Sacred Love

Hyung Jin Moon
March 21, 2010
Cheon Bok Gung, Seoul Korea

Today we are going to talk about "Sacred Love." Let's take a look at the World Scriptures about love. First we look at the Bible, at the book of Genesis 2:18:

"The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.'"

Looking at the Scriptures of Islam, in the Quran 46:15:

"We have enjoined on man kindness to his parents. In pain did his mother bear him, and in pain did she give him birth. The carrying of the (child) to his weaning is (a period of) thirty months."

Now we take a look at Judaism, the Talmud 30b:

"There are three partners in man: God, father, and mother. When a man honors his father and mother, God says, 'I regard it as though I had dwelt among them and they had honored me.'"

From Father's Words (Unificationism):

"The place where Adam and Eve become perfectly one in heart and body as husband and wife is also the place where God, the subject partner giving love, and human beings, the object partners returning beauty, become united. This is the center of goodness where the purpose of creation is fulfilled. Here, God, our Parent, draws near and abides within His perfected children and rests peacefully for eternity. This center of goodness is the object partner to God's eternal love, where God can be stimulated with joy for all eternity. This is the place where the Word of God is incarnated and brought to fulfillment. It is the center of truth and the center of the original mind which guides us to pursue the purpose of creation." From the Divine Principle, Principle of Creation 2.3.4.

We are going to read from Luke, now, 1:28-33:

"The angel went to her and said, 'Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.' Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.'"

In this Bible quote, the angel Gabriel has come to Mary to tell her the good news that from her will be born the Lord Jesus. This baby, the Messiah, will be coming to be the savior of the whole word. The whole world was waiting for the Messiah. So, Mary went to her relatives Zachariah and Elizabeth and told them that she was going to have this special baby. The entire providential history was waiting for this baby, for Jesus' birth. All of the history of fallen mankind, all of the restoration that had come until that moment, was waiting for the birth of Jesus.

Now, Christians today consider Mary, the mother of Jesus, as having a very special position, especially for Catholics. Among the Christians, the Catholics honor Mary even more. She is the person that can be an intercessor to mankind, bringing them closer to the Son, to Jesus, who is the King and the Judge. She can help people come closer. That is the role, as intercessor. So, Jesus is in the position of King and Judge, the final Judge who can judge our lives absolutely, and the Holy Mother, Mary, can help sinful people to become closer to Jesus.

Within the Christian Church there are many names for Mary: sometimes they call her the Queen of Heaven, sometimes they call her the Mother of God, sometimes they call her the New Eve. If we look at 1 Corinthians 15:45, here, St. Paul describes Jesus as the Last Adam. So, Christians view Jesus as Adam and sometimes they also view Mother Mary as the new Eve. So there was a desire and a hope to see the new Adam and the new Eve. History has been looking for a new Adam and a new Eve. There are parts of Christianity that have been searching for the new Adam and Eve. This is very similar to the teaching in the Divine Principle: that the new Adam and Eve have to come.

The thing is, if we look at Mary as the new Eve there are some theological problems with this. Why? Because Adam and Eve were a husband and wife. Eve was the wife of Adam. They had children; they had three sons that we know about: Cain, Abel and Seth. This was the beginning of the history of mankind, Adam and Eve's family. But if we look at Jesus and Mary, they were not a husband and wife. Their relationship was the relationship of mother and child. Mary was the mother of Jesus, not the wife of Jesus. For thousands of years, Christians have been looking for the perfected Eve, the returning Eve. They were really yearning for this returning Eve. This is the mind and heart that was searching for the True Mother.

If we look at the Divine Principle we can understand the mission of the Messiah most completely. We understand that the Messiah has to become one with his bride. They have to become one, unite, and then bring children. In the Catholic Church, we see that the nuns are often considered as brides to Jesus. They have a spiritual marriage to Jesus as part of their vows.

Mother Teresa, too; she was also married to Jesus. She said, "I'm married! I'm married to Jesus!" So, in the Catholic Church the devoted nuns and priests have this kind of devotion to the church: that they are married to Jesus. If we look at Christian history they often call Jesus the bridegroom. So think about it, if there is a bridegroom then there should be a bride. If you want to have children, new birth for children, you have to have a bride and a bridegroom. You have to have parents. You can't have children just from the father. You need to have a father and a mother, a bridegroom and a bride. Only through this kind of relationship can you have a new family, a new race, a new nation. So we need to find not a mother and son, but we need to find a husband and wife. In this way we can establish a new lineage, a new race, a new world.

Let's look at the Gospels again. Mark 3:31-35:

"Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, 'Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.' 'Who are my mother and my brothers?' he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers!' Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.'"

In this story, Jesus denied his physical family. This was very embarrassing to them. He was surrounded by a lot of people. He didn't want to see his mother. His mother was asking him to go with her somewhere else. We are talking about the same Holy Mother, Mother of God, that the Catholics revere. But when she called him, he said, "No, I'm not going. I'm going to stay here with these people. These people who are following the will of God, these are my brothers and sisters. You are not my brothers and sisters. You are not my mother."

Think about this in the context of Jewish culture at that time. Filial devotion to parents is very important in the Jewish tradition. Children should honor their parents, should attend and take care of their parents. Like in Korea now, children should honor their parents. So, in the context of that Jewish tradition, for Jesus to say something like this to his mother, "Who is this woman? She is not my mother. The people in this room are my mother and my brothers;" for him to say that is a very embarrassing thing for his mother. So let's look at this story one more time, because in the Catholic Church, they really revere the mother Mary, Jesus' mother. If we look at this story, Jesus is denying his mother. Are the Catholics reading this story and saying, "This woman was not important; Mother Mary was not important; Jesus denied her, so we should deny her too"? Are they reading it that way? No. Nobody reads it that way. Despite this event, they love Mary, they adore Mary, they glorify Mary. They do not reject Mary as Jesus did in this story. We have to understand this.

Sometimes it happens that True Father also criticizes and says strong things to True Mother. In the same way that the Catholic Church refrains from criticizing Mary even though Jesus criticized her, it is very important that we also refrain from criticizing True Mother even if Father criticizes her. True Father's position is different from ours. If we see that Father is criticizing True Mother, we must support True Mother; we must sympathize with True Mother; we must console True Mother. We must love her even more. Why? At that moment, if we see Father criticizing True Mother, we have to understand the heart with which True Mother is receiving that criticism. True Mother is receiving that criticism in order to protect us from having to be criticized directly by True Father. She wants to protect the children from being scolded directly by Father. She wants to receive Father's anger so that the children do not have to receive the anger directly. She is taking the position of Mother to protect the children.

We have not looked at her correctly. We have thought we need to protect True Mother from True Father, but it's the opposite: True Mother is protecting us from the full strength of Father's criticism. True Mother has come to me sometimes in my room, and she says, "I'm sorry I didn't have time to spend with you. I was so busy with Father, I didn't spend time with you when you were young. I'm very sorry I wasn't a better mother for you." When Mother says this to me, I say, "No, Mother, please do not; we must apologize to you. We have complained about our suffering, but now we understand that your suffering has been so great. You have done everything to keep True Father from being attacked by Satan."

So whenever Mother comes to me and says, "I'm sorry, I wish I could have done better for you," I say, "Mother, absolutely, you do not need to apologize to me for anything! You do not have anything to apologize to me about. I need to apologize to you. I couldn't understand you. So many times I didn't understand you. I didn't understand what you were doing. I made things harder for you, too. I need to apologize to you; I need your forgiveness! We know that you were doing everything you could to protect True Father's course." Satan has tried so many ways to attack True Father. Satan has tried to tempt Father: beautiful women have tried to make Father fall in love with them. But through everything, True Mother was standing by True Father, supporting True Father, believing in True Father, praying for True Father. And because True Mother did that, True Father could overcome anything. He could be victorious no matter what Satan sent to him. So, True Father and True Mother, together, are our victorious True Parents. Together!

It's so easy for us to forget. We forget what path True Mother has been through. We look at her now, she is in the position of queen with Father, but that's not where she started. After her Blessing, for three years she was not even allowed to use the front door of the house. For three years she was really in the position of absolutely servant of servant. She had not only to take care of True Father, but she had to take care of everybody else who was attending Father as well. Lots of people were jealous of her when she got blessed to Father. They criticized her and made her life miserable. She had to go a very humble course for many years. From that position of servant of servant, with nothing, no support, she started. The other members who were jealous of her attacked her psychologically, made her life difficult, but she persevered. She kept her faith, she kept her mind, she prayed, she received all those difficulties; she forgave all the people who made things difficult for her. This is our True Mother. She was victorious!

Some people sometimes tell me, "It would be nice if Mother would stay all the way to the end when Father is speaking. Why does she leave early?" But when people say this, and think this it's because they have never seen Mother's daily life. They don't know what her life is like! Think about it! Only if you don't know her life is it possible to say that. For fifty years she has been attending Father more closely than anyone else, with not a day off, with not an hour off, with not a break. She has been serving Father for fifty years with complete devotion. Let's say we go to Hoon Dok Hae one morning, and it's four hours, it's five hours, it's six hours -- it's hard for us to concentrate! We're tired! It's hard for us to persevere for six hours! But think about it: True Mother is like at Hoon Dok Hae every day, twenty-four hours a day! For fifty years with Father! There is no comparison between this and what we are doing! Absolutely no one has attended Father the way True Mother has attended him. If we open our spiritual eyes, and we look at Mother, we can absolutely see that she is the completed and perfected Eve. (Aju!)

Let's take a look at the Gospel of John. John 2:1-9:

"On the third day a wedding took place at Cana, in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother came to him and said, 'They have no wine.' 'Dear mother, why do you involve me?' Jesus replied. 'My time has not yet come.' His mother said to the servants, 'Do whatever he tells you.' … Jesus said to the servants, 'Fill the jars with water'; so they filled them to the brim. Now he told them, 'Now draw out some of the water and give it to the master of the banquet.' They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water and it had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew."

In this story, we can see something very important, because this is one of the few stories in the Bible where we see Jesus and his mother together in the same story. There are only three or four places in the Bible where we see Jesus and Mary together. The other thing that is very important about this story is that it is the first public miracle that Jesus performed, turning the water into wine. In this story we can see Mary in the role of intercessor. She comes to Jesus on behalf of the people at the wedding to say there is no more wine. She comes to ask for help from Jesus, for the other. But how does Jesus respond? He says, "Why are you involving me? What does this have to do with me? What have you got to do with me?" And as we mentioned before, she is his mother; he must honor her! There is no appropriate time in this culture for him to speak to her like that. He should honor her. So how can he turn around and say, "Why is this my business? Why are you bothering me?" You cannot say this to your mother.

Can you imagine if I were to say to Mother, "True Mother, what have you got to do with me?" We can't speak to Mother like that! But Jesus spoke to his mother like that. But he did go on and he performed this miracle, changing the water into wine. This is a very important moment in the Catholic Church, here, because Mary came to Jesus on behalf of the people at the wedding in the position of intercessor to help connect the people to Jesus. This is the role that Mary continues to hold in the Catholic Church. We can see that this role is a very important role. It's a mother's role! People go to the mother if they have a request that they need to make to the father. If it's too difficult to go straight to the father, they go to the mother. So the Catholic Church has a strong tradition of the mother figure that you can go to, to help you with your requests and your difficulties. But the difficulty is the person who is the closest to the messiah, the person who is the closest to the perfected Adam, is not the messiah's mother but it is the messiah's wife. This means that it is Father and Father's bride, True Mother, that are the messiah for us.

There are many things that the son cannot tell his mother, but he can share them with his wife. So there is nobody who is closer to a man than his wife. He can share everything with her. The closest person to Adam is Eve; the closest person to True Father is True Mother. So the basic idea, that there should be a mother figure who can help the children, is good, but Mary was not in the position of the wife of Jesus, she was in the position of mother of Jesus, so she cannot perfectly fulfill this role; she cannot understand Jesus perfectly the way a wife could.

In Buddhism, we can see a similar example: there is one of the bodhisattvas, Guanyin Bodhisattva, originally was a male bodhisattva, but if we look at China, the Guanyin Bodhisattva is portrayed in the form of a woman. Originally this Guanyin was not a woman, but a man. But in China, they felt the need for a female spirit, to ask certain kind of questions to, to make certain kind of requests for. So in China and here in Korea, the Guanyin Bodhisattva has become a woman spirit. We can see that in China and in Korea, in Asian Buddhism, this figure has been changed into a woman, in the position of the perfected Eve, in the position of a perfected mother. This woman, this mother spirit in Buddhism, has done many miraculous things, helping people in danger, helping them escape from in difficult situations; she has helped them escape from prison. There are also pictures of her with a baby, because she has helped women who could not have children to have babies. So if we see these pictures, we see that the people, the faithful, they're looking for a person in the position of perfected Eve. They're looking for a perfect mother, for help and protection, to ask for healing. But now, we can see that we have True Mother! She has come in that position, perfected Eve, and she is the absolute object to True Father, who is the absolute subject. They have absolute give and receive action, and they have become the perfected Parents, with perfected parental love. They have, now, the possibility to give new life to new children.

So many groups throughout history have been preparing for the messiah, waiting for the messiah, waiting for their Savior, but they have all been waiting for just a man. Now we know that the messiah is coming not only as a man, but as a man and a woman, together!

