Author: Richard Urban

God Seeks True Family Love in the Completed Testament Age

Genesis 38

2 Some years later Judah’s wife died, and he mourned for her. He then went with his friend Hirah to the town of Timnah, where his sheep were being sheared. 13 Tamar found out that her father-in-law Judah was going to Timnah to shear his sheep. 14 She also realized that Shelah was now a grown man, but she had not been allowed to marry him. So she decided to dress in something other than her widow’s clothes and to cover her face with a veil. After this, she sat outside the town of Enaim on the road to Timnah.

15 When Judah came along, he did not recognize her because of the veil. He thought she was a prostitute 16 and asked her to sleep with him. She asked, “What will you give me if I do?”

17 “One of my young goats,” he answered.

“What will you give me to keep until you send the goat?” she asked.

18 “What do you want?” he asked in return.

“The ring on that cord around your neck,” was her reply. “I also want the special walking stick[c] you have with you.” He gave them to her, they slept together, and she became pregnant.

19 After returning home, Tamar took off the veil and dressed in her widow’s clothes again.

20 Judah had his friend Hirah take a goat to the woman, so he could get back the ring and walking stick, but she wasn’t there. 21 Hirah asked the people of Enaim, “Where is the prostitute who sat along the road outside your town?”

“There’s never been one here,” they answered.

22 Hirah went back and told Judah, “I couldn’t find the woman, and the people of Enaim said no prostitute had ever been there.”

23 “If you couldn’t find her, we’ll just let her keep the things I gave her,” Judah answered. “And we’d better forget about the goat, or else we’ll look like fools.”

24 About three months later someone told Judah, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has behaved like a prostitute, and now she’s pregnant!”

“Drag her out of town and burn her to death!” Judah shouted.

25 As Tamar was being dragged off, she sent someone to tell her father-in-law, “The man who gave me this ring, this cord, and this walking stick is the one who got me pregnant.”

26 “Those are mine!” Judah admitted. “She’s a better person than I am, because I broke my promise to let her marry my son Shelah.” After this, Judah never slept with her again.

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.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 4, 1959

Genesis 1:27

Genesis 2: 15-17

Acts 1

In the 6,000 year work of restoration, God has been able to be the God of hope and the God of faith, but never the God of love. What then must we do?

Based on the God of hope and the God of faith, we should create an environment in which we can serve the God of love. Now is an important time when such circumstances must be attained. So far, a life of faith has been a matter of finding one’s individual self; that is, to restore a sinless original individual in the position of the lost Adam and Eve.

Now what is it that God wants in the end? First, He wants to find a family where individuals are united centering on God’s love. Centering on the family He can love, God then wants to find the tribe, nation and world which unfold from it. This is the whole Will of God.

Thus, before the times of hope and faith pass by, we should attain all hope and faith. Our individual selves should amalgamate the fruits of the entire 6,000 years of God’s providence: that is, they should take the shape of perfect Adam and Eve. We should then form a new family centered on God’s love. You should know this.

Jesus came to the earth with the promise of the heavenly kingdom, but he left without fulfilling it. Saints and sages of the past witnessed to Heaven, but left without realizing their intentions. Thus, we must reclaim the heavenly kingdom, which has been sought after by all historical hopes and faiths, the garden of victory. Continue reading “God Seeks True Family Love in the Completed Testament Age”

The Completed Testament Age is the Age of Family Love

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1638

What would be the center of love?
It must be God. He is the unique, eter-
nal, and unchanging being who existed
before the formation of the universe.
Love is the flow of heart; it is the mani-
festation of the internal heart flowing
substantially. Hence, God’s essence is
heart. Such a God is the unified being
who is the fundamental cause of the for-
mation of the universe as spoken about
in ontology. I do not even feel the need to
mention that this formation of the uni-
verse is exactly referring to the process
of God’s creation.
Then how was God able to create the
universe and human beings? He could
do so because He has heart. Life can arise
only where there is heart, and where
there is life, the generative process (cre-
ation) can take place. The work of cre-
ation must have a purpose behind it, for
the simple reason that by its nature, the
heart always aims toward fulfillment.
Therefore, it follows that the purpose of
creation is to bring joy that will satisfy
God’s heart. This joy is derived from the
creation, especially from human beings
who most closely resemble Him.
Hence, what God aimed to create
were peoples and nations that resemble
His love and creativity. This is plainly
discernible from the fact that human-
kind also seeks after these same things.
The universal ideal is none other than
the fervent aspiration to pursue a world
which should have been rightfully ours
to enjoy. (65-258, 1972.11.26)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1191

