Progressing toward the Temple

Hyung Jin Moon
March 2009

Question: We understand the Headquarters Church is moving to a new building.

Answer: Yes! We are moving to the Yongsan Citizens' Hall)

This is not the final World Peace and Unity Temple; this is the growth stage. Our church in Cheongpa-dong is the foundation level, and the building complex in Yongsan is the growth level. It will be able to bring the Unification Movement to the forefront of national attention for the first time. We are not yet at the world level. The perfection-level World Peace and Unity Temple, Cheon Bok Gung, will be a world- stage religious sanctuary. It will capture a worldwide audience.

The Yongsan Citizens' Hall, which will become our new Headquarters Church, will capture a national level of attention. It's going to show our palpable growth. It's going to show that the Unification Movement is putting roots down; it is starting to organize and become successful as a religious organization. There will be different facilities, including community rooms and prayer rooms for members to be able to do spiritual training practice and communal activities.

The sanctuary will be completely open to the public. It's going to bring attention to us nationally, and people will see the Unification Movement is growing. From there our task will be to witness a lot, bring new members, until that church is too small.

We will begin using it in about nine months, after it has been remodeled. The sanctuary is not yet ready. About two thousand people will be able to attend service there at one time. We have 6,700 registered members at the church in Cheongpa-dong, which is unmanageable now with its limited capacity. When we enter the Yongsan Citizens' Hall, we will be able to reach the goal of twenty thousand members.

When we have developed that strength of organization, we will be ready to move to the world stage Cheon Bok Gung. 

True Parents’ special instruction regarding the worldwide organizations

True Parents’ special instruction regarding the worldwide organizations 

Announcement of Change of Leadership

Announcement of Change of Leadership

Building your Spiritual Strength

Hyung Jin Moon
February 21, 2009
Headquarters Church, Seoul Korea
Transcribed by: Robin Debacker and Jacinta Moreau
Edited by: Bruno Klotz

Welcoming remarks
Yeon Ah Nim:

Good afternoon, brothers and sisters! It’s great to see you all. It’s always our honor to have you here, to pray together and worship together. We are always welcoming you to the sanctuary, and for those who are joining us via internet, we are also welcoming you as well. Welcome brothers and welcome sisters.

Hyung Jin Nim:

Welcome Brothers and Sisters! Today I’d like to share from Cheon Song Gyeong, page 1472. Father speaks:

“The life we are leading on earth is not for our own sakes. We are living for the sake of God’s love. For that purpose we are in a continuous state of action and existence. How splendid that is. Those who lead such a life can never be brought to ruin. Hardship, tears and misery would not make us miserable, bitter or sad, because we would be enduring them all for the love of God. You should understand this principle."

You know, brothers and sisters, this is so important in our own lives, especially in 2009. We’re definitely going to meet some obstacles, we’re going to meet some challenges, but you know, it’s so important to keep that in perspective. Father says that we’re doing this all for God’s love. We’re doing this so that we will return all things that are glorious to Him as well. It’s so important that when we do meet those obstacles and challenges, that we know that we’re going to get through this, that 2009 is not our last year on the earth. It’s going to be one of the years that we’re going to get through. It’s going to have victory in it, when we overcome those hardships that Father is talking about. That makes us stronger every time we do it.

So, brothers and sisters, it’s always so important to come in with that victorious mind, that victorious perspective. So when we go out, we become more than conquerors. We want to always begin with the way we look at things always shapes the way things happen. Whatever our situation, whatever level we may be at this point, we’re not through with ourselves yet. It’s not over yet. We have a lot of growing to do; we have a lot of new experiences to experience. We have a lot of new dreams that are going to be fulfilled. We’re in a process of growth. We’re in a process of life, and that life is blossoming, it’s occurring, it’s happening before our very eyes.

Brothers and sisters, welcome 2009 again. If you’re not already here, but I think you are. This year we’re going to have a great year. There may be those kinds of tribulations, but we’re going to turn those tribulations into victories. I do believe it. If you believe it, let’s give it up for God and True Parents. Welcome once again!

Yeon Ah Nim:

This Monday, True Father invited about 80 Headquarter members to Cheon Jeong Goon to have lunch together. It was a very exceptional invitation from Father, so everyone was very happy, and a little bit surprised at the same time, but they were very happy to go there. After everyone had lunch, we followed the regular schedule, True Father’s speech and Hoon Dok Hae, and True Father was merciful that day, and we "only" did five hours of Hoon Dok Hae. I was a little bit tired but I felt a little bit bad for Pastor Michael, who did not understand everything that day. (To Pastor Michael:) Were you OK that day?

Michael: Yes.

That day Father did five hours of Hoon Dok Hae in the morning, so he did a total of ten hours of Hoon Dok Hae. I still don’t know where his spiritual endurance comes from, but one thing that is certain is that we were totally powerless in front of Father’s endurance.

On the way back home we were talking about our experience. Some people said it was their first time to see Father that close, so they were grateful that Father let them have such an opportunity in their life. Other people said they were so happy to see Father eating very well even though he had suffered a recent cold. To me it’s always amazing that no matter how long Father does Hoon Dok Hae, at the end of the day I always say thank you to Father that he wants to be with us, that he always loves us and that he always cares about us. Aju!

Whatever the seasons, and however our lives are changing and evolving, let us always know that God and True Parents are there with us. They’re protecting us; they’re giving us courage and victory in every path, in every endeavor that we make. Let’s take this time to gather our hearts in prayer:

Hyung Jin Nim’s Prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank You so much for this day that You have blessed upon us. Thank You so much for allowing us to be here in this sanctuary together. Father, we pray that You may be with each of the families here today, and all of the families who are joining us via internet all over the world. We know that over 10,000 families are visiting over the internet from across the world. Father, we pray that today You may have your blessings and Your abundance shower down upon them. Father, we pray that You may be with them in their personal lives, in their career work, in their artistic endeavors, in whatever You have called them to do.

Father we pray that we may be honest with ourselves and know that in the end it is not because of our own talent but because of Your mercy, because of Your grace, that we are able to truly live a victorious life. Father, thank You so much for giving us that strength today; we pray that You may fill us up today, that You will give us more courage to go forth in 2009 and reap more harvest; that we may go forth and bring more victory to our families, to our work environment and into all the different areas of our life.

Father, be with us this year. We know that there will be some storms and tribulations, but, Father, we are not afraid. Father, we know that You are with us, and we know that we will make it through, just as we did in the past. Father, thank You so much for gathering us here today. We pray that all the glory and joy may be unto You this day, and that You may see Your children, that You may see your world and truly be at peace and in joy. We pray once again all together as one, as central blessed families. Aju!

Today I’d like to ask you all to pray for one young sister. She’s in high school, and she was in a car accident. Her name is Po Yoon.

Thank you brothers and sisters. You know, there are times in our lives and certain occurrences that we can’t explain, and certain events and circumstances that happen even to good people. Sometimes during those times it’s so difficult to sort out what’s happening, and so impossible to understand. I remember when Young Jin Hyung passed away, our family was totally in confusion, but God worked a miracle through that.

All of us started seeing life differently; we started asking more important questions. We started trying to value each other more, and through that, ten years later when I look at our own family, I see we’ve matured tremendously. We’ve really gotten to a level that we never even imagined in the past.

It’s the same in our own lives when we have some circumstances -- and they do happen -- difficulties and events, even when some loved one that we know and love so well, who is so good and really an example in many ways, even when all of a sudden that kind of good person passes away, it’s always so difficult to come to grips with that. But God is asking us to have the power to know that even though we can’t understand everything, that’s OK.

God is asking us to have the power and the will to go forward and make more victory in our lives. And when we do that we honor that person who is passing, who is kind of sacrificing themselves so that we may become enlightened, so that we may look at our lives in a different way. Many times that’s a gift that we don’t deserve. It’s a gift that many times comes in moments of deep despair and tragedy, but I really do believe, I’ve experienced it myself, that there were invisible hands at work.

Thank you for praying for Po Yoon and her family. We know that they are strong and that they are going to get through this. 2009 is of course going to have obstacles that we all will face, but it’s important to remember that life has to move forward and that it’s so important not to fall into despair, and to always have hope in our lives. When we do that, we start inspiring other people. When we have hope, everything is possible.

If you are ready to overcome in 2009, give it up for God and True Parents! Give it up! Thank you so much. I am ready for 2009 after that song!

