Category: Joshua

Do Not Eat the Fruit or You Shall Die

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Joshua 18

These were the borders of Benjamin’s tribal land, where the clans of Benjamin lived.

21-24 One region of Benjamin’s tribal land had twelve towns with their surrounding villages. Those towns were Jericho, Beth-Hoglah, Emek-Keziz, Beth-Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, Chephar-Ammoni, Ophni, and Geba.

25-28 In the other region there were the following fourteen towns with their surrounding villages: Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah, Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, Zelah, Haeleph, Gibeah, Kiriath-Jearim,[l] and Jerusalem, which is also called Jebusite Town.

These regions are the tribal lands of Benjamin.

Micah 6

13 Because of your sins,
I will wound you
and leave you
    ruined and defenseless.
14 You will eat,
    but still be hungry;
you will store up goods,
    but lose everything—
I, the Lord, will let it all
    be captured in war.
15 You won’t harvest what you plant
or use the oil
    from your olive trees
or drink the wine
    from grapes you grow.

Part 2
Sin and Salvation

Evil, Sin and the Human Fall

The Human Fall

The Abrahamic faiths teach that humanity fell from a primordial state of unity with God, and similar beliefs are found the world over. Christianity links the Fall with the doctrine of original sin, as the sin of Adam and eve is imputed to all humanity, causing an enduring separation between humans and God which can only be remedied by Christ. in Islam, on the other hand, Adam’s sin was his alone, and he, like all human beings, could return to a position of acceptance by submission (islam) to God. still, the Fall brought into existence Satan, setting up for all humanity a trial which only some are able to endure. Finally, in Judaism we find a mixture of beliefs: passages gathered in this section affirming that the fall of Adam and eve brought a curse into the world are counterbalanced by other passages emphasizing individual responsibility and denying that we are culpable for the sins of our first ancestor.

    The human fall explains the discrepancy between the cosmos’ pure origin and its present state of suffering. it is logically necessary for religions in which (1) God is the only creator, (2) the creation was purposed to be good, and (3) evil is regarded as real and contrary to the purpose of creation. these postulates hold in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. they do not obtain in Buddhism, which lacks a doctrine of creation, nor in Hinduism, which regards matter as base and a limitation to be overcome on the path to self-realization. nevertheless, we find even in these religions speculation on a primordial fall from grace to explain the origin of evil karma.

    The biblical and qur’anic accounts of the human Fall are full of symbolism and open to varying interpretations. the serpent—variously called Satan, Lucifer or Iblis—instigates Adam and eve to disobey God’s commandment, often with the hint of sexual misconduct. Father Moon directly attributes the human Fall to sexual immorality, teaching that it poisoned the potential of humans for true, godly love. other accounts of the origin of evil that ascribe or hint at a sexual transgression are presented from Greek myth, Buddhism, Shinto and African tradition.

  1. Adam and Eve’s Transgression

The Lord God took the man [Adam] and put
him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
And the Lord God commanded the man, say-
ing, “You may freely eat of every tree of the gar-
den; but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you
eat of it you shall die.”
    Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that
the man should be alone; I will make him a helper
fit for him.” So out of the ground the l ord God
formed every beast of the field and every bird
of the air, and brought them to the man to see
what he would call them; and whatever the man
called every living creature, that was its name.
The man gave names to all cattle, and to the
birds of the air, and to every beast of the field;
but for the man there was not found a helper fit
for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to
fall upon the man, and while he slept took one
of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and
the rib which the Lord God had taken from the
man he made into a woman and brought her
to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is
bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall
be called Woman, because she was taken out of
Man.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his
mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become
one flesh. And the man and his wife were both
naked, and were not ashamed.
    Now the serpent was more subtle than any
other wild creature that the Lord God had
made. He said to the woman, “Did God say,
‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may
eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but
God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the
tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither
shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent
said to the woman, “You will not die. For God
knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good
and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, and that it was a delight to
the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to
make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and
she also gave some to her husband, and he ate.
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they
knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves aprons.
    And they heard the sound of the l ord God
walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
and the man and his wife hid themselves from
the presence of the l ord God among the trees
of the garden. But the l ord God called to the
man, and said to him, “Where are you?” And he
said, “I heard the sound of Thee in the garden,
and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid
myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were
naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I
commanded you not to eat?” The man said,
“The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me,
she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the
l ord God said to the woman, “What is this that
you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent
beguiled me, and I ate.” The l ord God said to
the serpent, “Because you have done this,
    Cursed are you above all cattle,
    and above all wild animals;
    Upon your belly you shall go,
    and dust you shall eat all the days of your
   life.
    I will put enmity between you and the
    woman,
    and between your seed and her seed;
    He shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.”
To the woman He said,
    “I will greatly multiply your pain in
      childbearing,
    in pain you shall bring forth children,
    Yet your desire shall be for your husband,
    and he shall rule over you.”
And to Adam he said, “Because you have lis-
tened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten
of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You
shall not eat of it,’
    cursed is the ground because of you;
    in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your
    life;
    Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to
       you;
     and you shall eat the plants of the field.
    In the sweat of your face you shall eat
       bread
    till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
    you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”
    The man called his wife’s name Eve, because
she was the mother of all living. And the l ord
God made for Adam and for his wife garments
of skins, and clothed them.
    Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the
man has become like one of us, knowing good
and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand
and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and
live forever”—therefore the l ord God sent
him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the
ground from which he was taken. He drove out
the man; and at the east of the Garden of Eden
he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword
which turned every way, to guard the way to the
tree of life.
    Genesis 2.15-3.24

