Category: Old Testament

God Set the Standard as Living for the Sake of Others

Numbers 11

18 As for the Israelites, I have heard them complaining about not having meat and about being better off in Egypt. So tell them to make themselves acceptable to me, because tomorrow they will have meat. 19-20 In fact, they will have meat day after day for a whole month—not just a few days, or even ten or twenty. They turned against me and wanted to return to Egypt. Now they will eat meat until they get sick of it.

Jonah 1

13 The sailors tried their best to row to the shore. But they could not do it, and the storm kept getting worse every minute. 14 So they prayed to the Lord, “Please don’t let us drown for taking this man’s life. Don’t hold us guilty for killing an innocent man. All of this happened because you wanted it to.” 15 Then they threw Jonah overboard, and the sea calmed down. 16 The sailors were so terrified that they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made all kinds of promises.

Richard: Above we see two examples where God gave the people what they wanted. If we have bad leadership now, which we do in many cases, is it perhaps because we did not take care in choosing good, godly leaders through the election process? I will be doing a series of interviews with current candidates for office here in West Virginia. Please take the time to watch these, and consider doing interviews for candidates in your own area. The primary here in West Virginia is delayed until June 9th.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God
God’s Goodness

2. God’s Goodness Manifest in the Creation

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

When looking at reality from the perspective of love, God is the root. The root communicates through the stem to the sprouting leaves, which spread out in all directions: east, west, south and north. As the plant spreads out, its leaves sprout more abundantly, the stem grows stronger and the root grows larger. Live like this, and you will discover that God is the loving vertical Father of our human world. God is our Creator and Father who bestows true love in abundance. (203:352, June 28, 1990)

Everything exists for the sake of something greater than itself, and the greater thing for something still greater. It is wrong to think that life is simply about the strong eating the weak, as Charles Darwin taught. That perspective on life is dead wrong. The Lord of the universe—the Creator of the universe—created all things for the sake of human beings. All creatures were created with that specific purpose in mind. (217:204, June 1, 1991)

God is the omnipotent and omniscient King of wisdom. In creating the universe of subject-object relationships, He had to decide whether the origin of true love, true happiness, true peace and the true ideal of the human world should be in the subject partner or in the object partner. God had to
decide on this matter with the eternal ideal world in mind. If God had set things up in such a way that all object beings must serve Him, then human beings would establish that same tradition: “Everyone must serve me.” This would have created serious problems. There would be no way to achieve unity, harmony or development. Thus we understand: rather than demanding that object partners attend the subject partner, God invariably takes the position that He exists for the sake of His object partners. This way,
everything becomes one; there is progress and development. Hence, the almighty God decided to set up the standard of peace, happiness, love and the ideal as “living for the sake of others.” (72:14,May 7, 1974)

We Must Behave in Accordance With God’s Word

Watch or listen to the Richard Urban Show from April 30, 2020: What Has Happened to Our God-given Freedoms? https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/01/nsa-surveils-all-americans-and-lies-about-it/

Collosians 4

10 Aristarchus is in jail with me. He sends greetings to you, and so does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. You have already been told to welcome Mark, if he visits you. 11 Jesus, who is known as Justus, sends his greetings. These three men are the only Jewish followers who have worked with me for the kingdom of God. They have given me much comfort.

Jeremiah 35

18 Then the Lord told me to say to the Rechabite clan:

I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel. You have obeyed your ancestor Jonadab, 19 so I promise that your clan will be my servants and will never die out.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God
God’s Goodness

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God is the Father and Mother of all emotions—joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure. He is our Owner, who prepares a place of comfort for us when we are sad and protects us when we face difficulty. He is our absolute Parent, whose love surpasses that of anyone who ever lived. (203:228, June 26, 1990)

If God were a being of destruction, causing heaven and earth to decrease, people would want nothing to do with God. The eternal God should always provide what is needful and appropriate to human beings and all creatures. That is why He was needed in the past, is needed in the present, and will be needed in the future. Otherwise, our worship and our desire for relationship with God would be in vain and to no purpose. (22:317, May 11, 1969)

All religions of the world begin with the recognition that God, the Lord and Creator, is the First Cause of the universe. If this God exists, He must be good; He must be eternal and unchanging; and He must be unique and absolute. The God who created the universe must have, from the first, a purpose for creating. This purpose of creation must also be eternal, unchanging, unique, and absolute. God’s purpose of creation is joy. He created human beings and the universe to experience joy. Joy cannot be experienced alone. To experience joy, it is always necessary to have an object partner, or counterpart. It is only when a subject partner and object partner establish a common base and engage in give and take action that joy can be experienced. Giving and receiving love is to experience the supreme joy. In sum, God created us to become His object partners, that He might experience joy eternally by relating with us in love. This is His purpose of creation. (100:241, October 19, 1978)

