John 10:1-18
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
Prayer
We have listened to the words You have granted. Although many people in this world stand in the face of death, in reality they are preoccupied with praising themselves and boasting to the universe.
Can anyone show himself off and elevate his own value in this kind of a world? As we silently search our hearts, we cannot deny that one who does stands in a false position.
Father, what do our minds long for today? Toward what should we direct them in order to be elevated? This is the moment to realize that our minds and bodies cannot be our own. This is the moment to understand that we are in a miserable situation where we cannot be proud of ourselves.
Please allow us to realize at this moment that we are not the final arbiters of the value of our minds and bodies, that we did not make ourselves and that we are pitiable beings who cannot reach our destination. We did not cause our own lives, nor did the ideology that leads our minds in the direction of goodness originate with us either. Please allow this hour to be the moment when we realize that they originated from something other than ourselves.
Father, today is the moment when we should feel that we must disdain ourselves, we who were so busy making excuses to save face. Please allow us to realize at this hour that the true self whom Heaven and earth, the world and humanity, the society, the family, and myself are looking for is a victor who can conquer himself and who can ignore and stamp out the arrogance that makes him want to elevate himself and stand out.
Jesus said, "Forget everything and follow me." He also said, "Those who are willing to die will live; those wanting to live will die," and "Those who want to rise up will go lower and those willing to go lower will rise."
When we understand the content of these words, we realize that we have to throw ourselves away. We have fallen ancestors and we cannot break away from the bondage of fallen history.
Therefore, our course of life is a pitiable one. The living environment is so chaotic that we live in a confused state, unable to distinguish good from evil. Heavenly Father has labored to pioneer the path of life in such a land. Numerous saints have come and gone in this land in order to bring the ideal of the true person, the true ideology, and the true cosmos to humanity.
Most of all, the time has come for us to long for the holy embodiment of Jesus Christ, the heart which flows out of him, and his desperate ideal. He wished blessing upon all people even as he perished as a criminal on the cross, he who had come into this world as the Messiah of all people.
I sincerely pray that You will forgive us. We have praised ourselves and disdained the creation and all things and have elevated ourselves to disdain Heavenly Father, although we should be disdaining ourselves.
If we want to move toward a truthful heart and true goodness, please allow us to realize that we are debtors in front of Heaven and earth, and that we are a sinful race which has been violently scarred throughout the course of human history. Father, the only things we need are the hearts that can seek for You and the loyalty that can seek out our true selves. Please allow us those things.
We cannot deny that the life course that Jesus led was a sorrowful path of tears. We also realize that every page of history is bound together by bloody battles. Therefore, I sincerely pray, Father, that You will allow us to realize that we cannot clarify anything in history when we uplift ourselves, and that we are like a failure who does not have anything to show throughout the ages.
We therefore believe that we need a true leader who possesses true life and a true heart. He is the savior and Messiah God sends for humankind. Please allow us to reflect upon ourselves in this hour: to reflect upon whether we possess the faith and loyalty to stand in front of the Messiah. In receiving the Messiah, we know that Heavenly Father desires for humankind to possess the greatest of enthusiasm, the greatest of loyalty, and the greatest whole-heartedness. It requires the greatest sincerity and a desperate heart which has nothing to do with Satan. Although we may not stand in such a position, Father, I sincerely pray that You may guide us to become humble sons and daughters who can kneel down and long for the blessing of redemption with the heart that longs for such a position.
Father, how can we respond to the words given to us? Father, please be with us. Although we have listened to many words, walked many paths, and lived through many situations, we stand in front of You empty-handed, having nothing to return to You. Father, do not drive us away but have pity. I sincerely pray that in this hour we may empty all of our minds and bodies so that only the Father will have dominion over us and only the Father's blessing can fill us.
Please allow the heart of the giver and the hearts of the receivers to be one. I sincerely pray that this may be the hour when those hearts can harmonize into one so that the Father's heart can be felt and the Father's blessing can be directly received. I pray all these things in the name of the Lord. Amen.
As you know, this is an age of civilization. This is the final age when a certain ideological concept or ideology has to prevail. You know well that we are part of such an age.
Then how are we to live in this reality? We do not have anything special to show for ourselves, and we also do not have anything to advise people with through our accomplishments. You should realize that the past must have been the same since the present is such. You should be concerned that the future might also be the same.
Mankind Has Sought Truth
Having left behind a legacy called the Fall, mankind has gone through a course of untold stories. Mankind has been dragged on until now, unable to escape the course of the history of complicated stories that take different forms from age to age. Going through the course of history, people have lived on until now, unable to find the essential point that they really sought regarding the mind and body, ideology and heart. So many predecessors have gone through that. And while numerous people in this world today are also searching for that certain truth, they are wandering without a clear understanding of what truth is.
In order to find that source or answer, our ancestors struggled until now, welcoming a path of blood and tears, welcoming the valley of death, and welcoming the miserable situation of being driven out. Yet one cannot but acknowledge that the destination they were searching for and the resting place they sought with all of their hearts has not yet been found, either in this world where humanity dwells, or in Heaven, which works for the world providence.
The topic of today's speech is "Mankind Is an Explorer in Search of Truth." I will speak on this subject.
