Matthew 5:10-11

In home church you are persecuted many times. Your home church roster will be your record of persecution but God will comfort you and be right there with you. Persecution is a needed ingredient. In many cases when your people are rude and curse you, you come back to the center feeling depressed. But instead, you should be jubilant over what they have given you that day.

By enduring their hostility you will become a universal man who can go to hot places and cold places, high places and low places and be welcomed there. By doing so you will become a central point.

Look at the world through God's parental eyes and speak words of salvation. If you live, think and act like that, you are a victorious person and you will be approved as God's son or daughter. Do you want to do it or do you just think you should do it? This is a task more urgent that anything else. You should come to the point where you forget the calendar, forget night and day. The place we do this is home church. Be proud of being persecuted. When you are walking on a windy, rainy day, soaking wet, be proud of it. When your shoes are broken and you have to walk barefoot, be proud of it. When someone curses you, be proud of it.

Heaven and Us
3.25.79, Belvedere

It is good that we have been persecuted, for it will keep us on this road. If your desire to do home church is stronger than the antagonism of your persecutors, then you can succeed. You can include every level in your success.

I determined that I must work harder than I have been persecuted. The same is true for you. I will try to give more than I have been persecuted, distributing the blessings that God has reaped. You must see that home church is your training ground. Persecution will decrease markedly from now on. Mainly we must educate people and love them. We must give whatever we have, and surpass the standard of our persecutors.

Now we work in a wide area and stir up the people. We have been persecuted for that, but we are sowing seeds in various places. It will all be harvested one day. I sowed in such a broad way that I will not have a specific harvest to keep; it belongs to the world. But you have a definite area in which to sow, and when it grows you can harvest it as your own. Then for whom do you do home church? For yourselves. You need a foundation for your family, and home church will be that.

So far God collected all blessings as the result of persecution. Even though we are persecuted, we will definitely harvest all the seeds we sow now. No matter how you look at it, this is worth doing. Would you like to do it? Where will you sow your seeds? Go everywhere you can and sow seeds. If you are really like me then automatically your home church people will like you and want to go with you wherever you go. You will be the ancestor of a new tribe.

Persecution and Blessing
5.1.80, Belvedere

Would you go to visit just because your leader pushed you to go, or would you go in excitement that you can be there as the savior of the people? Is it better to think that it is your mission to be persecuted, or to think that perhaps you may get persecuted, or to go to your area with the expectation that you will be welcomed? I am surprised that you doff t know the answer clearly. In which area is there the most value in going every day-where there are ten families that persecute you, or where all 360 homes persecute you? Do you really like that idea of persecution?

Only one prize can be given for doing the best in home church. Would it go to the person who was persecuted at first by all 360 homes, yet became successful, or to the person who had to endure persecution by all 360 homes for one year and yet still became successful? If you said the second person should get the prize, do you have a normal brain? Your parents would say the whole thing is ridiculous. Is that normal advice? God always has a measure to evaluate with; would He say it was normal or abnormal thinking?

Our Duty, Our Mission
10.5.80, Belvedere

You will say, "I don't mind going to home church as long as people don't persecute me." But without being persecuted, you are not going to get the blessing. If you are persecuted and are hit, but you receive it with gratitude, the blessing is yours. It will take a while before people realize, "They only smiled when I persecuted them, but now I understand that they have been stealing my blessings!"

Home Church Is My Kingdom of Heaven
1.1.81, World Mission Center

This is divine and holy work and those who hesitate to act upon it are like deserters. The neighborhood of 360 homes where you have your home will be your community and after you die the people will erect your statue there. My name has been crucified in this city but would your becoming the messiah to your 360 homes help to resurrect my name or would that dirty it even more? Opposition is welcome. It is a great thing after all because it give us a much more dramatic background to work in. Do you feel lucky to work while there is opposition? Soon the opposition will go away and there won't be another chance later on. This is the time for you to get down to work while persecution is still available.

Host of the Future
10.23.77, Belvedere

Is it good for you to go on with this course so that you are challenged to really work hard, or to have no persecution to face and no indemnity to pay? If everything comes automatically then you will not be grateful. Would you prefer a difficult seven-year course or an easier way? All you have to do is quit the Church and go home and come back seven years later. By that time you will have no seven-year course to go through and everything will be easy. But if you know the history of the Unification Church then you will cry, and if you work hard you will have many more reasons to be grateful. As long as you go this seven-year course you are fulfilling your responsibility.

