Category: Nehemiah

Selfish Desire Is Found in the Senses, Mind and Intellect

Must listen! Fireside chat with Lin Wood about the current situation: Lin Wood Drops Some HUGE News | Breaking News (thrivetimeshow.com)

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#79-Foundation Day Is Now
What is behind the current crisis in our country? Why is Christianity disintegrating? What can be done?
#78-Is Mob Rule Taking Over the United States?
Threats of violence or death are playing a major role in the dynamics of the coverage of election fraud. Many Republican elected officials are complicit or silent. At the same time, there is a mainstream media blackout of factual information. None the less, we the people, and President Trump, will prevail.

Open Letter to President Trump

Mark 12

12 The leaders knew that Jesus was really talking about them, and they wanted to arrest him. But because they were afraid of the crowd, they let him alone and left.

Richard: We should all rally on January 6th (and there is also a prayer rally on January 5th) to support President Trump. StopTheSteal.US

Nehemiah 6

5 Finally, Sanballat sent an official to me with an unsealed letter, 6 which said:

A rumor is going around among the nations that you and the other Jews are rebuilding the wall and planning to rebel, because you want to be their king. And Geshem[a] says it’s true! 7 You even have prophets in Jerusalem, claiming you are now the king of Judah. You know the Persian king will hear about this, so let’s get together and talk it over.

8 I sent a message back to Sanballat, saying, “None of this is true! You are making it all up.”

Richard: Be careful of those who instigate rumors to sow fear and discord.

Selfish Desires and Fallen Nature

Passion, greed, covetousness, hatred, lust: these emotions dominate the soul, causing blindness and leading to destruction. every major religion recognizes that suffering and evil are caused by excessive desires or desires directed toward a selfish purpose. Buddhism has summed up this principle in the second of the Four noble truths and denotes these desires by the term “craving.” craving is a fetter: poisoning the heart, deluding the mind, and binding us to evil courses of action.
    While all religions view selfish desire as baneful and the cause of much suffering, they differ in explaining these selfish desires in relation to human psychology. Buddhism and Jainism reject desire of all kinds, even the grasping for existence itself, as harmful and a source of bondage. in the monotheistic religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and in some texts from Sikhism and Hinduism, the passions of the flesh—which are evil—are distinguished from the healthy ambition for goodness and the passion for God. Chinese religion condemns only excessive desire and selfish desire: Desires themselves may be good if they are in harmony with the Tao. this is also Father Moon’s teaching: God created desire that people might aspire for goodness, but it was perverted into self-centered grasping as a result of the human Fall.
    Father Moon teaches that selfish desires are manifestations of ‘fallen nature,’ satanic qualities and attitudes that were implanted into Adam and eve at their fall. various scriptures testify to the fact that humans have corrupted their original nature and deviated from their true calling. instead, we have sunk to the level of beasts, or even lower. beset with inner contradiction, we allow arrogance, violence, greed, and lust to dominate our lives.

1. Selfish Desires and Passions

The Noble Truth of the Origin of suffering is this: It is craving that leads back to birth, bound up with passionate greed. It finds fresh delight now here and now there, namely, craving for sense pleasures, craving for existence and becoming, and craving for non-existence.
Samyutta Nikaya 56.11 (Buddhism)

Lust, hatred, and delusion
ruin the man of wicked heart.
They are begotten in himself
like the lush growth of pith in the stem.
Itivuttaka 45 (Buddhism)

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.
James 1.13-15

What causes wars, and what causes fighting among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
James 4.1-3

No more deadly curse than sensual pleasure has been inflicted on mankind by nature, to gratify which our wanton appetites are roused beyond all prudence or restraint. It is a fruitful source of treasons, revolutions, secret communications with the enemy. In fact, there is no crime, no evil deed, to which the appetite for sensual plea-sures does not impel us.
Cicero, De Senectute 12 (Hellenism)

Arjuna: What is the force that binds us to self-ish deeds, O Krishna? What power moves us, even against our will, as if forcing us?

Krishna: It is selfish desire and anger, arising from the state of being known as passion; these are the appetites and evils which threaten a person in this life.

Just as a fire is covered by smoke and a mirror is obscured by dust, just as an embryo is enveloped deep within the womb, knowledge is hidden by selfish desire—hidden, Arjuna, by this unquenchable fire for self-satisfaction, the inveterate enemy of the wise.

