Sermons of Rev Moon - April 19, 1959 - When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven 1

[대태양/김현수]

REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON SPEAKS ON

When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven
April 19, 1959,
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea

Prayer

We know that history has been a sad course because of the fall of Adam and Eve, who were to serve You. Please instill in us anger over human history. The descendants of sinful Adam and Eve have continued until today with the inherited baggage of sin: driven, chased around, and suffering under hardships. Since You have responsibility as the Creator, and accordingly, can never forget them, You have been going through a historical course of toil to regain humankind, regardless of the age and time.

Please enable us to feel remorse over ourselves in such a position and to feel pain over Your having walked that path of infinite toil and suffering. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will give us the heart to feel shame together with You about who we are and anger over having inherited the sinful lineage of history.

We feel that the sinful character still remains in us. Our bodies are shackled in chains of sin. We are zealously waiting for You, merciful Father, to reveal Your power and ability. We are waiting to become true sons and daughters. We know that Your sorrow will deepen as You see sons and daughters fail, unable to cut off the barbed wire of sin, unable to sever the relationship with sin that invades them and fight.

You are longing for the one to appear who can open his mind and escape from the restriction of the body and call You "Father" with a new mind and body. Please help us be the sons and daughters who can say to You, "Father, please accept us, as we represent Your will." We know that it is Your hope that such historical victors, sons and daughters who can win over the enemies and comfort Your anguished heart, will appear. We sincerely hope and desire now that You allow us to become such sons and daughters, calling You "our Father" from that position and comforting You.

Since we know that this is both Your hope and ours, please encourage us and lead us on to that place. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that through Your guidance we can become sons and daughters with a heart to hold onto Your hand of guidance and a desire to follow any path of hardship.

Father, please bless us today. Please come to us. Please remove all the darkness that is deeply seated in our minds and bodies, and let this be the day when we can be embraced in Your shining bosom. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

Please bless this nation and humankind. Please spread Your hand of compassion over the brothers and sisters who are bowing before You with lonely hearts. Enable them to regain the image of victors and to present it proudly. Lead this hour to be such that heaven and earth resonate and rejoice with worship and songs of praise. As we entrust You with everything from the beginning to the end, please rule over this hour. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

On this holy occasion, although we are not prepared, we still have come before You shamelessly, bowing our heads to You. Father of love, mercy and forgiveness, please tolerate us. Our minds desire to resemble Your mind; our bodies seek to take after Your form. Since we have not accomplished this task because of our ignorance, we zealously desire You to enlighten us through our minds and give us experience through our bodies, so that we can prostrate ourselves before You in the image which resembles You.

If there are sons or daughters who are not suitable for Your will, please come to them directly and admonish them. As we have deaf ears and blind eyes, and are unable to hear Your words and see Your figure, You have to make us hear and see again. Let us understand that You are more grieved than we are because of this; you are more troubled than we, and more stifled in heart.

How can we face You after not responding to Your tens of millions of beckonings and not hearing Your tens of millions of calls? Nevertheless, we have come and prostrated ourselves before You, having heard Your voice and realized that You are beckoning to us. You know that we are most miserable and helpless people. You will have to come to us and hold us with hands of love, in spite of the disgraceful shape we are in. Although our eyes are darkened and our bodies are scarred so that we are ignorant of the original substance of life, Father, please embrace us with love. We eagerly hope and desire that You will console us, resting Your exhausted feet and turning Your disappointment into joy.

Because the world is fallen, sorrow is heaped upon sorrow in Your heart. Father, you have been fighting against the enemy alone, without laying the responsibility upon us, because You know that Satan is blocking our way and sweeping the world with the power of death. Since we know that the greater our reverence for You, the greater Your desire to forgive our sins and defects, please come to us through this heart. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

Please forgive the people on earth for not having been able to bow to You with true feelings of life. Please understand that although we have the desire to call You, follow You, and serve You, our situations are infinitely sad.

Please let us call You "Father" at this time, worrying about the sins of history and of the age, and about the conditions of sin that will remain in the future. Although we are unworthy, please let us invite You and bow to You. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

With regret for being sinners and with tears of indignation as well as hearts of serious repentance, we come to realize that You have been forgiving us for six thousand years and that even now You are still trying to treat us with mercy. Father, please knock on the door of our hearts as we cry out. Please remove all our insistence and our sin-bound concepts and let us feel Your life through our minds and bodies. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will let this be the time when a relationship is formed in which we can call You "Father" and You can call us "sons and daughters." Let us experience the heavenly grace of love, Your heart of love and desperation, the heart we have never felt so far.

