Category: New Testament

We Are to Engage in a Confrontation with Jesus

Revelation 7

13 One of the elders asked me, “Do you know who these people are that are dressed in white robes? Do you know where they come from?”

14 “Sir,” I answered, “you must know.”

Then he told me:

“These are the ones
who have gone through
    the great suffering.
They have washed their robes
in the blood of the Lamb
    and have made them white.
15 And so they stand
    before the throne of God
and worship him in his temple
    day and night.
The one who sits on the throne
will spread his tent
    over them.
16 They will never hunger
    or thirst again,
and they won’t be troubled
by the sun
    or any scorching heat.

17 The Lamb in the center
of the throne
    will be their shepherd.
He will lead them to streams
    of life-giving water,
and God will wipe all tears
    from their eyes.”

Job 22

21 Surrender to God All-Powerful!
You will find peace
    and prosperity.
22 Listen to his teachings
    and take them to heart.
23 If you return to God
and turn from sin,
    all will go well for you.
24 So get rid of your finest gold,
    as though it were sand.
25 Let God All-Powerful
    be your silver and gold,
26 and you will find happiness
    by worshiping him.
27 God will answer your prayers,
and you will keep the promises
    you made to him.
28 He will do whatever you ask,
    and life will be bright.
29 When others are disgraced,
God will clear their names
    in answer to your prayers.
30 Even those who are guilty
will be forgiven,
    because you obey God.

Oh, Where Shall I Go?

Sun Myung Moon
January 18, 1959

Matthew 7

What kind of faith does Heaven desire? When Jesus said, “Believe in me,” he meant to believe in him as he believed in God. He could have said, “I am God’s son, and I believe in God,” because he was certain that God trusted him as His son, just as he trusted God as his Father. Jesus said this from such a position.

Today we are searching for faith. We are searching for the Word and the course of faith based on the Word. In Christian terms, the one substantial center who comes to humankind with the Word, centered on true faith, is called the Second Coming.

Humanity has been upholding God as the standard of faith. Analyzing faith as it has been held so far, God has been teaching humankind based on the Word. Now another battle is coming, since religions hitherto have not resolved everything. Speaking in biblical terms, this is the age of the seven-year turmoil of the last days. You should know this. Continue reading “We Are to Engage in a Confrontation with Jesus”

Seek the Substance

My latest blog post: Is Abstinence from Sexual Activity Outside of Marriage the Expected Standard for School Age Children?

Judges 21

3 The Israelites met and sent messengers to the men of Benjamin at Rimmon Rock, telling them that the Israelites were willing to make peace with them. 14 So the men of Benjamin came back from Rimmon Rock, and the Israelites let them marry the young women from Jabesh. But there weren’t enough women.

Richard:  I take this to mean that the lineage of God is so important that it is imperative for it to continue.  This is part of a very interesting story in the book of Judges.  Check it out here and also the chapter before.

John 6

6 Jesus answered, “I tell you for certain that you are not looking for me because you saw the miracles,[g] but because you ate all the food you wanted. 27 Don’t work for food that spoils. Work for food that gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food, because God the Father has given him the right to do so.”

28 “What exactly does God want us to do?” the people asked.

29 Jesus answered, “God wants you to have faith in the one he sent.”

Oh, Where Shall I Go?

Sun Myung Moon
January 18, 1959

Matthew 7

As you know through the Divine Principle, we humans lost God’s Word, God’s substance and His love by betraying His Word. What was God’s heart like when He gave the Word, when He created the substance, and when He tried to love through this substance?

We are the ones who lost God’s Word, lost the original substance and the substance of love. It is we who lost God’s garden of the ideal. Thus, we should realize that we are sinners who cannot be proud of ourselves. We cannot find the ground of peaceful rest in our hearts nor can we be subject over events.

Although God wanted to come to us with the substance and a loving heart, since humankind has lost the substance, love and Word, God could not come directly as the substance. Therefore, Jesus came representing the substance, yet he left without completing the actions of the substance. Continue reading “Seek the Substance”

Show Kindness as God Has Shown Kindness to Us

Romans 5:20

0 The Law came, so that the full power of sin could be seen. Yet where sin was powerful, God’s kindness was even more powerful. 21 Sin ruled by means of death. But God’s kindness now rules, and God has accepted us because of Jesus Christ our Lord. This means that we will have eternal life.

