Foundation Day - Final Thoughts

In the last days, of course, that's also in Matthew, in the book of Matthew. We can understand that in the Jewish times, the times of the Hebrews when they were going across the desert, they also had a lot of difficulties, and God provided them some object of faith to really believe in, which was the tabernacle, that's the Ark of the Covenant. What was inside it? The Ten Commandments, tablets of stone, two types of stone, Aaron's rod, and a jar of manna. What was manna? It was a coriander seed, actually, and they made bread out of it and other things, like carrot and coriander soup. Those were objects for people to put their faith into, and if at least one person adhered to that, then God's promise was that He would be with them. The Ark is called the Ark of the Covenant, right? What is a covenant? A promise. A promise is what God promised them if they would keep to His laws and commandments. That covenant has been there all the time; the promise was there even at the time of creation in the three blessings that God gave humankind, with an implicit direction that we should follow the principle, which we didn't do. But the covenant is there, and as long as we keep that covenant, then God will work with us, guide us, teach us, and protect us. It's not different from then as today; it was the same then as it is now. We're very privileged to be part of the people of the covenant, this incredible line through history.

Father explained that there is also something that we need to use to keep our promise with God in this time. Some of you might have been there when I talked about this, but this is what Father said: just like the Israelites who had to carry the Ark of the Covenant in their 40-year wilderness course, the Unification Church members are now entering the heavenly kingdom carrying the family pledge. We must have an absolute covenant; that absolute covenant or constitutional law is the family pledge. There are no words like family pledge in history. The family pledge is a vow and a promise to achieve the heavenly kingdom. It's true; you read the family pledge and see what it says. It's your promise to God, and God will work with you based on that promise. Father's idea of having this idea of saying the pledge and all this kind of thing is not a random idea. Father actually instigated it after Mother fulfilled her role on the worldwide course. Once she'd established a basic position in 1997, then Father started to instigate all these things. He had this Day of Cosmic Sabbath, a holy day, and he talked about how we can take responsibility to bless our families. We can, but we need to do 100K, and he started to explain what 100K was. The family pledge changed from my pledge to family pledge; it became different. This is our promise, and we're people of the promise, just the same in a sense that sincere Christians who take Holy Communion are just as the Hebrews and Jews were or still are.

Having made our covenant with God, what should we do? We should get our promises and read this every morning. True love, number four, number five. Have you ever said the family pledge without even thinking about it? I've said it while thinking about other things, actually, even without knowing I could do that. It's quite amazing. We need to seriously think about what we're actually doing here; obviously, it's not a good idea to just recite it without thought. So, what do we do if we actually haven't done very much? Or what do we do if we messed up in our life of faith? Circumstances aren't good; we made this mistake or that mistake, and things have worked out in a way that we never imagined they would. Here we are now, with Foundation Day coming up, supposed to be all these things, and God making us a new start, coming to before the fall. What does that all mean? What do we do? If we look at the essence of indemnity, as William said, it's reversal. It's not just suffering; it's to do with conditions that Adam and Eve should have made themselves. They needed to have faith in God's word; that's very important. God was giving them some direction, and they needed to have faith in that.

The vertical foundation of faith fundamentally is having faith in God's words to us in this time. They also needed to have proper dominion over the archangel and creation, creating proper harmony between heaven and earth, and all things, and us and God. They didn't do that; the archangel took dominion and controlled things. Now, everyone has to work like a slave for their salary, and they get given a portion of creation every Friday afternoon or at the end of the month in their bank account, according to how much they've slaved away in Satan's world. It shouldn't be like that at all. We need to gain proper dominion over ourselves first, and also over the spirit world. We need to have faith in God's words, and in this time that we're in, it's so easy to throw away a lot of things. If you just go on any negative blog site or whatever it is, you can get caught up in people complaining about everything that's going on at the moment in our movement. It's so easy to lose track of what's really going on. We have to be very careful because this is just a temporary time; things will change. If you look back at the time of Jesus and the disciples, it was a long time ago. Things have moved on, things have changed, and things have developed from those times. It's the same with us. In one million years' time, there will be a time, and people may not even know about this time, but the world will be very different depending on the kinds of things we do and the values we put into practice.

