Category: New Testament

If there Is a Way that God’s Will Can Be Accomplished, You Should Pursue it Obediently

James 1

1 From James, a servant of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Greetings to the twelve tribes scattered all over the world.[a]

2 My friends, be glad, even if you have a lot of trouble. 3 You know that you learn to endure by having your faith tested. 4 But you must learn to endure everything, so that you will be completely mature and not lacking in anything.

Jeremiah 22

4 If you obey me, the kings from David’s family will continue to rule Judah from this palace. They and their officials will ride in and out on their horses or in their chariots. 5 But if you ignore me, I promise in my own name that this palace will lie in ruins. 6 Listen to what I think about it:

The palace of Judah’s king
is as glorious as Gilead
    or Lebanon’s highest peaks.
But it will be as empty
as a ghost-town
    when I’m through with it.
7 I’ll send troops to tear it apart,
and its beautiful cedar beams
    will be used for firewood.

8 People from different nations will pass by and ask, “Why did the Lord do this to such a great city as Jerusalem?” 9 Others will answer, “It’s because the people worshiped foreign gods and broke the agreement that the Lord their God had made with them.”

The Toil of God as He Tries to Raise up His Beloved Children

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
October 11, 1959

John 3: 11-21

1 Corinthians 7:28-29

Ladies and gentlemen, do you sincerely want to become God’s sons and daughters? Does unquenchable sorrow shake your heart? Does unstoppable sorrow move your minds and bodies? You should feel something similar to this.

You cannot become sons and daughters, no matter what you have to offer in this human world. Only when you never forget to think solely of the Father, only when you fight and run forward in your daily life do you have a possibility of becoming His sons and daughters.

You have to have this mind-set and be able to shed tears even over a simple branch. You should be able to say that you have finally come to know that all existing things are mourning and longing for the day of liberation. Bowing your head, you should apologize for human ignorance. This is not some abstract concept. When we see a colleague struggling to find the path, we should hold him and cry, “You are my brother.”

No matter how sad and lonely you may be, you have to understand that it is nothing compared to what God is experiencing. When you look at nature, you should see traces of God’s tears there. When you see water flowing, you should see God’s tears. When you are lying down, you should see that where you are lying down is a river of God’s tears and has traces of the cross of Golgotha. God is looking for sons and daughters who can cry out, “Father, who had to let the Lord bear the cross on Golgotha!” You should declare, “Although Jesus left grief on the earth when he died, I will not die but will alleviate Your sorrow as a living person.”

The six thousand years have been a history of God’s efforts to find His beloved sons and daughters. Therefore, we have to become people who feel that we are indebted to God, who has toiled for six thousand years. We have to feel the culmination of God’s tears of six thousand years and pay for the sacrifice at Golgotha.

When we then repent of our past sins, pay indemnity for our present sins, and cherish hope for the future, calling upon our Father and going to Him with open arms, the Father can say, “Oh, my son, my daughter.” Forgetting about His dignity, He will shed tears of joy and sorrow. Only those who can achieve this will become sons and daughters of the Father. Only when you understand that God and Jesus are like that can you become God’s sons and daughters.

God can elevate these sons and daughters before Satan’s world and all things of the universe, saying that they are the lords and sons and daughters He has been looking for. Only when these sons and daughters appear can God finally forget the labors of the six thousand years. He can entrust Heaven and earth to them and rest in peace.

Just as Jesus cried over this history of sorrow and died, if there is a way that God’s will can be accomplished, you should pursue it obediently. You have to remember that you must live such a life of devotion.

Richard: The way that we can do God’s will and establish His kingdom is through Home Church (tong ban) activities in our neighborhoods.

Prayer

Father! We are so ashamed. We have learned that this path is an awesome path, a path of inextinguishable sorrow.

Father, You sought these children out not for one day or for several years, but for six thousand years! Please let us understand now how much trouble we have caused for You, how much we have angered You, and how much we have wronged You. Before we entered this relationship, we fought over the things of the world. Please allow us to understand how sinful we are.

