Filial Attendance: The Way of Filial Piety of Holy Sons and Daughters of God - Elio Roman
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Filial Attendance: The Way of Filial Piety of Holy Sons and Daughters of God - Elio Roman |
Filial attendance is living one's life for the sake of serving God. When the Korean word for attend "moshi" is translated into English it is often translated to the word "serve." To serve God is one component of attending God. Filial sons and daughters attend God by serving Him from their position as object partners. To serve vertically from the position of filial sons and daughters as object partners is to attend God. To serve vertically from the position as the subject partner is called parental love.
Since the fall human beings serve Satan and sin. They often live their lives seeking to serve themselves, often at the expense of other. The bible admonishes us not to steal of covet our neighbor's goods, nor have sexual relationships with someone else's spouse. Satan motivates us though sin and fallen nature and we unwittingly serve thus maintaining his position as false owner and ruler. We have lost God and are dominated by Satan. We struggle to gain our freedom but without success. Our sinful body and desires compel us to serve Satan. Satan has taken the position of our master and we have been placed in the position of his servants. Mankind has made the conditions to establish a non-principled world and Satan has used fallen human beings to establish the non-principled realm.
However, Satan's claim on human beings is not unchanging, eternal nor absolute. Human beings made the conditions which established Satan as the owner of false love and human beings can and must make the necessary conditions to separate from Satan and liberate themselves. By attending God and True Parents we place God in the position of owner of true love. In order for human beings to become re-created they must meet all the indemnity conditions by which to separate themselves from Satan and enter the realm of liberation and complete freedom.
The history of the providence of restoration records all the conditions that mankind has established in order to re-create a sinless individual, family, and a sinless lineage. The bible records such indemnity conditions. We ourselves are the historical figures who in our own lineages need to set indemnity conditions in order that a sinless individual and sinless family qualifies our lineage as sinless. However in our lifetime we can never fulfill enough indemnity conditions by our own efforts. Human beings need the messiah. It is only be serving and attending the Lord of the Second Advent which are the True Parents that we can come to stand as historical victors and fulfill the purpose of the providence of restoration. We then must progressively advance and establish the ideal family, ideal tribe, ideal race, ideal nation, ideal world and cosmos -- The Kingdom of God.
Filial sons and daughters attend God by serving Him similar to the way servants serve their masters but not with the heart of a servant. They serve God with their heart as filial sons and daughters. They serve God from a heart of inner obligation, love and duty, not only from indebtedness and duty but from a heart of love. In the restorational course traveled through the eight vertical stages from servant of servants, servant, adopted son, illegitimate son, true son, mother, father and God, the act of serving is the same at each stage but the motivation from the heart of love is progressively developing.
In the Old Testament Age mankind made offerings of animals from the position of servants. In the New Testament Age the saints offered their lives in the position of adopted children. In the Completed Testament Age we offer our hearts of attendance for the restoration of true sons and daughters. The condition for restoration of our hearts is serving and attending God and True Parents. First is the restoration of the elder son's heart in God's direct lineage, then the restoration of the heart of true parents, followed by the restoration of kingship. We must serve and attend God and True Parents as our Parent in an intimate setting and as King and Queen in more public settings.
From the position of true sons and daughters, which is the restored elder sons' position, one attends and serves God and True Parents. Through our attendance of God and True Parents from the position of adopted sons and daughters, our hearts are restored and upon restoration we serve and attend God with the heart of true sons and daughters. Filial attendance is to serve God with the heart of a true son or daughter.
Once the vertical heart of attendance is restored by attending God and True Parents it continues to mature on the next level in a husband and wife relationship. It is in a conjugal relationship that the vertical love of God is multiplied horizontally. Husbands and wives develop the heart to attend and serve each other. We learn to serve our children vertically with the heart of parents, and our children learn to serve and attend God and their parents vertically.
Elder siblings learn to serve their brothers and sisters and younger siblings learn to serve and attend their elder brothers and sisters. Such a family fulfills the Three Objects Purpose, establishes a family Four Position Foundation and fulfills the Four Great Realms of Heart. Such a family stands as perfect object partners in their attendance of God and True Parents. Such a family becomes a representative family of the cosmos and a central family of the cosmos. A representative family of the cosmos serves and attends God and True Parents and becomes a central family of the cosmos. Such a family vertically serves and attends God and True Parents, and becomes their representatives by horizontally serving and loving mankind.
