The Way Of The Spiritual Leader |
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by Rev. Sun Myung Moon |
Section 4. Life Of Tithing (Part 1)
1. Father's Views Of Material
1) Father's View on Material
As Unification Church members, what you should understand is that the things that you have owned so far, or your material possessions, are not really your own, but you are temporarily in the process of managing them. That is, you are a manager of them. The things that you should manage well, should be offered to God through True Parents. In other words, unless they go through the process of becoming belongings of True Parents and God, they cannot be yours. This you must clearly understand. (23-334)
Today, since fallen people are on a transitional point going into such a world, the issue of "ownership" is a serious matter. From the viewpoint of God, you must understand that national ownership is closer to the will of God than private ownership. The evil Satan knew this in advance and created Communism, adopting this concept, but excluding God from national ownership and from private ownership. Therefore we should understand that mind, body, and material belong to the public, but not without a purpose. The purpose is to bring a total oneness between a subject and an object centered on God in order to have right ownership. Then, we eventually come to own God ourselves. If we own God instead of material, not only shall we come to own everything, not to mention material, but also shall we become a perfect subject towards the material. (1/6/75)
In order for humans to fulfill their portion of responsibility with the cooperation of God, according to the principles of re-creation, they should be better than angels. Further, we should understand that the master who has dominion over all things is Adam, and the master who should control his body is mind. In order for you to have dominion over all things, you should have dominion over your body. Do you understand? If you stand in the position of controlling your body, all things will follow you. Why? According to the principle, all things are supposed to be under the dominion of perfect Adam. Due to the fall of Adam (and Eve), separations took place between their mind and body, and humans separated from each other. Further, all things deviated. Therefore, once Adam becomes perfect, money and material will be automatically follow. (2/22/76)
What are we going to do by restoring material? It is to re-create Adam and Eve. The (re)creation of Adam means to invest everything for the Lord of the Second Advent. Therefore, unless you use your material that you made with blood, sweat, (and tears) for that creation, you are committing a sin. That is a principle. (2/1/76)
You could not know how many contributions all things made until now for the restoration of humans. If humans do not become one with all things, they cannot return to God. (23-326)
Centered on religions, what is the Will that God desires to achieve and the world that He desires to build? The more you think about it, the more you will realize that the world is not meant to serve material. Why? It is so because the material world started from God. God, the Creator, does not need the material world on earth. God already owns the vast material world of the universe.
Therefore, treasures, precious stones such as gold, silver, etc. that humans consider precious mean nothing to God. To him, all material things on earth mean nothing to Him. (28-184)
2) The Hope of Money
Well, from the spiritual viewpoint, all moneys are complaining. They would say: "I do not want to belong to such and such person but to the U.S.A." They will be asked: "What are you going to do by becoming the U-S-A money?" They would reply: "I want to become money that belongs to the world." Well, they do not want to belong to an individual such as Mr. Smith, Mr. so and so. So I would ask again: "What are you going to do once you become the world money?" "I want to be God's money." Then, Rev. Moon would again ask: "What about becoming a bridge, starting from your home to America, the world, and God?" Then, the money would respond: "Ha, ha, ha, I welcome it."
I would say to the money: "If your master or owner offers a tithe with joy, all of you can go beyond the level of a family, you will be connected to a nation and thus become a bridge in the world." Everyone should make an offering with money. Then, the money will be liberated. Money complains: "No one has made an offering with money so far, connecting it to God." Rev. Moon would say: "Then, our fundraising members will go to make such an offering thorough their fundraising activities. Just wait for them." Then, they would reply: "Yes, yes, we will."
Well, when you fundraise, even if someone swears at you, you should never avoid him or her. Nor should you complain about it. That is an attitude of a person who prepares an offering. By so doing, everyone should shed blood. Money sheds blood too. Who makes that happen? It is you, or rather all of us.
Then the question is where can we collect money? It can be from beggars, the president or the First Lady, criminals, successful people, janitors, thieves, etc.
By so doing, we resurrect the moneys to be good from evil ones. Then, we can no longer make it our own. Once an offering is made, it belongs to the chief priest who conducted the offering. The person who made an offering should not touch even one penny out of it. The ownership is determined after the offering is made. Money, what is it? It is supposed to be an offering that should be used for the world and God.
