Author: Richard Urban

You Must Meet Jesus Again at the Second Advent

Ephesians 6

5 Slaves, you must obey your earthly masters. Show them great respect and be as loyal to them as you are to Christ. 6 Try to please them at all times, and not just when you think they are watching. You are slaves of Christ, so with your whole heart you must do what God wants you to do. 7 Gladly serve your masters, as though they were the Lord himself, and not simply people. 8 You know that you will be rewarded for any good things you do, whether you are slaves or free.

Richard:  I think that this speaks to our attitude as we do the duties that God gives us in life (through our conscience, mainly, but also to others such as our parents, or Christ).  We should give obeisance to Christ and be glad to go the way of sacrifice, knowing that we will reach the goal of happiness after the course of hardship.  The problem is, as Rev. Moon stated yesterday “We the followers of Jesus must go the way he went, whether we live or die. The problem is whether you really want to go this way.”

Isaiah 30

29 The Lord’s people will sing as they do when they celebrate a religious festival[e] at night. The Lord is Israel’s mighty rock,[f] and his people will be as happy as they are when they follow the sound of flutes to the mountain where he is worshiped.

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

We must go. We must go over the idea of faith that religious people hold. Furthermore, we must go over the cross of Jesus. Beyond the cross, we must go over Jesus’ heart of resurrection. We must even go over God’s heart and comfort Him. We must advance toward that kind of position.

How can we stop our footsteps from heading toward that longed-for place, the place where God resides, the place where Jesus dwells, the place of the true brotherhood of humankind? Before you lies the road of ideology that we must go, no matter what on earth holds us, stepping over every obstacle. We must even lead the people who have been those obstacles into following that road.

Have you ever thought about God’s hard work in finding us? From the day of the fall, God always sought Adam. God never failed to follow Adam’s descendants. He has been seeking you when you did not know He was doing so. Have you ever sought God? You must know that 6,000 years of sadness and millions of people’s deaths obstructed His path. When we know the hard work of God in seeking us, we should have the same kind of heart as we in turn seek God. Continue reading “You Must Meet Jesus Again at the Second Advent”

Do You Want to Go the Same Way as Jesus?

We the followers of Jesus must go the way he went, whether we live or die. The problem is whether you really want to go this way.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 194

What kind of person is a wise person?
He is the first to understand and recog-
nize the global era and the time of hope.
The wise person is the one who can bear
the responsibility of being the first to
recognize it, analyze it, criticize it, and
take action. In this way, he takes posses-
sion of it. Although he comes as an indi-
vidual, when the Messiah appears on
earth, he is not just an individual. He is
the fruit of faith, hope, and love that the
whole world desires. This is his value. All
the paths of history are connected to this
fruit. In other words; past, present and
future are all connected to it. Further-
more, all individuals, families, tribes,
peoples, nations and the world are con-
nected, and both heaven and earth are
connected to it. (13-142, 1964.01.01)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1848

You could number the fish as you
like, for example you could name one
“fish number one.” Then those num-
bers could form a unified name system
worldwide. A fish could be numbered
as fish one hundred-and-something or
fifty-something. If there is a special fish
you like, you can call and order it by
number. You can tell them that you are
going to the fish farm at a certain time
and ask them to prepare fish number so-
and-so for you. All you would need then
is a sashimi knife. You can make sashi-
mi with that particular fish and have a
tasty meal. Such a time will come. (274-109,
1995.10.29)

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

Jesus carried with him the suffering of humankind. He started from the lowest point of humanity and ended at the top of Golgotha. There he sacrificed his whole self. Where was God’s son, the heir apparent, the Prince of Heaven? Where was the Messiah of humankind, the Savior? At that place, Jesus could not assert one iota’s worth of his value. It was a tragic and pitiable place. Yet Jesus was able to go over that hill of death, look to Heaven and advance toward Heaven’s ideal garden. His ideology was more powerful than death. His ideology was more powerful than any force in history. Thus, he was able to push aside the realm of death and resurrect. He brought the people who opposed him to repentance and, hence, Christianity today has a base of victory.

We the followers of Jesus must go the way he went, whether we live or die. The problem is whether you really want to go this way. Continue reading “Do You Want to Go the Same Way as Jesus?”

Jesus Endured Hardships for Us

Leviticus 1

14 If you offer a bird for this kind of sacrifice, it must be a dove or a pigeon. 15 A priest will take the bird to the bronze altar, where he will wring its neck and put its head on the fire. Then he will drain out its blood on one side of the altar, 16 remove the bird’s craw with what is in it,[e] and throw them on the ash heap at the east side of the altar.[f]17 Finally, he will take the bird by its wings, tear it partially open,[g] and send it up in smoke with a smell that pleases me.

Richard:  We should not be afraid to sacrifice ourselves and do unpleasant tasks to help others.

I live among lions,
    who gobble down people!
They have spears and arrows
    instead of teeth,
    and they have sharp swords
    instead of tongues.

