by Rev. Young Hwi Kim
Chapter 4
August 26, 1984
You've just heard our goal for the coming 40-day witnessing condition. I don't know how you feel about it, but each of us has already pledged before Heavenly Father and True Parents to find one new member each month. When we consider our goal in light of this pledge it's nothing. We have about 400 members gathered here now, so that would mean our initial goal is to bring 400 new members in one month. But we have reduced this goal to 40 active members and 400 associate members.
I have often considered why we don't gain more members. It may be that God wants to send us members, but we aren't ready to receive them yet. I think God longs for the day when we are fully mature, when we can be trusted to care for members without hurting them or giving them such a bad impression they want to leave. If people come to our church only to discover that we're not as good as we teach, they will never return. If they come later, however, when we have matured, it will be easy for them to stay. If we want to receive many members, we must be prepared to accommodate them. Most important, however, is that we prepare ourselves. We shouldn't complain when few people come, but rather examine and prepare ourselves. We must improve ourselves and make increased effort to grow. Leaders must study, train themselves and unite with their members. Blessed couples must live a model life. We emphasize the significance of the Blessing, so what will people think if blessed couples don't fulfill their duties? Blessed couples have a great responsibility. We must grow up and become worthy to receive members, then many people will come. When God can be confident that He won't lose people when He sends them, but that He will gain new children, He will lead many people to our church.
I like freedom; you like freedom; everyone likes freedom. We don't want to be bound by anyone. God is the same, He also wants to be free. But do you think He is free? No, He has something to do. He cannot be free as long as He has an unfinished task. God has the task of restoration. He is bound by this task and thus cannot be free. Students like to be free, but when they have exams they can't fool around as they might like, but must study. They can't be free until they have completed their exams. There is another factor involved. God cannot give freedom to immature people, only to mature, perfected people. This is important. If you are immature and foolish, what will happen if you are given total freedom? What happens when you give a small child total freedom? Parents must take care of small children because they are inexperienced and therefore not wise enough to make their own decisions. Parents and teachers must guide their development, leading them in the right direction. Freedom must be limited during the growth stage.
Leaders may want to grant members' requests for more freedom or independence, but they must always consider whether members can maintain their faith if they go their own way and follow their own desires. This is what worries me. Once you become perfect like Father, nobody will worry if you want to take a job or continue studying. But if you're not strong enough to maintain your faith on your own, you must be guided. Members must demonstrate that they can be fully independent, i.e. they can maintain their faith wherever they go. This means determining the right way to live and taking responsibility for their eternal life. Once this is certain, you can have freedom. But if you haven't reached that state yet, you should understand that your freedom must be limited for your own sake. This is love; giving a child everything he wants, isn't love. We must know what state we are in. "Am I perfect, did I successfully pass through the perfection stage?" We must examine ourselves and then based on our judgment decide which way to go.
I spoke about repentance and unity this morning, but not about dedication. I left it for this time. We know that God's providence is a struggle between good and evil, God and Satan are fighting over man. This conflict has two aspects: one is the individual struggle which everyone experiences, the other is the general struggle between God's side and Satan's. We must mobilize everyone in order to win and we also need a good commander-in-chief. Our True Parents are leading the troops in the physical world on Heavenly Father's behalf.
There is a saying in the Bible, ". . . to obey is better than sacrifice, . . ." (I Samuel 15:22). During the Old Testament Age man offered sacrifices to God, but the prophet Samuel said that obedience pleased God more than burnt offerings and sacrifices. In a war the commander-in-chief determines strategy and deploys his armies ac- cordingly. But if the troops don't obey the commander's orders, what will happen? They will probably lose. God wants to win this war, this is why obedience is better than sacrifice. We must obey God's will. That is the way to new life; that is the way to victory. If we don't obey, there won't be any unity with God and we cannot win. We must overcome difficulties during the struggle. Difficulties always come with conflict. The enemy suffers as well though, so the side which perseveres most will win.
We must obey God's will and mobilize everyone for the struggle. I recently discovered that out of 72 couples, only 41 wives went out for 21-day witnessing. This means that 31 didn't. I don't know what reason they have. This is Father's direction, our commander-in-chief, so we must do our best to obey. 21 days isn't so long. Even if you have a baby, you can choose the best time and then go out for 21 days. Of course, if you are sick in the hospital, you can be excused, but if you are well and still don't go out, that isn't right. Some of you say that you had to stay home and take care of your children. That's no excuse; you can always find someone to take care of your children. You will benefit from making good relationships. Finding someone to take care of your children in your absence is a good chance to make friends.
