Ep 858 - The Blessing And Eternal Life Part 13
The Blessing and Eternal Life - March 2, 2023
PDF Printable Text and Images + Testimony Rebecca Calix and Christopher Portelance 2
Key Points
The Blessing is the only gateway sanctioned by God for all humankind, including those in the spiritual world, to be born again and blessed by the messiah as husband and wife and enter heaven.
The spirit bodies of a husband and wife living in true love grow younger and more beautiful or handsome as they grow older.
In the spiritual world the standard of handsomeness or beauty is determined by the degree to which a person has perfected true love on earth.
If we “detach from our fallen nature” and unite our mind and body, we will realize that we are one with God, that he is our parent, we will feel his presence and can never deny him.
We can detach from our fallen nature by recognizing we are the sinner of sinners, repenting in tears, denying ourself and be completely obedient to God like clay in the potter’s hands.
We cannot live according to the purpose we were created for and fulfill God’s blueprint for us because we are broken with fallen nature.
If we follow his blueprint absolutely, we can become a happy person, we can create an ideal family, we can create the Kingdom of Heaven.
We must be self aware of where we are broken compared to the ideal and repair ourselves.
We cannot live according to our own will, assertions, and insistence.
God sent True Parents as the doctor to heal our brokenness with the Divine Principle and their word. It is our best medicine.
We need to cherish church services with our utmost sincerity as the time to meet God and revive our relationship with him.
Before the service we need to prepare our donation with jeongseong, put on our best clothes and long for the service. Then we need to keep that standard during and after the service.
Service is a time to restore the heartistic relationship between God and ourself.
Transcripts from November 3, 2021 to the present, personal notes from November 11, 2020 until November 2, 2021 and slides from August 29, 2021 to the present are available at MD.Hoondok.com as PDF files.♦
I prayed a long time after I came to America, and I made a strong determination. I started with a food ministry yesterday morning. I would like to invite some people to my breakfast table every morning. I started with people from the Clifton Church.
Yesterday I invited New Jersey church members to my room at the New Yorker Hotel. They are Peter Freund, John Calvin, Yoriko Mayo and her son, Hyochung Mayo. We had a very beautiful meeting, even though very short – I don’t have much time. We shared many things. Thank you so much for joining my breakfast table!
We took a group photo.
Today I’d like to talk about “The Blessing and Eternal Life” from True Mother’s Anthology, Book 2.
<This speech was given by Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon between February 23 and April 16 at True Family Values Movement hoondok rallies for the study of True Parents' words in Japan and the United States.>
Where will humanity head in the future? Humanity can enter the kingdom of God by passing through the gate of this Blessing. There are millions of Christians in our world today, and Christianity itself can enter the kingdom of God through the gate of this Blessing. Some may complain that the message Reverend Moon and I are teaching is self-serving. If they want to believe this, that is their choice. Nonetheless, I am here to convey the message that the Unification marriage Blessing is the true road for all fallen people to take. No matter how much persecution it may bring, our mission is to connect the spirit world and the physical world through this Blessing, and open the way for people to enter the kingdom of God.
Other religious people think of salvation in terms of the individual. They believe that as long as their faith is strong, they can enter the kingdom of heaven as individuals. From the viewpoint of God's original ideal, we were never intended to enter the kingdom of heaven as single people. We enter only with our loving spouse and family. The real purpose of life is to walk forward on the road of true love. We are to grow through harmonious relationships of true love. We have to carefully maintain the ideal of true love in our hearts. We are actually the representatives of the spirit world. Let us constantly strive to spread true love. Let us sow the seeds of true love throughout our lives. When we bear the fruit of true love and enter the eternal spirit world as a loving couple, we will be embraced by God's eternal love. We then truly become one with God. Even though the physical body grows old, as long as we live as husband and wife centering on true love, our spiritual body will actually become younger! This means that the longer we live, the more handsome or beautiful our spiritual body becomes.
The Blessing is the gate that not only all humankind but even spirits that left this world must pass through to enter the kingdom of heaven. There is no exception here. the Unification marriage Blessing is the true road for all fallen people to take.
Just as Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” the Blessing is the way to be born again through the Messiah. This is because this Blessing is the way that God has officially permitted, and it is the path that even Satan cannot accuse.
No matter how much persecution it may bring, our mission is to connect the spirit world and the physical world through this Blessing and open the way for people to enter the kingdom of God. Other religious people think of salvation in terms of the individual.
