REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON
SPEAKS ON
My New Self and the Heaven
Where My New Self Can Dwell
John 3:1-15
June 14, 1959,
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
Prayer
As we persevere on the difficult path of life, we know well that
we are immersed in a sorrowful situation. We know that many painful
circumstances lie ahead of us. We know that we have not the heart which
can sing in sheer happiness when we face Heavenly Father, this land, and
humanity. Father! Please have mercy on us. We have been worn out by sorrow
and hardships. We have struggled without even knowing in what direction
to go. Please hold onto those of us who have wandered, not knowing on
whom to lean. Father, we feel how wonderful and great is Your amazing
grace, yet we are unable to return glory to You. Please forgive us.
Father, You have suggested to us the path by which to avoid sorrow
in this sorrowful world. However, we ask for Your forgiveness since
we were inadequate in upholding Your predestined will. We know that
You have prepared a path by which we may avoid hardships, even though
we deserve a suffering course. We are so grateful. However, we ask for
Your forgiveness since we were unable to walk that path.
We now desire to live the rest of our lives according to Your will,
for Your joy and glory only. Nevertheless, the power of death and the
influence of sin in this world powerfully encircle us. You know how
difficult it is to escape from them. Therefore, benevolent Father,
please be present at this time.
Father, please forgive us. We have not yet become people who return
glory and joy to You from a liberated position. Please subjugate the
power of darkness by spreading new power and Your mighty hand. Father,
we sincerely hope that You will raise the history of re-creation in
order that we may sing of the glory of resurrection as victorious people.
Since the power of death is sweeping over us, we need to overcome the
decision of life and death. We must gain the automatic and spontaneous
power that can push this away and march forward. Loving Father, if there
are children of Yours who yearn for such power, please personally grant
them the ability and allow the authority of resurrection that they may
become heavenly soldiers who pioneer their daily life with the hope of
the future.
Father, please forgive them, even if their lives so far have been
unworthy. Your will is to announce the new promise of tomorrow and to
shake and move us. Loving Father, we sincerely desire that You allow us
to fulfill our responsibility as pioneers today and tomorrow as we look
toward Your will, Your ideology, and Your hope.
Father, now is the time to purify and check ourselves before coming
into Your presence. It is the time when we cannot find any place on which
to lean and when we cannot pass through the true center. Oh, Father! The
last days are calling for someone who can understand and relate to Your
heart, someone who can prepare the victory and bring glory to You of his
own accord. You have called us to shape us into such people. However,
we are ashamed in Your presence. Please forgive us.
We heard your words by which to understand and relate to Your heart as
we go this path. We also saw the deeds which reveal Your grace. However,
we have not become the heavenly soldiers who build a loyal altar by
upholding Your will. Father, please guide us and protect us since we
are afraid we may increase Your grief.
Can anyone claim to be loyal and righteous in Your presence? We are
all full of shortcomings and unfaithfulness. Although we have understood
Your heart which promotes goodness and that You are searching for those
who will uphold Your will of goodness, we have not been able to act
according to Your will, Father. Please forgive our disloyalty. Allow us
to realize that Your heart is entangled in such situations and thereby
compel us to give up everything we have and become reintegrated into what
You can claim. Holding onto Your heart alone, Father, we yearn to follow,
and move and act together with You wherever You may go.
Please recreate the thirty million people of this nation. Please lead
these lives into Your garden of hope again. Make us worthy to lead the
people. You have called us to Your will in front of others. Father, please
allow us to fulfill our responsibility of communicating Your heart to
these people. Please make us into the children who can spread Your words.
Father, even if individual hearts may differ in these sons and
daughters who have gathered here today, I know the centers of their
minds are the same. Their minds long to live for You, to follow You,
and to inherit Your heart. Upon that condition, please work with them.
Please move them and show them the glory of resurrection. Thereupon,
lift them into the gracious realm of liberation. Loving Father, we
sincerely hope for and ask this.
We know well that countless satans seek to invade us if there is any
gap between You and us. I earnestly hope that our hearts can be connected
to Your heart, our bodies connected to Your hyung sang, our situations
connected to Your situation, and our wishes united with Your wishes that
You may personally be present in this hour. In so doing, please allow
this hour to be one of promise that we may fight off any encroaching
authority of Satan and may bring victorious glory to You. Please allow
this hour to be one of final decision, our loving Father.
We entrust this hour to You. Please do all according to Your will.
Compassionate Father, please embrace us in this hour, for there is no
one who claims to be self-righteous anymore. Please order us if You
have any words of command. Please allow us to realize Your words, even
through scourging if we are so ignorant.
Please, Holy Trinity, personally direct the whole hour hereafter.
Through the protection of the myriad saints, allow no Satan to invade
this hour. Please make this hour one that can be recognized as Yours;
let our purified minds, purified bodies, and purified hearts be offered
as living sacrifices to You. I earnestly hope that You will personally
direct this hour of service, Father.
