Author: Richard Urban

Throw Away all Personal Pride and Prestige

Deuteronomy 14

24 But suppose you can’t carry that ten percent of your harvest to the place where the Lord chooses to be worshiped. If you live too far away, or if the Lord gives you a big harvest, 25 then sell this part and take the money there instead. 26 When you and your family arrive, spend the money on food for a big celebration. Buy cattle, sheep, goats, wine, beer, and if there are any other kinds of food that you want, buy those too. 27 And since people of the Levi tribe won’t own any land for growing crops, remember to ask the Levites to celebrate with you.

28 Every third year, instead of using the ten percent of your harvest for a big celebration, bring it into town and put it in a community storehouse. 29 The Levites have no land of their own, so you must give them food from the storehouse. You must also give food to the poor who live in your town, including orphans, widows, and foreigners. If they have enough to eat, then the Lord your God will be pleased and make you successful in everything you do.

Richard: Caring for your neighbors is very important.

Psalm 65

You are strong,
    and your mighty power
    put the mountains in place.
7 You silence the roaring waves
    and the noisy shouts
    of the nations.
8 People far away marvel
    at your fearsome deeds,
and all who live under the sun
    celebrate and sing
    because of you.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

Is there any greater adventure than appearing as the prince of Heaven in this land of sin? Although the cosmos tried to prevent Jesus from treading that path, still he walked that path. Everyone shunned that path, but he went on it.

Now that there is a certain genuine truth, we have to seek for it. If this physical body, which ideally should be centered on our united mind and heart, is still fixed to the things of worldly history, then we should cut away from it and search for the word that can pull both the mind and the body with its truth.

We have to possess the desperate heart that is derived from the eternal world, which transcends time and limitations. We must become people who can dominate and win over any hardship, pain, and fear of death in this world. For you to be victorious on your individual path, you should deny all desires and all pain to walk forward proudly. If a victorious individual can take the same course with the family, the race, the nation, and the world, then this person is victorious over the world.

God could raise and bless Jesus because of this. His path was a pioneering path. To pioneer is to begin with a difficult path. It does not begin with a pleasant and happy path. It is to work backwards.

God has been searching for the ideal form of an individual, a family, a society, a nation, and a world throughout the course of history. He has been searching for us, the seekers of truth.

In order to restore all this in these last days, we have to bear God’s heart and become the warriors who will fight against sin as God’s begotten son Jesus, the prince of Heaven, became a friend to the sinners. In such a position, we have to throw away all personal pride and prestige and stand bravely in front of Heavenly Father. Only such a person will become Jesus’ representative who will not only find himself, but find all the other lost selves. Jesus’ representative is one who will hold onto such a heart and fight for the family, the society, the race, the nation, and the world.

No matter how high one may be, he should yield his high position and have the heart to sincerely attend others, saying, “The reason I am here is to help people lower than me be raised to the position I am in.” When such an inclination for adventure is present, it may be used as a condition to maintain oneself and win out in this time of turmoil.

When I look at you, I see that you all have the petty ambition of wanting to possess everything in Heaven and earth, yet you are not trying to find your own lost self. I will acknowledge you if you have certain conditions that can coincide with the contents and purposes of God’s wish to find the family, the race, and the nation. But you only have the purposes and the ideal; you are lacking in substantial content. You have to have the standards to which Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus, and Heavenly Father can say, “You are right!”

As you live today, it is not enough just to continue the life pattern of searching for values. You have to eliminate yourself. You have to hunt yourself down. You have to get rid of yourself. If not, you cannot go to Heavenly Father. God has never thought about His own pride throughout the six thousand years of the providence in this world. Because His path was to find His loving true sons and daughters, He was determined never to think of His own pride until He met such sons and daughters.

Although Jesus has striven for a long time, he also had to be humble in front of sinners before he could find his bride. One example of this is when he told the thief on the right that he would go to paradise along with him.

Now we have to embark on the final, historic adventure.