We, too -- the True Children -- many times, if we make a mistake, it's too frightening to go to True Father. We're too scared; we know Father is going to scold us severely. So if we can't go to True Father, we go to Mother first. We'll go to True Mother and we will receive Mother's love. She will embrace us. She will sometimes scold us softly, she will sometimes just hold us, but she will give us a warm, comforting response to our difficulties. After that, she will help us to understand how to approach Father with the problems. She has helped from behind the scenes to solve so many difficult situations within our family. This is the job of the mother. She is able to do this why? Because she understands Father completely. She is united with True Father. Not only in our personal life, but in our life of faith, all of us, we cannot go to True Father and ask him for personal things, for ourselves, because he is busy fighting for God on the frontline, trying to establish the kingdom of Heaven. It's difficult for us to ask for personal things, when we need them. There is no place in True Father's mind to receive our prayers about our personal requests, for our health, for our family, we don't feel comfortable praying to True Father about these things, but we can ask these things to True Mother, we can pray to True Mother about these things, about our health, about our family, about our personal struggles. These are the things we can bring to our True Mother, and then we can receive the understanding and strength to go back to True Father, and we can approach Him about the providence, about our mission.

In our church we need the warm love of the mother. We have times when we cannot go to True Father. These are the times when we can receive True Mother's love. We need this. True Mother prays for us, she does devotions for us. There have been many members, more and more members, who have had miraculous experiences with True Mother. In their dreams, in their visions, they have felt True Mother's protection, and care, and miraculous support in their personal crises, and their health crises. For example, when Dr. Park was facing death when he was kidnapped, the vision of Mother came to him and gave him the strength to hold on. It's so important for us to open our spiritual eyes and see that this motherly love of this perfected Eve, that all religions have been waiting for throughout history, that we can see in examples of other religions, has finally come, is here. The miracles of the Holy Spirit are coming to us now through our True Mother. We can see it. We can believe it.

Let's end with Father's collected words, book 41:

"How will the returning lord come? He will be born on the earth as a True Son of God, who has transcended the fallen world and comes to return joy to God. When he comes, his first task will not be to establish a new nation and transform the world. Of course, that is his indirect objective, but before that, his first direct goal is to become a perfected man and then find a perfected woman. After establishing a perfected wife and uniting as a perfect couple, they must establish a family. Six thousand years of providential history have worked to establish a world centered on God, the Father of mankind, which has remained incomplete due to the fall of man. You must understand that the messiah comes as the returning Christ to find a bride and create a new family centered on God."

Let's stand up and offer a prayer to True Father and special prayer to True Mother. Look at it on the screen and we will read it together.

Prayer to True Father:

"Glory be unto the Holy True Father, the king of kings, the Returning Christ, the perfect inheritor of God's True love! For our trespasses you suffered and died, descending into Hell seven times to indemnify our sins from the individual up to the cosmic level. We bow down before you in utmost gratitude and give to you all of the glory. Aju!

Prayer to True Mother:

"Glory be unto the Holy True Mother, perfected Eve, mover of the Holy Spirit! Blessed is your sacred womb from which we are born again of the Holy Spirit. Pray for us, your children, and permit us to come closer to our Holy True Father, now and when we ascend into the spiritual world. Aju!

Let's put our hands together in prayer, together.

Dear Heavenly Father, victorious True Parents, thank you, thank you so much Heavenly Father please open our spiritual eyes to understand the seven deaths and resurrections and the seven levels of perfection that our True Parents have gone through, dying over and over again, in order to bring this amazing resurrection for us. Our True Father has walked such a difficult path, and our True Mother also, starting from servant of servants has gone a path of suffering and devotion and prayer to be our True Mother. Please open our spiritual eyes that we can understand that our True Father is the perfected Adam, our True Mother as the perfected Eve that the Holy Spirit's miracles can come to us now through our True Mother. On this kind of foundation we want to see True Parents in a new way, with our spiritual eyes. We want to understand what it means that they have come as the messiah, as the second coming, as the savior of mankind. We want to realize fully what this means, their value, their mission. And we want to bow before our True Parents, and with our life of prayer, our life of faith, we want to become one with True Parents. We want to relieve our True Father from all the heavy responsibility that he has taken by himself. We pray that we can be united with our True Parents. And, please Heavenly Father, come to our hearts and make us worthy followers for our True Parents. I pray this sincerely, in the name of our blessed central families, and in the name of our True Parents, the exalted name of our True Parents. Aju

Let's offer a bow of gratitude to our Heavenly Father and True Parents. (Bow)

And to our international president, who has spoken to us today, let us bow.

Let's greet each other and let's manifest the principle: give and take action, four position foundation; may you inherit the true love of God. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Have a blessed day and a victorious day. 

Kill Myself

Hyung Jin Moon
May 19, 2010

On April 18, Hyung Jin nim and Yeon-ah nim gave necklaces with the church symbol pendant to Japanese members who had made extraordinary donations to the Cheon Bok Gung building fund.

Is it so that you can do your ministry more powerfully, so that God can help you more, that you do this Jeong Seong?

I do it not so that God can help me but so I can "kill" my self. Jeong Seong is more in order to check myself. Its kenosis: rather than God helping me, it's getting rid of "me." It's always trying to reflect on one's posture in front of God and True Parents.

Is this so that you can be a purer vessel?

Everybody is a sinner in front of God. We cannot burn that away by our own effort, our own Jeong Seong, even. That love and grace come from our True Parents. I cannot get rid of my own sin by doing Jeong Seong. True Parents may have pity on me or forgive me if I offer some condition, but that is grace from God and True Parents. For me, Jeong Seong doesn't have that purging power; it is really checking where one is, making sure you are not doing your work to glorify yourself. That would be from Satan. If you do that, you will have no worth in the spirit world.

The pitfall for anyone who has authority is the problem that authority and power corrupt. And that's everywhere. If you are not aware of that, and you think you are somehow beyond that, and don't doubt yourself, that is arrogance. Every day you have to doubt yourself and "kill" your self.

Is this with the idea of avoiding impure motivation?

Yes. You want to make sure you have doing the divine mission as your purpose. You have to make sure your stance in front of God's throne is one of releasing, letting go and becoming empty. That posture then influences everything you do during the day. It sets the tone in the morning.

Please say something about the metaphor of becoming the dot.

As we follow the spiritual path, the beginning posture is empty, humble; we become as small as a dot. Every item that we see begins as a point; the point is the fundamental dimension, from which everything arises. With a Chinese character, you begin at one point, and end at a point. You have to make sure that as you do Jeong Seong, you remain a point or a dot. Even though you may use other strokes, your heart is a dot. It is from a point that a line can be created. A line needs two points to connect it. Don't think it's worthless just because it's small. Understand that it has the value of everything.

When we do Jeong Seong, it's not just self-annihilation; when we do Jeong Seong we're becoming a dot but we're connecting with a greater divinity, the greater heart, the greater mission -- which is not my own mission but God's mission. We're connecting with the greatest thing. The dot is the origin of the brush strokes on a painting, or of letters you are writing. Culture is shaped and expressed through such things.

Don't be fooled by the appearance of the small dot. Don't think it's the least valuable; because it is the most valuable. When you become a dot, you can truly come to your highest level of value. Don't try to stand on the dot; you must get rid of your self and become the dot. That's the heart we want to begin and end Jeong Seong with. This also applies to your life as a whole.

You say you tend to learn quickly and then move on to something else. So what made you stick with the particular ascetic training you have been doing for more than ten years now?

I always love a new challenge. If I do something and get good at it, I want a new challenge, something harder. Finding a challenge has always been a big part of my search. Reflecting on my past, I could see that I had a pattern of doing something, getting bored, then moving on to something else. With Jeong Seong, after Young Jin hyung passed away, I made a commitment, once I started on this path, to follow it -- to continue to train myself until I die. That was part of it.

Another part was that I knew I had a pattern of not wanting to do things after I got good at them to a certain level. It was a challenge I had to confront, and one I had to confront continuously. Because it's not like other things I used to do. The fight against fallen nature, fallen tendencies -- arrogance and so forth -- is endless. It is constant; and you've got to be aware of that you have to continuously train and battle yourself. Laziness and arrogance keep arising. You have to continuously train. I love spiritual training because it doesn't end; I love the eternal nature of it. Not only do you do it to get close to an eternal God but when you are training you learn to become part of eternity, because it is an unending quest. [Hyung Jin nim laughs] I like that. 

Leadership and Our Eternal Center

Hyung Jin Moon
March 19, 2010

On March 19, Hyung Jin nim spoke to leaders from various nations studying on the 120-day workshop that Father is hosting in Korea.

Hyung Jin nim began by explaining how he had asked True Parents to tell him which Chinese character each treasured the most. Father chose "Seong," meaning sincerity. Mother chose "ae," meaning love. A feature of the 120-day workshop is that all participants follow a course of early morning Jeong Seong in the form of bows and meditation, and Hyung Jin nim sought to enhance their appreciation of that tradition. He spoke in Korean.

In the two years that I have been conducting this ministry, shouldering various responsibilities, I have thought of these two Chinese characters as being our pillars. There are times, aren't there, when we don't know what the right thing to do is. We must lead others, but we are uncertain of the way to go. In such times, we can come back through those two kinds of training [in sincerity and love]. These are not just external Chinese characters, they are definitely characters that let us know how we should live.

When you offer Jeong Seong, your attitude is very important. Offering Jeong Seong is not done to inflate our egos. Some people use certain aesthetic practices to inflate their self-image. They think that because they know more, they are growing. If we work in that way, we are immediately on the path to the devil. This attitude in offering Jeong Seong can lead to self-deception. That is what happens if we use this in the wrong way.

We may think we are offering much Jeong Seong but as we grow we can create in ourselves the mindset that "I am becoming a more wonderful person, a much more wonderful person than you!" Without realizing we may be making ourselves bigger. From such egoism comes arrogance. This is a truly dangerous part of the practice.

If this happens, Jeong Seong becomes something evil. Jeong Seong is therefore a fearsome thing: As I make this devoted effort my ego is growing and God and True Parents are becoming less significant in my heart. I can be as great as True Parents; they are not so special. I am getting up earlier then they are anyway.... This is a very dangerous aspect of Jeong Seong. Many ascetics train themselves incorrectly. When someone claims, "I have penetrated the Way," or claims to have been given some kind of magical powers, he is a fake.'- He's on the path to the devil.

So what if you can run on top of bamboo? Father was resurrected seven times from death. How can you be proud of being able to walk on bamboo stalks? You don't offer Jeong Seong for such purposes. If you do offer Jeong Seong with such an aim, very soon you will be walking on the devil's path.

On the other hand, if you follow the path of Jeong Seong and spiritual training and rid yourself of such thoughts and cut yourself down in size, and ponder, realistically, how proud you have been of yourself and how great you thought you were and come to realize that it is not true, you can do great things.

When we do Jeong Seong, we begin from one point and end at a point. From that point, you may make a horizontal stroke to write the character for "one," and another vertical stroke would make it into the character for "ten." In the art of calligraphy, this dot is the simplest yet at the same time the most difficult stroke. Contained within the dot is all the chi [energy]. If you understand this, you will realize that it is the same for offering Jeong Seong.

Spiritual training can be difficult; also, during the time you prepare and train your mind, many temptations will come to you. You will have experienced many temptations during the short period of exercises and the meditation, which was to train yourselves in mind -- body unity. There will be temptations to make your body more comfortable; you will feel inclined not to want to continue the training; and there will be worldly temptations coming into your mind.

This is a time to offer gratitude to God and True Parents. During this time, other issues constantly come to mind, disturbing us.

If we are leaders in the Unificationist faith, what is our eternal center? It is True Parents. So every day when we get up, we hold fast to that center. We offer a full bow to our True Parents, and begin dedicating ourselves to our day's work. As you go on doing this each day, it becomes easier. You feel more comfortable with it. You can come to long for that time.

At first I did not want to get out of bed in the morning. But I now have the desire to get up and do it. I'm not sure if you've had this experience within the twenty-one days, but if you continue over time it becomes easier and you become more comfortable doing it. You can feel True Parents love. You can truly feel God's love. You feel moved in your heart. You feel Heaven's grace and blessing. As I come to be aware, little by little, about life, I can feel how valuable this life is, how valuable it was to be born like this, how precious it is to be able to live during this time. Breathing is also the same. I had taken it for granted but one day I realized how precious it is to be able to breathe. "I am breathing and I am alive on the earth," and because of that, I can shed tears, I can feel moved and I can encounter the working of the spirit world. In so doing, because I have experienced a taste of Jeong Seong and training myself, it is truly an important part of my life that I would not want to lose.

Truly I am renewed in my feelings for everything -- life, nature, spring, winter, all. My eyes and heart discover the beautiful Jeong Seong of God in the smallest, most mundane things or activities. I am able to realize again the things that I previously had little concern for, such as the beautiful scent of flowers; whether it is the beautiful sunlight or raindrops, or whatever, I am discovering beauty and mystery. Wherever I go, God embraces me, always giving me gifts.

Offering Jeong Seong is not something you do for one or two days. It is the building of a great mountain, a mountain made by piling up little stones every day. In the twenty-one days you have been doing this, you have placed twenty-one pebbles here.