Well, since money represents all things, only when we have such heart, can a way for all things to go to the Kingdom of Heaven be finally open, without lamentations. If you fail to do this, what happens? The family that does not use money properly will perish. The same goes with a nation. If you misuse money, all kinds of things will happen in your life. Therefore, you should not fight because of money. Even if I (Rev. Moon) do not help you, you should not think: "Uh, why isn't Father helping me, using all money that I made from fundraising?" Just do not ask for money back after making an offering. It is not proper. If the money is used for a higher purpose, that is all that matters. It will not be used for a low purpose. I mean that I do not need to use it for you. (125-188)
3) Ownership
One of the main teachings of the Unification Thought is: Mine is yours, and yours is a nation's, and a nation's is the world's, and the world's is God's, and God's is mine. (6/4/72)
Due to the fall, Satan invaded to the bottom of God's throne, and due to the fall, the blood lineage of humans was invaded, and due to the fall, all things fell under the dominion of Satan. As a result, all things created by God ended up to the enemy, Satan, not God. What could be more sorrowful than this? (14-270)
Today, all things in the creation are dominated by the children of Satan in Satan's domain, and they belong to Satan. This you must understand. Therefore, all of this must be restored to God. From the perspective of the Principle of Restoration, all things should have first belonged to the original human ancestors. It is so because God blessed humans with all things, although all things (ultimately) belong to God. That is, they should have been the (true) parents of goodness. (23-332)
The Fall started from the desire to make things his or her own or possess them as his or her own. Even when God and the Messiah come, if you do it again, surely he or she will end up being on the side of Satan and will inherit his blood lineage. That is why without obedience, one cannot be restored. In the fallen world, such chronic problems will be often repeated. What would you do if asked to use your possessions for God's sake? Even in dreams, I have never said that all the things that I established so far belong to me. (30-10)
We should belong to God, not to Satan. Then, ladies and gentlemen, whose is the Unification Church? Is this mine (Rev. Moon's)? No, it is not, but it is God's. Therefore, if anyone claims this is his or hers, they shall be a thief. Since according to the Principle of Restoration, things should belong to God first and next to Adam. Such a process should take place. In the Bible, when Jesus was questioned by Pharisees who brought a donation: "To whom does this donation belong?" Jesus answered: "What belongs to Caesar as taxes should be returned to him, and what belongs to God should be returned to God."
Well, to whom do your possessions belong? Because they belong to Satan, in order for them to belong to God, they should be united with humans and be loved by them, only then can God have dominion over them. Do you understand what I mean? In the original world without the fall, perfected Adam should have loved all things as their master on God's behalf.
What you should understand is that you must make indemnity conditions for the offering objects that God can love. Therefore, in order to make the offering objects to be God's, you must love them with all of your sincerity. When seen from this perspective, Israelites were made as the worldwide representatives of Satan. As there is a "chosen people," there should also be "chosen things." You must hear this for the first time. Right? Those chosen things are to represent all things as offering objects to God.
If you have a family, you should think that all of your things in your family belong to God, as the representatives of all things. If you truly love them as Adam before the fall should have loved, then, they would be totally one with you in heart and would like to die with you if you have to. Only when that happens, it belongs to God. Nevertheless, if an animal that is to be offered to God struggles to survive, it cannot be acceptable to God as a sacrificial offering. (1/l/75)
Your body, your mind, your heart, none of these started from you. When you look at yourself, you realize that you are connected to your ancestors. You are also the fruit of all of your ancestors. Therefore, you should never take yourself lightly. You are not really yours even if you appear to be yours. Before this people, you are a present sent to this people, and before your family, you are a present sent to your family. By the same token, before your spouse, you are a present for each other, and before heaven and earth, and the world, you are a present sent for them. This you must understand. (8-12)
Things that belong to the church are more important than your personal possessions, and things that belong to a nation are more important than church possessions, and the things that belong to the world are more important than a nation's possessions. In the future, all things should belong to the world. At the same time, they should belong to the worldwide God, the worldwide True Parents, and the worldwide true children. We are responsible to restore all things to such a position. This is what you should realize whenever you receive a Day of All Things. (123-336)
Do you know how rich the Unification Church will be? According to the formula that was discussed earlier, all things that belong to us should be offered first to God. In order to do this, we should not do it alone, but should start from the position of servant of servants to a servant to an adopted son to a step son to a true son to true parents and finally to God. Since Adam and Eve lost the parents' things, they should restore them.
