What is this stony path? It is the road of providence or dispensation. No one in history or in the world today readily volunteers to walk the stony path. No individual, family, society or nation likes to walk a stony path, for they want to have a smooth road instead. People would rather drive on a highway in a scenic area instead of a desert. In the Oriental concept, man's life is compared to a journey, and people think of life in terms of a happy and peaceful, or unhappy journey. Why are some people destined to walk a stony path? The reason is quite mysterious.
This desire for a carefree life is not limited to man, but includes nature. Grass wants to grow in fertile ground with lots of sunlight and nice rain, and birds look for a comfortable dwelling where they can be at peace. All of nature wants to live in peaceful circumstances. God also would like to have a peaceful existence. It is man who sets himself apart from nature in his suffering and struggles.
There have been many great and righteous people in the past. What kind of life pattern did they have? Usually, they lived in tears, toil and hardship. Did they volunteer for that life or was it forced upon them by circumstances? Though they did not volunteer, their environment brought a hard life upon them. They lived a life of difficulty in order to overcome humanity's unhappiness. Those who pioneered the righteous path in history did so in tears and sweat.
Where does true happiness begin? Where does true peace or the ideal begin? Do true peace and righteousness begin after a life of toil and tears, or before these things? Why are they only found beyond that hill? Something went wrong. That something was the Fall. Religion came into being in recognition that human life is not as it should be. Without the recognition that there was some deviation from the original world, religion could not exist. The Fall reduced humankind to an abnormal and unhappy state. Religion tries to overcome that unhappy state and bring man back to normality. Therefore, religion is on a collision path with man's unhappy state, trying to shatter it into pieces.
God Labors in Grief
Is religion based on the charismatic personality of its leaders, or on God? Religion must be based on God. Is God, who has to drive humanity onto this path of collision with unhappiness, a happy God? A human has only a limited life span, and in that brief time he has to go through much hardship and toil to overcome his unhappy state, but God has had to continue that struggle for thousands of years. Can you imagine His grief and misery in having to do so?
The Fall of humankind is directly connected to the sorrow of God. Today we see people who live from day to day for fun and entertainment, but if they truly want happiness and righteousness they cannot continue that way; they must collide with their surroundings and rise above them. The first step in a life of religion is recognizing the tragedy of the Fall, and trying to remedy that state. The Fall brought misery not only to humanity, but to God. He has been living continually in struggle and unhappiness, but no man has recognized this.
Does the solution begin with humanity or with God? If it is only a human problem then we don't have to worry about God, and if it is only God's problem then we don't have to worry about humanity. But the problem is equally serious for both humans and God, and thus the solution must be structured in such a way as to include them both. Because the Fall brought tragedy to both humanity and God, they must think along the same lines if they are to bring a solution. If God is crying then people cannot be laughing; if God is struggling over the hills then humanity cannot be skipping over flat ground.
If you are sorrowful and someone comes to comfort you, will your sorrow automatically go away? You have heard the fable about the ant and the grasshopper, in which the ant worked hard during the summer while the grasshopper enjoyed idle time. Could the grasshopper understand the ant's experience? The ant worked so hard that his waist became as thin as a thread, and he was exhausted with fatigue. Could the grasshopper comfort the ant if he never had experienced hardship himself? But the father of the ant could understand how the ant felt because the father had worked even harder than his son.
This analogy applies to man and God. God has worked hard, like the ant, while man has been like the grasshopper. In America people eat, drink, and disco -- it's a grasshopper's life. How could such people say they understand God's suffering? Would God be comforted by them? The only way truly to comfort God is to work hard for God's will and understand what He has experienced. Then God might be comforted by you.
Did God begin the universe in joy or sorrow? During the process of creation God felt joy and said that His creation was good, but did He feel the same joy at the human Fall? God's joy would have been complete if people had become perfect in the object position, but that never happened. Therefore, human history started in misery, and God's history was also miserable. There was no sound of joyful laughter, only tears. The echo of those tears has resounded throughout history down to the present day.
