Be Like God and His Heart

We are modeled after God’s heart and heavenly character

Even the healthiest and richest person has to one day discard their physical body and move on to the spirit world.

Therefore, since death is inevitable, we must all prepare and be ready for it.  We should endure the hardships on earth in order to form a good character that will live in the eternal world.

While in the womb, we need good prenatal care in order to be born healthy.  In the same way, our life on earth is like the womb.

As we grow, we risk our lives to overcome obstacles that hinder us from becoming like God’s form, heart and character.

Do not sin

An electrical pole stands upright just as the mind is straight.  This is why people walk upright - to make your mind completely vertical.

The body forms a horizontal line. The perpendicular force and the force of rotation must be balanced. Accordingly, you must find yourself.

When you say that you are yourself, God should agree with you.  Then your relatives, your clan, and the nation must also agree that what you say is right.

The one who is accused by them is the problem.

In the future, continents will not be as segregated by borders as it is now, but divided between frigid zones and temperate zones.

The time will come when Heaven on Earth will become a reality. Those who want to continue to sin will be sent to the North Pole just like patients with contagious diseases are quarantined.


Live and die for the world

“I did not work hard for the sake of the Asian situation or the Korean people. Think about how to fulfill your responsibilities in the global field and be willing to die for this cause.”

Reverend Sun Myung Moon

We must live and die for the sake of the world and go beyond the individual and family level and stand on the global level.

What position should we leave the earth?  We should die while embracing our loving spouse, family, tribe and nation.

How will the founder of the Unification Church die?

“I will die for the sake of the world, while embracing its people and the Republic of Korea also. If the Korean people unite and die for the sake of the world, there will be a path for them to be able to live with the world. That is why I go forward seeking that path.”

Work hard

“If you need money, make it. If you need people, work hard without eating and sleeping to raise them on this path.

“Never ask anyone for help. Do not rely on the church headquarters for help; you should help them instead. Work more than three times harder than ordinary people.

“That is why, if I were to live for 70 years, my life content would actually be equivalent to 210 years. Likewise, don't think of living for I00 years; instead, think of working three times harder than others.

“If you were to live that way for 70 years, it would be worth 210 years. Think this way: if you worked ten times harder, you would live 700 years; if you worked twenty times harder, you would live 1400 years.

“You should work twenty-four hours a day throughout your entire life. Only when you live that way can you bear fruit and increase your ownership of love in the spirit world.

“Your fortune of love will grow. Your ownership will grow and your sphere of activities will expand.”
Work for the public good

All the laws of heaven promote public righteousness.

Private matters belong to Satan, and public matters belong to God. 

Go the way of public righteousness.
If everyone opposes you while you stand this course and you are not disturbed by the opposition and go the way of hardship with vitality, you will become a person whom heaven will welcome.
You can observe this principle yourself.  If you see a shopkeeper who is greedy, you will notice that the customers will not buy things from him.


No one likes a greedy person.


Everyone naturally knows how to manage one’s life when it comes to public and private matters.

If you do not make it to heaven, you cannot make the excuse that you did not know how to properly manage your life.

Why?

We already know the distinction between matter that are public and private without being taught.

Let’s say you had a delicious snack that was equally split between you and your sister.  You already ate your share, but your sister keeps her share.

You wake up late at night hungry and you secretly eat your sister’s cake which she had her heart set on to eat maybe with breakfast.

Just before you eat it, or while you are thinking about eating it, your own conscience will cry out, “You devil!”

You should be able to feel your conscience protest before you do an evil act.

Why? Because your conscience pursues public matters. If you follow private desires you will perish.

A mind that follows the laws of heaven is a mind that defends and protects a person from falling into destruction.

God originally had such a mind, human beings came to have the same mind from the start.

This law is not made by man.

Can you reason with your mind that you want to do an unlawful deed because that is the way you think or the way you are?  Would the mind surrender and follow your way?

We may not know directly where the conscience receives its instructions from, but we know it is not from us.

Our mind chooses public over private matters.

When people struggle at they come to the crossroads between good and evil, and public and private matters, they finally fall into a self-centered private life.

Those who fall into a selfish lifestyle will eventually perish no matter how successful they become.

Therefore, they should repent for their past, private lives and push themselves back into a public way of life.

People waver between going the way of a private life to a more other-centered lifestyle.

But after the Fall, people are more inclined to live a private life where they only concern with themselves and distance themselves from the public good.

This is how you have lived your life of faith until today, so therefore, you should repent for living a private life-style.

We all want good fortune and to live forever.

But in order to do so you must become public people.

Become people who don’t just love your children only as your own, but become people who love their children as an offering for the sake of the people in the world who are suffering.




When holding your babies to your breasts and nursing them, think of yourselves and your babies as representatives of the entire human race on earth.




Nurse your babies with such a heart.

Instead of just caring for your own children’s wellbeing, cherish other people’s children as if they were your children with a loving heart.

Babies who are raised by such mothers will certainly become great people.

Such a result may not come to the surface right away, but after the first and second generation of
descendants, great figures who can rule the world will be born in that family.

This is the formula.

Which lifestyle do you prefer to  live to indemnify the past: private or public?

Both have a purpose.

But those who stand up at the risk of their lives to devote themselves for the public good will become great people.

A new history will be created by a group of people like this.

Photos courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Return for Tomorrow's Post: Living Just for Self is Evil

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook Cheong Seong Gyeong written by Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

The Path We All Must Take

The body is far from eternal life

The earth breathes and moves just as our bodies do.

Your cells breathe as well.

Would you rather live eternally on earth, or would you rather live eternally in a place where you are a full entity of love?

In our physical body, we cannot see God when He wants to reveal Himself.  This is why our spirit self is needed.

God is in the center of the spirit.

As God's counterparts, He wants to bequeath to us everything from the eternal realm.


How the majority of people live

We are all headed toward a destination whether we know it or not.

The nation, the world and even heaven and earth are headed there as well.  This is an undeniable fact.  You are driven by this destiny.

Where are you headed after this life ends?

Religions arose to deal with this issue.

Where are our minds and hearts trying to go?  Also, our wishes and hopes.  Where are they trying to go?

Even though humanity has not truly resolved these issues, we are still destined to go in any case.

On the day that this body is buried in the ground, will our mind, our heart and hopes be buried together along with the body?

We should look at this with solutions and a purposeful perspective.

Every saint and sage and founders of religions stopped on their normal paths of life to ask the questions of their minds and their hearts.

They wondered where they were headed and they struggled to resolve these issues.

Even though numerous saints gave their life to answer these questions, there still has not been anybody who could confidently claim that their body, their heart and mind went to such an ideal place.

