America has been known for its service to the world, for its "volunteerism." It has given its armed forces, the Peace Corps, food, medical assistance and money to the world. We must help America maintain this heart of service and sacrifice for others. We must set an example, even in our personal spare time by freely offering any skills we have in service to churches and organizations. We must bring the spirit of true volunteerism back to America, the spirit of loving and living for the sake of others.

As we go door-to-door, family to family, in our volunteer efforts to reach people with our True Family Values message, we should encourage people to attend a church nearest to them. In this way we can help restore the family system in America.

Satan whispers in your ear: "10 years ago, you failed in the home church providence; why try again? Watch television instead." Twenty-four hours a day Satan talks to us this way, bringing the attitude of defeat. Continuously he confronts brothers and sisters this way. We have the responsibility to overcome this attitude.

In my last article "Disciple to Apostle," I explained how a disciple must become an apostle. A disciple receives training, support and care, always following a model, a teacher. Then the time comes when the disciple is ready for apostleship and becomes the trainer, the teacher and the model and leader. As apostles we are then self-managing, self-motivating.

What was the beginning history of Christianity? Pentecost! At St. Mark's house Pentecost occurred. This was the turning point. At that time the disciples fully understood that Jesus was truly the Son of God, truly a man of God, the messiah, the rejected messiah. They also realized that the spiritual world really exists, that the eternal life is waiting; that the physical life is only temporary and that the spirit lives forever; So from that point, without fear, without hesitation, the disciples absolutely followed the Holy Spirit. With self-motivation and self-realization, they now marched forward, as apostles, to the world. That's where Christianity began--at Pentecost.

Now we have Chungpyung. We receive amazing grace and support from Daemo-nim, centering on God and True Parents. It is like a modern-day Pentecost. Chungpyung is also like our monastery or temple. We go there to be renewed in spirit, to be changed, to be empowered. But as we come back, are we changed or are we our same old self? I observe that some come back changed but then in a very short time I think they become their old selves. So why do we go there? Because we are asked to? Because we want to be liberated from fallen nature and evil spirits? Because we want to receive healing power for our physical bodies? Yes, we can receive those benefits but we must be careful of our motivation.

Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ, through his spiritual power, healed many people. The blind were given sight, the deaf were made to hear. Many such healings occurred. He also rid them of evil spirits. The mentally ill were healed. All such miracles were performed for the people, but what were the results? Where were these people when Jesus was being crucified? They all ran away! So, should this be the reason we go to Chungpyung--just for the unburdening of evil spirits and physical healing? No. That is not the true meaning of Chungpyung. We go to learn true faith, true love and true obedience and devotion to God. We go to learn these traditions from Daemo-nim and Heung-Jin-nim. This is what Chungpyung is all about.

Chung shim il and Maan seung il, the calligraphy given to Daemo-nim for Chungpyung by True Father in South America December 15, 1996 means "if you inherit the heart of Chungpyung, you will always bring victory." What is the heart of Chungpyung? It is the heart that comes from God, True Parents, Heung-Jin-nim and Daemo-nim. It is the heart that can feel genuine love for people; the heart that can cry for people, cry for God, True Parents, Jesus, in their misery and loneliness; it is the heart that is willing to sacrifice for them; it is the heart that can repent to God, longing for his mercy and forgiveness. We have to inherit that heart.

How is Daemo-nim's life an example? She completely obeyed God and True Parents. She absolutely obeyed them, absolutely loved them and had absolute faith in them. That is Daemo-nim's whole life. She prayed for her daughter, True Mother. God said to her that her daughter was a specially chosen daughter and that she must take care of her. Daemo-nim, with her daughter, came down to South Korea as refugees having absolutely nothing, completely empty-handed. Daemo-nim worked as a housekeeper and cook, such humble work, to take care of her daughter. When her daughter was chosen as True Mother, she then prayed constantly for True Parents and True Family and for our blessed family community.

When Daemo-nim arrived in the spiritual world, she entered a most beautiful place, with a magnificent palace and gardens, above Paradise. The angels were there, everything. Even though she was given such a wondrous place to live, still she volunteered to come back and work with blessed couples, to help them cleanse and deepen their spiritual lives to enable them to live and witness more effectively for the Kingdom.

Even at Chungpyung Lake, working through her counterpart, Ms. Hyo Nam Kim who herself is so humble, Daemo-nim chooses to live in very small, very humble quarters, only being concerned with helping and healing people. Even though you may be a pure person, living a moral life in your blessing and in your mission, still you must inherit the spirit, heart and nature of True Parents, of Daemo-nim and Heung-Jin-nim.