How wonderful it may be if you say, "I want to serve God and live for tens of thousands of years with Him." (127-282)
You should live a life of attendance. So then, why should we live a life of attendance? To receive God's love. For this reason you should serve God first. You should attend Him. (78-30, 1975.5.1)
The greatest standard of the happiness that is granted to man is being a true servant of God, a true loyal subject of God and a true, filial son and daughter of God. These are the words of God's grace. What do you think? Have you become God's loyal subject, filial sons and daughters whom He can recognize? (Sermons Vol. 7-243, 1959.10.18)
In the framework of the family, you should serve God as the Father in the highest position. Every one of you should become His child, perfecting the parent–child relationship with Him through sharing your life with Him. (Messages of Peace 3 -- 55, 2006.4.10)
Our ultimate purpose is to find and establish the nation that seeks to do the will of God and whose citizens all serve God as its center. What would that nation be? It would be the kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world. (Messages of Peace 7 -- 96-97, 2006.8.31)
Had Adam and Eve, the first human ancestors, not fallen but instead perfected themselves according to the Principle of Creation as individual embodiments of truth, people today would be manifesting our absolute value. We would serve God above as our Lord with absolute obedience, and we would relate with the creation, the natural world, as our object partners, rejoicing in God's eternal kingdom of peace. (Messages of Peace 11 -- 166-167, 2006.12.8)
We must serve God with our mind and unite our mind with our body. Unless we make a foundation of this unity, we will not be able to eradicate evil from the world. Accordingly, it is now the age of attendance, the age of salvation through serving others. People can be saved by serving others. God does not live up in the air somewhere distant from our lives. He lives in our lives, and God must be served as the master of our lives. (144-274, 1986.4.25)
On the foundation of absolute faith, love and obedience, you need to become families that are absolute, unique, eternal and unchanging in attending God. Such families will be in the eternal tribe, people, nation, and world, establish God's kingdom on earth, and create a tradition that would connect them directly to His kingdom in heaven. Like Adam in the Garden of Eden, everyone on earth would serve God and speak with Him as their Father. It would be the same for fathers, sons, and grandsons. Henceforth, you will all become ancestors. (295-255, 1998.9.8)
You have to be focused in this age of service -- that is, living the life of attendance. There are laws in serving God. When people break the laws, God can be extremely furious. Just as a word from a child can either wound his loving parents' feelings or please them, God too, since He loves humankind, can feel deeply hurt. That is why I, too, try to make God happy in my own way. (17-287, 1967.2.15)
Pledge number two signifies that our family pledges to represent and become central to heaven and earth by serving God and the True Parents, to fulfill the way of filial piety in our family, patriotism in our nation, saints in the world, and a family of divine sons and daughters in heaven and earth. This means that we will complete everything desired by God in our family. Through it, we are making a vow that as parents, we will educate the children in our family, the citizens in our nation, and the people living in the world, and in heaven and earth, so that they may become eligible to become the family members of God's Kingdom. (260-190, 1994.5.8)
The fact that man, who can be the object partner of God's love, ideal, peace and happiness, gains eternal life when he discovers he stands in a position where he can serve God as his subject partner, as his Father in Heaven is the most logical conclusion. If man today thinks that life simply ends after having lived on this earth for seventy or eighty years, he is wrong. Since God is eternal and man stands in the position of His eternal object partner and child, man must be awakened to the fact that he has to live eternally. (77-185, 1975.4.6)
People are meant to serve God for eternity. (299-90, 1999.2.5)
The greatest standard of the happiness that is granted to man is being a true servant of God, a true loyal subject of God and a true, filial son and daughter of God. These are the words of God's grace. What do you think? Have you become God's loyal subject, filial sons and daughters whom He can recognize? You must step over your family, your nation, and this world and seek God. You must go with high spirits. Jesus went that course with a commanding spirit. (Sermons Vol. 7-243, 1959.10.18)
If our ancestors had not fallen, we would have lived our lives serving God. You must serve God with your heart, and in the course of your daily life. (150-213, 1961.4.15)
You must serve during your life. We have ushered in the heavenly kingdom of hope, but you have not yet experienced the life of attendance. That is, you have not known God, our subject being, in your daily life. (6-226, 1959.5.17)
You must live lives of service. Why do you have to serve? It is the way to be loved by God. Therefore, you must serve God first. You must serve God. (78-30, 1975.5.1)
The reason there is so much sorrow and death on the earth is because we have lost God. What is more, by our losing God, Satan came to fill the role of the master. According to the principles of creation, humankind originally should have served God as the only master, but because of the fall, they have come to serve Satan as the master in place of God.
