The Words of the Hwang Family

Escaping the Inertia of Bad Habits

Sun Jo Hwang
April 11, 2004

Excerpted form the sermon Rev. Hwang gave at the headquarters church

We are living our lives, resurrected through True Parents. We walk this path of faith, not for the sake of resurrection but to go beyond the stage of resurrection, to become owners of Cheon Il Guk, constantly engaging ourselves for the sake of building God's fatherland, which Jesus had wanted to establish on earth.

When we carefully look back at the course of restoration through indemnity, we cannot know how amazing it is for us to engage in these activities of restoring our tribes in our hometowns with this victorious standard.

Dear members, resurrection means life. That being the case, we should take this time today, to really reflect on whether we are that kind of resurrected people overflowing with the water of life with the fervent hope of realizing God's will.

The most fearful enemy we encounter on the path of faith is our tendency to get lost in habit. True Parents have also expressed deep concern about this. As we go the way of God's will in attendance to the one and only Messiah, there is nothing more reflective of a lack of faith and more dreadful than passing each day in submission to deeply ingrained habits.

Dear members, how can we escape from this inertia [of being lost in habit] and maintain our life as a resurrected self? The answer to this question is actually simple. All we have to do is follow in the footsteps of our True Parents. If we can act in accordance with their guidance, we can maintain our life for eternity. When True Parents give instructions for us to go out to the field, we have to be prepared to light gunpowder and shoot out like a bullet.

If the gunpowder is prepared, when True Parents hit the detonator, the powder will explode, propelling the bullet forward to pierce the heart, and even shoot through rock. But if the gunpowder is not ready, even when the detonator is activated the bullet will not shoot out. When that happens, we will not be able to display our vitality as resurrected selves. God's will can be achieved only when we go out with the mindset of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience whenever True Parents ask it of us.

Their teachings on absolute faith, love and obedience have been disseminated to all members throughout the world through the ideal family education that was conducted in Jardim, Brazil. From a providential viewpoint, the forty-day ideal family training and registration in Jardim has been the course to create fourth Adams.

The most important guidance from True Parents that was taught during this workshop was that we must become fourth Adams and live a life of faith on our own two legs, in other words, we have the kind of faith to become messiahs.

An independent faith -- a faith that makes us into messiahs -- is only possible when we have absolute faith, love and obedience before God. When this lifestyle permeates our life, we can become true parents. This is possible because these are God's attributes.

True Parents have taught that God is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. The process of inheriting these attributes was conducted during the forty-day workshop in Jardim, and we must become fourth Adams by embodying these attributes in our lives. "Fourth Adam" is a designation indicating that we are resurrected selves reborn through our life of faith.

When we inherit God's absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal attributes and live a life of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, we can finally, resolutely discard the rags of habitual repetition.

True Parents have practiced a life of absolute faith, love and obedience throughout their lives and have taught us to manifest and embody the attributes of God within our heart and lives. Still, what can we say about our lives? Doesn't inconsistency characterize our lives of faith, in which we perceive True Parents' teachings with our head, yet fail to put anything into action due to our tendency to become stuck in bad habits? That kind of life is tantamount to trampling on True Parents' hearts.

I ask that we all deeply engrave in our hearts that a life of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience is the most effective way of sustaining our life.

Our life force is manifested through love. Without love, our family, society, nation and world are no different from a grave. No matter how bad the external conditions may be, with love, life can be revived. Conversely, no matter how good the external conditions may be, without love they are dead.

Love is not a concept. It is life itself. Thus, our life is sustained through love. The same can be said of peace. If there is any conflict within the individual, family, society, nation or world, there can be no security in life. Where there is harmony, unity and peace there is life.

My beloved members, we must now return to our hometown to establish Cheon Il Guk. We must become resurrected beings of life overflowing with love and peace through absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. With this we must move toward the ward and neighborhood; with this we must approach our relatives.

Life encapsulates our entire being. We can find two traditions in the Old Testament. We can also find two kinds of tradition within Jesus' life.

The first is that of the high priest who is called by heaven to walk the path of faith. The high priest gathers people who'd been dispersed and earnestly engages in heart--to--heart exchange with heaven.

The second tradition is that of the prophet. The prophet does not confine himself to what is delineated in scripture but proclaims the word through his own mouth. Whereas the high priest practices in silence, the prophet raises his voice saying, "You snakes! You brood of vipers!" This phrase comes out in Jesus' sermons.

In conclusion, we can say that the tradition of the high priest is that of gathering people, whereas the tradition of the prophet is that of dispersing people. This repetition of gathering and dispersal can lead the people to a profound stage of meeting Heaven face-to-face, and also can have them dive into the world and guide many people's lives toward heaven.

This organic interchange between the priestly tradition and prophetic tradition maintains our life. Thus, it is as a result of this prophetic tradition that we have been dispersed to our towns, villages and districts. It is by the priestly tradition that we come together each month in our regional church to offer testimonies of our accomplishments and to then go back out with a new sense of mission. It is the same with True Parents' lives. If we analyze their lives, we can see that they substantially integrate these two traditions.

The entire spirit world is being mobilized now and has come down to the wards and neighborhoods of our hometowns. God has also come down to our hometown. The church is no longer the place for us to meet God. We will meet Him in our town, hamlet, district, ward, block area and family. The light and grace of Heaven will fill the dark and lowly places.

Three Formulas for Tribal Restoration

Dear members, if you wish to meet God and True Parents even today, do not go to True Parents' house or to the church -- go out to the field! Fulfill your mission as resurrected selves, upholding True Parents, who have perfected the priestly and prophetic traditions, as the standard of your faith.

Beloved members, True Parents have stated that our faith is "the perfected form of all prior faiths.' True Parents have also emphasized three formulas for restoring our tribes and laying the foundation in our towns and local communities.

First, you must die in order to live. In order to show people a life that is permeated by the fragrance and vitality of resurrection, we must first be burning vigorously. That is our way of life. The fragrance of life blossoms from sacrifice made for the sake of others. That fragrance awakens resurrected faith among all people and gives them a taste of joy as resurrected selves.

The second formula is that if you hate others you will be bound to your hatred. If you hate others or reject them, you will suffer restrictions. If you open your mind, you will find liberation, but if you close your mind you will be placed under restraint.

In the Bible it says, "And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward." It is easy for a modest person to give a cup of cold water to another person, but for an arrogant person, it is a hard thing to do. Members please love each other. You must never harbor hatred toward each other. Liberation can be naturally achieved through this formula.

The third formula is that you will be bound by the things that you own. Conversely, if you have nothing, you are naturally liberated. I have mentioned this before; those with great riches still may live a as poor man does, while a beggar may live a rich life. When you are filled with the desire to possess worldly riches, you will be bound by that, but if you can give everything away and forget it, you will be filled with the most fortunate and rich feeling.

As resurrected bodies, how can we convey the joy of resurrection to the people in our tribes, communities and neighborhoods? The answer is evident in the three formulas I have presented to you.

Life can be displayed through unending sacrifice. Liberation can be enjoyed through boundless dedication, and through service--giving, and giving and forgetting that you have given--we can enable our tribes to inherit the faith of true, resurrected selves. When that happens, this world will become the kingdom of heaven on earth, where perfected beings of the original ideal of creation can live centered on God.

Beloved members, I pray that you will become representatives and heirs of Heaven and of True Parents, and gain victory in your towns, villages, districts and neighborhoods

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