The sound of tears began history, continued through the centuries, and will be the future agenda of history unless we bring total change. This is the universal atmosphere surrounding our life, so if you are trying to be happy all by yourself it is futile. You are swimming in waters of unhappiness and it is impossible to get out by yourself. Does God have reason to grieve or not? His grief begins in the realization that if things had been different He would have been embraced in joy, but instead He is surrounded by sorrow. Is God's situation clear to humanity?
The Religious Life Is to Comfort God's Grieving Heart
People have restless, unhappy lives, but they don't know why they struggle so much for so little. God knows that bringing a solution to the situation won't be easy. His direction is to bring the solution by following a stony path, but religious people today shun the cross and ask God for blessing and money instead. To God's ears such prayers are worse than seeing the lazy grasshopper-kind of man. Not only do such people not comfort God, but they want to steal something from Him also. Religious people don't realize that they are driving one more nail into God's back each time they pray that way. Instead of comforting Him, it causes Him more pain. On the other hand, if there is a group of people who can say they understand God's situation and who want to take care of His sorrow, will they be closer to God?
Americans like pets, especially puppies. If one day there is a big fight between a husband and wife and the husband throws his wife out of the house, just by licking her hand and wagging his tail the puppy will give her more comfort than her husband. The relationship between humanity and God is somewhat the same. Humanity and God have been in conflict, with people defying God and demanding to know why they should go a stony path. God really needs the comfort of even a little puppy.
Those intellectuals who study God in books will never come close to God without suffering. Maybe they think they have better things to do than to bear the cross, but anyone who thinks in that fashion is a thief. Is the study of books or the way of the cross closer to the heart of God?
If you are trying to be comfortable in a religious life, it cannot work. You have to shed tears; your eyes should not be dry, for there is no such thing as a true religion without tears. You do not know how much I have shed tears in prayer, like the flowing of a stream. You have to cross that creek of tears to meet God. If you shed tears out of self-pity, there is no way God can connect with you, but if you shed tears for humanity and the sorrow of God, He will be linked with you.
God Aspires to True Love
If God exists, what do you think He will be like? What is His goal? Will He run for the United States presidency to show people how powerful He is? Or will He try to become a millionaire like the Rockefellers to show how much money He has? Does God have a hungry stomach and work to get a good meal, or does He merely aspire to have some candy bar from the corner store, like a little child? God must have some aspiration, some goal and ambition. What do you think it is? It is the realization of love. In God's sight, love is the highest and most noble thing.
Where can God find love? Can God love all by Himself and happily laugh and smile and joke with Himself? Will God say, "Here I am. My arms, legs and face are so pleasing to me?" What a crazy idea that is! The person who is trying to be joyful all by himself is ridiculous.
While you women are sitting in front of the mirror making yourself up do you say, "Oh, I'm so pretty. I love myself. My ears and nose are just right!" Are you completely intoxicated by your beauty, or would you rather have someone else praise your beauty? Of course, you wish that someone else would come and say, "Hey, your face is beautiful."
Why are you like that? Where does that characteristic desire come from? Do you resemble your parents or friends in that way? No, those are God's traits and characteristics. God cannot sit in front of the mirror admiring Himself.
No matter how big a hand God has, He still wants to touch the beautiful features of others. He wants to appreciate the beauty coming from His object, not from Himself. God's vision is infinite and He can see through everything in the universe, yet even with that vision, God wants to behold some loved one, no matter how small he may be. God has infinite hearing and He can listen to all the incredible sounds of the universe, yet God aspires to hear the sound of love. God can speak with authority that can create and destroy the universe. His word has that power, yet God wants to use His mouth to whisper love.
God has five senses of sorts. With His spiritual eye He wants to look at the beauty of love; He would like to smell a loving smell; He would like to taste a loving taste; He would like to hear loving voices and loving music; He wants to touch a loving object. That is God's sole aspiration. If God is not that kind of God and His aspiration is only for power or money, what a tasteless God He would be. He would be like an African desert, all vast and powerful but without beauty.
