Author: Richard Urban

God is Searching for the Content of True Parents, True Couple, True Children

Matthew 15

3 Jesus answered:

Why do you disobey God and follow your own teaching? 4 Didn’t God command you to respect your father and mother? Didn’t he tell you to put to death all who curse their parents? 5 But you let people get by without helping their parents when they should. You let them say that what they have has been offered to God.[b] 6 Is this any way to show respect to your parents? You ignore God’s commands in order to follow your own teaching. 7 And you are nothing but show-offs! Isaiah the prophet was right when he wrote that God had said,

8 “All of you praise me
    with your words,
but you never really
    think about me.
9 It is useless for you
    to worship me,
when you teach rules
    made up by humans.”

Richard:  Taking care of your parents is very important.

Amos 5

Now you will have to carry
    the two idols you made—
Sakkuth, the one you call king,
and Kaiwan,
the one you built
    in the shape of a star.[h]
27 I will force you to march
    as captives beyond Damascus.
I, the Lord God All-Powerful,
    have spoken![i]

Richard:  Don’t worship idols like money, power and knowledge that is not God-centered.

Man Is an Explorer in Search of Truth

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

Although there are many adventurers who seek to explore the famous unknown spots, anyone can do that. But what is the highest standard that Jesus set as the mark of adventure? It is the problem of the heart.

What allows modern Christianity to contribute to the movements of the world? It is the historic background of martyrdom, which transcended death. There are people who are willing to seek truth with a desperate heart, even putting their lives at stake. God wants to take those people to establish the world of the purpose of the heart. Because of this, He sent Jesus. Yet when Jesus was dying pitifully on the mountain of Calvary, did people anticipate that someday he would be leading the world? Not even in their dreams.

We are people who have to seek. We have before us the path that we must take today and tomorrow, with all our lives and even our bodies at stake, in spite of any difficulty or danger.

Through the Principle, you know that the battles waged between God and Satan are propelling history. Where is the original son who can call on God after winning these battles? Mankind has not yet seen or found the world in which Heavenly Father responds when the son calls on Him as Father with a desperate heart.

Jesus came to this world and said that he was the only begotten son of God. The Bible records Jesus’ presence as the glory of the begotten son. Jesus called God “Father.” He said to attend him like the bridegroom, that the people were his bride and his brethren. This is something to be grateful for.

There is a God who guides the providence for mankind in this world from up in Heaven. God leads the history of goodness. Then what is His purpose? It is not the Bible. At the end, when the providence of restoration is completed, the Bible will disappear along with the fallen world.

Believing in the Bible is not the question here. What is more precious is a son who can go beyond just believing, one who knows the Father who has striven for six thousand years, who strives now, and who will strive in the future. With a burning heart toward Heavenly Father, he can call on Him. Such a daughter is this precious. Heavenly Father cannot be joyous in looking at humanity. The only one He feels joyous over is Jesus. Isn’t that so?

We are searching for truth. The individual, the family, the society, the world is searching for truth. Then who is the ultimate owner of the truth the universe is searching for? It is God.

What is the content of the truth God wants to establish? What He is searching for is the content of true parents, true couples, true children, true Heaven and earth, and the true cosmos that mankind has yet to possess. Isn’t that so?

Jesus Was not in a Comfortable Situation


Cheon Seong Gyeong 395

A true family is a place where the
husband loves and serves his wife as
he would his mother, the wife serves
and loves her husband as she would her
father, and they love each other as broth-
er and sister. The Kingdom of Heaven,
where ideal families live, is a place where
a husband and wife each love and respect
each other as they would God Himself.
Such a tradition should be established
on this earth. (Blessed Family – 924)

Cheong Seong Gyeong 706

What way should you go? First you
are recognized by family members in
the satanic world, then by me. After that,
you go to God in the spirit world. That
is the way to go, by the way of the law.
Going that way is the right direction. If
there are any conditions for accusation,
they will join forces to accuse you in the
flesh. It will be a judgment of substance.
Will lies work in that situation? Doing
something unwillingly is like not doing
it at all. If you do it thinking of God and
Father, their essence will be embedded
inside your shell, like a fully mature
chestnut embedded inside the burr.
When you think of God and me dwell-
ing in your heart, my words and God’s
Word will become your core.
Unification Church members should
become people whom God, I, and other
members can welcome. So you must be
like the kernel of the chestnut when the
burr is cracked open. We should live for
God and True Parents. That is what you
are to do. If you wish to live for the sake
of God and True Parents after going to
the spirit world, your lifestyle on earth
should be in step with that kind of life.
That is how harmony is achieved.

