Hyung Jin Moon
December 26, 2009
Headquarters Church, Seoul, Korea
Yeon Ah Nim’s welcoming remarks:
Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. It is great to see you all again. I am sure you all have spent a wonderful Christmas with all your relatives and friends. I really can’t believe that this is the last service of the year -- can you believe that? Time has passed so quickly. And I really do believe that 2010 will be a very exciting year because we can now boldly testify about True Parents in the name of the Unification Church. We sincerely pray that God’s countless blessings and True Parents unending love will be upon you and your family. Aju!
Hyung Jin Nim’s welcoming remarks:
Good afternoon, brothers and sisters! Let’s manifest the Principle first: Give and Receive Action, Four Position Foundation. May I inherit the True Love of God! Aju!
Today our reading is from Cheon Seong Gyeong, page 1005:
“What do True Parents symbolize? They are the symbol of hope for everyone. They are the symbol of absolute hope for fallen humanity. They are the fruits of the history, the center of the present era and the center of the nations of this world. There are five billion people living today. They are the starting point from which we can be connected to the ideal world of the future.”
Brothers and sisters, I know it is because of True Parents that we are here, that we found the way to this sanctuary and that we are His precious children. Let’s give it up to God and True Parents.
Brothers and sisters, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and we are very happy to have you here for the last service of 2009. We want to send this year off with pride knowing that we have accomplished many things and that in 2010 we will return even more victory and glory to God and True Parents. Brothers and sisters, if you look at this big banner above us, it reads: New Life Resurrection Service. It is a totally new service. There will be a third service tomorrow at 12:00 o’clock. There will be 17 new Unificationists who will be declaring and professing their new faith tomorrow. They have just been witnessed to. They heard the lectures on the Principle and now they will be making their proclamation to turn their life over to God and True Parents.
This is such an exciting thing because for so many years in the church we could not witness. Nobody came and said, "We want to join this church." But we proved you wrong, brothers and sisters. God IS working miracles. Now people do come and want to join our church. They come searching for the truth and why it is that the Unification Church is so successful and will continue to succeed. Therefore, tomorrow these wonderful new brothers and sisters will be coming for a very special ceremony we are preparing for them. We want to invite all of you to participate and to give them encouragement they truly need when they start their life of faith. Let’s give it up for these new brothers and sisters who will be coming tomorrow! It is so exciting!
Meditation Practice:
Dear brothers and sisters, let’s manifest the Principle in a greater way while preparing our mind, body and breathe. Let us begin by preparing our body: Let us breathe in and stretch our arms towards heaven. Give and Receive Action: while breathing out move your arms down by forming the symbol. Now the Four Position symbol: as we breathe in we form the base, then as we breathe out let us reach towards heaven by stretching our hands out, and as we bring them together we breathe in. May I inherit the True Love of God! Let us do it one more time: Let us breathe in and stretch our arms towards heaven. Give and Receive Action: while breathing out move your arms down by forming the symbol. Now the Four Position symbol: as we breathe in we form the base, then as we breathe out let us reach towards heaven by stretching our hands out, and as we bring them together we breathe in: May I inherit the True Love of God! Aju!
Now we want to prepare our minds. Please be seated at the edge of our chairs so that we can keep our back strait and breathe deeply and naturally. Let us close our eyes and enter into our first visualization. Let us not visualize our sanctuary but that we are walking through a beautiful forest. It is in the middle of winter. We can see the beautiful snow falling from the sky. We notice the little crystals the snowflakes form. As we look at the earth, it is fully covered with soft beautiful snow. The entire earth is covered. We see that the snow collected at the branches of the trees makes them look like beautiful flowers. As we walk ahead I want you to feel the softness of the snow, how the earth is supporting you and keeping you standing strong. As we walk ahead we notice a beautiful stream up ahead. Let us walk up to that stream. Notice how the sound of the stream gets stronger as we walk closer. As we arrive at this wonderful stream we notice that although it is fully covered with ice we can still hear the water flowing underneath. As we are standing close to the stream, we feel how it refreshes our heart and body by us just looking at it. We can breathe in the cool winter air. And as we are standing in front of this beautiful stream, let’s gently close our eyes and continue to listen to the sound of that healing water. And as we breathe in let’s say in our hearts: “I am alive!” As we breathe out let’s simply say: “Thank you!” As we gently breathe in again: “My family is also alive!” As we breathe out let’s say: “Only by Your grace! Thank You!” As we breathe in again: “My nation is alive!” As we breathe out: “By Your grace, Thank You!” Final inhalation, as we breathe in: “My God is alive!” As we breathe out: “You are with me. Thank You!”
