The Path of Faith Which Should be Examined Carefully - Matthew 11:1-30
April 12, 1959, Former Church Headquarters
Prayer
Although we are unworthy, we have missed Your holy image and have come back to You and prostrated our minds and bodies. Please accept us with the grace of sympathy. You have loved hundreds of thousands of times and have endured endlessly. Father, You who have never abandoned us and never ceased to guide us with love! Although we are not satisfactory for the will and Your standard, please treat us with a sympathetic heart. Since we still have a fervent desire to turn away from the troublesome world and go to Your world of shimjung, we eagerly hope and desire that upon seeing such a heart in us, You will give us sympathetic love; You will bear with us and come to us.
The place where we receive Your love is the place for which all creation longs, the place for which innumerable people yearned in the past, and the place that the people of the present and future should desire. Please guide us to think about this. Please guide us to feel at this time that the more we try to be embraced in Your loving heart, the more attention we will receive from all things. Father, we ardently hope and desire this.
Give us now the heart to call You "our Father" and to see that You have toiled for us and are in sorrow because of us. Allow us to appear as zealous sons and daughters who can be moved by such a heart and embrace You, calling You "Father."
We know that the one who seeks You with an ardent heart and who worries about Your situation will not be forsaken by You. Please allow our hearts to run toward You and our bodies to rush into Your embrace. Father, we sincerely hope and desire that You fill our bodies and minds so that we can rise above the sinful history of anger, sorrow and lamentation. Spur us on in body and mind.
Since we are weak and cannot walk confidently to You, we would like You to stand as the master of our faith. The earth is turbulent, and the thorny road remains to be traveled. Although we are exhausted, we would like You to come to us in strength.
We did not realize how often You were frustrated by us; nor did we know that when we thwarted Your worries, hard work, and hopes, You were shocked again and had to turn back. Help us understand that Your hope is greater than ours. My Father, we truly hope and desire that we will not forget that You want us to be strong when we are weak and that You are looking for sturdy souls for Your providence.
Our minds long for Your character; our bodies desire to behold Your form. Our hands want to grasp Your hands and body. Since we know that it is Your main hope to meet true sons and daughters who can sing with Your love, guide this time so that at least our hearts can be seized by such a shimjung. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.
We are stained by sin today, wallowing in the darkness. Thus far, our feelings and five senses have been busy crying out for our sadness, unable to feel Your sorrows and sighs. We have been ignorant of Your grieved heart. As we have nothing to show You, at least grant us the heart to feel remorse over this.
We know that only when grief explodes in our hearts to reprimand our misguided past selves and our deficient present selves will You hold us, see us, and embrace us. Father, allow us to possess such a heart. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that such a passion will appear in us that we can be consumed with shimjung; we can discern our lack of qualifications and dedicate ourselves wholly to You.
Father, please have pity on these shameful children here. We know that the time has come when we should forget what we used to know, when we should deny our self-serving excuses and be reborn. We know that no historical sorrows will be resolved without indemnity conditions.
Please help us realize that a time will come when we will stand in the positions of Cain and Abel before Your ideal. Help us see that the nearer the historical time of the end draws, when the body rebukes the mind and the mind succumbs to the body, the nearer the time comes before our very eyes when we can rise by connecting from the individual to the family, the church, the society, and the world.
Aware as we are of our ancestors who did not know the time and who created a mournful history, we are still in a position in which we may be easily used as a tool for maintaining the evil history. We know that we have very little to be used in building goodness. Allow us the heart by which we can shut our mouths, even when we want to talk; we can endure before disagreeable sights, and we can plug our ears when we hear objectionable things.
Our minds, which should be oriented toward Heaven, are wandering in confusion, and our bodies cannot find a place to stay. Yet we know that You will not forsake us but will lead us to Your bosom with the hand of grace. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will arouse in us the heart by which we can prostrate ourselves before You and plead with You.
Make us the people who can wail about themselves, afraid of lacking shimjung and becoming traitors toward Heaven and deepen the age-old sorrow. We must grieve over our hearts, more than over our brothers and sisters. The desire to help them lest they fall into a sad situation like ours must spring up from our hearts or else we cannot go over the last hill. We know this, so Father, at this time please admonish the hearts of the beloved brothers and sisters.
We eagerly hope and desire that You will guide us to see that now is the time when we should realize the purpose and hopes of the providence, as it has been restoring us. This is a time to analyze, plan and keep what we want to establish and to make a determination before You. Father, on this holy day, bless the countless numbers of humankind and Your sons and daughters gathered here.
Although there are many sons and daughters who call You Father, true sons and daughters are extremely few. Who can stop this sorrow and console Your grief? We know that there is no one on earth. We know that the moment must come in the last age of history and on the final day of hope when the true sons and daughters, with such an ideal and connection to Your shimjung, can go to You and be embraced by You and boast of themselves, representing the cosmos.
Father, guide Your sons and daughters here to reflect upon for whose sake they are here, to serve whom. Let them thus abandon their frivolous attitudes and become meek and humble before Your loneliness. We eagerly pray that at this time we can feel Your core sorrow and experience Your troubled heart so that we can console You and call out for You.