Father, Your sons and daughters who are gathered here do not have to know everything. Please let them at least understand the God that we believe in, the Jesus we should attend, and the sons and daughters we must become.

What is our hope? We did not come seeking for well-dressed people or people with power or to satisfy some desire. We came only because we long for the Father’s love and a relationship with Him. Father, if the Father has tears, please let us possess those tears. If the Father is experiencing pain, please let us feel the pain.

Please let us understand that we should not become princes who are seeking joy but princes who bear responsibility for sorrowful and painful history, and let us pay indemnity for it. We have learned that You yearn for sons and daughters who are victorious under such circumstances, sons and daughters worthy of God’s pride before Heaven and earth. We have also learned that Your labors for the six thousand years have been to elevate Your beloved sons and daughters.

We pray sincerely that You will allow us to fulfill all the responsibilities entrusted to us and to fully cope with the missions given to us. Please guide us to become the most exemplary children of filial piety, and patriots.

Until the day that the Father of history, the Father of the present era and the Father of the future becomes our Father and mobilizes the entire universe to sing songs of joy, please protect these people. We prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen. 

Do Not Think that by Believing in Jesus You Will be Saved

Join us this Saturday for Part 3 of the Unification Principle online seminar. Register here: https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/109-training/328-unification-principle-online-seminar-coming-november-2nd-2 .

Luke 11

33 No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a clay pot. A lamp is put on a lampstand, so that everyone who comes into the house can see the light. 34 Your eyes are the lamp for your body. When your eyes are good, you have all the light you need. But when your eyes are bad, everything is dark. 35 So be sure that your light isn’t darkness. 36 If you have light, and nothing is dark, then light will be everywhere, as when a lamp shines brightly on you.

Proverbs 31

These are the sayings
that King Lemuel of Massa
    was taught by his mother.
2 My son Lemuel, you were born
in answer to my prayers,
    so listen carefully.
3 Don’t waste your life
chasing after women!
    This has ruined many kings.

4 Kings and leaders
should not get drunk
    or even want to drink.
5 Drinking makes you forget
your responsibilities,
    and you mistreat the poor.
6 Beer and wine are only
for the dying
    or for those
    who have lost all hope.
7 Let them drink
    and forget
how poor and miserable
    they feel.
8 But you must defend
those who are helpless
    and have no hope.
9 Be fair and give justice
    to the poor and homeless.

The Toil of God as He Tries to Raise up His Beloved Children

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
October 11, 1959

John 3: 11-21

1 Corinthians 7:28-29

For what purpose did God bless the original Adam and Eve before the Fall? It was not so that they could eat good things and be happy by themselves. God gave them the blessing on behalf of their descendants, their family, their people and the world. What was the purpose for sending Jesus? Since he came as the only begotten son of God, it was to find sons and daughters who could become only begotten children to him. Because Jesus struggled to find these sons and daughters, because he was connected to the heart of God who was seeking sons and daughters like Jesus, even though the Jews were to perish, he prayed on the cross, “Father, please forgive their sins.” You have to understand that the motivation of heart came from Heaven.

Believers should not just be descendants of Jesus. They should become his sons and daughters. Where are the sons and daughters to whom Jesus can reveal all things, to whom he can entrust all ideals and whom he can bless, just as God could embrace him? God revealed all that was inside of Him and safely entrusted His works to Jesus. Had such sons and daughters of Jesus appeared on the earth, the Second Advent would have been realized a long time ago. It did not have to take two thousand years. Have you ever seen such sons and daughters? Although there were those who died believing in Jesus’ words, there was no one who understood the heart of Jesus, believed in the embodiment of Jesus, and died for him.