Therefore, such a formula will remain a truth, a principle, and on the day when it is applied in a daily life after having been proved as a historical fact, all things will return to God through True Parents. Because Adam and Eve lost the parents' things, the fact that they restore them to the original position according to the principle of restoration is only natural. Therefore, if True Parents appear on earth, they should be able to bring unity to all. (1/1/75)
2. Offering Objects And Holy Objects
1) Sacrificial Offerings
Since offering objects were created earlier than humans, they are in the position of Cain, and humans are in the position of Abel. From this view, centered on the principle of Cain and Abel, offering objects and humans should be united. Otherwise, God cannot accept the offerings. Then, in order for the offering objects to be one with humans, what should humans do? They should give something more than what can be given in Satan's world, and that is true love.
Because you cannot make an offering to God with less love than that of Satan, you must love it with all of your heart and mind more than anything else that you own. This you must remember. Your children, spouse, parents, etc. all belong to Satan's world, and your offering should go beyond all of them. Otherwise, there is no meaning to your offering objects
Fall refers to Adam and Eve falling into the dominion of love of Satan who is in the opposite side of God. Therefore, in order to go before God, you must seek a way to be united with Him, by loving things that belong to Satan more than he does. (1/1/75)
Even when you make an offering, you must think the following: Instead of offering a sheep with an earnest heart, I will absolutely obey you. Instead of offering a cow, with an earnest heart, I will totally sacrifice myself before you. And instead of offering a dove, with an earnest heart, I will love you absolutely. You must have such a commitment. By so doing, through action, you must demonstrate your commitment to God more than your promise to Him.
Since all humanity should be able to go to God, by making an offering on your behalf through the ceremony, you can do so. Although animals were used as conditional offering objects, some people use precious stones such as gold, silver, diamond, etc. instead because they symbolize something unchanging as we are searching for an unchanging world of heart. However, people did not know the meaning of it so clearly.
Also, if an offering is made in accordance with God's will, it belongs to God, but if not, it belongs to Satan. Therefore, one can say that offerings determine the ownership either to God or Satan. If we leave things in Satan's world alone, they will continue to belong to Satan. For this reason, the way God can claim His total ownership for things is through conditions that can separate Satan.
That is, through the offerings made by humans, God saves both humans and the creation, by separating what belongs to Heaven from what belongs to Satan. This corresponds to the fact that God seeks for the restoration of humans and their hearts through the creation.
2) Offering Objects
The providence of salvation is the providence of restoration, and the providence of restoration is the providence of re-creation. Therefore, if looking at the course of restoration in the Old Testament Age, we find it the age of making an offering through the creation. This you must understand. Again, in the Old Testament Age, the creation became sacrificial offering objects. In order to find a way for children to be saved, the creation was sacrificed. People in this world do not know this, do they? In order to save people, the creation should be sacrificed. Why? When humans were created, their creation was done through the sacrificial investment of all things. Therefore, even when they should be re-created, they should be again sacrificed for humans.
For this reason, until now, all of the things that were used as offering objects were the creation that were considered to be precious to humans, such as cows, lambs, sheep and doves, as living things, and precious stones as minerals, etc. Further, animals and plants were sacrificed to open a way for human salvation.
Therefore, centering on the offering objects, what happened? The body was taken by Satan, and the mind was taken by God. And in order for humans to be emancipated, since an offering object was sacrificed on behalf of humans, humans should keep a grateful heart to them, and with a heart that loves God more than the love existing in Satan's world, you should relate to the offering objects.
The offering objects should be pure. The ones with a mating experience cannot be used as an offering object. Why? Prior to the fall, since Adam and Eve were still virgin, any offering objects must be also pure. Further, they should be the best quality one among their species.
For this reason, humans should invest all of their hearts and minds for the offering objects, not only as an individual but also as a family and a clan. In order for a family to be blessed, the entire family including babies must make a special condition with love for the offering objects.
