Category: John

Know Where the Final Line of Faith Is

Ezekiel 16

40 Your lovers and an angry mob will stone you to death; they will cut your dead body into pieces 41 and burn down your houses. Other women will watch these terrible things happen to you. I promise to stop you from being a prostitute and paying your lovers for sex.

42 Only then will I calm down and stop being angry and jealous. 43 You made me furious by doing all these disgusting things and by forgetting how I took care of you when you were young. Then you made things worse by acting like a prostitute. You must be punished! I, the LordGod, have spoken.

John 8

4 Jesus replied:

Even if I do speak for myself, what I say is true! I know where I came from and where I am going. But you don’t know where I am from or where I am going. 15 You judge in the same way that everyone else does, but I don’t judge anyone. 16 If I did judge, I would judge fairly, because I would not be doing it alone. The Father who sent me is here with me. 17 Your Law requires two witnesses to prove that something is true. 18 I am one of my witnesses, and the Father who sent me is the other one.

The Grieving Father, Son and Daughter as They Try to Establish the Kingdom of Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
May 17, 1959

John 14:1-24

Heaven is a place of true faith and true practice. Therefore, when people today cannot analyze and empathize with the suffering and sad heart of God, they should realize that they are not yet in a position to welcome the world of the heavenly ideology with both arms.

That is why the footsteps of Jesus were precious. Jesus knew that when his words were established, heaven would be established. When he carried out his words, the will of Heaven was also carried out. Jesus was living up to this standard. His concern for humankind was great; his concern for Heavenly Father was great; and his capacity to experience the sorrows of Heaven and earth was great.

There is no verse in the Bible portraying Jesus dancing with joy. Why? Because God could not yet speak to His children, humankind, in the garden of happiness, Jesus could not speak freely, with joy, even if he sometimes felt personal happiness. The words of Jesus should have been introduced with a heart of joy. Yet in reality, they were uttered with a heart of sorrow. You should be filled with the same emotion and realize the dignity of Jesus’ words.

Jesus and I should connect with one another, transcending history. When words are not capable of connecting with the ideological realm of life’s reality, those words are not of Heaven. Continue reading “Know Where the Final Line of Faith Is”

Do Not Betray Heaven

Judges 17

he young man went for a walk, 11-12 then he agreed to stay with Micah and be his priest. He lived in Micah’s house, and Micah treated him like one of his own sons. 13 Micah said, “I have a Levite as my own priest. Now I know that the Lord will be kind to me.”

John 1

3-44 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, “Come with me.”

45 Philip then found Nathanael and said, “We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets[f] wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
April 19, 1959

Matthew 25:1-13

Now you must go to this position. If you admit that you have no means to go to it, however, what should you do? What do you have to give up? First, you should know that you can never proceed if you hold onto human relationships, situations and hopes.

What do we have to make a relationship with to go beyond? We cannot just argue about sorrowful human history. We should clear the sorrows of providential history and Heaven. Without this, we can clear up nothing.

Human history is one of betraying the will which Heaven set up with hope and carefully laid plans millions of times. We should be able to feel this to our bones and in our flesh. Only with such a heart can we hate the sinful reality and stop sinful human history. Continue reading “Do Not Betray Heaven”

God Will Drive People Toward the One Ideal

John 17

6 You have given me some followers from this world, and I have shown them what you are like. They were yours, but you gave them to me, and they have obeyed you. 7 They know that you gave me everything I have. 8 I told my followers what you told me, and they accepted it. They know that I came from you, and they believe that you are the one who sent me. 9 I am praying for them, but not for those who belong to this world.[a] My followers belong to you, and I am praying for them. 10 All that I have is yours, and all that you have is mine, and they will bring glory to me.

Habakkuk

3 You are the same Holy God
who came from Teman
    and Paran[b] to help us.
The brightness of your glory
    covered the heavens,
and your praises were heard
    everywhere on earth.
4 Your glory shone like the sun,
and light flashed from your hands,
    hiding your mighty power.
5 Dreadful diseases and plagues
marched in front
    and followed behind.
6 When you stopped,
    the earth shook;
when you stared,
    nations trembled;
when you walked
    along your ancient paths,
eternal mountains and hills
    crumbled and collapsed.
7 The tents of desert tribes
in Cushan and Midian[c]
    were ripped apart.

