PDF file: 20220204_Beginning of Spring Service_Kyoshu-sama
Congratulations, everyone, on today’s World Church of Messiah Beginning of Spring Service.
First, I would like to thank all the staff at Hotel New Otani Osaka for their tremendous understanding and cooperation as well as their consideration on numerous matters. As with last year’s Grand Autumn Service, it is due to their support that we are able to hold this service today, and for that, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to everyone at the hotel. Thank you very much.
In deep awe and fear of God, I say that God, our Heavenly Father, set out on the work of creation in order to give birth to His own children. Even now, He still carries out the work of creation that never ceases.
In heaven, God first gave birth to numerous spiritual children that were united to the name of Messiah, the child of God.
These spiritual children were children of light who shone brilliantly—they were one body with God.
We were originally these spiritual children. That is what we really are. That is, within us, there is light always.
From heaven, God started the work of creation and turned us, the spiritual children, into individuals, each possessing a sense of self. That is, He made the spiritual children into human beings who can distinguish themselves from one another.
This state of each individual having a distinct sense of self is the end of creation.
Each one of us carries with us the end of creation.
The end has to go back to the beginning.
Carrying everything that is connected with us, we need to go back to the beginning, that is, heaven.
The purpose of God’s creation is for Him to welcome each one of us who possesses a distinct sense of self into heaven, the beginning of creation, and to make us His children once more, that is, make each one of us be born anew as a child of God.
However, since we were allowed to possess a sense of self, we became arrogant and haughty. Even though eternal life, consciousness and soul belonged to God the Father, we committed the sin of taking possession of them.
We committed the grave mistake of taking possession of what actually belonged to God. As such, we became sinners in the eyes of God—existences that could never be accepted by God.
God, however, predetermined that we humanity will be His children through His unquestionable authority and unfailing love. That is why, in heaven, before starting creation, God already accomplished the work of atoning for the sins we were sure to commit and the work of forgiving, saving and welcoming us back into His heaven.
Even before we were born on earth, in heaven, we were already blessed by this boundless grace of God.
What God needed to do was to bring this grace to the earth also. He needed to prepare a path through which this grace could be shared with each one of us, through which each one of us could be atoned for and be forgiven on this earth, too, and return to heaven, our beginning.
To this end, God sent Jesus into the world—this is what I believe.
God accepted the atoning blood that Jesus offered—Jesus whom God Himself sent. Because of this, God could make us sinless and could prepare a path through which we could be born anew as God’s children.
In the name of Messiah and together with Jesus, God accomplished the work of atonement and resurrection. This is the path of forgiveness and salvation for us humanity and the path that leads to eternal life.
We must respond to the heart of God who prepared this path for us and express our gratitude to Him by saying, “O God, the sacred blood of atonement exists for me!” Let us, in this way, receive the atoning blood in all our bodily cells.
Meishu-sama was sent to earth in order to become our model. On behalf of all of us, he admitted the sins he had, believed in Jesus’s atonement and resurrection and received the atoning blood in his whole body. Meishu-sama surrendered his life, consciousness and soul to God.
And by being born anew as the Messiah, the child of God, Meishu-sama fulfilled God’s work of creation within himself.
Meishu-sama accepted the atoning blood and was born anew as the Messiah. This could only mean that the work that God and Jesus accomplished together, the work that leads to eternal life, was truth. At the same time, Meishu-sama proved, with his very own being, that this work had to be fulfilled within each one of us, within every person in humanity.
It is this Meishu-sama who, together with Jesus Christ, lives and works very energetically within each one of us. Each of us must, therefore, say to God, “O God, Meishu-sama was born anew for me! Allow me to follow in his footsteps!”
As I said earlier, at the center of our consciousness exists God’s forgiveness that He initially granted us in heaven.
Not only that, through the atoning blood, God also decided to deliver us who have physical bodies from the sins we committed and grant us forgiveness on this earth, too.
Meishu-sama accepted the forgiveness of both.
Now, God, who is with Meishu-sama, is telling each one of us, “Become one who is forgiven.”
For God to say that we need to be forgiven can only mean that we have committed something that needs to be forgiven.
Meishu-sama admitted his sins, his mistakes against God, and thus became someone who is truly forgiven. We must do the same and admit our sins, our mistakes, so that God can deem us as ones who are truly forgiven.
God is the One who bore us. He is the One who raised us. He is the closest and most important existence for us. But what do we think about Him, about God?
God lives within us, maintains, nurtures and trains us always. But don’t we push God somewhere far away from us? We don’t regard Him as being one with us, do we?
If God is not alive, I cannot breathe. If God is not alive, I cannot move my body even just a little—we do not think like this, do we?
If God is not alive, I cannot see, hear, sense or even think of anything—we do not think like this, do we?
Don’t we evaluate the workings of God every time something happens in our life? Don’t we judge how strong God’s light or power is when something happens?
Instead of turning our hearts to God, don’t we offer prayers that suit our desires and needs? Don’t we selfishly assume what God might be thinking?
In his hymn, Meishu-sama wrote,
“God is the Ruler of the universe. / He forgives any kind of sin. / And He punishes every kind, too!”
Through this hymn, Meishu-sama is saying that God is the only One who possesses the authority to judge. Even so, don’t we judge others based on our own preferences, by our own standards, and selfishly decide what is good or evil, what is better or worse? Don’t we say to ourselves, “At least I am better than that person,” justifying our superiority over others? Or don’t we sometimes satisfy ourselves by intentionally putting ourselves down when comparing ourselves to others?
Even though God governs us as King, haven’t we become like kings?
We should not regard all these matters simply as general teachings. Rather, each one of us must cast all these questions to ourselves first and not to others.
Yes, it is true that we cannot see God or hear His voice. But isn’t that precisely the reason why we disrespected God and became arrogant, why we became rude to God and committed terrible mistakes against Him? We need to at least admit this.
But do not forget. Even when I say “admit,” God is not one who is fooled by smooth talk or lip service. For God knows our deepest and innermost thoughts and feelings.
It is this God who is saying to us that He is not going to abandon us but instead, judge us. He is patiently waiting for our return to His home.
In his hymn, Meishu-sama wrote,
“You, O God, love / Those who are honest / And grant abounding blessings to them!”
What is the point of hiding anything from God? With courage and with the feeling of committing everything into the hand of God, let us open up our hearts and honestly declare, by our own initiative, our mistakes to God.
But beware: the one who judges whether we are being honest or not is not any of us. It is God.
If God can deem us as honest, I am certain that God will tell us, “I have forgiven your sins,” gladly welcome us into His heaven and give us His permission to call Him “Father.”
Oh, how joyful this would be! If this is not salvation, what is?
God is now working so hard for us, for us to be able to come in contact with this joy, even just a little.
Today, the grace of God already envelops the whole of the earth, and everyone and everything is completely filled with His light and power.
We are already welcomed into a new and resurrected world where God reigns as the Lord.
That is why we are able to declare an end to our way of living until today.
Let each one of us return to heaven as one who is atoned for and purified through receiving the forgiveness of God. And, as members of the Church united to the name of Messiah, let us serve in the work of creating a new future through our sonen and breath—the work that the Lord God advances.
Even when I say “each one of us,” all creation and everything that humanity has committed and done exists within “each one of us.”
This means that even if only one person is able to respond to the will of God, the power of salvation that this one person could bring to the entire human race is enormous.
With this conviction and hope, I, together with all of you, would like to boldly advance toward June 15, toward the upcoming Grand Ceremony to Celebrate the Birth of the Messiah.
To God who allows us to serve Him in this way, I attribute all glory through the name of Messiah.
Thank you.