Many brothers and sisters are scattered around the country at this time, kneeling down and praying before You. Father, You know their situations. Please do not forsake them. Become their master and protector. Please share all their worries and console them, making this hour a time of joy in which to sing of Your glory. As these unworthy souls attempt to bow down to You, directly consecrate us and keep Satan away from the beginning to the end. We pray this in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Prayer
Father, although our path is rugged, we see that the day of hope when we can meet a heavenly person by following this way is not far off. Although our legs are tired from walking this road, we see that this is the inevitable course of life because You have traveled it.
We have realized that when the eager heart that can call out for You arises in us, You are there, looking at us with greater desperation. We realize that the footsteps which follow Your voice are not easy, leading us to walk an unknown course, groping our way step by step.
We cannot help lamenting for not having become loyal sacrifices before the will due to our shortcomings. We cannot help sighing whenever we look back on the sad history wherein we failed to end suffering and bring joy to You. Please forgive our past defects as we prayed for blessing in such a state.
Father, if there are sons and daughters who can see Your desire to regain humankind and Your disappointments, they cannot wish for their own good fortune and insist upon their opinions before You. Please forgive us, the disloyal children who forgot Your historical sorrow tens of thousands of times.
A new history will begin and hope will be fulfilled the moment we can call out for You out of shimjung. Heaven and earth will rejoice; we will become one with You. Therefore, we cannot help feeling frustrated and remorseful over the fact that the base of our heart is not in a position to be seized by such a shimjung.
Father, look with sympathy upon these people here calling out for You. If they have been loyal to You, You will not forget them, nor will You remain unaware of someone being mistreated for Your sake. Father, help us not to forget that although we may have inflicted You with worries, You have never given us any troubles.
How can any sorrow on the earth be greater than the one You feel as You console a sad person? How can any pain on earth be greater than the one You feel as You give solace to someone who betrayed You and fell into suffering?
We have heard that, without standing upon Your dignity and authority, You have been hopefully coming to numerous good ancestors of ours throughout history, crying out and pleading with them to understand Your shimjung and situation. We, however, have prostrated ourselves before You as ones who cannot represent history and who have no means with which to praise the historical substance as goodness itself. Help us to confess our shame at this time and to realize how we have been abused by Satan.
Since there are many disloyal people and no loyal ones for the providence, You are worried today and tomorrow, unable to share Your providential heart. Father, we eagerly hope and pray that we will come to realize Your situation at this time. As we have prostrated ourselves here, please enable us to think about where our hearts are. Are our hearts not running toward emptiness, although You want us to move on the foundation of the heavenly will and shimjung? Do we not remain in a position of sorrow, lacking purpose and direction? Are we in a position to receive the lash of Your worry? Please lead us to repent.
Please enable us to declare that we are moving toward the garden of goodness, fighting for the sake of the mission. Enable us to realize that we are the ones You are trying to find, and to show You clearly that we are trying to be found by You. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that this will become a time when we can make the determination and consecrate ourselves.
Please gather in the scattered hearts and recreate them so that they long for the original hometown. Before inheriting Your blessing, we would like to inherit Your sorrow and become heroes of sorrow, making the determination to come forward to serve You.
Father, You have driven us to a place where we face denial by others, a place we dislike. We see that You were the one who started the work of goodness and You are the one who will complete it. We know that without connecting to Your will the providence for which You called and gathered us cannot be fulfilled. We ardently desire to be water, fire, oil and a humble sacrifice every day in sight of the will.
We know that we should become oil and fire to burn away the evil world and that we should be meek and humble before goodness. Since You restore us through such laws, Jesus taught that those who seek to be exalted will be debased, and those who seek to become debased will become exalted, upholding the heavenly way with sacrifice, service, meekness and humility.
Let the heart arise in each of us through which we can be deeply moved by the center. Let us realize our shortcomings, become infinitely humble before You, and offer all that we have as a sacrifice. Let this heart extend and reach the heavenly heart. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.
Countless people are wandering, not knowing the time. Please guide the course of their fate. Please have pity on the thirty million people who boast of a five-thousand-year history but who are in misery. We know that the course of this people has been a blood-stained one, and they are a pitiful people who have been fighting against those who hinder the march of goodness.
Having established such a people, Heaven has foretold the providential will to them and told them the time of the providence. Father, who has told them about the one center! Please give guidance so that Your ever-increasing sorrow can be lessened through this people. If they do not have the condition for this, we who have realized the will and shimjung first can hold Your heart and suppress Your sorrow.
Let our hearts run toward You tirelessly now. With the heart that misses You and desires to hold You, a child-like heart, let us love You infinitely. Please remove from us all ideologies, concepts and consciousness that are colored by evil.
Let the original mind and original nature appear at this time so that the original image can be revealed. Please make us people who can bring pleasure to You, people whom You can embrace again and show proudly to the whole cosmos and Satan. Beyond that, help us to bow down our heads before You.
When You look for such an image in the last days, although we only have small and flimsy voices, we should be able to say, "Father, You came to us with the sorrow of all people. Here are the unworthy people. Have pity on us." Please allow us to feel our shortcomings and examine ourselves, repenting for our unworthiness. We cannot answer Your call and cannot raise our faces.
Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You allow us to become pioneers of the heavenly way and to fight sternly against all those who bring down the dignity of the heavenly soldiers, with our heart toward You and with anger and impatience against the unjust. Let us do all this, even though we may have to be sacrificed.
