Noah’s Ties With Heaven Were Greater than those With His Relatives

Acts 3

7 Peter then took him by the right hand and helped him up.

At once the man’s feet and ankles became strong, 8 and he jumped up and started walking. He went with Peter and John into the temple, walking and jumping and praising God. 9 Everyone saw him walking around and praising God. 10 They knew that he was the beggar who had been lying beside the Beautiful Gate, and they were completely surprised. They could not imagine what had happened to the man.

Richard:  I believe in miracles.

Isaiah 23

23 This is a message
from distant islands
    about the city of Tyre:[a]
Cry, you seagoing ships![b]
Tyre and its houses
    lie in ruins.[c]
2 Mourn in silence,
you shop owners of Sidon,[d]
    you people on the coast.
Your sailors crossed oceans,
    making your city rich.

The Religious Person’s Attitude

Sun Myung Moon
March 29, 1959

Hebrews 11:1-32

Why was only Noah able to keep unshaken faith in God’s will, while all people, including the people in his tribe and people on good terms with him, betrayed it? He knew that the ties he had formed with Heaven were greater than the ties he had with his brothers and sisters, his relatives, and even his life. When misery came, he longed for the infinite world with a bowed head, shedding tears with a deeply touched Shim Jung. You should not forget this.

Abraham and Moses were in the same situation. The Pharaoh’s dazzlingly gorgeous palace was an environment of maximum freedom, in which Moses lived in splendor. However, he gave all that up because he realized that God’s providential hands were extended to him through historical ties and through the flesh, blood and bones of his ancestors. As he became better informed of the culture of Egypt and more knowledgeable about everything in the enemy country, Moses became increasingly sad inside the Pharaoh’s palace because he could not share in the historical situation of Israel, the chosen people. He might have grieved over his inability to understand the people’s sorrow. Though his environment was very free and comfortable, when he became deeply moved by the realization that he was a descendant of the chosen people, Moses became hostile toward the Pharaoh’s palace and stepped forth, regarding the Egyptians as his enemies. We must be aware of this.

Moses put the royal court of the Pharaoh behind him and proceeded forward seeking the Israelites, the people with ties to Heaven. Moses knew of the will and embraced such a Shim Jung. However, the Jewish people, who were ignorant of the will, could not recognize Moses as such. This became cause for penetrating historical sorrow and lamentation.

When the people whom Moses had sought out abandoned him, Moses ended up leading the life of a shepherd for forty years in the Midian wilderness. Though he had to walk such a path, Moses kept his principles and the integrity of being Heaven’s chosen. Even if his body were to fall down, Moses ardently wished to bequeath his faith to someone. The more intensely he wished for that, the more tears he had to shed, thinking of the Israelites groaning under the ruthless tyranny of Pharaoh.

While the Israelite people were asleep and in a state of ignorance, Moses prayed for their sake, raising his face and looking to the land of blessing, Canaan. Unable to sleep, he would pour out his heart. He led a life of contrition before Heaven with a sorrowful heart toward the people. Because he led such a life, Moses was fit to assume the responsibility of the central figure of that period. He could become the representative of Heaven. Throughout history, we have learned that Heaven set up Moses in front of the Israelites, who were falling down, to seek and re-establish the history of His relations with Israel and humankind.

Sun Myung Moon
March 29, 1959

Hebrews 11:1-32

Why was only Noah able to keep unshaken faith in God’s will, while all people, including the people in his tribe and people on good terms with him, betrayed it? He knew that the ties he had formed with Heaven were greater than the ties he had with his brothers and sisters, his relatives, and even his life. When misery came, he longed for the infinite world with a bowed head, shedding tears with a deeply touched Shim Jung. You should not forget this.

