energy of life. God’s love is the absolute requirement for faith. It is the necessary element for joy, pleasure, peace, and everything else human life desires. Moreover, God’s love is the principle of the spirit world.
(24:325, September 14, 1969)


What is God’s heart? It refers to God’s perfect foundation for love. All of God’s creations welled up from His heart, as did all His ideals for them. Thus, God’s heart is the perfect foundation for everything. God’s heart also springs forth into the perfect completion of everything. There can be no perfection or completion apart from God’s heart. (82:292, February 1, 1976)

God is the Subject of heart. For this reason, God can feel limitless sorrow as well as limitless joy. Just because He is God doesn’t mean that He possesses only joy and positive emotions. When God is sad, His heart of sorrow is deeper and wider than any person can ever comprehend. (11:89, February 12, 1961)

God exists for love and lives for love. God does not live for Himself, but for love. Likewise, all things are born from love. Thus, in the world of love, there cannot be a concept that we should live for ourselves. (303:287, September 9, 1999)

He Who Abides in Love Abides in God

Watch or Listen to the podcast of the Richard Urban Show from May 7, 2020: Moral Posturing Does Not Improve Our Health: https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/08/is-governor-justice-moral-posturing/ .

Cheon Seong Gyeong 487

Many people oppose Rev. Moon, the
man who goes to America to educate and
train American young people, even stay-
ing up all night and sometimes dancing,
singing, and having fun with them? I do
this in order to expand the realm of sup-
port that is connected to me.
Because the expansion of the uni-
versal realm of support starts with me,
I push forward without fear, even if I am
opposed and have to go to prison.
No matter how much you sing joy-
fully and say this and that, do you like to
live alone? When one partner of a mar-
ried couple dies, the other grieves and
weeps. Do you think a person can pre-
pare his own path? Why do we say that
a person is miserable if he is without a
spouse? It is because he cannot experi-
ence the occasion in which heaven and
earth can rejoice.
He has deviated from the regulation
of the law of heaven and earth. Clearly,
only through universal law does the for-
tune of heaven and earth turn, and are
the requirements of happiness and its
motivation determined.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1310

After the blessing of the internation-
al holy grounds, I performed the Bless-
ing of the 430 Couples. This number
corresponds to the 430 years of captiv-
ity of the Israelites in Egypt, and also
the 4,300 years of Korean history. This
Blessing signifies the beginning of a
new history. Moreover, the 430 Couples
also represent all families in the world.
Afterwards, while I was carrying out my
second world tour, I blessed 43 couples
in the United States, Europe and Japan.
I could then connect those 43 couples to
the 430 Couples on the world level. By
doing this, I was able to connect the vic-
torious foundation I had established in
Korea to the world, including the West-
ern world.
By accomplishing all this, all the
families in the world, not just the mem-
bers of the Unification Church, could
now stand in a position to receive heav-
enly fortune right then and there. That is
why the gates of heaven are now open to
all families on earth. (52-131, 1971.12.26)

Richard: Wow! This is great news. The gates of heaven are open to all families on earth, not just Unification Movement families. See this presentation about the Holy Marriage Blessing: https://www.visionroot.org/resources/blessing-of-marriage-ceremony/ .

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

Divine Love and Compassion

Of all God’s attributes, love is the most attractive and compelling. Most people who believe in God do so because of the mysterious moments when they felt His love, comfort and grace. It moved their hearts to faith, even amidst the mind’s doubts. Because of the Creator’s love, the creation is a benevolent place that upholds and protects life. Indeed, the good creation is an expression of that love. Love is the essence of God; it is even more than that. As Father Moon teaches, love is the very motivation behind God’s creation; it is the “why” of God. Love is also the reason God has pursued the history of salvation through many tortuous paths. Love teaches God to be patient and forgiving with us ignorant creatures who long ago lost our way and became inured to the gracious melodies of the Spirit. Despite our deafness and blindness, God never ceases to embrace us and lead us forward.

1. Love: The Essence of God

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
1 John 4.16

My mercy embraces all things.
Qur’an 7.156

To love is to know me, My innermost nature, The truth that I am.
Bhagavad-Gita 18.55 (Hinduism)

The Great Compassionate Heart is the essence of Buddhahood.
Gandavyuha Sutra (Buddhism)

Lord! You are the uninvoked savior, motiveless compassionate being, a well-wisher even when unprayed, a friend even when unrelated.
Vitaragastava 13.1 (Jainism)

Bright but hidden, the Self dwells in the heart. Everything that moves, breathes, opens, and closes lives in the Self. He is the source of love and may be known through love but not through thought. He is the goal of life. Attain this goal!
Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.1 (Hinduism)

Love is the firstborn, loftier than the gods, the Fathers and men. You, O Love, are the eldest of all, altogether mighty. To you we pay homage! Greater than the breadth of earth and heaven, or of waters and Fire, You, O Love, are the eldest of all, altogether mighty. To you we pay homage!… In many a form of goodness, O Love, you show your face. Grant that these forms may penetrate within our hearts. Send elsewhere all malice!
Atharva Veda 9.2.19-20, 25 (Hinduism)

O good man! Compassion acts as parent to all beings. The parent is compassion. Know that compassion is the Tathagata. O good man! Compassion is the Buddha Nature of all beings. Such a Buddha Nature is long overshadowed by illusion. That is why beings cannot see. The Buddha Nature is Compassion. Compassion is the Tathagata.
Mahaparinirvana Sutra 259 (Buddhism)

The Bull of Dharma is born of compassion;26 Content of mind holds creation together. Whoever understands this is enlightened; How great is the load under which this Bull stands!
Japuji 16, M.1, p. 3 (Sikhism)

O Son of Man! Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image, and revealed to thee My beauty.
Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, Arabic 3 (Baha’i Faith)