Old Testament | Daily Inspiration

The Kingdom of Heaven Is an Extension of Family Life

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Numbers 34

¹⁶The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁷“Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun will divide the land for the Israelites. ¹⁸One leader from each tribe will help them, ^19-28and here is the list of their names:

Caleb son of Jephunneh
    from Judah,
Shemuel son of Ammihud
    from Simeon,
Elidad son of Chislon
    from Benjamin,
Bukki son of Jogli
    from Dan,
Hanniel son of Ephod
    from Manasseh,
Kemuel son of Shiphtan
    from Ephraim,
Elizaphan son of Parnach
    from Zebulun,
Paltiel son of Azzan
    from Issachar,
Ahihud son of Shelomi
    from Asher,
and Pedahel son of Ammihud
    from Naphtali.”

²⁹These are the men the Lord commanded to help Eleazar and Joshua divide the land for the Israelites.

Jeremiah 25

⁴The Lord has sent prophets to you time after time, but you refused to listen. ⁵They told you that the Lord had said:

Change your ways! If you stop doing evil, I will let you stay forever in this land that I gave your ancestors. ⁶I don’t want to harm you. So don’t make me angry by worshiping idols and other gods.

Heaven

2. Fellowship with the Saints and Our Ancestors

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The Kingdom of Heaven is an extension of family life. (Way of God’s Will 1.8)

The Chinese character “heaven” (天) is written by combining two characters: the character 二means “two,” and 人 means “person.” In other words, heaven consists of two people. All beings in heaven live in mutual relationships with corresponding entities. (92:309, April 24, 1977)

In heaven you do not age, since you are in the supreme state, your mind intoxicated with love. My mother should be old by now, but when I glimpse her [in the spirit world] she looks beautiful, as she did in the prime of her life. (201:103, March 11, 1990)

What is heaven like? It is a realm centered on love. There you enjoy being loved. You enjoy receiv-ing love endlessly and never tire of it…

Captivated by love, the sleepers awaken, the deaf hear and the dumb speak. There are no barriers to communicating with anyone, and you can continue speaking endlessly for tens of millions of years. All your cells and all your senses are activated one hundred percent. (102:160-61, December 17, 1978)

In the afterlife it is no problem to travel hundreds of millions of miles in an instant. The power of love is the speediest. If you call someone whom you are yearning to see with true love, that person will immediately appear before your eyes. It doesn’t matter that your beloved is a hundred million light-years away. As long as you have love, you can see that person any time. A mother at one end of the universe and a son is at the other end can meet each other in an instant. If you long to meet a person who lived tens of millions of years ago, he or she will appear immediately. Past and future do not exist in heaven. Only the present exists. A thousand years ago is as the present. Such is the spirit world, transcending time and space. (194:133-34, October 17, 1989)

What is the best way to greet God, returning joy and glory to Him? In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve would have greeted God best by loving each other in God’s presence. Likewise, in the spirit world, a couple stands before God wearing their wedding garments; then they embrace and make love, and in that moment they become one with God. That is the best way to greet God. (314:25, December 30, 1999)

The Kingdom of Heaven is a world of relations. Therefore, our entire family should be included. So should all members of our clan and all the people of our nation. (18:331, August 13, 1967)

If only parents were to enter heaven without their children accompanying them, it would not be heaven. In the Kingdom of Heaven, parents enjoy the love and support of their entire family. They live together and relate with each other with God as the center.

Thus, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven by ourselves. Parents and children enter heaven together. Suppose you were in heaven while your mother was in hell and screaming for help, “My child, please save me!” Would you say, “Heaven is wonderful, but Mother, you deserve to be in hell and suffer in pain”? Heaven is not such a place.

According to God’s purpose of creation, all family members, parents and children, should dwell together in heaven. Not only your immediate family, but also your clan and your entire nation should enter there. Everyone in the world should dwell together there. (15:265, October 17, 1965)

In the spirit world you do not need formal introductions. On meeting someone, you immediately know who he or she is. That person may have lived a thousand years ago or even many millions of years ago, yet still you will recognize him or her. People believe that biblical history is 6000 years, but that number is only symbolic. When you know the spirit world, you will understand the actual length of human history. It could stretch back millions or tens of millions of years.

You can call for an ancestor from a certain era, and he or she will appear in front of you. You recognize that person at a glance, without speaking a word. You instantly grasp all the essentials, including the manner of respect you should use when addressing him.19 Hence, you do not need formal introductions like on earth. Everyone automatically observes the hierarchical order.