I was very inspired to hear the Lalonde family. Mrs. Lalonde always carries holy wine. When she meets people, she introduces the Blessing and gives people the holy wine. That kind of spirit is the true spirit of Unificationists. I really admire that kind of heart: how to save people. She really knows the value of the Blessing. She conveys the Blessing to many people.
From the viewpoint of God's original ideal, we were never intended to enter the kingdom of heaven as single people. We need to know that the entrance to the kingdom of heaven happens when husband and wife become one pair and take the first step.
When we bear the fruit of true love and enter the eternal spirit world as a loving couple, we will be embraced by God's eternal love. We then truly become one with God.
Even though the physical body grows old, as long as we live as husband and wife centering on true love, our spiritual body will actually become younger! This means that the longer we live, the more handsome or beautiful our spiritual body becomes.
According to Father, if you go to the spirit world and call your 10th or 100th generation ancestors, grandparents, they will not appear as very old people with a long white beard – it is not like that – but will appear as young people in their earthly life. That's why when you go to the spirit world, everyone is said to be brothers and sisters and friends beyond the dimension of age.
That is why when we see them, our father and mother will be very young.
On earth, the standard of handsomeness or beauty is determined based on the external appearance of a person, but the standard in the spirit world is that the standard of handsomeness or beauty is determined according to the degree to which a person has perfected true love on earth. From that point of view, all of you who attended the morning devotion are handsome men and beautiful women.
Don’t you think so?
LIVING DIVINE PRINCIPLE: The Human Fall 24: The Primary Characteristics of
the Fallen Nature
• The primary characteristics of the fallen nature can be divided broadly into four types:
1. The first is failing to take God's standpoint. A principal cause of the Archangel's fall was his failure to love Adam with the same heart and perspective as God; instead he felt jealous of Adam. This led him to tempt Eve.
2. The second is leaving one's proper position. Lucifer desired to enjoy the same position of love in the human world as he had in the angelic world. This unrighteous desire caused him to leave his position and fall.
3. The third is reversing dominion. The angel, who was supposed to come under the dominion of human beings, instead dominated Eve. Then Eve, who was supposed to come under the dominion of Adam, dominated him instead.
4. The fourth is multiplying the criminal act. The Archangel spread his sin to Eve, and Eve to Adam.
Let’s study Father’s word.
Detach from our Fallen Nature
<61-171, 1972.8.28> We must completely detach from our fallen nature. To cut free from fallen nature, we first must dissociate from our individual selves. Hence we must be victorious as individuals -- and then on the levels of the family, people, nation, world and finally the cosmos. This would be the realm of complete freedom from fallen nature. When we finally discover ourselves as object partners to God, having overcome our fallen nature, we will immediately realize that God is watching over us, and come to know that, instead of simply believing in God, we are with God.
How can we detach from our fallen nature? We first must start with our individual selves. Then, we have to go on to the levels of the family, people, nation, world, and cosmos. In order to indemnify those, even True Parents walked through the course of eight stages vertically and horizontally.
If human beings detach from their fallen nature, everyone, without exception, will experience something. We will experience going beyond the level of simply believing in God and immediately realize that God and “I” are not separated beings but that God and “I” are one.
And we will come to know that God is watching over us as our Parent. We will feel that God is working with us.
What must we do to feel God? We can feel God to the extent that we remove our fallen nature. That means that anyone can remove their fallen nature and will feel God to the extent that their mind and body become one. We will reach a state where we can never deny God.
So, as long as we detach from our fallen nature, we can feel God. Why can’t we feel God? Because of our fallen nature. We have not separated from it. We did not remove it.
The reason we cannot feel God is because our mind and body have still not become one and because there is still fallen nature left in us. The reason we cannot feel the Being, God, at all is because that is the extent to which we have a lot of fallen nature and self assertion left in us.
Therefore, (the extent to which) our mind and body are united, we can feel God, we cannot deny God and the spiritual world. We cannot deny that God is with us all the time. Sometimes we do not believe in God. We do not know if God exists or not. Even though we may have joined the church a long time (ago), we cannot feel God, cannot feel he is our father or mother. That means we still have a lot of fallen nature. That is why Father said, (to the extent that) we eradicate our fallen nature, we can feel God. Look at Father and Mother. Fr’s standard is that he has completely united his mind and body. That is why he can see the future, can feel God’s sorrowful heart, whenever he sees someone, he can know his situation, his problems, his difficulties, his wishes, everything. That is the standard of unity between mind and body. Why can’t we even know our spouse’s heart or that of our children? Our neighbor’s heart? Because we still have all kinds of fallen nature inherited from our ancestors. That’s why we need to really pray and (invest) a lot of jeongseong. We struggle about how to remove our fallen nature. This is really our task and our job to do that.
