Author: Richard Urban

Jesus Felt Blocked by a Wall of Sorrow

Exodus 7

10 Moses and Aaron went to the king and his officials and did exactly as the Lord had commanded—Aaron threw the stick down, and it turned into a snake. 11 Then the king called in the wise men and the magicians, who used their secret powers to do the same thing— 12 they threw down sticks that turned into snakes. But Aaron’s snake swallowed theirs. 13 The king behaved just as the Lord had said and stubbornly refused to listen.

Psalm 125

Everyone who trusts the Lord
    is like Mount Zion
    that cannot be shaken
    and will stand forever.
2 Just as Jerusalem is protected
    by mountains on every side,
the Lord protects his people
    by holding them in his arms
    now and forever.
3 He won’t let the wicked
rule his people
    or lead them to do wrong.
4 Let’s ask the Lord to be kind
to everyone
    who is good
    and completely obeys him.

Let Us Open Our Eyes Once More and Behold the Sky

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 15, 1959

Matthew 26: 36-46

Adam fell because he believed everything that someone told him from the side. If we accept conventional trends of thought, then we may also perish. Therefore, we must re-examine them before we receive them. If you stand in the position of a master who can analyze trends through the philosophy connected to your mind, life and emotions, which philosophy can rescue you? No school of thought can rescue you. Had such fundamental problems been solved, peace would have settled in the realm of heart within you, and there would have been joy in your living environment. You would have enjoyed freedom and equality. No matter how many doctrines are promoting their ideals, we know that there has been no doctrine which has liberated our hearts, emotions and ideologies.

When we hope for the one day when we look up and wake from sleep, when we do away with our present environment and look to Heaven, we will find our Lord there. Human beings have not understood this until now.

What kind of people pursued the will of God during the course of history? They are those who transcended their era and clung to Heaven, those who abandoned earth and yearned for Heaven. They were not tolerated by their era. Rejected by their era, they led a pitiful life. They were extremely miserable people. In this world, where other people have places to rely on and live comfortably, they had nowhere they could depend on, no friend with which to share their heart, no people of similar mind who could give their lives and fight for them. In this sad state, they all faded away. Continue reading “Jesus Felt Blocked by a Wall of Sorrow”

Look Toward Heaven

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1734

Internally, Adam and Eve’s mar-
riage ceremony is God’s marriage: in
other words, it is a dual wedding. What
unite the two are the male and female
organs. Without those, one’s life would
not have come into being. Through
the organs, the lineages and history of
humanity have been perpetuated. Even
God’s ideal world will be established by
the children, the beloved children, who
have passed through those gates. That is
how His kingdom will be built. (290-81,
1998.2.3)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1223

The Fall in essence is a lapse into
the state of death. In order to be saved,
therefore, you have to plunge yourself
bravely into that state of death. If that
is an unavoidable and destined course,
then you must confront it as a man
should – with a joyful heart. When the
number of church members walking the
way of God’s will with such determina-
tion increases, the world will move in
a new direction. Our hearts are burn-
ing with the desire to form that kind of
foundation. Do you have the conviction
that enables you to transcend the border
between life and death?

Let Us Open Our Eyes Once More and Behold the Sky

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 15, 1959

Matthew 26: 36-46

We must open our eyes again. We must open our eyes again and look to Heaven. When we lift our gaze and look toward Heaven, we will feel awe-stricken. Heaven never forgot human beings, who are deep in sleep and lamenting before the death they face, all the while struggling to find the path in the world of death. Heaven has thought about humanity, which has betrayed Him, many thousands of times. You will fathom this and feel the heart of God, who loves human beings. The moment you realize that Heaven really exists, you will cry out of mixed emotions of sorrow and gratitude.

How many times has Heaven looked at us while protecting our lives! Heaven has been watching over us through our life course, our ideological conditions, and our desires, even while we were not aware of it. Do you understand the sorrow of God? Have you ever felt the misery that by far surpasses our misery and sadness? If you have not, you will not be able to bring resolution to all this in these last days of the 6,000- year history. It is not possible. The fundamental problems of humanity cannot be solved before humanity shatters all these walls and experiences the heart of God after returning to the original position of Adam. This is how it is. Continue reading “Look Toward Heaven”

Adam and Eve did not yearn for what would come after obeying God

Dueteronomy 29

2-3 Moses called the nation of Israel together and told them:

When you were in Egypt, you saw the Lord perform great miracles that caused trouble for the king, his officials, and everyone else in the country. 4-6 He has even told you, “For forty years I, the Lord, led you through the desert, but your clothes and your sandals didn’t wear out, and I gave you special food.[b] I did these things so you would realize that I am your God.”

Isaiah 45

I will give you treasures
hidden in dark
    and secret places.
Then you will know that I,
the Lord God of Israel,
    have called you by name.

