Yesterday I spoke about witnessing: the purpose of witnessing, how to witness and our attitude in witnessing. Since we started a new 40-day witnessing condition yesterday I'd like to speak about the meaning of our pledge this morning. Whenever I read the pledge I feel very strongly that everything Father wants to teach us is contained within it, that if you truly understand the pledge you can understand everything because it is the essence of Father's teaching. We don't have a special time to study the contents of the pledge, but actually we should, reading it carefully and studying the contents.

The first point of the pledge states that God's will is to achieve the purpose of creation. Father emphasizes the importance of self perfection. We know that God's purpose of creation can only be realized by fulfilling the three blessings, the first of which is self perfection. Father emphasizes it more than the others because it is the base for realizing God's ideal. If the base is incomplete then anything built upon it won't be stable. The three blessings are all important, but the first one is foremost. If an individual cannot reach perfection, God's purpose of creation cannot be realized. This is why Father selects this point and mentions it specifically. The purpose of every one of our activities is to bring us closer to perfection. We must always bear this in mind. If any activity hinders us from reaching perfection it is wrong. Our 40-day witnessing condition is an opportunity to mature ourselves and improve our understanding of God's heart and words.

Second, Father says that we must become one with God through His word, personality and heart. These are the three basic elements needed to become one with God. We must understand this. National and regional leaders represent God and True Parents in their area. Members often misunderstand what this means though. When we say that leaders are representatives of God and True Parents it means they should embody God's word, personality and heart. All too often they feel they are the representatives of God and True Parents' authority, thinking only of the authority and not the essential points. Of course God has authority, without it He couldn't proceed with His providence. True Parents also need God's authority to do their work, but the base of God's authority is His truth, His personality and His heart. Only when we embody these three things can we claim to have God's authority. As Father has said, individual perfection comes when we deeply understand God's truth and embody His personality and heart. Often leaders don't understand this. If they try to exercise authority without these three things it will only cause trouble.

I found many such cases upon coming to Europe. Of course, this happens in other countries as well: Korea, Japan, everywhere; there are many cases of such things happening. Before someone is put in a position of authority he should endure and pass many tests. But, as you know, our church is growing rapidly, so we don't always have time to train leaders properly. When there is a vacancy we must find someone, whether he is qualified or not. So when Father makes someone a national or regional leader it doesn't necessarily mean he is qualified for that position. Father appoints him because he needs someone. He must try to reach the expected standard while in that position by studying God's words and trying to inherit God's personality and heart. It doesn't necessarily mean he has already achieved everything. No; If you are put in such a position, you must work harder than your members in order to qualify yourself. Study God's word more and try harder to mature yourself and inherit God's heart, otherwise your members will suffer. Not only will your members suffer, but God, True Parents and the whole providence will suffer.

I know why so many European nations have such problems. In Japan and Korea, Father knew the language. Also he didn't allow members to go witnessing before he had established a church organization, i.e. regions, centers and leaders etc. Of course members could bring their friends and relatives to the church; that was okay, but he didn't allow us to go out pioneering. Father stayed with the members and trained us himself. In the early days we didn't sleep before twelve, usually after two, three or sometimes even four a.m. We just sat with Father, talking and singing. Father trained members in this way. He didn't lecture as one does to students, but trained us through his daily life and example. We learned by living with him. It may have taken time but this was how he trained us. He wanted to convey his heart and set an example of how man should be.

The missionaries who came to Europe never experienced this. They weren't trained by Father. When Miss Kim went to America, although she lived with Father for many years, she didn't have much chance to train those around her because there were so many things to do. Instead of investing time in training members they were busy reaching out to more people. They wanted to bring more members because they didn't have so many in the beginning. They worked to contact people without having received proper training themselves. Then they went to other countries and became missionaries or even national leaders. Actually, they never received any training from Father. Of course they had studied the Principle, but even their understanding of truth was imperfect. They frequently misunderstood Father's words. If you don't really understand God or True Parents' heart, you can't really understand the true meaning of their words. This is how different traditions developed in various countries. The spirit or central tradition should not differ from nation to nation. But in reality we see many differences. This is not God's desire; it shouldn't have happened this way.

The third point of our pledge clearly states that Father defeated Satan and that we want to inherit the weapon he used to do so; that is parental heart: ". . . by sowing sweat for earth, tears for man and blood for heaven, as a servant but with a father's heart, . . ." This is Father's way, he defeated Satan with this weapon. Each time we give our pledge we say we want to inherit this weapon. We can never defeat Satan with force or power alone.

