Don't Doubt in Dark What God Told You in Light

The following text was given by Rev. Tom Cutts is the District Director of the six Southern states of Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. He and his wife, Angelika, were matched by True Parents and Blessed with 2075 Couples in Madison Square Garden in 1982. They have three sons and one daughter:

My friends, you were chosen to be free. So don't use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love. All that the Law says can be summed up in the command to love others as much as you love yourself. But if you keep attacking each other like wild animals, you had better watch out or you will destroy yourselves.

If you are guided by the Spirit, you won't obey your selfish desires. The Spirit and your desires are enemies of each other. They are always fighting each other and keeping you from doing what you feel you should. But if you obey the Spirit, the Law of Moses has no control over you.





People's desires make them give in to immoral ways, filthy thoughts, and shameful deeds. They worship idols, practice witchcraft, hate others, and are hard to get along with. People become jealous, angry, and selfish. They not only argue and cause trouble, but they are envious. They get drunk, carry on at wild parties, and do other evil things as well. I told you before, and I am telling you again: No one who does these things will share in the blessings of God's kingdom.

God's Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways. And because we belong to Christ Jesus, we have killed our selfish feelings and desires. God's Spirit has given us life, and so we should follow the Spirit.

Galatians 5:13-26

“…what God has spoken to you in the Light.” Has God spoken to you? I have neighbors and relatives who don’t believe there is a God. There are others who believe that God created everything, but they cannot imagine that this Creator can personally relate to them, care about them, wants them to be happy, and wants the best for them.

I was in Las Vegas last month for an International Leadership Conference, and one participant from our district told me he was an atheist. I’ll call him Steve, though that is not his name. Steve does not believe in God. He certainly does not believe that there is a God who can speak to him. But while he was in Vegas he had a curious experience.

When Steve arrived at our hotel, he saw three teenage girls get out of a car. They wore high heel shoes, bright colored hot-pants, fishnet stockings, tops that exposed their tummies, and lots of make-up. They were teenage prostitutes.

Steve has two daughters himself, and when he saw these girls he actually started sobbing. Right there in his taxi, he broke down in tears. He surprised himself by how upset he was. Steve shared this experience with me, and challenged me saying, “How can you say there is a God? If there was a God, He wouldn’t let these young girls’ lives be ruined this way.”

I said to him, “Steve, your reaction, proves to me that there IS a God. You could have lusted for the girls, or judged them in disgust, or simply ignored them. Instead you felt the heart of a concerned father. Don’t you find it amazing that you cried for kids whom you had never met before? Where did that emotion come from? It didn’t just come out of the thin air.”

There has to be a source of our personality and our emotions. Not only did God create our physical bodies, but he is also the source of our personality and emotions. That means that God is a Being of Personality and Emotion. That’s why we refer to God as Heavenly Father.

He is a real Being who suffers when any of His children are abused. Through Steve’s emotions, God was speaking to him. Steve was experiencing the heart of God when he shed tears for those three girls. I don’t think I convinced him that God exists, but I did get him to wonder about his own passionate reaction, and where those powerful feelings came from.

The founder of our church, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, has established a special mission in Las Vegas. Right now there is a saying that, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” This means that people go to Vegas to do all sorts of things. Things they would rather the folks back home not know about. So, their naughty secret “stays in Vegas”. Rev. Moon wants to change the whole environment there. He wants Las Vegas to become known worldwide as a good place for families.

To make that change Rev. Moon is promoting Absolute Sexual Morality. Fundamentally, this means that people remain sexually pure until they are married, and when married, they only have sex with their spouse.

Absolute Sexual Morality is a lot more than not having sex with the wrong partner. It is a lot more than “no spare keys” to your sexual organ. It also means that you direct all your sexual desire and feelings toward your spouse.  No seductive thoughts and behavior for anyone else.

I am very concerned about young men who are involved in pornography. Easy access on the Internet has made pornography a big problem. Pornography addiction makes it really difficult to establish a loving and sexually fulfilling relationship in a marriage. One of the leaders in our youth movement, CARP, said that she found that the older teenage boys with the strongest addictions to pornography started looking at pornography when they were 8 and nine years old.