Religious and conscientious people all desire for the end of this fallen world which originated from private desires.

Over a millennia, religions have awaited a public world -  a single, unified world of peace without borders or conflicts.

How should religious people live?

They should shorten the path to restore historical mistakes and link this path to the world and cosmos.

A family that lives walking this path is far more interesting.  This is a liberated family that becomes a true family.

“Walking the streets of Myungdong in Seoul, one sees young couples being affectionate. For whom are they doing that? They say they do that to enjoy their youth, which they have but once.

“That's fine, but who is the owner of enjoyment? This is a serious question. How long can you enjoy life? You do so from your twenties, but it will not last after you pass your sixties, seventies, and eighties.

“Yet the way of the Unification Church is different. For what purpose do we eat? For the sake of the world and to abolish this evil world. We see in order to clean up this evil world -- not to become a part of the evil side but to defeat it. How we hear, think, walk and act is different from the secular world.”

God created us as precious beings whom He cherishes eternally.

God derives joy from us as His object partners.  Since God is eternal, we must also be eternal beings.

Many people live centered on such thinking that they will live until they are eighty and think that when they die that is it.  Throughout history, the question of immortality has been pondered and people wonder if they can live for eternity on earth and never die.

Then they ask, what is the meaning of life?

They wonder what is the point in just being born and pass away.  They just conclude that life is just suffering and that we just come and go like the grass of the fields.

The more people held on to this ideal, the more they thought and asked themselves, "What's the meaning of life? Why are people born and then go away like travelers?" and

Death is inevitable

One day we will go to the spirit world.

Even if people visit Korea at Gimpo Airport, it does not mean they traveled in Korea.  Where do we go afterward?

We go to a county.  From there a township, then a village.  From there we must go to a neighborhood.  This is not an easy task.

If we cannot determine a dwelling place, then there is no value in having a successful social life.

“If God orders me to come, even tomorrow night, no matter how great I may be today, I have no choice but to go.

“However loudly I might protest, I would have to go. I will go while protesting loudly, but only after speaking the right words. I must present the way that the nation and the world must go. It will be my death if I fail to do so.”

God is the owner of life

“Who is the origin of life? Not I.”

The origin and purpose of life must transcend me.  Actually, our life did not originate from our parents, society or a nation, but from God.

Only when you link your origin to the cause, the purpose of life, and deny your fallen self, then you make a leap and transcend.

You must link your life to the transcendent motive; it does not begin with yourself.

It began with the absolute God.

If you link yourself in this way, then when you die, you will be within the transcendent process because of God's Will.

People do not live for a millennia or for centuries.  They die within a century or so.

Among the numerous ancestors who have died throughout history, if any of them live with a public mindedness that met the standards of the universe, they would have left a legacy that lasted a millennum.

Instead, our ancestors lived selfishly and perished.  They brought everything to ruin.

This kind of selfish lifestyle causes problems.

The bigger problem is how can we replace the way of looking at everything from an ego system with one that serves a higher purpose.

The question is how do we shift from emphasizing self-centeredness to benefiting the greater good.

We must reverse the way of living individualistic lives.

This requires action.

If you only had one pair of clothing, you would fight for your life to keep others from taking it off of your body.

If you had a change of clothing for every season, when it is spring and you see people dressed in winter clothes, you show them your spring clothing and tell them they wear winter clothes and take them off.  If it is summer and people wear spring clothing tell them to change according to the weather.

But those people do not see the need to change.  They were unaware that something of greater value existed.

The same goes for those who are living in a lifestyle centered only on their own self-interest.  Until someone shows them the truth, they may not see the value of living a life for others.

On the earth we have parents, teachers and relatives. We have ways to establish such relationships on the earth, but not in the spirit world.

Everyone practices God-centered public-spiritedness.

The position one holds is differentiated.  Those above cannot descend below, and those below do not easily ascend.

It was God's original idea that we would not pass on to the spirit world until we achieved perfection on earth.

Adam and Eve to were to perfect their love to God before the blessing of marriage, live, and die in perfect oneness with Him therefore, naturally going to Heaven after living on Heaven on Earth.

It is an absolute that we will each die.

This life course is short compared to eternity.

Even if a person lived a life span of eighty years, it is equivalent to less than eight hours in spirit world time.

When we look at our time here on earth, it is even less than that amount of time in eternity.

This means the power of true love is great.  The speed of true love is so great that is beyond our understanding.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: The Kind of Hope, Goes Beyond Death

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook Cheon Seong Gyeong, book Five, Chapter Two – Section 1

Our Spirit Body Resides in Spirit World

Spirit is the essence of life

Wherever a nucleus exists, there is a related being that revolves around it.

On the same token, humans are meant to revolve around God.

God naturally pursues restoring our minds, like an electron, because we relate to God’s which is like a nucleus.

When we seek the word of truth, we can feel God's life pulsating.

The harmony of God’s love is within in His Word.

Once we seek God’s love and life through the path of truth, we then become people of value.  The truth is eternal and unchanging.

We find the truth once we begin to distinguish the difference between good and evil in the fallen world.
We must be selfless and self evaluation.

The Bible also teaches us that those who exalt themselves will be humbled and that those who humble themselves will be exalted (Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; 18:14).

In essence, we are spiritual beings.

We may not realize the depth of how much living for the sake others until we go to the

If God, a selfless being, created us in His image, why do we persist so much in living selfishly?

It is because all of humanity inherited the sinful blood of the angel who fell away from God.  Satan contravened the heavenly law.

We have a spiritual body which needs to be nourished by spiritual food.

To be able to stand and survive on God’s side, you need to train yourself to like the taste of spiritual food more than physical food.  God’s words tastes as sweet as honey.

A life based on spiritual power, far exceeds that of a life centered on physical might.

The meaning of lord of all creation

Who is the lord of all creation, and what does the term mean?

People may say that human beings are lord of all creations, but fundamentally, God is.

Since we know that the spirit exist within each of us and we are the leaders among the spirits, finally, we are lords over all creation that is directly connected to God.

Human beings cannot become the lords of all creation on their own. 

How can a created being become a lord over the creation?

As created beings, we are a reciprocal and resultant beings.

“The lords of all creation I am referring to are those occupying the central position in the spirit world. I am talking about the originally intended relationship of oneness between God and humankind.”

Those lords of all creation are in the position to communicate with God.
Even though we are called the lords of creation, not all of fallen humanity is qualified to be one.

Those who live selfish individual lives are not eligible to join the club of the lords of creation.

Those who live their lives seeking the greater good are eligible to go to heaven.

God seeks to fulfill what He wishes through such people.  Heaven will become theirs.