It is said in John 3:16, “Since God loves this world so much He sent His only begotten son that whoever believes in him will never perish but will attain eternal life.” It is said that whoever believes in him will receive eternal life, but what are we to believe in? We are to believe in the only begotten son whom God loves like the world, and we are to believe in the world that God loves like the only begotten son. These are what we are supposed to believe in. That is the main theme in all sixty-six books of the Bible. Those who believe in the heart of God who loves the world like the only begotten son and who loves the only begotten son like the world will be saved.

For this reason, faith, hope and love will always be there. But among them it is said that love is the best. Love is what will remain eternally, be victorious eternally, and what will come with the eternal, glorious Lord. No matter how sinful the world may be, those who can love the world as God loves it, as He loves the only begotten son, and love the only begotten son as God loves the world, will receive salvation.

Do not think that by believing in Jesus you will be saved. Such people are thieves. Thieves. When Jesus came to the earth, he considered this world more precious than his own body. Since it is said that God sent His only begotten son because He loved the world so much, Jesus knew that God sent him because He loved the world so much. He could not deny this when he fathomed the heart of God in history. Moreover, since the Jews needed the embodiment of God’s love, he knew that he had to stand before the world.

For this reason, Jesus did not live three years of public life to elevate himself. The purpose of the three years was to find disciples. Jesus worked hard to raise up three disciples to be like his sons and daughters and to make the twelve disciples into his children.

You probably understand this through your study of the history of restoration through indemnity. God worked through the three sons lost in Adam’s family. He worked through the three sons lost in Noah’s family. He was the God of the three generations of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the three generations of Saul, David and Solomon. This is according to the universal principles of restoration which seek this number three to represent the whole. Therefore, Jesus had to raise up three spiritual sons.

For this reason, even if Jesus were to abandon everything else, these three disciples should not have separated from him. Although Jesus wanted to bring the three disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane and the hill of Golgotha, they betrayed him in the Garden of Gethsemane. This was the beginning of a sorrowful history.

With Whom Will God Share His Heart?

Matthew 5

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the side of a mountain and sat down.[a]

Blessings

Jesus’ disciples gathered around him, 2 and he taught them:

3 God blesses those people
    who depend only on him.
They belong to the kingdom
    of heaven!
4 God blesses those people
who grieve.
    They will find comfort!
5 God blesses those people
    who are humble.
The earth will belong
    to them!
6 God blesses those people
who want to obey him
    more than to eat or drink.
They will be given
    what they want!
7 God blesses those people
    who are merciful.
They will be treated
    with mercy!

Job 16

12 Everything was going well,
until God grabbed my neck
    and shook me to pieces.
God set me up as the target
13     for his arrows,
and without showing mercy,
he slashed my stomach open,
    spilling out my insides.
14 God never stops attacking,
15     and so, in my sorrow
I dress in sackcloth[a]
    and sit in the dust.
16 My face is red with tears,
and dark shadows
    circle my eyes,
17 though I am not violent,
    and my prayers are sincere.

Richard: No one has a “right” to complain about their situation. We can not definitively say whether a particular circumstance is good or bad, in the long run.

The Toil of God as He Tries to Raise up His Beloved Children

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
October 11, 1959

John 3: 11-21

1 Corinthians 7:28-29

God’s goal is to raise up individuals and people and to send one embodiment whom He can love and do His work of liberation through. God has been guiding history toward that purpose.

After the Fall, even though human beings betrayed Him so many thousands of times, because God considered them His children, He did not hesitate to do any difficult work or face the risk of death for the sake of achieving His goals. A parent cannot abandon a child just because he is committing sins. Original human beings are the direct children of God who are connected to God’s heart. Even if human beings were to abandon God, God cannot cut off this relationship and abandon people. This is what you have to understand.

When we think about this, we see that we are descendants who deserve to be mistreated by the universe and labeled as violators of filial piety. The same is true for every single person in history, including our good ancestors. From the standpoint of a nation, God is the king. We should serve God as the king and become loyal ministers. Because we are unable to do so, we cannot protest, even if people label us traitors and expose our sins to the world. This is what we are.

