Category: Deuteronomy

Find the Self that can Enjoy, Live With and Sing From the Mind

Deuteronomy 13

2 After the Lord your God gives you towns to live in, you may hear a rumor about one of the towns. 13 You may hear that some worthless people have talked everyone there into worshiping other gods, even though these gods had never done anything for them. 14 You must carefully find out if the rumor is true. Then if the people of that town have actually done such a disgusting thing in your own country, 15 you must take your swords and kill every one of them, and their livestock too. 16-17 Gather all the possessions of the people who lived there, and pile them up in the marketplace, without keeping anything for yourself. Set the pile and the whole town on fire, and don’t ever rebuild the town. The whole town will be a sacrifice to the Lord your God. Then he won’t be angry anymore, and he will have mercy on you and make you successful, just as he promised your ancestors. 18 That’s why you must do what the Lord your God says is right. I am giving you his laws and teachings today, and you must obey them.

Ezekiel 16

39 Then I will hand you over to your lovers, who will tear down the places where you had sex. They will take your clothes and jewelry, leaving you naked and empty-handed.

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.

When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
April 19, 1959

Matthew 25:1-13

What is human sorrow? It is not being ignorant of history, nor is it having no relationship with history. The source of human sorrow is being ignorant of the heavenly course of history. Unless there comes a time in the last days when young men and women are told about this and become shocked in their hearts, the world will perish along with history.

From this perspective, we will have to wake up from sleep today. We humans are still sleeping the sleep that our ancestors slept. Although tens of thousands of years have passed since the time of our ancestors, no one has established the point of convergence between Heaven and humanity and cried out to Heaven with confidence. No one has confidently fulfilled his responsibility before Heaven.

Over what would Heaven grieve? It is that the point of convergence has not been created. over what should humankind mourn? They should mourn over the fact that no one has arisen from their number who has completed that relationship. Continue reading “Find the Self that can Enjoy, Live With and Sing From the Mind”

Follow the Right Way Centered on Your Conscience

Click below to listen to or download a recording of Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s speech “God’s Ideal Family Is the Model for World Peace”, the inaugural message of the Universal Peace Federation on September 23, 2005 at the Marriott Wardman Park hotel in Washington DC. Rev. Moon speaks extensively about the Peace Kingdom Corps.:
http://visionroot.org/assets/SMM%20UPF%2009-23-05-combined.mp3

Deuteronomy 5

23 When fire blazed from the mountain, and you heard the voice coming from the darkness, your tribal leaders came to me 24 and said:

Today the Lord our God has shown us how powerful and glorious he is. He spoke to us from the fire, and we learned that people can live, even though God speaks to them. 25 But we don’t want to take a chance on being killed by that terrible fire, and if we keep on hearing the Lord’s voice, we will die. 26 Has anyone else ever heard the only true God speaking from fire, as we have? And even if they have, would they live to tell about it? 27 Moses, go up close and listen to the Lord. Then come back and tell us, and we will do everything he says.

28 The Lord heard you and said:

Moses, I heard what the people said to you, and I approve. 29 I wish they would always worship me with fear and trembling and be this willing to obey me! Then they and their children would always enjoy a successful life.

30 Now, tell them to return to their tents, 31 but you come back here to me. After I tell you my laws and teachings, you will repeat them to the people, so they can obey these laws in the land I am giving them.

Richard:  We can now have our own relationship with God, Jesus and Rev. Moon.  Aligned with our conscience, we can follow our consceince and God’s teachings.  We don’t need to fear this relationship and direct authority.  It is God’s grace for this age.

Proverbs 20

It isn’t smart to get drunk!
    Drinking makes a fool of you
    and leads to fights.
2 An angry ruler
    is like a roaring lion—
    make either one angry,
    and you are dead.
3 It makes you look good
when you avoid a fight—
    only fools love to quarrel.
4 If you are too lazy to plow,
    don’t expect a harvest.
5 Someone’s thoughts may be
    as deep as the ocean,
    but if you are smart,
    you will discover them.

The Heart of Heaven in Relation to Elijah

Sun Myung Moon
March 15, 1959

1 Kings 19: 1-21

Please look upon the thirty million Korean people with compassion. Bless the numerous religious orders which have appeared on their behalf. It is a time when brother fights against brother. It is a time when family members become enemies to one another, defying heavenly principles and breaking down human ethics and morality. It is a time when people calling on Heaven play sport with people who also call on Heaven and strive more than hungry lions to catch and eat them. It is the time when he who knows the sorrow of Heaven and looks at this reality must weep bitterly and sigh for grief.