Therefore, people should live eternally.  Yet, in this evil world, people do not see the difference between the death of an ant and that of a human being.

How can such people be true lords over the creation?

Our mind does not age; it is immutable and carries the highest authority.

Everything else undergoes change.

Even pure gold weathers away.

So, how can be we determined to be the lords of creation?

It would not be through money, knowledge, or power, but rather, God’s sublime love.


Inner person and outer person

What is our original destiny as humans?

We are meant to enjoy perfected love and take these values of praise and respect within the realm of God’s absolute love.

Humanity emerged amidst the complete union and harmony of the destinies of heaven and earth. 

Hence, we have an invisible mind and a visible body which corresponds to spirit world.

If we were aligned to this original destiny, would our minds and body be in conflict or would they be in unity?

They would be in total unity.

Your inner self and your outer person are also in conflict with each other. Do you feel a constant struggle when you want to do good things?

This is why God has been working hard to restore us to our original selves.

When will this conflict end?

It will not happen automatically, but will take much effort and faith.

Many believe that God created human beings with this conflict within ourselves.  If we were ordered in this way, then God would not be a god with a single purpose but a god with two separate purposes.

He would not be a God of peace, but a chaotic god.

Every law in the universe pursues a certain purpose, but they do not counter cross or conflict with other laws.

Therefore, we can see that we were not created in a conflicted way either.

Let us seek our original good mind and push aside our fallen bodies that want to go in the wrong direction.

Which do you think is more important: our physical self or our spiritual self?

The flesh has a shelf life of about a hundred years, but our spirit is eternal.

Our spirit is more important.  The body disintegrates into nothingness sooner or later while the spirit has the power to transcend both time and space.

We should understand this original purpose God has for us and fulfill this responsibility.

No matter how well you live in this physical reality, our bodies will perish in the final analysis.  This is how we are made.

Then which are more important: spiritual standards or physical standards?

We are not equipped to live based on physical standards.  We have become like this because after the Fall we have becomes self centered.

The flesh exists for the spirit and vice versa. 

Do not get stuck in the rut of a secular lifestyle.

We should become people who combine our spirit and flesh in a position to save the flesh from its low position of sinful activity.

The purpose of life on earth is mind-body perfection


Why does God have a Will?

It is so humanity can become perfected spiritually and physically.

Individually, our spirit represents the past and our body the present. 

Both of these worlds were invaded.

We are in the position to conquer the present satanic world and the past satanic world spiritually.  When you are able to uphold the standard of the mind subjugating the matter, your future will be blessed.

We should know that the physical world is the subject, not the spirit world.  This is the place where we achieve perfection.

Life on earth is very precious.

After humanity followed the wrong path, the spirit world has wrongly dominated this world.

When there is perfection in the physical world, this encompasses the perfection in both the spiritual and physical worlds.  This is what the Bible means when it states that whatever is bound on earth is bound in heaven.

Restoration from our fallen self is only through the physical body.

Return for Tomorrow’s Post: The Path We Must Take

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book Five, Chapter One, Section 2.

We Choose Heaven or Hell

Religious people who tell those who drink that they are going to hell have no peace of mind.

“I am weary of them. When I see them saying, ‘That goes against the Bible, Matthew chapter so-and-so. You're going to hell,’ really, those rascals. If killing someone could save a nation, then don't you think they would pass a law to free the person who had killed for the sake of saving the (whole) nation?”

You decide whether you go to heaven or hell.

“I do not decide. God does not decide. You are the one who decides. If you complain, it is hell. If you go with a grateful heart to places where you would have complained, it is heaven.”

God did not make hell out of jealousy or envy. Since false people appeared, God made hell as a warehouse in which to manage them.

For example, if you bought a cabbage to make coleslaw, but while making it you discovered the outer leaves had been eaten by worms, you would dump it into a rubbish bin.

This is the concept behind the creation of hell.

Since humanity committed the crime of the Fall, therefore, to remove sin from existence, someone who is qualified must emerge to reverse this problem.

Before the Second Coming, all people who were born on earth were destined to go to hell because there was no true condition for God to save them.

The highest level was paradise which was a waiting room for the creation of heaven.

Humanity has been born of a fallen lineage.  There has not been a moment when all of humankind has bowed down and attended God with all of its heart.

Adam and Eve grew according to the ideal of creation before they fell.

But they never attended God from a relationship of the heart.  How do we know this?  Because if Adam and

Eve truly could feel God’s heart and pain, they would have never crossed the boundaries of love which ultimately separated them from their Parent.

What is hell?

Hell is a place that has no relation to God or His love, life or lineage.

No matter how well you do while on the earth, the situation after the Fall is such that you cannot establish a relationship with Heaven or the realm of the Fall.

This is a bitter tragedy we find on earth.

It is a fact that human beings who were created by God fell from a good position where they can not relate to Him.

We were to lovingly attend Him, but He was left deserted by His children who followed His servant.  No one believed in Him or knew Him.

The bitter grief of heaven and earth is that no one attended and related with God in heart.

You have to hate your fallen, imperfect self.

You should hate your body.  Your enemy’s sinful blood pumps through your very veins.  You should understand that you cannot cut this line with a knife or burn it away.

You have become a waste factory that just consumes things of the creation and cannot receive God’s complete protection.

What determines the division between heaven and hell?

Just knowing or preaching the Bible is not enough.  It is decided through acting upon the original heart.

The boundary line between heaven and hell is determined by the heart.

When you cannot conform to the ideal of love, a reaction comes against you.

No one tells you to go to hell or sends you there.  This is why the Bible states “Love your enemy!” Genuine love gives its influence on the enemy.

If one sends love to his enemy once, twice, thrice and four times, the enemy disappears or is absorbed by this love for sure.  It is because love has such a great power that Jesus said to love the enemy.

How do you think God feels when He sees His children suffering in hell?  Would He sit joyfully on the throne happy with just a few praising His glorious name?

He is desperate trying to give them eternal life.

This is the only way that His responsibility as a parent will be fulfilled.

If after the Fall God eliminated every false thing then He could not stand in the position of a parent.

This is why God even has to eventually liberate hell no matter how hard the situation.

When a rebellious child sees his parents desperately trying to save him he will recognize how much they are doing for him and shout this out thousands of times for his sins.

A son will repent till his bones melt and his flesh falls away.  The parents’ heart is such as this.

Not even Satan can accuse God for His love in trying to save humanity.

No rule prevents forgiveness for a person who repents based on the love of his parents.

From this kind of heart, hell must also be liberated.  This is the way of a true devoted child.  Therefore, members believe that we must liberate even hell.

Why?

Because God has such a parental heart for His children, for us who have suffered from the Fall.

