Administrative head of Jogye Buddhism visits Unification Church - Hyung Jin Moon

Kim Hyung Ju
June 11, 2010
Dharma.net

The Ven. Jaseung, administrative head of Korea's largest Buddhist order, visited the world headquarters church of Unficationism.

At around 11 a.m. on June 11, Ven. Jaseung visited the world headquarters church located in Hang-gang-ro, Yongsan Gu, Seoul, and dialogued with International President Hyung Jin Moon. Ven. Jaseung received briefings from persons related to the World Headquarters Church on the Tongil Group and other matters. Later, the two men shared a lunch.

The visit by Ven. Jaseung came in response to invitations by International President Moon when he visited the administrative offices on two occasions. Ven. Jaseung was accompanied on his visit by social affairs director Ven. Hyegyung, librarian Ven. Kyongwoo, and vice president Ahn-shik Son of the central lay association. 

The Tears of True Father - Chapters 1 - 4

The Tears of True Father - Chapters 1 - 4

The Need To Save People

Hyung Jin Moon
June 2010

The only way you can come to True Parents is if you acknowledge that you have original sin, that you are a sinner with original sin, hereditary sin, collective sin and individual sin. You have to admit that you are imperfect, that you have sin. If you don't admit you have sin and think you are flawless, you can't be saved by True Parents. You think you don't need them. But the reason we need a savior is because you have sin. You hear this from Christians all the time, and they are right about that. You must acknowledge it.

Actually, it is one of the commonest features of Christian rhetoric. We used to have it in the early days; but we lost a lot of it. We became more liberalized and became afraid to talk about sin. The blessed children too; I, too. I was always uncomfortable talking about sin. I think that because the second generation was less aware, having no original sin.... Yet if we're a member of a group that does something bad, we have collective sin. We have hereditary sin -- our ancestors did had things too. We also have personal sins that have accumulated over time. This rhetoric has gone out the window in an effort to tell blessed kids they are perfect, that they are God's greatest blessing for humanity. Well, yes, in one sense they are, but if you get arrogant about it, you're never going to think you need True Parents.

I am not saying it's only a blessed child issue, I'm saying it's anybody. If you don't acknowledge you have sin, if you don't repent, you won't feel you need a savior. To connect with the savior, you need to repent, be forgiven, be blessed and be given new life and a new lineage. But that only comes through repentance. The idea of repentance is very much interwoven with Jeong Seong. We must constantly repent in front of Heaven. Christians talk about this all the time: "You're a sinner; you're unworthy to go before the throne of God. Even if we live perfectly, we can never go before the throne of God."

It's because of God's love for us that God sacrificed his son Jesus for us to be able to go to God. This is evidence of the love of Christ. And I never really felt that or internalized it. I never connected with it. It was only after my coming to an awareness of the seven deaths and resurrections that I connected with it and realized, "Wow, this is so powerful!" And this is really the only way you can discover True Parents as your lord and savior.

I knew you had to be humble, but humility is more an admirable character trait. You have to acknowledge that even though you may have no original sin you are still a sinner and that it is through the grace and love of God, and through the deaths that True Parents themselves had to endure for you, that you can stand before the eighth level of God's kingdom. I had never felt that. This not only pertains to us, but to our families, our clans and so forth. It puts the responsibility on us to accept, believe and follow. I think that was very much alive in the early church.

Think about it. The more we water that down, the more faith weakens; the more the sense of developing the salvific mind, the savior's mind, diminishes. Unless you see people as dying or doomed and destined for remoteness from God's love for eternity and how much pain that entails.... In the spirit world, God's love is like the air. If you are out of that realm, you are suffocating.

People have sinned, and because God is good He will have nothing to do with sin, His goodness is such that evil is naturally repelled. God does not have to judge you.

We are supposed be mini-messiahs. A messiah is supposed to save people. We can't save people; we don't have that authority. But we can bring people to the Messiah, who can save people. But if we lose the rhetoric of sin, that we need grace and forgiveness, we're not going to feel it's imperative to save people.

At the beginning of my own ministry, I was uncomfortable using this language. I thought it was too judgmental and too overbearing. But after the vision of the seven deaths and resurrections and the eighth stage of perfection, I realized that I was teaching members self help and not getting into God's realm of love and into heaven. I don't know if I could continue my ministry like that, because it more soothes the soul than instills the truth of the spirit world into the soul. 

Love Conquers All

Hyung Jin Moon
May 30, 2010
Cheon Bok Gung
Yongsan, Seoul Korea

Welcoming Remarks:
Yeon-ah nim:

Good afternoon brothers and sisters. (Good afternoon!) Good afternoon. It is so great to see you all. Welcome to the headquarters of the Unification Church. Even though as a human being we are weak, within Heavenly Father and True Parents' love we can be strong. Today we sincerely hope and pray that we can be proud sons and daughters of Heavenly Father and True Parents with their true love. Aju.

Hyung-jin nim:

Good afternoon brothers and sisters. Let's manifest the Principle first. Give and receive action; four position foundation; may I inherit the True love of God. Aju.

Today is Cheon Seong Gyeong 3:16, and Father speaks. He says,

"The core of the universe is human, the root of life is love and the root of love is God."

When we as Unificationists say Aju, that is composed of two Chinese characters. As you know 'amen' was the traditional way of affirming a particular prayer or statement, and it means 'truth' and 'so be it.' Truly, it is an affirmation of what has been said. But True Father has given us Aju, which means in the Chinese characters, the Chinese character 'me' or 'myself' or 'my,' and the second character juinchuja, which is 'Lord.' So here, what we can understand is that whenever we say 'Aju' as Unificationists, what we are doing is praising the Lord. We are saying, "My Lord!" See, "Aju!" That is what we are saying.

So in the Korean congregation, the services, we have been doing a very fun exercise and training. What we usually do is say, "Hallelujah, amen," -- hallelujah is from the Hebrew which means 'praise God' -- "Na-e junim!" Na-e junim means 'my Lord.' "We praise you," this kind of feeling is inside there. And then we say "Aju."

So when I say "na-e junim," you guys say, "Aju." Ready? Na-e junim! (Aju!). Hey, you did it. See how wonderful that was? But whenever we do that we are actually affirming God. We are thanking him and lifting up our praise to him. So we don't just say 'truth' and 'so be it.' Every time we feel the grace of God, we lift up our praises to heaven and return the glory back to Almighty God. Na-e junim! (Aju!) Oh yes! You guys learn very quickly!

Brothers and sisters, now we are going to meet one of our wonderful brothers and one of our families. As True Parents said, the core of human beings is life, the core of life is love, and the root of love is God. And here we can truly feel the pulse of God's life and love in the wonderful families who really make a difference in our community. This is a wonderful family that we have known from Ma-Po Church. Just a tremendous family of faith; wonderful children. So through this video we are going to have a chance to meet Jo Hyeon-hwan and Kim Sam-sook's family. Let's take a look at this video.

Video:

Let's hear the story of true love of the family of Jo Hyeon-hwan and Kim Sam-sook who apparently drove through the night in a cold briquette delivery van to come to receive the Blessing. "I am a proud member of the Unification Church." This is Chun Wan Li, Chung Pyung Lake area where we have a lot of land and foundation. Mr. Jo is a member who is in charge of landscaping, construction work, and road maintenance and so forth on this land.

"If there is anything to boast about, my church life is fulfilling. When I was small I was made to go to Sunday Service without fail. We were woken up for five o'clock pledge and Chung Sung (holy songs), complete with holy robes. We kept a 21-day or, if longer, a 40-day condition of separation before we gave birth to our second generation, to our children. The 95% of responsibility from heaven is the 95% True Parents granted to us, but the remaining 5% Jeong Seong, or investment, has to be offered by the Blessed family. When that Jeong Seong becomes 100% you can conceive and give birth. But if you think vaguely about it like those in the outside world, I believe it may be more difficult to have children.

"We hear things like, 'First generation parents may have gone through many hardships but I don't want to do that.' We hear these things a lot. But our second generation should understand what the parents have gone through. The second generation work less than their parents. In order for them to go the way of faith clearly, the first generation parents really went through much suffering. The hope is that the second generation can grow daily for the sake of the providence."

This is Mrs. Jo, his wife. She is asked about donating for the sake of the construction of Cheon Bok Gung. She says, "I think we have to find a way, rather than just saying there is no way. After working until 6 pm I went straight to my job until midnight. That income was only 400,000 won but I put it in a dedicated account which people kept for us. 'Heavenly Father, just give me a word,' I thought, and He said to me, 'Sam-sook, do your best, I love you.' With that I was able to move on. With that kind of heart I kept working. But once I was sick for ten or fifteen days, and was laid up in bed. I became so worried, I didn't know what to do. It was difficult to work during the day -- even to eat and to live was difficult. But somehow I gathered my strength and started working on another job. There, I began to earn much more money: 1.6 to 1.7 million won. I felt God was alive at that time also. God had found me this job so that I wouldn't have to work late at night all the time.

"At these times, at such times, I am so grateful and I do my best. But for the most part, if parents tell their children about their difficulties like this, the children… But I believe that if parents and children can talk heart to heart and understand what is going on, if there is good giving and receiving, we can become one. So I spoke to the children's father first and said I would work part time jobs to make the donation to build Cheon Bok Gung. If dad was coming home late, I always waited for him. And if he came late, the children would go out and meet him on the way and bring him home. We gathered our Jeong Seong in that way and we're so grateful for this things.

"The children's father is very grateful for this giving and receiving of heart and that the children can also know the heart of their parents together. Sharing heart, sharing circumstances, sometimes my own daughter becomes like my God, for example. I ask them, 'What do you think? What do you think is good to do?' When I ask them like this, I speak with the heart of reporting to my substantial God.

"Our eldest child is very humble. 'Mom if I can get a scholarship,' he said, 'it would be good, but maybe I won't be able to, right?' And I said, 'Well, why don't you try harder and see? You always try hard with your studies.' Then one day he came and said excitedly, 'Mom!' and I said, 'What?' 'Mom I got a scholarship! Look at this! It really is one, isn't it?' So that was good, and that time at that moment I spoke to our son saying, 'You work very hard for the sake of your father and mother, and you've got a scholarship. Something this important, though, should really be offered to heaven shouldn't it?' Anyway, I decided to offer the extra money to build the perfection stage Cheon Bok Gung. And he said, 'Oh really?' Then he thought quietly about it and asked, 'Mom, then how are you going to pay my school tuition?' And I said, 'Well, think about it; don't you think a way will open up if our motivation is good?' And he said -- 'Yes, I understand.'

This is the daughter, Hyung Mi, speaking: "Based on the foundation the first generation has cultivated, our second generation will advance the Cheon Il Guk and become the center and become the owners. Each of us should have a sense of mission and become able to testify to God and to our True Parents in our own positions, and do our best."

"Brothers and sisters of the Unification family, we love you!"

Hyung-jin nim:

Let's give it up for Jo Hyeon-hwan and Kim Sam-sook's wonderful family, three children, beautiful kids -- such a wonderful family!

Hyung-jin nim's main sermon:

Brothers and sisters, today I want to talk to you about a love that conquers all. Oh, you better get ready! Yes! Na-e junim! (Aju!) Yes! You guys did it. It's better than hallelujah!

We will start with world scriptures first. Let's look first at Christianity. This is I John, chapter 4, verse 8. Let's read this together:

"He who does not love does not know God, for God is love."

Aju.

This is Buddhism today: Nagarjuna, the Precious Garland; second century philosopher -- very important figure in Buddhism -- verse 437. Let's read together:

"Compassion is a mind that savors only mercy and love for all sentient beings."

Aju.

This is Islam; this is the Koran, 39th Sura, 10th verse. Let's read together:

"Those who act kindly in this world will have kindness."

Aju.

And this is True Parents' words. This is from Cheon Sung Gyeong 3:10. And let's read this together:

"What is the holiest thing in the world? It is true love. True love begins from love. God desires the path of true love above all, not any other path."

Aju.

And for a love that conquers all we are going to look at the primary scripture, from I Corinthians 13, we'll start with verses 1 through 3. Let's start by reading this together:

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."

Aju.