Please allow this to be a time when we can serve You. Bless with equal grace those who are praying with lonely hearts. Please rule over everything from beginning to end. Let us experience Your deep, broad and lofty holy image surrounded by saints and angels beyond number. Please allow us to see You with our eyes and to hear You with our ears. Allow the Holy Spirit to appear in substance. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Prayer
We have learned from the word how painful a sorrow is that has left a nail hole in the heart. As we read the word, we feel ashamed and yearn for the anxious image of Jesus. Allow us to be able to sympathize with the sad life of Jesus, who did not even have one friend who could cry with him. We know that no one has experienced the heart of Jesus as he looked upon the humanistic disciples and the tragic reality of the human world.
Father, what was the hope of John the Baptist as he practiced asceticism in the wilderness, surviving on grasshoppers and wild honey? His entire hope and the center of his heart were to receive the coming Messiah. After witnessing to the Messiah, he received the heavenly mandate to become one with him. John the Baptist should have said, "He is in my heart and I am in him; his heart is my heart, and his life is my life." In other words, they should have become one, with Jesus wholly reflected in the heart of John the Baptist.
John did not succeed in this, however. From the misery of prison, John the Baptist sent his disciples to the Messiah and asked, "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?" (Matthew 11:3) even after having witnessed to him as the son of Heaven with his hands uplifted before the multitude. This was a historical tragedy and a sorrowful scene God could not forget.
The course of John the Baptist remains in the flow of history. As we struggle to find a new ideal and prepare ourselves for the new history, enable us to put ourselves in the position of John the Baptist. We have learned that throughout history, people chosen by Heaven rejected the heavenly will. Today we eagerly hope and desire that You will not let us repeat the historical errors or lose the will for which You prepared them in the wilderness.
Today Your beloved sons and daughters have gathered here. Please open their hearts now, and let them realize that they have nothing to show in sight of You. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You allow our minds and bodies to be prepared so that we can hear Your words of admonition, inherit the sorrowful heart of Jesus, and receive the new unknown hero of the ideal with a heavenly heart.
Father, we eagerly hope and desire that, at this time, we will become powerfully seized by a woeful heart, worrying who will be the hero to protect this age and which nation will remain, yearning for both. As we live our lives, responding to and going along with the words and voices we hear, now is the time for us to re-examine our path and come to a new awakening.
Help us to escape from worrying about ourselves, deciding between life and death in chaos and confusion. We know that this is an untrustworthy society and world and that now is the time when we should awaken, hold onto Heaven by recognizing ourselves, and transform our hearts to be immersed in the trustworthy world of the ideal.
Please let us pursue a new self. Bearing in mind that we are in such a situation, let us overcome the hills of sorrow and receive the images of joy.
Let us long for and harmonize with that world. Give us the strength and courage with which we can fight, feeling woe for the present grief-stricken society with its lack of freedom. If there is an eternal and absolute Heaven, we eagerly request that You will give us the ability to push away all evil.
When Moses was driving the sheep in the wilderness of Midian, although his hands held a mere stick, he was carrying the new determination, hope and ideal which were to decide the fate of the Israelites. This was the single-mindedness of Moses, who lived in the wilderness for forty years with such a hope and ideal.
As we are in the place where we can hear the word and meet the one for whom we have hoped, we know that our appearance before him should be new. We know Your word, "I am in you, and you in me." Knowing this, we eagerly hope and desire that at this time we can say, "We entrust everything to You. Please recreate us, and use us as a sacrifice according to Your pleasure."
Father, I do not want to say anything. I have to open my mouth, however, because You have allowed this time for speech. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that at this time we will be surrounded only with the loving heart that longs to see Your image and desperately desires to be near You and live with You so that the glory of re-creation can be revealed.
Please lead us all so that we can start with the one and end with the one, and prevent Satan from infiltrating at this time. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.
We live our lives today led by the heart, by our situations, or by some hope. We know that as worldly life is, so is the way of Heaven. If we acknowledge that we cannot leave this position, we cannot deny that our lives do not start with our individual selves. We should consider how our social circumstances and courses of faith undergo gradual changes under a certain plan of the whole, proceeding toward a certain purpose.
The Reality of Fallen Life
If there is someone who can claim to have succeeded in life and who is proud before the providence, we can surely see that he is not someone who lives in the present world of chaos. No such person has appeared in history and certainly no such a one has ruled history. We yearn to find such a self in our hearts, and we pursue it repeatedly through ideologies and the vicissitudes of life.
A family should form centering on such an individual. Centering on such a family, a society should form that can exalt and bear witness to Heaven. Centering on such a society, a state and world should form. We know that history has been flowing, searching for an individual who can say, "Father, look at me. Father, hold on to me. Look at me and forget all the historical sorrow."
Owing to the human fall, "I" have not achieved the hoped-for self, struggling on a mysterious path in lamentation and frustration. Moreover, we are grieved, wondering by what means we can hasten such a self into being and thereby transform the society, country and world in which we live. We should never forget that humans are fighting today and will fight tomorrow, this year, and in coming years for the sake of the moment when the self that betrayed the hope can determine and find the long sought after self, proudly showing it to all things and proclaiming ownership. Considering such a destiny, we must know how big a responsibility we carry.
When Adam and Eve were growing up in God's bosom, they had confidence in everything. After violating the heavenly law, however, their confidence vanished. We should look at the tragic and intricate details here. God, who could not give up humankind, presented a movement to restore them because He took responsibility for having created them. This was a religious movement.
