Today we have gathered before You again. We are afraid of not being able to return glory to You in Your distress. We are afraid of revealing reckless falsity before Your will. Father, if we are unworthy, at least grant us the sincere heart to be able to humble ourselves and wait for Your mercy. Without Your care, how can we see Your glory on the earth? Without abiding in Your shimjung, how can we see the garden granted to us? Father! We have desired from the beginning and pursued the will to become those who can abide in Your heart, harmonize with Your shimjung, and live with You.

We sang about You when we first experienced Your shimjung. Yet along the way, many of us have been wounded in the heart. Please have sympathy with our plights. We have learned through the process of restoration that the initial determination we made before You must remain in the last garden of restoration. We know too well that the Israelites who did not fall in the wilderness were those whose ardent shimjung toward You was unchanging from the time of the departure from Egypt throughout the forty-year course. Those who had the shimjung of loyalty toward You received the blessing of the second Israel. At this time, guide us to question whether we are now able to obey Your commands after having pledged and determined before You.

We know that You are lamenting because the last days are approaching, yet there are none who can take responsibility for Your sake. Although we seek You, we behold Your glory, and we call ourselves Your sons, we know that You are grieving because no one appears to take responsibility for any area in Your will, providence and battle course. Father, allow us again to set up the altar of repentance and shed tears of deep regret. We know the Israelites fell in the wilderness by desiring comfort and complaining against You. Since we have gathered here to hold Your hand and not become like them, lead us to participate in Your glory. I eagerly desire and ask this.

Father, have pity now on the thirty million people. Father, have pity on these people. Since the many altars set up for the nation may be far away from the nation and Your will, as long as the providential will is to be accomplished through them, please intervene with them directly. If they do not listen to Your advice, teach them their path even by using whips. I eagerly desire and ask this, loving Father. If there are people who remain to the end, shouldering the responsibility to awaken this sleeping nation, Father, allow even one more life to come into harmony with Your loving shimjung. You have mourned for 6,000 years. I eagerly desire and ask, loving Father, that we may become Your sons and daughters who can repent before You, obey You and fight against Satan.

In spite of Your work of the providence, human mistakes brought sighs and grudges. Pacify Your grief with us. Father, we are trying to find Your ideal garden, so please work with us directly and with an eager shimjung. I earnestly desire and ask, loving Father, that You will consecrate whatever needs to be consecrated so that we can offer it to You as a glorious sacrifice and keep Your altar clean. As we are now looking for Your sons and daughters who will work hard for the earth, let us not simply hold onto ourselves before You. Loving Father, I sincerely desire and ask that we can feel our own shortcomings for ourselves. Please protect the path of Golgotha to the end. Although we are unworthy to appear before Your altar, let us remain on this course until the end.

Father, although the allowed will and time should be fulfilled and manifested through us, we are worried that if we become unable to serve the will, You will install another prepared people and put us to shame. Father, manifest the day of glory and soothe Your grieving shimjung through us. Establish one day of joy, and let us participate in Your joy. I eagerly desire and ask this, loving Father. Although we want to appear before You, we are worried that it may deeply disturb You. Therefore, Father, I eagerly hope that we can go forth for the will of Your desire without hesitation and move according to Your command, so that the day comes soon when we can comfortably trust each other.

Since we are anxious that we may not possess Your shimjung and may simply become objects of Your sorrow, let our hearts resemble Your heart. Let our situations converge with Your situation. Let our hopes resemble Your hope. Father, I eagerly desire and ask that You guide us so that in life and in death we live, centered on You, as Your possession. We leave the rest of the hour up to You. Please rule over us as You please. There are righteous people throughout the country who are offering ardent prayers. Please spread over them Your hand of grace and bless them with admonition so that they can experience the heavenly glory. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The title of the speech I would like to reflect upon with you today is "Who Will Become the Friend of Golgotha?"

Jesus Brought the Truth, Life, Love and Ideal of Heaven

As you well know, Golgotha means the place of the skull and thus is the place of death. To become a friend of Golgotha means to become a friend of death. Christians believe in Jesus of Golgotha. Golgotha reminds us of the cross of Jesus, and the cross reminds us of his internal character. His internal character reminds us that God grieved over his death. With the dying Jesus, Heaven was stricken with sorrow and the earth took delight. Jesus came for the sake of the earth and Heaven; yet only Heaven understood him as he died for Heaven and earth. We should know that this is the sorrow of history.

If the chosen people had understood Jesus as God did, human history would not have become so deviant. Jesus came as the representative of truth, life, the ideal and love. Yet the truth, life, ideal and love he proclaimed were centered on Heaven and not on humanity. They were the truth a fallen person had to find to find hope, the life he had to possess, the ideal he had to find, and the love he had to possess eternally. Although Jesus came with truth, life, the ideal and love, when he died none of these, for which humankind searched, could be found. We should realize that for this reason humankind could not help roaming about.

So far there has been no one who possesses the word of truth which emanates deeply from the shimjung of Jesus. No one has the life which deeply grasps the bone and flesh of Jesus. There has been no one on earth who possesses the ideal to which Jesus aspired with his united mind and body and the love which enabled him to bring people together and run toward one purpose. Jesus, who came with the heavenly truth, life, the ideal and love sought to fulfill God's ideal and will of love centering on earthly people and to fulfill the unifying purpose of the Creator God. Because of the lack of faith and the betrayal of our ancestors, however, in the course of history the truth, life, ideal and love God tried to find have vanished.

Thus, buried in fallen ties, humankind has had to wander around looking for the true word, life, ideal and love. Therefore, there should come a time when in the last days humanity can go through the woe-stricken process of battle in history and find one life. In other words, there should come a time when the common purpose is achieved, with a movement of one life directing the world and one ideal embracing all humankind. The sages who have come to serve God's will have hoped that humankind would harmonize into inseparable oneness. In the last days, the unifying movement of love occurs which can melt anything. We are in a desperate time when humankind is living in the last period of history in distress, bitterness and fear. We must feel again how the sages have been struggling, disregarding death, to achieve such a day.

Though Jesus died on the cross, it does not mean complete ruin. Rather, his truth, life and love remain after his death. How then can humankind find this remaining word, life, ideal and love? You should know that this is the final question man should resolve.

The Ignorance and Distrust of the Chosen People

What then is the sorrow of Jesus, who came with God's will? What were his mistreatment and anger? What was his utmost pain? You should know that the greatest sorrow for Jesus was the shimjung he had when he could not complete what he wanted to say, give life completely, leave behind the joyful ideal, and share heavenly love. He knew he carried the heavenly word overflowing with life, the ideal and love.

Throughout the thousands of years of history, God tried to have our ancestors assist Heaven, but they betrayed Him in every age. Thus, we should feel and know that since we have such ancestors, we in the last days are standing at a great crossroad in which we may easily become historical and cosmic betrayers again. Jesus was sent to the Israelites as a promise, after thousands of years of effort from Abraham to Moses. The Israelites were chosen as the center of the word, life, the ideal and love. Yet the chosen people, who had waited and prepared for the Messiah, standing on their historical merit, were unable to serve him. Jesus was to be served as the hero of history, for whom countless ancestors had hoped. Yet there was no one to serve him.

We should not allow Jesus to be born in a stable. At that time, there was a prophesy that the Messiah would appear in Bethlehem. Yet there was no one who waited for the Messiah, who might appear without warning, with even a small hut prepared. When Jesus was born, the whole of Jerusalem was in commotion. The rumor spread quickly that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Yet no one prepared for his birth in Jerusalem or in Bethlehem.

Today's Christians should think again that Jesus, the prince of Heaven, the Messiah, was pitifully lying down in a stable. Since the chosen people did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah who would speak about and witness to Heaven, today they cannot stand before Heaven. The Messiah needs clothes to wear and a house to live in on earth. Among all the religious believers at that time, especially the Pharisees and Sadducees, there was no one who even prepared one room for the Messiah.

We should be deeply sad looking at the sin of our ancestors, who followed Heaven so recklessly. To not repeat the historical error, we should listen to the worries in our heart and plead with Heaven. After 4,000 years of preparation, who would have imagined that what happened to Jesus would occur! Where did the 4,000 years of effort go? The chosen people and Jerusalem were deep in sleep, aware of nothing, when Heaven sent the only chosen son of the promise. They bragged about their religious order and wished it could replace the sovereignty. The fact that Jesus appeared to such a people is a story that stands between humankind, who has to face God's will, and God, who is carrying out the providence. You may not know this.

True Faith in Jesus

Jesus was a carpenter until he was thirty. If someone has had a holy, spiritual experience, he would know a part of the thirty years of Jesus' life. If there is someone who knows, his heart will be torn with sorrow when he eats a good meal, wears good clothes, and lives in good circumstances. God was with Joseph when he took Mary, according to God's will. Growing up in Joseph's family, however, Jesus was treated disdainfully as a stepchild. As the children of Joseph became many, Jesus became more isolated. Thus, without being able to share his situation and feelings, he spent the thirty years of his life humbly, making other people's doors with a saw and plane. Who knew his situation? No one. At that time, he could not appear as the historical Jesus as you believe in him now nor as the Christ with the historically acknowledged character.

Who are the ones who will receive the Messiah when he appears in the last days? Not the one who serves the historical character of Jesus. You should know that it is the one who serves the character of Jesus of the age. You should know that though Jesus carried the way of Heaven in his heart and worried about the earth, he suffered the sadness of not being recognized by his parents, and brothers and sisters.

Now we should believe in this Jesus. Our Unification members should believe, but believe in this Jesus first, know this Jesus first. We should know that, though we know Jesus as having taken the path of the cross and death, in fact he came to live. We should hold onto the deceased Jesus and cry.

Jesus was in a wretched situation. He could share his feelings in preparing for his death with no one. He could share his shimjung, stricken with the worries, sorrows and grudges of Heaven and earth, with no one. If there had been people who could cry with Jesus, understand his situation and befriend him, they would have become his disciples. Why Peter? How could Peter, fishing at the shore of Galilee, become the chief disciple of Jesus? This was to be deplored. What happened to the prepared religious figures and the chosen people? How could Peter and the fishermen, who were not even in God's plan, unexpectedly become the disciples of Jesus? Jesus must become indignant. Jesus grieved because there was no welcome from the chosen people.

Thus, as you believe in the Lord today, do not simply believe in the deceased Jesus. Believe in Jesus as he worked when he was alive. Believe not only in Jesus who died on the cross but in Jesus who worried over the will of Heaven for the thirty years of his life. You should know that the course of his life was one of sighing for the sake of the will. It was one of a sorrowful shimjung, culminating in the sadness of the cross. Where is someone, on the earth, who understands Jesus' suffering shimjung at Golgotha? Where is the one who can be his friend? Jesus needed friends in his family, friends among his brothers and sisters, friends who could represent all the fathers and mothers, and friends who could represent the church. He needed friends who could carry the cross in his place. Jesus needed friends who could tread the worldwide path of the cross and Golgotha in his place. There is no one now who knows this will and believes in Jesus thus.

Jesus, who appeared in the flesh with the historical will, was brought down after working under adverse circumstances. Those who have walked the historical course following the will Jesus left behind also have found themselves under the miserable circumstances of the ages, and they cried out for Jesus. When Jesus carried the cross at Golgotha, the whole universe was at stake. We should understand the heavenly shimjung, which therefore roams around to find a friend of Golgotha. That is, Heaven is looking for the friend who can understand the shimjung of Golgotha.

Human History, Present and Future, Considered from the Standpoint of the Struggle

Historically, as evil grew strong, the good became weak. When evil was too strong for the good to guide it, history went on with evil conquering the good. Amid this, however, a small goodness sprouted forth, formed a greater goodness, and proceeded toward the purpose of goodness. You should know, then, that the historical course thus far has moved through the process by which goodness rises. Thus, history flows from the individual through the family, and with a social character. Through the form of the collective clan, the tribe, and the nation and country, it comes to the stage of the world. Furthermore, history will not stop at the visible world. It will extend toward the spirit world of the universe.

Human history has been going through the ages of goodness centered on the individual, the clan, the tribe, the nation, the country and the world. In this way, a small goodness in history has been developing into greater goodness. Thus, the individual battle turned into a family battle, the family battle turned into a clan battle, the clan battle turned into a social battle, the social battle turned into a national battle, the national battle turned into a worldwide battle. If the spirit world exists, there will be a battle between the spirit world and the earth. If God exists, only when the war between God and the countless evil spirits of the earth is over will the age of peace come to this universe. You should realize God's situation, who is working through such a process of the Principle. The age of cosmic peace will come only when God resolves all the problems after a clash with Satan and the evil hordes on the earth.

Now that the battle is growing from the individual to the clan, the tribe, the country and the world, what will happen to the world from now on? If there are a spirit world and Heaven, we must fight against the spirit world. How can you avoid the fear that creeps into your mind in the last days? There will come an age where you will feel greater fear than that of the atomic bomb. That is, not only the external terror of the atomic age will attack you, but a wave of dread will come in your mind. Thus, people these days have much fear. Mental patients are growing in number. This is because they are faced with spiritual combat with Satan. We should finish this fight, become one with God, and take responsibility for the Father's war, sorrow and pain. The day on which to assign the responsibility for the Father's pain, sorrow and mistreatment is the day of the returning of Jesus and the day of the great judgment upon man. This is the way of God's providence.

After this historical process, what will happen then? Now the age of the national struggle is passed. It is the time when democracy and communism are waging a worldwide struggle. They will eventually become one. Why, then, has Christian history gone through this process? The form of the right-hand and left-hand thieves at the time of Jesus' crucifixion is making a worldwide appearance today. The right-hand thief appeared in the form of worldwide democracy representing God, and the left-hand thief appeared in the worldwide form opposing God, centered on man and material. What will appear next? The crisis of resurrection with the death of Jesus will come. That is, the left-hand thief started as an individual, and this led to a family and a clan. It formed a tribe, a people, a country and a world. On the other hand, the right-hand thief also formed a world. The result of Jesus' being sown as a seed in the ground has come down to this in the last days.

Now what we should be worried about is in what position democracy stands. You should understand Jesus' shimjung at the time of death so that you will find yourself and rejoice upon the arrival of the kingdom of God. We should know what the conclusion of this democracy will be, since it does not possess God's ideal, which can represent Jesus' shimjung. Today, those of us on the side of democracy should at least become like the right-hand thief, who could cry for the death of Jesus while taking his own death as a matter of course. Now is the time you should become like this.

Peter and the Twelve Disciples Should Have Become Friends of Golgotha

To examine worldwide phenomena from the Christian viewpoint, they are a result of history. You should pray to find out what historical process God has gone through to cause this result. This way you should realize that the prayer you inevitably came to offer, "Father! Let this nation receive the worldwide blessing as the chosen people. Send judgment against those who failed in the past and punish the unfaithful rebels," was also an option for Jesus.

Yet, what anger did Jesus harbor upon death? The chosen religion of Israel tortured his heart and the chosen people nailed him to the cross. This was his anguish and lamentation. Though Jesus personally had great sorrow, however, he could forget his death and pray for them. He thought about the situation of God, who had walked through blood and tears for 4,000 years and about the people of Israel, whom God had chosen and raised for 4,000 years. Today's Christians of the world should think about this again.

If Jesus had not prayed for them, the chosen nation and the religious believers would have received the judgment first. You should know that Jesus gave them blessing because he thought that if only there were some room granted by Heaven, they would follow in his footsteps and come over to his side. When I see Jesus' words about the right-hand thief, tears unconsciously come out. The people did not know that God's sorrow of 4,000 years was embodied there in Jesus. Only a thief recognized it. This was a sad scene. There were countless people in front of Jesus. It was the religious believers and chosen people who were to move and halt with the blood and flesh of Jesus, but they failed to do so. They should have shed blood together at the cross with Jesus. How preposterous that there was no one, but a murderous thief, to accompany him! Although Jesus was the Savior of all, he was in a pitiable position. It is extremely shameful that the only one who accompanied Jesus in his death was a murderous thief.

Had Peter been a friend of Golgotha or any of the twelve disciples, God would not have had any grudges. Jesus would not have died. If the twelve disciples had united and resolved to die with Jesus, a miracle would have occurred and Jesus would not have died. Jesus grieved for 33 years looking at the chosen people, and he shed tears for the three years of his public life, for the sake of the people of the earth. Yet where did the people who had put their hopes in Jesus go? Where did the religion go which had been watching? Where did the disciples go, who had shared joy and sorrow, and followed Jesus for the three public years? When they saw advantages to it and joy, they said that they were friends and disciples of Jesus. They tried to stand in the position of Jesus more than anyone else. At the end, their path had nothing to do with that of Jesus. As this formed the root of the beginning of a new history, history developed in this shape and has reached its end today.

