James | Daily Inspiration

Faith apart from Works is Dead

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 269

Then, where is it that I live? I do not stand only in the teacher’s position or only in the owner’s position. Even the president of a university returns home as a parent in the evening and even the president of Korea returns to the Blue House. Even the one who commands the royal courtiers must go home to sleep and there he becomes a father, a parent.
When we see these things, we realize that parents are the center. The school is based on parents and the position of owner is based on parents. Everyone may go out, but they will eventually return to their parents. The place where you can live without having to return is the place where your parents are. That is how it works with all things involving true love. The saying that the king, the teacher and the parents are equal has its basis there. I am now conveying a true teaching to you. This is why I am the best of all teachers.
Among rulers there has been none who ruled with love. This is why your mind and body desire to live forever resonating with me and the way I am going. Those who really love the Unification Church and those in the Unification Church who have the heart to love God, love humankind and love the fundamental essence of human beings, are unable to leave me. This is because I have the heart of a parent, the heart of a teacher and the heart of an owner. Through me, you can become parents, you can become owners and you can become teachers. (215-78, 1991.2.6)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1242

You must understand how important the Blessing is from a providential point of view. God’s Blessing is received where the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and the Kingdom of Heaven in the spirit world meet. It is the place where the eternal world and the corporeal world meet horizontally. (Blessed Family – 544)

Good Deeds

Good deeds are a manifestation of a healthy spiritual life. Good deeds promote friendship and harmony in our dealings with people. Good deeds create merit for heaven and improve our relationship with God. While religions often emphasize faith as the key to salvation, all genuine faith is manifested outwardly in transformed behavior. Father Moon recommends unflagging efforts to do good deeds, whether they are appreciated or not, both to fulfill love in our hearts and as spiritual training to love more profoundly.

Many garlands can be made from a heap of flowers. Many good deeds should be done by one born a mortal.
Dhammapada 53 (Buddhism)

Be mindful of your duty [to God], and do good works; and again, be mindful of your duty, and believe; and once again: be mindful of your duty, and do right. God loves the doers of good.
Qur’an 5.93

Continue reading “Faith apart from Works is Dead”

I Will Raise Up a Righteous Branch

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James 2

²⁰Does some stupid person want proof that faith without deeds is useless? ²¹Well, our ancestor Abraham pleased God by putting his son Isaac on the altar to sacrifice him. ²²Now you see how Abraham’s faith and deeds worked together. He proved that his faith was real by what he did. ²³This is what the Scriptures mean by saying, “Abraham had faith in God, and God was pleased with him.” That’s how Abraham became God’s friend.

²⁴You can now see that we please God by what we do and not only by what we believe. ²⁵For example, Rahab had been a prostitute. But she pleased God when she welcomed the spies and sent them home by another way.

²⁶Anyone who doesn’t breathe is dead, and faith that doesn’t do anything is just as dead!

Jonah 1

¹²Jonah told them, “Throw me into the sea, and it will calm down. I’m the cause of this terrible storm.”

¹³The sailors tried their best to row to the shore. But they could not do it, and the storm kept getting worse every minute. ¹⁴So they prayed to the Lord, “Please don’t let us drown for taking this man’s life. Don’t hold us guilty for killing an innocent man. All of this happened because you wanted it to.” ¹⁵Then they threw Jonah overboard, and the sea calmed down. ¹⁶The sailors were so terrified that they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made all kinds of promises.