Once one is caught in hell, it is a place one can never escape.

Despite the fact that we feel that our mother, father and relatives are going to hell, you do not really feel the desperation to save them.  You think that it will somehow work out.

However, let’s think seriously about our beloved family members going to hell.

Human nature is such that if your parents were to go to prison, you would cry.  You would do all sorts of things to get them released.

Then, if you knew that your own sons and daughter, parents, and relatives, brothers and sisters were going to an eternal prison, would you just think casually about their fate?


Return for Tomorrow’s Post: Why Do We Exist?

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious book Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book Six, Chapter two, Section 2.

The 'Self' is the Ticket to Hell

What is the greatest obstacle to entering heaven?

Yourself is your greatest enemy.

Hell and the satanic world were created when humanity became aware of ‘self’.  Lucifer took actions centered on himself.  He intensely thought of himself and gratifications only.

What is a traitor?

A person who puts himself before his nation is called a traitor to the nation.  Same with a family member before his family.

This path leads to hell and leads a person to ruin.

This foundation called the self, and centered on the self, leads to death.

Wanting to receive love is the path to hell and belongs to Satan's side. 

On the other hand, the path that wants to give love is the path to heaven and belongs to heaven’s side.
Parental love is on the side of heaven.  It continues to give even when the child refuses to receive.

Though all humankind is fallen, the true path still remains through parental love.

Because God is a parent, and we are His children, that kind of love still remains in fallen human beings.
Where are you headed?

“I will go to the spirit world and stay at the highest point of all kinds of love. Just as there is a North Pole and a South Pole, there is a Love Pole. No matter how hard you try searching at the half way point, or however much you go around, you will not find me.

“Since you cannot find me, you might say, "Rev. Moon went to hell." Would it be easy to stay at the highest point? "I will not freeze to death at the North Pole. I will be like a fireball of love!"

This is a great ideal and a great system of thought. So, everything will be fulfilled. Even God is inside me. The people of the world are inside me. Those who say that they will inherit love are of my tribe! You're not offended?”

If God was to visit hell, all of the satans there would bow their heads to Him.

Even Satan cannot oppose absolute love. 

All the gates of hell would open for God.

This is the basic rule for all relationships of all creation.  The mind has no boundaries.  God is like this; He does not have any boundaries in His mind.

If God wants to go to heaven, He can go there; if He wants to go to hell He can go there, too.  This means there are no walls in the mind of God.

A person who is on his way to his own execution would detest any clothes they wear no matter how elegant they are.

But if someone’s clothes were made by loving hands of his wife, no matter how ugly they might be, the clothes would shine extremely brightly.

We can conclude that anything done out of the essence of love will be welcomed by God wherever it goes. 

Even if something made out of love was to go to hell, God would go and be there with it.

People who go to prison for the person they love, they are not really in prison.

They are in a place that deepens the bond between them.  Therefore, true love can both control God at the highest of hell and at the lowest level.

This principle is the same throughout creation in the earth and in the world of plants and animals.  They all like the song of love.

When you wake up in the morning, would you like to hear the sound of birds singing love songs or the sound of them fighting one another?

Of course, you would like to hear their song of love.

In this universe there are no borders in places that have true love. 

Those who live with true love have what it takes to pass through any place.

They have the ingredients to control God and hell.  Love has the strength to break down barriers and go anywhere.

Love became the pillar that let this universe come into being. 

In the same way, love, false love became the pillar that supports hell.

How difficult it is to make this right after something like this went so wrong.  Even if you wash it with a powerful bleach, because love makes up its root, it becomes tainted again.

Only the strength of true love can make total unity. 

Words of love would even make Satan in hell and the entire world say “Mmmm”.

The power of love makes everything become one. Is there anyone who can deny this?

Our work of restoration is building a cable car from the human world that is in the depths of hell to the highest summit where God is.

What is that cable made of?

If we made this connection with just money, it would snap in an instant.  What about with just knowledge?  Even a cable made with authority will not be enough.

A cable made of love that transcends the top and the bottom should be used to hang the cable-car so it can run smoothly on the cable.

What is a clown’s major job?

It is to make people happy and dance around.  If you cannot dance, at least keep up with the time.

If God was to see church members dancing in such a place, He is not so stingy to say, “Oh, dear, you as the founder of the Unification Church are found keeping time with a clown, then you go to hell.”

God is amazing.  But we have limited Him to our simple thinking.

God’s mind is not small like the leg of an ant.  We haven’t really realized that He is such a great God that if He opens His mouth to inhale all the air in the universe, He still have room to spare.

When we look at God’s providence throughout history, do you think that He send people in the spirit world to hell and only works to restore those on earth?

Since God is love in the highest sense, wouldn’t He desire that His providence of salvation be completed even if it crosses the borderlines of hell? Or He would not recognize those in hell and not mind they suffer for eternity?

The human mind is not like crystal but like ice. 

The mind has all sorts of odds and ends frozen within it after the Fall.

We work to melt it to get rid of these odds and ends and make it into a lump of pure ice that God could suck.

You can only be restored into a lump of ice that belongs to heaven rather than hell once you think you will become pure ice that God likes.


Return for tomorrow’s  Post: We Choose to go to Heaven or Hell

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious book Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book Six, Chapter two, Section 2.

Hell Has no Relationship w/God's Love

Truly, what was the Fall?

Humanity fell into the darkest of nights because of the Fall, transforming our ticket to heaven to a ticket to hell.

Hell is a place that has no relationship to God's love, life or lineage or even to God Himself.

Hell is a place where you are alone and you are shut of from everything.

You have a longing for what you cannot attain.  You will feel the happiness in the large realm of this universe, but you will not be able to move one inch.

“So what is it that I am doing? I am initiating a movement to love God, heaven and earth, based on a universal system of thought: the Principle.

“This is so that from now on, you have to prepare the way you will take when you go to the spirit world. You are doing great things by making such preparations.”

Do you know how vast the spirit world is?  Since it is such an infinite world, you must have a global and universal mind to keep up with the pace of that world.  Therefore, you are making that world the stage for your activities while you are here on earth.

This is impossible if you are individualistic and worry only about your own needs.

If you are not able to connect to the whole, what greater hell is there than that?  It would be the same as catching an eagle and locking him in a dark hole where he could not move or feed.

The eagle symbolizes America.  Wouldn’t it be miserable to live just to eat and satisfy the stomach?  Is that happiness or unhappiness?

To commit suicide is the worst sin of all sins. It is an atrocity that destroys the universe. 

A person who commit’s the crime of killing themselves will go to the lowest of hells.

