Longing for Eden

Sun Myung Moon
May 24, 1959
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. 4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. 5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground -- trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die." 18 The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." 19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man." 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Genesis 2:1-25

Prayer

Father, please allow us to feel how You lamented over not having had even one original person who could see the original world. Father, please permit us to think about Your sorrow over not having had one day in which You could rejoice with humanity, even though we have inherited Your original nature. Please grant that we may experience Your sorrow directly and personally in this hour. We ask this sincerely.

Please forgive the fault of the human ancestors who brought sorrowful lamentation to You. With great ideals, You dreamed of the joyful garden. We also sincerely ask You to forgive the sin of our ancestors, who caused You to persevere through the historical course of pain and hardship to recover that garden of hope.

We know and believe that You will remove the thousands of years of painful resentment and victoriously fulfill Your ideal. Father, we desire to offer everything we have for that purpose. Please rule that mind and will in us, and guide us to be the sons and daughters who can bring about that victorious standard.

If there was a time when we did not have an earnest heart toward Your will, Your heart, and Your ideal during the past week, please forgive us. Father, please forgive us for not having the unified standard, even though we earnestly desire to be connected to Your heart.

We know Your heart experienced sorrow as You worked with our ancestors in the historical course. Loving Father, we sincerely hope and ask that You allow us to be the true sons and daughters who are willing to take responsibility for the failures of our ancestors and humanity at this time of the last days and who can comfort Your pain-filled heart. Father, please have compassion upon us. We have knelt in front of You to offer our bows, although we are unqualified and unfaithful.

If any of us hold an unrighteous and wrong view or concept in Your presence, please eliminate it totally and allow no such thing. We earnestly hope and desire that You create an inspired and grateful heart in our minds and bodies at this time with which we can share and rejoice together with Your heart. Please make the numerous saints and heavenly angels rejoice together with us and return the glory of that happiness to You.

We hope that this hour of our offering can be a time when we can comfort and liberate You, the one who experienced the sorrow in that original garden. Father, we wish to offer our inadequate prayers and offerings. Father, please protect this hour from beginning to end with Your shield of victory and Your flaming eyes, so that Satan may not invade and You will totally subjugate us.

Please eliminate all unrighteous natures from our hearts and instill instead the original heart that we may work with You and that this hour may be one of happy offering. As we ask all these things, we pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

We feel in our bones that the history of toil by which humanity must regain the land of Zion remains with us. This land has not become a place where true people with original hearts live. You could not establish the remnants of the original heart on this earth. Father, please allow us to be Your children who can comfort Your sorrowful heart of lonely battling on, as You longed for the original world. Father! We cannot help having a fearful mind as we recall the course of Your sorrowful history. We cannot help being overwhelmed every time we face Your suffering, holy presence. Father, please raise these as Your children who can offer their minds and bodies to You, who can lighten the burden from Your shoulder and stop Your suffering.

You have been longing for the victorious day when You could rejoice and sing the song of liberation from a state of happiness. We realize, however, that You are not the one who must bring about the liberation. We must do it, humanity, struggling in the realm of death.

Please forgive us as we struggle in the realm of death, not knowing the value of standing in such an important position. Please stir in us an earnest heart with which we can praise Your glorious heart, as we raise a new banner for the restoration of the original heart. Please make us into true sons and daughters with the original sung sang and hyung sang so that we may sing of Your liberation.

We believe that You already know that is our greatest wish. Father, we pray in front of You, bowing our heads, representing the agonizingly miserable people of this nation. We know that the day of victory will surely come. We sincerely hope and desire that You will guide us to one standard and guide us to be an offering to Your great will which You want to entrust to us.

Now as we are gathered before Your presence, please allow us to dismantle all the situations of our minds and bodies. Please allow us to comfort You with the earnest mind that emerges from a true heart. Please move our hearts in this hour, so that we may bow our heads humbly to You. Please stir in us an earnest mind that repents for our past, reflects about our present reality, and admires Your holy grace. Please personally direct our minds. Father, please make us realize in this hour that we must be touched by a new feeling and take a new direction now.

Father, please allow us to gather our inadequate offerings and prepare a living altar in this hour. We know that each of us must be a victorious offering. Therefore, we ask You to eliminate anything that may not be righteous to You and to exercise Your authority of new creation by spreading Your powerful hands. Father, we sincerely hope and desire that You grant us the sung sang and hyung sang of original re-creation which can wipe out anything other than what is Yours.

Oh, Father! Please awaken the thirty million people who are still asleep. Please guide the billions of people of the world, who are struggling in misery, to Your original garden of goodness, Your ideal. No matter what kind of persecution or difficulties we may face, we earnestly ask that You quickly guide humanity into the midst of Your ideal garden.

Father, we know well that there is a responsibility human beings must fulfill; Father, please command Your loving sons and daughters. Please command them to recover the remaining land of evil and the people. Father, we sincerely hope that this hour can be one in which You can command us and send us out as heavenly soldiers and builders.

Father, please spread Your hands of glory and love to wherever Your lonely sons and daughters are gathered and are pleading with You. Allow them to feel Your touch, so that they may offer their hearts in unison upon one altar in this hour. Please bless the many denominations representing the people of this nation. We sincerely wish that the day of victory will come and that this land can be the place where Your joy is restored.

Please subjugate everything of ours now. If there is anything that is against Your will, we fear it will become a condition for Satan to invade. Father! Please eliminate any condition that may allow Satan's invasion, and please embrace everything with Your powerful grace. Please give Your commands personally.

We ask earnestly that You have dominion over this hour from beginning to end only with what is Yours. I pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, if anyone possessed a true mind and true body, he would surely long for life in the original world. After the creation of heaven, earth and all things, You felt so much happiness in seeing the first original human beings, Adam and Eve! They could directly relate to You before the fall. How precious was their position of glory, from which our ancestors should have been able to relate to You! Please grant that this hour be one of admiring the original world. We sincerely hope and long for the heart of goodness which can cause a direct reaction from Your heart. We hope and long for the form of original goodness which can hold Your hands. We long for our original ancestors.

Even on earth, we know that there is no distance or limitation of time or space in the world of the heart. Please allow us to long for our original form, which is the form of our original ancestors, born of the heart of infinite love. We are still asleep, struggling and wandering aimlessly in the realm of death. Please allow us to shed tears of longing for our original form. Allow us to struggle in search of You as our Creator. Father, we earnestly ask You to grant us the experience of beauty in our minds and bodies, which can harmonize with the atmosphere, the environment, and all things of that original world.

All people of the world are proudly asserting themselves, yet they are striving only to make themselves visible and higher without acquiring the original form for which You long. Your words convey the message that Your sorrow in facing humanity has penetrated heaven and earth. Having lost their owner, all things remain in the realm of lamentation. We realize this. Father, please do not permit us to become forgetful of our responsibility to transcend this realm of lamentation and to liberate You.

Father, when we called You, we often called on You as the one who had suffered in the course of fallen history. We did not call You as the original Father who would rejoice in the garden of goodness without the sorrow of the fall. We did not search after that kind of Father. In believing in the true Savior, we believed in Jesus, who died on the cross. Yet we did not believe in the possibility of Jesus appearing as the lord of glory without the suffering of the cross, the pain, and persecution. Please forgive us.

Father, please grant us an overflowing longing for the harmonious world where we can live in the original state with the original ideology and original goodness. My Father, we sincerely hope and ask that You allow us the joyful position where we can call You "Father" with the original heart.

We know that the historical sorrow has been accumulating since the day the first sin stained this earth through the six-thousand-year history. This reality was caused by the mistake of our ancestors. Father, You know our miserable situation well: that we must be liberated from historical lamentation and sorrow. Please comfort us. Father, we know of Your sorrowful situation, for You have to hold onto our feeble hands. You must make victorious soldiers and an army out of fragile people. Please admonish and scold us. We desperately ask that You shape us into the capable workers and servants You can use, even if You have to whip us for not heeding Your words of goodness and Your true heart.

Please allow us to understand the heart of Moses as he guided the 600,000 Israelites who were wandering in Egypt. Moses related to his people with a most sincere heart. We have the responsibility to inform the Christians of the world (who should inherit the blessing of the Second Israel) that the restoration of the blessed land of Canaan lies with them. Father, we know of these responsibilities which must be fulfilled today. Please grant the remnants of Your resentment, Your anger, and Your mortification to penetrate into our bones and flesh.

Father, I sincerely ask that these people be Your loyal sons and daughters who are determined to take revenge upon the Father's enemy, even if they stumble a thousand times, even if they die a hundred times. We know that the path of the cross remains with us as we carry out Your commands. These are Your lonely sons and daughters who have volunteered to walk the difficult path; please be a friend of the heart to them.

We know that we can resemble You with our minds and bodies and become an unchanging, central people who can represent You when You become our eternal center. Therefore, we earnestly ask You to personally take our minds and bodies as Yours.

Father, we have already made the determination. Please allow us to be Your sons and daughters who fight, live and die with that determination.

I wish to convey Your words, but what shall I speak to these lonely members at this time? Please guide me to convey Your command as it is, and allow them to become heavenly offerings which You can accept. I sincerely ask this.

Please recognize our minds and bodies as Yours. Father, if there is any sinful nature which prevents You from taking possession of us, we sincerely ask You to eliminate it by the glory of the Trinity. We also ask You to guide this hour and not permit any invasion of Satan.

Please make us return to the innocent mind of a child by clearing out all of our thoughts and assertions. Please clarify our feelings and experiences. We earnestly ask You to permit this hour to be one when we can return to the heart of a child, so that we can be intoxicated by admiration and a heart of longing, and be totally absorbed in Your words. We ask all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Human Beings Long for the Original World

I would like to talk to you on the topic of "Longing for Eden."

When we think of the original garden before the fall, the Garden of Eden, the first thing that comes to our mind is God. At the same time, Adam and Eve, whom God created on the sixth day and blessed, come to our mind. All things, which were not invaded by sin, come to mind, together with our sinless original ancestors centering on God.

All things should exist for human beings; human beings should exist for God. However, the reality is that the human beings did not center themselves upon God, and all things could not center themselves upon the human beings. This remains as the great sorrow, misery and lamentation which captures our minds and bodies even today. No one can deny this reality.

When we think seriously about our ancestors who lived in the original world and original garden and God, who acted centering only upon the goodness which governed our ancestors, we cannot deny that we are far away from that situation. The more we have an earnest heart to make a relationship with the highest goodness personified in You, the more we agonize over the gap between ourselves and that highest goodness. If there were indeed a person who set out to resolve that agony, he would inevitably feel intense anger and enmity toward the traces of the fall that blocked Adam and Eve from harmonizing with all things and the original world centered on and glorifying only goodness.

Our mind is surely following the path that can connect us with the heavenly heart without even being conscious of it, because we long for that true, original world of goodness. We have the destiny to make an eternal connection with that world and the heavenly heart, transcending the limitations of time. However, our lamentation is that we do not have the external environment or the internal situation which can connect us to that heart.

From this perspective, we cannot deny that we are in a position to resent the fallen Adam and Eve and the reality of our environment today. If I am overwhelmed in this environment, can my mind and body feel happiness? Impossible. We are in such a situation. Therefore, we still have an unavoidable course of difficulty left to overcome this impossible environment.

We should remind ourselves again that we have been struggling until now in search of something without knowing where it was. However, now the time has come. The more I long to purify my conscience, to develop an eternal relationship with God, the subject of conscience, and to establish the standard of eternal happiness, the more I should feel indignant toward this world in which I live. Moreover, we should realize once again that there is no greater pain nor any greater problem than this, because we cannot resolve this indignation within our reality.

If God exists, He would surely love us and visit us in our pain and misery. We can recognize the existence of God by having a relationship of respect and concern for each other. God has been toiling and following the footsteps of fallen humanity, restraining His sorrowful heart, from the day of the fall until now. You must feel this once again.

Eden Is Moved by God's Heart

We should confess that we are descendants of the fall before being proud of ourselves. We should reveal our sinful nature and history, which is stained with fallen nature, before we reveal anything. Although we are in this situation, we have been evading this position. As we see the enlightenment taking place more and more often, God must resolve the sin-stained history and the resentment of the sin which is transmitted through the blood-lineage.

God's longing and our wish are to resolve this resentment of sin. If the day of enlightenment does not come, there will be no day of resolution and liberation. If there is no day of resolution and liberation, there will be no day when God's will is fulfilled. If the day of the fulfillment of God's will does not come, there will be no day of glory for God who has guided the dispensation or for humanity, who followed and supported the dispensation.

We should be able to feel with our mind, body and spirit, the holiness in everything of nature. Our original nature should feel the touch of God's heart. We should be able to feel the heavenly heart and love which are experienced through our original essence, our original nature and character in our body. If such a person exists, he would be the happiest person on earth.

Before the fall, the ancestors of all humanity should have possessed minds connected to God's heart. They should have established all things as a glorious condition before God, as the symbolic, eternal objects of happiness and beauty which can bring internal stimulation. They should have proudly shown themselves as the substantiations of glory by the internal stimulation which comes from all things. However, they did not become such people. That is the greatest sorrow.

Eden is moved by God's heart. It is to harmonize with goodness, to practice heavenly ideology in daily life, to symbolize goodness in everything it sees, hears and feels, and to stimulate goodness in every aspect. If you can harmonize with God's heart and gloriously call Him, "Heavenly Father" from that place of goodness, that would be your greatest happiness. If God could make a relationship with such a person, He would make no further demands. We should know this.

If we trace the process of God's creation, He created all things in five days to create the human ancestors, Adam and Eve, the true parents of goodness who were to represent His true hyung sang. On the sixth day, God created the central figures who could dominate all things. With what kind of heart did God look forward to creating these central figures? I hope this hour can be a time when You can call "Heavenly Father" within your mind as you reflect upon this again.

We relate to all things every day; they give us visual stimulation. However, we have related to them with the same old heart. Had the fall not taken place, all things would have been related to by our original nature, centering on goodness. We should think again how our ancestors would have felt looking at nature; how God would have felt looking at nature and at human beings.

The Mind which Feels God's Touch Even in a Patch of Grass

We should think that God's hands touch everywhere, even an insignificant patch of grass growing in the field. When we look at a growing tree, we should remind ourselves that God's infinite, internal heart passed through that place. Not only plants, any animal, insect or bird in nature is the same. We should feel once again that nothing was created thoughtlessly; it was created thoroughly through God's internal heart and by His substantial hands.

When we realize that God loves everything He created, we should ponder: which does He love the most? Out of the grasses in the world, which does He love the most? If you think about these things seriously and earnestly, you will be able to connect with the love of God prior to the creation of human beings.

We should rejoice over a blade of grass, holding it with a joyful heart and experiencing that it has indeed passed through the hands of God. Such a person would enter into the position of God's friend in the world of the heart, even though he may be a fallen person. Wouldn't it be so?

Which grass would God love the most? Out of all the flowers, which flower would God love the most? Out of all the trees, which tree would He love the most? Even though all the birds, insects and animals were created through God's heart, which one would God love the most? You should think about this.

Among the persons who admire God's heart, long for God's ideology, and have the true mind of seeking God's garden of restoration, there may be many who try to exalt God and experience happiness from a glorious and joyful position. However, there would be only a few who think about the connection of God's internal heart that extends to the insignificant trees, insects and the whole creation, and truly feel happy. If someone made an insect, pouring out all of his energy and passion, there would be nothing more satisfying to him than someone wanting to love that insect with the whole of his mind and heart, with even greater effort and intensity than himself.

What did Jesus struggle to find before trying to restore the people of his nation to God two thousand years ago? For what did his heart look? I know Jesus was surely holding his people, worried about them remaining in the realm of lamentation. He prayed through the night, shedding tears for them.

If Jesus had not felt sorrow and shed tears all through the night when he looked at all things in the realm of lamentation, having lost the relationship of the original heart because of the human fall, I would venture to say he would not have become the Savior who could rule over and save the whole cosmos. If all things were taken away from a human being, he would not be able to sustain his life. For that reason, as long as he feels his preciousness, he should become a mediator of happiness toward all things which provide the elements for his essence. If he maintains this heart, he will be able to maintain the right way with nature everywhere he goes. He will be able to return glory to God under any circumstances by standing in a position of righteousness and a position of connection with all things.

When Jesus looked at nature, he would have wondered what grass God loved most, what flower out of the many that God loved most, which tree, which mountain. I ask all of you to reflect again upon the loving heart of Jesus.

How responsible a heart have you had in relation to all things God created with His heart and love? Have you ever held a handful of soil and thought about God's heart after He created it? If you have not, you are a sinner who ignores the heart with which God established the ideal of creation.

Human Civilization Cannot Be Thought of Apart From Nature

We understand that science is an area which attempts to explain principles, laws, theories and formulas of the created world. Literature would be an area of the deep, hidden sentiment in nature. Art is a concrete expression of the visible or hidden beauty in nature. Philosophy is an area that tries to explain the fundamental reasons for nature. Religion is above all these levels.

What should true religion and true religious people try to explain? It should be the clarification of the heartistic content which flows deep within nature. Religion should bear that responsibility.

Human civilization cannot be thought of apart from nature. We cannot talk about human civilization separated from nature. No matter how proudly human beings showcase their power and authority, without nature nothing is possible.

Nature makes our life valuable; it is absolutely necessary for our life. Therefore, if we do not feel the heart that flows in nature, we cannot enjoy true happiness and cannot reach the glorious position of having a relationship with God. You should realize this.

From now on, even when you look at a patch of grass or a flower, you should be able to look at it from God's point of view, representing and connected with God's heart. When you look at an insect, bird or animal, you should attain the internal feeling which connects to God's heart. If there were such a person, he would certainly be a great scientist, a great poet, a great artist, a great philosopher, or a great religious person. Even if he could not explain it with scientific logic, even if he could not express that sentiment poetically, even if he could not express that beauty artistically or philosophically, and lacked the power to experience the love emotionally, he would still be great.

There have been many who were viewed as great figures of worldwide prominence, great scholars who researched the cosmos on their own. However, no one can be called a world figure without presenting the ultimate solution to the problem of this cosmos and the beings within it.

In the World of Heart There is no Disparity between the Subject and the Object

Progress would cease for a person who merely understood and perceived the cosmos through existing scientific logic, theories and formulas. He would need the heartistic sensitivity which is unconsciously connected secretly to the cosmos. This is also true in the fields of literature, art, philosophy and religion.

A world-famous scholar would have the sensitivity deep in his heart to harmonize with the heart of nature. Having the sensitivity which can be connected to nature, he would unexpectedly receive hints, inspirations or dreams. These phenomena would occur only when he was intoxicated in his research area.

History testifies that people of much love and emotion did great things. If there is a religious person who can call out "God!" when he looks at a patch of grass, harmonized with such an emotion, he would indeed be a great religious person.

In Buddhism today, many people pray for blessing in front of a statue of Buddha. The external difference between the subject and the object in this instance would be enormous. However, in the world of heart, there would be no difference. If they believe and connect to it as God by the feelings inspired there, then God does not abandon such minds. He fulfills their wishes. The phrase "a wish come true" originates from this.

When we consider these things, our past and present life have been overly insensitive and unsentimental. We have had a desolate cosmic view. You should feel sorrow about this. If you become a person who does feel sorrow about this situation, then you will be called "a new person" in the new world and will be able to take responsibility for the new age. I have confidence this is true.

We should become a people who can forget our own sad feelings by the joy we feel from looking at growing grass, instead of frowning and lamenting as we look at our environment and the problems of society. If there is such a person, he would remain in the new age. If there is a person who aspires to the ideal and heartistic world, he would indeed try desperately to make a certain relationship with God.

Unification Church members! Please feel astonished when you look at growing grass. The unlimited power of life and God are there. When we look at a surging mountain peak, we feel a different emotion today compared to yesterday. If I could sing of the different emotions my heart feels with the changes of the four seasons, how elegant would that be? That person would be able to harmonize with all of nature. The original human being before the fall would certainly be such a person.

If there is a person who can sing and rejoice over the flowing stream, the river which flows through a vast field, the surging mountains, the rising morning sunshine, the moonlight shed from the east, and all things, unmindful of time, then he would be the true original human being of whom God dreamed and idealized as He created all things. This is the one to whom He wanted to entrust all things. The person who visits all the beautiful places would be the same. God wanted such human beings.

God Could Not Sing about Nature with Humankind

In the original garden of Eden, God could not have an hour of singing about nature and of expressing feelings toward nature with Adam and Eve. God must have desired to say, "Oh, my son, look at that mountain. I created it in this and this way. Look at that forest. I created it in such and such a way. All these I created for your happiness." Why could God not do that? It was because Adam was still immature. However, you should know that God had an earnest internal heart which He wanted to express to Adam. We should understand that God could not express such things to Adam because Adam was still emotionally and heartistically immature.

If Adam had been mature enough for God to express His heart, then God could have said, "Oh, Adam! Look at the flower in the garden. Look at the mountains and streams." If our ancestors had lived that way, humanity would not struggle today in the misery of the realm of death.

Therefore, you should long for the original Eden. You should long for the world where God's infinite love exists, where the emotion of eternal love can be harmonized, where all will be intoxicated in singing for eternity. In that Eden, all will take responsibility and pour out their effort, thinking that once they take responsibility, it will be of eternal value. God's sorrow is not being able to find such a person. God, who works through the dispensation on earth, must find such a person.

Among the songs we sing, there are songs which have the content of the mountains, a stream and nature within. They exist to assist in raising our emotions. Everything is like that. How wonderful it would have been had the heart of Adam and Eve gone in the direction God's heart wanted to go!

Now you should have such a heart. The person who has such an abundant mind and has experienced such a heart would be able to participate in the new age as a citizen of the new ideal Kingdom of Heaven.

If you wish to hold the glorious hands of God after resolving the agony of restoration and overcoming the sorrow of history, you should know what kind of person God would hold. God would want to hold the person to whom He can say, "Please enjoy all things in my place. Please experience all things in my place. Please love all things in my place."

Have you ever longed to see a natural flower in an atmosphere of mystery or grace? Have you ever related to it with as earnest an attitude as you do your ancestors? Have you ever offered praise to God because of the stimulation you felt from looking at a mountain stream? I would conclude that if you have not, then you are not qualified to be the owner of all things. No matter how wonderful the Garden of Eden may be, unless it is a place where all things and human beings are connected in heart and are able to move God, it is not a place for which we should long.

Until now we have prayed only for human beings. However, I do not pray that way. We should pray not only for humankind, but for God and Jesus. We should pay back the debt to Jesus, who prayed for us throughout the night. We should then pray for God, who has toiled until today, then we should pray for humanity. The person who lives with such feeling and sensitivity is the person closest to God. I would say this out of experience.

If you become tired on your way and sit down at some resting place with such a feeling, then God will surely be with you. If you can be that kind of person, then you would be able to sing of God's heart, holding the root of an old tree, leaning against a large rock in the shade as a resting place.

Fallen People Should Feel Both Joy and Sorrow in Sight of All Things

We members of the Unification Church should have a kind of flower which we like the most among all the flowers, just as God loves certain things more than others among all of His creations. If we do not have such a feeling, then we should be disqualified from the world of the heart. You should be able to say which flower out of all the flowers, which tree out of all the trees, which grass out of all the grasses you like the most. Only then will you have a longing mind toward nature.

As one's life vibrates, the one who has a relationship of heart which can embrace life and attract nature would be a person of dedicated will and seriousness. The nature we are looking at, this land we are stepping on, what kind of nature and what kind of land are they? Unfortunately, it became fallen land, sorrowful land. You should feel this. When you look at all things, you should feel the sorrowful situation of all things, as well as joy and goodness, for they remain in the realm of lamentation. Fallen humankind should feel unlimited sorrowful emotion and be able to connect with God as they look at beautiful places and enjoy them.

We should be a people who can feel sad, who can cry, and who can sigh, instead of feeling joy as we hold a blade of grass, look at a tree or mountain, and all other things. We should know that this mind emerges out of a longing for Eden. God is filled with such a heart. Humankind has not escaped from that relationship of heart until now. The person with such a heart would long for Eden as he looked at nature. When longing for Eden, we should long not only for nature within it, but also for the original person who can own all things there.

The True Person For Whom God and All Things Long

Jesus blessed his enemies. He blessed those who hammered the nails into his hands and feet and who put the crown of thorns on his head. He blessed the reckless enemy who pierced his side with the spear. Why did he do that? He could bless them for he understood well that they are human beings who were created as a result of the greatest investment of God, through His earnest heart and a process of enormous toil. Can you understand?

Jesus came with God's inner situation. He was opposed by his enemies. However, he had to bless them, for they were human beings whom God had created with His whole heart and energy, His original heart.

Jesus had a perfect relationship with God in prayer, meditation and imagination during his thirty-odd years of life on this earth. Therefore, he was the original true person. He was the person for whom all things and God longed.

A human being desires to finish his leftover work the next day, if the work was not completed the day before. It is the same for God. If a person entered into the world of God's heart and experienced how much joy God felt after creating human beings, dancing for tens of years would not suffice to express the experience.

God would not need human beings who were created with the value some religious people describe. The value of the human being is enormous, for he was created through absolute principles that have unlimited flexibility and cannot be measured by any law. When God looks at such a person, He feels His whole inner nature and the emotion of the whole cosmos from him. God is infinitely joyful upon seeing him.

What happened to Adam and Eve, over whom God rejoiced, for whom God longed, and who God hoped would become the owners of all things? What happened to Adam and Eve for whom God and all things longed? Because of the fall, the longing turned into resentment and cursing; happiness and hope turned into lamentation and hopelessness; life turned into death, and love turned into mourning.

Many of us still do not know from whence this miserable reality came and how we are related to it, even though we are in a position to lament the reality of having such regrettable ancestors. God is looking for those who can sweep away the regret and resentment, who can go in search of the original human heart and raise the sound of joy.

The human beings for whom God and all things have longed are in this miserable state, and we deserve to be judged. That is the way I think. "Father! If I desire to avoid the judgment, then I hope to be qualified with respect to the heart. I want to be a victor who can avoid judgment and sing by passing the test with respect to the heart of God when He rejoiced after the creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and with respect to the heart of God longing to go and see them." We should pray like this. God hopes we will do so.

I should become a person who longs for God's administration and who longs for the people. You should think how great the grace of God is in creating a son and a daughter to have us experience His heart.

Man and woman represent God's total nature and character. Therefore, we should become a man who knows how to love a woman and a woman who knows how to love a man. Humankind today does not know God's will. He desires to turn the whole cosmos over to a man and a woman who possess the standard of the heart which Adam and Eve wanted to achieve through God's heart.

Humankind is struggling with infinite longing in the world of the heart, because they have defiled the law of the heart. The reality of fallen humankind is constant struggle in an unsuccessful attempt to fill that longing through hobbies, art, knowledge, and objects of love. This is the historical tragedy and sorrow.

If such a longing is surging within your mind, you should become a person who can long for that original garden together with all things, and who can acquire the form of the original human being and long for God. If you become that kind of person, then God cannot help holding you with open arms, saying, "Oh! My son! My daughter!"

