Category: Lamentations

You Must Be Able to Say “It is Finished” While You Are Alive

1 Peter 1

22 You obeyed the truth,[d] and your souls were made pure. Now you sincerely love each other. But you must keep on loving with all your heart. 23 Do this because God has given you new birth by his message that lives on forever. 24 The Scriptures say,

“Humans wither like grass,
and their glory fades
    like wild flowers.
Grass dries up,
and flowers fall
    to the ground.
25 But what the Lord has said
    will stand forever.”

Our good news to you is what the Lord has said.

Richard:  The Word is powerful and brings the dead to life, so to speak.

Lamentations 3

Then I remember something
    that fills me with hope.
22 The Lord’s kindness never fails!
If he had not been merciful,
    we would have been destroyed.[c]
23 The Lord can always be trusted
    to show mercy each morning.
24 Deep in my heart I say,
“The Lord is all I need;
    I can depend on him!”

Richard:  What a great hymn of praise!

The Incarnation of Jesus, A Pioneer

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 1, 1959

Matthew 8: 18-22

In this age today, we have to pass through a period of preparation and a period of practice in our search for Heaven. We must seek for the original nature of Heaven. What kind of preparation must we make? In what kind of position must we stand? We have to stand in the same position as Jesus during his thirty- year preparation period. In doing so, we must prepare to represent the internal heart of Heaven and the human heart, represent all sovereignties, and determine to face conflicts by ourselves. Accordingly, a group of people certainly must appear who cross Golgotha on the world level with this kind of determination. You must understand this.

Jesus said, “It is finished,” when he was passing away. Yet this is not the culminating point of the completion of the providence. For this reason, we must pioneer a course through which we can say, “It is finished,” while we are still alive. The heavenly soldiers and angels, spirits and all created things must be able to bow their heads and say, “Today is the day your wishes are fulfilled. Please receive the glory.” This is the time to prepare for the day we can say, “It is finished” in this way. Christians today remain faithful to go beyond the day of saying, “It is finished” as they pass away. They must be able to say the same while they are alive. Hence, you must take charge of the mission of a heavenly pioneer in this first completion stage we are in today. Continue reading “You Must Be Able to Say “It is Finished” While You Are Alive”

With What Kind of Heart Should We Celebrate Jesus Birth?

2 Kings 8

 Some time later Elisha went to the capital city of Damascus to visit King Benhadad of Syria, who was sick. And when Benhadad was told he was there, 8 he said to Hazael,[b] “Go meet with Elisha the man of God and have him ask the Lord if I will get well. And take along a gift for him.”

9 Hazael left with forty camel loads of the best things made in Damascus as a gift for Elisha. He found the prophet and said, “Your servant, King Benhadad, wants to know if he will get well.”

10 “Tell him he will,” Elisha said to Hazael. “But the Lord has already told me that Benhadad will definitely die.” 11 Elisha stared at him until Hazael was embarrassed, then Elisha began crying.[c]

Lamentations 1

Won’t you look and see
    how upset I am, our Lord?
My stomach is in knots,
and my heart is broken
    because I betrayed you.
In the streets and at home,
    my people are slaughtered.

Heaven’s Sorrowful Heart

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 3, 1959

Had Joseph and Mary had the same determination while Jesus was growing up as they had at his conception, they would have been able to block the path of the cross for him. We are aware that because the mother and son failed to complete the internal and external circumstances through cooperation, Jesus abandoned his home and went forth to look for disciples.

For that reason, when asked by Mary to make water into wine at the marriage feast at Cana, Jesus said, “Woman, what have you to do with me?” (John 2:4) When we think about this, we realize that Mary did not understand Jesus. Neither Joseph nor Jesus’ brothers knew. Jesus felt concern about Heaven and the physical living environment. We must understand that it was natural for Jesus to feel concern about God, yet it was a sorrowful fact for him to have to feel concern about the living environment.

Jesus was born and raised in a sorrowful environment. The environment in which he was to live, caring and feeling concern only for God, was lost. Therefore, we must understand the sorrowful fact that Jesus was put in a situation where he had to feel concern about God and be concerned about his physical livelihood. Continue reading “With What Kind of Heart Should We Celebrate Jesus Birth?”

