Basically our church Christian, but a different species. Christians become abnormal because they don't clearly understand the content of the Bible. Also, when the Bible was translated from Hebrew to Greek there were many mistakes. The same is true for translation from Greek to English. It made Christians strange. It allowed an easy-going life in Europe and America.

I will give four biblical passages with very heavy content. Usually Christians ignore these passages, so the quality of their religion is compromised. Even if this is heavy, we must practice it in our daily life. Then God will be on our side, and we will be able to change other Christians. I'll give you the biblical passages, and you can read them at home.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." John 3:16

This verse has two parts. Normal Christians only like the second part. "Whoever believes in the Messiah will have eternal life." Americans think God is American, not Korean. Denominations believe God is their God. They say we have other books.

When I joined the Unification Church, near my church was a Presbyterian Church. Because we were nearby, they criticized us more than other churches. Their main point was that we are not Christian because we have other things. The Bible says not to add a dot. But the Unification Church has many other things. Now I am going on 56, but at that time I was in my 20s. I had only been in the church for three months.

When I arrived at the Presbyterian Church there was a youth meeting going on. There was a youth leader, maybe two to three years younger than me. I said, "You don't have much time to talk with me. I'll be direct. I hear that you criticize us. What is the problem?"

"What do you add to the Bible?" he asked.

"How long have you been in the Presbyterian Church?" I asked.

"Seven years."

"I was in it for 13 years. Maybe I know the Bible more than you," I said, and continued, "Anyone who adds to the Bible is a heretic, right?" ["I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; . . . Rev 22:18]

"Yes."

"Where do you find any criticism of the Unification Church in the Bible?" I asked. "Also, your minister reads one passage from the Bible, but he speaks one hour. He is a heretic, too." Everyone but the leader laughed. He was red in the face.

Then I gave him the verse John 3:16. "You must love me, too," I said. I gave him Rev 10:11 ["Then they said to me, 'You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings."'] and said, "We can't add even one dot, but it says we will add another book."

He could say nothing. Then I spoke for about one hour explaining the two passages. The Bible will be translated into many languages. The passage about not adding a dot means God doesn't want us to make a mistake or add anything when translating the Bible. Now you can understand both sentences.

He said nothing. I think he was not able to keep that position as youth leader for a long time.

We may criticize, but we must give a righteous counter proposal. He criticized the Unification Church, but had no counter proposal.

We must love the whole world. God gave us True Father, and he seems to love outside people more than us. We said to Father once, "You give nice hotel rooms and good chicken to professors, but you have never given us even one leg of chicken."

True Father smiled, "You are eating everyday very much more delicious Divine Principle. They (the professors) are like children; they need money and chicken, but you are adults. You need Divine Principle." So he loves us very much. He loves the whole world. We need to love the whole world.

Disease of the Me Generation

But "I love my wife, my children." That is a problem. America started from selfish ideals: only Christian ideals. Now we live in the "Me" generation. We like to use me and my more than us and our. "My baby, my wife, my house." We have so much individualized thinking. Is the baby made by me or by my spouse and me together? A husband and wife made the baby as a joint venture. When you say, "My baby," you are logically wrong. This country is not my country but with 240 million people it is "our country." We need to think we more than I. Then we can become God's children.

People who like to use I, MY and ME more than WE, OUR and US can have a heart attack more easily. You know how wonderful Stanford University is. Two Stanford professors studied heart attacks. It is normal to have a heart attack at age 80 years, not 30 years. They studied around 1,000 patients for many years and concluded: If you say I, My, Me more than we, our, us, they found you (will tend to) die earlier from heart attack. They don't know why, but Principle teaches why. Because God is We, we are created to resemble God's ideal which is the we ideal. Therefore, if we think I, we go against nature.

God made us in His image. If we violate the Divine Principle, then we have health problems. Let's try to love all people.