Of course there is probably nobody in this room that does not know this very powerful scriptural passage. This is from Saint Paul who was writing to the Corinthians, the Corinthian church, and he makes these statements: that even if I have a faith that can move mountains, even if I have the power that I give everything to the poor, and surrender my body into martyrdom, that it is nothing if I have not love. Here we remember the fact that the Unification church exists because of true love. Let me say that again: the Unification Church exists because of true love. Na-e junim. (Aju.) Yes! Oh, you've got it. That is because God so loved the world that he sent his son as a second coming.

He sent True Parents to give us eternal life, to save us and bring us into the light as families. That doesn't mean perfect families that means families that are constantly working to build God's Kingdom. Here Paul reminds us that knowledge or spirituality or faith that can move mountains or service to the poor or even martyrdom without the sake of love is nothing. These things are meaningless without the power of love. But we often confuse what Saint Paul was talking about when he talked about love. Many times we will think that it is the common notion of love that we know in our normal lives, the love that we may feel between two lovers, or the love that we may feel for another person in a sort of emotional way in our hearts. But that is not the love that Paul is talking about. He is talking about the love of Christ. And the love of Christ is not just a warm feeling on the inside. The love of Christ is a love that lays down its life for his friends. The love of Christ is the love that Jesus exemplified on the cross. Na-e junim. (Aju.) Yes.

It is the radical love of Christ that here Paul is referring to. For us as Unificationists, this love has to go even one more step up. Where Christ said in John 15:13 that he who lays his life down for his friends, there is no greater love than that. In the life of True Parents, not only does the True Parent have to lay down his life for his friends, but for the children that have been stolen from God. The True Parents must lay their lives down over and over, and die and die and die, and descend and descend into hell, and descend over and over again, for the sake of the salvation of our souls, of our family, nation, world, cosmos etcetera. They must fulfill the indemnity conditions of all the eight stages to bring us to the gates of heaven, the promised land, the Kingdom of God. Aju.

See, this is what Paul is mentioning when he is talking about love. And it is only when we as Unificationists obtain and inherit this type of Parental True Love heart, with a desire to save the rest of the world -- as Father has called us to me mini-messiahs, to have the heart of saving the world, laying down our life even if it is at that cost, to save the children that have been taken from God -- it is only when we have that kind of heart of love do any of the good actions that we do have meaning is what Paul is telling us. If we do good deeds for recognition or praise, or good deeds for such things as rewards and plaques, then it is not the greatest good and it does not return glory to the Father, to God. The good deed is only a truly good deed when it helps others and at the same time increases God's glory and joy. When He sees we are resembling His parental heart, that is when the good becomes the greatest good.

The only way to resemble this heart is not to increase in ourselves, to make our ego even larger, to feel that we are more powerful and strong -- no, it is the opposite: To resemble this parental heart we must decrease in self and in ego, and we must let God become greater in our lives, greater in our minds and our hearts and our souls, and in our actions and all that we do.

You see, Paul says that the strongest are the weakest. We usually think that leadership requires strength -- and it does of course. Leadership, we oftentimes will think that the strongest will survive. But this is not the case. What Paul says is that the weakest become strong in Christ. In weakness we open ourselves to the power of God. We don't have this misconception that we can do everything and all things in our own ability. We don't have that delusion. We understand that we are weak and have limitations, and so thus open ourselves to God. And it is only in that opening of ourselves to God that He can make us strong and He make our inadequacies adequate. And He can make us, the meek, into the ones that inherit the Kingdom of God. You see this is what Paul was talking about.

When David was a sixteen year old boy, he was a weakling -- weak in body. But when he fought Goliath and he swung the stone with the sling, God imbued him with the power that he did not have within himself and gave him the power to slay even the greatest opponent. Na-e junim. (Aju!) Yes.

Even Abraham, when he was 75 years old, an old man, very old, no power in his physical body -- weak! Very weak! -- God asked him at that very advanced age, and strengthened his faith so that Abraham would be able to lead the children and the chosen people of God.

Joshua and Caleb had taken on the mission that Moses had taken on after the four hundred years of slavery in Egypt. Then they had to cross the desert for forty years. They were totally exhausted and wiped out, totally weak in the heat of the desert, and now they had to go into Canaan and overcome all the kings and the armies inside and enter into the promised land. On their own effort, no way could it be possible. But, see, we must remember that with God, all things are possible, my friends. For God made the Israelites, who were weak, he made them strong in faith, he made them strong in spiritual ability and he made them overcome the powerful Canaanites, the giants that ruled the promised land.

It is in this weakness that we ask God for help and that we don't pretend to be 'all that and everything in between' or that we don't need help or for Him to work through us to effectuate His will. When we do that then our God-given, individual, in-truth, incarnate nations, personalities, etcetera -- then those things can be utilized for the will of God. Na-e junim. (Aju!) Yes, you see, that is what Paul is talking about.

Let's move to the next portion of this. This is an extraordinary piece by Paul. This is verses 4-7. Let's read together:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

Aju.

Here we see one of the most powerful descriptions about the characteristics of love. Paul describes love as being patient, being kind, not envious, boastful or proud. What we can understand here is that love is not a noun. It is not a feeling inside that is just warm, and a feeling that we have towards another person. It is not that thing! Here, what we learn is that love is a verb! It's a verb! It is an action. It is a discipline. It is a training. You see? He describes what love is: that love is kind, that love is patient, that love is protecting others, trusting others, never giving up hope, persevering. He describes these as the traits of love.

And at the same time he describes what love is not. He describes love as not being full of envy, not boastful, not full of self-pride, not being rude, not being self-seeking, not being easily angered or keeping records of wrongs, on how people hurt me. That is what love is not.

Here we can understand through Saint Paul that the discipline of not delighting in evil but rejoicing with the truth is love. Not delighting in evil but rejoicing in truth! Here the evil is that which separates us from the love of God, which is sin. Sin separates us from God's love, His motion towards us. When we create sin in small areas or in great areas, that is what separates us from the power of God's love in our life.

You see, we don't delight in evil, in the sin, but we rejoice with truth: the truth that God has given His son; the truth that God has laid down His life through True Parents over and over, to save us, to save our souls, to bring us to eternal life, to bring our children to eternal life. Then we understand what rejoicing in truth can be. Many people mix this point up: when we love we don't want to delight in sin. People get this mixed up! Sin is what separates us from love.

There are people right now that are preparing -- people even in this room -- that are preparing to go to the Blessing, young people and other Unificationists, whether they be first or second generation. If I ask them, "Now you are getting ready to be Blessed, would you commit adultery on your spouse?" If I ask them that, they would surely say, "Of course not! Are you crazy? Why would you even ask me such a thing? Why would you ask me if I would commit adultery on my spouse?" And then I would ask them: "Why? Why won't you do that? Is it because it is God's command? Is it because True Parents said for me not to do it? Is it because of the law? Or is it because I love my spouse and that's why I won't want to do something that would destroy and shatter her heart?" You see what I mean: it is the power of love that allows us to overcome the power of sin. Na-e junim. (Aju!) It is not by our own power but it is by the power of the love of God, the power that gives His life for us, and the power that we can obtain when we give our life to Him.

You all know, of course, Hoon-sook nim. She is the number-one premiere ballerina in Korea. Let's give it up for her one time -- number-one premiere ballerina in Korea! (Applause) We call her the 'famous' sister-in-law. She is really wonderful. Everybody recognizes her on the street. I can't go anywhere with her. She's really wonderful. She said one time, she was having an interview with a media outlet, a newspaper, and this interviewer was doubting her greatly, and he didn't like our church so much. So, he asked her in a very sarcastic way, he said, "So, you don't have a lover?" because he knew she had a spiritual marriage. "So, you don't date?" he asked her in this very sarcastic tone. And being the person she is, always graceful and elegant, she did not respond by slapping him in the face. She should have! But she did not do that. She said, "You know what, I'm going to tell you something. I love my husband. I love my husband. And I believe this time and this life here is just a long engagement, and when I meet him on the other side, I'm going to live with him forever. That is why I don't need to answer such a question." Let's give it up for Hoon-sook nim! (Applause) Oh, I'm making everybody cry with that! Oh, my goodness.

This is the same with God. So many people receive God's forgiveness and God's grace. But then they continue to commit the same sins that they have always done. "Oh, God will forgive me again." You see, when somebody does that, because we understand that love is an action, when someone acts in such a way, we understand that such a person does not love God. Because if you really even loved your spouse you wouldn't cheat on them, if you loved your spouse, you would treat them with kindness and patience. It is the same way with God. By our actions we show whether or not we love Him or not. Because love is not a noun; it is a verb. Na-e junim. (Aju!) Yes.

I heard a story about a farmer who was raising cattle, cows, and there was this one baby calf who was injured, his leg was injured. So he could not walk, and he had to walk about 500 meters to get to the barn. So, the cow was incapacitated and was on the ground, and the farmer saw him, and he picked him up… and the cow would not have any of it! The cow did not like the fact that he was being lifted two meters above the ground while his leg was in pain, so the cow started doing all sorts of moving and kicking and mooing and screaming -- and all sorts of things. But the farmer knew he had to bring him to the barn so that he could fix him up and get him back to health. So he held him very tight and continued to press forward.

But all of a sudden he felt a very warm stream of water -- or something -- coming down his body. And he looked at his white shirt, and now it was a yellow shirt! Of course now he is sweating, he has to pick up this 200 pound cow and walk the 500 meters, so he is getting an enormous workout, sweating, plus he got all the urine on top of him: that is not a delightful scenario.

So the farmer gets to the barn. He puts the cow down. He bandages the leg, puts the brace on, even washes the cow -- washes the cow first. He does not go into the barn and say, "Boy, I smell terrible! Cow, you wait here with your injured leg and I'm going to come back after I take a shower." He first puts the cow down, bandages him up, puts the braces on -- and washes the cow first, even though he's soaking in cow pee-pee! He washes the cow first, and then after that he goes to wash himself. The farmer goes to the bathtub -- which is an old-style bathtub, where you had to fill it with water, to get a bucket and pour it in -- but there's no soap! He has no soap! So, he is sitting in the bathtub, trying to rinse himself, but the more he rinses himself the more the water becomes yellow. So the more he cleans himself the dirtier he becomes! So the farmer has to get out, empty the tub, fill it up with water, while he is all messy. And he has to get in there and try to rinse off again, and then again and again -- multiple times!

This farmer realized on that day -- God spoke to him on that day; God spoke to him on that day when he was in the urine in the bathtub -- he realized that God is just like him, the farmer; that God does everything in His power to save us who we are injured, who cannot make it on our own power back home, back to the Kingdom. And God will hold us, and even though we kick and squirm and scream, God holds us tight, so that we can get back home. And when we sin -- the farmer realized -- when we sin, we are making God's white shirt yellow. When we sin, we are defiling Him. We are not showing our gratitude towards Him. We are defiling Him. And God, of course, in His grace, will continue to try to carry us home, will put us down, bandage up our leg, put a brace on and wash us first, even though He is all defiled. And He will go and rinse himself over and over. This is what the farmer realized: that this is God's love; that when we sin we do what the cow did to the farmer.

And so it is out of love that we do not sin. Because we are greater in intellect and in emotion and in heartistic quality than a cow! So it is out of love for 'the farmer,' love for God, who saved us who are injured, it is out of our love that we don't defile him, we don't commit adultery against Him. It is the love that allows us to overcome the chains of sin.

Brothers and sisters, let's end with the last part of this wonderful passage. This is verse 8-10. Let's read together:

"Love never fails. But where there are prophecies they will cease; where there are tongues they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears." … "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

(Verse 13) One more time: the greatest of these is? (Love!) Yes.

What does Paul say to us here? He says that love never fails. What is another way to say that? Love always wins. I will say that again. Love always wins! Na-e junim. (Aju!) Love always wins, because love doesn't take a short-cut. It doesn't take the short-cut route. It may take months, and years and even decades, it may take your whole lifetime to love somebody that is hard to love. But love never fails. He says 'never fails.' That means it always wins in the end.

All things, like prophesying or speaking in tongues or knowledge, pass away. They become irrelevant, Paul says, because when perfection comes the imperfect disappears. When the returning Christ comes, there will be no need for imperfect prophecy or speaking in tongues or imperfect knowledge.