The Mission of Religion in Cultivating the Person of Character Who Can Govern the Cosmos

If you wish to go in front of God by elevating your value, you should listen to the words of the Lord. You should respond to God's longing heart and possess a mind of longing for God by experiencing the value of the original person in the original garden. How much joy God would feel if such a person came forth.

Longing cannot occur without love. That love should be God's love, which is the origin of eternal rest and eternal life, not human love. Therefore, out of all the religions, Christianity tries to fulfill that mission as the religion of love. The purpose of religion is to cultivate a person of character who can utilize the laws of the world of the heart and who has the authority to govern the emotions of life and all the principles of the cosmos.

God has been accomplishing the dispensation by setting the standard of heart which longs for us, humankind, while we have been like wooden statues throughout the six thousand years. History has changed in all kinds of ways; however, God has never lost that heart of constant longing for humankind from the position of the Alpha and the Omega. If someone has a gap between his and God's heart, then he would be a loser and a failure in history. God's statement, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the before and the after, the beginning and the end," is a grateful statement. We should realize that God longs for fallen people, His longing intensified by His sorrow.

God has not forsaken the mind which longs, the insignificant body of this fallen person who brought a wound to His original heart. He continues to hold on. If there is a person who truly feels that God is longing for fallen humanity, holding the scar of sorrow, he will surely go to heaven. I once prayed like this: "Father, I wish to be a person who can cry out with longing for my own hands." God would be hoping for such a person. If God can hold my hand with His true love, I should be a person who can cry, holding onto my hand.

We should be a people who can cry, holding the hands of the original Adam who longed for God. Moreover, we should be a people who can cry holding on to Adam and Eve. If we can be such a people, then we can step over fallen history.

We try to elevate our value and raise ourselves as objects of longing, even without being aware of it because we have the historical responsibility to long for the original person, to show that value proudly, and to offer it before God. That is natural because a human being has that ideal innately. However, as we elevate our value, if we allow in the value of the fallen world in the slightest, as we try to establish ourselves as the object of longing, it can become the basis for the fall by the slightest mistake.

Therefore, for fallen humanity, everything is denial. We have to give up everything. It is because Adam and Eve fell from the position of not having everything. Not having the authority to dominate all things is the fall. Has Adam ever stood in the position to dominate all things? No, he has not.

We should understand that we should give up everything and start with tears, for the historical condition to long and look for that original person remains. For that reason, we should look for a religion that induces tears. In Christianity we hear, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near." Jesus came to this earth and said this. These are words of wailing. They tell us to wail when I look at myself, wail for my family, for my loved ones, for my people, my nation, and for this whole earth. We should understand that this is because God's will to re-establish the relationship of longing still remains with us.

The Problem of Life Can Be Solved Only through Religion

We should be able to long for all things and all people. Have you longed for all people? Have you ever experienced the heart which is connected to God's pure heart, which can enjoy giving without limit and then forget? To induce such a heart, God worked the dispensation with words like religion, the Savior, the bride and bridegroom. We should be able to give our all to Him.

God is longing for the day when He will receive all things offered with heart and longing. He longs to receive a family that is offered with heart and longing. God is hoping that this nation, this people and this world will be offered.

You should be able to stand in front of God with a longing heart and say, "I only have this one cent, but please accept it." When you can do this, that one cent can represent the cosmos. No matter how humble the family, if they can say, "Please accept this unworthy family," that family can inherit the heavenly task. When the Israelites, who wandered miserably in the wilderness, asked with a longing heart toward God, "Please accept this people as Yours," God tried to give the leading authority of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth to those people.

It is the same for the nation and the world. If there is an idealism or ideology for all of humanity, it should make us long for God heartistically; otherwise it cannot resolve the fundamental problem of life and the heavenly dispensation.

The fall was missing an hour of longing for God and for the original garden in search of heartistic relationship. Therefore, my mission for the restoration is to put my life on the line and achieve the world where such a relationship is established.

God presides over the ideal realm of that heartistic and longing-filled garden, and He searches for all things and humanity. If there is a person who can call such a God "my Father" with the attitude that can comfort God's mind and with a heart desperate to fulfill that mission, then God cannot say He does not know him. If there is a person who wanders in search of the original garden with such a heart, God cannot say He does not know him. Humanity cannot deny him. The creation cannot deny him. We should know that he is a true human being.

Therefore, all things which grow in that garden of longing, the human beings who live there, and God who comes to that garden should not be disconnected. Rather, centering on the human being, God is in the above position and all things are in the below position. They form one happy resting place in which all can harmonize. We should know the person in that garden is the one whom God can love, whom humanity can love, and whom all things can respect as their true owner.

Unless this work is completed, God's total will cannot be completed and see the glory of victory. We will not be able to resolve the sorrow of the fall and realize the dream. We should know clearly that we cannot build the world of victorious glory unless this is fulfilled.

Prayer

Father, we know that the course of restoration is almost endless. We human beings run and run in circles without resolving our sorrow and resentment. However, when we become connected to Your world of heart, we can establish a relationship with the history of sorrow. Today's struggle can become the foundation for the future, and we can ultimately build the garden of unlimited hope, unlimited happiness, and unlimited longing.

Where are the mountains and streams to which You can bring Adam and show them off proudly? Where are the blooming flowers, the growing trees, the green fields, and running streams You wanted to show Adam proudly?

Adam, who could have stood in the position to accompany You in the state of connected heart, fell and left You. We earnestly hope and ask that we can become ones who can attend You and rejoice with all things, all people, and the cosmos.

We realize that the bitterness of the cross cannot be connected to us unless we reach it through our longing. The glorious position which You left cannot be connected to us either, unless we have the mind to admire the ideal garden with piercing longing. Father, please grant that we may become Your sons and daughters who can relate to all things in the original garden as original persons with the heart of longing. Let us be able to victoriously receive Your blessing without any relationship with the fall. Please guide us to be the true ancestors of humanity. We earnestly ask this.

Father, we entrusted everything of this day to You. I ask earnestly that You grant them the heart that experiences a new joy through the offered words. I ask everything in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Please Let Us Feel the Heart of Deep Historical Regret through Jesus

Sun Myung Moon
May 17, 1959
Prayers: A Lifetime Of Conversation With Our Heavenly Father

Oh Father, who has carried out the providence in order to greet the day of hope you have anticipated and waited for, you could not cast away faithless humankind, and in order to embrace the many lonely groups of people, you gave the blessing of Israel, and led history forward, and on the day that you sent the being you had promised, heaven should have been filled with your glory, and through the rejoicing hearts of all the people, both heaven and earth should have been filled with joy. But Father, we know the greatly mortifying historical fact that the sorrow of 4,000 years was imposed on the one person of Jesus.

He was born in a stable, and the more than 30 years he lived were so wretched and so lonely, and there were so few places he could depend on. Today we know that Jesus, who had so few people he could trust, died as the leading character of enmity, and was not able to open his innermost heart to people or express his earnest heart on the earth.

There remained heavenly advice he had to give, but because the people who had to receive it did not believe in him, he could not say everything, and he died with the sorrow of it still being in his heart. Please forgive all humankind who do not know that sorrow of Jesus 2,000 years ago. Nevertheless, we have heard the prayers, the words of advice and the requests he gave to the disciples he gathered and who followed heaven.

We know the mortifying historical fact that the moment when his destiny and heaven's destiny met, the joy of heaven should have been created, and furthermore a new kingdom should have been built on earth. But the moment that those destinies collided with each other, joy disappeared, lamentation and anguish began, and the path of the cross of enmity came into being.

Our ancestors became indebted to heaven, and we, too, are indebted universally to heaven, so we earnestly hope and desire, Father, that you will pardon the fact that we are a group of people who are seeking our own comfort and who do not know how to indemnify that.

Father! How many sons and daughters do you have on this earth, who have minds that have experienced and felt keenly your grieving heart, who are concerned about the earth, and who are concerned about heaven? Father, we know that they are very rare. Our Father, who has passed through the ages, counseling our lonely selves while not minding putting forth a great deal of effort in order to save all the pitiful people, please establish a new covenant with us. If there is a heavenly Will to give to these people a new covenant and a mission of the new age, Father, please carry out that work.

We have humbly prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The Grieving Father, Son and Daughter as They Try to Establish the Kingdom of Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
May 17, 1959
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea

1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going." 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." 8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." 9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. 15 "If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever -- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them." 22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?" 23 Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
John 14:1-24

Prayer

Distressed in the stormy sea of death, we human beings are sinners who cannot be trusted. We realize that we cannot raise our heads in front of Heavenly Father, who has striven, been wronged, and fought on throughout the providence for countless years to bring about the day of glory. Please liberate the six thousand years of history, a period like that of Israel's slavery and suffering in Egypt.

Thank You for the promise of the glorious moment. We have learned from history that You have taught us the way many times and have guided us through the courses of so many saints and sages who have gone the bloody, tearful path before us.

Forgiving Heavenly Father! Loving Father! We know that this world cannot be held together by compassion alone. Although we are disloyal and inadequate, we stand in front of You and ask for Your acceptance because we admire Your compassion and long for Your love.

Have pity on those of us who subsist in this world of grief and sorrow. Have pity on those of us who languish amidst this life of reality. Anyone with God's heart and concerns would undoubtedly look at the world with tears and sorrow. Our hearts deeply regret that this reality calls for us to cry for Heaven. Father, please rid us of the difficult six thousand years of the historical realm of sorrow that bind us and make us long for the land of Canaan as we suffer in Egypt. Humankind has longed for, trusted in and followed You. We know that every path is a course of suffering, and every step hastens sorrow; but we committed the bitter act of the fall and, therefore, have no choice but to walk such a path. Humankind, struggling in the pit of despair, has been striving to come out of this pit of death since the day they have known of the promise of Heaven. Yet we know that they have not yet escaped from Satan's dominion. We know better than anyone that we are in that dominion.

It is time to call on the living Father so that we may live. It is time for sons and daughters to come forth who will be loyal to the Father, who has established the will of the providence. Thus, loving Father, we pray that we can resent our inadequate selves, grieve over our inappropriate selves, and push our faithless selves, praying that we may possess a heart desperate to establish the nation.

Now we have taken such a path and have raised the battle banner. Therefore, please allow for the power of Heaven to be present in our daily battles and foretell the victorious day. We cannot go through the course of suffering and pioneer the desolate course of the wilderness, if we do not re-determine ourselves with new conviction and resolution.

Father, we know well that our ancestors, the 600,000 Israelites, were jubilant about escaping the Pharaoh's palace, yet grieving and resentful toward Heaven when the chariots chased after them. Do we have joyous hearts today as we come in front of You? I am afraid that our resentment might outstrip our gratitude. We should be proud of the day we were ecstatic and hope for the last day when all humankind can sing happily with Heaven. In spite of any reason, any sorrow or enemies awaiting us by deep pitfalls of sin, loving Father, I desperately pray that we may persistently fight and never lose our integrity as heavenly soldiers.

There will be hills and valleys, stony fields, desolate lands, and even enemies who pursue us on our paths. Yet we have already determined ourselves. Therefore, I sincerely pray, Heavenly Father, that we may feel the responsibility in our minds and be the heavenly warriors who will charge forward to pioneer the path of battles until we liberate the promised land of Canaan.

Please have pity on Your sons and daughters who have gathered before You, Father. Please allow these sons and daughters to renew their promise before You. Allow them to have new determination and conviction. Father, I desperately pray that they may be worthy in preparing their mind and body for the promised day.

Many saints in heaven! Please bless this time. Please rid us of whatever is inappropriate in our minds in front of the Father, our selfish assertions and concepts, and anything that is not justified in front of the will. I pray that we may be drowned in a desperate heart which Heavenly Father can guide, dominate and use, so that our hearts can be connected with Yours.

Please do as You will now, as we leave everything up to You. Please separate out all evil elements through the spirit of the Trinity. Upon setting our conditions of victory, I desperately pray that this may be a time when we can be enraptured in the glorious realm of Heavenly Father.

Father, please be with Your sons and daughters who are fighting far away and who are concerned for the will. Please bless them. I also pray that You may grant the blessing of life to this gathering.

Father, this is a holy day. Please allow every gathering to hoist Your flame of love. Allow the blessing of glory, and the flame of blessing, for all to sacrifice.

Please do as You will, as we leave everything to You. I pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Humanity does not yet realize that endless sorrow is rooted in Heaven. We did not know that the history of Heaven has been an eternally painful one, although we have followed and believed in You.

Father, although You have given us words that are difficult to bear and have longed to find worthy people, I feel truly unworthy that You have foretold to us the moment of hope that never came about before. As inadequate people, we cannot help feeling ashamed in bowing our minds and bodies before Heaven and calling on You.

We thought that the path You called us to follow would be a path of joy; yet we realize that it is a path of endless tears, a sad, lonely, difficult road that calls for us to vindicate Heaven and earth. We cannot help experiencing this path through our flesh, which allows those who want to give up their lives to win, but not those who want to live.

Father, please have pity on Your lonely sons and daughters here. Does the heavenly ideology live within their minds? Please allow them to realize that this is not self-centered, but is a historical ideology. Are their hearts moved by that ideology? Please let them know that such a heart does not cease with their generation.

Now that they have received and felt all the blessings there are, please let them understand that the Kingdom of Heaven is not realized or lived in by self-centered individuals. Because You are the beginning of this task, Father, I sincerely pray that we may become people who will be willing to offer everything for You.

When we undertook this path You called us to follow, we already gave up everything for You. We have offered all our possessions and even our hearts to You.

You are looking for those who can be grateful even after offering everything to the Father. Please accept us, although we have become people who are disheartened after our offering. Please allow us to want to give up everything with infinite joy. We know that one with such a heart can own all of You. With a desperate heart toward Heaven, such a person will wind up victorious.

Father, we know that our giving up everything is not to please You but is a providence for You to be able to hand down everything to us. We now know that You had no choice but to look for us, to call us, and to bring us forth because of this. I know we still have self-centered thoughts and feelings. Please allow us to give it all up before You. I sincerely pray that You will fill our minds and bodies with eternally grateful hearts for Your giving us everything that exists in this world.

Please allow us to be grateful when we are saddened for the sake of Your sorrow. Help us become grateful when we can work harder after observing Your endeavors. Please help us be grateful when we see the course of Heavenly Father's battle, when we are placed in the same circumstances. I sincerely pray that You may take these individuals into Your bosom and raise them.

Father, we have gathered here. Please have pity on us. I pray that this can be a time when everything can be connected to You from the beginning. We have gathered here after overcoming lonely paths. Please receive us, comfort us, guide us, and open the hands of Your blessing upon us to heal all the scars inflicted upon us this last week.

Father, today is a holy day. We know that this is a time when Heaven wants to connect with earth. Please hold onto the millions of saints in heaven and the numerous people of this earth who are striving toward goodness. Help us through the works of goodness to reach every place people have gathered and knelt in front of You. I earnestly pray that You may exercise Your authority upon this land where death storms so that this day may be one when victory is won and Heavenly Father's glory can be sung.

Heavenly Father, the source of life, please pour down the blessing of glory at this time. Hoping that You will guide everything with direct authority, I pray all these things in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, You have worked through the providence to receive the desired and awaited day of hope. You could not desert unfaithful humankind, but have given the blessing called "Israel" and have led history up to now to embrace the lonely multitudes. The day the promised one was sent was when Your glory should have filled heaven and all humankind's ecstatic hearts should have filled heaven and earth with joy. However, Father, we know that the historic indignation of four thousand years of sorrow came about due to what happened to Jesus.

From the time of his birth in a barn, Jesus' thirty years of life was ever so miserable and lonely, with no one to depend upon. We know that Jesus had no one to trust on this earth. He bared his soul and had to pass away as the embodiment of deep sorrow without being able to share his desperate heart.

Please forgive humankind, which does not know the sorrow of Jesus. Two thousand years ago, people should have received the heavenly words he was to utter. Yet they did not have faith in the one. We have heard the words and prayers of advice and pleading spoken to the disciples who followed the will of Heaven. Heaven's joy should have been realized and the new nation established on the earth the moment when the fate of Heaven merged with that of earth. We know the reality of the historic indignation over the fact that the moment the two collided, lamentation and sorrow began that opened the way of the vindictive cross.

Father, although our ancestors were indebted to Heaven and we are also greatly indebted, please accept us, even if we have become people who do not indemnify our debts and struggle only for our individual concerns. A lonely multitude has gathered in front of You. Please give us words of guidance. I have given them many words up to now. As I was sharing, we realize now how much of Your sorrow shows and that we have not united centering on Your concerns. We realize that Heavenly Father's sorrow is manifested in history, course after course, century after century, and period after period, as He worked through humankind.

Father, how many sons and daughters are there in this world who have felt Your painful heart and have a heart of consideration for Heaven and earth? We realize, Father, that there are extremely few. Father, You who have tried endlessly to save miserable humanity and have guided us throughout time, please give us the new promise. Knowing that there is a heavenly will, please work through us, since You want to deliver to us the new promise and bestow the mission of the new age upon us, Father.

Please have pity on the people of Korea. Please have pity on the nation of Korea. The people are miserable, and they have nowhere to go. They have no history to show for themselves, nothing of which to be proud, no national characteristic to put forth in sight of Heaven. No one is responsible for their lives, so please have pity on these miserable people. Please open the way for their lives and have concern for their destiny. They are lonely people. Please have sympathy for where they stand.

Father, these people have nothing to hope for in this land. Yet I sincerely pray, Father, that You may pioneer the way for their lives on the condition that they feel Your heart.

Please let there be more who will appeal to Heaven and earth on behalf of the people's misery. Please help them so that they will not fall down and give up when they confront barriers, but will instead plead with and appeal to Heavenly Father in their confrontations. I sincerely pray this.

Father, please have pity on Your sons and daughters who have walked onto the persecuted path of the Unification Church. Father, we did not want to take such a path, but in realizing what no one has realized before and taking responsibilities unlike any other, we realize that we must. Father, now we know Your heart in leading us toward the lonely path and trying to realize the will. Please guide the ones who are following me.

If there is someone in a miserable place who pleads to Heaven with a longing heart, the ones who follow him are in a similar situation. Please sympathize with and hold on to them. They are not here because of human or earthly reasons. They are starting to take new steps because of Heaven's love. Therefore, I sincerely pray that they will not lose their path because of other people and that they will not be discouraged.

When we reflect upon the courses of history, people who have established new ages and new eras of history were persecuted during their time. They withstood persecution after persecution. Father, please have sympathy with this movement. I sincerely pray that because this is Your will, no matter how much pain rushes toward these sons and daughters who have taken in the will of Heaven and who possess a loyal heart for Heavenly Father, they may overcome death after death to realize the will and fight until the end.

Today is April 10 (lunar calendar). Father, please bless these people. Father, please do not withdraw Your loving, open arms. Please send apostles of truth to all of heaven and earth. Send down apostles of love to all lands. Please send apostles of faith and righteousness so that they may attend Heavenly Father.

I sincerely pray that we may receive the love of Heavenly Father who has searched, longed for, desired, and fought throughout so that we will become people who can disgrace Satan in the final place of judgment. What can I say at this time? Father, please take dominion. Let the hearts of the speaker and the listeners be one. I sincerely pray that we may be overcome, even unknowingly, by Your will, Your heart, and Your circumstances so that we can pledge and determine ourselves to fulfill Your dream. Please take dominion. I pray these things in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The Reason Humankind Seeks the Good Purpose

The topic of the speech I want to share with you is "The Grieving Father, Son and Daughter as They Try to Establish the Kingdom of Heaven." I will speak briefly upon this topic.

We know that ever since the human ancestors experienced the sadness of losing Paradise, there has been sadness of mind, sadness of body, and sadness of life. That sadness permeated the world and Heaven and is in every human being.

Because humankind was put in a position to deal with dual purposes instead of one, we have been in a position to relate with Satan rather than God. We experience the reality that fallen humankind was put in a position to deal with a world of dual purposes. No one can deny such a fact.

From the perspective of the will of God, the Creator of humankind, people were supposed to live centering on one purpose and one ideology, with one Master. Yet from the day they fell, they became people who served two masters and lived with dual purposes.

We know that the existence of both good and evil lies not only in my environment but throughout the world. Furthermore, we know that such a reality permeates not only in this world, but heaven as well.

Now our destiny is such that we have no choice but to walk toward the world of one purpose. We have no choice but to accept that our conscience aims and urges us in a certain direction. Therefore, when people today face society's contradictions, their minds naturally seek the world of a new ideology that transcends the complex realities of this world.

What is the source of such a desire that pulls me in that direction through some inner sense? It started from the one Master who possessed the original ideology. We should realize that He intervenes in our lives to re-establish one world and a people who will hold onto one ideology and seek one purpose.

Today humankind is building a new world of culture. They are seeking the ideology of the world of the mind relating to that culture. Once you realize that you cannot deny this fact, you will not be able to live a comfortable life. The emotion of sadness has been passed down to us today ever since the day our ancestors painfully experienced the sorrow of Paradise lost. This significant reality is verified throughout history. How can we deny what we experience in our lives through our hearts? If anyone seriously thought about this and wanted to take on the will, he could not help opening his arms wide to Heaven, pleading and struggling to resolve such a sorrowful and sad reality.

Therefore, you must realize that this is a time to reflect upon the purpose and ideology and the focus of our lives as pioneers. To bring forth such an age and to realize such a will, God has worked the providence of having our ancestors seek goodness and seek the ideology of goodness through their consciences. It is a holy moment when you feel an impulse in your heart to pursue goodness. It is a holy moment. It is a moment when our many ancestors are trying to raise us and lead us in the direction of goodness which all humankind desires. Furthermore, it is truly a moment when heaven is trying to give us confidence.

The Moment Humankind Feels the Impulse to Seek Goodness in Heart

Therefore, when someone feels the urge of conscience directing them toward a true ideology and the will of a true center, that person has to think about how much he has tried to take it into the center of his heart, the center of his body, the center of his life, and the center of his ideology or purpose.

The path of the sorrowful heart which has continued throughout history would have seen its end if humankind were to criticize themselves, criticize the world around them, and be concerned about the fact that everything in the world is connected with the invisible Creator. If God cannot solve this problem, God is not fulfilling His responsibility.

Thus, Heaven has no choice but to work through the providence and reveal His intention to certain individuals at certain points in history, to certain congregations, and to certain nations. The traces of this are visible throughout history. When we look for those traces and study them, we can see that the works that liquidate the history of sorrow are never logical or theoretical. Religions had to come forth. We had to enter the world of heart to pursue the ideology of goodness and to relate to other human beings by releasing the spiritual or supernatural level of emotion.

We are to realize through religion that the one purpose, the one ideology, and the one center should never change from the beginning of history to the last days. That should be passed on as a consistent belief. Why is that?

How would you measure the standard of goodness? What is the standard for a good nation, a good person, and a good deed? When the start and finish coincide, something is heavenly and good; that is the standard of judgment. It is an everlasting truth that true goodness, Heaven, never alters its purpose, it's ideal, nor its course of direction. Therefore, the ideal of a religion should never alter once it is established; the religion should move forward consistently regardless of how time and history change.

When the Substantial Body of God Appears

The sorrow of humankind began when the fall occurred. As Heaven's sorrow was also manifested due to humankind's fall, there surely has to be a certain will that will foretell the day of liberation from this sorrow, and there must be a method to realize this will, as well as someone to carry it out.

From the religious perspective, a person sent to take on and be responsible for this work is one who is responsible for the teaching of truth. From the Christian viewpoint, it is the advent of Christ. He comes with the mission of the Savior with a teaching that will encompass the world.

If such a central person is to come to this world to liberate the sorrow of Heaven and earth, he could never come as a glorious being. The manifestation of the substantial body of God cannot deny the course of history, the circumstance of time. Because Heaven experienced a sorrowful course of history, Jesus had to undergo a similar path to stand as the center representing the heavenly ideology, purpose and life.

To exist is to have experienced life and relationships. That is the foundation for existence. Jesus had to experience all those hearts of sorrow associated with history. He had no choice but to experience such, representing humankind as well as God.

The worldly and religious perspectives are different. People typically consider someone good if that person denies himself and bears everyone else's suffering in their place. Yet it is different from the religious viewpoint; that person should not only take on worldly sorrows but Heaven's sorrows as well.

We have to realize that this is a requirement demanded by Heaven and by all of humankind. It should be fulfilled by human beings. They will untangle the twisted and distorted course of history caused by the fall.

Jesus came to liberate such sorrow and break down the distorted history built up since the fall. He had to walk the course of experiencing God's sorrowful heart, which was never experienced by anyone throughout the four thousand years of the human course. Therefore, Jesus had to feel the emotions of sorrow that were deeply engraved in God's heart more profoundly than any who had appeared during the four thousand years. If anyone in this land felt the sorrowful heart of Heaven, he would have no choice but to look at this world with tears. He would be struck with the greatest of sorrow and would be reduced to a state of unstoppable tears and sadness. Such was the heart Jesus felt.

For whom was that? First, it was for Heaven. Since Heaven had sent Jesus for humankind, it was for the sake of human beings too. Thus, Jesus was someone who had to cry and plead with humankind while bearing the sorrow of Heaven. He was also someone who had to implore and cry to Heaven for the misery of humankind.

If the moment God's sorrowful heart is uprooted and the sadness deeply etched in His heart is liquidated does not arrive, humankind will never find peace. The ideology of Heaven will never come to fruition in this world.

The time has come for all of you who are faced with this reality and all of today's humanity struggling with this dilemma, to newly determine yourselves. With the sound of the tolling of the bell, we know that the time has arrived.

The moment today is more formidable than any fearful moment in history. It is more sorrowful than any other. This is a time when parents do not recognize their children and children do not recognize their parents. People have willfully given up and destroyed their precious relation of heart with their loved ones. This is the greatest of sorrow for them as they wonder how their pained sadness can be comforted.

The Situation of Today's Humankind and the Direction and Attitude We Should Take

Sorrow is deeply embedded in my heart. A world of fear is also taking me by surprise. Struggling with such a reality, where is a peaceful garden of heart within me? Where is a garden of serenity and freedom? This is a serious and immediate question that has to be solved by today's humankind and by those of us living in this time.

You are placed within such a realm. The time has come for you to realize this. The time has come for you to raise your right hands and shout, "Heavenly Father, please hold onto our arms." Then raise your left hands and shout, "All of humanity, let us march forward together." What are we then to do in this world when we cannot feel such a drive in our mind and cannot receive such a stimulus even when we want to?

Although people have searched, fought, struggled and done all kinds of things, not only did they not find the solution, the result has been despair, death and destruction. It is time for us to understand that our human effort does not bring about any result.

Knowing that heaven exists, humankind should search to find Heavenly Father with the conviction to link ourselves with heaven. When such a day springs forth within an individual, he or she will revive. When there is a congregation, a race, a nation, and a world striving to find that day, no one will be able to deny that this congregation, race, nation or world has the cause and the ideology to establish a new world of destiny.

