Category: Psalms

Once a Baby Is Conceived, You Must Not Abort It

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Why Abstinence Matters-1: The Fall of Man

Exodus 36

36 The Lord has given to Bezalel, Oholiab, and others the skills needed for building a place of worship, and they will follow the Lord’s instructions.

Psalm 145

4 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.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 3

The Value of Human Life

3. Murder, Suicide and Abortion: Crimes against Life

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The preservation of human rights and human dignity must be the measure of all ethics and morality. (168:238, September 21, 1987)

How does the present administration9 handle the issue of human rights? In North Korea, the regime of Kim Il-Sung has exterminated three million people. Mao Zedong is responsible for the deaths of 150 million people. In Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution seven million lost their lives. The New York Times reported that 600,000 people have been killed since the fall of Vietnam… How can we talk about human rights while ignoring communism that tramples on the right to life itself? Which is more important: human rights or the right to life? (91:255, February 23, 1977)

If on the street you met an enemy, a person whom your family hates and even all Americans hate, would it be alright to murder him? How could it be a sin? Yet no matter how vile or detestable that person might be, he has the same cosmic value as you, because he was made by the Creator. Killing him is a crime, a violation of the universal law. (105:92, September 30, 1979)

Why is a human being’s physical life so precious? Without it, the cosmos cannot be brought to perfection, and even God cannot attain perfection. Our physical life is so precious… that it cannot be exchanged for the entire universe. This is the meaning of the Bible verse, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the world and forfeits his life?” (91:19, February 13, 1977)

Your most worthy parents need you. Your spouse needs you. Your brothers need you. Your family needs you. The nation needs you. The world needs you. Even the spirit world and the whole cosmos need you. Even God needs you. How can you think that you are unimportant?… When you say, “No one needs me,” you are doing wrong to all of them. You are doing wrong to your parents, your future spouse, your brothers, your family, the nation, the world, heaven and earth, and God. You are violating their love and the law of love. A person who commits suicide sins in all these ways. So many people commit suicide—how can they do such a thing! You should never even dream of killing yourself. (74:30 November 10, 1974)

Once a baby is conceived, you must not abort it. You never know who that baby could grow up to be: maybe a saint, maybe someone who could save America, maybe even the President of the United States. So how can you destroy it as you wish? What if my mother had exercised her “right to choose” like people do today? I would not have been born.

Therefore, abortion is a sin. Each fetus represents the parents’ love, life and lineage. It is human; how can anyone consider it merely an animal? What is that cell that forms at conception? It is very much a human being! Within that single cell are human beings’ love, life and lineage. Therefore, it represents the parents and has the same value as the parents. The father’s love and mother’s love are contained within that would-be baby.(230:120, April 26, 1992)

Suppose a husband and wife give birth to a child with a deformity. Do they terminate its life and say, “Well, we can try again”? Is that true love? No, of course it is not. (117:292, April 11, 1982)

Can We Say “Father, Thy Sorrow is My Sorrow”

John 20

20 On Sunday morning while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran to Simon Peter and to Jesus’ favorite disciple and said, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb! We don’t know where they have put him.”

Psalm 68

28 Our God, show your strength!
    Show us once again.
29 Then kings will bring gifts
    to your temple
    in Jerusalem.[e]

30 Punish that animal
    that lives in the swamp!
Punish that nation
    whose leaders and people
    are like wild bulls.
Make them come crawling
    with gifts of silver.
    Scatter those nations
    that enjoy making war.
31 Force the Egyptians to bring
    gifts of bronze;
    make the Ethiopians hurry
    to offer presents.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 3

The Purpose of Human Life

Sons and Daughters of God

2. Recovering the Dignity of Sons and Daughters of God

Sons have I reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me.
Isaiah 1.2

The Rock, his work is perfect;
for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
just and right is he.
They have dealt corruptly with him,
they are no longer his children because of their
blemish;
they are a perverse and crooked generation.
Do you thus requite the l ord ,
you foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your Father, who created you,
who made you and established you?
Deuteronomy 32.4-6