Father, please look with compassion at the pitiful, ignorant people. Although they wander about seeking the true path, that path cannot be walked without tears. Although they wander about seeking the true path to life, the search cannot help being continued day and night since the thirty million Korean people are ignorant. Who is responsible for the fate of these people? Who feels and experiences the sorrow of Heaven on behalf of these people? There is no one who will take responsibility for the fate of these people. There is no one who will dissolve the sorrow of Heaven. There is no one who hears the sounds of lamentation and crying from Heaven. If such a person should appear, Heaven’s sorrow would not penetrate deeply into the earth; Heaven’s judgment would fall.

Father, please allow this age today to know the grief of Jesus, who spoke of his sorrowful heart. It is of no use to know Jesus only as a historical figure. The time has come when we must know Jesus of the present time in our environment. Please allow us to be the throng of people who utter a cry only toward Heaven, dead or alive, overwhelmed by the Shim Jung to offer our minds and bodies as sacrifices before that lofty and dignified Shim Jung, before that love. We know that this throng of people is to be hounded on this earth and forsaken by the religious order. I wish and desire that You will allow Your sons and daughters gathered here to become the throng of people who can defend their position to the death. Continue reading “Follow the Right Way Centered on Your Conscience”

We Need a New Ideology

Deuteronomy 13

The gods worshiped by other nations have never done anything for you or your ancestors. People who ask you to worship other gods are trying to get you to stop worshiping the Lord, who rescued you from slavery in Egypt. So put to death anyone who asks you to worship another god. 11 And when the rest of Israel hears about it, they will be afraid, and no one else will ever do such an evil thing again.

Richard:  God is very clear that you must worship Him only, not money, power or other idols.

Jeremiah 32

6 Later, when I was in prison, the Lord said:

7 Jeremiah, your cousin Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, will visit you. He must sell his field near the town of Anathoth, and because you are his nearest relative, you have the right and the responsibility to buy it and keep it in the family.[c]

8 Hanamel came, just as the Lord had promised. And he said, “Please buy my field near Anathoth in the territory of the Benjamin tribe. You have the right to buy it, and if you do, it will stay in our family.”

Richard:  Building generational wealth is a wonderful thing that families can do when they work together.  See the Cheon Seong Gyeong 1077 reading here:

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

Jesus Christ, who came as the culmination of 4,000 years of Heaven’s hope, came to introduce to humankind the ideology of the ideal Kingdom of Heaven and to fulfill that ideology. He was not caught up with words that indulged the customs of the age. He was not satisfied with the lifestyles of that society. He was not captivated by the customs of the ritualistic Jewish religion, entrenched in formality and rules.

Jesus appeared with the internal standard of new loyalty, denying every aspect of history. He had new words centering on that standard. When he appeared, taking novel action together with those new words, the chosen historical individuals, the chosen historical group and nation, raised a banner of revolt against him. We must realize that this was what obstructed the course of Christ’s establishing his ideology.

We can know through history that God, the Creator, exists and wants to raise human beings to a standard of the greatest ideology by connecting them to a better ideology, tomorrow more than today, next year more than tomorrow, this century more than next year, and in the next century more than now. Continue reading “We Need a New Ideology”

Don’t have the mentality of slaves

Deutoronomy 15

Moses said to Israel:

12 If any of you buy Israelites as slaves, you must set them free after six years. 13 And don’t just tell them they are free to leave— 14 give them sheep and goats and a good supply of grain and wine. The more the Lord has given you, the more you should give them. 15 I am commanding you to obey the Lord as a reminder that you were slaves in Egypt before he set you free. 16 But one of your slaves may say, “I love you and your family, and I would be better off staying with you, so please don’t make me leave.” 17 Take the slave to the door of your house and push a sharp metal rod through one earlobe and into the door. Such slaves will belong to you for life, whether they are men or women.

Richard:  We should not have the mentality of slaves.  Rather we should be free and sovereign people.

Ezekiel 12

22 Ezekiel, son of man, you’ve heard people in Israel use the saying, “Time passes, and prophets are proved wrong.” 23 Now tell the people that I, the Lord, am going to prove that saying wrong. No one will ever be able to use it again in Israel, because very soon everything I have said will come true! 24 The people will hear no more useless warnings and false messages. 25 I will give them my message, and what I say will certainly happen. Warn those rebels that the time has come for them to be punished. I, the Lord, make this promise.