We will be more fearful when we realize that Heaven is looking down on this world. In the world of heart, the effect of the fear you did not know you had will intensify as days pass and ages are ushered in.

Therefore, you cannot continue heading toward that world, that direction. If you take that path, you will surely feel danger toward your life. You have to realize that such a path is not to be taken by people of the original heart and should go back. You have to have such a heart. Greater than any loyalty you have demonstrated toward Heaven and earth, greater than any suffering you have endured, more intense than any fervor you have shown, you must give loyalty, receive suffering, and be passionate.

The Original "I"

Your heart must be captivated by a subject of goodness, a purposeful entity of goodness, and the world of ideology. You must be enraptured by it. When you have become so, it is certain that you may search for the world of the purpose. When someone is content to lead his whole life according to his concepts, derived from his subjectivity and understanding through rationality, he will surely fall into his trap.

Once you realize, looking deeply into your heart, that this outpouring of emotion is itself an undeniable truth body and a real, existing entity, this is cosmic evidence, historical evidence, and ideological evidence that you are connected to the cosmos. It becomes certain that you are becoming an objective being in relation to one subject.

Believing in the existence of Heavenly Father, we should strive for the day when our subject, Heavenly Father, trusts in us, His objects, one hundred percent. We should strive to reach that goal with one hundred percent faith. This is the last significant problem that humankind has to solve.

Because humankind has had to overcome such a sad reality, it is certain that God has put forth many conditions that will solve the problem. How did God work the providence in the course of history? You know very well that the human ancestors fell because they could not trust in God. They fell because they could not have faith. Looking at it more closely, it was because they could not love God. They fell because they could not attend God. In Christianity, we call these "the three elements of faith: faith, hope and love."

The Believers' Standard of Hope

What is our last hope? It is to attend Heavenly Father. Humankind absolutely has to find how to recover the heavenly link. If there is one historic condition, a providential condition, a condition of the future, how can those conditions find us? Because of the failure of our ancestors to have faith, love and attend, we know that there have been faith movements and love movements. They are finding us through these means.

Before the time of Jesus, humankind struggled to establish the foundation of faith. Although Jesus then came to this world and toiled to love humanity, his will could not be realized. He established the ideology of the bride and the bridegroom. Therefore, a champion of love must come who can embrace and love humanity.

What should we do after receiving him? We should attend him throughout our lives. That is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. The world of Heaven, the world in which we live with him in eternal attendance, is the believers' hope and standard. The providence of history is moving toward that direction.

Heaven had to find and establish rational and lawful conditions through paradoxes and contradictions to find a person who, engulfed with sorrow, can carry the will. This is where the secret of Heaven lies. Although the sorrow of humankind is great, the sorrow of Heaven is much greater; yet people do not know of the sorrow of Heaven. No one knows of Heaven's sorrow in trying to bring back ignorant human beings through a logical and lawful process.

Therefore, history after Jesus is a history of faith. We know that human history has established the standard of faith and has been raising that standard while accumulating the results of goodness. Because Jesus could not fulfill the purpose of his coming, although he came to this world as a center of love, the age of faith has had to give way to the age of attendance. That is why Heavenly Father returns to save the individual who is in the midst of the sad environment.

The Conditions which Allow Humankind to be Connected to God: Faith and Practice

Throughout history, God was able to find humankind through conditions of faith and practice. Allowing humankind to establish the conditions of faith, what else has God required of people? He requested practice. In order for God and me to be connected and to establish the foothold that will rid me of my sorrow, the path of practice has to be opened centering on faith. That is the only way to bring about the historic connection.

This is because my existence is not for myself; rather, I am destined to deny myself and follow the direction of Heaven. Because Heaven sets its course for the sake of the world and the cosmos through sacrificing individuals, the direction of goodness never focuses on the self; nor does the standard of goodness. All is for the purpose of the nation and Heaven. Due to this, Heaven has led the providence for humankind through emphasis on faith and practice.

It has already been a six-thousand-year history of emphasizing faith and practice. Looking back, we can see it was a history sad beyond imagining. Yet you today must realize that the sorrow of Heaven in trying to hold onto humankind was much greater than the sorrow of human beings. Otherwise, you will not be able to connect to Heaven. No one has realized this until now. Humankind created a historical precedent of driving Heavenly Father away and murdering the saints and sages.

Although Heavenly Father wanted humankind to come to Him through eternal faith and practice, humanity does not have the heart to relate to God and could not acquire the foothold that would allow it to have faith and to practice it. Even if people acquired that foothold of faith, the only way for God's faith and humankind's faith to unite and liberate all human sorrow would be for humankind to practice their faith. This must be done with faith derived from emotion great enough to encompass God's sorrow, with a heart that can connect with His emotion. Yet the truth is that humankind has not reached such a state.

As you head forward today with a new ideology and a new will, do you have confidence in your faith? You probably do not. When you have not attained to a life that allows you to accept the historical destiny with confidence, there is a course of practice left for you to pioneer. Even if you can put what you believe into practice, if the emotion of Heaven's sorrow does not emanate within you, if you are not captivated by God's faith and God's practice, you do not have a bit of relationship with the heaven that God is trying to find and establish; not a bit.

Even in human relationships, mutual faith lasts longer when happy and sad aspects of it form a relative relationship. Upon the foundation of that faith, promises can be carried out over a long time. When it comes to a course of faith and practice toward Heaven, it is the same. You should be able to have faith and carry on, feeling both God's happy aspects and sad aspects. You should first seek and find the sorrowful self to become the happy self.

Jesus, who came as the champion of faith, wanted to stand before God as a true believer, possessing the heart of the center of faith, the representative of all humankind. God also wanted Jesus to have a relationship of faith with Him as humankind's representative and to create that relationship with all people; but His desire was not fulfilled. The relationship was made between Jesus and God, but the desired relationship between Jesus and humankind did not come about. Therefore, although the faithful ones say that they practice their faith, they have not seen the day when they can say that faith and practice are perfected in them.

True Faith and Practice

Heaven is a place of true faith and true practice. Therefore, when people today cannot analyze and empathize with the suffering and sad heart of God, they should realize that they are not yet in a position to welcome the world of the heavenly ideology with both arms.

That is why the footsteps of Jesus were precious. Jesus knew that when his words were established, heaven would be established. When he carried out his words, the will of Heaven was also carried out. Jesus was living up to this standard. His concern for humankind was great; his concern for Heavenly Father was great; and his capacity to experience the sorrows of Heaven and earth was great.

There is no verse in the Bible portraying Jesus dancing with joy. Why? Because God could not yet speak to His children, humankind, in the garden of happiness, Jesus could not speak freely, with joy, even if he sometimes felt personal happiness. The words of Jesus should have been introduced with a heart of joy. Yet in reality, they were uttered with a heart of sorrow. You should be filled with the same emotion and realize the dignity of Jesus' words.

Jesus and I should connect with one another, transcending history. When words are not capable of connecting with the ideological realm of life's reality, those words are not of Heaven.

The True Nature of the Believer and God's Wish

We must urgently rekindle the course of faith by taking the path of truth. We should first know where the final line of faith, which Jesus talked about with a sorrowful heart, lies. We should then go beyond that limit. Because Jesus stood in the middle, trying to liberate both the sorrow of Heaven and the sorrow of humanity, his heart was inexpressibly sorrowful. He experienced hundreds and thousands of human sorrows and thousands and millions of Heaven's sorrows. Therefore, the only way to restore the blocked relationship between God and humanity is for every person's standard of faith to rest on the words expressed through Jesus' sorrowful heart. This is the true nature of the believer.

Christianity was not a religion of laughter. It was a religion of tears. That is why when you understand one thing about Jesus, your heart wells up. When you understand two things, you will involuntarily wail and lament. When you understand and realize more and more, you cannot help feeling that you should give yourself as an offering. You can bring life to the dead if your faith and practice arise from such a heart.

No matter what sort of great accomplishment is achieved in sight of Heaven, that achievement is not because of the individual. It is because of Heaven.

Where did the complex thread of the providence start to untangle? We should realize that the new history of the providence was pioneered and built the moment humanity's heart connected itself with the sorrows of God.

Heavenly Father spent the six-thousand-year course of history urging humankind to walk the path of faith and practice. He desperately wanted all individuals to do so. He wanted someone to completely manifest Him in sight of all of humanity.

Heaven is looking for someone who can endlessly believe and act, yet who can also forget all he has done. That is the standard of Heaven. He is looking for someone who can not only fulfill the words given through Jesus and establish a new history of practice, but who can move Heaven. There has been no one who could go beyond the limit of God's expectation.

The Person For Whom God Is Looking

Although there may be numerous Christian believers, where is the one who can go beyond such limitations of heart and be proud of his or her course of action? Where is such a child of Heaven? This is where the problem lies. Today you should desire and establish a bright history of faith. You should be able to take any reality and, transcending the age and history, take it in, dominate it, and apply it as yours throughout eternity in complete freedom. God should be able to say that the path for the grounds of faith for humankind was laid by you.

When you can be immersed in the will of God, valuing it over and even forgetting the worldly notions of faith, action and practice, then God can finally call you, "My son" or "My daughter." Therefore, it is the sorrow of Heaven and the sorrow of humankind that no true sons or daughters could be found. That He could not relate to humankind as His sons and daughters is the sorrow of Heaven.

Even though the word "God" can be used in an absolute sense, there is no sense of emotion in introducing God like this. Where is the God we can connect to with both words and emotion? In walking the path of faith, you should tackle these problems with a desperate heart, then you should pass beyond the notion of faith and practice. Immersed in Heavenly Father as the cells of your body and your heart automatically unite, you should be able to call upon Him. Heaven is definitely searching for such an individual, whose call to Him arises from an inherent natural physiology.

Humanity today has reason to cry. Humanity has never fulfilled its responsibility. We should lament over our ancestors, who brought six thousand years of sorrow to Heaven as traitors and betrayers. Furthermore, we should lament over our selves today.

From the perspective of faith, is it proper or is it pitiful in God's eyes that we have lived without even thinking about what sort of realm of limitation we have struggled to come out of? His heart would be full of sorrow at the history of the past six thousand years. You have to acknowledge that Heaven is lamenting over you.

What flowed in the hearts of individuals who lost faith, lost love, and lost the life of attendance due to the fall? It was the emotion of sorrow. It was an inexplicable emotion of sorrow. Therefore, when an unexpected emotion of sorrow arises in your life of faith and you feel sorrow in the atmosphere without a clear reason or cause, realize that it is the presence of Heavenly Father. If one can hold onto that moment of sorrow and connect with tears, that person can be born again.

Although humankind had to make that kind of connection, Heavenly Father had to send Jesus as the horizontal champion since fallen humankind could not relate directly to Him. Fallen humankind needed Jesus as the substantial God. That is why Jesus had to come to this world.

If the Israelites, driven and chased out for four thousand years in their sad course of history, had held onto Jesus and cried with the one who bore God's sorrowful heart, their name would be celebrated throughout the world. If that had happened, they would not have become an isolated race that has lost the race, the sovereignty, and the nation.

The Life of Jesus, Whose Sorrow Was Greater Than His Joy

The Unification Church was not meant to walk a rough path. When I see you coming into the Unification Church, I feel a worrisome heart rather than a welcoming one. I am looking at you like that. I have to look at you with a heart of reservation, rather than with a welcoming heart.

When one realizes the story of Heaven and its desperate nature as God searches to bring humanity back, not only would that person be unable to think about himself; he would have to deny himself. When a person can be led naturally to the degree where he will not criticize selfishly and subjectively, the way for him to walk this course is not only to feel the sorrow of such a deep level, but to subjectively comfort and console Heavenly Father. That is the only way an individual can walk this path.

Do not follow this path if you wish to lead a comfortable life. As I walked this path, I realized it is a lonely path without a friend, without a comrade, without an excuse, and without a place on which to lean. It is a path that cannot be trusted. Having walked such a path, I certainly could understand the heart of Jesus.

If I were to introduce Jesus today, I would like first to introduce the sad side of Jesus. Who in that age ever understood his heart and became his companion as he even forgot to eat, sleep, and was chased and driven out from town to town, having only his own lonely heart? Heaven was sorrowful. Even the saints, who wanted to represent Heavenly Father, were sad offerings. Heavenly Father, holding onto the will, must have truly been sorrowful when even Jesus had to die.

Who was Heavenly Father? We realize that He is our Father. We realize now that the relationship of God and humankind is that of a parent and child. We do not realize the sadness of our Father; but it is not God who is responsible for making us realize His sorrow. It is up to us. Jesus and the saints came to accomplish this.

Jesus Is the Prince of Sadness

God has been longing and questing after humankind. Those who want to be qualified to become the children of God have to fight and become victorious in place of Jesus, who walked the course and fought the battle of sorrowful faith. Humankind has not yet embraced a joyous and glorious day in this world. You will realize that Heavenly Father truly exists when you empathize with His sadness and call upon Him.

Jesus has shed countless unknown tears. You have to realize this. Although the Bible tells of this in only a few places, Jesus has truly shed many unknown tears. He felt responsible looking at the creation, looking at the scattered people and in relating with the infinite Heavenly Father. He was truly the prince of sadness; he was sad as he saw that some of his responsibilities could not be fulfilled. He was sad when he could not comfort Heavenly Father, although he was in the position to do so. He was sad at being unable to fulfill his responsibility as the Messiah to save humankind immediately.

The Jesus we believe in is not the prince of all princes, a prince of glory, or a prince of victory. He is the prince of sadness. We should realize that he was the prince of sadness for the will of God.

Saying such a thing may brand me a heretic, but it is a truth I have realized. The only way to be connected to Jesus is for you to have an overflowing moment of emotion and exclaim, "Jesus was a prince before humanity and history, the first ever to understand and fathom the sad heart of Heavenly Father!" That was not all. Jesus was also the prince of pain.

Jesus' Deep Heart and His Circumstances

Who were the ones who betrayed God as if it were their duty? Who stood foremost in condemning him? They were the Jews and the people of Israel, the very ones whom God had asked to have faith and to follow. There is no way that God prepared the Israelites for four thousand years so they could kill Jesus. Jesus was not completely victorious. He could not win the complete victory. Do you not think so?

Had the fact of Jesus' crucifixion meant his complete victory, that day of suffering would have been most joyful. The moment of his death on the cross would surely have been the moment of final victory and celebration for all humankind. We know that it was not. That is why Jesus prevented Mary Magdalene from approaching him with a joyous heart. Jesus could not be enraptured with the joy of having brought victory to Heavenly Father with his beloved disciples. He could not realize that. That is why we should understand Jesus embraced sadness; his death was sorrowful; his resurrection also took place with misery. We have to become Jesus' companions, as he had no place for himself while experiencing the sad heart of God, forgetting his life, and being chased around breathlessly from village to village, suffering much hostility.

Jesus was mistreated by his race, by his religion, by his relatives, and even by his beloved disciples. Although Jesus experienced sorrows among sorrows, he inherited the heart of Heaven and tried to give his all to humankind, having faith in humanity.

Jesus could not reveal his desperate dream, his heart, and all the circumstances that surrounded him within his deeper self. He had no one to relate his sad heart to in the past, the present or the future. You have to understand this.

The believers in today's last days should not pretend to be a betrothed bride before the prince of heaven by the mere fact that they have the word. That is not how it is. That is not how it works.

Now you should be filled with humility and say, "Father! We fear the word, and our actions are so inadequate." You should be tearful in calling to the Father and have a heart that burns with overwhelming emotion when you think of Him. Even having to become an offering thousands and thousands of times over, you should understand that you cannot expect anything for yourself in front of Heavenly Father, who has toiled to lead history. Only by having shed tears of sorrow with a heart of gratitude and humility can you become the disciple and bride of Jesus. Only then can you understand Jesus' saying, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head." (Matthew 8:20) or "And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades." (Matthew 11:23)

When those words are read upon the foundation of heart, they should touch you deeply beneath your skin and bone as if they were your words, not words of Jesus. You should then acquire a new ideology, a new resolution, and a new determination to aim for the age of new purpose to become the children of faith who will pioneer the environment. Only this can allow you to become an object who can stand as a bride to Jesus and qualify you as a person of faith.

While emphasizing the importance of faith, Jesus also said that God is love. He mentioned many facets of God, God of love, God of mercy, and so forth. As the conclusion which can represent all aspects of God, he taught us the notion that "God is love." In other words, he taught us that God is searching for true love.

The Meaning of the Saying "Love Me More"

What is the meaning of the saying, "Love me more than anything else"? It means "I will have faith in you and love you." God is treating us just that way. Because God has loved us so, He was unsparing of His time.

When the leaders of the churches today cannot cry tears and hold onto the lives of their distressed sheep with genuine hearts, they are violating heavenly law. If they cannot become such shepherds, they are as if they were dead.

The acts of God are unique in that His heart precedes His words. Satan is defeated by the words unconsciously uttered as His heart overwhelms him. Evil succumbs in such a way. No matter how good the spoken words are, evil does not surrender if they are not founded on heart. Restoration starts when a person becomes indignant over having his life stand at the crossroads of life and death and is overcome by the heart of wanting to hold onto and save those in need, throwing himself in for that cause in spite of all pain, not worrying over his situation.

When Jesus passed away bearing the cross, he left behind the word "love." Even on the cross, he did not resent or condemn those who had left Heavenly Father and gone over to the enemy. He was able to halt them from walking toward the enemy and even pray for the enemy because Jesus bore a heart of sympathy toward them before he thought about his own pained heart. Satan surrenders only before such a prayer.

That is why if one wants to live for Heavenly Father and come closer to Heaven, that person should be conscience-stricken even when he eats something that is better than what others have. When a person always puts forth the heart of conscience in how they dress, live and see, he will never starve or be driven away. Although the world of Satan may drive him away, he will never be driven out by people longing to find the heart of God.

Therefore, Heavenly Father has told humankind, "Love me." That is not the type of love that is limited and felt with mere emotion. It must be the love that can liberate six thousand years of heartbreak. You have to realize that such a love encompasses the sorrowful heart of having had to banish Adam from the Garden of Eden, the heart that cries with pity for all those lives headed for hell. The love of God is such that even if there is a sinner who deserves immediate punishment, He would hit him, then weep; desert him, then search for him, all so that he may fulfill the laws of condition recognized by God and Satan.

The Israelites were more treacherous than any other people, yet God took them in after deserting them repeatedly. He deserted and took back an individual, then He deserted and took back a family. He then established a family, deserted and took back hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of families to bring forth the second Israel, world Christianity.

A Starting Point which Enables One to Connect with the World of God's Love

All the believers gathered in this place should understand the heart of God. As He fought throughout the providence, God even has had a lingering attachment toward Satan and is constantly thinking of ways to forgive him. We have to realize that God is such a being.

Knowing that God has such a heart and looking back over your past lives that were deformed by the sins of betraying God, as well as your inadequacies, you should possess not only a heart of love, but a heart of unconditional attendance and service. From that moment, you will become people God loves. When even the parents of the fallen world can forget their children's shortcoming, shouldn't we who are to embody the heavenly heart try more than they?

Now you should empathize with the heart and experience of Heavenly Father so that you may eternally respect and attend Him. You should then possess the heart to say, "I am grateful," even if your whole self is taken and everything of yours is taken away. You must clearly understand that such a moment is the starting point when you can be connected with the world of God's love.

That is why Jesus emphasized love and tried to fulfill his mission as the master of love. That is why his whole life was one of service and giving. Jesus struggled because he could not give more. He tried to give his life, his words, his glory, and his throne. He even gave his body, his flesh and blood, for humanity because they did not want to receive everything else he was giving.

This was the life of Jesus, practiced standing for love. As we ourselves want to pursue such love, we should bow our heads to the ones who were faithful for a long time and attend those who have suffered for God. The bond of heavenly love will be severed when such a heart is missing in your lives of faith.

People have struggled and been willing to die to find eternal love, since the love they have known has not been eternal. When one senses the touch of love, as human love meets the heavenly ideology of love, one possesses the feeling of ownership of the cosmos. There will be no regret in losing everything if you can be touched by heavenly love. Such a world is not a delusion. It is not some made-up, imaginary world; it is an existing world of reality.

That feeling exists in the heart of today's humanity and in this cosmos. This feeling is whirling toward humanity from the unknown world of heavenly emotion. You should not deny this. Jesus came to reveal the essence of love. To reveal this and to establish the love of God, he had to be engulfed, in humanity's stead, in the heart of wanting to attend Heavenly Father, who has endeavored for thousands of years.

That has been the world of faith until now. First was the world of faith, and second was the world of love. The world of love means the world of the bride and bridegroom. The future era is an era of attendance; but the course of faith and the course of love have to be passed prior to entering the era of attendance. Christians today have to clearly understand this.

Although many have asserted that salvation is obtained by faith, no one has asserted that salvation is obtained by love. The apostle Paul said that while faith, hope and love will always be there, love is the most important. There was no place to go anymore with faith alone. Therefore, the Unification soldiers today will go forward with the motto that salvation comes by loving, instead of asserting that salvation comes through faith.

The Central Person Who Can Move the World

Love is not loving oneself; it is a heart dying to love the world and Heavenly Father, transcending race. It is a heart that wants to sacrifice and shout. It is a desire to transcend the world and connect with Heaven, and to do so as long as one has energy, strength and life.

Jesus led thirty years of his life in constant giving and attending to practice such love, in spite of hardships every day. Jesus sometimes chastised and condemned the Pharisees as "grave-like" people. That was because they did not understand the heart of wanting to give and serve endlessly.

We cannot find someone today who can truly live for others. The people of Korea have not become a race that can live for others. They do not have an ideology to exist for others. We have to realize that this race is in conflict with the will of the heavenly providence that exists for others, for the past race, for the present race, and for the future race.

You are the same. Your heart should automatically live for the sake of the past, the present, and the future. It is the path of the fall when one lives selfishly or tries to be successful for one's own sake. That is the road of the fall. When an individual is placed in a position of authority, one is not to be elevated but to live for the sake of the whole.

If this race can eat even a spoonful of meal as if eating thirty million people's flesh and blood, and wear a piece of clothing with the same heart, this race will never, ever perish. This is what Christianity today should emphasize. The race will survive when such an individual, such a shepherd, such a Christianity emerges. Looking at this reality in the realm of the grief of such sorrow and history, we should reawaken ourselves.

What can bring about the motto of love God has proposed? When an individual emerges who can fill the universe with the heart of wanting to bless those around him, even if his flesh is torn and his blood is spilled, that person will be the central person who can move the world and ultimately capture the heart of God. That individual will be the central person of heart. Even Heavenly Father, who has sought to establish the ideology of the world of the heart, would have no choice but to cling onto that person.

Therefore, Heavenly Father established a term called "love," which is a significant aspect of your course of faith. Even in the sinful world, you need heart to find love. Loving Jesus is not part of you when you cannot live for others with such a heart. What was the goal that was set to liberate Heavenly Father's grief? It was the restoration of the lost heaven. It was to find the lost true sons and daughters whom God could embrace and love forever. In real terms, it is restoring humankind back to being sons and daughters who will not lose God but will live together eternally, just like the original Adam and Eve before the fall.

The Goal Heavenly Father Wanted to Fulfill

For humankind to enter the Kingdom of Heaven after passing through all the courses of faith and judgment and emerge as children of the Father, there should be no need for the saying "Have faith" to people who are in the original Adam and Eve's position. All their actions, emotions and gestures should automatically correspond in unison with the notion of love and faith that transcends sorrow, without having to remind them in words.

Only when our heart transcends any article of law or commandment that causes us to act, and only when our conscience precedes any logic or regulation can the world of heavenly relationship be completed. We have to become noble individuals who cannot help acting, cannot help loving, and cannot help living for others in accordance with the heart of Heaven. This would be the greatest standard of faith for Christians. This has to be realized today.

You will experience the heart of Jesus as he had to block Mary Magdalene from holding onto his resurrected self. You have to go forth now through the way of practice, bearing the heart of love, and overcome trials with the attitude of welcoming even death. The heavenly life begins the moment you return glory to Heaven and are grateful for the blessing of resurrection, in spite of tribulations and difficulties. You then enter the realm of glory through a life of attendance with a loving heart.

The word "heaven" is still only a conceptual term for you today. The question is, then, when will that conceptual term be transformed into a living term? If Heavenly Father exists, He will establish the turning point for this transition. That moment is called the "last days."

God has sought us from this perspective. Please repent today for your shortcomings. You have locked up Heavenly Father, the source of all faith, under shackles in claiming that you believe and love Him. You have brought God, the greatest being, down to a small being whose purpose is to carry out what you yourself should be carrying out. You have built a wall around God, the owner of cosmic love, inside your hearts. You have asked God, the King of sacrifice, to become a mere personal friend for your sake. For all these mistakes of the past, you should reprimand yourselves and be filled with a heart of sorrow.

Not only should you be able to cry out, "Father, my Father," but in your moment of resurrection, your body should be melting in the presence of Heavenly Father. I know that we should experience what Paul experienced, reaching the state of being unable to distinguish whether he was inside or outside of his body. We must reach this to begin the life of the heavenly standard.

Knowing Heavenly Father is seeking such a state, where does He reside? What kind of place is it? The place is not only our land, my eternal land, but where we will live. Heavenly Father is our Father. Humankind did not know of such a Father, of such a land, and of such a life, as it struggled in ignorance; but they should know of this: the day of judgment is when we can sing songs of joy for Heavenly Father and charge forward toward Satan in indignation. Jesus will be able to embrace you when you defeat Satan and stand in front of him saying, "Lord, please take me in now that I have stood on the standard of victory."

Why could not Jesus welcome Mary Magdalene? It is because she had not gone through the course of winning over the battle with Satan. Mary Magdalene could not stand in front of the resurrected Jesus, not having passed the course of victory.

You can own the whole universe when you call unto the Father and embrace Him after having been victorious in the battle against Satan. You should trust the Father to the degree that you forget bodily consciousness. You will eliminate your personal emotion in such a state of thinking about Father and trusting in Him.

We will now storm Satan, the one who has made an enemy out of our Father, with the waves of judgment. We will call our Father and embrace Him as victors. I want to clearly state that only those believers who have cried in such happiness and sorrow can enter the ideological era of heavenly life.

We have to live a life of attendance in such a world. Although we have the hope of receiving Heaven, we have not yet realized it in our lives as a place of attendance and practice. In other words, we do not yet know God as the subject of our daily lives.

We Should Live a Life of Faith in Oneness with God

Jesus foretold, "In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." (John 14:20) These are not words of denial. This means that even though we conceptually know of God's existence and understand Him as the reciprocal subject of our faith, we do not directly know that God exists as the subject of our conscience, our bodies, our lives, and the subject whom we should find in our daily lives.

Why did we become like this? It is because we cannot go beyond the limitation of faith, and we are not connected to the heart of love. Therefore, the disciples of the last days who have the responsibility to restore all humankind must understand this. They should become a group of people who will hold up the banner of Heaven and march forward with a heart burning to resolve the sorrow and deep pain of Heaven, in spite of any sort of sacrifice, difficulties and persecution.

