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<h1 class="page-title">Category: <span>Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1959</span></h1> </header>
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<article id="post-1009" class="post-1009 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1959">
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<h2 class="entry-title">
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/10/the-religious-persons-attitude.html" title="Permalink to The Religious Person’s Attitude" rel="bookmark">The Religious Person’s Attitude</a>
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-10T07:38:16+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/10/the-religious-persons-attitude.html" rel="bookmark">June 10, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-10T07:38:16+01:00">June 10, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1959.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1959</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
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March 29, 1959,<br />
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Former Church Headquarters<br />
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Seoul, Korea</h3>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;"><em>Hebrews 11:1-32</em></h3>
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<p class="chapter-2" style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="text Heb-11-1">Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.</span> <span id="en-NIV-30175" class="text Heb-11-2"><sup class="versenum">2 </sup>This is what the ancients were commended for.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30176" class="text Heb-11-3"><sup class="versenum">3 </sup>By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30177" class="text Heb-11-4"><sup class="versenum">4 </sup>By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30178" class="text Heb-11-5"><sup class="versenum">5 </sup>By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”<sup class="footnote" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; top: 0px;" data-fn="#fen-NIV-30178a" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NIV-30178a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]">[<a title="See footnote a" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+11:1-32#fen-NIV-30178a">a</a>]</sup> For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.</span> <span id="en-NIV-30179" class="text Heb-11-6"><sup class="versenum">6 </sup>And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30180" class="text Heb-11-7"><sup class="versenum">7 </sup>By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30181" class="text Heb-11-8"><sup class="versenum">8 </sup>By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.</span> <span id="en-NIV-30182" class="text Heb-11-9"><sup class="versenum">9 </sup>By faith he made his home in the promised landlike a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.</span> <span id="en-NIV-30183" class="text Heb-11-10"><sup class="versenum">10 </sup>For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.</span> <span id="en-NIV-30184" class="text Heb-11-11"><sup class="versenum">11 </sup>And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she<sup class="footnote" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; top: 0px;" data-fn="#fen-NIV-30184b" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NIV-30184b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]">[<a title="See footnote b" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+11:1-32#fen-NIV-30184b">b</a>]</sup> considered him faithful who had made the promise.</span> <span id="en-NIV-30185" class="text Heb-11-12"><sup class="versenum">12 </sup>And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30186" class="text Heb-11-13"><sup class="versenum">13 </sup>All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.</span> <span id="en-NIV-30187" class="text Heb-11-14"><sup class="versenum">14 </sup>People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.</span> <span id="en-NIV-30188" class="text Heb-11-15"><sup class="versenum">15 </sup>If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.</span> <span id="en-NIV-30189" class="text Heb-11-16"><sup class="versenum">16 </sup>Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30190" class="text Heb-11-17"><sup class="versenum">17 </sup>By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,</span> <span id="en-NIV-30191" class="text Heb-11-18"><sup class="versenum">18 </sup>even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”<sup class="footnote" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; top: 0px;" data-fn="#fen-NIV-30191c" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NIV-30191c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]">[<a title="See footnote c" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+11:1-32#fen-NIV-30191c">c</a>]</sup></span> <span id="en-NIV-30192" class="text Heb-11-19"><sup class="versenum">19 </sup>Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30193" class="text Heb-11-20"><sup class="versenum">20 </sup>By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30194" class="text Heb-11-21"><sup class="versenum">21 </sup>By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30195" class="text Heb-11-22"><sup class="versenum">22 </sup>By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30196" class="text Heb-11-23"><sup class="versenum">23 </sup>By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born,because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30197" class="text Heb-11-24"><sup class="versenum">24 </sup>By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.</span> <span id="en-NIV-30198" class="text Heb-11-25"><sup class="versenum">25 </sup>He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.</span> <span id="en-NIV-30199" class="text Heb-11-26"><sup class="versenum">26 </sup>He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.</span> <span id="en-NIV-30200" class="text Heb-11-27"><sup class="versenum">27 </sup>By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.</span> <span id="en-NIV-30201" class="text Heb-11-28"><sup class="versenum">28 </sup>By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30202" class="text Heb-11-29"><sup class="versenum">29 </sup>By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30203" class="text Heb-11-30"><sup class="versenum">30 </sup>By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30204" class="text Heb-11-31"><sup class="versenum">31 </sup>By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.<sup class="footnote" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; top: 0px;" data-fn="#fen-NIV-30204d" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NIV-30204d" title="See footnote d">d</a>]">[<a title="See footnote d" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+11:1-32#fen-NIV-30204d">d</a>]</sup></span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-30205" class="text Heb-11-32"><sup class="versenum">32 </sup>And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon,Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets,</span></em></p>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
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<p>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>Please look at us with compassion. Father, we sincerely wish and desire that You guide us to the position where our minds and bodies can be recognized as Your body and limbs.</p>
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<p>Many people are setting out now toward the goal of resembling the heavenly character. However, when we think of how few true sons and daughters there are who go forward with the heart of the Father, we cannot help being concerned.</p>
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<p>It has been six thousand years since You called and began searching for us. As the owner of all creation, You have called and sought us in person. When we think honestly whether we come forth in front of Your knees as the fruits of joy who are acceptable to You, we cannot help feeling remorse for all of our past thoughts and deeds. We feel we must reflect on all our normal activities. Please forgive us for being in a position to feel remorse.</p>
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<p>The original countenance of the person Heaven longed to see was glorious and proud. Nevertheless, we have not become people of such countenance, the true original countenances upon whom You can call. Since we find ourselves in a position to lament over ourselves, Father, we sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to at least have an ardent mind of remorse over having no excuse to offer You.</p>
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<p>Who would not want to become the Father’s son or daughter? Who would not vow to become an offering of sacrifice before Heaven? Yet there are extremely few people who have stood as the Father’s true sons and daughters. We know very well through the course of history that even though You took those who pledged themselves and led them forward, there were extremely few who appeared as Heaven’s pride. Father, please forgive us for all the traces and blemishes of the fall that we bear.</p>
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<p>Heaven came looking for us with a true mind, a true heart, and true deeds. However, we could not truly relate to You. Father, we ardently wish and desire that You forgive us for all these imperfections.</p>
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<p>Now we know that You long for a true son and daughter who can shed tears together with You, holding hands and looking at the earth. We are aware that numerous people have been forgotten because they let go of the Father’s hands. Father, we pray from the depths of our hearts that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who take care of our bodies with single-hearted devotion toward Heaven; who can be informed about the situation and be left on our own, taking hold of the Father’s hands in self-sacrifice.</p>
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<p>Father, please let us attain our years of discretion in this period. Father, we are aware that although we are looking forward to the time You have promised, we are unspeakably inadequate in many ways. We aware that our steps have already become weary; our eyes look on in an imperfect state. Satan is even trying to take away the mind within us that ardently utters a cry toward Heaven from the depths of our consciences.</p>
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<p>Please allow us to realize that every time we are in circumstances like this, Heaven looks at us with a sorrowful heart. Allow us to know the internal situation of Heaven, who cannot lend His hands to grab hold of us or give advice as the time grows nearer for true goodness to reveal the mark of victory. Father, we sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to become heavenly soldiers who can walk the remaining path of fate and the path of bitterness willingly. We pray that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who seek the day of bliss in which You can take delight, embracing Your immutable heart, even if numerous others would quarrel with, reject and betray the providence.</p>
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<p>Father, this is a holy day. Please bestow blessing upon all humankind. Look upon the pitiful thirty million Korean people with compassion. We are aware that there is no master on the earth who can take responsibility for these people’s lives, fate and path. Please permit those of us who received Your calling first to assume the responsibility as persons of faith in sight of the Father. We must go forth before the Father’s dignified presence of our own accord and become trustworthy, then assume the responsibility You entrusted to us. We ardently pray that You will guide us to not forget that such comprehensive responsibility has been laid upon us.</p>
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<p>Please allow us to operate not only in our minds. Father, we pray from the bottom of our hearts that You allow us to become the sons and daughters who can reveal the glory of the Father by offering our bodies as holy living sacrifices before You. Father, we sincerely wish and desire that You will bestow blessings upon Your sons and daughters who pray facing Heaven, kneeling down in solitude before the altar at this hour.</p>
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<p>Father, we thank You for having guided us to this moment today. We have come to know that the original homeland has remained only as an ideal. Father, we pray from the depths of our hearts that You allow us to know that now the responsibility and mission to realize that ideal on the earth, keeping the Father’s heart within us, is left to us.</p>
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<p>The Father has come forth to save inadequate human beings. Now we are going toward the day of the last victory. Please allow us not to change our prayerful minds and not to become disloyal. Father, we pray this from the bottom of our hearts.</p>
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<p>Father! Please give advice to us. We know that we have the responsibility to realize the will of the Father and that we must go the path to achieve that goal. Father, we pray that You will allow us to be the sons and daughters who are not disloyal to the Father’s command, the Father’s heart, or the Father’s love.</p>
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<p>We pray that You will guide us not to be disloyal before the will You have granted. Let us feel the heart of the Father, who has felt sorrow in the course of providential history, toiling over difficult situations.</p>
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<p>Please take charge of our minds and bodies as Your own in this hour. I pray and wish that You will understand and accept our minds, since we are gathered on our knees and wish to be embraced in the Father’s bosom, our heads bowed over our inadequacy.</p>
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<p>Please personally govern the time from the beginning to the end. I pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>Beloved Father, please allow us to know that the tear stains of the Father, who toiled to raise us in front of this nation without our knowing, are spread all over. Father, we have been disloyal children who could not make ties with Heaven, having been drawn into the realm of death, sorrow and lamentation. Yet we pray and wish that You will let this be the hour when we can attend You by allowing us to save our own original characters in awe and reverence in sight of the grace You have bestowed.</p>
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<p>From the moment we realized there was a path the Father wanted us to go, we realized that the Father is going along the path of tears also; He is traveling the path of the cross with us. He is tra-veling the path of tribulation, the path of sorrow, and even the path of chains along with us. In addition, we know about the thorny path You have walked, treading the historical course, toiling behind Your beloved sons and daughters.</p>
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<p>You have repeated the history of toil of which we have no knowledge to gather us today. We bow respectfully, picturing in our minds the Father who toiled in this manner. At the same time, we are deeply ashamed of ourselves. Father, we pray that You will captivate us with the impulses of Your heart. We were called because Heaven has a purpose and hope in us. Please allow us to know that the path of the cross which lies ahead does not originate with us.</p>
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<p>Please allow the posterity of a thousand years from now to know the historical path of forming ties based on their ancestors’ effort. In this hour, we have the mind that can embrace limitless joy, limitless happiness, and limitless hope. The origin of that is not in us, nor in any human being. All has been initiated by and operated by Heaven. Beloved Father, I pray and wish that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who know and deeply treasure, in their minds and bodies, the longing for the grounds upon which Heaven operated and to shed tears clinging to this.</p>
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<p>Father! You know the direction Your sons and daughters, who came seeking this lonely place, must go. You know the path for these people to take and go forth upon. The origin of these people’s minds is not themselves. Their being in a position to receive words of advice is not for their own sake, but for the sake of others and the Father. Father, I pray and wish that You will govern these people to be unchanging to the end.</p>
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<p>Father, please do not allow us to become disloyal and leave You during this remaining period of tribulation. Allow us to be sons and daughters who do not fail to go through this difficult period, even having felt the sorrow of the Father. We pray and wish that You will let us become the sons and daughters who are concerned about the Father and who comfort His heart, forsaking ourselves for the sake of keeping Your heart until the end. Let us understand the Father’s situation.</p>
|
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<p>The time has come when the one who says he has stood on his own will fall. The one who recognizes himself will be that much more prone to betray Heaven. Father, please let Your sons and daughters who are gathered in front of Your knees on this day take delight in Your living words of advice. By doing so, Father, we pray and wish that You will let this be an hour when You can taste happiness.</p>
|
||
<p>Nothing other than what belongs to the Father is required in our minds in this hour. Now we must tread over today’s tribulations and look to the garden of promise. We must long for the heavenly kingdom of eternal blessing. We are aware that God’s blessing to be revealed is great glory, beyond words. Please allow us to remain to the end, having endured with unchanging hearts toward the Father. We pray and wish that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can stand before You after fighting to the end. There are other sons and daughters who feel concern about the Father’s will; we pray that You will bestow blessing upon and give advice to them.</p>
|
||
<p>We know that Your children are repenting in Your presence, scattered across the countryside in solitude on this day. We wish with utmost sincerity that You will extend Your hands of undiscriminating grace over them; that You will let each of their minds have discretion. Do not allow us to fall down midway.</p>
|
||
<p>Now we offer everything we have to You. We request and wish for You to accept it. Father, we pray with utmost sincerity that You allow this to be the hour when we receive the Father’s grace, when our minds turn to the Father’s and we thus become able to feel and experience the glory of the Father’s victory.</p>
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<p>Please take charge of the remaining hour and have dominion over it. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>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.</p>
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<p>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.</p>
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<p>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.</p>
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||
<p>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.</p>
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<p>We are aware of Heaven’s situation. Unless we stand as the Father’s sons and daughters, when we convey Heaven’s heart, we cannot realize the will. Father, we ardently wish and desire that You allow us to know that You are troubled in mind in a way of which no one knows on this earth. Now is the time when we must offer everything belonging to us in Your presence and make a new vow and resolution. Therefore, please let us reflect upon ourselves, asking how much we have tried to attend Jesus, who left behind sorrow after coming to this earth. Allow us to make a new vow and resolution. Father, we ardently pray and wish for You to please extend Your hands of capability over this sleeping nation. By lowering the long-awaited rain of the Spirit of the Lord, enable them to be proud of the day of victory and sing of the glory of the Father.</p>
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||
<p>When we stepped forth in front of the Father, we were able to feel and experience the lonely heart of Jesus, who resolved to go forth regardless of any difficulties. Now the time has come when we feel proud of the hope we entertain, stepping forth with resolution. Please let us go on, taking the lead, standing on Heaven’s side. Let us leave behind the things Heaven would like left behind. Father, we pray with utmost earnestness that You will now take hold of the set of true people who can comfort You with deep hearts and who will fight for Your sake. We pray and wish, Father, that You allow us to know the ideology of the Father, who cannot abandon the dispensation for humanity. Let us know the true mind of Heaven, which must be revealed now. Let us be sensible to the grief of Heaven, who must be struck and come back.</p>
|
||
<p>Please embrace us so that we can share weal and woe with the people rendering devoted service, trying to be true Israelites. We aware that the people who were removed to the wilderness under Moses’ guidance betrayed the will under the weight of pain and tears. Since the strength of historical transition is being manifested to us today, please let us dissolve the bitterness. We must feel ourselves insufficient when faced with the Father’s established will. Father, we pray and wish that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can represent the heart of Moses, who believed in the Father, even under unfavorable circumstances, and who tried to build an altar for You.</p>
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<p>The Father’s concern, the Father’s pain, and the Father’s efforts are incomparably greater than ours. Please allow us to know the circumstances of Jesus as he walked the course of limitless toil. Allow us to look at the internal character of the Father, who is walking a path of limitless pain.</p>
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||
<p>Please guide us to withstand all we encounter today, the feeling of being wronged, the adverse criticism we receive, and the persecution we come upon. Lead us to go forward for the Father’s sake without hesitation wherever we are placed. We sincerely wish that You waken us to deeply know all of these facts. Please advise us with a concerned heart until we stand on the foundation of the final victory. Father, we pray and wish that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who care nothing about any obstacles.</p>
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<p>Since we have gathered here in this hour, please allow Heaven’s counsel to be manifested to us. Sorrow, loneliness and difficulties surround us. We are aware that we cannot dare to be conscious of our importance just because our senses enable us to know how to call You “Father.” Father, please come in person and watch over the minds and bodies of each of us. Let us feel the oneness of life. Bestow the grace of glory upon us. We pray and wish that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who step forth equipped with new resolution, new determination, and a new pledge with which we can endure and remain until the last days.</p>
|
||
<p>We are aware that there are members filled with tears lying prostrate before the Father’s knees in solitude. My Father, we sincerely pray and wish that You will manifest Yourself in this hour as their Father and friend and relate to us and advise us with equal authority. Since we have entrusted everything to You in this hour, please have dominion according to Your will. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
|
||
<blockquote><p>Father, please allow our minds and bodies to be fraught only with the Father’s shimjung, 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 shimjung. Please allow the deeply penetrating shimjung 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.</p>
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<p>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 shimjung. Through this shimjung, give orders. Please allow the ardent shimjung 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.</p>
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||
<p>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.</p>
|
||
<p>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.</p>
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<p>We thought You were far, far away from us; but we realize that You have been with us in our minds, and we are glad we met such a Father. You were close in our hearts when You were said to be far away from us. You were crying out from afar, saying that You were in our hearts. Human beings today are not attuned to this.</p>
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<p>Please allow us to repent in this hour for not knowing that when we thought You had forsaken us in the past, that was the very time when You were closest. When we thought You were not with us was the very time You were.</p>
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||
<p>We did not know about the mind of the Father, who would not wish to leave His sons and daughters in hardship. There have been numerous times when, not understanding Your heart as You went through the tortuous path, we thought You were unkind and heartless to put us out on the path of toil. Many times we bewailed our ill fortune and were spiteful toward You because of the past. Father, please forgive us for having been bitter against You, for having betrayed You, for having denied and distrusted You.</p>
|
||
<p>We have learned that all this is due to the crime our ancestors committed by falling. It is the cause of the prophets and sages having died, leaving behind the bloodstains of bitterness in human history. Is the standard of our minds lofty today? Please purify our minds. Am I longing to represent God and put my body and my prestige on the line? I pray and wish earnestly that You let us be the sons and daughters who know how to call You “Father” after striking our bodies, which have no excuse to offer in the presence of the Father’s internal character, aware as we are of the fact that the Father is in a miserable place.</p>
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||
<p>Father, we know that there is no need for many words. Heaven delivered the words, but the people could not put them into practice. Upon seeing that, Heaven came to feel sorrowful. We learned that words easily become lies and that the Father’s sorrow has been growing more severe every day.</p>
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||
<p>While Heaven is aware of the sorrowful circumstance of having to speak again, humankind is not aware of it. In spite of this, God is in a situation where He has to give advice out of concern for humankind, unable to abandon them. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You forgive us for having to re-learn Your situation.</p>
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||
<p>We gathered today, considering this a holy day. We gathered, longing for You’re words. We gathered, waiting impatiently for Heaven’s grace. I know that we gathered wishing for something. Therefore, Father, I pray from the depth of my heart that You now allow us to wish to be our true selves; that You will guide us to know how to listen to the words and commands that are passed down from our true selves.</p>
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||
<p>Father, You know that I did not want to disappoint You, in spite of the sorrowful events that took place as I walked the forty-year life course in obedience to Your will. I did not want to retreat in defeat under hardship. Father, as we come to be aware that the history of tribulation ceaselessly continues on the path that remains, we cannot help informing the Father of our insufficiency with bowed heads. I wish You would allow this one body to bear the grief of history. Please allow Heaven to go beyond all the remaining tribulations, taking this body as a sacrifice.</p>
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||
<p>We long for the moment when the Father can rest, when the Father and I usher in the moment of happiness, having discarded all sighs of grief, arms about each other’s necks, calling each other “my son” and “my Father.” Please allow us to be the sons and daughters who can go to the spirit world having established single-hearted devotion based on fidelity on the earth, regardless of any sacrifice we may have to make or any misery we may have to go through on the earth. Since we have made up our minds to go such a path, Father, I pray and wish earnestly that You will drive us and lead us to not mind it. Father, I ardently solicit that You will let this be the hour when we form a resolution and make a vow with a new mind and body.</p>
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||
<p>What shall I speak about in this hour You have granted? Since I am trying to convey what You wish to reveal, please allow me to convey Your shimjung as it is. Ardently soliciting that You let this be the hour when the minds of the receivers blend with Your shimjung in one unified shimjung, when we can sing of the Father’s glory, embraced in the Father’s grand bosom, I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<p>The title of the sermon I am about to give you is <i>“The Religious Person’s Attitude.”</i> I will speak briefly upon this topic.</p>
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<h3>The World of Intrinsic Qualities of Faith</h3>
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<p>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.</p>
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<p>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.</p>
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<p>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.</p>
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<h3>The Life of a Truly Religious Person</h3>
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<p>Letting this kind of heart stimulate the mind and letting that mind push the body to move, trying to feel and experience the life in which one unconsciously walks forth toward the endless territory, is the very life of a religious person in this world today. Only when one can lead life with this kind of stimulus and manifest the far-distant ideology as the power of real life is one a truly religious person. Going further, only when one cultivates the foundation of mind with which he can push out power, even the sweeping wave of death, from his surroundings can Heaven acknowledge him as a truly religious person. That is how I see it. What is felt through self-realization, when we cry out facing Heaven, is greater than anything felt through doctrine or thought. The same thing can manifest itself as the value of light in our minds and bodies and in the heart of our life circumstances.</p>
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<p>The religious life can be considered going through the path of victory in such an important decisive position. We know very well that throughout history, this path has been heaped with persecution, sorrow, the cross, and death. Because we have this kind of history and tradition, today you also are placed in a position where you must not betray this historical course of faith. For that reason, I must stress that it is more valuable than anything else that we assume a correct attitude of faith today.</p>
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<h3>Gallantly Traveling the Difficult Path of Faith</h3>
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<p>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.</p>
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<p>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.</p>
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<p>Therefore, we must have a heart that is deeply sensitive toward God’s ideology and reflect upon our lives in light of this ideology. We should live feeling that our individual selves are sacrificial offerings for the sake of glorifying cosmic relations, for the sake of forming a connection with the ideology of the infinite world of faith. As long as we lead a life of faith in which such an ideology does not disappear from our minds and in which such a feeling does not depart from our hearts, no one will dare intrude upon or subjugate us on this earth.</p>
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<p>You must know that our ancestors felt a lot about such a connection. The people who began after Jacob received the blessing of being Israel had the ideology of being God’s chosen people. We know that this sense of being the chosen people established the history of the Jewish people. It was the base of hope in the course of building a new garden in the land of bliss. It was the heritage of the history of the restorational providence. This applied not only to the people, but also to the national leader who guided the people.</p>
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<p>God sought out Noah and raised him to let humanity, which had abandoned Heaven for the 1600 years after Adam, form new ties of promise. Noah was not looked up to by the people of his time. He was of no importance in the eyes of those people. However, Noah understood the heart of Heaven, who wished to resolve the great regret through choosing a man like him. That is why Noah proceeded forward, surmounting all difficulties for 120 years, holding onto Heaven’s will and command.</p>
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<p>Noah came to realize the preciousness of the relationship with which Heaven had raised him up, called him and commanded him. The deeper his understanding became, the greater his relationship with Heaven. As days went by, he felt deeply about the greatness of the will of the internal heart of God. For that reason, although no one gave him recognition and numerous people ridiculed and rejected him, Noah did not abandon the building of the ark for 120 years.</p>
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<h3>The Mental Attitude and Life of Central Figures</h3>
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<p>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 shimjung. You should not forget this.</p>
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<p>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.</p>
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||
<p>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 shimjung. 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.</p>
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||
<p>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.</p>
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||
<p>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.</p>
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<h3>What Jesus Felt on the Earth and His Resolution</h3>
|
||
<p>Numerous other prophets and sages walked the path that Moses walked. Four thousand years after the fall of Adam and Eve, the second ancestor of humanity, Jesus Christ, came. He took upon himself the responsibility for all the faults of the fallen Adam, bearing in his body the sorrow of Heaven, the sadness of all humankind, and the grief of all things in the universe. He took charge of all conditions of deathly darkness that drew lamentation and sorrow from Heaven for the sake of breaking them down. Let us think about Jesus.</p>
|
||
<p>What kind of person was he? Going back over the four-thousand-year history, Jesus pined for people who had not felt the fear that results from culpable acts and who had not perceived sorrow by reason of their sins. Namely, he yearned for the original Adam and Eve whom God had created, having been deeply touched by the sense and shimjung of goodness. Jesus had to restore and replace the original selves of Adam and Eve, who should have been the good, truthful ancestors of humanity. His belief that he had come on behalf of God’s ideology of creation was greater than any circumstances society could present to him and greater than any other tendency in his mind.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, if Jesus felt loneliness, that loneliness was connected with Heaven. When Jesus came to fathom God’s loneliness, he could no longer feel lonely. Every time hope or ideology sank deeply into his mind, he felt the responsibility to introduce that hope and ideology to humankind.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus came to realize that he bore the responsibility of being the central figure who had to realize the hope for which God had wished. He had to indemnify all the guilt the ancestors had perpetrated by falling. As this kind of understanding grew deep in him, he came to realize that the relationship between God and himself in the sorrowful four-thousand-year history of restoration was one of father and son, inseparable. This realization prevented him from feeling bitter toward the fallen Adam, the fallen descendants and the Archangel. It became stronger when such resentment was aroused. Jesus began to realize that Heaven was his father, that the earth was his mother, and that he himself was born as the son representing Heaven and earth. Jesus could not help feeling that God’s internal character, the earth’s internal character, and the internal character of all humankind should form everlasting ties with him. He felt the stimulus of those connections even in such a tragic situation.</p>
|
||
<p>What was it that touched his mind so deeply? His relationships were not joyous, they were sorrowful. Originally, humanity was to form a parent-child relationship with Heaven by building the garden of the eternal ideology. The whole of man’s conditions should have provided an impetus to the Father’s conditions of happiness and sung of the heart of that happiness. However, humanity formed ties of sorrow, unable to form ties of happiness. You must know the heart of Jesus, who had to weep bitterly as he became increasingly aware of such facts. Jesus knew that the ties his ancestors had formed for four thousand years were not ties of happiness, but of sorrow. Therefore, whenever Jesus was in a sorrowful position and having difficulties, he determined to be the central figure of the sorrowful world. That was how Jesus was, and we must know that.</p>
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||
<p>Looking at the people and at Judaism, which could not prepare the altar of happiness with the heavenly principles and rise, Jesus felt great sorrow. The more he knew about the religious denomination, about the people, about his tribe and himself, the more sorrowful he became. His knowledge became a condition for sadness. Nevertheless, because Jesus assumed responsibility for history, which was connected to the sadness, we must know that he passed away with indescribable sorrow and lamentation in his heart. His mind longed for the infinitely glorious and good world of relationships. However, the reality in which he lived was such that he could not help being sorry about his lot in life, which was infinitely sorrowful. There was no one who knew the situation of Jesus, no one who stood at the intersection of two such different worlds.</p>
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||
<h3>The Right Attitude for a Religious Person</h3>
|
||
<p>Jesus is the one in whom we believe today and who sacrificed his life for this faith. No religious people have known about this since history began. No one on earth knew how to grab hold of Jesus and cry over this. Carefully considering this matter in this light, the mind with which you can weep unrestrainedly for the sorrow of Jesus must linger in you and overwhelm you. Otherwise, you cannot be considered a religious person who is proceeding toward the heavenly kingdom. That is how I feel.</p>
|
||
<p>As we come to look at this pitiful people now, we have to feel sorrow regarding their fate. As we see religious denominations fighting with one another and splintering into fragments, we must watch it from the position of being inseparably related to it. Only when you know how to feel sorrowful, having a mind like that of Jesus on behalf of history, the present period, and future descendants, can you leave at least the condition of receiving the blessing granted to Israel to your descendants on the earth. You must know this.</p>
|
||
<p>Viewed in this light, the right attitude of a religious person is to deny himself completely. Only when he crosses the hill of death can he form ties of happiness with Heaven and say at the time of passing on, “Father, I have accomplished all that Jesus did.” He should be able to end the ties of sorrow and bitter resentment that he has formed and embrace the moment when he can sing of ties interlocked with happiness. We should know that these people will possess the kingdom of eternity; they will live in the heavenly kingdom. God’s will is to seek out these kinds of people.</p>
|
||
<p>When I look at those of you who have sought out the Unification Church and entered it, there are moments when I consider you pitiful. You sought and joined the Unification Church because you are connected with it through some unknown relationships. In spite of trying to turn your steps away, you have lingering attachments pulling on you. If this unconscious relationship was not caused by you, who was it caused by? We must know that it was because behind us was the foundation of the accomplishment of our ancestors, who strove to dissolve the bitterness in the history of blood and tears. Therefore, whenever such a feeling comes in our heart, from now on it should be possible for the mind to call out, “Father!” to Heaven and explode within us, even if we are falling down, forgetting even the consciousness of our existence. We will have to say that only when we become connected with the world of happiness after crossing the hill of history, bound with sorrow, can we become qualified to receive the Lord for the first time.</p>
|
||
<p>That is the case for you, and I cannot escape from it either. Why is it that unbearable and inexplicable sorrow wells up within us and penetrates deeply into us? It is because of the relationships of historical han, which even I do not understand. It is because heavenly relations, earthly relations, and human relations that we cannot understand are bound with us today. We must know this. What is it that Heaven wants? It is the person who can indemnify all the sorrowful relations on the earth. He is the man who can say, “Father! I will indemnify all Your sorrowful relationships. Please guide me to become the central figure of the history that is bound with sorrow. Please allow me to become the one who can remain in the world of sorrowful relations and whom Heaven wants in that world.” If we have this kind of mind, we must know that even if numerous crosses come, it does not mean all is over.</p>
|
||
<p>What did Jesus mean by saying, “I have accomplished all”? Jesus had accomplished his mission only to a certain limit through his death in the course of indemnifying Heaven’s sorrow. In other words, Jesus knew that if he died, an indescribable sorrow would enter into the heart of God and be connected to it. The miserable path of death would be left behind to the throng of people following him. Because he knew that the foundation of spiritual salvation would be established with his death, he was able to go beyond his death with a manly mien.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Way of True Faith</h3>
|
||
<p>If this kind of feeling bubbles up in your mind, you are the person who owns heaven and earth, even if you have nothing. Heaven and earth will appear as your comrades, even if you do not have any other. For that reason, you must feel that the way of true faith is the way on which you proceed linking the history of relations. It exists where you proceed to build the tower of relations with Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>If we feel sorrowful when we part with a friend, how much more so should we feel when the relations we have with Heaven are disconnected? You should be able to feel that is the moment of historic sorrow, the moment of grief for heaven and earth, and the moment of sadness for humanity and the heavens.</p>
|
||
<p>If one felt this, he would have to feel his inadequacy, regardless of how much he might try not to, and he would not be able to control the outbreak of tears. In addition, as you have learned through the Divine Principle, the position in which we individuals stand today is one in which we have to dissolve the han of heaven and earth, even that of spirit men in the spirit world, and liberate them. You have been set on the altar of such a cosmic-level fate. You might feel infinitely sad if you let yourselves think about being sacrificial offerings in this manner. However, if you know that the sorrow of the numerous spirit men, the numerous people and beings of heaven and earth who are watching you, is greater than your sorrow, you would not allow yourself to be disappointed in the course of marching toward Heaven. You would not be able to sigh for grief.</p>
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||
<p>Knowing that this kind of feeling, this shock fated to be connected to my mind, is trying to form ties with an eternal ideology, we cannot deny that we have a mind within us that wishes to live in that world. Accordingly, since spirits do exist, we will have to build the world in which those spirits can live in joy. According to the breadth and heights we have reached on earth, the authority to possess that world will be given to us. When we think about this, it is impossible not to feel that we are sinners in our hearts, even as we live and breathe, in times of joy and of sorrow. I understand this is the way of religious individuals who seek Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>For that reason, I who have been walking this path for forty years, also besought Heaven when I made up my mind and stepped onto this path, saying, “Heaven! Since I am trying to go in search of You, please do not let me abandon this relationship I promised to keep until I die. Please allow me to know how to live and die in accordance with this relationship, even if the heavens, the earth, and this body all disappear.” While living in a period of such a swirl of history, you will be faced with difficulties, with the cross and with persecution. Every time you are faced with such moments, you too will have to cry, holding onto Heaven, longing for the selves who promised heaven. You must shed tears before Him even under such circumstances and lament your insufficiency, your imperfections, and your enervation with bowed heads. I consider this the path of the person who marches in search of Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>Please do not think all that I have belongs to me. I want to link all that I have to you. God wishes to leave behind everything Heaven has as that which is historical, current and of the future. We must not forget that we are a people, a tribe, and individuals who are being connected through such a shimjung. Since the God I speak of is not fictitious, and the ideology for which I long is not false, I am worried that you will be judged in proportion to your denial of the will of Heaven. Because Jesus had such a heart, he had to march on, regardless of life or death. Because Jesus was in such a position, all humankind can sympathize with him.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Teacher’s Thought</h3>
|
||
<p>I know that you are trying to follow me, attend me as your teacher, and make every effort for me. However, you must know that I am hesitant to receive such devotion and attendance. The reason is that Heaven has not had such a day on this earth, and I cannot offer my bows sincerely before the Father day after day with a joyous mind. Because I knew too well that I was not able to relate to Heaven in joy, there have been numerous times when I rejected your devotion. Many times I seemed to knowingly cut away the anguishing heart with which you cried out before Heaven. I did not do this to satisfy my desires. I did it because it was unavoidable when I thought of the bitter resentment of the world of relationships and the actual world. Therefore, whenever you look at any aspect of things, I want you to become people who worry about Heaven with a heart teeming over with sorrow.</p>
|
||
<p>Even if we take delight in meeting Heaven, this is not an end in itself. If God’s hope and joy existed with us, it would be indescribably great. If there were sorrow, it would be inexpressibly great. When will the central figure appear on this earth who knows how to dissolve such grief on the earth and comfort the Father for His sorrow, who knows how to reveal the happiness buried in the Father’s heart by singing of the joy of the earth? You should not ignore the relationship of meeting such a central figure with a heart like this. I cannot ignore you, and you cannot ignore me. Your relationship to one another should be that of meeting one another after six thousand years of tears and sorrow.</p>
|
||
<p>Heaven has longed for the heavenly family, the heavenly home, the heavenly people and the heavenly kingdom. For that reason, unless people long for the heavenly kingdom, they will die away; unless a home becomes a home that wishes for heavenly people, that home will vanish; unless a person becomes one who impatiently awaits the heavenly home, that individual will disappear without a trace.</p>
|
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<h3>The Place where Your Status as<br />
|
||
God’s Son or Daughter Is Decided</h3>
|
||
<p>You should know how to establish a national standard, go beyond “me,” rise above the family and the people, and indemnify the sorrow within the realm of that ideology. Only then can you become individuals with the qualifications to comfort the Father, who has labored for six thousand years to seek and establish His ideology in the form of a nation; who has hoped for a nation that went beyond the sorrowful relationship. In such a position, you will for the first time be affirmed as sons and daughters; in such a position the relationship with Heaven will be restored for the first time; in such a position the history of joy will begin.</p>
|
||
<p>No matter who they are, unless a people has a sovereignty, any passerby can cajole them and laugh at them. However, from the day sovereignty is established, no one can pass by freely or cajole them as he pleases.</p>
|
||
<p>The Christians scattered around the world today have not become the people of the Kingdom of God. They have not become the heavenly people with the heavenly sovereignty. Unless the heavenly people have the sovereignty to take care of them, that people can then be cajoled and abandoned. You should know this.</p>
|
||
<p>God did not attempt to restore the heavenly sovereignty in Egypt centering on the 600,000 Israelites. Why did He drive the mass of 600,000 people out into the wilderness toward Canaan in the hope of establishing a nation with a heavenly sovereignty? It was because He had to establish a sovereign nation Heaven could direct, even if He had to receive all kinds of persecution and go over the hill of death. We must understand the heart of Heaven, who drove the Israelites out into the wilderness in this manner, where death rolled in upon them. Unless a people equips itself with the form of a nation and then restores the sovereignty with which it can attend God, that people cannot escape being ruined and trampled upon.</p>
|
||
<p>Seeing the providence of Heaven from this standpoint, it is not time for the Christians scattered around the world to put their denomination first. They must consider the thought of a heavenly people, going beyond chosen-people-type thinking. This is the thought of Heaven. An altar must emerge with the pride and integrity of being the people of that nation and it must form heavenly ties, earthly ties, historical ties, and human ties and unite itself centered on Heaven. Unless this type of altar emerges, talk of realizing the heavenly kingdom on the earth is nothing but a dream.</p>
|
||
<p>You must know that each of you has a historical relationship of numerous enemies and numerous prophets and sages being made fools of deep within you. You have the relationships of a keenly sorrowful history deep within you, Heaven’s grief because of Satan. You may meet an individual, and he or she may seem to be a mere human being to which to relate, yet there may be very complicated relationships and circumstances of Heaven involved with him or her. You must know that there have been cosmic level events in the background of that relationship.</p>
|
||
<p>Heaven has wandered for six thousand years in search of the sovereignty, in search of one “ism,” one relationship and comrade with a true heart. This historical relationship cannot be denied. Living a life which inherits and crosses the historical course of the integrated relationships is a life of faith. That being the case, no matter how much deficiency a comrade has, no matter how insufficient a family member is, and no matter how much a family member shocks you, how could your chagrin be greater than your wish to form ties with Heaven? Where would there be a greater sorrow than that which you would feel if you forsook that relationship?</p>
|
||
<p>We know that the person who renders unselfish devoted service for the sake of the nation is called a patriot. The man who forsakes himself for the good of his family and relatives is called a filial son. A woman who lives unselfishly as a sacrificial offering for her family is called a virtuous woman.</p>
|
||
<p>If you look at the history of relationships today, our relationship with Heaven is that of a bride and bridegroom. You must know that throughout history, we have gazed steadily at and our wailing has reverberated in this reciprocal relationship.</p>
|
||
<p>The moment I can call God “Father” after feeling this kind of shimjung relationship, although “I” am a being of today, I am not limited to this earth. I am assured of being in the realm of the ideology of the eternal world. Heaven will name such a person a person of perfection. According to my understanding, a true person of faith must feel the heart of such a relationship above all. That is the proper attitude. The grace you received is not affected by today’s happiness. It is the grace resulting from your having inherited the historical relationship.</p>
|
||
<h3>Heaven Must Be Able to<br />
|
||
Give Commands with a Sense of Relief</h3>
|
||
<p>If we wish to give our fealty to Heaven, we should, first of all, be able to bow our heads before the mind within us that wishes to do so. That mind did not originate with us. It did not come about of its own accord. It came about through some kind of truth, through some kind of reason, and through the relationships established in heaven and on earth. We must consider this valuable and precious, what we have decided in our minds, what we have pledged. We should not allow that determination, that pledge and shock of heart to end on the same day. We must bring them to a conclusion with history, and we must resolve them in concert with history. The grace of Heaven is present here. Because we have such relationships, the determination we made should not disappear along with history, nor should the pledge we made.</p>
|
||
<p>Only when a person emerges who feels responsible for a mission like this can Heaven be relieved and give commands. This is how I see it. We say that we are deeply imbued with sorrow, but how great would the sorrow of Heaven be, when relating with a wicked person, who has a mind that forsakes the heavenly relationship several times a day? You should realize that Heaven is weighing such a person, putting him on the scales. This is a relationship we cannot help having; this is a relationship from which we can never escape. It is a relationship we cannot free ourselves from, whether we go to the heavenly kingdom or to hell. That is why we feel pain when we go to hell.</p>
|
||
<h3>We Must Live within the World of Original Relationship</h3>
|
||
<p>If you have a short history of having received the grace of Heaven, two months, two years, three or even four years, you still should not consider that you have received grace only for that time. You should feel the emotion with which you can say, “I have received Heaven’s grace for six thousand years.” When such a mind springs up, you will be overwhelmed with awe toward Heaven. You should not become so evil as to rejoice in yourselves after Heaven has made efforts to seek you and raise you, you who should be dead ten million times over.</p>
|
||
<p>For that reason, you must know that the throng of people who live in the original relationship, cry in the original relationship, and die in the original relationship are the central figures of history, the central figures of the period, and the pioneers of the future. You must not forget that Heaven has unfolded the dispensation without giving up the relationship, making history to gather people like this, to call upon and raise people like this. If there were going to be judgment, there would be no one who would receive more fearful punishment than the person who forsook this relationship.</p>
|
||
<p>Do you have a mind that thinks of the Unification Church? Such a person does not think of this building here, some truth of this world, or this throng of people gathered here. The person who knows how to recognize the Unification Church as it is connected with God knows how to pocket his pride before the truth of such a Unification Church. He knows how to become acquainted with the feelings of the members of the Unification Church. This is a veritable member of the Unification Church. I am not going to speak any further on that.</p>
|
||
<h3>Humanity, for whom God Waits Impatiently</h3>
|
||
<p>What should the attitude of a person of faith be? He must have a heart that feels impatient. Because you have the connection, you must know that you cannot help being impatient. What is Heaven waiting impatiently for? Heaven longs not for a person of faith but for a person who practices the truth in life. I long to be a person who practices the truth in life rather than a person of faith. Heaven longs not for the kingdom of hope but for individuals who can live in that kingdom.</p>
|
||
<p>Today, we hold up a word called faith and wait eagerly. However, we must lead a life of faith beyond that. In other words, we must become members who live with Heaven, people who live with Heaven, and the church that lives with Heaven. We must lead a life of faith in which we can enjoy ourselves and sing and be able to return the glory. Heaven waits eagerly for this.</p>
|
||
<p>What was it that God impatiently anticipated from our numerous ancestors in the course of history, after establishing a word called “faith” in front of them? You must know that He longed not for the individuals of faith themselves, who were fighting in their respective places, but for people who could live with Him, having remained until the last days. God waited impatiently for one who could fade away for the sake of faith, who could resurrect after dying for the sake of faith, and who could escape the realm of death and sing of the joy of resurrection in the realm of life, calling God “Father” in the everlasting world. God waits eagerly for such an individual. Thinking of this, you must become the people who know how to long for the self within you for whom He eagerly waits. You must strive to seek out such a self and meet him.</p>
|
||
<p>Although you are standing here today, you know very well that you are not those for whom Heaven waits impatiently. You are not all for whom Heaven searches. For that reason, if you have a mind that thinks of and cares for Heaven and have a connection with Heaven, an ardent mind that waits eagerly for the original you, that mind should be established as your standard.</p>
|
||
<p>When we seek out such a self, we will be able to live attending the Father who has been seeking such a self, bragging about “me” as such and singing of my value. You must become the people who long to be such selves. If you lose this shimjung, you will not be able to go the path of faith.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Original “I”,<br />
|
||
the Foremost Standard of a Person of Faith</h3>
|
||
<p>To begin centered on himself, to bring settlement centered on himself, to pass judgment centered on himself is the most effective way for a person. Therefore, rather than pursuing the relative self, you should pursue the self who has a direct connection to Heaven, the one with the mind that pursues value. The stimulus to cry out for and to fight to seek such a self should begin with “me.” Thus, it should test my mettle. Only when that self is stimulated do I and the hoped-for “I” form mutual ties with which we surmount the difficult path of faith without problems. You must know this.</p>
|
||
<p>This teacher you follow has limitless feeling regarding humankind today. While I feel like cursing endlessly, at the same time, I feel like singing about that self which is hopeful.</p>
|
||
<p>You must know how to feel such a mind each hour throughout your lifetime. Since this is a path we take to seek such a self, without caring at all about the circumstances and situations relating to persons or the church, you must feel that you cannot abandon that path; nor can you loiter. You cannot hesitate and merely watch. Any person who retreats from such a course will not be able to own the hoped-for self. We will sigh for grief from that time on. You must realize that if you keep continuing life as it has been up to now, you will fall into a state of being lamentful, desperate and self-destructive. We cannot help lamenting about being incompetent and enervated.</p>
|
||
<p>Seeking and impatiently waiting for such a hoped-for self is the best standard for the ideal person of faith. You must be deeply imbued with the shimjung wishing to meet such a self someday. Only then can you know how to look at Heaven, and you will fight to find that self.</p>
|
||
<h3>To Be Able to Stand Before God</h3>
|
||
<p>The person for which God wished after establishing the ideology of creation has been hoped for throughout history. Yet he has not been able to appear as a substantial being. Because God wished for the day of hope and a person who had that hope, He has been able to fight with endurance for the six-thousand-year historical course. Because His mind is strong, because He knows that the day will come when He will meet that person, Heaven has endured until now.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus equipped himself with the grace of resurrection, yet after passing beyond the cross, he left this world after establishing the day of hope with his promise, “I will come again.” He was not able to boast of the day of hope at his resurrection. Since that time, longing for the day he promised to come again, Jesus has fought for two thousand years. Since Heaven walks this path, we today who are on this earth also must walk such a path. Furthermore, we must know that there is a history of toil in which Heaven has labored to establish the beings of original character created on this earth, our original selves. We must have the mind to feel concern about Heaven’s honor and dignity. We must know how to march forward singing of the historical day of hope. “I” am going to meet the Lord of resurrection who comes in glory. I must have an unwavering standard for such a self, and we must make a determination and vow that we will keep to our journey no matter what, until the day we find the answer. Otherwise, we cannot deny that our life of faith has violated our true self, rather than otherwise.</p>
|
||
<p>Coming through the two-thousand-year historical course after Jesus, Heaven has endured, looking forward to the day of hope that is to come again. Considering that such has been the course of history, that I serve the family members and that I find the family members and give them counsel is not strange. In going forth in search of the day of receiving the central figure, the bridegroom, you must know that a decoration and ornament must be prepared as a bride. You must be able to shed tears before the Father, thanking Him and taking delight. The heavenly world is vast and infinite. When we go forth to the position where we appeal to Heaven, deeply moved, thinking of the Infinite Being, Jesus will seek for us and welcome those of us who came seeking with hope. Such will be a time of spiritual experience for you, the time when you meet Jesus spiritually. For that reason, I wish you to be deeply imbued with a mind that wishes to meet him. The one who does not have that mind cannot find the second “I” that is to be raised in front of the Father. He cannot stand before the Father. This is the conclusion to which we come. We must know this clearly.</p>
|
||
<h3>Why Patience Is Necessary for a Religious Life</h3>
|
||
<p>Next, we ought to become the people who know how to be patient. God has been patient. The historical course from the day the sin was committed to this day has been one of forbearance and patience. No one would deny this. By merely tracing the footprints of God as He related with people, we know that it has been a path upon which He shed tears and blood, forbearing with patience. Look at the history of Christianity. Even though enemies lured the beloved begotten son and made him disappear as a sacrificial offering of death, Heaven had to forbear, with patience.</p>
|
||
<p>Coming through a long history, the Israelites, chosen by Heaven, have always been left at the mercy of various peoples of the world. They were pursued throughout all the ages. In spite of being the God of that nation and the God of that people, why has He forborne their suffering with patience until now? Humanity fell because it could not forbear with patience; therefore, fate decreed that God cannot help forbearing with patience until a person forbearing with patience establishes the day of victory. Since humanity acted against God’s will, unable to forbear with patience, until He finds a person who is patient, God’s resentful heart cannot be healed. In other words, you must know that until after God meets such an individual, such a family, such a people and nation who can heal His resentful heart by forbearing with patience, God cannot end His history of suffering. They must provide hope for the day of happiness after dissolving the resentment of the people and the cosmos by forbearing with patience even on the path of struggle, the path of persecution, and the path of death. Otherwise, God cannot put an end to His suffering history and cannot pass judgment. Although the Father has been mortified and has had the authority to judge while suffering for six thousand years, He forbears with patience, unable to pass judgment. Since the Father’s sorrow, the Father’s bitterness, and the Father’s mortification are attributable to this, we must begin and end forbearing with patience.</p>
|
||
<p>Christians use the term “judgment.” What do they mean by that? It indicates the time when Heaven can put an end to His history of suffering. Heaven has suffered, eagerly waiting for such a time. It is not a matter God Himself can solve. It is a matter that must be solved through humanity. We ought to be the Christianity that can step forth onto the judgment stand with the authority to judge Satan. In addition, we should be backed up by having forborne with the patience of God, who suffered for six thousand years. By feeling, experiencing and inheriting the heart of the Father, who suffered in the historical course, we should become those who step forth with the determination to say, “Father! Please ease Your heart and let Your resentment be dissolved by me.” Heaven set an objective and has forborne with patience, coming through each age, a history of unspeakable ignorance and rough struggles. Adding the whole of your mind to the heart of God, who has suffered in this manner, you must emerge with the serenity of mind that can easily forbear with patience. Otherwise, you cannot go beyond the standard of shimjung with which God forbore with patience, and you cannot hasten the judgment by having set the standard for the dissolution of resentment.</p>
|
||
<p>Heaven warned us that there would be a great seven-year tribulation in the last days. Speaking for the sake of the believers, God also said that even the chosen ones would be deluded in the last days. Additionally, you know very well about God having said that the one who endures with patience to the end, in the midst of this tribulation would acquire salvation in the last days.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Termination Point of Forbearing with Patience</h3>
