In Jin Moon
January 10, 2009
Lovin Life Ministries
Good morning, brothers and sisters. Happy God's Day, and Happy New Year!
I bring you greetings from our True Parents, who are with us in America right now. They send you their love this morning.
I just came back from Korea, where we celebrated the holiday season with our True Parents. We started the year off with a beautiful silence before the midnight prayer. Father gave a beautiful prayer and a new motto for the year. Every year Father gives us a motto for the year, but I feel like this one is truly special because he was talking about oneness with the True Parents' pure heart and celebrating that oneness throughout the year.
I was very moved throughout all the festivities and all the different Hoon Dok Haes and speeches that Father had, together with the family and all the members. On the second day we celebrated the 27th Day of Victory of Love. I realized that 27 years have passed since my blessing, since I lost my younger brother. It was a wonderful time for his wife to offer a moving tribute to her husband and for her to thank God, our Heavenly Parent, and our True Parents for the life and the responsibility that she's been given.
She, together with the rest of the family and also my older brother's wife, Yeon Ah, had a chance to read from the text. It was a wonderful celebration in memory of the brothers who have gone before my siblings and me and a beautiful time to remember them as brothers, as men, and as fathers, especially the older brother whom I have loved so much and who gave birth to the Manhattan Center and the vision that I strive to accomplish each and every day here.
I was reminded again what a great family I belong to -- not just my siblings and True Parents as my own biological parents, but such a great worldwide family, with all the members coming up and greeting us, blowing kisses for the New Year. It was wonderful and heartwarming.
Even though I could not be here with you in America, I heard that at 43rd Street you had a wonderful God's Day together with the Lovin' Life band, Reverend Grodner, and everyone else who took part in the celebration. I was very happy to hear that everybody was dancing and really celebrating life together with our Heavenly Parent. I was truly moved about that.
Here at the Manhattan Center we just celebrated the first CARP Winter Ball, with around 300 participants and different representatives from each chapter. I got a chance to meet a lot of the up-and-coming young ones in the movement. I must say that I was deeply inspired and moved, not only with the leadership of Hero Hernandez, our new CARP president, but also with his team. We celebrated and shared in the vision of what CARP needs to do this year to bring tremendous victories for our Heavenly Parent, our True Parents, and our movement.
I believe that CARP members studying at some of the finest universities in America can be ambassadors of Generation Peace, agents of change who can truly help usher in this new millennium. I am so filled with hope, and I hope that everyone who attended had a great time, experienced the power of each other, and saw in our eyes all the great things that we will accomplish in our lifetime.
This morning when I was meditating about what I would like to share with the congregation, especially in light of the fact that our True Parents' banner for this year is creating unity or oneness with True Parents' pure heart, I thought I would talk about how we can apply or understand True Parents' pure heart in our daily lives.
We are so blessed to have the Lord of the Second Advent, the Messiah, here together with us, in the form of our True Parents. They are a man and a woman just like you and me; they are a father and a mother, just like you and me. But they are extraordinary in that their pure heart of love is so transcendent, so eternal, and so all-encompassing that you cannot come near them without feeling like you're in the presence of people who are divine, holy, and uniquely special.
Even though I have been blessed with a life that allows me to get up close and personal with them and look upon them as my dad and my mom, every day I'm reminded that these two people are the first of their kind. For the first time in our providential history, we have the True Parents; we have a true couple. For me as a woman, seeing the female component fully realized in the representation of my mother as the perfected true Eve is something wonderful to behold.
But, truly, the incredible thing about them is that they look upon all of us as their children. They don't distinguish their love for me from their love for you. You and I are their children. Their love for us is absolute and unchanging, eternal and unique. Even when I greet my True Parents and welcome them to America, the first thing that they say to me is, "How are the brothers and sisters?" They don't ask me how I'm doing or how my children are doing. It's always, "How are the brothers and sisters in the American movement? How are they doing? Are they united with True Parents? Do they love True Parents?"
Even before I answer those questions, they can feel the love. So many times my father breaks into a smile, even before I have a chance to answer. He says, "Yes, American people, very, very interesting. But they have a really good heart." That's something so special about the American movement.
