참부모경/참

BOOK 9 HOME CHURCH AND THE TRIBAL MESSIAH


Chapter 1. Home ChurchSection 1The Providential Significance of Home Church ... 913
Section 2.  The Purpose of Home Church ... 920
Section 3.  The Completion of Home Church ... 926
Section 4.  Hoondokhae and Home Church Activities ... 934
Chapter 2. The Tribal MessiahSection 1.The Declaration of Tribal Messiahship ... 942
Section 2.  The Responsibility of the Tribal Messiah ... 953
Section 3.  The Role of the Tribal Messiah ... 958
Section 4.  The Return to the Hometown ... 968
Chapter 3. The Mission of a Church LeaderSection 1.The Mission and Responsibility of  a Church Leader ... 976
Section 2.  Public Life of a Church Leader ... 981
Section 3.  A Church Leader's Devotional Life ... 992
Section 4.  Giving Sermons that Move Hearts ... 1001
Section 5.  Witnessing and Pastoral Care ... 1013
Section 6.  The Providence of Cain and Abel ... 1019
BOOK 9 HOME CHURCH AND THE TRIBAL MESSIAH
CHAPTER 1
Home Church
Section 1. The Providential Significance of Home Church
1 Home Church symbolizes Adam's family in the original garden of Eden, a family that did not fall but became one in total love, with God as the center. When Home Church starts this way and develops into a tribal-level Home Church and then a national-level Home Church, it can lead to one unified world having the ideal form of a global family. I teach this based on the Principle viewpoint. You ought to understand the importance of what the Unification Church has done in presenting Home Church and establishing it before God, humanity and the entire cosmos. It is the very path that Adam and Eve would have taken had they not fallen at the outset, but had instead centered on God throughout their lives, lived on earth in the midst of His love, given birth to sons and daughters and then entered the spirit world. It is also the path their children and their children's children would have followed. Adam and Eve and their entire lineage with all their descendants would have naturally entered the kingdom of heaven.( 102-230,19790101)
What is Home Church?
2 Until now, you may have thought that Home Church is just an institution of the Unification Church, but that is not so. Home Church in the Unification Church is your personal heavenly kingdom. It is your kingdom, not anyone else's, but yours. After Jesus gave Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven, where did he go? He went the way of the cross. The keys to the kingdom of heaven are the Home Church movement. In other words we must establish tribes, and it is our mission through Home Church to present a model of the tribal system. Jesus said, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matt. 18:18) If we don't bind Home Church—if we don't make it happen—we cannot go to the kingdom of heaven.( 110-265,19810101)
3 I am giving Unification Church members the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Am I going to the cross to die? No. I am going to a higher place, with hope. Jesus left the earth and did not return for two thousand years. After I die I shall be able to come and go any time as freely as I want. When I return, I will not go to the Unification Church but to your Home Church. Home Church is the place where God can reside, where your parents can reside, where your sons and daughters can reside and where your relatives can reside. The institutional church is merely like an office that serves the families in society.( 110-266,19810101)
4 As a result of the Fall in the garden of Eden, there was struggle between Cain, who was born the older brother, and Abel, the younger brother. The resentment between them became bitter. We must resolve it; otherwise there is no way for us to find the Parents. For this purpose, God has walked a winding path with ups and downs throughout history. Amid this providence, what the Unification Church offers is Home Church. What is the garden of Eden? It is a Home Church where there is no struggle between Cain and Abel, between the older brother and the younger brother. This makes for one-ness with their parents and oneness between God and the archangel. Thereby everything is unified. It is to make this kind of environment that I, the Teacher of the Unification Church, came forth. I am trying to eliminate the boundary line between the angelic world and Heaven, and between the human world and the angelic world, and to tear down the wall the enemy placed between Cain and Abel. All this is to straighten out what went wrong. Based on this providence in this historical age, when national borders and social systems are being removed, once all become one through Home Church, everything will be restored.( 105-338,19791028)
5 If there is one day God will remember, it will be the day we are born anew to live eternally as His friends and His sons and daughters, and are able to receive His love. This will be the day we can participate in the ideal world of love, and it is the day God will remember as His best day. The Unification Church places importance on the matter of love, because human beings have to create the gateway of love through which they can go to the spirit world after living on earth with a physical body. We place great importance on the family. We need that kind of family. We should seek the ideal family, and that ideal is the fulfillment of God's Will. It is a human being's greatest purpose. Therefore we must go forward on this path. God has desired to see the coming of this age. He has been leading the providence through religion in order to bind together all men and women as His sons and daughters in the same place and at the same time. Home Church was established in order to combine all the previous works of God's providence and erect the foundation for ideal families.( 116-180,19820101)
6 The purpose of the Home Church movement is to have you emerge as true men and women. It is to elevate you to a position victorious over the fallen realm. This is an unprecedented one-time event. It has never occurred in any religion or at any previous period in history, and it will not be repeated in the future. Therefore you must overcome any and all obstacles in your Home Church area, to the point that those who had opposed you give you their blessing and endorse you with signed certificates, stating, "This person is a good person, truly a person of God." Once you erect that victorious foundation, then when you embark upon your journey to the next world, you will be able to pass easily through all the gates to the kingdom of heaven and come before God. Wherever your Home Church is, there is the kingdom of heaven. The Unification Church is carrying this historical responsibility to prepare this path for your victory. Think about the fact that such a path has appeared amid the present-day world, which is like a barren desert or hell. Without a doubt this path is the path to life, the path to the bright light, and the path of hope. On this path we can meet God, on this path we can meet the Messiah, and on this path we can meet the True Parents. Moreover, on this path Cain and Abel can meet and become one, and on this path all the enemies who were lost, all tribes that were lost, and all humanity that was lost can be recovered.( 104-263,19790527)
7 With the arrival of this age, you can do the work in place of the Parents. When you are working in my place, what you need to do is copy what I have done. I did things on the world stage, but you do not need to travel around the entire world. Instead, the place you should do the work is like an altar that contains in condensed form all the things I have connected while traveling the world. All the people of the world are condensed there; it is the world on a smaller scale. Because you need an indemnity condition to model my worldwide activities, Home Church was instituted.(115-083,1981 1104)
8 Home Church enables us to move from the position of the second son to inherit the right of the first son and return to our hometown. It is the foundation by which we can find and compensate for the failures that took place around Jesus. You need to become the people who can accomplish what Jesus came to do. By establishing these conditions, you will become Jesus' sons and daughters, and by this you will become sons and daughters of God.( 101-330,197811 12)
9 When God comes to visit your village, your home should be a place where He can freely teach and instruct about anything in the presence of your father and mother. This is how you should be serving and attending God with your utmost sincerity. You are not simply attending the king or the ruler of your nation; you are attending the One, the Lord who governs heaven and earth. Attending Him should be everyone's ultimate wish. There is no one greater whom we could ever desire to attend, even in our dreams. Then, with gratitude for the fact that you are living in the era when you can actually receive Him and attend Him face to face, you should be able to suggest to your neighbors that they decorate and prepare their houses with cries of "Let's attend God!" The mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, relatives and all their neighbors should be willing to overcome their tendency to distrust, surmount all the waves of death, and say, "Let's make our neighborhood a place where we can live with God eternally!" We need such a movement, and therefore the endeavor called Home Church has emerged in the Unification Church at this time. Up to this point, religions have focused on the goal of individual salvation, but the goal of the Unification Church is to save the tribes we establish in our communities. We're striving to save all tribes at the same time. The Home Church movement does not advocate the idea that, "I will go to heaven when I die," but rather, "We will receive a communal ticket so our tribe can all go to heaven while we are still alive."( 101-262,19781101)
10 You should miss your parents and shed tears for them until you die. You cried when you were born, so while you live you should shed tears as well. You should cry for them with a heart of missing them, and you should shed tears of joy whenever you see them. You have to live such a life before you leave this world; only then can you enter the kingdom of heaven after you die. This is the Principle. However, because you could not do so, the True Parents have come in the present time and established the Home Church movement. Through it, they are giving you a chance to make the proper conditions to enable you to enter the kingdom of heaven. Thus Home Church is the starting point of the kingdom of heaven. The cosmos-centered way of thinking is the True Parents' way of thinking. To center on True Parents' thought means you need to bring your family and relatives to become part of the heavenly kingdom. That is what Home Church is for. You should stand as the center of your Home Church, then of your family and then of your tribe—three stages. This is formation, growth and completion. Without tribes, a nation cannot be established. This is why we started using the term "tribal messiah" when we inaugurated the Home Church movement. Thus the Home Church movement is the beginning of the heavenly nation, namely, the kingdom of heaven. So when can you meet the Parents? Only when you go to your Home Church.( 124-043,198301 16)
11 Cain and Abel must become one. John the Baptist in the older brother's position could not become one with Jesus in the younger brother’s position. Because they could not become one, the foundation for the twelve tribes and the seventy disciples to go out to the world was lost. This must be indemnified. The twelve tribes represent the form of the family and the seventy disciples the form of the tribe. Therefore without Home Church, there would be no foundation to restore these numbers and no conditional foundation to go back and forth throughout the world. Therefore even if the Adam figure were to go out to the world, he would have to return. Home Church is the condition by which you can inherit and stand on the historical indemnity conditions I have established. Without it, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. I have worked by setting all the conditions up to the global level, and these are condensed into Home Church. It is an altar on which you can fulfill the reduced conditions and win my blessing. How much has God suffered? How much did I suffer and how much did Jesus suffer? Since the altar of victory that was formed as a result of all this effort and suffering will be transferred to you, you also will need to build an altar. Home Church is the vehicle for me to pass down my foundation to you and for you to receive it from me.( 122-121,19821101)
12 Looking at the world based on the Principle, there are nations, rulers and peoples, which can be considered as three stages. You cannot have a relationship with me apart from these three stages. Thus when I am working for the world, you should work for a nation, or at least for a people-level endeavor. You need to do revival work that will lead to a supra-denominational movement. For this, you have to make special conditions for 360 homes, which represent 360 tribes. They also represent 360 degrees, symbolizing a perfect sphere. By the lunar calendar, one year is approximately 360 days. Since the providence of restoration is accomplished on the earth, the lunar calendar must be used. The lunar calendar should be the central one. Even if you say, "Based on True Father's victory, I have inherited all the content of restoration through indemnity and the realm of completion for the portion of responsibility," did you really inherit this content? Can you do so simply because you know me? This can happen only after you meet all the required conditions to inherit everything I have accomplished, and declare, "I will inherit Father's foundation by doing this." And the "this" that you need to do is Home Church.( 148-175,19861008)
13 If you fulfill your Home Church mission, you will be liberated from all your burdens. Leading your tribe of 360 families, you will live your life in the kingdom of heaven on earth. This kind of phenomenon will happen. The Unification Church in the past used to focus on individual salvation. The fact that now we have come to live in a world where we are allowed to work for tribal-level salvation through Home Church is astonishing progress. No one, neither you nor me, can go to the kingdom of heaven without fulfilling this mission. It is a duty assigned to all of us in this fallen world. Now you know how God's kingdom can be established. We are living in an incredible age, one in which we can declare the completion era of the providence in which everything fits perfectly from the logical viewpoint of the Principle. This is why I am urging you all to go out to your own Home Church area with the qualification of messiah, with which I have commissioned you. There, at your Home Church, you must eat, sleep, live and become victorious. If you are not victorious there, you cannot go to the kingdom of heaven.( 101-341,197811 12)
The Inheritance of True Parents' realm of victory
14 If there is a treasure I am bequeathing to the Unification Church, it is Home Church. After going the way of sacrifice throughout my life, what I am leaving behind for you is the treasure of Home Church. Again, what is the treasure I am leaving behind for the members of the Unification Church? I am giving you the opportunity to proudly inherit the authority of the Unification Church from heaven and earth, from God and Satan; that is the treasure of Home Church. When Home Church is completed, the name "Unification Church" will disappear. God's providence may remain in the realm where Home Church is not yet completed. But in the realm where Home Church is fulfilled, there will be no need for religion or God's providence, for it is where the citizens of heaven will live. What are the 360 homes for? They are to bring all humanity equally to the ideal. In your Home Church area, you should gather people of twelve neighboring communities or at least of twelve nationalities.( 108-334,19801019)
15 Our church has not yet established a heavenly foundation on the world level. Therefore I must organize Home Church to place my stamp of victory on the world. That is, at the end of forty years, I will have set all the conditions of restitution needed to completely establish the authority to determine ownership centering on the love of God. Thereupon, when Satan and God testify to my victory and publicly announce, "You are victorious," then the Parents can bequeath to you the right to determine your ownership of the victory of love. The reason you can inherit it is because we have the title of the True Parents; otherwise you would not be able to inherit it. In order for you to inherit it from True Parents, you should not have any traces of Satan's world or any disposition of a wild olive tree.( 137-301,19860103)
16 The most important thing is the relationship between God and human beings. The next is the Cain-Abel relationship. Why is Home Church necessary? It is because through it the first and second sons can be restored. Change of lineage naturally occurs when you receive the Blessing. I have done all this for you, who are on the Cain side. You can inherit it because the child's relationship with the Parent is established. The place where you inherit is your Home Church. You should pray constantly. If you keep a prayerful heart twenty-four hours a day, with a desire to realize the Will for everyone, and then you strive to actualize that desire, you'll reach God, because your life itself will have become a prayer. If that happens, you can live together with me and with God. God will then directly intervene, since you will enter the realm of direct dominion. This is the way the Principle is. Thus if you do Home Church activity, you can meet God. After doing so, knowing that God is a living God, you must have experience of actualizing His Will.( 161-154,197701 18)
17 I have gone through the indemnity course for the individual, family, tribe, people, nation and world, and now I am connecting it to Korea. I unified them with the bond of love, and now, through love, I am bequeathing them to you. They are for you to inherit, because love is one. In a relationship of love, both participants have the same value. Even a woman from the countryside, if she marries the president of a nation, will from that day on be the first lady. Right away she will rise to a rank equal to that of the president. Therefore you of the Unification Church must become completely one with True Parents. Your heart of love must be in the forefront. Because I am the True Parent, I must now connect you with the standard that is higher than the completion level of the growth stage, the standard of direct dominion, the place you were originally unable to go. The foundation you need to make, as the condition for me to connect you with that standard, is Home Church.( 137-111,19851224)
18 Your family must complete its responsibility. By doing your five percent, you will complete the responsibility of one hundred percent. By fulfilling the five percent human portion of responsibility, you will fulfill all the responsibility that God requires. By doing Home Church, you will be reckoned as having completed what I have been doing my whole life. That is your responsibility. You must be grateful for the fact that I indemnified the portions of responsibility for the nation, the world and even the cosmos, and then gave you the blessing to be able to inherit and stand on that indemnity by paying indemnity on the family level. To repeat, I myself mobilized the nation, world and even the spirit world in order to finish all the restoration through indemnity. Thus if you just do restoration through indemnity at the family level, I will bequeath all that to you. Only the five percent family responsibility remains.( 119-153,19820711)
19 Where is the kingdom of heaven? We can conclude, "It is in my heart and in me." Yet, after having heaven in your heart, you need to have the heaven of the body. Only after having the heaven of the body can you actualize heaven in your family, which is your own Home Church. In that heaven, Satan cannot accuse you; he cannot even live there. It is a place where Satan's activities are not permitted. Hence unless you can become a person who can say heaven is in your heart and body, you cannot establish a heavenly environment. Your Home Church refers to a heaven that includes the environment. What kind of base does your Home Church make? Your Home Church provides a base for you to receive the approval of Heaven. Once you set up that environment in your Home Church, it connects you to the nation and the world.( 110-258,19810101)
Section 2. The Purpose of Home Church
1 Until now each individual has sought his or her own salvation through religion. This means that the main focus of religion has been the salvation of individuals. However, we are not seeking individual salvation by itself. Each of us is striving to save our entire tribe all at once. Thanks to you, your whole tribe can receive salvation. Nothing like this has ever occurred in the history of religions or in the history of humankind. What we are beginning to do is unprecedented. The age has arrived when we and our whole tribe can thrive together and when all can receive the foundation of salvation.( 102-217,19781231)
2 After Jesus died and ascended into heaven, he gave Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven. However, I am giving you the keys to the kingdom of heaven while I am still alive. I am not giving them to you so you can be saved as an individual. I am giving them to you so you can save your entire tribe. You are to become the messiah of your Home Church. I am not speaking empty words. Whatever you sow on earth you will reap in the spirit world. Who among you will unearth the greatest number of diamonds from the diamond mine of the universe? It depends on how much effort you make. We Unification Church members are mining the diamond mine of the universe. We are doing it through Home Church.( 102-218,19781231)
The basic condition is to restore 360 families
3 If you want to receive the Blessing, you have to restore all things and then restore children. Then, in that world that you restored, you have to restore your spouse. This is because everything was lost due to the Fall. We lost siblings and parents. To recover the parents, you need to build a foundation at some point in time to stand in the position of a parent. As you recover the parents, you must also recover the angelic world and Satan's world, and you must seek out and find God. Here at your 360 homes is where all this is decided. They constitute your family-level heavenly kingdom. If every one of those 360 homes is able to attend you as a messiah, and you establish the foundation that those families attend you as true parents, and then you offer them in front of God, it signifies you will have inherited the position that is victorious over all Satan's bases and his opposition throughout the whole world.( 099-262,19780925)
4 Wherever you go in the world, you need to pursue activities in a Home Church area of 360 homes. The people there will become your own clan. If you do not liberate a clan, you will not have your own clan foundation. From now on, you can establish the domain of heavenly nations wherever you go in the world. Regardless of national boundaries, if wherever you go you just pursue Home Church activity, you will establish in that place the foundation for the kingdom of heaven on earth. Then that place will turn into a world that does not need the Second Advent. It will be transformed into a land where the Messiah isn't needed. That clan will be saved when attending you as its head and parent. The leader of that Home Church connects three generations. The first Adam in his day failed to connect the three generations of God, Adam and Adam's children. However, the age has come when you, in your generation, can connect your mother, your father and your sons and daughters to God through the tribal messiah, the substantial representative of God in the age of equalization.( 105-159,19791014)
5 The day I allotted 360 homes to each of you was a day of hope in history; it signifies the final destination of religion and the final goal of God's providence. It is the starting point for the complete destruction of the base that Satan has established in this world. If I had not been able to declare Home Church, the world would be destined to a dismal fate. Thus the fact that you can work for Home Church is a limitless blessing. In the course of history there have been numerous kings, fabulously rich people, scholars and celebrities. Yet their renown is of little significance. You must think, "Although I am lowly and unknown, what an amazing blessing I have received! This is all because True Father gave me a chance to pursue Home Church during my lifetime." Thus you ought to love your Home Church more than you love your education and your school. You ought to love it more than fame, more than the people you love, more than your own sons and daughters. This has to be an inescapable, fundamental rule if we are to erase the history of Cain’s world. If we cannot restore Cain, we cannot enter the heavenly kingdom.( 109-204,19801101)
6 You should take your 360 homes as the arena of indemnity representing the world. Why is it 360 homes? All the principled numbers are included in 360. The period of one year is included, the number twelve is included, and 120 is included three times over; they are all included in the number 360. The numbers three, four and twelve, which signify significant time periods in the course of history, are included as well. In addition, 360 degrees encompasses the three-dimensional world. Three hundred sixty is a number that combines the four seasons and the twelve months. Three hundred sixty families also represent the 120 countries of the world times three. It describes the three ages: the Old Testament Age, the New Testament Age and the Completed Testament Age. The number 360 contains all this. Therefore you need to make a life and death commitment to your 360 homes. I have worked hard throughout my life to establish a world-level foundation, but as for you, you must now unify your 360 homes.( 099-258,19780925)
7 If you fulfill your Home Church activities focusing on 360 homes, you can solve any problem. Three hundred sixty homes represent, from the perspective of nations, 120 formation-stage nations, 120 growth-stage nations and 120 completion-stage nations. Because of this, it is the number of families that can represent the entirety of Satan's world. Therefore, if you establish a foundation of 360 families who welcome you wholeheartedly, you can travel freely anywhere in the spirit world without being accused by Satan's world. You will be able to enter the kingdom of heaven in a flash, through any of its gates, north, south, east or west, and travel in an instant through the entire range of 360 degrees. When your entire tribe of 360 families centers on you as their mother and father, you will be able to bring them, either through the north gate, the south gate, the east gate or the west gate, into the kingdom in the spirit world.( 112-194,19810412)
8 The Unification Church should do Home Church activities to unify the Cain tribe. If we do not unify the Cain tribe and then establish the domain of the Abel tribe, there will be no tribal-level foundation for us to attend the Parents. There will be no tribal-level heavenly kingdom. Once we make this tribal-level foundation, we can connect it to the people-level foundation. After we establish the people-level foundation, we can move toward the national-level foundation.( 137-180,19860101)
Home Church is the foundation to bring the world together
9 The path of restoration through indemnity I have been walking is not for my own sake as an individual, but is the path representing all the men of the world. It is also the path of the husband, representing their wives and all the families of the world. Additionally, it is the path representing all the parents of the world. Thus it represents the individual, family, tribe, people, nation, world and spirit world. I will continue on this path, fixed on love, until I have planted the flag of God's liberation. People who join the Unification Church in the future should not have to walk the same agonizing course I had to go. Based on my victories, they will only have to go through a condensation of my course and will not have to suffer as I did. That is God's desire. I have gone through my suffering course, thinking, "Wouldn't it be good if through the suffering I had as my heartbreaking destiny, I could minimize the suffering of all humankind, helping them prevail through a reduced image of my course, all at once, in one place, representing the world?" This is God's desire, my desire and also your desire. That standard of hope is the destination of the providence and our lifelong goal. This is the origin of Home Church.( 108-332,19801019)
10 In your Home Church area, you need to teach by example. I am telling you that when you become a good example, you demonstrate everything by your example. Home Church activities establish God's sovereignty and create His citizens and His territory. Hence you should become a person who can bring results based on love. You ought to win over others by teaching, demonstrating and loving. If you do not have the ability to teach, it will not work. Moreover, you need to take action. Yet to become a person who can really bring results, you need to do everything with love. Then you can become a person under God's care.( 118-124,19820509)
11 Christian churches need to put up the Home Church sign. The Presbyterian Church will call itself the Presbyterian Home Church, and Barrytown will be the Barrytown Home Church. I am not telling churches to change their denomination, only to add the words "Home Church." They can call themselves Jesus' Home Church, the Christian Home Church, the Presbyterian Home Church, the Methodist Home Church or the Holiness Home Church. If they do so, then one by one, whether they are from the Methodist Church or any other, people will naturally cease paying attention to their denominational background. Whether they are from the Christian Church, the Church of Christ, the Catholic Church or the Presbyterian Church, we will bring them into oneness.( 372-132,20020311)
12 I have established the tradition of the unified realm of the Adam nation, the Eve nation, the Abel nation and the Cain nation. You too should have the standard of establishing this kind of tradition in your family; otherwise there will be no way for you to connect to my teachings and build the heavenly kingdom throughout the world. I have been opposed by the world, yet from that position I entered the Cain realm of Satan's world, a nation that was historically an enemy nation, and I loved that country more than its own patriots. By doing this, I created oneness with its people and established an indemnity condition by which I went beyond the world's standard of love demonstrated in history. I did not do it by ordering people around. I did it with love. Because I established this foundation by connecting to the people with love, I could climb over the summit of Danbury prison. Now the time has come for nations throughout the world to welcome me. You also need to reach the same realm of heart, since I reached it on the world level. Otherwise you will not be able to inherit the Parents' indemnity course from the family level to the tribal, people, national and world levels. The road for you to go to the kingdom of heaven will be blocked. I created Home Church to open that road.( 141-215,19860222)
13 A person in the position of God's son cannot possibly live a comfortable life, even for one day. To hit the target, you cannot use a bent arrow. Don't you agree? Are you going the way of the Will while feeling something different from one season to the next through the four seasons? I have been walking this path thinking and feeling something new and fresh each day for 365 days a year. I have been speaking about the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification for several years. If you had done your Home Church activities, we would not have needed to go through the course of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. Everything would have been finished already. However, because you did not fulfill that, you need to focus on your relatives once again. Home Church is the way to set up your family-level foundation.( 231-143,19920602)
14 We are specially chosen soldiers who have been mobilized to build the ideal homeland, the kingdom of heaven. Your spouse and your sons and daughters shouldn't forget they are specially selected troops representing God. God's homeland cannot be recovered by individuals. Our ideal homeland cannot be recovered by men alone. It can only be recovered by families. It is a homeland that cannot be recovered unless we fight as families. We must fight as families. If we don't, it is impossible to recover our original homeland. That is why I make my family members go through hardships wherever they go. My family is like a gypsy family driven from one country to another around the world, wandering back and forth. Hence the chief goal of your families has to be to find the homeland where you can settle.( 119-112,19820704)
15 In the name of True Parents, I have been making indemnity conditions for all humankind to reach every level— the individual, family, tribe, people, nation, world, cosmos and even God. I did all this representing you, and I gained victories. Based on my victories, you should be able to inherit my foundation one hundred percent and achieve your own victory during a seven-year course. Can you achieve all that I have achieved throughout my life on the world stage? No. That is why you need your own foothold and foundation on a smaller, condensed stage of the world. That is your Home Church. Where can you meet God? I could meet God in the places where I established a victorious foothold in the battleground of each nation where I shed blood and sweat. I could meet Him based on my worldwide foundation of indemnity. Even though you do not go to the world stage, you need to make a condition of going to the world so you can inherit the entire victory in True Parents' name.( 109-184,19801101)
16 Home Church is designed for you to attend God in the family. In this worldwide transitional age, when your families attend God they will create an environment of freedom where indemnity is not needed. Then as soon as I return to you, you will be able to immediately organize activities based on your families and expand them throughout the whole nation. Home Church exists for the sake of the nation and the world. You must not focus only on yourself and your family, pushing church work aside.( 234-161,19920810)
17 All blessed families should put up a Home Church sign at their home. Starting now, you need to teach constantly about this. You need to repeat this message in your churches. Should the pastor put up the Home Church sign himself? Or should the head of your country put it up for you? Speaking of the country, a country includes its particular traditional thought. Your family needs to base itself on that traditional thought, as it represents the individual, the family and the nation. Then your family will become an ideal family, standing in a position higher than families in Satan's world. I am talking about a family that will attend God in the kingdom of heaven. Here on the earth, each family must establish Home Church. It is the training ground to become the model for families that can attend God in the kingdom of heaven.( 373-088,20020326)
18 We are now in the era of witnessing to families. With my family, an official center has emerged. Since now is the time when this center will be connected to you, we are entering the era of family witnessing. The center of a family is a woman, the mother. The mother must move forward while embracing two children. If sons and daughters become united centered on their mother, every-thing will be fulfilled. Then there will be no problem with the sons and daughters. Therefore families in secular society who have problems will come to you seeking answers. If they ask, "How do you solve this difficult problem?" you can answer, "You just have to read this book," and give them a copy of the Divine Principle. Once they understand the contents, they will be able to solve their children's problems. If they borrow the book from you during a visit, and if they have any questions, they will ask you when they return. At that time you need to be prepared to teach them in detail.( 239-286,19921206)
19 How do we build the kingdom of heaven on earth? We have been endowed with the right of inheritance enabling us to harmonize with all types of love in the heavenly kingdom through Home Church. Because of Home Church, we can become couples who belong to God based on His love, and our children and possessions will belong to God as well. When the whole world turns to the side of the Unification Church and joins it, Home Church will disappear. If all 360 households in your Home Church become Unification Church members and Korea and the whole world become part of the Unification Church, then what would be the purpose of Home Church? The 360 households together will have fulfilled the indemnity conditions for Home Church, and they will enter the kingdom of heaven. In the future, if any problem arises within the self-governing realm of Home Church, it will be a serious matter. Home Church is a system of shared responsibility. A Home Church has its own system of self-correction, and this establishes a sphere of protection that makes it impossible for the shadow of Satan to be around even for a moment. A Home Church is created by binding every relationship with the central current of love. This creates an expanding base of common ownership. Thus Home Church will expand to the people’s church, the nation’s church and then the world church. When all people of the nation become Unification Church believers, it becomes the national church. This is how the system will be structured.( 137-302,19860103)
Section 3. The Completion of Home Church
1 Now is the time we must break down all the barriers in God's providence. What should you do from now on? I cannot bequeath to you everything I have accomplished without a condition. I cannot bequeath it to you for nothing. I tell you, you have to fulfill your five percent portion of responsibility. I have set conditions of indemnity in more than one hundred countries, and with the standard of heart I invested there, I have restored the connection between heaven and earth, which had been obstructed by a wall. Therefore, you also need to set indemnity conditions on a smaller scale that can represent the world. You yourself must establish here and now a foundation that can operate on its own, without the barriers that formerly obstructed heaven and earth. That foundation is Home Church.( 105-271,19791026)
2 What is it that you Unification Church members should do? Although you cannot become world messiahs, you should at least become tribal messiahs. If you cannot become tribal messiahs, you should at least become John the Baptists. This is why I am raising the matter of Home Church. For fallen people to go to the kingdom of heaven, should they all have to suffer to the point of death, as I did, to restore the individual, family and tribe? Should they have to be persecuted all their lives and sacrifice themselves? Someone had to be the pioneer to pave that path, and it was I who did it. All you need to do is accomplish a course of indemnity by following the formula.( 099-253,19780925)
The foundation for the kingdom of heaven on earth
3 As God loves me, He also loves all people, seeing them as His true descendants. God loves each person and wants to save everyone from the fallen world. We are meant to love humanity as God loves us. If we are people like that, we can receive God's greatest love. In the future there will be no persecution. From the day Satan's persecution ceases, doing all this will be easy. How much has Satan obstructed me as an individual? He has been persecuting me to prevent me from making progress. But although he persecuted me, I drove him away and went forward. How much he persecuted me on the family level! He greatly opposed me on the tribal level as well, but I prevailed over him. You must have pride in inheriting all the victories I gained through these struggles. Your responsibility is to pursue the course of uniting the world by doing what I have done. I paid substantial indemnity, but all you need to do is pay conditional indemnity. The conditional indemnity you need to pay is Home Church activity.( 161-152,197701 18)