¹⁷The Lord sent a big fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

Eschatology and Messianic Hope

The Messiah

Scriptures of many religions speak of a coming leader who will consummate the fulfillment of the divine will on earth. He will manifest in his person the righteousness and compassion of God, bring about the final defeat of evil, and establish the Kingdom of heaven on earth. The Hebrew title Messiah—Christ in Greek—means “anointed one,” that person specially chosen by God for this mission and empowered to accomplish it.
While the term Messiah is specific to only Judaism and Christianity, prophecies that a leader will come and accomplish such a mission are nearly universal. Buddhists anticipate the coming of the Mireya Buddha, and Hindu prophecies speak of a future avatar named Kalka. Muslims expect that the second advent of Jesus will be as a Muslim imam, and Shiite Muslims look to a future imam Mahdi. Zoroastrian scriptures prophesy the coming of the Saoshyant, and Confucian texts speak of a true Man who will bring peace to the world by perfectly instituting the Way of Confucius. Nevertheless, as this world is growing smaller and cultures increasingly interrelated, the task of world salvation should encompass all religions. Hence it is likely that God will send one person to fulfill all these religious hopes.
The next group of passages offer some specific prophecies about the Messiah’s coming, along with samples of Father Moon’s extensive teaching on these matters. Will the Messiah come supernaturally, as it were on the clouds, or naturally, born and raised as a human being on earth? Does the Messiah come in glory, or does he take the road of suffering and humiliation as did Jesus before him? Is the Messiah uniquely divine, or does he appear as the “first fruits” of a new, God-like humanity? How the Messiah is likened to Adam, and in what sense is he a new Adam? What is the meaning of the Marriage of the Lamb? Does the Messiah have a special mission to Israel?
The final group of passages consists of prophecies by Nostradamus and Asian mystics that speak of the Messiah appearing in the east, and even specifically in Korea. Especially the Korean prophecies relate directly to Father Moon’s self-understanding of his messianic mission

1. The Messiah and Savior Promised by All Religions

“Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Revelation 22.20

Behold, the days are coming, says the lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The lord is our righteousness.”

Jeremiah 23.5-6

In those days, brethren, there will arise in the world an Exalted One named Metteya [Maitreya]. He will be an Arahant, Fully Awakened, abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy, with knowledge of the worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to mortals willing to be led, a teacher for gods and men, an Exalted One, a Buddha, even as I am now. He, by himself, will thoroughly know and see, as it were face to face, this universe, with its worlds of the spirits, its Brahmas and its Maras, and its world of recluses and brahmins, of princes and peoples, even as I now, by myself, thoroughly know and see them. The Law, lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely in its consummation, will he proclaim, both in the spirit and in the letter; the higher life will he make known, in all its fullness and in all its purity, even as I do now. He will be accompanied by a congregation of some thousands of brethren, even as I am now accompanied by a congregation of some hundreds of brethren.

Digha Nikaya 3.76 (Buddhism)

What will be your state when the Son of Mary descends amongst you, and there will be an Imam amongst you? What would you do when the son of Mary would descend and lead you?

Hadith of Muslim (Islam)

The Imam [Mahdi] who will create a world state will make the ruling nations pay for their crimes against society. He will bring succor to humanity. He will take out the hidden wealth from the breast of the earth and will distribute it equitably amongst the needy deserving. He will teach you simple living and high thinking. He will make you understand that virtue is a state of character which is always a mean between the two extremes, and which is based upon equity and justice. He will revive the teaching of the Holy Qur’an and the traditions of the Holy Prophet after the world has ignored them as dead letters…

He will protect and defend himself with resources of science and supreme knowledge. His control over these resources will be complete. He will know how supreme they are and how carefully they will have to be used. His mind will be free from desires of bringing harm and injury to humanity. Such knowledge to him will be like the property which was wrongly possessed by others and for which he was waiting for the permission to repossess and use.

He, in the beginning, will be like a poor stranger unknown and uncared for, and Islam then will be in the hopeless and helpless plight of an exhausted camel who has laid down its head and is wagging its tail. With such a start he will establish an empire of God in this world.

He will be the final demonstration and proof of God’s merciful wish to acquaint man with the right ways of life.

Nahjul Balagha, Khutba 141, 187 (Shiite Islam)

When the practices taught by the Vedas and the institutes of law shall nearly have ceased, and the close of the Kali age shall be nigh, a portion of that divine being who exists of His own spiritual nature in the character of Brahma, and who is the beginning and the end, and who comprehends all things, shall descend upon the earth. He will be born as Kalki in the family of an eminent brahmin of Sambhala village, endowed with the eight superhuman faculties. By his irresistible might he will destroy all the barbarians and thieves, and all whose minds are devoted to iniquity. He will then reestablish righteousness upon earth; and the minds of those who live at the end of the Kali age shall be awakened, and shall be as pellucid as crystal. The men who are thus changed by virtue of that peculiar time shall be as the seeds of human beings, and shall give birth to a race that shall follow the laws of the Krita Age, the Age of Purity.

