Sun Myung Moon
May 16, 1956
Seoul, Korea
16 Thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same concern I have for you. 17 For Titus not only welcomed our appeal, but he is coming to you with much enthusiasm and on his own initiative. 18 And we are sending along with him the brother who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel. 19 What is more, he was chosen by the churches to accompany us as we carry the offering, which we administer in order to honor the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help. 20 We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. 21 For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man. 22 In addition, we are sending with them our brother who has often proved to us in many ways that he is zealous, and now even more so because of his great confidence in you. 23 As for Titus, he is my partner and co-worker among you; as for our brothers, they are representatives of the churches and an honor to Christ. 24 Therefore show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our pride in you, so that the churches can see it.
II Corinthians 8:16-24
Prayer 1
Beloved Father, on this day You have granted the grace of redemption to all men. Please allow us in this hour not to forget Your bloody trail, in which You left the footprints of toil while passing through the course of history. Let us not forget the footprints of martyrdom left by the saints who walked before us.
Let the bows we offer before You this day and in this hour become an occasion for making a sincere offering in the same manner Abel once made the appeal of his blood sacrifice. Please lead us not to become those who gather centering on the body which will rot away. Allow us to become sanctified so that, just as Abel became a fragrant offering before You and all creation, we can represent the thirty million people of this nation and build the Abel-type altar, even though we are an unworthy group, small in number.
What we sincerely wish, my beloved Father, is that You will lead us to not stand in the position of Cain and brag about ourselves while we are watching Abel shed blood. This I wish and desire most sincerely. Please allow us to become overwhelmed by the heart that faces the heart of Heaven and by the heart of the appeal of the blood. Traces of the blood of goodness still remain on this earth, and since it is blood-stained land that has been bruised by thousands upon thousands of years of lamentation, please allow the emergence of many children who can appear before You as the offering of happiness and who can offer bows of gratitude for this land's sake from among these thirty million people. Please allow many more such children among the 2.4 billion people of humanity.
Beloved Father, I sincerely hope and pray for the appearance of throngs of children everywhere who can demolish the wall of sin and evil that has been built up for countless years and who can create the garden of joy and happiness in order to attend You amid joy and glory. In our lives we have forgotten the fact that there remain traces of Your toilsome efforts made in the attempt to seek me and to raise me up. Please let us not forget that the reason I can live comfortably today and lead our life of faith in peace is not because I am great, but because of the blood-stained, laborious works of numerous saints and sages throughout the course of history leading up to this point and the position I am in today. Father, I wish and pray earnestly that You will raise us up to become children who can bow before You as an offering of humility and docility as one offering to be given, as one offering of happiness.
Father, please wake up this audience which is fast asleep. Please consider with mercy those people who are groping in the darkness without direction. For their sake, please quickly raise up those children whom You are going to raise, and call those children whom You are going to call. Please erect a center who walks toward Heaven and grant that they may quickly become the beloved altar that can represent the whole.
Please let every one of these people reap the victory and lead them to be grateful toward Your holy grace and offer praises while facing the holy light. Beloved Father, I earnestly wish and pray for this. Father, although only a small group of people has gathered here today we plead with You to take charge of us. Please govern us. Please penetrate the center of each individual, and lead us not to be in the position where the center of the heart that we ourselves set, the heart of ego, begins from oneself and ends in oneself. Please lead us not to stand in the position where, based on our own concepts and understanding, we form our own thoughts and are intoxicated with self-satisfaction.
Please lead us to honestly reveal our own concepts and assertions and to become humble and obedient offerings before the parental heart. Beloved Father, from the bottom of my heart, I pray that this can be a moment when we can agree on our own weaknesses in the dignified presence of You, Father, and take out everything that we have and offer it all to You. Father, since You have gathered these people and raised them and have already sounded the alarm bell inside this castle, You must be responsible for the whole. The mission of the whole must be completed and the work of the whole must be taken up, so please allow them to step over and stand above this era. Lead them to become the brave soldiers of Heaven who can stand on the front line and move forward to fight on. Beloved Father, from the bottom of my heart I pray that You will raise them to become the soldiers who can represent the thirty million people. Please raise them to be people who will not appear inadequate even when they stand before thousands of people of faith on this earth or go before the angels in heaven.
During this three-day period, there were many moments when we thought only about ourselves and lived only to love our selves. We have wasted many hours trying to find justification for ourselves. Nonetheless, please forgive us for not having lived in the state that You wish for: forgetting ourselves for the sake of seeking You, for the sake of fulfilling Your wishes, and in order to make manifest Your full value. We feel that we have no other choice but to march forward and make a move.
Do not let those who have been seeking You come with the mentality to just receive blessings and a conceptual attitude of faith here in this hour Do not let them have only the desire to be inspired in their heart. The history of the appeal, "Save me!" has already exceeded 6,000 years, and the time has come when the sound of the tearful prayer, "Please receive me," is to be heard on the earth and to reach up to Heaven. Let this hour be the time when we can pray "Father, please receive me. I give you all that I have, so please receive me."
