Category: Ezekiel

Salvation is to Restore What has Been Lost

Ezekiel 44

The Lord said:

15 The priests of the Levi tribe who are descendants of Zadok the priest were faithful to me, even when the rest of the Israelites turned away. And so, these priests will continue to serve as my priests and to offer the fat and the blood of sacrifices. 16 They will come into my temple, where they will offer sacrifices at my altar and lead others in worship.

1 Kings 20

23 Meanwhile, Benhadad’s officials went to him and explained:

Israel’s gods are mountain gods. We fought Israel’s army in the hills, and that’s why they defeated us. But if we fight them on flat land, there’s no way we can lose.

24 Here’s what you should do. First, get rid of those thirty-two kings and put army commanders in their places. 25 Then get more soldiers, horses, and chariots, so your army will be as strong as it was before. We’ll fight Israel’s army on flat land and wipe them out.

Benhadad agreed and did what they suggested.

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

If this is what the God who sought me is like, then how about tomorrow? Is there any way to comfort this God? Even if human beings were to experience pain, there is no greater pain than God has experienced. No matter how unsolvable a problem human beings have, there is no problem more difficult to resolve than God’s.

Do you think that God yearns for the appearance of a son who will say to Him, “Father, how much You have suffered,” with a heart more sorrowful than His? Have you ever thought that God sought sons and daughters who can say, “Father, how much have You suffered, how many times have You fallen down, and how many times have You struggled?” He wants sons and daughters who can endure many sufferings, persecutions and difficulties and cast away all sorrows, bitterness and indignation. The God we believe in and should serve is such a person.

Where are the true sons and daughters who understand the sorrow of God, who is seeking us even while going the course of the cross? We need such sons and daughters. You have to understand clearly that the group, the people, the nation and the world which can unite centering on such sons and daughters is the world that God is hoping to realize, the ideal world of creation.

I know God as a miserable being. Misery is the only word to describe God’s situation. No matter how miserable a person may be, compared to God, he is not miserable. No matter what kind of sorrow there may be, it is not comparable to that of God. No matter how bitter one may be, compared to God, he has no problem.

Upon creating Adam and Eve, God desired a garden of goodness. God created them in order to embrace them and love them and rejoice while all things of the universe reciprocated in harmony. Yet when we look at the Bible, where does it say that such a thing ever took place? The heart of God over losing Adam and Eve is the heart of sorrow over losing one’s only son and only daughter.

It is said that Jesus is the only son. What does the only son refer to? It refers to the only son who can receive God’s love and comfort God. Since Adam lost God’s love due to the Fall, Jesus was sent to recover it. He is the first son and the only son born of God’s love. That is why he is referred to as the only begotten son. What was Jesus supposed to do on the earth? He should have shown us what the love of God is like. He was supposed to show us what life centering on God’s love is like, what society centering on God’s love is like, and what the world centering on God’s love is like.

When Jesus came to the earth, did he clearly show what the love of God is like? He passed away without showing it fully to us. Did he show what the family that God loves is like? Did he show what the people, nation, and the world that God loves are like? He could not.

If Adam and Eve had reached perfection without falling, God would have raised two arms and blessed them, “Oh, my beloved sons and daughters, I want you to inherit My work and govern all the things of the universe and live together with Me eternally.” However, this will of God was completely undermined. For this reason God longs for the one day that He can bless two people like Adam and Eve, giving them all of Heaven and earth. This is what you have to understand.

What is salvation? It is to restore what has been lost. This is why while going through the historical course of ups and downs, God held the people up every time they became tired and fell down. After four thousand years passed, God sent Jesus.

By sending him God wanted to unveil the sorrow and unload the suffering of the four thousand years. Through Jesus God wanted to restore and complete the ideal of the creation of the universe. Jesus was the person sent as the one responsible for that. Jesus was the one sent to complete the ideal of creation.

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.

You Have to Solve Your Own Problems

Judges 20

The Israelites were running away, but they headed for Baal-Tamar, where they regrouped. They had set an ambush, and they were sure it would work. Ten thousand of Israel’s best soldiers had been hiding west of Gibeah,[i] and as soon as the men of Benjamin chased the Israelites into the countryside, these ten thousand soldiers made a surprise attack on the town gates. They dashed in and captured Gibeah, killing everyone there. Then they set the town on fire, because the smoke would be the signal for the other Israelite soldiers to turn and attack the soldiers of Benjamin.

