In Jin Moon
1. In Jin Nim greeted everyone.
2. True Parents are still in Korea, but they will be joining us next week. In Jin Nim wanted to thank the American movement – for coming together in heartistic unity with our True Parents last week to proclaim our loyalty and devotion – taking the courage to stand up for what is the right thing to do as heavenly sons and daughters of God. In Jin Nim asked us to give ourselves a big applause.
3. Every Sunday morning when In Jin Nim gets up and prepares, preparing for the sermon to be shared with the American brothers and sisters, she likes to take time for meditation and reflection – and many times she can feel the spirit of our Heavenly Parent and the spirit of our True Parents with her, all around. And today was no exception.
4. She was thinking about how incredibly blessed we are, to have this man and woman in our lives. This man has gone through incredible odds, incredible suffering, six times in and out of prison. Two times he was thrown out for dead. And by his side every step of the way we have our True Mother.
5. For the first time in history we have this man and woman working together to give their all to save humanity from self-destruction so that they can be the inspired eternal sons and daughters of God – to be that loving and peaceful sons and daughters of God, so that we can welcome a whole new millennium of peace.
6. In Jin Nim realized that in order to be given this chance to call them our father and mother is and incredible, incredible blessing. When she thinks about them and about their lives and all that they have shared – and our True Father is well into his 92'ish of age, but still going strong – the last couple of days he gave Hoon Dok Hae that was 22 hours long. From 5 AM in the morning until 3 AM the next day. Can you imagine a 90 some-year-old man, without a drop of water, talking and giving out his heart, in such a desperate fashion to us brothers and sisters, it is absolutely incredible.
7. When In Jin Nim sat down at the dining room table and took out a box of Special K cereal and she poured some cereal into her bowl, she was enjoying her breakfast time when she began to look at the cereal box. On the box it gives you a guideline or advice on how to manage your health, your weight, and your life. She thought, "Okay, let's see what this Special K. cereal has to say in terms of helping me manage my health."
8. When she thought about the word manage, she thought it quite interesting. The Webster dictionary defines the word manage or management as; 1) something you handle, 2) something that you control, 3) something that you direct. So when you're thinking about managing your life you want to handle your health and your lifestyle. You want to control your health and your lifestyle and also your weight. And you want to direct your health and your lifestyle in a certain way, so that you can be a satisfied and healthy individual.
9. But, when you look at the word 'manage,' – it is made up of two words. In Jin Nim being a woman always asks herself, why is it that certain words have 'man' in there? Why is it that when you want to handle, control, and direct, why is it a masculine word 'man' is in there and 'age'? It is almost as if in order to manage things properly, in order to exercise management of a particular situation, it helps to be a man and it helps to have a bit of age.
10. In Jin Nim thought, as a woman, "I am asked to give a sermon, but why can't a sermon be a her-mon? Why can't history be her-story? Why can't man-age be the woman-youth?" These are the things that go through her mind. She thought, "I want to manage my life, my health, my weight" – by handling the situation, what she takes in, controlling what she eats – directing a certain type of diet or nutrition to follow. But she thought, "if we think about it in a different way, turn the word manage and give it a bit of the feminine, then you can think in terms of – what about a woman-youth-ment of your life or your nutrition or your lifestyle – then perhaps the word 'manage,' that dictates that we handle, we control, and we direct our lives and our health and our weight – could be understood more in a feminine context.
11. For instance the word 'handle' becoming something that you don't just handle, or take care of a certain thing, not just be responsible – but you actually care. So instead of just handling you actually care, you are caring about this precious life that God gave you.
12. And, instead of just controlling your life, instead of being almost a Nazi at meal time – and In Jin Nim has many friends in the industry who go to every lunch and dinner with a calorie chart. It is a program that dictates how much they can eat and how much they cannot eat. It is great to have a guide, but to have something that is totally controlling your life – your life must be really quite miserable.