The Correct Attitude of Life in the Time of the Second Coming
Although human beings fell, the law created by God as the ideal of creation and freedom, with which we can boast of the original self, has remained unchanged deep in God's heart from before the creation. No one, however, has explained God's heart. No one has proclaimed God's ideal.
If Heaven exists for the sake of humankind and people are created for the sake of Heaven, the world of the ideal where God and original humanity can live, which has been hidden in the heart of God, must necessarily appear. We know from history that rather than walking a normal path, God has been going through a course of twists and turns for the sake of fallen people. The Bible tells us that God has been following a complicated course since the time of Cain and Abel.
The flow of history will run toward the one ideal world in the end, and God will surely drive people toward it. It is certain that the human conscience is prompting us to run to that world in haste today and again tomorrow. No one can deny this. We should recognize that the moment God's and our ideal meet is the moment of humanity's hope and the purpose of God's providence.
Heaven foretold the last days to religious people, especially Christians. He told them that this was the day of the Second Coming and that the hero of this day would be the Lord of the Second Coming. Thus, we cannot deny that this day is the point of the final settlement of God and humanity's hope.
In what kind of shape should we be? The problem comes down to this: how should we be? Hitherto, there has been no logic, no religion to truly teach us this, no one to bring our hearts into order. Such is the human situation. Our hearts are changing every moment. Social life and ideologies and philosophies change according to the time and place. Considering that faith is a process of finding the absolute and eternal self that can stand as a representative of the entire ideal, it is important for everyone to worry about what kind of heart to have, what road to take, and what to organize and establish in this extremely complicated world.
The problem is where your eyes are directed in the present moment when we cannot tell where the awaited sun will rise. We should align our minds and bodies carefully, with all our efforts, in the direction of the sunrise.
We must proceed, examining it carefully, because the destiny of humankind should be concluded on such a path. We are living a life of faith within the confines of such a relationship. That is why the title of my speech is "The Path of Faith which Should be Examined Carefully."
The Self which Should be Absolutely Denied
Do you have a self? Can you claim that with confidence? If you have a self, what has the self gone through? Can it go through the individual and environment? Can it go through the society, country and world? Furthermore, can the self go through the way of Heaven, if there is such a way? Unless you can respond with confidence, you should deny yourselves absolutely.
Since this is the situation of humankind, you should wander in search of the direction of the heavenly way, how its settling point will manifest itself. The heart to do this should be more intense in you than anything else you claim or have confidence or in which you take pride. The more one boasts of oneself and moves in a self-centered direction without realizing this, the more he will appear to be a traitor of history in the last days.
We are unworthy. We are driven around and swept up by our situations. Can we then confidently ask the heavenly way to support us? No. We cannot have such confidence. Our ancestors also tried to find Heaven with steps that lacked confidence. We know that for this reason, whenever they followed God's orders, they were careful in each step, in every day's life, and in every night's sleep. If one cannot live like this, it is possible that in the final moment he will end up steering away from the heavenly will although he has served it, and will end up turning the will over to the satanic world.
Since the family, nation, state and world have no confidence, none can claim to be unchanging before the heavenly way. Since we are in such a situation, we should be careful in our daily life, in our yearly life, and throughout our whole lives. We should walk, realizing that the movement toward goodness consists of taking such careful steps.
History is progressing from the individual to the clan to the tribe, the nation, the state, and the world. The numerous clans in the past had their ideals and opinions. When the age changed from that of the clan to that of the nation, however, all the philosophies of the clan age were subsumed by those of the national age; the philosophies of the national age were subsumed by those of the age of the state; those of the state age were subsumed by those of the worldwide age. Those of the worldwide age will be subsumed by those of the heavenly way. We should know that history has been moving toward the single point of unity in this way.
As we cannot deny this fact, the problem is in what position I am living, moving and standing today. If the place where you stand now is the point of the final settlement, the problem is simple. If a task of history remains that calls for another transformation, however, you will only stay in the middle without arriving at the final destination of the historical, providential ideal of faith.
The People Who Can Establish the World of God's Ideal
Since Heaven has an inseparable tie with human beings, He has not abandoned them and has been moving history for their sake. He gave a new ideology in each new age. When the clan age turned into the tribal age, He provided the ideology that enabled this passage. An ideology far beyond the tribal level would be impossible for a clan to follow; therefore, He gave an ideology just one step in advance, within the limits of their consciences. Whether we study the history of faith or the history of humankind, we cannot deny that God gave the tribal ideology in the clan age, the national ideology in the tribal age, and the worldwide ideology in the national age.
What will remain in the course of history? The clan that can hold onto the heavenly way and go through the transition from the clan age to the tribal age will remain. The tribe of people who can go forth for the ideology of the state when the heavenly way indicates for them to do so, and for the worldwide ideology beyond that, will remain. Such people will remain in the end, building and ruling the world. Only when we complete these clans, tribes, nations, states and world can we stand as historical victors.
There should be a tribe that seeks to find such an ideology and serve such a providential will. There should be a nation struggling to serve the providential will. That is why Christianity and Judaism came into being. Herein lies the reason Jesus insisted upon a unified family, state and ideology.
Who is Jesus? He came as a hero of the original nature, the substantial being who embodied the heavenly ideology for the first time. He perfected the ideology through which to live with God eternally. He is a leader for humankind as a whole, a father for each one of us, and a bridegroom from the standpoint of regaining the original world of the ideal of creation. This is what Jesus left behind.
