Moving Towards the Light. By Hyung Jin Nim June 20, 2010, Cheon Bok Gung, Yongsan Seoul Korea

Welcoming Remarks
Yeon-ah nim:
Good afternoon, brothers and sisters.  Good afternoon.  Welcome to the headquarters of the Unification Church.  It is really, really great to see you all.  Today we sincerely hope and pray that, through this service, we can rejuvenate our daily life and we can return our praise and thanks to our Heavenly Father.  We know that we love True Parents with all our hearts and we truly, truly believe in them.  Aju.
Hyung-jin nim:
Good afternoon, everybody.  We have brothers and sisters from everywhere today.  We have many brothers and sisters from Japan, I believe.  Let’s give our brothers and sisters from Japan a very warm welcome.
We are practicing something now.  Usually it is said “Hallelujah” and then “Amen”.  “Hallelujah” basically means “Praise the Lord” and “Amen” means “truth” in Hebrew.  We have all learned a bit of Korean, and this is the Fatherland, so we have understood the word “Aju”.  “Aju” means “My Lord” in Chinese characters.  Instead of “Amen”, in the Unification Church, we say “Aju” because every time we hear something very powerful, then we proclaim and we lift up God.  When we do that, it does not matter what country we are from because this portion we can all understand – that we all say “Aju”.
Before then, we have been practicing saying “Na-e junim”, which basically explains what “Aju” means.  “Na-e junim” means my Lord or praising the Lord, and then we say “Aju” which means “My Lord”, lifting up God again.  So, even though we are from different countries, on that point, we can know, and we can all say and lift up God.  Let’s try that one time, “Na-e junim” (“Na-e ju nim”).  One more time, “Na-e junim” (”Na-e junim”).  That’s exactly the point.
Let’s start by manifesting the Principle: give and receive action; four position foundation; may I inherit the true love of God.  Aju.
Today, we read from the Cheon Seong Gyeong, page 604. Father says, “We know of the existence of the spirit world.  It is more certain than this world.  What kind of a world is it?  It is one in which everything is possible as long as it is acceptable in God’s plan.”
Brothers and sisters, we know the reality of the spirit world and we also know that the great spirits and the saints and sages of the past are looking down on True Parents, helping the providence, and also protecting our brothers and sisters all over the world.  Let’s give it up one time for all our brothers and sisters in the spirit world.
Today we want to meet a very special family.  Every week we have the chance to meet wonderful families, our Blessed families that are really living the life of faith; fighting the good fight of faith on the ground, in the real world; such wonderful people.  Today we are going to meet Miyajima-san and Jo-jipsa nim.  Let’s take a look at this video.
Video:  “I am a Proud Unificationist” Miyajima Kasuo (44) and Jo Mi-Seon (42) 30,000 Blessed couple
Husband:  In Japan, I heard the Divine Principle and True Father’s life course, and how much he was persecuted by the Japanese police.  I felt like I had been the one who tortured True Father, the Messiah, but he forgave me.  I cried so much after that experience, and I felt that this is the path I have to follow.
Wife:  While I was reading the Bible, the scripture “love your enemies” stood out to me very much for a month.  Who are my enemies?  Who is this enemy that God and Jesus tell me to love?  I thought my enemy is really our country’s grudge toward the Japanese.  I was very grateful and inspired to see True Father give us the chance to love the Japanese people through the International Blessing.
Although I was a Christian, I couldn’t find a way to love my enemies until I realized it is achievable through the Blessing.  I thought to myself ‘I can go to heaven,’ and with that determination, received the Blessing. (Her husband is Japanese.)
Dream of True Mother
After the Blessing, my husband came to Korea.  Within seven months after he came, he said he wanted to make a branch of the Segye Ilbo.  My husband told our pastor, “It is the company Father made, and if nobody does the job because it is too difficult, who is going to do it?”
It was a very small church, with one room for the brothers and another room for the pastor’s couple.  But this church life was extremely difficult for a person like me with a feeble life of faith.  It was so difficult to get up early and make deliveries, even in the rain.  The church life itself does not give you much time to rest, and even though I received the Blessing with the determination of loving my enemy, because it was so difficult I even thought of leaving.  It was very difficult to continue to keep up this lifestyle, especially when I could not have a prayer life.
Right around the time I was thinking of leaving, I had a dream.  True Mother appeared in the dream, but she was not the usual beautiful mother.  Her hair was a mess and she had no makeup on.  She told me, “I have suffered a course of hell, but was victorious in order to become the True Mother I am today.  If I do not experience a life of suffering, how would I understand the people who are in hell, and how would I offer them up to Heaven?  Because I experienced a course of suffering, and was victorious, I am who I am today.”
After the dream I said, “Yes, I, too, will be victorious in this hell.  Without overcoming this course of suffering, I also will not understand the people who are living in hell and cannot attend God.”  That is why I am still here.
The End of Suffering
Why did we have to face such trials?  I was not resentful, though.  Just like Job in the Bible, where everything he had was taken away but was returned as a bigger blessing, I also believed that this course would bring about a bigger blessing.  We were in a situation where we had to leave our home as soon as possible, and I felt like I had become an unfilial daughter to True Parents because I had let Satan take away our possessions.  I thought I should set a foundation on Heaven’s side before we moved out.  I thought of making an offering for the Cheon Bok Gung.  It would allow us to stand in front of True Parents in honor, instead of in shame.  So I secretly offered the Cheon Bok Gung offering and we moved into a small one-room apartment.
But I wanted to report this joyful incident to the International President and our pastor as soon as possible.  Not a report saying that we moved to a smaller place, but informing them about the Cheon Bok Gung offering and the blessings we have and will receive, and showing other members how we have overcome the challenges that all members worry about.
After the offering, my husband’s work has been going well, and my heart-broken parents have been supporting us as well.  It has been eight months since we were kicked out of the house, but now we have moved to this place.  People around me ask, “Can this really happen?”  But now I can confidently say that these blessings were brought upon me because we made that offering for the Cheon Bok Gung.
With love, we can overcome anything!  Brothers and sisters, we love you.
Main Sermon by Hyung-jin nim:
Today, brothers and sisters, I want to talk to you about “Moving Towards the Light”.
As our core scriptures, we are going to use the “World Scriptures”.  Let us begin with Christianity, Romans 12:9-11.
“Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.  Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Honor one another above yourselves.  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” Aju.
Here, we can see Paul talking to the church in Rome and describing the power of love.  Paul says that in order for love to be genuine, first it must be sincere.  Many people mix up the next point which is that if you are called to love, then you cannot hate.  But this is wrong.  Paul teaches us with wisdom that, if one truly does love, one must also hate evil.
If you truly love your spouse, you must hate adultery.  You cannot have a quasi love towards adultery, “Oh it’s OK, just love everything.” You cannot have that.  If you truly love your spouse, you will hate adultery; you will hate infidelity, because that will destroy your spouse.  That will destroy and bring them great suffering and pain.  In the same way, if we truly love our parents, then we must also hate shaming them, because that also brings destruction to their hearts.
In the providence, we can see that God separates good and evil all throughout providential history.  The Principle reveals that all throughout history, God had to make the difference between good and evil.  Because God is the absolute standard of goodness, there is a clear differentiation between what is good and what is evil.  It is not a relativistic view.  God separated good and evil in the flood; with Moses, in the separation from Satan period when he went to receive the Commandments; Abraham, in separating the offering, separating that which is good from what is evil.  We can see this all through providential history.
We can also remember that love, as Paul talks about, is, moves, and has its being in action; that love is a verb.  He calls us to hold to goodness; for us to be sincere and hate what is evil and also to hold and to cling to what is good.  To love other brothers and sisters – in this context he means believers in Christ – with brotherly affection.  Honor those who are among you.  And stay strong in spiritual fervor and, the main point is, in serving the Lord.  When Paul explains love, the fundamental point of love is to serve and uphold, uplift the Lord.  It is all about God.  Everything must be centered, and here, love is centered on serving the Lord.