Before you lies the fateful responsibility to repossess the love of God. Yet who is blocking the path? Who opposes the will that the created world of all things serves God as the one center? It is Satan, who is inducing sin and evil in you today. Hence, if you cannot pull out the root of sin and evil implanted deep in your mind today, and if, representing humanity, you cannot build the world of God after defeating Satan, the betrayer of Heaven who has been fighting for 6,000 years, then you cannot exercise the dominion of God on the earth.
You are seeking freedom in your minds, but the question is what kind of freedom you are pursuing. If you cannot find God, you will become the servant of Satan. Accordingly, if you cannot possess God but instead possess Satan, you will become a traitor who violates the universal principles. You must understand this. (Sermons Vol. 1-90, 1956.6.27)
You must be able to serve God (30-116, 1970.03.17)
Six thousand years ago, God and fallen mankind could not hold the ceremony for entering the heavenly kingdom. For the first time, we now serve God as our eternal parent, placing Him on the throne of jade and holding that ceremony. We are forever registered as the royal tribes of heaven. We serve God as our Father, His palace becomes our house, and we live as His children through all eternity. That is the place where praise, glory, eternal life and everlasting peace prevail. (86-214, 1976.03.29)
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great privilege to announce to you the establishment of the first True Family. My wife and I, together with our 13 children and 20 grandchildren, are absolutely dedicated to serving God and humanity With three generations in one family, we have achieved, on the family level, the central root, the central trunk, and the central bud of the "Tree of Life" mentioned in the Bible.
It is our sincere hope that you will symbolically graft into this tree by joining us in our efforts to create an ideal nation and world. This marks the beginning of the Completed Testament Age. (World Peace -- 43, May-July 1993)
What is the state of having genuine goodness? Genuine goodness cannot abide where one is living selfishly. Goodness does not dwell where one is strengthening oneself. Why? Goodness is one of the bases for serving God. Attending God in the midst of goodness is the same as serving God as the master of goodness. The master of goodness is God, and not fallen man. (36-106)
Ladies and gentlemen, you should form families that God will miss and yearn to return to after He has been away. He should feel comfortable to visit your home like any parent coming to visit his or her children. This is what it means to live in service to God. (Messages of Peace 7 -- 93, 2006.8.31)
Serving God and True Parents, I will make my family a representative and central family of the whole world, thereby becoming filial children, patriots, saints and holy children. Educate your children in filial piety; educate your fellow citizens to be patriotic; educate humankind in sainthood, ultimately becoming holy children who can be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven. That's Pledge No. 2. (260-189, 1994.05.08)
If you live the life of attendance who should you serve first? You first must serve God. What is the purpose in serving God? Ultimately it is so that you grow well. If you are healthy what must you then do? You must receive God's love. If you don't, it won't matter how much you try to develop yourself externally. You won't be able to become a person who can keep God's love and your life will not go well…When we look at the question of why I should live a life of attendance. You should know it is for the purpose of receiving God's love. This is the reason why you should serve God first. (78-30)
Can all of humankind, who inherited the fallen blood lineage from the beginning until now, in one day serve heaven with that heart. No way. Our original ancestors, Adam and Eve, should not have fallen, but should have grown up according to the original ideal of creation; but they did not serve God with their hearts. (8-290)
You should march forward, by having your body serve your mind, having your mind serve the Providence, and having the Providence serve God. (The Way -- 16)
You know that God exists, but in what relationship to God would you want to put yourself? The relationship which is primary and also the most desirable one is the parent-child relationship. So, we want to serve God as our Parent with Him in the subject position, and with ourselves in the object position. (New Hope -- 26, 1973.6.3)
Among God's children who are working hardest there are two kinds. Some would want to serve God because they are anxious to be loved by Him. They are contented and satisfied to enjoy the Father's love. But other children are worried about their Father's cause and know He is eager to reach out and find other children. Such a person would tell God that since He has lost so many children, he wants to bring them back to Him. Would you say, "Father, wait for me. Even though I may be away from you doing this work for a while, don't worry about me"? If you went out in search of your lost brothers and worked very hard and didn't return to your Father for a long period, would your Father be discontented with you? It is clear that God would love you more if you are the child who would want to go out in search of the lost brothers and sisters and bring them home. (New Hope -- 70)
Paul was living in the grace of the Lord. Still he confessed that he could serve God only with his mind, and his flesh served the law of sin. His body yearned to be redeemed; he still anguished over sin. (God's Will -- 261, 1974.9.18)
You love your children, don't you? Children are inclined to follow their parents. This is why you should serve God first in your family. Your children must remember you as the father who prays. They should remember you as the father who always lives for the sake of God and for the sake of others. You should earn your children's unspoken respect. Paving the way with sacrifice and selflessness, you must establish such a foundation. (47-331, 1971.8.30)
When you come to the point of being able to attend Father, at that time, what will you do? How will you convey a filial heart? You must think, what form will my attendance take? How will it appear? You could run into Father at any riverside. In what kind of place will you meet him?
