28. A Life of Gratitude and Devotion
Book 1: Global Unity Through True Parents
Part 7: The Responsibility of Blessed Families for the Secure Settlement of Cheon Il Guk
Chapter 4: A Life of Gratitude and Devotion
A life of gratitude
I have only one goal for my life. It is to find what I should do so that I can live with a more grateful heart today than yesterday. It is the goal of my life to have a heart which is grateful every day, in order to live endeavoring to be more grateful today than yesterday, and to be more grateful tomorrow than today. But if I frankly confess my heart to you, although I think that it would be wrong of me not to strongly determine to have a grateful heart and go forward every day, sometimes I feel a little weak or emotional. Therefore, I hope that you can understand what I am facing.
In my life of faith towards God, I am always thinking about which path will be the truer one. If we knew a way to understand God's Will clearly and to know it definitely, that would be good, but sometimes we can't do that, and we get discouraged. I think that happens because we are human. Therefore in order to have absolute faith in God, more than anything else you must be obedient to the Will of God and True Father. (1984.07.31, Belvedere Training Center)
We learn great lessons through history. And we always determine that we will not repeat the failures of the past. I imagine that before Jesus came 2,000 years ago, the Jewish people would have thought the same. They also would have thought that when the time came they would not do something like fail, but in the end, they wound up failing. I am sure you know well about how Christian history unfolded. Today what kind of position are we standing in? Like the Jewish people 2,000 years ago aren't we also making a historical failure and losing hope? If not, do we have a strong determination and attitude not to make the same failure again a second time?
Just before True Father left for Danbury, he said, "You must not complain. Keep your position and be grateful, and when you become completely one through gratitude, a great miracle will happen:' You are well aware of the work of True Father. True Father came to the position where he should have been attended. If the people of the world had accepted True Father earlier, his course would have unfolded quite differently. But True Father received opposition from the people of the world and has walked a lonely course of suffering.
But what is sure is that no matter what kind of opposition and persecution there was, True Father was fulfilling God's Will. True Father always invested everything for Heavenly Father's Will and never retreated even slightly. Having heard the testimonies of the elder members, you all know the course that True Father walked in the past. He was never indebted to anyone, and as he lived he erased the debts of other people. He always lived for other people.
When True Father went into Danbury, I felt him making a resolute determination in his heart. If people had carried out their portions of responsibility well, True Father would not have walked such a difficult, strenuous path. Instead of a path of opposition and suffering, it would have been a path of glory as a victor. However, True Father walked a path of unspeakable suffering. He considered that path the path of destiny, and he always forgot about his personal concerns and focused on comforting God. He lived offering God happiness by finding the best possible path in any situation. (1984.07.31, Belvedere Training Center)
We must attend God and ultimately complete Cheon Il Guk. This must begin from the individual. Father said that Cheon Il Guk is the nation which is achieved when two people become one. How can a person live with complete unity of body and mind 100 percent of the time? This is a fundamental issue that we must practice through our faith. Hence, before I criticize your wrongdoings, I want to remind you to first begin with a grateful and pure heart toward Heaven. Those who can say, "Thank you,” honestly and without reserve, are people who have attained enlightenment. If you can attain oneness on the individual, family, church, tribe and national levels, then one world centered on God will automatically be realized. (2012.11.11, CheongShim Peace World Center)
Have those in the first and second generations led a life of gratitude toward True Parents? There must be no complaints or grumbling on our path. The reality of both the second generation and the first generation deeply concerns me as I see a lack of the most basic element of faith—a heart of gratitude toward everything. Just as is mentioned in the Bible and the Divine Principle, a common person of faith first offers gratitude to Heaven. However, we have unconsciously strayed into a self-centered life of faith. (2013.07.05, Hawaii)
We must always start each day with a grateful heart. We are gradually aging. All people are very interested in health, but the most important thing about health is always living with a positive, happy, grateful heart. When we open our eyes in the morning, we should smile and shout out, "Today I am beginning a happy day!" It is said that if we do that, all diseases fall away, and endorphins are produced. Therefore, we become more healthy and efficient in our work. (2006.03.22, Japan, Tokyo)