13. A lot of In Jin Nim's friends are incredibly beautiful and handsome, but controlled by this computer, or controlled by this little measurement chart – they are uncomfortably unhappy. Instead of controlling one's life – what about guiding it in such a way that these are the guidelines that one follows to have a healthy lifestyle, to have a weight that one is satisfied with – to have a lifestyle that one is satisfied with. But, instead of this feeling – we have to totally control everything about us because we are so awful. What about enjoying a little, allowing God into our lives? Know the rules that are going to yield us a great body and a healthy body and at the same time, use it as a guide, in that we allow the flexibilities of everyday life to entertain us, to perhaps inspire us in ways that we have never been inspired before.
14. And, instead of managing our lifestyle, in terms of direct aid or commanding – what about if you think of the word manage and turn it around and use the word woman-youth. And instead of directing or commanding, what if we embrace and focus on what we want to accomplish in our lives.
15. Basically you are doing the same thing. You are taking charge of your life, you are being responsible for your life – wanting a healthy lifestyle, wanting a great weight that we can be comfortable with. But by infusing a bit of the feminine life becomes much more beautiful, compassionate, and holistic. This is really the beauty of having a living paradigm of true love with us in the personification of our True Parents, a man and a woman. You don't just have the masculine manage, you also have the female, the woman-youth. But perhaps with a bit of love, compassion, and guidance, we might get there faster. We might reach our goals more effectively. And our results might be more long-lasting, in that it is something that we can realistically live with and grow with and learn from.
16. One of the great things about being the senior pastor is that In Jin Nim can spend wonderful time with lots of young people.
17. The most interesting thing for In Jin Nim is to get a group, such as an elementary age group, men and women to be, beautiful bright eyed little girls and boys – and ask them very simple questions. When In Jin Nim asked a group of elementary school children, "what do you want out of life?" They raise their hands with excitement – Bobby said he wanted happiness. She asked again, what do you want out of life? And a little girl, Mary, said she wanted love. In Jin Nim asked again, and someone answered I want to be successful, I want to be the president of the United States. In Jin Nim asked again and someone said, "I want to be pros-per-ous – did I say it right?"
18. These are the cute responses from a group of elementary school students. Basically, when you ask them a simple question, "What do you want out of life?" They want things that tend to be positive. They want happiness. Happiness is something positive in one's life. They want love. Love is something positive in one's life. They want to be successful – something that is positive in their life, they want to be prosperous – something that is positive in their life.
19. And if you ask kids, "what do you not want to be in life?" Their answers tend to be something that they see to be contrary to what is happiness. For example, if you ask a child, "what do you not want to be?," after asking them what do you want your life to be and they answer "I want to be happy," and then when you ask them what do you not want to be, they will say, I don't want to be sad or miserable.
20. When you ask a child and they respond, I want a loving life, I want love in my life – and when you ask them, "what do you not want in your life?" They will answer, "I don't want hate, I don't want hatred in my life."
21. And when you ask a child, "what do you want to be?" and the child answers "success, I want to be successful"– and you ask, "what do you not want to be?" The child will say I don't want to be a loser. I want to be successful
22. And when a child answers I want to be prosperous in my life, they will answer I don't want to be a failure in my life.
23. When you look at the answers that the kids give, you realize that every human being, every divine human being, eternal sons and daughters of God – we have an idea or a concept of the kind of life we would like to have. And we like that life to have all these wonderful ingredients like happiness, love, success, and prosperity.
24. These are all positive things, and in the course of our lives our goal of wanting something positive in our lives never changes. But, the means of getting there sometimes gets thrown out of whack.
25. One of the things that our True Father and our True Mother teaches over and over again, and the lessons that they have taught In Jin Nim and her brothers and sisters ever since they were little – the positive life cannot be had with a negative mind. In other words, if you want a positive light you have to think positively. If you have the ability to conceive what you want, and that inception of what you want is a positive life, then you have to be willing to believe it or actualize it in your life, by thinking positive thoughts.
26. Because, as the Bible says, "as you thinketh, so you shall be." [Proverbs 23:7 King James version only] In other words, what you think is what you become. So, if you want a positive life we have to think positively. Because if you don't think positively, and think negatively, we cannot get to where we want to go. In other words, we cannot achieve by believing in what we intended, or what we conceived in our mind – which is a positive and happy and loving and a prosperous and a successful live.