The Path of Faith Which Should be Examined Carefully

Sun Myung Moon
April 12, 1959

Matthew 11: 1-30

Although human beings fell, the law created by God as the ideal of creation and freedom, with which we can boast of the original self, has remained unchanged deep in God’s heart from before the creation. No one, however, has explained God’s heart. No one has proclaimed God’s ideal.

If Heaven exists for the sake of humankind and people are created for the sake of Heaven, the world of the ideal where God and original humanity can live, which has been hidden in the heart of God, must necessarily appear. We know from history that rather than walking a normal path, God has been going through a course of twists and turns for the sake of fallen people. The Bible tells us that God has been following a complicated course since the time of Cain and Abel.

The flow of history will run toward the one ideal world in the end, and God will surely drive people toward it. It is certain that the human conscience is prompting us to run to that world in haste today and again tomorrow. No one can deny this. We should recognize that the moment God’s and our ideal meet is the moment of humanity’s hope and the purpose of God’s providence. Continue reading “God Will Drive People Toward the One Ideal”

Examine Your Attitude Toward the Messiah

John 7

30 Some of the people wanted to arrest Jesus right then. But no one even laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come. 31 A lot of people in the crowd put their faith in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, he surely won’t perform more miracles than this man has done!”

Joel 2

Sound the trumpet on Zion,
    the Lord’s sacred hill.
Warn everyone to tremble!
The judgment day of the Lord
    is coming soon.
2 It will be dark and gloomy
    with storm clouds overhead.
Troops will cover the mountains
    like thunderclouds.
No army this powerful
has ever been gathered before
    or will ever be again.

The Path of Faith Which Should be Examined Carefully

Sun Myung Moon
April 12, 1959

Matthew 11: 1-30

11 After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he left and began teaching and preaching in the towns.

2 John was in prison when he heard what Christ was doing. So John sent some of his followers 3 to ask Jesus, “Are you the one we should be looking for? Or must we wait for someone else?”

4 Jesus answered, “Go and tell John what you have heard and seen. 5 The blind are now able to see, and the lame can walk. People with leprosy are being healed, and the deaf can hear. The dead are raised to life, and the poor are hearing the good news. 6 God will bless everyone who doesn’t reject me because of what I do.”

7 As John’s followers were going away, Jesus spoke to the crowds about John:

What sort of person did you go out into the desert to see? Was he like tall grass blown about by the wind? 8 What kind of man did you go out to see? Was he someone dressed in fine clothes? People who dress like that live in the king’s palace. 9 What did you really go out to see? Was he a prophet? He certainly was. I tell you that he was more than a prophet. 10 In the Scriptures God says about him, “I am sending my messenger ahead of you to get things ready for you.” 11 I tell you that no one ever born on this earth is greater than John the Baptist. But whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John.

12 From the time of John the Baptist until now, violent people have been trying to take over the kingdom of heaven by force. 13 All the Books of the Prophets and the Law of Moses told what was going to happen up to the time of John. 14 And if you believe them, John is Elijah, the prophet you are waiting for. 15 If you have ears, pay attention!

16 You people are like children sitting in the market and shouting to each other,

17 “We played the flute,
    but you would not dance!
We sang a funeral song,
    but you would not mourn!”

18 John the Baptist did not go around eating and drinking, and you said, “That man has a demon in him!” 19 But the Son of Man goes around eating and drinking, and you say, “That man eats and drinks too much! He is even a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Yet Wisdom is shown to be right by what it does.

20 In the towns where Jesus had worked most of his miracles, the people refused to turn to God. So Jesus was upset with them and said:

21 You people of Chorazin are in for trouble! You people of Bethsaida are in for trouble too! If the miracles that took place in your towns had happened in Tyre and Sidon, the people there would have turned to God long ago. They would have dressed in sackcloth and put ashes on their heads.[e] 22 I tell you that on the day of judgment the people of Tyre and Sidon will get off easier than you will.

23 People of Capernaum, do you think you will be honored in heaven? You will go down to hell! If the miracles that took place in your town had happened in Sodom, that town would still be standing. 24 So I tell you that on the day of judgment the people of Sodom will get off easier than you.

25 At that moment Jesus said:

My Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I am grateful that you hid all this from wise and educated people and showed it to ordinary people. 26 Yes, Father, that is what pleased you.

27 My Father has given me everything, and he is the only one who knows the Son. The only one who truly knows the Father is the Son. But the Son wants to tell others about the Father, so that they can know him too.

