The Words of Hyung Jin Moon From 2010
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The Words of Hyung Jin Moon From 2010 |
Good afternoon, brothers and sisters! Welcome to the Headquarter of the Unification Church. Brothers and sisters, can you believe that we are actually moving today? Can you? (Applause)
We have been talking about it, we have seen the pictures, but we are actually moving today. Let us give this honor and thanks to our Heavenly Father and True Parents and those members throughout the world who supported and made this come true. Let's give a big applause! (Applause) Aju!
Good afternoon, brothers and sisters! Let's first manifest the principle:
Give and Receive action
Four position foundation
May I inherit the True Love of God.
Aju!
Today is from Cheon Seong Gyeong page 600. Father speaks. He says:
"All of us must embrace the hope with which you can overcome even death, when we are confronted by it. After we coerced that path, we must be able to race joyfully to that original homeland, for which we have longed with the hopeful thought of standing tall in front of heaven and earth."
Brothers and sisters, can you believe it? My goodness! Today is the last official service in Chungpadong, Headquarters Church. It's a historic church. Father ministered here for over a decade. I want to give it up for Chungpadong Church and all the incredible history that has happened here! (Applause) It's like we are living in a dream. It's amazing.
Brothers and sisters, today is a new day. It is a new day for the Unification Church. Today we will be actually going to the Temple. Many of you haven't seen it yet. When you do, I want you to remember that that is the Unification Church. When you go in there, just remind yourself, my God, this is the Unification Church! Hold that in your heart, because we want that to be the hope of all the Unification Churches around, in different cities and countries where the Unification Church is still persecuted. One day they can come, see the Temple and say: "You know what? There will be the day that we can be proud of our faith in our city, where we can make a difference in this land."
Brothers and sisters, it is an incredible time and I'm so honored to be able to walk with all of you, and with all our brothers and sisters tomorrow as well.
Let's take a look at Christianity today. This is Romans 8:28, let's read this together,
"We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose."
Aju.
Remember when we say Aju, the meaning of Aju means, My Lord! That's what it means. We are praising God as we say Aju.
Let's look at Buddhism today; this is from the Udana 19-20, let's look at this together,
"I am fearless, assured, confident and unafraid. I live at ease, unstartled, lightsome, with a heart like that of some wild creature."
Aju.
Let's look at the Holy Qur'an today. This is Sura 29-60, this is from Islam. Let's take a look at this together,
"How many animals do not carry their own provision! God provided for them and for you. He is alert, aware."
Aju.
This is from True Parents' words. This is from the collection of speeches 107:83, let's read this together,
"What do you think I am proud of? It is that I am afraid of nothing. There is nothing in heaven or on earth that I am afraid of, because my efforts are entirely for God."
Aju.
You know, brothers and sisters, there are times in our lives when we are called to walk a path that has never been tread before. It is our destiny to have faith in a promise, a long old prophecy, that we will matter, that we will make a difference and that we will glorify our True Parents and glorify our God.
So we are like the pioneers today, setting out to discover the new world. They had to get on to their ships, they had to set sail, leave the comforts of their homes and the stability of their homelands to take to the open ocean. They knew that they would face uncertainty, there's inevitably storm up ahead, danger, even death they had to face. But see the power of their faith and the spirit of adventure that God was calling them on, this was even more profound than the fear that was so overwhelming.
This is our last service here in Chungpadong Church, a historic church where True Father directly ministered in, where we also have the Koo Bon Boo Kyo Hae (Old Headquarters Church) up there. And today we depart from this holy location where so much blood, sweat and tears had been invested. So much devotion has been spent and now we trek a cause, the cold city of Seoul in 2010 and we'll make our way towards the Temple of God. Let's give it up to the Temple of God everybody. (Applause)
Come on, we're going there today. (Applause)
Oh my goodness! It's an amazing day. (Applause)
I am reminded of the story, a Christian story of St Paul and his second letter to the Corinthians. As you know, he had been travelling all around the Mediterranean and he briefly summarized the highlights of his trials and tribulations, of his missionary travels proclaiming and preaching the Gospel of Christ. Let us read his words together. This is 2 Corinthians 11:23-28, let's read this together,
"I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches."
