Cheon Seong Gyeong 2210
If, seeing your faithful determina-
tion, God takes heart and steps forward
to declare, “I am going to tear down
this evil world!” then, in that instant,
His sphere of activity will expand due
to your efforts. This will be a gift of joy
from Heaven more wonderful than any
coveted position, throne, place of honor,
and even awards that would be heaped
upon you over not only one but over
many lifetimes.
You should determine to confront
any kind of persecution in the course
of human history and even beyond that.
This is the path filial sons and daughters
who take on the responsibility to repre-
sent the history of eternity should take.
This is the way of loyalty to the eternal
Kingdom of Heaven. (255-121, 1994.3.10)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 770
Death means to be born in God’s
love. But in the human world, people
make a fuss, saying, “Oh, I am dying!”
Seeing this, would God laugh merrily
or would He exclaim, “Oh, no!”? When
God looks at people crying like this in
the human world, does He feel sorrow
or joy? Leaving the realm of limited love,
we enter the joyful realm of infinite love.
Isn’t death the moment to welcome this
joyfulness? Isn’t this going through the
path of death the moment of actually a
second birth?
If this is the case, would God be joy-
ful about the day your physical body is
gone? Would He be joyful when some-
one is born as a son or daughter who
can act for the sake of love in the sec-
ond, infinitely expanded world? Why
do I talk about such things? You cannot
establish a relationship with God with-
out liberating yourself from the fear of
death. I am speaking about this because
you must understand this reality. (116-172,
1982.1.1)
Let Us Halt in Our Steps and Behold the One Who Is Protecting Us
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
March 8, 1959
Human beings have walked the long course of history, not knowing their destination. With what ideology were they born? At what destination will they arrive with the aid of that ideology? Based on what value are they going to connect to what purpose? You know very well that people have been struggling because they have not found a complete solution to any of these issues.
When people of faith discuss their existence, they say that their existence began from Heaven and will end in Heaven and that they are pursuing the ultimate value before the will of God. Yet, I believe that there must come a time when even the average person thinks like that. Although all we think about is centered on ourselves, our human purpose is not to be found in ourselves. We sense deep within us that we seek to transcend ourselves and be connected to some world of ideology.
However, there is a gap of time and space between that world and where we are now. If something can bridge this gap, it is not an academic theory or some clever means. This gap can be bridged only when we enter the world of the heart.
“Heart” has been a controversial topic in the religious sphere and in the areas of culture and the arts. There is heart at the level of the individual, heart at the levels of the family, the society, the nation and the world. Furthermore, if a Creator exists, an actual Lord, it is undeniable that this Lord is moving in line with the heart.
People live and act based on their hearts. People act to solve problems based on their hearts, and they build relationships based on that too. This is how society, the world and Heaven’s principles operate.
When we take the universe and the cosmos as a whole, the center of their activities is heart. In other words, there is no entity which does not abide by principles based on the heart. We have to understand this.
When we reflect on ourselves with respect to the heart, what kind of heart do we possess? What kind of heart do society and the people of the world possess? If there is a God who is trying to realize a unified cosmos, what kind of heart does He have? The important question is through what means and relationships the hearts are to be connected. If a great religion emerges which can help individuals transcend their hearts and even transcend their societies, nations and the natural world to connect to the heart of God, then all things of creation will naturally wish to belong within the realm of this religion.
What is the ultimate purpose of our pursuing greater goodness, higher beauty, and greater emotional love? It is to connect with the heavenly heart of the Creator. We must reflect upon this situation again.
When we examine the heart of God, the heart of the heavenly principles, and the heart of human principles, it is true that they are not moving toward one purpose as they should. Ethics in human society do not have the same orientation as the heavenly principles which follow the laws of the providence. If we were to use religious language, we can say that this is the result of the fall. Due to the fall, the heart of the Creator, the heart of the heavenly principles, and the heart of human principles are in conflict.
We must understand our situation and realize the state of our society and world. We must stop in our footsteps to behold the resurrected natural world again, to behold the heart of the Creator in a new light, and to look into the actual situations of society again. We must point out our minds and bodies again, otherwise, a new world of ideology and love cannot emerge in human history. We must look at the One who has stopped in His tracks to protect us.
We must stop and feel within ourselves an urgent necessity to reflect upon the One who has been working to build a relationship with us in our lives, even without our conscious knowledge. He is the One who has been taking care of our living environment and protecting us.
The topic of the sermon I want to give to you today is “Let Us Halt in Our Steps and Behold the One Who Is Protecting Us.” I would like to speak on this topic.
We must learn to look at the whole picture. Furthermore, we must learn to lift our gaze and behold the world of minuscule organisms. We must lift our gaze and look at the actual situation of society, which is being destroyed by waves of death. We must lift our gaze and look at the world of emotions and ideologies, which longs to link the world of our hearts to the world of ideology.
We must think about connecting everything from the minuscule bacteria to the entire cosmos. We must think about the horizontal world and the three-dimensional world, which is the world of the mind.