We will have the ideal of perfection, the heart of God's essence, the true parental heart. A love that is so powerful that it can overcome evil and sin and death over and over and again, and it can rise and resurrect over and over, even though it sacrifices itself to die and die. A love that is so powerful that neither the grave nor the greatest evil can overcome it. For love never fails and always prospers.

Out of faith in God, out of hoping for God, and loving God, Paul clearly says which is the greatest. Out of having faith in God, hoping for God, and loving God the greatest of these three is loving God. Because it is exactly that love -- in which he had to sacrifice his life for us so that we may have eternal life -- it is precisely that love that saves us and it is that love that is the greatest when we return it back to the glory of God.

Jesus, through his powerful exemplification of love, changed the course of history, moved the course of history from bounding to the law to the overflowing of law into love and grace. And Jesus' love has changed the course of the past 2000 years of history.

Nobody on this globe does not know the name of Jesus Christ. And nobody does not know about the love that Jesus had. Nobody does not know about the love that Jesus had. Jesus' love, in that small Mediterranean city -- from Nazareth -- has changed the world; the power of his love, the love which he defined as the greatest love, which is the love that will lay down its life for its friends.

But, brothers and sisters, as True Parents have returned to fulfill the mission of Jesus that Jesus asked them to fulfill, they have walked not only the course of one death and resurrection, they have had to walk the course of seven deaths and resurrections, to exemplify not only the love for friends, that will sacrifice for friends, but a love that is of the parental heart; the love that is of God's essence, which is God as the parent; a love that will die and die and die again, that will gratefully go to hell and to hell again for the sake that its children may be free and enter the Kingdom. And this is the love that True Parents have exemplified and God has succeeded in, in their lifetime. And this is the love that has influenced the course of history from now and forever. Aju! This is the love, brothers and sisters: the parental heart.

It is this love that will allow us as the Unification church to inherit the Old and the New Testament ages and to move into the Completed Testament age, in which all peoples come together into God's family, to bring the world into the realm of heart of the True Parent -- the parent: the true nature of God and the savior of our souls. Let's give it up one time for God and True Parents and the great true love that they have given, for us, to us. (Applause) That is the power that we have, and that is the power that chases away sickness, and chases away weakness, and chases away disease, and chases away inadequacy, and chases away obstacles. It is not our own power but it is God's power.

Let's finish with True Father's words, from Blessing And Ideal Family, 383. Let's read together:

"We must search for true love. Where are we to go to find true love? True love has no day or no night; it is eternal and unchanging. It cannot be true love if it is only for myself. True love cannot be my individual possession. True love is for all people and for the entire universe. True love is what connects family, society, nation, world and cosmos. If the whole world came to love each other with true love, even at the price of death, there would be a burning fire of rebirth."

Aju!

Hyung-jin nim's prayer:

Let us close our eyes and, Brothers and sisters, let us take this time for prayer. Let's raise our hands -- it says in the Acts of the Apostles that we have holy hands in Christ. Let's lift our hands up to the heavens and towards the nations as we pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You so much for this day. Beloved True Parents, thank you so much for giving us true love, true life and true lineage, for we know that we have come from the servant of servant's position to become your true children.

Father, You have lifted us up from the depths of hell so that we can be freed. You have paid the price so that we can enter into the Kingdom. You have paid the price so that our families can go with us to Your eternal resting place.

And, Father, we offer You grace today because we want to worship You and praise You this day. Father, we know that it is Your love that makes us strong, not our individual characters, not our abilities, or the things that we may develop in our life. For, Father, it is those who are weak before You, those who are meek that will inherit the earth. It is those who know that they cannot do everything in their own power, that come before You humbled, that You will use. We see it, because you used Noah and Moses and Abraham and Isaac and Joseph, and you used Caleb and all the saints. You used Jesus, who was born in meekness, in a manger. The world expected a Lord that would come and unify the tribes of Israel and come in glory and power but You sent him in meekness and weakness because it is through that humility that You would show Your power over death.

Father, we thank you so much, because today, we admit that we are not strong. We are not strong. If we are strong we should go home. Father, we are weak before You. We need You. We need a savior, forgiveness. Father, we cannot solve the problems that are great in this world -- the current problem of North and South Korea -- we cannot solve this on our own power, dear Lord. Father, it is when we acknowledge that we are weak, that we are just human, that we open ourselves to the glory and the divinity and power of Your Kingdom. Father, we pray that today we may acknowledge this, we may know this, and it is through that power that You may work through us and achieve miracles for Your sake.

Thank you so much; as You have offered Your life for us, we offer our life to You. Father, we do it with gratitude and in joy, because we do not delight in evil, as Paul said, but we rejoice in truth, for we always hope and we always have faith and we always persevere, Father. And we thank You today for giving us new power.

We pray these things in gratitude in our own names as central blessed families and in the name of True Parents. Aju!

Notes:

1 Corinthians, chapter 12

1: Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be uninformed.

2: You know that when you were heathen, you were led astray to dumb idols, however you may have been moved.

3: Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus be cursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit.

4: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;

5: and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord;

6: and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one.

7: To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

8: To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,

9: to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,

10: to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

11: All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

12: For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

13: For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body -- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free -- and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

14: For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

15: If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body.

16: And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body.

17: If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

18: But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

19: If all were a single organ, where would the body be?

20: As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

21: The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

22: On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable,

23: and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty,

24: which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part,

25: that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

26: If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

27: Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

28: And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues.

29: Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?

30: Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?

31: But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

1 Corinthians, chapter 13

1: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

2: And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

3: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4: Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful;

5: it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

6: it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.

7: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8: Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

9: For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect;

10: but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.

11: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

12: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.

13: So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.  

Special Sermon: "Liberating True Parents through Practice of Jeong Seong and Love" and "Victory of 210,000 Church: Let's Inherit True Love and Create a Heavenly Storm!"

Hyung Jin Moon
May 23, 2010
Cheon Bok Gung
Yongsan, Seoul Korea

Guest Speakers:

Cheon Bok Gung, Southern Region Pastor -- Rev. Hong Seong Bok and
Cheon Bok Gung, Northern Region Pastor -- Seo Yu Am Hoonsa

Welcoming Remarks:
Yeon-ah nim:

Good afternoon, Brothers and Sisters. Welcome to the headquarters of Unification Church. Everybody, please be careful with colds. I have a cold, even if it's getting close to summer. We sincerely hope and pray that, in the name of Heavenly Father and True Parents, North and South can be united in a peaceful way. Aju.

Hyung-jin nim:

Good afternoon, Brothers and Sisters. Let's first manifest the Principle: give and receive action, four position foundation, may I inherit the true love of God, Aju.

In today's Cheon Seong Gyeong, 10:11, Father speaks. He says,

"The church is a holy place that connects heaven and earth. It is a gate to the world, enabling people to interact in relationships of cooperation, and as a spiritual pillar, for the church supplies strength in our daily life."

Aju.

Brothers and Sisters, we are living in a most special era. The whole world is observing Korea, with the whole situation that is unfolding between the South and the North, for the unity of North and South Korea. It's so important that we understand that the unity of the North and the South is not going to come by the South just looking down upon the North. No, but we have to really understand and see that they are also people, but they are behaving in a certain way, not because they're inherently evil, but because as one of our presidents who is at Pyonghwa motors there says, "They don't know any better, but they're searching and they're looking, and they desire something greater." So Brothers and Sisters, in this most uncertain time, we want to also reach out all our prayers today. That's what we are going to be focusing on in our one-on-one prayers today.

I want to invite you all to stand up now and let's do Kajong Maeng Sae, Number Four today. Let's join our hands together and recite the Family Pledge Number Four:

Our Family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to build the universal family encompassing heaven and earth, which is God's ideal of creation, and perfect the world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness, by centering on true love.

Aju.

Good afternoon, Brothers and Sisters. Today, as you know, Cheon Bok Gung has moved into the four-district region, and last week we met our east and west region Hoonsa nim and Mok Sa nim. And this week, we're going to be actually kicking off the southern region and the northern region. Today, representing the southern district, we have Rev. Hong. Rev. Hong will come up and start the kickoff for the southern district of Seoul. And then we have Seo Hoonsa nim. He is the northern district leader there. He will come up for the last fifteen minutes and share the words and the kickoff for the northern region. So let's first invite Rev. Hong Sung Bok, and as he comes up let's give him a really warm Unification Family welcome! (Applause)

Rev. Hong Sung Bok -- Southern Region

Hello everyone, Brothers and Sisters. My name is Rev. Hong. I'm the minister for the southern region. First I'd like to introduce the women leaders who will work with me in leading the southern district to victory. The first lady I'd like to introduce is the president of the Women's Association for the southern district. She has a great deal of experience in working in society, Mrs. Kwang Jung Nam. She also manages a branch office of Segye Ilbo. Mrs. I Gyung Ga is working as a lecturer for second generation members. And Mrs. Sato Rieko will be in charge of the Japanese wives in the southern district, who will work with and attend our International President and serve you in order to gain victory in the southern district. Thank you.

First, I'll read from the Hoon Dok of True Parents' words:

Ladies and Gentlemen: we are living in a historic time of great transition. It is a time for a great historical revolution to change history, to unite the spiritual and physical worlds and to create the ideal kingdom of heaven that God has longed for since the beginning of time. We can no longer postpone or prolong the fulfillment of His wish. I have already proclaimed that January 13, 2013 will be Foundation Day. That day will be the actual beginning of Cheon Il Guk. That day will be the origin. An unavoidable time is upon us today, where we must invest ourselves completely with a life or death commitment for the remaining three years under the guidance of the True Parents, who carry out the Providence on Earth as the substantial representative of God, the King of Kings. All the good spirits in the spirit world are mobilized and are already moving forward a step ahead of you.

Aju.

Today I would like to speak to you about the true hope that we should have as members of the Cheon Bok Gung, centering on the words of Father that we have just read. I would like to speak briefly first of how I joined the church and worked as a minister. I was truly guided by Father's words of tears and by his prayers. Father said that when he attended a school in Hook Sok Dong in Seoul, he prayed and he shed a great deal of tears, and I was actually guided to the church in that place of Hook Sok Dong. And I decided to become a minister after I saw the way that Father spoke very deeply, and in tears, at the early morning services at the Headquarters Church.

I wanted to work until I was forty years old, having many different kinds of experiences and learning many different kinds of things, but when I saw the way that Father was unjustly sent to Danbury Prison, I decided to begin my work as a pastor immediately. So for twenty-one years, I worked as a public official, starting as a minister in a pioneer center, and then as a church leader, going up the steps, and then working even as a church pastor in America for a Korean congregation. During that time, I felt God's guidance and True Parents' guidance very deeply, and also the deep love of the members that I was working with. I had many experiences where I felt, I saw, that the more I invested myself in my pastoral work, the more closely True Parents would guide me.

Our loving members of the Cheon Bok Gung, right now we are going through many changes because we are in the time after the coming of heaven, and we are now in the era of Cheon Il Guk. Right now, we are being asked to practice our faith and bring results for our faith. It's important for us now to have a positive outlook on our faith, and also a hopeful faith. I would like to speak first of what we must have for that. We need to attend our True Parents in a new way in this era after the coming of heaven. The world has changed a great deal, and also, many other things have changed. But our True Parents have not changed and the True Children have not changed. We need to check ourselves, how we are attending our True Parents, who are the Messiah and the Lord of the Second Advent in this time, and how much am I trying, how much do I yearn to attend the True Parents in my heart?

We must remember how Father has said that he cannot close his eyes, he cannot pass away from this world until he has fulfilled the promise that he made to God. We must see our True Parents with our spiritual eyes. We need to rediscover our True Parents as MY True Parents, my own True Parents, and then go out into the world and testify to them. Truly, our True Parents, who are now working and marching forward strongly towards 2013, are truly our True Parents and our hope.

And I would like to testify how I felt that hope as I attended our International President. In October 2005, I was studying in UTS. At that time, Hyung Jin Nim was leading a meditation service. When I participated there, I was deeply moved because through the meditation and his teachings, he was telling us and showing us the possibility for us to recover and restore our original selves. He was very humble. He was very joyful towards the students who were participating in that, and he gave everyone very much hope. It was very moving for me to see how he loved the students there with all of his mind and all of his heart. And I prayed at that time truly with gratitude to our True Parents for his presence.

