Category: Old Testament

God is the Lord All Powerful

Genesis 47

13 The famine was bad everywhere in Egypt and Canaan, and the people were suffering terribly. 14 So Joseph sold them the grain that had been stored up, and he put the money[a] in the king’s treasury. 15 But when everyone had run out of money, the Egyptians came to Joseph and demanded, “Give us more grain! If you don’t, we’ll soon be dead, because our money’s all gone.”

Isaiah 44

I am the Lord All-Powerful,
the first and the last,
    the one and only God.
Israel, I have rescued you!
    I am your King.
7 Can anyone compare with me?
If so, let them speak up
    and tell me now.
Let them say what has happened
since I made my nation
    long ago,
and let them tell
    what is going to happen.
8 Don’t tremble with fear!
Didn’t I tell you long ago?
    Didn’t you hear me?
I alone am God—
no one else is a mighty rock.

Humankind Wanders In Search of the Truth

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
December 21, 1958

Matthew 7:1-12

7 Don’t condemn others, and God won’t condemn you. 2 God will be as hard on you as you are on others! He will treat you exactly as you treat them.

3 You can see the speck in your friend’s eye, but you don’t notice the log in your own eye. 4 How can you say, “My friend, let me take the speck out of your eye,” when you don’t see the log in your own eye? 5 You’re nothing but show-offs! First, take the log out of your own eye. Then you can see how to take the speck out of your friend’s eye.

6 Don’t give to dogs what belongs to God. They will only turn and attack you. Don’t throw pearls down in front of pigs. They will trample all over them.

7 Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8 Everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And the door will be opened for everyone who knocks. 9 Would any of you give your hungry child a stone, if the child asked for some bread? 10 Would you give your child a snake if the child asked for a fish? 11 As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give good things to people who ask.

12 Treat others as you want them to treat you. This is what the Law and the Prophets[a] are all about.

Prayer

Father of love, human beings were to oversee the ideal garden of love and hold Your love in high regard. Yet ever since we rejected the heart of the Father, who wished to build the ideal garden of love, we have been leaving sorrowful footprints of blood and tears throughout several thousand years of restoration history. Please forgive us.

We are aware that now is the time when we must yearn for the Father’s lost love. The final day of restoration is coming near, when we cannot help standing on the Father’s side, having discovered the Father’s heart. Father of love, please raise us today and newly give us counsel. Since You have called us, please admonish us anew. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will allow us to bow in the presence of the Father with a blissful and glorious countenance, having eliminated the sorrow of restoration.

Please do not allow our minds and bodies to remain only as our own. Please allow all things, from the emotions that we feel to the concepts or doctrines or assertions that we have, not to be ours. We know that nothing originated from us and that all things were affected by Heaven. Father of love, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You allow us in this hour to offer up the whole to the Father. Continue reading “God is the Lord All Powerful”

Jesus Has Bee Looking for the One True Person

1 Samuel 13

19 The Philistines would not allow any Israelites to learn how to make iron tools. “If we allowed that,” they said, “those worthless Israelites would make swords and spears.”

Richard:  The Phillistines tried to keep Israel from bearing arms.  It is a fundamental human right that God’s people be able to protect themselves.

Isaiah 19

19 This is a message about Egypt:

The Lord comes to Egypt,
    riding swiftly on a cloud.
The people are weak from fear.
Their idols tremble
    as he approaches and says,
2 “I will punish Egypt
    with civil war—
neighbors, cities, and kingdoms
    will fight each other.

3 “Egypt will be discouraged
    when I confuse their plans.
They will try to get advice
    from their idols,
from the spirits of the dead,
    and from fortunetellers.
4 I will put the Egyptians
under the power of a cruel,
    heartless king.
I, the Lord All-Powerful,
    have promised this.”

Richard:  After President Trump’s term(s), we may get a bad President.  This could cause a lot of suffering, especially among Christians.