For us as the Unification Church, we only have one center.  This is forever our center.  True Parents are forever our center.  They are the king of kings and the lord of lords.  They are the True Parents that we as Unificationists serve.  Na-e junim! (Na-e junim).  It is so important to understand that we have an eternal center, that we do not have a new center or a new king.  This is a very fundamental point.
During my fast, I had a great experience.  I found a wonderful new appreciation and gratitude to our brothers and sisters around the world, who all fasted before they were Blessed, and numerous other times during their faith life, praying for True Parents’ victory and praying for the Unification Church, etc.  Today, at the first service, we had one brother from Japan who did forty-day fasting ten times during his life.  I did eight days and that was something else.  Forty days!  Ten times!  Let’s give him a great round of applause, because that is incredible discipline.  So, I found a whole new appreciation for our brothers and sisters who practiced fasting training and especially our brother whom I met this morning.
Brothers and sisters, we as a movement may be facing certain storms and confusion right now, but we must remember that these issues are not simply physical.  They are not only rooted in the physical; they are rooted deeply in the spiritual.  There is darkness where there is confusion.  There are clouds that confuse.  The only thing that defeats darkness, as the old saying goes, is the light.  The only thing that can penetrate through the thousand eons of darkness is the candlelight or the light from the sun.  The light can destroy the darkness that surrounds it.
We, as Unificationists, are light.  We move forward with the light of truth.  We serve True Parents.  We declare True Parents, testify about True Parents.  We live to glorify True Parents and God.  This is our eternal center, which, for us as Unificationists, does not waver.  In this very difficult time, this is the light; this is the horizon, the rising sun that we must seek.  This is the light that, I believe, will save a dark world.  Brothers and sisters, we want to always recall that this is the reason why we are all here.
Let’s look at our second world scripture today.  This is Buddhism, from the Dhammapada 1.
“Mind is the forerunner of all evil states.  Mind is chief.  Mind-made are they.  If one speaks or acts with wicked mind, because of that, suffering follows one; like the wheel of a cart follows the hoof of the ox.”
We know that Satan always assaults the mind; that he assaults the spiritual before he assaults the physical.   When Adam and Eve fell, Lucifer tempted them spiritually first.  He made them fall away from God spiritually before they engaged in a physical fall.  Satan knows that if he can turn the mind and heart away from God and True Parents, then he can start controlling all things and, as he does, create suffering.
We also know that in the life of Jesus, Satan tempted Jesus with material goods.  He said “I will give you all the kingdoms of this world if you bow before me, Jesus.”  He tempted him with material goods.
When True Parents had the Entrance of the Cheon Jeong Gung Palace Ceremony in 2006, they gave us many responsibilities as citizens of Cheon Il Guk.  One of them was very important: this was the one that said that we must not abuse public foundations.  You see, the foundation of the Unification Church is public.  It is True Parents’ foundation.  It is the Unification Church brothers’ and sisters’ foundation.
It is from the blood, sweat and tears of our brothers and sisters – primarily for the last thirty years, of our Japanese brothers and sisters, who sacrificed everything to create the world foundation that we have today as the Unification Church.  These are not simply things that we can use at our own discretion because we have some title.  The foundation of True Parents, of the Unification Church, was built by members who sacrificed; built by members who donated and contributed.  This cannot be misused.  If this is misused for personal purposes or against the will of True Parents’ providence, then we are committing grave sin, very grave sin.
We must realize that these things are not just physical but they are also spiritual, because many of our brothers and sisters, particularly in Japan, had spiritual experiences from their ancestors, from people who had passed.   I remember one sister telling me that she saw a picture of her parents, her physical parents, crying and begging for her to contribute and help True Parents’ providence.  So, we must remember that this public Unification Church also belongs to the spirit world.  It is not just a physical thing.  If we misuse these public foundations, we receive condemnation not only in the physical world, but also by the spirits.
I remember talking to Otsuka-san, who is now our continental director of the North East Asian region.  He used to be the president of the Japanese church when we were visiting the Japanese church, even before I did ministry.  We were visiting and staying with the Japanese members in the local churches and trying to encourage them and thank them for all their sacrifice throughout the years.  At that time, I had a chance to have lunch with Otsuka-san.
He told me of how his wife is a descendant of samurai.  She has in her possession a samurai sword that has been passed down through the generations.  However, she has never opened or unsheathed this samurai sword, not even once.  They keep it locked up, tied up and hidden away.  He explained that this is because the samurai sword is cursed; anyone who has opened it has had some kind of disaster happen to them.  They would pass away or have an accident or get a terrible, incurable sickness.  He explained that the spirits cursed the sword.  They have resentment and pain because they had been hurt by that sword.
What we must also remember is that when we use True Parents’ foundation against their will, foundations that were built by the blood, sweat and tears of brothers and sisters who sacrificed, it is just like the samurai sword.  There is so much pain and there is so much effort that went into that foundation from the spirit world.  In the same way, those spirits do not forget if we misuse those things.  That is why Father has given us, as one of the laws, to not misuse the public foundation.  This is why, as the Buddha said, we must guard our mind from being tempted by thinking that we have the ability to use these things at our own discretion.
This is why, in the Korean church, we have gone through so much effort to create transparency in the church.  This is why, every two months, we report to the congregation how the donations have been used.  This is the reason why we have decision-line chain management which records every single decision and every single person who tried to make the decision, so nobody can say that they did not make the decision.  It is all recorded.  This is the reason why, whenever we have a major decision that has to be made, True Parents must approve it before we are able to act on it, because it is not our foundation.  The Unification Church was built upon True Parents’ victorious foundation, upon the victorious foundation of the brothers and sisters who helped to build this incredible church.
Let us now look at the Hadith from Islam.
“The heart is like a king with his troops. If the king is a good one, then his troops will be good too, and if the king is wicked, his troops follow suit…If a person’s heart is healthy, his body will be at ease, and if a person’s heart is malicious, the body will be malevolent.”
Here, we are reminded by the Qur’an to guard the heart from malice and also from temptations of the material.  We can pretend or try to rationalize the reasons for engaging in temptation or committing sin, but in the end, the sin remains.  As the Qur’an warns, if the heart is overcome, then the body also will move in that direction.  It warns us that in order to be good leaders, we must seek the public good and live by example, and then, as the Qur’an states, the “troops” will follow suit.
If the mind falls away from that which is true, honest, good and transparent, then the body, too, will fall away from that which is good and we will do bad actions.  So, we must keep our mind focused and, as Unificationists, our mind must be focused on serving True Parents.
Even though, we are in tough times now, I told Korean members that I don’t worry, because the tough times are impermanent. Storms are impermanent. But there are things that are eternal that we can focus on, and that we must focus on. The things that are eternal are our true Parents, the victorious foundation of our True Parents. It is that which is eternal. The things we can follow are God and the goodness of God, focusing on right goodness action, right deeds, etc.; things that are in conjunction with, that move along with God’s goodness, that don’t go against this. We can also learn to differentiate, discern what is good, what is evil, not take a relativistic view – what in Buddhism they call a “foolish compassion” – which is “Accept everything is OK”. No, there is right and there is wrong. Rape is wrong. Abuse is wrong. Misusing public foundation is wrong. That is discernment, the discernment of love, that Paul talked about.
