Ep 850 - The Blessing And Eternal Life Part 5
The Blessing and Eternal Life - February 22, 2023
Key Points
Man and woman were created to be God's child and unchanging, irreplaceable true love partners with absolute, unique, infinite and eternal value.
We need to treat others as more precious than the cosmos.
If we possess God, we can possess everything that God has.
As God’s child we strive to become the best and to become one with God. Then we become the owner of the universe.
Filial piety is continually taking the parents’ standpoint, knowing oneself as coming from the parents, and always asking, reporting to, and discussing with them.
In order for fallen people to take God’s standpoint, we have to practice self-denial thoroughly.
To become one with him we must have the absolute conviction that God is our Parent and we are His sons and daughters.
To avoid leaving our proper position, becoming arrogant, humanistic and dissatisfied, feeling envy, jealousy, and disappointment, and ultimately falling horizontally, we must put God’s thoughts before our own thoughts by taking the standpoint of our central figure.
Faith is treating ourself as God’s.
The first step of faith is denying ourself, that is, treating ourself not as our own but as God’s. Our mind, thoughts, habits, desires, language, actions and possessions all belong to God.
God chose our marriage partner and blessed us for his purpose and ideals, not ours.
We should not allow finances, circumstances or our desires to determine how many children we have, but only God’s will.
When we are persecuted, God is persecuted, not us.
Our body is God’s, so we cannot tarnish it.
If we entrust everything to Heaven and have a heart of obedience, God will take care of everything and send great blessings.
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.♦
It is a beautiful Wednesday, right?
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.>
For what purpose and in what position did God create humankind? Man and woman were created to be God's true love partners. We were to have God's absolute and unique value. This is a startling revelation! How much is the value of each person's life? In this light, the value of each person's life is infinite. Even the entire universe cannot replace the value of one person in the eyes of God. All people were to be born in true love, to live and grow in true love, and even to die in true love. They do not simply disappear. God is eternal, unchanging and unique. We stand as the eternal object of God's true love. Therefore, we are created to live eternally. Our eternal life has its roots in our relationship with God, as His partner in true love. What kind of person in the world is the person who has become the most true? The one who is the most true is the one who has become one with God and can receive God's love from the position of His child. The life that this kind of person lives together with God is a true life.
No matter who they are, people want to be the best. When I reach the top position, then God is mine and I am God's. When this happens, because I become God's son or daughter and become one with God, then to whom does the universe belong? It belongs to me.
If there is something that God loves the most, is that thing made to be with God for one day, for ten years or a hundred years, or is it made to be with God for all eternity? It is made to be with God for all eternity. It is the same with people. After a person is born, when they die, is it better if they are gone, or better if they live on eternally? People live eternally because they are the object partners that are most precious to the absolute God.
For what purpose and in what position did God create humankind? Man and woman were created to be God's true love partners. We were to have God's absolute and unique value. This is a startling revelation! How much is the value of each person's life? In this light, the value of each person's life is infinite.
I really love this point.
We need to know the amazing truth that God created man and woman with (such) noble value that even the entire universe cannot replace the value of one person in the eyes of God.
If we know our own value, we really appreciate God and our brothers and sisters.
There is one thing I reflect on every moment. It is whether I really consider each person as having a noble value that cannot be changed even if I give the universe.
Dr. Yoshi and a Filipino girl, Yen, live with me and Mr. Seo assists me. Can I treat them as if they are better than the cosmos? More valuable than the cosmos? The closest person? If I did not treat them as (having a) value of more than (that of) the universe, then how can I deal with other brothers and sisters and leaders? I always reflect on this point. How much do I treat each person as so valuable? More than the cosmos? If we treat each person as God’s sons and daughters, (with a greater) value than (that of) the universe, then I am telling you, everyone is so precious. I really feel that each of them is a son or daughter of God.
What kind of being did God create me as? God created me as a human being with eternal value. You and I have eternal value. Just as God is eternal, unchanging and unique, I, who was created as God’s child, was created as God’s eternal partner and unchanging partner and unique partner.