It is We who created you and gave you shape;
then We bade the angels, “Bow down to Adam,”
and they bowed down; not so Iblis, he refused to
be of those who bow down. [God] said, “What
prevented you from bowing down when I com-
manded you?” He said, “I am better than he;
You created me from fire, and him from clay.”
God said, “Get down from this place; it is not
for you to be arrogant here; get out, for you are
of the meanest of creatures.” He said, “Give me
respite till the day when they are raised up.” God
said, “Be among those who are to have respite.”
    He said, “Because you have thrown me
out of the Way, lo! I will lie in wait for them
on Your Straight Way: Then will I assault them
from before them and behind, from their right
and their left: nor will You find, in most of
them, gratitude.” God said, “Get out from this,
disgraced and expelled. If any of them follow
you, I will fill hell with all of you.
    “And Adam, dwell, you and your wife, in
the Garden, and enjoy its good things as you
wish, but approach not this tree, or you will run
into harm and transgression.”
    Then Satan began to whisper suggestions to
them, bringing openly before their minds all their
shame that was previously unnoticed by them.
He said, “Your Lord only forbade you this tree,
lest you should become angels or such beings as
live forever.” And he swore to them both, that he
was their sincere advisor. So by deceit he brought
about their fall: when they tasted of the tree,
their shame [private parts] became apparent to
them, and they began to sew together the leaves
of the Garden over their bodies.
    And their Lord called unto them: “Did I not
forbid you that tree, and tell you that Satan was
an avowed enemy unto you both?” They said:
“Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls. If
You do not forgive us and do not grant us Your
mercy, we shall certainly be lost.” God said, “Get
you down, with enmity between yourselves. On
earth will be your dwelling place and your means
of livelihood—for a time. Therein shall you live,
and therein you shall die; but from it shall you
be brought forth at last.”
    O Children of Adam! We have bestowed
raiment upon you to cover your shame, as well
as to be an adornment to you. But the raiment
of righteousness—that is the best. Such are
among the signs of God, that they may receive
admonition.
    O Children of Adam! Let not Satan
seduce you in the same manner as he got your
parents out of the Garden, stripping them of
their clothing in order to expose their private
parts. He and his tribe watch you from where
you cannot see them! We have made the devils
friends only to those without faith.
    Qur’an 7.11-27

If I have covered my transgressions as Adam,
By hiding my iniquity in my bosom,
    Job 31.33 (NKJV)

Why does the scripture not place the verse
“And the Lord God made for Adam and his
wife garments of skin” (Genesis 3.21) imme-
diately after “And they were both naked, and
were not ashamed” (Genesis 2.25)? It teaches
you through what sin that wicked creature
inveighed them: Because the serpent saw them
engaged in their natural relations, he conceived
a lust for her.
    Midrash Rabbah, Genesis 18.6 (Judaism)

The serpent followed Eve, saying, “Her soul
comes from the north, and I will therefore
quickly seduce her.” And how did he seduce
her? He had intercourse with her.
Bahir 199 (Judaism)

What was the wicked serpent contemplating at
that time? He thought, “I shall go and kill Adam
and wed his wife, and I shall be king over the
whole world.”
    Talmud, Avot de Rabbi Nathan 1 (Judaism)