He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Mt 22:37-40

We must love God more than any others, including money, wife, children and husband. If you love your children, spouse, money more than God, you will have problems: mental and physical. The blessing is for the purpose of accomplishing God's ideal. Many blessed members have become lazier than before the blessing. Before the blessing they were working hard. But after getting babies, they become more and more selfish. Many blessed members have money problems and husband and wife relationship problems because they don't follow God's ideals. Even some of them say, "Reverend Moon has strange ideas. He said the blessing is a blessing, but it is just miserable." Many members become lazier after the blessing, then more selfish. They have problems because they don't follow God's ideal.

True Father gave 95%, but if we don't do our 5%, then there are problems. If you follow Divine Principle and are poor, you will be happy. If you don't follow the Divine Principle and have money, you will be unhappy. Love God more than others. Christians say they believe in the Bible, but they don't live according to this commandment of Jesus.

We should live and believe in the Bible more than they, love God more than others. Then we can guide them because God is our background.

About one week ago True Father and I talked about blessed couples. They have a hard life. They live as home members, most of them. But they become home members by their own ideas. They became home members because of their own choice, not because the church said to. Satan follows them all the time because they violated God's ideals. When you start your family separately, automatically you love family more than God. On the other hand, living in the church it is difficult. Every morning you hear True Father's speech and the Divine Principle. But you put Heavenly Father first. When you have your own home, you must have a very strict life.

Many of you did not know True Father would not be here this morning. If you had known, some of you might not have come. When True Father is not here, this congregation becomes smaller after about one month. After True Father is not here for one hundred years, maybe only a few members from Westchester will attend this service.

Heavenly Father never said to love our neighbor more than ourself. Actually we should, but at that time people were low spiritually. Even now we don't practice this ideal. We are humans; if Christians are real Christians, they must love us as they love themselves, but most of them never do that. That means they are not real Christians. They never do this.

Matthew 16:24-25 has two parts. The first part: Jesus says that if you want to lead a happy life, you must deny yourself. How about ourselves? Without doing this you cannot enter the Heavenly Kingdom. Most Christians don't do this. They say they believe in the Bible, but they don't.

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. Mt 16:24-25

Husband and wife: deny yourself for your spouse. Never divorce. We in the Unification Church should be the first to practice this teaching. Husband and wife, if you deny yourself for your spouse, then you can't divorce. I should think, rather, that I have something in my ancestors that makes me need such a wife. When I think the problem is with my spouse, that creates divorce. There is not an especially good spouse. Except for True Family, everyone is almost the same. My wife has a very ugly face; your wife is beautiful. But how much difference is there between ugly and beautiful? What is the difference between Cleopatra and my ugly wife? The difference in the height of their noses is a few millimeters, almost the same.

When I was matched, we had a seven-day training session, which meant a matching session. During that session, Father made two elder couples stand up. One couple had a husband about 30 years older than the wife. The other had a husband nine years older than the wife. True Father asked them, "Are you happy?" In Korea we are shy and just smile. That means happy. Often when Koreans express feelings, yes means no and no means yes. When you talk with an oriental you have to think what it means. You westerners grow up externally very much, so yes/no is very clear. The couple had children and a happy life because of self-denial. Self-denial can make everything smooth.

Last night I had many letters in my room after my trip. One person in Queens sent many theological ideas and said, "It is your responsibility to take this to True Father and get me answers." I can't talk easily with Father. When I talk to him, I prepare a long time. But I must love that brother, so I will try.

My nickname used to be "self-denial". I put that poster all over when I was in Region 10. Many members criticized me, even the president of the Unification Church. It means they don't want to come to the heavenly kingdom! They want to die. I try very hard to deny myself. I don't do it perfectly, but I have survived. For most of you, over ten years without your spouse would be very difficult. For a woman with four children and without her husband's help it is also very difficult. During this trip we had only four days together in Tokyo and Seoul. We lived well during that time with a small hotel room. So, please deny yourself and be happy!