Of course, at that age boys don’t have strong sexual feelings. But as they get older, hormones kick in, and if they masturbate looking at pictures, that delicious feeling becomes powerfully imprinted in their minds. Hormones bond them to that first sexual experience. They “fall in love” with sex.

They need to repeat the same kind of experience in order to feel sexually satisfied. This makes it really difficult to be sexually fulfilled with a wife. Several of the marriages of our Second Generation (children born into the movement through parents matched by Rev. Moon) have ended in divorce because the husband was addicted to pornography.

God intended for your first delicious sexual experience to be with your eternal spouse. Then you fall in love with the person who made you feel so wonderful. You won’t fall in love with “sex”, but with your spouse. Some kids think that if they don’t “go all the way” there won’t be any problem. But making out stirs up those same bonding hormones. And again, we fall in love with sex. This is why dating is not allowed in (the Unification Church) Absolute Sexual Morality.


God wants us to have tremendous joy in our love relationship with our spouse. The Absolute Sexual Morality is not a curse from God where he tells us “Don’t do this” or “Don’t do that.” Based on the way we are designed, Absolute Sexual Morality is actually a gift from Heavenly Father.

Practicing Absolute Sexual Morality can help us establish wonderful lasting marriages. So, please protect not only your body but your heart.

The sermon title today is “Don’t Doubt in the Dark, what God has spoken to you in the Light.” God speaks to us in many ways. He can speak to us through our feelings as he did with Steve. Or He can give us intuitions to go stand in a particular spot in a ballroom. Or He can give us powerful insights that help guide our lives. Some people hear God speak with an almost audible voice. God also speaks to us through other people.

God can speak through the most unlikely people. One time I was leading a fundraising team in Connecticut, and I couldn’t decide on the next area to go to. We were in a little town, and I pulled the van off the road and searched the map for our next area. I couldn’t decide and was becoming paralyzed by indecision.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of some movement outside my window. There was a drunk looking in at me. He had dirt and leaves in his hair, a scraggly beard, and his head wobbled around unsteadily.

His eyes were not focused. Carefully, I cracked my window to see what he wanted. I was shocked by what this drunk said to me. He slurred, “Just make a decision.”

Has God ever yelled at you through a drunk?

I hope that God will speak to you today. In the Bible, it is recorded that God spoke to a prophet through a donkey. Hopefully, He can use me to speak to you today. Two weeks ago, our second son, Daniel, called home from Australia. He is on the Oceania Leadership Team (OLT). He was calling to say he was flying to Fiji the next day. He would be leading a team for the next forty days. In a couple of emails he mentioned that he was having experiences with the heart of God. So, I asked him how God had spoken to him.

He shared how he was the team assistant for the past forty days. The team was fundraising, but his teammates were bad about getting out of the van to go fundraising. They would reach their drop off point, and spend a lot of time getting out. Daniel was trying to get them ready before reaching the drop off point. One day he thought he had everyone ready, but they were worse than ever. He got so angry with the team. He felt they were not concerned about the team, but were focused only on themselves.

Later that day, Daniel had a showdown prayer with God. Daniel realized that his being upset toward his team was a tiny taste of how God might feel towards His rebellious children. But more profoundly, Daniel realized that he himself had caused God to suffer, when Daniel was more focused on himself and his own schedule. Daniel repented deeply with tears. And in his tears he even found a more parental attitude toward his teammates.

Our movement (Unification Movement) has a number valuable programs for our young people. Programs like STF, OLT, and Jr. STF give our sons and daughters opportunities to put the Divine Principle into action. We are not called to just believe, but we are to mature our character. And that takes time, making good choices and practice.

I am really grateful to the OLT experience my son is having. We talked for nearly two hours. At the end of that Daniel told me how much he enjoyed talking with me. In the past, our conversations were rarely longer than a few minutes. Parents will understand what a joy it is to have a longer conversation with your child. I hope all of our youth can participate in programs like OLT and STF.