If such a relationship existed between two people, they would surely be the bitterest of enemies. How can God overlook these facts? It is because God has a never-ending desire to see people as sons and daughters who will live with Him eternally. Thus, even if God were ostracized today and tomorrow, turned away from this place and that, He could not turn away from His pursuit of the true child.

I have thought about it like this and have cried, “People on the earth! Before you long for your children and cry, long for God and cry. Before you become indignant about something, you should look toward Heaven and feel its indignation. If there is someone who is crazy about something on the earth, he should forget the earth and become crazy about God.”

God is an infinitely sad person. These are not abstract words. With whom will God share His heart? To whom will God reveal His pain and bitterness? There is no such person. For this reason God yearns for sons and daughters to appear on the earth, sons and daughters who can cling to God’s sorrow and pain and comfort Him. This is the highest standard we should aspire to.

What kind of person is God? He is not a ruler but a Father whose relationship with you is inseparable. That Father struggled in relation to the earth with a heart as desperate as if He were going crazy for six thousand years. Nevertheless, people repeatedly caused that Father pain and betrayed Him. If there is someone who recognizes this sin and becomes crazy about God even now, God will not abandon him.

People Who do Evil Things are Judged Guilty

Luke 6

22 God will bless you when others hate you and won’t have anything to do with you. God will bless you when people insult you and say cruel things about you, all because you are a follower of the Son of Man. 23 Long ago your own people did these same things to the prophets. So when this happens to you, be happy and jump for joy! You will have a great reward in heaven.

Ezekiel16

The Lord said:

44 People will use this saying about you, Jerusalem: “If the mother is bad, so is her daughter.” 45 You are just like your mother, who hated her husband and her own children. You are also like your sisters, who hated their husbands and children. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother was a Hittite. 46 Your older sister was Samaria, that city to your north with her nearby villages. Your younger sister was Sodom, that city to your south with her nearby villages. 47 You followed their way of life and their wicked customs, and soon you were more disgusting than they were.

48 As surely as I am the living Lord God, the people of Sodom and its nearby villages were never as sinful as you. 49 They were arrogant and spoiled; they had everything they needed and still refused to help the poor and needy. 50 They thought they were better than everyone else, and they did things I hate. And so I destroyed them.

51 You people of Jerusalem have sinned twice as much as the people of Samaria. In fact, your evil ways have made both Sodom and Samaria look innocent. 52 So their punishment will seem light compared to yours. You will be disgraced and put to shame because of your disgusting sins.

The Toil of God as He Tries to Raise up His Beloved Children

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
October 11, 1959

John 3: 11-21

11 I tell you for certain that we know what we are talking about because we have seen it ourselves. But none of you will accept what we say. 12 If you don’t believe when I talk to you about things on earth, how can you possibly believe if I talk to you about things in heaven?

13 No one has gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from there. 14 And the Son of Man must be lifted up, just as that metal snake was lifted up by Moses in the desert.[a] 15 Then everyone who has faith in the Son of Man will have eternal life.

16 God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them! 18 No one who has faith in God’s Son will be condemned. But everyone who doesn’t have faith in him has already been condemned for not having faith in God’s only Son.

19 The light has come into the world, and people who do evil things are judged guilty because they love the dark more than the light. 20 People who do evil hate the light and won’t come to the light, because it clearly shows what they have done. 21 But everyone who lives by the truth will come to the light, because they want others to know that God is really the one doing what they do.

1 Corinthians 7:28-29

28 It isn’t wrong to marry, even if you have never been married before. But those who marry will have a lot of trouble, and I want to protect you from that.

29 My friends, what I mean is that the Lord will soon come,[a] and it won’t matter if you are married or not.

Prayer

Father, we know that we all have different situations and that the intensity of our faith is also very different. Father, even if our situations are different and the foundations of our minds differ, please let us understand that they are all centering on the world.