Interesting story by Hyung Jin Nim:

You know, we always like to start with something a little interesting. I heard a story about a big Thanksgiving Day. A certain family received a thanksgiving card with a beautiful painting of a pilgrim family on their way to church. Grandma showed the card to her small grandchild and said, “The pilgrim children liked to go to church. They liked to go to church with their mothers and fathers.” The grandson looked up at Grandma and said, “Are you sure about that, Grandma? Why is the daddy carrying a rifle?”

Main sermon by Hyung Jin Nim:

Brothers and sisters, today I want to talk to you about “Building Your Spiritual Strength”. You know, in order to live the Blessed life we have to know how to build our spiritual strength. Real spiritual strength comes from the small challenges and small victories that we accumulate, whether we realize it or not. Every day, by the thoughts that we have or the words or actions that we participate in, we are either creating small victories or small losses. These small victories or losses accumulate. They aggregate and then they become eventually big victories or eventually big losses. Being aware of the importance of having the small victories and increasing their frequency is one of the keys to building your spiritual strength and living the Blessed life.

Let’s take a look at these scriptures today. Today we are going to look at Mark 10:27. Let’s look at Christianity today, “With men it is impossible but not with God, for all things are possible with God”. We are talking about God’s power here.

Let’s look at Confucianism, the Book of Songs, Ode 254, “Revere the anger of Heaven and presume not to drive about at your pleasure. Great Heaven is intelligent, clear-seeing and is with you in your wanderings.” Notice, it is there, it is ever-present. Heaven also understands what we are doing.

Let’s take a look at the Koran today: “Unto God belongs the sovereignty of the Heavens and Earth and all that is therein, and it is He who has power over all things.” Once again we see that. We understand that in life it is so important to accumulate spiritual strength and power. At the same time we need to understand that God really is the one giving us that strength.

Let’s take a look at Father’s Earthly Life and Spirit World, Volume 1, “Once you realize the original spiritual strength, your mind and body become one naturally. Unless a revolution occurs from the root, and unless we discover the origin that can correct everything from the bottom of the root, there is no reason to seek the ideal.” Again, we are talking about the original spiritual strength that we have to get down to, stemming from God.

There is a process called muscle hypotrophy. That is a very fancy word to just say muscle growth. When you weight train and when you build muscle, essentially you are tearing your muscles. You are ripping them; you are damaging your muscle tissue. The day after you work out, after you have a strenuous workout, you are going to feel very sore. You are sore because the muscles have what is scientifically known as micro trauma or micro damage.

If you continue to work out, you will continue to damage your muscles and you will actually get weaker. You will get atrophy which means lose muscle mass. As you let your muscles rest and you eat protein, your muscles use a process called protein synthesis and it overcompensates. This makes the muscle bigger and stronger to reduce the risk of repeat damage. When you work out again at a higher level of intensity and difficulty, you actually tear the muscles again. You rip them; you give them trauma; you give them damage. Then they rebuild, they get bigger and stronger, and so they don’t get damaged again. That is how actual muscle growth happens.

It is the same in our lives, spiritually, with our spiritual muscles. Every day we are training our spiritual muscles. Every time you have a negative thought about yourself like "I am not attractive, I am incapable, I am not intelligent," whenever you say these kinds of things you are tearing your muscles.

If you continue to do this without rebuilding your muscles spiritually, you will atrophy the muscle and the muscle will actually become weaker and weaker and these thoughts and these things will overpower you.

Every time you defeat these negative thoughts or these negative words that people may have put into you, by turning it around into faithful words like, “God has given me infinite creativity. I am made in His image. God believes in me, that’s why He created me. That’s why I am here. God blessed me. I am here to live my blessed promise. I am here to live the blessed life,” every time we do that, you see, what we are doing? We are rebuilding those tears, rebuilding that trauma. Whenever we do that, our spiritual muscles are growing stronger and then that is reducing the risk of repeat damage in the future. The more we train our spiritual muscles, the more they get stronger. They become more fit and it becomes harder for those opposed to us, or archangels, to defeat or steal our enthusiasm for life, steal our belief in our own potential etc.

In the martial arts world there is a saying that goes, “I do not fear the thousands of attacks you have practiced once, but I do fear the one attack you have practiced a thousand times.” What that means is that basically the one attack has accumulated so much victory; it has accumulated so much practice in the dojo, in the sparring or practice. When you end up battling a real master of martial arts, they can get you with one move, the same move, in a thousand different ways.

Some of you have practiced Kendo here, or Kondo; that is the art of the Samurai swords you practice with the bamboo sticks. If you have ever dueled a Kendo master, they finish you with the same strike almost every single time; every single time they can finish you with the overhead strike on your head. They can literally go through a whole room of people defeating each one with the exact same finish move.

And it is like that in life. See, once you develop a very victorious strong mind then that one mindset, that one basic move, can help you overcome a room full of opponents, circumstances, situations that would on another day bring you down. But just like that Kendo master, you can defeat all those circumstances even in one day.

The more you train it, the more you train that move, that victorious mind, it gets stronger, it builds, it becomes harder to beat, it becomes harder to overcome. That one victorious mind can fight defeat. It can overcome fear or failure or doubt or over-worrying or feelings of indecision or despair. Training ourselves every time we come up to service and listening to words of faith, being around people who are victorious in their minds, we start receiving that power, we start building our own strength, we start sharpening that move, so to speak.

One psychologist from Harvard, Dr. Gilbert, spoke about the evolutionary advantages of different species. He gave an example of monkeys that have simple tool-making skills. They can use a stick to put down an ant hole and then the ants crawl on to the stick and then the monkeys can eat the ants from that stick. That would be seen as an evolutionary advantage over other species that cannot do that. He went on to ask the question then, “What is it that humans have as the advantage over other species?”

Many people have debated this. What is our advantage, in the end, over other species? Certainly it is not our physical attributes. We do not have nasty sharp teeth or razor claws. We do not have the kind of body mass like elephants or mammoths or whatever. Many have proposed that the human species has this advantage -- the advantage of consciousness, or the ability for example to wield fire as some say, or the ability to create weapons; that this is our advantage over animals, in evolutionary terms.

But Dr. Gilbert made a very stunning and interesting statement and conclusion about what he thinks is actually our own advantage over animals. He said, “Our great advantage over animals is our ability to worry about the future”! He actually said that our advantage over animals is the ability to worry about the future! Some of you are doing that very well, by the way! He was saying that because human beings can worry about the future, and that is why they started creating weapons for example to protect themselves from a big lion that was going to come and eat them; or use the fire in a way that was going to warm them; or build a house that was going to protect from a storm that may happen in two weeks or a month; or maybe create laws that govern us, when we are talking about nations, so that there is not utter chaos.

We can worry about the future, and he is saying that that is actually our biggest evolutionary advantage. But then he goes on to say something else. That is not all. The ability to think about the future, to worry about the future, but then, this is the next point: to try to come up with a solution so that there is not a negative result. That is the closing part of that statement. That is the real key to our advantage.

If you have ever said, “I don’t see how it’s going to get any better. That child will never change. What if I fail? What if I don’t succeed? What if my marriage breaks?”, if you have ever said any of these things, worrying about the future, you are using your evolutionary advantage but let’s realize, you are not using it fully. Remember, our ability to worry is one part of that advantage, the other is problem solving so that a negative result does not occur.

People worry all the time. This is not a special skill that only some people have. Almost everybody has this ability to worry a lot, and a lot of people do it. But having faith in your future is a skill, seen from this perspective. Having faith does not mean that you don’t worry. You do worry even though you have faith, but it means you don’t get stuck in the over worrying mind. You don’t get trapped in there. With faith in your ability, with faith in your future, faith in your family, you are changing the thoughts of worry into thoughts of hope. You are changing the feelings of possible defeat into feelings of possible victory. You are motivating yourself to use your creativity and overcoming power to make a good outcome.

Of course we know that we can’t always do it by ourselves. There are so many people that help us in our life, and God of course organizes and orchestrates the rest, but doing this portion is our five percent responsibility. When we do that, that helps God and the people around us to help support us do the other ninety five percent.

You know, when I was in high school, I was so crazy about martial arts training. I loved Bruce Lee. I loved Bruce Lee in high school. You should have seen me! I had the Bruce Lee hair and everything. Because I devoted all my energy to training, I didn’t do so well in school. But Young hyung helped me. He began to help me in college with school studies, and one of the things that Young hyung recognized about my study habits was one slight problem. And that problem was that I never did my homework!! That would be a slight problem!