As we all have heart, the fact that we desire our heart to be entrenched by something, as we did in the past, as we do in the present and as we will in the future, signifies that there is a substantial being who is the source of truth. Using religious phraseology, this is saying, "There is God." When such a conviction is within you, you can clarify everything centered on God, including your being, your daily life, your whole life, and everything connected to your heart. This is what mankind, especially the people of religion, would seek as their highest goal.
That is why we always have to think about what is true, no matter what. We cannot deny that we have to find out what is true if we want eternal life. That is why the people of the past have moved toward this goal, people of today are moving towards this goal, and people of the future will surely move to fulfill this goal.
As God exists, He would want mankind to sing about a true person. He would want mankind to live happily with the true person. He would want to live together joyously with that true person Himself. When such a day comes, when people live with a common mind, a common heart, and a common life, no one will desire otherwise or stand in denial.
When there is a person who transcends race, ideology, and worldly thoughts for a truth he will live with, act with, and have the confidence to overcome death with, then no one of any nation or era will deny that this person is the substantiation of the truth human history has sought. This person is the evidential substantiation of the truth this age is seeking, and the original substantiation of the truth the future seeks. Humanity has been searching for that true person.
Although there are billions of people in this world today, no one can answer definitively that they have found such a substantiation of truth to live with, to fight side by side with, and to rejoice with. There is no clear answer, although you may look through the principles of philosophy or the holy books of religions. Whether you search your body, your mind, your heart, or in all ideologies, you cannot be absolutely confident that you have found the truth which can awaken you anew and have become one with it.
Then is this all an empty theory or fancy? How is this problem to be solved? This is the final question that today's humanity must find an answer to. The relationship between the truth and myself, both of which are in need of clarification, should be a relationship of inseparability and indistinguishability. If the truth we seek is Heavenly Father, then we should harmonize with Him as if He were us and we were Him. If Jesus is the truth, then we should be harmonized into oneness with him.
At this point, all our emotions and awareness should move together as one. We will see the image of redeemed mankind, the image of the true sons and daughters Heavenly Father is looking for when that touch or trace of the truth is felt from within and is transmitted to all of the created world and to all people. Then all can move and feel in unison and sing together with the cosmos.
Fallen Men and Jesus
When we look at humanity bathed in the sorrow of the Fall, when we look at ourselves, unable to cut away from the fallen lineage, and when we acknowledge that we are all descendants of fallen ancestors, we may ask what the Fall is. It is to be fallen away. The Fall is a state of being in conflict with the ideal that our mind desires.
Because people are fallen, they want to avoid things they do not like, things that make them sad, and things that are difficult to do. Yet they cannot escape from sadness, pain and difficulty because they are fallen. Everything is intertwined and tangled up with history.
We surely have second selves that move according to the true heart, in contrast to our own selves which are in a miserable situation. The time will come when we have to call forth those selves to criticize ourselves harshly.
Many saints and sages who have come and gone in history have pled with history and its reality and looked to the future. They advised us to open our hearts wide, to seek for goodness, the rightful purpose of heart, and to possess a body that can respond to the original mind and act according to it.
Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is in your heart." He also said, "With that heart, connect to God's heart. Possess the character that can connect to that heart, and the bridegroom who represents the center of Heaven will come." But today we have to understand that this is where the problem lies.
We realize that there was no champion who could hold onto the clear standard of conscience and control his own body while facing these problems. There was no one who could unite with the laws of Heaven and the heavenly heart to have dominion over not only his own heart but the hearts of all men.
That is why Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven is in your heart. He has said to love him in order to go to Heaven. Afterwards, he said to follow him, bearing your cross, and to throw away all the things you own. He said the ones trying to live will perish and the ones wanting to die will live. He also said that those desiring to possess will lose everything and those wanting to lose will gain. Those wanting to rise will go down and those wanting to go down will rise. The question is, then, what is the purpose behind these seemingly paradoxical sayings of the Savior?
You all have a mind and a body. Yet it is truly regrettable that the mind, the body, and the heart are not as they should be.
Our ancestors established the standard of conscience when they came to this land and taught us to conquer the physical body. Yet no one was able to establish the standard of victory of dominating the physical body centering on the mind, even after six thousand years of human history. Who will be responsible for this sorrow? What are we to do when no one has the certain center where the body is dominated by a mind that is one with the deep heart of Heaven? Heavenly Father possesses the deep, heavenly heart. How is the mind of mankind to be conquered so that it can stand forever in front of Heavenly Father's heart? This is the important problem that must be solved.
Jesus said, "I am the bridegroom and you are the bride." The standard of heart that qualifies us to be the bride is not the standard of conscience entrenched in human affairs; nor does the standard of conscience change as the times change. The standard of conscience does not compromise with human morality in this world. This world's people do not know the bride. Who is the bride who can stand in front of the man who is the bridegroom? It should be someone who can yearn for the heart of the bridegroom. After having deeply felt it, the individual should head in the proper direction of establishing the eternal standard of conscience and body. Jesus is not able to stand as our true bridegroom if we do not meet such standards.