What if one of your nostrils was plugged and you could only breathe just a little bit through your other nostril?  That would be hell.

Hell is where you are unable to receive when you want.  It is also when you cannot give when you want to.

How long can you endure holding your breath?  How long can you go without exhaling or inhale when you need to?  That is hell.

You cannot eat without God's love in the spirit world. 

Without God’s love in the spirit world, you do not have the right to eat.

Hell is a place where you watch others eat, but cannot eat.  Only those who have experienced the life of heaven on earth with their mind and body united can take ownership in the Kingdom of Heaven.

What do you do when you are in spirit world?  Do you still eat?

You eat food based on love.  Therefore, a person who doesn’t have love will not be able to open his mouth no matter how much he wants to eat.  The food will jump from his face.  This is his punishment.

The world on earth is in chaos.  What about spirit world?  Since humans go to the spirit world in confusion, then the spirit world ends up in chaos as well.

Stealing something becomes a habit.  Once a person who steals a lot on earth goes to spirit world, he naturally wants to get something for nothing on the other side.  Since it is difficult to deal with an unprincipled person such as this, hell was created to separate them.

God did not create hell.  It is a storage place for waste and has nothing to do with God’s love.  All of humanity who begins from false love inevitably go to hell.

God also does not send people to hell, people go to hell on their own accord.

If a person who lived an evil, selfish life on earth was to go to heaven, they would not be able to breathe because the air there is God’s love.

Since they were not able to exercise their love lung while on earth, they will have to go to the lower parts of spirit world where they are comfortable.

Therefore, the person who goes to heaven lives with God eternally.

Since God’s mind and body are united, if a man and woman and their family can do the same and live together in front of God, and become His object partners, they will naturally go to the Kingdom of Heaven in spirit world after leaving the earth.

Those who lived a life with God while on earth could not live in hell.  They would not be able to breathe and the smell and taste would be repulsive.

If you reach heaven, you would be able to freely come and go from there even visit hell.  Would you rather be a person who is limited to a space in hell or a liberated person who is free?

You have to think of difficult people as the gate keeper and think that you are going to touch and melt their heart so they will guide you when you reach those gates.

Hell is a place without a future. 

Heaven has a future.

The Fall began in the place where there is no future in the public sense.  The self became the center and living for humanity’s own sake forsaking god is the way to hell.

Living for others is the way to heaven. That is the concept of heaven and hell. 

A flattened balloon slowly rises when it is filled with hydrogen.  It seems that the balloon can rise to any height, but it has limits.

A balloon stops at the place where it finds a balance with its own weight and remains at the same level of atmospheric pressure.

This is the same case in the spirit world.

Those who are greedy go down. They are heavy. 

For that reason, hell is where heavy things gather and collide with one another.

What if a racist white person went to the spirit world and the gate keeper to heaven was black?

If a person was blocked from entering heaven and made to go back, he might cling to the gatekeeper at that time and cry out for them to have mercy on them.

He would experience a living hell that is hundreds and thousands of times greater than any suffering they caused the black people in his lifetime.

“If I were God, I would also put such keepers by the gates. “

Everyone lives under the rule of the universal law.  No one can free themselves from this law.  This affects the order of love and morality from the family level to universal and then God.

One who has violated heavenly law is not free to go anywhere in the universe.

There is nowhere to run or go where you wish.

To attain a life that is supported by all the laws including the laws of nature, the true path is the one giving love and living for the sake of others.

You should realize that hell does exist. Hell is a place one goes who does not follow the way of carrying the banner of love.

“I hope that you can stand in court and be victorious.”

When you do not have the discipline to practice love, when you go to spirit world a reaction comes against you from everyone there, nobody will tell you or send you to hell.


Public or Private

Being public means living for the greater good, doesn't it? Being private means putting yourself first. Living for your own sake leads to hell. Public-mindedness leads to heaven.

Unification Church members are not without value.

We may look simple, but we are not a simple group that believes that we go to heaven by just going to church on Sunday or through just holding a Bible under our arm or giving tithing every now and then.

As a people, once we believe in something, we do it till the end.

Even if our spouse grabs us from following this path we are intense and follow the path of faith even at the risk of divorce.

The reason you suffer now is for the sake of finding the freedom of heaven. 

Even if you go to hell, after living such a courageous life on earth, no one in hell can hold you there after they have judged your life.

Going down to a lower position is something that would never happen in a society of brothers, but is only possible within the realm of the parental heart.

God can go to the bottom of hell where His children suffer; this is the example of a parent - a true parent.


Return for Tomorrow’s Post: The Self is Ticket to Hell

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious book Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book Six, Chapter two, Section 2.

Heaven in Spirit World Emerges from Heaven on Earth

Historically, people called by God were over fifty or sixty years old, worn out and one step away from death.

God used such people at that time, but knew He would work with the younger generation in the future.  Therefore, God was concerned about how to develop His providence through the young people.

Buddha was able to proclaim that he was his own lord throughout heaven and earth.  A person who becomes a complete object partner of God after disciplining himself to achieve oneness of mind and body, he can become his own lord.

“Once, I felt that I was grasping the world tightly in my hand, and it seemed to melt. When you reach this level, miracles can happen automatically. The curing of diseases comes as a natural result of religious life.”

Most people today go about their lives just waking up and eating and going about a daily routine and think they are fine in God’s eyes.

However, unless they are acknowledged as a partner to God and become owners of heaven, they are not fine in front of God.

Satan remains in the place where a person has not established an absolute faith.

Many religions say that heaven will be established by the their church and their founder’s teachings.  This is a fantasy.

Christianity is divided into hundreds of different denominations.  They call other churches heretical or satanic, but they do not do so from the authorization of God.

If churches judge other churches for their own benefit, then their motivation is not pure.
If our church does this, it will also decline.

Even the spirit world has been divided by walls. 

Buddhists and Confucians are separated by walls.

The barriers are overcome by a higher standard from God’s heart.  All the walls from the lowest to the higher realms must be broken down in reverse order.

The walls that separate ancestors and people from many thousand of years ago must be broken down.

All the walls on the earth must be eliminated and a true path connected to liberate hell must be paved.  Otherwise, the gates of heaven cannot be opened.

Members must be a better person than Buddha, than Confucius and even better than Jesus.

Before, religion had a purpose to only save the individual. Our purpose is family salvation.  This is the difference between Unificationism and other religions.

For salvation we are saving the family. When we go to heaven we are not going alone. 

No one can enter heaven alone.

Only after the ideal of a true couple is realized can heaven come about.  Therefore, in order to go to heaven, fallen human beings must go through  restoration and resurrection.


To give the Marriage Blessing to you is to open wide the gates of heaven.


