Author: Richard Urban

Understand Your Identity

Judges 16

17 Finally, Samson told her the truth. “I have belonged to God[h] ever since I was born, so my hair has never been cut. If it were ever cut off, my strength would leave me, and I would be as weak as anyone else.”

Richard:  Understand your indentity.  Don’t let the devil steal your strength and identity.

Psalm 96

Sing a new song to the Lord!
Everyone on this earth,
    sing praises to the Lord,
2     sing and praise his name.

Day after day announce,
    “The Lord has saved us!”
3 Tell every nation on earth,
“The Lord is wonderful
    and does marvelous things!

Richard:  Yes, sing praises to our God every day!

When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
April 19, 1959

Matthew 25:1-13

Prayer

Father, we miss the time when You used to teach us about all that was of You and the time when we beheld Your glory in ecstasy and did not want to remain on earth. We also miss the time when heaven and earth rejoiced as we were immersed in Your love and experienced Your Shim Jung.

You liked appearing in quietude, and did not mind coming in the middle of hardship. You have been working in history, fighting with us on the battlefield and in the place of despair. As we reflect that You have always stayed with us, fought with us, and always longed to live with us, please let us repent for our past course of faith in which we enjoyed rejecting and denying the earth, even though we lived there.

We have seen that although You are in glory when we joyfully serve You in the position of transcendence, You were pitiful, haggard and saddened when You appeared on the earth. We also have learned that You have been relating to us in this form throughout history.

We eagerly hope and desire that You will guide us so that we stand in the glorious position where we can rejoice with the Father who has been wounded on the earth and who has struggled to find a true son under hardship. We hope for this, rather than rejoicing with the Father who appears in glory. Continue reading “Understand Your Identity”

Fight the Good Fight

Choen Seong Gyeong 899

In the progress towards God’s orig-
inal world of ideals – an ideal realm
of goodness, where original human
beings can go – good spirits are fight-
ing their way towards it, and evil spir-
its are struggling to block the way. The
evil spirit world and evil world on earth
are constantly connected. They are in
constant communication. Good spir-
its are the ones who have been opposed
and persecuted in the evil world. These
spirits are the ones who were religious
believers. (134-9, 1985.1.1)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 202

Originally, when God as the Parent
created Adam and Eve, He reaped the
benefit of having children. At the same
time, He enabled the children to ben-
efit by having parents. God’s hope was
to raise His children to perfection. Had
this happened, it would be possible to
say that God would have harvested both
Adam and Eve.
Then, why do we need parents and
why do we need children? God is spir-
itual and human beings are physical.
The parent-child relationship is also like
this.
The invisible God bears fruit through
the visible child and then enters into the
heart of the child to reveal His value as
the visible God. The invisible God bears
fruit within the child’s heart and the
fruit of the child is then produced. It is
possible to transfer the fruit of the father
to the child. And thus, for God, both His
fruit and the parent’s fruit are produced.
They have equal value.

When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
April 19, 1959

Matthew 25:1-13

Prayer

On this holy occasion, although we are not prepared, we still have come before You shamelessly, bowing our heads to You. Father of love, mercy and forgiveness, please tolerate us. Our minds desire to resemble Your mind; our bodies seek to take after Your form. Since we have not accomplished this task because of our ignorance, we zealously desire You to enlighten us through our minds and give us experience through our bodies, so that we can prostrate ourselves before You in the image which resembles You.

If there are sons or daughters who are not suitable for Your will, please come to them directly and admonish them. As we have deaf ears and blind eyes, and are unable to hear Your words and see Your figure, You have to make us hear and see again. Let us understand that You are more grieved than we are because of this; you are more troubled than we, and more stifled in heart.

How can we face You after not responding to Your tens of millions of beckonings and not hearing Your tens of millions of calls? Nevertheless, we have come and prostrated ourselves before You, having heard Your voice and realized that You are beckoning to us. You know that we are most miserable and helpless people. You will have to come to us and hold us with hands of love, in spite of the disgraceful shape we are in. Although our eyes are darkened and our bodies are scarred so that we are ignorant of the original substance of life, Father, please embrace us with love. We eagerly hope and desire that You will console us, resting Your exhausted feet and turning Your disappointment into joy. Continue reading “Fight the Good Fight”

Please Instill in us Anger Over Human History

Mark 13

5 Jesus answered:

Watch out and don’t let anyone fool you! 6 Many will come and claim to be me. They will use my name and fool many people.