Richard:  Jesus said “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.  There is a natural transition from life on earth to life in the spirit world.

Man Is an Explorer in Search of Truth

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

Human civilization has developed, following the flow of history. That civilization has now become this world of the twentieth century. Yet it has no contents whatsoever that can solve the problems of our bodies, minds and hearts. Although many complex structural appearances and complex environments have come about internally and externally, we know all too well that they have not touched our minds and hearts. People could not unite centering upon them. They were not the standard of heart Heaven and earth could rejoice eternally with or which could bring Heaven and earth together.

This age today is heading against the direction the mind and heart seek. Where can we find the center that can hold us up when we have nowhere to go and feel utter emptiness inside? Today’s humanity cannot help but struggle to find it. People are seeking for the heart that the mind and belief can be in touch with. Therefore, humanity cannot avoid struggling toward this if a certain standard is not established where the heart can dominate the body and the body and lifestyle can dominate external life.

If God exists, what world does He seek? It is not this world of civilization and culture that we see today. We should realize that the central will God desires is the standard of mind and heart that can lead civilization in the right direction. It is the world of the standard our ancestors sought to establish for all their descendants. Knowing this, Jesus avoided the worldly environment. We know that he lived a life of going deep into the woods or valleys in the darkness.

No one knew at the time that Jesus came to this world and fought to transfer good things of the invisible world into this visible world.

No one in this world wanted to be in Jesus’ position. Jesus prayed and pled at unexpected times. You have to realize that the course Jesus patiently walked was the course all of humanity has to traverse. It was the course that went into the borderland where God and Satan, good and evil, collided.

Jesus was not in a comfortable situation as he tearfully prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was the borderline area where God and Satan met. That prayer was the moment he was about to cross the borderline in order to overcome the realm of sorrow, tribulation, pain and death. Jesus was connected to the one heart, even in that situation. Therefore, he had a standard within him that said, “This heart will never be violated,” in spite of anything on this earth and in Heaven that might sway him away.

It was not Jesus’ greatness as a person that allowed him to win over Satan in the process of the battle over providential conditions. It was because of his entrenched heart toward Heavenly Father. Even Satan has to throw up his hands in the presence of such a heart in fighting the battle of Heaven. Because Jesus was such a person, he became qualified to become the master of heart and the bridegroom all people admire. I know that Jesus did not come to this world to find anything. This world is a fallen world. This world still has to go over a certain hill, and it has much to resolve. The world and the age, which both have to be resolved, are the problem. Because Jesus knew the problem, he came to pioneer the path. Jesus came as the lone explorer representing humanity in the new world that has to be realized.

Although Jesus did not mention it in the words recorded in the Bible, he could not have established a center of victory in Satan’s world. God could not have established the will of victory in this satanic world at that time. You have to understand that Jesus was an adventurer and an explorer who sought the new world. He threw everything away to seek for the world of God’s love and humanity’s love, which is greater than any reality or concept of this world.



Because People Are Fallen, they Want to Avoid Things they do not Like

Acts 17

17 After Paul and his friends had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they went on to Thessalonica. A Jewish meeting place was in that city. 2 So as usual, Paul went there to worship, and on three Sabbaths he spoke to the people. He used the Scriptures 3 to show them that the Messiah had to suffer, but that he would rise from death. Paul also told them that Jesus is the Messiah he was preaching about. 4 Some of them believed what Paul had said, and they became followers with Paul and Silas. Some Gentiles[a] and many important women also believed the message.

Richard:  Paul traveled and went to places of worship (the temple).  He was not afraid to share the gospel of Jesus.  The new gospel is that of the True Parent, Rev. Sun Myung Moon.  Many will reject, especially those affiliated with established Christian Churches, but many will receive, as well.

