Find the True Source of Your Pride

Acts 18

4 Every Sabbath, Paul went to the Jewish meeting place. He spoke to Jews and Gentiles[b] and tried to win them over. 5 But after Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, he spent all his time preaching to the Jews about Jesus the Messiah. 6 Finally, they turned against him and insulted him. So he shook the dust from his clothes[c] and told them, “Whatever happens to you will be your own fault! I am not to blame. From now on I am going to preach to the Gentiles.”

Richard:  We have to get out of our “holy huddlle” and mingle with others and provide the words of salvation.

Ezekiel 31

10 King of Egypt, now listen to what I, the Lord God, am saying about that tree:

The tree grew so tall that it reached the sky[c] and became very proud and arrogant. 11 So I, the Lord God, will reject the tree and hand it over to a foreign ruler, who will punish it for its wickedness. 12 Cruel foreigners will chop it down and leave it wherever it falls. Branches and broken limbs will be scattered over the mountains and in the valleys. The people living in the shade of those branches will go somewhere else. 13 Birds will then nest on the stump of the fallen tr

Let Us Understand God, Who Wanted to be Proud

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 8, 1959

Genesis 1: 24-31

We have not known the God who could never take pride in His creation. We did not know that He saw His pride turn into sorrow and manifest itself in tears.

Therefore, now we must find the original heavenly nature and original love of which God longs to be proud. Accordingly, as the people who possess the original heart of love that can relate with God, you must cultivate yourselves to become those in whom God can take pride. Although God has been yearning and searching for the one person who can bring shame to Satan and provide God with a source of pride, He has not been able to find such a person.

People want to boast. It is human nature to put one’s self forward and boast about oneself. We have the desire to boast about our parents, our children, and the whole of our family. Furthermore, we have the desire to be proud of our tribes, our nations, our world, and the whole of heaven and earth. Although you are fallen people, your original minds that seek to boast about things are controlling both your lives and history. You have to understand this. Continue reading “Find the True Source of Your Pride”

God Sought the Family that he Could Take Pride In

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1804

If we ask whether Adam and Eve
gave birth to sons and daughters before
or after the Fall, nobody would say they
gave birth before the Fall. Who took
responsibility for their marriage for the
sake of those sons and daughters? God
cannot take responsibility for people
whom He drove out. There is no doubt
the marriage was conducted by Satan
the devil.

Richard:  This is a clear explanation of the need for the Messiah; to bring God’s lineage as an unfallen Adam.  Jesus came for this purpose, and sough his bride.  The returning Jesus also seeks his bride and creates a true family.  That has been fulfilled in Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his bride.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 697

My accomplishments thus far exceed
those of anyone in the spirit world. I
have worked harder than anyone else.
That being the case, will the Unification
Church be at the tail end of the spirit
world, or will it rise to the top spot? It
will be at the top. This is not something
I have made up.

Let Us Understand God, Who Wanted to be Proud

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 8, 1959

Genesis 1: 24-31

This sermon is about something with which we are very familiar. God said that the creation He made in the six days was good. We must reflect upon how God’s deep desire to take infinite pride in His creation can be found in this word “good.”

God wanted to boast about the creation He had made in six days. When He was looking at all the created things, He was extremely delighted. To whom did He speak the words, “They are good”? He did not utter those words to the archangel. He spoke those words to all created things. We have to understand that God’s feelings toward all things were that intensely loving.

Nonetheless, all created things lost their value of being good, which God extolled in the Garden of Eden. God’s desire toward all things could not be substantially manifested. When we think about this sad situation, we can understand that God’s words, “They are good,” became words of grief. We have to remember this. The words extolling the goodness became sorrowful words. If someone had recognized the heart and situation of God, then God would have been more happy about the creation He had personally made. Continue reading “God Sought the Family that he Could Take Pride In”

Feel Indignation Toward the Crushing of God’s Ideal

Isaiah 47

The Lord said:

47 City of Babylon,
You are delicate
    and untouched,
    but that will change.
Surrender your royal power
    and sit in the dirt.
2 Start grinding grain!
    Take off your veil.
Strip off your fancy clothes
    and cross over rivers.[a]
3 You will suffer the shame
    of going naked,
because I will take revenge,
    and no one can escape.[b]
4 I am the Lord All-Powerful,
the holy God of Israel.
    I am their Savior.

2 Kings 8

9 Hazael left with forty camel loads of the best things made in Damascus as a gift for Elisha. He found the prophet and said, “Your servant, King Benhadad, wants to know if he will get well.”

10 “Tell him he will,” Elisha said to Hazael. “But the Lord has already told me that Benhadad will definitely die.” 11 Elisha stared at him until Hazael was embarrassed, then Elisha began crying.

