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

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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

Continue reading “For God So Loved the World that He Gave His Only Son”

The Four Position Foundation Is God’s Eternal Purpose of Creation

Read the latest Urban Life Training Newsletter: https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/newsletters/337-newsletter-01-21-20 .

Romans 4

⁴Money paid to workers isn’t a gift. It is something they earn by working. ⁵But you cannot make God accept you because of something you do. God accepts sinners only because they have faith in him. ⁶In the Scriptures David talks about the blessings that come to people who are acceptable to God, even though they don’t do anything to deserve these blessings. David says,

⁷“God blesses people
    whose sins are forgiven
and whose evil deeds
    are forgotten.
⁸The Lord blesses people
whose sins are erased
    from his book.”

Isaiah 1

¹⁵“No matter how much you pray,
I won’t listen.
    You are too violent.
¹⁶Wash yourselves clean!
I am disgusted
    with your filthy deeds.
Stop doing wrong
¹⁷    and learn to live right.
See that justice is done.
Defend widows and orphans
    and help those in need.”

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

The Principle of Creation

1.2 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOD AND THE UNIVERSE

In light of our understanding of the dual characteristics, the relationship between God and the universe can be summarized thus: The
universe as a whole is a substantial object partner to God. It is composed of individual embodiments of truth, each a unique manifestation
of the dual characteristics of God at either the level of image or of symbol, as governed by the Principle of Creation.

UNIVERSAL PRIME ENERGY, GIVE AND TAKE ACTION,
AND THE FOUR POSITION FOUNDATION

2.1 UNIVERSAL PRIME ENERGY
God, the Creator of all things, is the absolute reality, eternal, self-existent and transcendent of time and space. The fundamental energy
of God’s being is also eternal, self-existent and absolute. It is the origin of all energies and forces that allow created beings to exist. We call
this fundamental energy universal prime energy.

2.2 GIVE AND TAKE ACTION
Through the agency of universal prime energy, the subject and
object elements of every entity form a common base and enter into
interaction. This interaction, in turn, generates all the forces the entity
needs for existence, multiplication and action. The interaction generating these forces through this process is called give and take action.
2.3 THE FOUR POSITION FOUNDATION WHICH REALIZES THE THREE
OBJECT PURPOSE THROUGH ORIGIN-DIVISION-UNION ACTION

2.3.1 ORIGIN-DIVISION-UNION ACTION
The process of God’s creation in which out of God, the Origin, two entities are separately manifested
and reunited in oneness—is called origin-division-union action.
2.3.2 THE THREE OBJECT PURPOSE
As a result of origin-division-union action, four positions are formed:
the origin at the center, the subject partner and the object partner (distinct substantial object partners to the origin in the pattern of its dual
characteristics), and their union. Any one of the four positions may
assume the position of subject partner and engage the other three as
its object partners, forming a communion of three object partners. When
each of the four then acts as the subject partner and enters into give
and take with the other three revolving around it, they fulfill the three
object purpose.
2.3.3 THE FOUR POSITION FOUNDATION
When through origin-division-union action, the origin, the subject
partner and object partner projected from the origin, and their union all
fulfill the three object purpose, the four position foundation is established.
The original significance of the number four derives from the fourposition foundation. The original significance of the number three also
derives from it, because it is the fulfillment of the three-object purpose.
The four position foundation is realized by God, husband and wife, and
children; they complete the three stages of origin-division-union action.
Hence, the four position foundation is the root of the principle of three
stages. Furthermore, each of the four positions in the four position
foundation takes on three object partners in fulfilling the three object
purpose. In total there are twelve object partners; hence, from it derives
the original significance of the number twelve. The four position foundation is the fundamental foundation of goodness. It is the realization
of God’s purpose of creation. It is the fundamental foundation for the
life of all beings, providing all the forces necessary for their existence
and enabling God to abide in them. Therefore, the four position foundation is God’s eternal purpose of creation.

View slides 26 -50 below for an illustrated slide show of the content above.

