Category: Psalms

Throw Away all Personal Pride and Prestige

Deuteronomy 14

24 But suppose you can’t carry that ten percent of your harvest to the place where the Lord chooses to be worshiped. If you live too far away, or if the Lord gives you a big harvest, 25 then sell this part and take the money there instead. 26 When you and your family arrive, spend the money on food for a big celebration. Buy cattle, sheep, goats, wine, beer, and if there are any other kinds of food that you want, buy those too. 27 And since people of the Levi tribe won’t own any land for growing crops, remember to ask the Levites to celebrate with you.

28 Every third year, instead of using the ten percent of your harvest for a big celebration, bring it into town and put it in a community storehouse. 29 The Levites have no land of their own, so you must give them food from the storehouse. You must also give food to the poor who live in your town, including orphans, widows, and foreigners. If they have enough to eat, then the Lord your God will be pleased and make you successful in everything you do.

Richard: Caring for your neighbors is very important.

Psalm 65

You are strong,
    and your mighty power
    put the mountains in place.
7 You silence the roaring waves
    and the noisy shouts
    of the nations.
8 People far away marvel
    at your fearsome deeds,
and all who live under the sun
    celebrate and sing
    because of you.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

Is there any greater adventure than appearing as the prince of Heaven in this land of sin? Although the cosmos tried to prevent Jesus from treading that path, still he walked that path. Everyone shunned that path, but he went on it.

Now that there is a certain genuine truth, we have to seek for it. If this physical body, which ideally should be centered on our united mind and heart, is still fixed to the things of worldly history, then we should cut away from it and search for the word that can pull both the mind and the body with its truth.

We have to possess the desperate heart that is derived from the eternal world, which transcends time and limitations. We must become people who can dominate and win over any hardship, pain, and fear of death in this world. For you to be victorious on your individual path, you should deny all desires and all pain to walk forward proudly. If a victorious individual can take the same course with the family, the race, the nation, and the world, then this person is victorious over the world.

God could raise and bless Jesus because of this. His path was a pioneering path. To pioneer is to begin with a difficult path. It does not begin with a pleasant and happy path. It is to work backwards.

God has been searching for the ideal form of an individual, a family, a society, a nation, and a world throughout the course of history. He has been searching for us, the seekers of truth.

In order to restore all this in these last days, we have to bear God’s heart and become the warriors who will fight against sin as God’s begotten son Jesus, the prince of Heaven, became a friend to the sinners. In such a position, we have to throw away all personal pride and prestige and stand bravely in front of Heavenly Father. Only such a person will become Jesus’ representative who will not only find himself, but find all the other lost selves. Jesus’ representative is one who will hold onto such a heart and fight for the family, the society, the race, the nation, and the world.

No matter how high one may be, he should yield his high position and have the heart to sincerely attend others, saying, “The reason I am here is to help people lower than me be raised to the position I am in.” When such an inclination for adventure is present, it may be used as a condition to maintain oneself and win out in this time of turmoil.

When I look at you, I see that you all have the petty ambition of wanting to possess everything in Heaven and earth, yet you are not trying to find your own lost self. I will acknowledge you if you have certain conditions that can coincide with the contents and purposes of God’s wish to find the family, the race, and the nation. But you only have the purposes and the ideal; you are lacking in substantial content. You have to have the standards to which Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus, and Heavenly Father can say, “You are right!”

As you live today, it is not enough just to continue the life pattern of searching for values. You have to eliminate yourself. You have to hunt yourself down. You have to get rid of yourself. If not, you cannot go to Heavenly Father. God has never thought about His own pride throughout the six thousand years of the providence in this world. Because His path was to find His loving true sons and daughters, He was determined never to think of His own pride until He met such sons and daughters.

Although Jesus has striven for a long time, he also had to be humble in front of sinners before he could find his bride. One example of this is when he told the thief on the right that he would go to paradise along with him.

Now we have to embark on the final, historic adventure.

For us to be acknowledged as victors among all the explorers who have sought for truth, we have to first welcome the sorrow and suffering of history and the sadness and pain of the ages. We must be able to stand in front of God, the true parents, the true couples, the true children, the true siblings, the true people, the true nation, and the true Heaven and earth. Only when such a deep, desperate heart stands within you can you then take your places as the people of that nation, the loyal subjects of that nation, and the filial sons and daughters of that nation.

Have a Wildly Adventurous Nature

Luke 4

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[f]

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Richard: Today, the good news is being preached. Yet again, many will not listen because the messenger who brought it is Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Psalm 27

One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.
5 For in the day of trouble
    he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
    and set me high upon a rock.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

Although he was living in the land of the Pharaoh, Moses’ heart was ready to sing a song of happiness in the land of Canaan. Moses had pioneered a solitary path of going forward with an indomitable heart.