Within the context of our worldwide movement we have the Asian countries, including Korea and Japan, and here in the West we have Europeans and Americans. One of the things that my siblings and I have noticed over the years is that Koreans are very good when it comes to obedience, and Japanese are very, very good when it comes to obedience, duty, and honor. In the American movement, we have a great deal to learn from these Asian cultures about obedience, duty, and honor. But one of the things that has always moved me about the brothers and sisters here is their level of heart. You might not know all the Eastern protocol of how to approach True Parents or how to approach an elder brother or sister. But one thing I've noticed is that for those of us who truly love God and True Parents, there's an incredibly profound understanding in each and every one of our hearts that is absolutely priceless.
Even without the language, even without the external etiquette or protocol, there is this level of connection in the heart that many times is difficult to find in the East because there's so much emphasis on structure and obedience. I understand, when I think and reflect on my father's words, that the new culture must truly be the marriage of the East and the West. We need that structure or backbone, that incredible protocol that the Eastern members are so well equipped with. But our generation and our culture also need this profound sense of love as well, this profound sense of heart that many times a lot of American members have but may not know exactly how to express in proper form or context.
When I see my father and mother encouraging both the East and West to unite together to create this new heavenly culture that our children will inherit and carry forth to the world as a Generation of Peace, then I realize my father and mother's wisdom. Each culture and country has their strengths and weaknesses, and America has its strengths and weaknesses, too. As long as we keep a pure and open heart, with the courage to love and with the courage to take that first step forward, we are well on our way to building a worldwide community where we can look at our True Parents as our parents, look at our Heavenly Parent as our Heavenly Parent, and really feel that we belong to this family.
This morning I shared with you a passage from Luke 6:38. It talks about giving: You give and you give, and you get back what you give. This passage is told in the context of not judging others: Do not judge the people around you. If we want to judge, we need to judge ourselves. But what this passage is really talking about is that it's asking us to give what we deem the most precious to us. It's asking us to give the very things that we might want for ourselves.
When I read this passage, it made me think about my own relationship with my True Parents. I have the added blessing of having them as my biological parents, but sometimes over the years it's been very difficult because they're so public, and they belong to everybody. In my family, we long for that personal interaction, for that intimate conversation, for that special quality time. Many times because our True Parents are so busy and so engaged in their public mission, they've sacrificed their relationship with their children.
I know that, not just me, but my other siblings had to overcome and work through our own understanding of ourselves, our own understanding of who our True Parents are and how we should really learn to love them. But this passage reminded me that as much as I long for these things, if I give the very things that I want -- this quality time, this personal interaction, this intimate conversation with others -- then that allows me to be not just the receiver of humankind, but somebody who can initiate, somebody who can be proactive, somebody who is not going to be a victim and feel sorry for myself, but somebody who's going to take that personal misery as a catalyst to do something wonderful.
This passage reminded me to give what I really want instead of commiserating with my siblings about how much we miss our True Parents. You long so much for personal time with True Parents, so then give the very thing you want to the brothers and sisters next to you. Give the very thing you want to your congregation. Give the very thing you want to your siblings. In so doing, don't just grow as a human being but participate in this incredible power of true love, and work on this pure heart of connecting ourselves to our Heavenly Parent.
God works in mysterious ways; sometimes the most miserable situations or the most difficult obstacles in our lives can become catalysts to achieving something extraordinary or wonderful. I know for a fact that in my life, because I long for this kind of relationship so much with my parents, it really allowed me to think about what kind of a parent I wanted to be. Even though I never got the special quality time that I longed for with my parents, I realized that as a mother myself I have a great opportunity to give the very thing that I want to my children.
By giving the very thing that I want to my children, I can raise up not just one person but five human beings into the great specimens of true love that I see. Of course, they are works in progress, but it was that very longing, that memory of miserable situations that made me decide to be an engaging mom, an involved mom, and a mom who's going to be there for intimate conversations with my kids.
So instead of being ungrateful for what I did not have, what I did not have allowed me to be a giver to people, to raise them up in a way that I was never given a chance for. So instead of my being a black hole, I can be that agent of change. I can give to somebody who maybe needs receiving. Out of my difficulty, out of my misery, out of my suffering can come something beautiful, like the way an oyster creates a beautiful pearl out of irritation from a grain of sand.
If we can maintain this understanding of ourselves as eternal sons and daughters of God and understand our lives as a process or an opportunity through which we can become outstanding human beings, then just because we do not have something doesn't mean that we should be miserable, or complaining, or negative. Sometimes not having allows us to think of ways to give something to the other person and make the other great. In so doing, we become great ourselves.
I love waking up early in the morning. In New York City, it's pretty much noisy all throughout the day. Even at dawn you can hear the trucks rattle on and hear people walking up and down the street. But there's a sense of beautiful silence in that you're waiting for daybreak, for the possibilities of what you can do that day, the possibilities of exercising this ability to give, this ability to love.