In 2007, I came to Korea briefly in order to receive my doctoral degree and to participate in events here. I was moved again to see the way that Hyung Jin Nim addressed the Cheon Il Guk Leaders' meeting. At that time, he lectured from a perspective of comparative religion about how our True Parents and our community centering on True Parents are eternal. His conviction and his confidence in his faith was very moving to me. I finished my work in America and returned to Korea. I worked for a while at the church headquarters and then at Cheon Bok Gung and then again, there, I had the experience to receive a great deal of hope. I felt hope because I could see how God's hope in His work was being realized through the life of Hyung Jin Nim and how Hyung Jin Nim had been prepared to do the work that he was doing.

And I would like to share with you the value of the Cheon Bok Gung. The completed stage of the Cheon Bok Gung will be the third temple of Israel that God has been waiting for. It will be a temple where people will be able to attend God and True Parents, transcending national boundaries, races, and religion. This place will be a temple where we will be able to accomplish the ideal world of the returning resurrection. Yes, in fact, in name and in reality, the Cheon Bok Gung will be the temple of Cheon Il Guk.

Our loving Brothers and Sisters, do you really believe that you yourselves are the primary actors, the standard-bearers of Cheon Il Guk and you are sitting in this place right now for that very purpose? Do you feel proud that you are in that position? Please let's shout, "Aju" together for that purpose. Aju!

You'll remember, I'm sure, the way that Hyung Jin Nim prayed in the Cheon Bok Gung after he completed his 21,000 bowing condition. In tears and in sweat he prayed and his prayer was, "I am sorry to True Parents," he apologized, he said," I am sorry to True Parents, but I am grateful to True Parents at the same time." We felt an incredible power of resurrection to hear him pray that way. Just as True Parents have completed the course of resurrection as the absolute son in front of God, because our International President had established himself as the absolute filial son in front of True Parents and as leader of the Cheon Bok Gung. This was a very incredible and very hopeful event that happened then.

The vision of Cheon Bok Gung is one that we create together. In the process, there may be some trial and error, maybe some things that change. There may be some things or times that are a little bit unstable, but we never have to be concerned or worried, because God and True Parents are always protecting and guiding us with their love, and because the True Children are creating the highest level of systems in this community that is centering on the Cheon Bok Gung.

Our International President is establishing the absolute center, centering on a horizontal and vertical spiritual discipline. He is establishing the vision of the Cheon Bok Gung step by step. This is an incredible thing that is giving us tremendous hope.

I would like to speak now about the third hope that we have in Cheon Bok Gung. Our senior couples, who have dedicated their lives to live for True Parents, are our third hope in this Cheon Bok Gung. They attended our True Parents and the True Family in those early days, when the persecution was so great. They are our older brothers and sisters who sacrificed their own dreams and even their own self-respect in order to attend the church, the community at large, the nation and the world. They sacrificed their entire lives in order to attend our True Parents and follow the Will, to follow that narrow path of the Will. Because of their victory, because even despite persecution they followed the will, they deserve our respect. Who in this age can recognize those senior couples and their sacrifice that they have made? That is what we must do, as their younger brothers and sisters, as we attend our True Parents, and also respect them. They have a living training. They are the tremendous hope for our community.

So I would like to address our senior couples today. Please have strength and please guide and protect us. We, your juniors, will attend you and we will walk with you towards victory. Now is the time for us to make a new determination. We must inherit the tradition of absolute faith that has been passed from God to True Parents down to us. Senior couples and junior members such as ourselves must become completely one in order to attend our True Parents. On May 1st, I was given the direction to go do the hometown providence by going to the southern district and begin doing pastoral work there. I have not yet been able to accomplish the work that I promised I would accomplish to True Parents and to God when I began pastoral work 40 years ago. We need to do everything we can to offer everything to God and True Parents for the victory of Cheon Bok Gung.

Yesterday, my wife and I received the honor of being able to offer bouquets of flowers to True Parents at the Cheon Jeong Gung at the Welcoming Ceremony on their return to Korea. I think that this honor was not given to me just as an individual, but representing all the pastors, the women leaders and the members of Cheon Bok Gung. When True Father shook my hand, then this honor was also not given to me as an individual. It was to encourage us all to join together towards victory.

True Parents have declared that January 13, 2013 will be Foundation Day, the start of Cheon Il Guk. Even today, he is not resting. He is continuing to work for the Blessing and also for the Seunghwa, for us to be able to have resurrection and eternal life towards the Cheon Il Guk victory.

Loving Cheon Bok Gung members, our True Parents have spoken like this: "A warm and gentle wind must blow from the south in order to unite the Korean peninsula." Koreans prefer to live in houses that face the south. Perhaps that is the reason why right now True Parents stay in Yeosu, which is on the southern coast of Korea. In the southern district of Cheon Bok Gung, we will create a gentle wind from the south that will lead to the victory of all. We will work hard with that sense of responsibility for the whole.

As I conclude I would like you to encourage us, so that we can have victory in the southern district. So, please shout with me: "With devotion and love, victory for the 210,000 congregation, southern district-fighting!" (Applause)

Seo Yu-am Hoonsa nim -- Northern Region:

I would like to introduce the women's leaders for the northern district. Not everyone is here, so we will introduce two people representing all. Chairwoman Choi Yoon-hae is a graduate from Sun Moon University's theological seminary, and Mr. Ok Yoon-ho's wife. Mr. Ok is a second generation pastor in Cheon Bok Gung.

First, let's read from "The Way of God's Will" and also from the Bible.

"Have a renewed mind. In your life of faith, you must always rejoice and be thankful. When you rejoice in prayer and experience a constant welling-up of pride, your mind is a joyful mind."

Aju.

1 Thess. 5:16-18:

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's Will for you in Christ Jesus."

Aju

Centering on these words, inheriting the true love of God, to create a northern wind, we will gain victory in the 210,000 congregation. This is the title of my remarks today.

I joined the Unification Church 45 years ago. For 40 years and eight months, I have been going only one way and that is pastoral work in the Unification Church. In 2008, I retired. After True Father went on his world tour, I became interested in doing this work, particularly with the pastoral work that is based on Jeong Seong (devotion) and love. I was offering 120 bows. Although I retired, I continued that Jeong Seong. I participated in the 120 bowing condition at the headquarters church. Through that connection, I was appointed as a Hoonsa in April 2009. I'm grateful again to God and True Parents for that honor, and I'm very grateful to our International President and his wife.

My family has received a very wonderful honor and glory from True Parents. Particularly our second daughter received much grace from True Family. Rather than feeling proud of that, we feel repentful and are humbled by that and offer even more Jeong Seong. In every situation, we are living in gratitude towards heaven. We could see that instead of being indebted to heaven, we were always able to give gratitude to heaven.

As I participated in the early morning spiritual training, I understood that our International President had gained victory in terms of recovering and restoring his humanity through these seven years of training. He studied philosophy at Harvard University and also received a Masters degree in comparative religion at the Harvard University course. In addition to all his studies, he had gone through this period of spiritual training more than any pastor in the Unification Church tradition. It was on that foundation that he began his pastoral work in the Mapo church in 2007.

The topic of that time was "the new beginning". He spoke then about creating a foundation of spiritual victory. From that time, he grafted this spiritual training and tradition of working in the early morning, onto what existed as the Unification Church tradition. On October 12th, 2008, Hyung-jin nim received the mission to establish Cheon Bok Gung from True Parents at the King garden in Hawaii at the first Original Divine Principle workshop that was held there. I happened to be there at that moment and felt deep gratitude for that.

I believe very deeply that if we inherit our International President's method of spiritual discipline, then anyone will be able to unite their mind and body. I could see the way for us to get rid of our fallen nature. We are also reciting "I'm alive, thank you!" If we do that once every ten seconds for 30 minutes, it becomes 180 times. So if we see our life itself as a spiritual training, then every 24 hours that we live must be 24 hours of giving gratitude. As I was going through this spiritual discipline and through the breathing exercises with our International President, I actually felt the grace of being able to breathe with God and to feel God's love in those breaths.

I was also grateful that through that I felt spiritually that truly our True Parents are the Messiah, the Christ, the Second Advent and the Savior of the world. Already we have been given the growth stage Cheon Bok Gung and we are creating a new revolution in history today. We are already attending the four great saints in Cheon Bok Gung. True Parents have said that this year will be a historic year in which we will overcome all difficulties.

On God's Day, True Father spoke about how we are now using the heavenly calendar, uniting the old and new calendars. Centering on the birthday of True Parents, he established the first day of the heavenly calendar. Through the Seunghwa rallies, he has given us the incredible blessing of all mankind being able to overcome death. At the Cheon Bok Gung, we are dividing our area into four districts now, in order to make a new beginning in this new era.

Until now, I have been very busy attending the International President as a Hoonsa, but now, as the leader of the northern district, I'm sure that I will be very busy. I don't know what will be coming, but whatever comes, I will look upon it positively and I will work for victory. There is a great difference from when I was working in the rural area to now that I'm working closely with our International President. There is a big difference in the way the work is being done. We all need to receive these changes with a positive outlook.

We see in the Bible that every time a central figure changed, the providence also changed. In the Old Testament, there was the culture that was centering on Moses. In the New Testament, a new culture was brought centering on Jesus. Now, centering on the International President, we have a new culture of spiritual discipline. When we receive that new culture with a positive outlook, we create change within ourselves.

Beloved Brothers and Sisters, our International President's couple is working every day as a filial child, patriot, saint and God's divine son and daughter in the world in order to bring about the victory of Cheon Bok Gung. Let us all also be determined to attend our International President to bring about the victory of Cheon Bok Gung by accomplishing our task in witnessing. Aju!

Every time I see our Chuksajang nim (Yeon-ah nim), I feel a very quiet and strong love. She works very hard every day with our International President, always being with him like a shadow, always attending him. I feel that we must learn from her and must also accomplish our responsibility towards the victory of Cheon Bok Gung in the same way. With big determination, let's say "Aju!"

Until now, the International President and Chuksajang nim have worked a great deal for the Cheon Bok Gung. In order to accomplish the final victory of the 210,000 congregation, we must be determined to inherit his tradition of spiritual discipline and to work much harder than we have already. I'm sure that we will be able to gain this final victory of the 210,000 congregation if we work together. If we work together, we will be mobilizing the spiritual world.

Let's finish by reading True Father's words again:

"Therefore, it is time for all people to be humbly obedient to Heaven's decree. An unavoidable time is upon us today where we must invest ourselves completely with a life or death commitment for the remaining three years under the guidance of the True Parents, who carry out the providence on earth as the substantial representatives of God, the King of Kings. All the good spirits in the spirit world are mobilized and are already moving forward, a step ahead of you. Aju!"

All of our ancestors are moving very quickly ahead of us. We, as their descendants, have to try hard to follow them. So let's work hard and run together!

We say that the king always resides in the north, and when we offer our prayers and bows, we face the north. The Cheon Jeong Gung where we attend God and True Parents is located in the northern district, so I'm sure that much grace and victory will come to this district. Let's raise a wind of witnessing in the northern district and bring about the victory of 210,000!

Hyung-jin nim's prayer:

Our Heavenly Father, dearest most beloved True Parents, thank you so much for this day. Father, we want to offer our prayers to You today and offer our hearts to You today. We pray for the wonderful and adorable love and hearts that our ministers showed today. We pray that You may help us in the southern and northern districts to help with the process of having all those people in Seoul who are prepared to come to Your heart. We pray that upon that foundation, the Abel U.N. can be established here in Cheon Bok Gung at the perfection stage level, and that we can truly have all the religions living together centered on the words and the vision of our True Parents.

We absolutely want to pray and lift our hearts up today for those brothers and sisters in North Korea, and we pray that this situation in Korea now can come quickly to a resolution. We thank You so much and pray all these things in gratitude and offering our hearts and prayers to You this day. In our own names and in the names of True Parents. Aju! 

Becoming a Real Apostle

Hyung Jin Moon
May 19, 2010
Excerpts
To the 120-day workshop

If we look at Christianity, we think of belief as synonymous with following Jesus. People say they believe in Jesus and that they have become saints like those people depicted in the Bible. But if we look at the Bible, we see that the people are not saints. There were many who believed in Jesus as a special person and those who believed he was a great prophet with certain transcendent powers. There were those whom Jesus healed. They believed and some testified.

