Belvedere, New York
Translated by Col. Sang Kil Han
The topic of Father's sermon this morning is "Let Us Return to God's Side." We are all on a forty day witnessing condition, aren't we? [Yes.] So even though you are here this morning, you are otherwise engaged in witnessing activities, are you not? [Yes.]
What do you feel when you go out and witness? [Joy.] Do you think this kind of activity is necessary for an individual? [Yes.] In what way? What difference do you feel between witnessing and not witnessing? This sister says she feels the support of spirit world and God's presence. If you really feel that, that is a great situation. That's important.
It is bad to become too accustomed even to a good situation. If it becomes too automatic, even if we say the correct things, even if we praise God and the religious leader we are following, living with them in actuality can be a very different thing.
Those who are Japanese members, raise your hands. Those who are not Japanese members, raise your hands. It is about half and half. Is this America or Japan? [Laughter.] When God looks down on us, would He feel closer to the Japanese or to the Americans?
In the past, we regarded communism as an enemy, but in the last few months, since Father has met with Gorbachev and the walls between communism and the free world are crumbling down, we feel a tremendous change of heart toward them. Regarding the leader of a communist country, like Gorbachev, we used to immediately feel, "Oh, he is the enemy. We wish he would be brought down." Now, how do we feel? Father is pointing this out because forty years ago, Japan was an enemy to America and was on Satan's side. Until now, America has been standing on God's side, Japan was God's enemy too. As you know, their religion was not very godly. Yet today, Japan has changed so much. The wall came down and they changed over to God's side so much that God is now giving the world wide blessing to them. They represent the world.
Japan used to be impossibly bad. Yet once they turned around and started looking at things correctly and started picking up all the good points from others, they advanced faster than everyone else, faster than anyone thought they could. Twenty or thirty years ago, they took photographs of everything that was excellent and took the photos back to Japan and recreated those things themselves. They accumulated all the good things of the world. They worked so hard, and even though they did not know God, they learned what made America and the free world so prosperous. They learned that it was God who gave them the blessing of prosperity, so they adopted a similar lifestyle. The Japanese discovered God, even though it was late. America, on the other hand, completely ignored God and looked everywhere else, even though God was right there and should have been the center of attention. They completely forgot Him.
Are the Japanese Unification Church members strictly like the other Japanese? No, they are different.
Look at the attitude of the Japanese members of the Unification Church as opposed to the Western members. The Western members say, "Oh, yes, I know God. My parents and all my ancestors have been living this way, I know what religious life is like. This Unification Church is not something so new." For the Japanese, everything they are going through is new. They are excited; they are faithful; they want to focus on it and put all their zeal into it. For Westerners, religion is often just a mannerism.
The Japanese came to America and bought a lot of real estate, like the Rockefeller Center, which is a kind of symbol. They are creating a lot of ferment and ripples. Who made them do that? Actually, it was not the Japanese themselves. If you look closely at the Japanese, they are not even tall. They are quite small; about half the size of Westerners. Some of them are a little bigger than a toy! Some tall American looks down on them and has the urge to play with them-they are that small. Without question, the Japanese are in everyone's focus right now, especially the Japanese Unification Church members. They are the special targets of attention.
If Father says to them, "All Japanese Unification Church members now fly to America," they can do it overnight, whereas if Father issued a command to the American members to go to Korea, they would not move so quickly. Even when the Americans went to Korea, the first thing they would do is look at Korea critically, from their own standards: "Oh, this is good, this is bad." They would immediately start to evaluate centering on their own ideas. Actually, what they see about Korea now is not the important point. How the Unification Church started and developed in Korea and what kind of suffering the country went through, the internal aspect of Korea, is the most important part. The other things that we can see with our eyes are not important at all. We will see the same things anywhere we go in the world. External things are on the satanic side.
God's work is re¬creation, to redeem the first failure. If you are to create again, would it be easier to create in a backward country just beginning to be civilized or in one which is already civilized and cultured? Which is easier to make into a new being? Which is more difficult? (The second one is more difficult.] Why? When one is being created, he doesn't have anything. Certainly, he has no preconceived notions, no developed ideas of his own. Water, air, and earth are all God needs to recreate a person. Things should be reduced to the zero point before they can be recreated. If you are renovating or recreating a building, you have to tear down a lot before you can put up something new.