Who received the blessing of Jesus? It was not the twelve disciples who had followed him nor the religious leaders, who had believed in Heaven, nor the Israelites, who had been chosen through blessing. The right-hand thief, who shed blood with Jesus and died on the cross with him received the historical blessing and went to Paradise before the chief disciple. This is the tragedy of tragedies. If both of the thieves had failed to participate in the death of Jesus, the providence of salvation would have been thwarted. You should know that Jesus could resurrect to appear again on earth and meet the unfaithful people again because the blood of the thief could establish with heavenly fortune the condition for building Paradise on earth.

Since there was one person who received Jesus as the bridegroom in the place of death, through this foundation, the fruit of goodness will surely appear on earth. It will appear for Jesus. No matter how strong Satan's power is, he cannot demolish and eradicate the seed of goodness. If there is a faithful person who not only stands in the situation of death and sacrifices for goodness, but also collapses while holding onto goodness, goodness will multiply many-fold simply because of this. This is the ironclad rule. Those who opposed Jesus thought he would be wiped out once he was put to the cross. Since there were no followers, they thought that Satan took away all. Christians do not know that the history of resurrection arose with the thief on the right as a condition.

The Path of Golgotha Which Must Be Gone Over

Satan struck Jesus and the right-hand thief. After the death of Jesus, he struck the twelve disciples. Heaven gave even the twelve disciples to Satan. Why did he have to hit like this? Though the course of Jesus was an individual course to Golgotha, because of it the twelve disciples, the chosen people and the nation of the Israel also had to go through the course of Golgotha. Today all the Christians of the world and all humankind must also go through the course of Golgotha. Today's democratic world does not know that it has to go over the worldwide hill of Golgotha, centering on democracy. Jesus tried to go over this worldwide hill of Golgotha. As you know, the reason Jesus prayed, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46) was not because he mourned his own death but because he was worried that if he died, humankind would have to go through the course of Golgotha. That is why he prayed, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Matthew 26:39)

If Jesus had not gone through the course of Golgotha, there would not have been the worldwide course of Golgotha. However, once Jesus went through this path, carrying the worldwide and cosmic mission, the individual course of Golgotha remained to his followers. The family course of Golgotha remained in the age of the providence centered on the family. When the providence expanded from the family age to the stage of society, the social road of the cross also remained. In the providential age of the country, in which a national providential will is served, the paths of the family cross, the social cross, and the national cross had to be trodden. Thus, if the worldwide Christ comes on the earth, he has to carry the crosses of the world, the country, the society, the family and the individual. Today's Christians do not know that such a hill of destiny remains.

What kind of Lord do today's Christians want to receive? If there is Heaven, where would they meet Jesus? They would meet him in the place of resurrection after going over the hill of the cross. This is the resurrection of the second advent. For this reason, in the historical course after Jesus up to now, the path of Golgotha has been followed by the individual, the family, the society, the country and the world with many struggles. Now is the age when the democratic camp gets smitten by the communist camp. How, then, can we go over the worldwide Golgotha? Just as Jesus did, one must have a desperate shimjung for this nation, and the whole nation must be able to move as one body.

Until we become such a people, the tough worldwide path of Golgotha is blocked for us. Therefore, only when we find and establish one root or fruit of goodness in an extremely evil situation does the road open in which sinners and good people can become one. We should restore the twelve disciples relying on the authority of the risen Jesus. At that time, individuals and the twelve disciples should have received persecution for Jesus. Most of the twelve disciples were killed, however, because they could not do this. When the twelve disciples took the road of death, there was one person they pushed out, and this was the apostle John. One thief stood in the position where he was pushed out by the religion and people of Israel and the rebellious twelve disciples. Among the chosen people, God installed Jesus, and after his resurrection, He established the twelve disciples again. Furthermore, in place of the disciples, God installed a controversial figure. This was Paul.

God's New Providence Centering on Paul

Today Christians say that Paul loved Heaven and knew the will of God. At that time, Paul was being persecuted by the twelve disciples. Though he conveyed the gospel as an apostle, he was persecuted by the twelve disciples. Paul met the risen Jesus and received the heavenly mission. Thus, in the position of an apostle who did not betray Jesus, Paul went to a foreign country, Rome, and spread the gospel under persecution. Since Paul sought the Lord in place of the martyrdom of the twelve disciples and the death of John, the focus of the providence shifted to a foreign nation. Do you understand? In this way, Paul entered Rome and received persecution alone.

Just as Jesus had gone the way of Golgotha with the cross of humankind, according to the one will of the providence, Paul persisted, no matter what persecution he received from Rome. His attitude of proceeding for the sake of Heaven, regardless of death, resembled that of Jesus. Thus, Christianity moved, centering upon Paul, and developed through the forms of the family, the tribe, the nation, the country and the world. Just as Jesus took the way of Golgotha, Paul volunteered to take the path of Golgotha for the twelve disciples, against the world of Satan. He went through the extreme persecution of Nero and was killed.

The individual sacrifice of Paul aroused groups such as the tribe, the twelve disciples and the Israelites. Since they united and fought beyond death, they could conquer Rome. Therefore, for the next four centuries, Christianity prospered. In the Middle Ages, centering on the Pope, Christianity had its heyday. The whole world was dominated by Christianity. The Roman Catholics had the mission to go beyond the national course of Golgotha and explore the worldwide stage. However, when they neglected this and preoccupied themselves with the desire for the national ideal, God struck them. This happened through the Renaissance. Through the Reformation, the stale consciousness was shattered and the papacy was fundamentally challenged. It gradually went downhill.

Among Christians, a new force of renovation appeared. This was the Protestants, centering on Luther. While attacking the old faith, those who were being persecuted formed a new faith centering on Luther: Protestantism. The Puritans, who inherited this spirit, went to America and created a new continental culture. They built the worldwide Christian kingdom. Although world history has moved this way, from now on, God will strike the world. We should consider where are those who are being hounded among people. We should find those who are most oppressed and the nation that is most miserable in the democratic world. Just as the thief became the friend of Jesus on his bloody cross, in the worldwide course of Golgotha, there will appear one group and one nation who differ from the betraying Israelite nation. Considering the historical providential viewpoint, it is right that such a group and nation must appear.

God Works Centering on the Oppressed People

In today's world, however, there is communism, which does not believe in God. They claim that God does not exist, asking where He is. The right-hand thief appeared and befriended Jesus at the time of his death when Jesus was being smitten. Communism today commits massacres to fulfill its ambition. You should know that this massacre serves as a conditional sacrifice for being on the side of the democratic camp. Now that all humankind is driven to the course of the worldwide Golgotha, what should Christians who should go over this path do? They should first volunteer in front of the world to take the path. There have been those who were oppressed on the front-line of Christianity: Paul, who was persecuted by the apostles; the thief, harassed by the people; and the Protestants, denounced by the Papacy. Today we should always look around to see whether a people will appear who are being persecuted as a worldwide reformist movement. This is proven by history.

Now our Unification members should be oppressed by all the twentieth century ideologies and philosophies as a new reformist religion. We should be persecuted in this world of democracy and religious sectarianism. If there also is a country with the worldwide ideal, it should bleed before the world like the thief. Thus, Korea shed blood when the right and left clashed, with the fate of the world at stake through the June 25 War [the Korean War]. Considering this, it cannot be said that the Golgotha course of today's democracy is dissimilar to the situation of the thief.

If the Korean people have sorrow, what should they hold onto? It is not time to fight with the ideology of the Lord. Carrying Jesus' shimjung of Golgotha and the shimjung of being betrayed by the people, history and the world, we should be willing to take his part lest he suffers again. It seems that if this nation has a shimjung like the right-hand thief's, who wanted to praise the glory of Jesus, this nation will meet Jesus who resurrected from death at Golgotha and enter the glorious age of resurrection.

So, Unification members, do not be distressed. You receive blessing. As you receive more persecution, you will understand Jesus' shimjung. As you meet Jesus, you will understand his shimjung at the time when he eagerly prayed at Gethsemane, faced with Golgotha and death. As Jesus, at the extreme of persecution, united with Heaven and brought the grace of resurrection, a new history can start at the place of your persecution.

As we possess the worldwide ideal, only when we persevere through the persecutions of the world, the country, the church, the society, the family and the individual can we become the original heavenly sons and daughters who will pass beyond the cosmic trail of Golgotha in the age of universal resurrection. We will receive the power of resurrection as a bride before the coming Lord. You have been wandering to find a true friend, a true family and a true teacher. You have been looking for the true ideology, the country and the world, but in vain. You should know that, from the standpoint of Jesus, you have lost the position to achieve the purpose. Thus, if I want to find a true friend, I should be a true friend during my friend's Golgotha. If I want to find a true family, I should take responsibility for the family's Golgotha. Furthermore, in the national and worldwide course of Golgotha, you should take responsibility for the path of Golgotha with a shimjung like Jesus'. You should clearly know that to be a friend of Heaven in the worldwide course of Golgotha, you should be able to handle the eternal questions of life if everyone entrusts you with them. You should be able to handle the problems of the world.

January 13, 2020

Michael Mickler

21. The Freedom, Liberation and Unification God Seeks to Attain

January 13, 2020

Michael Mickler

The Freedom, Liberation and Unification God Seeks to Attain

John 8:31-47

Former Headquarters Church

Seoul, Korea

October 12, 1958

Prayer

Father! Do not abandon Your sons and daughters who prostrated before You. Guide us not to hesitate in offering our entire mind and body to You. We have many points of dissatisfaction before You, but we dedicate our minds and bodies, relying upon the historical shimjung with which You worked hard to find us. Please have dominion over us. I sincerely desire that at this time, You will burn our shortcomings with the fire of the Holy Spirit and consecrate us so that we can dedicate our minds and bodies as a whole and acceptable offering to You.

Father! Your sons and daughters have taken the trouble-filled steps to this place instead of Your tearful course, filled with sorrow and stabbing pain. Please take note of our determination and actions. Lead us at this time to Your deep and loving shimjung, and let no one fall into Satan's accusation.

We know that You want to spread the new word to the nation through us, but we are anxious that we may fail our responsibilities due to our disloyalty and shortcomings and bring sorrow to You. Father, I earnestly pray that You look at the faults with which we have served Your will and fill them with the power of Your life and love. Bless us so that we can take on any mission and responsibility. There is a myriad of satans in our path. Father, lead us so that our determination remains intact and we become an offering of life before You, enduring until the end without losing to Satan. I sincerely pray that You will guide us to proceed with our initial determination and fight for the sole purpose of revealing Your glory.

Have pity on Your children who are gathered here, and lead them to Your loving heart. Remove all elements of darkness. Allow us to serve You with the authority of life and as one body. Let us sing glorious hymns and show gratitude for Your blessing of glory. Keep Satan away from this gathering from the beginning to the end, and reveal only Your glory through our mind and body. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The title of the sermon I want to reflect upon with you is "The Freedom, Liberation and Unification God Seeks to Attain." I will speak briefly upon this topic.

The Place of God and His Hope

I will speak about "The Freedom, Liberation and Unification God Seeks to Attain" from the standpoint of faith. You think that God is omnipotent and nothing is impossible for Him. God has so many abilities. Yet if one asks, searching deep down in his shimjung, whether God's heart is free, I cannot say it is. If one asks if God is amid the joy of liberation with a promising providence in front of Him, that is not true either. Moreover, if one asks whether the activities of man and all things are motivated by God's shimjung, that is, whether they are in a unified position in which they move with the movement of God's heart, we cannot but discover that this is not true.

It is the original character and original shimjung of God to want to be free. God also is the Father who should dominate the universe from a liberated position. The fact that He cannot do so is the grief of God, all things and history. Although He should bind the created world with the unifying ideal and dominate it, He cannot do that. We cannot but acknowledge that this is God's sorrow, pain and grief.

When God first created the world, the original ideal was the garden of freedom, liberation and unification. Yet you cannot deny that there was a reason God's ideal was not fulfilled. That became the source of sorrow for God, humankind and all creation. What was this source of distress? We know well that it was the fall of man. In restoring humankind, God must have an ideal for this society, and we must also have that ideal. What is the standard of this ideal? You should know that freedom for the sake of God's shimjung, liberation centered on God's situation, and unification centered on God's ideal are God's hope, our hope and the standard of the ideal.

It is written in the Bible, "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (II Corinthians 3:17) The Father is a spirit of freedom, liberation and unification. How can the shimjung of freedom, which transcends any trials, be instilled in your shimjung, you who serve such a Father? How can the point of liberation be found which can overcome all the walls of suffering? When will the peaceful moment of total unification be found, which our center of ideals desires? These are questions you should seriously consider.

Since God is not free, liberated and unified, the freedom being advocated on the earth today is not true human freedom. The liberation being proclaimed is not complete liberation, and the unification being promoted is not complete unification. Humankind has progressed from a clan, to a tribe, to a nation and a country, but such partial unification is not true unification.

The Standard of True Freedom, Liberation and Unification

Since we were created by God, the complete freedom, liberation and unification which we desire can be realized only when God becomes free and becomes the master of liberation and unification. Thus, we cannot deny from a logical standpoint that God's freedom, liberation and unification are the standards for the freedom, liberation and unification humanity desires.

Looking back upon history, freedom, equality and love were promoted centering on humanism after the Middle Ages. Original freedom, equality and love are the attributes of whom? They are God's attributes. If the Christianity of the Middle Ages had stood centered upon God in the position of freedom, liberation and unification, through which they could connect with the heart of God, words such as revolution or reformation would not have been needed on earth. Since Christianity did not achieve complete freedom, liberation and unification centered on God, the movement for freedom, liberation and unification was transferred to the outside world. This is what we now call the Renaissance.

Afterward, the ideology of freedom revolutionized monarchies and fought against imperialism, but all eventually became shattered. Though they brought revolution to find freedom, they did not completely overcome imperialism and finally collapsed. Afterwards, there were many ideologies and political ideals, but they are all being dismantled.

People, who long for freedom, insist upon external freedom, instead of seeking and possessing the perfect ideal of freedom. They lose true freedom by that. Though they call for freedom on the levels of the nation, the society, the family and the individual, they have repeated the history of losing true freedom. The kind of freedom being advocated now is not a freedom that can be eternally enjoyed by the original mind. Those who call for freedom often become excessively individualistic and isolated. You cannot deny this. Thus, it is clear from the trend of the present age that, unless the complete and unchanging ideal of freedom is established which can connect with the heavenly ideal of freedom and resonate with the freedom desired by the universe, the more one seeks freedom, the more one moves toward the dearth of freedom.

Thus, the question is whether there is the shimjung of freedom in our hearts which can harmonize with all. If we stood in God's freedom, our shimjung of freedom would be at the level at which we could rejoice with all the people of the universe. Today, people do not stand in such a position of freedom. Though they proclaim freedom, they form a view of freedom within the boundary of themselves.

Freedom that departs from the Principle is not true freedom. Freedom that avoids responsibility is not true freedom. Freedom that produces no results is not true freedom. Thus, any act of freedom must be within the Principle. It must carry responsibility and produce results. If one seeks freedom without these conditions, naturally he will become far removed from the heavenly way. Thus, imperialism appeared after the Middle Ages only to fade away. There will soon come a time when all the ideologies hitherto presented will collapse upon the advent of the true ideology of freedom. This trend is gradually touching individuals. With a focus on your individual self as you work for freedom, you will feel the need to transform society and the family. The flow of history is such that it now separates, even my mind and body.

The Freedom Pursued by Man and the Essence of True Freedom

Democracy takes its ideal from Christianity, while it is saturated in science-centered individualism in regard to daily life. Thus, though democracy is based on freedom, it is fundamentally opposed to Christianity. When Christianity calls for freedom, it calls for the freedom of the whole universe. When Christianity pursues liberation, it pursues liberation of the whole. When it demands unification, it demands unification for the sake of God's shimjung, that is, from the standpoint of Heaven's rejoicing with the world. Since the people of the democratic world understand freedom based upon individualism, when they insist upon freedom, they eventually wind up denying their country, society, organization, and even their families and conjugal relationships. Eventually, they fall into a situation where they even deny the center of their heart. What will remain for them then? Loneliness.

When loneliness reaches its peak, they will become people of distrust, unable to trust either the other or the self. When the self becomes lonely and suspicious, it will be swallowed by cosmic fear and finally will be destroyed. This is the trend of current history.

Therefore, when we proclaim freedom, it should not be the irresponsible freedom advocated in the past and present. It should be true freedom, which is accompanied by God's love and ideal which connect to shimjung. It must lead to the world in which it operates like an unchangeable iron rule along with your power of life. It should follow free law, which must make motion.

