The Words of the Cotter Family
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The Words of the Cotter Family |
Thank you. God bless you. Let's give God and True Parents a big hand today. Happy New Year! Are you ready to go higher today? Turn to your neighbor and say, "Neighbor, we're going to go higher today in the love of God. And we're going to go higher in 2012 – higher and higher, because his love is lifting us higher. Amen."
I wish the band wouldn't do that to me. How do they expect me to come out and speak with that kind of music going on? It destroys me in a good way. How about you? Let's give Sonic Cult a big hand today.
I know you're wondering what I'm doing with this cane. I'm going to tell you. By the way, I don't need this. I could throw this away, but it has a special meaning: Cain and Abel!
Happy 2012, everyone. I want to say greetings to our brothers and sisters here, welcome to our families, welcome to all of our new guests and our new members. Welcome to the family today. Amen. And I've got to give a shout-out all across America. I want to say hello to Alaska. Can you say that for me? Alaska. Sometimes we forget those folks way up in the north, hard-working Alaska. And also because all my children were born in the South, I want to say hello to the great Southeast – Atlanta, Georgia, Miami, Florida, Nashville, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana. My spiritual roots are in the South, brothers and sisters.
Also, today, as you can see around us, is a special day around the nation. It is Launch Day, so welcome and happy Launch Day. We're launching our winter module all across America today. As you can see here in Lovin' Life Ministries, thanks to the great work of our ministry team and to all of you and to our pastors across America, today we're launching a winter module, which is what? "In Love." Can you say that? "In Love." "In love with God." Are you in love with God today? In love with your spouse? If you love your spouse, turn to him or her and give them a kiss right now, a pre-Valentine's Day kiss. And in love with our community, our family, the family of God. So we're in love.
This year is the Year of the Dragon, as was already said. As long as I can remember, I've had a fascination with wood [holds up cane with a dragon motif]. Maybe some of you brothers and sisters can identify with that. I always had sticks. I always carved them. My son and daughter and my wife will attest that I have a closet full of sticks that I bequeathed to my son. I just love sticks, especially wood, beautiful kinds of wood. It just has some power to it. Do you love wood? Do you love trees? They're great living things.
This particular stick, this cane, is made of elm. It's 100 years old. When I was in Korea last year, walking down the streets of Itaewon – which we affectionately call "eat your won" – a little store, like something out of Harry Potter, a magical antique store, called out to me. I was walking by, but I had to go into this store. And inside there was an elder Korean lady – also something out of Harry Potter – and all these magical things with dust on them, wooden sculptures of Buddha and all kinds of magical antique things. I was just amazed.
I was wondering what was calling out to me in this store. I looked around and saw some interesting canes. Way back in the corner was this dusty stick, and it was calling to me. She was trying to hide it. I said, "What's that?" She said, "Oh, you don't need that." I found out that this was her husband's favorite piece. It's a 100-year-old carving of a dragon from Korea. You can see that it has actually two dragons. Here is the main dragon and on the top is Buddha. The dragon's eyes are sealed. This is a single piece of elm. In the dragon's mouth is the pearl from Buddhism, which is the gem that grants all desires. And then the pearl here, so there are two dragons in the heavens because dragons symbolize heavenly power. Did you know that? So we're in the Year of the Dragon. That's why there's so much heavenly power in the air. He can hardly contain himself. And in the Buddhist culture, they're struggling over this great pearl of wisdom.
Did you know that dragons actually originated as carp? The gods were so amazed by their power, strength, persistence, and determination that they transformed them into great dragons of the heavens. Was that good? Yes, that's good.
This stick called out to me. It's 100 years old, and I realized someone was making this and walking with this around the same time as our True Father was born, so I had to have it. She didn't want to part with it. We struggled. She wanted 200,000 won. I got her down to 90,000. That was pretty good. Maybe I should repent for that!
I love this stick. It reminds me of our True Father. Did you know Father shared recently, and many times, the fact that when he was born in 1920 in what's now North Korea, his name was not Sun Myung Moon. You may have heard about that – "Oh, Reverend Moon changed his name." Well, he did. Actually, God changed his name. When he was born, his name was Yong Myeong Moon. He said that Yong, the first part of his name, means dragon. That's why when he was a little boy he was fascinated with dragons. He said, "I used to ride black dragons, white dragons, yellow dragons in the sky. I used to fight with evil dragons to try to destroy them."
This year is actually a black dragon or water dragon year. So the young Yong Myeong Moon was fascinated with dragons, and he took on the mission given him by Jesus at age 16. But around the time when Korea was liberated from the Japanese, 1945, Father Moon has said, "God told me, 'You have to take on a different mission. You can't do things the way that you used to do. I want you to become the owner of heaven and earth, the owner of the land and the sea.'" So God gave him a new name. God said, "You will be Sun Myung Moon." God changed Father Moon's name.
There's so much power in a name, isn't there? There's a lot in our names, and we're going to be talking about that today. The Chinese character for Sun in Sun Myung Moon consists of the characters for fish and sheep. He has said, "Through that part of my name I have dominion over the land and the sea." And the character for the Myung part of his name means sun and moon, so he has said, "Through that part of my name, I have dominion over the sun and the moon." God was giving him this anointed name to match the mission of his life. Amen? That's very powerful.
Do you know what the largest living thing on earth is? It's an elephant, right? A whale? A blue whale is huge, but that's not the largest living thing on earth. My family lives in the Bay area, and I took them to Muir Woods, the great redwood forest in the Bay area. But actually it's not the greatest redwood forest. The greatest redwoods have lived for thousands of years in an area now preserved as Sequoia National Park. The largest known living thing on earth is General Sherman, a giant sequoia tree named after the great Civil War general. Did you know that?
This General Sherman sequoia tree is about 280 feet tall. At its base, brothers and sisters, it's 40 feet wide. That's like two of me. It's 40 feet wide. It is so massive, it's unbelievable. It's also one of the fastest growing things on earth, the giant sequoia tree. They don't stop growing. When they get to 200, 300 feet, then they start adding girth and width. The massiveness of this tree is staggering. It weighs over 2 million pounds. It's huge.
