This is an unofficial English translation prepared for tplegacy.net. It has not been reviewed or authorized by FFWPU or any official Unification Movement publishing body.
Sunday, Former Headquarters Church.
Matthew 18:1–14
Prayer
Father, half of this year has already passed. Ten years have gone by since the day this nation was invaded by the forces of evil. Holding only worry and sorrow in our hearts, taking tomorrow as our hope, and spending today in anxiety — such has been this pitiful nation; such have we been, pitiful.
Father, we know well the reality of human beings, who pass a single day wondering whether even today they might establish something new before Heaven, who spend a month hoping for such a tomorrow, and who pass a whole year hoping for such a month, busy with uncontrollable, hurried steps. You know well that we, set in the midst of such a current, are struggling to halt our steps for a moment in the place where we stand and to find a time when we may face You. You also know well that within us there is a desperate longing of heart to return something of our heart before You.
We know we bear the responsibility of offering before the Father a time that others cannot offer, and of devoting before the Father a sincerity that others cannot devote. For that very reason, you know well that as the days go by and as the hours pass, each of us feels not a heart turned toward the world, but rather an anxious mind and an urgent heart turned toward the Father's Will.
Father, the time has passed when we should live worrying about tomorrow and worrying about today. We know that the day that must come is drawing near, and the day on which all accounts must be settled is also drawing near. We know that, in preparation for such a day, Heaven is moving us within the sphere of our daily lives. Through circumstance, through heart, through grasping in experience, or through some empirical fact, we clearly know how we ought to live and how we ought to walk.
Father, the sorrow of the six-thousand-year providence is great, but the heart with which You look upon us today — placed in surroundings that cannot but make us hesitate — must, we know, be even more grievous.
Father, we have come to know Your grievous heart, which cannot feel joy and cannot boast before all under Heaven; we have come to know Your inner grievous heart, which must lay bare the hardships You bore in seeking out this earth, expose the historical contents, and take vengeance upon the enemies. Father, now whether we live or die, allow us to become bodies that stand forth solely for Your sake.
Whether rain falls or snow falls, whether bitter winds blow, and even should chains and barbed wire lie across the road before us, even should our bones be ground down and our flesh be torn, we hold the resolve never to alter the fidelity we pledged with You. Therefore, please believe us in this.
It is the wish of us, born as the descendants of fallen ancestors, to become the kind of figures in whom You can place trust and find peace when You look upon us. We sincerely desire to become sons and daughters in whom the Father can trust, sons and daughters to whom the Father can entrust eternal and Heavenly precious things and call truthful. Pledging once more to become such sons and daughters, we have prostrated ourselves again before the Father. We know that the Father is not the Father of any one church alone, nor is He the Father of any one nation alone. We have come to know that to become the Father of a nation and the Father of a church, one must first pass through the course of being our Father.
Father! Have we truly come to know Your circumstances? Are we truly attending to You as our Father?
We have come to know that here lies the issue. Whatever anyone may say, this single tangled bond of circumstance between the Father and us is so vast that nothing in the world can compare to it, yet we have wandered seeking the great things of the world.
We have come to know that everything must be resolved by ourselves. We have come to know through the Word that Jesus, who came to this earth, longed for his beloved disciples to set up such a standard.
Although Jesus' disciples were the very ones who ought to have realized that, if they failed to fulfill the responsibility they bore before Heaven, they would become inadequate figures unable to lift their faces, we have come to know that they nevertheless quarreled before Jesus over rank and precedence.
We have come to know that they, who ought even in heart to have felt awe before Heaven, asked instead who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Today, when the history of these second two thousand years has passed, allow us to know that we must become figures who do not lose our roots.
Father, even if we today on this earth could attend to Jesus, who hungered when he was hungry, who shed tears when he was sorrowful, and who consulted his disciples concerning his difficult circumstances, we have come to know that there is no one able to attend to him beyond the standard Heaven desires.
Even now, after he has already been sent up to the Heavenly Kingdom, we who have come to know his heart and circumstances must console that one who has gone.
We have come to know that we bear the responsibility of consoling the one who came to this earth and walked a sorrowful course; therefore, allow us to become sons and daughters who, if it be a matter that can give You joy, do not hesitate even at the path of death and go forward sacrificing all that they are.
Allow us to know that high and low are matters known to You alone; allow us to know that for the one who possesses the Father, there is neither high nor low; allow us to know that only the one who loves the Father with a deep heart stands in the higher position of son.
We know we must become sons and daughters who long for the Father's bosom and forget all else, who busy themselves urgently in grasping the Father's heart through experience.
We earnestly entreat and desire that You allow us to know that the one who lives together with Your deep heart, who loves together with Your deep heart, who consults together with Your deep heart, though outwardly appearing the lowliest, is the one who possesses Heaven and earth.
Since we have come to know that there was upon this earth no friend to the heart of Jesus, who lived in han, we earnestly entreat and beseech that You grant us, even at this hour, the glory of being able to become friends to the heart of Jesus.
On this day, throughout South Korea, there are sons and daughters of Yours who, with lonely hearts, are appealing before the Father; please be present with them as well, and pour Your blessing also upon countless denominations and peoples.
Countless spirit people in the spirit world are seeking conditions of resolution upon this earth; we earnestly entreat that You allow us to bear in full and carry forward the responsibility that yet remains before them. We have offered all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Human Beings and God: Searching for What Is of Value
We know well that anyone living upon this earth, without exception, is always seeking something within his heart. To seek the value that can fashion a fine environment is, of course, precious; yet more precious still, we believe, is to find one's own self, to find one's own life and one's own heart, and then to meet the master of the life and heart so found — or else to find an object partner with whom one can take joy.
A scholar, through learning, racks his mind in research and labor to attain that which he aims at, but if he attains his aim, what is he to do thereafter? A man of power ceaselessly struggles to obtain the power he envisions, but having obtained that power, what is he to do thereafter?
Even ordinary people are all seeking something of value, but having found it, what are they to do thereafter?
If you yourselves were placed in such a position, what would you do? This must inevitably become a question.
Even when we ourselves are placed in such a position, that which we sought does not remain merely our own; it inevitably forms a relationship of partnership and unfolds. This is a fact that everyone experiences.
That which we sought does not end with being mine alone; we form a relationship of partnership and seek to extend that value to the family, to society, to the nation, to the world, and onward to the entire Cosmos. This is the attitude, the mind, the heart of us human beings. You cannot deny this.
Therefore, even though one's heart may earnestly desire to set up his individual self alone and to praise an infinite value, this cannot be accomplished centered upon oneself alone. The closer one approaches a certain standard of value, the more one must become a person who possesses the inner content to connect that value to the surrounding environment, to the world, and onward to a value that can be measured against the Cosmos.
Only then can such a value be raised as a value of the whole, and only then can happiness be possible for that person. This you must come to know.
However outstanding, however excellent the person may be, even should he possess something of which he can boast before all under Heaven, that something must be what everyone of the multitudes wishes to possess, and it must furthermore be something whose value the multitudes can come to feel together within a short time.
If there is a person who possesses such a value, he can only become a figure of worldwide stature. If this is so for human beings, it must also be so for the absolute God who created human beings.
When God created the things of creation, He must surely have created them with a purpose. We cannot deny that there was, without fail, a purpose in the course of creating the entire created world, from the smallest individual being to the great universe.
Then what was the purpose for which God created human beings?
We have more than enough basis, through our lives, to perceive that God created human beings to fulfill through them something that He alone knew and that He has bound Himself in relationship with human beings up to this day.
Today, human beings are seeking something. Not only human beings, but the absolute God who created human beings is also seeking something. What are human beings seeking? Human beings are seeking that which is of supreme value.
Then what is that which is of supreme value?
If we take my individual self as the example, it must undoubtedly be life. This is something everyone acknowledges, and something whose value can be grasped through experience in actual living. We long for and seek the value of this life. At the same time, we are seeking the value that stands as the object partner before the value of that life.
Then what shall happen after the value of that object partner has been found?
Once the standard of partnership is determined, it does not remain still; without fail, it moves and acts together with the entire universe. This is an inevitable conclusion.
From what may we draw such a conclusion?
By observing physical phenomena. We may draw this conclusion by observing the phenomenon that, once a relationship of partnership is formed, motion and action without fail occur; by observing the phenomenon that this motion is circular rather than linear; and by observing the physical phenomenon that things move to enter into a relationship with the whole rather than with the individual being alone.
The First Stage of “Seeking”
Then, in the entire course of history thus far, has there indeed been any human being who lived as the bearer of the kind of life value that countless people sought, for which countless people longed, and toward which countless people set their aim? This is the question.
Furthermore, only when there exists a human being equipped with a life standard such that one can boast of bearing a value greater than the Cosmos can the human being be called the lord of all things; yet human beings have not attained that standard. Then, where lies the purpose for which God conferred upon human beings the value of being the lord of all things?