As you all know we have many foreign members here who can't speak German very well. Nevertheless they visit churches and try to speak with the ministers. Of course they can say simple things, but they cannot express anything of any depth. So who should contact German ministers then? There's no need to ask, naturally German members should do that. You home members must find the time to visit the churches in your neighborhood. You can do it if you have the desire. I'm inspired by the parents group in Munich. Even though they're older, they do what they can to help the church. We must mobilize all our home members in order to achieve our goal. They can visit churches, get to know people and then ask them if they would like to be associate members. It may be difficult to bring active members, but bringing associate members isn't quite as difficult. The German blessed couples and home members must take responsibility to visit churches.
We know that people with similar natures live together in the spirit world. So when we go to the spirit world, as family members, we will be together. But if we didn't participate in 21-day witnessing conditions or do home church work or visit ministers, we will have to leave when members who did arrive. Even in this world, you can't participate in a discussion about a topic you don't understand. You will be left out of the conversation. Likewise, when we go to the spirit world we will talk about our life and activities on earth, we will have many topics to discuss. But if we didn't participate in these activities we cannot join in the discussion. Who is more likely to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, one who participated in such activities or one who didn't? I think that those who participated will be more qualified to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Then where will those who didn't participate go? Not the Kingdom of Heaven, that is logical.
Father's mission as the Messiah is to bring all of mankind to the Kingdom of Heaven. Imagine a parent with two children; one who studies hard so he can enter a good university and the other who hardly studies at all. What do parents do in such a situation? They scold the lazy one, because they love him. They want to encourage him to improve himself, so he can have a better future. This is parental love. In the same spirit, True Parents push us to qualify to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. So we should be grateful when told of the many things we must do. And when we don't follow we need to be scolded. We must live up to God's standard.
I'd like to speak about the relationship between center members and home members. Those living in centers are mostly younger members, while those living outside are mostly older people with children and other responsibilities. Their missions should be the same though. Of course home members must fulfill their external responsibilities, but they should still do God's work. How many hours do you think center members use for witnessing each day? Not all day. Home members should find similar hours to do God's work, i.e. to meet people and visit churches. Atoms consist of a nucleus and electrons. Matter cannot exist with only a nucleus or electrons, both are needed. The nucleus is subject and must have a good give and take relationship with its electrons because they have a common purpose: forming an atom. Center members and home members also have a common purpose: witnessing and reaching out to ministers. I often hear that this relationship isn't good enough though. Whatever the circumstances, center members must have good give and take with the home members. Home members should visit the center and participate in the various activities there. If this relationship isn't good enough we cannot bring new members.
Center leaders should care for the center members and develop a good relationship with the members living outside. Center leaders should visit blessed couples and get to know the situation of the blessed couples and home members. Home members should also know the situation of members in the center. By understanding each other's situation they can unite. When we do this, we can expand our territory and gain new members. Center leaders must broaden their minds and members living outside must show more concern for center life and the members there. The center is the birthplace of new members. If we don't have a good center how can we gain new members? Center members and home members must take care of each other.
One of Father's mottoes is: "Do not become indebted to others." We must give to others. Our attitude should be to give at least a little bit more than we receive. Of course sometimes you receive more, but anyway your attitude should be to try to give more to others than you receive. If we develop this attitude, our relationships will improve. This isn't just important among our members, it should be the same between God and us. We receive so much from God that we can't ever pay Him back. But if we receive ten units from God, we should try to return at least one. We should try to return something to show our appreciation.
We all know we must pray and invest our heart in our work. If we do this we will be able to bring good results. We must invest our prayer, our heart and our effort in our work and establish good relationships with our brothers and sisters. With these four elements we can succeed in our work. We are thieves if we expect results without investing ourselves first. We must invest something in order to gain results, otherwise we violate heavenly law and the Principle. So we must invest as much as we can, then we can gain the results we desire.
