Looking at the Family Pledge our goals are truly great and noble. To list some of them:

and so on, all centered on true love.

Who in history ever had such goals? Are we crazy people or what? About one year ago a group of Japanese sisters were mobilized to the USA. They sat at Father's feet. Father asked them: "how many of you speak English?" Hardly a hand went up. Then Father said to them: "you come to America to witness and you can't even speak the language. You are really crazy!" Then Father asked "but who do you think is the king of the crazies?" He said "it is me".

So our goals are truly great and noble and even though we may be crazy we are in good company. Looking back at our goals we may feel overwhelmed by it all.

Sometimes we struggle just to get ourselves together let alone trying to create an ideal family. How can we gain the power, strength and what is needed to succeed? Father says that your strength lies in the strength of your conviction. Recently, in the wake of the terrorist acts on America I read some reviews written by military historians. They believe that history has shown that moral conviction is more powerful than any weapon or strategy employed in a battle. In other words we need to cultivate the strength needed to succeed.

The Principle and common sense teach us that we are created with mind and body. Our body is confined to time and space. Our body can only be in one place at any given time. Our mind however is completely different. Our mind can take us into the past, be in the present or go forward into the future. Nothing can stop us doing this. Also our mind can become very narrow or very broad. I heard Rev. Hose years ago tell us that most people live in a "telephone booth sized world". Certainly they go places even around the world, but their minds are very very small because of self centeredness. Father says that your mind should be so big that you can fly a 747 jet inside it without the airplane hitting the sides.

Whether we believe it or not, or understand it or not, God is calling us to unite with True Parents to accomplish the greatest and most noble goals of all as stated in the Family Pledge. For some it is all too much.

Even some long time members are walking away. What about you? Are you here in body but in your mind walking away?

Earlier this year I gave a sermon about "Thinking Like A Messiah". I said that to have any chance of fulfilling tribal messiahship you must begin by thinking like one on a daily basis. Our thoughts create our emotions and affect everything. In a speech Father gave last Monday (October 8th) he said:

Father speaks of changing the way we think. Is it meant to happen once? Whenever you go to Chung Pyung? When you come to Sunday service? It's a daily exercise. Father is always pushing us to expand our minds.

Did you ever listen to Father directly, that is, you were right there in body and spirit and you are taking everything in? You feel your mind has become so big that you think anything is possible? The next day as you involve yourself in worldly things you find your mind is shrinking?

What does Father speak of to expand our minds? I have identified five major themes that surface constantly in Father's speeches. If you check Father's directions at the recent Holy Day that is, the 14th. Foundation Day for the Nation of the Unified World you will notice these themes. The five themes are:

I want to now look at each of these themes briefly from the point of view of how they help to empower us to be able to fulfill the Family Pledge.

When you think of and practice true love does your mind expand or shrink? Without thinking about it your mind automatically becomes larger.

Your heart becomes larger. Things become more possible including being able to love your enemy.

When Jesus was dying on the cross he cried out to God : "My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?" In this moment, who was in the center of Jesus' mind? Himself. In these words it appeared that Jesus was complaining. It must have been such a worrying moment for God: "which way will Jesus go?" Then as the Bible says Jesus says to God "not as I wilt but may Your Will be done". Here God becomes the center and Jesus' mind expands. This attitude of total offering of himself to God constituted Jesus' victory of true love on the cross. By practicing true love we resist the tendency we have to become self-centered but rather become other-centered. By doing this we are cultivating the conviction to overcome, come what may. By remaining self centered we have no power to overcome and we easily become despondent.

Again we are talking about the power or strength to accomplish the Family Pledge. So where does strength come from again? from the strength of our conviction. How do we develop conviction? Through study of the truth and practicing it.

So we have at least one very good reason to do daily Hoon Dok Hae, that is, to develop the conviction and therefore the strength to fulfill the Family Pledge. In the Oct. 8th 2001 speech Father also said:

In the message of Dr. Lee was his confession that over 50 years ago when I taught him about the father-son relationship, he couldn't feel it or understand it. But now that he is in the spirit world, he came to know it, not just think it. So we have to know it with our heart. To reach that level, we have to keep studying my words.

Some of Father's directions at the recent Holy Day included: "deny yourself of everything" and "only through true love is total restoration possible -- total restoration is possible through total self denial" Total self denial is a major theme in Father's speeches. Often when he speaks of total self denial, he quotes Jesus who said:

Recently I went into the Concorde hospital to have a hernia repair operation. Before going in I thought I would have no worries -- "a piece of cake" so to speak. The day after the operation I was in agony and having to muster all my willpower to not cry out. The doctor told me later that young men who have good muscle tone have a harder time than old men whose muscles are 'sagging'. Since I swim 3-4 times a week I reckon I have good muscle tone. In the bed next to me, was a man younger than me, who had the same operation, on the same morning. Every time he opened his mouth he was moaning or complaining. The more I listened and absorbed his complaint the more I felt sorry for myself and the more I felt my own pain. I decided that I would make my whole experience an offering to God.