Here we have come to see that human beings are seeking the value of life, and we may infer that the Creator God Himself has had to walk the course of history to bind Himself in an overall relationship with the value of human life.
When we consider this, God must without fail appear as the historical God, and He must appear as the God of the present age — that is, as One who can enter into a relationship with our life through the feelings of daily life.
If this is the inevitable condition and the inevitable bond, then a further question arises: are there human beings who attend to a God who, through such feelings of daily life, appears as the center of the value of life?
This is the standard upon which our human life ought to stand, and God is the One who, having set us upon such a standard, would resolve the fundamental question of our being.
If a complete human being should appear upon this earth — one whom God acknowledges and whom I acknowledge and, at the same time, whom the entire created world can acknowledge, that is, one who possesses the complete value of life — then the question of the first stage of God's “seeking” will be resolved. You must come to know that we are placed in such a position.
Human Beings Like Lost Sheep
As we have seen in today's biblical Word, we are like sheep that have lost their way.
We do not know under what master we have been raised, nor do we know which master has fed us pasture and brought us up.
After all, we who live in this world are placed in the position of sheep that have lost their way.
We are placed in the position of sheep that do not know whether there is a master, whether there is a fold in which the master raised them, or whether there is a meadow on which they were fed.
We human beings, on being born, come to know that we have become children of some family and citizens of some nation; later, we come to know that we have formed a married couple and built a family. But is this the substance of the “seeking” that has resolved all the questions over which human life has wandered? It is not. This is the requital of the Fall.
For this reason, when I look upon my individual self, although there are parents, they are not my true parents; though there is a wife and children, they are not my true wife and children; though there are brothers, they are not my true brothers; though there are countrymen, they are not my true countrymen; though there is a world, it is not the world for which I yearn — so we feel.
Why is this so?
Because there is no environment, no society, no world, no such family, no such wife and children, and no such parents able to fill the deep valley of the heart.
However many parents who love me, I am one who cannot be one hundred percent satisfied with the love of those parents.
However much there be a wife and children who love me, I cannot, by them, feel one hundred percent happiness from the deepest place of my heart. Whatever doctrine or ideology there may be, I, we cannot but acknowledge, cannot be one hundred percent satisfied by it.
The reason is that the present parents are not the True Parents to be found as one's parents; the present wife and children are not the true wife and children to be found as one's own; and the present brothers, countrymen, and humanity of the world are not the true ones to be found as one's own. We cannot but acknowledge this.
Therefore, human beings must first find the true individual and must find the true parents.
Then where are the true parents?
Where are the true couple, the true children, the true brothers, the true nation, the true world, the true Cosmos? And how shall we find God? These are the questions.
Our Family, Which Has Not Become the Wellspring of Happiness
God has held on to history and humanity in a position from which He has been unable to resolve the clashes and quarrels between this people and that people, this tribe and that tribe.
Even if a person walking the path of the Way devotes his loyalty solely to God and lives a life longing only for God, God could not appear before him freely and at His own discretion in an unhindered environment, and so could not fully meet his demands.
Then how is it with our lives?
The family on which we trust and lean, our parents, our wife, and children, or our brothers — none of these can become the wellspring of our rest. This is a fact that cannot be denied. For this reason, there is no greater emptiness for human beings than this, no greater darkness lying ahead, no greater pity than this.
Human beings know that they have life.
If we acknowledge that we are beings who have life, then we must know that there is, without fail, a world bound up with us. To bind this world of relationships together eternally, we must, without fail, set up a bond of heart centered on the heavenly principle of relationship.
So long as there is a human principle of relationship, there is affection; so long as there is a heavenly principle of relationship, there is Heavenly affection.
As the human principle of relationship and the heavenly principle of relationship move in step, so too must human affection (인정) and Heavenly affection (천정) move in step.
If human affection follows the human principle of relationship and Heavenly affection follows the heavenly principle of relationship, then the time must come when human affection and Heavenly affection are made to communicate as one.
Furthermore, the human affection that is bound and centered upon me must be publicly acknowledged as Heavenly affection.
If a person stands in such a position, we cannot but call him one who has found the supreme thing that fallen humanity has been seeking ever since history began.
So long as human beings have intellect, emotion, and will, God too must have intellect, emotion, and will.
If human beings are beings who, centered upon heart, must inevitably grow weak, then God too is One who, centered upon Heavenly affection — that is, upon heart—cannot help being so. This we must come to know.
If from the very beginning human beings had been born with such relationships and bonds, you yourselves would have set out from that very position.
The value of my life ought to have been bound up with infinite value, my life-feelings with eternal Heavenly affection, and any goal I longed for ought to have been linked with the eternal ideal of God; yet because of the Fall, my life-feelings, my longings, and all my values have been lost.
For this reason, the most pitiful person is the one who, having possessed the most, lost it all at once. There is no one more pitiful than this.
The Standard of Happiness
Then who is the happiest person?
If there is a person who has been guaranteed that he can hold all the precious things of the world eternally, he is the happiest.
Whatever rank one may hold in this world, it is temporary; however much one may enjoy honor, wealth, and glory, that too is temporary; even should one boast of the value of one's own life within a single age, that too is temporary. As the flow of history changes, what one boasted of comes under criticism. We know that we human beings live within such a flow of history.
Then were human beings created from the beginning to be placed in this position?
If human beings were created by the hand of the absolute God, and were created as beings of value who, through the absolute One's heart, could feel the absolute One's purposeful awareness as object partners, then if God made any promise to human beings, that promise was not temporary; just as God is eternal, that promise is eternal.
If there is a bond of heart between God and human beings, that bond of heart will likewise undoubtedly be eternal.
However, we do not possess an eternal bond of heart, an eternal bond of promise, and, going further, an eternal bond of life. It is not as though God created human beings intending to withhold such things.
From the beginning, He intended to give us human beings, once human beings reached completion, all of these — the entire value such that, were it given once, there would be nothing more to give.
Yet because human beings fell, He could not give us this value. As a consequence, human beings have lost that value. And we lost it not at intervals across time, but all at once, together with the Fall.
Then, in what position have human beings been placed who have lost this all at once?
In the position of those who, from a position in which they could have possessed many things, have lost many things—that is, fallen into a position of infinite loneliness, infinite sorrow, and infinite emptiness. We cannot deny this.
For this reason, the people who live upon this earth are not happy because they possess much. The more one possesses, the more it becomes a factor that hastens suffering rather than a factor that hastens happiness and satisfaction. We know this well. The same is true of knowing many things. We thought that to know much would mean happiness, but the more we know, the unhappier we become.
Then what is most precious? It is life centered upon the love of God. This we have come to know. On the day when I become one with the life centered upon God's love, when I become one through whom the love of God flows, and when I become one who can sing of God's eternal life, then for the first time will all humanity find the standard of happiness.
The Reason Human Beings Are Wandering
Then what kind of life are we human beings now living?
A life of wandering. We are wandering, not knowing where to go.
Why have we come to wander?
Because the center has not been set up and because the awareness of purpose has been lost. It is also because we do not know the value of our lives and the absolute content with which our lives are bound. For this reason, we are wondering.
If the value of our life, the center of our living, and the goal we look toward—if these can be set upon the same standard as the eternal heart of God, the question will be resolved. But human beings, having yet failed to set up that standard, are wandering.
Now the time has come when you yourselves must ask yourselves, “In what kind of position am I wandering?”
The reason you cannot but acknowledge yourself to be one who is wandering is that you have no center within. Therefore, the question becomes whether I have a center and, going further, whether I have an awareness of purpose.
Human beings must hold the absolute center of life and must, from there, feel value and have an awareness of purpose. Only after that, when one comes forth before all under Heaven, can the human being for the first time take his proper place.
This was originally the purpose for which God created human beings, but human beings have lost this content. For this reason, the whole of humanity in the world is wandering, unable to find the center. They are not only wandering but are placed in a position of disorder and confusion. Human beings placed in a position from which they cannot establish themselves cannot help but feel terror, anxiety, and unease.
What is this phenomenon?
It is the phenomenon of sheep that have lost their way; this you must come to know. Even if the sheep that has been raised by the hand of its master leaves its master and loses its way, it knows that the master exists. It knows what the master's circumstances are; it knows what the master's heart is; it knows what kind of relation it bears to its master.
It also knows how the master treated it when it was lonely, when it was hungry, and when it was in trouble. A sheep that knows such things, when it loses its master, will undoubtedly forget about food, give no thought to its situation or condition, and seek its master.
Even the Lost Sheep Longs for Its Master
If even an animal is so, then how much more so the human being, if he knows that there is an absolute master who created him and raised him.