If you go to a remote mountain village and begin to live the lifestyle there, you should fervently desire to invite our Unification Church members. And if they came you would be concerned about how they are; how's their health; are they suffering any pain. How wonderful if you could see your closest friend. Also how wonderful to be able to greet Father, as well as the state leader and regional leader. You should have such a mind of missing them, and hoping for their visit.
Everyday you should have that longing, and if not then you cannot serve God. You must know this. You should always touch a part of your heart where you are missing someone. But there is always someone in the middle of the night crying out, "ya ya ja ja" giving God cause for concern. In heaven there is no day and no night…
Regarding humanity, loving God is the first commandment. So, should you love God with your whole heart, mind, and soul or just on the surface. [With whole heart, mind, and soul] So will you love God with your whole heart and soul or not? [We will!] Whoever promises to love God with their whole selves, raise your hands. Now you must love God even if a thunderbolt hits you. You must love God completely. (37-25)
How joyful God will be when you are joyful, and live your life in service for God. You should have a greater gratitude to serve God than the feeling that comes from eating when you are hungry. You should serve God when you're wearing clothes, and eating, and when you're sad and suffering. You should be able to place such memories into God's mind that He cannot forget them. (7-291)
The Kingdom of Heaven is not a difficult place; it is a place where we serve God and True Parents and where we receive and give love. (Blessing Pt. 2 -- 257)
What is the ideal, wish and hope of humankind? We can conclude the following: First of all, the greatest hope of humankind is to serve God as my Father. Second, it is to become the sons and daughters who can receive God's love; and third, it is to inherit everything God possesses. Humankind has no greater hopes. (Blessing Pt. 1 -- 178)
Where is the place a perfected man and woman live? It is the place where man and woman can, centering on the public heavenly providence, receive the love of God, completely unite their minds and bodies, and serve God as the subject. When a man and woman come to live in this place, they stand in the position of perfected Adam and Eve. When such people form a family and make a new start, this becomes an historical beginning. This becomes the historical first step of life. Adam and Eve were to realize this first step, but because of the fall they failed to do so. Therefore, in order to restore this, you must go searching for this place today.(Blessing Pt. 1 -- 78)
When you make spiritual conditions for your study with a motivation to make the future preparation to serve God and mankind, all the good spirits and those who have specialties in your area of study will come and help you in your examination. (True Child -- 58)
I came to stop the destruction of the individual, family, tribe, nation and world, to brake this rushing locomotive that is racing toward its doom. You also have the power to do that once you make up your mind. Once you are firm in your commitment to serve God, then God will be with you; there is no exception to this. Once your mind is completely set, then I know God will be with you. (God's Will -- 407, 1977.5.1)
I know your suffering only too well. But where is the parent who will ask his child to serve him with 50% filial piety? A parent wants his child to serve with as much filial piety as possible. You must understand that since I have served God with 100% filial piety I cannot be proud before God of the child who has served with only 99%. (The Way -- 139)
The champions of God have one characteristic in common: They begin their missions by denial of themselves and their surroundings. Isaac's son, Jacob, was no exception. Jacob was a man with strong willpower in service to God. He wanted to open an exemplary path, accomplishing something nobody else could duplicate. (God's Will -183, 1973.10.21)
There should have been a prevalent attitude within this country that the greatest thing was to love the world, to serve God, and to go beyond loving oneself or even one's own nation. People should have felt the inspiration to be pioneers for the great era that was soon to come. That was the vision that the United States was supposed to propagate in the world. If such an awakening had happened after World War II, the current tragic situation in America would never have occurred.
What has happened? The U.S. did not see such a vision.