I usually start my day wanting to thank our Heavenly Parent, thank our True Parents, and thank my family for working so hard each and every day. I know that the last year was truly the Year of the Ox in that we had to do a great deal of plowing and a great deal of work. Just as the ox is stubborn and persistent in its effort, last year was really a year when we had to be persistent in our faith. The fields in front of us were quite challenging and strewn with not just rocks but boulders. But we just had to keep the faith and had to keep going, and really stay united with our True Parents.
But this new year God has given us is the Year of the White Tiger. In the Eastern tradition, the tiger year is seen as something auspicious. For the newlyweds who are looking forward to creating a family of their own, a Tiger Year is considered a very good year to have children. But a White Tiger year, which comes once in 60 years, is considered the year to have a child. In the East, anybody who has walked down the aisle will be trying for a White-Tiger-Year baby.
My eldest son just recently got blessed, so the whole time he and his new bride were in Korea, their uncles and aunts had such a wonderful time calling for the fourth generation. Even my mother and father chimed in, teasing, "Oh, it's a White Tiger year. It's a White Tiger year. Did you know, it's a White Tiger year?" And then my father said, "It's good to have the fourth generation in the White Tiger year." So my poor son and his wife are still recovering from all the pressure. But I still have to tell the congregation, it is a White Tiger year!
This is supposed to be a very lucky year. The tiger symbolizes great leaps and strides in history, so great forward movement occurs in the tiger year. Things that are unusual occur in the tiger year. My father is looking at this year as the year that's going to bring a lot of great victories for True Parents. You can sense it in the air and feel the vibe if you stick your finger into the socket of universal vibrations. You can feel that this whole concept of True Parents and the Lord of the Second Coming and the Messiah here on earth, which was so difficult for a lot of our highly placed friends to accept or even to consider, is something that they're eating up. It's something they're agreeing with.
Recently my younger brother gave an interview with a BBC journalist who came to watch my younger brother's service and spent a good chunk of the day with him. When the reporter asked him, "Do you really believe that your True Parents are the Second Coming?" then Hyung Jin looked the reporter straight in the eye. And this is a very well educated journalist, a student of religion who knows his theology. But when he asked that question bluntly, my younger brother confidently and with conviction looked him in the eye and said, "Absolutely. Our True Parents are the True Parents."
This BBC journalist was so inspired. He first came to check on what the church was all about, but he ended up covering the blessing that my eldest son and Krista were participating in, the 40,000-couple blessing ceremony that took place, and he wrote a wonderful article about the blessing.
You see, this is the tell-tale sign of the times to come. In the past we weren't really quite sure under the banner of Family Federation for World Peace exactly what we were. We were so busy with interfaith work -- and that is still a priority in our movement -- but we have to be clear on who we are when we're engaged in this interfaith work, inviting all the different religions to come and work with us. When we clearly know who we are, when we clearly know that we are the eternal sons and daughters of God who want to inherit the true love of God, that we are proud Unificationists, and that we are proud to proclaim our True Parents as our True Parents, as the Messiah come again, as the Lord of the Second Advent, then people's feelings toward and understanding of our movement will change.
This was a very critical journalist who came for a story on my younger brother. He was transformed because he experienced the conviction, confidence, and certainty of who our True Parents are in my younger brother's voice, eyes, and heart. That is what is going to move people. In that pure-heart moment when we are alone together with our Heavenly Parent in beautiful silence, in times like that when we can confidently say, "I am who I am, and I am proud to be who I am; and I'm proud to be the son or daughter of our Heavenly Parent and our True Parents," then we will exude our faith, exude our belief, and exude our conviction. That is what is going to change the world. I've seen it time and time again in my own work here at HSA and at the Manhattan Center. The more confidence, the more pride, and the more conviction that we have in our hearts, the more the people will come to know the breaking news that our True Parents are here.
Father has expressed to the family again the importance of the last three years before 2013, so we have a lot of work to do. My younger brother is continually working hard in Korea, and other members of the family are continually working hard. If we can start this new year proudly knowing that we are proud Unificationists, that we are proud sons and daughters of our True Parents and we have nothing to hide, then I feel like we have a message to share with the world. If True Parents are who they are, if they are the true olive branch through which humanity can graft onto the true life, lineage, and love of God, then this is an incredible opportunity for everyone to partake in international blessing ceremonies and unite the world as one family under God.
