Category: Old Testament

In That Day You Will Know That I Am in My Father, and You in Me, and I in You.

Matthew 19

23 Jesus said to his disciples, “It’s terribly hard for rich people to get into the kingdom of heaven! 24 In fact, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into God’s kingdom.”

Richard:  It is very important to seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness (Mt. 6:33).

Pslam 150

Shout praises to the Lord!
    Praise God in his temple.
    Praise him in heaven,
    his mighty fortress.
2 Praise our God!
    His deeds are wonderful,
    too marvelous to describe.

Richard:  Aju!

The Grieving Father, Son and Daughter as They Try to Establish the Kingdom of Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
May 17, 1959

John 14:1-24

Jesus foretold, “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (John 14:20) These are not words of denial. This means that even though we conceptually know of God’s existence and understand Him as the reciprocal subject of our faith, we do not directly know that God exists as the subject of our conscience, our bodies, our lives, and the subject whom we should find in our daily lives.

Why did we become like this? It is because we cannot go beyond the limitation of faith, and we are not connected to the heart of love. Therefore, the disciples of the last days who have the responsibility to restore all humankind must understand this. They should become a group of people who will hold up the banner of Heaven and march forward with a heart burning to resolve the sorrow and deep pain of Heaven, in spite of any sort of sacrifice, difficulties and persecution.

If these people emerge from a certain race, the era will surely come in which this race will assume a leadership role. The world today seeks something intellectual and truthful. The cause that inspires the truth has been the body. The motivation directing the body has been the mind. The substance that can move the mind is not clearly understood, but has been something of a spiritual nature. Hence, truth alone cannot settle everything. In the future, there will surely come a world that can guide our minds, hearts, and spiritual feelings in one direction. Continue reading “In That Day You Will Know That I Am in My Father, and You in Me, and I in You.”

A Person of Authority Is to Live for the Sake of the Whole

1 Kings 16

14 Everything else Elah did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Israel.

Richard:  It is advisable to keep a daily diary.  Later, as a saint of God, you can write you autobiography.

Amos 6

But the Lord God All-Powerful
will send a nation
to attack
    you people of Israel.
They will capture Lebo-Hamath
    in the north,
Arabah Creek[g] in the south,
    and everything in between.

The Grieving Father, Son and Daughter as They Try to Establish the Kingdom of Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
May 17, 1959

John 14:1-24

Love is not loving oneself; it is a heart dying to love the world and Heavenly Father, transcending race. It is a heart that wants to sacrifice and shout. It is a desire to transcend the world and connect with Heaven, and to do so as long as one has energy, strength and life.

Jesus led thirty years of his life in constant giving and attending to practice such love, in spite of hardships every day. Jesus sometimes chastised and condemned the Pharisees as “grave-like” people. That was because they did not understand the heart of wanting to give and serve endlessly.

We cannot find someone today who can truly live for others. The people of Korea have not become a race that can live for others. They do not have an ideology to exist for others. We have to realize that this race is in conflict with the will of the heavenly providence that exists for others, for the past race, for the present race, and for the future race.

You are the same. Your heart should automatically live for the sake of the past, the present, and the future. It is the path of the fall when one lives selfishly or tries to be successful for one’s own sake. That is the road of the fall. When an individual is placed in a position of authority, one is not to be elevated but to live for the sake of the whole. Continue reading “A Person of Authority Is to Live for the Sake of the Whole”

Have the Heart of Wanting to Hold on to and Save those in Need

Esther 1

1 1-2 King Xerxes[a] of Persia lived in his capital city of Susa[b] and ruled one hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia.[c] 3 During the third year of his rule, Xerxes gave a big dinner for all his officials and officers. The governors and leaders of the provinces were also invited, and even the commanders of the Persian and Median armies came. 4 For one hundred eighty days he showed off his wealth and spent a lot of money to impress his guests with the greatness of his kingdom.

Richard:  We should let everyone know about the Kingdom that has already arrived.  (Need more education on this topic?  Try subscribing to the Urban Family Life Training Web Portal:  https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/online-teaching-portal.

1 Kings 19

18 But seven thousand Israelites have refused to worship Baal, and they will live.

19 Elijah left and found Elisha plowing a field with a pair of oxen. There were eleven other men in front of him, and each one was also plowing with a pair of oxen. Elijah went over and put his own coat on Elisha.[f]

20 Elisha stopped plowing and ran after him. “Let me kiss my parents good-by, then I’ll go with you,” he said.

“You can go,” Elijah said. “But remember what I’ve done for you.”

21 Elisha left and took his oxen with him. He killed them and boiled them over a fire he had made with the wood from his plow. He gave the meat to the people who were with him, and they ate it. Then he left with Elijah and became his assistant.

Richard:  Always follow your conscience, centered on God’s Word: http://visionroot.org/resources/the-eight-books-of-holy-scripture/.

