Tag: church

360 Homes Represents the Entire World

1 Thessolonians 5

2 My friends, we ask you to be thoughtful of your leaders who work hard and tell you how to live for the Lord. 13 Show them great respect and love because of their work. Try to get along with each other. 14 My friends, we beg you to warn anyone who isn’t living right. Encourage anyone who feels left out, help all who are weak, and be patient with everyone. 15 Don’t be hateful to people, just because they are hateful to you. Rather, be good to each other and to everyone else.

16 Always be joyful 17 and never stop praying. 18 Whatever happens, keep thanking God because of Jesus Christ. This is what God wants you to do.

19 Don’t turn away God’s Spirit 20 or ignore prophecies. 21 Put everything to the test. Accept what is good 22 and don’t have anything to do with evil.

Job 14

Our time on earth is brief;
the number of our days
    is already decided by you.
6 Why don’t you leave us alone
and let us find some happiness
    while we toil and labor?

Richard: Here Job is praying to God. This could also apply to people; ignore naysayers and focus on doing the ministry that God has called you to.

Selected Passages from the Words of Rev. Sun Myung Moon about Home Church

Today’s Word magazine, September 1981 p. 5 to p 6

Worldwide level

Your home church is one small world repre-
senting all mankind and the entire earth; it is a
microcosm of the whole world, and it makes no
difference where you live or travel. No matter
where you go on earth, still you must do your home
church mission. Even if you went to spirit world
now, you would have to return to finish that
mission, because unless you go through that gate,
you can never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
( 1/1/79)
Because the messiah has already made the
condition of sacrificing himself by giving his
life to restore the world, then his followers can
condense a lifetime into a mere seven years in
which they can follow the Principle and gain
success in their own home church area. That will
be considered the same as having fulfilled the
responsibility of restoring the whole world. The
whole world is represented in your home church
area. By restoring your home church area, God will
give you the same credit as if you had restored or
re-created the entire world. (3/29/79)

If you do well in home church, then during the
next seven years you can affect the events
throughout the entire world. Your area is your
world. If you win there, you can win the world.
(4/16/80)

The number 360 in your home church stands
for all of history; 360 represents time and space:
the lunar calendar has 360 days, a circle has 360
degrees. Furthermore, the number 360 is divisible
by all the significant providential numbers: 3, 4.
12. 72, 120, etc. Your 360 homes symbolize the
annual rings of history, your 360 closest ances-
tors. all the individuals scattered over all the globe,
and a living altar representing the entire world.
Ideally, you should find at least 12 different
nationalities living in your 360 homes; thus, your
home church becomes the cultural sphere which
can unite God’s providence, centering on
Christianity and synthesizing all races. Therefore,
home church is the final gathering place. (9/23/80)

The ideal world

When you accomplish home church, there will be
no more need for churches, for every home will
be a church. You won’t have to go to church or pray,
just live by the heavenly law, the law of the
heavenly country. When we finish home church,
God will have His own nation, and its citizens will
only have to observe its laws. When we love
everyone as an extension of our own family, that
in itself will be heaven. If this does not become
reality, then the Divine Principle is just another
ideology that does not work. (10/5/80)

Now the Time of Ordinary Membership Will Come

Read the latest Urban Life Training Newsletter: https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/newsletters

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1544

If you focus on spirituality in religion,
you will reject materialism. In attaching
importance to its spiritual civilization,
the Orient rejected materialism. That
materialism was embraced by the West.
Many nations in the West, including the
United States, have managed to achieve
a high standard of living because they
secured all the natural resources of the
East as their own and used them to
develop and advance Western Civiliza-
tion. However, they have reached their
limit. The spiritual civilization of the
Orient has also reached its limit. The
Orient has gradually come to pursue
Western material civilization, while the
West has come to pursue Oriental spiri-
tual civilization. Consequently, we have
reached the time when these two civili-
zations are engaged in a mutual cultural
exchange. (Blessed Family II – 381)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1261