Father, please have pity on the thirty million people living on the peninsula of the thirty-thousand-li. We know that those who are truly worried about these people and who shed tears and sweat for them are very few. Since they have no place to stay without Your sympathy, no one from whom to receive help or to look, Father, please take care of these people. We sincerely desire this.

We know that You are making an effort to arouse a movement of life by giving them a new promise. We cannot help admitting to You our shortcomings in serving the heavenly providence to save this people. Please admonish us. We are so wanting. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will encourage us to become sons and daughters to whom You can give the responsibility to bring forth a movement of new life and build a garden of new hope. As we are moaning in the shadow of death and are captured in Satan's barbed wire due to our defects, we eagerly hope and desire that You will spread the hands of grace and lead us on.

Many people are bowing to You at this time, longing for Your embrace. Father, please show them everything. Please tell them the will of the providence and help them fulfill it.

Since many lonesome sons and daughters are pleading with You on their knees at this time, we eagerly hope and desire that in every place they pray with such a shimjung, You will spread a hand of love and show them the glory of Your presence.

We entrust the remaining hours with You. Please guide us to start and end with You. Please rule over us directly so that we can experience the joy of Your life and return glory to You. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, we miss the time when You used to teach us about all that was of You and the time when we beheld Your glory in ecstasy and did not want to remain on earth. We also miss the time when heaven and earth rejoiced as we were immersed in Your love and experienced Your shimjung.

You liked appearing in quietude, and did not mind coming in the middle of hardship. You have been working in history, fighting with us on the battlefield and in the place of despair. As we reflect that You have always stayed with us, fought with us, and always longed to live with us, please let us repent for our past course of faith in which we enjoyed rejecting and denying the earth, even though we lived there.

We have seen that although You are in glory when we joyfully serve You in the position of transcendence, You were pitiful, haggard and saddened when You appeared on the earth. We also have learned that You have been relating to us in this form throughout history.

We eagerly hope and desire that You will guide us so that we stand in the glorious position where we can rejoice with the Father who has been wounded on the earth and who has struggled to find a true son under hardship. We hope for this, rather than rejoicing with the Father who appears in glory.

We know that if we want to serve You in such a position, we have to go through the path of tears, thorns and the cross. Only in this way can we know that You exist. We cannot help thinking that such a sad path of faith remains for us.

Beloved Father! Beloved Father! Are we lamenting now for ourselves? Are we grieving for our sake? Are we grieving for the sake of the nation? Are we grieving for the sake of the world and Heaven?

Now we must become sons and daughters who can realize for ourselves where You are headed by clearly understanding our identity. We must bow our heads while worrying about Your hope. If we have no confidence to stand before You, let us repent in our hearts. If we are unworthy to go to You, let us purify ourselves.

Father! Earthly people are not aware that You must hasten them to proclaim the way to the heavenly kingdom. You have to face untenable circumstances. Although earthly circumstances cannot be brought close to Your shimjung, You have the responsibility to bring them around by installing the one true human being.

We have inherited the sinful lineage of those who chased away, drove out, persecuted and killed at will the numerous prophets who came with a mission. Please lead us to repent for ourselves, asking what kind of heavenly responsibility we are willing to bear and what kind of determination we have.

Heaven told us in advance that now is the time to wake up. You have told us that it is time to hoist a bright lamp in the dark night. Are our minds still immersed in darkness? Are our bodies wrapped up in the barbed wire of death? Please guide us so that we can break away from this and be able to run toward Heaven, to fight for Heaven, and to take responsibility for Heaven. In this way, we should become sons and daughters who can call You "Father" and long for You to come. Father, if there is anyone who is unworthy to stand before the will, please encourage him at this time.

Please help us understand the urgency of the time. Please do not let us receive the judgment, swept up in the shadow of death. Rather, make us sons and daughters who can be led by the call of life and run toward Your embrace and the garden of freedom, although our bodies may be torn apart and we may die.