The communist countries now realize that communism was wrong. They thought it would work, but now they know that it is not going to, so they have to change quickly. What do you think they will pay attention to first? First, they will pay attention to religion, something which they have not thought about at all or very deeply for a long time. What stirs the world up ~ about it, why is it making so much impact-what meaning is there? That is their concern now.
The communist world has crumbled because they did not have an ideology that could bring success. That means that they are at point zero and they know it. There is evidence of this. Look at the Russian students who have come here. Their eyes are so focused. Everything they see is fantastic to them. They just keep saying, "Fantastic!"
They are quite well versed in English-at least they understand English almost completely. How many people in America bother to study the Russian language? This is a grave matter. Who would advance faster? Certainly, Russia will be quicker to understand and digest all the nutrients of America. There are not many Americans who are determined to go to another place, especially Russia, and study about them and learn from them and influence and be influenced by them. But in Russia, many are eager to come to America and evaluate things, learn and then have a tremendous influence on the future.
The Russians can assess this country very quickly. They can say, "Oh, this is right; this is wrong." The students are making very accurate observations about America They are, for the most part, very united in their judgment. They seriously discuss together what points they should adopt and what points they should discard. It is a very fearful thing, if you really think about it! They are highly accurate and they have very strict criteria, very strong standards of what they should adopt and what they should not. Communism's original ideal was to influence the whole world. That was their goal. They have been accustomed to thinking like that for seventy years now. They come here and they immediately look at things in terms of that goal.
The first thing they notice here is the individualism. They never saw or heard much about individualism in their country. They say, "Oh, Americans do not have the world, the nation, even a society in mind. They don't even have a family in mind. All they care about is the individual." At best, an individual will go away in one generation. Then what comes next? Nothing. Another thing they notice is that Americans think and do things centered upon America. They don't always see the world and try to reach out to it. They don't think so much about that. They think about themselves and how to bring the world to themselves.
Another thing that they notice is that there is not one race which is identifiable as American. In other countries, it is not like that. Here in America, all the people of the world are gathered together. Americans cannot be identified by race alone. It is very complicated. America is composed of its own historical enemies. Under the blessing of God, all the Abel's of the world and all the enemies came and became bonded together. What is the bonding agent? Christianity was the mortar that held all these pieces together.
Here in America, this great Christian country-does real Christianity exist? (No.] Does individualism have anything to do with the Christian spirit? [No.] Absolutely not. The mortar is losing its bonding power. Everything is being scattered. The ones who came from certain parts of Europe and are of the same race all stick together with a sort of clannishness. There are factions like that rather than complete oneness. In cities if they have a certain population of a faction or party, then they will elect a mayor of the same background. If the mayor is black, that means there is a Large black population influencing the vote. We see that in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and New York-the major cities of America.
The people who were living under communism and who are still pursuing influence in America are in a good strategic time frame now. Armed with a new ideology, a new idea that can lead and gather together all the groups and the minorities, they will make an impact. They already see this, but they do not have a deep understanding, nor do they have any tradition. Without these two, even though you know what is to be done, you cannot go about accomplishing it. They see that Unification Church has all this, however, and through Unification Church, they can accomplish this quickly. Unification Church has a Christian background. This is a very attractive point They see a prime chance here in America, whereas the American people, the government, the politicians, and even the intelligence agencies do not know that there is such a means of uniting America. They don't see it, but other people do.
Reverend Moon is thinking very much about this, deeply thinking about it and working at it too, but even though America is a big country, there are not many people, in fact there are none. who can envision how to bring these divided factions together, unifying them. Only Reverend Moon can do this.
The minorities and different ethnic groups saw how the white people treated Reverend Moon. They knew it was wrong. Last year, Father directed all the members of the church who belonged to these ethnic groups to go ahead and create their own ethnic church, with their own people in their own country, because we know now in which direction the world is going. Do you understand? [Yes.]
America really must become re¬aware of itself and of its internal situation. They should at least know whether they are consistent with the direction the world is moving in. The world is moving in a certain direction. Which direction am I going in? That is something we have to know.
Let us pay attention to God's position now. God is trying to do this historical work. Through whom is God going to accomplish this historical task? Through Americans, who are prepared but who are disintegrated and not united? Or would He go to a group or situation where they can immediately organize and work more effectively? Which group would God select to get His work done? Father came here twenty years ago and has always gotten the impression that the different ethnic groups do not like the way white people think and act. They are not sympathetic to them, nor do they respect them or want them to prosper. They see Americans going on vacation and enjoying themselves and having free sex and thinking that they have a right to everything, whereas the ethnic group is working hard.