Generally, as you use something its value depreciates. It is the same for a car, or for any item. However, there is something which, the more you use it, remains forever, and whose value does not diminish: that is Jeong Seong. Over time, as we offer Jeong Seong, its value grows.

The most important thing with Jeong Seong is to be consistent. When I was a child I had the habit of quickly learning whatever I learned. Father too, whatever he does, he picks it up quickly. Because I learned quickly, I would soon just move on to something else. When I reached the same level as the person who was teaching me, I moved on to something else. That is the kind of character I had.

On one hand, this is a good, but on the other hand, it isn't, because there is no consistency. When you arc able to do a little of something quickly, you tire of it fast and move on to something else. I guess that's probably why I wasn't good in my studies. On the matter of study, my older brother Young Jin would say to me, "It's easy to do well in school; you just need to be consistent. You need to consistently write down what the teacher says every day, do your homework every day and do it properly, and when there are exams coming up, prepare for them and do well in them." This is what he taught me.

I was a fast learner, so I thought that I didn't need to do my homework that day, that it wouldn't matter much because the exams were months away. But that was wrong. That's why I was very bad at studying. But after he passed away, I began to follow the path of an ascetic life, and it was a big challenge. In my case, because I learn and tire of things very fast and always want to learn something else, having to train myself day after day -- that is, training my mind and body every day with consistency and without exception -- has been difficult.

In the beginning it was a completely new thing and therefore pleasurable, but after three years it became a struggle. It was even excruciating, as if I were having all my teeth pulled out. Not only waking up early by myself, but doing the training every single day in the same place, became more than loathsome; it got to the point that I felt stifled and angry and never wanted to do it ever again even if I died.

When you begin to experience such things, many satanic temptations come to you. "Don't follow this path, it's useless and unnecessary. It was enjoyable at first, but now it's a waste of time. You are throwing away your potential. Why should you do things like this?" Also at that stage, many of those near me suggested, You've been doing this for a long time. Why don't you do it in a more comfortable way?

And when some people were given a special responsibility, it was difficult for them to continue doing the conditions, so I was asked if it was okay for them to begin their spiritual training at 5:00 AM or whenever else they do Hoon Dok Hae, rather than at 2:30 AM. However, that's not how I think.

After Young Jin passed away, I promised him that I'd follow the path of an ascetic life. But Jeong Seong is not something you can do for a short time to feel more spiritual, so you can say, Oh, I feel very good spiritually. That is merely a vacation, a recess. Jeong Seong needs to be offered whether it is night or day, raining or snowing, showering sparks from heaven or not, whether there is a world or not -- whether it has come to ruin or not. Maintaining the training, your spiritual practices as if you're doing them for the first time every day becomes your Jeong Seong.

Self-inflation is not the point of following this path. If your ego is getting bigger, you are following the path of Satan, the devil. Through the path of Jeong Seong, we are making the self smaller, and as we grow smaller, God and True Parents within our hearts grow bigger. At first all you see is "I." You might think, This is too difficult, I don't want to do it, or you might think, This is so peaceful; it's so good for my blood circulation. Everything you are thinking is for "I" or "me" at first. Your heart is like that, but that is not yet Jeong Seong.

We diminish our egos when we offer Jeong Seong. As they become smaller and we become humbler, we can see only True Parents in our hearts, or feel them growing bigger in our hearts. Every day, you waver back and forth as you engage in training, in Jeong Seong.

For example, if one day your self-centeredness goes down a level whereas your focus on True Parents goes up a level, there is a difference of two levels overall. Then you can feel you have grown that day.

But let's say the very next day you have maintained the level of focus on God and True Parents, but the degree to which you focus on yourself has gone up three levels. In that case, the difference between the two is a minus already. You are engaged in that type of struggle every day. Sometimes you have a bad day; sometimes you get bad days for a lengthy period, weeks or months.

It's an everyday struggle that starts from the physical body. Getting up at an hour when no one else is up and wishing you could sleep for two hours more... There is a big difference between getting up at 2:30 AM and 4:30 AM. It's a very big difference. How wonderful it would be to sleep for those two hours!

So, the limitations, the struggles, begin with the physical body, and you first need to fight with them and win. But if you continue to do this, it will become a personal habit within a few years. At first, when I was offering Jeong Seong, I sometimes became sick, caught a cold or became sore all over. Now, though, I get a cold and feel fatigued when I don't do Jeong Seong. That's quite a mystery, isn't it?

There is a connection between the first and second blessings -- isn't there? -- between the perfection of the mind-body relationship and the perfection of a true family. When you offer Jeong Seong, you need to do it with a sincere heart, as sincere as the pledge you made to stay together forever that you made in the Blessing Ceremony. It's as important as keeping your marriage vows.

When you have people working under you, you hear many compliments such as, "You are so great" or "You are working so hard," or even "You are so handsome." We receive compliments that prompt our ego to grow, and the greater our responsibilities are, the more "temptations" of this type arise. As you become increasingly successful in fulfilling your responsibilities, those temptations grow bigger and sweeter. If you don't make the time to check yourselves, meditate and train yourselves and reflect on yourselves as leaders, you can very easily become bad people within a short time. Very soon, your responsibilities become a way to display how great you are rather than a way to give glory to God and True Parents. You start to think, I am such a capable person.

As time goes on, a person in charge of a particular responsibility has the potential to convert his mind-set into a culture. Thus, the culture of an organization comes into being through him. If you do not restrain the creation of an egocentric culture focused on making your ego grow bigger, your subordinates will learn that from you. And when they adopt this egocentric culture, they will use it to control their leader.

Just as Satan controlled Adam and Eve, they can lead you into temptation. They can entice you in ways reminiscent of Lucifer enticing Eve. In time, that demon may dominate you. That is the greatest danger. That is why offering Jeong Seong as a leader, that is, always making yourselves smaller while expanding your heart toward True Parents and training yourself as a way of denying your ego, is not done for yourself alone; it's something you do for everyone, because the leader affects everyone.

People ask me, "Now you are the international president and in charge of world mission headquarters, the church and even UPF, so why don't you do your Jeong Seong at 4:30 rather than 2:30?" When I hear such things, I think to myself, "This is Satan!"

Having a position and responsibilities or not does not make Jeong Seong less necessary. If that were the case, it would relegate Jeong Seong to only being the means to get a position. It would be fake. Whether I have a position or not, whether I am the international president or released from all responsibilities by Father tomorrow, I will still get up early and meditate. When Father gave me this big responsibility, even on the day of the inauguration, we climbed the mountain and meditated, the same as always. That's what's important.

In the end, Jeong Seong not only elevates God and True Parents in our hearts and protects our community and culture from moving toward Satan through self-centered arrogance, it also saves us. Jeong Seong makes us reflect upon ourselves, makes us constantly and continuously ponder the attitude we should have in relation to True Parents. And so when you offer Jeong Seong with sincerity, your Jeong Seong will give you the strength to save yourselves.

That is why Jeong Seong is important. Frankly speaking, the tradition of training and offering Jeong Seong has been rather weak in our church, but I have seen many changes occurring. Many members around Korea and worldwide -- such as those in Europe -- are training themselves in offering special Jeong Seong.

It is quite interesting to see that in the end the most fundamental thing is the most difficult. You simply need to love your wife and trust her and care for her. It sounds simple, but there are many difficulties as you go on living together. Even in offering Jeong Seong, the simplest way is to bow to True Parents. Second-generation members learn about offering bows to True Parents from when they are a year old, because it's the simplest. However, it is very difficult to reach the stage of doing it perfectly. It is very difficult to completely rid ourselves of our ego in offering a bow, and to become completely one with True Parents until "I" disappear completely.

That is why we follow the path of offering Jeong Seong. Even if you forget everything else I've said today, I hope you will not forget to become "the dot."

We need to return to the dot. A person learned in calligraphy knows that the dot is the most beautiful stroke. It encompasses all of oriental art's beauty. It's all included in the dot. People who do not know about that ask what is so beautiful about that dot, but the dot is the most beautiful part. Similarly, the most beautiful Jeong Seong you can offer is the one begun from that dot, which is the beginning point of innumerable Chinese characters and reflects thousands of years of oriental art tradition.

If you can feel the beauty of it, and realize that, and come to resemble that dot, many miracles can be wrought without our knowing about them and many people will come forward to help us. Then, without our being aware of it, True Parents will come to shine even more brightly even if we are not present, and their teachings will spread throughout the world. More and more people will become believers and appear among us as our brothers and sisters who love and serve True Parents. Then we will become the unified family that can move Heaven through our Jeong Seong. I firmly believe this. 

Perfected Messiah

Hyung Jin Moon
March 14, 2010
Cheon Bok Guk, Seoul Korea

Koran [3.195]
I will not waste the work of a worker among you, whether male or female, the one of you being from the other.

Hindu [4:3]
Thou are woman, thou are man, thou are youth and maiden. It is thou alone when born, who assumes different forms.

Words of True Father from the collected works volume 32 page 266:

The person who comes to unite all of humanity with God's love is True Parents, the Messiah. Adam and Eve were meant to center on God's love and be married. But because of the fall they could not accomplish this. For 6000 years until now man has been waiting for a qualified person to come and save them. Christianity calls this person the Messiah.

In the history of the Providence, God has chosen many central figures. The entire providence of restoration has had one goal to restore the world to the state of perfection that it was supposed to have originally before the fall. Before Adam and Eve fell the goal was to create the Kingdom of God. That is still the goal; since Adam and Eve fell the History of Restoration began. Throughout that long history of restoration there have been many precious women that Heavenly Father has used as central figures, like Sarah, the wife of Abraham, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and others. Today, I want to look at a particular woman that God used as a central figure. Her name is Ruth. Let us take a look at some scripture about Ruth. This is from the Book of Ruth Chapter 1 verses 16-17.

She was talking to her mother in law.

But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn my back on you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."

This is part of the story of a family, the family of Elimelech. Elimelech and his family lived in Bethlehem. His wife's name was Naomi. They were living in Bethlehem with their two sons. Elimelech and his wife and both sons went to Moab where both of their sons married women in Moab, local women. The first son married a woman named Orpah and the second son married a woman named Ruth. They had a difficult life. After living 10 years in Moab Elimelech died and not only Elimelech died but both of his sons died as well. So now the mother-in-law was left with her two daughters-in-law, no husband, and no sons. But both of these daughters-in-law were local Moab women. They were not from the Jewish faith; they did not worship the God of Israel. So Naomi told them they did not need to stay with her any longer, they should go back to their own towns.

She told them, "Go back to your families, live with your families. Your husbands are dead, your father-in-law is dead, there is nobody left but you and me. I think you will be better off if you go." So when the two daughters-in-law heard this Orpah, the wife of the eldest son said, "Okay, I see", and went back home. But when the second daughter-in-law, Ruth, heard what Naomi was saying to her she replied, 'No mother, I will stay with you, I will take care of you. I will not go back to my home. I will take care of you until you die. I will also believe in your God. I will learn about your God. I will worship your God'. So Ruth converted to Judaism and joined the religion of her mother-in-law. So now she came to worship the God of Israel.

So Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem. But the family had gone from Bethlehem for a long time. They had no property there, they had no house there, they had no work, they had no money. So they had to find a way to live, to eat. Ruth worked tirelessly searching through the fields to find grain that was left by the harvesters, to find enough to eat somehow. In this way she tried to take care of her mother-in-law, Naomi. They had no hope of having a good life; really they had no way of finding a good life. But one day she was working in the fields of a rich man named Boaz. Boaz, the owner of the farm came out and noticed her. He asked, 'Who is this woman'? He had heard rumors about her, he had heard about how much she took care of her mother-in-law, Naomi.

As it happens, Boaz was related to Naomi's husband, a cousin of Elimelech. At that time there was a tradition among the Jewish people that if the husband died at a young age, leaving a young widow, the young widow would marry the eldest relative in the family and in this way her deceased husband's lineage would continue. So Boaz the owner of this big farm heard about how Ruth was taking care of Naomi. Because he was a blood relative of Naomi's husband, Ruth was a part of his family now. He fell in love with Ruth and took her to be his bride. So Ruth became the wife of Boaz, a very rich farmer and now she was the head of all of his property. After her years of sacrificial life to take care of Naomi, Heavenly Father rewarded her. She was responsible for managing all of Boaz's properties.

We look at the Book of Ruth, chapter 2, verses 11-12. Boaz replied,

"I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband -- how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

So Boaz and Ruth got married and they had a son named Obed. Obed grew up and he became the father of Jessie. Jessie was the father of King David. Ruth's devotion and faith was rewarded by the birth of King David in her lineage; the King of Israel. You remember, there is the story of David and the giant Goliath. The small David killed the giant Goliath with a single stone. This is the way that Ruth's loyalty to Naomi was rewarded. From her womb came the lineage of the future King, the victorious King David. According to some Jewish traditions, Orpah, the other daughter in law, who didn't stay to take care of Naomi but just went home to her own family and did not serve God, had children with a non-believing husband, and from her lineage is where Goliath came from, who was an enemy of the Jewish people.

