Romans 8:18-21
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Prayer
In this hour, please let us feel and experience the heart of the Father, who sent our good ancestors to this earth and drove them as far as death because You loved humankind so.
We know that history has been one of continual sadness and conflict since the fall of the first human ancestors, who were not up to their task. Neither Heaven nor earth has had a day of happiness since. Father, because of this, the world is full of twists and turns. When will we become pious sons and daughters in whom You can take delight and who can praise You on this earth? We are anxiously awaiting the day when we can do so.
Since we who are inadequate have gathered before You this day, please look at us with compassion. We are feeble; please make us strong, so that we may lift the banner of victory on the battleground that remains for us. Allow us to be able to boast that we have become Your sons and daughters. Father, we pray this from the bottoms of our hearts.
Father, we realize that there have been many things in our lives of the past week that were not right in Your presence. Please forgive us. We are prostrated before You in this hour to offer our insufficient minds and bodies. Please purify us from all that is not right. We pray ardently that You allow only the things You can claim to spring up in our minds and bodies.
We know very well that You have gathered us here in this hour because You love us so much. Since we realize this is out of Your grace, please let this be the hour when we can offer our sincere hearts to You in response to that grace. We sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be sons and daughters who can fight to the end, enduring everything for the sake of fulfilling the Father's wish and will.
Since it is a holy day, please bless all humankind, and bless this pitiful people. There are church members who are praying on their knees before You in lonely places. Please bless them and do not withdraw Your uniform grace of protection and divine aid from them. I sincerely wish and desire that You lead, protect and guide them until we greet the Father's eternal day.
Since we came before You in this hour, please allow us to be able to offer all of our minds and bodies. Father, we pray sincerely that You will allow this to be the hour when we abandon all notions of the world and are able to relate to You with the hearts of true sons and daughters.
Father, please govern this hour in person. Do not allow Satan to take advantage of an unguarded moment. Ardently soliciting that You will cling to us eternally with the hands of grace, and that You will transfer us to Your garden of life, I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Prayer
Please bless this day to be a holy day. Please sanctify this hour. Please credit these people as a holy throng. Please allow this audience to have only sincere minds that cannot forget the Father's heart.
Please govern this hour, and do not let it be one in which we feel what we please. Allow our hearts to be transformed into resembling the Father's heart. Let the sincere heart that desires to relate to the Father's sacred image overflow within us. Please eradicate all opinions, assertions and notions that have been the backbone of our self-centered thinking until now. Allow only that which can make a connection with the Father seep out of the depths of our hearts. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be anxious only to adore the ideal and purpose You desire, to care for the Father's will.
There have been numerous people who have come and gone before now for the sake of Your will. We realize that it is Your great grace to have called us and to let us gather here. We are quite beneath notice. We know that You gathered us because You want to give us commands. Father! We sincerely wish and desire that You will please bestow Your words of life and grace upon each of our spirits.
We realize that the battleground still remains where we cannot help pioneering the path of battle, keeping the garden of hope in view today and tomorrow. Please let our minds and bodies be strong and bold in this hour; guide us to be able to drive out the wave of death with a sweeping motion. Father, we ardently pray that You will allow us to become Your sons and daughters who can boast of the grace of resurrection, having the power of life.
Father, please grant what You will to Your sons and daughters in this hour, and extirpate all the things You do not want. Please allow our minds and Your mind to become united. Allow Your divine image and our minds to become unified. We pray sincerely that Your sacred image and our minds will become unified and that You will allow nothing that does not belong to You to remain.
Father! Please guide this to be an hour when we hold service thinking only of Your will. Allow this to be the hour when we can sing Your holy name with sincere hearts, an hour when our minds and bodies honor the Father's will and praise Your beautiful heart. Father, we sincerely wish and desire for this to be done.
Beloved Father! Please look at the thirty million Korean people with compassion. Please bless the numerous religious denominations gathering on behalf of this nation. Father, please bestow the grace of blessing, especially upon the members who ardently pray on their knees before You in the midst of a desolate environment. Please protect them with the hands of uniform grace, and advise them with uniform authority. Please protect them so they are not defeated on the remaining battleground, the place of the last battle against Satan. I sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be able to sing a triumphal tune and boast of being Your sons and daughters.
