Author: Richard Urban

The Family Is the Center of the Kingdom of Heaven

Jeremiah 23

23 You leaders of my people are like shepherds that kill and scatter the sheep. 2 You were supposed to take care of my people, but instead you chased them away. So now I’ll really take care of you, and believe me, you will pay for your crimes!

3 I will bring the rest of my people home from the lands where I have scattered them, and they will grow into a mighty nation. 4 I promise to choose leaders who will care for them like real shepherds. All of my people will be there, and they will never again be frightened.

Mark 12

35 As Jesus was teaching in the temple, he said, “How can the teachers of the Law of Moses say that the Messiah will come from the family of King David? 36 The Holy Spirit led David to say,

‘The Lord said to my Lord:
    Sit at my right side[c]
until I make your enemies
    into a footstool for you.’

37 If David called the Messiah his Lord, how can the Messiah be his son?”[d]

The large crowd enjoyed listening to Jesus teach.

Richard: Jesus was pained that the Jewish people did not understand that he was the one whom David spoke of, the long awaited Messiah.

Members Who Will Live In God’s Family

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 27, 1959

Matthew 12: 46-50

Fallen people have to pass through a time when they long for the words of truth. In history God has been moving the hearts of people to practice and live by the Father’s words.

What does it mean to live centering on the words? It is to live with the son whom God has sent as the heavenly embodiment. That son is the true father of humanity. Jesus came with that mission.

What did Jesus represent? Jesus was to become the true father of humanity who was lost due to the Fall. He came as the embodiment of the words established upon the substantial foundation of the words laid in history. He came to represent the Father. This is why Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one will go before the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Only Jesus is the center of faith, mind and heart. Why? It is because Jesus has the quality of the Father. For this reason Jesus is the Savior of humanity and represents Heaven and earth. Christianity is the religion which seeks the appearance of the Father through the words, seeks the mind of the Father through the words, and seeks the love of the Father through the words.

Jesus came to the earth. He came with infinite ideals. If he had a wish, it was on God’s behalf. What was God’s wish? It was to realize the ideals and goals of creation. When Jesus came as an individual with this wish in his heart, the environment at the time was not good. The environment, which was not in line with the providence, bitterly opposed Jesus. Jesus had to leave a certain standard of the heart on earth even if he was to be struck down. This is why Jesus stressed that he was the father and humanity the children. To form parents there must be a true father and a true mother. After Jesus passed away, the Holy Spirit was the one who came as the mother figure.

Jesus’ sorrow was that he could not experience the day when as a physical and spiritual being on the earth he could bless sons and daughters. Jesus’ grief was not having spoken all the words he had to speak and not having established the standard of the heavenly family before he passed away. Since he could not form a heavenly family, he could not raise up members of a heavenly family, kinsmen centering on family members, a nation centering on the kinsmen, a country centering on the nation, and a world centering on the country.

Israel should have laid the national foundation. The Jews were the chosen people, yet the relationship was severed and Jesus was cornered by the Jews. Jesus was persecuted miserably as a traitor. In the end Jesus was betrayed even by his twelve disciples. Jesus’ sorrow was dying without forming a blood lineage connected to God’s heart on the earth.

Before constructing the family that God desires, there is no way to establish the people that God wishes for. Before establishing a people, there is no way to found a nation or a world. Therefore, when Jesus, who was fighting to establish a family, could not fulfill the will, he had to leave behind the concept that he was the bridegroom of humanity and that humanity was his bride. Ladies and gentlemen, do you know the significance of this? It means that the family is the center of the Kingdom of Heaven.



This is the Era when We can call God our Own Father

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2219

Is it not love that moves us to help
our parents at home? If they loved you,
you want to love them back. That is a
heavenly principle. Everything arising
from the heart is linked to the parent-
child relationship. It is all derived from
the seeds that were planted in your
hometown.
Yet due to the Fall, everything went
awry, and consequently needs to be
resolved on earth. Return to your home-
towns and post up the signboard declar-
ing yourselves as being more loving fil-
ial sons and daughters than all the other
filial sons and daughters out there on
Satan’s side. On that declaration, it will
not be the archangel, but good spirits,
who will descend upon the earth. Then
the spirits operating on the horizontal
level with a loving heart will come to
your house here in Seoul and cooper-
ate with you. You can then extend your
horizontal foundation in this way. This
is restoration. (175-44, 1988.4.6)]

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1240

What is the most precious thing in
my life? It is the Blessing. Even for you,
the greatest gift in all of history has been
the Blessing. (23-317, 1969.6.8)

Richard: Amen, Aju!

