The Kingdom of Heaven is the World of Love and Heart, June 5, 2020

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

Video Message: “The Kingdom of Heaven is the World of Love and Heart”

June 5, 2020 by Rafael E. Ablong

The topic of Dr. Yong’s message today is “The Kingdom of Heaven is the World of Love and Heart”. It expounds in detail the synopsis of love as described in the Bible, particularly in the 1st Book of Corinthians, Chapter 13. The highlights are:

1. After the Fall of Adam and Eve, many people want to become ascetics. Every religion has these kinds of people. We have Christian monks, Buddhist monks, Hindu monks, and more from other religions. Religious people receive inspirations  They put so many Jeong Seong conditions. Some of them get to a higher level of spiritual awareness and enlightenment. Thinking that they are the Lord,  most of them lose their humility, become arrogant, and fail on the way. They need to understand that the spirit world is encouraging them to be the Lord. However, they understand revelations according to their way. So when we reach that spiritual level, we need to become humble.

2. Demonstrating your ability is not the path of love. The path of love starts with doing disliked work (dirty work). The Bible said,  If you want to become the first, you must be a slave of the rest. If you become the higher of higher, you must become the servant of servants. If you put yourself over others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be praised and raised higher. Because the last shall be first and the first shall be the last. John the Baptist failed because he became humanistic after he testified to Jesus as the Lord. But when the Holy Spirit left him he became humanistic and he wavered his faith.

3. Love should be centered on the heart. We have to unconditionally invest, sacrifice, and love everyone. This is the nature of true love. The body should be a slave to the mind. Children should love and appreciate the parents, and as model parents to our children, we need to hate sin, repent, and live for others. 

4. The leader should get physically involved with the members. He should visit the members and appreciate their efforts. In the parents' position, the leader should have a parental heart. I Cor. 13: 1-13 emphasized this point about love.  Even if we speak in tongues, make external miracles, make the mountains move from here to there, and speak to angels but if we don’t have love and we don’t live for others, we are nothing. We are just noisy or clanging cymbal. We are nothing unless we become humble, love, and serve God and His children.

5. True Father was surprised to see a lot of martyrs in Hell. They are supposed to be in paradise but why are they in hell? It is because they believed that if they die that way they would go to Heaven. Their motivation was not for God or Jesus. Their motivation was only self-centered, to go to the Kingdom of Heaven. Any motivation that is directed to yourself will bring you to hell. But, if your motivation is truly for others you will go to Heaven. We are nothing if we don’t live for others. You are nothing if you don’t love others and your motivation is only for yourself.

 6. The Kingdom of Heaven is a world of love. It is a very pure place. It does not allow motivation for the self. It is always for others. That is why when you give and you think about it coming from you or for your own sake, it is the self-centered motivation of giving. When you truly give and truly forget then Heaven will remember you. But if you give and remember, Heaven will forget you. Doing something to be recognized is not a good motivation because the Kingdom of Heaven is pure. We should be like pure gold or pure diamond. That is why the life of faith is a life of self-denial and true offering. Offering means you forget yourself. If you do anything for your own sake, it cannot be recognized in Heaven. 

7. We became full-time members for the sake of the world, for the sake of others. Why do some people leave the church on the way? It is because they think more of the self than others. Thinking about ourselves cannot help us survive. I remember True Father in his autobiography book, he would give half or even more of his food ration to other prisoners. While other prisoners craved for more food, True Father determined to get full by eating half of his food. Yet, he survived more than the others. He was even proclaimed as the no. 1 prisoner in Hungnam at that time.

8. The Bible also says, “ Love is kind, love is patient. Love isn’t selfish or quick-tempered.” It doesn’t record the wrongs other people have done to you. After the Fall, however, human beings cannot be purely kind or patient. We cannot be purely selfless or cannot completely keep our good composure and temperament constantly. We can be so only up to a certain level or degree. However, when we experience God’s heart, we are always kind. We can be patient even with any kind of persecution. True love is always respectful. It is never boastful, never rude, and never about yourself. Without any experience of God’s heart, we cannot do these Biblical attitudes, naturally.  

9. Love is supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting. That is why even if we are weak if there is love and trust, we become strong and successful. Knowledge becomes nothing in the face of love. Anything material or immaterial is nothing compared to love. With love everything is possible. Of these three: faith, hope, and love. The greatest is love. Only love and heart will remain forever. As co-creators of God, love can create a living and non-living things. Faith is there to experience love. What is the result of hope? It makes us hopeful and work hard.

 As co-creators of God, love can create a living and non-living things. Faith is there to experience love. What is the result of hope? It makes us hopeful and work hard.

Finally, for whose sake did the Unification Movement walk the 3-year and 4-year courses, where we could not eat properly, where even our families, friends, and relatives persecute us; where we underwent so many hardships and torments? It was for the sake of Heaven, fore angelic world ad thousands of saints and ancestors, and the sake of our descendants.   We are all offerings. An offering must have no sense of self-possession. We do not move for our purpose and benefit. We don’t pursue our personal goals but the goals of the public. 

God and the good spirit world protect us physically and spiritually when we truly do God’s Will. It was easy for all of us, leaders or members, to do anything in the early days of the Philippine movement. We did our public mission with the sole intent to fulfill God’s Will and build the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Some of us, including myself, did not even expect to be blessed until we saw our elder members get the blessing or when they talked about it. Most of our early members were so strong yet we did not know what was going on in their hearts. Eventually, some of them left the church. Even my original spiritual mother left the church, her spiritual father also left the church and I was taken care of by elder brothers and sisters who were so genuinely involved with my spiritual growth. I think I survived because my faith was with God and True Parents and not just with those who cared for me. I always look beyond visible reality and prayed especially when I was alone. Like some of our brothers and sisters, I have met life-threatening situations that convinced me only God was responsible for my life. I was held at gunpoint  (armalite) while fundraising in Jolo in 1984, because the people there thought I was a rebel. A .45 Caliber pistol was pointed at me by an angry man at the car park of Ali Mall in 1985, he was a little distracted when he pointed his gun to me and I was able to run away. An NPA rebel pointed a gun to me thinking I was a PMA cadet on the bus I was riding with Ate Nita Elnar when we traveled to  Baguio City in 1987 for our BKKB activities there. He eventually lowered his gun and said sorry when I showed my missionary and UP ID.

Dr. Yong is right. As offerings, we should have no concept of self-possession. We should be pure like gold or diamond. We do not lose our luster or quality even when we are thrown into dirty or muddy places. This concept of love and offering made all of us fundraise, food raise, and sacrificed our time for others. Faith made us experience love and hope gave us a vision for a future with Heavenly Parents and True Parents.

Let us not lose the value that we have received from God and True Parents through the blessing. Moreover, we need to work hard with our blessed families to fulfill our internal goals and external activities for the sake of God and His Kingdom on Earth and in Heaven. Only love and heart will keep us together. Only love will keep our passions high and our attitude good enough to keep on loving with greater respect, humility, and service for God and humanity.

Thanks, Dr. Yong, for this inspiration today. I think that other than salvation, the new testament Bible is centered on the Parenthood of God to mankind and the centrality of love for the restoration of His children. 

Thank you so much, again. 

--Rafael E. Ablong