If these people emerge from a certain race, the era will surely come in which this race will assume a leadership role. The world today seeks something intellectual and truthful. The cause that inspires the truth has been the body. The motivation directing the body has been the mind. The substance that can move the mind is not clearly understood, but has been something of a spiritual nature. Hence, truth alone cannot settle everything. In the future, there will surely come a world that can guide our minds, hearts, and spiritual feelings in one direction.

We who believe in the coming world of this ideology and search for it must not live in a realm of concepts. We must become victors who will sing songs of victory for Heaven in real life. This kind of person should appear on earth.

If there is anyone who wishes to have that kind of faith, he should think about it even in his dreams. Furthermore, if there exists a possibility and Heavenly Father, we should at least have the sincere desire to create it to come closer to Heaven. We not only should have that kind of sincere heart, but also should be able to sing the song that was supposed to be sung in the Garden of Eden six thousand years ago. We should be able to revive the emotion of that time as the emotion of today, and to turn the sorrow that has been felt since the fall into joy today. This kind of person is the historic subject of the liberation of sorrow, as well as the subject of attendance.

Only when such a person appears can you become the victorious people who can resolve the sorrows of Heaven and earth through a relationship with him. In that relationship you will feel that God, who has a heart of sorrow and suffering, is my Father and the owner of my country and my home. You will become true sons and daughters who can remove all the sorrows of the one who comes as the bridegroom.

After seeking, we realized that the Father was the Father of sorrow. We also learned what the sons and daughters of the Father should do. We understood the indignation of Heavenly Father, who has been fighting in miserable situations to restore the Kingdom of Heaven. We understand the untold heartache of Heaven.

Therefore, you must keep indignation in your mind, vexation and animosity toward the enemy. The miracle of victory then has to happen as you establish one standard within your mind, body and daily life that will allow you to bear the responsibility for everything and to be confidently victorious under the slogan of historical victory. By doing so you can enter the realm of resurrection with your physical body. In other words, you will be able to enter the heavenly garden of resurrection with your physical body and reach the state where you can call God your Father, and He can call you His own sons and daughters.

God's Dream, the Restoration of Heaven

In that state, you who are searching for the world of the heart should not have faith for your sake. Please discard the thought of going to heaven or the thought of trying to accomplish something out of personal motivation.

Jesus never had the thought of entering heaven himself. His notion of faith was believing for the sake of the universe, the nation and God. These are not fanciful words. It was the truth. How invigorating it is to have faith in doing something, not for myself, but for humanity, the world and for the Father!

If I love something, it is not to love it myself, but to love it in the name of the nation, humankind and God, and to live for the sake of others in the name of Heaven and earth. Therefore, we should attend God in the name of humankind and Heaven. We should also have a grateful heart as we attend God and the heart to practice what we believe.

Satan will never invade you should you walk the path of faith and loving with all your heart, attending with your body and soul, and believing, loving and attending, transcending yourself, grateful for your life. No matter how strong the influence of Satan's temptation might be, it cannot affect people of such faith.

What is God's dream? It is to restore the lost heaven, the lost parents, and the lost children. Now we should restore our nation, our people, and our parents. Therefore, we should become the true children of the True Parents. We have to defeat Satan and forget about the six thousand years of sorrow and resentment, and be able to take pride in the conditions of victory and love. You must clearly know that this is the way for us to become the true sons and daughters in the presence of God, who has gone through a history of sorrow.

Prayer

Father, after having expressed such serious words, I cannot help feeling humbled in Your presence. How can we, who are narrow-minded, rough and lacking, develop a relationship with the world of high dimension that is far away?

We know, Father, that to have that relationship, so many ancestors of faith had to be sacrificed. To pioneer the path of life, so many pastors will have to shed tears and blood.

We have realized today that only those who can admire the blessing of glory of the Father through finding the sorrowful side in themselves. Those who are determined to be eternally victorious and to not fall down in their fight can have a day when they can call Heavenly Father "their Father" and He can call them "His sons and daughters."

Heavenly Father! We realize how difficult it is to walk the path of faith. We understand that all humankind must walk the way of sorrow due to the sin of the first human ancestors. We realize that humankind, living with satanic thoughts, is like ghosts. The site of restoration, which we must liberate even if we have to sacrifice our lives by overcoming the hills of death, is now imminent.

Now we must become Your sons and daughters. We should be able to attend You and call You "our True Father." I desperately pray that You, Father, will guide and lead us so that our hearts may be overwhelmed with Your love for humankind, and that we may be able to overcome any kind of adversity, sorrow and discomfort.

Is there any one of us who cannot feel a heart of gratitude for the fact that we received our lives? If they felt something from the words spoken and were moved by it, please let the fire of life ignite and let the history of resurrection arise.

I sincerely pray that this time can be a time of seeking the heavenly ideology, a time of connecting ourselves to the Father's heart by pioneering the historical circumstances of today. I wholeheartedly pray that You allow these words to become the standard for our mind and life. Please inspire our hearts and flesh, and allow us to take dominion over what is unrighteous by allowing these words to become the living words and stimulating standard for our frame of life.

Please comfort those members who, even at this moment, are pleading to You with tears in a lonely environment. I ask that You stretch the hands of blessing to the multitudes who are bowing down to You. I pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Let Us Follow the Way of Jesus

Sun Myung Moon
April 26, 1959,
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea

1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. 6 "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. 7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 "Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. 13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. 15 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
Matthew 7:1-20

Prayer

Father, You have endured the long course of history and fought to gain the glory of Heaven! Please allow the day to soon appear in which You alone receive the glory of the providence. We know well that Your original will has been ruthlessly trampled down by a myriad of satans from the time the human beings committed the error. We did not know Your situation. We did not know that You must find someone to serve the will which was to be realized by human beings on the earth because that will was violated.

We know that the history of the providence is one in which You toiled with no one to serve the will. You worked endlessly hard to convey the will, which is burning in Your heart, to humankind. Father! Please allow us to be heavenly sons and daughters who can exert all our effort to possess Your will in our hearts and to follow Your path of glory through the providential will and course of history. Since we know that Your will is to find true sons and daughters, please be with us so that we can build a country, world and universe where we can serve You as true sons and daughters and give You joy. Help us realize that this is the country and will of Your hope.

Your greatest joy and hope, after fighting for six thousand years, is for true sons and daughters to harmonize with all things and offer songs of praise to You. We must become heavenly sons and daughters who can offer everything and set out to build such a country.

Father! We are infinitely distant from that day. Please allow us to be sons and daughters who can understand Your will, the chosen sons and daughters who can come forward with an offering of life, for the sake of the day of Your glory. Let us do this regardless of constant battle, mistreatment and death.

Father, since I have come here on the earth with a Shim Jung centered on the will, in place of the glory of the son, please look after us and come here personally and rule over us.

Please allow this to be a time when we can serve and bow to You as true sons with a true purpose. Since we know that the forces of a myriad of devils attack all people gathered for the will, we eagerly hope and desire that You eliminate the force of darkness infiltrating each of our minds and bodies and embrace us in Your generous bosom so that we can establish the age of Your glory within our lifetimes.

As we have gathered before You at this time, please rule over us. Since this is a holy day, please bless all the people. Please bless the thirty million people. We eagerly hope and desire that this will become a time when we can return glory and joy to You.

Please bless us so that we can clear away all the wrongful conditions we have accumulated in the past week and be offered as living sacrifices in the image of true sons and daughters who harbor the heavenly will. Please move among us personally. We eagerly request this. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father! Please remember this day and reveal the granted grace. Reveal through our hearts the granted movement of life. If You can, please grant the glory of resurrection to us, even though we have been disloyal.

Please rule over our minds and bodies. We have realized that although we have our minds, they are not ours; although we have bodies, they are not ours. Our minds seek the direction of goodness, yet our bodies seek the direction of evil. Hence, we know that You treat us with the understanding that we are struggling between the two and have not stepped outside the realm of Heaven's lament. Father, You will have to have pity on us and give us the heavenly grace of life and the strong power of resurrection in our hearts.

Although the body tries to subjugate the mind, the heavenly will is for the mind to defeat the body and establish one victorious standard whereby the mind can eternally subjugate the body. We know that an inevitable battle lies before us in which we have to establish such a standard in ourselves.

Please allow us to feel that the wars that appear continuously before us are not to be feared. Let us feel that all the sorrows encountered in such combative circumstances are not as great as the sorrow caused by the fact that the mind is subjugated by the body in the struggle between them.

Father! Please arouse in us a strong heart and strong grace. We eagerly hope and pray that You will help our minds possess the power to subjugate our bodies. We know that unless we achieve a life centered on the mind, our lives cannot be resurrected. Thus, Father, our minds have to rise like lava.

Allow shock and ecstasy to envelop our bodies and our environments through the mind that faces life, the mind that encounters grace, the mind that can harmonize with the work of resurrection. Father, we eagerly hope and pray that You allow such a heavenly work of re-creation to appear in us.

Although our minds are infinitely soaring high toward Your glory, our bodies are infinitely exhausted and struggling. Father, please control this environment. Allow the joyful garden to appear soon before those whose bodies move in accordance with their minds. Beloved Father, we eagerly hope and desire that if there are such sons and daughters, they will be remembered eternally in history. Bless them so that they can dominate the earth and move Heaven.

We know that unless the people on earth realize a Kingdom of Heaven in their minds, they cannot form a Kingdom of Heaven based on the word. Unless they can achieve peace of heart, they cannot build a peaceful country. First, please allow us to restore deep in our minds the heart that can be highly inspired and delighted by You, the heart that can sing to You. We know that Heaven is longing for the one whose body moves and harmonizes with that mind.

Father, we have been fighting to become such people. Please allow us to restore the victorious image You desire through the heart that burns in the mind of each of us.

Please allow such people to gather at this time. Give us the ability to serve You with dedicated hearts and to remove all the elements that can be conditions for resentment. Beloved Father, we eagerly hope and pray that in this way You will allow Your victorious hands, which can more than dominate all, to stay near us. Please allow us to understand that unless we achieve the heavenly kingdom of the heart and of peace in ourselves, the glorious heavenly kingdom has nothing to do with us.

Father, among Your sons and daughters gathered here, is there someone who has the glorious qualification to meet You directly because of his eager heart of yearning for You? Is there someone who is trying to bow to You as a living sacrifice, inspired by the heavenly heart that serves You?

Is there someone whose praiseworthy and tearful heart challenges the path of death and infinitely resonates with the heavenly Shim Jung and turns into a movement of life? Is there one who seeks to hold a gathering of peace? We know that if such a heart is absent in us, You will be sad, our hearts will be sad, and today's meeting will end in sorrow.

Father! Please reveal Yourself here in glory. Come to us as our personal Master. If there is someone who has felt Your grace, open his heart and inject Your hope again. Many lives are captured by the power of darkness and are moaning in the world of death. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will remake them by bringing the life and authority of resurrection.

Thus, allow us to serve the coming Lord and solemnly bow down to You with our hands pressed together. Please allow us to feel that those who try to be loyal to You receive many tests. Allow us to feel that we are descendants of those who betrayed Heaven beyond measure.

We eagerly hope and desire that You allow us to realize that we have become a sacrifice to Satan and have stood on the forefront of blocking the heavenly course. Let us bow down to You for forgiveness, with irrepressible regret and tears.

Father, please have pity on those who have gathered here. Satan is trying to invade their hearts. Please make a separation, and become a beacon to set the direction of their hearts right. Please come personally to those who have gathered here. Let this be the time when even the body, led by the mind, can sing of Your glory in joy, moved by Your grace, and can bow to You representing the whole. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

Father, today is a holy day. We know that everyone has severe wounds from the past week of life. Please forgive us for having moved far away from Your Shim Jung and for having been submerged in sorrow in the wrong place. Please personally anoint us with Your fragrant oil. Please grant the people here at this time the grace to long for You and to receive the seals.

We know that the God of the Trinity works hard to help miserable people. He visits those who deplore their lowliness to look to Your compassion and try to sing of Your preciousness. Please guide our hearts to see Your value and lament our lowliness so that we are not found inadequate to receive Your grace.

Since today is a holy day, please bless the thirty million people and the whole of humankind. Father, please act so that the millions of saints surround us and offer a bow of joy. Brothers and sisters are gathered everywhere, praying across the country with lonely hearts and concern for the will. Do not remove Your hand of compassion from them; protect them with a loving hand. Please do not let us fall down exhausted as we go over the hill of toil in the last days. When we offer ourselves to You after having endured till the end by holding Your hand, please accept us.

We eagerly hope and pray that You will enable us to achieve the task even in difficulty; to uphold the will even in sorrow; and to advance the will even in frustration, thereby becoming sons and daughters to be remembered in Your heart. We eagerly request that today You will embrace us with Your special grace, promise us Your whole grace, and hold us until the day of victory. Please rule over this time according to Your will. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father! After receiving the word, we have come to yearn for the image of Jesus of two thousand years ago. A turbulent world and self-centered people lay before Jesus as he tried to convey the word. We realize that as he gazed at them, infinite sadness flowed from his heart.

Jesus was looking at the situation where the Jewish church was not only suffering from factional strife; its members were also fighting among themselves. As we reflect on the characteristics of the age, people boasting of themselves, hiding their faults and exposing others' defects, we can see how intensely woeful the heart of Jesus must have been as he carried the responsibility for the world and the age.

We can imagine the heart of Jesus, who nevertheless said, "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7) Although it was the nation, church and individual who were to ask, seek and knock, since they were not doing so, Jesus had to ask, seek and knock in their place. Father! This was a woeful thing.

Although Jesus longed to be sought after, he had to seek out others. Although Heaven had made preparations for a long time in history, desiring that humankind would serve Jesus, Jesus was not served. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that at this time You will enable us to feel the grieved heart of Jesus in this position.

Although Jesus could only shed tears and lament over the people on earth, he longed for the land to be blessed by the Father. Please bring that image of Jesus before our eyes today. Enable us to hear his voice of instruction, to quietly adore and experience the heavenly Shim Jung flowing from within his heart, and to bow in tears. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

We have come to You with our hands upraised and bare. Please be compassionate. Please leave nothing in our hearts but You. Let our hopes, desires and demands be for nothing but what is Yours. We eagerly hope and pray that You will make us sons and daughters who can live holding onto, experiencing and fighting on with hearts deeply shaken by Your infinite Shim Jung.

Father! Please have compassion on the audience here. As we have realized that our minds and bodies are not our own, let the leading authority appear who can claim them and everything else as Yours. Let this be the time of promise when You can personally seal us, calling us Your sons and daughters.

Father! I have come here with the words You have granted. Please be present here. Remove any distance between the heart of the giver and the hearts of the receivers. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You allow us to come to You with one heart and to return glory to You by making ties with humankind. As we ask You to rule over everything and reveal everything according to Your will, we pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

What Kind of Person Was Jesus to Be?

Jesus appeared on earth as the substance of God's hope. Before he came, God had been working for four thousand years, installing numerous prophets and good ancestors with a desperate and sorrowful Shim Jung.

The only purpose for God's providential work in history was to establish Jesus, the substance of hope, and to realize the hopes of Heaven, the ancestors, and the whole of humankind. We know that Heaven and our ancestors fought for this moment.

Jesus stood in this position. Jesus was God's only son, a value not exchangeable with anything in the world. When Jesus appeared, so could God. When Jesus rejoiced, so could God. When Jesus was glorified, so was God. Jesus came as the glory of Heaven, equal to the whole from the beginning to the end. Without him, nothing on earth or in heaven could reveal its value, not even the seat of the heavenly power. Jesus was the priceless center of the whole.

Jesus came with that heavenly value, yet he was seen from a human standpoint. The Jewish nation boasted of their ancestors, their history, and about being the chosen people, yet Jesus had a value greater than any righteous person in their history. He was the center of heaven and earth, without whom they could not gain their lives, establish their church, organize their nation, or found the desired homeland.

God did not send Jesus for sorrow nor did He send him so that the earth would receive him and be frustrated. God sent Jesus as the central figure heaven and earth could receive and rejoice over.

The Life God Desired for Jesus as Opposed to the Reality

Every action of Jesus should have been able to paint the glory of Heaven. The feelings he had in daily life should have been feelings of glory that could strike down the historical conditions of resentment. However, the life of Jesus was not like this. From the day humankind received him, they should have put Jesus in a glorious position. They should have served him and praised him to the utmost.

When the nation left him, however, Jesus stood in the position of having lost the nation. Although God sent Jesus to hold onto the nation, He could not but lose him. After losing him, He also lost joy and the heavenly kingdom. We should know this fact.

We should know that Jesus was not meant to have such a fate. When he was hit by tragedy and perished on the cross, he promised to gain the glory of victory without suffering this tragedy again and to establish the day when heaven and earth could rejoice. We should know that the day he referred to was the last day, the day of the Second Coming.

To Live with Jesus

Jesus came to the earth with God's mission. He went through an earthly life and went to the spiritual world. Now he is fighting along with the Holy Spirit to achieve the historical purpose of God. We should long for this Jesus. We should repossess this Jesus. We must live with this Jesus. To do this, we should live with God. We can live with Jesus only when we live with God. What then should we do? We should be the ones who fulfill the hope of God, Jesus, and human history. We should know that, without doing so, we cannot stand before Jesus when he comes in glory.

What path should we follow to receive this Jesus? This is the problem. Even if Jesus comes down from heaven to the earth, we are unable to receive him as we are today.

We can receive and serve him only after we have the Shim Jung to connect to his situation and complete the task he was to carry out on the earth. We should know that the day when we meet this Jesus is the day of Second Coming, the day to which today's Christians look forward.

Therefore, to receive Jesus, it is necessary to fulfill our responsibility on the earth. We can meet him only then. Thus, the title of my speech today is "Let us Follow the Way of Jesus." I will speak upon this topic.

Mary Longed for the Messiah to Come

The angel foretold Mary's mission to her. At this time, Mary backed away, saying, "Since I do not know a man, it cannot take be." The angel said, "Since this is a work of the omnipotent God, you shall conceive by the Spirit." Mary then replied, "Lord! I am Your servant; do as You will." When a meager virgin responded thus to Heaven, it was a historic moment.

When we think about the Lord today, we easily think about his cross and glorious resurrection; but we should go back further and consider the situation of Mary and the position of Joseph's family.

This one remark of Mary's: "Lord! I am Your servant; do as You will," which she uttered when she heard the final word of Heaven, provided the foundation for Heaven to come to humankind after four thousand years of toil. At that time, Mary showed her heart toward the will of the Lord. We should consider here that Mary had waited more eagerly than anyone else for the one who would come with the will. With the pure heart of a virgin, she longed more zealously than anyone else for the Savior to come to Israel.

From the fact that she said, "Lord! Do as You will," we should understand that Mary had greatly hoped and prayed for the hidden will of God to appear. We should know that Heaven came to her upon the foundation of her putting the heavenly will first. It was the same for the saints. The birth of one saint required the foundation to receive him. Thus, for the birth of saints, parents are needed who can bear them and serve as the foothold of the will.

The Shim Jung of Mary and Joseph which Made the Birth of Jesus Possible

Mary said after being told about the birth of Jesus, "Lord! Do as You will." This remark should be made at least once by every fallen person. Not only Mary, but anyone seeking the path of life must have the heart to say, "Lord, do as You will." Without such an answer, no one can make a connection of life with Jesus.

Jesus came on such a foundation. After conceiving, Mary thought about the will more than anyone else did as the baby grew inside her womb. Believing that when the baby was born, the Messiah would appear and clear away the resentment and sorrow of the nation, Mary must have thought more than anyone else about the time when God's will for the earth would be realized. Jesus was born in this way.

Without Joseph's family, how would Jesus have been born? If it had been known to the world that Mary had conceived a child as a virgin, she would have been stoned to death according to the law of Moses. This was the worst violation of the law; it was considered unpardonable in the social circumstances and situation of the age, the worst shame upon the nation. Since Mary and Joseph had a Shim Jung ardent enough to defy all the circumstances and come forward for the will, Mary could give birth to Jesus.

Joseph and Mary took steps thinking only of the will. Because of this, when their footsteps ran into the evil world, Heaven opened a way for them to live. Jesus came through such footsteps. We should think about Jesus, who prepared himself for the day when he could realize his purpose by going through the three-year course in Egypt and living a quiet life as a helper of his father, who did carpentry work for a living.

Among the words in the Bible, there is a passage, "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7) Jesus declared this with a desperate heart when he embarked upon a pioneering course with the new gospel.

The Lifestyle Jesus Adopted in Response to the Jewish Nation

Jesus knew that this nation should serve the Messiah. Jesus watched as the nation failed to ask with hearts more desperate than others for the substance of the Messiah. The church left its place and failed to seek when it should have sought with a heart more sorrowful than others. Jesus saw the Jews failing to knock when they should have knocked and waited for the heavenly gate to open.

The nation was eager for the realization of the heavenly will, yet failed to fervently ask, seek and knock on the door for the incarnation who could fulfill it. Jesus intended to realize the will with a nation that did not know the true will of Heaven. Thus, he did not pass even one day, one hour, or one second without thinking of the will.

Jesus' Shim Jung before the will was greater than Mary's. As he was quietly helping Joseph make a living, his Shim Jung was such that the more he watched the nation and lost confidence in them, the more seriously he worried about the will and made a new determination. We should know that he had a course of preparation like this for thirty years.

We should know that the life of Jesus was such that with a passionate Shim Jung of worry about the will, he worked hard in an unknown place to fulfill the responsibility for the sake of Heaven and the nation. We should know that with a heart more fervent than anyone else's, Jesus worked hard and ceaselessly in place of the nation to ask, seek and knock on the heavenly gate.

The Shim Jung and Life of Jesus during His Private Life

After he matured, Jesus ate and lived for the sake of the nation. He worried most about how to serve the will of the Heavenly Father; but there was no one who understood his thirty years of private life being concerned for the heavenly will and who then asked, sought and knocked with Him.

Because of such circumstances, Jesus became miserable. For Heaven, he had to ask, seek and knock in place of the nation. Above, Jesus had to ask, find and knock on the door in place of Heaven; below, he had to ask desperately in place of earth and the nation. He had to open the heart of the nation by asking and knocking on their hearts with a passionate Shim Jung.

In this situation, Jesus prepared himself for thirty years for the sake of Heaven. He prayed, "Heaven who loves me! Father who sent me! Since I know that You sent me to show the way to the nation and to connect their lives with You, please forgive their errors and shortcomings."

When the nation slept or indulged in pleasure, Jesus could not sleep comfortably, rest, or enjoy himself, watching their unfaithfulness and betrayal. He fought to hold onto the nation and connect them with Heaven. Only Jesus himself knew about this. There was no one who could console his heart.

Jesus must have been unable to suppress anxiety as he longed for the time of the will. His Shim Jung as he set out with determination for the practical course of the will must have been deeply pathetic, ineffable, and woeful beyond human experience. We should realize that with such a Shim Jung, Jesus worried about the course of his public life, the time when he would put the will into practice.

Why Jesus Fasted for Forty Days

Jesus came in place of Heaven as the Savior of all people. Yet there was no one who fathomed his heart and who came forward among the nation, which was in need of salvation. They did not even know about the thirty-year course of hard effort he had gone through, not to mention his heart. Even the clique of John the Baptist, who had lived in the wilderness and should have been responsible for the nation, wound up opposing him.

Looking at the nation with such sadness, Jesus had a thread of expectation in John the Baptist. However, when even he turned away from Jesus, greater sorrow was added to Jesus' heart.

Although the time was approaching when he would appear to the nation with the gospel of Heaven, the nation and John the Baptist were nowhere to be found. Therefore, Jesus could not appear before humankind. This is why Jesus went through the forty-day course of fasting in the wilderness.

Even though Christians believe that the forty-day fast was a glorious moment necessary for Jesus, this is not true. Jesus fasted because the nation and John the Baptist's followers were nowhere to be found. Furthermore, it was because the three wise men from the East and Anna, Simeon and Mary, who had conceived Jesus with a definite purpose, failed to acknowledge him when he set out on the course of praxis. We should know that Jesus met such a miserable fate, although he was the master of the earth and the prince who had come to save all people.

Jesus was supposed to have an altar of glory, joy and victory after completing the four thousand years, but when he set out to build this new altar, he met a sad fate. He was starving and being tested by Satan. The scene of Jesus' being tested by Satan is a scene that should be looked at by humankind with deepest sorrow. The hours of woe during which Jesus was ridiculed and tested by Satan after starving for forty days should have been a time of trial for the nation. Yet it was transferred to Jesus as his sorrow. Naturally, Jesus could have rejected, complained against, and cursed the nation that boasted of being the chosen people. Instead he rose up, starving and fought with the heavenly Shim Jung against Satan for the sake of the nation.

Jesus' position was unknown to the nation of Israel at this time. His Shim Jung as he appeared before Heaven with determination in this position was that no matter how woeful a situation he had to go through, his purpose and his unbending commitment to the Father's will would never change.

Jesus knew that the Father's will was to save all people through this nation. He honored this, undeterred by starving or near nakedness; no persecution or trial could destroy his heart, which had longed for the will for the thirty years. Thus, whenever he appeared with such a purpose, he could not help feeling, at the same time, the sorrow he had on behalf of Heaven and the sorrow of God. We should know that because he made an even firmer resolution for the will in such circumstances, he was able to go back out, seeking the people who had betrayed him.

Although Jesus hoped that the Israelites would come to him while he was alive, since they failed to do so, he became someone who could be visited only after death. Because of their failure to serve him, although he should have saved humankind in his lifetime, he could only do the work of salvation after his death. The fate of today's Christians and the whole of humankind is that although they should have knocked, asked and sought through the Shim Jung of the living Jesus, they knocked only after his death.

What is the Sorrow, Anger and Grief of God?

What is the sorrow of God? What is the anger and grief of God? It was to have lost the time when humankind could ask, seek and knock while Jesus was alive. It was to have lost the circumstances in which the heavenly gate could have been opened and the heavenly secrets revealed while Jesus was alive. When humankind woke up after losing it all, Jesus was already gone to the spiritual world. Thus, having sent Jesus away, humankind's fate was to ask, seek and knock on the heart of a deceased Jesus. Hence, we who are in the last days should understand that it was the sorrow of God, Jesus and humankind that people were not found who could ask, seek and knock before Jesus was gone.

The tragedies of history continue because of the departure of Jesus. Jesus admonished his disciples to go through a narrow gate in setting out for a course of practice. This is the path Jesus walked.

The contents of Matthew 7 implicitly show the overall facts of Jesus' life. You should know that the path of Jesus, who set out for the will by asking, seeking and knocking, was rugged and mountainous rather than smooth. It was the narrow gate of the cross, rather than a huge and glorious castle of victory. When the nation did not believe in, follow, look to, or like him, Jesus gathered the small number of his disciples and admonished them, "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matthew 7:13-14) With this remark, Jesus described his situation and that of his followers. Jesus had been on the opposite side from the social circumstances. We should know that by using himself as an example, Jesus was talking to his disciples, who were midway between him and the social circumstances.