If he knows that there is an unchanging master who, through his life, his heart, his ideal, and his value, can give him some guarantee and that there is some relationship and some bond between that master and himself, then today's human being too, kicking off the position of wandering wrapped in unease, anxiety, and terror in this fallen world, would forget his situation and his environment and would wander seeking the master.
The figure he would cut at such a time would surpass that of a sheep that, having received love and been raised, has lost its way and gasps in seeking its master.
Though a sheep is a humble animal, when it loses its master, it will, without being checked by its surroundings, cry out longing for its master and will surely run toward the place where it can communicate its situation with the master, toward the place where the master is.
So long as it has feet by which it can run, it will run. So long as it has feelings by which to feel, it will long, and so long as it longs, through its feelings it will, undoubtedly, express everything it wishes to convey to its master.
Just so, human beings too must, with all their strength, cry out and seek the master. Is it not so? For we human beings are placed in a position more pitiful than even a flock of lonely sheep that have lost their way and left the bosom of the shepherd.
We ourselves, the family in which we live, this nation, this world, and going further, the boundless spirit world in which countless billions of spirit people live—none stand in a position from which they may freely commune with God.
For this reason, we are placed in the destiny of having to seek the world of purpose, longing for the bond of Heavenly affection. Our heart, our body, and our life-feelings are at this very hour urging us to go and seek that world. The hour in which we awaken to such a self is the most precious hour for the human being.
Our human life, placed in the position of having lost the way, is utterly anxious.
Even if a sheep that has lost its way drinks the water of a flowing stream, that water cannot become the water of life for that sheep; even if it eats grass on the meadow, that grass cannot become the food of life for that sheep. Why? Because it is not the water and grass given by its master, but the water and grass of another master.
Likewise, all that we live by today — all that we eat, drink, wear, and live by — is, after all, the same as what the lost sheep eats and drinks. Although we eat and drink and wear, we are placed in a position in which we must, after eating, pay the cost; after drinking, pay the cost; and after wearing, also pay the cost.
You must come to know that this is the position in which human beings have lived up to this day.
The Secret of Finding the Master
Then who has become the master of this earth? Not the absolute God who created this earth, but Satan, the unwished-for master, has become master of this earth.
Therefore, however well a person may eat, dress, and live with abundant pleasures, that one too will in the end receive from Satan the demand: “Hey, you! Pay back the price of what I have done for you; repay me.” Such is the destiny in which our human life is placed. You must come to know that there is no greater injustice than this.
Human beings, created by the Creator God, were originally born with the authority to govern the world as God's children.
However, among our fallen humanity, there has been no being who possessed such dignity, such position, and such authority and could thereby boast before the Heavenly world.
Therefore, you who possess much, do not boast! You who boast of comfort in today's living, do not boast! You who exercise the powers of this world, do not boast!
All of these things shall pass away. They shall not only pass away; in the end, the cost of them must be repaid. We human beings stand in such a position.
Then, in what manner is God guiding us to save such fallen human beings?
Just as a sheep that has lost its master cries out grievously and with all its strength wanders seeking its master, so today's human beings on this earth must cry out with a grievous heart and seek Heaven with all their passion. This is what God is exhorting us to do.
A sheep that has lost its master must not sleep merely because the surroundings are comfortable. It must come to know that, since there is no master in the place where it sleeps, packs of lions and packs of wolves are always lurking.
It must come to know that there is poison in the grass it eats and that there is poison in the water it drinks. And, paying no regard to its situation and surroundings, it must run with all its strength. Not only must it run, but with all its strength it must cry out.
This is the secret of finding the master. It must drink the water it once drank and eat the grass it once ate, but if, regardless of whether the master is there or not, it sleeps as it pleases, it will surely become food for the wolves and lions.
The Path of the True Way Is the Path of Kicking Off the World
Jesus came to this earth as the Lamb.
John the Baptist cried out, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
Then, what kind of lamb did Jesus come?
He came as a lamb who came to point out the way. He came not as a lamb who had lost its way, but as a lamb who knew where the master was.
For this reason, Jesus said: “Leave the family in which you live and come out.” He did not say, “Your family is good, so fulfill your responsibility there and come out.”
He did not say, “Your nation is good, the church you believe in is good, so fulfill your responsibility there and come out.”
This earth is the earth of the enemy. The master is different. The original master, who gave me birth and raised me, does not know how to set a price on all the elements of life by which I eat, dress, and sleep. He sets no such price.
But the enemy sets a price on all that I eat, dress, and sleep with, and in the end demands repayment even for life itself. Because such is human life, God has, in dealing with human beings up to this point, dealt with them in a contradictory and paradoxical, even surprising, manner, and from such a position has governed history.
For this reason, we must beware of the enemies. While being on guard, we must come to know the secrets of the enemies. We must know the path by which the enemy comes, and we must know the place where the enemy is.
If we know the secret, there is a way of escape. But if we do not know the secret, there is no way of escape. To sleep at ease and live as one pleases is to have even one's life taken away in the end. This is the figure of the human being living upon this earth. Whether outstanding or not, all are the same.
Therefore, God warned the human being. He warned. To take hold of the world? No. He asked us to kick off the world and stand forth. Should it not be so? Only thus is He the true master. To tell a human being who has lost the original master simply to live well — that is the enemy.
For this reason, the path of the Way is a path that must be entered into by kicking off. So it must be. God desires that the human being who has lost the master, the human being who knows nothing of his bond with the master, kick off and stand forth; yet the human being is not doing so. Why? Because, not knowing the way to go, although he must go, he does not know the way.
On whose philosophical theory shall I rest my life?
On what doctrine or thought shall I rest my life? Are you at peace? You are not at peace. Because such things are not absolute.
The philosophies, doctrines, and thoughts up to this day may have been suited to a single age, but in the world of eternal life and heart, they have not been suited.
After all, they were not the things upon which we could trust and rest. For this reason, the human being is like a pitiful sojourner. Such is his position. The sojourner must, without fail, pay for his eating and sleeping.
The master may move his dwelling at will, and may drink water and eat food at will, but the sojourner cannot do so. He must repay. He must indemnify. The food he eats, the water he drinks, the place where he sleeps — for all these he must repay.
For this reason, what is it that the human being looks upon and longs for?
It is a world in which, having welcomed the true master of life, his life can rejoice — a world in which, however much he takes of the boundless nourishment and the boundless elements of happiness, however much he holds, no repayment is demanded of him.
The world in which no repayment is demanded is truly the world of happiness. Because God knows well the circumstances of human beings who have lost such a world, He did not tell them, in dealing with them, to come paired with the world. He told them to come, turning their backs on the world.
The Meaning of “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” Spoken by Jesus
Two thousand years ago, Jesus came upon such an earth.
What kind of life did Jesus live when he came?
What did Jesus bring before pitiful human beings — those like orphans and beggars, indeed, even more pitiful than that, those who, having received free of charge, would still demand repayment? Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” Is it really so? Truly, is it so?
Then what kind of way is that way?
It is not an ordinary way, but the one way, a way without forgiveness.
If there is one way that all beings long for, what kind of way must it be? There is only one way of living and then dying. To live and then die means the bringing to a close of life.
Then what kind of way is the way that Jesus advocated and walked?
It is a way of living without dying. It is a way in which, if one goes, one lives, and if one does not go, one dies. It is a way that brings the question of life and death to a decision. You must seek not the way of gathering money and living well, but the way that brings the question of life and death to its decision.
Next, what kind of truth is that truth?
It is a truth such that the one who is it can transcend repayment. It is a truth such that the one who has it is able, in all the matters of eating, dressing, and sleeping, to transcend the question of repayment.
For this reason, the early Christian believers who came to know Jesus transcended the questions of eating, dressing, and sleeping.
And next, what kind of life is that life?
The life Jesus spoke of is a life that holds the authority to move even God. To hold the authority of life means to contain love within. It means to contain a life that God cannot help but love. He spoke of such a life.
Therefore, Jesus said,
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)
Then what must we, who follow Jesus, hold?
We must hold the way. We must hold the truth. We must hold the life. Christianity is what was set up to give the way, the truth, and the life by which the lost sheep may return.
You who go forward centered upon that thought — you must, first of all, stand on a standard from which you can transcend material concepts. You must be able to transcend the concepts of eating, dressing, and sleeping.
If you do not become equipped with the ability to transcend these things, you cannot prevail against this world. You will be no match for it.
Next, for us who are centered upon the name of Jesus, death is no longer the question. We must be able to transcend the terror of death. The one who believes in Jesus must be so.
Whether one dies after ten years or after fifty years, dying is the same. For one who sings of eternal life, what does it matter if he dies after a thousand years or after one year? We must be able to cross over the hill of death.
Looking at the biblical Word, Jesus said,
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me."