The Sorrow of Jesus Remains on this Earth

Leviticus 23

39 Remember to begin the Festival of Shelters on the fifteenth day of the seventh month after you have harvested your crops. Celebrate this festival for seven days in honor of me and don’t do any work on the first day or on the day following the festival. 40 Pick the best fruit from your trees[n] and cut leafy branches to use during the time of this joyous celebration in my honor. 41 I command you and all of your descendants to celebrate this festival during the seventh month of each year. 42 For seven days every Israelite must live in a shelter, 43 so future generations will know that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Lamentations 2

Those who pass by
shake their heads and sneer
    as they make fun and shout,
“What a lovely city you were,
the happiest on earth,
    but look at you now!”

Heaven’s Sorrowful Heart

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 3, 1959

Matthew 1:18-2:12

Father, please extend Your hands of blessing over the whole of humankind in this hour. Please extend Your hands of blessing over the thirty million Korean people. Over the numerous children who remember Your name, please grant Your grace of love. Moreover, Father, please lift Your hands of love in blessing over the heads of the children, who are prostrated to pray from the depths of their heart in a lonely place in this hour. I pray from the bottom of my heart that You remember the members who are concerned for You in this hour, wanting to comfort You in the space of a generation for the sorrow You left behind on this earth where sin and evil dwell. Please bless them in this hour.

People on the earth do not know about this day nor do they know about Heaven’s festering sorrow. They know even less about Your infinitely sorrowful heart. Father, we cannot help being grateful for the glorious grace with which You granted this day to us, we who were unaware of the lamentable fact of this day. Now we may celebrate this day, which none of humankind recognizes as Christ’s birthday. Please remember Your sons and daughters gathered here.

Please allow our celebration this day to be the start for us to be able to console the heart of Jesus, who has grieved for 2,000 years. Please allow this to be the hour when, looking back on Christ, we can inherit his old battlefield as an unfinished work. He cared nothing about the path of Golgotha, giving his life after having been born in a sorrowful position. We realize that this must be the hour when we have to inherit the great achievement he left in his lifetime as our mission. Continue reading “The Sorrow of Jesus Remains on this Earth”

God is Looking for “Me”

Galatians 5

22 God’s Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, 23 gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways. 24 And because we belong to Christ Jesus, we have killed our selfish feelings and desires. 25 God’s Spirit has given us life, and so we should follow the Spirit. 26 But don’t be conceited or make others jealous by claiming to be better than they are.

Lamentations 2

He shattered his temple
    like a hut in a garden;[d]
he completely wiped out
    his meeting place,
and did away with festivals
and Sabbaths
    in the city of Zion.
In his fierce anger he rejected
    our king and priests.

Humankind Wanders In Search of the Truth

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
December 21, 1958

Matthew 7:1-12

My mind commands my body to seek things that are true. It is commanding me to seek a true body first. Humanity today is wandering about seeking that which is true without knowing what it is. Because they are living in this world, which is deeply penetrated by the bitter resentment caused by the fall, they are being drawn into the fate of having to seek what is true without knowing what it is.

Now you must realize that you cannot rejoice over your original selves. You must know yourselves to be faced with grief, yet you are not to feel sad. Even if you feel pain, you must not feel pain from things that happen in the world. If you are to feel sadness and pain, you must feel the sadness and pain of not having been able to find your true selves. You must realize that even though there is so much sadness and pain in the world, there is no greater sadness and pain than that which is caused by being unable to find our true selves.

Whom has God the Creator been looking for until now? He is looking for you: that is, “me.” For that reason, I must find the true me. If not, I cannot make a connection with a true family centered on perfect, substantial entities, a society, a nation centered on true families, and furthermore, a world made up of states, or a macrocosm made up of worlds. Becoming a perfect “me” is the standard for all the other stages.

God has been feeling immeasurably sad in relation to humanity for 6,000 years. You must realize that there is no more mortifying event than that of having lost one’s beloved sons and daughters. Although the whole of creation fills up the universal space, that is not what is important. The whole macro-cosmos has turned into a world of deathly darkness, because of the loss of Adam and Eve. What is more, God is feeling endless pain and sorrow. Continue reading “God is Looking for “Me””