Ezekiel 16

35 Jerusalem, you prostitute, listen to me. 36 You chased after lovers, then took off your clothes and had sex. You even worshiped disgusting idols and sacrificed your own children as offerings to them. 37 So I, the Lord God, will gather every one of your lovers, those you liked and those you hated. They will stand around you, and I will rip off your clothes and let all of those lovers stare at your nakedness. 38 I will find you guilty of being an unfaithful wife and a murderer, and in my fierce anger I will sentence you to death! 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.

Richard: We should not worship idols, such as a physical rod of iron, or weapon. A physical weapon can never be the Rod of Iron referred to in the Divine Principle. Rather, it is the Word of Truth: http://visionroot.org/resources/the-eight-books-of-holy-scripture/ .

I Am Relating With Two Worlds

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 20, 1959

We should sing with our bodies and with our minds. We should praise with our hearts. What? Our Lord. Who is that? It is God. God is my father. He is my father. We are God’s children. We should say, “What in the world can we exchange for God? What in the world can sever our relationship with Him?” The kind of love that people like, the ambitions that people cherish, and the glamour and luxuries that people desire are insignificant. If we can serve God, whom all things of nature and all beings want to honor as their eternal Lord, our Father, what greater happiness would there be? When a woman becomes the wife of some person of a high position, she brags and makes a big fuss about it. Yet God is our father. You cannot exchange this joy with anything under Heaven or on earth. God is looking for sons and daughters who can comfort Him and say, “God, You have searched for me through the suffering path of six thousand years. How many difficulties have You endured?” You have to understand this.

To raise up such a son, God has been influencing our ancestors thousands of times during the many centuries of history. How many times have people betrayed Him? We have to understand that we have betrayed human hearts and the heavenly heart. We have betrayed the heavenly principles and the Father’s heart. We have to repent for these sins.

What has trampled upon the heavenly principles? Since our bodies trampled upon them, our bodies are our worst enemies. Your enemies are not in front of you. Your bodies are your enemies. You have to suppress your body. You have to learn to judge yourself. For this reason people who walk the path of devotion go against conventional wisdom. They advocate laws which go in the opposite direction and walk against the trend.

To what extent have you put your lives on the line in your struggles? Among the people who attend the Unification Church, there are many who fight centering on the name of the Unification Church. However, you have to fight by your own virtue. When Jesus was carrying the cross, women wept bitterly and followed him. Jesus looked at them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not cry for me; cry for your own sake and the sake of your children.” (Luke 23:28) You have to solve your own problems. You are the problem. You should not curse other people or hold grudges against other people. You should curse yourself. You should rectify your false self and receive Jesus, who is your friend of the original mind and heart. You should receive the Father of the mind, the Father of the heart, the Father of the body and the Father of all things. Only when you walk this path can you avert the judgment of the Last Days.

God Likes Someone Who Is Trustworthy

Join us on Saturday, October 5th at 10 a.m. for Part 1 of the Unification Principle online seminar. Register here: https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/unification-principle-training

John 20

3 Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 They ran side by side, until the other disciple ran faster than Peter and got there first. 5 He bent over and saw the strips of linen cloth lying inside the tomb, but he did not go in.

6 When Simon Peter got there, he went into the tomb and saw the strips of cloth. 7 He also saw the piece of cloth that had been used to cover Jesus’ face. It was rolled up and in a place by itself. 8 The disciple who got there first then went into the tomb, and when he saw it, he believed. 9 At that time Peter and the other disciple did not know that the Scriptures said Jesus would rise to life. 10 So the two of them went back to the other disciples.

Ezekiel 40

28 We then went into the inner courtyard, through the gate on the south side of the temple. The man measured the gate, and it was the same size as the gates in the outer wall. 29-30 In fact, everything along the passageway was also the same size, including the guardrooms, the walls separating them, the entrance room at the far end, and the windows. This gate, like the others, was eighty-five feet long and forty-two feet wide. 31 The entrance room of this gate faced the outer courtyard, and carvings of palm trees decorated the walls of the passageway. Eight steps led up to this gate.

32 Next, we went through the east gate to the inner courtyard. The man measured this gate, and it was the same size as the others. 33 The guardrooms, the walls separating them, and its entrance room had the same measurements as the other gates. The guardrooms and the entrance room had windows, and the gate was eighty-five feet long and forty-two feet wide. 34 The entrance room faced the outer courtyard, and the walls in the passageway were decorated with carvings of palm trees. Eight steps also led up to this gate.

Richard:  God works very consistently and logically and mathematically, too.  People are not just going to levitate in the air, for example, at the time of the Second Coming, which is now.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon

August 30, 1959

John 14:11

1 Corinthians 13: 1-13

With respect to belief, hope and love, what kind of person would you like to make friends with? You probably want to be friends with someone trustworthy, someone full of hope and good taste. Isn’t that so? The same is true for God. Since we resemble God, God also likes that kind of person. God likes someone who is reliable, hopeful and interesting.