We are all as the Buddha’s sons. The Buddha
has always declared that we are his sons. But
because of the three sufferings, in the midst
of births-and-deaths we have borne all kinds
of torments, being deluded and ignorant and
enjoying our attachment to trifles. Today the
World-honored One has caused us to ponder
over and remove the dirt of all diverting discus-
sions of inferior things. In these we have hith-
erto been diligent to make progress and have
got, as it were, a day’s pay for our effort to reach
Nirvana. Obtaining this, we greatly rejoiced and
were contented… but still we did not perceive
that we are really Buddha’s sons.
Lotus Sutra 4 (Buddhism)

For since in prayer we call God our Father, it is
our duty always to deport and demean ourselves
as godly children, that He may not receive
shame, but honor and praise from us.
Martin Luther, The Large Catechism (Christianity)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The original relationship between God and human beings is that of eternal Parent and child. Restoration, therefore, means recovering that relationship. (316:236, February 13, 2000)

Since God is the King of faith, He seeks a prince of faith, and since He is the King of love, He looks for a prince of love. (Way of God’s Will 2.2)

In relating to God, we should follow the way of children of filial piety. God is serious about the world situation. Is there someone who, with even greater seriousness, is desperate to experience God’s heart, and who forgets himself and spends sleepless nights in the struggle to become God’s child? This is what the question comes down to. (62:35, September 10, 1972)

God is your Father and you are your Father’s daughters. How much God has longed to embrace His daughters in His bosom? For that reason, you should become God’s filial daughters… If each of you becomes a filial daughter, all your family members will follow suit. By the same token, the entire nation, world and cosmos will unite with you. You will become God’s number one victorious daughter, a saint to the world, a holy daughter to the cosmos. That is how you become a mistress in the realm of the royal family. (293:208, May 26, 1998)

Mayest we become Thy simple and pure children who can penetrate to Thy heart of longing and love which desires to embrace us… Father! Although we called Thee “Father,” our voice did not flow out of a sincere mind and heart springing forth from our flesh and bones. There was never a time when we could rush to Thee and cling to Thee out of such an emotion. (20:199, June 9, 1968)

Only after climbing over hills of sorrow,
hills of suffering and hills of resentment…
can we hold on to Thy heart and say:
“Father, Thy sorrow is my sorrow,
thy suffering is my suffering, and Thy troubles are my troubles.
Please entrust all Thy suffering to me,
while Thou dost dwell in joy.” (4:294, September 14, 1958)

Misuse of Love Is the Sin God Abhors the Most

Join us for the Urban Life Training Chapter Workshop, online or in-person on July 3rd 2020. Learn materials that teach about the physical, intellectual, emotional and long term benefits of sexual abstinence before marriage. Learn about setting up a Chapter of Urban Life Training to teach this material to middle and high school youth: https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/109-training/351-urban-life-training-chapter-workshop .

Matthew 6

9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Psalm 24

7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

Hosea 7

2 And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 2

Cause and Effect

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

In order for life to be sustained centering on this body, all the different parts must engage in give and take action as subject and object partners. If everything engaged in this action does what it is sup-posed to do, then the physical body will function smoothly, and existence will continue. But what happens when this is blocked somewhere?
This universe protects anything that engages in give and take in accord with God’s ideal. If an opposing element appears, something becomes lacking, or there is a blockage, there will be a failure within that realm of interaction. Hence, in order to protect the universe, there will be a reaction to expel it. This reaction is not a bad thing. It may be seen as something bad, but it truly functions to protect the larger realm.