When Jesus appeared before the nation in his course of practice, he could not walk a paved road. The Jewish church, nation, and John the Baptist all blocked his way. Thus, if there was a way for him to take, it was a way no one else wanted to take. This road was without a door. He had to make a road where there was none, and to make a door in the wall that stood in the way. Jesus walked such a road.

The Road of Suffering Brought About by the Unfaithfulness of the Chosen People

Jesus was sent to set up a door to Heaven and make a road through which Heaven and all people could be linked. If the nation of Israel had believed in and served him, the way of peace would have been opened. If so, the Jewish church, established after four thousand years of toil, would have become a wide road through which God could come and go. Also, it would have become a door for all people seeking the heavenly kingdom.

Since the nation opposed Jesus, the road and door for the nation were blocked. Since the church opposed him, the road and door for the church were closed. Since Jesus was persecuted by the Jewish nation, the Jewish church, and even by his witnesses, disbelieved by his disciples, he could not help walking the most tragic path for a human being.

Therefore, although it seems that there are many doors to Heaven from the four thousand years, and there are even more if we consider the six thousand years as a whole, we should know that the door Jesus went through is the only one. On this earth, this door is not open. We should never forget this.

There are many Christians in these last days. There are many who are trying to augment their faith and to introduce and promote their denominations. We should know clearly that although the path they follow and the door they show looks like a passage to Heaven, it is not the path Jesus pioneered while on the earth. It is not the narrow gate.

The Path Jesus Walked

Jesus fought with his life in the three-year course of practice, and departed. This was the path of the cross, the path of death, the path on which he prayed for the blessing of his enemies even as he bled. He went through this path, however, and resurrected. This was the path of Jesus.

The path of Jesus was that of being betrayed by the nation, by the church, and by the chosen people of God. It was a path of betrayal by his parents and brothers and sisters, his beloved disciples, and even the three main disciples.

Even though the multitude of humankind was to follow that path with him, after Jesus went through it, the path was barred, and the door was closed. The path the disciples went through remains open, however. This is Christianity.

Therefore, we should follow the path of the disciples. Where do we go through this path? We should go to the path of Jesus. We should have a clear purpose in following this path.

What is this purpose? It is to realize the will of the Father. We should also have clear content. This was the way of the will that Jesus followed. The content and purpose of the will were discovered and established by Jesus during his 33 years of hard work. Since the content and purpose were found through the sacrifice of his thirty years of life, no matter what trouble struck him, and although the wall of death overwhelmed him, Jesus' content and purpose remained the undeniable will.

Since Jesus was like this, we should walk the road Jesus walked. Since Jesus followed a narrow and rugged road, we should follow him and walk that path today. This is the position in which we exist.

What kind of path did Jesus follow? Although he was faced with a hill of death and swept away by a lethal tide, he pushed everything away and went ahead, believing, "Since God is alive, He will grant me the power of resurrection." Jesus had something so great he could push death aside and resurrect. God could grant the power of resurrection through this.

An Important Problem for Believers

Herein lies the important problem for today's believers. We should be the ones who feel the heart with which Jesus asked, looking at the sad world. We should be the ones who possess the heart with which Jesus sought, looking at the deadened earth. We should be the ones who possess the heart with which Jesus knocked, looking at the world falling into ruins, eagerly trying to bring new life. Unless people of such heart appear with the heavenly purpose and come forward with a determination to dare to fight against the earth when it does not follow, Heaven will not be able to lead us to the path of Jesus; nor can we enter his gate.

We know that the believers of the last days must resolve the historical resentment. By failing to achieve the original purpose for which they were chosen, the first Israel lost the right of being the chosen people. Because of the truth Jesus proclaimed, however, Christians worldwide received the right of being the chosen people, the second Israel. Christians in the last days, who have received the right of being the second Israel, should become the second Israel before the Lord of the Second Coming instead of being like Israel at the time of Jesus. They should properly replace the lost first Israel.

What is Jesus working on in the heavenly kingdom? His grief is that he failed to build the kingdom of the second Israel with a living body while on the earth. Therefore, he and the Holy Spirit have been mobilizing all the people and trying to form the realm of the chosen people of the second Israel for two thousand years.

To Go Through the Gate of the Heavenly Kingdom

What will Jesus do once the realm of the chosen people of Israel is formed? He is trying to build the kingdom of Israel. Thus, the believers of the last days can become people of the heavenly kingdom only when they go through the gate of the twelve disciples and enter the gate of Jesus. The heavenly gate which will open before the believers in the last days is marked with a form of the twelve disciples. Hence, in entering the heavenly kingdom, the believers in the last days have to go through the gate of the twelve disciples. They must go in this direction. This is Christianity.

Today, however, many gates are open for Christians worldwide. They are divided into numerous denominations. They claim that they are the ones who have the heavenly gate, but this is not how the heavenly principle works.

Since Christianity started because of the twelve disciples centered on Jesus, by destiny the believers of the last days have to go through the gate of the twelve disciples. In other words, they have to be the second Israel, in the form of the first Israel at the time of Jesus, and must be found at the end of the six thousand years.

To what denomination do you belong, and through which gate are you going? You should set out by first receiving on your forehead the mark of the ideology of the twelve disciples. Only then can you enter the gate of Jesus.

Worldwide Christianity must inherit and complete the mission since the time of Jesus. Therefore, the time has come when they have to find the gate of the twelve disciples. According to the fortune of heaven and earth, the denominations, which have been multiplying almost infinitely, are now entering into a unified realm without realizing it. Thus, the time is coming when today's Christians of the world and the followers of other religions should find out to which tribe they belong and enter into the order of the twelve disciples of Jesus.

Just as Moses instituted twelve tribes and seventy elders, Jesus, who came to organize the chosen people of Israel, also established the twelve and seventy disciples. Although he tried to establish the national ideology of Israel as the worldwide ideology in this way, this aim was not achieved. That is why Christians worldwide are in the realm of the second Israel today.

Even though they are in the realm of the second Israel, they do not know it. They have become people who do not know to which tribe they belong and have lost the order of the tribes. Jesus departed without being able to organize the chosen people and the order of the twelve tribes through the twelve disciples. Therefore, he will come back to worldwide Christianity with the mission of organizing the form of twelve tribes, seventy disciples, and 120 disciples on earth in accordance with the heavenly providence.

Thus, now is the time when you should look for the one who has passed the gate of the disciples and then the gate of Jesus. Although there may be a true believer, unless he has a tribe and a leader, he cannot participate in the building of the heavenly kingdom. When asked "Which tribe are you?" he should be able to answer confidently, "I am this tribe."

Thus, in the last days, if one does not have a clear position in relation to the ideology or nation, he becomes an ambiguous person. He ends up in the position where he can be helped by no one.

Ladies and gentlemen! Denomination does not matter now. Now is the time when you have to gather. The last days is the harvest time at the end of human history when good people are gathered after six thousand years. You should know that this is harvest time.

Until now, a variety of grains were planted in one field. Although different grains can be planted in one field at sowing time, only the same kind of grain can be put into one storehouse at harvest time. This is harvest time.

What Kind of Time is the Last Days?

What was Jesus' task when he came? It was to organize the order of the twelve tribes of Israel and to bring them into the heavenly warehouse. Since he did not fulfill that mission, however, he said that the day of its realization would come again. This day of promise is the day of the Second Coming. For the believers on earth who are near the day, the Jewish church is not a problem. The Sadducees are not a problem. It is time to wander in search of the original tribe and leader.

You should have something with which to deny the past ideology, customary devotion, traditional law, and habitual concepts and to turn them over to the new aspect. Otherwise, you will not be able to stand in the age of the worldwide ideology, which is equivalent to the age of Jesus and the first Israel.

That is why factions of believers are developing. Denominations are being divided further and further. Although they declare a unified form outwardly, inwardly they are divided. Although they look united from the outside, they are divided inside. The time is coming to bring this into order. This is the age of the Second Coming.

When it becomes time to organize inwardly, the outward unified form will appear with an opposing flag. This is inevitable. It is the same phenomena as when a sprout comes out from a seed. Its shell breaks and falls away.

The seed and sprout of life are different. Likewise, what we need is not the Bible itself; we need the life within it. We do not need Jesus himself. We need God's will within him. This is the problem.

The Hope of Jesus

What did Jesus hope for at the time of his death? He did not care about his body being sacrificed. His sole hope and purpose was the fulfillment of the will. The word of Jesus was to guide the people to become incarnations by giving them life. That was the purpose of the word. Now the time has come when we should ask, seek and knock.

Jesus failed to establish the twelve disciples and have them inherit the authority of the twelve tribes organized by Moses. That was Jesus' sorrow.

Jesus should have asked God, found God, and knocked on the heavenly gate while he was alive, but he could not. For the worldwide Christians of the last days, however, the time is coming to ask, find and knock on the heart with Jesus as he lives. This is the hope of God and Jesus.

What should we do to get to this position? Since we have fallen, we should go up. To go up, we should first knock on the door of the disciples. Now is the time when a figure in the position of the disciples who fell at the time of Jesus will appear before Christians. It is the time when three disciples should appear who can order worldwide Christianity and organize the representative form of the twelve tribes.

The three disciples who were the chosen from the others represented the eastern gate. When explaining the heavenly gate, Heaven talked about three gates each for east, west, south and north, three in the east, three in the west, three in the south, and three in the north. Centered on Jesus, Peter, James and John were the eastern gate. Thus, Christianity can be symbolized as the Christianity of Peter, the Christianity of James, and the Christianity of John. Catholicism is the Christianity of Peter. Peter symbolizes faith. James symbolizes hope, and John symbolizes love. In Christian history, there has been a Christianity of Peter and a Christianity of James. The latter is Protestantism.

What Is Required in the Last Days

The Christianity of John is required in the last days. Jesus said that John would not die in service of the Lord. John was not martyred. Jesus said this with a premonition that in the last days, the Christianity of John would arise anew and meet the Lord. John was dear to and deeply loved in the bosom of Jesus. John symbolized love. Thus, the Christianity of John is that of love, and in the last days, such a Christianity should emerge.

Although this has been shown, Christians still do not know which gate they should enter. The gate of Peter and of James are fine, but we should go through the gate of John, of love. This gate of love is the one Jesus beheld straight ahead. Although Heaven has fought for six thousand years for this gate, and Jesus has fought for two thousand years for it, this gate, the hope of history, has not been opened yet.

Thus, Heaven tried to fulfill the promise by installing a representative who could open the gate. This is why He spoke of a bride to fulfill the word.

What should humankind do for the returning Lord? They should pray. They should console him by saying, "We realize that this is the sorrow you left behind on the earth. We see that this is the resentment you failed to resolve while alive. How hard did you toil, fighting in sorrow, with the spite of history before you?"

Humankind must complete the providence of salvation as the historical figures and perfecters of salvation. Unless they become living disciples, like the disciples before the betrayal, they cannot face Heaven.

Instead of being like the three disciples who denied Jesus at Gethsemane and Calvary, Christians worldwide, who are preparing themselves for the day of the Second Coming in these last days should become disciples who can command their churches, embrace the great number of believers, pray in place of Jesus, and go over the hill of the cross in Jesus' place. A church should be that kind of gathering.

What Should Humankind Do before the Lord of the Second Coming?

The history of religion is the history of restoration. Jesus said, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." (Revelation 22:13) "Alpha" and "Omega" are words that came into being because of the fall. Do people today talk about eternity? What they are talking about is not eternity. Alpha came into being because the fall did, and Omega was introduced to refer to the return by restoration. Unless the ideology of the Alpha, which Jesus had to achieve in the state of Israel, is completed as the ideology of the Omega with the believers in these last days, Jesus cannot appear.

Jesus is the hope and joy of God and humankind. Until this ideology of Alpha is completed as the ideology of Omega, however, he cannot come in joy. We should know that if he does not appear in joy, he is fated to appear in sorrow. People do not know this. The heavenly kingdom is not built by whim. With a self-centered faith, insistence and ideology, you cannot connect to the Shim Jung of the heavenly kingdom.

For this reason, the believers on earth are still unable to go through the gate opened by Jesus. If they had gone through it, they would have become the bride. This is why Jesus stopped Mary Magdalene when she tried to hold him. By this, Jesus meant, "Since I have not appointed you as a disciple, come to me through the gate of the disciples." This is how heavenly law is.

The Reason the Bible Was Primary

Thus, we should see if there is someone who has the mission of being the disciple for humankind. Now is the time to wander in search of such a person. Ladies and gentlemen! All kinds of things happened in the first church: speaking in tongues, spiritual work, prophesying, and so on. Since the abundant spiritual phenomena in the first church caused ignorant people confusion, to prevent this, church leaders stipulated, "The biblical words are primary." These phenomena are predicted in the Bible: "in the last days, it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh..." (Acts 2:17) Thus, the phenomena that appeared in the first church will emerge in Christian history in the last days, and there will be many who will be called crazy, evil sects, and heretics. Our Unification Church is a representative member of this group.

The Reason for Much Spiritual Phenomena in the Last Days

The one upon whom the Spirit has been poured cannot contest it. If he does not know why, Heaven will tell him. When he opens his eyes, he sees the spiritual world. When he acts, he acts for the spiritual world. He thoroughly differs from you. He even looks crazy. Did Jesus look smart? In the eyes of the people at the time, he was stupid and mindless.

In the future, such spiritual phenomena will sweep across the world, the nations, and the churches. Hence, the number of mental patients is increasing exponentially. The world of fear and anxiety is coming. This is because Jesus, the son of God, led life and faced the will with anxiety, insecurity, and an agitated heart. This is why the fortune of the world is flowing this way.

It eventually comes about that the direction cannot be found. Phenomena occur wherein the true seems to be false, and the false seems to be true. The age is coming when falsity becomes superior, and truth becomes inferior; falsity prospers and truth is greatly weakened. We should go through and beyond such an age.

Considering that today is the last days, an important problem for earnest Christians is where the twelve disciples are to organize Christianity (the worldwide and second Israel) and where the Messiah is coming from to command the twelve disciples.

The Task of Believers in the Last Days

Since the disciples of Jesus were scattered in all directions, to restore this, the prayer at Gethsemane centering on Jesus should be revived for the world. The believers should hear the prayer of Gethsemane everywhere on earth. They should be able to hear the voice with which the disciples prayed afterward. For this reason, many appear these days who claim to be Peter, James, John or Andrew. Furthermore, some claim to be Abraham or Noah. It is reversing the course. This is because neither Noah nor Abraham had an order of tribes like the twelve disciples of Jesus.

Among the twelve disciples, we should find the three who were the chosen of the twelve. Among the three, we should find John. Only then can we participate in the first resurrection. Have you ever had a time of prayer in which you longed for Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed with the three disciples, fighting for the day of fulfilling the hope? When Jesus was praying without sleep and with blood and sweat, they were dozing. Since they did not know the Shim Jung of Jesus, they all betrayed him when he was crucified at Golgotha. Thus, the time has come when we should find people who pray in blood and sweat in place of Jesus.

Jesus, the bridegroom, left in this manner for the sake of humankind. What then should we do today to experience his Shim Jung? Just as Jesus prayed for his enemy's blessing while being persecuted by the Jewish church and carrying the cross, if there is a group of people who can pray for their enemy's blessing while being driven to the cross by the Christians, who will they be? They are heretics, just like Jesus. Just like Jesus, they appear to be traitors to the nation, heretics and destroyers of the established order. Only when such a movement arises can the world find a new direction.

What Is Needed to Fulfill the Ultimate Hope

You cannot remove all the dark clouds in your hearts and arouse a liberation movement of the spirit to change lives with the established religions. No logic or philosophical system can change a person's heart. These methods will not work even if thousands of years go by.

When humankind declared the omnipotence of science, they believed that it could create world peace. That turned out to be wrong. They thought that through religions and God's chosen people, humankind could be saved. This turned out to be wrong. No certain answer can be given here.

The one thing that is needed in this situation is the image of the Christ, who quietly prayed for the blessing of humankind even as he was crucified. We need this image. Even in the place where he transcended death and abandoned all attachment to life and personal hopes, Jesus still left behind hope for his enemies. Since Jesus said that he would come as he left and that he was the Alpha and the Omega, in the last age of Christianity, a bride should appear who resembles Jesus. You should know that this is such a place.

Such people may arise within world Christianity today. However, with a little mistake they may repeat the course of the first Israel. Their error is almost unavoidable. That is why today's Christians should be awake. They should stay awake and pray with Jesus in Gethsemane. They should be crucified with Jesus. Since the heavenly tragedy engraved in the heart was caused by the death of Jesus, we should be able to long for the one who can console Heaven with the heavenly heart, "Since I will go even if I should die with him, accept me and resolve the burning vengeance in Your heart."

The believers in the last days should find such a comrade, such a friend and leader. You should know that the time of joy should be open to all people when they can meet Jesus again, Jesus who could have given were he asked, who could have come if he were sought, who could have opened the door if it were knocked upon.

Considering the divisions in the established churches today, we can see clearly that they cannot serve as the foundation of life. Thus, the sincere leader and young people with the heavenly Shim Jung should brace themselves against the forces of the established churches.

Jesus said, "Beware of false prophets." (Matthew 7:15) Who was the false prophet? It was not the disciples, but turned out to be the established Jewish church and the nation of Israel, which opposed him.

Today, social developments are following this course. Jesus said to beware of false prophets and struck those who were preoccupied with outward displays by giving them hardships. He also led the dismantling of the Jewish church, which was turning to ceremony and external form. Jesus prayed for the enemies' blessing at Gethsemane and Golgotha. This was not for Satan, but because he had to subjugate Satan and take back the people from Satan's bosom. He had hope for them and prayed for their blessing even though they were in Satan's bosom.

Today's Christianity is slipping into formalism, for it revolves around its area of power. If there are concerned leaders and young men and women, there surely will occur a movement with a slogan that the church cannot be entrusted to the hands of Christians, who have lost their lives. There will develop movements in which they will say, "We cannot trust the pastors and elders in our church. Let us lay people run the church."

If this time comes, know that it is the end. It is the end. Thus, the time of pastors will pass by, and the time of elders will come. At this time of elders, certain elders will come out and go wild. After this period, deacons will revolt. After this, when the time comes for the lay people to rise, know that this is the final day.

The one who came to save those who stained and betrayed history was the historic leader, Jesus; but Israel led the leader away and killed him on the cross. Heaven knows this clearly. Now is the time to have a liberation movement centering on the common people. After World War I, the upper class succeeded. After World War II, the middle class succeeded. Now is the time for workers and farmers, that is, the lower class, to succeed. Faith is also like this.

Christians say that the time has come when they should follow their consciences, rather than leaders. In other words, it is not a time to look for a leader but a time to seek the self. The word, "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7) is not something you need in heaven. It is a word needed on earth. God did not send Jesus because the heavenly kingdom needed him. He was sent because he was needed on earth.

Since history collapsed for various reasons, Heaven is longing for a brave person who can come out to resolve the historical grudges. Who then is the brave person of the new age? It is the young men and women who can go back to the first church and burn with the spirit of the disciples, who can be whipped in place of the Lord. It is the young men and women who, upon seeing how corrupt Christianity is, can take up the responsibility although their bodies are scratched and whipped. There will be a day in the last days when such young men and women will unite and seek a new leader. The Korean church will become like this before long.

Who Is the Brave Person of the New Age?

Today, there are many Christian groups, including the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. Inside, however, they are empty. For solving the internal problems, we need young men and women of Heaven who are like the believers who burned with the Shim Jung of Jesus and moved ahead under the oppressive rule of the ignorant Emperor Nero. We need such brave people of Heaven. If such phenomena actually occur in the last days, what should Christians do? They should think about this again.

Just as the Renaissance revived Hellenistic culture and pioneered humanism, today we should revive the Christianity of two thousand years ago and build the God-centered heavenly kingdom of Jesus. We need no intermediate bridge. Now is the last days. That is why strange phenomena are occurring, Elder Na, Elder Park, the Unification Church, etc. You should be able to analyze this spiritually. This is your mission.

Ladies and gentlemen! Now the historical age of the seventy disciples is coming on a worldwide level. Since history is the providence of restoration, it goes back up according to the law. It goes back up to find what was lost. After the age of seventy disciples comes the age of the twelve disciples. In Korea, there have been many fortune tellers who had this position. Next, the age of the three disciples comes. Three forms of representative movements will occur.

Where Are You?

As it is the Christian course of faith to follow the footsteps of Jesus, where are you? Are you in the wilderness period of Jesus? Or are you at the stage when Jesus was growing up in Galilee? Where are you? Ladies and gentlemen! The life of Jesus was the prototypical life of person, the path a human being should follow. In other words, it was the model for human beings. But where are you? Are you at the forty-day fast of Jesus, in the three-year public course, in the middle of the prayer at Gethsemane, or on the path where life and death was finally decided on the cross?

We who should follow the path of Jesus should go through the gate of Christianity, which is the gate of the disciples, and the narrow gate of the Christ. Where are the believers who are heading for the narrow gate? Nowhere. Today's church officials are even preventing them from going through the narrow gate.

Jesus prayed overnight, and said to pray without rest. Where will we go if we pray without rest? We will forget the human world and go into the spiritual world. Where will we go if we pray unceasingly in the spiritual world? We can meet an angel. If we go further, we can meet Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

The path of Christians is to go through the unknown course of humanity, that is, through the door of the unknown world through which Jesus went. However, that door is blocked. Although the disciples led them to the place of death, they did not explain what kind of place the heavenly kingdom is; nor did they explain the path of Jesus. There has been no truth that could explain it and enable us to experience the Shim Jung Jesus felt during his life.

Thus, you who came to the Unification Church should follow the path Jesus took. You should enter the gate Jesus opened and entered. In this way, you go to the place where Jesus resurrected. We have gathered to do so. Thus, we should plead with the world to take responsibility for the mission.

Why did Jesus return to the earth after the resurrection? Although we have thoroughly followed the course of resurrection Jesus walked, we should not be elevated in resurrection. After having the joy of resurrection, Jesus went out to humankind in the realm of death, instead of being elevated to heaven.

The Path We Should Follow

Likewise, when you stand before the will and in the place of the grace of God, you should run toward the earth, rather than toward Heaven. You should run toward the earth. Have you been leading this kind of life of faith?

Jesus knew that, even after the resurrection, he should not forget the central point of saving the earth. Therefore, he visited the disciples, who were the worst traitors. The betrayal of the disciples caused more resentment than that of any nation or church. Since Jesus regained the disciples, however, he could make a connection with the earth.

What will happen after you complete the course of faith? If you are resurrected, what will happen after that? Only after you come to the earth and do all that is required of you, thereby creating the clan with whom you can stay and who can bear witness to you, can you go to the Lord. As Jesus did before God, so should you.

Have you ever received grace that deeply stirred your heart? If so, just as Jesus did during his forty-day fast, you should remember the sorrow of the six thousand years and work in spite of persecution to establish the needed heavenly foundation.

You may know well that when the Lord comes back, without such a foundation and environment, you cannot stand as brides before the Lord, the bridegroom. This is why you should establish such a foundation.

This is the will of goodness. This will is desired by Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit. You should realize this will. This will is to live with Jesus. The purpose and content of the will lies in living with Jesus.

To go to that place, although you have received the grace of resurrection today, you should not be content with that. You should visit the people in the realm of death and set up at least a minimum condition before Heaven.

The Purpose of the Will is to Live with Jesus

After the resurrection, Jesus regained the twelve, seventy and 120 disciples. Afterward, with the advent of the Holy Spirit, he established a church.

Likewise, in the process of our restoration, we need the True Parents first. Afterwards, there should be the eight family members of Noah, the twelve brothers of Jacob, seventy family members, and 120 relatives. Until such a foundation for the will is completed, Jesus cannot engage in the second ceremony of praxis.

If you have inherited the spirit of Jesus, you should have the form of the living Jesus, thereby establishing living people like the twelve disciples, living people like the seventy disciples, and a living church like the 120 disciples. Only then can the movement of building the heavenly kingdom start.

It says in the Bible, "'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.'" (Matthew 7:22-23) Jesus said that he would not know them.

He also said, "There is no one who can come to me but those who follow the Father's will." What is the Father's will? What hurt the heart of Jesus, who was trying to reclaim the law of heaven and earth by curing diseases and exercising power? What was the purpose he tried to fulfill? Only those who understand it and achieve the will can be the brides of Jesus.

Jesus showed us this path because he wanted us to live like this. Thus, only when you can prostrate yourselves before Heaven as the purposeful entity of Jesus who can resolve his sorrow can you follow him and become his brides. Please bear this clearly in mind. Let us pray.

Prayer

Father! Until now we did not know what Your will was; nor did we know the will concerning history, the age, or our individual lives. We thank You, however, for the grace of letting us understand the historical will, for the grace of teaching us the Shim Jung of the age, of life, of daily living, and even of time. We are truly grateful.

With this Shim Jung, we will have to go through the gate of the disciples and follow Christ through the narrow gate. We know that we can avoid judgment only when we more than attain the grace of resurrection by winning over the hill of death and leaving the resurrected tribe of goodness on the earth to bear fruit.

Since you said that a tree not bearing good fruits will be cut down, we will have to be trees of goodness. Please allow us to become trees of goodness and bear fruits of goodness. As Jesus has been fighting for two thousand years to bring fruits of goodness, please guide us to bear fruits of goodness today as trees of goodness. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You allow us to be sons and daughters who know how to sow the seeds.

Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You allow us to be the ones who can realize that this is Your will; this is the purpose for which You came to the earth; this is the content for which You have fought. Let us be the ones who can live, fight and hold You, consumed with this will, this purpose, and content.

We eagerly ask You to lead us so that we become the best filial sons and daughters who can console the Lord and You after fulfilling the will that remains and running the required road. We pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven

Sun Myung Moon
April 19, 1959
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea

1 "At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 "At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' 7 "Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.' 9 "'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.' 10 "But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. 11 "Later the others also came. 'Lord, Lord,' they said, 'open the door for us!' 12 "But he replied, 'Truly I tell you, I don't know you.' 13 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
Matthew 25:1-13

Prayer

We know that history has been a sad course because of the fall of Adam and Eve, who were to serve You. Please instill in us anger over human history. The descendants of sinful Adam and Eve have continued until today with the inherited baggage of sin: driven, chased around, and suffering under hardships. Since You have responsibility as the Creator, and accordingly, can never forget them, You have been going through a historical course of toil to regain humankind, regardless of the age and time.

Please enable us to feel remorse over ourselves in such a position and to feel pain over Your having walked that path of infinite toil and suffering. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will give us the heart to feel shame together with You about who we are and anger over having inherited the sinful lineage of history.

We feel that the sinful character still remains in us. Our bodies are shackled in chains of sin. We are zealously waiting for You, merciful Father, to reveal Your power and ability. We are waiting to become true sons and daughters. We know that Your sorrow will deepen as You see sons and daughters fail, unable to cut off the barbed wire of sin, unable to sever the relationship with sin that invades them and fight.

