Category: Old Testament

We Are to Center on God’s Heart

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

Deuteronomy 6

4 Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only true God![b]5 So love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. 6 Memorize his laws 7 and tell them to your children over and over again. Talk about them all the time, whether you’re at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning. 8 Write down copies and tie them to your wrists and foreheads to help you obey them. 9 Write these laws on the door frames of your homes and on your town gates.

Amos 6

Do you rulers in Jerusalem
and in the city of Samaria
    feel safe and at ease?
Everyone bows down to you,
and you think you are better
    than any other nation.
But you are in for trouble!
2 Look what happened
    to the cities of Calneh,
    powerful Hamath,
    and Gath[a] in Philistia.
Are you greater than any
    of those kingdoms?
3 You are cruel, and you forget
    the coming day of judgment.

4 You rich people lounge around
    on beds with ivory posts,
while dining on the meat
    of your lambs and calves.
5 You sing foolish songs
    to the music of harps,
and you make up new tunes,
    just as David used to do.
6 You drink all the wine you want
    and wear expensive perfume,
but you don’t care about
    the ruin of your nation.[b]
7 So you will be the first
to be dragged off as captives;
    your good times will end.

Rev Sun Myung Moon
July 26, 1959

Romans 8: 12-27

What should we do in this time which everyone says is the Last Days? This is the crucial question. Ladies and gentlemen. Please examine yourselves. What position do you stand in? Do you truly have a relationship of heart with Heaven, such that when the Father acts, you act together with Him? When the Father stops, do you stop? When the Father mourns, do you mourn with Him? When the Father rejoices, do you rejoice together? Even if you do not share the same body, do you have the inner content through which you can connect with the world of the heart? Do you have such a relationship?

No matter how grandiose your external environment may be, if you do not have the right heart, they are all ephemeral things which will one day disappear. This is true in this world. No matter how priceless the possessions of your beloved sons and daughters may be, if they die, their belongings have no value.

We have learned that becoming true sons and daughters through the relationship of the heart is the highest purpose that Heaven and humanity can pursue. Given this, please examine yourselves critically as to which stage you have progressed to. Our lives revolve around the work of liberation, through which we must become true sons and daughters. It is undeniable that our heavenly fate compels us to walk this path.

How can we explain our course on this path? There is only one way to go around it. We are to center on God’s heart. For this reason, you should objectively criticize the state of your heart. This is a time when you should do this.

Given that this is the direction Heaven is heading in and that such is the day the Father desires, what state have you reached? If you have reached the state of true sons and daughters where your hearts are connected, you have no need for prayers. You just have to call out “Father,” and you will be overwhelmed with such a shock that will shake your flesh and blood. The heart of the Father will pierce through your heart. Had we attained this state, we would have been able to resolve all grief stemming from the Fall, and we would not be able to commit any of the wrong doings of the sinful world.

When I think about how, after understanding history and the sorrowful heart of God, I have struggled so hard to sever all ties of sin which have brought God so much pain, I feel dreadful. What kind of feeling have you felt? Please criticize yourselves. How close have you come to qualifying as the ideal son before God, who has been searching for children with this relationship of heart? If you do not know whether or not you have a relationship of heart, you certainly are not worthy of being a son. Someone who is qualified to be an adopted son should at least understand the suffering of his father superficially, even if he does not understand the whole story. Even if he cannot feel it as his own experience, even if he cannot assert it in his heart, he should at least be able to empathize. Have you reached that state at least?

Jesus came as the true father of humanity and the true son of God, yet he died on the cross. He probably came with the one determination which God had toward human beings for four thousand years. Every limb and organ of Jesus’ body represented the ideal which Heaven had tried to realize through human beings for four thousand years. He was the true son God searched for with yearning. Therefore, Jesus’ eyes represented the eyes of God for four thousand years. His ears represented the ears of God for four thousand years. His mouth represented the mouth of God for four thousand years. The same must have been true of Jesus’ feelings and body. He was the culmination of history and an historical incarnation. Hence, Jesus said, “I came to complete the law.” The law’s purpose was the same as his.