Vishnu Purana 4.24 (Hinduism)

He shall be called the victorious Benefactor (Saoshyant) and World-renovator (Astavatereta). He is the Benefactor because he will benefit the entire physical world; he is the World-renovator because he will establish the physical living existence indestructible. He will oppose the evil of the progeny of the biped and withstand the enmity produced by the faithful.

Avesta, Farvardin Yast 13.129 (Zoroastrianism)

It is only the man with the most perfect divine moral nature who is able to combine in himself quickness of apprehension, intelligence and understanding—qualities necessary for the exercise of command, magnanimity, generosity, benignity, and gentleness—qualities necessary for the exercise of patience, originality, energy, strength of character, and determination—qualities necessary for the exercise of endurance, piety, noble seriousness, order, and regularity—qualities necessary for the exercise of dignity, grace, method, subtlety, and penetration—qualities necessary for the exercise of critical judgment.

Thus all-embracing and vast is the nature of such a man. Profound it is and inexhaustible, like a living spring of water, ever running out with life and vitality. All-embracing and vast, it is like Heaven. Profound and inexhaustible, it is like the abyss.

As soon as such a man shall make his appearance in the world, all people will reverence him. Whatever he says, all people will believe it. Whatever he does, all people will be pleased with it. Thus his fame and name will spread and fill all the civilized world, extending even to savage countries, wherever ships and carriages reach, wherever the labor and enterprise of man penetrate, wherever the heavens overshadow and the earth sustain, wherever the sun and moon shine, wherever frost and dew fall. All who have life and breath will honor and love him. Therefore we may say, “He is the equal of God.”

It is only he in this world, who has realized his absolute self, that can order and adjust the great relations of human society, fix the fundamental principles of morality, and understand the laws of growth and reproduction of the universe.

Doctrine of the Mean 31-32 (Confucianism)

It Only Takes a Spark to Start a Forest Fire!

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James 3

It takes only a spark to start a forest fire! ⁶The tongue is like a spark. It is an evil power that dirties the rest of the body and sets a person’s entire life on fire with flames that come from hell itself. ⁷All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures can be tamed and have been tamed. ⁸But our tongues get out of control. They are restless and evil, and always spreading deadly poison.

Ecclesiastes 1

¹⁰I got whatever I wanted and did whatever made me happy. But most of all, I enjoyed my work. ¹¹Then I thought about everything I had done, including the hard work, and it was simply chasing the wind. Nothing on earth is worth the trouble.

Jesus

4. Preparation for Christ’s Advent and the Responsibility of John the Baptist

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

If the Messiah were sent to this fallen world without any preparations or foundation, the enemy Satan would definitely capture him and kill him. Therefore, to prepare for his coming, God worked throughout history to establish religions. God erected the major religions and separated good from evil to find the people on His side. God’s plan was to raise an individual, family, tribe, people and nation that could be victorious over Satan. It would be the prepared foundation, ready to unite totally with the Messiah when he came. That foundation was the nation called Israel, which means victory. (74:59-60, November 12, 1974)

Through many prophets, God sent messages promising that He would send the Messiah to Israel. Thus God built a foundation of messianic expectation in the Jewish people. At the proper time, God fulfilled His promise by sending His Son, the Messiah. He was Jesus. (73:218, September 18, 1974)

When Jesus was born, God proclaimed his advent. He sent the three wise men from the East as well as Simon, Anna, John the Baptist and others to testify widely.

Concerning John the Baptist in particular, many people knew that an angel had appeared and testified to his conception. (Luke 1.13) The miracles surrounding his birth stirred all of Judea in expectation. (Luke 1.63-66) Furthermore, John’s ascetic life in the wilderness was so impressive that many people questioned in their hearts whether perhaps he was the Christ. (Luke 3.15) God’s purpose behind sending such a great personality as John the Baptist to bear witness to Jesus as the Messiah was to encourage the Jewish people to believe in Jesus. (Exposition of the Divine Principle,Messiah 1.3)I

f the Jewish believers who respected John the Baptist as a prophet had united with Jesus, what would have happened? Jesus’ disciples would have been the leading citizens of Israel, not poor fishermen. With that level of support, who would have dared arrested and killed Jesus? Was it originally God’s will that Jesus’ chief followers should be tax collectors and prostitutes? (74:153, November 28, 1974)