The Purpose of God's Providence and the Phase of Mankind
Human civilization has developed, following the flow of history. That civilization has now become this world of the twentieth century. Yet it has no contents whatsoever that can solve the problems of our bodies, minds and hearts. Although many complex structural appearances and complex environments have come about internally and externally, we know all too well that they have not touched our minds and hearts. People could not unite centering upon them. They were not the standard of heart Heaven and earth could rejoice eternally with or which could bring Heaven and earth together.
This age today is heading against the direction the mind and heart seek. Where can we find the center that can hold us up when we have nowhere to go and feel utter emptiness inside? Today's humanity cannot help but struggle to find it. People are seeking for the heart that the mind and belief can be in touch with. Therefore, humanity cannot avoid struggling toward this if a certain standard is not established where the heart can dominate the body and the body and lifestyle can dominate external life.
If God exists, what world does He seek? It is not this world of civilization and culture that we see today. We should realize that the central will God desires is the standard of mind and heart that can lead civilization in the right direction. It is the world of the standard our ancestors sought to establish for all their descendants. Knowing this, Jesus avoided the worldly environment. We know that he lived a life of going deep into the woods or valleys in the darkness.
Jesus Was an Explorer Who Sought the New World
No one knew at the time that Jesus came to this world and fought to transfer good things of the invisible world into this visible world.
No one in this world wanted to be in Jesus' position. Jesus prayed and pled at unexpected times. You have to realize that the course Jesus patiently walked was the course all of humanity has to traverse. It was the course that went into the borderland where God and Satan, good and evil, collided.
Jesus was not in a comfortable situation as he tearfully prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was the borderline area where God and Satan met. That prayer was the moment he was about to cross the borderline in order to overcome the realm of sorrow, tribulation, pain and death. Jesus was connected to the one heart, even in that situation. Therefore, he had a standard within him that said, "This heart will never be violated," in spite of anything on this earth and in Heaven that might sway him away.
It was not Jesus' greatness as a person that allowed him to win over Satan in the process of the battle over providential conditions. It was because of his entrenched heart toward Heavenly Father. Even Satan has to throw up his hands in the presence of such a heart in fighting the battle of Heaven. Because Jesus was such a person, he became qualified to become the master of heart and the bridegroom all people admire. I know that Jesus did not come to this world to find anything. This world is a fallen world. This world still has to go over a certain hill, and it has much to resolve. The world and the age, which both have to be resolved, are the problem. Because Jesus knew the problem, he came to pioneer the path. Jesus came as the lone explorer representing humanity in the new world that has to be realized.
Although Jesus did not mention it in the words recorded in the Bible, he could not have established a center of victory in Satan's world. God could not have established the will of victory in this satanic world at that time. You have to understand that Jesus was an adventurer and an explorer who sought the new world. He threw everything away to seek for the world of God's love and humanity's love, which is greater than any reality or concept of this world.
Jesus Set the Highest Standard as the Mark of Adventure
Although there are many adventurers who seek to explore the famous unknown spots, anyone can do that. But what is the highest standard that Jesus set as the mark of adventure? It is the problem of the heart.
What allows modern Christianity to contribute to the movements of the world? It is the historic background of martyrdom, which transcended death. There are people who are willing to seek truth with a desperate heart, even putting their lives at stake. God wants to take those people to establish the world of the purpose of the heart. Because of this, He sent Jesus. Yet when Jesus was dying pitifully on the mountain of Calvary, did people anticipate that someday he would be leading the world? Not even in their dreams.
We are people who have to seek. We have before us the path that we must take today and tomorrow, with all our lives and even our bodies at stake, in spite of any difficulty or danger.
Through the Principle, you know that the battles waged between God and Satan are propelling history. Where is the original son who can call on God after winning these battles? Mankind has not yet seen or found the world in which Heavenly Father responds when the son calls on Him as Father with a desperate heart.
Jesus came to this world and said that he was the only begotten son of God. The Bible records Jesus' presence as the glory of the begotten son. Jesus called God "Father." He said to attend him like the bridegroom, that the people were his bride and his brethren. This is something to be grateful for.
What God Wants To Establish
There is a God who guides the providence for mankind in this world from up in Heaven. God leads the history of goodness. Then what is His purpose? It is not the Bible. At the end, when the providence of restoration is completed, the Bible will disappear along with the fallen world.
Believing in the Bible is not the question here. What is more precious is a son who can go beyond just believing, one who knows the Father who has striven for six thousand years, who strives now, and who will strive in the future. With a burning heart toward Heavenly Father, he can call on Him. Such a daughter is this precious. Heavenly Father cannot be joyous in looking at humanity. The only one He feels joyous over is Jesus. Isn't that so?
We are searching for truth. The individual, the family, the society, the world is searching for truth. Then who is the ultimate owner of the truth the universe is searching for? It is God.
What is the content of the truth God wants to establish? What He is searching for is the content of true parents, true couples, true children, true Heaven and earth, and the true cosmos that mankind has yet to possess. Isn't that so?
What does God want while carrying on the providence with this world? He would want things to be true creations. He would want for all of humanity to become true citizens. Furthermore, He would want those citizens to become true loyal subjects, true couples, and true parents.