You don't have to wait and see if Americans decline. They are already on an unmistakable decline. Everyone knows that except them. Look where individualistic thinking leads: everything from free sex to drugs. To maintain drug addiction, you have to sell everything you own and then the only way to do it is to take other people's possessions. Then you go to jail.
It is not that Reverend Moon is trying to undermine America. No. In fact, Reverend Moon is trying to sympathize with America, but if we leave America alone, it will just continue on that destructive course. Reverend Moon is trying to remedy that and to bring America into unity. He wants to repair America, to help America, but his activities have been regarded with hostility, as if he were an enemy. Reverend Moon did not want to bring Japanese people here and do this work centering on them and their way. No. In fact, it was completely the other way around What Reverend Moon wanted to do was to use the pure white people, the Anglo-Saxons, to reorganize this country's situation. But over and over again we found that they are already sick; they are deeply diseased. Individualism has triumphed almost to the point of no return. They are enjoying things whether they are right or wrong. They don't care; they are indifferent. In order to help them reverse their course, to go God's way, Father brought many Japanese members in to try to influence the white people.
Should Reverend Moon say to those Japanese members, "You are here in America, so respect their ways and do things as they do"? Or should he say, "Don't ever do things the way Americans do. Instead, show them your ways of doing things so they can learn and perhaps change." That was Fathers intention in bringing the Japanese here. The American members didn't know what was happening and they said, "Oh, since Reverend Moon is Asian, he does not understand me or America. Now he is bringing in Japanese to overpower us." The Japanese were to show the Americans how to think about the country, the group, not the individual. "Don't take the individual so seriously as to endanger everything else." Look at the Japanese. They become united very quickly, don't they? This is why the Japanese members increased and increased so that now we have almost half and half here at Belvedere.
How would God try to get this historical work done? Should He try to do it through the white Americans and just wait and wait and do more and more to heal this sickness of individualism (when they don't even recognize that they are sick) or should He use people from other countries which developed later but who have a correct grasp of the situation and of what God needs? God needs to unite the entire world. What do you think? Does God still have to use white people? Can you say that confidently? If you were God, would you go to people other than the white people? Father knows it is not easy to hear this, but he has to say it. This phenomena is so real. How can you deny it?
Look at what is happening now in Europe. Europe is fast becoming one country. Pretty soon America's influence over them will be negligible. Russia is rapidly approaching them. Before Russia and Germany get together, America must act to maintain a close relationship with Germany. When Europe unifies, they will unify rather quickly because of having the same background of Christianity. All of Europe will become one strong country. What of America then? America will be far away and dwindling. America will find itself a second rate nation. It is unthinkable now, but it will be so. Father is working on how to prevent this, how to save America from that situation.
Father has envisioned the Federation for World Peace. What is this designed for? What is its specific aim? It is designed to do what America cannot do. It is to allow America to still be the center of world peace. That is what Father is doing and Americans are not paying much attention. They don't understand, to begin with, and they don't like it. They don't see that they need it, whereas the Russians are very excited: "Oh, this is a good idea." They immediately see the point.
This is a grave situation. We are trying to prevent it because when it happens, there will be no remedy. Tradition is crumbling down, everything is crumbling down. So many things are changing and which way they will go, nobody knows. No one knows which way the world is going to go or indeed which way it should go. Reverend Moon, however,
Recently, the premiers of seven nations got together and tried to do something to help Russia. This happened only a few months ago. A long time ago, Reverend Moon said that we should do this and it was a very good time to do it, but no one believed him, always looking at Reverend Moon with skeptical eyes.
Reverend Moon visited Russia. He is making a flow of traffic and communication between the two countries. The American government should do this, but Father has been doing it in their stead because they are not doing it. The American people say, "This is good, but how can we trust Reverend Moon?" Yet this is what America should do. If America were doing it, Father wouldn't do it. Because they aren't doing it, Father has to do it in order to prevent everyone else getting together with Russia to the exclusion of America.
What is the topic of Father's sermon this morning? "Let Us Return to God's Side." Does that mean, "Let us Return to Individualism"? [No.] God's side is the national base, not the individual base.