In the fourth point of our pledge we say that by restoring their original nature original men can fulfill the ideal world of one heart in one body and have true peace, happiness, freedom and ideals. This will come. We want to live in such a world of true peace, happiness and ideals. But these things can only come about when we have true men. True men means people of God's original ideal and nature. When true man is united with God's heart we can have what we want. From this we can understand how important individual perfection and unity of heart are, not force.

This is why we say we want to establish the true tradition of God with a parental heart and the body of a servant, shedding sweat, tears and blood for earth, mankind and God. This is the time to inherit this tradition, this weapon. We witness to fallen people who belong to Satan who doesn't want to let them go, he wants to keep them under his dominion. We must defeat Satan in order to lead them out of his territory and bring them to God's realm. How can we defeat Satan? We need Father's weapon to release people from Satan's bondage. When we serve someone and pray for them with a parental heart, really working hard to give them God's words and heart, we can succeed in bringing them to God's side. This is witnessing. Through our witnessing activity God wants to train us and develop our personality, bringing us closer to Him and perfection. If we try to reach out to people and bring them to God without understanding this point we will neither succeed nor grow spiritually. Of course God's will is foremost, but to accomplish it we must reach perfection. Everything we do should bring us closer to this goal. We should find that we have grown spiritually by participating in the 40-day condition. We must develop in some way or grow to a certain extent. If you discover that your spirit has declined, you can be sure that that's not what God wanted. We must be able to bring members and at the same time develop ourselves. That is the right way of doing things.

When you have many ailments you are always most aware of the most serious one. You may have a stomach or liver ailment, but you would be most aware of the pain caused by your most serious ailment and believe that is the problem. Even after that part is cured, however, the other ailment would still remain. Again you will want to cure the worst problem. Each problem will be dealt with in turn until you are completely cured. In this way you can regain total health. This is how we should solve problems: first the major ones, then the minor ones. Similarly, when we solve a problem here in Europe other problems arise that we weren't even aware of before. They were always there, we just didn't realize it because there were larger, more serious problems. Once we solve the big problems, however, the smaller ones are exposed and we can solve them as well, gradually solving all our problems. I can see this happening in Europe. Upon solving certain problems in a nation, we discover others we hadn't noticed before. Once the major problems are solved, the others appear more clearly. This is how God wants us to solve our problems and improve everything.

In God's providence there are three major positions: Adam, Eve and the archangel. There is an Adam nation, an Eve nation and an archangel nation. These three are the main components of God's providence. If we compare God's providence to a car, we can compare the Adam nation to the engine, the Eve nation to the transmission and the archangel nation to the wheels. With an engine, a transmission and four wheels a car can run; these are the three essential components. Of course, more would be needed to improve its appearance, but it would run. Therefore the engine, the transmission and the four wheels should be of good quality. The transmission conveys power from the engine to the four wheels, which in turn are connected to the steering gear to insure that the car goes in the right direction. This resembles God's providence. Without wheels a car cannot go. This is America's responsibility. So you can understand how important America is. Even if everything else is ready, the providence cannot progress without wheels.

I spoke with Karl yesterday about how we can work most effectively during the 40-day condition. We must organize our activities so that every member can participate and then give clear instructions so everyone understands how he or she can contribute. We can contact people on the street, through home church or by sending letters to contacts, relatives and friends. We can also visit relatives and friends or call them on the phone. They are now witnessing by phone in America and getting good results. It is difficult to knock on a stranger's door, but you can call people on the phone and ask them whether they have heard about our church or Rev. Moon. You can find a good topic to discuss and develop a conversation and then say, "If you are interested I can give you more information. I can send you some leaflets or brochures." We can also witness to people in this way. People often don't want to open their door to strangers. It is not easy to reach people you don't know, but you can always reach them by phone.

We are now doing video-rallies. Through them we can give our message to people without inviting them to the center. It's important to have nice videos that express our message to the people. We must use everything for this purpose. Witnessing is our most important activity. When you witness there are many people watching how you behave. You may not realize it, but they are; you should be aware of this. They want to know what kind of people we are. They may come without even hearing our message if they see sincerity in our behavior and attitude. There are many ways to reach people's hearts. So we should always maintain a good attitude. This comes from a good personality. We must express goodness through our actions and our appearance. Our clothing should be clean and neat. You don't have to wear expensive clothes, but they should be dean and neat. We should always be aware that we represent God and True Parents; we represent God's word, personality and heart.