We see here the incredible challenges that Paul had to face, the tremendous tribulations on his journeys spreading the Gospel of Christ. He had to go and challenge every single challenge and brave every single fear that was muscled up in his heart because the love of Christ was his mission and his purpose, because proclaiming the Gospel of Christ was his essence. He moved forth through that danger, through the incredible persecution that he received.
We see in his testimony that Paul was beaten and imprisoned, stoned and shipwrecked, facing threat and danger from starvation and cold and brutal elements, etc. But greater than these things was again his faith and his love for Christ. This was the power that helped him to overcome every challenge that he had to face. Time and time again, every time he faced a robber or a person that stoned him, he had to muster up the love of Christ and move forward and because of this kind of incredible faith and love for Christ Paul was able to shape the history of Christianity.
I am also reminded of a Buddhist tale. It is a tale of Mahaprajapati, who is the Buddha's Aunt. She was a woman who had raised the Buddha's son from a young age along with her own son. She had a long time relationship with the Buddha and as he left and became enlightened, she asked him, "Let me follow you and let me go the full religious life. Let me follow this path. Don't just let the men walk this path. Let also the women walk on this path."
But the Buddha denied her at that time. He said, "No, I can't do that, it's too dangerous." Many different issues at that time that were arising. They were practicing in open air and so it was dangerous for women to be outside in those kind of areas. So he denied her at that time.
He had travelled to another city, from Kapilavastu which was his homeland all the way to Vesaliwhich was in Northern India. So he made that long trek and so it was very far away. The Queen Mahaprajapati now decided, "I will make the long journey across the rivers and through the woods to find the Enlightened One, to find him and to ask him once again." She had to brave her life, risk her life to go on that path, on that pilgrimage. When she arrived at that sacred city Vesali, it was a cosmopolitan area at that time, she was met again with dismay because he said no again.
She was very depressed and was sitting in front of the retreat and one of the Disciples, his name was Ananda, he came to her and said, "Why are you so sad Queen?" And she explained her ordeal. "I am so sad because I want to commit myself to the full religious life. I want to make a better world and I want to save and liberate beings etc., but that opportunity has not arisen."
But then, Ananda said, "Take heart and I will tell the Buddha. I will tell him. I will ask him special permission to have you and your practitioners come in with us and to go on the course." The Buddha heard about that, and then he shared with her, that he was moved by her perseverance, by that she had braved even her life, that she had sacrificed everything, threw away all her jewels and her queenly status and followed him across the very dangerous wilderness.
From this particular tradition the Buddhist nuns are descending. It was this kind of braveness and the movement into the future knowing, "If I believe and have faith, we will be allowed to stand together with the men to create a better world." This was her heart.
As I remember this story, it also reminded me of what Unification Church, what we are doing together, that we are standing together, brother and sister, and Father and Mother, and man and woman, and we are going following our Lord, to create a better world of goodness, peace and heavenly fortune so that we can bring those from the realm of Satan's dominion, which is self-pride and self-centeredness, to a world of inheriting the true love and essence of God.
I'm also reminded of a story from Islam by a great biographer who wrote the first real biography of the Prophet Muhammad. It was the work called the Sirat Rasul Allah, which was written by Ibn Ishaq in the eighth century. He told the story about the Prophet Muhammad. There was a particular time which was very dangerous for the Prophet Muhammad because now he was moving away from Mecca where the Muslims were persecuted. They were a minority. They were under the very dominant Qurayish tribe in Mecca.
Now, they have to make the trek out of Mecca into Medina where they would try to start a new life and try to start a new way to worship God. In the eve of this emigration, which is called the Hejira, most of the followers had already gone to Medina. But Muhammad said, "I cannot go until the very end. I cannot go. I can only leave when I get God's permission." So he had to wait to the very end because there was one more task for him to finish.