|
||
<p>Where is the last stop of forbearing with patience? Where is the terminal point of forbearance? Have you ever wondered, feeling your way to that terminal point? Was that place Adam’s home? No, it was not. Was it the home of Noah? No, it was not. When I come to think that the history of forbearance remains for me, for this society, and even for posterity, I must present myself before the Father with the qualifications of a prince of forbearance. People must step forward in front of Heaven with a mind to comfort Him, He who has endured for six thousand years.</p>
|
||
<p>Even though you have forbearance, you may realize that it is far from the terminal point of the forbearance that had to be undergone throughout history. Today people in our church say, “I cannot go any further because I am too exhausted.” We hear people say, “I like the Unification Church, but it is too difficult to go the path.” He who says that might be called a happy person from the earth’s standpoint, but he is a miserable person from Heaven’s standpoint. It is indeed difficult to go the path. The path to be gone is the path of tears. It is the path of tears where we look and cry, where we feel and cry, and where we cry while we give. You may have thought it was time for the tears to stop flowing, but it is not. When we come to realize that tears must continue to flow, that is, when we come to know that there is the shimjung of Heaven longing for the tears of further forbearance, waiting for us lowly ones, even the fact of my having endured cannot win honor for me. Though the Teacher has endured until today, since the (Korean) liberation, I have never thought about the limit of my patient forbearance yet. I do not even wish for that time to end. Once we start wishing for it to end, we will start to look after ourselves. From that time on, we will feel fear. You will have to experience this in your life of faith.</p>
|
||
<p>Have you ever thought deeply in your minds that the Father who endured is my Father who is to live with me forever? The figure who endured is the bridegroom whom I am to attend. You may never have thought about it. Let us say there is a person who has taken delight in and enjoyed glory. Rather than envying him, you should be on your mettle in forbearance and be able to be perfectly calm and collected in forbearance. You must feel that the person who appears as the figure of forbearance before Heaven is more precious in this confused history today than the person who was blithely happy. The person who does not know how to go beyond this confused age today with such a shimjung will end up becoming a traitor toward Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>Do you suffer pain caused by material lack? You must bear this with patience. Do you feel pain caused by knowledge? You must bear this with patience also. To not become a traitor to the six-thousand-year history of forbearance, you must continuously forbear with patience. What has remained, in spite of humanity’s expectations to the contrary, is the history of Heaven. Humanity used to think it would meet with destruction, but the history of Heaven has sprung back.</p>
|
||
<p>You know very well about the Sayookshim, the six loyal subjects killed during the time of King Sejong of the Yi dynasty. When the spirit of this nation was about to be broken, what could lead the nation to new hope again? That was the Sayookshim, including Sung Sam Moon. Because our ancestors endured even cruel spears and swords on the path of forbearance, the path of death, our national spirit was upheld.</p>
|
||
<p>Who is the one to inherit the spirit of heavenly tradition today? He is the one who upholds the altar of forbearance. You must know that it is the throng of people who are waiting eagerly, facing Heaven, upholding the altar of forbearance.</p>
|
||
<p>This has to be felt with real emotion, with real touch, not in a fictional or imaginary way. You should be able to scoff at whatever else you feel, saying it cannot compare with what I promised and pledged in righteousness. You should be sure of this viscerally, to your very cells. Unless there is such an impulse, how can you surmount the remaining tribulation? How can you go over the hill of tribulation the nation has to go over? How can you go over the hill of tribulation the world has to go over? How can you go over the hill that Heaven has to go over? Unless the blessed land appears after passing through the course of forbearance, building a castle of tribulation and death, God’s patient forbearance will not see its end.</p>
|
||
<h3>Where to Find the True Leader</h3>
|
||
<p>We speak of ourselves as faithful people. We flatter ourselves that we are going forward in search of the ideology of Heaven. Singing of the hope of tomorrow as the standard, we go in search of the nation and people of tomorrow, the race, the family, and the self of tomorrow. This is the path of faith. However, there still remains some distance between me and the future me. I am not there yet. If we look for that self here, we will be disappointed. You must first finish walking the path of tribulation and raise the standard of ardent shimjung. As long as the new history remains to be built, the day of fruition will not come. Since we began our steps, having readied ourselves as the elite soldiers of Heaven, we must proceed, looking forward. We must not look back, saying that we hear something behind. That is the sound of enemies. You must not relate with one because he is affectionate toward you. You must know that he is the enemy who has an eye on your life. In the environment you live in, there is no true friend. There is no true leader. Only in the place where you seek the real truth and the true leader will the true heavenly leader appear. Even if one had a great relationship of true life in the course of history, there were reasons for him having to appear with the relationship of false life. You must seek righteousness; you must find it in your mind. You must seek a teacher of righteousness; you must find him in your mind. You must seek a home of righteousness; you must find it in your mind. You must seek the homeland of righteousness; you must find it in your mind, and you must seek the nation of righteousness in your mind. You must consider the ideology of hope as the point of unity and oneness. Going further, by fighting with the environmental darkness, you must boast of that relationship and wait eagerly with an impatient shimjung for the desire to be fulfilled. Only when we make our way through the surrounding environment, boasting of the appearance of our true self, will heavenly history begin for the first time.</p>
|
||
<p>Only when you cross the finishing line of the final victory will new hope appear to you. You will receive a new day. You will own a new ideology. To make that new ideology your own, you must realize that the heavenly condition remains for you to go such a path. Accordingly, we who are going, having put this historical fate at the forefront, must have a firm determination.</p>
|
||
<p>Now, reflect upon yourselves from this viewpoint. Do I really have the right attitude of a person of faith? Has mine been a faith for the sake of establishing a mind of hope? Have I been wishing for that? If you try to solve everything, expecting that your old faith will fix everything, you will not be able to go the path.</p>
|
||
<p>Because we must go with the right attitude of faith, even if the influence of death comes crashing over us now, we should more than rebuke that influence. There should be a trace of surplus. There should be areas where all things belonging to me exist in surplus; surplus in my passion, in my loyalty, in my effort, and in my patient forbearance. You must know that this becomes the first standard for inheriting Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>To go through this complicated reality today, we must go forward seeking that hope. Waiting impatiently for my individual self, I hope to embrace the historical relationship, the relationship of the current period, and the relationship of the future. You must go forward seeking this. Although infinite numbers of satans will be blocking your way, you will have to fight with them. You will have to keep marching on and on, running against them repeatedly. By doing so, you must become the living sacrifice determined to go over the hill of forbearance, holding up the altar of forbearance with your shoulders, your feet, your hands, your body, and your head. Otherwise, you cannot have the proper attitude of true individuals of faith. You cannot be seen as the ones who seek the will and truth of Heaven.</p>
|
||
<h3>Prayer</h3>
|
||
<blockquote><p>Father! As the time grows near, the mind of hesitation in meeting the Lord of resurrection seeps out. Please let the appearance of Jesus Christ, bearing the sad relationship of death, be in our mind more as the time grows near.</p>
|
||
<p>We learned that he who died on an instrument of punishment bore a bitter heart. We learned that the summit of Golgotha where he walked is the hill of tears over relationships. We learned that the blood and tears he shed have remained alive in the history of relationships until today and are entering into the hearts of human beings who are being resurrected. Since all these things were due to the blood and tears shed in the midst of the will of the providence of history, we know that all things will move forward by those tears and blood until that relationship exists. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that you will allow us to be those who are deeply penetrated with such a shimjung today.</p>
|
||
<p>Lord, who left in this manner; Lord, who is the bridegroom: you promised you would come again through the history of relationship. We know you have an ardent shimjung to seek us and use us, devoting your mind and body. Please allow us to be eager to boast of the glorious appearance before all humankind, having prepared ourselves. In trying to go forward on the path, we realize it is an evil world. Since the path the Lord walked remains, we must walk the remaining hill for the nation, continuously forbearing with patience. We must also walk the remaining hill of the world. We have realized for the first time that now we cannot help sustaining the history of martyrdom where one goes over the hill of the cross by forbearing with patience.</p>
|
||
<p>Once we listened to the words, we felt awe-stricken. Once we were awakened, we felt ashamed. What further excuses can we make? What wish can we have in front of the Father? Please forgive us for not having anything of which to boast.</p>
|
||
<p>Please allow us now to go forward until the day we can hold onto the Father and wail, feeling the relationship with a new mind, waiting eagerly with a new mind, and forbearing with a new mind. Allow us to go beyond the relationship of rankling sorrow. Soliciting ardently that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can overstep the influence of death and sing of the glory of resurrection by having endured and remained until the time when we can boast of the relationship of happiness, I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/10/the-path-of-life-we-must-go-entertaining-hope.html" title="Permalink to The Path of Life We Must Go, Entertaining Hope" rel="bookmark">The Path of Life We Must Go, Entertaining Hope</a>
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-10T07:36:00+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/10/the-path-of-life-we-must-go-entertaining-hope.html" rel="bookmark">June 10, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-10T07:36:00+01:00">June 10, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1959.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1959</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
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March 22, 1959,<br />
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Former Church Headquarters<br />
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Seoul, Korea</h3>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;"><em>Romans 8:18-21 </em><br />
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<em><span class="text Rom-8-18"><sup class="versenum">18 </sup>I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.</span> <span id="en-NIV-28136" class="text Rom-8-19"><sup class="versenum">19 </sup>For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.</span> <span id="en-NIV-28137" class="text Rom-8-20"><sup class="versenum">20 </sup>For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope</span> <span id="en-NIV-28138" class="text Rom-8-21"><sup class="versenum">21 </sup>that<sup class="footnote" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; top: 0px;" data-fn="#fen-NIV-28138a" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NIV-28138a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]">[<a title="See footnote a" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8:18-21#fen-NIV-28138a">a</a>]</sup> the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.</span></em></h3>
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<h3>
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<p>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>In this hour, please let us feel and experience the heart of the Father, who sent our good ancestors to this earth and drove them as far as death because You loved humankind so.</p>
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<p>We know that history has been one of continual sadness and conflict since the fall of the first human ancestors, who were not up to their task. Neither Heaven nor earth has had a day of happiness since. Father, because of this, the world is full of twists and turns. When will we become pious sons and daughters in whom You can take delight and who can praise You on this earth? We are anxiously awaiting the day when we can do so.</p>
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<p>Since we who are inadequate have gathered before You this day, please look at us with compassion. We are feeble; please make us strong, so that we may lift the banner of victory on the battleground that remains for us. Allow us to be able to boast that we have become Your sons and daughters. Father, we pray this from the bottoms of our hearts.</p>
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<p>Father, we realize that there have been many things in our lives of the past week that were not right in Your presence. Please forgive us. We are prostrated before You in this hour to offer our insufficient minds and bodies. Please purify us from all that is not right. We pray ardently that You allow only the things You can claim to spring up in our minds and bodies.</p>
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<p>We know very well that You have gathered us here in this hour because You love us so much. Since we realize this is out of Your grace, please let this be the hour when we can offer our sincere hearts to You in response to that grace. We sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be sons and daughters who can fight to the end, enduring everything for the sake of fulfilling the Father’s wish and will.</p>
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<p>Since it is a holy day, please bless all humankind, and bless this pitiful people. There are church members who are praying on their knees before You in lonely places. Please bless them and do not withdraw Your uniform grace of protection and divine aid from them. I sincerely wish and desire that You lead, protect and guide them until we greet the Father’s eternal day.</p>
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<p>Since we came before You in this hour, please allow us to be able to offer all of our minds and bodies. Father, we pray sincerely that You will allow this to be the hour when we abandon all notions of the world and are able to relate to You with the hearts of true sons and daughters.</p>
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<p>Father, please govern this hour in person. Do not allow Satan to take advantage of an unguarded moment. Ardently soliciting that You will cling to us eternally with the hands of grace, and that You will transfer us to Your garden of life, I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>Please bless this day to be a holy day. Please sanctify this hour. Please credit these people as a holy throng. Please allow this audience to have only sincere minds that cannot forget the Father’s heart.</p>
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<p>Please govern this hour, and do not let it be one in which we feel what we please. Allow our hearts to be transformed into resembling the Father’s heart. Let the sincere heart that desires to relate to the Father’s sacred image overflow within us. Please eradicate all opinions, assertions and notions that have been the backbone of our self-centered thinking until now. Allow only that which can make a connection with the Father seep out of the depths of our hearts. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be anxious only to adore the ideal and purpose You desire, to care for the Father’s will.</p>
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<p>There have been numerous people who have come and gone before now for the sake of Your will. We realize that it is Your great grace to have called us and to let us gather here. We are quite beneath notice. We know that You gathered us because You want to give us commands. Father! We sincerely wish and desire that You will please bestow Your words of life and grace upon each of our spirits.</p>
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<p>We realize that the battleground still remains where we cannot help pioneering the path of battle, keeping the garden of hope in view today and tomorrow. Please let our minds and bodies be strong and bold in this hour; guide us to be able to drive out the wave of death with a sweeping motion. Father, we ardently pray that You will allow us to become Your sons and daughters who can boast of the grace of resurrection, having the power of life.</p>
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<p>Father, please grant what You will to Your sons and daughters in this hour, and extirpate all the things You do not want. Please allow our minds and Your mind to become united. Allow Your divine image and our minds to become unified. We pray sincerely that Your sacred image and our minds will become unified and that You will allow nothing that does not belong to You to remain.</p>
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<p>Father! Please guide this to be an hour when we hold service thinking only of Your will. Allow this to be the hour when we can sing Your holy name with sincere hearts, an hour when our minds and bodies honor the Father’s will and praise Your beautiful heart. Father, we sincerely wish and desire for this to be done.</p>
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<p>Beloved Father! Please look at the thirty million Korean people with compassion. Please bless the numerous religious denominations gathering on behalf of this nation. Father, please bestow the grace of blessing, especially upon the members who ardently pray on their knees before You in the midst of a desolate environment. Please protect them with the hands of uniform grace, and advise them with uniform authority. Please protect them so they are not defeated on the remaining battleground, the place of the last battle against Satan. I sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be able to sing a triumphal tune and boast of being Your sons and daughters.</p>
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<p>Many people are wishing for Your hope to be realized. However, we realize that there is no son or daughter who wants to penetrate deeply into Your heart of true love and comfort You. Beloved Father, we ardently wish and desire that You will allow this set of people gathered here in this hour to be the sons and daughters who can embrace and comfort Your heart and offer respectful bows in harmony with Your heart.</p>
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<p>Many people have made an effort for the sake of the Father. Yet because they could not endure to the end and win, their efforts and troubles could not bear fruit. Since we are aware of this fact, Father, we ardently pray that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can go forward irrespective of any fight, even one serious enough to affect today, tomorrow or even our whole life. Let us endure and toil to the end, until we produce the last fruit in the presence of the Father.</p>
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<p>We know that our being gathered here is owing to Your particular favor. Since we have to assume the important responsibility for that favor, we sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who are not inadequate.</p>
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<p>We desire to gather our inadequate minds and bodies in this hour and bow respectfully before You. Please have dominion over everything, and govern this hour so that Satan cannot take advantage of it. Father, ardently soliciting this, we pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>Father, please look at us with compassion. We are a pitiful set of people who could not die, except for Your graceful consideration. Father, we ardently pray that You not leave us alone in this hour and that You will embrace us in Your great bosom of love.</p>
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<p>Your sons and daughters have followed without complaining, though the path of toil has been difficult. Since we cannot help straying without Your love, please look at us with compassion. Allow us to feel and experience the grace of glory You bestow by embracing us with Your great love.</p>
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<p>There is an end to everything that centers on people, while all the things that move centering on the Father last forever. Since we know this is true, please get rid of everything that centers on people. Let only the things that center on You appear in the gardens of our minds. Father, we pray this from the depths of our minds.</p>
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<p>We often forget that the more ardently we seek You, the more we conjure up the image of Your internal nature. The closer we wish to get to the presence of Your mind, the more Your great love will be with us without our knowledge. Father, we sincerely wish and desire that You allow us not to forget that You live with us always, whether we are too busy to notice or not.</p>
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<p>Please look at Your sons and daughters gathered here with compassion. Please be responsible for their lives, and let their wishes be realized. Since You promised that Your hope for us would be attained, please grant us the power with which we can continue to fight by Your side until we take possession of that garden of hope. Beloved Father, we also sincerely wish and desire that You will protect us from growing weary in the fight against Satan.</p>
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<p>Please look with compassion at Your sons and daughters gathered here. Our hands and feet have been wounded while working our way through the world of death. Father, we pray that You will embrace us and take our hands in this hour. We know that if You say You do not know us, there will be none more pitiful than us. Therefore, Father, please hold us and comfort us.</p>
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<p>We would not have given up our lives if not for the Father’s command. Since we have come forth obeying the orders of Your command, that this the righteous path for us to walk, Father, we sincerely wish and desire that You will not abandon us but will embrace us in this hour.</p>
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<p>Please look with compassion at Your sons and daughters gathered here. Please let them feel to their flesh and bones that nothing not of the Father will do; nothing that is not in accord with the Father will do; and nothing that is not the work of the Father will do either.</p>
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<p>We ardently wish and desire that You allow us to be able to demonstrate the dignified appearance of the Father’s sons and daughters by fighting to the end, bringing with us the undertakings, the will and the hope You left behind. Please look at Your sons and daughters gathered here with compassion and have dominion over us, since we have entrusted You with everything we have.</p>
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<p>Father, please allow me to deliver the word You have allowed in this hour within the boundary of Your will. Please root out everything that belongs to Satan, and allow this to be the hour when we feel the same things Your heart feels, an hour when we are entwined in Your heart and transformed into Your heart.</p>
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<p>Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You allow this to be the hour when we can bow respectfully before You, with our hearts deeply penetrated by Your love at least for this hour. Let the minds of the deliverer and the minds of the receivers be unified in listening to Your words.</p>
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<p>Father, I know that there are lonely church members appealing to You scattered around the country even in this hour. Please protect them with Your uniform power. Ardently soliciting this, I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<h3>Humanity Lost Hope</h3>
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<p>The topic I want to speak about is <i>“The Path of Life We Must Go, Entertaining Hope.”</i> I will speak briefly upon this topic.</p>
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<p>We know very well that humanity has lived until the present time unable to realize Heaven’s true hope because humans fell and are in a state of having lost the granted hope of Heaven. Therefore, we cannot deny that we are inevitably destined to seek and go the path of true hope, from the day of our birth to the day of our death.</p>
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<p>Before the fall, God said to Adam and Eve, “Fill the earth and rule over all creation.” This meant that God had granted Adam and Eve a standard of hope. However, because they fell, they lost that Heaven-granted standard of hope. Moreover, they also lost the garden of happiness, the world of the comprehensive ideology in which they could live forever, receiving God’s love in the perfection stage.</p>
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<p>Humans, who lost the path of true hope in this manner, have walked a course of all kinds of vicissitudes, a path of battle, to recover the lost path of hope from the time of birth. We keenly experience this fact now.</p>
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<p>Until now, we could not perceive that humanity came to the realization of hopelessness after his birth into the world. However, as a result of God’s compassionate grace, a promise of hope has been established for humans. This is a most fortunate thing for humans, more than anything else, and is a greater blessing than any other.</p>
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<p>Until the time of Jesus, we human beings could not live singing the joys of eternal life in the realm of limitless hope, centering on eternal Heaven. Heaven felt compassion toward human beings, who could not live in the realm of such hope, and ceaselessly toiled to enable them to pioneer the path of hope, surmounting the miserable circumstances of living. We know this very well. Among those born on the earth, there are people who live with hope and people who live without hope. Incidentally, there are two kinds of hope: one hope centers upon humans, the other centers upon Heaven.</p>
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<p>We grow up thinking that our mother’s bosom is the best thing from the day of our birth. However, as we grow older, we come to bid adieu to our mother’s bosom. Next, we meet people and make friends and think that friends are the best thing there is. However, eventually we come to part with those friends also.</p>
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<p>As individuals grow older, they gradually come to realize that their beloved parents cannot fulfill their entire hope, that their beloved spouses cannot satisfy their entire hope, and going further that their beloved children cannot gratify the entirety of their hope either. People know that although they desire many things, the mind that desires fades away to nothingness. They may have hopes for the family or for the nation, and furthermore for the world, but as they grow older, their mind of hope gets weaker and weaker. That is true. We know that of the people living on this earth there are not many who boast of a collective hope and have the firm conviction that they cannot live apart from that hope, even if they must risk their lives for it. Humanity is fated to have to fight and go beyond death after living life as it is.</p>
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<h3>The Hope which Can Win Over Death</h3>
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<p>A person entertains all kinds of hope in his life. However, he runs into death in the end and passes away, having abandoned all the hopes he had fostered. Although he wanders about seeking a new hope, wishing to live today and tomorrow, when he runs into death, he goes the last path in despair. We know this very well.</p>
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<p>A person does not have a hope with which he can go over the hill of death, even though he seems to have hope centering on himself. He fades away without such a hope. There are questions then to be considered. Are we to take this for the norm of life? Are we to seek out a hope with which we can go beyond death, scoffing at it and even delighting in it? These are the important questions people living on this earth today must consider.</p>
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<p>Everything in the world today will pass away. The families, the nations, the world and any kind of “ism” will pass away and be gone. There is one thing that will remain, in the end: the hope with which we can fight and win over death. Without such a hope, we might as well call ourselves failures in life. There is a set of people who live embracing hope not of the human world, but a new hope of Heaven, an eternal hope, rejecting all worldly hope. Heaven made limitless efforts to enable humanity on earth, who is living centered upon human hope, to go over the hill of death with a new hope and to live with regard to the eternal world. Therefore, people who lead a religious life should not live embracing earthly hope, but should live entertaining a hope with which they can even go beyond death, dreaming of the world of eternal hope. For this, we are leading a life of religion.</p>
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<h3>The Reason Jesus Could Overcome All Trials and Death</h3>
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<p>Jesus is a man who lived having given up all the earthly hopes people normally cherish from the time of his youth. We must know that Jesus lived from early on with a hope for which he could forsake his family, his environment, his religious denomination, and even his nation. He had a firm belief and hope in Heaven that no one could change. The hope that he cherished in his young mind was an immutable, thorough-going one with which he could withstand whatever difficulties he might encounter. Therefore, we must remember once again that Jesus ran the path he had to take with unflagging perseverance.</p>
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<p>Jesus went to the temple in Jerusalem with his parents when he was twelve. His parents came back first, and Jesus remained there. When his parents came looking for him later, Jesus scolded them, saying, “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49) We must know that Jesus cherished hope only for the Father.</p>
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<p>Jesus ceaselessly toiled to put the surrounding environment in order as he matured. He had faith for the sake of Heaven; the kind of faith no one else had. Although there were many difficulties on the path he walked, because he had faith that he would build a new kingdom, a new world of hope, those difficulties could not take away his hope.</p>
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<p>Jesus did the work of a carpenter in his private life. In spite of working in an environment that was not free, one in which he felt extreme difficulty, he did not retreat but overcame the situation. We know that he fought on, bearing a mind with ardent hope that cared for Heaven.</p>
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<p>When Jesus stepped onto the path of adventure as he reached thirty, nurturing a will and new determination and resolution, the people around him did not support him. His family, the church, and society persecuted him in their respective ways. No one paid attention to him. Jesus overcame those difficulties even when he could not help being disappointed. He was able to do this through his unique faith, that is, the one hope he had. We must know that Jesus put the environment in order, overcoming all difficulties, by embracing such a hope and faith.</p>
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<p>Even though he raised twelve disciples, Jesus was pursued here and there. However, the more he was pursued and the more people were unable to understand his heart, the more ardently he thought about the Father’s nation and the Father’s heart. Although many battles and difficulties knocked against him, they could not crush Jesus’ perennial hope.</p>
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<p>Jesus fought with that hope, from the time of his birth to the end. He never gave up that hope, even though the religious denomination, the people, and even his disciples betrayed him. Furthermore, we must know that he did not recede. He held onto his hope in spite of his imminent crucifixion.</p>
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<p>It is beyond dispute that one’s life is precious. However, because Jesus had hope for eternal life after death, his mind was greater, and he was able to go over even the path of the crucifixion with dignity. We know very well that Jesus bore witness to the hope in its entirety, through dying in the presence of heaven and earth. The more Jesus was swept by the horror of death, the more deeply he felt that the day of hope was approaching. He prayed on the last path of the crucifixion, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”</p>
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<p>Feeling that a new world of hope would be spread out before him after he surpassed physical death, Jesus longed for that world. We know that because Jesus wished for and cherished the thought of resurrection as a being of eternal freedom, he was able to have the glory of being resurrected after death.</p>
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<h3>Awareness of and Faith in the Hope</h3>
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<p>People of faith today must realize likewise that living with hope in the eternal world is much more precious than living with hope of remaining on earth. Christians today very often do not put emphasis on the eternal hope that they should value so highly through their life of faith. We must become the people who know how to take hold of the hope with which we can be connected to the eternal world and be able to sacrifice everything as a result of that hope. Only by doing so can we become the last true victors.</p>
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<p>All the past prophets and sages went the path of death, without minding it, not only Jesus. Without regard for the jeers of all other people, they went. They went, not caring about persecution. The reason they walked the path of all kinds of difficulty was that they had the eternal hope that cannot be exchanged for anything else. They did not have a worldly hope; they had ardent hope that gets connected to and came deep into their heart through eternal Heaven. That is why they walked the path of death, the path of persecution, and the path of tribulation without minding.</p>
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<p>Therefore, we people of faith today should have a mind that glows with hope. We must not lead a life of faith with a hope that will be realized only after death. We must become people who can make the hope into reality and achieve a triumph after fighting, at the risk of our lives, within the realm of reality. If such a person existed, he or she could be considered a person of faith who truly gained victory, a person not with hope on this earth but a person with eternal hope.</p>
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<p>If this hope were false, if all the stress that Heaven has put to human beings to put their hopes in Heaven for several thousand years were false, Heaven could be seen as being unspeakably false. This would be the most deceitful act played upon human beings.</p>
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<p>Humans beings have longed for good and better things. Through the long course of history, they have not been able to forget Heaven but have longed for it in their minds and toiled for it with their bodies. Heaven is something for which everyone must long: an object all human beings must pursue. Therefore, all of humanity has come forth relating to Heaven as the standard of hope, exerting themselves physically and pouring out their souls until now.</p>
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<p>Therefore, the subject of your discussion from now on will be whether your mind stimulates you enough to make you cut your way through the environment with this deeply penetrating heavenly hope. If the number of the times you receive this type of stimulus grows smaller, you must realize that you will have no alternative but to fall down upon meeting death.</p>
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<p>For that reason, we must give up all worldly hopes and go forth holding onto eternal heavenly hope. We must have firm faith with which we can force out every hope which centers on the world. Unless you have such faith, your life of faith is not right.</p>
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<p>No one can be assured of not walking the path of suffering, the path of persecution, or the path of death. Therefore, in stepping out to seek eternal hope, you must have a firm faith that nothing can replace this hope, no matter what kind of internal or external difficulty may come crashing into you.</p>
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<p>Jesus never gave up the object he set before himself in his youth; not even during battles, not even when he was knocked down in a fight, and not even after his resurrection from a state of being brought low. Because he fought without giving up the hope he had kept since he was very young, Jesus opened the path of hope for all humankind to live by holding onto Heaven. He came to be raised as a central being of hope on whom all humankind can rely.</p>
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<p>What must you hope for today? You must possess the hope of wishing to have the glory of resurrection after crossing the hill of death, and the hope of wishing to become God’s true sons and daughters after winning the glory of resurrection. Next, you must have the hope of wishing to live with God forever, wishing to live for His sake forever, wishing to seek out God’s true love. Even if the endless path of crucifixion awaits you, even if some never-ending pain sweeps you away, and even if there are critical points of limitless difficulty before you, you must not retreat from them. You must become those who have a firm hope, who expect automatically to be subjected to such pain and who can push their way through it with their bodies. Unless you become people like that, you must realize that you cannot become the final victors.</p>
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<h3>Hope and the Life of Practice</h3>
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<p>After Jesus came and left, his twelve disciples walked the same path. They went into Rome and endured the severity of persecution. They were crucified and put to death. They were left for dead. In spite of such, they still did not give up their hope. The joy that they received from having hope was stronger than the fear they felt of death, stronger than any pain they received from tribulation; stronger than any armament. It was stronger than any influence and anything that was boasted of in the world. We have learned that Christianity was established on the grounds which prophets and sages walked, embracing hope more strongly than anything else.</p>
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<p>Today we are placed in a situation where we too must entertain a new hope and set up and affect an object on the worldwide level. This being the reality, you will have to understand that the hope you cherish should exert stronger influence than any other power. Even if death comes upon you, even if all this universe is to disappear, hope should be the source of power with which you can overcome. Only if you become such unchanging central figures of hope will you be able to stand in front of Heaven.</p>
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<p>There have been many people until now who boasted of themselves as having good faith. However, we have often seen people who boast of themselves fading away. No matter how much one boasts of his good faith, unless he can stand as one central being of hope who has won victory over the last hill of death, we must realize that he will end up being a loser in life.</p>
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<p>If we establish the church and build the nation after rendering devoted service for the sake of Heaven, embracing the hope that cannot be bartered for all the things we own and that is even more precious than our life, the task of seeking a new hope through the church and the nation will take place on this hopeless earth. Through them, all of humankind, who were wandering without hope, will find a new hope.</p>
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<p>Each of you who stepped forth to seek a new path must keep the hope of which you cannot help boasting in front of all humankind, even in the face of fear and death. With the firm faith that you have such a hope, even if you grapple with some difficulties of the environment, you must become people who can overcome them with dignity and happiness. If you become such people, you will not own worldly joy, but heavenly joy, which is eternal. The restored life in such an atmosphere is not the life that dies after living in this world; it is the life that lives forever. What is more, if there is a person who seeks such a hope, he will be the one who can live forever in God’s love, not in the love humans advocate. If one seeks such a hope, he would have to be considered qualified to stand in front of all humankind without defect. Therefore, today we must have a hope that is not earth-bound or blocked by the hill of death, but one with which we can surmount the hill of death. Unless we are able to have such a hope, the dispensational history of Heaven, who came looking for us after having crossed the hill of death will end in failure.</p>
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<p>Heaven stresses that only after we go over the hill of death are eternal hope, eternal happiness, and the eternal ideology given. In fact, Heaven seeks us through the hill of death. Therefore, we must have the hope with which we can surmount death. Without this hope, we cannot travel this path. That is why Paul said, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18) Deeply touched in his heart by the thoroughgoing hope that no one had, Paul had to assume responsibility for the difficult surroundings alone, and he went forth fighting. You must know this.</p>
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<p>Without regarding the numerous hills of death, to seek out this hope for human beings, Heaven has come seeking several thousand years. Therefore, today we must become the people who know how to go over the hill of death, embracing heavenly hope. Unless we become such people, we will not have eternal heavenly hope. You must understand this.</p>
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<p>Jesus also said, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:25) This parable was not made by worldly people, but by Jesus, who represented Heaven. This seems like a contradictory statement. However, Jesus made this statement because human beings are left with the course of life in which they have to march on, resolving the contradiction of the environment.</p>
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<h3>The Last Remaining Matter of Concern</h3>
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<p>We must understand that this statement is a request for us not to make earth-bound hope our own, but to adopt eternal hope. Jesus walked that path in person himself. We must know that he set up hope on this hopeless earth, opened up the path of life on this lifeless earth, and cultivated the path of resurrection on this unredeemable earth.</p>
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<p>Until when must you go forth with that hope? It is until you step forward in front of the Father’s throne and receive the Father’s true love, after going beyond the path of death and the hill of resurrection. The question is whether you can march on holding onto that hope until that time. It is easy to make a resolution while embracing a hope and looking at it, but it is difficult to fight holding onto that hope. It is easy to embrace a hope of some kind, but it is difficult to live to the end keeping that hope, and to stand and die for the path of that hope so that all humankind lives with that hope. Yet Jesus walked such a path in high spirits.</p>
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<p>Today we look forward to the last day of resurrection, the day of hope. The time of the hope that all of us are looking forward to is the time in which all humankind can take delight. Yet that time does not come easily. That hope can be owned only by those who have won over death. Only those who have fought along with God against Satan will take possession of that hope. Only those who have received persecution, together with God, for the sake of Heaven will secure that hope. As we think that such a time is approaching, we must have an ardent mind to overcome this living environment and overcome even the fear of death. Unless such an ardent mind emanates from you, you cannot draw the day of that hope into the realm of your life and go on living.</p>
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<p>Therefore, he who is said to be living a truthful life will think about the answer to the question, “How will I be when I die?” It is not good to ask ourselves that only at the moment of death, after having lived for seventy to eighty years. When he reached the place of death, Jesus said, “It is finished. My Father, please take my soul.” Indeed, he was a person of victory in the path of life.</p>
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<p>Someday in the future you will come to meet with death and will reflect on the past with death in front of you. You must give thought to what kind of words you want to leave behind when you meet that day. You will not find any friends on this path. Your beloved parents will not be there, nor your beloved brothers and sisters, nor will there be marriage partners and beloved children on this path. This is a path you have to go alone. This is a path at which you do not have another try. You cannot pass it and come back. You can never return once you pass through it. That being the case, when you come to walk this path, what kind of mind will you have? If you do not have the hope with which you can overcome the hill of death, the moment you come across it will be the end of you.</p>
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<p>What kind of people were those numerous people who upheld God’s will? They were not people who retreated before the path of death. They were the people who laughed at death with scorn and gallantly withstood it. We know very well that throughout history, such people have established the heavenly path.</p>
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<p>Each of you must keep a hope in your bosom with which you can withstand death even when you are faced with it. You must also be able to run with joy toward the hope that you will stand proudly in front of Heaven when you travel this path and arrive at the original homeland, that is, the world for which you have longed in your mind. You must realize that only if you ardently hope for the realization of God’s ideal world will you then win over death.</p>
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<p>Everything in the world will pass away, your beloved parents, your beloved spouse and everything you love. We will come to face death in the end. Yet you must know that only the person with a victorious hope, who lets even death pass away, can stand in front of Heaven.</p>
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<p>Humans beings on this earth today do not want to walk the path of suffering and sorrow. If there is a moment of happiness, people are loath to see it pass. They would view a happy moment with nostalgia. That is human nature.</p>
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<h3>God’s Sons and Daughters Who Have Realized Hope</h3>
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<p>This world we live in is one in which sorrow and happiness are jumbled together. We know that all the happiness we enjoy will disappear with death and cannot remain beyond death.</p>
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<p>If sorrow and happiness disappear with death, then would the mind of a person which seeks happiness, which wishes to have better things and longs for the eternal world, come to an end along with death? No, it would not. That our minds and hearts move in such a direction is proof that such a world really exists.</p>
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<p>Because a person is a spiritual being, his life is eternal. The reason people rendered devoted service to Heaven, walked the path of death for the sake of Heaven, and even went the path that many others rejected, keeping hope in their bosom, was because they felt something other people could not feel. They knew of a value that common people could not know. That was why they could walk, even the path of death.</p>
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<p>If your mind that longs is not stronger than any hardships, difficulties, sorrow or even death, then you will feel regret before death and will retreat before sorrow and pain. Today, we are destined to go over the hill of death one way or the other, because Jesus went to the eternal world, going over the hill of death, and established the world of resurrection.</p>
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<p>What kind of person is he who lives cherishing the hope of Heaven? He is a person who can withstand with joy even the hill of death about which other people feel sad. You must know that such a person keeps the hope of Heaven in his bosom. Therefore, you must not become those who show resentment at everything in the world and lament before death. You must become those who can rejoice and brag about the value of their death in front of Heaven. We must realize that Heaven is looking for such sons and daughters of hope.</p>
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<p>If there were a person who felt heavenly joy standing in such a place, it would be impossible for God not to love him. If there were a throng of people who wailed, facing Heaven in such a situation, then Heaven would have no choice other than to respond to the wailing.</p>
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<p>Has there ever been a time when you appealed, wailing to Heaven, with a hope like no one could have until today, in such a grave situation? Has there been any time when you repulsed the influence of death, felt the joy of victory, and returned glory before Heaven? The one who does not experience such on this earth before his body dies cannot be considered to have an eternal hope, to be able to stand before Heaven.</p>
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<p>Such feelings penetrated deeply into Jesus’ heart. Jesus was faced with rejection from people of all sorts and was to be killed by enemies. It was the most miserable situation in the world. Yet he could still pray for blessing upon his enemies, being deeply penetrated by hopeful heavenly sentiment, instead of anxiety over his own miserable situation. We must realize this.</p>
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<p>Accordingly, you too must have an ardent passion that the hope you have is beyond price and cannot be exchanged with any valuable thing on this earth. It is so valuable that you have to realize it, even at the sacrifice of your life. You must know that unless you let such a mind securely settle within you, Heaven cannot have faith in you. Unless you have such a heart, Heaven cannot trust you.</p>
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<p>Heaven has come forth for several thousand years, seeking the sons and daughters who try to keep hold of the hope of Heaven, going so far as to abandon everything in the world, those whom Heaven can trust and love forever. I want you to remember that you must become the people who awaken to this, who live with a hope from now on, who fight to establish a hope and step forth not even caring about death for the purpose of realizing that hope.</p>
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>Father, we know well that as Jesus reached the age of discretion, he felt more strongly about the hope that he cherished from the day he awakened to the truth. That hope was to become united with the Father, going beyond the family, the race, the nation, the world, and even the infinite spirit world. Jesus knew that the beginning and end of everything must move together with the Father. He walked without minding the difficult path, the sorrowful path, and the path of the cross.</p>
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<p>Father, all people of the world walk the path of life, which passes in any case. All things we see before our eyes look beautiful. Yet please allow us to know that they are merely passing phenomena along with us. We know that everything in this world in which we have taken delight, have believed and relied upon, will not be of any service to the world of our mind and the world of eternal hope. Father, we pray from the bottom of our hearts that You will let us cast all this aside and allow only the hope centered on You to be the totality of our lives for our entire lifetimes.</p>
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<p>We know that because the hope that honors and inclines toward the Father is more valuable than anything we have and more precious than our lives, unless we become those who fight holding onto it, we cannot become the Father’s sons and daughters. Please let us have strong hope with which we can laugh in scorn and withstand the hill of death. Please do not let it end only as a mere hope. Allow our mind, burning with this hope, to be strongly motivated. By doing so, we sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to become the sons and daughters whose minds and bodies can run on this path.</p>
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<p>Please allow us to know that You can trust only those who have strong minds and hope, trying to honor the Father; those who are able to go over even death. We ardently wish and desire that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who know that our hope today is not a hope of which we take hold and march forth with for some years. Rather, it is a hope of which we take hold and march forth with forever. Furthermore, let us know that without hope, we cannot lead a life worth living.</p>
|
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<p>Father, we pray sincerely that You allow that the more we think of You, the more our heart of hope will yearn for the Father, and yearn for the Father’s life and love. By doing so, please allow us to not be deprived of the ardent mind of hope in the course of our life and in our living environment until the time we are raised as the sons and daughters who can receive blessings along with the Father’s words of promise.</p>
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<p>We know that numerous satans are attacking us to deprive us of this. Please allow us to be Your sons and daughters who can return glory before the Father by fighting, holding onto the hope You granted in our minds to the end. We sincerely wish and desire this.</p>
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<p>Ardently soliciting that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can return glory in the presence of the Father by becoming victorious after fighting with Satan, keeping hold of the Father’s hope in the last remaining battleground, I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<article id="post-1005" class="post-1005 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1959">
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<header class="entry-header">
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<h2 class="entry-title">
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/10/the-heart-of-heaven-in-relation-to-elijah.html" title="Permalink to The Heart of Heaven in Relation to Elijah" rel="bookmark">The Heart of Heaven in Relation to Elijah</a>
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</h2>
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<div class="entry-meta">
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-10T07:33:48+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/10/the-heart-of-heaven-in-relation-to-elijah.html" rel="bookmark">June 10, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-10T07:33:48+01:00">June 10, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1959.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1959</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<div class="entry-content">
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
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March 15, 1959,<br />
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Church Headquarters<br />
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Seoul, Korea</h3>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;"><em>I Kings 19:1-21 </em></h3>
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<p class="chapter-2" style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="text 1Kgs-19-1">Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.</span> <span id="en-NIV-9390" class="text 1Kgs-19-2"><sup class="versenum">2 </sup>So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-9391" class="text 1Kgs-19-3"><sup class="versenum">3 </sup>Elijah was afraid<sup class="footnote" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; top: 0px;" data-fn="#fen-NIV-9391a" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NIV-9391a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]">[<a title="See footnote a" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I+Kings+19:1-21#fen-NIV-9391a">a</a>]</sup> and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,</span> <span id="en-NIV-9392" class="text 1Kgs-19-4"><sup class="versenum">4 </sup>while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, <span class="small-caps">Lord</span>,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”</span> <span id="en-NIV-9393" class="text 1Kgs-19-5"><sup class="versenum">5 </sup>Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="text 1Kgs-19-5">All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”</span> <span id="en-NIV-9394" class="text 1Kgs-19-6"><sup class="versenum">6 </sup>He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-9395" class="text 1Kgs-19-7"><sup class="versenum">7 </sup>The angel of the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.”</span> <span id="en-NIV-9396" class="text 1Kgs-19-8"><sup class="versenum">8 </sup>So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.</span> <span id="en-NIV-9397" class="text 1Kgs-19-9"><sup class="versenum">9 </sup>There he went into a cave and spent the night.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="text 1Kgs-19-9">And the word of the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-9398" class="text 1Kgs-19-10"><sup class="versenum">10 </sup>He replied, “I have been very zealous for the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-9399" class="text 1Kgs-19-11"><sup class="versenum">11 </sup>The <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span>, for the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> is about to pass by.”</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="text 1Kgs-19-11">Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shatteredthe rocks before the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span>, but the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> was not in the earthquake.</span><span id="en-NIV-9400" class="text 1Kgs-19-12"><sup class="versenum">12 </sup>After the earthquake came a fire, but the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.</span> <span id="en-NIV-9401" class="text 1Kgs-19-13"><sup class="versenum">13 </sup>When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="text 1Kgs-19-13">Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-9402" class="text 1Kgs-19-14"><sup class="versenum">14 </sup>He replied, “I have been very zealous for the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-9403" class="text 1Kgs-19-15"><sup class="versenum">15 </sup>The <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram.</span><span id="en-NIV-9404" class="text 1Kgs-19-16"><sup class="versenum">16 </sup>Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet.</span> <span id="en-NIV-9405" class="text 1Kgs-19-17"><sup class="versenum">17 </sup>Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu.</span> <span id="en-NIV-9406" class="text 1Kgs-19-18"><sup class="versenum">18 </sup>Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="text 1Kgs-19-19"><sup class="versenum">19 </sup>So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him.</span> <span id="en-NIV-9408" class="text 1Kgs-19-20"><sup class="versenum">20 </sup>Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.”</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="text 1Kgs-19-20">“Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-9409" class="text 1Kgs-19-21"><sup class="versenum">21 </sup>So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.</span></em></p>
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<h3>
|
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<p>Prayer</h3>
|
||
<blockquote><p>Upon this day You have given, we have gathered before Your dignified presence on our knees, concerned about our insufficiency. Please allow us to fathom our hearts now to see where they are. We are aware that Your course in pioneering the path of life was one of utmost austerity and consecration.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, please look with compassion at Your sons and daughters gathered here. I sincerely wish and desire that You will please manifest Your dignified presence. By our setting up the standard of victory You have granted, acknowledge us as the sacred throng, and come visit us.</p>
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||
<p>The remaining course of the providence is one of sorrow. We are aware that the responsibility to hold this sorrow in check is upon our shoulders. We also know that he who cannot feel Heaven’s limitless sorrow will not be able to assume responsibility for it. Since we are aware that we cannot help assuming the responsibility for the sorrowful heart that remains in Heaven and for Heaven’s battles, please allow us to know how.</p>
|
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<p>We know that we have to feel and experience greater sorrow than anyone to be equal to this task, and that we must not become stragglers even if we are placed in a position of more chagrin than anyone else on the battleground.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will allow us to be concerned whether our bodies can be the sacrifice of victory offered before Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>Although two thousand years of history have passed since Jesus came and left, the true altar of victory that Jesus built at the top of Mt. Calgary, where he cried together with Heaven, has not yet appeared on this earth. We know that the time has come when Heaven cannot help moving, human beings on this earth cannot help moving, and the summit of worldwide Golgotha must appear, where Heaven and earth meet. This is the time when Gethsemane must appear. There will have to be numerous believers who assume responsibility. However, we know in reality that there is no throng of people in whom Heaven can seek and rejoice. Therefore, the sons and daughters who feel concern about the Father’s heart will have to wail more and more as they look upon this earth.</p>
|
||
<p>Father! Please allow us to know that the greater the ardent mind of the Father as He eagerly looks forward to the day of hope, the greater is His heart of longing for the person to appear on the earth who can render devoted service to Him.</p>
|
||
<p>Please allow us to assume all historical grief by becoming sons and daughters who can be held in the Father’s hands and raised in the Father’s bosom by offering all our minds and bodies.</p>
|
||
<p>We know that this must be the hour when our minds and bodies are resurrected anew through the miracles the Father personally works. Please forgive us for not having fulfilled the responsibility You entrusted to us in the past week. Forgive us for not having rendered devoted service to You. Please forgive us for not having led a tear-stained life, holding onto Your heart. Forgive us for having forgotten that You never gave a thought to Your own toil as You sought each one of us.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, I ardently pray from the depth of my heart that You will allow us to be Your newly resolved and determined sons and daughters in this hour, each conscious of his or her insufficiencies in the past. Let us be able to step forth upholding the minds within us which are centered on the Father’s heart.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, since this is a holy day, please look with compassion upon the thirty million Korean people who are in such a pitiful situation. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will please be their Friend, their Leader, and the Master who revives their lives.</p>
|
||
<p>Please be the center of their hope. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will please not allow this throng, this race, and this religious order to move without the Father.</p>
|
||
<p>I ardently wish and desire that You will bestow the blessing that You were to grant in this hour. Please allow Your sons and daughters who assumed the responsibility for the day of victory to be able to fulfill the mission. We are aware that this nation has the responsibility to reveal the Father’s glory by realizing this will. Since we know that there will be endless ordeals in the process of carrying that responsibility out, Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will allow us to be the sons and daughters who can step forth in Your place, meeting our responsibility even in the course of ordeals.</p>
|
||
<p>Please bestow blessings upon humanity, which is ignorant of this will. At this time, when the wave of life and death sweeps along, please allow many throngs of people to emerge who are capable of taking hold of the Father and becoming His sons and daughters.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow many sons and daughters to come forth before the Father, sons and daughters who can meet the collective responsibility of helping humanity evade the lash of judgment.</p>
|
||
<p>If there are people who do not know about this mission, about this time and responsibility, please warn them through us. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow them to become Your sons and daughters who can fulfill the responsibility and mission of the last days.</p>
|