For forty years, this country has been moving down the path of self-indulgence and fun. Drugs have infiltrated the whole country; young people have been corrupted and turned more and more toward delinquency; free sex has become a way of life. But this has not been contained only within the United States. This country is the leader of the free world, so it has affected the world in a bad way. As Americans try to make light of everything, wanting only to have fun in life, such an attitude has spread around the world. (God's Will -- 656, 1984.1.15)
You must lead your family and live for your nation and the world. Spanning the ages of the individual, family, clan, tribe, society and nation, you have to play the role of showing the world's peoples and nations the right direction based on my experience. Having fulfilled this, you must be able to serve God from a mutually inseparable position. Only then will the spirit world and the physical world become the unified world of peace. For the first time in human history, the guide will establish himself in the position of the eternal leader of the historical age and be awarded the glorious official commendation of the heavenly world. You have to know this indisputable fact. (30-116, 1970.3.17)
In order to save the world through a movement of true love, you yourselves must first of all become substantial beings of love. You are to blossom proudly, becoming like fireworks of love.
With God's love as the core, you should become a person who maintains the law of love, whom no one can break or destroy, and you should become a substantial being of love by serving God. You serve God by harmoniously interacting with everyone in the world and becoming united with all things. This is the highest ideal for man and for woman. This has been the hope of God since He created human beings and all things. (Blessing Pt. 1 -- 103)
For Blessed families to serve God, you should not serve according to your old habits and lifestyle. As a Blessed family, you have to have the heart that your family is representative of the high priest, who made a daily offering for the nation and people… This means that when a cold day comes and difficulties come, you should not take these challenges as your own problem but confront them as a representative of the nation. In order to make a heartistic connection to God as a high priest, you are going the course of indemnity as a representative of the nation. You should have this kind of heart. (40-84)
Then, what are you going to do after you are liberated? Then we are to serve God instead of Satan and form a cultural realm. We have to form a realm of the life of True Parents. We will be standing in the position of a perfected Adam, therefore we will complete the purpose of life. (202-283)
You must directly experience the life in which you yourself stimulate new things centering on God. If you do activity experiencing such heart, then there always occurs multiplication. Then, you develop. The new bud emerges out of the living tree. Yesterday and today is different. There, the force of life is always active. In contrast, a tree without its root is a dead tree. Yesterday and today change.
When you loose such feeling, please pray putting your life on the line. Even if you have to do many prayer vigils, you must accumulate sincere effort. If you try to live such a life, then God may even try to take such times away from you on purpose. If so, then no matter how much you try, you may not find hope. In such a situation, you must be able to fight even more strongly with the mind that I will serve God even subjugating Satan. (30-133)
When a man reaches the restored Adam's position, Eve's position can be restored. And then they as a liberated husband and wife should establish the heavenly law to serve God. As soon as they set up the heavenly law, a new tribe is born. (Blessing Pt. 2 -- 172)
It is right that we should love God as God loves us. This is the law of the Principle. If you respect and attend God as the vertical center, you will be able to receive His love as His sons and daughters. Therefore, unless we form a tradition of loving each other, we will not create the starting point for our individual perfection (Blessing Pt. 1 -21)
We should attend God as our Father above us, and we should think of humankind as our brothers and sisters below us, making one "life-body." God's will is to realize an eternal ideal world centering on God. The people living in that world do not need any salvation or Messiah. They are God's sons and daughters of goodness. (Blessing Pt. 1 -26)
Even though this is the ideal deep inside of God's heart, no one on earth can say, "I am a true son who can fathom God's eternal heart." No one can say, "I am an eternal daughter who can comfort God's heart and liberate Him from His sorrows." There is no family, people, nation, or world which can serve God centering on such sons and daughters. (Sermons Vol. 7- 76, 1959.7.26)
You must call Satan to witness that you are a child of God in three aspects: in your family life, in your social life and in your life of serving God. Only in this way can you enter the Kingdom of Heaven. (The Way -- 177)
I sincerely ask You to receive this offering. Many saints who are serving God in the spiritual world, and many good religious people centering upon the 24 religions who are sitting on God's imperial floor at this time, together with True Parents, are sincerely asking You to respond to the appeal of True Parents. I sincerely ask You to forgive all these sorrowful events of history. I know that this is a very solemn time which enables us to prepare for a new turning point in the midst of the confusion of this world. This ceremony enables us to heighten Your victory. (God's Will -- 278, 1975.5.1)
How did I guide the nation of America? From above, I guided the presidents, and from below, I guided the young people. This is my view: when the president and the young people start having ideas of serving God, then America will be saved. (79-186)
It is greater filial piety to serve the parents of the nation than those of your own family, and even more so to serve the parents of the world, and much more so to serve the parents of heaven and earth… You must reflect on what kind of children you will raise for the will of God and how well they will serve Him. (The Way -- 409)
From now on it must be a sincerity to serve God and sincerity which places you in the position to serve God. Those participating in that way will be in the first resurrection. (Blessing Pt. 1 -145))
A son of filial piety will serve the whole family. A loyal man will serve the whole nation. A saint will serve all people. Someday the angels and all people in heaven and earth should be able to welcome you as a son or daughter of God, based on your standard of love. (God's Will -- 584, 1981.5.1)
The only way to liberate God from His sorrow is by becoming a son of filial piety to take over His agony, or by becoming like a wife who takes over the agony of her husband.