Psalm 19

9 Worshiping the Lord is sacred;
    he will always be worshiped.
All of his decisions
    are correct and fair.
10 They are worth more
    than the finest gold
    and are sweeter than honey
    from a honeycomb.

When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
April 19, 1959

Matthew 25:1-13

A Story about Ten Girls

25 The kingdom of heaven is like what happened one night when ten girls took their oil lamps and went to a wedding to meet the groom.[a]2 Five of the girls were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps, but no extra oil. 4 The ones who were wise took along extra oil for their lamps.

5 The groom was late arriving, and the girls became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 Then in the middle of the night someone shouted, “Here’s the groom! Come to meet him!”

7 When the girls got up and started getting their lamps ready, 8 the foolish ones said to the others, “Let us have some of your oil! Our lamps are going out.”

9 The girls who were wise answered, “There’s not enough oil for all of us! Go and buy some for yourselves.”

10 While the foolish girls were on their way to get some oil, the groom arrived. The girls who were ready went into the wedding, and the doors were closed. 11 Later the other girls returned and shouted, “Sir, sir! Open the door for us!”

12 But the groom replied, “I don’t even know you!”

13 So, my disciples, always be ready! You don’t know the day or the time when all this will happen.

Prayer

We know that history has been a sad course because of the fall of Adam and Eve, who were to serve You. Please instill in us anger over human history. The descendants of sinful Adam and Eve have continued until today with the inherited baggage of sin: driven, chased around, and suffering under hardships. Since You have responsibility as the Creator, and accordingly, can never forget them, You have been going through a historical course of toil to regain humankind, regardless of the age and time.

Please enable us to feel remorse over ourselves in such a position and to feel pain over Your having walked that path of infinite toil and suffering. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will give us the heart to feel shame together with You about who we are and anger over having inherited the sinful lineage of history.

We feel that the sinful character still remains in us. Our bodies are shackled in chains of sin. We are zealously waiting for You, merciful Father, to reveal Your power and ability. We are waiting to become true sons and daughters. We know that Your sorrow will deepen as You see sons and daughters fail, unable to cut off the barbed wire of sin, unable to sever the relationship with sin that invades them and fight.
Continue reading “Please Instill in us Anger Over Human History”

Father, Please Look at Me and Hold Back Your Anger

Cheon Seong Gyeong 899

The spirit world up until the present
day has carried out numerous spiritual
works in mainstream religious history.
These mainstream works had to con-
nect to a certain line of relationship with
the physical world. Spirit people cannot
come to earth and carry out their works
as they please. They are blocked from
doing that. Unless a bridge is built by
way of religion, only a few special peo-
ple can return to earth. Factions were
created within Judaism. When they
come down from the spirit world, the
mainstream cannot come in a straight
line. When different factions of Judaism
each make their own spiritual offerings,
the mainstream moves back and forth
accordingly.
Therefore, for those coming down
from the spirit world, only the ones who
are connected with the mainstream can
come down. Otherwise, they cannot
come and co-operate through the pro-
cess of returning resurrection.
Eventually, people on earth will also
go to the spirit world. Once in the spir-
it world, if they want to come down to
the next generation, they have to fol-
low the same principle. Yet, only a few
special ones will be able to do so. (102-29,
1978.11.19)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 400

What is the Kingdom of Heaven? It
is the place where you can love the peo-
ple of the world as you love your fam-
ily, and such people are the people of the
heavenly kingdom. What do the four
generations of your grandfather and
grandmother, your mother and father,
your wife, brothers and sisters, and your
children make up? They make up a fam-
ily, which is like a textbook to help you
experience the true love of the universe
as a person of the heavenly kingdom.
You should know that the family, which
is the textbook, is the foundation upon
which you receive this teaching.
(129-96,
1983.10.1)

The Path of Faith Which Should be Examined Carefully

Sun Myung Moon
April 12, 1959

Matthew 11: 1-30

Prayer

We can dare to surmise the hearts of the disciples of Jesus as Peter, James and John said to him, “Teacher, we like being here. So we will build three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Meanwhile, the heart of Jesus was immersed in sorrow as he waged a showdown battle on the Mount of Transfiguration.