We know very well what is true. We understand we've been living the principle for a long time, at least all our lives, and we understand what's right and wrong. We can see the value that Father has. I would say that if there's one book you should read, if you don't read anything else, it is World Scripture, second edition. It's an amazing book. Not the least because Andrew Wilson has compacted everything in a certain way and explained it, but every chapter brings out very deep points that Father said about everything. It's so great; it's less boring than chance on going, actually, because it's very well organized. I do recommend it; you can even leave out the other religious people's bits if you need to because it's difficult to read them and know what they're referring to. But if you just read Father's words, they're really amazing. We need to have this faith in God's word and in what's going on at the moment. Father explained in June 2006, when he established the heavenly palace, he kind of set out some ethics. He said there are three rules: we need to keep family ethics, educate young people in a moral vision that includes purity and preparation for marriage. That's not complicated, but the world just can't do that at the moment. We can help people to understand and also commit to fidelity between husband and wife. Secondly, human rights: establish social traditions of respect for others' rights. It's also not complicated, but society doesn't seem to be able to manage it. Lastly, stewardship: exercise moral stewardship of the natural world and public resources. We need to take care of things around us, take care of ourselves, make ourselves look good, and create a beautiful area around us. That will reflect our spirit.

We can do that, and then the natural world starts to get drawn into us if we carry out these three points. But of course, within ourselves, there's a tremendous struggle going on. It's such a struggle sometimes, and I wish I could tell you some things I go through, but it's super embarrassing, so I better not. We all go through really private difficult things, don't we? I'm sure you do. You'd be so embarrassed if someone found out about how you really are or what you're really going through or what you did last week. A lot of us would be because we're struggling with things inside us. Fundamentally, Satan is trying to use us, especially at this time. He's trying to pull us away, distract us with this and that, and all our feelings. We're in this kind of struggle, and I won't go into details, but we're basically torn between two ways of life. The thing we have to do is control ourselves. You know what's right; if you're in a nice atmosphere, like Sunday service, you've been praying, you know what's right and wrong. But sometimes you just don't do what's right; you do the wrong thing and get pulled away because of your ancestry, your circumstances, or whatever it is. You have to make a very big effort to overcome those things, and it really is like life and death effort sometimes. I feel like that sometimes; I want to overcome, but I can't. I just give in or do the wrong thing. We have to really make a big effort to do it, and the more you can control yourself, the better.

Father explains very simply about fasting. Don't get caught up with food; some people love food. Recently, I tried to lose weight. I should be 69 kilos, but I became 76 kilos. There was a point where I thought I can't bend over without feeling uncomfortable. My stomach went over my belt, and I thought I don't like that; I could lose weight. I started to try and lose weight, but it's really difficult. I feel spaced out and hungry half the time. When everyone was piling potatoes on their plate, I was saying, 'Oh, I wanted potatoes.' It's so difficult to overcome that. I got down to 69 kilos, but I put it on again after Christmas. Fasting is a big thing for some people; it's not easy. You feel miserable when you're fasting. We need to deny our physical body that way. Also, sexual abstinence is important. Maybe some of you older blessed couples can't have a relationship well because one of your spouses doesn't want to, and you have to struggle with that. How do you overcome that? Or maybe even when you're young, you need to think about how to control yourself so that you can have the right attitude. We also need to sacrifice for others. What's the Sunday service for? It's for offering. We offer ourselves, our time, our tithe to our community. We come and meet our brothers and sisters, take care of our elders, and look after the older ones. We need to love our enemy. The opposite of that is all the other things: self-indulgent, self-centered, greedy, lustful, slothful. It's our responsibility to overcome this; it's our battle. Nobody's going to do it for us. No one will just see the result and criticize you. It's our responsibility to strengthen our mind, heart, and conscience to separate from Satan's influence and regain control over our body. That's what the problem was with the fall; Satan can control everything in the physical world. We need to overcome that, and if we really work on that very hard for three months or 30 years, it depends on where your ancestors come from. It brings us to the point at which we can cross the line to the status of Adam and Eve before the fall if we can purify ourselves enough and be in control of ourselves enough.