Now how do you support a tree like that? It has one root system. You would imagine for a tree that size it would have to have a tap root that goes down hundreds of feet. It doesn't. It has a shallow root system that goes down 12 to 14 feet, but it spreads out to reach 90,000 cubic feet. It spreads out over one acre, the root system to support this mighty tree. Isn't that amazing? This is one of the largest living things on earth, but there is only one root and one trunk for this massive tree.
I think you can tell where I'm going with this. Does the Bible ever mention trees, roots, branches, shoots, sprouts? It does. In John 15 Jesus begins by saying, "I am the true vine. My father is the gardener." In John 15:5 he says, "I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit."
And then he said, "Apart from me you can do absolutely nothing." "You can do nothing," he said. "If you do not remain in me, you will become like a branch that is thrown away and withers." And in those days – these days, too – such branches were picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. That's not the kind of branch that we want to be.
Jesus said, "If you abide in me and my word remains in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you." Like that Buddhist pearl, it grants every wish. Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. "This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." Isn't that beautiful?
So Jesus is the root. God is the root, and we are the branches. Our job, our mission is to remain in God's love through the messiah, and through that we can do all things, amen? Through Christ who strengthens us. But once we are disconnected, cut off from that root, there is no life.
Gandalf
Do you know what Jesus' Hebrew name is? It's Yeshua. And what does it mean? It means, the Lord saves, God saves. So there is much in a name, isn't there? Imagine if you had the name Joshua.
Actually, Joshua is not the name I was given at birth. Did you know that? Do you want to know what my birth name was? My parents named me Neil, like Neil Salonen. When I joined this church and met True Parents in the mid-1970s, that was my name. Like Gandolf said, "That was my name." And he had a staff, right? I remember that.
I grew to dislike that name. You know why? Because I was such a model new member that everybody ended up calling me "Ideal Neil." I hated that. But I also experienced several years into my spiritual life as I was listening to someone speak the word, that God's word came to me. God said, "You should change your name." And I said, "I don't want to change my name." But then I said, "To what?" It was very clear: "Joshua."
I shared that experience with my elder sister. She prayed about it and two weeks later she came back and said, "Okay, do it." And since that day in 1977 I've been Joshua. There is much in a name. It changed the course of my life.
So Jesus' name is Yeshua. It means, "God saves." And through him did not God save the world? So the interesting thing is that Jesus was largely unnoticed, unknown in his life. In Isaiah 11:1 there's a prophecy about the coming of the Messiah, one of many. And it says, "A shoot (s-h-o-o-t) – a shoot from the stump of Jesse will come and its branch will bear much fruit." Now think about that. Jesse is the ancestor of Jesus, the father of David, amen.
Jesse's stump, if you will. Have you ever gone through the woods and seen a tree that's been cut down, a stump? And there's a little green shoot coming out of it. Ever seen that? Why do they call that a shoot? I think it's because when you see that shoot, you think, "Shoot, that's nothing. I could just go ping, and it would be dead." It's so fragile, right?That's what people thought of Jesus, that he was this little shoot that they could treat however they wanted. They thought he was nothing. But God was saying in Isaiah 11:1, "Be careful because this is my son. This little shoot will take root and become the true vine and give life to the world. So never underestimate that shoot."
Jesus' hometown was called what? Nazareth. Nazareth comes from the Hebrew word netser, which means shoot or sprout. Nazareth was known to the people in the days of Jesus as a little insignificant town, like a shoot. You would walk by it and would not even think twice about it, just like the messiah. This is so fascinating.
In fact, in the Bible, it says that people said, "We all know that nothing good comes from Nazareth." But did something good come from that shoot? The true vine, the eternal messiah, Jesus, the one who came to save the world came from that shoot. To me that's fascinating. We should give Jesus a hand and give God a hand.
Sun
Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han December 25, 2011
So when Jesus Christ almost 100 years ago, in 1935, called Father Moon, it was a similar situation. Father Moon is like the shoot coming out of the stock of Jesus, if you will. Father Moon was unknown, from a tiny village in Korea on the mountainside. No one even knew about Korea, much less this child, this person whom God was raising up. But look what God has done through his life. Because he took on the mission of Jesus, God has raised him up to save the world.
Jesus Christ called our True Father at age 16, but when he called him, our True Father was a humble young man. At first our True Father said, "God, Jesus, I love you but I'm not worthy of this mission." And Jesus was saying, "I need you. You are the one. I've chosen you to take this mission, to fulfill my mission as the messiah." When Father Moon, as we know, as a young person finally said, "Yes, I promise you unto my life," he made the promise that he would take on this mission and fulfill it.
As our senior pastor said, from that moment, brothers and sisters, until this – when he is about to celebrate his 93rd birthday and our True Mother her 70th birthday in just a few weeks – he has never wavered. He has never wavered. Amen.
In the last few weeks at the end of last year, Father Moon in Las Vegas spoke a lot about two things. One of them was having a life and death commitment. Just as his life has been on the line for God, going through life and death situations continuously throughout his life, we should have that same heart. And the second thing he talked about was total investment, the total investment of ourselves for the sake of God. So let's keep those things in mind as we go into this final year of 2012, going now toward 2013.
And we know that Father Moon always talks about three other things: absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. But recently he said the greatest of these – it sounds like when Paul talked about love, right, "the greatest of these is love" – our True Father said the greatest of those three, faith, love and obedience, is obedience. So we should pray about that as well.
In a sense God and Jesus are that root. When I think about those great redwoods and old General Sherman, "I think even God himself is envious of that tree," don't you? God is saying, even though he created them, "Man, that is some tree. I wish I had a tree like that." General Sherman says, "But you do, God. I'm yours." But God is thinking, "I wish I had a family tree like that. I wish that through my son Jesus that we could have had a family tree like that."
That was the mission of Jesus, to perfect himself as the true son of God, which he did, and then to restore Eve, his bride, and to establish the True Parents, the True Family, the True Children 2,000 years ago. And then through that lineage, the root of God and True Parents, and the trunk of True Children, they would have blessed the world so the branches and the leaves of that great tree of God's lineage would be all the blessed families around the world.