2007p1-CHAPT-1-Creation_revised-4-28-2014-red-part

No One Is Concerned with the Father’s Situation

Join us on Saturday, October 5th at 10 a.m. for Part 1 of the Unification Principle online seminar. Register here: https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/unification-principle-training

Romans 4

¹⁸God promised Abraham a lot of descendants. And when it all seemed hopeless, Abraham still had faith in God and became the ancestor of many nations. ¹⁹Abraham’s faith never became weak, not even when he was nearly a hundred years old. He knew that he was almost dead and that his wife Sarah could not have children. ²⁰But Abraham never doubted or questioned God’s promise. His faith made him strong, and he gave all the credit to God.

Psalm 69

¹⁹You know how I am insulted,
    mocked, and disgraced;
    you know every one
    of my enemies.
²⁰I am crushed by insults,
    and I feel sick.
    I had hoped for mercy and pity,
    but there was none.
²¹Enemies poisoned my food,
    and when I was thirsty,
    they gave me vinegar.

²²Make their table a trap
    for them and their friends.
²³    Blind them with darkness
    and make them tremble.
²⁴Show them how angry you are!
    Be furious and catch them.
²⁵Destroy their camp
    and don’t let anyone live
    in their tents.

We Who Are Walking a Life Course

Sun Myung Moon
September 6, 1959

1 Peter 1: 21-25

Prayer

We sense that we have come into Your presence, and we lie prostrated after wandering in many places.

How can we ever pay back the grace You have given us by allowing us to call You “Our Father”? How can we ever pay back the grace of Your not hesitating to suffer any hardship to protect and purify us and for Your having guided us thus far? We do not have anything with which to pay it back. We cannot pay back the blessing even if we offer You our bodies; even if we offer all of our minds. We are still unworthy to even raise our heads before the Father’s toils and accomplishments.

We know that the Father who guided us this far has the responsibility to save us, and that Father’s strongest desire is to usher in the day of glory through us. When we reflect upon how the Father wants to be comforted by us, we are ashamed before the Father who put so much hope in us and who has persevered through the numerous difficulties of history.

If our flesh and blood can empathize with the Father’s heart, and our bones have laid the framework of our character building, please let them become a basic unit which can testify to the Father’s unchanging nature.

How much have You longed for the glorious and sacred incarnation whose every cell belongs to the Father and who returns glory to You? In history our ancestors could not honor You in this way. When they were following Heaven’s way, they sometimes held grudges against You and abandoned You. We also know the historical fact that the chosen people had to give up their rights.

Father! Because we have inherited a sorrowful lineage, even if we may say we believe in Heaven today, we are so close to the evil world that we may betray You tomorrow. Please have compassion upon us. Please take hold of us. Please engraft our thirsty hearts onto the Father’s heart of life, and give rise to the work of resurrection which can stir new life.

Many people have lived on the earth. Many people have been born and have died. Yet no one is concerned with the Father’s situation and is mourning over the Father’s sad heart. Please let us become those who can lament over the Father’s situation and heart. Father, we sincerely wish that You will fill the earth with many sons and daughters who are burning with the desire to refute Heaven and earth, humanity, history and their fallen ancestors and to attend the Father.

For whose sake have we come here? It was not to see well-dressed or beautiful people. We who have ugly scars and wounds came to try to resemble the Father’s holy sung-sang. Please do not reject us. Embrace us. You know that we are lonely because we do not have a place to rest our hearts and minds. Please comfort us during this hour.

Please appear before us with this heart and guide us as our subject partner of eternal life. Give us words of life which can penetrate our minds and bodies. Please let this be an hour when we can thank Your grace and bow to You.

We want to receive the words this hour. Father, please be with us. Please help us understand that if there is an internal gap between the speaker and the listeners, Satan will come in through that path. That is the realm Satan is seeking. Please let the heart of the speaker and the hearts of listeners be united so that we can be connected to the Father’s heart and move in harmony with Him.