Selfish desire is found in the senses, mind, and intellect, misleading them and burying wisdom in delusion.
Bhagavad-Gita 3.36-40 (Hinduism)

Confucius said, “I have never seen anyone whose desire to build up his moral power was as strong as sexual desire.”
Analects 9.17

They say that woman is an enticement.
No, No, she is not so.
They say that money is an enticement.
No, No, it is not so.
They say that landed property is an enticement.
No, No, it is not so.
The real enticement is the insatiable appetite
of the mind,
O Lord Guheswara!
Allama Prabhu, Vacana 91 (Hinduism)

Five are the robbers lodged in this body—Lust, wrath, avarice, attachment, and egoism.
Adi Granth, Sorath, M.3, p. 600 (Sikhism)

Blinded are beings by their sense desires
spread over them like a net;
covered are they by cloak of craving;
by their heedless ways caught
as a fish in the mouth of a funnel-net.
Decrepitude and death they journey to,
just as a sucking calf goes to its mother.
Udana 75-76 (Buddhism)

The Emergence of Family Members God Wants is the Day of the Second Advent

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Psalm 69

I will praise the Lord God
    with a song
    and a thankful heart.
31 This will please the Lord
better than offering an ox
    or a full-grown bull.
32 When those in need see this,
    they will be happy,
    and the Lord’s worshipers
    will be encouraged.
33 The Lord will listen
    when the homeless cry out,
    and he will never forget
    his people in prison.

34 Heaven and earth
    will praise our God,
    and so will the oceans
    and everything in them.
35 God will rescue Jerusalem,
    and he will rebuild
    the towns of Judah.
His people will live there
    on their own land,
36 and when the time comes,
    their children will inherit
    the land.
Then everyone who loves God
    will also settle there.

Nehemiah 1

5 Lord God of heaven, you are great and fearsome. And you faithfully keep your promises to everyone who loves you and obeys your commands. 6 I am your servant, so please have mercy on me and answer the prayer that I make day and night for these people of Israel who serve you. I, my family, and the rest of your people have sinned 7 by choosing to disobey you and the laws and teachings you gave to your servant Moses.

Members Who Will Live In God’s Family

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 27, 1959

Matthew 12: 46-50

You who are living in a world full of grief, this time of sorrow and bitterness is fading away. Your minds are seeking something new. Let’s turn your path around, turn your mind around, and turn your emotions around and think about what longs to build a relationship with us and what is blocking our path. Religion helps us connect directly with the one standard of faith, the one standard in which we can pour out all our hearts. Religion connects this standard to our life. If this relationship is not forged, then God must not exist.

Our minds are calling us to escape from this painful world of reality and head toward the ideal. Every leader will have to wrestle with this reality. However, no one understands this heart which seeks and longs for the ideal. We have to follow the commands of this mind. Many holy men of the past submitted to this mind. The same will hold true for everyone in the future. We should respond to this mind; no one can alter this underlying truth. If we do recognize that our fate is to not protest but to respond to this heart, then we should understand clearly that the world we are living in is not the ideal world and that we cannot connect with the ideal world we dream of and long for. Why is that so? It is because of the Fall.

This is why we need feelings, hopes and relationships. Since such an era is nearing, fear will increase in our minds. If we think about these things, we cannot have faith in this world, and we cannot rest peacefully. It is a world in which we cannot take another step forward on our path. You have been on this course for several decades. We cannot deny that there is Heaven, which instills something new into people and drives them toward a new history. Observing the function of our consciences, we cannot deny Heaven and heavenly principles.

When God created this world, He must have had a purpose and an ideal. What must that purpose and ideal have been? It must be a good person. It must be a good person whose heart is fully in harmony with God. It must be a free man. It must be someone who can rejoice with God and live with God in the garden of freedom. However, even though we have lived through several thousand years of history until now, there has never been even one person who has built a family relationship with God or a family where he or she could dwell with God.

What is God’s purpose of creation? It is to create an ideal family where God can live together with human beings. Although human beings fell, in their hearts they long for the day when God can live as the father of the family or humanity, and people can live as members of that family. If we can serve God as our eternal father and become members of that family and live eternally with God who is the hope itself, who is the ideal itself, life itself, and joy itself, the purpose we all wish for will be realized.

If God created human beings just to enjoy watching them, we do not need that kind of God. What is the reason God has poured out all of His heart and has been conducting the providence concerning human beings for six thousand long years? It is to build the relationship of a heavenly family and of a parent and child. For this reason we have to understand that God is running as fast as He can on this path, overcoming enormous hurdles and all difficulties. The day we emerge as the family members God wants and manifest the authority and value of that family is the day of resurrection and the day of the Second Advent Christianity talks about.