What is the difference, though, between those who believed in Jesus and those who were his disciples? There is a big difference between those who merely believe and those who become disciples or saints. In our church, we do not become saints of the Unification Church just by our belief in True Parents. Believing in True Parents is just one aspect of discipleship.

Yet, when we look at the lives of Jesus' disciples, they are people who put their lives on the line to testify to Jesus. This goes far beyond basic belief for a short time. After Jesus' resurrection his disciples went out witnessing. Peter, for example, spent time building the church in Antioch.' Later, the Apostle Paul appeared, and he travelled to many places.

Many of the earliest disciples and apostles did not die naturally of old age. Because they were testifying to Jesus, some were crucified, even upside down. The Apostle Paul was beheaded. There is a difference between saying, "He is my lord" and living the life of a disciple. The role of disciples and apostles is to testify to the Lord, going to the point of giving their lives. They make the sacrifices others cannot make.

If you are involved in church leadership, you are not mere believers. That is not enough. Church leaders must lead a life of discipleship. Now, we must testify to True Parents at the risk of our lives because we believe True Parents are the Lord and because it is through True Parents that we received the amazing blessing of rebirth and eternal life.

In whatever period they lived, disciples have worked to disseminate the Gospel. When they spoke or conveyed the truth, they always spoke in relation to the society of their time. Spreading the Gospel could not be accomplished outside that cultural framework. It was always challenging the society in the background, challenging the prevailing philosophy and thought of the age. Roman and Hellenistic philosophies were highly developed, weren't they? The Gospel had to compete with the existing ideologies. Through this, it brought the light of hope. This is a very important point.

Divine Principle is not just an analysis of the Bible. Divine Principle is the text that gives answers in the context of today's society In particular, the second part was written with society as the backdrop. Communism was a system of thought that challenged democracy. As you know, the second part of Divine Principle discusses whether a third world war might breakout and presents a challenge and a counter-proposal to communist thought. This was very much an issue in society at that time. In the present day, many areas of science and technology have advanced, greatly changing the social environment again. Only when religion challenges the social reality can it develop. The role of disciples and apostles is to challenge the social background they encounter.

We use logic and reason to observe the world, to observe nature. As we go through this process, we can think about whether God exists or not. All disciples -- whether you are Peter, Paul or whoever -- have to challenge these issues. In 1 Peter 3:15, it says, "Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you."

You must be prepared to give a proper answer, the Bible says. This is because religion and believers who have both faith and the teachings of the Lord are not just aiming to be popular in society or to receive its approval. Rather, God imparts understanding in order to change society completely....

The social environment is always a factor. When society is at the point where it roust change, society does not want to change. People will say, "We are doing fine! What kind of change do we need God and True Parents' teachings for?"

Opposition will increase. We have to expect this. For this reason, it is not possible to take a middle- of-the-road approach. Such an approach cannot change society. In fact, if we take a neutral approach the reverse happens, in that the surrounding society influences us and we become more distant from our teachings.

For that reason, brothers and sisters, we must be brave. We must be leaders who can go out and fight for True Parents. Those who want to become popular in society, those who don't want to do difficult work, cannot be such leaders. No matter which organization they are in, leaders must always do the difficult work. This is a very important point.

Some who study science say that there is no creator and that humankind is not a special creation; and according to the Theory of Evolution, we are little more than monkeys. We don't know how to respond to these points effectively. With the end of communism, this has become a very important area to engage in. The development of the internet, computers, physics, math and other areas of science has led people to lose faith in God and religion. I have heard, for example, that among university students who believe in God but study science, the great majority lose their belief in God during the first year of their university course. This is a more frightening reality than the expansion of communism. How can we respond to this?

UPF and CARP will no longer go the neutral, middle-of-the- road way. Now we are going to fight. We will challenge society. We will persuade them. We will challenge them. We will fight. We will compete. As we do so, we must go a bit deeper into various issues, such as why it is more reasonable to believe in God; how, if you really understand science, it shows that God exists; how the Theory of Evolution is flawed; why it is meaningless for atheists to talk about a value system, and how there can be a good God even in an evil world.

We must go a little deeper into what we believe and why we believe what we believe. When we receive a challenge, such as, "How can you believe in God in a world like this? I don't believe in God, and you are a fool for doing so," we must know how to respond.

Our first-generation members have fought a great deal, haven't you? When you first joined the church, you battled against communists. Isn't that so? At university you argued with the communist students over why Marxism and communist ideology were wrong, didn't you? [Yes!]

Now our young people will inherit that tradition from our first generation. We will inherit that tradition, and we will go to the universities and fight it out. CARP students will now learn the Theory of Evolution. At the same time, they will learn the Principle of Creation....

Atheism creates a problem. The first reason is that atheism cannot establish objective moral values.... If God did not establish laws pertaining to goodness and evil, and therefore no objective standard of morality exists, there will be no objective moral obligations either.

If that were the case, sexual abuse of another person (for example) would not be "bad," objectively speaking. Of course, as people discuss and find some common ground they might conclude that such behavior is not good for society. But what if someone doesn't share that opinion? Then you have a problem. Sexual abuse is clearly evil.

If a male shark forcefully mates with a female shark, that is not sexual abuse because they are animals, not ethical beings. On the other hand, suppose a man forces a woman to have a sexual relationship. If we are not beings of morality but merely animals, objectively speaking, we can't say such an action is evil. If looking objectively such an action is not evil, objectively speaking we also have no such moral restraints or duties.

We may say that one day the universe is going to contract and all living things will die, so why do I need to act according to a moral standard? We may say, there is no eternal life and the universe is going to disappear anyway, so we can do as we please. With that mind-set, the motivation to live morally disappears. Frankly, many such problems arise from atheistic philosophy. So our understanding of God and True Parents gives us confidence and hope.

Witnessing is the factor that can certainly revive our church. We had not witnessed so much in Korea recently. We held many events. We would invite people to be ambassadors for peace, but that was mostly not witnessing as such. Witnessing is when people accept True Parents as the Lord and as the Messiah.

What is the reason we witness? The fundamental reason is love. That fundamental love is parental love, the heart of a parent that saves a lost child. No matter how difficult it may be for parents, they will save their children at all costs. Imagine that your child has been kidnapped. You want to find your child. You have to save him and bring him home. Even though going out each day to find that child is difficult, you maintain hope. When you find him and bring him home, how grateful you are to God!

When you witness you must witness with such a heart. Looking at people with such spiritual eyes, you work to save their lives. How did God and True Parents witness to us? They did it through love and with the heart of parents. We have the motto, "Let's inherit the true love of God". The essence of God is His parental heart, the heart to regain and bring home the children who have been taken away.

When we look at the people of the world as victims of kid- napping, we feel differently about them, right? The abductor is holding them in confinement. We must witness with a parent's heart. If we want to practice greater love in our church, if we wish to more fully reflect God's parental heart, the primary activity would be witnessing to find our lost children. We must inherit that fundamental heart of a parent.

Notes:

1 Peter, chapter 3

1: Likewise you wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that some, though they do not obey the word, may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives,

2: when they see your reverent and chaste behavior.

3: Let not yours be the outward adorning with braiding of hair, decoration of gold, and wearing of fine clothing,

4: but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

5: So once the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves and were submissive to their husbands,

6: as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are now her children if you do right and let nothing terrify you.

7: Likewise you husbands, live considerately with your wives, bestowing honor on the woman as the weaker sex, since you are joint heirs of the grace of life, in order that your prayers may not be hindered.

8: Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love of the brethren, a tender heart and a humble mind.

9: Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called, that you may obtain a blessing.

10: For "He that would love life
and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking guile;

11: let him turn away from evil and do right;
let him seek peace and pursue it.

12: For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those that do evil."

13: Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is right?

14: But even if you do suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,

15: but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence;

16: and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

17: For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God's will, than for doing wrong.

18: For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit;

19: in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison,

20: who formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.

21: Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

22: who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.  

Special Sermon: "Let Us be the Righteous Person of Cheon Bok Gung" and "God's Calling and our Mission"

Hyung Jin Moon
May 16, 2010
Cheon Bok Gung
Yongsan, Seoul Korea

Guest Speakers:

Cheon Bok Gung East Region Pastor -- Rev. Man Woong Cho and
Cheon Bok Gung West Region Pastor -- Hoonsa Yong Ha Kim

Welcoming Remarks:
Yeon Ah Nim:

Welcome to our international service!

Before we say anything, could we give a warm applause to our beautiful Japanese sisters for their beautiful song? (Applause)

Last week we were with True Parents in America for the world level ascension ceremony. We were so glad to attend True Parents, and it was so nice to see In-jin nim and In-jin nim's family and American members. Today we sincerely hope and pray that through this worship service we can become better sons and daughters of True Parents and Heavenly Father. Aju!

Hyung Jin Nim:

Good evening brothers and sisters. Let us begin by manifesting the Principle: give and receive action, four position foundation; may I inherit the true love of God! Aju!

"You can reach the kingdom of heaven through the church," Father says, "the family must pass through the church, so the church is a foundation for families to bring victories. It is a place where family laws emerge, a place where the nobility of character is recognized and it is a training ground for the kingdom of heaven." This is from "The way of the spiritual leader" p 238 number 10, 12 and 13.

Brothers and sisters, we are really so blessed to be able to be in a community, to have people around us who share the same faith, who are walking with us on the path towards heaven. It is in that community that we can find so many riches and such wisdom.

Once a week we are meeting some of our wonderful Unificationists families who are in the background. These families are not necessarily in any leadership role in the church but they contribute so greatly to the community and they stand as examples within the community; so we love to highlight these beautiful families.

This week we are going to have the chance to meet Mr. Kim Tae-son and his family. He is a Korean husband and his wife is Japanese. They have 5 wonderful children and through this video we are going to have the chance to meet them. Let's go meet one of our Unificationists!

Video:

This is a copy of Mr. Kim's Cheong Seong Gyeong. God's words gave me a great shock. It's not something that we take lightly. This is our weapon, a weapon among weapons so we need to be very bold and proud of this.

This is in Kyung Gi province, Go-Yang city and this is some award. This is a massage center. He is 46 years old, he was blessed in 1992 and he operates a massage center. He was a body guard for True Parents for a number of years and he has been copying the Cheong Seong Gyeong.

"I was very serious about the word of God because I had been living in a world that had nothing to do with God's word. I was really in a position where I might die, but with the word I could live again. It made me very excited to think that way. It gave me a deep shock and stimulus. So I read the word all through the night. This kind of precious word -- once I heard it I didn't want to be the end of it, but I wanted to make it a part of me; I wanted to write it down with my own hand. That is how I began. Later I began working at Han Nam Dong, and after I worked in the day attending True Parents then I would always do this.

When we look at the words of our international president, he says that in the place where we are, we are far from God's love, and I felt that very much, very deeply in myself. So what I can do is be close to God's word and write God's word, really delve into it and immerse myself in God's word. These are words that we could continuously read for tens of thousands of years like that.

"True love and true family".

I have 5 children. I intended to have five children and I had to convince my wife to do that. She is Japanese and she listened to my word and decided to do it.

Mrs. Kim:

He said that he wanted to do it that way so we did it that way. We had the first and the second. Till we had the third I was wanting but…

Mr. Kim:

She is very grateful; she is very wonderful, very straight. The way we were able to endure is because of the word, because we have the word. In that sense she is much greater than I am.

We are a true love family. Before, the mayor of Seoul, Lee Myung-bak, who is now president of Korea, invited multicultural families. We went there as a multicultural family, and as a man and woman who have good character. These kinds of families were invited by the major's office. We wanted to say that we had to be true parents and have true children. Parents have to be the model for everything and teach the children by being a model. The mayor said that he wished us well and said that all the parents gathered there that day should be models to their family. And he said, "Let us establish true love together." So everyone stood up and applauded.

We also had a chance to take a photograph with him. At that time he was mayor and he realized, "Oh this is the kind of people that are in the Unification church!" He used the word "true family" in his remarks that day and I was very happy about that.

Words are weapon among weapons.

Some people ask me, "How did you come to join the Unification church?" I would say, "Well it's a good place. Why do you say that? It's not just a heresy." A heresy in Korea means the second level, third level, or fourth level. I testify to our Father, "You can tell what kind of person he is. He liberated the Soviet Union and he also went to North Korea. They say, "Oh! Is that what has been going on? Is that what happened?" They understand why I am a Unification church member.

