Category: Ezekiel

We Are Not to Follow a Certain Leader or Serve a Certain Founder of a Religion

John 19

25 Jesus’ mother stood beside his cross with her sister and Mary the wife of Clopas. Mary Magdalene was standing there too.[c] 26 When Jesus saw his mother and his favorite disciple with her, he said to his mother, “This man is now your son.” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “She is now your mother.” From then on, that disciple took her into his own home.

Ezekiel 3

6 Seven days after I had seen the brightness of the Lord’s glory, the Lord said:

17 Ezekiel, son of man, I have appointed you to stand watch for the people of Israel. So listen to what I say, then warn them for me. 18 When I tell wicked people they will die because of their sins, you must warn them to turn from their sinful ways so they won’t be punished. If you refuse, you are responsible for their death. 19 However, if you do warn them, and they keep on sinning, they will die because of their sins, and you will be innocent.

20 Now suppose faithful people start sinning, and I decide to put stumbling blocks in their paths to make them fall. They deserve to die because of their sins. So if you refuse to warn them, I will forget about the times they were faithful, and I will hold you responsible for their death. 21 But if you do warn them, and they listen to you and stop sinning, I will let them live. And you will be innocent.

Richard:  Why do I speak out to say what is true?  See the above reading from Ezekiel.

The Person Who Will Serve the Grieving Father

Sun Myung Moon
May 24, 1959

Matthew 23: 1-39

Prayer

Father! Sorrowful history today is moving forward as it swirls around us. Facing the sorrowful environment of life, we realize that ours is the great task of ridding history of pain and resolving Heavenly Father’s torn heart. As we have taken on such a task, we have to become sons and daughters who can bear the heart of Heaven and earth, experience the sorrow, feel the pain, and be willing to die for You thousands and thousands of times to comfort You.

During Jesus’ advent in this world, many religious groups and believers were awaiting the Messiah. They were all expecting the Messiah to come as someone even greater than their expectations. The Messiah who came was not a Messiah of happiness. Rather, he was a Messiah who embodied the sadness of humanity. He was a Messiah of pain in whom all the pain of human history culminated. We know that no one in that time ever thought that the Messiah, who came as the representative of Heaven, would come so.

We understand that history is realized based on what has gone before. We are learning the principle which tells that all events occurring in history have to reappear to be restored through indemnity. We also know of the responsibilities of the disciples in the last days to horizontally put to rest all the sorrowful remembrances of the Garden of Eden, the sorrows of the course of history that came down vertically, to return to our Father the joy of the horizontal perspective.

Father! We now desire to be loyal for the sake of the world. Do we not want to establish the heavenly promised land for humankind? We can only then become people who inherit Heavenly Father’s deeply engraved sorrow and pain. We have already realized that only those who digest pain and sorrow can appear as the inheritors of heavenly joy. Please allow us to see that those who struggle only for their peace of mind will surely perish and be defeated.

Father! We know that one cannot claim the achievement of victory if he struggles and fights for his happiness. I sincerely pray, Father, that You allow us to become those individuals who persevere in spite of sadness and pain and who say, “I will live for the lives of the whole.” Let us become those who have raised high the altar of the historic offerings and lead history. Let such people lead this perishing race and world.

To whom are we going to entrust our faith when we look at the sad and sorrowful churches, when we look at humanity, and when we look at heaven and earth in this time of sorrow? We are not to follow a certain leader or serve a certain founder of a religion. The final moment of judgment is coming in which we have no choice but to live for and attend the Father and to fight to resolve the Father’s han. Is there anyone among us who lives in shadows which our mind cannot comprehend? Please break down such shadows, and allow us to realize that those who die today struggling to fight against new sorrows will live again tomorrow. Continue reading “We Are Not to Follow a Certain Leader or Serve a Certain Founder of a Religion”

How Did Jesus Feel When He Saw All of Them Leave?

Watch the latest Richard Urban Show:  Test the Spirits:  https://youtu.be/_iM3kr3U4E4.

