Category: Luke

The Line of Life Is Linked Above the Line of Death

Luke 12

4 My friends, don’t be afraid of people. They can kill you, but after that, there is nothing else they can do. 5 God is the one you must fear. Not only can he take your life, but he can throw you into hell. God is certainly the one you should fear!

6 Five sparrows are sold for just two pennies, but God doesn’t forget a one of them. 7 Even the hairs on your head are counted. So don’t be afraid! You are worth much more than many sparrows.

Lamentations 4

16 The Lord is the one
who sent them scattering,
    and he has forgotten them.
No respect or kindness
will be shown
    to the priests or leaders.
17 Our eyes became weary,
    hopelessly looking
for help
from a nation[e]
    that could not save us.

When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
April 19, 1959

Matthew 25:1-13

Until today, humans have been fighting against one another. They also have been fighting against Satan. Heaven also has been striking you. Humankind has been hit on three sides. It is the same on the earth. Is there not an army, an air force, and a navy? In the last age, there will be attacks in the above three types focusing on an individual human being. Humans will attack like an army; Satan will attack like a navy; attacks by the heavenly world will be like those of an air force. They will attack in these forms.

Such an age of great judgment is coming. Why is this fearful age rushing in? It is not to bring ruin, but to defeat evil and revive the heart that has been oppressed over and over in the course of history. You should know that there is such a hidden purpose. Continue reading “The Line of Life Is Linked Above the Line of Death”

Align With God at High Noon Settlement

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Christmas!

Watch the latest Richard Urban Show:  Do You Believe Only In Jesus or in What Father Is Saying In This New Age?:  https://youtu.be/gjy1QPJpd04.

Luke 12

12 As thousands of people crowded around Jesus and were stepping on each other, he told his disciples:

Be sure to guard against the dishonest teaching[a] of the Pharisees! It is their way of fooling people. 2 Everything that is hidden will be found out, and every secret will be known. 3 Whatever you say in the dark will be heard when it is day. Whatever you whisper in a closed room will be shouted from the housetops.

Richard:  This is the time of noon day sunshine.  Everything will be made known.  We should be transparent and aligned with our conscience.

Lamentations 2

Jerusalem Speaks:

20 Think about it, Lord!
Have you ever been this cruel
    to anyone before?
Is it right for mothers
    to eat their children,
or for priests and prophets
    to be killed in your temple?
21 My people, both young and old,
    lie dead in the streets.
Because you were angry,
my young men and women
    were brutally slaughtered.
22 When you were angry, Lord,
you invited my enemies
    like guests for a party.
No one survived that day;
enemies killed my children,
    my own little ones.

The Path of Faith Which Should be Examined Carefully

Sun Myung Moon
April 12, 1959

Matthew 11: 1-30

Prayer

Father, although our path is rugged, we see that the day of hope when we can meet a heavenly person by following this way is not far off. Although our legs are tired from walking this road, we see that this is the inevitable course of life because You have traveled it.

We have realized that when the eager heart that can call out for You arises in us, You are there, looking at us with greater desperation. We realize that the footsteps which follow Your voice are not easy, leading us to walk an unknown course, groping our way step by step.

We cannot help lamenting for not having become loyal sacrifices before the will due to our shortcomings. We cannot help sighing whenever we look back on the sad history wherein we failed to end suffering and bring joy to You. Please forgive our past defects as we prayed for blessing in such a state.

Father, if there are sons and daughters who can see Your desire to regain humankind and Your disappointments, they cannot wish for their own good fortune and insist upon their opinions before You. Please forgive us, the disloyal children who forgot Your historical sorrow tens of thousands of times. Continue reading “Align With God at High Noon Settlement”

“I” and the Kingdom

Luke 4

18 “The Lord’s Spirit
    has come to me,
because he has chosen me
to tell the good news
    to the poor.
The Lord has sent me
to announce freedom
    for prisoners,
to give sight to the blind,
to free everyone
    who suffers,
19 and to say, ‘This is the year
    the Lord has chosen.’”

Luke 18

1 Jesus took the twelve apostles aside and said:

We are now on our way to Jerusalem. Everything that the prophets wrote about the Son of Man will happen there. 32 He will be handed over to foreigners,[f] who will make fun of him, mistreat him, and spit on him. 33 They will beat him and kill him, but three days later he will rise to life.

34 The apostles did not understand what Jesus was talking about. They could not understand, because the meaning of what he said was hidden from them.

The Religious Person’s Attitude

Sun Myung Moon
March 29, 1959

Hebrews 11:1-32

The title of the sermon I am about to give you is “The Religious Person’s Attitude.” I will speak briefly upon this topic.