You are longing for the one to appear who can open his mind and escape from the restriction of the body and call You "Father" with a new mind and body. Please help us be the sons and daughters who can say to You, "Father, please accept us, as we represent Your will." We know that it is Your hope that such historical victors, sons and daughters who can win over the enemies and comfort Your anguished heart, will appear. We sincerely hope and desire now that You allow us to become such sons and daughters, calling You "our Father" from that position and comforting You.

Since we know that this is both Your hope and ours, please encourage us and lead us on to that place. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that through Your guidance we can become sons and daughters with a heart to hold onto Your hand of guidance and a desire to follow any path of hardship.

Father, please bless us today. Please come to us. Please remove all the darkness that is deeply seated in our minds and bodies, and let this be the day when we can be embraced in Your shining bosom. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

Please bless this nation and humankind. Please spread Your hand of compassion over the brothers and sisters who are bowing before You with lonely hearts. Enable them to regain the image of victors and to present it proudly. Lead this hour to be such that heaven and earth resonate and rejoice with worship and songs of praise. As we entrust You with everything from the beginning to the end, please rule over this hour. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

On this holy occasion, although we are not prepared, we still have come before You shamelessly, bowing our heads to You. Father of love, mercy and forgiveness, please tolerate us. Our minds desire to resemble Your mind; our bodies seek to take after Your form. Since we have not accomplished this task because of our ignorance, we zealously desire You to enlighten us through our minds and give us experience through our bodies, so that we can prostrate ourselves before You in the image which resembles You.

If there are sons or daughters who are not suitable for Your will, please come to them directly and admonish them. As we have deaf ears and blind eyes, and are unable to hear Your words and see Your figure, You have to make us hear and see again. Let us understand that You are more grieved than we are because of this; you are more troubled than we, and more stifled in heart.

How can we face You after not responding to Your tens of millions of beckonings and not hearing Your tens of millions of calls? Nevertheless, we have come and prostrated ourselves before You, having heard Your voice and realized that You are beckoning to us. You know that we are most miserable and helpless people. You will have to come to us and hold us with hands of love, in spite of the disgraceful shape we are in. Although our eyes are darkened and our bodies are scarred so that we are ignorant of the original substance of life, Father, please embrace us with love. We eagerly hope and desire that You will console us, resting Your exhausted feet and turning Your disappointment into joy.

Because the world is fallen, sorrow is heaped upon sorrow in Your heart. Father, you have been fighting against the enemy alone, without laying the responsibility upon us, because You know that Satan is blocking our way and sweeping the world with the power of death. Since we know that the greater our reverence for You, the greater Your desire to forgive our sins and defects, please come to us through this heart. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

Please forgive the people on earth for not having been able to bow to You with true feelings of life. Please understand that although we have the desire to call You, follow You, and serve You, our situations are infinitely sad.

Please let us call You "Father" at this time, worrying about the sins of history and of the age, and about the conditions of sin that will remain in the future. Although we are unworthy, please let us invite You and bow to You. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

With regret for being sinners and with tears of indignation as well as hearts of serious repentance, we come to realize that You have been forgiving us for six thousand years and that even now You are still trying to treat us with mercy. Father, please knock on the door of our hearts as we cry out. Please remove all our insistence and our sin-bound concepts and let us feel Your life through our minds and bodies. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will let this be the time when a relationship is formed in which we can call You "Father" and You can call us "sons and daughters." Let us experience the heavenly grace of love, Your heart of love and desperation, the heart we have never felt so far.

Father, please have pity on the thirty million people living on the peninsula of the thirty- thousand-li. We know that those who are truly worried about these people and who shed tears and sweat for them are very few. Since they have no place to stay without Your sympathy, no one from whom to receive help or to look, Father, please take care of these people. We sincerely desire this.

We know that You are making an effort to arouse a movement of life by giving them a new promise. We cannot help admitting to You our shortcomings in serving the heavenly providence to save this people. Please admonish us. We are so wanting. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will encourage us to become sons and daughters to whom You can give the responsibility to bring forth a movement of new life and build a garden of new hope. As we are moaning in the shadow of death and are captured in Satan's barbed wire due to our defects, we eagerly hope and desire that You will spread the hands of grace and lead us on.

Many people are bowing to You at this time, longing for Your embrace. Father, please show them everything. Please tell them the will of the providence and help them fulfill it.

Since many lonesome sons and daughters are pleading with You on their knees at this time, we eagerly hope and desire that in every place they pray with such a Shim Jung, You will spread a hand of love and show them the glory of Your presence.

We entrust the remaining hours with You. Please guide us to start and end with You. Please rule over us directly so that we can experience the joy of Your life and return glory to You. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, we miss the time when You used to teach us about all that was of You and the time when we beheld Your glory in ecstasy and did not want to remain on earth. We also miss the time when heaven and earth rejoiced as we were immersed in Your love and experienced Your Shim Jung.

You liked appearing in quietude, and did not mind coming in the middle of hardship. You have been working in history, fighting with us on the battlefield and in the place of despair. As we reflect that You have always stayed with us, fought with us, and always longed to live with us, please let us repent for our past course of faith in which we enjoyed rejecting and denying the earth, even though we lived there.

We have seen that although You are in glory when we joyfully serve You in the position of transcendence, You were pitiful, haggard and saddened when You appeared on the earth. We also have learned that You have been relating to us in this form throughout history.

We eagerly hope and desire that You will guide us so that we stand in the glorious position where we can rejoice with the Father who has been wounded on the earth and who has struggled to find a true son under hardship. We hope for this, rather than rejoicing with the Father who appears in glory.

We know that if we want to serve You in such a position, we have to go through the path of tears, thorns and the cross. Only in this way can we know that You exist. We cannot help thinking that such a sad path of faith remains for us.

Beloved Father! Beloved Father! Are we lamenting now for ourselves? Are we grieving for our sake? Are we grieving for the sake of the nation? Are we grieving for the sake of the world and Heaven?

Now we must become sons and daughters who can realize for ourselves where You are headed by clearly understanding our identity. We must bow our heads while worrying about Your hope. If we have no confidence to stand before You, let us repent in our hearts. If we are unworthy to go to You, let us purify ourselves.

Father! Earthly people are not aware that You must hasten them to proclaim the way to the heavenly kingdom. You have to face untenable circumstances. Although earthly circumstances cannot be brought close to Your Shim Jung, You have the responsibility to bring them around by installing the one true human being.

We have inherited the sinful lineage of those who chased away, drove out, persecuted and killed at will the numerous prophets who came with a mission. Please lead us to repent for ourselves, asking what kind of heavenly responsibility we are willing to bear and what kind of determination we have.

Heaven told us in advance that now is the time to wake up. You have told us that it is time to hoist a bright lamp in the dark night. Are our minds still immersed in darkness? Are our bodies wrapped up in the barbed wire of death? Please guide us so that we can break away from this and be able to run toward Heaven, to fight for Heaven, and to take responsibility for Heaven. In this way, we should become sons and daughters who can call You "Father" and long for You to come. Father, if there is anyone who is unworthy to stand before the will, please encourage him at this time.

Please help us understand the urgency of the time. Please do not let us receive the judgment, swept up in the shadow of death. Rather, make us sons and daughters who can be led by the call of life and run toward Your embrace and the garden of freedom, although our bodies may be torn apart and we may die.

We on earth cannot help being saddened as we behold the Kingdom of Heaven and see that there are too many sad affairs. Father, as we see that the path which lies before us is a continuum of blood and tears, we cannot help hesitating and being afraid. Let us realize, however, that the heart of He who calls us is more grieved and troubled than ours. Today is the first day after Easter week. Allow us to light the lamp of the heart. Since we must receive Your eternal sap of life in our bodies and minds, Father, bring forth the works of life and re-creation at this time.

Are there people who are moaning in the realm of death? Please guide them to repent at Your trumpeting voice and succumb to You of their own volition. If there are people who have an inclination to betray You because the bitter roots of death still remain in their bodies and minds, please remove these and intervene with the authority of resurrection and life. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this. The people gathered here are of many types. Please have them form one mind, harmonizing into one Shim Jung. We sincerely hope and desire that You allow this to be a time when we can engage in our activities with renewed hearts.

The myriad of satans is looking for a chance to attack us even at this time. Please completely block their invasion. Make this a service that can mobilize the millions of saints in heaven and move the believers on earth who are pleading with Heaven with true hearts. Let this be a time when we can introduce the relationship between heaven and earth. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

We do not want many words now. Now that we have understood Your Shim Jung that is slow to give permission, Your heart that hesitates, please have pity on us. Please understand the heart that wants to convey the truth and the hearts that want to receive it. Allow us to serve You with glory at this time by achieving a unity of heart between the giver and receivers based on You. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

God Is Awake

Based on the words, "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." (Matthew 25:13), I would like to speak to you upon the topic, "When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven." I would like you to hear this speech while offering yourselves to the Father, reflecting upon how awake your minds and bodies are and what Shim Jung and situations the Father must go through in trying to awaken you.

Considering the rise and fall of a family, society, nation or state, we see that when they were not awake, they collapsed. Thus, it is extremely valuable for human beings to be awake.

For what are we to stay awake? We should stay awake not for the present reality, but looking forward to the time that is to come. That is, we should have a heart of thirsting hope. When we become so, we can stand as a person of hope or a person of the country of hope. That is why patriots in history cried out for the people to stay awake and to look to the future even when the country was sinking into darkness and being swept into the realm of death.

How much has Heaven kept awake for us and toiled for us? We can know this only to the extent to which we have stayed awake and worked hard. It does not mean, however, that Heaven has stayed awake and worked only as much as we are aware. Since the creation of Adam and Eve, Heaven has never lost sight of the hope for the ideal of creation. There has been no day when He rested or dozed. We should know this.

Heaven was not satisfied simply with having created Adam and Eve and watching them grow. We should not forget that He wakefully watched over them, worrying about their future. We should not forget that Heaven wakefully watched the descendants from the time of Adam and Eve until now, from the position of the future.

What was the fall? It was to be ignorant of the Shim Jung, situation and hope of wakeful Heaven. The Shim Jung of Heaven who stayed awake! The Shim Jung of Heaven who stayed awake, seeking to make a relationship with them! The hope of Heaven, who sought to enjoy glory with them in the future! The fall was to lose that hope. That is why fallen people failed to see the day of hope God had desired. They failed to connect to the deep situation of God and lost His loving embrace, an embrace beyond human imagination.

God has been working providentially, worried about humankind who left His bosom, to regain them. This is the providence of salvation. Reflecting upon ourselves today, we have no relationship with the Shim Jung, situation or hope of Heaven. We should see that we have nothing with which to repay the Shim Jung, situation and hope of the Father.

Heaven, who had worried whether Adam and Eve might fall, worried about them again after the fall. He set out to save them from the embrace of Satan, the realm of death. We should be able to feel in our hearts that Heaven worried about their fall, worried about them after the fall, and has been trying to find them for six thousand years as if it were a day, not dozing off even for a single moment, to save them from death.

Humankind Longs for New Hope and the Stimulation of Shim Jung

What is the desire of humankind? It is to conquer the world, transcending the family, nation, and state. Although a person might achieve this goal, if he does not align himself with and possess the Shim Jung, situation and hope of God, he cannot stand before God.

Looking at history, the individual, family, country and world have been struggling to find hope. Now, as in the past, they are struggling in search of new hope. We cannot find new hope, however, the way we have been living so far. In other words, we cannot find new hope with the concepts and ideologies connected with history. There is a limit there. We should expect this.

Human beings are looking with hope for the situation through which the way of Heaven and humans can be connected. East and West are looking for the way in which all the people can build the world of a new ideology based on one Shim Jung. However, that situation has not appeared yet in human history. They should feel the Shim Jung to transcend the tribes and cultures of East and West and mix together in daily life by having fair and equal situations. Yet, in their ignorance, they do not.

Thus, they feel something vaguely disturbing in their hearts. They are longing for some stimulating shock, although they do not know clearly what it is. Although they are waiting for some new stimulation of the heart, they have not been able to receive any so far. For this reason, although we may find hope and make a relationship through love, if we fail to find the unifying point of Shim Jung, we cannot help being scattered apart at some time.

Human history reveals how Heaven treated the human ancestors. We can say that the real nature of history is to show this. We should know this. Now everyone is saying with the same voice that the present time is the last days. In this day, humanistically cherished hope should withdraw, and so should the human situation hitherto because we cannot make an eternal relationship with it. Such a time has come. Since the family, social, state or worldwide foundations that are centered on individual feelings cannot be an unchanging, universal center, immovable as a rock, they will eventually collapse. That is why human hearts are agitated. The greater the agitation of heart, the more anxiety they feel, the sooner the time of Shim Jung will come when there will be hope for humankind. If such a time does not come, humankind will start and end with despair. If there is a heavenly will for humankind, however, it is to start and end with hope, and Heaven has the responsibility to fulfill the will. Therefore, there will surely come a time when the purpose of history will be achieved.

People today think that all motivations originated from humanity, but that is wrong. Today's societies, countries and world have not formed based on historical relationships. That thinking is wrong. Historical relationships did not start with humanity. History has been flowing along to the point where a higher relationship and higher hope are to be realized.

The Right Attitude Toward History

When I say it is time to wake, I do not mean waking from sleep at night. This word has been given in every age. As there is a world of a certain ideology to be realized in the last days, this word is given in every age to those who seek to find this world.

If you have a desire to advance yourself, to insist on your opinion and rule over the whole, from where did this originate? You are in the midst of sleep. Humankind is asleep today. The individual, the family, the society, country, world, and even spiritual world are in a deep sleep, unable to receive the time of hope. If everyone commonly feels that such a historical relationship should be concluded with something new, then the problem is what is that "something". Looking back upon history, nations that insisted on traditional customs were swept aside. We should abandon the way of thinking we used to have in antiquated ages. People tend to value historical relics today because they are walking the course of restoration. This means that what has existed in the human world is to be seen as a reflection of God's heart.

Therefore, we should not rest content with the old antiquated ideology. Rather, we should understand the value of the original ideology through it and receive stimulation, gaining a desire to commit ourselves to this precious ideology. Only such people can restore the ideal that was hidden in God's Shim Jung from the beginning of the universe.

Thus, in the last days we should not try to find something by looking back at history; rather, we should conclude history and revive the whole ideology hidden in God and show it in a fresh new way. We should know that this time is indeed when God wakes up, and so do the people on the earth.

When the age of restoration passes, we should look for something new. Thus, granting that these are the last days, the young men and women living in this age should reject all that has been valued by people and zealously struggle for something new. Only then can they become wakeful workers of the new age. The people who struggle with eyes open for something new in this final day will closely approach the way to make a relationship with the hope of the future. They will make ties with the future and with the heavenly Shim Jung that appears in the historical age of the last days.

The problem then becomes in what position I am standing. Am I not standing in the fallen world, which is ruled by the power of death, which sucks the blood of goodness and has a history of nations devouring nations, countries preying upon countries? We should know that if this is so, we have no relationship with the hoped-for world of Shim Jung.

Unless you draw a clear line, saying, "You go your way, and I will have to go mine," the progress of history, which has been engulfed by the current of death, will prevent you from making a tie with the new age and will drive you into the world of death. Although we have had to hold onto the flow of history so far, at the final judgment, we must go beyond it. In other words, when Jesus concluded his thirty or so years of life on earth and gained the victory of resurrection, if he had any resentment about his life, any sense of himself or his importance, he would not have been able to resurrect.

The reason Jesus could resurrect was that he gave up his prior life entirely, without regret, and burned with new hope. It is also because his Shim Jung, situation and hope were exchanged for heavenly, not earthly, ones. At that moment, he could receive the grace of resurrection.

Likewise, you will encounter such a time of exchange. As you see this day approach, you must have a clear determination of heart. When you join a meeting, rather than having a determination because of the leader of the meeting, you must have the standard of Shim Jung on your own. Only then can you be regarded as having a natural environment for being awake.

What We Must Clear Away

Now you must go to this position. If you admit that you have no means to go to it, however, what should you do? What do you have to give up? First, you should know that you can never proceed if you hold onto human relationships, situations and hopes.

What do we have to make a relationship with to go beyond? We cannot just argue about sorrowful human history. We should clear the sorrows of providential history and Heaven. Without this, we can clear up nothing.

Human history is one of betraying the will which Heaven set up with hope and carefully laid plans millions of times. We should be able to feel this to our bones and in our flesh. Only with such a heart can we hate the sinful reality and stop sinful human history.

Concerning our actions today, we should be able to think to what aspect of fallen human history these actions bear witness. Also, we should able to consider how opposed our actions are to the actions of Heaven, who is working providentially with the program of the will. We should be shocked at the realization.

Only when we feel that our actions are so opposed to God's Shim Jung, situation and hope that they add blood and tears to God's heart can we see that our heart toward Heaven should be millions of times greater than that toward the earth. Our attachment with the world of death can then be cut off completely. God has been carefully watching us in this situation. He has never rested or dozed off, even for a single day.

Observing fallen history from the beginning of the world, He must have seen hideous sights we have never seen. He must have been mistreated in ways we never have. He must have felt anger and remorse we have never felt.

The Father endured it when the people killed the sons and daughters He sent! The Father has been watching us without rest for even one day. You should be able to feel this. If you live with such a Shim Jung, you will not go to the seat of judgment.

Although you are extremely small, history is pleading with each of you. The age and the world are pleading with you. Heaven is crying out for this single being to come.

You are standing at a crossroads! Now is the time to set a clear direction and end the circumstances surrounded by the power of darkness, but you do not know which direction to follow and what can clear away the darkness.

Seeing you in such a situation, the heart of God is more troubled than the heart with which He worried about the fall of Adam and Eve, the heart with which He beheld them after the fall, and the heart with which He has been working hard for six thousand years to save fallen people. Thus, you should know that your betrayal would deepen the sorrow of heaven and earth.

The Efforts of the Ancestors to Awaken Human Beings

We must wake up now. We should open our sleepy eyes. We should reverse our actions. What should we be centered upon in trying to wake? It is not any accomplishment you have made in your life. You cannot escape from history merely with this. Since history hitherto has been a history of fallen persons and a world liable to judgment, it cannot be turned back with any earthly ties or accomplishments, nor can it be turned back with any power that has ruled so far. It cannot be turned back with anything we possess or any conditions of glory. This is the situation in which we exist.

To turn ourselves around, we should have a new awakening. A new awakening, however, cannot be brought about by the human heart, by human Shim Jung, ties or hopes. What heart then should we possess? There has been a history beyond us. In other words, there has been a history other than the one known to humankind. Since there has been a history of which we did not know, there has been a historical Shim Jung, a historical situation, and historical hopes about which we did not know. This was the case six thousand years ago, four thousand years ago, and two thousand years ago at the time of Jesus.

Who were the people who came as representatives of God to awaken the age? Noah had to have a new historical Shim Jung, situation and hope instead of those of the 1,600 years of prior human history; he had to help those who did not understand the Shim Jung, situation and hope. This was the purpose of Noah's flood judgment.

It was the same with Jesus. Who was Jesus? He did not come to introduce the historical Shim Jung, situation and hope. They had already been introduced. Instead, he came with the heavenly hope, Shim Jung, and situation humankind did not know. He came to awaken the Shim Jung based on the hope, to bring about mutual understanding of the situation, and to become the center of the hope. After the people rejected Jesus, however, the standards of Shim Jung, the situation, and hope which God desired disappeared in the course of history. Jesus brought fruits only of the heavenly work and departed. Thus, God extended the providence and has been executing the heavenly, not the human, program of history toward the culmination of the six thousand years.

Thus, you should stand in line with the progress of the heavenly and earthly history and be able to come forward with confidence, holding onto Heaven above and human history below. Humanity should be like this today. God would also want this.

What is the image of this person? He is the one who is holding onto the Shim Jung, hope and situation of the heavenly history of the providence. There have been two currents in human history. So far, however, humankind has been able to account for earthly history, but not the history of heavenly movements.

What Are Human Sorrow and Heavenly Anger?

What is human sorrow? It is not being ignorant of history, nor is it having no relationship with history. The source of human sorrow is being ignorant of the heavenly course of history. Unless there comes a time in the last days when young men and women are told about this and become shocked in their hearts, the world will perish along with history.

From this perspective, we will have to wake up from sleep today. We humans are still sleeping the sleep that our ancestors slept. Although tens of thousands of years have passed since the time of our ancestors, no one has established the point of convergence between Heaven and humanity and cried out to Heaven with confidence. No one has confidently fulfilled his responsibility before Heaven.

Over what would Heaven grieve? It is that the point of convergence has not been created. over what should humankind mourn? They should mourn over the fact that no one has arisen from their number who has completed that relationship.

We can think of the flow of history and the flow of the heavenly way, which separates our mind and body, and make claims on them. The mind says, "Go for the heavenly way," and the body says, "Do not leave the historical ties." There should be many young men and women who confront this battle and struggle, yet there are few. It was in this position that Paul said, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24) He said that the laws of the mind and of the body are in mutual strife. This exposes the whole of history.

The power of darkness is ruling over humanity, which is far away from the standard of providential hope, transcending historical distance. Unless I can produce for myself a stimulation that can break through this power of darkness and fear which rule me, the providence of salvation cannot be completed. The ideal of the heavenly kingdom would then be in vain. For this reason, the course of a religious person has been to long for and find the self that can enjoy, live and sing from the mind. You should examine yourselves in repentance and ask how desperate you have been to find the self-centered on the mind, recalling the past relationship, reflecting on the present ties, and yearning for the future relationship.

Despite the changing times and ages, Heaven is communicating with us through our minds. If you fail to experience the historical Shim Jung even with this communication, you will be traitors who betray not only a country, but the whole universe.

Humanity being ignorant of this, how great must God's anger have been in His historical efforts of the providence, how great His true and unchanging Shim Jung, situation and hope? How great has God's sorrow been, and how many sad stories has He seen? The one who has a heart so stirred that he can resonate with such a Shim Jung and unconsciously shed tears with God will not perish.

Therefore, although it is not yet clear, you should know that there is a heavenly relationship. You should long for the heavenly Shim Jung and look to the heavenly course. You should be able to call God "Father" from the position where you spontaneously feel concern for and experience God's situation. If there is such a person, the Father, who has been groping His way through the course of history, will hold onto such a person's hands.

Centering on that person, the whole of humankind should hold hands together. However, the chosen saints would frequently let go of God's hand. Heaven wanted to hold the hands of our ancestors until the end, and further, to hold hands with the whole of humankind. Yet our ancestors frequently rejected His hand and betrayed Him.

Whenever this happens, we see a wide gap between God's heart, who has to reawaken these ancestors after losing them, and our hearts, which have to be awakened. An unending hill of sorrow must remain an unending hill of hardship. There must remain a bitter course and the infinite wall of the cross.

The Time Calls for a New Hope and Determination

Therefore, we who have the obligation to break this should be able to cry for the mind. As we cry for the mind, about what should we be worried? As we cry for the mind, we should be worried about God, who tries to hold my mind, and cry. As we cry for the body, we should be worried about God, who tries to hold onto my body, and cry.

You cannot break through unless you have the Shim Jung to pledge before Heaven, "I will go, although tomorrow's sorrow is deeper than that of today; although tomorrow's mistreatment is worse than that of today, and although tomorrow's pain is greater than that of today. I will go even if I have to die." Don't you think so?

It is the same in the outside world. In order for a loser to succeed, he has to have new hope and determination in his heart. He can go beyond the level of failure only when a shock comes to his heart that is greater than his frustration and failure. Likewise, unless humankind receives a shock that is greater than everything in history and all the pains of the heart, they have no way to live. Considering that now is the end of the six-thousand-year history, Heaven must be calling upon us now more desperately than during the six thousand years. He must be crying out to humankind. His hope with us in this age must be greater than any Shim Jung and hope He has had with any people during the six thousand years. His situation and Shim Jung must be like this.

At this time then, when you must awaken yourselves and arise, how should you go about it? If you want to awaken yourselves, you should feel the heavenly Shim Jung. If you cannot take this responsibility on your own, then there should be someone on the earth who can take it. You should know this. This is how God works. At the time of Noah, He installed Noah; at the time of Abraham, He installed Abraham; at the time of Moses, He installed Moses; and at the time of Jesus, He installed Jesus. Thus, there should appear a figure who can be established in the last days.

Traditional history and the circumstances, however, have not been able to recognize this figure. Thus, you should examine all of your actions, life and movements. You should discard everything of the past, centering on the new figure, and establish the central figure in their place. You should then be able to follow, obey and harmonize with him absolutely. Otherwise, you can never break away.

Ladies and gentlemen, now is the time when feelings of anxiety come to you unawares. God is letting humanity be gripped unawares by anxiety and fear and be threatened in order to establish them as the people of hope in the new age.

In the future, you will get a feeling of being hit in the head by an iron hammer, even before getting hit by the final iron hammer. When such a feeling sweeps across your environment, you will feel fear. That time is coming. Humankind will strike at the same time Heaven strikes. Satan will strike at the same time humankind strikes. This is the great judgment.

The Meaning of Judgment

Until today, humans have been fighting against one another. They also have been fighting against Satan. Heaven also has been striking you. Humankind has been hit on three sides. It is the same on the earth. Is there not an army, an air force, and a navy? In the last age, there will be attacks in the above three types focusing on an individual human being. Humans will attack like an army; Satan will attack like a navy; attacks by the heavenly world will be like those of an air force. They will attack in these forms.

Such an age of great judgment is coming. Why is this fearful age rushing in? It is not to bring ruin, but to defeat evil and revive the heart that has been oppressed over and over in the course of history. You should know that there is such a hidden purpose.

Heaven does not try to destroy human beings but to save them. Thus, Heaven pushes us out to help us go up. Our being threatened is the work of a certain force to open something. That is why we are threatened. Do not be disappointed to see an age of fear came. We must fight against fear. In the front, there is fear, but in the back there is a place for new rest. People do not know this. Now comes the time when we should repel the world of fear and grasp the new. Satan is ruling over humankind. He is leading us in the last days to the place of fear and death by tugging on our noses, arms, and all that belongs to us. Humankind is being dragged away by Satan like a cow being driven to a slaughterhouse. Your minds organize and determine your actions, do they not? Even if you act first, all responsibility goes to the conscience. This is the real proof. This is proof of the whole of history.

Likewise, you are being dragged away into a pitfall of death. Even in the course of being pulled in, however, if you receive a shock that can defeat all the fear, you can turn back. That is why we have such a time. Since our place is not a place of wakefulness but of darkness and death, we should have a moment when we can turn back. That moment is the last days, the end of history. Therefore, you should feel the day of life approaching before your eyes. The more complicated and confused the inner elements become, and the more deeply the world of fear intrudes, the closer it is coming. You should know that the line of life is linked above the line of death.

Humankind does not know this today. They do not know that just as the line of death is linked behind the facade of life, the line of life is connected to the line of death.

Humankind has been searching for the direction of history and of the mind. They have looked in hope for the direction of history. They have also looked at the connection, Shim Jung, and situation in the direction of history. The new world and universe will unfold the moment they can break away from it and turn it around through a movement.

