Category: Old Testament

Our Conviction Must Not be Centered on Ourselves

Watch the latest Richard Urban show with Jamal Johnson Part 2-Your Spouse is the Greatest Gift: https://youtu.be/More_XXZkB8.

2 Chronicles 20

15 Then Jahaziel said:

Your Majesty and everyone from Judah and Jerusalem, the Lord says that you don’t need to be afraid or let this powerful army discourage you. God will fight on your side! 16 So here’s what you must do. Tomorrow the enemy armies will march through the desert around the town of Jeruel. March down and meet them at the town of Ziz as they come up the valley. 17 You won’t even have to fight. Just take your positions and watch the Lord rescue you from your enemy. Don’t be afraid. Just do as you’re told. And as you march out tomorrow, the Lord will be there with you.

Psalm 19

Let my words and my thoughts
    be pleasing to you, Lord,
    because you are my mighty rock[a]
    and my protector.

Inside God’s Stadium

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
August 9, 1959

1 Corinthians 9: 14-27

We are to run this race. Since we have to go, how should we run? We need to make certain preparations before we enter the stadium. What kind of preparations? We need to make internal preparations and external preparations. Internally, we should have some conviction that we are running toward a certain purpose. We are to run the course according to the commands we receive. If we run into a hurdle in our race course, we should have the conviction to jump over it. We need to make internal preparations so that we can run toward the right purpose based on our conviction.

In other words, by training our minds and bodies, we need to cultivate the determination that we will not fall down before we reach the final destination and that we will not lose to anyone but will stand as the final victors. We need to have such a strong conviction that even if our bodies were to run into some obstacles as we are racing toward our destination, we should be able to push that aside and continue on our race.

Many people are living on the earth today. Yet how many of them are ready to stand firm as a racer and start running toward the certain destination? If we cannot deny that we are under the control of this trend in history, based on both our words and the reality we face, we should then ask ourselves whether or not we have prepared ourselves properly as racers who can run towards the destination with aspirations to victory. You have not made the preparations yet.

Human beings are born to belong in a certain field or sphere. Those who do not have a position and circumstance where they can dwell are pitiful. Those who do not have the clear idea that they are on a certain course running toward a certain purpose are pitiful. Most of us are like that.

What we need here is the time to make the internal and external preparations to train our minds and bodies with determination and purposefulness that we may triumph in the battle against many enemies. If there is anyone here who has not had such a moment, he should examine himself closely.

What kind of internal preparation do we need to make? It must not be preparation for your own individual sake. Isn’t this so? Suppose there is a marathon athlete who represents a nation. When he runs the race, if he has the conviction that he should glorify his people and his nation before the world rather than to obtain glory for himself, he will be able to overcome all difficulties. However, if he is running only for the sake of his own glory and personal ends, he will easily give up the moment he runs into tribulations.

Our conviction must not be centered on ourselves. We should have conviction for the sake of the people, for the sake of the world, and for the sake of Heaven and earth. If the runner is certain that he will determine the final victory of the universe, even if he were to collapse, he would have the strength to get up and continue running. If he runs for his own sake, the moment he encounters a difficulty that exceeds any difficulty he has otherwise experienced, he will collapse. When the difficulty exceeds the self- centered desire he has, he will be defeated.

This is the reason we need to train our minds and bodies to the conviction that we are running for the purpose and mission of Heaven and earth. People live for the sake of God and goodness, but thoughtlessly. Goodness is transcending the restricted environment. Goodness is not limited. Goodness exists beyond the boundaries of limits and constraints. Therefore, people live for such purposes without clear understanding or deep thought.

How Will Heaven Train Us and Guide Us in Our Race

Tomorrow, September 1, 2019, is the 80th Anniversary of the beginning of World War II with the invasion of Poland simultaneously by Germany from the west and Russia from the east. My father, Tadeusz Urban who is now 94 years old, and was then 14, was in the path of the invading Russians in Lviv, Poland (now Ukraine). Watch a video chronicling his extraordinary journey: https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aj5ekHDYOaCigjosnwVYE4WpwXdA?e=oOqIzd.

Revelation 22

6 Then I was told:

These words are true and can be trusted. The Lord God controls the spirits of his prophets, and he is the one who sent his angel to show his servants what must happen right away. 7 Remember, I am coming soon! God will bless everyone who pays attention to the message of this book.

7 “Look! I’m coming soon. Favored is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy contained in this scroll.”

