Revitalize your Relationship

Revitalize your Relationship

Divine Principle Unleashed Video Lecture Contest!

In Jin Moon
February 21 2011

Got an undiscovered talent for teaching? Spend 20-30 minutes in front of the camera -- change the world! Enter Lovin' Life's contest online by March 25. First prize: $500! 

Sermon Notes Feb 20, 2011

In Jin Moon

1) In Jin Nim expressed how good it is to be back in America.

2) Since coming back, we have many things to think about looking forward to the new year in the Lovin Life Ministry.

3) She expressed how delighted she is to have all the District Pastors who've come from all around the country. She asked them to stand and be recognized. She knows that we are all thinking, "where are the ladies in the group?" It's a work in progress. At least you have a woman senior pastor to compensate for it.

4) It's fantastic to come together at the beginning of the year to revisit the vision that we have for America -- stressing the importance of working together as one unified whole, as one body representing our True Parents (True Parents). When they (District Pastors) go back to their different regions she encouraged them to fully unite with what is happening here at headquarters. We cannot do our job if we do not have their support just as they cannot do their job to the best of their abilities if they do not have our support.

5) So, working together and appreciating each other and knowing that God works in mysterious ways all the time, and sometimes God sends you somebody to work that might not have been your image of a central figure or senior pastor or your District Director -- but In Jin Nim believes in all things -- sometimes God puts a test in front of us, an obstacle to overcome, because when we overcome it and when we grow through suffering and through trying something new, and experience something we never thought we would experience before, it just deepens our hearts and makes us appreciate the heart of God a whole lot more profoundly.

6) So here we are at the Breaking News time in history, and In Jin Nim often has said that we have to testify to our Parents, about True Parents being with us here today. We should not be silent anymore. As Unificationists we should be proud of who we are because we know who our Heavenly Parent is. We know who we are. We are those divine eternal sons and daughters who were put upon this earth to do great things.

7) In fulfilling our destiny one of the most important things that we need to do is to testify to our True Parents. When our Father first encouraged us to deliver 430 of his autobiographies, a lot of people who have been living in a cocoon of their own families and careers felt a little bit challenged. Many of them have said to In Jin Nim when they started this 430 book delivery of True Father's autobiography they were afraid. They were not sure how people would receive them. They weren't sure if they might throw the book away or throw it back at their face. But they realized that once they united with what True Father was asking them to do -- that great miracles took place. Because they believed in all the great things that could be done. They pushed aside this thing called fear.

8) When Ann Landers, the great advice columnist, was interviewed quite a few years ago she was asked, "Ms. Landers, you give advice to thousands and thousands of people every week -- if you were to tell what was the single most important problem that you spent the most time working through, encouraging people to go through and overcome and deal with -- what would that problem be?"

9) Ms. Landers said -- "that is very simple, without a doubt it is fear."

10) When we look at the Good Book in Isaiah 41:10 it says, "fear not for I am with you." Do not look around in terror and be dismayed. The Bible is incredibly profound in that what it is clearly stating is, "fear not because I am with you."

11) In Jin Nim, having gone through -- and still in the process of discovering who she is and what kind of a person she would like to be -- she is always checking herself, always asking questions.

12) When she heard this statement from Ann Landers about fear she thought about it. And being a mother and a wife and a sister to her siblings, for her, fear represents this inner turmoil that we all go through, and everybody has been through it, and everyone is going through it -- and she is no different from any of us.

13) One of the things that she always reminds herself to watch out for in her daily life and in the work that she has to do, is four points that she always keeps in mind.

14) Many times fear is one of those things that debilitates and totally incapacitates you. Many times men and women, children, teachers, lawyers, and doctors alike are overcome by this fear of failure. In Jin Nim sees, in particular in our movement, this fear of failure as parents, as children of God -- fear of failure in our movement is so engrossing that many times we become petrified, and many times we feel totally squashed with this inability to shake off this fear of failure. In many senses we experience exactly what the Good Book says. We feel this way because we are looking around in terror. We are looking, we are exercising our visual perception. But the Bible highlights the word "look." We are looking at terror and that is why we are afraid -- when really we should be looking at God instead of looking at terror. Instead of being petrified and debilitated, we need to be looking at God.

15) Instead of telling ourselves "We cannot, there is no way" we need to start saying "We can, and we will, and we do," because with God on our side we can be that great son and daughter.

16) One of the great presidents of our great country America -- is the life story of Abraham Lincoln. It is really, in one sense, a story of failure. Starting from the age of 27 he first failed at his business, he lost a seat at the legislature the next year, the next year he lost a second business, then he ran for Congress and lost -- and by the age of 37 he was elected to the Congress, but two years later he was defeated. Then he ran for a Senate seat and was defeated. Then he ran to be the vice president of the United States and he was defeated. And only at the age of 51 he got elected to be the president of the United States.

17) If we were to look at the life of Abraham Lincoln, and cut a slice of his life at age 22 when he failed absolutely at his business -- we might look at this brother and say "Whoa, he kind of looks like a loser. Not much prospects for him. He lost his business and has the gall to for the legislature the next year. This man is really insane." Then, the year after, if we were to look -- he lost again! Can you imagine what the people must have been thinking? This man is either (? out of his mind) or perhaps infused with the spirit, but these are two very, very different extremes. Either you have to give it to the man for having the courage to get up and try again or when you look at snapshots of his life, at these crucial moments when he lost the political race, when he lost the legislature's seat, when he lost his seat in Congress, and was elected but defeated two years later, on and on and on -- basically we are holding up a deck of cards that say failure.

18) But as long as the man continued, as long as he persevered -- the great way we need to understand our life when we look at the example of Abraham Lincoln, is to understand that life helps us through this thing called process. By dealing with the failures, if we can learn and deepen our faith, deepen our understanding and our conviction with our passions that we want to change the world, that we want to do great things -- then these minor setbacks become an incredible impetus to try again and to make incredible strides -- so much so that this man who was known to be a man of failure became one of America's greatest presidents.

19) In Jin Nim gets lots of e-mails as the senior pastor, from lots of parents who are allegedly pulling their hair out. They are saying, "My kids! They feel like failures! My kids are wild!" Well, let's look back 30 years when you first joined the church. You looked quite wild too. In Jin Nim got a taste of what Larry Krishneck may have looked like at the last Halloween party. He looked like something out of Hell's Angels.

20) Sometimes when we become parents we want our children to be perfect, to be angelic -- we don't expect a child to experience colic -- that incessant crying that drives every parent crazy. We don't expect our children to soil their pants, or at least they will do it beautifully (which is not the case). We have all these preconceptions and understandings of what we would like to be and what we would like our children to be.

21) This fear of failure -- the minute the child wants to try on purple hair, or the minute the child wants to listen to 9 Inch Nails, the minute the child doesn't want to come to the service -- the parents feel this incredible sense of failure. But one of the things In Jin Nim likes to tell herself and she likes to share with all the persevering parents in the audience, "Whatever we go through with our loved ones, with our children, how to move them to become that beautiful son and daughter of God will only make us better grandparents. And hopefully by then our children, having experienced the parental heart on their own, will come to appreciate the things that we try to do."

22) In a way parents -- do not be dismayed or discouraged. When In Jin Nim thinks about the words dismayed and discouraged it is interesting. When she hears the word discouraged it is almost as if God is saying to her stop "dissing" your courage. Stop it. Do not be discouraged. And do not be paralyzed by the fear of failure -- looking at a snapshot of your life. Just like Abraham Lincoln, we have a long life ahead and our children have a long life ahead of them. Just because they are trying out things and are seemingly not listening or rebelling in ways we least expected them to -- does not mean that they are a lost cause. We have to believe that they will find their way. As long as we don't allow them to fail, in that we are not going to keep them in bondage to the snapshot of the life they find themselves in, as long as we do not allow them to fail, then they will not fail.

23) Failure becomes a reality only if we accept it. Failure becomes a reality only if we accept it as an indictment or as a finality. But as long as we know that these setbacks and failures are a work in progress towards creating a better and deeper and more loving person -- then we can maintain this positive attitude. Instead of thinking "I can't, I can't, I won't" -- to the thought pattern that says, "I can, and I will and I do."

24) Just as Abraham was a symbol of failure until he became president -- and what would we do without the good Abe? We would not have the Emancipation Proclamation. He was the prevailing image of what America could be, at one of the most important and difficult times in its history. Somebody who is looked at as a total failure might actually be a work in progress -- to become a great man and a woman of God.

25) So In Jin Nim says, and she shares, and she encourages all the young people who might find themselves in a very, very difficult time with their families, with their brothers and sisters -- perhaps with their colleagues and friends -- do not be afraid. God says, "Fear not because I am with you." Do not look around in terror. We are so busy looking that many times we forget to feel, we forget to feel God in our lives.

26) Instead of just relying on our visual perception, in our auditory perception or our olfactory perceptions, we need to remember that we are divine beings and God speaks to us through our hearts. So we have to find God and we have to create a place for God, because when God is by our side there is no fear of failure.

27) The other point that we struggle with in our daily lives, is not just the fear of failure, but this fear of endless changes, life changes. Many people are afraid of change. In fact Pres. Woodrow Wilson said, "If you want to see a set of enemies pop up, just try to do something different. Do something that is different, that is changing the way things used to be done."

28) In Jin Nim remembers when she was trying to encourage our country's need and our movement's need for a love and life Ministry -- and for the need to really unite together and come together at least once a week so that we feel like we are part of one family, we are on the same page, we stand on the same platform -- there was a huge ruckus. There was a great deal of discomfort in not wanting to change, not wanting to try something different. In Jin Nim was a strange looking senior pastor. Maybe she didn't come in a three-piece suit. Maybe she had revolutionary ideas that all seemed to point to failure. Maybe they looked at the senior pastor as this crazy, crazy head coach that did not make any sense. "But the incredible thing about all of you is that at least you gave me a chance, begrudgingly or not. For that I thank you."

29) The history of religion and how the religious worship should take place is very much rooted in history and tradition. Each faith has its own set of rituals, own set of ways of doing things. So when we try something new it might not rub everyone the right way. But In Jin Nim's vision was to invigorate and really inspire the second and third generation that we have lost along the way. Our movement did not take care of our young people. We were reaching out to the outside brothers and sisters without taking care of our own. And if we don't continually do both at the same time there is going to be a vacuum when we are faced and confronted with the reality that these good men sitting here (District Pastors) are approaching 60.

30) We need to think about raising up a whole new generation of young people that are trained and ready and educated for pastoral work. You cannot just put on a three-piece suit and get up on the pulpit and start preaching. You have to have the knowledge of how it is to work with people. You have to have an understanding of how it feels to have a parental heart. So, all these changes that seem revolutionary -- In Jin Nim is not revolutionary at all. By cleaning up house, by raising up our youth for future leadership, we can maintain a very strong foundation and a house, a strong house and a Temple for God and True Parents. And then the work we do becomes icing on the cake

31) Just the fact that all we did, really, in the last year of the Lovin' Life Ministry is to clean house, is to organize the organizational structure of HSA and infuse it with a new vision to take it forward into the next millennium. But a lot of people have said, "Why is love and life not emphasizing witnessing, getting out there going door to door?" Well the world is a different place. A few years ago a lot of us were backpacking around the country. Now young people are backpacking around on the Internet. They are used to a certain visual stimulation that the older folks never had. They are used to advertising companies showing them what is beautiful, what is the thing to be, and they are inundated with all these visual images.

32) If we can't make our ministry attractive to the young people, by also employing media as well as the great message that True Parents bring to the world -- Then we are not being effective at all as a movement.

33) When In Jin Nim asked all the District Directors to really work together with her -- she thought a lot of people felt like, " If we worship with the Lovin' Life Ministry on Sunday what is going to happen to all the pastors?" This question is an interesting one to In Jin Nim. Pastoral work is not just a couple of hours on Sunday. Pastoral work takes place Monday through Sunday. All In Jin Nim is asking for is a couple of hours on Sunday when we can unite as a movement. So that there is a unity of heart in realizing that we are working as one family. There has to be a feeling of unity that, while you are here together with us, brothers and sisters in North Carolina, and in San Diego, and in Alaska -- are sharing the same message. It creates unity of heart which is fundamental [for the work we need to do].

34) So if you really think about it, In Jin Nim is not taking away your pulpit. In fact, she is unleashing you from the bondage of the pulpit. She is saying, "Get out there! I only have one body. I am being pulled left and right around the world, but you as the body of our True Parents can visit and knock on every door of your congregation. Be there as an older brother or older sister to teenage kids who need someone else other than their parents. There is an incredible amount of work that needs to be done."

35) It is like when we try to go for the change -- and our True Father has emphasized the importance of absolute obedience. When he uses the word absolute, what he is saying is take the whole package. When God wants to give you a blessing or gift take the whole package. Many times God wants to bless us and we are saying, "Yes I want your blessing, but just this part, just this part -- not that part."

36) What Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Parent is asking at this time of the Breaking News when it is our responsibility to testify to the world, is to take God's blessing as a total package, and then think about how we are going to do our work around it -- to make it manifest and substantiated in each of our districts and each of our localities.

37) It's amazing to In Jin Nim how when she looks at the different regions -- the regions that have totally taken the Lovin' Life Ministry as a package, it's a whole different atmosphere. But in regions where they've said, "Yes, this is God's blessing, we want this -- not that, maybe not this, maybe this." In a way it takes away from the full package deal that God wants to share with you and with the rest of America.

38) When the senior pastor with the True Family is asking all of you to really be united with our True Parents, because there are a lot of things going on in our movement and a lot of difficulties, especially in light of what is taking place at UCI, it causes us to think twice about what Father means when he says absolute obedience. In Jin Nim has often shared with brothers and sisters that she likes to understand the word obedience as absolutely listening to God's heart.

39) She has often taken notes when different people come up to her and say to her, "Oh, your sermons are getting better." And she wonders if you would go up to any minister in other churches and say something like that. But you feel like that because you look at the True Children as children. But they are not children anymore. They have children of their own and they have a lot of experience that they would like to share with everybody.

40) In a way this one leader confided in In Jin Nim -- "We were reviewing some of the early Lovin' Life services from earlier in the year and we realized that what you were trying to say was incredibly profound. I did not get it at that time, but I get it now." But you have to understand, In Jin Nim did not change. She did not change her approach or her heart. Perhaps it is you that have come to change your hearts and for that she is immensely grateful.

