Ep 444 - Let's Return to the Early Times Part 1
Let's Return to the Early Times 79-4-12-40 - December 12, 2022
Here it is continuously raining, and the Internet is really unstable.
Today I’d like to talk about “Let's return to the early times” from True Mother’s Anthology, Book 1.
The Unification Church originated from divine spirit and truth. In the beginning, when Father was ministering, whenever members came to the church, they never wanted to leave. They wanted to stay with True Parents, even if it meant staying up all night. If there was anything True Father wanted done, members wanted to do it for him. Even without anyone pushing them, back then the members led that kind of life of faith. Though ours was a small church, it was overflowing with love. Everyone was united and we overcame the most difficult of times. The Korean church produced many blessed families and came to have many unforgettable stories. Married women who had joined the church before their husbands did went through many difficulties when their husbands were unsupportive.
Moreover, we were all in a position where we had to go out to pioneer; everyone had to go, regardless of age or sex. Women who had families had to do pioneer witnessing as well; to do that, some even left their children in orphanages. In this way, from the time of the 36 Couples Blessing until the 430 Couples Blessing, Korean church members made many sacrifices in order to advance God's providence. In those early days, our church president Rev. Eu Hyo-won gave lectures all day long, even though he suffered physical disabilities. Even healthy people find it difficult to lecture for an hour or two, let alone all day long. Not only that—we were too poor to have proper food at that time, so he was malnourished. Despite such difficulties people joined the church and we blessed the 36 Couples.
We need to cherish the 36 Couples because they are the root of heart; membership multiplied based on the foundation of the 36 Couples. Therefore, all of us, including members in Korea, Japan and the United States, need to return to that beginning time when we were passionate and our church constantly overflowed with true love. We must begin anew. Accordingly, we will have Divine Principle taught continuously in our churches and have workshops continuously. You should pull yourselves together mentally and physically, and do whatever it takes to unite and fulfill what you were unable to do for the Parents—what you were unable to do though you only received love until now— even if it means making effort, spending sleepless nights. Even then that would not suffice. (2012.10.01, Cheon Jeong Gung)
As True Mother said, “The Unification Church originated from the Holy Spirit and truth. In the beginning, when Father was ministering, whenever members came to the church, they never wanted to leave.”
When True Father personally ministered in the early days of our church, it was a church overflowing with spirit and truth. In short, it was a crucible of the Holy Spirit. The church was on fire and always overflowing with love.
As True Mother emphasized after True Father’s Seonghwa, our church needs to return to those early days. Then how do we return to those early days? In order to return to the early days, we must first become a church overflowing with holy spirit and truth.
So today, let’s look at the holy spirit and truth that True Father is talking about.
First, let’s look at the word about spirit and truth in the Bible.
John 4:23-25 : Worship in Spirit and Truth
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things.”
The Bible says that we have to be true worshipers.
Then who is true worshiper? The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Heavenly Parents are looking for people who worship in spirit and truth. Are you a true worshiper or not?
Do you and your church worship in spirit and truth? God is spirit. Therefore, If you do not worship in spirit and truth, then God does not come down within our heart. Who will show true worship to us? However, he said that worshiping in spirit and truth will reveal everything when the Messiah comes. True Father's early worship was completely the worship of spirit and truth. How about now?
Next we will look into “A Proper Understanding About Spiritual Works and Grace” in Father's word.
A Proper Understanding About Spiritual Works and Grace
<1-233> If you believe in Jesus, you can personally approach truth through Jesus’ spirit. When you experience spiritual works and receive infinite grace, you should not take it as personal grace. It should expand into environment-level grace, religious group-level grace, and world-level grace over time. When you receive grace individually and acquire truth through Jesus, you must internalize them and take responsibility to spread that grace and truth around the world. If you move forward with the world in this way, it will become your grace, and, at the same time, it will become the grace of heaven and earth. However, if your view of faith is to save only yourself, you will just come to an end there.