God is eternal, unchanging and unique. We stand as the eternal object of God's true love. Therefore, we are created to live eternally.
God is an eternal being, so his partner must be an eternal being. He is an unchanging being, so we should be an unchanging being.
No matter who they are, people want to be the best. When I reach the top position, then God is mine and I am God's. When this happens, because I become God's son or daughter and become one with God, then to whom does the universe belong? It belongs to me.
How can we own the entire universe? Who owns the universe? It is God Therefore, if we possess God, we can possess everything that God has. People don't know the secret. Therefore, we must love God the most.
LIVING DIVINE PRINCIPLE: The Human Fall 24: The Primary Characteristics of
the Fallen Nature
• Eve inherited from the Archangel all the proclivities incidental to his transgression against God when he bound her in blood ties through their sexual relationship, and Adam in turn acquired the same inclinations when Eve, assuming the role of the Archangel, bound him in blood ties through their sexual relationship.
• These proclivities have become the root cause of the fallen inclinations in all people.
• They are the primary characteristics of our fallen nature.
• The fundamental motivation which engendered these primary characteristics of the fallen nature lay in the envy the Archangel felt toward Adam, the beloved of God.
• The Archangel was endowed with desire and intellect as part of his original nature.
• Because the Archangel possessed an intellect, he could compare and discern that God's love for human beings was greater than the love God gave to him. Because he also possessed desires, he had a natural yearning for more love from God. This desire of the heart was naturally conducive to envy and jealousy.
• Envy is an inevitable byproduct of the original nature.
• After human beings reach perfection, however, they will never be induced to fall because of incidental envy.
• They will know deep inside that attaining the object of their desire is not worth the agony of self-destruction that would ensue.
• A world that has fulfilled the purpose of creation is a structural society built upon organic inter-relationships.Recognizing that the downfall of an individual would cause the whole to perish, society will keep its individual members from such self-destruction.
• In this ideal world, the envious desires that arise incidentally from the original nature will be channeled into spurring the progress of humanity. They will never cause people to fall.
• 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.
Let’s talk about failing to take God’s standpoint.
1. Failing to Take God’s Standpoint
In order to take God’s standpoint, you need practice filial piety. Filial piety has no self-centeredness. Those who practice filial piety abide by the standard of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. People of filial piety discuss his every activity with their parents. Filial piety is the vertical love toward their subjects. Lucifer couldn’t love Adam and Eve with the same heart and perspective as God; instead he felt jealous of Adam and tempted Eve. It was the totally self-centered action. Therefore, in order to take God’s standpoint, you have to practice the training of self-denial thoroughly. No matter how difficult the situation you are facing is, you have to overcome it with absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. Many people couldn’t overcome it and passed away.
We call the child taking the parent’s standpoint “filial piety.” As long as we have filial heart and filial piety, we can never leave the parent’s standpoint for even a moment.
That is why filial heart, filial piety is key. Filial heart or filial piety means we put our parents first, we put God as the top priority.
Since filial piety knows oneself as coming from the parents, it can never assert oneself. To confirm the standpoint of the parent, we always need to live a life of asking our parents, reporting to them, and discussing with them.
Therefore, in order for fallen people to take God’s standpoint, we have to practice the training of self-denial thoroughly. We must have absolute conviction that God is our Parent and we are His sons and daughters for oneness of parent and child to happen.
2. Leaving One’s Proper Position
1. If you live self-centeredly, you would fail to take the standpoint of your central figure and feel envy, jealousy, and disappointment.
2. From this reason, you have to always take the standpoint of your central figure.
3. Those who live as their fallen nature control, who are selfish people, come to cause dissatisfaction and discontent in a social organization. As a result, it can cause the division of the organization. For that reason, people of faith should be humble all the time.
To avoid leaving our proper position and feeling envy, jealousy and disappointment, we need to take the standpoint of our central figure and keep God’s thoughts before our own.
If our own thoughts come before God’s thoughts, we will surely leave our proper position, and when we leave our proper position, we feel envy, jealousy, and disappointment.
The case of leaving one’s proper position is when one’s thoughts are stronger than God’s thoughts. Therefore, we have to always take the standpoint of our central figure.