Matthew 22

18 Jesus knew their evil thoughts and said, “Why are you trying to test me? You show-offs! 19 Let me see one of the coins used for paying taxes.” They brought him a silver coin, 20 and he asked, “Whose picture and name are on it?”

21 “The Emperor’s,” they answered.

Then Jesus told them, “Give the Emperor what belongs to him and give God what belongs to God.” 22 His answer surprised them so much that they walked away.

Richard:  Some Jewish leaders tried to ensnare Jesus, while others listened to what he was saying.  It is the same today, some Christian leaders disrespect Rev. Sun Myung Moon, while others are open to hear God’s message.  Of course, those who reject Rev. Moon out of hand are doing the same thing that the Pharisee in this scripture did to Jesus, trying to entrap and discredit him.

Man Is an Explorer in Search of Truth

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

When we look at humanity bathed in the sorrow of the Fall, when we look at ourselves, unable to cut away from the fallen lineage, and when we acknowledge that we are all descendants of fallen ancestors, we may ask what the Fall is. It is to be fallen away. The Fall is a state of being in conflict with the ideal that our mind desires.

Because people are fallen, they want to avoid things they do not like, things that make them sad, and things that are difficult to do. Yet they cannot escape from sadness, pain and difficulty because they are fallen. Everything is intertwined and tangled up with history.

We surely have second selves that move according to the true heart, in contrast to our own selves which are in a miserable situation. The time will come when we have to call forth those selves to criticize ourselves harshly.

Many saints and sages who have come and gone in history have pled with history and its reality and looked to the future. They advised us to open our hearts wide, to seek for goodness, the rightful purpose of heart, and to possess a body that can respond to the original mind and act according to it.

Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is in your heart.” He also said, “With that heart, connect to God’s heart. Possess the character that can connect to that heart, and the bridegroom who represents the center of Heaven will come.” But today we have to understand that this is where the problem lies.

We realize that there was no champion who could hold onto the clear standard of conscience and control his own body while facing these problems. There was no one who could unite with the laws of Heaven and the heavenly heart to have dominion over not only his own heart but the hearts of all men.

That is why Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven is in your heart. He has said to love him in order to go to Heaven. Afterwards, he said to follow him, bearing your cross, and to throw away all the things you own. He said the ones trying to live will perish and the ones wanting to die will live. He also said that those desiring to possess will lose everything and those wanting to lose will gain. Those wanting to rise will go down and those wanting to go down will rise. The question is, then, what is the purpose behind these seemingly paradoxical sayings of the Savior?

You all have a mind and a body. Yet it is truly regrettable that the mind, the body, and the heart are not as they should be.

Our ancestors established the standard of conscience when they came to this land and taught us to conquer the physical body. Yet no one was able to establish the standard of victory of dominating the physical body centering on the mind, even after six thousand years of human history. Who will be responsible for this sorrow? What are we to do when no one has the certain center where the body is dominated by a mind that is one with the deep heart of Heaven? Heavenly Father possesses the deep, heavenly heart. How is the mind of mankind to be conquered so that it can stand forever in front of Heavenly Father’s heart? This is the important problem that must be solved.

Jesus said, “I am the bridegroom and you are the bride.” The standard of heart that qualifies us to be the bride is not the standard of conscience entrenched in human affairs; nor does the standard of conscience change as the times change. The standard of conscience does not compromise with human morality in this world. This world’s people do not know the bride. Who is the bride who can stand in front of the man who is the bridegroom? It should be someone who can yearn for the heart of the bridegroom. After having deeply felt it, the individual should head in the proper direction of establishing the eternal standard of conscience and body. Jesus is not able to stand as our true bridegroom if we do not meet such standards.