From that point of view, this is why God and Jesus love Father Moon for what he did and love the True Parents, because now finally God can stand next to old General Sherman and say, "You may be awesome, but my family tree is going to make you look like a little shoot. Shoot, yes."
That's why we are those blessed people in history. Our senior pastor always says that. Amen. We are the most blessed. But don't get comfortable with that. We're the most blessed because we have the blessing to be a blessing and to bless others. Amen. That's our blessing.
Ambassador
Denroy Morgan
So the greatest thing for me, for all of us, is to be alive at this time. Are you alive? Are you just surviving, or are you going higher and higher? The blessing to work with our True Parents at this time, Ambassador Denroy, is so amazing. I want to recognize Ambassador Denroy Morgan, my true brother here in the front row. It's amazing.
And to work together with True Children who have come of age, especially our senior pastor here, I can't tell you what a blessing it is for me. I count every day as a blessing. I hope you do, too. Father Moon in Las Vegas was talking with Dr. Yang recently, and he didn't feel like Dr. Yang was getting what he said. Father was talking about life and death, total investment. And he said, "Dr. Yang, don't you realize that one of my days is like a thousand of your days?" That's what he said. Can you imagine living with that kind of intensity, brothers and sisters, with one day being like a thousand years? Sometimes it feels that way. But it should be in a good way.
In
Jin Moon and Ye Jin Moon May 1, 2011
Lovin' Life Ministries started on an Easter Sunday. It will be three years this coming Easter. It started in 2009. There were just about 600 people in this auditorium. We weren't broadcasting nationwide. They couldn't see us up in Alaska; they couldn't see us anywhere else. Six hundred people came. Many skeptics were in the audience or rode in after that. Some people said, "In Jin Nim, good job. I hope your sermons get better." And some of them kept on her case every week, "Yes, it's getting better." She was very humble, "Thank you very much."
Some others said, "In Jin Nim, I give you three weeks." And at that time some of us wondered from week to week. I remember our brother David Eaton, who's our producer. At that time he said, "It took us 18 hours to prepare for this first Sunday Service. How in the world are we going to do this every week?" But they've done it. Please give our production crew a huge hand.
And 150-plus weeks and sermons later, this ministry is growing and thriving. It's transforming America and the world. And we've just begun, brothers and sisters. We've just begun.
Some of you in the audience may remember in the early 1980s when Father Moon decided to start the Washington Times. I think it may have been in this very place, or in the ballroom in the New Yorker. He said, "Who would like to start a newspaper?" He took volunteers. And those people came together and established the Washington Times.
Now what did the media world and the inside-the-Beltway crowd think about Reverend Moon establishing a newspaper in the nation's capital? Most people said, "Reverend Moon, we give you six weeks." Some were charitable. They said, "Reverend Moon, six months and then you're done." Brothers and sisters, this is 2012. This is the 30th anniversary of the Washington Times this year. Thirty years.
I remember the tenth anniversary of the Times. World leaders like President Ronald Reagan: "Well, Rev. Moon, we rolled up our sleeves and we got to work and we ended the Cold War together." That was my Ronald Reagan. And even the Iron Lady, who you'll see in movie theaters, "Thank you to Washington Times. We're so grateful for all your good work that you've done over the past decade. We're so grateful": the Iron Lady herself.
Everybody congratulated Reverend Moon at the enormous success. But when he started the Times in Washington, he was nothing but a shoot. It's amazing.
Lovin' Life Ministries is the same. There's a fortune here, folks. There's a heavenly fortune that's unstoppable, as long as you remain in God, in that root, in True Parents. Amen?
It's miraculous. Last week when our senior pastor stood here on the first of January, amazing throngs of young people rushed the stage and were singing and wishing her Happy New Year. It was amazing. I could see that she was shocked. She doesn't even know what God is doing through her, she's so humble. What God is doing through all of us.
We had the CARP Winter Ball. Who went to that? Almost 1,000 young people flocked there. Two years ago when we started, it was tough to get 200. Now, my own children flew out from the Bay Area to be here. I'm so grateful for them. Thank you, guys. It was an incredible experience. I felt so young, my wife and I. We feel young and we are young, to be surrounded with such remarkable young people who know who they are and are on a track for leadership for this nation, for the world, and for their families. It's fantastic.
I really want to thank Generation Peace Academy, GPA. Is there any GPA in the house? We did these Original Substance of Divine Principle workshops last year, six of them. GPA members always came, and they supported and they sang. We had a great time singing praise and worship. For all of our pastors and ministers to see these shining young people was the most amazing thing. Stand up, you guys, and take a bow. GPA, Leadership Module.
And the choir is rehearsing. They're going to go to Korea to represent all of us. It's just amazing. A new Leadership Module is starting right up. The Launch Pad is happening today. So 2012, brothers and sisters, is the Year of the Dragon. It means the year of heavenly power, soaring into the heavens. That's what we're scheduled to do.
We ended the year with a beautiful Winter Charge with almost 300 high school young people from around the nation. Pastor Dave Hunter and his staff did a tremendous job. The final day we spent at UTS just having games and fellowship. It was fantastic. Our family was up there.
And in the final moments of the year, December 31st, we had campfires at UTS. It was a beautiful starlit night. Hundreds of us joined hands, prayed, and shared some words from our True Father to end the year, to take us into the New Year. Of course we know we officially start the New Year on January 23rd, with True God's Day, but we ushered in 2012 in that way. And then we had a magnificent fireworks display.
So I'm hopeful about 2012. How about you?
Our senior pastor has done so many things, even behind the scenes. But she's very concerned that the truth, the good news, the breaking news of our True Parents gets out to the world. And all the True Children, all the True Parents' children have that same heart – that they want to be the John the Baptists to our True Parents. So when our senior pastor looks at the Internet and sees a lot of rumors, a lot of lies, a lot of things that have been around for the last 50 years, she wants to put an end to that.