Humans want to live for eternity but with the body, we meet a limitation. In the future, our environment might improve and we might live up to a 100 or 200 years. In the end, however, we still have to return to our eternal original homeland. True Parents taught the way to live well in that original homeland. How grateful should you be! It is True Parents who called you from Satan's grip, gave you the Blessing, believed in you, and said they will bless you so that you can form a lineage of noble God-centered families through your descendants. True Parents do not exist all the time. They only exist within this era-while I am still on earth. You have received all the blessings you can get on earth. If you can throw away your greed, envy and jealousy, and live in gratitude, then every day would be the kingdom of heaven. (2016.07.07, Cheon Jeong Gung)
You should be grateful that True Parents have laid the foundation we have today from an environment where they had to start from the very bottom. Luckily, one of the True Parents, True Mother, is on earth. You should be grateful for this. You should begin each day saying, "Thank you, thank you.” With this kind of heart there, there will be progress. A song I like by Jo Hang-jo goes, "Flowers of joy blossomed after I threw away my greed.” This is quite correct. Adam and Eve fell due to self-centered desire. It is the same for you and for blessed families who are aware of the Will. Doing things centered on yourself is counter to heavenly law. You need to align yourself with Heavenly Parent and True Parents, moving in oneness of mind and oneness of body with them. Your Parents' wish should be your wish. Fulfilling Heavenly Parent's dream is the substantial kingdom of heaven on earth; the place you go after you live on earth is the kingdom of heaven in heaven. The life we live in our physical bodies will determine the attitude of mind and body we have when we enter the eternal world. If you cannot fit the environment of heaven, you will be naturally excluded. (2016.04.23, Cheon Jeong Gung)
Our circumstances, our positions, are not what are important in our lives of faith. What is important is how we lead our lives on earth so that we can ascend well when the right time comes. How do we die well?
What you should think about is getting rid of greed. Why do you think Christianity isn't developing anymore? It is because they are only praying for themselves or for their own sons and daughters. They are not thinking about what Heaven's hope, Heaven's Will and humanity's wish are.
We are different. We have learned through True Parents what kind of lives we should live. When you know your place and push away your greed, then blessings will come to you. When that happens, you can be even more grateful toward Heaven. When you live a life of gratitude toward Heaven, then Heaven will bestow you with great blessings. You must have had many such experiences. You must live this kind of life. (2015.10.30, Cheon Jeong Gung)
The blessed members of the Unification Church are pure water within this fallen world. As more pure water appears on earth, the rivers and oceans become cleaner—people who are not pure can become pure. You do not realize how valuable each person is. Every day I say this: I am the True Parent, the True Parent of 7.3 billion people. All 7.3 billion people need to know True Parents. Our blessed members have to take responsibility for this mission.
That is why I gave you the four Cheon Il Guk Holy Items, on the anniversary of True Parents' Holy Wedding. Regarding the place where Heavenly Parent resides, to go there you need to be certified of having lived a high noon life that cast no shadows. You need to know how indebted you are, as you receive the grace of this age.
Whenever we think of our Heavenly Parent we should say thank you. "Thank you for True Parents who have opened the way for Heaven to embrace me. Thank you that I have become someone who can go in front of Heavenly Parent.” We should begin every day by saying thank you. (2016.06.06, East Garden)
The Pilgrim fathers crossed over to America because they wanted to get away from the man-made strictures that had come to be placed on the practice of religion in Europe, and be able to worship God freely as the wished. They arrived in America in the winter. Even though they suffered from the cold and hunger, they put the future first and planted the seeds they had. When they finally had their first harvest, they first offered gratitude to Heaven. This is truly precious. That is why God blessed the emigrants. The reason I celebrate Thanksgiving is because I really hope blessed families can inherit the Pilgrims' tradition of first offering gratitude to Heaven, desiring Heaven's compassion, and achieving Heaven's dream. (2016.11.24, Cheon Jeong Gung)
A life of devotion
Think of God's creation of the heavens and the earth. God was thinking of an ideal nation when he began his creation of all things. Who was that creation for? He was creating an environment for Adam and Eve, his son and daughter, who were to grow into True Parents, His substantial selves. The creation of an environment is not easy. When you make an artwork according to your talents, you invest an offering of devotion. It doesn't happen by simply saying, "Ah, I want to make it this way. You, rose! Take this form.” Devotion is essential. (2012.12.14, Cheon JeongGung)
You have everything. When Jesus came 2,000 years ago, he had the qualification of the True Parent, but He could not achieve that and went the way of the cross. How distressed must He have been? To send Jesus, God prepared the Israelite people and went through unspeakable troubles. Jesus also knew what His mission was, but because the environment was not prepared, He died hanging on the cross. However, when He thought about meeting God in the spirit world, how would his heart have been? Jesus would have had an earnest heart wanting to complete his mission at least spiritually after shedding his body.