Only after the true creation, true citizens, true filial sons and daughters, true couples, and true parents appear would God want to appear substantially in this world.
As God is the substantiation of truth, He definitely wants to create a bond with those who are in search of truth. He wants all beings to bow their heads and say, "You are right. Be my owner forever." God has sought that substantiation with His body, mind, and heart. The day God meets that substantiation will be the day human history in search of goodness and truth will end. It will be the day when God, who led the providence in order to seek the truth and establish it, will have His dream fulfilled.
God is looking for such a day, such a place, and such a moment. And such a day is what this sinful land, the people living in this sinful world, the family, the society, and the nation are looking for.
If Jesus came with the mission to fulfill the heart's desires of God and humanity, it is a sorrowful thing that no disciple ever asked him to introduce the cosmic ideology of goodness that was deep inside his heart. Jesus lamented, "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" (John 3:12)
Although Jesus came with words of truth and as the embodiment of truth and came to do the deeds of truth, he was not recognized at that time and was unable to speak all the words of truth or perform all that he would wish. Therefore, what we need today is not just the biblical perception of Jesus. We need the embodiment who can clarify what a true individual is, a true family, a true society, a true nation, and a world that God can come to, the blessed land. We need the embodiment to lead us in that direction. It was the mission of the Savior to explain the truth that he cherished deep in his heart.
Who ever really knew Jesus? Jesus could not really reveal the contents of his mission to anybody and had to go over the hill of the cross. No one understood him. That is why no one has gone to Heaven. Everyone who believes in Jesus is in paradise. Paradise is the waiting room to Heaven.
From this perspective, although the course of searching for truth lasted for six thousand years until today, it is still not resolved. When it has not even been completed after six thousand years, will it be completed tomorrow, even if I start anew the course of life with the newly felt and realized heart of today? If there is no possibility that it will happen, then you should at least have a heart of indignation, a heart that can plead to Heaven, bearing the Father's will.
How can you be citizens of Heaven when you don't even desire to do such a thing? How can you ever be loyal, exemplary men and women and filial sons and daughters of Heavenly Father?
The Method for the Providence of Restoration
We know the providence of God to be a providence of restoration. What is the providence of restoration? It is a movement to recover something that was lost. It is the strategy of gaining back something that was lost. It is a strategy of re-creating through words.
Mankind is to be re-created. Because mankind fell and lost the words that the body and mind can relate with and rejoice eternally with in heart, we have to find the words or truth. It is said that the truth is the word. While truth is the principle that guides a system, it is also a basis for heavenly law. Therefore, the world has sought truth until now.
Yet there are no words of truth even now. Because there are no words of truth, there is no substantiation of true life. Since there is no substantiation of true life, there is no substantiation of true love. There is no true cosmos, no true Heaven and no true earth because there is no substantiation of true love. That is why God is pounding us. He has no use for any of us.
God is conquering the world. God endeavors to conquer an individual. God also endeavors to conquer a family. He has been fighting until now to conquer a race, a nation, and a world. Our forefather Noah fought for 120 years to conquer himself and his family. It was probably not an easy task. Isn't that so? From the time he received God's word that He would judge the land, Noah fought every day for 120 years. God only promises those whom He has great hopes for once. Once you have received God's direction, you have to have an unchanging heart of loyalty to that and be the victor who can conquer persecution from the family, the society, or bodily desires for food and sleep. If not, God will say He does not know you. Throughout the course of history, God has been conquering an individual, a family, a society, a nation, and a world. What is conquering? It is to strike. That is why history has been a history of war.
Today is the consummation period of six thousand years of history. At this point, God is looking for a victor with the authority to conquer everything from himself to the whole, after returning everything back to Heavenly Father.
Our ancestors in the past risked everything to conquer themselves, and they did not shun the path of difficulty or the path of pioneering.
But the world of the twentieth century today is different from the environment of the past. The age back then was a providential period for the individual, the family, the race, the nation. But this age of the providence deals with the cosmos, beyond the world. As there is an adventure for us today, we have to have the determination to say that no one will take greater risks than I will, as I represent the six thousand years of history. That is how it is.
At such a time, those crying for the self will not establish the heavenly family. Those crying for the family will not establish the heavenly society. Those crying for the society will not establish the heavenly nation. Those crying for the nation will not establish the heavenly world, and those crying for the world will not establish the heavenly cosmos. So although we are individuals, we have to have the heart that can pull the world in.
To affirm that you will become the victorious embodiment and to carry it out with conviction is an adventure. When you move up into a more mysterious realm, that world is full of adventures. To go from the level of the individual up to a higher level definitely requires an adventure. You have to wage a decisive battle of life and death with your neck on the line.
God's Providence Centering on Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus
Noah punished himself in order to establish the standard of the family. He punished his body for 120 years to conquer it. He was in a harsh environment of criticism, sneering, and all sorts of unimaginable difficulty. Can't we imagine that?
In spite of it all, he said, "Let's persevere. God has promised me and is leading me, so would I ever turn away from the heartistic standard that God has established?" He conquered all difficulty by punishing himself.
Had Noah's family given up all worldly conditions and hoped to found a race, then God's will would have been accomplished during that time. God's will would have been fulfilled if Noah's family had denied all personal family matters in search of a race, holding onto the standard of Noah's heart.