But I think love must also enter therein. If I were to speak, I would say, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, and the love….”
Of course, the center of Jesus is love. This thing called "love" is what is set up after one has gone the entire way that must be gone.
Those who believe in Jesus must not weep merely because things do not go well.
One of faith must also not say, “Ah, I cannot live anymore.” Even if a danger to life draws near, one must have the conviction by which to transcend the realm of death.
The reason this earth has been historically tangled up is that things went wrong on the level of feeling. Therefore, in the matter of feeling, too, we must carry out a revolution. Even in a situation in which dozens fall, if one thinks that one is falling within the Will, one can pass over with dignity. You must hold this kind of resolve. So Jesus did.
But from the standpoint that the world calls joyful, from the standpoint of the happiness that the worldly human beings see and feel and call delightful, Jesus was a pitiful figure.
Joseph and Mary, in a position not knowing when she would give birth, were on their way to their hometown, and in the end, gave birth to Jesus in a stable.
Do you suppose Jesus thereafter lived well?
Far from it. Jesus was raised as a stepchild. As Joseph's stepchild. Do you suppose Joseph attended to Jesus, regarding him as the Son of God? No. Jesus was raised as Joseph's stepchild — as a stepchild.
Jesus, Who Had to walk the Path of suffering from birth, yet held his peace
Although for some unknown reason an angel had appeared in a dream and said he was the Son of God, and had so believed, once Jesus was born, all of that was forgotten.
The visit of the wise men from the East with their gifts also passed, and afterward all was forgotten, and ordinary daily living went on. You must come to know that Jesus lived, caught up in the family life of Joseph and Mary.
The time of testimony is one season, but the time of hope, when that testimony comes to fulfillment, comes only after a certain period passes. Yet the wise men from the East who had testified concerning Jesus all left, and Anna and the shepherds all left. Even John the Baptist, his elder kinsman, testified at first but later opposed him.
Joseph's family disliked Jesus, who came bearing the ideal of Heaven. His younger siblings — his younger sister and younger brothers—all disliked him. Do you suppose, beloved, that as Jesus grew up, he quarreled or did such things? He had no words. He was silent. His eyes wished to look upon other things, his ears wished to hear other things, and his mouth wished to speak other words. What he felt, he wished to feel something other.
Jesus grew up in the family of Joseph in a pitiful way. Nothing fit.
How heavy must it have been that, at twelve years of age, he left home?
When he went up alone to the temple in Jerusalem and disputed with the priests, his parents did not seek him out. Think of it. There was, of course, a mission of the Will too, but even from a human standpoint, how heavy must it have been that, at twelve years of age, he left home? What must Jesus' heart have been?
In the very place where he died upon the cross, Jesus could have spoken all the feelings of his thirty-some years of life, but he did not speak.
What must the heart of Jesus, who had to leave home in his boyhood, have been?
Jesus was pitiful. Such things are not recorded in the Bible. At the time of feast days, he wished to eat tasty food. He wished to wear fine clothes, festival clothes.
But Jesus held his peace. Such a Jesus they treated carelessly. Jesus lived attending upon his foster father, the carpenter, planing wood in silence.
The Time When a Right Recognition of Jesus Is Needed
Jesus was not the kind of figure that you today, crying “O Lord!”, believe in. Even those who today believe, had they been born then, would not have believed had someone said, “This man is your Lord.” Not one would have believed. Because history has set the value of Jesus upon a worldwide standard and we are told to believe, we believe.
Were the priests of old somehow inferior to you that they killed Jesus?
Far from it. Jesus, by family lineage and by every other measure, was in a wretched position.
After Jesus passed away, because the Bible says his lineage was excellent, we know it so, but how could the people of that time have known?
Whether one looks at his past or his present, Jesus was one in whom no one could trust in any way. For this reason, even his younger siblings spoke ill of Jesus.
At Pentecost or some other event, they would taunt him: “If Brother wishes to display something, he should go to Jerusalem where the people gather; why is he like this?”
In the course of his public ministry, even while performing miracles and signs by the power of God, Jesus underwent suffering. People would look at Jesus and despise him, asking, “Whose younger brother is this? Is he not so-and-so's elder brother?” His situation was wretched.
Throughout the thirty-some years in which Jesus prepared, there was something he earnestly wished to say, holding fast to his mother. There was also something he earnestly wished to say, holding fast to his brothers. But Jesus could not speak. Why? Because the standard of partnership was not formed.
Knowing that, with his parents Joseph and Mary and with his growing siblings, no environment had been formed in which he could cut off this tangled heart and stand forth, Jesus, when he turned thirty, kicked off from home and came out.
Beloved, do you think Jesus came out to preach the gospel?
Far from it. Did he come out to save all peoples? Why did Jesus fail to evangelize centered on Joseph's family and his relatives? Had his relatives become a hedge for Jesus, he would not have died. But that situation was not formed.
Because Jesus had thus been kicked out of the home and come out, when at the wedding feast at Cana, Mary appeared and told Jesus there was no wine, he said to Mary, “Woman, what have I to do with you?” That was natural. Natural.
Fortunately, he did not strike her. So I see it.
Who can know that heart?
The more the circumstances tangled, the more the heart was crushed; the more earnestly his heart longed for the heavenly principle of relationship, the more he felt the time drawing near, the greater grew his anxiety and unease.
The people who live upon this earth grow anxious and uneasy, not knowing the way they ought to go; but Jesus, you must come to know, grew uneasy and anxious because he was unable to teach human beings the way they ought to go.
Why Peter Could Be None Other Than Jesus' Chief Disciple
Beloved, think of it. The Pharisees, the Jewish people, and the Israelite nation had been prepared for four thousand years.
For four thousand years, through providence, God had taught them the law. He had had them build the Temple, that when the Messiah came, they might receive him and attend him.
And yet Jesus' disciple was Peter. It is a vexing thing.
Peter, of all people?
Peter was a fisherman. Even today in Korea, two thousand years later, a fisherman is regarded as a low calling—and was such a one to be Jesus' disciple? An unlettered fisherman, Jesus' disciple?
That the King of kings, the only-begotten Son of God, the Crown Prince of God who came upon this earth, should make the fisherman Peter his disciple? Think of it.
The excellent and outstanding figures who were able to lead the age ought to have said, “Master, only command us, and we shall follow whether to live or die.” But there were no such figures. Were there such figures, would Jesus have made a fisherman his disciple? Far from it.
For this reason, Jesus was utterly cast down. Jesus came down to the position of the pitiful. Not one among the unwise priests asked Jesus, “Are you the Messiah?” Look at the Bible. Was it so or not? Not one of those holding the position of Pharisee, priest, or rabbi became one of Jesus' twelve disciples.
Jesus was driven by the leaders of the Israelite nation, driven by the rabbis, driven by the priests. Where then could he go? Where? Was it because he loved the mountains that he went up into the mountain and stayed up all night in prayer?
You must overturn all that you have believed up to now. Jesus was one who, having no place to go, must yet fulfill the Will. Feeling the mission that the Will must be brought about upon this earth — at least in form, by setting up some humble being to compose the figure — and being crushed by such a heart, he had no choice but to seek fishermen.
Beloved, when Jesus said, “Hey, Peter, leave all and follow me,” do you suppose Peter said, “Yes!” and bowed and followed? Far from it. Peter saw and knew that Jesus was being driven and chased.
In the Bible, it appears as though, when Jesus said but once, “Hey, Peter,” Peter, by the power of the Son of God, then followed. Far from it. They were fishermen who had been despised by all the rabbis of Israel. So they bore resentment toward the rabbis and toward the leaders ruling that age.
Looking at the words and deeds of Jesus, who, to set up the course of public righteousness, cried out purely in the figure of justice, he was undoubtedly a good person; but as the rabbis hated him and drove him, they could not but follow Jesus. Those who were being driven came to follow Jesus. Isn't the present situation of Korea the same? It is the same. The same.
Beloved, look. Leading those unlettered disciples about for three years, how greatly Jesus suffered! How wretched it must have been that he drew water and washed his disciples' feet! Did he do it because he was pleased to? No. As one comes to know it, this is a sorrowful fact.
So it became that there was no place for him to go. Overall, in the course of the three-year public ministry, the twelve apostles, who had shared in joy and sorrow with him and pledged to die with him, all rejected him.
Where could he go?
So the only path remaining was the path of the cross. There was nothing left but to go to die.
Knowing that such a day was not far off, Jesus went up to the Mount of Gethsemane and prayed in confrontation:
"My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." (Matt. 26:39)
But the situation had already gone awry.
So Jesus died upon the cross.
The Purpose and Longing of Jesus' Coming
Then what was the purpose for which Jesus came upon this earth?
He came to introduce the true way before a people and a humanity wandering in a wilderness like a flock of lost sheep. He was the only-begotten Son sent by God for such a purpose, but the path he walked was desolate.
