2 Corinthians 1
3 Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Father is a merciful God, who always gives us comfort. 4 He comforts us when we are in trouble, so that we can share that same comfort with others in trouble. 5 We share in the terrible sufferings of Christ, but also in the wonderful comfort he gives. 6 We suffer in the hope that you will be comforted and saved. And because we are comforted, you will also be comforted, as you patiently endure suffering like ours. 7 You never disappoint us. You suffered as much as we did, and we know that you will be comforted as we were.
8 My friends, I want you to know what a hard time we had in Asia. Our sufferings were so horrible and so unbearable that death seemed certain. 9 In fact, we felt sure that we were going to die. But this made us stop trusting in ourselves and start trusting God, who raises the dead to life. 10 God saved us from the threat of death,[a] and we are sure that he will do it again and again. 11 Please help us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks for the blessings we receive in answer to all these prayers.
Ezekiel 15
2 Ezekiel, son of man, what happens to the wood of a grapevine after the grapes have been picked? It isn’t like other trees in the forest, 3 because the wood of a grapevine can’t be used to make anything, not even a small peg to hang things on. 4 It can only be used as firewood. But after its ends are burnt and its middle is charred, it can’t be used for anything. 5 The wood is useless before it is burned, and afterwards, it is completely worthless.
6 I, the Lord God, promise that just as the wood of a grapevine is burned as firewood, 7 I will punish the people of Jerusalem with fire. Some of them have escaped one destruction, but soon they will be completely burned. And when that happens, you, Ezekiel, will know that I am the Lord. 8 I will make their country an empty wasteland, because they have not been loyal to me. I, the Lord God, have spoken.
Humankind Wanders In Search of the Truth
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
December 21, 1958
The realization of this hope is attainable in the world where spirit and flesh are united. Only when that happens will parents with united spirit and flesh appear for the first time before Heaven and earth. In light of the Principle, the day when a one-dimensional view of history changes to the all-directional historical view will inevitably have to come. For that reason, if humanity takes only a one-sided viewpoint today, it cannot help writhing in agony in the world of sadness.
What do we who are walking the fated path of restoration seek? We must seek our true bodies, which we can love forever, and seek the parents of our bodies. Before we find the parents of our bodies, there is no way that the parents of our minds, the parents of our spirits can appear. The creation of heaven and earth began with external matter. That is why you begin writing from the left side when you write. You do not write from the right side. This is an expression of the manner in which the world of the ideology of creation exists.
When will the moans from the pain of human beings end? Not until we usher in the day when we find the parents who can love our bodies in place of God. No matter how great you are, you lost the innate physical true parents. Therefore, without true parents, true children cannot exist. This world cannot avoid being a world of sin and evil, a world of hell and pain.
God has been seeking such a person. Through the spirit, God has been seeking our spirits and bodies. God is the True Parent of humankind. He exists as the True Parent of our spirits and minds. While God stands in the position of a Parent who has united the spirit and mind, He forewarned humankind of the day when humankind would find physical parents and meet them. That day is the Marriage of the Lamb.
Now such a time has come. That is why, having passed through the age of the maternal line, humanity passed through the age of the paternal line and has now entered into the age of brotherhood.
Although humanity emerges with new doctrines, assertions and systems, if an ideal object, ideal brothers, ideal children, and ideal parents cannot emerge, those doctrines, assertions and systems will all break down. How far out will humanity be pushed? It will be pushed out to a position of less than all things. It will arrive at the day of judgment.
Viewed from this standpoint, humanity today must wander about in search of True Parents. Substantial True Parents, with physical bodies, must come seeking humanity with a new ideology and vision. The world where humans live ministering to the True Parents is the veritable ideal world. To accomplish such a world, Jesus left word that he would return. That is why the term “Second Coming” came into existence.
After finding yourselves in such a position before the whole created world, the time has come to subdue your flesh. You must voluntarily subdue your flesh, in place of Satan attacking you. This is the path of righteousness. You must subdue your flesh.
We cannot seek the path of the parents, the path of love, alone as individuals. Why is that? Each of us came to exist in this world of sin and evil, having passed through the fallen historical course. We live within the realm of the epochal fate of the fall. Therefore, this path cannot be sought alone. A tangle of historical problems lies within it. There is the problem of the family, the problems of society, nations and the world. Furthermore, there is the problem of the spirit world. Only when we form ties with the world of the new ideology and parley with it can the world of ideological love be sought.
The path of righteousness is the path we seek after fighting under hardships. This is the course of God, who has been fighting on the course of restoration for 6,000 years.