41) As we grow, going through the endless changes that need to take place -- because you know our movement was kind of like a dinosaur. It was prehistoric in that we were not really acknowledging -- we weren't honest about how we were falling short of the different ways that we needed to take care of our families, and really put this image of ideal families into practice. We have not done that. We've talked the talk. We have fantastic lecturers. But we haven't really applied it to the point where -- when people come and visit us, visit our lives, visit our movement and say, "Wow, the movement really is a living principle."

42) God gave us the Divine Principle, but it is our responsibility to make it a living principle -- in that we apply it in our daily lives.

43) Another thing that a lot of people are afraid of is this fear of being alone. We are so much engulfed in this fear of being left out, of being an outcast, of not being accepted. We are afraid to stand up, we are afraid to testify to who we are. We are afraid to talk about our faith for fear of being judged, being criticized and accused. But we need to stand with God. And just as the Good Book says in Isaiah, fear not because I am with you. God is with us.

44) Just as the Bible talks about how God will strengthen and harden us through difficulties as we work through the endless changes in our lives, and just as God has promised that he will always be there to support and encourage us -- when we are hit with fear and failure, God is reminding us through Isaiah that you are not alone. You are not alone. In fact God is working and walking with all of us every step of the way.

45) One of the things that In Jin Nim likes to tell her children is that when you deal with all these different fears, fear of failures, fear of endless changes, fear of being alone -- it is almost like -- if we were to drive a car and we are being hit by the fear of failure, it is like sitting in a parked car with ignition not turned on, waiting for the car to take us somewhere. We know we have work to do, but we are paralyzed because we are not confident eternal sons and daughters. We have so much doubt in our abilities -- we don't believe that we can succeed. We are our own worst enemies.

46) We tell ourselves we have to drive somewhere while not taking the effort or care to turn the ignition, to put the car from park to drive, and step on the pedal. These are the things that we need to do. God might give us a car but we have got to drive it. And when were driving the car down the highway in new areas that we are not familiar with -- we might be overcome by the fear of the changes and constantly shifting scenarios that we have to deal with. But if we understand that all these different scenarios and obstacles -- and why God puts them right in front of us for us to tackle with, and the Bible tells us that God does just so -- to strengthen and harden us through the difficulties -- then we realize that it is really, like going through a growing pain. Instead of fighting with the pain if we can embrace the pain, because we understand that pain is necessary, we need to go through it to become a stronger, harder person physically -- then we can overcome with still the positive understanding of what life is all about.

47) When In Jin Nim was teaching her kids how to drive, one of the things that would freak them out -- after going through a routine of learning how to parallel park, how to go in reverse, how to do the turns and hand signals -- she would get out of the car and then say, "practice." That would turn her kids into a tizzy. They would say, "No! Don't leave me in this car all by myself. I need you here with me." Again, this fear of being alone.

48) And so In Jin Nim thinks a lot of parents feel that the best way to love our children is to always be there for them -- basically keep them a captive of our home. Many times we give them a list of things they cannot do. You cannot go out partying. You cannot go out with your friends. You cannot date. But we fail to give them a list of all the things that they can do. You can work hard and become the president of the United States. You can practice your piano so you can play like Rev. Cotter. You can practice your painting so that you can be like Van Gogh.

49) Many times, (because we have so much fear as parents) a body that is stricken with fear is very closed in, the limbs are incredibly closed in. And one of the things you learn -- because two of her children were concert pianist and the teacher that worked with them day in and day out (she called it mental conditioning) -- she told them, "you have to let go of your fear. You have to do the opposite of what your body wants you to do. When you see something scary you tense up, but what you need to do if you want to become a great concert pianist or a great artist -- you need to surrender to your art." In Jin Nim understands this to mean, we need to surrender to our Heavenly Father, allow Him and Her to use us as a vessel through which different people can experience this beautiful language of love.

50) We as parents feel a whole lot better about ourselves when we restrict our kids and tell them all the things they cannot do -- we tell them, "Prepare for battle, life is a battle, life is about dealing with failure and you have to keep your dukes up high. But if we do our job correctly, and if we do the right job of taking the child -- to understand the value of the vertical relationship that we need to have with the parents and also the horizontal, then the older they get, just as the education process for kindergarten is vastly different from a high school student (you would never take a child in kindergarten and tell them now you are going to work on a tutorial with a professor). But one of the great privileges of being a great student in high school is that you get to be in a symposium or tutorial with your professor.

51) As the kids grow, if we can do our job in terms of educating them in the proper way, then we need to encourage our kids to go out, encourage our kids to go out and not always stay in under our security blanket. We should be the ones saying get out (in a good way), and meet your personal destiny. Be that great person you need to be instead of thinking, "Oh my goodness. The fear of failure. What if my child goes to college, she is so beautiful, he is so handsome, there are many men and woman out there."

52) Hello! The world is filled with beautiful men and women. But if we do our job of educating our children to the best of our abilities then at some point we have to let them go. And by letting them go it gives room for them to come back and to deal with us, not just as a kindergartner but as an adult, a dignified confident adult. Isn't that what we want for our children? We want them to be better than us. We want them to be infused by the Spirit so that they feel that they can spread their wings and fly -- not try to fly with their wings constricted or chopped off.

53) Another fear that In Jin Nim has tackled within her life of faith is the fear of making the right decision. Many times religion stresses right and wrong so heavily, and it's so ironclad, that you are actually afraid to make a choice or to decide for yourself, exercising your free will, because you are so afraid of making the wrong decision.

54) We allow ourselves to revert back to our comfort zone because we don't want to try anything new, anything uncomfortable. We don't want to try anything that we did not do before. But the incredible thing about being a parent and having kids is that you realize that you are constantly hitting up against different brick walls that we never anticipated before. Sometimes when you are so involved in making the right decision for that particular child, In Jin Nim is anxiety ridden almost to the point that she cannot make any decision.

55) This is the time when we really need to realize what Isaiah tells us -- God says, "That despite all the difficulties, that I will help you. Yes. I will help you -- yes. And I will support you -- yes." God wants to remind us, provoke us, to say yes along with him and her. If God is saying I will help you, "yes I know God will help me." If I know God is saying I will support you, "yes, I know God is there to support me."

56) This fear of making the right decision, which stems from this feeling of insecurity and self-doubt -- in a way, when we bring God into our lives, and we know that God will be there to support -- He will not leave us alone, She will not leave us alone. And when God is there to support us that means -- prop us up, maybe hold us at times, then all we need to do is surrender and listen to our hearts. Because one thing In Jin Nim noticed in the course of her life is many times the brain says something but the heart says something else. Because she thinks we have been conditioned to think things through, which is a very, very important thing -- we rely so heavily on our mind, but then we forget to feel.

57) What our movement has gone through the last two decades is -- we know this beauty of interfaith and reaching out and all these things we need to do are the right things to do, but what In Jin Nim found lacking in our movement was this ability to feel. We didn't feel that initial spark that we all felt.

58) A great thing about having the District Directors here is that In Jin Nim got to hear them perform for Open Mic. She didn't know we had such great talent. She was surprised to see Rev. Swearson with a guitar sounding like Johnny Cash. He was singing a lovely acoustic rendition of "One World One Heart" and she thought, no wonder our second generation is so talented. And when she saw Rev. Hernandez performing his own creation, a song that he wrote when he was 19 years old -- it is really quite amazing this thing called music. All of us watching him perform this song that he wrote at 19, it took us all the way back to when he was 19. She felt his heart and she experienced what he must have been feeling and going through and the whole excitement of meeting True Parents for the first time. That is an incredibly beautiful thing that we need to be reminded of -- and we need to feel that we are doing something incredibly important, not just know, but we need to feel.

59) And we need to know that when we can totally be unified with our True Parents, and know we are so lucky that True Parents have designated the youngest son to be the spiritual heir of our movement -- in a way Father is removing all the guesswork, making it very, very clear to us.

60) Some of the things that he is doing in Korea are quite revolutionary, just like the way the things we are doing here are quite different -- but if we can unite and take the blessing as a total package, not slicing and dicing because we know better, but just surrender to God and feel the heart of God that He and She wants to share with us. Let the transmission of the heart be unadulterated. Let that transmission be pure. Let that transmission be clear.

61) In Jin Nim feels that if she can have our support and the support of all the good brothers and sisters around the country -- we are just on the verge of doing incredible things this year. She can feel it.

62) Let us be the kind of movement, when we think about what kind of a legacy we would like to leave, In Jin Nim would not like our movement to be a legacy of fear. She would like all of us to leave behind a legacy of love.

63) In the Good Book, Deuteronomy, it says, "I have put before you life and death. Choose life." Here at Lovin' Life Ministry we are choosing life. We are choosing to love life. We are choosing to be grateful for the total package that God wants to share with us. And if we can receive it wholeheartedly and unite with it there is an incredible miracle that is taking place every day and will only exponentially grow to hundreds and thousands of manifolds.

64) Brothers and Sisters, in this great country of A-merica -- many times when In Jin Nim spends private time with our Father, he closes his eyes and goes Ahhhhhh -- he goes Ahhhhhh -- its like this incredible love, Ahhhhh -- a longing for your incredible love. Every time In Jin Nim here this she thinks America should be A -- merry country. We need to be happy. We need to be happy for this opportunity to love each other, to be moved and be moved by each other, to love and be loved by each other. And Father says, Ahhh -- meri -- ka. Ka in Korean means a command for go. So go merrily, go happily. God gave this country a great name so let's start embodying it, let's start living it, and let's start being grateful for everything that we have.

65) We have to decide today to be an agent of change -- to release all our fears and surrender to God, surrender to our True Parents, and with that foundation of faith incredible things are just waiting around the corner for all of us to harvest and to enjoy.

66) God Bless -- thank you. 

We Are On The Verge Of Doing Incredible Things

In Jin Moon
February 20, 2011
Lovin' Life Ministries

On February 20, Rev. In Jin Moon spoke about the need for all districts in the United States to unite as a whole, and emphasized that absolute obedience is in fact receiving the total package that is being offered. She shared that this can be done by facing one's fears, including new happenings within our movement, that may seem revolutionary, but are actually inspiring second and third generation to become future leaders of our movement.

Good morning, brothers and sisters. How is everyone? I'm delighted to hear that you're all doing well. It's so good to be back in this beautiful country of America. Since we got back, we've had a lot of things to think about, looking forward to the New Year and different things that we will be doing here in Lovin' Life Ministries.

This weekend in particular we are delighted to have all the district pastors from around the country who have come to spend the weekend here together with us. I would just like them to get up so everyone can take a good look at them. I know what all of you are thinking: Where are the ladies in the group? It's a work in progress. But at least you have a woman senior pastor, so it should compensate for the lack thereof.

It's really fantastic to come together at the beginning of the year so that we can revisit the vision that we have for America. Again, I stress the importance of working together as a unified whole, as one body, if you will, representing our True Parents. When they go back to their different regions, I am asking the district leaders to fully unite with what we're doing here at Headquarters. We cannot do our job if we do not have their support, just as they cannot really do their job to the best of their abilities if they do not have our support.

Let's work together and appreciate each other, knowing that God works in mysterious ways all the time. Sometimes God sends you someone to work with who might not have been your image of a central figure, a senior pastor, or a district director. But I believe that in all things sometimes God puts an obstacle in front of us to overcome, like a test, because when we overcome it and grow through suffering and through trying something new and experiencing something that we never thought we would experience before, it deepens our hearts and makes us appreciate the heart of God more profoundly.

Here we are at the "breaking news" time in history. I've often said that we have to testify to our Parents, about the True Parents being with us here today. We should not be silent any more. As Unificationists, we should be proud of who we are because we know who our Heavenly Parent is. We know who we are. We are divine, eternal sons and daughters who were put upon this earth to do great things.

In fulfilling our destinies, one of the most important things we need to do is to testify to our True Parents. I think when Father first encouraged all of us to distribute his autobiography, a lot of people who were living in the cocoon of their own families or careers felt a little challenged. Many of them have come and said to me, "When I started distributing these books, I was somewhat afraid. I wasn't sure how people would receive me. I wasn't sure if they would just throw the book away or throw it back in my face."

But they realized that, once they united with what Father was asking them to do, great miracles would take place. Because they believed in all the great things that could be done, they pushed aside their fear.

Ann Landers

When Ann Landers, the famous advice columnist, was interviewed some years ago, the interviewer asked her, "You give column advice to thousands of people every week. If you were to tell me what is the single, most important problem that you spend your time working through, encouraging people to deal with, what would that problem be?" Ann Landers said, "That's very simple. Without a doubt, it is fear."

When we look at the Good Book, in Isaiah 41:10, it says, "Fear not, for I am with you. Do not look around in terror and be dismayed." The Bible is incredibly profound in that what it is clearly stating is "Fear not, because I am with you."

Being a mother who is still in the process of discovering who I am and what kind of a person I would like to be, I'm always checking myself. When I heard this statement from Ann Landers about fear, I thought about it. In my being a mother, wife, and sister, fear for me represents an inner turmoil that we all go through. Everybody has been through it. I am no different from any of you.

In my daily life, I remind myself to watch out for four points. Many times fear is one of those things that debilitates you, incapacitates you. Men and women, children, teachers, lawyers, doctors alike are overcome by this fear of failure.

In particular, in our movement the fear of failure -- as parents, as children of God, as a movement -- is so engrossing that we often become petrified and feel totally squashed by our inability to shake off this fear. In a sense we experience exactly what the Good Book says: We feel dismayed because we are looking around in terror.

We are looking, exercising our visual perception. The Bible highlights the word look. We are looking at terror, and that's why we're afraid. Really, we should be looking at God instead of looking at terror, instead of being petrified and debilitated. Instead of telling ourselves that we cannot, there's no way, we need to start saying we can, we will, and we do. With God on our side, we can be a great son or daughter.

Young Abraham Lincoln

The life story of Abraham Lincoln, one of the great presidents of our country of America, is really in one sense a story of failure, starting from the age of 27, when he first failed at his business. He lost a seat in the legislature the next year. The following year he lost a second business. Then he ran for Congress and did not make it. Finally by the age of 37 he was elected to Congress, but two years later he was defeated. Then he ran for a Senate seat and was defeated. Then he ran to be the vice president of the United States and was defeated. Only at age 51 did he finally get elected, and that was as president of the United States.