4 How much do the spirits in the spirit world look forward to descending to the earth? Conscientious spirits—the spirits of people who were good during their earthly life—are longing to come down to the earth. In order to descend, they must do so through their descendants. This is how the Home Church system will develop. On the Home Church base, spirits from more than 120 nations whose background is, for instance, economics, will be freely able to work with an economist in a Home Church area, and the same will be true of spirits working in the Home Churches of scholars in other areas of expertise. That is why we absolutely need Home Church.( 162-112,19870330)
5 I pioneered the path of the Messiah on every level—the individual, family, tribe, nation, world and cosmos. I have already laid all the foundations on the levels of the individual, family, tribe and nation. While I was pioneering this path, Satan ruthlessly opposed my work. My life was one of facing continuous persecution, which I had to fight and prevail over. After World War II, if England, the United States and France—the Eve nation, Abel nation and Cain nation respectively—had become one and united with me, I could have begun my work on the world level at that time. If I had gone beyond the national level and been able to focus on the world, nations would have automatically reorganized. Suppose my work had started that way after World War II and I had been welcomed without persecution on the levels of the individual, family, people, nation and world? Then, in the environment of a unified world, Home Church and tribal messiahship would have been established, and families would have been settled at that time revolving around God and True Parents. Suppose at that time a family had appeared, in which Cain and Abel were united around the Mother. Then a nation would have been established that would have joined together tribes and peoples, connecting them to the world.( 244-284,19930301)
6 When we cross over into the new world, religion will disappear. Only Home Church will remain. Families will have True Parents at the center. It will be a unified world, an ideal world that arises like a single tree. By means of the bonds of love centered on the tradition of True Parents, the world is connected like one tree. The spirit world is like the invisible world of nerve impulses, and the visible world is like the world of blood vessels. When the two worlds of nerves and blood vessels are united harmoniously into a single organism, our minds and bodies, which were in conflict, can be united. By the same token, the earthly world and the spirit world must also be completely united.( 145-151,19860501)
7 First of all, Home Church is the way for children to inherit the world-level indemnity course of True Parents, who paid the indemnity in order to resolve the failures of history. Second, Home Church is to indemnify the realm of the tribal messiah lost at the time of Jesus. Thereby it opens the way to the realm where we can be tribal messiahs and then go on to the national and world levels. You cannot go forward without indemnifying these two levels. To do so, you need to do Home Church activity. Without it, you cannot go to the kingdom of heaven. You have to shed blood and sweat for your Home Church. You have to shed tears and you have to experience mistreatment. Through these experiences you must come to know about the efforts that the True Parents have made. My hope is that, in the future, the persecution will cease and people will want to learn the Principle of the Unification Church. It is my desire not to leave behind a path of suffering for the children who follow me.( 142-307,19860313)
8 The tribal-level messiahship at the time of Jesus was to make the indemnity conditions and lay the foundation to establish the authority of True Parents on the national, world and cosmic levels. However, in this age we are attending True Parents, standing on the foundation of their indemnity conditions. The purpose of Home Church is to indemnify the failures in Jesus' course. However, in order to fulfill your five-percent portion of responsibility, now it is necessary to indemnify many things that went wrong before. How do you pay indemnity? It is by doing your Home Church activities. That is where you can work to set indemnity conditions on the level of the individual, family, tribe, people and nation.( 116-281,19820102)
9 Even if we suffer throughout our lives, we cannot hold up our heads in front of Heaven. Rather, we Unification Church members should be ever grateful for living in the same age as the True Parents; we should shed tears of gratitude for having met them in our lifetime. Even as you live a sanctified life to recover your original selves, and even as you maintain your loyalty in every way possible, you should not forget you are the descendants of sinners who do not deserve to lift your heads in front of the Parents. This is why you needed to cooperate with the Parents on their course. Now that the Parents have completed their work, it is your turn to fulfill your responsibility and work hard for Home Church activities.( 143-118,19860316)
10 Starting from Home Church leaders, if people continue witnessing from the first generation to the second and third generations, then one thousand, two thousand, many thousands of people will get involved in Home Church activities. As we do this we are entering the age of registration, and need to prepare a list. Yet we cannot draw it up any way we want. Those who did not do Home Church activities cannot be entered on the list. They cannot become part of the family tree of the heavenly kingdom. Even though they are blessed family members, they will be excluded from the list and their names will be removed from the registry. With this understanding, you must hurry to do everything Heaven mandates. If you go to the spirit world without having done Home Church activity, you will have to work at it in the spirit world for eternity. It will be a huge problem if you go to spirit world without having taken care of your Home Church on earth. There-fore, during this time, you do not have even a moment to think about what to eat, what to wear or where to sleep. Knowing what kind of miserable indemnity course will await you and what kind of path you will have to follow, you should indemnify everything during your lifetime.( 143-119,19860316)
11 Your Home Church activities will begin at Gethsemane, from whence Jesus was taken to his trial, and one step further, on the peak of Golgotha. When Jesus died on Golgotha, there was hardly anyone who had compassion for him. Yet when you die, many people will have compassion for you. What a happy thing it will be to meet death with such a foundation and in such circumstances. You have the freedom in your current earthly circumstances to assemble a group of people who, when you face death, will not run away from you as Peter did, but who instead will say, "I will die in your place." I think it is worth paying indemnity to establish this kind of historical tradition.( 103-216,19790225)
12 You have entered the age when, through True Parents, you can be selected and installed as tribal messiahs. You are indemnifying the condition that Jesus tried to make to connect the families of Zechariah and Joseph based on Judaism. Jesus needed to set this indemnity condition, because only then could he have inaugurated the position of the Parent. Only then could he have gone beyond the nation and proceeded to the world. Although Jesus died without establishing this foundation, we can indemnify it by way of Home Church activity. Despite the opposition of Christianity, if you do Home Church you will make the condition to inherit its foundation right there in your tribe. Then you can connect that path to the people, the nation and the world.( 124-072,19830123)
13 You are family-level messiahs who attend the True Parents, unlike Christians who have been waiting for the individual-level Messiah. For us, Home Church is the way to prepare our foundation to go out to the world. Through Home Church we will create a unified world where we attend the True Parents as the national-level and world-level Messiah. In this way we march forward toward the ideal kingdom of heaven. When Christians recognize their past failures on the tribal level, they can enter the kingdom of heaven through the new Unification Church and come to attend the world-level True Parents.( 124-072,19830123)
14 You ought to understand what I mean when I say, "I worked to find you." Then you need to go to the people of your Home Church and do the same for them as I did for you. Only when you do so will God endorse you as a filial child and bring you to the kingdom of heaven. However, all of you just want to follow me. You think, "I don't like Home Church. I'll only go wherever True Father goes." You should not do this. Even if your father is the president of a nation, you cannot inherit his position unless you do something to acquire it, To become a president of your Country, you need to lay a foundation that will enable you to become one. Even if you were born as the nation's crown prince, to become its king you must learn all the protocols and etiquette that are required of a king. This is what you need to do. In the final course of history, if you obey these words of True Parents and make your own foundation, then God will give you His seal of approval and say, "You are my filial child" and send you to the heavenly kingdom. How amazing is the love of God! The foundation for this is Home Church. You also want to go the heavenly kingdom as filial sons and daughters, don't you? However, there is no way to receive the seal of a filial son or daughter without going through Home Church. Heaven is where filial children enter. Even though you are a son, if you are a troublemaker you cannot enter. You can go to heaven only when you are recognized as a filial child, and Home Church exists for you to receive that seal.( 122-125,19821101)
15 We cannot avoid the path of Home Church if we are to restore the foundation for tribal messiahship that was lost in Jesus' day and the national-level foundation that was lost by Christianity. To describe it in Unification Church terms, the Unification Church is in the position of Abel and Christianity is in that of Cain. It is necessary that we do Home Church on behalf of Cain's family, in order to connect the Cain church to the Abel church. Home Church is where we will accomplish what Jesus was unable to fulfill and what Christianity failed to do. Through Home Church, we can accomplish it and achieve unity. The Unification Church has to unite with the True Parents by doing Home Church. Only then can we enter the kingdom of heaven, the one unified world.( 124-073,19830123)
16 Taking into account all my own agonizing history, I have set up the greatest single condition that people can fulfill before God and Satan. It is Home Church. Home Church is the place that can help you recover when you collapse, comfort you when you have difficulties, and provide you with the natural environment to help you accomplish the course of your portion of responsibility. You may be persecuted from time to time, but overall we have passed beyond the age of persecution. We began this work at the transition to the age when we can be welcomed. Thus if you are victorious, you can establish a foundation for all the ideals I want to realize and that God has desired to realize over the past six thousand years. You are now being engrafted onto me. Once you are engrafted, you should grow automatically. But where will you get the fertilizer you need to grow? You’ll get it from all the places in your Home Church that oppose you. That fertilizer will help you grow into a big tree. You need fertilizer, but where can you get it? It comes from persecution. The persecution you receive decomposes and becomes fertilizer.( 124-335,19830301)
17 We have to do Home Church activity. Yet it will be a problem if you do not clearly understand its purpose. It is needed because a course of restoration through indemnity still remains. The people of Israel had to follow Jacob's course, the nation of Israel had to follow Moses' course and Christians have had to follow Jesus' course. In the same way, since I am the Unification Church leader, the members of the Unification Church need to follow my course. However, following it is not easy, because we have been walking a forty-year course of re-indemnification. If Christianity and the United States had accepted the Unification Church at the time of Korea's independence, we would not now need to do Home Church activity. A world-level nation would have been immediately organized at that time. However, because things did not go that way, we had to walk a forty-year course of re-indemnification. Since this is the path True Parents followed, the children had to go this way as well. Therefore, for the past forty years we have walked a course of restoration through indemnity for the individual level, a course of restoration through indemnity for the family level, and courses of restoration through indemnity for the tribe, the people and the nation. In order to restore through indemnity the individual level and each subsequent level, it was necessary to fight Satan and be victorious.( 142-299,19860313)
18 It is no good if white people say, "I will visit only the white families, not the black families." You have to do the opposite. You have to do that for America to live and for the world to live. When Jesus was on earth, he died unable to inherit the kingship right of the first son. Therefore, it has been God's desire to bring that to the world level and recover it in the Last Days. Now this foundation will be laid based on Home Church. Then even if I am not here, this right will be automatically established.( 102-193,19781224)
19 What is Home Church? On account of the history of persecution of the Unification Church, I acquired the right of inheritance as the champion in walking the course of indemnity. Once I prevailed on every level of indemnity in his-tory, setting the world record of indemnity as an individual, the world record of indemnity on the level of family and people, the world record of indemnity on the national level and the world record of indemnity on the cosmic level, thereupon I was given the signature of approval that I had brought total victory, and I was authorized to establish Home Church. Only in Home Church can we finally be free of all levels of indemnity conditions and settle down.( 123-170,19830101)
20 In the Unification Church, Home Church is the means to pay world-level indemnity on a smaller, more condensed scale. You should develop your Home Church into a tribal church. In Korea, there are many different family names. If in your Home Church activity you connect people with the various family names, you can create your tribe, your people and even your nation. Because Home Church began with the Unification Church, this will lead to the appearance of the tribal-level church, the people-level church and the national-level church. Why should we do this Home Church activity? It is because we need to liberate Jesus from his bitter sorrow. Without liberating Jesus, I can-not bring you to the position to be married. To achieve Jesus' liberation, given the choice between Cain families and your Abel family, we must first save the Cain families, and given the choice between Cain tribes and your Abel tribe, we must first save the Cain tribes.( 142-084,19860301)
Offerings to establish a global foundation
21 Why do I say you should become tribal messiahs? It is because you need to dissolve the bitter sorrow of Jesus. You also need to dissolve my bitter sorrow. Further, you need to dissolve the bitter sorrow of Adam. What is Adam's bitter sorrow? It is that he couldn't have an ideal family. What is Jesus' bitter sorrow? It is that he couldn't have an ideal nation. And my bitter sorrow is that I cannot have an ideal world. Home Church is necessary to make indemnity conditions that fulfill the hope of Adam, the hope of Jesus and my hope. Home Church sets the conditions to perfect the family, the nation and the world. What I say is based on this principle.( 114-255,1981 1020)
22 The time for me to lead the Unification Church has passed. Now is the time for horizontal expansion. Hence when each of you expands the family ideal to encompass your tribe, the world will naturally be restored by that much. The way to expand to the tribe is Home Church. This is my final decision; it is made and settled. From now on, you blessed families must become one while attending Mother and Father. When you have children, then the True Parents have to grant you, as parents, based on God's love, a decree for the right of ownership over material possessions. You need to receive it as individuals, you need to receive it as couples, and your children need to receive it as well. Just as in the Old Testament Age, the New Testament Age and the Completed Testament Age, conditions had to be set for you to receive God's love from True Parents as their representatives. According to the Principle, you can go to the kingdom of heaven only after True Parents grant you the right of ownership. Unless you inherit this right, there is no way for you to go to the kingdom of heaven.( 137-287,19860103)
23 All of you have parents, children and belongings. Home Church is the place where all of them appear on a larger scale. Because Adam fell, he lost them all. We must recover them and offer them to God. We should recover what was lost and offer them all at one time to God through True Parents. We have to do this. Then once God owns all this and gives it to True Parents, since they are our Parents, we ought to inherit it from them. Only if you do this will you be entitled to possess your own house and claim your own world. The basis for this is Home Church. It is the place of offering. It is an altar on which you are to make the three offerings.( 101-339,197811 12)
24 For the sake of proclaiming Home Church, I must make a movement to spiritually awaken the nation. We must be one step ahead of others. We should proceed from the national church to the world church to the cosmic church. What is a church? It is an institution for separating the people of God from Satan. There are different levels of this institution—the individual, the tribe, the people, the nation and the world. People are separated from Satan based on the level of the church. Even though you are not settled down, you are still here due to the merit of the age. I keep a rope attached to you, stimulating you and pulling you along. If it were not for this, Satan would have dragged all of you away. Home Church is where you can expand your foundation to the tribal level. It is where you as a tribal messiah expand your horizontal foundation by leading your tribe. From the bottom, I have prepared the tribal-level foundation, the people-level foundation, the national-level foundation and the world-level foundation.( 244-288,19930301)
Section 4. Hoondokhae and Home Church Activities
1 The words I speak are not my own. They are the words Heaven speaks through me. Hence wherever or whenever you hear these words, your heart is stirred. That is what is different about them. I am not alone, because I speak at the point where the vertical and the horizontal meet, where the mind and body resonate with each other. When my body vibrates, my mind vibrates as well in order to unite with my body. When my heart is inspired, a corresponding change takes place in my body. Each exerts a force on the other. Hence it is not my own words that I speak. The Korean word hoondokhae contains a Chinese character that means, "to sell words." Thus if you keep them to yourself, you will find yourself in trouble. You need to give them out to people. If you store up goods and let them spoil, you will be punished. So if, rather than selling them, you give the words freely to others, the outcome will be even better than if you sell things for money. Therefore I am telling you to share these words with others. This is the original meaning of hoondokhae.( 289-296,19980201)
Hoondok family church and the focus of our activity
2 The Chinese character hoon () in hoondok is made up of eon () meaning “words” and cheon () meaning “stream.” Water is an element of all living things. Water creates green zones across the earth and clouds wandering in the sky. Flowing deep or moving high, it brings balance to the earth. Water equalizes everything. The character dok (言賣) is made up of eon () meaning “words” and mae (), meaning “sell.” It means to sell—specifically, to spread—the Word. If you do not “sell” it, or give it out, you need to gather it and use it. The word hoondok has such meanings. Its power is like that of water that flows and becomes a great river, then makes a sea and gives life to this universe.( 290-155,19980218)
3 A hoondok family is created through hoondokhae. Again, you can go to the kingdom of heaven when you experience rebirth, resurrection and eternal life through hoondok church. Your family is the base for going to the heavenly kingdom. You go to the heavenly kingdom from your family; you cannot go to heaven from anywhere else. Your family must be a place where the kingdom of heaven of peace is created. It must happen on earth.( 424-119,20031104)
4 After people restore the things of creation, they are to experience love. The Old Testament Age was the age when the things of the creation were sacrificed as offerings. The New Testament Age was the age when the children sacrificed themselves as offerings, and the Completed Testament Age has been the age when the Parents sacrifice themselves as offerings. In order to attend God here on the earth, the Parents have gone the way of the cross, leading their family along with them. When believers on earth pursue activities for Home Church and offer conditions of devotion on its altar, spirits from all fields and levels of the spirit world can return and cooperate with them. Now that Home Church has been changed to "hoondok church," the age is coming when your tribe will join. In the coming age, it will not be just individuals who join but all the members of your tribe. If your family name is Kim, all the Kims will join; if your family name is Park, all the Parks will join. After that happens, the age will arrive for registration in the nation. It will happen soon. From now on, things will happen quickly. Things will move extremely quickly.( 511-322,20051015)
5 The family is the starting point of the kingdom of heaven. When you understand its significance, you will know how crucial it is that you make a hoondok church. If there is a church, it should be a family church. As a family is a church connected by heart, that family church should be developed into a hoondok church. If you sow many seeds and gather a fruitful harvest, the heavenly world and all people on earth will be able to eat. That is how you can make a new start and greet the spring. Families who do hoondokhae will have a foundation that can endure the winter and greet the spring on a new level. Thus they will prosper, and prosper even more.( 402-261,200301 16)
6 When you sow seeds in the family and they bear fruit, the fruit can go be-yond the nation and the world, all the way to the kingdom of heaven. Since that realm is the kingdom of heaven in the spirit world, people's most important endeavor is how much harvest they can collect and offer when they go there. The place where you will live eternally in the heavenly world is determined based on the result you bring here and now. You should give and forget. Go to the lowest place, and give and then forget what you have given. If you forget what you have given, without fail it will return to you. Because human beings are individual embodiments of truth, when they receive something genuine, it will not simply be forgotten. When people receive a gift prepared with a heart of devotion, they want to return more than they have received. As individual embodiments of truth, they want to create an environment with conditions that foster more and ever greater giving and receiving in a circular motion. Hoondok churches are the foundation, the base, for this.( 402-261,200301 16)
7 You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven simply because you were given recognition by the Unification Church. You have to go through proper protocols that equip you to live as a citizen of that kingdom. This even includes taxes. The Unification Church will disappear, religions will disappear and politics will cease. Even nation-states will disappear. The world will become a huge, unified family nation, a single nation whose culture is the world of heart. It will be realized by means of a thorough education through hoondokhae about the life I lived, especially about the aspects of heart. Therefore we have hoondok churches and hoondok families. We must find the church in the family.( 426-151,20031121)
8 You need to understand that doing hoondokhae is doing the work of Cheon II Guk, which goes beyond the standard of religion and the nation. Hoondokhae is attended by your ancestors and their descendants who were the most filial of filial children and the most loyal of loyal patriots in the heavenly realm. By reading the Word and learning together in the presence of heaven and earth united as one, we establish the foundation for the ideal family as individuals who are being substantially re-created and perfected. Then we can move into a new age of education, an age of universal education, to lay such a foundation in front of Heaven.( 437-010,20040208)
9 You should create a hoondok church, focusing on your own tribe. This is to build a global human family. Because national barriers will disappear, no matter where people go in this world, those who attend a hoondok church can call that place home. Your culture and your religion will recede into the background, and the time when you talk about those things will come to an end.( 526-246,20060520)
10 Be crazy about the Word, and work so hard you even forget about eating. Then all your physical ailments will flee. When I was young I had a lung disease, and everyone said I would die. But I thought, "If I am meant to die, I shall die. But if I find something so interesting that I keep myself busier than the activity of the disease in my lungs, then even the germs causing my disease will flee." We have to go now into the midst of the democratic world and the communist world and fulfill our responsibility to revolutionize them and harmonize them. We must fulfill that responsibility of the Mother and Father. When you hold hoondokhae throughout the nation, a place where Mother and Father can stand will appear.( 402-252,200301 16)
11 Hoondokhae will connect you with another dimension. When you hold hoondokhae, heaven and earth become one, and the entire spirit world descends and cooperates with you. Unless you do so, your life path will not open up and you will be unable to fulfill your goals. This is the reason you need a hoondok church, which is a family church. No families have been able to enter the heavenly kingdom. Even God did not have a family. Since no families have been able to go to heaven, I am saying there are no citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We must reorganize all this.( 493-188,20050422)
Home Church activities and community breakthrough
12 Restoration is to return. To where should we return? Regardless of my position, no matter how high I, Rev. Moon, reach under the sun, I need to return to the base of the cycle, and that base is the family. This is why I am talking about tong ban gyeokpa, meaning "community breakthrough." Community breakthrough activities can reverse everything related to origin, lineage, culture and lifestyle that have invaded the families in Satan's world. That is how the word "breakthrough" came to be used.( 204-118,19900701)
13 As part of your community breakthrough activities, you should hold revival meetings. They will enable you to set up a vertical foundation. In every family, when the children can shout out to the heavens that their mothers and fathers are true mothers and true fathers, and when their parents can do the same, saying their sons and daughters are true sons and true daughters, then Satan's realm in this earthly world will come to an end. The problem started in the family, and the problem must be resolved in the family. Community breakthrough activities will turn around Satan's families in the world. They will recover the families from his lineage and enable them to reverse their entire way of thinking.( 208-344,19901121)
14 We must make a breakthrough in our community. We need to do that be-cause it fulfills the desire of God throughout history. What went wrong starting from the family must be reversed beginning with the family. The heavenly kingdom emerges with a nation. However, to make this happen, we have to start from a true man and a true woman. First there should be a family that opposes Satan's world. This is why so many terms in the Unification Church are the opposite of something. Even the term "True Parents" is the opposite of something. What about all the parents who have existed up to the present? Since they are the opposite of True Parents, we can say the parents who gave birth to you are false parents. From Gods perspective, this is correct. It is also correct from Satan's perspective. Therefore if we emphasize True Parents, then Satan retreats. Because God regards them as important, Satan retreats. That is how Satan can be turned upside down.( 210-094,19901201)
15 Why do we have to break through in our local communities? To where is the history of restoration returning us? It has to return us from the fallen world through the gate of the True Parents. Everything that was propagated from what came through the gate of the Fall must turn around, pass through the gate of the True Parents and ascend to the starting point in the garden of Eden. You Unification Church members are the mainstream people who turned around and are now rising. When you do so, you do not need baggage with any old, tattered things from your past life. You have to thoroughly cleanse each and every thing that Satan polluted and purify it to be as clear as crystal. You should have a mind and body of true love, as pure as distilled water. And you should be people who can say with confidence that you have become the princes and princesses of the heavenly kingdom that is appearing on this earth; and that you are its heirs by virtue of true love.( 211-129,19901229)
16 The task now is to break through in your communities. Two thousand years ago, Jesus could not establish the domain of his own family and tribe. But today, because the families of the Unification Church are completing their tribal-level domain, the liberation of the tribal-level domain worldwide is taking place in all four directions. I see this as a condition that can spread the realm of liberation to communities throughout the world. It is for this reason I am giving you instructions today and asking for your pledge.( 166-259,19870607)
17 Today, the most important thing is where we plant our roots. The place our roots should take hold is not the province. Provinces are made up of counties (gun), and under the counties are districts (tong) and villages (li}. However, all these became places Satan took over and occupied. For this reason, we must plant our roots in local communities (tong) and neighborhoods (ban). You should know this from the viewpoint of the Principle. That is why the Unification Church must be single-minded in its goal to break through in the community. We have only one goal, and that is restoration. All of us, whether in the past, present or future and whether at the formation, growth or completion stage, have only one purpose. It is the same path for all: we must build a rock-solid foundation centering on the local community.( 171-299,19880120)
18 Even though you cannot reach the level where I am fighting at the front line of the battle, still, with tears you must go over the peak of your community and neighborhood and then settle down there. You must help your neighbors overcome their sorrowful fate, the fate brought on by the Fall. If you don't do this, Heaven will not cooperate with you. Heaven will not move. Heaven will leave you. It doesn't matter how much I invested; it doesn't matter how well you follow me; if Heaven doesn't work with us, it is no good. Heaven must work with us.( 166-172,19870605)
19 While conducting activities in your community, you should work so hard you wear out several pairs of shoes. When you visit the leading people of your community or neighborhood, do not take your car. You must walk. Go about your work on foot, even though you may go through several pairs of shoes. See what happens if, looking all sweaty, you knock on their doors three or four times a day. Most of you will have visited only once, right? Go to your community or neighborhood and give lectures there. Lecture several times a day and with such passion that you are soaked with sweat and have to take a shower or bath afterward. Try it and see if Heaven doesn't help you. See whether or not people are fired up.( 167-040,19870614)
20 From now on, you must make breakthroughs in your community. You should not miss even one home. We are in such a time. That is why I coined the phrase tong ban gyeokpa, "community breakthrough." No matter how tired you are, you need to walk day and night to reach even one more home. You must cross your neighborhood from east to west, and south to north, and then walk its perimeter. I am saying you should visit each house at least three times. When you meet someone, what should you do? Give them the most precious gift. What is that? It is to help them become the sons and daughters of True Parents. This is because their lineage must be changed.( 202-304,19900525)
21 I have loved you more than my own mother and father. My whole life is full of stories of shedding blood and tears for the Unification Church. I shed blood, sweat and tears to reach out to the individual, family, tribe, people, nation and world. If I hadn't reached each of these levels, Satan would not have been separated from us. That is why I went to America and underwent all kinds of suffering and hardships. Now I am preparing to save the Soviet Union. Since I have completed my responsibilities on the world level, I am back in Korea to do community breakthrough activities.( 203-254,19900626)
22 It is based on the Principle that we must return to the land of our original hometown. That is why I am telling all the members in Korea to return to their hometowns. We need to build the national foundation based upon the foundation of accomplishing breakthrough activities in our communities. With the family as a starting point, we need to go through formation, growth and completion stages. The family is the formation stage, the community is the tribal-level growth stage and the nation is the completion stage. To connect these three, we have to be connected in the family. Otherwise we cannot connect to the tribe and we cannot connect to the nation; nor can we connect to the world. When you expand the foundation in this way, Satan will find no den in which to hide. In this way you can liquidate him. You can build such a foundation quickly; there is no longer any persecution. The foundation is prepared for you to be welcomed.( 218-184,19910728)
23 Community breakthrough is not about threatening or intimidating people; it is not about weapons. If you work day and night practicing love based on the Word, then even while elderly citizens sit around smoking and drinking or pursuing other vices, they will praise the Unification Church and say, "I have to let my son or daughter follow the example of that person." If they do that, the evil spirits attached to them, trying to influence them to carouse, will flee. Further, if those elderly citizens see a violent young man become good-natured after he joins the Unification Church, then they will think, "Our children also should become like Unification Church members." If this happens, the evil spirits within them will take flight. In every aspect you need to become a model representing the Principle. You should set the standard as the ancestor in your family. You must become a guide for the ancestors in your family by becoming like a signboard displaying Heaven's principles and rules. The True Parents are the ancestor among all ancestors.( 212-101,19910102)
24 Once you complete community breakthrough activities, you should ensure that each family hoists the Unification Church flag. Thereafter, if you have three visitors to your home every day, including Unification Church members, who are happy with your family, through that condition alone everyone in your family can be saved. That is why I am making people indebted to you. Through my practical accomplishments and teaching of the Word, I benefit people spiritually and materially. I have reached that stage. Therefore I could declare the True Parents and be welcomed; I could step on this world that Satan has used as his stage, go over its summit and stand at the top. The time has come when I can return to Korea, connect the globe with the heavenly realm and then hold a declaration ceremony for the settlement of God's kingship. I am pushing hard for this. Great things can be achieved when our mind and body are united. The time will come when Satan's world will not use the power of the fist; we can bring it into submission through our teachings.( 200-346,19900227)
CHAPTER 2
The Tribal Messiah
Section 1. The Declaration of Tribal Messiahship
1 Why do we have the term "tribal messiah"? The messiah is in the position of parents. Now, unless one becomes a subject partner of true love, the term "parents" does not apply. The realm of parental heart, which is to love one's children and do whatever one can for them, is the only original reality that remains in the fallen world. It is diminished, but it is a heart whose true nature and essence in fact has remained, like a live coal, since the creation of the world.( 199-186,19900216)
The meaning of and standard for the proclamation of tribal messiahship
2 Where do we go to recover the family? In the providence of restoration, by making indemnity conditions in the tribal realm, we can move toward the restoration of the family. I have set indemnity conditions on the levels of a people, nation and world. This being so, what do you need to recover? Each of you needs to go to the realm of your tribe. You need to go to the realm where Jesus tried to work but was unable to. In your tribal-level realm, you pursue Home Church activities. Even if you are opposed and called names, you need to love the people with tears. Then you go to your family. The purpose of Home Church activity is to train you to love more. You need 360 homes to endorse you as a son or daughter of God. Then when you return to your family, in order to restore your clan, you need to love your family members hundreds of times more than you loved your Home Church.( 104-064,19790328)
3 You need to unite with the victorious Messiah and sow the seeds of true life. After indemnifying the disunity of Eve, Cain and Abel in the garden of Eden, you should plant such seeds. The family needs to create an environment for such seeds, and that is the mother and the brothers and sisters. This is where we can declare the starting point of the ideal love and ideal life of the original Adam and Eve who have nothing to do with the Fall. In order to create such a family, I declared tribal messiahship. Jesus came to recover the family. For this, the Cain household and the Abel household had to unite. In the case of Jesus, Joseph's clan and John the Baptist's clan should have united and formed one family. Jesus' family should have been formed in this way. Then Satan could not have invaded. Had this been done, Jesus would have embraced his clan as the tribal messiah. Then the original standard of the unfallen family, which the people of Israel were unable to establish, would have been restored.( 235-111,19920829)
