Attendance

Chapter 1: The Etiquette of Attendance

Section 1: A Life of Attendance 1139

2 In this age you are justified by living in attendance to God. You attain salvation through attendance. Previously, you were saved through paying indemnity. However, you must now enter the age when you attend Heaven. There must be a nation where everyone lives in attendance to Heaven. Jesus was chased out because he did not have such a nation. It is the same for you. You must go forth holding on to the Word that I am conveying to you. Satan has no power to deny the Word. Since even Satan recognizes God, if you substantially build a family that is aligned with the Word and with the heavenly world, then centering on your family you can freely expand your foundation. How can a nation emerge without families? It is from our families that our tribes can emerge. Centering on our tribes we can create our nation, and from that point God’s world will emerge naturally. This is the expansion that will take place starting from blessed families. (354-222, 2001.09.27)

4 You have to know God’s situation and circumstances, understand His heart, and then think of Him as you would your father. He is your Father, my Father and our Father. Why should learning about God, listening to Him and attending Him be our way of life? It is so we can come to understand God’s circumstances and heart as they were expressed in the pages of the Bible. It is to understand that God is our own Father, who has been wounded, trampled upon, rejected and torn to pieces. (8-253, 1960.01.17)

8 God is near you. His concern for each of you exceeds that of anyone else. Everyone thinks that their own parents love them the most, but God’s love is greater and deeper than that love; it is deeper and greater than any human love in this world. Hence, you should become people who can feel God’s loving embrace and call Him Father. You should become true sons and daughters who can experience God’s internal heart, in the position where you can say, “Now I know my Father’s sorrow.” If you can become such sons and daughters, you will become the owners of the kingdom of heaven in which you attend God. No one will be able to take that kingdom away from you. (002-235, 1957.06.02)

10 In order to attend God, we need to begin by placing Him in the midst of our heart and mind and then become completely one with Him in our body. Without doing so, there is no way for us to liquidate the devil’s world. That is why we view this time as the age of attendance, the age when we are justified by attendance. We are saved through attendance. God is not a distant God way up in the sky. We should attend God as our subject partner in our daily life. How do we attend Him? By using the law of indemnity, we must unravel all the sorrowful and painful circumstances that God has endured throughout the ages of history. (144-274, 1986.04.25)

12 God believes, works and lives in attendance; if we live with the same standard, then we will create an environment where Satan cannot intervene in our life. Although we may be within Satan’s realm, if we establish the standard of righteousness that makes an environment where we can be with God, then Satan will withdraw. That does not mean that attendance in the Completed Testament Age is the only thing that will remain after the Old Testament Age based on deeds and the New Testament Age based on faith have passed. We need all three: the works of the Old Testament Age, the faith of the New Testament Age, and the attendance of the Completed Testament Age. Even in the Completed Testament Age we need to have faith and do good works. They are inseparable, by the same logic that tells us that growth occurs based on the formation stage, and completion happens based on the growth stage. This is particularly so at this time because justification by attendance means developing our lives in order to usher in the era of the kingdom of heaven. (161-219, 1987.02.15)

15 From now on, you must lead a life of righteousness through attendance. By leading a life of attendance we can become a family of filial children, patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters. In the Era before the Coming of Heaven we fought with Satan. That time has now passed, giving way to the Era after the Coming of Heaven, the era of the kingship of peace. This is inevitable. It is necessary for each one of us to follow this path. It is not someone else’s path, but yours. If you do not follow this path, you will have trouble in the next world. (492-237, 2005.04.16)

Section 2. Living in Attendance to God 1143

2 When you get out of bed in the morning, you should offer your first words to Heaven, and you should offer your first step out of the house to Heaven as well, by stepping first with your right foot. By cultivating habits like these, your life becomes a life of attendance. In your attitude every day, you have to adopt a principled standard. (17-296, 1967.02.15)

4 We cannot claim even a single square inch of land as our own property. God gave everything we have. Since God gave it, it must be returned to Him. No matter how small, everything came from God, and therefore we must return everything to God as things He values. The fruits of history will appear when we do. Since we received them as God’s gifts, we should give them back the same way. You should become a person who can do this. Until the world belongs to such people, this earth cannot become the kingdom of God. Why do you think I meet people and listen to them twenty-four hours a day? It is for God. Therefore, you too must meet people and listen to them, on God’s behalf. You must feel their difficulties for His sake. Even while we live on earth, we have to connect to life in the heavenly world. (35-284, 1970.10.25)