Because Jesus did not speak of how he had lived through the course of his thirty-some years of life, the Bible contains no record of it. He bore many sorrows seared into his very heart — what kind of path he had walked, what kind of grief he had felt, what kind of contempt he had received from his parents, and how it had been with his siblings — but he did not speak a single word to his disciples.
What was there in Jesus' course?
Because there was nothing of which he could boast, he could not speak. Because there was no condition by which to say, “Disciples, take my father as your model, take my mother as your model, take my younger brother as your model,” he could not speak.
The life of Jesus, who grew up in Joseph's family for thirty years, was a life of regret and a life of sighs. Living such a life, driven and driven, when at the very end even the disciples whom he trusted rejected him, because nothing remained to be thought of but death, Jesus sought the Mount of Gethsemane.
Did Jesus have to die to save all peoples? Is it that without dying, he could not save all peoples?
Then was the time when Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6), after he was hung on the cross or before? What time was it? It was before. All before.
Most of the words that appear in the four Gospels are words spoken before he died on the cross. They were not words spoken when he had been driven and driven and was about to die. How wonderful it would have been had he, while living and not dying, been attended as the Savior!
God is the One who, before lives wandering like a flock of lost sheep, before lives that have lost the view of purpose and the value of life, will without fail send a true shepherd. Therefore, by setting up the prophets as a bridge and bestowing the names “only-begotten Son” and “Savior,” He sent the Son of God upon this earth. Centered upon him, the historical new movement that arose is Christianity.
Then what was it that Jesus, throughout the course of his thirty-some years of life, sought to bring about?
Through the heart of God and through the life of God, to fashion glorified sons and daughters who had transcended the standard of life and death — victorious sons and daughters — and to set them before all under Heaven. This was what Jesus longed for with a single-minded heart. But that longing was wholly broken.
Jesus departed without speaking the words he wished to speak. Where in the Bible is it written that Jesus spoke all the words he wished to speak?
He said, “I have many things yet to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when the time comes, all things will be made plain.”
Jesus departed, leaving unspoken the words he wished to speak.
Jesus, who came as a shepherd before humanity, bore the responsibility of teaching the way to find God, the one way to find the master, but he departed without being able to teach it to anyone upon this earth.
Have you considered the heart of such a Jesus?
Therefore, we must pray. If we do not pray, we must make others pray.
Then, where lies the purpose of prayer?
Jesus pioneered and departed, having opened the standard upon which one can say, “I am the way, the truth, the life, and the love,” but is there anyone who has walked such a way? There is none. Not even in Christianity.
For this reason, a new movement must come forth that can deal a blow to the world placed in such a state. A multitude must arise who will burn off the historical husk, awaken a new heart, and bear the mission for this age, the mission for humanity and for the world.
Such a way, such a life, such a truth, such a world of love is undoubtedly the longing of the heavenly principle of relationship; therefore, there must be a multitude in preparation, acting to fulfill such a Will. The way that goes thus is the way that we must, without fail, walk.
If we acknowledge that we are the descendants of the Fall, we must walk in such a way.
Then who was Joseph?
He was a being standing in place of the man. Who was Mary? Mary was a being standing in place of the woman. Who were Jesus' younger siblings? Jesus' younger siblings were beings standing in place of the people. Joseph could not love Jesus in place of God's heart; Mary could not love Jesus in place of God's heart; the brothers could not love Jesus in place of God's heart.
The Life of Attending the Lord, the Life of Standing in the Lord's Place
Then what must you do?
The men must become Josephs whom God can love. The women must become Marys whom God can love. Going further, you must become the brothers whom God can love. Not only that, but you must also become the people, the humanity, whom God can love.
You must attend the Lord by a standard greater than that of Mary, greater than that of Joseph, and greater than that of his brothers. When that comes to be, the new history begins.
When we consider matters from such a standpoint, in what kind of position do today's Christian believers indeed stand?
You must not become like the twelve disciples who fled at the sight of Jesus dying upon the cross.
You must regard this with indignation. That it came to be so was the failing of the people, the failing of the family, the failing of Joseph, the failing of Mary, the failing of the brothers. We must regard this with bitter sorrow.
You must mourn that you yourselves did not love Jesus. You must mourn that you did not attend Jesus. You must mourn that you did not attend to Jesus and clothe him.
For this reason, Jesus said that giving even the smallest thing to the least of these with such a heart, giving even a single garment to the least of these with a heart pierced through, is to give it to me.
In your daily life, when you look upon some boy or some girl, you must be able to think, “If this boy or this girl were Jesus, what should I do?”
If, looking even upon a single person in daily life, there is one whose heart overflows to think upon him as though he were Jesus, who walked the course of thirty-some years of life, and to long for him, to do for his sake, to serve him—that one is undoubtedly greater than Jesus' disciples. He is greater than the Peter who is in that other land.
For this reason, look at John 17. How greatly Jesus prayed for oneness! Therefore, the disciples were those who, in the name of Jesus, had to love all human beings.
They were those who had to become Jesus' younger brothers, those who had to become Jesus' elder sisters, those who had to become Jesus' family.
Knowing such things, you must become those who, in daily life, know how to lift and serve human beings in the place of Jesus. If there be a multitude that, dealing with all people with a glad heart as though dealing with Jesus, longs for and grieves for the Lord, they will absolutely not go to hell.
Today, we must attend to Jesus from such a position. While attending to him, we must at the same time stand in Jesus' place.
The Right Posture That the Lost Sheep Must Hold
We are lost sheep. We are now living not in a land in which we can live eternally, but in a land that must once be settled, a land that must be judged, a land in which the enemy must be repaid. Therefore, the earnest heart toward the master must pierce us through.
Now, what is the duty of one who is a lost sheep?
What is the work to be done? We must transcend eating, dressing, and sleeping.
We must leap over all such things. Knowing that the reason we wander is that we have lost the way to go and that the reason we feel grief, terror, and anxiety as we live is that we are placed in the destiny of having to seek the way to go, we, just as a sheep that has lost its master longs for its master, must be likewise.
What kind of earnest heart must we hold? We must hold an earnest heart greater than the heart by which a parent loves a child. We must hold an earnest heart greater than that, I say.
If there be any loyal subject in this fallen world, we must surpass him. Even if there be hundreds of millions of loyal subjects, we must long with an earnest heart that can surpass them. Only thus will the dignity of God be set up. Will it not?
Pierced through with an earnest heart, whether eating or dressing, whether sleeping or waking, whether hearing or seeing, none of it must have anything whatever to do with me. With a single-minded heart, we must wish to behold him, to attend him. We must wish even to touch the toe of the master once.
How happy was Mary! She poured upon Jesus' feet ointment worth three hundred denarii and loosed her hair to wash his feet — how blessed an act! Beloved, have you considered? You must surpass that. And when Mary Magdalene tried to take hold of the resurrected Jesus, Jesus said, “Do not hold me.” Did he, or did he not? You must surpass that. Your standard must surpass that.
Forgetting eating, forgetting clothing, forgetting sleeping, with a heart pierced through, we must be mad for Jesus. With this, we must set out to seek the master. We must not stay still. With a grievous heart, we must shout aloud and seek.
Since the Last Days have come, we must seek. Within prayer, a voice is heard. The master's voice is heard from afar. Then we must run toward that place. Whether the legs are torn open, whether the belly is torn open, whether the head is broken, whether the clothes are torn, we must go.
We must not fail to walk that path because of our wives and children or parents.
Originally, the path of Christianity is such a path. The path of Christianity is the path of forsaking all that one has and going. As I said before, this earth is a land in which the price must be paid, but we must, throughout an entire lifetime, become people who do not indemnify Satan even one penny. This is the fidelity of Christianity. This, I say, is the fidelity that Christians must hold.
We must hold the heart that, since God has indemnified these enemies for six thousand years, we will not indemnify even a single coin.
If there be one denomination that, holding such a heart, holding such a heart pierced through, longs for the figure of the master and cries out toward Heaven, then the returning Lord will come to that denomination. He cannot help but come to that denomination. God seeks the one whose heart is most deeply pierced through.
The Christianity That Must Awaken
Jesus said, “Love me more than parents, more than wife and children, more than anyone.” This means that we must lift and attend to him supremely. Look at Luke 14.
The Word that Jesus first proclaimed is that very Word: “If you would follow me, love me more than you love your wife and children or your parents or anyone else.” But this has been altered in our day.
In today's Christianity, there are many newfangled Jesus-followers. The newfangled Jesus-followers have indeed grown numerous. They say this and that. Those who think they know a little are even worse. This kind of belief must be settled — before I die, I say.