4 Unification Church members constitute a tribe. My blood is flowing within each of them. Thus all tribal members should be able to cry when I cry and rejoice with me when I rejoice. We are kin, bound by blood. We are a unified people. We go over the barriers of color separating the five races and the differing cultural backgrounds separating various national standards, to create and build the new heavenly kingdom. The heavenly kingdom will manifest when we as a people become divine. The world will open up when we live as a people of the divine nation. The cosmic kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven will come down upon that world. Just talking about it will not make it happen. The individual has to make the final decision and then pro-claim it in heaven and on earth. It must be proclaimed again centering on the family and again centering on the tribe.( 168-136,19870913)
5 Now is the time to make the final proclamation centered on the tribe. In order to lead such a work, I have to set absolute conditions of victory, taking a single direction, the same in heaven and on earth, representing all peoples and all nations. Without doing so, I cannot enter the nation, gather all the tribes, and make the proclamation for the final liberation in accordance with the laws of public righteousness. Based on this condition, if you command, "Satan, be gone" your ancestors can come into, and serve as the head of, your family. Changes will come. Pray like this: "Our family loves Heaven. Thus we are willing to sacrifice conjugal love, our love for our children and all our possessions. Representing our tribe, we are willing to make our entire family a sacrificial offering. As Heavens family we are raising our tribe in order to accomplish the liberation of our people. So please accept our offering!" Such a prayer will be received. For the sake of the liberation of this people, the Unification family needs to determine to be the sacrificial offering to Heaven on the family level.( 168-142,19870913)
6 You are tribal messiahs. When you recover your Cain tribe, you will automatically recover your Abel tribe. This is why you need to do tribal messiah activity. Only if you do this can your ancestors and good people in the spirit world come to the earth and set indemnity conditions to benefit themselves. This is not possible without the foundation of your Home Church. Without that foundation, even if one of your ancestors were to help you, your family would remain on the family level. You would not connect to the tribe, people or nation, even though I made all that possible for you. Based on this, while I was in Danbury prison, I opened the gates in the heavenly world and in hell and paved a highway from hell to the throne in the heavenly world. I established a highway so that any good spirit within a realm that receives God's benefit could come to the earth, witness to people and elevate them step by step. Many walls appeared because things went wrong due to the first parents. The True Parents had to break down these walls and open the gates. I have opened all of them and thereby demonstrated how it is done. Home Church is a base with which to connect the earthly realm with the heavenly kingdom. A rocket flies to its destination based on the flight parameters that are set at the launching pad. Home Church functions like that launching pad.( 148-177,19861008)
7 Now is the time to set the standard of the ideal family that Jesus could not establish. For that reason, I am dispatching family messiahs. Where will you be sent as family messiahs? To your blood kin, your relatives. I have walked the path of indemnity for the individual, family, tribe, people, nation and world in order to connect them to Heaven. It is not necessary for you to walk the same path of indemnity I have walked. I am sending you as tribal messiahs, in the same position as Jesus. Through the Blessing, you are in the position of having married. You have that foundation. The Blessing connects the individual, family and tribe and makes them one. I have walked the path of indemnity to connect every-thing to Heaven. You have not traveled that course, but even so I have given you the Blessing. The fact that you received the Blessing signifies that your position is better than that of Jesus. Satan cannot accuse those who have received the Blessing, because you are connected to the True Parents through lineage. Satan cannot accuse you on any level—individual, family, tribe, people, nation or world. That is how God sees it. Satan absolutely cannot accuse you. You are in a state of total freedom. For these reasons, I have proclaimed tribal messiahship at this time.( 189-147,19890401)
8 The fact is that I have declared that you are tribal messiahs. This means that when you fulfill your responsibilities on behalf of me, the spirit world will support you. In the past, when I was pioneering and in difficulties, the spirit world assisted me. The spirit world is certainly working now as well. Despite persecution, I developed the Unification Church to enter the age of tribal-level restoration; so now, with no persecution, how much more can we develop! It was to restore the eldest son's position, in the era for the restoration of the right of the eldest son, that the Unification Church members went the way of the cross and were persecuted up to this day. During the era to restore the eldest son's position, you suffered so much. This being so, in the era to restore the mother and father's position, should we suffer more or less than we suffered in the era to restore the eldest son's position? We should suffer more. By doing this, the tribal messiahs will liberate Jesus from his bitter sorrow and me from mine.( 185-242,19890108)
9 You have to proclaim to your clan that you are their tribal messiah. Whether they listen to you or not, you have to proclaim it. If you do not fulfill the responsibility with which you have been entrusted, who will be struck? Heaven will be vulnerable on behalf of you. That day is coming. That is why I have proclaimed tribal messiahship. I proclaimed tribal messiahship in order to go over that time. Hence now is the time to begin your tribal messiah activities. You have to return to your hometown. If you are not able to go to your hometown, you have to work to save the nation. If you are unable to go back to your hometown, you have to live for the sake of North and South Korea. If you cannot fulfill your responsibility as a tribal messiah, you have to take the responsibility of a people-level messiah who can save North Korea. If you make that effort, you can go beyond the realm of tribal messiah.( 207-165,19901109)
10 Jesus was a tribal messiah. At the same time, he represented his people and nation. However, he died because he could not obtain the parents' right in his own family. Hence, now that the Unification Church has liberated the older brother's right, we have to liberate the parents' right. I have designated you tribal messiahs. Today, by establishing tribal messiahship, I am proclaiming with the divine authority of the heavenly kingdom that after you resurrect the situation created by your parents' opposition to the Unification Church, and the failure of the fallen Adam and Eve, you will be a restored family. This is the purpose of the tribal messiah proclamation. Why is this necessary? If you cannot establish the position of unfallen Adam and Eve based on the standard of True Parents, there is no way to establish the hometown where you were born as a home-town of the heavenly kingdom. If you had been born in the original, unfallen hometown, you would have been born of the original Parents. However, due to the Fall the order is reversed, and you should engraft your parents instead. That hometown also has to establish the standard of the unfallen Adam, who should have been born as the original Parent representing the right of the kingship, and who should have reigned over the world.( 193-307,19891008)
11 It is just like the time when I pro-claimed tribal messiahship; a similar time is approaching. Hence please re-turn to your hometown without any hesitation or reservations. I also would like to go to my hometown now. I do not want to live here in Seoul. When your influence surpasses the influence of North Korea as a result of your hard work in your hometown, my hometown naturally will be elevated. Without fighting, it will just happen. Therefore the mission of Unification Church families is to establish the land of Canaan, a hometown of the heart, by making more devotional offerings than North Korea does. That is why I am telling you to be tribal messiahs.( 187-194,19890205)
12 Do you know why I proclaimed tribal messiahship around the world, starting in Korea? It is because when I do it in Korea, all the countries of the world will unite under my leadership. Think how many people from the spirit world will be mobilized. They are eager to come down to the earth. They are thinking, "This is the time!" with their eyes gleaming, because the time has come when liberation can be accomplished. Thus we can indemnify thousands and tens of thousands of years of history.( 188-063,19890216)
13 I placed blessed families as tribal messiahs and set the standard of perfection for three generations of ancestors: Jesus, blessed families and Adam. Thus we can enter the environment in which we can freely embrace the people of the earth. This is why I proclaimed tribal messiahship. This is good news in Gods providence. This is the Last Days of human history, when the day of liberation will come. The unification of North and South Korea will not occur just by itself. It is possible only when all of this is woven together. Once the family level and the tribal level are brought together, they will link to the national level. Then the Unification Church and the government should be one.( 219-097,19910825)
14 Because Jesus was unable to complete this mission, I appointed you as tribal messiahs and granted you the authority to bestow the Blessing upon your own parents who, like fallen Adam, married as they wished. Thanks to God's grace, your parents could be raised to the position of unfallen parents. This is just amazing! It is like a dream! I proclaimed tribal messiahship to announce that I had made this possible. Jesus was sent alone to be the tribal and national messiah, but I have proclaimed that all blessed family members worldwide are tribal messiahs.( 228-174,19920327)
15 You are officially recognized by Heaven's side only when you are approved by True Parents. You can only receive the Blessing when True Parents see your sincere effort and loyalty, and can say out of compassion, "Fine!" after you are officially recognized by Cain, Abel, the Parents and God. This is why you need God to make it possible. You cannot cross the bridge and receive the Blessing unless God makes it possible. This is the meaning of rebirth through True Parents. There is no way to gain rebirth without True Parents. Hence if the tribal messiah misses the chance to build a bridge as the family messiah, the opportunity for rebirth will be blocked. I was aware of this, so I established and proclaimed tribal messiahship to liberate humanity. This is a revolutionary event on a global scale. It is a special grace and a privilege to receive. Please understand how miserable Heaven has been for thousands of years, due to Eve's fatal mistake of one day. How hard Heaven groped for the path of restoration, and at what cost Abel-side persons sacrificed throughout thousands of generations, to reach the time of True Parents! This has been the course to restore Adam and Eve in history.( 265-133,19941120)
The conditions for tribal messiahship
16 I now have given you the name of messiah. Each of you is a tribal messiah. What should you do as a tribal messiah? I have prepared everything that you may need in order to become a national messiah, world messiah and cosmic messiah. I have prepared a mountain of treasures for you. You will inherit them once you become a messiah. They will pass down to you as water flows through a pipe. If you are unable to inherit these things, your descendants will accuse you.( 189-248,19890409)
17 God will not help you, nor will I, my children or other church members. Still, follow me. Walk the same path I walked in the past. Afterward, you will have freedom. Afterward, a new heaven and earth will unfold. Up to now there was only one male Messiah, but from now on we shall have the family messiah. Up to the present, the single Messiah was severely opposed. However, now, with the family messiah well secured, accusation will end and without fail you should return to your hometown, take responsibility as a tribal messiah and proudly proclaim, "I have returned as a tribal messiah!" This is for you and your descendants. It is like the time when the people of Israel were divided into the twelve tribes. We have entered the land of Canaan.( 189-249,19890409)
18 Do not think only of yourself. Take care of your grandfather and grandmother. Be the last one to go to sleep. Shed blood, sweat and tears and support not only your sons and daughters, your immediate family, but also your extended family. This is like the wilderness course. Among the six hundred thousand people who followed Moses, anyone who had food must have wanted to feed only his own family. But he or she had to offer that food to Moses. It did not matter what tribe the person belonged to; his or her heart had to be such that he or she would willingly die together with the others. Even if a hundred days' worth of food would be gone in one day feeding all the others, Moses1 twelve tribal leaders had to offer their food to Moses. Unless you live this way of life, you will not be able to bind people in relationships of heart, from the family to the tribe, people, nation and world. Although I established the base to bind together the nations and the world by setting a standard of restoration through indemnity, I cannot set up the base for your tribe. This is your responsibility as the tribal messiah.( 187-180,19890205)
19 The Israelites adopted the culture and traditions of the seven tribes of Canaan, and this was a problem. It led the Israelites to ruin. This is a critical point. Nonetheless, it is different now. We are the center. There is no hope in the outside world, which is declining. The world is looking at you as their only hope. Starting now, unite and complete your responsibility as messiahs. Just as God said to Joshua and Caleb, I am telling you to be bold and strong. You now have the Parents, Heaven and a foundation of all the things on earth necessary to restore the right of the eldest son. Hence just move forward with all your strength. From behind, God will support you, and the power of True Parents and True Family will protect you, just as they do today. All you need to do is march ahead on one path. That is the way that will lead to victory.( 189-252,19890409)
20 Do not continue to live with the habits you inherited from your mother and father. From now on, be serious about teaching your sons and daughters. If you just leave them the way they are, the Blessing you were given will fall to ruin. This is why I cannot help but dispatch you, making you take responsibility as messiahs. Don't you know you are living in the greatest time in history? The spirit world and physical world, heaven and earth, are watching you. The entire universe is watching you. You are called to become the owners who can lead an era of such amazing love!( 189-253,19890409)
21 A tribal messiah stands as the center of the family, and thus is very precious. I am the center of the world-level nation, but you do not have such a position. With you, the five-percent results are not there. Therefore I am telling you to love yourself, your spouse and your family in the way you love God, just as I have loved the world and the nation. Love your extended family the way you love your children and love your family members the way you love your spouse. I am already connecting the nation and the world, so if you do this, you will be connected to them naturally.( 187-177,19890205)
22 You are on a path to establish a base that connects the realm of heart of the individual to the realm of heart of the family, tribe, nation, world and cosmos. I hope you can understand the importance of the level of tribal messiah. If we look at the family as the formation stage, then the tribe is the growth stage and the nation is completion. Beginning with the nation, the nation is formation, the world is growth and the cosmos is completion. Beginning from the world, the world is formation, heaven and earth are growth and God is completion. Love is what connects everything. When we look at the principle of development through three stages, the tribal messiah level is crucial to recover the nation.( 187-178,19890205)
23 If you belong to the Kim family, you have to fulfill the mission of messiah to the Kim family. You need to think that you are the messiah who represents your clan in order to establish the heavenly kingdom—if you are a Kim, then in the Kim family, and if you are a Park, then in the Park family. You need to think that you are the savior who can save your clan. In order to do so, you have to fulfill your responsibility as the high priest representing your clan.( 155-265,19651031)
24 Selfish individualism is ruining the free world today. How we can save the free world from selfish individualism? The answer is simple. It is by living for the sake of others. We can save the world by doing just one thing, which is to live for the sake of others. Can the Unification Church unite all religions? By living for them, we will unite them. We need to live for the sake of others. What is the final destination? What is the solution? In order to break down the barriers and benefit everyone, what should you do? You should become a tribal messiah. Only by doing this throughout the world will we eliminate the conditions upon which people accuse us on every level—individual, family, clan, people, nation and world.( 189-110,19890319)
25 Do you know how fearsome the term "tribal messiah" is? If messiahs cannot fulfill their responsibility, they should be willing to die. Unless you are so willing, you should not come back. With this heart you need to fulfill the messianic mission. You must not reject the authority of messiahship. I am saying that even if you lose your life or your household, do not abandon the authority of messiahship. Your mother and father cannot kill you, can they? They cannot nail you on the cross, can they? That is your blessing. Had Jesus had such a blessing, how much better it would have been.( 197-375,199001 20)
26 Who, by fighting the world and making indemnity conditions, established the tradition of the return to the hometown? I opened and prepared the way for you to establish the tribal realm and even go to the family. Have you walked the course of indemnity for the sake of world-level issues? You have to become a servant of servants and then, like Abel, a son or daughter. Then, connecting Eve's realm and Adam's realm, you need to return to God. You have to return to God, the Lord of all creation. Such a time is coming. The one, unified vertical realm of heart has been recovered. On that foundation you need to find the realm of heart and enlarge your heart to embrace the individual, family, clan, people, nation and entire world. Do not forget the amazing blessing you have received through my overcoming history's thousands of years of bitter pain and sorrow and establishing the realm of tribal messiahship for restoration through indemnity.( 197-375,19900120)
27 I am dispatching the blessed families as tribal messiahs because you represent the families of the world. Hence please be aware that you men and women are setting the pace for all couples in the world. The sons and daughters who are born from such responsible men and women become the ancestors of a different lineage, different from the people who have lived on earth up to this time. Thus you need to become individuals who can enter the kingdom of heaven directly, as God's sons and daughters. You have to believe in God absolutely, believe in True Parents absolutely and love humanity absolutely, with both horizontal and vertical love. When you love with that kind of love, you will settle in the center and secure that place as your own. If you are unable to, you will be unhappy. That is why I exhort you to focus on fulfilling your mission and responsibility on the family level, building an exemplary family, one that really stands out.( 188-319,19890301)
The position of a tribal messiah
28 Tribal messiahship, simply speaking, is the work to elevate the Father and Mother to the position of King and Queen. Then, based on the initiating love of Parents, we can return to the original hometown in which we were born, the original hometown of the kingdom of heaven. Without doing this, we cannot have the hometown. If we do not fulfill it, there will be no hometown for us, Without that hometown, we will not have the Parents. And only when we establish this hometown will the hometowns of all people who have lived in Korea connect with the hometown of the heavenly kingdom. Wherever a person was born, it was the place where his or her parents lived. All birthplaces eventually have to belong to the heavenly kingdom. Thus those parents can inherit the position of parents who have nothing to do with the Fall.( 194-121,19891017)
29 As tribal messiah, you are the leader who guides a tribe to its hometown within your lifetime. You are the leader just as Moses was during the Exodus. You should not do this blindly. Your destination is your hometown. However, by the Principle you cannot enter your hometown without recovering Cain. Since your older brother's tribe remains in Satan's world, you have to save your older brother and have his tribe join yours. Otherwise they will stay with Satan and be separate from your tribe. When you save your older brother, he will protect you like a hedge. Then when you go to your hometown, you can save your extended family. If this achievement is not in place, even if you witness to your father and mother, Satan will capture them again. They will be taken again. Al-though you witness to your father and mother, to your relatives, even to the , people of your hometown, Satan will drag them away again. Because of this danger God has no choice but to lead this kind of providence.( 102-265,197901 14)
30 On behalf of God, I dispatched tribal messiahs to the world. Even if I die now, tribal messiahs are engrafted to the vertical world and are bound to expand to the worldwide domain. That is why I am now calling tribal messiahs to become the ancestors of Abel-type families. These ancestors have the seed of life. Messiahs are the parents and they have the seed of life. Your family and relatives, including your father and mother, were born from the seed of Satan's world. Hence if you bring the seed of life and engage actively with people wherever you go, you will be victorious.( 198-269,19900204)
31 The fact that I gave you the right of tribal messiahship means you inherit the righteousness and results of the religions that have existed throughout history to this day. Although you know nothing of its value, it means that I have given you the ages of history that have been brought into the position of liberation, as if Adam did not fall, Noah did not fail, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did not fail, Moses did not fail, Jesus did not fail, I did not fail, and there were no cross of suffering and no historical or-deals. In the midst of those names, countless martyrs cry out in the hope that the blood they shed may serve as a foundation for their resurrection as good spirits. Those spirits were persecuted and sacrificed while seeking the Way. Through the blood they shed, they serve as a base for Heaven on the horizontal plane. Their passion to build the kingdom of heaven on earth is in their spilled blood, which is interwoven with the hope of humanity. Tribal messiahship is the culmination of all blessings. Using the Unification Church and the authority of my victories to condense the mistakes of Judaism and Christianity that have passed down vertically, I am bequeathing all the blessings that believers in other religions, including Buddhism and Confucianism, want to receive. This is what tribal messiahship is about.( 198-273,19900204)
32 The word "messiah" means the ancestor of the hometown where the clans in the horizontal world dwell. God is the center that holds everything in place. Of primary importance is that God works to establish that place through True Parents. That is why, when I return to Korea from the United States, the center moves to Korea. When I am not here, you feel something is missing. And when I return, all the empty places are filled again and you surely feel hope in all directions. A tribal messiah is a tribal king. The tribal messiah's position is the position of the second parents, which is Jesus1 position. The position of those who have received the Blessing from me is higher than that of Jesus. Thus with pride you can say, "True Parents have dispatched me as a tribal messiah." And after you save your tribe, you can be elevated to the position of Adam.( 217-125,19910512)
33 Tribal messiahs are given the Blessing and thus are the seeds of all things in the created world from far back in time, of the men and women of the human race, and of all families. They are the seeds. Many families have emerged, but they were not the families that heaven and earth needed or that God needed. They are not the seeds. When I tell you to go out as tribal messiahs, it means to go to your clans and plant new seeds. Because false, wild olive trees grow there, you have to engraft the true olive tree to them and make an orchard of true olive trees. This is the greatest fortune possible to come to your household and kin. It is more precious than gaining the nation, gaining the world and gaining heaven and earth.( 197-208,199001 14)
34 With the new experiences and training you have had in unfamiliar lands, and with a new mindset and attitude to work hard for the Will, you should bring change to your entire neighborhood. Do not be a follower. Invest yourself as God invested Himself in creating from nothing the realm of His object partners of love. So bring your neighbors to unite with you. The spirit world will cooperate as you attain the highest position among the people of your hometown.( 179-028,19880615)
35 Are you going to the place closest to God or the place far away from Him? You are saying you want to go to a place close to God. You've been studying for this purpose, to be close to God. How does studying allow you to do that? You study so you can absorb the elements that will enable you to become a seed, that is, a seed to transform a broad spectrum of your environment. In order to do this you must transform everything, not by force but naturally. Only then can people be attracted to you. This is why you should live for the sake of others. Live a life through which you can say, "I am totally empty. So come into me!" By doing that, don't you think you will connect to life, become a seed, and establish yourself as the one who will endure as Heavens representative? With this understanding, go to your hometown as a person who can become a seed. Moreover, through planting more seeds, you will be able to leave behind an environment that Korea, heaven and earth, and God would like to visit. When you go to the spirit world after having fulfilled this, you will surely be loved as sons and daughters of the heavenly kingdom. You need to set up such a course, beginning now.( 197-221,199001 14)
36 Returning to your hometown is like sowing seeds. Since the seed of Adam and Eve turned bad, I am trying to sow a new seed and grow a new root through you. When planting new seeds, one needs to spread fertilizer. So you should go out and be ready when people hurl profanities at you. Prepare to be cursed for a good cause, to endure much suffering. Try it for about three years. Come to think of it, you will not need three years. It is possible to do this in six months.( 219-159,19910829)
Section 2. The Responsibility of the Tribal Messiah
1 I have restored the right of the eldest son, and on that foundation the returning Lord comes to claim the right of the parent. For this, the returning Messiah represents the position of Abel at the levels of individual, family, tribe, people, nation and world. He fulfills the responsibilities Christianity and America left undone. He also brings down communism and establishes an environment conducive to the unity of the world. On the foundation of fulfilling these conditions, the returning Lord sends forth tribal messiahs. Therefore, just as Heaven sent the returning Messiah, True Parents on behalf of God are sending you as tribal messiahs. They bequeath to you the foundation of the realm of mainstream religion that was prepared to receive the Messiah, which began with Israel four thousand years ago.( 198-339,19900211)
Home Church and spiritual children
2 Each tribal messiah is to embrace two clans, Cain's and Abel's—that is, Cain's family and his or her own family. Jesus should have embraced Joseph's family and Zechariah's family. The disunity between these two families set the stage for Jesus1 death. This is the back-ground of the Home Church and tribal church of today. Jesus was to stand on the united foundation of Joseph's family and Zechariah's family. The Messiah, based on these families' attendance of the tribal messiah, was to lead to national restoration. In the same way, your Home Church is a Cain-type church foundation of your tribal messiahship, and your family and relatives are an Abel-type church foundation. You are to unite these two. After accomplishing this, you will complete your mission as a tribal messiah. Now there should be no problem to bring unity in your tribe. Furthermore, the time has come when nothing in the larger world will create problems for us. Nevertheless, my appointment of tribal messiahs does not mean that the Home Church will disappear. Even if all people were saved, the Home Church remains important. Just as the mind and body need to unite and the entire world needs to unite, the Home Church needs to unite people both inside and outside the tribes.( 210-188,19901219)
3 If you want to fulfill your responsibility as a tribal messiah, you need to restore your Cain-type tribe and your Abel-type tribe. When you offer devotional conditions and find 120 followers who are willing to work, giving their lives and assets, these followers will address your parents and say, "You toiled so hard to raise your son or daughter! Your son or daughter in turn has toiled so much to save us!" When these 120 people gather as your clan for a banquet and exchange these words of appreciation, everything will turn around in one night.( 046-137,19710813)
4 You need to return to your home-town and become tribal messiahs. But this does not mean the Home Church movement, which has been active these past years, should disappear. Your Home Church foundation is the Cain foundation, and your foundation with your extended family is the Abel foundation. If you shed tears, sweat and blood to establish your Home Church foundation, your extended family will turn around automatically. If you return to your extended family after having saved one hundred people through your Home Church, they will welcome you as a hero or heroine. The entire neighborhood will be able to turn around in one evening. Your record will speak for itself.( 210-338,19901227)
5 Fallen Adam and Eve are restored through Abel. Blessed parents become perfect through their children, which is similar to fallen parents being restored through Abel. In this way, restoration takes place through indemnity. Therefore if you do not have spiritual children, you should not conceive and give birth to children. You can give them birth, but you can't truly love them. This is the implication of the Principle. The Fall transpired by people going in a direction opposite that of the Principle. Thus restoration transpires through blocking, adjusting and correcting that opposite direction in a way that is airtight. Thus you absolutely need spiritual children.( 055-149,19720507)
6 Unification Church members become Abel when they understand the providence and receive God's love. When they establish this standard, they can form the position of Abel centering on their own good spirit world. People stand in the position of Abel depending on their age group: those in their twenties stand in the Abel position to those who are in their twenties; those who are in their thirties stand in the Abel position to those in their thirties; and those who are in their forties stand in the Abel position to those in their forties. If you witness to someone from a particular age group, the standard of Cain and Abel will be restored on the basis of that age group. Since young people also need to be restored, however, you need to do so through your children. Therefore to achieve complete restoration, you need to establish the tradition in which three of your spiritual children devotedly attend your physical children from their birth until their marriage. I have to follow this path if I wish to establish a worldwide foundation of victory, and you also have to follow this path. I am one level ahead of you. If my mission is on the world level, your mission goes up to the national level. Accordingly, when I realize a victorious foundation at the world level, you each need to achieve a victorious foundation at the national level.( 055-150,19720507)
7 On what basis did the love we know in this world begin? It began from the archangel, Satan. Therefore restoration entails recovering the children whom Satan took, raising them as your spiritual children and loving them. After doing that you can return to your original self. By following the example of True Parents, you can return to your original self. In the realm of fallen love, we have to recover the love that began with Satan. Since Satan stole love away, the mission of your three spiritual children entails restoring the stolen love in Satan's realm by standing in the position of an absolutely obedient and victorious archangel. You need to stand in the position of having saved your spiritual children and loving them in the same way God would. Since the Fall took place due to an issue that arose from love and led to its loss, the love we give them has to surpass that which Satan's world gives them. So how much should we love our spiritual children? We must love them more than parents in the secular world love their children. If we do not love our spiritual children to that extent, we will not be able to restore them.( 055-160,19720507)
8 Unless we love others to a degree greater than physical parents in the secular world love their children, people will not be attracted to our path. It is only through love that we can restore people who were lost because of love. We need to do this to the extent of bringing three spiritual children to the Principle. Thereby we establish a victorious foundation of love that will permit us to love our physical children. This is a formula, and I have been living according to it. If we do not apply this formula, we cannot have a foundation for perfection. Therefore even if you have children, completely restore spiritual children before you live with them. God sent His beloved Son Jesus to the earth to restore humankind through indemnity, and He endured his plight as he walked the way of the cross. Similarly, we have to love our spiritual children the way God loves humanity. Therefore, if you do not make a foundation upon which your spiritual children sacrifice for your children, the path to love your children will not open up.( 055-160,19720507)
9 We each need at least three spiritual children. We are to have two types of children: spiritual children, of which you need three, and our natural children. If you look at today’s world, you will see sons and daughters who are in the position of God's direct children, and fallen human beings who are in the position of adopted children. Salvation doesn't exist for the sake of the individual. Salvation cannot exist outside the structure of the family There-fore, each of us is to have three spiritual children and is to lead them to become one with our natural children. This is the formula.( 052-129,1971 1226)
10 Who originally was meant to guide Adam and Eve? It was the archangel. It was not God but the angels who were meant to protect and nurture Adam and Eve until they reached maturity. Likewise it is spiritual children who are meant to support the spiritual parent's path to heaven. When, with the support of your spiritual children, you receive the Blessing of heaven, they will follow you into heaven on the merit of their support for you as their spiritual parent. This is how the three angels in the angelic world are restored, how the three children of Adam are restored and how the three sons of Noah are restored. This is how the condition of having gone through three stages as Heavens representative is achieved. What does becoming totally one mean? It means the oneness the three angels in the garden of Eden should have had, focusing on unfallen Adam. When the three angels become one, they are elevated into the realm of God's Blessing.( 127-053,19830503)
11 Before the Fall, the three archangels looked forward to the day Adam and Eve would marry after receiving their complete support. Likewise your spiritual children will yearn ardently to see you receive the Blessing. The mistake of one archangel affected the others. Hence when your spiritual children support you substantially, they are setting indemnity conditions required by heaven and earth. For that reason, spiritual parents need to maintain a standard of heart toward their spiritual children that is higher than that of parents in the fallen world. You cannot stand on Heavens side or ascend to the realm to receive Heavens blessing if your standard of parental heart is lower than that of the fallen world. When you reach that level you can receive the Blessing, give birth to children and love them completely. Then Satan's world will not be able to accuse you or require you to pay indemnity.( 127-054,19830503)
12 Because I overcame on the national level, you can be free from persecution. We stand at the level where the Republic of Korea is able to uphold the Unification Church. Therefore what remains is simply for you to choose your relatives and appoint them to represent you. We have entered the stage at which they can do so as your spiritual children. Now, what should such spiritual children do? They have to be ready to sacrifice their life for your sake and your children's. How will you inspire them to come to this point? Will you succeed in this task? You can inspire them to come to this point through the Principle. This will become our tradition.( 133-125,19840710)
Forming a tribe through witnessing and through the Blessing
13 Your family will live for the sake of the nation only if you keep Heaven in your heart and live for the sake of Heavens family. You can acquire the nation only when you follow that family alone. Since Heaven's family stands in the central position and lives for the sake of the world, the way for you to reach the world is through this family. Thus you need to follow and attend this family as the center of the world. This is the path of the Principle. If you wish to follow the Principle and represent me, you first need to have three spiritual children, then twelve apostle-like sons and daughters, seventy disciples, and 120 people you bring to the Blessing. Only then will you be able to pass freely, night and day, through the twelve pearly gates of heaven. The guards at the gates will not ask, "Who are you?" but will say, "Welcome!" and guide you in. If you have only three spiritual children, you will be able to enter and exit only through one gate. You will not be able to go through the other gates.( 058-074,19720606)
14 The most pressing matter is for you to accomplish your tribal messiah mission. In order to do this, you need to return to your extended family, find twelve disciples and bring them to the Blessing. Then you need to find seventy followers and then increase that to 120 followers. This means you need to assemble 120 people as soon as possible. I have paid all the indemnity for the central families, the 36 couples and 72 couples. I also paid all at once the indemnity for 120 couples. The totality of what you need to do is to bring 120 people together. If you do this, you will be able to fulfill the vertical and horizontal indemnity conditions. Therefore every Unification Church family is responsible to gather 120 people from among their family and relatives.( 084-158,19760222)
