The God of heart 17 The God of heart has been sorrowful throughout six thousand years of history. He felt wronged by the disbelief of our ancestors. Now we should offer prayers that comfort God, who feels so wronged and sorrowful. This is why God is saddened when He faces the attitude of the people of the Second Israel, who are scattered around the world. In this time, God needs a group of people to emerge who can grab Him by the sleeve and say, “Father, is it true that You have come to be so woeful and to feel so wronged in heart?” God will grasp their hands and respond, “Yes, my sons, my daughters!” (010-350, 1960.11.27)
18 The Bible includes the epistles written with symbols and parables that refer to the bridegroom seeking the bride. Why has this symbolic message been so difficult to decipher? It is because it is from the God of heart. Not everyone can comprehend the meaning of the Bible. Only the bride and bridegroom themselves can decipher it. Only those who are ready to attend God wholeheartedly can understand. Those who are not prepared will not grasp it. What is the true meaning of this embedded message? It shows the passage to the door through which the bridegroom enters the heart. Parents' heart for their child remains the same from the time the mother nurses her baby to the time the child has grown old and gray-haired. The heart does not change. (8-305, 1960.02.14)
19 Christians say, “Oh yes! Christ must come again on the clouds.” How awesome that would be! If it were true, people like us would not have to suffer. If that were the kind of faith we were supposed to have, our faith would surpass that of any minister or church elder. As for offering devotion, we would offer more than anyone else. But if the Lord were to come on the clouds, what would he do? When we examine Christian history, we see that Christians have focused on spiritual matters, and many willingly gave up their lives for Christ. Because Christianity had no earthly foundation, Christians had to suffer tribulation and death at the hands of sovereigns in many nations. Looking at this alone, we could feel wronged and angry. Nevertheless, if the Lord were to come again spiritually, on the clouds, what would he do? Would he save only the Christians, secreting them away, while abandoning the non- Christians? God is not that kind of being. As in the biblical parable of the prodigal son, God celebrates His prodigal son more than his dutiful first son. Such is God's heart. (021-040, 1968.09.01)
20 Let us understand clearly that although God is the great Lord and King, He has been starved in heart for six thousand years. We have to comfort God. Although God really has felt like destroying this world with one stroke of judgment, He has held on to His purpose, His hope and His desire for the earth. Keeping that in His sights, He has persevered as He suffered again, again and again. This is the God we must call our Father. We must call Him our Father not as a name or title, but because we feel that way about Him in our heart. A new teaching must emerge on this earth that will move people to relate as blood kin, parents, and brothers and sisters on a global scale. As they do, they can learn loyalty to God, creating a bond with God in heart that enables them to act centering on Heaven's heart. This heart is beyond time and space, beyond peoples and nations. Without such a teaching, this world will break apart. (9-075, 1960.04.10)
21 Now human beings have nowhere to go. But we have to face a final showdown, so we cannot just wallow in despair. Now a movement of truth has to arise, inspiring us to advance into a new heaven and earth with the genuine truth. We need a standard bearer who can guide us on this one and only path of life, to clean up our deplorable environment, which we face with hopeless despair, and to pursue the true way. We have been following this or that ideology, looking for the truth. It is only when the complete truth emerges that this world can be united completely. Once we learn this truth, we can and must perfect our character and our heart. (16-253, 1966.06.19)
22 Through heart, we need to understand God throughout history. God was a God of heart when He created all things of creation. We need to understand Gods heart at the time of creation, after the Fall, and during the course of history. You believe in God, but do you understand His heart? You absolutely need to. Next, you have to understand God's hope in each age as well as His heart in each age. In this way you can come to understand God's heart for the future. (16-253, 1966.06.19)
23 We have to feel the sorrowful heart of God. He had to watch Jesus dying on the cross after striving to fulfill his mission with such intense devotion and dedication. Jesus came for the sake of humankind and the universe. He came to dissolve God's sorrow, complete God's Will, and subjugate Satan. But disbelievers hounded Jesus from one comer to another, and in the end he had to carry the cross on Golgotha. Can you imagine Jesus' heart at that time? Yet even when he understood that God's promise and desire, of which he was the center, would be shattered and his life would end on the cross, Jesus did not betray God. He remained loyal and devoted to God to the end. No one believed in Jesus, but he paid no heed to this. He kept moving forward, bonded to Heaven on the path toward his life goal. Ultimately, Jesus' historic life became the path of hope for humankind. (3-174, 1957.10.25)
24 If God feels bitter sorrow toward the fallen world, it is because there are no true parents, true couples or true children. This is God's lamentation. That is why Paul said that human redemption is as adopted children. They are only adopted. So, no matter how good you are, you still are an adopted child. This you need to understand. Then what is God's sorrow? It is that the children of His direct lineage were degraded to be merely adopted children. Thus human history has been a sorrowful course to restore fallen children to the children of God's direct lineage. You can attend God closely only when you grasp His heart. This begins with grasping God's sorrow throughout history. When you love and raise your children, as a parent, you can come to feel God's heart. Also, when you feel true love between husband and wife, you should be able to feel God's original love. Then, your children should feel it through loving you, their parents. We need a teaching of goodness, and when that standard appears on earth, we should embody that standard of goodness. Today, we live according to our relative viewpoints; but based on the true parental heart of love we will be able to stand as subject partners who can become the center of value, the center of life, the center of thought and the center of love. (4-310, 1958.10.05) |