27. And this thought led In Jin Nim to a section in the Bible, Zachariah 9:12, it says, "return to the stronghold." It says, "Return to the stronghold you prisoners of hope. Even today, I will declare to (restore to you) double and promise you prosperity.
28. What is the Bible saying, in Zachariah, when it asks all of us to return to the stronghold. It is basically saying, a positive life or all the great things in life that we want – starts with God. And if we don't invite God into our lives, we will wait for everybody else to do the dirty work, or our homework for us, and we become prisoners of our own wishful thinking – and that, because we are constantly waiting, hoping, and wishing – we are not living in the now, we're not living the life and loving the life that God, our Heavenly Parent, bestowed on each and every one of us.
29. Life is a gift and a blessing and every one of us, from every different corner of the world, from different racial, cultural, religious, and economic backgrounds – we are a child of God and therefore God wants us to be happy, wants us to have love, wants us to be successful and prosperous.
30. But we have to be the agent of change. We have to liberate ourselves from ourselves. We are the ones that keep ourselves a prisoner – of constantly waiting and wishing. But, the Bible is saying, "return to the stronghold. Return to God. Return to yourself. Discover the treasure within, discover the mountain that is you, discover the love that is already there.
31. In Jin Nim always thought it was interesting – when you think about positive and negative, the symbol for positive is two lines, a vertical and a horizontal – this is the symbol of the positive. The symbol for negative is just a horizontal line. When In Jin Nim thinks about these two symbols in terms of an attitude, or in terms of a lifestyle, it makes her think about a couple of things. When our life is infused with God, when we have God in our lives – the vertical takes shape, our relationship with our Heavenly Parent – the vertical is there. Then we can concentrate on the great relationships that we can have with each other – with our spouse, our children, and with humanity.
32. But, if we only think about humanity, you will never have this (+). You will never have the compilation of the vertical and the horizontal. Only when you have the vertical and the horizontal, and there is this dynamic give-and-take action, this true-love action that takes place – that is the only way we will have or experience the circular motion or the circle of life – the full and holistic and completed picture of life as God intended for all his eternal sons and daughters.
33. But if we only think about the negative (-) or the horizontal – thinking only about our relationships, in relation to each other, and not think about the vertical relationship that we need to have and maintain with our God, Heavenly Parent, and our True Parents – then we will become ever wider, but never fully taking shape. Human beings are beautiful in that we are made of all that is horizontal and vertical.
34. Watching just a horizontal relationship is almost like taking a water balloon and popping it and watching it flow over a table. The water expands everywhere and covers the whole table, but it will never be that circular water balloon again.
35. We need God in our lives. For us to have the ability to start taking steps into being the kind of a person that we want to be, and if we want a positive lifestyle – well then, we have to have God in their together with our humanity, and this dynamic relationship of truelove, constantly turning, constantly evolving, changing, and growing – and in that way we can become incredible people, sons and daughters of God who are not inhibited by concepts of impossibility, by concepts "I cannot." By concepts of "will not, and should not," but by concepts of, "we can, we will, we shall, we are!" Because we are that awesome son and daughter of God.
36. When you really think about it, and we all want a positive lifestyle, we want all things wonderful, we realize that one of the things for which we must always be on guard, is, how do we tackle this negative mind? How do we tackle this negative mind that is going to interfere with this positive and inspired life that we would all like to build for ourselves?
37. There are a couple of things that come to mind. When people tend to be negative – first and foremost we tend to be negative because we don't have a relationship with God in our lives. We are like this deflated water balloon, forever expanding, but never really finding our mast, or our balance, or our focus. But we realize that, when we want to be great people – there are a couple of things we should always be on the lookout for.
38. One of the things that is always there as a main ingredient of a negative mind is this word called 'doubt'. When you don't have God in your life, many times people do not have God in their lives because we doubt. But if we understand that God is our Heavenly Parent, and if we understand that True Parents are our True Parents, we realize that, when we decide to understand, when we decide to believe, there is this wonderful thing that our mind goes through. Our mind goes through a process of decision-making. When we decide to understand or believe, we are actually deciding to believe, we are deciding to understand.
