Good morning. I'd like to speak about God's providence and our path of restoration this morning. Father speaks often, but I've found that members often don't understand the contents or application of Father's message. Sometimes Father speaks in broad terms, so it's not easy to understand. You must consider what Father says from the viewpoint of the Divine Principle, then digest it and make it your own. For a long time now Father has explained that we must pass through eight stages of development: eight horizontal stages and eight vertical stages.

I'd like to explain the eight horizontal stages today. The first is the individual foundation. Everyone must establish an individual foundation, which means we must stand in the position of God's son or daughter. We can establish our individual foundation based upon our understanding of the truth and our personal relationship with God. Christianity has always concentrated on establishing the individual foundation. No further stages of growth were open to Christians. Thus they can only receive individual salvation. Our church is different. After establishing the individual foundation we advance to the family foundation. The Blessing is the starting point of establishing the family foundation, the second stage. After our family foundation, we need our tribal foundation. After our tribe, we need a society. Then we need the national foundation, the world foundation, the cosmic foundation and God. These are the eight stages.

How can we pass through these eight stages? What do we need? Of course we need God's truth; without it we cannot find the right direction. But truth alone cannot lead us to the final goal. We need something more, the power of love. We cannot establish our individual foundation without receiving the love of God. When we receive God's love we can become His children. God wants to find people who embody His love. No matter how much knowledge or power we have, if we cannot embody God's love we cannot be called God's son or daughter. The prime requirement to establish our individual foundation is God's love. That is clear.

Next is the family foundation. What do we need to build a family foundation? We need a husband and wife. And what do we need to be husband and wife? Truth? Power? What we need most is love. Husband and wife cannot exist without love to connect them firmly. Nowadays we see much fallen love. People say they love each other, marry and a few months later divorce. How can such a thing happen? Because they didn't have true love. They were drawn together by false love. False love can unite people temporarily. But to unite eternally we need true love. True love is the love that enables you to sacrifice yourself for each other. So if you can't sacrifice yourself, it isn't true love. If I truly love my wife, I can sacrifice myself for her and vice versa. When a husband and wife are connected through true love, they can unite completely. The family foundation cannot exist without true love.

What is the tribal foundation? This means our relatives, our brothers and sisters, our cousins, all our relatives. The tribal foundation is the stage prior to the societal. For this tribal foundation we also need love. When we love our relatives they will love us and be able to join us. If we don't love them though, they will never follow us. Only through love can we establish our tribal foundation. Next we need the foundation of a people or society. For example we could create a relationship with the Korean people. If we love the Korean people we can establish the societal foundation. Otherwise we have no connection to them. As Germans, you must love the German people. Otherwise, you will have no connection to them. You can only be connected through love. The foundation of a society can only come through love. Then we must establish the national foundation and the world foundation. Similarly, these can only come about through love. When you love your nation and the world with your whole heart, they become yours. Otherwise, you have no relationship to them. After establishing the cosmic level foundation we must become one with God. We can call God our Father because of love. But if we don't love Him, how can we have a relationship with Him? So we can see that the most important requirement to fulfill these eight conditions is love. It is the driving force that leads us to our final goal.

By successfully completing these eight stages, we become a man of God's love, a man of true love, which is everyone's final goal. To establish our individual foundation and reach perfection we must become a man of true love. To establish God's ideal family, we must become a man of love; husband and wife cannot become one without love. We also need love to establish our tribe. They won't come to us if we don't love them. By giving them our love they can connect to us. Love is the connecting element. How can we be connected to God without love? No way; Only love can connect us with God, our spouse, our relatives, our people and our nation. When I love the world it becomes my world. So if there are two people, one who loves the world and another who doesn't, which one would the world belong to? It's obvious, the one who loved the world more. Of course, we cannot establish the national foundation by ourselves. We must work together to make. But it is up to each of us to connect to it. When I love the nation, the national foundation becomes mine. When I love the world, the world foundation becomes mine. Do you understand? When we love the cosmos, this world and the spirit world, the cosmic foundation becomes ours. Only through love can we inherit these foundations as our own and become a man of true love.

