It is natural for everyone that is living on earth to think that they are the most important and to think of himself or herself. It is also a human trait to think of one's family, and the world centered on himself and even think of God centered on his own thinking.
It is human nature to think of oneself in relation to others.
What is the source of one self?
We each started our existence in God.
Science teaches that human history has existed for hundreds of thousands of years. Everything starts from self, myself and everything exists to bring us about. Your ancestry consists of many generations.
Your ancestral tree would consist of all different types of people. You might have a tall grandfather, a tall grandmother, one grandmother who is small in stature, all kinds. You had handsome and beautiful men and women, crippled, and disabled.
Your ancestry is an encapsulation of all humanity.
From God's point of view, some of your ancestors were good and some were evil.
Some were thieves, some were murderers and we can imagine there were all sorts. We cannot help but think that those kinds of ancestors are mingled within our bloodstream. You are a product of that lineage.
Therefore, when we look at our ancestry on these terms, we see that we are not pure. We are unclean and not so decent.
God has all knowledge of your background and your ancestral tree. In His eyes, He sees that more of your ancestors have been evil than were good. But when everyone speaks about their bloodline, they would imagine that his ancestry has been good or fairly good at least.
That is not so. Everyone one of you are the fruit of a stained lineage inherited from Satan.
When we think of the history of a piece of fruit, we would see that it is the result of one person's year of toil and labor.
In one fruit, there is every element: the nutrients absorbed, the sun, and the elements coming from the environment.
We don't know the past story of the fruit, but just by seeing a small scar on the surface of an apple, we can see there is a long story behind this.
It is our fallen nature to think of ourselves in a selfish sense, but this is not the right way. We think about things centered on our own thinking saying, "This is good, or this is bad because I don't like it." But this is not the way we should think of things.
It is possible that your ancestry in general has been good, but in your generation, you yourself are committing many sins, and it makes your ancestry lower, or stains your ancestral lineage.
Each generation of our ancestors has built a graph of ups and downs. You are either on the peak of the graph of ups and downs or you are at the very low bottom. When you are at this low point, you think that you are lofty and high in status. Is this good for your ancestral bloodline?
There are four seasons in a year revolving around one after the other.
If the graph was placed in circular form, the circle would revolve as human history revolves.
One day can be compared to the season: our mornings correspond to spring, summer corresponds to noontime, evening corresponds to the night. With noon as the center, we start from the early morning and ascend or go up, but from noontime, we begin to descend or come down.
Your ancestors represented the season, too. Some belonged to the spring, some to summer, still others to the fall and the rest to the winter.
Among us, we represent the four seasons in terms of in-born nature.
A springlike person would take delight in making friends who belong to fall. Those who belong to winter are more or less for those belonging to summer. When we find our spouse, we must think of people in these terms, too.
Your entire life can be compared to the seasons, too.
Our childhood belongs to spring, adolescents is a transition to summer, youth represents summer, middle-age represents fall and the elderly represents winter.
This comprises the four seasons, so we should not like our childhood only and feel like getting rid of some parts of our life belonging to summer, fall and winter. The total experience of each age is our life.
What is the definition of a good man?
A good type of person is one whom children, youth, middle-aged and the elderly can like and vice versa. A person who can like children, youth middle-aged and the elderly is an ideal person. As the subject towards nature, you should be able to love the four seasons alike. God likes all ages alike.
There are many colors here: white, black, yellow and red.
God does not discriminate. He never likes just one race, but He likes everyone. He loves white people, black people, yellow and red people. With all of these races included, we can call this humanity which is woven in history and culture with these people.
But is this the end of human history?
We say that Western society is going down, but it should prepare to go up again.
When you come down, you are prepared to go up again. This means we should never be arrogant in thinking of ourselves. You may be enjoying a prosperous time now, but there is no guarantee you will stay in that position.
It is more smart that when you are up, that you prepare yourself to go down.
When you are up, you must do something for those who are less situated. If you are not supported by the people below you when you are in the high position, you cannot really keep such a position and that's the end of it.
Everything moves, not in a straight line, but making waves. This is inevitable.
You must realize that Western civilization is declining from its high position.
So, if Western people only think about their own nation and prosperity alone not reaching out to other countries less fortunate, they are doomed to decline or perish.
On the other hand, if you are able to think of people at that point, the whole of humanity, then there is hope for your civilization and you will soar up again.
For instance, the white people are at the top. If they do things centered on themselves alone, the situation will drastically be reversed.
This same principle applies between the East and the West. Because of science, the East and West have come much closer like relatives more than neighbors.
The world is not for just the Orientals, but with the two combined, we can picture the wholeness of the world.
Even when East and West come together, they will still experience up and downs. If either one of them does things centered on itself, this harmony would not be able to sustain.