Members Who Will Live In God’s Family

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 27, 1959

Matthew 12: 46-50

Humanity lost the true parents because of the Fall. Although we have fallen parents, we do not have the original parents. No matter how good, exalted and cultivated one may be, he is still of the fallen lineage. He cannot be proud of himself. No matter what one may possess, if we probe into it, we will find that there is always uneasiness and dissatisfaction in his heart.

Then what is the lamentation of human beings and of all created things? It is that human beings cannot participate as members of the heavenly family. This is the lamentation of the universe. There is no other purpose to our life of devotion. It is to call God “Father.” You have to understand the God who conducted the providence of restoration for six thousand years in order to usher in the one day when all of humanity can become brothers and true children of the Father; when all of humanity can call Him Father and rejoice.

This is God’s goal and the goal found deep inside the minds of human beings. This goal must be realized. That day must come. If that day does not come, there is no way we can build a relationship of the heart with God. As long as we are unable to build a relationship of the heart with God, He cannot look into our hearts and claim us as His own. We cannot claim to belong to God. The moment that this relationship is realized on the earth, God’s grief will be alleviated. Cries of bitterness will no longer be heard in Heaven. Moreover, at that moment the ideal world on the family level, which can unite Heaven and earth, will be opened. For the sake of this goal, our ancestors clung blindly to God’s words.

Due to the Fall, human beings lost the true parents, true brothers and sisters, true spouses, and true children. For this reason, those of us who have set out to find all these need the words of the True Parents.

What responsibility should we who are seeking the True Parents shoulder in the course of restoration? With what kind of determination and conviction should we go forth? We should long for the words of the original parents in our hearts. Moreover, we should long for the original parents who can rejoice with God. What kind of people are these parents? We should think about what the hearts and love of the original parents must be like.

What does God bring to us as we are running forward to live as members of one heavenly family? He comes to us with the words of truth based on the foundation of faith. What is the wish of human beings? It is to listen to the words of the true father with their minds and bodies. They want to move their bodies and minds according to the words. Besides their actions, they also want to hold onto the Father and learn about him. Furthermore, they also want to learn about the Father’s ideals and mind. They want to learn about the Father’s love.

Until today God has given us new truth through countless prophets and sages in every era and century. He told us how the world should be and revealed the world of hope that we long for. In this way history passed through revolutions that turned things upside down and which have expanded to the world level. God and fallen people stand far apart. Hence, God cannot speak to human beings directly. He chose many prophets and spoke through them. God has been connecting to human beings this way until now. In the Old Testament, God worked through angels. In the New Testament, God worked through His son. Now history is moving toward the era when we can call God our own Father. What can make this possible? It is accomplished through God’s words. For this to be possible, those words must possess heart, and there must be an embodiment of those words.

Richard: Here, in 1959 True Father, Rev. Moon is pointing out that in the new age we will call God our own Father. Centered on the Word of the Eight Sacred Textbooks: http://visionroot.org/resources/the-eight-books-of-holy-scripture/, we can do just that.

The Emergence of Family Members God Wants is the Day of the Second Advent

Watch the latest Richard Urban show: Who is Really in Charge of the Sanctuary Church? https://youtu.be/DDQL4QhwfsM

Psalm 69

I will praise the Lord God
    with a song
    and a thankful heart.
31 This will please the Lord
better than offering an ox
    or a full-grown bull.
32 When those in need see this,
    they will be happy,
    and the Lord’s worshipers
    will be encouraged.
33 The Lord will listen
    when the homeless cry out,
    and he will never forget
    his people in prison.