If there are any members who are unable to attend here, Father, please
protect and bless them with the same grace. I ask You to protect Your
young children with lonely hearts, who are fighting in the countryside,
with the same grace. I pray all these things in the name of the
Lord. Amen.
Prayer
Please allow us to check where our minds dwell. We know that our minds
are moving around in all directions, although our bodies are gathered in
one place. Just as Adam was shaped by the lump of soil moving according
to Your hands, we know that our minds also should be moved according to
Your desire.
Our sacred Father, please allow us to long for You at this time with
a concerned mind that checks whether the original form and essence of
our minds have become the holy of holies. Let us check if our minds can
connect to Your heart, even as our bodies settle into one altar now.
We feel that we should not be without the sensitivity of mind by which
an earnest heart toward Your gentle and holy presence can fill us, even
without our being conscious of it. You wished to reveal our mission by
discussing from the hidden depths and showing Your presence in the distant
quietness. We cannot help hoping for such intervention on Your part.
When we did not attend You in the midst of Your distant quietness,
when we were not able to connect with Your hidden situation, You were
sorrowful, lonely and miserable. Knowing that You face such a situation,
we should feel in our hearts the necessity of attending You as our real
Father; we should feel the necessity of forming one, united, inseparable
relationship centering on eternal life and eternal love. If such a heart
does not emerge from within us, how can we call ourselves Your sons and
daughters? How can we say that we have an inseparable relationship with
You? If we are so, please allow us to know that we have nothing to do with
the ideal of heaven You wish to grant us, we have nothing to do with the
foundation for Your comfort for which You have toiled throughout history.
Compassionate Father, loving Father, if You abandoned these miserable
ones, they would never be able to escape from the shadow of death. How
can we, who are in such a situation, emerge before You as righteous?
We cannot be proud of anything. We do not possess anything. The only
thing we possess is our shortcomings. The only thing we feel is awe in
Your presence. Father, please have compassion on us. We hope for Your
benevolence, Your compassion and Your grace. We are all waiting for Your
outstretched hand to appear. We sincerely hope, Father, that You will
look at us with compassion.
The dispensational time calls for the last days. The wave of death
is sweeping over us and trying to swallow each of us. We know that
You see through our chaotic environment and that Your concerned heart
and the marks of Your toil remain on this earth. We can understand how
indescribably anxious Your mind is as You look at these things. However,
Father, we earnestly hope that You will look at us compassionately at
the same time and guide us.
If we have a lonely heart, we should confess and transform it into
Your heart. If we have a sorrowful and frustrated heart, we should
change it into Your heart of happiness and life. We are in such a pitiful
situation. Father, You know this. Please forgive us. We have to entrust
our difficulties to You and regain our energy from You in this fallen
realm when we should be taking on and lightening Your burden.
Father, please permit all of our hearts to be connected. We struggled
in the realm of death and had no relationship to one another before;
yet we are gathered here as one family with admiration for Your heavenly
dispensational ideology. Father, for this reason, we earnestly ask that
You have compassion and visit us.
Who can have confidence in Your presence? Because You have confidence,
we hope to have confidence; because You said it is so, we desired to
feel it as You felt it. Father, if there is any wrong in this, please
forgive us and personally direct us. We sincerely ask this.
Father, have mercy on the thirty million people of this nation. They
are struggling, not knowing in which direction to go. They are howling
at the crossroads of life and death. Satan's claim on their lives gets
heavier, Father. We should feel sorrowful over this. We know that we
should establish the victorious foundation by changing their path and
cutting away the rope of death around them. Father, please grant us
the power, if our power is not sufficient. Please give us courage,
if our courage is not sufficient. As You gave the encouraging words,
"Be bold and courageous!" to Joshua, we earnestly desire Your words of
advice to us at this time.
Please permit us to bring the thirty million people before Your altar
and connect them to Your life. We sincerely hope, Father, that You will
guide us to become Your children who can sacrifice everything and fight
against the satanic force that tries to separate us.
Father, there are sons and daughters of Yours in the lonely countryside
now, pleading to You with their sorrowful hearts. Please be their friend,
their resting place, and their guide. We sincerely hope that You will
counsel and comfort them.
Please have compassion on Your children who do not have an environment
in which they can share their difficulties with others. They do not
have any members with whom they can share their hearts. They are in
lonely circumstances. We know that Your world of heart moves beyond the
limitations of time and space. Therefore, we ask that You allow the
same heart to them at this time, so that their minds can be moved as
Yours moves. Father, we earnestly ask that You inspire them with Your
undiscriminating hand of grace, and reconnect them to Your heart.
Please allow the minds of the giver and of the receivers to be one.
Please guide our hearts to be connected with Your tranquil heart.
Father, we sincerely ask that You lead this hour so that we may kneel
before You with a solemn attitude and harmonize with the natural desire
to bow. Please direct this hour and prevent Satan's invasion during
this time.
I ask in the name of the Lord. Amen.
My topic is "My New Self and the Heaven Where My New Self Can
Dwell." I will speak briefly upon this topic.
