Category: New Testament

We Have Lost Our Parents

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Romans 4

9 Are these blessings meant for circumcised people or for those who are not circumcised? Well, the Scriptures say that God accepted Abraham because Abraham had faith in him. 10 But when did this happen? Was it before or after Abraham was circumcised? Of course, it was before.

Isaiah 38

7 Now I will prove to you that I will keep my promise. 8 Do you see the shadow made by the setting sun on the stairway built for King Ahaz? I will make the shadow go back ten steps.

Then the shadow went back ten steps.

The Father and I

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 12, 1959

John 14: 1-19

The title of the words that I would like to reflect upon together with you is “The Father and I.” On a greater scale, this becomes “The Father and Us, God and Humanity.” I will speak briefly upon this topic.

Out of all the sadness in this world, there is probably none greater than that of children losing their beloved parents. Likewise, there is probably no greater sadness than parents losing their beloved children.

Christianity tells us that mankind fell. This is a fact that cannot be denied when we look at or speculate upon society. It can be conjectured that the society we see today resulted from a sinful cause. We are standing on the course of history, which is the result of that cause. Furthermore, we cannot deny that we are struggling because we ourselves are also results of it.

What can be the problem of all problems? It is the agony of losing our parents, who should never have been lost; it is the agony of trying to find the lost parents, the agony of not having parents in spite of one’s right to have them, and the agony of not having children in spite of one’s full right. These are the greatest problems.

We say there was a Fall, but this involves both mankind and Heavenly Father. We cannot help but accept the fact that it involves us, too. We are certainly not ideal. When we accept that mankind has fallen, we cannot deny that a Fall cannot occur without a reciprocal relationship. When we do not feel good, it is because we have the inner potential to be better. When we desire to be greater, it is because we have that potential within us. Such a relationship interconnects each person to everyone else.

We may have a lot of confusing problems, but there is only one fundamental problem in our hearts. It is the fact that we have lost our parents. Mankind’s loss of the parents and Heavenly Father’s loss of His children has to be recovered. It is our foremost priority to reestablish that lost relationship, to regain the lost happiness, to repossess the lost joy.

What will solve all these problems for us? We acknowledge the evil history, we acknowledge that we are living in a sinful world, and we are struggling due to the conflict between our mind and body. This cannot be solved by any systematic philosophy, ideology or conceptual faith. The only way is through the heart. The world of the heart has no before or after, no highness or lowliness. It has no beginning or end. The situation can only be solved through heart.

What is mankind’s sorrow? The sorrow is that, due to the Fall, the true master was lost from Eden. Mankind could not sing and live with eternal happiness in the ideal of creation of all things of Heaven and earth. Mankind could not sing along with the heart and life force of all created things.

Heaven Is Being Lashed Ruthlessly

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1 Corinthians 16

13 Keep alert. Be firm in your faith. Stay brave and strong. 14 Show love in everything you do.

Jeremiah 30

10 Israel,[d] you belong to me,
    so don’t be afraid.
You deserved to be punished;
that’s why I scattered you
    in distant nations.
But I am with you,
and someday I will destroy
    those nations.

The Path In Search of the Original Homeland Rev. Sun Myung Moon

July 5, 1959

Luke 15: 11-32

Prayer

Father, we stepped forth on the path You commanded us to go, not expecting it to be difficult. Only afterward did we realize that it is a difficult path. Only after we walked the path for a while, expecting it to be a path of joy, did we realize that it leads to a crest of tears.

Father, we have sorrow, and we wish to grieve holding onto You. We have come to realize that if we grieve holding onto man, we will easily get disappointed. We have also realized that if we march on believing in man we will get hurt.

It is You, Father, who have been immutable. How happy was the moment of weeping, holding onto the Father! Jesus, too, sought the mountain path to cry, taking hold of the Father.

To the Unification members gathered here today, denomination does not matter. Form does not matter. We want to be the people who know how to cry, holding onto the Father. We want to be Your true sons and daughters who know how to cry for You, knowing the heart of the Father who let the Jesus He raised up before humankind cultivate this path because the course of life is sorrowful and desolate.

We have come to realize above all that Heaven is being lashed ruthlessly, is receiving harsh persecution, and is being subjected to all kinds of unfair treatment. How can we make excuses for ourselves? How can we complain of our own sorrow? Since we have realized that there is no reason for us to feel sorrowful centered on ourselves, please feel compassion for Your sons and daughters here today. We have learned that the necessity of going the path in search of the original hometown is pitiable, unfortunate and miserable. Father, we are aware that You cried before we started crying, holding onto us, and that You were struck before we started getting struck. We are also aware that You suffered before we started to suffer; You felt pain before we started feeling pain. You fell down before we started falling down.