He headed out to Canaan with the mass of 600,000 people. But during the forty years of the wilderness period, all was lost. If the Israelites knew how to take adventure like Moses did, they would not have failed. Had their desperate heart to seek the promised land been greater than the feelings and thoughts arising in their daily lives, the Israelites would have never fallen in the wilderness. Yet they cried out in panic, complaining how hungry they were and complaining of their hardships. So they died out in the wilderness, unable to enter the land of Canaan.

Any historic figure or pioneer has the natural tendencies of an explorer. He can overcome everything to reach a higher ideal or promised destination, not seeking worldly pleasures or satisfactions.

Moses was like that. What is the meaning behind the Red Sea incident and the attack of the tribesmen of Amalek in the wilderness in front of the Israelites? Men who had escaped the shackles of the Pharaoh all collapsed on the way as they wandered aimlessly for forty years.

Moses had sent twelve people, representing the twelve tribes, to spy out the land of Canaan. When they came back to report what they had seen, ten of them said they would not be able to defeat the Canaanites, but Joshua and Caleb said otherwise. Joshua and Caleb were not particularly intelligent. You are more intelligent than they were. They were dull and stubborn. But they had a wildly adventurous nature.

Joshua and Caleb stood firmly against the opposing people, saying, “God, who has been leading us until now, is alive. God, who has defeated the magic of the Pharaoh, is alive. God, who divided the Red Sea and helped us cross it, is alive. God, who sent us quail and manna while we were starving and struggling, is alive.” You have to know that such was the key that opened the road for the Israelites, who were struggling to follow the course of restoration.

That is not all. All of history is such a course. After the age of the race came the age of the nation. Although they had entered Canaan, the Israelites had to fight to establish a nation. How heavy-hearted must God have been at this. They needed to acquire the form of a nation, the form of a family, and the form of an individual. Although they had acquired the form of a nation, they could not become the foundation of complete victory that God wanted. We have to realize God’s heart as He worked through history with such situations.

God has been struggling. He struggled to find an individual, but He lost that individual. He struggled to find a family, but He also lost that family. He lost everything, including the blessed nation and the people of Israel.

Jesus seems to have come as the prince of the defeated. He inherited all this. He was a representative who came to take on the pain of world restoration. He came to the land of Israel. He only went to a few places, a few temples near the wall of Jerusalem and the beaches of Galilee. Yet his words and actions represented the will of God and history.

Two thousand years of history have passed since Jesus died after struggling on such a path. Today a certain victorious base to restore the nation of Israel must be established. The history of the two thousand years after Jesus (which we may call the two thousand years of the history of the Holy Spirit) were the process of keeping the world in line with the standard of God’s will.

Today is the era of the last days. The last days are to perfect an individual, perfect a family, perfect a race, perfect a nation, a world, and furthermore, a cosmos. Humanity is not aware of the heart of God, who has been leading such a grand mission.

Where Would God Go Without Us?

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Jude 1

3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about[b] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord[c]at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding townsgave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

Richard: The core issue of society is the moral breakdown. So many aspects of society are totally unacceptable to God, yet people justify their behavior. In the Urban Life Success and Happiness Training Seminar we will explain these core issues and proffer the solution.

Psalm 74

It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
    and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
15 It was you who opened up springs and streams;
    you dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
16 The day is yours, and yours also the night;
    you established the sun and moon.
17 It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;
    you made both summer and winter.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 12, 1959

John 14: 1-19

Jesus came to this world as the son of God, but he had to go through thirty miserable years of life. He walked the path of three painful and tumultuous years of public ministry. Yet he was a brave warrior who demonstrated a confident spirit which could overcome anything that stood in the way. He possessed a burning heart that would have easily restored the whole race of Israel at that time. Such a warrior is needed in today’s age. Instead of fighting against the people every time they drove him into difficulties, Jesus prayed for them through long nights on the mountain of Gethsemane. Such a big-minded character is admirable.

Jesus took the path of solitude and went into quiet places in order to call on the Father during times when the nation faced persecution. The path to life for this race is the same. There has to be the heart. You should be able to forget all human conditions, even forgetting about eating or clothing, and call on the Father as His sons and daughters. When there are such sons and daughters, this race will be closest to Heavenly Father in the world of heart, even if the people are sacrificed and trampled on. Do you think God will then treat you badly? No parent would ever not accept a child with a heart that connects the past, the present, and the future. If people are like that, God is even more so. Is there a human being who does not embody God’s attributes? God is like that. Therefore, mankind is the same.

This miserable race is searching for the heart of God to find the path to life. Even in this situation, one should be able to show gratitude to Heavenly Father. There is a world of difference between people who denounce Heavenly Father even in a free situation and people who show gratitude to Heavenly Father with tears even in a difficult situation.