You Need to Become a Lump of Clay God can Shape and Mold as He Pleases
<69-276, 1974.1.1 > When you stand in front of Heaven, you have to reveal your shortcomings and recognize that you are a sinner. You need to become a lump of clay God can shape and mold as He pleases. This process is impossible if you assert or even acknowledge yourself. Thus the biblical saying, "Those who lose their life for my sake will find it" is validated. (Matt. 10:39) There is fallen nature everywhere in the body: there is fallen nature within these eyes, in these ears, in these lips. We must completely eliminate fallen nature. If God leads us one way, we must follow; if God takes us another way, we must go; if God tells us to extend our hand, we should do it; if God commands that we retreat, we must retreat. We should be absolutely willing to do as God wishes.
The way to detach from our fallen nature is to first reveal our shortcomings and repent with tears that we are the sinner of sinners.
When we really realize we are the sinner of sinners, then from that step our life of faith begins. If we do not realize we are the sinner of sinners, our life of faith has not yet begun. When we realize we are the sinner of sinners, automatically tears come down. If only our mouth says we are the sinner of sinners but no tears come down, then we do not realize how sinful we are. When we really realize this, we have deep repentance with tears.
Next, we need to become a clay-like being that God can shape and mold as He pleases. Whatever the potter makes with the clay, the clay cannot assert itself. It must completely leave itself in the potter’s hands. It must completely deny itself.
This is an incredible explanation. What is God’s position; he is the potter. Our position is the clay. What is our portion of responsibility? As the clay, it is to absolutely deny (ourself). Fallen man has nothing. His job is (to yield to) the potters hands. Therefore, we need to completely deny (ourself). We cannot assert ourself. We have fallen nature. According to original value we are nothing as a fallen person.
For fallen people to go on the path of self-denial is by no means easy. This is because we are carrying even our ancestors’ fallen nature that was passed down for 6,000 years.
Thus, the biblical saying, "Those who lose their life for my sake will find it" is validated. The conclusion is that without passing through the course of self-denial to a state of dying, human beings can never get rid of their fallen nature.
In order to remove our fallen nature what did Jesus say? We need to prepare to really die and be born again. Without dying we cannot be born again, cannot be resurrected. It is so serious and so difficult to deny our own self. For fallen man self-denial is almost impossible. That is why the Bible says we have to be clay. We cannot insist on our opinion. We have to be clay. “It is up to you, Heavenly Father. I am nothing. It is up to you.” (We need to have) that kind of real emptiness, self-denial.
We need to completely eliminate the fallen nature that asserts itself. If God leads us one way, we must follow; if God takes us another way, we must go; if God tells us to extend our hand, we should do it; if God commands that we retreat, we must retreat. We should be absolutely willing to do as God wishes.
We are fallen people. Of course, our original value is greater than that of God, but our fallen value is nothing. We need to completely deny (ourself). Otherwise, God cannot reclaim us. Why does God’s providence take a long time? (Because) it is almost impossible for fallen man to deny his fallen nature.
TODAY’S YOUTH MINISTRY: Cherish the Time to Have Service
All Beings Have the Will of the Owner that Made them Come Into Existence
1. When people make things, they have a purpose for making them. That is why that thing is used according to the intentions and aim of the owner who made it. Human beings were not created by human beings themselves. If the Being that made humans was God, then God has a purpose for creating humans. Therefore, human beings must live according to God’s will and blueprint to live a right life. To drive a car properly, you must know how to use it well. In this way, all things are endowed with the will of the owner who intends to use them. However, if that thing breaks down, it becomes a useless thing. Based on this principle, since God created me, I should live according to His purpose of creation. When we think from this principle, it is basic common sense that I must become a person necessary for God’s will. However, all people struggle to live according to God’s will. What is the reason? It is because human beings have broken down and came to have fallen nature. If you do not repair broken things, you cannot use them. Therefore, it is important to first be self-aware that I am a broken human being. When we are completely repaired, we become necessary things to the owner again.