We must ride on the tide of human history.
When the white people go down, you cannot tread down upon the black race and go up, but you must push them ahead of you and go up.
The law of human history is to work for others, live for others, and help each other.
We can determine that those who live in this way are destined to rise, and those who are living self-centered lives are doomed to decline. By being open and welcoming other people, it means you want to be beneath them while lifting them up.
Based on this power, you will go up again. If you willingly welcome a person placing yourself below them, then you are supported by that person and many others, and you will be lifted up.
This is the manner to welcome people: you concede and give your seat to others.
From that point you will be lifted up from your position.
The morning cannot be arrogant and say that it will stay all day and make the whole day morning. To have a sound day, your morning must give way to the noon, noon must give way to the evening, and the evening must concede to night.
If you work hard enough to stay in childhood throughout your life would that be possible?
You must think that childhood is for youth to come, youth is for adulthood to come and adulthood is for the aged period to come. You must respect the other ages and levels.
This is the law of God and nature which God is teaching us. God wants us to live for other people, sacrificing ourselves for them. In proportion to how much you have lived for others, you then can be supported by others.
You can become the central figure with all of those people you lived for supporting you.
Would you like your whole life to live for yourself alone and would you like to have other people live for your family?
Are you greedy and like for the whole world to live for your nation? Your nation would prosper for a period of time, but then it would end and go down.
At the height of your country's prosperity, your nation would decline and perish and disappear from the human scene.
This is what has happened to many nations and dynasties throughout history. If the nation is careful to make another leap, the history of the nation can go on.
When we look at the history of humanity, we see that those who have sacrificed themselves for the sake of other people survived, and then became part of the mainstream of history to last generation after generation.
A patriot is a person who has done something for the nation and his existence will remain as part of the history of the United States. He will be remembered by other people and his name and deeds recorded.
If one sacrifices his own pleasures for the sake of the whole world and all of humanity, we can call him or her a sacred or holy person. From that viewpoint, we can call Jesus Christ the most holy man.
We know that the history of the Western civilization was founded upon the Christian ideology, but absolute faith and obedience to God's word is declining. It is puzzling that such a prosperous Christian nation like the US is losing ground in these Last Days as the people turn away from Jesus' true teachings of sacrificial living becoming individualistic and self-centered instead.
The fact that Christianity is losing its influence and is declining is evidence that Christians have lost sight of the original calling and become self-centered based on their own thinking of how to live.
This nation has hope if it revitalizes the Christian spirit and the people begin to live lives for the sake of others.
Self-centered ideals are against God's will, and against the law of God. A nation that goes that way will naturally perish and decline. In order to rise up to a great nation once again, we must discard the old way.
The fundamental spirit of Christianity is to live for other people.
Christianity's greater purpose is for the sake of the nation, something bigger than Christianity itself.
If Christians continue to center on self and works for the prosperity of oneself, then the theology is doomed to decline.
God had foresight to see that Christianity existed not for its own churches, but for the future generation and for the whole world restoration to Heaven on Earth.
God set up the foundation of Christianity in order to save the world not for the members to live individual, selfish lives. This is a major reason for the decline.
The Bible states that God sent Jesus to save the world, not one religion or territory.
Therefore, God does not consider Christianity to be the most important thing, but placed Christianity in the sacrificial position in order to save the whole world.
The purpose of Christianity is more important.
This purpose will be realized using Christianity as the instrument.
When we look at the chosen nation of Israel, we see that God had prepared that nation for the salvation of all humanity.
For thousands of years, He prepared the nation for the coming of the Messiah. Going about their daily lives, they forgot their mission. If you focus your viewpoint with more emphasis on 'myself'' you are doomed to decline and perish.
When we stop to think of ourselves who am 'I'?
In a word, I am for the whole. The kind of person that has that kind of thinking is liked and loved by the whole and defined as a good person. On the other hand, an evil person is disliked, or hated by others. This alone defines him as evil.
Centered on yourself, you have your whole ancestral past, so in this light you are for the past ancestral people, too.
On the horizontal line, you have all humanity living on earth.
On this level, you are for the family, relatives, tribe, nation and the whole world. Vertically, in spirit, you are for your ancestors and for the future generations and your descendants.
If you live for the whole, you are situated in the central point.
Among all of your ancestors you are the most important person if you live every day solely for others.
Your ancestors would want for you to live for the whole, more than they did when they lived on earth. In the present day, your living relatives and family would want you to live your life for the sake of other people.
Also, your descendants would want your ancestors and yourself to work for the sake of the whole. Then they are able to be proud of you and their heritage. You must become the person who works for the sake of the people more than any of your ancestors have. Do you understand?
Return for Tomorrow's Post: True Love Breaks Barriers
This post was rewritten and derived from the speech The Whole and Myself