Many people are wishing for Your hope to be realized. However, we realize that there is no son or daughter who wants to penetrate deeply into Your heart of true love and comfort You. Beloved Father, we ardently wish and desire that You will allow this set of people gathered here in this hour to be the sons and daughters who can embrace and comfort Your heart and offer respectful bows in harmony with Your heart.
Many people have made an effort for the sake of the Father. Yet because they could not endure to the end and win, their efforts and troubles could not bear fruit. Since we are aware of this fact, Father, we ardently pray that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can go forward irrespective of any fight, even one serious enough to affect today, tomorrow or even our whole life. Let us endure and toil to the end, until we produce the last fruit in the presence of the Father.
We know that our being gathered here is owing to Your particular favor. Since we have to assume the important responsibility for that favor, we sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who are not inadequate.
We desire to gather our inadequate minds and bodies in this hour and bow respectfully before You. Please have dominion over everything, and govern this hour so that Satan cannot take advantage of it. Father, ardently soliciting this, we pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Prayer
Father, please look at us with compassion. We are a pitiful set of people who could not die, except for Your graceful consideration. Father, we ardently pray that You not leave us alone in this hour and that You will embrace us in Your great bosom of love.
Your sons and daughters have followed without complaining, though the path of toil has been difficult. Since we cannot help straying without Your love, please look at us with compassion. Allow us to feel and experience the grace of glory You bestow by embracing us with Your great love.
There is an end to everything that centers on people, while all the things that move centering on the Father last forever. Since we know this is true, please get rid of everything that centers on people. Let only the things that center on You appear in the gardens of our minds. Father, we pray this from the depths of our minds.
We often forget that the more ardently we seek You, the more we conjure up the image of Your internal nature. The closer we wish to get to the presence of Your mind, the more Your great love will be with us without our knowledge. Father, we sincerely wish and desire that You allow us not to forget that You live with us always, whether we are too busy to notice or not.
Please look at Your sons and daughters gathered here with compassion. Please be responsible for their lives, and let their wishes be realized. Since You promised that Your hope for us would be attained, please grant us the power with which we can continue to fight by Your side until we take possession of that garden of hope. Beloved Father, we also sincerely wish and desire that You will protect us from growing weary in the fight against Satan.
Please look with compassion at Your sons and daughters gathered here. Our hands and feet have been wounded while working our way through the world of death. Father, we pray that You will embrace us and take our hands in this hour. We know that if You say You do not know us, there will be none more pitiful than us. Therefore, Father, please hold us and comfort us.
We would not have given up our lives if not for the Father's command. Since we have come forth obeying the orders of Your command, that this the righteous path for us to walk, Father, we sincerely wish and desire that You will not abandon us but will embrace us in this hour.
Please look with compassion at Your sons and daughters gathered here. Please let them feel to their flesh and bones that nothing not of the Father will do; nothing that is not in accord with the Father will do; and nothing that is not the work of the Father will do either.
We ardently wish and desire that You allow us to be able to demonstrate the dignified appearance of the Father's sons and daughters by fighting to the end, bringing with us the undertakings, the will and the hope You left behind. Please look at Your sons and daughters gathered here with compassion and have dominion over us, since we have entrusted You with everything we have.
Father, please allow me to deliver the word You have allowed in this hour within the boundary of Your will. Please root out everything that belongs to Satan, and allow this to be the hour when we feel the same things Your heart feels, an hour when we are entwined in Your heart and transformed into Your heart.
Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You allow this to be the hour when we can bow respectfully before You, with our hearts deeply penetrated by Your love at least for this hour. Let the minds of the deliverer and the minds of the receivers be unified in listening to Your words.
Father, I know that there are lonely church members appealing to You scattered around the country even in this hour. Please protect them with Your uniform power. Ardently soliciting this, I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Humanity Lost Hope
The topic I want to speak about is "The Path of Life We Must Go, Entertaining Hope." I will speak briefly upon this topic.
We know very well that humanity has lived until the present time unable to realize Heaven's true hope because humans fell and are in a state of having lost the granted hope of Heaven. Therefore, we cannot deny that we are inevitably destined to seek and go the path of true hope, from the day of our birth to the day of our death.