We Always Have to Think About What Is True

View pictures from the Urban Family Life Success and Happiness Training Workshop: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmEW6UBN.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2462

The people that I am looking for are
those who can be the royal family of the
heavenly kingdom. You have to become
seeds. You have to be seeds that can be
stored in the granary, passing through
the cold north winter for the following
year, and in the next spring, with bright
sunlight and warm spring breeze can be
able to sprout, taking up the right direc-
tion, and demonstrating within your-
self the creative force. Only when you
become such seeds – seeds that demon-
strate the power of life – can you become
the new buds of life. (180-62, 1988.8.20)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1566

Ceremony of the Settlement of
the Eight Stages: restoration of the
right of the eldest son, right of the
parent and right of kingship
August 31, 1989, Kodiak, Alaska

Now that the vertical and horizon-
tal eight-stage indemnity has all been
completed, the Ceremony of the Settle-
ment of the Eight Stages could be per-
formed on August 31, 1989, in Alaska,
the most northerly location in the West.
It is the northernmost place. On the first
day of September, I declared “the ideol-
ogy centered on the Heavenly Father”
at the same place. The ideology cen-
tered on the Heavenly Father is simul-
taneously the ideology of salvation by
love as well as the ideology of parental
love. This parent-centered ideology is all
about a life lived by giving love. Satan
cannot oppose anything based on love.
If he cannot oppose the path taken by
the Unification Church, we can rapidly
expand worldwide. (199-157, 1990.2.16)

Man Is an Explorer in Search of Truth

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

As you know, this is an age of civilization. This is the final age when a certain ideological concept or ideology has to prevail. You know well that we are part of such an age.

Then how are we to live in this reality? We do not have anything special to show for ourselves, and we also do not have anything to advise people with through our accomplishments. You should realize that the past must have been the same since the present is such. You should be concerned that the future might also be the same.

Having left behind a legacy called the Fall, mankind has gone through a course of untold stories. Mankind has been dragged on until now, unable to escape the course of the history of complicated stories that take different forms from age to age. Going through the course of history, people have lived on until now, unable to find the essential point that they really sought regarding the mind and body, ideology and heart. So many predecessors have gone through that. And while numerous people in this world today are also searching for that certain truth, they are wandering without a clear understanding of what truth is.

In order to find that source or answer, our ancestors struggled until now, welcoming a path of blood and tears, welcoming the valley of death, and welcoming the miserable situation of being driven out. Yet one cannot but acknowledge that the destination they were searching for and the resting place they sought with all of their hearts has not yet been found, either in this world where humanity dwells, or in Heaven, which works for the world providence.

The topic of today’s speech is “Mankind Is an Explorer in Search of Truth.” I will speak on this subject.

As we all have heart, the fact that we desire our heart to be entrenched by something, as we did in the past, as we do in the present and as we will in the future, signifies that there is a substantial being who is the source of truth. Using religious phraseology, this is saying, “There is God.” When such a conviction is within you, you can clarify everything centered on God, including your being, your daily life, your whole life, and everything connected to your heart. This is what mankind, especially the people of religion, would seek as their highest goal.

That is why we always have to think about what is true, no matter what. We cannot deny that we have to find out what is true if we want eternal life. That is why the people of the past have moved toward this goal, people of today are moving towards this goal, and people of the future will surely move to fulfill this goal.

As God exists, He would want mankind to sing about a true person. He would want mankind to live happily with the true person. He would want to live together joyously with that true person Himself. When such a day comes, when people live with a common mind, a common heart, and a common life, no one will desire otherwise or stand in denial.

When there is a person who transcends race, ideology, and worldly thoughts for a truth he will live with, act with, and have the confidence to overcome death with, then no one of any nation or era will deny that this person is the substantiation of the truth human history has sought. This person is the evidential substantiation of the truth this age is seeking, and the original substantiation of the truth the future seeks. Humanity has been searching for that true person.

Although there are billions of people in this world today, no one can answer definitively that they have found such a substantiation of truth to live with, to fight side by side with, and to rejoice with. There is no clear answer, although you may look through the principles of philosophy or the holy books of religions. Whether you search your body, your mind, your heart, or in all ideologies, you cannot be absolutely confident that you have found the truth which can awaken you anew and have become one with it.

Then is this all an empty theory or fancy? How is this problem to be solved? This is the final question that today’s humanity must find an answer to. The relationship between the truth and myself, both of which are in need of clarification, should be a relationship of inseparability and indistinguishability. If the truth we seek is Heavenly Father, then we should harmonize with Him as if He were us and we were Him. If Jesus is the truth, then we should be harmonized into oneness with him.