But Noah's family broke away, unable to fulfill the will centering on the family. But the providence to fulfill the will still continued. Heavenly law was at work. You cannot just keep holding onto an individual when the individual fails. Just because the family failed and the family can not be established does not mean that heavenly law stops going forward. Although an individual may fail, heavenly law still moves on.
Although an individual failed, God still had to work the providence to establish the family since the moment of the family was coming. He had to work to establish both the individual and the family. Even though that family failed, the providential time table did not slow down. The providence has been widening from restoring the society to the level of restoring a race.
Having lost the individual Noah and his family, God established Abraham after four hundred years. Abraham had to set more severe conditions than those through which Noah went. But having lost even Abraham, God established Moses after four hundred years. Now it was the age of the nation, so He drove the Israelites into Egypt and trained them hard. To train them hard is to strike them. It is a strategy to bring unity. It was the plan to make them into one.
God told the Israelites, "The land in which you are living is the land of the enemy. The palace of the Pharaoh is the palace of the enemy. The people of Egypt are all your enemies." Because the homeland for the Israelites would be possible only when they could all unite, God drove the Israelites forth, looking only at the moment when they would enter the blessed land. God raised Moses as the leader of the adventure. He represented the nation since the providential time entailed a nation. Moses, the leader of the adventure, was the greatest explorer and the greatest of spies going into the uncharted land of Canaan.
For Moses to kick away the interference of the Pharaoh's palace and lead the Israelites into the land of Canaan was not an easy path. It was the course of the unknown. Yet despite any difficulty that lay in front of him, Moses was determined. His heart was unchanged. He said, "Get in my way if you want to, but my heart of trying to find the land of Canaan that God has promised since the time of my ancestors will never change."
Although he was living in the land of the Pharaoh, Moses' heart was ready to sing a song of happiness in the land of Canaan. Moses had pioneered a solitary path of going forward with an indomitable heart.
He headed out to Canaan with the mass of 600,000 people. But during the forty years of the wilderness period, all was lost. If the Israelites knew how to take adventure like Moses did, they would not have failed. Had their desperate heart to seek the promised land been greater than the feelings and thoughts arising in their daily lives, the Israelites would have never fallen in the wilderness. Yet they cried out in panic, complaining how hungry they were and complaining of their hardships. So they died out in the wilderness, unable to enter the land of Canaan.
Any historic figure or pioneer has the natural tendencies of an explorer. He can overcome everything to reach a higher ideal or promised destination, not seeking worldly pleasures or satisfactions.
Moses was like that. What is the meaning behind the Red Sea incident and the attack of the tribesmen of Amalek in the wilderness in front of the Israelites? Men who had escaped the shackles of the Pharaoh all collapsed on the way as they wandered aimlessly for forty years.
Moses had sent twelve people, representing the twelve tribes, to spy out the land of Canaan. When they came back to report what they had seen, ten of them said they would not be able to defeat the Canaanites, but Joshua and Caleb said otherwise. Joshua and Caleb were not particularly intelligent. You are more intelligent than they were. They were dull and stubborn. But they had a wildly adventurous nature.
Joshua and Caleb stood firmly against the opposing people, saying, "God, who has been leading us until now, is alive. God, who has defeated the magic of the Pharaoh, is alive. God, who divided the Red Sea and helped us cross it, is alive. God, who sent us quail and manna while we were starving and struggling, is alive." You have to know that such was the key that opened the road for the Israelites, who were struggling to follow the course of restoration.
That is not all. All of history is such a course. After the age of the race came the age of the nation. Although they had entered Canaan, the Israelites had to fight to establish a nation. How heavy-hearted must God have been at this. They needed to acquire the form of a nation, the form of a family, and the form of an individual. Although they had acquired the form of a nation, they could not become the foundation of complete victory that God wanted. We have to realize God's heart as He worked through history with such situations.
God has been struggling. He struggled to find an individual, but He lost that individual. He struggled to find a family, but He also lost that family. He lost everything, including the blessed nation and the people of Israel.
Jesus seems to have come as the prince of the defeated. He inherited all this. He was a representative who came to take on the pain of world restoration. He came to the land of Israel. He only went to a few places, a few temples near the wall of Jerusalem and the beaches of Galilee. Yet his words and actions represented the will of God and history.
Two thousand years of history have passed since Jesus died after struggling on such a path. Today a certain victorious base to restore the nation of Israel must be established. The history of the two thousand years after Jesus (which we may call the two thousand years of the history of the Holy Spirit) were the process of keeping the world in line with the standard of God's will.
Today is the era of the last days. The last days are to perfect an individual, perfect a family, perfect a race, perfect a nation, a world, and furthermore, a cosmos. Humanity is not aware of the heart of God, who has been leading such a grand mission.
What God Wants to Find in the Last Days
After the six thousand years of struggle that God has gone through, there is a framework that can usher mankind in toward the realm of one ideology in this age of the last days of history. Yet what are we to do now? Mankind is not in a position to invite God to intervene in our affairs. We have neither the substance nor the content.