So Ruth's devotion was rewarded by God and King David came several generations later. But not only David; if you look further down the lineage of David, there is Jesus. Jesus came from the line of David also, which means that Jesus came from the line of Ruth. So if you think of this from the principle point of view, God had been trying to send Jesus ever since the fall, to send the restored Adam, because God's only idea was to restore what was lost at the time of the fall. So Heavenly Father sent Jesus to complete the work that Adam had not finished; to become the perfected Adam. Then he was to find the perfected Eve and become the center of human history, a restored human history centered on God and centered on true love. That was the mission of Jesus. But as you know, Jesus went the way of the cross. He was not able to substantiate his four position foundation. He did not have a chance to join with a perfected Eve and make his family.

Let's look at John 3:3-8.

In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth. No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born again!" Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

So Jesus was explaining about the work of the Holy Spirit, about rebirth through the Holy Spirit. So Christians talk about the Holy Spirit. You can see the Holy Spirit working in many ways, but Christians don't have a good way of explaining why the Holy Spirit comes as such a warm and embracing power. They can't explain why, when the Holy Spirit comes, people shed tears of joy. They can't explain why these miracles happen. The only place where we can find a clear explanation why the Holy Spirit has this power is if we look into the Divine Principle. In a chapter in Christology we can understand the nature and position of the Holy Spirit. After Jesus died, in order to complete the spiritual salvation for his followers, and to move the providence forward centering on Christianity, God had to setup the four-position foundation with Jesus.

And since Jesus did not have his bride, the Holy Spirit came in the bride position. So the providence of restoration, of rebirth, of resurrection, came with the four-position foundation with God, the spiritual Jesus in the father position and the Holy Spirit in the mother position. This position, the Holy Spirit's position, is the perfected mother's position. This is the same position where our True Mother is now sitting. This is why the Holy Spirit is such a warm and powerful force because it is the mother of mankind. The Holy Spirit came in the position of mother of mankind to give rebirth to mankind. So, it shows us that the mission of the messiah, the mission of Jesus, cannot be completed without his bride, without someone in the Eve position. That perfected Eve has to also unite completely with the perfected Adam. Only in this way can resurrection, can restoration be accomplished. This is what God has been waiting for.

Now as Unificationists, when we look at Father, we understand that if we look at him with our spiritual eyes, we can see that he has done incredible spiritual feats in order to move the providence forward and to save mankind. True Father has faced death many times, has made conditions many times. We can see this, we have seen this and we have understood this. We have looked at True Father with our spiritual eyes and with our physical eyes and we kind of know what True Father's mission was. But with True Mother, we haven't looked at her with our spiritual eyes. True Father went the path of the first death and resurrection, the second, the third, the fourth and the fifth death and resurrection alone, from the individual and family level, tribal level up to the national level. He went alone. During this time, he was not yet blessed with True Mother. But when we get up to the sixth level, this happened when Father was already blessed with True Mother. The world level, the sixth resurrection, was Father's imprisonment in Danbury. This was the world level death and resurrection, and from the internal point of view, it is the mother's resurrection.

So at this resurrection level, it would not be possible for True Father to complete this by himself. He had to complete this in unity with True Mother together. The sixth and seventh death and resurrection, the world level and cosmic level death and resurrection had to be accomplished with True Father and True Mother together. So because True Mother was completely united with Father, then it was possible to be victorious in the sixth death and resurrection. While True Father was in Danbury, True Mother prayed continuously. She guided the members of the church and she gathered 7,000 Christian ministers to fight for True Father's freedom, to fight for religious freedom.

The power of the love of True Mother that she had for True Father is what brought those ministers together. She gave them the strength to fight for religious freedom and to fight for liberation of Father because of her intense love for True Father. The ministers saw her love and her devotion to God and her desire to save True Father from suffering. She inspired them to give demonstrations to declare that serious mistakes had been made to imprison Rev. Moon. She inspired them. As with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit brings us closer to Jesus. And in this way, True Mother also has the power to bring us closer to True Father. So it's important for us to understand and realize the value of True Mother and her position.

Let's look at the Catholic Church for a minute. The Catholics pray to Mother Mary, the mother of Jesus. They offer many kinds of prayers to Mother Mary. They pray to Mary, giving praise and adorations to her. They pray to Mary for miracles. Many pray to Mary. Why do they pray to Mary so much? Because they are looking for the completed Eve. Mary is the closest person to the completed Eve that they can find. So they pray to her. But what they are really looking for is the perfected Eve, the bride of the messiah, the perfected Eve. All of history has been waiting 6,000 years for the perfected Eve, and she's here! It is our True Mother.

One of our ministers here at Chung Bok Gung has had very difficult problems with his health. He's been sick a lot. He's been in so much difficulty. He couldn't work sometimes because his body was too weak. He said, "I can't be a minister anymore, I don't have the power. All I can do is go become a monk." But one day, when he was feeling so bad physically, he had a dream. In his dream, True Mother came to him and she fed him with mother's milk. She became his mother in his dream. She gave him new life in his dream. After that, after he awoke, his health began to improve. Now, he has been a minister for 30 years. He is an amazing minister. His health was miraculously restored by True Mother in his dream.

There's another minister here in our church, here at headquarters, who had not been able to have a baby for 10 years. His wife and he tried so hard but for 10 years could never have a baby. But again, they met True Mother in a dream and she told him, "Please, unite with your wife now." ...

Notes:

Ruth, chapter 1

1: In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

2: The name of the man was Elim'elech and the name of his wife Na'omi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chil'ion; they were Eph'rathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there.

3: But Elim'elech, the husband of Na'omi, died, and she was left with her two sons.

4: These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years;

5: and both Mahlon and Chil'ion died, so that the woman was bereft of her two sons and her husband.

6: Then she started with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food.

7: So she set out from the place where she was, with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

8: But Na'omi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go, return each of you to her mother's house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.

9: The LORD grant that you may find a home, each of you in the house of her husband!" Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

10: And they said to her, "No, we will return with you to your people."

11: But Na'omi said, "Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?

12: Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons,

13: would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone forth against me."

14: Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

15: And she said, "See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law."

16: But Ruth said, "Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God;

17: where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you."

18: And when Na'omi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

19: So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, "Is this Na'omi?"

20: She said to them, "Do not call me Na'omi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

21: I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Na'omi, when the LORD has afflicted me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?"

22: So Na'omi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

Ruth, chapter 2

1: Now Na'omi had a kinsman of her husband's, a man of wealth, of the family of Elim'elech, whose name was Bo'az.

2: And Ruth the Moabitess said to Na'omi, "Let me go to the field, and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor." And she said to her, "Go, my daughter."

3: So she set forth and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Bo'az, who was of the family of Elim'elech.

4: And behold, Bo'az came from Bethlehem; and he said to the reapers, "The LORD be with you!" And they answered, "The LORD bless you."

5: Then Bo'az said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, "Whose maiden is this?"

6: And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, "It is the Moabite maiden, who came back with Na'omi from the country of Moab.

7: She said, `Pray, let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.' So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, without resting even for a moment."

8: Then Bo'az said to Ruth, "Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my maidens.

9: Let your eyes be upon the field which they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to molest you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn."

10: Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, "Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?"

11: But Bo'az answered her, "All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.

12: The LORD recompense you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!"

13: Then she said, "You are most gracious to me, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not one of your maidservants."

14: And at mealtime Bo'az said to her, "Come here, and eat some bread, and dip your morsel in the wine." So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her parched grain; and she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.

15: When she rose to glean, Bo'az instructed his young men, saying, "Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her.

16: And also pull out some from the bundles for her, and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her."

17: So she gleaned in the field until evening; then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.

18: And she took it up and went into the city; she showed her mother-in-law what she had gleaned, and she also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied.

19: And her mother-in-law said to her, "Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you." So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, "The man's name with whom I worked today is Bo'az."

20: And Na'omi said to her daughter-in-law, "Blessed be he by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!" Na'omi also said to her, "The man is a relative of ours, one of our nearest kin."

21: And Ruth the Moabitess said, "Besides, he said to me, `You shall keep close by my servants, till they have finished all my harvest.'"

22: And Na'omi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, "It is well, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, lest in another field you be molested."

23: So she kept close to the maidens of Bo'az, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests; and she lived with her mother-in-law.

John, chapter 3

1: Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicode'mus, a ruler of the Jews.

2: This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him."

3: Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

4: Nicode'mus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"

5: Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

6: That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7: Do not marvel that I said to you, `You must be born anew.'

8: The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit."

9: Nicode'mus said to him, "How can this be?"

10: Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand this?

11: Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen; but you do not receive our testimony.

12: If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

13: No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man.

14: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up,

15: that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."

16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

17: For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

18: He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

19: And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20: For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

21: But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.

22: After this Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea; there he remained with them and baptized.

23: John also was baptizing at Ae'non near Salim, because there was much water there; and people came and were baptized.

24: For John had not yet been put in prison.

25: Now a discussion arose between John's disciples and a Jew over purifying.

26: And they came to John, and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, here he is, baptizing, and all are going to him."

27: John answered, "No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven.

28: You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.

29: He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full.

30: He must increase, but I must decrease."

31: He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth belongs to the earth, and of the earth he speaks; he who comes from heaven is above all.

32: He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony;

33: he who receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.

34: For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for it is not by measure that he gives the Spirit;

35: the Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.

36: He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him.  

The Works of Substantial Returning Resurrection

Hyung Jin Moon
March 3, 2010
Cheonshim Unification Church (Growth-stage Cheon Bok Gung)
Unofficial Notes based on a Korean transcription

In the Prayer and Devotions Room, Jesus, Buddha, Confucius and the Prophet Mohammad are attended centering on True Parents. I am deeply grateful to God that we can prepare such a space on the first floor of Cheon Bok Gung.

The Growth-stage Cheon Bok Gung is a precious sanctuary for all of us but we must not forget that it is not our destination; it is one step of the process.

The Korean people have heard about the Dedication Ceremony for Cheon Bok Gung through media reports. When we are victorious in the Completion-stage Cheon Bok Gung providence, the entire world will look at the Unification Church.

Through the works of substantial returning resurrection, I clearly believe that we will be victorious in the providence of the Completion-stage Cheon Bok Gung.

After Jesus went the way of the cross, he was resurrected and the Holy Spirit came down on the Pentecost. The apostles went out to the world and proclaimed the Gospel that the Lord died for our sins, resurrected and was victorious. The apostles were persecuted, opposed and made fun of.

In the fifth chapter of Acts, apostles are caught by Jews and put in prison. But the spirit world worked even in that sort of desperate situation. An emissary of the Lord appeared, opened the door to the prison, saved the apostles and took them to the sanctuary where they testified to the Lord again.

What can we learn from this? When we proclaim and praise who the Lord truly is, then the spirit world will move with us. When members proclaim True Parents with true faith, amazing works of the Holy Spirit will take place.

Prophet Mohammad, the founder of Islam, was climbing Mt. Hira to offer a prayer. He stopped halfway up the mountain to rest and fell asleep. In a dream, the archangel Gabriel appeared to him, gave him a large book of scripture and asked him to read it. However, the Prophet did not know how to read. So he told the angel, "I cannot read that. I don't know what is written." But the angel Gabriel again told him to read. Mohammad said, "I can't." After refusing and being told again to read three times, Mohammad finally opened the book up to read. At first he couldn't read anything, but all of a sudden the Prophet Mohammad gained the ability to read and started reading the contents of the book of scripture.

When Mohammad woke up, he could not be certain that this dream and spiritual experience was God's work. Then finally, he came to the conclusion that it was not God's work. He became suspicious, thinking that he had been under the sway of an evil spirit. He thought that he should commit suicide by jumping off of the top of the mountain since his body was under the sway of Satan and evil spirits. But Mohammad was kept from committing suicide by meeting his wife's maid on his way to the top of the mountain. The maid took him to his wife Khadijah. When Khadijah saw the dark look on her husband's face, she asked him what had happened. Then Mohammad explained the spiritual experience that he had. Khadijah was sure that it was God working through the archangel Gabriel, so she asked her cousin Waraqah, who was a Christian.

Waraqah knew well about the work of archangels and other spirit beings in the Old and New Testaments, so he could tell that it was in fact the archangel Gabriel that Mohammad had seen. Waraqah predicted, "Your husband is a prophet who will lead our people." From that moment, the Quran was confirmed and the Islamic faith began.

At the banquet on True Parents' Birthday, 16 members of the Malaysian parliament attended. When the chairman of the HSA-UWC Foundation and I spoke, we testified to who True Parents really are. We proclaimed that True Parents are not just leaders or educators out to bring peace, but the Second Coming of Christ and the Savior of all humanity. Even though there were Muslims in the audience, I emphasized that everyone must open their spiritual eyes in order to realize what kind of people True Parents are.

Many of the staff were worried that these people of other faiths would feel uncomfortable if we proclaimed True Parents. But our thoughts were different. We knew that the people attending had come this far because they believed in True Parents and respected them. If we could not properly testify to True Parents in faith and make them open their spiritual eyes, that would really mean that we did not fulfill our responsibility and we did not have the right attitude of faith. That is why we confidently proclaimed out of faith.

God always works through truth. Although many people were worried about what Kook Jin hyung and I said at the banquet, the response was very positive. The Muslim leaders were very interested in our testimonies. They said, "We had no idea that True Parents were that kind of people. We heard it for the first time. It is so amazing. We want to know more about them."