There was that night a plot against his life. There were people that were going to come into his room and kill him while he was sleeping and the Prophet Muhammad knew about this. So he asked his cousin Ali to sleep in his bed at night and to take his place, literally on the cross, knowing that that person will be killed. He asked him to take his place in faith.
His cousin Ali did so; he stepped up. When the plotters came to kill Muhammad, they saw in his bed somebody else and that surprised them and they fled. That was the time when the Prophet Muhammad was able to leave Mecca and entered Medina. They entered Medina and became an established religion, where they would have dominance there.
Peter had failed Jesus at the eve of his crucifixion. Peter was supposed to step in for Christ, step in and declare that he knew Christ. He was supposed to stand up for Christ. Peter had failed this task. Ali however, had done the opposite and stepped up in faith for Muhammad.
When I remembered this tale, it also reminded me that now, as True Parents are fighting for God and they are under attack in many ways, we as the Unification Church are standing up for them. We're saying, "True Parents, we stand with you and we won't desert you. We will go into the city to preach about you and we will face uncertainty and face the unknown. We may even be persecuted but we will stand with our faith." Let's give it up for Unification Church and our faith! (Applause)
We are moving to the Temple, the Temple to attend God and True Parents, to teach the world that the Messiah, the Maitreya, the Mahdi, the Kalki, the Righteous One has come! And that we are standing with our faith and our pride to uphold the value of True Parents, to bring in the many, many people who had been prepared by God and the spirit world, who are waiting to meet their True Parents, the True Parents of heaven and earth. Let's give it up for God and True Parents.(Applause)
I was finally reminded of the story in Isaiah and this is Isaiah 40:1-11. This was the Prophet Isaiah who was encouraging the Jews who were living in exile in Babylon. Their temple had been ruined and they had been chased out and now they were living in Babylon as a minority. They were been mocked and laughed at and they were still trying to get settled. They were starting a new life, and in the midst of that kind of cosmopolitan Babylonian culture, many of the Jews were loosing faith in their own God, in their own heritage, in their own religion, in their own life and identity.
When they thought about leaving Babylon they might have thought, "My God! I got to stay now in Babylon. I am setting up my family, setting up my work and trying to make a living…" But then all of a sudden, God called the Jewish people from Babylon back to Zion, back to Jerusalem. If they would go back to Zion, they would have to cross the desert and the threats that lie there -- thirst and famine. They would have to face poisonous snakes and robbers, scorpions and Hyenas, all sorts of dangers that would arise in the desert.
So many of the Jews did not want to go. They said, "I don't want to go. We don't want to go. We are setting up our lives here in Babylon. Why would we go back where we have to enter into Jerusalem? Why would we have to reclaim Zion? Why would we rebuild our Temple? It will take too much time. We are still under the curse of God."
They still believed that they were under the curse; that God had lifted the blessing from them and now everything they did was doomed to failure. They believed that they can never be successful and that God now held the dark cloud of curse over them.
But see, the Prophet Isaiah encouraged them. He said to them, "Comfort, comfort…." He said, "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord." He said, there was a change of fortune from curse to blessing, "God is about to bring us prosperity and blessing. God is with this endeavor. Do not dread the past where many ordeals may have failed. God is with us on this new day where we re-face our Temple and we walk toward Zion."
"In the wilderness, prepare the way of Lord," he said, "Every mountain and hill will be made low. " That means that every obstacle will be made low, not with our own strength but with the power of God. "The Glory of the Lord will be revealed," he said.
And he said, "All flesh is grass." The flowers and flesh are grass, they wither away. He was referring to the many of the naysayers, many of the persecutors of the Jews, who persecuted and attacked them and said, "You people are worthless, you have no value, you are just like money" and these kind of things. He said, that all that flesh and those flowers, all those words against us are like the grass; they will fade and wither away but the word, the Lord our God is eternal and lives forever.