These things that we are dealing with now actually give us an opportunity to remember why it is that we are here. In Cheon Bok Gung, we have three main objectives that we are given by True Parents. The first objective is that we create the temple of God in the third Israel, the Holy land of Holy lands, the Jerusalem of Jerusalems, the land from which the returning Lord has come.
We know that when the Israelites left bondage in Egypt, the generation that walked through the wilderness with Moses couldn’t enter the kingdom of Canaan. Only the new generation, the young generation, entered into the land of blessing. But they made a critical mistake. The critical mistake was that, once they had the spoils and riches of Canaan, they became secular; they forgot their faith. They forgot the God who had brought them out of bondage and led them through the wilderness so that they could be free in Canaan. They forgot their ancestors who died before them so that they could be free in Canaan. They forgot to center everything on the worship of God, the God who had brought them through the tribulations of the people of Israel. We know from the Principle perspective, that because they didn’t do that, and because they became secular, the national foundation for the Messiah couldn’t be created and that providence failed.
In the Unification Church, because we know about that providential failure, we’re not going to make the same mistake again. We are going to enter into Canaan as believers and faithful people. We are going to erect that Temple of God which will be our eternal point of reference, our eternal remembrance of those who have come before us, and of True Parents who have led us out of bondage and into the Promised Land. Let’s give it up for True Parents and the Unification Church! This is our first purpose for the Cheon Bok Gung: to create the Temple of God where God is praised, where He is remembered, where He lives in our lives; and where we come to be rejuvenated, to be cleansed, to make ourselves new, and then go out into the world again and challenge the world. That’s the number one purpose we have in Cheon Bok Gung.
The second purpose is what Father calls the “Abel UN”, the substantialization of the Abel UN, to bring religious unification and national unification, particularly North and South unification.
We here at the Cheon Bok Gung, because of True Parents’ order, have been engaged in a 120-day jeongseong as an offering of sincerity. Father has called all the leaders around the world, particularly the ones who are growing up into leadership, to come and to give jeongseong devotion, center their lives on the Word of True Parents, center themselves on True Parents. This has been going on for over 100 days, and will finish next week. At first, we did not know why True Parents were asking us to do such a thing. We just thought it was time to give jeongseong, so forty days was the initial one and then Father extended it to 120 days. But during this time, we discovered so many incredible things happening.
During this time, True Parents have been going around the world, holding the Seung Hwa Chukjae, that is the Ascension Ceremony, for those who have passed, those people who have served the providence in different areas; for example, General MacArthur, and Alexander Haig who, with his troops, freed True Parents from Heung Nam prison. True Parents went around the world to honor the lives of such individuals, or “to honor the legacy of peace” as we say in English. Literally, it was a funeral, an ascension ceremony, where they were given the greatest blessing, the blessing that Unificationists must work their whole lives to receive.
We must go through the Eight-Day Offering Ceremony as a newborn child, then we receive the Blessing, and when we die, we receive the Seung Hwa ceremony – and through that, we can go to Heaven with True Parents. But now, during this time, True Parents have given this blessing to a very special group of people.  This was the first that this ever happened on such a level. It’s absolutely incredible!
While True Parents were creating that spiritual foundation, during the 120-day training in Cheong Bok Gung and the Guri center, where many brothers and sisters from around the world have been participating, incredible things have happened. There were things happening that have never been seen in Korean history. We had a huge situation in Korea. The explosion of the submarine Chonan, in which South Korea lost 46 navy men, was discovered to be an attack from the North.  It was again bringing back the whole struggle between North and South Korea. Actually, for the last few decades, Koreans cannot remember a situation where there was such tension between North and South.
Interestingly enough, the whole 120-day jeongseong ceremony ends on June 25th, which in Korea is called Yuk-Ee-Oh (6.25, June 25th), that is the beginning battle of the Korean War. It is the 60th anniversary of Yuk-Ee-Oh jeongjaeng (the Korean War), the war in which North and South fought, killing one another. How coincidental that it is the exact time when the jeongseong finishes! Sixty years – because we gave the dedication with True Parents, Father and Mother, the condition becomes 120. So many things happened here with the South Korean military.  We had the opportunity, with Father’s great blessing, to meet a monk who opened the doorway to meet the Korean military, preparing the way so we could do the Seung Hwa ceremony for the soldiers who have passed and lost their lives in the war.  For this, Father had to give special permission, because, as I mentioned, the Seung Hwa ceremony is the greatest blessing. It allows one entrance into Heaven, a task which Unificationists must live their whole life of faith to achieve, but Father has given that blessing.  Three weeks ago, we went to Daejeon, and for 4,024 Korean patriots who died in the Korean war, we were able to give the Holy Wine Ceremony along with the Seung Hwa Ceremony because of Father’s blessing.  We were able to have great meetings with the current two-star general who was there.
Also, because of this situation, another opportunity has arisen on June 23rd, when we head down and do a Seung Hwa Ceremony for over 37,000 American soldiers who lost their lives fighting for this land of Korea. Let’s give it up for all those American soldiers who lost their lives to fight for the Holy Land! Father gave an incredible permission this time, to be able to give the Chuk Bok Shik, which is the Holy Wine Ceremony, and the Seung Hwa Shik, which allows them entrance to Heaven. We’re so grateful for all those spirits who can now receive that incredible blessing.
It is also the time when, through those connections, the North and South Korean governments gave us permission to send a Unification Church pastor into the military. Until now, when our children went to the military – because in Korea it is mandatory, all men have to go the military service – they had no guidance because there was no pastor. Many times, they were alone and were greatly depressed.  We have been fighting to get a pastor into the military, but because our Unification Church is still small, we were not able to do so. However, during this incredible time of jeongseong, when we were praying for North and South Korea, and when incredible things were opening up on the South Korean side, we were able to send a Unification Church pastor into one of the main training centers, which is called Nonsan training center. Now, when our kids are there, they can receive guidance, they can offer service, they can study True Parents’ words, and continue their life of faith in the military when they are giving their service.
It is a year full of worldwide catastrophes.  We see the volcano eruptions in Iceland.  The first time, the Europeans said they looked into the sky in the broad daylight, and it was dark. There were earthquakes all over the world: in Haiti, Chile, and also in China. For the last hundred years, Korea had never received such an incredible amount of snow. All these incredible natural signs have been culminating at the same time as the 60th anniversary of the North and South Korea conflict. Only during that time, a new conflict arises between North and South, where there is actually an attack on the South.
But I do believe, brothers and sisters, that because True Parents understand the shift of heavenly fortune, they knew that crisis would arrive, that a crisis would occur again between North and South Korea. They called us and told us to give our sincerity, to pray for North and South Korea.  They reminded us to center ourselves back on the Word.  I believe because they did so, and our brothers and sisters who are participating did so, that we had a minor incident like the Chonan, and we didn’t have a full scale war North on South. I believe that our brothers and sisters and leaders who participated in the jeongseong were able to protect Korea and be a conditional offering before Heaven, and protect this world from absolute chaos and this nation from war. Let’s give it up for our brothers and sisters who are in that jeongseong. That’s the second purpose of the Cheon Bok Gung, the Abel UN.
Now in the growth stage of the Cheon Bok Gung we have a prayer room which houses the Saints from all religious traditions, but in the perfection stage Temple, that is the worldwide Temple, the world will see True Parents and will know who they are. In that temple, even though it is the Unification Church world headquarters, there will also be a Christian Church, there will be a Catholic Cathedral, there will be a Mosque, and there will be a Buddhist temple in there.