Ezra 1

7 King Cyrus gave back the things that Nebuchadnezzar[c] had taken from the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem and had put in the temple of his own gods. 8 Cyrus placed Mithredath, his chief treasurer, in charge of these things. Mithredath counted them and gave a list to Sheshbazzar, the governor of Judah. 9-10 Included among them were: 30 large gold dishes; 1,000 large silver dishes; 29 other dishes;[d] 30 gold bowls; 410 silver bowls; and 1,000 other articles.

11 Altogether, there were 5,400 gold and silver dishes, bowls, and other articles. Sheshbazzar took them with him when he and the others returned to Jerusalem from Babylonia.

Christian teacher Lance Wallnau has likened President Trump to Cyrus:
https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2017/march/lance-wallnau-weighs-in-on-gods-chaos-candidate-now-americas-president .

Inside God’s Stadium

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
August 9, 1959

1 Corinthians 9: 14-27

It is written in I Corinthians 9:24: “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” Centering on these words, I would like to speak to you briefly upon the topic “Inside God’s Stadium.”

As it was for the many saints in history, the people in the present era are dashing toward some unknown purpose in their lives. Although that purpose may not be clearly defined, their way of life has unfolded in various ways based upon it. The experience and form of the people and history have unfolded in various forms. All of these outcomes are not unrelated. We have to understand that there is some relationship which underpins their experience in this world, and that they are moving toward a certain purpose. If their actions and experiences are not rooted in such a relationship and purpose, then there is no way to establish the existence of God or any such being.

If God exists, He would surely try to forge a relationship with fallen humanity. For this reason, it cannot be denied that we who are moving toward a certain purpose are living inside the sphere of this relationship.

We know that we could not forge a relationship of goodness with God due to the Fall. Rather, we entered into a relationship of evil with Satan. Still, God does not want to abandon us, but is trying to restore us. We know that God and humanity have been walking an incredibly difficult course in order to restore humanity.

History is headed toward the one time when this purpose can be fulfilled. For this reason, you should understand that you are racers who are sprinting toward the purpose based on the standard of your conscience and your daily lives. All those who ever lived have stood on the race tracks of God’s providence of restoration.

God has been leading His providence concerning fallen people in various ways. God has been influencing them in various ways according to the differences between the people, differences between their prevailing ideologies and cultures. In the process, God has been fighting on humanity’s side to destroy evil until the moment His purpose is accomplished, the moment the race comes to an end.

If we accept that every person stands in the position of a racer, we are faced with the question of what we must do. If we understand how much God has suffered to raise up each one of us, and that we are obliged to stand inside the stadium and run with all our strength, how will Heaven train us and guide us in our race? How will each of us persevere through the tribulations of the race until we reach the destination? This is an important question that every one of us must resolve.

Among the saints and sages of the past, there must have been people who were in charge of one aspect of the whole and who set a certain standard before they died. In other words, these saints and sages did not complete the entire providence of Heaven or the entire race up to the end. Rather, they must have been in charge of various parts of the race and brought them to a conclusion. We should understand that this is how the race is being carried on even now. God made this stadium of restoration. We should understand that we have the inescapable responsibility to risk our lives in the race throughout our entire lifetimes.

Today there are many thoughts and teachings. In the religious world, there are many denominations and sects. Thoughts, philosophies and religions have taken various forms depending upon the uniqueness of the people they were established for. Such thoughts and religions should have developed into an ideology and religion which contains the entire content of God’s providence. Yet they failed to achieve that. All merely remained as thoughts and religions which were narrowly applicable to one nation or one era. We have to understand clearly that they were no more than parts of God’s race; the religions and ideologies were responsible for only partial missions.

We Should Long for the Kingdom of Heaven While we are in a Sad Situation

Watch the lastest Richard Urban show:
with Jamal Johnson Part 1: Sex Done Right:https://youtu.be/Ow24ljUYRVo

1 John 1

2 The one who gives life appeared! We saw it happen, and we are witnesses to what we have seen. Now we are telling you about this eternal life that was with the Father and appeared to us.

Joel 3

Crowds fill Decision Valley.
The judgment day of the Lord
    will soon be here—
15 no light from the sun or moon,
    and stars no longer shine.
16 From the heart of Jerusalem
the Lord roars like a lion,
    shaking the earth and sky.
But the Lord is a fortress,
a place of safety
    for his people Israel.