“Through the Blessing, I am opening the closed gates of heaven for you.”

Jesus taught that the Kingdom of heaven was in our hearts.  But Jesus was miserable when he could not proclaim that that heaven was in our families.

When you have a family, you can sing with happiness that we can live in this way.

Yet Jesus who was God’s pure Son could not even dream of having a family necessary for heaven.

Jesus trodden a sacrificial path for three years in order to awaken to the fact that heaven within our hearts.  But then he was crucified.  Now, there is no heaven on earth.

The tracks of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and those in the Kingdom of Heaven in the spirit world are the same.

In order for a train to pass the border of one country into the next, the tracks must match so the train continues running.

Likewise, the tracks on earth and in heaven should be connected.

The path of true love connects the rails from earth so the family can be the embodiment of love and go directly to heaven nonstop.

Therefore, the individual path should connect to the family’s path going in the same direction.

We are destined to go to the spirit world whether we like it or not. 

We are each like wanderers that move closer to that destination.

The biggest issue is whether you lived a life for others while on earth for just for yourself.  If you live more for others, you go to heaven, if you lived more for yourself, you go to hell.

This basic formula may be argued given your present situation, but when you die, you will know that this is the truth.

People went to different levels in the spirit world. They went to the position that correlates to the degree they have practiced filial piety according to the way of love.  How much they pledged their loyalty to their nation and fulfilled the way of a saint in the world.

People should take the path of righteousness while on earth. The path for the individual, family, tribe, nation and world or God should be one and the same path.
What is that path?

It is the path of original love.

Which world do you think you will go to in the end?  Are you going to heaven or hell?

On the way there are you the kind of person that says, “Father, please help me!” or a person who says, “Welcome, True Father!”?  That is a matter of life and death.

After marriage, you made a pledge to live happily.

“When I say live you should live well, it means that you should become an unchanging couple. In order to become like that, you should go to the ever-changing world and receive training together.

“You should keep your promises even if you go to a world where people are divided, north and south or in all four directions. You should maintain such a well-trained position.”

Children born of true parents as Adam and Eve should have become by following God’s Word, are true children not false, sinful children.

From such children, a true family, a true tribe, nation and world is created.

People in this world will live a heavenly way of life with God.  This is the only way that this earth becomes the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

You should not think you are entitled to go to heaven. 

You should focus on building heaven on earth as Jesus came to do.

Also, you must become a heavenly person and become united with Heavenly Father to the point that Father’s heart is your heart.

You should be a representative of God’s heart, the Lord’s heart and the heart of your ancestors.  Through this, the historical problems will be solved.

If a person is on their death bed and they tell God, “God, even though I could not live according to Your will until this moment, I tried to go to heaven in my mind.  Please regard me as making the proper indemnity conditions!”

Since God is a fair God, He will reward the person according to his actions, placing him in a position of wanting to go to heaven.  That position can be just below paradise.

Even people in hell are trying to go to heaven.

You  alone are responsible for deciding the actions you commit while you are on earth. And make any recompense for any wrongdoings.

If this door is closed, no one else can open it again for eternity, only you can be responsible for it.
If the door is opened, no one except you can close it again.

If what is bound on earth is bound in heaven, then it should be released while you are on earth. What does this mean?  For instance, if you did a wrongful act and did not compensate or ask for forgiveness for it while on earth, then you will ever be bound to that sin when you go to spirit world.

You will be bound to it.

Therefore, when you go witnessing now, you should witness to your family members and relatives.

If you can claim that you love the billions of people on earth more than your own mother and father who gave birth to you, then you are able to love in an unified position within the realm of God’s love.
Then you will stand in a position not be related to the satanic world.

An original person is someone who is not related to Satan, establishes a family based on the love of the ideal couple and goes directly to heaven after his life on earth.  A world of families such as this would be called the Kingdom of Heaven on earth where people live the ideals of the heavenly kingdom.

Therefore, the fact that Peter was given the keys to the gates of heaven means that heaven is first to be established on earth.  Everyone should know this clearly.


Photos courtesy: freedigitalphotos.net

Return for Tomorrow’s Post: Jesus Wasn’t  to be God’s Only True Son

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious book Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book Six, Chapter two, Section 2.

What Kind of Place is Heaven?

What kind of place is Heaven?

It is a place where God’s love dwells at the core.  It is the realm where the environment of God’s love is established.

The kind of person that lives here is one who can harmonize with His love.

Since heaven is the world where we live for the sake of other people, you have to go based on this concept.

If you only want to be served, you will be destroyed. 

Heaven is filled with God’s love.

Heaven is different from the secular world.  We are taught by religion to live for the sake of others, be obedient to sacrifice and serve.  The secular world does not have such teachings.

This was God’s secret strategy against Satan so people could receive a good fortune, even though they are unaware of the heavenly law.

You go to heaven on the tracks of love. 

Love is not like elastic, so when it is pulled, it will not be thinned.

The more the line of love is pulled, the thicker it becomes.  Therefore, when one becomes the king of suffering for the sake of God’s will, this is a secret weapon to occupy the world.

What kind of world is heaven?

It is not a world where people treat each other with animosity, jealousy or turn green over another’s fortune or happiness.



One person's success represents the success of the whole.


A person’s joy is not for himself only, but can be shared by the whole.

Heaven is such a place where people can be pleased over other’s happiness and everyone can join in and rejoices in other’s rejoices.

In heaven, you smell through the air of love.  There is no place in heaven that does not throb with life.
   
Since people in heaven would be from God’s pure lineage, when God is sad, then the entire spirit world living as a cell would feel sad.  Also, when God feels joy, everyone would feel the same.

This is how God’s love moves throughout the Kingdom of Heaven.  The world responds to this love and becomes artistically beautiful through the relationship between the elements of creation which are all connected by lineage.

If God is happy, you are happy; if God is sad, you are sad. 

Will we struggle in heaven?

Wouldn’t that world be boring?  What would we do there?  When you eat, you should do so feeling love.

 You should wear clothes feeling love -live feeling love and travel embodying God’s essential love.

If we do not live in this way daily feeling God’s love, there will be no harmony.

A person who lives in this way where they occupy God’s essential love, they will occupy a high place in spirit world.

Why does God exist?

He came into being and lives through true love.  For this reason, we were born and live because of true love.

True love expressed through human beings is the blossoming of absolute value. 

God and human beings do not have a reason to complain when we live in this way.

Human beings are the flower of the universe; with true love as the center, both sides become one.

The right and left sides will both scream out in joy with their hands in the air. Everyone unites and releases a fragrance.

While we are on earth, we train to attend God.  We should attune with other peoples’ minds.