You must come to know. You are Christians who must build before these people, before this world, an altar of the heart. Yet, is Christianity to become a Christianity that harmonizes centered upon human affection, or a Christianity that harmonizes centered upon Heavenly affection? The matter is simple.
Which is true? Are disciples who flee at the news that Jesus is dying disciples of Jesus?
Looking upon the twelve disciples who fled at the news that Jesus would die, God grieved.
You who are gathered here today must not become like those who fled in fear of what might come after the dying Jesus. Had there been disciples upon this earth able to say they would die before the dying Jesus, before the driven Jesus, the history of Christianity today would not be so wretched.
Had there at that time been a disciple who died upon the cross with Jesus, then together with the resurrection of Jesus, there would also have been the resurrection of that disciple. Had there been the resurrection of disciples, the Will of God would not have been prolonged for two thousand years. Is it not so?
Would God resurrect Jesus alone?
Would He raise Jesus alone, I ask? Think of it. That He could not see the resurrection of disciples together with the resurrection of Jesus is the han of God. Because that has remained, today's Christians are awaiting Jesus' day of return, dwelling in a sphere through which they must break through to the destiny of resurrection that the apostles failed to take responsibility for.
Just as Jesus, having gained victory over Satan, appeared bearing the authority of resurrection, so today in Christianity, those representing humanity who can kick off the satanic world and boast of the authority of resurrection must appear. Otherwise, the Christianity built up to this point will be torn down.
This is precisely the time for it. For this reason, those who are spiritually attuned have been entrusted with such a mission and responsibility. Yet they are mere wanderers. For this reason, looking upon today's Christians, the matter is grave. Christians must come to know the most basic question.
As beings fallen into such a position, they must come to know the master they did not know, the God they did not know. That is, they must come to know the original master who created them.
Yet no one knows the master and holds a bond by which to communicate with the master's heart. Because of the Fall, there is not one who has bound himself in a bond with the heart of God. Because there is none, God sent Jesus, who held a bond of heart with Himself, to bind the multitudes in a bond of heart. But because Jesus died, he could not introduce the contents of that heart. He left behind only the words that, in his name, you should love one another and the words concerning the bridegroom and the bride.
Now we must awaken. To kill on this earth the Messiah whom He sent?
Those who killed the Messiah must perish.
Who is the principal author who killed the Messiah?
The principal author is Satan. Who is the second author? The rabbis. Who is the third author? The Israelite people. This phenomenon is being reproduced in our day. The world history centered upon Christianity is flowing forth from such a position. The history of today's Christianity is turning back. Because the time is coming when the Lord who departed must again be attended.
Then in this hour, in this Last Days, what is it that you yourselves must do?
It is to adorn yourselves as the bride. What is it to adorn oneself as the bride? When Jesus came upon this earth, he ate only after sanctifying, he wore only after praying, he slept only after praying.
When Jesus came upon this earth, to avoid the conditions of accusation in eating, dressing, and sleeping, he lived in struggle with Satan for thirty-three years and so departed. You must regard with indignation that Jesus lived such a life and so departed.
The Time When We Must Adorn Ourselves as the True Bride
Beloved, what do you suppose will happen when the Lord comes again?
You suppose that when the Lord, the bridegroom, comes, you will ride on clouds up to Heaven; that the seven-year great tribulation will unfold; and that judgment will unfold upon the earthly world. Far from it. Far from it. Everything must be loosed upon earth. What is bound on earth is bound also in Heaven, and what is loosed on earth is loosed also in Heaven. Since human beings sent Jesus away in han, human beings must lose it.
When the Lord comes, have you prepared even a single garment that the Lord may put on without sanctifying? When the Lord comes, have you prepared a single bowl of food that he may simply eat without sanctifying and over which Heaven and earth can rejoice? Have you prepared a room where, into whatever room he enters, he may dwell without praying?
You know that Jesus, because the place was occupied by Satan, had to dwell only after sanctifying.
Then, having fulfilled your responsibility, made a sanctified holy place and most holy place, a comfortable resting place where the Lord can come and dwell at ease without praying?
Of course, the outer environment too must be prepared, but is your very body prepared in such a way? Far from it. God is coming to seek us by such a standard.
Of what kind of sheep does He seek the lost? He does not seek the sleeping sheep. He does not look upon such a sheep. He does not even look upon the sheep that, not knowing it has lost its master, lies sleeping. He does not look upon the sheep that, because it is thirsty, has gulped down any water at all and lies fallen asleep.
Therefore, in the Last Days, He has said to anoint your head with oil and enter your inner chamber and pray.
And in praying, you must not say, “God, give me food and let me live well in a comfortable place.”
You must embrace God's heart of love, must have tears of longing rise before you, must transcend grievous circumstances and sorrowful feelings, and must be mad with longing for the Lord to come.
What Kind of Sheep Does the Master Seek
If there are parents who have gone mad in seeking a beloved lost child, Heaven cannot punish such parents. Punish them? Heaven cannot punish them.
If there are such parents, human beings will bow their heads before those parents.
If there are such mad parents upon this earth, the nation, too, must bow its head before them. If there is one who has gone mad to attain a standard of heart in accord with the principle of Heaven, that one must be attended to on a national level.
There have been many who have gone mad for their children, mad for the one they loved. But how few have gone mad for Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God!
Only when there are such, does something come about. Had there been such, had there been, among the Israelite people, among the priests and rabbis, anyone with an earnest heart and the supreme heart, would God have had the wise men of the East testify of Jesus?
Beloved, the wise men of the East were diviners. Diviners, I say. That the birth of Jesus was testified to through them is a vexing thing. A vexing thing, I say. At that time, the chief priests should have testified.
The chief priests should have set out gifts and brought forth holy offerings and bowed their heads. But because they did not do so, Christianity became a religion of the Gentiles, and the First Israel also perished. Therefore, beloved, you must come to your senses.
Today, this nation and we ourselves are all those who have lost. But we must give thanks. If this is in fact so, we must give thanks. Everything we wished to possess has been taken from us.
All that we wished to love has been taken. North and South have been divided, parents and children, husband and wife scattered, and the three thousand li of the homeland have become a place of weeping. What shall be done? If this be by the Will of God to set up this people as a worldwide single altar, very well; but if not, it is a vexing thing.
But even if there be no Will of the heavenly principle of relationship for these people, we have no reason to despair.
If we are bound together in heart, and if there comes forth from among the Korean people even one person who can be called the foremost—beyond any denomination or sect in the world, beyond any founder or leader of any denomination, in devotion, sincerity, heart, and truth—one person whom God can remember as representing this age, then it suffices. Even one suffices, I say.
So let us not lose heart. Let us not lose heart. Even the lost sheep has a way to live and a way to go; how can there be no living way for us? Then what kind of way is that way? It is the way of seeking the true shepherd who, taking hold of God, appeals from the heart.
We, Who Did Not Know What Bond and Relation We Held with God
We did not know what bond was tied between God and us or what relation was knit between God and us. When my heart is anxious and I cannot, for some reason I cannot grasp, find rest, I grieve; but you must come to know that God, looking upon such a one, grieves tens of millions of times more deeply than I. Do you understand?
Even if there should be upon this earth one who does his utmost for Heaven, one who collapses doing his utmost, one who weeps for Heaven, one who is loyal as Jesus prayed at the Mount of Gethsemane, “Not as I will, but as Your will be done” — God comes to him with a heart tens of millions of times deeper than that.
Therefore, we must move at least with the resolve to take after his very figure. Such a one receives grace. Only thus is grace received. There is one whose single word, spoken from heart to heart without making it known, melts bone and flesh more deeply than the words of one who preaches loudly from a pulpit; gives the feeling that all one's cells reverberate as though something like a ball were bursting open; and gives the feeling that from the heart one cannot help but go to him — when there is such a one, take hold of him and do not let go. Take hold and do not let go. As though for life or death, I say.
If you fall thereby, you will fall first; if you receive a blessing, you will receive a blessing first. Then must we not bring it to a decision?
Because we do not know what bond we hold with the master we have lost, to return to that master, we must, without fail, receive some stimulus.
We who believe in Jesus must, in this age, become saints who can pray transcending life and death — saints like Jesus, who poured out all his sincerity in prayer at the Mount of Gethsemane.
After encountering a person a few times, I can tell whether that person is true or false. Ten persons or a hundred is not the question. What denomination is not the question.
Today in Korea, there are forty-two denominations. Among them, forty-one are heretics. Heresy. Can there be two ways? Therefore, the forty-one denominations are heresy. At some time, it will catch up with them.
Now denominations that put forward only the truth are passing away. The truth is something that stands in partnership. The truth is what is needed when the distance is still far and oneness has not yet been formed. Way and truth, too, are matters of process. Life is also so. But God's love is what brings about full union. Furthermore, what can act greatly without words is love.