And how do you put an end to rumors and lies? With the truth. So all across this nation you may have been hearing about the poetry of True Children's names. There is much in a name, amen? So she asked me to share a little bit about that this morning. God has been suffering throughout history, since the Fall, to find True Parents, to establish that mighty tree of his lineage. In the Garden of Eden, God and Adam and Eve were growing. Lucifer, the archangel, saw Adam and Eve growing and realizing more and more that their destiny was to become greater than he, to become True Parents. But instead of realizing that through Adam and Eve and through True Parents he would receive God's love and their love, Lucifer panicked. He freaked out.
He wanted to kill Adam and Eve, if the truth be told, but he couldn't do that. Would any parent here sit back and let someone kill your children? No. But he did something worse. He tempted Adam and Eve with the false word, to betray God. In a sense, that was even worse than killing them because God lost everything through that, and God suffered in his heart. Adam and Eve betrayed God, and Lucifer became Satan. Then the children of Adam and Eve betrayed God as Lucifer caused Cain, the elder brother, to murder his younger brother. So these crimes of betrayal of God and murder of God's children were Lucifer's crimes. This was the cause of God's suffering.
Four thousand biblical years later, finally God could send his son Jesus as this shoot from the stump of Jesse, this lineage of David, the lion of the tribe of Judah. Amen. The long-awaited Messiah. God himself waited thousands upon thousands of years. What was the mission of Jesus? Not to die. His destiny was not the cross. His mission and destiny were to perfect himself, which he did as the true Adam, overcoming Adam's tendency to betray God. But then Jesus was to go on and find and restore Eve, who was lost to God through the Fall. And then together they were to be blessed by God as True Parents, and to have True Children, to establish God's eternal lineage so that this tree was not a stump, or not just a root but it could have been a trunk with branches, leaves, and blossoms, and grow for eternity.
Satan tried his best. Don't you think he wanted to destroy Jesus? He could see the end for him was near. He tried to tempt Jesus, didn't he? Three temptations to make Jesus betray God the way the first Adam did. But did Jesus betray God? No. He was humble, faithful, and absolutely obedient.
Have you ever read the book of Hebrews? The fifth chapter, eighth verse says that Jesus, "although he was the son, he learned obedience." How? "Through the things that he suffered." Wait a second. That's not my Jesus. That's your Jesus. That's God's Jesus – the one who became perfect through his suffering, the one who learned obedience and stood as the true Adam through his suffering.
So Jesus reached perfection. He could not be tempted by Satan, so what does Satan do? If you can't tempt him to betray God, then you try to kill him. So Satan, as he did with Cain, caused the people in the Cain position to betray him and ultimately to send him to the cross, to kill him. The Abel, the son, the true Adam, the vine, was killed, was cut off.
Now God had to allow this. God could not save the life of Jesus. He had to ask Jesus to offer his life. Jesus could have run away. But he would not. Jesus faced his own destiny on the cross and offered himself willingly as a lamb of sacrifice. In doing so, he brought spiritual salvation to humanity. But God said, "I will send the messiah again."
So two thousand years later, through intense suffering of God, Jesus in the spiritual world, and humankind on the earth, God and Jesus called Father Moon at the age of 16 to become the third Adam. And you might know that God always succeeds on the third attempt. The first Adam betrayed God; the second Adam was faithful to God unto his life, but was killed by Satan; but the condition that Jesus made on the cross allowed God to raise up the third Adam, our True Father, and protect his life. What an unbelievable life he's had since taking on this mission! But he never died. Amen! I want to read from our Father's autobiography, from page 89, because we hear about his surviving unbelievable torture in prison many times. But what was his attitude? We need to bear this in mind. Father writes,
"In prison the authorities beat me endlessly and they demanded that I confess my crimes. I endured. Even as I was vomiting blood and I seemed on the verge of death, I never let myself lose consciousness. Sometimes the pain would be so great, I would bend over at the waist. But I prayed with confidence, 'God, don't worry about me. Sun Myung Moon is not dead yet. I won't let myself die in such a miserable way as this.'"
Then he said,
"I was right. It was not yet time for me to die. There was a mountain of tasks before me that I had to accomplish. I had a mission. I was not someone so weak as to be beaten into submission by something as trivial as torture. Each time I collapsed from the torture, I would endure by telling myself I am being beaten for the sake of the Korean people. I am shedding tears as a way of shouldering the pain of our people."
"When the torture was so severe that it took me to the verge of losing consciousness, I would invariably hear the voice of God. In the moments my life seemed about to end, God would appear to me. My body still carries several scars that I received at that time. The flesh that was gouged from my body, the blood that was lost, they've all been replaced. But the pain of that experience remains with me in these scars. I've often looked at these scars and told myself, 'Because you carry these scars, you must succeed.'"
So Father succeeded. You can ask God and Jesus how much they love Father Moon and Mother Moon. They'll tell you. Father as the third Adam had to reach perfection, and he had to find that third Eve because the second Eve, the wife of Jesus, never appeared. Yes, someone was prepared but she never had a chance. Father Moon had to find the third Eve, establish True Parents, have children blessed by God, and establish God's eternal lineage on earth as the true olive tree. And then all humankind must engraft into that lineage of the True Parents. That's why we're so blessed to live at this time.
So Father, through this kind of life, through his study of the Bible, his prayer, his wandering in the spiritual world, and his communication with God, came to understand what history was all about: the history of restoration through indemnity, as he calls it.
Recently Father has illuminated that process of indemnity through history, restoring what was lost, restoring God's ideal. He said there are two parts of that. The first is reenactment, or reproduction, in which Satan has a condition to reenact the crimes committed in the Garden of Eden. The Messiah, the True Parents, conduct the second part of this as liquidation by faithfully, gratefully receiving suffering, absorbing everything that Satan has to throw at them. In this way the True Parents can liquidate those crimes for eternity. That's the process, that's the life of our True Parents and the True Children.
So it took three attempts for God to establish and keep alive the true Adam. The first Adam betrayed and died spiritually. The second Adam, Jesus, was faithful, but he died physically and brought spiritual salvation. The third Adam, our True Father, did not die, reached perfection, established the True Parents and the True Family on earth. And God's family tree through all of us as blessed central families is alive and well. Amen.
