CSG 1030

When you make a donation on
Sunday at the church, if children say:
“Mommy, Daddy, money for donation,
please….” would you say, handing any
old bill, “Here, this is for your Sunday
school.” Is God a beggar? Is the church
minister a beggar too? The church and
the minister should not be treated that
way. You should offer the core of your
property for donations. You should pre-
pare with a sincere heart and keep the
donations deep in your safe until the
time of offering.
In the fall, when you harvest grains,
a tithe from what you reap must be sepa-
rated and stored in a separate barn. Then,
during the year, your children and rela-
tives should gather together and humbly
offer that tithe with sincerity and love.

CSG 1250

Why do people get married? It is to
love God. Why should we love God? It
is because we need to become one with
the axis of God. What are we trying to
achieve by becoming one with God?
What happens when we become one
with Him? Why should we become one
with God? Centering on the absolute
God and his eternal love, we can achieve
eternal life. And this is not all. From the
place where we come to meet with Him,
the right of inheritance of the universe is
bequeathed. The world created by God,
centering on love, belongs to Him, but
that world can become mine through
the right of inheritance. )

At a Field Service

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
May 11, 1958

Matthew 17

17 Six days later Jesus took Peter and the brothers James and John with him. They went up on a very high mountain where they could be alone. ² There in front of the disciples, Jesus was completely changed. His face was shining like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

³ All at once Moses and Elijah were there talking with Jesus. ⁴ So Peter said to him, “Lord, it is good for us to be here! Let us make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

⁵ While Peter was still speaking, the shadow of a bright cloud passed over them. From the cloud a voice said, “This is my own dear Son, and I am pleased with him. Listen to what he says!” ⁶ When the disciples heard the voice, they were so afraid that they fell flat on the ground. ⁷ But Jesus came over and touched them. He said, “Get up and don’t be afraid!” ⁸ When they opened their eyes, they saw only Jesus.

⁹ On their way down from the mountain, Jesus warned his disciples not to tell anyone what they had seen until after the Son of Man had been raised from death.

¹⁰ The disciples asked Jesus, “Don’t the teachers of the Law of Moses say that Elijah must come before the Messiah does?”

¹¹ Jesus told them, “Elijah certainly will come and get everything ready. ¹² In fact, he has already come. But the people did not recognize him and treated him just as they wanted to. They will soon make the Son of Man suffer in the same way.” ¹³ Then the disciples understood that Jesus was talking to them about John the Baptist.

¹⁴ Jesus and his disciples returned to the crowd. A man knelt in front of him ¹⁵ and said, “Lord, have pity on my son! He has a bad case of epilepsy and often falls into a fire or into water. ¹⁶ I brought him to your disciples, but none of them could heal him.”

¹⁷ Jesus said, “You people are too stubborn to have any faith! How much longer must I be with you? Why do I have to put up with you? Bring the boy here.” ¹⁸ Then Jesus spoke sternly to the demon. It went out of the boy, and right then he was healed.

Sermon

Once he came to this earth, Jesus was pierced with anxiety on behalf of the chosen people and the spiritual beings of the spirit world. He embraced the heart of Heaven, which others could not know. Although there were many people at that time who had made preparations to receive the Messiah, there was no one who welcomed the Messiah who came.

Although the religious leaders at that time and the chosen people cherished a great desire, they were in fact very distant from Jesus, the consummation of that desire. They were also distant from God. Because of that, Jesus could not help leading an unspeakably sad life. Not only that, Jesus could not find even one comrade or disciple to whom he could reveal his heart.

For that reason, Jesus went around seeking secluded places like the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives and the top of what became the Mount of the Transfiguration. As we think about this, we cannot help being sorrowful. What is more, we should become people who sympathize with Jesus, who went up to the tops of mountains like these and looked upon the country and the people with sorrow and an anxious mind.

Jesus went up to the top of the Mount of the Transfiguration with his disciples, not to see glory, but to have final negotiations, having put down the cross in front. He came to discuss with Moses and Elijah the matter of his imminent crucifixion. At this time, the beloved disciples should have understood the fact that God was in an infinitely grievous situation as He watched the chosen people being unable to perceive Jesus’ Shim Jung.

Rather than being intoxicated with bewitching glory, you must become people who can experience the fretful Shim Jung of Jesus. The fact that we today have an enjoyable environment like this is because Heaven has toiled for several thousand years to accomplish it. You should never forget this.

The person who is joyful and contented in the realm of this environment of the present period today is one far away from Heaven. Rather than enjoying the good environment given to you, you should first realize that before that enjoyable environment could appear, there was the unspeakably great, worrisome, toiling Shim Jung of God. The person who has become a disciple should earnestly pay attention, not to the fact of what took place at the top of the Mount of the Transfiguration, but to the piercingly sorrowful Shim Jung of Jesus, who had to stand at the crossroads of cosmic negotiations. We should not become like the disciples who rejoiced in the external environment. Rather, we should become true sons and daughters who can comfort Jesus’ and God’s hearts.

We are Heaven’s elite soldiers who must fight as Heaven’s vanguard in the national domain. Therefore, we must have the determination and resolution Jesus had at the Garden of Gethsemane.

Although the three disciples did not know the internal heart of Jesus, Elijah and Moses knew it. When Jesus was deciding to go through the crucifixion, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him! (Luke 9:35) When Heaven suggested that Jesus go the path of the cross, Jesus bowed his head down with an overwhelmed and awe-stricken heart. If the three disciples had felt the heart of Jesus and Heaven’s internal heart, at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration, Jesus would not have gone the path of Golgotha alone. We must not become such successors as Peter, John or James at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration. We should be the successors who inherit Jesus’ heart, situation and life. Today the time has come for us to re-possess the determination Jesus had at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration.

Although it is easy for us to express ourselves when we encounter a happy occasion or a difficult task in our lives, Jesus did not express his joy or sorrow centered on himself. When faced with difficulty, Jesus took on the responsibility by himself, without shunting that difficulty off onto Heaven. The ancestors of succeeding generations did so also. Feeling ashamed of himself before Heaven, though he was the son of God, Jesus worried more about Heaven than about going the path of death. The person who, in marked contrast to Jesus, tries to take glory centering on himself, will be separated from Heaven when facing a difficult task. You must know this.