Ezekiel | Daily Inspiration

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Isaiah 18

⁵For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone
    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,
    and cut down and take away the spreading branches.
⁶They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey
    and to the wild animals;
the birds will feed on them all summer,
    the wild animals all winter.

Ezekiel 46

¹²“‘When the prince provides a freewill offering to the Lord—whether a burnt offering or fellowship offerings—the gate facing east is to be opened for him. He shall offer his burnt offering or his fellowship offerings as he does on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out, the gate will be shut.

The Purpose of Religion

2. Religions Cultivate Good Character

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James 1.27

Whoever surrenders his purpose to God while doing good, his reward is with his Lord; and there shall be no fear come upon them, neither shall they grieve.
Qur’an 2.112

For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
Titus 2.11-14

Make your mosque of compassion, your prayermat of sincerity;
your Qur’an of honest and legitimate earning.
Be modesty your circumcision, noble conduct your Ramadan fast—
thus shall you be a true Muslim.
Make good deeds your Kaaba; truth your preceptor;
good action your Kalima and namaz.
Make your rosary of what pleases God:
Thus will you be honored at the last reckoning.
Adi Granth, Var Majh, M.1, p. 140 (Sikhism)

What is to be avoided most in our life is vacillation and frivolity; what is most excellent is a reverential heart. Therefore, we Confucians endeavor to preserve sincerity of heart and consider reverence as most essential. It is needless to say that sincerity and reverence make us companions of heaven and earth, gods and spirits. There is, however, another class of people who adopt Buddhism as their guidance. They bow before the Buddha and recite his sutras, always bent on preserving reverence and awe. They will never relax the vigilant guard over the heart, which will by degrees become pure and bright, free from evil thoughts and ready to do good. This enlightenment is called their most happy land. What is necessary, then, for Buddhists as well as Confucians is to avoid vacillation and frivolity, which will render you unreliable. Keep the heart always restrained by reverence and awe. Otherwise what can be the use of the recitation of sutras or the discourses of Confucius?
Tract of the Quiet Way (Taoism)

Turn to Me to Be Saved, For I Am God

Urban Life Training Newsletter-March 18, 2021

2 Chronicles 25

¹⁴After Amaziah had defeated the Edomite army, he returned to Jerusalem. He took with him the idols of the Edomite gods and set them up. Then he bowed down and offered them sacrifices. ¹⁵This made the Lord very angry, and he sent a prophet to ask Amaziah, “Why would you worship these foreign gods that couldn’t even save their own people from your attack?”

¹⁶But before the prophet finished speaking, Amaziah interrupted and said, “You’re not one of my advisors! Don’t say another word, or I’ll have you killed.”

The prophet stopped. But then he added, “First you sinned and now you’ve ignored my warning. It’s clear that God has decided to punish you!”

Ezekiel 20

³⁹Go ahead and worship your idols for now, you Israelites, because soon I will no longer let you dishonor me by offering gifts to them. You will have no choice but to obey me!⁴⁰When that day comes, everyone in Israel will worship me on Mount Zion, my holy mountain in Jerusalem. I will once again call you my own, and I will accept your sacred offerings and sacrifices. ⁴¹When I bring you home from the places where you are now scattered, I will be pleased with you, just as I am pleased with the smell of the smoke from your sacrifices. Every nation on earth will see that I am holy, ⁴²and you will know that I, the Lord, am the one who brought you back to Israel, the land I promised your ancestors. ⁴³Then you will remember your wicked sins, and you will hate yourselves for doing such horrible things. They have made you unacceptable to me, ⁴⁴so you deserve to be punished. But I will treat you in a way that will bring honor to my name, and you will know that I am the Lord God.

Richard: We are currently in a period of separation of good and evil and of judgement. The core teaching of this age is absolute sexual ethics . All the things that are an affront to God and His ideal have to be cleaned up. This will happen, for sure. As always, our own response and and responsibility is key.