The first man of our race did not bide his time,
desired the favor of marriage before the proper
hour, and fell into sin by not waiting for the time
of God’s Will.
    Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3.14.94 (Christianity)

Dreams of falling are most frequently character-
ized by anxiety. Their interpretation when they
occur in women offers no difficulty, because
they nearly always accept the symbolic meaning
of falling, which is a circumlocution for giving
way to an erotic temptation.
    Nothing can be brought to an end in the
unconscious; nothing is past or forgotten.
    Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams

Your Past Life Revives with All Vividness in the Spirit World

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Joshua 3

9 Joshua spoke to the people:

Come here and listen to what the Lord our God said he will do! 10 The Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites control the land on the other side of the river. But the living God will be with you and will force them out of the land when you attack. And now, God is going to prove that he’s powerful enough to force them out. 11-13 Just watch the sacred chest that belongs to the Lord, the ruler of the whole earth. As soon as the priests carrying the chest step into the Jordan, the water will stop flowing and pile up as if someone had built a dam across the river.

Isaiah 17

17 This is a message about Damascus:

Damascus is doomed!
    It will end up in ruins.
2 The villages around Aroer[a]
    will be deserted,
with only sheep living there
    and no one to bother them.
3 Israel[b] will lose its fortresses.
The kingdom of Damascus
    will be destroyed;
its survivors will suffer
    the same fate as Israel.
The Lord All-Powerful
    has promised this.

The Passage Beyond

2.First Moments in the Afterlife

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

If while walking down the street you are killed instantly in a traffic accident, you will not know that you have died. You think to yourself, “I have come to a strange place. It is a little better than my own neighborhood. It has things I have never seen before.” A vast space opens before your eyes. Since you see it, you don’t think that you are dead.
     But what an odd place it is! Instead of seeing people around you as you normally would, they appear only when you want to see them. Unless you call them, they do not appear. You feel very much alone.
     Then you meet guides, who explain to you, “You have died. You have come to the spirit world.” Still, you don’t believe them. You have a feeling that you collided with a car far away somewhere as in a dream, but you do not feel that you have died. You are still connected with the earth.
     Dazed, and not believing you are dead and in the spirit world, you think, “I must go home.” You try to go to your house in the physical world, but you cannot.
     Then your ancestors from some generations back come and explain, “You are no longer on the earth. You have entered the spirit world.” You finally say, “Ah, so this is the spirit world.” (194:41-42, October 15, 1989)
 
What will be your thoughts when you pass into the spirit world? At first you will be welcomed into a vast world. Yet right away you will recognize that its way of life is not what you were used to in your small hometown. On earth there was racial discrimination and conflicts among people of different backgrounds and cultures. Some people’s ways were incompatible with yours, and you handled things by insisting on your own viewpoint and affirming that your own values were best. Now that you have arrived in the spirit world, you will want to leave those outmoded values behind. But your past life does not go away. It revives in the spirit world with all vividness.
     The more you feel the immensity of the spirit world, the more you long for your home and for life on earth, because you cannot easily absorb the environment of the spirit based on your limited sensibility. Yet there is where you will spend eternity. Still, can you ever forget about your earthly life?
     When you first arrive, you will meet only strangers. In the midst of such an unfamiliar environment, how you will long to meet someone you knew in the past! You cannot escape your emotional connection to your past life. You think about the people you loved. You wonder how your mother and father are doing, and how your grandparents are living. Yet it is not easy to meet them. (187:285-85, February 12, 1989)
 
Suppose through some misfortune a man died while still searching for the ultimate goal. However, death does not mean the end of the quest. Once in the spirit world, he would say, “I died while searching for love, and now in the spirit world I will find that love.” If a man dies in the bosom of God’s love, then it is not a miserable death. Did death shatter his love? No. God, the subject of love, will recognize the value of his death, saying: “You died for the sake of the love that I have been searching for.”…
     Suppose a wife sacrificed her life for her husband. What will happen when he joins her in the spirit world? Or suppose an elder brother arrives in the spirit world after his younger brother had died for him. Would they be happier or less happy than they were when they were together on earth? Can the depth of love they formerly shared on earth even compare with that precious love for which one offered his life? It would certainly transcend that earthly level of love…
     So, in searching for the path of love, death is not a problem. Though you die, it would not be the end, but new life. By this kind of sacrificial death, you would pass through the tollgate to reach a world of love that is eternal and of a higher dimension. From this perspective, there is no reason to fear death. (67:173-74, June 3, 1973)❖
 
 
 
 
 

Wasting Anything Is a Sin

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Romans 16

25 Praise God! He can make you strong by means of my good news, which is the message about Jesus Christ. For ages and ages this message was kept secret, 26 but now at last it has been told. The eternal God commanded his prophets to write about the good news, so that all nations would obey and have faith. 27 And now, because of Jesus Christ, we can praise the only wise God forever! Amen.