Let Us Seek and Establish the Blessed Land God Wants to Administer

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
December 14, 1958

Genesis 1:24-28

God’s heart had gone through a course of turns and twists. Shedding light upon this, Jesus uttered, “God, now I know. I have come to know the final meaning of Your having unfolded the dispensation and what kind of heart You had as You did it.” Jesus then grabbed hold of God and rejoiced, shedding tears, forgetting his dignity and image. You too must be able to rejoice, holding onto Jesus and shedding tears. Only then can the ideology of the internal world be manifested as that of the external ideology. You must understand this.

The very core of faith, what is left after human beings believe in the Lord with uplifted hands, put the Word into practice with love and restore the incarnated body with faith, is for their minds to become united with the minds of God and Jesus. Beyond that, the love of God, Jesus and human beings must become united. This is the last, emotional problem to be solved for religious people. For that reason, Christianity, the religion of love, will survive to the end. People in the heavenly kingdom are people who strive for the sake of giving. They are people who strive to give their bodies and minds and all of their things. Most people of this fallen world, on the other hand, strive to live centered on themselves. Only when they can bring about a revolution in their minds can people like these become God’s sons and daughters who can receive the love of God, the Creator of humankind and all creation, who tries to embrace them in His bosom. Continue reading “Jesus Has Bee Looking for the One True Person”

Where is the Word that can Move the Original Shim Jung?

Joshua 14

6 One day while the Israelites were still camped at Gilgal, Caleb the son of Jephunneh went to talk with Joshua. Caleb belonged to the Kenaz clan, and many other people from the Judah tribe went with Caleb. He told Joshua:

You know that back in Kadesh-Barnea the Lord talked to his prophet Moses about you and me. 7 I was forty years old at the time Moses sent me from Kadesh-Barnea into Canaan as a spy. When I came back and told him about the land, everything I said was true. 8 The other spies said things that made our people afraid, but I completely trusted the Lord God. 9 The same day I came back, Moses told me, “Since you were faithful to the Lord God, I promise that the places where you went as a spy will belong to you and your descendants forever.”

10 Joshua, it was forty-five years ago that the Lord told Moses to make that promise, and now I am eighty-five. Even though Israel has moved from place to place in the desert, the Lord has kept me alive all this time as he said he would. 11 I’m just as strong today as I was then, and I can still fight as well in battle.

12 So I’m asking you for the hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You were there. You heard the other spies talk about that part of the hill country and the large, walled towns where the Anakim[b] live. But maybe the Lord will help me take their land, just as he promised.

13 Joshua prayed that God would help Caleb, then he gave Hebron to Caleb and his descendants. 14 And Hebron still belongs to Caleb’s descendants, because he was faithful to the Lord God of Israel.

15 Hebron used to be called Arba’s Town,[c] because Arba had been one of the greatest[d] of the Anakim.

There was peace in the land.

Richard:  When you seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness (Mt. 6:33), then all things will be given to you.  That is my testimony.  God will provide for you.  Make His Will first in your life.

Psalm 69

nemies poisoned my food,
    and when I was thirsty,
    they gave me vinegar.

22 Make their table a trap
    for them and their friends.
23     Blind them with darkness
    and make them tremble.
24 Show them how angry you are!
    Be furious and catch them.
25 Destroy their camp
    and don’t let anyone live
    in their tents.

Let Us Seek and Establish the Blessed Land God Wants to Administer

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
December 14, 1958

Genesis 1:24-28

Although communists today are advocating a materialistic revolution, this is not enough. A materialistic revolution is not the answer. A revolution of conscience is what is called for. Where will be the one doctrine that brings forth a revolution of conscience? Will there not be a doctrine that can cause a “heartistic” revolution? We need to think about this. Until this sort of doctrine comes forth, this world will not be united. If such a doctrine comes forth, that doctrine will have to be based on materials, and it will have to be based on the Word.

Because of man’s fall, he lost faith, love, the Word, and the incarnated being. That is why human beings have first gone through the age of materialism and are now going through the age of ideology and thought. In the future, the age of sentiment will come.

Emotion is what makes a person believe in the Word. We speak of intellect, emotion and will; however, emotion comes first. A great artist must emerge who can detonate man’s original emotions and sing in praise of all creation with the sentiments of original emotion. A great scientist of emotion and religion must emerge.