This is the purpose of Chungpyung--to become empowered with the Holy Spirit, and the spirit of Daemo-nim and Heung-Jin-nim. How humble Daemo-nim is, sacrificing herself 24 hours a day so that others may inherit these divine blessings. We have our physical bodies to fulfill all this; Daemo-nim must work through the physical life of someone else.

In Korea, there has been a hurricane of Blessings--many, many thousands have come to the Blessing Festivals. Now thousands of couples in the Moon and Han clans have been blessed. Even though they have attained this success, Korea still is working very hard . They project they will reach 1.2 million couples. This miracle did not come about only because of members' hard work, but also because of Daemo-nim's victory. Many Korean members, even of the second generation, lacked faith in Chungpyung. They complained about it and did not have faith in the work being done there. But now attitudes have changed. Many have been cleansed, and their hearts and spirits renewed at Chungpyung. New hope has come for Korea. Daemo-nim's absolute true love, her faith and obedience to God and True Parents have made all this possible. She has practiced true love. We need Chungpyung.

Maybe we have already been to Chungpyung. Maybe we had much fallen nature removed from us, but if we did not inherit the right heart there, the deep sacrificial heart of love, the model life that is dedicated to God and True Parents and human history, then we need to go again.

I was one of the recipients of a service award from True Parents for 33 years of faithful work in the movement. I did not feel worthy to receive such an honor. Following that ceremony I, along with others, spent 47 days at Chungpyung Training Center, being given a very difficult course by Daemo-nim! I was grateful for it all, so grateful for all I learned from Daemo-nim during that time. I tearfully repented of so many things there and felt grateful to God and humbled before Him to be given this opportunity to learn more of His heart. Even though I had actually spent all those years in difficult pioneer work, still at Chungpyung I felt myself being cleansed of fallen nature. My physical health improved as well.

We must think of the person of Daemo-nim and learn from her. She did not graduate from any theological school. She did not have a Ph.D. She did not have the title "Reverend" or any other special qualification. She went to spiritual world entirely empty-handed. She did not even own a house. She chose to live this kind of humble life, only wanting to pray for others But God gave her almighty power. With that power and with such a humble spirit, she came to work on the Earth, to sacrifice even more for all of us, for you, for me. Who am I to receive such love? I am not worthy to receive from her. That is why I repented with so much weeping at Chungpyung.

What is the meaning of Chungpyung? The place of the Heart of God and True Parents. Who are True Parents? The ones who have given their own lives to love God and solve God's problems. Like crazy people, working, running, never stopping to think of themselves as they give everything to win back God's world. God was a miserable God. Satan became the master of the world. God was lonely and miserable, not a happy and joyful God. The ones who make God happy and joyful, this is who True Parents are. Totally dedicated to doing this their whole life long. Totally giving God their love, their faith and their obedience. This is the heart of Chungpyung.

What if we had this responsibility to accomplish, the responsibility to bring back honor to God? Could we do it? That's why we must be proud of True Parents and love True Parents, because this is what they have accomplished. True Parents are proud of God and love God. God, in return, is proud of True Parents and loves True Parents. So that when we say we are proud of True Parents and love True Parents, we are also saying we are proud of God and love God.

As I speak, we are having our meeting in this nice, large room in the National Headquarters building. We have offices here as well. Who made this building possible? True Parents did. They supported us this way. How much did we determine to work hard in gratitude for this, day and night? We have been so protected, physically, spiritually, financially by True Parents! We must ask ourselves: have we been dedicated in heart as Daemo-nim has been? Why can't some members break through? Again, if it takes returning to Chungpyung to make that breakthrough, then that's what we must do!

Father said if we follow the heart of Chungpyung we can gain the victory. That's true. We must follow that heart in New York in order to become victorious and lead the nation; we must follow that heart and unite with it. Even if you say that all the evil spirits are gone from you, if you are not careful they might return to you and you will fall back into your old habits. We must consciously make an effort everyday to maintain our renewed spirit and to inherit the deep heart of God and True Parents.

The Exposition of the Divine Principle says the following about evil spirits: We use good spirits as a general term for God, spirits on the side of God and good angels. The general term for Satan and spirits on his side is evil spirits. The work of good spirits and evil spirits, as in the case of good and evil acts generally, have a similar appearance at the outset but pursue contrary purposes. Over time, the works of a good spirit will increase a person's sense of peace and righteousness and even improve his health. The works of evil spirits, on the contrary, will gradually lead to an increase of anxiety, fear and selfishness and cause his health to deteriorate. ("The Work of Good Spirit and Evil Spirits," p. 71)

So we went to Chungpyung for this purpose. Originally, God and good spirits and good angels were to help us. Saints and sages were supposed to help us. After going to Chungpyung we inherit spiritual help, but if we are not united with Chungpyung, the angels cannot work with us. Many members are struggling now. Satan and his evil spirits are always ready to come back to make trouble.