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<p>Please bless this day. Please extend Your hands of indiscriminate grace over the scattered people who are appealing to You, embracing the lonely hearts. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will grab hold of them so that they do not fall away in the middle of the fight and so that they can establish the day of victory You have granted.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, please govern us in person during this hour, from the beginning to the end. Do not let the influence of darkness be activated. I pray this from the bottom of my heart.</p>
|
||
<p>Since we offer everything to You, please take charge and have dominion. I pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
|
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
|
||
<blockquote><p>We are aware that numerous people on this earth have gone through a path of toil and have undergone a fight of blood and tears for the sake of the will. Today, we know that we must be the fruit of that blood in front of Heaven. We know that we must hoist the flag of victory on the base of the providence that remains. In this hour today, please allow us not to think we belong to ourselves. Since our minds are not ours, our lives are not ours, and the desire we cherish is not ours, please allow us not to relate to Heaven with self-centered minds. Since we began as the Father’s, Father, I pray deeply that You will allow this to be the hour when we belong only to You.</p>
|
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<p>Our minds, our bodies, and our doctrines and assertions must all belong to the Father. Therefore, please do not tolerate the things that are not of You. If there are elements of evil in our minds and bodies, please eliminate them. By eliminating all doctrines and assertions that are not Yours, Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow this to be the hour when we can move only in accord with what belongs to the Father.</p>
|
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<p>Who can stand against Heaven, however great he may be on this earth? No one can appear before the Father with any excuses. Therefore, we realize that the time has come when we must repent from the heart, for we are steeped in sinful history. We have become offerings for Satan because of the sin and evil of history.</p>
|
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<p>Father, although our minds and bodies should have been our own, they became offerings to Satan instead. Please allow us to revive the minds within us that can grieve over this. Please create contrite hearts that regard this matter with great indignation. Father, I ardently wish and desire that You will allow us to form ties with Heaven by being awakened to our worth and by rediscovering ourselves.</p>
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<p>We are aware that an infinite number of satans are eyeing our minds and bodies. Since the bitter roots of unforgivable sin remain, Father, please manifest Yourself. With Your able authority, create the history of re-creation. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You bring about heavenly works of miracles so that our minds can succumb before You.</p>
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<p>We are aware that when Heaven moves, the earth cannot help moving, and when the earth makes a request to Heaven, Heaven cannot help complying. Are there heavenly sons and daughters today who fight to take hold of Heaven as their own with sincere minds and whole hearts? Is there one who has lived his whole life accepting all heavenly situations as his own, assuming Heaven’s work as his own, accepting Heaven’s ideology as his own? Is there one who has fought to grasp this, receiving maltreatment and being hounded and pursued to grasp this? Since we are not such, please allow us to be able to inform Heaven truthfully that we are unpardonable offenders.</p>
|
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<p>Although we do not know it today, Heaven sent numerous prophets and sages over the long period of six thousand years, having them build bloody altars. By sending loyal subjects and patriots to this nation, Heaven has taken hold of the direction this nation must take. For that purpose, the Father did not care about any particular region. He unfolded the dispensation internally to the domain that transcends race. Such has been the Father’s toil. Please allow us not to forget that.</p>
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<p>The Father devoted all sincerity and exerted all possible efforts to realize this one will and came seeking for us, ready for any kind of sacrifice. Therefore, Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will not allow us to be brazen-faced sons and daughters who cannot uphold honor before such grace.</p>
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<p>Now we have perceived that heaven exists and who Heavenly Father is. Since we know that an inevitable condition remains for the Father and us to form bonds, Father, please allow us to be able to feel Your grief as our own, Your deep lamentation and sorrow as our own through the heart. Please allow heavenly marchers to appear before this nation and this earth, stepping forth to fight a fierce battle against Satan.</p>
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<p>Father, I ardently wish and desire that You will allow us to rout the enemy satans from this earth who have falsely accused Heaven for six thousand years. Allow us to dissolve the Father’s bitter resentment and suffering love and to build the ideal garden You sought as quickly as possible.</p>
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<p>Father, please give instructions as to the direction of this nation. Reveal the direction the religious order should take, and clearly indicate the path of the true sons and daughters. We are aware that the time of historical grief has arrived, when we are taken alive into the influence of darkness by being thrown into confusion and nebulosity. Father, I pray deeply that You will set up one standard by which we can withstand.</p>
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<p>We know that there was no moment when grief abated for Jesus, who came for God and humanity. Looking back at Jesus two thousand years ago, we now know that he shed tears in secret, starved in secret, and in secret cried bitterly in the course of persecution. We are aware that as Jesus walked this kind of course, numerous believers following behind him also unselfishly walked the bloody path and went forth fighting, even on the path of death.</p>
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<p>The final day is approaching when we must bow respectfully toward Heaven and receive blessing by offering ourselves as living sacrifices. The time is coming near to sing of the glory of Heaven by offering the whole of our lives. Where are Your sons and daughters who will offer themselves as living sacrifices before You today? Where are those who can please the Father and offer praise to Him in a glorious state? We understand the heart of the Father, who is searching, wondering where are such people. We know that if You feel sorrowful, it is because You could not find Your reciprocating partner, because You could not find one substantial entity of glory. Father, please work so that we can at least have a mind to tremble for fear that the heavenly sorrow may be extended to posterity for a thousand years through the marks we leave today.</p>
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<p>What did the sons and daughters gathered here come in search of? The place these people must go is not here, but the Father’s home. Is there one who has sat on the Father’s throne? Is there one who will be remembered in the Father’s mind? We know that if we do not become such people, we can become nothing but objects for mockery in front of billions of satans and offerings for them. Please allow us to prostrate before the Father, concentrating our minds together in this hour.</p>
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<p>The path to the heavenly castle is the path of the cross. Please let us know that we must go to the top of Golgotha, carrying our cross on our back. We must go so far as the place of bloodshed, the place of the cross, and be subjected to persecution. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will allow us to know that You are seeking the throng of people who forget about themselves, who forget their sorrow and pain and exert themselves to the utmost to walk the path of Golgotha today and tomorrow.</p>
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<p>Please look upon the thirty million Korean people with compassion. Bless the numerous religious orders which have appeared on their behalf. It is a time when brother fights against brother. It is a time when family members become enemies to one another, defying heavenly principles and breaking down human ethics and morality. It is a time when people calling on Heaven play sport with people who also call on Heaven and strive more than hungry lions to catch and eat them. It is the time when he who knows the sorrow of Heaven and looks at this reality must weep bitterly and sigh for grief.</p>
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<p>Father, please look with compassion at the pitiful, ignorant people. Although they wander about seeking the true path, that path cannot be walked without tears. Although they wander about seeking the true path to life, the search cannot help being continued day and night since the thirty million Korean people are ignorant. Who is responsible for the fate of these people? Who feels and experiences the sorrow of Heaven on behalf of these people? There is no one who will take responsibility for the fate of these people. There is no one who will dissolve the sorrow of Heaven. There is no one who hears the sounds of lamentation and crying from Heaven. If such a person should appear, Heaven’s sorrow would not penetrate deeply into the earth; Heaven’s judgment would fall.</p>
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<p>Father, please allow this age today to know the grief of Jesus, who spoke of his sorrowful heart. It is of no use to know Jesus only as a historical figure. The time has come when we must know Jesus of the present time in our environment. Please allow us to be the throng of people who utter a cry only toward Heaven, dead or alive, overwhelmed by the shimjung to offer our minds and bodies as sacrifices before that lofty and dignified shimjung, before that love. We know that this throng of people is to be hounded on this earth and forsaken by the religious order. I wish and desire that You will allow Your sons and daughters gathered here to become the throng of people who can defend their position to the death.</p>
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<p>Father, please let us know that Heaven’s grief remains, which we can never forget. We would like personal comfort for ourselves. We are a pitiful throng of people who do not know that Heaven’s sorrow exists before our personal comfort and that Heaven’s fight began before we started fighting.</p>
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<p>What is the purpose of our coming here today? We did not come here to meet someone. We did not come here to make a friend or to meet a person of learning. We are here only to meet the Father, to know the Father’s sorrow, and to undertake the Father’s cross. Father! Please remove the one who dislikes this. Please aid the one who cannot assume responsibility for this matter. Father, I ardently wish and desire that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who know how to fire arrows at Satan to protect the last castle wall and to die in defense of Heaven.</p>
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<p>We know that the people who search for the path of which others disapprove must not only feel and experience the sorrow others do not know, but also must lead a life that others do not know. Father, since You made this people’s situation the way it is, please take responsibility for it. Since You made the environment the way it is, please take responsibility for that environment. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You allow us to know that the Father, who assumed the responsibility, has not changed; He is lamenting, having seen us change.</p>
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<p>Heaven’s mind appeared as one man’s mind and established the standard of shimjung for the sake of bringing together the history of four thousand years. Because individuals trampled him and betrayed him, humanity is in a miserable state today. Father, please influence the numerous people on this earth who do not know that their sorrow is the Father’s sorrow.</p>
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<p>Please allow us to be the lonely throng of people who know how to shed tears and build an altar for these people. We understand that Jacob also built an altar of grief in the wilderness, and so did Moses and Elijah. We aware that there is no one among our ancestors who assumed responsibility for the will of Heaven who did not walk such a course. Since we want to inherit their tradition, Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who know how to minister to the Father, having prepared a sanctuary by rebuilding the altar left behind and by rebuilding the fallen castle.</p>
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<p>Father, will You grant a blessing this day? Please bless us. If this is not the case, please allow us to feel and experience the Father’s sorrowful heart. By doing so, Father, I ardently wish and desire that You will arouse in us at least the mind to expose our guilt and repent.</p>
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<p>Father, please be concerned about the path the Korean religious world is taking. Please take charge of everything these people have, and govern them. Father, please be aware of the situation of the throng of people who are being hounded and who sigh for grief and feel sorrowful because of it. I sincerely wish and desire that You will grant them the day of victory when they can be embraced in the bosom of the Father’s love. For the numerous people who are persevering on their path, striving in the course they have to go over, Father, I ardently beseech You to grant them a new morning of glory.</p>
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<p>Your sons and daughters gathered here today have not shown sincerity in our service to You. Please let the passion of ardent shimjung, admiration and longing, with which we can humbly seek and enter into the Father’s heart with bowed heads, rise high toward the sky. I ardently solicit and desire that You will guide this to be the hour when we are able to enter into the realm of heart in which we can call You “Father,” going beyond the range of our perceptions, forming ties with Your grace of compassion.</p>
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<p>Ardently wishing and desiring that You will also embrace the lonely families scattered throughout the localities with the same grace in this hour, I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<p>After fallen history began, God came forth, holding onto the chosen Israel for a long time, unconcerned about His own great toil. After the lapse of three thousand years, He established King Saul with great hope and expectation. Because Saul could not fulfill his responsibility, however, the original will of God was prolonged through King David to the time of King Solomon. In other words, the will God wanted to realize by establishing Saul was prolonged 120 years.</p>
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<h3>The Jewish People Who Would Worship Foreign Gods</h3>
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<p>King Solomon had a heavenly responsibility to build the holy temple by upholding the will of Heaven and to unite his people with it through his leadership. However, we understand that since he too committed sin, he ended up handing the people over to become puppets of Satan.</p>
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<p>After King Solomon’s death, the Israelites were divided into the kingdoms of northern Israel and southern Judah by King Jeroboam and King Rehoboam. The Israelites were the chosen people. With one leader centered upon God, they were to act according to his commands. They were the people God had led through a history of toil. We know the sorrowful fact very well that the Israelites were divided into the two kingdoms of north and south, contrary to Heaven’s wish. All twelve tribes of Israel should have united with Heaven centered on one altar, standing on Heaven’s side.</p>
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<p>When Jacob set out for Haran, God appeared and blessed him in Bethel. Jacob set up the stone he had placed under his head while sleeping as a pillar and made a vow to God. Before crossing the Jabbok River, he gathered stones and piled them in a heap at Mt. Gilead, hung God’s name over it, and made a promise. The Israelites who descended from Jacob, upon receiving blessing from Heaven, should have upheld the holy temple by being united as one sovereign nation and people over whom God could exercise His authority. Yet, abandoning the heavenly mission, the twelve tribes divided into ten in the northern kingdom and two in the southern kingdom. We should remember this as more than just a historical fact. It was a sorrowful fact.</p>
|
||
<p>The Israelites at that time were the survivors of the tears and bloodshed of three thousand years. They were the surviving throng of hounded and mistreated people. They forgot about bearing a grudge against the numerous foreign peoples who had trampled them down and mistreated them and the numerous satans who had betrayed the will of God. Instead, they entered into a bloody civil war. We must think about the heart of God as He watched Israel and Judah cause such sorrow.</p>
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<p>The Israelites who entered the blessed land of Canaan under the guidance of Joshua and Caleb should have ministered to God by building a holy temple where God could dwell, centered on King Solomon. Nevertheless, they battled against each other, dividing into two kingdoms. They even worshipped Baal and Asherah. We must know God’s shimjung as He looked at such miserable sights.</p>
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<p>God came to be deeply penetrated by sorrow. That piercing sorrow has been linked to us through history. Where did that historical sorrow go? Where did that national sorrow go? Where did the heavenly sorrow go? We did not know that conditions such as these surround and revolve around our shimjung; conditions such as these surround the environment of those who seek Heaven. Conditions such as these are trying to straighten the direction of the path we are to walk, beyond our consciousness.</p>
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<h3>Elijah Received a Royal Summons</h3>
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<p>Looking at the pitiable situation, God sought out and set up a person called Elijah from the peasants living in Gilead. At that time, there was a king of Israel as well as the ten tribal chiefs. However, God put them all aside and elected Elijah, who was a mere peasant in Gilead. You must know how sorrowful is a fact like this.</p>
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<p>The king of Israel should have stood guard over the holy temple of Heaven while ruling the nation. However, he forgot that responsibility. He rejected and reproached Heaven and trampled upon the people. Furthermore, he built an altar for Baal, the enemy of Heaven, and made Asherah poles. He put them up in front of the people and worshipped them. We must think about how Heaven could have hated King Ahab for doing such things. Because God could not control the anger and sorrow in His heart at seeing the chosen people being trampled by Satan, God chose one person. That chosen person was not the king of the nation, not royalty, not a tribal chief, but a commoner, Elijah. Heavenly Father was in the situation where He could not find the person He had to find, He could not have the person He had to have, He could not lead the people He had to lead. He went around looking for them, meeting the king, the tribal chiefs and numerous people without success. Therefore, He sought out and set up one person who knew and felt concern about the national grief and heavenly sorrow of that period, a person who prayed and cried out to Heaven. That person was Elijah.</p>
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<p>Elijah was set up in such a way. Members of the congregation! Please imagine Elijah in retrospect. Elijah was not a person who had the backing of his tribe. He was not a person whose environment safeguarded him or his position or situation. He was a person who knew Heaven’s heart and who came forth upon Heaven’s calling.</p>
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<p>His environment was an enemy one under the sovereignty of King Ahab. Elijah, who received the call of Heaven in such an environment, had a stronger determination than anyone; he was determined that even if he were to die, he would die holding onto his people. Even if he was to die, Elijah tried to uphold the tradition of the prophets and sages who had represented the historical heart in the course of the national level providence. Going further, Elijah shed tears of concern about God’s heart; he wept on behalf of the nation and its history. You must reflect upon this. That is why Heaven sought out Elijah.</p>
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<p>The title of today’s sermon is, <i.”the heart=”” of=”” heaven=”” in=”” relation=”” to=”” elijah.”<=”” i=””>I will speak briefly upon this topic.</i.”the></p>
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<p>God looked for Elijah to represent His sorrowful heart of three thousand plus years. That is, Elijah was to represent the historical heart that numerous prophets and sages had felt, never forgetting the promise of God, the blessing He had given with uplifted hands upon those He named Israel. Because God was concerned about that promise, He sought out Elijah to embrace the heart with which He had unfolded the dispensation throughout the thousand years and more since the time of Jacob.</p>
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<h3>The Heart of God Who Called Elijah;<br />
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the Manner in which God<br />
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Set Him Up as the Man in Charge</h3>
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<p>We cannot help thinking that there were aspects of sadness as well as hope for God, who set up Elijah to restore the Israelites, who had been captured alive by the enemy.</p>
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<p>The chosen Israelites were being disgraced by worshipping Baal, a foreign god, and making Asherah poles. God called Elijah because He could not endure the sorrow of that. However, Elijah could not appear before the Father with a happy mind.</p>
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<p>Elijah could not say, “Father! You are right. I will go the path You want me to go. I will assume the responsibility for which You have called me.” Elijah said, “I am nothing but a man of the people. Oh, Heaven, since there are many tribal chiefs who are greater than I, there is a king, there is royalty, and there are numerous Israelites, why have You sought after someone so insignificant as I?” Because of his great concern for Israel, Elijah could not help but unselfishly ask to be excused before Heaven, for he was a person of conscience.</p>
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<p>Yet Heaven knew He could not set up any of those people. He knew that no one but Elijah would do. Therefore, he set up Elijah. God did not bear down upon him by commanding him to fulfill the mission right away. He had him put the environment in order and, by giving him prods in this way, encouraged him naturally to take the course.</p>
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<p>Therefore, when Elijah appeared before King Ahab after receiving Heaven’s calling, he was not forced to make a decision all in a moment, saying, “Since it is the Father’s words, I will do it right away.” Instead, Heaven made him run up against an environment in which he could not help going forth. By letting him know that the misery of the people and his own misery were getting worse, God had him make a resolution, saying, “I will die for the people and on behalf of the tribe.” Only after all this did Heaven set him up as the person in charge of the fight.</p>
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<h3>The Religious Attitudes of Noah and Mary</h3>
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<p>Such was also the case with our ancestor, Noah. Noah proceeded to put the word of God into practice. God said, “Since I am surely going to judge the whole world with water 120 years from now, make yourself an ark.” There might have been many occasions when he could have doubted Heaven during the course of the internal fight. He must have felt his feebleness keenly many times. What permeated his mind was that the day was coming near when all the people of the earth would receive the judgment of being washed away in flood waters.</p>
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<p>Let us look at Mary. She was a chaste maiden, a faithful Israelite woman who felt a deeper concern in her heart than anyone about the Israelites. She waited for the Messiah to come with a more eager heart than anyone among the Israelites, wondering when the Messiah, the leader whom Heaven had promised for several thousand years, would come.</p>
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<p>Mary knew the heart of Heaven in sending the Messiah. The people of that time did not know the heart of Mary, who represented the Israelites. They were supposed to usher in the Messiah in this manner, but Heaven knew it was Mary alone who had such a heartistic standard.</p>
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<p>Mary’s heart was not to strike and destroy the enemy in the name of the people. It was not to step forth as a brave soldier of battle to avenge the grief of the nation, which was moaning in distress. She knew Heaven’s sorrow and had the heart to shed tears. She knew that there had been a sorrowful historical course in the background of the nation, even though people did not know about it, and her heart grieved bitterly over the pitiful reality of the chosen Israelites, who could not stand in front of God.</p>
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<p>As a result of her meritorious conduct in shedding tears of hope for the stately figure to appear even when he did not, and because she embraced the shimjung that penetrated deep into her marrow, she was able to form ties with Heaven’s historical heart. For that reason, an angel appeared unexpectedly and threw words of notification at her like a thunderclap, saying, “1/4 you will conceive in your womb and bear a son1/4.” (Luke 1:31) However, Mary hesitated and said, “How shall this be, since I have no husband?” (Luke 1:34) To this the angel said, “For with God nothing will be impossible.” (Luke 1:37) Upon listening to such words, wishing to fulfill the work of the Father, Mary said without hesitation, “Behold! I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)</p>
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<p>The heart of Mary, who tried to form ties with the heart of Heaven, was sincere. Even though her life was destroyed, and she was placed in a situation where she could have been killed, she still said, “Let it be to me according to your word.” If word got out that a virgin had conceived, Mosaic law stated that she was to be stoned to death or expelled from the people, becoming a pariah to the tribe. Even under such circumstances, in spite of knowing that no one among the Israelites would receive her favorably, Mary said, “Behold! I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” For the merit that she demonstrated, the internal heart deeply pierced by sorrow and true faith, Mary became the mother of the central figure of history, the age, the future, and all of humanity on the worldwide level, the Messiah.</p>
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<h3>Elijah’s Tears and His Loyalty</h3>
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<p>Elijah was called before Heaven in the same manner. He had been a prince of tears, a person who shed tears no one knew of, until Heaven sought him. He shed more tears than any king of Israel, more than anyone else in Israel. There had been Israelites who had shed tears over their miserable circumstances, but those tears were shed for themselves. The tears of Elijah, though a common man, were shed having forgotten his circumstances and pride. They were disinterested tears. His mind was great in its wondering, “Why has Israel, whom Heaven has guided, wound up as it has?”</p>
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||
<p>The remnant of the mass of the six hundred thousand who died in the forty-year wilderness course, after having undergone four hundred years of slavery under Egypt, entered into the land of Canaan and built the nation of Israel. Yet Elijah saw that Israel was being subjugated by a foreign country, cajoled by the enemy. The privilege of being the chosen people of God was being abused. Elijah felt a deeply penetrating sorrow. He assiduously prayed for the people, more than anyone else, and made more effort than anyone else for Heaven. Because only such a one could represent Israel, Heaven sought Elijah.</p>
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<p>When he heard Heaven’s voice calling, “Elijah . . . Elijah.” Elijah might have been taken aback. He might have said, “What is the reason for this? This is beyond my dreams. I never expected this to happen.” When he stepped forth in awe before the great will, Heaven said to him, “Since I am behind you, go and tell King Ahab.” With that word from Heaven, Elijah went to fight King Ahab on behalf of Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>Elijah felt concern about the judgment day that was approaching because of Baal and the Asherah poles. They had been brought into the nation by Queen Jezebel, who came from a foreign country. Elijah grieved over Heaven’s sorrow and the people for a long time. That is why, upon receiving the word from Heaven, he stepped forth saying, “Father, if there is a way for the people to live, I will carry it into effect, offering myself as the sacrifice.” After he received the word of command from Heaven and departed to go to King Ahab, the word “happiness” never applied to Elijah’s life again. Things happened contrary to his expectations; he had to hear unheard of things. His environment was far from a comfortable one.</p>
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<p>Elijah warned King Ahab that if he worshipped a foreign god, he would perish and that he would starve after a year of bad harvests. However, King Ahab did not listen and instead tried to kill Elijah. Elijah made his escape and sought shelter in the Kerith Ravine. Elijah’s heart was very, very sad.</p>
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||
<p>If he had not known Heaven, he could have had a house, parents, relatives, brothers and sisters. He would have had a piece of land where he could live in an environment that recognized him. However, starting from the day he stepped forth for Heaven, he was put in circumstances where he had to hide in a ravine. Still, Elijah did not feel bitter against Heaven. Rather, he blamed King Ahab. He did not feel bitter against the people; he had a grudge against Queen Jezebel. If he had not had a heart of loyalty toward Heaven in an environment where he was being pursued and cornered, he would have abandoned his mission. The more his environment contracted, the more strongly Elijah clung onto Heaven’s sorrow and the people. Elijah knew that a life of grieving with Heaven was grander than a life of temporary happiness. Therefore, he moved closer and closer to Heaven, not forsaking his ancestors’ historic achievements and disregarding his pain.</p>
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||
<p>For all that, Elijah did not know that Heaven cared more about him than his brothers and sisters did, that Heaven felt more concern about him than his relatives did, and that Heaven was more apprehensive about his safety than his parents were. Humanity comes to know the heart of Heaven only after going past it; this is the sad reality of going forth in search of Heaven.</p>
|
||
<h3>Elijah’s Significant Achievements and His Tribulations</h3>
|
||
<p>Even while hiding in Kerith Ravine, Elijah renewed his resolution. Though no human beings knew the sorrowful heart of Elijah, in hiding after reprimanding King Ahab and Jezebel to save the Israelites, ravens brought him things to eat. You must know about Elijah. He committed himself to seeking out people who could comprehend the heart of Heaven even as he was starving.</p>
|
||
<p>Elijah knew that Heaven’s deeply felt sorrow was because of the people, who stood at the crossroads of life and death. He knew that the judgment day resulting from the accumulated sorrows would come. The more Elijah felt he could not cope with it alone, the more he yearned after a like-minded person who could sacrifice him or herself for the sake of Heaven’s will. Elijah was permeated with the wish to love like-minded people as much as he loved the nation, as much as he loved Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>Elijah’s was the kind of mind that could save the people, the kind of mind that could bring the people around to restore the nation to life. This was an ardent mind capable of forging ties between humanity and Heaven. Because Elijah had such a heart, Heaven chose and led him.</p>
|
||
<p>On one occasion, Elijah happened to go to a widow’s house in Zarephath and eat a piece of bread. The widow who helped pitiful Elijah made him bread not with extra flour, but with her last handful, large enough only for one meal. For that reason, we must know that the widow in Zarephath would not have to worry about any food shortage after that incident.</p>
|
||
<p>While Elijah was staying at the house of the Zarephath widow, the woman’s son became ill. When he grew worse and worse and finally stopped breathing, the widow called out to Elijah, holding the boy. Upon hearing the widow’s ardent appeal, Elijah prayed to Heaven; then the dead boy’s life returned to him. At the top of Mount Carmel, Elijah seized and killed more than eight hundred prophets of Baal and Asherah. This was a big battle to set up and separate the false gods from the true one.</p>
|
||
<p>Elijah knew that God called him because He loved the people. He realized that God called him to fight in His stead against the hated enemies. Realizing that God called him on behalf of the people to be the person in charge of fighting against the prophets of Baal and Asherah on God’s behalf, Elijah seized and killed eight hundred and more prophets of Baal and Asherah when the fire of Heaven fell and burned up the wet altar. At the end of this incident, the Israelites were overcome with grief over a bad harvest and starvation. Elijah, who took pity on them and went to the top of Mount Carmel, appealing to Heaven repeatedly, seven times, risking his life. On that account, before King Ahab rode back, a heavy rain came.</p>
|
||
<p>Through these events, King Ahab and the Israelites should have known the living God, and by clearly knowing that Baal was a false god and repenting for their service to him, they should have followed at Elijah’s heels. In spite of it all, they did not follow him. Ahab went on to the royal court and told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “I will make your life like that of one of those you killed with the sword.”</p>
|
||
<p>Upon hearing this, Elijah ran and came to Beersheba, having crossed the Israelite border into Judah. He left his servant there, while he himself went on a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, built an altar for Heaven under it, and prayed.</p>
|
||
<p>Though he went to the land of Judah, which he had desired, obstacles stood in his way. Elijah knew he had been chosen to save Israel. He had struggled and striven, enduring many hardships and going through a course of numerous battles. However, he had not attained actual results. Elijah then ran away and went to the land of Judah. When the road ahead was blocked, he went down on his knees and prayed, “Oh, God, though You raised me because all of the prophets You sent were killed, I cannot find one who has the heart to seek and relate with You. Now the Israelites are trying to kill me too. I cannot go on any farther. Please put me to death.”</p>
|
||
<h3>Father! I Am the Only One Left</h3>
|
||
<p>Elijah had made great efforts to guide the people to fulfill the providential purposes of God, who had called him, set him up and had trusted in him. When God saw him pleading in the sad position of being driven away, saying, “Father, I am the only one left!” He felt severe sadness. We must know this fact.</p>
|
||
<p>Heaven felt that Elijah, hiding after being driven away and pursued, was more precious than the numerous Israelites. He placed more hope in him than in the land of Israel. We must stop to think about Elijah, who pled with God to render a final decision in the wilderness where he could not choose the right direction, in utter exhaustion and having lost all hope. Furthermore, we must know God, who guided the Israelites and toiled to seek out and set up Elijah. He helped Elijah by performing various types of miracles when he was in trouble and lent him a helping hand from the time of his youth. The heart of Heaven in relation to Elijah came to be buried in grief.</p>
|
||
<p>Elijah realized that he could not stay in the land of Judah. He ended up running away to Mt. Horeb, where God had bestowed blessing upon the Israelites when they came to take their way out of Egypt by walking forty days and forty nights. It was a mountain near Mount Sinai, where his ancestors had formed their bonds with Heaven. God knew that Elijah had to cross the border, and He also knew that Elijah had a long way to go, without any friend or fellow-traveler. Therefore, through an angel, God gave Elijah a cake of bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water and told him to eat and drink.</p>
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||
<p>Strengthened by that food, Elijah should have run toward Israel, the land of sorrow, embracing Heaven’s sorrow and the people’s grief, harboring the enmity to get even. On the contrary, he ran in the direction of Mt. Horeb.</p>
|
||
<p>Elijah walked for forty days and forty nights until he reached Mt. Horeb. There he went into a cave and fell asleep. He was in a pitiable condition, like the remnants of a defeated troop. Heaven again came looking for Elijah, who had run away for his comfort after breaking away from the path of God’s guidance. Of the sleeping Elijah, God asked, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah replied, “I have been very jealous for Heaven. But I am a weaker person than my ancestors.” His words did not comfort God.</p>
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<p>However, God made Elijah stand on the mountain in His presence and advised him in many different ways. God advised him by means of creating strong winds and earthquakes and through fire. God did not appear in person in front of Elijah. Later, God appeared to Elijah and called him in the quiet. Elijah responded, “Father, the Israelites have put your prophets to death. I am the only one left. I cannot go on any farther. What can I do in this situation where I am being pursued and driven out?” To this, God said, “Though Israel is in the hands of Ahab, there are more than seven thousand people who observe the law and get circumcised and whose knees have not bowed down to Baal. What do you think of them then?” This was the expression of the sorrowful heart Heaven had in relation to Elijah.</p>
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<p>Elijah made up his mind again and went back to the desert of Damascus according to Heaven’s command. There he anointed Hazael and Jehu kings (over Aram and Israel respectively), and anointed Elisha to succeed him as prophet. Knowing that Heaven was solicitous about the future of the more than seven thousand people whose knees had not bent to Baal, Elijah made a fresh determination.</p>
|
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<p>Likewise, all people dealing with the providential will today walk a toilsome path. They are walking the path of blood and tears. They are walking the path of being pursued and bearing the cross. For whom was this sorrowful path of great and undeserved indignities created? It was for the sake of humankind. Furthermore, you must know that it was because of Satan, who has been God’s enemy for six thousand years.</p>
|
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<p>Why are we placed in a situation with sorrow and pain, into which the storm of persecution sweeps? It is to save the people and liberate Heaven. Yet even those who deal with Heaven’s will have difficulty in feeling such a shimjung of God.</p>
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<h3>Jesus Felt Concerned for Heaven and Loved His Enemies,<br />
|
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Even as He Was Crucified</h3>
|
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<p>Jesus was hounded by the religious order and driven away by the people. He was seen as a heathen by the religious order and as an agent of destruction by the law. He was driven away by his tribe and kicked out of his house. He was hounded even by the followers of John the Baptist. He was pursued by Satan even when he went out to the wilderness. That was not the end of it all. In the end, the whole was mobilized, and he was pushed onto the path of the cross, the path of Golgotha.</p>
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<p>In spite of that, Jesus shed tears for the sake of the people who had treated him as a traitor. Though Jesus was treated as a heathen by the denomination of Judaism, he shed more blood and tears for the Israelites than any high priest. No one of that age was his ally; yet he was the friend of that age. In spite of being pursued as the traitor of the people, Jesus was a loyal subject. In spite of being treated as a heretic by the religious denomination, he was the faithful retainer of that denomination.</p>
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<p>What kind of walk did Jesus experience? He had a ghastly walk during which he was torn, chased after, fell down, and bore the cross. That was not all. Reckless scoundrels hounded him, carrying whips in their hands. If Jesus had been like Elijah in such a situation, he would have prayed, “Father, I am the only one left.”</p>
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<p>When Jesus left his three disciples behind and prayed at the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39) This is Jesus’ greatness. Though he was in a pitiable condition, he knew that his body was the sacrificial offering for the nation, the sacrificial offering for humankind, and the sacrificial offering for the heavenly principles.</p>
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<p>Regardless of his sorrow, Jesus was thus aware, and felt concerned about Heaven’s great sorrow. He wondered about how the terrible sorrow of God as He watched Jesus being betrayed by the very people for which he had come. Jesus was the Crown Prince, the central figure of the whole universe, the Messiah. If he had wanted to deplore the state of things, stating how impossible it was that he should have to go the gruesome route of the cross, he could have mobilized the whole universe to his side. Realizing that he could not do that, he instead took the shame of the situation upon himself.</p>
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<p>Jesus had the responsibility to build the heavenly kingdom and put the world in the Father’s bosom by gathering the religious denomination together and rallying the people. Yet when he came to walk the path of the cross, unable to fulfill that responsibility, he did not complain. When he prayed, “Let this cup pass from me,” it was not because he felt sorry about having to die. He prayed so because he knew that humanity’s sorrow and Heaven’s grief would be aggravated by his death.</p>
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<p>Jesus knew that if he died on the cross, a heavier cross would be left behind for world humanity to bear in future generations. He knew that the history of sorrow would not end. He knew that the path of Golgotha, the path of death, would not end. He also knew that if he walked the path of Golgotha himself, the people who followed him would also have to walk it. Jesus knew that not only the cross, but a more difficult path would be left behind.</p>
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<p>When both his hands and feet were nailed, his side bleeding from being thrust with a spear, and a crown of thorns was placed upon his head, Jesus knew that this suffering would not be limited to him. In spite of knowing this, he still faced Heaven and said, “All has been fulfilled.” He did not say that to mean that the path of the cross in the human world was finally over. He meant that the heart that cried for and felt concern over humanity’s cross was connected with Heaven. You must know that Jesus offered himself as a living sacrifice to Heaven to comfort God, shouldering all the mistakes that the numerous prophets and sages had perpetrated.</p>
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<p>How did the heart of God feel? As God watched Jesus, as he died going over the hill of the cross, worrying about Heaven, He must have felt profound chagrin toward the human world and intense resentment over the four-thousand-year historical course.</p>
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<p>Even as he was dying, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” God felt like condemning the people right away to harsher treatment than at the time of Noah. However, since Jesus died holding onto the people, holding onto the religious denomination, holding onto the cross, God has retained His hold on human beings. Such heartistic ties were formed with the individuals of future generations, as well as the Israelites. God continues to hold onto traitorous humanity. He has held onto the traitorous religious denominations for the sake of future generations.</p>
|
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<h3>Our Task</h3>
|
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<p>We who were born later must now comprehend this heart of Heaven. Jesus ardently wished to relate to Heaven with such a heart; he desired to live this kind of life. We who are the tribe of Jesus, the successors to his undertaking, must become able to boast of ourselves as the embodiments of glory before Heaven. We who stand before the heavenly expectations today, bearing such a mission and responsibility, must now think about what we must seek, what we must feel, and what we must do.</p>
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<p>What must we think of now? Since Jesus said we should become his friends and brides, each of us must think of becoming such a person. Furthermore, we must relieve Heaven from the historical han* that our ancestors caused. We must not leave to posterity the cause and occasion of lamentation and death. We must be able to leave the Golgotha of victory, not the Golgotha of death. You must know that Heaven is seeking a person who will assume such responsibility.</p>
|
||
<p>Since the mission of the last days lies with believers, we who eagerly look forward to the day of judgment and wish to stand on the grounds of glory by seeking out the Lord of resurrection, must know the sorrowful heart of Heaven as He dealt with Jesus and Noah’s family. When Noah was set up in the presence of Heaven and rose above the flood judgment after 120 years of toil, Heaven tried to be relieved from all past resentment through the remaining eight members of Noah’s family. However, due to Ham’s mistake, a condition for lamentation was again left behind. Knowing this, we must become the people who know how to relieve God from the grief of Noah’s family.</p>
|
||
<p>Because of the mistake he made during his offering, Abraham had to offer his son Isaac as the sacrifice, and his descendants had to leave the land of Canaan and enter into Egypt. There they endured four hundred years of slavery.</p>
|
||
<p>To reinstate the Israelites into the blessed land of Canaan, Heaven set up Moses and made him toil. However, the Israelites betrayed Heaven several times in that course of restoration. Though numerous ancestors of ours have since come forth dealing with the will, there has not been any set of people yet who received praise and blessing from Heaven: “Oh, yes, you have fulfilled the will. You have realized My desire.”</p>
|
||
<p>You must know the heart of Heaven, deeply touched by sorrow because of our ancestors. As I said before, even if you stand in the same situation as Elijah when he received all kinds of persecution and harassment by King Ahab, even if your life disappears in an ephemeral way, you must go forth holding only onto God, without bewailing your lot.</p>
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<p>If Elijah had embraced the same heart as Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane and at the summit of Golgotha, Heaven would have been relieved from a fragment of historical grief then and there. Since he could not do so, Heaven’s sorrow was prolonged to Jesus’ time. Because of Jesus’ death, we know then that this wish was not realized. Its fulfillment has been prolonged until today.</p>
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<h3>Elijah of This Age</h3>
|
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<p>If we view the phenomena taking place in this world today, they are equivalent to what took place in the period of Ahab, King of Israel in the old days. What is idolatry? It is to abandon Heaven and worship something else; to hold it in equal or higher reverence than we hold God. We must know that numerous people today are worshipping the idol called “civilization” without being aware of it.</p>
|
||
<p>At a time like this, if there is one who has the same heart as Elijah as he watched King Ahab, that is, one who feels the sorrowful heart of Heaven on top of his own, and if there is a throng of people who pray, “Please set us up as Your beloved sons and daughters who can bring this land to Your bosom,” comforting Heaven with the heart of Elijah, they would have to look at this age with more indignation than Elijah had. If such a set of people does not exist, we ourselves must become them. We must become the people who build an altar without others’ knowledge and shed tears all unknown, knowing that even if we are of humble birth, our ancestors established the teachings of the heavenly principles by upholding the will of Heaven. We must understand that the work of God, who tries to unfold the dispensation by setting up the providential tradition, is yet to be completed. We must not think we are inadequate, even though we are. Unless such a set of people comes forth and fights upon this earth, the eschatological phenomena of this world cannot be stopped.</p>
|
||
<p>Though King Ahab betrayed Heaven and mistreated the Israelites, that happened on a national level. Today, people idolize material things as slaves of civilization, and do not know the location of their center of life. They do not know the direction and location to walk toward, and they make frantic efforts without seeking Heaven. This is similar to the people enslaved by King Ahab in ancient times.</p>
|
||
<p>God’s worldwide level judgment remains before us today. In the same way there was a judgment upon King Ahab and the Israelites, we know that there will be a day of judgment when we have to break down the idols confronting us in the final period. Did you ever even dream that Heaven relates to you today with a more sorrowful heart than when He related to Elijah? If not, you should reflect upon yourselves.</p>
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||
<p>With King Ahab as the central figure, the Israelites should have made an effort to relate to Heaven, to uphold the heavenly tradition, and to establish heavenly blood relatives with a caring and protective heart for the holy temple in life and in death. Because they did not do so, we know that the Israelites, with King Ahab as their central figure, got into a bloody battle in the end. This actual circumstance of history is being re-enacted today in reality.</p>
|
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<p>Looking at this age, let alone the world, we must know our people. We are Korea’s sons and daughters. We are blood relatives who inherited the flesh and blood of our Korean ancestors. There have been many loyal subjects who shed blood and tears for the sake of this country, for the sake of this people, to let the glorious morning dawn in the future and to infuse the hearts of the people with national spirit. The Korean people have come through heart-rending circumstances of incomparable sorrow and tragedy. We have a history of numerous loyal subjects and patriots walking the path of blood in every crisis time.</p>
|
||
<p>The time has come to worry about who is to build the new temple of the Lord in Jerusalem where Heaven can reign. We must be equipped with heavenly principles, rather than human ethics, by upholding the historical tradition and pushing down the civilization of this world, which can be likened to the idols of the King Ahab period.</p>
|
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<p>We must broaden our minds now. We must become the people who know how to feel sad for the nation instead of feeling our grief. Going further, we must know how to feel sad for the humanity of the world. Going further, we must know how to feel sad for the sake of God, heaven and earth.</p>
|
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<p>Where will the central figure appear who can cry with shimjung on behalf of Heaven, embracing the grief-stricken nation in the realm of the fall? If the Lord, the King of Kings, is to come upon this earth, he will surely come with a universal ideology. He will come as a world leader to make a heartistic connection with humanity.</p>
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<p>However, if you do not think about such things today, the Lord will not be able to make any connection with you. Even if the Lord comes, unless you dream about and think about such an ideological world, you will not be able to make any connection with that world. You cannot help at least thinking about, feeling concern about, and imagining that world.</p>
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<p>Have you ever felt concern about an individual? Have you ever felt concern about a family that was moaning in distress? Have you ever felt concern about a certain society or nation? If not, you should at least have the mind to reveal your true colors, criminals before the universal history, and repent before Heaven.</p>
|
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<p>If you do not have even such a mind, what will happen to this people? Though Koreans boast of five thousand years of history and though they are the survivors of God’s providential history and have muddled through a bitter life, what can they contribute to the realm of world history or world civilization or to the realm of God’s providence if they do not have such a feeling of concern?</p>
|
||
<p>Even if we have something about which to boast, unless that connects to Heaven, it amounts to nothing and causes more aggravation and sorrow for Heaven. We must know this.</p>
|
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<h3>The Central Figure of History</h3>
|
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<p>The central role players in history have been people who were pursued and hounded. The doctrines that have ruled history were made by such people. People enjoying sumptuous feasts, living in grand style and sitting on a lofty seat in a grand residence never made such doctrines. Those people who were pursued, trodden upon and miserable made them. They were the people who shed tears.</p>
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<p>The people who shed tears on behalf of Heaven, holding onto the world when the people of the nation are corrupt and the world is in utter confusion are the successors to Elijah on the world level. Such people can stand before Heaven on behalf of the Israelites for whom Elijah felt concern. If you strut proudly, saying, “Elijah is Elijah, and I am I,” you will meet with destruction. We must become those who can cry and feel sorrow together with Heaven.</p>
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<p>Heaven does not exist only as logos. He is the God of the word, of the substantial entity, of shimjung and of love. We have become people who do not even know the word. We do not know the purpose of our body. We do not know what our shimjung is supposed to feel and experience. We do not know the heavenly love we should practice.</p>
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<p>Members of the congregation! What is your explanation of God’s love? What is your explanation of shimjung? What kind of being can each of you explain yourself to be? Is there some corroboration for your words? No, there is not.</p>
|
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<p>People today often boast of themselves with a superior air. However, even if there are grounds for the boasting and thus should be recognition for it, how long will that recognition last? None of those who received recognition in the past lasted for many centuries. The only thing of which to be proud is walking the path no other human beings can walk. Such people will not perish.</p>
|
||
<p>The people who have saved nations and the world before are not those who walked the common path; they were those who walked the path no others could. Christianity has walked a similar course. Christianity of the world today should draw deep sighs of grief. If Christianity learned that God has toiled for the past two thousand years by sending the Holy Spirit after Jesus’ death on the cross, they would not be able to sleep in comfort seeing the present state of Christianity.</p>
|
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<p>Believers in Judaism at the time of Jesus were fond of going to church, much more than church-goers today. They were much better equipped with rites and formalities and in the precepts of the Scriptures than are today’s churches. They had the word, they had their history, and they had conditions of which to be proud. Yet they could not demonstrate true faith in the presence of Heaven. Why? They did not understand Heaven’s new dispensation.</p>
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<p>Today Jesus wishes for Christians to keep his death in mind and cry for him, thinking, “Jesus’ heart is my heart, and Jesus’ body, crucified at the summit of Calvary, is my body.” Jesus longs for that kind of friend. He also waits eagerly for the bride he could not mention even when he was dying, for whom he longed from the depth of his heart. Only on the day when he meets the bride will he be able to open his heart and speak about all the things that happened in his life. At the same time, he could talk about the internal sorrow of God’s heart, who has been working for the past six thousand years. The contents would be quite different from what is written in the Bible.</p>
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<p>What would you do if Jesus’ grief and God’s sorrow were those of your beloved sons and daughters? What if they were those of your beloved parents?</p>
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<p>To bring a solution to such problems, fights are being broken up here and there and sighs of grief are heard. Time flows, getting closer to the moment of the final solution. History, religions and doctrines also are flowing toward that final moment.</p>
|
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<p>You must be attentive in this time of confusion, searching for some new voice like Elijah’s, which speaks out about Heaven’s heart, undisclosed in history. Elijah appeared at a time when people could not trust each other and had fallen into uncontrollable confusion. He spoke out anew about a fragment of his heart.</p>
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<h3>The Attitude People of Faith Must Have in This Age</h3>
|
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<p>Doctrines and thoughts incite you every moment today. This is an odd moment. Fear from the happenings in history drives you. Who would be the one to win in the fight against fear and sing the song of victory on a personal level? There is no one.</p>
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<p>Which direction will history take? Where will the cry for new hope and new liberation come from at this time, when death is surging over us? No cry is yet heard. This is the problem.</p>
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<p>Now something totally new must come out, something unimagined. You have never imagined or dreamed of that something.</p>
|
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<p>People are going through the age of religious battle now. In the near future, all fights, the fights between peoples, the fights between nations, the fights in the world, the fights between “isms,” and religious fights, will come to an end. The only fight that will be left will be that of the mind. No matter what sweeps over your mind, you must be able to overcome it. We are in such a time.</p>
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<p>There are a great many people living in this world. However, from the viewpoint that they do not have a vertical relationship with God, they have nothing to do with you. You may think that thirty million Korean people are closely bound up with you; but in view of the fact that they do not have a vertical connection with God, they have no relation whatsoever with you.</p>
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<p>The cry of Elijah, who climbed to the top of Carmel and cried, “Oh, God, I am the only one left,” should not be confined to Elijah alone. It should be the cry of those who are to be judged in these final days.</p>
|
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<p>Members of the congregation! Are you not placed in such a situation? Who can ensure you of your life? No one and nothing, including your parents, your beloved spouses, your children, your nation, and the doctrine you embrace, will ensure you of that. Yet you have a great regard for your life. Think of it. You are ephemeral beings who cannot throw off your masks, even after having been drawn into a whirlpool that has no bottom and no end. So, please do not brag about yourselves.</p>
|
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<p>People of the world today must go through the course of battle that Elijah went through at the top of Carmel. We must know how to appeal to Heaven like Elijah, who cried, “Oh, God, I am the only one left.” No doctrine of the world can save the people who stand at the last stop of history. Once we realize this, we must raise our heads high toward Heaven. We must yearn after that to which our minds are drawn and which liberates our minds. We must feel such a desire filling our whole body; we must be full of life and energy, and we must realize that there is something we must fulfill.</p>
|
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<p>Is there a group of people today who can say, “All has been finished,” as Jesus said at the top of Calvary on behalf of Heaven? The time is coming near when you must become people who can say, “Oh, God, I am the only one left.”</p>
|
||
<p>The will of providence is about to start a new history with the day of judgment as a turning point. Since it remains to be taken up by you, you must be able to say, “Oh, God, I am the only one left.” Why? Why? Why?</p>
|
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<p>These days we cannot profess any religion. We cannot put confidence in any doctrine. We cannot trust any family, relative or teacher and cannot pay homage to any Tao. We are placed in a situation where we cannot believe in anything at all.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, you cannot help saying, looking to Heaven, “Oh, God, I am the only one left.” This is the only position you can take. You will have to cry it out from your heart.</p>
|
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<p>Each of you now must go through the course of battle. You must realize that there is a heavenly will to be fulfilled, there are people to be sought, and there is the religious denomination that must be sanctified. For the sake of the will, all people on the side of Heaven must be mobilized.</p>
|
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<hr />
|
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<blockquote><p>*In Korean, han means a subject’s sorrowful and tearful lamentation toward the object who refuses to receive the subject’s unlimited love (suffering love). It comes into being when it is not possible to commune with the object and when there is a passive feeling of bitterness and/or an active feeling of vengefulness.</p></blockquote>
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<article id="post-1003" class="post-1003 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1959">
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<h2 class="entry-title">
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/10/let-us-halt-in-our-steps-and-behold-the-one-who-is-protecting-us.html" title="Permalink to Let Us Halt in Our Steps and Behold the One Who Is Protecting Us" rel="bookmark">Let Us Halt in Our Steps and Behold the One Who Is Protecting Us</a>
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</h2>
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<div class="entry-meta">
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-10T07:31:45+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/10/let-us-halt-in-our-steps-and-behold-the-one-who-is-protecting-us.html" rel="bookmark">June 10, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-10T07:31:45+01:00">June 10, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1959.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1959</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<div class="entry-content">
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
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Former Church Headquarters<br />
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Seoul, Korea<br />
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March 8, 1959</h3>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;"><em>Psalms 121 </em></h3>
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<div class="poetry" style="text-align: center;">
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<p class="line"><em><span class="text Ps-121-1"><sup class="versenum">1 </sup>I lift up my eyes to the mountains—</span></em><br />
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<em><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-121-1">where does my help come from?</span></span></em><br />
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<em><span id="en-NIV-16084" class="text Ps-121-2"><sup class="versenum">2 </sup>My help comes from the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span>,</span></em><br />
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<em><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-121-2">the Maker of heaven and earth.</span></span></em></p>
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</div>
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<div class="poetry top-05" style="text-align: center;">
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<p class="line"><em><span id="en-NIV-16085" class="text Ps-121-3"><sup class="versenum">3 </sup>He will not let your foot slip—</span></em><br />
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<em><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-121-3">he who watches over you will not slumber;</span></span></em><br />
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<em><span id="en-NIV-16086" class="text Ps-121-4"><sup class="versenum">4 </sup>indeed, he who watches over Israel</span></em><br />
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<em><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-121-4">will neither slumber nor sleep.</span></span></em></p>
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</div>
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<div class="poetry top-05" style="text-align: center;">