Where is the original spring of happiness which all people desire to possess? With this they are assured of being delivered from sin, and they can experience the joy of liberation. At the end of history, we have never possessed the ideal which should surely be possessed. You should know that unless you search hard for the ideal, you will have nothing to do with the world of the ideal and the garden of freedom, liberation and unification to be created at the end of history. Since this is our hope, we believe that God's hope is also like this. When will God's and our hope be realized within myself? When will the heartistic foundation to represent God's shimjung be prepared so that I can discover within myself the freedom, liberation and unification that God feels and hopes? You should realize that, unless you discover this, you will generate historical sorrow and become a victim of judgment.

Until now, humankind has been struggling to build the world of freedom. We have been fighting to attain freedom. God, however, did not use the kind of strategy that makes sense to humankind. Though God had to go through strife for the sake of liberation, His method was different from the bloody battles of the nations of the world.

What Kind of Person Is the Master of Freedom?

While achieving freedom, God never used the method of striking others, though He struggled against certain sovereigns to liberate and save the individual. In human history, the quest for freedom involved an individual attacking an individual, a nation attacking a nation, and a country attacking a country. God takes the opposite way. In restoring the individual, before hitting the individual, He allows Himself to be hit first. In restoring the nation, before striking the nation, He personally walked the suffering road to liberate the nation. In restoring the world, before striking the world, He personally walked the arduous path.

What kind of person can be the master of freedom in the future? He is the one who can serve God. To find the ideal of freedom that resonates with God, one must follow God's strategy. That is, in restoring the family, he must strike himself as hard as the value of liberating the family. In restoring the nation and world, he should be able to hit himself as much as its value. For the sake of Heaven, again he must hit himself the corresponding amount, and he should be able to rejoice while being hit. You need to know that only those who possess such a shimjung of freedom will necessarily remain in the last days of history.

Without the master of freedom, liberation and unification appearing on the earth as a substantial being, as God desires, God's freedom, liberation and unification cannot be connected to humankind. Jesus came as a substantial incarnation of freedom, liberation and unification representing Heaven. Thus, with Jesus, you should feel the valuable shimjung which grasped the freedom deep in God's shimjung and realized liberation and unification. Without the shimjung with which one can be delighted simply with Jesus even without any worldly things, one cannot reach the realm of freedom, liberation and unification in which God can rejoice with humanity.

The freedom sought in the world today and that which is sought by God have different directions. In the world, nations attack nations, and sovereignties struggle against sovereignties to gain freedom, risking their own lives. Heaven, however, extends to the whole, willingly being smitten, voluntarily taking responsibility, and finding solutions on its own. You should know that this is God's secret for reclaiming freedom.

Focusing on yourself, if you have the heart of freedom such that you can rejoice even when you have to give up your life, you can be regarded as having the highest freedom. Considering this in light of the providence of restoration, there was a liberation movement in the spirit world at the same time there was such a movement in the physical world. Since God cannot treat a human directly as a child or His representative, the human has to ascend from the position of a servant through the position of a child until he can directly relate to God. Such an historical course has been pursued.

In the Old Testament Age, God built the garden of freedom and liberated the Kingdom of Heaven by using angels as servants. To enter the realm of grace in which one is liberated as a son of God from the position of a servant, one should be able to feel joy even when losing one's life. You should know that only those who have such a shimjung of freedom can go beyond the position of a servant and take the position of a son. Thus, the ancestors who have until now served God's providence had the shimjung of freedom to rejoice even in death. They could boldly overcome all trials and even death. With the establishment of such a standard of shimjung, there could be hope for transition from the position of a servant to that of a son, and from the age of the servant to that of the son. With such a standard established, God could send His only son. Jesus had to rise from the position of a son to that of a father.

Achieving True Freedom, Liberation and Unification

When Jesus came to the earth, he could freely choose between life and death for the sake of God until he was acknowledged by the Father. He could complete the eternal and never-changing ideal of the only son. Thus, before all people, he has been liberating those in the servant's position into children. You must know this well. Because Jesus overcame the suffering course of death and set up the standard of oneness with God's internal shimjung, we can receive the benefit of going to the position of children by believing in Jesus.

If in your heart you desire the freedom, liberation and unification God seeks to connect it to you, you must voluntarily pursue the course from the age of the servant to that of the children and from the age of the children to that of the family in which one serves the parents. You should know that this is determined by the principle of freedom. This is not achieved under a certain command, restriction or by coercion. Only when we overcome the question of life and death and can share a free and joyful shimjung, thinking of God and Jesus, can we make a relationship with God's ideal.

The history of the providence of restoration repeated the history of liberation. One pursued the course in which he was liberated from the age of the servant through Jesus and the Holy Spirit and became a child, but now we should become God's sons and daughters centering on God's love, children who can receive God's inheritance as God's family. If you want to establish the living standard of an eternally inseparable relationship with God, you should be able to freely control even death. Only then can you have the authority to receive your inheritance from God as His sons and daughters.

Today this earth wanders around searching for freedom. God also carries on the providence searching for freedom. Just as Jesus fought for God without regard for death, God worked for Jesus disregarding greater difficulties. You should know clearly that if those in the servant's position live with the shimjung of freedom and transcend death for God, God comes to them with the shimjung that can freely overcome the valleys of death.

If you establish the standard of freedom by which you can overcome any hardship with joy, even without God's presence and dominion, you can defeat any previous fear, anger, grief, sorrow and mistreatment, and turn the realm of death into the realm of God's life. Only when the fundamental issue of rebirth is resolved can we freely love God, and God can freely love us. When we become one with God, God's shimjung of freedom and liberation and the ideal of unification will turn into our shimjung of freedom and liberation and ideal of unification.

Though Jesus gave his life for God, there is an area in which Jesus cannot communicate with God. Though Jesus freely went to die for our sake, there remains an area in which Jesus and the Holy Spirit cannot unite. The reason is that since Jesus is in Heaven and the Holy Spirit is on the earth, there is a distance that keeps them apart. We are also distant as we proceed toward the position of children centering on Jesus and Holy Spirit.

The Starting Point of Freedom, Liberation and Unification

To remove this distance between Jesus and God, God should be able to love all humankind as His children and freely hold them. Only then can all the walls between God and Jesus be eliminated at once. Our desire to follow Jesus and freely pass through death for the sake of God should not simply be a concept. A standard of overcoming any toil and a liberating standard of forgetting the pain of death should be established by us. This is because only then can the relationship of freedom, liberation and unification start to be made with God. As we strive for God's will, within God's ideal realm of freedom, liberation and unification, we should be the masters of freedom representing God. We should liberate all the people for God and accomplish unification.

To do this, you should be free individuals who go over the hills of death with a deep and eager heart toward Heaven, not taking suffering as pain, sorrow or grief. Heaven can hold up such a person, disregarding His own pain and suffering, even giving up all His authority and dignity. Only in such a situation can God be our God and we His sons and daughters. Among the many prophets after Jesus, no one was exempt from suffering. Though God has the level of heart by which He can go beyond all His dignity, suffering, ordeals and sorrow for the sake of regaining His beloved children, He has never met anyone who has the same level of shimjung. You should know that this is a condition of great lamentation for God.

The power of love, the grace of liberation, and the principle of unification, which are generated when we pass through the realm of death with the assistance of God, can become the standard for freedom, liberation and unification for the entire world of existence. In this stage, though the son God searched for might be one individual, he would have indemnified all historical grief and death. His value is higher than the entire cosmos. When will such a connection be made between Heaven and earth and between God and us? Without this connection, Jesus cannot stand in a state of freedom and liberation nor can the ideal of unification be realized. Thus, even in the spirit world Jesus has to pray constantly.

Only when such a standard is established in today's Christians can we establish, as an unchanging standard within you, the principle of love, the principle of liberation from all evil and death, and the principle of unification, all of which are deeply cherished in God's shimjung. With such a standard, you can look upon the world with the shimjung with which God looked during the 6,000 years of the providence and with which He endured innumerable sorrows, pain and ordeals to find His beloved son.

When such an individual appears and forms a family, a society, a nation and a world, God's garden of freedom will be created within your daily life. You should know that the garden of liberation and the world of unification desired by God starts from such a standard.

So far, the world of Satan persisted with the sovereignty of false freedom. It looks like freedom, but it is not. It looks as if it is unifying the individual, the tribe, the nation, the country and the world, but in fact it is separated from the principles of freedom, liberation and unification.

The Current of the Providence and the Proper Human Attitude

The more freedom, liberation and unification one has based on a worldly standard opposed to God, the more anxiety, dissatisfaction and fear will swallow one up internally. One may look successful externally, but he is collapsing internally. Externally, he appears unified, but internally he is disintegrating into pieces. How then can such an internal crumbling be compensated for? God is the one who works to compensate this. Without Him, humankind today would be frustrated, would give up, and would finally expire in the realm of death.

As for people like Americans, they have no parents, no children and no relatives. Because of this, many people even desert their country. Furthermore, many people follow a religion purely for their own profit and abandon it when there is no more to gain. Since the world is created, not for the individual, but for the whole, those who live only for their own profit will suffer before the world, which exists for the worldwide ideal. They will suffer in proportion to how selfishly they lived.

Therefore, the society in which individualism and selfish lifestyles are prevalent will finally become a society of isolation, distrust and fear. It will finally give up and destroy itself. You should know that we are entering the age where such a fate sees its historical conclusion.

Looking upon this state of affairs, we should have the ideal of freedom, liberation and unification. Where can we start? If you start from your old ideology of individualism, you will lose the world unawares and inevitably be rejected by the world. Unless something appears which can unify humankind and return man to the original individual, family, society, country and world, it is a big problem for God and humankind. In this age of the last days, God has the responsibility to accomplish freedom, liberation and unification with humankind. Therefore, although the external world has been disintegrating, God has installed in the world one force of the root of the heart and has worked to establish the standard of the absolute principle of freedom, liberation and unification. This is impenetrable by death. God has worked to establish an individual with such a standard, and a family, a tribe, a country and a nation.

Consequently, the Bible describes Jesus as the king of kings, the master of our lives, and the master of the cosmos. He is also depicted as the subject of life, the ideal and love. Thus, until I make an eternal relationship with the subject, Jesus, and that relationship advances into an eternal relationship with God, we cannot fill the gaps between God, Jesus and us. If you have the power of life such that even when distrust, loneliness and fear sweep society, you confidently and freely overcome it, your life will not be destroyed, no matter what world of judgment and destruction comes into being. As long as such a standard remains, you will not be a victim of judgment in the fearful realm of death.

Why God Worked Hard for 6,000 Years

Such a standard should not be established simply as an ideal, but with the substantial unity of mind and body. Whether you will be preserved in the future will be determined by whether you can possess that ideal. Only with this am I entitled to serve God with my life, as God comes to us investing all He has with His life. Only then can God institute a free way of life after restoring me and establish the ideal of freedom, liberation and unification. If you have such a qualification, as long as God exists eternally, we have nothing to do with the power of death.

Now looking at your own self, are there a free shimjung, free life and free ideal in your heart which can rejoice centering on true life?

This is the question. When you have such a shimjung, life and ideal, you will be qualified to freely digest and pass through any path of death and suffering and restore the elements of life. In this way, you can live forever in God's world of freedom, liberation and unification.

However, there are trials and sufferings in the quest for freedom. What can block the ardent shimjung of love from God and the spurting shimjung of freedom? No one. It cannot be shattered even when everything else is. No matter how strong the realm of death may be, it cannot suppress the shimjung that rises. When a living connection of eternal unity between God and you is formed in your life, God's eternal freedom, liberation and unification are established in your heart. Without such a standard in your heart, though the freedom, liberation and unification which are aspired to as ideals may be realized, they will have nothing to do with you.

What is the reason God worked so hard for 6,000 years? It was to find one individual who could carry, feel and establish with God the freedom, liberation, and unification desired by God's shimjung. You should know that just as God is eternal, only when an eternal and unchanging standard is determined can such a world of the ideal come to you. Without such a standard of heart, no matter how well the external world is formed, no matter how it may appear externally that the world of freedom, liberation and unification is realized, it will not be the world of complete freedom, liberation and unification.

Today the power of life, the ideal and love are leaping in our hearts. Unless the firm standard of this leaping force and the standard of the efforts of God, who suffered for 6,000 years, are established in yourself, you will be swept away when the power of darkness and death comes to envelop your life. This power has fought against God for 6,000 years. When you possess the power of your life, ideal and love at the stage of relating to God's love, the freedom based on this foundation is complete freedom. The liberation based on this principle is complete liberation. The unification based on this principle is complete unification.

Without such a standard, when the world is swayed by chaos and fear, you will not be able to prevent it. What can move it is the power of life, the ideal and love. You should clearly know that without the standard of going over this, no matter how hard God has worked in the history of the providence, the freedom, liberation and unification that God has sought to attain through the history of the providence cannot be found.

Prayer

Father! Have pity on humankind, who has lost the garden of freedom, liberation and unification. We thought that all that was lost could be regained in the external world, but now we have learned the sorrow of history: that even with a certain external standard, there have been internal divisions. Let the power of life, love and the ideal of God overflow in us so as to take back the internal world of freedom, liberation and unification so that the standard of shimjung that can laugh at death and overcome pain and sorrow can be planted in our hearts. Help us realize that in the world of shimjung we can feel the freedom of all the saints, feel the whole circumstances, and move with the life of the whole.

Father! Looking at the historical world, it proceeds centered on the material, instigating divisions within and putting on a deceptive form of unification without. Internally, on the contrary, we realize that history has been flowing to avoid poverty of the spirit, life and love. Now that we have arrived at the time when we should reinforce the time of life, the time of the ideal, and Your love, please give us the heart that can rejoice even in crossing the line of death. We should attain the loyalty of heart to be able to call You Father. We should know that You had worries and battles for us. Help us realize that only when we have a change of heart and feel that Your hard work comes to us with a value 10,000 times greater than that of our death can the power of life emerge which can replenish the deficiency of the spirit.

Father! Today not only material famine and urges but also spiritual death and thirst are arising in the hearts of the people on earth. Grant us the fire of the Holy Spirit, Your life and Your love, which can fill this emptiness. Grant us Your shimjung of freedom, liberation and unification which can digest all attainable internal life at the place of its explosion, and the ideal of freedom. Father, we know that You are driving all, from the individual to the whole, to such a place to find us. We also know that from the world, the country, and the nation to the individual, they are driven out to that position in Your name.

Today, when things are flowing toward the final moments, we do not have the standard by which we can eternally keep Your power of the whole and by which our contradictory selves can be connected to the world. Grant us a greater shimjung that can find it and make the connection. Let Your existence, Your life, Your ideal, Your love and true freedom, liberation and unification be realized in my one being as they have been moving internally. We have learned that only then can we have the qualification to call the distant kingdom of God ours, the distant Kingdom of Heaven our kingdom, and the shimjung that can connect with the distant ideal our shimjung.

Since only those who have such a shimjung in their hearts can possess the heavenly kingdom and fulfill the ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Father told us, "I am in your heart." Jesus also told us, "I am in your heart." I eagerly pray that we will see that everything will find resolution only with the heartistic standard that believes that the Kingdom of Heaven is in our hearts. I eagerly desire and ask that we understand and feel Your shimjung as more valuable than my body, my freedom and my life. I pray that we may restore one shimjung that can deplore Your sorrow more than the death of the whole world, and we can stand before You as individuals who can understand it.

With Your toilsome historical course of searching and wandering before us, let Your shimjung explode in our shimjung. Guide us to prepare the foundation of shimjung such that we can realize freedom, liberation and unification based on Your life, ideal and love and fulfill Your desire, saying, "Father! Please receive consolation now. We know Your heart." Guide us to be Your sons and daughters who, singing of glorious life, the ideal and liberation with You, will soothe Your heart which led the movement of freedom to resolve the sorrow, pain and lamentation of restoration. Let the whole of humankind gather around and sing of freedom, liberation and unification with You.

We learned that if we have the shimjung of freedom and liberation, even a hundred million satans and enemies cannot harm us. We have also seen that an ideology cannot restrict us. Once our shimjungs unite with You and move forward based on freedom and liberation, Heaven and earth will automatically unite, harmonize and move. Therefore, grant us such a standard in our hearts. I eagerly desire and ask for it. For the sake of this life and hope, guide us to establish the standard of uniting with Your shimjung, even risking our lives. Save us from the ridicule of our enemies until we receive You in our hearts. Keep us unchanged until Your shimjung is settled in our hearts beyond the persecution of our enemies. Make us Your children who can overcome all fear. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

January 13, 2020

Michael Mickler

20. Let Us Possess the Everlasting Love of the Father

January 13, 2020

Michael Mickler

Let Us Possess the Everlasting Love of the Father

Matthew 22:34-40

Former Headquarters Church

Seoul, Korea

October 5, 1958

Today I will speak briefly upon the topic of "Let Us Possess the Everlasting Love of the Father." No person or created thing can maintain existence separated from this world in which they exist through relationships. Thus, you should know that in this world of relationships, nothing can exist apart from motivation and purpose.