If we were to cut a slice of the life of Abraham Lincoln at 22, when he failed absolutely at his business, we in the room might look at Brother Abe and say, "He looks like a loser, not many prospects. He lost his business but he had the gall to run for legislator the next year? This man is really insane!" The year after, if we look, he loses again. Can you imagine what people must have been thinking? "This man is either blind or perhaps he is infused with a spirit." These are two very different extremes.

You have to applaud him for having the courage to get up and try again. When you look at snapshots of his life at these crucial moments -- when he lost the political race, when he lost the legislative seat, when he was elected and then lost the seat in Congress two years later, on and on -- basically you're holding up a deck of cards that spell failure.

But the man continued and persevered. The great way that we need to understand our life when we look at the example of Abraham Lincoln is that life helps us through a process. By dealing with the failures, if we can deepen our understanding and our conviction that we want to change the world, that we want to do great things, then these minor setbacks become a strong impetus to try again and to make great strides, remembering that this man who was known to be a man of failure became one of America's greatest presidents.

As senior pastor I get a lot of e-mails from parents who are literally pulling their hair out, saying, "My kids are wild. I feel like a failure." Well, let's look back 30 years when you first joined the church. You were quite wild, too. I got a taste of what Reverend Krishnek could have looked like at the last Halloween party, like something out of Hell's Angels.

Sometimes when we become parents, we want our children to be perfect, to be angelic. We don't expect our child to experience colic, the incessant crying that drives every parent crazy. We have all these preconceived understandings of what we would like our children to be.

Nine Inch Nails

The minute the child wants to try purple hair, or wants to listen to Nine Inch Nails, or doesn't want to come to service, the parents feel an incredible sense of failure. But one of the things I tell myself (and I would like to share with all the persevering parents in the audience) is that whatever we go through with our loved ones, helping them to become beautiful sons and daughters of God will make us better grandparents. And hopefully, by then, our children, having experienced a parental heart of their own, can come to appreciate the things that we tried to do.

Parents, do not be dismayed or discouraged. When I think about the words dismayed and discouraged, it's interesting. The word discouraged is almost like God saying, "Stop dissing your courage. Stop it. Do not be discouraged. Do not be paralyzed by the fear of failure, looking at the snapshot of your life." Just like Abraham Lincoln, we have a long life ahead of us. Our children have long lives ahead of them. Just because they're trying out things or seemingly rebelling in ways that we least expected them to do does not mean that they are a lost cause.

We have to believe that they will find their way. As long as we don't allow them to fail in that, we're not going to keep them in bondage to the snapshot of the life that they find themselves in. As long as we do not allow them to fail, then they will not fail.

Failure becomes a reality only if we accept it. That is, failure becomes a reality only if we accept it as an indictment or a finality. But as long as we know that these setbacks or "failures" are part of a work in progress to create a better, deeper and more loving person, then we can maintain a positive attitude. Instead of saying, "I can't; I won't, change it to a thought pattern that says, "I can, and I will, and I do."

Abraham Lincoln was a symbol of failure until he became a great president. Without Abe we would not have the Emancipation Proclamation. He was the image of what America could be at one of the most important and difficult times in its history. Someone who was seen as a total failure might actually be a work in progress to become a great man or woman of God.

I encourage all the young people who might find themselves in a difficult time with their families, with brothers and sisters, perhaps with their colleagues and friends: Do not be afraid. God says, "Fear not because I am with you. Do not look around in terror." We are so busy looking that many times we forget to feel God in our lives.

Instead of just relying on our visual perceptions, on our auditory perceptions or olfactory perceptions, we need to remember that we are divine beings and God speaks to us through our hearts. So we have to find God and we have to create a place for God because, when God is by our side, there is no fear of failure.

President Woodrow Wilson throwing out the first ball, opening day, 1916

The other point that we struggle with in our daily lives is not just the fear of failure but the fear of endless life changes. Many people are afraid of change. In fact, President Woodrow Wilson said, "If you want to see a set of enemies pop up, just try to do something different." Do something that changes the way things used to be done.

I remember trying to encourage our movement's need for a Lovin' Life Ministry, the need to really unite together at least once a week so we feel like we're part of one family, like we're on the same page and we stand on the same platform. There was a huge ruckus. There was a great deal of discomfort in not wanting to change and try something different. I was a strange-looking senior pastor. I didn't come with a three-piece suit; I had revolutionary ideas that all seemed to point to failure. Maybe they looked at the senior pastor as a crazy head coach who did not make any sense at all. But the incredible thing about all of you is that at least you gave me a chance, begrudgingly or not, and for that I thank you.

The history of religious worship is very much rooted in tradition. Each faith has its own set of rituals, its own set of traditions. When we try something new, it might not rub everybody the right way. But my vision was to invigorate and re-inspire the Second and Third Generation that we have lost along the way. Our movement did not take care of our young people. We were reaching out to brothers and sisters not in our movement without taking care of our own. If we don't continually do both at the same time, there's going to be a vacuum when we are confronted with the reality that these good men sitting here are in their 50s and 60s.

We need to think about raising up a whole new generation of young people who are trained, ready, and educated for pastoral work. You cannot just put on a three-piece suit and start preaching in the pulpit. You have to have knowledge about how to work with people. You have to understand how it feels to have a parental heart.

All these changes that are seemingly revolutionary are not really revolutionary at all. By cleaning house, by raising up our youth for future leadership, we can maintain a very strong foundation, a strong house, and a strong temple for God and True Parents. Any other work we do just becomes icing on the cake.

All we did really in the last year of Lovin' Life Ministry was to clean house, to reorganize the organizational structure of HSA and try to infuse it with a new vision to take it forward into the next millennium. A lot of people have said, "Why is Lovin' Life not emphasizing witnessing, getting out there door to door?"

The answer is, because the world is a different place. Thirty years ago a lot of you were backpacking around the country. Now young people are backpacking around on the Internet. They're used to a certain visual stimulation that the older folks never had. They're used to advertising companies showing them what is beautiful, the thing to be, and they're inundated with visual imagery. If we can't make our ministry attractive to young people by using media as well as the great message that our True Parents bring to the world, then we're not being effective as a movement, are we?

When I asked the district directors to work together with me, I think a lot of people felt like, "If we worship with Lovin' Life Ministry on Sunday, what's going to happen to all the pastors?" The question is an interesting one for me because pastoral work is not just a couple of hours on Sunday. Pastoral work takes place Monday through Sunday. All I'm asking for is a couple of hours on Sunday when we can unite as a movement so that there's a unity of heart in realizing that we are working as one family. There has to be a feeling of unity, that while you are here together with us, brothers and sisters in North Carolina, in San Diego, or in Alaska are sharing the same message. It creates unity of heart, which is fundamental and important for the work that we need to do.

If you really think about it, I am not taking away your pulpit. In fact, I am unleashing you from the bondage of the pulpit. I am saying, "Get out there. I have only one body, and I'm being pulled left and right all over the world. But you as the body of our True Parents can visit and knock on every door of your congregation and be there as an older brother or an older sister to a teenage kid who needs somebody else other than their parents." There's an incredible amount of work that needs to be done.

Our True Father has emphasized the importance of absolute obedience. When he uses the word absolute, what he is saying is, take the whole package. When God wants to give you a blessing or gift, take the whole package. Many times God wants to bless us, and we're saying, "Yes, I want your blessing, but just this part or that part, but not that other part." But what Heavenly Parent is asking at this time of the breaking news, when it's our responsibility to testify to the world, is to take God's blessing as a total package and then think about how you're going to do your work around it to make it manifest and substantiated in each of your districts.

It's amazing to me how when I look at the different districts, the districts that have taken Lovin' Life Ministry as a package have a whole different atmosphere. But in districts where they have said, "Yes, this is God's blessing, we want this but not that, maybe this," it takes away from the full package deal that God wants to share with you and with the rest of America.

The True Family is asking all of you to be united with our True Parents. There are a lot of things going on in our movement and difficulties in light of what has taken place at UCI. It causes us to think twice about what Father means when he says "absolute obedience." I've often shared with brothers and sisters that I like to understand the word obedience as absolutely listening to God's heart.

I've often taken note when different people come up to me and say, "Your sermons are getting better." I wonder if you would go up to a minister in any other church and say something like that. But you feel like you can do that because you look at the True Children as children. But we're not children any more. We have children of our own, and we have a lot of experience that we'd like to share with everybody.

One leader confided in me that he was reviewing some of the Lovin' Life Ministry services earlier in the year, and he said, "I realized that what you are trying to say was incredibly profound. I didn't get it at that time. I get it now."

You have to understand: I didn't change. I didn't change my approach. I didn't change my heart. Perhaps it was you who have come to change your heart, and for that I'm immensely grateful.

Brothers and sisters, our movement has been kind of like a dinosaur. It was prehistoric in that we weren't really acknowledging or honest about how we were falling short in the different ways we needed to take care of our families and really put the image of ideal family into practice. We have not done that. We've talked the talk. We have fantastic lecturers. But we haven't really applied it to the point that when people visit our movement, they say, "Wow, the movement really is a living principle. God gave us the Divine Principle, but it's our responsibility to make it a living principle by applying it in our daily lives.

Another thing that I think a lot of people are afraid of is being alone. We are so engulfed in the fear of being left out, of not being accepted, that we're afraid to stand up, afraid to testify who we are. We're afraid to talk about our faith for fear of being judged, for fear of being criticized or accused. But we need to stand with God.

Just as the Good Book says in Isaiah, "Fear not, for I am with you." God is with us. Just as the Bible talks about how God will strengthen and harden us through difficulties as we work through the endless changes of our lives, and just as God has promised that he will always be there to support and encourage us when we're hit with fear of failure, God is also reminding us through Isaiah that we are not alone. In fact, God is working and walking with all of us every step of the way.

One of the things I like to tell my children is, when you're dealing with different fears -- fear of failure, fear of endless changes, fear of being alone -- it's like sitting in a parked car with the ignition off, waiting for the car to take you somewhere. We know we've got work to do, but we are so paralyzed because we're not confident as eternal sons and daughters. We have so much doubt about our abilities that we don't believe we can succeed. We are our own worst enemies.

We tell ourselves that we have to drive somewhere while not making the effort to turn on the ignition, to change gears from Park to Drive, and step on the pedal. These are the things we need to do. God might give us a car, but we have got to drive it. When we're driving the car in new areas we're not familiar with, we might be overcome by the fear of endless changes, constantly shifting scenarios and situations that we have to deal with.

But let's understand that God puts all these different scenarios and these obstacles right in front of us for us to tackle; the Bible tells us that God does this to strengthen and harden us to the difficulties. It's like going through growing pains. Instead of fighting the pain, we can embrace the pain, understanding that pain is a necessary process that we need to go through to become stronger and harder. Then we can overcome with the positive understanding of what life is all about.

When I was teaching my kids how to drive, one thing that would freak them out is that after going through the different routines of learning how to parallel park, how to go in reverse, how to do the turns and the hand signals, I would get out of the car and say, "Now practice." That would set them into a tizzy, saying, "No, don't leave me. Don't leave me in this car all by myself. I need you here with me." Again, there is this fear of being alone.

I think a lot of parents feel that the best way to love their children is always to be there for them. We understand that as keeping them captive in our homes. Often we give them a list of things they cannot do -- cannot go out partying, cannot go out with their friends, cannot date -- but we fail to give them a list of all the things that they can do. "You can work hard and become the president of the United States. You can practice the piano so you can play like Reverend Cotter. Or you can practice your painting so you can be like Van Gogh."

Often a body stricken with fear is very closed in. One of the things my two children learned in the process of becoming concert pianists was something their teacher worked with them on, day in and day out. She called it mental conditioning. She told them, "You have to let go of your fear. You have to do the opposite of what your body is wanting you to do. When you see something scary, you tense up, but what you need to do if you want to become a great concert pianist or great artist is to surrender to your art." The way I understand it, we need to surrender to our Heavenly Parent and allow him and her to use us as vessels through which different people can experience this beautiful language of love.

As parents, we feel good about ourselves when we restrict our kids and tell them all the things they cannot do. We tell them to prepare for battle: "Life is a battle. Life is about dealing with failures, and you have to keep your dukes up high." But doing our job correctly means teaching children to understand the value of the vertical relationship they need to have with their parents but also the horizontal. The education process for kindergarteners is vastly different from that for high school students. You would never take a kindergartener and say, "Now you're going to work on a tutorial with the professor." But one of the privileges of being a great student in high school is you get to be in a symposium or colloquium or tutorial with your professor.

As the kids grow, if we can do our job and educate them the proper way, then we need to encourage our kids to go out, to not always stay in under our security blanket. We should be the ones saying, in a good way, "Get out. Reach your personal destiny. Be the great person you need to be," instead of thinking, "Oh my goodness. Fear of failure. What if my child goes to college? She's so beautiful, he's so handsome; there are many, many men, many women out there."

Hello! The world is full of beautiful men and women, but if we do our job of educating our children to the best of our ability, at some point we have to let them go. Letting them go gives them room to come back and to deal with us, not just as little kindergarteners but as adults, as dignified, confident adults. Isn't that what we as parents want for our children?

We want them to be better than us. We want them to be infused by the spirit so that they feel they can spread their wings and fly, not try to fly with their wings constricted or chopped off.

Another fear that I've tackled in my life of faith is the fear of making the wrong decision. Religion often stresses right and wrong so heavily; it's so ironclad that you are actually afraid to make a choice or to decide for yourself, exercising your free will, because you're so afraid of making the wrong decision.

We allow ourselves to revert back to our comfort zone because we don't want to try anything new, we don't want to try anything uncomfortable, and we don't want to try anything we did not do before. But the incredible thing about being a parent is that you realize you are constantly up against different brick walls that we've never anticipated. Sometimes when I'm so engulfed in making the right decision for one particular child, I'm almost anxious to the point that I can't make any decision.

This is the time when we need to realize what Isaiah tells us. God says that "despite all the difficulties, I will help you." He says, "Yes, I will help you, and I will support you." God wants to remind us, provoke us to say yes right along with him and her. If God is saying, "I will help you," yes, I know God will help me. If I know God is saying, "I will support you," yes, I know God is there to support me.