Hak
Ja Han circa 1960
On the Internet and elsewhere there are many rumors about Father's life, but the truth is that actually it's almost predestined. Even when we think about Father's marriage, was it an easy thing to raise up and restore the true Eve, the third Eve? No. It took three attempts. The first woman whom Father married [Sung Il Choi], his first wife, was in a sense in the first Adam position. So the tendency there would be to be influenced by Satan, if you don't have a strong condition. That's why Father told her, "You have to be faithful to me for seven years, no matter what happens." But that woman – a very prepared Christian and a very wonderful loving wife who bore Father a son named Sung Jin Nim – ultimately betrayed Father, and she insisted on divorcing him.
The second wife of our True Father [Myung Hee Kim] was in the position of Jesus, the second Adam position, if you will, the second Eve. She was also a wonderful person whom Father loved very much. She bore him a son whose name was Hee Jin Nim. But in her life, as faithful and loving as she was to Father, a great tragedy occurred. We'll discuss these things more in the future. But this tragedy devastated her so much that she hid herself. Father thought that she had died.
So finally the third attempt to restore Eve, the true Eve in our Father's life was when he found our True Mother and married her in 1960. But she was just 17 years old. She's going to be 70 years old this year. Amen. Are you looking forward to celebrating her life? What an amazing life.
So whereas others had failed, Mother was able to be faithful to Father through seven years, and actually now for over 50 years she's stood by our True Father's side. And not only that, but Father has raised her up from being a young girl, like his daughter, to stand side by side with him as the true perfected Eve. That's our True Mother.
It took 40 years for Father to be able to proclaim that. The first wife of our True Father with whom he was blessed in 1944, if she had been faithful for seven years together with Korean Christianity, by 1951 the whole world could have changed at that time. But Korean Christianity lost faith. Father's wife lost faith and betrayed him. So 40 years of wilderness and suffering had to be tacked on to 1951. This is why in 1991 Father could finally proclaim that our True Mother had fulfilled her position as perfected Eve.
I want to read some words of our True Father at that time, November 1991.
"After the perfection of Adam, Eve also has to be perfected. Based on Adam's perfection, Eve can be recreated and Adam has to restore the Eve position. This is the restoration course because at the time of the Fall Adam was subjugated by Eve. This condition is restored by indemnity at the time of the Second Coming of the Messiah."
That's reenactment and liquidation. Father's words continue,
"Therefore, when Mother in the Eve position is at the same level of perfection as Father, then the whole dispensation is completed. Until now Mother has completely followed Father. She has been totally united with him. She is Father's shadow. Now I have to raise her to Father's level."
Then in August 1992 Father made this proclamation to the world:
"I as the Messiah make my declaration to women leaders gathered around President Hak Ja Han Moon, my wife, who stands in the position of perfected Eve. I declare that my wife, President Hak Ja Han Moon, and I are the True Parents of all humanity. I declare that we are the savior, the Lord of the Second Advent, the Messiah."
How many children has our True Mother had? Fourteen children. How many people have done that? I haven't had any myself; my wife has had three. What a marvelous accomplishment for our True Mother. I really hope, brothers and sisters, we can have a cosmic celebration of her 70th birthday, thanking our True Mother.
So for the first time on earth since God's agonizing history, God and True Parents stand as the root of true love. Their 14 children together stand as a trunk of true love of that great and mighty tree. We blessed central families and our children, Second, Third, Fourth Generation and on to eternity are the branches and the leaves. So shake your branches. I can hear your leaves fluttering and growing, right? It's beautiful. These are not branches that are scheduled to be thrown on the fire. No. These are branches that are full of life because they remain in the root of God and True Parents.
The True Children's course has been one of indemnity and difficulty. All the way back to Father's first and second marriage we know he had a son, Sung Jin Nim, from the first marriage, and a son, Hee Jin Nim, from the second marriage. Those sons were in the first and second Adam positions, so you can imagine that Satan would try to tempt the first son to betray True Parents. He had a very miserable, difficult life. And even though at one time he did go away from True Parents, he was victorious. He came back and received the Blessing, as did all of his children. Amen. That's Sung Jin Nim.
Then from the second marriage, the son, Hee Jin Nim, was an amazing boy. When he was 15 he was going witnessing and fund-raising with the members. He was on a trip on a train, going to one of those fund-raising, witnessing missions, when he died tragically at 15. He was in the second son position.
Then Hyo Jin Nim, who was the first son of True Parents, was actually in that third son position representing True Father, the third Adam. Actually Father Moon told Mother Moon, "Take care of Sung Jin Nim and Hee Jin Nim. Love them more than you love your own children." So Hyo Jin Nim always felt that those were his elder brothers, part of his family, which they are. That's how much love True Mother gave to them.
But in terms of True Parents' family, Hyo Jin Nim is the first son, in the first Adam position. Satan had a condition to tempt him, to try to get him to betray God and True Parents, who now were standing in God's position. Satan was going to try to destroy that son through tempting him to betray God and True Parents. So Hyo Jin Nim was taken. He was taken into hell, as we all know. But his name means "filial piety," hyo. Even though he went to the bottom of hell, he repented and came back to God and True Parents, and his life was victorious. Amen?
The second son of our True Parents, his name is Heung Jin Nim, and he was in the second Adam position. His name means "to ascend." We could almost see the pattern of history. Our True Parents would be tested because this was an extraordinary son, as they all are, loving True Parents with immense devotion and dedication. In his teen years he was in a sense preparing to give his life as an offering, thinking how he could stand and take a bullet for True Parents.
When he was 17 he died in a car accident in upstate New York. He swerved into the path of a sliding, oncoming truck, taking the blow, the fatal blow which crushed him, protecting two boys, his friends, on the other side of the car, who survived. He sacrificed his life for his friends. But at the same time he sacrificed his life to protect True Parents. At that moment in Korea, True Parents were on a speaking tour in a city called Kwang-ju. This was part of the Victory Over Communism tour. Three men with guns who were preparing to assassinate our True Father were arrested at that precise time. So Heung Jin Nim gave his life for God and True Parents.