What kind of ideology will be upheld when the world, garden and country of one ideology are realized? It will be an ideology that is unchanged, even by historical transformation and revolution. It will be an ideology of love, parental love, for instance. shimjung, through which parents relate to children, never changes. Revolution cannot exist in the world where people are closely bonded centering on the unchanging love of God, where loving feelings come first wherever one goes. It is the world where God's shimjung is revealed through everyone's lives. It is the world where everyone experiences the shimjung through which God thinks of all people as His children. Thus, it is the world where everyone must inevitably think of one another as brothers and sisters. Such a world is the final destiny to which human beings should find and go. When Jesus came, he called God Father, and himself a bridegroom. Having uplifted us, he called us brothers and sisters. This is a word of grace for which to be truly thankful.
Jesus did not come to this earth simply as an individual. He was the person whom God had promised to send through the numerous saints during the prior four thousand years. Jesus came on the basis of the heavenly way and the will of providential history to bring human history into order. This is why the world has been moving centering on him and why his name remains to this day.
The Hero of History Who Must Appear in This Age
What kind of age is the present one? It is the age when good and evil are intersecting, merging into the good. What will happen as we find ourselves in this age? What kind of world will come into being when good and evil cross each other and merge into one? What kind of world will come after this world passes? These are curious problems. Conscientious young men and women today should pause and understand the existence of Heaven, the hopes of all things of the earth, and that they themselves, and not the world, are the locus of hope.
God has been working to solve these problems for us. If Adam and Eve had not committed sin in sight of God and had not gone the sorrowful course of the fall, Adam would have been serving God's will even now, after six thousand years. Have you ever thought about this? If Adam had received God's blessing, served God's will, took the responsibility for God's providence and lived with God, we would have avoided the tragedies of the murder of countless saints, ancestors, and people of goodness.
For what do we hope and long? What are we trying to find? It is the character that is not fallen, that can remain eternally in history, the one that can make order of history and establish the ideal of goodness. If such a character appears in the last days, we will not lament. We will not despair.
About what should we lament and despair? We should lament over the fact that there is no hero of history who can stand in front of the will. Since the purpose of history is to find this historical hero, we are walking this path again at this time, unable to stop even if we fall here and there.
There is something for which the whole of humankind today must plead. It is expressed in the question, "Where is the hero of history, the age, and the future?" We should be eagerly awaiting this hero. History has already passed. When will the hero come? If there were no heavenly way, the hero would not come to humankind. Since there is, however, he will certainly appear one day. You should learn in what form he will come.
Although the hero came in the past, he was not recognized. Today, inasmuch as you know that there is the heavenly providence to bring the heavenly will to completion, you should think about who this hero of the age might be. If you do not have the confidence to become the hero, you should at least be able to bow your heads and make a determination to act to find him.
The hero we demand is not simply a hero for this age but also for the future. For this reason, in today's Christian thought, we should be thankful for the idea of the Second Coming. Humankind needs Jesus because he will come as the hero of the future, after having come as the historical leader representing the four thousand years and the age. Humankind needs the returning Jesus because he can take the responsibility of being the hero. He is needed by humankind. No one can deny this.
What should you do, having arrived at the last days? You yourselves should become heroes of this age and of the future. You must prepare for this. You should not forget that this is the final and central question facing people who are going toward Heaven.
If you cannot clarify this and assert this ideology, you will be swept up by a certain flow. You should know that unless you have the confidence to prevent this sweeping up and wait for something new, you will become the tribe of a fallen nation who must retreat before the final judgment.
Unchanging in a World of Change
This world must change. It should change on a great scale. Can you go without changing in such a world? You should become selves who do not change in a changing world. What, then, do you have to do? The solution to this must be provided by religion and truth.
History has been, is and will be progressing toward one purpose. The human mind, however, is changing. Your mind changes many times even in one day. The ideology you uphold also changes several times in your lifetime. We should feel in our daily lives that we are people of viciousness, descendants of the fall, the betrayal of Heaven.
The time has come to shout aloud, baring our chests and lamenting the sorrow of the cosmos, wondering whether there is a religion or leader who can stop it. History has been changing in every age and century. In God's history of the providence of six thousand years, there was the age of sacrifice, the age of the law, and the age of faith. There has been the Old Testament and New Testament Ages, and the Completed Testament Age will come. Now the world of the new ideology should come. However, without changing the present world, this world of ideology will not come.
We should know, however, that today we are fruits of historical sorrow, who sleep comfortably even when we change thousands of times a day. No matter how proudly one boasts of his beliefs and justifies himself, it is pride and excuses that will change.
As people, history and the earth change, what heartistic attitude will bring them to order? The only way is to be careful. The only way is to look around carefully. Wherever you go, you should hold your breath and be careful. To go over the age of change, you should have the heart to yearn for the new world and to avoid changing things, proceeding carefully.
The prophets of the past bravely came forward when Heaven called them. However, they all lost when they confronted Satan. Was it not the case? Although they started off with the joy of the heavenly call, when they had to march against Satan to realize the purpose of the call, they all collapsed. We should understand this history of failure.
What Should We See Carefully?