What can keep the order? By living with love. Love determines position. Therefore, unless you become a child of God, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. (208:142-43, November 17, 1990)

Heaven Begins from a Heart that Overcomes the World

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Acts 20

⁷On the first day of the week we met to break bread together. Paul spoke to the people until midnight because he was leaving the next morning. ⁸In the upstairs room where we were meeting, there were a lot of lamps. ⁹A young man by the name of Eutychus was sitting on a window sill. While Paul was speaking, the young man got very sleepy. Finally, he went to sleep and fell three floors all the way down to the ground. When they picked him up, he was dead.

¹⁰Paul went down and bent over Eutychus. He took him in his arms and said, “Don’t worry! He’s alive.” ¹¹After Paul had gone back upstairs, he broke bread, and ate with us. He then spoke until dawn and left. ¹²Then the followers took the young man home alive and were very happy.

Isaiah 60

60 Jerusalem, stand up! Shine!
    Your new day is dawning.
The glory of the Lord
    shines brightly on you.
²The earth and its people
    are covered with darkness,
but the glory of the Lord
    is shining upon you.
³Nations and kings
will come to the light
    of your dawning day.

Heaven

1. Realms of Grace

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

How is heaven—the spirit world where God resides—organized? Its ordering principle is simple. No one who lived a self-centered life can be admitted to Paradise or the heavenly spheres. Heaven is the dwelling-place of people who lived for the sake of the whole.
You may not have experienced the spirit world, but by the grace of God, I experienced the richness of that world. If you enter heaven, you will not find a single person who lived for him or herself. Its citizens are all people who lived for God and humanity. (77:189, April 6, 1975)

Heaven is an ideal realm centered on God; it is a place where everything moves to the rhythm of God’s love, tuned to its frequency. Therefore, unless we prepare on earth the appropriate elements that can tune to God’s frequency, we will not be able to harmonize with the beings in that world. For this purpose, while on earth we should perfect three different kinds of love: children’s love, conjugal love and parental love.17 (19:335, March 29, 1968)

Heaven begins from a heart that overcomes the world. Although heaven may exist all around us, if our own mind is evil we cannot perceive it, we cannot be harmonized with it, and it would be mean-ingless to us. Therefore, the basis for receiving the Kingdom of Heaven is not the environment, but I, myself. The pillar for maintaining the Kingdom of Heaven is not my circumstances, but my own heart. (46:24, July 18, 1971)

In the Kingdom of Heaven you will see green grass everywhere. There are mountains, lakes and prairies. Birds sing, flowers bloom in profusion, and animals play happily together. The air is fresh and filled with fragrances like lilac. Bright light shines throughout, more beautiful than diamond and clear as crystal. Just standing there makes you feel comfortable and refreshed. You are naturally filled with feelings of love and happiness. Unlike in earthy life where happiness comes and goes, in heaven you feel happy continually.
In the Kingdom of Heaven there is no anxiety or suffering. All the spirits have bright and peaceful expressions; they naturally care for each other without needing to say a word. There is no fighting, no fallen nature of jealousy, hate or arrogance. Everyone is filled only with true love and lives for the sake of others. (Heung Jin Moon, Message from the Spirit World, January 1, 2002) ❖

God Does Not Decide Whether a Person’s Spirit Enters Heaven or Hell

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1 Samuel 25

²⁴Then she said:

Sir, please let me explain! ²⁵Don’t pay any attention to that good-for-nothing Nabal. His name means “fool,” and it really fits him!

I didn’t see the men you sent, ^26-27but please take this gift of food that I’ve brought and share it with your followers. The Lord has kept you from taking revenge and from killing innocent people. But I hope your enemies and anyone else who wants to harm you will end up like Nabal. I swear this by the living Lord and by your life.

²⁸Please forgive me if I say a little more. The Lord will always protect you and your family, because you fight for him. I pray that you won’t ever do anything evil as long as you live. ²⁹The Lord your God will keep you safe when your enemies try to kill you. But he will snatch away their lives quicker than you can throw a rock from a sling.

Ecclesiastes 8

¹⁶Day and night I went without sleep, trying to understand what goes on in this world. ¹⁷I saw everything God does, and I realized that no one can really understand what happens. We may be very wise, but no matter how much we try or how much we claim to know, we cannot understand it all.

Richard: Amen to that! Sometimes we cannot understand exactly how God is working, although we try our best.

