Daily Inspiration: A Community for Daily Scripture Study

God Tried to Believe in People

VisionRoot Success Formula Workshops: Peaceful Families; Peaceful World
Peace Kingdom Center, Harpers Ferry WV and Online
March 18th to March 20th, 2022
In-person: Registration Deadline March 15th.
Online: Register before the start time of your selected workshop day(s).
Register Now
Find out more
Listen to the Richard Urban Show #103: Peaceful Families Make a Peaceful World; Join the Workshop on March 18th to March 20, 2022
Watch the Internet Show

WHOSE CHILDREN ARE THEY? is the groundbreaking and powerfully persuasive documentary featuring brave teachers, empowered parents, and front-line experts who pull back the curtain about what is truly happening in our public schools today.
See it in a theatre near you on March 14th.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 522

Focusing on Korea, the twenty year period from 1972 to 1992 was the time when I restored the role of Christianity. On the national level, I walked the course of the Old Testament Age. After True Parents’ wedding in 1960, I worked in America, representing the worldwide stage corresponding to the Old and the New Testament Ages. The contents of this period correspond to the Old Testament and New Testament Ages. The worldwide settlement of True Parents was completed by the end of this period. That was why I announced the Completed Testament Age. Then, we live with God. Our Unification Church members can live with God. (246-301, 1993.4.20)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1356

The 777 Couples represent the world: they are global couples. As such, they strengthen our church. However, the family structure in the Unification Church is still in tatters. None of the families until now have fulfilled their missions and so I have had to extend them to the 777 Couples, representing the global level. Originally, the 430 Couples should have done this work. This is the progress we have made thus far. The 777 Couples represent the whole world. The three sevens refer to formation, growth, and completion. I prepared the global family structure for us to enter the transracial era by blessing the 777 Couples in 1970. Thus, any of the 777 Couples, including the Japanese, could take the place of any of the 36, 72, 124, or 430 Couples who deviate from their position. In this way, the path of the providence of restoration is being paved. (79-104, 1975.6.22)

Faith

2. Faith is a Gift of God, Not a Human Work

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

How can we explain the relationship our Father has with us, considering that we are all descendants of the sinful lineage? We cannot escape the bondage of sinful history. We live within the realm of sin, unable to overcome it. Because we cannot relate well with the Father even by our best efforts, we are taught to believe with all our heart. This is the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which teaches us to approach the Father not through any other way but by believing in our hearts. (7:52- 53, July 12, 1959)

How will you be justified by Heaven? You cannot take pride in your merits and efforts for Heaven. These things do not acquit you at the judgment. Only by your experience of God’s heart and Jesus’ heart within you, bearing fruit—a relationship that even God and Jesus cannot break—will establish the condition for eternal life. (4:107, March 16, 1958)

True Faith Involves Selfless Humility

VisionRoot Success Formula Workshops: Peaceful Families; Peaceful World
Peace Kingdom Center, Harpers Ferry WV and Online
March 18th to March 20th, 2022
Registration Deadline March 15th
Register Now
Find out more
Listen to the Richard Urban Show #103: Peaceful Families Make a Peaceful World; Join the Workshop on March 18th to March 20, 2022
Watch the Internet Show

Cheon Seong Gyeong 239

Human beings, as they were originally created, were to live with God’s true love within their minds and bodies, and thus they were to respond to His love directly. In other words, the mind would respond to God centering on true love and the body would automatically resonate with the mind. The origin of true unity in which the mind and body are not in conflict begins with inheriting and experiencing God’s true love just as it is. The ideals of people whose minds and bodies are united can be realized when they can completely possess God’s true love. When mind and body are united centering on true love, the ideal of genuine freedom and peace can begin. On the foundation of the unity of mind and body, free and peaceful individuals, families, tribes, peoples, nations, and a world can be established. (234-270, 1990.9.2)

Richard: We will explain God’s plan, ideal and His great work in history up to the present day in Day 2 of the Peaceful Families; Peaceful World workshop. Won’t you join us on March 18 to March 20?

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1240

In the present era, we are heading towards the completion stage, having passed through the formation and growth stages. This is the era in which history has to move horizontally after developing vertically. In other words, it is the era in which the boundary of the six-thousand-year long history of indemnification is crossed. That is why you need to escape from the dominion of Satan. Then what is the Blessing? It is the gate you have to pass through to leave the realm Satan has dominated throughout history. (18-209, 1967.6.8)

Richard: Previously in history, people could only do their best to work toward the future dream of establishing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Now, thanks to the foundatio of Jesus and the tireless work of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, we can actually establish the substantial kingdom on earth. Find out what this means by attending the Peaceful Families; Peaceful World workshop, March 18- March 20.

Faith

Faith is a Gift of God, Not a Human Work

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2.8-10

God has endeared the Faith to you, and has made it beautiful in your hearts, and He has made hateful to you unbelief, wickedness, and rebellion: such indeed are those who walk in righteousness—a grace and favor from God.
Qur’an 49.7

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People Make a Great Mistake when They Think all They Have to do Is “Just Believe”

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2324

Eve’s fall was due to her failure to pursue absolute faith and absolute love. Thus, the principle of restoration through indemnity dictates single-hearted devotion of one mindset for the sake of God to restore absolute faith and absolute love based on conscience. Everything in the world goes against God, and so we need to cut ourselves off from and deny them absolutely. (275-30, 1995.10.30)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1188

As viewed from God’s original ideal of creation, the eldest son should come from God’s side and, of course, the second son should also come from God’s side. Due to the Fall, the position of the first son was taken by Satan, and the position of the second son went to God. This has to be made right. Thus, when we consider the story of Esau and Jacob in the Bible, Jacob united with his mother and received her help. He gave Esau the pottage of lentils and bread in exchange for the birthright of the firstborn son. Until today, we could not understand why Bible history is the way it is. With the appearance of the Unification Church, its meaning was clarified for the first time. (134-304, 1985.8.16)