39. But when you look at the word 'doubt', it is also made up of two words – 'do' 'out'. You are doing out with God. We are doing out with faith. We are doing out with the ability to believe in ourselves as the eternal son and daughter of God who was put on this earth with a divine purpose and a goal – to bring forth beauty, and love, and to share, and be inspired by each other.
40. We realize that when we do out with God, what we are doing is, as it states in one's dictionary – it defines doubt as standing in two ways. You are trying to do two things at the same time. We are trying to be a daughter of God, but at the same time not being a daughter of God. We are trying to be the son of God, but at the same time not being a son of God. It is almost like trying to sit on a fence while your world is falling apart. You have to decide what to believe in. You have to decide what your goal in life is.
41. And the great thing about inviting God into your life is that when you decide to invite God, as our Heavenly Parent, in our lives – we realize that everything starts to fall into place. We realize that we as their eternal sons and daughters have a specific purpose and vision in our lives that we must accomplish. And we realize that it is our duty and responsibility, and our honor, to live a life of all true wisdom, serving other people, and living for the sake of others. And then we realize that our life is really the opportunity to be that compassionate son and daughter of God – to tell each other in this cold fragmented, compartmentalized, modern world of today – that we care, that we love, that we believe, that God cares, God loves, God believes in us. And we realize that we can be that excellent man and woman of God, not just being defined by internal characteristics, but if we are truly beautiful men and woman of God exhibiting the moral character that is so fundamental to a person of integrity – then everything that person does will become blessed, will become anointed, will become touched by heavenly fortune – and we see it happen again and again in the lives of our True Parents. Regardless how many people have mistreated them, persecuted them, and accused them of different things left and right – when you are channeling the power of truelove and the divinity within, to be that agent of change, to make the world a better place than when you found it. And not just make the world a better place, but have all of humanity graft onto the true lineage of God through this magic of the Blessing ceremony when we, from all over the world, come together into the common family of God – that is the beauty of our True Parents bringing the gift of the Blessing.
42. How else does black and yellow become one family? How else does Moslem and Catholic become one family? How else does a princess become one family with a popper? It is the magic of the Blessing. The magic of the Blessing that our True Parents bring to all of us – that reminds humanity, we need each other, we are dependent, interdependent on each other. And we need to work together to build this world of peace.
43. And our True Parents are here to say that it starts with all of us. It starts with a decision to believe. It starts with a decision to understand and to love.
44. We realize that when we are plagued with negative thinking, it is this word 'doubt' that always leaves us stranded and straddled in this almost state of abeyance, where we are neither black or white, light nor dark, we don't know who we are. But if we bring God into our lives, then the focus becomes clear.
45. Another main ingredient of negative thinking that prevents us from a positive life style is this word called 'worry.' To an Asian ear the word worry is interesting. The first word 'wor' sounds like war. It is the battlefield of the mind. When you worry you are constantly at war with your own mind or with yourself. The Bible says the peace depends on the spirit, on the fruit of the spirit [Gal:5:22]. But when you are at war with yourself in your mind, what you have is not peace, but you have war. War becomes the fruit of your spirit.
46. What God is asking all of us to do is to believe in God. Take your worries aside. Stop fighting with yourself. Stop being that control freak that needs everything figured out. Leave room for God to work his/her mysterious magic in our lives. Give ourselves to God. Let ourselves go to God. That is what our Heavenly Parent is waiting for us to do.
47. If we look at another main ingredient in the negative mind, not only is it filled with doubt and worry, but the next main ingredient of a negative mind is self-pity. "Poor, poor, pitiful me. I am a victim of my circumstances, of my family, of my society, and of my economic class." But, if we understand ourselves, by inviting God into our lives, if we understand that God is our Heavenly Parent and we are His and Her eternal divine sons and daughters of God – we realize that whatever situation we were placed in, it is not an end or goal of our lives. Sometimes God puts us in very, very difficult situations, because God knows that with the belief in who we are, as God's eternal sons and daughters, knowing that we are divinely gifted, knowing that we are creative, strong individuals – God knows that if we have the power to believe in God and believe in ourselves, it doesn't matter whether we were born in the poor streets of New Delhi, it does not matter whether we were born in one of the rooms of the White House, it does not matter if we were born as one of these girls who are bound to be sold as slaves to human trafficking – if we can recognize the divinity within and realize that life has a purpose we will find strength within ourselves to pull ourselves up with our bootstraps and become the beautiful image, the beautiful person, the eternal sons and daughters that God is waiting for us to be.