God and True Parents have blessed us with this blessed life. That is to inherit the true love of God, His great parental heart, to become greater blessings to our spouse, family, tribe, society, nation, world, and cosmos, and to God. Let us now join our hands together and manifest once more our Principle Symbol, Give and Receive Action, Four Position Foundation all coming into one. “May I inherit the True Love of God.” Aju!
Thank you, brothers and sisters. Let us take this time to pray because 2009 is flowing out and 2010 is just around the corner. We want to start with that prayerful heart. Let us take this time to pray in gratitude for the things that happened in 2009 and also to remember what will happen in 2010. Let us listen to the song as we offer our prayer in unison:
Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, Dear Heavenly Parent! True Parents, thank you so much for everything. We are standing at the dawn of the New Year 2010. Father, once more we have been resurrected from death because so many people said that the Unification Church is dead, so many prophesied that the Unification Church would fail and perish. But Father, you have given us a miracle -- the miracle of resurrection. And in this New Year 2010 we will rise to attain even greater victory! We will rise to gain even more pride and confidence. And Father, we will see a flood of witnessing and that spirit world will be moving. We will see that miraculous power in action. Father, we want to inherit Your essence and parental heart that has sacrificed over and over again for the sake of us children and even for the worst enemy. We want to sacrifice ourselves not only once or twice but endlessly, as You have laid down Your life for us again and again. For Your sake we will forget about our own self and offer ourselves to You for the sake of Your children, Father, and we want to open up to the abundance and blessings You have already prepared for us for 2010.
We finally realize how much You have given to us so that we now want to return ourselves to You. As we wind up 2009 Father, we really want You to be with us in 2010. Thank You so much for all the things You have done in the past, You are doing in the present, and for everything You will be doing in the future. In advance we are seeing the miracle that the Unification Church is standing up again. Please be with us and give us the strength and courage we need. With all our hearts we pray for all these things in the Name of our own Central Blessed Family and in the Name of our Great True Parents! Aju!
Dear brothers and sisters, let us rise. You know what time it is? It is the time to thank your brothers and sisters, your spouse or your child, and to look at them with new eyes. I want you to look at the person next to you, look at him or her and say: “2010, I’m ready.” Give them a big hug and tell them “I love you! Thank you!” Encourage the person next to you.
Interesting Little Story:
We are going to start with something a little interesting. Today I have some questions you have to answer. Are you ready?
Question: What do snowmen eat for breakfast?
Answer (by Pastor Michael Brazil): Snowflakes. Pastor Michael, you’ve got it.
Next question: Why does Santa have three gardens?
The answer is very profound: So that he can hoe, hoe, hoe. -- Lord have mercy.
Are you ready for the next question? What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?
Answer: Frostbites. Michael, you read the sermon before I gave it.
So, now you have to fill in a blank. If you know it, don’t tell the answer, Pastor Michael:
Every year Christmas is less about Jesus’ birth and more about a clearance sale!
Main Sermon:
Brothers and sisters today I want to talk to you about “Forever Falling in Love,” First let’s take a look some of these world scriptures today. We’re going to look at Judeo-Christianity, Psalm 33.4,5:
”For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.”
Aju!
Let’s look up Islam today. This is the Quran 16.18. Let’s read together.
“If you count God’s Blessing, you can never number it; surely God is all-forgiving, all-compassionate.”