After the banquet, the guests went back to Malaysia. I could not be sure how much they would remember of that day's events. But they did not just sit on their thumbs. As soon as they went back to Malaysia, they contacted our church and asked for books related to our church, saying that they want to study the Divine Principle in depth. I could see that amazing spiritual phenomena take place when we proclaim the Lord earnestly.

The second Bible reading is from Acts 8:26-29: Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip,

"Go south to the road -- the desert road -- that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."

Philip was Jesus' apostle who went to Samaria as a missionary. The eunuch he met was reading Isaiah. Philip asked him, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The eunuch did not. Philip explained the meaning to him and told him the good news that Jesus Christ had gone the way of the cross and resurrected for the sake of the world. Then, the Holy Spirit worked and the Ethiopian official determined to worship the Lord. As they walked on the road together, they discovered a small well on the side of the road and Philip baptized the Ethiopian. That is said to be the beginning point of Ethiopian evangelization.

Dear members! The spirit world is also working around us. The spirit world tells us where we need to go and who we need to meet. When we praise True Parents with a true heart and testify that Father was sent to the earth by God to be the Second Coming of Christ, then the spirit world works.

Among the events that were held around the time of True Parents' birthday, there was an inter-religious gathering. During the event, I had an opportunity to speak on stage. I confidently explained who True Parents are. And I explained that True Parents had inherited the true love of God and walked the path of Seven Deaths and Resurrections and the Completion of Eight Stages. I explained that True Parents had died and died and died again for the sake of their children.

After I finished speaking, I planned to leave but I felt spiritually that I needed to greet some people there before moving to the next venue. This was a very strong feeling. I met a Christian minister from Canada with a congregation of 1,200 people. He said that he believes in True Parents as the Second Coming of Christ, so he will teach the Divine Principle at his church.

One woman minister from Lebanon shed tears saying, "I did not know that God's love was like that. I did not know that True Parents were that kind of people." She added, "While I heard about the Seven Deaths and Resurrections, I felt my spirit rise up from my body and I felt great peace in my heart. Tears and praise naturally came out of my heart and I wanted to offer bows to God." She had experienced returning resurrection through the Seven Deaths and Resurrections. I was deeply moved to hear about how the spirit world worked.

Ms. Eun Ju Pak, the president of Gimm Young Publishers, had worked hard to produce True Father's autobiography. I met with her for lunch around one month ago. She told me that she received a lot of opposition because of the autobiography project. While she was preparing to publish the book, the editor-in-chief who had worked with her at Gimm Young Publishers for decades suddenly said that he was quitting. Ms. Pak was so shocked. She asked him why he was quitting and he said that he could not publish Rev. Sun Myung Moon's book as a Christian. Also, a very famous Catholic canceled a book publishing contract he had with Gimm Young Publishers. However, Ms. Pak pushed forward with publishing the book in the face of this kind of opposition. How do you think she was able to do so?

Ms. Pak is a faithful Buddhist. She wakes up early every day and offers 108 bows, recites the Geum Gang Gyeong and offers a lot of devotion in front of Buddha. One day, Buddha visited her in her prayers and told her that she should publish Rev. Sun Myung Moon's book. Through this kind of spiritual experience, she determined to publish Father's autobiography and was able to overcome all types of opposition she received.

There are so many examples of these kinds of spiritual experiences. At the Dedication Ceremony for Cheon Bok Gung, the Venerable In Kong, president of the Taego Buddhist Order in Korea gave congratulatory remarks. He testified that True Parents are the living Buddha and Savior while True Parents were present substantially. Now leaders of religious denominations, the highest spiritual leaders, are experiencing returning resurrection and testifying to True Parents.

Dear brothers and sisters! In the Prayer and Devotion Room of the Growth-stage Cheon Bok Gung, the four great saints are attended along with True Parents. Every day, church leaders, women leaders and members are offering devotion. They go around the Prayer and Devotion Room and offer 210 bows every day. I can already feel amazing spiritual energy coming out of that room.

True Parents have given us a new age with heavenly energy. On the day of the dedication of Cheon Bok Gung, True Parents went into the Prayer and Devotion Room and offered a prayer. Father blessed the Cheon Bok Gung, calling it a holy ground that has heavenly fortune. True Parents opened the way for the spirit world to work and many people are now experiencing the works of substantial returning resurrection. One member was praying to the four great saints and saw a bright light coming from behind.

Jesus came to my dreams a few days ago. He came with his disciples, wearing white clothes and a blue shawl. He will continue to work for the Providence in greater ways.

Dear brothers and sisters! The spirit world is moving. You will also experience the works of returning resurrection. Mohammad, Jesus, Buddha and Confucius may appear in your dreams. When you pray, you will experience the kinds of mysterious events.

At the inter-religious event, we proclaimed who True Parents are and explained about the mission True Parents gave to us. True Parents have carried out peace movements and inter-religious activities for decades. Although we have actively supported True Parents' efforts, we did not know how they connected to the Unification Church. The VIPs did not know. We thought that it was an entirely different movement.

On that day, I explained the vision for Cheon Bok Gung. In the Completion-stage Cheon Bok Gung, there will be a Buddhist temple, a Christian church and a Muslim mosque. We will go beyond inter-religious dialogue to a new model of living together in peace. I proclaimed that it would be a beginning of Cheon Il Guk.

The leaders from various religious denominations who attended the inter-religious event also visited the Growth-stage Cheon Bok Gung. They were very impressed to see the Prayer and Devotion Room in which paintings representing the four great saints were displayed. In the Growth-stage Cheon Bok Gung, we will proclaim who True Parents are with devotion and love. But in the Completion-stage Cheon Bok Gung, people of all religions will practice a life of attending True Parents.

Dear brothers and sisters, these kinds of things have been possible due to our confidently proclaiming who True Parents are.

The Unification Church has vision and hope because of True Parents.

Notes:

Acts, chapter 5

1: But a man named Anani'as with his wife Sapphi'ra sold a piece of property,

2: and with his wife's knowledge he kept back some of the proceeds, and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles' feet.

3: But Peter said, "Anani'as, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land?

4: While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God."

5: When Anani'as heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear came upon all who heard of it.

6: The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.

7: After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

8: And Peter said to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for so much." And she said, "Yes, for so much."

9: But Peter said to her, "How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Hark, the feet of those that have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out."

10: Immediately she fell down at his feet and died. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

11: And great fear came upon the whole church, and upon all who heard of these things.

12: Now many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico.

13: None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high honor.

14: And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women,

15: so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and pallets, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them.

16: The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

17: But the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is, the party of the Sad'ducees, and filled with jealousy

18: they arrested the apostles and put them in the common prison.

19: But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said,

20: "Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life."

21: And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and taught. Now the high priest came and those who were with him and called together the council and all the senate of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

22: But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, and they returned and reported,

23: "We found the prison securely locked and the sentries standing at the doors, but when we opened it we found no one inside."

24: Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were much perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to.

25: And some one came and told them, "The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people."

26: Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

27: And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them,

28: saying, "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us."

29: But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men.

30: The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.

31: God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

32: And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."

33: When they heard this they were enraged and wanted to kill them.

34: But a Pharisee in the council named Gama'li-el, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a while.

35: And he said to them, "Men of Israel, take care what you do with these men.

36: For before these days Theu'das arose, giving himself out to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was slain and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.

37: After him Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered.

38: So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail;

39: but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!"

40: So they took his advice, and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

41: Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

42: And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

Acts, chapter 8

1: And Saul was consenting to his death. And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Sama'ria, except the apostles.

2: Devout men buried Stephen, and made great lamentation over him.

3: But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

4: Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

5: Philip went down to a city of Sama'ria, and proclaimed to them the Christ.

6: And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs which he did.

7: For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice; and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

8: So there was much joy in that city.

9: But there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the nation of Sama'ria, saying that he himself was somebody great.

10: They all gave heed to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, "This man is that power of God which is called Great."

11: And they gave heed to him, because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.

12: But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

13: Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

14: Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Sama'ria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John,

15: who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit;

16: for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

17: Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

18: Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money,

19: saying, "Give me also this power, that any one on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit."

20: But Peter said to him, "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!

21: You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.

22: Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

23: For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity."

24: And Simon answered, "Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me."

25: Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

26: But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is a desert road.

27: And he rose and went. And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of the Can'dace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship

28: and was returning; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

29: And the Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and join this chariot."

30: So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"

31: And he said, "How can I, unless some one guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

32: Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this: "As a sheep led to the slaughter
or a lamb before its shearer is dumb,
so he opens not his mouth.

33: In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken up from the earth."

34: And the eunuch said to Philip, "About whom, pray, does the prophet say this, about himself or about some one else?"

35: Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus.

36: And as they went along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "See, here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?"

38: And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

39: And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

40: But Philip was found at Azo'tus, and passing on he preached the gospel to all the towns till he came to Caesare'a.  

Tongilgyo (FFWPU) Strategic Guidelines for 2010

Hyung Jin Moon
March 2, 2010

Ref. No. FFWPUI 2010-12

To: Regional presidents, National messiahs, National leaders
From: FFWPU International Headquarters
Date: 17th day of the 1st month in the 1st year of Heaven (Gregorian calendar: March 2, 2010)
Re.: Tongilgyo (FFWPU) Strategic Guidelines for 2010

May God and True Parents' blessings and love be with brothers and sisters in your region, mission nations and providential organizations.

This is to announce the strategic guidelines for 2010 which were announced at the World National Leaders Assembly 2010. Please do your best in carrying.

Tongilgyo (FFWPU) Strategic Guidelines for 2010
Proposal

I. Vision

Tongilgyo (FFWPU) will substantiate Cheon Il Guk by January 13, 2013, by inheriting and multiplying the true love of God and True Parents, building Cheon Bok Gung, and successfully witnessing to more than 51 percent of the national population.

II. Mission

Let's inherit the true love of God!

We hold the following to be true:

The True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind are the first in all history and will eternally be the one and only Returning Lord, Peace King and King of Kings because they are the only ones to have fully revealed the nature of God's divine essence. This essence is true love, a love that can bring even Satan to voluntary surrender. Our True Parents have enabled us to resemble God and approach His divine value as human beings.

Therefore, we commit to the following mission as members of Tongilgyo (FFWPU):

1. To disseminate understanding of God's nature and the Principle -- including His principles of Creation and Restoration -- to all the world with a view to creating an ideal world where all people inherit the true love of God;

2. For that purpose, to build Cheon Bok Gung as the place from which God and True Parents' vertical standard of love and truth expands horizontally throughout all nations, firmly establishing Cheon Il Guk, God's original ideal world.

III. Motto

Mansei for oneness with True Parents' pure heart and with all their victories under the authority of the Cosmic Sabbath centered on true love

IV. Underlying Principles

Developing a life of sincere devotion and true love!

IV. Strategic Guidelines

1. Church leaders and members reborn through the practice of sincere devotion

2. Becoming the owners of the Cheon Bok Gung providence

3. Making the church grow by revitalizing members' faith, witnessing to new members and cultivating blessed families who witness

4. Transparent, honest, fair, and professional operations and management

5. Exemplifying absolute sexual ethics and fulfilling my portion of responsibility

V. Goal

1. Adopt and establish performance management system based on monthly reports

2. Double or more the results of donations, witnessing, and church attendance 

Moving In to the Cheon Bok Gung and Moving Ahead

Hyung Jin Moon
March 2010

International President Hyung Jin Moon and Yeon-ah nim welcomed us warmly to their new office at the growth-stage Cheon Bok Gung. Like the tiny office they had used at the Headquarters Church over the past two years, the room is simple and traditional in style. We sat on cushions and in his serious but open-hearted manner, Hyung-jin nim shared about recent events and looked to the future.

Question: The growth-stage Cheon Bok Gung is now open. Please could you say something about how it will work.

We say "growth stage' because we're now putting together the strategy for the completion stage. We're going to have to talk to the government and so forth; we have some possible sites. Were putting that together at the Foundation for the Support of HSA-UWC. Yes, it's important to remember that this is the growth stage.

Cheon Bok Gung has three major departments. We have the Women's Evangelical Association, which spearheads the witnessing, and we have our ministry team and our central administration team. There's a lot of space in the building. On the first floor, we have the lobby, the cafe and the Prayer and Devotion Room, where the four saints are present -- there are awesome, incredible spiritual phenomena happening. That's where we do our morning devotional training.

This back area is all office space. We have a lot of office space back here. The Korean headquarters was transferred to Cheon Bok Gung so we have a couple more departments to manage; we have the Family Department and the Culture Department, and we have the External Liaison Department. That right now is dealing primarily with the Japanese church in organizing and helping to coordinate the Japanese members who come in big groups to Cheon Bok Gung.

Then we have the Witnessing and Education Department, which is very important. We have office space for a lot of the major departments, because those departments are working for the national church, not for just Cheon Bok Gung.

Question: Did you bring them here to have them on the premises with you, so you can more freely work with them?

We brought them to the ground. We don't want them to be separated from the ground. When they were in the administrative building, which is separate from the church, they lost contact with the church. As a Family Department that's bad; as a Witnessing Department that's bad and as a Culture Department that's bad. [In the church] you can feel the culture or the witnessing atmosphere. If you're not in that environment, you're going to be out of the loop.