Several Attempts to Explain the World of Relationships

Since we cannot exist apart from the world of relationships, we should clearly know that in our maintenance of life and our struggle in our life courses, everything moves within the world of relationships. We know that science has been trying to explain this world of relationships through experiments. Philosophy has tried to explain it through logic. History has tried to explain it through facts.

How has religion been trying to elucidate this world? Until now, religion has sought to discover the motivation and purpose of the Absolute Being. Thus, it cannot be denied that though your individual selves are extremely small, you are seeking an ideal of enormous value. Also, you can never deny that your original mind desires a greater course of life, a greater ideal and greater love and affection. This tells us that we have the common standard of relationship.

We should then re-examine ourselves, searching for a greater life although we already have a life, for a greater ideal, although we already have an ideal, and for a realm of greater affection than we feel daily through our shimjung. How did it come about that we demand a greater life, greater hope and a realm of greater affection?

It is undeniable that the earth, on which this higher demand occurs, is itself engrossed in relationships. It is also undeniable that there is a certain greater being of life that is the source of our life. There is a certain greater being of ideal that is the source of our ideal. There is a certain being of affection greater than our own affection. When will I see the day when my energy of life extends forth and pierces all things of the universe? The desire of my ideal is to dominate all things according to heavenly law, but when can I be a being of hope who can do this? When can I regain the power of shimjung that can melt even God? You should reflect upon these issues again today.

The force of my being will exist tomorrow; that is, it will exist eternally. It is the same with the force of my ideal and shimjung. There is surely a being who makes that possible. Someone determined the motivation and purpose centering on relationships. We should be beings of eternal value who fulfill this motivation and purpose centering on relationships. If you are aware of becoming such, your force of life, your ideal and shimjung should make an inseparable relationship with the ideal, shimjung and life of the Absolute Being. If there is someone who has no such relationship, although he may appear to have the value of life, he has no value in this world of relationships. Humankind does not understand this.

The Common Problem of God and Man

What must finally be explained to everyone through science, philosophy, history and religion? It is the common problem of history, the current age and the future. This is also a problem for God. You should know that the cosmic value of your life and whether you can be proud of it depends upon whether you can establish the standard in your life of an inseparable relationship with God in which you move with God and halt with God.

What is the common problem of history, the current age and the future? Since all of humankind, past, present and future, commonly possesses the desires for life, the ideal and love (shimjung) a truth or ideology or person must appear who will enable us to feel all these simultaneously in the daily process of our lives. History and religion are all thoroughly mobilized to address this problem.

Do you have the force of life by which you can live and the automatic force by which you can move toward the whole world of existence? There should be a source that brings connection and the stimulation of hope to the world of relationships. Do you have such a source? You should also ask yourself whether the power of life springs forth from within the relationships you have with such a source.

You should bring the ideal of the entire universe to your shimjung and the whole ideal of creation to your hearts. You should have the shimjung, feeling and intuition which say that since Heaven is moving in such and such a way, no existing being or thing can be neglected. If you do not have this, you should rethink the hopes you are pursuing today.

You long for the love that deeply touches your heart. It is not humanistic love, pursued by man. It is heavenly love, desired by the original mind. You are longing for the kind of love that can sing for eternity and penetrate and move the eternal ideal and life. Thus, the whole of your thinking and movements should express the shimjung of love. You will, thus, be the greatest victor of life if you can make the connection with such a realm of love, which embraces the environment and universe in which you live and can even embrace God.

As for theistic believers, though they acknowledge that God is the absolute and omnipotent Creator, why has their love for God and for absolute goodness become weaker than the love of secular people? This is why God sighs today. God's sorrow is that while God's love is greater than human parental love for a child, He cannot love humanity this much. How does God relate to humankind? Through love. We want to receive God's love within the realm of our life and forget everything through the shock of His love. If we connect with the power of love that can melt all the grief in our heart, we can never betray Heaven. We would have no need to teach goodness then.

The Reason Man Has Not Made a Relationship with Absolute Love and Goodness and the Result Thereof

Why could God not make man have a relationship with absolute love and goodness? I have struggled a lot with this question myself. Was God like this from the beginning? No. God is a being such that, without the fall, we could feel Him even before we thought about His existence. We could feel His existence inside us as the substance of hope even before we had wishes. He would appear even before we longed for Him. However, the fall means that humankind has not reached such an emotional, ideological and living standard. Everything was lost through the fall. You should know that this is the sorrow of humankind.

Now we are wandering about, searching for truth, life, the ideal and God's love. With our ultimate power of life, the ideal and the standard of shimjung, we cannot help loving God and cannot help thinking that God is the center of the whole ideal and the cosmos. If you carry such feelings and make the connection within your life with the source of such a stimulus, God's eternal life will become your eternal life. You will move and halt as God moves and halts. You should know that this is the hope of the Creator of humanity.

Throughout history, humankind tried to control the world through the powers within their possession. There once was an age in which they tried to move everything through the power of life, but this age has passed now. What kind of age is today? Now we are coming into an age in which the philosophy which inherits the ideal of Jesus controls the world. What kind of age will then come after this? It will be the age in which the unifying central person appears before humankind, the one who can connect to the love of the Absolute Being beyond the power of life and ideology.

History so far has been limited to merely introducing hopes and ideals. Thus, it has not been able to find the heavenly kingdom of love in which new creations, resurrection, hope and the power of love can arise through the individual shimjung of human beings. What is the final standard of hope to which humankind aspires? It is the loving view of history, life and the cosmos. That is why Christianity expresses this in one word and says that the center of the scriptures is Jesus. The center of Jesus is love, and the center of love is the bride and groom. You should know that this is the most valuable good news for suffering humankind. When this shimjung fills the world to the full, and the root of the hereditary sin is revealed through your blood and flesh, then humankind can truly and fundamentally hope for peace.

You have forgotten that the love of the parents for the children, the love of the husband for the wife, and the love of children for the parents are connected through the ideal and motivation of those relationships, though they are not yet ideal. Moreover, you did not know that the greater principles of the love of parents, the couple and children are originally connected to humankind. Thus, Christianity called the unity of God and humanity a marriage. The kind of love religious people seek is not simply the ordinary love of parents for children. It is the love that can move a greater and higher life and harmonize with a greater ideal. Thus, the day should soon come on the earth in which we can see the power of life, hope and love that can transcend time and embrace everything. You should know that, at that time, we will see the world where evil is absorbed into goodness and follows goodness.

Jesus Is the Substance of God's Life, Hope and Ideal

When we ponder God, who exists as an Absolute Being in the world of relationship, and cannot deny the reality of His existence, we should feel that God has the same movements of life, ideals and affection as ours. This is because we have all of His attributes, since we were born of Him. Thus, we should know that our form reflects God's.

Though God should appear to us as the subject of life, hope and love, He does not. This is the cause of humanity s sighing and sorrow today. To remove this, God maintains an inseparable relationship with humanity. To resolve human suffering, God has sent a substantial incarnation as the master of ideals, justice and life. This is Jesus.

Though God is invisible, there must be an intuitive cosmology and world of principle that can be felt directly. Through what can God's absolute realm of life be felt? It cannot be felt through science nor philosophy. This is not something that can be felt through any field of human knowledge. Since God has the responsibility to clarify this with man, however, He has been explaining the motivation and purpose of the Absolute Being by establishing religions and cultivating the foundation of the human mind centering on relationships. Yet this motivation and purpose cannot be explained by logic. You cannot explain power through logic. One can only partially explain an ideal through logic. Love cannot be completely explained in this way. One cannot establish a view about life. One tries to form a view on life, history and religion in vain through logic alone. Nor can logic provide a view on love.

Since we cannot have a view, we cannot have a relational stance from which to explain everything nor can we establish the condition of explanation that can provide the relational stance. Thus, a certain viewpoint is required that precedes every view and explains everything. We talk about intuition today. Intuition cannot be understood by the world of the five senses. Through what does intuition move and come to be felt? It does not come through perceptions and feelings that come through our five senses, from outside ourselves. It comes through perceptions and feelings that come through the mind. That intuitive perception can instantly elucidate the motivation and purpose, transcending time, and feel the presence of a certain substantial being. God's presence can be explained in this way. Thus, today we can solve those problems centering on our minds. That is, we can grasp them only through supernatural and lawful intuition or feeling.

The problem is the tie and relationship between God and humankind. This tie and relationship are in the process of pursuing a certain purpose with a certain motivation. This process is concerned with history, the current age and the future. You should know this. We experience and learn all such feelings through religion. However, the religion which is worthy of our faith should be able to arouse in us a stimulation of power that is like the attributes of God's life, ideal and love. We should find such a religion today. With regard to the tendency of relationship, such a religion surely exists. Another problem is how we can experience it and learn.

The Greatest and Foremost Commandment

Today you exert enormous efforts through religion, seeking the infinite world of being. Why do you fail to find it? Why are you unable to recognize the world? From the standpoint of relationship, it is because the motivation and purpose deviate and you cannot make a relationship with the resulting value. All entities, individual, family, national, country and world, have their own wishes and purposes in their own situations. When the purpose of an entity differs from the heavenly purpose, it can hardly feel the eternal world of being. Heaven helps humankind feel this world through religion, not through intellectual conditions. This world is felt through ultimate emotional issues by holding up the standard of love.

Thus, God comes to us only with love, and we can meet God only with love. You must first know that God has been trying infinitely to reach out to us, giving hope to those without hope, giving life to those without life, and giving love to those who cannot be loved. You should know that God thinks of us before we think of Him. He existed before we existed and moves for us before we move. You should feel in your hearts that a Being exists who is greater than the value of our existence, ideal and affection, and He moves before we do.

How does God find humankind with the condition of love? As in the passage we read, God allowed us a commandment: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment." (Matthew 22:37-38) You should remember that God kept this commandment before humankind did. Thus, you should clearly know that this is the first commandment a fallen person must keep.

When listening to the word, if you think that the word originates from you, it is a serious misunderstanding. You should feel that to bring this word to humankind, God, who is the subject of human life, ideals and love, has gone through a historical course of exerting all His mind and will for the sake of humankind. In other words, before humankind kept the commandment, God loved humankind with all His heart and character. God could establish it as a commandment because God kept it Himself. Thus, in our search for God's ideal of life, before we love God, He approaches us with great love, ideals and life to find us, to love us, to save our lives, and to establish us as beings of the ideal. You should remember that God has been reaching out to us, upholding the first commandment. God toiled for 4,000 years trying to present His will to humankind, but it was not fulfilled because of human ignorance. Thus, Jesus was the one who appeared to substantially perfect the word and establish the way of the commandment.

Jesus Exerted All His Heart and Will for God

Before Jesus told others to invest their hearts, he first invested his heart for God. Before he told them to exert their wills, he did it first. Before he told them to love God with their utmost effort, he practiced it first. Thus, he became the substantial incarnation of the commandment. Jesus, who appeared on the earth with God's mission for humankind, witnessed to God's great power of life through words. When they went unheeded, he used miracles to witness. He introduced the ideal of the world and the cosmos to a nation who wished for their own happiness. The Israelite nation understood God's ideal as being individually and nation-centered. Jesus showed God's love to them through examples. He demonstrated a love which embraced the gentiles beyond the limits of the nation so that they could actually see and hear it.

Who received the stimulation of life from Jesus? Those who overcame death received it. Who felt the great power of hope? The same ones. Who felt the great power of love? Again, it was those who overcame death. They should have believed in Jesus when he was alive. They should have received the power of life to overcome death and attained the power of love. Only after they let Jesus die and saw his resurrection did they realize that he was their substantial ideal of life, ideals and love. Thus, they boldly went over the hill of death without fear.

What then is your position now, you who believe in Jesus as an object of hope? We should not be like the disciples, who did not recognize Jesus even when he appeared as the original incarnation of the ideal, love and life. If you become like them, you will commit the historical crime again and become the object of God's sorrow. God has worked for 2,000 years since Jesus. Thus, in place of Jesus, who comes as the hope of believers, you should be able to dedicate your power of life for the sake of the past, present and future and to sacrifice your life for God. Where are the people who have such determination? This is the big question. You say you have faith, but the question is what standard of faith you have.

After meeting the returning Jesus, receiving the infinite stimulation of life, seeing the ideal world of creation, and feeling the infinite power of love, we have realized that the footsteps of Jesus were not for his own sake. Rather than complaining against his enemies, he produced the fire of love to melt them. When he received persecution from his enemies because of their excessive desires, he embraced them with greater love and exploded with the shimjung of a greater ideal and life. The whole world then came whirling into his bosom. If there is life, an ideal and love in God, what should we do centering on them? We should become original substances of love and life who can unify all the people of the world, whether on the brink of death or in the realm of life. You should know this.

Thus, the fact that Jesus came and we can follow him is a word of blessing or gospel for humanity. Knowing this, you should not think centered on yourself. You should, first, feel the fact that God totally invested His heart, will and character for us. You should also feel the fact that there has been a substantial person who thoroughly exerted his heart, will and character for us. That was Jesus. The footsteps Jesus left were loving humankind with all his heart, will and character. The question is if you have the shimjung which can experience this directly without explanation. You should know clearly that the existence or absence of such a shimjung determines God's decision whether He can make a relationship with you.

The Day of the Messiah and the Age of God's Love

The world of shimjung transcends time. Thus far, no one has been able to revolutionize the parents' loving heart for their children. Its essence has remained unchanged throughout the vicissitudes of the ages. This happens in the world of love. When a beloved child is leaving the parents, no one, not even a powerful authority, can block the movement of the world of love. The movement of the world of love can transcend the hurdles of a giant mountain and the entire cosmos. Thus, to have an experience of shimjung, we should connect with the standard of the heart. Only in the world of shimjung can we establish the condition by which we can receive Jesus, who came to save us 2,000 years ago. Thus, in calling upon God, we should go beyond the situation and see the shimjung behind it. A parent's love for a child transcends life. Love itself is the complete answer and complete motivation.

The day when we receive the Messiah as the subject of life, the ideal, love and the center of humanity is the day when God, the universe and humankind will all rejoice. It is the day when humankind finds the lost God, God finds the lost human and the earth. On the day of the Messiah, three conditions will be simultaneously restored. The real world will be created in which everything moves and halts through one heart. It is the day of hope for God, humankind and all things. What, then, is the standard of hope? It is the love that represents all.

Now the time is approaching in which I, standing at the end of the 6,000 years, must establish myself and possess God's love, life and ideal. When is God's age of life, beyond the age of the life of Jesus and the Holy Spirit? When is God's age of the ideal, beyond the age of the ideal of Jesus and the Holy Spirit? When is God's age of love, beyond the age of the love of Jesus and the Holy Spirit? This is the question. Thus Paul says, "For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39) Jesus, too, came for the love of God.

Believers today think that love in Jesus is the ultimate, but it is not. God's love is linked based on the love of Jesus. One can know the love of True Parents only when one comes through that process of love. You should know this clearly. The fallen parents on earth, namely, our physical parents, are not True Parents. We all have parents of the fallen lineage. No matter how polished one's appearance is, he belongs to the tribe of the fallen lineage. Therefore, people do not know that the original love of True Parents before the fall is the last fruit of love God has prepared for fallen humankind. Jesus departed without introducing this love. After feeling this love, one needs a certain principle. The principle is that children come after the parents. They grow up, become husband and wife, and become parents in turn.

What is the ideal of Christianity today? What is the ideal of husband and wife? It is to find and establish the love of True Parents. Only when we grow up in a blood relationship with the love of True Parents can we become true husband and wife and have true children.

God's Course to Restore the Children of the Direct Lineage

If God has a grudge about the earth, it is that there are no true parents, true couples or true children. This is why Heaven is sighing. Thus, Paul said that fallen people would be saved as adopted sons. No matter how excellent one is, he is only an adopted son. What then is God's sorrow? It is the fact that His real children became adopted children. Thus, history has been a bitter process of restoring the direct children. Only one who knows God's woeful shimjung of history can serve God closely. The parents who produce and raise children can feel God's shimjung through loving their children. Thus, the ones who feel the true love of husband and wife must be able to feel God's original love through this. It is the same with the children's love for the parents.