He said, “OK, we have to start with that problem. We have to fix that problem.” He told me, “Look. Doing well in school is very simple. You just perfect your homework. See it as training. It is training. Your homework is like training. And try to write down everything that the teacher says in school. That’s training. Do that. That’s like Bruce Lee in the beginning when he enters the dragon. When he is fighting in the front, he is training. You have got to imagine yourself at school like that, OK? That is what you are doing.” And, you know, he explained to me “Look. It’s like martial arts training. Homework is like practice for the big day, when you battle your opponent, your test. You are battling like Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon at the end. It’s your big test. That’s your opponent, OK?”

As soon as he explained it like that, I said “Oh, that’s so fun. Studying has never been that much fun in my life.” I started to understand. He started changing my view of studying. Studying, too, was also practice, and by perfecting homework practice I was perfecting my skills. He was explaining to me, “When you do this, you are getting stronger. Your muscles are getting stronger. You are getting stronger mentally so when you get to the test day, you are going to be very strong for your opponent.”

I also expressed this another way when we started ministry. I did not have the spiritual strength in the beginning to be confident in whom I was, and to openly tell people what I did. I didn’t have the confidence to go around and say, “Hey, I’m a Unificationist minister, how are you, etc.” I went through all the different thoughts, “Well, Father said we are not really a religion so I guess that would not really make me a Unificationist minister, etc. And in the perfect world there is no real need for religion, so I guess there is no real need to call myself a Unification minister when people ask me. I can maybe call myself a Peace Ambassador or something."

But I realized that this kind of thinking was actually very harmful, very doubly harmful. It was harmful because it was not being honest about the fact that we are a very authentic and deep, spiritual, religious tradition. It was damaging to the fact that every time I said that, I was undercutting True Parents, every single member who sacrificed for the movement, everything we stand for, believe in, everything we have faith in, and undermined every current member who is fighting the good fight of faith and trying to share his faith.

I realized, number two, because we are not in the perfect world we do need faith to help us build strong spiritual muscles as well, so we can be victorious and blessed in our life. And so with practice I became stronger. I became spiritually stronger, more confident about who I was, and more proud about what I represented, an authentic and deep spiritual tradition.

Because when I looked at it from a scholarly perspective, there is no religion that has succeeded this much during the founder’s lifetime. And now I am very comfortable. I comfortably tell people. I told the lady at the pizza store, “Yeh, I am a Unification minister. How are you doing?” And if somebody asks me I answer, “Oh yes, I am a Unification minister.” I tell very easily now. I feel that I have built my spiritual muscles enough so that I can explain that naturally.

This week we went to pay our respects to Cardinal Kim. He was a cardinal here in Korea, very respected. A hundred thousand Catholic devotees came out to actually visit his casket in the Myeong Dong cathedral here in Seoul. We actually contacted them the day after he passed away. I just requested, “I really would like to pay my respects to Cardinal Kim. Is that possible?” We just did it in faith. We did it in faith. We did not believe that they were going to let us in because our theological positions are very different, and the Catholic tradition does not necessarily recognize us as a religious theological tradition.

But it was very gracious. They allowed and granted us permission to come. We went on Tuesday evening and there were thousands of people, they were in line in Myeong Dong, wrapping around the whole block. There were thousands of people waiting. They very, very graciously escorted us to the VIP area and we signed our names. We signed not as Peace Ambassadors; we signed as Unification Church representatives, Hyung Jin Moon and Yeon Ah Lee. They gave us this ribbon and they escorted us up to the cathedral and they took us actually right in front of the glass casket. It was a huge honor for us, a huge honor. We felt so moved at that moment. We felt so moved, and so we gave a full bow to the cardinal, to pay respect to such a beloved spiritual leader here in Korea.

I looked at myself and I realized, “Wow, this is quite a good victory for myself.” I said, “I feel I come to the next level.” I felt very comfortable representing our tradition. They had us on the big screen and everyone knew who we were etc. But we wanted to show reverence. We did not come there arrogant. We did not come there trying to boast. We came there in humility and reverence and thankfulness. When we went up there, we could hear people saying in the back, “That’s Moon’s boy” and things like that.

When we went up to shake the bishop’s hand and introduce ourselves as Unification ministers, son of Rev. Moon and things like that, we could sense that he was not exactly elated to see us but we were so grateful that they allowed us to participate in that ceremony. Every morning for months and months we prayed outside that cathedral actually, in front of the statue of Mother Mary. We prayed to Jesus and Mother Mary, and I really do believe those small acts of faith start building those spiritual muscles, building that kind of strength.

So when we went there, even though we came representing the church, even though we came and everybody knew who were -- and there were people talking and we could hear them saying these kinds of things -- we were still confident and still dignified and kept a smile on our face, and thanked them with graciousness and bowed in reverence and humility. It was a wonderful thing. We really understood that we can develop and cultivate our spiritual strength.

True Father in prison also trained himself to never fear anything. When he was in prison, he prayed a prayer of gratitude. We talk about that very often. Every breath he took, he almost did it like this meditation practice that we do. Every second he could be conscious, every time he was alive, he was praying that prayer. Whenever he worried, doubted or had moments of disbelief like, “The providence is over, it’s done, the execution time is in two weeks, its over,” whenever he was thinking like this, he always prayed that prayer, “Don’t fear, I am going to be thankful. It’s going to happen.”

After the experience of torture, war, death, famine etc. he was ready for any future challenge or battle. Through those experiences, all those different things that he encountered, war, death, bombs, concentration camps and torture, all that kind of things made him have that this incredibly victorious, undefeatable spirit of mind. He has this incredible spirit that cannot be overcome. It is so powerful that even at the age of ninety years old, he continues to fight every single day. He continues to declare who he is, he is very open about who he is. He never tries to hide it. He is very open about who he is. He proclaims who he is, his responsibility etc. When we see that, we see that he has accumulated a very strong spiritual strength and that he comes across with this kind of confidence, and that the many, many tribulations in his life have accumulated into that kind of victorious mind.

Brothers and sisters, what can we learn today? Learning to have and accumulate small victories in our thought life, in our mind life, this leads to having big victories in our real life. This leads to building our spiritual strength in day-to-day practice.

Whenever we go, wherever we go, we can be training our spiritual victorious mind, we can train our thoughts. Every time we doubt, every time we have doubts in our talents, our ability, in our future, in our children, or in our families etc., every time we do that, it is an opportunity to train. It’s a bell of mindfulness, “It’s time to train. I can get stronger through this right now.”

When we turn those defeat thoughts into victorious thoughts, then we are getting stronger. Just like that muscle growth, we are growing that strength, that spiritual strength. Then when we do encounter obstacles, when we do encounter tribulations and challenge, we are stronger, we are more fit, we are ready to overcome it, and I do believe that if we go forth in 2009 with that kind of victorious strength, I do believe we will find ourselves with more victory, more illumination, and more peace, and we will live that blessed life that True Parents have blessed us to live. If you receive it, let us give it up for God and True Parents.

Final Prayer by Hyung Jin Nim:

Heavenly Father, thank You for this day that You have blessed upon us. We thank You for the opportunity to be here in Seoul, Korea, in the Fatherland, here in this historic sanctuary where True Father ministered. We pray that You can bless this holy place, that You may bless the people here who are Your children, the children that You have waited for thousands and thousands of years! Let us know that we are the ones that You have waited for. Let us know that we are the ones who are going to bring You joy and lift You up on high, so that You can see the world and be glad to see us.

We thank you so much. We know that this is a great year. We know that 2009 never comes again, it only comes once. We pray that in this year we will become wiser, we become stronger in our faith, we become more victorious in our thoughts, in our speech, in our actions, and we become more blessed in everything that we do. Father, be with us this time. We pray that you may be with each and every one of the family members here today. Father, give us the strength to build our spiritual power and strength. Not so that we can boast, but so that we may serve and be blessings to this world. Thank You so much for giving us this awesome opportunity of life. We know it only comes once and we are offering our greatest gratitude to You this day. In an everlasting love we pray with thanks. Aju! 

Announcement of Change of Leadership in Japan

Announcement of Change of Leadership in Japan

Information for Cheongpyeong Workshop Schedule for March 2009

Information for Cheongpyeong Workshop Schedule for March 2009

Learning To Challenge Your Challenge

Hyung Jin Moon
February 14 2009
Headquarters Church, Seoul, Korea
Transcribed by: Beatrice Cylburn
Edited by: Bruno Klotz

Welcoming Remarks:
Yeon Ah Nim:

Good afternoon, everybody!

We know that every day is the day that our Lord has made and every day is a sweet day to worship and celebrate Heavenly Father and True Parents. Just like today, today is Valentines’ Day, and I hope that everyone has a happy Valentine's Day. Yes? (Applause) Thank you!