And parents, it is not enough to just come to church on Sunday. All of us need to mature our character. Spiritual maturity is not automatic. It takes intention, making good choices, and practice.

Our Bible reading today (above in Galatians) lists the qualities of spiritual maturity and good character. If we are in God’s Spirit we are to be loving, joyful, kind, patient, peaceful, self-controlled, and faithful. So, how does God produce these fruits of the Spirit in us?

If you want to be a loving person, do you think God will just “abracadabra” make you a loving person? No way? If God is trying to make you a loving person, do you think He will put people around you who are easy to love? No way? It doesn’t require much maturity to love people who are easy to get along with. To help you grow, God will put you in the exact opposite circumstance, where you have to make a choice, and practice loving. Then your character will mature.

Heavenly Father has each of us on a character education course. And this explains one aspect of the “Dark” mentioned in the title of our sermon. If God is maturing the quality of peacefulness in you, you might be thrown into the darkness of chaos. Or if God is maturing the quality of joyfulness in you, you might find yourself in the darkness of sorrow.

The key to growth is making the right choices. God gives us opportunities to mature our character. We can respond in fear and run away, or we can take a risk, and gain the victory. After winning smaller victories, God gives us opportunities for larger and larger victories.

King David didn’t just go out one day and slay Goliath. God gave him opportunities while tending sheep. David could have been afraid and run away, but he took the risk, and was victorious. Based on this small victory, God sent a lion to threaten the flock.

David could have been afraid and run away. But he took the risk, and got a bigger victory. Then God sent a bear to threaten the flock. David could have been afraid and run away. But again, he took the risk, and got an even bigger victory. Based on this training, God prepared David to face the giant Goliath. And in the end, David was ready to tend not only sheep, but all the Hebrew tribes.

I am sure that David had some failures. He probably lost some sheep. But he did not focus on his failures. He kept his victories foremost in his mind.

Have you ever bought a car and then the next day notice how many other cars have the same color as yours? The number of cars with the color of yours did not change overnight. But your mind was attuned to the new color, and began seeing more cars of the same color.

Your mind is a powerful tool. We tend to find what we are looking for.

When I was on MFT, I had a great time. Of course I faced rejection and physically it was hard work. But I focused on the joy I experienced with the last sale. That was what kept me going, and of course, the next sale always came.

One brother in our district came to me and said he was having trouble finding a job. He mentioned that the economy was tanking out, and he was being rejected everywhere he went. He was worried that he would be rejected again. He knew that with that attitude, he probably would be.

As we spoke, I was reminded of a story I heard about True Father (Reverend Moon) and one of the church businesses in Korea. The manager wanted to fire one of the older employees. But Father said the employee could not be fired. The manager said the old man was not producing and paying him was a waste of money. Then True Father explained that the old man was bringing God’s blessing to the company.

And this brings us to our conclusion. As God’s sons and daughters, YOU are bringing God’s blessing to your tribe, to your neighbors, and to your workplace. Have confidence that God wants to bring his Blessing to others through you. Build confidence by remembering your victories, and finally never forget, “Don’t Doubt in the Dark, What God Has Spoken to /you in the Light."

Return For Tomorrow's Post:  God Needs Liberation, Too



Don’t Doubt in the Dark, What God has Spoken to You in the Light

Tom Cutts

How to Witness to Others About God's Love

"Therefore, please live in love, serve in love, and set the tradition of love. Then you will leave behind the fruit of love and become the ancestor of love. Once you have planted this tradition and disseminated this love throughout the world, when you are lifted up to the spirit world, you will encounter no barriers and will be welcomed everywhere."

This section of the speech will have little meaning if one does not first understand that we are not living in the original world which God planned. Secondly, when one lives in spirit world, they may find they can not move around barriers based upon how we lived life on earth.  For instance, even though a person holds a high position in society or certain wealth, if their conscience was corrupted, once they enter the spirit world, the person themselves decides where they reside in spirit world. 