All things have a purpose for existing. That thing is used according to the use of the person who made it. Similarly, when God created human beings, He had a blueprint for human beings.
We need to know that we are not a causal being. We are a resultant being. God created us. That is why God is the subject partner; we are the object partner. He is the creator. He created us. We absolutely know his blueprint; it should be the purpose of our life.
Then, we can achieve our life purpose only when human beings live according to the purpose we were created for, or in other words, our blueprint.
Therefore, we must first thoroughly recognize that we are an entity that cannot live according to our own will, assertions, and insistence. This is basic common sense.
How can we be happy? Absolutely follow God’s blueprint. If we follow his blueprint absolutely, we can become a happy person, we can create an ideal family, we can create the Kingdom of Heaven – according to his blueprint, not our own blueprint. Why can so many people not gain happiness and joy? Because they go their own way.
But why do we human beings struggle so much to live according to God’s will? It is because human beings have broken down and have come to have fallen nature. Therefore, if we do not repair broken things, we cannot use them.
It is important for us to first be self-aware that we are a broken human being. We need to be self-aware of the reality of what kind of being we are. And we must repair ourself while asking where we are broken and compare it to what an intact part before the breakdown would have looked like.
Cherish the Time to Have Service
2. True Parents, who came to this earth, have taught us how to become true people again. And through the Principle, they gave us detailed guidance on how to repair our broken selves well. In order for our broken selves to be properly repaired, just as people of the Old Testament Age completely kept the commandments, we must cherish rituals, institutions, and worship that God commanded us to practice. For our faith to be established, we must first cherish holding church service with our utmost sincerity. People who regard service indifferently do not have the chance of being born again through true love. That is why we must cherish the time to have service the most. People who cannot even be on time for service at church just keep on living their lives in a broken state. The time to have service is the time to meet God. The time to have service is the time to repair our broken selves. Therefore, people who are not inspired and moved through Sunday service will spend their whole life in vain. If we cannot evoke our mind to become a holy mind through service, our broken mind cannot be repaired. In other words, reform in humanity cannot happen. We must revive our relationship with God through church service.
To repair broken human beings or to heal sick human beings, God sent the Messiah to this earth as the repair man and doctor. That is why True Parents, who came to this earth, taught us the laws of true love.
In that sense, True Parents are the doctors, we are the patients, the Divine Principle and the Word are medicine that the doctor prescribes to us. For the patients to be healed from their illness, they must absolutely obey what the doctor tells them to do. And they must diligently take the medicine prescribed by the doctor. The Divine Principle and True Parents’ Words are the best medicine to heal our wronged souls.
Divine Principle is the best medicine. That is why we need to read it again and again. It is the best medicine to heal our soul.
In order to repair broken human beings, God worked the restoration by going through the Old Testament Age, New Testament Age, and Completed Testament Age. People of the Old Testament Age completely kept the commandments of Moses’ time.
Recently I have been reading the Bible again. God’s commandments were so strong, so severe. In the Old Testament God is a severe God. No compromise with evil at all. If we do not worship God and worship another God, he cannot forgive this.... But those who thoroughly follow God’s commandment and unite with him (received) incredible blessings. The more I read the Old Testament, I realize how important hoondokhae is, following God’s word and absolutely uniting with God.
Like so, in order for us to resurrect our souls from the formation stage, we must cherish the commandments, rituals, institutions, and worship that God commanded to us.
In the formation stage, we first need to cherish church services with our utmost sincerity. People who regard service indifferently do not have the chance of being born again through true love.
We must cherish the time to have service the most. People who cannot even be on time for service at church just keep on living their lives in a broken state.
The time to have service is the time to meet God. Before service starts, we first need to prepare to receive the Word with a ready heart. We need to prepare our heart. We need to arrive 10 minutes before having service and prepare and wait.
The time to have service is the time to repair our broken selves. Therefore, people who are not inspired and moved through Sunday service will spend their whole life in vain.
If we cannot evoke our mind to become a holy mind through service, our broken mind cannot be repaired. We must revive our relationship with God through church service.
Sunday service is very important. It is the time to meet God, to reflect about ourself, to be redetermined. What a beautiful time, really a time of offering! Sunday service is (not?) our own time; it is God’s time. We need to unite with God, to receive his word and advice.