What is the world's population thinking? What is America thinking? "I am on God's side," they would say. England would say, "We are on God's side." Catholics and Protestants-both the church leaders and the churchgoers- think they are on God's side. God really has a difficult time. They all think they are on His side and are asking for individual salvation. At best, they are working hard for the salvation of their own church. God, weighing the whole world, the declining communist and free worlds, is trying to save all. There is no individual base in God's idea. He is always trying to save the world, whereas existing Christian people think they are on God's side on an individual basis. They do not even know what God has been working for. They are so backward. Looking at them, God feels so angry and hopeless, He almost wished He could do away with all religion. He regrets that He created it. It is that difficult a situation.
Does that include the Unification Church and the Unification Church members? No? What do you mean by "no"? Does God only want the Unification Church and its members to remain while everyone else is done away with? The fact that God cannot work with all the religious groups means that they do not understand God's ideal. Their understanding is so little that He has the urge to do away with them. Yes, God is that frustrated. We cannot say that Christendom is still strong and everyone, even God, has hope in it. They are powerless, visionless. They cannot do anything. We know that. They are ill; dying.
The only hope is Reverend Moon and the group he is leading to do God's will. What do you think about that? Be fair. Don't judge because you happen to be Unification Church members. Do you have individualist¬based thought? Then what is its base? Is it based on the world, on the nation- on God? What is True Parent's base? Is it individualistic or is it for all the world? [For all the world.]
Do you live and work twenty four hours a day on a world¬based vision or do you think about the world maybe a few hours a day? [Twenty four hours.] Maybe twelve hours a day, a Unification Church member lives for the sake of the world. The other twelve hours, he is centered on the individual purpose. With other people, it may be more than half the time that they are individually based. You know your own situation. We all know how many hours a day we are based on the individual level. Those who say, "Father, I am on God's and True Parent's and the world's side more than twelve hours out of twenty four," raise your hands. Do you really mean that? Are you honest and serious? You do not have much confidence. You raised your hands initially, but they are starting to sink!
This is the question. This is a very real problem now. We are chasing God out of our lives if we do not think about the world base and instead we withdraw to the individual base. Then God cannot be with us. Whatever great works I plan, if God leaves me, then I have nothing and I am in real trouble. But even if we do very difficult work and face miserable, impossible situations, as long as God stays with us, we are safe. We are okay.
Yesterday Father and Mother had a little talk about this. Mother said, "Father is a person who knows nothing but God's will, twenty four hours a day. He doesn't think about anything else." To Father, all that matters is whether or not God can be with him at all times. That is what matters.
This world is so blind. No one knows what difficult situations Father is working to solve. None of the world champion leaders understand God's viewpoint, the Divine Principle. The only person upholding God's ideal is Reverend Moon himself.
Do I think about the whole twenty four hours a day or am I thinking about individualism? Am I on God's side or on the opposite side of God? We already know. Each of us knows inside. Am I on God's side more than twelve hours a day? Count it. Make your own statistics.
We say we are here for the sake of God's will over and over again, but we are almost always phony. Father is saying that twelve hours, not even twenty four hours, is our formula for victory. The way we can win victory is to determine to work more than twelve hours a day for God's sake and God's work. That is our pledge. That is our philosophy and lifestyle. That is the only answer for us to come onto God's side. Why do we work twelve hours a day for God's side? If you understand God's side, you can never criticize the Unification Church. Are you confident that we can work at least twelve hours a day for God's side? [Yes.] It is simple and very easy to say, "Yes", but the reality is not so easy. You know very well.
Am I on God's side? That is the question. You have to ask your hands, ask your feet, "Are you working more than twelve hours a day for God's side?" When all of your members say, "Yes", then you can be confident.
During re¬creation, I should not really think so much about myself. I should always think about the world and the country. Since this is re¬creation, we have to invest everything we've got into it. If we do that, what happens? The world will be liberated, God will be liberated, our parents will be liberated. Then our mission is done.
What about Father's own children? Would they think the same way we think? Yes, they are thinking like that. Father can carry on a conversation with any member for three minutes and know what side he is on.
What do you think? In Reverend Moon's time, did he work more than half of his time for the sake of God's will or did he work less? [More.] God knows that more than anyone else, so He helps Father and cooperates with him. Look at the gigantic work Father has been doing.
