Tag: Run Race

To Become Winners, We Need to Have A Strategy

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1972

When we observe the birthplace of
civilizations from a geographical point
of view, we see that they developed based
on the conditions of climate, during the
course of world history. Then what kind
of place is most ideal? We can conclude
that the ideal location is one that has four
seasons and connects the sea to the land.
In terms of climate, it should be a region
with four seasons. It should be a penin-
sula, as well as a region where the four
seasons are distinct. What is a peninsu-
lar region? The land symbolizes heaven,
and the water symbolizes the sea. The
peninsula connects these two. That is
the reality of the world. That is how it
works with all the principles of heaven
and earth. In that sense, the Italian pen-
insula, as a peninsular region, contrib-
uted to world culture. This was the first
great staging-post for past civilizations.
You should be aware that this penin-
sular civilization centered on Rome, a
region with an integrated civilization,
had emerged with the authority of the
past ages in history. It had also passed
through the Egyptian civilization and
Greek civilization to become a compre-
hensive area. (107-300, 1980.6.8)

Richard: Sometimes West Virginia is referred to as the “peninsula state”due to the two “peninsulas of the north part between Pennsylvania and Ohio, and the eastern panhandle, where we live. Also the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers are boundaries of the eastern “peninsula”. A lot of significant history and significant black history has happened in Harpers Ferry; for instance, the Niagara Movement, Storer College, and John Brown’s Raid.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1187

Based on this ceremony, I declared
“The ideology centered on the Heaven-
ly Father” on September 1, 1989. Until
the Ceremony of the Settlement of the
Eight Stages was completed, it was still
the age of the restoration of the right of
the eldest son. Restoring the right of the
eldest son! Finally, the right of the eldest
son has been completely restored. Now,
that the right of the eldest son has been
completely restored to God’s side, we
ascend and stand in the highest global
realm, where Satan cannot oppose us.
The time has now come when, if we push
forward strongly and boldly, America,
the communist world, Korea and Japan
will all yield. That is why we should be
strong and bold. (193-204, 1989.10.4)

Richard: We just passed the 30th Anniversary of this very significant ceremony (the Settlement of Eight Stages on August 31, 1989).

Inside God’s Stadium

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
August 9, 1959

1 Corinthians 9: 14-27

We cannot be haphazard. We should have a clear notion of being a winner in a certain event in the race. You have to approach the starting point with such a firm conviction and begin the race. The sages of the past did not teach people about specific fields of work. They did not teach us what we must do to become successful in a certain field. They instructed us on the path we should walk in our life, the path for our minds, our spirits, and for our life.

The path for our thoughts and life does not belong to any one of us alone. It is the common path in any era and is designed according to a certain formula. On it hangs the fate of many generations and human history. We should long for the citizens of Heaven who can fight on this path and bring victory.

If you do it unselfishly, the day you fulfill the purpose is the day that Heaven and earth can rejoice. When a racer representing his people wins in his event, it is tantamount to the victory of all his people. Even if that event is a small one, its value and glory will have an impact on everyone. For this reason, now you need the one day when you can develop this kind of internal conviction, when you can strengthen your conviction and value in order to attain a certain purpose under a certain standard. However, until today you did not have these kinds of thoughts or feelings.

Since we are already racing, we will either end up as winners or losers. To become winners, we need to have a strategy. Internally, we need to have the conviction that we will win, and an unswerving heart fixed on a purpose. Externally, we need to make preparations to facilitate the race. Those who are entering a race should be simple and innocent. We have to prepare our bodies so that they will respond quickly to the direction our minds give. This is why we need training.

The stadium, however, is not built to make it easy for us to run freely toward our purpose. There are many obstacles on the race tracks. Each of these obstacles represents the failures of our ancestors. No matter how proud and determined a racer may be, he may fall down before those obstacles. On our path lie the obstacles which our ancestors could not overcome and fell over. Therefore, as much as possible, we should maintain a simple attitude, so that when our hearts guide us, our bodies can respond quickly and in full harmony. We should train our bodies in this way.

Training cannot be done in a comfortable position. It is achieved when you are being treated harshly. To continue this kind of internal training, you need to harden your bodies so that even if you are attacked internally, you can make a breakthrough and move beyond it. Your internal determination must not change. Even if you run into tribulations which afflict your body, you must not be defeated. Hence, Heaven instructed those who seek the religious way to abandon everything they possess and follow. When Jesus called upon Peter, who was mending his fishing nets, he told him to abandon all and follow him.