Aju!
Let’s see Buddhism today, the Dhamasangiti Sutra. And this is the teaching of Buddha. Let’s read that together:
“The Law is equal, equal for all beings. For low or middle or high the law cares nothing. So I must make my thought like the law. The law has no preferences. Without preferences is the law. So I must make my thought like the law.”
Aju!
This is Unificationism, Father’s collection of speeches, and let’s read together:
“When you’re heart is pouring out love for humankind, and you have the mind to share your life limitlessly with mankind, it is clear that you belong to heaven.”
Aju!
And today let’s focus on core world scriptures. From John 15:9-10, let’s read together:
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”
Aju!
Jesus taught a love theology. He knew that testifying and witnessing about the coming king and the goodness of God, that he was expressing the greatest type of love for God, declaring God. God commanded him to testify of the Kingdom, to the good news of the gospel and bring forgiveness and love to the world.
The Unification movement also inherited this mission. True Parents have inherited the mission of Christ. But I heard many people say that as the Unification Church we don’t have a culture of forgiveness or a culture of welcome but rather we have a “judgmental culture,” trying to determine who is holier than who or who is higher than who, etc. And this has really become like this not because of the problem of the content or the teaching but because we forgot to share with people the joy that we had. We got tied up many times, stuck in what kind of family blessing we may receive or what kind of title we might have held, or what role True Parents might have given us. You see these things are important but they are not as important as the fun of falling in love with True Parents! There is nothing greater than that.
When I was at Harvard Divinity School there was another Unificationist there. She was a blessed second generation Unificationist and she said something very striking that continues to ring in my ears today. She said this about our movement, “You know, our culture, we’re so Jewish!” That’s what she said. At first I didn’t get what she was saying. When studying the religious traditions we learn that there are two types of religions. There is what is known as “tribal” religions and there is what is known as “universal” religions; tribal religions and the universal. The universal religions like Christianity, like Buddhism, Islam, they grow into world religions. Tribal religions such as Judaism or some Indian Hindu religions do not have the potential to grow to the world scale. Why is that? Because in universal religions, regardless of what background you come from, when you become a Muslim or a Christian, you become part of that family; you become part of that community. But in tribal religions marriage outside is usually forbidden. Only people of a certain race or ethnicity or bloodline can be included and all else are excluded.
Although we speak of bringing in the Completed Testament Age, our culture was falling into the Old Testament again. So the question can arise, “Why did we digress into an Old Testament-like culture, and with that kind of culture how are we going to inherit the foundation of Christianity which is a universal religion?”
It is actually quite easy why we became as such and the answer is very simple. We digressed into that type of culture for one reason: we stopped witnessing. Once we stopped witnessing and being bold about who we are, then certain things started to happen to the community. We became judgmental because we did not focus on witnessing. We did not focus on moving the organization to help in the witnessing process, instead we focused on what title we held, what marriage level we had, etc. This is something that I truly realized when I started witnessing myself on the streets. When we witness as a movement we cannot become unwelcoming. We cannot because the very nature of witnessing is to testify and bring people to the church. So we must naturally create an environment that welcomes new people to the church. It cannot be a culture where we exclude people; that is counterproductive to witnessing. Also a culture of forgiveness occurs when we practice witnessing. We learn how to care for others and want to save them. We want to bring them back to the right path and bring goodness and joy into their lives. If we create that kind of culture, forgiveness can occur for people that have fallen away but want to return.
I have seen many people with positions of power within the church that never come to church, who never tithe to the community, never do service, they never witness. They participate in unethical behavior but just because they didn’t break their blessing as a family, they feel they can sit as a leader. On the other hand, I’ve seen people who do service work, who tithe to the community, who donate to youth programs, who witnessed for True Parents, but have no official church title, but because of the fact that their blessing didn’t work out or some other thing like that, they are ostracized and pushed out.