It is really shameful when we cannot do what Father does and don't even know what he is doing and yet criticize him. "Oh, Father is doing it wrong, I am right. If I were he I would do this."
When we are Blessed and have children, every one of us wants our children to be greater than we are, don't we? Where does that heart, that mind, come from? [From God.] Yes, He is much the same. God wants us, the objects of His love, to be even greater than Himself.
When God invests in His re¬creation 100%, the best that He can hope for is to create another being which is also 100%. But, as Father said, God wants His object to become even greater than He. In order for that to happen, He has to put in more than 100%. He has to work infinitely and absolutely to achieve that goal. He has to put in many times more than 100%.
When He does that, you can see the concept of eternity. This is eternal. It goes round and round and becomes bigger and bigger.
We settled here for twelve hours, but in order to reach further, we have to do what God is doing-we must put in more than twenty four hours. Then we will gain this result.
This is such a grave point, the fact that Father has achieved so much of an incredibly difficult historical task in rather a short life span. Father is seventy years of age, but he has accomplished hundreds of thousands of times more than any other individual. How was that possible? It was possible through this Principle. It is the nature of true love to give 100% and then forget about it. He forgets about what he did yesterday. His only concern is to do more. He forgets what he did last year and does more and more. Father has been living like this.
If we have done something and then come to Father and say, "Father, I've done so much," he will not recognize us. That has nothing to do with true love. That person is a phony. He is on Satan's side. He doesn't know the principle of true love. No matter how much he has done, as soon as he starts complaining and saying he needs to be recognized, he stops right there. He cannot go an inch further.
Father has done a great deal. Does Father make claims, "This is what I have done, what I have invested. Now I should run the place, I should be in control. " No. Father does not even think that. He thinks, "It is my foundation and my work, but I do not even remember it." How can we then claim something for ourselves-"That's mine"? We can't do that. Do you understand? [Yes.] What we do is for the world.
Achieving is one thing; maintaining is another. Only with the heart and lifestyle of Father can one maintain his foundation. Reverend Moon is a person who is close to God. God cannot ignore Reverend Moon. He has to stay with him always.
God wants to put more than 100% into Reverend Moon. He wants to put even 1000% into Reverend Moon, more and more, pushing him up and up. Just as Father doesn't stop, God doesn't stop either. This is very rational. Once something is rational, it is a law. You don't have a choice about it-you have to do it. It is complicated but it is simple at the same time.
Do we all understand Father's point? Those who say, "Oh, Father, I don't really understand what you are saying," raise your hands. No one. That means that we all know what Father is pointing out. Then would we all like to become like Father? [Yes.] Father is giving us permission to do that. By all means, do everything as Father does. If it doesn't work, then you can come to Father and accuse him.
No one has really understood Father and helped him in a real sense. There is no exception, even among Fathers own children. When Father says, "Do you understand me 100%?" it always remains a question. They have to improve on that, too. Father's children might say, "Father, why do you invest twenty four hours a day into the world and not much into me? After all, we are your family. We are your sons and daughters." Then Father says, "You do not understand me 100%." But what happens is that when Father lives like this, the True Children come under the complete protection of God. They may not realize that.
Who inherits all this? The ones who work completely in oneness with Father. The ones who have the same ideology, the same lifestyle, will inherit it all.
How about us? How should we follow Father? We have to think in terms of giving more than twelve hours a day. Here is the twelve hour line. In order to be on God's side, we have to cross this twelve hour line and go beyond it. We have to spend at least more than half our day on God's work. Do you understand? [Yes.] The only other way is to go down and return to Satan.
Let Father ask you a question. Has your spirit risen up higher or sunk lower than it was on the day you joined the Unification Church? Don't you think that in the early days of your life in the church you actually did more? When you first heard the Divine Principle, you were very excited. You thought, "Yes, this is the ideal of the world. God is a great guy. How can I find out more about this theory?" Isn't that true? Are you as excited as the day you joined the church? You have become insensitive. At that time, you were so sensitive even your skin responded. There was a day Father excited us so much that we couldn't believe it ourselves. Now you not only look at him but hear him speak to you so personally, giving such a vital talk every Sunday, but you think, "Oh, Father says the same things over and over." You've become completely numb. Have we become like that? [No.] It looks that way to Father.