Abraham and Moses were in the same situation. The Pharaoh’s dazzlingly gorgeous palace was an environment of maximum freedom, in which Moses lived in splendor. However, he gave all that up because he realized that God’s providential hands were extended to him through historical ties and through the flesh, blood and bones of his ancestors. As he became better informed of the culture of Egypt and more knowledgeable about everything in the enemy country, Moses became increasingly sad inside the Pharaoh’s palace because he could not share in the historical situation of Israel, the chosen people. He might have grieved over his inability to understand the people’s sorrow. Though his environment was very free and comfortable, when he became deeply moved by the realization that he was a descendant of the chosen people, Moses became hostile toward the Pharaoh’s palace and stepped forth, regarding the Egyptians as his enemies. We must be aware of this. Continue reading “Noah’s Ties With Heaven Were Greater than those With His Relatives”

You Have Been Drawn Into Motion that You Cannot Understand

Cheon Seong Gyeong 587

What are the laws of heaven? They
are to promote public righteousness.
Book 5 • Earthly Life and the Spirit World 588
Private matters belong to Satan, and
public matters belong to God. Go the
way of public righteousness. Even if
everyone opposes you on this course, if
you are not disturbed by the opposition
but go the way of hardship with vitality,
you will become a person of heaven who
will welcome spring. (47-270, 1971.8.29

Cheon Seong Gyeong 588

People today struggle internally and
externally at the crossroads between
good and evil, and public and private,
in their daily lives. In many cases, they
vacillate between the two and finally fall
into a self-centered, private lifestyle. Yet
those who do that will perish. Therefore,
they must repent for their past self-cen-
tered, private lives, grit their teeth, and
push themselves back into public life.
People tend to waver between these two
lifestyles. They are more inclined toward
living privately, and end up distancing
themselves from the public good. This
has been your life of faith until today.
Therefore, all those with a private life-
style must repent. (31-242, 1970.6.4)

The Religious Person’s Attitude

Sun Myung Moon
March 29, 1959

Hebrews 11:1-32

To gallantly travel the path of difficulty, the path of persecution and death while walking the path of faith, there is something you must feel first. You must feel that your birth and your being of a particular nation or group was not the result of your individual wish. You will not be able to deny that you were born on this earth by having been drawn into motion that even you yourselves cannot understand. When we think again about how the motive of my being originated and was given to me, how I was to go through this kind of course and am a resultant being, we must not boast of ourselves or our beings. We must boast about the being who has something to show off within the ideological realm of history, the whole, and the future.

Unless you have this kind of conviction and feeling now, a more complicated matter than you might think will occur in your path of faith. Sorrowful and difficult things will take place. You will face undeserved death. You will easily abandon your ties with the heavenly principles. You will stand in a position where it is easy for you to betray Heaven. Continue reading “You Have Been Drawn Into Motion that You Cannot Understand”

“I” and the Kingdom

Luke 4

18 “The Lord’s Spirit
    has come to me,
because he has chosen me
to tell the good news
    to the poor.
The Lord has sent me
to announce freedom
    for prisoners,
to give sight to the blind,
to free everyone
    who suffers,
19 and to say, ‘This is the year
    the Lord has chosen.’”

Luke 18

1 Jesus took the twelve apostles aside and said:

We are now on our way to Jerusalem. Everything that the prophets wrote about the Son of Man will happen there. 32 He will be handed over to foreigners,[f] who will make fun of him, mistreat him, and spit on him. 33 They will beat him and kill him, but three days later he will rise to life.

34 The apostles did not understand what Jesus was talking about. They could not understand, because the meaning of what he said was hidden from them.

The Religious Person’s Attitude

Sun Myung Moon
March 29, 1959

Hebrews 11:1-32

The title of the sermon I am about to give you is “The Religious Person’s Attitude.” I will speak briefly upon this topic.

You have flattered yourselves that you are religious. We have gone forth not longing for this nation in the present state of affairs, but longing for the eternal kingdom. You have neither seen nor been to that kingdom. You simply proceeded forward, believing that the word you had heard was true.