There is a rationale behind meditating in the mountains in order to seek enlightenment. We are to cultivate external determination based on our internal determination, and the confidence that we will not deviate from our course, no matter what kind of obstacles we run into. Even if we fall to the bottom, we will support our minds and bodies. Without these convictions, there is no way we can run the race or even enter the stadium. Since each one of us is a racer who should be responsible for an event in the race, we should train ourselves with unchanging conviction in order to accomplish our purpose. Therefore, you must have the attitude of a devout believer, the attitude of a racer who is running the race, and the attitude of a person walking the path of enlightenment. Whether you are awake or asleep, you should have a burning desire to accomplish your purpose.

Among the people who have gathered here there must be those who thoughtlessly believe that they can enter the Kingdom of Heaven just by believing in Jesus. What is the Kingdom of Heaven like? It is composed of various groups of people who have successfully qualified in some event in the race. You should not blindly think that you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven just by believing in Jesus. Of course, there are areas that God will help you in, but there are also areas which require you to fulfill your responsibilities. To prepare for the race, you should make both internal and external preparations. Next, as a racer, you should understand thoroughly about the course that you will be competing on. You should know clearly where you will find what kind of obstacles, and so on. What you then must understand is that although many people have run on the course in the past, all of them failed. They did not win in their races. They quit in the middle of the course.

Our Conviction Must Not be Centered on Ourselves

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2 Chronicles 20

15 Then Jahaziel said:

Your Majesty and everyone from Judah and Jerusalem, the Lord says that you don’t need to be afraid or let this powerful army discourage you. God will fight on your side! 16 So here’s what you must do. Tomorrow the enemy armies will march through the desert around the town of Jeruel. March down and meet them at the town of Ziz as they come up the valley. 17 You won’t even have to fight. Just take your positions and watch the Lord rescue you from your enemy. Don’t be afraid. Just do as you’re told. And as you march out tomorrow, the Lord will be there with you.

Psalm 19

Let my words and my thoughts
    be pleasing to you, Lord,
    because you are my mighty rock[a]
    and my protector.

Inside God’s Stadium

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
August 9, 1959

1 Corinthians 9: 14-27

We are to run this race. Since we have to go, how should we run? We need to make certain preparations before we enter the stadium. What kind of preparations? We need to make internal preparations and external preparations. Internally, we should have some conviction that we are running toward a certain purpose. We are to run the course according to the commands we receive. If we run into a hurdle in our race course, we should have the conviction to jump over it. We need to make internal preparations so that we can run toward the right purpose based on our conviction.

In other words, by training our minds and bodies, we need to cultivate the determination that we will not fall down before we reach the final destination and that we will not lose to anyone but will stand as the final victors. We need to have such a strong conviction that even if our bodies were to run into some obstacles as we are racing toward our destination, we should be able to push that aside and continue on our race.

Many people are living on the earth today. Yet how many of them are ready to stand firm as a racer and start running toward the certain destination? If we cannot deny that we are under the control of this trend in history, based on both our words and the reality we face, we should then ask ourselves whether or not we have prepared ourselves properly as racers who can run towards the destination with aspirations to victory. You have not made the preparations yet.

Human beings are born to belong in a certain field or sphere. Those who do not have a position and circumstance where they can dwell are pitiful. Those who do not have the clear idea that they are on a certain course running toward a certain purpose are pitiful. Most of us are like that.

What we need here is the time to make the internal and external preparations to train our minds and bodies with determination and purposefulness that we may triumph in the battle against many enemies. If there is anyone here who has not had such a moment, he should examine himself closely.

What kind of internal preparation do we need to make? It must not be preparation for your own individual sake. Isn’t this so? Suppose there is a marathon athlete who represents a nation. When he runs the race, if he has the conviction that he should glorify his people and his nation before the world rather than to obtain glory for himself, he will be able to overcome all difficulties. However, if he is running only for the sake of his own glory and personal ends, he will easily give up the moment he runs into tribulations.

Our conviction must not be centered on ourselves. We should have conviction for the sake of the people, for the sake of the world, and for the sake of Heaven and earth. If the runner is certain that he will determine the final victory of the universe, even if he were to collapse, he would have the strength to get up and continue running. If he runs for his own sake, the moment he encounters a difficulty that exceeds any difficulty he has otherwise experienced, he will collapse. When the difficulty exceeds the self- centered desire he has, he will be defeated.

This is the reason we need to train our minds and bodies to the conviction that we are running for the purpose and mission of Heaven and earth. People live for the sake of God and goodness, but thoughtlessly. Goodness is transcending the restricted environment. Goodness is not limited. Goodness exists beyond the boundaries of limits and constraints. Therefore, people live for such purposes without clear understanding or deep thought.