The Ultimate Hope of Humanity and Our Reality
Countless people live on this earth, yet no one can confidently say
that he possesses Heaven in his mind. The ideal world which humankind
has admired and sought is surely heaven.
In this world, there are many who would wish to live well and be
in a blessed position; however, those who can say "I lived well" and
"I was blessed" are very few. When we look at this situation, we cannot
deny that our life in this world is indeed not life in heaven, but its
very opposite. I stand on such a border line; I stand in a position to
search after Heaven. We cannot deny that we should seek out and live
in such a place. Therefore, our mind searches for a better ideology,
and our body seeks a better resting place.
However, the place we can confidently say is the best place in the
whole of human history, the place where the original human mind can
dwell, has not appeared yet. The lifestyle and social organization of
such a life have not appeared in human history.
Therefore, although our minds yearn for a world of hope, we are living
in the midst of difficulties in a situation where we cannot avoid the
undesirable environment. Tomorrow will be the same. No one can deny that
we live in an environment where we desire the world of hope, yet we live
with lamentation and grief.
We have to think again about the problem of when we will be able
to fulfill the garden of hope, the garden of ideology, and the garden
of happiness by overcoming ourselves and our environment, when we will
be able to live centering on for what we truly hope. That is the most
difficult problem humankind has to consider and resolve.
This problem is so very troublesome, we cannot remain indifferent to
it. Moreover, we know well enough through our life experience that our
destiny does not allow our mind to stay cut off from the problem just
because it is difficult to resolve.
Were We Born in the Garden of Hope?
We were born on this earth. However, we did not contemplate whether
being born on this earth into our life was a good or a bad thing.
There are many people who do not even think about whether this reality
is true or not. After being born and living our lives, we are bound to
die, leaving our bodies behind. We know well that each of us must go
over the valley of death.
The issue of whether we die a truth death is related to us and to
our lives. We should not forget that as we began, so must we end.
There may be many who are proud of the fact that they were born on
this earth of their parents' lineage. However, a person with a true
parental heart should grieve over the child she has borne. Even if a
baby is lying in the cradle of happiness at birth, no one can be certain
whether that child's whole life will be happy. The parent herself should
experience a heart of sadness before a heart of happiness.
If we acknowledge that the child is not born in the garden of
happiness, then the life he will lead after birth will be the same; the
valley of death he will cross after his life will be the same. We must not
forget that we are living in this kind of realm. Let us ask ourselves,
"Have I yearned for the true life? Have I lived a true life? Do I have
the confidence to victoriously face death as I sing of the preciousness
of true life?" Everyone would have to say, "No."
For these reasons, we cannot deny that all people are within
the fallen realm and all people have a deplorable destiny. We are
not in the world of the normal mind; we are in an abnormal world and
environment. Consequently, no one can assert the word "happiness" from the
day he is born to the day he dies. We have to remember that such things
as happiness, the ideal, and hope have no relationship to us. The reason
my mind is not happy is that I have not become a person who can be joyful.
If I had a heart that substantiated hope, then I would rejoice in the
midst of that fulfilled hope. However, I do not possess such a joyful
heart. If I had substantiated the ideal, then I would be in the position
to confidently command all things to follow me, but I do not stand in
such a position.
Humankind should have possessed the true ideology, yet they did not.
Humankind should have lived in a happy environment, yet they lost that
environment. I should have become a person who sings the melody of liberty
and peace and who returns the glory of all the happiness swelling in my
heart to the Creator; yet I have not become such a person. We have to
realize that there is nothing more miserable and sorrowful than this.
Jesus bore the whole burden of the four-thousand-year history. He
bore total responsibility for the forefathers in history. He bore all
the ideologies of happiness and the Kingdom of Heaven and the hopes
of humankind throughout history. Therefore, Jesus is indeed the friend
among friends, the center among centers, the center of our total life.
He is the center of hope and ideology and even of life and death.
Jesus left a word of hope on this earth.
Heavenly Father toiled over four thousand years of long history so
humankind might gain new hope and recover happiness in the realm of the
new heavenly ideology, coming out of the realm of lamentation and death.
To Fulfill the Dispensation
What kind of strategy is needed to fulfill this dispensation? God
had to raise one person and sanctify him. Because people on this earth
cannot establish a relationship with Heavenly Father as they are, He had
to choose a people as He persevered through dispensational history. We
know well the history of God's dispensation of the chosen people. God
chose Noah, Abraham and Moses for this purpose.
God's heart desired to complete the four-thousand-year history by
raising Jesus and resolving all historical heartaches through him.
Therefore, Jesus was essential and indispensable for God and the
Israelites, whom God chose for the historical dispensational will. Not
only the chosen people, all those who live in the world then, needed
Jesus. Even all things which existed in heaven and earth then necessarily
needed Jesus.
If we accept the existence of God, the central ideology which
humankind desires, which will realize the joyful environment, must
start with and from one principle standard. That would be an iron rule
of the dispensation.