The offering objects are the conditional offering objects that determine ownership. The principle of the Unification Church is indeed great. Since Father knows it, he came up with such a definition. Conditional offering objects to determine ownership. What can decide whether or not they will belong to good or evil? No one knew that both God and Satan relate to all things with love. Therefore, before we develop the way of love, pioneer the way of love, look for people of love, and set a higher standard of love before God than that of Satan's love, things in Satan's world cannot be restored to God. Unless they are restored to a position of unity through love, God, along with humans, cannot own things. That is why offering objects were sacrificed (and were offered to Satan), and God, instead came to claim His ownership of humans (who made the offering in an acceptable manner). (166)
3) Things and the Restoration of Humankind
Lately, I heard a rumor that in the Christian churches, the people who make a large amount of donation are chosen to be elders, but that should not be the case in the Unification Church. Someday, I would like to visit the churches to see who are chosen to be elders. How can the elders be chosen depending upon the amount of donation? Donations should be made in the position of giving your own life for the sake of a nation or the world. That is a higher position than the chief priest of God.
That is why centered on the heart of love, as we offered all things and our beloved things, we should be willing to offer even what our own beloved sons and daughters love, which is an offering object on a higher level. Then, not only you but also your own children will be eventually liberated from the bondage of Satan.
So if God decides to accept that offering, you can be elevated to a higher level towards God. Such a providence has been led in the Old Testament Age. In the Old Testament Age, there were various kinds of ceremonies through which different levels of offering objects were offered: individual offering objects, environmental offering objects, offering objects on the level of a people, and offering objects on the national level. The religion that followed such protocols centered on God, was Judaism.
Then, what is the purpose of offering objects? It is to open a way for people to go through all things that are sacrificed in order to become true people. From this perspective, today when we received a Day of All Things, you must understand how much contribution all things made for the restoration of humankind. When the time is ripe, on behalf of God, you should have a loving heart to cry for them with love, embracing them, and saying, "Thank you so much for your sacrifices for us."
Even a piece of paper is part of our ancestors' offering objects that were prepared by their sweat and blood. Therefore, knowing this, you should embrace it with loving heart. When you treat the creation with heart, you do not indifferently pass by even a piece of paper discarded on the street, you can become their true master. They will be grateful to you for becoming a bridge to God's love, and will say that they are finally relieved from the pain and bitter grief that was caused by being sacrificed throughout history. You should become the kind of people who can live with such realm of the creation as your surrounding environment. Then you can finally become descendants with qualifications to inherit the fruits of your ancestors who sacrificed the creation and the fruits of countless religious people who were sacrificed themselves. This you must clearly understand. (166-71)
4) The Importance of Holy Objects
In the future, what should we do? What is offered to (Heavenly) Father are holy objects. That is what you should be prepared for. You should personally attend Him. We are now in the age in which we should do it ourselves.
Let us say that there is a person, called "A" who prepared a special offering in springtime. For example, if that offering was worth 3,000 won, he or she should not offer it alone.
Why so? Who has been fighting centered on offering objects? It is Cain and Abel and God and Satan. Then, what is God's lamentation? Before the offering objects, there should not be struggles. If it is brothers who are making the offering, they should be united. Is it not right? Nevertheless, whenever an offering was made, there have been struggles between Cain and Abel in the position of Satan and God.
That became a condition that grieved God's heart, and today, when we make an offering before God, we -- all humanity -- should be united in heart. If we cannot do it as a whole, we should make a condition in which at least Cain and Abel are united. Don't you agree?
For this reason, when you make an offering that is worth 3,000 won, for instance, you should not do it alone. You must find a companion either Cain or Abel, depending on what position you may be in, and in the cooperation with that companion, you must make that offering together.
Therefore, in Korea, when offering something to an elder, we always do it with two hands, which is perfectly in accordance with the principles of heaven and earth. That is a heavenly protocol that is derived from natural conscience as a beautiful custom and tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. (150-302)
When you make a special offering to God for a new season of the year, you should take a bath and pray, "Father, I offer you this instead of my own life. Although it is something small, it is a holy object that was made with all of my heart and mind for you. . ." In order for you to go over all of historical conditions in which holy objects were invaded, you, as an individual, must make a condition that can indemnify it.