We are always honored to have you here in this sanctuary, and for those who are watching us through internet, we welcome you as well. Welcome brothers, and welcome sisters!

Hyung Jin Nim:

Welcome, brothers and sisters. Today I want to share with you from Cheon Song Gyung, page 987. Father says:

Among all bonds of relationships the standard is the parent child relationship established between God and human beings. The heart coming from this bond cannot be undermined by the authority of any being and is eternal, unchanging and unique. The authority of this heart is also absolute. For this reason, when you come forth with this authority, all existing beings will bow their heads before you. When you move with the authority of that heart, the entire universe must follow you.

Brothers and sisters, I really encourage you to keep these words written on your hearts during the week. When we are in that amazing relationship then, although we may not see God and True Parents around us, but the power and authority of that relationship all existing beings will bow their heads. Wherever you move with the authority of that heart the entire universe must follow. If you understand that we sit and stand in that amazing position then we know and we will feel how amazing this life is.

Brothers and sisters, it’s always so important that before we come to the service to remember these words, to remind ourselves through this lens. It is so easy for us to forget these kinds of words in our lives.

Let’s always remember that when we come to service it's our time to really celebrate, to show God His goodness, to bring Him glory, to bring Him happiness, bring Him joy. When we do that then we will receive the abundant blessings that God is preparing for us.

Brothers and sisters, once again, welcome to service, and let us return joy and happiness to God and True Parents today. Welcome to service.

Yeon Ah Nim's Message:

Five years ago my husband and I were watching an animation movie that is called “Joseph.” And there was a scene that Joseph was coming up the hill with his robe, his embroidered and golden decorative robe that his father especially made only for him. And he was singing a song something like “I’m a miracle child” while his siblings were working in the field, working very hard. I still remember what my husband said while he was looking at that scene. He said, “No wonder he was put into slavery by his own siblings, if he acts like that!” That is what he said. He said, "Joseph was not mindful and aware of his siblings' feeling and situation at all. That kind of immature boasting is a fatal fault when one receives a favorite blessing."

If we believe that we are in the position of Abel whom God’s favors, who have so much blessing, then it is so important for us to thank God first and not to be arrogant. We have to remember why God gave us so much blessing and fortune spiritually and physically. And by Him giving us that kind of blessing God asks us to share those blessings with the people around us.

Brothers and sisters let us remember that we are so blessed in many ways, and let us share our wonderful blessings with the people around us. Aju!

Opening Prayer by Hyung Jin Nim:

Heavenly Father thank You for this day that You have blessed upon us. Father, today we gather in this sanctuary from all over the world, Father. Father, we know that, Father, whenever we give celebration to You on this beautiful Saturday, that so many blessed families across the globe are joining us.

Father they are celebrating with us. Father, let us realize that connection, let us realize that, Father, you have prepared the ground for us to walk upon. And, Father, let us always realize that You are guiding our footsteps and leading our paths. And, Father, let us know that 2009 we will find more victory and blessings. Father, let us be aware and mindful of those things. We thank You so much that You may be together here with us today. Father, we pray that Your abundance, Your goodness and Your favor my be upon Your children today here in this sanctuary and those who are joining us from the entire world. Father, we pray that You may protect each and every family, that You may bless them with goodness and mercy for all the steps of their lives.

Thank You so much, Father. We pray that You may be with us today and find joy in us. We offer this to You in our own names. Aju!

Interesting Story:

We always like to start with something a little interesting! Actually today it's very short. But I hope it's interesting, and it's actually a question. Why was Moses the most wicked man? Does anybody know? Because he broke all 10 commandments at once! (Laughter) Ooh! You got it a little late, but you did get it!!!!

Sermon by Hyung Jin Nim:

Brothers and sisters, today I want to talk about, "Learning to challenge your challenge.” And this is so important. If we are to live the blessed life, we have to be bold in learning to challenge our challenges. Everybody in life will be challenged by circumstances, people, events and situations. And in these situations we have the choice. We have the choice to cower and give up to the challenge or we have the choice of digging our heels and making our stand and challenging that challenge, and learning to be confident but not cocky. Facing a challenge is one of the keys to living the blessed life.

Let's take a look at some of these World Scriptures today. We're going to look at Zachariah 9:13 from Christianity. Let's read it together, "I will put this third into the fire and refine them as one refines silver and test them as gold is tested." In order to find the purity of the gold one has to test it through the fire.

Let's take a look at this quote from Buddhism, Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva path. We're going to look at this together, chapter 7, let's read it together: "Even doctors illuminate illness with unpleasant medical treatments. So in order to overcome manifold sufferings I should be able to put up with some discomfort." Very cute!

Islam, let's look at the Koran today, 21st Sura. We'll read that together: “Every soul must taste of death, and we try you with evil and with good for ordeal and unto Us you'll be returned." Again, it is part of the path.

Let's look at True Parents' words today. Let's read it together, "So don't doubt and don't try to avoid danger. Go straight ahead and confront it directly. If the mountain is high, the valley is deep. Likewise, to receive a big blessing, you have to overcome big trials. God will come to you, and after a long winter you will see springtime. These are natural phenomena of development." I love that! "After winter you will see springtime!" We've got to write that over our doors in our room. It's so important.

You know, brothers and sisters, I heard the story of Christopher Columbus, born in 1451. His father was a wool weaver, had a cheese stand in a market. By 19 years old Christopher Columbus was already at sea. And you have to understand that at that time Europe enjoyed very safe passage to China and India, very important sources of valuable goods like silk and spice and things like that, under the Mongol empire.

But with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 the land route to Asia, to India and China, became very difficult. So by the 1480s Columbus developed a plan to travel to India by crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Remember, the Americas were not known of yet. So he thought that actually by crossing the Atlantic he would be able to get to China and India. He actually calculated that the earth was roughly 25,000 km while it's really 40,000 km in circumference. He calculated it as being sort of half in size.

In 1485 he went to the king of Portugal, King John II, and tried to make a deal. It failed. He tried again in 1488 with John II. It failed again. He went then to the major leaders in Genoa and Venice, again failure and another failure. More failures! In 1486 he met Ferdinand II and Isabella of Spain, the monarchs that were now consolidating Spain. And he failed again. He continued to lobby at the Spanish court until 1492, a total of 7 years, from 1485 to 1992. He kept on going, failure after failure, challenging his challenge. He finally got his approval by Ferdinand II. Historically of course we know that he is not the discoverer of the Americas, but he did bring it to the Western attention.

We often hear about Columbus. We hear of his great discovery, so to speak, but we don't know that for 7 years he traveled to various kingdoms in Europe to find support. He was mocked, he was ridiculed. He was told, "It's totally unrealistic! Your calculations are totally off, you're wrong!" But he challenged his challenge unrelentingly.

And it's the same in our lives. We will have challenges that come up against us, people who don't believe in the dreams and visions that God has placed into you. They may be telling you, "It's not really realistic. Your calculations are off!" But we have to fight the good fight of faith, and we have to be bold in our lives to challenge our challenges.

You know, last week after service -- we usually stop at a little pizza shop before we get up to the training center up in Han Nam Dong -- we went into the pizza shop, and the owner is such a nice lady. She is a nice Korean Catholic lady, in her 40s; she's a very nice lady. I don't even know her name but she's the Sajang Nim (owner) -- we call her Sajang Nim. She looked very down that day, very down for some reason. And so I asked her, "Hey! Sajang Nim, are you OK? You look kind of down!" And she said, "Yes, you know, I’ve been running back and forth from the cathedral, I'm Catholic. My aunt just passed away, so I'm kind of disconsolate right now."

So we kind of left it at that, and we ordered our pizza. We were having a little pizza, and then I looked over and she was kind of sitting there at the table looking totally depressed, and she was like sipping on wine. She was sitting there totally depressed. And all the staff was around her on pins and needles, thinking, "My God, is she going to scream at us or something?"

So this was the kind of environment. And in that my heart kind of moved, and I said, "You know, Omma, I want to pray for her. I want to pray for that sister. We don't even now her, I know that, but we're ministers, I want to pray for her." And so we finished our pizza, we went up to pay at the cashier, and as we paid we said, "Hey, Sajang Nim, you look kind of down." Then she started talking, "You know, my aunt passed away. She was living alone. My mom also lives alone, so it's a real big hit for me, and so it's really tough."