Siblings with the same mind live together in the spirit world. If  you aren't trained to live like that in this world, there will be a collision in the next world.

God is absolute; there is no forgiveness if you deviate from the Principle.

You should be in accord with peoples’ minds and harmonize with them.

When one perfects his character, he makes friends wherever he goes and can be at hoe anywhere including God’s throne.

How do you go to heaven?

You have to be crazy for God’s love. You have to love God more than Adam and Eve, love Jesus more than Peter.

If you are not able to reach this level of loving, then the realm where God can love cannot be restore.


Do not worry that you have no money. Do not worry that you have no children. If you continuously follow this path for ten or twenty years, you will be able to scale very high and steep mountains.

You may feel when you walk this religious path that you only go through hardships and gradually decline, but actually, you are moving higher and higher.

By being persecuted, the church becomes bigger.

One in the family who is being constantly persecuted for the common good, can become the master of that family.  In other words, he becomes an owner in the Kingdom of Heaven.


Return for Tomorrow’s Post: Heaven is a World of Pure Love

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious book Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book Six, Chapter two, Section 2.

A True Family is the Kingdom of Heaven

The beginning point of Kingdom of Heaven is not based on an individual or nation, but a family. 

Jesus knew this and sought to work through the relationship of a bride and a groom on earth.  

Is the starting point through an individual?  

No, it is a family.  The family is the basic foundation for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Once you visit the Kingdom of Heaven where there is only unity, you will never want to return back.  

You will never tire of dwelling there with God’s beloved.

If all of humankind wanted to live and meet there, then the world will unify quickly.

This does not happen all at once.  

First, an individual must unite his warring mind and body or flesh and extended this through the family, national and worldwide levels. 

Your family represents the sovereignty of heaven:

Parents represent sovereignty, children represent the nation and your possessions represent the land.  To be dutiful toward your parents means to be loyal to the nation and to practice being saints.  This was the original ideal world.

Instead, we have fallen families that are the origin of disgraceful behavior.  God truly believes that the family can be the sacred site to turn all of history around.

Our mission is to guide all corrupted families in the fallen world toward the heavenly path.  We do not have the right to turn away from them.

These three, parents, children and belongings are necessary components defining the boundary of a family.

A husband’s duty is to relate to the church, and his wife should tend to the material.

Then the family members should become completely one.  This is where the Kingdom of Heaven starts at this point.

Heaven is only established if a couple becomes one centering upon God’s love.

This union can never be dissolved and it will never split.

What kind of love are you centered upon?  

If you found God’s love, your mind and body are completely one so He can dwell completely in you.

The Kingdom of Heaven is realized through a family where a father and mother are completely one through God’s love and the children love them.

“As Father did when he started the Unification Church, you must take sincere care of your friends when they visit your house. You have to make them say, "Your house is better than mine. This meal is more delicious than at my house. Can I stay here one more night?" 

“When you make your house a place where every guest or friend wants to come and live, even abandoning their own families, you have the Kingdom of Heaven of a family.”

We don't need so many people in the church. The Kingdom of Heaven starts not from the church but from a family -- namely, from a bridegroom and a bride. 

The woman was born to see a man and a man born to see a woman.

The first person on earth a baby sees when he or she is born is ‘mommy’.  A couple should treat each other in a way that the husband calls the wife the same way the baby calls their mother and vice versa.

A couple that lives in this way will not envy young couples when they get older.

The whole family should participate in worship service and learn from exemplary families and guide the families that are in a bad situation.  This way, we establish the kingdom of Heaven of the family.

The Kingdom of Heaven on earth cannot be established without the Kingdom of Heaven of the family.

Do not forget the dignity you have as a family member.

Heaven begins from the family and nowhere else.  You must think that whenever you embrace your spouse, it is in order for the men and women of the world to become one.

The family is the place where you can set the condition to love the whole of humankind.

Reach the status where you can even feel God’s mind, heart and appearance and His suffering as your own mind, heart, appearance and suffering.

This should be accomplished here on earth.

“Now Heavenly Father feels that I should teach the norm for life in the Kingdom of Heaven. People in the restoration course should learn from those who are expert in the Principle. 

“Father cannot be responsible directly for those problems. That age already has passed. The organization of the Unification Church is the organization of a family. The Unification Church is centered upon a family, not upon an individual, which has been the center so far.”

Where is the Kingdom of Heaven? 

It is not in the sky. 

It is the place where the father, mother and children experience 100% joy when they use all things for life and for ideal situations.

What does God’s ideal world look like?

It is a place where Heaven on earth is founded upon the True Parents who have reversed the fall of the first false parents.

The Kingdom of Heaven is established only through the foundation of love. 

There is no trace of such love in the fallen world or spirit world.

No one has received the love of true parents on earth and spirit world until the Second Coming of the Messiah to make a way.

In God’s original world, man’s love, woman’s love, son’s love, daughter’s love, parents’ love and God’s love were part of the original family.

When one loves parents, spouse and children in such a harmonized place leads a life of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

You are qualified to go to Heaven when you respect your spousal love and parental love.  We can create a unified house of love.

Grandparents hand love down to the parents, the parents hand down love to a husband and a wife.  The couple hands down love to children.

To deny any of these denies the establishment of Heaven.

The world is afraid of the Unification Church and owes the families that were blessed in marriages more than the Principle.  

The Messiah and the blessed families become one in love centering upon God's love. 

The Messiah, the blessed couples, and the blessed children: these three generations are connected to be one in love on earth. 

The Unification Church is the place where three generations can be linked.  When three generations live together in happiness, the ideal of creation is realized. 

Husband and wife should love one another and pray for their children with love and take sincere care of them.  This will create a harmonious family and perfect love is established.

Cousins and second cousins should become one in love and form the perfect shape of love.

The Unification Church regards the tribe as the start of the Kingdom of Heaven.

When parents, brothers, cousins and second cousins become one centering upon the grandfather, a perfect three generations are established. 

A wife must serve her grandparents-in-law and parents-in-law in place of God and her husband.  

She must also harmonize with the sisters-in-law and brother-in-laws.  When this kind of relationship expands to the society, nation an world, this becomes a world of peace and love - not crime and war.

The Kingdom of Heaven of a family is established when a man and a woman are completely one.

Husband, wife and children should center upon God’s Will for the sake of humankind.

We work for the sake of humankind’s salvation, not only for God.  God’s dreams is to find a family that has such a standard.  If we do not have such a heavenly family on earth, then God cannot save all of humankind nation and families.

Such families were raised by the Messiah of the Second Coming that center on God.  These blessed families should strive to lead a life that is connected to God’s nation.