Heaven and Hell
What is the definition of Heaven and hell? Heaven is the place where you become joyful centering upon God, serving Him and dwelling with Him. Hell is where you are sad and empty centering upon Satan. The master of Heaven is God. What is He like? Does He welcome the man who brings money, knowledge or power with him? No, God is looking for something else. Those who are relying on those things will be like pebbles in the Kingdom of Heaven. God is looking for the joy of love, for someone whom He can love and who will bring Him something to be loved.
What is hell? Hell is the place where money and power are valued as ends in themselves and where you yourself become the powerful center.
We want to give and receive love so that we can feel joy. Directly opposite to that way of life is hell, where people crush others in order to make themselves kings. Even though someone ends up in hell he doesn't lose the original desire to receive love; that trait will remain even in hell. Even those in hell know what the true aspiration is, and because they cannot achieve it there, they live in agony and torture.
In heaven you yearn for love and you can fulfill it. You can receive God's love and give love to God, over and over without limitation.
That is Heaven. Heaven is really wonderful and good, so much so that even if you say thousands of times that it is good you can never truly express how good it is. In Heaven you can live intoxicated in love.
When a wave of that love hits you, you are suddenly electrified. A dozing person wakes up and his vision, hearing and sense of smell are sharpened and he will be whispering of the beauty of love for thousands of years. The story of love will never end. Even though every organ of your body is fully active and functioning perfectly, still you feel you want more love. You can become a drunkard of love.
The love God is speaking about and trying to give is profound, infinite love. The love which is worthy of God is not cheap, Hollywood love. Is there any good love in today's world?
Do You Aspire to True Love or to Worldly Love?
I'm sure that in your life you have come to several crossroads and had to make many different choices. You probably took one road and came to a dead-end; then you came back and started on another road but found another dead-end. No matter where you turned in this world, you found no satisfaction, until you tasted God's love. All worldly aspirations pale in comparison. After having tasted that love, you want to become a true person worthy of possessing God's true love forever.
Maybe the best human aspiration is to get a Ph.D. from Harvard? America is the land of opportunity, so why not become a billionaire? Is that your dream, or would you rather become so powerful that everyone has to yield to your wishes? What is your true aspiration?
Our goal is the same as God's -- true love. How patient can you be until you find the love you are seeking? Is it an easy goal to attain?
Can you just sit down and call for love to come to you? Are you searching for cheap love or noble love? Is true love everywhere; easy to find and have in America today? Can true love be found through casual sex and a series of love affairs in a search for the perfect lover, or in a place like this where we avoid premarital relations and work on changing ourselves into true men and women?
Where is a true man most likely to be found, with rich people or poor people? When you see the structure of our society, do you think the upper, middle or lower class would be more likely to have a true man or true love? Does true love start with crowning glory in the highest place, or in the lowest possible place and then work its way up?
True love comes into being when you practice the highest possible love in the lowest possible place. There you deal with impossible people and try to raise them into the highest possible people by showing them the highest possible standard. There is where true love can be found and can start.
Would you prefer having true love or cheap love? A person who thinks he is clever might prefer taking the easy way. That is why Jesus said that for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven is far more difficult than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Jesus meant that it would be practically impossible, even if the rich man lost all his wealth and sank into poverty. If a poor man could easily enter heaven, why would a rich man never be likely to make it? Once a person becomes self-centered and arrogant, even though he may falter and become penniless he will usually remain self-centered. That quality will not quickly vanish. Poor people, however, have flexibility. Because they have nothing, they are more willing to go anywhere and do anything.
We Meet God in the Place of Tears
Who is true God? God is the One who is searching after His true object to whom He can give true love. God forgets Himself completely and only works for the wellbeing of the entire creation. Visualize God going after this fallen world. Is He coming with joy, laughing every day and calling "Here is true love. All my fallen children, please come"? Or is He grieving, going after fallen man with tears? Why is the true God the one who is seeking His children with tears?