The Reason Why You Need to Experience resurrection and Revival Through Grace
<1-23> When you receive grace, if you keep it to yourself, you will make the same mistake as the Jewish people did; they sent Jesus Christ to the cross. If the truth that you realized remains on the level of individual salvation within one religion, the wish of Jesus Christ cannot be fulfilled. It is the words of Jesus Christ who speaks with hope that has influenced the providence of Heaven through the individual, family, society, and world. His words enable you to resurrect and revive through individual grace. In other words, it is through you that salvation on the individual level, ethnic group level, national level, and world level is accomplished. Therefore, you should know clearly that you have a duty to fulfill salvation on the individual level, ethnic group level, world level and cosmic level.
Today I am very inspired by True Father’s beautiful and profound sharing.
What is the reason God works on me in spirit and truth? You should know clearly that God’s purpose is to save the world through me.
The purpose of God's coming to find my individual is to save all people of the world. Therefore, what we must always think about is the salvation of mankind, Total Salvation. Therefore, do not think of the gifts you received through the work of the Spirit that comes to you as your own, but think of them as gifts and grace for the world.
Since the Blessing I received and the grace I received are all received for the world, I must return the things I received for the world. Otherwise, it is easy to think of it as a personal gift on a self-centered level. Then it will be easy for everyone to focus only on self-centered individual salvation, and neither the individual nor the church will develop further.
Therefore, do not mistakenly think that the reason God chose me to join the Unification Church and the reason he gave me a public position to work is for salvation only for myself and only for my family. Know that everything is for world salvation.
Have you heard such guidance from anyone? I reflect on myself here. Why did I join the Unification movement? Why has God raised me and trained me here and there -- Singapore, Malaysia, Africa, South America, Central America, everywhere; why did God train me? This is not just for an individual purpose. God wants to save the entire world and all humankind through me, through each of us. That is why whenever we receive the Holy Spirit and when we are inspired by the truth, we need to know the very clear purpose, not only for my individual salvation. God loves me. Through me he wants to save my neighbor, my tribe, nation and world. We need to know the reason very clearly.
In John 3:16 of the Bible, it is said that God sent Jesus to this earth because He so loved the world -- not just the individual, not only the nation of …. Why did God send Jesus to this earth? Because he so loved the world. Therefore, the secret to avoiding judgment of the heart, just like how God loved the world so much that he gave His only begotten son, it is possible only when I love the world and mankind more than anyone else as God.
Even for the ways to remove individual sins and remove my fallen nature, do not think of it as the sins and fallen nature that I commit individually, but think about how to bear all my ancestors sins, including my individual sins, and repent and indemnify them on behalf of them. In that sense, I must never forget that I am always representing the world and representing humankind.
Sin is thinking of the gifts and blessings that I have received only as the individual and family’s belongings.
God and True Parents' interests are in the 7.9 billion people and world. What good is it if the world is destroyed and the individual is at ease?
Today, through the words of True Parents, I come to a great realization that when I receive grace from God, I think that I receive it for the sake of the world. And to think that removing my personal sins and fallen nature is not just to remove my personal sins and fallen nature, but to remove (sin?) for my ancestors and the world. Wow!
Even though I committed sin, in order to get out from that kind of sin and pray and make prayer conditions, and do all kinds of indemnity conditions, Father said, don’t think that this is just your own individual sin. When we really repent, (it is) not only for your own individual sin. This kind of sin accumulated from your ancestors, from all humankind. That is why when you really remember this sin, we committed sin together with all our ancestors, all our descendants, all together. That is why we should not (think of) our own sin as our own individual sin. We really need to think about how to remove this kind of sin together with all my ancestors. If I remove this sin, the meaning is like removing the sin of all humankind. Father suggested this way.
Up to now, we thought that the sins that we had committed ourselves were paid off with our repentance and forgiveness. According to True Father, this is a very wrong idea. That is why, up to now, we have not been able to get rid of our individual sins.
My sin is that I repeat the sins of all my ancestors, so don't think of my sins as my own personal (sin). Treating everything as personal ideas and personal consequences is what we call sin. Simply put, personal sins should be treated publicly and publicly removed.