So how do we change this kind of culture? As we have now arrived in 2009 and are moving into 2010, with Cheon Il Guk in 2013 very close around the corner, it’s very simple -- we all need to start practicing learning how to witness, learning how to testify to be proud of our faith. This is how we can create achievement. Witnessing creates that culture: invitation, welcoming, forgiveness. Even though people are not perfect, which nobody is, there is always hope for them to return, to come back and find their families once again. There is always hope for people that do not know True Parents or the Divine Principle to come into the mission and purpose of God. Witnessing is all about love, ALL about love. When we witness, we are loving God. When we witness, we are falling in love with True Parents over and over again. This I truly have experienced (display of several pictures of Hyung Jin Nim witnessing). When I go out in the streets witnessing and talking to people about True Parents and the Unification Church, when I am talking to the media, when I am witnessing to people, I feel myself falling in love with the value of True Parents once again -- falling in love with the type of love that they have succeeded with.
When we witness we are called to love people who are not our members, but we are also called to love one another because when those new members become brothers and sisters, we are called to love them, to encourage them, to help them grow, and help them find this forever falling in love. When I explain the great love story of the seven deaths and resurrections, I feel myself feeling the power of that love once again. I feel myself being touched again by that power and passion. And once again I feel myself falling in love with True Parents and their True love.
Let us take a look at John 15:11-15 and let us read together:
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete…Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends… I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made know to you.”
Aju.
I had lunch the other day with about eleven of the top newspapers here in Korea before we headed out to Taiwan. In Taiwan, the Taiwanese members just completed a seven-hundred couple blessing! This is really remarkable because as you may or may not know, in Taiwan for 16 years the Taiwanese members were persecuted immensely so heavily there. The government banned the Unification movement there, so our brothers and sisters had to do underground faith. They had to go in their basements, turn on candles, have a little picture of True Parents. They did not know when the police would raid them, etc. Totally, their human rights, their religious freedom was stolen from them but out of the international effort that we put on the Taiwanese government to protect the democratic right of freedom of religion, after 16 long years of persecution, the Taiwanese government finally lifted that ban! Now our brothers and sisters can practice their faith freely in a democratic society! And they are moving! They are on fire about True Parents. It’s so inspiring to go down and see them. They are witnessed just recently, seven-hundred new blessed couples. They are everyday out in the streets.
Before I went to Taiwan we had this luncheon with the reporters and they asked me, “So is Reverend Moon… you say he is the Messiah. So is Reverend Moon God?” That question, that is always the question that comes up. “Is Reverend Moon God? You say he the Messiah; is he God? I read that somebody says he is God.” I told her, “Look, you should read our theology. Our theology is very clear on this issue that Christ is not God. Neither is the Messiah God. The Christ is a human being who has inherited the true love of God, so he has the value of God’s essence but he can’t create trees, fruit, whip up a couple of mountains or whip up a couple stars. He does not do that, but he has the value because he can love in the capacity of God. Do you see what I mean? And we can inherit that, too!”
One person asked me -- a reporter that I met a couple times over the last two years -- “How did you come to accept your father as the Messiah? You studied Buddhism; you studied Islam and Christianity; you studied all the religions. How can you accept the True Parents as the Messiah? I thought you were a Harvard trained academic.” Okay, he asked me that question, so I explained to him, “Look, doing ministry I myself had a very big struggle in my own heart, a very big struggle, a theological struggle really because as a Unificationist minister teaching about true love and teaching how it is the center of everything, how it is the center of the four position foundation, everything, I could not describe what it is.” So, of course, I described it. We heard all the explanations like to live for the sake of others. He can subjugate Satan, give love centered on others, all those things. But I could not feel why that true love is greater for example then the love of Christ or of the great Buddha or greater then the great and obedient love of Muhammad. How is that kind of love greater? Jesus practiced living for the sake of others. Jesus made Satan naturally surrender. Jesus lived for the sake of others. And so did the Buddha. Why can I say that the true love that the Unification church teaches is greater?
Having knowledge of other religions was a major problem because if we as the Unification Church are going to say we are going to raise all the other religions to the next plane, to the highest level, then if we cannot explain the central core, which is true love, then that is a problem.