For us to be acknowledged as victors among all the explorers who have sought for truth, we have to first welcome the sorrow and suffering of history and the sadness and pain of the ages. We must be able to stand in front of God, the true parents, the true couples, the true children, the true siblings, the true people, the true nation, and the true Heaven and earth. Only when such a deep, desperate heart stands within you can you then take your places as the people of that nation, the loyal subjects of that nation, and the filial sons and daughters of that nation.

Seek Out and Do the Things that Other Cannot Do

Cheon Seong Gyeong 195

Through individuals and families,
God prepared a realm into which a peo-
ple who could advance with the Messi-
ah when he came to earth. This was the
people of Israel who lived with the con-
cept of being the chosen people.
However, the people of Israel have not
yet arrived in that realm. It was as if they
were held back behind a line. The hope
of the chosen people was to go over this
line. If they failed to cross over, it would
be a great disaster. They had to cross this
line and yet, as hard as they tried, it was
impossible to cross over on their own.
That is why God promised the people of
Israel that He would send them the Mes-
siah, the Savior. This was the Messiah for
whom God had prepared for thousands
of years in order to transcend this line
on the national level. He promised to
send the Messiah.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1466

Let us say you live up to eighty years
of age. If you subtract the hours you
spend sleeping, you are left with about
fifty years of life. Would you say you
are alive when you are asleep? When
you are asleep, you are as good as dead,
because you are inanimate. Sleeping
is the same as being dead the whole
time. The number of hours you labor
each day to make a living is about half
of the twenty-four hours in a day. Now
deduct the time you spend eating. From
whatever time is left subtract the time
spent visiting, going to friends’ parties,
attending the sixtieth birthday celebra-
tions of village elders, attending funer-
als and wakes, and being bedridden.
In short, if you were to exclude all the
days you lose for whatever reasons that
might arise, you cannot claim to have
actually lived very much. Would it even
be half of your entire lifetime? When I
calculated this recently, it came out as
roughly seven years. Even so, of those
seven years, how many days could
you claim to have truly lived? (49-336,
1971.10.24)

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

When you only feel happiness and satisfaction on the level of your own family, that family, the nation, and its system will all break down. Isn’t that so? We have experienced it during the Japanese occupation. Humanity in today’s age of the providence of restoration has to be an explorer.

Prayers from your heart and lawful prayers will be fulfilled. You have to look carefully at how your prayers are fulfilled. People who pray in this age have said the same prayers over and over for years, but their prayers are not answered. You have to pray with a true heart of love and promise. Pray and wait with a desperate heart, not forgetting your prayer even after thirty or forty years. It will be fulfilled. You don’t need many prayers.

In this age, you have to seek out and do the things that others cannot do. If you try, you will be able to do them. It is not like science books where everything is in the books. In Revelation, John pioneered the spiritual world which others could not. He looked at a world at the height of his exploration which no one else could feel. Yet there is no guidance for the course. This is the problem.

You have to once again calm yourself and aim for the truth. As there is life, and there is someone who will cry with the heart in which life dwells, you have to deny all that you have believed. What you believed in up to now is insufficient. You need something which will allow you to deny the heart you have been feeling, and deny the ideal you have been longing for.

While there certainly is a weapon, you cannot find it with an everyday attitude. Even if you are a well-to- do person who is proud of yourself, you have to give up such a position to go back to the very end of the line, in the lowest place, so as to attain the victory. Such was the path that God has pursued.

Although Jesus appeared in this world with the authority of life and resurrection to take over all the sovereignty of Heaven and earth, he had to walk the opposite path in order to fulfill this in the fallen world. When Jesus saw that his life was soon to fade away, he was not concerned for his body. He was concerned for his spirit. When he was looking at the people, he was not concerned about their physical misery. He felt pity for their souls. It is the opposite way. Do you want to be God’s sons and daughters? Do you want to go to Heaven? Try to go to Heaven. Those who think they can go to Heaven by believing in Jesus will not go. It cannot be done without a cost.

Why is it that we believe in Jesus? It is in order to create Heaven. What did Jesus tell us? He said our body is a temple. Is it a temple? Jesus desired for the individual to be a temple, the environment to be a temple, and the whole creation to be a temple. God wants to dwell within us, in our family, in our society, and even in all of creation.