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<p class="line"><em><span id="en-NIV-16087" class="text Ps-121-5"><sup class="versenum">5 </sup>The <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> watches over you—</span></em><br />
|
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<em><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-121-5">the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> is your shade at your right hand;</span></span></em><br />
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<em><span id="en-NIV-16088" class="text Ps-121-6"><sup class="versenum">6 </sup>the sun will not harm you by day,</span></em><br />
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<em><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-121-6">nor the moon by night.</span></span></em></p>
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</div>
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<div class="poetry top-05">
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<p class="line" style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-16089" class="text Ps-121-7"><sup class="versenum">7 </sup>The <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> will keep you from all harm—</span></em><br />
|
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<em><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-121-7">he will watch over your life;</span></span></em><br />
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<em><span id="en-NIV-16090" class="text Ps-121-8"><sup class="versenum">8 </sup>the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> will watch over your coming and going</span></em><br />
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<em><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-121-8">both now and forevermore.</span></span></em></p>
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</div>
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<h3>
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<p>Prayer</h3>
|
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<blockquote><p>We the unworthy have come before the Father, who governs life and death. Father, please receive us. Please take us in accordance to Your Will.</p>
|
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<p>Although we want to dwell inside the realm of life and offer praise to the Father, we are still bound by the sinful nature that dwells inside the realm of death. Father, You have been conducting the providence of restoration to guide us to the new realm. Please be present here in this hour and dismantle the realm of death. Grant the grace of life and resurrection.</p>
|
||
<p>Eternal Father, please allow this to be an hour when we can live our lives with the original value of creation. Allow us to become those who can sing praises to the supreme goodness of the Father.</p>
|
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<p>Due to the fall of the first human ancestors, our connection of life to heaven and earth has been severed. The archangel, who should have offered praise on behalf of the angelic world, betrayed Heaven and failed to complete his responsibility.</p>
|
||
<p>Since You have called upon us today, please alleviate through us the bitterness You have felt because no one has recited poetry for You. Please consult with us about Your internal situation, which You have not been able to share with anyone. Raise us to become people who can connect with all people and with Heaven. Father, this is our sincere wish.</p>
|
||
<p>My Father, we sincerely wish that You guide us to remain loyal to You. You have longed to share Your joys of creation with us. Allow us to build a solid bond with You as embodiments of life.</p>
|
||
<p>Please reveal to us that You are looking for someone who can offer You sincere songs of praise, that You long for us to stand as objects who can cooperate with You. Please allow us to fathom the heart of the Father, who has established the ideals of creation and toiled until now to allow us to govern everything. Please allow us to offer infinite help, praise and inspiration to the Father.</p>
|
||
<p>We the unworthy have come in the presence of the Father. Please allow us to understand that we cannot achieve any condition the Father wishes us to fulfill, if we center our lives on ourselves. Please allow us to be able to fathom the Father’s heart and situation. Father, this is our sincere wish.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, we know that during the last week we have committed many things which deviated from Your will; yet, even just for this hour, please allow us to build a genuine common base with You as You desire. Allow us to be embraced inside the Father’s bosom of love as embodiments of goodness.</p>
|
||
<p>This is a glorious day. Please bless all people and bless this pitiful nation. Please embrace the lonely members inside the bosom of Your grace. We, the unworthy, bow before You. Please govern us. Let no other rule us.</p>
|
||
<p>Father of love, please do not let this be an hour when the forces of darkness invade. Let it be a time when we can harmoniously share our hearts with You in this sanctified place and bow before You. Hoping that You will personally govern us from the first of the hour to the last, we pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
|
||
<h3>Prayer</h3>
|
||
<blockquote><p>Please let this be an hour when we can commemorate the actual hyung sang of Christ, who originally came to rule heaven and earth. Let this be an hour when we can commemorate his heart as he was praying for his enemies, shedding blood on the hill of Golgotha. Please let us feel deeply, to the core of our flesh and bones, that this is the saddest thing that could have happened on the earth.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, we sincerely pray that You allow us to experience, within ourselves, the sorrowful heart of Jesus Christ and understand the bitter anguish of Heaven. We pray further that we can be concerned about Satan, who committed the historical sin, as well as about the direction our descendants will take in the future.</p>
|
||
<p>For 6,000 years, You have repeated Your labors and the providence of tears to find us. We are neither worthy nor dignified. You have been concerned for us every hour and every day, and You were never afraid of suffering wounds in Your heart. Please allow us to open the gate to our hearts wide and take after Yours. Please allow us to move our bodies and safeguard the footsteps of toils.</p>
|
||
<p>We who have passed through the course of sins and betrayed Heaven in sin have gathered in the presence of You, thoroughly exhausted, having attained nothing. Although we know we are unworthy to stand in Your holy presence, since it is our fate to find You, we bow down before You, cherishing Your heart. Therefore, Father of compassion, please forgive us. Father of love, please show us mercy.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, You have endured and continued to battle to find us. Please raise Your whip of advice. If some evil elements remain within us that keep us from You, please remove them. If we do not listen to Your advice, then please use Your whip to eliminate those evil elements from us, so that we may connect to the heart of Heaven and obey the commands of God. My Father, this is our sincere wish.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, please look down upon these thirty million people with compassion. Please be compassionate toward these people, who have crossed the valleys of sorrow in the course of their history. They have survived until this moment, even though they were lost and had to search for the way. Please allow Heaven’s new message of righteousness to be conveyed to this people, who has been struggling without knowing their true destination. Please grant the day when we can build a new altar of resurrection. Please allow a time of new glory for these people.</p>
|
||
<p>We know that You have gathered us here and have ordered us to become sacrifices for the people. Please allow us not to continue to blame ourselves for not being able to cope with the responsibilities Heaven has bestowed upon us, but let us become the sacrifices who can offer all that we have for God’s will and become the sons and daughters who can penetrate Satan’s city with a bomb and blow it up.</p>
|
||
<p>These people are not the only ones who are wandering aimlessly, not knowing where they should go. Please ring the bells of new commandments upon the countless numbers of humanity who live on the earth, and manifest the light of life. Please let the hour come to us quickly when we can introduce the Father’s one day of glory. Father, we pray for this from the depths of our hearts.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, You have called upon us and have revealed to us the entire will of the providence! Now we have come to understand Your will. Please perform Your works so that we can work to accomplish that will.</p>
|
||
<p>Please spur our steps when we falter and invigorate our bodies when we hesitate, so that we may go toward the blessed land which the Father desires with a new determination. Father, it is our sincere to become such sons and daughters.</p>
|
||
<p>Please take care of Your sons and daughters who have gathered here. They lie prostrate with desperate hearts. Therefore, please open Your hands of compassion. Please embrace them with the bosom of love, and grant them the glory of re-creation. We know that, at this moment, lonely members everywhere in the countryside are bowing before You. Please take notice of their sincere hearts and grant them the day when all their wishes are fulfilled. Personally manifest Your glory and delight in them.</p>
|
||
<p>We bow down before You now. Even though we have not brought any gift, please allow us to expose all our stained hearts and repent before You. Please allow us to expose all that evil has defiled and receive the grace of compassion through our repentance.</p>
|
||
<p>Please remove all our concepts. Allow us to revert to the heart of a child. Allow us to be held by Heaven’s power and move in harmony with Heaven’s motion. Allow us to attain life and sing of the Father’s glory.</p>
|
||
<p>Although countless satans are eagerly watching us, please do not let any of us fall prey to their temptations. We hope that the Father will rule us. We pray all this in the name of the Lord.</p>
|
||
<p>Prayer</p>
|
||
<p>Father, we are like orphans who do not know where we should go or in what circumstances we live, but who blindly follow the flow of history without securing the center of life. We have been pushed back and have survived with a pitiful existence until today.</p>
|
||
<p>We did not know that the Father was there, holding us and weeping when we were sad. We did not know that our Master has worked day and night to find us, we who were shackled to the realm of death. Please let us understand that it is more precious to come to know and experience these truths than to win both heaven and earth.</p>
|
||
<p>Let us understand that we have a Father who has labored for us and has been deeply concerned about our lives. Let us then serve the Father with all our minds and bodies with a sense of great awe. Let us understand the heart of the Father who took wounding blows in our place, who held us and embraced us when we fell down due to exhaustion, and who comforted us and showed us our path. Please allow us to reflect deeply upon our hypocritical lives in which we have not lived up to our words. Please allow us to become one with the heart of the Father and to become the sons and daughters who can fathom the situation of the Father. Please allow us to become inseparably united with the Father and to mourn over Heaven’s sorrow as our own and to rejoice in Heaven’s joy as our own. Please allow us to consider Heaven’s affairs our affairs and see Heaven’s responsibilities as our responsibilities. Father, please allow us to concretely feel that we must shoulder the responsibility to fight the myriad satans with an unchanging heart and become a sacrifice to save humanity.</p>
|
||
<p>Heaven never dozes, even as we doze. Heaven never sleeps, even as we sleep. The Father has worked hard to awaken this people and guide them. We who have come before You are unworthy, so please forgive us. If there is someone who is dozing off, please chastise them. If there is someone who has been hurt, please pour oil on them and wrap the wound.</p>
|
||
<p>If someone is desperately trying to find Heaven, please embrace him and comfort him during this hour. We did not realize that the Father understands our situations and has forgiven our actions, even those which are difficult to forgive. Please allow this to be a time when we can bring out all our difficulties and sorrows from the depths of our hearts and replace them with what You give us. Father, this is our sincere desire.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, we pray from the depths of our hearts that You eliminate all wrong elements in our minds. Allow us to make a firm determination to become one with Your heart and sung sang.</p>
|
||
<p>Please let no one among us try to fathom Your nature with our concepts, but let us completely obey You and unite with Your will, to be molded as You desire. If we have some element within us which You cannot forgive, then please remove it from within us and personally command us.</p>
|
||
<p>Please grant them the words of truth You wish to give. More than any words, we need the new words that come from the heart of the Father. Please allow us to remove all distance in between and immediately feel Your heart, so that we can feel Your feelings and heart as our own. We sincerely pray that You allow us to experience the Father’s grief and alleviate Your bitterness. Allow us to feel the impact of the new words of truth in our minds and bodies.</p>
|
||
<p>Please let the heart of the speaker and the hearts of the listeners be completely united, and multiply Your grace in this hour. Praying that You will extend Your hands of compassion to all the lonely members who are bowing to You all across the nation, we pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>Human beings have walked the long course of history, not knowing their destination. With what ideology were they born? At what destination will they arrive with the aid of that ideology? Based on what value are they going to connect to what purpose? You know very well that people have been struggling because they have not found a complete solution to any of these issues.</p>
|
||
<p>When people of faith discuss their existence, they say that their existence began from Heaven and will end in Heaven and that they are pursuing the ultimate value before the will of God. Yet, I believe that there must come a time when even the average person thinks like that. Although all we think about is centered on ourselves, our human purpose is not to be found in ourselves. We sense deep within us that we seek to transcend ourselves and be connected to some world of ideology.</p>
|
||
<p>However, there is a gap of time and space between that world and where we are now. If something can bridge this gap, it is not an academic theory or some clever means. This gap can be bridged only when we enter the world of the heart.</p>
|
||
<p>“Heart” has been a controversial topic in the religious sphere and in the areas of culture and the arts. There is heart at the level of the individual, heart at the levels of the family, the society, the nation and the world. Furthermore, if a Creator exists, an actual Lord, it is undeniable that this Lord is moving in line with the heart.</p>
|
||
<h3>Let Us Become Someone Who Can<br />
|
||
See the Whole Picture</h3>
|
||
<p>People live and act based on their hearts. People act to solve problems based on their hearts, and they build relationships based on that too. This is how society, the world and Heaven’s principles operate.</p>
|
||
<p>When we take the universe and the cosmos as a whole, the center of their activities is heart. In other words, there is no entity which does not abide by principles based on the heart. We have to understand this.</p>
|
||
<p>When we reflect on ourselves with respect to the heart, what kind of heart do we possess? What kind of heart do society and the people of the world possess? If there is a God who is trying to realize a unified cosmos, what kind of heart does He have? The important question is through what means and relationships the hearts are to be connected. If a great religion emerges which can help individuals transcend their hearts and even transcend their societies, nations and the natural world to connect to the heart of God, then all things of creation will naturally wish to belong within the realm of this religion.</p>
|
||
<p>What is the ultimate purpose of our pursuing greater goodness, higher beauty, and greater emotional love? It is to connect with the heavenly heart of the Creator. We must reflect upon this situation again.</p>
|
||
<p>When we examine the heart of God, the heart of the heavenly principles, and the heart of human principles, it is true that they are not moving toward one purpose as they should. Ethics in human society do not have the same orientation as the heavenly principles which follow the laws of the providence. If we were to use religious language, we can say that this is the result of the fall. Due to the fall, the heart of the Creator, the heart of the heavenly principles, and the heart of human principles are in conflict.</p>
|
||
<p>We must understand our situation and realize the state of our society and world. We must stop in our footsteps to behold the resurrected natural world again, to behold the heart of the Creator in a new light, and to look into the actual situations of society again. We must point out our minds and bodies again, otherwise, a new world of ideology and love cannot emerge in human history. We must look at the One who has stopped in His tracks to protect us.</p>
|
||
<p>We must stop and feel within ourselves an urgent necessity to reflect upon the One who has been working to build a relationship with us in our lives, even without our conscious knowledge. He is the One who has been taking care of our living environment and protecting us.</p>
|
||
<p>The topic of the sermon I want to give to you today is “Let Us Halt in Our Steps and Behold the One Who Is Protecting Us.” I would like to speak on this topic.</p>
|
||
<p>We must learn to look at the whole picture. Furthermore, we must learn to lift our gaze and behold the world of minuscule organisms. We must lift our gaze and look at the actual situation of society, which is being destroyed by waves of death. We must lift our gaze and look at the world of emotions and ideologies, which longs to link the world of our hearts to the world of ideology.</p>
|
||
<p>We must think about connecting everything from the minuscule bacteria to the entire cosmos. We must think about the horizontal world and the three-dimensional world, which is the world of the mind.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Purpose of God’s Creation</h3>
|
||
<p>The earth in which we live is constantly rotating around the sun, according to the principles of the universe. Not only the earth, but the sun itself is rotating. The sun, which is 1.3 million times more massive than the earth, is in constant motion. In the universe, there are vast galaxies that are many billion times more massive than the sun. We call these galaxies “miniature universes.” In the universe, there are countless such galaxies. We call all of these together the “great universe.” We must open our hearts wide and look at the huge universe. God, who created this enormous universe, has been acting according to the unchanging principles of the universe for many billions of years. God has been moving this entire universe with powers which are beyond our imagination and sensations.</p>
|
||
<p>The more we think about God, the Creator of this universe, the more we bow our heads before His magnitude. The Creator of this gigantic universe is the Father who cares for us, the God who protects us, our great Hero. We must comprehend this by opening our minds wide.</p>
|
||
<p>After creating this great universe, God looked upon all things of the universe with great delight. If God could talk, how much He would have said! If He could boast, how much He would have boasted!</p>
|
||
<p>Although the universe is so great it cannot be measured by numbers, God’s purpose of creation cannot be found in the universe itself. God’s purpose of creation can be found on the earth, which is only a small planet inside the solar system, and within human beings, who are even smaller than dust particles when compared to the great universe. When we think about this amazing fact, how delighted, grateful and glorious must we feel?</p>
|
||
<p>As we behold all things of the natural world, as we behold the beauty and harmony of how all things follow the seasonal changes in natural phenomena, we should not look at them without appreciation of their profundity. When we look at a flying bird, butterfly or bee, when we look at the flowing streams or the tall mountains, we should learn to feel that each of them is God’s creation and the manifestation of God’s internal heart.</p>
|
||
<p>Even though there are many artists and authors, each of them uses countless ways to describe the beauty of the natural world. This world is closely connected to the arts and literature. When we understand that without the world of creation, the natural world, we would be deprived of the object of our joy, we come to realize that we cannot live without it. We must behold nature through this connection of heart. Furthermore, from the infinitesimal germs, bacteria and cells that are in circular or square shapes, to the great and immutable heavenly bodies, all living and non-living things are acting and moving toward a certain purpose in an orderly manner.</p>
|
||
<p>Why did God create all this? With an open heart, you should reflect again upon the fact that He created the universe for the sake of human beings on the earth, so insignificant and small when compared to the gigantic heavenly bodies.</p>
|
||
<p>God should be delighted to watch over what He has created, yet He has never been happy. That is because when human beings are suffering in sorrow, there is nothing more sorrowful for God. Nevertheless, human beings do not even feel this sorrow. We have become so insensitive, we do not even feel it. However, throughout history, God the Creator has mourned before human beings did and worried before human beings did, and He has labored for the sake of human beings.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Original State Where Religions Are Born</h3>
|
||
<p>You should open your heart, stop in your footsteps and behold God. Only then can the value of human beings be realized.</p>
|
||
<p>Today we believe God to be the center of our feelings and thoughts. God is moving the entire universe and is progressing toward eternity without rest. We have to believe in this God. This God has been protecting us for the long 6,000 years. Though we have had time to rest, God has never had time to rest. Though human beings could sleep, God never had time to sleep. He had to recognize human beings when they did not recognize Him.</p>
|
||
<p>In the meantime, God has governed all the laws by which the entire universe functions. He has re-created human beings and has been working to raise them as valuable masters of the entire universe, who can act on His behalf. Have you ever been deeply and sincerely grateful to God for all He has done for us?</p>
|
||
<p>The moment you feel a sincere devotion welling up inside you, you can look at the creation and bow down before it. As you look up at the sky or nature, when you look at the infinite stars of the universe, you will be overwhelmed by a sense of mystery and awe. Religions have begun from these feelings. We must be able to appreciate natural phenomena and be able to look at all the moving things of the creation and sing a song on behalf of the precious world of the heart within us.</p>
|
||
<p>When all living things resonate in our hearts as if they were playing natural music, like the arts or natural literature, we can become connected to God, who rules the heavenly bodies. Only when you feel strongly that you are intimately connected to everything can you can enter a state of the heart that can appreciate them. You have to understand that when we enter a mystical state, we can feel everything as it is really.</p>
|
||
<p>This is the relationship which exists between God the Creator and all of His creation. God and the entire universe are intertwined by these relationships, and they are trying to build bonds with human beings. If you behold the natural world understanding this fact, you can finally feel the true dignity of human beings.</p>
|
||
<p>When we realize that the reason God and all things are intertwined in these inseparable relationships is to link with human beings, who are so small and insignificant, we will come to fathom the relationship between all things and ourselves, between ourselves and God. In this state of mind, our minds will continue to head in that direction. In our daily lives, we are driving ourselves to move in that direction. You must understand that this is the state where art and religion come into being.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, we should not look at the infinitely grand universe without a proper sense of appreciation. We should understand that they have an eternal relationship with us, and that they were created for our sake. There we can gain the conviction that no matter what kind of cosmic turmoil, God will protect and care for us.</p>
|
||
<p>We can then experience our amazing, inseparable relationship with God and feel that God is our Father, intimately connected to our hearts. We will feel our minds and bodies come in contact with something previously unknown through the heavenly and human principles.</p>
|
||
<p>This force comes from God’s heart, and is the operating power which has become connected to God and us through the principle of creation. This force is the standard of heart which can penetrate through the world of ideology, the world of the heart, and even the world of imagination. It can even penetrate the invisible world.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Greatness of God and the<br />
|
||
Original Position of Human Beings</h3>
|
||
<p>We have to understand this as we relate with all things and become someone who can sing of the heart of God, who created the natural world. We have to be able to sing of the heart of God who rejoiced after creating the universe; we should sing of the heart of God when He rejoiced after creating human beings. We should sing about how this world of ideology has been made so good, precious and beautiful. When we can praise God with this heart, we can become connected to heavenly and human love. You must understand that this is how the historical and providential bond of heart, which is linked to the heavenly principles and human principles, is forged.</p>
|
||
<p>Today, we often understand God as one who has the same sung sang as we. However, in your life of devotion, when you are praying or when you are meditating quietly, watching the natural world alone in the dark night, or when you have opened the door to your heart with a serious attitude and feel the outpouring of your original mind as you behold nature, you will feel that nature exists for you. You will experience deeply that the infinitely large world of the heavenly bodies exists for your sake. If you then bow your head and pray, “Father, thank You,” you will offer a more profound prayer than any you may offer based on your personal feelings.</p>
|
||
<p>Although we call God “our Father,” we merely thought that this Father protects us. We did not know our Father was so gigantic, great and all-encompassing. We have to realize clearly, in the depth of our hearts, that this Father has been working hard to elevate us and build a father-son relationship of heart with us throughout the many thousands of years since the creation of the universe.</p>
|
||
<p>When you come to sincerely feel this in your innermost heart, you can use the words “great” and “gigantic” for describing this Father alone and no other. This is how great and immense He is. If we were to praise Him with such words as “great,” “amazing” and “dignified,” He is so great that there is no other being worthy of being portrayed by the same words. You have to understand that we have been worshipping this Father and that this Father has been protecting us.</p>
|
||
<p>Why has our human desire been so small until now? Why has our point of view been so narrow? Why have our feelings been so wicked? We can only lament over ourselves.</p>
|
||
<p>If in your life of devotion you have never had the experience of entering this state and feeling this emotion about the world of ideology, bowing your heads and shedding tears, calling out “Father” to the Holy One who is protecting us, then even if you understand our goal of attaining dominion over the natural world, you cannot shoulder the responsibility to accomplish it.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?” (Matthew 16:26) What does it mean that our insignificant and unworthy selves are more valuable than anything in the creation? It is not because we have the most beautiful appearance or shape; it is not because we are so great. It is only because of the fact that we alone can connect to the love which flows internally from the world of the ideal of the creation. That is why we are precious.</p>
|
||
<p>No matter how vast the heavens may be, no matter how beautiful nature may be, they can at most give inspiration and stimulation to God. They cannot grasp the Father’s heart of creation and bring Him joy by manifesting that heart. The things of creation cannot grasp the entire stream of the creative heart and respond to it in kind. No other being in the universe, only human beings, who have been blessed with dominion over the universe can do this. For this reason, God needs human beings. If you take the heart out of human beings, their value is no longer greater than that of all things.</p>
|
||
<p>What is true for our heart is also true for our actions. What must we do to establish the ideology and manifest it as beauty, love and goodness before the heart of God, who created the universe? We have to understand that before our path lies a relationship of the heart which is more lofty than any self-centered desire, hope, joy or feelings.</p>
|
||
<h3>What Human Beings Must Ultimately Pursue</h3>
|
||
<p>Though a person may have claimed, “I am happy, successful and a great victor,” there still remains a far greater happiness which has never been attained by anyone. We must understand that no matter how successful or wealthy one may boast about being, there still remains far greater success and far greater wealth which have never been attained by anyone.</p>
|
||
<p>In the last days of history, today, Heaven is searching for us, and we are seeking Heaven. We can imagine how great is the happiness we do not know, how great the success we can achieve. We can imagine that there is something about which we can sing in joy and boast proudly like no one in history.</p>
|
||
<p>What people rejoice over now is not complete happiness or full success. These are only transitory phenomena. Those who are intoxicated with them are truly pitiful.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?” (Matthew 16:26) The life he referred to is not life inside the realm of the fall. What is that life? It is the life which connects us directly to the life of the Creator. We must understand that Jesus’ words refer to the precious human life which can link with God’s original love and the love of the original nature.</p>
|
||
<p>In our life, we should not boast about happiness which is centered on ourselves, because we are walking a path of sorrow due to the fall. Those who do will fade away. Those who boast of happiness which is founded upon their people, or this world in which we live, also will fade away. Even if one advocates some ideology, if one is fighting for the sake of an ideology centered on his nation or this earthly world, he will also fade away.</p>
|
||
<p>If there is Heaven, we must realize how we stand in the middle of a progressing history. We must halt in our steps and reflect again. Who is the Master who governs our lives? We want to be happy, yet who is the Master who can govern our joyful feelings? We want to move toward certain goals and become successful, yet who is the Master of those successes? This Master is not our teacher or some great ideology in which we believe, nor is it a religion. When we consider this, we must stop and think whether there is someone who is protecting us with the true heart which brings us true ideology, happiness and success.</p>
|
||
<p>No matter how happy you may be, if your joy does not have any connection with the world, how can your accomplishments make any contribution to the 6,000 years of human history or the eternal history of the universe? Even if a person has made great contributions to his nation, he can be considered a patriot only when he made the contributions for everyone’s sake, not merely for his own.</p>
|
||
<p>History is moving forward in a serious manner. We must stop and think who is our Lord, whom we wish to be governed by, whom we want to serve in our hearts, and for whom we want to lead our lives. This is the problem.</p>
|
||
<p>Why is not possible for you to live happily for your own sake, even if you wanted? If you reflect on this within your living environment, you should stop and ask who is the beloved Master of ideology, who is trying to bring blessings to humanity, and who is our Master who controls the causes of true happiness and steers the course of our history?</p>
|
||
<h3>The Direction and Driving Force of History</h3>
|
||
<p>You may not be so well aware of this fact, but history is moving toward some destination. It is ceaselessly flowing toward the one unified world of the ideal. This is not an arrangement made by human beings or something human beings have accomplished. This flow moves forcefully in spite of our ignorance of it. Since it has the power to surround us, move our minds, and steer the course of our nation and world, and since we are on our way toward the world of our destination, we cannot help being a part of this great procession. You should reflect once more upon your being subject to this unalterable fate.</p>
|
||
<p>In this flow, where is our path heading? Is it to the left or the right? Is it vertical or horizontal? When we consider this flow, we find that we cannot boast about any self-centered success. The same thing holds true, even if we are delighted in the great world of the arts.</p>
|
||
<p>A person has value as the subject in sight of the entire universe in a reciprocal relationship with it. Therefore, until we can achieve the kind of success of which we can boast in the presence of the creation, there is no way we can alter that flow of the heart. The path we must walk is one. We set out from this amazing and great world of relationships and pass through a world of relationships before arriving at our destination. There we can fully manifest our original value and proudly stand in the presence of the Creator. Hence, we must understand that in their innermost hearts human beings long to be such victors and attain such joy and freedom.</p>
|
||
<p>Religions and the arts have emerged to guide people. They have been dealing with the realm of our emotion. They have been expanding the realms of emotion from the individual level to the family level, the national level, the world level, and the universal level. This is the direction the arts of the past have pursued.</p>
|
||
<p>The arts, culture and literature exist to connect us with the natural world in our hearts and to guide us to the world of emotion and thought. Science has been helping us relate with our external living environment through its external laws. The path of science is more cold-hearted the more one pursues it, while the path of the arts and literature is an increasingly painful path the more one treads upon it. Despite this, everything has been moving toward the one ideal.</p>
|
||
<p>What is religion? Even though science, the arts and culture have made contributions to our world and have broadened our emotions, they could not connect our realm of emotions to the eternal world. They could not connect us to the world of original, heavenly emotions. Religion emerged to shoulder the responsibility for this internal world of emotions.</p>
|
||
<p>Religion represents the internal aspects of the arts and culture. Religions guide people to worship the invisible Lord, whom artists and authors cannot imagine. They allow people to be moved by the inspirations of beauty the invisible Lord gives them.</p>
|
||
<p>There will come a time when religions, which were divided into many denominations and sects, will come together. This will not occur based on the framework of religions or the arts, but through those of you who work to bring it to pass. Ladies and gentlemen, “I” am a being. If there is a religious doctrine which understands this concept well, it can pierce to the heart of the matter and lay a foundation of the heart which can connect with heavenly love. No matter how beautiful and stimulating a work of art may be, if it cannot connect with the religious spheres, history will shove it aside as a failure and expel it from the earth.</p>
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<h3>The Place of Rest Where the Greatest Blessings Are Given</h3>
|
||
<p>We should be seeking the self, and religions have made considerable contributions throughout the periods of history. There is no true progress in the world of emotions. Why? It cannot make progress because it has replaced the world of the heart. There was no progress thousands of years ago nor will there be much many millions of years from now. There is no progress in the realm of emotions through which parents can love children, husbands and wives can love each other, and relatives and kinsmen can love each other. This is because one can represent the whole, perfection and happiness of the whole based on heart alone.</p>
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<p>Where can one find the greatest happiness and peace in life? Since God is our Subject, it is the place where we can assert that we are His children, where we can call Him “our Father” and He can call us “His children.” When such a movement emerges on the earth based on love, the world will become a joyful place from that moment forth, and it will be the world of the greatest accomplishments sought by humanity.</p>
|
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<p>This is why religious people have all pursued goodness and have tried to satisfy their desire for goodness. When Jesus came to the earth he called God “Father” and attested that he was one with Him. There is no one who has announced anything greater than this in the whole of human history. Jesus referred to humanity as his bride and friends. He called them his people and his disciples.</p>
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<p>Jesus pointed out all the factors which can stimulate and move every human emotion and asserted his value as the Lord. No founder of religion in history has made such an announcement. When Jesus was looking at all things, he did so with a heart of love. When he was relating with historical figures, he did not relate with them horizontally but with a heart deeply concerned about history. Yet conflict arose. We must understand that such contradiction is caused by the fact that this world is fallen.</p>
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<p>Jesus said, “Love me more than you love anyone else.” These words were a radical and revolutionary pronouncement to the world in which people had emotional bonds and social relationships. Why? When Jesus looked upon the people with the heart of love that flowed deep within him, when he saw them from this standpoint of being connected to heaven and earth as well as to the heart of every person and the heart of God the Creator, he realized that the love people had shared before then could not be recognized by Heaven as true. This is why he spoke those words.</p>
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<p>Since Jesus made such radical pronouncements, everyone who came before him turned out to be his enemy. Thus, the path Jesus walked was a sorrowful one; yet, no one understood his sorrowful heart. No one understood the sorrow he felt when he was nailed to the cross and shed blood in the presence of his enemies at Calgary. Moreover, no one knew the joyful heart Jesus felt, one full of hopes and wishes. Nonetheless, Jesus thought about how God was feeling immeasurable sorrow as He looked upon the fallen people.</p>
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<p>God’s hopes were unlimited after He created the universe. If God truly lamented over the fall of human beings and regretted ever having created them, His sorrow must be so deep that we can never in a million years imagine its intensity. On the other hand, we also have to understand that before God’s heart was stained with crushing sorrow, it was full of infinite joy, longing for human beings.</p>
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<p>Therefore, Jesus decided that he was not going to be crushed by the weight of his deep sorrow, but would overcome it and seek limitless joy. How was Jesus able to hold onto this heart and fight? Even when Jesus was living an unspeakably miserable life and was kicked out of Joseph’s family, he comforted himself with the knowledge that his situation was not the most sorrowful one. Even when he was persecuted by his nation and condemned as a cult leader by his religion, he knew that greater sorrow than his existed. When he was betrayed by his beloved disciples, he knew it could be worse.</p>
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<p>Because Jesus understood, even when he was dying on the cross, that there was a more sorrowful situation than the one he was suffering through, he was able to pray for his enemies. At that moment, Jesus realized that there was a heart which grieved even more than he did and which had suffered through greater sorrows in history.</p>
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<h3>To Become Brave Soldiers Who Seek the Heart of God</h3>
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<p>Why did God not abandon the world, even as He was forsaking Jesus? Why did He allow Jesus to be hung on the cross, yet did not forsake his enemies? It was to show that there was even greater sorrow than Jesus’ death.</p>
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<p>We fallen people must seek the infinite love of Heaven and experience His historical heart as our reality. He has protected us and labored for our sake. We must emerge victorious before God. When you look at society, you will find that it is not a joyful world. Human history is a history of sorrow. Because human history did not begin in joy, but in grief, human history has become a history of sorrow.</p>
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<p>When you look at a person weeping painfully over his grief, you probably feel sympathy toward him. However, do not sympathize with an individual’s grief or rejoice over your situation. Our grief transcends the individual level and is connected to the family level, the national level, the world level, and even to the level of Heaven.</p>
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<p>You commonly weep and grieve over your misfortunes, difficulties and sorrows. Yet there is a sorrow which exceeds your individual grief in your family, society, nation, the world and the universe.</p>
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<p>To become brave soldiers who seek the heart of Heaven, we must feel not only our sorrow but sorrow at the highest level. We should reflect upon whether the persecution, betrayal and grief we suffer in our life are for the sake of the ultimate goal, our pursuit of Heaven’s love. There is grief which surpasses any sorrow felt in human relationships. If the Creator is great and lofty, His ideals and goodness are also great and lofty. Yet in place of this great and lofty ideal and goodness, sorrow has become the object of God’s heart.</p>
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<p>When you seek heavenly love, you are to grieve and weep, but you are not to do so selfishly. You are not to bear fruit for your sake. Such people will be bound to themselves and will perish. Those who cling to their families will decline while holding onto their families, and those who cling to their nation will fall with their nation. Those who cling to the world will perish with the world.</p>
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<p>What then must we cling to when we cry? We must cling to Heaven’s love. We should feel God’s sorrow as our sorrow and feel God’s difficulties as our own. Because we are fallen people, because we have to shoulder the sorrowful course of history and walk toward Golgotha, we are not to stop at the sorrows we feel today. That is not the end.</p>
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<p>Jesus, who understood this, had no problem praying for his enemies. He was determined that, even if he were to encounter more sorrowful trials, he would prevail and complete his responsibility as Heaven’s son. Therefore, Jesus could step over the hill of death, forgive his enemies on the cross, and overcome death. We must understand this.</p>
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<p>What path does religion walk? Although God established religions and gave human beings something precious, they could not walk this precious path but had to suffer difficulties and grief.</p>
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<h3>For Whom Do I Exist?</h3>
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<p>No scripture reveals God’s labor and grief of the 6,000 years. However, scriptures extensively elaborate on goodness and the land of blessing where we can live.</p>
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<p>Why did God take this approach? It is because God loves us. Because Heaven loves us, He has sought us in this manner. It can be said of our path toward God that joy cannot be attained instantly. Joy can be attained only after we go through the path of sorrow.</p>
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<p>If someone on earth longs for the Kingdom of Heaven and longs to become a true son or daughter of Heaven, he should raise his hands and pray in tears, “Please let me shed God’s tears of the 6,000 years in my lifetime.” He must offer his life and risk heaven, earth and all created things as he cries out.</p>
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<p>He who discovers that the Father cannot be found in a good, beautiful, precious, proud and glorious place, but is in a state of deep sorrow will become the master of goodness. You have to understand that such a person can become a true son or daughter of God.</p>
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<p>If Heaven had eyes and shed tears, He would have shed more tears than all the waters of all lakes put together, so much that there would be no place in heaven and earth which could contain the tears. Hence, one who has deeply experienced the grief of God will look upon a mountain and feel that it is full of God’s labor and anguish. As he beholds an ocean, he will feel that it is God’s tears. As he looks upon the trees and plants, he will feel that they are God’s concerns. When we behold the sight of the infinitely vast cosmos, we may find all its phenomena beautiful, but we must understand that they are a source of God’s sorrow because they have not yet come into a direct relationship with human beings. God will look for sons and daughters who can sense this and call out to Him with this heart of understanding.</p>
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<p>A person who is worthy to be called a son of true filial piety is not someone who shares joy with the Father when He is happy. Such a person does not demonstrate true filial piety. Only when someone can shoulder the sorrow and difficulties of his Father can it be said that he has demonstrated true filial piety.</p>
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<p>The same holds true for Heaven. Because this is a fallen world where relationships of the heart cannot bear fruit in joy, because we human beings suffer through grief and the vicissitudes of life, even when our hands swell and our bodies become exhausted, we must keep our determination to run toward Heaven. You must understand that the moment you experience a sorrow so deep you cannot share it with anyone on earth and call out, “Father!” is the moment when you can be re- connected to the lost love of Heaven. The moment sorrow disappears from our hearts and we can sing in joy and peace is the moment Heaven will descend, smile and delightfully raise His hands and bless us as His children.</p>
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<p>Fallen people must go. They must halt in their steps and take a new course of sorrow. The people should repent who did not understand that Heaven has suffered grief for 6,000 years to protect human beings. They must repent over their family, nation and world.</p>
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<p>Unless we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who was concerned about God’s suffering, and who prayed for his enemies even when he was crossing the Golgotha of death, we cannot feel the toilsome and grieving heart of God while we are on the earth. Unless we alleviate the sorrow found deep inside God, there is no way for the eternal joy, goodness and happiness lying inside God to forge any relationship with people living on earth.</p>
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<p>We must reflect again upon our position today. You must have shed many tears. Yet, to what did all your tears amount? Please reflect critically upon yourself. Your hands are actively moving to help you stay alive. However, for whose sake do they move? For whose sake are you so desperately taking steps? For whom do your minds and bodies long? You must stop and reflect upon this point. You must then realize that you live amid the grief of history and that you must seek the one day of hope. Making a new determination, you are to evaluate your past critically. You must lament over the fact that you have not met God’s expectations and have failed to make a relationship with Him.</p>
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<p>Are you always going to feel, “I am ashamed to stand before my family, nation and world?” If such feelings spring forth from the depth of your heart, you will shed tears when you face your family, your nation, the world and God. If you do not experience this in your lifetime, you cannot penetrate through the dark barrier in God’s heart to find the goodness, joy and happiness which is hidden at the highest realm.</p>
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<p>We must now analyze for whom we are leading our lives and understand the One who protects us. We must behold the One who is protecting us, regardless of whether we are aware of it, the One who protects us even as we are going through all kinds of difficulties.</p>
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<article id="post-1000" class="post-1000 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1959">
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/10/the-ideal-kingdom-of-heaven-our-hope.html" title="Permalink to The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope" rel="bookmark">The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope</a>
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</h2>
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<div class="entry-meta">
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-10T07:30:11+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/10/the-ideal-kingdom-of-heaven-our-hope.html" rel="bookmark">June 10, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-10T07:30:26+01:00">June 10, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1959.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1959</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<div class="entry-content">
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">Former Church Headquarters<br />
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Seoul, Korea<br />
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February 22, 1959</h3>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;"><em>Matthew 3:1-17 </em></h3>
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<p class="chapter-1" style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="text Matt-3-1">In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea</span> <span id="en-NIV-23195" class="text Matt-3-2"><sup class="versenum">2 </sup>and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”</span><span id="en-NIV-23196" class="text Matt-3-3"><sup class="versenum">3 </sup>This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:</span></em></p>
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<div class="poetry top-05" style="text-align: center;">
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<p class="line"><em><span class="text Matt-3-3">“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,</span></em><br />
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<em><span class="text Matt-3-3">‘Prepare the way for the Lord,</span></em><br />
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<em><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Matt-3-3">make straight paths for him.’”<sup class="footnote" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; top: 0px;" data-fn="#fen-NIV-23196a" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NIV-23196a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]">[<a title="See footnote a" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+3:1-17#fen-NIV-23196a">a</a>]</sup></span></span></em></p>
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</div>
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<p class="top-05" style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-23197" class="text Matt-3-4"><sup class="versenum">4 </sup>John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.</span> <span id="en-NIV-23198" class="text Matt-3-5"><sup class="versenum">5 </sup>People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan.</span><span id="en-NIV-23199" class="text Matt-3-6"><sup class="versenum">6 </sup>Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-23200" class="text Matt-3-7"><sup class="versenum">7 </sup>But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?</span> <span id="en-NIV-23201" class="text Matt-3-8"><sup class="versenum">8 </sup>Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.</span> <span id="en-NIV-23202" class="text Matt-3-9"><sup class="versenum">9 </sup>And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.</span> <span id="en-NIV-23203" class="text Matt-3-10"><sup class="versenum">10 </sup>The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-23204" class="text Matt-3-11"><sup class="versenum">11 </sup>“I baptize you with<sup class="footnote" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; top: 0px;" data-fn="#fen-NIV-23204b" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NIV-23204b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]">[<a title="See footnote b" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+3:1-17#fen-NIV-23204b">b</a>]</sup> water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with<sup class="footnote" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; top: 0px;" data-fn="#fen-NIV-23204c" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NIV-23204c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]">[<a title="See footnote c" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+3:1-17#fen-NIV-23204c">c</a>]</sup> the Holy Spirit and fire.</span> <span id="en-NIV-23205" class="text Matt-3-12"><sup class="versenum">12 </sup>His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="text Matt-3-13"><sup class="versenum">13 </sup>Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.</span><span id="en-NIV-23207" class="text Matt-3-14"><sup class="versenum">14 </sup>But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-23208" class="text Matt-3-15"><sup class="versenum">15 </sup>Jesus replied, <span class="woj">“Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”</span> Then John consented.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-23209" class="text Matt-3-16"><sup class="versenum">16 </sup>As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.</span> <span id="en-NIV-23210" class="text Matt-3-17"><sup class="versenum">17 </sup>And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”</span></em></p>
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<p>Prayer</p>
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<blockquote><p>We know how much and for how long You, who lost the original true love, have endeavored to fulfill the providence of restoration. At this time, let us be able to experience with our minds and bodies the fact that You have crossed hill after bloody hill of a historical course, longing for the original Adam and Eve. We know that our ancestors, who inherited this task and observed the will of the providence, also walked the sorrowful road of the cross.</p>
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<p>We who are situated in the last days know that today we have the historical and providential responsibility to walk the road of the cross which remains. With Your power and advice, urge us on again. Let us go over all the remaining hills of the cross. Let us become manifestations of joy who can sing the song of the Father’s glory in the original garden for which You have hoped.</p>
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<p>We know that what belongs to us is not eternal. Today, allow us to make a heavenly determination to push aside the crisis of the cross, which blocks providential history, to fulfill the remaining tasks.</p>
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<p>The time has come when we must advance with the attitude of marching toward a battlefield, armed and with grim determination to fulfill this task. Father, today, tomorrow and always, let us fight with our utmost energy. Give us strength to fight the numerous satans who are blocking the road.</p>
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<p>Let us emerge from the battlefield with victorious faces and dwell with and attend You closely in Your garden of glory. Let us become sons and daughters who fulfill the whole will of Your desire and who sing the songs of Your love. Let us become sons and daughters of whom You can be proud before the satanic world and all things.</p>
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<p>Let us be able to live with You eternally as Your recovered sons and daughters. Let us become true children who can comfort You with songs of glory and happiness as people who have fulfilled Your work, Your ideology, and Your desire. Let us become people who can sing of Your glory after passing through the remaining road of battle and the cross.</p>
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<p>This is a holy day. Please hasten the day when all people can uphold Your will and build Your nation of victory.</p>
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<p>Please bless the people of this nation and give special blessing to the sons and daughters gathered here today. Embrace the people of this nation with Your heart of love. Let them become people who can move according to Your will until they appear as people of glory who fulfill the will of Your hope and Your remaining sorrow by taking responsibility and fulfilling it. Let them become sons and daughters who can do this.</p>
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<p>We have gathered here today, disloyal and unprepared. Please remove all things that are improper, and manifest only the aspects of the original nature that can be embraced in the bosom of Your glory. Make this a meeting where each person’s heart can connect only with the original glory and can be offered to You as one of Heaven’s desired ones. Let them be Yours alone, belonging to no other. Please also be with all the people who are spread out all over the land and work with them. I pray all this in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>Father, You have gathered us here. Therefore, do not let us be the only ones who survive in this hour. We thank You for protecting us from many difficulties that we may come to this place. We know that You have led us this way for our sake. We also know that the sorrow of Heaven and the sorrow of earth must be reversed, depending on us as the condition. We know we have this historic responsibility.</p>
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<p>We are deeply grateful that You gave us the glorious grace of calling You “Father” when we face You. This came to us through the privilege of Your words, Your grace, and Your life.</p>
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<p>We know today how precious is our responsibility. Loving Father, do not abandon us in this hour. Hold us to Your heart that You may transmit Your shimjung to our shimjung. Impart to us Your whole will, and mold us into people You can trust.</p>
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<p>Please let our minds and bodies not be our own. Make them move as Your possessions in this hour, altars over which You have dominion. Please let nothing be admitted in this hour that is not of You.</p>
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<p>Billions of satans are desperately seeking to obstruct our movements. We desire to have heavenly power and ability that we can use with all our minds and bodies to block those obstructions. Father, allow us Your power and give us Your grace that we may become heavenly soldiers equipped with the authority of resurrection, standing ahead of the realm of death. Loving Father, we sincerely ask You these things.</p>
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<p>Father, Your sons and daughters, who went through the period of the workshop that You approved for us, have spread out all over the whole country with sincere shimjung and new determination and conviction. Father, please open up their ways and tell them where they should go. When they fight, give them strength. Allow them to establish and exercise Heaven’s real authority.</p>
|
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<p>Give them the ability to conquer their enemies with words of iron and the shield of life. Give them the glory of heavenly victory.</p>
|
||
<p>We already know that the time has come to liberate Your shimjung, which has endured for 6,000 years. You have already shown us that time. Let this time become a triumph. Please give the movement of life to the whole, and manifest Heaven’s whole power wherever they go. Give them the shape of life, and allow them to meet the day when their enemies surrender.</p>
|
||
<p>This is Your day of promise; therefore, please bless us. You have approved this day; therefore, manifest Your will to us. Transmit to our minds the Father’s shimjung of love, and allow us to sing the song of Your grace. Make us display Your glory. Father, let this be an hour when we can truly bow before You.</p>
|
||
<p>Allow us to awaken the people who are asleep, and allow us to bring the numerous people of this earth to awareness. We know that Your care goes out to those who are in the field, that You are holding onto them so they do not fall. Let us in turn hold onto the people of this nation. Let us fight to hold onto humankind.</p>
|
||
<p>We know that they do not exist for us; we exist for them. We know that You are still fighting for their sake. We know that we should not live for ourselves, but for You. Let us feel Your will of wanting to hold onto the people of this nation and feel the critical responsibility of facing all the people. With this kind of duty and responsibility, let us become heavenly soldiers who do not waste a day or an hour, but who save every moment for Your will.</p>
|
||
<p>Please bless all the groups who have gathered today, representing all the people of this world. We know that there are many hidden sons and daughters, filled with the grace of life, building lonely altars unto Your presence and yearning for You. Please grant them Your special grace. Please show them Heaven’s will in the last days, and show them that the time of Your glory is coming. Please let the day come quickly when they can gather centering on Your grace. Let the day, when all people can prepare one altar and sing the song of Your glory and bow down to You, come to this entire land.</p>
|
||
<p>Let the day of the glory of the will of the providence come quickly. Let the day of joyous victory come swiftly for those of us who are fighting for that day. Allow the garden of happiness, where glory can spread in Heaven and the triumphal song of victory can resound on the earth, to be built with all dispatch.</p>
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<p>Please guide us with Your presence in all the hours starting from now. We have gathered here in this hour. Therefore, remove our opinions and concepts from us. Allow us to be transformed by the heavenly shimjung. We request to be enraptured only with Your presence. We pray all these things in the name of Christ the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<h2>Prayer</h2>
|
||
<blockquote><p>Father, let those of us who have gathered here today become the determined group of people who gathered around the River Jordan. Allow us to become the group who gathered around John the Baptist to listen to new tidings.</p>
|
||
<p>Let us become those who examine the footsteps of the Israelites as they longed for the coming of the Messiah and struggled. Let us take on the appearance of the group of people who followed John the Baptist, connected with each other, having overcome all historical sadness and centering on heavenly love. Let us become the manifestation of the group of people who were following Jesus, who were rejoicing with new hope, each connected to each in shimjung.</p>
|
||
<p>We know that Your tears still remain in this land. You were proud of the power of the chosen people and the chosen citizens of Your nation. You lamented, “Where has Israel, living in the realm of blessing, gone?”</p>
|
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<p>You held onto the Israelites, enduring 4,000 years of historical sadness, because You wanted to send the one Messiah. Instead of being embraced in the Messiah’s bosom, they were embraced in Satan’s bosom. The sorrow You felt when You saw that did not last for that moment only. It was a sorrow comparable to a million years. When we see that the chosen Israelites did not know this, we feel deeply sad that we have the responsibility to expose this historical sin, with humble and sincere attitudes, and to repent for that historical sin in the place of those who committed it.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, give us Your hand. Father, manifest Your shimjung of love to us. Father, find us by moving Your exhausted feet.</p>
|
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<p>Jesus sought the perishing people with the sorrowful shimjung of Heaven. He looked for them, pitying them, willing to give his life for them. The people of Israel, who called themselves “chosen,” treated the Heaven-sent Messiah and John the Baptist, who had prepared the way for the Messiah, with carelessness. They hid the two in the shadow of historical sadness. We know this fact today.</p>
|
||
<p>Please allow the people gathered here to realize that the Israelites did not betray Heaven because they were less worthy than we. They did not forget Heaven because they had less shimjung to live for Heaven than we do. Instead, they lacked hope for a new age. They expected the appearance of Christ, who came with the new ideology of the Messiah, to be grand. When the actual appearance of the Messiah was beggarly, pitiful and small, they betrayed him.</p>
|
||
<p>Please let us examine the position of each of us. Today, we easily criticize historical Israel and the historical situation of the time. However, let us understand that there is no difference between their situation then and our situation today.</p>
|
||
<p>Let us acknowledge to ourselves that if we lived at that time we would have been similar to them and would have acted similarly. Make us realize that we have within us remnants of that historical sin and that the evil hands of Satan are aimed at us.</p>
|
||
<p>Many times we lose the authority of life out of ignorance, and we languish. Let us overcome this contradictory environment and suppress all circumstances that are bound by the environment. By doing that, let us not make any base for Satan to rejoice. Let us become an offering of shimjung that can soothe Your sadness.</p>
|
||
