Choen Seong Gyeong 2238
So what is the way in this universe that will connect human beings and God through the shortest vertical distance by way of true love? It is the parent-child relationship. There is no distance shorter than that along the perpendicular. If it is off by even a little, it is not the perpendicular. The shortest distance is the perpendicular. Based on it, the mother and father are connected by the shortest distance, east and west. Next, siblings are connected by the shortest distance, front and rear. These form 90-degree angles. In terms of faces, there are twenty-four. As the omniscient and omnipotent God has such ideal conceptual ability, He resides at the center of a sphere at the center of the universe formed around a series of 90-degree angles at the intersection of the vertical and horizontal, the intersection of front-rear, left and right. Centering on what does God exist? On true love. If you were to ask Him that, He would say, that is all there is. (198-298, 1990.2.5)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 798
How great are human beings? They conduct an orchestra of love. The fact that human beings eat from the animal and plant worlds, where love sustains the entire universe through the vitality of life, means that they live off the fruit of love. They live off the fruit. Even if there is just one piece of bread remaining in the cafeteria when you eat, you should think, “This bread went through countless hands throughout the world, many means of transportation, and prevailed over great hardships to get here. This bread has been made and given to me as the fruit of the efforts of many people, as the fruit of their love. As the owner of love, I shall eat it thinking of the value of my partners.”
However, those who are in discord with this are bound to fall ill. Those who are peaceful with it will be sure to resist any illness. Those spiritual masters who eat the fruit of the world that is filled with love are just human beings! What do you think? Those who can love with the idea of digesting and eating the fruit of love, and do so with gratitude in unity with God’s essential love, will not fall ill. This is our logical conclusion. (217-307, 1991.6.12)
Call and Mission
2. Efforts and Hardships of the Mission
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.” And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” And he said, “Go, and say to this people: ‘‘Hear and hear, but do not understand;
see and see, but do not perceive.’
Make the heart of this people fat,
and their ears heavy,
and shut their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
Isaiah 6.1-10
O Lord, thou knowest;
remember me and visit me,
and take vengeance for me on my persecutors.
In thy forbearance take me not away;
know that for thy sake I bear reproach.
Thy words were found, and I ate them,
and thy words became to me a joy
and the delight of my heart;
for I am called by thy name,
O Lord, God of hosts.
I did not sit in the company of merrymakers,
nor did I rejoice;
I sat alone, because thy hand was upon me,
for thou hadst filled me with indignation.
Why is my pain unceasing,
my wound incurable,
refusing to be healed?
Wilt thou be to me like a deceitful brook,
like waters that fail?
Jeremiah 15.15-18
The Thaqif… stirred up their louts and slaves to insult [Muhammad] and cry after him until a crowd came together, and compelled him to take refuge in an orchard…
When the Apostle reached safety he said, so I am told, “O God, to Thee I complain of my weakness, little resource, and lowliness before men. O Most Merciful, Thou art the Lord of the weak, and Thou art my Lord. To whom wilt Thou confide me? To one afar who will misuse me? Or to an enemy to whom Thou hast given power over me? If Thou art not angry with me I care not. Thy favor is wider for me. I take refuge in the light of Thy countenance by which the darkness is illumined, and the things of this world and the next are rightly ordered, lest Thy anger descend upon me or Thy wrath light upon me. It is for Thee to be satisfied until Thou art well pleased. There is no power and no might save in Thee.”
Ibn Ishaq, Sirat Rasul Allah (Islam)
If any other man thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel… as to righteousness under the law blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature be thus minded; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, God will reveal that also to you.
Philippians 3.4-15