We on earth cannot help being saddened as we behold the Kingdom of Heaven and see that there are too many sad affairs. Father, as we see that the path which lies before us is a continuum of blood and tears, we cannot help hesitating and being afraid. Let us realize, however, that the heart of He who calls us is more grieved and troubled than ours. Today is the first day after Easter week. Allow us to light the lamp of the heart. Since we must receive Your eternal sap of life in our bodies and minds, Father, bring forth the works of life and re-creation at this time.

Are there people who are moaning in the realm of death? Please guide them to repent at Your trumpeting voice and succumb to You of their own volition. If there are people who have an inclination to betray You because the bitter roots of death still remain in their bodies and minds, please remove these and intervene with the authority of resurrection and life. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this. The people gathered here are of many types. Please have them form one mind, harmonizing into one shimjung. We sincerely hope and desire that You allow this to be a time when we can engage in our activities with renewed hearts.

The myriad of satans is looking for a chance to attack us even at this time. Please completely block their invasion. Make this a service that can mobilize the millions of saints in heaven and move the believers on earth who are pleading with Heaven with true hearts. Let this be a time when we can introduce the relationship between heaven and earth. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

We do not want many words now. Now that we have understood Your shimjung that is slow to give permission, Your heart that hesitates, please have pity on us. Please understand the heart that wants to convey the truth and the hearts that want to receive it. Allow us to serve You with glory at this time by achieving a unity of heart between the giver and receivers based on You. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Based on the words, "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." (Matthew 25:13), I would like to speak to you upon the topic, "When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven." I would like you to hear this speech while offering yourselves to the Father, reflecting upon how awake your minds and bodies are and what shimjung and situations the Father must go through in trying to awaken you.

God Is Awake

Considering the rise and fall of a family, society, nation or state, we see that when they were not awake, they collapsed. Thus, it is extremely valuable for human beings to be awake.

For what are we to stay awake? We should stay awake not for the present reality, but looking forward to the time that is to come. That is, we should have a heart of thirsting hope. When we become so, we can stand as a person of hope or a person of the country of hope. That is why patriots in history cried out for the people to stay awake and to look to the future even when the country was sinking into darkness and being swept into the realm of death.

How much has Heaven kept awake for us and toiled for us? We can know this only to the extent to which we have stayed awake and worked hard. It does not mean, however, that Heaven has stayed awake and worked only as much as we are aware. Since the creation of Adam and Eve, Heaven has never lost sight of the hope for the ideal of creation. There has been no day when He rested or dozed. We should know this.

Heaven was not satisfied simply with having created Adam and Eve and watching them grow. We should not forget that He wakefully watched over them, worrying about their future. We should not forget that Heaven wakefully watched the descendants from the time of Adam and Eve until now, from the position of the future.

What was the fall? It was to be ignorant of the shimjung, situation and hope of wakeful Heaven. The shimjung of Heaven who stayed awake! The shimjung of Heaven who stayed awake, seeking to make a relationship with them! The hope of Heaven, who sought to enjoy glory with them in the future! The fall was to lose that hope. That is why fallen people failed to see the day of hope God had desired. They failed to connect to the deep situation of God and lost His loving embrace, an embrace beyond human imagination.

God has been working providentially, worried about humankind who left His bosom, to regain them. This is the providence of salvation. Reflecting upon our selves today, we have no relationship with the shimjung, situation or hope of Heaven. We should see that we have nothing with which to repay the shimjung, situation and hope of the Father.

Heaven, who had worried whether Adam and Eve might fall, worried about them again after the fall. He set out to save them from the embrace of Satan, the realm of death. We should be able to feel in our hearts that Heaven worried about their fall, worried about them after the fall, and has been trying to find them for six thousand years as if it were a day, not dozing off even for a single moment, to save them from death.

Humankind Longs for New Hope
and the Stimulation of Shimjung

What is the desire of humankind? It is to conquer the world, transcending the family, nation, and state. Although a person might achieve this goal, if he does not align himself with and possess the shimjung, situation and hope of God, he cannot stand before God.

Looking at history, the individual, family, country and world have been struggling to find hope. Now, as in the past, they are struggling in search of new hope. We cannot find new hope, however, the way we have been living so far. In other words, we cannot find new hope with the concepts and ideologies connected with history. There is a limit there. We should expect this.

Human beings are looking with hope for the situation through which the way of Heaven and humans can be connected. East and West are looking for the way in which all the people can build the world of a new ideology based on one shimjung. However, that situation has not appeared yet in human history. They should feel the shimjung to transcend the tribes and cultures of East and West and mix together in daily life by having fair and equal situations. Yet, in their ignorance, they do not.