<p>Why have we come here? To see whom? The only thing we desire is to find the Father’s shimjung. Let us not become a group who looks for a historical teacher, but a group who looks for Your shimjung manifested through a prophet.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, the bitter root of sin remains within our minds, tainted by the world. Our bodies have been invaded by Satan and have received wounds. Appear to us with a heart of compassion, and embrace us in Your bosom at least for this hour. Let this be a time when we can face You with the appearance of original character, intoxicated in Your eternal life, overcoming all consciousness, and transformed by Your presence.</p>
|
||
<p>Grant us the ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven that You have kept until now. Let tidings of a new nation, which You have saved for us, come. Let the day come quickly when the bell of liberation tolls and we can dance with joy for the grace of freedom and liberation. In this way, let a new garden of hope unfold before humankind.</p>
|
||
<p>Please guide the remaining hour, and give us the words You wish to impart to us. Remove the dark shadow of Satan from us. Let this become an hour when a heavenly relationship is formed that can introduce the happiness of attaining new life. Let this be an hour when the dead receive the grace of re-creation and resurrection, and come to recognize You. We pray that words of re-creation and movements of re- created life can be manifested here. We pray all this in the name of Christ, the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>We know that from the day of the fall, people have fought, longing for the lost ideal nation, holding onto hope, and experiencing endless hardships. The environment in which we live is supposed to be a joyful one; yet, we suffer unhappiness, not connecting to all the conditions of happiness for which we have longed in our minds. We must remember again that human beings stand in this situation because we lost the Kingdom of Heaven that God established as the ideal of creation.</p>
|
||
<p>God created all things in six days. God created Adam and Eve as the masters of all things. Adam and Eve were to have dominion over all things in God’s ideal garden of creation in His place. At the same time, they could enjoy God’s glory. They were the center of glory, the center of victory and the focus of happiness, able to be in harmony before heaven and earth. Adam and Eve appeared in this manner in the presence of heaven and earth, but they lost their position and failed their responsibility. From that day forth, this earth was transformed into a place of sadness, hardship and death.</p>
|
||
<p>If there is someone who claims this is not true, that person is denying his own mind, historical fact and the reality of our lives. People on earth today must realize that they are living in an uncertain and precarious land. They must realize that they are living in a harsh environment of fear and death.</p>
|
||
<p>We must awaken to this point, aroused to a new realization. We must eliminate contradictions in our reality and become filled with a new shimjung. We should possess a new ideology and hope. Moreover, if there is a Creator, we must possess the ideology for which the Creator hoped, and resolve to fight today, tomorrow and our entire lives alongside that ideology. Only in that way can we break down this contradictory environment and form a heavenly relationship.</p>
|
||
<p>It is a path of death that we cannot hope to bypass and an environment of suffering with which we must collide headlong. Yet we must possess a mind to eradicate all this and the hope to deny them all. A new, ideal garden where we can forget all this, a haven, is our goal. That is our goal in the course of history and in the last days. We must know this clearly.</p>
|
||
<p>That is God’s hope, humankind’s hope, the hope of the people, and our hope today. Standing in this position, you should feel that you must take responsibility for that hope today. Thus, the topic of the speech today is <i>“The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope.”</i></p>
|
||
<h3>The Result of the Fall</h3>
|
||
<p>Because of the human fall, God’s hope crumbled, and human beings’ hope also dissipated. Humans are the object of God’s hope, the central being representing the universe, an individual of universal ideology. Each human was to be an ideal individual, an offering representing the whole. As such, they had to be able to move Heaven and earth. Because they did not become so, hope remains unfulfilled, and God’s hope remains unattained.</p>
|
||
<p>When we think of this point, knowing that the garden of creation was built for human beings and that the ideology of creation was for God to enjoy happiness with human beings, we must reflect upon ourselves again. We must again realize that we are the ones who decide the fate of the garden of creation and its ideology. We should take responsibility for this, fight for it, and dissolve God’s historical sorrow.</p>
|
||
<p>There is no greater sadness, no worse mortification, no greater vexation than that caused by the fall. The moment this kind of mental shock explodes in us is the moment we can find the new ideology and hope.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, we must not forget that Heaven has fought until now to impart new shocks to the minds of fallen people. Numerous prophets and martyrs, who took on the mission of Heaven in Heaven’s place, also fought and died to awaken sleeping humankind from the realm of death. They tried to impart that the world of a new ideology and the garden of new hope exist, to shock the people into denying the environment in which they lived.</p>
|
||
<p>We must know that no group or people became shocked by the words of the prophets warning people in each age, in place of Heaven, as they lived through their course of history, nor did any nation. We must know that no one depended on those words and overcame their age centering on those words. We should mourn this historical sin, yet we do not even recognize it.</p>
|
||
<p>We know that Jacob lived through 21 years of an unexpected wilderness course. Jacob possessed a heartistic standard with which he could overcome all the collisions in a 21-year period. Jacob’s steadfast shimjung toward Heaven, based on the shock of Heaven that collided with his mind, was able to dominate his life. Thus, he was able to win over all the hardships in his environment and triumphantly go over the course of restoration.</p>
|
||
<p>Jacob stepped forward, not minding all the suffering and hardship that visited him, holding onto the resolution he had made on the day he received the shock of Heaven. He was a man of faith who stopped the history of prolongation affected by the mistake of Abraham, the ancestor of faith. Jacob subjugated Satan.</p>
|
||
<p>The luxurious, royal lifestyle of Pharaoh’s castle could not dominate the mind of Moses, who was born bearing national responsibility. Even though Moses led a poor shepherd’s life in the Midian wilderness for forty years, the royal environment could not dominate the internal shock that penetrated Moses’ shimjung. Because Moses possessed a heartistic shock burning inside him, wanting to go over the nation, over humankind, over the world to make a relationship with Heaven, he was able to go over the forty years in the Midian wilderness with ease.</p>
|
||
<p>To what did our ancestors look forward? They were longing for a new nation, a place where God could reside. We know that they fought with their lives to establish that place.</p>
|
||
<p>In the forty-year period when Moses led the 600,000 people and wandered in the wilderness, the surrounding environment was very difficult. He was able to forget all the difficult conditions of the environment and deliver 600,000 people to Canaan. This is because his shimjung, pierced with longing to enter the land of Canaan as he had promised God, and his shimjung of hope toward the land of Canaan were greater than the shimjung of the opposition of the 600,000 people.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Purpose of Heaven and the Ancestors’ Labor</h3>
|
||
<p>Jesus Christ, who came as the culmination of 4,000 years of Heaven’s hope, came to introduce to humankind the ideology of the ideal Kingdom of Heaven and to fulfill that ideology. He was not caught up with words that indulged the customs of the age. He was not satisfied with the lifestyles of that society. He was not captivated by the customs of the ritualistic Jewish religion, entrenched in formality and rules.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus appeared with the internal standard of new loyalty, denying every aspect of history. He had new words centering on that standard. When he appeared, taking novel action together with those new words, the chosen historical individuals, the chosen historical group and nation, raised a banner of revolt against him. We must realize that this was what obstructed the course of Christ’s establishing his ideology.</p>
|
||
<p>We can know through history that God, the Creator, exists and wants to raise human beings to a standard of the greatest ideology by connecting them to a better ideology, tomorrow more than today, next year more than tomorrow, this century more than next year, and in the next century more than now.</p>
|
||
<p>We are living in a time which all agree is the last days. In this time, when the fate of humankind hangs in the balance, we are at a point when we cannot be proud of our existence. Therefore, each person has to receive a new shock from the ideology that Jesus introduced 2,000 years ago. Each person living in this antiquated system of reality has to ignite the explosion of a new mind. If a movement does not appear that can do this, this age will not be able to escape the depths of historical sadness.</p>
|
||
<p>Living in the historic last days, we have learned all that the Bible can teach us. Numerous scholars have researched the Bible with their utmost effort for 2,000 years, but their research ended with themselves. They thought of their movements as complete and that they had presented human beings with an ideal ideology, but it was not what human beings sincerely desired. Through merely observing reality, we can see that it was not a movement that could pioneer the garden of shimjung. We must become people who can break down this wall and plow our way through the debris.</p>
|
||
<p>Since every person is in despair today, what is the biggest problem? If there is a Creator who wants to build the Kingdom of Heaven, how can someone introduce the ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven to human beings? That is the problem. Let us then say that there is a person who feels that there needs to be a new ideology. He feels that the ideologies presented up to now are and have been insufficient. If he feels this but does not possess a yearning heart for that new ideology, he is a historical criminal.</p>
|
||
<p>If you long for that ideology and desire for all humankind to be happy, you must go over all hills of sorrow. You must possess a determination in your mind to push aside all problems of reality and fight to surmount them. Whether you possess that determination is the issue.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Problem of Introducing a New Ideology</h3>
|
||
<p>What I want to ask you today is: where is the ideology that can re- create people, the ideology which can break down historical adherence to old habits that humankind has not been able to escape, the ideology which can burn like a shock in the human heart? If there is a God, can He introduce this ideology to us without any condition? Have you ever thought about this? If you have not, you are a shameful sinner in the presence of your ancestors, who longed and fought for the ideal garden, the ideal world.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus was pierced with his shimjung toward Heaven. He felt deeply about the new ideal world of creation, the world of hope humankind was to find. He acted according to what he felt and said to us, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”</p>
|
||
<p>In what kind of surroundings did Jesus act in accordance with the heavenly shock he felt? All people were supposed to agree with each other and welcome Jesus wherever he went, but no one welcomed him. This was true, not only at that time, but even now, numerous people who live and who have lived in history, innumerable spirit persons in the spiritual world, also have not deeply understood the words that Jesus spoke and Jesus’ responsibility. None have welcomed Jesus.</p>
|
||
<p>Yet Jesus, coming with the new ideology, felt deeply that to fulfill that ideal, he had to conquer all conditions of opposition which struck him. The more intensely the shock of knowing the ideal came to him, the more Jesus solidified his firm determination to withstand all conditions of evil in his surroundings. Therefore, Jesus could overcome any kind of confrontation.</p>
|
||
<p>Today, our minds long for something. Our bodies suffer to find that something. We groan in fear and anxiety. Living thus, we must yearn for the day when we can be free of all these conditions of fear and apprehension.</p>
|
||
<p>We are not the only ones who face this. Jesus also lived in this kind of environment 2,000 years ago. You should reflect upon this fact and think about how Jesus lived through that.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus knew that God had created all things. He knew that the Kingdom of Heaven was to be fulfilled with true owners having dominion over all created things. He knew that the ideal Kingdom of Heaven which God desired had turned into hell on earth through the fall. He knew that this world had turned into a world of unspeakable fear and uneasiness, a world of conflict. Thus, Jesus started a course of public life to take responsibility for and bring salvation to this hell on earth, forsaking his own ideal kingdom.</p>
|
||
<p>Advancing toward the ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus faced indescribable loneliness, adversity and sadness. Nevertheless, Jesus knew he had to go this way. Therefore, he felt that he had to go this way until the ideal garden was fulfilled, until he met God in that garden, representing humankind. You must feel this way also. We are in the same situation. We also must advance toward that ideal garden.</p>
|
||
<p>If you have received this new shock, you should say in your mind, “Father, I want to go this way! I want to go toward that ideal Kingdom of Heaven, our hope!” You should be filled with that kind of shimjung.</p>
|
||
<p>The road that goes to the ideal Kingdom of Heaven of hope is not a level road. It is a road of sorrow. The road to the Kingdom of Heaven does not start from the Kingdom of Heaven. It starts from the world of sin and hell. If we surmount that hell and come out on the other side, we will be connected to the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>We must go. We are destined to go toward the ideal Kingdom of Heaven of hope. We should think of Jesus who had to go this way. What kind of road did he travel? He did not travel a flat, level road. Jesus did not go the way of being welcomed by society. Jesus was the redeemer of all people and the master of the cosmos, but he never exercised the role of master, and he hesitated to boast of himself and proclaim that the masses should follow him.</p>
|
||
<h3>Jesus Walked the Road of Hardship</h3>
|
||
<p>Jesus was supposed to walk the road of the providence in front. Yet, he could not go in front. Instead, he stood behind everyone and said to each, “You go the easy way. I will walk the most difficult path.” He shouldered the difficulties of the nation and the world alone. He carried the cross of hardship, which humankind repels, by himself and lived for the sake of humankind. Jesus had to walk the road, even though it was one of historical sadness, entangled with evil conditions. Thus, with a thirty-year period of preparation and a three-year period of public life, he walked that road with intense, internal determination. The more intense that conviction became, the more he became a friend to sorrowful humankind. Moreover, he was mortified over the fact that human beings were suffering a life of fear and that Satan ruled humankind. In the humblest place in history, in the humblest place of the age, he fought with Satan.</p>
|
||
<p>He walked the road with a mind to say, “If humankind is in sorrow, I will take responsibility for its sadness. If humankind is in difficulty, I will take responsibility for that difficulty. If humankind lives in death, I will take responsibility for death.” His footsteps were those of an individual, but his mission was a historical mission, a mission of the age, a mission for the future.</p>
|
||
<p>If there is a shimjung God felt after the creation, if there is a shimjung of humankind and of all things, then Jesus had the responsibility to know all that and liberate them. Where did his path lead? His path did not lead to a luxurious palace nor did it lead in glory to the house of some high official or authority. Jesus knew that he was placed in a position to do God’s will in a time when all the conditions had not been fulfilled for the age. He went the opposite way.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus knew that the path of Israel, which Heaven had trusted for 4,000 years, the path of hope for connecting to Heaven, was blocked. Therefore, he attempted to go forward to break open that path of hope. The people did not believe, however. Hence, Jesus had to go to the lowest echelon of the Israelites.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus was to go toward the Kingdom of Heaven of hope. He was to go over the individual level, over the family level, his nation, over his race, and lead the world to Heaven, the ideal world. He stood at the forefront of his race, but the race drove him away. Religion chased him out. His family drove him away. His disciples rejected him, even a robber rejected him. How sorrowful do you think Jesus’ heart would have been at that time?</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus was supposed to march forward with the ideology of God. He was to introduce the garden of happiness to humankind, yet he had to go the opposite way. What do you think Jesus’ appearance and his shimjung would have been like? If Jesus could not go to the destination the right way, he still had to go, even if he had to go backward. Since 4,000 years had passed, he had to go, even if he had to go back through the 4,000-year history. Because this was the mission and responsibility of Jesus, he repeatedly prayed to God. He prayed, “Even if there are obstacles that block the Father’s will, I will still go the way, even if I have to walk the road of several thousand years. I will march toward that garden of hope. Father, please do not despair. I am here.”</p>
|
||
<p>The race that God established, the religion that God established, the family that God established, and the party of John the Baptist that God had established obstructed Jesus’ way and betrayed him. How could God even face this situation? His will and dignity were completely compromised.</p>
|
||
<p>When all the conditions that had been set up over 4,000 years for the attendance of the Messiah collapsed in a short moment, Jesus comforted God, instead of moaning over his own situation. Since God was sad, Jesus must have been sad also, but he had to deny his situation and comfort God. Jesus was treated as an enemy by his people. He was driven out as a heretic by the religious. His family criticized him as a traitor, even criminals ridiculed him. Later, nailed on the cross at Golgotha, he blessed and prayed for his enemies, those who had killed him: “Father, please forgive them.”</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus stepped forward, pledging to go toward God’s ideal garden, even if his path did not end in glory, happiness and joy, but in sadness, agony and mortification. He had to go toward that garden of ideology which is the goal of God. The fact that Jesus traveled toward that ideal garden means that he went in place of humankind, in place of history and in place of all things. Therefore, we who are following him are fated to go that way, too. If we cannot go there while we are alive, we must go even after death. That is our fate.</p>
|
||
<h3>Christianity Is a Religion of the Cross</h3>
|
||
<p>Jesus carried with him the suffering of humankind. He started from the lowest point of humanity and ended at the top of Golgotha. There he sacrificed his whole self. Where was God’s son, the heir apparent, the Prince of Heaven? Where was the Messiah of humankind, the Savior? At that place, Jesus could not assert one iota’s worth of his value. It was a tragic and pitiable place. Yet Jesus was able to go over that hill of death, look to Heaven and advance toward Heaven’s ideal garden. His ideology was more powerful than death. His ideology was more powerful than any force in history. Thus, he was able to push aside the realm of death and resurrect. He brought the people who opposed him to repentance and, hence, Christianity today has a base of victory.</p>
|
||
<p>We the followers of Jesus must go the way he went, whether we live or die. The problem is whether you really want to go this way.</p>
|
||
<p>You must have a feeling more powerful than the power of death, saying, “I will go toward that ideology no matter what comes my way. I will go that way whether I eat, whether I get hit, am treated unfairly, or am persecuted.” Otherwise, you will not be able to go over the realm of death in the judgment appearing in the last days. You must feel, “I will go whether this happens or that happens. Father, I know You are there. I know that Your ideal world lies this way. Even if no one else goes, I will certainly go.”</p>
|
||
<p>The going is not easy. The progenitors of human beings did not start with peace, happiness and joy; they began with sadness, grief, adversity, fear and anxiety. Therefore, we who are living in the last days must also travel through that road of historical sadness to indemnify this. Unless the Messiah appears in this time and introduces a heavenly ideology, humankind will not be able to escape the realm of fear and death. Humankind will not have a way to salvation.</p>
|
||
<p>Thus, Christianity was originally a religion of sacrifice. It was a religion of the cross. It was a religion of shedding blood, a religion of service. It was a religion that stepped forward to die before others. Moved by Heaven, Christianity shone out its tradition through the course of history. If Christianity today does not keep this kind of tradition, Heaven will punish it. We can conclude this.</p>
|
||
<p>Christianity is supposed to pioneer the fate of the world in place of Jesus, who lamented with a worldwide sadness. Christianity should become a shepherd, a lamb. It should remove the resentment of Heaven and earth, filled with the shimjung that Jesus had when he said in the moment of death, bleeding on top of Golgotha, “Please forgive them.” Christianity should be able to introduce a new ideology, new hope and the new ideal garden. This kind of person must exist.</p>
|
||
<p>Peter, James and John, in the position of the Israelites and among them, did not realize that when Jesus died on top of Golgotha in the midst of opposition and persecution, he would resurrect. When they did, they marched toward Heaven, risking their lives as they pondered his death. You must realize that if there is a shepherd who can appear before Heaven, risking death with that kind of herd of sheep, they are the ones who can connect the world to a new age and a new heavenly ideology.</p>
|
||
<p>We must realize this today. Today, we must re-examine everything around us. We must examine our leaders. What kind of group were the Jewish religious leaders? They were a group who devastated Heaven’s new truth. We must re-analyze today what is really controlling us, what is controlling our country’s spirit.</p>
|
||
<p>You must receive a shock that can make you burn with the new ideology that can destroy all foundations of sin in this age and can lead people to new hope. If you cannot receive such a shock in your church, then that church cannot escape the same judgment as the first Israel.</p>
|
||
<h3>Human Beings Must Meet God</h3>
|
||
<p>We must go. We must go over the idea of faith that religious people hold. Furthermore, we must go over the cross of Jesus. Beyond the cross, we must go over Jesus’ heart of resurrection. We must even go over God’s heart and comfort Him. We must advance toward that kind of position.</p>
|
||
<p>How can we stop our footsteps from heading toward that longed-for place, the place where God resides, the place where Jesus dwells, the place of the true brotherhood of humankind? Before you lies the road of ideology that we must go, no matter what on earth holds us, stepping over every obstacle. We must even lead the people who have been those obstacles into following that road.</p>
|
||
<p>Have you ever thought about God’s hard work in finding us? From the day of the fall, God always sought Adam. God never failed to follow Adam’s descendants. He has been seeking you when you did not know He was doing so. Have you ever sought God? You must know that 6,000 years of sadness and millions of people’s deaths obstructed His path. When we know the hard work of God in seeking us, we should have the same kind of heart as we in turn seek God.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus did not come to found an ideology for himself. Jesus came as the center of all people, to introduce all people to the garden of happiness and hope. Thus, he worked hard for all people, he suffered hardships for all people, he walked the road of sadness for all people. No one in heaven or earth was unrelated to Jesus’ sadness; yet he had no place to go. Nevertheless, Jesus did not lament and grieve over that situation; he left behind a new hope. Subsequently, he completed the standard of the Messiah and became the owner of pioneering a new garden of hope. We must understand this point.</p>
|
||
<p>We did not know about Jesus’ situation before now, but now we can see that Jesus passed away bearing sorrow and pain of heart. Since we now know this, we must go after Jesus, of whom human beings have let go. We must meet him. As you are filled with longing for Jesus, you should seek to meet him. Jesus fought to meet God, who had suffered for 4,000 years. Likewise, holding God’s hand, you must possess a mind filled with longing to meet the heavenly appearance that represents the 2,000 years after Jesus and the 6,000 years of history. You can meet God and Jesus, who were comforting you when you were sad, who were suffering with you when others wronged you and mistreated you. There is a hidden story behind meeting them.</p>
|
||
<p>When Jesus was passing away, he told many people many things. He said, “I will prepare a place for you in Heaven.” He promised to meet them again. We still have a way to go and a day when we can meet Jesus. Therefore, the conviction to go is not enough. We must meet that person.</p>
|
||
<p>The day we meet is the consummation of human history and the day of the second coming, in Christian terms. Therefore, you should possess a heart that longs to see the day of the second coming and a heart to march on to that day. You should go, overcoming hardships, persecution and wrongdoing and break down the gate of hell in the realm of death. The Kingdom of Heaven is a place where all conditions through which Satan can accuse us are vanquished, and everyone moves according to God’s ideal. Since the Kingdom of Heaven is a place free of all agony, if you leave behind any condition of suffering on earth, you will suffer in Heaven, to the degree of your lack of fulfillment on earth.</p>
|
||
<p>We human beings are in a situation to connect only after walking all the roads. We can connect only after walking all the historical roads that Jesus has already passed. Who are we to meet?</p>
|
||
<h3>The Responsibility of the Bride</h3>
|
||
<p>After Jesus passed away, God prepared for 2,000 years for the meeting to come. Jesus has been praying and preparing for 2,000 years from the spiritual world so that we may meet the bride of Heaven in the last days. Jesus has the responsibility of a bridegroom, and people on earth have the responsibility of a bride. Jesus has been fulfilling that responsibility in the spiritual world. We know this through the Bible.</p>
|
||
<p>How can the brides on earth meet the bridegroom? They must fulfill their responsibility. When Jesus appears on earth, he appears after having fulfilled his responsibility. Therefore, we should also fulfill our responsibility. As the reward for fulfilling Your responsibility, you will receive a gift from Heaven. Therefore, all the Christians of the world should fulfill their responsibility as the bride.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus said, “You shall witness unto me , unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) He said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 16:25)</p>
|
||
<p>We must be people who fight to keep giving, in the course of fulfilling our responsibility. That is the only way we will not be ashamed in the presence of the hearts of those who fought for the earth through historical courses, like Jesus, the bridegroom. They did not eat when they were hungry and never had a day free of anxiety and concern. Each of you must know that you can be qualified to meet Jesus only after fulfilling your responsibilities.</p>
|
||
<p>There has been no fallen person who has fulfilled the responsibility to meet God. Therefore, no one has entered the Kingdom of Heaven. Even Jesus is in Paradise. Paradise is only the anteroom to the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>What is the hope of humankind? It is to become people who can liberate the resentment of the fall and attain the appearance of people who say, “We have fulfilled all the responsibility of being human beings,” by indemnifying the conditions of Heaven’s sorrow and by going through the course of restoration. That is what Jesus has been seeking in his preparations of 2,000 years.</p>
|
||
<p>Filled with a heart of longing for Jesus, we must cleanse Jesus’ sorrowful, historical conditions in our daily lives. We must become victorious and walk with happiness through all the conditions of adversity that Jesus walked with sorrow.</p>
|
||
<p>Christians today must walk a pioneering course and be able to prevent Jesus from going to Golgotha. They should welcome Jesus from the position of having fulfilled the responsibility of accomplishing his desire by pioneering a victorious course.</p>
|
||
<p>Do we have a mind that longs for that meeting? We do not. Even if one is torn apart and faces death because of the longing with which he is filled, a group must appear which possesses a sincere heart capable of going over that situation. Only then can we have the dignity to meet Jesus, who has been trying to find us for 2,000 years.</p>
|
||
<p>We should be able to shout, “We want to see Heavenly Father! We know that Jesus’ hope was to make heaven and earth into the ideal Kingdom of Heaven. In order for that Heaven of hope to be built, there must be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, the land to establish the Kingdom of Heaven, the authority of the Kingdom of Heaven, and a leader who can wield that authority. Allow all people of this land to become citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. We want to see that.”</p>
|
||
<p>No matter how broad this land, there is no piece of land which God can claim as His own. There is no land about which Jesus can say, “This is mine.” Jesus did not have one piece of land about which he could say, “Satan can never invade this.”</p>
|
||
<p>That idea of Jesus was Heaven’s idea, and the idea of a Kingdom of Heaven to be built on earth. Because there must be people who long for and agonize over wanting to see that idea realized, wanting to become citizens of God’s kingdom, Jesus told his disciples to find those people, seek those people, and knock on their doors.</p>
|
||
<h3>We Must Fight to Build the Kingdom of Heaven</h3>
|
||
<p>As we break apart the road of resentment that remains on earth, we must have a sincere desire to see the ideal world for which Jesus yearns in his heart. Only then can we meet the substance of that ideology.</p>
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<p>After the first Israel perished, the second Israel, the Christians of the world, have worked hard to create that nation, race, land and authority, and are waiting for their leader to appear. Reality does not coincide with that ideal. There is no greater sadness than this.</p>
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<p>What is a patriot? A patriot feels miserable when he sees the citizens of his nation in pitiful situations. He feels more pain than if his body was being dismembered when he sees his land trampled upon by other nations. He feels it more keenly than the leader of his nation when he sees the leader being treated unfairly and put in a miserable position.</p>
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<p>What words are these about being brides who must meet the Prince of Heaven? We have the appearance of disloyalty, ugliness and sin and cannot even face the words. Therefore, we should have humble hearts. When we see the rights of the citizens of Heaven being infringed and Satan trampling this land, we must fight to recover them even if we die. We have a heavenly mission to restore the authority of goodness.</p>
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<p>Christians today must realize that the time has come to eradicate the criminals of this earth through the ideology of conscience. You must know the day of appearance and hope Jesus desires. If there is a human being in a nation who possesses a heart of longing to see the land of ideology and its citizens, power, and leader such as Jesus yearned for, that nation will never perish. Such a person will have the heart to say, “I want to see that heavenly nation before dust fills my eyes, before my body disappears. I want to meet the citizens of that nation in order to fulfill the will of that person who went over the crisis of the cross with a heart of forgiveness.”</p>
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<p>You must be able to say in your heart, “I want to build Heaven’s land. I want to recover the authority of goodness. I want to be loyal to Jesus.”</p>
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<p>You who have gathered here must feel, to your bone marrow, the incredible fact that our fate will come to the historical point of demanding a firm resolution as the final age becomes more imminent. That time has come. For whom do you exist? It seems that you exist for yourself, but in actuality, you do not. It seems that you exist for your family, but you do not. It seems that you exist for your nation or the world, but you do not exist for them either. We can conclude this: our families, our society, nation and our world cannot become Heaven’s ideal world as things stand now.</p>
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<p>Only by our being filled with a heart of longing and by fulfilling our responsibility can we meet the being of hope. After meeting him, how should we face him? When Mary Magdalene tried to clutch the resurrected Jesus, Jesus refused her. This is because Mary Magdalene had not gone through all the roads she was to walk and was not equipped with the offering she had to make. Jesus was telling us through that act that a person who has not fulfilled his responsibility and prepared his offering cannot appear before him. Therefore, we must prepare our offering with the victorious countenance of having walked all the roads and fought all the fights.</p>
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<p>What is this offering? You must become that offering. God will face you according to the kind of offering you have become. God will meet you according to the kind of offering you are.</p>
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<p>After going through all the roads and meeting God, what shall we do? We must receive the love of the Father. Moreover, after participating in the last marriage celebration and achieving a reunion of happiness, what shall we do? We must receive the love of the Father. This is the hope of humankind. The last project is to receive love.</p>
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<h3>The Qualifications to Become<br />
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the Owner of the Kingdom of Heaven</h3>
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<p>You must meet the hour when Heaven grants your wish gladly as you say these words: “To receive this love, I have passed through the road of death, the road of difficulties, and the road of pain. I have endeavored even to love Satan, and I have fought to hold onto a dying life, even to become an offering in place of him. I have loved the people of this earth as You, the Father, have. I have poured out my heart upon the people who desired love. Therefore, Father, please love me!”</p>
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<p>Jesus, whom you believe in, walked a road of tears for over thirty years. He crossed over the hills of sorrow and death. Then he resurrected and said to God, “Father, I have come. I have understood the Father’s heart of 4,000 years, and I have come to this place as an offering in order to introduce that shimjung. Father!” Upon hearing that, God forgot all about His own dignity, deeply lamented, and cried tears of joy. That moment was the moment of finding one’s lost child and the moment a relationship was bound between heaven and earth. Christians do not know that at that moment, God forgot His own dignity, held onto Jesus, and shed tears of sorrow and tears of joy. You also must appear in front of God and say, “I have come the way You desired. I have believed Your words of wanting to meet me and have come to meet You. Therefore, please embrace me in Your bosom of love.” You must receive the blessing as you are embraced by God’s love and as He says to you, raising His hands, “Let us live in the eternal realm of love.” Only in that way can our ideal garden of hope, that is, the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven, be concluded. The establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven starts from each individual perfecting himself in this way.</p>
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<p>Jesus fought for this ideology. Our ancestors sought this ideal. All the people who are walking the way today are going toward this goal.</p>
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<p>What is the shimjung you must unleash? You should have a longing heart and a heart of wanting to meet, but all that must pass away. That is what individuals of the fallen world have to indemnify. We must have the shimjung of wanting to receive God’s love. We must appear as one substance of eternal love, having received the love God built up from an eternity ago.</p>
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<p>In this way, when God boasts in the presence of all things, in front of all humankind and in front of Satan: “I have found sons and daughters of love,” you must be able to say, “Yes, we are the fruits of love for which You have longed. We are the owners of the garden of love that You wanted to establish.”</p>
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<p>By receiving God’s true love in mind and body without dying, you must become people to whom all things, even Satan, can testify and bow their heads, proclaiming that you are the being of hope God has sought and for which all humankind has hoped. You are the second God, Heaven’s heir, who can build the ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven and on earth and take dominion over it. Only if you do that can you become the owners of the Kingdom of Heaven and the sons and daughters of Heaven.</p>
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>When we experience Your heart, urging us on today, we cannot help realizing how weak are our bodies. When we realize, too, that the shimjung of Heaven is connected and flowing through us today, we feel deeply grateful. Father, please hold onto us. We want to go the way of the cross, with our minds and bodies becoming the offering, following Your request that we liberate Your hope, Your shimjung, and Your situation. Therefore, let us not weaken until the end. Make us go over the hill of death with a shimjung filled with a heavenly shock that penetrates the mind. Reinforce our exhaustion by allowing our connection with Heaven to be firm.</p>
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<p>Allow us to come to the ideal garden for which we have longed. To do that, we have responsibility. Therefore, let us become countenances of joy offered to You as a gift, by fulfilling all the conditions for being a surviving fruit. Make us into Your original sons and daughters whom You want to love and who can receive Your love. Let us dwell in relationships of eternal love, the life of love, and the glory of love. Let us become people whom You cannot help loving and who cannot help receiving love from You. Please lead us this way.</p>
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<p>On that account, let us not lack in any qualification to become the citizens of that nation, sons and daughters of that nation, and leaders of that nation. Let us become people of which You can be proud in front of a million satans. Allow the day when all the created world can recite a poem of ecstasy and liberation. Allow it to come quickly.</p>
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<p>We know that this is not happening in some conceptual world. We know that if this is not defined through our minds and bodies, which live on this realistic earth and through substance, we cannot finish Heaven’s ideal of creation. Therefore, let us be able to feel with our heart and practice with our actions in the whole field of mission which we take as our responsibility. Make us into sons and daughters who do not hesitate to pioneer any road of battle until the day of hope comes.</p>
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<p>Let us be able to pioneer even a difficult road to remove the remaining resentment of the cross and to welcome the hour of happiness and hope, the hour of love in which we can rejoice. We pray that even today we can live in that kind of state. We pray all these things sincerely. We pray in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/10/let-us-open-our-eyes-once-more-and-behold-the-sky.html" title="Permalink to Let Us Open Our Eyes Once More and Behold the Sky" rel="bookmark">Let Us Open Our Eyes Once More and Behold the Sky</a>
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<div class="entry-meta">
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-10T07:27:24+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/10/let-us-open-our-eyes-once-more-and-behold-the-sky.html" rel="bookmark">June 10, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-10T07:27:24+01:00">June 10, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1959.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1959</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<div class="entry-content">
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
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Former Church Headquarters<br />
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Seoul, Korea<br />
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February 15, 1959</h3>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;"><em>Matthew 26:36-46</em></h3>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="text Matt-26-36"><sup class="versenum">36 </sup>Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, <span class="woj">“Sit here while I go over there and pray.”</span></span> <span id="en-NIV-24092" class="text Matt-26-37"><sup class="versenum">37 </sup>He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.</span> <span id="en-NIV-24093" class="text Matt-26-38"><sup class="versenum">38 </sup>Then he said to them, <span class="woj">“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”</span></span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-24094" class="text Matt-26-39"><sup class="versenum">39 </sup>Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, <span class="woj">“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”</span></span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-24095" class="text Matt-26-40"><sup class="versenum">40 </sup>Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. <span class="woj">“Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?”</span> he asked Peter.</span> <span id="en-NIV-24096" class="text Matt-26-41"><span class="woj"><sup class="versenum">41 </sup>“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”</span></span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-24097" class="text Matt-26-42"><sup class="versenum">42 </sup>He went away a second time and prayed, <span class="woj">“My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”</span></span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-24098" class="text Matt-26-43"><sup class="versenum">43 </sup>When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.</span> <span id="en-NIV-24099" class="text Matt-26-44"><sup class="versenum">44 </sup>So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-24100" class="text Matt-26-45"><sup class="versenum">45 </sup>Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, <span class="woj">“Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.</span></span> <span id="en-NIV-24101" class="text Matt-26-46"><span class="woj"><sup class="versenum">46 </sup>Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”</span></span></em></p>
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<h3>
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<p>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>Father, humanity must awaken from its deep sleep and free themselves from the powers of darkness; yet, they do not. No matter what kind of obstacles block our path, please reveal Your compassionate hand to us so that we may dash toward the beacon of new light.</p>
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<p>Father, we know the historical hardships You have suffered for our sake. We also know that You mourn that dark natures lie deep within us. We must look at ourselves and grieve, as the Father has grieved over the earth.</p>
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<p>We must go beyond ourselves to pay back the debt we owe to all things, which are deep in sorrow, and comfort the Father’s grieving heart. Though we know in our hearts we must fulfill this responsibility, we have not been able to cope with it. Please forgive us.</p>
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<p>We have inherited the history of sorrow and borne the fruits of sorrow. Although the Father has tried to nurture a history of joy and the fruits of joy, we have become fruits of bitterness and lament. Of course, this has caused deep sorrow and anguish in the Father’s heart. How could it not?</p>
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<p>We are pitiful ones who need to be scrutinized and molded again by the work of re-creation. Father, please have pity on us and take us in as Your own. Remold us with Your ideology. Please re-make our minds and bodies according to the original laws of creation, so that we may possess the original beauty of Heaven. This is Heaven’s desire, too.</p>
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<p>Please allow us to penetrate the walls of sorrow to see the bright morning light, to sing the victory song of hallelujah, to sing of the joy of having found the Lord and Creator of the entire universe, and to rejoice in attending the Father. Please allow us to feel true longing and true pride toward all created things.</p>
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<p>We know that since the human fall, all things have mourned, lamented and hoped to be restored to their original position by the true sons and daughters of God. When we think about our mission to comfort the Father and restore all things to their original position, we must honestly report our inadequacies to the Father. Please forgive us for having to await, longingly, the arduous work of the Father.</p>
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<p>We know that, even in this manner, we must help fulfill the wishes of the Father and all of Your creation to end the 6,000 years of lamentation and grief. Father of compassion and love, please do not let our hearts deviate far from You. Please lead us not to live far from Your sung sang and hyung sang.</p>
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<p>We know that there is a bond within us which can connect us with the Father’s mind and body because You created us. We are not worth even a small speck of dust. Please guide us into the domain of Your original power and raise us again in the ideal way.</p>
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<p>Please allow us to become sons and daughters who can be proud and dignified in the presence of the Father. Please allow us to become bright lights for the dark world and little lambs who can convey the news of joy to this dark world, representing the light from the East.</p>
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<p>We know that the Father can raise insignificant people and overpower the great. We know that You can strengthen a small group and build a great nation from them. We know that You can raise pitiful people to the point where You can boast of them before the previously chosen ones. Please raise us as Your proud embodiments. We are extremely pitiful and have no place to call our own.</p>
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<p>We know that You will raise us as You will. Father, we earnestly wish that You allow us to become the little lambs who can obey the Father’s commands and follow You with faithful and obedient hearts.</p>
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<p>In this way, please eliminate the remaining sorrow and probe into the fundamental nature of the sins which have penetrated deep inside the hearts of all people. Please uproot the sorrow, and then raise us as the glorious foundation of Heaven. Please train us as the workers who can fully cope with this mission.</p>
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<p>Please govern the minds and bodies of the children who have gathered here. Is there some private opinion in the hearts of these people? Do they have a desire to live according to their own concepts? Please remove all concepts, and allow them to have thoughts that can connect with Heaven. Please allow this hour to be a time when we can harmonize in the Father’s love, experience deep feelings, and become united and connected with our original selves.</p>
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<p>Many millions of satans, wielding the dark forces, are watching us. Father, we entreat from the depth of our hearts that You not let anyone be captured inside the realm of darkness.</p>
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<p>Please govern this hour. We earnestly wish that You quickly usher in the day of liberation to these members, these people, and humanity. Please give us the strength to accomplish all our missions and responsibilities. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>Father, every time a sad event takes place on the earth, Heaven mourns, our ancestors mourn, all things mourn, and we feel the same sorrow. Father, you have spent 6,000 years in fruitless wandering and struggling, unable to find that for which You were looking or a place to go, wishing all the while for the day of liberation from this sorrow. If You were to appear before us now, we would feel like crying endlessly.</p>
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<p>Now we understand everything and have come seeking the original Parents. We wish, from the depth of our beings, for the day to come when we can shed tears of joy, rather than tears of sorrow-when we can cry for heaven and earth with such intensity as to even forget our existence. We wait for the day when we can remove all sorrows and leave only joy behind.</p>
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<p>We have realized where we must go, where we belong, and how we originally were to be. We have come to understand the value of the lost children; yet, the cries of sorrow and sinfulness that come from our mistakes are so loud, we cannot even hear the words of the Father, which we want to hear. We are sad because we realize we are powerless to vanquish all these evil forces.</p>
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<p>Father, we are dashing toward restoration. We are dragging our wounded legs and climbing the pinnacle for which Adam and Eve hoped. Please spur us on so that we may apply our last ounce of energy and cross over the barrier. Please let us feel this through our minds and bodies.</p>
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<p>Father, please be with us today. We know that if there is something about which You want to talk to us, it is not about Your happiness, but rather about Your miserable sorrow and how enormously difficult and painful it has been for You. Please let us fathom and feel this gripping in our hearts, and allow us to represent the original heart of the Father.</p>
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<p>How must Heaven have felt after losing human beings? Please allow us to understand this heart and situation, during this hour. Please guide us to become one with the words that are coming from the depth of one who understands the situation of Heaven. Father, this is our earnest wish.</p>
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<p>Please let the hearts of the speaker and the hearts of the listeners be one, so that only the Father’s will may be manifested in us all. Please do not let Satan invade this hour. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<p>The title of the sermon I would like to share with you is <i>“Let Us Open Our Eyes Once More and Behold the Sky.”</i> I will speak briefly upon this topic.</p>
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<h3>The Results of the Fall,<br />
|
||
the Ignorance of Adam and Eve,<br />
|
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and the Wishes of God</h3>
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<p>This land in which we live has not seen the new morning of the realization of God’s ideal of creation. It has slept under the power of Satan for a long time. This is how our history has been. This is how our minds have been, how all that we pursue and the hearts we seek have been. In other words, none can wake from the deep sleep in which they exist, within the realm of Satan. We understand this fact very well.</p>
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<p>When God created Adam and Eve and blessed them, they were wide awake, and they were able to rejoice with God in the world of eternal ideology. God created Adam and Eve for this purpose. However, Adam and Eve could not grasp what kind of relationship they had with God and the ideology with which they should relate with all things. In this state of immaturity, when they were progressing toward perfection, they made the grave and sorrowful mistake of the fall. We all understand this.</p>
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<p>God said to Adam and Eve, “When you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) He also said, “Become the master of creation and the ruler of the universe.” If their hearts had become one with the heart of God as they listened to His words, the fall would never have taken place.</p>
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<p>There was considerable distance between the hearts of Adam and Eve and the heart of God. Adam and Eve could only connect with the heart of God by going through the period of growth and accomplishing the purpose of the word. If Adam and Eve had thought about and reflected upon the words of God every time they saw all things and the angels, then they would not have fallen. Had they thought about God and His heart with an awareness of their position and with enlightened hearts, they would have been able to discern the nature of the archangel’s words.</p>
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<p>Adam and Eve should have always lived in the word and heart of God. When they did not live like that, the archangel tempted them.</p>
|
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<p>Heaven always watches over us, whether we are asleep or awake. Even when we do not understand our value, Heaven understands and looks over us. When we do not understand our mission and responsibility, Heaven understands them.</p>
|
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<p>Furthermore, God understood the value of living eternally centered on the deeply penetrating love in the realm of the eternally inseparable parent-child relationship. With this mind-set, God looked upon Adam and Eve. Yet Adam and Eve did not fathom the heart of God, and they fell. They fell not understanding their identity, not understanding what they should do and uphold, and not understanding what they should love.</p>
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<p>If God has grief inside, it is that Adam and Eve did not recognize Him, their Creator and Protector. He was with them every second. They did not understand the heart of God, who was waiting for them to grow to a certain purpose. Because the human ancestors could not forge the vertical bond with Heaven, their descendants were ignorant of God and ignorant of their position. They did not understand to whom they belonged and what their identity was.</p>
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<p>Because they did not understand God who protected them, who took responsibility for them and watched over them, they did not know what they should do, what they should pursue and what they should protect. Furthermore, although God was hoping to join in oneness with human beings, because they did not understand, we still do not know our purpose. We have searched for the path to love for 6,000 years.</p>
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<h3>What Human Beings Must Know, Realize and Experience</h3>
|
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<p>The fall took place because God’s thinking and human beings’ thinking were diametrically opposed. Thus, we must cultivate ourselves and reflect upon ourselves. We must reflect upon and recover ourselves. Because human beings have this obligation, countless philosophers and religious people have sought to resolve this issue, without much success. We understand this very well. In other words, who am “I”?</p>
|
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<p>If human beings necessarily live in relationships, then who is the subject of these relationships? If there is a master of our lives, who is it? It is someone about whom we would say, “Only that person can represent my entire being, my thoughts and my life. I cannot live without him.” The day we recognize that person, we will understand God, the unchanging Master, who has been fighting to hold on to us through the long course of history. From that moment, everything will go smoothly. We came from the one Master, so we will understand what the Creator God has entrusted in us and what He has been struggling to govern.</p>
|
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<p>God blessed human beings to have dominion over all things. Why did He give this blessing? Why did God not rule creation directly, rather than intending to rule it through human beings? This is to allow human beings to understand the heart with which God created all things in the universe.</p>
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<p>Adam and Eve would have experienced the joyful feelings of love and beauty which God felt when He created all things. They would have experienced this in relation to how much they understood the ownership of God, kept the word of God, and recognized all things. They should have then loved all things and rejoiced before them as the representatives of God. However, they turned away from this responsibility of experiencing God’s heart of creation. Instead, due to Satan’s temptation, they felt feelings they were not supposed to feel. We should know that when they made this wrong turn into an impermissible place, they fell.</p>
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<p>Since we are the descendants of fallen Adam and Eve, we have become people who cannot feel the joyful, creative heart of God as we look at the universe. Therefore, we must rehabilitate ourselves and serve only one master. We must then deeply experience the heart of God, who blessed us to have dominion over all things in the Garden of Eden. We must learn to step forward with this kind of heart. Unless we become this kind of person, there is no way we can alleviate the grief that Adam and Eve caused when they fell.</p>
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<p>Have you ever felt and experienced in your heart and in your daily life the kind of heart with which God created all things? If you have, then you will be overwhelmed with emotions of love toward all things. You will hear the words God has spoken loud and clear.</p>
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<p>Adam and Eve should have related to all things with the same joyful heart of God at the time of His creation. Adam and Eve, who should have opened their eyes once again and looked toward the sky, did not experience the heart of God.</p>
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<h3>What We Must Safeguard and Possess</h3>
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<p>Adam and Eve’s intellect and wisdom were not developed. This is why they made the mistake they did and could not feel the heart of God deeply. Even so, had they lived by the word of God in everything they did and felt in their lives, they would have overcome all temptations that came their way.</p>
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<p>Adam and Eve did not know the purpose of God, who granted them the authority to govern all things. They did not long for what would come as the result of their successful obedience of the word. If their longing expectation of what would happen after they kept the word of God had dominated and guided their lives, if they had not forgotten their knowledge of life and their feelings in daily life, then Adam and Eve would not have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.</p>
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<p>Adam and Eve did not have any such yearning, so the words of the archangel seemed more important than the word of God. This is where the sorrow of humanity began. This is the beginning point of the long sleep in the darkness.</p>
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<p>If at some point Adam and Eve had opened their eyes again and remembered the commandment of God, if they had sensed the greatness of the blessing God gave them to dominate all things in relation to the temptation of the archangel, they would not have fallen. This became the origin of all the vicissitudes which humanity has undergone. Hence, we must work to find ourselves, make an effort to find our responsibility and think about what we will become.</p>
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<p>Had Adam grown up and cultivated the heart to govern all things, what would have been achieved? There would have been a complete bonding of the inseparable relationships of the whole through the unity between the love of Adam and Eve, the love of all things, and the love of God.</p>
|
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<p>However, because we lost all these, we lament today. We are living in this sinful world with deep grudges against it. We have been ignorant of the true value and purpose of life and have been enslaved by Satan. We have been struggling painfully in the realm of the dark forces, where we cannot even fathom the value of death.</p>
|
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<p>You must overcome this environment, open your eyes, and experience a fundamental change in your heart in order to recognize God once more. There must spring from within you a desperate and sincere heart. There must arise from within your heart a new realization about your life. Unless these things take place, you will not be able to take pride in your value. This is because no other value has to do with Heaven. No matter how proud you are of your authority or life, it cannot forge any relationship with Heaven. Everything will be in vain.</p>
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<p>Therefore, we must re-analyze the words of the archangel and not repeat the mistakes of Adam and Eve, who did not behold God. We must correct ourselves through self-examination and open our eyes again. From that moment on, our true self can blossom.</p>
|
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<p>Because we have not opened our new eyes, the universe has fallen into the abyss of sorrow, misfortune and despair inherited from the fall. There is nothing more sad or infuriating than this fact. Although we should be working toward alleviating this sorrow and indignation, people do not even know how this sorrow and indignation came about. They are completely at a loss. Though people are pitiful, how much more miserable is God as He watches over this situation?</p>
|
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<p>In the last days, it is the fate of fallen people to examine and recognize everything in a new light. The purpose of history and human life is to attain the day when we recognize everything and open our eyes, the joyful day when we discover our new selves, the moment we can connect with the entire universe as a new self and forge an inseparable bond of love with God. People have been struggling to attain this, even though they were not aware of it.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Reason We Must Open Our Eyes Again<br />
|
||
and Look to Heaven</h3>
|
||
<p>We must open our eyes again. We must open our eyes again and look to Heaven. When we lift our gaze and look toward Heaven, we will feel awe-stricken. Heaven never forgot human beings, who are deep in sleep and lamenting before the death they face, all the while struggling to find the path in the world of death. Heaven has thought about humanity, which has betrayed Him, many thousands of times. You will fathom this and feel the heart of God, who loves human beings. The moment you realize that Heaven really exists, you will cry out of mixed emotions of sorrow and gratitude.</p>
|
||
<p>How many times has Heaven looked at us while protecting our lives! Heaven has been watching over us through our life course, our ideological conditions, and our desires, even while we were not aware of it. Do you understand the sorrow of God? Have you ever felt the misery that by far surpasses our misery and sadness? If you have not, you will not be able to bring resolution to all this in these last days of the 6,000-year history. It is not possible. The fundamental problems of humanity cannot be solved before humanity shatters all these walls and experiences the heart of God after returning to the original position of Adam. This is how it is.</p>
|
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<p>We must open our eyes again and look at God, in whom we believe. We must look at Jesus again. We must look again at the countless good ancestors who came with the mission of God’s providence of restoration. While reviewing history, we must reflect on this again and think about what will happen as we look at the future with deep concern. If you do not feel like crying out bitterly, “Heaven!” as you open up your eyes and look, your hopes will be dashed.</p>
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<p>Why are the paths of modern people blocked? Even the religious leaders who founded religions and guided people’s lives could not solve these fundamental problems and came to a dead end. Both philosophy and science have come to dead ends. What is the reason for this? It is because they did not open their eyes.</p>
|
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<p>Since we cannot bring resolution with anything we currently have, we must forsake them all and look to Heaven once more. Those who have an earnest desire to look to Heaven and seek it, those who mourn with this desire to look up, and those who die cherishing this desire are the ones who can lay the cornerstone for the conclusion of human history.</p>
|
||
<p>A person concerned about the fate of his declining nation must not shout out for the sake of the people. First, he must cry out for the sake of Heaven, then he should shout out for the sake of the people. This is when the people will revive. History bears witness to this fact.</p>
|
||
<p>The moment we chase away the world, where we cannot find a solution even after ardent struggle, the moment when we return to the state of the original mind and open our eyes in the state of complete void is the moment when a new history is created and new life begins. It is the moment of re-creation when we can find our true selves.</p>