How did the devil bring about the
Fall? Through the fruit of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil? Where did
they cover themselves after eating the
fruit? Did they cover up their mouths
or their hands? Didn’t they cover up
the sexual parts of their bodies? This
became the seed that sowed evil. They
fell before they had fully matured, while
they were still adolescents. As the lin-
eage of humankind in world history
stemmed form this act, in the Last Days
the phenomenon of such relationships
will thrive. The time will come, that,
across the world, young people destroy
the ethics of love. They will hide in the
shadows, just like Adam and Eve, and
have no fear of heaven. That will be the
time when the era of Satan’s worldwide
dominion will come to the earth. That
is when we will be faced with the iron
hammer of God. (200-227, 1990.2.25)

Members Who Will Live In God’s Family

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 27, 1959

Matthew 12: 46-50

Ladies and gentlemen, your love and longing for your friends will all fade away. Families and friends will all fade away. The right path is the one on which longing for heavenly friends and heavenly family members moves your emotions. Forgetting about even your hunger, you should look for heavenly family members, overcome all your grief, and be concerned even about the descendants of the future, appealing to God on their behalf. Those who have this mind-set will never decrease. Ladies and gentlemen, you are probably well aware of the international situation. Many people see that the years 1959 and 1960 are an historical transition. We feel that the time of the historical transition has come. We know that we have arrived at the forked road of life and death and the point of despair and mourning. They have invaded the sphere of our life. Here we can feel the division ideologically. The same is true for our world of faith, family and society.

Moreover, when we look at the situation of Korea, we can see that there is no country more miserable than this. Where do you set the standard of peace? The world will fade away. The society, country and people will all fade away. Our people do not possess anything, and we cannot even look for it. Now I think that the only way to save this people is to mourn over their historical sins and the mistakes of the present era and raise two hands and call on the Father.

Who among the people gathered here will be mobilized? Not the older people. The churches must take the risk of the new changing the old. Since we know this, Christians should not entrust their churches to the present leadership. Such a time will come. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a place for ministers and elders. The Kingdom of Heaven is a place for truly faithful sons and daughters. The churches have become as they are because we entrusted them to the hands of ministers and elders. Christians of the world should unite and claim back the possession of their churches and honor them as their own. Such a movement will take place. God will make this happen.

Young men of great ideals, such a time will certainly come. Look! Before the liberation of Korea, people praised this and that minister. The time of ministers passed, and there came a time of elders when people praised this or that elder. Then blew the wind of the deacons. Now the time of ordinary membership will come. Such phenomena will certainly take place. We should not entrust this church to them. The Unification Church has arisen from that fervent movement. Although people may be cursing us, you wait and see. History will certainly change its course. We need brave young men and women. Otherwise, in the Last Days we will become miserable people who will betray once more the approaching new world of heavenly ideals and cause great grief to Heaven. You should be concerned about this.

We should become sons and daughters of burning zeal and shoulder the historical grief of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and our ancestors. We should take responsibility for this age. We should become sons and daughters who can call God our Father and preserve the dignity and name of being members of the heavenly family, sons and daughters of God. We should understand clearly that God and humanity are searching for people who can confidently command the entire universe.

Prayer

Father, I have spoken the words. Most sorrowful and grieved Father, please forgive our ancestors who were ignorant of You.

We know that we should understand and cry for the Father’s sorrow over not having found the sons and daughters You long for. Forgive us. We are in the miserable situation of seeking our satisfaction alone.

Jesus looked at his own mother and younger brothers and sisters and said, “Only those who live by the will of my Father are my brothers and mother.” We do not have original parents; we do not have original brothers and sisters; we do not have original children or spouses. We long for original parents, brothers and sisters, children and spouses. Please let us become sons and daughters who forget about our own dignity and search for them out of intense yearning.