15 You need to form a new Israel through your spiritual children. I found and blessed twelve couples and on that foundation blessed the 36 couples, the 72 couples and the 120 couples. I ask you to follow my example. I began this work for a reason. Jesus walked the tragic path of death to resolve this issue, and God suffered through six thousand providential years to resolve it. The path I am walking differs from yours only in scale and scope. My path is at the national and world levels, but in essence it is the same as yours. There is no difference in terms of what you and I should do in our lives. Because Christianity persecuted me, I could not follow the tribal messiah course as you can. Still I had to recover that foundation. To do so I loved all of you—people whom I met like passers-by on the street—more than I loved my parents, my wife and my own children. In order to raise spiritual children who are willing to sacrifice their lives for you, you must invest yourselves, as I did, three times more than it takes to raise your own children.( 046-132,19710813)
16 You need to bring 120 people to the Principle. You have to bring them to the Principle and even see to their marriage. I mean that you should give them the Blessing. If you fulfill this you will become the representative of the world, the representative of the nation and the representative of the family on earth and in heaven, and your clan in Heaven's realm naturally will exist wherever you go. Can you lift up your head when you have not brought even three people to the Principle? If you are in such a position, you are as good as dead, because it is as if, for you, heaven and earth are separated. Without these three people, you have not established a four-position foundation and cannot build on that standard. Hence you need to witness. No one can do it for you; you need to do it. It is not for the sake of the Unification Church or me that you witness. You witness for your own sake.( 066-142,19730422)
17 Gods work has been the work of re-creation. In your daily life, you need to stand in the position that represents Gods work of re-creation. So how shall we restore 120 families? This is an important issue. These will include twelve disciples, seventy apostles, and more. Following Jesus' resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended upon 120 disciples. They received the Gospel and conveyed it throughout the world. Likewise you need to bring down this spirit on the family level, restore the family and bind its members together as one. This is how you can accomplish your mission as a tribal messiah. Once you accomplish this, you need to bless them. You need to preside over the wedding ceremony on my behalf. Why is that? It is because you will become your family's ancestor. Henceforth there is nothing else you need to do. The nation is already united with me and the entire world is following me. When each of you completes your tribal messiah mission, the formation of the nation and the world will follow in short order.( 210-172,19901219)
Section 3: The Role of the Tribal Messiah
1 You need to become a tribal messiah and return to your hometown. As a tribal messiah, you have to recover your hometown and your ancestors and serve God. What is first? It is the earth, the homeland. Second are the ancestors and third is the true realm of God's heart, where we can live together with God. The land where you were born and grew up is not part of Heaven's realm, nor are your father and mother the ancestors from Heaven. That is why we cannot dwell with God. The land of the unfallen, original Adam and Eve is both their land and God's land, and they are the ancestors of humanity and the ancestors of God. With God dwelling there, that would be the kingdom of heaven on earth. As of now, we have not realized this original homeland. It will not come unless you fulfill tribal messiahship. You have been following me, but when you return to your country you need to do so as a tribe, just as did the Israelites. You are meant to enter heaven only with your family; this is true whether it is the kingdom of heaven on earth or in heaven. The kingdom of heaven is the place you enter with your family and relatives, as did the Israelites. Without them, we cannot recover our nation.( 248-099,19930801)
The tribal messiah mission
2 Returning to one's homeland requires three conditions: life, love and lineage. Fulfilling them requires that you put your life on the line. I often had to risk my life as I overcame countless obstacles. If you put your life on the line for an endeavor, the sun's morning rays at the daybreak of the new nation will shine brightly upon your efforts. It is God's love that shines as sunrays falling upon the nation. That sunshine will be cast brilliantly upon the tradition that will continue from generation to generation for eternity. You can attend God eternally and receive His sunrays only if you inherit the eternally unchanging lineage from Him. The sun represents God, the origin of human life and the Parent. You need to inherit the tradition of the Parent, Heaven's tradition, and transform your life for the providence of restoration. Once you feel confident that you have reached that level as a subject, and that no worldly threat can endanger the new self you have inherited through that transformation, you will begin a new day.( 225-318,19920126)
3 In order for you to begin a new personal existence, a new family and a new nation, you need to become a tribal messiah. You need to achieve this objective by investing yourself completely. I am freely bequeathing to you the path of faith I pioneered, as well as all the fruits of Gods labor for the past hundreds of millions of years since the creation. Please inherit this completely. This means that you will envy nothing of this world, but rather will honor the power of one great family that unites heaven and earth. There can be nothing more virtuous and nothing of greater value. If you go forth toward the world of peace and attain this value, a way to return to your hometown will open to you, as well as a way toward the unification of the new nation.( 225-319,19920126)
4 One task of a tribal messiah is to help ones father and mother achieve the position of Adam and Eve prior to the Fall. Next is to restore kingship by recovering and establishing the hometown. When that happens, isn't everything finished? First, by restoring the hometown and the kingship, you as the tribal messiah will stand in a position equal to your parents. Then your hometown will be in the heavenly kingdom. You must have your parents in the heavenly kingdom in order to have your hometown in that kingdom. The mission of the tribal messiah is to bring your parents to belong to the heavenly kingdom.( 194-122,19891017)
5 Just as you shed sweat for Heaven, you need to shed blood for it. You should seek the bloody hills of tribulation in history with a joyful heart. You have not yet understood that you have to invest this much for your liberation. You might have thought that others would do everything and it had nothing to do with you, but this is not the case. You have to return to the origin. You are responsible to dismantle your current base in order to return to the homeland. You must clearly under-stand this and straighten out your root. Due to the Fall, the father and mother took a wrong turn, and the first son went the wrong way as well. Therefore, centered on True Parents and True Children, you need to turn around and adjust to the opposite direction, going toward the original right of parents and the original right of the eldest son. You will never make this connection the way you are; you can do it only after you turn yourself around 180 degrees.( 178-099,19880601)
6 Up to this day I have taken responsibility for everything, but henceforth you have to take responsibility for your extended family. If you align yourself with this mission and attune your heart to God's at a ninety-degree angle, you can bring oneness on the levels of the individual, family and tribe. Nothing in your life—whether it is eating, sleeping, getting up or anything else—should revolve around your personal desires. Your life should be for your extended family, your clan. If you are part of the Kim clan, give your life trying to resolve the issues of the Kim clan. The Unification Church needs to prepare for this. This is the way to give life to the people and to give life to the nation as well. Please advance relentlessly in your tribal messiah mission.( 187-180,19890205)
7 After you achieve victory as an individual and form a family, your family should overcome the levels of tribe, people, nation and world. Therefore your wish as an individual should be to mold your family into one that stands on the side of Heaven. After establishing such a family, however, your attitude may become, "I have gone through hell and beyond for the matter of the Blessing and have overcome all the obstacles. I have reached my goal now that I am married." You then may try to take a nap and enjoy your life. If you do, Satan will lay siege through the world, the nation, the people and the tribe to engulf you. The individual needs a family in order to settle. Thus we have been struggling to establish families. But by the same token, a family without a tribe cannot settle. Your tribe should serve as a hedge that protects you and your family from blasts of wind and other adversities. Without creating such a realm that can serve this purpose, you cannot live as a peaceful family. The way to do that is to become the tribal leader for your relatives. That is the objective of the tribal messiah mission.( 056-312,19720518)
8 The family is the textbook of tribal messiahship. Your grandfather and grandmother stand in the position of ancestors, your father and mother stand in a position representing the present and you represent the future. These three generations encapsulate the tribal messiah's textbook of love. Based on the heart that unites these as one, you have the capacity to live wherever you go in the world—north, south, east or west. The world consists of people who are like your grandfather, grandmother, father, mother or siblings. So if you are able to relate to them all with warm feelings, you will become a person possessing Heaven's love and have no problem entering the kingdom of heaven. If you create the environment in which you can engage with strangers as if they were your parents and siblings, you will link to the spirit world immediately. This is how you should live at your home. In order to create such an environment, you need to return to your hometown as a tribal messiah. This is your mission, so please overcome any hardships that prevent you from doing it, no matter how hard it may be.( 215-310,19910221)
9 Jesus could not become a tribal messiah on earth. You, however, are living in the age of completion, and if you succeed in this mission you will have the qualification to become a daughter or son of the True Parents. On the Home Church altar, we can restore every mistake our forebears made. We can combine everything in history, everything in the Old and New Testaments, as the formation and growth stages, and offer it like a burnt sacrifice. If you become victorious and complete this, you will receive a pass allowing you to come and go wherever you wish in this world and the spirit world.( 122-127,19821101)
10 Blessed families are formed on the basis of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. Thus they possess Heavens right of ownership and are able to embrace all Heavens nations and the world. I went to the heavenly realm and restored the lineage with the heart of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. I fulfilled the change of absolute lineage, the change of the realm of absolute ownership and the change of the realm of absolute heart. I recovered them all. When tribal messiahs fulfill the change of absolute lineage, the change of the realm of absolute ownership and the change of the realm of absolute heart in numerous tribes, the nation will automatically be saved. That is the end of everything, and everything will be made clean and clear. All these results hinge on your confidence in carrying out tribal messiahship. You have to work with the confidence that success will come through your activities carried out with energy. Please realize that you are the sons and daughters of the True Parents who can gather up the entire world of their victory and claim, on their behalf, ownership over all that for which they have paid the price. This is the national restoration that tribal messiahs need to fulfill, and once you gather the entire world you will offer it to True Parents.( 269-097,19950408)
Our mission in our hometown
11 You become a family member of the heavenly kingdom just by hanging True Parents' picture and raising the flag of the Unification Church. I will make you a family member of the heavenly kingdom. A number of people suffered tragedies because they cursed the Unification flag. There was a mysterious incident in which someone pointed his finger at me and his hand became diseased. He had to repent and pray for several nights to recover. Why do such incidents occur? The individual’s fortune cannot affect the advance of heavenly fortune. The path of heavenly fortune is a destiny that cannot be changed. Just as the Israelites survived if they looked at the bronze serpent that Moses held up, you will live if you bow each time you see the Unification Church flag or a photograph of True Parents.( 219-091,19910825)
12 When you put up the Unification Church flag, it is a signal to members passing by that they can enter your house and rest if they are tired or have lunch if they are hungry before they go on. Therefore you should always be prepared to receive guests. You should make such preparations on behalf of True Parents. You could keep one room for this purpose. You are saved by attending the Parents. However, since the Parents do not come in person, you should attend your guests as if they were the Parents. This practice represents the ideal of equalization of the highest heavenly standard. For this reason, attend your guests as if they were God or True Parents. Both you and they will surely be blessed.( 169-221,19871031)
13 You should hold family revival services. Family revival services, while held focusing on your extended family, represent all tribes. You should think of each revival service as representing not only Korean tribes, but also the tribes of blessed families around the world. Then the people of the world will participate in such revival services. The Unification Church members in Korea today can hold revival services representing the world, focusing on the tribal foundation, with Korea as the base. You do not know what a great blessing this is.( 185-141,19890103)
14 If you host revival services for your tribe once you have returned to your hometown, those services will go down in history Your revival services will be more astonishing than the March First Mansei Movement, the independence movement through which Koreans tried to take back their nation. They will create a welcoming environment within which Heaven's law can work. You should be able to mobilize your tribe within this environment. It took me forty years to reach this level. It is how the path of indemnity works. On the global level, we have to separate from everything Satan can accuse. After making a full circle, we can protect ourselves on the national level and then establish the realm of tribal messiah. This is to connect the world that extends north, south, east and west.( 186-233,19890205)
15 You should now return to your hometown and set up a lighthouse. Lighthouses shine brightly in the dark night. What would be the purpose of your lighthouse? It would be to shine for North-South unification and East-West unification. We need to keep the light on at the holy ground and ensure that it never goes out. Make it like the flame used at the Olympic Games and burn it so that it can become the light-house of unity between the north, south, east and west. If you burn a flame at the main holy ground, it will be like a lighthouse in the night. Every time you light it, it will bring to your mind that this is the flame of life that liberates the miserable souls coming from the north, south, east and west. For this you should unceasingly offer prayers and conditions of devotion, with the determination that you will be the wick and the fuel that sustains this flame. You have to guard our church until this light is no longer needed.( 181-296,19881003)
16 You have to plant true heart in the original homeland. The inability to do this led to the Fall. Since the time now has come for you to return to the original homeland, you need to plant your true heart quickly. You need to devote yourself completely to doing this. This is the point of my saying you should become the lead family in your clan. For this, you need to return to your hometown, make sincere offerings, sow seeds of true love and move toward the dawning of the homeland of hope.( 177-081,19880515)
17 The time has come for you to understand clearly who True Parents are. Unless you know True Parents clearly, you will remain ignorant of the tradition and will be unable to own it. The Heavenly Parent and True Parents have set indemnity conditions throughout history. I have walked this path in order to stand in the position of the ancestor of the world. Thus you as well have to walk this path in order to inherit the tradition and become the ancestor of your tribe. Because you have to set up a tradition for your tribe, I counsel you to know and own the tradition.( 131-064,19840401)
18 When you return to your home-town, what should you do? Inspire the people to unite with you. The method to achieve this is simple. Sons should become teachers who can demonstrate through example the heavenly tradition. Thereby you will be teaching, "The kingdom of heaven will be realized when you do such and such a thing." Furthermore, mothers and fathers should show other mothers and fathers in the neighborhood that "by doing this, the village will become heavenly." The family of love, in which the husband loves the wife and the wife loves the husband, the parents love the children and the children love the parents, is what you hand down to them.( 135-035,19850820)
19 You need to return to your hometown, shed tears and offer conditions of devotion. Truthfully, we have lived away from home up to the present. Just as the Israelites had to work in Egypt for four hundred years, we have been doing this work for forty-three years, far from home. Now is the time for us to return to our hometown and become the root of love. You have to love God, your parents, and your brothers and sisters. By doing so, you cut off the source of false accusation the world-level Satan raises against you. The Israelites did not establish the ideal kingdom of heaven in the promised land of Canaan; they proved incapable of building it. Learning from them, do not expect any support from Satan's world. Even if we have to keep traveling with our belongings bundled on our backs, we are the best people in God's eyes. Even if at night people curse us and dogs in the village bark at us, we are the best.( 178-141,19880601)
20 You stand in the position of true children in front of True Parents, so I can bequeath the right of inheritance and of equal standing. Please believe completely in these special privileges that Heaven has bestowed upon you, and invest everything within the sphere of love. Just as God invested Himself totally, you ought to invest yourselves completely. This is the way you will resurrect your clan and, by extension, your nation. There is no path other than returning to your hometown.( 177-162,19880517)
21 All of you who have returned to your hometown stand in the position of the Israelites who entered the promised land of Canaan. You should never envy those in your hometown who are richer or more powerful than you. You must not let secular or materialistic aspirations influence you. Instead, educate others properly. The best tradition is the one by which we love God, our descendants, and our people—the realm of Israel. Especially those of you who carry your children to the church, do not let yourselves be swayed by rich and powerful people. Bear in mind that you are returning to your hometown, and that this is the first time this has happened in a thousand or ten thousand years. Feel the excitement of returning to your homeland; flood your hometown with tears that shake every cell of your body and bone marrow. Let your hometown be recognized as a holy land infused with Heaven's tears and the blood that you have shed. That is where the kingdom of heaven begins.( 177-229,19880517)
22 When you love people, start with the most pitiful little children and move on to middle-aged people. There are many conscientious people among those who live in difficult circumstances. Unification Church families should love those who are in the worst circumstances. Even though people who are enduring hard times are stuck in the world of the devil, you will see that in the future, from among those people will emerge some who are able to inherit the fortune of God.( 175-032,19880406)
Building the original homeland and the nation
23 Which path will you follow? To welcome the historic day of the liberation and independence of the homeland, you have to follow the path that leads to the lost original homeland. To receive this day is the hope of all people, of all eras and countries throughout history, the ultimate purpose of every culture, and the greatest wish of all humanity. Therefore this day of liberation absolutely has to come. If it does not, all the effort people have made will have been in vain. Wealth, even ethics and morals, will all have been in vain.( 155-022,19641006)
24 Up to the present day, humanity has been without its original homeland and all people have been without the original nation. Hence God, who has carried out the providence of restoration among us to this day, will surely send the Lord of the Second Advent in the Last Days. When He does, it is to recover the original homeland. Then what will He do once He finds the original homeland? He will recover the group of original brothers and sisters and then do the work of engrafting them to the tribe and the people. He will expand this foundation to the nation and the world and thereby restore the original homeland.( 155-322,19651101)
25 We are the group that advances the liberation of the homeland. When the Messiah returns to the earth, he will bring judgment. Through whom will that judgment take place? It will take place through those who are standing in the position of a sacrificial offering. Without fail, this is the process by which it will be done. Hence I call the Unification Church members to stand in that position in relation to the Korean peninsula, the thirty million people of this nation. Do not be swallowed up by any hardship. Have as your mindset, "No evil shall conquer the truth and heart that I possess. No hardship will stain my integrity." This is how you ought to seek your original homeland. If we are the ones who are seeking the original homeland—and who will get there—we need to assemble as a people and create the original nation. We need to find our original hometown and recover the homeland.( 155-023,19641006)
26 We do not yet have the original nation. The country where you are living is not it. The nation where you live was founded by fallen ancestors. It is not the nation God wants. Thus you are bound to say goodbye to it and forget about it. We have to purify the fallen nations at the levels of individual, family, tribe and people, beginning with hell on earth and in the spirit world all the way up to paradise. Unless this takes place, Gods original homeland, the original hometown, cannot emerge. In the Last Days, all people of faith need to unite, transcending denominational, religious and national boundaries. Furthermore, they have to unite as a new humanity and know God's final Will to liberate the homeland. Recovering the one unified nation, we will attend God as its Parent, as its Teacher and as its King.( 398-146,20021209)
27 What is the cause of bitter sorrow for humanity on earth? It is not a lack of money or national sovereignty, or a shortage of people or land. It is that the world is not a place where we can find joy and happiness in our hearts and minds. This world is not one that brings joy to our hearts. This land and this society do not bring joy to our hearts. If we as human beings could find joy and happiness in our hearts within this land and this society, we would have no such feeling of bitter sorrow.( 155-032,19641006)
28 Is there anyone who wants to attain wealth in order to end up in ruin? Is there anyone who practices patriotism in order to destroy his nation? Although we may not recognize the connection, when our actions are not in accord with the Principle by which the universe operates and are not accessing its source of energy, things go to ruin. But when they are in accord with the Principle, things develop. That is why, even though people have had only vague and abstract concepts of God since ancient times, they have in fact been upholding Him. What is it that humanity seeks in the present day? We know that the world in which we live is not our original homeland. It is not the world of freedom, where we sing of equality, peace and happiness. It is not the open and eternal world where mind and body can fly the flag of freedom. If God were strong in the realm of the conscience, the world would not be this way. But why is it this way? It is because of the Fall, which prevents human beings from reaching perfection. Human beings fell before reaching perfection. This is why the world is broken.( 155-033,19641006)
29 What have we Unification Church members done? We have overcome persecution and oppression from society. However, we should not overcome persecution just as individuals, but with our family, our tribe, our people and all thirty million citizens of this nation of Korea. This is the Unification Church faith. This is why we are trying to move these thirty million people from the state of saying, "No," to saying, "Yes, let’s do it!" We follow them into their hiding place and guide them, as their leaders. Everything we do should be the opposite of what they do. We say, "You might enjoy wining and dining, but we enjoy fasting. You may enjoy flying in airplanes, but we are happy even if we have to walk to our destination." This is how we have advanced. As we advance, we cannot afford to collapse, because we have to persevere until the day this nation is restored, until everything is resolved. What is true and what is strong will remain standing. That is heavenly law. Further, God allows whatever is on His side to last to the end. Hence we have to register ourselves with God's side. While we walk this path, if our families oppose us, we have to sail over our families. If society opposes us, we have to sail over our society. We absolutely have to arrive at our destination, the original homeland.( 155-035,19641006)
30 We need True Parents. Thus we need a religion that will introduce us to them, a movement to seek the Will and the original True Parents, one that will guide the billions that make up humanity to the original homeland. Humanity did not descend from True Parents; it descended from false parents. Humanity therefore has to establish a relationship with True Parents, whom God supports. Confucian, Buddhist and Zen teachings include a concept similar to the parents of heaven and earth. We all have to build a relationship with True Parents and go through the gate to the path they have established. In this way all people will become true siblings to one another. To become true siblings, we have to inherit the lineage of True Parents and unite completely with them in heart, circumstances and hope. For those of us who hold this philosophy of sibling love, no matter how close we have been to our blood relatives up to now and no matter how happy, once we are connected with True Parents' flesh and blood, everything is changed at once. That encounter with True Parents, once made, cannot be compared with your connection to your natural parents. Even your natural parents must find the True Parents. If they do not, they will be lost.( 155-035,19641006)
31 Your conscience knows the way to life. You like pleasant aromas, don't you? Why do you like them? It is because your sense of smell is designed to appreciate good fragrances. It is the same with your heart and mind. Your heart senses good just as your nose senses fragrance. This is why you can be spontaneously happy. No one needs to advertise what is inherently good. This is why you are happy when you are on the way here, and why you miss me when you do not see me. This is why in the modern world people groan in their heart, "I wish I could go to the original homeland!" This desire swells within. Even though we do not know why or what it is exactly, our heart seeks the path leading to our original homeland. Why do our mind and heart want to go to that original homeland? It is because our father and mother, our brothers and sisters, our relatives and our nation are there. It is our promised land and our place of Sabbath rest. That is why our heart yearns for that original homeland.( 155-036,19641006)
32 God is the One for whom everyone yearns. His dwelling place is where all people want to visit and live. What is it like in that place of happiness, the ideal original homeland? Simply speaking, it is a place to which we long to go. In that place, our beloved parents and siblings live. This is why we want to visit this original homeland and live there together in joy and happiness for all eternity, without ever leaving. We human beings lost this original homeland. Hence we must find that place and go there without fail.( 155-036,19641006)
Section 4. The Return to the Hometown
1 We need to return to our hometown, that is, to our true hometown—but where is it? It is the place where love is. It is the place where the blood in our arteries flows together with history. This is so because we grew to adulthood absorbing the elements of that place. So that place throbs together with our cells, together with our blood and together with the beating of our heart. Our hometown is the place where our profound feelings of love are deeply embedded. As you head toward your hometown, whom are you seeking to meet? You are yearning for the embrace of your parents. That is why you are returning to your hometown.( 176-246,19880511)
The true hometown and the role of ancestors
2 Religion has contributed greatly toward human beings' pursuit of the hometown. We say we should go to the kingdom of heaven or to the ideal world or to nirvana and that those places are not like this in which we presently live. They are the original homeland wherein we can live eternally. In this respect, religion has contributed to the quest for our original homeland. Then what is that place like? It is a place that meets all conditions. It is a perfect and flawless place, where the mind and body lack for nothing, not one thing. Such is the place humanity is pursuing right now. But consider this: even if you return to your home-town, if there is no one there to welcome you, it will feel so empty.( 023-079,19690511)
3 On this planet Earth, the true hometown is not yet born. This is consistent with the perspective of religion. In a true hometown, there must be true parents. They are the owners of the home in the true hometown. The words "true parents" refer to a couple, a true man and true woman, whose bond is the pillar of true love. They have to be parents who bond to the pillar of love and who cannot but live their entire lifetime holding on to it, with no desire to do otherwise. We need only such true parents. Only when there are true parents who can generate true love can true sons and daughters come forth.( 177-090,19880517)
4 Due to the Fall, Heaven's side came to stand in a lamentable position, that of the second son. Hence God called people to carry out tasks for their own sake through which to restore the right of the firstborn son. However, He could not do so arbitrarily. Only when a tribe can restore, in this world, the right of the first son on the levels of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation and world, will a family that is free from the realm of Satan's accusation form in the original garden of Eden, where there is no trace of the Fall. In light of this, we are not only displaced people; we are ignorant of how hard it is for us, as displaced people, to find our way back to our hometown.( 188-234,19890226)
5 In the course of restoration through indemnity, what is it that the Messiah needs to accomplish when he comes? God's providence can be started only when history reaches the standard of indemnity on the world level. This is a place higher than the realm of the fallen Adam. God's providence cannot begin from a place below where Adam fell. To this day, because of the Fall of Adam, the path by which we can return to our hometown has been blocked. Therefore, in order for us to return to our hometown, Adam's representative needs to come and, at the very least, set the condition of indemnity from the level of the individual to the levels of family, tribe, people, nation and world; otherwise we cannot go back.( 178-086,19880601)
6 To the present day, Satan has taken possession of your hometown and has kicked you out of it, acting as if he were the owner. But now you are going to return to your hometown and kick Satan out. That is only proper. When that takes place, the good spirits will come to your hometown and guard it. They will strike all the evil spirits. That is the view of the Principle as well as my view. What you do will have to be written down in history. I have walked my path looking forward to the time I could declare the return to the hometown in this world. When I think about my mother and father being in the spirit world, I feel anguish. However, I put that out of my mind and bless you, consoled by the liberation of innumerable relatives in your hometown in the place of my mother, father and siblings.( 179-026,19880615)
7 Blessed families are like a staff for walking. They are like a bridge that crosses over the global world of death and a staff for walking on such a path. Blessed families are like that. You need to go out witnessing in your hometown. That is why I am telling you repeatedly to go back to your hometown. Your position is more blessed than mine. I cannot yet return to my hometown. Because my hometown is in North Korea, I cannot return to my hometown until the nation is unified. I cannot cross the bridge. I cannot return to my hometown. You, however, can return to your hometown. What I am saying is that you are in an environment in which you can hold on to your beloved parents, spouse, children and siblings, shed tears and weep endlessly. Filled with remorse over a people that is headed for eternal ruin, you can hold tight to your parents and siblings and shed tears of lamentation in a way that will touch their hearts.( 030-335,19700406)
8 Now is the age in which the Unification Church is being welcomed. In the old days your mother and father shouted at you, "You good-for-nothing! You are running away after ruining your family, your village and your country!" They were speaking on behalf of Satan. You are now returning to your hometown in the name of God, brandishing the shield of victory. You are different from who you were in the old days. We have entered the age in which villages can welcome you, Korea can welcome you and the world can welcome you, so your local community should welcome you. Then what is the point around which you can come together as one? It is your own self, yearning for True Parents, loving True Parents, striving to liberate and accomplish the Will of True Parents, staking your future and devoting your tears, blood and sweat to Heaven. Through this you can harmonize with the original standard and make the flower of God’s love bloom. Now, where can you make that flower bloom? That is the question.( 178-108,19880601)
9 You need to know God's heart and my heart. You need to enter your hometown and plant this realm of heart once again. This is not indemnity. The past has been indemnified and is over. Now you need to plant what is true. You should know the fact that you are receiving the benefit of returning to your hometown first, before True Parents can return to theirs. I need to go to my hometown on a level one step higher than you. I need to return to my hometown after unifying South and North Korea. Because you are in the position of the children, your position is one step lower. Your responsibility remains to be fulfilled. It is to shoulder the work on behalf of True Parents, who have shed boundless tears, blood and sweat as they walked the course of indemnity for the historical ages on the levels of the individual, family, tribe, people and nation. It is also to soak your hometown with tears, blood and sweat for True Parents' sake, representing their heart, the heart with which they can enter the land of North Korea and offer victory and gratitude before Heaven.( 178-108,19880601)
10 Jesus said a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown. Nonetheless, where is it that Rev. Moon of the Unification Church has told you to go? I have told you to go to your hometown and become its ancestors. Such a thing has never happened in history. It did not happen for any people written of in the Bible. What I am saying is that, although it was said that a prophet will not be honored in his hometown, the time has come in which you can be so honored. These are my words and at the same time are words to be recorded without fail in the administration of Heaven. This is why I am telling you to go to your hometown.( 182-212,19881023)
11 In the garden of Eden, God would have raised Adam and Eve tenderly and said to them when they reached maturity, "You are my eternal home. Your family will be as numerous as the grains of sand and will spread like stars in the sky across the hemisphere for thousands of years to come." They would have formed the basis on which He would have been able to dwell unhesitatingly with anyone, anywhere, among them through the lineage. But the Fall severed the basis of that hope. Hence it needs to be reconnected. Once that happens, to where will we return? Adam and Eve fell and thus sowed bad seed, and the false root emerged. So the false ancestors were born. Therefore, I push forward in order to place you in the position of true ancestors, telling you to return to your hometown. The false root came to exist due to the Fall. It does not embody the original heart. Satan's root, which blocks the original heart, should be removed, pulled out and left to rot. On top of the rotted weed we should plant the true seed, so that a new realm of heart can sprout in the land of the original hometown. So start anew the love of True Parents and the True God in your neighborhood and home, that is, in your clan—in the Kim clan if you are a Kim or the Moon clan if you are a Moon. In light of all this, it will not do unless you return to your hometown.( 177-070,19880515)
12 You have to return to your hometown. Now you have to inherit the right of the first son from Satan's world. You have to inherit true love, return to your hometown and plant the tradition of True Parents. By doing so, this can become the blessed land of Korea, where God can be with us, where His full right of inheritance can be a blessing to all people, and where blessings can permeate horizontally.( 176-280,19880511)
13 Once you have been planted, centered on the heart of the tribal messiah mission in accordance with the providential Will, no one can uproot you. This is because I have planted you firmly. Since I have planted the tribal messiahs firmly, no one can uproot them. That is why I am saying the blessed people of the Unification Church should return to their hometown. Representing me, leave everything behind and go to your hometown. Henceforth you need to drink the water of your hometown, eat the rice produced in your hometown, and offer all the devotions you possibly can while living there. Since I have laid the foundation of victory on the world level, you should lay the foundation of victory on the tribal level. You should have nothing in your possession. It is the same as it was at the time of Moses. Even if you go to your clan with nothing but your bare hands, you still should be able to feed them. Please become their ancestors.( 187-184,19890205)