If we leave our proper position, we fall horizontally. When we fall horizontally, we always become a humanistic person. When we become a humanistic person, we easily become arrogant and easily have dissatisfaction and discontent.
TODAY’S YOUTH MINISTRY: Faith Is Treating Myself As the Father’s
1. Faith is treating myself as belonging to God. If that is so, who is doing my breathing? It is not me but it is God who is breathing. Eating is also not me who is eating but my spirit self that is eating. Also, man and woman marrying is not me having a wedding ceremony but God who is having a wedding ceremony. It is not my own wedding ceremony but God’s wedding ceremony. Those without faith think of themselves as their own. That is why they think of living as ”I am living,” and marrying as “I am marrying,” and breathing as “I am breathing.” When eating, they also think, “I am eating.” But faith is not like that. Is it about treating myself as belonging to God from beginning to end. The life I received is a life received from God. Eating food is not for the sake of my physical body but for the sake of my spirit self.
I had a life-changing experience that helped me to understand what the real meaning faith is. Father repeats this again and again. My spiritual father, Rev. Yo Han Lee, took Father’s word very seriously and taught it to students all the time. Faith is treating ourself as God’s.
The first step of faith is denying myself. Denying myself means treating myself not as my own but as God’s. Therefore, I must deny everything I thought that was centered on Satan to this day, such as my concept of possession, my thoughts, my habits, my language, and so on.
And I have to think of myself as completely belonging to God. I have to treat my own thoughts as God’s thoughts, think of my mind as God’s mind, and think of my concept of possession as God’s possessions. I even have to think of my breathing not as me breathing but God breathing.
It is thinking that even (when) eating (it) is not I who is eating but God who is eating. Also, it is thinking that marrying is not I (who is) marrying but God who is marrying. Even if I am persecuted and opposed, it is thinking that is it not I but God who is persecuted and opposed.
If I treat my body as God’s, since I consider parts of my body as God’s, I cannot help but value my own existence. Therefore, I will not recklessly tarnish my own body. I will never fall if I think of myself as God’s.
If Adam and Eve had treated their body as God’s body, their thinking as God’s thinking, their belongings as God belongings, they would have never fallen. How can we go back to God’s bosom? Treat ourself as God’s belonging, treat ourself as our spouse’s belonging.
Even though I have read the Bible and often listened to sermons by Christian ministers, they do not clearly teach this point. But Father taught very clearly what faith means: treat ourself as God’s belonging. If we are very sure of this and remind ourself of this all the time, our life of faith will be very clear. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we should treat ourself as God’s belonging. That is attendance. That is filial piety. What is filial piety? Treat ourself as God’s belonging. Our body becomes very holy. Our mind becomes very holy. Why? Because we treat ourself as God’s belonging.
What is the Fall? It is disregarding our relationship with God and treating everything as our own. That is the fall. When we think of ourself as our own, we become a being who no longer has a relationship with God.
Those without faith think of themselves as their own. That is why they think of living as ”I am living,” and marrying as “I am marrying,” and breathing as “I am breathing.”
This is the fall.
True Father teaches us clearly what faith means. If we realize this point, we can have a life-changing experience. Then wherever we go, we will receive guidance from God because we treat ourself as God’s belonging. We won’t need any teacher, nor will we need Abel if we really treat ourself as God’s belonging. This is amazing guidance.
2. If faith is treating myself as belonging to God, my wedding is not my wedding but God’s wedding. In that sense, Adam and Eve’s marriage was not their own, but it was God’s marriage. It is easy to mistakenly think of the Blessing we receive today as receiving the blessing for our own sake. Because we thought of this Blessing as our own, we said that we liked or disliked the partners True Parents chose for us, depending on our mood. Some people say, “I won’t go this time but next time.” These days, some couples decide not to have children because their financial situation is not good. How would God feel when He hears such things? When many people have children, they mistakenly think that they raise children because they created a financial foundation. Everyone says that they will have a baby when they have good financial conditions. Even when they reproduce children, they do not know that they are giving birth through Heaven.