At that point I'm listening to her and my heart is racing. I'm thinking, "Oh my God! She is going to think that we're totally insane! And my Korean is not even good! I'm going to mess up the prayer. She knows who we are and she is Catholic. She's not going to accept my prayer. How can we pray in the middle of a busy pizza shop with all these people staring at us? It's crazy!" I am sitting there," Oh my God!" I'm listening to her saying "Yes", but in my heart I'm saying, "Oh my God, this is crazy!"

But I challenged my challenge that day, brothers and sisters, I challenged it. (Shouts and applause)

I said, "Hey! You look really down. We'd love to pray for you,” and then she goes, "OK!" I said, "We'll do it right here." We ended up praying over that cashier in the middle of city Seoul, in the middle of a pizza shop in downtown city Seoul for the Sajang Nim that we don't even know. (Applause) And it was so great! It was wonderful! Afterwards we were like, "My God, we did it, Omma.” We were high five each other. We were saying, "To God be the glory. Thank You so much!"

We ended up going back a couple of days later. We told our son about it. He said, "Hey! I want to buy her cupcakes." So we ended up jumping on, going to get her some cupcakes. We ended up bringing her a little cupcake. He gave it to her. We just said, “Sajang Nim, we're so thankful that we were able to be with you at that time." She said, "You know, your prayer really meant a lot." Actually my prayer was terrible. I did it in Korean, it was really bad. But it didn't matter! It didn't matter! She appreciated the heart. When we left she was so thankful. She was like, "Oh thank you so much guys, I really appreciate so much."

In 2009 we have to ask ourselves what is our attitude. Are we saying,” This year is going to be worse than ever. It's never going to get better. It's over. We're over. We're never going to survive this slow down" nor are we speaking words of faith? "You know, God, I know You love me. You're going to make me stronger through these tests. You know, God, You said, you'd never leave me. You said You'd never forsake me and I'm going to become stronger through 2009." Are we saying, "God, You've done it before, in the past and I know You're going to do it again this year"? We have to learn how to have that challenging mind that's challenging our challenges.

You know there's a man by the name of George Foreman, a professional boxer. He turned professional in 1969. By 1973 within 4 years he was up against Joe Frasier, the world heavyweight champion. Everybody thought George Foreman would lose. They thought he was out, he would lose; he was the underdog. He downed Frasier 6 times in 2 rounds, and he became world champ at 24 years old.

But then, one year later, in 1974, Muhammad Ali who was also a great boxer knocked Foreman out, and he stole his title. In 1977 Foreman suffered a heat stroke after a fight and nearly died. For 10 years he left boxing. He became a born-again Christian, and he started doing ministry for 10 years. In 1988 George Foreman, 10 years out of the ring, at the age of 38 years, in a sport where people in their 20s dominate the sport -- you understand this is not golf, they're punching each other; these guys are 250 pounds, slamming each other, it's not golf! -- OK, he was 38 years old in this kind of sport. He comes back and says, "I'm going to start boxing again." Everybody was saying,” Are you insane? You are crazy. You're 38 years old, you want to go up against these 250 pound guys?"

After about 7 years, 1994, at the age of 45, he ends up challenging the world heavyweight champion, Michael Moorer. For 9 rounds they were battling it out. And there is Michael Moorer, huge 256 pounds, and he was pummeling George, pummeling him, brutalizing his face for 9 rounds. My God! It was painful to watch, very painful.

Let's see that picture with Michael Moorer, look at George in the red trunk, those are the trunks he fought Muhammad Ali in. Here is George against Michael Moorer. Look, how huge that guy is! He is 250 pounds of muscles!

George Foreman, in the 10th round, lands a right hand on Michael Moorer. George Foreman is 45 years old; Michael Moorer is 27 years old. He knocks Michael Moorer down and out, becomes the world heavyweight champion at the age of 45! Let's give it up for big George! (Applause) Oh my God! In 2003 he is inducted into the international boxing hall of fame.

Amazing story! See, Foreman made history that day. He did what was seemingly impossible. He became world champion at 45 years of age. Nobody believed him. They thought, "Foreman, you're too old. You're too slow, you're too fat. You're not going to be able to fight these guys. You're out of shape; you can't defeat these strong guys!"

But he challenged his challenge! He did not cower at his challenge. He stood up to his fear. He challenged his doubts. He challenged his naysayer. He even challenged his rational mind telling him, "George, you are out of your mind. You've got to go on a diet, son!" He was challenging that. He challenged those and he ended up making history for ever.

See, after the Israelites were free, Moses was fleeing from Egypt. The pharaoh said, "What have I done? We let them go, we lost all their services. Go and get them back." He ended up sending 600 chariots and officers and troops to raid the wandering Israelites who camped near the Red Sea. And so they came. Here they are descending upon the Israelites!

And Moses has a little challenge. On the one side he’s got a huge army coming to get him, on the other side he's got a big old sea. "And now how do I get these people out of this assault?" See, with God's help he challenged his challenge. He ended up believing in God, "I have faith in You." We see the story that he parts the Red Sea and that God prepares a way of deliverance. Now whether or not that actual sea parted, that's irrelevant. What's more important is that in our lives, too, we have situations where we feel we're trapped just like Moses, where there's almost certain doom, and when we feel there's no way out.

Moses definitely felt this way. He had on one side a very trained professional angry Egyptian mob coming to kill him, and on the other side, he has a huge raging sea.

And in our life, we are going to also have to cross some red seas. We have to be confident that with God's help we can make the challenge, we can overcome the challenge, and we can challenge that challenge and find a way that no man could make.

See, in the last year here in Korea, we restructured the entire Korean church. We have over 323 churches here in Korea. All of the things have gone into restructuring. Kook Jin hyung especially, he started this incredible movement of transparency, of accountability, of professionalism. He started these 5 years ago. When he came to Korea the Chedang was at a 100 million dollars loss per year, and then within 3 years he totally revolutionized it with his leadership. He brought it to 50 million dollars profit in 3 years. Let's give it up one time for Kook Jin hyung. That's incredible! (Applause) That is incredible! Incredible!

Why did he do that? What was his heart? His heart to start this was what? Of course he was working and thriving in his own business but Father drafted him. He says, "Father drafted me." But what was his heart? His heart was, "We want to liberate the members." The Japanese members, our brothers and sisters in Japan were really funding this loss. This foundation was losing and losing. And by turning around now he does not even receive a cent from Japan. His heart has always been, "We have to liberate the members, let's truly make the Unification Church a wonderful place to be."

And that's our policy. It's very simple. In the Chedang he has established a decision chain. And what that essentially is, is that he has authority as the Chedang chairman, but he has basically delegated his authority onto the chain so that any decision has to come through that chain in order for it to be approved, and then it finally gets to him. In other words, he has given away his power to trustable, accountable leaders that help him make the best decisions. And because of that leadership, because of that transparency, that accountability, that professionalism, that kind of result oriented leadership, we have seen tremendous and phenomenal things happen in the Tong Il Group here in Korea.

And that amazing result has also had great impact on the church. A lot of the great systems, in terms of financial professional management that he does in his professional world, he's brought into transparently managing the church's funds, the church's things so that all people can also see where their donation is going etc... That's all because of Kook Jin hyung, all because of Kook Jin hyung. All these developments that we see in the positive realm, it’s because of Kook Jin hyung's professionalism, because of his sweat and his tears that he shed for the members, because of him putting his neck on the line, to step up, “Let’s truly have the age of liberation come down to our church."

I am so thankful to have a brother like that. And in my own way I have learned from his leadership. We also on the church side have given away our power. We have given away our own authority. We have the authority for example to choose the regional directors in the whole Korean church, but we ended up giving that authority away to the ministers, and said, "You guys elect your regional directors, you guys elect them." First time we had elections in church history! Then we elected women leadership in the Headquarters church. We can choose and designate who should be a woman leader. But we did not do that. We asked the women in the congregation, "Why don't you guys choose, why don't you elect the leaders?" They elected our leaders. We are so grateful they did, because they elected the best, incredible women leaders.

See, our authority also to control the finances of each one of those groups, we gave it away. We said, "Ministers, don't touch it. Don't control it. Let them deal with it, let them use it, let them spend it, let them make the plans." Our whole focus is that whenever we have power, we give it away. Whenever we get some kind of promotion we give more away. That's what has always been Kook Jin hyung's principle and that's what we are doing in the church as well. We are trying to give it away to really elevate responsible leaders into the church.

See, Kook Jin hyung helps us bring witnessing systems, management systems, accounting systems. And our entire movement from the church to the headquarters to the foundation has never seen this much synergy in our church history. And we are developing and growing.