So I had this very difficult time while doing ministry, trying to wrestle with this notion, this theological dilemma. And so one day I told them, “One day, I had a dream. I went to sleep and had a dream. I had a dream that Father was being persecuted, tortured in prison.” We know that he went through six imprisonments. He went through tortures. After some of them his physical body was actually dead. He was thrown out into the ice as dead, physically beaten and torn and tortured. We know that, six times. The seventh time was the substantial resurrection, the helicopter accident.” And I said, “Look, I had this dream one day and in that dream I saw Father on the earth plane being tortured in prison and beaten and cursed and all that kind of things. In that dream his spirit was descending into hell, spiritually going down. He was going down and casting his spirit into the hands of demons that were torturing souls down there, and he said, ‘Do not touch these fallen children; they are mine! They are mine! I will protect them. You take MY soul instead!’
That dream was very graphic. Demons were doing as they wanted with True Parents’ soul.” And so I explained, “As I saw this, as I had this dream, it made a huge impact on me because I realized that even as a Christian you cannot understand the love of Jesus with just your physical eyes. If you just look at Jesus with your physical eyes, all you are going to see is a Middle Eastern man, shorter than me probably, who says he is God. That is all you are going to see. But only if you open your greater eyes, your spiritual capacity, then will you see the man who died for you, who died to cleanse you of your sins, to be the pure sacrifice so that you can get into the Kingdom of God. Only if Christians can open their spiritual eyes, they can understand the love of Christ, they can understand the death, crucifixion, and the resurrection. And I realized that the reason why I could not describe True Love was because I was just looking at True Parents with my PHYSICAL eyes.
Even Christians see Jesus with their spiritual eyes but I wasn’t even at that level. I was not looking at True Parents with my spiritual eyes, but when I did realize and see True Parents with my eyes through that dream that True Parents gave me, then I realized, ‘My God! The love that was portrayed in there is even greater than the love of Christ because. Jesus defines the greatest love in John 15:13, and that is a love that will lay down his life for the sake of his friends. The True Parents’ love will not only lay down their life and be resurrected from the grave for their friends, for their children. They will lay down their life not one time but over and over and over again. Their love is so great that even before the devil and Satan they will lay down their life over and over and over again so that he may one day enter the Kingdom.’
When I realized this, then I realized, ‘My God! What the Unification Church is teaching about True Love is the greatest type of love that I have ever seen studying all the religious traditions! It is the greatest love that can transcend death and persecution and the grave, that can be resurrected endlessly by the power of its parental heart.’
This is the reason why I did twenty-one thousand bows. It was not only for the witnessing victory. It was for repentance of not understanding what True Love actually was.”
So I explained to them this kind of thing. You know, for me as a Unification minister, ministering, talking and teaching Principle and talking about True Love, I was very envious of one thing. I looked at Christians and had seen them witnessing. I was so envious because they have what is called “passion narrative.” You know what that is? It is the narrative that you will find in all the gospels of the bible; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and they all talk about the passion narrative. It means love and it also means suffering, but the passion narrative is the death, cross, and the resurrection of Christ. Now there are other extra chronological texts in the Bible that the Catholic Church of the early days cut out from the Bible that do not talk about this passion narrative. But the gospels that came into the Bible all are centered around the passion narrative. This is because the passion narrative is also connected with the mass ritual that you see in the Catholic Church.
So this became the ultimate love story of humanity, the “passion narrative,” telling that somebody, the son of God, who has the preciousness of God, has died for a sinner like you and me so that we can get into the Kingdom of God. What immense Love! You see what I mean? This was the passion of the passion narrative. And I used to see Christians talking like this, speaking like this and witnessing like this. And I’m saying, “My God, why can’t we explain True Parents like that? Why can’t we do that?” This was such a big dilemma for me. We had no ability. We had no way to explain True Parents in such a way. So we explained them as patriots or peace activists or great educators. Jesus was not described as a patriot or a peace activist. He was described as the Savior or the Messiah who died for you and me and resurrected so that we can enter the Kingdom.