Sometimes members want to do or say something, but cannot because they aren't understood by their leader or other members. They want to do something, but may be too shy to express it. In this case we must go to the person and ask him to do something. When someone arrives from a foreign country, they may even be German, but after being away for many years it may be difficult for them to say what they would like to do here. We must make it easier for them to suggest or do something. This is our responsibility. Also when someone comes to headquarters he or she may feel neglected if we are occupied with our work and don't pay any attention to him. Before visiting headquarters he or she surely thought about when they should come. They may only have decided to visit after long consideration. If you forget that and treat him as an ordinary member who visits frequently, he will be very disappointed and may not return. This can happen. It's okay for people who visit frequently, but those who only visit occasionally need appropriate treatment, otherwise we make a bad impression. Even if you know that the person didn't come to see you, you should still ask him to take a seat and find someone to talk to him and discover why he came or in what way we can help him. We have to find this out at least. If we do this people will be happy, they will feel that headquarters is a wonderful place. This is a small point, but it can change our image. When something goes wrong it isn't always due to a big mistake. Small things can cause problems and separation as well, so we must be careful in all things.

Many members feel that it is the responsibility of the person who brings a guest to take care of them. Actually we should work together. We know how difficult it is to bring guests, so we shouldn't give that task to just one person, each one should consider it their responsibility as well. Only when we work together can we bring good results. If you leave the guest to one member and don't care at all, we will never bring good results no matter how many guests come. You may feel, "He's someone else's spiritual child, I have nothing to do with him." This is wrong; everyone should work together. You never know, the person may be able to help you someday. Not only that, each person is so important. We should take good care of new guests when they come. It doesn't matter who brought him, everyone should pay attention, then he will feel at home when he comes here. Otherwise, if he cannot find the person who brought him, he will leave. He may return a few times, but if the same thing happens again, he won't come back. So everyone is responsible for guests and should ensure that they are treated well. We can bring good results only when we work together. We should do this all the time, not just during 40-day witnessing conditions. But if we do this during our 40-day condition, we will establish a good tradition. My wife and I ask you to pray hard and unite among yourselves during this 40-day condition. I hope that all goes well, that we can gain good results and that everyone can remain healthy and succeed in their mission.

Let us pray:

Our loving Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that you gave us this wonderful day. We came before you this morning to offer our pledge and renew our determination to serve you and do your will. Father, you have worked so hard to give us your truth, your personality and your heart. But many people don't understand you, they don't even know you exist. As a result they follow the wrong direction in life; each individual has his own view of life and way of living and the world is in a chaos as a result. Without a central truth people follow many different directions. This world cannot find the true way to follow. By sending the True Parents you gave us clear direction; we now have your truth and through it we can understand our purpose and what we must accomplish while here on earth.

We also have a true example to follow in our True Parents. We can become your true children by learning from them, and as your true children we can realize your ideal world on earth. You want to see a world of peace, happiness, freedom and ideals. Everyone wants such a world, but without inheriting your original nature and becoming your sons and daughters we cannot realize it. Thus it is essential that we understand you and learn from you; we must learn your truth and live according to it. In this way we can inherit your personality and understand your heart. Many people are longing for a world of peace and happiness, but however hard they try they cannot realize it unless they do this first. This is why our True Parents are desperate to convey your heart and your truth to all people. But the people aren't coming to our True Parents, instead they do all kinds of evil against them and our True Parents suffer so much because of this.

Our Father is now in Danbury. He is innocent and pure and has lived his whole life just to serve you and to love all mankind, both on earth and in the spirit world. But people cannot understand what he is doing because they can't see that he came from you, this is why they persecute him. Father is in a difficult position; he never blames those who put him there though, but tries to love them more instead. Even in this miserable situation he is praying for the world and all mankind. We pray for our True Parents, for their safety and the freedom to teach your truth and love. Father, we ask you to be with our True Parents and protect them. Please, give them your power and energy so they can soon be free to lead us to your ideal. We also pray for the True Children. They are in a very lonely position. We must support them and unite with them. Then we can unite with our True Parents.

Yesterday we started a 40-day witnessing condition here in Europe. We ask you to lead our members throughout this time. Guide them so they can fulfill your every desire and return joy to you. Father, we want to become your dutiful children. Through this condition we want to come closer to you and inherit your heart and your nature.

We pray all this in the name of our True Parents. Amen.

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