We Hope to Become the True Children of His Direct Lineage

Today, August 20, 1985, Rev. Sun Myung Moon was released from unjust imprisonment for trumped up charges of tax evasion and was welcomed by 1700 religious leaders and prominent laypeople at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. I was also present at the celebration: Read a report here.

2 Samuel 21

5 They replied, “Saul tried to kill all our people so that none of us would be left in the land of Israel. 6 Give us seven of his descendants. We will hang[d] these men near the place where the Lord is worshiped in Gibeah, the hometown of Saul, the Lord’s chosen king.”

“I’ll give them to you,” David said.

7 David had made a promise to Jonathan with the Lord as his witness, so he spared Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth, the grandson of Saul. 8 But Saul and Rizpah the daughter of Aiah had two sons named Armoni and Mephibosheth. Saul’s daughter Merab[e] had five sons whose father was Adriel the son of Barzillai from Meholah.[f] David took Rizpah’s two sons and Merab’s five sons and 9 turned them over to the Gibeonites, who hanged[g] all seven of them on the mountain near the place where the Lord was worshiped. This happened right at the beginning of the barley harvest.[h]

Richard: Here the Israelites were punished for the crime of murder committed by Saul. We may have murder in our own ancestry, and could be liable for those sins. For instance, the crime of abortion is murder. The real solution to the problem of abortion is the teaching of abstinence before marriage and faithfulness within marriage promoted by Urban Life Training, and explained in the teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and specifically, Peace Message 10.

Isaiah 64

Rip the heavens apart!
Come down, Lord;
    make the mountains tremble.
2 Be a spark that starts a fire
    causing water to boil.[a]
Then your enemies will know
    who you are;
all nations will tremble
    because you are nearby.

3 Your fearsome deeds
    have completely amazed us;
even the mountains shake
    when you come down.
4 You are the only God
    ever seen or heard of
who works miracles
    for his followers.

5 You help all who gladly obey
and do what you want,
    but sin makes you angry.

Rev Sun Myung Moon
July 26, 1959

Romans 8: 12-27

What does humanity hope for? It is to do away with this notion of being an adopted son before God and become the true children of His direct lineage. This is the ultimate purpose which humanity wants and history pursues; this is the central purpose of God, who has been fulfilling the providential will. Only then can we say that the purpose of salvation has been achieved and the providence of salvation brought to a conclusion.

If the almighty God, the origin and center of love, loves us as adopted sons, we do not want that kind of love. We seek to become sons and daughters who can penetrate deep into the core of His heart.

No matter how religious one’s life may be, and even if one calls God his father, there are many different kinds of fathers. Some will call Him “Father” from a position of not being His son. Some may call Him “Father” from the position of an adopted son. However, what is the ultimate purpose which Heaven demands, which will not disappear until the end? It is not to have an adopted son but to have true sons and daughters of the direct lineage. This stands above and beyond the position of an adopted son.

In the Bible, it is written that Jesus restores the relationship of an adopted son. Even if the world is satisfied with achieving only that, this salvation cannot be complete. Many Christians have passed away to the next world, but the Paradise they went to is only a waiting room before entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, the reason Jesus said that he would return was not to make us adopted sons but to forge direct relationships.

God longs for sons and daughters who are one with Him in heart, who do not act based on lessons or commands but who act and build relationships based on the manifestation.

For this reason, even the saints and sages of the past did not attain their ideal if they were not worthy of calling God their father and if God could not call them His own son or daughter. You have to understand this clearly.

This is what is unique about Christianity. Jesus called God his own father and proclaimed himself God’s only son. Jesus was the incarnation. He established the one standard to pierce through the core of Heaven and the foundation of the universe, and to conquer the world of the heart. From this we can understand that Jesus was the Messiah for all people.

