Category: Old Testament

You Must Meet Jesus Again at the Second Advent

Ephesians 6

5 Slaves, you must obey your earthly masters. Show them great respect and be as loyal to them as you are to Christ. 6 Try to please them at all times, and not just when you think they are watching. You are slaves of Christ, so with your whole heart you must do what God wants you to do. 7 Gladly serve your masters, as though they were the Lord himself, and not simply people. 8 You know that you will be rewarded for any good things you do, whether you are slaves or free.

Richard:  I think that this speaks to our attitude as we do the duties that God gives us in life (through our conscience, mainly, but also to others such as our parents, or Christ).  We should give obeisance to Christ and be glad to go the way of sacrifice, knowing that we will reach the goal of happiness after the course of hardship.  The problem is, as Rev. Moon stated yesterday “We the followers of Jesus must go the way he went, whether we live or die. The problem is whether you really want to go this way.”

Isaiah 30

29 The Lord’s people will sing as they do when they celebrate a religious festival[e] at night. The Lord is Israel’s mighty rock,[f] and his people will be as happy as they are when they follow the sound of flutes to the mountain where he is worshiped.

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

We must go. We must go over the idea of faith that religious people hold. Furthermore, we must go over the cross of Jesus. Beyond the cross, we must go over Jesus’ heart of resurrection. We must even go over God’s heart and comfort Him. We must advance toward that kind of position.

How can we stop our footsteps from heading toward that longed-for place, the place where God resides, the place where Jesus dwells, the place of the true brotherhood of humankind? Before you lies the road of ideology that we must go, no matter what on earth holds us, stepping over every obstacle. We must even lead the people who have been those obstacles into following that road.

Have you ever thought about God’s hard work in finding us? From the day of the fall, God always sought Adam. God never failed to follow Adam’s descendants. He has been seeking you when you did not know He was doing so. Have you ever sought God? You must know that 6,000 years of sadness and millions of people’s deaths obstructed His path. When we know the hard work of God in seeking us, we should have the same kind of heart as we in turn seek God. Continue reading “You Must Meet Jesus Again at the Second Advent”

Jesus Endured Hardships for Us

Leviticus 1

14 If you offer a bird for this kind of sacrifice, it must be a dove or a pigeon. 15 A priest will take the bird to the bronze altar, where he will wring its neck and put its head on the fire. Then he will drain out its blood on one side of the altar, 16 remove the bird’s craw with what is in it,[e] and throw them on the ash heap at the east side of the altar.[f]17 Finally, he will take the bird by its wings, tear it partially open,[g] and send it up in smoke with a smell that pleases me.

Richard:  We should not be afraid to sacrifice ourselves and do unpleasant tasks to help others.

I live among lions,
    who gobble down people!
They have spears and arrows
    instead of teeth,
    and they have sharp swords
    instead of tongues.

5 May you, my God, be honored
    above the heavens;
    may your glory be seen
    everywhere on earth.

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

Jesus was supposed to walk the road of the providence in front. Yet, he could not go in front. Instead, he stood behind everyone and said to each, “You go the easy way. I will walk the most difficult path.” He shouldered the difficulties of the nation and the world alone. He carried the cross of hardship, which humankind repels, by himself and lived for the sake of humankind. Jesus had to walk the road, even though it was one of historical sadness, entangled with evil conditions. Thus, with a thirty-year period of preparation and a three-year period of public life, he walked that road with intense, internal determination. The more intense that conviction became, the more he became a friend to sorrowful humankind. Moreover, he was mortified over the fact that human beings were suffering a life of fear and that Satan ruled humankind. In the humblest place in history, in the humblest place of the age, he fought with Satan.

He walked the road with a mind to say, “If humankind is in sorrow, I will take responsibility for its sadness. If humankind is in difficulty, I will take responsibility for that difficulty. If humankind lives in death, I will take responsibility for death.” His footsteps were those of an individual, but his mission was a historical mission, a mission of the age, a mission for the future. Continue reading “Jesus Endured Hardships for Us”

We Need a New Ideology

Deuteronomy 13

The gods worshiped by other nations have never done anything for you or your ancestors. People who ask you to worship other gods are trying to get you to stop worshiping the Lord, who rescued you from slavery in Egypt. So put to death anyone who asks you to worship another god. 11 And when the rest of Israel hears about it, they will be afraid, and no one else will ever do such an evil thing again.

Richard:  God is very clear that you must worship Him only, not money, power or other idols.