This fear of making the wrong decision stems from feelings of insecurity and self-doubt. When we bring God into our lives and we know that God will be there to support, meaning he and she will not leave us alone, and when God is there to support us, it means propping us up, maybe holding us at times. Then all we need to do is really surrender and listen to our heart.

One thing I noticed in the course of my life is that sometimes the brain says one thing but the heart says something else. Because we've been conditioned to think things through (which is a very important thing), then we rely so heavily on our mind that we forget to feel. What our movement has gone through the last two decades is that we know interfaith work, reaching out, and all the other things that we need to do are the right things to do, but what I found lacking in our movement is the ability to feel. We don't feel that initial spark that we all felt.

The great thing about having the district directors here was that I got to see them perform at the open mike. Music is really quite amazing. I didn't know we had such great talent. I was really surprised to see Reverend Swearson with a guitar. He sounds like Johnny Cash. He was singing a lovely acoustic rendition of "One World, One Heart," and I thought, "No wonder our Second Generation is so talented!"

And I saw Reverend Hernandez performing his own creation, a song he wrote when he was 19 years old. Watching you perform the song you wrote at 19 took us all the way back to when you were 19. I felt your heart and experienced what you must have been going through, the whole excitement of meeting True Parents for the first time. That is an incredibly beautiful thing that we need to be reminded of. We need to feel that we are doing something incredibly important -- not just know it, but feel it.

Now we are so lucky that True Parents have designated the youngest son as the spiritual heir of the movement. Father is taking away all the guesswork, making it very, very clear. Some of the things he's doing in Korea are quite revolutionary, just like some of the things we are doing here are quite different.

Let's unite and take the blessing as a total package, not slicing and dicing because we know better, but just surrender to God and feel the heart of God that he and she wants to share with us, letting the transmission of the heart be unadulterated, letting that transmission be pure and clear.

I feel that if I can have the support of all the good brothers and sisters all around the country, we are on the verge of doing incredible things this year. I can feel it. So let us be the kind of movement where we think about the legacy we'd like to leave behind. I would not like our movement to leave a legacy of fear; I would like all of us to leave behind a legacy of love.

In Deuteronomy, the Good Book says, "I have put before you life and death. Choose life." [Deuteronomy 30:19] Here at Lovin' Life, we are choosing life. We are choosing to love life. We are choosing to be grateful for the total package that God wants to share with us. If we can receive it wholeheartedly and unite with it, there's an incredible miracle that is taking place every day and will only exponentially grow.

When I spend some private time with our True Father, sometimes he closes his eyes, and says, "Ah-merry-ca." There's this incredible love, a longing for your incredible love. "Ah-merry-ca." Every time I hear my father say that, I'm thinking, America should be a merry country. We need to be happy. We need to be happy for this opportunity to love each other, to move and be moved by each other, to love and be loved by each other.

Father says, "Ah-merry-ca." Ca in Korean means "go." So go merrily. Go happily. God gave this country a great name, so let's start embodying it. Let's start living it, and let's start being grateful for everything that we have. We have to decide today to be an agent of change, to release all our fears and surrender to God, surrender to our True Parents. With that foundation of faith, incredible things are just waiting around the corner for all of us to harvest and enjoy.

So God bless, and thank you.

Notes:

Isaiah, chapter 41

1: Listen to me in silence, O coastlands; let the peoples renew their strength;
let them approach, then let them speak;
let us together draw near for judgment.

2: Who stirred up one from the east
whom victory meets at every step?
He gives up nations before him,
so that he tramples kings under foot;
he makes them like dust with his sword,
like driven stubble with his bow.

3: He pursues them and passes on safely,
by paths his feet have not trod.

4: Who has performed and done this,
calling the generations from the beginning?
I, the LORD, the first,
and with the last; I am He.

5: The coastlands have seen and are afraid,
the ends of the earth tremble;
they have drawn near and come.

6: Every one helps his neighbor,
and says to his brother, "Take courage!"

7: The craftsman encourages the goldsmith,
and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil,
saying of the soldering, "It is good";
and they fasten it with nails so that it cannot be moved.

8: But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;

9: you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, "You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off";

10: fear not, for I am with you,
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

11: Behold, all who are incensed against you
shall be put to shame and confounded;
those who strive against you
shall be as nothing and shall perish.

12: You shall seek those who contend with you,
but you shall not find them;
those who war against you
shall be as nothing at all.

13: For I, the LORD your God,
hold your right hand;
it is I who say to you, "Fear not,
I will help you."

14: Fear not, you worm Jacob,
you men of Israel!
I will help you, says the LORD;
your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

15: Behold, I will make of you a threshing sledge,
new, sharp, and having teeth;
you shall thresh the mountains and crush them,
and you shall make the hills like chaff;

16: You shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them away,
and the tempest shall scatter them.
And you shall rejoice in the LORD;
in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

17: When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the LORD will answer them,
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

18: I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.

19: I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive;
I will set in the desert the cypress,
the plane and the pine together;

20: that men may see and know,
may consider and understand together,
that the hand of the LORD has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.

21: Set forth your case, says the LORD;
bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.

22: Let them bring them, and tell us
what is to happen.
Tell us the former things, what they are,
that we may consider them,
that we may know their outcome;
or declare to us the things to come.

23: Tell us what is to come hereafter,
that we may know that you are gods;
do good, or do harm,
that we may be dismayed and terrified.

24: Behold, you are nothing,
and your work is nought;
an abomination is he who chooses you.

25: I stirred up one from the north, and he has come,
from the rising of the sun, and he shall call on my name;
he shall trample on rulers as on mortar,
as the potter treads clay.

26: Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know,
and beforetime, that we might say, "He is right"?
There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed,
none who heard your words.

27: I first have declared it to Zion,
and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good tidings.

28: But when I look there is no one;
among these there is no counselor
who, when I ask, gives an answer.

29: Behold, they are all a delusion;
their works are nothing;
their molten images are empty wind.

Deuteronomy, chapter 30

1: "And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you,

2: and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you this day, with all your heart and with all your soul;

3: then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes, and have compassion upon you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.

4: If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will fetch you;

5: and the LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, that you may possess it; and he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.

6: And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

7: And the LORD your God will put all these curses upon your foes and enemies who persecuted you.

8: And you shall again obey the voice of the LORD, and keep all his commandments which I command you this day.

9: The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground; for the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers,

10: if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

11: "For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.

12: It is not in heaven, that you should say, `Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?'

13: Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, `Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?'

14: But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

15: "See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil.

16: If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you this day, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession of it.

17: But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them,

18: I declare to you this day, that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.

19: I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live,

20: loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."  

Seven-Day Cheon Bok Festival Gives Preview of the Culture of the Kingdom

In Jin Moon
February 18, 2011

Making Holy Salt

A colorful foretaste of the heavenly culture aborning in Korea, the Fatherland of Unificationism, was seen in a festival filled with plentiful ceremonies, celebrations, contests, lessons, and other activities for blessed families to celebrate the beginning of the New Year centered on God and True Parents. From the 1st day of the 1st month in the 2nd year of Cheon-gi, meaning "Heavenly Foundation," calendar, the "True Peace and Unity Cheon Bok Festival" was held with True Parents, Rev. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon, at the Unification World Headquarters Church in South Korea.

Starting on True God's Day, the Holy Day that begins each New Year for Unificationists, until the celebration of True Parent's Birthday on February 8th, Unification Church members from around the country of Korea, and diplomats from different world organizations, attended the week long festival.

The Cheon Bok Ceremony began at 3 p.m. on Feb 3rd, as a ritual for beginning the new heavenly calendar within the blessings of True Parents and four great saints. It was separated into three parts, starting with an Interfaith Prayer Ceremony which included representatives of the Confucian, Buddhist, Christian, and Muslim faiths who each came to the stage and gave their blessings to the participants.

Next, a World Peace Seunghwa Ceremony, officiated by Rev. Hyung Jin Moon, was held to commemorate the fallen heroes and deceased patriots who gave their lives for the re-unification of North and South Korea. The last ceremony, Inheritance of Cheon Bok Holy Salt, was a ceremony where four faith representatives combined soil that was brought from the birthplace of the four great saints of their religion. After being mixed with with Holy Salt, it was sanctified by Rev. Moon to symbolize the heavenly fortune of the four saints centering on True Parents. It was then given to participants to inherit into their own family.

Throughout the entire 7-day festival, a variety of cultural performances and programs were held to help members connect to God and True Parents as well as promote understanding between religions. Every day, training sessions for Chigong (a practice of aligning breath, physical activity and awareness for mental, spiritual and corporeal health), ceremonial tea sessions, and calligraphy were offered at Cheon Bok Gung. A debate between Theism and Atheism took place as well as performances given by four different religious cultures. One of the main competitions during the week long festival was the 1st Unification Church choir contest where more than nine church congregations in Korea competed. The winner was awarded to perform at True Parent's Birthday Celebration, which was held as a luncheon on February 8th, the final day of the Cheon Bok Festival.

Every night a Holy Spirit Healing Session was held with Rev. Hyung Jin Moon to reflect upon the significance of the New Year with Hoon Dok Hae and 120 full bows. The healing sessions are continuously offered for members to inherit True Parents' spirit and to convey this true love to one's neighbor.

During the festival, Cheon Bok Lanterns were lit around the Headquarters building and ribbons and candles were attached in the inside of the building to symbolize hopes for an ideal world of peace, and wishes to inherit Heaven's Blessings.

Contributed by HSA-UWC Staff 

Sermon Notes from February 16, 2011

In Jin Moon
February 16, 2011
Unofficial Notes: Andrew Compton

1) In Jin Nim began by greeting everyone, "Happy Year of the Rabbit!"

2) She is happy to be back after celebrating with True Parents in Korea the 44th God's Day, the 28th victory of love, and our True Parents (True Parents) birthday. She also congratulated the 1800 blessed couples -- 36 years of blessed life.

3) It was a wonderful opportunity to come together and spend time with our True Parents. They were in great spirits. Our True Father gave precious words, he poured out his heart to those who came and he enjoyed the singing and dancing which nowadays are a part of the service. It was a festive atmosphere and at the same time a profound one.

4) It was a good opportunity to meditate on what we would like to accomplish this year. Our True Father gave us a beautiful motto for this year, translation is something like -- "Eok Mansei for Cheon Il Guk, when the True Parents of heavenly emotion and the children of earthly harmony can become one and settle (or becomes substantiated) in the cosmos. This motto is a continuation on the theme of oneness, and the importance of unity -- in the time to come.

5) Our movement has gone through lots of different things and we are smack in the middle of transitioning from the first generation to the second and third generation -- and there are lots of different changes that took place last year. We had great victories, great joys and celebration, as well as heartbreaks and obstacles that we have had to overcome as a movement. But to come together at the start of the new lunar year and again to reconfirm our commitment to the work that we need to do together as a family, as a worldwide family. So, to take a moment to appreciate each other -- for helping us walk on this road of discovery as a movement, in realizing our potential and appreciating the great sacrifices and achievements that have been made, but also anticipating all the great things that we would like to see accomplished, especially now that we are poised at the turn of the new millennium and we can look forward towards working to establish a world of peace and harmony.

6) When In Jin Nim's family got together and True Father shared words with the True Family -- True Father was talking about many of the experiences that he had when he was much younger -- and at the same time communicating to the family how important it is to continue on in the spirit of unity and being absolutely united with our True Parents -- and that we can go forward seeing ourselves as one body with our True Parents as the two hemispheres of the brain coming together in this beautiful dance of true love so that we can share the breaking news of our True Parents with the rest of the world.

7) In Jin Nim was thinking this morning that this is Valentines Day weekend. This is the weekend when people celebrate love, when they share and express the feelings that they have for someone special in their lives -- and she thought, "How appropriate, because our True Parents came to this world to share with us what the profundity of love is all about."

8) When we are so busy living in this modern day when everything is fast -- and here we are smack in the middle of New York City -- everything is moving so fast. There are schedules and deadlines, and sometimes even In Jin Nim forgets to take some time for herself -- to realize what an incredible thing it is that she is partaking in this thing called life, that she is alive and breathing in air each and every day. She has an opportunity every day to experience what love is all about, and not just experience but substantiate this wonderful thing called an ideal family and in so doing experience what the meaning of a parental heart is.

9) This is probably one of the most incredibly profound things in our lives. When we were young and thought about Valentine's Day -- and we went to school, elementary school, In Jin Nim remembers being asked to bring a shoebox with her to school because she would be receiving chocolates and paper flowers and notes and some would even bring roses. Everyone would be so excited. "Who is going to give me a Valentine's Day card today?" She remembered being so filled with excitement and anticipation. It was a special moment where you got that chocolate or that card and someone wanted to express what you meant to them.

10) But when we think about Valentine's Day and the feelings of love and passion and romance, at all these lovely things -- we tend to think that that is what married life is like. But the wonderful thing about our True Parents is that they come to teach us about the real meaning of what true love is all about. Not just showing us the lovely display of affection that we are so tickled pink with -- such as when our True Father leans over and gives True Mother a kiss. We all giggle like children, because it is so beautiful to see.

11) But we know that when we look at a man like our True Father, and True Mother, and we know that they've been married a very long time, we know that they had to go through the joys and the tears, great victories and glorious moments in their relationship as well as trials and tribulations.

12) And In Jin Nim always found it interesting when she went to the park with her nanny. The nanny would tell her -- let's see how the young couples spend their time in the park. Perhaps In Jin Nim was a bit weird, but she was always attracted more to the old couples, the grandma's and grandpa's. When she would see a grandma and grandpa sitting on a park bench or walking together through the park, or sharing a cup of coffee -- In Jin Nim would wonder how they met. She wondered what they had been through, she wondered when they laughed and when they cried. She wondered what made them happy, what made them sad. But she was always so curious because she knew each person had a story to tell, and each couple had a story to tell.

13) Whenever she had the chance, she would go up to them and ask them how long they had been married, how did they meet and how did you come to love each other and get married. These are the stories that fascinated In Jin Nim endlessly. So she would always be going after the old folks.