When the mind of John the Baptist was focused on God, he recognized Jesus as the Messiah and testified to him. Later, when the inspiration left him and he returned to a mundane state, his ignorance returned and exacerbated his faithlessness. Unable to acknowledge that he was the return of Elijah, John began to regard Jesus in the same disbelieving way as other Jews viewed him, particularly after he was imprisoned. Jesus’ every word and deed seemed to him only strange and perplexing. At one point, John tried to resolve his doubts by sending his disciples to Jesus and asking, “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Matt. 11.3)…

John the Baptist had been chosen while still inside the womb for the mission of attending Jesus. He led an arduous, ascetic life in the wilderness, building his ministry in order to prepare the way for the coming Messiah. When Jesus began his public ministry, God revealed the identity of Jesus to John before anyone else and inspired John to bear witness to him as the Son of God. Yet John did not properly receive the grace that Heaven had bestowed on him. Therefore, when confronted with John’s doubting question, Jesus did not answer explicitly that he was the Messiah; he instead answered in this circuitous way. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Messiah 2.3)

Jesus said, “Among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.” (Matt. 11.11) What did he mean by this? The mission of prophets through the ages was mainly to testify to the Messiah. Prophets in the past testified from a distance of time, but John the Baptist was the prophet contemporary with the Messiah, the prophet who could bear witness, in person, to the living Christ. Therefore he was the greatest among prophets. However, John failed to love and serve the Messiah. Even the least of the prophets then living in the spirit world knew that Jesus was the Son of God and served him. That is why John, who was given the greatest mission and failed, became less than the least.

From his birth, John should have lived and died in the service of Christ, but instead he died over involvement in a trivial matter, the affair of Herodias. Was that the path God intended for John the Baptist?

Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven has advanced forcefully, and forceful men lay hold of it.” (Matt. 11:12) In other words, Jesus said that during days of John the Baptist just prior to the appearance of Jesus, there was the possibility that the Kingdom of Heaven could be taken and claimed by forceful men.

If John the Baptist had believed in Jesus, he certainly would have become Jesus’ chief disciple. Jesus’ 12 disciples and 70 disciples would have been the leaders of John the Baptist’s group. As Jews of good reputation, they could have won over the scribes and priests to Jesus’ side.

One day John’s followers came to him and asked, “Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” (John 3.26) They carried concern in their question: Look at all the people going to Jesus. What about you? John replied, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” (John 3.30) Usually this passage is interpreted as evidence of John’s humility. But what it really means is that John and Jesus were not united in heart and action. If Jesus and John had been united, their destiny would be to rise or fall together. Know, then, that the reason Jesus died on the cross was due to the failure of John the Baptist. (69:139, October 23, 1973)

It Only Takes A Spark to Start a Forest Fire!

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James 3

Psalm 41

⁶When visitors come,
all they ever bring
    are worthless words,
    and when they leave,
    they spread gossip.

Women of the Bible

6. Bathsheba

It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am with child.”
So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David… David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants are my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”…
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab; and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite was slain also…
When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she made lamentation for her husband. And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son… And the lordstruck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became sick. David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in and lay all night upon the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground; but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. On the seventh day the child died…
Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went into her, and lay with her; and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the lord loved him.
2 Samuel 11.2-27, 12.15-18, 24

King David, of blessed memory, was a great sage and recognized transmigrations. When he saw Uriah the Hittite, he knew that he was the Serpent who had seduced Eve, and when he saw Bathsheba he knew that she was Eve, and he knew that he himself was Adam. Thus, he wished to take Bathsheba from Uriah, because she was destined to be David’s mate… And the reason Nathan the prophet chastised him was because he hastened, and did not wait… for his haste caused him to go to her without performing tik-kun (restoration), for he first needed to remove from her the contamination of the Serpent, and thereafter to go to her, and he did not do so. Therefore, his first son Bathsheba died, for he was from the impurity of the Serpent, but from there on there was no Satan and no bad effect.31Sefer Peli’ah (Judaism)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Bathsheba had cause to hate King David. But if she had, she could not have become the mother of King Solomon. She could have hated King David for intentionally sending her husband Uriah to the battlefield to be killed and taking her as his wife, but she accepted it as her fate, or rather as Heaven’s will. In other words, she believed that King David’s act was not done out of ill intent, but rather to fulfill a greater purpose of God. Further, Bathsheba was a patriot who prayed for her nation to be victorious even if her husband Uriah might have to make the ultimate sacrifice. Bathsheba thought that although her husband was killed, it was honorable for him to die as a loyal subject. Moreover, it was to his honor that she accepted being offered to the king with joy. She had such a high-standard viewpoint. She thought, “It is my duty to my husband that I offer myself to the king with loyalty and devotion.” With this attitude, she married King David. On this foundation, she could give birth to King Solomon. (40:97, January 24, 1971)

