1) "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks- for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (I Thessalonians 5:16-18).

a) Apostle Paul wrote a letter 2,000 years ago to the Thessalonians in order to save humankind and the world at that time with the new Gospel of Jesus Christ. Can we say that this Bible truth applies to our Completed Testament Age, the new era of True-Parentship in the coming Second Millennium? Yes, of course. It is related to our Unification Saints, Tribal Messiahs, Blessed Couples and dedicated members throughout the United States and world.

b) Satan still continues to control the world. The dark forces of the past and the present are still rampant on earth. God's will to restore the original world of the ideal of creation is not complete yet. We Unificationists, however, have inherited all the works of the past and the present Christian saints, all of their unfinished missions and unfinished dispensations in the past.

c) There are three lessons to learn from St. Paul's letter to the Thessalonians (I Th 5:16-18): i) Praising God with rejoicing; ii) praying constantly; iii) giving thanks in everything.

What an inspirational message of truth beyond the ages! We, inheritors of God's will, must practice St. Paul's teachings more than the early Christian followers of Jesus Christ-because we are the consummator of God's providential work carried out in Judaism, Islam, Christianity and other major religions in the course of God's providence in the era of the Second Millennium.

d) Especially let me emphasize the phrase "giving thanks in everything." This phrase means that in all circumstances-in all bad things and in all good things; in all good times and in all bad times; in all small things and in all big things-the early Christian forefathers did their best to follow this truth with dedication and devotion. And this encourages us to learn and practice this teaching in the Completed Testament Age, in which we are now. This is easy to say but hard to practice.

This kind of positive mental or spiritual attitude can help us to restore the troubled world to God's original world of the ideal of creation in order to win the troubled world under Satan's dominion.

The Apostle Paul said, "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; and give thanks in everything." What a good spiritual recipe for the fallen world and fallen humankind to return to God's bosom! Especially all of us Unification Saints, Tribal Messiahs and Blessed Couples throughout the world should practice "praising our True Parents, praying for True Parents, who are working very hard, and giving thanks to God and our True Parents."

2) In relation to our "giving thanks to God and our True Parents," we Unification Saints have many things to be thankful for; but especially we must express our special, deepest, unceasing gratitude, appreciation and thanks for the special seven-point Family Pledge, established on May 1, 1994, which is the blueprint for us and humankind to quality for Heavenly Kingdom citizenship, which is now open to the whole world through the Blessing of Holy Marriage.

True Parents have given us the task of bringing the seven-point Pledge to the whole of humankind; I am especially concerned about point #3 of the Pledge-namely, to complete the four realms of heart, three great kingships and the realm of the royal family, both on earth and in heaven. We must recite this Family Pledge always, day and night, as long as we live on earth.

We are to spread this message of the heavenly family to the four corners of the earth, based on our mission as Blessed Couples and Tribal Messiahs. A lot of hard work lies ahead of us. We have no time to think about other matters.

3) Just a few days ago I received the October 1995 issue of the monthly Unificationist magazine Tong-Il Segye, from Korea, in which our True Father referred to the qualifications for Heavenly Kingdom citizenship for all of us.

Our True Father mentioned five qualifications; and when I read the Korean text about those qualifications, I felt deeply inspired. Let me paraphrase them for Westerners:

a) Five Qualifications to Enter the Highest Kingdom of Heaven:

i) Only candidates with unity of mind and body will qualify.

ii) Candidates whose marriage and family have bitter fighting and quarreling are disqualified to be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. This violates heavenly law and constitution.

iii) Candidates must live as an ideal Blessed Couple-not just a happy family, but an ideal family. Only such families qualify for the highest Kingdom of Heaven.

iv) Only candidates who experience family life with God and who attend God in daily life will qualify to be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.

v) Candidates whose family has disunity between parents and children will be disqualified to be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Considering these five qualifications, can you say that you are sure you will go to the Kingdom of Heaven, automatically, after your life on earth is over? Think seriously for a moment. I myself, who am completing 80 years of age today, have become serious, uptight and very concerned when I considered this matter. I took Father's instructions with repentance and confession to God about my past mistakes, committed either consciously or unconsciously. And I have redetermined myself to exert serious efforts to become qualified for acceptance in the eternal Heaven.

I hope you will agree with me with regard to my thinking and reasoning. Simply being a Blessed Couple is no guarantee that you will go to the highest Kingdom of Heaven. When our Father traveled to the Spirit World, he found out that the highest Kingdom of Heaven is empty. Thus, this is a very serious issue and challenge for all of us. This is not going to work automatically. It can only be obtained with our 5% responsibility for our ideal marriage and family as Blessed Couples.

b) The Three Absolutes In the same issue of Tong-Il Segye (October 1995), I found another

message from Father's direct words on the Three Absolutes for us to practice and consummate.