I had been reading Father's Coronation speech and I recalled a certain paragraph which reads as follows:

Jesus went the same way. With these words of total self denial I prayed to God. My mind expanded.

I took a subject position over my pain rather than be an object to it. I felt greater power and a fresh confidence.

I believe there is a power or inner strength that can be tapped into when we practice total self denial.

Father always speaks about history. How many thousands of time has Father made reference to Adam and Eve and the Fall, the life of Jesus, Abraham, Jacob. Noah, Moses and in general God's providential work through out history leading up to today? Here are some reasons why:

The result of 1, 2, and 3 is that our minds can expand and we can develop greater conviction and strength to act. Therefore we must study history, especially God's providential history. Anyone who has sought to change the world is guided by an historical perspective. Look at Jesus, the communists and the mujahedeen (Islamic soldiers).

Related to point 3, history, we are talking about "myself" in the context of my ancestors and my descendants. We are talking about God reclaiming true ownership, true parentship and true kingship.

The famous author Dr. Stephen Covey (a Mormon) who wrote the books which I highly recommend, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and later "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families", attended one of our gatherings. During question and answer time he got up and said words to the effect "I have learnt something new from Rev. Moon. He speaks of the importance of lineage. Lineage is a concept hardly ever mentioned yet it is so crucial."

In the same October 8th speech Father declares that:

How does studying about lineage empower us? Lineage raises two issues that are related. They are ownership and integrity. When Satan infected Eve with unprincipled love, Satan knew that he was creating his lineage and securing his control over all future descendants. Regarding integrity, to exercise maximum control Satan has worked to raise up evil individuals, families, clans, nations after his own evil image.

We now know that Father has brought Satan himself to a natural surrender and through the blessing Father is changing Satan's blood lineage to God's blood lineage. At the same time Father is urging us to practice living the Principled life and not to fall, keep the lineage pure. This is a powerful concept and gives us a lot of confidence. Why?

Satan came to take control over the world through lineage. By restoring the blood lineage Father is going for the jugular so to speak. By going for the jugular Father is going for the neck which is the vital connecting point between the brain and the rest of the body. If you stop the blood flow in someone's neck, the flow of oxygen to the brain is cut and the person dies. Never mind any other part of the body. Through Father, God is reclaiming the lineage of humanity.

We are not just members of a world wide organization. Through blood lineage, we are brothers and sisters of True Parents' and God's family on Earth and in the spirit world. The more we practice the principled family life and spread the blessing the more we are securing God's grip on this world.

Let me illustrate the importance of blood lineage by looking at the mafia. In terms of crime, how could Satan be so successful through the mafia, especially through say the Italian/Sicilian mafia? Is it because they were so highly organized? Is it because there was a clear absolute hierarchy? Is it because of their successful penetration into the business world? Or is it because of their ruthless methods that included their ability to engender so much fear? I think all these factors play a role. However I think there is something more fundamental and important and that is because they were organized by families. Family/blood ties drew family members together so as to engender absolute loyalty. Family loyalty comes to be seen as more important than right or wrong. Two brothers may even hate each other but since they both respect Papa they will protect each other and the family. The feeling is that "we live or die together" The only way 'in' is to be born into it or be adopted through a track record of absolute loyalty. Notice that the mafia that ruled New York were virtually impregnable for decades until the mid 1980s.

On God's side, through True Parents and the Blessing God is establishing and making concrete His loving dominion into the world. This is absolute. In a speech Father delivered yesterday, October 13th, he said:

Recently Father has been speaking a lot emphasizing the necessity for members to understand about the spirit world. Already Father ordered many times for Dr. Sung Han Lee's notes to be read publicly.

If you have not seen the latest compilation of notes (in 2000 and 2001) I strongly urge you to get a hold of them. In the Introduction to the text "Exposition of the Divine Principle" It says: The words proclaimed on these pages are only a portion of this truth ... when the time is ripe, more profound portions of the truth will be published. Dr. Lee's notes represent some of the more "portions of the truth".

We all believe in the spirit world and we all know that our life on Earth is preparation for life in the spirit world. However often our lives do not reflect this. The more we study and understand the spirit world, the more our minds can be expanded and the greater the conviction that we will cultivate to have the power to accomplish our goals.

We have great and noble goals to accomplish that are enshrined in the Family Pledge. To accomplish these contents we have to get rid of "national and cultural consciousness" so that "we can be reshaped as totally vertical persons". By doing this through daily study and practice we can cultivate the conviction and therefore have the strength and power to succeed in accomplishing the Family Pledge.

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