The Bible teaches us to become someone who can take joy in our daily life today and live in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth no matter what our circumstances may be. Hence, we come to the conclusion that the Kingdom of Heaven is inside our hearts. If there is someone who can laugh off the external world and transcend all its pains even while living in a sinful world, he is truly a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The crucial question is where to bring all this together. Where is the beginning point for solving the problems of today? The starting point for solving problems is each one of us.

You should not just worship God but stand in a relationship with Him and establish a reciprocal value. You should say, “Father, I have come. You have waited so long, for six thousand years.” Don’t you want to do this? God wants to hear the words, “How much have You cried? I have come. How much have You waited? I have come. How much did You long for me? I have come.”

God wants to meet such sons and daughters and forget all the grief of the six thousand years since the time He blessed Adam and Eve with the governance of everything in the universe. He wants to say, “Today is My birthday, the day of My joy.” God does not want to remember the sorrows of the six thousand years. He wants to sing songs of love with His new sons and daughters in the new universe. We have to understand clearly that the sons and daughters the Father desires are none other than us.

Prayer

In the course of my speech, I felt how fatiguing it is. Yet how much have You suffered for six thousand years? We are miserable beyond belief, yet how much more have You suffered?

We have learned how much You believe in us and long for us to become true sons and daughters who can comfort You. Please guide us to struggle desperately to heal Your wounded heart by silently making an offering every day.

We have learned that although faith, hope and love are all valuable, those who have lost their bodies cannot stand before the Father eternally; each one of us is the source of the difficulties.

Please guide those who believe in me to declare with confidence, “Father, please believe in me. Please have hope in me. Please love me.” Please guide them to take responsibility. We entrust everything to You. Please let everything be fulfilled as You will. We prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen. 

Prevail Over Anything, Even if God Were to Strike You

Watch the latest Richard Urban show with Caleb Johnson: Always Keep Your Promises Before God: https://youtu.be/8U3csFc2_dM.

“Know your neighbor, love your neighbor, help your neighbor”:
Jake Wood, founder of Team Rubicon: https://youtu.be/B25PvyNXboU


Jude 1

1 From Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James.

To all who are chosen and loved by God the Father and are kept safe by Jesus Christ.

2 I pray that God will greatly bless you with kindness, peace, and love!

Ezekiel 7

19 Your silver and gold will be thrown into the streets like garbage, because those are the two things that led you into sin, and now they cannot save you from my anger. They are not even worth enough to buy food. 20 You took great pride in using your beautiful jewelry to make disgusting idols of foreign gods. So I will make your jewelry worthless.

Inside God’s Stadium

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
August 9, 1959

1 Corinthians 9: 14-27

This is because God desires that we rejoice with Him and win the victory with Him. Since God is the God of the past, the present and the future, we should also have the qualities of the past, present and the future and be knowledgeable about them. Otherwise, we will be swept away by trends of thought in the future.

We should understand them more deeply and even understand the heart of the historical God. Members of a family are tied together in complex relationships. Given God’s heart of the past, present and future, we should understand everything about the race that the Father is directing based on this heart and be in tune with the realm of His heart. God’s desire is that we win the race after having done all this, so that we can become those with whom He can be fully satisfied; so that we can worship God and share eternal joy with Him.

Therefore, religion is not built on truth alone. A religious way of life is more than just the truth itself. Teachings and ideologies are built on truth, but religion contains both the truth and the heart. This is the difference. Thoughts and ideologies do not contain the heart. However, religion has a rich inner content similar to the silent love that we find between a parent and a child. There is some content which transcends logic and theories. That is how religion is. But this is not true for doctrines. A doctrine is the fruit of an organization or group. It is not a fruit of the heart.

We today must have knowledge about the course and the situation of this age in order to be prepared properly as racers who are running toward a certain purpose. In order to race forward, we should also understand the future and have a plan. This is the basic knowledge that we racers should have. If there is someone who goes this heavenly course at the risk of his life, with God’s heart of the past, present and future, who understands how much God has suffered to establish and pave this course, he will surely overcome any difficulty he will confront.

Next, we should not lose our fighting spirit as we are racing toward our purpose. No matter how well prepared and knowledgeable our enemy may be, we must have the determination to prevail. We must not lose. The sphere of our actions is the battle field. You should be a brave soldier who is determined to prevail over anything on earth and never submit, even if God were to strike you. This is how I see it.