48. We realize that once we invite God into our lives, we don't just have to handle doubt, we don't just have to control our worry, we don't just have to direct or command our self-pity away, and therefore manage our lives – but we realize when we invite God back into our lives, we realize that we can replace doubt with an understanding of who we are – as incredible sons or daughters of God. Instead of doubt, we as those eternal sons and daughter of God, we can respond with heart. We can decide to respond with heart. Instead of doubting all the most important things in our lives, and therefore doubting the possibility that we can be happy and we can have love, that we can be successful, and prosperous. Instead of doubting, that we can have a positive life at all – if we get rid of the negative mind and respond with our heart, and responding with our heart means – not responding with our ego or our head or all the hurt we experienced in our lifetime, but truly responding with our heart – then we can do incredible things.
49. And, we realize, instead of being consumed negatively by this thing called worry – we are so at war with ourselves we can never accomplish anything meaningful in our lives. But what God is asking us to do is to respond with heart, number one, and number two, open up yourself. Don't be afraid. Stop worrying. Stop being the prisoners of hope – in that we don't see ourselves as our own agent of change. We are stuck in the prison that we created for ourselves. Get rid of the fears. Open yourself up, even though it might be scary – making yourself vulnerable to another person is incredibly scary, but only by doing so do you earn the trust of another person and therefore get the same in return and experience the most deep and profound and enduring love that you ever experienced in your lifetime. We need to open ourselves up to God.
50. And instead of being consumed negatively by this concept of self-pity, we need to transition ourselves into thinking about, "How do we respond to doubt with heart? How do we overcome worry by deciding to believe in opening ourselves up to God and all that good that is waiting for us?" And thirdly, instead of being consumed by self-pity, we need to concentrate on "how do we concentrate with the arrow pointing in, because that is what we are doing when we say, "poor poor me, poor victim me," the arrow is pointing inward. What we need to do is to point the arrow outward. "Yes, my life and my situation may not be ideal, but what can I do to help other people who are maybe less fortunate than I, who have less food than I, who experience less love than I do?"
51. By turning the arrow outward and concentrating on how we can serve others, how we can take care of others – this negative mind of suffering under the poor poor me, or the victim mentality, gives way to a new understanding of life that, regardless of what we are going through there is still this divine person wanting to come out, wanting to express him or herself in a great and inspired way. So, what can I do to inspire, serve, or love another person? Then we realize that when we respond with heart and not with our ego or my ego or our head or all the things that have hurt us along the way, but when we respond with heart we realize that we begin our life – in that we decided, and we begin to care.
52. When we decide to let go of our worry and to open ourselves up to God and to his/her mysterious workings in every day of our lives, we realize that we are leaving ourselves open for God, our Heavenly Parent, to guide us in many, many ways that perhaps we never thought about before.
53. We realize that instead of just thinking about ourselves, self-pity, we realize that if we lived our lives, living for the sake of others, we realize that with God in our lives we begin to live a life where we embrace everything around us, a life where we embrace and we are focused on what we need to accomplish, what we need to do with our life to leave this world a beautiful place.
54. "When our True Father and True Mother teach that the family is the cornerstone for every great Society, nation, and world, it is so poignant and so profound, because we realize that every family, the responsibility of every building block, or family, depends upon you and me. The positive life that we want depends upon you and me."
55. When the Bible, in Zachariah 9:12 says "return to the stronghold," the Bible is asking us to return to that mountain. A positive life is like a mountain. God placed each mountain in each and every one of us – in that we are always thinking, "oh, we need to go out to climb the mountain. We need to find love, we need to seek love, we need to strive for love." But what God is saying, is that that rich reservoir of love, like a mountain that you have been striving for, looking for, and in pursuit of finding, is nowhere other than in all of you. The mountain and the love and everything that we seek is in each and every one of us. It is not without. It's not love that you are going to find. The whole meaning of true love is, when you truly love someone you don't get married because you want that person to complete you. You get married or blessed because you want to share your love to the person, you want to give your love to the person. And if the other person has a likeminded vision and goal, then you can develop into a beautiful family and create an environment that is incredibly conducive to successful and prosperous children – and loving and happy children.