We’re not just talking about inter-religious tolerance or peace.  In that temple, we’ll be living it, we’ll be living with those communities, and we’ll be creating the new model of peace. We will actually be substantializing the unity of the religions. Let’s give it up for the Unification Church! We’re not just going to talk about it; we’re going to live it! That is the perfected stage Temple. I’ve been around the world, studying religion, and I have never ever seen such a thing as that. That is the second thing we do at the Cheon Bok Gung.
The third purpose is the substantial foundation for Cheon Il Guk: 21,000 believers at the growth stage, 210 000 believers at the second stage, in the middle of Seoul, to truly create the center where all believers come together, where people who believe in True Parents, who truly want to fight for North and South Korea unity, those people who have discovered who the return of Christ is, come together and start creating the substantial foundation for CIG, not just doing ceremonies, but actually living the life of faith together.
It is my thinking – I know I cannot read heavenly fortune like True Parents can read it, and I cannot predict these things like they can – that incredible world change will happen. I do believe, more specifically, that something will happen in a new relationship with North and South Korea. Isn’t it ironic, that in this time, when North Korea has cut off every single line of communication around the world with every single government, and every single organization, that only the Unification Church has the final avenue with North Korea? Isn’t it ironic that only True Parents now have communication with the North? Isn’t it ironic that we’re imploring them, through Mr. Park, who is there on the ground, to build North and South unification? In fact, now many Koreans in the peninsula believe that. The highest monk in Korea, Cha seonsaeng nim, the president of the Chogae order, with 20,000,000 Buddhist followers, came to Cheong Bok Gung last week because he knows, all the Buddhists know, and now the citizens of Korea know, that Tongilgyo is the last avenue of communication to the North. They are begging, they are searching for the Messiah, searching for the Savior, searching for someone who can try to create this peace we all yearn for here on this peninsula. It is my feeling that in 2013, there will be an incredible opening, somehow a new relationship with the North, a new relationship that will bring depression.
Until now, the North has been told that it is the greatest nation in the world, the most powerful nation, but I believe that when the North has a new relationship with the South and actually gets a view of the South, they will face the reality of the situation that they are not very developed in comparison with the world. We have to understand that the North Koreans have incredible patriotism. Their patriotism will collapse, and they will fall into great depression because their self identity as proud North Koreans will crumble before their eyes. There is also the situation where, if 20 million North Korean people have to be assimilated with the South, it will be a huge economic burden that the Korean government cannot deal with. This is a situation of great difficulty.
However, when the North realizes the true reality and falls into a state of depression because of losing their own national identity and their sense of self pride as North Koreans, when they feel that kind of depression and emptiness, what can fill that void, who can fill that void? Doing service works, cleaning the streets will not fill that void, that loss of identity that has been totally destroyed. I believe there is one thing that can fill that void and that is the True Parents of Heaven and Earth! That is what I believe, brothers and sisters!
What religion proclaims that the Messiah, the returning Lord, comes from North Korea? There is no other religion that does that. If the North Koreans are going to find hope in a life of faith, wouldn’t they find great hope when they discover that the Messiah has come to their land, and has gone to the world and founded the most successful religion in the time of its founder, and created a worldwide foundation? Because of True Parents’ foundation, over a hundred thousand brothers and sisters come to the Holy Land, to Korea, every year. Because of True Parents, people around the world want to learn Korean, just like Muslims want to learn Arabic.
When people all around the world who are Unificationists receive the Blessing, we offer thanks and bow to Korea.  We offer our great gratitude towards the Holy Land. Who was able to do this as a Korean? If there is anyone that a Korean person can be proud about – and especially a North Korean can be proud about – it is the Reverend Sun Myung Moon who is from that nation, who has gone to the world and has brought the True Parents of Heaven and Earth! That is who they will find new hope from!
I believe something of this nature can occur; it is not impossible.  We’re on the brink of war right now. The tension is immense. Brothers and sisters, True Parents tell us there is a world change happening. We may have the opportunity to communicate with our brothers and sisters in North Korea in a new relationship with them, when they want to learn the faith, and try to find a new identity that can give them even a greater sense of pride – not arrogance but a new sense of pride of who they are – a sense of mission and purpose that they lost in facing the reality of their situation as North Korea. It is during this time of jeongseong that things are being prepared.
I asked the leaders why True Father is making them center themselves on the word, why he is making them almost professionals of the Principle. It is because, if we have a new relationship with the North, people will want to learn the Principle, and we’ll need people who can teach the Principle. We need people who are living the Principle, people who can inspire the life of faith in new members and build them up so that they can be great people and testify about True Parents. That is the reason why I believe True Parents have sent us on this 120-day jeongseong offering, which will actually end next week. Let’s give it up for all our brothers and sisters who are participating in that! Give them encouragement! It’s ending next week!
Even though we are dealing with certain things in our movement now, confusion and such, I’m simply not worried about that because they are based on things that are not eternal. Things that are based on falsehood are not eternal. We don’t have to focus on that. We can focus on what is eternal. We can focus on our purpose, on our relationship with God. We can focus on our True Parents who are victorious before Heaven and Earth. We can focus on the mission of North and South Korea and their unity. We can focus on building the Promised Land, building the Kingdom of Cheon Il Guk. These are things we can focus on. These are things we can put our faith and energy into. These are the things that will bring about Cheon Il Guk, not other things.  These are things that remain, that are eternal, that are our legacy in the Unification Church.
Let’s end with True Parents’ final word, which is from the collection of speeches, volume 17, page 227.  Let’s read together:
“In order to attain the object of your sincerity, your mind must be unified. You must possess a single mind; you cannot have two minds. You must offer your sincerity with a single mind from the beginning to the end. Sincerity is not something you can lend to someone and then take back. Therefore, if your initial sincerity is not matched by equal sincerity in the middle and at the end, it cannot be called sincerity.” Aju!
Final prayer:
Dearest Heavenly Father, we thank You because we need You, we need our True Parents. You are our eternal center; there are no other True Parents than True Parents. There will never be another True Parents, and there will never be a new returning Christ. Father, we pray that we can find this center in this time when many forces are trying to shake the Unification Church. We know and we are confident that we will overcome these storms because we hold the Truth, we hold to what is good.
Although we may not be perfect, we move, we take action in our lives, trying our utmost to represent You with our best ability. Father, we pray during this time that You may be with us, and we may have strength, even though we are weak before Heaven; that You may make us strong; that we can pass through this storm and see the new horizon, the sun that is rising up ahead.
The precarious situation between North and South Korea, this relationship that can escalate into a conflict – Father we pray that it doesn’t get to that level. We pray that the jeongseong that our brothers and sisters have offered for the last 120 days can be remembered by Heaven. From now on, we will continue to pray and to work so that the North and the South can come to peace in the Holy Land.
Father, thank You so much.  We know You are preparing great things, especially for 2013.  We look forward with expectancy, but not foolish expectancy. We want to prepare our life of faith and our study so that we can truly represent You, teach the Principle, move people, and save those people who are so in need of knowing You.
We pray for the North Koreans. We don’t want to see them as our enemy.  We see them as our brothers and sisters. We pray for the Holy Land, for unity here. Once more, we thank You for all things.  We move toward Your light and Your presence forever and ever. Thank you, True Parents and thank You, God.  We give all these things in our own name, the names of central blessed families, the name of True Parents. Aju.