When we have true love we must be able to love even our enemies. Why should we love our enemies? It is natural to hate your enemy, but actually love should be stronger than hate. Otherwise, it cannot be called true love. Love should be stronger than anything else. So you should be able to love even your enemy. God is a God of love. Satan is His enemy. God doesn't love his sins, but He created Lucifer and as a result can still love him. He doesn't love his sin, but because of the connection of heart he can love even the fallen archangel. Do you see? We can easily understand this if we consider the parental heart. How would parents feel if their child turned against them and caused much evil? They may hate what he did, but they would still love him because he is their child. Such is parental love. We all have brothers and sisters. If one of them does something wrong or opposes your parents, you still love him, even though you don't like what he did. You love him because he is your brother. This is similar to loving your enemy. We may have many enemies but when we understand that they are also children of God, we will be able to love them. We may hate their sins, but nonetheless, because they were created by our Heavenly Father, we can still love them. When we reach that stage we can say we have true love. True love should be stronger than anything else.

Jesus set a good example of true love by praying for those who crucified him. Satan had to retreat when he saw that Jesus prayed for and loved his enemies. Satan is powerful, but he cannot counter true love. He must retreat when confronted with true love. This is God's most powerful weapon. God wants to restore His lost children, the nations and world through true love. God can even love Satan because He created him. He wants to restore the fallen archangel back to His side. God loves his enemies, Jesus did this and our Father has also done it. So we should also be able to. We must acquire this ability before we can be a man of true love. God is able to continue His providence because He has this kind of love. We go out and try to bring people back to God because of this love. Otherwise, why would we go out to help those who persecute and abuse us? We must develop true love, only then can we conquer our enemies. No enemy can resist true love. When we exhibit true love, our enemy will surrender and we can fulfill our mission. We are persecuted and misunderstood only because we cannot truly love people. Our love hasn't reached them yet and thus their attitudes toward us haven't changed. We have many things to do this year, the most important of which is to develop true love. Then we can succeed in all our other efforts. We must work together to achieve our common goals while working to fulfill our personal goals, i.e. establishing the individual, family and tribal foundations. Everyone must do this.

Jesus came to establish God's ideal on earth. Through his 30-year preparation period he established an individual foundation and stood before God as His son and representative. Then he began his public ministry. He faced the Jewish people and nation as a perfect individual. He should have done so on the foundation of a family and tribe. That is the proper order. He tried, but he couldn't establish a family and tribal foundation, because they turned against him and persecuted him. As a result he had to endure incredible suffering and was later crucified. So we can see that the family and tribal foundations are essential to victory. We cannot advance without them; we will be unable to face Satan. He destroyed Jesus, the son of God, so it will be no trouble for him to destroy fallen people. If we don't have a family and tribal foundation we will be easy prey for Satan.

What about Father? In 1960 he was blessed by God and started a family, thus establishing his family foundation. On that foundation he began to bless his disciples. The blessed couples constitute Father's tribe. So Father established his family and tribal foundations and could thus face the people and nation without being destroyed. Otherwise, he would have been destroyed just as Jesus was. Most of the persecution started prior to 1960, before he had a family or tribal foundation. Nevertheless he had to proceed with God's providence. Father spoke to the people even before having a family and as a result was strongly attacked by Satan. He did not have any shelter to protect him and thus had to endure much suffering. Later because he had a family and established a tribal foundation he could go on. Despite his foundation Father faced incredible persecution, but at least he wasn't killed.