56. In a way, our True Parents come to liberate us from this whole concept that Christian piety has shared with us all around the world. Because, had Jesus not been crucified on the cross, had he had the opportunity to fulfill his mission, he would have gone on to find that beautiful wife, to create a beautiful family as a living testament of God, as a living paradigm of true love. And he would've inspired all of humanity to love each other as belonging to one family of God. What Rev. Moon is famous for the world over, all these mass weddings – blessing people, is exactly what Jesus Christ would have done 2000 years ago had he not been crucified on the cross. And, had he had a wife, we realize that the paradigm of Christian piety is not just to live a life of denial, sacrifice, and misery, but actually when you see the completed picture we realize that Jesus came to be the Lord of all lords, the King of Kings, he came to show us how to love life, how to love each other.
57. He didn't come just to show us how to be a miserable and sacrificial Christian. He came to teach us how to be a great father, how to be a great husband, how to be a great son, and a great brother – and with a beautiful wife in place we would have seen and experienced how we can be a beautiful mother, a beautiful daughter, and a beautiful sister. In this way we would have had the completed picture of how we as true Christians should live a life being fulfilled, having happiness, love, success, and prosperity that many, many good Christians have denied themselves of because they wanted to live a life of Christian piety. But if we understand Jesus' mission, what he could've been, and what he really came to do, and not the fragmented or the cut version of what Jesus' life was all about, we realize that he was supposed to have a beautiful loving relationship with his wife so that we could see what a loving relationship is like. He was supposed to raise beautiful children, and just like you and me – to create an ideal family is not a walk in the park. Building an ideal family is one of the hardest things to do. Ideal family means – I am committed to deal with my family issues, to deal with my spouse, to deal with my children, to deal with all my in-laws and relatives, and somehow create this beautiful family that is going to be the cornerstone, the building block of this great and peaceful world that we so long for.
58. This is the reason our True Parents are so precious to all of us, because they are that living model. And the incredible thing about them is, regardless of what happens in their life – they don't allow room for doubt, for worry, or for self-pity. They are truly a man and a woman who have been the paradigm of what it is and what it means to respond with heart, to really open yourself up to the whole world – whether the world understands you or not, to open yourself up, to be courageous enough to share the truth, to be courageous enough to be the prophet – to make people uncomfortable and to help them wake up.
59. Rev Moon, our True Parents, come, not to make us feel good about ourselves, but to remind us that we can be better if we work a little bit harder. They come to sometimes make us feel uncomfortable at times because they know that we can be so much more. And they have truly been the kind of woman and man who have given of themselves ceaselessly to the mission – over and over again.
60. In Jin Nim has five beautiful children. Her oldest is finishing up his graduate degree at the London school of Economics and her second and third child, (her second son and her only daughter, Ariana), have just graduated from Harvard and are engaged in public service. And she has Truston and Paxton who are still looking towards their college years. One of the things that In Jin Nim taught her children, from a very, very young age, is the word 'thank you' and the word 'awesome'. When they were very little she told them, "We have God as our Heavenly Parent. Isn't that awesome?" And they would say 'awtome awtome.' They would look at pictures of True Parents and say, "awtome" and they would look at pictures of our brothers and sisters, pictures of Yankee Stadium and Washington monument, True Father at the inauguration of the Washington Times, Father cutting ribbons at the hospital in Japan, on and on and on – all the things that their grandfather and grandmother have done to promote this interface dialogue, to promote understanding that we belong to the same parent – and her kids would say "awtome, awtome"
61. And In Jin Nim thought how fitting. Here we are closing off the month of September looking towards October. We are in this season of autumn. This really ought to be a season of awesome – in that, not only is our Heavenly Parent 'autumn,' but our True Parents are 'autumn' too, and we as their children, by default, means that we are 'autumn' too – in that we are that awesome son and daughter of God. The only thing that is holding us back and keeping us a prisoner of hope, wanting something that is out there, constantly waiting and hoping for something that is out there, not realizing that we are that awesome son and daughter of God, we are that mountain that we are climbing each and every day. So, one day we are going to be standing on the top, truly inspired and truly enjoying all the things that our Heavenly Parent has blessed us with.