Please let the movement to honor the Father and enjoy life in the heavenly family unfold in Heaven and earth. Please let revolutions of heart and love take place which can unite people with this ideal and force them to move forward and respond. If Your sons and daughters who participate here feel something in their hearts, please let that become the guiding light of their lives and the source of transformation. Father, this is our sincere prayer.

Thank You for having governed over everything. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen. 

Entertain the Hope that Conquers Death

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1868

I built a boat in Korea named Boat of
Heavenly Victory. What victory? Heav-
enly victory, of course, is where Heaven
has won victory because God’s will has
been fulfilled. I had already begun ful-
filling God’s will from long ago. I made
the Boat of Heavenly Victory and talk-
ed about occupying the oceans of the
world. One member, Eu Hyo-young,
was constantly saying, “Boat, boat!” So I
made him one, but he did not like going
on boats – maybe because he was old.
He said, “Father, I cannot go out to sea
when the waves surge like that.” How
can a fisherman think like that? He must
go out to the sea until his death. (294-175,
1998.6.14)
2.3.2. Ilheung marine
Aren’t you church leaders? In the
future, no exceptions will be made,
even for company workers. Unification
church families share the same fate.
Unification Church means a church
where everything is united. That is why
if you have a company, it should be called
Company Unification Church. Unifi-
cation Industries would mean a Unifi-
cation Industries Church. Yesterday I
came back from Jejudo where I had vis-
ited the company there called Ilheung
Marine Industries. I told the president
of that company, “You must now create
an Ilheung Marine Church. As a church,
you should prepare to serve and attend
the women divers in Jejudo more than
you would your own mother or bride.”
(178-131, 1988.6.1)

Richard:  This captures Rev. Moon’s vision for home church (the second paragraph).  “Church” is not a building.  Church is where you serve your community and work to build the Kingdom centered on Godly families.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 988

You should know that God exists
near you and is concerned about each
of you more than anyone else. People
think that the love of their own fam-
ily is the greatest in this world. How-
ever, you should know that God’s love
is greater and deeper than that love; it is
deeper and greater than any human love
in this world. You should be embraced
in God’s love and be able to call Him,
“Father.” You should become such true
sons and daughters who deeply expe-
rience God’s internal heart in a posi-
tion that says, “I know the Father’s sor-
row.” If you can become such sons and
daughters, and possess the Kingdom of
Heaven in which you attend God, no
one would be able to take that kingdom
away from you. (2-234, 1957.6.2)

The Path of Life We Must Go, Entertaining Hope

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
March 22, 1959

Romans 8: 18-21

We must understand that this statement is a request for us not to make earth-bound hope our own, but to adopt eternal hope. Jesus walked that path in person himself. We must know that he set up hope on this hopeless earth, opened up the path of life on this lifeless earth, and cultivated the path of resurrection on this unredeemable earth.

Until when must you go forth with that hope? It is until you step forward in front of the Father’s throne and receive the Father’s true love, after going beyond the path of death and the hill of resurrection. The question is whether you can march on holding onto that hope until that time. It is easy to make a resolution while embracing a hope and looking at it, but it is difficult to fight holding onto that hope. It is easy to embrace a hope of some kind, but it is difficult to live to the end keeping that hope, and to stand and die for the path of that hope so that all humankind lives with that hope. Yet Jesus walked such a path in high spirits.

Today we look forward to the last day of resurrection, the day of hope. The time of the hope that all of us are looking forward to is the time in which all humankind can take delight. Yet that time does not come easily. That hope can be owned only by those who have won over death. Only those who have fought along with God against Satan will take possession of that hope. Only those who have received persecution, together with God, for the sake of Heaven will secure that hope. As we think that such a time is approaching, we must have an ardent mind to overcome this living environment and overcome even the fear of death. Unless such an ardent mind emanates from you, you cannot draw the day of that hope into the realm of your life and go on living. Continue reading “Entertain the Hope that Conquers Death”