Universal Salvation

The compassion and grace of God knows no bounds. The heavenly Father’s heart yearns to save all his children. These passages from scripture praise the extent of God’s saving work and predict it eventually to embrace all humankind. In Buddhist terms, the essential purpose of absolute truth is to liberate all sentient beings, and Mahayana Buddhist scriptures express the universality of grace in the bodhisattva vow of the Buddha Amitabh to save all beings.
Salvation may come to all people through one central point: thus in Abraham “shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12.3). For those who believe in one religion as the only way, the divine mandate to save all humankind is a powerful impetus to missionary activity. On the other hand, God may express his saving will by sending multiple prophets and sages to all nations, warning each to return to God using the means suitable to their different cultures.
If salvation is to be available universally, to every soul who has ever lived regardless of his or her earthly life, the doctrine may appear at odds with beliefs about hell and the Last Judgment. If God is most essentially just, how can the wicked ever receive salvation? On the other hand, if God is most essentially gracious and compassionate, how can he permit any creature to suffer in hell eternally? To understand the heart of God our heavenly Father, Father Moon asks us to imagine how we would feel if one of our children were a condemned criminal. We would want to save our child, even take his place at the gallows.
Father Moon also discusses the difficulty of the path of salvation in terms of the methods which God is constrained to use, because he created human beings with the sovereign freedom to live and mold our lives as each sees fit. Nevertheless, ultimately God’s purpose shall be done: all people will be saved and even hell will be emptied of its occupants.

The daily concern of the Parent is single-heartedly how best I can advance arrangements to save all of you.
Ofudesaki 14.35 (Tenrikyo)

The Dharma of the Buddhas
by the constant use of a single flavor
causes the several worlds
universally to attain perfection.
By gradual practice
all obtain the Fruit of the Way.
Lotus Sutra 5 (Buddhism)

The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
2 Peter 3.9

God is on the watch for the nations of the world to repent, so that He may bring them under His wings.
Numbers Rabbah 10.1 (Judaism)

I testify that Thou art the Lord of all creation, and the Educator of all beings, visible and invisible. I bear witness that Thy power hath encompassed the entire universe, and that the hosts of the earth can never dismay Thee, nor can the dominion of all peoples and nations deter Thee from executing Thy purpose. I confess that Thou hast no desire except the regeneration of the whole world, and the establishment of the unity of its peoples, and the salvation of all them that dwell therein.
Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh 115 (Baha’i Faith)

We will make offering unto You with worship,
O Lord, and to the Right,
That you may achieve through Good Mind the
destiny of all creatures in the Dominion.
For the salvation of the man of insight among such as you,
O Wise One, will hold good for everyone.
Avesta, Yasna 34.3 (Zoroastrianism)

“As I live,” says the Lord God, “I have no
pleasure in the death of the wicked.”
Ezekiel 33.11

Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
for I am God, and there is no other.
By myself I have sworn,
from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness
an irrevocable decree:
“To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear.”
Isaiah 45.22-23

God it is who has sent His Messenger with the guidance and the Religion of Truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all [false] religion, however much the idolators may be averse.
Qur’an 9.33

The Lordsaid to Abram… “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12.3

And there never was a people, without a warner having lived among them.
Qur’an 35.24

Are you not like the Ethiopians to me,
O people of Israel?” says the l ord .
“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines from Caphtor and the
Syrians from Kir?”
Amos 9.7

The Tathagatas do not enter ultimate liberation until all living beings have entered ultimate liberation.
Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti 4 (Buddhism)

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him,
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not fail or be discouraged
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law.
Isaiah 42.1-4

I establish the Vows unexcelled,
And reach the highest path, Bodhi.

Were these Vows unfulfilled,
I would never attain Enlightenment.

I will be the great provider
Throughout innumerable ages.
Should I fail to save all in need,
I would never attain Enlightenment.

Upon my attaining Enlightenment,
If my Name were not heard anywhere
In the ten quarters of the universe,
I would never attain Enlightenment.