34 Heaven and earth
    will praise our God,
    and so will the oceans
    and everything in them.
35 God will rescue Jerusalem,
    and he will rebuild
    the towns of Judah.
His people will live there
    on their own land,
36 and when the time comes,
    their children will inherit
    the land.
Then everyone who loves God
    will also settle there.

Nehemiah 1

5 Lord God of heaven, you are great and fearsome. And you faithfully keep your promises to everyone who loves you and obeys your commands. 6 I am your servant, so please have mercy on me and answer the prayer that I make day and night for these people of Israel who serve you. I, my family, and the rest of your people have sinned 7 by choosing to disobey you and the laws and teachings you gave to your servant Moses.

Members Who Will Live In God’s Family

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 27, 1959

Matthew 12: 46-50

You who are living in a world full of grief, this time of sorrow and bitterness is fading away. Your minds are seeking something new. Let’s turn your path around, turn your mind around, and turn your emotions around and think about what longs to build a relationship with us and what is blocking our path. Religion helps us connect directly with the one standard of faith, the one standard in which we can pour out all our hearts. Religion connects this standard to our life. If this relationship is not forged, then God must not exist.

Our minds are calling us to escape from this painful world of reality and head toward the ideal. Every leader will have to wrestle with this reality. However, no one understands this heart which seeks and longs for the ideal. We have to follow the commands of this mind. Many holy men of the past submitted to this mind. The same will hold true for everyone in the future. We should respond to this mind; no one can alter this underlying truth. If we do recognize that our fate is to not protest but to respond to this heart, then we should understand clearly that the world we are living in is not the ideal world and that we cannot connect with the ideal world we dream of and long for. Why is that so? It is because of the Fall.

This is why we need feelings, hopes and relationships. Since such an era is nearing, fear will increase in our minds. If we think about these things, we cannot have faith in this world, and we cannot rest peacefully. It is a world in which we cannot take another step forward on our path. You have been on this course for several decades. We cannot deny that there is Heaven, which instills something new into people and drives them toward a new history. Observing the function of our consciences, we cannot deny Heaven and heavenly principles.

When God created this world, He must have had a purpose and an ideal. What must that purpose and ideal have been? It must be a good person. It must be a good person whose heart is fully in harmony with God. It must be a free man. It must be someone who can rejoice with God and live with God in the garden of freedom. However, even though we have lived through several thousand years of history until now, there has never been even one person who has built a family relationship with God or a family where he or she could dwell with God.

What is God’s purpose of creation? It is to create an ideal family where God can live together with human beings. Although human beings fell, in their hearts they long for the day when God can live as the father of the family or humanity, and people can live as members of that family. If we can serve God as our eternal father and become members of that family and live eternally with God who is the hope itself, who is the ideal itself, life itself, and joy itself, the purpose we all wish for will be realized.

If God created human beings just to enjoy watching them, we do not need that kind of God. What is the reason God has poured out all of His heart and has been conducting the providence concerning human beings for six thousand long years? It is to build the relationship of a heavenly family and of a parent and child. For this reason we have to understand that God is running as fast as He can on this path, overcoming enormous hurdles and all difficulties. The day we emerge as the family members God wants and manifest the authority and value of that family is the day of resurrection and the day of the Second Advent Christianity talks about.

We Long for the Passage of this Age

Watch the latest Richard Urban show: Who is Really in Charge of the Sanctuary Church? https://youtu.be/DDQL4QhwfsM

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1861

The larger fish in the Pantanal swal-
low the smaller ones. The small fish have
excrements, urine, internal organs and
filth, but the larger fish just swallows that
altogether. It swallows the head, tail, and
all the smelly parts. Isn’t a person who
can swallow things as a whole a prince
of the world of the liberated realm? That
is how I see it. (295-220, 1998.8.28)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1214

In order to be separated from Satan
vertically and horizontally, there are
internal indemnity conditions and exter-
nal indemnity conditions. The external
indemnity conditions are that of Cain
and Abel, and the internal indemnity
conditions are that of Adam. When you
completely overcome all this centering
on the portion of responsibility, and
remove Satan’s realm of dominion, then
Heaven’s side can begin its work. This is
a basic rule. (161-207, 1987.2.4)

Richard: Externally, we need Home Church: https://tparents.org/Moon-Talks/SunMyungMoon81/810101a.htm. Internally, we need to register with the Word: https://tparents.org/Moon-Talks/SunMyungMoon11/SunMyungMoon-110204a.htm .