You have flattered yourselves that you are religious. We have gone forth not longing for this nation in the present state of affairs, but longing for the eternal kingdom. You have neither seen nor been to that kingdom. You simply proceeded forward, believing that the word you had heard was true.

We cannot consider that the intrinsic qualities of faith jell with all conditions of reality. I believe that, for those trying to lead a true life of faith, this only happens when the great infinite Heaven, the garden of eternal ideology that we cannot even imagine, has a reciprocal relationship with the being called “I.” Heaven will press me constantly and warmly to make an effort to attain the ideology in reality. The path of faith continues upon that basis alone.

The kingdom we long for cannot be elucidated by dreams or imagination or even by wise conjecture. That world is necessary for us. It is the limitless world of the ideal; the world of goodness, happiness, love, and the ideology of which we dream. That world is the heavenly kingdom of faith in which we wish to live. From a worldly point of view, those who keep faith with the intrinsic qualities of that world might be seen as extremely pitiful, terribly lonely, or ultimately sorrowful. It depends upon how you view them. If there is one who feels and experiences Heaven’s heart, even in such a situation, and feels the shock and the stimulus of that realm of the heart, no matter what kind of persecution, suffering or death tries to block the way, nothing can stop him from going this path. Continue reading ““I” and the Kingdom”

Realize the Hope of Jesus

Luke 27

27 This is what I say to all who will listen to me:

Love your enemies, and be good to everyone who hates you. 28 Ask God to bless anyone who curses you, and pray for everyone who is cruel to you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, don’t stop that person from slapping you on the other cheek. If someone wants to take your coat, don’t try to keep back your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who asks and don’t ask people to return what they have taken from you. 31 Treat others just as you want to be treated.

1 Samuel 7

The Israelites were afraid when they heard that the Philistines were coming. 8 “Don’t stop praying!” they told Samuel. “Ask the Lord our God to rescue us.”

Let Us Open Our Eyes Once More and Behold the Sky

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 15, 1959

Matthew 26: 36-46

Prayer

We must lift our gaze and look to Heaven. Although our eyes have become extremely dim, we must constantly look for something to appear. We must look at everything in history since the time of Adam.

These things have made it impossible for us to find the center of life and the standard of our thoughts. Please allow us to have the heart with which to overcome them and look to Heaven, the heart which can transcend human love and be embraced by Heaven’s love. Please let us recognize that we are struggling in bitter grudges held against the earth, Heaven and all things, and let us set out in search of our second selves, craving our second selves. Please allow us to have an anxious heart, which makes it unbearable for us to leave the matter unresolved.

We are the ones who must govern and protect the original garden which we lost. We are the ones who must make bonds of love with all things and offer them together to the Father. We are the ones who bear the responsibility to make the Father’s flowers of love blossom through the heart with which the Father created the universe. Continue reading “Realize the Hope of Jesus”

Jesus Bold Determination Before Heaven

Luke 22

41 Jesus walked on a little way before he knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you will, please don’t make me suffer by having me drink from this cup.[f] But do what you want, and not what I want.”

43 Then an angel from heaven came to help him. 44 Jesus was in great pain and prayed so sincerely that his sweat fell to the ground like drops of blood.[g]

45 Jesus got up from praying and went over to his disciples. They were asleep and worn out from being so sad. 46 He said to them, “Why are you asleep? Wake up and pray that you won’t be tested.”

Isaiah 2

This is the message[a] that I was given about Judah and Jerusalem:

2 In the future, the mountain
with the Lord’s temple
    will be the highest of all.
It will reach above the hills;
    every nation will rush to it.
3 Many people will come and say,
    “Let’s go to the mountain
of the Lord God of Jacob
    and worship in his temple.”

The Lord will teach us his Law
from Jerusalem,
    and we will obey him.
4 He will settle arguments
    between nations.
They will pound their swords
and their spears
    into rakes and shovels;
they will never make war
    or attack one another.
5 People of Israel, let’s live
    by the light of the Lord.

The Incarnation of Jesus, A Pioneer

Sun Myung Moon
February 1, 1959

Matthew 8: 18-22

Two thousand years ago, Jesus looked upon the Israelite people, who had the potential to betray him, with great anxiety. He also saw that Judaism, which should have been built on the foundation of the heavenly heart, had become enslaved to the formalities of the Mosaic Law. As Jesus watched the Israelites, who did not know where their home was or in what direction they must head, he understood that God had raised him through a 4,000-year course of pioneering and had sent him with the purpose of bringing them together to pave the way for the new world. You must understand that, at that moment, Jesus could not help feeling tragic.

After he was born in a stable, Jesus led a lonely life and helped his father, Joseph, who was a carpenter. Although he lived in a limited environment, his ideas transcended the Israelites and the world to connect with the whole cosmos. This is how Jesus lived. Continue reading “Jesus Bold Determination Before Heaven”