What was Jesus like when he was in this world? Although he was supposed to sit on the throne of Heaven, he became a friend of sinners. It is said that he ate and drank with sinners. Jesus said he came to save the sinners, not the faithful. How frustrated he must have been to do that.

The assignment of Christianity is to take care of many things that are painful to deal with. The question is how people will have the heart that says, “Father, please allow us to have the dignified heart that Jesus had when he died on the cross that we may overcome the pain of death and wish blessings upon the miserable people.” Jesus came to this world and became a pioneer of the heart. We need people who will go forward with a desperate heart, who can dominate the fear of death.

What is the reason that the churches are separating? The problem is that preachers seek the authority of their position while the people seek their own authority for the sake of personal glorification. Jesus left behind the virtue of service. This path is the closest path to us, yet it is the most difficult path of adventure for humankind. People who conquer a mountain may be secular explorers, but they are not the explorers of the world of spirit. God wants an adventurer who can win over pain in the heart. Isn’t that so?

Stand Firmly Against the Flying Arrows and the Cross of Death

Colossians 4

18 I am signing this letter myself: PAUL.

Don’t forget that I am in jail.

I pray that God will be kind to you.

Richard: I think that Rev. Moon (in Spirit World) is in a type of heartistic jail. Unless we understand the Word that he brought, and carry it out, his heart is heavy

Mark 6

Jesus taught in all the neighboring villages. 7 Then he called together his twelve apostles and sent them out two by two with power over evil spirits. 8 He told them, “You may take along a walking stick. But don’t carry food or a traveling bag or any money. 9 It’s all right to wear sandals, but don’t take along a change of clothes. 10 When you are welcomed into a home, stay there until you leave that town. 11 If any place won’t welcome you or listen to your message, leave and shake the dust from your feet[c] as a warning to them.”

Richard: This Rheama supports the previous one about Tong Ban breakthrough. Actual ministry to families in the local area is the core ministry of God and Christ at His Second Coming.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

What kind of person is that self? It is someone who is one with God and true parents all the time. It is someone who is also one with the true children, the true people, and the true loyal subjects. In front of that self, true Heaven and earth, a whole new world, will open up. To bring everything to fruition centered upon such an occasion is God’s way of governing.

Today many thoughts and ideals seem plausible, but they do have any valuable contents. Although mankind has been searching and searching for truth for six thousand long years of history, people who have fought as true individuals all faded away. The true family, the true people, the true nation, and the true ideal also faded away. It is up to us, living in the last days, to receive those things again.

What kind of time is it now, when we face the destiny to receive those things again? When we truly look with clear eyes, we see this is a time when the individual can unite with the family, the family can unite with the society, the society can unite with the nation, the nation can unite with the world, and Heaven can unite with the earth. The final destination that goodness longs for is in the state of being able to call God our father, and not just in name only. Please raise your hand if you think you are confident that you have reached this standard. If you look at the reality, things are serious. The age of the last days of the six thousand years are here, but we are six thousand years behind. We are six thousand years away from such a time. The external form of the providence has been structured, yet as far as content is concerned, it is empty. As time passes, you will feel more and more suffocated. There will come a day when you will lament how lonely and empty you are. Although you may possess wealth and much more, there will be a certain emptiness inside. There will also be a battle within you. That is because your mind strives to run back to six thousand years ago, whereas your body still remains here, entangled in the present.

Because such a reality exists, the Bible says, “Seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened.” In this time, when the new environment is about to emerge, you should at least have the conviction to push away the suffering arising from this battle buried deep in the human heart, although you may not know how to solve it. If not, then you cannot stand in the new world that will come. We have to realize this.

What kind of time is it now? This is a time to revolutionize the individual, revolutionize the family, revolutionize the society, revolutionize the nation, and revolutionize the world.

What will allow you to stand firmly against the flying arrows and the cross of death? It is the heart with a father and a son relationship with Heavenly Father. When we call out to Heavenly Father as our father with a desperate, deep heart, God and Satan will both bow their heads. If Jesus did not possess such a heart, he would not have been qualified to be the Messiah. You have to possess such a heart if you want to be the bride. To enter into such a state, you have to embark on an adventure.