Faith

Belief—the Starting-point of Faith

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Faith is the path each person must walk in search of God. Faith should be nurtured through a direct vertical relationship between God and each individual. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Preparation 1)

Why do we lead a life of faith? It is to invest a higher form of energy that transcends our individual selves. Its direction is toward the world of higher realm, not the fallen world in which we now live. That is why theories that deny God’s existence are groundless. (89:76, July 11, 1976)

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For God So Loved the World that He Gave His Only Son

Cheon Seong Gyeong 486

True happiness can be found in a place where you laugh, sing, and whisper together with your spouse, both of you intoxicated with love. I would say that the one who listens to the whispered words from his beloved is a happy person. It is because having words of love whispered in your ear can give you feelings of happiness, as if you were dreaming. (Blessed Family – 366)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1350

Just as the Israelites set out from Egypt for Canaan, the 430 Couples signify that we too have set out to restore the world, which is our Canaan. Whereas they set out in the 430th year of their captivity in Egypt, we have settled on the number 43, representing 4,300 years. We are moving forward from this point. In doing so, we are not working individually but in family units. We must move forward with our families. You should understand this. The unit is no longer the individual; it is the family. Thus, you should not abandon your families and move forward alone. Furthermore, the central person in the position of Moses should not abandon the Israelites. He must lead them all out of Egypt into Canaan. If one of them happens to be in prison, he should help that person to get out so he can come with the others.

Fatih

IN THIS WORLD AFFLICTED WITH SIN, most people are not in touch with their true selves. God cannot easily be felt or experienced. Truth cannot easily be understood or practiced. Relying on ourselves, we wander aimlessly in a sea of vain desires and false conceptions. Human beings need a star to guide them through the darkness, a map by which to navigate in uncharted waters. This is faith.
Faith begins with belief in the tenets of religion and effort to orient our life in accord with God’s commandments. A religion’s creed may be only a few words, yet those few words can rightly guide us into a relationship with God.
As we go deeper, we realize that our faith itself is a gift of God. It is the way God provides out of His love to reconnect with fallen human beings, who are in no condition to save themselves. Here is St. Paul’s distinction between faith and works. A similar doctrine was taught by Shinran, the Japanese Buddhist saint who placed his faith in the ‘Power of Another.’ This is pure faith, uncontaminated by self-seeking. There are no grounds for pride, even in one’s ability to have faith. Father Moon affirms that as all people are contaminated by sin and stem from a sinful lineage, no one can possibly pay off the debt of sin by his own efforts. Hence the only proper basis for a relationship with God is to rely on God’s gracious love for us, His children.
Faith matures into a mutual relationship with God, characterized by trust and faithfulness (Heb., emunah). As we strive to live the way that God would have us live, we can overcome adversity knowing that God is faithful to us. Yet as we relate to God as our Subject of faith, we can ask whether God can equally count on our faithfulness to Him. People are so double-minded, vacillating between faithfulness and faithlessness from one day to the next. To become the sort of person whom God can trust to remain faithful through any adversity requires absolute integrity and self-mastery (see Chapter 12). God searches out such people, to whom He assigns great missions.
Father Moon calls us to “absolute faith.” This is the unshakable faith that remains firm despite the vicissitudes of life. It is not compromised by the believer’s personal preferences. Opposition, tragedy and loss can shake a person of weak faith. The pleas of family and loved ones cannot turn back absolute faith. Like Peter, who denied his lord, in a crisis the person of weak faith runs away or even loses faith altogether. But with absolute faith we can move mountains, overcome any adversity, and even triumph over death.

Belief—the Starting-point of Faith

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3.16

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Understand God’s Will and Live Accordingly

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1948

Ancient civilizations arose on continents. Human civilization, which came forth from the riverbed of the Nile in Egypt, shifted to peninsulas and established a Mediterranean civilization sphere, in Greece and on the Italian peninsula. Civilization was transferred from the peninsula to an island, thus creating an Atlantic civilization sphere, centering on Britain, an island nation. Next, the island civilization, in Britain, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and established a miracle of modern civilization on the American continent, thus creating the sphere of the Pacific civilization. The flow of history has not stopped there.
I am fully aware of God’s will to have this civilization cross the Pacific Ocean, blossom as a new island civilization in Japan, an island nation comparable to Britain, and then to establish here on the Korean peninsula, which corresponds to the Italian peninsula, an integrated human civilization, comparable to that of ancient Rome. This will become a new unified civilization sphere, adjacent to the Asian continent, which will lead to one world of harmony. (78-254, 1975.6.7)

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There can be no perfection in ignorance. Who did I say Satan is? He is the adulterer. I have made all this clear to you. Do you think you can go to the Kingdom of Heaven if you ignore this? Do you think you can be saved if you ignore it? There is not even the slimmest chance. What a set of ignorant people! If you could be saved by just believing what you are told to believe, people like you and I would have been saved a long time ago. We would not have to suffer like this. (188-230, 1989.2.26)

Richard: Join the Peaceful Families; Peaceful World workshop to learn about the Human Fall that Rev. Moon is referring to.

Learning and Practice

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Whatever you conceive in your head, you should practice. It is not enough to only think it. Why do you need to act? When your actions are in accord with your words it creates a center, a place of unity between word and deed, and of unity between mind and body. (248:89, August 1, 1993)

Whatever you learn you must practice. You must practice it in all dimensions: in your vertical relationships, in your horizontal relationships, and in all four directions, widely and deeply. By so training yourself in this world, you will become adept when you go to the spirit world. (248:166, August 1, 1993)

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