By so doing, you must succeed in making a condition that can transcend the struggles between Cain and Abel. By becoming one with each other, your offering can become a holy one that can be liberated from Satan's attachment to it. Nevertheless, if it is done alone, Satan will be still attached to it.
Then, what should be done in the future? Let us say that a person "A" is sending some money to a person, "B" living in America. As "A" chose "B" as his or her companion, he or she should send that money directly or send him or her all of the detailed written information. By so doing, if "A" stands in the position of "B" thorough his or her cooperation in heart, body, and actions, then, it will become an infinite honor and glory to "A."
In the future, in order to make an offering, if Heaven calls you as someone in the position of Abel or Cain and another person as your partner, it is a great honor. That means that Heaven recognizes you. In the future, the fact that you are invited to attend such a special occasion itself will be a great honor. Therefore, you are not supposed to come and attend such a place by your own will. (150-306)
3. Tithing
1) The Original Standard of Tithing
At the time of the creation, all things belonged to Adam. However, after the fall, Adam lost his ownership. . . What is fortunate is that there is a way of indemnity (to restore that ownership). However, for indemnification, Adam needs to make indemnity conditions. That is why in the Unification Church, we are doing everything possible.
Even if you are persecuted, sworn at, beaten, nose-bled, have broken bones, or even if killed, you should still offer all of your hearts and minds to make indemnity conditions, shedding bloody tears.
Tithing? What is it? You should offer 100% plus the price for your blood. You should invest all of the essence of your love from your heart and body. By so doing, you should inherit ownership, only then can you return to a higher place where (Adam and Eve) were loved prior to the fall, before they belonged to Satan. If heart and mind are not invested, God and angels cannot cooperate with you. Thus they cannot lay a foundation for the recreation of humans after the fall. That is why the Unification Church members are asked to clean all of it. (13-40)
Then, how did we resolve our financial difficulties? It was by the support of the church members, who offered part of their own living expenses.
Offering a certain portion of your own income for the maintenance of the church sounds extremely good, but I think that it is extremely bad. Making an offering to God should the first priority in life, before thinking of your own life, and that offering should be 100%, not only a small portion of your income. Nevertheless, if your life becomes the first priority, and God comes next, it is easy to get into a mannerism. If God is placed in the second priority, later, He will end up being in last place. Do you understand? Don't you agree? [Yes, it seems likely to be so.]
God is the Creator of the universe as the omnipotent and omniscient Being. As such a Being, being pleased with some money offered by some church members as though some money is given to beggars, do you think that God would say: "Ah, blessed are those who made a donation to me. You are such a beloved religious group of people?" How can He save His face before Satan? No way. If a donation basket is being circulated in the church, that is an act of a beggar with a sign of the church. Certainly, God would not be happy with it. (96-101)
2) The Significance of Tithing
If True Father is attended below the standard of church members, you should be truly ashamed of yourself. Do you understand? In the position of a church member who should keep the same heart for the unification of the north and the south and accompany Heaven for the fulfillment of His Will, if your monthly living standard is higher than that of average church members, you should lower your living standard. Those who are living better than others should come down, and those whose living standard is lower than the average of other members, should overcome their financial difficulties, by making extra efforts. By so doing, all of you should gradually raise your living standard until when you can defeat the people of the nation with the highest living standard. Till then, we should be all united.
From now on, if you have a family, you should have a room for True Parents, and if you have farming land, you should keep a piece of land for them. By so doing, whenever you farm, you should use seeds that are harvested from the Father's land.
Among the Israelites, a tribe called Levi lived from tithes collected from people. Likewise, you should do the same. As the Unification Church members, in leading a life of attendance for God and True Parents, tithing is absolutely essential. If you consider all money as your own, Satan will invade. The reason is that the number nine (3 x 3) has been governed by Satan so far. On the earth where Satan is the master under his dominion, if the number nine is returned and connected to God, He can restore the number 10, through which God can claim His dominion over everything including the number nine from the realm of Satan. That is why the terms, tithe came into being. Do you think that it came randomly for no reason? (150-299)
When looking into tithing in Christianity, we come to realize something fearful in tithing. Some Biblical verses support the idea of tithing, teaching people to offer one out of ten to God. Some people might ask: "Is God visible? What is a tithe for?" But it means that we can go as far as ten by paying one. For example, suppose that you killed cows, pigs, and prepared all kinds of things to celebrate your parents' birthday or the special 60th birthday, or even the King's birthday. Do you eat all of the food yourself? No. Your parents or king would accept the offering, but what they actually eat only a small portion of it. Still, a condition that they ate all of it is made through the offering.
