The Words of the Toffey Family
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The Words of the Toffey Family |
Welcome brothers and sisters. We're so very grateful that you are here. Each one of your faces is like a flower and together we can have a totally Heavenly Kingdom day because all of you are so unique and you really bring joy to God's heart. Thank you for coming.
Speaking of flowers, I'd like to read from Cheon Seong Gyong, page 831:
"If you wish to become a beautiful person in heaven, you should harmonize with the flower of love that blooms in all its glory, express the beauty and the fragrance of that flower in the world of relationships, and live on this earth in a manner that can harbor new seeds from the flower. When you pass on to the spirit world after living in this way, you will appear in the same way in the eternal world."
It's an amazing time in that we live right now, because we are speeding up history. And you as the blessed families are the ones assuring this new age. It's nice for us to stand here and to look at you because, as my wife said, you have beautiful faces. We see your shining faces. We are so grateful that you have come because I know that in your hearts you are inviting God to come here today. The things that you want God to tell you today, we pray that God can talk to you through this service and through this sermon, through the songs and through each other. You are each so precious to God. And I'm so grateful today that you are here. So thank you very much for coming.
I, too, have heard an interesting story. It's about three little boys in a playground, talking about whose Dad is better than the other Dad. The first little boy said, "My father writes some words on a piece of paper. He calls it a poem, and he gets paid $50." The other boy said, "Oh, that's nothing. My Dad writes words on a piece of paper, and he calls it a song, and he sells it for $100." The third boy says, "That's nothing. My Dad writes a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon, and it takes four people with baskets to collect all the money."
So, let us rise, and make our True Parents' declaration. We put our left hand on our heart, and raise our right hand as we repeat together:
"These are my True Parents, the eternal King and Queen of Peace, and Liberator of God's heart. They have saved me from my past, they have blessed my future, and they give me true love, forgiveness, and happiness today; and I choose to receive it. My mind is awake, my heart is open wide, and from this moment, I am changed forever. In my name, Aju."
Please be seated. Welcome everyone. I am probably not the speaker that you had originally thought would be here today; but actually, God's going to be here today. And He's the speaker you really want to hear, anyway. Actually, you know, we are so blessed to have the Divine Principle, and to have studied God's words; because it is through the Divine Principle that we can understand the existence of God. We can know what our original position was supposed to be in the Universe. And also, we can know the broken heart of God, when God's original ideal was damaged through the fall of man, through the misuse of love. We can also understand the long process of restoration, and how God has waited and longed for this day, when finally a new Heaven and a new Earth can be established.
And we often feel that burden in our prayers, and in our daily lives, that burden that God has had. As we see the suffering of the world around us, we can often feel heavily laden by what we see, and what we experience. Also, I don't think it is very difficult for us to believe that we are sinners, that come from a lineage of sinners. If I were to stand up here and say, "You're sinners. You have fallen short of the glory of God." Is there anyone here who would say, "No, that's not true!"?
No, it's very easy, actually, for us to believe that we are sinners. Even non-religious people think that there is something wrong with mankind, that there is something wrong or black in our hearts. And that's also why people like to be out in nature. Why do people like to be out in nature? Because there isn't that struggle that we see in humankind; there is harmony and beauty in nature, that we don't see within our own souls. And it is easy to feel like a failure, because actually, that is what the world has been telling you for your entire life, because that is the way that Satan is telling us that we are sinners, and that we fall short of the glory of God. So that's easy to believe.
So, I'm not going to tell you that today. Because we are living at a special time in human history, we are at the crossroads now of the Kingdom of Heaven. We sang together today, "We're marching to the Blessed Land." Well, we don't have to march to the Blessed Land anymore. The Kingdom of Heaven has been established. Cheon Il Guk is here, is now, and it is right with us, right in here, with all of us as brothers and sisters. So, we are living at very exciting times; and it is the time of living the blessed life, where we need to learn to live the blessed life. And what we really need to learn in this new life, is to have an aware and inspired mind.