Joshua 8

21-24 One region of Benjamin’s tribal land had twelve towns with their surrounding villages. Those towns were Jericho, Beth-Hoglah, Emek-Keziz, Beth-Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, Chephar-Ammoni, Ophni, and Geba.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

Stewardship

2. Conservation and Sustainable Development

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Nature always seeks balance, and has been doing so unceasingly for billions of years. What about you Americans: are you in balance or not? You waste excessively. Once when I went to a public rest-room, I saw someone tear off a long strip of toilet paper and use only the end of it, leaving two-thirds unused on the floor. (339:165, December 20, 2000)

Wasting anything is a sin, from the principled viewpoint. When we were born, we are allotted only a certain amount of material for our use. If we use more than the allotted amount, we are committing sin. We should conserve resources for our posterity. (June 13, 2000)

How to solve environmental pollution is one of the biggest problems facing humanity. According to scientists, once the ozone layer is depleted, humankind will not be able to survive the sun’s ultra-violet rays. Pollution is even changing the climate. We should, therefore, change our lifestyle. We should live a simple life in nature, as people did in the ancient times. We should even go to the bathroom in nature, which recycles human waste as fertilizer, rather than causing pollution to the environment. (203:56, June 14, 1990)

We should not allow animal species to become extinct. We should nurture them and then set them free. Zoos should not just exhibit animals; they should breed them to set free in the wild. We should likewise protect insect species. We should protect and nurture all the species of plants, which are food for animals. We should protect the seeds of the world, that no plant species becomes extinct. (324:118, June 17, 2000)

Already, some species of insects, fish and animals have become extinct. If this phenomenon con-tinues unabated, then in 600 years, or even 300 years, human beings will also become extinct. (326:152, July 7, 2000)

We should raise fish in farms and then let them loose. We can hatch them from eggs like we raise chickens. After letting them loose, we love them, then catch and eat them. The things of creation serve as living offerings to compensate their owner for the love they have received: thus does the creation provide food for people. Now, instead of just catching fish, we should first farm them…Krill is high in protein; it is a good resource that can be food for animals. This foodstuff exists for the sake of humanity. By supplying the world with krill, we can solve the world’s food problems. We can lay water pipelines to the desert and create fish farms. Just as petroleum is brought to the American mainland from Alaska, it should be possible to pipe seawater or freshwater to any place in the world. Amazon River water can be piped to the desert. Then it can be developed for fish farming. We should breed and grow fish with a loving heart, before we eat them. By creating fish farms in the desert, we can also use the water to irrigate the land to grow vegetables and grass. Every year, more land is turning into desert. Through human ingenuity, by establishing fish farms, the desert will become a place of marshes and trees. I am not just thinking small-scale; I envision transforming a huge desert into fish farms that will produce an infinite supply of food. (324:114-15, June 17, 2000)

Solutions to the world’s environmental problems cannot be arrived at through the efforts of scien-tists alone, or by the efforts of any one individual, organization, or nation… They call for sacrifice and cooperation among all peoples of the world, transcending the interests of any one community or nation. Such a spirit of cooperation will be attained only when all people view themselves as mem-bers of the same human family. This revolutionary change in human consciousness has long been needed, and is vital to humanity’s survival today. (74:108-09, November 21, 1974)

Each Person Must Attend His Own Deep Mind

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Joshua 19

0-12 Zebulun was the third tribe chosen to receive land. The southern border for its clans started in the west at the edge of the gorge near Jokneam. It went east to the edge of the land that belongs to the town of Dabbesheth, and continued on to Maralah and Sarid. It took in the land that belongs to Chislothtabor, then ended at Daberath.

The eastern border went up to Japhia 13 and continued north to Gath-Hepher, Ethkazin, and Rimmonah,[d] where it curved[e] toward Neah 14 and became the northern border. Then it curved south around Hannathon and went as far west as Iphtahel Valley.