What is the secret method to restore
the right of the eldest son? Satan claims,
“God is a perfect God and the Adam and
Eve He is seeking must also be perfect.
Had they not fallen, it would have been
the Principled standard that Adam and
Eve have to love me as the original arch-
angel. Thus, even though I have fallen
and I found myself in the position of a
bad one, if you all are in a position to
be called good and true, you must set
up the condition of having loved me.
Without this, You, God, cannot be in
the position of God in front of me.” This
is the problem. Satan stops everything
dead, saying, “If there is a secret method
of uniting with you, what is it? The per-
son You send must love me. Unless he
stands together with You in the position
of loving me, and makes the condition
enabling him to say that he loved me, he
will not be able to regain the birthright
of the firstborn son that I have been hold-
ing on to.” That is why Jesus exhorted us
to love our enemies. (131-182, 1984.5.1)

Let Us Regain the Victorious Nation

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 4, 1959

Genesis 1:27

Genesis 2: 15-17

Acts 1

The title of today’s speech is “Let Us Regain the Victorious Nation,” meaning “Let Us Regain Israel.” Since “Israel” means victory, I will speak on the title “Let Us Regain the Victorious Nation.”

In the passage just read from Genesis, it says that God created man and blessed him. Yet this blessing was not a realized blessing; it was a blessing of promise. Thus, Adam and Eve aspired to the day when they could dominate all things with great hope. God asked Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said, “In the day you eat of it, you shall die.” (Genesis 2:17) Thus, Adam and Eve were to live and cherish the blessed hope in their hearts. Only when they believed in and followed the Word could they start a family as the son and daughter who could fulfill God’s Will. This was the Principle.

We human beings must have a hope. Next, after we possess hope, we should make an eternal relationship. A relationship is made through the process of faith. We can receive God’s love when our hope and faith are realized. This is the Principle. For this reason, Paul said in I Corinthians 13, “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” We human beings, however, have lost hope and faith through the fall. By losing hope and faith, we have lost love centered on God. We should know that the 6,000-year history of the providence of restoration was for the sake of restoring this love.

Now, in place of Adam and Eve, we should have, as our hope, the blessing God allowed before all things and heed and adhere to God’s admonitions and prohibitions to make this hope our own. It cannot be otherwise. Only when we possess God-centered hope and faith and then win in the life of praxis can we realize the level of individual restoration where we can receive God’s love. We should know that any individual, family, church, and even all things are placed within this realm. God created the world with such an ideal. Since all these were lost through the fall, humanity has been searching for hope, faith and love until now. Continue reading “The Completed Testament Age is the Age of Family Love”

The Heart of Witnessing

Cheon Seong Gyeong 357

Love is simple and foolish. It does not
care about any situation. If I truly love
someone, I am not concerned whether
someone is watching us from the side.
A love that is conscious about some-
one watching is a love within a certain
limit. How simple and foolish is the love
that does not care whether someone is
watching. (33-113, 1970.8.9)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1059

Blessed families should be exempla-
ry in their life of attendance to Heaven.
They should live a life of offering dona-
tions, doing Pledge service and witness-
ing. (35-312, 1970.10.30)

Let Us Regain the Victorious Nation

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 4, 1959

Genesis 1:27

So God created humankind[a] in his image,
    in the image of God he created them;[b]
    male and female he created them.

Genesis 2: 15-17

15 The Lord God put the man in the Garden of Eden to take care of it and to look after it. 16 But the Lord told him, “You may eat fruit from any tree in the garden, 17 except the one that has the power to let you know the difference between right and wrong. If you eat any fruit from that tree, you will die before the day is over!”

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

Acts 1

1 Theophilus, I first wrote to you[a] about all that Jesus did and taught from the very first 2 until he was taken up to heaven. But before he was taken up, he gave orders to the apostles he had chosen with the help of the Holy Spirit.

3 For forty days after Jesus had suffered and died, he proved in many ways that he had been raised from death. He appeared to his apostles and spoke to them about God’s kingdom. 4 While he was still with them, he said:

Don’t leave Jerusalem yet. Wait here for the Father to give you the Holy Spirit, just as I told you he has promised to do. 5 John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

6 While the apostles were still with Jesus, they asked him, “Lord, are you now going to give Israel its own king again?”[b]

7 Jesus said to them, “You don’t need to know the time of those events that only the Father controls. 8 But the Holy Spirit will come upon you and give you power. Then you will tell everyone about me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and everywhere in the world.” 9 After Jesus had said this and while they were watching, he was taken up into a cloud. They could not see him,

Prayer

Beloved Father, thank You for allowing us this day of the new year. We have come before You in this first hour, so please allow us to offer You a true bow, without blemish. Let this be a joyful hour for You. We eagerly desire that You forgive our having been disloyal to You. Guide us to become able to abandon all we have for the sake of the providential Will and to more than faithfully serve Your altar. Please lead us in this hour. We sincerely desire that You accept our bodies and minds as we offer them to You. Please be present and give us Your words of command.