It is easy to mistakenly think of marrying and receiving the Blessing today as marrying and receiving the blessing for our own sake. Because we thought of this Blessing as our own, we said that we liked or disliked the partners True Parents chose for us, depending on our mood.
This is not great.
What is faith? Treating ourself as God’s belonging.
I emphasize once again: marriage is not done for our sake but for God’s sake. Our marriage should be God’s marriage. It is not for our sake but for the sake of realizing His ideals.
That is why when we choose our Blessing partner, we cannot thoughtlessly decide depending on our mood or interests.
“I love this beautiful girl.” “I love someone who is singing very well.” (Or because she is) tall, or white, or black. This is centering on our own interest. If everything is centered on our own self, our own benefit, our own interest, then it does not relate to God at all.
We need to think, “Heavenly Father, you are asking me to receive the blessing. I really completely surrender. I want to deny (myself). What kind of spouse should I get?” Then we need to pray and deny ourself. Then God will guide us correctly. But if we chose someone as a blessing candidate with our own thought and interest, it will surely create a problem on the way because the motivation begins from me. Faith means to treat ourself as God’s belonging. Then our motivation mus be with God in order to know if this person is really the object partner of the Blessing. First we need to receive God’s permission through prayer. We should not choose our spouse for our own sake. “Is it ok or not.” The problem is if our life of faith is really good, then most of the second generation within one or two weeks can have a dream. God will teach us very clearly.
When our three children received the Blessing, my wife and I prayed – of course, we pray for them all the time – immediately God answered. Also, each of our children received a dream. That is why we need to get permission: “We want to chose this guy as my son’s or daughter’s partner. Is it OK?” We need to get God’s permission. We need to ask God all the time.
Most of the second generation and their parents do not know how to receive God’s permission, how to get an answer from Heavenly Father.
Then what should we do? The next level. If we cannot receive an answer, we should think of our Abel whom we respect the most. As God’s representative trust him completely.
We need to have that kind of faith. “I cannot choose my spouse. I cannot get an answer through my prayer because the level of my prayer is very shallow. I don’t have much experience.” Then we need to trust our Abel or our father and mother as God’s representatives completely. Then based on that absolute faith, God will help you.
But if we do not have that level of absolute faith, do not receive God’s permission and choose by ourself, then who can guarantee our life of faith and our matching and Blessing? We should not choose out of our own interest: “I like this type. I don’t like that type. She is beautiful. He is tall. He has money. He is very poor.” ...
Most of our senior blessed couples were matched by Father or by photo, right? We needed to have absolute faith because we believed True Parents belonged to God. “Whenever True Parents suggest (someone, then) this is God’s choice for me.” Of course, we have our own portion of responsibility as well.
In regard to the question about attending the Blessing ceremony, some people think centered on themselves and say, “I won’t go this time but next time.” “Father and mother, there is no need to mention the Blessing any more!”
This kind of attitude: “Do I need to go or not?” Ask God. We need to pray about it. We need to think, “What is God’s standpoint?”
These days, some couples decide not to have children because their financial situation is not good. “We don’t have time to take care of three or four children.” Are these thoughts of not having children their own thoughts or God’s thoughts? Is this our thinking or God’s thinking? “I want to only have three children.” Is this God’s thinking or our thinking? This motivation comes from where? We decide centering on whom? That is why our life of faith always has a problem, because everything is centered on our own thinking.
If we decide to have two babies, is that God's idea? Are we thinking of ourself? In the end, all fallen human beings think and make decisions centering on themselves. Therefore, God can never be with such individuals, couples, and families.
If we entrust everything to Heaven and go with a heart of obedience, God will take care of everything and send great blessings. It is the same with the issue of reproducing children. How many children do we want to have? Do not think that it is we who will have a number of children but leave it up to God’s will.
Faith is treating myself as God’s. If we realize this point and practice it, everybody can have incredible life-changing experiences.
Today I talked about “Faith Is Treating Myself As the Father’s.”
(Testimony David Kasbow, Inheriting and Maintaining the Clergy Directory, ACLC Michigan)♦
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.♦