King Solomon’s mother was Bathsheba. She had been the wife of Uriah, but King David stole her from him. How, then, could the child from that union become King Solomon? Bathsheba was in the position of a second wife. In terms of the providence to restore the positions in the Garden of Eden before the Fall, David was in the position of Adam and Uriah was in the position of the arch-angel. But the position of Eve had to be restored through a woman in the position of the wife of the Archangel. The archangel caused Eve to fall by stealing her from Adam, her original partner, and possessing her with false love. In order to indemnify this, David, Uriah and Bathsheba should repeat this triangular relationship and reverse it. The child born on the foundation of having fulfilled this condition according to the standard of the Principle would be a child of glory, blessed with Heaven’s love. That child of glory was King Solomon. (35:168, October 13, 1970)

Women on God’s Side Must Go the Opposite Way

James 2

²⁰But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works isdead? ²¹Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? ²²Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? ²³And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. ²⁴You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

Richard: The “works” is the providence of Home Church.

Matthew 10

¹³If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. ¹⁴And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. ¹⁵Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!

Richard: Good advice for visiting your neighbors when doing Home Church.

Women of the Bible

4. Tamar

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Tamar was one example of how God’s lineage developed through women with an unusual path of life. Why would God use women of questionable morals in the dispensation? Ordinary women who offer their bodies in love, as Eve did, belong to Satan and are 100 percent on Satan’s side. Women on God’s side must go the opposite way. Hence, God needed women who could deny love on Satan’s side and [offer their bodies] to return to God.
Since Tamar met this criterion, God selected her and worked through her to fulfill the providence. What exactly did Tamar do? She was a righteous woman who was willing to take on the role of a sinner as she strived to fulfill God’s will. As Eve lied to God and her husband-to-be at the time of the Fall, Tamar deceived her father-in-law and her husband to-be, the third son of Judah. Tamar did precisely what Eve did, risking her life, but she did it for God’s will. (92:286-88, April 18, 1977)

I am sure Tamar prayed like this, “O Lord God, I miss the realm of Thy blessing. I am doing this to continue Thy blessed lineage, so God, please forgive me. Even though I may die tens of thousands of times, if only I can continue the blessed lineage of Judah through this immoral act, I have no regret.”
With that desperate heart, Tamar did not mind facing even death in order to fulfill God’s Will and resolve His grief. Tamar’s filial piety and obedience to God’s will was truly amazing. Yet it was painful for God to have to work His providence of restoration through this kind of complicated situation. (110:222-23, November 18, 1980)

Satan sowed the seed of false love within the womb of Eve, which gave birth to evil life. Therefore, God needed to purify a mother’s womb from which the heavenly Son could be born. Despite Jacob’s victory in winning over Esau, the forty-year period from their birth to their reconciliation still remained to be separated from Satan. The great mother who assumed the responsibility to meet this condition was Tamar.
Tamar had the single-minded conviction that she would carry on the lineage of the chosen people. To that end, she disguised herself as a prostitute and slept with her father-in-law, Judah, and became pregnant with twins. At the time of birth, one of the twin sons, Zerah, stretched out his hand from the womb to be born first. But he was pulled back into the womb; and the second son, Perez, was born first, taking the position of the elder brother. Thus, within the womb of Tamar, the first and second sons fought, and their reversal of position separated them from Satan.
This became the condition for restoration in the womb. Upon this condition, the Messiah could be conceived within the blood lineage of the chosen people, on the base of the nation of Israel that could stand up to the Roman Empire two thousand years later. The victorious foundation on the national level could then be formed in the womb of a mother free of satanic accusation, prepared for the seed of the Son of God. On this foundation, the holy mother Mary emerged in the mainstream of God’s providence. (277:205-06, April 16, 1966)