He said, "The Lord God comes with might." Remember that the Babylonian people saw the Jews in their weakness, in a defeated state. They saw them pitiful. They saw them not being able to set their roots, not being able to succeed, saw them being at the lowest realm of society, being laughed at and mocked. They had to endure this for 70 years.
And in the same way, the Korean people have also seen True Parents and the Unification Church in weakness. They saw a church that was declining, was not growing for 30 years. But in the Temple, in Zion, in the New Jerusalem, in the Cheon Bok Gung Palace, they will see another day and see another Unification Church! (Applause)
If you believe it, let's give it up for God (Applause)
The Prophet Isaiah says, "Be encouraged because the Lord comes with might, not in weakness." And he says, "And the Lord our God will feed His flock." From God and from the Temple, from the holy land Zion, will spread the spiritual abundance and blessing, that will spread not only to all the members across the world but to all the nation of Korea and all the nations of the world and all the spirit world and will be returned and glorified back to God. If you believe it, let's give it up for God! (Applause) Oh, my goodness! (Applause)
We are going today, brothers and sisters! We are going!
As we move to the Temple, brothers and sisters, we're moving to the next level, such a visible level as a Unification Church. We're pressing forward with hope. We are having hope in the kingdom of God, in a world of unity and oneness centered on our Lord and savior -- the True Parents of heaven and earth. We face uncertainty, surely, attack from closed minded individuals, surely. Danger, surely, but we as the Unification Church, we are moving forward. We are believing, believing in our God, we are believing in our True Parents, we are believing in each other.
Everybody come on let's stand on up, stand on up! I need you stand up and I need you to hold your brother's and sister's hand next to you, hold their hand. Tell them today, "I am honored to be on this ship with you."
Because, brothers and sisters, we are now facing our own new destiny and we're moving forth to the temple of God. Let's end with Father's words:
"May we go forth with a bold and
vibrant attitude as God's hopeful sons and daughters, going towards
the nation of peace, the peace of the Kingdom of Heaven."
(True
Parents' 33:273)
Aju.
Dearest most beloved Heavenly Father! Dear Lord, we thank You so much. You have brought us on an incredible journey. We were at a point where we did not believe in ourselves as Unification Church. We didn't believe that we have value. We didn't believe in our identity. We have even lost faith in True Parents. But You brought us out of the darkness and You brought us into a new light, where we are facing a new future, where we are facing our destiny with pride, with our faith and with our family and friends.
Father, we thank You so much because this day is the day that we have waited for; the day that we have yearned for and the day that You have longed for 6,000 years, the day when your sons and daughters would know who they are and whose they are, that they would be proud in themselves, would lift up the name that is the most high --Your name, and would head forth unto the seas of the unknown, to proclaim the goodness of Your love. To proclaim the everlasting nature of Your goodness, to proclaim Your sorrowful heart, to proclaim that we can do something to liberate Your heart.
Father, we thank You so much because we have been on an incredible ride together. We are honored to be on this incredible pilgrimage of life, that we can walk together hand in hand, that we can face each other, looking into each others eyes with pride, knowing that we are brothers and sisters, that we are united by our True Parents. That we stand for our faith, that we stand for our brothers and sisters all around the world.
Father, we pray that as we walk step by step across the city of Seoul, that each one of these steps may be recorded in heaven. That each of these steps may bring new light, comfort and new inspiration to all our brothers and sisters around the world. Some are living in cities where they are persecuted, where they are minorities, where they never will believe that one day they can stand strong and tall. Let us show them on this day, that although with men it may be impossible, but with You all things become possible. Things that we never dreamt of are coming true before our very eyes.
Let us face this incredible journey with pride. Let us face this uncertainty and unknown with a sense of adventure and a sense of faith and believe that we can do this. We can make a difference; we can create a better world. We can make an impact in the time of True Parents' life.