This is what I want to shout out to this present age. Where is the historic individual God seeks? Where is the family God is seeking to replace Noah's family? Where is the race to replace the race which suffered in Egypt, the race God embraced and loved? Where are the people who want to be loved in the bosom of the begotten son, who came as the king of all kings? The standard where all can walk hand in hand and share heart to heart and sing together is lost. There is probably no greater sadness than this.
God will still search. What is it that God will search for? God is a God of truth and He possesses the contents of truth. Therefore, He will search for the embodiment of truth, the true family, the true society, the true nation, and the true world. He will search for the world where Heaven and earth move in unity of heart though true authority. Isn't that so?
His work is already initiated. He will cut away everything false from an individual, a family, a race, a world. In other words, He will break down the lineage of any race, any national tradition or any ideology of humanity in order to establish the one world of the heart. Looking at things from this perspective, what kind of world is God looking for? He is looking for a world of truth, where there are true parents.
Due to the Fall, mankind has the parents of a fallen lineage. We do not possess the original parents whom God can love eternally. Therefore, no matter how great you might say you are, you are descendants of fallen parents. There is nothing to be proud of. Then where are parents whom God can bless, whom all the created world can sing for? They have disappeared. They disappeared at the beginning of history, not during its course. Who will liberate such sorrow?
What kind of people are the original parents? They can communicate back and forth with the eternal, everlasting God in a relationship of parent and child. Yet such true parents, who can live as the children, attending God as their parent, have disappeared. Therefore, humanity has to search for true parents.
This land in which we live is not the land we have dreamed about. This environment in which we live has nothing to do with God's ideal. It is the same thing for the Unification Church. Having the name of the Unification Church is not important. We have to possess the heart of unification. The door sign is not important. The contents are important. As you all have a conscience that searches for truth, you have to establish a motto that seeks for truth. You have to think about what contents God wants.
The day when God can be present within true parents, true couples, true children, true loyal subjects, true people, the true creation, the true sovereignty, and the true cosmos and can agree that everything is true will be the final day for the fallen world. As you wait for the coming of the Lord of the Second Coming, do you think there will be a destruction of the world with great changes and that we will rise up into the air at that time? Do not even think of such nonsense and fantasy. I used to think like that in the past. We have to fight against people who think like that.
What is such a moment like when it arrives? It is the moment when a complex web of inexplicable situations gets untangled; when the history of misfortune is indemnified; and everything from the individual, the family, the society, the race, the nation, and the world unites. It is the moment when the individual is established so that things that were carried down vertically get carried out horizontally. Thus, it is the moment when the original embodiment will establish the original family, the original society, the nation, and the world. It is the goal of humanity, who has sought truth, to find the self who can live in the original world.
What Kind of Time Is the Time of the Second Coming and What Kind of Time Is Now
What kind of person is that self? It is someone who is one with God and true parents all the time. It is someone who is also one with the true children, the true people, and the true loyal subjects. In front of that self, true Heaven and earth, a whole new world, will open up. To bring everything to fruition centered upon such an occasion is God's way of governing.
Today many thoughts and ideals seem plausible, but they do have any valuable contents. Although mankind has been searching and searching for truth for six thousand long years of history, people who have fought as true individuals all faded away. The true family, the true people, the true nation, and the true ideal also faded away. It is up to us, living in the last days, to receive those things again.
What kind of time is it now, when we face the destiny to receive those things again? When we truly look with clear eyes, we see this is a time when the individual can unite with the family, the family can unite with the society, the society can unite with the nation, the nation can unite with the world, and Heaven can unite with the earth. The final destination that goodness longs for is in the state of being able to call God our father, and not just in name only. Please raise your hand if you think you are confident that you have reached this standard. If you look at the reality, things are serious. The age of the last days of the six thousand years are here, but we are six thousand years behind. We are six thousand years away from such a time. The external form of the providence has been structured, yet as far as content is concerned, it is empty. As time passes, you will feel more and more suffocated. There will come a day when you will lament how lonely and empty you are. Although you may possess wealth and much more, there will be a certain emptiness inside. There will also be a battle within you. That is because your mind strives to run back to six thousand years ago, whereas your body still remains here, entangled in the present.
Because such a reality exists, the Bible says, "Seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened." In this time, when the new environment is about to emerge, you should at least have the conviction to push away the suffering arising from this battle buried deep in the human heart, although you may not know how to solve it. If not, then you cannot stand in the new world that will come. We have to realize this.
What kind of time is it now? This is a time to revolutionize the individual, revolutionize the family, revolutionize the society, revolutionize the nation, and revolutionize the world.
What will allow you to stand firmly against the flying arrows and the cross of death? It is the heart with a father and a son relationship with Heavenly Father. When we call out to Heavenly Father as our father with a desperate, deep heart, God and Satan will both bow their heads. If Jesus did not possess such a heart, he would not have been qualified to be the Messiah. You have to possess such a heart if you want to be the bride. To enter into such a state, you have to embark on an adventure.
Now is a busy time. It is time to go on an adventure. Jesus said that those who are willing to die will live, and those who want to live will die. Those who want to rise will go down and those willing to go down will rise. These words will be fulfilled in the last days.