|
||
<p>We must understand that Jesus struggled to find Heaven as he prayed. Therefore, during the thirty-year preparation period, he could never express joy, even when his brothers and sisters or neighbors and relatives were happy. He saw that there was a huge gap between what Heaven wanted and where humanity was heading. The greater the gap he saw, the more firm his determination became.</p>
|
||
<p>Though he had many things to say, Jesus lived in silence. This was the grief of the thirty-year preparation period. After this thirty-year preparation period was over, he left his family and went forth as a pioneer. He went forward with the mind-set, “I will go even in the face of death, even if the path is fatiguing, even if I am to meet my downfall.” With this determination, he was able to overcome his environment.</p>
|
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<h3>Jesus’ Attitude toward His Life</h3>
|
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<p>Adam fell because he believed everything that someone told him from the side. If we accept conventional trends of thought, then we may also perish. Therefore, we must re-examine them before we receive them. If you stand in the position of a master who can analyze trends through the philosophy connected to your mind, life and emotions, which philosophy can rescue you? No school of thought can rescue you. Had such fundamental problems been solved, peace would have settled in the realm of heart within you, and there would have been joy in your living environment. You would have enjoyed freedom and equality. No matter how many doctrines are promoting their ideals, we know that there has been no doctrine which has liberated our hearts, emotions and ideologies.</p>
|
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<p>When we hope for the one day when we look up and wake from sleep, when we do away with our present environment and look to Heaven, we will find our Lord there. Human beings have not understood this until now.</p>
|
||
<p>What kind of people pursued the will of God during the course of history? They are those who transcended their era and clung to Heaven, those who abandoned earth and yearned for Heaven. They were not tolerated by their era. Rejected by their era, they led a pitiful life. They were extremely miserable people. In this world, where other people have places to rely on and live comfortably, they had nowhere they could depend on, no friend with which to share their heart, no people of similar mind who could give their lives and fight for them. In this sad state, they all faded away.</p>
|
||
<p>The young man who came 4,000 years after the fall, the young Jesus, discredited his era, his environment, and the religions up to his time to save all people. What did this young man promote? He promoted the will of God, about which humankind was ignorant.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus cherished the will of God, and knew that what he experienced in reality could be the reference for the comprehensive ideology. Hence, even when the world betrayed him, Jesus overcame it and looked at his new self, his new family, society, nation and world with a new attitude. He was able to look confidently at the new ideology. Moreover, because he understood that its value was higher and more precious than anything else in his world, he was not affected at all by the betrayal of Israel and Judaism. Even when society, his family, a famous scholar, a chief priest or scribe opposed him, no matter what kinds of difficulties and tribulations confronted him from all sides, Jesus remained immutable. He only lifted his gaze again and said, “God!” This was the principle by which he led his life.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus felt infinite sorrow over the environment around him, which denied him. Realizing that God was also grieving over his situation, he felt deeply sorry. Jesus felt blocked by a wall of sorrow toward the people who had repeatedly betrayed God and who had ostracized the many prophets and sages God had sent to establish him.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, Jesus felt that his death was nothing compared to the grief of God, who had lamented and fought for the sake of humanity. This is why Jesus was able to deny himself and bow down before the heart of God.</p>
|
||
<p>This is where a new awakening of humanity and a new beginning of the second selves came about. Humanity was able to meet the spring of life through Jesus. Humanity had been sleeping in sorrow and darkness for 4,000 years. Had they believed in Jesus, they would have been able to greet the new spring and revive their lives.</p>
|
||
<h3>We Should Possess the Insight and Level of Heart<br />
|
||
with which to Recognize the Messiah</h3>
|
||
<p>Today, 2,000 years after the coming of Jesus, everyone who lived for Heaven was attached to his life. There was no one who did not feel sorrow springing from within. Yet, they sensed the sorrow and the torn life of their Lord more than their attachment to their life and sorrow. Our ancestors denied all they had and followed the heart which guided them toward Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>Where has the providential course of Heaven, stained with the ancestors’ blood, sweat and tears, gone? It has progressed alongside the course of human history. Where will the last days of history lead us? If at the close of the providence a person appears who can become the sacrifice of blood, tears and sweat for the sake of the whole, who proclaims, “Heaven, please receive me,” then that person is the Savior of the last days. He is the Savior of life.</p>
|
||
<p>If such a person takes charge of the providence, he will appear on the earth with heavenly conditions and represent Heaven’s heart. When you face that prophet, even if you do not understand his heavenly heart and character, you must deny the practical reality and behold him with a fresh perspective. You must open your eyes and be able to see and distinguish the value and character of that person. If you cannot do this, then even if Jesus were to come to the earth, you would not recognize him.</p>
|
||
<p>Moses, who stood before the 600,000 Israelites, had grown up in the palace of Pharaoh and had been a shepherd raising a flock of sheep in the Midian wilderness. If you look at that background alone, Moses had no special value which distinguished him from others in the world. However, when Moses appeared after having cultivated a heavenly heart and character, the Israelite people should have opened their eyes and beheld him. Because they did not do so, even though they followed Moses, they still fell down in the wilderness. The same was true during Jesus’ day. It also true, today, in the last days of history.</p>
|
||
<p>You must liquidate the sinful history starting from within yourselves. If you make a negative contribution to history, you will go to hell. If you make a positive contribution, you will go to Heaven. Moreover, when we compare the era to you, if the era is greater than you, you will go to hell. If you are greater than the era, then you will go to Heaven. This is how it works.</p>
|
||
<p>Human beings, who have been guided by the fortunes of the universe, must restore the day when they can control these fortunes. God has been working through the long 6,000-year history with His gaze firmly fixed on such a day. The 6,000-year course of God’s providence of restoration has been an attempt to find one brave person who can remove the sorrow of being dragged about by the fortunes of Heaven and can control them.</p>
|
||
<p>We who have the mission to renew this must acquire a second eye. We must sense our second life, find our second ideology, cultivate our second character, and take pride in them. Only when a person appears who can raise you and wish blessings for you on behalf of the fortunes of the universe, can the 6,000-year providence come to a close. Moreover, this will set the condition for God to receive glory.</p>
|
||
<p>When we reflect on Jesus, who prayed in the garden of Gethsemane with his three disciples, we find that he was brave amid miserable circumstances. He wanted to move the heart of God through the heart of heaven and earth and through his own heart. The garden of Gethsemane was the place where he offered such prayers. Jesus should have moved the heart of humanity to unify heaven and earth, heavenly love, and earthly love. He had to make a connection only with heavenly love, because he was ostracized in respect to the love of human beings and was driven out of the earth. The garden of Gethsemane was where that connection was made. Although the three disciples, representing humankind, were with him, the heart of Jesus and the hearts of Peter and the other two disciples were different.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus, who yearned for heavenly love and beheld Heaven before his imminent death, fixed his gaze on the glory of resurrection beyond the valley of death. The disciples, who had selfish mentalities, could not understand the heart of Jesus. These kinds of incidents took place many times. They were indeed shameful people. These are the deeds of our ancestors, who betrayed Heaven.</p>
|
||
<h3>What Will Remain in the End</h3>
|
||
<p>Our ancestors betrayed Jesus. He was our True Parent, our Lord, our bridegroom, the master of our ideology, the subject of our lives, and the incarnation of Heaven who represented the entire universe. Have you ever felt deep inside that you are the descendants of these ancestors and felt bitter about these historical personalities?</p>
|
||
<p>When the disciples could not raise their eyes and look at Heaven, Jesus turned his attention toward them many times during his prayer. Jesus felt so incredibly urgent and anxious as he warned them about trials. With this mind-set, Jesus called upon God. Feeling the heart of God and forgetting himself, he thought about his beloved disciples and looked at them many times. However, the three disciples were dozing off, totally unaware of Jesus’ heart. You have to understand that this situation not only indicated the state of the three disciples, it also exposed the internal situation of all humanity.</p>
|
||
<p>You are not aware of the brave, weeping voice crying out loud and clear from the garden of Gethsemane. This voice is telling you to lift your gaze and look again, yet you do not hear. It is shaking the body and striking the head to awaken sleeping humanity; yet, they do not know. There is no one on earth who understands the grievous heart of God as He works hard for the one blessed day when He can raise humanity as His sons and daughters.</p>
|
||
<p>As the original sons and daughters who can uphold the good philosophy of life, you must repair the nail wounds in the heart of Heaven, uproot the historical sorrows, and become the harbringers of love and the media of harmony on behalf of all things and the universe. You must become people about whom God can say, “You are my pride, my beloved, and the highest source and standard of happiness.”</p>
|
||
<p>God is looking at you with this kind of expectation. When you lift your eyes and look to God, do you find that you have set the foundation for resurrection? God created all things and commanded Adam and Eve to rule them because He wanted them to experience being second creators. You must experience such feelings. Whenever you look at all things, you must sense the skill with which God created the universe and the effort He made in doing so. You must experience the heart He felt as He rejoiced over the created things.</p>
|
||
<p>You must find the unifying point with the heart of Heaven and the universe and become their embodiment, in order to offer everything to Heaven. The moment you do, that is the final destination that Heaven and we desire. It is the culminating point for which both Heaven and we human beings have yearned. It is you, not God, who must bring this to pass.</p>
|
||
<p>What will remain in the end? Qualified people who have connected with the love of heaven and earth and who have cultivated a new original heart inside the realm of God’s love will remain. Here we can witness the new people God has permitted. Having reached the state of original perfected Adam and Eve, we can become new people whom God can bless with both hands. Hence, you must become the heads of new families built in the new heaven and new earth. You must become new parents of a new universe and new children. Such a family must be formed around you.</p>
|
||
<p>God has passed through the course of history during which He watched over human beings countless times. Where will be the final destination of history? It is in the one family where God and human beings can live eternally, where human beings are made into the true children of God. In that family, based on God’s love, every member and every created being is indispensable. You have to understand that God has longed for such a family.</p>
|
||
<p>We do not own ourselves. Our lives do not belong to us. The society in which we live does not belong to us. The nation in which we live does not belong to us, and the world in which we live does not belong to us. The God in whom we believe also does not belong to us alone. Now you must lift your eyes and set out toward Heaven in search of your second selves. This is what the faithful people of the last days must do.</p>
|
||
<h3>What Heaven Wants of<br />
|
||
the Faithful People in the Last Days</h3>
|
||
<p>Attending the True Parents of humanity, you must alleviate all grievous situations, sorrows and grudges. Your heart must completely become one with the heart of the True Parents. You must thus become the incarnation of joy, every part of which is overflowing. In this way, the True Parents must be able to say to you, “You are my beloved. You are my joy. You are my goodness and happiness.”</p>
|
||
<p>When we reflect upon ourselves and our many sorrows, we have been so miserable that we can hardly say we have been living like people. Now we should no longer be lost in agonizing thoughts. We should become new, second selves who can dance in joy, bliss and glory. If such an event does not take place on the earth, God will truly be a miserable God.</p>
|
||
<p>Our fate compels us to deny ourselves and be recognized anew. However, the earth on which we live and our earthly lives have not borne heavenly fruits. Hence, even if the world, your friends, your parents, your spouses, your children and everything on the earth were to leave, your earnest heart which looks to Heaven must tell you not to leave.</p>
|
||
<p>Are you going to remain unchanged as God is unchanging? Are you going to cling tenaciously to the heavenly bond and bonds of blessing with the determination that you will bear the fruits on the earth, even at the cost of your lives? Do you have the desire to attain the love of God, even if your hearts are torn apart and you are made sacrifices of Satan in the process? Have you struggled vehemently with the hope and desire that the heart to drive away fallen conditions will remain within you? Have you become someone whom God has sought? Have you become someone who can be presented before Heaven? Have you become someone who can be proud before heaven and earth? You must be able to say, “Heaven, please come down. Humanity, please look at me. All things, please dance in rejoicing.”</p>
|
||
<p>Using yourselves as the condition, you must alleviate the bitterness of heaven, earth and all things, and remove all sorrow rooted deep in the cosmos. You should then sing on behalf of Heaven, earth and the universe. Moreover, you must be able to ask God, “Please allow only a sincere and loyal heart to remain within us,” so that you may command Satan. You must be able to say, “Only someone who possesses such a heart should be allowed to be the Lord of history. Only that person should influence the history of humanity. Only that heart should be the signpost of hope for our descendants.” You have to understand that you have the mission to pass down such a heart.</p>
|
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<p>Jesus has fought for the sake of this ideal, and our ancestors also fought for it. God has been awakening the people who live inside the realm of darkness for the sake of this ideal.</p>
|
||
<p>Who will penetrate the walls of historical misfortunes and, with the heart of Heaven, awaken the hearts of the people who are fast asleep? Who will awaken their own sleeping self and introduce the exploding heart of God’s love? It is none other than you, who appear so unworthy. Therefore, even if you are chased out, driven away and cruelly persecuted, you must always remember that you are the spearhead who must make the connection with this mission.</p>
|
||
<p>We have been called before heaven, earth and all things with this responsibility. Hence, we must accomplish our mission and responsibility to alleviate the bitter sorrow of heaven and earth. As the new hope of heaven and earth, you must make it possible for God to forget all grief and look at you with a joyful heart. You must become someone whom humanity can behold with delight; someone whom all things can behold with joy. You must achieve harmony.</p>
|
||
<p>This is the garden of the ideal, the original Kingdom of Heaven. The place where people join in harmony and unite around the one ideal is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. God has been seeking us and awakening us countless times to introduce this. However, we have forgotten it, so we must remember this sorrow and ardently strive to find our new second selves in order to take responsibility for this.</p>
|
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
|
||
<blockquote><p>We must lift our gaze and look to Heaven. Although our eyes have become extremely dim, we must constantly look for something to appear. We must look at everything in history since the time of Adam.</p>
|
||
<p>These things have made it impossible for us to find the center of life and the standard of our thoughts. Please allow us to have the heart with which to overcome them and look to Heaven, the heart which can transcend human love and be embraced by Heaven’s love. Please let us recognize that we are struggling in bitter grudges held against the earth, Heaven and all things, and let us set out in search of our second selves, craving our second selves. Please allow us to have an anxious heart, which makes it unbearable for us to leave the matter unresolved.</p>
|
||
<p>We are the ones who must govern and protect the original garden which we lost. We are the ones who must make bonds of love with all things and offer them together to the Father. We are the ones who bear the responsibility to make the Father’s flowers of love blossom through the heart with which the Father created the universe.</p>
|
||
<p>Father of love, we earnestly ask that You awaken humanity, who are fast asleep without having taken even one step forward, and that You raise them to become people who can greet the glorious new morning and open their eyes toward the sky.</p>
|
||
<p>Please allow us to become people who can open our eyes again to look to Heaven and feel new willpower springing up before world history. Please allow us to tie the new ideology and the new heart together and to move the new tribe. Father, this is our sincere prayer.</p>
|
||
<p>If there are such people and such a nation, then let the world become connected to Heaven through them. Please protect the Korean people, so that they will not despair in their present miserable situation.</p>
|
||
<p>We understand that what lies ahead of us is the historical valley of misfortune, which will require us to reject everything and lift our eyes again. We Koreans have the greatest amount of undesirable things to be discarded. We cannot boast about our politics or religion, and there is nothing in our possession with which we can go forward. We live in an environment which we must abandon. Please guide us not to cling to them, but let us open our eyes toward Heaven. We know that You have blocked our path so that we may set out toward the new destination which humanity cannot behold. Please guide us not to despair, to forget all our fatigue, and to persistently move forward each day.</p>
|
||
<p>We know that only when such people appear, who can open their eyes and look to Heaven, can this earth regain its life and this world live. Please permit us to become those people.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane with the heart of someone who was destitute. He felt as if he had lost his parents, his brothers and sisters, his nation and the world. Please allow us to feel the same heart and possess Heaven only after experiencing the feelings of having lost everything. Because the bonds must be made on the earth, Jesus resurrected after he died. We know that Jesus had the responsibility to set the condition of bonds on the earth.</p>
|
||
<p>Even if we are to lose everything of the earth and to fall down with the heavenly standard and nothing else, please allow us to march toward the one day when the hope of Jesus, the hope of Heaven, and the hope of humanity can be realized on the earth through us. Please allow us to dash toward that day every day, every year, for the remaining days of our lives. Wishing this most sincerely, we pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/10/let-us-understand-god-who-wanted-to-be-proud.html" title="Permalink to Let Us Understand God, Who Wanted to be Proud" rel="bookmark">Let Us Understand God, Who Wanted to be Proud</a>
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</h2>
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<div class="entry-meta">
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-10T07:26:02+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/10/let-us-understand-god-who-wanted-to-be-proud.html" rel="bookmark">June 10, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-10T07:26:02+01:00">June 10, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1959.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1959</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<div class="entry-content">
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
|
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
|
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Former Church Headquarters<br />
|
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Seoul, Korea<br />
|
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February 8, 1959</h3>
|
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<h3 style="text-align: center;"><em>Genesis 1:24-31</em></h3>
|
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<div class="list top-05" style="text-align: center;">
|
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<p class="hang-2"><em><span id="en-NIV-24" class="text Gen-1-24"><sup class="versenum">24 </sup>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.</span> <span id="en-NIV-25" class="text Gen-1-25"><sup class="versenum">25 </sup>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.</span></em></p>
|
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<p class="left-2 first-line-1"><em><span id="en-NIV-26" class="text Gen-1-26"><sup class="versenum">26 </sup>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,<sup class="footnote" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; top: 0px;" data-fn="#fen-NIV-26a" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NIV-26a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]">[<a title="See footnote a" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1:24-31#fen-NIV-26a">a</a>]</sup> and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”</span></em></p>
|
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</div>
|
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<div class="poetry top-05" style="text-align: center;">
|
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<p class="line"><em><span id="en-NIV-27" class="text Gen-1-27"><sup class="versenum">27 </sup>So God created mankind in his own image,</span></em><br />
|
||
<em><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Gen-1-27">in the image of God he created them;</span></span></em><br />
|
||
<em><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Gen-1-27">male and female he created them.</span></span></em></p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<div class="list top-05">
|
||
<p class="left-2 first-line-1" style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-28" class="text Gen-1-28"><sup class="versenum">28 </sup>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.”</span></em></p>
|
||
<p class="left-2 first-line-1" style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-29" class="text Gen-1-29"><sup class="versenum">29 </sup>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.</span> <span id="en-NIV-30" class="text Gen-1-30"><sup class="versenum">30 </sup>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.</span></em></p>
|
||
<p class="left-2 first-line-1" style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-31" class="text Gen-1-31"><sup class="versenum">31 </sup>God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.</span></em></p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<h3>
|
||
<p>Prayer</h3>
|
||
<blockquote><p>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.</p>
|
||
<p>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.</p>
|
||
<p>Because our ancestors betrayed the Father, the history of sorrow that provokes great indignation in our hearts has come into being. Please guide us to reflect on this, so we will not commit the miserable mistake of increasing the Father’s sadness. Rather, please allow us to cope with the sorrow of Adam, Eve and Jesus.</p>
|
||
<p>Please do not allow our minds and bodies to stop at their limits. Please allow our minds to represent the Father’s mind and our bodies to represent the Father’s hyung sang. Please allow us to bear witness to the Father, who is deeply sorrowful. Guide us to call upon the Father during this hour.</p>
|
||
<p>Although we are shameful, please lead us to become those who can understand the internal heart of the Father, who has sought us and raised us. Although we are inadequate, we hope to become one with the Father in our minds and bodies. Please extend Your arms of compassion and cast the light of love. Please establish us as Your elite troops. Allow us to fight against Satan as Your sons and daughters.</p>
|
||
<p>We know that in the 2,000-year course of history since the coming of Jesus, our ancestors failed to fulfill their obligations toward Heaven and caused many prophets to shed blood. Please allow us to feel indignant about these facts and to be able to take responsibility for their sins and mistakes, repenting for them. Please forgive everything.</p>
|
||
<p>We have learned of the crimes which our ancestors committed. Please guide us to establish the standard of life the Father seeks. Allow us to become Your sons and daughters who can step forward as the embodiments of the original Adam and Eve.</p>
|
||
<p>We know that many millions of satans are watching us in our surroundings today. Please guide us through our path and allow us to make the internal and external preparations to defeat these satans. Beloved Father, this is our deepest wish.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, please establish the standard of victory and manifest Your glory in this moment. If there are some who fall asleep, please wake them. Beloved Father, we sincerely wish that You will take care of them personally, and that You will not let the myriad satans invade. Please guide us to resemble Your heart during this hour. Please allow us to experience the Father’s indignant heart. Beloved Father, we earnestly wish You to unite us with Your desperate heart and lead us to hope only for Your guidance and instructions.</p>
|
||
<p>Please give blessing upon the many altars gathering on behalf of the people. We know that there are many lonely children of Yours scattered across the countryside who are appealing to You with desperate hearts. Father, please give blessings to them and work with them with the same grace. We pray from the depth of our hearts that You grant them the miracle of resurrection which will enable them to fulfill their internal mission.</p>
|
||
<p>We have entrusted everything to the Father in this hour. Please govern it from beginning to end. We offer all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>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.”</p>
|
||
<h3>God Is Looking for Things of which He can be Proud</h3>
|
||
<p>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.</p>
|
||
<p>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.</p>
|
||
<p>Nonetheless, God did not have anyone who understood the value of His words and related with the creation in the same way. When we think about this, we can see that God’s heart of love toward all created things contained a deep sorrow within it. Originally, God wanted to boast about His good creation. We have to understand this.</p>
|
||
<p>For this reason, the title of the sermon I want to give to you today is “Let Us Understand God, Who Wanted to be Proud.”</p>
|
||
<p>After creating Adam and Eve, God wanted them to rule the developing creation and realize His words in the ideal realm of goodness. We must think about how God was looking at Adam and Eve with the hope that the day would come when He could take pride in them and in the rest of creation.</p>
|
||
<p>God yearned in His heart for the day when Adam and Eve would reach perfection, emerge as His representatives and rule all things. God must have hoped for the historic moment when He could brag about the creation He had made over such a long time. Furthermore, God longed for the day when He could say to Adam and Eve that they were one with Him, copies of His internal Sung sang and external Hyung sang, capable of sharing all the joys and pleasures of life with God. We must learn to fathom such a heart of Heaven today. Our ancestors fell because they could not understand the heart of God. We know this fact very well.</p>
|
||
<p>After the creation of the universe, God longed for the appearance of the person and family in whom He could take pride. Yet because of the fall, the very basis for that was shattered. The basis for God’s pride became the cause of His grief. We must remember that it is our historical responsibility to penetrate into this desire to be proud, which is hidden deep inside the Sung sang of God. We must reveal this and usher in the day when we can truly be proud before God.</p>
|
||
<h3>To Become a Source of God’s Pride</h3>
|
||
<p>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.</p>
|
||
<p>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.</p>
|
||
<p>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.</p>
|
||
<p>Why do we think of such a desire as wrong? It is because of the human fall. In our daily lives, we want to boast about everything we have. We do not want to boast about them to just our neighbors, but to everyone in the world. The desire to be proud is not an evil desire; it is an impulse of the original mind. This is the original mind through which you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the desire of our hearts to boast about ourselves and be famous on the level of the society, the nation and the world.</p>
|
||
<p>Why does such a desire move in our hearts and stir our feelings? It is because we have the natural desire to boast. Our minds have this desire because, if God and human beings had become one in the ideal manner, that would have been the source of pride for us as well as God. This is why we are moving in this direction, even though we fell. This is why we are struggling to find the central value of the whole cosmos.</p>
|
||
<p>However, because human beings fell, the laws concerning pride were not in line with the Principle. They were opposed to it. People should have followed the intentions of their original hearts and pursued the laws of the Principle; yet because of the fall, they lost everything and headed in the opposite direction. As a result of this, the directions that our original minds pursue and the actual environment in which we live are diametrically opposed to one another.</p>
|
||
<p>We are searching for God and the path of the Way. In whom should we take pride? Before we take pride in ourselves, we must boast about our center. If we want to be proud of our nation, rather than being proud centered on ourselves, we must be proud of a patriot of that nation. When we are proud of our tribe, we must be proud of its center. The same thing is true for the family.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, fallen people must reject and transcend themselves to find the source of their pride in the center of a group, province, nation, world and God, who is the center of heaven and earth. Unless we do this, we can never stand as the source of God’s pride.</p>
|
||
<h3>To Acquire the Conditions of God’s Pride</h3>
|
||
<p>Those who boast, centering on themselves, for the sake of their joy will set conditions that violate the principles of the universe. The more one can be proud of the goodness and uniqueness of others, the closer they can get to Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>Although all people want to transcend themselves to take pride in their families, churches, nations and the world, there has not been a world, nation, church or family on this earth that they could sincerely respect and be proud. Although we may be faithless, we must still build a relationship of pride with God. We must transcend ourselves to take pride in our families, our society, our nation and the world. Therefore, our minds are always being pulled in that direction.</p>
|
||
<p>Now we must reflect upon the heart of Heaven, who was filled with the desire to be proud of us. When we think about God’s tiring providence of 6,000 years, the purpose of which was to seek us, when we think about God, who has come looking for us through a miserable course of history filled with bloody battles, we find that He has never had the conditions upon which He could raise a person and be proud of him in the course of history. When we understand that such is the situation of Heaven, we dare not boast about ourselves or go before Him with some condition.</p>
|
||
<p>In the original garden of goodness, God was able to boast about us. He was able to take pride in us before all things and to be proud of all things before the angelic world. Our original desire to boast must begin with us as the starting point and then expand through the family, the society, the nation, and the world. It must become linked to the pride of Heaven. The fallen people, who could not achieve this, must strike themselves before they can set the conditions for pride. We have to understand that we are in this sad state.</p>
|
||
<p>Adam and Eve should have set the conditions of God’s pride so that even Satan could say, “They are the true sons and daughters of which You can be proud. They truly deserve Your love.” They should have been worshipped by Satan. Yet they have turned out to be the sacrifices of Satan for 6,000 years. We have to realize how great the sorrow of God has been, as He looked over this situation.</p>
|
||
<p>Now we must set the conditions that can provide a source of pride to God, who is suffering such grief. One must become two, two must become ten, and ten must become ten million to form a people, a nation, a world and go in the direction God desires. The fallen people of the earth must inevitably seek this.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, you must now go forward toward the world about which God can boast, toward the sovereignty of which God can be proud. You must find and become the original person of which God can be proud and find the original life, personality and love of which God can be proud.</p>
|
||
<p>St. Paul did not boast about himself, though he had a high position and a great education. He could have been proud of his background, his tribe, his religious sect, and the chosen nation of Israel. The only things of which he wanted to be proud were what God had established as conditions of pride. You should learn about the life of St. Paul, who held onto that basis of God’s pride and carried on the battle. From the time of Noah to the present day, many ancestors who were raised before God suffered great tribulations.</p>
|
||
<p>How does God relate to us? He relates to us with what is most despised in the satanic world. We must understand this. Human beings fell because they lacked faith. Therefore, God emphasized that we must develop faith in the most difficult circumstances and that we must not eat the fruit in the most dangerous situation, when death is the consequence of eating it.</p>
|
||
<p>Consequently, our ancestors lived according to the word of God in an environment where it was difficult to believe in the word and put it into practice. Noah maintained his faith for 120 years as if it were a day. He chased away all persecution and scorn.</p>
|
||
<p>He was desperate to connect with the heart of God. He understood that what God wanted to be proud of was greater and more precious than anything of which society was proud.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Reason Abraham Became the Ancestor of Faith</h3>
|
||
<p>Because Noah’s course was like that, even when God judged the people with the flood, there was no condition upon which the faithless and rebellious people could protest against Heaven. Noah was someone of which God could be proud. The judgment of Noah was the process through which the value of heavenly pride and practical value were established. The sons and daughters of Noah should have become connected to the heart of pride that God wanted to establish, but they disregarded Noah’s devotion and had self-centered thoughts. Heaven was turned upside down.</p>
|
||
<p>The same was true for Abraham. It was not easy for him to leave everything behind in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abraham could have led a more joyful life than anyone in the satanic world. His wife was extremely beautiful, and he had abundant wealth.</p>
|
||
<p>God called Abraham and drove him the opposite way, toward tribulation. You have to understand that God ordered Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and drove him into tribulations that his relatives, family and people dared not attempt.</p>
|
||
<p>We have to understand that Abraham transcended himself and deeply felt the existence of Heaven, which was guiding his tribe and descendants to the ideal world. Abraham knew that ordinary daily life was not something of which the people could be proud. When God’s command was given to him in this state of mind, he abandoned all that he owned. It was not easy for him to do that. Abraham set out on a truly miserable journey toward the land of Haran, abandoning all that he had, his family, which had given him great joy, and all his belongings. However, even though he was a pitiful wanderer, his footsteps were full of confidence, because he believed that a glorious and proud day would come, even if he could not be proud of his current situation.</p>
|
||
<p>Abraham was determined that no matter what kind of ordeals and difficulties he might face, he would overcome them hundreds and thousands of times. You have to understand that Jesus sought for the garden of God’s pride more intensely than anyone else, with this same determination.</p>
|
||
<p>Because the heart of Abraham and the heart of God, who was desperately looking for a reciprocal object, came together in unity, God was able to give Abraham His proud blessings, which included the garden of the absolute ideal for which God longed.</p>
|
||
<p>This is how Abraham was put in the blessed position of being the ancestor of faith before Heaven. His living descendants thought they could be proud of their place of dwelling. They should have transcended the people and gone forth toward the world, yet they did not understand this. They just wanted to stay in one place and cling to their source of pride. This made them increasingly distant from the ideal of which God can be proud. You have to understand that this is why human beings have entered a long course of sorrowful history.</p>
|
||
<p>The same was true for Moses. For forty years Moses lived a comfortable and luxurious life in the palace. Although he lived a most enviable life, more than anyone else, he longed for the day Heaven could raise up his people and take pride in them. Although they were a pitiful people, moaning under the misery of 400 years of slavery in Egypt, he believed that one day God would surely bless them and lead them into the blessed land of Canaan. Moses hoped that God would build a new garden of hope, a nation that surpassed all others, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, of which God could be most proud.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Reason Jesus Became the Leader of the Israelites</h3>
|
||
<p>Moses did not lack for anything in his palatial life, yet he rejected it all and did not take pride in it. On the contrary, he wanted to boast of the Israelites, who were moaning and suffering before Heaven. Furthermore, he wanted to be proud of the land of Canaan with which Abraham was blessed, the land that the seven Canaanite peoples had claimed. His desires were in tune with the wishes of God, who wanted to raise a chosen people of Israelites in the land of Canaan and be proud of them. Therefore, God put Moses at the helm of the people and led them to that land. We have to understand that this was the situation of God.</p>
|
||
<p>When Moses appeared before the 600,000, no one among them understood his innermost feelings. Most of them opposed him. However, through many miracles and calamities, God led the people to the realization that Moses was the one to guide them to the garden of pride in which they could dwell. They were thus able to fathom Moses’ heart, and God was able to lead them out.</p>
|
||
<p>The Israelites should have believed in Moses as the one sent by Heaven and should have been proud of him until the end. When he came with heavenly authority and struck the palace of Pharaoh, they rejoiced that he was their Heaven-sent leader. Yet when they faced more humble and difficult circumstances in the wilderness, they lost faith in him and discredited him, saying that he was not fit to lead the people.</p>
|
||
<p>Among the Israelites there should have been some who centered their lives on Moses, believing that he was their proud leader. They should have shared his sorrow, his path, and his leadership, knowing that it was all for the sake of saving the people. Had there been such people, then the 600,000 would not have been lost in the wilderness.</p>
|
||
<p>The people held grudges against Moses. They betrayed him and did not attend him when they should have boasted about him, followed him and served him. From this moment, the basis for the pride of God, Moses and the people was shattered. This will should have been realized by Moses, yet it did not come to pass. The people betrayed Moses, who was their representative. You have to understand that, at this moment, Moses felt more pain and sorrow than when he was living in the palace, longing for the land of Canaan.</p>
|
||
<p>Moses led the people into the wilderness to guide them to the land of Canaan, the land of hope. Even when he was being ostracized and betrayed by the people in the wilderness, he had to guide them. This is why he felt incredibly bitter. The people did not realize they should be proud of him and treated him with contempt instead. They surely deserved to perish. If the Israelites had truly understood the heart of Moses, they could not have complained.</p>
|
||
<p>When he was looking at the starving people, Moses was most courageous. He pleaded with Heaven to give blessings to the people. This moved Heaven. The Israelite people never understood that Moses was never concerned about himself. Instead, he was praying for their sake.</p>
|
||
<p>The 600,000 Israelites should have understood that Moses suffered more starvation and misery than they did. They then would have avoided destruction. They also should have understood that Moses was trying to save them. When they turned their backs and opposed him, Moses felt much pain and grief.</p>
|
||
<p>The people failed to realize that they should comply with the wishes of Moses, who was living for Heaven with all his heart and soul. Their attitudes not only caused grief to Moses, they made God even more sorrowful. You have to understand that God’s grief was more intense than that of Moses. Although Moses was the leader of the people and a person in which God could take pride, because of the faithlessness of the people, his life ended in miserable tragedy.</p>
|
||
<h3>Humanity Should Have Taken Pride in Jesus</h3>
|
||
<p>Heaven wanted the Israelites to follow Moses. God wanted them to follow him with the same intensity of desire with which He had established him, but that wish was shattered. Against God’s will, the Israelites became sacrifices to Satan.</p>
|
||
<p>The hope that God held in Moses during his forty years in the palace of Pharaoh, his forty years in the Midian wilderness, and the forty years of the wilderness course was completely shattered. As a result, God no longer had a people and a land of which He could be proud. Nevertheless, Moses wanted to be proud of these worthless people. The tragedy is that the Israelites were, in like manner, not proud of the greatness of Moses, whom God had raised.</p>
|
||
<p>What kind of nation and people can possess the heavenly authority to influence the world in the last days? You have to understand that it is the nation or people who take pride in the person God has chosen. Wouldn’t that be so?</p>
|
||
<p>Let us think about Jesus once more. Jesus was the ultimate fruit of all God’s work of 4,000 years. He was the incarnation of God’s heart and love. Moreover, his words, situation, hopes and heart represented everything of God. We have to realize that Jesus was chosen to represent and take pride in the hope of God.</p>
|
||
<p>After persevering for 4,000 years, God sent Jesus as His representative, the central figure of which He was proud. Yet when Jesus came to the earth, he never boasted about himself.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus never had the chance to boast about himself in a manner that could bring joy to God. No one boasted about Jesus either, which would have pleased God. Because Jesus came in place of God, he had an intense desire to be proud of himself before the family, the religious sects, the people, and the world. Don’t you think that must have been true? Because he came as the proud fruit for which God had waited 4,000 years, he really wanted to be proud of that in the presence of his family, society, nation and the world.</p>
|
||
<p>Yet Jesus did not have the foundation upon which he could stand proud before the thousands of people. God raised Jesus, intending to boast about him before all created things in heaven and earth, as well as before Satan. Nonetheless, no one ever took pride in him, not his family, not his sect, not his people, nor the world.</p>
|
||
<p>We who are the descendants of the traitors to Heaven should feel utterly ashamed in the presence of Heaven. We human beings, who have committed the historic sin, are not in a position to boast about ourselves. You have to understand that it has been the source of God’s deepest sorrow that He could not find one person, one sect or one people of which to be proud.</p>
|
||
<p>When God chose Jesus as the representative of the 4,000-year history, Jesus shed tears and said, “It is my greatest honor.” Jesus became extremely grievous because he could not fulfill this will. Rather than finding an excuse for himself, he lamented and bowed his head before Heaven with the attitude, “I never thought that the wishes of my Father, who has toiled so hard for my sake, would meet such a tragic end.” You must understand that the time has come when we must show our pride in Jesus, who had this kind of heart.</p>
|
||
<p>Christians today must understand that it is their task to usher in the one proud day Jesus wanted to fulfill for the individuals, families, people and the world. They must attend Jesus. This is what Heaven desires. Now you must be awakened to the original heart of God, who wanted to boast about humanity after creating the Garden of Eden.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus, who should have been glorified and felt proud that he was the son of God, had to shoulder the cross in misery. You must be full of the desire to liberate the bitter heart Jesus had toward the people, heaven and earth, and Satan as he walked toward Golgotha with the cross on his shoulders. You have to feel this in your heart. You have to have a desperate heart toward the will of Heaven.</p>
|
||
<h3>We Must Take Pride in Jesus</h3>
|
||
<p>It was our ancestors who caused bitter grief to the True Father. He came as the culmination of shimjung and the hope of humanity to build a parent-child bond with us. Our ancestors’ betrayal was the work of Satan. Hence, we must have a burning desire to cleanse the sin of our ancestors and judge Satan. Evil blood is flowing within us. Therefore, we must at least have the desire to cry out, “Heaven, please give us strength. Heaven, please forgive us.”</p>
|
||
<p>How could the garden of pride have turned into Golgotha? Today, people of faith brag about the cross. They do not shoulder the cross for the sake of Heaven. Even as followers, they do not take pride in Jesus, who struggled desperately to find a living altar for the sake of Heaven. They do not take pride in this earnest heart of Jesus. They do not understand his deep desire to realize the will of Heaven through the individual, the family, and the people sought by Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>Even if we were to abandon all else, we must ultimately eradicate all our historical sins and concretely experience the shimjung of God. We then will appear as the people for which God has been looking so ardently.</p>
|
||
<p>Such a family, tribe and chosen people must emerge. A heavenly people must then emerge. No matter how bitter and complicated a person’s situation, this should not pose any problem. You must feel a swelling of intense desire to realize that will. Paul had this kind of heart.</p>
|
||
<p>Paul, who had a vision of Jesus on the way to Damascus, realized that he was not even worthy to raise his head in the presence of Jesus. After that, he tried to live for the sake of Jesus. He was overwhelmed with the desire to offer his life to Jesus, and he prayed, “Please guide me to glorify you, whether I am dead or alive.” Because he had this unchanging heart toward Jesus, he laid a new foundation for Christianity.</p>
|
||
<p>Now we must take pride in Jesus. We must be proud of his heart. We must boast about his situation and desire. Furthermore, we must take pride in the bride for which Jesus was looking. At the same time, we must also be proud of the family, the people, the nation, and the world for which Jesus was searching. We must understand that only then can God display us and show that He is proud of us.</p>
|
||
<p>What blocks our path as we try to be proud of Jesus? The cross lies before us. It tears us apart and persecutes us; yet Christians walk a proud path. This is a very sad thing. We must display our pride in Jesus. Because the condition to be proud of the crucified Jesus remains ahead of us, you must take pride in the cross. Without setting this condition of having suffered infinite tribulation for the sake of Heaven, there is no way you can become sons and daughters who possess the heart of God or the heart of Jesus, or who have set the conditions for pride in the presence of all things.</p>
|
||
<p>Even if you understand this reality in your heart and feel this emotionally, you must still set the condition of pride in the sphere of your activities. Only after you have set the condition equivalent to the proclamation of Jesus on the cross, “All is finished,” (John 19:30) can God and Jesus trust us and raise us to show their pride in us.</p>
|
||
<h3>Let Us Become Those of Whom<br />
|
||
God and Jesus Can Be Proud</h3>
|
||
<p>Although 2,000 years have passed since the coming of Jesus, have you ever met a person who is still burning with the desire to boast about Jesus? If you are not this kind of religious leader, you are a corrupted minister working for mere wages. You must be proud of Jesus. To set the condition of pride before Heaven, he gratefully overcame the path of the cross despite all the pain that he suffered: his torn body, the spear that pierced his side, the crown of thorns on his head, and the nails in his hands and feet.</p>
|
||
<p>Although Jesus had the qualifications to boast about his glory, he did not. On the contrary, he lived with the humility of a sinner. Jesus had the mind-set that even in the path of death, he would be proud in the presence of God. As we look at this life of Jesus, we must have the same kind of mentality and cross the pass.</p>
|
||
<p>When Mary Magdalene tried to hold the resurrected Jesus, he rejected her. The resurrected Jesus was not to be welcomed. Before the resurrection, while he was alive, his disciples should have comforted him and help him set the condition of pride to say “All is finished,” boasting to Heaven, earth and Satan. Because such tragic, historic Golgothas lie ahead, Christians have repeated the process of going up and down that hill until now. They have been repeating the process of climbing up and down the course.</p>
|
||
<p>No one has cried out to Heaven and earth that the Lord of Golgotha was his or her spouse. There were many people of faith who prayed, “Oh, Lord, please guide me to the bosom of the Father.” Until now, all have been ignorant of the internal situation of being proud of Jesus. They blindly follow Jesus, not understanding Jesus’ world of heart, his internal situation.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus should have fulfilled God’s desire to be proud. Yet because that fruit has not been borne, Jesus has waited 2,000 years to raise a bridegroom and bear the fruit. You have to understand this and earn the qualifications to become the brides of Jesus. By doing so, you must become those about whom God, Jesus and yourselves want to boast. Only then can you attend the marriage of the lamb. You have to understand this clearly.</p>
|
||
<p>Parents naturally want to be proud of their children and of everything about them. Therefore, when you learn to be proud of everything around you, you can be elevated as the condition of pride before God and Jesus, who are the owners of everything.</p>
|
||
<p>Those of us who live in the last days must objectively criticize ourselves. Through whom do we show our pride? Through whom do God and Jesus want to show their pride? We want to be proud of ourselves based on Heaven, Jesus and all things. Accordingly, we should pray, “Father, the original person of which You wanted to be proud is here before You. I have become the representative of the Father’s heart. Please boast about me before Satan.”</p>
|
||
<p>If you acquire that proud heart, the authority of life, and the original nature to become someone trustworthy to God, you can boast about your relationship with God before all creation, all people, and even before the Holy Trinity. You must further become someone about whom even Satan can say, “That is right. They are the children of Heaven and earth of whom Heaven, earth, humanity and even we can be proud. Please raise them and be glorified for eternity.” God has longed for the appearance of these people for the long period of 6,000 years. He has persevered through the pass of death, the pass of grief, the pass of bitterness, and the pass of blood to usher in that one, proud day of hope.</p>
|
||
<p>You must connect with the original heart of which God wanted to be proud. You must reach the level where God can say about you, “Even if I were to lose this entire world, I would be satisfied as long as I could claim you.”</p>
|
||
<p>At the same time God’s deep-set grief is liquidated, His desire and ideal must also be fulfilled. Only then can we unite with the center of true love and build the eternal and inseparable parent-child relationship with Him. Heaven can be eternally proud of us and we can be eternally proud of God. All existing things in heaven and earth can then use us as the condition of pride. We have to stand in that position.</p>
|
||
<h3>Prayer</h3>
|
||
<blockquote><p>Father, the steps we have taken to go before You have been steps of ordeals through the history of contradiction. The saints and sages of the past were not considered normal people in the eyes of the people of their times. We know all too well, through our study of the Bible, that from the standpoints of their times, the saints and sages were stragglers, abnormal people who were ridiculed. This was the case with Noah and Abraham.</p>
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<p>Who would have ever praised Abraham, who obeyed God’s command to offer his only son as a sacrifice and tried to strike him with a knife? He was the craziest and most strange person. Although he appeared to be insane, You related with him. The saints and sages were persecuted and ridiculed by the ignorant as they tried to bring pitiful people to the Father. Father, You have called upon us to build an inseparable bond of heart with us. We are truly awe-stricken before this infinite grace.</p>
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<p>If we are to become the historic living sacrifices who can recompense Your grace by offering our minds and bodies, please allow us to forget our situations and dignity and shed tears of gratitude. Please allow our hearts to turn to Heaven and swell up with infinite longing. Please allow us to become crazy about the Father’s will to the extent that we cannot even feel our bodies being torn. We have now come to understand the fervent desire of the Father for such a people and such a nation to appear on this earth.</p>
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<p>We have learned that You do not want to boast about us before the people of the earth. Rather, you have driven us into our current situation because You want to boast about us in the spirit world. We know very well that it is Your will to boast about us when we are undefeated, even after being torn and stepped on. We know that You have been working Your providence for the day of restoration.</p>
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<p>Those of us who are witnessing the conclusion of the providence today must prevail with our lives and feel the fervent heart of the Father and Jesus. Please guide us to become Your sons and daughters who can step over Golgotha as the condition of pride and be living sacrifices in sight of Satan.</p>
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<p>We have learned that only by achieving this are we worthy of the Father’s and Jesus’ praise. Yet we do not have anything worthy about which to boast. If we do have anything to brag about, it must be uprooted. We have understood that the character we have nurtured, the knowledge we have attained, and all such things are very distant from the Father. We realize that there is nothing on this earth that we really need.</p>
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<p>God, our Father, our Lord and our Creator, wants to brag about the people of the earth. How can we forget You and brag about ourselves? We desire from the depth of our hearts that You allow us not to betray the heavenly laws or disrupt the Principle and order.</p>
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<p>If there is some basis for pride, please guide us to offer it to the Father. If there is some condition for sorrow, please allow us to inherit it. Please do not let Satan follow us based on that condition of sorrow. Please allow us to boast to Satan that we are Your true sons and daughters. We earnestly pray that You guide us to become sons and daughters who can bow before the Father by establishing such a standard.</p>
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<p>We know that although the Father wants to brag about these people, we have not become a praiseworthy nation nor a worthy bride of Jesus. Therefore, Father, we earnestly wish that You allow us to become Jesus’ bride after overcoming all conditions of bitterness. Allow us to become sons and daughters about whom You can brag before all things of creation and Satan. We offer all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/10/the-incarnation-of-jesus-a-pioneer.html" title="Permalink to The Incarnation of Jesus, A Pioneer" rel="bookmark">The Incarnation of Jesus, A Pioneer</a>
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-10T07:22:02+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/10/the-incarnation-of-jesus-a-pioneer.html" rel="bookmark">June 10, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-10T07:22:02+01:00">June 10, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1959.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1959</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<div class="entry-content">
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
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Former Church Headquarters<br />
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Seoul, Korea<br />
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February 1, 1959</h3>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;"><em>Matthew 8:18-22 </em></h3>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="text Matt-8-18"><sup class="versenum">18 </sup>When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake.</span> <span id="en-NIV-23365" class="text Matt-8-19"><sup class="versenum">19 </sup>Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-23366" class="text Matt-8-20"><sup class="versenum">20 </sup>Jesus replied, <span class="woj">“Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”</span></span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-23367" class="text Matt-8-21"><sup class="versenum">21 </sup>Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”</span></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-23368" class="text Matt-8-22"><sup class="versenum">22 </sup>But Jesus told him, <span class="woj">“Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”</span></span></em></p>
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<h3>
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Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>Father, although we are unfaithful, since we have come seeking You, please look down upon us with compassion. We have come forward after hearing the Father’s call. Please allow our minds and bodies to be the possessions of the Father.</p>
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<p>Please allow us to become eternally connected to You in this place. Please allow our hearts to be in resonance with Your heart. Allow our bodies to be in touch with Your sacred form. On that foundation, please allow us to build an eternal relationship and connection with You, so that we move when You move, acting in accordance with Your Will.</p>
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<p>We know that it is not a coincidence that You have gathered us here today. You have gathered us to sever our ties with the powers of death and raise us as the offerings who have triumphed over Satan. Thus, we fervently desire for You to take charge of us as You desire. Allow us to stand as the sacrifices who can bring joy to You.</p>
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<p>Now, please lead us not to set any self-centered condition. Guide our bodies not to possess any element that can bring harm to You. Please let us restore our original selves, the minds and hearts of which are connected only to You, whom You can govern as You Will.</p>
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<p>Father, we know that we must become unified in harmony through Your inseparable heart of love. Please make our bodies into the temples where You personally can dwell and make our minds into the holy of holies where You can personally live. Father, we earnestly wish that You mold our minds and bodies into the foundation upon which You can personally dwell and rest in peace.</p>
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<p>Please allow us to open the doors to our hearts now. Please remove all sinful elements. Please eliminate all elements that are not appropriate to the Will of the Father. By doing so, please allow us to become people over whom only You can rule. Allow us to become Your beings of life.</p>
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<p>Although there may have been many faults in our lives during the past week, since we have prostrated ourselves before the Father’s knees, please govern us. Please love us once again, even amid the ordeals of re-creation. Father of love, we sincerely wish that even just for this hour You will let us become sons and daughters who can be embraced inside Your bosom as burnt offerings.</p>
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<p>This is a sacred day. Please bless all people. Bless the thirty million people and the countless religious groups. Please directly unveil the Father’s hands of grace upon the many sons and daughters who yearn and long for Your heart and Your heavenly Will. Father, we sincerely desire to feel the worldwide providence that the Father is working through our minds and bodies.</p>
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<p>Please grant the same grace upon the lonely members who are scattered all across the countryside, who are praying for the Will of the Father with deep concern. Please personally protect them. It is my fervent request that You will guide them to remain until the end, even amid tribulation and persecution. Please govern us from the beginning to the end. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>The Father has guided us to this place, we who have been wandering without knowing our path. We prostrate ourselves before the holy presence of the Father with wounded minds and hearts.</p>
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<p>Although we have not prepared anything to give You, please lead us and grant us Your compassionate grace. Father of love, please hold our fatigued hands and embrace our bodies, which have no place on which to lean. My Father, we ardently wish that You let this be an hour when You give us the love of the eternal world and instruct us in the name of the Father of hope for which we have yearned.</p>
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<p>We want to face the Father with sincere and honest hearts, yet we feel so distant from You. However, in this place there are many who have pledged that they will abandon everything they have for Your sake and offer everything to You. Father, please appear before them and command them. Please let this be a moment when You personally advise us and allow us to forge a relationship of love with You.</p>
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<p>The path we are now taking is for the Father’s sake. Our very life is for the Father’s sake. Everything that belongs to us is only for the sake of the Father’s Will. Please personally take charge of our bodies and govern us. Please embrace us personally. By doing so, may Your will to connect with human beings be manifested through the actions of the Father’s love. May the original self that You seek be molded during this hour. Father, this is our sincere wish.</p>
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<p>We have not embarked upon this path because of our desire; rather, we have come forward because of the heavenly Will that impels us. We know Your hardships and bloody course, and we have been struggling to bring that Will to pass. Please consider our minds and bodies with compassion.</p>
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<p>We have come seeking for the lighthouse of life that You have established. We have come yearning for the one self of which we can be proud in the presence of the Father. Father, please command us. Please allow us the grace of glory and reveal the hands of re-creation.</p>
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<p>Please remove everything within us that is not acceptable in the presence of You. Allow only the Father’s works of goodness to appear. Please let this hour be a time when the Father can personally manage the situation and when we can bow before the Father with joyful minds and bodies.</p>
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<p>In our hearts we yearn for the new garden and long for the ideal of the new nation. Yet there are many enemies blocking this path.</p>
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<p>Our situation forces us to fight every day. Father, please be with us. Please magnify Your stimulating power and impact during each of these hours. Father, we earnestly pray that only our sincere hearts, which yearn for the love of Heaven can operate in our daily lives and affect our environment.</p>