Even if you are not the children of certain parents, or the wife of a certain man, if you serve those people more than their actual children or wives do, you will actually be closer to them than their own family. The only way to help is to show more filial piety and genuine devotion than their own children or wife would do. The same truth applies to our relationship with God. If you give more sacrificial love to God than I do, you will be closer to Him than I am. I suffered all my life for God, but if anyone of you can do better then certainly God will be closer to you. If God loves you more, will I be jealous at how you are doing better than I am? No, I will be happy to follow such people.
God wants to be with anybody who has such love. If you shed your sweat, tears and blood all your life for God, then because of you God will be able to shed tears of happiness and hope for the first time. What other honor could you ask for? You won't have to worry about going to heaven; God Himself will personally escort you to the highest place. The greatest path in history is the path of liberating God from His sorrow. (God's Warning II -129, 1980.4.27)
Although human beings fell, they must go up from the position of servant of servants, because they cannot abandon God. Then what does "servant of servants" mean? It means to be without a master. Fallen people must serve God loyally from the position of the servant of servants. Satan was an archangel and God's servant. Since human beings were dragged in front of this servant, in order to return to God, they must set up the standard of having demonstrated their loyalty to God while standing as servants of servants. (17-73, 1966.11.12)
I want to see people who have a greater capacity than I do to comfort God, serve God's will, and offer distinguished service to God. If I wanted people with abilities inferior to my own, I would be a dictator. (184-224, 1989.1.1)
Up to the point when they die, parents should bequeath the heavenly tradition. For what does a family exist? Even though it exists for the children, first of all it should serve God and the nation. In the end, this is the path that will benefit your children. Only then can your children gain the fortune of God and the fortune of the world and nation. Accordingly, even though your precious children born after your Blessing go through suffering, you should not align yourself with them but rather with the fortune of God, the world, and nation. (21-87, 1968.11.3)
By serving God and the True Parents you must stand as representatives of the world, in a perfected position similar to Jesus. The moment you begin to serve God from such a position, your connection to Satan would be completely severed. (261-88, 1994.5.22)
Offerings had to be made in the Old Testament and New Testament Ages, and even in the Completed Testament Age the parents need to be sacrificed as an offering. In order to attract God's heart, we need to create unity and make the offering. By dedicating the offering of unity centered on the True Parents, we will be able to serve God as our Lord, and He will reign over us from our family to the tribes, peoples and nations on earth, and freely form relationships with all humanity of up and down, left and right and front and rear, thereby unifying this world under His dominion, and setting all of us on the same level instantaneously. (298-63, 1999.1.1)
Now the time has come for your families to become ideal families who serve the True Parents and God directly, and represent the True Parents. You need to become messiahs who have risen above the Old and New Testament Ages and consequently ascended into the Completed Testament Age. You need to form families in the place of the first, second and third Adams, and serve God. This is how everyone will be able to enter heaven directly. Once this happens, we will pass into the era of the Blessing through the liberation of the sphere of the fourth Adam. In that new era, once it arrives, the second generation will be blessed by their parents. (298-224, 1999.1.8)
America was called the New World in the European continent. The first people to immigrate to this new world, with hope in their hearts, were a God-loving people who came searching for freedom of faith. They were people who had completely lost hope under the tyranny of the old regime. They boarded a small ship called the Mayflower, with the firm resolve to reach that place where they could serve God as they pleased, even if they were to lose their lives in the Atlantic Ocean. After fifty-seven days of a horrible voyage, they arrived in America in an area that is now called New England. They were the Pilgrim Fathers, the ancestors of America. (100-246, 1978.10.19)
Everyone must be able to serve God in their lives and have the experience of having loved Him. (297-167, 1998.11.19)
The Messiah's family will be the first to live with and serve God. The Messiah solidifies the position of the perfected Adam. The Kingdom of Heaven will be established only after the perfected Adam and Eve marry, live on earth serving God, have sons and daughters centered upon Him, bring forth His clan and live on earth together with them, and then, finally, move on into the heavenly world together with God. (282-51, 1997.3.10)