How badly has Heaven longed for the sons and daughters who know this and know they are lacking even after walking on and on toward Heaven in silence? How badly has Heaven longed for those who can call Him Father with their heads bowed down before Heaven? Through this word today, please allow such feelings to be stirred up in our Shim Jung. Allow such feelings to be stirred up when we relate to this nation, this world and Heaven. We know that only when such feelings are stirred within us can we say that we have total faith from the level of the individual to the level of the realm of the whole worldwide ideology. We will be in the position of Heaven, having the very best Shim Jung for the sake of setting up our own ideology. I ardently beseech that You will let our minds be stirred so that we can proceed, cultivating the path of the environment like this.

I ardently solicit and wish that You will allow us to be the children who criticize ourselves, thanks to this word today. Let us feel sorry in the course of life we must go. Let us live intoxicated with happiness. Let us uphold the Father’s glory with bowed heads, placing high value on connecting our individual bodies with Heaven.

Since this gathering leaves You in full charge of us, I ardently desire and wish that You will have dominion over our lives and our whole way of living, including any ideology we possess. That way, we will not run counter to the Father’s Shim Jung. I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen. 

The Grievous Resentment Over the Unreasonable Death of Jesus Has Remained

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Hebrews 6

6 We must try to become mature and start thinking about more than just the basic things we were taught about Christ. We shouldn’t need to keep talking about why we ought to turn from deeds that bring death and why we ought to have faith in God. 2 And we shouldn’t need to keep teaching about baptisms[a] or about the laying on of hands[b] or about people being raised from death and the future judgment. 3 Let’s grow up, if God is willing.

Richard:  Yes!  God needs mature people who are willing to take responsibility and build His Kingdom, not passive children who are just following someone.

1 Corinthians 16

13 Keep alert. Be firm in your faith. Stay brave and strong. 14 Show love in everything you do.

The Path In Search of the Original Homeland Rev. Sun Myung Moon July 5, 1959

Luke 15: 11-32

The grievous resentment over the unreasonable death of Jesus has remained on this earth. That is why Heaven has dealt with man through a heartistic ideology from Jesus’ death until now. The reason that the Jewish people have been able to gain victory in the world is because of the heartistic connection of looking forward to the one future time. If the Jewish people had attained heartistic unity by centering upon the people who were in search of and looking toward the heavenly goal, a doctrine of cosmic significance, which could have had a greater impact on the heart of man, would have emerged. If this had been the case, a unified world would have definitely been accomplished through the Israelites. I believe so.

But where did that kingdom, that nation of the original hometown that was to be built around Jesus, go? Where did it go? Where did the land of Canaan go? Where did that original hometown go? Where did the land and the holy temple where Abraham received blessing and made sacrifices before God go? Where did Adam, over whom God could have a direct dominion, go? Where did Noah, whom God selected with his family inside the ark, disappear to? The world of the original hometown, the heavenly haven, does not exist. That is why it is written in the Bible that we are like orphans and widows.

There is a legend in Korea about a man named Saht-gaht Kim. He wore a conical bamboo rain-hat and wandered about, a lone traveler, throughout the whole extent of Korea. He was considered great. So even if you who are walking this course of life appear miserable, you must become men of character. You must become those who can sing of the cosmos with Heaven, who can be paired with Heaven along with all things in the universe. Your loving Shim Jung must match the heavenly emotion. If I had met such a man, even if he was reduced to beggary and carrying an empty can, I would have attended him with my utmost devotion.

We human beings have repeated the history of sorrow. We have bound up, beaten and destroyed ourselves many times. The same thing happened at the time of Noah, and also at the times of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. This is the final period of history today, when it is forewarned that human beings must work out their destiny, fulfill their mission, and open up the path of life. Where will God drive humanity to? In the time of Jesus, God drove humanity to restore the kingdom of the original hometown. From now on, God is driving them for the sake of the world of the original hometown He wishes for.

To build and govern the world of the original hometown, it is said the king of kings would come. He is the Lord whom we eagerly await. If a man were to fall down in the course of life yet drag himself on and then die for the sake of restoring the kingdom of the original hometown, he would remain as a loyal subject and meritorious retainer in the kingdom. Heaven will surely raise him up. That was why Saint Paul abandoned all of his social authority and walked the path of miserable death without a single human tie. He could do that because he was confident that such a time would come. Since God is confident that such a time will come, He has come forth unfolding this dispensation. You know that your life is fated to go this kind of path and that you must go this path with confidence. Are you confident? Are you sure?