When Christianity first started, many people were eaten by lions. When we consider that they had to go through that kind of path to demonstrate their faith, you of the present day are people who have received a great blessing. We must think about the heart of Jesus who had to wait 2,000 years.
In his lifetime, True Father laid the foundation for victory while going through repeated suffering in prison and receiving much persecution. While following him, you also went through many difficulties, but when you think of True Father, the point is whether you will be able to say, "Father, I did my best.” Even if you recite the Family Pledge every day, speaking about filial piety in the family, patriotism in our nation, saints in the world, and divine sons and daughters in heaven and on earth and are going that way, and even if every day you bow and pray even thousands of times with a grateful heart, it will not be enough. (2002.08.21, Takamatsu, Japan)
As blessed families, you must offer devotion for fulfilling your mission. Until God welcomed Cheon 11 Guk how many difficulties did He go through? In spite of True Father going to prison six times without having done anything wrong in his 80 years of life, he still carried out God's Providence to the end. That was for God and for you. The blessed couples have a great debt to God and True Parents.
The original mind of humankind is such that if a person receives 100 of something, when returning it, he does not want to take away ten percent and return only 90. The original mind wants to return more than 100 percent, more than 120 percent. When you live matching your focus with True Parents, then God, of course, and your good ancestors in the spirit world will help you, and you will encounter an age where you can feel and see miraculous, amazing works happening. You cannot enter heaven alone, you can enter as families. Heaven is not a place that you can enter just as a blessed family; rather it is a place you can enter only if you bring all your tribes and your people with you.
You must not think complacently saying, "Someone will help me; a miracle will happen.” You must first establish your position as an object to Heaven by first demonstrating your standard of faith and commitment so that Heaven can come and touch you. Change the attitude of life you have held until now; after morning bows, offer special devotion, or if you set a special time and offer devotion for your tribe, nation, world and God's Will to be realized, then, a new path will open. (2006.06.20, Dushanbe, Tajikistan)
I have only one goal for my life. It is to find what I should do so that I can live with a more grateful heart today than yesterday. It is the goal of my life to have a heart which is grateful every day, in order to live endeavoring to be more grateful today than yesterday, and to be more grateful tomorrow than today. But if I frankly confess my heart to you, although I think that it would be wrong of me not to strongly determine to have a grateful heart and go forward every day, sometimes I feel a little weak or emotional. Therefore, I hope that you can understand what I am facing.
In my life of faith towards God, I am always thinking about which path will be the truer one. If we knew a way to understand God's Will clearly and to know it definitely, that would be good, but sometimes we can't do that, and we get discouraged. I think that happens because we are human. Therefore in order to have absolute faith in God, more than anything else you must be obedient to the Will of God and True Father. (1984.07.31, Belvedere Training Center)
We learn great lessons through history. And we always determine that we will not repeat the failures of the past. I imagine that before Jesus came 2,000 years ago, the Jewish people would have thought the same. They also would have thought that when the time came they would not do something like fail, but in the end, they wound up failing. I am sure you know well about how Christian history unfolded. Today what kind of position are we standing in? Like the Jewish people 2,000 years ago aren't we also making a historical failure and losing hope? If not, do we have a strong determination and attitude not to make the same failure again a second time?
Just before True Father left for Danbury, he said, "You must not complain. Keep your position and be grateful, and when you become completely one through gratitude, a great miracle will happen:' You are well aware of the work of True Father. True Father came to the position where he should have been attended. If the people of the world had accepted True Father earlier, his course would have unfolded quite differently. But True Father received opposition from the people of the world and has walked a lonely course of suffering.
But what is sure is that no matter what kind of opposition and persecution there was, True Father was fulfilling God's Will. True Father always invested everything for Heavenly Father's Will and never retreated even slightly. Having heard the testimonies of the elder members, you all know the course that True Father walked in the past. He was never indebted to anyone, and as he lived he erased the debts of other people. He always lived for other people.