You should have the qualifications necessary to enter the heaven where I am going. To enter you need to fulfill at least one of the points I have instructed. What would happen if you achieved that? You would then become worthy to connect to the love centering on the true God, the true Parents, true nation, true world and true heaven. In other words, you would earn the right to serve God as your own Father, the Father of the individual, family, nation, world and all of heaven and earth. In other words, you will inherit the authority to serve Him as your individual, family, tribal, racial, national and global Father. This is because He exists to become the Parent and stand in the position of the universal Parent. (98-224, 1978.8.1)
You who have gathered in the Unification Church today may be sitting in a small church, yet problems will be solved if you feel in your heart that you can represent the world by expanding this church, and that furthermore you can represent the heavenly character. You will be able to resolve anything. You are the children who take up God's will on His behalf. Therefore, you must become the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven who serve God as the Lord of this world. You should bear in mind that you can never deviate from the Father's will no matter where you are. (4-110, 1958.3.16)
God is not some being that exists in our fantasies or imagination. God is not abstract. God lives with us in our daily lives as the master of our lives. God does not exist just to be served. God lives in a reciprocal love relationship with people, together, as part of the community. It is an unbelievable reality. (168-111, 1987.9.13)
How many times in a day do you experience that God exists? How many times during the twenty-four hours of a day do you feel God's presence? If you really want to be saved by serving God and others, then feeling God's presence for just one or two hours out of twenty-four hours a day can't be enough. You must feel the need for God more desperately than you feel the need for air. You need God more desperately than you need water. God is more precious than food. You need God more than you need water. Do you feel this? (33-230, 1970.8.16)
You must serve during your life. We have ushered in the heavenly kingdom of hope, but you have not yet experienced the life of attendance. That is, you have not known God, our subject being, in your daily life. (6-226, 1959.5.17)
Since God is the central being of heaven and earth, the more you are dominated by Him, the more you will want to be dominated by Him for thousands or even tens of thousands of years. Since the principles of attendance centering on God work in that way, no one can be happier than the one who is being dominated by God. Until now, we have never even thought about this fact. (77-328, 1975.3.30)
Just as people seek the ones who care about them, God is the same way. The way you can capture God's heart is to think about God, and serve Him more than others do. God will seek someone like that. (128-172, 1983.6.12)
Do you think that God yearns for the appearance of a son who will say to Him, "Father, how much You have suffered," with a heart more sorrowful than His? Have you ever thought that God sought sons and daughters who can say, "Father, how much have You suffered, how many times have You fallen down, and how many times have You struggled?" He wants sons and daughters who can endure many sufferings, persecutions and difficulties and cast away all sorrows, bitterness and indignation. The God we believe in and should serve is such a person. (Sermons Vol. 7- 215, 1959.10.11)
I have gone forward, knowing that it was my mission to gather people who could serve God, even a little, in fulfilling His hopes and His will. Knowing that God is such a lonely and isolated being, I pledged my life to expand His foundation. The reason that I have endured with love, rather than wanting to take revenge after receiving insults and beatings, is because I was born as God's son and have the responsibility to establish His will. Staggering along, or with back bent, or crawling on my stomach, I have fought on with the determination that I will leave at least this tradition behind. (82-47, 1975.12.30)
Because Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden and lived in the fallen realm, they could never experience the life of serving God directly. Those who have never been able to serve God are not qualified to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. However, although you have inherited the false lineage, you are entitled to enter heaven due to the condition that you indemnified the course of restoration and attended God and the True Parents, whom Adam and Eve could not attend while on the earth. In that way, you have come to acquire citizenship in the heavenly kingdom. (150-233, 1961.4.15)
You should cry, longing for the True Parents who are in the position of God's substance. You should always want to see True Parents. You should want to serve True Parents even by making them a bowl of rice or by giving them a glass of water. You should always have such a sincere heart. Your heart should over-flow with tears.