The Attitude of Faith Believers Must Have in the Last Days
When you only feel happiness and satisfaction on the level of your own family, that family, the nation, and its system will all break down. Isn't that so? We have experienced it during the Japanese occupation. Humanity in today's age of the providence of restoration has to be an explorer.
Prayers from your heart and lawful prayers will be fulfilled. You have to look carefully at how your prayers are fulfilled. People who pray in this age have said the same prayers over and over for years, but their prayers are not answered. You have to pray with a true heart of love and promise. Pray and wait with a desperate heart, not forgetting your prayer even after thirty or forty years. It will be fulfilled. You don't need many prayers.
In this age, you have to seek out and do the things that others cannot do. If you try, you will be able to do them. It is not like science books where everything is in the books. In Revelation, John pioneered the spiritual world which others could not. He looked at a world at the height of his exploration which no one else could feel. Yet there is no guidance for the course. This is the problem.
You have to once again calm yourself and aim for the truth. As there is life, and there is someone who will cry with the heart in which life dwells, you have to deny all that you have believed. What you believed in up to now is insufficient. You need something which will allow you to deny the heart you have been feeling, and deny the ideal you have been longing for.
While there certainly is a weapon, you cannot find it with an everyday attitude. Even if you are a well-to-do person who is proud of yourself, you have to give up such a position to go back to the very end of the line, in the lowest place, so as to attain the victory. Such was the path that God has pursued.
Although Jesus appeared in this world with the authority of life and resurrection to take over all the sovereignty of Heaven and earth, he had to walk the opposite path in order to fulfill this in the fallen world. When Jesus saw that his life was soon to fade away, he was not concerned for his body. He was concerned for his spirit. When he was looking at the people, he was not concerned about their physical misery. He felt pity for their souls. It is the opposite way. Do you want to be God's sons and daughters? Do you want to go to Heaven? Try to go to Heaven. Those who think they can go to Heaven by believing in Jesus will not go. It cannot be done without a cost.
Why is it that we believe in Jesus? It is in order to create Heaven. What did Jesus tell us? He said our body is a temple. Is it a temple? Jesus desired for the individual to be a temple, the environment to be a temple, and the whole creation to be a temple. God wants to dwell within us, in our family, in our society, and even in all of creation.
What was Jesus like when he was in this world? Although he was supposed to sit on the throne of Heaven, he became a friend of sinners. It is said that he ate and drank with sinners. Jesus said he came to save the sinners, not the faithful. How frustrated he must have been to do that.
The assignment of Christianity is to take care of many things that are painful to deal with. The question is how people will have the heart that says, "Father, please allow us to have the dignified heart that Jesus had when he died on the cross that we may overcome the pain of death and wish blessings upon the miserable people." Jesus came to this world and became a pioneer of the heart. We need people who will go forward with a desperate heart, who can dominate the fear of death.
What is the reason that the churches are separating? The problem is that preachers seek the authority of their position while the people seek their own authority for the sake of personal glorification. Jesus left behind the virtue of service. This path is the closest path to us, yet it is the most difficult path of adventure for humankind. People who conquer a mountain may be secular explorers, but they are not the explorers of the world of spirit. God wants an adventurer who can win over pain in the heart. Isn't that so?
Jesus' Representative
Is there any greater adventure than appearing as the prince of Heaven in this land of sin? Although the cosmos tried to prevent Jesus from treading that path, still he walked that path. Everyone shunned that path, but he went on it.
Now that there is a certain genuine truth, we have to seek for it. If this physical body, which ideally should be centered on our united mind and heart, is still fixed to the things of worldly history, then we should cut away from it and search for the word that can pull both the mind and the body with its truth.
We have to possess the desperate heart that is derived from the eternal world, which transcends time and limitations. We must become people who can dominate and win over any hardship, pain, and fear of death in this world. For you to be victorious on your individual path, you should deny all desires and all pain to walk forward proudly. If a victorious individual can take the same course with the family, the race, the nation, and the world, then this person is victorious over the world.
God could raise and bless Jesus because of this. His path was a pioneering path. To pioneer is to begin with a difficult path. It does not begin with a pleasant and happy path. It is to work backwards.
God has been searching for the ideal form of an individual, a family, a society, a nation, and a world throughout the course of history. He has been searching for us, the seekers of truth.
In order to restore all this in these last days, we have to bear God's heart and become the warriors who will fight against sin as God's begotten son Jesus, the prince of Heaven, became a friend to the sinners. In such a position, we have to throw away all personal pride and prestige and stand bravely in front of Heavenly Father. Only such a person will become Jesus' representative who will not only find himself, but find all the other lost selves. Jesus' representative is one who will hold onto such a heart and fight for the family, the society, the race, the nation, and the world.
No matter how high one may be, he should yield his high position and have the heart to sincerely attend others, saying, "The reason I am here is to help people lower than me be raised to the position I am in." When such an inclination for adventure is present, it may be used as a condition to maintain oneself and win out in this time of turmoil.
When I look at you, I see that you all have the petty ambition of wanting to possess everything in Heaven and earth, yet you are not trying to find your own lost self. I will acknowledge you if you have certain conditions that can coincide with the contents and purposes of God's wish to find the family, the race, and the nation. But you only have the purposes and the ideal; you are lacking in substantial content. You have to have the standards to which Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus, and Heavenly Father can say, "You are right!"