It is significant that tears come to our eyes on two different occasions -- when we are utterly happy and joyful, and when we are utterly sad and sorrowful. God has been crying as a broken-hearted God. When He suddenly finds absolute joy, will He start laughing or keep crying? Imagine lovers who have been separated by war, tearfully searching in hopes of finding each other. They shed tears because of sorrow at having lost each other, but suddenly upon finding each other their tears become tears of joy and they cry even harder.
Then in what circumstances does God want to meet His loved ones? God will meet His loved ones in a tearful place, in a tearful way. If you are absolutely sorrowful and are shaking with sobs then you are not only shedding tears, but fluid is coming from your nose and mouth as well. Have you ever cried in that fashion? If you have never experienced such tears, you have not yet tasted true love. If your expression of tragic sorrow is so deep that it cramps your insides and almost chokes you, in the moment you find your long-lost loved one, what happens? The shock of his return might be so dramatic that you would pass out! That is truly a dramatic encounter. Is that the most dramatic love of all, or is it still not quite at the center of true love?
When you know God's true characteristics do you think He is a God of glory sitting on a throne looking down on the world, happily dispensing His blessings? So far, the Christian world has described this kind of benevolent God, but we in the Unification Church are not looking for such a God. We are seeking the God who is desperately looking for a dramatic encounter with His loved ones. When God is heartbroken and sorrowful and tearfully searching for His family He has no time to think of Himself, and He certainly doesn't worry about His own fame or honor.
God looks very miserable in His search for true love, but that God is truly noble and loving. No one could see God that way and scoff, "What kind of God are you? How can you be so miserable and foolish?" A God of that heart must be praised for giving Himself in an utterly sacrificial way for the sake of His children.
Imagine a loving couple who truly care for each other unselfishly. If suddenly the wife dies then her husband is completely heartbroken and really cries. If that man happens to be the President of the United States, do you think the citizens will say, "What kind of man are you?
As the President how can you show such deep sorrow?" Will people criticize him for showing his genuine grief at the loss of his wife? No. That pure expression of love is a thing to be praised.
We said we are working toward better and higher goals. What are they? The best goal is the desire to be wherever true love can be found. We cannot find true love in the place of glory, however, because God never found it there. We must find it in a tragic situation.
What way of life did Jesus Christ live? He lived the life of the cross and was finally crucified. For whom did he die? Did he die on the cross aspiring to become a Roman emperor or governor of Israel? No, he died gaining salvation for others. All his effort was only to save people. Jesus lived the life of God, desperately seeking His loved ones. Although he gave out his very life for the people, by living in that way he fully occupied God's true love.
Among All Possible Roads, Choose the Road of the Cross
There are many roads meeting at the crossroads. How can we distinguish whether a certain road is wrong and not leading to the ultimate goal?
We look at every road from the point of view of true love. If true love doesn't come alive on a particular road, you won't find any satisfaction and you will know it is the wrong direction.
If a child is drowning, a parent jumps into the water to save his child and will even die in his place. What kind of love is that? It is sacrificial, true love. Suppose a friend is drowning and another friend saves him and dies in his place. What kind of friend is that?
Of course, he is a true friend. Is this the same on the national level? If America is sacrificial in trying to save a small nation such as Vietnam, does the same theory apply? Did America meet the standard?
Where is the Unification Church? Established churches have lots of money, honor and fame, but all of a sudden the Unification Church has emerged and challenged them all, saying, "We want to go in a completely different direction." Usually churches take a collection at service on Sunday mornings and a devout Christian tithes one tenth of his income, keeping his home and whatever extra money he needs.
We don't have any extra money, however. We go out to raise money, giving our blood, sweat and labor to save the world. Just like Jesus, we want to give ourselves to save the world, and in the process we are willing to sacrifice and die. We know how to live comfortably like anyone else, but we gave up that life. We are here to sacrifice. We live the simplest way of life and eat humble meals. We don't spend money but work hard, and the fruit of that labor is given for the sake of the world.