Richard:  Just as God is kind to us, we should exercise kindness in our lives.

Isaiah 60

The Lord said:

10 Jerusalem, your city walls
    will be rebuilt by foreigners;
their rulers will become
    your slaves.
I punished you in my anger;
now I will be kind
    and treat you with mercy.

Oh, Where Shall I Go?

Sun Myung Moon
January 18, 1959

Matthew 7

Father, we know well that many people have struggled on a deeply woeful course in history to find You, even though they did not know the way. Father, Your existence seems likely, yet improbable. You seem to exist in history and yet cannot be recognized as existing for certain. We behold this Father with an intensely grieved heart. You seem to exist in our hearts, and yet You are insubstantial.

We know well that You created the whole cosmos with the ideal of goodness and gave an amazing blessing to humans in that You gave us true consciences and enabled us to experience the ideal of goodness through our intellects, emotions and wills. We know well, however, that it is undeniable that Your substantial existence is felt in the temporal limitations of the moment.

Whenever we long for Your image in our hearts, we cannot help being seized by an unknowable sorrow. We cannot help lamenting over the misery of our existence. Father, You led us to this state. We know that this is Your historical operation of the heart to lead us to eternal life.

We want to know the Father, who came to us through our Shim Jung and who was the heart behind the scenes of history, unbeknownst to us, trying to structure history into one substantial ideal. We are sincerely longing to establish Your heart as the ideal of our lives. Since we do not clearly know the value of Your substantial existence, we do not know the value of our daily lives. We are in a miserable position of having to struggle today and tomorrow. Father, have pity on us. Have pity on each of us, wandering about on the boundary of death.

Father, now we know that the time has come when You must spread Your hands of love. The wave of that love should reach our environments and our world of Shim Jung. It is time to regain Your authority of Shim Jung. The authority is Yours alone. We know that the time has come to wage a war centering on the heart. Please give us the magnanimity with which to open closed hearts. Now is the time when we should become sons and daughters prepared to bow down to You. Enable us to hear You knocking on the doors of our hearts, to see Your hands before us. We sincerely hope and desire this.

We know that we must continue through the remaining ground of sorrow and the wall of grudges, the showdown and war of the last days. Father, grant strength, ability and Your substantial presence to Your sons and daughters who know this. Allow us to cut the dashing figure of a heavenly soldier who can go through all suffering and battles. Allow us to become noble and confident sons and daughters in exercising the authority of judgment, according to Your decisions. Beloved Father, we earnestly hope and desire this.

Since You are the one who blessed the chosen people, we know that You will bring it to pass. We know that the root of our heart is goodness, and our heart moves through goodness. We know that the purpose of goodness, history and the providence is to become one, centered on You. Please allow the pinnacle of the ideal, adored by the spirit of goodness, to bear fruit. Let us establish ourselves that we may persistently continue to become the ideal itself. Father, we sincerely hope and desire this.

Please allow us to know where our hearts are and where our bodies are moving. Allow our hearts to concentrate all our energy on longing for You and adoring goodness. Allow our bodies to call out to You, struggling to grasp goodness and holding onto the hands of hunger and thirst.

We know that the 6,000 years was the process of holding onto You and pleading with You. Beloved Father, we sincerely hope and desire that, at this time, You allow us to bow to You with our honest selves, confess all, and receive Your guidance.

Father, have pity on the sons and daughters gathered here. Since this is a time to offer a sacrifice to You, allow heaven, all saints, all people, and all things to lower their heads. When the Israelites made an offering to You, You lowered Your head to look it over, and all people and all things on the earth also lowered their heads. We hope that we can unconsciously lower our heads at this time and humbly seek the grace of compassion. Thus, we sincerely hope and desire that You personally come here, accept our offering and guide us.