When we go outside and when we talk about the Unification church, we have to be very proud because everyone knows. I don't give a massage to a person who does not like the Unification church.

Please be reborn in the word. We love all members of the Unification church! (Applause)

My son asked me, "Why do you do this?" I said, "Because the word is precious and important". My son told me that he is very proud of me for doing this.

Hyung-Jin Nim:

Let's give it up for Mr. Kim Tae Son and Mrs. Kim. Mrs. Kim is up here. She is part of the choir today. (Applause)

It was not mentioned in the video but after he left Han Nam Dong where he was attending True Parents as a bodyguard, he felt so empty in his heart, so when he started his business and created his massage clinic he started writing all of True Parents' words. He did Cheong Seong Gyeong; this huge text, he wrote it by hand. He wrote the Divine Principle four times by hand, the Peace Messages, -- a very big text -- he also did that by hand. He has really had his own spiritual practice all centered on True Parents' words. We are so thankful for Mr. Kim's family.

Hyung-Jin Nim's introduction of guest speakers:

Brothers and sisters, today we have a special service. As you know the organization at Cheon Bok Gung is now four districts from the previous seven districts. We are organized now by East, West, North, and South. Seoul is now divided up into four regions. It's divided up into these regions according to how True Parents divided up the four regions in the past; it also coincides with the education centers that they have in each district. For example, the police centers also separate the four districts in the same way that we have. It is very easy for somebody who is a new member or for somebody who is entering into the church to know which region they are in within the four districts.

So we have now four districts and today we are going to hear from the Hoonsa Nims, the people who are the head ministers of the East region and the West region. First we'll be hearing from Cho Man-woong Moksa Nim. He has done ministry for over thirty- three years out of a total of being in the church 43 years; 43 years of working as a teacher and also a minister.

He retired last year. He was our regional director for Gangnam region which is a very important region here in Seoul, and he was the regional director there for many years. He has shown exceptional leadership amongst the ministers. When he retired, I was very saddened by that, so I asked him to please come and walk with us on the Hoonsa Nim training, on the Hoonsa track. "Even though you are done with ministry, please walk together with us on the Hoonsa track" which is of course as you may know 33 years of ministry, and then after that they have to walk 400 day training. And if you miss 3 days you go back to day one, so you can't miss out any day. And it is every day at 2:30 in the morning that we start and train!

Moksa Nim has been walking with us, training with us for 307 days now and he is walking on the Hoonsa track.

He will come as the representative of East Seoul and of our brothers and sisters who reside there. He will speak to us for about fifteen minutes with some words of encouragement, particularly for the Eastern region, and in the next fifteen minutes we are going to have Kim Yong-ha Hoonsa Nim who is the regional pastor for the Western region of Seoul.

He has done over 33 years of ministry. He has completed the 400 day Hoonsa training so he was ordained as a Hoonsa Nim last year. He will then speak as the representative of the Western region for fifteen minutes.

So let's take time now to now invite Mr. Cho Man-woong Moksa Nim. When he comes up, let's give him a big round of applause! (Applause) Eastern region!

Cho Man-Woong Moksa Nim -East Region:

Hallelujah! I am glad to see you! I would like for Tim Elder here to convey to you all the content that I want to communicate to you today. First I will read to you quotes from True Father's words and from the Bible.

True Father's words:

"We have now entered a new age. What kind of attitude should we have? The conviction to restore independence to our homeland more than anything else should be burning in our chest. In other words you should become the standard bearers for building the homeland that God has been impatiently waiting for since the past six thousand years. You should take pride in being a pioneer in being the Special Forces sent into battle as the advance guard to reclaim the land and take responsibility for this incredible mission. Aju!"

Bible:

Genesis 18:26:
The LORD said, "If I find 50 righteous people inside the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake." Then he said, "Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?" And He said, "I will not destroy it on account of the ten."

Aju!

I entered the Unification church in 1963 in April in Chungnam province. I am working now as a pastor for 43 years. There are three points to the words that I would like to convey to you today. I have been called by our international president to train here as a Hoonsa and to work here in that capacity. There are a number of miracles that are happening here and I would like to introduce some of those to you.

Back in 1977 I went through a period where working as a public official was so difficult that I wanted to leave that position. I wanted to go to work in a company outside the church. But when I went to receive some counseling regarding that and I stood up, God struck me in the waist. For the next month I had to stay lying down. I could not get up. I was just lying down for a month.

Again in 2008 on February 26th I had another trial. That was the time of our True Parents' birthday, and we were conducting education sessions around the country. On the morning of the 26th of February I tried to get out of bed but I had such pain in my waist! I went to the hospital, and received the diagnosis that I had a disc that was out of place. And it was even not in the primary stage but it was in the middle stage of my becoming crippled, and it was not easy to cure that.

That was also the time when Hyo-jin nim passed into the spiritual world but I could not go to the Seunghwa ceremony because of that pain. Finally I did find a hospital that was able to treat my condition, to some extent, but not fully, so always there was a chance for it to recur. My doctor said," Don't walk a lot! Don't stay seated in a chair for a long time!" He gave me a lot of limitations on my daily activities.

When I was living like that, on May 1st of last year, I went into convulsions. It was right then that the International President told me that I should go the way of Hoonsa. I could not answer him right away at that point but I was struggling in my heart how to answer. How could I give one hundred and twenty bows in my condition? Also my wife had a problem with her knee, and she was having an operation. Hoonsa involves husband and wife doing it together, and both of us, husband and wife had situations that would prevent us from going the way of Hoonsa. So we struggled a lot with that issue.

During the service, the International President spoke out from the stage, "I want to meet you after the service", and after the service, he took me by the hand and took me to his office. The first thing he said to me then was, "My meeting you is fate". [Fate means that it is not a way that I could go because I did not want to or not go if I didn't want to.] So my wife and I decided right then and there that we would go ahead and do this.

We had attended True Parents all the time and we decided that we would attend the second generation of True Parents' family and go the way of Hoonsa. Beginning July 1st we offered a hundred and twenty bows. We thought that we would never be able to offer one hundred and twenty bows but we were able to do it. And even as we were doing our training I was able to be in a situation where I was sitting down and leaning back and bend my joints in ways that I thought I would never be able to do. This was truly God's miraculous healing of our condition.

Right now in Cheon Bok Gung many miracles are happening like this. So I want to tell you about those miracles during my time with you today. Right now in Cheon Bok Gung, the miracle of Cheong Seong is giving the spirit of salvation to all of humanity. We are attending the International President every morning and after the bows the International President strikes the gong, and he strikes the drum and another instrument that you bang. These are God's sounds. These sounds resonate from here in the Cheon Bok Gung to the city of Seoul and to the people all around Korea and all throughout the world like a wave.

If there are any among you who have physical illness, come to the Cheon Bok Gung and pray and I am sure that you will be cured like a miracle. And if you are struggling over some problem come to the Cheon Bok Gung, offer your Cheong Seong, and that issue will be resolved.

So the first message that I want to give you today is that this Cheon Bok Gung is where miracles are born. And the second message that I want to give to you is that you are righteous people chosen by God for this time.

God established Noah, and he had Noah build an ark at the top of the mountain. Many people at that time did not believe in God and they made fun of Noah, "If you are going to build a boat, you should build it by the sea. Why do you build a boat on a mountain?" But God gave the flood judgment with rain for 40 days, and the water rose till it reached the top of the mountain. Then the ark began to float on the water. The rain was there and then the waves were calmed. And God saved the eight members of Noah's family.

Abraham was also a righteous man. God told Abraham to leave his homeland. How can we so easily leave our homeland where we were born and raised? But Abraham left his homeland just after hearing that one word from God.

Lot was another righteous man. When God judged Sodom, He first told Lot and his family to leave Sodom before He passed judgment on that city. There were many people living in Sodom but there were no righteous people. Not even ten righteous men could be found. Ten is not a large number. Among the hundreds who are gathered here today, ten would be a very small proportion. A "Righteous Person" means a person who is able to follow God's Will and follows God's Word, but not even ten righteous men could be found in Sodom. And before God had to pass judgment on Sodom He first brought the family of Lot out of that city.

Unification church members, you who are gathered here today, you truly are the righteous people of this day! We have the responsibility to save this world in this era. We have the responsibility to build Cheon Il Guk. When Lot came out with his wife, God told them, "Do not look back!" I am sure that as they left Sodom they could hear their friends, their neighbors, and their relatives crying to them from behind. They could hear the city being destroyed, but they still had a feeling of attachment to the city. Finally, when Lot's wife turned around to look at the city, she was turned into a pillar of salt.

As for us also today, we are often tempted to look back and to feel attachment to the world around us. We may want to have that honor, or power and authority, or to feel yearning for money and material. But it is more important for us to place God's Word at the center of our heart rather than those secular things. So in that sense we can say that you who are here today are the righteous people of this age who are chosen for this age. We have a mission that is given to us. This is an incredible mission which is to build Cheon Il Guk.

My 3rd message is about our goal to first build a congregation of 21,000 members, which will be the foundation to receive 210,000 new members. Our new organization in dividing Korea into 4 districts is a principled way to have God work with us. Similarly, in the Tongil symbol, 4 positions are also represented. So according to where you live in Korea, please find out which district you belong and join the team! True Father says that in the east, we see the sun rise first. The sun represents God and hope. So this will be our motto. Our first goal is to witness. In order to make the goal of 21,000 new members, we must witness continually without resting. All unification members must do this. True Father says we are in a new era. We are pioneers. Pioneers must continue to move forward no matter what difficulties they face. With this attitude, let us claim victory! Mansei!"

Kim Yong-ha Hoonsa Nim -- West Region:

I'd like to tell you my story in my early years in the church, while I was a missionary in Japan. First, I'd like to read from Ephesians:

"As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit -- just as you were called to one hope when you were called -- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."

Aju

I joined in 1964 while I was a senior in high school. I had seen True Father in a vision. I experienced the Holy Spirit spiritually. When I heard the Divine Principle conclusion for the first time, I was very certain that True Father was the Lord of the Second Advent. Writing in my journal, I made a promise to God that I would testify to this fact. So after I graduated high school, I started missionary work in the villages of Japan. I thought I would be welcomed in sharing this exciting news of a savior, but I was mocked. The villagers would not let me drink clean water. They threw rocks at me and stole my clothes. Yet I continued to serve them by teaching and tutoring the farm children who were not allowed to go to school. I would also work in the fields for free. I was able to bring in many new members, but my health declined due to malnutrition. I thought the only way I could survive was to eventually leave my mission and the church. So I packed my bags.

But that very night of my packing, True Father came to me in a dream and spoke to me, giving me his love and guidance. He reminded me that when you take on the responsibility of being a missionary, you cannot abandon it. The region of your work is spiritually depending on you. Therefore, if you are still alive, you must never give up. You must die trying to help and witness to the people. Then when you die, they will erect a tombstone in your honor. After this dream, I awoke and unpacked my bags and renewed by determination. But instead of improving, the persecution increased. My health continued to decline. So I packed my bags again! When I tried to return to my own home where my parents were, I was turned away. I ended up sleeping at a temple where I cried all night. This time, True Mother appeared to me in a vision to comfort me, embracing me by nursing me at her breast.

After that vision, I never thought of leaving. I realized that True Parents sacrificed not only physically but also spiritually for me. In my 45 years of public service, I have received many special graces from them. So I offered to help our international president by making 3000 bows while he was resting from his 21,000 bows. Each of our bows was a commitment to bring in 21,000 new members. By the way, Satan did not sit by and give us an easy time of it. He tried every way to stop us! But in the end, we had victory and won over him! In the same way, True Parents have had victory over Satan in their 7 resurrections. During our continuous commitments of service, we came to realize how True Parents sacrificed in this spiritual and physical way to pave the path for us members and for all of humanity. They passed thru 8 stages of indemnity from the individual to the cosmic level, each level requiring more sacrifice than the one before. So in order to receive peace and joy in my life, I have determined to support them in this endeavor.