The Start of the 40-Day Witnessing Condition
7.4.78, London

When you visit black people as you witness to your 360 homes they may well persecute you, not as an individual white person, but in order to offset the historic resentment of blacks who have been persecuted by whites. Your motive is innocent but they will remember the exploitation of the past when white people came all the way to Africa and they will think you come to their homes for the same purpose. Their lips may even tremble in their anger but you must be grateful for that chance for atonement. You can confidently feel that this is proof that you will feel love from these people in the future. They may even want to pick fights with you, but still you can be grateful because that will condense the time of indemnity. Has this happened to you? Without such experiences you cannot win the sympathy of Heaven.

God only made individuals suffer so they will repent. The greater the persecution and suffering, the greater the blessing that will follow. Persecution will make you repent from the very beginning, and your perseverance through that suffering will be a source of reward in heaven. This is why God allows our persecution. By receiving persecution from the established churches and communities, you are buying the right to undertake the cause of the Unification Church yourself. By persecuting us they are selling their right to repent in their place. You have to see this point and be grateful. It means that their right to the blessing is connected to us and whatever they don't take will be given to us.

Is repentance good or bad? Imagine a beautiful girl from a good English family who has never worked hard or had difficulty. She has beauty and wealth but when she comes into the Church she experiences persecution like other brothers and sisters do. White people give her persecution as well as Orientals and black people. She will cry and cry but she can be happy because that gives her an opportunity to repent. If she continues going to every home and repenting with tears, what do you think she will be like in the future? In the future when people can see more clearly, wouldn't the person who persecuted her be ashamed and try 100 times harder to help her than he persecuted her?

Satan will encourage you to fight with the people but God will work differently. Christians often interpret God's point of view wrongly, and in this matter you must know that when you go from house to house it is not just for witnessing but more importantly, for repentance. It is better to painfully visit door to door and repent and then later help the people to repent. Just making them understand the truth actually has little meaning. If you have done enough repenting then they can't persecute you even if you beg them to. Once the people stop persecuting you they will start following right behind; that is actually the way for you to win spiritual children, not just witnessing to people and bringing them right into the Church. It is closer to the Divine Principle for them to oppose you, then repent and follow.

The Age of Repentance
9.1.78, London

Home church is your launching pad. If you are a powerful rocket but you have a weak launching pad, you cannot take off. Receiving persecution will strengthen your foundation enough to withstand the millions of pounds of thrust you need for the launch. This world must quickly turn 360 degrees but what will its axis be? Home church. Only Reverend Moon can make this kind of dramatic statement. Could anyone else give this dispensational message?

God has a great sense of humor. His most important message is revealed through Reverend Moon, who has been accused by society of incredible things. Good news always begins from enemy territory, however. World War II ended when good news came from enemy territory and Japan surrendered. Our good news will come when our critics in the government, the media and the hostile Christian churches say they surrender to us. Then our territory can be guaranteed.

The First Day and Our Lifetime
2.2.79

I received persecution on the national and worldwide levels, but you are receiving persecution in your home church; that represents racial rejection, communist rejection and national rejection all together. Always be grateful for the persecution you receive and take it as added energy to spur yourself on beyond the level of the fall.

True Couple
5.27.79, World Mission Center

What is the Unification Church's dynamic energy and where do we make it? it is the love we find in home church. When you are pounded on in home church, you are storing that energy.

Home Church and Myself
12.14.80, Belvedere

When we go door to door and are persecuted, that challenge gives us some standard of love to achieve. We will love the people and never be beaten by their persecution. We will push our level of love higher and higher every day, and even if there is more persecution because of misunderstanding, we can persevere with greater love. If we keep on living this way today, tomorrow and every day, then we will be prepared for the world to come.

For the Future
9.10.78, London

My life was a miserable and tragic life, in a way, but I never lost my dream. The seemingly impossible dream has become a reality, step by step. I used to dream of dancing with people of all five colors of skin, all races of the world. That could happen right here! So dreams can become a reality.

No matter how miserable you look or how tired you feel, you have the hope of home church. It shall become a reality, and it shall be fulfilled. Your dream shall be a reality, just as mine has become a reality.

Be thankful for persecution, for persecution will make you whole. Tears may flow from your eyes, but your mouth will say, "Thank you." Never be discouraged. Move on to home church. We shall win the victory at home church.

Blessed Family
6.20.82, Belvedere

You cannot win the victory without committing yourself to fighting the battle. You have learned the tactics of victory; just go. The important thing is to go, be beaten, and then win. Satans method is always to attack first and ultimately to lose, while the method of Heaven is to be beaten first, but to obtain the victory in the end.

