Morning Devotion Reflection
Title: The Way to Revive Yourself
July 21, 2020 By Rafael E. Ablong
Thank you, Dr. Yong for reminding me about the importance of attitude. Yes, it is true. Even though the content is principle and right, but if the attitude is off the line, it makes little sense or none at all. Attitude can make or break the meaning of whatever we say or do. So please, forgive me for not being consistent. Anyway, I am still alive, and I can always correct myself and get back up again.
Honestly, the morning devotion messages are making me shed tears most of the time. Sometimes, I just have to close my eyes, wash my face, and take a deep breath before starting again. I feel like I have been acting "new normally" during this devotion period. I remember before stopping to write my reflections for more than a week. I was crying and crying. I decided just to sleep because my eyes cannot see the words, and my eyeglasses are always wet either with tears or moisture from the rising temperature around my eyes. That attitude of resting and reflecting is not good when I have done it differently at the beginning, in the first place.
The devotion messages of Dr. Yong are always profound, and "sanitizing" the spirit. If I were a coconut, I would feel like my husks are gradually chopped off by the sharp words of truth to get to the hard shell before scooping the meat. Sometimes, I feel like I am a dirty cup half-filled with water, just about to be thrown away and replaced with a new one or washed with a strong detergent.Today's message about "Revive Yourself Through God" is straightforward to the point and brings me back some unforgettable experiences. By experiencing the trials and difficulties in life, we can understand God's heart and situation. How do we keep the quality of our spirit all the time? How can we know God's heart? When we experience hardship and difficulties, we are undergoing the experience of God's heart. So the more we experience hardships in life, the more we understand God's heart. We cannot understand God in a happy place but miserable and stressful situations or difficulties. God intends to make us experience His hardships so we can understand His situation. We cannot revive ourselves by our effort. We can only be revived through God.
Suffering and hardships are the best opportunities for us to grow. We become strong and more capable of handling more hardships. We should not look at them as our own but as a representative of humanity who have always been longing for a touching relationship with Heavenly Parents and True Parents. We become stronger each time we overcome trials and challenges. We go wiser every time we respond to these challenges.
Understanding His situation and being with Him would promote unity and an excellent heartitistic relationship between parents and children.
We should not complain when we are placed in the position of suffering. However, we need to be grateful and thankful for them because they help us to become mature, strong and resilient to future challenges in life. It is like the "development through our responses to challenges in life" as suggested by the British historian, Arnold Toynbee.
Father's ministry started in the bottomline of human hardships and miserable situations. It was God who put Father in the Hungnam prison for the sake of God's providence. As a parent, God sometimes puts His precious children to experience hardships so they will get to understand God's heart.
We need to treat our hardships and suffering as good learning experiences. They bring us opportunities to understand God's heart better. Anyone who complains to God for these hardships and suffering are ignorant of God's Will and situation. Moreover, they lose the chance to grow in heart and closer to God, our Heavenly Parent. If we do not feel and understand God's heart, we cannot revive ourselves. The Hungnam prison experience is the worst one ever for True Father. God placed the True Father there so he could experience God's painful and sorrowful heart. The terrible situation battered him. God brought Father there and released him the day he was about to be executed to death.
The fall of Adam and Eve brought God to His sad state. Without experiencing His sorrowful situation, we will never know His heart and painful condition. Father cannot stop his tears from falling as he realized God's agony for many years. Complaining about our troubles and misfortune is a sign of ignorance and irresponsibility. When he allows us to undergo hardship, God's intention is to make us learn and grow from it. Through encountering trials and challenges, we become mature and united with God's emotion and will.
How painful must God feel before we can even notice his bleeding heart for man? Can we imagine when Father was in Hungnam prison? It was the lowest position he could go but still, he witnessed and gained disciples. He looked beyond his circumstances and determined to decimate all Satanic obstructions by starting a new ministry to liberate God and humankind.
Father had to stay in that subhuman condition at the Hungnam prison camp armed with a clear vision to overcome everything. The only weapon he had was a longing heart for God and a loving heart for humankind. So many trials came to Father in Hungnam prison, and although God was there, He could not intervene and overcome those trials and difficulties for Father.
Without understanding God's heart , we will never understand Him as our eternal parent and cannot even prepare ourselves to teach our young generation.
Those of us who have stayed long in Japan must have felt so much hardship and suffering in this country, especially during the early years. For me or for some of us who have worked day and night to provide for our family and achieve our church's financial goals, life was hard but filled with internal and eternal rewards.
How much more for our Japanese wives? It must have been doubly difficult and challenging for them since they were raised in this country of Spartan discipline, financial challenges, and strict traditions. They have kept their sanity and composure despite the family, social and traditional pressures, and our public mission. I respect the Japanese wives for their stability under pressure, sanity over some insane necessities in life, and their faith in God and True Parents. I truly appreciate them for being victorious over countless hardships and immeasurable stress brought by circumstances, including the husbands' difficulties. It was rewarding because even if we gave a part of our hard-earned money from a difficult situation, we felt so touched and elated by the turn of events after that. Modesty aside, it is my or our happiness to give something because some of us experienced how it is to have nothing.
