Author: Richard Urban

Feel Indignation Toward the Crushing of God’s Ideal

Isaiah 47

The Lord said:

47 City of Babylon,
You are delicate
    and untouched,
    but that will change.
Surrender your royal power
    and sit in the dirt.
2 Start grinding grain!
    Take off your veil.
Strip off your fancy clothes
    and cross over rivers.[a]
3 You will suffer the shame
    of going naked,
because I will take revenge,
    and no one can escape.[b]
4 I am the Lord All-Powerful,
the holy God of Israel.
    I am their Savior.

2 Kings 8

9 Hazael left with forty camel loads of the best things made in Damascus as a gift for Elisha. He found the prophet and said, “Your servant, King Benhadad, wants to know if he will get well.”

10 “Tell him he will,” Elisha said to Hazael. “But the Lord has already told me that Benhadad will definitely die.” 11 Elisha stared at him until Hazael was embarrassed, then Elisha began crying.

Let Us Understand God, Who Wanted to be Proud

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 8, 1959

Genesis 1: 24-31

24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Prayer

Father, please allow us to be awakened to the grieving heart You had when You lost the original garden and mourned over it. We have been ignorant of the fact that the sorrow of Adam and Eve is our sorrow. We have failed to experience through our minds and bodies that the Father’s sadness is greater than our sorrow. We sincerely wish to feel in our bodies and minds during this hour that, unbeknownst to us, the Father has shed many tears and has suffered endless and infinite sorrow and pain.

The sorrow of the Father caused by the fall of Adam and Eve was indeed great. Jesus’ unfinished mission in the will of the providence of restoration on the earth also caused You infinite grief, loneliness and suffering. Please allow us to experience the entirety of Your agonized heart during this hour. Continue reading “Feel Indignation Toward the Crushing of God’s Ideal”

Where Do God and Man Meet?

Cheong Seong Gyeong 199

There are many religions on earth,
but among them, only Christianity has
the concept of following God’s four basic
requirements: to become God’s child, to
become one body with God, to meet as
bride and bridegroom in accordance
with God’s will, and to form a new fam-
ily. Since Jesus came with this thinking,
Christianity, centering on Jesus, inevi-
tably became a global religion. (54-108,
1972.03.20)

Richard:  The place of unity of God and Man is through the sexual organs;
between Blessed husband and wife.

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1735

What on earth does it mean to call
God our Father? You need to know the
origin of the ideal of creation. Who is
God? He is our Father, and you are His
children. Given that you are His chil-
dren, who do you take after? You resem-
ble Him. Would He have eyes? Would
He have a nose, a mouth and ears? He
would. Next, would He have a body?
Would God have sexual organs? All such
subjects pose questions, which must be
answered logically. (196-41, 1989.12.24)

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 1, 1959

Matthew 8: 18-22

Prayer

Father! We are awe-stricken to receive the mission that You have vested in us, and we are grateful for the grace You have given us by moving us to the depth of our hearts with Your call.

Now we have learned that our faith does not come from our hearts; it comes from the heart of Father, to which we cannot relate without shedding tears. We have also come to know the heart of Heaven, who has clung to these miserable ones and has struggled so fiercely for us. We have learned that we are sinful people who have bowed down before Your fearful grace, before which we shed endless tears. Continue reading “Where Do God and Man Meet?”

You Must Be Able to Say “It is Finished” While You Are Alive

1 Peter 1

22 You obeyed the truth,[d] and your souls were made pure. Now you sincerely love each other. But you must keep on loving with all your heart. 23 Do this because God has given you new birth by his message that lives on forever. 24 The Scriptures say,

“Humans wither like grass,
and their glory fades
    like wild flowers.
Grass dries up,
and flowers fall
    to the ground.
25 But what the Lord has said
    will stand forever.”

Our good news to you is what the Lord has said.

Richard:  The Word is powerful and brings the dead to life, so to speak.

Lamentations 3

Then I remember something
    that fills me with hope.
22 The Lord’s kindness never fails!
If he had not been merciful,
    we would have been destroyed.[c]
23 The Lord can always be trusted
    to show mercy each morning.
24 Deep in my heart I say,
“The Lord is all I need;
    I can depend on him!”

Richard:  What a great hymn of praise!

The Incarnation of Jesus, A Pioneer

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 1, 1959

Matthew 8: 18-22

In this age today, we have to pass through a period of preparation and a period of practice in our search for Heaven. We must seek for the original nature of Heaven. What kind of preparation must we make? In what kind of position must we stand? We have to stand in the same position as Jesus during his thirty- year preparation period. In doing so, we must prepare to represent the internal heart of Heaven and the human heart, represent all sovereignties, and determine to face conflicts by ourselves. Accordingly, a group of people certainly must appear who cross Golgotha on the world level with this kind of determination. You must understand this.

