Author: Richard Urban

Establish the Standard of Goodness and Seek Your World

Obadiah

8 Edom, when this happens,
I, the Lord,
will destroy
    all your marvelous wisdom.
9 Warriors from the city of Teman[c]
    will be terrified,
and you descendants of Esau[d]
    will be wiped out.

Lamentations

Get up and pray for help
    all through the night.
Pour out your feelings
    to the Lord,
as you would pour water
    out of a jug.
Beg him to save your people,
who are starving to death
    at every street crossing.

Richard:  Do we have the heart to save people?

Let Us Love Heaven and Become Patriots

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
March 1, 1959

Matthew 5: 33-48

How low did people fall? They fell to the position completely opposite to God’s ideal of creation. Originally, human beings should have been able to consider this world their own. All of humanity should have lived as one tribe. They should have attended the Creator God as their God.

Have the people who live on earth today formed their own world? They have not. Is there someone or some nation who considers all humanity their clan? There is not. Moreover, is there a group of people who attend God as their God? There is not.

Therefore, we must first establish the standard of goodness and make our best efforts to seek our world, our clan and our God. We have to understand that this is the historical mission that fallen people must accomplish. Continue reading “Establish the Standard of Goodness and Seek Your World”

Heaven is Pursuing Goodness

Ezekiel 3

0 Listen carefully to everything I say and then think about it. 11 Then go to the people who were brought here to Babylonia with you and tell them you have a message from me, the Lord God. Do this, whether they listen to you or not.

Richard:  We cannot control what people will do when they hear the truth of God’s Word.  Our responsibility is to give the Word with a loving heart.

Isaiah 31

The Egyptians are mere humans.
    They aren’t God.
Their horses are made of flesh;
    they can’t live forever.
When the Lord shows his power,
he will destroy the Egyptians
    and all who depend on them.
Together they will fall.

Let Us Love Heaven and Become Patriots

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
March 1, 1959

Matthew 5: 33-48

The topic of the sermon I want to speak upon is “Let Us Love Heaven and Become Patriots.” Let us become those who love Heaven and the nation.

Originally, human beings were to love Heaven, love their brothers and sisters, and love this land. They should have loved Heaven, people and the earth.

When God created humans, His goal was for them to love in such a way. Yet all who are living on the earth today have lost the ability to love Heaven, their brothers and sisters, and the earth, because they are fallen descendants. This is the grief caused by the fall. Continue reading “Heaven is Pursuing Goodness”

We Cannot Repay the Grace of the Father

Cheon Seong Gyeong 219

Then what will you do after having
been liberated? Because you will serve
and attend God instead of the devil, you
will have to create a new cultural realm.
You have to create True Parents’ realm
of daily life. When you stand in the posi-
tion of the perfected Adam, you realize
the purpose of your birth. When this
happens, the love of God and True Par-
ents will continually reside within you.
This love is the basis of the harmony that
completes you. In other words, you will
have love, life and lineage. This forms a
trinity. (202-283, 1990.5.25)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1518

Since they are destined to inherit
God’s Kingdom in heaven and on earth
– the vertical and horizontal kingdoms
– and the lineages of the vertical and
horizontal parents, the sons and daugh-
ters are eligible to inherit every inter-
nal aspect of the vertical Parents and
every external aspect of the horizontal
parents. Being a part of the royal fam-
ily signifies leading the life of having
inherited the two kingdoms. The fact
that you have become the royal fam-
ily would mean that you stand on the
perfected foundation, and you can be
accepted by both kingdoms at all times.
(240-17, 1992.12.11)

Let Us Love Heaven and Become Patriots

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
March 1, 1959

Matthew 5: 33-48

33 You know that our ancestors were told, “Don’t use the Lord’s name to make a promise unless you are going to keep it.” 34 But I tell you not to swear by anything when you make a promise! Heaven is God’s throne, so don’t swear by heaven. 35 The earth is God’s footstool, so don’t swear by the earth. Jerusalem is the city of the great king, so don’t swear by it. 36 Don’t swear by your own head. You cannot make one hair white or black. 37 When you make a promise, say only “Yes” or “No.” Anything else comes from the devil.

38 You know that you have been taught, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” 39 But I tell you not to try to get even with a person who has done something to you. When someone slaps your right cheek,[a]turn and let that person slap your other cheek. 40 If someone sues you for your shirt, give up your coat as well. 41 If a soldier forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles.[b] 42 When people ask you for something, give it to them. When they want to borrow money, lend it to them.

43 You have heard people say, “Love your neighbors and hate your enemies.” 44 But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you. 45 Then you will be acting like your Father in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And he sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong. 46 If you love only those people who love you, will God reward you for that? Even tax collectors[c] love their friends. 47 If you greet only your friends, what’s so great about that? Don’t even unbelievers do that? 48 But you must always act like your Father in heaven.

Prayer

Beloved Father! Brief human life, which seeks after You, may appear to be simple; yet, it is complicated. We must walk this life course. Father, we sincerely pray that You guide us to become blessed sons and daughters who can persevere through each day and spend the rest of our lives in the Father’s bosom.

We are not alone in the world in which we live. We know that a myriad satans surround us. They have been engaged in insidious fights and have been putting forth conditions of accusations before the Father for 6,000 years. We know that You are keenly aware of this and have been working laboriously to protect us. Please allow us to realize that the Father’s concern exceeds our concern, and that the Father’s labors in fighting Satan and the victories You have won are much greater than anything we could accomplish, even if we battled hard for the rest of our lives.