Please let us understand that God longs for us all to have the same situation and same foundation of mind during this hour. Please let us understand that God wants our situations to be based on Heaven, not on human beings. He wants the foundation of our minds to be connected not to human emotions but to the emotions of Heaven.

Each of us stands at the edge of two worlds. When we look to the left, we find that worldly relationships tie us down. When we look to the right, the infinite movement of goodness is pulling us. We know all too well that we are struggling between these two worlds.

Please help us understand deeply that God cannot raise people up in that situation and bless them. Nor can He call them or entrust them with a heavenly mission.

I pray that our situation and the foundation of our minds will tilt to one side so that they are not of the world but of eternal Heaven. Beloved Father, this is our sincere wish.

Now we lie prostrated before the Father. Please allow us to reveal the innermost parts of our hearts and to search for ourselves based on the Father’s teachings. With a new vision, please allow us to recognize our situation once more. Please allow us to realize our powers once more.

We sincerely wish that You will allow us to remember how we have been struggling, under what ideology we have been struggling, and for what value and standard we have been struggling. Then please allow this to be an hour when we can think again about how we were like this and that in the past, present and future. Beloved Father, this is our sincere wish.

Relationships and situations centering on people split into many relationships and conditions. Relationships and situations centering on Heaven have a more unified shape, and they form something new, unique and clear. We lie prostrated, longing to be unified in a unique way. Please extend the hands of love. Please sway us with Your powers. Please do not allow anything here that does not belong to Heaven, and move us with the original heart and mind so that we can become a group the Father can recognize as His own. Father, this is our sincere wish.

Father! Please build a bridge between minds and hearts now so that this may be an hour when we can connect to the Father’s situation and experience the Father’s heart. Father, this is what we sincerely wish.

Although many saints and sages have come and gone in history, they did not know the situation of Heaven and were ignorant of Heaven’s heart. As the Last Days grow closer, we should be discussing and solving the problems of the situation and heart of Heaven.

Please help us understand once more that to solve this problem we have to be happy even after sacrificing everything. We have to be determined to become sacrifices and bow before Heaven. Please let this be an hour when we desire the Father’s powers.

Please preside over everything in this hour. Please do not let us be entrenched in God’s grace. We know that there are many sons and daughters who have built secret altars and are shedding lonely tears out of concern for the will. Even if they may be in difficult situations, please bless them with the same grace. We have entrusted You with this hour. Please command this hour from the beginning to the end and let it be an hour You can recognize.

Even though God may have made all preparations, we know that we have to prepare the foundations of mind and body in response. Please do not let anything of the past remain in our minds. Allow us to return to the heart of a child and build a relationship with God again through the calm heart of the Father.

Please let this be an hour when we can be drenched in the grace of the Father’s commands and be united with the Father. Let this be an hour when the Father can personally talk things over with us and make a new promise to us.

I am about to speak the words. Therefore, Father, please be with us. I know that there is no need for a lot of words. I know that what we need more than words is to experience You through our hearts. Father, please open the gates to our minds and take care of our situations. We know that Jesus is the original heart who connected with You, and we have gathered our hearts to come together. Please let this be an hour when we can build a deep relationship with the Father’s original nature.

Please let this be an hour when we can make a new determination and pledge before the Father through new words of promise. Please let this be an hour when we repent for all our sins of the past and establish one purified standard before the Father.

Please do not let the heart of the speaker and the hearts of the listeners be divided. Let this be an hour when we can connect to the one heart and unite with the one grace. Otherwise, legions of demons will target this gap and drag us to the shadow of death. Please help us be aware of this and abandon all of our situations, concepts and thoughts. Let us return to the heart of a child to unveil our hearts and listen to the Father’s commanding words. Praying that You will bless us to build a relationship with the Father’s heart, we prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Do Not Expect to be Complimented

Leviticus 23

37 I have chosen these festivals as times when my people must come together for worship and when animals, grain, and wine are to be offered on the proper days. 38 These festivals must be celebrated in addition to the Sabbaths and the times when you offer special gifts or sacrifices to keep a promise or as a voluntary offering.