But see, I had one very big challenge here. As a fast growing church there is the danger of getting so bogged down in the management and systems for me that the religious leader becomes less religious and more of an organizational manager. Then the religion becomes sort of like a religious business. And this is the real thing that I have to watch myself in.

See, we can see that in the fast growing Christian churches. They start out with the ministers, very humble ministers. They're praying to God day and night, "God, Father, please lead people to the church," always making conditions and religious devotions, but watch this. As it succeeds, the minister gets so busy with administration, gets so busy in managing, and it's so successful that he starts to see that if he follows the system, the results come.

Then he prays less, offers devotions less, and without knowing it, he's losing his spirituality, losing his genuine religious heart, and he becomes a show man. And this is one of the big dangers of any fast growing church. This is something that we always have to keep in mind as we grow.

I realized that for nine years God trained me to walk like a monastic path in spiritual training and devotion. Deep down in my heart, even though I do ministry, I was never convinced that just doing this kind of Christian style ministry was enough to bring the Unification Church to the world stage. I was never convinced. I'm still not convinced now.

Another problem was that in the last year, 60+ ministers in the Korean church retired, and many feel like they have no purpose any more in their lives. Many of them were falling into depression, and this was eating at my heart. And so I prayed and I prayed. I didn't know how to solve this problem, "God how can I challenge this challenge? How do I solve this?"

And then the inspiration came. It came on the first day of the New Year. We were on the mountain top, 2:30 in the morning, with our ministers up there. We were training up in the mountain, and then all of a sudden the inspiration came. See, from now we will start seeing retiring from ministry at the age of 65 as a graduation into a more serious and a simpler, but intense blessed monastic path.

Those who did ministry for 33+ years and retired will be able to train with me, also in the world temple, in a serious but purely spiritual monastic training regimen. 10 hours every day from 2:30 in the morning until 6 in the evening after passing a rigorous 400 day test. Those who pass will be given the title Hoon Sa Nim or "teaching master" and there will be up to eighth degree master in this realm.

The children of the Hoon Sa Nims will substantially practice filial piety by providing the financial support for their parents to walk the path, to walk their dream, and the Hoon Sas will commute from training and home. Thus the retired ministers win for they will now have a sense of purpose in their lives. After 65 it's not over. Their live is not over. "Might as well pass away now!" Not that, we still have things to do. Retired ministers win. The children practice filial piety by supporting their parents' dream. They win. The church wins twice because it does not have to ask members for more donations to support the Hoon Sa Nims. And it wins again because there will be serious, religious professional practitioners, training every day in the church, elevating its spiritual presence, and elevating its spiritual power.

See, this path is serious. It's a rigorous training. It's a huge challenge, and it's through this training, though, I believe, through this pure religious devotional path, that we will prevent our movement from becoming a religious business.

These Hoon Sas will be like the monks and nuns of the Unification Church and will forever remind us that we're not a business, but we're a deep and serious religious tradition. In essence I tell them, "This training will save our movement from our own success."

And as we move to the World Temple, I had a really big thing in my heart. This type of ministry, this type of religious work, is not going to inspire long lasting traditions, the traditions which have held monasticism in their ranks, the traditions that almost dominate the entire world.

In the World Temple we have to be in a position where we are guiding and inspiring all the different traditions of the world. But with this level of ministry I did not see that happening. But with these serious religious professionals coming in, then we will allow the Unification Church to have the spiritual authority to move and inspire and lead religious professional practitioners of the world's great religious traditions, Buddhism and Catholicism etc..etc., these big traditions.

We will have the dynamism, the system assistance and of course the professionalism and the enthusiastic, fast growing ministry of what you will see in dynamic Christian Evangelical churches that grow quick. But also we will have the very serious practice and the serious practitioners, professionals that practice a very serious religious life.

And I'm so happy because, as you know, I went to a Catholic college for two years, I have a lot of Catholic monk friends and, of course, a lot of my monk friends are from Buddhism. And so I never could really introduce them anybody from our tradition who actually understands that kind of lifestyle.

But finally, because of this kind of retired ministers that are now walking into a path of Cheon Song, a path of this kind of family monastic training, really serious training, then finally I have somebody to introduce, I have somebody to brag about when I meet my monk friends. I'm so grateful for that.

See, that was a big challenge for me in 2009. How am I going to overcome that? How am I going to give these ministers a great sense of purpose again in their lives until they go to the spiritual world?

What can we learn today, brothers and sisters? Everybody in their lives will have challenges. 2009 will no doubt have challenges, but how you approach these challenges will be the key in your life. Will you be stuck between charging armies and a Red Sea and give up? Or will you plant your feet in and say, "I believe in myself and I believe in my God!"

Will you say, "It's over" because a few people turned you down like they turned down Columbus, or will you say, "You can't stop me! God is asking me to do this!" and go forward. Will you give up on your challenge because naysayer around you are saying, "You're too old, Foreman, retire, retire!" Or are you going to say, "Not this year, not in 2009. I'm coming up higher, I'm going to have more victory, I'm going to be greater for God, and I'm going to return it all to Him with abundance of glory!"

If you go forward with this attitude, I do believe we will find ourselves with more victory, more illumination and more peace. We will challenge that challenge and live that blessed life that True Parents have blessed us to live. If you receive it, let's give it up for God and True Parents. (Applause) 

Keeping your Power Up

Hyung Jin Moon
February 7, 2009
Headquarters Church, Seoul Korea
Transcribed by: Naoko Brazil
Edited by: Bruno Klotz

Welcoming Remarks:
Yeon Ah Nim:

Good afternoon, Brothers and Sisters!

Last week we went to America to celebrate True Parents' 90th birthday. True Father looked younger than ever before, and it is a joy to see In Jin Nim's leadership and to see all those faithful and loyal western members. Especially, True Father was delighted to see all the New Hope choir members; the New Hope choir was initiated by Father 30 years ago; I'm sure some of our members here can remember, right? We were deeply inspired by their songs and to see all those familiar faces; it was quite an experience for us. Brothers and Sisters, we like always to start our worship service to praise and honor True Parents and Heavenly Father for bringing us here and connecting us into deeper faith. We always welcome you to the service and we are always welcome those who are with us via internet.

Hyung Jin Nim:

Welcome, Brothers and Sisters,

It's great to be back! Lets’ give it up for Seoul, Korea! Oh my goodness! Too much international traveling, is not good for the head! Let's start with Cheon Seong Gyeong 794. Father asks us:

"Why are you valuable? You are valuable because you inherited the tradition of love. Love is precious and you are valuable because you stand at the core of the universe in a position to inherit the tradition of the core of all the ideal forces in the universe. You are valuable because you are born and connected to that love and because you can bear the fruit that expands from that love."

Brothers and sisters, it is always so important to remember the words of True Parents. Day to day, we can so quickly start to believe the ideas of the people around us or, maybe, looking at ourselves, we may notice that we are not totally where we wish we would be. But it's so important to always know, that God has placed within us this incredible value, this incredible potential, which he asks us to develop and culture and nurture.

When we start with service, it's always so important to begin on that note, to begin with that positive view, to begin with understanding and empowering ourselves, through the words of True Parents, by envisioning ourselves as divine sons and daughters. See that's how we start getting closer to that ideal, when we start saying, "Hey, it's possible, I can do it! I'm going to be closer, I'm closer every day."

When we start using that attitude, that's going to determine our altitude. So, it's so very important that we come in and start with that kind of view. When we do that, we can bring joy to God and bring a lot of joy and happiness.

And today on this Saturday we hope we can celebrate with all you brothers and sisters across the world. We were so happy to see you in America! Let's give it up for brothers and sisters in America! We love you guys! It was great to see all our brothers and sisters in America. Oh man! Too much love! Too much love. They gave us too much love! We're so grateful, so grateful, sending a beautiful shout out to all of you guys, and really, we are grateful to all of you. Let's give God the glory today, on this beautiful Saturday. Thanks so much. Welcome.

Opening Prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank You so much for this day that you have blessed us with. Father, we thank You and just overflow with gratitude today. Father, it is now changing into the spring weather, and we pray that in this time of transition between the seasons of winter and spring, Father, that also our lives and our hearts may be renewed. Father, we pray that You bring a new season into our lives this season, we pray that we may grow more, that we may mature more, Father, that we may become better people so that we can bring more joy to You.