Let Us Understand God, Who Wanted to be Proud

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 8, 1959

Genesis 1: 24-31

24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Prayer

Father, please allow us to be awakened to the grieving heart You had when You lost the original garden and mourned over it. We have been ignorant of the fact that the sorrow of Adam and Eve is our sorrow. We have failed to experience through our minds and bodies that the Father’s sadness is greater than our sorrow. We sincerely wish to feel in our bodies and minds during this hour that, unbeknownst to us, the Father has shed many tears and has suffered endless and infinite sorrow and pain.

The sorrow of the Father caused by the fall of Adam and Eve was indeed great. Jesus’ unfinished mission in the will of the providence of restoration on the earth also caused You infinite grief, loneliness and suffering. Please allow us to experience the entirety of Your agonized heart during this hour. Continue reading “Feel Indignation Toward the Crushing of God’s Ideal”

Where Do God and Man Meet?

Cheong Seong Gyeong 199

There are many religions on earth,
but among them, only Christianity has
the concept of following God’s four basic
requirements: to become God’s child, to
become one body with God, to meet as
bride and bridegroom in accordance
with God’s will, and to form a new fam-
ily. Since Jesus came with this thinking,
Christianity, centering on Jesus, inevi-
tably became a global religion. (54-108,
1972.03.20)

Richard:  The place of unity of God and Man is through the sexual organs;
between Blessed husband and wife.

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1735

What on earth does it mean to call
God our Father? You need to know the
origin of the ideal of creation. Who is
God? He is our Father, and you are His
children. Given that you are His chil-
dren, who do you take after? You resem-
ble Him. Would He have eyes? Would
He have a nose, a mouth and ears? He
would. Next, would He have a body?
Would God have sexual organs? All such
subjects pose questions, which must be
answered logically. (196-41, 1989.12.24)

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 1, 1959

Matthew 8: 18-22

Prayer

Father! We are awe-stricken to receive the mission that You have vested in us, and we are grateful for the grace You have given us by moving us to the depth of our hearts with Your call.

Now we have learned that our faith does not come from our hearts; it comes from the heart of Father, to which we cannot relate without shedding tears. We have also come to know the heart of Heaven, who has clung to these miserable ones and has struggled so fiercely for us. We have learned that we are sinful people who have bowed down before Your fearful grace, before which we shed endless tears. Continue reading “Where Do God and Man Meet?”

You Must Be Able to Say “It is Finished” While You Are Alive

1 Peter 1

22 You obeyed the truth,[d] and your souls were made pure. Now you sincerely love each other. But you must keep on loving with all your heart. 23 Do this because God has given you new birth by his message that lives on forever. 24 The Scriptures say,

“Humans wither like grass,
and their glory fades
    like wild flowers.
Grass dries up,
and flowers fall
    to the ground.
25 But what the Lord has said
    will stand forever.”

Our good news to you is what the Lord has said.

Richard:  The Word is powerful and brings the dead to life, so to speak.

Lamentations 3

Then I remember something
    that fills me with hope.
22 The Lord’s kindness never fails!
If he had not been merciful,
    we would have been destroyed.[c]
23 The Lord can always be trusted
    to show mercy each morning.
24 Deep in my heart I say,
“The Lord is all I need;
    I can depend on him!”

Richard:  What a great hymn of praise!

The Incarnation of Jesus, A Pioneer

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 1, 1959

Matthew 8: 18-22

In this age today, we have to pass through a period of preparation and a period of practice in our search for Heaven. We must seek for the original nature of Heaven. What kind of preparation must we make? In what kind of position must we stand? We have to stand in the same position as Jesus during his thirty- year preparation period. In doing so, we must prepare to represent the internal heart of Heaven and the human heart, represent all sovereignties, and determine to face conflicts by ourselves. Accordingly, a group of people certainly must appear who cross Golgotha on the world level with this kind of determination. You must understand this.

Jesus said, “It is finished,” when he was passing away. Yet this is not the culminating point of the completion of the providence. For this reason, we must pioneer a course through which we can say, “It is finished,” while we are still alive. The heavenly soldiers and angels, spirits and all created things must be able to bow their heads and say, “Today is the day your wishes are fulfilled. Please receive the glory.” This is the time to prepare for the day we can say, “It is finished” in this way. Christians today remain faithful to go beyond the day of saying, “It is finished” as they pass away. They must be able to say the same while they are alive. Hence, you must take charge of the mission of a heavenly pioneer in this first completion stage we are in today. Continue reading “You Must Be Able to Say “It is Finished” While You Are Alive”