14) When In Jin Nim started the Youth Concerts for World Peace, trying to promote the importance of art in children's education -- one of the outreach programs that she encouraged the Japanese movement to do is to have these beautiful young children go and bring their beautiful voices and performances into the nursing homes where old people were waiting to die -- to encourage these elderly people to share their stories so that the children could learn something from the old people, not just looking at them as someone waiting to die -- but as people who lived their lives, who have incredible stories to share with the younger generation -- words of wisdom and guidance.

15) But also the older people would look at these youngsters wanting to share with them their artistry, their beautiful voices -- and feel a bit of hope, that here are a group of youngsters coming and visiting their nursing home wanting to share their love and learn and spend a little time with them, learning about the older folks -- at the same time provide an endless source of energy for those people who were waiting to die so that they can look forward to the future through the eyes of these beautiful children.

16) When these children started to visit these old folks homes and started hearing their stories and began to share their music -- a beautiful thing took place. These children experienced something that was so profoundly moving to them. They realized that they have yet to experience marriage and having children of their own and becoming old and mature, but by hearing their stories they realized that life has its ups and it has its downs, that marriage has its ups and downs, that life is really an opportunity to grow.

17) Many times in our fast-moving world of the modern day, where an understanding of love tends to be quite superficial and heavily commercialized -- so that the young people want fast cars, fast foods, and fast love -- I we are inundated with get rich quick schemes and lose weight quick schemes. It is interesting how, even now, as the fast food advertising hits our kids -- there is a slow movement growing that wants to return to the organic foods, to the meditative or slow way, appreciating the simpler things, getting back to the roots, to the core.

18) And this is not only taking place in terms of health food and organic stores, but it is also taking place -- in that many of the young people of today are not satisfied with a superficial understanding of love or highly commercialized idea of what love is all about. They want to get back to something that is deep, that is rich, that is moving, that is incredibly profound.

19) This is where our True Parents come into play. We realize that, for the first time in history we have a man and a woman who can stand in the position of the perfected Adam and Eve. And you know the history of mankind has not been too beautiful or too kind to people, to men and woman, because we did not fully understand where our dignity and worth comes from. And when we understand ourselves in the context of religious history -- then we are all bunches of no good, worthless people, sinners. But with the advent of our True Parents we have the opportunity to shake off the shackles of sin, to re-graft ourselves into the heavenly lineage of God and experience true love, true life, and actually grafting on to God's heavenly lineage by having ideal families of our own.

20) The great thing about True Parents, is that unlike many religions of the world in which the masculine is prominently displayed -- in the form of our True Parents we have masculinity and femininity. We have a man and a woman who can stand in the position of a couple. We not only have the power and the majesty of God, but we also have the care and the compassion of God. We not only have the force and strength of God, but we have the beauty and perseverance of endurance -- and in this way we can understand our world in a more complete or holistic way.

21) As a student of religion, every time In Jin Nim thinks and reflects about how incredible it is for us to have this concept of True Parents and to understand our Heavenly Parent up in heaven as that masculine and feminine together -- It is an incredibly exciting thing. Because through this concept, the women of the world, who have been relegated for so long throughout the history of religion -- can, in a way, reclaim their worth, their own dignity.

22) It was fascinating for In Jin Nim when our world chairman, Dr Hyung Jin Moon gave a profound speech at the UPF assembly. He spoke about the beauty of the Fibonacci principle -- and how the Fibonacci numbers, the Fibonacci spiral, is a testament to the existence of God.

23) And he talked about the profundity of our church symbol -- how our church symbol incorporates the masculine and the feminine. The masculine symbolized by the square and the feminine symbolized by the circle. When In Jin Nim saw our church symbol she was realizing what True Father means when he talks about the Pacific Rim Era, a time when a woman will come into the true worth and dignity of her being and together with a wonderful, heavenly man -- do incredible things in service to others and to promote love and peace and harmony.

24) When you look at our church symbol the square sits inside the circle. In Jin Nim often jokes with her sisters at the WFWP -- "They say that God created ideal men and he put them at the four corners of the earth, but of course we realize that the earth is round."

25) When you look at the church symbol you see there is our ideal man in the form of a square with very pointy four corners. But the way In Jin Nim understands it is that the square sits inside of a circle, and the only dynamic shape in our church symbol is the circle -- in that it is pointing, it has two arrows showing that this is moving in a circular motion.

26) Here is our lovely man, rectangular with four corners, but wonderfully ensconced in this wonderfully circular motion that is forever moving, forever dynamic. If the square and the circle can work together, then from the core of our church symbol will come these four rays of light -- incredible light reaching the four ends of the earth.

27) When our True Father was creating the symbol of our church, which really did come from God, in a way, God, through the symbol was foretelling our time when Father would declare the Pacific Rim Era, a time when a woman together with their brothers, fathers, and sons will reclaim her dignity and be the dynamic one.

28) Father is pushing all of the women forward -- and if you really understand religious history, yes, women have been relegated as second-class citizens, but it was the women who were the backbone of the church, they drove the church into their homes, into the mindset of their children.

29) This is the time when men and women working together are going to be doing incredible things. But in particular, this is the time when the feminine spirit of compassion, of patience, and perseverance will be the qualities that surround our beautiful men -- our beautiful husbands and sons, so that working together we can encourage each other towards a harmonious existence, and not just simply coexisting or tolerating, but truly loving.

30) When our True Father teaches us about true love -- he always uses the word true. In Jin Nim jokes that the word true love to the Asian ear sounds like "through" (true) "rub" (love). It's through rubbing up against the people that we care about that we grow, that our sharpness becomes more round. It's truly by going through these experiences, of sometimes incredible joy, but incredible difficulties, trials and tribulations, and great victories -- but all the while rubbing up against our parents, against our spouse and our children -- that molds us into these incredibly deep, rich, and profound human beings worthy of being called the sons and daughters of God.

31) In In Jin Nim's own life of having raised five kids, ranging in ages from 14 to 24, all five of them are at different levels of maturity, going through many different things. Sometimes it's wonderful being a mom, but sometimes it's incredibly difficult. And, she often thought to herself why is it that the most painful experiences that one goes through is in truly rubbing up against people that we care about? It is painful because we love them and we care about them and we wish them well.

32) When we think about love and what I want for my kids, In Jin Nim is very much thinking -- regardless of how difficult motherhood might be, it is a wonderful opportunity to understand that parental heart of God -- how He and She looks at her as her parent. By experiencing these relationships with her children -- In Jin Nim came to deeply understand God in a more rich and profound way.

33) When you look at the Bible, I Cor 13:4-7, it says love is patient, love is kind. It says that love is not boastful, is not arrogant or rude. It is not resentful. It does not rejoice in the wrongdoings of others, but it wants to rejoice in the truth. And, love bears all things, believes all things, it hopes all things, and it endures all things.

34) The Bible has taught us that love is very much like the heart of a parent. When we have children of our own we are not looking at them as something that we can take from. When we look at a child that first comes into this world, our prayers are -- what can we give, what can we do as parents to make them beautiful people. We are not thinking about what they are going to do for us. We are thinking, what we can do for them.

35) When we think -- "that is the kind of love we should have throughout our lives," then we realize that even when we think about marriage or blessing, we realize that the heartistic attitude should be, "what can I give to the other person, not what can I take." If we could have a parental heart of God exercised in our daily life -- that is the approach we would find ourselves in.

36) For those of us preparing to go to the blessing, and we just saw the beautiful blessing of Shin Hwa and Alexander, we are praying and hoping that each spouse is coming into that union wanting to give of each other and not wanting to take.

37) In a beautiful marriage relationship, and we are thinking about getting blessed ourselves, we should not be thinking about -- what is that man going to do for me. Is he going to be educated enough to make enough money to make me secure? Is he going to be loving enough to take care of me? Is he going to be kind enough to help me do my chores? But the better way to prepare for the blessing is -- "what can I do to better our relationship?"

38) Instead of wanting somebody prepackaged, we should be wanting -- "how can we grow together?" Instead of wanting an ideal husband, served to us on a silver platter, we should be thinking about how do I deal with different issues and things that come up in a marriage -- so that we can grow, and go through rubbing up against each other, become that wonderful loving husband and wife.

39) If we approach anything in this way, thinking about what I can give, how wonderful it would be if someone in their teenage years thought to themselves "what can I give to my parents or do for them? Is there garbage that needs to be taken out? Is there a shopping list I can take care? Does my mom have a special event coming up and perhaps I could take care of my younger brothers and sisters. What can I give to my parents?" Perhaps I have had a tough day at school, I have lots of homework, and I come home and want to scream. But what if we stop ourselves and ask ourselves when we enter into this holy place, this house that my parents prepared for me, what can I give to my parents, instead of thinking it's my house, it's my room, my parents are annoying and bothersome and I want to tune them out with earphones. Instead of feeling entitled to the house and only thinking of ways to perhaps get a car out of the parents -- what if we thought, maybe I could work a little bit more and help pay for the utilities, or help my parents take care of the things that they need to do -- with my effort. Then the house, that family, will be a vastly different family, because each child and parent and sibling will not be thinking what can I take, what can I rob my parents of.

40) Let's say my parents happen to be billionaires. They own many different organizations or companies -- instead of these siblings fighting and thinking of ways to weasel a company or an asset out of the parents -- how wonderful would it be if the children actually started thinking about what they could do to help their father and mother so that, with the incredible assets that heavenly fortune blessed our family with, I can inspire my parents to somehow serve the world and make the world a better place. It's the same family, same assets, same organization, but depending on the way that we decide to approach our lives, depending on the way we decide to approach the loved ones -- whether we approach them in a giving way or taking away, vastly changes the landscape of what kind of family we are looking at.

41) The wonderful thing about the Bible is that it tells us that love is patient. When you're a patient person -- there is an implicit understanding that you are patient through some kind of a hardship, that you are patient with the trials and tribulations of something that is going on in your life. When you are a patient person, that means you have the integrity of character and the qualities necessary to persevere and endure, to go the distance for the sake of love.

42) The Bible says love is patient, love is kind. Love is kind meaning that we are compassionate people. If we really want to exercise true love we are kind, compassionate people. Even if you come home from a rotten day at school you are not going to scream at your parents, at how annoying they are. We are going to say, "Mom and dad, how was your day? I didn't have such a great day but thank God, because of you I have a house to come home to." How incredible would that be? So, just in the way that we approach each other, it can change the environment that we deem to be our reality.

43) The Bible goes on to say, after it basically defines love as patient and kind -- then it gives us a litany of what love is not. Love is not arrogant, love is not rude. But to In Jin Nim the word arrogant sticks out over and above others -- perhaps because of the Asian approach to the English language. Listen to the word arrogance. It sounds like three words put together -- "air" "row" "gaunt". It sounds like someone who is preoccupied being arrogant, boastful, and rude. It is almost as if they are rowing on air, on something that is not substantial, something they cannot stand on. And when people are so engulfed in their own arrogance and pride they forget to realize that we are all created to be divine sons and daughters of God. And without recognizing this divinity within, that we are the children of God -- then we are no different from these empty shells, wiry gaunt people. We become almost like these leaves that dance in the wind. We are so busy rowing on air -- the more we do so, the more arrogant we become. We are nothing more than a gaunt human being, because we're not letting true love flow, God flow through our veins.

44) When we are thinking about being arrogant -- thinking about me, myself, and I, and we all find ourselves doing this at one time or another in our lives -- when we are so engulfed in ourselves then we fail to be the kind of people that we were put on earth to be. We were put on earth to exercise or substantiate the philosophy of living for the sake of others -- to raise each other up, to inspire, nurture, and empower each other.

45) Because if we truly understand the meaning of true love -- the natural expression that would arise out of a heart that is infused with true love would be a heart that wants the best for others. That is the parental heart. When we look at a baby we are looking at this child wanting the best for the child.

46) This doesn't mean give that child whatever they want. Sometimes what is best for the child is strictness, discipline, teaching them the importance of perseverance and endurance so that they can accomplish great things. But it also means being genuine, wanting the best for somebody. Like, as a mother, when In Jin Nim thinks about her children she wants the best for them. What she wants them to be is genuine people. And even if her brutal honesty might cause them to cry, because they need to think about what they are doing, then out of her love she will be brutally honest -- because she would want them to be genuine and real people.

47) The interesting thing about our world is that people many times use words for many different reasons. But sometimes words become interference that prevent human beings from being genuine with each other -- words of flattery and complement, because you want to be looked upon with favoritism. Or sometimes words that you say to one another simply because you want the other person to feel better.

48) But the Bible also says that it is important to not just share the words. In 1 John 3:16 -- 18, it says that love has to be shown in truth and in action. If we are struggling in our family with somebody who is suffering from addiction, we have to be brutally honest with that person to really be able to say out of love, "you need to have your life put back on track. And as difficult as it may be for you, you need help."

49) When somebody is suffering, and sometimes husband and wives think, "this person has an addiction problem," maybe this person has an addiction to wealth or greed, maybe they are addicted to greed so much that it is all they think about -- well, out of the goodness of our hearts we have to have the courage to tell them, "look, you are being just plain greedy. You are not a loving person. You are only thinking about yourself and you need help." And as painful as that honesty might be, if we truly love that person and want the best for that person we are going to have the courage to say the things that might hurt them, that might make them resent us, that might make them say horrible things about us -- but because we love them, we will.

50) Love is not just making people feel good. If we truly love somebody we are going to help them become genuine people. We are going to help them become real people. And if our teenagers are in the throes of addiction or difficulty, as much as they might complain about you and me to their friends, about how controlling and domineering, and all sorts of things -- we as the parent are going to have the courage to take that into our hand and say, "even if you do not understand me I'm going to do, as your father and mother, and ask you to seek help."

51) In a way those parents, who are not busy trying to be the friend of their son and daughter but maintaining the parental position, and wanting the best for the child, are willing to go through years of them not understanding, not appreciating, not valuing us, because we want to do right by them. We want the best for them.

52) The Bible goes on, it says that love is not arrogant, and love is not resentful -- in other words filled with jealousy. It does not rejoice in someone's wrongdoing.