We cannot solve any problem without using a formula. Likewise, one
principle standard must be established which will enable us to rigorously
reject the historical resentment and introduce happiness into the hearts
of humankind. If not, then even if there is some happiness, some ideology
and life in God, they cannot make any relationship with humankind. For
that reason, God toiled to educate the Israelites in heart to represent
His heart. Their happiness was to represent God's happiness. They were
to uphold the ideology of God's nation. Accordingly, God sent Jesus
after four thousand years of the dispensation in order for Israel to
build the garden of happiness and goodness by which they could connect
with God in a real and substantial way.
Who Was Jesus?
Who was Jesus? During the four thousand years of the historical
dispensation, no one was qualified to introduce the happiness of God.
By the coming of Jesus, however, God's happiness was to be introduced at
last and the garden of happiness which God permitted was to be built. We
should understand that Jesus was such a new being in history. The
Israelites at that time should have known that Jesus represented the sole
substantiation of the hope of their ancestors, the substantiation of the
happiness their ancestors had fought to attain. He was the hope for the
restoration of Israel's national sovereignty and the establishment of
the heavenly foundation.
Jesus resurrected the hope of the ancestors and of the earth,
which was buried deeply in the heart of God. Moreover, he was the
representative of God, the one whom God had sent to bring about the
world where the ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven could be fulfilled.
Jesus was our representative, the representative of humankind who would
build the garden of happiness. The Israelites should have known this;
however, they did not realize this. Therefore, even though Jesus came
to this earth, he had to go without becoming the central person of the
new world. He had to go without possessing the people of the new world
and without building the society and nation of the new world.
The world we live in today is fallen. Because nothing in this
fallen world became the reality God hoped to fulfill, God can rejoice in
nothing. God looks at this world with judgment, therefore, our lifestyle,
environment and nation cannot communicate purely with His heart.
What does God long for now? He is longing for something new. When Jesus
appeared before Judaism and the Pharisees who bragged of being the chosen,
he said, "The things you assert and have pride in are not enough." We
should know that Jesus' three-year public life course was the record
of the battle he fought to declare and proclaim that everyone had to go
through him, that he was the cosmic new being who brought a new ideology
and world view. Jesus hoped that his disciples and the numerous people
who followed him would become new people. Nevertheless, among those who
met Jesus at that time, only a few believed and understood that Jesus
came to introduce and build a new heart, a new ideology, a new life,
and new happiness. Therefore, when Jesus came, he could not speak fully
about these things and the blueprint for the new world before he departed.
Nicodemus appeared before this agonized Jesus. He was a government
officer of Judea, a person in the position of a teacher and leader of the
chosen people. Jesus emphasized to him the necessity of being reborn. We
are destined to be reborn today, just as Jesus said.
If there is a last days in the six thousand years of history, then
God expects to resolve everything at that time. God knows that He should
judge and resolve this sinful world at a certain time. Therefore, we are
walking our course of faith today fearing the last days. What kind of
time is the last days? It is time to liquidate the old and assert the new.
Things Jesus Brought to Fulfill the Will of God
When we consider the course of history, numerous assertions of the
past have changed as history progressed. As we face the last days today,
democracy and communism are confronting each other and each is looking
to dominate the other. Therefore, you should know that the time is coming
when a new direction out of this battleground is to be discovered.
God is hoping that humankind will become his new second self. For
that reason, our conscience is searching for our new self, which is
different from our present self. If we live conscientiously, we cannot
deny this. Our conscience constantly feels, "Oh, things should not be like
this. We should not live like this." This shows that we realize this kind
of society, this kind of world, must change. Accordingly, by the action
of our conscience, we can find peace of mind, where we are moving toward
our new selves and the new ideology without being consciously aware of it.
Jesus came to complete God's four thousand years of restorational
history. What did he bring? He brought new life, a new ideology, and
new love.
If a certain heavenly fortune were to flow through your heart today,
would you feel the vitality of life to join and move with that fortune? Do
you feel the heart of the one central ideology which can move all being,
all cosmic ideological existence? Do you feel the heart of love which
can embrace and melt all existence? We do not.
If God Exists
If God exists, who is He? He is the Subject of life who moves
all beings which possess life today, tomorrow, and into eternity.
Moreover, all living beings have an inherent nature to want to be with
God eternally, to live centering on God, and to share life and death with
God. God is the Subject of the realm of ideology and of this inescapable
world. Moreover, God dominates the whole cosmos with love and heart,
pouring out all His passion.
Today we are yearning for a new heart. We are seeking a new ideology.
Where would that new ideology end? It is not a place of mere human
involvement. Rather, it is a place where God and "I" can be together.
In the historic last days, there will surely be judgment. What is
judgment? The judgment will clear out all the conditions that are set
in between God and humankind. When these conditions are resolved, a new
history will start where God and humankind directly intertwine.
If that does not occur, then God is powerless. If God does not move
His dispensation centering on such a person, then there should not be
the word "judgment" in Christianity today. However, there is certainly
an important word called "judgment." Therefore, we can understand without
a doubt that the God who drives His providence toward that purpose exists.