To reverse our direction, what should we do? What should we do to turn back from this place where waves of death are raging? You should find the single point based on the three points. Since you cannot escape from the flow of history and the sweeping whirlwind, you should find the one point of Heaven, which stands in the opposite position.

To Break Away from the Whirlwind of Fear and Death

To escape from being swept into the pitfall of fear and death, you should find the heavenly signboard, or the one point based on the three. You should also take risks. You must take risks. You can live only if you make a determination to hold onto something new as you toss aside the flow. Otherwise, who can guarantee that you will not become a sacrifice to judgment along with history? Thus, we should carefully watch the direction we are taking. As we watch, however, we should not do so emotionally. As the end draws near, you should turn to the right direction or look to another side for a certain rescue boat as the fear, insecurity and urgency of death you feel increases. You should have the heart through which to break away from your world view and all emotional ties and look for something else. Otherwise, you can never be awakened.

If there is something in your hearts that you feel is greater than death, you should hold onto it and set out for an adventure, leaving everything behind. At this moment, the connection of death is severed. It is the same when we look at history.

Although Noah's ark went against the historical trend, it was a signpost God established for the salvation of humankind. Moses appeared amid the intense suffering of the Israelites in Egypt. He went against the general movement of the people, yet he still was a signpost through which the people could live. Jesus was also a signpost who could turn back the four thousand years of sinful history and convert the way of death into the way of life.

The reason we yearn for the saints is that we are trying to find the signpost for our restoration. We are infinitely longing for and moving toward that ideal world, which is the place of hope, a good situation, and Shim Jung. We are trying to return with such efforts. It is the same with history. The world will collapse unless the unchanging center is established which can conclude the entire progress of heaven and earth and all the six-thousand-year history. It will collapse.

If God cannot establish this, He is useless. If He cannot, His slogan of faith, "Believe in Me," becomes nothing but hypocrisy and ritual. This kind of God would only try to dominate human beings. However, God appears as a rescue boat in the dire moment of death.

As the time of historical hope, heavenly hope, and the hope of the world comes near, with new determination, hope, Shim Jung and a good situation, you should be able to hold the one center and set out, leaving behind all personal details and willingly taking the risk for a resurrected image. Only then can we have the heart to be awakened in the course of history and the providence. Thus, you should first have hope and make a determination to endure to the end, even under raging waves of death.

Personal Responsibility in the Time of Judgment

Looking at the young people in Korea, they are flowing aimlessly like floating grass. Where will they go after flowing with the wave? Is there not a movement that can go against the flow? Is there not a way of awakening? This age requires a prince of the age who is consumed with a public anger that hates and resents the present circumstances. He must embark upon a great adventure, if such a way exists, with a determination to be more loyal and filial than anyone who has dedicated himself to expelling sinful history and the world. Only when there are many like this will the day of hope come for this nation. The moment of hope we have desired will open for the world.

Heaven does not do such work. This is not a job for Heaven, but for us. Thus, you cannot be satisfied in your present place. You should look for the one who is crying out to awaken humankind, possessing the eager Shim Jung of Heaven, concerned about their being in the realm of death. You should be able to hear that crying out. After hearing the sound of it, you should be able to see the one who is crying out and then initiate action.

Ladies and gentlemen! Do you have listening ears? Do you have seeing eyes? Do you have bodies equipped to act? This is the problem. Your listening, seeing and acting should be historical acts of adventure. Only then can you break away from the realm of death.

What kind of voice have you heard, what kind of figure have you seen, and what kind of action have you taken? Since there are many who say that they cannot see, hear and act, Heaven is working by presenting the people who can show, be heard, and act.

You can decide between life and death only when you determine your actions at the crossroads of life and death. Judgment is made not by Heaven, but by humans themselves. Thus, only when you judge yourself and win can you come to the place of heavenly judgment. When you cannot even win in your judgment, how can you talk about the heavenly judgment?

Can you turn back, stopping all your sins, withholding all your feelings, and re-organizing all your lives? This is the problem. The pioneers of history all followed this path. Noah also followed this path. Heaven told Noah to turn back. He commanded him, "Leave behind all your circumstances and turn back." The actions required to satisfy this command were unimaginable for Noah, to build a ship on a mountain. A ship goes on the water, but God told Noah to build one on a mountain. What kind of nonsense was this? Yet Noah obeyed.

It was the same with Abraham. When Heaven told him to leave Ur of the Chaldeans, he said yes. When God told him to offer Isaac, he also said yes. Moses worried about the pain of the nation and struck an Egyptian, going against the current. If the nation had at least appreciated it, it would have been better. Jesus also said, "Abandon everything and follow me."

This is how history has been progressing. There has been no one in the course of history, however, who could hear the cries of the harbingers, see them as they were, and adore their lifestyles. This has been the sorrow of Heaven. In addition to the heavenly sorrow at the death of Jesus at Golgotha, it also grieved God that there was no one who, upon seeing his death, worried about the heavenly Shim Jung, shed tears in sympathy, and came forward even to the place of death. You should know that this was even more sad for God.

In every age, Heaven has shown the path to follow with a signpost. He will do the same in the last days. The more the fear of death rolls in, the more we should feel the urge of the heart to push everything aside and go forward. We should say that sleeping, eating and living are not important. The path of life will open for the world only when a new movement appears in which we feel a desperate heart, receive a shock in the heart, and go forward, daring to risk and forsaking all personal attachments.

Wake Up and Connect with Heaven through a Life of Loyalty and Separation

As God has done in the past course of history, He will necessarily do in the last days. If there is such a movement, your past faith, ideology or ties should not present a problem. Only then can you live.

If you look in the Bible, Mary's husband Joseph was called righteous. It was historical nonsense for her to bear a child as a virgin, but when Heaven sent an angel and foretold this to Mary to establish her, she obeyed without hesitation.

What is the uncompromising dedication left behind by the loyal ministers, filial children, and devoted wives in history? You may not have realized that our ancestors dared life-risking adventures, regardless of the opposition of the evil cliques. As there has been no one serving the heavenly will who has not followed this path, and there has been no loyal minister, filial child, or devoted wife who has not walked this road, those who seek to become citizens of the heavenly kingdom, heavenly sons and daughters, should follow this way as a matter of course, choosing between life and death and beholding the final glory.

Have you ever made such a determination and pledge? If not, you are the most despised traitor before the historical providence. Only when you have such a determination can you find your new selves. You should know that the moment you start on this action is the time when you wake up and kick out the six- thousand-year course of history in which you wallowed in sleep.

When you wake up, you will realize that not only you, but also your parents exist. The day you wake up this way and shed tears with your parents is the time of the Second Coming. When we open our eyes, we come to see that there are true parents who have mourned for the six thousand years of the sorrow of humankind, and who have wandered for six thousand years in search of us. Heaven grieved even before we did. This way, when everything that has left a deep pain in the historical Shim Jung unfolds one day, I can call Heaven "Father" and He can call me "son." This is the day of the final awakening. This is the time when the historical and providential Shim Jung of hope and everything else come into my bosom. Thus, the joy experienced at this time is the joy experienced when God's entire purpose is fulfilled. The feeling at this time is the feeling experienced when humankind is perfected, without a fall. Feeling the joy in proportion to the enormous sorrow and pain humankind has felt, we can stand against Satan gallantly and proudly.

Since we should rise to this level, if we have not stood in this position yet, we should restrain our mind, body and environment to go in the direction of return. We should turn back, perceiving the words and the phenomena, focusing our minds and preparing for death. Otherwise, we will never, never be able to wake.

The more threatening the external circumstances become, the greater our inner determination should be. As despair and frustration sweep across our society, we should make a firmer determination in our inner hearts and long for the moment when hope will blossom. You should clearly bear in mind that only in this way can we connect to Heaven, who comes to us with a day of hope, a good situation, and the image of Shim Jung. We should rebuff the history of sorrow and make a new start for victory.

Prayer

Father! As we try to think about the new task, we realize that we cannot even think as the present flow continues; we cannot wake up unless we find a moment in which we stop the flow of history and think about ourselves. Since we cannot wake up without a new shock, Father, please continuously give us such shocks with which to escape from the historical ties. As we see that, we cannot wake without a stimulated heart. We should look for and adore such a heart.

You have sent leaders in every age to awaken others. You led them to live with the Shim Jung with which You grieved over fallen humankind. Noah, Moses and Jesus all lived like this. Father! Please give us a shock of new feelings in the grounds of our hearts. Give us a heart to transcend our personal concerns, to experience Your sorrow, and to worry about the nation being swept into the world of death.

We see that if there is someone with such a heart, he will receive national-level liberation; if there is someone with a heart to worry about the world, he will receive the grace of worldwide liberation; if there is someone who has the heart to cry out for universal liberation, he will stay in the new world without perishing with history. Therefore, please do not let us cry out of our own personal feelings. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will enable us to do the good everyone desires and to take in the eager Shim Jung with which You look upon us.

Please enable us to take in Your heart, anxious that we may not follow, anxious that we may fall. Enable us to see the nation and world by taking after Your heart, which worries whether the followers may fall apart and therefore perish. We know that if there are children who can say, "Father, we are here, and we know Your Shim Jung. Please take a rest," history will progress in a new direction through them.

Please guide us to start in this direction and awaken us. As we hear historical screams of tragedy, please enable us to make a new determination and pledge deep in our hearts, to set out with thorough preparation to take a new direction.

The garden of joy can be built upon the earth and Heaven can rest only with the one who fights with the heavenly Shim Jung in place of the One who has fought on the front-line with tears to lead us there. Father, please admonish us so that we are not found wanting in this responsibility. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that if our steps are too slow, You will drive us to this place.

We eagerly request that we can stay awake as Heaven stays awake and shares joy and sorrow with the heavenly way and with history. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The Path of Faith Which Should be Examined Carefully

Sun Myung Moon
April 12, 1959
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea

1 After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. 2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?" 4 Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me." 7 As John's disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings' palaces. 9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written: "'I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.' 11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. 13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 15 Whoever has ears, let them hear. 16 "To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: 17 "'We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.' 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is proved right by her deeds." 20 Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21 "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you." 25 At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. 27 "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Matthew 11:1-30

Prayer

Although we are unworthy, we have missed Your holy image and have come back to You and prostrated our minds and bodies. Please accept us with the grace of sympathy. You have loved hundreds of thousands of times and have endured endlessly. Father, You who have never abandoned us and never ceased to guide us with love! Although we are not satisfactory for the will and Your standard, please treat us with a sympathetic heart. Since we still have a fervent desire to turn away from the troublesome world and go to Your world of Shim Jung, we eagerly hope and desire that upon seeing such a heart in us, You will give us sympathetic love; You will bear with us and come to us.

The place where we receive Your love is the place for which all creation longs, the place for which innumerable people yearned in the past, and the place that the people of the present and future should desire. Please guide us to think about this. Please guide us to feel at this time that the more we try to be embraced in Your loving heart, the more attention we will receive from all things. Father, we ardently hope and desire this.

Give us now the heart to call You "our Father" and to see that You have toiled for us and are in sorrow because of us. Allow us to appear as zealous sons and daughters who can be moved by such a heart and embrace You, calling You "Father."

We know that the one who seeks You with an ardent heart and who worries about Your situation will not be forsaken by You. Please allow our hearts to run toward You and our bodies to rush into Your embrace. Father, we sincerely hope and desire that You fill our bodies and minds so that we can rise above the sinful history of anger, sorrow and lamentation. Spur us on in body and mind.

Since we are weak and cannot walk confidently to You, we would like You to stand as the master of our faith. The earth is turbulent, and the thorny road remains to be traveled. Although we are exhausted, we would like You to come to us in strength.

We did not realize how often You were frustrated by us; nor did we know that when we thwarted Your worries, hard work, and hopes, You were shocked again and had to turn back. Help us understand that Your hope is greater than ours. My Father, we truly hope and desire that we will not forget that You want us to be strong when we are weak and that You are looking for sturdy souls for Your providence.

Our minds long for Your character; our bodies desire to behold Your form. Our hands want to grasp Your hands and body. Since we know that it is Your main hope to meet true sons and daughters who can sing with Your love, guide this time so that at least our hearts can be seized by such a Shim Jung. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

We are stained by sin today, wallowing in the darkness. Thus far, our feelings and five senses have been busy crying out for our sadness, unable to feel Your sorrows and sighs. We have been ignorant of Your grieved heart. As we have nothing to show You, at least grant us the heart to feel remorse over this.

We know that only when grief explodes in our hearts to reprimand our misguided past selves and our deficient present selves will You hold us, see us, and embrace us. Father, allow us to possess such a heart. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that such a passion will appear in us that we can be consumed with Shim Jung; we can discern our lack of qualifications and dedicate ourselves wholly to You.

Father, please have pity on these shameful children here. We know that the time has come when we should forget what we used to know, when we should deny our self-serving excuses and be reborn. We know that no historical sorrows will be resolved without indemnity conditions.

Please help us realize that a time will come when we will stand in the positions of Cain and Abel before Your ideal. Help us see that the nearer the historical time of the end draws, when the body rebukes the mind and the mind succumbs to the body, the nearer the time comes before our very eyes when we can rise by connecting from the individual to the family, the church, the society, and the world.

Aware as we are of our ancestors who did not know the time and who created a mournful history, we are still in a position in which we may be easily used as a tool for maintaining the evil history. We know that we have very little to be used in building goodness. Allow us the heart by which we can shut our mouths, even when we want to talk; we can endure before disagreeable sights, and we can plug our ears when we hear objectionable things.

Our minds, which should be oriented toward Heaven, are wandering in confusion, and our bodies cannot find a place to stay. Yet we know that You will not forsake us but will lead us to Your bosom with the hand of grace. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will arouse in us the heart by which we can prostrate ourselves before You and plead with You.

Make us the people who can wail about themselves, afraid of lacking Shim Jung and becoming traitors toward Heaven and deepen the age-old sorrow. We must grieve over our hearts, more than over our brothers and sisters. The desire to help them lest they fall into a sad situation like ours must spring up from our hearts or else we cannot go over the last hill. We know this, so Father, at this time please admonish the hearts of the beloved brothers and sisters.

We eagerly hope and desire that You will guide us to see that now is the time when we should realize the purpose and hopes of the providence, as it has been restoring us. This is a time to analyze, plan and keep what we want to establish and to make a determination before You. Father, on this holy day, bless the countless numbers of humankind and Your sons and daughters gathered here.

Although there are many sons and daughters who call You Father, true sons and daughters are extremely few. Who can stop this sorrow and console Your grief? We know that there is no one on earth. We know that the moment must come in the last age of history and on the final day of hope when the true sons and daughters, with such an ideal and connection to Your Shim Jung, can go to You and be embraced by You and boast of themselves, representing the cosmos.

Father, guide Your sons and daughters here to reflect upon for whose sake they are here, to serve whom. Let them thus abandon their frivolous attitudes and become meek and humble before Your loneliness. We eagerly pray that at this time we can feel Your core sorrow and experience Your troubled heart so that we can console You and call out for You.

Many brothers and sisters are scattered around the country at this time, kneeling down and praying before You. Father, You know their situations. Please do not forsake them. Become their master and protector. Please share all their worries and console them, making this hour a time of joy in which to sing of Your glory. As these unworthy souls attempt to bow down to You, directly consecrate us and keep Satan away from the beginning to the end. We pray this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, although our path is rugged, we see that the day of hope when we can meet a heavenly person by following this way is not far off. Although our legs are tired from walking this road, we see that this is the inevitable course of life because You have traveled it.

We have realized that when the eager heart that can call out for You arises in us, You are there, looking at us with greater desperation. We realize that the footsteps which follow Your voice are not easy, leading us to walk an unknown course, groping our way step by step.

We cannot help lamenting for not having become loyal sacrifices before the will due to our shortcomings. We cannot help sighing whenever we look back on the sad history wherein we failed to end suffering and bring joy to You. Please forgive our past defects as we prayed for blessing in such a state.

Father, if there are sons and daughters who can see Your desire to regain humankind and Your disappointments, they cannot wish for their own good fortune and insist upon their opinions before You. Please forgive us, the disloyal children who forgot Your historical sorrow tens of thousands of times.

A new history will begin and hope will be fulfilled the moment we can call out for You out of Shim Jung. Heaven and earth will rejoice; we will become one with You. Therefore, we cannot help feeling frustrated and remorseful over the fact that the base of our heart is not in a position to be seized by such a Shim Jung.

Father, look with sympathy upon these people here calling out for You. If they have been loyal to You, You will not forget them, nor will You remain unaware of someone being mistreated for Your sake. Father, help us not to forget that although we may have inflicted You with worries, You have never given us any troubles.

How can any sorrow on the earth be greater than the one You feel as You console a sad person? How can any pain on earth be greater than the one You feel as You give solace to someone who betrayed You and fell into suffering?

We have heard that, without standing upon Your dignity and authority, You have been hopefully coming to numerous good ancestors of ours throughout history, crying out and pleading with them to understand Your Shim Jung and situation. We, however, have prostrated ourselves before You as ones who cannot represent history and who have no means with which to praise the historical substance as goodness itself. Help us to confess our shame at this time and to realize how we have been abused by Satan.

Since there are many disloyal people and no loyal ones for the providence, You are worried today and tomorrow, unable to share Your providential heart. Father, we eagerly hope and pray that we will come to realize Your situation at this time. As we have prostrated ourselves here, please enable us to think about where our hearts are. Are our hearts not running toward emptiness, although You want us to move on the foundation of the heavenly will and Shim Jung? Do we not remain in a position of sorrow, lacking purpose and direction? Are we in a position to receive the lash of Your worry? Please lead us to repent.

Please enable us to declare that we are moving toward the garden of goodness, fighting for the sake of the mission. Enable us to realize that we are the ones You are trying to find, and to show You clearly that we are trying to be found by You. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that this will become a time when we can make the determination and consecrate ourselves.

Please gather in the scattered hearts and recreate them so that they long for the original hometown. Before inheriting Your blessing, we would like to inherit Your sorrow and become heroes of sorrow, making the determination to come forward to serve You.

Father, You have driven us to a place where we face denial by others, a place we dislike. We see that You were the one who started the work of goodness and You are the one who will complete it. We know that without connecting to Your will the providence for which You called and gathered us cannot be fulfilled. We ardently desire to be water, fire, oil and a humble sacrifice every day in sight of the will.

We know that we should become oil and fire to burn away the evil world and that we should be meek and humble before goodness. Since You restore us through such laws, Jesus taught that those who seek to be exalted will be debased, and those who seek to become debased will become exalted, upholding the heavenly way with sacrifice, service, meekness and humility.

Let the heart arise in each of us through which we can be deeply moved by the center. Let us realize our shortcomings, become infinitely humble before You, and offer all that we have as a sacrifice. Let this heart extend and reach the heavenly heart. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

Countless people are wandering, not knowing the time. Please guide the course of their fate. Please have pity on the thirty million people who boast of a five-thousand-year history but who are in misery. We know that the course of this people has been a blood-stained one, and they are a pitiful people who have been fighting against those who hinder the march of goodness.

Having established such a people, Heaven has foretold the providential will to them and told them the time of the providence. Father, who has told them about the one center! Please give guidance so that Your ever-increasing sorrow can be lessened through this people. If they do not have the condition for this, we who have realized the will and Shim Jung first can hold Your heart and suppress Your sorrow.

Let our hearts run toward You tirelessly now. With the heart that misses You and desires to hold You, a child-like heart, let us love You infinitely. Please remove from us all ideologies, concepts and consciousness that are colored by evil.

Let the original mind and original nature appear at this time so that the original image can be revealed. Please make us people who can bring pleasure to You, people whom You can embrace again and show proudly to the whole cosmos and Satan. Beyond that, help us to bow down our heads before You.

When You look for such an image in the last days, although we only have small and flimsy voices, we should be able to say, "Father, You came to us with the sorrow of all people. Here are the unworthy people. Have pity on us." Please allow us to feel our shortcomings and examine ourselves, repenting for our unworthiness. We cannot answer Your call and cannot raise our faces.

Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You allow us to become pioneers of the heavenly way and to fight sternly against all those who bring down the dignity of the heavenly soldiers, with our heart toward You and with anger and impatience against the unjust. Let us do all this, even though we may have to be sacrificed.

Please allow this to be a time when we can serve You. Bless with equal grace those who are praying with lonely hearts. Please rule over everything from beginning to end. Let us experience Your deep, broad and lofty holy image surrounded by saints and angels beyond number. Please allow us to see You with our eyes and to hear You with our ears. Allow the Holy Spirit to appear in substance. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

We have learned from the word how painful a sorrow is that has left a nail hole in the heart. As we read the word, we feel ashamed and yearn for the anxious image of Jesus. Allow us to be able to sympathize with the sad life of Jesus, who did not even have one friend who could cry with him. We know that no one has experienced the heart of Jesus as he looked upon the humanistic disciples and the tragic reality of the human world.

Father, what was the hope of John the Baptist as he practiced asceticism in the wilderness, surviving on grasshoppers and wild honey? His entire hope and the center of his heart were to receive the coming Messiah. After witnessing to the Messiah, he received the heavenly mandate to become one with him. John the Baptist should have said, "He is in my heart and I am in him; his heart is my heart, and his life is my life." In other words, they should have become one, with Jesus wholly reflected in the heart of John the Baptist.

John did not succeed in this, however. From the misery of prison, John the Baptist sent his disciples to the Messiah and asked, "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?" (Matthew 11:3) even after having witnessed to him as the son of Heaven with his hands uplifted before the multitude. This was a historical tragedy and a sorrowful scene God could not forget.

The course of John the Baptist remains in the flow of history. As we struggle to find a new ideal and prepare ourselves for the new history, enable us to put ourselves in the position of John the Baptist. We have learned that throughout history, people chosen by Heaven rejected the heavenly will. Today we eagerly hope and desire that You will not let us repeat the historical errors or lose the will for which You prepared them in the wilderness.

Today Your beloved sons and daughters have gathered here. Please open their hearts now, and let them realize that they have nothing to show in sight of You. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You allow our minds and bodies to be prepared so that we can hear Your words of admonition, inherit the sorrowful heart of Jesus, and receive the new unknown hero of the ideal with a heavenly heart.

Father, we eagerly hope and desire that, at this time, we will become powerfully seized by a woeful heart, worrying who will be the hero to protect this age and which nation will remain, yearning for both. As we live our lives, responding to and going along with the words and voices we hear, now is the time for us to re-examine our path and come to a new awakening.

Help us to escape from worrying about ourselves, deciding between life and death in chaos and confusion. We know that this is an untrustworthy society and world and that now is the time when we should awaken, hold onto Heaven by recognizing ourselves, and transform our hearts to be immersed in the trustworthy world of the ideal.

Please let us pursue a new self. Bearing in mind that we are in such a situation, let us overcome the hills of sorrow and receive the images of joy.

Let us long for and harmonize with that world. Give us the strength and courage with which we can fight, feeling woe for the present grief-stricken society with its lack of freedom. If there is an eternal and absolute Heaven, we eagerly request that You will give us the ability to push away all evil.

When Moses was driving the sheep in the wilderness of Midian, although his hands held a mere stick, he was carrying the new determination, hope and ideal which were to decide the fate of the Israelites. This was the single-mindedness of Moses, who lived in the wilderness for forty years with such a hope and ideal.

As we are in the place where we can hear the word and meet the one for whom we have hoped, we know that our appearance before him should be new. We know Your word, "I am in you, and you in me." Knowing this, we eagerly hope and desire that at this time we can say, "We entrust everything to You. Please recreate us, and use us as a sacrifice according to Your pleasure."

Father, I do not want to say anything. I have to open my mouth, however, because You have allowed this time for speech. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that at this time we will be surrounded only with the loving heart that longs to see Your image and desperately desires to be near You and live with You so that the glory of re-creation can be revealed.

Please lead us all so that we can start with the one and end with the one, and prevent Satan from infiltrating at this time. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The Reality of Fallen Life

We live our lives today led by the heart, by our situations, or by some hope. We know that as worldly life is, so is the way of Heaven. If we acknowledge that we cannot leave this position, we cannot deny that our lives do not start with our individual selves. We should consider how our social circumstances and courses of faith undergo gradual changes under a certain plan of the whole, proceeding toward a certain purpose.

If there is someone who can claim to have succeeded in life and who is proud before the providence, we can surely see that he is not someone who lives in the present world of chaos. No such person has appeared in history and certainly no such a one has ruled history. We yearn to find such a self in our hearts, and we pursue it repeatedly through ideologies and the vicissitudes of life.

A family should form centering on such an individual. Centering on such a family, a society should form that can exalt and bear witness to Heaven. Centering on such a society, a state and world should form. We know that history has been flowing, searching for an individual who can say, "Father, look at me. Father, hold on to me. Look at me and forget all the historical sorrow."

Owing to the human fall, "I" have not achieved the hoped-for self, struggling on a mysterious path in lamentation and frustration. Moreover, we are grieved, wondering by what means we can hasten such a self into being and thereby transform the society, country and world in which we live. We should never forget that humans are fighting today and will fight tomorrow, this year, and in coming years for the sake of the moment when the self that betrayed the hope can determine and find the long sought after self, proudly showing it to all things and proclaiming ownership. Considering such a destiny, we must know how big a responsibility we carry.

When Adam and Eve were growing up in God's bosom, they had confidence in everything. After violating the heavenly law, however, their confidence vanished. We should look at the tragic and intricate details here. God, who could not give up humankind, presented a movement to restore them because He took responsibility for having created them. This was a religious movement.

The Correct Attitude of Life in the Time of the Second Coming

Although human beings fell, the law created by God as the ideal of creation and freedom, with which we can boast of the original self, has remained unchanged deep in God's heart from before the creation. No one, however, has explained God's heart. No one has proclaimed God's ideal.

If Heaven exists for the sake of humankind and people are created for the sake of Heaven, the world of the ideal where God and original humanity can live, which has been hidden in the heart of God, must necessarily appear. We know from history that rather than walking a normal path, God has been going through a course of twists and turns for the sake of fallen people. The Bible tells us that God has been following a complicated course since the time of Cain and Abel.

The flow of history will run toward the one ideal world in the end, and God will surely drive people toward it. It is certain that the human conscience is prompting us to run to that world in haste today and again tomorrow. No one can deny this. We should recognize that the moment God's and our ideal meet is the moment of humanity's hope and the purpose of God's providence.

Heaven foretold the last days to religious people, especially Christians. He told them that this was the day of the Second Coming and that the hero of this day would be the Lord of the Second Coming. Thus, we cannot deny that this day is the point of the final settlement of God and humanity's hope.

In what kind of shape should we be? The problem comes down to this: how should we be? Hitherto, there has been no logic, no religion to truly teach us this, no one to bring our hearts into order. Such is the human situation. Our hearts are changing every moment. Social life and ideologies and philosophies change according to the time and place. Considering that faith is a process of finding the absolute and eternal self that can stand as a representative of the entire ideal, it is important for everyone to worry about what kind of heart to have, what road to take, and what to organize and establish in this extremely complicated world.