For example, if your stomach hurts, it means there is a blockage in a circuit of give and take action between some subject and object partner. The blockage causes it to be pushed away to the same extent as it is blocked. A cosmic force to push it out acts on the stomach, and it hurts. All you need to do is open the place that is blocked, and you will feel fine.
Likewise, the world of our conscience and the entire human world are in pain. Why? There are elements that do not meet the standards of the cosmic force, and the universe is trying to push them out. Hence, we feel pain in our conscience. While the conscience was going in the proper direction, something stood opposing it and blocked the conscience’s function. We experience a reaction, resulting in pain. If the problem is not solved, that reaction will send the person into hell. (165:176-77, May 20, 1987)

The law of cause and effect cannot be avoided in history. America is an extension of Great Britain… thus America is in a position to indemnify what Britain did wrong in history. What did Britain do when she colonized Asia, especially China? She killed countless Asians through pushing the opium trade. Britain adopted that policy to dominate the Chinese and profit off of them, while totally unconcerned that whole populations became helpless addicts. Someone today has to indemnify that sin. Americans, especially American youth, should indemnify that historical debt; otherwise young people here will be plagued by drugs as a result. (105:134, October 4, 1979)

God abhors sin, and misuse of love is the sin God abhors the most. God regards sinners who com-mit such transgressions and do not repent as His enemies, and He visits them with destruction. It is the Principle that whoever indulges in illicit love will perish. In Italy, the lustful and immoral city of Pompeii was destroyed by instant calamity. Sodom and Gomorrah perished under the same law. The Roman Empire once prevailed in the world with unparalleled power, but it collapsed for the same reason. From the vantage point of history, America today is on the same path. Unless it repents for its violations of the law of God’s love, it too will perish. (104:141, April 29, 1979)

I was involved in the underground resistance movement against Japanese imperial rule, and from that perspective the Japanese were my enemies. They were the enemies of the Korean people in gen-eral and my enemies in particular. Yet, after Japan was defeated at the end of World War II, I loved the Japanese. Some time earlier, certain Japanese policemen had arrested me for my activities in the resistance and tortured me severely. When the war ended I could have reported them, and they all would have been executed. Yet, when I came across those same policemen running for their lives, I helped them escape to safety.
Do you know why so many young people in Japan place their eternal lives in my hands and pledge their loyalty to me? It is because there is a principle of cause and effect, which dictates that they must return what was given. (True Family and World Peace, February 10, 2000)

If a Person Lives Alone There Is No Joy

Join us for the Urban Life Training Chapter Workshop, online or in-person on July 3rd 2020. Learn how to teach the core providential content of sexual abstinence before marriage to middle and high school youth: https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/109-training/351-urban-life-training-chapter-workshop .

Watch the latest Richard Urban Show: All Lives Matter: https://youtu.be/ivlBBBCszyA
Why are we only hearing about George Floyd and not those black lives killed during the looting and shooting? Are these protests godly, Is the Black Lives Matter movement honest, and do they promote fear and hatred?

Hebrews 11

32 What else can I say? There isn’t enough time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. 33 Their faith helped them conquer kingdoms, and because they did right, God made promises to them. They closed the jaws of lions 34 and put out raging fires and escaped from the swords of their enemies. Although they were weak, they were given the strength and power to chase foreign armies away.

Psalm 111

God rescued his people,
    and he will never break
his agreement with them.
    He is fearsome and holy.

10 Respect and obey the Lord!
This is the first step
    to wisdom and good sense.
    God will always be respected.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 2

Truth and Universal Law

Duality

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

When God created, He worked centering on human beings. With human beings as His model, He expanded the creation in all directions. Hence, He created all creatures—minerals, plants, and animals—in pairs. The act of creation proceeded by weaving together in pairs the vertical paths and the horizontal paths. Some moved straight, some in a zigzag, others engaged in all manner of actions, but all were arranged in a pair system to create the natural world. It is teaching material for people to learn about ideal love. (173:211)

Inside the seed of a plant are two parts in a reciprocal relationship. The two are completely one inside a single shell. They engage in give and take action through the embryo in order to propagate life. In an egg, too, there is an embryo between yolk and white, and they form one body within the single shell. The same is true for the human fetus. Whether human beings or plants, life forms through a harmonious union of subject and object partners by means of give-and-take action. These multiply in a way that resembles their causal being, thus connecting to the foundation of their existence. Ultimately we resemble the First Cause. Therefore, the First Cause must be the basic model, with subject and object partners forming a perfect harmonious union, and having the status of Subject Partner in relation to all beings. (89:226, November 27, 1976)