The Principle shows the purpose of Creation, the Fall, the Restoration Process, but then it says the Messiah is here. Reverend Moon is the one, and he will bring the Kingdom of God. It stops right there, stops at that point. That is like saying, “Jesus is here! He will bring the Kingdom. Go see him!” That is what it does. It stops right there. It is a powerful theology, but it stops right there. It does not show how it is completed.
Imagine Christians witnessing and talking to you like this: “Did you know that Jesus came? Believe in him!” If that was it, not a lot of people would be turned. Not a lot of people would find and feel the love of Christ. But they say, “Did you know that Jesus died for you? Did you know that you have sinned in your life? Did you know that somebody died for you so that you can be cleansed of that sin and you can enter the Kingdom of God?” And then people say, “Oh, my God, that is quite a profound love.” That is the power of the “passion narrative” and that is the power with which Christianity witnessed and grew.
But although we as Unification Church did not have this ability to explain the love of True Parents, finally through the seven deaths and resurrections and the True Love theology that True Parents put upon us, finally we can explain why True Love is even greater than the love of Jesus Christ and why it is even greater than the love of the saints and sages of the past, why it is even a greater level than all those who have come before. It is not only a love that will die for the sake of their friends. It is an endless love that will sacrifice its life over and over, and we see this in True Parents’ seven deaths. We see it manifested in the true love that they lived to be victorious over those deaths and graves and infinite hells; a love that will die and die, give and give, and be resurrected by its power.
Last week we had Yong Guk Chung at service who is the director of the witnessing department here. He gave a little presentation of how this all is connected to the eight stages. I think all of you saw it last week, how that is connected through the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the eight stages: All the way from the individual, family, tribe, world, etc., servant of servant, servant, stepson, true son, all the way up. All those things were indemnified through True Parents’ seven deaths and resurrections.
See, now we as Unification Movement not only have one of the most powerful theologies that explain the purpose of creation all the way up to the present age. Even my New Testament professor, a very famous scholar, Dr. Helmut Hester, recognized the value of the Principle’s systematic, theological way.
Not only do we have that strong explanation that Christianity or Catholicism does not have, but now we have a “passion narrative” even greater than the “passion narrative” of Christ. Let’s give it up for God and True Parents!! (Applause) I explained all this to the reporters and they had nothing to say. They said “Oh, that’s quite an experience.” And they actually wrote wonderful articles about us. They were very nice.
Let us read this last one, John 15:16-17:
“You did not choose ME, but I chose YOU and appointed you to go and bear fruit -- fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.”
When we create a culture of sharing our faith, not hiding our faith, of sharing and being proud of our faith and letting the world know what we believe, knowing that it is our democratic right to believe, knowing that nobody can steal our human rights, when we have power in our faith and when we share our faith and witness then we are forced to love each other. Because when you witness you have to try to love the person not only when you are witnessing. When you bring them in you have to continue to nurture them and to help them grow in their faith life and to love others.
When the witnessing stops, then we have only the pointing at each other, the wasting of energy, the “who is better than who?” and “I am better then you.” That is useless. Only in the witnessing culture, when we are sharing our faith, when we are loving and sharing with the people what we have and are proud of who we are, then we can truly create that incredible culture.
See, God has chosen us, and True Parents have chosen us. So this year, 2010, we want to offer up that kind of great victory. Brothers and sisters, we are entering into the growth stage temple. Did you see it? Did you pass by it? It looks amazing and we are moving in there. And we are going around there witnessing, and people are saying, “When you guys come in don’t even give me a call because I will be in the door. So you better be ready to take care of me.” I have met so many people who are telling me this, We have so many brothers and sisters who witness right in front of the bus terminal right there. So many people are ready, ready, ready, to come into the Unification Church. Let’s give it up for those new brothers and sisters that are waiting to come in! (Applause).