Six Thousand Years of Dispensational History and I
We lost everything due to the fall. I lost the central figure who is
the subject of life; I lost the central figure of ideology; I lost the
central figure of love. Our mind, therefore, yearns for the life which
can taste true joy. Our mind longs for a better cosmic ideology. Our
heart demands a higher love.
The life, the ideology humankind sought, and the love which was
entangled in fallen people's emotions started from fallen history,
not from the garden where God's ideal is fulfilled. Therefore, now is
the time when a life force that can drive away all the things resulting
from the six thousand years of history is needed. We need the life force
that can represent history and drive away all the things which boasted
the power and value of life during the six thousand years.
What is the six-thousand-year history? It is the history of the
restoration of humankind, which possesses life force. Therefore, we
should have the great power of life which can drive away everything
that moved within the realm of Satan's protection and rule for the six
thousand years. We should realize that only then can we be reborn as
our new selves.
To present ourselves as new selves, we should have the ideology
which can drive away any thought or ideology formed through the
six-thousand-year history. If we cannot, then we cannot come forward as
the vanguard of the new age. I cannot be reborn as my new self. Without
possessing the great power of life which can deny the six-thousand-year
history, without having a new ideology that can drive away any other
kind of thought or ideology, I cannot become a new self.
It does not end there. History has developed in the direction where
human emotions of love are intertwined within our family. God has demanded
this. However, since the family did not become the perfect foundation
upon which the ideology can be practiced, it will all be broken apart
in the last days.
What Kind of Time Is the Last Days?
Humankind has brought about the civilization of the twentieth century
and seems to move around the world freely. Nevertheless, when it comes to
moving this world, their power of life is extremely weak. Their ideologies
are in a state of utter ruin. Their emotions and loves are in the same
situation. Materially, people of the twentieth century have advanced
worldwide; in the internal aspect of life, however, they are utterly
weak. History is descending toward the age when no one possesses a fervent
heart toward an ideology; no one can find the heart of true human love.
As a result, when we look at the family in this age, we cannot find
the heartistic relationship between husband and wife, parent and child,
that can be proud before God. The relationships between husband and
wife, brothers and sisters, and between friends are all the same.
Not only righteousness and the laws of human morality but even the
standard of love itself is facing demise at this time. We have reached
the time when God is about to demolish all these. For these reasons,
now is the time when the great power of life and ideological authority
is needed to straighten out this chaotic world. Such a time has come.
The time has come for the love that contains the great power of life to
be joined. Subsequently, all can unite and act toward one common purpose.
God has professed words to many people. God spoke of the chilling of
love in the last days. He foretold that everyone would reject and betray
God. God said that everyone would fall on the suffering and painful path
when the time came. If one possesses the power of eternal life, then he
will overcome any pain; however, in the last days, God said they would
betray Him and their heart of love would fracture. Such a time is the
last days.
What Will the Lord Bring When He Comes Again?
What will God bring when He comes again? Since we know that God is
not going to destroy the world but will come again with a new ideology,
what will He bring? He will come with the great power of life and the
authority of a new ideology. He will come with the origin of love.
Such a person is called "the Lord" in Christianity.
We who have tread and walked the course of fallen history need the
touch of life which is stronger and more permanent and eternal than
anything we have enjoyed or experienced before. The place where we
experience such a touch will be our eternal resting place, a place we
would never want to leave.
The three disciples who saw the transfiguration of Elijah, Moses and
Jesus wanted to remain in that place. Have you attained and experienced
the state of heart where you feel, "This is my eternal resting place,
the place of eternal happiness. This is where there is no beginning
and no end"? When one appears with the great power of life to which all
creation will bow their heads, he will naturally become the master of
all things. In his ideological world, all things and even God would want
to rest and remain. When his loving emotional heart wells up, all things
should want to harmonize with it. Even God should want to rejoice with
it. There is such a loving emotional state. If these contents are not
fulfilled in the last days of human history, then God's dispensation
will end in destruction. The whole dispensation of God for this world
would become a total failure.
God has been toiling until now, for He cannot allow such a conclusion.
Therefore, we cannot deny that the garden of new life, new ideology,
and new love will certainly come to humankind today.
What Should We Do as We Receive the Last Days?
What should I, as an individual, do in these last days? To solve this
problem, we have to hold onto the Messiah who came for all people.
Humanity has progressed until today through numerous historical
relationships. God's dispensational history was brought about through
the chosen people God so lovingly chose. This history was for the purpose
of embracing His loving sons and daughters.
Therefore, we have to conform with the heavenly content that moved
the six thousand years of history to possess the power of life that can
push the whole of it away. Jesus drove away the four thousand years
of history when he came two thousand years ago by being connected
to the historical heart of God. After clarifying everything in the
four-thousand-year history, Jesus wanted to build a new garden upon
that foundation. Therefore, holding onto that heart of Jesus, we should
clarify history and think of the future. We have to think of how much
Jesus longed for the emergence of his new ideology at that time.