Some Force has been pulling us and Prodding Us in the Depths of Our Hearts

Watch the latest Richard Urban show with Stephen Downward: True Father’s Words Have Been Adulterated: https://youtu.be/8h9AhTg10kQ.

Mark 14

53 Jesus was led off to the high priest. Then the chief priests, the nation’s leaders, and the teachers of the Law of Moses all met together. 54 Peter had followed at a distance. And when he reached the courtyard of the high priest’s house, he sat down with the guards to warm himself beside a fire.

55 The chief priests and the whole council tried to find someone to accuse Jesus of a crime, so they could put him to death. But they could not find anyone to accuse him. 56 Many people did tell lies against Jesus, but they did not agree on what they said. 57 Finally, some men stood up and lied about him. They said, 58 “We heard him say he would tear down this temple that we built. He also claimed that in three days he would build another one without any help.” 59 But even then they did not agree on what they said.

Nehemiah 4

4 When Sanballat, the governor of Samaria, heard that we were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, he became angry and started insulting our people. 2 In front of his friends and the Samaritan army he said, “What is this feeble bunch of Jews trying to do? Are they going to rebuild the wall and offer sacrifices all in one day? Do they think they can make something out of this pile of scorched stones?”

4 When Sanballat, the governor of Samaria, heard that we were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, he became angry and started insulting our people. 2 In front of his friends and the Samaritan army he said, “What is this feeble bunch of Jews trying to do? Are they going to rebuild the wall and offer sacrifices all in one day? Do they think they can make something out of this pile of scorched stones?”

3 Tobiah from Ammon was standing beside Sanballat and said, “Look at the wall they are building! Why, even a fox could knock over this pile of stones.”

4 But I prayed, “Our God, these people hate us and have wished horrible things for us. Please answer our prayers and make their insults fall on them! Let them be the ones to be dragged away as prisoners of war. 5 Don’t forgive the mean and evil way they have insulted the builders.”

6 The people worked hard, and we built the walls of Jerusalem halfway up again. 7 But Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people from the city of Ashdod saw the walls going up and the holes being repaired. So they became angry 8 and decided to stir up trouble, and to fight against the people of Jerusalem. 9 But we kept on praying to our God, and we also stationed guards day and night.

10 Meanwhile, the people of Judah were singing a sorrowful song:

“So much rubble for us to haul!
    Worn out and weary,
will we ever finish this wall?”

11 Our enemies were saying, “Before those Jews know what has happened, we will sneak up and kill them and put an end to their work.”

12 On at least ten different occasions, the Jews living near our enemies warned us against attacks from every side,[a] 13 and so I sent people to guard the wall at its lowest places and where there were still holes in it. I placed them according to families, and they stood guard with swords and spears and with bows and arrows. 14 Then I looked things over and told the leaders, the officials, and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of your enemies! The Lord is great and fearsome. So think of him and fight for your relatives and children, your wives and homes!”

15 Our enemies found out that we knew about their plot against us, but God kept them from doing what they had planned. So we went back to work on the wall.

16 From then on, I let half of the young men work while the other half stood guard. They wore armor and had spears and shields, as well as bows and arrows. The leaders helped the workers 17 who were rebuilding the wall. Everyone who hauled building materials kept one hand free to carry a weapon. 18 Even the workers who were rebuilding the wall strapped on a sword. The worker who was to blow the signal trumpet stayed with me.

19 I told the people and their officials and leaders, “Our work is so spread out, that we are a long way from one another. 20 If you hear the sound of the trumpet, come quickly and gather around me. Our God will help us fight.”

21 Every day from dawn to dark, half of the workers rebuilt the walls, while the rest stood guard with their spears.

22 I asked the men in charge and their workers to stay inside Jerusalem and stand guard at night. So they guarded the city at night and worked during the day. 23 I even slept in my work clothes at night; my children, the workers, and the guards slept in theirs as well. And we always kept our weapons close by.[b]

What Belongs to the Father Belongs to Me

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
August 30, 1959

John 14:11

1 Corinthians 13: 1-13

The title of the sermon I am about to give today is “What Belongs to the Father Belongs to Me.” To expand the scope of this, it becomes “What Belongs to the Father Belongs to Us.” I will speak briefly on this topic.