You know how to live well and eat well. We all know how to wallow in luxury. Let the world live that way. We don't do it, because we are willing to sacrifice for the sake of the world. We embrace the sacrificial way of life that was established by Jesus. We are the people who forget ourselves and cry out for others, praying for heaven to bless them. We want to be in the position to give ourselves up for that purpose. We choose that way of life.
Our life style is parallel to Jesus' life. Therefore, we can evoke such heartfelt passion in the heart of God. As I said, God is coming down to humanity in a tearful, heartbroken way. If you go this way, then the moment He meets you is the moment He truly has hope, comfort and encouragement. God came all the way down and has finally found people who understand Him. Here He has true comrades and champions, and God feels comforted. We want to give God a shock of joy. When He meets you, let Him find someone who suffers and is more sorrowful than Himself. Then He will be comforted. God will want to champion you and comfort you and will no longer be sad. Let us surprise Him by comforting His heart.
Repentance on the Road
Do you pray? How do you pray? If your prayer is centered mostly on personal requests, it is neither valuable nor powerful. When you are too self-centered and only want individual advancement, God just cannot listen to that prayer. The first thing is to determine a righteous direction and to work toward the goal, repenting in daily religious life. God will always listen to the needs of such a person.
Actually, ninety percent of prayer is not about doing this or that, because you and God already know what must be done; ninety percent of prayer is repentance. This parallels Jesus' teaching to repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Repentance is very valuable if you do it correctly.
Since your goal is already set very high, you always know on which days you don't reach it. Repent on those days, saying, "God, I'm sorry about today. I really wanted to come much closer to the goal today but I failed you. Please forgive me. I will do it tomorrow." That's the way you should pray.
Some day you may be witnessing when some big guy strides up to harass you, yanking your necktie and shouting, "You stupid Moonie…" At that moment perhaps you can't stand the difficulty any more and you snap, "Yes, I'm a Moonie. So what?" Then you come back and pray, "God, I'm sorry. That was not Your expectation. You want me to do better than that, don't You?"
The next day may find you having to repent again. When you set your goal very high you cannot reach it easily, and every day you repent. That's a beautiful thing. Every day is a new day and a new beginning. You have a lifelong journey and every day is a day of repentance. That's a beautiful life to live. That is far better than feeling, "Now I'm the leader, and I give the directions around here." The other way is a far more beautiful way of life. God has never boasted, "I'm Almighty God so you have to listen to Me."
Then how could we who are trying to comfort that heartbroken God say that we are somebody? We have not come that far yet. The person who repents every day makes progress, even without knowing it. Anyone who thinks he is a high-standard Moonie and a good example for others has already stopped growing. Would you like to go the road of repentance?
I want you to realize that even after lifelong repentance no one will have paid his debt. On the road of repentance every day is a new beginning. That is the road of your very own cross, on which you are going only upwards and will never fall down. Many times Jesus secluded himself in the mountains, fasting and praying tearfully. Even for him, every day was a new day of repentance. That's the one sure way you can guarantee you will make progress and never falter.
Today my topic concerns the crossroad of life and death. What road do we take? We can choose many, but let's take only one -- the road of the cross.
The Road of America is Leading to Hell
Another way is the road of selfishness. There is a road for the benefit of your home and another for your country. American citizens can be classified into three categories: those who live for themselves, those who live for the well-being of their own family, and those patriots who are trying to advance the cause of the nation.
Where do the majority of Americans belong? Maybe more than ninety percent are self-centered. Who is going to be responsible for the homes and nation of such people?
The road of unselfishness is God's road, and you can reach Him only by going in this direction. Because of self-centeredness there is a barrier between God and America. Can Americans find God? Then is this nation the Kingdom of Heaven or hell? The logical conclusion is that ninety percent of Americans are living in hell. The fact is that Americans today are proud of their civilization, but do you know what kind of civilization you have? It is a jungle which is seething with all kinds of criminality and immorality. We are desperately trying to get out of that jungle. Everyone's mind has been contaminated there, to the point where they sometimes feel very comfortable and accustom to living even in such a wretched jungle.
Where do you want to live, here in America or in Africa'? Africa may have a physical jungle, but perhaps Africans live very simple and unselfish lives, thinking more about their own families and tribes and nation than about themselves. If that is the case, do you think it is better or worse than America? If it is better, then naturally you would want to live in Africa.
You have been programmed by a contaminated world and become accustomed to it. Selfishness is everywhere -- in the homes, nations and even religions. Even religion has not survived in purity. America was founded by people of great faith, but most of today's churches are broken down. America had strong families who built a righteous nation; but all that is breaking down. If the nation is crumbling, what is its destiny? The ultimate consequence can only be destruction and despair, and there will be no hopeful future left. If America continues on this path, then not only this nation but the rest of the world will crumble. Furthermore, by continuing this way of life, America will make God's work fail. America is going over the cliff, and someone must come to apply the brakes and stop it.
We are the ones whom God has called to apply the brakes. We must revitalize this country's mainstay, which is religion, and give it a new tradition. We are confronting a great tidal wave, but we will push it back. This nation has been pursuing an abnormal way, so we are here to apply the brakes and turn it around 180 degrees.
This is the crossroad of life and death. The road of life is really the way of death, while the road of death is really the way of life. It is practically impossible to change a place of death into a place of life, and merely surviving requires a desperate struggle, but we will not give up or die. We will suffer and overcome death and turn it into life.
The Road to God Requires Self-Denial
Who here has experienced tears during prayer? Which kind of tears did you shed -- sad tears because you were tired and felt you couldn't go on? Have you shed tears for God? How do you know God has shed tears?
Your experience with God has been indirect. How can you relate to God? How can you change and be linked directly to God?
In relation to God the key word is Father. Even at the time of Adam and Eve God was invisible, but Adam and Eve were created to be the visible form of God. They were like the body of God, and God was like their mind. In spirit world as well Adam and Eve would have been the visible form of God. God created man and woman so He could manifest Himself in a visible form; He wanted to have a visible form to communicate with. Second, God created man and woman to fulfill love. God is our Father. Human beings are temples of God, and inside the temple dwells a mind which is a microcosm of the infinite God.
How far is God from you? He is as near as your mind, for that is His dwelling place. God knows good and evil, and your mind also knows what is good and what is evil. Your mind knows whether you are headed for Heaven or hell. Your mind is a proper guide, but the problem is whether your mind is strong enough to pull your body toward the goal.
If the body fails to obey then you go to hell. You resemble this infinite God because you possess all the elements of that God. In order to be His child you must be like Him.
All of history hinges upon one word -- restoration -- because Adam and Eve never became God's dwelling place. Right now, your body is always pulled in the satanic direction, so your mind has to be anchored to God and be able to conquer your body. Your little mind must become big in order to do that job. Right now there is a race between the two, and when your mind overwhelms your body there is no chance your body can go astray. The person who can discipline his body most will grow fastest. You have to make it a habit to subjugate your body to your mind, a process that takes about three to seven years.
Therefore, you should do whatever your body dislikes. Since the body always goes in a satanic direction, you should do whatever it doesn't want to do. This is why we do many things our bodies don't like. Our bodies don't like to fundraise or fast or witness, but that's what we do.
America has a very promiscuous society in which men and women have a free lifestyle and can do anything. In this society full of temptations you must keep yourselves pure. That one effort alone is like a life-and-death struggle. By the age of thirty most Americans may have been married three or four times, but you are withstanding temptation and sustaining your purity up to that age. In the everyday world you can make a girlfriend in one night; with an absolute stranger you can do all kinds of crazy things overnight. But here even husbands and wives sometimes have few opportunities to be together.
This kind of discipline takes a drastic effort, and you feel that you are practically dying, but I want you to know that you are truly living for eternity.