We should not keep this blessing just for ourselves but share the breaking news with our friends, with our relatives, with our colleagues, so that they also can be blessed in their lives by allowing God to call their home his home or her home. Isn't that what we want at the end of the day? Don't we want a family where we can invite God in and say, "This is your home; please come and rest in your home?" If we are truly his children, isn't that our greatest blessing? Isn't that the best way that we can truly love God: by creating the kind of a family where God can be at peace, where God can celebrate with his children? Where God can partake of the love that is ever flowing, that is incredibly powerful, and that is empowering?
When I contemplate the poem written by Rumi called "What You Gave," I see that it is really a poem about what God gives to us. God gives to us the gift of love. He pours and pours without a flask or without a cup. His love is not contained in some form. His love is not contained in some structure. Our Heavenly Parents' love is endless, all encompassing, and all inspiring.
When we open up our hearts and realize that in the pureness of our being, there is a place where we hold a reservoir of what God is all about, and we allow God to give us new rainfall into that reservoir that we already hold within our hands, we know that we are the most blessed sons and daughters in the world. We realize when we gaze into his eyes that it's the kind of love that will forever give and not take; it's the kind of love that's always in service of the other.
Here in our movement we talk about living for the sake of others. It's the most beautiful, altruistic concept. But often I tell our brothers and sisters that living for the sake of others does not mean dying for the sake of others. What God gives us is an incredible reservoir of love that continually flows in our veins and in everything that we are. But what God is asking of us is that we should not be selfish, thinking about just me, myself, and I. He's not asking us to totally deny everything that we are because we are divine beings. We are eternal sons and daughters of God. God is not asking us to be selfish. He's not asking us to live a life of total self-denial, so much so that we cease to exist, that we die for the sake of others.
God is asking us to be empowered and emboldened by this love that he gives to us. We need to decide for ourselves that we are going to live a life of self-service or self-sacrifice, in that we choose as healthy emotional spiritual and physical beings to give without thinking about giving.
Everybody in this room just experienced the great performance of the band. Human beings are like a melody, if you will. We are born into this world alone. We will leave this world alone, even if we have somebody holding our hands or even if we have the family together with us at our last dying breath. We die alone. But in between these two events, between birth and death, we have an opportunity to do something other than be alone. We have opportunities to engage in relationships that can yield fruit, that can be profound, and that ensure eternity through our children.
Just as in a beautiful song or in beautiful music, the melody line is present in human beings. But when writing a song, you need to give the melody words, and many times the melody is made more profound by different layers of harmony. Better yet, when you add drums and bass to ground the song, and different accoutrements like viola, violin, guitar, and other instruments, you achieve an even better sound, or an experience, if you will.
I like to look at human beings like that. Each of us is like a melodic theme in a song. The people that we have a chance to touch are like the harmonies, like the different sounds the band can create. We start alone, but then we have to engage in the course of our lives in these wonderful working relationships. The spark of a wonderful melodic phrase provides the kind of spirit that allows music to truly express the universal language of love in a most profound way and move our hearts, move the pure hearts that connect to the divine.
When I think about this poem by Rumi, "What God Gave," I think that God created each of us to be like that melodic theme. All of you are so beautiful, so different, having so much potential, so much incredible power just within a simple melodic line. When we can continually go about our daily business with an open heart, with an open mind, engaging in relationships that not only highlight who we are but really showcase what our team is doing, then each and every one of us becomes that indelible song that plays on and on and brings so much joy and happiness to people all around the world.
When my father in a 1984 said in a speech, "It is in giving to others that we find the true meaning of life," he was absolutely right. Meaning comes in giving, not taking -- and in giving because you want to give, because you decide to give, because you realize that you are an eternal melody ready to be played. God is speaking to you and me in many different ways if we can just open up our hearts and let God partake of the purity that is inherent in each and every one of us.
We are divine beings, brothers and sisters. We have the ability to experience and to carry true love. By being in this world and by being in this kind of movement, and by being in a wonderful family where we have to deal with all the issues to become ideal, we have been given an opportunity by God to truly rub up against each other. In the process, we will experience something so profound that it will lead to something eternal.
That's why, as a mother, I must say that the most incredible creations that we leave behind and through which we live in forever are our children and grandchildren. How wonderful would it be if we as a community can concentrate in building incredible second, third, and hopefully fourth "white tiger" generations to come?