Thus, they feel something vaguely disturbing in their hearts. They are longing for some stimulating shock, although they do not know clearly what it is. Although they are waiting for some new stimulation of the heart, they have not been able to receive any so far. For this reason, although we may find hope and make a relationship through love, if we fail to find the unifying point of shimjung, we cannot help being scattered apart at some time.

Human history reveals how Heaven treated the human ancestors. We can say that the real nature of history is to show this. We should know this. Now everyone is saying with the same voice that the present time is the last days. In this day, humanistically cherished hope should withdraw, and so should the human situation hitherto because we cannot make an eternal relationship with it. Such a time has come.

Since the family, social, state or worldwide foundations that are centered on individual feelings cannot be an unchanging, universal center, immovable as a rock, they will eventually collapse. That is why human hearts are agitated. The greater the agitation of heart, the more anxiety they feel, the sooner the time of shimjung will come when there will be hope for humankind. If such a time does not come, humankind will start and end with despair. If there is a heavenly will for humankind, however, it is to start and end with hope, and Heaven has the responsibility to fulfill the will. Therefore, there will surely come a time when the purpose of history will be achieved.

People today think that all motivations originated from humanity, but that is wrong. Today's societies, countries and world have not formed based on historical relationships. That thinking is wrong. Historical relationships did not start with humanity. History has been flowing along to the point where a higher relationship and higher hope are to be realized.

The Right Attitude Toward History

When I say it is time to wake, I do not mean waking from sleep at night. This word has been given in every age. As there is a world of a certain ideology to be realized in the last days, this word is given in every age to those who seek to find this world.

If you have a desire to advance yourself, to insist on your opinion and rule over the whole, from where did this originate? You are in the midst of sleep. Humankind is asleep today. The individual, the family, the society, country, world, and even spiritual world are in a deep sleep, unable to receive the time of hope. If everyone commonly feels that such a historical relationship should be concluded with something new, then the problem is what is that "something". Looking back upon history, nations that insisted on traditional customs were swept aside. We should abandon the way of thinking we used to have in antiquated ages. People tend to value historical relics today because they are walking the course of restoration. This means that what has existed in the human world is to be seen as a reflection of God's heart.

Therefore, we should not rest content with the old antiquated ideology. Rather, we should understand the value of the original ideology through it and receive stimulation, gaining a desire to commit ourselves to this precious ideology. Only such people can restore the ideal that was hidden in God's shimjung from the beginning of the universe.

Thus, in the last days we should not try to find something by looking back at history; rather, we should conclude history and revive the whole ideology hidden in God and show it in a fresh new way. We should know that this time is indeed when God wakes up, and so do the people on the earth.

When the age of restoration passes, we should look for something new. Thus, granting that these are the last days, the young men and women living in this age should reject all that has been valued by people and zealously struggle for something new. Only then can they become wakeful workers of the new age. The people who struggle with eyes open for something new in this final day will closely approach the way to make a relationship with the hope of the future. They will make ties with the future and with the heavenly shimjung that appears in the historical age of the last days.

The problem then becomes in what position I am standing. Am I not standing in the fallen world, which is ruled by the power of death, which sucks the blood of goodness and has a history of nations devouring nations, countries preying upon countries? We should know that if this is so, we have no relationship with the hoped-for world of shimjung.

Unless you draw a clear line, saying, "You go your way, and I will have to go mine," the progress of history, which has been engulfed by the current of death, will prevent you from making a tie with the new age and will drive you into the world of death. Although we have had to hold onto the flow of history so far, at the final judgment, we must go beyond it. In other words, when Jesus concluded his thirty or so years of life on earth and gained the victory of resurrection, if he had any resentment about his life, any sense of himself or his importance, he would not have been able to resurrect.

The reason Jesus could resurrect was that he gave up his prior life entirely, without regret, and burned with new hope. It is also because his shimjung, situation and hope were exchanged for heavenly, not earthly, ones. At that moment, he could receive the grace of resurrection.

Likewise, you will encounter such a time of exchange. As you see this day approach, you must have a clear determination of heart. When you join a meeting, rather than having a determination because of the leader of the meeting, you must have the standard of shimjung on your own. Only then can you be regarded as having a natural environment for being awake.