Before the fall, God said to Adam and Eve, "Fill the earth and rule over all creation." This meant that God had granted Adam and Eve a standard of hope. However, because they fell, they lost that Heaven-granted standard of hope. Moreover, they also lost the garden of happiness, the world of the comprehensive ideology in which they could live forever, receiving God's love in the perfection stage.
Humans, who lost the path of true hope in this manner, have walked a course of all kinds of vicissitudes, a path of battle, to recover the lost path of hope from the time of birth. We keenly experience this fact now.
Until now, we could not perceive that humanity came to the realization of hopelessness after his birth into the world. However, as a result of God's compassionate grace, a promise of hope has been established for humans. This is a most fortunate thing for humans, more than anything else, and is a greater blessing than any other.
Until the time of Jesus, we human beings could not live singing the joys of eternal life in the realm of limitless hope, centering on eternal Heaven. Heaven felt compassion toward human beings, who could not live in the realm of such hope, and ceaselessly toiled to enable them to pioneer the path of hope, surmounting the miserable circumstances of living. We know this very well. Among those born on the earth, there are people who live with hope and people who live without hope. Incidentally, there are two kinds of hope: one hope centers upon humans, the other centers upon Heaven.
We grow up thinking that our mother's bosom is the best thing from the day of our birth. However, as we grow older, we come to bid adieu to our mother's bosom. Next, we meet people and make friends and think that friends are the best thing there is. However, eventually we come to part with those friends also.
As individuals grow older, they gradually come to realize that their beloved parents cannot fulfill their entire hope, that their beloved spouses cannot satisfy their entire hope, and going further that their beloved children cannot gratify the entirety of their hope either. People know that although they desire many things, the mind that desires fades away to nothingness. They may have hopes for the family or for the nation, and furthermore for the world, but as they grow older, their mind of hope gets weaker and weaker. That is true. We know that of the people living on this earth there are not many who boast of a collective hope and have the firm conviction that they cannot live apart from that hope, even if they must risk their lives for it. Humanity is fated to have to fight and go beyond death after living life as it is.
The Hope which Can Win Over Death
A person entertains all kinds of hope in his life. However, he runs into death in the end and passes away, having abandoned all the hopes he had fostered. Although he wanders about seeking a new hope, wishing to live today and tomorrow, when he runs into death, he goes the last path in despair. We know this very well.
A person does not have a hope with which he can go over the hill of death, even though he seems to have hope centering on himself. He fades away without such a hope. There are questions then to be considered. Are we to take this for the norm of life? Are we to seek out a hope with which we can go beyond death, scoffing at it and even delighting in it? These are the important questions people living on this earth today must consider.
Everything in the world today will pass away. The families, the nations, the world and any kind of "ism" will pass away and be gone. There is one thing that will remain, in the end: the hope with which we can fight and win over death. Without such a hope, we might as well call ourselves failures in life. There is a set of people who live embracing hope not of the human world, but a new hope of Heaven, an eternal hope, rejecting all worldly hope. Heaven made limitless efforts to enable humanity on earth, who is living centered upon human hope, to go over the hill of death with a new hope and to live with regard to the eternal world. Therefore, people who lead a religious life should not live embracing earthly hope, but should live entertaining a hope with which they can even go beyond death, dreaming of the world of eternal hope. For this, we are leading a life of religion.
The Reason Jesus Could Overcome All Trials and Death
Jesus is a man who lived having given up all the earthly hopes people normally cherish from the time of his youth. We must know that Jesus lived from early on with a hope for which he could forsake his family, his environment, his religious denomination, and even his nation. He had a firm belief and hope in Heaven that no one could change. The hope that he cherished in his young mind was an immutable, thorough-going one with which he could withstand whatever difficulties he might encounter. Therefore, we must remember once again that Jesus ran the path he had to take with unflagging perseverance.
Jesus went to the temple in Jerusalem with his parents when he was twelve. His parents came back first, and Jesus remained there. When his parents came looking for him later, Jesus scolded them, saying, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" (Luke 2:49) We must know that Jesus cherished hope only for the Father.