The heavenly nation and world is established from their existence and when we work for others.  The family is responsible for organizing the world centered upon God.

The members of the Unification Church centered upon the Messiah’s word which is like a tribe and a nation following God.

The Unification Church’s role is to form a nation for God that is composed of five races that is united and can work for the sake of the whole world.

The purpose of the Messiah returning is God wants to accomplish this through his bringing God’s new truth to the earth testified in the Book of Revelations in the Bible.

Return for Tomorrow’s Post: 

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook Blessing and Ideal Family Part 2 written by Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Second Facet of Marriage Preparation

Character and Enriching Relationships

The skills and knowledge that is needed to prepare one for abstinence and marriage require for one to develop a certain quality of heart and character.

When one knows about mature love and how to have effective communication within a healthy relationship require unselfishness, patience, courage and kindness.

To mold a young person to have do the inner work in order to meet the demands of a lifelong love involves character training which requires developing the heart, conscience and a mature character.

Instructions from faith-based resources stress the difference between right and wrong and focusing on a higher purpose than themselves.

Character development would note how important relationships in the family, friends also teach lessons on the need to love.

Enriching Relationships

1. Parents and other elders

2. Siblings and friends of both sexes

Personal Character

“In the future, would you like to have a wife with a beautiful face or a beautiful mind?” Reverend Moon has asked youth. “You should have a beautiful and giving mind, and live your life centered on the mind and not on your appearance.”

Most people focus on the way a person looks or just the personality of the opposite sex when it comes to dating. Therefore, these are the same quality traits one will focus on in themselves to attract love.

After having many unsuccessful relationships, a single person can see in the end that being caring, generous and kind are the best traits to look for in a potential partner.

Also, young people should know it is unfair to expect their partner to have qualities that they do not have themselves.

A good subject partner attracts a good object partner and vice versa.

It takes a good person to appreciate another good person.

Reverend Moon has said, “No matter how good your partner is, you will not be able to see his or her value without you yourself being the best.”

Therefore, young people should concentrate on perfecting their own character before choosing an ideal partner. To find a good husband or wife is to become one yourself.

Ovid said, “To be loved, be lovable.”

When one invests daily to cultivate their own heart and character in order to be a good mate for someone else, they will attract a good person.

Such an attitude creates the habit of looking at oneself instead of the spouse when conflict arises.

When one has a good character looking for compatibility in a partner, it is wise to look for a mate that also has a quality character.

Sexual attraction and having the same interests will cause an immediate connection, but these can change. On the other hand, sharing values and having mutual respect adds for a more enduring basis for a promising marriage.

For one to maintain their chastity and have a successful marriage, requires moral strengths more than any other fact of life.

The following are key characteristics

Personal Character

1. Self-control
2. Faith in God and sense of higher purpose
3. Sense of personal worth

1. Self-control

Self-control means to delay gratification and discipline any ungodly desires.

This ability forms the basis for the mind and body to unite and to give true love. To keep one's purity, self-control is the central virtue while self-discipline is an underlining virtue to have the capacity to follow through to have a committed marriage.

One must practice obedience to one's parents and be submissive to their demands until one's own conscience's voice becomes strong enough to guide the body this is self-control.

Will power is the engine of self-control, which in turn is powered by motivation, the fruit of understanding and emotion.

To strengthen one's will involves feeding the intellect with knowledge and feed the heart with inspiration.

In order to be successful in life requires ones to focus and have determination for the goal. These two qualities also serves one who is remaining chaste in preparation for marriage.

It takes self-discipline to apply oneself to studying, to learn a new skill, to avoid drugs and alcohol when they are lonely or sad and to make good choices in love.

Now, many teenagers make a purity pledge before God, family and friends and members of their community to bolster self-control. 

Wearing a purity ring serves as a visible reminder of one's promise to not have sex until they are married. 

They can look forward the to the day that this ring is replaced with a wedding ring. It is essential for a single person to can be around others who share their same struggles and celebrate their successes and hold them accountable for all of their decisions. Their support systems can help serve as their external conscience.

“Two of my friends and I, we made a pact,” one college senior confides, “so when I feel my resolve fading, I think about my friends and I can’t let them down. We call each other up a lot and we check on each other.”

The mind is the most neglected area of self-control when it comes to purity.

The mind is the most prominent sexual organ.

Sexual expression is affected by the imagination and through learning. If one wants to remain chaste, they must avoid inflaming his or her sexual desire for anyone outside their present or future spouse.

“Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire,” the Bible warns. “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin.” James 1.14-15

There is a reason that Jesus declared, “Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5.28

A Taoist text likewise says, “when you meet a beautiful woman in another man’s home and cannot banish her from your thoughts, you have committed adultery with her in your heart.” Treatise on Response and

Retribution.

A impulsive thought is hard to control, but the following fantasy is under one's control.

Keeping the mind free and pure not only helps the maintenance of purity but it is also promotes the greatest intimacy and sexual joy in marriage.

2. Faith in God and a Sense of Higher Purpose

One who is trying to maintain their purity and prepare oneself to cultivate the spouse's realm of heart is to have faith in God.

Such faith has two dimensions: one is giving Him priority in life; love Him first.

The other dimension is that faith demonstrates love through trust and obedience. Having a relationship as the central part of one's life when the first ancestor's were to have focus on the Heavenly Father to be their primary love.

If Adam and Eve were to obey God's warning even though they couldn't understand their Father's heart, they would have not been affected to the power of selfish and illicit love when they were tempted.

This same trust in God would is needed as an anchor for their marriage and family life.

People can find power through trusting in God's truth and the promises He makes, plus trust their parent's guidance and other figures who represent Him.

Having trust that our Heavenly Parent can sustain a person through the rough times when people at home, work or school does not inspire. When they feel empty inside, God can console the 'restless heart' which Augustine referred to.

Only God fully understands one's pain and struggle.

Youth pastor Rick Stedman was tempted during the years before his marriage at age 30 to have sex.

First, he thanked God for having sexual desire which will be necessary in marriage. Then, he would pray for his friends, family members one by one who gave him love that helped him through his loneliness.

Sexual desire then becomes moments of strengthening the pastor's connection to God and to his loved ones.

Having such a strong faith means one loves God more than one's own partner and all He signifies

“Therefore, after [we] love God, love the world and love the nation,” Reverend Moon teaches, we may invest

our love in our spouse.

Paradoxically, when one places God's love as central, this ensures that one's love is true because true love is unchanging goodness and truth. Seeing through God's eyes ensures that they will have love for their future spouse that is lasting.

Having trust in God and following His ways protects one's future marriage in every way. The strongest unions are God-centered.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: Family is Road to World Peace

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook "Educating for World Peace"