When True Father went into Danbury, I felt him making a resolute determination in his heart. If people had carried out their portions of responsibility well, True Father would not have walked such a difficult, strenuous path. Instead of a path of opposition and suffering, it would have been a path of glory as a victor. However, True Father walked a path of unspeakable suffering. He considered that path the path of destiny, and he always forgot about his personal concerns and focused on comforting God. He lived offering God happiness by finding the best possible path in any situation. (1984.07.31, Belvedere Training Center)
We must attend God and ultimately complete Cheon Il Guk. This must begin from the individual. Father said that Cheon Il Guk is the nation which is achieved when two people become one. How can a person live with complete unity of body and mind 100 percent of the time? This is a fundamental issue that we must practice through our faith. Hence, before I criticize your wrongdoings, I want to remind you to first begin with a grateful and pure heart toward Heaven. Those who can say, "Thank you,” honestly and without reserve, are people who have attained enlightenment. If you can attain oneness on the individual, family, church, tribe and national levels, then one world centered on God will automatically be realized. (2012.11.11, CheongShim Peace World Center)
Have those in the first and second generations led a life of gratitude toward True Parents? There must be no complaints or grumbling on our path. The reality of both the second generation and the first generation deeply concerns me as I see a lack of the most basic element of faith—a heart of gratitude toward everything. Just as is mentioned in the Bible and the Divine Principle, a common person of faith first offers gratitude to Heaven. However, we have unconsciously strayed into a self-centered life of faith. (2013.07.05, Hawaii)
We must always start each day with a grateful heart. We are gradually aging. All people are very interested in health, but the most important thing about health is always living with a positive, happy, grateful heart. When we open our eyes in the morning, we should smile and shout out, "Today I am beginning a happy day!" It is said that if we do that, all diseases fall away, and endorphins are produced. Therefore, we become more healthy and efficient in our work. (2006.03.22, Japan, Tokyo)
Humans want to live for eternity but with the body, we meet a limitation. In the future, our environment might improve and we might live up to a 100 or 200 years. In the end, however, we still have to return to our eternal original homeland. True Parents taught the way to live well in that original homeland. How grateful should you be! It is True Parents who called you from Satan's grip, gave you the Blessing, believed in you, and said they will bless you so that you can form a lineage of noble God-centered families through your descendants. True Parents do not exist all the time. They only exist within this era-while I am still on earth. You have received all the blessings you can get on earth. If you can throw away your greed, envy and jealousy, and live in gratitude, then every day would be the kingdom of heaven. (2016.07.07, Cheon Jeong Gung)
You should be grateful that True Parents have laid the foundation we have today from an environment where they had to start from the very bottom. Luckily, one of the True Parents, True Mother, is on earth. You should be grateful for this. You should begin each day saying, "Thank you, thank you.” With this kind of heart there, there will be progress. A song I like by Jo Hang-jo goes, "Flowers of joy blossomed after I threw away my greed.” This is quite correct. Adam and Eve fell due to self-centered desire. It is the same for you and for blessed families who are aware of the Will. Doing things centered on yourself is counter to heavenly law. You need to align yourself with Heavenly Parent and True Parents, moving in oneness of mind and oneness of body with them. Your Parents' wish should be your wish. Fulfilling Heavenly Parent's dream is the substantial kingdom of heaven on earth; the place you go after you live on earth is the kingdom of heaven in heaven. The life we live in our physical bodies will determine the attitude of mind and body we have when we enter the eternal world. If you cannot fit the environment of heaven, you will be naturally excluded. (2016.04.23, Cheon Jeong Gung)
Our circumstances, our positions, are not what are important in our lives of faith. What is important is how we lead our lives on earth so that we can ascend well when the right time comes. How do we die well?
What you should think about is getting rid of greed. Why do you think Christianity isn't developing anymore? It is because they are only praying for themselves or for their own sons and daughters. They are not thinking about what Heaven's hope, Heaven's Will and humanity's wish are.
We are different. We have learned through True Parents what kind of lives we should live. When you know your place and push away your greed, then blessings will come to you. When that happens, you can be even more grateful toward Heaven. When you live a life of gratitude toward Heaven, then Heaven will bestow you with great blessings. You must have had many such experiences. You must live this kind of life. (2015.10.30, Cheon Jeong Gung)
The blessed members of the Unification Church are pure water within this fallen world. As more pure water appears on earth, the rivers and oceans become cleaner—people who are not pure can become pure. You do not realize how valuable each person is. Every day I say this: I am the True Parent, the True Parent of 7.3 billion people. All 7.3 billion people need to know True Parents. Our blessed members have to take responsibility for this mission.