The True Sons and Daughters of Heavenly Father Who Will Remain in the Last Days

Rev Sun Myung Moon
July 26, 1959

Romans 8: 12-27

You members of the Unification Church are pitiful people. However, if you can hear the voices which Jesus or God heard during the two thousand and the six thousand years, you should be grateful. If you shed tears before the people, and if your heart aches when you behold humanity, you should be grateful. If your eyes overflow with tears in looking at humanity and you are lost in thought as to how to solve humanity’s problems, you should be grateful. If you do not have enough to eat, and even when you do your throat is blocked by grief, you are truly blessed. Even when you have a difficult personal situation yet choose to remain quiet, you are truly blessed. Do you feel indignant that you cannot engage in a fierce battle with Satan even if you have hands that can take him on in a fight? Be grateful. Do you have a sorrowful heart which is patiently waiting for the one day, even if you can make brave steps forward before the expanding forces of Satan? Be grateful.

God is not found in a faraway place. When you think that God is far away, He is near you. When you feel that He is close to you, He is far away. For those who boasted that Heaven stood close to them, God was actually far away. Those who were sorry that they were far away from God did not know that God was standing next to them.

Do not grieve that your suffering is intensifying; do not mourn that you are faced with persecution. You should be able to say, “Please allow me to shoulder the sorrow that afflicts the Father’s heart. Please let me shoulder the anguish that pierces the Father’s heart. If I were ever to be falsely accused by Satan or be wronged by him, please allow me to take this by myself and pay indemnity for all the sorrows and pains of history.” If there are sons and daughters who can call out to the Father like this and struggle with all their strength and with tearful hearts, the Father will grab them. He will do so without fail.

We do not seek glory. If there is any glory, it belongs to the Father. Sorrow and pain are all that belong to us. We should prepare our minds to digest these sorrows and pains as sources of life. You should feel embarrassed and unworthy when God says, “My child” and embraces you. Then, on the day of judgment, the day that a proclamation will be made before the sad and painful history, God’s hands will seek you out even as you kneel down, unable to raise your head.

We should long for the Kingdom of Heaven while we are in a sad situation and living a painful life. We should comfort the sorrowful Lord in mournful history, comfort the Lord of suffering in painful history. If there is someone who praises God and comforts Him even as he himself suffers sorrow and pain, no one can defeat that person. This is our standard. This is the path that the members of the Unification movement should walk.

We do not need many people. We do not need great multitudes. We need people who can say, “Father, I am not the only one suffering. Humanity is suffering all over the world. How many countless people are more miserable than I,” even in grief and pain. We need people who can then strive to shoulder humanity’s grief as their own responsibility. This was the path Jesus walked.

Heaven has sought true sons and daughters. When you call out “Father” while you are holding the Father’s hands and say, “His hands are similar to mine,” or while you are looking at the Father you say, “His situation is similar to mine; His heartaches and worries are similar to what I suffered in the past,” your words will eliminate all the misfortunes of history and become the decisive condition for happiness. We the members of the Unification movement, Christians, and all faithful people in the world and in Heaven should understand this.

I do not know your circumstances or your states of mind, but if you feel something deep in your heart right now, that feeling is not false. If you feel, “That is true; that is how it should be,” then you should make a determination for your life based on that. You should fight based on that and fall down clinging to it. Those who do so will be qualified to become true sons and daughters of the Father who wants to embrace you in the day of judgment. 

A Sinner Like Me can Never Wipe the Tears of the Father

Watch the latest Richard Urban show: Why Conflicts of Interest Are Important:
https://youtu.be/2z7FZlI7IUk.

Reveleation 12

Our people defeated Satan
    because of the blood[a]
of the Lamb
    and the message of God.
They were willing
    to give up their lives.

Ezekiel 30

5 Soldiers hired from Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia, Arabia, Kub, as well as from Israel,[b] will die in that battle. 6 All of your allies will be killed, and your proud strength will crumble. People will die from Migdol in the north to Aswan in the south. I, the Lord, have spoken.


The True Sons and Daughters of Heavenly Father Who Will Remain in the Last Days

Rev Sun Myung Moon
July 26, 1959

Romans 8: 12-27

There will come a day of judgment in the last days. When the day of judgment comes, how will Heaven appear? Heaven does not say, “I have this and that element of joy and glory. Why haven’t you attained similar elements?” The basis of the judgment is whether or not you understand the sorrowful and painful history of humanity and God, during which God fought fiercely for six thousand years. You have to understand that the traces of God’s work can be found in this history. Those who are trying to stand before God with the glory of a son and the hopes of a daughter will be asked by Heaven how much they have mourned over this history and how much suffering they have borne. At that time, those who say “Not at all” will not receive the glory of a son.