As representatives of our True Parents, we wear the Hoonsa clothing. This is very humble attire, which reminds us to become more humble and serving as we come close to True Parents. As model members, we should keep our heads low and bow to others. To train our bodies and minds, we do 210 bows every morning. I may be sleepy, but after our bows I feel energized and ready to work. To train our minds, we immerse ourselves in True Fathers words. The affect is that all our personal troubles then take care of themselves. Would you like to join us?

At our World Headquarters Center here in Korea, this is the place where God's blessing is shared. You can receive God's salvation in a substantial way. We also can return glory and joy to True Parents by visiting here.

As Unification members, we must first become unified ourselves. If we can't unite, then we will never bring new members. We must resolve to serve more than any other church. That's why we have started a bowing condition at 2:00 am. Every time I offer bows in the presence of the 4 saints (Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, and Jesus) I think I have to go beyond what they did. I have to serve more than they did. If I can accomplish this, then the saints will help me. People will start to join like waves of clouds!

God has called us to work to unite all religions. We have to join together and offer our unique abilities. Let us make a solid determination right now to make our 21,000 member congregation!"

Hyung-jin nim:

"I want to remind everyone that this effort is not about one person or one leader. It will require everyone's participation to move this nation. So let's pray now for our True Parents and give glory to them! Today we heard from the East and West leaders. Here in Seoul, let us make a foundation for our goal to establish 21,000 new members to expand to 210,000. This will grow to become the largest sect of a religion in the world. We want to build a holy United Nations as well. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for speaking thru our leaders today. Help us to see how we are all connected, especially while True Parents are still on this earth. We pray for the victory and safety of all members around the world. AJU." 

God is Our Freedom

Hyung Jin Moon
May 2, 2010
Cheon Bok Gung, Yongsan Seoul Korea

Brothers and sisters, today I want to talk to you about "God is Our Freedom."

Let us start with the World Scriptures.

From Judeo-Christianity, this is Isaiah 53:5. Let us read together:

He was bruised for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that made us whole. And with his stripes, we are healed.

Aju!

From Islam, this is the Koran 39:53. Let us read together:

Oh my servants, who have transgressed against their souls, despair not of the mercy of God. For God forgives all sins. For He is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.

Aju!

From Hinduism, this is the Bhagavad-Gita 9:30. Let us read together:

Though a man be soiled with the sins of a lifetime, let him but love me, in utter devotion… holiness soon shall refashion his nature to peace eternal.

Aju!

And from True Father's collection of speeches, Volume I, page 162, this is a prayer. Let us read the prayer together:

Father! Please purify the minds and hearts of all Thy children who kneel before Thee. Work with Thy purifying touch in the soul of each one here. Please reveal all that is in each of our minds and bodies, Father, and sanctify everything. Since it will not do unless all improper elements are separated out and cast away, O Father, please personally be the Lord who purifies us and the Lord of our hearts.

Aju!

Today our core scriptures will be centering around Luke 7. Let us read the first section, starting with verse 36:

36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.

37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house,

38 she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is -- that she is a sinner."

Aju!

This takes place at the house of Simon Pharisee, also known as Simon the Leper. Now, there are different traditions as to whether or not that is the same person. Some traditions in Christianity say that they are the same person, that this Simon who invited Jesus to his house for a feast was the same Simon who was healed by Jesus, who recognized Jesus, and who now is supporting Jesus. Christian legends also say that Simon -- after Jesus passed away and ascended to the heavens -- eventually moves to Southern France with Lazarus and Mary Magdalene, and at the City of Maguelone, he becomes the first apostle of that southern city in France.

So, the disciples and Christ are now at the house of Simon Pharisee, and this kind of scenario arises. They are at the house, Jesus is reclining back, and then the woman appears. The woman pours perfume on his feet, washes his feet, kisses his feet, greets Jesus, cries on his feet. At the same moment, the person who had invited Jesus, Simon, sees her and thinks in his heart, "That woman is a sinner. How could Christ, if he truly is a prophet, not know that this woman is a sinner?"

Let us think about the woman's perspective for a moment. This woman is a sinner; she is an outcast. The dominant Pharisees condemn her, see her as defiled, see her as incapable of receiving salvation. God is a judge who will punish the wicked: punish them in the afterlife, and also, by His judgment, punish them even in this life. God's people should not forgive this kind of sin, for God's chosen people are pure and from the lineage of Abraham who received the covenant of God. God's people are the people of Israel. As the chosen people, they have the grace of God, who looks over them and rewards them if they obey His commands, but punishes them if they disobey and stray. From her perspective, she knows she is a sinner. All the doors are closed wherever she goes. She has nowhere to go, nowhere to find refuge. Everywhere she goes, she finds condemnation and judgment. She is like a prisoner who cannot escape the chains of sin in her life.

But, she hears of a prophet, one day, who is at a certain house. She searches and tries to find that house because maybe, just maybe, that prophet can give her forgiveness. She enters in desperation, falls at the Lord's feet, and hopes that maybe he will have compassion for her. Unlike the house of the Pharisees, Jesus forgives her. For the Pharisees are self-righteous, thinking that they have pureness, pure lineage -- they follow the commandments of Moses and abide by the Law -- but they are arrogant. They think they are pure, when even the most righteous person in all of the universe is still a sinner before the throne and perfection of God.

I have the opportunity to work with a variety of people and professionals from many different organizations that we manage, various providential organizations. We work with Peace Ambassadors, VIP's and business people at the Chedan. I work with ministers and priests, and I also work with Blessed Children who fell away in their younger years, but developed their professional life and have returned to help develop the church again. They have found forgiveness; they have repented before True Parents and have been forgiven.

It is always so disheartening and disappointing when we hear people who criticize the brothers and sisters who have had difficulties in their lives, but who come back in repentance and humility, and even receive the forgiveness of True Parents. Still, we have many righteous individuals who say, "Those sinners should not be working in the World Headquarters or in those providential organizations."

But, what is it that makes us truly sanctified? Personally -- I can speak for myself -- in my own life, I received the Blessing of True Parents. I did not date before the Blessing. I did not have an issue with drinking, smoking, or drugs. Personally, I followed the laws and commandments that True Parents gave us. However, I am not arrogant enough to say that I am perfect. I am not willing to say that I am flawless before the throne of God. When I look at my own life, I know I have lied in my life. I remember when I was a young kid, I stole candy from the Brookside Deli, a small store near East Garden. Yes! I committed thievery, stole some. Now and Later candy, Three Musketeers, whatever it was. I have also, in my life, been jealous of people. Envious! I also have hate and resentment in my heart towards other people. I wanted some other people to fail. I am guilty of breaking God's commandment. God teaches us not to lie, not to steal, not to bear false witness or not to have hatred towards others. I have broken those commandments. Even though I have fulfilled the laws that True Parents have given us, I am still a sinner before the crown of Heaven. Just because I received the Blessing and never fell does not mean I am not a sinner.

The fact of the matter is that when we look at our lives, any of us, we can know there is no one who can say they are stainless. Even if you live the perfect life, from the Principle perspective we know that we have individual, collective, and hereditary sin. Even though we do not have original sin, we can still have all the collective sin of society. The worst sin is hubris and self-righteousness. It is the sin that created the Fall. If you think about the fall, before the actual fall of man, what happened in the inner mind of Satan? He became arrogant. He thought he was the purest of the angels, the greatest among them. He thought he was so great that he could control and judge the children of God. It was arrogance and self-righteousness that was the cause of the disobedience to God, and the result was the tempting of Adam and Eve. We must remember that no one is perfect before the perfection of God.

We follow the laws of True Parents, the laws of purity before we enter into marriage, not because we want some reward, not because we want to get a position in the church, not because we want authority in the church. Those are not reasons why we follow the commandments that True Parents gave to be pure and save ourselves before marriage. We follow those laws to resemble God. We try to be pure because we want to resemble God, not because we have selfish desires to get some promotion. We follow those laws because they are good in and of themselves, not because they have some particular reward. We follow those laws so that when we marry, we can give our spouse that pure heart and pure love. That is the greatest gift. We do not do it for reward and authority and power. This is not the right way to see True Parents.

Let us now move on to the next portion of Luke chapter 7, verses 40 to 43. Let us read together:

40 Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." "Tell me, teacher," he said.

41 "Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.

42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he cancelled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"

43 Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said.

Aju!

Recently, True Parents held the Ascension Ceremony in four cities around Korea and in several cities in America. Last week, we were in Cheongju, about two hours from Seoul. The ascension funeral ceremony was at two o'clock in the afternoon, so we were able to have lunch with True Parents. I asked True Parents a very, very important question: "Father, because we are second generation, we have no original sin. Because we have no original sin, and we have the transfer of lineage, does that mean that we automatically go to the kingdom of heaven?" Father answered very clearly, "Absolutely not!"

From the Principle perspective, we have not only the original sin to deal with. Everybody -- second generation, third generation, 100th generation -- we all have individual sin that we accumulate on a day-to-day basis, from our thoughts, mind, words, actions. We also accumulate collective sin. When the society is participating in something immoral, then we, also, will receive collective sin. There is hereditary sin. No matter how you look at it, we have sin. We cannot go around self-righteously judging others in the church who have received forgiveness from True Parents to prove to ourselves that we are purer or better than them. That is not the way. This is very basic in religion.

I have many Christian friends, Catholic friends, and Buddhist friends. When Christians and Catholics are growing up, they are taught by their teachers: "You are sinners, you commit sin." They are taught that from a very young age. Buddhists are also taught from a very young age: "In many of your past lives you have been murderers or rapists and have done all sorts of evil. The negative actions you have committed in the past, karma, is a part of you now." This is found not only in the monotheistic traditions, I want to add. Wherever you go, the most basic, fundamental thing that we learn in the faith traditions is that we are imperfect before Heaven. We have flaws and stains.

However, very interestingly, when I was growing up as a blessed child, and a True Child, we were never told, even once, that we were sinners. We were never told that, "You are sinners before God"; "You need to repent"; "You need to make God a part of your life personally"; "You need make the decision to come to Him." We were never told that. We learned that we were pure children, children of God with no original sin, blessed children. And so, we could quickly come to believe that we were very great, without really having accomplished much. I know this was the case for myself.

I remember when I was in high school; I was quite a fanatic about martial arts. I loved Bruce Lee! I had so many posters of Bruce Lee. Sun Jin-na knows that. I loved martial arts -- I was crazy about martial arts, so crazy! Every day, all I thought about (of course I did not like studying at that time) was martial arts training. I loved it! I obeyed True Parents' commands. I trained in martial arts, since it is connected to the whole tradition of monasticism and Buddhism from the Shaolin Temple. Then it was very easy for me to keep a sort of monastic regimen -- keep myself pure, no drinking, no smoking, no drugs, no dating, all these things, because the monks do that way. I love the Chinese martial arts, and all sorts of martial arts.

However, there was one thing. I abided by all the laws that True Parents gave, but I was so arrogant! I was such an arrogant high school student, not a nice student. Because of my martial arts, the kids were scared of me. Many times, I used to go around and check on them, sometimes threaten them, in a healthy way. But I was a very arrogant person when I was in high school. Very arrogant. I followed all the commandments, but I was so arrogant.

In my arrogance, I believed that, because I followed the laws that True Parents gave, members should respect me. They should respect me because I followed the law of True Parents. I did not fall, did not drink or smoke, those types of things, so they must respect me. That kind of arrogance was real in my mind. I remember a situation when True Father forgave somebody. I saw that situation and thought, "How could he do that? I work so hard to follow the commandments of True Parents, but that person -- totally breaking the commandments, and being forgiven by True Parents -- what is this? This is unfair! Why did he make the commandments in the first place?" I saw this, but I did not understand it at the time.

But after my own studies in religion, spending time with the religious traditions, training, and then also becoming a parent, I realized that Father was able to differentiate between the sin and the sinner, which I was not able to do. In my self-righteousness and arrogance, I thought that the sinner was the sin and the sin was the sinner. I could not differentiate between them. Because a person had sinned, he was fallen and evil, he was sinful.

I remember one time with my little baby boy... There's a white wall in True Parents' house -- you're not allowed to draw with a permanent marker on a white wall in True Parents' house (laughter) -- and my little baby boy was having a fantastic time drawing Nemo and all sorts of fish and things on those walls (laughter). When we saw that little child, would we, as parents, look at him and say, "That evil child! You are an EVIL child. That is EVIL. You are BAD boy, BAD BOY, BAD BOY!"? The first thing that good parents will do is differentiate between the sin and the sinner. They will not judge the child. They will say, "That action is no good. Baby, baby, that action is no good. Let's fix that action. Mommy always loves you, Daddy always loves you, but that action is no good."