Each of us desires to be good. There is not a single person in the world that does not desire goodness. We know that the direction of history has been toward goodness, as educators and people of faith have labored and fought to set standards of goodness. We are born seeking for goodness and live seeking for goodness—that is the purpose of our life. Since our lives are the warp and woof of history, it is the goal of history as well. (24:13, June 22, 1969)

How can we fallen human beings return to the God of goodness? First, we must grow to the point where our conscience resembles God’s original goodness. Next, we must behave in accordance with God’s word, thus manifesting God’s goodness and confirming the value of His word. When we do this, God will rejoice on seeing the ideal of the goodness for which He created all things. We humans have long pursued goodness, but finally we will experience the value of God’s goodness by substantially embodying goodness ourselves. (2:131, July 21, 1957)

How are we to live in God’s Kingdom? We are to live with the attitude to accept anyone who comes our way. Although occasionally a thief may enter and take something, you just close your eyes to it as he leaves through the gate, knowing that at least you have something that he could take. God thinks this way. Why? Because God feels, “Though he may be a petty thief, he is still living in My domain. Even if he takes something, he is only moving it about within the realm where I am the Owner of everything.” Do you think there are fences and locks in heaven? No, there are none. (224:327-28, December 29, 1991)

For I Am God, and There Is No Other

Watch or listen to the Richard Urban Show from April 30, 2020: What Has Happenned to Our God-given Freedoms? https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/01/nsa-surveils-all-americans-and-lies-about-it/

1 Samuel 14

27 Jonathan did not know about Saul’s warning to the soldiers. So he dipped the end of his walking stick in the honey and ate some with his fingers. He felt stronger and more alert. 28 Then a soldier told him, “Your father swore that anyone who ate food today would be put under a curse, and we agreed not to eat. That’s why we’re so weak.”

29 Jonathan said, “My father has caused you a lot of trouble. Look at me! I had only a little of this honey, but already I feel strong and alert. 30 I wish you had eaten some of the food the Philistines left behind. We would have been able to kill a lot more of them.”

Proverbs 5

The Lord sees everything,
    and he watches us closely.
22 Sinners are trapped and caught
    by their own evil deeds.
23 They get lost and die
because of their foolishness
    and lack of self-control.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God
The Original Cause

2. The Cause behind History

For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,” calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it. Isaiah 46.9-11

On the day when We shall roll up heaven as a scroll is rolled for the writings; as We originated the first creation, so We shall bring it back again—a promise binding on Us; so We shall do. For We have written in the Psalms, after the Remembrance, “The earth shall be the inheritance of My righteous servants.” Qur’an 21.104

I testify that Thou art the Lord of all creation, and the Educator of all beings, visible and invisible. I bear witness that Thy power hath encompassed the entire universe, and that the hosts of the earth can never dismay Thee, nor can the dominion of all peoples and nations deter Thee from executing Thy purpose. I confess that Thou hast no desire except the regeneration of the whole world, and the establishment of the unity of its peoples, and the salvation of all they that dwell therein. Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh 115 (Baha’i Faith)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God is the First Cause and Creator of the universe—this is the starting-point of religion. Moreover, God is good, and He is eternal and unchanging, unique and absolute. As such a God created this world, He must have first formed a purpose for the creation. This purpose of creation would also have to be eternal, unchanging, unique, and absolute. (100:241, October 19, 1978)

A human being manifests the result. No one insists that human beings are the First Cause. Even if we do not know our cause, we know that we are the result of some existence, because we were born. In order to know what a human being is, we should know the Being who made human beings as resultant beings. Therefore, we should have a clear answer to the question of God, the First Cause. Only by knowing God, the Causal Being, is it possible to set our direction in life. Only with God can we find the teaching for how we should live, how our family should live, how society, the nation and the world should function. It concerns not only my individual direction, but also the way the world is going in these Last Days. (100:234, February 26, 1986)

Of everything that happens in the flow of history, nothing occurs without a relationship to Thy providence. (140:62, February 1, 1986)