Your sons and daughters are on their knees and offering lonely and ardent prayers everywhere in South Korea. Please advise them, as they are suffering through all difficulties. You said that those who persevere till the end will receive salvation. Please guide us to glorify the Father by being patient and testify to the Father before the people as Your incarnations. Please bless the many churches and people who are gathering together. We prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Restore the Absolute Lineage

Cheon Seong Gyeong 340

The bodies of Adam and Eve who have
not fallen are houses wherein God can
dwell. Had Adam and Eve become the
body of love, body of life, and body of lin-
eage eternally unified through true love,
making God the center of their heart,
the mind and body would not be fighting
today. The Fall means that humankind
inherited Satan’s life and blood through
Satan’s love. This is why this lineage must
be transformed. The providence of sal-
vation will be completed only when the
wild olive tree is transformed into the
true olive tree. (226-48, 1992.2.1)

Richard: The process of complete salvation involves transferring one’s lineage to God’s side. The process of the Blessing of Marriage is an essential part of this process. Watch a slide presentation on The Holy Communion of Marriage:
http://visionroot.org/resources/marriage/ .

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1458

Adam and Eve lost the standard
through which they could practice abso-
lute faith, absolute love, and absolute
obedience. They entered unprincipled
marriage, thereby defiling the lineage,
completely overturning the right of
ownership, and bringing into ruin their
whole tribe. Therefore, the absolute res-
toration of the lineage must take place.
In other words, you need to protect
the pure lineage of True Parents so that
it can be passed down to your descen-
dants eternally. Adam and Eve failed
to do so and entered a fallen relation-
ship. Therefore, you need to maintain
purity and be blessed in marriage. You
can then restore the absolute lineage,
the absolute right of ownership, and the
absolute realm of heart. This should be
our motto, in fact three mottos. (269-94,
1995.4.8)

What Belongs to the Father Belongs to Me

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
August 30, 1959

John 14:11

1 Corinthians 13: 1-13

Heaven has been toiling until today and persevering through all sufferings behind the scenes in order to give human beings absolute value. God has no choice but to continue this work, even beyond today. When we come to understand this, our heads bow in humility and awe every time we think about Heavenly Father.

For this reason, God has proclaimed words of truth which humanity does not even understand. God told us just to believe in Him, even though His will was to establish religions and build profound relationships with us. The contents of His proclamations were not clearly defined. God commanded us to look to Him. He also told us to love Him. Although we do not know the nature of the relationship and its specific content, through our experience we come to reaffirm that we are inseparably connected to something in the world of the heart. Human beings have depended on and believed in these vague words of truth; they have longed for them and loved them. People of faith were felled as they held true to their beliefs, adhering to their hope and love. Countless people were felled in their life of devotion. Those who died as they adhered to their belief in God surpass the patriots and heroes of a country many thousands of times over. Many have died keeping their hope or love. Among them, however, no one has been hailed as a prince of faith, a prince of hope, a prince of love.

When we reflect upon the six-thousand-year history, we find that there were many who fell while they were aspiring to become victorious in their faith, yet there was no one who was revered by humanity as a great prince of faith. Similarly, we find that although there were many who searched for the foundation of hope, no one was ever praised by Heaven on a foundation of hope or was revered by humanity. Although there have been many people who professed to love, the same thing was true for them. Should we then hold grudges against God for this? Do the notions of faith, hope and love not exist?

Jesus was the incarnation of faith whom God had sought for four thousand years. He was someone who deeply experienced the Father’s heart as a concrete reality. The people did not know that Jesus was such a person. No one in all of humanity knew that. If there was a person who did know, it was God.

We Have to Totally Change Today’s Understanding of Faith

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Amos 9

I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said:

“Strike the tops of the pillars
    so that the thresholds shake.
Bring them down on the heads of all the people;
    those who are left I will kill with the sword.
Not one will get away,
    none will escape.

Jeremiah 50

As I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
along with their neighboring towns,”
declares the Lord,
“so no one will live there;
no people will dwell in it.