Practicing the Holy Way—selflessness,
Depth in right reflection and pure wisdom,
Aspiring toward the highest path,
I will be the teacher of devas and men.

My wondrous power by its great light
Brightens countless lands throughout,
Removes the darkness of the three defilements
And delivers all from suffering and pain.
Larger Sukhavativyuha Sutra 9.1-5: Juseige (Buddhism)

Who Is In the First Resurrection?

Mark 12

³⁶The Holy Spirit led David to say,

‘The Lord said to my Lord:
Sit at my right side
until I make your enemies
into a footstool for you.’

Ezekiel 27

⁷I told them to get rid of their disgusting idols and not to sin by worshiping the gods of Egypt. I reminded them that I was the Lord their God, ⁸but they still rebelled against me. They refused to listen and kept on worshiping their idols and foreign gods.

Richard: Return to God. Forswear the pursuit of money, power and illicit sex.

Resurrection

2. The Resurrection of the Saints—The First Resurrection

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4.16-17

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and every power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

1 Corinthians 15.22-26

Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps, and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste; it is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes; these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are spotless…

Revelation 14.1-5

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while.

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection!

Revelation 20.1-6

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The “first resurrection” spoken of in the Bible describes the fulfillment of restoration for the first time in providential history. This will be accomplished through Christ at the Second Advent. He will cleanse people of the original sin and restore them to their true, original selves, enabling each to fulfill the purpose of creation.

The hope of all Christians is to participate in the first resurrection. But who in fact shall participate? It will be those who are the first to believe in, serve and follow Christ at the Second Advent. They will assist him in fulfilling all the indemnity conditions worldwide and in accomplishing the providence of restoration. In the process, they will be the first to have their original sin removed, become divine spirits, and fulfill the purpose of creation…

In order for Christ at the Second Advent to complete the providence of restoration, he must find a certain number of people who can restore through indemnity the missions of all the past saints who, despite their best efforts to do God’s Will, fell prey to Satan when they failed in their responsibilities. He must find these people during his lifetime and lay the foundation of victory over Satan’s world. The total number of saints whom Christ at the Second Advent must find to accomplish this task is 144,000. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Resurrection 2.2.7)

What is the secret that will enable us to chase out Satan from everywhere? It is to live for the sake of others, die for the sake of others, and practice altruistic love. When we do that, Satan will certainly flee, breaking down all the barriers and national borders that he had erected.

What will happen next? Once Satan is gone, souls who had been headed for hell will be given the opportunity to resurrect and enter heaven. Eternal life will finally become a reality.

As people who know God and the Kingdom of Heaven, we will call on God, the Source of love, as our Father. We will earnestly desire to practice God’s tradition of living for others, and will continue to do so for tens of thousands of years. This is the tradition of eternal life, established in people of the eternal lineage. It is for us to share. (August 18, 2000)

Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet and a Light to My Path

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Ezekiel 25

¹⁵The Lord God said, “The cruel Philistines have taken revenge on their enemies over and over and have tried to destroy them. ¹⁶Now it’s my turn to treat the Philistines as my enemies and to kill everyone^[b] living in their towns along the seacoast. ¹⁷In my fierce anger, I will take revenge on them. And when I punish them, they will know that I am the Lord.”

Matthew 24

²⁹Right after those days of suffering,

“The sun will become dark,
and the moon
will no longer shine.
The stars will fall,
and the powers in the sky
will be shaken.”

³⁰Then a sign will appear in the sky. And there will be the Son of Man.^[e] All nations on earth will weep when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹At the sound of a loud trumpet, he will send his angels to bring his chosen ones together from all over the earth.