What should we see carefully? We should be able to see carefully that Heaven is making an effort to find humankind, even though we deserve to die thousands of times in the realm of death. We should never forget that when Heaven comes to us in the realm of death, He comes with something more precious than anything in the world. When He saves us from the realm of death, He does so with anguish and a worried heart. Do you understand this? When Heaven claims us away from the realm of death, He is willing to sacrifice everything.
Thus, we should understand the toil, the loving heart, and the path of battle through which He came to find us. Originally, the Father and I were one. Thus, since His heart is my heart and His purpose is my purpose, we should go where He tells us to go. We should go, deeply seized by the heart of taking responsibility. Despite the countless paths of suffering, no matter what walls of the cross lie before us, we should go forward with confidence. With the determination and conviction to rise above all the historical details with conviction and the Father's heart, we will necessarily win.
Only when you have such a soaring shimjung will you be able to reject the world. You must keep the heart that can hold onto the Father's heart of desire to bring the providential will and the historical battle to a conclusion. If it disappears from you people of faith, you will change along with history.
The Book of Revelation tells us not to lose our first love. Our first love cannot be exchanged even with life. You should cherish what Heaven gave you as the most precious thing in your life. You should feel its value at a higher level than the present conceptual one. The one who feels that this grace cannot be changed for anything in the world, even if he has to die tens of millions of times, can possess the great works of God because he stays within God's shimjung and love.
For what should we be carefully looking? When has Heaven given us precious gifts? Looking back upon history, our ancestors were historical gifts. Jesus, who came two thousand years ago, was a gift of love for humankind. The moment we wail loudly with gratitude for such a history, our hearts will connect with Heaven. Heaven's work of re-creation will begin based upon this shimjung.
Only the one who is consumed with such a shimjung and who has the confidence that nothing can suppress his passion can appear as the greatest winner in the real course of history. Jesus was such a person. God has come to us and sacrificed for us countless times. Have you ever thought about the grace that we can never repay? We should admit being historical traitors. Lamenting over being sinners, we should at least repent.
You members of the Unification Church are here to follow the path that others refuse. I would like to ask you why you have come here. We should be grateful, representing our ancestors even when Satan takes away all that we have. We must have an unchanging heart which says, "I can never forget the heavenly grace which protects me and worries about my work," even when everything is sacrificed and we go to death. Only then can we remain until the day when the ideal of unification is accomplished.
If such a shimjung does not sprout in your hearts, and if feelings toward the world of such an ideology do not move in your hearts, what will become of you? Wandering and wandering, in the final moment you will fall into the pit of death, unable to make excuses for yourself. If there is someone who does not know this, he should re-examine things. The attitude of a good person of faith is to examine things carefully in relationship to others. You should have such a heart of careful examination. Without it, one is irresponsible.
History seeks to find a person in charge who is responsible to history, the age, and the future. The saints in the past and our ancestors spoke out for historical responsibility in their ages. This is why their words move our hearts even today, in the final age of history. Their acts invigorate our hearts, and their lives give direction to our own. This cannot be denied.
The Person History Demands
You should look and be careful in your speaking, hearing, seeing and feeling now. How hard have you tried to fulfill the historical responsibility? Have you ever surrendered everything and come forward, disregarding difficulties, anger, being chased away, hunger and death? How careful a heart have you had?
How often have you been overwhelmed by the shimjung that burns with a sense of responsibility, and desired to regain it? How often have you examined whether the heavenly hand was guiding you within your circumstances, reaching out to you, thereby coming to deny your previous position and embarking upon a new reflection? If you have not had such an experience, you should feel that you cannot show your faces.
In the Garden of Eden, the archangel was created first. The archangel had been ruling over the environment. When Adam and Eve appeared, he became an attacker. This was the beginning of history. Human beings, who insisted on habit and tradition in history, always opposed God's way. They never cooperated. As the ancestors are, so are the descendants. Those who were being driven away have been leading history, fighting all the while.
It was thus with Noah as he served Heaven. To those who insisted on the social tradition, he appeared to be a madman. He looked demented, ridiculous and stupid. It was the same with Abraham. He tried to kill Isaac, whom God had blessed him with at the age of one hundred years. It was the same with Moses. Who instigated the people to accuse, betray and drive out the people of mission? They were the ones who clung to the historical traditions. If there is a Heaven, they should receive its judgment. The ideology of restoration is to sever attachment to the historical details, to take off the old clothes of the past, to meet the new morning in the new garden, and to appear in white clothes with new hope.
Since fallen people have come through such a historical course, they have struck out against new theories. Any new opinions or doctrines were attacked. Being struck on the family level is for the mission of the family; being struck on the national level is for the mission of the nation; being struck on the level of the state is for the mission of the state. Being struck by the state and the people of the age is for the ideological mission of that age, state and people.
With the progress of history, democracy and communism are now confronting each other. In the future, a severe battle will occur. Unless this becomes the final point of all history and all problems are solved through this, something new should appear.
What will happen to this new thing? If it comes through religion, it will be smote by religious people; if it comes with responsibility, it will be rejected by the social circumstances. If it comes with a certain ideology, it will be rejected by the ideologies of the world. Later on, it will be expelled by democracy and communism.
Since the present world is fallen, only when something appears that does not bend even under rejection and persecution can this world turn into a new one. We know that something will necessarily appear. We are speaking to introduce such an ideology. We are here to accomplish this purpose and go forward today and again tomorrow, disregarding persecution.