Please lead us to question ourselves as to whether or not we have become sacrificial offerings who meet Your expectations. Every time we stand before the holy body and presence of Father, let us deeply feel how inadequate and sinful we are so that we can lower our heads and bow before You. Please awaken us to the truth and let our heart of repentance be kindled. Please allow this hour to be an opportunity for us to feel our original nature and the substantial manifestation of goodness, and to bow in subjection to the glory of You, Father.
We know that this is what You wish and that heaven is being mobilized for the sake of this one purpose, so please move the Trinity and let the works of the Holy Spirit take place. Please preside over the whole event by placing it all beneath Your hands. Please lead us not to have concepts and understandings that diverge from the will of Father, and lead us to build the temple of the faithful in which the whole is offered to Father. Father, I pray and wish for this earnestly.
Please bless every place where the lonely crowds make impassioned pleas and wishes toward Heaven at this time. Protect those children who, because they have received the command of Heaven which they cannot but follow have stepped forward with the pledge that they will not hesitate to walk even the road of death, the road of conflict, the road of persecution, the road of tribulation, and the hill of Golgotha.
Those who follow the footsteps of those who have walked a difficult course will also face many hardships, and I know that many wounds are inflicted on them while they are walking that path. Father, we cannot but ask You to bear the responsibility Please accept them as sacrificial offerings in Your stead and bestow on them the blessing of the heart and love of You, Father, which is to be granted in the last days.
Let the work of direct dominion be in each of their hearts so they can be immersed in happiness and feel the joy of You, Father. Please be present everywhere they are so that they will not be fettered by the cross of the environment, and comfort and guide them with Your own bands. Since the end of the road of conflict is near, and the remainder of the hill to be climbed is not so high, Father, I most sincerely pray that Your hands will be with them to directly guide them to smoothly climb over it.
We have joined our hearts and came here longing to see the Father in this hour and wish to have a time of offering a deep bow. I pray in the name of the loving Lord that from the first hour to the last, He may govern the whole meeting with the protection and grace of love, and bless us to become the offerings of grace.
Amen.
Prayer 2
The garden of creation is the garden of goodness, the garden of love, the garden of oneness and the garden of harmony. We know that it is our responsibility to become good in accordance with God's love, and that it is also our responsibility to become one and to be in harmony. Before us remains the children's course in which our daily life has to be good, and we have to be in harmony in regard to this one will. Father! Please command us in this hour again, and guide us to walk this path that You have granted us to the very end. Grant that we may not become exhausted in the fight.
You must hold onto us so that we will not deviate from the standard You wish. Father, because we are fallen descendants, we are powerless and in mourning, so please bring to light the perfection that You have hidden in Heaven. We wish that You may find the value of the beauty of the harmony that You are trying to find. Please reveal the original beauty of the creation so that all things in all of heaven and earth can be in harmony and raise all creations as the one original body that can return glory to the Father through love. Father, I pray for these things with a most earnest heart. We know that the cause of the grievances of Heaven lies in man, and the cause of the grievances of creation also lies in man. The lamentation of many thousands of people lies in Christianity. Therefore, the responsibility to perfect one's self and eliminate the sorrow of the universe lies in these people, Father, so please raise them up and cultivate them to become ones who can perfect the original values. Please advise them.
Please bestow on them the whole ideology of love that You want, and through them, please deal with Father's value of the whole that was lost. Please open the heart You have hidden, and appear before them in order to enable them to consult with You. Loving Father, I earnestly wish and pray for this.
Father! We want to know the whole story about the toilsome work that You have done while gathering this weak group of people. Father! You must appear again and hold tight the wounded hearts, and You must counsel these wounded hearts.
Please allow them to become ones who can take others' place to bear the grievances of a thousand years. In the course that Satan puts them through, there are tests and he initiates conflicts. As they walk the Heavenly path, lead them to become ones who center only on the one who stands straight before the cause of the whole. Please allow this to be the time in which they can become harmonious, centering on the will that the Father has set. I earnestly pray and wish this.
Have our minds become exhausted now? Have our bodies grown weak? Please bestow God's fire of love in our hearts, and to our bodies give the fire of zeal, and please allow our minds and bodies to move. Allow the heavenly soldiers and angels in heaven and all spirits and all existing beings on the earth to move.
Through this, lead us so that by reciprocating with all things, we can restore the one center and be fully qualified to appear before all things as Your sons and daughters. I pray beloved Father, from the bottom of my heart that in this way You will allow us to emerge as the pride before the Father who has been toiling for 6,000 years against countless satans. There are those who are mourning because they are trapped in death and those miserable ones cannot escape sorrow so please hold onto them and grant them the heart with a center that can face the universal laws. Please give them wisdom and keen insight.