When such a standard appears on the earth, we need an ideal of goodness. Though we are original bodies of goodness, we only have a relative view of life around that center. Only within the loving shimjung of the True Parents can we become the center of value, life, the ideal and love. We can then stand as the subject of all. You should know this clearly.

God tries to create this with fallen humans, but they all have different situations. These situations are not simple. They are historical situations. You know that with these situations, history has been filled with bloody strife and tragedy. What is this situation? In order for God to take you back, He gets hit by Satan as hard as your value. God takes back the world after being struck as much as the value of the world. He pays for what He regains. This has been God's strategy and situation.

To stand a person in the place of life, God made him first go through death. If there was a dying person, God went through valleys of death to save him. With hope amid infinite frustration, He went over innumerable hills of sorrow and suffering. We should be able to feel that God came through 6,000 years of tearful history to introduce the ideal of love I desire. He fully invests His heart, will and character today to make a tie with my individual being. When you can feel such a heart, you can resonate with the situation and shimjung of historical saints like Noah.

Though we are a distance from the life of Abraham, the world of shimjung transcends distance. I can make connections through my shimjung. It is the same with the ages of Moses and Jesus. Therefore, you should make a connection with the shimjung of God today through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who worked for 2,000 years. Thus, when one establishes the returning point of shimjung, Jesus can install him as his bride. You should remember the fact that Jesus said to such people, "You are not servants but my brothers and sisters." When you know this, you will feel that when you are sad, God has experienced sadness before you. When I was angry and oppressed, the Father was angry and oppressed first. When I was frustrated, the Father was frustrated before me.

To Stand as God's Direct Children

From this standpoint, we should be true sons and daughters and say to the sorrowful Father with the proper attitude of children, "Father, please be happy and not sad with me." When I get mistreated, it should be for the sake of the Father. We should have the shimjung of true children, which seeks to console the Father, who is saddened on behalf of our mind and body. If you have such a shimjung, even when you are on the path of the cross, you cannot dare to say, "Father! The pain of death is severe. Please help me avoid this path of grief."

Although it looks as if Jesus prayed to avoid the pain of death or was surrounded by fear, this was not true. When Jesus experienced God's shimjung, who had suffered for 4,000 years to find Jesus, his own death was not a problem. Jesus prayed, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt," (Matthew 26:39) for God's and humanity's sake, not for his own. You should know that God's will can be realized with such a shimjung.

Members of the Unification Church, do not cry over your own situation! Despite our various situations, we should be able to cry only with the Father's shimjung. Be filial sons and daughters who can console the Father with tears, since He cried for us first. Just as Jesus received the grace of resurrection by saying, "Not what I want but what You want," we should go over this hill too. You should go over the realm of resurrection with a living body. Only when you can love all people in the substantial world for the True Father, and they serve you for the Father will we see the conclusion of the ideal with which God created the world, a conclusion of the providence for humankind. We will then see the conclusion of our hope and of the providence for my love and life. Only when such a world is realized can we understand God's shimjung, He who suffered and went through mistreatment, anger and sorrow, all to find "me." We can also understand the Father's love, which cried for us in our distress. We can know His joyful, loving shimjung.

However, the love with which God sought to complete His ideal on earth with Jesus and rejoice in has not appeared yet. Though countless people in history came forward holding onto the hand of love to appease God's sorrow, the scene has not appeared in the human world in which the Father and the children can hold hands, sing, dance and share love together having established the original garden of flowers. How can we understand the sorrowful shimjung of the Father? We have to be in a similar place. You should clearly keep in mind that only those who feel God's joyful and sorrowful shimjung can occupy the everlasting love of God and stand as the direct children of God rather than as adopted children.

January 13, 2020

Michael Mickler

19. Let Us Become Beloved Children and Receive the Seals

January 13, 2020

Michael Mickler

Let Us Become Beloved Children and Receive the Seals

John 10:31-36

Former Headquarters Church

Seoul, Korea

September 14, 1958

Prayer

Father, we have realized that without the desire to serve and humbly bow down to You, we can have no relationship with You in the other world of eternity. We long for the day when our heart opens to feel Your shimjung in our center, so that our body follows our mind as the subject. Please guide us to regain our lost bodies today by hearing Your voice from the depth of our hearts. Let us realize Your suffering course to find each of us and humbly bow down to You. Guide us to feel a deep gratitude toward You.

We thought that You, Father, come to us only in glory. In fact, You came in sorrow and suffering, with a face stricken with misfortune. Since we did not know this, we wanted to lay our sorrow, our sufferings and our misfortunes upon You. Please forgive us.

We should realize that we are a fallen race who cannot call You Father. You have come through such sorrows and sighs in history. We should relieve Your burden of 10,000 years. I sincerely pray that no one will be ignorant of Your path of sorrow.

You have called us today, but do we deserve it? I sincerely pray that those who are gathered here can resolve Your situation and that their hearts are filled with such matters. Please embrace us at this time. Restore Your lost grace and remove our sins. I sincerely pray for and desire this.

Father, please take dominion in this service. I am giving a speech today. Do not let the hearts of the giver and receivers be divided. We know that the one who attacks on this point is not us, but Satan. We do not want our secular minds to communicate with Satan. Therefore, please guide us to believe in Your will alone. We repent before You. Do not let us follow this path with a heart different from Yours. If there is such a heartistic gap, even to a small degree, I pray that we may all work together seriously to overcome it.

Today is a holy day. Bless those who do not yet realize Your will, the pitiful thirty million people of Korea. Bless Your children everywhere who bow down to You for the sake of the nation on this day. Have mercy on the people who are screaming and fighting, and broaden their hearts to be able to tolerate and accept one another.

Now is the time to cry with the earth for the sake of Your situation. I believe You will take those to Your side who possess Your shimjung. Please forgive our baseness. Please forgive those pitiful people who follow the enemy while professing to follow Heaven. Please forgive those foolish people who take as enemies those who are not, in fact, enemies and persecute them. Who can preserve their life? Who will shed light on their path? I earnestly pray and desire that they can truly receive Your word.

Father! We know Your heart agonizes over the fate of the nation. Father, who worries about the future of the nation, have pity on this nation, which is cornered all around by the world. Please remember those who are piling up conditions before You, as representatives of the nation. Guide us to able to plead that the whip of judgment does not descend upon this nation in the last days. I sincerely pray and desire this.

Now we have realized that we have the responsibility to, first, call upon You and then proceed. If we live, pray and plead to Heaven, and make You the center of our lives for the sake of this responsibility, we know that necessarily Your will shall be fulfilled upon the earth. Thus, I eagerly pray that You will place these people in that position.

Please come and rule over this time. We pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Today I will speak upon the topic, "Let us Become Beloved Children and Receive the Seals."

God's Hope and I

Everyone, who has hope, desires to be at the center of hope. If God has a hope, you desire to be within this hope. The same mentality exists in a family, where all members desire to dwell within the master's heart. It is the same with a country, the world and the will of the Father, who has been restoring the creation. Thus, you should be remembered in the heart of your leader. If you are religious, you should be remembered in the heart of the religious leader. Furthermore, if there is a God, you should be remembered in the heart of God.

Instead of being remembered by God momentarily, if one is remembered eternally, taking God's hope, situation and shimjung to heart, God will tell him all His stories. Moreover, He will try to unconditionally give all the blessings He has gathered through the 6,000 painful years of the providence. You must understand that this is the Father's shimjung.

Although you were born as single individuals through your parents' lineage, you are not isolated. Heaven has ruled over religion throughout history. The world follows Heaven's way, the nation follows the fate of the world, the family follows the law of the nation, and I follow human norms. Thus, there should be a smooth relationship from Heaven to the world, from the world to the nation, from the nation through the society to the family, and from the family to me. No one can deny the existence of such a relationship. For whom are we moving now, we who stand in such a position of undeniable relationship? Where are your families going? Where are this world and this nation going? These are crucial questions, requiring our serious consideration.

We know that God has been sorrowing in regard to humankind ever since the fall of the first human ancestors. Where do you think this sorrow is flowing to? Where does it long to stay in the end? Through what historical course, what nation, and what clan, to whom has God's pain been transmitted? Through what historical course and for what relationship has God's hope been moving? It is not the world, not a country, not a family; it is none other than me. You must know clearly that God's hope is realized from me, the single individual. Therefore, if there is no foundation in me acknowledged by Heaven, no matter how good Heaven is, I have no relationship with it. If there is no standard in me, though a world-renowned theory may appear, it will bear no relationship with me. Have you ever felt such a fact thoroughly through your shimjung, body, bone and flesh, that the historical sorrow, suffering and difficulty are determined centered on "me"? If not, your ancestors will accuse you, for they have gone through the path of death with blood and tears.

What a Person Should Feel and Find First

We have the tradition and connection left behind by the believers in history. If anyone forgets this, it would be an ungrateful betrayal of the universe, which incorporates the heavenly way and the human way. Now is the time to realize this.

In the internal life of faith, what is the first thing you should feel and find before the heavenly way? It is not joy, happiness nor glory. Since humanity has brought sorrow to Heaven, the first thing to find is heavenly sorrow, which has been ruling the earth. You should know that despite time and place, the seekers of the truth are the ones who are carrying the cross and establishing the altar of heavenly appeal under unjust oppression to remove the heavenly tears.

Why does Heaven drive its beloved children out to the path of the cross? It is so that the heavenly connection may reach me, through the world, the country, the nation, the society and the family. It is so that the connection of the world directly reaches us. Thus, you must feel God's shimjung, which must have you experience in your single lifetime the sorrow of 6,000 years to establish you as God's children.

When God created the Garden of Eden, He wanted there to be eternal happiness, but the blessing of Eden totally disappeared due to the fall of man. Thus, God became a God of sorrow, rather than one of happiness. He has been trying to regain the country and the entire blessing of the universe while being persecuted by the country and people. Since God's bitter course throughout history is entangled with human tragedy, His sighs and His situation are deeply related to you. Since this is the responsibility of humanity and Heaven, in seeking God, man must know God's sorrow. We can defeat the myriad satans with God's anguish, sorrow and grief. You must realize that without experiencing such an historical shimjung, you cannot fight against the enemy.

Certainly people agonize over lost property. Some mourn over lost children. Though there are many who bewail a loss of earthly valuables, there is no one who bewails a loss of the self and of God. Few indeed grieve over the loss of the self, which cannot be exchanged even for the universe, and of God, who is more glorious than the universe.

For the seeker of truth, sorrow is not in losing material property. It is in having lost the self and Heaven. The path of the truth, which is to find God, is the path of finding sorrow. That is why Jesus said, "Follow me with a cross on your back." Therefore, we can stand before the Father only when our sorrow, anguish and anger can replace His. The Father's footsteps have been such in the 6,000 years. In order for you who are connected with the historical providence to make the connection with God, the center of the historical providence, you must be able to bear such sorrow, agony and grief.

This is the way of Heaven. Although the historical ages are strewn with sorrow, God has been walking this path to fulfill His will: that is, to find all things, all people, His children and God's own self. God is not operating fully as God because He lost Heaven and earth through the fall of man. He lost power, dignity and authority. The movement to restore this is the standard of human norms and the heartistic standard of the seekers of the truth. By all means, we must regain the lost universe.

The Situation of the Present World and the Task of the Children

What then must I do? I must resolve God's sorrow by restoring myself, my family, my society, my country, the world and the universe into being acceptable to God. In this way, I should dominate all things with God's authority and serve God. This is the crucial task you should pursue throughout your life. If you cannot relate to God this way, you will have nothing to do with God, even when God comes to the world, the country, the society or the family.

Throughout history, all the ideologies moved according to the way of Heaven. Many ideologies have merged, and now we have a world of one global ideology. By principle, when two ideologies fight, one is inevitably crushed. We should know that now is not a time for a two- dimensional battle centering on humanity. It is a time for a three- dimensional battle centering on Heaven, and this time the spirit world is waiting to attack us. That is why there are many phenomena of the last days all over the world. For instance, there are many mental patients and nervous phobias. Just as Adam had intense fear right after the fall because of the sin of betraying Heaven, this world is filled with people suffering from extreme fear.

This world is losing its guiding ideology. It is useless to insist on one's own way. You are in the last days of the universe, in which everything is swayed back and forth in chaos, without the center. At this turning point of history, what should you do? What should you do, beholding the world and the nation, which are falling down? To be the one God can proudly present before the nation and the universe, I must make a father-son relationship with God and follow God's ideal to dominate the creation.

However, we are blocked in front. In the back, it is incomprehensible. There are enemies on either side. Wherever we go, there are enemies who try to destroy us. We must protect ourselves at this time, protect Heaven and the heavenly way, and deflect the satans. Heaven, the master of the universe, and all things must have an ideal and want to realize it through one person.

For those who have gone out to find Heaven, there is no happiness in the process. There is no satisfaction. If there is satisfaction, he is not genuinely searching for Heaven. By Principle, agony and sorrow should come first. That is, joy will appear only after one experiences sorrow, pain and grief. That is why Christianity refers to the day of sweeping away the history of the 6,000 years as Judgment Day.

Why does Heaven come to us with sorrow, pain and grief? It is not to ruin you. It is to make you children of Heaven. A child shares blood and flesh, ideology and the ideal. You should move forward on that reciprocal base with Heaven.

The Two Sorrows of God

Who shattered our father-son relationship with God? Sadly, this relationship cannot be restored with heavenly strength or with our strength alone. There must be nothing that provokes your anger more. We should be the children who can feel the sorrow, pain and grief of losing the loving Father and being unable to serve, meet or follow the parents who should be served eternally. Coming down the road of misfortune, God has been trying to find people who could share joy as His children, but we knew nothing about His sorrow. We are unable to be called children of God due to our fallen lineage, though theoretically we are sons with an inseparable blood relationship. In real life, we have countless elements of the enemy within us.

Thus, God has two kinds of sorrow. One is having lost the son and the other is not being able to regain the relationship. We should feel that we are the sinner of sinners and the debtor of debtors to have generated such woe in God. We must repent and work hard for having put God through 6,000 years of toil.

The relationship of father and son is based on shimjung, which can never disappear from the heart, even with all the denials and unworthiness of being called a son. The relationship centering on eternal love flows on as the affectionate shimjung that even God cannot deny. The tragedy is that even with such a shimjung, God cannot freely call us sons and daughters.

Our sorrow is nothing compared to that of God. Do not rejoice over having much money. Having good external conditions does not gladden the heart. You should know that the more material affluence you have, the more indemnity conditions you will incur, which will bring you down. Is there anyone on the earth who can confidently say, "I can be a child of God because I have given up everything"?

Looking at the sky, we should be able to feel the grief of humankind, which prostrates itself and cries out before the tears of God. We should be able to feel the woe of all things, which scream out, pierced by God's tearful shimjung and sighs. We should also experience the Father's sorrow and pain. We must know the mistreatment He has suffered. Only when we dominate the earth with the ideal of Heaven can we fulfill His will.

Since this world is fallen, you cannot meet God. Since there is the heavenly principle of creation and the cosmic heavenly standard, God cannot come directly to man, ignoring these principles. Thus, in the Old Testament Age, humankind and animals were connected through sacrificial objects. In the New Testament Age, Jesus was the sacrifice. Through Jesus, humanity and all things and humanity and Jesus were to make the connection. Heavenly blessing was attained by Jesus, the son of God, going through an extremely sad situation. This made the connection between Jesus and humankind.

Now what needs to be established is the relationship of father and son. For this, the father must be struck for the sake of the son. This way, the connection should be made from all people to the subjects, and from the subjects to the son, and from the son to God. This is the law of God, who is restoring happiness, glory and the ideal.

To Become Children Acceptable to God and Achieve Complete Restoration

Where should this relationship be made? This relationship should not be made in the spirit world, but on the earth. That is why it is emphasized that Heaven is the groom and the earth is the bride. This is an undeniable connection. The shimjung by which humanity feels this never changes. No one can transcend this shimjung, regardless of whether he lived thousands of years ago or lives 10,000 years from now. The groom sets up one absolute standard. By establishing the bride's name as a condition, he spreads the connection toward sons and daughters. He then regains the earth, subjects, the substance of children and parents. This is restoration.

Thus, to make the connection between humankind and all things, all things are offered as a sacrifice. To make the connection between the subjects and the son, the son is sacrificed. To make the connection between the son and the father, the father must carry the cross. Looking at such a process of establishing the ideal, since we have the responsibility to restore this historical process through indemnity once and for all, now is the last day of finding myself through the Father.

In the Old Testament Age, salvation was possible by sacrifices centering on the priest and keeping the law. In the New Testament Age, salvation was attained by believing in Jesus. From now on, however, one must believe in God, our Father, to whom we are connected through an eternally undeniable standard, undeniable because it is rooted in our blood and flesh.