What is happening? This is differentiating between the sin and the sinner. This is basic parenting. When you have children, you have to keep this in mind. It is very important. I realized that is what True Parents were able to do. They were able to see what I could not see. I thought that the sin was the sinner, the sinner was the sin. When I became a parent, I realized there is a difference. We don't have to compromise on our opposition towards sin. We can still hate the sin. But we must be able, as a parent, to forgive the sinner.

And so, if we have received forgiveness from True Parents; if, even though we may have followed all the laws, we are, like me, a sinner before the throne of God, then we have been forgiven and given the grace to approach them through the love and victory, the deaths of True Parents, the path of blood they had to walk to pay for that. And if we have received that forgiveness, then it is also our part, as the community, to extend that type of compassion to our brothers and sisters who have also had troubles in their lives. When new members who have had all sorts of troubles in their lives, come to True Parents in repentance and find forgiveness, it is not our place, like Simon the Pharisee, to judge, when Jesus had forgiven.

Now some may say, "Oh well, I'm going to be forgiven anyway, so I might as well sin, repent and be forgiven, and sin and repent and be forgiven, and sin and repent and be forgiven. Might as well do that, then. I heard Hyung Jin Nim say we're going to be forgiven, so I might as well sin." But then I have to ask you some questions. Number one: Will you truly be happy living as such, in the long run? When you go to the spirit world and your life is completely on display, transparently before all the spirits? Even though you may have been forgiven before God and True Parents, is it possible to think that every single spirit will also forgive you? When we go to this transparent world, when people realize that we have used grace for our own selfish purposes, for our own pleasure, used the sacrifice that had to be paid to free us from that sin, simply used it as a free ticket to sin, then won't we receive some kind of condemnation from our ancestors? You see, it's very often that people mistake grace and forgiveness as the ticket to sin, but that is completely false. Grace is the ticket from sin, to be free from it, not to indulge in it. That is why the debt of sin has to be paid.

Whatever religious system you look at, whether it be reincarnation or eternal life, there is debt, and that debt must be paid; whether it be in multiple lifetimes or the lifetime eternal, we have to pay the price. There is no free lunch. It is the most basic economic principle and a spiritual principle as well. That is why we need to understand, and myself I need to understand, even though I follow and obey the laws of True Parents. When I realized and admitted that still I was a sinner, then I could embrace True Parents as my Lord and Savior. Only a sinner needs a savior. If I'm perfect, without sin, I don't need a savior, I don't need True Parents; I can turn my back. They're useless to me, they're just a teacher that my parents follow.

But I am a sinner; I may have followed all the big laws, but I am still a sinner. Even if we follow all the big laws to perfection, because we are fallible human beings, we sin, even in small ways. This is the price that True Parents had to pay: the price of the seven deaths and resurrections, going through the imprisonments and the sufferings and the tortures, descending into hells so that we could be free from our eternal price. When I realized that, then I could accept True Parents into my heart as the Lord and Savior who saves me from sin, frees me from sin and gives me eternal life.

Let's look at the final portion of Luke chapter 7. This is very powerful. This is Luke 7:44-48. Let's read this together:

"Then he turned towards the woman and said to Simon, 'Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet. But she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. Do you not give me a kiss? But this woman, from the time I entered has not stopped kissing my feet. Do you not put oil on my head? But she poured perfume on my feet. Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, for she loved so much. But he who has been forgiven little, loved little.' Then Jesus said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven.'"

Aju.

To truly know freedom and to truly appreciate it, you must understand what was paid for that freedom. Ironically, if you know that you are a prisoner to sin, then you are freed from it; you can taste the sweetness and wonder of that freedom. You don't want to go back to the sin. The woman in this chapter of Luke knew what it was like to be a sinner. She lived that life condemned by society, outcast. But Jesus acknowledged her adoration for him. He tells Simon that even though Simon is the one who invited him, who calls him teacher, who is his disciple whom he has healed, that he does not compare to this sinner. Simon did not wash Jesus' feet, but she did. Simon did not greet Jesus with a gift but she kept kissing his feet, the lowest part.

In the Indian and Middle Eastern traditions, because they walked around with sandals and bare feet, the feet were the dirtiest part. So kissing the feet is a common tradition in India as well. But she kissed the feet. Simon did not anoint Jesus with oil, but she anointed his feet with expensive perfume. So, Jesus says to her, her many sins are forgiven for she loved much. He acknowledges her love. Notice that the disciple was condemned here. He condemned the sinner, the woman who was the outcast, but Jesus did the opposite. Jesus condemned the self-righteous disciple.

When we look at the story, we can draw a parallel to our own church. Simon is the disciple, like our Unificationists, our blessed families, blessed children who serve the Lord of the Second Advent. We think we are righteous because we follow him. The woman is like a new member or a blessed child who has fallen away but returns and repents. The disciple, in arrogance, judges the new member. In his heart, he believes he is better than him, morally higher. But the Lord reminds us not to be such people. Here, the new member shows greater love and reveals the fact that the older member is not really serving the Lord even though he says he believes in him.

The old member is not even giving water to the Lord's feet, but the new member is washing the Lord's feet with her tears. The old member does not greet the Lord with praise and gifts, but the new member greets the Lord at his feet, thanking him, kissing his feet. The old member is not even anointing the head, the cleanest, most holy part of the person, but the new member is anointing the dirtiest part, the feet, with expensive perfume. Notice that Jesus makes Simon realize that even though he was self-righteous and thought he was so piously following the Lord, that he was not even better than the sinner that he condemned.

Next week, True Parents will be giving a speech during the Seunghwa Ascension ceremony in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is known as Sin City. It is probably the most sinful city in the world, the most decadent… everything goes. But True Parents are entering into Las Vegas and they're doing the Seunghwa Ascension ceremony. They're shouting out to Las Vegas. They're telling Las Vegas, with all the sin that is there, that there is an afterlife, that we have to think about the life after death; that we all will die one day; that we may seek the fleeting pleasures, the 'lights of Vegas', but in the end we all die and pass away. Father is reminding the whole city, America, and the world that we will die one day. We must think of our eternal life.

Father, at the same time, is reminding us, those who believe and follow him, to not become self-righteous ourselves. To remember that we, too, go to Heaven and our lives are transparent before the world. If we have condemned much, we will also receive condemnation. In the Seunghwa Ascension speech, True Father said an incredible, striking thing, a thing we haven't heard a lot in our movement. He says that it is not enough that you receive the Blessing, the transference of lineage, which we saw as the primary, holy sanctification that you have to go through as Unificationists.

The transference of lineage, this beginning of a true family, blessed family; Father says that is not enough. But until the day that we ascend, until our Seunghwa Shik Ceremony, we cannot enter the realm of Heaven. He's reminding us all, even if we think we're perfect, even if we've obeyed all the commandments, to not fall into the hubris of the Archangel. We all need to repent. We all need to live a life that testifies to the Lord, and to True Parents, not just as our spiritual parents, but as our Lord and Savior, because we have sinned and we need a savior. This Savior who frees us from the chains of sin; who pays the price to ransom us from individual, to family, to tribe, to universal level; who brings deliverance and salvation and gives us eternal life, with God's love… God's grace. This is amazing! Let's give it up for True Parents! Let's give it up for their incredible grace! (Applause)

This is why I love the song that the Two Rivers Choir sang, 'This is what it means to be free'! If you don't believe you're a sinner, you're not going to know the power of that song. But if you know that you're a sinner and you need a savior and you need forgiveness, you're going to know the power of that song. You're going to feel what it means to be free, that mercy gives you the wings to soar like the eagle, the freedom not to sin but the freedom from sin. That's totally different.

I want to end with True Father's words that he's going to give in his speech in the Seunghwa Ascension Ceremony next week. Let's read this last portion together:

'No one born in today's world, without receiving the Marriage Blessing and Seunghwa Blessing which I give freely as the True Parent bridging the divide between God and humankind, which came to be as a result of the fall of the first human ancestors. Please take this point seriously. In this age God has proclaimed the Heavenly Calendar. It is a serious time. Now is a time in which all 6.5 billion in the world must understand my teachings that I bequeath as the True Parent who is responsible to give eternal life to all of humankind.'

Aju.

Hyung Jin Nim reads True Father's and True Mother's prayer.

Let's bow our heads in a final prayer. Let us raise our hands towards the heavens. Let us offer our prayers.

Dearest, most beloved Heavenly Parents, we thank you so much that you are present here in our midst, that you are here with your incredible grace and mercy. That you give us freedom from sin, that you give us new life. You gave us sight when we were blind. You give us new life and resurrection from death. Father, we want to thank you this day because it is when we recognize that, no matter how perfect or self-righteous we were, that before the throne of God, we are all sinners. When we recognize that fact of humility, we can come before you in necessity, come before you knowing that we need the savior whom you have sent for the salvation of humankind.

Father, it is when we receive the ultimate grace that True Parents have had to walk to pay that price, the grace of True Love and True Life and True Lineage, Father, we can connect to you in the most profound way, the way that you wanted from the beginning of time. Father, we pray that we can be those original ancestors, be the kind of apostles who see and understand the value of the Christ who has returned and can be those apostles who go out and proclaim, who no longer fear the masses but who are strong in faith and in love and in your grace.

We thank you so much, for we have been forgiven by you, and Father, we want to offer our gratitude this day. We want to bow down before you, before True Parents who had to walk the physical life to pay that indemnity and we want to offer grace and thanks to them. Father, we thank you this day. We now realize why it is you who gives us freedom and why you are a God of freedom. Through your grace, we have freedom, not to sin, but we have the freedom from sin. Father we pray that you may anoint us this day. Bless us this day and let us become greater and greater children for the glory of your sake. We pray these things in our own names, as Central Blessed Families, in the name of True Parents.

Aju.

Notes:

Luke, chapter 7

1: After he had ended all his sayings in the hearing of the people he entered Caper'na-um.

2: Now a centurion had a slave who was dear to him, who was sick and at the point of death.

3: When he heard of Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his slave.

4: And when they came to Jesus, they besought him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy to have you do this for him,

5: for he loves our nation, and he built us our synagogue."

6: And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof;

7: therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed.

8: For I am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, `Go,' and he goes; and to another, `Come,' and he comes; and to my slave, `Do this,' and he does it."

9: When Jesus heard this he marveled at him, and turned and said to the multitude that followed him, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."

10: And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave well.

11: Soon afterward he went to a city called Na'in, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him.

12: As he drew near to the gate of the city, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a large crowd from the city was with her.

13: And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, "Do not weep."

14: And he came and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, "Young man, I say to you, arise."

15: And the dead man sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother.

16: Fear seized them all; and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has arisen among us!" and "God has visited his people!"

17: And this report concerning him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

18: The disciples of John told him of all these things.

19: And John, calling to him two of his disciples, sent them to the Lord, saying, "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?"

20: And when the men had come to him, they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, `Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?'"

21: In that hour he cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many that were blind he bestowed sight.

22: And he answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.

23: And blessed is he who takes no offense at me."

24: When the messengers of John had gone, he began to speak to the crowds concerning John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to behold? A reed shaken by the wind?

25: What then did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in kings' courts.

26: What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

27: This is he of whom it is written, `Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.'

28: I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."

29: (When they heard this all the people and the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John;

30: but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)

31: "To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like?

32: They are like children sitting in the market place and calling to one another, `We piped to you, and you did not dance;

we wailed, and you did not weep.'

33: For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say, `He has a demon.'

34: The Son of man has come eating and drinking; and you say, `Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'

35: Yet wisdom is justified by all her children."

36: One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house, and took his place at table.

37: And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment,

38: and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

39: Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner."

40: And Jesus answering said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." And he answered, "What is it, Teacher?"

41: "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.

42: When they could not pay, he forgave them both. Now which of them will love him more?"

43: Simon answered, "The one, I suppose, to whom he forgave more." And he said to him, "You have judged rightly."

44: Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

45: You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet.

46: You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

47: Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little."

48: And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."

49: Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this, who even forgives sins?"

50: And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."