What kind of determination must you make? We must not make a determination for history or the age, nor a momentary determination. We must make a determination for the universe. Heaven, who rules over the universe, will gather those with such a determination. If people gather with a burning ambition, burning with the heavenly ideology, and if they persist without being brought down by the age, they will be able to move the history of a later age.
A New Religion Must Appear
Hitherto, religions have been making proposals. Jesus said, "Let us save the multitude of humankind." Religions have been making proposals to lead humankind to the realm of goodness and to introduce the one world of purpose.
If a new religious ideology appears now, it must save the many great saints who left the earth and even the spirits who betrayed the will and went to hell, as well as the people on earth. A new religion with a new ideology must save all the spirits in heaven, the sinners in hell, and Satan, who betrayed Heaven, not to mention the myriad of people on the earth.
Such a religion must appear. Such a religious ideology must appear, unifying all the religions, kindling fires in the hearts of religious people, inspiring peace and joy in those who do not feel peace and joy. It must help people make a determination and pledge to march toward the new world of the ideal. This new movement should appear on earth.
Have you thought about this? Have you tried to find it? Have you at least imagined it? The purpose of this ideology is to unify everything. It is to unify the earth, to unify the spiritual world if it exists, and to liberate hell, which is consumed with resentment. If it cannot be done directly, a religion should appear with the ideology. Only when a religion with such an ideology appears can the world for which we yearn, the world of goodness, make a relationship with the world of evil.
For what are you looking? You know that the present is the last days. The ideology bearing on the problem of life touches you through one extremely tiny word, one touch of the hand, one footstep, and one symbol. People have forgotten all this.
If you see the world from this standpoint, there is no enemy. When I collide with evil, it spurs me on my way, as does good. From this viewpoint, we should live in such a way that we search and examine things carefully.
Be Children of God Who Have Overcome Everything
Today and again tomorrow, we should have hope toward Heaven and receive a heartistic shock with which we can sever our attachment to sinful reality and the disorderly world and move forward. You should know that whether this shock continues for one day, one year, or for our whole lifetime determines whether you will arrive at the destination for which you long.
Without such a shock, you will be highly anxious. In this age, one can recognize how anxious and fearful one is without knowing quite why. If one has even a small conscience, he will feel driven into anxiety and insecurity. Although many young people feel this, if something that can remove it sprouts forth, the fear and anxiety that have been occupying a person's ground of hope will retreat, and the world of things that square with conscience will appear. Thus, if the heart that carefully searches for this is quickening your walk and your body beyond anxiety and fear, it is not too late. The final point of unity is an earnest shimjung that explodes in my heart and is unaffected by materialistic or humanistic ideologies. It is the shimjung that makes me move to the one place of ideology that remains in the end. In other words, shimjung determines the final me.
The one who holds onto shimjung alone and searches carefully can hear the word, see the vision, and analyze all situations in life. If there is a movement of shimjung such that young men and women search for the new ideology, feeling their own responsibilities and suppressing their anxiety and insecurity, and their voices of outcry are heard, you will be able to all at once feel. through their shimjung, all these historical details and what you have been feeling for a long time.
The master of history, the providence, and the heavenly way is the one who feels this shimjung, awakens himself, and cries out almost unknowingly, "This is the subject of ideology for which Heaven has been looking! This is the true image for which the world has been looking! This is the image that can be presented proudly in sight of Heaven and earth!"
You cannot deny that you cannot stand alone. You cannot deny that we are following the path of life where we must fulfill the responsibility and bring results in the world of relationship.
What happens when we fulfill the responsibility and bring results? You can boast that you are the winner, representing the original human being. At this moment, the world will become yours and so will the universe. God, who has been working for the providence until today, will become your God, and you will become His children, the direct heirs of His work.
What is most important in finding all this is to examine things carefully. I would like you to clearly bear in mind that these things can be accomplished and found through such efforts.
Prayer
We can dare to surmise the hearts of the disciples of Jesus as Peter, James and John said to him, "Teacher, we like being here. So we will build three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." Meanwhile, the heart of Jesus was immersed in sorrow as he waged a showdown battle on the Mount of Transfiguration.
They were ignorant, unable to feel the traces of or see the reality of the world of ideology. Who would not say such a thing where circumstances are unfolding that can more than dominate and encompass the whole universe? Although Peter, James and John knew in their hearts that this was a scene for which they had yearned and wanted to live in, they did not know that it was to be realized after going through a process of reality.
Likewise, Christians around the world yearn for the Kingdom of Heaven in their hearts, but they are oblivious to the fact that a course of battle lies before it can exist. We have the responsibility to awaken these Christians. In this time, history, faith, the human heart, tradition, ideology, and even the heart of love, without which people have sworn to die, are all undergoing changes. Nevertheless, we long for an unchanging ideology, an unchanging image and essence. We yearn for that garden, that world, that sovereignty and leader, that voice, that life, and those circumstances.
Father, please open Your hurting heart. Now, having realized that I am so anxious and narrow today, I yearn to be the self that can go beyond my present one. I hurry on to find the self of tomorrow. Although there may be persecution for the members of the Unification Church, please allow them to use this as a stimulus to push them closer to Your shimjung, rather than as an evil impediment to their progress. Please help them understand that persecution is Your work of connecting the shimjung.