What is the Messiah or savior? He is someone who can be the standard to save people who dwell in the realm of death. Therefore, if there is something unique and worthy of pride that Christianity possesses it is this. When the relationship of parent-child is forged with God, no matter how lofty God is, even if He is the absolute subject partner of goodness, He is our Father. Then what belongs to God belongs to us, and we will belong to God. This is the highest hope of humanity. Even if God has been relating to people with the highest standard of love, if He cannot guide humanity to the destination of that love, He must be false. If He cannot do this, then we can only conclude that God has guided the providence only to satisfy His own desires and greed, not for the sake of establishing the ideal of human beings and for everyone’s sake. For this reason, God seeks true sons and daughters.

No One Reflects Upon How One Can Pay Back This Toil of Heaven

1 Samuel 14

46 Then Saul went up from following the Philistines: and the Philistines went to their own place.

Richard: God wants us to primarily have a positive outlook and purpose in life, not to just be against something constantly.

2 Kings 23

31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem only three months. His mother Hamutal was the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. 32 Jehoahaz disobeyed the Lord, just as some of his ancestors had done.

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

We know that we are fallen descendants. No matter how great a person of this world may be, no matter how much one may boast of one’s tradition and one’s contributions to history, these are no more than the pride of fallen descendants. Even if one is full of confidence and commands the power to penetrate the sky from the earth, that is still no more than the power of a fallen descendant. Because people are so bound and dwell within an environment which is unacceptable to God, the human world is a sinful world which stands opposed to Heaven. People are sinful, and this is a sinful world. You all understand this very well.

The true sons and daughters of God are of the highest goodness and loftiness. We who live on the earth are infinitely evil and lowly. How can this gap be bridged? The purpose of God’s work of salvation is to eliminate this gap. In order to bridge this gap and bring these two together, God has been working hard for six thousand years. Even though human beings were unaware of it, God has continued on a bloody struggle on the hidden side of history.

No one reflects upon how one can pay back this toil of Heaven. No one is looking up to Heaven with deep bitterness for Heaven’s struggles.

What is prophesied by those who use the name of religion, or a leader who claims to be religious? They teach us to understand the content of God’s work in history through the course of our lives and to build a relationship with God in heart through our own feelings.

However, religious people have ignored or forgotten the relationships which connect hearts to hearts and are attached to the phenomena which are manifested outwardly. The great task of religion has been to become free from the fallen relationships and get in touch with the world of the heart. This is to possess the heart upon which God has been holding onto humanity and has persevered through all sorrows and pain and has fought against all the suffering in history. However, religions have failed to reach this state and carry on the work to complete human history and connect the hearts of all people.

So sincere is Heaven’s desire to find true sons and daughters, He longs for true sons more and more as He passes through each generation with an aching heart. This is how He has been toiling for the sake of humanity.

In order to fulfill this one purpose, God has raised up an individual, a family, a people, a nation, and a central worldwide teaching. He has carried on His providence centering on them. God has labored so arduously for the sake of accomplishing this one purpose. In spite of this, the Israelites, who should have been responsible to accomplish this purpose, all disappeared. The 600,000 Israelites God led out of the Pharaoh’s palace disappeared into nowhere. This was also the case with Noah’s family, in whom God invested 120 years of sweat and tears. The same was true with the altar of Abel. All disappeared into nowhere.

As we understand history and the providential will of God more deeply, we can fathom how deep God’s sorrow is. God’s ideology should begin with an individual and expand out through a family, a people, a nation, a world, and the universe centered on true sons and daughters. Even though this is the ideal deep inside of God’s heart, no one on earth can say, “I am a true son who can fathom God’s eternal heart.” No one can say, “I am an eternal daughter who can comfort God’s heart and liberate Him from His sorrows.” There is no family, people, nation, or world which can serve God centering on such sons and daughters.

Let us Understand Heaven though the Deepest Part of our Hearts

Mark 16

9 After the Lord Jesus had said these things to the disciples, he was taken back up to heaven where he sat down at the right side[b] of God. 20 Then the disciples left and preached everywhere. The Lord was with them, and the miracles they worked proved that their message was true.