Even in getting rid of my personal sins, it is a sin that I alone have my sins paid off through my personal repentance. When I think of my sins as public sins and remove them, the sins of all my ancestors who helped me are also forgiven at the same time. How amazing is that?
Therefore, you should never think of yourself as your individual, but always as a public you. Even if you receive a gift from God, you should think that it is not only for yourself, but to save the people of the world. You must think that you are also taking away your sins for the sake of mankind.
Wow! I am really inspired. When we receive God’s grace, it is not just for me individually. God’s purpose is what? Total salvation. He thinks of the world - nobody will be left in hell. Everybody needs to be saved. That’s why we do not need(?) any more “my individual.” We always need to think “Total Salvation,” the entire world, all of humankind. (This?) directly relates to my individual life.
LIVING DIVINE PRINCIPLE: Principle of Creation 9 - Life of Give and Take Action
• Through the agency of universal prime energy, the subject and object elements of every entity form a common base and enter into interaction. This interaction, in turn, generates all the forces the entity needs for existence, multiplication, and action.
• The interaction generating these forces through this process is called give and take action.
Based on this EDP content about give-and-take action, let’s study Father’s word.
You Become One on the Day You Completely Give and then Receive
<60-233> Why must we sacrifice to love? It is because this world became a fallen world where the ideal of God, who is the subject of love, couldn’t be substantialized. For the humans of the fallen world to substantialize God’s ideal, the recreation of the consummation of history from the same standpoint of God must take place. Otherwise it is impossible to pursue the 2nd stepping stone of virtue on this earth. Therefore the principle of sacrifice is established. Do you understand? It is theoretical. That is the history of recreation. Isn’t it so? Therefore a person who doesn’t want to sacrifice can’t meet the ideal. In today’s world of morality, what does accumulating good deeds mean? It means self consummation. Consuming oneself doesn’t mean to completely erase oneself but to create a second self. Do you understand?
True love always requires sacrifice.
When I joined our church, I could not understand. I thought True Love was very exciting and joyful and grateful. Why did we need to sacrifice? But on hearing Father’s explanation, I was really moved by Father’s guidance. He said where there is true love, there is sacrifice. True Love always requires sacrifice. Unimaginable sacrifices are required for parents to love their children.
But that kind of sacrifice is voluntary. Without parents’ sacrifice, how can we raise our babies and our children. When a mother delivers a baby, do you know how much incredible pain she needs to go through to deliver the baby? Then when you brought your baby home, while you were raising it, sometimes you had to wake up at 2 or 3 o’clock or midnight. How much the mother sacrifices! However, the sacrifice is voluntary.
Voluntary sacrifice for an object partner is always accompanied by joy and happiness. Parents cannot create their second self without sacrificing themselves for their children. True love is not just obtaining joy and happiness. In order to experience and gain true love, you need to willingly, happily, voluntarily have the heart of sacrifice because true love always requires sacrifice.
Sacrifice is self consummation (consumption?). Consuming oneself doesn’t mean to completely erase oneself but to create a second self.
<60-233> Only in the ideal world can people consummate (consume??) themselves and be happy. It is nonexistent in the evil world. The evil world definitely dislikes self consummation. But the virtuous world is a world containing both contents of being happy while consummating, and being happy to receive. That is the principle of give and take action. Do you understand? Therefore it is the principle that before giving completely, completely receiving won’t start. Additionally, without doing so, there can be no completion. That completion is the ideal of creation.
Only in the ideal world can people consummate (consume?) themselves and be happy. The evil world is a world that definitely dislikes self consummation (consumption?).
But the virtuous world is a world containing both contents of being happy while consummating, and being happy to receive. This is the principle of give and take action.
Give and take action is the principle that before giving completely, completely receiving won’t start. Even though I gave, the reason it doesn’t return is because, first, I gave and remembered. Giving and remembering means that I gave everything with the premise that I will receive. But to completely give means that after giving, I feel sorry for not being able to give more.