In 1975 Father organized a VOC rally in Korea to save the nation. Many Western members also participated as representatives of their nations. We were able to gather 1.2 million people, which represented the substantial foundation laid in Korea. Father had already gone to America in 1971 and laid a spiritual foundation there. At the Yoido Island rally he linked the spiritual foundation established in America to the substantial foundation established in Korea. On this foundation he could begin to establish the world foundation. In 1975 Father sent missionaries to 120 nations to link the national foundation to all other nations. From that time on God and Father advanced toward the world restoration providence. God needs as many nations as possible in order to expand His providence to the world level. The national foundation became more substantial last year when we had 7 million IFVOC members in Korea and 7.5 million in Japan. These people have established a strong foundation in Japan and Korea. Father wants this to happen in America as well; the goal there is 45 million CAUSA members. It may take several years, but we must accomplish this. Once we establish a national foundation, we can have a nation. This is why Father proclaimed the motto "Creation and Building of the Fatherland". The most important nations in God is providence are Korea, Japan, America and Germany. The Adam and Eve countries have succeeded in building national foundations, so now we can proceed to the nation and world.

What about us? Can one person build a national or world foundation? Impossible! We must all work together. But each member must reach the tribal level on their own. You must establish your individual foundation yourself, the family foundation with your spouse and the tribal foundation with your family. You and your spouse must work together to build the tribal foundation through home church. Our relatives can also be our home church area. Of course we usually work in 360 homes in our neighborhood. That is ideal. But even if they don't live nearby, you can still work with your relatives. They can form your tribe. And if you work with your neighbors they will become your friends and supporters and can also constitute your tribe.

Father has told us that we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven without success in home church. Why did he say that? Because there is no way to establish the societal, national and world foundations without the tribal foundation. The tribal level is the highest stage we can reach as individuals. It is the connecting point. If we succeed in establishing a tribal foundation, we can connect to Father's victorious foundation of society, nation and world. There is no other way to connect ourselves to the foundation God has established. This is why home church is so important. God's providence will advance whether we fulfill our tribal foundation or not. We must do this, Father can't do it for us. Of course he can help us, but only indirectly, not directly. Other members can offer advice to a couple, but no more than that. Husband and wife must work together to raise their family and establish a tribal foundation.

Where are we now? Many members have established an individual foundation. Some have already started family life, others haven't. You surely know where you are now. One aspect is where you are individually, the other is where we are as a church. As the Unification Church we stand on the societal foundation, marching forward to fulfill the national foundation. We must understand these two aspects clearly. We are doing two things: establishing our individual, family and tribal foundations, which we must do on our own, and establishing the societal, national and world foundations, which we as a church do together with Father and God. Thus we have two missions, two goals to accomplish.

I mentioned earlier that the first stage is the individual stage and the second is the family stage. The second position or second phase is always more difficult. I know that many members are suffering as a result of the new challenges they face now. Actually the Blessing was given as a blessing, but it has been a suffering course for some members. Why is it smooth for some and difficult for others? Who is responsible? Did Father make a mistake? What do you think about when you suffer? You should consider the cause. God gave us a brain to think with and solve problems. We should understand ourselves better than we do others, yet sometimes we know neither ourselves nor our ancestors. They may have made many mistakes. If so, we must restore them. How can we do this? By enduring suffering and overcoming difficulties we can pay indemnity for our ancestors and ourselves. Our character defects aren't the only cause of our suffering. There are many reasons. There is no effect without a cause. We shouldn't just see things horizontally; we must also see them historically, i.e. vertically. We suffer now as a result of the past, so we shouldn't blame anyone, otherwise we can never resolve our situation. If we can accept these difficulties as our responsibility and tackle them with our whole heart, we can find a solution. Sometimes people try to escape their problems; they lack the courage to face them. But how can problems ever be solved in that way? Our attitude is crucial; when we have the right attitude, we can connect to God. Otherwise it is very difficult to connect with God's desire.

We all want to succeed in establishing the family foundation. That's why I explained that the only way to succeed is to develop true love. If you are ready to sacrifice yourself for your spouse and family, there is no difficulty you cannot overcome. This is easier said than done; self-centeredness is the predominating influence in the fallen world. Adam and Eve fell because they followed their own selfish interests which led them to disobey God. We cannot return to God without removing our fallen nature. We must overcome our self-centeredness; then our eyes will be open to the many good qualities our spouse possesses. Our spouse will become new to us. We will realize that we have been seeing our spouse through a piece of stained glass.