Until now we have thought that we have infinite value. We do not know the nature of our value; we only know that we are valuable. However we feel, that cannot establish our complete value and remain till the end. We cannot confidently and with dignity take pride in ourselves before the great universal reality with the mere feeling that we are valuable.

We cannot deny that because this is the state we find ourselves in, we long for the precious being, the precious one, the relationship of value and the valuable world. We are to seek for these. When we recognize what needs to be done and we look at the great universe, we cannot help but have an intense feeling of emptiness.

Hence, we seek something we can depend upon. We sense deeply through our consciences and in our lives that it is our fate to pursue this. From this standpoint, even if there were no God, we would have to create a fictional absolute being. If we understand that we live in such a situation and that there should be some order in our actions, including our feelings, our rejoicing and singing, and if we reflect upon ourselves as to whether or not we can forge a valuable relationship with that and be happy, we can probably conclude on our own that the answer is negative.

Because this is the miserable situation of human beings, if there were a God, He would have some responsibility to establish a relationship with us. If God is the subject partner of absolute value and the origin of value itself, then we cannot logically deny that if God does nothing to establish that valuable relationship, there is no way to attribute love and other such characteristics to God.

We know that human beings fell. We know that they lost their original position. Human beings lost their original value. We should look at the whole world. If there is a God, then we should call out “Heaven.” If there is an absolute being, we should call out “Absolute Being,” and if there is something which has the form of goodness, we should appeal to it to manifest itself in concrete form. We should ardently long for such an absolute being, a God, or being of goodness.

Because Heaven understands the situation human beings are in, He has not hesitated to exert Himself to the utmost and sacrifice Himself to recover us. He did not hesitate to exhaust Himself in clinging to humanity. He has been searching for the value of the whole and of the ideal. If we accept this, we should have a humble heart. Pressing our hands together, we should bow before Him.

When we fathom this movement of the whole, the flow of history and the sway of our hearts, we find that even if we are not aware of it, some force has been pulling us and prodding us in the background of history and in the depth of our hearts. We have to understand that some force deep inside our hearts prods us to pursue some value. We should not ignore this as a coincidence or phenomenon, because it stems from an inseparable relationship inside each one of us. When we decipher this relationship and examine its value, we find that therein lies something which is connected to God, the epitome of goodness. This relationship has to be built.

Maintain an Intense Desire that God Should be Relieved of His Suffering

Luke 11

37 When Jesus finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him home for a meal. Jesus went and sat down to eat.[e] 38 The Pharisee was surprised that he did not wash his hands[f] before eating. 39 So the Lord said to him:

You Pharisees clean the outside of cups and dishes, but on the inside you are greedy and evil. 40 You fools! Didn’t God make both the outside and the inside?[g] 41 If you would only give what you have to the poor, everything you do would please God.

42 You Pharisees are in for trouble! You give God a tenth of the spices from your gardens, such as mint and rue. But you cheat people, and you don’t love God. You should be fair and kind to others and still give a tenth to God.

43 You Pharisees are in for trouble! You love the front seats in the meeting places, and you like to be greeted with honor in the market. 44 But you are in for trouble! You are like unmarked graves[h] that people walk on without even knowing it.

Nehemiah 7

73 And so, by the seventh month,[g] priests, Levites, temple guards, musicians, workers, and many of the ordinary people had settled in the towns of Judah.

Matthew 25

1 When the Son of Man comes in his glory with all of his angels, he will sit on his royal throne. 32 The people of all nations will be brought before him, and he will separate them, as shepherds separate their sheep from their goats.

33 He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 Then the king will say to those on his right, “My father has blessed you! Come and receive the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world was created. 35 When I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, and when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was a stranger, you welcomed me, 36 and when I was naked, you gave me clothes to wear. When I was sick, you took care of me, and when I was in jail, you visited me.”

37 Then the ones who pleased the Lord will ask, “When did we give you something to eat or drink? 38 When did we welcome you as a stranger or give you clothes to wear 39 or visit you while you were sick or in jail?”

40 The king will answer, “Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.”


Let Us Fathom the Heart of Heaven
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 13, 1959

Matthew 10:24-39

During the two thousand years from Abraham to Jesus, God established faith as the condition for the Israelites. If individuals believed, they could graduate from that level and pioneer the foundation upon which families could believe. If a family believed, then God elevated a people to the next level of pioneering the foundation upon which a nation could believe. If a nation believed, He took them further and pioneered the foundation upon which the world could believe. You have to understand this.

