Category: Old Testament

Run With Confidence, Comforting God

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Judges 2

20 The Lord was angry with Israel and said:

The Israelites have broken the agreement I made with their ancestors. They won’t obey me, 21 so I’ll stop helping them defeat their enemies. Israel still had a lot of enemies when Joshua died, 22 and I’m going to let those enemies stay. I’ll use them to test Israel, because then I can find out if Israel will worship and obey me as their ancestors did.

23 That’s why the Lord had not let Joshua get rid of all those enemy nations right away.

Richard:  The United States is in such chaos right now due to rejection of God’s Word and God’s messenger, Rev. Sun Myung Moon.  Just as both liberals and conservatives, to a large extent, ignored or persecuted Rev. Moon, now those professing Godly values are also receiving persecution.

Jonah 2

8 All who worship worthless idols
turn from the God
    who offers them mercy.
9 But with shouts of praise,
I will offer a sacrifice
    to you, my Lord.
I will keep my promise,
because you are the one
    with power to save.

10 The Lord commanded the fish to vomit up Jonah on the shore. And it did.

Richard:  But there is hope.  We can study the eight sacred texts and honor and appreciate the messenger who brought these texts, Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

The Path In Search of the Original Homeland Rev. Sun Myung Moon July 5, 1959

Luke 15: 11-32

Are there young men and women today who are trying to embrace this nation? Is there any man who has the mission to lead the nation, opening up a path for it to go forward? Is there one who feels responsible for that mission? If there is such a man, he should look at the real condition of this struggling nation and know that the tears Jesus shed appealing to Heaven are historically linked to it. He should appeal to Heaven for the sake of this nation, as Jesus appealed for his.

This is the historical trend of thought today. This is the future outlook of the nation. Since we cannot deny that humanity is looking forward to the time when we are united to the heavenly ways, we must realize that we are struggling hard on such a course. Therefore, we must be able to have confidence in the course of life we go. We cannot do without it.

If there is a man who goes running with that confidence, having the Shim Jung that yearns for the original hometown of hope deep in his mind, he will say, “Mountains! Obstruct my view. Seas! Cross my path. Enemies! Make your appearance. Who is going to block my passage?” Even if the winds of persecution blow, it will last only for a time. Even if the arrows of trial come flying, it will be momentary. Even if the fear of death sweeps over, it will be transient. If there is one who, knowing this, runs to overcome this passing time, forgetting about his own short life in order to seek the time of greater value, he will be a success in the course of life.

Looking at your journey, the Father should be able to weep. The Father turned away His face when Jesus was being crucified. He didn’t look away because He was joyous. He turned away His face because at that moment, Heaven’s bones were melting. Jesus was thinking of the will of the original hometown even while facing death, and he feared that he might not be able to fulfill his filial duty. He was concerned about the parents of the original hometown. Because Jesus’ heart was of such a standard that he could connect to Heaven and earth, he resurrected, advancing through the line of death. The same condition applies to you, too. Without such a heart stirring within you, you cannot surmount the world of death. You cannot sing in triumph. You cannot become princes of victory.

If we think we should attend such a person today, we must strive to do so. Since we ourselves are not connected to and intoxicated by such a Shim Jung, we must strive to attend one who is. Since numerous ancestors in the course of history struggled hard, and God also has had a tough struggle in directing history, how can we expect to stand still?

To open up such a path Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matt. 7:7) If the providence of Heaven were comfortable and easy, why would we need such words?

People walk the weary path of life, believing that the path they take is the right one to their destination. But later on they realize that they have walked in the opposite direction. This is the sorrow of Heaven. While the direction the parents wish their son to take is something like this, the son, having turned profligate, walks in the opposite direction and then loses his rights. We should understand the hearts of the parents who watch this son’s miserable situation. Parents watching their son in such a situation would weep bitterly.

Jesus Was Intoxicated with God’s Shimjung of Love

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1 Samuel 7

15 Samuel was a leaderd] in Israel all his life. 16 Every year he would go around to the towns of Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah where he served as judge for the people. 17 Then he would go back to his home in Ramah and do the same thing there. He also had an altar built for the Lord at Ramah.

Psalm 119

81 I long for you to rescue me!
    Your word is my only hope.
82 I am worn out from waiting
for you to keep your word.
    When will you have mercy?
83 My life is wasting away
    like a dried-up wineskin,a]
    but I have not forgotten
    your teachings.
84 I am your servant!
    How long must I suffer?
    When will you punish
    those troublemakers?
85 Those proud people reject
    your teachings,
    and they dig pits
    for me to fall in.
86 Your laws can be trusted!
    Protect me from cruel liars.
87 They have almost killed me,
    but I have been faithful
    to your teachings.
88 Show that you love me
    and let me live,
    so that I may obey all
    of your commands.