15 Zebulun had twelve towns with their surrounding villages. Some of these were Kattath, Nahalal, Shimron, Jiralah,[f] and Bethlehem.[g]

16 This is the tribal land, and these are the towns and villages of the Zebulun clans.

2 Kings 19

10 Don’t trust your God or be fooled by his promise to defend Jerusalem against me. 11 You have heard how we Assyrian kings have completely wiped out other nations. What makes you feel so safe? 12 The Assyrian kings before me destroyed the towns of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and everyone from Eden who lived in Telassar. What good did their gods do them? 13 The kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah have all disappeared.

14 After Hezekiah had read the note from the king of Assyria, he took it to the temple and spread it out for the Lord to see. 15 He prayed:

Lord God of Israel, your throne is above the winged creatures.[b] You created the heavens and the earth, and you alone rule the kingdoms of this world. 16 But just look how Sennacherib has insulted you, the living God.

17 It is true, our Lord, that Assyrian kings have turned nations into deserts. 18 They destroyed the idols of wood and stone that the people of those nations had made and worshiped. 19 But you are our Lord and our God! We ask you to keep us safe from the Assyrian king. Then everyone in every kingdom on earth will know that you are the only God.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God
Transcendent Reality

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God transcends space. He encompasses the world and the entire universe. Such also is His unlimited love. (94:282-83, October 9, 1977)

God is the origin of heaven and earth. There is nothing that does not originate from Him. Because everything belongs to God, the whole cosmos senses its bond with God and lives in connection with Him. By analogy, we humans have four hundred billion cells, and whatever each cell feels, its feeling is communicated to our brain. All creatures are in such a relationship with their Creator. (140:123, February 9, 1986)

Not my parents, my community or my nation gave me life. My life originated rather from the one Origin—God, the Absolute Being, transcending all these. Therefore, my life must be firmly connected to the transcendent Cause, to the axis of the Absolute Being. Relational factors such as time, circumstances and social conditions should not restrict it. Only when we unite our life to the transcendent Cause, the transcendent Purpose, can we transcend the bonds of time, circumstances and social conditions, and extricate ourselves in one leap. (36:64, November 15, 1970)

A human being attains perfection when he centers his life on his mind; likewise, the creation attains perfection only when God stands as its center. Thus, the universe is one organic body that moves only according to God’s purpose of creation. As one organic body, the universe exists in a relationship of internal nature and external form, with God as the internal nature and the created universe as the external form. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 1.1)

Everything revolves. Atoms and even elementary particles rotate. Electrons revolve around protons. The solar system revolves around the sun, and the Milky Way rotates around its galactic core. They are revolving around something that remains still. This universe, with all its varied phenomena, is a huge complex of myriads of these relationships. Therefore, we can think that this universe also revolves around a single core: God, the origin of all creation. All things revolve because they resemble their Master, God, who is always revolving. (173:134-35, February 14, 1988)

God, the Creator of heaven and earth, is the Parent and Origin of all beings. He gives value to all existence. Because He is, this world of phenomena came to be. The Absolute Being does not change because the times change—what is absolute does not change. Nor is He restricted by time and space. From a position transcending all restrictions, God has dominion over all restrictions. (21:249, November 24, 1968)

A human being has both mind and body. Beyond his mind is his spirit, and beyond his spirit is God. Therefore, a person becomes perfect only after becoming completely one with God. One human being, even though apparently only an insignificant individual, represents all of human history and all of the future. Therefore, he has a cosmic value… As he pursues the ultimate goal, each person must attend his own deep mind. This is an ironclad rule of Heaven. Heaven will punish a person who fails to obey his original mind’s command. In the course of history, the voice of God has been saying, “Live by your deep mind. Live according to your conscience and belong to the side of goodness. Be careful not to be caught in materialistic, evil conditions.” Then, is the standard of a person’s conscience able to receive the heart of Heaven 100 percent? No, it is not. In fact, many restrictions impede fallen people’s conscience. At the entrance to the heaven of our hopes stand many gates, each a saga of our shortcomings. Borrowing a Christian expression, they are gates of judgment. Our course is made all the more difficult because we are currently in a historical period of fear, anxiety, and confusion. We live in an era when even though we may struggle to achieve goodness, we many times cannot. These days we should not possess so many material things. When God created human beings, He first created the material, the body, and then breathed into it of His spirit. Therefore, although human beings are composed of both body and spirit, the spirit is the center. As the world moved towards exalting the authority of material, a period of ideological struggle became inevitable. In fact, this phenomenon was conspicuous right after World War II. Eventually, however, a new age will come based upon spiritual teachings. Then, what will be the nature of this teaching? It will penetrate matter, penetrate mind, and center on the Spirit. The course of restoration is heading towards an age when thought will center on the Spirit. (4:268, August 3, 1958)

He Will Prosper Without His Knowing How He Did It

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Joshua 22

10-11 The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh reached the western side of the Jordan River valley[a] and built a huge altar there beside the river.