Father, we pray that in this season we will have more victory, more illumination, more peace that we can share with the world. Father, use us this season, guide us this season. And even though there may be difficulties, let us know that we are walking with You. Heavenly Father, thank You so much for guiding us to this sanctuary today. Father, we pray that You are with all the brothers and sisters who are around the world, joining us right here today, through the internet. We pray that Your abundance and Your blessing may be with each and every one of those central blessed families. Father, we thank You so much and we thank You with an everlasting love and a tremendous gratitude. From the bottom of our hearts we pray in our own names as central blessed families, Aju.

Interesting Story:

We always like to start with something a little interesting. I heard an interesting story. You know, Robert's mom was always in a bad mood, always negative about something. One Christmas, Robert received two sweaters from his mom. They weren't exactly the sweaters that he wanted; they had tacky Santa Claus and reindeer on them. And he's in his forties (laughter). He thought, “I'm going to make my Mom happy. I'm actually going to wear these sweaters." The next time he visited her house, he made sure to wear one of the sweaters. As he entered home, instead of that expected smile, she said to him, "What's the matter, Robert? You didn't like the other one?" (Laughter) He leaned over to his wife and said, "My mom is so hard to please."

Main Sermon:

Brothers and sisters, today I want to talk about "Keeping Your Power Up." In order to live the blessed life, learning to keep your enthusiasm and energy up, is one of the keys of living that blessed life. Life is a marathon, it's often said, not a sprint. So learning to keep yourself motivated and encouraged and powered up is one of the most essential factors. Everyone has kind of like an energy gauge, and everything that you do, from the thoughts that you have, the thoughts that you dwell on, to what you say and what you do, affects this energy gauge. Whether you know it or not, you're using your power gauge every single day. Learning to use it well, effectively, and for God's use, is one of the keys to living this blessed life.

Let's take a look at some of the World Scriptures today; let's look at Christianity. Let's read it together: "God is our refuge and strength. We will not fear though the earth has been changed, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea, though it's waters roar and foam". Once again, the stability of God's strength is the power.

Let's look at Daoism 23rd chapter: "To those who have conformed themselves to the Way, the Way readily lends it's power. To those who have conformed themselves to the power, the power readily lends more power." Once again, we can see the continuation of energy and power in our lives.

Koran, 65: 2, 3. "Whosoever keeps his duty to God, God will appoint a way out for him. And will provide for him in a way that he cannot foresee. And whosoever puts his trust in God, he will suffice them." Once again, God's powers in helping us to get out of those circumstances, giving us the energy we need to make it through those obstacles.

Let's look at True Parents' words today: "When you pray and form conditions, you will receive new energy. Without knowing what it is, you feel something coming into your mind. The more straight and pure your mind, the more you will resonate with this kind of energy and power," Father says. You know, God speaks to us in the simplest ways at times.

I ended up watching my kids play video games the other day, and I realized God was speaking to me that evening. How was that happening? I saw the kids playing this video game, Dungeons and Dragons. Some of you are playing too much of this game, by the way. Okay, they have this game, and they create characters and teams online, they battle opponents and monsters and play adventure quest. And each character, as you can see in the bottom there with the red gauge, has a power gauge of how much power he has. And whenever he uses his own special move, it takes up power. Every time he blocks an enemy attack, it takes up power. Every time he gets hit with an enemy attack, again it takes up a lot of power.

The power bar can actually increase; grow, as your character goes up in level. So in order to win a quest, you have to have a balanced group -- this is what I have seen them doing. You actually have to have offensive power, so you have to have fighters and martial artists and barbarians on your team who go out and fight for you. Then you have to have the magicians and power healers healing, and the magicians and the clerics stay in the back and they heal, and make the fighters go up into the front. My kids, they organize this so that the fighters are up in the front, they're fighting these big monsters. And the healers are staying in the back and casting these spells. And I have seen them play -- it's absolutely fascinating.

As they're fighting against these opponents, and they're getting hit, and I watch their power gauge. The power gauge is going down so quick, but at the same time it starts jumping back up again. And at first I didn't understand; I said, "Why is the power gauge going down and then jumping back up?" And they explained to me, "Up here we're fighting the battles and the opponents, but our teammates in the back, they're casting the healing spells on us, the protection spells on us, the breath spells, and that's why we can keep on surviving longer than we ever survive, because we've got these people in the back." Without the frontline fighters, you would have no offensive power, and you would not be able to win your adventure quest. But without the background healers on the defensive, helping you out, you would have no way to withstand those enemies. I'm learning so much from our children.

It's the same way in our lives, brothers and sisters. We have to fight some big opponents, some big obstacles in our lives. It's part of the path; it's what God prepares us to do. So we have an energy bar, just like that. Every time we use our energy, when we write a report or we solve a problem, we study or encourage people, we stay focused, overcome negativity, and then these things take up power. It takes up energy. Every single day we're being hit with like events. Those things are taking up our energy. You know, people at the office are probably talking behind our back, we have to please our boss, we have to encourage and inspire our team, we have to make a decision and if it turns out bad do we have to take the blame? Maybe we're hit by the loss of a loved one, or maybe we're hit with a diagnosis, maybe we have some kind of illness. So every time in our lives when we are hit with these obstacles it's so important that we pay attention to our energy bar, so to speak, as we live our life, as we move through this life. Because otherwise we will quickly buckle under the weight of the circumstances.

It's so important to see who you have in your party, brothers and sisters, that's one of the things I learned watching my kids play this game. Who is in your party, who is in your group? It's so important to see what kind of associates you have. If you have friends that always complain, have something negative to say about everyone else, belittling other people's accomplishments, if you have a lot of these people around you, they are not healing you from the back; they are draining you, taking your power gauge down, down, down.

So brothers and sisters, it's so important you understand this concept. God is asking you to graduate, level up to the next level. See, you can never be everything that God wants you to be, that he has prepared you to be, with these kinds of people in your group. It's so important to have the courage to say, "Hey, you know what, enough is enough. I can't stay like this. I can't be held down anymore because of somebody else's hang-ups. I've got God to please, I've got great things to do, and I’ve got dreams to fulfill." We have to have this kind of attitude; we have to be on the offensive. At the same time, we don't have to be rude to these people, we don't have to be offensive to them, and we don't need to curse at them. We need to slowly move on; we need to slowly find people who can actually be healers behind the scenes as we are up in the frontline. They can actually be part of the group helping us.

You know the Air Force understands this concept. I heard about this the other day. They have something called aerial refueling. It was a technology they developed in the 1920s, and by 1945, the Curtis Robin monoplane, that's a propeller plane, flew for 27 days straight because of this new process and technology. You see, the whole idea of aerial refueling is that you increase the plane's ability to cover a large area; you increase what is known as covering radius. And by doing that, the plane is able to cover much more ground, it takes less time because it's not wasting time landing and refueling, etc, and rising again. The planes on the international lines, many of them can stay airborne so much longer, so they can pay attention to those enemy lines, and keep watching over those spaces.

When the pilots get too tired, of course, the teams would send in another pilot to take over, they move in and of course they are replaced again but that whole idea of learning to refuel while you're moving is one of the keys that already of course we see in modern technology. So make sure you have friends who believe in you, that are more talented than you, that are a very good key, that challenge you to rise up, that challenge you to become more enthusiastic about your life, about your professional work, about your studies, etc. Make sure you have friends that help you stay flying longer, stay stronger while on your path of life that you're walking through.

So in my life, I'm so blessed to have people around me that actually help me and are better than me in many things -- they help me to rise on those levels. Kook Jin Hyung, he raises my power bar so to speak, in my professional work ethic. Sun Jin nuna, she brings my power bar up, my energy, my enthusiasm. My wife brings my power bar up, how to serve the public, how to have that heart of compassion. My pastor friends and my priest friends, monk friends, they keep my power bar up when it comes to religious training and discipline, practice, etc.

So you have to have people around you who inspire you, who refuel you, who give you energy to say, "Wait a minute, I can do better than I am right now. I can do better the next day. If you always are the top person in your group, if you are the one always having to inspire, to lead and guide, then you need to find people who are better than you, who can mentor you, who can lift you up and raise you up to the next level. That is what God is asking us to do.

I just heard this story the other day. Tiger Woods, I found out, started playing golf at the age of 11 months. I didn't know this. His mother is Thai; his father is African-American, and many different mixed nationalities. His parents encouraged him all the time. He told how his parents never really pushed him in terms of golf, but always made him believe strongly in himself. And always encouraged him more to be self-motivated in practicing, to become the best person he could ever become. His mom, for many, many years, while he was still in the amateur level, was driving him from tournament to tournament before he went to school in California, every single week. She was out there every day, fighting the battle with him. She stayed motivated, she was refueling him, she was saying whenever he lost a competition, "Honey, don't worry. You're going to make it through the next time."