Richard: This Saturday, August 17th, we will celebrate the seventh anniversary of the ascension, or Seongwha, of Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Proverbs 21

The Lord controls rulers,
    just as he determines
    the course of rivers.
2 We may think we are doing
    the right thing,
    but the Lord always knows
    what is in our hearts.
3 Doing what is right and fair
    pleases the Lord
    more than an offering.
4 Evil people are proud
    and arrogant,
    but sin is the only crop
    they produce.[a]
5 If you plan and work hard,
    you will have plenty;
    if you get in a hurry,
    you will end up poor.

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

12 My dear friends, we must not live to satisfy our desires. 13 If you do, you will die. But you will live, if by the help of God’s Spirit you say “No” to your desires. 14 Only those people who are led by God’s Spirit are his children. 15 God’s Spirit doesn’t make us slaves who are afraid of him. Instead, we become his children and call him our Father.[a] 16 God’s Spirit makes us sure that we are his children. 17 His Spirit lets us know that together with Christ we will be given what God has promised. We will also share in the glory of Christ, because we have suffered with him.

18 I am sure that what we are suffering now cannot compare with the glory that will be shown to us. 19 In fact, all creation is eagerly waiting for God to show who his children are. 20 Meanwhile, creation is confused, but not because it wants to be confused. God made it this way in the hope 21 that creation would be set free from decay and would share in the glorious freedom of his children. 22 We know that all creation is still groaning and is in pain, like a woman about to give birth.

23 The Spirit makes us sure about what we will be in the future. But now we groan silently, while we wait for God to show that we are his children.[b] This means that our bodies will also be set free. 24 And this hope is what saves us. But if we already have what we hope for, there is no need to keep on hoping. 25 However, we hope for something we have not yet seen, and we patiently wait for it.

26 In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words. 27 All of our thoughts are known to God. He can understand what is in the mind of the Spirit, as the Spirit prays for God’s people.

Prayer

Father, we know that You need not speak many words to those of us You have gathered here today. All we need is the heartfelt desire to be embraced in the Father’s bosom. We know that when You call us, “My beloved sons and daughters” with a heart of longing which springs forth from the depth of Your being, we can be filled completely. This is the moment when liberation is completed.

Father, when we hear Your heavenly voice, let us be fully intoxicated in Your loving heart. You know that we long for the moment when we can be overwhelmed by a heart of longing and can transcend our conscious thoughts to be embraced in Your bosom. Please grant us such a blessing.

We pray sincerely that You will guide us not to understand Heaven through the words we will receive, but rather to understand Heaven through the deepest part of our hearts. Please lead us not to seek salvation through the words. Rather, guide us to sing songs of life before the Father with our hearts. In this way, please allow us to understand how arduous and painful the Father’s path has been. Let us humbly bow our heads and offer You consolation.

If we possess anything valuable, please lead us not to keep it as our own. If we possess anything worthy of pride, please lead us not to consider that the source of our pride.

If we have a goal in our life, guide us to seek it with our hearts. If there is to be some substance to our life, please let our one heart be that substance.

Many people have come before the Father. Please guide them to find on their own who they live for, what purpose they live for, and in what direction they are heading. These pitiful ones have no master to claim them. We know that if someone can be recognized as one whom others want to share their hearts with eternally, there can be no greater joy.

Father. We have come to realize that the Father who calls us with the heart of eternal life, the eternal ideology, and eternal love dwells within our hearts. What belongs to the Father belongs to us and what belongs to us belongs to the Father. The Father longs for sons and daughters who can sing and rejoice based on one ideology. We yearn for the time when, after serving the Father and offering all glorious elements to the Father, we can rejoice and be proud before all of Heaven and earth.

Father, You understand all this. Please connect our hearts and move everything of the past, both in Heaven and on earth, and bring them into harmony in the world of heart. Please allow this to be a moment when we can make a firm determination in a state of surpassing joy. May that determination bring glory.

I am about to give the words of truth. I do not want to convey just the contents of the words. Please work through me to convey Your words and let us fathom the heart of the Father and discover our true selves.

We know that Satan works to put a gap between the heart of the speaker and the hearts of the listeners. Therefore, please let this be an hour when we can unite in one heart and serve the Father together. I prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.