In feeling this way, if you unite in heart centering on me and breathe together with me, you will come to understand the standard of my character, my past and my circumstances during the early days, which are the foundation of that standard. You will also be able to inherit and receive those things. (38-75, 1971.1.1)
Originally, only those who lived on earth centering on the True Parents can enter heaven. Therefore, for those spirits that could not live with and serve the True Parents on earth, the Blessing is a ceremony that opens the path for them to come down to earth to serve True Parents. (298-209, 1999.1.8)
The one day that God promised in the Last Days is Parents' Day, the day on which we can serve True Parents. It is the day on which the countless numbers of people on earth who lost their parents through the Fall, can welcome back their original Parents who bring God's blessings. Human beings can only advance towards God with the purpose of restoration, by passing through the gate of the Parents; prior to passing through this gate they cannot have their hearts connected to God.
In this age one race cannot communicate with another through the heart; neither can the religions, or one family with another. To enable such communication, we must know and form a connection to God's heart, through the connecting intermediaries, the True Parents. Only after finding the original True Parents can we be connected to God's heart. (11-59, 1961.1.1)
The entire Korean peninsula of three thousand ri -- every village, valley, mountain and field -- desires to attend the coming True Parents. Serving True Parents is the desire of all people in history. You, as children, should establish the individual and family standard of indemnity and become substantial representatives of True Parents. (13-288, 1964.4.12)
Think about how much time I have spent in prison, more than five years in all. Think about how rain dripping from a gutter will gradually make a hole in a rock. None of you would know how bitterly I wept as I gazed upon those drops of water, thinking how much I wished that the teardrops of my love could bore a hole through the rock of anguish embedded in God's heart! Gazing upon a flowing stream I thought how wonderful it would be if this stream could be pristine water, serving God so that He could come and bathe in it! How wonderful it would be if I could be a child who could prepare such a home or resting place for God! Unless you experience that deep world of heart, you have nothing to do with God. (185-45, 1989.1.1)
A new family based totally on God's love would have been started. If a clan, tribe, people, nation, and world had emerged from this family, the world would have become a community of one large family serving God. (Blessed Family -- 320, Korean Edition)
Through the principle of indemnity, we must liberate God from all of the sorrowful circumstances, pain, and suffering that He endured throughout history. This is how we understand what unfilial children we have been and how much suffering we have caused God by our misdeeds. This is how we become true filial children who can attend their Parent with the filial piety that outdoes our past lack of filial piety. Thus, in serving God, we must understand the toils of our Parent who sacrificed everything and made such effort through history. Step by step, gradually, we have come into the age where we can clear away past mistakes. So we must attend God, and at least from today, take upon ourselves the hardships of God, so that He can be completely liberated. (144-274, 1986.4.25)
The place where the father, mother, sons and daughters can live together in harmony serving God is the ideal world. (22-271, 1969.5.4)
With a greater heart than that of God who nurtured His love for the universe at the time of creation, you need to bring your people together and invest everything you have into them without expecting anything in return. We are responsible to form a model family serving God. Its final destination is the highest ideal of a family, with love so beautiful that when the True Parents come to visit, they would never want to leave. In fact, all world leaders, including the royal family of True Parents' direct sons and daughters, would desire to live in the home of this family. (298-54, 1999.1.1)
The Messiah solidifies the position of the perfected Adam. The Kingdom of Heaven will be established only after the perfected Adam and Eve marry, live on earth serving God, have sons and daughters centered upon Him, bring forth His clan and live on earth together with them, and then, finally, move on into the heavenly world together with God. (282-51, 1997.3.10)
Today, even though fallen people have parents, those parents are not true parents recognized by God. Then what is it that we need to do in the Last Days? At this time, while we are still alive, we should serve the universal parents, the parents of the religion and the parents of the family. In short, we need to serve those three sets of great parents. (5-122, 1959.1.4)
In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve fell of their own accord and lived within that fallen realm, being thus unable to experience a life of serving God. Those who have not served Him have no right to enter His kingdom in heaven. Though you have inherited the fallen lineage and lived as such, you have indemnified a course of restoration and have served God and the True Parents on earth, whom not even Adam and Eve had served. On this condition you have become eligible to enter heaven, for only when you have done so can you be granted citizenship in God's Kingdom. (150-233, 1961.4.15)
If our ancestors had not fallen, we would have lived our lives serving God. You must serve God with your heart, and in the course of your daily life. (150-213, 1961.4.15)
This is all about true love, and marching forward serving God, together with the True Parents. Such is the original principle of creation. (295-255, 1998.9.8)