God created heaven, earth and all things in the beginning, based on the foundations of the three absolutes-namely, "Absolute Faith," "Absolute Love" and "Absolute Obedience." I have focused my attention and concern on the third absolute, namely, Absolute Obedience.

Concerning the word "obedience", we must be aware that there are two words in Korean which could be translated as "obedience": Bokchong and Soonjong. Both signify "obedience" or "submission". But only Bokchong is the correct standard. Soonjong is not.

The difference is that Bokchong is "obedience without consciousness of oneself," whereas Soonjong is "obedience with consciousness of oneself."

The true standard of obedience is Bokchong, which means that there is no consciousness of yourself at all. You are in a state in which you do not exist at all. This is the "you-are-not-existing" state. When you reach that state, it does not matter for you, whether you live or die. This is called "absolute obedience."

A person of absolute obedience, or Bokchong, centering on God's will, is a victor over history. Therefore, absolute obedience is more than an act of 100% following and obeying.

Father has asked that all Blessed Couples examine themselves in relation to the three absolutes and to the "standard of mind-body unity" (Today's World, Aug. 1995, p. 17).

I am focusing especially on the issue of obedience, which is very hard to understand and digest for Westerners and democratic countries, which we are responsible to save.

According to Father, "obedience" means "submission without consciousness of oneself." In this case, the obedient person has no consciousness of him/herself at all.

c) Let me further elaborate based on my life of faith for 41 years.

i) God, together with True Parents, is in a war against Satan and his evil system. Let us recall that during World War I, World War II and the Gulf War ("Desert Storm"), the supreme command of the allied nations had to win the war.

Commands have to be taken with absolute obedience. In other words, commands are commands. They exist only for 100% obedience.

Absolute obedience is absolutely necessary for victory over our adversaries and principalities in the air, the invisible evil power, both in the spiritual and in the physical world.

ii) Even the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was sacrificed by God on the cross in order to bring this 2,000-year history of spiritual salvation to save the whole world now.

Without absolute obedience it would not have been possible to fulfill Father's worldwide achievements and accomplishments.

The early Church leaders practiced the virtue of absolute obedience; and that practiced enabled True Parents to carry out their goals, plans and providential missions to save the entire globe. When Father instructed us to accomplish a certain task, those instructions were final for us, and we would do our best. There was no place for any argument, doubt, complaint or question. We knew we should not violate this law of God.

All of us have to practice this kind of absolute obedience. Of course, there are three kinds of absolutes, but I'm emphasizing absolute obedience. That way Satan will retreat and finally will surrender. That's why the Bible says that obedience is better than sacrifice. When this kind of obedience is there, Satan's system cannot but perish.

iii) My beloved brothers and sisters in the Unification Movement, listen to me for a moment. Who could even imagine that in 1995 we would be able to bring 360,000 couples to the Blessing. No one could imagine that, except God and True Parents. In essence, great success is based on our True Parents' commandments being carried out by the Unification Movement's devoted leaders throughout the world, who had absolute obedience until the last moment, following our Father's commandment.

They believed it; they did their best. Thus, the Heavenly host of saints cooperated with them and brought about great miracles.

So, will it be possible to accomplish the Blessing of 3.6 million couples just two years from now? No doubt-provided we follow True Parents' commandment. Praise our True Parents; glorify our True Parents; honor our True Parents and Heavenly Father. Amen! Amen! Amen!

4) In conclusion, let us go back to the Bible quotation from First Thessalonians: "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks-for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (I Th 5:16-18).

I would like to amplify and revise this New Testament passage of 2,000 years ago, so that it will fit our reality of the 21st century.

This motto includes the New Testament teaching of absolute gratitude, plus the teaching of absolute obedience by Unification saints, Tribal Messiahs and Blessed Couples; plus the teachings of absolute faith and absolute love.

These four absolutes-namely, absolute gratitude, absolute faith, absolute obedience and absolute love-can bring the whole world under the banner and foot of our True Parents' Kingdom of God on earth. No doubt about it!

My dear brothers and sisters, who came today to celebrate the 80th birthday of old general David S. C. Kim. This old general never dies, never fades away, but always prays. But this old general is nothing without True Parents. I mean this sincerely.

Please join me in glorifying our True Parents, in giving four cheers of Mansei, Mansei, Man Mansei, Uk Mansei for the eternal Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven. Amen.

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