When Father thinks about being in prison, he thinks of God's heart. Under the most miserable situation and closer to God's heart, I can be easily revived again. There is no way for us to restore ourselves without connecting to the suffering heart of God. Without God, there is no way for us to be revived. To meet God by going through the path of suffering is a guarantee of reviving our spiritual life. Thus, encountering God through difficulties is a blessing. We need to be thankful for God's active involvement in our daily life.
The secret of overcoming our trials and hardships is to look beyond our suffering. As connected beings to the original giver of life, we need to connect our pain to that of God's sorrowful and painful heart. We need to construct a connection of anything we experience based on the heartistic relationship between parents and children.
We must follow True Father's sterling example. Even in the most difficult situation, he would still offer his food, place, or things to other people. Like when he was in Hungnam prison, he would cut his normal food ration into three so that those who want more will have fewer. If our neighbors do not have food and we have a little Then, we can still give even if we have little.
To maintain our first love and motivation.
We need to go to the frontline When there is too much freedom and less responsibility to make our children relax. We even have to cry to witness other people. We need to cry out to witness other people. God's top priority is the salvation of His children. Salvation is witnessing. When we focus on salvation or witnessing, we can inherit God's heart. So without seeing, we cannot save people and we cannot feel the heart of God.We are God's sons and daughters. The salvation of God's Children also rests on our shoulders. As long as we focus on salvation and witnessing, our spirit will always be alive. If you focus on witnessing, you will meet God. If you are not seeing, you will feel dead. If you witness, you gain more life. One of the essential things in life is to gain experience out of witnessing.
What is God's top priority? It is saving His children. Saving means witnessing. Why are our blessed families having different kinds of problems? If we do not go to the frontline to do witnessing, we feel nothing. We will feel dead. Witnessing is about giving life. When we give life, we get life as well.
Thank you so much, Dr. Yong, for another day of positive and healing inspiration. Your messages actually clean us internally and externally. It gives us new hope, new life, and a lot of energy. Thank you so much again for everything.
---Raffy Ablong
Morning Devotion Reflection, July 22. 2020
Title: The Person Living a Heavenly Lifestyle
by Rafael E. Ablong
Dr. Yong's speech today is full of meaning and internal firepower. It heightened our sense of purpose and mission in life. I feel that God's spirit is using him so well due to his understanding and unity with God and True Parents' heart. He emphasized the concept of living a healthy, heavenly lifestyle and stressed the significance and praxis of total salvation. These two concepts today are so strongly connected. Resembling God's identity and integrity, and having the natural desire to witness as a result of our integral connection with the Loving God. These are highlights of his message today about "The Person Living a Heavenly Lifestyle."
How can we apply the heavenly lifestyle? It is about "living a life of faith centered on God's heart within the internal relationship of parent and child, obtaining oneness in heart and externalizing this internal aspect" from the level of the individual and the family to the world. How can I unify with the world, the nation, the people, you and me? How can I harmonize with all things? Everyone tries to unite with all these people and things around us. What is the main harmonizing point?
We need to clearly understand that we need to go back to the origin, which is the fundamental truth. If we do not know the origin of the universe, it will be hard to harmonize and unite with all existences and relationships. We need to go back to God and use our understanding of His Heart and Situation to understand and harmonize with others.
The absolute truth is that God is our Heavenly Parent, and we are His children. We need to apply this understanding and relationship when we relate with people and all things. We cannot deny this truth. When we think about this, we will get the idea that we need to witness others and not deny our relationship with God. If this vertical alignment is not clear, we will not have the energetic spirit and witnessing passion that we need to undertake the responsibility of witnessing Heavenly Parents and True Parents.We cannot have the desire and inspiration to witness when our vertical alignment is not clear. When we understand and internalize our relationship with God as our Heavenly Parent, we will have the power to externalize His words and substantially connect everyone else. We will automatically have the heart to witness people when we feel God's Heart and active presence.
When our faith and the conviction in our relationship as parent and child are not clear, our life's direction becomes unclear as well. Your heart will automatically want to witness others when our purpose, motivation, vision, and connection are clear.
We should be like the famous fruit farmer who raised his trees like his own children. He likes to see plants after he wakes up in the morning. He wants to touch them like touching his children. This story shows us that things can grow up through love. Even plants, trees, and animals grow well when we love them like our children. When the farmer treats them like his children, they feel his heartistic treatment, and they naturally show their health, beauty and goodness. This farmer does not know the Divine Principle, yet he applied the same parent-child relationship principle. He treats the individual trees with a heartistic feeling like he does for his children. That is why they grow so well, and people love the farmers' produce for them.