When we do this, brothers and sisters, then we are going to participate in the creation of that eternal kingdom. And this is the fruit that will last, that Jesus talked about. If we do this in 2010, as we enter the growth stage temple, if we declare still in 2009 that we will be victorious, then we will be prouder of who we are, more confident in what we believe, and we will succeed in witnessing and raising 21,000 brothers and sisters in that new temple. And we will let the world know that we are not going anywhere. We are here to stay! Let’s give it up for Unification Church brothers and sisters! (Applause)
We’re going to end with Father’s words. This is a collection of speeches. True Father (33:69):
“Our witnessing through the Divine Principle is carrying on a movement to find love. The world of heart will surpass time and space. The word and prayer are ultimately all for the sake of love. Perfection is realizing the ideals of love.”
Aju.
Altar Call
As 2009 ends we invite 2010 in, so we want you all to come up in front. Let’s pray hand in hand together in unison as one blessed family with the hands held high in victory:
Heavenly Father, we thank You so much. We want to offer this year 2009 up to You as we know You performed so many miracles. Father, we didn’t think we would get this far. We didn’t think we could make it through all these obstacles, through these sicknesses and pains -- but Father, we made it because You brought us through and we know that You have performed that miracle and are with us day in and day out, that You are using us to spread Your goodness and love. Father, let us have this confidence now that the Unification Movement is standing up once again. We are not just beaten down over and over again. We are now going to be proud of who we are. We are now clear about who we are. To all the media we can now declare: Yes, we believe in the Messiah! Yes, we believe in the Unification faith!
This coming year let us be really strong and witness on Your behalf. Please let us learn to truly love this year, as the greatest love is to save another person, to raise that person so that he or she can also save other people, and, Father, and let us learn to keep falling in love like this forever. Let us learn to keep on falling in love with You and with the victory of our True Parents which manifested itself in the seven deaths and resurrections, a love that has brought us, our children and our descendents, into the great honor of entering into the 8th stage, the realm of your direct dominion what we call the Kingdom of God.
Thank You so much! It’s because of that grace that we are alive, that we have this powerful true love, Heavenly Father. Let us inherit this true love, this great parental heart and let us be, Heavenly Father, those kinds of parents to the world, that can bring all of your children to inherit Your true parental nature.
We thank You so much, Heavenly Father. We want to give You grace today and we want to encourage each other to have faith in the coming year. Father, in this coming year we want to feel joy in strengthening each other's faith, sharing our faith and seeing other people transforming and changing. Father, we want to pray for the 17 new brothers and sisters who are listening to the Principle and who have declared that they are going to be proud Unificationists and to accept True Parents as their Messiah, Savior and Lord. We thank You because You are proving us all wrong in the greatest way. You are telling us that WE CAN do it, that WE CAN change this world, that WE CAN change lives, Father, and that WE CAN inherit Your true love.
Father, please prepare those new souls tomorrow, so that they can feel welcomed and invited and can be nurtured and raised. Also, please give them the strength to go out and share that love and faith with the world. Thank You so much, Heavenly Father. We offer all these things in deepest gratitude for 2009 and we are inviting in the New Year 2010 -- not as victims but as people who want to be victorious for You and who want to be proud of who we are. Thank You so much. We are Unificationists who believe in the Second Coming of Christ, in our True Parents and in 2010 -- and we will declare this to the world. No one can take this from us. We thank You so much and we pray all these things in the Names of our own Blessed Families and in the Names of our great True Parents of Heaven and Earth! Aju
Notes
John, chapter 15
1: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
2: Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3: You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you.
4: Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
5: I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
6: If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.
7: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
8: By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
9: As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.
10: If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
11: These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13: Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14: You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15: No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
16: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
17: This I command you, to love one another.
18: "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
19: If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
20: Remember the word that I said to you, `A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.
21: But all this they will do to you on my account, because they do not know him who sent me.
22: If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23: He who hates me hates my Father also.
24: If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.
25: It is to fulfil the word that is written in their law, `They hated me without a cause.'
26: But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me;
27: and you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning.