The Religious Person's Attitude

Sun Myung Moon
March 29, 1959,
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea

1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. 4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. 5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: "He could not be found, because God had taken him away." For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. 7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. 8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country -- a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. 17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. 20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. 21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones. 23 By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. 29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days. 31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. 32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets,
Hebrews 11:1-32

Prayer

Please look at us with compassion. Father, we sincerely wish and desire that You guide us to the position where our minds and bodies can be recognized as Your body and limbs.

Many people are setting out now toward the goal of resembling the heavenly character. However, when we think of how few true sons and daughters there are who go forward with the heart of the Father, we cannot help being concerned.

It has been six thousand years since You called and began searching for us. As the owner of all creation, You have called and sought us in person. When we think honestly whether we come forth in front of Your knees as the fruits of joy who are acceptable to You, we cannot help feeling remorse for all of our past thoughts and deeds. We feel we must reflect on all our normal activities. Please forgive us for being in a position to feel remorse.

The original countenance of the person Heaven longed to see was glorious and proud. Nevertheless, we have not become people of such countenance, the true original countenances upon whom You can call. Since we find ourselves in a position to lament over ourselves, Father, we sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to at least have an ardent mind of remorse over having no excuse to offer You.

Who would not want to become the Father's son or daughter? Who would not vow to become an offering of sacrifice before Heaven? Yet there are extremely few people who have stood as the Father's true sons and daughters. We know very well through the course of history that even though You took those who pledged themselves and led them forward, there were extremely few who appeared as Heaven's pride. Father, please forgive us for all the traces and blemishes of the fall that we bear.

Heaven came looking for us with a true mind, a true heart, and true deeds. However, we could not truly relate to You. Father, we ardently wish and desire that You forgive us for all these imperfections.

Now we know that You long for a true son and daughter who can shed tears together with You, holding hands and looking at the earth. We are aware that numerous people have been forgotten because they let go of the Father's hands. Father, we pray from the depths of our hearts that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who take care of our bodies with single-hearted devotion toward Heaven; who can be informed about the situation and be left on our own, taking hold of the Father's hands in self-sacrifice.

Father, please let us attain our years of discretion in this period. Father, we are aware that although we are looking forward to the time You have promised, we are unspeakably inadequate in many ways. We aware that our steps have already become weary; our eyes look on in an imperfect state. Satan is even trying to take away the mind within us that ardently utters a cry toward Heaven from the depths of our consciences.

Please allow us to realize that every time we are in circumstances like this, Heaven looks at us with a sorrowful heart. Allow us to know the internal situation of Heaven, who cannot lend His hands to grab hold of us or give advice as the time grows nearer for true goodness to reveal the mark of victory. Father, we sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to become heavenly soldiers who can walk the remaining path of fate and the path of bitterness willingly. We pray that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who seek the day of bliss in which You can take delight, embracing Your immutable heart, even if numerous others would quarrel with, reject and betray the providence.

Father, this is a holy day. Please bestow blessing upon all humankind. Look upon the pitiful thirty million Korean people with compassion. We are aware that there is no master on the earth who can take responsibility for these people's lives, fate and path. Please permit those of us who received Your calling first to assume the responsibility as persons of faith in sight of the Father. We must go forth before the Father's dignified presence of our own accord and become trustworthy, then assume the responsibility You entrusted to us. We ardently pray that You will guide us to not forget that such comprehensive responsibility has been laid upon us.

Please allow us to operate not only in our minds. Father, we pray from the bottom of our hearts that You allow us to become the sons and daughters who can reveal the glory of the Father by offering our bodies as holy living sacrifices before You. Father, we sincerely wish and desire that You will bestow blessings upon Your sons and daughters who pray facing Heaven, kneeling down in solitude before the altar at this hour.

Father, we thank You for having guided us to this moment today. We have come to know that the original homeland has remained only as an ideal. Father, we pray from the depths of our hearts that You allow us to know that now the responsibility and mission to realize that ideal on the earth, keeping the Father's heart within us, is left to us.

The Father has come forth to save inadequate human beings. Now we are going toward the day of the last victory. Please allow us not to change our prayerful minds and not to become disloyal. Father, we pray this from the bottom of our hearts.

Father! Please give advice to us. We know that we have the responsibility to realize the will of the Father and that we must go the path to achieve that goal. Father, we pray that You will allow us to be the sons and daughters who are not disloyal to the Father's command, the Father's heart, or the Father's love.

We pray that You will guide us not to be disloyal before the will You have granted. Let us feel the heart of the Father, who has felt sorrow in the course of providential history, toiling over difficult situations.

Please take charge of our minds and bodies as Your own in this hour. I pray and wish that You will understand and accept our minds, since we are gathered on our knees and wish to be embraced in the Father's bosom, our heads bowed over our inadequacy.

Please personally govern the time from the beginning to the end. I pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Beloved Father, please allow us to know that the tear stains of the Father, who toiled to raise us in front of this nation without our knowing, are spread all over. Father, we have been disloyal children who could not make ties with Heaven, having been drawn into the realm of death, sorrow and lamentation. Yet we pray and wish that You will let this be the hour when we can attend You by allowing us to save our own original characters in awe and reverence in sight of the grace You have bestowed.

From the moment we realized there was a path the Father wanted us to go, we realized that the Father is going along the path of tears also; He is traveling the path of the cross with us. He is traveling the path of tribulation, the path of sorrow, and even the path of chains along with us. In addition, we know about the thorny path You have walked, treading the historical course, toiling behind Your beloved sons and daughters.

You have repeated the history of toil of which we have no knowledge to gather us today. We bow respectfully, picturing in our minds the Father who toiled in this manner. At the same time, we are deeply ashamed of ourselves. Father, we pray that You will captivate us with the impulses of Your heart. We were called because Heaven has a purpose and hope in us. Please allow us to know that the path of the cross which lies ahead does not originate with us.

Please allow the posterity of a thousand years from now to know the historical path of forming ties based on their ancestors' effort. In this hour, we have the mind that can embrace limitless joy, limitless happiness, and limitless hope. The origin of that is not in us, nor in any human being. All has been initiated by and operated by Heaven. Beloved Father, I pray and wish that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who know and deeply treasure, in their minds and bodies, the longing for the grounds upon which Heaven operated and to shed tears clinging to this.

Father! You know the direction Your sons and daughters, who came seeking this lonely place, must go. You know the path for these people to take and go forth upon. The origin of these people's minds is not themselves. Their being in a position to receive words of advice is not for their own sake, but for the sake of others and the Father. Father, I pray and wish that You will govern these people to be unchanging to the end.

Father, please do not allow us to become disloyal and leave You during this remaining period of tribulation. Allow us to be sons and daughters who do not fail to go through this difficult period, even having felt the sorrow of the Father. We pray and wish that You will let us become the sons and daughters who are concerned about the Father and who comfort His heart, forsaking ourselves for the sake of keeping Your heart until the end. Let us understand the Father's situation.

The time has come when the one who says he has stood on his own will fall. The one who recognizes himself will be that much more prone to betray Heaven. Father, please let Your sons and daughters who are gathered in front of Your knees on this day take delight in Your living words of advice. By doing so, Father, we pray and wish that You will let this be an hour when You can taste happiness.

Nothing other than what belongs to the Father is required in our minds in this hour. Now we must tread over today's tribulations and look to the garden of promise. We must long for the heavenly kingdom of eternal blessing. We are aware that God's blessing to be revealed is great glory, beyond words. Please allow us to remain to the end, having endured with unchanging hearts toward the Father. We pray and wish that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can stand before You after fighting to the end. There are other sons and daughters who feel concern about the Father's will; we pray that You will bestow blessing upon and give advice to them.

We know that Your children are repenting in Your presence, scattered across the countryside in solitude on this day. We wish with utmost sincerity that You will extend Your hands of undiscriminating grace over them; that You will let each of their minds have discretion. Do not allow us to fall down midway.

Now we offer everything we have to You. We request and wish for You to accept it. Father, we pray with utmost sincerity that You allow this to be the hour when we receive the Father's grace, when our minds turn to the Father's and we thus become able to feel and experience the glory of the Father's victory.

Please take charge of the remaining hour and have dominion over it. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father! Please forgive us. We cannot repay Your grace even in ten million lifetimes, the grace of being able to call You "Father." Forgive us for calling You Father, knowing that You are the Father of blessing. Forgive us for having attended You only as the Father who is in a high and noble place.

You were the Father of a myriad soldiers, the master of the whole cosmos, and the central figure with the authority of the whole world. However, because of the mistakes made by Your sons and daughters, You have been put in such a miserable situation. Father, please allow us to be sensitive to Your heart in this hour. Father, we pray and wish that You not allow us to become weak like the defeated ones after seeing the hill of bitterness in the providence You left behind.

We are aware that even if we cannot go, the Father has to walk the path of the providence. Even if we abandon You, You have to go, filled with the sorrow of being abandoned. The Father has to walk the path of the cross today too, without minding, passing through the nation and toward the world. However, since there are very few people on earth who understand this situation, we cannot help having concern that the Father's sorrow will penetrate to the very depths of this earth, that the Father's lamentation will reach the earth, and that the Father's judgment will fall upon the earth. Father of compassion, Father of love, Your will of promise is alive in our hearts. Please protect us. Father, we pray and desire that You allow us to be the beloved sons and daughters who build the altar of the heart, weeping bitterly on their knees in the presence of the Father.

Please let us have more faith than those of faith thus far, as we go forth, knowing the will of the six thousand years. Allow us to gain victory over any persecution. Allow us to overcome any kind of disregard. Although we could become instruments of betrayal, since we have sought You and come to this place, Father, we pray and wish that You allow us to be unchanging, loyal and filial sons and daughters with passionate devotion toward You. Father, if we stop our pace on this path, we know that the national grief will be increased and that our lamentation will also be increased. Father, please drive us out in a pressing manner. We sincerely wish and desire that You drive us out to the end so that we may establish the fortitude to stand by God's opinions.

We are aware of Heaven's situation. Unless we stand as the Father's sons and daughters, when we convey Heaven's heart, we cannot realize the will. Father, we ardently wish and desire that You allow us to know that You are troubled in mind in a way of which no one knows on this earth. Now is the time when we must offer everything belonging to us in Your presence and make a new vow and resolution. Therefore, please let us reflect upon ourselves, asking how much we have tried to attend Jesus, who left behind sorrow after coming to this earth. Allow us to make a new vow and resolution. Father, we ardently pray and wish for You to please extend Your hands of capability over this sleeping nation. By lowering the long-awaited rain of the Spirit of the Lord, enable them to be proud of the day of victory and sing of the glory of the Father.

When we stepped forth in front of the Father, we were able to feel and experience the lonely heart of Jesus, who resolved to go forth regardless of any difficulties. Now the time has come when we feel proud of the hope we entertain, stepping forth with resolution. Please let us go on, taking the lead, standing on Heaven's side. Let us leave behind the things Heaven would like left behind. Father, we pray with utmost earnestness that You will now take hold of the set of true people who can comfort You with deep hearts and who will fight for Your sake. We pray and wish, Father, that You allow us to know the ideology of the Father, who cannot abandon the dispensation for humanity. Let us know the true mind of Heaven, which must be revealed now. Let us be sensible to the grief of Heaven, who must be struck and come back.

Please embrace us so that we can share weal and woe with the people rendering devoted service, trying to be true Israelites. We aware that the people who were removed to the wilderness under Moses' guidance betrayed the will under the weight of pain and tears. Since the strength of historical transition is being manifested to us today, please let us dissolve the bitterness. We must feel ourselves insufficient when faced with the Father's established will. Father, we pray and wish that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can represent the heart of Moses, who believed in the Father, even under unfavorable circumstances, and who tried to build an altar for You.

The Father's concern, the Father's pain, and the Father's efforts are incomparably greater than ours. Please allow us to know the circumstances of Jesus as he walked the course of limitless toil. Allow us to look at the internal character of the Father, who is walking a path of limitless pain.

Please guide us to withstand all we encounter today, the feeling of being wronged, the adverse criticism we receive, and the persecution we come upon. Lead us to go forward for the Father's sake without hesitation wherever we are placed. We sincerely wish that You waken us to deeply know all of these facts. Please advise us with a concerned heart until we stand on the foundation of the final victory. Father, we pray and wish that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who care nothing about any obstacles.

Since we have gathered here in this hour, please allow Heaven's counsel to be manifested to us. Sorrow, loneliness and difficulties surround us. We are aware that we cannot dare to be conscious of our importance just because our senses enable us to know how to call You "Father." Father, please come in person and watch over the minds and bodies of each of us. Let us feel the oneness of life. Bestow the grace of glory upon us. We pray and wish that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who step forth equipped with new resolution, new determination, and a new pledge with which we can endure and remain until the last days.

We are aware that there are members filled with tears lying prostrate before the Father's knees in solitude. My Father, we sincerely pray and wish that You will manifest Yourself in this hour as their Father and friend and relate to us and advise us with equal authority. Since we have entrusted everything to You in this hour, please have dominion according to Your will. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, please allow our minds and bodies to be fraught only with the Father's Shim Jung, at least in this hour. Let this be the hour in which we become imbued with the mind of original nature and are drawn toward the Father's Shim Jung. Please allow the deeply penetrating Shim Jung to put forth its buds in our minds and bodies so that, upon seeing the Father rejoicing, we can run toward Him and enfold His neck with our arms.

We have learned that You are the Father who appears subtly. You will not initiate any action until we lay bare our thoughts. We still have loyalty toward the Father, in spite of our contaminated minds. Father, please seek us through this Shim Jung. Through this Shim Jung, give orders. Please allow the ardent Shim Jung with which we can call You "My Father" to seep out, unconsciously shedding tears, sorry for the insufficiency of our bodies and realizing the inadequacy of our past lives.

We have learned that Heaven feels no reluctance in protecting anyone and everyone; Heaven feels no reluctance in becoming the friend of one who seeks Heaven. Heaven is the friend of those who wail to Heaven and shed tears. He takes delight in showing Himself to be our Father, who will live together with us forever.

We miss the voice of the Father who would subtly counsel us. We long to feel the wonderful love of the Father, who would embrace us in subtlety. We miss the moment when we can call You "Father" and want to boast and exclaim that You are our own Father with uplifted hands.

We thought You were far, far away from us; but we realize that You have been with us in our minds, and we are glad we met such a Father. You were close in our hearts when You were said to be far away from us. You were crying out from afar, saying that You were in our hearts. Human beings today are not attuned to this.

Please allow us to repent in this hour for not knowing that when we thought You had forsaken us in the past, that was the very time when You were closest. When we thought You were not with us was the very time You were.

We did not know about the mind of the Father, who would not wish to leave His sons and daughters in hardship. There have been numerous times when, not understanding Your heart as You went through the tortuous path, we thought You were unkind and heartless to put us out on the path of toil. Many times we bewailed our ill fortune and were spiteful toward You because of the past. Father, please forgive us for having been bitter against You, for having betrayed You, for having denied and distrusted You.

We have learned that all this is due to the crime our ancestors committed by falling. It is the cause of the prophets and sages having died, leaving behind the bloodstains of bitterness in human history. Is the standard of our minds lofty today? Please purify our minds. Am I longing to represent God and put my body and my prestige on the line? I pray and wish earnestly that You let us be the sons and daughters who know how to call You "Father" after striking our bodies, which have no excuse to offer in the presence of the Father's internal character, aware as we are of the fact that the Father is in a miserable place.

Father, we know that there is no need for many words. Heaven delivered the words, but the people could not put them into practice. Upon seeing that, Heaven came to feel sorrowful. We learned that words easily become lies and that the Father's sorrow has been growing more severe every day.

While Heaven is aware of the sorrowful circumstance of having to speak again, humankind is not aware of it. In spite of this, God is in a situation where He has to give advice out of concern for humankind, unable to abandon them. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You forgive us for having to re-learn Your situation.

We gathered today, considering this a holy day. We gathered, longing for Your words. We gathered, waiting impatiently for Heaven's grace. I know that we gathered wishing for something. Therefore, Father, I pray from the depth of my heart that You now allow us to wish to be our true selves; that You will guide us to know how to listen to the words and commands that are passed down from our true selves.

Father, You know that I did not want to disappoint You, in spite of the sorrowful events that took place as I walked the forty-year life course in obedience to Your will. I did not want to retreat in defeat under hardship. Father, as we come to be aware that the history of tribulation ceaselessly continues on the path that remains, we cannot help informing the Father of our insufficiency with bowed heads. I wish You would allow this one body to bear the grief of history. Please allow Heaven to go beyond all the remaining tribulations, taking this body as a sacrifice.

We long for the moment when the Father can rest, when the Father and I usher in the moment of happiness, having discarded all sighs of grief, arms about each other's necks, calling each other "my son" and "my Father." Please allow us to be the sons and daughters who can go to the spirit world having established single-hearted devotion based on fidelity on the earth, regardless of any sacrifice we may have to make or any misery we may have to go through on the earth. Since we have made up our minds to go such a path, Father, I pray and wish earnestly that You will drive us and lead us to not mind it. Father, I ardently solicit that You will let this be the hour when we form a resolution and make a vow with a new mind and body.

What shall I speak about in this hour You have granted? Since I am trying to convey what You wish to reveal, please allow me to convey Your Shim Jung as it is. Ardently soliciting that You let this be the hour when the minds of the receivers blend with Your Shim Jung in one unified Shim Jung, when we can sing of the Father's glory, embraced in the Father's grand bosom, I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The World of Intrinsic Qualities of Faith

The title of the sermon I am about to give you is "The Religious Person's Attitude." I will speak briefly upon this topic.

You have flattered yourselves that you are religious. We have gone forth not longing for this nation in the present state of affairs, but longing for the eternal kingdom. You have neither seen nor been to that kingdom. You simply proceeded forward, believing that the word you had heard was true.

We cannot consider that the intrinsic qualities of faith jell with all conditions of reality. I believe that, for those trying to lead a true life of faith, this only happens when the great infinite Heaven, the garden of eternal ideology that we cannot even imagine, has a reciprocal relationship with the being called "I." Heaven will press me constantly and warmly to make an effort to attain the ideology in reality. The path of faith continues upon that basis alone.

The kingdom we long for cannot be elucidated by dreams or imagination or even by wise conjecture. That world is necessary for us. It is the limitless world of the ideal; the world of goodness, happiness, love, and the ideology of which we dream. That world is the heavenly kingdom of faith in which we wish to live. From a worldly point of view, those who keep faith with the intrinsic qualities of that world might be seen as extremely pitiful, terribly lonely, or ultimately sorrowful. It depends upon how you view them. If there is one who feels and experiences Heaven's heart, even in such a situation, and feels the shock and the stimulus of that realm of the heart, no matter what kind of persecution, suffering or death tries to block the way, nothing can stop him from going this path.

The Life of a Truly Religious Person

Letting this kind of heart stimulate the mind and letting that mind push the body to move, trying to feel and experience the life in which one unconsciously walks forth toward the endless territory, is the very life of a religious person in this world today. Only when one can lead life with this kind of stimulus and manifest the far-distant ideology as the power of real life is one a truly religious person. Going further, only when one cultivates the foundation of mind with which he can push out power, even the sweeping wave of death, from his surroundings can Heaven acknowledge him as a truly religious person. That is how I see it. What is felt through self-realization, when we cry out facing Heaven, is greater than anything felt through doctrine or thought. The same thing can manifest itself as the value of light in our minds and bodies and in the heart of our life circumstances.

The religious life can be considered going through the path of victory in such an important decisive position. We know very well that throughout history, this path has been heaped with persecution, sorrow, the cross, and death. Because we have this kind of history and tradition, today you also are placed in a position where you must not betray this historical course of faith. For that reason, I must stress that it is more valuable than anything else that we assume a correct attitude of faith today.

Gallantly Traveling the Difficult Path of Faith

To gallantly travel the path of difficulty, the path of persecution and death while walking the path of faith, there is something you must feel first. You must feel that your birth and your being of a particular nation or group was not the result of your individual wish. You will not be able to deny that you were born on this earth by having been drawn into motion that even you yourselves cannot understand. When we think again about how the motive of my being originated and was given to me, how I was to go through this kind of course and am a resultant being, we must not boast of ourselves or our beings. We must boast about the being who has something to show off within the ideological realm of history, the whole, and the future.

Unless you have this kind of conviction and feeling now, a more complicated matter than you might think will occur in your path of faith. Sorrowful and difficult things will take place. You will face undeserved death. You will easily abandon your ties with the heavenly principles. You will stand in a position where it is easy for you to betray Heaven.

Therefore, we must have a heart that is deeply sensitive toward God's ideology and reflect upon our lives in light of this ideology. We should live feeling that our individual selves are sacrificial offerings for the sake of glorifying cosmic relations, for the sake of forming a connection with the ideology of the infinite world of faith. As long as we lead a life of faith in which such an ideology does not disappear from our minds and in which such a feeling does not depart from our hearts, no one will dare intrude upon or subjugate us on this earth.

You must know that our ancestors felt a lot about such a connection. The people who began after Jacob received the blessing of being Israel had the ideology of being God's chosen people. We know that this sense of being the chosen people established the history of the Jewish people. It was the base of hope in the course of building a new garden in the land of bliss. It was the heritage of the history of the restorational providence. This applied not only to the people, but also to the national leader who guided the people.

God sought out Noah and raised him to let humanity, which had abandoned Heaven for the 1600 years after Adam, form new ties of promise. Noah was not looked up to by the people of his time. He was of no importance in the eyes of those people. However, Noah understood the heart of Heaven, who wished to resolve the great regret through choosing a man like him. That is why Noah proceeded forward, surmounting all difficulties for 120 years, holding onto Heaven's will and command.

Noah came to realize the preciousness of the relationship with which Heaven had raised him up, called him and commanded him. The deeper his understanding became, the greater his relationship with Heaven. As days went by, he felt deeply about the greatness of the will of the internal heart of God. For that reason, although no one gave him recognition and numerous people ridiculed and rejected him, Noah did not abandon the building of the ark for 120 years.

The Mental Attitude and Life of Central Figures

Why was only Noah able to keep unshaken faith in God's will, while all people, including the people in his tribe and people on good terms with him, betrayed it? He knew that the ties he had formed with Heaven were greater than the ties he had with his brothers and sisters, his relatives, and even his life. When misery came, he longed for the infinite world with a bowed head, shedding tears with a deeply touched Shim Jung. You should not forget this.

Abraham and Moses were in the same situation. The Pharaoh's dazzlingly gorgeous palace was an environment of maximum freedom, in which Moses lived in splendor. However, he gave all that up because he realized that God's providential hands were extended to him through historical ties and through the flesh, blood and bones of his ancestors. As he became better informed of the culture of Egypt and more knowledgeable about everything in the enemy country, Moses became increasingly sad inside the Pharaoh's palace because he could not share in the historical situation of Israel, the chosen people. He might have grieved over his inability to understand the people's sorrow. Though his environment was very free and comfortable, when he became deeply moved by the realization that he was a descendant of the chosen people, Moses became hostile toward the Pharaoh's palace and stepped forth, regarding the Egyptians as his enemies. We must be aware of this.

Moses put the royal court of the Pharaoh behind him and proceeded forward seeking the Israelites, the people with ties to Heaven. Moses knew of the will and embraced such a Shim Jung. However, the Jewish people, who were ignorant of the will, could not recognize Moses as such. This became cause for penetrating historical sorrow and lamentation.

When the people whom Moses had sought out abandoned him, Moses ended up leading the life of a shepherd for forty years in the Midian wilderness. Though he had to walk such a path, Moses kept his principles and the integrity of being Heaven's chosen. Even if his body were to fall down, Moses ardently wished to bequeath his faith to someone. The more intensely he wished for that, the more tears he had to shed, thinking of the Israelites groaning under the ruthless tyranny of Pharaoh.

While the Israelite people were asleep and in a state of ignorance, Moses prayed for their sake, raising his face and looking to the land of blessing, Canaan. Unable to sleep, he would pour out his heart. He led a life of contrition before Heaven with a sorrowful heart toward the people. Because he led such a life, Moses was fit to assume the responsibility of the central figure of that period. He could become the representative of Heaven. Throughout history, we have learned that Heaven set up Moses in front of the Israelites, who were falling down, to seek and re-establish the history of His relations with Israel and humankind.

What Jesus Felt on the Earth and His Resolution

Numerous other prophets and sages walked the path that Moses walked. Four thousand years after the fall of Adam and Eve, the second ancestor of humanity, Jesus Christ, came. He took upon himself the responsibility for all the faults of the fallen Adam, bearing in his body the sorrow of Heaven, the sadness of all humankind, and the grief of all things in the universe. He took charge of all conditions of deathly darkness that drew lamentation and sorrow from Heaven for the sake of breaking them down. Let us think about Jesus.

What kind of person was he? Going back over the four-thousand-year history, Jesus pined for people who had not felt the fear that results from culpable acts and who had not perceived sorrow by reason of their sins. Namely, he yearned for the original Adam and Eve whom God had created, having been deeply touched by the sense and Shim Jung of goodness. Jesus had to restore and replace the original selves of Adam and Eve, who should have been the good, truthful ancestors of humanity. His belief that he had come on behalf of God's ideology of creation was greater than any circumstances society could present to him and greater than any other tendency in his mind.

Therefore, if Jesus felt loneliness, that loneliness was connected with Heaven. When Jesus came to fathom God's loneliness, he could no longer feel lonely. Every time hope or ideology sank deeply into his mind, he felt the responsibility to introduce that hope and ideology to humankind.

Jesus came to realize that he bore the responsibility of being the central figure who had to realize the hope for which God had wished. He had to indemnify all the guilt the ancestors had perpetrated by falling. As this kind of understanding grew deep in him, he came to realize that the relationship between God and himself in the sorrowful four-thousand-year history of restoration was one of father and son, inseparable. This realization prevented him from feeling bitter toward the fallen Adam, the fallen descendants and the Archangel. It became stronger when such resentment was aroused. Jesus began to realize that Heaven was his father, that the earth was his mother, and that he himself was born as the son representing Heaven and earth. Jesus could not help feeling that God's internal character, the earth's internal character, and the internal character of all humankind should form everlasting ties with him. He felt the stimulus of those connections even in such a tragic situation.

What was it that touched his mind so deeply? His relationships were not joyous, they were sorrowful. Originally, humanity was to form a parent-child relationship with Heaven by building the garden of the eternal ideology. The whole of man's conditions should have provided an impetus to the Father's conditions of happiness and sung of the heart of that happiness. However, humanity formed ties of sorrow, unable to form ties of happiness. You must know the heart of Jesus, who had to weep bitterly as he became increasingly aware of such facts. Jesus knew that the ties his ancestors had formed for four thousand years were not ties of happiness, but of sorrow. Therefore, whenever Jesus was in a sorrowful position and having difficulties, he determined to be the central figure of the sorrowful world. That was how Jesus was, and we must know that.

Looking at the people and at Judaism, which could not prepare the altar of happiness with the heavenly principles and rise, Jesus felt great sorrow. The more he knew about the religious denomination, about the people, about his tribe and himself, the more sorrowful he became. His knowledge became a condition for sadness. Nevertheless, because Jesus assumed responsibility for history, which was connected to the sadness, we must know that he passed away with indescribable sorrow and lamentation in his heart. His mind longed for the infinitely glorious and good world of relationships. However, the reality in which he lived was such that he could not help being sorry about his lot in life, which was infinitely sorrowful. There was no one who knew the situation of Jesus, no one who stood at the intersection of two such different worlds.

The Right Attitude for a Religious Person

Jesus is the one in whom we believe today and who sacrificed his life for this faith. No religious people have known about this since history began. No one on earth knew how to grab hold of Jesus and cry over this. Carefully considering this matter in this light, the mind with which you can weep unrestrainedly for the sorrow of Jesus must linger in you and overwhelm you. Otherwise, you cannot be considered a religious person who is proceeding toward the heavenly kingdom. That is how I feel.

As we come to look at this pitiful people now, we have to feel sorrow regarding their fate. As we see religious denominations fighting with one another and splintering into fragments, we must watch it from the position of being inseparably related to it. Only when you know how to feel sorrowful, having a mind like that of Jesus on behalf of history, the present period, and future descendants, can you leave at least the condition of receiving the blessing granted to Israel to your descendants on the earth. You must know this.

Viewed in this light, the right attitude of a religious person is to deny himself completely. Only when he crosses the hill of death can he form ties of happiness with Heaven and say at the time of passing on, "Father, I have accomplished all that Jesus did." He should be able to end the ties of sorrow and bitter resentment that he has formed and embrace the moment when he can sing of ties interlocked with happiness. We should know that these people will possess the kingdom of eternity; they will live in the heavenly kingdom. God's will is to seek out these kinds of people.

When I look at those of you who have sought out the Unification Church and entered it, there are moments when I consider you pitiful. You sought and joined the Unification Church because you are connected with it through some unknown relationships. In spite of trying to turn your steps away, you have lingering attachments pulling on you. If this unconscious relationship was not caused by you, who was it caused by? We must know that it was because behind us was the foundation of the accomplishment of our ancestors, who strove to dissolve the bitterness in the history of blood and tears. Therefore, whenever such a feeling comes in our heart, from now on it should be possible for the mind to call out, "Father!" to Heaven and explode within us, even if we are falling down, forgetting even the consciousness of our existence. We will have to say that only when we become connected with the world of happiness after crossing the hill of history, bound with sorrow, can we become qualified to receive the Lord for the first time.

That is the case for you, and I cannot escape from it either. Why is it that unbearable and inexplicable sorrow wells up within us and penetrates deeply into us? It is because of the relationships of historical han, which even I do not understand. It is because heavenly relations, earthly relations, and human relations that we cannot understand are bound with us today. We must know this. What is it that Heaven wants? It is the person who can indemnify all the sorrowful relations on the earth. He is the man who can say, "Father! I will indemnify all Your sorrowful relationships. Please guide me to become the central figure of the history that is bound with sorrow. Please allow me to become the one who can remain in the world of sorrowful relations and whom Heaven wants in that world." If we have this kind of mind, we must know that even if numerous crosses come, it does not mean all is over.

What did Jesus mean by saying, "I have accomplished all"? Jesus had accomplished his mission only to a certain limit through his death in the course of indemnifying Heaven's sorrow. In other words, Jesus knew that if he died, an indescribable sorrow would enter into the heart of God and be connected to it. The miserable path of death would be left behind to the throng of people following him. Because he knew that the foundation of spiritual salvation would be established with his death, he was able to go beyond his death with a manly mien.

The Way of True Faith

If this kind of feeling bubbles up in your mind, you are the person who owns heaven and earth, even if you have nothing. Heaven and earth will appear as your comrades, even if you do not have any other. For that reason, you must feel that the way of true faith is the way on which you proceed linking the history of relations. It exists where you proceed to build the tower of relations with Heaven.

If we feel sorrowful when we part with a friend, how much more so should we feel when the relations we have with Heaven are disconnected? You should be able to feel that is the moment of historic sorrow, the moment of grief for heaven and earth, and the moment of sadness for humanity and the heavens.

If one felt this, he would have to feel his inadequacy, regardless of how much he might try not to, and he would not be able to control the outbreak of tears. In addition, as you have learned through the Divine Principle, the position in which we individuals stand today is one in which we have to dissolve the han of heaven and earth, even that of spirit men in the spirit world, and liberate them. You have been set on the altar of such a cosmic-level fate. You might feel infinitely sad if you let yourselves think about being sacrificial offerings in this manner. However, if you know that the sorrow of the numerous spirit men, the numerous people and beings of heaven and earth who are watching you, is greater than your sorrow, you would not allow yourself to be disappointed in the course of marching toward Heaven. You would not be able to sigh for grief.

Knowing that this kind of feeling, this shock fated to be connected to my mind, is trying to form ties with an eternal ideology, we cannot deny that we have a mind within us that wishes to live in that world. Accordingly, since spirits do exist, we will have to build the world in which those spirits can live in joy. According to the breadth and heights we have reached on earth, the authority to possess that world will be given to us. When we think about this, it is impossible not to feel that we are sinners in our hearts, even as we live and breathe, in times of joy and of sorrow. I understand this is the way of religious individuals who seek Heaven.

For that reason, I who have been walking this path for forty years, also besought Heaven when I made up my mind and stepped onto this path, saying, "Heaven! Since I am trying to go in search of You, please do not let me abandon this relationship I promised to keep until I die. Please allow me to know how to live and die in accordance with this relationship, even if the heavens, the earth, and this body all disappear." While living in a period of such a swirl of history, you will be faced with difficulties, with the cross and with persecution. Every time you are faced with such moments, you too will have to cry, holding onto Heaven, longing for the selves who promised heaven. You must shed tears before Him even under such circumstances and lament your insufficiency, your imperfections, and your enervation with bowed heads. I consider this the path of the person who marches in search of Heaven.

Please do not think all that I have belongs to me. I want to link all that I have to you. God wishes to leave behind everything Heaven has as that which is historical, current and of the future. We must not forget that we are a people, a tribe, and individuals who are being connected through such a Shim Jung. Since the God I speak of is not fictitious, and the ideology for which I long is not false, I am worried that you will be judged in proportion to your denial of the will of Heaven. Because Jesus had such a heart, he had to march on, regardless of life or death. Because Jesus was in such a position, all humankind can sympathize with him.

The Teacher's Thought

I know that you are trying to follow me, attend me as your teacher, and make every effort for me. However, you must know that I am hesitant to receive such devotion and attendance. The reason is that Heaven has not had such a day on this earth, and I cannot offer my bows sincerely before the Father day after day with a joyous mind. Because I knew too well that I was not able to relate to Heaven in joy, there have been numerous times when I rejected your devotion. Many times I seemed to knowingly cut away the anguishing heart with which you cried out before Heaven. I did not do this to satisfy my desires. I did it because it was unavoidable when I thought of the bitter resentment of the world of relationships and the actual world. Therefore, whenever you look at any aspect of things, I want you to become people who worry about Heaven with a heart teeming over with sorrow.

Even if we take delight in meeting Heaven, this is not an end in itself. If God's hope and joy existed with us, it would be indescribably great. If there were sorrow, it would be inexpressibly great. When will the central figure appear on this earth who knows how to dissolve such grief on the earth and comfort the Father for His sorrow, who knows how to reveal the happiness buried in the Father's heart by singing of the joy of the earth? You should not ignore the relationship of meeting such a central figure with a heart like this. I cannot ignore you, and you cannot ignore me. Your relationship to one another should be that of meeting one another after six thousand years of tears and sorrow.

Heaven has longed for the heavenly family, the heavenly home, the heavenly people and the heavenly kingdom. For that reason, unless people long for the heavenly kingdom, they will die away; unless a home becomes a home that wishes for heavenly people, that home will vanish; unless a person becomes one who impatiently awaits the heavenly home, that individual will disappear without a trace.

The Place where Your Status as God's Son or Daughter Is Decided

You should know how to establish a national standard, go beyond "me," rise above the family and the people, and indemnify the sorrow within the realm of that ideology. Only then can you become individuals with the qualifications to comfort the Father, who has labored for six thousand years to seek and establish His ideology in the form of a nation; who has hoped for a nation that went beyond the sorrowful relationship. In such a position, you will for the first time be affirmed as sons and daughters; in such a position the relationship with Heaven will be restored for the first time; in such a position the history of joy will begin.

No matter who they are, unless a people has a sovereignty, any passerby can cajole them and laugh at them. However, from the day sovereignty is established, no one can pass by freely or cajole them as he pleases.

The Christians scattered around the world today have not become the people of the Kingdom of God. They have not become the heavenly people with the heavenly sovereignty. Unless the heavenly people have the sovereignty to take care of them, that people can then be cajoled and abandoned. You should know this.

God did not attempt to restore the heavenly sovereignty in Egypt centering on the 600,000 Israelites. Why did He drive the mass of 600,000 people out into the wilderness toward Canaan in the hope of establishing a nation with a heavenly sovereignty? It was because He had to establish a sovereign nation Heaven could direct, even if He had to receive all kinds of persecution and go over the hill of death. We must understand the heart of Heaven, who drove the Israelites out into the wilderness in this manner, where death rolled in upon them. Unless a people equips itself with the form of a nation and then restores the sovereignty with which it can attend God, that people cannot escape being ruined and trampled upon.

Seeing the providence of Heaven from this standpoint, it is not time for the Christians scattered around the world to put their denomination first. They must consider the thought of a heavenly people, going beyond chosen-people-type thinking. This is the thought of Heaven. An altar must emerge with the pride and integrity of being the people of that nation and it must form heavenly ties, earthly ties, historical ties, and human ties and unite itself centered on Heaven. Unless this type of altar emerges, talk of realizing the heavenly kingdom on the earth is nothing but a dream.

You must know that each of you has a historical relationship of numerous enemies and numerous prophets and sages being made fools of deep within you. You have the relationships of a keenly sorrowful history deep within you, Heaven's grief because of Satan. You may meet an individual, and he or she may seem to be a mere human being to which to relate, yet there may be very complicated relationships and circumstances of Heaven involved with him or her. You must know that there have been cosmic level events in the background of that relationship.

Heaven has wandered for six thousand years in search of the sovereignty, in search of one "ism," one relationship and comrade with a true heart. This historical relationship cannot be denied. Living a life which inherits and crosses the historical course of the integrated relationships is a life of faith. That being the case, no matter how much deficiency a comrade has, no matter how insufficient a family member is, and no matter how much a family member shocks you, how could your chagrin be greater than your wish to form ties with Heaven? Where would there be a greater sorrow than that which you would feel if you forsook that relationship?

We know that the person who renders unselfish devoted service for the sake of the nation is called a patriot. The man who forsakes himself for the good of his family and relatives is called a filial son. A woman who lives unselfishly as a sacrificial offering for her family is called a virtuous woman.

If you look at the history of relationships today, our relationship with Heaven is that of a bride and bridegroom. You must know that throughout history, we have gazed steadily at and our wailing has reverberated in this reciprocal relationship.

The moment I can call God "Father" after feeling this kind of Shim Jung relationship, although "I" am a being of today, I am not limited to this earth. I am assured of being in the realm of the ideology of the eternal world. Heaven will name such a person a person of perfection. According to my understanding, a true person of faith must feel the heart of such a relationship above all. That is the proper attitude. The grace you received is not affected by today's happiness. It is the grace resulting from your having inherited the historical relationship.

Heaven Must Be Able to Give Commands with a Sense of Relief

If we wish to give our fealty to Heaven, we should, first of all, be able to bow our heads before the mind within us that wishes to do so. That mind did not originate with us. It did not come about of its own accord. It came about through some kind of truth, through some kind of reason, and through the relationships established in heaven and on earth. We must consider this valuable and precious, what we have decided in our minds, what we have pledged. We should not allow that determination, that pledge and shock of heart to end on the same day. We must bring them to a conclusion with history, and we must resolve them in concert with history. The grace of Heaven is present here. Because we have such relationships, the determination we made should not disappear along with history, nor should the pledge we made.

Only when a person emerges who feels responsible for a mission like this can Heaven be relieved and give commands. This is how I see it. We say that we are deeply imbued with sorrow, but how great would the sorrow of Heaven be, when relating with a wicked person, who has a mind that forsakes the heavenly relationship several times a day? You should realize that Heaven is weighing such a person, putting him on the scales. This is a relationship we cannot help having; this is a relationship from which we can never escape. It is a relationship we cannot free ourselves from, whether we go to the heavenly kingdom or to hell. That is why we feel pain when we go to hell.

We Must Live within the World of Original Relationship

If you have a short history of having received the grace of Heaven, two months, two years, three or even four years, you still should not consider that you have received grace only for that time. You should feel the emotion with which you can say, "I have received Heaven's grace for six thousand years." When such a mind springs up, you will be overwhelmed with awe toward Heaven. You should not become so evil as to rejoice in yourselves after Heaven has made efforts to seek you and raise you, you who should be dead ten million times over.

For that reason, you must know that the throng of people who live in the original relationship, cry in the original relationship, and die in the original relationship are the central figures of history, the central figures of the period, and the pioneers of the future. You must not forget that Heaven has unfolded the dispensation without giving up the relationship, making history to gather people like this, to call upon and raise people like this. If there were going to be judgment, there would be no one who would receive more fearful punishment than the person who forsook this relationship.

Do you have a mind that thinks of the Unification Church? Such a person does not think of this building here, some truth of this world, or this throng of people gathered here. The person who knows how to recognize the Unification Church as it is connected with God knows how to pocket his pride before the truth of such a Unification Church. He knows how to become acquainted with the feelings of the members of the Unification Church. This is a veritable member of the Unification Church. I am not going to speak any further on that.

Humanity, for whom God Waits Impatiently

What should the attitude of a person of faith be? He must have a heart that feels impatient. Because you have the connection, you must know that you cannot help being impatient. What is Heaven waiting impatiently for? Heaven longs not for a person of faith but for a person who practices the truth in life. I long to be a person who practices the truth in life rather than a person of faith. Heaven longs not for the kingdom of hope but for individuals who can live in that kingdom.

Today, we hold up a word called faith and wait eagerly. However, we must lead a life of faith beyond that. In other words, we must become members who live with Heaven, people who live with Heaven, and the church that lives with Heaven. We must lead a life of faith in which we can enjoy ourselves and sing and be able to return the glory. Heaven waits eagerly for this.

What was it that God impatiently anticipated from our numerous ancestors in the course of history, after establishing a word called "faith" in front of them? You must know that He longed not for the individuals of faith themselves, who were fighting in their respective places, but for people who could live with Him, having remained until the last days. God waited impatiently for one who could fade away for the sake of faith, who could resurrect after dying for the sake of faith, and who could escape the realm of death and sing of the joy of resurrection in the realm of life, calling God "Father" in the everlasting world. God waits eagerly for such an individual. Thinking of this, you must become the people who know how to long for the self within you for whom He eagerly waits. You must strive to seek out such a self and meet him.

Although you are standing here today, you know very well that you are not those for whom Heaven waits impatiently. You are not all for whom Heaven searches. For that reason, if you have a mind that thinks of and cares for Heaven and have a connection with Heaven, an ardent mind that waits eagerly for the original you, that mind should be established as your standard.

When we seek out such a self, we will be able to live attending the Father who has been seeking such a self, bragging about "me" as such and singing of my value. You must become the people who long to be such selves. If you lose this Shim Jung, you will not be able to go the path of faith.

The Original "I", the Foremost Standard of a Person of Faith

To begin centered on himself, to bring settlement centered on himself, to pass judgment centered on himself is the most effective way for a person. Therefore, rather than pursuing the relative self, you should pursue the self who has a direct connection to Heaven, the one with the mind that pursues value. The stimulus to cry out for and to fight to seek such a self should begin with "me." Thus, it should test my mettle. Only when that self is stimulated do I and the hoped-for "I" form mutual ties with which we surmount the difficult path of faith without problems. You must know this.

This teacher you follow has limitless feeling regarding humankind today. While I feel like cursing endlessly, at the same time, I feel like singing about that self which is hopeful.

You must know how to feel such a mind each hour throughout your lifetime. Since this is a path we take to seek such a self, without caring at all about the circumstances and situations relating to persons or the church, you must feel that you cannot abandon that path; nor can you loiter. You cannot hesitate and merely watch. Any person who retreats from such a course will not be able to own the hoped-for self. We will sigh for grief from that time on. You must realize that if you keep continuing life as it has been up to now, you will fall into a state of being lamentful, desperate and self-destructive. We cannot help lamenting about being incompetent and enervated.

Seeking and impatiently waiting for such a hoped-for self is the best standard for the ideal person of faith. You must be deeply imbued with the Shim Jung wishing to meet such a self someday. Only then can you know how to look at Heaven, and you will fight to find that self.

To Be Able to Stand Before God

The person for which God wished after establishing the ideology of creation has been hoped for throughout history. Yet he has not been able to appear as a substantial being. Because God wished for the day of hope and a person who had that hope, He has been able to fight with endurance for the six- thousand-year historical course. Because His mind is strong, because He knows that the day will come when He will meet that person, Heaven has endured until now.

Jesus equipped himself with the grace of resurrection, yet after passing beyond the cross, he left this world after establishing the day of hope with his promise, "I will come again." He was not able to boast of the day of hope at his resurrection. Since that time, longing for the day he promised to come again, Jesus has fought for two thousand years. Since Heaven walks this path, we today who are on this earth also must walk such a path. Furthermore, we must know that there is a history of toil in which Heaven has labored to establish the beings of original character created on this earth, our original selves. We must have the mind to feel concern about Heaven's honor and dignity. We must know how to march forward singing of the historical day of hope. "I" am going to meet the Lord of resurrection who comes in glory. I must have an unwavering standard for such a self, and we must make a determination and vow that we will keep to our journey no matter what, until the day we find the answer. Otherwise, we cannot deny that our life of faith has violated our true self, rather than otherwise.

Coming through the two-thousand-year historical course after Jesus, Heaven has endured, looking forward to the day of hope that is to come again. Considering that such has been the course of history, that I serve the family members and that I find the family members and give them counsel is not strange. In going forth in search of the day of receiving the central figure, the bridegroom, you must know that a decoration and ornament must be prepared as a bride. You must be able to shed tears before the Father, thanking Him and taking delight. The heavenly world is vast and infinite. When we go forth to the position where we appeal to Heaven, deeply moved, thinking of the Infinite Being, Jesus will seek for us and welcome those of us who came seeking with hope. Such will be a time of spiritual experience for you, the time when you meet Jesus spiritually. For that reason, I wish you to be deeply imbued with a mind that wishes to meet him. The one who does not have that mind cannot find the second "I" that is to be raised in front of the Father. He cannot stand before the Father. This is the conclusion to which we come. We must know this clearly.

Why Patience Is Necessary for a Religious Life

Next, we ought to become the people who know how to be patient. God has been patient. The historical course from the day the sin was committed to this day has been one of forbearance and patience. No one would deny this. By merely tracing the footprints of God as He related with people, we know that it has been a path upon which He shed tears and blood, forbearing with patience. Look at the history of Christianity. Even though enemies lured the beloved begotten son and made him disappear as a sacrificial offering of death, Heaven had to forbear, with patience.

Coming through a long history, the Israelites, chosen by Heaven, have always been left at the mercy of various peoples of the world. They were pursued throughout all the ages. In spite of being the God of that nation and the God of that people, why has He forborne their suffering with patience until now? Humanity fell because it could not forbear with patience; therefore, fate decreed that God cannot help forbearing with patience until a person forbearing with patience establishes the day of victory. Since humanity acted against God's will, unable to forbear with patience, until He finds a person who is patient, God's resentful heart cannot be healed. In other words, you must know that until after God meets such an individual, such a family, such a people and nation who can heal His resentful heart by forbearing with patience, God cannot end His history of suffering. They must provide hope for the day of happiness after dissolving the resentment of the people and the cosmos by forbearing with patience even on the path of struggle, the path of persecution, and the path of death. Otherwise, God cannot put an end to His suffering history and cannot pass judgment. Although the Father has been mortified and has had the authority to judge while suffering for six thousand years, He forbears with patience, unable to pass judgment. Since the Father's sorrow, the Father's bitterness, and the Father's mortification are attributable to this, we must begin and end forbearing with patience.

Christians use the term "judgment." What do they mean by that? It indicates the time when Heaven can put an end to His history of suffering. Heaven has suffered, eagerly waiting for such a time. It is not a matter God Himself can solve. It is a matter that must be solved through humanity. We ought to be the Christianity that can step forth onto the judgment stand with the authority to judge Satan. In addition, we should be backed up by having forborne with the patience of God, who suffered for six thousand years. By feeling, experiencing and inheriting the heart of the Father, who suffered in the historical course, we should become those who step forth with the determination to say, "Father! Please ease Your heart and let Your resentment be dissolved by me." Heaven set an objective and has forborne with patience, coming through each age, a history of unspeakable ignorance and rough struggles. Adding the whole of your mind to the heart of God, who has suffered in this manner, you must emerge with the serenity of mind that can easily forbear with patience. Otherwise, you cannot go beyond the standard of Shim Jung with which God forbore with patience, and you cannot hasten the judgment by having set the standard for the dissolution of resentment.

Heaven warned us that there would be a great seven-year tribulation in the last days. Speaking for the sake of the believers, God also said that even the chosen ones would be deluded in the last days. Additionally, you know very well about God having said that the one who endures with patience to the end, in the midst of this tribulation would acquire salvation in the last days.

The Termination Point of Forbearing with Patience

Where is the last stop of forbearing with patience? Where is the terminal point of forbearance? Have you ever wondered, feeling your way to that terminal point? Was that place Adam's home? No, it was not. Was it the home of Noah? No, it was not. When I come to think that the history of forbearance remains for me, for this society, and even for posterity, I must present myself before the Father with the qualifications of a prince of forbearance. People must step forward in front of Heaven with a mind to comfort Him, He who has endured for six thousand years.

Even though you have forbearance, you may realize that it is far from the terminal point of the forbearance that had to be undergone throughout history. Today people in our church say, "I cannot go any further because I am too exhausted." We hear people say, "I like the Unification Church, but it is too difficult to go the path." He who says that might be called a happy person from the earth's standpoint, but he is a miserable person from Heaven's standpoint. It is indeed difficult to go the path. The path to be gone is the path of tears. It is the path of tears where we look and cry, where we feel and cry, and where we cry while we give. You may have thought it was time for the tears to stop flowing, but it is not. When we come to realize that tears must continue to flow, that is, when we come to know that there is the Shim Jung of Heaven longing for the tears of further forbearance, waiting for us lowly ones, even the fact of my having endured cannot win honor for me. Though the Teacher has endured until today, since the (Korean) liberation, I have never thought about the limit of my patient forbearance yet. I do not even wish for that time to end. Once we start wishing for it to end, we will start to look after ourselves. From that time on, we will feel fear. You will have to experience this in your life of faith. Have you ever thought deeply in your minds that the Father who endured is my Father who is to live with me forever? The figure who endured is the bridegroom whom I am to attend. You may never have thought about it. Let us say there is a person who has taken delight in and enjoyed glory. Rather than envying him, you should be on your mettle in forbearance and be able to be perfectly calm and collected in forbearance. You must feel that the person who appears as the figure of forbearance before Heaven is more precious in this confused history today than the person who was blithely happy. The person who does not know how to go beyond this confused age today with such a Shim Jung will end up becoming a traitor toward Heaven.

Do you suffer pain caused by material lack? You must bear this with patience. Do you feel pain caused by knowledge? You must bear this with patience also. To not become a traitor to the six-thousand-year history of forbearance, you must continuously forbear with patience. What has remained, in spite of humanity's expectations to the contrary, is the history of Heaven. Humanity used to think it would meet with destruction, but the history of Heaven has sprung back.

You know very well about the Sayookshim, the six loyal subjects killed during the time of King Sejong of the Yi dynasty. When the spirit of this nation was about to be broken, what could lead the nation to new hope again? That was the Sayookshim, including Sung Sam Moon. Because our ancestors endured even cruel spears and swords on the path of forbearance, the path of death, our national spirit was upheld.

Who is the one to inherit the spirit of heavenly tradition today? He is the one who upholds the altar of forbearance. You must know that it is the throng of people who are waiting eagerly, facing Heaven, upholding the altar of forbearance.

This has to be felt with real emotion, with real touch, not in a fictional or imaginary way. You should be able to scoff at whatever else you feel, saying it cannot compare with what I promised and pledged in righteousness. You should be sure of this viscerally, to your very cells. Unless there is such an impulse, how can you surmount the remaining tribulation? How can you go over the hill of tribulation the nation has to go over? How can you go over the hill of tribulation the world has to go over? How can you go over the hill that Heaven has to go over? Unless the blessed land appears after passing through the course of forbearance, building a castle of tribulation and death, God's patient forbearance will not see its end.

Where to Find the True Leader

We speak of ourselves as faithful people. We flatter ourselves that we are going forward in search of the ideology of Heaven. Singing of the hope of tomorrow as the standard, we go in search of the nation and people of tomorrow, the race, the family, and the self of tomorrow. This is the path of faith. However, there still remains some distance between me and the future me. I am not there yet. If we look for that self here, we will be disappointed. You must first finish walking the path of tribulation and raise the standard of ardent Shim Jung. As long as the new history remains to be built, the day of fruition will not come. Since we began our steps, having readied ourselves as the elite soldiers of Heaven, we must proceed, looking forward. We must not look back, saying that we hear something behind. That is the sound of enemies. You must not relate with one because he is affectionate toward you. You must know that he is the enemy who has an eye on your life. In the environment you live in, there is no true friend. There is no true leader. Only in the place where you seek the real truth and the true leader will the true heavenly leader appear. Even if one had a great relationship of true life in the course of history, there were reasons for him having to appear with the relationship of false life. You must seek righteousness; you must find it in your mind. You must seek a teacher of righteousness; you must find him in your mind. You must seek a home of righteousness; you must find it in your mind. You must seek the homeland of righteousness; you must find it in your mind, and you must seek the nation of righteousness in your mind. You must consider the ideology of hope as the point of unity and oneness. Going further, by fighting with the environmental darkness, you must boast of that relationship and wait eagerly with an impatient Shim Jung for the desire to be fulfilled. Only when we make our way through the surrounding environment, boasting of the appearance of our true self, will heavenly history begin for the first time.

Only when you cross the finishing line of the final victory will new hope appear to you. You will receive a new day. You will own a new ideology. To make that new ideology your own, you must realize that the heavenly condition remains for you to go such a path. Accordingly, we who are going, having put this historical fate at the forefront, must have a firm determination.

Now, reflect upon yourselves from this viewpoint. Do I really have the right attitude of a person of faith? Has mine been a faith for the sake of establishing a mind of hope? Have I been wishing for that? If you try to solve everything, expecting that your old faith will fix everything, you will not be able to go the path.

Because we must go with the right attitude of faith, even if the influence of death comes crashing over us now, we should more than rebuke that influence. There should be a trace of surplus. There should be areas where all things belonging to me exist in surplus; surplus in my passion, in my loyalty, in my effort, and in my patient forbearance. You must know that this becomes the first standard for inheriting Heaven.

To go through this complicated reality today, we must go forward seeking that hope. Waiting impatiently for my individual self, I hope to embrace the historical relationship, the relationship of the current period, and the relationship of the future. You must go forward seeking this. Although infinite numbers of satans will be blocking your way, you will have to fight with them. You will have to keep marching on and on, running against them repeatedly. By doing so, you must become the living sacrifice determined to go over the hill of forbearance, holding up the altar of forbearance with your shoulders, your feet, your hands, your body, and your head. Otherwise, you cannot have the proper attitude of true individuals of faith. You cannot be seen as the ones who seek the will and truth of Heaven.

Prayer

Father! As the time grows near, the mind of hesitation in meeting the Lord of resurrection seeps out. Please let the appearance of Jesus Christ, bearing the sad relationship of death, be in our mind more as the time grows near.

We learned that he who died on an instrument of punishment bore a bitter heart. We learned that the summit of Golgotha where he walked is the hill of tears over relationships. We learned that the blood and tears he shed have remained alive in the history of relationships until today and are entering into the hearts of human beings who are being resurrected. Since all these things were due to the blood and tears shed in the midst of the will of the providence of history, we know that all things will move forward by those tears and blood until that relationship exists. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that you will allow us to be those who are deeply penetrated with such a Shim Jung today.

Lord, who left in this manner; Lord, who is the bridegroom: you promised you would come again through the history of relationship. We know you have an ardent Shim Jung to seek us and use us, devoting your mind and body. Please allow us to be eager to boast of the glorious appearance before all humankind, having prepared ourselves. In trying to go forward on the path, we realize it is an evil world. Since the path the Lord walked remains, we must walk the remaining hill for the nation, continuously forbearing with patience. We must also walk the remaining hill of the world. We have realized for the first time that now we cannot help sustaining the history of martyrdom where one goes over the hill of the cross by forbearing with patience.

Once we listened to the words, we felt awe-stricken. Once we were awakened, we felt ashamed. What further excuses can we make? What wish can we have in front of the Father? Please forgive us for not having anything of which to boast.

Please allow us now to go forward until the day we can hold onto the Father and wail, feeling the relationship with a new mind, waiting eagerly with a new mind, and forbearing with a new mind. Allow us to go beyond the relationship of rankling sorrow. Soliciting ardently that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can overstep the influence of death and sing of the glory of resurrection by having endured and remained until the time when we can boast of the relationship of happiness, I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.