A corrupted being may find themselves in heaven, but will feel immense discomfort from their sins constantly being revealed.  Here on earth, wrongdoings can be covered and explained, but once we pass over, nothing is hidden - not even thought.  A corrupted mind will reside in a lower realm where there are entities similar to their sins.  So in that case, the tale of Dante's Inferno is quite accurate.  Therefore, it is not God who judges our spirit, but each person who places barriers around themselves and reside where their spirit is most comfortable.

Dr. Reverend Sun Myung Moon gave a speech to a roomful of his congregation at the estate in New York:


Lawful, Public Love

"We should be people of deep longings; we should enjoy every minute we spend with someone. When we care about others, we have no dull moments. Meeting others is the proper job for people of God. That should be what our life is about, we should become experts at meeting others.

Someone who comes to meet me at East Garden for the first time may plan to stay only half an hour, but he discovers it isn't so easy to leave. I never tell anyone not to go, but people just don't want to get up and leave. This is a result of the power of love that draws people to me.

People are supposed to long for and miss one another. If love depended on appearances, an ugly person would have a burdensome life. Therefore, God, who is the king of wisdom and justice, designed us to be lovers. When you are in love, nothing matters; ugliness is no concern; you can accept everything.

However, there is one important principle in matters of love. It should be a lawful, public love; that means unselfish love. True love is definitely public love. Through true love you can gain everything, even the spirit world. Since you cannot go alone to the spirit world, you need to go with your beloved. Therefore, a truly loving person can open up the spirit world.

Those of you who are engaged, raise your hands. Your engagement is unique. Many of you were engaged to a stranger. But even so, when you first looked at that stranger, you didn't hate him or her, did you? After looking at the stranger, you didn't want to go anywhere else. That is the spirit I live by at East Garden. I cherish everyone who comes to sit with me, considering each as my beloved."


The Secret of Home Church

When you meet people who you witness in your town which is called your home church, cherish them, too. Then no one will have to tell you to go and do home church. In the morning you will jump out of bed like a bullet and run to your home church because your beloved awaits you.

Perhaps you are supposed to go to the dining room in the morning, but your feet take you to your home church instead. When your beloved is waiting, you forget eating, sleeping, and everything else. Don't you like it when your feet head in the direction of your beloved? That is the way your original mind directs you.

Rev. Moon continues:

"This morning I am giving you another secret: how to do home church. When you consider the people in your home church as your beloved, cherishing them above your own fiancee, spouse, or children, you cannot help going there. And while you are with them, the spirit world will open up and communicate with you. This is the secret of doing home church.

You women, when you are married and your husband rises in the morning and says he must go to home church, will you complain and say, "You don't love me anymore! Why do you go away so early in the morning?"

This morning Mother couldn't join us because she is recuperating (from the birth of Jeung Jin Nim). I know that she definitely needs a time of rest and some special care. But in my true heart, I still wanted her to be here. So I told her that even though she was not capable of being here physically this morning, she would be here in heart, spiritually. The husband should try to charm his wife and win her heart, so that she will go everywhere with him and not want to be separated even momentarily. This is such a great feeling. There is nothing more valuable.

Dr. Durst is here today. As the national leader, he should long for and miss all the state leaders. He should meet with them, help them, and truly love them even if he collapses in the process. If such a love relationship is created between any national leader and the state leaders, the church in that land will boom and all of spirit world will open up.

When I came to pioneer the work in the United States in 1973, 1 knew no day or night. Every moment of the day was so precious to me. I always wanted to see one more person, visit one more center. I drove from one place to another, one meeting to the next. If you follow the same principle, your results will be greatly multiplied."

The Power of Love

"Everything is deeply interesting to me. I am a lover of the ocean because it is another of God's creations. That is why I go out to sea. When various national leaders, world leaders, Korean elders and itinerant workers come to East Garden, I keep waiting for them to ask me to take them out to sea. But so far none of them have done so!