Rev. Hyung Jin Moon's Visit to Brazil, June 26-28, 2010

True Parents asked our international president, Rev. Hyung Jin Moon, and his wife, Mrs. Yeon Ah Moon, to vi sit our brothers and sisters in Brazil this past weekend, from June 26th to 28th.  Hyung Jin Nim brought our True Parents’ love and clear guidance to all of our leaders and members in Brazil, and his words were broadcast throughout South America.

After the very difficult events which took place in Sao Paolo on May 30th and 31st, True Parents asked Rev. In Jin Moon to immediately go to Brazil (from June 5-8) and comfort the brothers and sisters there on their behalf. In Jin Nim embraced the Brazilian members and leaders from throughout South America, letting them know how much True Parents loved them. Her words brought comfort and clarity, cutting through the confusion and chaos of the week before.

After In Jin Nim’s visit, the General Assembly meeting which was convened on June 12th in Sao Paulo ended up reaffirming the leadership of Rev. Simon Ferrabolli. At that meeting the sole agenda point (proposed by members of the Board) was the removal of Rev. Ferrabolli. However, all 70 elders who were present voted unanimously to keep Rev. Ferrabolli in his role as Brazil National President.

This was so comforting to Rev. Simon Ferrabolli, who had endured so much pressure from the board members to resign, being told by them that major law firms from America were coming to ensure that he would be removed. Even his wife and children went through incredible suffering during this time. Of course, the continental director, Rev. Shin, has also been wrongly accused and has been put through hell during this time. These two brothers, however, have consistently stood strong for our True Parents, no matter what.

On Saturday, June 26, a second General Assembly meeting was held in Sao Paolo. Rev. Dong Moo Shin, the South American Continental Director, reported on the results of the meeting. The general assembly, which is the highest decision-making organization in the Brazilian FFWPU, gathered at 9 a.m., based on a motion set forth during the June 12th meeting and in accordance with the articles of association of Brazil FFWPU. Those with a right to vote at the general assembly include the 10 people who founded FFWPU Brazil in the early days, current church leaders and former church leaders. On June 26, 110 people attended the general assembly and there were more than 70 observers watching the proceedings. Moreover, the meeting took place while Rev. Shin, Rev. Heung Tae Kim, Rev. Oyamada and lawyers observed.

Because 90% of the members were not in attendance at 9 a.m. (a quorum of 90% is required), the meeting did not begin until 9:30 a.m., when a quorum was present. The matter at hand was to legally remove the five members of the Brazil FFWPU Board (which was made up of 3 Americans, who are part of the UCI Board and who appointed themselves to the FFWPU Board and 2 former presidents of the Brazilian church) through the vote of the general assembly. The meeting took place with lawyers in attendance and there was a video recording made.

The result of the vote was unanimous. All 110 top Brazilian leaders voted to remove the five board members without a single opposing opinion. Thus, the revolt of the Board, which had become a controversy, was dealt with on a legal basis.  The national leader, all headquarters leaders, church leaders from around the nation and core members who formerly were leaders, united centering on True Parents to bring a victory that allowed for a new beginning.

The most fundamental cause of this victory was that our True Parents gave a clear standard through their proclamation, their words and their love. Secondly, the great help and support that was offered to Brazil at the most critical time by In Jin Nim and now by our International President, Hyung Jin Nim, truly has made this victory possible.  Now the General Assembly will move to amend the articles of association in accordance with the direction of our international headquarters and elect new board members.

Hyung Jin Nim and Yeon Ah Nim, who arrived in Sao Paulo on June 26th in good health and bright spirits, decided to stay in the staff room on the sixth floor of the headquarters building. They bowed to True Parents, prayed and then began their schedule. The international president spoke to the over 200 leaders and members who had participated in the general assembly on the topic of True Parents’ value. He especially confessed about his own life of setting conditions in realization of how sinful we are in front of True Parents. He emphasized again and again that all brothers and sisters in the Unification Family must clearly perceive who True Parents are.

Hyung Jin Nim said that there is only one True Parents for eternity and that he himself always stands in an object position in front of True Parents with much to learn. He stressed that we should be grateful for the glory of attending True Parents. He also testified that True Parents miss and love Brazil and South America in general, and encouraged the Brazilian members to strive to live by True Parents’ directions and teachings.

Though the Brazil incident was ultimately an attack on True Parents, he emphasized that we won in the end and only True Parents could bring this victory. He testified to True Parents’ amazing victory through giving the opportunity for the 120-day special workshop and spoke about his strong conviction to achieve the completion of Cheon Il Guk in 2013.

On the second day of Hyung Jin Nim’s visit to Sao Paulo, on Sunday morning, over 300 members gathered in the Small Sanctuary for a 3:00 a.m.  devotion and 5:00 a.m. Hoon Dok Hwe. Everyone spent this time together with Hyung Jin Nim with a joyful heart.  At Hoon Dok Hwe, people took turns reading a section of True Father’s autobiography, allowing for a time of serious reflection on True Father’s providential course and life.

Hundreds gathered from 9:00 a.m. to hear Hyung Jin Nim’s message, filling the chapel of the headquarters building to capacity. The sermon, which was translated by national leader, Rev. Ferrabolli, provided such deep and nourishing spiritual food for the members in Brazil. The international president gave a precious speech, in which he seemed to give the core contents of everything he has spoken about in the past and recently.

While Hyung Jin Nim was giving his sermon to all of South America on Sunday morning from Sao Paulo, Rev. In Jin Moon was broadcasting Hyung Jin Nim’s “Address to the International Leaders” from Lovin’ Life Ministries in the Manhattan Center to all of our churches throughout America. So, simultaneously (Brazil is just one hour ahead of New York), Hyung Jin Nim’s message was being heard on the continents of North and South America, representing the complete unity of North and South America, centering on our True Parents.

After Hyung Jin Nim’s sermon, Mr. Cypriani (former church president and one of the removed board members) gave a public repentance and apology before all of the Brazilian members on stage. Rev. Ferrabolli, who is truly a compassionate and a passionate man, rushed to his brother and embraced him in love and reconciliation. It was truly beautiful to see for all those members to see these two brothers embrace.

Hyung Jin Nim and Yeon Ah Nim ministered to the brothers and sisters in Brazil, giving such beautiful words and true love, even taking the time to visit families in their homes. A lottery was taken after the service and a humble family who lived in the nearby mountains won the blessing of receiving a personal visit to their home from Hyung Jin Nim and Yeon Ah Nim.

Hyung Jin Nim’s couple and their living example of True Parents’ love was truly overwhelming for the Brazilian members.  All of the brothers and sisters throughout Brazil and South America appreciate our True Parents’ love and wisdom in sending Hyung Jin Nim and Yeon Ah Nim to bring the healing love of God and the power of God’s Word.

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International Pres. Hyung-Jin Nim’s Speech to National Leaders at Cheong Pyeong, June 12 , 2010

Brothers and Sisters from around the world, it is again a pleasure to see you all here at Cheong Pyeong. I am sure that a lot of you have actually heard rumors or whatever, surrounding certain issues in our church, which are causing confusion in different regions. And you probably even saw stuff on the Internet. But I am sure you did not see this in so much detail.
The fact of the matter is though; True Parents have been suffering greatly over the past 15 plus months. On many occasions, as all of you who are with True Parents during HDH know, Parents very strongly said, even many times, to take legal action. And I and Kook-jin nim, we went to Parents multiple times, and we begged them to please give a little more time, before we do such things.