Jesus said, “It is finished,” when he was passing away. Yet this is not the culminating point of the completion of the providence. For this reason, we must pioneer a course through which we can say, “It is finished,” while we are still alive. The heavenly soldiers and angels, spirits and all created things must be able to bow their heads and say, “Today is the day your wishes are fulfilled. Please receive the glory.” This is the time to prepare for the day we can say, “It is finished” in this way. Christians today remain faithful to go beyond the day of saying, “It is finished” as they pass away. They must be able to say the same while they are alive. Hence, you must take charge of the mission of a heavenly pioneer in this first completion stage we are in today. Continue reading “You Must Be Able to Say “It is Finished” While You Are Alive”

God’s Side Reclaims After Having Been Hit First

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1718

You must know that the villain who
destroyed the qualification of the prince
and princess that God had hoped for,
ruined their family love, and destroyed
their royal descendants and God’s ideal
family and heaven, was the devil, Satan.
(302-220, 1999.6.14)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1380

Kim Il-sung invited all the 30,000
Couples to North Korea. He said, “Rev.
Moon, if you want, this is the best chance
ever to open the thirty-eighth parallel.
We will welcome all the 30,000 Cou-
ples!” The people of South Korea did not
know of this. Such was the attitude of
the North Korean authorities. They said,
“We will welcome the 30,000 Couples!”
But how would we take them there? Let’s
say we would use buses, fifty people to
a bus, then how many would that be in
total? Since there are 30,000 couples, it
would mean we would need 1,200 buses.
If 1,200 buses carrying fifty people each
were to drive to North Korea in single
file, how many kilometers would that
line stretch, from the first to the last bus?
Think about if, if such an incident had
actually taken place, would that not have
started massive demonstrations for the
unification of North and South Korea?
However, that is all in the past now. I
know very well which people prevented
this event from ever taking place. My
sources in the United States informed
me about that. I am not a person just
passing through. In time, I plan to pub-
lish a book, a record of who did what.
(238-161, 1992.11.22)

Richard:  Evil Powers have often blocked God’s Providence.   But this blocking cannot continue forever.  With the Cheon Il Guk (Kingdom of God) revolution and the Trump revolution and the related movements around the world, the hegemony of Satan is crumbling.  This is an excellent book on the topic that I highly recommend The Killing of Uncle Sam  by Rodney Howard-Brown and Paul L. Williams:

The Incarnation of Jesus, A Pioneer

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 1, 1959

Matthew 8: 18-22

Just before Jesus passed away on the cross that was dripping with his blood, he said, “My Father, my Father, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) At the end of this prayer, he said, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) He said, “It is finished,” not because he wanted to say that he had realized the ideal world. What he meant by this statement was that he had carried out the determination he had made during his thirty-year preparation period: “If my path becomes tragic, then I will do such and such.” This statement is not to be taken as something joyful; it was his expression of his sad heart to all of humanity. We have to understand that this was his last Will, which he spoke to the ignorant people out of his grieving heart. Continue reading “God’s Side Reclaims After Having Been Hit First”

The Heart of Jesus in his Everyday Life

1 Kings 8

1-42 Foreigners will hear about you and your mighty power, and some of them will come to live among your people Israel. If any of them pray toward this temple, 43 listen from your home in heaven and answer their prayers. Then everyone on earth will worship you, just like your people Israel, and they will know that I have built this temple to honor you.

John 20

17 Jesus told her, “Don’t hold on to me! I have not yet gone to the Father. But tell my disciples that I am going to the one who is my Father and my God, as well as your Father and your God.” 18 Mary Magdalene then went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord. She also told them what he had said to her.

Richard:  Jesus could not allow Mary Magdalene to embrace him, as he did not have the foundation on earth to be able to receive his bride.

The Incarnation of Jesus, A Pioneer

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 1, 1959

Matthew 8: 18-22

No matter how much the external circumstances changed, the heart of Jesus and the path he walked could not change. This path is the one that fallen humanity must inevitably walk. However, the Israelites, who should have followed Jesus, betrayed him. The crowd that had followed him betrayed him and the disciples, who should have believed in and attended him without any doubt, cherished different hopes and had different attitudes. You have to understand that Jesus looked at them with a gaze full of sorrow and grief.

Jesus knew that he had to be persecuted on the individual level, the family level, the church level, on the level of a people and on the national level. He also knew that he had to be persecuted on the level of the Roman Empire, which represented the world at that time. Knowing this, he silently walked his course. When he climbed over the Mount of Transfiguration and then headed toward the hill of Calgary, he made the determination: “Let any persecution and ordeal come to me. I will overcome all that I must in my time.” If he did not overcome them, all the preparations would have been more cause for grief, so he made his way toward the pass of death. To put this Will into practice, he made the determination that, as a sacrifice of death, he would share his flesh and blood with humanity before he left. Jesus was overwhelmed by the heart of Heaven on behalf of humanity and made a firm determination with every footstep he took. However, no one knew that he was taking those footsteps to carry out the determination that he had made during his preparation period. You have to understand this. Continue reading “The Heart of Jesus in his Everyday Life”