1 Peter 1
22 You obeyed the truth,[d] and your souls were made pure. Now you sincerely love each other. But you must keep on loving with all your heart. 23 Do this because God has given you new birth by his message that lives on forever. 24 The Scriptures say,
“Humans wither like grass,
and their glory fades
like wild flowers.
Grass dries up,
and flowers fall
to the ground.
25 But what the Lord has said
will stand forever.”
Our good news to you is what the Lord has said.
Richard: The Word is powerful and brings the dead to life, so to speak.
Lamentations 3
Then I remember something
that fills me with hope.
22 The Lord’s kindness never fails!
If he had not been merciful,
we would have been destroyed.[c]
23 The Lord can always be trusted
to show mercy each morning.
24 Deep in my heart I say,
“The Lord is all I need;
I can depend on him!”
Richard: What a great hymn of praise!
The Incarnation of Jesus, A Pioneer
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 1, 1959
In this age today, we have to pass through a period of preparation and a period of practice in our search for Heaven. We must seek for the original nature of Heaven. What kind of preparation must we make? In what kind of position must we stand? We have to stand in the same position as Jesus during his thirty- year preparation period. In doing so, we must prepare to represent the internal heart of Heaven and the human heart, represent all sovereignties, and determine to face conflicts by ourselves. Accordingly, a group of people certainly must appear who cross Golgotha on the world level with this kind of determination. You must understand this.
Jesus said, “It is finished,” when he was passing away. Yet this is not the culminating point of the completion of the providence. For this reason, we must pioneer a course through which we can say, “It is finished,” while we are still alive. The heavenly soldiers and angels, spirits and all created things must be able to bow their heads and say, “Today is the day your wishes are fulfilled. Please receive the glory.” This is the time to prepare for the day we can say, “It is finished” in this way. Christians today remain faithful to go beyond the day of saying, “It is finished” as they pass away. They must be able to say the same while they are alive. Hence, you must take charge of the mission of a heavenly pioneer in this first completion stage we are in today.
Although it may seem that Jesus died for the world, he was never persecuted on the world level. He was persecuted on the level of the people. However, in this concluding age of Christianity today at the completion stage that must go over the last victorious Golgotha, you must step out to the world. Using the world stage as your foundation, you must inherit the heart that Jesus felt and the determination that he made during his thirty-year preparation period. You must copy the tactics that he used during the three years of his ministry. With these, you are to go over any kind of Golgotha, even at the risk of your life. Shouldering the responsibility to accomplish this task, you must fulfill the mission of a pioneer.
To put it another way, you must establish a new, second stage for Heaven. To do that, you must become the people who can overcome all difficulties by clinging to the internal heart of Jesus as he prayed for his enemies. You must become Christians who have inherited the mission on the world level. Without becoming this kind of person, on the day of completion when you say, “It is finished,” you will not be able to meet the one glorious day.
Although Christians have repeated this incomplete path and have taken responsibility for this path as pioneers, now we must pioneer the one way of completion. Accordingly, we must inherit the first ideology, with which we have been preparing ourselves while cherishing the ideology of Heaven, and which was manifested as the second ideology. By doing so, we must first alleviate the bitterness in the heart of Jesus, and then alleviate God’s bitterness from the 6,000 years. We must remain alive and usher in the day when we can say, “It is finished.”
We must cover up the unfortunate historical course of fighting with Satan and cling to the victorious day when we can fight for the sake of God’s glory. Moreover, you must possess the same heart as Jesus as he took the path to the cross and have the same form as his substantial body before you approach Heaven. Only when this is done can you accomplish what Jesus could not accomplish when he came to this earth with the mission of a pioneer on two fronts. We must feel deep in our hearts that we must pioneer the path of Golgotha on the level of the world, which Jesus left unfinished.
Jesus could not strike those who persecuted him and drove him away but he had to overcome the situation by praying for them and for his enemies. Today we must have the magnanimity to wish blessings upon this kind of people and be determined to triumph over death and grasp Heaven. Only when we have done that can we can usher in the one day of glory and become the children who can enter the bosom of God on the world level, the pioneers of the new garden on the world level. Please keep this in mind.
Accordingly, the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus established before he passed away, the heart of love that he sought, the world he was trying to found, must all be realized in us. When we stand as the victors with whom Satan has not even a trace of attachment, when we go forward as the new pioneers on the level of the cosmos with the glorious flag of Heaven, then the Will of the Father can be accomplished and your mission of restoration will come to a conclusion. This will bring about the complete dissolution of Jesus’ bitterness. We must understand this.