Jesus told Nicodemus that unless he was reborn, he could not enter the
Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, I must deny the life I have lived until
today. No matter how much I think I have accomplished, I must deny my
individual self. Because I am a fallen person, I cannot escape from that
realm. My life and my lifestyle should be denied.
What we think of as normal is not indeed normal. We live an abnormal
life; we have an abnormal lifestyle, and we die abnormally. The natural
place for us to enter would be hell. What is heaven? It is the place
where the person goes who lives a normal life, has abnormal lifestyle,
and dies normally.
If Jesus came to distinguish between hell and heaven, to close the door
to hell and open the door to heaven, to build heaven, then he certainly
did not come with an ideology, a life, and a love that can be denied. You
should understand this.
Who did Jesus come in search of when he came to this earth? Jesus came
searching for the Israelites, whom God has established as the chosen
people after indescribable hardships. Jesus was absolutely necessary
for Judaism, the religion of the chosen. That absolutely necessary
one was hung on the cross and departed. You should realize that Jesus
was absolutely necessary for the Israelites and Judaism. The cross was
absolutely unnecessary. It should not have been.
The Value of Jesus and the Cross
Why did Jesus come to this earth and for whom did he come?
Representing God, Jesus came to this earth to make people walk the
historical path with hearts that could connect to God's heart and
the heart of history. The Jewish people understood how to follow God's
history, but they were not able to follow God's heart. They upheld God's
dispensation, yet they failed to uphold God's heart.
For that reason, Jesus came with the historical heart and God's
heart, moving behind the dispensation. Jesus came with the heart that
substantially represented the four thousand years of history. The
Israelites and the leaders of Judaism, however, did not know this.
Searching for God means grasping the life that emanates from God's
heart, finding the ideology that comes through God's heart, and searching
for the love that comes from His heart. There cannot be life without
going through God's heart. There cannot be ideology without connecting
to God's heart. There cannot be love that does not come from God's heart.
For that reason, when Jesus came to this earth, he came as the owner
for the four-thousand-year history in the realm of heart. Because his
heart represented God's heart, whatever came out of his heart had the
power of life. His heart was the substantiation of the historical life,
of the historical hope and ideology, and the historical love.
Therefore, Jesus should have been regarded as more important than
the people and nation of Israel and Judaism. The Israelites, however,
killed this most significant Jesus. They were ignorant of the fact
that they could have gained his heart and ideology for the nation, for
God's dispensation, and for the whole universe through this one person,
Jesus. They killed Jesus, for they did not know.
Today we believe in this Jesus. We should not believe now in the
dead Jesus. We should believe in the substantial Jesus who had the new
ideology, the new life, and the new heart of love. However, where did
Jesus go? He is no longer on this earth. Because he was killed, he is
no longer on this earth.
When will he come again? When Jesus came to this earth, he had the
responsibility to establish a new form of ideology and to build a new
history and people intertwined with new life and a new heart. Jesus left
the word that he would come again, for he had to go without fulfilling
these things.
The word that he would have to come again was indescribably tragic.
Today's Christians, however, understand this as a glorious word. They
do not know that they should mourn for the dead Jesus before having
expectations of that word with hope, as a glorious word. Therefore, if one
comes looking for my new self, we should attend and uphold that person.
We are in the last days of the six-thousand-year history,
two thousand years after Jesus' coming. What should we do at this
point? The descendants of Abraham should inherit the faith and loyalty
of Abraham. The sixty thousand Israelites who followed Moses should
resemble the faith and loyalty of Jesus. This is the Alpha and the
Omega. For this reason, we can become a friend to God and Jesus in the
world of the heavenly heart only when we fight to resolve the aching
heart of God as He worked throughout history.
Our Attitude of Faith in the Last Days
Who are sons and daughters of filial piety? In daily life, if someone
just feels happy when he sees his parents happy, that is not a filial
son. The real filial son or daughter would not only feel the happiness;
he or she would also feel the course of past hardships that went before
the present happiness. If a son or daughter only rejoices without knowing
everything of the process that led to the happiness, this is not a truly
filial child. If that is the case in the human world, it would certainly
be true in the case of the heavenly dispensation and of God's will for
the future.
Who was Jesus? He was the substantiation of new resurrection,
culminating the four-thousand-year history. The people of that time did
not know that he was unprecedented, representing Heaven and earth.
Had the high priests and Pharisees known that Jesus came for the
followers of Judaism and the Israelites, they would not have opposed
the people going to Jesus. However, they opposed and prevented this, and
Jesus lived a heartbroken life on this earth and departed in misery. This
is certainly the sin of humanity, not of God or Jesus.
How absurd is the fact that the birthplace of the Messiah, whom God
promised for four thousand years through the prophets, was a stable.
Think about it. In a stable? Many people today celebrate Christmas as
a wonderful day but, actually, it is heartbreaking. Many do not know it
is a sorrowful day for which no amount of tears would suffice.
Had there been people at that time who truly longed for and prepared
for the Messiah such that their sincerity even touched the heart of
Heaven, they would not have treated the Messiah in that way. There should
have been people who prepared for Jesus, but there were none.