I was impressed when Hyung Jin Nim recently said, "Our goal is not 'not to sin'." He was talking about that our goal isn't to get to the point where we don't sin anymore. "That's pretty good," he said. "But actually, our goal is to go beyond that, and to live the blessed life." The problem with trying not to sin tends to be that we focus on trying not to sin; and that as we think about sin, and our shortcomings, and so forth, we tend to actually attract situations where we have to fight sin. Our focus has to become "living the blessed life," focusing on living the blessed life, so we can accomplish that goal…and we attract the blessed life.
Our movement, the Unification movement, has a phrase, "Chapter two problems." Do you know what I mean by "Chapter Two Problems"?
The first chapter of the Divine Principle is the Principle of Creation, which talks about all the wonderful things about the nature of God. Chapter two is the Fall of Man. That means we have sin; that explains where our sin and our misuse of love came from. But actually, I think, as a movement, instead of having a chapter two problem, we really have a chapter one problem. "Chapter one problem? What does he mean by that?" It means that chapter one or the Principle of Creation is something that we really need to delve into, that we need to understand and internalize and that we need to become intimate with. If you were to hold Divine Principle up and look at the number of pages in there, actually, only a few are dedicated to the Principle of Creation. The rest is the Fall of Man, and the restoration. Well, the Fall of Man and the restoration is eventually going to go away, and it's only going to be that Principle of Creation that we really need to study, and become intimate with.
So, what we really need is to have an aware and inspired mind.
Most of us are familiar with the term "Four Fallen Natures." Anyone wants to recite the four fallen natures for me? Actually, the first fallen nature being the failure to see from God's viewpoint. The second fallen nature, leaving our proper position. Number three is reversal of dominion and forth is multiplication of evil. So, actually since all things need to be changed, to be restored, we need to start to develop four true natures, which would be to see from God's view point, to take our proper position, have proper dominion in your life and to multiply goodness. This is really what we have to do, to actually reverse the fallen natures and start to talk about our true natures, the true natures that we need to develop within ourselves. So, let's take a look at these; one by one.
To see from God's view point: Of all the different points, this is really the most important for us to start with, to see from God's viewpoint. How often is Hyung Jin Nim talking to us about seeing ourselves from God's viewpoint, about seeing that we are cosmic, divine and unique, in our value. So the things that we need to be aware of are: who is God? Why God created mankind? We need to understand creation. But most important, we need to understand who "I am" as an individual.
Divine Principle as a study can be kind of dry and mechanical. For example, why did God create mankind? Well, according to the Principle, we were created to be an object of joy. Now that's actually kind of mechanical, I think. But why did God really create you? Why did God create me? Frankly, God was lonely. God wanted a companion; someone to share His heart, His love, someone to share His existence with, and therefore, God created you. That's why God created you. And what kind of companions do you think God wanted to have? I have two dogs. They are really nice companions. I can sit outside, and they'll come up, and they want to be petted; but frankly, they have no comparison to the people in my life. What we want as a companion is someone who is of equal heart, intellect and will. Whether it is as a spouse, or just as a friend, someone to talk to. We don't want someone as true companion who has inferior capabilities than ourselves. We want people as a companion who are sort of like us, right?
And I'm not talking about race, I'm not talking about religion, or nationality. People who have the intellectual stimulation in the same points as ourselves, who find the same things interesting. We want companions that we can share our heart, our love, our joy, our interests, our passions with. We want to have a companion like that in our life. We want to have a lot of companions like that, people who are interesting. So, God does not want inferior companions. God is the parent of mankind.
Now, in any parent / child relationship, it is always great when our children start growing older. When our babies are babies, they're cute. As they start growing, they become more interesting. And ultimately, our children grow up, and they get married and have children of their own. So, eventually, our children can grow up to be companions for ourselves, too, people who can share their heart, and we can share our heart fully and completely and joyfully. It is always a sad situation, when a child is born that has some kind of mental handicap, and doesn't grow up fully, doesn't mature, because that child will never fully understand the parent. And that parent / child relationship will actually be hampered; and that is considered a tragedy.