Here is a photo of me standing beside a giant tuna I caught recently. This tuna weighs over 1,000 pounds. How could I become a champion tuna fisherman so quickly? I know how to attract tuna: I do it by love. Every minute of the day when I am on the ocean I stay alert; I never nap. When people go fishing they usually become tired.

Even the pilot of the boat sometimes sleeps, but I never lie down even for a minute on a boat. My eyes stay wide open because my interest is so intense. Even if a hundred boats are fishing for tuna, I know that no one loves the tuna more intensely than I do. Therefore, I know that the tuna will come. In Gloucester people say that I even brainwash tuna! Actually, it is not brainwashing, but love washing -- or maybe Moon washing.

During the matching (arranged marriage) the other night, 250 Japanese sisters came to the United States after a long plane ride. When they arrived at the World Mission Center, they set their bags down and came to see me with tears streaming down their faces. When I matched them, they accepted without question. All 250 were matched very quickly. The amazing thing is that, although 90 percent of them had never met me before, as soon as they saw me, tears of longing and joy burst from them. You saw it, didn't you?

Does that mean I am some kind of a magician or hypnotist? No. Something else was behind it; there is a definite reason why I affect so many people and move their hearts. It is the very thing I always talk about. The secret is to become a dynamo of love, become a lover. I look at people and even the whole world as my beloved. From the material point of view there is nothing special about me; but I am the richest person under the sun because I have that power to attract people. The secret is nothing other than love."

When we love people, we lay an important foundation.  We hear often that love hurts, or is fleeting.  This is not true, love never destroys and once enough has been built up, the blossom opens up, it only builds.

When each of you creates your own love foundation, bearing such a blossom of love, then God will become one with you. Flowers attract butterflies, and the butterflies drawn to your flower of love are none other than God and His angels. It may sound like something incredible and miraculous, but it can happen.

To make a long story short, you won't enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you love people, miss them and yearn for them. We must learn to love the unlovable. 

Reverend Moon continues:

"Before I came to America, my major study was how to love American people. I had many plans, I did much homework, and I have precisely fulfilled all my pledges. There are many things you do not know, but one thing is for sure: after you met me, you became new men and women. You have changed. What power made that happen? The power of love."

  Fund Raising Through Love

As a Unification member, we learn quickly the value of training through seemingly normal activity.  The main two are witnessing the Divine Principle and fundraising.  Fundraising has been replaced with members owning businesses , but to have those experiences are invaluable to becoming humble to the word of God, following Him in faith and learning how to love anybody.

My fundraising experiences for a duration of two years would take up many books to explain.  I went from a spoiled upper middle class rich girl to a girl in unknown cities asking people in streets and inside stores for money for the cause.  Become the position of a beggar and then you will be able to save such a person.


It was quite humbling to first of take 10 hours of my time for no outward return for my efforts, living for other people's sake.   Through these experiences, I learned to love people I used to avoid or ignore and pray for those who cursed me...eventually. 

As Americans we do not really know how selfish of a country we have become until we begin to look outside ourselves and into the eyes of our less fortunate brothers and sisters beside us.  It was through these very humbling poor situations of fundraising that I learned the to trust God more to direct my life and to love just about anyone.  I am not there yet, but compared to the person I was seven years ago before I joined, I have turned from the path of hate and death in which I was walking to life living fully being led by God.

"When you go out and work hard, you do it out of love for me. When you fund raise, for example, you think, "I really want to do my utmost for Father." That is your motivation. Then whoever gives you a donation receives the benefit of that love.

I have met some Koreans here in the United States who are well known in their community. One of them said, "Many Unification Church members have stopped me on the street or knocked at my door asking me to donate for some fund raising item, and I always do. I never refuse them." I wondered how much they were contributing, but I didn't ask. They reported their donation to me as though they had done something very important and were some kind of hero. Love is at work when people feel such an urge to help your fundraising.

"Wherever a perfect plus is found, a perfect minus appears. If you are a perfect plus, you can sit in the middle of a village doing nothing, and the villagers will come to you automatically."