Once we stop, we are declining. There are no two ways about it. As long as we are moving ahead, we are growing. Are we moving ahead every day? Then we are growing in our life. That is a question for us. Once we start hesitating, then we come down. Since Father knows God's will, Father wants to do more and more. Father knows it is needed. Opposition is no reason for Father to stop. Father does not think about opposition because now the time is such that if Father works here only three or four years more, he can gain more result than in twenty years before. Now is the time when in a relatively short time, more can be accomplished than could be in the past, even with a lot of work. This is why Father does things now that he didn't do years ago. He takes chances. He takes on ventures. Other people say, "Oh, Father, you are too much ahead of your time," but Father knows it is not so. Many people think, "Why do you do things other people do not understand?" But what does it matter if people don't understand? Father has to do what he has to do.
When Father started the VOC lectures, lots of people said, "Father you are doing something that no one understands. Why?" Father knew that he had to prepare. Look at the situation today. Everyone says, "Reverend Moon, you did everything right " Whatever Father predicts happens, whether it is days or years later, so Father does what he must do. Whether people understand or not.
This is no ordinary matter. This is a real glimpse into Father's great secret of life. The most important thing, the ultimate thing is, what relationship do I have with God? That is what is most important
Are we going to be sons and daughters of God? There are many different kinds of sons and daughters. Not all are alike. We are all sons and daughters of God, but some children bring problems to their parents. Some children bring joy. What kind of sons or daughters will we be? That is the question Father is asking us. He wants many people to become God's begotten sons and daughters. The only way for us to become like this: we work twenty four hours a day for God's will.
It is as if you have a stone and you go out in the field and throw the stone into the woods. You don't even imagine it, but the stone fells a pheasant and you capture it. That is what we are doing. How wonderful and exciting and rewarding that is. This is not a remote metaphor. This happens all the time in our life centered upon God.
Some might remember that when Father first came to this country, Father had to do many things which were rather incredible at the time. Why did Father say those things? How difficult it was for Father. Father pushed ahead and invested more and more because Father knew it had to be done. Father did this; not the American government, not the free world. Do you understand? Now you clearly know and understand everything.
We must be thinking all the time, how much do I invest per day? We have to aim for more than twelve hours. If you do that, you can rest assured that you will eventually return to God's side. It is guaranteed. Do we understand now?
What do you think? We all go to spirit world. What do you think life in the spirit world is like? Is there a factory to produce food, clothing, housing, automobiles and airplanes? There is nothing we can be proud of here on earth, about which we can say, "Look spirit world, at what we have. You don't have this." You don't need those things in spirit world.
The world soon will face greet problem of garbage. Do you think in spirit world they have to worry about garbage? Why not? Do they eat anything in spirit world? [Yes.] How can you evade the problem of garbage then? It works like this: in spirit world, all we do is brush something off and it is all clean, back to the original state.
If you want to eat something, all you need is desire. Then it comes. Transportation in the spirit world is similar. The mode of transportation is love. If you love someone very much in the spirit world and long to see him or her, then all you need to do is to have a feeling of love. Then immediately, you travel to them, even billions of miles. They will say, "How did you come?" You will say, "Because you called me, I came." It goes beyond distance and time.
The whole universe is ground for cooperation with us. You don't need things like knowledge, material wealth or power in the spirit world and those things don't mean anything there. Those who had great power here on earth are devoid of power when they go to the spirit world. They cannot stay anywhere. Nothing will welcome them. No matter how much spirit world might want to connect with you, if you don't have any currency there, you cannot connect. How miserable that is. How lowly and sad a place that is. How sad. Nothing cares for you. You cannot move freely, talk freely. You will experience that world. How to connect with it is a problem.
You have to make the connection, the preparation while you are here on earth. Otherwise, you will be miserable. Father knows the contents of that world very well. True love is the only currency there, the only thing with any meaning. If you had true love and then passed away and went to spirit world, you immediately have a relationship there. If you lived with true love, you can breathe the same air or atmosphere as the spiritual world. Do you understand? [Yes.] Otherwise, you will choke. You breathe the love which you practiced here on earth when you are in the spiritual world. What if you do not have air? It is the same if you do not have love in the spiritual world. You have to prepare that on earth. God is the center of the spiritual world. God is absolute love. True love travels fastest in the spirit world. If you have true love, you can go anywhere. Love travels the shortcut.