Please guide us to receive Your acknowledgment of us as Your sons by bowing down to You and returning a song of victory to You from the position where heavenly law and the historical course harmonize. You need the sons and daughters who can bring forth such a shimjung that we can share joy with You, and even Satan cannot help smiling with shame before our joy. Please allow us to become Christians in search of this self. Father, we earnestly hope and desire that You allow us to be Unification Church members who come forward as the front-line unit to expedite the coming of such people.
What we have desired has been too small. We thought that what we held dear and valued was the end, but now we have seen that there is infinite love and limitless grace beyond this.
At this time, please let the heart arise in each of the brothers and sisters that deplores the self for having blocked the way of grace before You. Please allow us to be people who, inspired by shimjung and burning with a sense of responsibility, can come joyfully when You call us and go joyfully when You release us. Please allow us to be brave souls of heaven and masters of the heavenly world who can feel as much gratitude for the command as for the voice of invitation and who can march against the enemy camp. We eagerly hope and desire that You will guide us so that we will never lose and retreat, even if we are shot through with arrows and fall. Please help us understand that just as there are moments when we converse with You in happiness, there are also moments when we fall, shedding blood and tears and crying for Your sorrow.
Taking responsibility for the joy, sorrow, fighting and mistreatment, and denying the historical matter before the final judgment, let us say, "Father, please raise Your hand and bless us. Father, please look at me and hold back Your anger. Father, please look at me and endure the suffering and mistreatment. Father, please look at me and end Your toil." Father, we are ashamed and embarrassed, because for six thousand years You have been waiting for such sons and daughters to appear and You have been searching carefully. We have been oblivious to the searching and careful footsteps with which You have been looking for us.
Today we have heard and this time we have understood. We know that You have told us to come to You with care. Father, You came to us with care. We have realized that we betrayed Your hands several times when You were trying to hold us; we forgot Your dignity. Please guide us to stand before You now, to live in connection with You, and follow the path that we should walk carefully for Your sake. After completing this course, we should teach others the direction they can follow carefully. We have such an order from Heaven. Do not let us retreat, shedding tears of grief.
We know that Your heart, which tried to love and bless traitors, holds anger. Father, we sincerely hope and desire that You will guide us. Knowing that there is no one to console the sorrow of the one who will appear in the final day, offering a higher prayer to You than Elijah, we have the earnest heart to go beyond the condition of sadness and support the one.
We miss the time when You used to say to us, "I am here. Come the way I walk," whenever we fell down, exhausted in wandering. You knew that You could not trust and work together with human beings, and You had to worry that discussing things with them would cause delay upon delay.
We know that there is no need for many people at this time. This is a time to go over, a time to clear up everything, a time to conclude everything. It is time to appear as we are. We have seen that this is a path that is impossible to follow for one who complains or who makes excuses. It is a path from which he who sets himself up will retreat. We have seen that since this is the road of the cross which Jesus walked in blood, an extension of Golgotha, we should follow it without complaint, without boasting, while being trampled upon, although we know anger. We are outraged as we think about the heavenly saints who had to walk such a path in the six-thousand-year course of the providence.
We should repent, however, as we realize that Your heart is even more angered. We know that it is the deepest sorrow and an ineffably regrettable situation. Now that our entire hope is Yours, we as a whole are Yours. You are the center of our shimjung and love. We know that the one who cannot feel this is miserable. As for Jesus, it was because he held onto You that he did not fear death even while bleeding on the cross. We yearn for his dashing and composed character that wished a blessing on the enemy. We yearn for that walk. Where is the victorious prince who can laugh at the every day changes in history, daily life, and himself? Father, we yearn for this again and again.
We yearn for the time, world and garden in which the hero of history, the age, and the future can appear as one substantial being and convey Your shimjung to humanity. A people and a church should appear who can call You "Father."
Please allow us to forget everything and prepare ourselves to find it and to fulfill our responsibility with sincere effort. Please allow us to be the children who can run to You to stand before You, disregarding all the sacrifices. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.
Father, what shall we do with the nation of thirty million? What will You do with the 2.7 billion people scattered on the earth? We cannot help worrying about the fate of the nation and feel bitter when seeing that the end of humankind is surrounded by dark clouds.
I have spoken because I know Your sad historical heart, which is impossible not to feel. I must arouse this heart in others by conveying it to them. Please permit me. Loving Father, I eagerly hope and desire that as I convey this sorrowful heart to help the people avoid being disloyal, You will permit me and accept this prayer.
We know that the sorrow of Jesus who died on the cross was historical sorrow. We yearn for him, he who shed blood and tears on Calvary. Now humankind is zealously waiting for someone to appear who can laugh at history and scorn the world as his representative and Your substantial manifestation. We know that You also are waiting for him. We eagerly hope and desire that You will make us the sons and daughters who wander about in search of him, today and again tomorrow, yearning for this being.
Please do not let us stop short on our way and shed tears. Rather, make us the kind of people who desire to go again even after completing the walk, who struggle to possess joy after exhausting the road to be traveled. We have learned that only in this way can we become cornerstones for the wondrous and grand will of the providence. Please move us to this will today and again tomorrow.
Since our destiny is such that today's world and our descendants should be mobilized for the will, please issue commands and lead us. We will go. Father! We sincerely request that You know our hearts that desire to report to You and fulfill our prayers. Please protect us on the remaining path of tribulation. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.