Even though a person may have many possessions, many children and great power, there is no joy if he or she lives alone. Likewise, although God is the Subject and the Absolute Being, without a partner He also is lonely. Why did God create heaven and earth? God is the Absolute Subject, but He cannot experience joy as long as He remains alone. Joy cannot be experienced alone; it arises only in the context of a relationship. Peace, too, and happiness, only exist in the context of relationships. For this reason, God cannot function as God as long as He is alone. (58:210, June 11, 1972)

Throughout the universe, love is something that no being can possess by itself. Once a being meets its counterpart, however, and they relate with love, they can obtain all the things that love provides. For example, even though a couple may love children, until they have children of their own, they cannot experience parental love. They cannot become the owners of the kind of love that parents have for their children. From this perspective, we can understand why God created human beings and the universe: He created them as His object partners in order to realize true love.
All types of love—including the love of children, love of siblings, love of husband and wife, and love of parents—come about through the unity of subject and object partners. Once subject and object partners become one, nothing can separate them. If they could be divided, we could not say that true love is indestructible. Among married couples, there should not be even the thought of divorce. (True Family and World Peace, March 14, 1999)

God created everything in complementary pairs so that they could receive God’s true love. God wanted them to receive this one love as a partnership. If a man and a woman perfect God’s love, embody God’s love, and share that love with each other from the same ground of complementarity as God, then they will definitely become an ideal couple. (26:155-56, October 25, 1969)

For the sake of love, God created human beings as His partners. God created all things in the universe in pairs so that God’s love may be eternal, man’s love may be eternal, woman’s love may be eternal, and children’s love may be eternal. They are all God’s family; hence they should be eternal. (201:193, April 1, 1990)

Our Father Who Art In Heaven, Hallowed Be Thy Name

In 2020 in West Virginia we elect the Governor, one US Senator, the Commissioner of Agriculture and three of five Supreme Court of Appeals Justices. We will also elect School Board members, delegates, state senators, sheriffs and more. Especially in light of the many intrusions on constitutional rights now taking place, it will be important to choose wisely on June 9th, 2020 in the primary election and in November. Remember that the Supreme Court of Appeals, School Board members and Magistrates are chosen in the June election only. View the candidate interviews so that you can make informed choices. Interviews with Charles Robert Sheedy-Republican for Governor, William J. R. Keplinger-Democrat for Commissioner of Agriculture and Jody Murphy-Democrat for Governor were added on May 20, 2020.

2 Timothy 4

6 Now the time has come for me to die. My life is like a drink offering being poured out on the altar. 7 I have fought well. I have finished the race, and I have been faithful. 8 So a crown will be given to me for pleasing the Lord. He judges fairly, and on the day of judgment he will give a crown to me and to everyone else who wants him to appear with power.

Richard: We need to speak the truth, no matter what. View my series on The Great Fraud: The COVID-19 Agenda at my blog. You can also search for the Richard Urban Show on you favorite podcast player.

Psalm 68

Our Lord and our God,
    Bashan is a mighty mountain
    covered with peaks.
16 Why is it jealous of Zion,
    the mountain you chose
    as your home forever?

17 When you, Lord God, appeared
    to your people[c] at Sinai,
    you came with thousands
    of mighty chariots.
18 When you climbed
    the high mountain,
    you took prisoners with you
    and were given gifts.
Your enemies didn’t want you
to live there,
    but they gave you gifts.