As you live today, it is not enough just to continue the life pattern of searching for values. You have to eliminate yourself. You have to hunt yourself down. You have to get rid of yourself. If not, you cannot go to Heavenly Father. God has never thought about His own pride throughout the six thousand years of the providence in this world. Because His path was to find His loving true sons and daughters, He was determined never to think of His own pride until He met such sons and daughters.
Although Jesus has striven for a long time, he also had to be humble in front of sinners before he could find his bride. One example of this is when he told the thief on the right that he would go to paradise along with him.
Now we have to embark on the final, historic adventure.
For us to be acknowledged as victors among all the explorers who have sought for truth, we have to first welcome the sorrow and suffering of history and the sadness and pain of the ages. We must be able to stand in front of God, the true parents, the true couples, the true children, the true siblings, the true people, the true nation, and the true Heaven and earth. Only when such a deep, desperate heart stands within you can you then take your places as the people of that nation, the loyal subjects of that nation, and the filial sons and daughters of that nation.
The Adventure of Adventures
Then what is the adventure of adventures? It is to cry for the miserable people in Heavenly Father's stead, with a deep, desperate heart. Although you may have received a complicated and difficult mission, and even if your heart desires peace, you have to be determined to fulfill the responsibility and go forth toward the standard God desires, in spite of death or universal opposition.
The world's affairs were pioneered through adventures. But no one took on the adventure of the world of God's heart. Thus, if God says to live a certain way, then live that way. If Jesus said to do this, then just do that. To find out if it is true or a lie, you have to charge through with it until the end.
There is no greater adventure than the adventure regarding the issues of your own heart. Please become the explorers of the world of the heart, and understand that there is nothing more joyous or renewing than to make a relationship with Heavenly Father through those adventures.
Prayer
How much did Jesus sympathize with the miserable fishermen when he walked the beaches of Galilee for thirty years? How much did he sympathize with the pitiful villages? How concerned was he when he saw the state of the Jewish churches and the religious bodies? We realize how miserable Jesus was as he was chased out of the temple in Jerusalem, wandering around from village to village, and later on searching the seaside to find just one disciple who was true in heart.
As we tried to see what was the adventure of adventures, we realized that the greatest adventure is not to an object or something in front of you. It is to conquer yourself and completely dominate yourself and bring yourself into submission.
Jesus knew that the day you go into the world of the heart and conquer yourself is the day all of the cosmos will find you. Because he knew that, he gratefully trod the path of isolation and of being nailed to the cross. Jesus was grateful even as he was sneered at. He even comforted the people. Although his body, dripping with blood, was in pain and his heart was indignant, he saw that the Father's heart was vested in those people as He worked through the providence. Therefore, he was filled with the heart to elevate the Father and deny himself. We now see the heart of Jesus. He prayed that Heavenly Father might bless the people, that he might somehow accidentally obviate the four thousand years of the building of a relationship with mankind and ruin that foundation.
Although humanity has been struggling to explore and conquer the things of this visible world in spite of numerous risks, humanity is not undertaking the adventure of conquering the self, with the internal heart at stake. Please allow us to realize that the course of this adventure is more rough, dangerous, great and fearful than any precipitous mountain of this world; it is greater than traversing any great ocean, and going any place where wild beasts dwell.
Many people who were walking the path of the Way failed when the element of the self came in. We realize that Jesus was able to possess the glory of resurrection when he gave himself up. He became the historic master who was victorious over himself.
We have to lose this world, lose the self, and lose the history of sorrowful regret. Please allow us to fight with our bodies and minds. Please allow us to fight on while holding on to God's heart of the six thousand years. Allow us to realize that it is the historic desire of mankind, the desire of the age, and the request of the future that we be the victors who can rightfully wish blessing upon all creation, representing Heavenly Father. Please help us to realize that it is not God or Jesus, but I, myself, who must become such a being. I, myself, am the true center of God and Jesus, this land, and all the existing world. Let us realize that to find this truth has to start from oneself.
Jesus lived thirty years in this world. He lost himself, and once again lived to experience the joy of the resurrection. Please allow us to feel the joy of finding ourselves again after being lost. If we cannot experience the joy of being reborn after death, the coming garden of blessing does not have anything to do with us. Please allow us to bury and throw away the self that goes along with this world and to live again with Heavenly Father.
We have to carry on a revolution today. We have to find the new world. We need an adventurous and investigative character. Father, we realize that those who think about themselves cannot be included in this number. Those who are clinging to the conditions of the environment will not be able to pioneer that environment. Those who are caught up in the thoughts and ideals of this life cannot partake in the ideology of this new world to fulfill their role as world leaders God can be pleased with.
Please allow us to have the heart that is in tune with the heart of the ideal, from the individual, to the family, up to the cosmos. Let us be grateful wherever we are sent, grateful no matter what kind of offering we may become. Let us be heavenly princes of adventure who can go forth ready to face any risk.
I sincerely pray that we can be the sons and daughters whom God can trust and that we can be responsible for everything. I pray all these things in the loving name of the Lord. Amen.