The profound significance of returning to your hometown
14 The world has lost its homeland. How can the world's people, a global domain of the displaced, return to their homeland? God knows the answer to this question. His providence sends the Messiah to the earth, who is to lead the displaced people to their homeland. After they have returned home, religion and all its customs will be unnecessary. Tearfully embracing your mother and father is the best form of worship, the fulfillment of everything God desires. Even if heaven and earth experience upheaval ten million times, if the unity of three generations-grandparents, parents and children—is as strong as an iron fortress and if they serve God as their core, then wherever they are, they will be the one seed through which the kingdom of heaven can be realized. They themselves will be that. This can be said to be the origin of the seed of God's love and the seed of God's life. We need to find our way to it. Otherwise there will be no hope for the kingdom of heaven on earth, the heavenly kingdom of peace or the world of happiness and freedom.( 225-301,19920126)
15 Because the Unification Church has come to know God, its strategy is to be struck first and then to reclaim what was lost. But now that the right of the eldest son has been restored, it is time to reverse that rule. You can enter any house you come upon and say, "Do you know the history of True Parents? Listen." You have stories that will make the couple you are visiting kneel down and sob with tears. I have told you: return to your hometown so you can fulfill your tribal messiah responsibility to register it as a base of the kingdom of heaven.( 219-099,19910825)
16 Adam and Eve should not have fallen. They should have formed a relationship of love with God at a place that had nothing to do with Satan. But they were unable to do so. This failure, however, finally has been reversed, at least conditionally. With that as the standard, the expansion of that condition will be monumental. Having set this condition, I am telling you to return to your hometown. Since True Parents now have sovereignty, you need to restore Canaan. You need to return from the realm of Egypt to your hometown, establish a happy family that will live well for eternity, organize a new tribe, and engraft it to the nation. For this purpose, you need to return to your hometown. In the history of religion, the instruction was for people to leave their hometown, that is, leave their homes and renounce the world. There has never been anything like this, the call to return to your hometown.( 183-101,19881015)
17 The work of saving the fallen world, that is, creating religion and carrying out the providence of salvation, is for the purpose of returning to the origin. The history of the providence of salvation is the history of restoration. The history of restoration is the history of re-creation. God’s creation of humankind essentially began when He invested love in the world. By carrying out the same work in silence, you can become the queen of love or the king of love in a household. I am saying that, for the sake of your extended family members, you should become their ancestors. In the world of religion, scriptures have urged that one should leave ones country and one's hometown, that one should quit one's home, but never have they instructed one to return to one's hometown. Nonetheless, I am telling you to return to your hometown, shoulder all difficulties that come to you, and build a new society. Heaven and earth will support you at that place. You will not go to ruin.( 180-330,19881005)
18 Blessed are the words, "Return to your hometown." Even the blessed land of Canaan to which the Israelites returned was not their hometown. A world-level territory, for which they would need to fight, still remained for the future. But now you return to your hometown after our passage over the global level. If you are standing in a position that unites South and North Korea, no one ever will be able to expel you. Instead the nations will serve you and the people will revere you. If you do not seize this amazing position from which you can serve God, what will become of you? You will go to ruin. This is why you should engrave what I have taught you deep in your very bones and consider the results that will come from the actions you take. From now on, rather than acting horizontally, act vertically. Be those who orient at a ninety-degree angle, who adopt a vertical starting point. Then when you are to stand somewhere, you can be the image of God on the horizontal line. Otherwise you cannot dwell in the heavenly nation.( 181-281,19881003)
19 When the people who were unable to return to their hometown are given permission to do so and are told that the day to do so has arrived, how great will be their joy! If you were to say, "I have purchased a twenty-story building in Myeongdong and for that reason I don t want to go to my hometown or anywhere other than here," you would bequeath bitter sorrow to your descendants for tens of thousands of years to come. It would be as if a villain drove a stake into their heart. Has any member of the human race on this earth not borne a grudge against Adam and Eve for their wrongdoing? So would you trade your hometown simply to possess a building? Only the son of a rebel would do so; he would have bitter sorrow embedded in his bosom for tens of millennia. He would never be able to go where he longed to go, and would never win sympathy from the person he loved; he would never be allowed to set foot anywhere.( 219-143,19910829)
20 When the Israelites went in to take over Canaan, they looked like a vast assemblage of beggars. Since they had wandered in the wilderness for forty years, famished every day, eating only manna and quail, they must have looked terrible. Observing their appearance, you would have thought they were on the verge of death. That is why when they saw the affluent households among the seven tribes of Canaan, they said, "I wish I could marry such people. I want to eat good food like they do." They basically sold themselves out. When the Canaanites opposed them, the Israelites gave up their values in order to treat themselves well. When you set out for your hometown, do not sell yourself out. Instead, dominate your environment and transform it into one in which you can bring the seven tribes of Canaan to voluntary submission, unite them as one and play the role of the owner, as their messiah.( 186-228,19890205)
21 Before I instruct you to do something, I first have you make a vow. Once you have made the vow, you need to practice it. I have done more than I have instructed you to do. I am now fulfilling the responsibility of not only a tribal messiah but also a national messiah and world Messiah. Since I am the world Messiah, if you promise to be national messiahs, there is hope. So don't even dream of saying you are not going to be a tribal messiah.( 185-218,19890108)
22 The secret to returning to the hometown is, first, true love that is totally united with God; second, the life that is absolutely united with that love; and third, the lineage that is absolutely united with that life. When you go back as the tribal messiah, you need to carry love with you. The blessed families of the Unification Church stand in the position of Eve. You need to unite your sons and daughters and go with them to your hometown to save your tribe. Adams family fell and his tribe multiplied wrongly ,and you as the tribal messiah have the responsibility to save them. Unless you can bring your sons and daughters to stand at the front while you follow from behind, there can be no path for you as their parents. They cannot inherit the seed of new life that is on the threshold of the heavenly kingdom. The foundation for the love of the family, the life of the family and the lineage of the family has been laid, but the love, life and lineage of God on the tribal level are yet to be attained. They need to be woven together. When that is done, because I am standing at the center, I can engraft them.( 225-305,19920126)
23 In returning to your hometown, where are you to go? You are not re-turning to your country; you are returning to your hometown, specifically, to your home. You are going back to your original home. When you consider the history of humankind in returning to the hometown, where is the original home? The hometown is not based on the standard of the fallen Adam and Eve. When we say we are returning to our hometown, we are referring to the hometown of the unfallen, original, perfected Adam and Eve. That is where God is.( 219-162,19910829)

CHAPTER 3
The Mission of a Church Leader
Section 1. The Mission and Responsibility of a Church Leader
1 When a priest performs a ceremony, if the people do not attend, he should consider it his responsibility. So if people do not come, you should strike yourself, shed tears on their behalf, and pray that God will forgive them. You should think that the people stayed away because you are a sinner, and repent of your sins representing the people and the nation. If you pray on a wooden floor, that floor should never remain dry; it should be soaked in tears twenty-four hours a day. Then God will guide you to the ones to whom you should witness. When they come to see you, you should serve and attend them as a servant, as if they were kings and queens. You must do so because you as a sinner need to remove your sins. The more you serve and attend them as kings and queens, the faster you will indemnify your sins. When you go down below them and serve those sinful people as if they were Heaven, you can set many indemnity conditions.( 089-290,19761204)
2 The people who are in the position of Cain need to support the priests. The priests are the ones who make offerings to redeem the people. Since they do so to redeem the sins of those in Cain's position, those people need to make offerings to their Abel and support him. In return, Abel must offer his life for Cain. Cain's offering is based on material things, whereas Abel's offering is based on the people. They become one at that point and the groundwork for restoration is laid. The high priests who represented the people of Israel were in the position of Abel. Hence, by paying the price of hard work to restore Cain, they could claim the people in Cain’s position as their portion. They claimed people, not material.( 044-146,19710506)
3 An altar cannot be set up unless the high priest fulfills his responsibility. It requires a priest. An altar cannot be prepared without a priest. What, then, is required for you to become a high priest? You need to belong to a blessed group of people whom God loves. Otherwise, you cannot attain that position. In Israel, the priests were from the tribe of Levi. Not just anyone could become a high priest. The Levites did not receive their own share of the land; the only thing that belonged to them was the temple. At the center of the temple was the altar, and it was on the altar that the sacrificial offerings were made. The only thing the chief priest could claim as his share was the sacrificial offering, and this only after he had made the offering on the altar and thus benefited the people with redemption.( 155-276,19651031)
4 What should the Unification Church do? At the present time, we should stand in the same position as the Levites. That means we should possess nothing of our own. Then we can be in the position to become high priests. Each of you ought to become a high priest with a temple. After you obtain a temple, you need an altar. After you have prepared your altar, you need to make offerings. To save people during the Old Testament Age, God had the high priests kill sheep and heifers and offer them as sacrifices. He even asked Abraham to offer his most beloved son as a sacrifice. Now, however, what do you love the most and deem most precious? It is your own self. That is why I am asking you to offer yourself as a sacrifice.( 155-276,19651031)
5 Consider the people in leadership positions. They cannot be happy just as they please. In fact, they are often quite miserable. Why are they miserable? It is because they feel that they are always in debt. They are always thinking, "I must be good to the members in my my church," and always feel indebted to them. When a leader sees that one of his members is miserable, he or she should talk to that person all through the night with concern about that person’s life. If that person is in a life-or-death situation, it is the responsibility of the spiritual leader to block the way to death, even at the cost of sacrificing himself. The leader needs to stand in such a position. Thus, the leader should consider whether he or she is living for the sake of the members, and how much he or she loves them. A leader should not think of the members as strangers, but as family. They are like branches of a tree, and should be well cared for so they can grow.( 070-147,19740209)
6 The person to whom you witness is called your spiritual son or daughter. That person is your own branch. How much have you endeavored night and day to nourish that branch? To do so, you need to become either the trunk or the root. If you are the root, the more branches there are, the more nutrients you will need to absorb from the soil to supply all that the trunk and branches require. You will need to constantly nourish them, without rest, to meet their needs and help them grow. If you are limited and unable to supply the nutrients that the branches at the top require, those branches will wither and die. Hence, you need to have something within you that connects to the bounty of life that surrounds you. If you are grateful for your life, life will always spring up and flow through you. Al-though your circumstances may be painful, you need to preserve a sanctuary deep in your heart where life can dwell, a nest where you can find peaceful rest. Then God will be with you.( 070-147,19740209)
7 It is important to take responsibility. Yet you live without realizing that you have to shoulder responsibility not only for this era, but also for history. You need to realize, "My ancestors, my current household, and my future descendants all depend on me." There-fore, as a spiritual leader you must not think you are free to do as you please. It is your obligation to live in keeping with the one way, even when you are surrounded by enemies. What is the one way? It is none other than following the way of the heart and teaching the way of filial piety. Even when eating or sleeping, you should be immersed in such a heart. Then you can develop.( 070-150,19740209)
8 You do not know how often I have shed tears because I missed you family members. God has also shed many tears as He sought His true sons and daughters. When a person comes to your church, you should never think, "How large a donation is this person going to make?" To think only about money is the viewpoint of a Pharisee. A church leader who thinks that way will never prosper. You leaders must love people rather than their money. When you love people, money will naturally follow. Nevertheless, most people's thinking is the other way around. Also, some leaders say that you should witness only to people who are young and handsome, but this is wrong! The church is an extension of the family. In families there are grandmothers, grandfathers and middle-aged women and men, as well as young people. If the Unification Church consisted of only young people, this situation would need to be corrected.( 070-150,19740209)
9 When something good is available, a spiritual leader should strive to use it for the benefit of all his people. If his people already live in good circumstances, the leader should be able to give them something of greater benefit. The leader should always be in a position to give something. From this perspective, God deserves our sympathy! If you ask world-famous spiritual leaders whether they feel truly happy, they will reply that they do not. They are in a position to give at all times, and they have to deal with people from various social classes. It would be simple if they had to deal only with people who are like themselves, but in fact they need to deal with many kinds of people because they are to live for the sake of all. Problems arise when they cannot give everything to all people at all times.( 072-308,19740714)
10 God, who has been taking responsibility for the providence of restoration, is the most pitiful of all beings. When people receive something, they are often not content; they want something more. If so, from whom? They want something from a particular central figure. If all those who follow God desired to be recipients, God would be in trouble. Whether they desired love or some other precious gift, if everyone tried to make it their own possession, He would be in big trouble- That is why He has emphasized conditions that involve relationships. In your life of faith, you are faithful not for yourself but for the sake of others; in interacting with and loving others, you do so not for yourself, but for them. Accordingly, you should follow the way of faith, live for the sake of others, and love based on this public standard. You should set such a standard in your life. Therefore you need to become a more public person.( 072-309,19740714)
11 The mission of a leader is not only to propagate or sow the Word but also to reap it. The act of propagating the Word is the same as sowing it, but the leader must also reap it. The leader needs to water the sprouts, nurture them and pull out weeds, so they can flower and bear fruit. The leaders mission is accomplished only when the fruit has had time to ripen, and is ready for harvest. Hence, a new leader should not uproot a plant that someone else has sown. Instead, the leader should nurture it well. Though it was planted by someone else, when the leader nurtures it well and harvests it, it will be stored in his heavenly storehouse. Nevertheless, instead of thinking like this, a new leader may uproot it and replant it as if it were his own, without understanding the former leader’s character or overall method of guidance. As a result, the plant may die. He should not do this.( 029-194,19700228)
12 In all respects, the most active members are the mainstream in the church. Those who are in charge of the church are like the Levites of Israel. The Levites did not have a share in the land. So who gives a salary to the ministers? The congregation does. To maintain their livelihood, church leaders need to demonstrate to the church members that they bring a higher value. In other words, a church leader needs to become a sacrificial offering, able to inspire the church members so that they joyfully donate and even offer to bring food. This is the way of a church leader. By practicing the heavenly way, I came to learn this law.( 083-095,19760205)
13 God cannot help but watch you, the people who need to take responsibility to reform the environment that can be His foundation. Unification Church members who serve in public positions in all departments must have a heart of restoration; otherwise they will not be able to transform this world into the heavenly kingdom. In this world full of tears, we must build this movement while shedding tears. Then we must expand it from a national movement to a worldwide movement. True Unification Church members and leaders are those who shed tears. Since the Fall led to tears, we need to be restored through tears. Therefore, do not cry for yourself; instead you must shed tears for humanity centered on God. The more such tears you shed, the closer you are to the realm of Heaven's heart.( 094-324,19771016)
14 In following the path of faith, you should not insist on going your own way. On the path of faith you have to climb up step by step; you are following behind many leaders in the spirit world who took the spiritual path during their lifetimes on earth. You cannot form a relationship with Jesus until you have surpassed his three disciples, Peter, James and John. Trying to do so would be like approaching a person of higher rank and introducing yourself; that would be impolite. In this respect, in leading a life of faith you need to know the quickest way to glory. That way is finding and following the special paths of those who took responsibility to cultivate their spirituality.( 032-164,19700712)
15 The church leader must build a bridge between the Will of God and our day-to-day lives. One who pursues a personal agenda cannot become a church leader. A leader is responsible to serve as a bridge between God's Will and the people. Therefore, that leader should live for the sake of the believers who come to see him or her. A church leader exists for the church members and, focusing on the Will of God, is responsible for their psychological well-being and spiritual life. A leader guides church members based on his or her area of responsibility. Thus, if the leader is in a high position from God's point of view, members who unite with that leader can also rise to that high position. When your leader offers devotions for you and prays for you and for the forgiveness of your sins, through that prayer you can attain the same standing as the leader. This is why people wish to be prayed for by someone who has received special grace. In this manner, your leader builds the bridge for you to find your way. However, the closer we get to the Last Days, the closer we approach the time when the internal issues of the spirit world will manifest on earth. At that time there will be many religious leaders who can personally carry out Heaven's work.( 032-165,19700712)
16 People today are so indifferent to others. In their everyday relationships, they seldom respect one another or the bonds between them. Regardless of gender or age, people tend to have the attitude that dealing with others is a nuisance. If you view others as a nuisance, you cannot walk the path of righteousness. For God to carry out His providence of restoration, He needs not just the Republic of Korea. He needs to connect all people throughout the world; for this reason God is deeply interested in us. That has been one of the most important goals in God's providence thus far. If we are truly a group of people gathered to accomplish this goal, we should be willing to stand with God and take the same interest in people. We should relate to people not just superficially, but with a deep heart. Then we will be in a position to form true relationships and genuine bonds.( 025-291,19691005)
Section 2. The Public Life of a Church Leader
1 When I am even a little late for morning pledge service, I cannot hold up my head for the rest of the day. Such is the kind of life I live. Throughout that day and week, I cannot get a grip on myself. The following week I wake up early and offer devotions tenfold or even a hundredfold to indemnify my lapse of the previous week. Only after I have set such a condition can I feel at ease. This is how I live my life. What a difficult life! I may look impressive when talking to you, but to be able to do that I must live a life that is full of restrictions, with no way out for weeks and even months on end. Is it a private life or a public life? It is a public life. You have no idea what a difficult position I am in as a religious leader.( 031-254,19700604)
2 My history will not be written while I am alive; it will be written only after I pass on. If I did anything that cannot be recognized publicly, based on the Principle, then I will be in serious trouble. The question is whether the content of the Principle supports my way of life. If my life is thought to have gone in the wrong direction, I will end up losing everything I have achieved. That is why a person in charge is in a dim-cult situation. A leader should not be the first to go to bed, no matter how tired he or she may be. He or she should not lie down until everyone else has gone to bed, and should be the last to finish praying. A leader should lead a life of faith and offer devotions, even if it means living in poverty with hardly anything to eat or wear. Such is the position of a leader. When a leader lives that way, he or she cannot go wrong, no matter what others think.( 033-169,19700811)
The path of public righteousness
3 Even when you do something as ordinary as eating rice, you should consider whether your act of eating is public or private. When you eat a meal, eat for the thirty million people of Korea and for the people of the world. If you try to make the world exist for the sake of Korea, Korea will be reduced to ruin. If you try to make the world exist for the sake of the United States, the United States will be brought to ruin. The United States can prosper only when it exists for the sake of the world.( 036-074,197011 15)
4 Which should be higher, our direct relationships of love in the fallen world, or our indirect relationship of love with God? We should place our indirect relationship with God higher than our direct love relationships in this world. If that is not the case, we need to elevate our level of love. When we form that bond with God, we create a place where everyone longs to be. It is a bond and a relationship that people respect, whether they want to or not. Then, what can we learn from it and what should we do? We should learn how to love humanity. In today’s world, many view our Unification Church members as having no bond with Heaven and no relationship with God. We may appear so to them, but in fact we have that bond and we have a profound relationship with God. Since we have attained such a position, we need to manifest the love that God desires to give humanity.( 025-286,19691005)
5 You who call each other church members should love each other more than you love other people, more than you love the things of this world. By truly loving one another you create the environment of love that can expand to the world. In this regard, the important thing is how much you appreciate the life of each member. Ask yourself how much you value each of your fellow church members. Even in the fallen world, when a person is going through difficulties other people help by giving whatever they can. If we cannot surpass that level of bonds and relationships, in the future we will be absorbed back into the fallen world. In that case, we cannot become the foothold for God to establish the bond that He so greatly hopes to make with all people.( 025-286,19691005)
6 You leaders need to be clear in your standpoint. Otherwise you will have a negative impact on your members. Whether you are in charge of a business or a church, you should be able to always love all the people with a public mind, that is, a caring heart, as though God had sent them to you. Care for your members as you would care for yourself, according to the law of public-mindedness. If you have the position of a leader, you should love all the people under your charge more than you assert yourself. Your standard in this matter should be higher than any existing relationship in Satan's world today. Otherwise we cannot realize the kingdom of heaven that we desire.( 025-287,19691005)
7 If you do not attend church three weeks in a row, you might even encounter an accident. If you do not attend church for one week, a second week and a third week, you will not feel at ease. You will not be able to say what is really on your mind, so instead you will lie. If this happens repeatedly, you will grow estranged from the church and eventually you will cut yourself off completely. As can be seen, although we witnessed to numerous people, many of them were lost because we lacked a good follow-up system to take care of them. Therefore, rather than focusing on giving Divine Principle lectures and making new relationships, you should take responsibility for those who connected with us in the past and raise them to bear fruit.( 029-194,19700228)
8 As a public leader, your attitude is an important issue. Heaven is in the highest position. That is why Jesus said, "Whoever loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." (Matt. 10:37) Jesus said this to indicate he held the highest position. Heaven strives to love us and establish a bond with us from this highest position. Thus, when you go out and introduce God to other people, how should you approach them? First, do not treat them with disdain. Someone may look plain and simple, but, although you cannot pinpoint it, you may get the feeling, "He is like my elder brother," or, "She is like my elder sister." Or perhaps when the person turns around, you may feel, "I have seen this person before." Surely such a person is meant to have a connection with you.( 050-265,1971 1108)
9 When you witness to someone, how much importance do you place on that person's life? You need to reflect on this issue. A doctor is responsible to examine and strive to cure any patient who comes to see him. It does not matter if the doctor himself is ill. If that doctor is the only person who can cure the patient s ailment, and if the only way to cure the ailment is by performing surgery, then it is the doctor s duty to forget about his own pain, take up a scalpel and work for hours using all his medical expertise to save that person’s life. Such a doctor can be called a true doctor of doctors. If that doctor died immediately after completing the operation, he would be regarded as having ended his life as a true doctor. And if that last patient were cured, that person would never forget what the doctor had done. The patient would even speak of it as the last words to his or her descendants.( 069-165,19731031)
10 Leaders of this age should not consider themselves great. They should know that they have attained their positions thanks to the merit and sacrifices of their many ancestors. They should not think of themselves as great and claim they have the right to take what belongs to others because they deserve it. Rather, leaders should have the attitude that they must live a public life. A political party should not put itself ahead of the nation; rather, the party should put the nation first. Likewise, the Unification Church should not put itself first, for it exists to save the nation. The Unification Church should not exist to own the world; rather, it should be a church that exists to save the world. When that happens, Heaven will always be with the Unification Church. Church leaders need to understand this tradition as they carry out their work. I am telling the leaders not to think they have risen to their present positions because they are great.( 130-304,19840213)
11 The world in which we live needs to be governed by law. Based on the law, matters are distinguished as right or wrong. Then what about the universe with God at its center? What will be the law by which we distinguish right from wrong? It will be the law of public righteousness, of living for the greater good. This will determine what is good or evil. Even in the family there are laws. Whether something is right or wrong is determined based on the family law of the greater good. The parents are in charge of upholding their family law. Hence, they cannot violate that law, and they are responsible for dealing with any such violation. If the parents do something wrong, the entire family will be affected. This also holds true for any society, company or organization. Each has its laws, and it depends on the leader whether the entity is for the public or private purpose, for good or for evil.( 147-259,19861001)
12 The leader of an organization bears public responsibility. As the person in charge, he or she has to take full responsibility. He or she should uphold and follow its rules and regulations. The leader guides the organization as its subject, which determines whether it will go the way of goodness or the way of evil. The same is true for the ruler of a nation. A nation's ruler is its subject figure who shoulders full responsibility to ensure that his nation upholds the law, which should be based upon the law of public righteousness. That ruler needs to be fully prepared for this role in all its aspects, both internal and external. Thus, leaders should be able to govern by the law of public righteousness, to uphold that law and influence all citizens of the nation to fulfill their responsibilities under it. Otherwise, from the perspective of the law of public righteousness, the ruler cannot represent the entire nation.( 147-260,19861001)
13 The world is surely heading toward unity with the central figure and the public will, centered on the law of the greater good. People in both the physical world and the spirit world are following this same path. Even God cannot just do as He pleases. Having set up the law of the greater good, God can firmly secure His position only by maintaining the centrality of that law and fulfilling His public duties and responsibilities in accordance with that law. He cannot assert His authority by ignoring His own law. The same is true for us, regarding the laws of the family, society and nation.( 147-260,19861001)
14 You may think you deserve to take the money that people have earned and donated, believing it is your due. In fact you are stealing the money, and you will be punished. The money that people offer is more fearsome than poison. If they earned it by shedding tears, going hungry and becoming thin, and you do not treat it with a deeper heart than that, you will be en-snared by that money. If you have not attained the standard of goodness to properly handle the money that was offered with devotion before Heaven, your children will pay the price. It will harm them and consume them. That is why you should regard public funds as precious. This is true everywhere in the world. If the sons and daughters of well-known revivalists or religious leaders go in the wrong direction, it is because those parents incurred such a debt. I know this. That is why when people bring an offering, I do not receive it with my own hands. I tell them to take the money and use it for some purpose without informing me about it. I can live without receiving that money. Or when I do receive such money, I do so in the name of God. I receive it saying, "I will use this as public money." I do not lay hands on even a cent for my private use.( 212-266,19910106)
15 To hold a public position is a daunting task. Those who hold a public position cannot live with selfish motives. When I give a sermon, if other pastors speak for an hour, I ought to speak at least ten minutes more. When mountain climbing, I have to be able to claim that I have taken at least one step more than others; otherwise someone will accuse me for not making a proper condition. That is why I have been living such a pitiful life. I can never live a comfortable life, just taking it easy. Since I live with such caution, Heaven also treats me with caution and heavenly fortune treats me carefully as well.( 212-267,19910106)
16 A church leader should never be dry-eyed. The most pitiful and sorrowful person in the world is a church leader. When I think about Gods heart and the providence of restoration, I often feel that God is to be pitied. When I think about all I need to do on the path of restoration, I feel so sad that I choke, my throat closes up and my heart bursts. Many times I feel as if I am about to faint. Without such a heart, I could not have lived for God and carried out His work. When passing by a village somewhere, if I happen to see something bad, I think, "I will let it go right now, but you wait and see. Later I will clean up this place with my own hands." That is the kind of person I am.( 046-298,19710817)
17 You need to pray a lot. Without praying, you can neither win God's sympathy nor receive His help. That is because if you are focused on yourself, you do not have a basis to receive sympathy. This is something to feel sad about. However, if you become someone with whom God can sympathize, you will never be lonely. Even if you lie down in your room in the dead of winter on a cold floor that feels like a block of ice, you will not feel miserable. Was that not the reason Jesus prayed a lot? If you do not have time to pray, you should pray while you are walking down the street, or you can witness instead. That is, you can witness to others, substituting that for your daily prayer.( 046-298,19710817)
18 Leaders need to give, not receive. When giving, they should not give the same thing over and over. They need to give something new. It is difficult to give sermons, isn't it? In giving lectures on the Divine Principle, you can just repeat what it says, but giving sermons is difficult because you should not give the same message repeatedly. When parents feed their beloved children, they pick and choose a variety of nutritious foods. Likewise, you should not give the same message again and again. If you have nothing to give, pray to receive inspiration from God. Then feed what you have received from God to your church members. Discuss with Him what to feed them.( 046-299,19710817)
19 You certainly represent God. Some-times you may pray without being entirely aware of the content, yet you are deeply moved by your own prayer. When you are in such a state, everyone present will be captivated by God, and will recognize through personal experience that God is the driving force and the source of life. Through that experience, they will come to feel that they absolutely need God. To give people such powerful and moving experiences, your prayers are absolutely necessary.( 046-299,19710817)
20 People in charge should never be arrogant. A leader should be like a parent, a mother or father. The leader is a representative of God. The leader needs to invest greater effort than anyone else, day and night, and take responsibility to resolve all kinds of situations, whether spiritual or physical, internal or external, with a sincere heart. He or she should be the one to whom others come for advice, the subject partner of heart that people love more than they love their own parents. Without the ability to lead in this way, one cannot fulfill the mission of a leader.( 068-273,19730805)
The way to live for the greater good
21 You should be loyal to your society, loyal to your church, and loyal to your family. What is the purpose of the church? It is where you shape and cultivate your character. You need the church because of the Fall. Your family and society are not sufficient to perfect your character. You cannot perfect your character just the way you are. You may have gone to college; you may even have earned a doctoral degree, but it does not mean that your character is ideal. That is why you need the church. Through me, you need to establish a bond with the new Parents and become their new children. Then you can begin your family anew, bring it under Gods dominion and advance toward a new world. In doing so, the church serves as your foothold. Otherwise you cannot be successful. Your new family is formed through the church, and a new society is also created through the church.( 025-126,19690930)
22 What is the basis for asserting that a person is upright? An upright person brings together the heart of Heaven and the heart of the people at one central point. You ought to be such a person. At church you should offer all your devotion to win a central place in the hearts of its members. For this, you need to invest all your heart and soul. You should offer devotion beyond what you offer for your family, school or personal success in life. That is why Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." (Matt. 22:37) You should love God with all your devotion and all your soul and all your heart.( 025-127,19690930)
23 The church exists for the purpose of saving the nation. Christianity, however, does not know this. Christianity believes that the church exists for the purpose of going to the kingdom of heaven. Even that purpose is for the individual. This has resulted in nations, like the United States, that embrace individualism. The Unification Church is striving to reform the world that consists of such nations. We witness to others not for the prosperity of the Unification Church, but to make the nation prosper. Religious people should not simply dwell within a nation, but work to save it. Judaism declined because it lost its leading role in saving the nation of Israel. The policy of the Unification Church is to work for the sake of the nation.