The time has come when we have to build the altar of Heaven on behalf of the thirty million people, and the time has come when we have to make the offering of a live animal of goodness. The time has come when we have to join hands and become one group, so Father, please dwell in Your children who have gathered here today and govern over their hearts, govern over their minds, and govern over their whole beings. God of love, God of ability, God of omnipotence, if there remain in them undesirable elements of evil, then please appear with eyes burning with fire and take care of their minds and hearts with Heaven's power of the Holy Spirit and the fire of love. Father, even in this day there are countless children of Yours who do not know the path they should take and wonder because they have not found the path of life. Yet was there anyone who cried out before You for their sake, putting his life on the line and taking responsibility for them? Was there anyone who built an altar of life for their sake and shed tears? If there are such ones, please quickly find them and raise them up, so there will be many children of Yours who would cry out in appeal for others, just as Jesus cried out while looking on the cross of death and as Elijah cried out, "I am the only one that remains."
I pray from the bottom of my heart, Father, that You would allow many altars of accomplishment that can contain the joyful news. Remain with these people, and please allow many more who exert themselves in ardent devotion, so that these people can overcome the tribulations of darkness and become the light of love shining down on all places in the world, moving forward upholding the revealed will of God. Beloved Father, since today in this hour, we have come forth longing for Your blessings, we should first look at ourselves. Our hearts must not become critical. I pray from the bottom of my heart, Father, that You will lead us to eradicate our concepts which we have held until now and that we may only become the sacrifice offered for the sake of the Father's will and remain as one being that can be used. I pray that You can appear in our minds and bodies based on the original beauty and our humble and obedient attitudes. I wish that You may allow the appearance of the Father's works of love in this hour, so that the Father can personally perform the miracle of recreation, centering on us.
Father! These faithful children have come forth up to this hour, persevering through the difficult environment and the path of the cross, so even just for this one hour, please show the Father's will of love which has remained hidden for 6,000 years, and let this hour that we bow before You become a great joy that cannot be traded even for an enormous sum of money. Please lead us to pioneer our lives with the blessing and inspiration we receive today, so that by revealing the great way of the universe, we can become grateful offerings in God's dispensation.
Even if we are at this place, we are ready to run toward that place whenever You call us, so please allow us to become one with the standard that moves the heart of the Father and the standard of Your love. Through Your mind, let goodness be formed in our hearts, and let that goodness become a seed, so that starting from our body a glorious garden of goodness can be created. Let that goodness expand forming a family a church, a society and a nation.
We know that such a responsibility for the whole lies within us, and we know that we have the responsibility to take on the mission of the Father which still remains unfulfilled, and to fight with Satan. Even if we become exhausted, Father, please give us strength. From the bottom of my heart, I wish and pray that even if we fall into a state of weakness, Father, please urge us on. When we fall down, please raise us up and give us direction so that we may continue until the moment when we penetrate the last barrier and lead a victorious group to go before the Father and return the glory of Hosanna.
Father, today, please let the fire of inspiration and the love of the Father fall on the countless altars we are building on behalf of the thirty million people. Even if they are ignorant and cannot understand the dispensation of 6,000 years, please do not let that cause them to become resentful toward the Heavenly altar.
The time has come when the will is about to be fulfilled which Jesus was crying out in tears for while clutching the Temple of Jerusalem. The divine words, in which even a single stone lying on a stone would not be left untouched, is becoming a reality between the churches and denominations of today. Please hold onto these altars, whose reality makes it impossible for their hearts to become one. Lead them to repentance and link them with the life of Heaven. Until they become an altar that can take on the suffering of Jesus' cross and sing praise and glory on behalf of the 6,000-year history, Father, please be with them.
Father, I wish that You would preside over all the ceremonies directly, that You would allow us to build the Father's nation, and that You would raise us to become victorious people of mission whom You can bless. Even in this hour today Satan is committing despicable acts, so Father, please lead us not to become people who collapse because of the adversities. Please stand firmly in the background until the end and lead us to become people who can protect the altar and block the dark arrows of Satan and be grateful even if we become a sacrifice in the process. Father! I pray and wish this from the bottom of my heart.
Father, we will leave in Your hands all that happens in this hour, so please allow us to yearn for You and to yearn for Your love so that we can offer our lives and follow Your path. Please let us not lose the standard that You, Father, expect. Allow the Heavenly will, which penetrates to the end of the sky emerge among men. Please do not castigate our deficiencies, and please appear before us with love like a friend, and as an intimate father and guardian.