Second is because even though I gave and forgot, the things I invested were still not enough. Therefore, more JeongSeong, investment and sacrifice are required.
Since giving and then completely forgetting is complete giving, according to the principle of creation, it is bound to return.
When you are giving and remembering, that is not complete giving. Remembering means you have your own motivation, your own agenda. You are expecting to receive something. That’s not complete giving. That is why you cannot get it back. How can I receive infinitely? When you give something, completely forget about it. “I have no idea (about it).” Do not have any expectation to receive. This is the way you can receive completely from the universe.
One other thing, even though you give and give and forget, why can God not return (something) to you? Your investment, sacrifice and jeongseong are still not enough. That is why when I give completely, I need to do more jeongseong, more sacrifice. More investment is required. If I give completely, according to the Principle of Creation, surely the universe will return it to me. Before giving completely, completely receiving won’t start.
TODAY’S YOUTH MINISTRY: How Can I Become Someone Whom God Can Be With?
1. How can I become someone whom God can be with? Jesus came to this earth and showed the figure of a heavenly person. Although Jesus was externally rejected by his mother, Mary, John the Baptist, and the high priests, he always preached the Word and showed what life in heaven was like through his words. Jesus was always alone. He was rejected by family, society, and church. In fact, he was most rejected by the Israelites, who were looking forward to the Messiah. Nevertheless, the reason Jesus was able to live with God was because vertically, he always had give and take with Heaven and horizontally, he went down to the lowest position to serve people and granted them unforgettable grace.
This is the way he survived spiritually. He had a clear alignment with God. He always got permission from God. Without God’s permission, he cannot do anything. That is why he has a very clear vertical alignment, and horizontally he really went down to the horizontal level and then served people. He gave people unforgettable memories. He gained unforgettable grace. This is the way he always stayed together with God.
2. Then, how did Jesus lead a heavenly life in the midst of such rejection? We learned in the Divine Principle that only when the subject partner and object partner give and receive well can God be present. Ultimately, if the subject and the object cannot give and receive and become one, it is saying that God cannot be present,
The unity between Cain and Abel, unity between mind and body, unity between husband and wife, if that is complete unity without exception, everybody can feel God’s presence. If … willingly between Cain and Abel, between mind and body, between husband and wife, you cannot feel God’s presence. Someone said, “Even though I pray hard, I cannot feel God.” What is the wrong point? Because he has not yet completely made unity between mind and body. As much as I unite my mind and body, definitely without exception one can feel God’s presence.
Ultimately, if the subject and the object cannot give and receive and become one, it is saying that God cannot be present, even if He wants to be.
Eventually, if you give and receive well, you will gain strength and Heaven will come to you. For example, if we exhale and inhale well, we do not feel pain in breathing. But if you can't exhale or inhale properly, you feel pain right away. Just like my body is this way, so is my mind. When my heart gives and receives love from Heaven, I can receive strength from Heaven and live very well.
3. People who are looking for a church are always trying to find the center of longing. They always try to find a center where they can discuss with themselves. Also, they are trying to find the center of the Word to receive spiritual food. An example is when children are playing outside and come inside the house, but if their mother is not inside, instead of being inside, they go back out and continue playing. When their mother returns, they go inside. Without parents at home, children’s hearts are broken and become like orphans. But when there are parents, children gather. It is the same with the church. Church leaders, like parents, should be the center of the members’ faith. They must become the center of longing that the members miss.
When True Father was doing his mission in the early church, he became the center of the Holy Spirit, the center of love, the center of the longing heart. That is why anyone who came to Father, came to the church, did not want to go back home because they could not feel this kind of longing heart, that kind of love from anyone else, not from their spouse and husband or wife, (not) from her own family, her own children, anywhere.
How can we improve our church? The most important thing is the church leader. Our ministry should be a ministry of true love and a longing heart. This is the key point.
4. In any church, when the pastor, the center of the church, becomes the center of longing and the center of the Word, the members gather. When you go to a church like this, there is an atmosphere like a mild and warm spring breeze. It is like a spring garden.
