Category: Old Testament

Shift Away From Self-Centered Thinking

Acts 17

5 The Jewish leaders were jealous and got some worthless bums who hung around the marketplace to start a riot in the city. They wanted to drag Paul and Silas out to the mob, and so they went straight to Jason’s home. 6 But when they did not find them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the Lord’s followers. They took them to the city authorities and shouted, “Paul and Silas have been upsetting things everywhere. Now they have come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his home. All of them break the laws of the Roman Emperor by claiming that someone named Jesus is king.”

8 The officials and the people were upset when they heard this. 9 So they made Jason and the other followers pay bail before letting them go.

Richard:  This sounds like the radical left’s game plan:  send Antifa out to intimidate Trump supporters and decent God loving people.

Songs 6

My dearest, the cities of Tirzah
and Jerusalem
    are not as lovely as you.
Your charms are more powerful
than all of the stars
    in the heavens.[a]
5 Turn away your eyes—
    they make me melt.
Your hair tosses about
as gracefully as goats
    coming down from Gilead.
6 Your teeth are whiter
    than sheep freshly washed;
they match perfectly,
    not one is missing.
7 Behind your veil are hidden
    beautiful rosy cheeks.[b]

Let Us Love Heaven and Become Patriots

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
March 1, 1959

Matthew 5: 33-48

If we are to be part of the people who sincerely love Heaven, as descendants of fallen people who must follow this destiny, our minds that seek goodness must explode within us so that we can feel the sorrow of Heaven which lies deep inside everything. We must become people who complete the responsibility to alleviate this sorrow. Unless such a group of people emerges, there is no way that the great will of the providence can be accomplished.

Yet human beings have been battling until now, based only upon themselves. They have been fighting, centering on their families, nations, lands and peoples. Yet this is not Heaven. God has been toiling to become our God, for the sake of our world and humanity. On the contrary, humanity on the earth has been searching for their own self-centered families, their own self-centered nations, and land they can rule based upon themselves. This has been the course of history until now.

Due to the fall, human beings have lost the heavenly heart, conscience, body and all things. Still, they are not aware of this incredible truth. Instead, they have been pursuing material things, their bodies, their minds, and their love, all centered on themselves. If there had been no work done by God to grab these people and drag them through the way in which they can transcend themselves, humanity surely would have perished. They would have been destroyed. Continue reading “Shift Away From Self-Centered Thinking”

Establish the Standard of Goodness and Seek Your World

Obadiah

8 Edom, when this happens,
I, the Lord,
will destroy
    all your marvelous wisdom.
9 Warriors from the city of Teman[c]
    will be terrified,
and you descendants of Esau[d]
    will be wiped out.

Lamentations

Get up and pray for help
    all through the night.
Pour out your feelings
    to the Lord,
as you would pour water
    out of a jug.
Beg him to save your people,
who are starving to death
    at every street crossing.

Richard:  Do we have the heart to save people?

Let Us Love Heaven and Become Patriots

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
March 1, 1959

Matthew 5: 33-48

How low did people fall? They fell to the position completely opposite to God’s ideal of creation. Originally, human beings should have been able to consider this world their own. All of humanity should have lived as one tribe. They should have attended the Creator God as their God.

Have the people who live on earth today formed their own world? They have not. Is there someone or some nation who considers all humanity their clan? There is not. Moreover, is there a group of people who attend God as their God? There is not.

Therefore, we must first establish the standard of goodness and make our best efforts to seek our world, our clan and our God. We have to understand that this is the historical mission that fallen people must accomplish. Continue reading “Establish the Standard of Goodness and Seek Your World”

Heaven is Pursuing Goodness

Ezekiel 3

0 Listen carefully to everything I say and then think about it. 11 Then go to the people who were brought here to Babylonia with you and tell them you have a message from me, the Lord God. Do this, whether they listen to you or not.

Richard:  We cannot control what people will do when they hear the truth of God’s Word.  Our responsibility is to give the Word with a loving heart.

Isaiah 31

The Egyptians are mere humans.
    They aren’t God.
Their horses are made of flesh;
    they can’t live forever.
When the Lord shows his power,
he will destroy the Egyptians
    and all who depend on them.
Together they will fall.

Let Us Love Heaven and Become Patriots

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
March 1, 1959

Matthew 5: 33-48

The topic of the sermon I want to speak upon is “Let Us Love Heaven and Become Patriots.” Let us become those who love Heaven and the nation.