So it may seem to our worldwide membership that this is very sudden, but actually for the past 15 plus months True Parents have been suffering through this ordeal. I am sure that you all know that the real reason that True Parents are going to Las Vegas is because they are, of course, trying to meet their son. So it is actually a very painful situation for all of us in the Unification Church. Anybody that has to be in leadership, and especially in the True Family, especially True Parents, this is absolutely heart-breaking.

So I think that we all have to remember where our faith is at the center. True Parents give us life, true love and true lineage; and then our responsibility is to give them absolute faith and love and obedience. We all fail at that to certain degrees during our life of faith. And if we look at our lives, we will notice that actually we are not perfect either; that we all have sinned. We may not have Original Sin, due to True Parents blessing, but we do have collective sin, we do have hereditary sin, and we do have individual sin, which we accumulate on a daily basis every day. So, one of the things that we must remember is that we are sinners.

I think our members in this church have forgotten this fact. We have forgotten that we are sinners. We have forgotten to teach our children that they are sinners as well; and that they accumulate all sorts of sin. And the reason why this is important is because, if you realize that you are a sinner, then you realize that you need a Savior. If you don’t feel that you are a sinner, you will believe that you do not need a Savior, and that you do not need to meet the returning Christ. It is only when we have the humility to recognize that we also have sinned, do we truly desire, and truly understand that we need True Parents. We need the Savior. And I think this is very basic not only in Christianity or in Islam, but also in Buddhism; it is very basic that we all have tremendous amounts of sin.

Without understanding this point, one does not understand, or does not feel the impetus to pursue the Messiah; to pursue the life of faith with all their heart. And this is really important. It is only when we understand that we have sin that every day we make sin; every day. We do sinful actions every day, every single one of us here are sinners, including myself.

You know, when I was in high school I did not date, and I did not have a girlfriend, I did not smoke or drink, I did not do drugs, so I followed True Parents rules; and so thus I believed I was worthy of respect; members had to respect me, even though I was quite a terrible person. I was quite an arrogant little high schooler, a bully. I learned martial arts, so the kids were scared of me. So even though I followed True Parents mandates; still I was sinning, because I was so arrogant. I was filled with hubris. I believed that because I did not commit those sins, I did not have girlfriends, I did not drink or smoke, or I did not have drug problems that members automatically had to respect me and that they should greet me by bowing when I came in the room, just because I followed those precepts.

But that in and of itself was completely arrogant and in and of itself was sin. I never realized that until I really started training, pursuing a spiritual path. I realized how much I had sinned even though I had fulfilled the basic precepts of our church, which we tell our blessed kids.

This is very important to realize because a lot of us, as blessed children, we’ve never heard that we are sinners. First generation never told us we were sinners, that we are sinners, that we need a Messiah. First generation never educated us that we were sinners. So this was a very big thing for me to realize. So I asked True Father when he was here doing the Seunghwa Ascension Ceremony Tour in Korea. We were having lunch at one of the cities and I asked him, “Father, just because I am a blessed child and do not have original sin does that mean I can go to Heaven?” And he said, “Absolutely not.”
We, as blessed children, have been told that we are without original sin, that we are God’s greatest creation; that His whole providential history has been waiting for pure children like us. But the problem with that type of education is that it makes us very arrogant. It makes us very spiritually arrogant and we don’t have the ability then to see that we are filled with flaws, filled with sin. If you believe that you do not have sin, then you also believe that you do not need True Parents. This is the reason why many blessed children turn their backs on True Parents saying, “I don’t need them, I’m going to Heaven anyway.”

So this is something that we must fundamentally understand again. Whether you’re a blessed child or a Jacob child, it doesn’t matter. We have to realize that we commit all sorts of offences against Heaven every day, from our thoughts to our words to our actions. It is because we have so much. If you actually watch your life and you see how many trespasses you make against God’s commands in one single day and you take note, you would be quite shocked. But this is very important for us because it’s only when we recognize in humility the fact that we are not perfect, where we lean and we yearn for the one who is perfect; and that is God and His embodiment which is True Parents.

So this is very important; once we understand we have sin, once we understand we are sinners before Heaven, and once we understand that True Parents, through their life course, through enduring the seven deaths that they had to go through, spiritually descended into hell so that they could save our souls. When we understand the price that had to be paid, then we too wish to give back to True Parents. Not just in monetary or physical things but we wish to give our life. Once we realize what the savior has done for us, then we wish to offer our life in return because that is exactly what the True Parents have done for us.

The only reason we can stand before God, is not because we’re born as blessed children or we’re born without original sin. That is not the reason. It is because of True Parents paying the price, the indemnity course that they had to walk as the Second Coming that we are able to go before God. This is so important for us to realize and remember. Because if we don’t realize this, we will be filled with hubris and we will believe that we do not need True Parents or that we do not need their commands, or that we do not need to follow their will. That will lead to tremendous suffering everywhere.
So one of the things that I feel our church has been completely lacking is that we have shied away, we have been scared to talk about sin: When, actually, sin is so prevalent in the Divine Principle. When you look at the Principle, sin is everywhere; The rhetoric about sin, the rhetoric about needing the True Parents, the rhetoric about the types of sin that have accumulated over the past providential history; The rhetoric of personal sin that we commit against Heaven. This is so basic. But brothers and sisters, we have shied away from this because we think that it’s very negative or we think that it’s not going to raise positive children.

Brothers and sisters, it has the opposite result because we took out the rhetoric of sin. We have a situation which can occur which is young people that believe they are more perfect than they are, and that is very dangerous before Heaven. Because before Heaven we have to have humility, we have to have repentance. We have to have confessing of our sin, realizing my weakness. Because it is only the weak that God chooses to become strong, to turn into the strong. It’s not the strong that God uses. It’s not those who believe that they are so powerful that God uses. God always uses those who are inadequate in some way.

You know through providential history that Moses was a murderer; that he could not even speak, that he had a terrible stutter. Joseph was a criminal placed in jail. All the providential figures you look at. Jesus was a beggar or weak. You look at all the providential figures. But they have one thing. That is not arrogance before God. Because it’s through our disposition of surrender that God makes us strong that makes us able to do more than we are actually physically able to do on our own ability.

Dear brothers and sisters, this is so very important at this time because we really deeply need the Messiah; we need the True Parents. We cannot walk this path all alone. We absolutely need the True Parents.

If we think we could do this alone, that is the hubris of the first Archangel that betrayed God, Lucifer, whose name actually has the good meaning of being the bearer of light. Lucifer was filled with talent. He was the best among the archangels. He had the greatest name which God had bestowed upon him. But he did not have humility. He had hubris and that led him to disobedience. And it is hubris which leads us to belief that we do not need God. Therefore, for us it is very important to realize that we do need True Parents – we do need God!

It is not an option. We cannot walk this path alone on the ability of the first generation, or the second generation – even all the way up to the one-thousand-millionth generation. It does not matter. We cannot walk this path alone. The only rock we have and which will change the world is the rock that is True Parents! Aju! This is what we have to realize. I often tell blessed children, “You may often hear that now is the age of the second generation, that then there will be the age of the third, then fourth generation,” but I tell them, “I am sorry, my friend, that is wrong. There is no age of the second or third generation. There is only the eternal age of the True Parents. Aju!”

This is very important for us to realize. No generation can replace the True Parents. That has to be very clear. No one, and I do not care how great they are, has walked the course of the Lord of the Second Advent. No one has paid the indemnity through the stages of the individual, the family, the tribe, the society, the nation and the cosmos, from the servant of the servant, then to the servant, to the adopted stepson, to the real son, to mother and father and then to God.