Let Us Open Our Eyes Once More and Behold the Sky

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 15, 1959

Matthew 26: 36-46

Adam and Eve’s intellect and wisdom were not developed. This is why they made the mistake they did and could not feel the heart of God deeply. Even so, had they lived by the word of God in everything they did and felt in their lives, they would have overcome all temptations that came their way.

Adam and Eve did not know the purpose of God, who granted them the authority to govern all things. They did not long for what would come as the result of their successful obedience of the word. If their longing expectation of what would happen after they kept the word of God had dominated and guided their lives, if they had not forgotten their knowledge of life and their feelings in daily life, then Adam and Eve would not have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Adam and Eve did not have any such yearning, so the words of the archangel seemed more important than the word of God. This is where the sorrow of humanity began. This is the beginning point of the long sleep in the darkness. Continue reading “Adam and Eve did not yearn for what would come after obeying God”

Adam and Eve should have opened their eyes once again and looked toward the sky

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2252

Yet until now, people of faith did
not know that realizing God’s ideal of
creation based on His love carried such
meaning. The fulfillment of His will and
the realization of His ideal of creation
comes with the completion of the four-
position foundation. What happens
when the four-position foundation is
completed? Heaven and earth find their
rightful positions and settle for the first
time. Heaven forms an upper axis and
earth a lower axis; everything can be
united with them at the center.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1388

God has taken hold of me and cannot
let me go because I have practiced every-
thing inside and out. I did not preach
before practicing, but I practice before
asking others to do the same. This was
also the case with the 360,000 Couples
Blessing. I embarked on this great ven-
ture after laying the groundwork for it,
so I knew clearly that it would be accom-
plished. Since I know that we now will
be able to accomplish the Blessing of 3.6
million Couples, I have instructed you
to start working on it. You will defi-
nitely be able to accomplish it if you fol-
low my words with absolute faith. (272-47,
1995.8.30)

Let Us Open Our Eyes Once More and Behold the Sky

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 15, 1959

Matthew 26: 36-46

The fall took place because God’s thinking and human beings’ thinking were diametrically opposed. Thus, we must cultivate ourselves and reflect upon ourselves. We must reflect upon and recover ourselves. Because human beings have this obligation, countless philosophers and religious people have sought to resolve this issue, without much success. We understand this very well. In other words, who am “I”?

If human beings necessarily live in relationships, then who is the subject of these relationships? If there is a master of our lives, who is it? It is someone about whom we would say, “Only that person can represent my entire being, my thoughts and my life. I cannot live without him.” The day we recognize that person, we will understand God, the unchanging Master, who has been fighting to hold on to us through the long course of history. From that moment, everything will go smoothly. We came from the one Master, so we will understand what the Creator God has entrusted in us and what He has been struggling to govern. Continue reading “Adam and Eve should have opened their eyes once again and looked toward the sky”

Adam and Eve could not grasp what kind of relationship they had with God

Exodus 1

11 The Egyptians put slave bosses in charge of the people of Israel and tried to wear them down with hard work. Those bosses forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses,[b] where the king[c] could store his supplies. 12 But even though the Israelites were mistreated, their families grew larger, and they took over more land. Because of this, the Egyptians hated them worse than before 13 and made them work so hard 14 that their lives were miserable. The Egyptians were cruel to the people of Israel and forced them to make bricks and to mix mortar and to work in the fields.

Micah 5

Jerusalem, enemy troops
    have surrounded you;[a]
they have struck Israel’s ruler
    in the face with a stick.

2 Bethlehem Ephrath,
you are one of the smallest towns
    in the nation of Judah.
But the Lord will choose
one of your people
    to rule the nation—
someone whose family
    goes back to ancient times.

Let Us Open Our Eyes Once More and Behold the Sky

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 15, 1959

Matthew 26: 36-46

The title of the sermon I would like to share with you is “Let Us Open Our Eyes Once More and Behold the Sky.” I will speak briefly upon this topic.

This land in which we live has not seen the new morning of the realization of God’s ideal of creation. It has slept under the power of Satan for a long time. This is how our history has been. This is how our minds have been, how all that we pursue and the hearts we seek have been. In other words, none can wake from the deep sleep in which they exist, within the realm of Satan. We understand this fact very well.

When God created Adam and Eve and blessed them, they were wide awake, and they were able to rejoice with God in the world of eternal ideology. God created Adam and Eve for this purpose. However, Adam and Eve could not grasp what kind of relationship they had with God and the ideology with which they should relate with all things. In this state of immaturity, when they were progressing toward perfection, they made the grave and sorrowful mistake of the fall. We all understand this. Continue reading “Adam and Eve could not grasp what kind of relationship they had with God”