5 May you, my God, be honored
    above the heavens;
    may your glory be seen
    everywhere on earth.

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

Jesus was supposed to walk the road of the providence in front. Yet, he could not go in front. Instead, he stood behind everyone and said to each, “You go the easy way. I will walk the most difficult path.” He shouldered the difficulties of the nation and the world alone. He carried the cross of hardship, which humankind repels, by himself and lived for the sake of humankind. Jesus had to walk the road, even though it was one of historical sadness, entangled with evil conditions. Thus, with a thirty-year period of preparation and a three-year period of public life, he walked that road with intense, internal determination. The more intense that conviction became, the more he became a friend to sorrowful humankind. Moreover, he was mortified over the fact that human beings were suffering a life of fear and that Satan ruled humankind. In the humblest place in history, in the humblest place of the age, he fought with Satan.

He walked the road with a mind to say, “If humankind is in sorrow, I will take responsibility for its sadness. If humankind is in difficulty, I will take responsibility for that difficulty. If humankind lives in death, I will take responsibility for death.” His footsteps were those of an individual, but his mission was a historical mission, a mission of the age, a mission for the future. Continue reading “Jesus Endured Hardships for Us”

Jesus Came to Fulfill the Ideal

Cheon Seong Gyeong 223

Do you have a sovereign nation? We
are people without a nation. Although
we have a country called the Repub-
lic of Korea, the nation we are moving
towards is a different nation. It is God’s
nation. However, you cannot enter this
heavenly nation without receiving cer-
tified citizenship in that nation. Satan
cannot accuse those with certified citi-
zenship, regardless of whether they are
from the East, West, North or South; or
whether in the past, the present or the
future. Without such a citizenship, you
cannot enter the heavenly nation. (148-
288, 1986.10.25)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1420

Throughout all of history, there has
never been such a thing as registration
into the Kingdom of God. In fact, there
was no Kingdom of God in the spir-
it world. There was no family and no
nation there. Once a family passed on
to the spirit world, that family was sep-
arated; if there were ten members in a
family, all ten of them were separated.
However, that will not be the case from
now on. You must understand that, had
it not been for the Fall, the Kingdom of
Heaven would have been a place where
the whole family, the mother and father
and all the others, would have entered
together. If the grandparents, mother
and father, and sons and daughters unit-
ed together centering on true love, and
cherished the true love of God in that
family, even God Himself would show
absolute obedience to them. In a world
motivated by the love for others, where
one is obedient to such a tradition of love
and where people live for the sake of oth-
ers, the base of peace can come into exis-
tence. (210-354, 1990.12.27)

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

What I want to ask you today is: where is the ideology that can re- create people, the ideology which can break down historical adherence to old habits that humankind has not been able to escape, the ideology which can burn like a shock in the human heart? If there is a God, can He introduce this ideology to us without any condition? Have you ever thought about this? If you have not, you are a shameful sinner in the presence of your ancestors, who longed and fought for the ideal garden, the ideal world.

Jesus was pierced with his Shim Jung toward Heaven. He felt deeply about the new ideal world of creation, the world of hope humankind was to find. He acted according to what he felt and said to us, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

In what kind of surroundings did Jesus act in accordance with the heavenly shock he felt? All people were supposed to agree with each other and welcome Jesus wherever he went, but no one welcomed him. This was true, not only at that time, but even now, numerous people who live and who have lived in history, innumerable spirit persons in the spiritual world, also have not deeply understood the words that Jesus spoke and Jesus’ responsibility. None have welcomed Jesus. Continue reading “Jesus Came to Fulfill the Ideal”

We Need a New Ideology

Deuteronomy 13

The gods worshiped by other nations have never done anything for you or your ancestors. People who ask you to worship other gods are trying to get you to stop worshiping the Lord, who rescued you from slavery in Egypt. So put to death anyone who asks you to worship another god. 11 And when the rest of Israel hears about it, they will be afraid, and no one else will ever do such an evil thing again.

Richard:  God is very clear that you must worship Him only, not money, power or other idols.

Jeremiah 32

6 Later, when I was in prison, the Lord said:

7 Jeremiah, your cousin Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, will visit you. He must sell his field near the town of Anathoth, and because you are his nearest relative, you have the right and the responsibility to buy it and keep it in the family.[c]

8 Hanamel came, just as the Lord had promised. And he said, “Please buy my field near Anathoth in the territory of the Benjamin tribe. You have the right to buy it, and if you do, it will stay in our family.”

Richard:  Building generational wealth is a wonderful thing that families can do when they work together.  See the Cheon Seong Gyeong 1077 reading here:

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

Jesus Christ, who came as the culmination of 4,000 years of Heaven’s hope, came to introduce to humankind the ideology of the ideal Kingdom of Heaven and to fulfill that ideology. He was not caught up with words that indulged the customs of the age. He was not satisfied with the lifestyles of that society. He was not captivated by the customs of the ritualistic Jewish religion, entrenched in formality and rules.

Jesus appeared with the internal standard of new loyalty, denying every aspect of history. He had new words centering on that standard. When he appeared, taking novel action together with those new words, the chosen historical individuals, the chosen historical group and nation, raised a banner of revolt against him. We must realize that this was what obstructed the course of Christ’s establishing his ideology.

We can know through history that God, the Creator, exists and wants to raise human beings to a standard of the greatest ideology by connecting them to a better ideology, tomorrow more than today, next year more than tomorrow, this century more than next year, and in the next century more than now. Continue reading “We Need a New Ideology”