6 When you are hungry you say, “I’m hungry! I want something to eat!” But for whom do you want to eat? Do you want to eat for God, or for yourself? You must eat for God. By doing this, you make your body a perfect holy temple of God. You should think, “God inside me is hungry and is telling me to eat.” When you eat with this mindset, your meal becomes sacred. It is the same when you breathe, when you go to the restroom, or when you do anything else. When you listen, you are not listening alone. Likewise when you see or touch something, do not think that you are doing it alone. When you relate to people, even when you relate to Satan’s world, you need to think that it is God who is relating to them through you. When you talk, you should think that God is speaking through you. When you are totally one with God, you can live. Even though your living, thinking and loving are centered on yourself, it will still be lawful. Even though you live, think and love centered on yourself, your living, thinking and loving will be centered on God. That is the principle. (92-166, 1977.04.03)

8 God wants to caress the things of creation through the hands of the person whose heart is one with His. God wants to embrace all His children through the Son and Daughter whose hearts are one with His. God eagerly waits for His sovereignty to be established by the bride who is one in heart with Him. God is eager to see the day when this world will be governed by sons and daughters who are one in heart with Him. Have you ever thought about all this? The more you think about it, the more awe-inspiring it becomes. When you think about how God’s desire is not only connected to you but also to the world and even the cosmos, you cannot deny that you belong to God the Father. Therefore, you should think that your mind belongs to the Father, your heart belongs to the Father, your consciousness, your intuition and all your senses belong to the Father. You should establish the viewpoint that everything you feel and perceive belongs to the Father. You should do everything in your power to realize God’s desire. Our path may lead to death, but no matter how fearful it is, we must overcome with a strong heart and conviction. We will have the power to laugh at death and go beyond it. (008-295, 1960.02.14)

9 There are laws for attending God. When you violate them, God is very displeased. Parents can be affected by one word from the child they love. With just one word a child can drive a nail into his or her parents’ heart, or remove a nail from their heart. Likewise, because God loves humankind that much, if His children offend Him with even the slightest mistake, He can become hurt or angry. That is why I constantly strive to make God happy. (17-287, 1967.02.15)

Section 3: Attending True Parents in Daily Life 1152

1 From now on, you must live with True Parents. God is in the position of the grandparents. True Parents are in the position of the mother and the father, and you are in the position of the first son. The lesson is that three generations should live together. You should live with the feeling resounding in your heart that God is with you and True Parents are with you. (131-097, 1984.04.16)

12 In certain cultures of the world, people observe a three-year mourning period after a parent has passed away. The children offer meals to the spirit of their departed parent every morning and evening. Whenever they leave or return home, they pause before the altar set up for their departed parent and greet them. This is a law. You have to do even more than that. From the viewpoint of the Will, your behavior does not meet the standard of Heaven’s expectations for propriety. Far from it! A husband and wife should report their daily schedule to God together, before they go out to work. Upon returning home from work, they should again report to God together. Only then should they eat dinner. You need to understand this God-centered standard of life. It regulates all these things very strictly. There are distinct rules of family life for women and for men. You should systematize these incredibly important heavenly norms and live by them. They outline the path you must walk. (31-275, 1970.06.04)

13 The more difficult your life is, the more valuable your achievements. Younger people naturally look up to the oldest family members as if they were God; so you must demonstrate something different when you get older. The difference should be a deep heart that penetrates the bone marrow. So too, blessed couples should inspire adoration, such that people can’t help but think, “How happy the wife of that kind of husband must be! How happy the husband of such a wife must be!” (021-088, 1968.11.03)

15 In order to establish human norms for relationships, we need the original principled way. In order to establish the original principled way, we need the heavenly norms of relationships. Centering on what do they emerge? They emerge centering on absolute love. Centering on what does the original principled way emerge? It emerges centering on the authority of life. Today, loyalty is the representative norm of human relationships. Centering on what does it emerge? It must emerge centering on eternal fidelity. Today, do you have a heart to relate with others according to the norms of heavenly relationships? If you have such a desire, you should have friends whom you can trust from the bottom of your heart, just as you would trust God. One step further, you should have at least one sibling, parent, or spouse whom you can trust as you would trust God. With this in place, you need to transcend the family and expand your relationships to the society, nation, and world. This has always been God’s hope. (4-146, 1958.03.30)