The second part is: you must carry your cross on your shoulder. My experience with Presbyterians is that they put it all on Jesus. He becomes a sandwich. The Bible never said to do that.

Even when you pray, you also give your burdens to Heavenly Father. We must take our own burdens. If we say, "I am a fallen person. I must pay indemnity," then He will help. You can ask for the whole world, but not for yourself. Even for yourself, you must have a good motivation; for example, "If you cure me, I will dedicate myself completely." This is a real Christian. Denying myself and carrying my cross on my shoulder, that is a real Christian. Not so many do that.

Mt 16:25: If you want to live for a good cause, you will survive. But if you want to live for your own course, you will die. Many blessed couples live for their own cause, then they die. When your family has problems, then you go out to witness, then your family can survive. God will take care of it. Most of us don't witness, then become unhappy. When you go back home and watch TV with your children, it looks as if you are happy, but it is really not so happy. If I ask you how many people have found spiritual children in the last 365 days, not so many will raise their hands. Witnessing is very good for your spiritual life, even if you do not bring results.

With the Serpent on Your Heels

So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. Num 21:4-9

When the fiery serpent bit the Israelites, people died. Then Moses asked Heavenly Father for help; God said for him to make a bronze serpent and put it on top of his staff. The staff was taller than him. Anyone who looked at the bronze serpent would live. Normally they had to look down not to be bitten, but God said look up.

Today True Father speaks of 180 degrees different from fallen human beings. Heavenly Father said not to look down as we normally do, but to look up. The lesson is that when you have difficulty, you must think of the next step of happiness, then everything is okay.

Many worry in Japan about the current difficult situation, but True Father thinks of the future. True Father gave special guidance to five leaders from Japan for several days. Now they follow True Father's ideas, and the situation is getting better. If we have a problem, then we think only about that problem, then you feel the problem becomes bigger.

If your husband has big problems, don't just think about those problems. The more problems your husband has, the more love you can give; then the problems will be solved. When you have financial problems in your family, then think about True Father's situation, how many financial difficulties there are. Then you can overcome your problem. So, look up. Don't think, "While I look up, I'll get bitten." Those (among the Israelites) who looked up, survived. Selfishness makes more difficulty. If we believe in the Bible, then we must practice it.

This morning I gave four Bible passages and had a strange feeling that we do not practice them. How about us? Do we practice these? If you have problems, then you do not practice this in your daily life. We have problems, but God gave us solutions to those problems.

Second Generation

About the second generation: you are all second generation in the front row. True Father said on God's Day that the position of the second generation is Jesus' position. Jesus had no original sin, but his environment was completely fallen. Many times you heard True Father's Principle of Creation. First we make a good environment. The subject must find an object in that environment. Then subject and object have give-and-take action; then it develops.

The second generation must make a good environment, then find an object and have give-and-take. The environment can be made by witnessing and prayer for others. We first generation are very dirty in a sense. We are full of fallen nature. We have hope in our second generation. But the second generation just sits down and enjoys studies. Their pure nature cannot work outside.

Second generation: try to witness, too. You have almost no idea to witness. Unfortunately, several second generation married with outside people. We first generation are already a problem. But time is passing for the second generation. First and second generation must help each other. Try to witness. This is the only method for us to survive.

If we live for others, then indemnity is easy. My conclusion is simple: If we live a life for the sake of others, everything will be okay. It may be difficult for you to remember all these passages, but do not forget True Father's phrases: True-Love Life and Indemnity. If you live elder for younger, younger for elder, then everything will be okay. Problems come from self-centered ideas without self-denial. Indemnity and life for the sake of others: these two are the main part of our life. Whatever difficulties come, we must think: "This is my indemnity course." We must think based on the Divine Principle. If we live for others, then indemnity is easy.

Sometimes when I give tough guidance, some members become angry. Then I think I may have used the wrong methods. All the time I want to develop, so that members will not become angry.

True Father is physically far away this morning, but always he prays for us. We, too, must pray for True Family all the time. Then we can really be blessed.

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