Category: Judges

Do Not Betray Heaven

Judges 17

he young man went for a walk, 11-12 then he agreed to stay with Micah and be his priest. He lived in Micah’s house, and Micah treated him like one of his own sons. 13 Micah said, “I have a Levite as my own priest. Now I know that the Lord will be kind to me.”

John 1

3-44 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, “Come with me.”

45 Philip then found Nathanael and said, “We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets[f] wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
April 19, 1959

Matthew 25:1-13

Now you must go to this position. If you admit that you have no means to go to it, however, what should you do? What do you have to give up? First, you should know that you can never proceed if you hold onto human relationships, situations and hopes.

What do we have to make a relationship with to go beyond? We cannot just argue about sorrowful human history. We should clear the sorrows of providential history and Heaven. Without this, we can clear up nothing.

Human history is one of betraying the will which Heaven set up with hope and carefully laid plans millions of times. We should be able to feel this to our bones and in our flesh. Only with such a heart can we hate the sinful reality and stop sinful human history. Continue reading “Do Not Betray Heaven”

Understand Your Identity

Judges 16

17 Finally, Samson told her the truth. “I have belonged to God[h] ever since I was born, so my hair has never been cut. If it were ever cut off, my strength would leave me, and I would be as weak as anyone else.”

Richard:  Understand your indentity.  Don’t let the devil steal your strength and identity.

Psalm 96

Sing a new song to the Lord!
Everyone on this earth,
    sing praises to the Lord,
2     sing and praise his name.

Day after day announce,
    “The Lord has saved us!”
3 Tell every nation on earth,
“The Lord is wonderful
    and does marvelous things!

Richard:  Yes, sing praises to our God every day!

When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
April 19, 1959

Matthew 25:1-13

Prayer

Father, we miss the time when You used to teach us about all that was of You and the time when we beheld Your glory in ecstasy and did not want to remain on earth. We also miss the time when heaven and earth rejoiced as we were immersed in Your love and experienced Your Shim Jung.

You liked appearing in quietude, and did not mind coming in the middle of hardship. You have been working in history, fighting with us on the battlefield and in the place of despair. As we reflect that You have always stayed with us, fought with us, and always longed to live with us, please let us repent for our past course of faith in which we enjoyed rejecting and denying the earth, even though we lived there.

We have seen that although You are in glory when we joyfully serve You in the position of transcendence, You were pitiful, haggard and saddened when You appeared on the earth. We also have learned that You have been relating to us in this form throughout history.

We eagerly hope and desire that You will guide us so that we stand in the glorious position where we can rejoice with the Father who has been wounded on the earth and who has struggled to find a true son under hardship. We hope for this, rather than rejoicing with the Father who appears in glory. Continue reading “Understand Your Identity”

Seek the Substance

My latest blog post: Is Abstinence from Sexual Activity Outside of Marriage the Expected Standard for School Age Children?

Judges 21

3 The Israelites met and sent messengers to the men of Benjamin at Rimmon Rock, telling them that the Israelites were willing to make peace with them. 14 So the men of Benjamin came back from Rimmon Rock, and the Israelites let them marry the young women from Jabesh. But there weren’t enough women.

Richard:  I take this to mean that the lineage of God is so important that it is imperative for it to continue.  This is part of a very interesting story in the book of Judges.  Check it out here and also the chapter before.

John 6

6 Jesus answered, “I tell you for certain that you are not looking for me because you saw the miracles,[g] but because you ate all the food you wanted. 27 Don’t work for food that spoils. Work for food that gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food, because God the Father has given him the right to do so.”

28 “What exactly does God want us to do?” the people asked.

29 Jesus answered, “God wants you to have faith in the one he sent.”

Oh, Where Shall I Go?

Sun Myung Moon
January 18, 1959

Matthew 7

As you know through the Divine Principle, we humans lost God’s Word, God’s substance and His love by betraying His Word. What was God’s heart like when He gave the Word, when He created the substance, and when He tried to love through this substance?

We are the ones who lost God’s Word, lost the original substance and the substance of love. It is we who lost God’s garden of the ideal. Thus, we should realize that we are sinners who cannot be proud of ourselves. We cannot find the ground of peaceful rest in our hearts nor can we be subject over events.

Although God wanted to come to us with the substance and a loving heart, since humankind has lost the substance, love and Word, God could not come directly as the substance. Therefore, Jesus came representing the substance, yet he left without completing the actions of the substance. Continue reading “Seek the Substance”

Embrace Humanity in Place of God

Judges 9

The soldier who carried his weapons was nearby, and Abimelech told him, “Take out your sword and kill me. I don’t want people to say that I was killed by a woman!”

So the soldier ran his sword through Abimelech. 55 And when the Israelite soldiers saw that their leader was dead, they went back home.

Ezra 44

If a priest touches a dead body, he is unclean and must go through a ceremony to make himself clean. Then seven days later, 27 he must go to the inner courtyard of the temple and offer a sacrifice for sin. After that, he may once again serve as my priest. I, the Lord God, have spoken.

Humankind Wanders In Search of the Truth

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
December 21, 1958

Matthew 7:1-12

Father, we have come to understand that each of us is a substitute for God, a substitute for husband or wife, a substitute for parents, a substitute for children, and a substitute for brothers and sisters. We also have come to know that an inevitable historical course exists wherein we cannot but establish the resting place of the mind that can determine the great fundamental existence of the universe.

Now we understand that each man and woman among us is looking for true elder and younger siblings, True Parents, and a true reciprocating partner. We are aware that humanity is wandering about seeking the same ideology. Humanity is in the same situation. Humans can never be enemies. Humanity is entangled with the ideology of creation.

However, because of the fall, parental love, conjugal love, and brotherly love have been destroyed. Accordingly, in order for us to proceed forth in seeking these, we must first feel the emotion of love between brothers. Furthermore, we know that only when we meet the reciprocating partner whom we can love, taking the place of God’s sorrow of 6,000 years will the principled standard whereby we can take the place of heaven and earth be restored. Continue reading “Embrace Humanity in Place of God”

Deny the World

Judges 2

The Lord was so angry 14-15 at the Israelites that he let other nations raid Israel and steal their crops and other possessions. Enemies were everywhere, and the Lord always let them defeat Israel in battle. The Lord had warned Israel he would do this, and now the Israelites were miserable.

Amos 4

I dried up your grain fields;
your gardens and vineyards
    turned brown.
Locusts[f] ate your fig trees
    and olive orchards,
but even then you rejected me.
    I, the Lord, have spoken!

The World of Ideology Which We Seek

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
May 4, 1958

The world that tried to lead people to make effort to solve the origin of the ideology of God, the Creator of the universe, was the world of truth. However, though many ascetics have inquired closely into that cause, history has flowed on and no elucidated center has yet been presented before humankind.

The history that has come down with that original unsolved problem is the history you have inherited today. Therefore, if we cannot solve this problem today, then the human history of bitter resentment will remain until later generations. Not only that, after the present time, God will not be able to solve this problem. Continue reading “Deny the World”