Nobody has walked that course, nobody has paid that indemnity and nobody has died seven times to pay the indemnity for the sin that has been accumulated over history. Even Jesus died once and was resurrected. But True Parents had to go through the course to fulfil all of the eight stages. Therefore, we have to realize that no generation in the future can pretend to be in the position of True Parents. It has to be very clear because of the absolute center of this Unification Movement: True Parents.

The Unification Church, in this very short period of time, has become the most successful religion at the time of its founder. And it will spread more and more and become the most successful religion in the world. Watch it. But it will never succeed and flourish if we forget this point. It is all about True Parents. It is not about us. It is not about the next generation, or the thirties generation – it is not about them. It is about each generation inheriting the true love, the sacrificial love that True Parents have lived.

Each generation has to keep going back and trying to inherit that love from the True Parents, a love which will die, and die, and die, and die, and die, and die and die again for the children. Do you see what I mean? It’s not about pretending that we are the next generation which will inherit it all. This is wrong thinking. So we must be very clear. Our eternal center are True Parents. Our eternal King of Kings are True Parents. There is no one like True Parents. They walked the course of history to fulfil the mission of Jesus. They actually became the ones who have liberated God Himself so that God can dwell in the physical world, in the body of True Parents.

It is very important for us to realize that we can never be like True Parents. We are ontologically different. It is a very fancy theological world. We are different beings. And this goes for all people, including True Children. I think True Children are making mistakes at times and we as well are ontologically different to True Parents. We cannot be True Parents! We cannot! Father may bestow all the titles on me. But I am not True Parents and I will never be True Parents. I am not the Lord of the Second Advent. I am not the Second Coming of Christ. There is only one who is the Second Coming of Christ. There is only one who is the Messiah and there is only one who has paid indemnity for the sins of all of human kind and history. There is only one who has paid the price for us, our families, our grandchildren, our tribes and our nations to be worthy to go before the throne of God.

Father may call us tribal messiahs or national messiahs, but we must not confuse this. This does not mean we are The Messiah! Yes? We know this, right? We are not The Messiah! This is very important for us to realize, because when we walk a life of faith, we have to come into the path of humility, otherwise we become obscured and obstructions arise. All sorts of confusions will arise. All sorts of temptations will arise; temptations, weaknesses that we have. Whether it is lust or craving or greed or jealousy; these things will become greater if we don’t have the discipline of humbling ourselves, the discipline of training ourselves continuously. Once you believe in True Parents you realize that they are your Lord and Savior. They are your True Parents who have died and died so an unworthy sinner like me can go before God. When you realize that you have that kind of parent, then you don’t take them for granted. You wish to offer yourself to them as they have offered themselves to you.

So one of the things that results is this- just because we claim to believe True Parents this does not mean we actually do believe True Parents. We always have to be careful of this. If we claim to believe in True Parents, if we claim to see them, serve them, offer them glory and happiness as the returning Christ, the perfected man and woman, Adam and Eve, the True Parents of Heaven and Earth and the King of Kings; if we say we do this then it must arise in our life. You must be able to see it in your life.

So when I train my Hoonsa nim’s, I always tell them, you check yourself. There’s four ways you can check yourself. Always watch yourself. There’s four ways. There are four basic ways you can watch yourself.

Number one: You can watch yourself, asking. Am I repenting every day? Am I repenting every day? Do I carry out a life of repentance? Do I understand my unworthiness before the perfection of God? Do I repent at all? Do I repent every day? Not in suffering, not repenting in pain and suffering, and in torture, but do I repent with joy? Do I have the ability to see that I am flawed and come honestly before True Parents and repent? Am I living a life of repentance? You know this is so important. This is the basic training we do; devotion of training every morning from meditation training to bows. The center of this is repentance.

Second: The sins that I thought so casually about. I used to think, Oh, True Parents saved me; I have no original sin, they’ll forgive this little sin. They’ll forgive me here; they’ll forgive this little sin. I thought so casually about it. Now when I see those things, I hate them. I hate them with all my heart. You see, because God is love, He must hate [sin]. People really are mixed up about this. God is love so He cannot hate me. I am sorry because God is love, sin cannot go near Him. Evil cannot go near Him; because there is no evil in love. There is no sin in love, there is no falsehood in love, there is no infidelity in love, and there is no adultery in love.

So because God is love, He hates sin, He hates adultery, He hates infidelity. And so in our life, the sins that we thought so casually about, now do we hate. Now do we feel the chastising of the Holy Spirit of the spirit world upon us when we commit those sins which we usually thought so casually about? Now do we feel the weight of the spirit world watching and judging us? Do you live like that? As leaders of the Unification Church, do we live like that?

A third would be the friends that I choose to associate with. Maybe we associated just with people who made us feel good. We want to really be with them, people who just give us a good time. We want to be with those kinds of people, more secular people, but when you change, when you realize that True Parents have saved you, you don’t want to spend time with those kind of people. You don’t want to spend time with them. You want to spend time with people who love True Parents wholeheartedly, who would die for True Parents, who sacrifice every day for True Parents. You want to be with people who are fighting for True Parents, witnessing for True Parents. You start loving those people of faith, because you look up to them, you feel the realness of their life.

You know, it’s very sad because I see a lot of Japanese missionaries who go to different countries, and they are many times ridiculed because they have such a powerful faith. And it’s a very sad thing. They’re ridiculed because they’re too intense. Too intense. But that’s what I’m talking about; these Japanese members who have absolute faith in True Parents, who would sacrifice and sacrifice – when we see them in our nations, do we ridicule them? Do we, in our hearts say, “They are too much,” or do we want to be with them at all times because we can learn and grow? You see? That’s the difference.
And the fourth point is: when I was a young boy we used to go to Gloucester with True Parents – that’s on the beach, ocean side – and True Father, when we were very small, five years old, four years old, and for us, we are very tiny and True Father was so big, like a giant, he was so large, like a giant. And when he walked on the sand we could see his footprints in the sand. We could see his powerful and True-Father-like footprints in the sand. And then we, as young children, we tried to always walk in those footsteps, tried to copy him, and stepped in those footprints; but because of course we are too small and our legs are not that long, we can’t do it. So as we reached we would fall down and we stumbled, etc.

But this is the last point: do we strive even though we will never be like True Parents? Do we strive like the pure, innocent little child that tries to follow the footsteps? Do we strive even though we stumble and even though we’re not perfect and we fall and stumble? Do we endlessly try to inherit their heart? And remember, what is their heart? Their heart is of a True Parent. What is the heart of a True Parent? The heart of a True Parent is a heart that will die, and die, and die, and die, and die, so that their children may be saved. Do we realize this? Do we live our life of faith checking ourselves on these training points, or do we just go about our work?