Jesus ceaselessly toiled to put the surrounding environment in order as he matured. He had faith for the sake of Heaven; the kind of faith no one else had. Although there were many difficulties on the path he walked, because he had faith that he would build a new kingdom, a new world of hope, those difficulties could not take away his hope.
Jesus did the work of a carpenter in his private life. In spite of working in an environment that was not free, one in which he felt extreme difficulty, he did not retreat but overcame the situation. We know that he fought on, bearing a mind with ardent hope that cared for Heaven.
When Jesus stepped onto the path of adventure as he reached thirty, nurturing a will and new determination and resolution, the people around him did not support him. His family, the church, and society persecuted him in their respective ways. No one paid attention to him. Jesus overcame those difficulties even when he could not help being disappointed. He was able to do this through his unique faith, that is, the one hope he had. We must know that Jesus put the environment in order, overcoming all difficulties, by embracing such a hope and faith.
Even though he raised twelve disciples, Jesus was pursued here and there. However, the more he was pursued and the more people were unable to understand his heart, the more ardently he thought about the Father's nation and the Father's heart. Although many battles and difficulties knocked against him, they could not crush Jesus' perennial hope.
Jesus fought with that hope, from the time of his birth to the end. He never gave up that hope, even though the religious denomination, the people, and even his disciples betrayed him. Furthermore, we must know that he did not recede. He held onto his hope in spite of his imminent crucifixion.
It is beyond dispute that one's life is precious. However, because Jesus had hope for eternal life after death, his mind was greater, and he was able to go over even the path of the crucifixion with dignity. We know very well that Jesus bore witness to the hope in its entirety, through dying in the presence of heaven and earth. The more Jesus was swept by the horror of death, the more deeply he felt that the day of hope was approaching. He prayed on the last path of the crucifixion, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt."
Feeling that a new world of hope would be spread out before him after he surpassed physical death, Jesus longed for that world. We know that because Jesus wished for and cherished the thought of resurrection as a being of eternal freedom, he was able to have the glory of being resurrected after death.
Awareness of and Faith in the Hope
People of faith today must realize likewise that living with hope in the eternal world is much more precious than living with hope of remaining on earth. Christians today very often do not put emphasis on the eternal hope that they should value so highly through their life of faith. We must become the people who know how to take hold of the hope with which we can be connected to the eternal world and be able to sacrifice everything as a result of that hope. Only by doing so can we become the last true victors.
All the past prophets and sages went the path of death, without minding it, not only Jesus. Without regard for the jeers of all other people, they went. They went, not caring about persecution. The reason they walked the path of all kinds of difficulty was that they had the eternal hope that cannot be exchanged for anything else. They did not have a worldly hope; they had ardent hope that gets connected to and came deep into their heart through eternal Heaven. That is why they walked the path of death, the path of persecution, and the path of tribulation without minding.
Therefore, we people of faith today should have a mind that glows with hope. We must not lead a life of faith with a hope that will be realized only after death. We must become people who can make the hope into reality and achieve a triumph after fighting, at the risk of our lives, within the realm of reality. If such a person existed, he or she could be considered a person of faith who truly gained victory, a person not with hope on this earth but a person with eternal hope.
If this hope were false, if all the stress that Heaven has put to human beings to put their hopes in Heaven for several thousand years were false, Heaven could be seen as being unspeakably false. This would be the most deceitful act played upon human beings.
Humans beings have longed for good and better things. Through the long course of history, they have not been able to forget Heaven but have longed for it in their minds and toiled for it with their bodies. Heaven is something for which everyone must long: an object all human beings must pursue. Therefore, all of humanity has come forth relating to Heaven as the standard of hope, exerting themselves physically and pouring out their souls until now.
Therefore, the subject of your discussion from now on will be whether your mind stimulates you enough to make you cut your way through the environment with this deeply penetrating heavenly hope. If the number of the times you receive this type of stimulus grows smaller, you must realize that you will have no alternative but to fall down upon meeting death.
For that reason, we must give up all worldly hopes and go forth holding onto eternal heavenly hope. We must have firm faith with which we can force out every hope which centers on the world. Unless you have such faith, your life of faith is not right.