Father, all we have been fighting for this year, centering on the Will, must bear victorious fruit. Please allow us to exert all our effort and bring pleasing results to You. We sincerely pray that You grant the grace that Your sons and daughters can enjoy and bestow a mark of victory upon Your chosen ones. Everywhere lonely brothers and sisters across the country bow before You, spread Your loving and gracious hands and send Your grace of compassion.

We sincerely desire that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can manifest full loyalty to Your Will for the whole. We sincerely pray that You extend Your loving hands and compassionate grace everywhere Your name is used. Please take charge of all the affairs here today. We prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.

What is Jesus’ Deepest Desire?

Numbers 16

12 Then Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, but they sent back this message: “We won’t come! 13 It’s bad enough that you took us from our rich farmland in Egypt to let us die here in the desert. Now you also want to boss us around! 14 You keep promising us rich farmlands with fertile fields and vineyards—but where are they? Stop trying to trick these people. No, we won’t come to see you.”

Ezekiel 13

2 They do things I would never do. They lie to good people and encourage them to do wrong, and they convince the wicked to keep sinning and ruin their lives. 23 I will no longer let these women give false messages and use magic, and I will free my people from their control. Then they will know that I, the Lord, have done these things.

Richard:  This verse could well be about those who are following Hak Jan Han after the death of Rev. Sun Myung Moon in 2012.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 3, 1959

Matthew 1:18-2:12

If all of creation and the billion believers in heaven were to appeal to us on the earth, what would they ask? They would ask us to fulfill Jesus’ wish. What was Jesus’ wish? It was that, after coming to the earth, he could have true parents, true brothers, true disciples, a true race, a true nation, and a true world. This was Jesus’ wish.

Since Jesus has been fighting until now, unable to rest, to become God’s true son or daughter today, each of us must be able to become Jesus’ parents, his true brothers, his true disciples, followers and representatives. We must become Jesus’ brave soldiers who realize a true world. Only when we become like this will Jesus’ wish be fulfilled for the first time.

Today we must become the throng of people who stand on the side of Jesus, embracing this kind of heart. Jesus came with this kind of heart. Therefore, we also must become the people who feel the joy of meeting by going back to look for Jesus at the time of his birth. With a mind filled with emotion, equipped with this kind of heart, we must know how to congratulate Jesus after meeting him. Only then can we become qualified to congratulate the Lord of the Second Coming in the future. Continue reading “What is Jesus’ Deepest Desire?”

Jesus’ True Wish

Cheon Seong Gyeong 515

What was God’s will? It was for
Adam and Eve to establish the standard
of the perfection of man and woman and
establish God’s family based on His love.
Yet, was this done? God’s family was not
established. Jesus understood and also
believed in this aspect of God’s will, but
due to the disbelief of the Jewish people,
Israel’s historical four-thousand-year
foundation for Jesus and Judaism col-
lapsed, and Jesus died miserably on the
cross. Until now, who has understood
this heart-wrenching situation? No one!
You came to understand it through me
today. That being the case, how glad
Jesus must be! As the bridegroom, Jesus
could not perfect God’s family without
establishing his bride as the true mother.
Without Jesus’ family being established,
the will of God would remain unful-
filled. (Blessed Family – 488)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1729

Who on earth are God, Adam and
Eve? Who are Adam and Eve? If Adam
had not fallen and become perfected,
God would have entered into him, and
if Eve had become perfected, He would
have entered into her. God would have
entered the separate embodiments in
substantial form of His dual charac-
teristics and brought together in union
what was divided. How is God to bring
this union about? It is not through force.
It is through love. From love, stimula-
tion is generated, and reproduction is
brought about, the reproduction of the
ideal world. (148-290, 1986.10.25

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 3, 1959

Matthew 1:18-2:12

Jesus did not eat for his good; he did not live for his sake. He did not feel sorrow on his behalf or fret for himself. Even during times of sadness, Jesus looked at the Father who grieved and felt rebuked. We must emulate the virtues of Jesus, the son of God, who would then feel his responsibility more strongly, bowing his head, thinking that Heaven’s pain was greater than his, no matter how great was his own.

Jesus appeared with the responsibility to save unbelieving humankind. Therefore, even though there were many paths of tribulation, toil, lamentation and pain during his life, Jesus did not care. We must know the heart of Jesus today, who felt keen regret, even in his dreams, thinking how the Israelites were unable to stand before the Father.

As we become more and more sincere in relation to the Will, we must hold onto Heaven with our minds and the earth with our bodies. Even as he walked the path of Golgotha, even as he shed blood and felt bone- and flesh-melting agony, Jesus held onto God and comforted Him. He held onto all humankind and worried about them. We must know this kind of heart today. Continue reading “Jesus’ True Wish”