53) In Jin Nim finds it very interesting because Madonna said, "it never ceases to amaze me at how much people want to see you fail." We have in our modern day -- an almost love-hate relationship with our celebrities, with anyone public. And In Jin Nim is sure, even within our movement, with our first and second generation -- and now that the younger leadership is coming to the forefront -- she is sure that sometimes the older ones or the ones that have gone before -- maybe some of you are cheering them on "thank God the young troops have arrived!" but others are thinking, "Why are they here? Why should I pass the baton? I'm doing a fantastic job, they could not do better." Some of us may feel threatened by the youth and by their excitement, by the change.

54) But the Bible says love is not resentful. Love is not filled with jealousy. Jealousy is a very, very dangerous emotion. With the Asian ear it sounds like "gel" and "lousy." That's what it sounds like. So when we are busy being resentful and not liking someone, just because -- it is almost like we put ourselves into this lousy gel of a mess. It is like throwing ourselves into a bowl of pudding -- except this gel happens to be lousy. And as long as we're standing in it we feel and look lousy. We cannot smile because we don't like where we are at. But at the same time, because we are standing in this gel -- we are not happy for others that seemingly enjoy success.

55) But if we really understand what love is all about, and if we understand that the concept or understanding of true love is that experience of the parental heart -- then every parent, regardless of what kind of pudding or gel we are standing in -- if you bring a child into this world, we want our children to be better than us.

56) It is so incredibly interesting -- and it happens to be a universal occurrence, when you go up to a person and you say, "wow, you're beautiful!" They smile. If you say they are not attractive they will frown, a fist may even come your way.

57) It doesn't matter who you approach, it could be an African parent, Asian parent, an American parent, an Eskimo parent, a parent in the Amazon jungle -- it does not matter where they are from, but if you go up to them and say, "Your child is more beautiful than you." Invariably the majority of the people will smile because they are happy for the success and prosperity of the other. This is the parental heart. This is the parental heart that is so different from a jealous or resentful heart, or a heart that is overcome with this emotional petrification of negativity.

58) If we really understand that true love is like a parental heart, then we realize that one of the qualities of that love is being able to be happy for other people. So, when your child is better than you, you will be happy, extremely excited.

59) For In Jin Nim and for her family there is nothing more exciting than watching the Winter Olympic Games -- and then watching the parents, the proud parents sitting on the sidelines, cheering their child on. Yes, there is an element of living vicariously through the child, but most of the parents are truly and genuinely excited and happy that their child can do what they could not do -- that their child has a chance to, not bring honor to their family only, but to bring honor to their country as well.

60) When we have a parental heart toward others we want others to do well. Instead of thinking, "why is that person successful? Why are they more prosperous than me?" and wanting to tear them down -- if we have a parental heart we want to keep on uplifting. As long as the other people do well -- and if we all can have that kind of a heart, sooner or later that power of true love is going to uplift us all.

61) This is the new year, and we have lots of work to do. But we also have lots of ongoing issues that we are dealing with as a movement -- as you move from one transition to the other -- generational transition issues, family issues, movement issues.

62) But the incredible thing about our True Parents is that through this beautiful process of the blessing, the holy matrimony, each and every one of us has this opportunity to experience what the parental heart is all about. That is why our Father says over and over again, until you have children of your own you cannot fully understand what it means to be unselfish.

63) When you can think about the others, more than yourself, when you look at the others and you think of giving, not taking -- when you look at the others and you think about wanting the best for them, and when you look at the others and you genuinely are so happy that they are more successful, and more prosperous, and more accomplished than you -- then you realize, that is exactly how God, our Heavenly Parent, feels for us, his children.

64) We are put on this earth to love and be loved, to move and be moved, to inspire and be inspired, but also to empower others with their understanding of what true love is all about.

65) In Jin Nim expressed her hope that we can come together on this beautiful Valentine's Day weekend -- and how wonderful it would be if instead of thinking about caring a shoebox so that we can get chocolates and hearts, how wonderful it would be if we asked God, our Heavenly Parent, to be our Valentine. And how beautiful it would be if we asked True Parents to be our Valentine. Perhaps, give a flower offering to God and our True Parents and to the people that we care about.

66) And how wonderful would it be to remember the original Valentine -- that came out of a little priest who lived some time in 200 A.D. under Emperor Claudius. There was a little priest called Valentine who was not too happy about the Emperor Claudius -- who wanted to amass huge armies, who thought that the way to get more people into his armies was to ban marriage. This priest was very unhappy about that. He thought that marriage was sacred, and regardless -- if he was caught and thrown into jail and put to death because he was marrying people, because it was against the law, he continued to do so. And while he was in captivity he developed a relationship with the daughter of a prison guard who came to visit him, because she was so inspired by his desire to continue to marry couples. Finally when he passed away on February 14, 269 A.D. he left a note to the daughter of the prison guard signed, your Valentine. That is how the tradition started

67) How fitting is it, that in this tradition of wanting to bless all these couples because he believed in the sanctity of the blessing -- well, that is exactly what our True Parents came to do. They came to graft all of humanity into God's lineage through the blessing. How else does black and white become family, does Protestant and Muslim become family, does yellow and black become family? We become family through marriage. We become family, by grafting onto a family.

68) And so, if we can graft onto this heavenly lineage that our True Parents bring to share with the world -- the barriers, the differences, the hatred will all fall apart and people will come to realize this parental heart of God, this heart of wanting the best for others, of wanting to give not take, of wanting to love not kill, of wanting to uplift not to abuse. And people will be inspired and wanting to be happy for others. And in so doing this is how we will establish a world of peace.

69) "Brothers and sisters, on this Valentine's Day please make God your Valentine. Please take this opportunity to let the people who are dear and real in your life, express to them how much you care and how much you love them -- and I wish the same for all of you and I know our True Parents do too. Thank you and God Bless!" 

Sermon Notes, January 30, 2011

In Jin Moon
Lovin' Life Ministry

1) In Jin Nim (In Jin Nim) greeted everyone and shared about the Lovin Life Ministry (Lovin' Life Ministry) trip to Costa Rica

2) They held the International Women's Conference there. The theme was women in leadership -- how they should lead in the 21st century. Woman came from all around the world. There was an incumbent First Lady and several former First Ladies. They had a wonderful time. Angelica Selle did a wonderful job organizing the event. Angelica received a warm round of applause.

3) It was a great treat to worship with the brothers and sisters in Costa Rica. Costa Rica means the rich coast. The first settlers who arrived there were in search of gold and material riches, but what God intended for that nation and all of Central and South America is to inherit the true love of God.

4) God wanted the people of Costa Rica, not to just seek riches and materialistic wealth, but riches in terms of the internal gifts that He/She wanted to share with His children -- the gifts of love, of wanting to live our lives for the sake of others.

5) The 150 brothers and sisters in Costa Rica desire to do just that, to inherit the true love of God, and of putting into practice, not just true love and true life, but actualizing the true lineage going through the beautiful Blessing Ceremony and experiencing the joys as well as the hardships of building that ideal family that we all long for.

6) For In Jin Nim and the team that traveled with her, they were moved by the hearts of the people. When she was asked to be the keynote speaker at the woman's conference -- in the morning she opened her eyes and she prayed. God speaks to us sometimes through visions or dreams or what we hear in our ears, but that morning In Jin Nim felt that God was with all the woman representatives from around the world. Because, as she was looking over the women's Federation brochure, the (stage) curtain cast a shadow that resembled a beautiful butterfly.

7) In Jin Nim thought about the symbolism of the butterfly. It represents all womankind who have gone through the process of being the Caterpillar, and then the chrysalises, (cocoon), where they were literally surrounded and many times repressed, going through difficulties and hardships, looked upon as a second class citizen, being seen as someone not worthy of being heard.

8) In particular when you look at the history of religion you realize this so clearly. Woman never had the right to claim their dignity because of the fall. The process by which a woman finally makes the transformation and is reborn as the beautiful butterfly took a very, very long time. But with the advent of our True Parents and our True Father, proclaiming the Pacific Rim Era, when women would take on the responsibility of guiding the nation and world into a peaceful millennium for the sake of the future generations and the world -- In Jin Nim felt how fitting that God could show her this beautiful gift of a butterfly. It gave her so much incredible hope for being a woman, and for the success of the conference.

9) Just as God made her feel so inspired and empowered, all the woman who attended the conference felt rejuvenated. There they were, hundreds of them, coming from all different positions and backgrounds, overcoming all the barriers, coming with different perceptions of what the conference would be, but once they were all there -- many woman came up to In Jin Nim and told her that for the first time they were so inspired to be a woman. They were so inspired that this conference was initiated by Mrs. Sun Myung Moon, and the fact that they could take part in this conference was such a privilege. These are the words that In Jin Nim heard over and over again.

10) Truly in the heart of Central America, when we talk about the center, the center of ourselves is our heart. It is our heart that longs to be moved, that inspires us, that longs to be inspired. The WFWP international woman's conference being held in Central America is very profound. If Central America can be the heart through which North America and South America can truly be united and reawakened in this revolution of the heart of true love, and truly come to understand and unite together with the our True Parents and the work that needs to be done.

11) In Jin Nim told the South American brothers and sisters, "I am sure many times you felt the same way that I felt as a woman in your life of faith, like a second-class citizen, maybe unheard or unseen or unappreciated."

12) The Bible speaks about a time when the last will be first and the first will be last. In a way the last, the womankind of the world, are being asked to be first, to lead and guide. And likewise if Central and South America can truly inherit the heart of God then they can make the North Americans work harder. Because, infused with a heart of God and our True Parents it might be your time to be the first, to be the ones that guide even North America -- to understand what we need to do as eternal sons and daughters of God.

13) They were so grateful for this opportunity, to not just have a conference and fellowship with our South American brothers and sisters, but to again realize to our bones, to our core, how precious our True Parents are. Because, without our True Parents there is no way this would be taking place. There would be no occasion for the women of the world to come together in this atmosphere of reclaiming our dignity as woman, and wanting to do good work as an agent of change and wanting to work together to create a harmonious world of peace and love. None of this could take place without our True Parents.

14) The interesting thing about Costa Rica is that our father appointed Costa Rica with a television ministry. We have a channel their called Televox. It is basically one channel. It is a testament to how one channel, or one person, can make a world of a difference.

15) In Jin Nim, as someone who believes in the power of media and entertainment, felt like she was preaching to the choir. Because, ever since 2002 with our True Parents blessing our Costa Rica members started a broadcast station. For the last eight years they have been broadcasting the Divine Principle lecture series from morning to night. Now they are broadcasting 14 hours every day.

16) This one channel alone reaches more than 70% of Costa Rica. The majority of members that joined, joined through this TV ministry. Just by clicking on a channel, and sometimes they don't know what it is, but it looks interesting, and they begin to watch. Men and women are having profound spiritual experiences while they are hearing the Divine Principle for the first time. Other than a few missionaries and leaders, most of the 150 members joined through the TV ministry. There was no overt street witnessing or door-to-door witnessing, it all came through this one channel. Men and woman, for whatever reason, turned on this channel.

17) There is one story of an 11-year-old boy who started to listen and found the lectures to be entirely engrossing. Then he invited his father to listen, and then his mother, and eventually this 11 year old boy witnessed to his whole family.

18) This is the power of media, of television, and it's the power of just one single channel, or one person, or one agent of change making a difference. For the last eight years they have been broadcasting the Divine Principle series, but starting this year they have been broadcasting the Lovin' Life Ministry twice a day, every day.

19) Prior to the WFWP international conference they advertised one month in advance. The capacity of the hall was for 800, but the number of members is only 150. The regional leader Rev. Kim must have been wondering how will this turn out? Will the viewers of the Lovin' Life Ministry be coming, will they show up on time? It was like a field test, but interestingly and miraculously by the time the Lovin' Life Ministry started at 10 AM the hall was filled. They all came to worship together with the Lovin' Life Ministry because they wanted to experience what we experience every Sunday.

20) When In Jin Nim stood in line to greet the brothers and sisters of Costa Rica, one after another they showed their heartistic appreciation, thanking our True Parents and our movement for paying attention to Costa Rica, and allowing them to worship together, what they had only seen through television.

21) Brothers and sisters, this is the new era, it is a new time. When True Father talks about 2013 and how we need to do our work so we can share the breaking news with all brothers and sisters around the world, how incredible it is to have our True Parents with us. We need to know that people are ready to listen. It's just a matter of us articulating what needs to be said.

22) Rev. Kim, having witnessed the success of this field test, is now so overcome with a renewed determination, that with that one channel alone -- so many people could be reached. Imagine if just one person, just like that one channel, one after another, decided to become that beautiful butterfly, that beautiful butterfly that will share with the world the breaking news of our True Parents. Imagine how many people we can catch, we can inspire, and encourage to lead good lives.

23) When In Jin Nim thought about how one person can make a difference her thoughts always go to our True Father and his life of faith, his life dedicating everything that he has for the sake of his mission. And of course our beautiful True Mother who was there with him every step of the way, regardless of the tears, how many hardships she had to overcome on her own.

24) In Jin Nim was also reminded of one woman, her name is Sandra Kay Yow. She is known as a (member of) Basketball Hall of Famer. She was inducted in 2002. When In Jin Nim heard about her life and read about her life she said, "there we go. Here is another example of how one woman deciding to do good work for the sake of the world, can change the lives of multitudes and give so much joy, and give so much promise for the future generation with her life."

25) When she read her story she realized that she was a very quiet woman, but definitely gifted in the art of basketball. She was the champion of her high school. Her average score per game was 34 points. But even though she was a fantastic basketball player she was a very humble person, a very quiet person. When people asked her what do you want to be, what would you want to do with your life? She answered that she wanted to live a life serving other people. She wanted to be a teacher. She was thinking about becoming an English teacher.

26) But God works in mysterious ways. Because, sometimes we ourselves don't realize what we are fully capable of. Sometimes it takes someone outside of our own sphere, or our own sphere of relationships, to look at us and think, "mm that girl Kay would make a great coach as opposed to a great teacher." When she was applying to different high schools -- the high school she applied to, its principal had seen her play -- this girl whose average score was 34 points per game. He had watched her play when she was in high school. And when he got her resume he got so excited that this was the very Kay Yow that he had watched. So he called up the school administrators and told him that they had to get this young lady to teach. When she came for her interview he realized, that even though on the court she was a fearless fighter and a fantastic player, but off the court she was very humble.