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<p>Father, please look down upon this nation and people with compassion. They do not know where to go. What these people want is the altar of hope and the garden of freedom. However, no one understands the ideal world for which You have given permission or the works of Heaven. Please awaken them. We know that our responsibility toward them is great, so please allow those of us who have prostrated ourselves in the presence of the Father in this moment to complete our responsibility toward this nation.</p>
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<p>Please allow this to be a moment when we can come to the realization that we bear the responsibility to save the humanity of this earth, who are suffering under the powers of darkness. Please allow us to renew these people with the Father’s new words of truth. Please let this be the hour when we can love the humanity of this earth.</p>
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<p>Father, please look down upon the lonely members in the countryside with compassion. They have been sent out as shepherds. As they appeal to You in this hour, please embrace them with the same grace and protect them so that they will not fall down on the battleground that stands before us. Please do not let them become stragglers.</p>
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<p>Although we are unfaithful, we have cleansed ourselves and have come before the holy altar of the Father. Please eliminate all elements that are not acceptable to You. Please remove all self-centered doctrines, mentalities and concepts that we assert. Please let this be an hour when only You influence us and govern us.</p>
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<p>We have entrusted everything to You. Please govern us as You Will. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>Father! When we reflect, deep in our hearts, once again that the providential Will was not known, we come to the realization that although 6,000 years have passed since the fall of our ancestors, humanity has failed to fathom the heart of the Father. Moreover, we have already learned that the situation of the Father is difficult and pitiful, and that the Father’s Will remains before the earth, humanity and heaven today.</p>
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<p>We reflect upon whether we have the integrity of children who can say, “Father, I am here. Please let me comfort You.” We reflect upon whether we are worthy of praise in the presence of the Father. We are forced to admit that we are far from achieving that.</p>
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<p>When Jesus, who came as the embodiment of hope, representing the heart of the Father, comes to the earth again, those who are searching for the heart of Heaven will have to connect to his heart. We also understand that the situation of the chosen Israelites, who sense the situation of Heaven and are searching, must become united with the situation of Jesus. The Israelites should have understood that the hope of the Father who sent Jesus was for the sake of all people. Because they did not recognize Jesus, the embodiment of hope, this sorrow has been prolonged all the way to us. We sympathize with this historical sorrow.</p>
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<p>What would we want to shout out to the Father? What would we want to seek from the Father? What would we want to obtain? Please allow us to possess the same heart as Jesus, who acted on behalf of the heart of the Father, the heart our ancestors could not attain. We understand that we have to possess the situation and hope of Jesus to obtain the same heart as the Father in the last days. We have the responsibility to pay back all the historical debts accrued toward You until now. We have joined our minds and bodies now and have prostrated ourselves before Your holy presence. Yet what qualifications do we have to call You “Father”? How can we accompany You in Your trials? What hope have we to represent the Father’s hope of the 6,000 years? We are Your unworthy children, who have nothing to offer.</p>
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<p>We understand that the Father looks down on people in such a state with sympathy. We understand that the Father’s heart of compassion is great. We know that the Father, who persevered through the course of the cross, has called upon us to come. Therefore, although we are unworthy and inadequate, we have joined our two hands and have prostrated ourselves in the presence of the Father. Please have compassion upon these miserable people who have knelt before You. We wish You to awaken us with Your words, that You instruct us to become one with Your situation.</p>
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<p>Father, if You have ever felt indignation toward us and had to hold the feeling back, please let this be the moment when Your heart is relieved. Even if You feel indignant and grievous, Father, we earnestly wish that You can resolve all those feelings through us.</p>
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<p>Father, Jesus who came 2,000 years ago was a truly miserable person. There was no one who grasped his heart, even up to his final moment. There was no one who knew his situation and desires. Please allow us to fathom the situation of Jesus, who led a mournful and tragic life for some thirty odd years because he could not find a land or a people with a foundation to realize Your Will. Please allow us to inherit the heart of Jesus. Father, we ardently hope that You allow us to become the sons and daughters who can cherish the hope and follow in the footsteps Jesus left behind.</p>
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<p>Where is the Jewish religion that You raised through 4,000 years? Where are the Israelite people? The Jerusalem temple You built was to pave the way for Jesus, yet it had no relationship to Jesus. The prepared Jewish sects could not connect with Jesus. The prepared people did not have any relationship with Jesus and hounded him instead. During this hour, please let many people come to understand the situation of Jesus, who found himself in such a lonely position and who felt compelled to pray for those who persecuted him.</p>
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<p>Father, the reason we have gathered here is that we have received the commands of the Father calling us to come. Now we understand that our footsteps lead to the path of the cross. You have called us because the time has come when we must fight the sinful world with tearful gazes and connect with the heart of the Father. Father of love, allow us to feel the heart of the Father as our heart, the situation of the Father as our situation, the hope of the Father as our hope. Let the enemies of the Father be our enemies and the fight of the Father be our fight. Thus, Father, we earnestly wish that You allow us to become Your children, the ones who accomplish the hope of the Father and are offered as victorious sacrifices.</p>
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<p>Father, please allow us to concretely experience the bitter situation of the Jesus who said, “Foxes have their holes, birds have their nests, yet the son of man does not even have a place to rest his head.” This was a grievous situation that cannot be alleviated through our tears or through our death. Please allow us to go before the Father and Jesus and be embraced in the bosom of the Holy Trinity during this hour. Please let our gathering be a place where You can rest Your head and dwell.</p>
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<p>I am now trying to convey words of truth. Please allow me to convey the Father’s heart and situation, not simply give many words.</p>
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<p>Please allow us to move silently and become united with the situation of the Father. Allow us to experience the heart of the Father as we behold His glory. Please allow us become living temples, who move in harmony with the Father.</p>
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<p>My Father, it is our earnest desire that You build a purified altar during this hour and that You protect us so that Satan cannot infiltrate. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<p>The title of the sermon I would like to share with you is <i>“The Incarnation of Jesus, A Pioneer.”</i> I will speak upon this topic.</p>
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<h3>The Sorrowful Situation of Jesus</h3>
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<p>God exerted Himself to the utmost for the sake of saving fallen humanity. If someone sought us while we were yet sinners, someone toiled to introduce the land of blessing to us, it was not our beloved parents, children or spouse who related to us with such love. It was not a nation nor was it some saint or sage. It was none other than God Himself.</p>
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<p>To pave the way for our hope, God has been exerting Himself until today. To alleviate our hearts and situations, to resolve everything in us that has been put out of order, He has labored and fought without rest. You must remember that God has been taking the responsibility of a pioneer throughout history.</p>
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<p>During the 4,000 years from the fall of Adam to the coming of Jesus, God steadfastly carried on His providence, even though human beings, who should have inherited the toilsome work of pioneering, were ignorant. The garden of joy has been the goal of the providence of God, who has placed His hope in us. We have been moving toward that world through every step we have taken in history.</p>
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<p>During the 4,000 years since the human fall, God worked through individuals and people to establish the nation of Israel. To accomplish His Will, on the foundation of the 4,000 years of His work, He sent Jesus as the hero who could inherit the entire mission of Heaven, as well as Heaven’s heart and desire.</p>
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<p>However, the faithful believers of Judaism and the Israelites, who were proud of being the chosen people, did not know Jesus. The Israelites, whom God chose on the foundation of His effort, did not receive Jesus, who came to fulfill the purpose of God’s arduous works. No one received him: neither the religious sects, the society nor his family.</p>
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<p>As a result, God’s Will to pioneer experienced a setback. The Israelite people, who should have walked the path of fulfillment with Jesus, actually headed down the path of failure and death.</p>
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<p>God labored strenuously while walking the pioneering course. Jesus came with the glorious mission to bring this Will to pass and recompense for the work God had done. However, because the chosen people did not recognize Jesus but hounded him out, he was forced to stand in the position of a pioneer, in place of the prepared Israelites.</p>
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<p>Jesus came with the mission to attend Heaven and build the ideal world for which the chosen people hoped. However, the Israelites, who were waiting for the Messiah, did not know that Jesus was their Messiah. This is where the grief and tragedy of Heaven expanded in a new direction. We must possess the heart to mourn over this development for God and grieve on behalf of Jesus. If we do not have this heart, then we cannot fathom the heart of God who has played the role of a pioneer toward humanity nor can we understand the heart of Jesus, who appeared before the chosen people with the hope of a pioneer.</p>
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<p>To build the foundation of joy and the garden of hope, those religious groups and people should have followed Jesus even if he spearheaded a march toward the valley of death. They should have followed him if he went to the valley of joy and happiness. Heaven made an inseparable heavenly bond with us during the 4,000 years of His effort, yet our ancestors betrayed this bond and turned their backs on Heaven’s pioneering accomplishments. We must feel great indignation over this.</p>
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<h3>The Preparation Period of Jesus</h3>
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<p>Two thousand years ago, Jesus looked upon the Israelite people, who had the potential to betray him, with great anxiety. He also saw that Judaism, which should have been built on the foundation of the heavenly heart, had become enslaved to the formalities of the Mosaic Law. As Jesus watched the Israelites, who did not know where their home was or in what direction they must head, he understood that God had raised him through a 4,000-year course of pioneering and had sent him with the purpose of bringing them together to pave the way for the new world. You must understand that, at that moment, Jesus could not help feeling tragic.</p>
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<p>After he was born in a stable, Jesus led a lonely life and helped his father, Joseph, who was a carpenter. Although he lived in a limited environment, his ideas transcended the Israelites and the world to connect with the whole cosmos. This is how Jesus lived.</p>
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<p>Joseph ordered him around, and his younger brothers and sisters, who tagged after him, did not know this. Therefore, Jesus felt unspeakably sad. Jesus came to understand the state of affairs in the world, God’s inner heart found deep inside the providence, and the situation of the earth and his contemporary world. He longed for all of these situations and states of affairs to unite and move in the direction God desired. However, the heart of God, the situation of Jesus, and the state of affairs in the world went their separate ways and the result was utter confusion.</p>
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<p>Looking over the situation, what determination must Jesus have made? After passing through thirty years of preparation, he made the determination to complete the Will of God through a life of practice. The more Jesus felt sadness in his heart, the more he called out to God; the more he felt hopeless toward the earth, the more he tried to find a solution to the situation through people.</p>
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<p>The closer the heart of Heaven drew toward Jesus, the closer the world should have approached him, and the closer the chosen people and the religious groups should have come to him. Yet, on the contrary, though he was growing closer to God, the people were moving farther away from him. This made Jesus serious beyond our imagination.</p>
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<p>Jesus realized that he should not hold grudges against these people, who were ignorant of the serious situation of Heaven. He thought of the path before him: overcoming their lives and opening the doors to their hearts, eventually embracing them. This is what Jesus was like. You must reflect once more upon the sad situation of Jesus, who could not assert, “I am the lord of your hope, the one for whom you have longed.”</p>
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<p>Jesus had to stand amid these tribulations and make a new determination. Jesus knew that the foundation which God had established through His pioneering work of 4,000 years was destroyed. Therefore, he knew he could not establish the ideology of Heaven on those grounds. He had to make a bold new determination amid such tragedy to confront the Israelites again. We do not realize this. Under such circumstances, Jesus prayed to Heaven, “God, please give me strength. God, please allow me to set out in a new direction. God, please let me make a bold determination both internally and externally.” We must reflect upon how Jesus persevered through the thirty long years of his life, speaking silently with Heaven and having a conversation with himself in his heart.</p>
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<p>What sense of mission did Jesus have in such a position, carrying on the mission of a pioneer for the invisible God? About God, he felt a sense of mission to pioneer and build the Kingdom of Heaven by opening the closed door to heaven. In relationship to earth, He felt the mission to pioneer the world of the people’s confused and isolated minds. Furthermore, Jesus felt the mission to pioneer this sinful world of humanity again.</p>
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<p>Jesus would not allow the history of the providence of restoration that God had spent 4,000 years guiding to fall apart. Even if the Israelites were to betray God, Jesus was determined to remain unchanging and accomplish the one purpose. When Jesus thought about the internal, heavenly connection that God had made, he could not help making this kind of bold determination. It was an important issue to Jesus to manage such a mission in the living environment of the time. When he could become such a pioneer, he could represent the chosen people and history in sight of God, and he could manifest his determination as someone in whom God could believe and of whom God could be proud.</p>
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<h3>The Effort Jesus Made to Cope with His Mission</h3>
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<p>What then did Jesus do to cope with this mission? He passed through a preparation period. Jesus tried to connect the hearts of humanity to the heart of God, and tried to accomplish the ideology that could move the universe, Heaven and people. Jesus was determined to go forward in the shoes of a pioneer, causing unity between heaven and earth, humankind and the earth, the earth and God, and God and humankind. We have to understand that it took exceptional courage on Jesus’ part to make this resolution, in spite of the tragic situation with which he was faced. God raised Jesus for the sake of the chosen nation of Israel and for the sake of all the things of creation found on the earth. Hence, even if the earth was to betray him, he could not abandon his mission because the people were still there. Even if the people were to betray him, he could not abandon his mission because Heaven was still there.</p>
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<p>During this preparation period, when Jesus’ mind was filled with these kinds of thoughts and feelings, he must have made hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of pledges in his heart. During his course of moving toward this ideology, he reflected on the history of the chosen people, the Israelites, who had represented Heaven during the 4,000- year course. When he realized they could not stand on the side of Heaven, Jesus predicted that there would be innumerable difficult persecutions waiting for him in his path. He then made a new determination.</p>
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<p>Even today, God fervently seeks and struggles to find the people of this miserable world. Jesus felt the responsibility to bring resolution to the alienation between people and Heaven. When he saw that the Israelites were not heading in the direction God had set for them, he felt infinitely sad. He knew that God sadly looked down upon this earthly world, which had not become the foundation of goodness upon which Jesus could come. Rather, it was a place upon which Satan had trampled. Yet God had exerted Himself for 4,000 years. The more Jesus thought about this, the more he was overwhelmed by grief.</p>
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<p>Every time Jesus was overcome with such sorrow, he felt a surge of determination: “I will fight on the side of Heaven, for the sake of Heaven, humanity and this earth. No matter what kind of difficulties or persecution come my way, I will prevail over them.” The resolution that Jesus made during his thirty-year preparation period was to carry out a successful battle in the future through a life of practice. He was determined that even if he was to become a sacrifice due to the ostracism of the Israelites, he would do this and that kind of path and establish such and such kinds of methods. He had many such ideas about which no one else could even think. He planned how, if they were to believe in him, he would take such and such measures; if they were not to believe in him, then he would do this and that. While no one else was concerned about Heaven, Jesus was deep in prayer. During the thirty years that he spent in the family of Joseph, he could not express joy when his brothers and sisters were joyful. When his relatives and the church were delighted, he was unable to feel delight.</p>
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<p>There is a huge gap between the direction Heaven desires and the direction people take in their minds. Observing this, Jesus felt that it was his task to bridge the gap. The greater the gap, the greater his determination became.</p>
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<p>Although Jesus had many things to say, he had to remain silent. You have to understand the sorrow that Jesus experienced during the thirty years of his preparation period. Even though he desperately wanted to witness to the truth by going from one place to another in Israel, he had to help with his family affairs.</p>
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<h3>The Determination of a Pioneer</h3>
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<p>What determination did Jesus make as a pioneer during the thirty-year preparation period? He determined, “I will even go toward the path of death, the road of persecution. I will go on even if I am to be destroyed.” Jesus made the determination of a lifetime, that he would gain control over his living environment during his preparation period, eradicate any self-centered philosophy, resolve all relationships on the level of the people, and rectify the rituals in Judaism that placed too heavy an emphasis on the Old Testament and its laws.</p>
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<p>For Jesus, who had to pioneer the Kingdom of Heaven and the hearts of all humanity, there was no day when his heart did not visit the realm of God’s ideals at least several times. You have to understand that Jesus was this kind of person.</p>
|
||
<p>Although the people on the earth did not recognize the internal grief of Jesus during the thirty-year preparation period, God was on his side. When Jesus was shaving wood with a plane or was cutting a piece of wood with an ax, he wanted to experience the heart and situation of God and build the Kingdom of Heaven God desired. Even when he was taking a break after a meal, this desire of his heart did not fade away. You have to understand that there was not a moment when he did not have these thoughts.</p>
|
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<p>Moreover, Jesus felt deep down in his flesh and bones that even if the 4,000-year history was to be abandoned, this value could not be abandoned. Even if the chosen Israelites were to be abandoned, such value could not be abandoned. Even if the chosen religion was to be abandoned, this value could not be abandoned. He felt that he could abandon everything he had, including his parents and relatives, but he could not abandon this value. You have to understand that his life was an unending continuation of bravery amid tragedy. In his life, he made preparations by cultivating a heart of perfect heavenly love, and he looked forward to the day of hope.</p>
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<p>You should picture Jesus and his heart as he was making preparations for that one day, that one time. Even if the clothes that he wore were poor and the expressions on his face pitiful, his gaze was unmatched by any conqueror or pioneer of the earth.</p>
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<p>His gaze could connect with the heart of God and see through the universe. Accordingly, as he looked at the world with this heart and perspective, he could not help feeling miserable and tortured. He could not avoid sorrow.</p>
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<p>Considering this, we can infer how, the more intensely Jesus clung to God, who had toiled throughout history, the more he was concerned that the Israelites and his disciples might fall faithless. Jesus spent the thirty-year preparation period reticently, with this mind-set.</p>
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<p>No matter how intensely his heart burned on the side of God, it was never for his own sake. No matter how preoccupied he became with the wishes of Heaven, no matter how seriously he looked at the world, we have to understand that it had nothing to do with the fulfillment of his own personal desires.</p>
|
||
<p>His gaze was for the sake of the Israelites, his heart was for the sake of the Israelites and the entire world. This is why Jesus shed endless tears. Jesus re-determined to face the path of death countless times during this preparation period. When he heard the rumor that someone was about to pass away, he felt that it was he himself. If there was someone who was unjustly persecuted or wronged, he felt that it was he who was undergoing the privations. You have to understand the heart of Jesus, who looked at all the tragic affairs of the society during his time as if they were unfolding in his life.</p>
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<h3>The Public Life of Jesus Was<br />
|
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Full of Tribulation and Ordeals</h3>
|
||
<p>Jesus who came 2,000 years ago, Jesus who led a sorrowful life during the thirty years of preparation, there was no one who understood this Jesus from the depth of his heart. No one bowed before him and was able to attend him. There was not even one ugly and crippled person who did that. This is truly a tragic story. Had there been such a person, humanity today would not feel so ashamed. When we consider this, we can understand that we owe an infinitely great debt to Heaven.</p>
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||
<p>As Jesus observed John the Baptist during his thirty-year preparation period, he had many expectations. Jesus, who had been looking forward to the day when he could begin his course of public ministry, finally took the first concrete step toward fulfillment. He thought the people of the time and John the Baptist would welcome him. Yet both treated him coldly and even opposed him. The sects of Judaism opposed him. Jesus, who had made such a brave and firm determination during the preparation period, was supposed to use the Israelite people as his foundation to step forward and fight with the world, but they opposed him. Consequently, he was faced with the miserable fate of having to fight with the Israelite people. You have to understand this. This is why the Israelites, who had prepared for the coming of the Messiah with great toil for 4,000 years, had to begin their mission again from the bottom.</p>
|
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<p>When God’s foundation of 4,000 years crumbled, Jesus had to appear before the people a second time with the same absoluteness of God’s dispensation just after the fall of Adam and Eve. We must understand how sad Jesus must have been. He sought them out because they were supposed to be the chosen people, yet they drove him out.</p>
|
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<p>Where could Jesus go then? The Israelites, whom God had raised through 4,000 arduous years, had betrayed Heaven and stood in the position of Satan. Who was able to understand the agonized heart Jesus felt as he looked upon the situation? This is the reason Jesus went out to the wilderness and fasted for forty days.</p>
|
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<p>You have probably never thought that Jesus was such a miserable person. The people at that time did not know of such an infuriating tragedy, that Jesus, who came as the prince of Heaven, was ostracized by the people and had to starve in the wilderness and be subjected to the tests of Satan, the enemy of God. There are no words to describe the indignation of God as He watched the situation of Jesus!</p>
|
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<p>Jesus, who felt such pangs of indignation in his heart, knew that God was deeply concerned about his situation. This is why he tried to suppress any expression of such feelings and demonstrated the utmost filial piety toward Heaven. When we reflect upon Jesus, we can understand that he felt the heart of God, who transcended the betrayal of Adam in the Garden of Eden and expressed deep concern for him. It was natural that Jesus would pray to alleviate his sorrow; yet he suppressed his anger and tried to comfort God. This is why he was able to open the door of hope through which he could remove the grief of the fall and guide fallen people toward God. Jesus made the determination during the thirty-year preparation period that he would live his life in service of this goal. He knew he might have to stand as an enemy before the people.</p>
|
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<p>As we reflect upon this, we can see that the history of sorrow has been caused by the mistakes of our ancestors. God wanted the three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration to comfort Jesus with the same heart of concern that Jesus had toward the people. God wanted them to pray on his behalf. It was they who should have built the altar, yet they were caught up in other thoughts. Thus, Jesus made a new determination as he received the prediction of his death in Jerusalem, and he began to make preparations for that day.</p>
|
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<h3>The Strenuous Work of Jesus as<br />
|
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He Tried to Raise his Disciples</h3>
|
||
<p>What are God’s tactics? To reclaim one person, God must suffer a blow as hard as that person’s worth. This is the way Heaven works. To reclaim one family, Heaven must receive a blow as hard as that family’s worth. This is how that family can be reclaimed. Accordingly, to reclaim a people and raise them, God has to suffer the same amount as their worth. Jesus learned through his daily life that this is the tactic of God.</p>
|
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<p>Because Jesus had to represent God, to claim a people, He had to become a sacrifice on the level of the individual, the family, the religious group, and the people. By receiving a blow, he pioneered the path of sacrifice.</p>
|
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<p>Jesus came to live this way of life. Though he sought a comrade among the prepared Jewish sects, there was not even one person who welcomed him. Even in Korea today, fishermen are poor and lowly people and not well respected. You can imagine how Jesus must have felt when he had to seek out ignorant fishermen 2,000 years ago. Do you think that a person like Peter would become inspired and follow Jesus immediately after just hearing his words a few times? Although that is the way it is written in the Bible, the Bible does not elaborate upon the daily affairs in the background. You have to understand that people like Peter heard some rumors about Jesus that helped them believe in him.</p>
|
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<p>Rejected by the people, Jesus came as a laborer and as a friend of the fishermen. He shared his life, heart and desires with them. He fought on with the determination that he would help satisfy their hearts’ desires, even at the cost of his life. The reason such fishermen as Peter could follow him was because Jesus testified and fought with this kind of heart and mind-set.</p>
|
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<p>What did Jesus do for three years after picking these uneducated disciples? In the same way that God had served and toiled for 4,000 years to raise the Israelites, Jesus chose them and served them.</p>
|
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<p>Jesus had great hopes for the twelve disciples he had chosen. It was Jesus Heaven had sent to influence Judaism and govern all priests and officials. His ideology was grand, his hopes were great, and his heartistic level was high. The priests and officials of that time who did not recognize Jesus, the pioneer with God’s practical ideology, were more pitiful than Adam and Eve immediately after their fall.</p>
|
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<p>What did Jesus do while looking at these people? You have to understand that through the three years of his ministry, Jesus passed through the same course as God, who had walked the path of sacrifice and service for the sake of raising the people.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, Jesus searched for disciples, forgetting food and drink even when he had somehow obtained them. When he had something to wear, he gave it to his disciples, disregarding his rags. If there was some comfortable place to sleep, he let his disciples sleep there and sat in an uncomfortable place. Jesus, who lived in oneness with God and with this kind of heart and mind-set, should have brought victorious achievements through his three-year course of ministry. Yet such results did not come.</p>
|
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<h3>The Disciples Did Not Abide by the Teachings of Jesus</h3>
|
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<p>The disciples did not understand the heart of Jesus. They were trying to use him to elevate themselves. Jesus understood this and had no way to alleviate his aching heart, no matter how much he cried and lamented toward heaven and earth.</p>
|
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<p>Because he had a mission that forced him to go on, he suppressed his sorrow and said to his disciples, “Those who try to elevate themselves will decline, and those who try to lower themselves will rise.” (Matthew 23:12) You have to understand that he repeatedly testified to his determination, inscribed deeply in his heart, flesh and blood.</p>
|
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<p>Listening to him, the disciples thought that the words Jesus spoke had nothing to do with them. Ladies and gentlemen! Please imagine how frustrated Jesus must have felt when John’s mother asked Jesus to elevate her sons to a position of glory in the last days. Although Jesus had taught his disciples and instructed them so many times, they did not understand him.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, as the crowd grew, the disciples were able to express their joy through their actions, but they could not become examples to the people as Jesus was to them in his actions and teachings. They could not become sacrificial people who elevated and served Jesus. On the contrary, the other people had a hard time going before Jesus because of these disciples. Still, Jesus knew that the disciples had the responsibility to transcend themselves and fulfill the wishes of the religious sects. In turn, the religious sects had the responsibility to transcend themselves and fulfill the wishes of the people. The people, in turn, had the responsibility to transcend the people and fulfill the wishes of the world. The humanity of the world had the responsibility to transcend the world and fulfill the wishes of Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>Nonetheless, no one fathomed this heart of Jesus. If there was some cause of sorrow for Jesus as he watched the disciples, who only asked him to give them blessings, this must have been the greatest cause of grief.</p>
|
||
<p>When the apostles were hungry, Jesus made the utmost effort to feed them. When they were in tears, he comforted them. When they despaired, he told them about the blessings of Heaven with the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. He was always concerned that they might despair or fall. We have to understand that the Gospels express this sorrowful, heartistic situation of Jesus.</p>
|
||
<p>The disciples should have become closer to Jesus the more he spoke to them, but they grew more distant. You have to experience the feelings of Jesus as he watched this.</p>
|
||
<p>As a last resort, Jesus took a towel and wash pan and washed the feet of the disciples, teaching them that serving others is the way. Because Jesus knew that this was the only way they could make a connection with Heaven, he had to tread this path. Even in his sorrow, he was watching over the disciples.</p>
|
||
<p>As he walked the course of restoration, Jesus was not delighted to perform miracles. If you think he performed miracles in comfort and joy, you are wrong. His actual situation was that he did not have a place to rest his body on the earth or a place to rely on in the universe, so he had to appeal to Heaven. You have to comprehend the desperate situation of Jesus, who was in such a miserable state.</p>
|
||
<p>When he was in a sad state wherein he felt compelled to display some compassion toward them, he raised his hands and said, “Father!” This is when the miracles took place. We have to understand that these miracles took place when Jesus shouted out of excruciating sadness. Do not think that Jesus performed miracles because he liked them or was lazy.</p>
|
||
<p>On the hill of Bethsaida, 5,000 people waved their arms and shouted out, “Jesus, you are our Savior. You are the chosen leader of Israel.” Although they sought him out when they were to obtain some benefit from him, after some time had passed and they saw that Jesus’ standard of heart was different from theirs and that his internal situation and ideals were in a different, higher state, they betrayed Jesus and turned their backs on him. All this actually happened to Jesus in his life.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Heart of Jesus in his Everyday Life</h3>
|
||
<p>No matter how much the external circumstances changed, the heart of Jesus and the path he walked could not change. This path is the one that fallen humanity must inevitably walk. However, the Israelites, who should have followed Jesus, betrayed him. The crowd that had followed him betrayed him and the disciples, who should have believed in and attended him without any doubt, cherished different hopes and had different attitudes. You have to understand that Jesus looked at them with a gaze full of sorrow and grief.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus knew that he had to be persecuted on the individual level, the family level, the church level, on the level of a people and on the national level. He also knew that he had to be persecuted on the level of the Roman Empire, which represented the world at that time. Knowing this, he silently walked his course. When he climbed over the Mount of Transfiguration and then headed toward the hill of Calgary, he made the determination: “Let any persecution and ordeal come to me. I will overcome all that I must in my time.” If he did not overcome them, all the preparations would have been more cause for grief, so he made his way toward the pass of death. To put this Will into practice, he made the determination that, as a sacrifice of death, he would share his flesh and blood with humanity before he left. Jesus was overwhelmed by the heart of Heaven on behalf of humanity and made a firm determination with every footstep he took. However, no one knew that he was taking those footsteps to carry out the determination that he had made during his preparation period. You have to understand this.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus could not hold any grudges against the many people who ostracized him. He was more sensitive than anyone, and his indignation surpassed that of anyone else. Moreover, Jesus felt that he had the mission to pioneer the path of God’s Will centered on the Israelites. Jesus understood that because the heart of God had been bound up with them through the relationships of the 4,000 years, he could not abandon them. Thus, even when they turned their backs on him, he appealed to Heaven, “Please save them through me. Please save these people through me, even though they are persecuting me. Please.” Later, when his disciples also betrayed him, he prayed, “Please accomplish Your Will of salvation through me.” This is the course Jesus walked.</p>
|
||
<p>The twelve disciples said, “Lord! We will go wherever you go,” with the determination to share a common destiny with him, be it death or life. This was when Jesus appeared with the Gospels. You have to understand that the determination the disciples made: “We will follow you wherever you go,” reminds one of the heart of Jesus at the outset of his ministry and when he was heading toward the garden of Gethsemane.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus said, “Foxes have holes, birds in the air have their nests, yet the son of man does not have a place to rest his head,” and added, “I entrust my head, heart and body to the Father’s bosom.” This prayer was his final desperate prayer at the garden of Gethsemane, in which he clung to God, who had overcome all sorrows and ordeals of humanity and who had toiled, and entrusted his agonized heart to Him. Jesus made the determination that in place of God’s 4,000 years of suffering, he would offer himself as the sacrifice. This is the determination Jesus made in front of the fallen people who opposed him, not knowing the heart of God. We must never forget that Jesus was determined to offer himself as the sacrifice of death. In this way, the life course of Jesus came to end on a tragic note.</p>
|
||
<p>In other words, Jesus’ life came to an end without even one true friend by his side. This was how things were for Jesus. For this reason, Jesus gave his flesh and blood as the sacrifice of history and took determined steps that defied the fear of death for the sake of presenting this new course of life to humanity. This was the life of Jesus.</p>
|
||
<h3>The History of the Providence of Being<br />
|
||
Struck First in the Process of Restoration</h3>
|
||
<p>Just before Jesus passed away on the cross that was dripping with his blood, he said, “My Father, my Father, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) At the end of this prayer, he said, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) He said, “It is finished,” not because he wanted to say that he had realized the ideal world. What he meant by this statement was that he had carried out the determination he had made during his thirty-year preparation period: “If my path becomes tragic, then I will do such and such.” This statement is not to be taken as something joyful; it was his expression of his sad heart to all of humanity. We have to understand that this was his last Will, which he spoke to the ignorant people out of his grieving heart.</p>
|
||
<p>Humanity has longed for the day when they could pioneer Jesus’ internal path of sorrow and be able to say, “I have realized everything.” You have to understand that this is the day of the returning resurrection. You have to understand this clearly.</p>
|
||
<p>Because the course of the crucifixion is the way Jesus fought with the satanic world, Christians all over the world today are following this example. Heaven reclaims after having been hit first. The people had betrayed him. Even the twelve apostles denied him, yet it was these twelve disciples that Jesus came to visit after he was resurrected from death. God takes things back after they have been hit once. St. Stephen, who believed in Jesus, was stoned to death. When St. Stephen was killed, God was able to claim St. Paul. In the same way that Jesus reclaimed the disciples who had earlier betrayed him, Jesus performed the powers of resurrection and took Saul at a time when the followers of Jesus were being killed. In other words, he took him after suffering a blow. Moreover, after he was renamed Paul, Saul took blows in place of the twelve disciples. Who would have thought that Paul, who suffered plenty of persecution and mistreatment, would become the most important apostle and establish the foundation for Christianity?</p>
|
||
<p>Who struck Jesus? The Roman soldiers and the Israelites struck Jesus. The Romans took the initiative. For this reason, because the disciples of Jesus were supposed to restore through indemnity the blows that Jesus took, they had to go into Rome and be persecuted in his place.</p>
|
||
<p>Because there remained the task to restore through indemnity the blows that the twelve apostles, seventy followers, and the multitudes took on behalf of the people, Rome was not allowed to collapse right away.</p>
|
||
<p>After the period of the Roman Empire and feudal society, when the Catholic church was at the height of its power, Luther challenged the church through the religious Reformation movement, and the church struck him and the movement down. Protestantism, which suffered these blows, crossed the Pacific, and created a new culture, it built the America of today. The external Canaan on the world level was established through those Christian groups who had been chased out.</p>
|
||
<p>Now the time has come when the society in Israel has taken on the form of a democratic nation. Heaven will seek another group of people to take the blow once again. This is a transition period in history. History has been seeking the group of people who will take the blows. This is the time when groups who will be struck and chased out must emerge among the churches and democratic nations. The group that is being chased out will have a different ideology and mind-set than the conventional one. Why? The ideology of Jesus is not the ideology of the earth. It is the ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is fundamentally different from any ideology found on the earth. We know through our study of history that the people who try to live according to this new ideology will come to the surface through a course of great changes in heaven and earth, because Jesus founded the ideology.</p>
|
||
<p>What kind of group of people will appear at that moment? In the concluding period of history, a group of faithful people must appear who follow the footsteps of Jesus’ path toward Golgotha, a group which has been blessed by Heaven. A group must emerge who will retrace this inescapable path toward the hill of Golgotha, even if they are persecuted and driven out. Therefore, we must remember that a denomination must appear that shoulders the burden of Golgotha not on the level of Jesus, an individual, but on the level of Christianity or a church. Jesus gained what he was supposed to gain after first being struck. Since he was beaten by Rome, he took Rome. Because he pushed forward in time the movements of restoring the church, the nation and the world, he walked the individual path of Golgotha, in which he suffered blows on the individual level. Accordingly, there must emerge a religious group today that takes the blows on the level of the church and walks the path of Golgotha. A people must appear who walk the path of Golgotha on the level of a people. This is the formula course to reach Heaven in the last days.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Position in which We Must Stand<br />
|
||
after We Have Made the Preparations</h3>
|
||
<p>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.</p>
|
||
<p>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.</p>
|
||
<p>Although it may seem that Jesus died for the world, he was never persecuted on the world level. He was persecuted on the level of the people. However, in this concluding age of Christianity today at the completion stage that must go over the last victorious Golgotha, you must step out to the world. Using the world stage as your foundation, you must inherit the heart that Jesus felt and the determination that he made during his thirty-year preparation period. You must copy the tactics that he used during the three years of his ministry. With these, you are to go over any kind of Golgotha, even at the risk of your life. Shouldering the responsibility to accomplish this task, you must fulfill the mission of a pioneer.</p>
|
||
<p>To put it another way, you must establish a new, second stage for Heaven. To do that, you must become the people who can overcome all difficulties by clinging to the internal heart of Jesus as he prayed for his enemies. You must become Christians who have inherited the mission on the world level. Without becoming this kind of person, on the day of completion when you say, “It is finished,” you will not be able to meet the one glorious day.</p>
|
||
<p>Although Christians have repeated this incomplete path and have taken responsibility for this path as pioneers, now we must pioneer the one way of completion. Accordingly, we must inherit the first ideology, with which we have been preparing ourselves while cherishing the ideology of Heaven, and which was manifested as the second ideology. By doing so, we must first alleviate the bitterness in the heart of Jesus, and then alleviate God’s bitterness from the 6,000 years. We must remain alive and usher in the day when we can say, “It is finished.”</p>
|
||
<p>We must cover up the unfortunate historical course of fighting with Satan and cling to the victorious day when we can fight for the sake of God’s glory. Moreover, you must possess the same heart as Jesus as he took the path to the cross and have the same form as his substantial body before you approach Heaven. Only when this is done can you accomplish what Jesus could not accomplish when he came to this earth with the mission of a pioneer on two fronts. We must feel deep in our hearts that we must pioneer the path of Golgotha on the level of the world, which Jesus left unfinished.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus could not strike those who persecuted him and drove him away but he had to overcome the situation by praying for them and for his enemies. Today we must have the magnanimity to wish blessings upon this kind of people and be determined to triumph over death and grasp Heaven. Only when we have done that can we can usher in the one day of glory and become the children who can enter the bosom of God on the world level, the pioneers of the new garden on the world level. Please keep this in mind.</p>
|
||
<p>Accordingly, the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus established before he passed away, the heart of love that he sought, the world he was trying to found, must all be realized in us. When we stand as the victors with whom Satan has not even a trace of attachment, when we go forward as the new pioneers on the level of the cosmos with the glorious flag of Heaven, then the Will of the Father can be accomplished and your mission of restoration will come to a conclusion. This will bring about the complete dissolution of Jesus’ bitterness. We must understand this.</p>
|
||
<h3>Prayer</h3>
|
||
<blockquote><p>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.</p>
|
||
<p>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.</p>
|
||
<p>Father of love, we thank you for having come and visited us. You have come in delight today, but we are afraid that when You leave, You may not be able to promise us the one day of joy and praise. We have learned that it has been Your tragic course to deal with human beings who come together in joy but part in sorrow. Please allow us to yearn for You more tomorrow than today; more during our later years than in our youth.</p>
|
||
<p>Please allow us to become sons and daughters who can take steps forward to that profoundly deep world of the heart. Please allow us to comfort the bitter heart of the Father and to alleviate the grief of Jesus and the ancestors of history. Father, we earnestly wish that You attain the liberation of Heaven through us.</p>
|
||
<p>We have learned today that Jesus came with the mind-set of a pioneer. How tragic was it that his glory had to turn into pioneering! It was because John the Baptist betrayed him, the religious sects betrayed him, the Israelite people and all the people in the world turned their backs on him. As we understand that this is a fact in the history of Christianity, please let the internal heart of determination that Jesus possessed during his preparation period and public ministry spring forth within us.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus confronted enemies on the level of the people and the nation, but today we have the mission to go beyond the people and confront enemies on the levels of the world and the universe. In other words, we have the mission of the last pioneers. Father, please give us the power. Beseeching from the depth of our hearts that You will guide us to become victorious and glorious children who can shoulder this responsibility and bravely walk to the end of the path of Golgotha, we offer all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/10/the-sorrowful-heart-of-jesus-as-he-went-to-the-mountain.html" title="Permalink to The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus as He Went to the Mountain" rel="bookmark">The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus as He Went to the Mountain</a>
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</h2>
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<div class="entry-meta">
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-10T07:20:53+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/10/the-sorrowful-heart-of-jesus-as-he-went-to-the-mountain.html" rel="bookmark">June 10, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-10T07:20:53+01:00">June 10, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1959.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1959</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
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Former Church Headquarters<br />
|
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Seoul, Korea<br />
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January 25, 1959</h3>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;"><em>Matthew 17:1-8 </em></h3>
|
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<p class="chapter-2" style="text-align: center;"><em><span class="text Matt-17-1"><span class="chapternum"> </span>After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.</span> <span id="en-NIV-23703" class="text Matt-17-2"><sup class="versenum">2 </sup>There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.</span> <span id="en-NIV-23704" class="text Matt-17-3"><sup class="versenum">3 </sup>Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.</span></em></p>
|
||
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-23705" class="text Matt-17-4"><sup class="versenum">4 </sup>Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”</span></em></p>
|
||
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-23706" class="text Matt-17-5"><sup class="versenum">5 </sup>While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”</span></em></p>
|
||
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span id="en-NIV-23707" class="text Matt-17-6"><sup class="versenum">6 </sup>When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.</span> <span id="en-NIV-23708" class="text Matt-17-7"><sup class="versenum">7 </sup>But Jesus came and touched them. <span class="woj">“Get up,”</span> he said. <span class="woj">“Don’t be afraid.”</span></span> <span id="en-NIV-23709" class="text Matt-17-8"><sup class="versenum">8 </sup>When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.</span></em></p>
|
||
<h3>
|
||
<p>Prayer</h3>
|
||
<blockquote><p>Father, please remember this day. Please guide us not to appear before You with our minds and bodies centered upon ourselves. Please allow our minds and bodies to become the most holy place where You can personally dwell. Please allow this to be a time when we can be offered to You as undefiled sacrifices You can control and admonish.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, we have come before You with wounded hearts and exhausted minds and bodies from the previous week of living. We sincerely hope and desire that You grant us new joy of life with Your outspread loving hands and that You create an eternal and inseparable tie between You and us.</p>
|
||
<p>Allow us to be able to rejoice when You rejoice, to grieve when You grieve, to act when You act, and to fight alongside You. We eagerly hope and desire that You make an eternally irrevocable and inseparable relationship with us. We know that numerous ancestors of ours have worked hard to make a relationship with You. We eagerly hope and desire that You establish us as ones in which You can take delight, embrace and love eternally, guiding us to make an eternal and inseparable relationship of love with You.</p>
|
||
<p>Since today is a holy day, please perform an indirect work. Through our making a relationship of oneness with Your loving heart, please let the thirty million people receive the same grace and go into Your realm of love.</p>
|
||
<p>We know that there are many brothers and sisters who are worrying and praying for Your sake in front of hidden altars. Please allow them to be enmeshed in an unbreakable lifeline. Please guide this gathering to be a time to form a tight bond in the loving garden of Your pleasure. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.</p>
|
||
<p>At this time, we dedicate ourselves entirely to You. Take us as Your own. Allow us to be the people who form an eternal oneness, inseparable from Your heart. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You allow this to be a time when we can restore the true joy of the heart, emptying all of ourselves and filling our minds and bodies with what is Yours. Please grant Your hands of blessing upon all. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
|
||
<h3>Prayer</h3>
|
||
<blockquote><p>Father, as I am about to deliver the word You have granted to the children You have gathered, please be the Master of our minds and the Ruler of our bodies. Father, we have seen the word Jesus spoke 2,000 years ago in the desolate moment when, having lost the standard for hope, he had to determine to go to the cross.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, although that time has passed, we know that the world of shimjung transcends time. Allow Your anger over having lost Jesus to be expressed as our anger. Allow the thirty years of Jesus’ life to reappear in our own.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, none on earth know that our ancestors’ lack of fulfillment of their responsibility before Heaven has become an eternal sorrow.</p>
|
||
<p>Although You have gathered these unworthy people, introduced to them the heavenly shimjung with many words, and have taught them everything through revealing Your situation, we have nothing to offer You. We possess nothing. Allow us to realize that the only thing we can offer You is to be a living sacrifice who will die willingly.</p>
|
||
<p>Guide us to move hand in hand as the heavenly tribe, with our heart moving with Your heart, our shimjung moving with Your shimjung. Allow us an eager heart that can, not only deplore the betrayal of Your son, but which can also receive Your son again. Father, we sincerely hope and desire that such zealous hearts will appear in the minds and bodies of this audience.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, I would like to speak Your Word in this short time You have granted. Please allow the hearts of the giver and receivers of the word to become one. Father, we sincerely hope and pray, knowing that no matter how excellent the word is, it has nothing to do with us until it makes a relationship with our hearts.</p>
|
||
<p>Since we know that such a relationship can be created only when You come to us, we request that You take charge from the beginning to the end. We ask You to embrace the brothers and sisters scattered in the countryside with the same bosom and dominate them with the same grace. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
|
||
<p>Christianity has had a deep connection with mountains throughout history. I will speak to you on the topic of <i>“The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus as He Went to the Mountain.”</i></p>
|
||
<p>You must know well the scene of the Transfiguration from the text of the Bible. Please re-imagine the figure of Jesus as he went up to the Mount of Transfiguration. Going to the top of the mountain, Jesus represented the whole providence of history, his own contemporary age, and all the descendants of the future. I would like you to remember, however, that he climbed the mountain with a mournful, sad and lonesome heart, rather than a joyful one. We should know that this event did not affect only that moment. It was a time when a crucial decision was made that had implications for the age before Jesus, the age of Jesus, and the age after Jesus.</p>
|
||
<h3>Jesus and the Mountain</h3>
|
||
<p>We know well that Jesus visited high mountains whenever he was faced with serious matters. Jesus, who received the three tests from Satan after fasting for forty days, had to discriminate clearly between front and rear, left and right, with worry and concern for Heaven, humankind and all things. For Jesus, who bore such a responsibility, that scene was an important and tragic one in which he had to distinguish between Heaven and Satan, heavenly affairs and satanic affairs. Jesus was led away by Satan to a mountain top for the test.</p>
|
||
<p>Mountains figuring in Jesus’ life were: the mountain Satan led him to climb in the wilderness, the Mount of Transfiguration, which he climbed in order to decide in front of Heaven the matter of carrying the cross, and the garden of Gethsemane near the slopes of the Mount of Olives, where he offered a decisive prayer to go over the deadly path of Golgotha. We should remember this.</p>
|
||
<p>We will have to consider how Jesus moved, how woeful his heart was, and with what countenance Jesus appeared as he went to the mountain. We will have to reflect deeply on the figure of Jesus as he went into the wilderness 2,000 years ago. Otherwise, we will not be able to understand his desperate heart as he walked the course of struggle against Satan.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus defeated Satan in the three temptations in the wilderness and achieved the final victory on a mountain. We should realize that the steps of Jesus in going to the wilderness, after being rejected by the chosen John the Baptist and his followers and the Jewish nation, were walked with a heart of sorrow the like of which no one on the earth has ever experienced.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus appeared as the only son of Heaven, the one to resolve the 4,000 years, and the hallmark of victory God could boast about before the age and the descendants of countless generations. We must remember the sad heart of Jesus as he went into the wilderness alone, without a friend, leaving behind the people, the church, the chosen John the Baptist, and Joseph’s family.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus had come forward with the determination and sense of mission to establish the historical conditions of indemnity. What did he think about during the forty days of fasting? He felt an acute sense of responsibility to restore through indemnity, by himself, the rueful course of the ancestors. We must realize this.</p>
|
||
<p>In the process of the three temptations, what must Jesus have thought about as he was led to the mountain top by Satan? He went up the mountain with a serious heart, worried about the entire historical course of 4,000 years, struggling whether he could subjugate Satan by holding up the final shield of victory. As he was walking through the wilderness, Jesus must have thought about how, after the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and their loss, their descendants had to roam around in search of the garden. As he thought about the historical ancestors who had lived in a garden of grief after the expulsion of Adam and Eve, he had to think seriously about the mountain.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus must have remembered the loyalty of Noah, who appeared 1,600 years after Adam and Eve and built the ark on Mount Ararat, enduring all hardships for 120 years to restore the expulsion of Adam and Eve. Jesus thought about how it was for the sake of the Messiah, Jesus himself, that Noah had lived such a life. Jesus must have thought about how hard Noah worked on the mountain, yearning for Jesus himself.</p>
|
||
<p>Reflecting upon the Loyalty of the Ancestors Who Had Been to the Mountain, Jesus Made a Determination</p>
|
||
<p>Next, Jesus had to think about Abraham, who headed for the mountain after he erred with the sacrifice and was ordered to offer Isaac. He could not help reflecting upon the tragic heart of Abraham, who deceived Isaac and took him to Mount Moriah. For whom did Abraham have to offer his only son Isaac as a sacrifice? Jesus must have reflected upon how this was, of course, for the Father and the Messiah.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus then must have remembered Moses. Moses went through forty years in Pharaoh’s palace and forty years of hardship in the wilderness of Midian. He must have imagined the scene in which God appeared to the sorrow-stricken Moses in the burning bush, by the foot of Mount Horeb, and made a new promise.</p>
|
||
<p>He could not help recollecting the scene in which Moses met God on Mount Horeb and formed an unchanging bond with him, as well as the scene in which God and Moses made a relationship, through God’s providence to eradicate the enemy Satan from the universe. He could not help recalling the loyalty of Moses in serving the Will.</p>
|
||
<p>When Moses received the order to lead the people of Israel from Egypt to the blessed land of Canaan, he was an old man of eighty years, exhausted from his life in the wilderness. Yet his gaze and figure were consumed with the shimjung of Heaven. Jesus could not help remembering the standard of the heart of Moses.</p>
|
||
<p>Furthermore, after having taken the 600,000 people to the wilderness where there were privations, Moses had the responsibility to persist to the end and bring them to the land of Canaan. Worried that they might go the wrong way, Moses went to Mount Sinai. On the top of the mountain, Moses did a forty-day fast and prayed. After this, he came down with God’s Word. Jesus could not help recalling Moses in this situation. He could not help reflecting that it was only for the sake of Heavenly Father, only for the sake of paving the road for the Messiah and of establishing a restored state through the chosen people that Moses did the forty-day fast and prayer on Mount Sinai.</p>
|
||
<p>For whom did Elijah confront the satanic priests of Baal on Mount Carmel? Jesus reflected that it was for the sake of God and himself that the ancestors went to the mountain top and prayed before Heaven in a showdown. Reflecting on such historical connections with mountains, Jesus felt a serious heart. Today we also should reflect on the world of the heart of Jesus.</p>
|
||
<p>The footsteps of Jesus as he was led away by Satan in the wilderness course were not taken with self-centered thoughts. As you know through the Divine Principle, Jesus went to the mountain top with the heartistic intention of restoring the individual environment and the world through such symbolic processes. We should know that Jesus followed Satan to the mountain top with the determination to face a great trial and with the heart to establish the tradition as the new ancestor of history and to inherit the heavenly shimjung.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus had a more serious heart toward the Will than anyone else. We should know that he went to the wilderness with a burning heart to seize and subjugate Satan, with a firmer determination than any ancestor in history. We should know that Jesus stood alone on that mountain top.</p>
|
||
<p>When Jesus reflected on the historical course, he felt he had to make a serious determination. When he thought about the nation of Israel, he felt a historical sense of responsibility and a heart of inexpressible sorrow.</p>
|
||
<p>God sent John the Baptist to the earth and had him pave the new way for achieving the heavenly Will. Although he was sent to prepare for the Messiah, John did not believe in Jesus. As a result, the chosen people who were to carry out the responsibility of the age, representing the history of the people God had chosen, blessed and led for 4,000 years, the Israelites, disappeared. We should understand that Jesus had to regain the lost people.</p>
|
||
<p>In such a position, Jesus could not help being frustrated. Thinking of all the chosen people and groups, he could not help being stricken with sorrow. Examining the motivation and origin, however, and fathoming the historical shimjung up to that moment, Jesus felt that Satan was the one who caused such a complication. Jesus faced the satanic trial with a firm determination to win a decisive victory over Satan. You should never forget a scene of such gravity.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Lonely Position of Jesus,<br />
|
||
Who Had to Go to the Mountain Again</h3>
|
||