(034-330,19700920)
24 The church is to seek and establish Gods nation. Its purpose is not to seek and establish the church. God's original ideal of creation is to make this world a unified world centered on that nation, and therefore the aim of the church should be to seek that nation. How do we do this? Cain and Abel must become one. Unless Cain and Abel become one, we cannot establish the nation.( 149-050,19861102)
25 You blessed families should know that your mission is truly great. You need to be parents who can influence your sons and daughters. This is your first mission. To do so, you have to be thorough in conducting your church life and public life, and you should be exemplary in your personal life. These are absolutely necessary in training your children to go the way of the providence in the future.( 031-277,19700604)
26 Which type of life is more internal, the habitual life you lived in society before joining the church, or the life you have lived since joining the church? When asked such a question, you may answer that it is your church life. Yet how seriously have you valued your internal life? Some think they are going the way of the Will, and lightly say, "What I am doing now is for the Will" Can God dwell there? As I have walked the path of the Will, my main focus has been to seek the place that God can dwell. Where is the central place where He can reside? How can we unite centered on that place? How can we create harmony there? How can we establish a foundation of unity at the place that God can officially recognize, and how can we adapt ourselves to it internally? These are the questions I have focused on as I have pioneered my way until now.( 022-038,196901 19)
27 Nonbelievers may simply base their social lives on their families, but people of faith need to base their social lives not only on their families but also on the church. Nonbelievers desire recognition and fame in their social lives. People of faith, in contrast, should place greater importance on their church lives. Social life and church life can be likened to the positions of Cain and Abel. Social life, being external, is Cain-like; whereas church life, being internal, is Abel-like. Therefore, your social life should become a reflection of your internal life. It should be the object partner. Your internal church life should become the center of your external social life. If you cannot stand in a position to be publicly recognized by God in your church, you cannot represent God in your social life. Therefore, the question is whether you can be publicly recognized by God in your church.( 022-036,196901 19)
28 Some people do well in their church but not so well in society. Conversely, there are others who do well in society but not so well in church. Those who do well in society but not in church do not possess the essential qualities necessary to bear spiritual fruit. Who is better, a person who does well in church or a person who does well in society? It is those who do well in church. Those who have the qualities that can bear fruit can go forward with hope for tomorrow, but the relationships of those who lack those qualities cannot be fruitful.( 036-020,19701108)
29 The offering of devotions is a lifeline for people who take the path of serving God. Like a water pipe that carries water from the source, the offering of devotions should be constant. The leader who is responsible for a church should be united with at least three men and three women among the members. Unless those seven people including the church leader are always united in heart, the church cannot grow. It is not enough for the leader to unite with three people who suit his taste. The leader needs to strive to unite at all times with one person who is the most close to his heart, one person who is the most distant from his heart, and one person who is in the middle. That unity should reach the point where those three people offer devotions for their pastor.( 056-009,19720510)
30 When a church leader goes somewhere on a speaking tour, he or she should not go alone. During the tour, there should always be people praying for success behind the scenes. In particular, during my speaking tour, what would happen if you knew where I would be speaking and you prayed, offering devotions for me? In that case God would certainly be there working with me.( 056-009,19720510)
31 A leader needs a base for his or her activities. Unless that base is stronger than the places where activities are carried out, he or she cannot prosper. When you look at a tree, its branches sprout and extend from the trunk. The trunk is bigger than the branches. Similarly, without a base of operations, a ministry cannot grow. Church leaders need to understand this. It is the reason they need to bring three men and three women into total unity to support the church. When they all act as one, they can become the greatest nucleus for the development of the church. They need to maintain that structure for the sake of church activities. When each of the six people in that structure forms a trinity with three other people, they will naturally become a group of twenty-four people. When the three men each form a trinity, they will naturally become twelve people, and combining the trinities of the three men and those of the three women adds up to twenty-four people. With the church leader as their subject, they become inseparable. The amount of devotion the church leader offers for those people determines how much they in turn offer devotion for the leader.( 056-010,19720510)
32 To become a true leader, you need to formulate both internal and external strategies for your mission field. Employing those strategies, you should digest the difficulties of your mission field with the heart of a true parent. To devise your strategies you need to collect various types of materials and study them, and to succeed in your mission field you should make greater effort, sleeping less than others. What determines whether a community will be drawn to you or not is the amount of encouragement you give the people and the positive conditions you make for them. No one likes to be indebted to others. The same is true of me. You need to consider what you have to do to carry out your parental responsibilities, both internally and externally. And you need to consider how to maintain a relationship with God.( 046-296,19710817)
33 A leader needs to offer devotions. Only if you truly yearn for God can you pray all day long. You have to yearn for Him more than for people. Your heart of love and reverence for Him should never waver. You should long for Him with an indescribable feeling, thirsting for Him like a hungry baby wanting its mother s milk. At such times, although others are unaware of it, you will subtly receive spiritual food.( 046-297,19710817)
34 People will never miss you unless you miss them with all your heart. Therefore, as a pastor, you should always wake up early and wait for people to come to see you. You should open your door by four o'clock in the morning and hear the first crowing of the rooster. If the rooster crows before you get up, you should be upset and say, "Hey, you rooster, how dare you get up before me and crow!" Unless you live this way, the members will not wake up early in the morning and yearn for you as their teacher and leader. Nor will they pray for you. If they have no reason to do so, you will never have any results.( 030-149,19700321)
35 A tower built with sincere effort will not collapse; it is a matter of sincerity. How much have I yearned for you? No matter how much I explain it to you, you cannot understand. That being the case, how much have you yearned for me? How much have you yearned for the sons and daughters of God? How much have you yearned for the family and the people, the nation and the world of His hope? You do not know what it means to yearn for all of this. Money is not the issue. Even if you seem like a beggar, if you yearn for people, that in itself is glorious. Forgetting about worldly success and working to pave the way to Heaven is glorious. That is a marvelous thing.( 030-150,19700321)
36 It is right for people to give food to the hungry. Even if it is food you obtained from begging, you should still share it with others, for that is an honorable thing to do as a human being. If you have plenty of food at home yet grumble at a hungry person who asks for a meal, your household will not last long. You should just provide such people with free meals. While doing that, you should also express concern for them with a public heart. That is how you can receive blessings. If you provide many people with free meals and at the same time demonstrate concern for them with a public heart, no one will dislike you.( 056-037,19720510)
37 If you are the first to welcome new members to the church, you will be blessed. But you have to serve them and help them settle down completely until they can sustain a life of faith on their own. When you do that, you will participate in their victory. If you have that kind of relationship with more than ten people, when you find yourself in the jaws of death, they will come to your rescue. You will reap such benefits. This is how you will be blessed. That is why you should be hospitable to new visitors who come to the church.( 037-329,19710101)
Working proactively
38 Think about your past and present and ask yourself: Does your past stand as the subject partner, or does your present? If your past and your present cannot form a subject-object relationship, you should look toward the future as the subject partner of hope. What happens when you slack off and cannot devote yourself with hope in the future? In that case, you will inevitably view the past as the subject partner and the present as the object partner. Therefore, in your life of faith you should not just let the grace you received in the past slip by. As you walk the path of faith, you will encounter lax times without realizing it. When that occurs, you can deal with the present reality by taking your past life of faith as your subject partner. Read again the diaries you wrote in the past, or reflect on what you experienced during your prayers when your life was filled with grace. You need to revive the heart you had at that time, and repeat what you did back then. Then you can make a resolution with a motivation even greater than you had in the past.( 042-096,19710228)
39 As you walk the way of the Will you should have a subject partner, someone who represents the entire church, someone on the side of truth. But what if you do not have a relationship with such a person? You need to compare your present life with your life in the past, and if you find the past to be better than today, you should bring your past life back into your present. The question remains, how can you rekindle the determination you had back then? How can you re-experience the heart you felt back then? How can you re-create the circumstances of that time, when you fought your way through? If you cannot resolve these issues in your own prayers, you should find a way to resolve them by taking some kind of action.( 042-097,19710228)
40 While walking the way of the Will, you can easily become estranged from the church. It means sometimes you are not within the church, but are living centered on yourself. If you are not within the church, that is, if you do not center your life on the church in all aspects but stand in the position of a third party estranged from the church, then you will drift away. The church will no longer stimulate you, and your ties to it will weaken. Then inevitably, although you did not intend it, you fall into a situation where your church life becomes lax. What then should you do? You need to work for the sake of the church in all aspects and unite with its leader. You should not isolate yourself from church activities, but instead be active and keep pace with the leader. By fighting your way through while keeping pace with the leader and fighting evil, you can experience the circumstances faced by those at the forefront, the decisions that they make, and the conditions that motivate them. When you do that, you will not only follow in the footsteps of the leaders representing the church, but will even arrive at a position ahead of them.( 042-097,19710228)
41 What must the Unification Church teach? It should teach about the relationship you should have with me. Once you have an internal relationship with me, you can set up a clear model for applying it to your external relationships. You have to absolutely value your relationship with me. Otherwise you cannot establish the realm of the absolute object partner, the most precious position in the church. Then what should the Unification Church actually do? What you and I feel in our hearts should be the core, and then we should apply that core to our relationships. Then, what should I do? My part is to share what I feel about God with you. Thereupon, al-though you do not know what I know, you will know what you feel about me and that feeling will be your own. That is how you cultivate the field of your heart and mind, and open the door of your heart and mind. However, even when you have finished cultivating the field of your heart and mind, that is not the end; you should then apply this to your own relationships.( 076-155,19750202)
Section 3. A Church Leader's Devotional Life
1 Have you ever prayed for a church member after he or she has visited you? Have you ever thought of that person throughout the night and prepared under the light of a kerosene lamp the words you would like to share the following day? Have you waited for sun-rise, longing for that persons return? If you wait like that, that person will surely come. When that happens you will realize, "Wow! This is the true meaning of devotion. If I offer sincere devotion, I can move God!" If you desperately want someone to come and you pray for that person for three hours with total unity of mind and body, he or she will start to feel restless. A desire to come to the church will stir in that person’s heart. That kind of thing is possible.( 075-179,19750102)
2 When you offer devotions for your members, rather than praying for many people at a time it is better to pray for each person individually. The difference in results between praying for many people and praying for one person at a time is very clear, like the difference between east and west or north and south. As a subject partner, pick one object partner and draw a line to that person. Then you should be able to determine all four directions. Focus absolutely on the relationship with that person until all four directions are secured. Only then can a sphere be formed.( 042-166,19710304)
A leader whom Heaven remembers
3 If people are to serve God while living on earth, they need to travel the way of the saints who laid the foundation for religions. We should realize that, as a matter of course, we too have to go the way that the many religious leaders of the past have gone. We have to want to travel this road and be determined to do it. If you unite with all the past religious leaders, you will naturally find your place in the world of the Principle, the world of religion. Having made that foundation, when you pray you will rise to a position that transcends the sphere of religion, and you will shorten the distance between yourself and God. That is why, even though you walk a religious path on earth, you still need to offer devotion. Some people need to offer much devotion, while others, thanks to their good ancestors, can simply go straight along the path that their ancestors hoped for. What did their ancestors hope for? They sought the same world and purpose that religions have been seeking.( 032-160,19700712)
4 The goal of religion is to find one true man, one true family, one true nation, and one true world. This is the purpose of religion, and it is also the purpose of God. It is the purpose of the providence God has been conducting in this world. If we stand on the foundation of the devotion of past religious leaders, we can connect with God's purpose. The people of any particular religion do not follow only that religion's founder, but also the many believers of that religion and the leaders of all nations that identify with that religion. If that religion has a worldwide foundation, many global leaders will want to follow it too. Thus the distance between religious people and the spirit world can be reduced.( 032-161,19700712)
5 In the Last Days it is not enough to learn from only one person who received grace; you should compare the teachings with those of many others who also received grace. You need to be wise about finding the best methods to elevate your spirituality on your own by meeting spiritual leaders with higher truth. However, many people of faith today do not know this. They need a comprehensive outlook; they need to effectively compare and analyze to find the fastest way for themselves. So when you travel a new path, do not just go along with it.( 032-167,19700712)
6 Do not always seek to receive grace. Do not always try to drink water from a well dug by someone else. Follow the stream until you find a new spring of pure water. By the same token, when you conclude that the leader who has been inspiring you has reached his or her limit, you should offer greater devotion than that person did at the peak of inspiration. Then you will surpass that person. People of faith today do not know this.( 032-167,19700712)
7 What kind of place is heaven? The answer is simple. Briefly, it is the world where people who lived for others go. People who lived for themselves cannot enter heaven. Only those who lived for God and the world can go to that place. Whether you are a church leader or a member, no matter how faithful you have been and no matter how much devotion you have offered, if it was all for yourself, you will be unable to enter the kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, if you lived according to the original way of the Will and followed the principle of living for the sake of others, you will surely go to the kingdom of heaven. That is, from the time you reached the age of maturity, if you lived for the sake of others and for God, and if you went the way of death for God and humanity, you will indeed go to the kingdom of heaven.( 077-109,19750401)
8 Whether you are a local church leader or district leader, you have to know how to read people. You should be able to glimpse their spirituality and tell what level they are at. The tasks that a spiritual leader needs to perform are very difficult. That is why you must pray. When you pray about what is on the other side of the mountain, images of what is there should appear in your mind. But to reach that level, you need to offer devotion. A church leader has to know the spiritual state of his or her members even before they do. A person who seriously offers devotion is able to know what has happened to them.( 237-050,199211 10)
9 Long ago, when I was leading a church with a gathering of about four hundred people, I called out the church members' names one by one. I knew their spiritual level right away. I saw those with a high spirit standing upright above the horizon; those with a lower spirit stood slanted and those whose spiritual level was lower stood upside down. In order to have this kind of spiritual experience you need to be in tune with God. You need to resonate with Him. When you play the geo-mun-go, a Korean lute, if one of its strings is even the slightest bit loose, the instrument will be out of tune and its sound will be discordant. We must create resonating harmony.( 237-050,199211 10)
10 Never mistreat a person who offers devotion to Heaven. When a family member from the countryside brings me even one apple, I do not eat it casually. Treating an object offered with devotion in the wrong way cannot be forgiven. Ignoring a single-minded heart of devotion is an inexcusable sin against heavenly law. Do not treat things that contain someone's devotion carelessly. If something contains 99 degrees of devotion, you have to offer 100 degrees of devotion before you are qualified to touch it. Suppose the leader of a certain group accepts things offered with much devotion but does not connect them to Heaven. Then the more the members of that group offer devotional conditions, the more quickly the leader and the group will decline. That is why some spiritual groups prosper for a span of time but then quickly go to ruin. It is because they disregarded Heaven’s way.( 017-242,19670129)
11 The greater the number of people praying and offering devotion for you, the more blessed you will be. However, to have many people offering devotion for you, you should first give all the blessings you have to others. Unless you do that, not many people will pray for you to receive God's blessings. The person who has ten people offering devotion for his or her sake is someone God will remember. The church consists of a group of people who have created an environment of such devotion. It is a place where people say, "Let us expand the environment by encouraging one another to go to a new level."( 031-157,19700524)
12 Church leaders should not offer devotion for themselves. They should be offering devotion for many thousands of other people. They should lead people to reach a level of devotion that is not only for their families but also for their nation and even for the world. A church leaders eyes should be fixed not on his own family and church members. He should have the heart to go out to the country and world while appealing to Heaven, "Please combine my devotion and my church members' devotion to make a path on which we can serve the world" If a church leader establishes unity with his members and has a reciprocal relationship with them in this manner, God will surely come and dwell among them. God conies when the church members and their leader become one. However, this happens when they unite not for the revival of their church but for the revival of the nation.( 031-157,19700524)
Devotion and Heaven's work
13 This is the era when we should restore the people. If the Unification Church members's devotion does not surpass the era of the family, then the leader must take responsibility to offer more devotion. If this does not happen, the church will not be able to break through to the level of the people. However, if even one person is able to go to this level by investing all his life and love, just as God has invested His boundless life force, then the Unification Church will develop through him. However, if there is no one like that, we will remain stagnant or retreat. For the church to develop, there must be a driving force behind the scenes. This means someone must invest life and soul, becoming a sacrifice to lift the Unification Church even beyond the people and the nation to the world. You should know who that person is. In sacrificing himself, that person should invest not only his life and soul but also all his love. Unless such a person exists, the Unification Church will not develop to the world level. This is the viewpoint of the Principle.( 032-029,19700614)
14 When you follow the Will, you have to invest your life completely. You have to invest your life force and the power of your love for a higher realm, beyond the nation and the world. Your life force and the power of your love become the elements that enable you to pioneer the path to grow the church. There will be people who struggle so much when having to face the destiny of the Unification Church and to embrace all the sorrowful circumstances on this earth. If so, even if you offer all manner of devotion for them and give them all manner of thanks and appreciation, it still will not be enough. Nevertheless, anyone who criticizes those members and ignores them will eventually perish. When you see that the Unification Church is growing you should feel endlessly grateful. At the same time, you should feel how lacking you are and pray, "I am at this level today, but please give me strength to become better." You should not be the kind of person who just lets the sea-sons come and go. If during the autumn and winter you are unable to discover the life force and the power of love that are deep inside you, you will be unable to meet the coming spring and fully blossom. It will then be the end of the road for you.( 032-029,19700614)
15 Suppose that the founders of religions and the leaders who followed them were unable to fully prepare the path for people on earth to go to the good spirit world. Nevertheless, if someone continued pursuing that path for people on earth, while offering sincere devotion, God would protect that person. This does not mean God would protect him or her all the time. Rather, it means that when that individual faced the situation where his or her predecessors failed, or encountered a similar situation, if he or she offered devotion, God would lead that person to break through the predecessors' failed circumstances. This is how God works to advance humankind to the point where we can directly receive His grace.( 032-173,19700712)
16 There have been people who were responsible to lay the foundation for the way of the Principle, but who could not fulfill their responsibility. Subsequently, based on the numerous spirits who went to the spirit world, God established a foundation to pass down the same responsibility and bestowed His grace so that the successors on that path could overcome the previous failure. At that time, God did not think of His own situation. Rather, He worked based on their offering of devotion. God worked so they could climb up step by step.( 032-174,19700712)
17 A church leader is in the position of a parent. Parents cannot go to sleep before they have put their children to bed. Unless they get sick, they cannot go to bed early. The parents' heart is such that they shed tears worrying about the future of their sons and daughters who are still immature. When their children experience difficulties in life, the parents will not go to bed without first praying for their children. Likewise, church leaders should feel so concerned about the members that they are unable to sleep. In the quiet moments of early morning or late at night, they should tearfully offer devotion for the church members. That is how leaders can lay a foundation. After raising the members in this way, as their children, what should church leaders do? They should inspire their members to become patriots who live for their country more than for their church. Leaders can do so only if they, in the parent position, set the example.( 034-031,19700829)
18 Upright parents, before telling their children to do something, first educate them properly with love. If you live that way, God will not be able to leave you even if He wants to. If you become that kind of person, you will have a mysterious and strong power that will automatically attract others' attention. People will have to be interested in you. In the winter, when you make a fire in the stove, people will flock to it. No one has to tell them which stove is hot and which stove is cold; they will know. In the same way you have to become a person that other people flock to. You need to establish your own foundation based on this tradition. Then, with sacrificial determination, you must expand it to a family foundation and then connect it to the tribe and the nation. This is the path that Heaven takes.( 034-031,19700829)
19 What should you do if your leader does something wrong, or makes a mistake? You need to wholeheartedly work with that person to correct the situation. If the leader is beset with problems and has to leave that position, you will become the successor. If you are that kind of person, you will advance wherever you go. No matter how bad your leader may be, if you continuously attempt to unite in heart, that leader will surely be replaced one day. If you are ordered to do something impossible but accomplish it anyway, the leader who gave that direction without personally having fulfilled it will not be in that position much longer. The person who orders others to do what he or she has not done can be likened to a bud that has stopped growing, but the person who faithfully carries out those orders is like a growing bud.( 069-281,19740101)
20 People who are always indebted to others are the rejects of society. No one likes them. They are treated as outsiders. You should not say that a particular leader is bad. Rather you should think, "Under this leader I have a good opportunity to fairly demonstrate my ability and let my results shine." Do so, and everyone around you will recognize you. If your leaders are capable and guide you in detail, how can you claim your own results? Deficiencies in a leader give you a good chance to shine. That is why I am telling you not to complain when other people do, and not to draw back when others do. When the leader dies, you should even have the heart to lead the funeral service for that person, and put flowers on his or her grave. This is how you emerge as the owner.( 069-282,19740101)
21 When you go to a high mountain and pray, you should be able to hear the voices of people around you calling out, "Save me!" You should also sense your ancestors in the spirit world imploring you to save them quickly. They are calling out to you because they want you to fulfill your responsibility for them, as their high priest. That is a role of the high priest, and you have to fulfill your responsibility. A high priest cannot say, "I have a headache," no matter how bad his headache is. He cannot say, "I am exhausted," no matter how tired he is. He cannot rest until God permits him to rest. If he is unable to fulfill his responsibility he has to pay indemnity, and thus falls ill. To avoid that, he may even need to put himself in the situation to be persecuted. A high priest needs to eat the kind of food that beggars eat, and climb up from there. Also, he should start by wearing the humblest clothes. In this way he should restore everything in every field. If he wants the nation and the people to become one with him, he has to start at the bottom before he can go up. He has to experience the misery of the people. Seen in this light, I am often thankful for the persecution I get. The noise that the outside world is making about us enables my family and our church to pay all the indemnity that needs to be paid.( 089-292,19760204)
22 As a leader, you have to suffer. Suffering means that you are making indemnity conditions. If you pray without sleeping and offer other devotional conditions, what will happen? And if you work hard without resting and do your best to pay external indemnity, what will happen? Attend other people as your kings. That is also paying indemnity. Suppose you attend a very difficult person as if he or she were your lord. Even if that person does not accept your heart of sincere devotion, God will accept it. If that person does not want to follow the Unification Church and leaves, you will inherit all the blessings that his good ancestors had stored up for him. It is a daunting strategy. You will receive all his blessings. You will harvest them and gather them in.( 089-293,19761204)
23 The Unification Church teaches that the individual sacrifices for the family. If that is so, that family too will naturally pay indemnity. Then it will surely be blessed and prosper, and the person who sacrificed himself more than anyone else will become the center. The one who benefited everyone around him will surely be-come the leader. Do not offer devotion for your own success, or to receive blessings. Rather, offer devotion to be given the grace to become the person who can take responsibility for the whole. You should know dearly that the heavenly principle and history require that we take this path. It is based on this principle that the Unification Church teaches that the individual sacrifices for the family. We do not say this arbitrarily, If you sacrifice yourself in this way, you will become the center of your family. Your family will be blessed and will pass on these blessings to your sons and daughters. Later, when your family expands into a tribe, your family will become the central family of your tribe and the center of all its blessings.( 130-295,19840213)
Offering devotions for the members
24 The person who offers the most devotion becomes the center. God's blessing will manifest through that person. The higher a broadcast antenna is, the farther it can transmit radio waves throughout the world. Even if it is only a few inches higher than others, it can transmit beyond all other radio waves and reach the whole world. We can apply exactly the same logic to the offering of devotion. That is why you have to offer a lot of devotion, investing yourself and forgetting about it. Because this is Gods Principle of Creation, the person who invests more than others, and forgets having done so, becomes the eternal leader.( 287-299,19971006)
25 You have to pray. You can offer two types of devotion: for the people and for God. As a spiritual leader, you are in the position of a mediator who links God's life force with the people. Hence, the results depend on how much devotion you offer. If you are completely focused on the cause, placing God at the center of all you do, then the complete result that God desires can be manifested through you. The church members will unite with you according to the degree of your oneness with God. The members will unite with you to the degree you have become one with me. For this reason, you cannot help but think of me as your lifeline. God may be somewhat difficult for you to grasp, but you can think of me even when you are asleep or walking on the street. Try to keep me in mind at all times, day and night. Then the door of the spirit world will open to you. Forget about your own situation. Offering devotion is the fastest way to do this. If you offer devotion, your members will have spiritual experiences involving you. The result will reflect the cause.( 070-165,19740209)
26 A minister should pray for each member of his congregation at least once every three days. I spent nearly three years in Hungnam prison, yet even in that situation there was not a moment, from when I ate breakfast in the morning until I went to sleep at night, that I was not praying for members. Even if members left the church I continued to pray for them. Then those people came to me spiritually and, weeping sorrowfully, told me the reasons they left the church. I could not help feeling sorry for them, especially those who confessed that they left me because they were too weak in the flesh. Even though they left me that way I continued to pray for them.( 042-162,19710304)
