INTRO
Greetings to our fellow Owners of Cheon Il Guk. I’ve recently been reading a lot about the “historical Jesus” and the “historical Paul.” These studies try to strip away the the perspectives that arose through Christian theology over the ensuing centuries and view Jesus and Paul in their time and context which, of course, was rooted in the providential history of the people of Israel as laid out in the Hebrew Bible. This certainly gives a sharp focus to the purposes of YHWH and His dealings with His people.
I’ve found this has been helpful for seeing the present circumstances of blessed families and the UM, as well as of the world, in a similar providential light. It clears away a lot of the clutter of daily circumstances and brings central providential questions into sharp focus: Who is True Father? What was his lifetime mission on this earth? As blessed families and owners of Cheon Il Guk how should we understand and connect ourselves to that mission?
In the Book of Revelation, God tells John, “Behold, I make all things new.” That prophecy has been fulfilled in the victories of Father’s life. He has opened the door that had been firmly barred, to make possible new relationships, with God, with other people, and with the natural world.
I attach a speech, Heart and Heaven, from February 1960, just two months before True Parents’ Holy Wedding, where Father describes the essence of the relationship with God that we are called to attain.
This is an invaluable site for understanding Father’s speeches and declarations in the context of the time in the course of his life and the restoration/re-creation providence they were delivered.
Here is a quote from this speech to, hopefully, pique your interest:
“What is God’s regret? It is that we, who were created to attend Him with our heart, fell into a position where we could not do so, and that God, who should have received heart-centered attendance, was left unattended. God was not anguished because there was nobody who believed in or knew Him. The grief of heaven and earth is that there was nobody who could attend or relate to God in heart.”
Michael Marshall
Heart and heaven Sun Myung Moon February 14, 1960
What kind of place is heaven? It is where we can take pride in what we prepared during our life on earth, and in our life of attendance. Then what kind of people enter heaven? Is heaven a place for those who simply believe in the Lord and expect to receive blessings or who act only for the sake of receiving blessing? No. Heaven is the destination for those who live preparing their hearts to attend God, as well as those who can leave behind a life of attendance and joyfully move on, even if they were to die while preparing. There is resurrection there. The details of life do not appear there. How we should live from now on is the important question we should reflect upon in our life of attendance.
Heaven is a place we cannot enter without a connection of heart. It is the original nation, the nation of original nature, which can govern everything. It is a nation that cannot be possessed based on some situation, but only by those who have a deep bond of heart. As such, Christianity, ultimately speaking, is a religion where mutual sentiments are understood, rather than circumstances. The purpose of God’s providence on earth is to make the foundation on which we can sing sharing our hearts beyond sharing circumstances.
What is the Fall? It is not a matter of God not being able to discuss His circumstances, but rather His heart. Coming in search of fallen humanity with the heart of longing to meet His lost sons and daughters, yet not being able to find anyone who could share His heart, God has worked to find such people. That has been the history of salvation and the one sent to find such people is the Savior.
Before desiring heaven, we must desire to know God’s heart; and before desiring to know God’s heart, we must think about how we should conduct our lives. First, have a heart of attendance. Our original nature reveres and yearns for that which is sublime and precious. In spite of the Fall, our original heart wants to attend the sublime and precious heart of God. Therefore, those who have never been able to lead a heart-centered life of attendance have nothing to do with heaven.
To live a life of attendance we need preparation. After passing through a process of preparation, we need to then practice the life of attendance. Our destination, after preparing and practicing a life of attendance, is heaven. The destination of people who have attended with their hearts is heaven. Heaven is the world where we can be proud of our preparation for attendance and the life of attendance, and where we can actually demonstrate our accomplishments. It is our destiny to follow the course that advances toward the world of heavenly purpose.
From the day we were born with fallen lineage until the present day, there has not been even one day when all humankind attended God with a full heart. Before Adam and Eve fell, they grew according to the ideal of creation, but they never attended God based on a relationship of heart.
What is God’s regret? It is that we, who were created to attend Him with our heart, fell into a position where we could not do so, and that God, who should have received heart-centered attendance, was left unattended. God was not anguished because there was nobody who believed in or knew Him. The grief of heaven and earth is that there was nobody who could attend or relate to God in heart.
Link to PDF version of this speech
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