Members Who Will Live In God’s Family

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 27, 1959

Matthew 12: 46-50

We have parents, siblings and a family. Every person has a family he can dwell in. Regardless of whether or not that family is good, we all have relatives and families where we can dwell.

You will have to live with your family until the day you die. In your families, the members are leading lives full of both happiness and misfortune. Although you know that your families are the home connected to you eternally, one day you will be severed from that family. Although many people have gathered here, no one here can guarantee that he or she will take their relationships into the eternal world. Although you may have some hopes or wishes centering on this family, those hopes and wishes might be shattered the moment of your death; or they might continue, and you may be connected to another world of hopes and wishes.

Human beings possess original minds. This mind is guiding us to move toward the world of the good purpose human beings should pursue. We cannot deny that this mind has moved with history. Looking at the movement of the mind from this perspective, we can understand that this mind has longed for the appearance of a good person. That person will surely appear in history.

Many people of all persuasions say from the depth of their hearts that these are the Last Days. It is clear that the Last Days are near. Is humanity happy or unhappy in this age? I think that they are more unhappy than happy. The day that the world of misfortune comes to an end is the Last Days.

What do our minds long for? We long for happiness. We long for the ideal world of hope, freedom and equality. We cannot deny that throughout our life course thus far we have longed for that world from the bottoms of our hearts. All that we yearn for with a sincere and true heart and mind must be realized. Otherwise, we cannot believe in God or anything else.

Nothing in the world has been able to make our hearts happy. There has not been even one person who lived in a happy environment. The same is true for our family members, our parents on whom we have been depending until now, and our brothers and sisters. We have to understand that this world has not become an eternal dwelling place of joy. Why has it not become like that? If we were to use a religious concept, it is because of the Fall. How can a world created by the Fall and the kinsmen, families and family members who are products of the Fall unite with the ideals of happiness our hearts seek? The conclusion is obvious.

For this reason we long for the passage of this age. This is an honest feeling. Every man and woman is waiting for the passage of this age. A false society will pass behind us: false parents, false brothers and sisters, false couples and false children will pass away. You have to feel this truth deep inside your hearts during this hour. Parents ignoring their children, parents spending time by themselves, children playing only by themselves, brothers and sisters all keeping to themselves and friends and people only associating within their own circles, all this will be shattered. That’s what is going to happen.

In newspapers and magazines we read stories describing how children kill parents and parents kill children. These trends demonstrate that traditional concepts are fading each day. Why is that? The destination our hearts hope for is a place where we can be happy in harmony with the heavenly principles. Because Heaven is in the process of moving toward this destination and reforming people, after passing through a history of infinite changes, it will arrive at an era of a revolution of the heart. The era of intellectual revolutions will be gone. The era of the revolution of the heart will come. People who dream of joy will experience sorrow, and those who are seeking a peaceful abode will end up in sadness. This conclusion is natural.

Jesus Walked a Lonely Path

Happy Veterans Day!  Thank you to all who have served in the armed forces.

Watch the latest Richard Urban show: Who is Really in Charge of the Sanctuary Church? https://youtu.be/DDQL4QhwfsM

Joshua 19

35-39 The Naphtali clans received this region as their tribal land, and it included nineteen towns with their surrounding villages. The following towns had walls around them:

Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Chinnereth, Adamah, Ramah, Hazor, Kedesh, Edrei, Enhazor, Iron, Migdalel, Horem, Beth-Anath, and Beth-Shemesh.

Jeremiah 11

11 Here is what I’ve decided to do. I will bring suffering on the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and no one will escape. They will beg me to help, but I won’t listen to their prayers. 12-13 Then they will offer sacrifices to their other gods and ask them for help. After all, the people of Judah have more gods than towns, and more altars for Baal than there are streets in Jerusalem. But those gods won’t be able to rescue the people of Judah from disaster.