Do you go the flat path or the stony path? Have you ever imagined how rugged the stony path is? You women want many handsome, elegant men, don't you? You are so silent all of a sudden! Your eyes are cunning in a way because they recognize when a man is handsome and tall, and then you hope he might become your husband. But you must deny what your eyes see and what your body wants. Ask God for the ugliest possible man so that you can look at him as being in the image of God and serve him. People always say, "Yes, yes, yes," except for one thing. That "except," is always the problem.
It is my experience that God is the champion at disguising Himself. He tries to give you the utmost love, but in order to ensure that you are qualified for it He will disguise that love in the form of the ugliest person. When you truly love that person as you love God and give God your thanks, then God will slowly reveal Himself through that person.
There is always temptation behind a beautiful face, so watch out. Goodness dwells behind the ugly facade, and furthermore, no one will look at that person except you!
Some of you may think I say this because I already have a beautiful wife. But actually I really asked God to give me the ugliest, woman in the world. I was totally ready to receive a 250-pound wife because I thought God might want me to appreciate His bigness. If you have a small wife, then you can think God wants you to enjoy His charming side.
Can you overcome what your eyes tell you? You weren't given eyes so you could look at the world in a secular way, but so you could shed God's tears. That's the most precious way to use your two eyes. You like to hear sweet words, don't you? You have to cross over the hill of your ears also. Maybe your husband is not only ugly, but every day he grumbles and complains. What would you say? In order to separate your thoughts from Satan, you have to think that the grumbling is sweet music from God. When your husband keeps snapping and nagging, give him his breakfast and tell him to nag afterward. At night, tell him to sleep and then nag tomorrow. Do that for forty days, and then he will say it is no fun nagging because there is no response from you.
Your nose is very sensitive. Everyone likes and dislikes certain smells, but you should train yourselves to like unpleasant odors -- such as a toilet smell, or your husband's body odor. Overcome the hill of all your senses. How many exams have you passed? You can always come up with excuses. Some people might say they can't get up early because their hips are too small and they don't have strength in their back. Another person might say her hips are so big she can't carry them early in the morning! Your body always makes excuses.
Your hand knows what your body wants, so your hands reach for the nicest food before anyone else gets it. You should tell your hand to reach for the things other people don't like. A woman's body offers a certain temptation and has a certain craving to be touched, and so women have to cross the hill of hips and bosom. Men also have their own hill to cross. You have to transcend temptation and not do what your body wants.
There are seven tests to go over -- eyes, ears, mouth. hands, nose, legs, bosom and hips. Keep a list and cross off each test as you pass it. But denying temptation is only the beginning. Then you must utilize all these organs to cry out in understanding God. Have you experienced having not only tears running down your face, but saliva drooling and your nose running as you cry in prayer? If someone tries to talk to you at that time, you don't hear them, and if they touch you, you don't feel it. Furthermore, with that heart you want to shed every drop of blood for the people. God wants to see your whole body dripping sweat as it works for humanity.
I Have Lived to Liberate God from His Tears
God has been shedding tears all these years, not for Himself but for humanity and the world. Therefore, we shed tears for God and humanity, not for ourselves. The secular world sheds tears, but heavenly tears should be greater than those tears. Knowing that the dispensational path had to be walked, I never cried for myself, or for my family and parents. I cried for God and humanity. My tears soaked all my clothes, even my thick winter clothes.
That's the only way I could inherit God's kingdom and lay the foundation for the Unification Church. Those tears are the root of the Unification Church. I would like to change the tears of people sorrowful for themselves into heavenly tears shed for God's circumstances. Neighbors and brothers tried to kill me by sentencing me to a prison where prisoners were worked and starved to death slowly. But I shed tears and overcame death. Even in prison I never complained. I never begged God to ease my pain. My only worry was that my blood and sweat were shed for God's sake.
My path has been nothing but a way of misery, many tears and much hardship. Do you think I am insensitive or dumb? Any time I take a beating or see some sorrow, I must shed tears for God. When those situations come to me I always think of God first, that I am the person to liberate Him. Then I cannot help but comfort Him and tell Him I am fine. I know also that God has shed many tears because of me, and that is why He cannot forget the Unification Church.