We know that because man has lost his original form, in order to raise this one man and find this one man, our Father has struggled and striven for 6,000 years. This being the case, Father, please hold onto our hands and allow us to have a time of inspiration when we can have repentance. Please bestow the blessings that can grab onto us, cling onto our necks, and kiss us on our lips. Please allow us the blessing, for which this unworthy group can thank the Father's love, to reflect upon ourselves and to repent, to be full in our hearts and minds, and above all, in our heads. Those who are participating right now wish that they can appear before the Father with love, so please lead them away from facing accusations. Please lead those who have bowed down here to take responsibility for the fulfillment of Your hopes and not fall before the reproaches and sneers of Satan. Please raise us to be children who will humbly bow before the Father's love till the last moment and, Father, I earnestly pray and hope that You will hold these people tight.
We are praying that the blessing which You have granted will appear in our minds and hearts. I pray in the name of the beloved Lord. Amen.
Prayer 3
Beloved Father! We have just recited the passage that talks about how to raise up Titus as a pioneer, Paul tried to move his heart for a long time. When we learn about Paul's deep, earnest heart toward Heaven, we realize that it is God's work that prevented that heart from fading away and left its traces on the earth to build an altar.
Father! The time has come when we have to look to the new world, jump over all the complex historical barriers, and stand before Heaven for the sake of the new dispensation. Father, please guide us until the day we can eradicate all of our complex past, transcend the complex realities, enter the bosom of love where Heaven can be present, and bow toward the Father in peace.
Whether we live or die, please allow us to become the shield for the 6,000 years of sorrow and restore the glory of the ultimate victory before You. Please allow the joy that comes from that to engulf the whole garden of creation. We pray and wish from the bottom of our hearts that You will allow us to join forces and fulfill the one will with Your help. Today we recognize that the dispensation is our destiny so please allow us to question ourselves and to find an answer within to realize how much we lack. Please allow this hour to be the opportunity when we feel the desire to repent before the Father, and to go near the Father, to rely on You and by exposing ourselves to the Father, receive Your compassion. Please let such a heart be the foundation on which we can be fully recreated based on the holy and flawless image of Jesus. Beloved Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will bless us so that we can entrust everything to Your will, depend on it, and become an obedient sacrifice before You. Please command the children who are sitting here. I know that at such a time there is no need for many words, so please let their hearts be moved by every word. Let them feel it with their bodies, and grant them the blessing of compassion and inspiration that can give them joy. Please have dominion over us with the fire of the Holy Spirit, so that we can feel the Father's inspirations and can move as one for the sake of the dispensation. We pray from the bottom of our hearts that You will grant us a precious environment of harmony in which we can give and receive, and allow us to stand in the place You permit.
Please govern over the time that remains. I pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Adam and Eve should have become God's pride
II Corinthians 8:24: "Therefore show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our pride in you, so that the churches can see it.," I am going to speak on the topic "Jesus Christ, the Pride of God."
God, who created the world, created Adam and Eve as the embodiment of His pride toward all things in heaven and earth. Moreover, He created Adam and Eve to be His pride before the angelic world. When Adam and Eve stood before all the things of the creation, all things were supposed to bow before Adam and Eve.
The garden that was originally created to be like this was destroyed because of the fall of man. In other words, because of the fall, the value of all things could not emerge. Man, who could have emerged as the center of value of the invisible world, lost his qualifications, and man's position as someone who should have appeared before the creation in God's place and have been glorified as the center of harmony was destroyed. This being the case, what is the standard God has been seeking until today, 6,000 years after the fall of man? He has been searching for one representative who can represent His heart, represent His hyung sang, represent the nature of God, and represent all the creations of the universe of which God can be proud.
Moreover, until now, Jesus Christ has been working hard for the sake of the One will. What kind of man was this Jesus Christ, who came 4,000 years after the fall of Adam and Eve? He was the substitute for God's internal heart and external hyung sang. This is the reason God tried to manifest, through Jesus Christ, the "standard of pride" which He has set as the ideal of the creation. This is the original mission Jesus was supposed to carry out. Jesus had a grave responsibility to establish himself as the representative of God's heart and hyung sang in every aspect of his existence and life. This is the way in which Jesus should have emerged as the substantial body of which God can be proud. First, God should have been able to boast to all things, and then to Satan, and then to the countless saints. Moreover, God should have ushered in the day of the restoration of the joy and glory God had wanted to attain centering on Adam and Eve. This was the will of God, who had set up Jesus as the central being.
God had the Israelites build the nation of Israel and sent Jesus Christ, who was supposed to stand before Him. Had the Israelites become one, praised and received Jesus with a heart of gratitude based on the standard of God's pride, the historical sorrow would not have been prolonged as it has been for 6,000 years.
Jesus, the king of faith, who stood high as the pride of God
There was a huge gap between what Jesus saw with his eyes as he emerged as the pride of God and of what the Israelites were proud. In other words, the Israelites, who had been upholding the will of God's dispensation of restoration, were proud of different things than Jesus was in respect to their being the chosen people. Jesus was proud for the sake of the will of God as he championed the will of God's dispensation of restoration. For this reason, the Israelites faced a situation where they were supposed to forsake what they took pride in as a people before the words and actions of Jesus, who took pride in God's will.