No one can be assured of not walking the path of suffering, the path of persecution, or the path of death. Therefore, in stepping out to seek eternal hope, you must have a firm faith that nothing can replace this hope, no matter what kind of internal or external difficulty may come crashing into you.
Jesus never gave up the object he set before himself in his youth; not even during battles, not even when he was knocked down in a fight, and not even after his resurrection from a state of being brought low. Because he fought without giving up the hope he had kept since he was very young, Jesus opened the path of hope for all humankind to live by holding onto Heaven. He came to be raised as a central being of hope on whom all humankind can rely.
What must you hope for today? You must possess the hope of wishing to have the glory of resurrection after crossing the hill of death, and the hope of wishing to become God's true sons and daughters after winning the glory of resurrection. Next, you must have the hope of wishing to live with God forever, wishing to live for His sake forever, wishing to seek out God's true love. Even if the endless path of crucifixion awaits you, even if some never-ending pain sweeps you away, and even if there are critical points of limitless difficulty before you, you must not retreat from them. You must become those who have a firm hope, who expect automatically to be subjected to such pain and who can push their way through it with their bodies. Unless you become people like that, you must realize that you cannot become the final victors.
Hope and the Life of Practice
After Jesus came and left, his twelve disciples walked the same path. They went into Rome and endured the severity of persecution. They were crucified and put to death. They were left for dead. In spite of such, they still did not give up their hope. The joy that they received from having hope was stronger than the fear they felt of death, stronger than any pain they received from tribulation; stronger than any armament. It was stronger than any influence and anything that was boasted of in the world. We have learned that Christianity was established on the grounds which prophets and sages walked, embracing hope more strongly than anything else.
Today we are placed in a situation where we too must entertain a new hope and set up and affect an object on the worldwide level. This being the reality, you will have to understand that the hope you cherish should exert stronger influence than any other power. Even if death comes upon you, even if all this universe is to disappear, hope should be the source of power with which you can overcome. Only if you become such unchanging central figures of hope will you be able to stand in front of Heaven.
There have been many people until now who boasted of themselves as having good faith. However, we have often seen people who boast of themselves fading away. No matter how much one boasts of his good faith, unless he can stand as one central being of hope who has won victory over the last hill of death, we must realize that he will end up being a loser in life.
If we establish the church and build the nation after rendering devoted service for the sake of Heaven, embracing the hope that cannot be bartered for all the things we own and that is even more precious than our life, the task of seeking a new hope through the church and the nation will take place on this hopeless earth. Through them, all of humankind, who were wandering without hope, will find a new hope.
Each of you who stepped forth to seek a new path must keep the hope of which you cannot help boasting in front of all humankind, even in the face of fear and death. With the firm faith that you have such a hope, even if you grapple with some difficulties of the environment, you must become people who can overcome them with dignity and happiness. If you become such people, you will not own worldly joy, but heavenly joy, which is eternal. The restored life in such an atmosphere is not the life that dies after living in this world; it is the life that lives forever. What is more, if there is a person who seeks such a hope, he will be the one who can live forever in God's love, not in the love humans advocate. If one seeks such a hope, he would have to be considered qualified to stand in front of all humankind without defect. Therefore, today we must have a hope that is not earth-bound or blocked by the hill of death, but one with which we can surmount the hill of death. Unless we are able to have such a hope, the dispensational history of Heaven, who came looking for us after having crossed the hill of death will end in failure.
Heaven stresses that only after we go over the hill of death are eternal hope, eternal happiness, and the eternal ideology given. In fact, Heaven seeks us through the hill of death. Therefore, we must have the hope with which we can surmount death. Without this hope, we cannot travel this path. That is why Paul said, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." (Romans 8:18) Deeply touched in his heart by the thoroughgoing hope that no one had, Paul had to assume responsibility for the difficult surroundings alone, and he went forth fighting. You must know this.
Without regarding the numerous hills of death, to seek out this hope for human beings, Heaven has come seeking several thousand years. Therefore, today we must become the people who know how to go over the hill of death, embracing heavenly hope. Unless we become such people, we will not have eternal heavenly hope. You must understand this.