28 If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest. 29 Take the yoke I give you. Put it on your shoulders and learn from me. I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest. 30 This yoke is easy to bear, and this burden is light.

Prayer

Although we are unworthy, we have missed Your holy image and have come back to You and prostrated our minds and bodies. Please accept us with the grace of sympathy. You have loved hundreds of thousands of times and have endured endlessly. Father, You who have never abandoned us and never ceased to guide us with love! Although we are not satisfactory for the will and Your standard, please treat us with a sympathetic heart. Since we still have a fervent desire to turn away from the troublesome world and go to Your world of Shim Jung, we eagerly hope and desire that upon seeing such a heart in us, You will give us sympathetic love; You will bear with us and come to us.

The place where we receive Your love is the place for which all creation longs, the place for which innumerable people yearned in the past, and the place that the people of the present and future should desire. Please guide us to think about this. Please guide us to feel at this time that the more we try to be embraced in Your loving heart, the more attention we will receive from all things. Father, we ardently hope and desire this.

Give us now the heart to call You “our Father” and to see that You have toiled for us and are in sorrow because of us. Allow us to appear as zealous sons and daughters who can be moved by such a heart and embrace You, calling You “Father.”

We know that the one who seeks You with an ardent heart and who worries about Your situation will not be forsaken by You. Please allow our hearts to run toward You and our bodies to rush into Your embrace. Father, we sincerely hope and desire that You fill our bodies and minds so that we can rise above the sinful history of anger, sorrow and lamentation. Spur us on in body and mind. Continue reading “Examine Your Attitude Toward the Messiah”

You Must Find Righteousness In Your Mind

John 4:46

46 While Jesus was in Galilee, he returned to the village of Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was an official in Capernaum whose son was sick. 47 And when the man heard that Jesus had come from Judea, he went and begged him to keep his son from dying.

48 Jesus told the official, “You won’t have faith unless you see miracles and wonders!”

Richard:  Be confident in God working through you as you align with your original mind.

Isaiah 3

24 In place of perfume,
    there will be a stink;
in place of belts,
    there will be ropes;
in place of fancy hairdos,
    they will have bald heads.
Instead of expensive clothes,
    they will wear sackcloth;
instead of beauty,
    they will have ugly scars.
25 The fighting men of Jerusalem
    will be killed in battle.
26 The city will mourn
and sit in the dirt,
    emptied of its people.

The Religious Person’s Attitude
Sun Myung Moon
March 29, 1959

Hebrews 11:1-32

We speak of ourselves as faithful people. We flatter ourselves that we are going forward in search of the ideology of Heaven. Singing of the hope of tomorrow as the standard, we go in search of the nation and people of tomorrow, the race, the family, and the self of tomorrow. This is the path of faith. However, there still remains some distance between me and the future me. I am not there yet. If we look for that self here, we will be disappointed. You must first finish walking the path of tribulation and raise the standard of ardent Shim Jung. As long as the new history remains to be built, the day of fruition will not come. Since we began our steps, having readied ourselves as the elite soldiers of Heaven, we must proceed, looking forward. We must not look back, saying that we hear something behind. That is the sound of enemies. You must not relate with one because he is affectionate toward you. You must know that he is the enemy who has an eye on your life. In the environment you live in, there is no true friend. There is no true leader. Only in the place where you seek the real truth and the true leader will the true heavenly leader appear. Even if one had a great relationship of true life in the course of history, there were reasons for him having to appear with the relationship of false life. You must seek righteousness; you must find it in your mind. You must seek a teacher of righteousness; you must find him in your mind. You must seek a home of righteousness; you must find it in your mind. You must seek the homeland of righteousness; you must find it in your mind, and you must seek the nation of righteousness in your mind. You must consider the ideology of hope as the point of unity and oneness. Going further, by fighting with the environmental darkness, you must boast of that relationship and wait eagerly with an impatient Shim Jung for the desire to be fulfilled. Only when we make our way through the surrounding environment, boasting of the appearance of our true self, will heavenly history begin for the first time.

Only when you cross the finishing line of the final victory will new hope appear to you. You will receive a new day. You will own a new ideology. To make that new ideology your own, you must realize that the heavenly condition remains for you to go such a path. Accordingly, we who are going, having put this historical fate at the forefront, must have a firm determination. Continue reading “You Must Find Righteousness In Your Mind”