Man and wife must work together. How can they ever unite if one always retreats when the other approaches? They must both move forward; then they can meet. Sometimes both retreat, making the distance between them even greater. Often because of their pride, couples don't speak to each other after a fight: "It's her fault; she should apologize to me. Why should I speak first?" You may feel that way and not speak to each other for days. No communication at all! This is a good chance for Satan to invade. He will steal your peace, your happiness and your harmony: "They're not communicating with each other. Now is my chance to destroy their relationship. " This is a mistake couples easily make. Anything can happen when we don't communicate. Couples often divorce in the fallen world. When they marry they pledge to love each other forever. But later, they begin to fight over small things; they don't know how to compromise. Then they stop communicating and the distance between them grows and grows until they finally divorce.

You must speak out when you feel something is wrong. Your spouse may not realize there is a problem. It may hurt your spouse when you speak out, but communication will lead you to the solution. Communication is essential. All couples have difficulties initially. These difficulties will only be multiplied if we don't have good communication. We need to open our hearts and exchange our views and opinions frankly; then we can solve all problems. Forget your pride: "I am a man, I have my pride. If I speak, it may seem like I'm surrendering to her." This is the wrong attitude. We shouldn't let pride separate us. Our relationship is much more important than our pride. Sometimes we think our pride is more important; this leads to trouble. We must be naked, revealing everything to our spouse, only then can true unity come. You must make effort and you must pray. You may think prayer is insignificant and won't have much effect, but that's not true. You can say in your prayer, "I really love my spouse. I want to do something for him/her. If you can pray like this, you are already breaking down some barriers. You cannot pray like this if you bear ill feelings toward your spouse. If you can pray for your spouse, the problem is half solved. You must pray for each other, then you can act.

Male and female are one in God. We must take our original form and position, the complete union of man and woman. Husband and wife should become totally one, spiritually and physically. Then they can stand in the objective position to God; they become the substantialization of God's polar characteristics and God's will becomes their will. Consequently the couple will live as God desires. This is what God is longing for. We must become such couples. God should be proud when He sees a couple's relationship. God blessed the blessed couples with His love and His ideal. The purpose of the Blessing is to realize God's love and ideal. So couples should love each other with the love and ideal of God. They should work together to complement and teach each other. In this way they can help each other become ideal husbands and wives. This doesn't happen automatically, we have to work at it, doing our best. Two people work together to create an ideal husband and wife. We must help one another and work together. We often expect our spouse to be perfect without our help; this is unrealistic. When you feel something is wrong with your spouse, you should say so; try to correct it. That is your job. You must be sensitive though; try to correct and educate each other without hurting each other's feelings. If you accuse your spouse, it harms both of you. When the wife does something wrong, the husband is responsible and vice versa. We can't just blame each other. It's our fault, as much as our spouse's. We must understand this.

Sometimes Father matches people of extremely different natures. This is normal. Are men and women the same? They are extremely different. If you prefer similarity then two women should marry, or two men. Why should you marry someone of the opposite sex? It's natural to be extreme. If you have a round face then you should have a long faced wife. That is nature's way. Someone with a systematic nature and someone who is more spontaneous should come together. Father matches people in this way in order to produce better offspring. He explains that we don't marry for our own sake, but for our children and the future. Of course we are important to God, but our children are even more important. God has greater expectations of our children than us. We have been contaminated by the fallen world. We are like recycled garbage, but our children are pure and new. God thinks of the future outcome of our Blessing.

The parental attitude is to sacrifice for one's children. If the children can benefit and be happy, the parents should be willing to suffer and sacrifice for them. Many couples divorce in the fallen world. What happens to their children in such a situation? They suffer as a result of their parents' selfishness. We don't want our children to suffer. We want to suffer on their behalf. God has seen many couples and families suffer in the past. It is already too much for Him. He doesn't want to see anymore. Do we want to repeat the same situation? No! We want to provide a good family for our children. We must sacrifice ourselves in order to establish a good family tradition. When children see that their father and mother love each other and sacrifice for their children's sake they are moved and respect their parents and want to become like them, following their example.