62. All we need to do is, each day, continually walk up that mountain. Because, in our effort to be better people – we have to realize that we cannot have a positive life without being one with God, we have to be one with God, we have to have God in our lives – in order to have a positive life. Because, when we have God in our lives we have a positive mind and our mind determines our actions, it determines our outlook. Our mind determines what all the possibilities, what are the opportunities – as opposed to what are the hindrances, or the obstacles, or what are the potential setbacks or failures.
63. And even if we feel that sometimes life has a way of having us experience a setback, that is just preparation for a greater comeback.
64. "Brothers and sisters, this is an anointed time, this is a blessed time, you are living and breathing and walking with our True Parents, so go inspired and go with a grateful heart in knowing that we are God's eternal sons and daughters! God bless!"
Notes:
Proverbs Chapter 23 [King James translation only]
1: When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:
2: And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
3: Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.
4: Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.
5: Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
6: Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:
7: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
8: The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.
9: Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
10: Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
11: For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.
12: Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
13: Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
14: Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
15: My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
16: Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
17: Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
18: For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
19: Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
20: Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
21: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
22: Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
23: Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24: The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
25: Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.
26: My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
27: For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
28: She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.
29: Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
30: They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
31: Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
32: At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
33: Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
34: Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
35: They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
Zechariah, chapter 9
1: An Oracle The word of the LORD is against the land of Hadrach
and will rest upon Damascus.
For to the LORD belong the cities of Aram,
even as all the tribes of Israel;2: Hamath also, which borders thereon,
Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise.3: Tyre has built herself a rampart,
and heaped up silver like dust,
and gold like the dirt of the streets.4: But lo, the Lord will strip her of her possessions
and hurl her wealth into the sea,
and she shall be devoured by fire.5: Ash'kelon shall see it, and be afraid;
Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish;
Ekron also, because its hopes are confounded.
The king shall perish from Gaza;
Ash'kelon shall be uninhabited;6: a mongrel people shall dwell in Ashdod;
and I will make an end of the pride of Philistia.7: I will take away its blood from its mouth,
and its abominations from between its teeth;
it too shall be a remnant for our God;
it shall be like a clan in Judah,
and Ekron shall be like the Jeb'usites.8: Then I will encamp at my house as a guard,
so that none shall march to and fro;
no oppressor shall again overrun them,
for now I see with my own eyes.9: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on an ass,
on a colt the foal of an ass.10: I will cut off the chariot from E'phraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall command peace to the nations;
his dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.11: As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will set your captives free from the waterless pit.12: Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
today I declare that I will restore to you double.13: For I have bent Judah as my bow;
I have made E'phraim its arrow.
I will brandish your sons, O Zion,
over your sons, O Greece,
and wield you like a warrior's sword.14: Then the LORD will appear over them,
and his arrow go forth like lightning;
the Lord GOD will sound the trumpet,
and march forth in the whirlwinds of the south.15: The LORD of hosts will protect them,
and they shall devour and tread down the slingers;
and they shall drink their blood like wine,
and be full like a bowl,
drenched like the corners of the altar.16: On that day the LORD their God will save them
for they are the flock of his people;
for like the jewels of a crown
they shall shine on his land.17: Yea, how good and how fair it shall be!
Grain shall make the young men flourish,
and new wine the maidens.Galatians, chapter 5
1: For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
2: Now I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
3: I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law.
4: You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.
5: For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness.
6: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love.
7: You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?
8: This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
9: A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
10: I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine; and he who is troubling you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.
11: But if I, brethren, still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the stumbling block of the cross has been removed.
12: I wish those who unsettle you would mutilate themselves!
13: For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.
14: For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
15: But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another.
16: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.
17: For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would.
18: But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.
19: Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness,
20: idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit,
21: envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23: gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.
24: And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25: If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
26: Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.