<p>Although Satan “showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” and said to Jesus, “All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me,” (Matthew 4:12) Jesus resolutely rejected Satan. In this way he established the standard of victory in front of Satan. You should consider the situation of Jesus. In this fashion, he won the standard of the self who could connect to the sorrows of history and the age. Jesus then had to descend the mountain and look for the chosen Israel and the Jewish church, as the footing for the historical connection.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus went to the Israelites and the Jewish churches with the victorious standard from the wilderness course, yet they did not welcome him. Instead of welcoming him, they persecuted him wherever he went. He met with opposition and ridicule. Having to go the wilderness course after being rejected the first time was already enough to provoke hard feelings and anger. When Jesus saw the Jewish church and the Israelite nation opposing him, the one who had returned to them with a victory over Satan, his heart was consumed with inexpressible pain and sorrow. We should contemplate the position and situation of Jesus.</p>
|
||
<p>In difficult circumstances of persecution, to turn back the nation and church to God, Jesus prayed on the mountain top and fought against Satan throughout his three years of public life. Yet he saw no fruit. Consequently, he finally went up to the Mount of Transfiguration with the heart to awaken the ignorant people, even if he had to undertake his death.</p>
|
||
<p>After realizing that no human effort would bring about the result, he came forward with an ardent heart to save the people, who had the ties of history and the age and who were linked to the heavenly shimjung. He was determined, even if he had to die as a sacrifice and shed his blood and flesh, but the place he visited with such a heart was not a great palace. It was neither the house of a disciple who received him, nor the house of the people of the state, nor the house of a member of the Jewish church. It was a mountain, the Mount of Transfiguration. You should look carefully at the sorrowful heart of Jesus as he walked to and fro with no place to go.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus had to take the woeful wilderness course, because the ancestors did not have faith and failed to carry out their responsibilities. Although he wandered about for three years looking for the one who could understand the heavenly heart, he failed and had to go to the mountain again. We should reflect on the sad heart and footsteps of Jesus today. When Jesus went to the wilderness, he set out to embrace the nation with the standard of winning over Satan. When he went to the Mount of Transfiguration, however, he discarded all previous resolutions and set out to give his body to the nation, determined to face death. If someone can imagine the figure and heart of Jesus as he climbed the mountain then, if someone can experience the sorrow as his own and behold Jesus with such a heart, he will be able to experience the sorrow of Jesus toward Heaven, the nation and the church.</p>
|
||
<h3>The Background of Jesus’ Ascent of the<br />
|
||
Mount of Transfiguration and<br />
|
||
His Serious Determination</h3>
|
||
<p>When Jesus climbed the Mount of Transfiguration, he was accompanied by three disciples. Although they were chosen as representatives of the nation, they failed to establish any condition of support for Jesus on the mountain route.</p>
|
||
<p>When Jesus went to the wilderness, angels served him. When he ascended the Mount of Transfiguration after fighting for the nation, determined to die for it, even the three disciples failed to serve him. Considering this, we cannot help feeling that the life of Jesus, which started and ended in sorrow, was full of pathos.</p>
|
||
<p>Jesus knelt down and prayed to Heaven that he would follow His Will to the limits of his strength and with all his effort. Although he followed the three-year course of public life with greater dedication, loyalty, sincerity and effort than any ancestor in history, Jesus was driven out by the nation and the church. Even with no relatives or disciples standing by his side, he still lived a life of prayer in sight of Heaven.</p>
|
||
<p>You should know that Jesus’ shimjung was such that rather than feeling sorrow for his lonely position, he regretted that the result of God’s efforts for humanity during the 4,000 years was so meager and felt sorry to express his heart to Heaven. To Jesus, consumed with such a shimjung, resentment toward the nation, the church or the fallen Adam and Eve was out of the question. We should know that Jesus did not have enough leisure to bear a grudge against anyone.</p>
|
||
<p>In the past, the ancestors had received Heaven’s consolation in their grief. Jesus realized that he could not express sorrow in prayer, even though he was in a position of sorrow. I think that, before a prayer, Jesus’ knees were wet with tears. He cried as if he were the worst sinner in heaven and earth. Standing on the route to defeat, without having set the victorious condition for God, Jesus had to go to the Mount of Transfiguration, by himself, with sorrow and plead with Heaven. He could not open his mouth and pray.</p>
|
||
<p>Since that figure and situation were full of pathos, God sent Elijah and Moses to discuss Jesus’ death in Jerusalem with him. Jesus knew that Heaven and his disciples would be stricken with woe upon his death. Worried about the people and their descendants, he grieved for the sake of the past, the present and the future. Wanting to save the Jewish people even through his death, Jesus appeared before God with a prayerful heart similar to that of Elijah’s when he cried out, “Father, only I am left.” Jesus’ heart was truly mournful.</p>
|
||
<p>We know well that our ancestors left a sad history as they worked for the sake of Heaven until today. God wanted the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration to realize that they were of a sinful tribe and to worry about the sorrow of the nation with the same heart as Jesus. Although God wanted them to console Jesus and pray for his sake, their thoughts were different. This has been the reality of the historical course followed by our ancestors until today.</p>
|
||
<p>After he was notified of his coming death in Jerusalem, Jesus prepared for the day of death. He felt the day of death coming closer and closer, and the situation becoming increasingly chaotic. Seeing that one of his beloved disciples would betray him, Jesus seriously felt the need to conclude all his affairs on earth before going to the cross. His mind and body were immersed in such feelings.</p>
|
||
<p>Since he knew that he had the responsibility as the Savior to follow the path to death, he had to set the direction to take after death. Jesus worried that even after his death, the sorrows of history, the age and the future would not disappear but would remain. You should know that Jesus’ heart was more serious than at any other time.</p>
|
||
<p>There was no one on earth who understood Jesus’ heart. None of the disciples understood the situation. God was the only one who knew Jesus’ situation. Thus, Jesus carried a sorrowful heart about which no one else knew, and he carried the grudge of history, the age and the future. He was put in miserable circumstances in which the walls of misfortune and dark clouds blocked his way, and he was driven to death. The heart of Jesus must have been more sorrowful and indignant than any on earth.</p>
|
||
<h3>Father, if Possible</h3>
|
||
<p>For whom did Jesus come to the earth? Although he came for the sake of history, the age, the nation and the church, his path was full of pathos. Since he knew that his sorrow would not end simply as his own, but would be expanded as the sorrow of history, the age and the future, he was consumed with anxiety.</p>
|
||
<p>For this reason, Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane. We should be able to feel sadness about this matter. The place where Jesus, the Savior of all people and the King of Kings, shared his final sorrow was not in the home of a disciple. It was not in a Jewish church nor a palace of the Jewish state. The place to which he went to decide everything in consultation with God was the garden of Gethsemane, where there were no visitors that late night. We should know this.</p>
|
||
<p>We believers in the last days should shed tears of sorrow, for the sake of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. We should have a longing heart for the figure of this Jesus. You should know that only in this way can you make a connection with Jesus, who cried with historical sorrow for the sake of the age and the future, who cried three times with blood and sweat, in utter misery.</p>
|
||
<p>When Jesus prayed all night, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me,” (Matthew 26:39) he must have been indescribably indignant and sorrowful. Considering that 4,000 years of history had collapsed, the nation of Israel had perished, the dispensational foundation of the 4,000 years had crumbled, and the Jewish church had fallen, Jesus’ blood and sweat were what connected the distance of history. His blood and tears bridged the gap of history. We should know that the Jewish people then could not even dream of this.</p>
|
||
<p>The disciples of Jesus at least made a pledge to follow him wherever he went. Who inherited the sorrowful heart of Jesus? Who made a connection with his pathetic situation of blood and tears? There was no one on earth. You should know that Jesus performed this task alone. There was no one to inherit his shimjung.</p>
|
||
<p>Hence, confronted with death, Jesus prayed as many as three times before Heaven at the garden of Gethsemane: “Abba, Father, for You all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet not what I want, but what You want.” (Mark 14:36) This plea burst Heaven and earth. This grave word was uttered to prevent the world of darkness from coming with power and authority.</p>
|
||
<p>Thus, the prayer at the garden of Gethsemane will never end. Throughout endless ages and centuries, this heartbreaking and blood- stained voice of the final plea should always stay alive in the human heart. God is working hard, hoping for a day when your shimjung will resonate with the shimjung of Jesus, who cried out, “Oh, Heaven.”</p>
|
||
<p>The believers in the last days should inherit the historical and grave shimjung of Jesus as he prayed on Mount Calgary and in the garden of Gethsemane. They should awaken the Christians who are in the position of the three disciples sleeping in the garden of Gethsemane. You should know that such an age is approaching. With the same shimjung as Jesus, who prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me,” (Matthew 26:39) you should also pray, “Father, if possible, do not let our Messiah be taken to the cross.”</p>
|
||
<h3>The Mountain: Ground for the Blood and Tears of Jesus</h3>
|
||
<p>When Jesus prayed three times, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39), there was no one who prayed with the same shimjung: “Father, if possible, let me be taken to the cross instead of Jesus.” You should know that there was no chosen believer or person capable of offering such a prayer.</p>
|
||
<p>The life of Jesus was a continuation of grave events like those on the mountain, without any joy. Whenever he was lonely, Jesus visited the valleys of the Mount of Olives. Whenever he was sad, he gave a silent sermon, with the quiet forest as his friends. We should know that he never had a free place where he could share the depth of his heart with anyone.</p>
|
||
<p>Whenever Jesus came to the Father on the mountain top, he came with sorrow. Amid this anguish, however, he had hope. What must it have been? Thinking that all the mountains and streams were linked with God’s tears and with the pitiful hearts of the ancestors, he hoped that the mountains and streams could form an altar of joy and glory and offer songs of victory, rather than being places of sorrow and tears. This was Jesus’ hope.</p>
|
||
<p>What should we feel, looking at the mountains? Considering that our ancestors tried to end all the sorrowful history on mountains with grave determination, you should be able to feel that the mountains hoped that the ancestors would win over the satanic world. You should consider that the mountain is where Jesus prayed to establish a standard of victory at every scene. He must have waited for the day when he could set up an altar of victory and glory on the mountain and say, “Father, receive glory through me.” Realizing this, when you see a mountain, you should feel that it was the ground of Jesus’ blood and tears.</p>
|
||
<p>Perhaps Jesus even pleaded with one blade of grass and with one rock at the garden of Gethsemane. Hence, the grass and rock could make contact with and be immersed in the shimjung of Jesus, who prayed all night. Yet the people then could not. We should understand this.</p>
|
||
<p>Furthermore, deploring our having become people of sorrow, and realizing our shame before all things and mountains, we should never be like the Jewish people, who expelled Jesus to the mountain, when the Lord returns to the earth. We should serve the Lord in the family, society and state. We should serve him in all places: in the fields, mountains, and even on the tops of the mountains. You should serve the Lord as people of joy and glory in the presence of Heaven. You should know that you have the responsibility to create an environment where the words of the Lord can be words of joy and love, rather than ones of sorrow.</p>
|
||
<p>The mountains have traces of God’s tears, who lamented over the history of sorrow, calling out, “Mountains! Mountains and streams!” Whether it is the earth, all things, the historical course or this age, there is nothing God does not see through His eyes of sorrow. God treats any being on the earth with a woeful heart.</p>
|
||
<p>Ladies and gentlemen! You should understand the trials of Jesus, who started out on the mountain and walked and walked toward another mountain. Jesus had a victorious condition from the mountain top and in the living environment. You should know that Jesus hoped for the day to serve God on the mountain.</p>
|
||
<p>This was the historical shimjung of Jesus, his walk during his age. It was the hope of Jesus, who went to the mountain and prayed to establish the standard of victory. We should know this. Furthermore, we should fight against Satan, in place of Jesus, in today’s wilderness course. We should be able to fight with our lives for the sake of the nation and the world in place of Jesus, who fought on the Mount of Transfiguration. We should be able to cry out to Heavenly Father with the heart of Jesus, who made a historical connection to face death at the garden of Gethsemane. With a shimjung that will burst our hearts, we should inherit the shimjung of Heaven, who desires to make a connection with this earth. You should remember that unless you establish yourselves as ones who can connect with God’s shimjung, the efforts of Jesus on the mountain will come to naught.</p>
|
||
<h3>Prayer</h3>
|
||
<blockquote><p>Father, we know that in search of religion, humankind needs beautiful and great mountains. We know well that the great figures of history had relationships with mountains, sharing their situations with mountains and determining the standards of life and death and victory and defeat on mountains. We have learned that Jesus visited the top of a mountain as the representative of humankind and there pleaded with Heaven from the depths of his heart.</p>
|
||
<p>As we have realized the historical connections with mountains, please allow many sons and daughters of God to appear on the mountain tops of the peninsula of the 3,000-li. Guide them to be proud people who can return the glory of victory to You and indemnify the historical grounds of resentment over what took place on the mountains.</p>
|
||
<p>To be such people, we know that besides our individual selves, our families, our societies, our religions, nations and world must all go to the mountain top. Please guide us to resemble the heart of Jesus, walking up and down the mountains for the sake of heaven and earth, and to follow in his footsteps. Allow us to become the children who can fight with fidelity until the day we set up a victorious altar on the mountain top and sing “Hosanna.” Let us fight without exhaustion or retreat.</p>
|
||
<p>Father, we know that if we have such a determination, You will help us. Lead us to go through any complications with single-mindedness. Make us true sons and daughters who can, upon Your request, come and take the responsibility to connect to Your heart in the service of Your Will. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/10/oh-where-shall-i-go.html" title="Permalink to Oh, Where Shall I Go?" rel="bookmark">Oh, Where Shall I Go?</a>
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-10T07:19:20+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/10/oh-where-shall-i-go.html" rel="bookmark">June 10, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-10T07:19:34+01:00">June 10, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1959.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1959</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<p style="text-align: center;">Former Church Headquarters<br />
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Seoul, Korea<br />
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January 18, 1959</p>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;"><em>Matthew 7:7-8</em><br />
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<em><span class="text Matt-7-7"><span class="woj"><sup class="versenum">7 </sup>“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.</span></span> <span id="en-NIV-23325" class="text Matt-7-8"><span class="woj"><sup class="versenum">8 </sup>For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.</span></span></em></h3>
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<p>Prayer</p>
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<blockquote><p>Compassionate Father, since we have again come in Your presence with wounds and injured souls from the past week, we sincerely request that You spread Your loving hands, embrace our bodies and minds, and grant Your words of love and admonition to our hearts. Father, on this third holy day of the new year, let our hearts stay in Your shimjung. Let our bodies be embraced in Your bosom.</p>
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<p>Beloved Father, we sincerely desire that You allow us to share joy with You this year, to live in the realm of Your hope, and to fight against Satan, representing You. As we come to understand Your historical course as You sought us with Your ideal, love, life and glory of goodness, we cannot help confessing openly that we are a shameful tribe in sight of You. We sincerely desire and hope, Father, You will not rescind Your heart of goodness and that You come to us and admonish us. Allow us to understand that this is the time when life and death are hovering over each of our lives, and we hang in the balance.</p>
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<p>We have realized that we should become living sacrifices who offer their minds and bodies to You. Since we know that at this time we must consecrate our current lives from our lives of the past, Father, we earnestly desire and hope that we can offer our entire bodies and minds to You at this time and receive Your acknowledgment once again.</p>
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<p>If You look at us with great expectation, we can only disappoint You. Yet based on our historical, blood relationship with You, please forgive us and personally visit us at this time. Although our strength falls short, we have prostrated ourselves before You to become one and fight against Satan. We hope that our pleas and bows can be pleasing to You. Since we know that, unless You deal with us directly, we all will be dragged away to Satan, we sincerely desire and hope that You will directly dominate us at this time.</p>
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<p>Please personally admonish and command Your sons and daughters who are gathered here. We know that we must take the responsibility to fight for the sake of Heaven. Father, now the beloved young sons and daughters are living together in Your presence. Please allow them to experience the shimjung of Heaven and to understand the footsteps of those who have worked to fulfill Your Will. Furthermore, Father, we sincerely hope and desire that by letting them see the battles Your sons and daughters have fought, You will make them the sons and daughters who can understand heavenly things, the sons and daughters Heaven cannot forsake for all of eternity.</p>
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<p>They have the responsibility to find the brothers and sisters who are scattered in all directions. We know that many of Your sons and daughters are piling up desperate prayers upon bloody altars in hiding, yet they are being trampled upon. Please look after them. Since we know that You gathered them to bestow the heavenly mission upon them, Father, separate them eternally from the satanic world and embrace them forever. Please allow them to become complete by fulfilling the responsibility of priests in charge of Your glorious altar.</p>
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<p>Father, we cannot repay Your blessing nor do we have anything to give You. Father, you have taught us to pity and befriend the lonely and to forgive the sinful. Please forgive us, and do not abandon us in such a position. We sincerely hope and desire this.</p>
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<p>Father, you know our hearts. Since You know that there are sons and daughters in lonely places struggling with longing for You, have pity on all because of them. They must be hoping for Your forgiveness and guidance at this time, so we sincerely hope and desire that You grant them blessing after blessing and outstretch Your compassionate hand.</p>
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<p>Father, bless the countless numbers of slumbering people. Bless the nation of thirty million, which is in deep lamentation. Bless the Korean churches, fighting in a myriad of factions, not knowing the correct way. Make them raise the flag of life. Make them the children who can accept heavenly admonition, even the crack of Your whip. We sincerely hope for this.</p>
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<p>Whether we come or go, we are responsible to become sacrifices. Guide us to understand the shimjung with which You give us such a responsibility. With humanistic thinking, we often do not welcome such a life of sacrifice. Guide us to understand the responsibility of overcoming all such conditions and to go on today, tomorrow, ten years from now, and even up the hill of death. Please allow us never to become exhausted, frustrated or hesitant until we have walked the path to the end. Father, we sincerely desire this.</p>
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<p>Please personally receive our bows today. Since we know that the lonely brothers and sisters in the country are deeply praying on their knees without pastors at this time, please guide us not to betray their tearful prayers and sincerity. Father, we earnestly hope and desire this.</p>
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<p>We sincerely ask You to make us a people who can communicate heart to heart and shimjung to shimjung; who can handle everything and share Your concerns. We hope that You will fill the remaining hour with Your guidance. We pray in the name of the Lord.</p></blockquote>
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>Father, we know well that many people have struggled on a deeply woeful course in history to find You, even though they did not know the way. Father, Your existence seems likely, yet improbable. You seem to exist in history and yet cannot be recognized as existing for certain. We behold this Father with an intensely grieved heart. You seem to exist in our hearts, and yet You are insubstantial.</p>
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<p>We know well that You created the whole cosmos with the ideal of goodness and gave an amazing blessing to humans in that You gave us true consciences and enabled us to experience the ideal of goodness through our intellects, emotions and wills. We know well, however, that it is undeniable that Your substantial existence is felt in the temporal limitations of the moment.</p>
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<p>Whenever we long for Your image in our hearts, we cannot help being seized by an unknowable sorrow. We cannot help lamenting over the misery of our existence. Father, You led us to this state. We know that this is Your historical operation of the heart to lead us to eternal life.</p>
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<p>We want to know the Father, who came to us through our shimjung and who was the heart behind the scenes of history, unbeknownst to us, trying to structure history into one substantial ideal. We are sincerely longing to establish Your heart as the ideal of our lives. Since we do not clearly know the value of Your substantial existence, we do not know the value of our daily lives. We are in a miserable position of having to struggle today and tomorrow. Father, have pity on us. Have pity on each of us, wandering about on the boundary of death.</p>
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<p>Father, now we know that the time has come when You must spread Your hands of love. The wave of that love should reach our environments and our world of shimjung. It is time to regain Your authority of shimjung. The authority is Yours alone. We know that the time has come to wage a war centering on the heart. Please give us the magnanimity with which to open closed hearts. Now is the time when we should become sons and daughters prepared to bow down to You. Enable us to hear You knocking on the doors of our hearts, to see Your hands before us. We sincerely hope and desire this.</p>
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<p>We know that we must continue through the remaining ground of sorrow and the wall of grudges, the showdown and war of the last days. Father, grant strength, ability and Your substantial presence to Your sons and daughters who know this. Allow us to cut the dashing figure of a heavenly soldier who can go through all suffering and battles. Allow us to become noble and confident sons and daughters in exercising the authority of judgment, according to Your decisions. Beloved Father, we earnestly hope and desire this.</p>
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<p>Since You are the one who blessed the chosen people, we know that You will bring it to pass. We know that the root of our heart is goodness, and our heart moves through goodness. We know that the purpose of goodness, history and the providence is to become one, centered on You. Please allow the pinnacle of the ideal, adored by the spirit of goodness, to bear fruit. Let us establish ourselves that we may persistently continue to become the ideal itself. Father, we sincerely hope and desire this.</p>
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<p>Please allow us to know where our hearts are and where our bodies are moving. Allow our hearts to concentrate all our energy on longing for You and adoring goodness. Allow our bodies to call out to You, struggling to grasp goodness and holding onto the hands of hunger and thirst.</p>
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<p>We know that the 6,000 years was the process of holding onto You and pleading with You. Beloved Father, we sincerely hope and desire that, at this time, You allow us to bow to You with our honest selves, confess all, and receive Your guidance.</p>
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<p>Father, have pity on the sons and daughters gathered here. Since this is a time to offer a sacrifice to You, allow heaven, all saints, all people, and all things to lower their heads. When the Israelites made an offering to You, You lowered Your head to look it over, and all people and all things on the earth also lowered their heads. We hope that we can unconsciously lower our heads at this time and humbly seek the grace of compassion. Thus, we sincerely hope and desire that You personally come here, accept our offering and guide us.</p>
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<p>Since You are the one who drives us to the path that is rejected by others, the road that is difficult to walk, You become responsible for this path. We have not been moved by a human heart nor dragged along by a human situation. Rather, we have been attracted to this place by an irresistible power of the heart. Guide us never to become lax.</p>
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<p>Since we are ignorant of Your words of urgency and advice, apply shocks of power to us hour by hour so that we may realize the Words and move in their direction. Father, we sincerely hope and desire that no one will drop out of the process of moving toward You.</p>
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<p>We sincerely hope and desire that You allow us to yield all we have to You, never staining Your altar, bowing down to You with all our hearts in offering sacrifices to You. If we still have our own philosophy, understanding or concepts, please remove them all at this time. Allow us to be the children who can submit all our possessions to You with the heart of a child. Allow us to receive them back and boast of them before Satan on the earth. Father, we sincerely hope and desire this.</p>
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<p>Now we are about to receive the words. Please be with us. We sincerely hope and desire that since You will give many words of guidance, we will not disappoint Heaven after we hear them. Please allow the hearts of the giver and of the receivers to become one now. We sincerely ask that, at this time, we may return to the heart of a child sucking milk in its mother’s bosom. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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<p>Today we do not know clearly whether God exists or not; yet, we have a destiny which we cannot help living. As such, we always seek that which is better. This will continue until the end of history. Your descendants also will go this way. You will not be able to deny it.</p>
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<h3>Human Beings Lament in Ignorance</h3>
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<p>If we have to go toward a certain purpose anyway, we should think carefully about in what direction we should proceed, how we should live, how we should act, and what opinion we should have concerning good and evil.</p>
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<p>Although you may want to resolve all these complicated problems, one by one, considering the reality of the world, if there is an available road to retreat, you will feel a strong urge to take it. You will feel that, if you look at the world, it is not the environment you desire. If you look at the society in which you live, it is not the society of well-being your heart desires. As the flow of the social environment and the generations becomes more complicated, we cannot help worrying about our future in that society.</p>
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<p>The world is complicated; yet, today the movement of religious groups leading the world of the spirit through ideals is more complex. Thus, although you feel attracted to these religions in heart, it is difficult for you to follow them.</p>
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<p>Since we are entangled in these complicated situations, we are unable to move, although our hearts and bodies desire to do so. We come to realize that we are able to grieve over ourselves, because we cannot move in the direction of our heart’s desires.</p>
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<p>Thus, if people do not criticize themselves while they are alive, they will have to criticize themselves after death, in front of the whole cosmos. Religion explains that such a place is hell, where no one wants to go.</p>
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<p>Since we are in a position where we cannot refuse to go, we have managed to walk this path and come to this place. When Heaven wants to see the value of your having come to this place by yourself, what do you have to show? You can only breathe a sigh of regret over your past life.</p>
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<p>We are in such a position, whether we look at our past, present or future. Our heart is thirsty for the final ideal and the highest happiness. When will they come to pass, overcoming our contradictory selves and the world? If there are true young people who realize such facts and are shocked in their hearts, they will become consumed with a sense of mission to resolve the contradictions. They then will enter into a realm where they even lose their attachment to life.</p>
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<p>You cannot eliminate all the sins from your body and give up your sinful body and take the lowliest position. How then will you overcome this contradiction? Something is grabbing your heart and directing it toward a certain ideal. All of humankind stumbles on this point. You should know that all of humankind and all things, all that exists in heaven and earth, are stuck in this process. You cannot deny that humankind is like this.</p>
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<p>From the day you acknowledge this, you will hear the plea of your grieving and weeping heart, asking where you should go. Thus, the topic I want to speak to you about today is <i>“Oh! Where Shall I Go?”</i></p>
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<h3>Our Ancestors’ Hope in Us</h3>
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<p>We know that everything around us today has gone through a fallen course of history. The people who surround us today are living in a fallen reality. Based on the reality, it is possible to predict that fallen history will continue.</p>
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<p>How can we explain the fall, which occurred in the past, exists in the present, and will be projected into the future? You know well that, during the long period of the 6,000 years until now, although our ancestors tried hard to avoid it through countless efforts and sacrifices, fallen history continued. You also know well that in the present age, many people are anxiously struggling to avoid the effects of this sinful world.</p>
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<p>I have been living in such a world in the past and am living in it at present. As I reflect upon myself, I cannot deny that the resentment of my ancestors moves in my heart. A sad feeling flows due to the shock of living in the present world. If there is a connection that arouses yearning in us, what will it be?</p>
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<p>Now is the time to yearn for our ancestors, who fought their way through the fallen course of history with sad hearts. It is time to yearn for our comrades in the present, who are struggling with sorrowful hearts to escape the realm of death, suffering and the fall. Hence, if we are to long for the past, we should not long for the historical facts; rather, we should yearn for the shimjung of the ancestors who were fighting with true faith against the historical tragedy.</p>
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<p>What spirit did our ancestors possess that they could work for the sake of removing the historical tragedy? What spirit do our ancestors seek to instill in us today? Who are the comrades fighting to establish tomorrow’s foundation of goodness, carrying the hope of the future and overcoming all the troubles of the present?</p>
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<p>It is undeniable that those who cannot revive such a heart will betray the connections of history and of the age, and will destroy the future. You are standing in such a position today.</p>
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<p>When an ancestor appears and asks you, “Do you know me?” what answer will you give? On the other hand, when you face a brother fighting against this sinful world in this age, he will ask you, “What words can you say to me?” He will say, “I am fighting under persecution for the sake of the path of tomorrow. What words of advice can you give me?” The question is, what answer will you give to the voices of the past, the present and the future? Furthermore, although I hear the ancestors’ words and understand their shimjung, things remain for which knowing is not enough.</p>
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<p>There are situations that cannot be resolved by the situation of the age, and there are situations that cannot be resolved by the situation of the future. In other words, the sorrow of history remains, the sorrow of the age remains, and the sorrow of the future looms. Realizing that such sorrow remains, we should keep in mind that we must speak representing our ancestors, the people of the present, and our descendants.</p>
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<p>If our ancestors do not have a descendant who will take this responsibility, then they will lament, even if they themselves have accomplishments. The ancestors who fought for the sake of the Will, who were stricken with the shimjung of sorrow, who were consumed with the shimjung of resentment for the sake of Heaven have one hope in us today. If we fail to possess this shimjung, their sorrow will deepen. You should know that this will be the same in the present and the future.</p>
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<h3>Today’s Believers Should Excel in Shimjung<br />
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Beyond the Faithful Ancestors of the Past</h3>
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<p>The course of restoration speaks. The sorrowful history began in Adam’s family, and the ancestors who served the providence of restoration went through a woeful course. With Noah, Abraham and even Jesus going through a complicated history of misfortune, the misfortune of history has been sweeping the world.</p>
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<p>Jesus represented Heaven, humankind, history, the age and the future to prevent such a historical misfortune. We know too well, however, that since Jesus could not complete the victorious condition to eradicate this historical misfortune and left with the promise of the day of hope, the history of sorrow has continued until now.</p>
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<p>Where am I going today? You should go beyond the shimjung of Adam, beyond that of Noah, Abraham and Moses. You should go beyond the shimjung of any prophet or individual, including John the Baptist and Jesus. We also should go beyond the woeful shimjung of the Christians who were killed and martyred in the historical course of the 2,000 years from Jesus until now. We are the substantial fruit representing all this. Heaven will ask you what heartistic foundation you have to respond to the historical connection of shimjung.</p>
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<p>Heaven has been fighting throughout history. Heaven will want to establish victory in the end. Hence, we should win by experiencing the historical heart of sorrow. We should restore all the conditions for heavenly sorrow in history in this age. We should be the heavenly children who can console the sad heavenly heart toward the whole of history. We need to consider that, although Heaven has not been able to embrace anyone for 6,000 years, if there are such sons and daughters, Heaven will embrace them with a joyful heart.</p>
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<p>If you have shimjung, it did not originate in your individual self. There is no one who does not go through the ancestral ties and their foundation of shimjung. Thus, we cannot deny that your shimjung belongs to the historical realm.</p>
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<p>In which world of shimjung am I wandering today? With what kind of viewpoint and sensibilities am I living? Before you think about this, however, you will want to say, “Heavenly Father, I want to live with the shimjung of Adam and Eve before the fall, the shimjung with which they fell, the shimjung with which You expelled them, and the shimjung with which You worked hard with humankind for 1,600 years until You established Noah. I want to live with the shimjung with which Noah worked hard on the ark on the mountain top for 120 years, holding onto You even amid infinite mistreatment and abuse. I want to live with the shimjung with which You have gone through the twisted and multifarious course of history.”</p>
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<p>The Father wants to install one person as the living substance of history and the hallmark of victory. You can pray, “Father, can you extend Your hand and allow us to travel so that we can see the heart of an individual sharing joy with You before the fall to the tragic scenes of history after the fall?”</p>
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<p>What is the essential reason God’s sorrow and man’s sorrow are not resolved? It is because, although there are many people, none catch God’s shimjung; none seize the historical shimjung. No one grasps the divine shimjung and the future shimjung and connect them to man’s shimjung. Thus, you should know that among God’s sighs, there is none greater than the sigh of not having fulfilled this Will.</p>
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<p>For this reason, you should reconsider the course of finding Heaven. God has been reaching out to us in order to send us to the garden of eternal hope.</p>
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<h3>We Should Find the True Substance,<br />
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the True Word and True Love</h3>
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<p>As you know through the Divine Principle, we humans lost God’s Word, God’s substance and His love by betraying His Word. What was God’s heart like when He gave the Word, when He created the substance, and when He tried to love through this substance?</p>
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<p>We are the ones who lost God’s Word, lost the original substance and the substance of love. It is we who lost God’s garden of the ideal. Thus, we should realize that we are sinners who cannot be proud of ourselves. We cannot find the ground of peaceful rest in our hearts nor can we be subject over events.</p>
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<p>Although God wanted to come to us with the substance and a loving heart, since humankind has lost the substance, love and Word, God could not come directly as the substance. Therefore, Jesus came representing the substance, yet he left without completing the actions of the substance.</p>
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<p>God gave the representative of the substance to humankind, who had betrayed the Word. Yet humankind betrayed this substance. God gave humans love, and they also betrayed this. Hence, today, substance, Word and love remain in name only for humankind. Humankind struggles in search of these things in reality.</p>
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<p>Today we understand that history has come full circle. Since we have realized that we cannot be perfected by a genuine Word, we cannot be led to the substance by a genuine substance, and we cannot find eternal repose through genuine love, we should be struggling in search of this, with the slogan, “Where is the true Word, substance and love?”</p>
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<p>Looking at humankind in this situation, Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)</p>
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<p>Where are my footsteps moving today? We are walking in order to seek, ask and knock. Although humankind has been walking this way for 6,000 years since the fall, his destiny is such that he is still unable to stop.</p>
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<p>Where will my footsteps go? There are not only good things on the earth. On the contrary, evil outweighs the good. At such a time, it is a crucial question whether our paths are directed to the left or right and whether they are going toward goodness.</p>
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<p>You wander in search of a true teacher. What will you do when you find a good leader and true teacher? You will want to hear the word that can bring consolation and hope to your hearts. You are looking for a new teacher in order to find some new word. What will you do then, when you find the Word? You should achieve the substance by being united with the Word. This is why you are looking for the Word.</p>
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<p>Hitherto, our ancestors worked hard to examine God’s existence and resolve the fundamental questions of life. Such efforts continue today. Whether you have such a concept or not, many interested people are knocking, searching, asking and wandering today. When you see that, you should think about whether you too are struggling in such a position. Unless you are struggling, you cannot meet God, who has been ruling history. Unless there is such a person in this world today, God’s Will, ideal of goodness, and the age of hope we desire will bear no relationship to heaven and humanity. We can draw such a conclusion.</p>
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<p>Although you may not be aware of it, searching, wandering and struggling people existed in the time of your ancestors. They exist in the present and will exist in the future without end. We cannot deny this. From this standpoint, you should ask in what position you stand today.</p>
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<h3>Humanity Eventually Must Cross Over<br />
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the Intricate Hill of a Showdown</h3>
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<p>These days young students go to school carrying bags, but some of the students do not know why they carry the bags. I am going into society. Where shall I go? I am continuing with an important responsibility for the state. Since the world is there, I am going to lead the world. You say these things, but where will you go? If there is Heaven, an X is before us. We cannot deny that all affairs in the world have such complications.</p>
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<p>The external world is the same, just like the internal world. Although we want to extend ourselves infinitely, signs of complications are blocking us every time we take a step forward. We go into the internal world to avoid this. We try to move in the direction of righteousness, morality, ethics and religion. However, all kinds of complications block us there, too.</p>
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<p>At such a time, you will be tempted to complain, “God, have You established religion? Are You dominating history?” If God exists, why has He created such a tragic history? Why does He make us experience this? Why are we struggling without the authority to break away from all the internal domains of the world? With a desire to resolve these questions, you should fight against the power of misfortune, shaking heaven, earth, the world and your life. You should know that this is the hill of the showdown. Humankind eventually has to go beyond this.</p>
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<p>When will these tragic complications be resolved? In the world, there are ideologies that have split into thousands of chasms. There is even more darkness in the internal world. As your truth-seeking heart becomes increasingly intense, you will forget the earth, heaven and yourself. You will desire to understand the historical shimjung with which our ancestors struggled, representing heaven and earth and the historical course. You will want to utter words of all the tragic complications of history with your mouth, in terms you do not even know. Yet you will not find heaven and earth. You cannot help returning.</p>
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<p>Although you want to say, “I will believe,” from the historical level of shimjung, you will not be able to do it. If you have not felt this moment in your lifetime, you will encounter it right before death, but that is too late. Why is humankind struggling today? If you do not want to face this trouble at death, you must have a sincere faith while you are young. This is the hope of believers.</p>
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<p>You cannot do anything about it if you encounter it right before death. Hence, Heaven drives humans into hardships to help them establish a view of life and the world centering on goodness, that is, to provide them a point of solution from which they can resolve all their problems. Today’s believers merely say, “I believe in God,” and “I believe in Jesus.” Fine, but any person in the street can say this. Heaven does not want that kind of faith.</p>
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<h3>We Should Meet and Serve the Messiah,<br />
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Who Is the Substance of the Word</h3>
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<p>What kind of faith does Heaven desire? When Jesus said, “Believe in me,” he meant to believe in him as he believed in God. He could have said, “I am God’s son, and I believe in God,” because he was certain that God trusted him as His son, just as he trusted God as his Father. Jesus said this from such a position.</p>
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<p>Today we are searching for faith. We are searching for the Word and the course of faith based on the Word. In Christian terms, the one substantial center who comes to humankind with the Word, centered on true faith, is called the Second Coming.</p>
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<p>Humanity has been upholding God as the standard of faith. Analyzing faith as it has been held so far, God has been teaching humankind based on the Word. Now another battle is coming, since religions hitherto have not resolved everything. Speaking in biblical terms, this is the age of the seven-year turmoil of the last days. You should know this.</p>
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<p>We should meet the substance through the Word. Today, although there are many who believe the words of Jesus, there is no one who believes in Jesus himself. Although there are many who follow his words, no one utterly relies upon and follows the substance of Jesus. We must. However, when someone appears with the true Word, we do not believe him. We even persecute him.</p>
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<p>What kind of person should we become today? We should become one with the Word. The one who comes representing God is the only one of Heaven, the model for all people, the one who represents the entire ideal of humanity. When we compare ourselves with him, we should not be any different.</p>
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<p>Thus, following the one who is good, righteous and victorious to the highest degree, we should take the subsequent steps. This is the road humanity should follow. Although humankind on earth has struggled for 6,000 years to rely on and live by the Word, no one served and lived with the one who is the master and substance of the Word. From the time of our ancestors to now, there has been no one who authentically served and lived with such a person.</p>
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<p>God established countless numbers of saints and gave great amounts of words during the 4,000-year providence after the fall. To have humanity find the one center, God united and led a nation in one direction and promised to send the substance of the Word. That person was Jesus. For this reason, Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” (Matthew 4:13)</p>
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<p>Jesus had the ability to fulfill all the words given until his time and had something greater than the Words God had given in the course of history. He was the Messiah. However, the people who had been waiting for the Messiah, the substance of the Word, did not recognize him when he actually came. You should know that they became the people who lost the substance of the Word.</p>
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<p>Jesus, who appeared unexpectedly with the Word, went beyond all the historical conditions by engaging in a confrontation with God. There remains for us a condition also to engage in a confrontation with Jesus. You should know this.</p>
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<h3>What Man Should Do after Meeting the Substance</h3>
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<p>What shall we do with Jesus? We should engage in a battle as Jacob fought with the angel. After Jacob received the right of the elder son from Isaac, he tried to establish the condition of blessing centering on the Word. After one establishes the condition of blessing, he has to restore the substance, which requires that he confront Heaven. This is the original path.</p>
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<p>When we look at today’s Christianity, it has not achieved the authority of the Word to rule over Satan. Rare is the believer who introduces Jesus as the substance of authority to truly rule over Satan and who prays for him. You are captured by the Word. The exit is far away, however hard you struggle.</p>
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<p>Six thousand years have passed. Where shall we go from here? We should stand on the Word and hold onto the substance. As most of the New Testament books are letters, we should meet, not through letters, but through sympathetic understanding of one another’s personal situations. There is not even one single person who has become one with God this way, who has gone on to the position of being the first appearance in the 6,000 years after the fall.</p>
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<p>Let us say that there is someone who stands upon the Word and holds onto Jesus. Yet there has been no one who prayed before Jesus, “Please teach me about the power of heavenly authority you carry, your authority as the Savior, and the method for eradicating the root of all sins.” No one has prayed, “Please tell me about the heavenly love through which I can eternally share joy with You.” There has to be such a person.</p>
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<p>Let us say there is someone who can meet and ask Jesus these conditions and receive blessing and benefits. Jesus cannot say, “Oh, as you wish, enjoy eternal happiness.” This is how the heavenly shimjung is. Ever since Jesus died on the cross, the task remains for him to establish unity of husband and wife on earth, to go before God and say, “God, since You have established our substance, please give us the love hidden deep within You.”</p>
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<p>We should know that then Jesus can say, “Yes, since you have worked hard to come here, receive God’s love through me as a condition.” Today most Christians try to receive the love of Jesus alone.</p>
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<p>Paul said that to be in Christ is to be in God’s love. He was not talking about love within himself, but God’s love within the Christ. Thus, you who are searching for the ideal of the bride, even after finding the substance through such Words, you still have your portion or task to say to God, “Father, bless us with Your love and Your entire authority of love.” We should go on to this position today.</p>
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<p>In other words, we should go beyond the Word, beyond the substance, and come before God, saying, “God! Bless me with love.” What is the reason for this? God can praise the one who comes to Him in the course of winning over Satan and in the process of coming to know God. God can say, “You worked very hard, going through the trials of countless satans until you found Me.” Yet He cannot bless him with the loving heart through which he can live intoxicated in the ideal garden desired by God.</p>
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<p>Heaven will say, “If it is your desire, go out to the sinful world.” He will say, “Since you are descendants of sinful parents, you should go through the process of restoration. Find the lost True Parents in order to become My true sons and daughters.”</p>
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<p>We thought that everything would be settled once we met God, yet areas of error remain. Since the human ancestors failed to become the true ancestors of humankind, we have not had True Parents and have not become true children. Thus, although you have won over Satan by knowing God as an adopted child, you should meet the True Parents to make a relationship of direct lineage. This is the way it works.</p>
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<h3>To Go Over the Whole Process of Restoration</h3>
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<p>Every brave person of faith will struggle. Finally, he will have to go to God and ask, “Are the Parents on the earth or not?” God will then say, “They are on the earth.” What can you do if they are not on the earth? You should take the responsibility in their place. God will say, “You try becoming the Parents.”</p>
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<p>This courageous individual of faith will then move to another place. He will visit all the believers on the earth and ask them. You may find the True Parents and plead with them, “Oh, I have come to you, overcoming many pitfalls and hills. Please console me in all the historical sorrows I have felt so far on the road. Give us the authority to live in Your eternal blessed land and the authority of the ideal garden.” That plea will not work.</p>
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<p>The Parents will say, “A path still remains for you to walk. You must find and bring back Your brothers and sisters.” The person will leave the Parents, looking for the brothers and sisters. When he encounters a brother after roaming the earth, he will say to him, “I came to you with the knowledge of the Will concerning you and in order to find a brother. Without you I cannot do well nor can you do without me. You must be my brother with whom I can live and die, who cannot be separated from me. You are a core part of my own body, sharing my own bone and flesh. If the sorrow of 6,000 years can be resolved through us, let us enjoy the happiness of the resolution together as brothers.”</p>
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<p>The true brother of faith will say, “Oh, I am grateful for your coming to me, but God’s entire Will has not been completed through us. Another path still remains.” What path is this? It is the path of finding a tribe of goodness. Thus, the brave individual of faith will again move on.</p>
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<p>When he meets a tribe, he will say, “Since I have met you through such and such a historical course, I want to realize the heavenly hope through you.” The tribe will say, “We welcome you, but cannot dance with joy.” This is because Satan, who destroyed the tribe, still remains. There is also a nation connected with the tribe, which has been destroyed by Satan. Furthermore, there is a people of goodness, as well as a nation.</p>
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<p>Thus, again going over the hills, the man finds the people and says, “Oh, now that I have found a people who can realize joy, happiness and hope, let us enjoy together.” This, again, is untenable. There is even more to do. Joy can be realized only after we go beyond the world. Our True Parents, true brothers, true tribe, true people, true nation and true humankind will then all come together and bow down to God.</p>
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<p>This is the accumulated sorrow in God’s heart. He has been moving in the background of history. This is the purpose of history, for which we have lived. You should know that the sinful world has been tangled up in a reverse direction. Satanic works block the way of establishing the ideal. This is the inevitable path of life.</p>
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<p>Jesus came to the earth as the original substance of the truth, the substance representing God, the substance of love representing God’s shimjung. Above all, he came as the substance of the True Parents and the father of humankind. Jesus came as the True Father. That is why we are true brothers and sisters. Jesus also said that he would call humankind “his children,” not his servants, in the last days. We are his children.</p>
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<p>The intention was to start as brothers and sisters centering on Jesus, the Parent, and form a tribe. The basis for this was the seventy and 120 disciples. Jesus tried to move the nation of Israel centering on these people, but in vain. As a result, the first Israel was shattered, and the history of the second Israel was launched. This is the history of Christianity.</p>
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<p>Christianity has been forming a worldwide nation, centering on Jesus. As for humankind facing the last days, unless they make a victorious connection in going over the tragic hills of history, they cannot join the 144,000.</p>
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<p>It says in Revelation 14, “there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion! And with him were 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.” (Revelation 14:1) Ladies and gentlemen, have you received the seal of Jesus? You should first receive the seal of Jesus, then that of the Father. Do you think it is enough just to have the seal of Jesus? No, you should receive the seals of both Jesus and the Father. This is the why fallen people have been seeking the completion of their repentance.</p>
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<h3>What Jesus Must Do after His Return</h3>
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<p>The purpose of a good and unfallen individual who can receive God’s love is to be sealed by God and then to seal his brothers and sisters. Furthermore, he should be able to seal the tribe and nation. Considering this, you should understand how great was the heavenly woe. You have never heard about such sorrow of Heaven in any dream, from any friend, from any teacher or from any religious individual. This is truly serious.</p>
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<p>Where will your footsteps lead tomorrow? Are you in the realm of God’s love now? Are you in the realm of True Parents’ love? Are you in the realm of true brothers’ love? Are you in the realm of the true tribe’s love? Are you in the realm of the true nation’s love? Are you in the realm of love where, when you unite heaven and earth and bow down to God, He embraces you? There is not even a single person like this, even Jesus has not been able to do this. This is why he is in Paradise in a state of waiting.</p>
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<p>What must Jesus do when he returns in the last days? He should restore these matters. Jesus has already stood upon the Word. Yet Jesus, who was resurrected after the cross, had to turn Mary Magdalene away as she tried to hold him. He was not in a position to say, “Bride, let us go to the Father together.” He has been working hard for 2,000 years, looking forward to the day when the ideal of the bride could be realized. Originally, Jesus was to go before the Father with a rejoicing bride, be blessed and become True Parents. He was to embrace true children and a true tribe, and build a true nation. God wanted to bless Jesus to become the true ancestor of heaven and earth.</p>
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<p>Jesus left without receiving the blessing from the position of the true ancestor of humankind. You know this well. This is the sorrow of God and Jesus. Now this tear-provoking, woeful shock of shimjung should be aroused in your hearts: “I have betrayed the heavenly Word, the heavenly substance, God, and my heavenly brothers, tribe, nation and people. Furthermore, I have abused the heavenly sovereignty. How can Heaven forgive me?” Heaven desires for many young men and women to appear who realize that they are unforgivable sinners and who struggle anxiously.</p>
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<p>Having realized this, our shimjung cannot help burning. Affections will come through, and hearts will move. The desire to express anger against history and the age will well up in our hearts. As the anger becomes stronger, you will wonder how it can be resolved. Since this historical sorrow was caused by Satan, we must wage an intense battle against Satan. You should know that we can restore the parents, brothers, tribe, nation and heavenly sovereignty only when there are many young people with such determination.</p>
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<h3>The Final and Inevitable<br />
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Destination of Fallen Humankind</h3>
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<p>We have been living a comfortable life thus far. Although we have had a consciousness of existence, we have had no value. Unfeeling as worms, we walked a tragic route; yet, we are shamelessly proud. At least at this time, we should recognize that we are sinful. Those who do not know this deserve to receive heavenly punishment and be thrown into a pit of fire on the judgment day.</p>
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<p>Realizing this, you should not be afraid of receiving judgment. You should know that Heaven has a more sorrowful situation. We should know that the footsteps of our ancestors were more rueful than ours, and that the true determined people of this age are in more pain and shedding more tears than we. We should, at least, become people who can understand this.</p>
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<p>We should go on today and tomorrow; if not while alive, then even after death. We cannot complain about such a hill of fate and about such miserable intricacies. Heaven is looking for the young men and women who can shout commands to heaven and earth as brave soldiers who fight violently against Satan, the one who caused these complications. We long for the people who cry out with the shimjung to run headlong into battle.</p>
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<p>Now you should now be able to connect with the shimjung of God. Furthermore, we should become children who receive blood from the True Parents; the nation and people who are connected with that blood. Through our unity with the Parents, their joy should become the joy of the whole. The joy of the whole should be my joy. In this way, all people should be able to sing and bow down before God. You should know that this is the inevitable, final destiny of fallen humanity.</p>
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<h3>Prayer</h3>
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<blockquote><p>Father, we have realized that there are incredible walls and hills of sorrow such that we must find You through a historical course of humiliation and suffering. Father, please allow us to understand this sorrow of history and Your grief, the root of history.</p>
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<p>Beloved Father, we sincerely hope and desire that You allow us to march in an orderly line as we move in search of Your eternal garden of happiness. Allow us to realize in what stage we are living. Father, we have been living irresponsibly. Do not let us take the course of traitors. Allow us to become sons and daughters who can fight repeatedly with Satan, until the day when we can serve and bow down to You in the garden of the ideal, harmonizing with the whole. We sincerely hope and desire this.</p>
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<p>Father, as Your sons and daughters have listened to Your Word, we sincerely hope and desire that You can cause a transformation whereby they see their course of life from a new perspective, and they run toward their destination, relying on heavenly law. As we ask You to rule over all of today’s affairs, we pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.</p></blockquote>
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