Look. On the hands and feet of Jesus are the nail marks. On his head is the crown of thorns, and in his heart there is the wound inflicted by a spear. Although Jesus passed away, Christians today do not understand that he had to cross over the hill of death in order to alleviate God’s bitter grief after becoming the prince of sorrow and anguish. Since Jesus passed the test of qualification of the heart, he appeared as the leader in the realm of the heart and spirit. What kind of savior was he? A savior of the body? No. he was the savior of the heart and spirit whom we long for from the depth of our beings, with whom we want to live for the rest of eternity. Jesus was able to become the Savior with the deepest and unchanging heart and standard of heart, based upon which he could wash away the heartaches of God and erase God’s historical anguishes from human history.

Let us consider this issue once more. The Last Days are near. The Last Days will certainly come, and in those Last Days, how will Heaven conduct the judgment? You have to understand this clearly. It will surely come true. You who are devout, you who want to believe, should understand this clearly. In the last days, God will not appear smiling and filled with joy. The same will be true with the Lord. When Mary Magdalene tried to cling onto the resurrected Jesus and called out, “My Lord!” Jesus told her not to hold onto him. Why? We have to understand clearly that only after we are connected to the sorrowful heart of Jesus and pass through a course of experiencing the pains and sorrow of Heaven can we hold onto Jesus.

When you call out to the Father after having experienced sorrow and agony yourself, look upon the Father’s appearance. His eyes have never stopped crying for six thousand years. His ears have never ceased hearing the mockery and criticisms of His enemies for six thousand years. His mouth could not speak the words He wanted to share for six thousand years. He was starving together with the people who were starving. The Father’s hands are stained with blood and sweat. His footsteps are the same. They have crossed the steep and rough path of Golgotha many hundreds and thousands of times. The Father’s body is wounded, and on Him are the marks of many beatings unjustly suffered.

Who caused all this suffering to the Father? He suffered because of pitiful humanity. Whenever we think about this, we should feel deeply sorry and repentful. When we call Him, we should have the mind-set, “A sinner like me can never erase the sufferings of the Father, even if I die many thousands of times. A sinner like me can never wipe the tears of the Father, no matter how many thousands of times I were to die.” Have you ever called out to Him with such a heart? If you have not, then you should repent deeply.

The Time of Fantastic and Illusory Notions of Faith Has Passed

Urban Life Training Monthly Newsletter:

In this issue:
Urban Family Life Success Training Report
Update on forced vaccination in Washington DC and West Virginia
President Trump Comments on Big Pharma Price Gouging

Genesis 38

15 When Judah came along, he did not recognize her because of the veil. He thought she was a prostitute 16 and asked her to sleep with him. She asked, “What will you give me if I do?”

17 “One of my young goats,” he answered.

“What will you give me to keep until you send the goat?” she asked.

18 “What do you want?” he asked in return.

“The ring on that cord around your neck,” was her reply. “I also want the special walking stick[c] you have with you.” He gave them to her, they slept together, and she became pregnant.

19 After returning home, Tamar took off the veil and dressed in her widow’s clothes again.

20 Judah had his friend Hirah take a goat to the woman, so he could get back the ring and walking stick, but she wasn’t there. 21 Hirah asked the people of Enaim, “Where is the prostitute who sat along the road outside your town?”

“There’s never been one here,” they answered.

22 Hirah went back and told Judah, “I couldn’t find the woman, and the people of Enaim said no prostitute had ever been there.”

23 “If you couldn’t find her, we’ll just let her keep the things I gave her,” Judah answered. “And we’d better forget about the goat, or else we’ll look like fools.”

24 About three months later someone told Judah, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has behaved like a prostitute, and now she’s pregnant!”

“Drag her out of town and burn her to death!” Judah shouted.

25 As Tamar was being dragged off, she sent someone to tell her father-in-law, “The man who gave me this ring, this cord, and this walking stick is the one who got me pregnant.”

26 “Those are mine!” Judah admitted. “She’s a better person than I am, because I broke my promise to let her marry my son Shelah.” After this, Judah never slept with her again.

Richard: Tamar risked her life to fulfill God’s will. As Jesus said (Mt. 10:39) ”
39 If you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you give it up for me, you will surely find it. “

Matthew 10

16 I am sending you like lambs into a pack of wolves. So be as wise as snakes and as innocent as doves. 17 Watch out for people who will take you to court and have you beaten in their meeting places. 18 Because of me, you will be dragged before rulers and kings to tell them and the Gentiles about your faith. 19 But when someone arrests you, don’t worry about what you will say or how you will say it. At that time you will be given the words to say. 20 But you will not really be the one speaking. The Spirit from your Father will tell you what to say.