Members Who Will Live In God’s Family

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 27, 1959

Matthew 12: 46-50

46 While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and brothers came and stood outside because they wanted to talk with him. 47 Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside and want to talk with you.”[a]

48 Jesus answered, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” 49 Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “These are my mother and my brothers! 50 Anyone who obeys my Father in heaven is my brother or sister or mother.”

Prayer

Father, we came here from many different places. We were born as the children of many different people. We cannot help but think about the many intertwined causes and situations which burden us with debt today.

Father, there are good people here and those who are not so good. The state and form of man’s mind and body vary infinitely. Yet our deepest desire for truth and the highest goodness, and our longing for the original Father, our God, will never change.

The Father does not seek external forms or appearances but is eager to awaken our original selves, hidden deep inside our hearts. He is eager to find the hearts of those who long for Him. Please allow us to experience and realize this in the depths of our hearts. Please allow us to realize that if we cannot recognize this truth and demonstrate it, there is no meaning to our gathering here today.

When we think about how hard You have worked to find the kind of people You wished for during the complex course of conflict in history, we feel that we could not have become what we are today by virtue of our own efforts alone.

When we were born on the earth, we were born into relationships above us, below us, in front of us, in back, and to the left and right. Please allow us to understand that these relationships are somehow prompting us to seek the value of the one perfect purpose, or the reciprocal value of the whole. Please help us realize that Heaven is above; below us the history of goodness is moving with the heavenly principles; in front of us is the world of hope; and to our left and right are our colleagues and relatives. Please help us become sons and daughters who can sense this reality and hold onto our original hearts as we observe all these and make our utmost efforts to build all these relationships.

If there is someone who forgets everything they have and who struggles desperately against their attachments, even if they walk out of step with their generation and are opposed in their daily life, they will be raised up before Heaven in the Last Days. We came here longing for and seeking such a path. Father, please command us. Please speak to us. We yearn for the Father’s heart in our hearts. Father, if something displeases You, please allow us to experience it as our own reality. If there is something which causes You distress, please allow us to experience it through our bodies. Please allow us to become sons and daughters who can sense the Father’s existence, demonstrating it through our bodies. Allow us to bow before the Father in gratitude.

Even if we are evil and chained in sin, please allow us to experience in a real way that Heaven is looking at us with pity. We know that those who should be here are those who understand that they are the greatest sinners. They are those who understand that there is no way to pay the indemnity they owe. They bear a heavier burden the more they go forward and the more they feel and understand. We cannot help but feel that unless we remove our own assertions and concepts, we cannot enter Heaven.

Father, Your sons and daughters have gathered here. Since they have come here, please do not let their visit be in vain. Since we came together as assigned by fate, please do not let this meeting become meaningless. We sincerely wish our relationships not to be humanistic. Please let them develop into relationships of the original nature, heart and life.

What should I speak of? We want only the Father’s heart to be manifested and the Father to appear before us. We want to feel the sung-sang of the Father concretely. Please let us sense during this hour that we are brothers. Please let the members who represent You build one altar before You. Father, this is our sincere wish.

Please bless all the churches who have gathered on behalf of the thirty million people of this nation. Please bless Your sons and daughters who are lying prostrated before You on behalf of the 2.7 billion people of the world.

Although our ancestors fought against evil, that fight has not come to an end yet. Please allow us to understand how to cope with this conflict and be fully prepared internally and externally as brave soldiers representing Heaven. Let us become sons and daughters who can stand before humanity and all people.

We witnessed Jesus’ sorrow in the Bible verses that were just recited. Although Jesus was born in Joseph’s family and had parents, siblings, relatives and kinsmen, he walked a lonely path. Father! Please allow us to connect with the sorrowful situation of Jesus. We sincerely wish that during this hour You will reveal the knowledge of Heaven which must be revealed.

We wish to offer our minds and bodies to You, and we wish that everything will come together as the Father’s. Father, hoping that You will protect us directly, we prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.