The Path In Search of the Original Homeland Rev. Sun Myung Moon July 5, 1959

Luke 15: 11-32

Since we call Jesus the Savior, what kind of a central figure was he? He was not intoxicated by human circumstances. He was a man who was intoxicated with God’s Shim Jung of love, with the historical Shim Jung, the Shim Jung of the period and the Shim Jung of the future. He was totally engrossed in it. He was completely taken up with it. Heedless of whether he was chased or cornered or killed, he said, “Father, please do according to Your will.” There should be men like this. Yet looked at in the usual way or from a rational point of view, Jesus was a crazy man, a lunatic.

Whom is man seeking, longing for and wishing to meet? It is a leader who introduces to him the world of the heart, the world of happiness, peace and freedom. Such things are necessary. If there is a leader who can show the direction to those of us who are going the path of life with Shim Jung today, he will be a true leader. The person who goes the path of life with such a Shim Jung should exist on the earth.

Earth and Heaven, our ideology and reality, are in opposition. The mind and body are always fighting, having become each other’s object of struggle. That is because of the Fall. We cannot deny this.

Because of that, if a man has sought the worldwide ideal world, he will not be able to settle down in the world that has been formed on the earth. He cannot experience a comfortable life while coming through the course of history. Look at any of the great names; they all are in the same boat.

Seen in this light, Jesus, who is in spirit world, is also a pitiful man who clings to the earth and prays, “Father, please forgive humankind.” Why is Jesus a supplicating figure, not a figure of sheer glory? Because of his untimely death, he could not complete the path of life he had to go through on the earth. Thus, he is destined to come back again. That is why he is in paradise.

Although Jesus was intoxicated with God’s will, he could not experience that intoxication with humanity. That is his lamentation.

What is different about the day of his return? The difference lies in the fact that humanity, centered on the will, can be intoxicated in their hearts while relating to Heaven. Jesus is seeking this. This is the situation Jesus is in, and you should know that.

Continue reading “Jesus Was Intoxicated with God’s Shimjung of Love”

Have Faith in God’s Vision for Yourself

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Romans 4

11 Abraham let himself be circumcised to show that he had been accepted because of his faith even before he was circumcised. This makes Abraham the father of all who are acceptable to God because of their faith, even though they are not circumcised. 12 This also makes Abraham the father of everyone who is circumcised and has faith in God, as Abraham did before he was circumcised.

Richard: I need a supercharge in my faith. God has called me, and now is the time to believe in God’s calling of me and act accordingly.

Daniel 4:

13 “While I was in bed, having this vision, a holy angel[a] came down from heaven 14 and shouted:

‘Chop down the tree
    and cut off its branches;
strip off its leaves
    and scatter its fruit.
Make the animals leave its shade
and send the birds flying
    from its branches.
15 But leave its stump and roots
    in the ground,
surrounded by grass
and held by chains
    of iron and bronze.

Richard: The tree of the fallen world and fallen lineage will be cut down. Just the stump will be left. The tree of God’s lineage will be grafted on to this stump, giving the tree new life.

The Path In Search of the Original Homeland Rev. Sun Myung Moon July 5, 1959

Luke 15: 11-32

Now we must find someone who can link his own pitiable circumstances with those of the world. My sense of loneliness must become connected with the world. My sense of being stifled and wanting, which for some unknown reason penetrates deeply in my mind, must become connected with the world. The time is coming when this worn Shim Jung will get connected with the world. We must find the one who can elucidate the whole thing, someone who can take charge of my misfortune, my pitifulness, my loneliness and my resentment. Going a little further, we must find the one who can introduce the world of the ideal that I long for, the one who can let me enjoy fully and forever the heart I have wanted to feel in the world of happiness, peace and freedom. We must find the one who can let that heart, which is associated with eternity, bring happiness to everything in the corporeal world. If someone has met such a one, his life would be a successful one.

I know and believe that Jesus and God let us feel so, and that we can experience them in the sorrowful world. You should stop in your tracks if you think you know all there is to know. You should search for the one who teaches the secret method by which you can withstand what you must go through.

In order to do that, one has to overcome the circumstances he is faced with. He must go beyond his own hope, be well aquatinted with the circumstances, and be able to understand the heart. When our problems are resolved by God in reality, then we can believe in Him without anxiety.