27 When I pray for a church district, I do not pray for the leader. Instead I pray for the members who are dedicated to that leader, who serve as a support base for the leader and are working hard. I do this so that the Will can advance further. I do not praise a district leader when he or she fulfills a responsibility; rather, I praise the family members who enabled that leader to be praised. Leaders, you should pray for the members who are cooperating with you. Do not become indebted to your members in heart. When your members are suffering on the frontline, as their leader, you need to think of them even when you are eating. You should think of them even as you put your spoon in your mouth, and swallow your food with tears in your eyes. The words, "Heavenly Father, please look after them," should automatically emerge as a prayer in your heart. If you lack this kind of heart, you cannot advance.( 013-301,19640412)
28 You leaders need to be single-minded, but for what? Is it to eat? No. It is for your mission and your responsibility to resurrect lost lives, one by one, as God's sons and daughters. It is to bring them out of the evil world and into the kingdom of heaven. Try living with that sense of mission more seriously each year; then nothing will be impossible. If you are an absolute subject partner, absolute object partners will appear. Therefore, as the subject partner, you need to pray for your object partners. If a person you are praying for gets up early, you have to get up even earlier and offer devotions. Then that person will immediately notice that someone is praying for him or her.( 042-164,19710304)
29 A leader's position is one of offering devotion. In the morning, you have to pray for at least twenty people. During the day, you have to think about and pray for more than seventy people. You have to eat and live with the members. People are most focused when they eat and when they go to sleep. This is because when you eat out of hunger and go to sleep out of fatigue, all your nerves are focused. On the other hand, when you wake up your nerves are in a state of relaxation, and you are less focused. Thus you should pray for the Will with as much presence as when you eat and when you go to sleep. One prayer with such mindfulness is better than several prayers at other times of the day.( 042-164,19710304)
30 You leaders should always keep your members close to your heart, as though you were eating and sleeping with them. Then you will come to intuitively understand each person. When your perception becomes keener, you will be able to read clearly both those who are near you and those who are far away. Once you look at them you will instantly know their inner situations. As a spiritual leader, if you are so dull that you do not have this kind of ability, how will you be able to guide people? The question is, how much devotion have you offered for each individual? You need to understand what Jesus meant when he said, "For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?" (Matt. 16:26) He meant that each human life is more precious than the whole universe, and he dropped the anchor of his heart in each person. When you arrive at the state of Jesus' heart, you will forget about the world and fight for each individual life on a one-to-one basis. You will search the deep valleys for that life, with its unparalleled value. Then you will finally recover that new life and gain a new member.( 042-164,19710304)
31 You need to know the greatness and power of prayer. You may think that you are just one person praying here on earth, but incredibly, your prayer can mobilize the spirit world in the other dimension, the limitless world, and establish new bonds. Prayer acts like a magnet. When you become a leader in the future, your prayer can be so powerful that if you pray twenty-four hours a day for the members with the unshakable belief that your prayer will work, you will see it happen. Prayer really has that kind of power. That is why Jesus is quoted in the Bible as saying, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them" (Matt. 18:20) Hence, if three people join together in prayer, they have great power.( 076-298,19750310)
Section 4. Giving Sermons that Move Hearts
1 As a leader, you must not avoid difficult situations; rather, you should overcome any situation. If you cannot proactively master your environment, how can you accomplish Heaven's Will? God's strategy is to have you go through trials, even to send you to prison, in order to raise you to stand so firmly that no one can bring you down. If you have experienced this in the past, thinking about your previous misery will enable you to endure present suffering and go forward. In Hungnam labor camp, every year I was given an award as an exemplary worker. God had me go through that course in order to train me. With that in mind, I am now training you. When suffering children ask for something from their parents, who cannot provide it, how miserable those parents must be. Thinking of God in that position, I have endured a course of pain and suffering; therefore I can handle any situation. Suffering without any purpose has no value, but doing so for God's Will is more precious than any amount of gold. This is my asset. That is why I never prepare my sermons. I have only to speak the truth from my own life experience, and people cannot help but be moved.( 016-344,19661014)
One's heart when preparing a sermon
2 As a leader, when you go out to witness, you should feel as though your flesh and bones are melting away. Then go to the pulpit and give a sermon with a prayerful heart, thinking, "Father! I am so unworthy and inadequate. Nevertheless, You have to rely on me to do this, and I am so sorry." Do not be centered on yourself. Consider that you are a member of God's special task force, dispatched with God's official endorsement to represent True Parents and heaven and earth. Before giving a sermon, I spend more time praying for the members than for the sermon. I pray, "Father! I must lead these people and raise them up. What should I do? Should I go this way or that way?" After offering that devotion, I give a sermon as my heart leads me. If the heart is absent, there can be no life. The way through the valley of the heart is painful and miserable. Thus when looking for a teacher, do not seek a teacher of knowledge; rather, seek a teacher of the heart. The more you dig into the valley of the heart, the more you will find tears and the less you will find yourself. The closer you get to your final destination, the larger God's Will and purpose will become and the smaller you will become. As long as you are becoming smaller and the Will is becoming larger, all problems can be resolved.( 009-080,19600412)
3 You can call yourself a high priest only when you go through a process to become a sacrificial offering with the heart of a parent and the body of a servant. To become a high priest, you need to have a child who is willing to become a sacrifice. If you do not have a child from your own direct lineage that will do that, you should at least have a spiritual child. The worship service is the time to make offerings. It is when you report to God about your past and make atonement. Therefore, die worship service is not a time when you can expect to be free.( 011-163,19610624)
4 How can you travel around, going here and there for twelve months of the year, and casually go up to the pulpit saying, "Brothers and sisters, let us sing hymns," then speak about how Father is such and such, and then pray? If you act like that, the heavenly nation will never be realized and people will never be resurrected. Look at a mother in labor when she is giving birth to her baby. Doesn't she go through so much pain, feeling as if she is about to burst, with her face contorted in so many ways? If a mother goes through so much when giving birth to her physical baby, you have to be more serious than that to give birth to your spiritual children. When you leave the pulpit, you should be sweating and in tears.( 075-177,19750102)
5 Spiritual leaders cannot do their work without having spiritual experiences. They should not prepare their sermons by reading books. Do you see God when you read books? Is God in the midst of those books? No, He is not. Because God dwells in a mysterious spiritual realm, you have to connect with Him through the Holy Spirit. Faith is most precious if it includes spiritual experiences. Therefore, people who join the Unification Church usually have such spiritual experiences. In fact, they must have these experiences. These kinds of phenomena are very for the Will, Heaven will be with you.( 076-151,19750202)
6 I have such a direct and close relationship with God, I have no need to worry about preparing my sermons. You too need to train yourself to be like this. Sometimes I have to meet and speak with famous people, even up to ten times in a day. I must talk about a different topic each time, depending on the occasion. But do I prepare my speech every time? At such times, I am fully aware that I am an offering. I have no concept of "I" or "me" or "mine," I am in the position of a total offering. It is a very solemn position. It is a heavenly principle that people standing in front of an offering should bow their heads. God is present at the altar and exercises His dominion there. You should think, "Before this altar today, I offer all my heartfelt passion, all my strength and all my effort." Then you open your mouth and speak with greater sincerity than ever before in your life. When you do, God will help you. An offering is made from a serious position.( 060-348,19720818)
7 Do not think lightly about the sermon you are going to give on Sunday. Do not just say, "Where in the Bible shall I read from? What hymns shall we sing? Bring out the hymns! Bring out the Holy Songs!" Base your sermons on your knowledge of people; use real life experiences and relate them to comparable passages in the Bible. Give an interesting sermon that compares personal experiences with the content of the Bible. Then listeners will be captivated. Since your sermon relates to them, they will like it. Do not attempt to prepare your sermon by reading books. Even books come from people. People themselves are the originators of books.( 046-285,19710817)
8 One memory continues to linger in my heart. When I was being taken to the labor camp in Hungnam, I had to trudge along a stream through a valley, chained to thieves. That memory is still so vivid. I cannot forget the time we walked along that winding path in the valley. It left a strong impression on me. Those steps were heading toward a different world. I really wondered, "In the future, what paths will I have to walk each day? After serving my time in prison, what will I need to do? What should I do during my prison life?" It was going to be difficult, but I was ready to go there. Actually, that time was a good opportunity to come to a new realization about myself. That is why this memory stays with me.( 030-152,19700321)
9 Once I worked on digging a tunnel at Hamhung. As I worked, I became so hungry that I could hardly lift up my pickax, and so completely exhausted that I was on the verge of losing consciousness. After going on like that, you cannot imagine how happy I was when I heard, "Time for lunch!" What a feeling in that moment when I threw the pickax on the ground and turned around to eat! I have countless stories like that in my life. I have been through indescribable suffering. However, you need to understand that all those miserable situations did not destroy me; instead, they will shine throughout history. That is why I am saying you should keep going on, collecting stories that God can cherish as treasures. When you open up and tell the people of the world the true stories of your sufferings and tribulations, in just ten minutes you can move them to wail in tears. It will be far more effective than a one-hour sermon on another topic. Where can you find a sermon topic better than this? That is why I am telling you not to worry and, until you are thirty, go through as many hardships as possible.( 030-152,19700321)
10 When you give a sermon, do not just decide on the title and then get up to speak. The basic standard is that you should select the title in prayer. You cannot move people with a sermon based on a prepared title. If you want to make people cry, you should shed tears in prayer before the sermon. When you pray, you should be thinking about all the kinds of people who might come that day. You should also be thinking about the situation in Korea and how to improve it. Then you will be able to foresee, "Today, these types of people will be coming." Bearing all this in mind and having prayed tearfully, when you come to the pulpit you will be able to move your audience to tears. If you have written a letter with tears, it can make the recipient cry. In the same way, you should become a motivating force in the position of the subject partner in heart. Without doing that yourself, expecting others to shed tears is unreasonable. Therefore, when you go to the pulpit you should know that it is a court of judgment. If you are unable to improve despite your efforts, you need to repent. If you are unable to inspire others in an hour-long sermon, you should repent for three hours. If you deliver a poor sermon and cannot inspire the people, you have to repent three times more than that.( 160-195,19690512)
11 As a leader, you should listen carefully to your members when they share their situations. You need to take notes about their testimony and know how to use it as material that can be helpful for everyone. If a member has moved your heart, make the lesson of their testimony the topic of the Sunday sermon. Pray about that topic and convey your inspirations to the members. Al-ways live in attendance to Heaven. Your sermon should never be focused on yourself. If you refer to books to prepare your sermon, Heaven will not work through you. Your sermon will fall flat. The seed of life comes from Heaven. It does not come from people or their knowledge. That is why you must shed tears before you give a sermon. Only by shedding tears and taking the position of a parent can you bring the children to repentance. In order to make others shed tears, you should first open the gate of tears. Your tears open the gate of their tears. Only if you open that gate can they finally shed tears. Only if you shed tears of repentance can the gate of repentance open for others.( 237-038,199211 10)
12 Always think that you are indebted. A person who thinks this way is public-minded. This is because you have not taken full responsibility and others have had to, on your behalf. As you look around at the congregation, think, 'As I was not able to do the job right, my members are doing it for me." Up to now I have been bearing the suffering that the entire Unification Church membership had to endure. But from now on members will have to face all kinds of incidents, one by one, at all levels—the individual, family, tribe, nation, and even the world. I have been through a difficult course, but now all members throughout the world must face their own challenges. From this perspective, we share a common destiny. It is a serious matter that the spirit world is directly listening to the words of those who are guiding the members for a public purpose. This should not be taken lightly. It is the same for me. When something good happens to you, before talking about it or laughing with joy, first think of Heaven. Likewise, when you face sorrow, first think of Heaven. When you face something sorrowful, if you can say, "I am suffering on behalf of Heaven," you can bravely go beyond that sorrow.( 237-039,199211 10)
13 When you endure sorrow, you will surely be rewarded. During the course of paying indemnity on earth, if you shed tears of sorrow while truly being in the position of goodness, you will eventually shed tears of joy. On a scale of one to ten, if you experience sorrow at the level of ten, the happiness that will eventually come to you will surpass that scale, to the level of one thousand. Because we have such experiences in our life, we can continue our life of faith. If after you endured sorrow to the level often you received joy only at the level of one, it would dissipate within a few days. But in following the path of Heaven, if you truly persevere through sorrow, true happiness beyond your imagination is bound to come. If you do not have a chance to feel it or receive it, such joy will come to your wife, your children, or your ancestors. So do not do anything thoughtlessly. Live your life with the attitude of attending God at all times. Always consult with Him. When you feel frustrated, sit down and pray. Sleeping should not be the issue; working should not be the issue. Praying must become your way of life.( 237-039,199211 10)
A sermon reflecting your devotion
14 If possible, I try not to write out ray speeches. I normally speak without a script. If you speak from a script, Heaven may not be able to work fully. Hence, even if you write a script, you should not memorize what you write. You should not recite it line by line. Only by speaking from your heart can you enter the realm of resonance with God. Then your mind and body can unite in the atmosphere of God’s grace, in an environment where Heaven can relate to you. In such a state, you cannot have your own opinions. Sometimes I stand in the position of an object partner and sometimes in the position of a subject partner. If I stand as a subject when I should be in the object position, I ruin the atmosphere. That is why I need to pray. When I appear at the podium with a heart of tears, I immediately know how to reach those at all levels, and what to talk about that day.( 231-202,19920602)
15 After you have given a sermon, you should struggle with an unbearable feeling of shame. That is how you can develop. If you stand at the pulpit and give the same habitual sermons you have given for ten to twenty years, you will run dry. Do not just speak your own words. For ten to twenty years you may have based your sermons on your notebook, but you cannot generate life from that. That is why I tell you, do not speak your own words but always cultivate new words, the Word of Heaven. Even if it includes content that others already know, you should always speak the Word of Heaven. That is why you should forget about the script. Exercising this kind of spirituality is crucial. So when I get an inspiration at midnight, or even at 3 o'clock or 4 o'clock in the morning, how can I sleep? My sleepiness dissipates instantly. Resonance, or stimulation from the spirit world, transcends sleep. It goes far beyond the world of sleep.( 231-203,19920602)
16 When Unification Church leaders give sermons, you need to be motivated to invest all your heart and body. You have to move and inspire heaven and earth, audiences who are beyond the past, present and future. If you lose that motivation, you will end up just following current trends. You will become more and more secularized. Therefore, you should speak representing Heaven. Further, do not conduct research in books for your Sunday sermon. Rather, select the title through deep prayer. When you pray to find the title, you should be moved as if you have regained new life. In such a state, you should feel a sense of urgency, as if you are about to make a decisive proclamation that will determine the future of the nation, whether it rises or falls into ruin. In other words, you must speak as if you are making your final proclamation at the execution ground. Speak as if it will determine success or failure. It is the same with prayer. Have the seriousness of a criminal who is going to the gallows. When singing a hymn, although everyone knows the lyrics and the melody as well as you do, to move the hearts of people you should thoroughly understand what the hymn means. Then sing to convey its deep content. Resonate like an echo! Sing with an expansive and resounding voice that touches people's hearts and changes their attitudes. You have to sing hymns like that in order to move the public.( 286-053,19970723)
17 When giving a sermon or a lecture, you need to present something new. You have to stimulate your audience. Through prayer, you need to supplement what is lacking, even placing your life on the line to close the gap. Even when you are just walking along, have a mind to seek for something new. For instance, do not just go to the church, but have a heart to learn something new, to make a new atmosphere. Do not always take the direct route to church; try going a roundabout way. Although you may need to head south, try a route to the north. Why? It is to find a new path. If you are not too excited about doing that, try rearranging the furniture in your home. After many months have passed, do not just leave things as they are; try to move things around. Then new ideas will come to you. We definitely need to do things like that. Vary your prayers as well. Depending on where you pray, whether in front of the pulpit or way in the back of the church, the feeling is totally different. The feeling is also different when you pray in the midst of the congregation. Therefore, seek to make changes in the environment.( 030-127,19700321)
18 When giving a sermon, if you repeat the same one, the members will take notice and feel upset. Likewise, when you give lectures on the Divine Principle, people will be annoyed if you always lecture in the same old way. It is because people feel the changes of the four seasons—spring, summer, autumn and winter—depending on the season you are in. People are not always in a good mood just because it is morning. Even if they do not have any worries, there are days when they are unusually depressed. In spite of the bright sunlight and crisp weather, there are times when you yourself may feel depressed. At those times, how can you uplift your spirit? If you do not find anything stimulating to change it, you might descend to a state of even greater despair. Therefore, you have to either stimulate yourself from an opposite direction or find something stimulating and overcome your depression. You need to find ways to be in control of your life every day. Otherwise, in the future, you will not be able to guide the numerous souls that are lost.( 030-129,19700321)
19 We human beings were created through the Word, flesh and spirit. Hence, we should first align with the Word, next cultivate our character, and then do spiritual work. That is the correct order. If we put spiritual work first, we would have to pay great indemnity because the first stages were skipped. You should be moved by your own sermon. You need to be moved by your own prayer. You should give the sermon in a state where you receive God's mercy and grace. You can enter a state of grace by appealing to God about the pitiful situations of the people, who have to connect through someone like you to receive life and grace. To arrive at such a state of grace you must repent and, through suffering, seek the path of Heaven. In walking that path, you should not have any enemies.( 011-278,19620101)
20 In giving a sermon, do not give your devotion to everyone at the same time. Do not think that you have the public in front of you and are delivering the sermon to them. Rather, think that you are giving the sermon to one person. If that one person receives grace and sheds tears, that grace will spread to the whole. Your church could not develop until now because you have been giving sermons that floated in the air, with no roots. Since there is no base to absorb your sermons, there is no way for witnessing to be successful. To gain a foothold, a church leader should cultivate his personal foundation. When I give you a certain direction, the members will move only if the church leader sets the example by moving, even at the risk of his or her life.( 042-159,19710304)
21 Everything in the world can be material for your sermons. If you suffered many ordeals, you can explain in your sermon what you did in those days. Therefore, a church leader should have experienced many difficulties. He or she should have gone through a lot of life training. He or she needs to have experienced times as a poor laborer, a beggar, or a high official holding a position in the circles of authority. Then when you share your actual experiences in those circumstances, especially the trials you experienced while serving in a public position, people can feel them as very real.( 160-196,19690512)
22 When giving a sermon or a lecture, rather than preparing for it by reading the Divine Principle many times, once you have reached a certain level of understanding of the Principle, you should be immersed in the Word. That is, you should experience how profound that teaching is and what an incredible course of sacrifice I had to go through to discover it. If you can really feel it, you are bound to shed tears. Once you enter the realm of God's deep heart of restoration, you will discover the root of unspeakable situations. Without realizing it, you will be pulled into a fog through which you may have to tumble and struggle alone. That is when you have to firmly secure your position as a subject partner representing God. From that point on, you can become a subject partner and God's work can begin. It does not happen without a foundation of cooperation from the spirit world. If you are unable to enter that state, you must pray. You have to offer devotion for that to happen.( 198-010,19900120)
23 When lecturing, unless you know the Principle thoroughly, you cannot have the foundation of heart to influence your audience. To have that heart, pray ahead of time, "Father, today I will lecture on this title." Then, as you lecture with a prayerful heart, you need to feel the kind of heart that God would feel. Discuss with God as you lecture, saying, "Whom do You want to resurrect today through your Word, as the object partner You need? If there is a person here whom You have long awaited to meet, I will do my utmost not to lose that person." If you think, “I’ll just lecture as I have always done”, you can convey the content but you cannot resurrect people. You can never revive them.( 068-098,19730723)
24 When you stand at the pulpit in front of the public, your heart must feel as though you are going to an execution. It should be similar to the heart of a man who stands before the judge in a court of law, solemnly waiting for him to render his verdict. Therefore, when you stand at the pulpit, you are like a sacrificial offering, responsible for many people’s lives. If you speak well you can save their lives, but if you utter a wrong word you could kill them. To utter a wrong word is the same as a doctor who gives a wrong injection; it can take a life. Thus, standing at the pulpit is the most daunting position. Heaven is present in that position.( 058-302,19720625)
25 When you lecture, do not think that you are just speaking the words of the Principle. You are telling my history and God's history. It means that ultimately you are speaking in order to inherit that history and become one with it. If you lecture the Principle ten times, you will become ten times deeper. More than saving others, you are meant to become closer to God's history and my history. That is, if you lecture ten times, each of those ten times brings your heart that much closer to God and to me, and each of those ten times makes your heart that much deeper. The same goes for prayer: the more you pray, the more your heart will grow deep and wide. You will become higher by the same degree. The higher you become, the more you will develop your heart, and the more you will be given opportunities to grow in oneness of heart with God and with me. Conveying the Word and teaching church members gives you such an opportunity.( 157-254,19670410)
26 I used to pray until I had calluses on my knees. I would pray for more than twelve hours a day. I would bring up issues and then pray to resolve them, as if in a showdown with God. I had these experiences so often that it became like a habit. As soon as I faced an issue, I would already know what the outcome would be. I could feel it. You should not give sermons by reading books. The spirit world, the original world, is not meant to be mobilized based on books. The basic principle is that the spirit world is governed by love. And restoration refers to the perfection of character based on love. We are moved, and our character is engrafted to Heaven's side, when love occupies the central position. It does not happen by knowledge. Therefore, do not read books to find something to speak about. If you give a sermon that way, you cannot resurrect people.( 198-010,19900120)
27 You need to struggle to decide on the title of your sermon. It is a serious fight. If you decide on the title by going over a book one week before giving the sermon, Heaven cannot work through you. That has nothing to do with you. That is why it will never work. Therefore, you should regard the process of selecting the title for your sermon as a life-or-death matter. When you stand at the pulpit, search among the audience for a person whom Heaven needs to separate from a life-or-death problem. You should know in advance who will come for this purpose. If you get it right, the spirit world will be open to you. I never select the title of my sermon days in advance. I usually decide on the sermon title less than ten minutes before coming out to begin the service. I should feel resurrected by the content of my sermon first. Only when I have that experience can I stand in a position of confidence. Thus when I stand before the congregation, I will have secured my posture. Then I can begin to communicate with the congregation. I cannot do so with everyone at once. At first I connect to one or two people. If one person can be moved by that connection, everything can be turned around; then it expands to everyone in the congregation.( 198-010,19900120)
Sermons that stir the heart
28 If you want to move an audience of hundreds of thousands of people, do not write a script. As a spiritual leader, you need inspiration. That is why your tears must never cease. You should be able to speak from a deep heart, such that tears burst forth without you even realizing it. Never lose that heart. If you lose it, you cannot resurrect people. This is a serious matter. How serious have you been to save one life? Compare yourself to a doctor. When a surgeon goes to the operating table, a person's life is on the edge of his scalpel. You as a leader are responsible for many lives. You should recognize that you who are dealing with many people’s lives are in a position far more serious than the doctor who is handling just one person’s life. I am not saying this just casually. If you are not that sincere, you are nothing but a swindler.( 231-203,19920602)
29 Do not expect to move the congregation through your sermon. Rather, it is you who should be moved first. You need to be inspired by the content you are delivering. You should think that you are giving a sermon to yourself. If you, as a person of high spirituality, are moved and inspired by your own sermon, then the congregation will go wild, receiving amazing grace and inspiration. Therefore, giving the sermon serves to cultivate you, not others. It is for your own growth, not for others. Therefore, you should quote my words as much as possible. Even more than praying, you need to read the books of my sermons. Read a sermon that inspires you once, twice, three times, and then speak focused on its key points. That would be better than studying for several weeks. The books of my sermons contain an enormous amount of material. My prayers, especially, have very pro-found content that you cannot access on your own.( 198-012,19900120)
30 Before going to the podium, first think about the posture you will take when you stand before the audience. Then think of a way to impress the audience within the first five to ten minutes. If the audience does not incline toward you within the first five to ten minutes, it will be difficult to move them. That being the case, it is important to know what to start with. Begin with a topic that catches everyone's interest. Or begin with something totally irrelevant, unusual or unfamiliar. Employ a strategy to draw them to you, so that they will want to listen to what you are saying. You need a strategy to draw them in.( 065-296,19730304)
31 Study people to figure out whether they are open-minded and cooperative or narrow and inflexible. By finding out the sorts of topics intriguing to a person, you should be able to discover his or her personality type. Study by making comparisons: "Ah, that person is the same type as this friend of mine. Among the one hundred people I know, he is like so-and-so." Select three or four people of different types and test how they respond to your sermons. Choose them from different categories, for example, a humble person, an arrogant person, a passionate person and an indecisive person. Then observe them. At a certain dramatic moment you may shed tears, or when you are preaching about forgiveness, for example, your expression should show your emotion. In this way, you should be able to move that person. You are fighting an invisible battle. For a person who has poetic sentiments, you can recite a poem. Recall a suitable poem, and during the sermon take a minute to recite the poem, losing yourself in poetic sentiment. For a person with literary sentiments, you can whisper to express intense emotion.( 054-177,19720324)
32 Wherever you are, when you lecture the Principle, whether it is Part One or Part Two, your lecture should be seamless and smooth. The Principle should become like a formula for you. If you use this formula to comprehend the whole world of phenomena, the knowledge you acquire will be so vast. You should find the Principle so interesting that you want to stay up all night reading it. If you are intoxicated by the Principle to that extent, it will bring internal growth. You will see progress in your daily life as well. Unless you study the Principle with that level of focus, you will hardly make any progress.( 029-190,19700228)
33 How can you become a great lecturer? Go listen to famous lecturers around the country. Record their lectures and evaluate them. Choose their best points and write them down in your notebook. Always have piles of the tapes you recorded. Collect the witty and useful materials from tens and hundreds of their sermons and use them whenever you give lectures. Then you can become a great lecturer. You should lecture more than eight hours every day. Lecture to even one new guest.( 068-094,19730723)
34 If you can shed tears when holding the Principle book, you can move your audience. Become a person who clings to the Principle book, staying up all night reading it, begrudging the fact that time is passing, and having amazing experiences from page to page. After you have had such experiences, try giving lectures while intoxicated with the Principle and see how spirit world moves the audience. Without fail, people will have new and moving experiences. If you are dead, things will lose their life force and atrophy, but if you are alive, things will definitely develop. When they develop, new things will come into existence. That is a natural law.( 030-130,19700321)