Have Faith in God’s Vision for Yourself

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Romans 4

11 Abraham let himself be circumcised to show that he had been accepted because of his faith even before he was circumcised. This makes Abraham the father of all who are acceptable to God because of their faith, even though they are not circumcised. 12 This also makes Abraham the father of everyone who is circumcised and has faith in God, as Abraham did before he was circumcised.

Richard: I need a supercharge in my faith. God has called me, and now is the time to believe in God’s calling of me and act accordingly.

Daniel 4:

13 “While I was in bed, having this vision, a holy angel[a] came down from heaven 14 and shouted:

‘Chop down the tree
    and cut off its branches;
strip off its leaves
    and scatter its fruit.
Make the animals leave its shade
and send the birds flying
    from its branches.
15 But leave its stump and roots
    in the ground,
surrounded by grass
and held by chains
    of iron and bronze.

Richard: The tree of the fallen world and fallen lineage will be cut down. Just the stump will be left. The tree of God’s lineage will be grafted on to this stump, giving the tree new life.

The Path In Search of the Original Homeland Rev. Sun Myung Moon July 5, 1959

Luke 15: 11-32

Now we must find someone who can link his own pitiable circumstances with those of the world. My sense of loneliness must become connected with the world. My sense of being stifled and wanting, which for some unknown reason penetrates deeply in my mind, must become connected with the world. The time is coming when this worn Shim Jung will get connected with the world. We must find the one who can elucidate the whole thing, someone who can take charge of my misfortune, my pitifulness, my loneliness and my resentment. Going a little further, we must find the one who can introduce the world of the ideal that I long for, the one who can let me enjoy fully and forever the heart I have wanted to feel in the world of happiness, peace and freedom. We must find the one who can let that heart, which is associated with eternity, bring happiness to everything in the corporeal world. If someone has met such a one, his life would be a successful one.

I know and believe that Jesus and God let us feel so, and that we can experience them in the sorrowful world. You should stop in your tracks if you think you know all there is to know. You should search for the one who teaches the secret method by which you can withstand what you must go through.

In order to do that, one has to overcome the circumstances he is faced with. He must go beyond his own hope, be well aquatinted with the circumstances, and be able to understand the heart. When our problems are resolved by God in reality, then we can believe in Him without anxiety.

Only when you are equipped with the ideology of such a heart can you stave off the emotion felt in such a world. You can do this even when you run up against grief in the weary course of life. If there is something which grows stronger when struck and beaten, which can resist betraying Heaven, something that is felt through the relationship of heart, it will not be taken possession of even if driven into the bottom of hell. Such a position must surely exist.

Continue reading “Have Faith in God’s Vision for Yourself”

Shine Your Light

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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.

Matthew 3

3 John was the one the prophet Isaiah was talking about, when he said,

“In the desert someone
    is shouting,
‘Get the road ready
    for the Lord!
Make a straight path
    for him.’”

Richard:  These rheamas together make a very compelling case for letting all people know about the good news of the Kingdom, that it is now at hand, and that God and his messenger Rev. Sun Myung Moon have given us the Eight Sacred Textbooks:  http://visionroot.org/resources/the-eight-books-of-holy-scripture/.

The Path In Search of the Original Homeland

Rev. Sun Myung Moon July 5, 1959

Luke 15: 11-32

This is where individuals with heart can live. This original homeland is to be introduced in the final days of human history. If not, this world will not be saved. You must realize that the time is coming when an ideology or doctrine should be established which can introduce the whole thing on a logical basis. We long for the world of the original homeland where we can live forever as brothers and sisters and a family in the garden.

Is there anyone among you who can say, “I have found such an original homeland”? No. Therefore, we are destined to seek it. Jesus came as the Savior and showed the way to the original homeland, yet he could not bring the garden of the original homeland into reality and invite us to live there together with him. God is leading humanity forward, unfolding the dispensation. He says, “Let’s go to the garden of the original homeland, the one we wish for and live for.” But He cannot say, “Come live there together with me” yet. Since God and Jesus are so destined, so are each of you living on earth today.

Members of the congregation, breathless from your journey, has anyone ever had such a day of happiness? Has anyone had such a day and sung out of joy? No, no one. Has God ever enjoyed such a day? No. Is there some kind of principle that can lead you to such a day? No. Even Heaven has not enjoyed such a day. This is the situation of Heaven and earth.

The man of conscience, who cannot live apart from the fate of Heaven and earth, must feel and experience God’s heart as he seeks the way. Your mind may be sincere in its pursuit of happiness, yet the further you walk, the more happiness itself is moving a far distance from you. It might seem that you have arrived at the end of your hard journey, ardently wishing for freedom, peace and happiness. Yet in the light of reality, your mind is full of indistinct contents and happiness is at a far, unreachable distance.

Continue reading “Shine Your Light”