We cannot consider that the intrinsic qualities of faith jell with all conditions of reality. I believe that, for those trying to lead a true life of faith, this only happens when the great infinite Heaven, the garden of eternal ideology that we cannot even imagine, has a reciprocal relationship with the being called “I.” Heaven will press me constantly and warmly to make an effort to attain the ideology in reality. The path of faith continues upon that basis alone.

The kingdom we long for cannot be elucidated by dreams or imagination or even by wise conjecture. That world is necessary for us. It is the limitless world of the ideal; the world of goodness, happiness, love, and the ideology of which we dream. That world is the heavenly kingdom of faith in which we wish to live. From a worldly point of view, those who keep faith with the intrinsic qualities of that world might be seen as extremely pitiful, terribly lonely, or ultimately sorrowful. It depends upon how you view them. If there is one who feels and experiences Heaven’s heart, even in such a situation, and feels the shock and the stimulus of that realm of the heart, no matter what kind of persecution, suffering or death tries to block the way, nothing can stop him from going this path. Continue reading ““I” and the Kingdom”

The Words of the Principle are Sweeter than Honey

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2336

The Principle is a storehouse con-
taining the words of life. Listening to it is
like attaching a rubber hose to a big cis-
tern to be supplied with the water of life
through it. Once you get a taste of that
water of life, you will go crazy for it and
could never tear your lips away from it
even if you tried. If someone pulled you
away, your lips would be torn from your
face. It’s just like a bee sucking on honey:
if you were to pull at it with tweezers, it
would stay in the honey, even if its tail
came off. Similarly, you will find some-
thing in the Principle that is sweeter
than even honey. (90-197, 1977.1.1)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 429

God created a man and a woman.
He intended for them to reach perfec-
tion, marry, become established as the
heavenly husband and wife, and live in
the heavenly kingdom. God’s plan was
to make Adam and Eve the first husband
and wife in history and establish the
foundation of the Kingdom of Heaven
upon their relationship. If this plan had
been realized, God’s first two blessings,
to be fruitful and to multiply, would have
been achieved then and there. God gave
Adam and Eve the power to multiply His
children. Had they not fallen, they would
never have passed sin on to humankind.
Their children would have been born
without sin and would have grown to
perfection as sinless beings. What else
would have occurred? By giving birth
to such sinless children, Adam and Eve
would have become the true father and
true mother of humankind centering on
God. They would have become the True
Parents. (Blessed Family – 319)

The Religious Person’s Attitude

Sun Myung Moon
March 29, 1959

Hebrews 11:1-32

Prayer

Father, please allow our minds and bodies to be fraught only with the Father’s Shim Jung, at least in this hour. Let this be the hour in which we become imbued with the mind of original nature and are drawn toward the Father’s Shim Jung. Please allow the deeply penetrating Shim Jung to put forth its buds in our minds and bodies so that, upon seeing the Father rejoicing, we can run toward Him and enfold His neck with our arms.

We have learned that You are the Father who appears subtly. You will not initiate any action until we lay bare our thoughts. We still have loyalty toward the Father, in spite of our contaminated minds. Father, please seek us through this Shim Jung. Through this Shim Jung, give orders. Please allow the ardent Shim Jung with which we can call You “My Father” to seep out, unconsciously shedding tears, sorry for the insufficiency of our bodies and realizing the inadequacy of our past lives.

We have learned that Heaven feels no reluctance in protecting anyone and everyone; Heaven feels no reluctance in becoming the friend of one who seeks Heaven. Heaven is the friend of those who wail to Heaven and shed tears. He takes delight in showing Himself to be our Father, who will live together with us forever.

We miss the voice of the Father who would subtly counsel us. We long to feel the wonderful love of the Father, who would embrace us in subtlety. We miss the moment when we can call You “Father” and want to boast and exclaim that You are our own Father with uplifted hands. Continue reading “The Words of the Principle are Sweeter than Honey”

The King’s Son Made a Grave Error

2 Samuel 13

13 David had a beautiful daughter named Tamar, who was the sister of Absalom. She was also the half sister of Amnon,[a] who fell in love with her. 2 But Tamar was a virgin, and Amnon could not think of a way to be alone with her. He was so upset about it that he made himself sick.