Man has five spiritual senses, but we should also recognize the importance of intuition. It is a supplement to man's five spiritual senses that must be developed. If we are completely bound to our physical life we can never develop our sixth sense. Once it is developed though, whenever we meet someone we will be able to know something about them, we will receive something from them. We should develop this in order to improve our witnessing, then we will be able to select people carefully, not just witnessing to anyone. If we can develop this intuitive sense we can find the right people, thus saving time and bringing success more easily. This isn't just for True Father, but for us as well; everyone can develop this sense. Once every 40 days we fast either one day or one meal. That is the best time to develop your intuition. When you eat three meals a day and are physically active you are completely bound to your physical body, but through fasting you separate from your physical body a little bit and can easily develop your spiritual senses or your sixth sense. You can experiment with your life. When you pray hard you can test the power of your prayer and what result it brings. Our life can be interesting if we do this. We shouldn't just blindly obey orders, but take initiative to make our life more interesting. We don't want to lead boring lives, but have an interesting and exciting life. Each person has different qualities, some are good in one area and others in another. You should develop your talents and enrich your lives. When you do, God will be happy and try to help you even more.
One last point: to accomplish our missions we need help from God and the spirit world, but you should be careful when asking for spiritual help. You didn't have any spiritualists in the European church before. I hoped for someone who could communicate with the spirit world because without understanding the spirit world you cannot have real faith in God. We must understand spirit world well, and spiritual communication or revelation is necessary for that. If we don't have a pure heart though, we can easily be misled by spirits. If someone becomes arrogant after receiving revelations or strays from the right course even just a little bit, evil spirits will attack him immediately. The medium often doesn't understand or realize this; he believes he is still receiving messages from the same good spirit. As soon as the medium changes, however, the good spirit must leave, then evil spirits enter, using the same name the good spirit did. If the medium doesn't recognize the difference he will be led in the wrong direction.
I saw this happen several times in Korea and in other countries. It always follows the same pattern: the medium gains many followers and then the spirit world tells him, "To fulfill God's will you must have a love relationship." They always say that. They lead them to fall. That is Satan's ultimate weapon. Once they fall they become instruments of Satan. Spiritualists must follow Divine Principle and their leader. When they don't, they are easy prey for Satan. In Korea there were many ladies who had experience communicating with the spirit world. After joining our church, they had to follow Father's instructions. If they didn't, but just went their own way, they were always attacked in the same way: always the problem of the fall. This is why we are advised not to communicate with the spirit world. If you don't really understand and aren't strong enough to follow Father and your central figure, then it's better not to communicate with the spirit world.
Let us pray:
Our loving Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that you are our True Parent and we can become your true children. Of course we have many shortcomings, but we have a strong desire to become your true children. Therefore we ask you to guide and lead us, so that we can come to you and live with you for eternity. Our desire is to realize your ideal world on earth. Many people long for the ideal world but don't know where or how to find it; they are lost and cannot find the way.
Our True Parents came to this world on your behalf, to give your truth and love to all mankind. Without following our True Parents, mankind cannot find its way back to you. This is why our Father gave your truth and tried to live according to it so that people could recognize him. Satan is trying hard to destroy your providence and hold all people on his side. This is why people cannot recognize or follow our True Parents. If they cannot come to our True Parents then we must go out to them and give them your truth and your love on True Parents' behalf. We must bring them to True Parents and help them become true children. This is your desire, our desire and the desire of all fallen people. We really want to become your true warriors, thwarting all Or Satan's attacks and expanding your territory throughout the world in order to establish your ideal on earth.
Our Father has given us another chance to repent and unite. He is now in Danbury, willingly suffering for all of us. We must be grateful to our Father and pray for his safety. We ask you to be with our True Parents, especially our True Father in Danbury, please protect him. We pray also that Heung Jin Nim, Jesus and all the saints, good spirits and angels can protect our Father so that he will soon be able to leave hell on earth and lead us to establish your ideal on earth within the time period you have planned.
Father, through your grace we could have a wonderful meeting in Camberg. You were with us the whole time, leading everything. We could share many things and receive your grace and blessings.
We are so grateful and want to return the love you gave us. Father, please let all of us continue in our work, let no one fall away before reaching the ultimate goal. We want to return joy to you and our True Parents and realize your ideal as you desire. We want all people to experience true happiness and peace in your ideal.
We pray all this in the name of our beloved True Parents. Amen.