Judgement

4. You Are Your Own Judge

The self is the maker and non-maker, and itself
makes happiness and misery, is its own friend
and its own foe, decides its own condition good
or evil, and is its own river Veyarana [the river
in which hell-beings are tormented].
Madaghishloka (Jainism)

The sacrificers and the sorcerer princes
Have subdued mankind to the yoke of their
dominion,
To destroy existence through evil deeds:
They shall be tortured by their own soul and
their own conscience,
When they come to the Bridge of the
Separator,
Forever to be inmates of the House of Evil.
Avesta, Yasna 46.11 (Zoroastrianism)

The Good Spirit, who was born simultaneously
with you, will come now and count out your
good deeds with white pebbles, and the Evil
Spirit, who was born simultaneously with you,
will come and count out your evil deeds with
black pebbles. Thereupon you will be greatly
frightened, awed, and terrified, and will tremble;
and you will attempt to tell lies, saying, “I have
not committed any evil deed.”
Then the Lord of Death will say, “I will
consult the Mirror of karma.” He will look in
the Mirror, wherein every good and evil act is
vividly reflected. Lying will be of no avail.
Then one of the executive furies of the Lord
of Death will place a rope around your neck and
drag you along; he will cut off your head, extract
your heart, pull out your intestines, lick up your
brain, drink your blood, eat your flesh, and gnaw
your bones; but you will be incapable of dying.
Although your body be hacked to pieces, it will
revive again. The repeated hacking [symbolizing
the pangs of the deceased’s conscience] will
cause intense pain and torture.
Even at the time that the pebbles are being
counted out, be not frightened; tell no lies; and
fear not the Lord of Death.
Your body being a mental body is incapable
of dying even though beheaded and quartered.
In reality, your body is of the nature of voidness;
you need not be afraid. The Lords of Death
are your own hallucinations. Your desire-body
is a body of propensities, and void. Voidness
cannot injure voidness; the qualityless cannot
injure the qualityless. Apart from one’s own
hallucinations, in reality there are no such
things existing outside oneself as Lord of Death,
or god, or demon. Act so as to recognize this.
Tibetan Book of the Dead (Buddhism)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God does not decide whether a person’s spirit enters heaven or hell upon his death; the spirit himself decides it. Humans are created so that once they reach perfection they will fully breathe the love of God. Those who committed sinful deeds while on earth become crippled spirits who are incapable of fully breathing in the love of God. They find it agonizing to stand before God, the center of true love. Of their own will, they choose to dwell in hell, far removed from the love of God. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 6.3.2)

Running through each of you is the boundary line dividing heaven and hell. One step to the right and you go to heaven, one step to the left is hell. Heaven is not so far away, and neither is hell. You are the deciding factor.

In spirit world there is no policeman directing traffic. We each find our own place. Since you go there of your own free will, you cannot complain. In hell, you cannot protest, “God, why did you send me here?” because you decided your own dwelling place. Even at this moment, each of you knows whether you should go to heaven or hell. (201:225-26, April 22, 1990)

How is it decided whether my journey will end at heaven or hell? I decide it. If I feel guilt-stricken in my conscience for having lived only to enjoy the pleasures of the senses, I will be in hell. However, if I lived according to my conscience, preferring a life of integrity of heart, I will dwell in the heavenly spheres. For this reason, people should abandon the aspiration for material things and deny their evil desires. The correct way is to live by one’s conscience and strive to uphold the ethics of heaven. (7:238, September 20, 1959)

People bound for heaven do not need to be taught the way. Having lived according to their con-science, they will arrive there automatically. When the sun rises, don’t all the buds of the trees turn to face the sun? Even plants know instinctively what direction to take. Then, as the lord of all cre-ation, how could you not know where to go? You will experience this after you enter the spirit world. (75:42, January 1, 1975)

How Is it Determined Whether we Shall Go to Heaven or Hell?

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Hebrews 13

¹¹After the high priest offers the blood of animals as a sin offering, the bodies of those animals are burned outside the camp. ¹²Jesus himself suffered outside the city gate, so that his blood would make people holy. ¹³That’s why we should go outside the camp to Jesus and share in his disgrace. ¹⁴On this earth we don’t have a city that lasts forever, but we are waiting for such a city.

¹⁵Our sacrifice is to keep offering praise to God in the name of Jesus. ¹⁶But don’t forget to help others and to share your possessions with them. This too is like offering a sacrifice that pleases God.

Psalm 20

20 I pray that the Lord
will listen
when you
    are in trouble,
    and that the God of Jacob
    will keep you safe.
²May the Lord send help
    from his temple
    and come to your rescue
    from Mount Zion.
³May he remember your gifts
    and be pleased
    with what you bring.