In this woeful course that repeats the 6,000 years of history, when sons and daughters appear whom God can acknowledge as His own, not only in mind but in body, they will realize God's tears which were shed for the world and teach the ignorant people. They will understand the tearful situation of God, of which people have been unaware throughout history.

Who will be the one who understands God's shimjung, representing all people, Heaven and earth? It will be he who knows the distance- transcending and unlimited heavenly shimjung. It will be the one who knows a parent's loving, eternal heart toward the children, who says, "Father, Your sorrow is mine. Your agitated shimjung is my shimjung. Give me the cross."

Do you know the plight of Heaven, who has to take up the painful cross again? We should be able to feel God's shimjung toward the nation and all the historical shimjung of the ancestors who struggled for the sake of God, the earth, the subjects and the son.

In agony, Paul sighed and said, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Romans 8:35) This means that Paul was aware of God's love in Christ. Jesus is also a bride before God. Jesus, our groom, even needs God's love. The position of the bride and groom is external. Complete restoration starts with all things and ends with the restoration of the children. Thus, one must meet the Holy Spirit and Jesus through the position of husband and wife. He then must move on to say, "Father, bless me in place of the lost children of the Garden of Eden." We must become the children who, without a speck of the fall, can become the true ancestors of humankind and receive the blessing, free of the bitterness of the fall.

What would be the grief of God? It is the fact that though He cried with the earth and the subjects, He has not shed tears of joy with a victorious son. In other words, God's sorrow is that there is no one who can be acknowledged as a victorious son. Moreover, there has not even been one person who has cried with God, who has wandered about tirelessly to find the lost children.

Children Who Can Receive the Heavenly Seals

When one is trying to find his lost child, even if he is the prime minister of a state, his dignity is not in consideration. He will burst into tears, clasping his hands and body, ignoring his reputation and dignity, not caring even if he is a beggar. The fact that such a scene has never occurred between God and humanity from the time of creation is the sorrow of God, all things and humankind.

At the time of sacrifice, humanity ascended through sacrificial objects. At the time of the national providence, he ascended by following a leader. Following a leader was the sacrifice. Next he ascended by believing in Jesus. From now on, he must believe in the True Parents. In other words, he must become a true son or daughter of the True Father. Now you must struggle on your hands and knees to follow the path.

The ideal of the 6,000 years is now to bear its fruit on earth. When will the leader appear on earth who can cry with the earth, with the people and with Jesus? Humankind desires that the substantial being appear and join the history that was separated stage by stage. Humankind wishes that a substantial being appear who represents the ideal of the entire universe and touches the heart of the Father and the bride and groom. Humankind desires a leader to appear whose shimjung can connect to all people and arouse and preserve the heart that can cry with the earth. We should serve this one person in place of Heaven, Jesus, all people and the earth. Like him, we should become able to cry with and love the earth, people and God. Thus, God's grieving shimjung should turn into a joyful one.

In this way, you should receive approval from the Trinity, from all the saints, and even from satanic people, as well as from the Father. By zealously fighting to resolve God's grief, representing the historical shimjung as a child long sought with sighs for 6,000 years, you must be established as the son who took revenge upon Satan and be confirmed as God's beloved child. Only then can you receive the seal.

Christians talk about the 144,000. Words are easy. The heavenly children who set up the conditions for restoration and manage the heavenly providence and receive the seals, do Christians quite fit these words? The one who can receive the heavenly seals must have the shimjung to cry with the earth for Heaven. In other words, to receive the seals, you should be able to cry with the people, endure suffering and mistreatment for the sake of Heaven, heal the historical sorrow of God and all the inequities of man, and overcome all trials.

From where should we receive the seals? We receive the seals from God. We should receive it from God's shimjung, from God's situation, from my family and from society. We should clearly know that we can receive the seals only when we find the unifying point of God's historical shimjung.

Prayer

Father, shall we say that our path is long and rugged? Please guide us to realize that our hearts cannot compare with Your aching shimjung. Our mistreatment cannot compare with Your steps through the formidable satanic realm. Amid our tribulations, grant us a seething desire to take responsibility for Your will. Amid our sorrows, make us Your children who can befriend and accompany You on Your woeful journey of history. Make us friends of Your shimjung who suffer because we feel the historical anguish with You. Make us Your eternal objects of joy who can befriend You in Your anger and Your internal and external sorrow.

We realize that, above all, we ourselves, who wander after blessings, are the problem. We have realized that if one cannot find sorrow in his heart, he can never find happiness. If he tries to avoid inevitable pain, he can never escape from the pain. For those who have lost the patience to overcome anger and grief, help them realize that without patience, they cannot avoid pain. We have understood the heavenly principle by which the blessing of the day comes only after going over the hills of sorrow, pain and bitterness. Now grant us the ability to say in tears, holding onto the Father's shimjung, earth and all things: "Father, Your sorrow is my sorrow, and Your pain is my pain. Give me all Your burdens. You stand in the place of happiness."

Since we know that there is the inseparable relationship of father and son in which both agony and affection can be shared, make this a time when we can be accepted by You. We know Your shimjung, which desires to use victorious sons to restore the universe. Guide us so that we can appear carrying that shimjung. Make us Your children who can gratefully keep Your way, whatever sacrifices we make or whatever road of death we tread. Make us those who will fulfill Your will, by all means, without ever betraying You. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

January 13, 2020

Michael Mickler

18. Jesus Who Came with the Destiny of Restoration

January 13, 2020

Michael Mickler

Jesus Who Came with the Destiny of Restoration

Acts 3:13-24

Former Headquarters Church

Seoul, Korea

August 3, 1958

There may be many people who come to church on Sundays as a matter of course, through habit or as an established custom, thinking that because this is Sunday, they should come to the Father's temple and attend a service. You must understand that this place in which you are sitting should not be taken so lightly. This gathering materialized through some unknown background connection of which you are not aware. From the viewpoint of your individual being, as the center, your position and connection relate with the front and the rear and the left and the right. It is also a connection related to above and below. You must deeply remember this.

The Background of Jesus' Coming and the Result of the Chosen People's Disbelief

The fact of the emergence of the one person Jesus within history was not a chance accident. It was the result of the predetermined will of the heavenly principles. That is, Jesus came to materialize the connections of history, the current age of that time, and the future. If there had been a person who understood this fact, Jesus would not have died on the cross.

Though Jesus was merely one individual, if the connection Jesus carried had been extended to the whole and extended further from there, the historical connections of human beings would have been drawn together, even the connections of that age and the future would have been drawn together. No one knew of this at the time. Besides that, no one knew that Jesus was the figure who came with the central mission to mobilize the billions of faithful believers in Heaven and on earth and even Heavenly Father, based on the connections Jesus had with them.

In their ignorance, the chosen people were not aware of this. They thought highly of themselves, believing that they stood in the midst of God's will and promise. However, because they rejected Jesus, they deviated from the will. Although they came forth having built a historical religious order, they ended up being placed in a situation where that religious order could not belong to Heaven. In addition, the Israelites had the national hope that the promised blessing of the last days would be materialized centering on them, and they boasted about the privilege of being the chosen people. Yet because they did not recognize Jesus, who was the subject of the macrocosmic ideology, they ended in a position of being soundly ruined. The people did not know in time that Jesus countered the great tragedy that was unfolding in human history with sorrow-filled tears and the blood of sacrifice.

The words Jesus cried out were the words of truth, overflowing from his earnest heart. The thirty-year life course Jesus walked was not spent to fulfill his own individual desires. He did not hope for his own benefit. The chosen people should have known this, but they did not. Only Jesus, who tried to accomplish the will of Heaven forgetting himself, knew it. Now this sorrow has become the root of our grief today. We must know this. Further, from the position of a man of faith, you must realize that the steps Jesus took were steps "I" have to take. The garden of ideology for which Jesus longed is the garden of ideology that "I" must accomplish.

Jesus yearned and hoped for the one ideology of the bride and bridegroom who could live in the realm of God's blessing. Besides that, Jesus wished to embrace the crowd of 144,000 people centered on the banquet of the lamb that could consummate God's blessing. With these people, he wished to return songs and the glory of bliss before the presence of the Father. This was Jesus' earnest desire. However, because of the chosen people's disbelief, Jesus could not materialize such an original hope and instead was crucified on Calvary. The prayer Jesus offered, shedding blood and sweat in the garden of Gethsemane, was a prayer that represented God's earnest and intensely sorrowful heart. That earnest prayer was not meant for the sake of solving his own problem. It was for the good of the ignorant, slumbering people of that nation. It was for the beloved three disciples.

Jesus bore the responsibility to lead the ignorant people, embracing God's hope. What would the heart of Jesus Christ have been like when he had to pray to Heaven asking for the hands of forgiveness to be extended again, in spite of the heavenly ways being violated? What was his heart like, trying to stop the chosen people from becoming a people of betrayal who deserved judgment? When Jesus pleaded earnestly, "Please do not lay their sinfulness to their charge," he was facing the enemy in a crowd of people while walking the course of the tribulation on the cross. What kind of relationship did he wish to form with humankind, with the course of the providence or with the heart of heavenly nature?

We today should be able to go back into history and delve into the heart of Jesus. To that heart, we should bow our heads. By walking the steps the Lord took, following the traces the Lord left behind, and rendering devoted service to the altar for which the Lord died, we should become the people who can embrace God's grievous resentment in His place. Further, we should reflect upon ourselves to see if we can seize Jesus' heart, which represented the whole of humankind and the historical ties holding onto heavenly compassion. That is, we should ask ourselves whether we can become true friends of Jesus who can represent Jesus' historical relationship, the relationship of the age, and the relationship of the future.

Awakening to One's Own Worth

There is nothing one can do all by himself in this world. You can never shed light upon what kind of being you are if you put aside your relationships. The same principle applies to God's providential restoration. If there is one, two will appear. If there is a gathering of one, it will by nature connect with front and rear, left and right, and top and bottom. By doing so, when that one being comes to be equipped with one subjectivity that can pass through the characteristics of history, the current age and the future, a new history can be developed from there. You must understand that as fallen humankind was falling further away, more and more, going further down, God has been unfolding the providential dispensation of pulling them up and up, transcending time and space.

When asked by others how long you have believed in Jesus, you easily answer that you have believed for "ten years," "twenty years," or "such and such number of years." Yet looking carefully at the history of the relationship, you must realize that you are standing in a position where you must add to it the 6,000 years of history. You must be able to locate the position of your faith.

Because humans cannot escape from the history of relationship, you today must become the people who can confidently say that you have the center of faith that is absolutely necessary in the realm of relationships for the age. Going further, the descendants of many thousands of generations should be able to model themselves on the foundation of faith you start building now. The matter for concern is how you can move forth with the foundation for such future relationships from your present realm of faith.

Therefore, you who stand in such a position today must have faith with which you can appear proudly before God in substitution for the 6,000- year history and say, "My Father, who has labored for 6,000 years." The Father has endured with patience, unconcerned about having to go through a course of toil to embrace the 2.4 billion people of humanity in His bosom today. You must be able to call this Father "My Father." Going further, you must stand before Heaven with a faith and a determination that can touch the hearts of posterity's billions of generations through the appeal of your faith. Only then can you call God, who operates His providence according to eternal law, "Father." Therefore, now the matter of concern is whether I have become a person who can reveal myself, or be revealed by another, before God as having consolidated the present and the past, after taking in the future.

Only after 4,000 years of history had elapsed could Jesus come for the first time to this earth to pioneer the realistic course of such a mission. Accordingly, you today must not have an ideological faith. You must not have a faith that cannot free itself of ideology based on knowledge that became known through history. Since you are stuck in history and your way is blocked, you must realize that the time has come to review the course of history and re-evaluate it. Many churches that passed through the path of faith until today, many religions which boasted about their ideologies, have their paths blocked upon arriving in the last days. This proves that they are in a situation where they cannot form a historical relationship, a relationship of the current period or a futuristic relationship of hope.

Truths and the Mission Toward the Central Figure

What kind of man of faith are we looking for today? We are looking for a man of faith who can form relations representing the historical, periodical and futuristic relations. Yet today we are guided by our five senses. Would there be any truths that could encourage the world of the mind through those five senses?

Such truths may seem to have nothing to do with our living environment today, but that is not so. They are truths which tally with our lives one hundred percent. They are the truths we will need when we forget the ideology we have cherished with hope and are in a condition of clouded consciousness. That is, they are the truths which will guide us when we come to be placed in a situation where we are blocked by the wall of darkness and cannot think seriously upon the center of our mind.

For that reason, you today must penetrate into the future and, by every means, find the truths that connect to the past. Accordingly, today you must remember that you have a worldwide mission to find such truths and plant them in this land which stands in defiance of any of our toilsome efforts, sacrifices and tribulations.

The word of that one person, who has come and formed such relationships, is really the good news of good news. When you come to think of this, you must pursue the truths Jesus asserted. By doing so, you must equip yourselves with the historical relationship of blessed faith.

Have you become one with a historical relationship that is flowing out of Jesus' shimjung? If you have not, you must realize that you are sinners who have violated the relationship with Jesus, who inherited the historical course and has come forth connecting with us until today. You must become people who can bow their heads unconditionally. You must also understand that you have violated the thirty or more years of the life of Jesus, who transmitted the words of the gospel in substitution for the periodical relationship and walked the practical course to fulfill the periodical responsibility.

The person who cannot comprehend the words of the gospel Jesus introduced through this kind of relationship is a man very deeply in debt. Jesus Christ is connected with God, and the truths of Christianity are connected through Jesus Christ. We today must realize that we are indebted to those truths. You have to realize again that, until Jesus stepped forth before Heaven, God had to make toilsome efforts for 4,000 years. Those truths are covered with God's shimjung and blots of the blood of numerous ancestors within history.

If you now anxiously long to find the relationship of ideology and have the mind that wishes to obtain your own position according to that relationship, have you ever felt the weight of the great debt you owe on the front and in the rear, to the right and to the left, and on the shoulders of both sides? Although the laws of relationship and the laws of the heavenly principles urge us into the field, we are staying at a level of individual relationship centered on one person: ourselves. If you live tied up only with such a relationship and are not able to free yourselves from that relationship, heavenly compassion will compel judgment. The blood of the many sages who died for their belief in the course of history will make an appeal.

You must understand the heart of Jesus, who could call Heaven "Father" even within such a sphere. Jesus' mind and God's mind could make a connection. The whole heart of the Father who had toiled during history could be consoled by Jesus. What was more, one person, Jesus, could substitute for God's comprehensive hope for the future. Jesus was such a unique, awe-inspiring being that he cannot be compared with any one. Yet no one at that time knew this.

Consequently, although it was God's will for men to alleviate the historical sorrow, they were ignorant about it and marched forward in a way which would bring glory and happiness. On the contrary, it became sadness and an altar of the cross. With what can you then alleviate the shimjung of the Father who was watching this? This is the greatest matter of concern. That is why spiritual restoration history ever since Jesus is being turned upside down during our spiritual restoration. You must know this.

We Are to Be Responsible for Jesus' Sorrow and His Hope

In the field where men have to fulfill the macrocosmic mission of relationship, the spirit must be united, let alone the relationship between top and bottom. Just as one cell of my body is moved by the unified shimjung, it should be possible for my mind to connect to the historical course.

What kind of relationship do you have with Jesus, who cried out bearing the historical responsibility; with Jesus, who thought only of God's will; with Jesus, who died on the cross? This is the important matter of concern. You should be able to say, "Father! Though I am feeble, please allow me to be responsible for even one part of Jesus' burden." You must have a tragic shimjung that can cry with Jesus, feeling the fretful heart with which he cried, unable to discuss his own grieved heart with anyone. With such a mind, you must take charge of even one part of Jesus' difficult situation.

In your life of faith today, to not fall into ruin, there should be at least three people who pray all night in the church, clinging to Jesus. Such a church, such a religious order will not perish. Although the gospel Jesus transmitted has been propagated on this earth and many religious orders have formed, when we look at how Christianity has strayed from the will of Jesus, we should reflect on ourselves today and become the people who can follow in the footsteps of Jesus as he struggled hard during the three years of his public life.

Having connected with God's shimjung and the historical shimjung, Jesus had a commanding mien and was full of confidence when he appeared before the people. Yet when he was not facing the people, he would quietly shed tears. When he saw people straying from the righteous way and from the ties of God's heart, believing mere formalities and ceremonial functions, in his heart he felt like lifting a whip and striking them.

Now we should restore Jesus' mind that can connect with our heart and the ties of our life. We should also search for a group of such people with Jesus' mind. Since we do not have such a mind, we should consider to whom we have to hand over this task as an unfinished work.