Now is a busy time. It is time to go on an adventure. Jesus said that those who are willing to die will live, and those who want to live will die. Those who want to rise will go down and those willing to go down will rise. These words will be fulfilled in the last days.

The Original Embodiment Will Establish the Original Family

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2044

Until now, each administrative
authority in the Republic of Korea has
never had the experience of carrying
out its political or educational directives
centered on tong and ban. It has never
carried out education on a national level.
It has been unable to advocate its ideolo-
gy. It has only been able to gather togeth-
er the city mayors or the county officials,
and maybe one or two other people from
the local neighborhoods. The main tar-
get for ideological education has not
been the leaders of tong and ban. There-
fore, there are no roots. It means that
no roots were put down here. That’s the
point; there are no roots. It’s just like a
floating weed. (165-224, 1987.5.27)
The first problem is breaking through
to the leaders of the tong and ban. The
next problem is to breakthrough at the
township level, and even the village lev-
el. When we do that we will be perfectly
organized. (165-19, 1987.5.19)

Richard: Tong is a small neighborhood area of around 100 homes more or less, while ban is an even smaller area of about 12 homes. These are (were) administrative divisions in Korea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_divisions_of_South_Korea . Rev. Moon uses them to refer to the work of physically working door to door in a neighborhood to restore God-centered families. As today is my 44th spiritual birthday, when I made the decision to join the Unification Movement in 1975, it is the perfect and providential message for my family today. Yes, today is the anniversary of my Moon landing, ha-ha!

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1356

The 777 Couples that I blessed in
1970 signify total perfection symbol-
ized by the number twenty-one – the
sum of their three sevens – as well as
the three stages of the growing period.
Rather than trying to break these stages
up, I sought to put them together all at
once and did so in one place. There, ten
nations participated in the Blessing, rep-
resenting the world in order to restore
the number ten. Thus, I could organize a
new global tribe by blessing those fami-
lies. Thereby, a transracial standard was
set for the creation of that tribe. (54-295,
1972.3.26)

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

After the six thousand years of struggle that God has gone through, there is a framework that can usher mankind in toward the realm of one ideology in this age of the last days of history. Yet what are we to do now? Mankind is not in a position to invite God to intervene in our affairs. We have neither the substance nor the content.

This is what I want to shout out to this present age. Where is the historic individual God seeks? Where is the family God is seeking to replace Noah’s family? Where is the race to replace the race which suffered in Egypt, the race God embraced and loved? Where are the people who want to be loved in the bosom of the begotten son, who came as the king of all kings? The standard where all can walk hand in hand and share heart to heart and sing together is lost. There is probably no greater sadness than this.

God will still search. What is it that God will search for? God is a God of truth and He possesses the contents of truth. Therefore, He will search for the embodiment of truth, the true family, the true society, the true nation, and the true world. He will search for the world where Heaven and earth move in unity of heart though true authority. Isn’t that so?

His work is already initiated. He will cut away everything false from an individual, a family, a race, a world. In other words, He will break down the lineage of any race, any national tradition or any ideology of humanity in order to establish the one world of the heart. Looking at things from this perspective, what kind of world is God looking for? He is looking for a world of truth, where there are true parents.

Due to the Fall, mankind has the parents of a fallen lineage. We do not possess the original parents whom God can love eternally. Therefore, no matter how great you might say you are, you are descendants of fallen parents. There is nothing to be proud of. Then where are parents whom God can bless, whom all the created world can sing for? They have disappeared. They disappeared at the beginning of history, not during its course. Who will liberate such sorrow?

What kind of people are the original parents? They can communicate back and forth with the eternal, everlasting God in a relationship of parent and child. Yet such true parents, who can live as the children, attending God as their parent, have disappeared. Therefore, humanity has to search for true parents.

This land in which we live is not the land we have dreamed about. This environment in which we live has nothing to do with God’s ideal. It is the same thing for the Unification Church. Having the name of the Unification Church is not important. We have to possess the heart of unification. The door sign is not important. The contents are important. As you all have a conscience that searches for truth, you have to establish a motto that seeks for truth. You have to think about what contents God wants.