Enlightenment

Enlightenment means dispelling the darkness of ignorance. According to the manner in which reality is perceived in the different traditions, enlightenment may be either the intuitive grasping of inner wisdom, illumination by the truth of the Word, or direct apprehension of transcendent reality. the true self, formerly obscured by false habits of thinking and vain desires, is suddenly revealed. the inner eye, which was blinded by defilements of worldly living, opens to a vision of the true reality. From that moment life can never be the same, as the enlightened person begins to live by the knowledge he has acquired.
There is rational enlightenment, the cognition of truth. Knowledge of God’s Word enlightens the mind, lighting a marked-out path to a person formerly lost in the darkness of ignorance. Father Moon is one with the Christian tradition in teaching that the Word of God can transform lives.
A second group of passages describe enlightenment as self-realization, the inward experience of finding one’s original mind, the God within. this describes the experience of salvation in Hinduism and Buddhism, yet is common to most religions. this can be a soul-shaking experience, as the mind opens to receive massive amounts of energy. having stripped away everything false, the enlightened mind corresponds to the standard of the Divine Mind, setting up a powerful connection. Father Moon encourages every person to gain such an experience on the path to wholeness and completion. he teaches that no amount of conceptual knowledge or faith can substitute for realization of the God within.
Finally, there is shamanistic enlightenment, which opens the five spiritual senses and enables one to see, hear and sense the invisible spirit world. With proper training, anyone can access this knowledge and source of spiritual power.

1. The Light of True Knowledge

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalm 119.105

The truth has come, and falsehood has vanished away. Surely falsehood is ever certain to vanish.
Qur’an 17.85

Jesus spoke to them, saying “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
”John 8.12

You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
John 8.32

As sight is in the body, so is reason in the soul.
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1.6 (Hellenism)

The holy Preceptor by the Word lighted a lamp;
Thereby was shattered darkness of the temple of the self,
And the unique chamber of jewels thrown open.
Wonderstruck were we in extreme on beholding it—
Its greatness beyond expression.
Adi Granth, Bilaval, M.5, p. 821 (Sikhism)

To know the eternal is called enlightenment
Not to know the eternal is to act blindly, to result in disaster.
He who knows the eternal is all-embracing.
Being all-embracing, he is impartial.
Being impartial, he is kingly [universal].
Being kingly, he is one with Nature.
Being one with nature, he is in accord with Tao.
Being in accord with Tao, he is everlasting,
And is free from danger throughout his lifetime.
Tao Te Ching 16 (Taoism)

It is wonderful, Lord! It is wonderful, Lord! It is as if, Lord, one might set upright that which had been upturned, or might reveal what was hidden, or might point out the path to one who had gone astray, or might bring an oil lamp into the darkness so that those with eyes might see material shapes.
Udana 49 (Buddhism)

When they listen to that which has been revealed unto the Messenger, you see their eyes overflow with tears because of their recognition of the Truth. They say, “Our Lord, we believe. Inscribe us as among the witnesses.”
Qur’an 5.83

God Is in Shackles on Account of Humankind, Including Me

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#84-President Trump Should Stay in Office

Ezekiel 20

The Lord said to the people of Israel:

³³As surely as I am the living Lord God, I will rule over you with my powerful arm. You will feel my fierce anger ³⁴and my power, when I gather you from the places where you are scattered ³⁵and lead you into a desert surrounded by nations. I will meet you there face to face. Then I will pass judgment on you ³⁶and punish you, just as I punished your ancestors in the desert near Egypt. ³⁷I will force each of you to obey the regulations of our solemn agreement. ³⁸I will separate the sinful rebels from the rest of you, and even though I will bring them from the nations where they live in exile, they won’t be allowed to return to Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

³⁹Go ahead and worship your idols for now, you Israelites, because soon I will no longer let you dishonor me by offering gifts to them. You will have no choice but to obey me! ⁴⁰When that day comes, everyone in Israel will worship me on Mount Zion, my holy mountain in Jerusalem. I will once again call you my own, and I will accept your sacred offerings and sacrifices. ⁴¹When I bring you home from the places where you are now scattered, I will be pleased with you, just as I am pleased with the smell of the smoke from your sacrifices. Every nation on earth will see that I am holy, ⁴²and you will know that I, the Lord, am the one who brought you back to Israel, the land I promised your ancestors. ⁴³Then you will remember your wicked sins, and you will hate yourselves for doing such horrible things. They have made you unacceptable to me, ⁴⁴so you deserve to be punished. But I will treat you in a way that will bring honor to my name, and you will know that I am the Lord God.