Jesus also said, "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." (John 12:25) This parable was not made by worldly people, but by Jesus, who represented Heaven. This seems like a contradictory statement. However, Jesus made this statement because human beings are left with the course of life in which they have to march on, resolving the contradiction of the environment.
The Last Remaining Matter of Concern
We must understand that this statement is a request for us not to make earth-bound hope our own, but to adopt eternal hope. Jesus walked that path in person himself. We must know that he set up hope on this hopeless earth, opened up the path of life on this lifeless earth, and cultivated the path of resurrection on this unredeemable earth.
Until when must you go forth with that hope? It is until you step forward in front of the Father's throne and receive the Father's true love, after going beyond the path of death and the hill of resurrection. The question is whether you can march on holding onto that hope until that time. It is easy to make a resolution while embracing a hope and looking at it, but it is difficult to fight holding onto that hope. It is easy to embrace a hope of some kind, but it is difficult to live to the end keeping that hope, and to stand and die for the path of that hope so that all humankind lives with that hope. Yet Jesus walked such a path in high spirits.
Today we look forward to the last day of resurrection, the day of hope. The time of the hope that all of us are looking forward to is the time in which all humankind can take delight. Yet that time does not come easily. That hope can be owned only by those who have won over death. Only those who have fought along with God against Satan will take possession of that hope. Only those who have received persecution, together with God, for the sake of Heaven will secure that hope. As we think that such a time is approaching, we must have an ardent mind to overcome this living environment and overcome even the fear of death. Unless such an ardent mind emanates from you, you cannot draw the day of that hope into the realm of your life and go on living.
Therefore, he who is said to be living a truthful life will think about the answer to the question, "How will I be when I die?" It is not good to ask ourselves that only at the moment of death, after having lived for seventy to eighty years. When he reached the place of death, Jesus said, "It is finished. My Father, please take my soul." Indeed, he was a person of victory in the path of life.
Someday in the future you will come to meet with death and will reflect on the past with death in front of you. You must give thought to what kind of words you want to leave behind when you meet that day. You will not find any friends on this path. Your beloved parents will not be there, nor your beloved brothers and sisters, nor will there be marriage partners and beloved children on this path. This is a path you have to go alone. This is a path at which you do not have another try. You cannot pass it and come back. You can never return once you pass through it. That being the case, when you come to walk this path, what kind of mind will you have? If you do not have the hope with which you can overcome the hill of death, the moment you come across it will be the end of you.
What kind of people were those numerous people who upheld God's will? They were not people who retreated before the path of death. They were the people who laughed at death with scorn and gallantly withstood it. We know very well that throughout history, such people have established the heavenly path.
Each of you must keep a hope in your bosom with which you can withstand death even when you are faced with it. You must also be able to run with joy toward the hope that you will stand proudly in front of Heaven when you travel this path and arrive at the original homeland, that is, the world for which you have longed in your mind. You must realize that only if you ardently hope for the realization of God's ideal world will you then win over death.
Everything in the world will pass away, your beloved parents, your beloved spouse and everything you love. We will come to face death in the end. Yet you must know that only the person with a victorious hope, who lets even death pass away, can stand in front of Heaven.
Humans beings on this earth today do not want to walk the path of suffering and sorrow. If there is a moment of happiness, people are loath to see it pass. They would view a happy moment with nostalgia. That is human nature.
God's Sons and Daughters Who Have Realized Hope
This world we live in is one in which sorrow and happiness are jumbled together. We know that all the happiness we enjoy will disappear with death and cannot remain beyond death.
If sorrow and happiness disappear with death, then would the mind of a person which seeks happiness, which wishes to have better things and longs for the eternal world, come to an end along with death? No, it would not. That our minds and hearts move in such a direction is proof that such a world really exists.
Because a person is a spiritual being, his life is eternal. The reason people rendered devoted service to Heaven, walked the path of death for the sake of Heaven, and even went the path that many others rejected, keeping hope in their bosom, was because they felt something other people could not feel. They knew of a value that common people could not know. That was why they could walk, even the path of death.
If your mind that longs is not stronger than any hardships, difficulties, sorrow or even death, then you will feel regret before death and will retreat before sorrow and pain. Today, we are destined to go over the hill of death one way or the other, because Jesus went to the eternal world, going over the hill of death, and established the world of resurrection.