Let Us Regain the Victorious Nation
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 4, 1959

Genesis 1:27

Genesis 2: 15-17

Acts 1

Prayer

Father, we have learned that You have been working providentially to be the True Parents and master of human beings, who have fallen into an extremely low and base position. We have learned that Jesus has worked for 2,000 years to stand as the parent of the church and of the nation.

We know that now the time has come when we should achieve the parenthood of the cosmos, the nation and the family. Without standing in the position of the family true parents, we cannot complete the position of the national true parents. Without completing the position of the national true parents, we cannot complete the position of the universal true parents. We have learned that this tremendously important matter is determined by us alone. Today, please allow us to indemnify the sorrow of restoration and to come before You by fully satisfying the condition of hope You desire. Please allow us to go through true brotherhood and proceed to the position of the True Parents in this way. Allow us to be able to bear the historical mission, according to which we should form the true family after achieving true Parentship. We then should continue to the nation through the family and on to the position of universal parents through the nation.

Please allow us to understand that our lives, centered on our families, is not simply for our families, but for the nation. Let us have the heart of living for the sake of the nation. If there is a family taking responsibility for the nation, grant that family the heart to live beyond the nation, for the sake of heaven and earth. We realize that we can only resolve Your great sorrow by being thoroughly possessed of such a heart. Therefore, Father, allow us to follow Your Will from today. As we sincerely desire to achieve brotherly unity and extend the Father’s Will of glory, we pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

God Wants to Relieve Jesus’ Sorrow

Deuteronomy 14

8 Every third year, instead of using the ten percent of your harvest for a big celebration, bring it into town and put it in a community storehouse. 29 The Levites have no land of their own, so you must give them food from the storehouse. You must also give food to the poor who live in your town, including orphans, widows, and foreigners. If they have enough to eat, then the Lord your God will be pleased and make you successful in everything you do.

Richard:  Wow, is God good, or what!?  Based on today’s reading, I serched online for an orphanage in Charles Town, WV, which is near where I live.  Lo and behold, I found this nonprofit which is headquartered right here in Charles Town:  http://childrenofuganda.org/.  I can’t wait to meet them, since we have family from Uganda and have and are adopting from Uganda!
This is an amazing testimony of the power of Rheama’s (“random” readings chosen by opening the Word of God and pointing at a certain verse.)  Based on today’s Rheama, I beleive that God wants me to work with and help this organization.  And it also just happens to be my birthday today and it is snowing heavily here, too!

2 Chronicles 8

8 It took twenty years for the Lord’s temple and Solomon’s palace to be built. 2 After that, Solomon had his workers rebuild the towns that Hiram had given him. Then Solomon sent Israelites to live in those towns.

God’s Possession and Our Possession

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
November 9, 1958

Matthew 6: 16-34

The closer you walk toward Heaven, the more you dissolve Heaven’s bitter resentment, and the more deeply indebted you feel. For 6,000 years, God has been seeking His kingdom and people on this earth. Consequently, the historic debt of the toil of His seeking has accumulated for 6,000 years. Therefore, even if my individual self has satisfaction and happiness, I cannot say I own the heavenly kingdom.

If one is a son or a daughter of Heaven, he or she is left with the earth and the world for which he or she is responsible and for which he or she must be concerned and offer protection in God’s place. In other words, as long as anything that God cannot own remains, he or she should feel that he or she cannot have confidence in himself or herself.

For that reason, although Jesus came to this earth with the privileges of the Prince of Heaven, he could not exercise them, not even once. Everywhere he went, he washed the feet of his disciples and aided people. Jesus did not live even one day of his life for his purpose.

Looking back on Jesus’ life, we realize that he lived only for the good of others. His was a life of grief in which he struggled hard for the sake of others; he shed tears for the good of others; he was abused for the benefit of others; he was torn in the interest of others and he faced death for the good of others.

If God cannot dissolve this sorrow of Jesus, then God is useless. For that reason, we must liberate God from this iron chain of sorrow. Until the day He can claim that the whole of heaven and earth are His with uplifted hands and say to all humankind, “Let’s rejoice together!” we cannot make a case for ourselves. Because these vicissitudes existed, Christianity put emphasis on love, sacrifice and service and made an emphatic point out of living a life of persecution and contemptible treatment. Continue reading “God Wants to Relieve Jesus’ Sorrow”