In your home church area, if you can win the hearts of your five worst adversaries, the rest of the people will be won easily. Those people who welcome you are the extensions of Abel; they are already on your side. You should concentrate your efforts on the Cain-types; they are the extensions of Satan. You complain because you meet opposition in your area, but I tell you that opposition is the reason why you are in home church. If I had been afraid of opposition, I would never have dared to come to the United States. There is no question that if you are afraid of being opposed, you will be destroyed. The wrong attitude is to shy away from the negativity in your home church area.

Victory of Home Church (Midnight Address)
1.1.82, World Mission Center

Now you know the situation and why you have to work hard in home church. Once you have laid the necessary foundation you should confront people and ask what wrong you have done and you can demand to know why they do not respond. Because you can rightfully protest, the power of righteousness will work and they will begin to help you. They will have to wonder about what wrong you have done, and then conclude they must help you. You must have many reasons to protest in case they do not respond, really trying hard by putting in long hours and doing impossible things, and then if they don't listen you can confront them with your record.

25th Anniversary of the Unification Church
5.1.79, Belvedere

People will reject you initially, of course, just like the Messiah was rejected. Would you welcome True Parents if they came to visit your home? Your home church should be the place where you are welcomed as true parents. You can never reach this goal by attacking the people; only by overcoming the persecution and opposition of the people can you do this mission.

Historical View of the Dispensation
9.18.79, Belvedere

You have been assigned 360 houses for home churches. Why is that? It is the encircling tactic. We are encircling 360 homes by serving them. Some of these people will persecute you, saying, "You Moonies are bad people." Just smile at them and reply, "What can I do for you?" That is God's strategy, the encirclement tactic.

Where Do We Go?
9.17.78, London

. . . You are persecuted now, but in time you will be honored by the world, and nations will invite you to come help them. Will you start working when that time comes or start now?

Today is the day to begin in your home church. Will you be a freight car or a locomotive? A locomotive is smoky, hot and noisy, so if you are a locomotive then everywhere you go there will be noise and smoke and controversy. You have to receive persecution; that is our daily diet. People think you are weird, and they are curious about how you live. That curiosity is a good thing, and through peoples' interest you will become famous. Then you can exercise more heavenly influence.

Our Present Position
10.7.79, Belvedere

We can only overcome community opposition through home church.

Noble Dream
12.1.81, Belvedere

In home church work you go voluntarily to serve the people, but when you arrive and they find out you are a Moonie, they will push you away from their door, and even beat you up. I know this is your story. When you are treated that way, some of the neighbors will support that hostile person because they don't like Moonies either; but then others will be outraged and ask how these people could treat any human being that way.

When you show up again the next day and the hostile people confront you, the other neighbors will come out to defend you. When you keep coming back with a peaceful face, these neighbors will say that you seem even better than Jesus because the Bible records that Jesus got mad on occasion, while you never get angry.

The more dramatic the persecution you receive in your home church area, the better it is. If you are kicked and knocked unconscious, people may think you are dead and the headlines will proclaim that the Moonie was kicked to death. Then when you revive later the headlines will announce that you resurrected! If this happens two or three times then you will easily restore the whole area in the meantime.

Ideal Nation of God
2.21.80, World Mission Center

It is difficult to keep visiting 360 homes every day, but in the meantime keep knocking and being rejected. While you are doing that the dawn is breaking. You are home church messiahs. You are going to be a messiah to 360 homes, but then will be elevated to be tribal messiahs, then national messiahs. That's where you will find the restored family, and finally return to your hometown.

Do you always have to live in the New Yorker? What is the goal? Do you live in home church now? Go to your home church and serve them spiritually and physically and be the contractor for re-creation in every way. How much you sweat and cry for you home church and how much persecution you receive, there is the important thing. If you still come back to serve the people after three angry rejections, the people will say you Moonies are impossible and there is no one else like you anywhere in America.

There is no barrier you cannot break through in order to be a host and hostess in home church. Have the barriers of opposition started to crumble here in America? it is an exciting task, and they will inevitably break down. No matter how gigantic they are, our opponents will crumble eventually, so just go forward fearlessly.

Restored Family
1.21.79, Belvedere

When you go deeper and deeper into the night you are bound to come upon daytime, and if you go deeper and deeper into daytime then you are bound to come upon night. That's how it is with the universe. We prosper and develop along this cycle. Most people in the United States are opposed to Unification Church, but this is the time when Unification Church will expand and grow. The point where we are persecuted to an impossible degree is the key point where we will rise or fall. If we give up, then everything ends, but if we gain ground inch by inch even under severest persecution, the way up will become easier and easier.