What kind of person is he who lives cherishing the hope of Heaven? He is a person who can withstand with joy even the hill of death about which other people feel sad. You must know that such a person keeps the hope of Heaven in his bosom. Therefore, you must not become those who show resentment at everything in the world and lament before death. You must become those who can rejoice and brag about the value of their death in front of Heaven. We must realize that Heaven is looking for such sons and daughters of hope.
If there were a person who felt heavenly joy standing in such a place, it would be impossible for God not to love him. If there were a throng of people who wailed, facing Heaven in such a situation, then Heaven would have no choice other than to respond to the wailing.
Has there ever been a time when you appealed, wailing to Heaven, with a hope like no one could have until today, in such a grave situation? Has there been any time when you repulsed the influence of death, felt the joy of victory, and returned glory before Heaven? The one who does not experience such on this earth before his body dies cannot be considered to have an eternal hope, to be able to stand before Heaven.
Such feelings penetrated deeply into Jesus' heart. Jesus was faced with rejection from people of all sorts and was to be killed by enemies. It was the most miserable situation in the world. Yet he could still pray for blessing upon his enemies, being deeply penetrated by hopeful heavenly sentiment, instead of anxiety over his own miserable situation. We must realize this.
Accordingly, you too must have an ardent passion that the hope you have is beyond price and cannot be exchanged with any valuable thing on this earth. It is so valuable that you have to realize it, even at the sacrifice of your life. You must know that unless you let such a mind securely settle within you, Heaven cannot have faith in you. Unless you have such a heart, Heaven cannot trust you.
Heaven has come forth for several thousand years, seeking the sons and daughters who try to keep hold of the hope of Heaven, going so far as to abandon everything in the world, those whom Heaven can trust and love forever. I want you to remember that you must become the people who awaken to this, who live with a hope from now on, who fight to establish a hope and step forth not even caring about death for the purpose of realizing that hope.
Prayer
Father, we know well that as Jesus reached the age of discretion, he felt more strongly about the hope that he cherished from the day he awakened to the truth. That hope was to become united with the Father, going beyond the family, the race, the nation, the world, and even the infinite spirit world. Jesus knew that the beginning and end of everything must move together with the Father. He walked without minding the difficult path, the sorrowful path, and the path of the cross.
Father, all people of the world walk the path of life, which passes in any case. All things we see before our eyes look beautiful. Yet please allow us to know that they are merely passing phenomena along with us. We know that everything in this world in which we have taken delight, have believed and relied upon, will not be of any service to the world of our mind and the world of eternal hope. Father, we pray from the bottom of our hearts that You will let us cast all this aside and allow only the hope centered on You to be the totality of our lives for our entire lifetimes.
We know that because the hope that honors and inclines toward the Father is more valuable than anything we have and more precious than our lives, unless we become those who fight holding onto it, we cannot become the Father's sons and daughters. Please let us have strong hope with which we can laugh in scorn and withstand the hill of death. Please do not let it end only as a mere hope. Allow our mind, burning with this hope, to be strongly motivated. By doing so, we sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to become the sons and daughters whose minds and bodies can run on this path.
Please allow us to know that You can trust only those who have strong minds and hope, trying to honor the Father; those who are able to go over even death. We ardently wish and desire that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who know that our hope today is not a hope of which we take hold and march forth with for some years. Rather, it is a hope of which we take hold and march forth with forever. Furthermore, let us know that without hope, we cannot lead a life worth living.
Father, we pray sincerely that You allow that the more we think of You, the more our heart of hope will yearn for the Father, and yearn for the Father's life and love. By doing so, please allow us to not be deprived of the ardent mind of hope in the course of our life and in our living environment until the time we are raised as the sons and daughters who can receive blessings along with the Father's words of promise.
We know that numerous satans are attacking us to deprive us of this. Please allow us to be Your sons and daughters who can return glory before the Father by fighting, holding onto the hope You granted in our minds to the end. We sincerely wish and desire this.
Ardently soliciting that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can return glory in the presence of the Father by becoming victorious after fighting with Satan, keeping hold of the Father's hope in the last remaining battleground, I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