This year is an incredible year in which our movement will make great strides. I feel that the public image is turning. I just had a meeting with the American Clergy Leadership Conference a few days ago, and Reverend Jenkins was giving me a briefing on all the things that they've been working on. It was a meeting to set the agenda for this year, to set the vision. He noted that for so many years we've worked with many different ministers who had small congregations in lower income sections of the city, and many of them were not well known or powerful pastors. But he said in just the last year there's been a buzz in the world of the clergy. They know that something interesting is happening in our movement.
First of all, they're not accustomed to having a woman in their fold as a fellow minister. But on top of that, they realize that our movement is going through a process of our True Parents handing the baton over to their children. They sense that something exciting is going on, and they want to get involved. They want to go up to the mountain with us, brothers and sisters.
Reverend Jenkins was telling me that these ministers who would not give our movement the time of day are coming to us, wanting to work with us. He said the exciting thing about ACLC is that we not only have established pastors wanting to work with our movement, but now we have a fresh young crop of up-and-coming pastors wanting to get involved, wanting to work together with ACLC, highlighting the Goto case, highlighting the injustices that are being committed against our brothers and sisters in Japan. They are understanding our members as truly the victims here, people that the world needs to protect.
Even in that environment, the tide is changing. I believe that CARP can carry on the good work that is being done at ACLC and encourage all our sisters and brothers on campus to become social activists, highlighting this issue of deprogramming that's going on in Japan, highlighting the injustice that is being committed, and getting the students on campus excited about carrying this cause forward, just the way the apartheid issue and the civil rights movement found their flowering on college campuses. I believe this can help rebrand our movement as one that should not be persecuted. It can show the world that we are good people, wanting to choose for ourselves what we believe in and how we want to live our lives. This should be a fundamental human right that is enjoyed by every man and woman living on earth.
Brothers and sisters, this is an incredibly exciting time. There are so many other exciting things that are happening that I just don't have the time to share with all of you, but this is the banner, White Tiger year. It comes only once in 60 years, and our Heavenly Parent is giving it to us. It's our responsibility to take full advantage of it, to be courageous in our ability to love and to be confident in the convictions that we are here to do good work, that we are God's eternal sons and daughters, that we are going to change the world, and that we are going to bring in that new generation of peace to carry our message of true love forward.
So treat each hardship, each difficulty, each bit of suffering as an opportunity to give, just as the passage Luke 6:38 reminds us. No matter how difficult our situation might be, no matter how many things we do not have, that can be a catalyst to allow us to be agents of change so that we can give to others what we do not have and they may experience this power of true love in their lives through our good efforts and through our good hearts.
I feel that if we can concentrate on this unity, or the oneness with our True Parents, as they set forth the motto for this year, it's an invitation for us to concentrate on the word unity. U = all of us; ni = we need; ty = we need our True Parents. All of us need our True Parents. They are and have always been our guiding light, and they are continually guiding us into the next millennium. So have faith, take courage, and know that all of us are in good hands in our True Parents.
I pray that this Sunday you can concentrate on the word unity and the concept of oneness with our True Parents. Have a lovely week and the beginning of a fantastic white tiger year. Thank you so much.
Notes:
Luke, chapter 6
1: On a sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.
2: But some of the Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath?"
3: And Jesus answered, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:
4: how he entered the house of God, and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?"
5: And he said to them, "The Son of man is lord of the sabbath."
6: On another sabbath, when he entered the synagogue and taught, a man was there whose right hand was withered.
7: And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him.
8: But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Come and stand here." And he rose and stood there.
9: And Jesus said to them, "I ask you, is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?"
10: And he looked around on them all, and said to him, "Stretch out your hand." And he did so, and his hand was restored.
11: But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
12: In these days he went out to the mountain to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God.
13: And when it was day, he called his disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles;
14: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew,
15: and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot,
16: and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
17: And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;
18: and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.
19: And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came forth from him and healed them all.
20: And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21: "Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. "Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh.
22: "Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man!
23: Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
24: "But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.
25: "Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. "Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
26: "Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
27: "But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28: bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
29: To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.
30: Give to every one who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again.
31: And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.
32: "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
33: And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
34: And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
35: But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish.
36: Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
37: "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;
38: give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back."
39: He also told them a parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?
40: A disciple is not above his teacher, but every one when he is fully taught will be like his teacher.
41: Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
42: Or how can you say to your brother, `Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.
43: "For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit;
44: for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
45: The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
46: "Why do you call me `Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?
47: Every one who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like:
48: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep, and laid the foundation upon rock; and when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
49: But he who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation; against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great."