The Way of Prosperity and Defeat
3.11.79, Belvedere

Of course home church is difficult. If you go knock on the door of the most unpleasant person you know he will yell at you. You may not want to see his face but you knock anyway and he yells at you. If you go back three times I can guarantee that his voice will become lower. After four or five times he will want to know why you come and wonder what kind of person you are.

The moment he smiles at you will be the moment the walls crumble and the 12 gates open for you. If you seriously work for that goal then when the 360 homes welcome you your cosmic spring is really at hand. You can know that one day your home church members will be waiting outside for you to ask you for lunch. Some day the worst person will be waiting to ask you for dinner and to sleep in his house. That will surely come to pass.

Myself
1.13.80, Belvedere

If you live in your home church area 24 hours a day, and every moment of the day everybody comes and kicks you, hits you, knocks you down and curses Reverend Moon, and yet you still love them and pray for them, you'll be able to be proud of your record of enduring and overcoming record-breaking persecution. "I endured and I won! That minute, that moment, I want to receive it, I want to do it. I want to go ahead."

Do you understand that? If you are crazy about Abel's mission, and if you are crazy about home church, trying to win Cain, trying to receive persecution every minute of the day, then you just cannot be anything except a true Abel. You have given so much that they are indebted to you. Every single home in your 360 home church area and every single person is indebted to you in one way or another. They want to repay you for the kind of love you bestowed upon them. .. .

World Conference
2.25.80, World Mission Center

Very definitely people will be moved and inspired by you. In the beginning they will stand firm against you, but know that before too long they will be melted by your love. No other power is greater than your God-centered love. You have a weapon as powerful as an atomic bomb. No other power can compete with the power of love. The best people are either hot or cold. Those who oppose you will be your target because they will be your best members when they are turned around.

Completion of the Providence and Parents' Day
4.15.80, World Mission Center

It took me sixty years to indemnify all aspects, but you can do it in six years; if you really do well then you can finish in six months. One day the tide of opinion will turn completely and people will know the Unification Church is good. When our Church is welcomed, doing this in six months will be no problem. If you could give forty days training to all your 360 homes, don't you think they will all turn around? Until the present time, opposition toward me has been totally hostile but I accomplished everything regardless. Now, however, people will oppose you much less than they did me. Also, they will not try to kill you as they did me. Clearly, this is an advantageous time.

Home Church and Myself
12.14.80, Belvedere

New York has become gentler and is not persecuting you too much, so you should go out looking for persecution. You go once, twice, three times to visit your assigned homes, and no matter whether people point their fingers at you each time, their consciences will not allow them to keep it up. The first time you knock on the door they may be almost like lions trying to bite you, and the second time may be almost the same. The third time they will stare at you, but the fourth time they will shake their head, "Boy, I just don't understand these mysterious people. I'm sorry. I didn't treat you right before."

Their apology will be as deep as their wrongdoing and the more they persecute you, the deeper shall become their repentance. This is the strategy of God. Because I know heavenly strategy I never get tired or become hopeless. It is impossible.

Our Newborn Selves
11.1.77, Belvedere

When you go to your home church area and people slam their doors, saying, "You Moonies can get out," you think, "Why did I have to become a Moonie?" The person who says that is not a true Moonie. The true Moonies are the ones who are walking all six continents with dignity no matter what people say. To be a proud Moonie you must know the true definition of a Moonie. He is the one who can go to his parents and proudly say, "Father, Mother, I'm a Moonie. If you love me, you will listen to why I have joined the Unification Church." That person will have the power to inspire his parents to become Moonies also. He is a true Moonie.

Let Us Restore the Homeland and Fatherland
1.14.79, Belvedere

You will never be alone, even though all of your 360 homes reject you. The electrical pole, the street signs, even the postal box are your friends, and in ten years they will all testify to what you did and how many tears you shed. Nature is like that. When people are your worst enemies then nature is your best friend. Even when you are trembling and shivering, that scene and experience is your friend as long as you are not shivering for yourself. You will never forget that moment. Your worst form of suffering will be a teaching aid for the future, and everything you do will be recorded as the acts of apostles to instruct the people. When people a thousand years from now read of your deeds, they will still shed tears; that is the kind of chapter we want to write.

The Sound of the Bell of the Mind
1.28.79, Belvedere