Likewise, by offering a tithe from your material possessions, you can make a condition that you offered that you have. Although you do not offer the whole, offering a portion with all of your heart and mind is valuable in that sense. By offering one, the rest of nine can be also considered to be holy. The person who tithes will never perish. As days go by, his storage room will be filled with more material possessions and blessings. (31-239)
3) Tithing is an Indemnity Condition for Restoration
Until now, although God desired to re-create humans, because no conditions were made by them through which He could claim His ownership over material, He just could not do it. What is the material condition through which God can claim His ownership? At the time of creating Adam and Eve, God extracted all of the essence from all things both in heaven and on earth. Then, they belonged to God. However, due to the Fall, all of them became Satan's. Then, how can they be restored as God's? It can be done through indemnity conditions. By making indemnity conditions for re-creation, by investing all of your hearts and minds, you should take them back from Satan's realm.
For this to be done, throughout history, a condition of tithing has been required. Based on that foundation, you should pay the price for your own blood. Jesus did it, along with making indemnity conditions. Unless you can make a condition that can bring unity with God's heart, by offering blood, sweat and tears, you cannot do it.
What is Satan? First, Satan thinks of himself. He is self-centered. Second, he has a concept of his own ownership. Third, he is self-centered on love. These are the three elements that Satan has.
For indemnity conditions, things are required. The reason we are supposed to tithe lies here. The number nine is a number of the fallen world, and the number 10 is a number to liberate it from Satan, as God's number.
The seeds of all things were picked by humans before the time was ripe. Even during the course of entering the land of Canaan, there was a separation time period of good from evil for three years. (10-217)
Ladies and gentlemen, do you like tests? [No.] Still, you need them, right? [Yes.] What if you do not have them? Those who did not pass the tests are useless. They are just useless. The more you pass difficult tests, the better person you shall become. Now, I am almost done with today's sermon. Further, you also want me to finish soon, right? Well, we need persecution. In the fallen world, without persecution, you cannot return (to God). Do you understand?
Tithing is a way to restore the persecution from material. If you do not tithe, the number nine will accuse you. The persecution of material. . . Do you understand what I am trying to say? One tenth of material is an offering object. Offering object. It become the most precious offering object. Do you understand?
All of the offering objects should be pure, without experiencing first love yet. In the olden days, a virgin female was sacrificed as an offering object, right? The first love. You should offer the first love to God. You should be connected to God through the first love. Next, centered on material offering objects, we should surrender here, following the protocols of Cain and Abel.
The era of material offerings was the Old Testament Age. Then, what comes next? The New Testament Age was an era in which people were sacrificed as offerings. In the Old Testament Age, blood was shed, and also in the New Testament Age. The difference is that the former was that of animals, and the latter, that of people. Now is a time to shed blood of heart. Blood of heart. Blood of heart. Isn't it strange? We are in such an era. Right? That is why the Unification Church members suffer in their hearts. Although we did not do anything wrong, why? (107-292)
4) Tithing Should be with Deepest Heart
When you make an offering, do you offer the first one or a leftover? [The first one.] Why so? In Korea, when a sacrificial offering is made at a shaman temple, do they kill a female cow or a male one? None of you do know about it. When you look back at the history of Greece or Rome, they initially sacrificed animals as offering objects, but later, they also used humans for offerings. You know the story of Shim Chung. At the time of making an offering, was the offering object a female or a male? [A female.] Why? When thinking of this, it coincides with the fall taught in the Principle. Why should it be pure? It is so because we must bring a pure one from Satan's world. Who took the first one from the Heaven's world? Was it Satan? Right? [Yes.] When you make a special offering to God, the offering object should be pure. That is how you can build a relationship with God. You should not use leftovers for that purpose.