Pierced through with such a heart of love, we must be able to laugh at all the things of the world. We must possess that something of which we can say, “Whatever may be given me, this cannot be exchanged for it; however excellent any other may be, this cannot be exchanged for him.”
Now, you must come to know the heart and circumstances of Jesus, must devote loyalty for Jesus' sake, and must go mad for him and wander. And if there be such a one, you must take after him. Only by walking in such a way can we find the lost Father.
God has dealt with you up to this day, but you have not known such a God. What relation do you hold with God? It is a relation between father and son. It is a relation of father and son, a relation of father and daughter.
What has God longed for up to this day, and what is His final longing?
When is the time when God rejoices? It is the time when He has found all the lost children. Only then can the parent be at rest. Your parents gathered here, is it not so? Suppose you had a hundred children. And among the hundred, suppose you lost one.
If you cannot find that one, however much filial piety the ninety-nine other children show, you cannot rejoice. You cannot feel joy. Is it not so? This is exactly that. When one of a hundred sheep has been lost, in the world of heart, there can be no joy. In the world of the heart, number is transcended and quantity is transcended. Qualitatively, all things are equal.
The Time When the Master Can Rest
Where shall the han of God be resolved?
Where lies the way of becoming a filial son and a loyal subject of God?
Even if one labors until one's bones are broken to build a temple for the Father, even if one carries stones until one's back is broken, bears loads of earth, carries timbers, when the time comes, all such things pass away.
The Father, who is seeking the beloved sons and daughters, the lost sons and daughters, longs for us human beings to become the figures who say, “Father, here are the sons and daughters You sought; Father, receive glory.”
We must come to know that we ourselves are the very flock of lost sheep. Even though God has taught us such people, are the way to go, we must not be satisfied with ourselves alone. He is not the Father who loves only me; He is the Father who, beyond the people and beyond the world, loves the Cosmos.
Today, feeling that we are those who have been called and set up to seek out and establish all things of value, we must, without delay, stand forth before these thirty million people.
If there be sons and daughters who, in the place of the Father, walk the path the Father has come walking; who, in the place of the Father, walk the path the Father is yet to walk; and who, in the place of the Father, take upon themselves the labors the Father must bear, and return all things before the Father — this people will not perish.
We have now come to know God's heart. We have come to know what God's truth is. We have come to know what the Will of the providence is. We have come to know that there lies before us a grave mission.
We have come to know that, even should there be circumstances of bloody tears and much suffering before us, we bear the responsibility of crossing over those hills, of fighting and breaking through. We have come to know that, even if my life is made an offering hundreds of times, we bear the responsibility and the mission of one day resolving the han of God.
You must come to know that for every day we delay, that very night there are brothers who fall.
Our Grave Mission Toward These People
Now the trumpet of the march of Heaven has been placed in our hands, and the shield of victory of Heaven has also been placed in our hands; therefore, raising high the banner of victory, we must blow the trumpet of march toward the people. Such a time has come.
That which God seeks is, beyond me, the family; beyond the family, the society; beyond the society, the nation; beyond the nation, the world; beyond the world, the Cosmos. He is the God who would establish a purpose and a value greater and higher than I am.
Therefore, when we come to know that God, taking me as a condition, is urging us to bind a relationship with the whole, even though we cannot act, we must at least pray. We must become protagonists who, embracing the countless spirit people in the spirit world and the hundreds of millions of humanity upon the earth, shed tears of the heart.
Even at the moment of his decision over life and death at the Mount of Gethsemane, Jesus was concerned for the Israelite people.
We must take after the heart of Christ, who, for the sake of the Christians of later ages who would have to cross the hills of death and suffering, prayed, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
If the soil of Korea were to become like the soil of the Mount of Gethsemane of that time, these people would perish.
Jesus prayed, devoting all his heart and blood, with a burning heart longing to turn the people back to God, to lead his disciples before God and share with them God's blessing; yet no one became his friend.
Even the three disciples who followed him fell asleep. But Jesus, though the people disbelieved and the disciples slept, alone before Heaven, devoting all his heart and blood, prayed, weeping over the destiny of the people and the destiny of the world. How many such true saints are there today?
God is seeking such a one. Yet — “On rainy days, on windy days, on days when wind and rain rage together, the Lord, to fill up the number prepared in the Last Days, even at this very hour — does He not wander through some mountain depth, some labor field, some slum? Does He not wander through some piteous battlefield, some cave where He cannot rest?”
Where is the multitude that, forgetting itself, frets and weeps thus?
Beloved, where are these thirty million people going? Now is the time when ministers must spit blood and pray with tears. Now is the time to cry out as Peter, James, and John, after letting Jesus die, repented their past and cried out. Therefore, we must join hands and unite. Denomination is not the question.
Sons and daughters who have set up one standard in which heart communicates—overwhelmed by the heart that Jesus Christ died for our sake, who, transcending all customs and forms of society, can urge, “Beloved brother, beyond the place of death, let us go together to the place of life” — where are such living sons and daughters? God is undoubtedly seeking. The purpose for which God has labored for six thousand years is to meet such sons and daughters.
Jesus, Who Came as the True Shepherd
When the sheep that has lost its master meets the master again, even if the sheep collapses exhausted on the spot, the master takes hold of that sheep and weeps aloud—you must come to know this. So it is with God.
Even though the sheep that has found the master, forgetting its position and forgetting the failings of its behavior, may collapse, the master who has found the sheep, thinking of how the sheep walked through the path of thorns and the path of stones, sheds even greater tears. Such a shepherd is the true shepherd.
Such a shepherd came upon this earth and departed. This earth is pitiful. He was the One who came upon this earth in place of the value of all life, the value of the entire universe, the value of the Cosmos. He was the One who came upon this earth, devoting all His heart and blood, to seek my single life, even less than a worm.
Have you become Christians who can weep with indignation at having sent away that One in such bitter sorrow?
Therefore, lest such a sorrowful event ever again come to pass, how greatly must Heaven long for the kind of church joined by such parents, brothers, friends, and multitudes—those who from birth pray for and exhort their sons and daughters, “Do not be like me!”
If you can openly stand in the place of God, God does not worry. But Satan accuses, saying, “Among the sons and daughters of yours whom I have ruled for thousands of years, there is so-and-so who was loyal to me and shed his blood for me.”
Then what must be the heart of the True Father, who alone in Heaven and on earth is the master of the entire Cosmos?
Satan, raising the condition that “so-and-so loves me more than he loves Heaven,” laughs at Heaven. Laughs at Heaven, I say. Until there appear upon this earth true sons and daughters who can ignore such conditions and transcend them, you cannot become the good ancestors of Heaven.
Today's Christians are driving out the saints who shed tears. They drive out the saints who pray. But there must come forth a multitude that can say, “Shed tears. Shed them until your clothes are soaked, until your heels are soaked. If by them salvation is possible, let them flow like spring water.”
The Last Days are the time when one must thus shed tears and pray much. Not only tears — one must pray even at the cost of pouring forth blood. We have crossed the hill of tears, the hill of the cross. At the Mount of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed a prayer of bloody tears. Embracing the people, he shed tears. Such a prayer can crush the authority of Satan.
When at the court of Pilate, Jesus was asked, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered, “You have said so.”
Even though he might fall, it was Jesus who would set up the dignity of Heaven before he departed; therefore, he walked the path of Golgotha with dignity. He walked through, shedding tears and blood and sweat. He shed blood; he shed sweat.
Yet Jesus held the heart that, should the enemy advance to occupy the city of the Father, he would stop them even by dying upon the cross as a single individual; he held the heart that, as a single individual, being a stepping stone, he would let the warriors of Heaven pass over. Afterward, when the Christians went forth competing with such hearts, even the Roman Empire bowed before them.
We, Who Must Walk On So Long as Breath Remains
We, standing at the forefront of this age, even should we encounter every storm and undergo every trial, even should our bones be shattered and our flesh torn, so long as breath remains, must be able to say, “Whether I live or whether I die, this is it.”
Becoming the proud sons and daughters who can shine in the four-thousand-year history that Heaven would set up for these people, we must leave behind even an altar of blood as we depart. This is the mission given to us today.
Such a multitude must come forth from this place and that, from every region and corner of the land.
If, upon this earth, which has become a wilderness, we cannot establish even one living being, there is only death. We must come to know that, before the human beings of later generations who hold the desire to live, there is upon us — gathered here — the mission to leave behind some sign, some wellspring of traditional power.
We must go. We must seek and go. Kicking off the historical ground of tears, ignoring the historical ground of blood and sweat, we must go.
In the place of the final reckoning with Satan, who has appeared as my adversary, even should I fall lacking strength, where is the true shepherd who can declare, “There stand in my place those who shall stand for me—brothers, sons, and daughters”?
