Life of Faith Begins from Self-Denial, May 28, 2029

Reflection of Dr. C. S. Yong's Morning Devotion

Message: Life of Faith Begins from Self-Denial

May 28, 2020 by Rafael E. Ablong

Thank you so much, Dr. Yong, for another day of love and learning from you. I met your spiritual father, Rev Yo Han Lee, for the first time at the Philippine Headquarters in 1988 or 1989. I was one of the first participants of his Faith and Life Seminar with brothers and sisters. The second time I met him was at the Takamiya Kyokai here in Fukuoka City several years ago. When I introduced myself to him, he quickly said. Why are you here? When are you going back? I was surprised and had nothing to say clearly. I just said I came to be with my wife and family. I don't know exactly if he remembered me exactly when he asked me. I just felt his love and thought that maybe he said it because he remembered me as one of the participants in the Philippine Faith and Life Seminar who always tried to be active, happy, and excellent or near excellent in the tests and reflections.  I learned a lot of things from Rev. Yo  Han Lee. I still have his faith life booklet with me and I read it alternately with the other holy books of True Parents, when I am struggling or when I want to get some specific guidance about faith and life for my children. It is one of the five UC books that I brought to Japan when I migrated here in 1996 because I expected Japan to be like a desert for foreign members like me who do not know much of the language and culture of the Japanese people. Sort of my food and water in the desert.

Your morning devotion message today, Dr. Yong' is all about "Life of Faith Begins from Self Denial".  This topic reminded me that:

1. Our blood lineage is not pure. It is a "Satanic blood lineage". This means we inherited this lineage from the fornication of Adam and Eve who disobeyed God's commandment by entering into a sexual relationship centering on Satan. We are always invaded by the Satanic blood lineage. So we need to deny our five physical senses for the sake of going back to God.

2.  We have to deny ourselves 100% because we belong to Satan 100%. We need to reflect every day whether we are using our senses for God or Satan. Everything in this world after the Fall belongs to Satan. So we are always self-centered. Satan uses our mind and body for his selfishness. Our habits were formed by Satan.

3. Everything in the life of faith always starts with self-denial. God is always public-minded and always exists for others  Human beings are self-centered and hard to live for the sake of others. So we have to deny ourselves to understand God, His Situation, and His Will, completely. To deny ourselves, we have to develop the habit of giving and forgetting that we gave. This is easier said than done, however, doing it gradually every day is a sure step to turn it into a good habit.

4. Faith means everything in me belongs to God. Who made God as our Heavenly Parents? Parents exist because of their children. Without children, couples cannot grow to become parents. Nobody will call them. Mom and  Dad. Without parents, children cannot be created. Who made the parents? The children made them. Who made the children? The parents made them. That is why parents grow with their children. So who made God (Heavenly Parents)? It is we the children. Human beings made God, God made human beings. God cannot become Heavenly Parents if we are not yet heavenly children. Nobody will notice God as a real God. God cannot make himself. We can only become perfect children if we have perfect parents.

5. The purpose of my life cannot be decided by myself.  The purpose of the created being is decided by the Creator. The potter decides how to use the clay. The potter (God) decides whether to turn the clay (human beings) into a cup, a plate, a flower vase, or whatever He wants it to be. My birth, my death or my life cannot be decided by myself because I am not the creator of life.

6.Although, we receive the blessing after fulfilling the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance, receive the Messiah, and get the Blessing. We perfect our character through the family. The purpose of creation is to be fruitful, to multiply, and have dominion. Yet, we become perfect through the family because through the family we experienced the four kinds of love,  and the 4 great of realms of heart. The family embraces all kinds of relations in society, nation, and world.

7. To deny ourselves, we need to form the habit of asking. Although we know something is right we need to ask Abel and then deny ourselves when he says or decides something. We need to follow Abel without complaining. Complaining is arrogance and it is selfishness. Complaining is a poison to the spirit, a cause to the stagnation of our spiritual growth, a threat to the good growing opportunities, or a wall to prevent the blessings that may come our way.  The fall occurred because Eve did not ask God, Adam did not ask God, and Satan did not ask or report His feelings to God so He could intervene and correct the situation before it becomes a historical and painful failure. Lucifer became Satan he did not ask God, but instead, he asked Eve to fall by eating the fruit. Eve did not ask God before going to Adam so God can intervene. and prevent the second fall.

This is the reason why in Japan, to develop self-denial and God-centered obedience, we always ask our children to observe three things to also protect their life, purity, and faithful dignity by practicing HO-REN-SO or (Hokoku 報告, Renraku 連絡, Soudan 相談 ). This means that when anything happens: they need to report to parents or Abel (Hokoku 報告), contact to parents or communicate with Abel (renraku 連絡), and consult with the parents or Abel (Soudan 相談).

8. Complete oneness of heart and mind is when your thinking is my thinking,  my thinking is your thinking. Filial sons or daughters in law should develop a heartistic relationship with their parents by developing the habit of asking or reporting

9. Finding God and experiencing God's Heart starts from self-denial. We need to check our motivation, purpose, and direction of our actions. We need to ask our original mind, ask God, ask Abel, or ask your parents. We need to ask from A-Z.10.

10. Finally, we need to enter the stage of nothingness or self-lessness before God. We should be ready to obey, to humble, and love. We need to experience self-denial to have absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience.

11. We need to be united with God. Every day, we need to go beyond our current environment. We need to have some time to be alone with God and to find our true self with Him. Finding a way will vary for each one of us. Some people like to pray and communicate with God in the morning, in the evening or at any particular time or place of the day. But we need to communicate with God alone, in prayer, or meaningful meditation with Him. We need to feel God's presence in our lives every day. Celebrate that presence of God with Him and cultivate that kind of closeness by transforming our prayer into positive actions and actions into positive prayers.  In this way, we develop our abilities starting from self-denial step-by-step.

12. I sincerely feel that I am very far from being able to deny myself completely. Although, I can say that I have denied myself of some things in life just to come to Japan and be with my blessed family.  This is nothing to the self-denial that God had done and continues to do for many thousands of years, just to restore His children to His original ideal of creation. Restoration is truly a hard course but with True Parents' life course and the guidance of rev. Yo Han Lee and Dr. Yong, I think it is possible. I may not be able to deny myself completely, every time every day but at least I can say I will keep trying to my best.

Again, thank you so much Dr. Yong for your dep, meaningful, and truly life-giving message.  I listen to it as I do my workout or exercise, run or walk, in the morning or afternoon.

Thanks a lot.


--Rafael E. Ablong