Father declared the victory of love over death through his son. While Heung Jin Nim was in a coma here in New York, our whole movement was praying for him. This was the end of 1983, going into 1984. We were praying that he could survive. He was in a coma. The family was in the hospital, praying. True Parents didn't come. Father and Mother finished the tour and came some five or six days later. In Jin Nim said she was praying every day, "Father, why can't you be here? Don't you know your son is dying? Save him. Save him. You can save him." Father and Mother didn't come for days. They finished God's work.
They finally came. I remember, some of us were sitting in the lobby of the hospital at that moment, praying desperately for Heung Jin Nim. Then after several hours we saw Father and Mother and members of the True Family come walking down the hallway out of that room. We didn't know what had happened. Later we found out that even Mother said, "Father, if you pray, and ask God to save him, God will do it." Father said, "I know. But we're not going to pray that way. We're going to offer him to God." It was unbelievable, even to the family. Father said there could be no tears.
If Father had saved his son – Father's life is so miserable, brothers and sisters – then Satan could have then said, "See, you don't have the love of God. You can't represent God. You have to be willing even to sacrifice this son, this second son." Father did and never shed a tear.
But through that, as we know, tremendous victory took place, the Victory of Love. After his brother's death, Hyo Jin Nim in the first son position repented. He came back to Father and repented before Father. Father even blurted out to him, "Because of you, your brother is dead." Can you imagine such harsh words? Instead of destroying Hyo Jin Nim, those harsh words made him repent. For 120 days in the snow he repented. He pledged his life, asking God and True Parents to forgive him. He came back to God and pledged, "I will never betray you again. I will be that son of filial piety."
So Father forgave him. The great thing about having True Parents on the earth, brothers and sisters, is that everything can be forgiven. Everything. Look at Father. He's forgiven the greatest mass murderers in history in the spirit world. When you think about Kim Il-sung, when you think about Kim Jong-il, we know the horrors and atrocities that that family has perpetrated on the North Koreans, and yet Father forgives them and God can forgive them. That's the power of True Parents.
He forgave Hyo Jin Nim. He gave him responsibility for this place [Manhattan Center] and for CARP worldwide. Hyo Jin Nim did great things, praying at the Berlin Wall, seeing the fall of communism.
But then Father, in the 1990s, gave Hyo Jin Nim's positions and responsibilities to his younger brother, Hyun Jin Nim, who is in the third son position. Father gave it all to Hyun Jin Nim, and Father told Hyo Jin Nim, "Support your brother now, as Cain."
Hyo Jin Nim struggled. "I don't want to. Why should I support my younger brother? He has nothing. I've done it all." But then he caught himself. "I promised I would never betray True Parents. Of course I'll support my younger brother, as difficult as it is." Father was promoting him, so that on the larger level these two brothers could resolve the Cain and Abel issue and liquidate it. Amen. Are you with me? It's fascinating.
So Hyun Jin Nim, in the third son position, took on the responsibility of the Family Federation, World CARP, STF – which is now GPA – GPF, and all kinds of PFs. He did a great job, right, a fantastic job for years. And it seemed that this person absolutely had to be the central son whom True Parents will appoint as their acting spiritual center, if you will, but never to take their place. That's how it seemed.
Then all of a sudden, as we know on March 18th, 2008, the first son, Hyo Jin Nim, passed away from internal injuries and ascended to the spiritual world unexpectedly. This was unexpected. But in 2008 many people had dreams that there were warnings about True Parents' life being in danger, dreams about True Children saving True Parents' life, dreams even about accidents like the helicopter accident that occurred in July and almost took the life of True Parents, their grandchildren, and other brothers and sisters.
So Hyo Jin Nim at the end of his life, in his final words given in his sermon at East Garden before he had his accident and died, told brothers and sisters, "Please die well. Die well." And then, despite his injury, he would not go to the hospital, but he sat in front of his desk on the floor in Korea in his office, all night, in front of a picture of True Parents. That's where he passed away.
Three weeks later, on April 7th, 2008, Father was in Hawaii, True Parents were in Hawaii. They called the True Children, all of us there together at the King Garden in Kona, Hawaii. First Father asked Hyun Jin Nim to give a report on the GPF activities that he'd been doing. Then Father did something unimaginable. But if you think about what has just happened, that the first son has now gone to the spiritual world, things would have to change. Heung Jin Nim is in the spirit world. Hyun Jin Nim now is in the position of first son. Hyun Jin Nim.
So Father said, "Hyun Jin Nim stand here. Kook Jin Nim, your next younger brother, stand here. You, Hyun Jin Nim, will now be the Cain position, and Kook Jin Nim, you're now in the Abel position. Each of you, Take the hands of our True Mother in the center and unite. Hyun Jin Nim, unite with your younger brother. The two of you unite and support your youngest brother, Hyung Jin Nim, in the ultimate Abel position." For Hyun Jin Nim, that was a huge shock. But it was to be expected. It was not in any way to slight him. In fact, it was a promotion so that the two brothers could make unity of Cain and Abel on the cosmic level and then offer everything to the youngest son centering on True Parents. All of this was in preparation for the victory of 2013.
But Hyun Jin Nim, thrust into the first son position, is now open to the attack of Satan, the archangel, who would tempt him to betray God and True Parents. So that's the position that he has been in, brothers and sisters. But we all know that he will be victorious, amen? We all know that he will repent, as Hyo Jin Nim did, realize his mission, and come back to True Parents, and through that there will be a great cosmic victory and celebration. And I say that that will be this year, 2012.
True Parents know that as well, that their son will come back to them in a great, victorious way. That's why they cautioned us. They want us to know the truth about all these events, so that we ourselves remain in God and True Parents, right? Because apart from them we can do nothing.
So if we stray, if we ourselves are tempted by the temporary word to betray our True Parents, we may find ourselves alone or in trouble, because our lives are very important and valuable as blessed central families.
So Hyung Jin Nim, the youngest son, the seventh son of our True Parents, is now effectively the third son: Hyun Jin Nim, Kook Jin Nim, and Hyung Jin Nim. Hyung Jin Nim is in the role to which True Parents appointed him in this building in 2009 – as the spiritual center of the family, as the head of our worldwide movement. And I would say, as the heart, because he is a man of heart.