Keep Your Standard of Spirit from When You Had Service
3. If you received grace through the service, you must keep the standard of spirit from when you received grace. However, if you fall below the standard of spirit during service, you present a condition which Satan can immediately accuse, and you suffer disasters. That is why people who cherish service and are always on time for service will surely receive blessings from God. God will treat me preciously as much as I cherish myself. However, people who neglect church service time or only attend occasionally or just come and go like spectators even if they attend service have little chance to cultivate their own spirit. People who fail to be on time even for the smallest worship service times and do not cherish them have no way to be repaired. In short, there is no way to be restored.
What you must all know is that our faith is when the relationship between God and me is established as that of parent and child, the relationship of heart begins to form and be restored. In that sense, restoration is ultimately the restoration of heart. The Fall is when the parent and child’s relationship of heart becomes estranged. In the end, faith begins when I recognize that God is my eternal Parent, and no matter what happens, no matter what the circumstance is, I am God’s son and daughter.
We need to cherish service of the Lord’s day. The more we cherish service and the more we prepare for it, the greater the grace we receive. Grace is not something we receive but something we make. This is because we receive to the extent that we prepared.
To receive grace through service, we need to prepare our heart first. We need to be able to long for service. And since service is a time to meet God, we also need to take care of our looks and dress ourself in the best clothes.
If we had an appointment to meet True Parents, what kind of clothes would we wear? Heavenly God is not more valuable than True Parents? He is the fundamental being. It is up to us, to our attitude. “Oh, Western culture is just a normal culture, more friendly(?).”... God wants to see our attitude. That is why we need to wear the best clothes. We are not talking about expensive or cheap clothes. It does not matter. We just need to prepare the clothes with our heart.
If we have an appointment to meet True Parents, what kind of clothes would we wear?... Western or Korean or Japanese culture (doesn’t matter.) We need to show our attitude. If we prepare our heart well centering on our great attitude, God surely will bless us. It is up to us.
Even with donations, we need to prepare three days before. We can keep the donation money inside the Cheon Seong Gyeong or the Bible or whatever, and keep it for at least three days (beforehand) and prepare our jeongseong, and offer it with the standards of having prayed and offered jeongseong. God wants to receive our jeongseong donation. The amount doesn’t matter.
If we received grace through the service, we must keep the standard of spirit from when we received grace. However, if we fall below the standard of spirit during service, we present a condition which Satan can immediately accuse, and we suffer disasters.
That is why people who cherish service and are always on time for service will surely receive blessings from God. God will treat us preciously as much as we cherish ourself.
It is up to us. What kind of heart are we preparing? Those who do not attend Sunday service, oh my goodness! How can they receive the Blessings? Sunday doesn’t belong to us; it belongs to God.
People who neglect church service time or only attend sometimes or just come and go like spectators even if they attend service have little chance to cultivate their own spirit. People who fail to be on time even for the smallest worship service times and do not cherish them have no way to be repaired.
Church is a factory repair (shop) or workshop.
Sunday service is a time to restore the heartistic relationship between God and ourself. In that sense, restoration is ultimately the restoration of heart. So, after having service and going back home, we always need to live the remaining time with the same standards as having attended service. This is true service.
Outside Christianity is declining, but we need to show the Cheon Il Guk standard for Sunday service. We need to restore it.
Today I talked about “Cherish the time to have Sunday Service.”
(Testimony Rebecca Calix and Chris Portelance 2, Matching Ceremony)♦
NOTE: This text and the PowerPoint slides from this speech are available as a link at the top of this text. Transcripts from November 3, 2021 to the present, personal notes from November 11, 2020 until November 2, 2021 and slides from August 29, 2021 to the present are available at MD.Hoondok.com as PDF files. Books of the transcripts and notes are available as PDFs at MDBooks.Hoondok.com.
This lightly edited transcript may contain errors and omissions. Indecipherable, inaudible or uncertain words and guesses are tagged with a “(?)” and indecipherable phrases, with an ellipsis “...”. First, second and third person pronouns have been left as spoken if the meaning is clear, and other apparently Korean English expressions have been preserved if understandable. Some repeated phrases have been eliminated.
Audio only is available at anchor.morndev.com, spotify.morndev.com & audio.morndev.com. Notes or transcripts of Dr. Yong’s Morning Devotion speeches from November 11, 2020 through March 29, 2022 are available as six paperback books at cost at Lulu.com/Shop -- search for Dr. Chung Sik Yong -- and as PDF downloads free of charge at MDBooks.Hoondok.com.♦