Only when we find the true shepherd can the people live. Only then will these people not perish. Although there may be some difference in time, although there may be a season's suffering, there has been no history of one who, through the standard of Heavenly affection brought about by the principle of heart, occupied the people.
We must go. “My longing is, while still alive, to attend the Father and to offer before the Father the living sacrifice and offering of victory and to resolve the han of the Father bound through Satan.
Father, is this not what You wished to find? Receive this.” We must be able to say so. Should we fail to leave behind such a stepping stone of victory in the first generation, with the resolve to leave it without fail through the second and third generations, we must depart having set up at least a promise before Heaven. We must come to know that this mission is upon us.
We must go. We must go to that place where the Lord shed tears. We must go to that place where the Lord shed blood and sweat. Without passing through that course, even should the glory be permitted us, it shall, on the contrary, become suffering. Heaven longs for saints who, when eating a single mouthful of food, beat their breast and, when wearing a single garment, do not know where to put themselves, for a multitude prepares to attend the Lord.
Beloved, we have come to know. What have we come to know? We have come to know God's heart. We have come to know God's circumstances. We have come to know God's longing. Not only that—we have come to know in what position we are placed in Heaven and on Earth.
We have come to know what kind of being of value I am. With this much, we are dignified. With this much, we can stand before the Father. The Father longs for and awaits such a time; let us not lament that we are not equipped.
It is not by speaking clearly alone that the world is moved, nor is it by some truth that all matters are resolved. Even if we are left to rot in the valley of sorrow and bloody tears, in the future of those people, the new dawn shall begin to break.
This is the same in Heaven as on earth. Therefore, now we must eat for the people, and dress for the people. We must live for the people. Not only that — we must live for the world.
We are debtors and debtors. Even if we repay and repay, exhaust the principal in repayment, burn up our very bones and flesh in repayment, we are debtors of debts so vast that we cannot settle them in one generation.
We are sinners such that, looking upon a murderer-robber vanishing into the dew of the gallows, even should we call him brother, we should not lack for it. Within your hearts, there is the element of crime equal to having killed thousands and tens of thousands of people. This is what was inherited from the ancestors.
Our Responsibility in the Last Days
The Lord, having come upon this earth, departed, shedding tears for the world, suppressing his pained heart, unable to speak all the words he wished to speak. For this reason, even were we to be struck with the whip, it would not suffice; even were we to receive indemnity, it would not suffice.
Have you taken hold of one pitiful life and wept aloud? Have you taken hold of a porter bearing his load on the street and wept, “Brother, where is your life?” Have you shed tears for the one who, in a slum, unable to dress properly, unable to eat properly, lies fallen?
Our Lord, our Father, is the Prince of tears and the Father of tears. The Prince of Suffering and the Father of Suffering. Within the bosom of the Father, there is not a single element of what human beings call happiness. He is the One who has none of such things. Why? Because he has not yet found the lost sons and daughters.
Beloved, now the time for weeping for the individual has passed. Taking hold of the homeland that bore me, we must weep. When Jesus preached the gospel, he said to go to the lost Israel and preach.
Jesus did not resent the family of Joseph and did not resent Mary. Rather, regarding them with pity, he sought to save them. In saving them, rather than going himself directly to save, he wished to save them through his disciples. This we must come to know.
Now we have entered the time when we must, without fail, proclaim a warning to these people. The time has come when we must speak all the words we wish to speak. The time has come when we can do all the things we wish to do.
Now we must walk the way that can be linked to the heart of Heaven. Shedding blood and sweat, we must cross the final hill. Even if we fall while walking, we must be the multitude that can fall in that very place still concerned, “Are there no sons and daughters seeking the Father?” The time has come when it must be so.
Going into whatever cave it may be, we must be able to cry out, “Are there no sons and daughters seeking the Father in this cave?” If there be one who, weeping in the place of the Father, asks, “Is not the one lost sheep gasping somewhere?” — God too will, without fail, not say He does not know him.
Beloved, having entered upon a way that others called impossible, we must endure. The one who cries out here is also not a person without feeling. Yet he is enduring. Just as God, for six thousand years, kept tares and wheat in the same field and endured His indignation, so I, too, have endured and held on. I endured one year, endured two years, endured ten years, and endured twenty years. Now wait and watch for forty years.
You, holding the concern that one day you might become an offering before Satan, must pioneer the remaining path of death.
Who shall pioneer this course of restoration?
Who shall take responsibility for the destiny of these people? All are merely looking on. Before the bloody-knit heart welling up in this breast and the throbbing pulse of this heart give out, before this life gives out, we must once try.
The One Heart We Must Hold
Up to this day, no Will has been brought to fulfillment within its age. No doctrine, no thought has stood in the place of glory within its age. After the one who advocated that doctrine or thought has died, only after a thousand or two thousand years have passed has it stood in the place of glory.
Jesus, too, on the heights of Calvary, was driven by the multitude of rebels and pitifully died upon the cross; yet today he has become a worldwide figure. Who at that time knew it would become so?
Then what is it that Jesus left behind in departing? Blood, sweat, and heart — heart, I say. God longed for the garden of the heart, the garden of peace. He dreamed of the garden of freedom, the garden of happiness.
Before such a God, we are unfilial sons and traitors who have given an enormous blow. Therefore, we must always hold an awe-struck heart at the grace by which we are permitted to live and to be welcomed.
The closer we draw before the Lord, the more our bodies must tremble; the more we grasp through experience the circumstances of the Lord, the more we must feel like a sinner who, not knowing where to put himself, cannot lift his head. The place where such ones, set up first by Heaven, enter — this is precisely the Kingdom of Heaven.
They are those who, knowing, do not know; who, possessing, do not possess. They are those who, possessing all things, possess nothing. Like little children, they do not know they have a lineage, or do not know they have parents. If there is but one earnest heart, it is the heart that wishes to be embraced in the bosom of the Lord—that and nothing else.
If you, too, go forward holding only such a heart, only the heart that, in any position whatever, you will not be cut off or fall away from the Father, you can be embraced in the bosom of the Father. But up to now, there have been few who held such a heart, even though they hung on the cross. Therefore, we must weep aloud.
Beloved, although I have walked the path of the Will up to now to meet you, I have received the criticism of being in a position contrary to the circumstances of present human beings, contrary to the heart of present human beings. But the day will come when they will know me.
The Path the Warriors of Unification Walk
We are the warriors of unification who must press forward from this point on.
What kind of person is a warrior of unification?
One who upon this earth sheds many tears as he goes, one who sheds much sweat as he goes.
Not one who wanders, having lost the view of purpose, the view of the universe, the view of the world, but rather one who, to set right a confused world, walks holding a thoroughgoing spirit, a thoroughgoing consciousness, a thoroughgoing view of value, and a thoroughgoing view of purpose. One who walks this path, even shedding bloody tears.
We must shed tears and shed blood in place of these people. Beloved, think of it: these people are shedding tears; these people are shedding blood and sweat. We must shed blood, sweat, and tears together with these people.
When we weep, we must weep together with this people; when we die, we must die together with this people; when we live, we must live together with this people. The fact that we are placed in such a Heavenly destiny cannot be ignored.
We must so live. Even if we die, we must die holding such a heart. We must fight with Satan. So that we can say, “Father, I have fought with Satan and won.” Only thus, even when we go to the Heavenly world, can we subjugate Satan and judge him. We must go forward holding this kind of standard.
You who wish to eat well, dress well, and live well—do not follow this path. The way we walk is the way that pierces through the very bottom of hell. If your child is more lovable, live well with your child.
If your wife is more lovable, live well with your wife. If your parents feel more pressure, live well with your parents.
God stands in a position from which He can demand of us repayment and indemnification, but He does not demand of us any repayment or indemnification.
Therefore, we must hold before God the fidelity of the loyal subject, the fidelity of the filial son, the fidelity of the chaste woman. Having set out holding such fidelity, even should we collapse and die, we must go. We must, in seeking the original Father whom we have lost, advance with our entire might.
Father, we have come to know that, although many people live upon this earth and many peoples live, there is no one in whom You can trust. We have come to know that history flowed forth, and the world was created, centered upon the multitude of those driven and chased.
Now we, who are placed in a destiny in which we must again return, we who have lost the way, have come to know that we must again seek the lap of the parent, seek the bond of the brothers, seek the bond of the people, and once again form the bond of father and son with the Father.
Father, we earnestly entreat and desire that You allow us to become those who endure forward to the very last day, until we have resolved the han of God, resolved the han of Jesus, and resolved the han of history.
By all the grace You have permitted today, set up between the Father and us a promise of life and a covenant of life, and grant that we be not mocked before our archenemy Satan. We have offered all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
By all the grace You have permitted today, set up between the Father and us a promise of life and a covenant of life, and grant that we be not mocked before our archenemy Satan. We have offered all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.