The Father has been deeply involved in the lives of our countless forefathers and has been working to fulfill the will of restoration. We know that Your efforts have been the path of the cross, a debt we can never repay by any means. Please allow us to face You in humility and repentance, realizing with all our hearts and souls our inadequacy to return Your grace. Continue reading “We Cannot Repay the Grace of the Father”

We need God’s Forgiveness

Leviticus 23

6 The Lord God said to Moses:

27 The tenth day of the seventh month[k] is the Great Day of Forgiveness.[l] It is a solemn day of worship; everyone must go without eating to show sorrow for their sins, and sacrifices must be burned. 28 No one is to work on that day—it is the Great Day of Forgiveness, when sacrifices will be offered to me, so that I will forgive your sins. 29 I will destroy anyone who refuses to go without eating. 30-31 None of my people are ever to do any work on that day—not now or in the future. And I will wipe out those who do! 32 This is a time of complete rest just like the Sabbath, and everyone must go without eating from the evening of the ninth to the evening of the tenth.

Richard:  We all have sin and need to be forgiven.  Also, if we are going through hardships, it’s best to keep a positive attitude of gratitude.  We may be paying indemnity (restoring) ours and our ancestors past sins.

Lamentations 2

Zion, deep in your heart
    you cried out to the Lord.
Now let your tears overflow
    your walls day and night.
Don’t ever lose hope
    or let your tears stop.
19 Get up and pray for help
    all through the night.
Pour out your feelings
    to the Lord,
as you would pour water
    out of a jug.
Beg him to save your people,
who are starving to death
    at every street crossing.

Richard:  We (ourselves and our nation) are in dire straits.  Let us cry out to God for His guidance, mercy and forgiveness.

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

Prayer

When we experience Your heart, urging us on today, we cannot help realizing how weak are our bodies. When we realize, too, that the Shim Jung of Heaven is connected and flowing through us today, we feel deeply grateful. Father, please hold onto us. We want to go the way of the cross, with our minds and bodies becoming the offering, following Your request that we liberate Your hope, Your Shim Jung, and Your situation. Therefore, let us not weaken until the end. Make us go over the hill of death with a Shim Jung filled with a heavenly shock that penetrates the mind. Reinforce our exhaustion by allowing our connection with Heaven to be firm.

Allow us to come to the ideal garden for which we have longed. To do that, we have responsibility. Therefore, let us become countenances of joy offered to You as a gift, by fulfilling all the conditions for being a surviving fruit. Make us into Your original sons and daughters whom You want to love and who can receive Your love. Let us dwell in relationships of eternal love, the life of love, and the glory of love. Let us become people whom You cannot help loving and who cannot help receiving love from You. Please lead us this way. Continue reading “We need God’s Forgiveness”

Jesus Loves the Father

Cheon Seong Gyeong 745

The earth also breathes and moves.
Your cells breathe as well. Do you want
to live eternally on earth or do you want
to live eternally in a place where you
become an invisible entity of love? You
should live eternally in a world where
you become an invisible entity of love.
Even when God wants to reveal Himself,
you cannot see Him with your physical
body. That’s why you need a spirit self.
God is the center of the invisible spir-
it. Therefore, He wants to give human
beings, who are His counterparts, every-
thing from the eternal realm of the ideal
that He created. (111-111, 1981.2.1)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 578

Originally, people were to go to this
world. Yet, because there is no way of
going up in one step, each stage must be
pioneered and passed through, from the
individual to the family, from the fam-
ily to the tribe, and from the tribe to the
race.
In view of God’s providence, those
who died before the Old Testament
Age, which is the age of the providence
for individual salvation, desire to enter
that age and receive its benefits. As such,
going up each stage inevitably requires
indemnity. Crossing over each stage
inevitably requires conditions of indem-
nity, like in the case of Cain and Abel.

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

You must meet the hour when Heaven grants your wish gladly as you say these words: “To receive this love, I have passed through the road of death, the road of difficulties, and the road of pain. I have endeavored even to love Satan, and I have fought to hold onto a dying life, even to become an offering in place of him. I have loved the people of this earth as You, the Father, have. I have poured out my heart upon the people who desired love. Therefore, Father, please love me!”

Jesus, whom you believe in, walked a road of tears for over thirty years. He crossed over the hills of sorrow and death. Then he resurrected and said to God, “Father, I have come. I have understood the Father’s heart of 4,000 years, and I have come to this place as an offering in order to introduce that Shim Jung. Father!” Upon hearing that, God forgot all about His own dignity, deeply lamented, and cried tears of joy. That moment was the moment of finding one’s lost child and the moment a relationship was bound between heaven and earth. Christians do not know that at that moment, God forgot His own dignity, held onto Jesus, and shed tears of sorrow and tears of joy. You also must appear in front of God and say, “I have come the way You desired. I have believed Your words of wanting to meet me and have come to meet You. Therefore, please embrace me in Your bosom of love.” You must receive the blessing as you are embraced by God’s love and as He says to you, raising His hands, “Let us live in the eternal realm of love.” Only in that way can our ideal garden of hope, that is, the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven, be concluded. The establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven starts from each individual perfecting himself in this way.

Jesus fought for this ideology. Our ancestors sought this ideal. All the people who are walking the way today are going toward this goal. Continue reading “Jesus Loves the Father”