In Jin Nim says there is much in a name, and there is much in a nickname. Do you know why? Because a nickname comes from the family, depending on how you make them feel. So in your family if you're known as the problem kid or the little terror, then your nickname, Bruce Grodner, may be Little Monster. My "Little Monster," affectionately. But in this case the nickname that everyone in the family had for the youngest son was what? Lovey. It sounds kind of weird, right? Lovey-dovey. In Jin Nim still calls him Lovey.
Lovey, Hyung Jin Nim, the youngest son, he's the one who makes us feel love. So when Father and Mother Moon said the youngest brother, the youngest son would be raised up in a sense as the eldest and the head, everyone in the family said, "Amen. He's Lovey, and now the whole world gets to know Lovey." Didn't we say that or think that? Because he's a man of love, heart, humility, and faith, and we love him. He makes us love him.
So Hyung Jin Nim is in a tough situation, though. He's like Jacob and his elder brother, Hyun Jin Nim, is in the Esau role. Hyun Jin Nim had all this foundation; Hyung Jin Nim has nothing. Hyun Jin Nim said, "Why should I support him?" Sounds like Hyo Jin Nim, right? "Why should I support him? He has nothing. I have it all." In Jin Nim brings up the point that the Original Divine Principle says that Cain must overcome the desire to kill Abel because Cain has that historical desire. For Abel, now Hyung Jin Nim, there are two points, "Don't get killed by Cain." That's a very important one. And secondly, "Love Cain unconditionally."
So Hyung Jin Nim is like Jacob, who had to leave. He had to split the scene, to go into Haran to avoid getting killed by Esau. There he became blessed by God; he became a billionaire like Bill Gates, or something like that. What did he do? Jacob didn't stay there. He came back, brought everything he had, laid it before his brother, and before his brother he said, "I see the face of God in you." Then they embraced, didn't they? Amen. That was a great victory for God.
So this victory, brothers and sisters, when it happens in 2012 is going to be a cosmic Cain–Abel, Jacob–Esau amazing thing. That's why Hyung Jin Nim and In Jin Nim's ministries are being so hugely blessed. Hyung Jin Nim is totally united with God and True Parents. In Jin Nim is totally united with her younger brother Lovey as her boss. And even his name, Hyung, means "elder brother," doesn't it? It also means something else, which I'll go into.
So amazing fortune is coming to these ministries because of the fortune of our True Parents, who are the root. All that will be given, offered to the elder brother, to Hyun Jin Nim. That's what's going to happen.
So our lives in the midst of all this have profound meaning. Our names are meaningful too, right? We want to talk finally about True Children and the poetry of their names. True Children's role is very important. All the members of True Parents' family, all 14 of those children will be victorious. That's their destiny. But they must work together. True Parents have emphasized this – that it's not just one, you can't go it alone. You have to work together as this united trunk, centering on the root of True Parents. That's where the power is.
It's like putting three sticks together to make a bigger stick that's really hard to break. When you have 14 True Children as an unbreakable trunk with all their names and all their potential being fulfilled, then together they have an awesome power. Every one of these True Children is special, hand-crafted by God, as are all of you, as are all of us. But their responsibilities are unique.
Their foremost responsibility is to honor True Parents with their lives, through absolute faith, love, and obedience, because True Parents are the only eternal True Parents. There will not be another True Parents after Father goes to spirit world. True Parents have that position eternally. That's why we're seeing the True Children uphold the True Parents, their eternal position, and proclaim the breaking news.
In Jin Nim says that the True Children are like 12 rays of the sun, going out from True Parents, 12 different rays of the sun to reach every corner of the earth and testify to True Parents through their lives.
Each time in the history of the True Family that one of these children was born, Father and Mother blessed them with a special calligraphy of Chinese characters. We're going to see those in a minute. They wrote their names in Chinese characters. There was a lot of thought going into this. God's plan for their lives went into this. And Father said to his children, "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to substantiate the name given to you by our Heavenly Parent." Whoa. In Jin Nim said, "Since we have been young, Father told us also that brother and sister should be partners in this family. Brother and sister should be partners.
When we look at the calligraphy for each child, we can see in those names that God had a special plan collectively for this family. The poetry comes out as we look at the history of the names. In Jin Nim believes that the True Children's names together create a beautiful poem about the building of the Kingdom of Heaven. Would you like to see that? The poetry of True Children.
First, we'll look at the names of all 14 children, their meanings, and their Chinese characters. Ye Jin, meaning the word of God. These are beautiful slides created by our brother Koichi. Ye Jin, the word of God. Hyo Jin, filial piety. Hye Jin, internal beauty. Hye Jin was the second daughter who died just eight days after she was born.
In Jin, our senior pastor's name, means virtue. Now a word about that. When Father and Mother gave her the name In Jin, the character for In means two people becoming one in harmony. Father told In Jin Nim that her name is very important because virtue is when two become one in harmony. That's her mission. Mother said to her, that right after Hye Jin died, Mother prayed for a daughter, a second daughter. Even when the pressure was to have sons, Mother prayed for a daughter. And In Jin Nim said, "Thank God she did, because that was me."
So from God and True Parents' point of view, these two daughters are one. That's the virtue of In Jin Nim. Mother said, "You're living your life for your elder sister." Can you imagine? So that's why she's always been a very spiritual person, feeling that her sister is always with her.
Then Heung Jin Nim, who we know ascended. His life means to ascend. His name means to ascend. He brought great victory through his sacrifice.
Un Jin means grace. Hyun Jin means to manifest. Kook Jin means country or nation. Kwon Jin, power and authority. Sun Jin, goodness. Young Jin, glory, young-gwon. The glory of God, Young Jin. Hyung Jin, all goes well – with Lovey. Yeon Jin, external beauty, great beauty. Then finally, Jeong Jin, the daughter, heart, like shim jung. Amen. Isn't that beautiful?
Among True Parents' family we know that Hye Jin Nim died at eight days. Heung Jin Nim offered his life at the age of 17, and we also know that Young Jin Nim died at the age of 21 in 1999. And Father found from him that he was murdered. He came to Father after 10 years of being silent. There has been so much suffering in this family because of history, because of this indemnity. True Parents have endured it; the family has endured it.