I want you to understand that you are in a position to disseminate this pure love. This love will affect other people and benefit them. When you get donations, every penny is spent for the sake of mankind, for the sake of the world, and for the sake of God. How wonderful that is! Both you and the people who give will benefit. When your position is one of true love, you want to keep giving until the very end.

I would like to borrow as much money as possible in order to be able to give. For the sake of love, I want to be the most indebted person under the sun. When I live by such a philosophy, even the seemingly insurmountable obstacles can somehow be completely overcome. As I meet each large obstacle, I can jump over it.

When I make plans, the difficulties ahead seem to be overwhelming but solutions come from totally unexpected places. Spirit world moves in entirely new ways. If money is needed, money comes; if people are needed, people come; the more money we commit to a certain project, the more resources come our way. When I act, spirit world mobilizes masses of people.

Therefore, fund raising is a sacred responsibility. When you fundraise, you are giving love both ways: love for True Parents (Rev. Moon consider he and his wife as representatives of restored Adam and Eve, restored original parents without the fall) and love for people. You knock on people's doors not to gain money from them but because you love each person.

In a way, God, too, is a fundraiser. When you knock on doors, you are rejected 90 percent of the time. Likewise, when God tries to pour out His love to you, you reject Him 99 percent of the time. So when you experience rejection while fundraising, you can be in a position to comfort God. When you have tearful experiences, you move God's heart and comfort Him. Then universal love begins to blossom in your heart. The blossom of love is the most sacred and noble kind of flower.

Without question, I am a superb fundraiser. I never do things just for myself; when I see a need and set the goal for meeting that need, I fundraise very boldly. You must be bold for the sake of the nation and the world. I can tell people, 'You don't have to give me anything. Just loan me the money. You can trust me because you know my motivation is correct. Therefore, I ask that you please lend me a large amount of money, not just a small amount.'

I had one experience when I was studying in Tokyo during my younger days that illustrates this. I needed to return to Seoul, Korea, which involved a long trip by train and boat and was rather expensive. I didn't have a wallet or any money that day, but at the Tokyo train station I met a very noble-looking woman, a total stranger, and began telling her who I was, where I was going, and how much money I needed, which was quite a bit.

Then I asked if she would have enough faith in me to lend me the money. I was so sincere that the noble woman trusted me enough to lend me the money without asking for a receipt. After I completed the trip, I sent her back twice the amount of money she lent me. She was flabbergasted. She paid me a visit to return the money, saying, 'You are such a good, honest man. I do not want this much money from you. Please take it back.' 

People can sense a person of genuine character; purity and genuineness are always communicated. That is the beauty of life. Fundraising is the best way to understand this kind of realm.


Fundraising Teaches How to Love People

When I was a university student in Tokyo, I would ride the electric tram car on rainy days. When I boarded, I looked for the elderly people and stood next to them. Normally, young people wouldn't like to stand close to shabby-looking old people, but I would. I wanted to stand near them in case they needed any help. I would look at some bedraggled old man and think, 'Suppose this gentleman was my father. What would I do if my father was this wet? Could I run away and abandon him?'

It is normal to feel repelled by smelly old women or men, but when I thought of myself as their son, everything about them became attractive, and I felt very affectionate toward them. Old people have a loving heart for their children, and on such occasions I wanted to reciprocate that love. So I would talk very warmly to an old woman, even though she was a total stranger. What beauty there is in such an intimate conversation!

Sometimes I would wear dirty, ragged working clothes and a smelly jacket on the tram car. I would try to sit next to the most attractive woman on board, someone wearing eye makeup, lipstick and manicured nails.

Ten times out of ten, such women would move away. I was hoping to find someone who would ask herself, "What if this were my husband and he was working so hard for me? If he was suffering for my sake, what would I do?" Then, while these thoughts were going through her mind, we could have started speaking and she could have become the first person to hear the Principle and the first person to join the Unification Church."

Return for Tomorrow's Post: How To Gain Spiritual Help


This text came from Textbook: Restoration of True Love, Chapter 10 Before and After the Blessing