19 We praise you, Lord God!
You treat us with kindness
    day after day,
    and you rescue us.
20 You always protect us
    and save us from death.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

The Creator

Heavenly Father and Mother

The Absolute Being relates to human beings as parent to child. The Jewish and Christian scriptures call God our Heavenly Father; in the Lotus Sutra the Buddha is called “Father of the World.” In some traditions the Absolute Being is also identified as the Divine Mother. Even religions that customarily employ patriarchal imagery for God also describe a motherly aspect: God as Nurturer, Fount of compassion and Sustainer. “There is something in the nature of God that corresponds to our maleness and our femaleness,” remarks Bishop Desmond Tutu. God’s fatherhood and motherhood may be identified with heaven and earth, cooperating to create and nurture all living things.
God’s parental role is not limited to the act of creation; it is an enduring affective relationship of the heart. Love reveals God’s parental aspect better than anything. Even Islam, which avoids describing God as a divine father, in light of its strong rejection of polytheism in which gods physically procreate, includes traditions that describe God’s love by analogy to a father’s love for his son.
Love is central to Father Moon’s teaching about the parenthood of God: “The relationship of the Father and His children is the foundation of the universe.” Elaborating, he teaches that we can and should establish a genuinely filial relationship to God, attending Him and sharing His heart. God, for His part, is ever searching for children who can meet Him in that intimate embrace.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name.
Matthew 6.9

You men are all my children,
And I am your Father.
For age upon age, you
Have been scorched by multitudinous woes,
And I have saved you all.
Lotus Sutra 3 (Buddhism)

The Great Principle, the Divine, is my womb;
I cast the seed into it;
There is the origin of all creatures.
Whatever forms originate in any wombs
The real womb is the Divine, the Great
Principle.
I am the Father that gives the seed.
Bhagavad-Gita 14.4 (Hinduism)

Thou art Father, Mother, Friend, Brother.
With Thee as succorer in all places, what fear
have I?
Adi Granth, Majh M.5, p. 103 (Sikhism)

For God, people of the whole world are all my
children. All of you equally must understand
that I am your Parent.
The daily concern of the Parent is single-
heartedly how best I can advance arrangements
to save all of you.
Ofudesaki 4.79; 14.35 (Tenrikyo)

Our Father, it is thy universe, it is thy will,
Let us be at peace, let the souls of the people
be cool.
Thou art our Father; remove all evil from our
path.
Nuer Prayer (African Traditional Religions)
Heaven and Earth are the father and mother of
the ten thousand things.
People are the sensibility of the ten thousand
things.
Book of History 5.1.1: The Great Declaration
(Confucianism)

What man of you, if his son asks him for bread,
will give him a stone? Or if he asks for fish, will
give him a serpent? If you, then, who are evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father who is in
heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Matthew 7.10-11

Once a man came to the Messenger with his
son. The Messenger embraced they boy and
said, “Do you have mercy upon him?” The father
said, “Yes.” Then the Messenger replied, “Allah
is more merciful upon him than you.”
Hadith of Bukhari (Islam)
Do you thus requite the lord ,
you foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your father, who created you,
who made you and established you?…
He found him in a desert land,
in the howling waste of the wilderness;
He encircled him, he cared for him,
he kept him as the apple of his eye.
Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
that flutters over its young,
Spreading out its wings, catching them,
bearing them on its pinions,
The lord alone did lead him,
and there was no foreign god with him.
Deuteronomy 32.6-12

All ye under heaven! Regard heaven as your
father, earth as your mother, and all things as
your brothers and sisters.
Oracle of the Kami of Atsuta (Shinto)
Mother Earth, have pity on us and give us food
to eat!
Father Sun, bless all our children and may our
paths be straight!
Blackfoot Prayer (Native American Religions)
That breast of Thine which is inexhaustible,
health-giving,
by which thou nursest all that is noble,
containing treasure, bearing wealth, bestowed
freely;
lay that bare, O Divine Mother, for our
nurture.
Rig Veda 1.164.49 (Hinduism)

As one whom his mother comforts,
so will I comfort you;
You shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 66.13
O Mother of Imupa, advocate for the whole
world!
What a remarkable Mother I have!
O Mother, a pillar, a refuge!
O Mother, to whom all prostrate in greeting
Before one enters her habitation!
I am justly proud of my Mother.
O Mother who arrives,
Who arrives majestic and offers water to all!
Yoruba Prayer (African Traditional Religions)