The Number of People Who Will Receive Awards Is Limited

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 1972

The earth consists of land and ocean.
We see that the ocean has played a
motherly role, beginning with the birth
of the simplest forms of life. The ocean
symbolizes femininity because it nur-
tures and embraces life, while land can
be said to symbolize masculinity. For
this reason, the island nations located
in the ocean are countries that represent
the woman, and the peninsular nations
adjacent to the continental nations are
countries that represent the man. The
people of peninsular nations in par-
ticular have a toughness and intrepid-
ness that come from a life of preparing
against enemies, both from the conti-
nent and the sea. Furthermore, owing to
their pioneering, adventurous and pro-
gressive disposition, the people of pen-
insular nations brought forth a brilliant
culture and disseminated it to the world.
(279-208, 1996.8.20)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1473

How great is the value of human-
kind? They are the only beings that God
would long for over tens of thousands
of years, leaning on his walking stick.
According to my observations, this fact
happens to be the basis for the creation
of the universe. Since God and human
beings related to each other as inter-
nal and external, vertical and horizon-
tal perspectives about the world of love
could be established. Both vertical and
horizontal views on the world of love can
come into existence once upper-lower
and left-right relationships are formed.
God can come to reside in the center
of them all. That place, which can bind
them all into one at the deepest core of
the heart, is the central place of the verti-
cal and horizontal. If they are not bound
into one, the standard of the vertical and
horizontal cannot develop into the ideal
form of love. The existence of the vertical
form alone does not guarantee the exis-
tence of the horizontal form. Therefore,
you should understand that God had no
other choice but to create human beings
in this form. (48-224, 1971.9.19)

Inside God’s Stadium

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
August 9, 1959

1 Corinthians 9: 14-27

In a stadium, they may hold a one-hundred-meter race, a five-thousand-meter race, a ten-thousand-meter race, or a marathon. What kind of race would you be responsible for as racers who have entered the race tracks of God, who is guiding the providence of restoration? How can you find a place in the history of the universe? This is a crucial question. Even if there are differences in your values and character, God certainly wishes ardently that you will fulfill your responsibility in the event that you are responsible for in the race, and that you will establish the standard God wants. Since you have entered the race tracks, you should give all your heart and soul to the race. We should understand which event of the race we are to accomplish through our life and finally stand before Heaven.

Although God has guided the providence for six thousand years, when you look at the entire course, there are still some events in God’s overall race that have not been completed yet. The competition is still going on. The race will go on today and tomorrow. When the entire race comes to an end, God will give awards in each event to all humanity, all the people who ran in the race in the past and all those who will have raced by the day of the conclusion. When is the day the awards are given out? If we use Christian terminology, it is the judgment day. The judgment day is the day the awards will be given out. If we use the terminology used frequently in our era, it may also be referred to as the Last Days.

The important question is whether or not you will have established the victorious standard so that you can receive an award in an event. This is an issue that you will have to deeply reflect upon. There are many ways of racing. Although you are supposed to enter the stadium and race on the marked course, there will be many who disregard the race course. There may be those who run on the marked course but who collapse in the middle of the race. There will be those who run until the finish line but will not be able to receive awards. The number of people who will receive awards is limited. We have to understand this.

Although God guided the providence for six thousand years. He could not give an award even to one racer. For this reason, spirits in Heaven and people on the earth all wish for the day God can appear before humanity and give awards to the many racers who ran in each event of the race. This is the Last Days. You should understand this.

This Master is Constraining Our Every Action

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 1824

I have no concerns wherever I trav-
el. I can go anywhere by myself, without
any worries. If the fishing is no good, I
can make it good. But to have that kind
of confidence, you have to have a lot of
experience. In the future, when interest
begins to focus on the ocean, those who
don’t have any interest in the ocean will
fall behind those who do and lose out
completely. (146-251, 1986.7.1)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1499

What would be inside a package of
love? When you unwrap the package of
love after reaching the homeland, an ide-
al husband or ideal wife would come out.
Moreover, that package would contain a
pouch filled with blessings from which
would spring out an ideal family. Out of
that pouch would come the highest level
of restoration. Consequently, the indi-
vidual, family, tribe, race, nation and
world would all be at this highest level.
If everyone were in such a state, no one
would be above or below anyone else.
Therefore the brothers and sisters as well
as the family itself would be restored. In
order to lay such a foundation for unity,
a package of love, like a treasure chest, is
required. (19-295, 1968.3.10)

Inside God’s Stadium

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
August 9, 1959

1 Corinthians 9: 14-27

14 In the same way, the Lord wants everyone who preaches the good news to make a living from preaching this message.

15 But I have never used these privileges of mine, and I am not writing this because I want to start now. I would rather die than have someone rob me of the right to take pride in this. 16 I don’t have any reason to brag about preaching the good news. Preaching is something God told me to do, and if I don’t do it, I am doomed. 17 If I preach because I want to, I will be paid. But even if I don’t want to, it is still something God has sent me to do. 18 What pay am I given? It is the chance to preach the good news free of charge and not to use the privileges that are mine because I am a preacher.