35 When you lecture, what do you want to give to the listeners? And when you speak, what message do you want to convey through your words? When you use your hands, what impression do you want to make with your gestures? When you do anything, what impact do you want to make? You need to have answers to these questions. Even when you walk a difficult path, always think of the legacy you will leave behind. Though your path may be arduous and tiring, to leave a legacy you have to be full of spirit and fun. You cannot afford to wallow in exhaustion. The more difficulties you face, the more you need to pay attention to this matter.( 096-331,19780213)
Section 5. Witnessing and Pastoral Care
1 Considering the current situation of the Unification Church, we cannot expect any innovative developments in the future as long as the leaders cling to the same methods they have been using thus far. We must not just hold on to old ways of thinking, old attitudes, old methods of witnessing or existing approaches to faith. This is because these methods have not met our expectations in bringing results. It would be different had we achieved good results. However, since we have not, we should abandon our conventional faith and life, as well as witnessing methods, and transform ourselves into new and different people. Unless we come up with a new attitude of faith, a new attitude in life and new activities, it will be difficult to bring new development.( 030-120,19700321)
The standard of heart comes first
2 We all need to grow. However, before we pursue growth, more important is cultivating a pure heart. Therefore you need to take the time to pray and offer devotion. You should not offer devotion just the way you are. First you need to clean up your past. If your old concepts persist, you should consider where those concepts could drag you. You who are immersed in old concepts and stubbornly cling to them must evaluate yourself, and determine whether your past was pure. If you believe you were pure, consider whether you have been good and whether you are currently situated in a good position. Also, you need to evaluate whether your desires are pure. What is pure goodness? It is not living for your own sake. It is not strengthening yourself. Goodness is serving and attending God, as the owner of goodness. The owner of goodness is God, not fallen people.( 036-106,19701122)
3 When you go out to rural areas to witness, you should first attain internal unity with the people of that village. Internal unity refers to unity of heart. Then you need to attain unity with their life and thoughts. This means that your mind and body need to unite centered on God, as a reality in daily life. In other words, the mind attains a state of total unity with God, and then the body surrenders to the mind. That is how you connect the three points of formation, growth and completion. Do not follow this path just as an individual, but also take people with you as you travel this path.( 013-302,19640412)
4 Some church leaders believe they have reached the standard of Heavens perfection and demand that others serve, attend and honor them. This is very wrong. The position of a parent is to serve others rather than to be served; to live for the sake of others rather than to have others live for them. From the viewpoint of brothers and sisters, a church leader is in the position of Abel. From the viewpoint of a parent, a church leader is in a parent-child relationship with members. That is why it is very wrong for a leader to think that Cain should serve him or her in the position of Abel. For what does Abel exist? Abel exists to restore the position of a parent. Therefore you cannot become Abel without first having the heart of a parent. That is the principle. Yet many have forgotten that their position is to become a parent, thinking of themselves only as Abel in a relationship between siblings. You need to rid yourself of that wrong concept as quickly as possible.( 035-258,197010)
5 We have plenty of content by which to grow. We are also fully equipped with the favorable conditions and environment that have been given to us in this age. Then why are we unable to grow? It is because we are not adding anything to the people of this age or to the environment they are living in. Simply put, we are not benefiting them in any way. Although we are unable to benefit others materially, if we can make people feel deeply that they can benefit from us spiritually or mentally, then they are bound to come to church even if told not to come.( 056-016,19720510)
6 Why is our church not growing? It is because the church fails to take care of new members to the end. Instead of showing greater interest in them as time passes, the church pays attention to them only when they are being witnessed to. Once they join the church, they are neglected. The church needs to pay attention to new members for at least three years, no matter what. Why is this the case? People's spirituality develops gradually. Their state when they first listened to the Principle is different from their state one year later. After a year they are able to understand the multidimensional content of the Principle both internally and externally. The more deeply they understand its content, the thirstier they become. They have a craving to learn more about the Principle, and they will want to meet people who can teach them about it. Therefore the church needs to invest more time in such people. It needs to make a detailed plan about how it will satisfy the internal cravings of their hearts.( 029-191,19700228)
7 Why can’t the church grow? It is because its leaders do not live for the sake of others. Therefore the spirit world does not cooperate with them. The leaders know how to tell the members what to do, but they do not know that they need to run errands for the members. Therein lies the problem. The church cannot grow because the leaders are not willing to live ninety-five percent of their lives for others.( 134-254,19850720)
8 Witnessing is the activity of leading people to leave Satan's world behind and follow the path to Heaven with a smile. It is an activity to guide them to the heavenly kingdom. When you try to witness to others, I see you telling them forcibly, "Come, come," regardless of whether they want to or not. You should not do that. People are spiritual beings. So, as an experiment, try praying for a certain person. Try loving that person sincerely and shedding tears with an anguished heart to bring that person before the Will. Then study what happens. The issue is how you can truly advance to the position where you can love that person more than his or her parents do. It is a battle. The issue is whether you can win over that person by demonstrating a heart greater than that of his or her mother and father.( 050-279,1971 1108)
9 Abel is in the plus position whereas Cain is in the minus position. In relation to Satan's world, you are in the position of plus, or Abel. Witnessing is to bring the plus of Satan's world to obey, so that it can become the minus of Heavens world. Thus, witnessing is the act of creation. That is, it is to re-create that person so that he or she unites with you. Therefore, you should be glad to witness to him or her. You should do it joyfully. When God created heaven and earth, did He do it out of joy or sorrow? He did it out of joy. Likewise, you should invest amazing love for that person rather than thinking about the difficulties and hardships of witnessing. Thinking that you exist for others, if you care for others you will become their subject partner. You can re-create others by investing yourself. When their re-creation is completed you become their subject partner, and they will all happily bow their heads before you.( 108-084,19800622)
Our attitude to witnessing
10 How should you witness to people? Do not just wander around aimlessly every day. Visit one hundred homes and choose ten of them, and out of those ten homes choose one person. Then concentrate on conveying the Word to that one person. I tell you, focus on the goal of witnessing to one person a month. To attain this, you must offer devotion and work hard during that month. After witnessing to that one person, you should tell him or her, "Just as I have done for you, you should witness to your relatives with devotion." If you establish such a tradition and guide others to do the same, you will certainly do well. By following this uniform method of witnessing to one person per month, a horizontal expansion of witnessing will unfold from one person to another, and membership will markedly increase.( 042-158,19710304)
11 You say that you go out witnessing, but what is witnessing? It is showing the way. You are showing the way for the world to return to God. How wonderful this work is. If you ask a person's original mind, "Where are you going?" it would reply, "Oh! After passing through this world, I shall return to the heavenly kingdom." You are pioneering the way for people to do just that; how marvelous this task is!( 117-102,19820214)
12 Religion until now has been focused on individual salvation. However, that kind of religion is bound to decline. It will come to an end. Even if it has become a worldwide religion, it will have to be resurrected once again. It must do so at all costs. Religious believers, Christians in particular, maintain their faith in order to save their individual lives. But for what purpose? They assert that they will be saved and go to the kingdom of heaven, but they should not have such a purpose. Even if you go to the kingdom of heaven, what are you going to do there all by yourself? You should be living a life of faith that aims to bring all humankind with you into the kingdom. If you live that way, you cannot help but witness to others even if you are told not to witness. You cannot help but practice goodness, even if you are told not to.( 035-205,19701014)
13 You go out to witness not only to save Cain but also to save yourselves. In other words, witnessing is the path of taking action to receive certificates from God and Satan. You should strive, even fight, to make the conditions that will entitle you to receive those certificates. You should witness with this understanding. But did any of you understand this when you went out witnessing? All of you have been going out without knowing why. Hence the greatest enemy is not Satan, but yourself. You stand in the position of the enemy; therefore the enemy Satan chases you. For this reason, always keep in mind that you yourself are the enemy. That is because the enemy manifests through your own body. To put it another way, because we are connected to Satan through our bloodline, our bodies stand in the position of the enemy.( 040-252,19710206)
14 If by offering your life you can overcome evil, God's love will come to you and you will recover your life. This is the formula. It is like placing weights on a scale: if one side goes down, the other side goes up. If you eliminate much evil, good will go up; if evil increases, good will go down. You will receive love to the same extent as the evil you eliminate. That is also why God told you to love Him more than anyone else. He told you this because the more you love Him, the more love you can receive from Him. You have loved God, and that is why you can receive more love from Him.( 040-243,19710206)
15 When you are witnessing, you ought to devote yourself and pray, clinging to God and shedding tears, "Please guide me so that I may not fail You in connecting with this person whom You have prepared for me today. Please allow me to become a person whom everyone here can welcome and who can motivate each of them." Try going out witnessing with such a heart. If you neglect to do this and go out unwillingly, even if you meet the nicest per-son in the village, that person will reject you and drive you away. You need to go through such experiences in your daily life. You need to realize on your own through experimentation, "Ah, God is with me in this situation, but He is not with me in that situation." You can then develop yourself and cultivate your character to reach the world of God's heart. It is no good if you just sit around harboring greed in your heart and thinking only about what you can gain.( 050-314,1971 1108)
16 Witness to people through your boundless giving. When you have done so, those who do not respond will be summoned by Heaven. They will have no excuse. Once goodness is sown, it will always be reaped. Hence when a good person calls you, if you do not respond to that person, you will face consequences. Although goodness has extended its hand, if no results ensue, that neighborhood and even the neighboring villages will be entangled in the snares of Satan. When you go out witnessing in a certain place, the ancestors who have good connections there will try to gather their descendants and guide them to meet you. Because they know the basic principle they try to guide their descendants, even by appearing in their dreams.( 050-315,1971 1108)
17 Have you ever wept and prayed all through the night for the sake of the person you are witnessing to? I am asking whether you have shed tears for that person more than you would at the death of your father or mother, or even your lover. If you have not, then you should. You should weep bitterly throughout the night. If only you could save one life, is there anything you would not spare? Money, clothes or a house would not even be an issue. Be crazy about loving people.( 034-270,19700913)
18 To witness, you need to study people’s psychology. You should be able to tell whether a person would like something just by looking at his or her facial expressions and manner of walking. Learn the formulas to analyze people's emotions. You should be able to tell just from listening to your wife's footsteps whether or not she has had a good day. When your wife comes into the room, suppose you asked her, "Why are you upset?" She would be at a loss for words because it would seem you already knew everything before seeing her. You should live your life in such a way. When you pray for someone out of interest, that person is bound to take an interest in you.( 042-174,19710103)
19 When you go out witnessing, your heart should be totally different from yesterday. In other words, you should think as you start the day, "In the past I went forth with such and such a heart, but today I resolve to undertake the work with a new heart." By thus changing your resolve and your motivation you will surely bring good results. However, if instead you set out more depressed than before, with a heart worse than yesterday, you will inevitably retreat. The more you continue working in such a way, the more destruction you will bring upon yourself. Moreover, if you spread that negativity to everyone else, no matter how great your purpose and how strong your inner resolve, you will find yourself completely stuck, at a standstill, and unable to advance, no matter how hard you try.( 042-066,19710221)
20 All people, regardless of who they are, need to walk the path of restoration centered on the Word. On that path, before you can reach the position to indemnify the national level, you first need to complete the indemnity on the tribal level. Then you can appoint someone to stand on your behalf and defend you from opposition by the tribe. He or she can also defend you from opposition by other families. Once you have set up your tribal representatives, they can stop all such attacks. That is why we are witnessing. Even when we have climbed up high, we still need to establish successors and expand the ground on which our successors can follow our path. They too will defend us from opposition. That is why it is necessary to witness.( 040-249,19710206)
21 We do not witness with weapons; rather, we witness with love. Our victory is based on saving Cain through the love of Abel. It is to restore with true love those who were conquered by false love. This is the only way we can return to the original world, a world devoid of conflict. If we were to witness by any other means or method, Satan would still have some tricks left up his sleeve; he could employ other means and methods. Jesus, even on the way to his death, until the final moment of his life, established the way of love. Since he was not able to completely establish the course of saving Cain in his lifetime, through his death he demonstrated the way to open the gate to Cain's salvation.( 040-249,19710206)
22 We do not witness to benefit the Unification Church. We witness not to save our church, but to save the nation. Furthermore, we witness to save the world. Our purpose is different from that of Christians. They witness for the growth of their own denomination, but we do not witness for our own sake. Even if the Unification Church were to become perfect in and of itself, it needs ultimately to find the way to save the nation. If we walk the path to perfect the nation, even if we have to abandon the church, we move to a higher level of perfection. Since that path is more worthy, we need to seek the nation even at the sacrifice of the church.( 063-188,19721014)
Section 6. The Providence of Cain and Abel
1 In the church, you should know how to discern who is Abel and who is Cain. Between any two people, one is surely Abel and the other Cain, Among three people, two of them could be either Abel or Cain, but of the two, one is the chief Abel or chief Cain. You should be able to clearly distinguish them. Cain and Abel should not be disunited or divided. One is the right hand and the other is the left hand. Therefore regardless of your position, you should find and attend your Abel figure with the belief that his God is also my God, and God loves me and loves him as well. In this way, you should do your best to avoid making the mistake that Cain made.( 003-207,19571101)
2 The principle of Cain and Abel is great. God’s true love is such that He desires to save the youth of the nation even at the sacrifice of His own children. Because God's heart has this nature, unity can be achieved only in the world of such heart. You can be united only through love, by living for the sake of others. If your love is not for the sake of others, Satan can walk right through it and bring destruction. Since this is God's hope, the hope of all things and the hope of humanity, how can a person who strives to realize this ideal come to ruin? Heavenly fortune will protect such individuals, and God Himself will protect them as well. So even if they go to a place where death awaits, they will not die, because all things will follow them. They may appear to perish and disappear, but I have discovered that they find a new way to progress and leap forward. It is because they are going the way of true love, and nothing can obstruct or block that path. Even Satan submits to it.( 173-060,19880201)
Cain and Abel from the viewpoint of the providence
3 When Cain and Abel made their offerings to God, God received Abel's offering but did not receive Cain's. It seems that God took a different stance toward Cain than toward Abel, but you should know that this was not the case. If Cain had had even a slight feeling in his heart that he should go through Abel, who represented Heavens position, God would have accepted his sacrifice. This means that God intended to treat them on an equal footing at a later time. God wants you to go over the universal hill of lamentation and stand before Him as the one sacrificial offering that He can delight in and rejoice over. You should build an Abel-type altar for the restoration of all creation in the universe. There, as an Abel-type sacrificial offering, you should offer not a lamb that you slaughtered, but your actual life.( 003-205,19571101)
4 The mission Abel has to fulfill is more important than anything else in the course of restoration. The figure of Abel was set up within the Will as a consequence of the Fall. Had there been no Fall, there would have been no need to set up the position of Abel. Abel cannot be Abel by himself. There is no Abel without Cain. Furthermore, to be chosen as Abel, a person needs to go through a period of preparation. In other words, he or she needs to go through a period of time to determine that he or she stands on Heavens side. The Unification Principle terms this the period to establish the foundation of faith. It is the period when the sacrifice is offered. Abel offers the sacrifice so that God and human beings, who have been separated, can again form a bond of heart. Then Abel can also form an external bond of heart.( 056-074,19720514)
5 What should Abel do? He should become one with God and love the archangel. Thereby he should win recognition from the archangel Satan and make him testify, "You are a child of God, and therefore you are certainly His heir." At this time, the person in the position of the archangel is Cain, and the person in the position of Adam is Abel. As a result of the Fall, false parents came into existence. The work of restoration is carried out by dividing the archangel and Adam into Cain and Abel. In short, the work of restoration is carried out by setting up Abel in place of Adam and Cain in place of the archangel. To become Abel, you first need to become one in heart with God. When you have become one in heart with God and He is well pleased with you, then He cannot help but love you.( 034-085,19700829)
6 In order for you to become Abel, you need to find and recover Cain. Until you have recovered Cain, you cannot become Abel. Accordingly, in a position representing God, you need to go through the positions of servant of servant, servant, and adopted child, and then rise to the position of child. Only by doing so can you establish the condition for Cain to submit to you as Abel. Then you can finally complete the responsibility of a son who can stand before God, and if at that point Cain takes a cooperative stance, you can then advance to the position of a parent. Thus there are two reasons for which you need to witness: First, to set up someone in the position of Cain, and second, to secure the position of Abel. Thus, you who are witnessing from the position of Abel stand in the position of God. Moreover, with God at the center and on behalf of Jesus, you are restoring what your ancestors failed to accomplish in the age of restoring the position of the servant.( 034-054,19700829)
7 No matter how much you are loved by God at this moment, if there is no Cain standing beside you, you cannot become Abel. Where can Cain and Abel be found? It is not in a comfortable and good place. Why do we need Cain and Abel? We need them for restoration through indemnity. How do we carry out restoration through indemnity? We have to become sacrificial offerings. Our body and mind should become one, we should become one with God, and then become one with the sacrificial offering. Finally we need to bring Satan to that place and bring the restoration to a close. Thus we need to settle it once and for all.( 034-091,19700829)
8 How does God determine Abel? It must be in a way that Satan cannot accuse. What can Satan not accuse? It is oneness with God. This occurs not in joy, but in sorrow and difficulty. In other words, Abel must be willing to die in the most miserable situation. That is how you, as Abel, become one with God.( 034-051,19700829)
9 From the perspective of the Principle, who is Abel? He is the center. God should be able to enter his core and dwell there. Have you become Abel? To become Abel, first you have to obey. You must obey God and become one with Him. In order to become one with God, you should do everything He tells you to do. Surely you cannot become Abel unless you do all that God tells you to do. Even if you already did ninety-nine tasks, if you refuse to do one task, you cannot become Abel.( 034-046,19700829)
10 The fight between God and Satan takes place over people, who form the center of the universe. God continues working to transform us even as we sway to Gods side one day and Satan's side the next. The Unification Church is battling between good and evil, and between Cain and Abel. The providence of restoration is none other than the fight between Cain and Abel. Everything is connected to this battle. Why then do I keep bringing up the issue of Cain and Abel as the representatives of history? It is because this is a fundamental issue. It is centered on the family. The problem of Adam and Eve and the problem between these brothers caused the breakdown of the family. That is why I am trying to restore the family centered on the issue of Adam and Eve and that of the two brothers. I am trying to return them to the original point. The key to history lies in turning them around. That is the key. That is how crucial the issues of Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel, are.( 247-192,19930509)
Who is Abel?
11 You need to know how to distinguish between Cain and Abel. Be-tween any two people, one is Cain and the other is Abel. This is the case even among Unification Church members. Then, which person is Cain and which one is Abel? Abel is the one who is injured, whereas Cain is the one who injures. For instance, if you were to approach someone who is just standing there and say, for no reason, "Hey, you, rascal!" then those few words would make you Cain. Let me give you another example. Consider parents who have two sons. Suppose the parents consult with only the first son, and he represents his parents in all matters. If he hits the younger son, although the latter did nothing wrong, the parents will naturally stand on the side of the younger son. This is the standard to judge good and evil, but in today's society people do not understand this. The one who harms others is certainly Cain.( 056-086,19720514)
12 Among Unification members, if you belittle someone who is working hard and offering devotion for the church, saying, "Why is that person's behavior so strange?" you immediately become Cain. This is how Cain and Abel set themselves apart from each other. Those who are criticized and harmed although they did not commit any wrongs are always Abel, while those who criticize and strike others are always Cain. This can happen even by uttering just one word. In speaking, the one who says something that benefits others is Abel, while the one who says something that harms others is Cain. If you praise others, you bring benefit rather than loss. However, if you say something to profit yourself, it is tantamount to harming others. Thus, the position that benefits others is the public position, whereas the position that benefits oneself is the private position. In this way we distinguish Abel and Cain, and good and evil, based on who is public-minded and who is private-minded.( 056-086,19720514)
13 The person who is more public-minded is Abel. Among Unification Church members, there are those who believe they are Abel because they joined the church earlier. However, although they joined earlier, if they are not public-minded, they are Cain. Cain himself was born first, but because he didn't take a public position, he had to follow Abel. The Abel figure is the one who stands in a more public position. To walk the public path, you need to maintain relationships with brothers and sisters. What I am saying is that, in walking the public path, the horizontal relationship is important. Even in going to the kingdom of heaven, the problem usually does not lie in becoming one with God but in relationships with brothers and sisters. The secret to going to the kingdom of heaven is to follow the public path.( 031-165,19700524)
14 Leaders think that they are automatically Abel, but that is not the case. Abel is the one who saves Cain, and he can go to the mother only after uniting with Cain. Therefore, even if you have not become one with the leader, once you unite among yourselves for the sake of the leader, the leader will come to you. That is why Jesus said he would be present wherever two or three gathered in his name. From now on, our focus on leaders needs to be replaced by a focus on members. Likewise, the head of a family needs to emphasize the members of the family rather than himself as its head. Otherwise, heaven cannot come about within that family.( 115-055,1981 1028)
15 You could not have been born as Abel if there were no Cain. You need to understand this above all. Abel is in the position of Adam. That position means, first, that Abel needs to have the love of God. The Fall was the failure to form a bond with God’s love. Second, it means that the archangel figure is Cain, and needs to unite with Abel. Before Adam came to exist, the archangel was already there. Likewise, before Abel was Cain. After God lost Adam due to the Fall, He established Abel in the place of Adam. Originally, Adam should have become one with God, and the archangel should have become one with Adam. Had this happened, there would have been no Fall. Hence, restoration is the work of patching up the failure of Adam to become one with God and the failure of Adam and the archangel to become one. Thus restoration requires that Abel become one with God. You can become Abel only if you have first received God’s love.( 037-061,19701222)
Abel's responsibility
16 How many people have lived based on God's viewpoint of life? Sometimes I see you vent your personal anger on your church members and say anything you want to say. You need to know that in a relationship between brothers, the person who was born first is in the position of Cain. Without saving Cain, you cannot become Abel. That means you cannot become the restored Cain. Abel is in the position of the restored Cain, once he saves Cain; that is, eventually he has to stand in the position of the firstborn son. To be able to attain that position he needs to restore Cain, the elder brother in Satan's world. Abel cannot restore Cain by striking him and forcing him; Abel needs to move Cain's heart to submit voluntarily. Abel needs to show him a new view of the world, a new view of the nation, of life, of the future, of character, and a new lineage and heart. In short, Abel needs to show him something entirely different.( 028-250,19700122)
17 Abel should take a stand that he is willing to die for Cain, to devote his entire life for Cain. Otherwise, Cain will never submit himself to Abel. Only when Abel stands in the position where he is willing to die for Cain is Cain able to return to him. That is why Jesus taught, "Those who want to save their life will lost it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it." (Matt. 16:25) These words apply to both Abel and Cain. For Abel to save Cain, he should risk his own life. Otherwise he cannot save Cain. Cain too needs to be ready to die in order to follow Abel, Otherwise he cannot truly follow Abel.( 034-099,19700829)
18 The first son belongs to God, as does the second son. What a tragedy that God cannot claim us as His and we cannot call God our Father! It is something we must change. How can we do that? We have to go to the world of the archangel and prevail. The archangel's world represents the realm of the adopted child. As long as you remain in that realm, although you are in the position of Abel, you are still a son or daughter of fallen Adam and not of God. You may stand in the position of a restored archangel, but not in that of a son or daughter of God. That is why your root must be pulled out and replanted. For this purpose, you are destined to return to your hometown and stand in place of your ancestors. That has never been done so far. Then you need to reclaim the right of the eldest son. Thus far, there has been no subject partner who could do that. Amazingly, however, we now have true sons and daughters who have placed True Parents at the center of their lives. Thus, you need to be in harmony with them horizontally.( 178-100,19880601)
19 Who follows the path of indemnity? It is not Cain, but Abel. If there are tears to be shed, Abel should shed them first. If someone has to go hungry, it is Abel who does so first. If someone is to be cursed at or struck, it is Abel. In this way Abel follows the path of indemnity. When a new person joins the church, someone in the Abel position needs to take responsibility for and guide that person. He should stay up all night listening to his or her stories. In the position of his or her father, he should discuss that person's concerns, shed tears and pray for him or her. When the new member sets out for home, that Abel should go along, because otherwise he would feel uneasy. When morning comes, the Abel should go and wait in front of the new member's house. The one in the Abel position has to be willing to do all these things. Abel must be a person who likes people, who likes Cain more than anyone else. Then Cain can easily follow Abel's footsteps, although they both take the path of indemnity. Thus you should walk the path of indemnity.( 088-263,19760920)
20 In the relationship between Cain and Abel, our final goal is the restoration of lineage. The root of the archangel's lineage that we received from birth must be exchanged for the root of the original Adam's lineage. False love corrupted that root. Since that root is connected to Satan's love, life and lineage, it must be severed. We need to receive an infusion of God's love, life and lineage. That is why it is written in the Bible, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." (Matt. 22:37) What does it mean to love with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind? It means that you have to totally invest your love, your life and your blood. To offer devotion means to love God. Therefore, to love God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind is the first great commandment taught by Jesus. It defends us against the bloodline of Satan's world. This issue is of fundamental importance.( 197-281,19900120)
21 Until now you have not known the tactics of God and Satan, but now you do. Abel is struck first, but later can claim back what was lost. Satan seems to win by striking first, but in the end he has to return what he took, and more. Although the evil side might conquer the other party by striking first, it will not prosper. Instead, it will lose what it has taken, including even what is good under its dominion. By analogy, the way God works can be compared to a chef who makes a sweet rice cake but has to hand it over to a robber. Then when the chef takes it back, he or she finds there are powdered beans as extra topping on the rice cake. For a time evil can flourish in the position from which it strikes goodness, but that does not mean that Heaven's side will be vanquished.( 056-085,19720514)
22 You Unification Church members stand in the position of Abel because you know the Principle. That is why you should be the first to confront Satan, fight against him and separate yourselves from Satan’s world. It means that you must come into the realm of God’s love. However, that is not all. You should be willing to sacrifice yourself to appease the grieving heart of God and the sorrowful hearts of your brothers and sisters who are tied to Satan’s world. Sacrifice yourself willingly for them, and at the price of your life try to deliver them from Satan’s world. The providence of restoration advances when Abel makes sacrifices. Remember this formula; it is a key component in the advancement of God’s providence.( 052-052,1971 1214)

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