Cheon Seong Gyeong 195
Through individuals and families,
God prepared a realm into which a peo-
ple who could advance with the Messi-
ah when he came to earth. This was the
people of Israel who lived with the con-
cept of being the chosen people.
However, the people of Israel have not
yet arrived in that realm. It was as if they
were held back behind a line. The hope
of the chosen people was to go over this
line. If they failed to cross over, it would
be a great disaster. They had to cross this
line and yet, as hard as they tried, it was
impossible to cross over on their own.
That is why God promised the people of
Israel that He would send them the Mes-
siah, the Savior. This was the Messiah for
whom God had prepared for thousands
of years in order to transcend this line
on the national level. He promised to
send the Messiah.
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1466
Let us say you live up to eighty years
of age. If you subtract the hours you
spend sleeping, you are left with about
fifty years of life. Would you say you
are alive when you are asleep? When
you are asleep, you are as good as dead,
because you are inanimate. Sleeping
is the same as being dead the whole
time. The number of hours you labor
each day to make a living is about half
of the twenty-four hours in a day. Now
deduct the time you spend eating. From
whatever time is left subtract the time
spent visiting, going to friends’ parties,
attending the sixtieth birthday celebra-
tions of village elders, attending funer-
als and wakes, and being bedridden.
In short, if you were to exclude all the
days you lose for whatever reasons that
might arise, you cannot claim to have
actually lived very much. Would it even
be half of your entire lifetime? When I
calculated this recently, it came out as
roughly seven years. Even so, of those
seven years, how many days could
you claim to have truly lived? (49-336,
1971.10.24)
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959
When you only feel happiness and satisfaction on the level of your own family, that family, the nation, and its system will all break down. Isn’t that so? We have experienced it during the Japanese occupation. Humanity in today’s age of the providence of restoration has to be an explorer.
Prayers from your heart and lawful prayers will be fulfilled. You have to look carefully at how your prayers are fulfilled. People who pray in this age have said the same prayers over and over for years, but their prayers are not answered. You have to pray with a true heart of love and promise. Pray and wait with a desperate heart, not forgetting your prayer even after thirty or forty years. It will be fulfilled. You don’t need many prayers.
In this age, you have to seek out and do the things that others cannot do. If you try, you will be able to do them. It is not like science books where everything is in the books. In Revelation, John pioneered the spiritual world which others could not. He looked at a world at the height of his exploration which no one else could feel. Yet there is no guidance for the course. This is the problem.
You have to once again calm yourself and aim for the truth. As there is life, and there is someone who will cry with the heart in which life dwells, you have to deny all that you have believed. What you believed in up to now is insufficient. You need something which will allow you to deny the heart you have been feeling, and deny the ideal you have been longing for.
While there certainly is a weapon, you cannot find it with an everyday attitude. Even if you are a well-to- do person who is proud of yourself, you have to give up such a position to go back to the very end of the line, in the lowest place, so as to attain the victory. Such was the path that God has pursued.
Although Jesus appeared in this world with the authority of life and resurrection to take over all the sovereignty of Heaven and earth, he had to walk the opposite path in order to fulfill this in the fallen world. When Jesus saw that his life was soon to fade away, he was not concerned for his body. He was concerned for his spirit. When he was looking at the people, he was not concerned about their physical misery. He felt pity for their souls. It is the opposite way. Do you want to be God’s sons and daughters? Do you want to go to Heaven? Try to go to Heaven. Those who think they can go to Heaven by believing in Jesus will not go. It cannot be done without a cost.
Why is it that we believe in Jesus? It is in order to create Heaven. What did Jesus tell us? He said our body is a temple. Is it a temple? Jesus desired for the individual to be a temple, the environment to be a temple, and the whole creation to be a temple. God wants to dwell within us, in our family, in our society, and even in all of creation.
What was Jesus like when he was in this world? Although he was supposed to sit on the throne of Heaven, he became a friend of sinners. It is said that he ate and drank with sinners. Jesus said he came to save the sinners, not the faithful. How frustrated he must have been to do that.
The assignment of Christianity is to take care of many things that are painful to deal with. The question is how people will have the heart that says, “Father, please allow us to have the dignified heart that Jesus had when he died on the cross that we may overcome the pain of death and wish blessings upon the miserable people.” Jesus came to this world and became a pioneer of the heart. We need people who will go forward with a desperate heart, who can dominate the fear of death.
What is the reason that the churches are separating? The problem is that preachers seek the authority of their position while the people seek their own authority for the sake of personal glorification. Jesus left behind the virtue of service. This path is the closest path to us, yet it is the most difficult path of adventure for humankind. People who conquer a mountain may be secular explorers, but they are not the explorers of the world of spirit. God wants an adventurer who can win over pain in the heart. Isn’t that so?