Richard: We see that God’s people (the Israelites, Christians today) have strayed from Him. There will be a separation between good and evil. This scripture speaks of inevitability. As Rev. Moon as said, “We cannot pass”, we have to decide about the message that Rev. Moon gives us. You can get started by reading or listening to Peace Message 10, The Family Rooted In Absolute Sexual Ethics, which Is the Model for God’s Absoluteness, Peace and Ideal, and the Global Kingdom.
Listen to the Speech.
“The Unification Principle is not the mere doctrine of Unificationism. Rather, it is the heavenly path and principle that all people must know and live by.”
Original Root Substance of the Principle: p. 31

Matthew 21

⁴⁰Jesus asked, “When the owner of that vineyard comes, what do you suppose he will do to those renters?”

⁴¹The chief priests and leaders answered, “He will kill them in some horrible way. Then he will rent out his vineyard to people who will give him his share of grapes at harvest time.”

⁴²Jesus replied, “You surely know that the Scriptures say,

‘The stone that the builders
    tossed aside
is now the most important
    stone of all.
This is something
the Lord has done,
    and it is amazing to us.’

⁴³I tell you that God’s kingdom will be taken from you and given to people who will do what he demands. ⁴⁴Anyone who stumbles over this stone will be crushed, and anyone it falls on will be smashed to pieces.”

⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard these stories, they knew that Jesus was talking about them. ⁴⁶So they looked for a way to arrest Jesus. But they were afraid to, because the people thought he was a prophet.

Richard: This scripture clearly says that Christ will not return to Israel, due to the betrayal of the Israelites. See Original Root Substance of the Principle p 440

God’s Grief

3. Sharing God’s Tears

People who experience the heart of God in their lives cannot come before God without shedding tears, no matter where they are. They know the original Will of God and struggle to become His sons and daughters. If you are among them, sharing God’s Will and desire, He will visit you and weep with you.

Where are the roots of God’s grief? They are inside us. They are inside our nation, this world and all things of creation. We must carry on a movement to eradicate them and restore God’s joy. For us, the center of our life of faith should be to experience God’s grief. (4:60, March 2, 1958)

Is God deserving of pity? Many people would question why the all-knowing and almighty God needs to be pitied. Still, regardless of how all-knowing and almighty He may be, nothing can relieve Him from the shock of losing His beloved children. If there had been a way for God to find relief from that shock by Himself, He would not have had to suffer through a six-thousand-year course of his-tory. (35:88, October 4, 1970)

God seeks people thirsting for faith and hope and burning with love, who say, “God is in shackles on account of humankind, including me; God was accused by Satan because of me; Jesus died on the cross for me; the Holy Spirit went through a bloody history of struggle on my behalf. God, please give me the strength. I will bring rest and liberation to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.” (7:162, August 30, 1959)

God our Parent cannot free Himself from lamentation until all people are free from lamentation. How can any parents be comfortable while their beloved children are in misery? This explains why we should liberate God, who exists in such a state.

How shall we liberate God? Since we live in a realm beset by restrictions, which also restrict God from loving all people, we are responsible to restore the realm of liberation where God can freely love all people. Since we were corrupted through the Fall, we must liberate God by becoming children who are victorious over the Fall. (65:100, November 13, 1972)

As long as God, the Center of the universe, is in anguish, human beings have no way to salvation. Who can lift away the suffering of God? Only someone who experiences the depth of God’s suffering in his own life and suffers even beyond that. If God were joyful and happy, then all beings immersed in suffering could hope to find a way to happiness. But how can salvation be possible while God, the center of the universe, is suffering? Therefore, at all cost, we must not let God remain in suffering.