Although the direction of history appears to be heading toward evil, that is not true. History progresses as human beings, through the operation of the mind, restrain their bodies and determine with resolve the direction they will go. Thus does God work in the background to govern and direct history’s development over certain times and periods. (4:191, April 20, 1958)

In the past, the present and the future, the eternal God directs His providence. Therefore, the sagas recorded in God’s heart pattern the history of every age, and the sagas that shaped those ages foreshadow the future. (16:253, June 19, 1966)

God Exists in the Center of Our Heart

Watch or listen to the Richard Urban Show from April 23, 2020: Fire Anthony Fauci for Conflicts of Interest and Creating a Political Disease : https://www.visionroot.org/2020/04/24/faucis-department-funded-illegal-gain-of-function-research-in-wuhan-china/ .

Luke 22

7 The day had come for the Festival of Thin Bread, and it was time to kill the Passover lambs. 8 So Jesus said to Peter and John, “Go and prepare the Passover meal for us to eat.”

9 But they asked, “Where do you want us to prepare it?”

10 Jesus told them, “As you go into the city, you will meet a man carrying a jar of water.[b] Follow him into the house 11 and say to the owner, ‘Our teacher wants to know where he can eat the Passover meal with his disciples.’ 12 The owner will take you upstairs and show you a large room ready for you to use. Prepare the meal there.”

13 Peter and John left. They found everything just as Jesus had told them, and they prepared the Passover meal.

2 Chronicles 35

12 The Levites set aside the parts of the animal that the worshipers needed for their sacrifices to please the Lord,[c] just as the Law of Moses required. They also did the same thing with the bulls. 13 They sacrificed the Passover animals on the altar and boiled the meat for the other offerings in pots, kettles, and pans. Then they quickly handed the meat to the people so they could eat it.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God
Immanent and Dwelling within the Heart

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Where does God exist? He is not in heaven, but in our heart—the center of our heart. (145:310,June 1, 1986)

God is not merely a concept. God is alive in each of our lives, and we can feel His touch. I constantly hear the beating of God’s pulse. I breathe as He breathes. I can feel the warmth of His body against my own. I have come to know the heart of God, and have shed rivers of tears from the knowledge that His heart is bursting with the sorrow of having lost humankind through the Fall. (234:233, August 22, 1992)


When we forget to eat and sleep, yearning for our beloved Heavenly Father and calling out, “Father!” He holds our hand, even though we do not notice Him. We call out, “Father,” and Heavenly Father clasps us to His bosom. It is precious to have these experiences in our life of faith. With a heart of love, even before you say, “Please be with me while I do this,” God is already with you. Experience this, and you will know that God is Gracious and Merciful. (58:299, June 25,1972)

How does God love? It is not hard to answer. Since God is without form, He can go anywhere—inside a lady’s eyes, inside her heart, anywhere at all. Where does God live? He dwells in the midst of our heart. God’s masculine aspect lives in the heart of a man, and God’s feminine aspect lives in the heart of a woman. (128:325)

Many Christians today think that because God the Creator is unique and absolute, the Supreme Being, it is impossible for human beings, His creatures, to relate with God in a full partnership. They reason that creatures are profane while God is absolute and holy. Consider this matter, however, from the concept of love. To form relationships of love, even the lofty and supremely good God and
lowly created beings must share common attributes of character. To love, they must share the same heart. That is, the personal God must have the same qualities as the human personality. (138:247, January 24, 1986)

The universe is vast, as great as 21 billion light-years across… Yet when we search within for the best place to receive God, our greatest treasure, the natural conclusion is, “The heart is the only appropriate place.” No place can be safer or more comfortable for Him.

The heart is able to stand in the position of God’s object partner and exist for eternity by engaging in spherical motion, and this is the reason that human beings can have eternal life. (May 1, 2004)

God is immeasurably huge, but a human being, though tiny in comparison, is a microcosm of the universe. Therefore, we can experience that God is within us as we go into God. We can experience that we are within God and God is within us. That is why Jesus said, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Although God is infinitely big, only when human beings dwell within Him, can God work. (31:210, May 31, 1970)

Thou dost relate to us at the dividing line between joy and sorrow. (24:245, August 24, 1969)

Now is the time when people must reflect on themselves and listen to the voice from Heaven. Through the benefit of the providence, the living God has now drawn near to us. From now on, people will have many spiritual experiences that they could not have earlier. That is to say, they will communicate with the transcendent world. Through these frequent spiritual experiences, people will be influenced directly and indirectly. Especially people who experience the inspiration of God and good spirits will have their spiritual senses developed centered on God, and they will experience major changes in their character. People whose character is thus transformed to fit the way of Heaven are the true people God has been hoping for. (February 6, 2003)