Jeremiah 32

6 Later, when I was in prison, the Lord said:

7 Jeremiah, your cousin Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, will visit you. He must sell his field near the town of Anathoth, and because you are his nearest relative, you have the right and the responsibility to buy it and keep it in the family.[c]

8 Hanamel came, just as the Lord had promised. And he said, “Please buy my field near Anathoth in the territory of the Benjamin tribe. You have the right to buy it, and if you do, it will stay in our family.”

Richard:  Building generational wealth is a wonderful thing that families can do when they work together.  See the Cheon Seong Gyeong 1077 reading here:

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

Jesus Christ, who came as the culmination of 4,000 years of Heaven’s hope, came to introduce to humankind the ideology of the ideal Kingdom of Heaven and to fulfill that ideology. He was not caught up with words that indulged the customs of the age. He was not satisfied with the lifestyles of that society. He was not captivated by the customs of the ritualistic Jewish religion, entrenched in formality and rules.

Jesus appeared with the internal standard of new loyalty, denying every aspect of history. He had new words centering on that standard. When he appeared, taking novel action together with those new words, the chosen historical individuals, the chosen historical group and nation, raised a banner of revolt against him. We must realize that this was what obstructed the course of Christ’s establishing his ideology.

We can know through history that God, the Creator, exists and wants to raise human beings to a standard of the greatest ideology by connecting them to a better ideology, tomorrow more than today, next year more than tomorrow, this century more than next year, and in the next century more than now. Continue reading “We Need a New Ideology”

We Should Possess a New Ideology and Hope

John 5

39 You search the Scriptures, because you think you will find eternal life in them. The Scriptures tell about me, 40 but you refuse to come to me for eternal life.

Jeremiah 25

17 I took the cup from the Lord’s hand, and I went to the kings of the nations and made each of them drink some. 18 I started with Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and the king and his officials were removed from power in disgrace. Everyone still makes insulting jokes about them and uses their names as curse words. 19 The second place I went was Egypt, where everyone had to drink from the cup, including the king and his officials, the other government workers, the rest of the Egyptians, 20 and all the foreigners who lived in the country.

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

We know that from the day of the fall, people have fought, longing for the lost ideal nation, holding onto hope, and experiencing endless hardships. The environment in which we live is supposed to be a joyful one; yet, we suffer unhappiness, not connecting to all the conditions of happiness for which we have longed in our minds. We must remember again that human beings stand in this situation because we lost the Kingdom of Heaven that God established as the ideal of creation.

God created all things in six days. God created Adam and Eve as the masters of all things. Adam and Eve were to have dominion over all things in God’s ideal garden of creation in His place. At the same time, they could enjoy God’s glory. They were the center of glory, the center of victory and the focus of happiness, able to be in harmony before heaven and earth. Adam and Eve appeared in this manner in the presence of heaven and earth, but they lost their position and failed their responsibility. From that day forth, this earth was transformed into a place of sadness, hardship and death.

If there is someone who claims this is not true, that person is denying his own mind, historical fact and the reality of our lives. People on earth today must realize that they are living in an uncertain and precarious land. They must realize that they are living in a harsh environment of fear and death. Continue reading “We Should Possess a New Ideology and Hope”

Allow us to bring the numerous people of this earth to awareness

Exodus 29

People of Israel, I will meet and speak with you there, and my shining glory will make the place holy. 44 Because of who I am, the tent will become sacred, and Aaron and his sons will become worthy to serve as my priests. 45 I will live among you as your God, 46 and you will know that I am the Lord your God, the one who rescued you from Egypt, so that I could live among you.

Job 16

God set me up as the target
13     for his arrows,
and without showing mercy,
he slashed my stomach open,
    spilling out my insides.
14 God never stops attacking,
15     and so, in my sorrow
I dress in sackcloth[a]
    and sit in the dust.
16 My face is red with tears,
and dark shadows
    circle my eyes,
17 though I am not violent,
    and my prayers are sincere.

The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959

Matthew 3: 1-17

Prayer

Father, You have gathered us here. Therefore, do not let us be the only ones who survive in this hour. We thank You for protecting us from many difficulties that we may come to this place. We know that You have led us this way for our sake. We also know that the sorrow of Heaven and the sorrow of earth must be reversed, depending on us as the condition. We know we have this historic responsibility.

We are deeply grateful that You gave us the glorious grace of calling You “Father” when we face You. This came to us through the privilege of Your words, Your grace, and Your life.

We know today how precious is our responsibility. Loving Father, do not abandon us in this hour. Hold us to Your heart that You may transmit Your Shim Jung to our Shim Jung. Impart to us Your whole will, and mold us into people You can trust. Continue reading “Allow us to bring the numerous people of this earth to awareness”