Richard: Our “altar” is Home Church, where we can build the Kingdom of God together with our neighbors.

Micah 5

7 A few of Jacob’s descendants
survived and are scattered
    among the nations.
But the Lord will let them
cover the earth
like dew and rain
    that refreshes the soil.
8 At present they are scattered,
    but later they will attack,
as though they were fierce lions
    pouncing on sheep.
Their enemies will be torn
to shreds,
    with no one to save them;
9 they will be helpless,
    completely destroyed.

Jesus Whom God Wanted To Find

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
October 18, 1959

Matthew 23:29-39

The world of heart transcends the distance of history. It transcends time and space. No matter how great an authority is or how fearful a power, it cannot block that road of love. Even the highest mountain and the whole of Heaven and earth cannot block that love. In traveling that path of heart, there cannot be any obstruction.

The central being of heart is Jesus. Therefore, he said that love will survive to the end. Because Jesus came representing God’s heart and lived in the world of the heart, his influence today is expanding. Only by becoming a group who can say that Jesus’ heart is our heart, that his mind is our mind, that we cannot separate from him for eternity can we go over any condition of the secular world with him. Then we can become his disciples and family. In the early church, Jesus’ disciples could not become members of his family. The most important problem that we must solve in this hour is to ask whether we have become people who can freely go over that boundary line into being of Jesus’ family; who can go over any obstacle and go forward for Jesus’ sake.

Where will Jesus, whom God wanted to establish, go? Where will Jesus, whom God wanted to establish on earth, stand? If this is not solved, Jesus will have nowhere to stand. Jesus, who is supposed to come to earth, will have nowhere to stand. He must come and do the will of God, but he will not have any companion. They will kill him again. They will drive him to the cross again. They will cause him anguish again. That is why we must go through the heart of the family, the heart of children, and the heart of a bride. We must be filled with longing. Since the day of promise has yet to come, we must be filled with longing and possess a desperate heart. If a person can master his feelings, transcend any awareness or any concept and experience a certain force that leads him in one direction with infinite power, he will enter the Kingdom of Heaven without fail.

Jesus came two thousand years ago. He came to this earth. But who met Jesus? A person might have met Jesus centering on Jesus himself. But there was no one who met the Jesus who had crossed over the level of the individual, then the family, then the society, then the nation and the world and who could rule over all of Heaven and earth. In order to solve this kind of problem, you must be filled with a certain heart. You cannot solve this problem without entering the world of the heart. If there were something that could solve that problem, if there were something that could move your heart, you would be pulled into it. If you see a person coming out of a church totally vexed, do not go to that church again.

Our mind seeks the world of the heart. Even radio waves do not just operate anywhere. They operate where there is a receiver. They operate where there is a reciprocal relationship. It is the same with people. If there is a person with a true conscience, a true loving standard, and a foundation of Heaven’s heart, then wherever or whenever he goes and even in an unfair and sorrowful place, he will have a way to survive and prosper without his knowing how he did it. He will prosper even when he is misunderstood. That prosperous way does not come about in a comfortable place. No one achieved an historical revolution, an historical discovery, or an historical success in a comfortable place. They began from a place where they met with death face to face. God comes to you in that place.

Therefore, when someone is about to face God, he will meet an incident. He will collide with a material problem, a problem with other people and a problem of the heart. At that time if he can turn and shout, “This is the path I will go” and goes forward, he will be able to lead people who are agonizing over numerous problems and affairs. Jesus was able to do that. When he was helping with the carpentry work of Joseph, he did not lead a comfortable life. His heart passed through a course of infinite hardship and sorrow. In a course that was historical, connected to the age and connected to the future, he crossed over in his mind all the hills of hardship and pain that mankind had gone through. Because he was able to establish a victorious standard in a showdown against Satan, he could proclaim that he was the Messiah. This is not written in the Bible.

Richard: I have to say that this year Stacey and I collided with adversity. Both of us literally faced life and death situations, and God brought us through. Praise to God, and our thanks to all of our friends and supporters!