As we face the era of the last days, we hold resentment against
our forefathers. For what? For allowing the historical conditions that
culminated in the persecution of the Messiah. Moreover, we hold resentment
against the people of Judaism and the Pharisees of two thousand years
ago. If there were any indignation in the heart of Jesus, it would
have been against the Israelites. However, Jesus did not resent them,
for if he had abandoned them, God's foothold on the chosen people would
be broken. As Jesus thought of the heavenly heart that had toiled for
the four thousand years, he knew that all the work of God toward the
Israelites would be lost if he abandoned them.
Knowing this, he had to bless his enemies out of the fear that the
historical relationship would break and the suffering of his people
would follow upon his death. He did not bless his enemies out of joy.
He did not bless the people of Judaism, the Israelites, out of his love
for them. We should realize that Jesus blessed humanity out of concern
for the further burdening of God's tearful heart in the dispensation of
history. Therefore, we can understand God's heart only when we dare to
do the work in place of Jesus who died so regretfully, when we dare to
feel anger concerning his death on the cross.
People say that Jesus came to die, but that is not true. As Jesus
walked to his death, he was heartbroken and so was God. Jesus came for
God and for his people. The day he was killed, Heaven could not help
becoming utterly dark. We should understand this today.
For Whom Did Jesus Live?
Jesus was born on this earth as a totally new being in human history.
However, he lived a miserable life.
For whom did Jesus live? He did not live for himself. It was not
because he did not have pride. Although he was persecuted, he had within
himself the power of life and ideology and the power of intense love. We
should know that he lived without fully spreading his authority of life,
ideology and love. For whom did Jesus live? He lived for his miserable
people. The resurrected Jesus has toiled until today to resurrect our dead
existence by his living substance. That has been the historical course of
the two thousand years since his death. For whom did he live his thirty
odd years? It was not for himself but for God and fallen humanity.
For that matter, for who did God toil? God has never lived for
Himself. He lived to save the people who had died because of the fall.
What kind of days are the last days? Since Jesus did not live for
himself, humanity has to offer a time when Jesus can live for himself.
Since God also has not lived for Himself, humanity also has to establish
a time when God can live for Himself. The last days are such a time.
God could not live for Himself until today because He had to save the
dead people who had inherited the fallen lineage. Jesus could not live
for himself during the two-thousand-year history. Holding onto humanity
in the realm of death, God has been working six thousand years to save
them and to restore a new day.
What Determination Should We Make?
What determination should we make today? We should inherit Jesus
Christ and be born again. Have you felt the power and touch of life
permeating your mind? Have you felt that this is the only ideology for
humanity? Have you felt that this is the only thing that can resurrect
humanity at last and initiate a new history? If you have felt this,
you should abandon living for yourself and walk the path Jesus walked.
After the resurrection, when Jesus looked down upon this world and saw
how God's worry and concern filled this earth and how much toil remained,
he wanted to pray, "Oh, God! Please entrust everything to me and rest
in peace." That was the heart of Jesus. However, God could not rest. As
Jesus felt sorrow, God also felt sorrow; as Jesus was dying on the cross,
God also felt the pain of death.
As long as we believe in Jesus, we should not envy the world of glory,
even if we have confidence that we will elevate to the position of glory
from attending the resurrected Lord, having crossed the judgment altar
of the last days.
Jesus came as the king of kings to restore the heavenly sovereignty,
to attend God as the son of glory, and to bring peace to all people.
However, he was not able to rejoice even for a moment. Jesus lived and
died solely for us, humanity. God is still holding onto this earth.
Jesus is still holding onto this earth. The Holy Spirit is still holding
onto this earth. If we are to become friends of the heart with Jesus,
we should have the heart that says, "God! Holy Spirit! We will hold onto
this earth now."
To Truly Sing of Glory
What was it like for Jesus coming to this earth? He was born in a
stable; he lived with the persecution and contempt of others; he died
miserably, hung on a cross. Therefore, our task today is to feel the
heart Jesus felt as he passed through the way of the cross.
If there is any glory, before I can sing of the glory, the Lord should
sing to the Father, and the Father should sing to all people. Only
after that can I sing of the glory. In order for the Father to sing
of glory to all people, first there must be the Kingdom of Heaven on
earth. Therefore, we should make the environment for God and Jesus
to rest. We should re-establish the dignity of God as the Creator and
the dignity of Jesus as the Savior. Heaven and earth, all things, the
countless spirits in the spirit world and in hell, even Satan himself,
should say, "You are indeed the son of God."
You know that the sad historical course has not ended yet, and the
time of the judgment has not yet arrived. Nevertheless, you felt the
heavenly life, embrace the heavenly ideology, and received the shock of
the heavenly heart. What is it all for? Of course, it is for God's hope
to be transferred to you. That is the purpose of God.