People who communicate with the spirit world sometimes ask to know about me, and the answer comes to them in the form of desperate crying for days and nights. I cannot be described without tears. If you are without tears in the Unification Church, you cannot successfully go this way. I cannot feel close to people who do not know the taste of tears. Only those people who know tears can understand me.
Fallen humanity has been burdened by a debt of blood, sweat and tears. If you ask God to tell you some of His experiences since the Fall, there is nothing else He can tell except a story of sweat and tears and blood. He has no other history but that. Today's Christians truly don't know what God is all about. They imagine Him sitting on a glorious throne enjoying life, but that is not true at all.
Someone has to liberate God, and He cannot do it Himself. The agony of parents, or of husband and wife, cannot be solved by themselves alone.
The agony of parents can only be solved by children; the agony of a husband can only be solved by his wife, and the agony of a wife by her husband. The only way to liberate God from His sorrow is by becoming a son of filial piety to take over His agony, or by becoming like a wife who takes over the agony of her husband.
Even if you are not the children of certain parents, or the wife of a certain man, if you serve those people more than their actual children or wife does, you will actually be closer to them than their own family.
The only way to help is to show more filial piety and genuine devotion than their own children or wife would do. The same truth applies to our relationship with God. If you give more sacrificial love to God than I do, you will be closer to Him than I am. I suffered all my life for God, but if anyone of you can do better then certainly God will be closer to you. If God loves you more, will I be jealous at how you are doing better than I am? No, I will be happy to follow such people.
God wants to be with anybody who has such love. If you shed your sweat, tears and blood all your life for God, then because of you God will be able to shed tears of happiness and hope for the first time.
What other honor could you ask for? You won't have to worry about going to heaven; God Himself will personally escort you to the highest place. The greatest path in history is the path of liberating God from His sorrow.
A true son of filial piety will move his parents' heart to tears. The true loyal subject will move his king to tears. If many subjects can give their lives for their king and queen, they will certainly be moved to tears. That is my goal -- I am giving all my devotion to the task of liberating God from tears of sorrow and moving Him to shed tears of happiness. That is the root of the Unification Church.
Our Tears Will Restore the Tears of History
Adam shed tears, Cain and Abel shed blood, Seth shed tears, and they all passed these tears down to history. In order to make restitution, Noah shed sweat, blood and tears for 120 years in truly sacrificial devotion. That's why God can use that faith to wipe out the world of tears, sweat and blood. When Abraham left his home he shed tears; his son Isaac was offered to be a sacrifice, conditionally shedding blood; his grandson Jacob really shed sweat. This is the pattern of pioneering the dispensation.
Moses was thrown out of the Pharaoh's palace, and many times he shed tears. Jesus shed blood on the cross. The Lord of the Second Advent will shed the most sweat in finally building the Kingdom. It was sown at the time of Adam and Eve and is reaped in this way throughout history.
Someone must liquidate the sorrowful blood, sorrowful sweat, and sorrowful tears of history, and then build a new history of joy in laboring for the Kingdom. At the time of the Lord of the Second Advent restitution must be made totally; therefore, the Lord must be a king of sweat, tears and blood, paying the debt of all history.
In the midst of tears, can you harbor hope for Heaven? Jesus bore the cross at the age of 33. Our determination is to bear the cross, but to bear a living cross instead. For whom will you do it, though? For God and humanity. With tears of sorrow Adam and Eve brought the Fall and brought the tears and tragedy which humanity has suffered for many thousands of years, but tears for God and humanity will not only bring you up to heaven, they will also liberate God.
We shall overcome the stony path of death and find life. This is why Jesus said that he who would save his life would lose it, and he who would give his life would save it. When we cross over that path of tears and the people of the world can shed tears of happiness, God will finally be able to shed tears of happiness. God is looking at this room, with five colors of skin gathered in one common love, for one common goal, shedding tears of joy and hope as parents and children, and that scene brings God tears of joy and hope.
God bless you. Let us pray.