3 Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, who was the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab always knew how to get what he wanted, 4 and he said to Amnon, “What’s the matter? You’re the king’s son! You shouldn’t have to go around feeling sorry for yourself every morning.”

Amnon said, “I’m in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.”

5 Jonadab told him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend to be sick. When your father comes to see you, ask him to send Tamar, so you can watch her cook something for you. Then she can serve you the food.”

6 So Amnon went to bed and pretended to be sick. When the king came to see him, Amnon said, “Please, ask Tamar to come over. She can make some special bread[b] while I watch, and then she can serve me the bread.”

7 David told Tamar, “Go over to Amnon’s house and fix him some food.” 8 When she got there, he was lying in bed. She mixed the dough, made the loaves, and baked them while he watched. 9 Then she took the bread out of the pan and put it on his plate, but he refused to eat it.

Amnon said, “Send the servants out of the house.” After they had gone, 10 he said to Tamar, “Serve the food in my bedroom.”

Tamar picked up the bread that she had made and brought it into Amnon’s bedroom. 11 But as she was taking it over to him, he grabbed her and said, “Come to bed with me!”

12 She answered, “No! Please don’t force me! This sort of thing isn’t done in Israel. It’s too disgusting! 13 Think of me. I’ll be disgraced forever! And think of yourself. Everyone in Israel will say you’re nothing but trash! Just ask the king, and he will let you marry me.”

14 But Amnon would not listen to what she said. He was stronger than she was, so he overpowered her and raped her. 15 Then Amnon hated her even more than he had loved her before. So he told her, “Get up and get out!”

Hosea 10

8 The altars at sinful Bethel
will be destroyed
    for causing Israel to sin;
they will be grown over
    with thorns and thistles.
Then everyone will beg
the mountains and hills
    to cover and protect them.

The Religious Person’s Attitude

Sun Myung Moon
March 29, 1959

Hebrews 11:1-32

Prayer

Father! Please forgive us. We cannot repay Your grace even in ten million lifetimes, the grace of being able to call You “Father.” Forgive us for calling You Father, knowing that You are the Father of blessing. Forgive us for having attended You only as the Father who is in a high and noble place.

You were the Father of a myriad soldiers, the master of the whole cosmos, and the central figure with the authority of the whole world. However, because of the mistakes made by Your sons and daughters, You have been put in such a miserable situation. Father, please allow us to be sensitive to Your heart in this hour. Father, we pray and wish that You not allow us to become weak like the defeated ones after seeing the hill of bitterness in the providence You left behind.

We are aware that even if we cannot go, the Father has to walk the path of the providence. Even if we abandon You, You have to go, filled with the sorrow of being abandoned. The Father has to walk the path of the cross today too, without minding, passing through the nation and toward the world. However, since there are very few people on earth who understand this situation, we cannot help having concern that the Father’s sorrow will penetrate to the very depths of this earth, that the Father’s lamentation will reach the earth, and that the Father’s judgment will fall upon the earth. Father of compassion, Father of love, Your will of promise is alive in our hearts. Please protect us. Father, we pray and desire that You allow us to be the beloved sons and daughters who build the altar of the heart, weeping bitterly on their knees in the presence of the Father.

Please let us have more faith than those of faith thus far, as we go forth, knowing the will of the six thousand years. Allow us to gain victory over any persecution. Allow us to overcome any kind of disregard. Although we could become instruments of betrayal, since we have sought You and come to this place, Father, we pray and wish that You allow us to be unchanging, loyal and filial sons and daughters with passionate devotion toward You. Father, if we stop our pace on this path, we know that the national grief will be increased and that our lamentation will also be increased. Father, please drive us out in a pressing manner. We sincerely wish and desire that You drive us out to the end so that we may establish the fortitude to stand by God’s opinions. Continue reading “The King’s Son Made a Grave Error”