Well, the good news is: God did not create us as mental midgets or handicapped. God created us in His own image. He created us as His sons and daughters. And I think, if we got our arms really around that one concept, that God created us to be His children, this would be a mind-blowing experience for us to fully realize that God created you, me, all of us, to be His children, in His image.
So, it is the aware and inspired mind that begins to comprehend this point, where we can look in the mirror and say, "Wow, who is that person? It is the face of God!" And it is your own face, because you are children of God. We are unlimited beings; and we can accomplish the dreams and the visions that God has instilled in us. We can actually do that. And if we can establish an aware and inspired mind, all things will begin to fall into place. The real battle for us is to establish, and keep within ourselves, an aware and inspired mind. So, the first true nature is to see from God's viewpoint; to see yourselves from God's viewpoint. Pray for this point; think about it; meditate on it. When you read Father's words, think about this; because if we really understand this, it gives us such great strength.
The second true nature: Take your proper position. You and I are sons and daughters of God, the princes and princesses of the universe. That is our proper position, that God intended for us; and we are supposed to take our proper position. That is why you have unique value, cosmic value, divine value; these are instilled in you. It is an amazing thing. We need to take our position as blessed children of Heaven. God is not a wimp! God is not a wimp! One more time, God is not a wimp! God is bold, God is strong, God is confident! So, we, too, have to be bold and confident in our relationship with God and as we take our proper position as the sons and daughters of God. God has been waiting for 6,000 years in Biblical history for you to take your proper position, as the bold sons and daughters of God. And if we take our proper position, all other things will begin to fall into place.
Because, what is the third fallen nature? Reversal of dominion. If our minds are aware and inspired, our bodies will be happy to follow along. If, for example, you tell a little kid that the next day he is going to the zoo, and you go to wake him up in the morning, but if he knows he's going to the zoo, baaaah! He wakes up with excitement, and goes running down to eat his breakfast, makes his bed, gets all of his chores done, so that he can go to the zoo with his parents -- not even a hint of being tired.
Do we have that same kind of anticipation and awareness in our mind, that we are God's children, and that God has planned out things for our lives? So that when we wake up in the morning, we don't have to tell our body, "Okay, time to wake up," but that we wake up with excitement, knowing that God has prepared a whole day ahead of us, knowing that this is the day that the Lord has made. This is proper dominion.
And in our families, who doesn't want a spouse that has an aware and inspired mind? A spouse that wakes up and understands, "I am a child of God. You are a child of God, and I love you." We all want spouses like that, right? So, within a family, children want to have parents that have that same kind of confidence, too. So, even within a family, we will see -- with an aware and inspired mind -- the proper dominion; a dominion that is not made by force, but one that is based on love, and true joy that stems from an aware and inspired mind.
Even creation, even creation, is waiting for you to have an aware and inspired mind. Take your proper position and exert your dominion over creation. Creation is waiting to respond to you. Angels, spirit men, the creation itself gets joy by helping you. But we first have to have the aware mind. We have to take our proper position as the sons and daughters of God, because they are made to respond to the sons and daughters of God. Then, that will be their joy, to help you become successful in all the things that you want to do -- the dreams, the visions, that God gives you and instills in you, in your heart, in your mind. Creation will love to help you, if we take our proper position, and ask. A king doesn't just say, "Well, will you please do this for me, if you have time?" Actually, a kingly position, a princely position, commands the spirit world, commands the natural world, to respond. Nature is waiting for us to take our proper position.
And the fourth true nature is the multiplication of goodness. This is really easy. If you've got the first three done, the fourth, you've got it! It will happen naturally; especially if we really feel in our hearts what our true position is. So, it all starts with having and maintaining and developing within ourselves an aware and inspired mind, aware of God's presence, awareness of True Parents' love.