Only when you are equipped with the ideology of such a heart can you stave off the emotion felt in such a world. You can do this even when you run up against grief in the weary course of life. If there is something which grows stronger when struck and beaten, which can resist betraying Heaven, something that is felt through the relationship of heart, it will not be taken possession of even if driven into the bottom of hell. Such a position must surely exist.

Continue reading “Have Faith in God’s Vision for Yourself”

The Path in Search of the Original Homeland

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1 Corinthians 16
13 Be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love.

Psalm 55

Cast your burden[f] on the Lord,
    and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
    the righteous to be moved.

23 But thou, O God, wilt cast them down
    into the lowest pit;
men of blood and treachery
    shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in thee.

The Path In Search of the Original Homeland Rev. Sun Myung Moon July 5, 1959

Luke 15: 11-32

The title of the sermon I want to offer is “The Path in Search of the Original Homeland.” I will speak upon this topic.

The people of this world are impatiently waiting for peace. Furthermore, everyone without exception wishes to enjoy freedom. Everyone wishes to live in a free society, a free nation and a free world.

Without peace and freedom of mind, I can never have true happiness. If a man wishes to walk the path of the true life, he will want to enjoy true happiness and will praise the blessings of liberty and true peace.

Assuming you want to walk the path of the true life, what position are you in? The final days are when you have to be clear about whether you are acting in concert with this desire or not. That is my opinion.

Today, everyone without exception, be they great or small, say with one voice that this is not a world of peace. Although they shout for freedom, they admit that the world is not a free environment where they can live with love. For that reason, we cannot deny that we have not the happiness we desire so in our minds.

We know too well what we are like, what society is like, what the world is like, what history has been, and that this is the reality now.

Since we must acknowledge that this is true, no one can dispute that we are not in the original homeland where we can rejoice. We are not able to live in the garden of the original homeland where we can sing the praises of happiness. We are not able to live in the world of the original homeland where we can move and have dominion as we please.

We wait impatiently for happiness, peace and freedom. At the same time, our minds and the environment push us. You may feel this quite acutely in your life.

The world of the original homeland that we wish for has not been attained on the internal or the external level. Humanity is unable to live in that world. For that reason, humanity today is making frantic efforts to search for the original homeland. We must know clearly that this is humanity’s situation. Great men as well as fools must struggle hard to seek the original homeland. You must realize that no human being can escape the historical current of wandering on the path in search of the original homeland. That is why I speak on this topic.



Today’s Struggle Can Become the Foundation for the Future



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Deuteronomy 1

39 Then the Lord spoke to you again:

People of Israel, you said that your innocent young children would be taken prisoner in the battle for the land. But someday I will let them go into the land, and with my help they will conquer it and live there.

Richard: It is very important to work together with your children in building God’s Kingdom

7 The Lord God showed me that he is going to send locusts[a] to attack your crops. It will happen after the king has already been given his share of the grain and before the rest of the grain has been harvested.[b]2 In my vision the locusts ate every crop in the land, and I said to the Lord, “Forgive me for asking, but how can the nation survive? It’s so weak.”

3 Then the Lord felt sorry and answered, “I won’t let it be destroyed.”

Richard: Sometimes we can intercede on behalf of God’s (wayward) children.

Longing for Eden

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
June 28, 1959

Prayer

Father, we know that the course of restoration is almost endless. We human beings run and run in circles without resolving our sorrow and resentment. However, when we become connected to Your world of heart, we can establish a relationship with the history of sorrow. Today’s struggle can become the foundation for the future, and we can ultimately build the garden of unlimited hope, unlimited happiness, and unlimited longing.

Where are the mountains and streams to which You can bring Adam and show them off proudly? Where are the blooming flowers, the growing trees, the green fields, and running streams You wanted to show Adam proudly?

Adam, who could have stood in the position to accompany You in the state of connected heart, fell and left You. We earnestly hope and ask that we can become ones who can attend You and rejoice with all things, all people, and the cosmos.

We realize that the bitterness of the cross cannot be connected to us unless we reach it through our longing. The glorious position which You left cannot be connected to us either, unless we have the mind to admire the ideal garden with piercing longing. Father, please grant that we may become Your sons and daughters who can relate to all things in the original garden as original persons with the heart of longing. Let us be able to victoriously receive Your blessing without any relationship with the fall. Please guide us to be the true ancestors of humanity. We earnestly ask this.

Father, we entrusted everything of this day to You. I ask earnestly that You grant them the heart that experiences a new joy through the offered words. I ask everything in the name of the Lord. Amen.