27) When he asked her if she would be interested in being the head coach of their basketball team, she answered that she had not applied to be a coach but an English teacher. He told her if she agreed to be the head coach she could also be the English teacher.

28) That is how she got started. She herself many times doubted, could she really do this? Was she good enough? She had never taught before.

29) Many times our own thinking is the biggest enemy to overcome in our pursuit of big things, and Kay was no exception. Her mind was playing tricks on her saying, "you've never taught before, you've never led a high school basketball team, how can you do this?"

30) But because the Principal so firmly believed in her capabilities to rise to the occasion, she said yes. And so she started the beginning of an incredible career. She spent four years at that high school and she brought back four conference titles. Then she decided to go back to her alma mater high school for one year where she brought victory. Then she was asked to teach at a college, where again because of her character and work ethic she was able to create a team that won many many victories. Finally by 1975, North Carolina State University was looking for a head coach for their basketball team and they decided that they had to get her. When they asked her to come in and interviewed her they realized that she was this quiet, soft-spoken, slender woman, not really sure whether she was able to rise up to the occasion and lead that basketball team into many victories. But with the urging of the school officials she decided to take on that job.

31) It was when she took on the job at North Carolina State University, that she was invited to attend a Christian workshop. At that workshop she experienced a life changing cathartic experience. She had an epiphany. It was a question that was asked at the workshop -- "Kay, if you were to die today do you think you would go to heaven?"

32) For Kay, this question struck her almost like a lightning bolt. Because she always strove to be a good person, a woman of moral character, a woman who exercise discipline and who set short term goals, accomplish them, and set long-term goals -- she always felt that her life was motivated in a good way. But at that moment when that question was asked she realized, "I don't have a relationship with God." The only thing she had thought about was basketball. She had lived and breathed for basketball. She had never really thought about, did she want or need a relationship with God. Did she long for a relationship with God?

33) It was that question that started her on the path of self-discovery, to realize that she was God's daughter. Instead of understanding that question as, "I want to understand God because I want to go to heaven." She sincerely wanted to understand and have a relationship with God so that she could deeply and more effectively serve the people that she was serving in her life -- the girls on her basketball team, Wolf Pack.

34) Now infused with an understanding that she belonged to God, that God is her parent, she became determined like never before. Under her leadership Wolf Pack went on to win 20 NCAA tournaments, and it went on to win the 1986 Goodwill games, and went on in 1989 to win the Olympic Games in Seoul Korea. And in the midst of all these winnings, including the world championship, in 1987 she found out that she had cancer of the breast. But that did not deter her from the work she felt she was called to do.

35) So even while battling chemotherapy, losing her hair, losing her teeth, and strength, she carried her team to victory after victory after victory. The Goodwill games, the Olympics, and so on and so forth.

36) This one woman's determination carried this basketball team into incredible heights of glory and victory, not just for North Carolina, but for America. And because of all the good work that she had done she was inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame in 2002. She ranked sixth in the world in terms of the woman's career list. She achieved something most people only dream about. What she did was, she quietly worked and persevered. One of her favorite quotes that she shared with her team, whom she called her children, is work hard -- hang tough -- and go the distance.

37) And every time when In Jin Nim feels tired she loves to repeat those words; work hard, hang tough, and go the distance. In her ears she hears her grandmother. She would always chastise the True Children. She lived with them at East Garden for a good number of years before going back to Korea for the twilight years of her life. While she was at East Garden, she spoke to them in Korean, but as she learned English she would yell out "work hard In Jin!!!" (with a strong Korean accent) "hang tough -- go distance!" It makes In Jin Nim smile. It reminds her of her grandmother and her youth. And it reminds her that this woman (Kay) lived by this mantra and she overcame incredible odds -- three bouts of cancer treatment. Finally she succumbed to cancer in 2009. But the amount of good work that she had left behind, the multitudes of young woman that she inspired -- because of her un-relenting desire to see everyone achieve their full potential, by getting them excited about sharing their passion of basketball with the world. This inspires In Jin Nim to this day, and she is sure it continues to inspire many, many women and men who hope to be inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame.

38) Our True Father, when he spoke to a group of workshop brothers and sisters who had come back from witnessing (and quite a few of them were tired and beaten by all the persecution and negativity) -- True Father spent some time talking with them. And one of the most inspiring words that In Jin Nim keeps in her heart to this day, that father shared July 17, 1960, True Father spoke about the importance of having this great resolve of heart, this new resolve of heart. He spoke about how we can do incredible things if we only have this great new resolve of heart. To pour out every passion, everything that we are, what ever we are passionate about -- as much as we are passionate about basketball -- poured out to the world, because we are proud as God's representative.

39) If we can have this great resolve and pour out with every passion as God's representatives on earth, then just as Kay inspired millions and millions of men and women, just one woman alone -- can you imagine what would happen if every one here decided to be that agent of change, decided for themselves that we are going to make a difference, we are going to make a difference by starting to work on ourselves, and understanding that life is an incredible gift.

40) But Kay also went on to say that excellence is not a gift. Life is a gift. But excellence is not a gift. Excellence comes from preparation and hard work. When In Jin Nim talks about the Generation of Peace, be an excellent man and woman of God, internally and externally excellent -- it is not a given that because we understand our True Parents and our Heavenly Parent that we will become excellent. We will become excellent when we prepare ourselves to become excellent through hard work, through hanging tough, and by going the distance.

41) The great anthropologist Margaret Mead many years ago said, when we look at the history of humankind it has always been a small handful of people that change the world. In Jin Nim believes that just as the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ, carrying on his memory, changed the world, if our movement can inherit the fire in the heart of this revolution of heart -- in wanting to share with the world the message of our True Parents, the message of true love and the beauty of the blessing, and how incredible it is that at this time we can overcome death through the beauty of the Seunghwa ceremony -- we can share this with men and women from all around the world. And we can encourage everyone to see him and herself as belonging to one family -- we, you and I, can change the world.

42) Brothers and sisters, here we are in the month of January, the beginning of a brand-new year. Last year was a fantastic year and it was also an incredibly difficult year. But if again in this new year we can pledge ourselves to be absolutely united with our True Parents, just as the Monarch butterflies make the journey of over 2500 miles annually, from North America to the mountain ranges in Mexico, they do that because something in the heart, something in their internal compass is telling them this is what you need to do.

43) If we are really honest with ourselves, and if we can really have this relationship with God and our True Parents, our hearts will be the first to tell us, just like the inherent compass of the Monarch butterfly guides it where to go, our hearts will guide us where we need to go. And just as the Monarch butterfly can navigate the long journey, orientating themselves based upon the magnetic fields of the earth, if we can have this relationship with our Heavenly Parent, and allow the genuine love of our True Parents to guide us in our lives -- it will guide us in the way that we need to go.

44) We need to open up our hearts, to allow God to work mysteriously in our lives. Instead of being bottled up or burdened by, or being put off by small details, this is really the time when we, every one of us, as beautiful butterflies need to travel the beautiful course that God our Heavenly Parent wants His eternal sons and daughters to go. He and She wants us to fly, wants us to substantiate our purpose, wants us to be the agent of change that ushers in a new millennium.

45) Brothers and sisters we need to know that no matter what we do, where we are, or where ever we may find ourselves, that our Heavenly Parent and our True Parents are always there. They are always right there waiting for us. The only thing we need to do is wake up, open up our eyes, and realize that we are so beautiful in God's eyes.

46) Have a wonderful, wonderful Sunday and a beautiful week. As they travel to Korea to celebrate the Lunar New Year and True Parents birthday please be with them in your prayers and your spirit. God bless! 

Costa Rica, the Rich Coast

In Jin Moon
January 23, 2011
Costa Rica

"What should Costa Rica truly be rich in?" Rev. In Jin Moon asked the 750 congregants of the Lovin Life Ministry service in Costa Rica, on January 23, 2011. She responded, "The answer is: 'Costa Rica should be rich in heart.' In her sermon, Rev. Moon encouraged the people of Costa Rica to "Take Courage" and strive for what each of them are capable of through being God's son and daughter.

Hola, Costa Rica. I'm delighted to be here with all of you on this beautiful Sunday morning. It's a real treat for the Lovin' Life Band and my ministry to travel to your beautiful country to spend this time of worship. As I woke up this morning, I looked outside and, unlike the usual vision of high rises and buildings spiraling up to heaven that strikes me when I wake up in the city, I saw green mountain ranges. The beauty of your country struck me, and I realized why this is called Costa Rica, the "rich coast."

I thought about how blessed your country is and what God must have been thinking about when he created it, what God has imagined or desired for Costa Rica to be. As we know, when Europeans first settled these regions, they came in pursuit of riches, of gold. But when we ask ourselves, "What should Costa Rica truly be rich in?" the answer is, "Costa Rica should be rich in heart." What God so desired for Costa Rica is for each of our hearts to glow brightly like gold: the heart of love, the heart of forgiveness, the heart that embraces, the heart that empowers. This is what God envisioned for the people of Costa Rica: being rich in God's love, experiencing the richness of every divine man and woman as the handiwork of God.

For this country to be headed by a woman president at this time when our True Parents have declared the Pacific Rim era in which women are to usher in the new millennium of peace, I think, bodes extremely well for your country. The key will be for you to inherit the true love of God and the breaking news that our Heavenly Parent wants to share through our True Parents that the gift of true life, true love, and true lineage is waiting for your heart to receive it, if you just open your eyes and hearts to receive the blessing that God wants to give.

Last night I had the privilege of meeting such distinguished women and friends -- Ambassadors for Peace and brothers and sisters -- at the beautiful gala. It was a celebration of motherhood, sisterhood, and daughterhood. We as women come together not to say that just because history has been unkind to women, we're going to come together and do the same for our brothers, our fathers, and our sons. We come together as dignified men and women because we want to honor each other.

Instead of abusing our brothers, we want to uplift them. Instead of disempowering our fathers, we want to empower them. Instead of telling our sons they've been no good to us throughout all these years, we want to inspire them with our love and with our encouragement. I looked out into the audience and watched all these beautiful women from all over the world dancing together. They came from Asia, Korea, America, and the Islamic world -- like brightly colored butterflies, descending from the heavens in celebration of our lives and of how beautiful we are to each other. We were glorifying God, honoring each other. It was almost like watching a planetarium show of all these beautiful stars from heaven coming down. If that's not the Kingdom of Heaven, I don't know what is.

Usually when I wake up in the morning and meditate, thinking about what I would like to share with my brothers and sisters, God speaks to me in many different ways. This morning when I opened my eyes and lifted my head from prayer, there was a brochure of the Women's Federation for World Peace to my right. It was designed by Sean Kim, the son of our regional leader here. On the cover there was a flurry of beautiful butterflies. The interesting thing was that the curtains in my hotel room were arranged in such a way that when the sun struck them, it caused the shadows to make an outline like a monarch butterfly.

I sat there and felt God's love by looking at this beautiful shadow of a butterfly on top of the Women's Federation for World Peace brochure. I felt God's love, God's presence, and I realized once again how remarkable is God's vision for not just Costa Rica but for all his children around the world.

When I think about butterflies, one of the most famous is the monarch. It migrates from North America to the trans-Mexican volcanic mountain ranges. Monarchs in North America start their southward journey in late summer or fall and travel more than 2,500 miles to reach their overwintering sites in Mexico, almost with a mission. To the Asian ear, "Mexico" sounds like maxi-go. They are going full speed on a mission. They're going to go to their wintering sites because that's what their internal compass tells them.

Because this compass is within them and they can use the earth's magnetic field for orientation, these beautiful and seemingly fragile butterflies take enormous trips down to Central America and back, knowing that they have a mission, knowing where they need to go. The interesting thing about the migration process is that in their annual flights to reach the wintering sites and then to return to the summer home, the monarchs go through successive generations. Many butterflies die along the way, but new generations carry on, year after year. Come rain or snow or sunshine, they do this because their internal compass tells them what they need to do.

We as God's sons and daughters are taking the long journey of life. Just as monarch butterflies inherently know how to use the earth's magnetic fields to guide them where they should go, we have our own internal compass, the heart that informs us who we are and guides us where we need to go when it is connected to the heart of our Heavenly Parent and guided and supported by the heart of our True Parents.

Regardless of how long our journeys might be and how many thousands of miles we must travel to and fro in order to come back into the embrace of our Heavenly Parent, our internal compass knows exactly what we need to do. We as a movement have gone through over 50 years of following our True Parents. For those of us lucky enough to be living at this time, as I often remind brothers and sisters, think about what it must have been like for the disciples of Christ 2,000 years ago to have walked, sailed, and ministered to the people together with Jesus.

Sometimes I wonder what these disciples must have gone through in their thought processes. Just as we as faithful believers on our journey through life and our life of faith may face moments when we wonder, or fight with our faith, or wage wars in the battlefields in our mind, I'm sure the disciples must have done the same. Just as we sometimes doubt, the disciples might also have doubted.

As we think about those disciples who are the envy of multitudes in this modern day, we can also imagine that 2,000 years from now people will be thinking of these brothers and sisters in Costa Rica who touched, heard, and saw our True Parents. They will be thinking how lucky we all must have been, just as we sometimes think about the disciples of Jesus and think how lucky they must have been to have dined, lived, and walked with Jesus.

When I was thinking about how blessed we are to be living at this time and also to be faced with this long journey put before us by God so that we can experience the parental heart of raising a beautiful family, struggling through and persevering to substantiate an ideal family, I thought about the story in Matthew 14:24–32. The Bible talks about a time when Jesus walked on water, how the disciples were on a boat far out to sea. The Bible specifically says that the boat was many furlongs out to sea, and furlong in biblical terms means one-eighth of a mile. So think about these disciples being out on the open Sea of Galilee, far from the safety and comfort of the shore.

Among the metaphorical stories in the Bible, the symbol of the boat has come to represent the church, especially all the things the early church dealt with in the first stages of Christian history. The Bible goes on to say that these disciples were on a boat many furlongs from shore, being tossed and beaten with the wind against them. These adjectives portray very much what the early Christian church was going through, and it's very much like the experience our parents as first generation went through when they first joined the movement. There was a great deal of persecution, a great deal of wind against the boat of the Unification movement. We were beaten many times mentally and even physically by our persecutors and accusers. We were tossed around like little ping-pong balls on this open and violent sea.