Since You are the one who drives us to the path that is rejected by others, the road that is difficult to walk, You become responsible for this path. We have not been moved by a human heart nor dragged along by a human situation. Rather, we have been attracted to this place by an irresistible power of the heart. Guide us never to become lax.

Since we are ignorant of Your words of urgency and advice, apply shocks of power to us hour by hour so that we may realize the Words and move in their direction. Father, we sincerely hope and desire that no one will drop out of the process of moving toward You.

We sincerely hope and desire that You allow us to yield all we have to You, never staining Your altar, bowing down to You with all our hearts in offering sacrifices to You. If we still have our own philosophy, understanding or concepts, please remove them all at this time. Allow us to be the children who can submit all our possessions to You with the heart of a child. Allow us to receive them back and boast of them before Satan on the earth. Father, we sincerely hope and desire this. Now we are about to receive the words. Please be with us. We sincerely hope and desire that since You will give many words of guidance, we will not disappoint Heaven after we hear them. Please allow the hearts of the giver and of the receivers to become one now. We sincerely ask that, at this time, we may return to the heart of a child sucking milk in its mother’s bosom. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

 

 

 

Jesus Did Not Come to Die

2 Timothy

4 When Christ Jesus comes as king, he will be the judge of everyone, whether they are living or dead. So with God and Christ as witnesses, I command you 2 to preach God’s message. Do it willingly, even if it isn’t the popular thing to do. You must correct people and point out their sins. But also cheer them up, and when you instruct them, always be patient. 3 The time is coming when people won’t listen to good teaching. Instead, they will look for teachers who will please them by telling them only what they are itching to hear. 4 They will turn from the truth and eagerly listen to senseless stories. 5 But you must stay calm and be willing to suffer. You must work hard to tell the good news and to do your job well.

Isaiah 11

Like a branch that sprouts
    from a stump,
someone from David’s family[a]
    will someday be king.
2 The Spirit of the Lord
    will be with him
to give him understanding,
    wisdom, and insight.
He will be powerful,
and he will know
    and honor the Lord.
3 His greatest joy will be
    to obey the Lord.

God and Humanity Should Live Together
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 11, 1959

John 14: 6-12

Peter, special among the twelve disciples, could freely listen to and believe the words of Jesus. Yet he failed to advance to the stage where he could receive Jesus into his heart without hesitation. Likewise, since the substance of the Word could not be embraced, when Mary Magdalene tried to hold the resurrected Jesus, she was prevented from doing so. Humanity has been unable to embrace the substantial being. This is the second tragedy of humankind.

The first tragedy was to have lost Adam in the Garden of Eden. The second was to have lost Jesus, who was the perfected substance of the Word. This is why he has to come again. This fact, when understood, is a matter for endless weeping. For people living on earth, there cannot be anything more sorrowful. Continue reading “Jesus Did Not Come to Die”

God’s Word Brings Life

Genesis 45

45 Since Joseph could no longer control his feelings in front of his servants, he sent them out of the room. When he was alone with his brothers, he told them, “I am Joseph.” 2 Then he cried so loudly that the Egyptians heard him and told about it in the king’s[a] palace.

John 4

5 The woman replied, “Sir, please give me a drink of that water! Then I won’t get thirsty and have to come to this well again.”

God and Humanity Should Live Together
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 11, 1959

John 14: 6-12

We are not alone in our sighs. When we look to either side of us, we hear the sighs of our brothers. When we lift up our eyes and look at the world, we hear the sighs of humankind. Moreover, when we behold all things, we hear all things sighing. When we lift our heads and see the world of Heaven through our hearts, we hear the sigh of Heaven. Have you ever felt such an amazing thing?

Have you ever cried along with this sighing, holding onto that lamentation with both mind and body? Have you ever had a Shim Jung such that you could embrace all the lamenting things of creation, seized by a higher sigh as you worry about the sighs of our Creator above all things? Have you ever desired to cry with Heaven, people and all things? Although we do not have such a heart, we should at least recognize that as Heaven searched for us with a lamenting Shim Jung, we were the most undutiful sons, the greatest traitors before Heaven. If Heaven exists, all of humankind are unforgivable traitors. Continue reading “God’s Word Brings Life”