We thank You so much. We as Unificationists we stand together on this day. We stand in the historical building that True Parents ministered in. As we leave here, we take that history with us to the new temple where You will reside, where True Parents will reside, where all our brothers and sisters and the nations will reside.
Father, we pray that all those in heaven -- all the angels and all the spirit world, all the saints and sages, Jesus and Muhammad and Buddha, Confucius and all the great apostles of the past will work with us, will move with True Parents' heavenly destiny and bring the incredible Cheon Bok -- heavenly fortune to all of this world.
We pray for that great day that we can call Cheon Il Guk our own and we pray these things in the name of True Parents and in the name of our own central blessed families, as Unificationists we pray. Aju!
1: I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me!
2: I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband.
3: But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
4: For if some one comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough.
5: I think that I am not in the least inferior to these superlative apostles.
6: Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not in knowledge; in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.
7: Did I commit a sin in abasing myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached God's gospel without cost to you?
8: I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you.
9: And when I was with you and was in want, I did not burden any one, for my needs were supplied by the brethren who came from Macedo'nia. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way.
10: As the truth of Christ is in me, this boast of mine shall not be silenced in the regions of Acha'ia.
11: And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
12: And what I do I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do.
13: For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
14: And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
15: So it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.
16: I repeat, let no one think me foolish; but even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little.
17: (What I am saying I say not with the Lord's authority but as a fool, in this boastful confidence;
18: since many boast of worldly things, I too will boast.)
19: For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves!
20: For you bear it if a man makes slaves of you, or preys upon you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face.
21: To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that! But whatever any one dares to boast of -- I am speaking as a fool -- I also dare to boast of that.
22: Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.
23: Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one -- I am talking like a madman -- with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.
24: Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.
25: Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea;
26: on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren;
27: in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
28: And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches.
29: Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?
30: If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
31: The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed for ever, knows that I do not lie.
32: At Damascus, the governor under King Ar'etas guarded the city of Damascus in order to seize me,
33: but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped his hands.
1: Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2: Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her
warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has
received from the LORD's hand
double for all her sins.
3: A voice cries:
"In the wilderness prepare the way of
the LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4: Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and
hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the
rough places a plain.
5: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all
flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has
spoken."
6: A voice says, "Cry!"
And I said, "What
shall I cry?"
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is
like the flower of the field.
7: The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of
the LORD blows upon it;
surely the people is grass.
8: The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our
God will stand for ever.
9: Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good
tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald
of good tidings,
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of
Judah,
"Behold your God!"
10: Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might,
and his arm rules
for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense
before him.
11: He will feed his flock like a shepherd,
he will gather
the lambs in his arms,
he will carry them in his bosom,
and
gently lead those that are with young.
12: Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and
marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth
in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills
in a balance?
13: Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD,
or as his
counselor has instructed him?
14: Whom did he consult for his enlightenment,
and who taught
him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed
him the way of understanding?
15: Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are
accounted as the dust on the scales;
behold, he takes up the isles
like fine dust.
16: Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
nor are its beasts
enough for a burnt offering.
17: All the nations are as nothing before him,
they are
accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
18: To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness compare
with him?
19: The idol! a workman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it
with gold,
and casts for it silver chains.
20: He who is impoverished chooses for an offering
wood that
will not rot;
he seeks out a skilful craftsman
to set up an
image that will not move.
21: Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Has it not been
told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the
foundations of the earth?
22: It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its
inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens
like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
23: who brings princes to nought,
and makes the rulers of the
earth as nothing.
24: Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has
their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows upon them, and
they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25: To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like
him? says the Holy One.
26: Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He
who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by
the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power
not
one is missing.
27: Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
"My
way is hid from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God"?
28: Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the
everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does
not faint or grow weary,
his understanding is unsearchable.
29: He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he
increases strength.
30: Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall
fall exhausted;
31: but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their
strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they
shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.