I know some people try to do service and offering, and then they go off to the pub and get blind drunk. What's the point of that? You're just undoing everything. If you do something unprincipled, you lose control. For about three days, you feel terrible. Have you experienced that? I have. I feel guilty, bad, and I can't pray or concentrate. It takes three days to climb back up and feel a bit better. You think, I don't want to do that again, yet later on, you find yourself doing it again. Bit by bit, over 30 years, you get there.

This brings us to the status of Adam and Eve before the Fall, which is the whole point of Foundation Day. Father restored this; first, Jesus got married, and then Father could marry Mother. They spent 43 years restoring the foundation of Christianity, raising up Mother as a bride, inheriting the foundation of the movement. Then she could stand as True Parent, True Mother with Father. Another blessing was Adam and Eve's relationship, establishing that. Father, with Mother from the spirit world, worked to restore the Fall and get back to before it.

Since 2000, we've all been attending numerous workshops and blessings. We can't cross the line by ourselves; we need God's grace given through the Messiah. We need someone to pay the price for us and to guide us. If we connect in heart with them, like I did with my dad or later with Father, we can gain the grace of being with Father in a higher realm. Our spiritual state determines where we will be in the spirit world. If we can connect to Father, he said, 'Just hold on to me, and I will pull you up.'

Through the blessings we've had, I've researched seven different things. First, there was my own blessing. When I got blessed, there was a registration into the new nation of Cheon Il Guk in July 2000. Everyone had to confess, repent, and make renewal. This was a national-level blessing, and we took holy wine at that time. In January 2002, we were asked to take holy wine for the third time. Then, on February 6, 2003, Father and Mother had their second blessing, which was the world blessing. I remember it clearly because I was there.

On August 20, 2004, we drank holy wine again, and on June 13, 2006, we had a renewal of candles and salt. On October 14, we needed to make extra conditions, and it was a real renewal chance for people to repent and start again. We attended a two-day workshop on the original divine principle, which was a cosmic-level blessing. God’s blessing is a high-level blessing, and we can say that this is about God coming into humankind. We’ve had many chances to start again, and Father gave us that chance many times to repent and start anew. He paid a price each time for us.

Adam and Eve were God's children, and their marriage would have been God's marriage. Their first love would have been God's first love. Until now, God couldn't love substantially in a body. Human history has been a long journey of God's seed and lineage, trying to put this point into humankind. With the appearance of True Parents, God is finally liberated to love. Foundation Day is like the foundation of three liberations: Satan's bloodline is eradicated through the blessing, Satan's dominion over this world is overcome by living a principled life, and the environment we are subjected to will be changed into the environment of Cheon Il Guk.

Don't think that if you're not blessed or living a principled life yet, you're going to hell. There are many members in the world, but it's a process. The Bible talks about a thousand-year period until a millennium when Satan will be unleashed again. God needs to start somewhere, and He is starting with True Parents. Father gave everything to reach this point, hoping that we can follow in the same footsteps. In our families, we can create a great culture, educating our children in a culture of heart, respect, and care for the environment.

Foundation Day is like the third holy wedding of True Parents, God's own wedding to True Mother. It signifies the completion of True Parents of heaven, earth, and humankind. It doesn't mean everyone is perfect, but the seed is there, ready to sprout well. The completion of the heavenly nation doesn't mean a nation instantly pops up. Father started with holy salt, then holy grounds, and finally Cheon Il Guk. This is where God begins to work strongly, unifying the spiritual and physical worlds. You may feel something close is happening, and the spirit world is peering over our shoulders, asking what we do and why.

Completion of the heavenly family means we become the direct children of God. True Mother has become one with God as His wife. As blessed couples, we will be registered as citizens of the substantial Cheon Il Guk. We will receive the heavenly seal, as mentioned in Revelation 7. It talks about the seal of the living God and those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. Yes, that’s us. Please take this time seriously; it's a great chance to review our life of faith. It's not just about making a new start but about putting principles into practice in our lives to gain incredible merit and grace from God. If I act principally and control myself, I feel God's grace deeply. Let's make an effort, and I believe this Foundation Day can be an incredible foundation for us all.