What kind of person was Abraham, the father of faith, whom God chose? In our terms today, he was a spy in Satan’s world who could communicate with God as an individual. Since the world belonged to Satan, no one received Abraham warmly. Because everyone was his enemy, he had to use discretion when he heard and saw things. He had to use wise judgment in his thoughts and be cautious in his actions.

When he was eating a meal or sleeping, he could not be at ease. In his daily life, he always had to pay close attention to the people around him. This is the path our ancestors who upheld God’s providence and will walked.

God called Abraham, whom He chose, from Ur of the Chaldeans and put him in such a situation. He drove him out to the wilderness. There Abraham awaited the coming of the day when God’s reign could be established. We have to understand that our ancestors left their homeland waiting for the day that the sons and daughters whom God had blessed would multiply and fill the earth like the stars in the sky and smite the evil world.

Why? Since we are enslaved in the country of our enemies, inside their prison bars, we should feel thoroughly disgusted. If you cannot feel this, then you are not worthy to be called true believers before Heaven.

For what purpose did God raise Abraham? It was to use him as a channel to communicate with people far away, those who were in the enemy’s camp and in Satan’s world. Then he was to expand outward horizontally on that basis. However, because the relationship between Heaven and earth is fragile, God had to work through the direct lineage of Abraham, referring to Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You have to understand this.

When Isaac and Abraham received the blessing, what did they possess? The only thing they had was their qualification as the chosen people. God blessed Abraham on the condition, “You cannot compromise with Satan’s world. You cannot blend in with Satan’s world. You are My chosen people. Your life is different, your feelings, desires and ideals are all different. Your descendants will live only if they bring victory through Me.” Abraham had to bless Isaac from this perspective. Isaac blessed Jacob from this same perspective, and Jacob blessed his descendants in the same way. Nonetheless, the Israelites betrayed this connection which came down to them through their tradition and blessing.

After Abraham was chosen, he pioneered the individual environment of faith. Then Jacob took seventy members of his family and entered Egypt. What did God do based on this foundation of a family? He chased them out into Satan’s world in order to form a people. It was not their own country; it was the center of Satan’s world. God drove them into Egypt, Satan’s world, the historical enemies of the Israelites. Isn’t this true?

Based on this foundation of a family, they were to endure any kind of suffering, any path of death and grief. They had to endure to the point of forming a nation. Even as the Israelites suffered in a foreign land for four hundred years, they were to maintain an intense desire that God should be relieved of His suffering. However, although the four-thousand-year history passed, the Israelites deviated from the traditional desires, situations and heart of God. Moses was the person who came to resolve this situation. Moses was the leader of the 600,000 Israelites. He was the leader of the people.

God’s People Have Endurance and Patience

Exodus 28

40 Since Aaron’s sons are priests, they should also look dignified. So make robes, sashes, and special caps for them. 41 Then dress Aaron and his sons in these clothes, pour olive oil on their heads, and ordain them as my priests.

42 Make linen shorts for them that reach from the waist down to the thigh, so they won’t expose themselves. 43 Whenever they enter the sacred tent or serve at the altar or enter the holy place, they must wear these shorts, or else they will be guilty and die. This same rule applies to any of their descendants who serve as priests.

Nehemiah

16 From then on, I let half of the young men work while the other half stood guard. They wore armor and had spears and shields, as well as bows and arrows. The leaders helped the workers 17 who were rebuilding the wall. Everyone who hauled building materials kept one hand free to carry a weapon. 18 Even the workers who were rebuilding the wall strapped on a sword. The worker who was to blow the signal trumpet stayed with me.

Richard:  We should always be prepared.

Let Us Be Persons of Forbearance

Sun Myung Moon
May 18, 1958

Matthew 24: 1-14

God can embrace the satanic world and even hell. He has the mind to forbear with patience even there. Therefore, the satans in hell will bow their heads before His presence. Therefore, if you desire to become champions at the last, the Father’s sons and daughters at the last, then you must feel God’s patience as your patience and God’s endurance as your endurance in your minds and bodies. Because Christianity taught the way of patience and endurance, it became a worldwide religion.

The descendants of the chosen people live on the earth today. Since the chosen people betrayed the will of God, why cannot God forget them? Of course, these people went the side path, but it is because they had an unchanging mind as the chosen people God had elected. Although they are in a situation that is contrary to Heaven, once the time comes when they go in search of God, they are the people who can take upon themselves, more than any other people, the task of God’s patience and endurance. Continue reading “God’s People Have Endurance and Patience”