Originally, human beings were to love Heaven, love their brothers and sisters, and love this land. They should have loved Heaven, people and the earth.

When God created humans, His goal was for them to love in such a way. Yet all who are living on the earth today have lost the ability to love Heaven, their brothers and sisters, and the earth, because they are fallen descendants. This is the grief caused by the fall. Continue reading “Heaven is Pursuing Goodness”

We need God’s Forgiveness

Leviticus 23

6 The Lord God said to Moses:

27 The tenth day of the seventh month[k] is the Great Day of Forgiveness.[l] It is a solemn day of worship; everyone must go without eating to show sorrow for their sins, and sacrifices must be burned. 28 No one is to work on that day—it is the Great Day of Forgiveness, when sacrifices will be offered to me, so that I will forgive your sins. 29 I will destroy anyone who refuses to go without eating. 30-31 None of my people are ever to do any work on that day—not now or in the future. And I will wipe out those who do! 32 This is a time of complete rest just like the Sabbath, and everyone must go without eating from the evening of the ninth to the evening of the tenth.

Richard:  We all have sin and need to be forgiven.  Also, if we are going through hardships, it’s best to keep a positive attitude of gratitude.  We may be paying indemnity (restoring) ours and our ancestors past sins.

Lamentations 2

Zion, deep in your heart
    you cried out to the Lord.
Now let your tears overflow
    your walls day and night.
Don’t ever lose hope
    or let your tears stop.
19 Get up and pray for help
    all through the night.
Pour out your feelings
    to the Lord,
as you would pour water
    out of a jug.
Beg him to save your people,
who are starving to death
    at every street crossing.

Richard:  We (ourselves and our nation) are in dire straits.  Let us cry out to God for His guidance, mercy and forgiveness.

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

Prayer

When we experience Your heart, urging us on today, we cannot help realizing how weak are our bodies. When we realize, too, that the Shim Jung of Heaven is connected and flowing through us today, we feel deeply grateful. Father, please hold onto us. We want to go the way of the cross, with our minds and bodies becoming the offering, following Your request that we liberate Your hope, Your Shim Jung, and Your situation. Therefore, let us not weaken until the end. Make us go over the hill of death with a Shim Jung filled with a heavenly shock that penetrates the mind. Reinforce our exhaustion by allowing our connection with Heaven to be firm.

Allow us to come to the ideal garden for which we have longed. To do that, we have responsibility. Therefore, let us become countenances of joy offered to You as a gift, by fulfilling all the conditions for being a surviving fruit. Make us into Your original sons and daughters whom You want to love and who can receive Your love. Let us dwell in relationships of eternal love, the life of love, and the glory of love. Let us become people whom You cannot help loving and who cannot help receiving love from You. Please lead us this way. Continue reading “We need God’s Forgiveness”

We have a heavenly mission to restore the authority of goodness

Revelation 5

“You are worthy
    to receive the scroll
and open its seals,
    because you were killed.
And with your own blood
    you bought for God
people from every tribe,
    language, nation, and race.
10 You let them become kings
    and serve God as priests,
and they will rule on earth.”

2nd Chronicles 18

7 “We could ask Micaiah son of Imlah,” Ahab said. “But I hate Micaiah. He always has bad news for me.”

“Don’t say that!” Jehoshaphat replied. 8 Then Ahab sent someone to bring Micaiah as soon as possible.

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

As we break apart the road of resentment that remains on earth, we must have a sincere desire to see the ideal world for which Jesus yearns in his heart. Only then can we meet the substance of that ideology.

After the first Israel perished, the second Israel, the Christians of the world, have worked hard to create that nation, race, land and authority, and are waiting for their leader to appear. Reality does not coincide with that ideal. There is no greater sadness than this.

What is a patriot? A patriot feels miserable when he sees the citizens of his nation in pitiful situations. He feels more pain than if his body was being dismembered when he sees his land trampled upon by other nations. He feels it more keenly than the leader of his nation when he sees the leader being treated unfairly and put in a miserable position.

What words are these about being brides who must meet the Prince of Heaven? We have the appearance of disloyalty, ugliness and sin and cannot even face the words. Therefore, we should have humble hearts. When we see the rights of the citizens of Heaven being infringed and Satan trampling this land, we must fight to recover them even if we die. We have a heavenly mission to restore the authority of goodness. Continue reading “We have a heavenly mission to restore the authority of goodness”