At this point, all our emotions and awareness should move together as one. We will see the image of redeemed mankind, the image of the true sons and daughters Heavenly Father is looking for when that touch or trace of the truth is felt from within and is transmitted to all of the created world and to all people. Then all can move and feel in unison and sing together with the cosmos.



Do I Possess the Faith and Loyalty to Stand in Front of the Messiah?

View pictures from the Urban Family Life Success and Happiness Training Workshop: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmEW6UBN.

Acts 17

5 The Jewish leaders were jealous and got some worthless bums who hung around the marketplace to start a riot in the city. They wanted to drag Paul and Silas out to the mob, and so they went straight to Jason’s home. 6 But when they did not find them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the Lord’s followers. They took them to the city authorities and shouted, “Paul and Silas have been upsetting things everywhere. Now they have come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his home. All of them break the laws of the Roman Emperor by claiming that someone named Jesus is king.”

Richard: If you are doing the will of God, then you will definitely face opposition.

Ezekiel 39

11 After Gog has been destroyed, I will bury him and his army in Israel, in Travelers’[a] Valley, east of the Dead Sea. That graveyard will be so large that it will block the way of anyone who tries to walk through the valley,[b] which will then be known as “The Valley of Gog’s Army.”[c]12 The Israelites will spend seven months burying dead bodies and cleaning up their land. 13 Everyone will help with the burial, and they will be honored for this on the day the brightness of my glory is seen. 14 After those seven months, the people will appoint a group of men to look for any dead bodies left unburied. This must be done for seven months to make sure that the land is no longer unclean. 15 Whenever they find a human bone, they will set up a marker next to it. Then the gravediggers will bury it in “The Valley of Gog’s Army” 16 near the town of “Gog’s Army.” After that, the land will be pure again.

Man Is an Explorer in Search of Truth

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

Most of all, the time has come for us to long for the holy embodiment of Jesus Christ, the heart which flows out of him, and his desperate ideal. He wished blessing upon all people even as he perished as a criminal on the cross, he who had come into this world as the Messiah of all people.

I sincerely pray that You will forgive us. We have praised ourselves and disdained the creation and all things and have elevated ourselves to disdain Heavenly Father, although we should be disdaining ourselves.

If we want to move toward a truthful heart and true goodness, please allow us to realize that we are debtors in front of Heaven and earth, and that we are a sinful race which has been violently scarred throughout the course of human history. Father, the only things we need are the hearts that can seek for You and the loyalty that can seek out our true selves. Please allow us those things.

We cannot deny that the life course that Jesus led was a sorrowful path of tears. We also realize that every page of history is bound together by bloody battles. Therefore, I sincerely pray, Father, that You will allow us to realize that we cannot clarify anything in history when we uplift ourselves, and that we are like a failure who does not have anything to show throughout the ages.

We therefore believe that we need a true leader who possesses true life and a true heart. He is the savior and Messiah God sends for humankind. Please allow us to reflect upon ourselves in this hour: to reflect upon whether we possess the faith and loyalty to stand in front of the Messiah. In receiving the Messiah, we know that Heavenly Father desires for humankind to possess the greatest of enthusiasm, the greatest of loyalty, and the greatest whole-heartedness. It requires the greatest sincerity and a desperate heart which has nothing to do with Satan. Although we may not stand in such a position, Father, I sincerely pray that You may guide us to become humble sons and daughters who can kneel down and long for the blessing of redemption with the heart that longs for such a position.

Father, how can we respond to the words given to us? Father, please be with us. Although we have listened to many words, walked many paths, and lived through many situations, we stand in front of You empty-handed, having nothing to return to You. Father, do not drive us away but have pity. I sincerely pray that in this hour we may empty all of our minds and bodies so that only the Father will have dominion over us and only the Father’s blessing can fill us.

Please allow the heart of the giver and the hearts of the receivers to be one. I sincerely pray that this may be the hour when those hearts can harmonize into one so that the Father’s heart can be felt and the Father’s blessing can be directly received. I pray all these things in the name of the Lord. Amen.