Since we are placed in such a position as this, we must bear all the historical mistakes perpetrated in the past. Going further, it is not enough to know the grief of the days past. Going beyond that, you must know even the shimjung that cherishes a hope for the future and be able to say, "Since I will be responsible for all this, please take a rest." Since no part of your life has been aglow with this kind of passion, you must repent.

Toward what kind of age is this world today moving? The present time is the age where we fight centering on materials, but in the future, there will come an age of struggle centering on thought. That is, stepping beyond the age of materialism that can affect the body of a human being, the age of an "ism" based on thought, representing the mind, will emerge.

In a human being, there is the body and the mind. Above the mind, there is the soul; above the soul, there is God. Therefore, only when the human being unites completely into one with God will he or she become perfect. Each person is one mere, small, independent entity. However, he or she represents the whole of history and all relationships of the future. Therefore, he or she possesses macrocosmic value. Why has human history been flowing down until now? What did our many ancestors and the prophets and sages come forth wishing for? Because they were fallen human beings, they have been seeking the center, after having connected from afar. That is, we have been coming forth from the age of the clan to that of the tribe, through the age of the race to the age of the state and the international age, through the age of a worldwide federation. Heaven has been searching for the one person who can be a representative, linking God's heart on top of the foundation of having combined the historical relations, the current period relations, and the futuristic relations. You must remember this.

Therefore, the time of World War I was a time of struggle centered on materials. In other words, all people in this world tried to obtain materials. There was a time when the world cried out for materials.

Life Centered on the Mind

Will this be true of every age? No, it will not. In looking for the relationships of his or her life, an individual has to go forth with attendance of his or her mind in front. This is the iron rule of the heavenly principles. He who does not obey the command of the mind will be struck by Heaven. Heaven has told human beings in the course of history that they must live in accordance with their consciences. They must belong to the good side, centered on their minds. They should not get caught up in some materialistic condition of evil.

Is the human conscience then able to accept the heart of the heavenly principles one hundred percent as it is? No, it is not. Rather, it is blocked by many fences. Before the Cape of Good Hope for which you wish, that is, before the boundary gate of Heaven, there lies the gate of turns and twists. Spoken in Christian terms, this is the checkpoint of the judgment. The trend of thought today sees a period of fear, uneasiness and confusion. In other words, it is the age when you cannot take hold of the center.

Today you should not keep many material things. Why? When creating man, God breathed the soul into the body. A person is made of soul and flesh, and the soul is the center. When this world moves in a unified way centered upon materialistic power, what kind of period of struggle is going to come about? A period of ideological strife will come about. In reality, such a phenomenon has been conspicuously presenting itself since after World War II. The age of ideology centered on the mind will then appear.

What kind of thought should that ideology be? It should be thought that penetrates material things and the mind and centers on the soul. To go forth seeking the age of ideology centered on the soul is the restoration course. Humankind is still stopped in the state of having lost this and is moored in a state of having lost the harmony between the soul, the conscience and the body. Such has happened symbolically in this world. That is, the world today is the battleground between the major powers of the democratic and the communist worlds. This fight is also a showdown between God and Satan. It is a fight in which individuals struggle against one another, centering on religion.

Therefore, if in the future a tribe tries to move the world, it will not be able to control the world with its own ways and means only. Today's domain of thought is two in the present state of things. However, in principle, it should be four instead of two. For that reason, just as the nations in the Third World, today, are holding hands with the left-wing camp, with religious formalities that are on the satanic side, something has to emerge in the democratic camp which can hold hands with the people of the world, having equipped itself with a new religion. I personally foresee that in the future a worldwide religious movement centering on Christianity will come about.

In other words, because Christianity falls within the purview of the realm of the conscience within the democratic camp, a push from the opposite side will be expected. Just as there are two minds in us and they fight against each other, I see that there will be a conflict between two worlds. What humankind wishes for is one starting point, a starting point in which two unite into one. That starting point is the beginning of relations, the synthesis of relations, and the result of relations.

For that reason, you must set up an inward standard that can link the subjective ties and live making it the center of life. By having realized such a stage of life on the earth, finding the common value that connects to the whole of humankind's shimjung, all problems will be resolved. The world will then usher in the time of judgment. Accordingly, the young men and women who are put in the process of such an urgent history as today must set their resolution in good working order and proceed afresh toward Heaven.

When we look back at the modern history of the world, ever since the political revolution in France, after the Renaissance and World War I, material civilization has developed to the highest degree. What caused the Industrial Revolution? It was because man began to understand the power of steam and gasoline. The Industrial Revolution was realized on the foothold of steam and petroleum.

Since then, as it came into the first half of the twentieth century, it transformed into the electrical civilization. Although water and petroleum are substances, now the age of electrical civilization uses power that is invisible. What came after the stage where substance was acted upon to cause light to be emitted? The age of the energy civilization came, that is, the atomic age. This is the last age. Similarly, human history has passed through three stages of similar revolutions.

What this Age Demands

If there exists a nation and a people that can create some stimulative momentum that can have a big influence on the economic systems that have appeared in history until now, that nation and people will control the world. England today has borne such a mission. However, England was not aware of it.

As the material civilization of today developed, who would have known the fact that a movement of one person would come along which could carry out the mission of a small flame to break through each age, which could mobilize the world? No one knew that. Today, in the last stage of material civilization, atomic power has come and radiates one flame. The important question now is who is going to inherit that flame.

After the stage of substance, what stage are we going to? We go into the stage of thought. The providence is to search for and go into the mind. Therefore, centered on the trend of thought after the Renaissance, with the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a turning point, we have experienced an age of drastic change until now. The two great doctrines of left and right have materialized, as of now, after many crossings of thought.

In this age, which is the last days, what would be required of these two doctrines? That is, just as atomic power emerged in the place where the material civilization was being praised and threw out a flame, a new doctrine that can be the flame for this age must emerge in the arena where democracy and communism are both boasting about their respective superiority. If there are young men and women with serious minds that wish to seek a new doctrine which can be such a flame, they will be unable to sleep until they do.

Since the fight is on one way or another, we are put in a situation where a judgment has to be passed. When a great doctrine came out, it ruled over substance. When the mind reached its perfection, it ruled over the body. In the same manner, the time has come for the ideological doctrine to be resolved and sweep away the worldwide economic power. For that reason, although America continuously prospered economically until World War II, because now is the time to find a doctrine of thought, she has been struck in a material sense. Upon thinking about it, we can feel grateful for this. When you discard something, do it in style. That means to discard determinedly, like a state that knows how to discard things, without mentioning aid and so forth. This is the issue we must bring up in the future age.

What is the matter of concern in democracy? Where will the strength to spew out the flame of thought come from? Suppose that strength is welling up in our minds. From where will the flame that can explode shoot up? These are the matters of concern. These kinds of matters cannot be solved by your mind. Only the soul can solve these things. Accordingly, if there is a person who starts a revolution that can create a spiritual flame, he or she will be more precious than any ascetic who labored for the sake of the will of Heaven in the past, more precious than today's doctrines, assertions or any worldwide ideology.

Therefore, I mean to suggest that by throwing out the flame of an economic system centered on the soul, we can take in the world's economy. What is more, by throwing the flame of spiritual thought and doctrine, I suggest that we can move the world. The world appears to have been divided into two different paths. While communism is self- destructing by having centered on the search for material things rather than discarding what is to be discarded, democracy, to be grateful, must proceed to look for God. Similarly, you must understand that the two worlds are standing at widely divergent crossroads.

Because humans are in the course of restoration, the body is to succumb to the mind, the mind is to succumb to the soul, and the soul is to succumb to God. Because this is the law of absolute relations that the heavenly principles have set up, no one can exist while going against this law.

Do you have the courage to subjugate your conscience which pleads with you? You do not succumb to the mind now, but you will succumb on the day of your death. Humans are born this way.

Korean People Are the Ones Who Must Start up the Flame of the Mind

You should now reflect upon yourselves to see if you have become the people who can sweep aside material things. Because until today it has been the age of doctrines, everything was okay since you lived according to your conscience. Today, the people leading a religious life are failing. There are also people who think and live saying, "Regardless of any religion, as long as you live according to your conscience, it is okay. Heaven and such are useless." The principled course of a human being is not that way. After going through doctrine and thought, when the mind strikes the body with the right power of mind, where will the power of the mind appear? The day when the dominion of the mind falls, you can never demonstrate again the power of the mind with any worldwide doctrine.

Most men of faith today are stubborn. Because their mind has the ideological condition that it will succumb only to the soul, they do not listen to anyone. Do I then have the authority to grab hold of such a person and have dominion over him? No, I do not.

Where will the flame that can revolutionize that mind come from? Do you have the guts with which you can protest, raising your mental horizon and going over the race, the world, the religion and ecclesiastical authority? The person, who knows how to bow his or her head upon listening to one word that makes the mind cry rather than the ten million sermons that reach your ears, is the truthful man of faith. People today believe that salvation belongs to Heaven, but it does not. Only when you can show it through your mind can you come to create the history of a true salvation. Just as the doctrines today are then unable to locate a place to settle, our mind also wanders about, unable to locate a place to settle. It should not be so. If there is a person who sleeps comfortably bearing this kind of mind, he or she will then wind up the very last.

Today is the age of awakening, when you are to save your own lives and the lives of your ancestors. Upon thinking about this, the one self "I" is not a being who is to freely move around and live in this manner. Within the cosmic sphere of relations, you should feel substantially that this whole world of existence is yearning to establish "my" value of existence. Not only should you feel with your mind and with your head, you should proceed to where you can feel it emotionally.

Going further, even if someone gives you a mountain of gold and treasures, you should be able to valiantly give them up if they are not the things your mind wants, saying, "They are too pitiful, Father! However, we are aware of the fact that You have the responsibility to give material things to people of conscience and the will to have dominion over the body of a person who has a true mind. We know as well that the true soul itself has to be under the Father's dominion." The question is whether you can also step nimbly over great material suffering. Accordingly, since the value of my body is bigger than the cosmos, when my mind subjugates the body, my mind surpasses the cosmic value.

All the religious problems today originate from here. Looking at Buddhism, it too is a religion that focuses its efforts on attaining the mind. "He who brings his mind to light is the master of all laws." This is the summary of Buddhist doctrine in its totality.

The material things that are being connected today are the things that used to build a wall of historical sins. Accordingly, you should not bow your heads before those material things. You must know that Heaven demands a group of people who can mercilessly cut them off whenever their mind does not want them.

Although these Korean people are pitiable, when viewed in the light of principles like these, we come to have one hope. We are a people who are lacking in material things. If there is a chance for us to live here, we should now unite our minds. For that reason, Heaven wishes for a group of people to emerge who embrace their minds and struggle complaining of the hunger of their minds. The time is coming when, binding with this mind that starved and strived, the spiritual flame must break out. That is why this nation, this people, is experiencing poverty economically and inwardly.

What then must we be concerned about? It is whether we can find God and cause the spiritual flame. All problems will be brought to an end there. The first Christian believers could laugh in the face of death where blood was splashed and flesh was being torn in the age of confusion in the past. They caused the worldwide revolution by having thrown out a new flame. You today also must cause a new history by throwing such a spiritual last flame.

As the last, you are left with the mission to push away all, including the doctrine you have believed in and the contents of your faith, and be able to cause a revolution of the mind. That is, you have to bring about a new flame. If there is a last cry here, that will be, "Please grant us the eternal flame that Heaven can throw in this dry garden of the mind and body." The day when that flame saves this nation is the day when the whole world will soon bow its head to the man who caused that flame.

If such spheres of relations appear, a contradictory phenomenon that humanity has not seen throughout the ages of history will take place. At that time, an unknown mysterious event will happen. Our mind cannot solve that. The solution has to be that which can cause some new impulse that can make us say no, even if somebody takes our life. That has to be a three-dimensional action, rather than a horizontal action.

The Laws of Restoration

How then has God come through this kind of historical course internally? Before Jesus came, God went through the age of indemnity through material things. In order for man, who lost his body to sin, to step forth before the Father, first he has to go through the age of bringing material things before the Father. That is, he has to go through the age of sacrificial offering.

Jesus was born as the fruit of the age of sacrificial offering. Consequently, since the spiritual flame centered on Jesus has been accomplished, history has been unfolding as a form of an ethereal doctrine centered on Jesus ever since. It once appeared in many forms, but today it is being gathered again into two parts. Furthermore, centered on Christianity, the world now will see a unification movement taking place.

For that reason, the providence to offer something new that makes us feel the heavenly emotion we could not imagine and enables our conscience and body to form harmony is left to Christianity today. At first, a rise and fall of small-scale movement will happen repeatedly. Later, it will gradually happen in a bigger way. Consequently, you must know that the time when you have to unite the rearward sort of cardinal point and the futuristic cardinal point in the center is the completion age for the restoration of ideology, the completion age for the restoration of history, and the conclusion age for the providence of restoration. For an individual, it is time to connect the external world view and the internal providence to him or herself. Because humanity went off base in a world of principled relations, he will surely have to liquidate that.

A human being has a soul, a mind and a body. In the surroundings, there are living circumstances, all creation and the land. Incidentally, the land was formed first. All creation came about next, and humankind lives by eating that creation. For that reason, the body grows, the mind grows, and the soul is raised. After that, man is to meet God. This is the law conforming to the Principle. Regardless of whether people started revolutions, there has yet to be one who has not deviated from this law. We have set up a condition of being related in a straight line, without aberration.

Therefore, now you must find the world. Do you have such a desire? All of you may have such a desire. To try to make this land mine, to try to make the whole of all creation mine, that is not greed. That is a principle. That is because if we become true sons and daughters of God, what God has is mine. For instance, if your father is a rich owner of wealth, that wealth will automatically become yours.

In addition, having analyzed the whole world of existence, we can see that man is behind material things, and God is behind man. Accordingly, only when we reach such a standard can we find the worldwide ideology and the worldwide material things. Meanwhile, we must first find a worldwide person. For that reason, Jesus developed a movement to find a worldwide person. After finding the worldwide relationship, he then tried to establish macrocosmic relations. In other words, the heavenly providence is going higher step by step. Accordingly, you must understand that humanity cannot escape from this restorational fate.

The Flame of a New Mind and I

In a time when the doctrine, the providence and history have unfolded in this way, what do you have to do? Since communism is materialism, it will surely break down some day. As the democratic camp has to seek and climb to Heaven, centered on whom will it climb? This is the field of our mission to resolve. Accordingly, you must be able to demonstrate the true love and the value of the ideal of the doctrine and thought which have existed up to this point.

After overcoming material things and going over the soul, we must proceed as far as the front of God. Viewed from the worldwide angle, now is the time of entering into the spiritual age of going beyond the mind. Therefore, many insane people will come out in the streets these days. Such a phenomenon occurs when the spiritual world attacks and reaches the people whose conscience is keen and try to live according to their conscience. Above the conscience, an evil spirit rules. Just as the body is in Satan's dominion, if my conscience steps over one stage, above it the evil spirit rules. Therefore, the last spiritual problem is to defeat the evil spirit that controls my body and to manifest a good spirit in its place.

For that reason, many mentally deranged people will come out among conscientious people. Many kinds of phobias will occur. For that matter, a world-level phobia is being broken up. The matter of concern at this point is whether I have the burning passion with which I can fight against that phobia centered on my conscience. The person who has settled down with such a center cannot be controlled by a revolution in the world, unless it is a heavenly revolution that can put Heaven and earth in motion.

Accordingly, the determination that such people have is an eternal determination. Not even an atomic bomb or a satellite can make an orbit that makes heavenly law change. For that reason, centered on an immutable conscience, having set up one principle, you should be able to connect with the ideology of the principles of the rule of Heaven. By having that value stay within the mind and body substantially, you should then form relations on a straight line with Heaven. By doing so, if you can put everything of that value into practice one hundred percent in the living arena, you are the very person who has found it, the person who possesses everything. We are entrusted with the mission to go forth with this purpose.

What then is the problem here? Even if there is some doctrine that shouts to the world, unless it relates with me, it has nothing to do with me. Even the flame of some mental revolution that unfolds throughout the world, unless it connects with me, it has nothing to do with me. For that reason, you must form such relations. When you recognize your own value as cosmic and as hundreds of thousands of times more valuable than anything in this world, you will then become able to dissolve all grievous resentment on this earth. Furthermore, only when you can embrace all humankind and set all of their mental standards right can you can call God "Father."

That is why Jesus said, "For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? (Matthew 16:26) Although it has reached the age of the cosmos today, nothing can reach the world of the mind. You must understand that man is to make this the ideology of the land and live rejoicing.