To Not Know the Difference Between the Father and Ourselves

Deuteronomy 9

22 You also made the Lord angry at Taberah, at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah.

22 You also made the Lord angry at Taberah, at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah.

23 And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, he said, “Go up and take possession of the land I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust him or obey him. 24 You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you.

Richard: Father, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, instructed us many times to do Home Church, to do Tong and Ban (district and neighborhood) work, serving loving and teaching our neighbors. Yet, I did not successfully do that. The time is short. This is still the fundamental work of Tribal Messiahs, those who have been Blessed and commissioned by True Father.

Malachi 3

3 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

Richard: So where is the Lord’s temple? Actually, it is in the pure, absolutely good sexual relationship of Blessed husband and wife. This is the holy of holies. Interestingly, when we do number one above, tong and ban home church work, then we will Bless couples and number two will emerge; Blessed families who can be and enter the holy of holies.

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

Matthew 10:24-39

The God of love works based on love. So what should we do? We have to be able to feel ourselves to be citizens and to learn to love the citizens of Heaven. We should learn to love the people of Heaven. We should learn of our brothers and sisters of Heaven. We should love the family members of Heaven. We should love the children of Heaven as our own selves. Desires and situations may pass away, but love will remain. We have to understand this.

What is God’s desire? Do you think that God’s desire is to send faithful followers of Jesus to Heaven and put crowns on their heads? That is not true. God wants to open their hearts and love them. Heaven and earth will rejoice when God can say, “Although I have suffered much, because of the joy of meeting you, I can forget all the suffering. Since all I desired has been realized, all beings of Heaven and earth should rejoice as I rejoice over my sons and daughters.”

Has God ever seen such a day? If He had, would we be experiencing fear due to Satan? Would we be experiencing the fear of being victims of Satan’s evil tactics? The day should come when the Father can forget everything and welcome His sons and daughters with both arms, shedding tears of joy and sorrow, boasting, “Satan, look at my son. I have taken back the son you did not want to let go. All people, look at My son. He is My son who was opposed and persecuted.” God wants to find this son and boast about him. Satan and all things will also recognize his value.

For this reason we should have a reciprocal relationship with Heaven. The place where we enter into a relationship of love with the Father, where we can disregard our prestige, honor and situation is a place where we can say that Father is in me and I am in the Father and not know the difference between the Father and ourselves. Only when we can eliminate sorrow in such a situation, cultivate a heart of joy, and establish new laws of Heaven can an ideal world come to this earth.

Only when a movement which can represent this task appears on the earth can God establish a victorious foundation in providential history. Otherwise, God will be a failure. Paul once said that faith, hope and love are always present, yet the most important of the three is love.

What is God’s love? It is not something hanging in the air. If you were to go abroad and see your own people being beaten and persecuted, you would be enraged as if you yourself were suffering the blows. Similarly, when we observe the people who are locked inside the prisons of Satan’s world, we should feel, “These people are our own people. Our own people are being trampled upon. Our people are suffering inside the iron bars of Satan.” God is seeking for those who pray to Heaven to break open the iron fences: “Father, please give me strength. Father, please be with us. We are the Father’s people, the Father’s direct descendants, members of the Father’s family, and the Father’s sons and daughters.” Heaven’s desire is to find these sons and daughters.

God’s desire is to meet these sons and daughters. God wants to share His situation with these sons and daughters. God’s deepest desire is to eternally love these sons and daughters without being accused by Satan. This is God’s very desire. God’s heart rests upon human beings. When we realize this, we will finally come to understand that it was for our sake that God called Abraham and Moses. It was for us that the Jews confronted a miserable fate and that Jesus came and will come again.

When we meet as brothers and sisters with the same beliefs and goal, we should be able to shed tears over the difficulties that each of us have gone through. Have you ever had such a profound experience with other members?

After the liberation of Korea on August 15th, when the Korean people did not have enough to eat, material concerns did not matter to us. Even when we were hungry, we shared food and rejoiced in the times we spent together. We must usher in the day when we can honor God in joy and the Christians of the world can embrace one another and sing in celebration of liberation. This is the hope God cherishes.