Zechariah 4

8 The Lord spoke to me again and said:

9 Zerubbabel laid the foundation for the temple, and he will complete it. Then everyone will know that you were sent by me, the Lord All-Powerful. 10 Those who have made fun of this day of small beginnings will celebrate when they see Zerubbabel holding this important stone.[c]

Those seven lamps represent my eyes—the eyes of the Lord—and they see everything on this earth.

Richard:  The “day of small beginnings” could mean Foundation Day, or Day of Origin, January 13, 2013 by the Heavenly Calendar.  The one who laid the foundation for the temple is True Father, Sun Myung Moon.  The temple is the Kingdom of God on earth, or Cheon Il Guk.

Ezekiel 27

10 Brave soldiers from Persia,
Lydia, and Libya
    served in your navy,
protecting you with shields
and helmets,
    and making you famous.
11 Your guards came from
    Arvad and Cilicia,
and men from Gamad
    stood watch in your towers.
With their weapons
hung on your walls,
    your beauty was complete.

Richard:  This is a funeral song for Tyre, one of the two main cities of Phonecia, written circa 586 BC.

The Person Who Will Serve the Grieving Father

Sun Myung Moon
May 24, 1959

Matthew 23: 1-39

Jesus came to bring an end to God’s sorrow. He could not have happiness and freedom. Although he appeared before God as most holy and good, he was seen as the sinner of sinners by humanity. Could there be anything more miserable than this?

There is no greater sadness than the sadness of Jesus. On this earth he was trampled, persecuted and eliminated, even though he was the prince of heaven, whom the universe should have welcomed and embraced.

Is there anyone more sorrowful than Jesus, who constantly ran into tribulation and was ultimately eliminated, unable to realize his dignity and mission fully? Jesus was castigated by none other than the people of Israel, the chosen people whom God had struggled to establish for four thousand years. He was persecuted by the Jews, whom God had loved constantly and whom He had established to uphold the will of the providence.

That was not all. Jesus was driven away by his tribe and chased out by his disciples, whom he dearly loved. If Jesus had felt humanistic sorrow, he surely would have condemned them. He was betrayed by the religious body, even though he had come for its people. He was likewise betrayed by the tribe, his relatives, and the chosen ones for whom he had come. Continue reading “How Did Jesus Feel When He Saw All of Them Leave?”

Know Where the Final Line of Faith Is

Ezekiel 16

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.

42 Only then will I calm down and stop being angry and jealous. 43 You made me furious by doing all these disgusting things and by forgetting how I took care of you when you were young. Then you made things worse by acting like a prostitute. You must be punished! I, the LordGod, have spoken.

John 8

4 Jesus replied:

Even if I do speak for myself, what I say is true! I know where I came from and where I am going. But you don’t know where I am from or where I am going. 15 You judge in the same way that everyone else does, but I don’t judge anyone. 16 If I did judge, I would judge fairly, because I would not be doing it alone. The Father who sent me is here with me. 17 Your Law requires two witnesses to prove that something is true. 18 I am one of my witnesses, and the Father who sent me is the other one.

The Grieving Father, Son and Daughter as They Try to Establish the Kingdom of Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
May 17, 1959

John 14:1-24

Heaven is a place of true faith and true practice. Therefore, when people today cannot analyze and empathize with the suffering and sad heart of God, they should realize that they are not yet in a position to welcome the world of the heavenly ideology with both arms.

That is why the footsteps of Jesus were precious. Jesus knew that when his words were established, heaven would be established. When he carried out his words, the will of Heaven was also carried out. Jesus was living up to this standard. His concern for humankind was great; his concern for Heavenly Father was great; and his capacity to experience the sorrows of Heaven and earth was great.

There is no verse in the Bible portraying Jesus dancing with joy. Why? Because God could not yet speak to His children, humankind, in the garden of happiness, Jesus could not speak freely, with joy, even if he sometimes felt personal happiness. The words of Jesus should have been introduced with a heart of joy. Yet in reality, they were uttered with a heart of sorrow. You should be filled with the same emotion and realize the dignity of Jesus’ words.