A lot of what they were doing was making theories that weren't applicable on the ground. So, we took them out of their lofty offices and we brought them to the ground, so they can feel the pulse of the church, an actual living church that's open to the public.

We have smaller sanctuaries that are open for the overflow on the big day, Sunday. We have other services, like the Wednesday service and the Friday service that will be taking place there. We have small-group meeting rooms, on the second floor -- very small, for ten people, some of them for five people.

We have a large video center on the second floor, where people go to learn how to become an Unificationist, about our faith, and so on. That's a very big department. They operate on basically the same principles as the other two [21 Heavenly Fortune] centers in other parts of Seoul.

Those are the main facilities. Of course we have True Parents' room, which they use when they come here to ready themselves and prepare for different occasions.

Father's already been here three times including for the dedication ceremony. He's very excited. This happened in a very short period of time, you realize.

Question: Can you say something about True Parents' response to Cheon Bok Gung?

Father was of course happy as everyone saw. Finally, we have somewhere to attend the Messiah in Seoul in a way that reflects our capacity. And Mother gave a wonderful prayer. I recorded it on my phone. Mother was just crying as she was praying. She is so thankful that we can have a church like this.

Father... It's not only that he came here on the first day, the opening day. He then ordered leaders from around the world to come and be educated here. Because we don't have dormitory facilities, we set it up to do at our Central Training Center in Guri. They're doing the workshop there and on the weekends, they are coming here to Cheon Bok Gung. Spiritually it's being done from here. From three o'clock every morning, a member of our Hoonsa team leads the participants in morning meditation training and two hundred and ten bows. Then they move into Hoon Dok Hae and the rest of the day they have lectures.

Father asked us to hold a hundred-and-twenty-day workshop for those leaders; we're basically going to do forty days with the prayer condition continuing up to a hundred and twenty days. It's led by the Cheon Bok Gung team, the Korean headquarters team and the Education team. The leaders are being shown a witnessing method, and they also come in and participate in witnessing. It's very interactive.

The second time Father came was to speak to the members. We got a call at ten o'clock at night that Father was coming. He was here from eleven o'clock until five in the morning, all night, and then he did Hoon Dok Hae until ten o'clock. He was here for eleven hours just pouring out his heart.

On Sunday, Father came for the service, which was a huge blessing. We had a wonderful group of younger blessed children from Japan. They prepared a beautiful choral piece, which they'd practiced for two months. They just wanted to sing in the new temple, because many of their families have donated and participated in its building. That would have been wonderful in itself but then True Parents came on that very day. Father spoke to the children directly; what a huge blessing from the Messiah!

So we are preparing for Father to come any time, preparing the services to be flexible.

Question: The Venerable In-gong gave testimony to Father at the dedication ceremony for Cheon Bok Gung. Could you tell us about his relationship with us?

He is, as you know, the head of the Taego Buddhist Order whose followers number in the millions around the nation of Korea. It is the second-largest order in Korea. It has six- or seven thousand ordained monks. They allow clerical marriage in that tradition. Many of those monks have actually participated in our blessings in the past. In some respects they are blessed couples, and from a long time past they have had deep respect for True Parents. Just recently we went and visited them. We're very proud of True Parents as the Messiah who comes to this land. I told him straight out we're so blessed that the Messiah has come to Korea.

Question: How does that fit with the Buddhist view of reality?

It's a different type of expectation, but there is a big tradition for the Maitreya in Buddhism. It's actually quite similar to our own expectation -- the fact that there is preparation, that a foundation is created, and then the Maitreya comes. Most people understand that there's a spiritual expectation for a central figure to come. And that's true. Most lay people in those religious traditions have that level of expectation for either the return of Christ or the coming of the Maitreya. For Buddhists, I explained True Parents as the Messiah, as the Second Advent of the Lord. I particularly use that terminology They understand that we are from a Christian root, but they understand what we are talking about in terms of True Parents being the savior. They take it very well.

Question: They can sense Father's genuineness.

Yes, because they arc religious leaders and they have to make a success of their religion and with their temples. They know how difficult it is to break through. They see that True Parents have done it from scratch and created a global religion. That's unfathomable, so they have a great respect for True Parents.

A lot of Buddhist monks and Buddhist laypeople have great respect for True Parents because they have shown Korean culture to the world. Out of all the world religions, we are the only one that centers the world on Korea as the holy land. It is a huge benefit for our work in Korea if the people awaken to that reality.

I spoke about it, actually, this past Sunday. That it should be the nation's pride. It is the key to making Korea the center of the world. We meet many VIPs here, and it's very common for these people to have a big desire to see Korea become a major player in the world. That's only natural. They're always thinking of how to do that, whether it be through technology, wealth, or power. They're never going to do it with Olympic skaters. There's no way that has the staying power that faith and spiritual power has. The only way it can be done is if spiritual power becomes the center. I'm always trying to tell Korean people this, and here in Korea we are actually focusing our witnessing efforts on this, to get people's national pride involved in supporting and promoting the growth of the Unification movement.

Question: I can see how that might work well in Korea.

So it's a very important message to the Korean people to awaken to their true identity; your national pride cannot be in figure skaters forever. You're not going to claim to be the center of the world through sports. The only way Korea will is when they understand that the return of the Messiah has happened here.

Then people will want to come here, they will want to visit here, they will want to graft onto this heritage. I'm always trying to tell the Korean people that. Wake up to your true identity! That's not to say that the other members of our movement are not a part of that. We are moving together on this path, but in Korea we have to move the nation because we have to create Cheon II Guk. It's very important at this time.

Question: Father mentioned on Sunday that witnessing needs to be from the top down. Would you comment on that?

For us, it's very important, because we are a movement with a purpose and we have a mission, that is, to create the kingdom of God on earth -- that's not a small mission. We have a purpose for our existence, and that is not to be some kind of welfare organization. We are a messianic movement. As the Messiah is here, the movement has the mission to create the kingdom of God. To affect that mission our witnessing has to be geared toward allowing nations to be moved. I believe this is what Father is thinking.

We do witness to people who have the foundation to make an impression on society. We want to move our society and create the overwhelming effect that these kinds of people can create when they become Unificationists. For example, the president of one construction company joined the church. He takes a bus for three hours to get here every Sunday. Because he came in, almost all his staff also became members. The owner of a buffet restaurant and a wedding hall was initiated as a new member. He went through all the training, began tithing, has done all the conditions that are asked, and he has brought in four people who are receiving Principle education. We want to have people coming who can move society. That's the process of moving a nation.

With the amount of energy you invest in witnessing, which is a good-sized portion for us, we want to target those kinds of people that can contribute to the church and help it develop. When the economic strength of our church becomes greater and more stable, we will be able to do different types of service activities. But there's a process. You can't start with that because you won't be able to sustain it. What comes first is a strong base of support. This is what the Unification Church does not have in Korea nor does it have that in America or in other country. This changes our witnessing strategy. Only in Japan do we have that backbone.

Question: You suggested once that we witness to middle-aged women.

Yes, we would like to bring mature mothers to join us. This is because they have the time to invest in the church and they have a lot of ability. Because they have raised their children, they have a certain level of parental understanding, parental heart, which can be developed to a more broad compassion toward saving the souls of other people. Not only that, most middle-age women have a husband who works, so they are financially stable, which means they have more time to invest into the church. That becomes a win for them, because if you look at the statistics you can see that among women at the age when their children leave the nest there's a huge void.

We're working with our women's evangelical organization to contact women in that age group who can work in witnessing and help with church development. That doesn't mean that we exclude men. But we do put a lot of energy into bringing mothers to join the church. We need that motherly maturity; we need the compassion that comes from motherhood.

Question: That might explain the size of the Sunday school.

Yes, we have a very large Sunday school. Actually some of the women are younger, they are not necessarily middle-aged yet. We have many young kids. We now have over five hundred kids every week up to high school age, which is hard to manage even for our sixty volunteer teachers.

Question: You're working here in Korea, creating a model for the world. In-jin nim is working in America. Your work here is creating a revolution; In Jin Nim's working to create a revolution in America. Do you work together?

Yes, absolutely; there's a lot of synergy. We just sent the U.S. our restructuring plan, which we have implemented in Korea over the past two years. They're studying that and using it as a case model, so that they can start thinking of ideas and ways that work.

This time we implemented a model that works, which was really created by Kook-jin nim with a task force team of professionals.

The debate about how to grow the church is over; we don't need any more theories. We now need to share the information, because we already know how to do it here. We need people to understand what the process is; it involves a lot of management knowledge.

We sent them the information on how we were able to create results in Korea. That's a case study they can use. There are always different circumstances in different countries, and even in different churches in the same nation; but at least it's a case study. It's one case study among the world's Unification Churches where a church that was failing became a growing church. We want to show that one model to the other churches, particularly in America, because In Jin Nim has started a real ministry. A True Child standing on the front line as a minister has the potential to be a good catalyst.

When you do restructuring there are always tough decisions that you have to make downsizing, plugging the holes in the dam, so to speak. Also if the vision is off in such a way that it's not going to be suitable for church growth you have to modify the vision. There are many things you actually have to do organizationally. They're beginning to study that information and hopefully they'll be able to bring good results there.

In Jin nuna's done an excellent job because she's put her neck on the line, having an open church where she comes out and preaches every week to the congregation. That's very important; consistency in ministry is critical. Without ministry operating and moving forward the Holy Spirit doesn't move. Without the spirit world moving, you cannot implement church growth, because in the end even though you make the administrative changes, you won't have the faith. And you won't have the impetus to move the church forward. Confidence to witness comes from spiritual power.

Religions that grow are strong in evangelism. Judaism has a special relationship with God. Christianity has a special relationship with Jesus. Islam has a special relationship with God. Buddhism has a special relationship with the highest level of enlightenment, which can free one from suffering. These are not relativistic traditions that view all others as basically the same. Such traditions have weaker growth. When you look at the statistics of flourishing seminaries, for example, only evangelical seminaries succeed, can pay for themselves. Ecumenical seminaries that try to go with an inter-religious vision tend to fail. It is the churches and religions that have strong confidence in their [particular] relationship with God, with the divine, that can grow.

Witnessing has to challenge common perceptions. Even for us this is very important. When we focused our identity on the Family Federation, we weakened our identity our faith. We became relativists in the sense that we advocated that all the religions are okay. Together, we're walking up the same mountain, as if that were Father Moon's vision.

That actually destroys faith because you have no special relationship with God. When you're raising your children in that faith would you say "Well, we're all the same, so you can become a Buddhist or a Christian."? This was never what Father wanted. Father always expected us to bring the religions to him. That was the difference.

What we do here is far different. We have the four great saints here and they serve True Parents. The witnessing process is geared toward accepting True Parents as the Messiah and the Second Advent. We do not take the relativistic view here; we have a very strong evangelical view. We have confidence in our faith. This is a big change in culture. This is what has happened, starting from the Headquarters Church, moving out into the Seoul area and now strengthening our Korean church throughout the nation.

This is why we can grow again. This is why we have a new love for True Parents and why when we see True Parents we can see them with new eyes.

Question: Members seem to have confidence that you and Kook-jin nim have made the necessary analysis and painful decisions to move the church in the direction that will bring success.

Unificationists sacrifice their lives for this. Anyone who is an Unificationist wants to see the faith blossom. Father has opened the age in which we can actually put up front Tongil-gyo, the Unification Church. No more hiding, just up front: this is what we believe.

We do acknowledge the other religions' prophets as having been sent by God. And we don't only acknowledge the Abrahamic saints; we also acknowledge Confucius and Buddha. That's huge. We see them all as prophets whom God has sent.

When True Parents come and fulfill their mission, however, they bring the newest truth that raises all of us to the new level of the kingdom of God. Why can't we declare that, as people of faith?

Every other religion can do that, why do we prevent ourselves from doing that? We do a lot of inter-religious work and we don't want to upset them. But go and study the other religions! They're still doing inter-religious work, but they're confident. We can do the same.

Why is it that we cannot do, for example, as they do in the Baha'i tradition that says Baha'u'llah is the messianic person, the prophet of this age and though God sent the other prophets, Baha'u'llah brings the new truth that will bring the other religions to higher elevation? Islam says the same thing. Muslims acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, and see him as a prophet of God. They see Moses and Abraham all as prophets of God but Mohammed as the final prophet. It makes many references to Christianity having become corrupt since the time of Jesus. Islam will now lead Christianity and Judaism, and so on, to the religion that Allah had from the beginning of time. That is how they describe it. Why can't we talk like that?

The Catholic Church is very clear in saying there is no salvation outside of Jesus Christ's salvation, but it still holds inter-religious dialogue.

We can be very clear about True Parents' role in bringing all religions to the kingdom, but we can still acknowledge and love the other prophets. This is a very important change of culture because it allows us not to fall into the trap of relativism. You always have to keep the message clear the True Parents are the final prophet; they come as the Messiah to create the kingdom of heaven on earth.

And when we talk to everybody we tell them this is what we believe. We had a delegation of congressman from Malaysia, 95 percent of whom were Muslims. We very clearly told them what we believe -- True Parents are the Messiah, they are the Second Advent.

We told them very clearly, and not only did they enjoy it more -- we had incredible conversations about it afterward -- they actually went back to Malaysia and requested more information about the Unification Church. They want to study Divine Principle because of that.