That’s why, whenever I visited that church, I already felt something spiritually. What kind of environment is here? Who is the center leader. This center leader has to become the center of longing heart, the center of love. Then the church atmosphere is so beautiful and very warm, like a warm spring breeze, like a spring garden.
However, in churches that are not like that, you will feel cold wind blowing in the church. In our lives of faith, when there is no subject partner of longing that we want to see, it becomes like our inner self does not have an address. We become people who have lost the address where the mind can rest. Even if a person is stimulated by the Word at first and longs for the church, if they do not have an object partner to long for, their heart always becomes empty. This is truly sad.
5. The next problem in our life of faith is that when we hear the Word, realize how precious it is -- how inspired by hearing the Divine Principle -- and try to spread it to those around me, but we cannot find a witnessing guest who can long for me, we lose the address in our hearts. Even if long-time members are happy with the church leaders, receive grace from the Word, and live with a firm belief of the Will, if they do not reproduce spiritual children, then their hearts also feel empty. Then, my spirit cannot lead a stable life. A person who needs to reproduce object partners of love but does not have an object partner of love will unknowingly feel emptiness in their hearts.
How can we stabilize our life of faith? We need to vertically have a good Abel, always longing for him. When Father led the early church, members had a longing heart. “I miss Father!” Even after one day everyone shed tears. That is how we can know in the last days, the messiah comes and shows everything: what is the Holy Spirit, what is the truth, right? True Parents showed that kind of ministry in the early church. Even now, we miss True Father and miss our True Mother. True Parents have already shown that kind of … We need to resemble our True Parents. Of course, we need to serve our church leader well. He has to become the center of longing heart and love. If the church leader has that kind of embracing heart and love, the church atmosphere will really completely change. How important the church leader is!
Not only the church leader (should be like this), but as an individual when you have that kind of … figure and at the same time, you have a longing heart, then spiritually children come to you. “I miss my spiritual daddy. I miss my spiritual mom. Do you know how much I miss them? I go to church not because of our vision. I just want to see my spiritual father and spiritual mother. Whenever I see them, I feel they are the center of love. That is the original point. That’s why, even though you may have joined the church early, if you don’t have spiritual children who long for you, then you always feel emptiness in your heart. Finally you lose your original (spiritual) address.
6. Even in the world, couples who cannot have sons and daughters can not deepen their love. They feel somewhat lonely. This is because there is no medium that can make both couples laugh, that is, have give and take with. Parents, couples, and children are the three beings that bring joy.
Our spiritual life is the same thing. I need to have spiritual parents whom I long for. At the same time horizontally I need to have that kind of relationship with my spouse. At the same time I need to have spiritual children to whom I always … and always give something, always invest something (in them), and my spiritual children return something. If we have that kind of relationship, our life of faith becomes very enjoyable and stable.
Similarly, in the spirit world, when the mind, body, and Word are united, my spirit is strengthened. In our life of faith, we must first possess the Word and live joyfully with the Word. Next, the word must be put into practice through the actions of the body. In other words, we need to create an object of love by conveying the Word. If that happens, my inner self, my spirit, will become strong.
Why do we exist? In order to bring the results of true love. That is why we need to have an object partner. We need to raise up our object partner. That is how we can help God’s providence and True Parents providence. That is why our main mission is to convey God’s Blessing and love everywhere. Our spiritual children are our saviors. Our spiritual life becomes very stable.
In 2022, this year, everyone without exception, let’s have many spiritual children -- as many as we can, at least 3 spiritual children. They love me; I love them. We have each other with that kind of longing heart. Where is the kingdom of heaven? When spiritual parents and children gather together and feel a longing heart for each other and really care for each other. That is the kingdom of heaven.♦
NOTE: This lightly edited transcription may contain errors and omissions. Indecipherable 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. Some repeated phrases have been eliminated. This text and the powerpoint slides from this speech are available as pdf files at the top of this text and at text.morndev.com & yong.hoondok.com. Audio only is available at anchor.morndev.com, spotify.morndev.com & audio.morndev.com.♦