Richard: God has declared a war on lewd ungodly, immoral behavior. Hopefully this war wil be carried out by propagating the Word of God. As more and more people realize God’s family ideal, that will bring a world of peace. There is no other way.

The Father and I

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 12, 1959

John 14: 1-19

What kind of person is a true Christian? It is not someone who dances with joy. It would be someone who prays with concern for God. He or she would not pray for themselves but would pray for the sake of God. That person would not worry whether he or she would become the bride or not, but would worry about whether Jesus, the bridegroom, is happy or not. The person would not pray asking God to send him or her to Heaven, but instead would pray, asking to free God of His sorrow. The person would not ask for his or her value to be acknowledged in Heaven, but would hope that God’s value may be acknowledged in this world, even through his or her own death.

We have to totally change today’s understanding of faith. It has to be changed fundamentally. Do people want to go to Heaven by believing? What are they going to do in Heaven? Are they going to steal from God again when they are there? That is like being joyful after losing the heavenly essence. The essence is the heart of giving. Even fallen minds can perceive such a nature of love. The pit of death awaits those who are striving to receive. The realm of resurrection of life awaits those who are struggling to give. Jesus was someone who struggled for thirty years of his life to give. Jesus endeavored to give during his three years of public ministry. In the end he even gave himself. You have to realize that the Messiah was the prince who strove to give and give again.

Those who are following such an example must repent and see how much of an offering you have made yourself in order to liberate God’s sorrow in your lives. Such a person has no concept of Heaven or hell. Such a person would say, “Who cares if I go to Heaven or if I go to hell?” When God wants to resurrect such a person, even Satan has to agree. Here the historic standard of life gets established.

Today’s Unificationists need the words of the Bible in order to console the Father who is filled with sadness. You also need a teacher. But I do not want you to go forth just looking at the teacher. I hope that you yourselves will establish the bond of relationship with Heavenly Father’s heart, with the teacher as the center. God will never desert you when you pray for this nation with heartfelt pleas, when you strive to introduce God’s heart to it, and when you become the offering. God will not give up on us.

When we think about God, we know that He is the master of all things. But have you seen His deeds? As the subject of love, was He ever able to say “I love you” to mankind? Never. Although He was in a position to own everything, He was never able to claim mankind as His own. And although there are numerous people in this world, and although there were the Israelites who were prepared for four thousand years, Heavenly Father was never able to raise them up as His own sons and daughters or as warriors who could defeat Satan.

There are many Christians in the democratic camp today, but God has not been able to place them as generals in command of an offensive attack against Satan. He also wanted to have Jesus command the angelic world to establish a relationship with this world, but that could not be achieved. God gave mankind the ideal of the bride, and He sought to find such brides. But He could not find one person who could stand as the proud bride in front of Satan. We are truly sorry in front of Heavenly Father.

The world calls the leader of the Unification Church the ringleader of a cult. That’s fine. I just want them to receive all the blessing. I don’t want to give excuses or explanations. This is not the time to fight over such things. Our lives are busy, and what is more urgent is how we are to be recognized by Heavenly Father.

We are all miserable, we are all the same. There were times when we called on the Father and all pledged to die together if we had to. There were times when we called on our Father with tears. We had to stand in such a position representing this nation. Although there may have been times of sorrow, we have to go this path as the Father has led us. We should be grateful and feel unworthy if we can’t feel this historical sorrow. We should be grateful that we can feel the traces of our ancestors’ tears and blood, to tread together down this sorrowful valley. Even if this body may be ripped to pieces or fall down, we have nothing to feel sad about. We have to realize we are the Christians of the last days who have to find and walk this path of heart again.

It is fine to be called a cult or to be misunderstood. None of that can be an obstacle for me. I am here to clarify the heavenly concept. I am telling you now that God will by all means pull us forward along with history if I can share that heart, kneel down in understanding of such a heart, and speak with the heart to raise up the people who will cry with that heart.