Jesus and I should connect with one another, transcending history. When words are not capable of connecting with the ideological realm of life’s reality, those words are not of Heaven. Continue reading “Know Where the Final Line of Faith Is”

Where Are You on the Path Trodden by Jesus?

Watch the latest Richard Urban show:  Do You Know Where Your Donations Are Going at Sanctuary Church or Family Federation?  https://youtu.be/A-eIgljcVTE.

Mark 15

22 The soldiers took Jesus to Golgotha, which means “Place of a Skull.”[d]23 There they gave him some wine mixed with a drug to ease the pain, but he refused to drink it.

Ezekiel 17

17 The Lord said:

2 Ezekiel, son of man, tell the people of Israel the following story, 3 so they will understand what I am saying to them:

A large eagle with strong wings and beautiful feathers once flew to Lebanon. It broke the top branch off a cedar tree, 4 then carried it to a nation of merchants and left it in one of their cities. 5 The eagle also took seed from Israel and planted it in a fertile field with plenty of water, like a willow tree beside a stream.[a] 6 The seed sprouted and grew into a grapevine that spread over the ground. It had lots of leaves and strong, deep roots, and its branches grew upward toward the eagle.

7 There was another eagle with strong wings and thick feathers. The roots and branches of the grapevine soon turned toward this eagle, hoping it would bring water for the soil. 8 But the vine was already growing in fertile soil, where there was plenty of water to produce healthy leaves and large grapes.

9 Now tell me, Ezekiel, do you think this grapevine will live? Or will the first eagle pull it up by its roots and pluck off the grapes and let its new leaves die? The eagle could easily kill it without the help of a large and powerful army. 10 The grapevine is strong and healthy, but as soon as the scorching desert wind blows, it will quickly wither.

Richard:  Hyung Jin Moon received the Cheon Bok Ark (the Eight Sacred Textbooks: http://visionroot.org/resources/the-eight-books-of-holy-scripture/eight-great-textbooks/) from True Father, Sun Myung Moon.  In this sense, he made a sacred agreement with his father, Rev. Moon, to honor and uphold the words contained in these books.   However, he has now replaced the Cheon Bok Ark with a new gun-centered theology.  Just as in this analogy from Ezekiel, that new (false) theology cannot be allowed by God to stand.

Let Us Follow the Way of Jesus

Sun Myung Moon
April 26, 1959
Matthew 7:1-20

Today, there are many Christian groups, including the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. Inside, however, they are empty. For solving the internal problems, we need young men and women of Heaven who are like the believers who burned with the Shim Jung of Jesus and moved ahead under the oppressive rule of the ignorant Emperor Nero. We need such brave people of Heaven. If such phenomena actually occur in the last days, what should Christians do? They should think about this again.

Just as the Renaissance revived Hellenistic culture and pioneered humanism, today we should revive the Christianity of two thousand years ago and build the God-centered heavenly kingdom of Jesus. We need no intermediate bridge. Now is the last days. That is why strange phenomena are occurring, Elder Na, Elder Park, the Unification Church, etc. You should be able to analyze this spiritually. This is your mission.

Ladies and gentlemen! Now the historical age of the seventy disciples is coming on a worldwide level. Since history is the providence of restoration, it goes back up according to the law. It goes back up to find what was lost. After the age of seventy disciples comes the age of the twelve disciples. In Korea, there have been many fortune tellers who had this position. Next, the age of the three disciples comes. Three forms of representative movements will occur.

As it is the Christian course of faith to follow the footsteps of Jesus, where are you? Are you in the wilderness period of Jesus? Or are you at the stage when Jesus was growing up in Galilee? Where are you? Ladies and gentlemen! The life of Jesus was the prototypical life of person, the path a human being should follow. In other words, it was the model for human beings. But where are you? Are you at the forty-day fast of Jesus, in the three-year public course, in the middle of the prayer at Gethsemane, or on the path where life and death was finally decided on the cross? Continue reading “Where Are You on the Path Trodden by Jesus?”

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”