Had they given up what they took pride in and bowed before Jesus Christ, who appeared with a new source of pride for the sake of God's will, the difficult path of the cross would not have stood before Jesus Christ. The concept of the way of the cross would not have existed in the history of Christianity. Although salvation would have been based on one's attendance to the words of Jesus, there would not have been such a thing as salvation due to one's faith in the cross.
Today in reverence for the death of Jesus, we believe that the power of redemption lies in the cross, but this is not the whole picture. Christians today miss the point. The power of redemption lies in the words Jesus spoke while he was alive. What we have to understand is that while spiritual redemption is, of course, possible through one's faith in the cross, if people had believed in and lived according to the words Jesus spoke while he was alive, physical and spiritual salvation would have taken place. What must Jesus first take pride in after coming to this earth? Adam and Eve could not substantiate the words of God because of the fall. They failed to believe in His words. Since man fell and the dispensational history was prolonged for 4,000 years because they did not believe in God's words, Jesus as the one center established faith in front of Satan. In other words, Jesus emerged as the king of faith on this earth.
What manner of man was Jesus? What was the standard upon which Jesus could stand tall as the pride of God? Jesus came as the king of faith before humanity who, in the course of the 4,000 years of history was left without even one person who could be trusted to uphold the will of God. For this reason, God was able to boast about the faith of Jesus Christ.
Many people claim to believe in God, but with that general kind of faith, it is impossible to make the internal connection between the high and the low that is built upon the heart of God. What is more, although countless saints and sages have come and gone, based on what they believed and followed, one cannot understand the principles of love that lie deep within God. Furthermore, Jesus tried to take responsibility for the whole process of faith in history which countless saints had walked through, and to single-handedly put an end to the satanic history Jesus, who was the culmination of the 4,000 years of history, came as the center of the universe and the champion of faith.
For the sake of this one standard, God raised Jesus up as the king of faith. Jesus represented the will of God and in God's place taught His words. The words he proclaimed were not the truth of the Old Testament as it stood. His faith was not built on the faith of the Old Testament era. His belief was not limited to the words and prophecies of the past saints and sages. In other words, he did not have the concept of the Messiah that the Israelites believed in, based on the words of the Old Testament.
To explain the nature of the faith Jesus had, he was the representative of the faith that cannot be found in the Old Testament Bible and which did not exist in history leading up to his time. He had a new type of faith, which had not come into existence until that time in any environment in the world. Consequently, the Old Testament history had to recede before Jesus.
What must we understand, we who believe in Jesus Christ, the king of faith in whom God takes pride? We have to understand that if we look at Jesus with some limitation, then we cannot come to grasp the 4,000 years of history before his coming and his thirty years of life; nor can we grasp the eternal value of his life, which will influence the future eternally. Moreover, we have to come to grips with the fact that even if hundreds of millions of people are ignorant of the will of God and stand against it, we should have the standard of faith to say "I will uphold that holy will alone. I will believe what no one else can believe in." Only when this is done can Jesus stand as the Savior and the king of faith before humanity. Did Jesus, whom we believe in today give all the words of truth while he was alive? If he did not, we need the words that the returning Lord will give us. Although Jesus was the king of faith whom God had sought and who could stand at last, 4,000 years after the fall of Adam and Eve, as the source of God's pride before Satan and the world of creation, because of the faithlessness of the Israelites, God had to hand him over to the enemy. Therefore, Jesus Christ is to return with the standard to boast before all the creation and to give new words. As the champion and king of faith, Jesus revealed new words that were not in the Old Testament. Those words have been handed down to us as the words of the New Testament.
Since this era is a new one and a glorious era will come in the near future, we need to have the kind of faith that can be perpetuated in that glorious era. The hope and faith of Jesus Christ were not on the level of the faith man had believed in for 4,000 years. His faith was something that, through his life, reached many generations after him. It reached even to eternity and is the faith that can bring to light the love and goodness that could not emerge then.
Jesus Christ was the king of faith whom history had never seen before and in whom God could take pride. You must also have the same kind of faith as Jesus.
The victorious king Jesus who triumphed over Satan
The reason God could take pride in Jesus was that although countless people had fought with Satan for thousands of years, it was Jesus who was finally able to prevail over him as the victorious king. Accordingly God was proud of Jesus.
For 4,000 years, countless ancestors before us have come to this earth and have fought against Satan. For the sake of God's will to send the Messiah, countless saints fought with Satan. However, they could not subjugate him. Although they fought with Satan for 4,000 years, they could not conquer him and bring him to his knees, but when Jesus Christ came to this earth, he finally conquered Satan and made him submit. With what did Jesus bring Satan to his knees? He subjugated him with Heaven's principle of love. You have to understand this. What we Christians have to understand today is that the only thing that works in subjugating Satan is the principle of love.