 

The Grieving Father, Son and Daughter as They Try to Establish the Kingdom of Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
May 17, 1959

John 14:1-24

What is the meaning of the saying, “Love me more than anything else”? It means “I will have faith in you and love you.” God is treating us just that way. Because God has loved us so, He was unsparing of His time.

When the leaders of the churches today cannot cry tears and hold onto the lives of their distressed sheep with genuine hearts, they are violating heavenly law. If they cannot become such shepherds, they are as if they were dead.

The acts of God are unique in that His heart precedes His words. Satan is defeated by the words unconsciously uttered as His heart overwhelms him. Evil succumbs in such a way. No matter how good the spoken words are, evil does not surrender if they are not founded on heart. Restoration starts when a person becomes indignant over having his life stand at the crossroads of life and death and is overcome by the heart of wanting to hold onto and save those in need, throwing himself in for that cause in spite of all pain, not worrying over his situation. Continue reading “Have the Heart of Wanting to Hold on to and Save those in Need”

Fight and Become Victorious In Place of Jesus

Jeremiah 51

3 I will tell these soldiers,
    “Attack quickly,
before the Babylonians
can string their bows
    or put on their armor.[c]
Kill their best soldiers
    and destroy their army!”
4 Their troops will fall wounded
    in the streets of Babylon.

5 Everyone in Israel and Judah
    is guilty.
But I, the Lord All-Powerful,
their holy God,
    have not abandoned them.

Luke 23

44 Around noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until the middle of the afternoon. 45 The sun stopped shining, and the curtain in the temple[g] split down the middle. 46 Jesus shouted, “Father, I put myself in your hands!” Then he died.

47 When the Roman officer saw what had happened, he praised God and said, “Jesus must really have been a good man!”

48 A crowd had gathered to see the terrible sight. Then after they had seen it, they felt brokenhearted and went home. 49 All of Jesus’ close friends and the women who had come with him from Galilee stood at a distance and watched.

The Grieving Father, Son and Daughter as They Try to Establish the Kingdom of Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
May 17, 1959

John 14:1-24

The Unification Church was not meant to walk a rough path. When I see you coming into the Unification Church, I feel a worrisome heart rather than a welcoming one. I am looking at you like that. I have to look at you with a heart of reservation, rather than with a welcoming heart.

When one realizes the story of Heaven and its desperate nature as God searches to bring humanity back, not only would that person be unable to think about himself; he would have to deny himself. When a person can be led naturally to the degree where he will not criticize selfishly and subjectively, the way for him to walk this course is not only to feel the sorrow of such a deep level, but to subjectively comfort and console Heavenly Father. That is the only way an individual can walk this path.

Do not follow this path if you wish to lead a comfortable life. As I walked this path, I realized it is a lonely path without a friend, without a comrade, without an excuse, and without a place on which to lean. It is a path that cannot be trusted. Having walked such a path, I certainly could understand the heart of Jesus. Continue reading “Fight and Become Victorious In Place of Jesus”

Know Where the Final Line of Faith Is

Ezekiel 16

40 Your lovers and an angry mob will stone you to death; they will cut your dead body into pieces 41 and burn down your houses. Other women will watch these terrible things happen to you. I promise to stop you from being a prostitute and paying your lovers for sex.

42 Only then will I calm down and stop being angry and jealous. 43 You made me furious by doing all these disgusting things and by forgetting how I took care of you when you were young. Then you made things worse by acting like a prostitute. You must be punished! I, the LordGod, have spoken.

John 8

4 Jesus replied:

Even if I do speak for myself, what I say is true! I know where I came from and where I am going. But you don’t know where I am from or where I am going. 15 You judge in the same way that everyone else does, but I don’t judge anyone. 16 If I did judge, I would judge fairly, because I would not be doing it alone. The Father who sent me is here with me. 17 Your Law requires two witnesses to prove that something is true. 18 I am one of my witnesses, and the Father who sent me is the other one.

The Grieving Father, Son and Daughter as They Try to Establish the Kingdom of Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
May 17, 1959

John 14:1-24

Heaven is a place of true faith and true practice. Therefore, when people today cannot analyze and empathize with the suffering and sad heart of God, they should realize that they are not yet in a position to welcome the world of the heavenly ideology with both arms.

That is why the footsteps of Jesus were precious. Jesus knew that when his words were established, heaven would be established. When he carried out his words, the will of Heaven was also carried out. Jesus was living up to this standard. His concern for humankind was great; his concern for Heavenly Father was great; and his capacity to experience the sorrows of Heaven and earth was great.

There is no verse in the Bible portraying Jesus dancing with joy. Why? Because God could not yet speak to His children, humankind, in the garden of happiness, Jesus could not speak freely, with joy, even if he sometimes felt personal happiness. The words of Jesus should have been introduced with a heart of joy. Yet in reality, they were uttered with a heart of sorrow. You should be filled with the same emotion and realize the dignity of Jesus’ words.

Jesus and I should connect with one another, transcending history. When words are not capable of connecting with the ideological realm of life’s reality, those words are not of Heaven. Continue reading “Know Where the Final Line of Faith Is”