As a community, we can be confident. Why do we have to hide what is fundamental to our faith? When we are more confident with our faith, others can know where we stand, and that's the important thing. 

First Sermon at Cheon Bok Gung

Hyung Jin Moon
February 28, 2010
Cheon Bok Gung (Heaven's Heart Temple), Seoul, Korea
Transcribed from the simultaneous English translation by Anne Inoue

Opening Prayer by Rev. Kap Young Kim -- Assistant District Pastor.

Dear Heavenly Father and True Parents, thank you very much.

Father and True Parents, we have followed your guidance and your direction, and we have finally arrived at this growth stage Cheon Bok Gung. We know that from the spiritual world, Hyo Jin Nim, Heung Jin Nim, and Young Jin Nim have also been helping a lot in preparing this temple. Also, the four great saints in the spiritual world have been assisting us with returning resurrection, coming down to assist their people on the earth. Because we have a great unity with the families of Hyung Jin Nim and Kook Jin Nim, we have been able to bring this victory here today.

True Parents came here last Sunday and dedicated this temple for the unification of your people, Heavenly Father, and for the unification of religions, and True Father spoke for a long time expressing his heart. Thank you very much, True Parents.

At the dedication ceremony, there was a Buddhist monk. His name is Monk Ingeong and he is the president of the Taego, which is one of the biggest sects in Buddhism. He watched the video about the completed temple and he had a spiritual experience. As he was watching the video, he received a vision telling him that True Parents are the living Buddha, and he told his people that True Parents are the returning living Buddha. His churches have hundreds and thousands of members and he's the head of it, and he told them True Parents is their returning Buddha, their returning savior.

We will work here supporting Hyung Jin Nim, our senior pastor, to bring 21,000 members in this growth stage Cheon Bok Gung; and we pray that the blessing of heaven will be here upon us for this first service of worship, here in Cheon Bok Gung.

We want this temple to be the place where all the citizens of Seoul, and in fact, all the citizens of the world, can meet True Parents and understand and believe that they are the Messiah, that they are the returning Christ; that they are the source of rebirth. And from there we will work for the building of Cheon Il Guk spanning out from this temple to our nation, centered on God, on True Parents and Heavenly Father.

Thank you. Aju.

Welcoming Remarks:
Yeon Ah Nim:

Good morning brothers and sisters, we want to welcome all of you to our first two o'clock service here in the Cheon Bok Gung. So, we all want to join together in one heart here in this temple, and we pray that all our brothers and sisters around the world can also feel connected to us here, one in heart, so that we can really be one family all around the world centered on this temple.

Hyung Jin Nim:

Hello, brothers and sisters, let's start by manifesting the Principle; give and take action, four position foundation; may you inherit the true love of God. Aju.

We are going to look at the Cheon Seong Gyeong, page 975. (Page 989 in the English version.)

"In all religions people are taught not to treat people carelessly. This means that you should do everything, looking, listening, talking, feeling and loving centered on God. You should not do it centered on yourself."

We have arrived at the growth stage Cheon Bok Gung! Hallelujah, we are here! Brothers and sisters, as Father said, we have to work centered on God. We cannot work centered on ourselves. Brothers and sisters, we are not going to work centered on ourselves, are we? We are going to work centered on God, and on our faith in True Parents. We are going to declare our faith in True Parents. We are going to proclaim who True Parents are, and we can bring victory. Let's stand up, please, and we'll do the Pledge, number one.

(Pledge spoken in Korean)

Meditation:

Now let's prepare our minds and our bodies. With our bodies, start by reaching down for the energy of the earth, the universal prime force from the earth, pull it up from the earth, breathe in, and stretch your body very high, breathe out. Now breathing in, we make the give and take action, four position foundation, breathe out as you go up, and gather together. "May you inherit", breathe in; as we breathe out, "the true love of God." One more time, bring your hands down to the earth, in bringing in the universal prime energy, breathe in, reach up to the heavens, breathing out. Now give and take action, breathe in four position foundation, breathe out. Breathing in, "May I inherit"; breathing out, "the true love of God." Aju.

Please sit down now. We'll prepare our minds with our meditation exercise. Sit up near the front of your seats so that you can sit up straight. Close your eyes, and imagine that you are not in this church, but that we are in a beautiful forest. Winter is all finished, and in the forest we can see the signs that spring is beginning to start again. If we look at the sky, we can see a bright, wide open, beautiful sky. And if we look down at the ground, we can see the sprouts of new flowers sticking up from among the dry leaves. In this soft earth that is ready to burst into life, we can feel the Garden of Eden. If we look ahead, we can see a beautiful, calm stream, with bubbling water.

We go to the stream; stand in front of the stream, we listen to the beautiful, peaceful sound of the water. We feel the warm sunlight on our face, the beautiful sunlight, and the beautiful stream of water, and we receive the energy from them. As we stay there, we feel the energy of the spring bursting into life, all through our bodies. We breathe in the energy of this new life, the new life of springtime. Breathe it deeply into our bodies, and we have new life. We feel very grateful for this life. We breathe in the energy of life again. Thank You that my family is alive, breathing out, thank You. Breathing in one more time, my nation is alive, and breathing out, thank You. Finally we breathe in one more time, our world is alive, and we breathe out again, thank You, Heavenly Father.

True Parents and Heavenly Father have given us the blessed life, and through that blessed life, we can feel the true love of God, we can feel the heart of our cosmic True Parents, our couple, our family, our race, our nation, of this whole world, we want this whole world to receive great blessings.

We are going to manifest the Principle one more time. Give and take action, four position foundation, may I inherit the true love of God. Aju.

Thank you, brothers and sisters, now is our time for prayer. We are going to listen to the beautiful music, and we are going to pray in our hearts, especially at this time we will pray by ourselves, but also all of our ministers will go around through the congregation to pray with you. If you would like to pray with one of our ministers, please find the ministers and women, and you can pray with them; and we will pray in unison. If you want to pray with Rev. Brazil, look for him.

(Unison Prayer)

Let's all stand up now, brothers and sisters. We have reached a new age, and a new temple; let's have a new mind. So turn to the person next to you with a new mind, and give them a hug. We have all come to our new temple; now let's join in song, and offer our thanks to Heavenly Father and True Parents.

True Parents' Declaration:

These are my True Parents, the Eternal King and Queen of Peace, and liberator of God's heart. They have saved me from my past, they have blessed my future, and they give me true love, forgiveness, and happiness today and I choose to receive it. My mind is awake. My heart is open wide, and from this moment, I change forever. In my name I pray. Aju.

Main Sermon by Hyung Jin Nim:

Today, brothers and sisters, I am going to talk about the providence of returning resurrection. First of all, let's take a look at our World Scriptures. We'll start with the Judeo-Christian Psalm 91, Verses 11-12.

"For He will give His angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will hold you up, lest you dash your foot upon the stone."

Aju.

Now we'll take a look at Taoism; this is from The Track of the Quiet Way.

"Everything that is evil, you must refrain from doing; and all good things you do. In this way you will be released forever from the influence of evil stars, and always be encompassed by good guardian angels."

Aju.

From Islam, we will look at Chapter 425 of the Koran.

"The angels celebrate the praises of their Lord, and pray for forgiveness for all on this earth."

Now, from True Parents, we are going to look in Chapter 5 of the Divine Principle about Returning Resurrection.

"As it is written, in the Last Days all religions, which have the same fundamental goal, will be gathered together gradually in the Christian spirit culture. So the mission of Christianity is not only for Christianity, but it is a religion that will have the mission to fulfill God's will by uniting all religions. And those in the spirit world who have had faith in those religions will come back to the earth to support the unity of religions in the Last Days."

Brothers and sisters, we have arrived here at the growth stage Cheon Bok Gung. And we are going to give everyone a very proud Unificationist attitude. We are very proud to be Unificationists. Think about it, brothers and sisters. When did we actually imagine that we could be in a temple like this? That we could have such a worship service? When did you sit down and think that we would be sitting in a place like this? Everywhere that I look in this building, in this place, I am just so moved. I personally have had my deepest experience praying in the first floor, in the Devotion Room, which has all the major saints from the major religions. We are honoring all of them together in that Devotion Room, and we have their pictures there, and we can offer them our respect.

I myself have been honoring the saints for many years, and it is very moving to me that I can have a place to offer my gratitude and prayer to these saints here in our Temple. Of course, from now on, we have to think about the Completed Cheon Bok Gung, which we are going to accomplish next. Centered on True Parents and our Declaration of True Parents, we will proclaim who they are, that they are our Messiah, that they are the returning Lord of the Second Advent. We will proclaim this, and based on that, miracles will start to happen with the Returning Resurrection.

The people in the spirit world will hear our declarations, and they will come down, and they will help their descendants, and they will help those with a similar spirit, to find us. And they will move together with us, and they will work together with us, and we will be able to, first of all, complete our 21,000 membership goal for this temple, with their help.

I would like to give you a quote from the Scriptures. Today we are looking at the Book of Acts [Chapter 5], Verses 17-21.

"But the High Priest rose up, and all who were with him, that is the party of Sadducees, they were filled with jealousy. They arrested the Apostles, and put them in prison. But at night, one of the Lord's angels opened the prison doors, and let them out, and said to them, 'Go and stand in the Temple, and speak to the people all the words of this life.' And when they heard this, they entered the Temple at day break, and they taught."

So, from this story we can see that the Angel of the Lord will help those who are really doing the Lord's work. We can see this in the Book of Acts. During the Book of Acts, which was the time after the resurrection of Jesus, the Apostles traveled to every city, declared Jesus, declared his resurrection, declared who he was and spoke to the people about why they should join and follow Jesus and receive the grace of the resurrection.

The Jewish Sadducees were not happy about this. They persecuted the Apostles. They jeered at the Apostles. It was difficult, but the Apostles were preaching the truth. They were preaching the fact of Jesus' resurrection, and Jesus' Messiahship, and therefore, they had spiritual protection. The spirit world came down to them. The spirit world helped them. In this story, for example, the angels came and physically opened the prison door and let them out; and as they let them out, they gave them directions to preach the gospel. We, too, can feel the same thing. From this story, we can learn that if we declare the Messiah we will not be working with our own power alone. We will receive spiritual help and be able to accomplish miracles.

I have another story I would like to tell you. This is in the Muslim gospels. One day Mohammad went out to Mt. Hira, an important mountain near Mecca. He was going up the mountain, and he was sleepy, so he took a rest. He took a nap on the way up the mountain, and during his sleep he received a revelation. The Angel Gabriel came to him in his dream, and Gabriel showed him a book of scripture and told him to read it. Mohammed said, "I can't read this", but the Angel said, "Read it. Read it." Mohammed said, "I can't read it. I can't read it." They went back and forth a few times. Mohammed kept saying, "I can't read it." The Angel said, "Read it. Read it."

Finally, he opened the book. He looked at it, and it was amazing. He couldn't understand what was written there, but the spirits in the spirit world came into his mind and in his heart, and told him what to say. He could understand with the assistance of the spirit world; he could read the book, which he could not read before. He was very surprised by this. So, waking up after this dream, he thought, "What if this dream came from evil spirits? What if I received evil spirits in my heart? Then I could not do the work of God. What am I going to do? How do I know which spirits these are?"

He saw somebody on the way up the mountain; it was his wife's relative. And the man that he met said, "Please, come back down the mountain very quickly, come back to your wife, Kadijah. He went to his wife Kadijah, and his wife's face was so dark. "What's going on? Why do you look so bad?" Mohammad told her about his dream, "I met the Angel Gabriel in my dream, and he made me read this book, and I'm worried. What if this is an evil spirit? I'm worried about this."

His wife said to him, "You received a true revelation. Don't worry; this is a true revelation. It is not an evil spirit; it was the Angel Gabriel, so don't worry. The fact that you received visitation from spirits is not a sign of evil. The good spirits are mobilized in the spirit world to come and help you. The Angel Gabriel came to help you." His wife confirmed, "When I hear this prophecy dream that you had, I know that you are going to be a great man in our country. You are going to lead our country to greatness. You are going to be a great spiritual leader for our country. This is the kind of dream that you have received." His wife told him this.

For us too, at this time as we enter this Cheon Bok Gung, in this age, we have the same possibility to receive spiritual help.

We had a lot of celebrations for Father's birthday recently, and at one of these dinners we had sixteen members of the Malaysian Parliament attending. Kook Jin Nim and I had dinner with these sixteen Congressmen. Both Kook Jin and I had an opportunity to speak about True Father and his mission as the Messiah. At that dinner we told them, "These True Parents are the Messiah, the Second Christ, and they have come to save all mankind."

So, our staff was very worried when they heard that we were saying things like this to our Muslim guests. "These people are not going to understand; they are going to be upset. Don't you think they are going to think this is strange?" But, on the contrary, these people were so glad that they had come here to Korea to meet True Parents, and to find out who True Parents were. They were very happy that they had found out who True Parents were. Now they know what the Unification Church is; they know who True Parents are; and because we said so strongly who we are, and who the True Parents are these people had a very moving experience. They came over and they told us, "Oh thank you so much for explaining to us. Thank you so much for giving us such a clear message. Thank you for telling us who this man really is. We really want to know more about what is true love. We want to know more about what is the Divine Principle. We want to know more about what is the Unification Church. We didn't know any of this before."