The day when God can be present within true parents, true couples, true children, true loyal subjects, true people, the true creation, the true sovereignty, and the true cosmos and can agree that everything is true will be the final day for the fallen world. As you wait for the coming of the Lord of the Second Coming, do you think there will be a destruction of the world with great changes and that we will rise up into the air at that time? Do not even think of such nonsense and fantasy. I used to think like that in the past. We have to fight against people who think like that.

What is such a moment like when it arrives? It is the moment when a complex web of inexplicable situations gets untangled; when the history of misfortune is indemnified; and everything from the individual, the family, the society, the race, the nation, and the world unites. It is the moment when the individual is established so that things that were carried down vertically get carried out horizontally. Thus, it is the moment when the original embodiment will establish the original family, the original society, the nation, and the world. It is the goal of humanity, who has sought truth, to find the self who can live in the original world.

Have a Wildly Adventurous Nature

Luke 4

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[f]

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Richard: Today, the good news is being preached. Yet again, many will not listen because the messenger who brought it is Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Psalm 27

One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.
5 For in the day of trouble
    he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
    and set me high upon a rock.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

Although he was living in the land of the Pharaoh, Moses’ heart was ready to sing a song of happiness in the land of Canaan. Moses had pioneered a solitary path of going forward with an indomitable heart.

He headed out to Canaan with the mass of 600,000 people. But during the forty years of the wilderness period, all was lost. If the Israelites knew how to take adventure like Moses did, they would not have failed. Had their desperate heart to seek the promised land been greater than the feelings and thoughts arising in their daily lives, the Israelites would have never fallen in the wilderness. Yet they cried out in panic, complaining how hungry they were and complaining of their hardships. So they died out in the wilderness, unable to enter the land of Canaan.

Any historic figure or pioneer has the natural tendencies of an explorer. He can overcome everything to reach a higher ideal or promised destination, not seeking worldly pleasures or satisfactions.

Moses was like that. What is the meaning behind the Red Sea incident and the attack of the tribesmen of Amalek in the wilderness in front of the Israelites? Men who had escaped the shackles of the Pharaoh all collapsed on the way as they wandered aimlessly for forty years.

Moses had sent twelve people, representing the twelve tribes, to spy out the land of Canaan. When they came back to report what they had seen, ten of them said they would not be able to defeat the Canaanites, but Joshua and Caleb said otherwise. Joshua and Caleb were not particularly intelligent. You are more intelligent than they were. They were dull and stubborn. But they had a wildly adventurous nature.

Joshua and Caleb stood firmly against the opposing people, saying, “God, who has been leading us until now, is alive. God, who has defeated the magic of the Pharaoh, is alive. God, who divided the Red Sea and helped us cross it, is alive. God, who sent us quail and manna while we were starving and struggling, is alive.” You have to know that such was the key that opened the road for the Israelites, who were struggling to follow the course of restoration.

That is not all. All of history is such a course. After the age of the race came the age of the nation. Although they had entered Canaan, the Israelites had to fight to establish a nation. How heavy-hearted must God have been at this. They needed to acquire the form of a nation, the form of a family, and the form of an individual. Although they had acquired the form of a nation, they could not become the foundation of complete victory that God wanted. We have to realize God’s heart as He worked through history with such situations.

God has been struggling. He struggled to find an individual, but He lost that individual. He struggled to find a family, but He also lost that family. He lost everything, including the blessed nation and the people of Israel.

Jesus seems to have come as the prince of the defeated. He inherited all this. He was a representative who came to take on the pain of world restoration. He came to the land of Israel. He only went to a few places, a few temples near the wall of Jerusalem and the beaches of Galilee. Yet his words and actions represented the will of God and history.

Two thousand years of history have passed since Jesus died after struggling on such a path. Today a certain victorious base to restore the nation of Israel must be established. The history of the two thousand years after Jesus (which we may call the two thousand years of the history of the Holy Spirit) were the process of keeping the world in line with the standard of God’s will.

Today is the era of the last days. The last days are to perfect an individual, perfect a family, perfect a race, perfect a nation, a world, and furthermore, a cosmos. Humanity is not aware of the heart of God, who has been leading such a grand mission.