What kind of principle is the principle of love? Although many people have passed through the earth, Jesus Christ is the only son whom God deeply loved. Therefore, when we look at the thirty years of Jesus' life, there is not one minute of it that does not manifest his filial piety. His daily life before God was something that could not be taken away even for a moment, at night or in the day for it pleased God's heart completely. His life was such an example of filial piety that when God looked down He would say "On the earth, there is no one else but you alone."
Jesus' singular determination in his heart was such that even if everything in his life was to perish, he was going to live for the sake of God. He had no other desire than to fulfill to the fullest his mission as the Savior of all humankind, even if that meant that his physical body would be neglected. He had no other desire than that which cried out, "Father! With the destruction of my own being, I will become the son of filial devotion, the embodiment of love whom You have sought for 4,000 years and Your beloved son who can return love to You."
For this reason, even if hundreds of millions of people insist that Jesus is not God's son, God cannot agree with that. No one can block the power of the father-son relationship that has come into being as the center of heaven and earth and is linked to the love of God. Even in the lonely place on the hill of Golgotha where Jesus bore the cross. Jesus knew that God's will dwelt in that place and he understood well the Father's heart of love, which had been waiting for 4,000 years.
Thus, as long as the Father's will remains unchanged, Jesus' pride as the son who can receive the love of the Father is eternal. Before all things in creation, God boasted of Jesus Christ as the incarnation of the Father's unchanging love. God boasted before the satanic world.
In the 6,000-year history leading up to today there are many people who have displayed filial piety before their parents. There are many sons and daughters of filial devotion in the bosom of Satan. Nonetheless, in order for God to be able to take pride in Jesus and in order for us to receive God's love as Jesus did, we need to have more value and accomplishment than all the sons and daughters of filial devotion in history within the satanic realm. Only then can God say "This is my beloved son," and then one can become the son of filial devotion who is the only one in heaven and earth representing the Heavenly truth.
When Jesus looked at the multitude from this standard, he was at a loss. Because Jesus' heart was such, he felt that there was a huge gap between his own value and what they valued. Of his own accord, Jesus prayed for their sake before Heaven.
Satan can be destroyed with the power that comes from the parent-child relationship based on God's love. The reason is that the degree to which many people within the satanic sphere follow Satan cannot even approach the standard of Jesus' love and servitude toward God. Wherever Jesus appeared with the love of God, it became a shield that is like an iron fortification. So, wherever followers gather centering on Jesus, they can subjugate Satan.
Jesus could become the pride of God because he combined all the victories and defeats of the ancestors during the 4,000 years and seized the one standard, which he used as his own foundation. What must we think about today? You have to think about how Jesus Christ was able to achieve more victorious accomplishments than all the victories of the saints in the preceding 4,000 years altogether, while humanity has been in conflict with Satan for 6,000 years. Moreover, we should be thinking about how our ancestors were victorious over Satan. We should also be in their shoes and think about it. What is God's dearest wish for the saints on this earth now? It should not just be Jesus who subjugates Satan, but also all the saints of these last days who feel God's love through Jesus' love.
Jesus Christ led a victorious life for thirty years. He avoided that which would not bring victory. Jesus avoided the words that could lead him to failure and could allow Satan to approach. Although he might appear to some as an ordinary young man in a village, once he took responsibility for the whole, his words, deeds and hope could place the whole on the victorious foundation.
You stand today on the victorious foundation that Jesus laid down with so much hard work. You are receiving such blessings from Jesus. Now the question is how you can stand on the victorious foundation that Jesus built on the earth and how you can rise higher. You should understand that Heaven has come down to the earth for your sake, and until you return to Heaven, you should shed tears for the victory.
We should always fill our hearts with God's love. We should feel the love of Jesus and the Holy Spirit and experience the love of Heaven. Although Jesus brought victory on the individual level, because he died on the cross, be laid a victorious foundation only spiritually. We who should consummate the 2,000 years of history must stand on the spiritual foundation of Jesus and, substituting for Jesus' body, lay the victorious physical foundation. What is more, Satan will challenge it when God proclaims to this earth the new words that can complete spiritual salvation and complete the substantial salvation by stepping over the level of the New Testament. We have the responsibility to take charge of this fight and win it.
By what condition was Jesus Christ able to receive the love of God? Jesus could receive God's love because he had become the prince who takes responsibility. From his early youth, Jesus worked as a carpenter in Joseph's house, but he was still trying his best to complete his responsibility. Although he helped with carpentry and contributed to making a living for the family in the house of Joseph, in Jesus' heart, that was only a part of what his life was about. What is more, while he held great dreams in his heart, he simultaneously fulfilled his responsibility even in the small tasks. You should never forget that this is the kind of man Jesus was.