She was his friend and supporter. She never nagged him about golf. She never said, '"Oh, why don't you think of something else to do; golfing is maybe a little too not good for you. Why don't you try something else? Why don't you study chemistry, or something?" Tiger says, that his mom's religion -- she came from Thailand, she's Buddhist -- helped to give him self-awareness. He realized that he's actually a quite stubborn person. He's a very impatient person, he said, "I'm so impatient, I want everything to be perfect all the time, very quickly." But he realized through training, "My God, life doesn't work like that. Getting to be a top golf player in the world doesn't happen like that. You can't do it quick. You can't be perfect all in one second."

It takes time, it takes discipline. It takes overcoming obstacles. It takes a marathon mind. And he now of course because of all that support, that internal strength, has won 14 professional major golf championships, second of any male player, 65 PGA tour events, third of all time, has more career major wins and career PGA tour wins than any other active golf player, and of course he's the number one golfer in the world.

When we look that kind of mentality, we see that he has this marathon mind. The mind to constantly keep himself enthused in life, constantly keep himself powered up in life. So when life gets rough it's important to have that kind of patience with yourself, just like Tiger did. Remember that life is not a sprint, it's a marathon. Having supportive people around you in your life -- they give you power-ups, they give you encouragement, motivation, and they give you positive side-effects. These people are a great help, but we have to remember this. No matter how much people around you may believe in you, and motivate you, in the end, it is up to you to make the steps. In the end, it is up to you to swing that golf club; in the end, it is up to you to get up, even after you've lost the PGA tournament, and get on the next day, and try to fight for another win. It is in the end unto us to take the steps to truly win a victorious life, learning to keep yourself encouraged, and improving, keeping yourself powered up. This is one of the most important keys in living the blessed life.

You know this weekend we were so very blessed, we had to do a lot of international traveling. We had to celebrate True Parents' 90th Birthday, for three days straight, on two different continents. That was a very tiring blessing, a beautiful blessing, but very tiring! And ceremony after ceremony, jet lag, more events and jet lag and ceremony, we were so tired, so drained out. By the time it got to the last day, we thought everything was over. We thought, "Oh my God, Hallelujah, now we can go and sleep and rest." All my brothers and sisters were ready to collapse and pass out. And then, In Jin nuna, our sister, who's doing a fantastic job in the States, says, "Oh, wait a minute. You guys just have to attend one more thing. We have a music festival; we have some awards to give." And everybody in the room said, "Oh my God! When is that? In Jin nuna, you didn't tell me about this before. We need a couple days notice to prepare." And she said, "Oh no, honey, don't worry, you'll be fine! You're going to do great; you're going to speak, by the way." "Oh, I'm speaking? Thank you, I haven't prepared anything for that event, but I guess I'll be on it."

So we were so exhausted and about to collapse, but then I looked at my wife, we looked at each other, and we started gathering our spiritual qi energy. We started collecting the universal qi energy, and we started saying, "Everybody, everyday, every day happy day! More power! Power up!" We started doing this like crazy people in the dining room. Everybody started getting powered up. Everybody started saying, "OK yes, we're ready to do it." We went out and did a fantastic event! Give it up for In Jin nuna, who did a great job! We love you, In Jin nuna!

You see, what's the point here? Sometimes you have to do it by faith; I did not have the energy to do it in substance. I said, "God, I do not have the strength to do this event, I am going to do it by faith." But in life there are going to be times when we're so tired out, we're going to feel like, "I can't make it to that event, can't make it to that promotion, or interview. I can't make it through this obstacle." We're going to feel like that at times. But sometimes we've got to do it by faith.

When we say, "You know what, I can do this, every day happy day, I'm going to move through this, it's going to be great!", when we do that and we change that mentality, then that's going to start empowering us, giving us the enthusiasm we need to do that success. And every time we do that in our lives, every time we live like that with our victorious mind, then the enemies and the obstacles are screaming, "No, no, no, don't do that!" They're begging you not to do that. But every time you do that, your energy bar is going up, you're leveling up. So when you're ready to face your life, you're becoming stronger, you're coming with more victory, coming with more peace, more illumination and a higher new level. That's what the Psalmists do in the Bible -- they go through tribulation, they sing the songs of praise to God.

We see the Songs of Solomon, the great kings, the Songs of David, the great kings of the past who conquered vast armies, much larger than they could rationally overcome. They were singing those praises, they sing about their sorrow, they sing about their pain, they sing about whether they believe they couldn't make it. But they also sing about the goodness of God. Even though they didn't believe, God made a way, even though they thought that the sorrow and the pain were too great, God prepared an avenue for them to walk through. The Psalmists learned this process, to keep themselves powered up, as they were walking through the desert, as they were walking along the shores toward Jerusalem. Whatever they were doing, in any aspect, they learned this process of keeping themselves enthused about what it was they were doing, living that life of victory.

True Father is also the same way. When he was in Hungnam Prison, he had to survive torture; he had to survive death camp. This was a communist concentration camp. And I asked Father, "How did you make it through this time? How did you make your way mentally, spiritually, through this time? All that physical, mental pain how did you get through?" And Father had such a pure, fine, simple answer. So pure. He said, "Ï simply had a grateful heart, grateful that God was training me, and grateful that I was blessed to learn of God's pain. I learned it. I learned that I was walking through this, because He was preparing me for a greater victory."

And by thanking God incessantly, despite his circumstances -- he was being tortured, he was having to do the concentration camp work, etc. -- he kept himself enthused about life. Even in those situations he kept himself fighting that good fight of faith, even through the battles and even through the torture he knew that God was preparing a larger victory for him, a larger blessing that he would be able to share with the world. And he did. He kept himself powered up by realizing that God was actually enlightening him. Through the process He was making him more illuminated and strengthening him for the future things that God was promising to bestow upon him.

Brothers and sisters, what can we learn today? In life, we need to keep powered up, we need to keep motivated in our life -- you see, life is a marathon: this is probably one of the most important things we can learn, having a marathon mind. Not a sprint. In order to live the blessed life, we need to keep our power gauge up, just like my kids playing on Dungeon and Dragons. We've got to keep our power gauge up. We do that by having people around us who can heal us as our power gauge is going down. Then it jumps back up. The people around us, behind us, are supporting us, they are giving us motivation, and they're strengthening us. Those people are so valuable! Brothers and sisters, value those kinds of people around you, give them thanks, and give them praise! They are so precious to have around you.

But at times in your life, you may not be blessed with these kinds of people around you; at times in your life, you may feel like you're all alone. Like you actually have nobody motivating you or giving you strength. That's the time when you've got to dig deep. That's the time when you've got to come back in and say, "God is encouraging me already." That's the time when you've got to come back and start saying, "I'm going to keep myself enthused. Every day, happy day." That's when you've got to come back inside, and start doing it by faith. And once we do that, we're going to find ourselves with more Victory, more Illumination, and more Peace, living that blessed life with God and True Parents. If you can accept that, give it up for God and True Parents!

Closing Prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank You for this day, we pray that You may bless each one of Your children here today, Father. Father we pray that we may come to enliven ourselves in your strength, Father, we pray that we may come to be energized in Your goodness.

Father, we pray that we may have enthusiasm in our life, for we know that You encourage us all the time. Father, let us open our minds and open our hearts and look at that great blessing and the way you encourage us every single day. Let us be mindful to our children, to our family members, to our community. Father, let us know that You speak to us, in so many ways. Father, today we pray that we may always understand that in our life we, too, must do our 5%. We, too, Father, must fight the good fight of faith. And Father, we must do our part to support You, for You have done 95%. Father, we pray that we may truly have the energy and the enthusiasm that we may continue to surround ourselves with people who challenge us to be better,

Father, who inspires us to new levels of growth and maturity. Father, we pray that at the times when we don't have that kind of support, we pray that we may always remember that You are with us. Father, let us know that You are always walking with us, showing our path, lighting our way, giving us knowledge to penetrate through the doubt, through the sorrow, through the pain. We pray that those promises that have been broken may be mended, and, Father, we pray that we may bring new light and inspiration to the people around us and to our own lives.

Father, thank You so much for this day. We pray that Your abundant blessing may be with all the brothers and sisters here gathered today as one, from Africa, Father, to America, Australia, Russia, China, all the way back to the fatherland of Korea. Father, we pray that we may know that we are one together here with You. We pray these things in our own names as central blessed families, Aju.