Hey, we just accomplished the Three Great Blessings, by having a united mind and body, having proper dominion, and exerting proper dominion over all things. We've talked about being a perfected individual, having a joyful family, and being successful -- the three great blessings. Accomplishing the three great blessings is not supposed to be a burden, it's not supposed to be difficult; it's supposed to be natural in our lives. But what do we need first? An aware and inspired mind; and that's where our fight really is.
So, how do we gain an aware and inspired mind? First, we're very fortunate, we have the Divine Principle, which is the very foundation, through which we can understand about God, about God's creation. We also have True Father's words, and we can study and understand what our true position is, who we really are. We are also fortunate to have Hyung Jin Nim here, to talk to us every Saturday.
So, another way to have an aware and inspired mind is to pray and to meditate and to take time to think about these points. We all want to be successful in our lives, we want to be successful individuals, successful families, and to be successful in our communities. We need to have an aware and inspired mind to do these things. So, we need to pray about this, and meditate on this. Another way to be aware and inspired is to come to church. Yes!!! Aju. Aju.
We come here not only to hear God and some inspiring words, but we also come here as a congregation; to love and support each other. The people around you all have the same goals of establishing true families, of being successful people. So we come here, not just to receive God's word, but also to help, to have that aware and inspired mind, and to take time to help others and encourage others to be aware and inspired, to inspire others. By inspiring others, you will inspire yourself; it's a natural outcome of the Principle.
Another way to be aware and inspired is to pretend you are aware and inspired. If you are not feeling so aware and inspired, pretend you are. Act like you are inspired. Like so many other skills, sometimes you have to do it physically before the spirit comes behind it, or before you perfect it. One trick I have when I am at work. I work in the I.T. field. This here is just a part-time job for me. I go into an office, and as I go into the office, I say, "Blessings!"
You know, people like me to come into their office; they don't know how serious I am. "Oh, greetings, and blessings!" and they are very happy to receive the blessings. Why do I do that? In essence, I am trying to force that out. But also, I realize that I am a child of God, that I am the one who can give blessings to these people's lives. So if I don't show up one day, they know it.
So what can we take away from today? As a movement, we really need to begin to start focusing on chapter one, on really understanding the Principle of Creation, on understanding who we really are. We need to understand not just "Subject / Object Relationship", but really the intimate relationship that we are supposed to have with God, why God created us, what our true position in the universe is.
Also, the Kingdom of Heaven has been established -- don't have to wait anymore! Okay? And the keys for living a blessed life is to have an aware and inspired mind, to be aware of God's presence, to be aware of who you are from God's viewpoint, and to understand what your proper position in the universe really is. We need to take our positions as the sons and daughters of God, and be a blessing back to God, a joy back to God. We need to be a blessing to our families, to our communities, to our nation, and reverse the four fallen natures to true natures within ourselves, and fulfill the three great blessings, by developing those true natures within us.
Our destiny is to live a blessed life. That is our destiny; and we can get there with an aware and inspired mind. That way we can be victorious, we can live an illuminated life, and find true peace. Do I hear an "Aju?" Aju. Aju. Okay, let us join now in prayer:
Brothers and sisters, we are joined here in prayer, knowing that You, the Almighty, living God, waited thousands of years, so long, beyond our comprehension, for us to come back home. Heavenly Father, we come before You now with a humble heart, realizing that we have fallen short of Your expectations for us; realizing that we have failed in the past, but we can't change the past. We can only control now, and make a determination for the future. Heavenly Father, thank You for bringing us together here as brothers and sisters from around the world; not only the brothers and sisters here, but also those from around the world, via the Internet We pray that we can be of one spirit, walking towards that Kingdom of Heaven and establishing it from within. Thank You very much Heavenly Father, for this opportunity to hear Your words, and to rejoice together as brothers and sisters. We pray, Father, that we can live victorious lives, illuminated lives, and peaceful lives that reflect love and joy back to You. We pray these things together, as brothers and sisters, in our own names, Aju.