Jesus is the prince who bore the responsibility for the hope of the whole
The whole life of Jesus was spent fulfilling his responsibility and mission. On the earth, he completed the responsibility that will last for eternity. The thirty years of Jesus' life secured on the earth the eternal and unchanging accomplishment of having completed his responsibility. Therefore, as long as the words of faith of Jesus Christ remain, his life will never be forgotten.
Jesus took responsibility for the historical dimension, not to mention for his own generation. Moreover, he also single-handedly took responsibility for the will of God that God had been working to accomplish for thousands of years. Other than Jesus Christ, there was not even one person on this earth who was willing to take responsibility on behalf of God. You have to understand that he alone completed the responsibility.
While Jesus felt lonely about having to be responsible for the hope of the whole, he also felt a greater sense of responsibility. Jesus' daily life was a time of foundation-laying in preparation for the completion of the responsibility for the whole. Moreover, in the thirty-year preparation period, the three-year period of action, and the three-day period of completion, the only thing that occupied Jesus' mind, his only thought, was subjugating Satan and substantiating God's will on that foundation. He led a life in which he felt this responsibility to his bones. There was not a moment when Jesus forgot this responsibility.
Moreover, when he was carrying the cross and walking toward the hill at Golgotha, even at the last moment when all the people mocked him and Satan ridiculed him, Jesus determination to complete the responsibility given to him remained unchanging. Because Jesus passed through the crisis of the crucifixion with this singular determination, he could resurrect. Also, because he still had the responsibility to organize the disciples who remained on the earth, he came back after he went to the heavenly kingdom and, relying on the power of God, performed the miracle of resurrection.
Even after his death, Jesus was concerned about the disciples who had scattered, and even during the three days in the tomb he was determined to protect them for eternity. Consequently he went to the shores of Galilee after his resurrection and searched for them.
We might wonder, from a humanistic perspective today how he could treat them like that when they had no sense of responsibility. Although they had betrayed him when they faced difficulty right after the resurrection, he went to Galilee and started to fulfill his responsibility. The character of Jesus, who raised them up to be unchanging disciples even when he was going over the hill of death, is an admirable character we should learn from today.
That is not all. We should understand that in addition to his disciples at that time, he was taking responsibility for the countless saints who came after him, and for us, 2,000 years later. The history of restoration is the history of the whole. Because God's will is saving the whole, Jesus has taken responsibility for the whole of humanity.
What kind of responsibility is Jesus bearing? Jesus is not bearing the responsibility for worldly things or for leading a good life. He is taking responsibility for our lives. Ladies and gentlemen, although there are many difficult things in this world, there is no other task that is more difficult than this, because he is bearing the responsibility for life and death. The believers of today stand at a crossroads that can lead them either to life or to death. Jesus has the responsibility to pull those who stand on the precarious dividing line, which is like the blade of a knife, over to the life side. Similarly throughout the thirty years of his life when he was entering the road of death and at all times, Jesus had the same unchanging heart. Although human beings might not feel this sense of responsibility and mission, Jesus is at work even now to complete this responsibility, mission and the will of God.
We who must take on the responsibility for the whole
What should we do today to attend this Jesus whom we believe in? We should not push all of the responsibility onto Jesus. What kind of people should we become? Jesus took responsibility for the history of 4,000 years, for the people of that time, and for humanity 2,000 years after that, so we should also take on responsibility. We should not place our responsibility on the shoulders of Jesus. What is more, we should be thinking, Father! I finally understand the tribulations Jesus faced as he bore the responsibility for 2,000 years, and feel grief for Jesus who is bearing responsibility for our sake and for the sake of the world.
Who is responsible for such a situation? It is we, we who are unworthy. Therefore, we should reflect on this and bow our heads down before Jesus. As we call out "Lord!" we should feel a heart that is like the melting of our flesh and bones.
Finally, God was able to hold onto Jesus, who was trying to take responsibility for the dispensation of 4,000 years, and say "You alone are taking on the responsibility that I have to fulfill." This is the reason that God could trust Jesus and entrust everything to him. God could address Jesus from the position of bearing all the burdens of responsibility. Just as Jesus stood tall before God, we have to learn to take on the responsibility for the whole. If the task proves to be difficult, then you should appear before God and Jesus with the mindset, Please give that difficult mission to me, and say to them, "Please reveal through me Your heart's desire; please show it through me."
These kinds of people are the ones who will remain in the end. If such a group of people does not come forward, how will Jesus, the only begotten son of God, realize the goal he has been striving after for the sake of humanity for 2,000 years? If Jesus, the only son of God, who has been putting his life at stake and has been walking the course of responsibility cannot find people who can take responsibility then the time has come when we have to pray "Please allow us to bear the responsibilities of history of the present and the future that Jesus pledged to carry while he was on the cross."
There have been many times in our lives so far when we have tried to shift the burden of responsibility to God. However, from now on, people must emerge who pray 'I will take on the responsibility and fight on behalf of Jesus, who has come to the earth as the king of responsibility representing the aggrieved heart of God over 4,000 years. Even if the enemy Satan and countless people do not welcome it, I will take on the responsibility in his place and fight on." Jesus can rest in the garden of peace only when such people step forward.