You see, this is so important, because we will realize that even though we are leaders, and we have people following us, we are still sinners. Do we realize this? If you realize you are a sinner – I want you to raise your hand if you realize you are a sinner – raise your hand; if you have sin, raise your hand. I raise my hand with you. You see? This is why we need True Parents. This is why we have to understand that, even though we don’t have original sin, we still have so many infidelities before heaven. And as leaders this is so important because we must always reflect on ourselves. We must always look at ourselves. Because the real cause of the fall, before it was the fall of Adam and Eve, and the lineage fall, it was an infidelity of Lucifer, arrogance, hubris, which led to disobedience. And this is something that we must always keep in our life of faith; this is so central to our life of faith in True Parents.
Just because we are leaders in the Unification Church there is no guarantee; just because you are a blessed family or a blessed child there is no guarantee that you will be able to go to heaven, to the place near God. No guarantee; in fact, amongst the leaders in this room, who can go before the perfection of God? None of us. We will be immediately repelled. God doesn’t have to judge us; see, True Parents say that God does not have to judge us. That is so striking, if in the spirit world God does not have to judge us. What does that mean? Does that mean, because He doesn’t have to judge us, He doesn’t judge us, and we can live as we want? Quite the contrary. God does not have to judge us; I’ll tell you why He does not have to judge us, because He is love. He is goodness. So if we are evil or even if we have a little bit of sin we will be repelled like a magnet that is plus to plus – it repels.
God does not have to judge us, we naturally are pushed away and we must remember that in the spirit world, if we read Father’s words – and I said this in front of True Parents – there was an interviewer from the media that asked me, “Do you believe in hell in the Unification Church? Do you believe in a fiery hell?” And I said – no, we don’t! We don’t believe in a fiery hell. Then he asked me, “What is the incentive for me to behave well, then? Shouldn’t you have something that is a little scary?” I told him, you must remember that in the Spirit World God’s love is like the air that we breathe.

If you are pushed away from God because of your sin and because of evil, you will be repelled out of God’s realm of love without His judgment. And if you are out of His realm of love – what is love? It is air. Without His love, you have no air. Then I told him the world record for holding your breath is, I believe 18 + minutes and the person that did that stated that when he was at about 14 minutes of holding his breath – he was in the most agonizing pain that he had ever felt in his life. Remember, it doesn’t finish after 20 minutes. If you are out of the realm of God’s love, you are suffocating for eternity. Not only is it a place that we cannot breathe God’s love, but there we will also receive the judgment of the ancestors. Because, although God may not judge us, our ancestors will, other spirit beings will. Because they can see our life, as Father says, on a video camera, completely transparent – you can see your life completely. You can’t hide anything.

So brothers and sisters, when we truly realize that True Parents have done what they have done – that they have saved us like the song “Amazing Grace” says “saved a wretch like me” – a wretch like you and me – when we realize that our True Parents have saved us – they have saved our eternal soul. They have become our parents. They have allowed us – if we stay obedient – if we offer them absolute faith and obedience – that is the thing that we must offer them. They offer/give us True Love, True Life, and True Lineage. We are called to return absolute faith, love and obedience.

When we realize that they have done such a thing, then we cannot be the same way. I know certainly that my life has completely changed ever since I experienced the Seven Deaths and Resurrections of our True Parents – ever since I realized what they had done to save a sinner like me. You see, brothers and sisters, in this time of confusion and challenge, we must remember that we have one rock and as leaders of the Unification Church, we have one purpose – ONE PURPOSE – that is to bring glory to True Parents.

That is the one purpose we have. We bring glory to True Parents. The second purpose we have – is to bring glory to True Parents (smile). The third purpose we have is to bring glory to our True Parents! That is our purpose. You know we try in our most effort to do so. We are like the little children who are imperfect trying to follow the footsteps. But that continual effort – that continual perseverance – is what is important. Not only the effort, but also to actualize what our True Parents have set the foundation for. So we must also create the result that our True Parents have set the 95% foundation for.

Brothers and sisters, I pray that you may realize these things – that we all may – but we can always reflect in humility before God and True Parents (and) we can realize that we are sinners. But not just say “Ok, I admit I am a sinner, ok – then I will sin more – I’m a sinner anyway!” No, not that kind of arrogance. We realize that we are a sinner, and we hate the sin. We hate it! We want to do everything to get rid of it. This is very important but many people forget. I can admit, “Ok, fine, I’m a sinner. Ok I’ll just sin – I’m a sinner anyways.” This is arrogance. This is a convenient way to fool oneself – to believe that one is righteous. No, when you realize that you are a sinner, you end up hating the sin. And you do all that you can to try to walk in more accordance with our True Parents so you do not accumulate that kind of sin. You repent so that you can be forgiven of that sin.

Brothers and sisters, we all must do this. We all have to do this. This is something for everyone in the Unification Church. We must all realize this and practice it. Because if we do that, when we do that, then God can be pleased. When we enter into Him, when we come into His presence with thanksgiving and gratitude and humility, then He can be pleased. Then He can bless us with greater ability than we have, with greater strength than we have. And I believe that if we do this in our nations, we center ourselves on True Parents, center ourselves on the teaching of our True Parents, continuously hold on to True Parents, this is the saving grace for your countries and for the world. Aju! (Applause)

So, I hope that we can reflect on such things and that we can go back with a true heart to our nation/state and really make a difference for our True Parents. They have really done the impossible. Now it is our turn (pause) to completely become one centered on our True Parents forever and continue to do what is impossible because we have God and because we have True Parents.

Thank you brothers and sisters. Let us bow our heads in prayer.
Dearest most beloved Heavenly Father, Father we thank you so much for calling us today. Father, we thank you for giving us a new resurrection because, Father, without Your incredible history that You have walked through the True Parents of Heaven and Earth, the returning Christ, the path of continual sacrifice and death, torture descending into hell so that all of us may enter into Your grace with our families and with our children.

Father, we pray that we can truly imbibe that sacrificial heart. That, Father, we may know the difference between what is right and wrong; that we may not, Father, water down sin in our lives or in the lives of others, but that we can make a clear stance when something is wrong. Father, let us have strength and unity. Father, let us always be centered on True Parents whom are our eternal rock – whom are our King of Kings. Father, we pray that we may rely on Your wisdom – we may rely on Your grace.

For Father, we wish to live our lives in training ourselves – training to repent, Father, to truly not just commit sins casually, but to really begin to hate our sin. Father, to move closer towards goodness, towards Your presence. Father, we pray that we may continue to walk, albeit imperfectly, in the direction and in the footsteps of our True Parents. Not that we emulate their physical actions or we emulate their style of speaking, not these superficial things, but we inherit their parental heart which is the center of their being. The heart that will die and die and die and die and die again for the salvation of humanity – to return the people that have fallen away from You – the souls that are full of death – to bring them into everlasting life in Your presence. And Father, we pray that we can inherit THAT kind of heart – THAT essence of True Parents.

Father, please bless these leaders that are here today. Father, we all know that we are sinners before you – we know we need True Parents. We know that we commit sin every day and, Father, we want to stop committing those sins. We do not want to believe that Grace that True Parents give us is a license to sin for that is the greatest insult to True Parent’s sacrifice. Father, let us be those who are more perfect – more good – more saintly before heaven. Let us walk in the way of goodness. Let us strive for perfection even though we may never reach it.

Father, we Thank You so much, because we know that it is our effort, our 5% responsibility that allows the Providence to move forward as well. But let us not be arrogant in thinking that we have done it all. For You have done 95% in everything, Father, for us to walk this path. We Thank You so much. We want to offer True Parents our love. We want to offer them our life. We want to offer them everything that we have so that we can truly bring the true love which they have embodied to the rest of this world.

Thank You so much, Father. Be with these leaders as they return back. Father, let them truly stand for righteousness, Father, and let them be exemplars in their regions. God bless all the regions. Father, we pray all these things in the names of all our blessed families – in the name of our beloved True Parents, Aju. (Applause)
From: http://iunificationist.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/international-pres-hyung-jin-nims-speech-to-national-leaders-at-cheong-pyeong-june-12-2010/