That is why I gave you the four Cheon Il Guk Holy Items, on the anniversary of True Parents' Holy Wedding. Regarding the place where Heavenly Parent resides, to go there you need to be certified of having lived a high noon life that cast no shadows. You need to know how indebted you are, as you receive the grace of this age.
Whenever we think of our Heavenly Parent we should say thank you. "Thank you for True Parents who have opened the way for Heaven to embrace me. Thank you that I have become someone who can go in front of Heavenly Parent.” We should begin every day by saying thank you. (2016.06.06, East Garden)
The Pilgrim fathers crossed over to America because they wanted to get away from the man-made strictures that had come to be placed on the practice of religion in Europe, and be able to worship God freely as the wished. They arrived in America in the winter. Even though they suffered from the cold and hunger, they put the future first and planted the seeds they had. When they finally had their first harvest, they first offered gratitude to Heaven. This is truly precious. That is why God blessed the emigrants. The reason I celebrate Thanksgiving is because I really hope blessed families can inherit the Pilgrims' tradition of first offering gratitude to Heaven, desiring Heaven's compassion, and achieving Heaven's dream. (2016.11.24, Cheon Jeong Gung)
A life of devotion
Think of God's creation of the heavens and the earth. God was thinking of an ideal nation when he began his creation of all things. Who was that creation for? He was creating an environment for Adam and Eve, his son and daughter, who were to grow into True Parents, His substantial selves. The creation of an environment is not easy. When you make an artwork according to your talents, you invest an offering of devotion. It doesn't happen by simply saying, "Ah, I want to make it this way. You, rose! Take this form.” Devotion is essential. (2012.12.14, Cheon JeongGung)
You have everything. When Jesus came 2,000 years ago, he had the qualification of the True Parent, but He could not achieve that and went the way of the cross. How distressed must He have been? To send Jesus, God prepared the Israelite people and went through unspeakable troubles. Jesus also knew what His mission was, but because the environment was not prepared, He died hanging on the cross. However, when He thought about meeting God in the spirit world, how would his heart have been? Jesus would have had an earnest heart wanting to complete his mission at least spiritually after shedding his body.
When Christianity first started, many people were eaten by lions. When we consider that they had to go through that kind of path to demonstrate their faith, you of the present day are people who have received a great blessing. We must think about the heart of Jesus who had to wait 2,000 years.
In his lifetime, True Father laid the foundation for victory while going through repeated suffering in prison and receiving much persecution. While following him, you also went through many difficulties, but when you think of True Father, the point is whether you will be able to say, "Father, I did my best.” Even if you recite the Family Pledge every day, speaking about filial piety in the family, patriotism in our nation, saints in the world, and divine sons and daughters in heaven and on earth and are going that way, and even if every day you bow and pray even thousands of times with a grateful heart, it will not be enough. (2002.08.21, Takamatsu, Japan)
As blessed families, you must offer devotion for fulfilling your mission. Until God welcomed Cheon 11 Guk how many difficulties did He go through? In spite of True Father going to prison six times without having done anything wrong in his 80 years of life, he still carried out God's Providence to the end. That was for God and for you. The blessed couples have a great debt to God and True Parents.
The original mind of humankind is such that if a person receives 100 of something, when returning it, he does not want to take away ten percent and return only 90. The original mind wants to return more than 100 percent, more than 120 percent. When you live matching your focus with True Parents, then God, of course, and your good ancestors in the spirit world will help you, and you will encounter an age where you can feel and see miraculous, amazing works happening. You cannot enter heaven alone, you can enter as families. Heaven is not a place that you can enter just as a blessed family; rather it is a place you can enter only if you bring all your tribes and your people with you.
You must not think complacently saying, "Someone will help me; a miracle will happen.” You must first establish your position as an object to Heaven by first demonstrating your standard of faith and commitment so that Heaven can come and touch you. Change the attitude of life you have held until now; after morning bows, offer special devotion, or if you set a special time and offer devotion for your tribe, nation, world and God's Will to be realized, then, a new path will open. (2006.06.20, Dushanbe, Tajikistan)
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