The people of this nation remain as God and Jesus' concern. We should
be willing to take the responsibility over all such concerns and liberate
Jesus and God. Therefore, centering on such a determination, you should
bring the victorious results from the war and attain the qualification of
being a friend of Jesus. Only then can you substantially elevate to the
level of resurrection. Because Jesus lived such a life and resurrected
after his death, we also must go beyond the condition of being resurrected
after living such a life. Therefore, we must follow the path of Jesus
to discover our new selves.
The Process of Resurrection
God's dispensation is not only looking for new individuals. He
must find a new family, a new people, a new world, and ultimately the
Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus was unable to leave the value and standard
of his heavenly character or personality as a new being on this earth.
Therefore, he left behind the term "bridegroom and bride" as he left.
God's will is to establish a heavenly individual to find a family.
Having that family as a model, He is to find a people; having that people
as a model, He is to find a nation; having that nation as a model, He
is to find the world, restore heaven and earth, and ultimately build
the Kingdom of Heaven.
What should we do to become a new, resurrected self? We must establish
the standard upon which God can say, "I can now defend you, and I will
take the responsibility for your life, your ideology, and your love
and heart."
No matter how we are attacked, we can be resurrected if we have the
standard upon which God will take responsibility for us. Jesus was able
to be resurrected after the attacks of countless satans, for he had such
a standard. His authority of life, ideology and love was connected to
God's heart. For that reason, Jesus' substance was able to be resurrected.
If we have that kind of heart, who can attack the power of my life, my
ideology, and my love? As long as God is with us, we have the authority to
be resurrected after countless beatings from Satan, even after countless
deaths. We should realize that we can be recognized as a new self with a
new standard, a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven and a heavenly family,
only when we stand on the judgment altar with that authority.
For this reason Christianity teaches, "Those who are willing to die
shall live and those who want to live shall die." In the last days, we
ourselves must die first if we are to become a new self, for everything
in history is as death. We can become a new self only when we die in the
fallen world and feel the glory of resurrection as we step over death
by the power of God's heart, ideology and love.
We should become those who can courageously withstand any kind of storm
with God's life, God's ideology, and God's heart embraced in ours. Only
then can we become the long-awaited new self who is qualified and worth
to be the central figure in the new age.
God's Wish
There is no one who can see through God's sorrow now on this earth,
and there is no lineage that can be connected to God's heart of love.
No people are willing to acquire God's ideology. There is no lineage
connected to God's life which can remain together with God for
eternity. Is all this true?
We are God's adopted children because Satan took possession of
everything in history until today. The adopted child has a different
lineage from the parents. For that reason, if we are to become children
of the direct lineage, we must become a new self from the adopted child
position. To attain the form of the children of direct lineage, we must
receive the power of heavenly life, the touch of life, the ideology
of life, and the impact of love. Without them, I cannot be reborn as
a new self, a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, a parent who can have
the children of the Kingdom of Heaven. God's wish is to accomplish
this. This is our wish, humanity's wish, Jesus' wish, and God's wish;
yet we did not know this until now.
Think this over. You should not be without a longing mind that searches
for a new life. You should remember clearly that you cannot remain in
the new age if you do not search for the new ideology and the new love.
Prayer
We realize that there have been many who came and went, yet there
were truly few who came and went representing you, Father. There were
many who loved centering on this earth, yet there were none who loved
holding onto You.
So many people have longed for the garden of hope, the garden of
ideology, yet there were none who held You and sang to You, "This is
my every hope." Father, please allow Your sons and daughters who are
gathered here to experience the feeling toward You. Make them understand
that You are the whole of ideology, the whole of life, and the whole
of love. Please make them understand Your sorrow of not being able to
relate to us in a dignified environment, for we are unable to represent
all of Your will.
You have now allowed us to re-establish Your dignity and Jesus'
dignity. If any sorrow exists on the earth, we should take that sorrow
as ours. Make us understand that any pain on the earth is ours. We
should truly be connected to Your mind and Jesus' mind. Please give us
the determination that we will take sorrow and hardship from You and
resolve them. We know that we are at the historical turning point in
which we must push away everything and feel Your grace of life. Please
allow us to have a new foundation in our mind.
Please make us realize that we will not be able to escape a declining
fate in the judgment of history if we do not have the new ideology and
the new heart and do not establish the standard by which to be connected
with You.
We know that Jesus lived for this mission, and he lived his thirty
years of life not for himself but for his people and fallen humanity.
We know that the era of the Kingdom of Heaven is coming in which Jesus can
live for himself. We also know that we have the final mission to receive
permission for the glory of resurrection by going over the suffering
hills and the path of the cross in a victorious and substantial manner.
If Your children who are gathered here understand these contents,
Father, they should unite with that will and substance. They should
prepare a substantial offering for the accomplishment of that will.
Please be with them, Father. I sincerely ask that You allow Your children
to build a victorious altar that can be recognized by You so that they
may prepare a holy temple.
Father, please subjugate everything from this hour on. I also ask
You to accompany the whole schedule of this day. Please keep Your hand
of protection upon the people of this nation and the members. I ask all
these things in the name of the Lord. Amen.
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