What have human beings wandered about seeking until today? Human beings have not found satisfaction in doctrines nor in faith. We have sought the true Word, the truth. What are we going to do with that truth after finding it? We mean to usher in a spring garden that can be vibrant with life. Only that which can make human beings full of life and energy will be the true truth. Don’t you agree? Continue reading “Where is the Word that can Move the Original Shim Jung?”

God Will Bring Humanity into Unity through a Religious Ideology

Exodus 32

19 As Moses got closer to the camp, he saw the idol, and he also saw the people dancing around. This made him so angry that he threw down the stones and broke them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. 20 He melted the idol the people had made, and he ground it into powder. He scattered it in their water and made them drink it. 21 Moses asked Aaron, “What did these people do to harm you? Why did you make them sin in this terrible way?”

Job  16

4 If I were in your place,
it would be easy to criticize
    or to give advice.
5 But I would offer hope
    and comfort instead.

Let Us Seek and Establish the Blessed Land God Wants to Administer

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
December 14, 1958

Genesis 1:24-28

If we look at a human being, we see that he has not yet been able to restore his body. The history of struggle to restore the body was the history of struggle before World War II. Before World War II, the history of struggle centered upon material/that is, it was concerned with economy. Until World War II, the sovereignty of whole states and the whole world were affected by materials and economics. Only after this age passed, after World War II, did the age of thought come. This was the natural flow of historical development. Now the age of doctrine and thought centered on the spirit has arrived. What kind of thought will reap a victory? It will be the thought system that controls materials. As the mind must control the body, so the thought and doctrine have to control material things. All the sovereign states of the world today are established on an economic foundation. Yet, if an ideology is to achieve worldwide stature, it must transcend materialism.

Various nations of the democratic and communist camps are in a face- off. Which camp is going to win? What will determine that victory? This hinges upon which camp first shares its materials with smaller and weaker nations. This is how victory or defeat will be decided. Continue reading “God Will Bring Humanity into Unity through a Religious Ideology”

Find the World of Conscience

Matthew 23

4 They pile heavy burdens on people’s shoulders and won’t lift a finger to help. 5 Everything they do is just to show off in front of others. They even make a big show of wearing Scripture verses on their foreheads and arms, and they wear big tassels[a] for everyone to see. 6 They love the best seats at banquets and the front seats in the meeting places. 7 And when they are in the market, they like to have people greet them as their teachers.

8 But none of you should be called a teacher. You have only one teacher, and all of you are like brothers and sisters. 9 Don’t call anyone on earth your father. All of you have the same Father in heaven. 10 None of you should be called the leader. The Messiah is your only leader. 11 Whoever is the greatest should be the servant of the others. 12 If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honored.

Isaiah 10

5 The Lord says:

I am furious! And I will use the king of Assyria[c] as a club 6 to beat down you godless people. I am angry with you, and I will send him to attack you. He will take what he wants and walk on you like mud in the streets. 7 He has even bigger plans in mind, because he wants to destroy many nations.

Let Us Seek and Establish the Blessed Land God Wants to Administer

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
December 14, 1958

Genesis 1:24-28

Because human beings fell, they lost their bodies, their minds and their spirits. Human history is the history of humankind wandering around seeking the restoration of these things and the place of rest. Having passed the stage of wandering in search of material things, history has now reached the stage where human beings seek the conscience. What is more, you must understand that the world is standing in a face-off between two camps divided by thought and doctrine.

Since we are in a position where we must go through the course of restoration, we must seek the ideology centered on the mind, rising above the ideology centered on material things. You must understand that this is a necessary concluding point in the course of human history.

What then must we do after finding the blessed land of the mind? We must find the eternal, blessed land of love. What is the one condition of victory that can endure until the very end on this earth? That is a doctrine based on a love that transcends the heavens and earth, a love that can stimulate a person’s mind and set the universe in motion as well. This universe will never be put in motion by any other force. You will understand, through your conscience, that even God is seeking an ideal world filled with such an ardent feeling of affection. Continue reading “Find the World of Conscience”