I was so happy that they were inspired that day, but actually, it didn't stop there. They went back to Malaysia, and when they arrived there, they contacted the church in Malaysia and asked for books. They asked for Divine Principle books. They asked for more information about True Parents. This is an experience of Returning Resurrection.

This means that the Muslims in spirit world came to speak to those Malaysian men. We know that the work that we are doing at this time is not ourselves working alone. We have the spiritual world working with us.

Let's read from the Bible one more time. Again, the Book of Acts. This time, Chapter 8, Verses 26-29.

"An Angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Rise, and go to the South, to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' This is a desert road. He rose up and he went there; and behold, he saw an Ethiopian eunuch, a minister of Candice, the Queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all of her treasures. He had come to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning, seated in his chariot. He was reading the Prophet Isaiah. And the spirit said to Philip, 'Go up and join this chariot.'"

In this story, we can see again that the spirit world is speaking to Philip. The Apostle Philip received a message from a spirit. Philip was in Samaria. He was preaching and testifying to Jesus in Samaria, and he suddenly had a feeling. He saw an angel from the spiritual world. The angel told him, "Go to this road. It goes down to Jerusalem." There is nothing on that road. It is just an empty road, but he went there, and amazingly, he met this Ethiopian. Not just any Ethiopian, but a very important Ethiopian, the minister who is in charge of all the Queen's treasures. Philip came witnessing to Jesus, and he met this man, this Ethiopian, and Philip told him about Jesus. He said, "I'm not sure what you're talking about; please tell me more." So they went together, and Philip explained, "Jesus has been crucified and has resurrected; and Jesus is bringing us new life." The Apostle Philip explained this to this minister right there on the road. And they came along this road to a well, and Philip baptized this Ethiopian, and he became of the family of Christ right there on the road, following the direction of the spirit.

Just like that, if we proclaim True Parents, if we believe in our True Parents fully in our hearts, and we declare them to the world as the Second Advent, as the returning Lord, as the Messiah, if we explain the Seven Deaths and Resurrections, and explain what we are doing, if we explain how True Parents have died over and over again in order to save mankind, in order to fulfill God's Will, in order to restore to this world to God's Sovereignty, if we proclaim this, we will not be working alone, but the spirit world will bring people here, and amazing things will happen!

During Father's celebration this time, there were so many things going on. I was late for another event, I was supposed to be leaving. I had already spoken to the guests. While I was speaking, one of the guests who was there had a spiritual experience where her spiritual eyes were opened, and she really saw True Parents with her spiritual eyes while I was speaking. She came up to me afterwards, and thanked me because it was such an amazing experience that she had.

As I was finished with my speech, I was planning to go to the next place for my next speech, but a spirit told me, "No, you cannot go yet. You have to stay longer, there is somebody here that is prepared and has to meet you before you leave, so please stay."

I came to the front door and started saying, "Thank you for coming" to all the guests and there was one black minister with a big church in Canada who came to me. He came to me at the end of the event, on my way out and he said, "I'm so happy that you told me who True Parents are, I'm going to go teach my whole congregation about it!" This kind of thing is happening, brothers and sisters, believe me. This is Returning Resurrection.

Then I shook the hands of another person, this person is from Lebanon. She's from the Islam faith. She was crying and crying because she had such an amazing experience when I talked about the Seven Deaths and Resurrections. She heard that, and she said she had left her body, had gone up to the sky, while she was hearing me, and her spiritual eyes opened. She saw True Parents and understood deeply who they are. She just started crying. She thanked God, "Thank you, God, for giving this understanding today. I didn't know this person was the Messiah. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for telling me." This is, again, Returning Resurrection. This is people in the spirit world who understand, who are coming down and helping us. The Four Great Saints, Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, they are all helping us.

About a month ago, I had lunch with the president of the publishing company who published True Father's book. I listened to her story about publishing this book, and I knew she's really working for the Will of God. When she agreed to take True Father's project, she had so much resistance from the Christian world, from her staff, lots of people opposed her. But she said, "No matter what, I'm going to publish this book!" She was explaining to me some of the difficulties she went through in order to publish this book.

For example, one of her head editors, who had been with her for 15 years, said, "If you publish this book, I'm going to quit! You made this great company, why do you want to mess it up by publishing this book about this guy? I'm a Christian, I cannot be in a company that advocates the work of Rev. Sun Myung Moon. I cannot stay here, I have to go." So her editor quit.

Then, she had another project, a very big contract, and this writer came to her and said, "If you publish Rev. Moon's autobiography, I'm going to take away my project from you. I cannot let my books be published by the same people who published Rev. Moon's autobiography." So she said, "OK" and she lost that big contract. She had so many difficulties.

She's a person who prays every day. She does Buddhist meditation practices every morning. She was worried that the Christians would come and demonstrate in front of her business, that there would be violent demonstrations if she took this project. But one morning, while she was praying and meditating, Buddha himself came to her in a vision and said to her, "You must publish Rev. Moon's autobiography. True Parents have received many difficulties from Korea, but you can repay that debt by publishing this book! So, publish the book!" After she had that experience, she had lots of energy. She was going to go on, no matter who was going to oppose her. She was ready to publish this book, no matter who quit, no matter who canceled. So, she did it, she published it, and it has become a bestseller. Now they are even selling Father's autobiography at Christian bookstores! These kinds of resurrection miracles are happening.

Now, we are praying to all the Great Saints downstairs in our prayer room, and this is helping us to receive assistance from people in the spirit world who come from other religions: the Buddhists, the Confucianists. Because we are respecting all those religions, those from spirit world who come from those religions can help us. People are receiving dreams about Jesus, about Buddha, about Confucius. This is an age of miracles! Do you believe? Please believe!

True Parents came here last Sunday for the dedication of the temple and they gave us great blessings here. Because True Parents came and opened the doors of heaven, heaven's blessings are pouring down on us now! We can feel this blessing from heaven, centering on the Four Great Saints and the spirit world, we can have surprising experiences now, miracles, spiritual experiences that will support us! After opening the doors to this new age, spiritual things are happening. One member was praying downstairs, and she saw the saints coming, she saw the spirit world coming to support. I also had a dream of Jesus, a few days ago. Jesus was wearing white clothes and he had the Apostles with him, and he came and said, "I'm going to help you proclaiming Father as the Messiah! We're all going to help you now!" Miracles are happening.

When we had the dedication ceremony here for the new temple, True Parents were explaining what is true love, and there was an explanation about what the completed temple is going to be like. So True Parents gave us a big homework of what we have to accomplish when we make the perfected temple, a lot of things have to be included in that temple. One of the most important things that True Parents told us that when we build the completed temple, it has to be huge, but not only for the Unification Church. There is also going to be a huge Buddhist temple, a Catholic church, an Islamic mosque. Inside the Cheon Bok Gung we are going to have a worship center for each of those religions. We'll all live together and worship together in that building, so that all people in the world will have a reason to come and visit this temple, and experience how we can unite all the religions together in this temple.

Lots of VIPs came last Sunday. We've gotten many emails from the guests that were here last Sunday. For example:

"I have seen Rev. Moon doing so many kinds of peace activities and so many ways of trying to make peace, but I didn't understand how they were related to each other. But now, since I heard the explanation of the Perfected Cheon Bok Gung, I understand all the things he's doing and how they come together, and how it's going to save this world, and I'm going to help in every way that I possibly can!"

Brothers and sisters, now we're in the growth stage temple. We're going to make our victory, we're going to gather 210,000 members, but we cannot do this by ourselves, we cannot do this by our own power. We need this Returning Resurrection, we need the spirits and saints in the spirit world. Not only from our families, but also from Christianity, from Buddhism, from Islam, all the major religions, saints and spirits will have to come and help us if we are to bring victory, and they will do it! Do you believe that? They will do it!

At the dedication ceremony, there was a Buddhist monk. His name is Monk Ingeong and he is the president of the Taego, which is one of the biggest sects in Buddhism. He watched the video about the completed temple and he had a spiritual experience. As he was watching the video, he received a vision telling him that True Parents are the living Buddha, and he told his people that True Parents are the returning living Buddha. His churches have hundreds and thousands of members and he's the head of it, and he told them True Parents is their returning Buddha, their returning savior.

There were lots of VIPs last Sunday, they visited all around the temple, they saw the prayer room. No matter what kind of churches they visited, they had never seen all religions' saints are working together in any church. But True Parents gave us strong directions, we must work together with these four saints, and that is giving us great power at this time.

Let's look at True Parents words (Book 134 page10).

"Good spirits are fighting their way to advance progress toward God's original world; evil spirits are struggling to block the way. The evil spirit world and the evil physical world are in constant communication. Good spirits are the spirits of people who are opposed and persecuted when they lived in the sinful world. These are the religious believers."

These are the people who make the returning resurrection happen.

Closing Prayer by Rev. Hyung Jin Nim:

Let's finish up with a prayer. Close your eyes, raise your hands and reach up to God, feel God's grace.

Dear Heavenly Father, victorious True Parents, we thank You. We offer our gratitude that we have arrived at the growth stage temple, with these surprising and amazing things that are happening, that we have the great opportunity to worship our True Parents, to worship Heavenly Father. Thank You. We had many difficult times during the last thirty years. There are many things we wanted to do but we couldn't accomplish in the past thirty years. There were times when we felt no hope, but, Heavenly Father, You have supported us, You have given us revelation and understanding of True Parents are, and moreover, what they've done for us.

We know what kind of true love they have offered for us. We know what kind of course they've gone through to save us, to rescue us. Now we have the saints from the spiritual world supporting us, and we are here in this Cheon Bok Gung. Heavenly Father, please receive our prayers, receive our worship. Let all our brothers and sisters here, centering on True Parents, centering on You, Heavenly Father, let us all become proud Unification members, one in heart, who can work together with these Returning Resurrection miracles. Please give us spiritual miracles, and give us Your support. We are heading towards the Completion Cheon Bok Gung. In front of the whole world, we are going to establish and accomplish Cheon Il Guk. In front of the whole world, we're going to show it to them with Your help, Heavenly Father.

We thank You for this, Heavenly Father.

We offer this in the name of our Blessed families and in the Blessed Name of our True Parents, together with the Four Great Saints, we report in prayer. Aju.

Notes:

Acts, chapter 5

1: But a man named Anani'as with his wife Sapphi'ra sold a piece of property,

2: and with his wife's knowledge he kept back some of the proceeds, and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles' feet.

3: But Peter said, "Anani'as, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land?

4: While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God."

5: When Anani'as heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear came upon all who heard of it.

6: The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.

7: After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

8: And Peter said to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for so much." And she said, "Yes, for so much."

9: But Peter said to her, "How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Hark, the feet of those that have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out."

10: Immediately she fell down at his feet and died. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

11: And great fear came upon the whole church, and upon all who heard of these things.

12: Now many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico.

13: None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high honor.

14: And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women,

15: so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and pallets, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them.

16: The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

17: But the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is, the party of the Sad'ducees, and filled with jealousy

18: they arrested the apostles and put them in the common prison.

19: But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said,

20: "Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life."

21: And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and taught. Now the high priest came and those who were with him and called together the council and all the senate of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

22: But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, and they returned and reported,

23: "We found the prison securely locked and the sentries standing at the doors, but when we opened it we found no one inside."

24: Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were much perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to.

25: And some one came and told them, "The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people."

26: Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

27: And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them,

28: saying, "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us."

29: But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men.

30: The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.

31: God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

32: And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."

33: When they heard this they were enraged and wanted to kill them.

34: But a Pharisee in the council named Gama'li-el, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a while.

35: And he said to them, "Men of Israel, take care what you do with these men.

36: For before these days Theu'das arose, giving himself out to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was slain and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.

37: After him Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered.

38: So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail;

39: but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!"

40: So they took his advice, and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

41: Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

42: And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

Acts, chapter 8

1: And Saul was consenting to his death. And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Sama'ria, except the apostles.

2: Devout men buried Stephen, and made great lamentation over him.

3: But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

4: Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

5: Philip went down to a city of Sama'ria, and proclaimed to them the Christ.

6: And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs which he did.

7: For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice; and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

8: So there was much joy in that city.

9: But there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the nation of Sama'ria, saying that he himself was somebody great.

10: They all gave heed to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, "This man is that power of God which is called Great."

11: And they gave heed to him, because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.

12: But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

13: Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

14: Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Sama'ria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John,

15: who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit;

16: for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

17: Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

18: Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money,

19: saying, "Give me also this power, that any one on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit."

20: But Peter said to him, "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!

21: You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.

22: Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

23: For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity."

24: And Simon answered, "Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me."

25: Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

26: But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is a desert road.

27: And he rose and went. And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of the Can'dace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship

28: and was returning; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

29: And the Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and join this chariot."

30: So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"

31: And he said, "How can I, unless some one guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

32: Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this: "As a sheep led to the slaughter
or a lamb before its shearer is dumb,
so he opens not his mouth.

33: In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken up from the earth."

34: And the eunuch said to Philip, "About whom, pray, does the prophet say this, about himself or about some one else?"

35: Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus.

36: And as they went along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "See, here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?"

38: And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

39: And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

40: But Philip was found at Azo'tus, and passing on he preached the gospel to all the towns till he came to Caesare'a.