The True Sons and Daughters of Heavenly Father Who Will Remain in the Last Days

Rev Sun Myung Moon
July 26, 1959

Romans 8: 12-27

What do we mean when we say that we have not understood Jesus accurately nor served him properly? Ever since Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden and could not grow up inside God’s bosom, Jesus was able to appear before Israel only after four thousand years of fierce battle with Satan. Yet the Jews did not understand this. If the Jews of that time had submitted themselves to Jesus, the failures of Moses during the Exodus, the failures of Noah’s family, the failures of Abraham’s family, and the murder of Abel could have been all corrected as victories. Jesus embodies such tremendous value. He was the living incarnation of history. He was the living incarnation whom God had been seeking throughout the four thousand years of His providence. Although Adam died, since the heart of the Father who had been raising him up did not die, that was the living incarnation.

In the last days, many people will come forward with the teaching that they are the center of the universe. However, what is the purpose of the providence of God who has been working through the six thousand years? It is recovering what was lost. What kind of man is Jesus, who was sent due to Adam’s mistake? He is the second Adam. Christians claim that Jesus is God Himself, but they are mistaken. It is written in the Bible that Jesus is the last Adam.

The true son whom God is seeking now is the third Adam. Before the third Adam can stand in the position of the true son, it does no good to claim to be a bride or an adopted son. Although Jesus came with the glory of a son, he could not play the role of a son. In order to act as one, all the necessary preparations must be completed in Heaven. Then it is not enough to have just a son. The preparations can be complete only when there is a bride.

What was lost in the Garden of Eden? Adam and Eve were lost. Adam and Eve were to become the true ancestors of humanity. However, because the true ancestors of humanity were lost, the true ancestors must be restored.

Jesus is in the position of a father. He is like the father of humanity. The Holy Spirit is a mother spirit, the mother of humanity. The purpose of the Second Advent is to manifest substantially on the earth the true mother and true father.

The Last Days are when true sons and daughters appear before humanity. What kind of time is that? Since we have become the descendants of the Fall and have lost the lineal relationship with true parents when we lost the true ancestors, the Last Days are the time when the reverse path is taken and the sons and daughters lost in the Garden of Eden are to be recovered. God’s work is to forge relationships with a reversal process, the work of restoration, to elevate people to the position of adopted children. If you think that what I am saying is wrong, then go to the spirit world and protest. If you were to ask, “So and so said this, but is this true?” then they would reassure you that it is true.

The time of fantastic and illusory notions of faith has passed. The time of believing in a conceptual God and living under such concepts is also behind us. You should attain a certain standard where your flesh, bones and heart come together in oneness so that you can call God your father and be able to boast of the father-son relationship after connecting your heart to the heart of the Father, who has been exerting Himself for six thousand years.

Humanity, which is seeking Heaven and the world of purpose, should walk this path. For this reason in the East they have advocated Confucian ethics: give all of your heart and soul for Heaven, exert yourself for the sake of your parents, become a patriot, and uphold chastity in order to build heavenly relationships in your immediate environment. In the East, people upheld internal trends of thought, while the West is more external. It will come around to the external sphere. You wait and see.

The time of the success of the adopted children is the twentieth century up till now. The ideal world which will come is the time that the true sons and daughters will become successful. Wouldn’t that be natural if God existed? The past was a time when the children of others prospered; now is the time when adopted children based in the democratic sphere centering on Christianity prosper. The time after this period is when true sons and daughters live in prosperity. That is the time of the Second Coming and the time of the ideal that Christians are waiting for.

What should we do to become true sons and daughters who can rise to such positions, whom God will seek? You should not boast about how you have been a devout believer for so many years. All those who seek happiness based on the name of Jesus, saying, “I am a minister of this church; I am a leader of that church; through my efforts so many people have come to know Jesus and follow him,” are not worthy. Why? It is because during the six thousand years of the providence, God has never had one day or one moment when He was truly happy. How can a father who is so desperately seeking for true sons and daughters be happy when He has not yet found them?

In the course of history there have been a lot of people who enjoyed themselves. There have been people with power and authority who have received glory in place of God. Yet God, who has been struggling for four thousand and six thousand years, searching for His sons and daughters, never had such moments of happiness. God, who should enjoy glory and happiness, has never had such a time.