In Jin Nim said that she was at Pledge with Father and Mother years ago, and Father asked Mother, "Mother, how many children have you had?" And Mother said, "Father, you know. You know how many we've had." And Father said, "I want to hear you say it. What's the number?" She said, "Fourteen, Father." Father said, "Fourteen. Seven sons, seven daughters. Amazing. Amazing job. And two of our children (at that time), Hye Jin, Heung Jin went to the spiritual world. We know because they were in the second position. That leaves six sons and six daughters. Mother, you've done it. Six sons and six daughters: twelve tribes, twelve gates of heaven. Congratulations, Mother."
In Jin Nim said Father said that True Mother had accomplished it. In Jin Nim was amazed because everyone was thinking that it had to be twelve sons, but it's six sons and six daughters, and Father made those people the pillars of the twelve tribes and the twelve gates to heaven. In fact, as True Parent he even added Heung Jin Nim and Hye Jin Nim and made 14 gates to Heaven.
A gate means that they're the gates through which we, brothers and sisters, can come to God and True Parents, the eternal root of our faith. Let's look at the symmetry of the True Children. In Jin Nim looks at this as well. What are the odds of two people having seven sons and seven daughters? If we look at the children who were born in Korea, eight of them – Ye Jin Nim, Hyo Jin Nim, Hye Jin Nim, In Jin Nim, Heung Jin Nim, Un Jin Nim, Hyun Jin Nim, and Kook Jin Nim – we know that Hye Jin Nim and Heung Jin Nim ascended into spiritual world in different aspects of their life, leaving six coming from Korea.
The children born in America are Kwon Jin Nim, Sun Jin Nim, Young Jin Nim, Hyung Jin Nim, Yeon Jin Nim and Jeong Jin Nim. In 1999 Young Jin Nim also ascended. But as we look at the way that this lines up, with the ones born in Korea, the pattern is girl, boy, girl, girl, boy, boy. For the ones born in America – Korea representing the national level, America representing the world level – we see Kwon Jin Nim (a boy), Sun Jin Nim, (a girl), Young Jin Nim, Hyung Jin Nim (boy, boy), Yeon Jin Nim and Jeong Jin Nim, (girl, girl). It's a mirror image. Can you see that? What are the odds of that kind of thing happening?
Finally the poem of True Children's names. If we just had the boys' names, the sons' names are masculine and strong – filial piety, to ascend, to manifest, the country, the power, the glory. But these things can be turned either way. You can have filial piety toward God or toward somebody evil. You can manifest goodness, or you can manifest evil. Power can be corrupted.
The point of True Parents and the beauty of this is that the boys and girls are to be paired together as partners and that all of them are to come together. So this is what we see. When we pair the boys and the girls, seven pairs. Hyo Jin Nim, Ye Jin Nim, so on and so forth. Filial piety, word of God. To ascend, internal beauty. Manifest, virtue. Country, grace. Power, goodness. Glory, external beauty. All goes well, heart.
When we put that all together, it becomes a beautiful poem of True Children's names. You can read it with me if you want.
With filial piety, based upon the word of God, after a beautiful ascension comes the manifestation of virtue, and the country based upon God's grace (Cheon Il Guk) with the power and authority of goodness and with glory and beauty where all goes well in the world of the heart. Amen and Aju.
That's how you build the Kingdom of Heaven, brothers and sisters. So in 2012 let's remain in God and True Parents, our root, the authors, the source of our faith. Let's unite with the True Children in heart, and as blessed families let's blossom and grow. Let's have a great Launch Pad today, and let's grow in exponential ways with the power of heaven in the Year of the Dragon.
God bless you very much. Thank you.
1: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
2: Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3: You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you.
4: Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
5: I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
6: If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.
7: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
8: By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
9: As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.
10: If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
11: These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13: Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14: You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15: No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
16: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
17: This I command you, to love one another.
18: "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
19: If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
20: Remember the word that I said to you, `A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.
21: But all this they will do to you on my account, because they do not know him who sent me.
22: If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23: He who hates me hates my Father also.
24: If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.
25: It is to fulfil the word that is written in their law, `They hated me without a cause.'
26: But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me;
27: and you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning.
1: There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
2: And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the spirit
of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the
spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
3: And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.
He shall
not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
4: but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide
with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall smite the
earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips
he shall slay the wicked.
5: Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist,
and
faithfulness the girdle of his loins.
6: The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall
lie down with the kid,
and the calf and the lion and the fatling
together,
and a little child shall lead them.
7: The cow and the bear shall feed;
their young shall lie down
together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8: The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and
the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
9: They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for
the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters
cover the sea.
10: In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings shall be glorious.
11: In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant which is left of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.
12: He will raise an ensign for the nations,
and will assemble
the outcasts of Israel,
and gather the dispersed of Judah
from
the four corners of the earth.
13: The jealousy of E'phraim shall depart,
and those who harass
Judah shall be cut off;
E'phraim shall not be jealous of
Judah,
and Judah shall not harass E'phraim.
14: But they shall swoop down upon the shoulder of the Philistines
in
the west,
and together they shall plunder the people of the
east.
They shall put forth their hand against Edom and Moab,
and
the Ammonites shall obey them.
15: And the LORD will utterly destroy
the tongue of the sea of
Egypt;
and will wave his hand over the River
with his scorching
wind,
and smite it into seven channels
that men may cross
dryshod.
16: And there will be a highway from Assyria
for the remnant
which is left of his people,
as there was for Israel
when they
came up from the land of Egypt.
1: For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
2: He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.
3: Because of this he is bound to offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people.
4: And one does not take the honor upon himself, but he is called by God, just as Aaron was.
5: So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, "Thou art my Son,today I have begotten thee";
6: as he says also in another place, "Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchiz'edek."
7: In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear.
8: Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered;
9: and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,
10: being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchiz'edek.
11: About this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
12: For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need some one to teach you again the first principles of God's word. You need milk, not solid food;
13: for every one who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a child.
14: But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.