Matthew 13

36 After Jesus left the crowd and went inside,[c] his disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the story about the weeds in the wheat field.”

37 Jesus answered:

The one who scattered the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seeds are the people who belong to the kingdom. The weed seeds are those who belong to the evil one, 39 and the one who scattered them is the devil. The harvest is the end of time, and angels are the ones who bring in the harvest.

40 Weeds are gathered and burned. That’s how it will be at the end of time. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everyone who does wrong or causes others to sin. 42 Then he will throw them into a flaming furnace, where people will cry and grit their teeth in pain. 43 But everyone who has done right will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. If you have ears, pay attention!

Members Who Will Live In God’s Family

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 27, 1959

Matthew 12: 46-50

Before he shouldered the cross, Jesus said that he would return. Because of this, the disciples were able to overcome difficulties and become his companions, willing to die with him and suffer through hardships with him. For this reason, centering on the twelve apostles, the seventy and 120 followers were able to stand before Jesus and cross over the wall of death.

Although Christianity received all kinds of persecution under the oppression of Rome, because they prevailed, they conquered Rome. Christianity has served as an unconditional sacrifice for the world; this is the reason that it could arrive at a stage where it could literally dominate the world. Hence, now is the time that all Christians of the world can erect the heavenly sovereignty in Satan’s world. We have to understand that Christians all over the world must unite their forces and, representing the embodiment, be prepared to march forward and die together. After the era of the word has passed and the era of practice has passed, the one day of meeting will take place. Only after the one day of meeting can we live the life of Heaven. Upon meeting we have to enter the state where we can say that someone else’s personal situation is my situation; his difficulties are my difficulties; his wounds are my wounds. Then we can attain the level where we can say that his mind is my mind and his heart is my heart. Only after these things have been accomplished can the heavenly family be realized. Only after we bring these together centering on Jesus on the earth will the heavenly family be realized.

Countless people claim that God is in the position of the parent and that they are in the position of children. However, this is in name only. It is like being adopted children. You should meet Jesus through words and deeds. Even if you do not meet him in your prayers, you should meet him in the mountains. If you do not meet him there, you should be willing to seek even death. If you do not find him in the mountains or in your prayers, you will find him in your death, so that is where you must search for him. Jesus also passed through this process. He passed through the course of secret chambers, through the period of praying in the wilderness. He was willing to search for his children even in the hills of death. We have to search with the same determination. You have to understand this through reading the Bible.

Then what will you do the day you meet him? What should we do first for him? The moment that sinful people meet the Lord and the True Parents, they must call out for the Father and the Lord and comfort him: “I have fought like this and like that, and I have brought this and that gift. How much have you suffered during the long six thousand years to find me?” You should comfort him. You think that when the Lord comes to the earth, the Kingdom of Heaven will be accomplished centering on us and the world will operate exactly the way you want it to. That will never be. You have to disappear. You have to abandon all your wishes, all your expectations and all your hopes. From the moment you meet him, since you do not know what may be on his mind, you should be able to do as he commands.

Then what we have to do is comfort him with the most sincere heart: “How much have you suffered? It was so difficult for me to find this path; how much have you suffered to pass through the long six- thousand-year course of history and find your children?” You should say, “How is your heart? How is your heart after having passed through the long six thousand years? We understand that heart. We understand that heart.”

Do not expect to be complimented. When you are searching, you should go about it silently. Right after the resurrection, Mary Magdalene was silent when she came before Jesus. But when Mary tried to hold onto Jesus, he blocked her. Why? It is because human beings have to cleanse themselves of something. What would that be? It is the dirty remnants of history. Human beings have to cleanse themselves of that first. We have to beg for forgiveness for our sins, saying, “This is how Adam’s family was; this is how Noah’s family was; this is how the families of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were, and this is how the prophets and saints since Moses have been. Jesus died this way. These are all sins that I committed, so please forgive me.”