In the last days today what we hear are the words, "Who can listen to my appeal for my life?" Nonetheless, who is the one who can listen to the appeal of life Jesus makes, he who inherited the life of God? God is looking for people who can.
Jesus has been praying for humanity from the right hand of God. The reason Jesus could not rest and had to pray until now is not because Jesus made some mistake. Moreover, it is not because Jesus cannot go before God. It is all because of us. Therefore, for the sake of Jesus, who has been working hard for 2,000 years, you should try your best to fulfill the responsibility of life, even if you have to lose your life. Because Jesus passed away on the cross, the responsibility of life remains on the earth. The time that this remaining responsibility of life must be completed is the time of the Second Coming. The time of the Second Coming begins when someone appears who can take on the responsibility of life. Because he is the one who is carrying the responsibility of life in history and in the future, you should join in the final battle and fight on his side.
The beginning of the time of the Second Advent
God wishes to love men by raising them up through the Jesus of faith, and through the Jesus of truth. He truly wants to love you all. When we are told today that we should follow the example of Jesus, at least in our hearts we should be able to say Yes, that is true. If you cannot become such people, then how can Jesus, who could not rest for even a second until now take a rest?
Therefore, you should take on these conditions that God has put forth as His pride. You should establish the conditions that stand as the pride of Jesus who has gone to the spirit world on the earth. By doing so, you will become the ones God can take pride in.
First, you have to be proud of the fact that you believe in things the world cannot believe in. Then you should be proud of the victory won in the fight with Satan. You should be proud of the responsibility that you bear in a world where people avoid responsibility.
On that account, the pride of God should reach all the way down to us through Jesus in the spirit world, and it should even extend down to the creation on the earth through us. Only when that takes place can God fulfill the ideal of creation in which He willed to raise men up as the central figures before the creation and to take pride in them. Finally man and all things can offer bows of gratitude to God, who takes pride in them. Such responsibility of the whole lies on our shoulders.
We who are here today are very unworthy. Our faith is also pathetic. From now on, when men have to fight with Satan, we should pray "Dear Father, please give strength to humanity so that they can fight and win over Satan. Please guide all of humanity so that they can bear the responsibility." Moreover, you should face the enemy of the whole. Fighting alone and prevailing over him, you should be able to say "God, I offer this joy to you." God's suffering and grief will be resolved through people who can show before God that they are taking on all the responsibility of the world and who can proudly show the center that is taking on the responsibility before the many saints and the world of creation. It is through such people that God's will can be realized. You have to understand this clearly. Let us pray.
Prayer
Father! Wherever we look, we find that we are responsible for everything, and when we look at the evil of this world, we realize that the life of Jesus was soaked with unceasing tears. Today we do not feel anything even when we see evil things, and we do not have a heart of grief toward the will of the universe and are unable to feel responsible because we are unrighteous and inferior. We have been people who do not have the desperate and earnest heart to defeat the enemy who could not build achievements in the fight, and could not believe in the almighty God. We have failed to understand Jesus's loyal heart toward God. Father, on this night I have gathered a small group before me and advised them. We know that Your desire to raise Jesus up as the pride before the world has been linked with us through the apostles and history. We know that You wish for this will to be realized through us. We know that we carry the central responsibility upon our shoulders that the many saints who rejoice in their new life can welcome.
Now please allow us to be offered as the sacrifice to resolve the grief and suffering of Heaven and earth, creation and Jesus. I pray from the bottom of my heart, Father, that You will lead us to be children of filial devotion who will do their utmost.
You have created the concept of the bride and bridegroom through the path of the cross, and we know that the problem is how much we can put the love of Jesus into practice, how much we have been fulfilling our responsibility centering on the love of Jesus, and how much we have realized the value of faith through the love of Christ.
Since the Father has counseled us in this hour, please guide us to understand clearly that the responsibility to liberate Heaven is entrusted to each of us, and that it is through us that the fight to eradicate the suffering and grief of Heaven must be consummated. Since we have come to realize these things, please allow us to have a heart of gratitude toward the Father and the mind-set that we must accomplish more than anyone. Please guide us so that we will be grateful even when we are bearing the cross, and even when we are fighting with millions of satans; please lead us not to be unmanly. Even when we are in a difficult situation in which we have to bear the cross, please lead us to become children who can say "Father! Please do not worry because I am here. I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will guide them to become children who can comfort the Father, who is in deep anguish because He sees His children suffering. Please let the truth become the life and path for them, and please allow them to find the standard on which they can center their lives. Please lead them so that they can go before the Father with unchanging faith and in the center of life. I earnestly desire and request that You will release the miraculous creative power of the word so that such things can be fulfilled. I offer all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.