There is no question that the fall of God’s children, Adam and Eve, was the pinnacle of God’s suffering. God is the Father of humankind and Adam and Eve were His first children. Their fall had a direct impact on God. The resulting separation caused God incredible pain—physically, mentally and emotionally. When they departed [from the Garden of Eden], God must have wept bitter tears. That pain in God’s body, mind and heart was the beginning of human suffering; it has continued through history…

However, Adam and Eve did not understand the seriousness of their sin. They might have felt some anguish in their minds and hearts because the left the bosom of God their Father, but they were unable to grasp the gravity of the pain and suffering they caused God. Ever since, God has had to relate to human beings who lack any perception of His suffering heart. For God, this is the ultimate agony.

How can you possibly experience God’s heart? By listening to a sermon like this you may feel it conceptually, but you still do not feel His sorrow down to your bones. Consider a woman who loses her parents, husband, and children, as well as all her possessions, in a tragic accident. How would she feel? Although during her lifetime in the fallen world she could see and experience many types of evil and sin, her pain and grief at losing her entire family would be unbearable. How much more shock and grief God must have felt, being completely pure and never having experienced any sin, suffering, or crime.

Today many people commit suicide. Do you think the despair that drives people to commit suicide can be compared to God’s despair at the moment Adam and Eve fell? No one but God is truly entitled to use the word ‘suffering’… We may experience tragedies in our life, yet as time passes the pain and grief will ease. However, God is a spiritual being. He has no concept of time. During one thousand years or even ten thousand years, the pain of the Human Fall has never left God’s mind and heart. Nevertheless, could God not simply cast His suffering out of His heart? More than omniscient and omnipotent, God is absolute in love. (94:34-36, June 26, 1977)

How many tears have you shed for God? Have you ever sought out a way to take on suffering and toil on behalf of God’s pain and toil, even though your own limbs might be torn off? You have not tried. In seeking to become God’s sons and daughters, you have to shed tears for the purpose of the whole. When you meet God, you should comfort Him with unending tears. Representing the original ancestors, you should say, “Father, I am Thy son (daughter). How great was Thy sorrow upon losing me! How many times throughout history until the present day hast Thou suffered humiliation, pain and extreme hardship from my descendants!”

The almighty, all-knowing God certainly has the authority to judge the entire world and even Satan. Yet God cries out in pain, knowing that even though He is capable of bringing judgment, He cannot destroy the world He toiled to create. Our hearts break when we think of God in this situation. God is not dwelling in a heavenly place. He stands lonely and desolate, accused by Satan, robbed of His foothold by the satanic world… How much have you wept in sympathy with God’s situation? The issue comes down to this. (51:111, November 18, 1971)

Father! Humankind knows not Thy sorrowful heart permeating the earth.

Humankind does not know Heaven’s sad tears soaking the footprints of human history;
hence we are ignorant of Heaven’s endless lamentations encircling our minds and bodies.
We confess that we are descendants of rebellion
who cannot establish our dignity before Heaven or be trusted by Heaven.
Father, no one on earth can stop Thy tears;
no one can hold and comfort Thee in Thy sorrow;
no one can protect Thee on Thy path.
Therefore, the grief on this earth is Heaven’s grief permeating the earth;
the sorrow on this earth is Heaven’s sorrow permeating the earth;
the frustration on this earth is Heaven’s frustration permeating the earth…

When in these last days we despair,
we turn towards Heaven and cry out, “O God, please help us!
“Father, please have compassion on humankind!”
Yet who in this age clings to Thy heart, sharing Thine anguish?
Who clings to Thy mind, weeping with Thee?
If there were such a person,
Thou wouldst call him Thy true son or Thy true daughter,
grasping him or her as Thine object partner on earth. (6:235-36, May 24, 1959)

Category: Ezekiel

Surrender Your Purpose to God While Doing Good