They were ignorant, unable to feel the traces of or see the reality of the world of ideology. Who would not say such a thing where circumstances are unfolding that can more than dominate and encompass the whole universe? Although Peter, James and John knew in their hearts that this was a scene for which they had yearned and wanted to live in, they did not know that it was to be realized after going through a process of reality.

Likewise, Christians around the world yearn for the Kingdom of Heaven in their hearts, but they are oblivious to the fact that a course of battle lies before it can exist. We have the responsibility to awaken these Christians. In this time, history, faith, the human heart, tradition, ideology, and even the heart of love, without which people have sworn to die, are all undergoing changes. Nevertheless, we long for an unchanging ideology, an unchanging image and essence. We yearn for that garden, that world, that sovereignty and leader, that voice, that life, and those circumstances.

Father, please open Your hurting heart. Now, having realized that I am so anxious and narrow today, I yearn to be the self that can go beyond my present one. I hurry on to find the self of tomorrow. Although there may be persecution for the members of the Unification Church, please allow them to use this as a stimulus to push them closer to Your Shim Jung, rather than as an evil impediment to their progress. Please help them understand that persecution is Your work of connecting the Shim Jung.

Please guide us to receive Your acknowledgment of us as Your sons by bowing down to You and returning a song of victory to You from the position where heavenly law and the historical course harmonize. You need the sons and daughters who can bring forth such a Shim Jung that we can share joy with You, and even Satan cannot help smiling with shame before our joy. Please allow us to become Christians in search of this self. Father, we earnestly hope and desire that You allow us to be Unification Church members who come forward as the front-line unit to expedite the coming of such people. Continue reading “Father, Please Look at Me and Hold Back Your Anger”

Have Hope that can Sever our Attachment to Sinful Reality

Romans 6

5 If we shared in Jesus’ death by being baptized, we will be raised to life with him. 6 We know that the persons we used to be were nailed to the cross with Jesus. This was done, so that our sinful bodies would no longer be the slaves of sin. 7 We know that sin doesn’t have power over dead people.

8 As surely as we died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him. 9 We know that death no longer has any power over Christ. He died and was raised to life, never again to die. 10 When Christ died, he died for sin once and for all. But now he is alive, and he lives only for God. 11 In the same way, you must think of yourselves as dead to the power of sin. But Christ Jesus has given life to you, and you live for God.

12 Don’t let sin rule your body. After all, your body is bound to die, so don’t obey its desires 13 or let any part of it become a slave of evil. Give yourselves to God, as people who have been raised from death to life. Make every part of your body a slave that pleases God. 14 Don’t let sin keep ruling your lives. You are ruled by God’s kindness and not by the Law.

Ezekiel 36

37 I will once again answer your prayers, and I will let your nation grow until you are like a large flock of sheep. 38 The towns that now lie in ruins will be filled with people, just as Jerusalem was once filled with sheep to be offered as sacrifices during a festival. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

 

The Path of Faith Which Should be Examined Carefully

Sun Myung Moon
April 12, 1959

Matthew 11: 1-30

Today and again tomorrow, we should have hope toward Heaven and receive a heartistic shock with which we can sever our attachment to sinful reality and the disorderly world and move forward. You should know that whether this shock continues for one day, one year, or for our whole lifetime determines whether you will arrive at the destination for which you long.

Without such a shock, you will be highly anxious. In this age, one can recognize how anxious and fearful one is without knowing quite why. If one has even a small conscience, he will feel driven into anxiety and insecurity. Although many young people feel this, if something that can remove it sprouts forth, the fear and anxiety that have been occupying a person’s ground of hope will retreat, and the world of things that square with conscience will appear. Thus, if the heart that carefully searches for this is quickening your walk and your body beyond anxiety and fear, it is not too late. The final point of unity is an earnest Shim Jung that explodes in my heart and is unaffected by materialistic or humanistic ideologies. It is the Shim Jung that makes me move to the one place of ideology that remains in the end. In other words, Shim Jung determines the final me. Continue reading “Have Hope that can Sever our Attachment to Sinful Reality”