Now, because of our True Parents, God's family is here on earth. Loving God's family is more valuable than loving fallen families. So our love is more valuable now. We do the same thing, but it has a higher value. God's nation and world have never existed. Even though many people have loved this world, which world did they actually love? They loved the fallen world, not the original world. So their love couldn't have its original value. Even though we may love the world, it is a fallen world, so our love doesn't have much value. Loving a fallen nation doesn't have the same value as loving the original nation. We want to establish God's nation and world. We want to create a world free of suffering. Then, just by living happily in God's presence, everyone can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We want to end suffering now; we want to open the way for all people to enter the Kingdom of Heaven without having to suffer as we did in the past. Our goal is to establish God's nation.

There are many nations in the world, but God can't claim a single one of them as His own. God wants to have His nation on earth so He can exercise His power. He hasn't had a nation up now so He couldn't do so. God is almighty; He is much more powerful than Satan, but He cannot exercise His power fully because Satan has dominion over all nations. Many people claim that God is dead, but it only appears so because He has no nation to work with on earth. So we need God's nation. A nation that won't belong to any one race or people, but be the Fatherland of all believers. It won't matter whether you are white, black or yellow, it will be everyone's Fatherland. God will be able to work through such a nation. It will be God's land, the nation where God can dwell and say, "This is my nation." That is the Fatherland. It transcends nationality, race and culture; anyone who believes in God can claim this nation as his own. This is what we all long for. So we must work to build such a nation. That is our motto and our goal this year. It's not an easy task. Our members should clearly understand what we must achieve this year. This is the 40th year since 1945. Korea and Israel both gained their independence in 1948, so if we count from then we can assume that the 40-year course will end in 1988. So the next four years are the most crucial years in God's providence. We must bring victory on the national and world levels within four years. All members must pray and work hard for that.

We must connect with the Christian churches and cooperate for God's providence; we must work together. So we must visit ministers and explain our teachings and our work. Once they realize that we are only doing what they should have been doing all along, we can work together. They haven't realized this yet, but continue to misunderstand us, thinking we are doing something strange. Once they understand, they will be able to cooperate with us to realize God's ideal. We must mobilize all conscientious people; all believers are our brothers and sisters and we must work together to realize God's ideal on earth. I think you have a clearer understanding now. Let us go forward into the new year to accomplish great things and return joy to God, True Parents and all mankind.

Let us pray together:

Our loving Father, we are living in the year 1985. We know that this is a very important year in your restoration history. You have worked so hard to see this day come on earth. Through our True Parents we now know more about your will and your providence. We know the eight stages we must pass through on earth. As individuals we must pass through the individual, family and tribal stages. And as a whole we must establish the foundation of society, nation and world. To succeed in all this we need your help, your guidance and your power. We also need the help of the spirit world. When we work with the spirit world we can achieve your goal on earth. You want to restore a nation and world that you can claim as your own.

Up to now the world has belonged to Satan. You had no foundation to work upon. As a result you became like a God who didn't exist. Many people assumed there was no God; they became atheists. And materialistic ideologies spread over the world. We must refute them; we must proclaim that you exist, that you are a living God and are working hard to restore all people and nations back to you. Once people understand this, they will come to your side and become your children. As your children we must restore all people, all nations and the whole world back to you and realize your ideal on earth. Father, this is your desire and what all people want.

Everyone wants to live in an ideal society. Man has tried many different ways but we always found that we can't realize the ideal world by ourselves. Without you there can be no ideal world. We understand this clearly. Therefore we want to bring you into all people's hearts. In this way we can realize your ideal. Father, we truly want to become your instruments, we want to become your children and do your work. We ask you to be with us and to lead us throughout the year so that each one of us can become your victorious child. We pray for our Father in Danbury, that you can protect him and that he can be released soon so we can work together with him for your will.

We pray all this in the name of our True Parents. Amen.

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