19 I am not anyone’s slave. But I have become a slave to everyone, so that I can win as many people as possible. 20 When I am with the Jews, I live like a Jew to win Jews. They are ruled by the Law of Moses, and I am not. But I live by the Law to win them. 21 And when I am with people who are not ruled by the Law, I forget about the Law to win them. Of course, I never really forget about the law of God. In fact, I am ruled by the law of Christ. 22 When I am with people whose faith is weak, I live as they do to win them. I do everything I can to win everyone I possibly can. 23 I do all this for the good news, because I want to share in its blessings.

24 You know that many runners enter a race, and only one of them wins the prize. So run to win! 25 Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever. 26 I don’t run without a goal. And I don’t box by beating my fists in the air. 27 I keep my body under control and make it my slave, so I won’t lose out after telling the good news to others.

Prayer

Father, Your sons and daughters have gathered here today. Many flocks of sheep have come to uphold the unfinished providential will and receive Your words of command. We have come before You as some of these people. Father, please have compassion on us as we stand or sit here.

If we have some individual concepts or ideas centered on our own selves, please remove them all. Our fate is to be created again and we have not yet alleviated the grief of the Fall. Hence, even if we possess something which we can proudly present to Heaven, it has no value as an ideal before the Father.

No matter how much we try to come up with excuses before Heaven and assert our own difficulties, we know that none of that can compare with the infinite goodness and toil of the Father.

We have learned that we did not become what we are based on our own efforts alone. We are not just ourselves. Please allow this to be an hour when we can long for our original selves and fathom our original hearts; an hour when we can bow our heads before our original Lord.

We know deep in our hearts that there is an absolute master of the entire universe. When we understand that this master is constraining our every action, please let us feel that this relationship has a clear purpose and that our fate is to live through an environment of being constrained by this purpose.

We yearn for the glorious presence of the Father and have come before the Father’s knees. Yet those who gathered here do not know where their heart is directed or where their heart is guiding them. Please guide them to the direction where their original selves can rejoice with Heaven. Even though we may be shameful and unworthy, please allow us to look upon You in this hour with a longing heart and to bow our heads before You. If we still feel embarrassed and extend our shameful hands out toward You and call out to You, please promise us that You will hold those hands.

We want to bow while clinging to the Father’s heart. We want to enter into a relationship with You. There is nothing else we want. No matter how glittering the treasures of Heaven may be, no matter what kind of glory may be found there, we do not want it. All we want is the promise that we can remain connected to the Father’s heart and live together with You. Hoping that such things can be the signs of glory which we can take pride in for eternity, we have prostrated ourselves before You. Even if we are unworthy in some ways, please forgive us. Father, we sincerely wish that You will cultivate our hearts as You desire and secure an inseparable parent-child relationship with us.

Although many people are calling for You, they do not understand the Father’s situation or heart. We do not want to become like them. Among us there are those who are like Your sons, those who are like Your adopted sons, and those who are Your true sons. We have no desire to be Your sons or adopted sons. We want to be Your direct children, the children who have inherited Your flesh and blood, who can live with the Father for eternity and never fade away from Your heart. We want to possess an undeniable eternal relationship of flesh and blood with You.

We know that to become these kinds of sons and daughters we must feel that the anguish the Father has suffered is our own anguish; the sorrow the Father feels is our own sorrow; the grief the Father feels is our own grief; the responsibilities that the Father has to fulfill are our own responsibilities. Please guide us to become this kind of children.

Father, I stand here, yet what words should I convey? Even though we may want to become the Father’s sons and daughters, if we cannot sense that You are now trying to help us experience Your heart as our own reality and that You desire to build a relationship with us, no matter how profound the words I convey, our relationship with You can never be completed. Hence, please let this be an hour when we can become connected to the Father’s heart; otherwise, we can never penetrate through the Father’s heart or have the experience of clinging to the Father’s body.

Please let the speaker’s heart be in harmony with the Father’s heart. Let the hearts of the listeners reflect the heart of the Father so that our moments of give and take may be an hour of glory. We know that You are driving us down this path for a certain purpose. This path is our ultimate fate, which we cannot avoid. Please let our determinations and actions become conditions of glory. Please allow us to be offered to the Father as sacrifices. Please raise us up as sacrifices who can be offered to the Father. Please do not let Satan find room to invade during this hour. We prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.