Save the dates:July 5th to July 7th, as we will hold an Urban Family Life Training seminar for couples and singles seeking a godly spouse. You will learn how to set up a ministry to guide youth and young adults toward godly marriage. It will be held at the Peace Kingdom Center in Harpers Ferry, WV.
Cheong Seong Gyeong 2284
The work you are engaged in is that of
creation. Your life is the life of love seek-
ing the path to console God and come
in contact with the world of His love. In
such a life you will not feel tired though
you may work your whole life striving
to fulfill God’s will. Live with the notion
that you will make, from what God has
created just for the fun of it, souvenirs to
take to heaven with you. This is what the
True Parents are doing as they explore
nature and all the sights in the world, be
that on the sea, the five oceans and six
continents, or in the rivers, mountains,
and various other land forms.
Will you also follow their lifestyle,
working to liberate the realm of nature,
from its lament, with God’s love, or will
you choose to stay stuck in a big city,
centered on yourselves, destroying the
environment, creating pollution, and
being parents who block the way for
your children to develop their soulful-
ness? After considering the two options,
Unification Church members natural-
ly choose to follow my way of loving
nature, and so it will be possible to build
the ideal Kingdom of Heaven wherein
cities will be decentralized and natural-
ized, and where we will live in harmony
with nature. (288-72, 1997.10.31)
Richard:I remember that in my later years in high school we lived in a rural area. At night it was quite dark, and I would lie down outside and marvel at the stars and I absolutely knew that God existed. ” being parents who block the way for your children to develop their soulfulness” is a concerning statement. In cities our children are robbed of such an experience. I highly recommend, as stated above, moving out of the city environment and into a more natural setting.
Cheon Seong Gyeong 799
This universe is a museum of love.
Human beings must become the own-
ers of this museum. The mineral world
and plant world multiply centering on
relationships of love. Without love, his-
tory would end. History can continue
because there is reproduction. Conse-
quently, man and woman should mar-
ry and give birth to children. Without
doing so, they cannot find their place in
the spirit world. When a baby is born,
you should come before God and offer
that baby as a gift to Him. Without
this gift, you cannot hold your head up
proudly.
Richard: Such a simple core truth, yet so lost on so many today. Knowing the joy that sexual intercourse can bring to God through couples blessed in marriage, how can we just use that gift as we please and even abort babies?
Longing for Eden
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
June 28, 1959
Genesis 2: 1-25
2 So the heavens and the earth and everything else were created.
2 By the seventh day God had finished his work, and so he rested. 3 God blessed the seventh day and made it special because on that day he rested from his work.
4 That’s how God created the heavens and the earth.
When the Lord God made the heavens and the earth, 5 no grass or plants were growing anywhere. God had not yet sent any rain, and there was no one to work the land. 6 But streams[a] came up from the ground and watered the earth.
7 The Lord God took a handful of soil and made a man.[b] God breathed life into the man, and the man started breathing. 8 The Lord made a garden in a place called Eden, which was in the east, and he put the man there.
9 The Lord God placed all kinds of beautiful trees and fruit trees in the garden. Two other trees were in the middle of the garden. One of the trees gave life—the other gave the power to know the difference between right and wrong.
10 From Eden a river flowed out to water the garden, then it divided into four rivers. 11 The first one is the Pishon River that flows through the land of Havilah, 12 where pure gold, rare perfumes, and precious stones are found. 13 The second is the Gihon River that winds through Ethiopia.[c] 14 The Tigris River that flows east of Assyria is the third, and the fourth is the Euphrates River.
15 The Lord God put the man in the Garden of Eden to take care of it and to look after it. 16 But the Lord told him, “You may eat fruit from any tree in the garden, 17 except the one that has the power to let you know the difference between right and wrong. If you eat any fruit from that tree, you will die before the day is over!”
18 The Lord God said, “It isn’t good for the man to live alone. I need to make a suitable partner for him.” 19-20 So the Lord took some soil and made animals and birds. He brought them to the man to see what names he would give each of them. Then the man named the tame animals and the birds and the wild animals. That’s how they got their names.
None of these was the right kind of partner for the man. 21 So the LordGod made him fall into a deep sleep, and he took out one of the man’s ribs. Then after closing the man’s side, 22 the Lord made a woman out of the rib.
The Lord God brought her to the man, 23 and the man exclaimed,
“Here is someone like me!
She is part of my body,
my own flesh and bones.
She came from me, a man.
So I will name her Woman!”[d]
24 That’s why a man will leave his own father and mother. He marries a woman, and the two of them become like one person.
25 Although the man and his wife were both naked, they were not ashamed.
Prayer
Father, please allow us to feel how You lamented over not having had even one original person who could see the original world. Father, please permit us to think about Your sorrow over not having had one day in which You could rejoice with humanity, even though we have inherited Your original nature. Please grant that we may experience Your sorrow directly and personally in this hour. We ask this sincerely.
Please forgive the fault of the human ancestors who brought sorrowful lamentation to You. With great ideals, You dreamed of the joyful garden. We also sincerely ask You to forgive the sin of our ancestors, who caused You to persevere through the historical course of pain and hardship to recover that garden of hope.
We know and believe that You will remove the thousands of years of painful resentment and victoriously fulfill Your ideal. Father, we desire to offer everything we have for that purpose. Please rule that mind and will in us, and guide us to be the sons and daughters who can bring about that victorious standard.
If there was a time when we did not have an earnest heart toward Your will, Your heart, and Your ideal during the past week, please forgive us. Father, please forgive us for not having the unified standard, even though we earnestly desire to be connected to Your heart.
We know Your heart experienced sorrow as You worked with our ancestors in the historical course. Loving Father, we sincerely hope and ask that You allow us to be the true sons and daughters who are willing to take responsibility for the failures of our ancestors and humanity at this time of the last days and who can comfort Your pain-filled heart. Father, please have compassion upon us. We have knelt in front of You to offer our bows, although we are unqualified and unfaithful.
If any of us hold an unrighteous and wrong view or concept in Your presence, please eliminate it totally and allow no such thing. We earnestly hope and desire that You create an inspired and grateful heart in our minds and bodies at this time with which we can share and rejoice together with Your heart. Please make the numerous saints and heavenly angels rejoice together with us and return the glory of that happiness to You.
We hope that this hour of our offering can be a time when we can comfort and liberate You, the one who experienced the sorrow in that original garden. Father, we wish to offer our inadequate prayers and offerings. Father, please protect this hour from beginning to end with Your shield of victory and Your flaming eyes, so that Satan may not invade and You will totally subjugate us.
Please eliminate all unrighteous natures from our hearts and instill instead the original heart that we may work with You and that this hour may be one of happy offering. As we ask all these things, we pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.