The only way Father can live this way is by knowing God and eternity. God is first and eternal life is second. Because Father knows God. because Father knows eternal life and true love, Father can live this way of life. Do you follow? [Yes.] It is all very closely related. It is actually one. Without true love, you cannot attain eternal life. Without eternal life, you cannot go near God. So these are three different aspects of one related whole.
Where can we find true love? When we invest, when we love more than 100%. The Bible said it correctly: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." That is the first commandment. It was said so well there. God said that. That is the only way we can live eternally and connect with God. Why? Because the original investing power was true love.
True love is founding the 100% plus place of investment. Then life continues forever. Life forever immediately connects to God because God is a forever being. God lives and has true love forever. That is an attribute of God.
You have to imitate that attribute of God. Otherwise, every person is going into the dungeons of hell. This is a very serious question. The world now has many complicated problems. How can they be solved? We can solve every world problem through these three things: true love, eternal life, and God.
We have to be assured of eternal life. Where does eternal life begin? With true love. Satan cannot do this because Satan certainly cannot devote more than 100%. He cannot reach this point, but the would¬be sons and daughters of God can. They can go over this point and beyond it, investing more than 100% in true love. Do you understand? [Yes.]
Do it and find out where you will be in the spirit world. You will have eternity. For eternity, we will thank Father: "Father, thank you for teaching us that. If you didn't teach that to me, I wouldn't be here!" That is what we will say in spirit world.
Do you clearly understand this-not half understand it but fully understand it? [Yes.]
We heard and we learned, but it is not our knowledge. ¬ We have to do it, then it becomes ours. Then we have to teach other people. Education is the only hope for bringing other people to life. He who gets closer to God is he who has done the most and who brought the most people to God. It is not what he knows; is it not money. It is what he does for how many people.
This is a question: how many people have we really loved more than we loved ourselves? That always remains as a question.
Those who are willing to die will live. What does that mean? To die means to live for the sake of others. That is dying. Then he will live. Do you understand that Biblical passage?
Now we learned first that we have to be on God's side by working more than twelve hours a day for God. First, become like this. Then it will be decided who comes closest to God. We must first practice this and then teach other people. You can very easily bring them to God's side if you explain this simply by doing it. Then that will determine where you will be and you will be a successful victor and liberator of men.
When we do that, we do not need to climb up a ladder to the good place in spirit world. Automatically, we are pulled and lifted up to a high, high position like a balloon. A balloon cannot remain at a low place even if it wants to. A balloon will go up and up. Spirit world is the same.
Because we know all of these secrets, now it is easy for us Unification church members to stay on God's side. Unification Church members have those kinds of contents: the theory of the Divine Principle. With this, we can save all of humanity. No problem.
Did we come here in order to get paid a salary? [No.] The concept of a salary has no place here. We have to invest more than 100% for the sake of the country. Maybe we should pay Father a salary! When we are hungry and have nothing to eat, then we can come to the church and eat. The church is a guarantee. If we dedicate ourselves twenty four hours a day for the sake of others, will we die? Will we perish because of that? Absolutely not. Father guarantees it. Those who are not clear about this are really declining. They are nuisances; bad example¬setters. That is what slows everyone down. Which is more sinful-to expect a greater salary or to expect a lesser salary? What about, "I will dedicate myself with no salary"? What would a person like that be?
Even though Father works twenty four hours a day for God, he still has extra that can go around to other people. Father borrowed money and assumed that burden for the sake of the dispensation, for the sake of God's will. Have we run into so much debt ourselves and carried the burden of that debt? Father has no intention of making lots of money and putting it in the bank for the sake of his children. No. Father borrows millions and billions for the sake of the world and he carries the burden of that debt. You think, "Oh, that can only lead to ruin." No. It looks that way, but if it is God's work, God has the power to create. He is the Almighty God. He can do anything. As long as God helps, Father can do anything, including this.
If we make today a turning point, forgetting the past, saying, "Now I will dedicate more than twelve hours, more than half of my time for the sake of God's world and spend these more than twelve hours investing more than 100% in true love," and practice this, then it will be a new epoch for the American movement, the worldwide movement. This is epoch making. Do you understand? [Yes.] From that, America has hope. America will be recreated and saved.
Those who pledge this morning that we will not become dependents of the American Church but will contribute and dedicate more than twelve hours a day for the sake of this country and the world, raise both of your hands. Do you mean it? [Yes.] God bless you.