⁴May God do what you want most
    and let all go well for you.
⁵Then you will win victories,
    and we will celebrate,
    while raising our banners
    in the name of our God.
May the Lord answer
    all of your prayers!

The Judgement

2. The Sorting, for Heaven or Hell

Teachings of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon

How is it determined whether we shall go to heaven or hell? It doesn’t matter how religious we are. The answer is simple: if we lived mainly for ourselves, we shall go to hell. On the other hand, if on the balance, even by just one percent, our life was mainly dedicated for a public purpose, we shall overcome hell and arrive in heaven. (75:330, January 16, 1975)

Is the standard of a person’s conscience able to receive the heart of Heaven one hundred percent? No, it is not that way at all. In fact, the conscience of a fallen person is oppressed by so many restrictions. Nevertheless, at the entrance to heaven, our hoped-for destination, stands a gate of judgment. (4:269, August 8, 1958)

It is a gate that only those who lived for the sake of others can pass through. There are guards at the gate. Please understand well that whatever I ask of you is to enable you to pass through that gate. (203:193, June 24, 1990)

Heaven is a vast world, and it consists of three levels. Who will go to the highest level? It is those who most lived for others. It is the law there. If you lived for others, then wherever you go, people will welcome you.

However, for those who lived for themselves, the opposite scene will unfold. No matter where a self-centered person goes, the people will drive him out, saying “Huh! We don’t like your kind of people.” Everyone will reject a person who lived for himself, and everyone will welcome someone who lived for others. That is for sure.

You should know clearly whether you are on the path to heaven or to hell. This is not my casual viewpoint. I know the spirit world. People lead all manner of lives on earth, but no one can avoid death. Those who lived for themselves will go to hell, and those who lived for others will go to heaven. At death people are sorted into these two worlds. (203:100-01, June 17, 1990

A Shining Past Is a Life of Giving Everything to Others

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1 John 4

4 Dear friends, don’t believe everyone who claims to have the Spirit of God. Test them all to find out if they really do come from God. Many false prophets have already gone out into the world, ²and you can know which ones come from God. His Spirit says that Jesus Christ had a truly human body. ³But when someone doesn’t say this about Jesus, you know that person has a spirit that doesn’t come from God and is the enemy of Christ. You knew that this enemy was coming into the world and now is already here.

Ezeliel 12

¹²The leader of Jerusalem will lift his own bag to his shoulders at sunset and leave through a hole that the others have dug in the wall of his house. He will cover his face, so he can’t see the land he is leaving. ¹³The Lord will spread out a net and trap him as he leaves Jerusalem. He will then be led away to the city of Babylon, but will never see that place,^[b] even though he will die there. ¹⁴His own officials and troops will scatter in every direction, and the Lord will track them down and put them to death.

The Judgement

The Life Review

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

At the fateful moment of death, all the facts of a person’s past life will pass through his mind as images. No one needs to explain to him what kind of person he is; he will know it by himself. The life he inherited from his ancestors, the circumstances he faced, the situation he leaves behind, and all his past will appear as images in his mind at the last moment of his life.
A person who left behind a valuable moment during his earthly life will recognize it: “There was truth. I left behind something more precious than my life.” However, another person will admit, “I spent my whole life course from birth to death as merely a passerby.” Reflecting on all his past actions and feeling no desire to remember them, he feels miserable. For the person whose face is filled with joy as he reflects on his past, death is not to be feared; it is a moment of comfort. His past will not die and his reality will not die…
If a person gave his life while struggling to save his brother, a kinsman or a stranger, at the moment of death that fact will appear as an unforgettable image. But times of self-centered happiness, even moments of basking in the glory and acclaim of many people, will not bring any effect.
What does it mean to be good, to be persons of truth who can stand on their own
before God? Truth and goodness do not begin from us or end in us. Truth and goodness are established when something begins in us and brings results for others, or begins in others and brings results in us. It is the same with all existences in heaven and earth; they have to establish reciprocal relationships of give and take according to the Principle.
If one’s past life was entirely a life of giving, there will be no fear on the path of death. A shining past is a life of giving everything to others, sacrificing for others, shedding tears for others, investing life for others, desiring for others, concentrating all one’s vitality and investing it for others…
For ordinary people facing the vicissitudes of the fallen world, their path of life is sometimes up and sometimes down. They make plans from one year to the next, or maybe plan their future for ten or twenty years, but always centered on themselves. However, when they meet their final destiny, all their records of sacrificing others for their own benefit will bind them. (31:308-10, June 7, 1970)