If we have a good spirit and the angels are helping us, what will be the evidence? We will always be positive! And faithful and courageous and we will feel spiritual power. We will experience good health as well.

If we follow evil spirits, what happens? We become negative, selfish. lazy and in bad health We need to be careful ourselves and we need to educate others around us to always be careful.

Satan is always there to remind us of past failures so he can take away our confidence. "You will never be able to really bestow the grace of the Blessing" he will say, and "No need to try because it will never happen." Satan constantly whispers this sort of thing to us. We know this, but still we listen to him and allow a defeatist attitude to take hold of us. Especially when we allow negative thoughts to come in, that's when evil spirits can work within us most effectively.

What is the meaning of "having faith, absolute faith"? It means to completely believe in God's word and in the ones mediating His word. This is faith. What is "absolute love"? It is being willing to sacrifice and dedicate ourselves to others. What is "absolute obedience"? It means to be completely willing to follow, to act on God's word. We must possess these three if we expect to serve God on the Earth.

After Jesus left the Earth two thousand years ago, all the disciples received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Prior to that, they complained, had fears and distrust, were selfish, ineffective and confused. But after Pentecost they changed completely and became joyful, peaceful, righteous, strong, hopeful. And with unselfishness they brought victory.

Before the Pentecost experience, St. Peter was a miserable person. But after Pentecost, he became a founding father of Christianity. Today, we need to overcome our fears, our negative minds. Some still distrust God, Not to love God and True Parents, and not to believe and obey God and True Parents, is the opposite of absolute love, faith and obedience. We must overcome all of this. We must put these three things into practice in order to fulfill our mission for God. Otherwise, it means we are not disciples and apostles. It means we have not graduated from Chungpyung Lake.

Let's think of the words from the Exposition of the Divine Principle concerning the aspects of human nature:

The Exposition of the Divine Principle clearly says what good human nature is. It is a divine nature. When we have a strong desire, and if we practice good works, then joy and happiness results. A joyful world is the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth is a joyful world.

America has become very materialistic. We must make this into the Kingdom of Heaven, not the opposite. Jesus said "where is the Kingdom of Heaven? It is within you, within your heart." We can make our personal life very joyful. Do drugs and alcohol make the heart joyful? No. Only by practicing God's will. If we follow Satan's will, unhappiness and sadness will follow.

Recently, in Washington, DC, True Father gave us some very important words: "What is the secret of the success of my life? Investment. Invest yourself, even below the zero level, even to the miserable lowest level; then you will be successful."

Father wears humble clothes. Sometimes Father does not even wear socks. I have often seen him without socks. Barefoot. True Father chooses to live a most humble, simple life.

Let us invest ourselves as True Parents have. No more excuses. Problems of every kind always exist, but we must forget our problems and move forward.

We do not want to feel accused by those who will say to us: "You were living at that most historical time, 1997, but you spaced out, complained, and did not help God" How miserable.

Several of us visited the Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo, Egypt this year. Who founded the Coptic Church? St. Mark. St. Mark is a very historical person. When Jesus visited Jerusalem he had no house, so he stayed at St. Mark's house. Just imagine! Mark's mother's name was Mary and his uncle was Barnabas. The "last supper" was at held at St. Mark's house. When Jesus returned after Pentecost it was to St. Mark's house. Mark was assistant to St. Peter and St. Paul. These leaders worked hard and sacrificed. The two leaders, St. Peter and St. Paul, were sacrificed, martyred and then St. Mark went to Alexandria, Egypt and pioneered the Christian Church. There, he wrote the Gospel of Mark

The Coptic Orthodox Church is so proud of St. Mark and the traditions and teachings which are attributed to him. In Cairo they have their "Vatican"

and the crypt where the shrine of St. Mark is, his burial place, and a box which they say contain his relics. So Coptic members love to go before this box and kiss it and touch it, praying with so much love and respect.

At this most historical period of history we must be crazy people, not just working in offices and businesses, but reaching out. This is our priority this year. As we work, especially in Washington, DC and New York City, our modern-day Rome and all our cities at this time, it has great historical meaning. Will our future generations be proud, wanting to touch our "sacred boxes of relics?" Or will we let this great time pass us by? What is our destiny?

So let us work very hard for these great Blessings of Marriage so that many people will gain this benefit, solidify their marriages, and help build the nation and the world.

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