The problem is where your eyes are directed in the present moment when we cannot tell where the awaited sun will rise. We should align our minds and bodies carefully, with all our efforts, in the direction of the sunrise.

We must proceed, examining it carefully, because the destiny of humankind should be concluded on such a path. We are living a life of faith within the confines of such a relationship. That is why the title of my speech is "The Path of Faith which Should be Examined Carefully."

The Self which Should be Absolutely Denied

Do you have a self? Can you claim that with confidence? If you have a self, what has the self gone through? Can it go through the individual and environment? Can it go through the society, country and world? Furthermore, can the self go through the way of Heaven, if there is such a way? Unless you can respond with confidence, you should deny yourselves absolutely.

Since this is the situation of humankind, you should wander in search of the direction of the heavenly way, how its settling point will manifest itself. The heart to do this should be more intense in you than anything else you claim or have confidence or in which you take pride. The more one boasts of oneself and moves in a self-centered direction without realizing this, the more he will appear to be a traitor of history in the last days.

We are unworthy. We are driven around and swept up by our situations. Can we then confidently ask the heavenly way to support us? No. We cannot have such confidence. Our ancestors also tried to find Heaven with steps that lacked confidence. We know that for this reason, whenever they followed God's orders, they were careful in each step, in every day's life, and in every night's sleep. If one cannot live like this, it is possible that in the final moment he will end up steering away from the heavenly will although he has served it, and will end up turning the will over to the satanic world.

Since the family, nation, state and world have no confidence, none can claim to be unchanging before the heavenly way. Since we are in such a situation, we should be careful in our daily life, in our yearly life, and throughout our whole lives. We should walk, realizing that the movement toward goodness consists of taking such careful steps.

History is progressing from the individual to the clan to the tribe, the nation, the state, and the world. The numerous clans in the past had their ideals and opinions. When the age changed from that of the clan to that of the nation, however, all the philosophies of the clan age were subsumed by those of the national age; the philosophies of the national age were subsumed by those of the age of the state; those of the state age were subsumed by those of the worldwide age. Those of the worldwide age will be subsumed by those of the heavenly way. We should know that history has been moving toward the single point of unity in this way.

As we cannot deny this fact, the problem is in what position I am living, moving and standing today. If the place where you stand now is the point of the final settlement, the problem is simple. If a task of history remains that calls for another transformation, however, you will only stay in the middle without arriving at the final destination of the historical, providential ideal of faith.

The People Who Can Establish the World of God's Ideal

Since Heaven has an inseparable tie with human beings, He has not abandoned them and has been moving history for their sake. He gave a new ideology in each new age. When the clan age turned into the tribal age, He provided the ideology that enabled this passage. An ideology far beyond the tribal level would be impossible for a clan to follow; therefore, He gave an ideology just one step in advance, within the limits of their consciences. Whether we study the history of faith or the history of humankind, we cannot deny that God gave the tribal ideology in the clan age, the national ideology in the tribal age, and the worldwide ideology in the national age.

What will remain in the course of history? The clan that can hold onto the heavenly way and go through the transition from the clan age to the tribal age will remain. The tribe of people who can go forth for the ideology of the state when the heavenly way indicates for them to do so, and for the worldwide ideology beyond that, will remain. Such people will remain in the end, building and ruling the world. Only when we complete these clans, tribes, nations, states and world can we stand as historical victors.

There should be a tribe that seeks to find such an ideology and serve such a providential will. There should be a nation struggling to serve the providential will. That is why Christianity and Judaism came into being. Herein lies the reason Jesus insisted upon a unified family, state and ideology.

Who is Jesus? He came as a hero of the original nature, the substantial being who embodied the heavenly ideology for the first time. He perfected the ideology through which to live with God eternally. He is a leader for humankind as a whole, a father for each one of us, and a bridegroom from the standpoint of regaining the original world of the ideal of creation. This is what Jesus left behind.

What kind of ideology will be upheld when the world, garden and country of one ideology are realized? It will be an ideology that is unchanged, even by historical transformation and revolution. It will be an ideology of love, parental love, for instance. Shim Jung, through which parents relate to children, never changes. Revolution cannot exist in the world where people are closely bonded centering on the unchanging love of God, where loving feelings come first wherever one goes. It is the world where God's Shim Jung is revealed through everyone's lives. It is the world where everyone experiences the Shim Jung through which God thinks of all people as His children. Thus, it is the world where everyone must inevitably think of one another as brothers and sisters. Such a world is the final destiny to which human beings should find and go. When Jesus came, he called God Father, and himself a bridegroom. Having uplifted us, he called us brothers and sisters. This is a word of grace for which to be truly thankful.

Jesus did not come to this earth simply as an individual. He was the person whom God had promised to send through the numerous saints during the prior four thousand years. Jesus came on the basis of the heavenly way and the will of providential history to bring human history into order. This is why the world has been moving centering on him and why his name remains to this day.

The Hero of History Who Must Appear in This Age

What kind of age is the present one? It is the age when good and evil are intersecting, merging into the good. What will happen as we find ourselves in this age? What kind of world will come into being when good and evil cross each other and merge into one? What kind of world will come after this world passes? These are curious problems. Conscientious young men and women today should pause and understand the existence of Heaven, the hopes of all things of the earth, and that they themselves, and not the world, are the locus of hope.

God has been working to solve these problems for us. If Adam and Eve had not committed sin in sight of God and had not gone the sorrowful course of the fall, Adam would have been serving God's will even now, after six thousand years. Have you ever thought about this? If Adam had received God's blessing, served God's will, took the responsibility for God's providence and lived with God, we would have avoided the tragedies of the murder of countless saints, ancestors, and people of goodness.

For what do we hope and long? What are we trying to find? It is the character that is not fallen, that can remain eternally in history, the one that can make order of history and establish the ideal of goodness. If such a character appears in the last days, we will not lament. We will not despair.

About what should we lament and despair? We should lament over the fact that there is no hero of history who can stand in front of the will. Since the purpose of history is to find this historical hero, we are walking this path again at this time, unable to stop even if we fall here and there.

There is something for which the whole of humankind today must plead. It is expressed in the question, "Where is the hero of history, the age, and the future?" We should be eagerly awaiting this hero. History has already passed. When will the hero come? If there were no heavenly way, the hero would not come to humankind. Since there is, however, he will certainly appear one day. You should learn in what form he will come.

Although the hero came in the past, he was not recognized. Today, inasmuch as you know that there is the heavenly providence to bring the heavenly will to completion, you should think about who this hero of the age might be. If you do not have the confidence to become the hero, you should at least be able to bow your heads and make a determination to act to find him.

The hero we demand is not simply a hero for this age but also for the future. For this reason, in today's Christian thought, we should be thankful for the idea of the Second Coming. Humankind needs Jesus because he will come as the hero of the future, after having come as the historical leader representing the four thousand years and the age. Humankind needs the returning Jesus because he can take the responsibility of being the hero. He is needed by humankind. No one can deny this.

What should you do, having arrived at the last days? You yourselves should become heroes of this age and of the future. You must prepare for this. You should not forget that this is the final and central question facing people who are going toward Heaven.

If you cannot clarify this and assert this ideology, you will be swept up by a certain flow. You should know that unless you have the confidence to prevent this sweeping up and wait for something new, you will become the tribe of a fallen nation who must retreat before the final judgment.

Unchanging in a World of Change

This world must change. It should change on a great scale. Can you go without changing in such a world? You should become selves who do not change in a changing world. What, then, do you have to do? The solution to this must be provided by religion and truth.

History has been, is and will be progressing toward one purpose. The human mind, however, is changing. Your mind changes many times even in one day. The ideology you uphold also changes several times in your lifetime. We should feel in our daily lives that we are people of viciousness, descendants of the fall, the betrayal of Heaven.

The time has come to shout aloud, baring our chests and lamenting the sorrow of the cosmos, wondering whether there is a religion or leader who can stop it. History has been changing in every age and century. In God's history of the providence of six thousand years, there was the age of sacrifice, the age of the law, and the age of faith. There has been the Old Testament and New Testament Ages, and the Completed Testament Age will come. Now the world of the new ideology should come. However, without changing the present world, this world of ideology will not come.

We should know, however, that today we are fruits of historical sorrow, who sleep comfortably even when we change thousands of times a day. No matter how proudly one boasts of his beliefs and justifies himself, it is pride and excuses that will change.

As people, history and the earth change, what heartistic attitude will bring them to order? The only way is to be careful. The only way is to look around carefully. Wherever you go, you should hold your breath and be careful. To go over the age of change, you should have the heart to yearn for the new world and to avoid changing things, proceeding carefully.

The prophets of the past bravely came forward when Heaven called them. However, they all lost when they confronted Satan. Was it not the case? Although they started off with the joy of the heavenly call, when they had to march against Satan to realize the purpose of the call, they all collapsed. We should understand this history of failure.

What Should We See Carefully?

What should we see carefully? We should be able to see carefully that Heaven is making an effort to find humankind, even though we deserve to die thousands of times in the realm of death. We should never forget that when Heaven comes to us in the realm of death, He comes with something more precious than anything in the world. When He saves us from the realm of death, He does so with anguish and a worried heart. Do you understand this? When Heaven claims us away from the realm of death, He is willing to sacrifice everything.

Thus, we should understand the toil, the loving heart, and the path of battle through which He came to find us. Originally, the Father and I were one. Thus, since His heart is my heart and His purpose is my purpose, we should go where He tells us to go. We should go, deeply seized by the heart of taking responsibility. Despite the countless paths of suffering, no matter what walls of the cross lie before us, we should go forward with confidence. With the determination and conviction to rise above all the historical details with conviction and the Father's heart, we will necessarily win.

Only when you have such a soaring Shim Jung will you be able to reject the world. You must keep the heart that can hold onto the Father's heart of desire to bring the providential will and the historical battle to a conclusion. If it disappears from you people of faith, you will change along with history.

The Book of Revelation tells us not to lose our first love. Our first love cannot be exchanged even with life. You should cherish what Heaven gave you as the most precious thing in your life. You should feel its value at a higher level than the present conceptual one. The one who feels that this grace cannot be changed for anything in the world, even if he has to die tens of millions of times, can possess the great works of God because he stays within God's Shim Jung and love.

For what should we be carefully looking? When has Heaven given us precious gifts? Looking back upon history, our ancestors were historical gifts. Jesus, who came two thousand years ago, was a gift of love for humankind. The moment we wail loudly with gratitude for such a history, our hearts will connect with Heaven. Heaven's work of re-creation will begin based upon this Shim Jung.

Only the one who is consumed with such a Shim Jung and who has the confidence that nothing can suppress his passion can appear as the greatest winner in the real course of history. Jesus was such a person. God has come to us and sacrificed for us countless times. Have you ever thought about the grace that we can never repay? We should admit being historical traitors. Lamenting over being sinners, we should at least repent.

You members of the Unification Church are here to follow the path that others refuse. I would like to ask you why you have come here. We should be grateful, representing our ancestors even when Satan takes away all that we have. We must have an unchanging heart which says, "I can never forget the heavenly grace which protects me and worries about my work," even when everything is sacrificed and we go to death. Only then can we remain until the day when the ideal of unification is accomplished.

If such a Shim Jung does not sprout in your hearts, and if feelings toward the world of such an ideology do not move in your hearts, what will become of you? Wandering and wandering, in the final moment you will fall into the pit of death, unable to make excuses for yourself. If there is someone who does not know this, he should re-examine things. The attitude of a good person of faith is to examine things carefully in relationship to others. You should have such a heart of careful examination. Without it, one is irresponsible.

History seeks to find a person in charge who is responsible to history, the age, and the future. The saints in the past and our ancestors spoke out for historical responsibility in their ages. This is why their words move our hearts even today, in the final age of history. Their acts invigorate our hearts, and their lives give direction to our own. This cannot be denied.

The Person History Demands

You should look and be careful in your speaking, hearing, seeing and feeling now. How hard have you tried to fulfill the historical responsibility? Have you ever surrendered everything and come forward, disregarding difficulties, anger, being chased away, hunger and death? How careful a heart have you had?

How often have you been overwhelmed by the Shim Jung that burns with a sense of responsibility, and desired to regain it? How often have you examined whether the heavenly hand was guiding you within your circumstances, reaching out to you, thereby coming to deny your previous position and embarking upon a new reflection? If you have not had such an experience, you should feel that you cannot show your faces.

In the Garden of Eden, the archangel was created first. The archangel had been ruling over the environment. When Adam and Eve appeared, he became an attacker. This was the beginning of history. Human beings, who insisted on habit and tradition in history, always opposed God's way. They never cooperated. As the ancestors are, so are the descendants. Those who were being driven away have been leading history, fighting all the while.

It was thus with Noah as he served Heaven. To those who insisted on the social tradition, he appeared to be a madman. He looked demented, ridiculous and stupid. It was the same with Abraham. He tried to kill Isaac, whom God had blessed him with at the age of one hundred years. It was the same with Moses. Who instigated the people to accuse, betray and drive out the people of mission? They were the ones who clung to the historical traditions. If there is a Heaven, they should receive its judgment. The ideology of restoration is to sever attachment to the historical details, to take off the old clothes of the past, to meet the new morning in the new garden, and to appear in white clothes with new hope.

Since fallen people have come through such a historical course, they have struck out against new theories. Any new opinions or doctrines were attacked. Being struck on the family level is for the mission of the family; being struck on the national level is for the mission of the nation; being struck on the level of the state is for the mission of the state. Being struck by the state and the people of the age is for the ideological mission of that age, state and people.

With the progress of history, democracy and communism are now confronting each other. In the future, a severe battle will occur. Unless this becomes the final point of all history and all problems are solved through this, something new should appear.

What will happen to this new thing? If it comes through religion, it will be smote by religious people; if it comes with responsibility, it will be rejected by the social circumstances. If it comes with a certain ideology, it will be rejected by the ideologies of the world. Later on, it will be expelled by democracy and communism.

Since the present world is fallen, only when something appears that does not bend even under rejection and persecution can this world turn into a new one. We know that something will necessarily appear. We are speaking to introduce such an ideology. We are here to accomplish this purpose and go forward today and again tomorrow, disregarding persecution.

What kind of determination must you make? We must not make a determination for history or the age, nor a momentary determination. We must make a determination for the universe. Heaven, who rules over the universe, will gather those with such a determination. If people gather with a burning ambition, burning with the heavenly ideology, and if they persist without being brought down by the age, they will be able to move the history of a later age.

A New Religion Must Appear

Hitherto, religions have been making proposals. Jesus said, "Let us save the multitude of humankind." Religions have been making proposals to lead humankind to the realm of goodness and to introduce the one world of purpose.

If a new religious ideology appears now, it must save the many great saints who left the earth and even the spirits who betrayed the will and went to hell, as well as the people on earth. A new religion with a new ideology must save all the spirits in heaven, the sinners in hell, and Satan, who betrayed Heaven, not to mention the myriad of people on the earth.

Such a religion must appear. Such a religious ideology must appear, unifying all the religions, kindling fires in the hearts of religious people, inspiring peace and joy in those who do not feel peace and joy. It must help people make a determination and pledge to march toward the new world of the ideal. This new movement should appear on earth.

Have you thought about this? Have you tried to find it? Have you at least imagined it? The purpose of this ideology is to unify everything. It is to unify the earth, to unify the spiritual world if it exists, and to liberate hell, which is consumed with resentment. If it cannot be done directly, a religion should appear with the ideology. Only when a religion with such an ideology appears can the world for which we yearn, the world of goodness, make a relationship with the world of evil.

For what are you looking? You know that the present is the last days. The ideology bearing on the problem of life touches you through one extremely tiny word, one touch of the hand, one footstep, and one symbol. People have forgotten all this.

If you see the world from this standpoint, there is no enemy. When I collide with evil, it spurs me on my way, as does good. From this viewpoint, we should live in such a way that we search and examine things carefully.

Be Children of God Who Have Overcome Everything

Today and again tomorrow, we should have hope toward Heaven and receive a heartistic shock with which we can sever our attachment to sinful reality and the disorderly world and move forward. You should know that whether this shock continues for one day, one year, or for our whole lifetime determines whether you will arrive at the destination for which you long.

Without such a shock, you will be highly anxious. In this age, one can recognize how anxious and fearful one is without knowing quite why. If one has even a small conscience, he will feel driven into anxiety and insecurity. Although many young people feel this, if something that can remove it sprouts forth, the fear and anxiety that have been occupying a person's ground of hope will retreat, and the world of things that square with conscience will appear. Thus, if the heart that carefully searches for this is quickening your walk and your body beyond anxiety and fear, it is not too late. The final point of unity is an earnest Shim Jung that explodes in my heart and is unaffected by materialistic or humanistic ideologies. It is the Shim Jung that makes me move to the one place of ideology that remains in the end. In other words, Shim Jung determines the final me.

The one who holds onto Shim Jung alone and searches carefully can hear the word, see the vision, and analyze all situations in life. If there is a movement of Shim Jung such that young men and women search for the new ideology, feeling their own responsibilities and suppressing their anxiety and insecurity, and their voices of outcry are heard, you will be able to all at once feel. through their Shim Jung, all these historical details and what you have been feeling for a long time.

The master of history, the providence, and the heavenly way is the one who feels this Shim Jung, awakens himself, and cries out almost unknowingly, "This is the subject of ideology for which Heaven has been looking! This is the true image for which the world has been looking! This is the image that can be presented proudly in sight of Heaven and earth!"

You cannot deny that you cannot stand alone. You cannot deny that we are following the path of life where we must fulfill the responsibility and bring results in the world of relationship.

What happens when we fulfill the responsibility and bring results? You can boast that you are the winner, representing the original human being. At this moment, the world will become yours and so will the universe. God, who has been working for the providence until today, will become your God, and you will become His children, the direct heirs of His work.

What is most important in finding all this is to examine things carefully. I would like you to clearly bear in mind that these things can be accomplished and found through such efforts.

Prayer

We can dare to surmise the hearts of the disciples of Jesus as Peter, James and John said to him, "Teacher, we like being here. So we will build three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." Meanwhile, the heart of Jesus was immersed in sorrow as he waged a showdown battle on the Mount of Transfiguration.

They were ignorant, unable to feel the traces of or see the reality of the world of ideology. Who would not say such a thing where circumstances are unfolding that can more than dominate and encompass the whole universe? Although Peter, James and John knew in their hearts that this was a scene for which they had yearned and wanted to live in, they did not know that it was to be realized after going through a process of reality.

Likewise, Christians around the world yearn for the Kingdom of Heaven in their hearts, but they are oblivious to the fact that a course of battle lies before it can exist. We have the responsibility to awaken these Christians. In this time, history, faith, the human heart, tradition, ideology, and even the heart of love, without which people have sworn to die, are all undergoing changes. Nevertheless, we long for an unchanging ideology, an unchanging image and essence. We yearn for that garden, that world, that sovereignty and leader, that voice, that life, and those circumstances.

Father, please open Your hurting heart. Now, having realized that I am so anxious and narrow today, I yearn to be the self that can go beyond my present one. I hurry on to find the self of tomorrow. Although there may be persecution for the members of the Unification Church, please allow them to use this as a stimulus to push them closer to Your Shim Jung, rather than as an evil impediment to their progress. Please help them understand that persecution is Your work of connecting the Shim Jung.

Please guide us to receive Your acknowledgment of us as Your sons by bowing down to You and returning a song of victory to You from the position where heavenly law and the historical course harmonize. You need the sons and daughters who can bring forth such a Shim Jung that we can share joy with You, and even Satan cannot help smiling with shame before our joy. Please allow us to become Christians in search of this self. Father, we earnestly hope and desire that You allow us to be Unification Church members who come forward as the front-line unit to expedite the coming of such people.

What we have desired has been too small. We thought that what we held dear and valued was the end, but now we have seen that there is infinite love and limitless grace beyond this.

At this time, please let the heart arise in each of the brothers and sisters that deplores the self for having blocked the way of grace before You. Please allow us to be people who, inspired by Shim Jung and burning with a sense of responsibility, can come joyfully when You call us and go joyfully when You release us. Please allow us to be brave souls of heaven and masters of the heavenly world who can feel as much gratitude for the command as for the voice of invitation and who can march against the enemy camp. We eagerly hope and desire that You will guide us so that we will never lose and retreat, even if we are shot through with arrows and fall. Please help us understand that just as there are moments when we converse with You in happiness, there are also moments when we fall, shedding blood and tears and crying for Your sorrow.

Taking responsibility for the joy, sorrow, fighting and mistreatment, and denying the historical matter before the final judgment, let us say, "Father, please raise Your hand and bless us. Father, please look at me and hold back Your anger. Father, please look at me and endure the suffering and mistreatment. Father, please look at me and end Your toil." Father, we are ashamed and embarrassed, because for six thousand years You have been waiting for such sons and daughters to appear and You have been searching carefully. We have been oblivious to the searching and careful footsteps with which You have been looking for us.

Today we have heard and this time we have understood. We know that You have told us to come to You with care. Father, You came to us with care. We have realized that we betrayed Your hands several times when You were trying to hold us; we forgot Your dignity. Please guide us to stand before You now, to live in connection with You, and follow the path that we should walk carefully for Your sake. After completing this course, we should teach others the direction they can follow carefully. We have such an order from Heaven. Do not let us retreat, shedding tears of grief.

We know that Your heart, which tried to love and bless traitors, holds anger. Father, we sincerely hope and desire that You will guide us. Knowing that there is no one to console the sorrow of the one who will appear in the final day, offering a higher prayer to You than Elijah, we have the earnest heart to go beyond the condition of sadness and support the one.

We miss the time when You used to say to us, "I am here. Come the way I walk," whenever we fell down, exhausted in wandering. You knew that You could not trust and work together with human beings, and You had to worry that discussing things with them would cause delay upon delay.

We know that there is no need for many people at this time. This is a time to go over, a time to clear up everything, a time to conclude everything. It is time to appear as we are. We have seen that this is a path that is impossible to follow for one who complains or who makes excuses. It is a path from which he who sets himself up will retreat. We have seen that since this is the road of the cross which Jesus walked in blood, an extension of Golgotha, we should follow it without complaint, without boasting, while being trampled upon, although we know anger. We are outraged as we think about the heavenly saints who had to walk such a path in the six-thousand-year course of the providence.

We should repent, however, as we realize that Your heart is even more angered. We know that it is the deepest sorrow and an ineffably regrettable situation. Now that our entire hope is Yours, we as a whole are Yours. You are the center of our Shim Jung and love. We know that the one who cannot feel this is miserable. As for Jesus, it was because he held onto You that he did not fear death even while bleeding on the cross. We yearn for his dashing and composed character that wished a blessing on the enemy. We yearn for that walk. Where is the victorious prince who can laugh at the everyday changes in history, daily life, and himself? Father, we yearn for this again and again.

We yearn for the time, world and garden in which the hero of history, the age, and the future can appear as one substantial being and convey Your Shim Jung to humanity. A people and a church should appear who can call You "Father."

Please allow us to forget everything and prepare ourselves to find it and to fulfill our responsibility with sincere effort. Please allow us to be the children who can run to You to stand before You, disregarding all the sacrifices. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

Father, what shall we do with the nation of thirty million? What will You do with the 2.7 billion people scattered on the earth? We cannot help worrying about the fate of the nation and feel bitter when seeing that the end of humankind is surrounded by dark clouds.

I have spoken because I know Your sad historical heart, which is impossible not to feel. I must arouse this heart in others by conveying it to them. Please permit me. Loving Father, I eagerly hope and desire that as I convey this sorrowful heart to help the people avoid being disloyal, You will permit me and accept this prayer.

We know that the sorrow of Jesus who died on the cross was historical sorrow. We yearn for him, he who shed blood and tears on Calvary. Now humankind is zealously waiting for someone to appear who can laugh at history and scorn the world as his representative and Your substantial manifestation. We know that You also are waiting for him. We eagerly hope and desire that You will make us the sons and daughters who wander about in search of him, today and again tomorrow, yearning for this being.

Please do not let us stop short on our way and shed tears. Rather, make us the kind of people who desire to go again even after completing the walk, who struggle to possess joy after exhausting the road to be traveled. We have learned that only in this way can we become cornerstones for the wondrous and grand will of the providence. Please move us to this will today and again tomorrow.

Since our destiny is such that today's world and our descendants should be mobilized for the will, please issue commands and lead us. We will go. Father! We sincerely request that You know our hearts that desire to report to You and fulfill our prayers. Please protect us on the remaining path of tribulation. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

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.

Please Let Us Have Hearts of Hope Heading Towards You, Father

Sun Myung Moon
March 22, 1959
Prayers: A Lifetime of Conversation with Our Heavenly Father -- Sun Myung Moon

Father! We know well that Jesus came to this earth, and from the day that he knew the truth and the more time passed, his hope went beyond the family, went beyond the people, went beyond the nation, beyond the world, and even went beyond the infinite spiritual world, having to become one with you, Father. He knew that everything from the beginning to the end had to move together with you, and he went a difficult path, a sorrowful path, the path of the cross, without minding them. Father! All the things we see in front of our eyes look beautiful, but please allow us to realize that those things are merely phenomena that are passing by with us.

We know that the things of the world that we like, that we believe in, and that we depend on are of no help in the world of our mind or in the eternal world of hope. Oh Father! Please allow us to cast aside all these things, and allow only hope centered on you to become the entirety of our lives; and we earnestly hope and desire that you will allow it to become the totality for our entire lives.

We know the fact that we cannot become your sons and daughters if we are not people who go out to the battle and hold on to the fact that living for you and the hope of heading towards you are more precious than anything we have and more precious even than our lives. Please allow us a powerful hope that is able to laugh at even a peak of death and overcome it.

Please do not allow that to remain, just as hope alone, but please let our minds, which are burning with the impact of this hope, to be able to become even stronger. And we earnestly hope and desire that you will allow us to become sons and daughters whose minds and bodies are able to dash towards that path. Please let us realize the fact that unless a person has a strong idea of hope that is for you, unless a person has hope that can overcome even the path of death, you cannot believe in him.

As for our hope today, we know it is not a hope we shall hold on to for a few years and then give up; rather it is a hope we shall hold on to for eternity. And furthermore, we hope and desire that you will allow us to become sons and daughters who know that without this hope, life is not rewarding.

Oh Father! The more we think of you, the more we earnestly hope that you will allow us to have hearts of hope that long for you, hearts of hope that long for your life, and hearts of hope that long for your love.

And until we are established as sons and daughters who can be blessed together with your promise, please do not allow our earnest minds of hope to be taken away in our daily lives along the course of our lives. Since we know that many satans are attacking us in order to take this away, we earnestly hope and desire that you will allow us to become sons and daughters who are able to return glory to you, by holding on to the mind of hope you have permitted and by fighting to the end.

We earnestly hope that you will allow us to become sons and daughters who are able to return glory to you, by having held on to your hope and by having fought with many Satans and won on the final battlefield which remains.

We have humbly prayed all these things in the name of the Lord. Amen.