Sermon: Leaving a Legacy in Our Lives

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Rev. Hyung Jin Nim’s Sermon, HQ Church, Cheongpadong, Seoul, March 29, 2008

In our lives, it is so key (so important) that we’re able to focus on purpose, and, on joy, and, on our strengths. These three things in combination are so essential to do.

Hyung Jin Nim’s Welcome Message:

Brothers and sisters, I would like to share with you from the Cheon Seong Gyeong?page 1294. Father says here, “The family is the point where God’s ideal can be manifested on earth, and where the happiness of humanity can be manifested on earth. It is the place where the work of humankind is finished and God’s work is completed.”

In our family we just experienced the ascension of our eldest brother Hyo Jin Hyung just a couple of days ago, as you all know. Really, we are so thankful for all the brothers and sisters around the world who are sending in their condolences and their support. We’re really so appreciative. We’re really getting so much strength from all our brothers and sisters out there, and I really feel that this was the case when he passed, and really, it’s part of his legacy that, I believe, he wants to leave with us on this earth.

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;

Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Lord, unto me.

working with Japanese Won Jeon, hardship waiting ahead to overcome

Can an outside task match to our ritual work?

I assumed the role of a local assemblyman just one year ago while retaining my duty as a man in charge of the Japanese Won Jeon (Ozereien) and Seung Hwa-related series of ritual.

It works.

But as a politician, I cannot escape from being criticized if any more than ever before as a guardian of the UC properties such as Oze Memorial Park and (its affiliated) Oze Training Centre in the village of Katashina (pop. about 5,500) 180 km north of Tokyo.

Born in this village 56 years ago and grown up before I moved from here to Tokyo to enter a university in 1970, this village is thus familiar to me though I was long absent due to my overseas and outside missions in between.

The reason I made a determined homecoming (環故郷) 11 years ago was because of my father's discovery of a lung cancer harming his body and thus life seriously. My father is my spiritual father, who joined the church when I was 9 years old with Dr. Osami Kuboki. (1st and longtime head of UC-Japan), as his spiritual father.

Upon the UC decision, I took over the role of a department head in the HQ's General Affairs Bureau left behind by my father, a former head of general affairs dept. around the year 1970.

Located in the best farming area and thus uncomfortable of seeing it grow by some nearby farmers, the Japanese Won Jeon's expansion is uneasy.

Now as an administrator of the leading Japanese Won Jeon, I am a sort of man at a front-line of criticism against and sympathy toward the cemetery from outsiders and insiders in the movement. Entering the political life though it is a part-time job made me no place to hide but forced to stand tall.

How to make the locality happier by accepting Wong Jeon in the midst of their best lands is my (our) immediate concern now. Effective PR activities are needed. Rev. Katsumi Otsuka, our national pastor, gives best of his advise for me and those who are related to the cemetery doth directly or indirectly.

Hope True Family members would come see the 27-year-old Oze Memorial Park and bless it for further expansion toward the ever-growing heavenly cause.

Thank you very much.

hiro tomaru