Now, when you emerge after having gone through the providence of such mental relations, even God, let alone Satan, cannot do anything to you. No matter what is said in evil, regardless if it is a piece of stone or a piece of iron, you can digest it. No doctrine or thought can swallow you. Accordingly, you should recognize the value of the goodness of an individual with relations of this magnitude. You should lay a bridge that can end in that value with that great relation. Having laid a bridge from yourself, by connecting to the parts of the small number of the units left in the past, you then should establish the value of the whole. This is going to be the decisive standard. For that reason, you must now form a great cosmic relation going beyond your own individual relations. You then have to drop it to be in keeping with the reality; that is, you must make it a zero. Only when you do that will you, for the first time, come to stand as one godly being. God of the whole cosmos also will come to stand with you. Consequently, the world in which the big God and the small god can sing together of the heavenly value is the world of relationship completion, the world of the heavenly kingdom on earth that we desire. You must remember this.

January 13, 2020

Michael Mickler

17. Let Us Become Survivors

January 13, 2020

Michael Mickler

Let Us Become Survivors

Former Headquarters Church

Seoul, Korea

June 29, 1958

As He is eternal, God created all things with an eternal ideology. Because individuals, races, all humankind and all things failed to become beings of eternity, God has been seeking them with grief until today. In other words, though God lost the ideal garden of creation because of the human fall, He did not abandon hope for the created world. He fought relentlessly with Satan throughout a long history to fulfill the vast ideology of creation. He has been persevering until today.

The Inheritor of the Surviving Hope and Ideology

God has this great hope. His agony lies in that He must start with the smallest thing. This great hope was to be fulfilled in the individual, but because the individual fell, hope for the whole was lost. Consequently, before the hope of all humankind and all things could be accomplished, God's hope had to be fulfilled in a single individual. This was God's situation. No one knew about this. To fulfill this hope centering on an individual, God set up Cain and Abel. When that providence failed and 1,600 years passed, He set up Noah's family. Yet Noah's family also failed through the mistake of Ham. Therefore, the providence was prolonged after Abraham and Moses until the time of Jesus.

Before Jesus came, the many prophets were to fulfill God's ideology within the individual. Yet they could not, and this hope was transferred to Jesus, the only begotten son. Jesus came as an individual, but he was not just a common individual. He was the fruit of God's 4,000 years of constant perseverance, His longed for ideology, and His shimjung. He came carrying with him all the hopes of the prophets who had died during the 4,000 years of human history. As the fruit of 4,000 years of goodness, Jesus came on a level surpassing the individual, racial, national and world levels. He came on the cosmic level. He came with an ideology that was to eradicate the resentment of Heaven.

Accordingly, the people of Jesus time were not supposed to allow Jesus, who came with God's awesome ideology, to have an ideology that remained only with himself. Instead, they were supposed to implant this ideology within the whole Israelite nation and from there reach each person of humanity. Yet because they did not know and accept the ideology, that great ideology of God stopped with Jesus. Moreover, because Jesus died, that vast ideology could not survive as an ideology of the physical world and remained only as the ideology of the spirit world. Consequently, the people of the physical world had to wait for the ideology that could survive eternally in the physical realm. Jesus was forced to come again to re-establish this ideology in the physical realm.

Where and when will the individual, the family and the people who possess this ideology, those people for whom the physical world has been longing and who will survive eternally, appear? We must know the place and time.

When Jesus passed away, he left behind his word and his hope, but he did not leave behind his ideology. Thus, this ideology has to appear.

In the last days, what kind of person can possess Jesus' ideology? That person should first acquire Jesus's hope and will. Beyond that, he should possess a mind that can retain that ideology and a grieving heart of knowing the course of human history. Accordingly, he should be able to experience God's ideology for the creation. When Jesus preached the gospels in the physical world, he sincerely challenged people with the directive to love him more than anyone else in the world. (Matthew 10:37)

Was there anyone who understood the profound meaning of Jesus' words and practiced them? No, there was no one. Even among the disciples who followed and lived with him, there were none who practiced Jesus' words completely. Jesus also told people to love their brothers. After his resurrection, he appeared to Peter and asked three times, "Do you love me more than these?" When Peter answered in the affirmative, Jesus said, "Feed my lambs," (John 21:15-17). Moreover, Jesus told his disciples that they must prepare and wait for him, for he would come again. If you select important words of Jesus from among the words he spoke, these can serve as a summary of them.

Jesus' Sincere Request

Who can fulfill this earnest request Jesus left behind? The person who fulfills this word can escape judgment in the last days and meet Jesus. Have you ever loved Jesus in your lifetime? Can you say that the intensity of that love was greater than your love for your parents, your spouse or someone else in the world? You must re-think this point. The sincere desire of Jesus in Heaven is that someone will appear who can love him more than they love anyone else. If there is such a person on this earth, that person probably knows and deeply cares for God's ideology of the creation, God's 6,000 years of labor, and Jesus' painful heart.

Jesus represented a value based upon God's Principle of Creation. He is within the lawful realm of Heaven's creation, without any contradiction or conflict. Because Jesus was in this position, his mind and body were one. Though he was separated from Adam by a distance of 4,000 years, he could exist, transcending time and space. This is why Jesus could perceive immediately that God's ideology of creation was embedded within Adam 4,000 years ago.

What kind of mission did Jesus have? Humankind, who was to connect with God's eternal love, did not connect with it. Jesus had the mission to connect humankind with God's love. He also had the mission to tie a knot of love between humans and all things. Because Jesus came to complete this kind of mission, he told his disciples to love him, the representative of Heaven, more than they loved anyone else in the world. At that time, however, there was no one who loved Jesus that way.

When we examine the course of human history from this viewpoint, we know that we are individuals who have inherited a lineage of sin. We do not possess the ideology of creation. We have not attended Jesus from the position of a bride. Because the people of Jesus' time entered a situation where they could have loved him but did not, in the last days people in the physical world have to love Jesus more than they love anyone else on a worldwide level. From the position of a loyal subject, were you ever intoxicated with a love that could surpass any in history toward Jesus, the king of kings and your bridegroom? If not, you cannot claim that you love God more than others.

God came to ignorant sinners by abandoning everything that belonged to the 6,000 years of history. If I do not receive this God with love, this ideology of God that comes to me will be suspended because of me.

Thus, when you pray for your family at this time, you should pray that they will be people who love God and Jesus more than any other. When you pray for your nation, you should pray that there will be people in your nation who love God and Jesus more than any nation. When you pray for humankind, you should pray that the Christians of this world love God and Jesus more than the followers of any other religions. If you yourselves cannot love God and Jesus more than all others, you should at least pray this much.

What does all creation desire from humanity today? They desire for someone to appear who can fulfill this earnest request of Jesus. His wish that someone would love him more than they love any other person. Though all things wish this, that kind of person has not appeared. That is why all things and Heaven are lamenting. You must know this clearly.

Love God and Jesus More than Any Other

What kind of grief is that lamentation? In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were supposed to connect with God's love and His ideology. Yet through the fall, they failed to make that proper relationship with Him. The lamentation of all things is the lamentation that longs for humans to recover this situation and connect with God's ideology and love. Consequently, a person who cannot liberate this lamentation of all things will be judged in the last days.

What kind of person will survive this judgment? The person has to know God's and Jesus' heart more than any other, and love them that much.

By knowing this heart of God, a person can connect with God's ideology through that shimjung and thus possess the power to drive the enemy out of this universe. The reason Jesus could bless his enemies, even when he was on the cross, is that God's heart constantly and powerfully boiled within him. This is how Jesus could stand firm even in the face of death.

Jesus referred to a bride and a bridegroom. What are the bride and bridegroom? In the 2,000 years from Jesus's death until today, there was no bride who loved God and Jesus more than they loved any other. Many people talked about Jesus and about history arising from Jesus, but there was no one who knew Jesus's grief at not being able to show God's ideology of creation to humankind. It is important to talk about Jesus and the history arising from him, but it is more important to deeply experience his heart. Accordingly, in order for us to be able to represent God's ideology and survive in the last days, we must unite our shimjung with Jesus'.

Jesus loved his disciples more than he loved himself. If there is a grief of Heaven, what could that be? To leave behind God's ideology of creation in the physical world, Jesus loved his disciples more than his own body. Yet the disciples ignored the heart and circumstances of Jesus who was loving them. They thought of other things when following Jesus. They failed to receive and cope with Jesus's love while he was alive. Thus, the fruit of his love was not produced. This is Heaven's grief. The disciples felt Jesus' love for the first time only after he passed away, only then did they understand the intent of Jesus' words.

What kind of people was Jesus hoping to find? He hoped to find people who despised and abandoned themselves. Jesus was looking for those people so he could love them more than any other. Therefore, the person who can meet Jesus in the last days is a person who gropes for Heaven with a heart of love, even at the cost of despising and abandoning himself more than anyone else. The people of the world long for Jesus to come back. Yet we must not just hope for Jesus to come back but must seek him. To do this, we ourselves have to go over the hill of sadness that God experienced within human history. We must go over the hill of hardships that Jesus went over, carrying the cross. In this way, we must shorten the period of providential history and transcend time and space to deeply experience the painful heart Jesus experienced 2,000 years ago.

Who went to Jesus' grave? It was Mary Magdalene, a person considered insignificant. It was Mary who loved Jesus most: Jesus, who was chased away from one town, cursed at in another, and ridiculed wherever he went. Jesus appeared in his resurrected body to Mary, who was so sincere. This is a symbol that shows the course that Christians of the world in the last days must follow.

What kind of life did Mary Magdalene lead? Because she loved Jesus, she forgot clothes and food, and lived only for Jesus. Her path of life transcended life and death and forgot any reputation. This is the course that the saints in the last days have to go. If there is a person on this earth today who has the same heart as Mary Magdalene, his eyes will be filled with tears, moved by the 6,000 years of God's dispensational history. He will realize that he is infinitely indebted to God.

Moreover, he will know he cannot pay back the love he has received, even if he commits his body to the flames. He will know he has to walk the road of death. Have you ever had this kind of heart at any moment? That kind of person will know the heart of God, who has sought us from the time of the creation, throughout the past, the present and the future, abandoning everything. That person will not be able to raise his head in front of God because he knows that he is infinitely indebted to Him. The kind of person who feels this shimjung and gives up everything he has to follow God can survive the last days.

Therefore, a person who wants to believe in Jesus but be comfortable at the same time can be a messenger for Jesus, but can never be his friend. Moreover, even if a person believes in Jesus, if he does not know his shimjung, he can be Jesus' friend but never his bride. Both God and Jesus want a bride, not a messenger or friend.

The Person Who Can Survive the Last Days

Jesus cried out to God after fulfilling the qualification to become the substantial being who has gone through the ideology of creation by loving God and humankind more than any other person in history. There was an instant when God forgot the dignity and position of being the Creator and clung to Jesus. No one knows this. Furthermore, God confronted Jesus with a shimjung of wanting to raise him to a position even higher than Himself, the Creator. Nobody knows this either.

Jesus was rejected and driven out by the chosen people, but because he knew the shimjung of God, who had persevered for 4,000 years, he had to endure. In addition, Jesus knew that God had sacrificed everything in the 4,000 years of history to find one son. Therefore, Jesus realized that to find a bride, he also had to endure his hardships, no matter what kind of sacrifice and rejection came upon him. Therefore, he did not curse the people who confronted him as if he were their enemy.

Mary Magdalene knew at least a little bit of Jesus' shimjung. However, when she tried to touch the resurrected Jesus, he told her not to. This meant that as long as the person who has the qualification of being a bride does not appear, attending Jesus on earth completely, the shimjungs of Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God's sorrow cannot be dissolved.

Therefore, in the last days you must find one being who appears in substance representing God. You must love him more than any other person, and you must be able to be his substitute. Furthermore, there must appear a church where those kinds of people are gathered and a nation. This church, this nation and humankind should be fulfilled centering on the heart of God. Yet as long as the people of today do not feel the heart of God, they will not survive the last days.

At this time you should realize that you are a historical sinner. You should know about and pray about yourself before slandering and criticizing others. You should think of and pray for the nation and humankind. Subsequently, when you confront humankind, which has to fulfill the world of God's ideology of creation, humankind will infinitely welcome you. When you confront all things, they will know that you have sacrificed and have been rejected and will comfort and welcome you. Moreover, when these people appear in front of God, He will wipe away their tears and comfort them. Only these people will survive the last days. God, Jesus and all things long for these people.

January 13, 2020

Michael Mickler

16. The Forsaken Jesus

January 13, 2020

Michael Mickler

The Forsaken Jesus

I Peter 2:1-10

Former Headquarters Church

Seoul, Korea

June 22, 1958

These Bible verses metaphorically describe Jesus as a stone. They also describe how the stone which the builders rejected became a cornerstone. We can see that this situation was not recognized by Jesus family, his religious order, the Israelites nor even his own beloved three disciples.

God drew out the chosen people from among their enemies. He raised them for salvation. Through this people, He tried to accomplish His great will. However, although the Israelites saw this will of God from the viewpoint of an ideology or history, they still could not live up to that will.

To seek one person of hope, God came through a toilsome course. God toiled so that each individual might experience His will. In other words, through 4,000 years of toil, God had reached as far as the realm of life. However, though the people had longed for the Messiah to come in their minds, when the Messiah actually came, no one welcomed him. There was no one who understood.

Throughout her life, Anna had eagerly waited for the Messiah to come. She did not leave the holy temple, and she fasted. However, when the Messiah actually appeared, because she could not attend him even after bearing witness to him, she too finished distanced from the will of Heaven. This was Heaven's sorrow.

Jesus came as the fruit of God's providential dispensation of 4,000 years. If Jesus' parents or relatives at that time had known Jesus was the Messiah who was to save their own nation, they would not have allowed Jesus to be born in a stable. Had the chosen people known him to be the Messiah, they would not have let him be harassed from this village to that, during his thirty years of private life as the son of a carpenter and in the course of his three years of public life. When He saw this, God felt sad and so did Jesus himself.

Since Jesus was driven out as a traitor, God's will and the hope that the chosen people had cherished could not connect. God could not form relations with them. Consequently, since the gap between Heaven and the people could not be made up, Jesus could not help worrying again about the eternal connection of the past history of the nation to the present and the future. Because no one knew Jesus, that is, because no one could attend him as the Savior of the nation and the Messiah, among all things of the world of creation and all humankind, no one could form a direct relationship in any way with God.

As Jesus whittled at a piece of wood in his carpentry work, he imagined he was shaving off the sins and blots of the people. His words and deeds and meditations during his life were done as preparation to establish the heavenly ideology centered on goodness. Yet no one understood the situation and heart of Jesus then. For that reason, even if Jesus had wanted to talk, he came to be in a situation where he could not talk openly to anyone. Even his family could not understand his will, and therefore they rejected him. Finally, he left home. At this time, Jesus sought and entered a religious order, but then again, he came to receive rejection from the religion which could not understand God's heart and will. In the end, Jesus came to be driven out as a traitor of that nation, but because he knew that there remained for him the path of Golgotha that is even bigger than the nation, he resolutely determined never to separate from Heaven.

Only those people who form relations with God and the universe will be granted cosmic value and worldwide value. Because Jesus felt that he was connected with his family, the religion, the people, the earthly world, and even the spirit persons in the heavenly world and hell, he was undaunted in spite of the rejection of his family and church. Although the chosen people expected that everything would end due to Jesus being crucified as a traitor, because there was a flame in the remaining set of people, including the twelve disciples, Jesus could work through them. Consequently, Christianity could expand worldwide as it has today.

In the last days, we must above all become the people who comprehend God's mind. Humans have the three elements of intellect, emotion and will. He is left with the mission to attain emotional heavenly compassion based on intellect and will. Because the love of God flows, and there is a heavenly providence concerning us, an ardent passion and loyalty and piety toward Heaven must flow more strongly from the heart of the Korean people than any other race.

We do not need any leader to know God's heart and truths. At the time of his crucifixion, Jesus cried out, "Why have You forsaken me?" Due to this one word, you must realize that a new point of transition in history began to develop.

After Jesus' death, the whole universe was mobilized by several women who could share his blood and flesh as their momentum. For that reason, we can see that although the Korean people do not have anything, we can and should own the core of God's deep heart. Even if the Korean people are deprived of everything, we must become the people who do not lose the heart of God. By doing, so, if this nation becomes the altar of spraying blood for the sake of Heaven and earth, and if we can cry for the sorrow of all humankind and all things in Heaven and on earth, there is a way to live here.

God is a Being who sheds tears even as He lifts the whip in a rage and strikes. He who delights in seeing this will fall victim to the condition of judgment. Therefore, you must now find Jesus again whom you abandoned in the past and become his friend. Only then will you be able to stand as the bride before Jesus who comes again.