All things look for true love. Even the sun, moon, planets, and everything look for it. If we truly feel that God is my parent. If we genuinely sense that we are God's children, we would strongly feel that His desire is to restore all His children. If our children cannot swim and need to get off the water, how would you feel like parents? What would you do, and how do you save them? This is the same feeling of our Heavenly Parents. We cannot just look. We have to do something. Each second is urgent and important to save His drowning children. He needs to get them out of the water and restore them to the original position before they went into the water. They need to be alive. If this is how we feel for the people around us who need to be witnessed to God and True Parents, then automatically the parental heart and the urgency of the moment comes out naturally and it pushes you to witness and help God restore the other people. Thus, to experience God's heart, we need to have the concept of total salvation. If we have this concept of salvation, we can immediately connect to the heart of God.
How to relate with Heavenly Parents? How to resemble God? There are three things we need to do. One, we need to have the same concept of total salvation. Two, we need to have a personal touching experience with each member or human being. Three, we should not miss anyone. You should have a personal touch experience with everyone if you are the leader. Suppose we apply this principle in our family, center, community, nation, and the world.
To inherit God's spirit of salvation, we cannot let one person stay in hell. We need to save everyone. God is thinking of the whole world. Salvation is not just for the family, society, and nation, and the entire world starting from Korea. True Parents always have the same concept of total salvation. That is why Heavenly Parent is always with him. This is what John 3:16 says. God is giving His only begotten Son for the salvation of the whole world. How can God always focus on True Parents? It is because True Parents are always concerned for the salvation of the whole world.
So that is why, as a leader, I need to pray every morning without missing. Always pray, pray, and pray for the whole world. When we pray, we need to pray for True Parents. We need to pray for Korea, the father nation, and Japan, the mother nation. Then, I pray for the American region: Canada, Central America, USA, South America. Then, I pray for Africa region, Europe region, and finally for Asia. It is because God is concerned with the whole world. If I am the son or daughter of God, I need to be concerned about the whole world. Not just for one nation or one person. That is why we need to pray for the sake of the whole world.
If you want to have the world to pray for you. You need to pray for the world. Then the world as a whole will pray for you. For the sake of the world, I never miss to pray for each continental director. This is my secret. Since God is concerned about the whole world, I should be concerned and pray for the whole world. We have to have the same thinking. And then I came to pray for Asia, because Asia is the representative of the world. When I think of the Philippines, I pray for the Philippines.
Recently, I prayed for Thailand. Thailand is representative of the world. Thailand has 77 provinces, so I need to treat all provinces as the 77 nations of the world. So I want to be the representative of the whole world. We should not miss one province. Each province is one nation. We should have members and VIPs in all provinces. The national leader should embrace the whole nation.
The national leader has to have a concept of total salvation for the whole nation. The national leader has to pray for all provinces True Parents are talking about the nation's salvation and the world. We need to resemble their thinking. National restoration is about saving all provinces. We have to think day and night about national restoration and world restoration, too. We have to have the same resonance. Our relationships and resonance should resemble that of God in dreams, ideals, and vision. We should have the same thoughts, feelings and aspirations.
Our thinking should become our dream, and dreams should become our vision. With these thoughts, dreams, and vision, our united aspirations for humankind's total salvation will come true. Then ,we will have inspired individuals and families around us in the community who could do more to save or restore this world. We need to have the same concept of total salvation and the same kind of education about patriotism to our fellow brethren.
When I have the concept of total salvation, Heavenly Father gives money, resources, and the people I need to actualize total salvation. That is why if we have the same concept of total salvation. Then, God can give us support. God is our sponsor. God is our parent. How can He take care of His children as a parent?
We need to inherit God's way of loving and managing his children and things. It is through his personal touching experience. As a parent, God needs to have a personal touching experience with all his children. God's ministry is an individual touching of the heart. So even if you have ten children, you need to have a personal touching experience with each of them. As a leader, we have to do the same. We need to follow this kind of ministry.
Third, as a parent, we should not miss anyone. Everyone should have a personal touching experience with each member. You should not miss anyone. It is essential to have everyone have an unforgettable touching relationship with each other. This is how to take care of each member. No one should be missing. We need to inherit God's heart.
The person who lives a heavenly lifestyle could truly witness, So let us love our nation: have a personal touching experience with each other and make sure no one is missing our touch. In this way, we can give total salvation to all people in the world.
Thank you so much Dr. Yong, for this very inspiring message today. It makes us feel closer to you. It inspires us to help God, and True Parents give total salvation to all the people in the world. Having a personal touching experience and seeing to it that nobody is left behind missing our personal touch of the heart. Living a heavenly lifestyle will not just need a lot of internal effort and enthusiasm to unite and sustain our valuable relationship with God and True Parents every day. It will also need a lot of heartistic commitment to unite with God and His purpose and, above all, end His Sorrowful Heart.
---Raffy Ablong
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