Matthew goes on to say that in the fourth hour -- which means the hours between 3:00 to 6:00 in the morning -- the disciples on the boat saw a vision. At first they weren't really sure exactly what it was. In the midst of this storm and mayhem, in the midst of all the wind against them, in the midst of being tossed around and beaten down on the open sea, they saw a vision of Jesus walking toward the boat. He was walking on water toward their boat.

To the disciples on the boat, it must have looked quite fantastical, almost like watching a sci fi or fantasy movie where everything is awry, where you can't tell the difference between the sky and the ocean because they have all become one. And in the midst of this grand funnel of natural cataclysmic mayhem comes the vision of their elder brother Jesus Christ walking slowly to them. To the disciples on the boat, he must have looked like a phantom.

In fact, in fear they screamed out, "It's a ghost!" They screamed out in terror, not knowing who it was. But what does Matthew tell us? Jesus responded instantly. He didn't slowly come at his disciples. He didn't glide to the disciples with a response. He responded instantly, saying to them, "Take courage. It's me. Stop being afraid." Jesus Christ, in responding to the disciples' cry of fear, responded instantly: "Take courage."

Daniel Boon

When we think about courage, we think about someone in American history like Daniel Boone, a man of great courage and pioneering spirit, tackling a bear. We often say that Daniel Boone was an example of a man of great courage. When we say to our kids, "Be courageous," we use the word be. Or have courage. But in the Book of Matthew Jesus clearly says, "Take courage." I think Jesus was well aware of the fact that there was no sign of any courage on the boat. He was saying, "Take courage wherever you can. If it's not within, grab it, take it, put it on your back like a backpack. Or if courage comes in the form of a purse, put it on and wear it. Take courage."

Then Jesus said, "I am." It's his way of saying to his disciples, "Do you not know who I am? Why do you doubt who I am? Can you not see who I am? I am." You should know Jesus Christ when you see him. "You, my disciples, you should know me when you see me because I am."

At the same time this is a call for his disciples to realize what they are to Jesus Christ. They should not be afraid. They should not be stricken with terror in the presence of their brother Jesus Christ. They should know who they are as belonging to one family of God. They should know who they are as an eternal son or daughter of God. Therefore, we need not be afraid because Jesus is saying, "I am." Jesus is telling us, "You are that beautiful handiwork of God. You are my children. Do not be afraid."

Jesus drives his message home by saying, "Stop whatever you're dealing with. Stop and don't be afraid," meaning with whatever we're dealing with in our lives. Sometimes life has a way of taking us to places that we least anticipate, but regardless of what we're facing and dealing with, Jesus Christ is asking us to stop where we are, in the midst of what we have been doing, and know that "I am." And for those of us who are privileged to live at this time, it also means that True Parents and our Heavenly Parent are here, and don't be afraid.

When Peter realizes on the boat that it is his elder brother Jesus and that he should not be afraid, what is his first response? "If it is you," Peter cries out, "please command me what to do." Many times, brothers and sisters, in our life of faith, with Divine Principle teaching us to be responsible human beings, we know that God has given us 95 percent of all we need to become a beautiful son or daughter of God, but we also know that God has entrusted in our care our own 5-percent responsibility. Within our own portion of responsibility lies our mission to own up to who we are, and to decide how we want to live our lives and exercise our life of faith.

God has given us our 5-percent responsibility because God wants us to exercise free will. God did not create us to be robots. God created us to be free thinking and fully capable of making our own choices, voluntarily exercising our 5-percent responsibility by choosing to become his children, desiring a heartistic connection and a true relationship with God for ourselves.

For those of us who have children of our own, there is nothing more satisfying than to have beautiful sons and daughters who decide to be with us in whatever we might be doing, not because the child is following blindly and obeying what the parent commanded him or her to do. We as parents want our children to grow up, to think for themselves, and to decide for themselves how they want to own their lives and exercise their own 5-percent responsibility. We would love for our children to voluntarily decide to be our children and God's children. That is the most beautiful experience a parent can have.

But at this time, on this boat being tossed on the open ocean, Peter asked, "If it is you, please command me what to do. Please command me to come toward you." Many times we as children of our Heavenly Parent and our True Parents are waiting for a command. We're so often waiting for guidance, asking our Heavenly Father, "Tell us what to do." But what God is waiting for is for his children not always to be waiting for the command, the direction, and the guidance to come. God wants each of us is to own up to and decide to pursue our passion and to figure out how we can best serve humanity and each other.

Because Jesus Christ is an elder brother, when Peter reaches out, saying, "Please command me. Tell me what to do. Command me to come toward you," then Jesus Christ says, "Come." Jesus again responds instantaneously, "Come. Just believe. Come toward me." That's what Jesus was saying to Peter.

Having taken courage that Jesus has commanded him to come, Peter leaves the comfort and safety of the boat and starts to travel toward Jesus, walking on water. If you understand this biblical story metaphorically, what the Bible alludes to is the fact that each of us has this divinity within us. Just as Jesus Christ is the son of God, so are you; just as Jesus Christ is a child of God, so am I.

Before this story, the only one who walked on water was Jesus Christ. But this story clearly alludes to the divinity within each of the disciples in that they are capable of walking on water just like Jesus. They took courage. They believed Jesus when he said, "I am." Therefore, we can know who we are. Wherever we might be in the process or the journey of our life, we should aspire to be able to say, "We have stopped being afraid. We have gotten out of our comfort zone, our place of security, and we have taken, or have started taking, the first step." We do this through our belief, just as through faith in Jesus Christ Peter started to walk.

But then what does the Book of Matthew tell us? Peter suddenly became aware. Peter perceived. It uses the word perceived. Maybe Peter saw. Maybe he was so overcome by the visual reality of actually walking on water that fear took over him again. The Bible says "when he perceived," when he suddenly, in other words, was made aware.

This is similar to our course of life. Many times we are doing pretty well, driving down the highway of faith, cruising at around 50 or 60. Then out of nowhere comes a deer and we are stricken with terror. We don't know what to do. But the story is saying that at times like this the perception of the deer that causes us to be stricken with fear may sometimes be our own doing. Perhaps it was not a deer. Perhaps it was just a sound, and our vision was playing tricks on us.

But the minute Peter perceived -- in other words, became aware of -- that something was in his highway, his road of faith, he became afraid. The Bible said, "When he perceived and felt the wind."

When we walk outside on such a beautiful day as this in the clear, crisp Costa Rican air, we feel the warmth, but we often will also feel the breeze. If we understand wind to be all the difficulties that life can throw at us, and we also know that Jesus Christ's "I am" lets us know who we are, we should have almost a shield of invincibility in that we are God's son or daughter and there's an infinite potential to what we can be.

But often the minute we become aware of our perception and feel the wind, that feeling of the wind means that we are somehow affected, somehow moved by the wind. Instead of standing strong and stalwart in our faith against the bitter wind that blew, that hit the early church -- Christians thousands of years ago, and 2,000 years later Unificationists -- sometimes we allowed these winds to affect us. We allowed these winds to move us to a point where we no longer believe, we allow doubt to creep in, and we allow room for fear to overtake us.

It was then, when Peter perceived and felt the wind, that he started to sink -- maybe because he became aware of all the superficial, materialistic, or commercial reasons why he should not be walking on water. Many times our minds are our own worst enemies in telling us what we cannot do. God tells us that we are capable of incredible things, but many times it's us, we in our own understanding of ourselves, our own perception of our own realities that tell us we cannot walk on water when Jesus told us we can.

When Peter became aware, when he perceived all that was around him, that there was no firm ground, no firm cement under his feet, then he started to sink and he automatically screamed out, "Save me. Save me from my death." Then again Jesus responded instantaneously.

This is a proactive elder brother. He's not waiting around. He's not slowly going to save the younger brother. He acts instantaneously, just like the way, regardless of whatever we are going to do in our life of faith, when we call, our Heavenly Parent and our True Parents, they act instantaneously. And what does Jesus do? Jesus catches Peter. He not only catches Peter, but he holds him. Then together they go back into the boat, and the winds ceased.

It could be a wonderful story of what exactly took place, but the story could also be understood metaphorically in terms of Jesus wanting to teach us the valuable lessons of life, and to encourage us in our life of faith to know that "I am" and stop being afraid. Our minds are our own worst enemies sometimes. Many times we are the ones telling ourselves we cannot walk on water. Many times we are the ones telling ourselves we are not divine, we are just dust in the wind.

But Jesus, through the Book of Matthew, and God, in his infinite wisdom and the teachings of our True Parents, are telling us we are absolutely divine beings, capable of the most incredible thing -- experiencing true love, which is like the electricity for all the beautiful lights in this hall. It's true love. Like the blood flowing in our veins that makes us who we are. It's in knowing that we are God's children, that we are divine creatures, and that with God, our True Parents, and Jesus Christ, there is nothing we cannot do if we simply believe.

When I think about this story and how providential it is to have our True Parents here with us, I realize that sometimes we can look at our lives as being very short in that the usual life span is less than 100 years. But in one sense, a life of faith and a life well lived are long in the sense that nothing is given out for free. We have to work and persevere. But in so doing we have the ability to develop this amazing parental heart that God has for us as we come together in a beautiful matrimony. And the wonderful thing about the True Parents is that they come to share God's lineage with all of us.

Our True Parents come at this time with the gift that the Fall took away. Adam and Eve were to have been raised to be a glorious son and daughter who would come together in holy matrimony, become the True Parents, and share the gift of the Blessing to the rest of the world. Through this gift of the Blessing offered by our True Parents, we have a chance to take off the shackles that have held men and women in bondage to sin. In the glory of our Heavenly Parent and our True Parents we can graft onto this true lineage of God and become one family under God.

The remarkable thing about our movement is that regardless of where we come from, when we realize we're all brothers and sisters loving God and True Parents, the barriers of race, religion, and economics simply dissolve and disappear. How else can you explain the way that women who have done great things with their lives can come together, meeting only for the first or second time, and in glorious honor of each other celebrate our womanhood and the Pacific Rim era? We grew up on opposite ends of the earth, but we can come together through our True Parents, understanding that we belong to one family.

As the senior pastor of Lovin' Life Ministry, I want to see the beauty of America blossom in the eyes of the world. America was especially prepared by God to exercise its proper ability to influence the world toward understanding what an incredible time we're living in. America was prepared to make ready the way of the Lord, to work with the Lord, with our True Parents, in helping humanity see beyond violence and differences. America was prepared to help humanity unite together on the common denominator that we belong to the same Heavenly Parent and therefore should work toward a peaceful world of harmony and love because we are brothers and sisters.

For the women coming together in this beautiful country of Costa Rica, symbolizing peace and holding the two continents, the north and south, together, this is our time. If we harness our understanding of who we are and what an amazing time this is to be walking and working with our True Parents, we can explode the revolution of love that is to take place in this country.

What is the center of men and women, brothers and sisters? The center is our heart. If Central America can inherit the rich heart of God that shares in the spirit of true love, of common sisterhood and brotherhood, of this common family living under one God, then the revolution of love can start here. And instead of having feelings of differences in terms of thinking why is North America so rich and powerful, what about South America?

Last night Rev. Angelika Selle started off the gala by saying,

Do you sometimes feel like you are second class? Like sometimes you have not been given as much light, perhaps, as North America? Well, the Bible says that in the time of the Second Coming the first shall be last and the last shall be first. There is no need to feel that God does not see us or God somehow forgot about us. This is the time when the first shall be last, the last shall be first.

The female sex, which has been relegated to be second class and so abused throughout history, can now be asked to lead and to stand in the position to usher in this new millennium. This is the time when South America can take the lead in waking up the world to what an incredible time this is. I, for one, having experienced the horrors of 9/11, know what it's like to experience terrorism on American shores. I am well aware of the fact that we are technologically capable of blowing ourselves up many times over.

In this time of difficulty, what is going to bring our world together? The only thing that's going to heal, truly guide and inspire us to be more than we can be, to be what we initially thought we could not be, is our understanding of God and our connection with our True Parents.

Brothers and sisters, I know that our True Parents are with us in spirit. I know they are together with us in their prayers. So in the spirit of pura vida of the Costa Rican way of life, we have to live a pure and unadulterated life, free from our perceptions that might weigh us down and cause us to die spiritually. We must stay focused. We must take courage. We must know that "I am." We must know that we are.

And in stopping where we are, let us understand that we do not have to be afraid because God, our True Parents, Jesus Christ, and all the great saints and prophets of history are walking with us each and every day of our lives. They are wishing us to do well. They are wanting us to reach our potential.

So brothers and sisters of Costa Rica, and brothers and sisters of Central America, be your agent of change. Seize this day. Seize this opportunity, decide, and choose to live as sons and daughters of God, as sons and daughters of our True Parents. And walk strong, walk dignified.

As the great Sufi saint Aravia Badgara once said, "Women, walk with dignity. Men, walk with dignity because we are in the presence, we are always facing the face of God."

So God bless, and have a wonderful week.

Notes:

Matthew, chapter 14

1: At that time Herod the tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus;

2: and he said to his servants, "This is John the Baptist, he has been raised from the dead; that is why these powers are at work in him."

3: For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison, for the sake of Hero'di-as, his brother Philip's wife;

4: because John said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."

5: And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet.

6: But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Hero'di-as danced before the company, and pleased Herod,

7: so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.

8: Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter."

9: And the king was sorry; but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given;

10: he sent and had John beheaded in the prison,

11: and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.

12: And his disciples came and took the body and buried it; and they went and told Jesus.

13: Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place apart. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.

14: As he went ashore he saw a great throng; and he had compassion on them, and healed their sick.

15: When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a lonely place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves."

16: Jesus said, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat."

17: They said to him, "We have only five loaves here and two fish."

18: And he said, "Bring them here to me."

19: Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass; and taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

20: And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.

21: And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

22: Then he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.

23: And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,

24: but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them.

25: And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.

26: But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out for fear.

27: But immediately he spoke to them, saying, "Take heart, it is I; have no fear."

28: And Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water."

29: He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus;

30: but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, "Lord, save me."

31: Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "O man of little faith, why did you doubt?"

32: And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

33: And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

34: And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret.

35: And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent round to all that region and brought to him all that were sick,

36: and besought him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment; and as many as touched it were made well.