For this reason, when you tithe, it should be the purest one with your sincere heart and mind invested in it. That is what the offering object is supposed to be. If we talk about this, it will be endless. Anyhow, you must understand that an offering object should be pure. Suppose that you are going to offer a son as an offering object. Would offer a son whom you dislike or who is hopeless? Such a son is not qualified to be an offering object. But he should be the best son whom you love the most. Why? Because an offering object is instead of yourself. (48-85)
That is the habit that you should build in your daily life. The first and the purest one that you obtain should be offered to God. If not, God will not be present. At the place where no fresh, new one is present, neither can God be present.
That is what you must understand. You should not use leftovers for an offering. That is defiled. Nevertheless, if you do, those whose eyes are spiritually open by the grace of God would recognize it immediately. That is why you are asked not to go such a defiled place.
When you make a donation on Sunday at the church, if children say: "Mommy, daddy, money for donation, please," would you say, handing a bill: "Here it is for your Sunday school."? Is God a beggar? Is He? Is the church minister a beggar too? The church and a minister should not be treated that way. In the last days, everyone has to offer his or her material that have been kept deep in the safe. If you want to offer money, you should prepare a safe from now on. As the harvested grains are stored into the barn in fall, you should save donation money, tithes, separately in the safe. And one year later, for some reason, if you cannot offer it to God, your children and relatives should collect money together, and with sincerity and love, they should make that offering to God. (166-71)
When you make a donation, you should not use leftover money after purchasing something to eat. That money is defiled. Further, God would not be present with the donation that is made out of change after you purchased things at the market. (48-86)
5) Life of Tithing
From now on, you need to tithe not only your material but also your time. It is no longer only the material like in the past. If you have ten family members, one family member should be offered on behalf of your entire family. You should keep such a standard. In the future, the Unification Church members must not skip tithing. Those who do not tithe cannot be considered to be church members. Tithing is a duty, a heavenly duty. If you deviate from such a realm of life, it is not right.
Today, we are walking the course of restoration in the position of being related to two nations: Satan's nation -- where we are living -- and the nation to come. During the process of being freed from the satanic world, since we are in the position of being related to two worlds, we need to pay taxes to a country where we were physically born, for example, Korea. Right? We also tithe to the heavenly kingdom. As the number that represents Heaven, tithes are not offered for our physical nation, but are offered for the chief priest of the tribe, and for the people who are serving the role of the chief priest.
Today, we who are in the position of going over the providence of restoration should be determined not only to fulfill the condition of donating one-tenth of our income but up to three-tenths of our income. One-third should be offered to your nation, the second third, to the people of the world, and the last third to the heavenly kingdom. People who are responsible for the establishment of the heavenly kingdom should never violate the condition of tithing. You should be committed to this. At the same time, you should meet all the duties of filial piety.
Even when you eat a bowl of noodles, you should not eat alone. As a person who attends Heavenly Father, if you do not feel comfortable to eat alone, but suffer from your financial difficulties, you should say: "I am sorry to eat alone in front of you who are now with me," and offer even a penny as a condition that you are first serving God who is with you. That is the kind of life-style that you should lead. Even when you buy clothes, the same is applied.
In terms of the life of tithing in the church, ten families in the church should support a church leader. Otherwise, you cannot have a right to become a citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom.
Ten people should support one heavenly person. Tithing applies in every aspect of life. Even in school, one of ten classrooms should be used for less fortunate children to give them classes free of charge.
Since Sunday is a tithing day, it is not our personal day. It is a day when we need to obey, according to the will of God. It is a sin to use what belongs to God as is pleased. One of your children should be offered to God. If not, you should educate someone else's child as if he or she is your own, and offer that child to God.
6) The Way of Receiving Donations
Today, what would you call the way of collecting donations in the Christian churches? They circulate bags for the donation. Are they beggars? In the Unification Church, do you receive donations in that fashion? Do you also circulate a bag with a rod like a cooking net? (Laughter) [We do.] You are supposed to make donation in the donation box placed at the entrance door as an expression of your gratitude for having received grace from God. That is the way it should be done. Do you understand?
Those who do not want to do it may not do it. Heaven does not want to receive money with no heart in it. The donation that you should offer should be prepared in advance. You are not supposed to take any money out of your pocket in the church. In order to offer a donation, you should carry that money with you at least for three days to sanctify it through the separation of good and evil. How can you make a donation that is worth less than lunch money? (166-319)
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