Thou dost not live in some distant, relative world.
Thou art in the middle of our hearts;
Thou surroundest our bodies
unnoticed, like the air all around us;
Thou hast been embracing our entire lives.
When we receive that power which surrounds us,
infinite power is mobilized.
When we absorb that power—eternal power—
it impacts and stimulates us anew. (27:41-42, November 23, 1969)

This World Is Like God’s Body

Watch or listen to the Richard Urban Show from April 23, 2020: Fire Anthony Fauci for Conflicts of Interest and Creating a Political Disease : https://www.visionroot.org/2020/04/24/faucis-department-funded-illegal-gain-of-function-research-in-wuhan-china/ .

2 Samuel 8

Everywhere David went, the Lord helped him win battles.

7 Hadadezer’s officers had carried their arrows in gold cases hung over their shoulders, but David took these cases[f] and brought them to Jerusalem. 8 He also took a lot of bronze from the cities of Betah and Berothai, which had belonged to Hadadezer.

2 Chronicles 23

23 After Ahaziah’s son Joash had hidden in the temple for six years, Jehoiada the priest knew that something had to be done. So he made sure he had the support of several army officers. They were Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri. 2 These five men went to the towns in Judah and called together the Levites and the clan leaders. They all came to Jerusalem 3 and gathered at the temple, where they agreed to help Joash.

Jehoiada said to them:

Joash will be our next king, because long ago the Lord promised that one of David’s descendants would always be king. 4 Here is what we will do. Three groups of priests and Levites will be on guard duty on the Sabbath—one group will guard the gates of the temple, 5 one will guard the palace, and the other will guard Foundation Gate. The rest of you will stand guard in the temple courtyards. 6 Only the priests and Levites who are on duty will be able to enter the temple, because they will be the only ones who have gone through the ceremony to make themselves clean and acceptable. The others must stay outside in the courtyards, just as the Lord has commanded. 7 You Levites must protect King Joash. Don’t let him out of your sight! And keep your swords ready to kill anyone who comes into the temple.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God
Omniscient and Omnipresent

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

When God looks at a person, He sees the person’s mind. He sees his past, his present, and based on that He sees his future. (100:93, October 8, 1978)

God transcends time, and He has no regard for your 24-hour timeframe. God does not sleep. Apply this principle in your activities, and you will develop without limit. (94:282-83, October 9, 1977)

God’s mind is not only in His Word, but also in everything He created. For this reason, God exists everywhere. Truly, He is omnipresent. (8:182, December 13, 1959)

You have a mind. Mind is invisible, and may not appear to exist; yet it exists. Where is your mind? Is it in your head or in your heart? In truth, your mind extends throughout every part of your body.

Likewise, this world is like God’s body, and He is present everywhere in the world. Yet [like mind],
you cannot see God. (89:72, July 11, 1976)

God’s love is more than enough to embrace the universe. God’s love is at the center of everything.
God as the central being of love maintains the great foundation. When God moves, everything
moves with Him, even the smallest things. Everything is contained within one great circle. Thus
does God embrace the whole world, the entire universe. (205:33, July 7, 1990)

If God did not exist, the universe would feel completely empty. But because God exists, the universe
feels completely full. Why? Because there is love. Hence, even when we are alone, because we know
God, we feel the universe’s fullness. We feel God in every place. Hence, within love we can know
the deep inspiration that comes from God’s omnipresence. But if we did not know God, we would
feel an all-pervading emptiness, as if nothing existed. (91:323, March 1, 1977)

How do you experience God’s omnipresence? Feel the air as the breath from God’s mouth. Feel a
typhoon as God blowing His nose. Feel the stream as God’s sweat pouring out from going through
the suffering course of restoration for the sake of the world. Learn the love of God from the sun,
which symbolizes the elements of life throughout the cosmos. Nature is a textbook for experiencing God’s heart, a textbook for the happiness of His beloved children. Speak to the plants; feel
that their leaves are as your children; you are not crazy. You are close to being a saint. (59:102-03,
July 9, 1972)

Consider that our Father is the living God, who watches over us from the beginning to the end of
our life. He foresees our life in the eternal spirit world, as well as our present life on earth. When He
looks at you spiritually, what do you think He sees? (118:38, May 2, 1982)