Now that we have a father and son relationship with Heavenly Father, no matter how challenging and manifold the difficulties and persecutions that block our path, they are not even comparable to the course that Heavenly Father walked for six thousand years. So when you are injured while working for the will of God, do not look at your own injury and cry. Rather, comfort Heavenly Father who has had greater pain inflicted on Him. The Father is someone who will come to you with tears when you are injured, forgetting about His own pain. We are truly unworthy of this.

Now we should really accomplish something. This race is losing its national spirit. What can this race be proud of in front of Heaven? There is nothing that it can put forth before the world and this age. The heart of God has never been attained. Who has ever deeply felt this world of the heart? It is someone who experiences difficulty. It is someone who calls on the Father, enduring his own difficulties. We have to realize that we need to have conditions with which we can be close to the Father who has borne historic sorrows.

That is why we have this difficult environment. After all, this race need not feel sorrowful. We should be sorrowful if Heavenly Father did not exist. But He does, and there is no need to feel sad. Even if this nation is the most miserable nation in the six thousand years of history, it would have moved Heavenly Father deep down to His bones, more than any other nation, if it had remembered Him. If there is a movement that will establish the relationship of father and son in this nation, the new world will open up. As Heavenly Father has firmly promised us, and as Jesus’ great purpose was to teach us, where would God go without us? We have to start out with such a conviction.

Jesus’ Word is the Word of the Father

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Ezekiel 20

In my anger, I decided to punish the Israelites in Egypt. 9 But that would have made me look like a liar, because I had already promised in front of everyone that I would lead them out of Egypt. 10 So I brought them out and led them into the desert. 11 I gave them my laws and teachings, so they would know how to live right. 12 And I commanded them to respect the Sabbath as a way of showing that they were holy and belonged to me. 13 But the Israelites rebelled against me in the desert. They refused to obey my laws and teachings, and they treated the Sabbath like any other day.

Psalm 145

Each generation will announce
to the next
    your wonderful
    and powerful deeds.
5 I will keep thinking about
your marvelous glory
    and your mighty miracles.[a]
6 Everyone will talk about
    your fearsome deeds,
    and I will tell all nations
    how great you are.
7 They will celebrate and sing
    about your matchless mercy
    and your power to save.

Richard: When you know God’s Word, you want to share it. This will be the legacy through the generations of your family. Join us July 5th to July 7th for the Urban Family Life Success Formula Training:
https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/richard-s-blog/310-register-by-june-28th-2019-for-the-urban-family-life-training-seminar .

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 12, 1959

John 14: 1-19

From this perspective of heart, Jesus was an eternally sorrowful person. Nobody knew that his tears were shed representing mankind’s tears; his grief represented Heavenly Father’s grief. No one understood that the tribulations of his three years of public life were suffered for mankind and for Heaven. No one knew that he died in humanity’s stead to erase the bloody stain left in the heart of Heavenly Father.

When Jesus made his final prayer to God, he said, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39) This was a prayer that transcended all circumstances. This was a prayer that overcame the world. Jesus thought that since he belonged to Heavenly Father and Heavenly Father belonged to him, his sorrow was the Father’s sorrow. Thus, he did not feel wronged by his own death. Instead, he felt oneness of heart with God who had striven even more than he had, who was more pained than he, and whose wrongs were even greater. Jesus could overcome his difficult path so confidently because he knew that God maintained the will of saving all people in spite of such pain. Jesus united in heart with God, centering on the will of saving humanity in spite of his imminent death on the cross. He died trying to fulfill that will.

It is easy to say we believe. The question is can we fathom the essence of and reach the position where we can relate through heart? If God does not search for someone to connect with in heart, there would be no such thing as true love.

The voice of Jesus calling on the Father, and his words toward the miserable children, all originated from the heart of God. They were spoken through Jesus. Have you felt a desire to call on him as the Lord and cling to him as if he were in front of you as you read the Bible? Have you experienced a heart of wanting to say, “Father, I belong to you; my body is Yours, my mind is Yours. Even my longing heart is Yours. There is absolutely nothing that belongs to me except that which belongs to You”? If not, you have not yet stood in the position of children.

When Jesus prayed through the nights, forgetting about sleep, he prayed with a heart of gratitude, knowing that the Father was with him. Throughout his thirty years of life, he lived with a heart which could overcome everything in spite of persecution and the difficult course of the cross which lay before him. That is why Satan could not invade him.

The world of the heart cannot remain divided. The world of reality has room for many exceptions, but the world of the heart cannot become two. In the heart of the four thousand years of history, there cannot be anything other than the relationship of father and children. There cannot be any other argument. We should realize that Jesus’ word is the word of the Father and his desires are the Father’s desires.

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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.

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