Aim to learn about indemnity conditions and the purpose of doing the 40-day condition
Aim
* To learn about indemnity conditions and the purpose of doing the 40-day condition
* To learn to rely upon God
Materials
* Story – The First 40-Day Condition, by Linna Rapkins
* Children’s worksheet
* Visual Aids:
– large picture of teenage girl being dropped off a bus
Lesson Outline
1. Indemnity Conditions
2. Review the previous story
3. Tell the story
4. Questions
4. Activities – worksheet, interview parents
5. Review the lesson aims
6. Prayer
1) Indemnity Conditions
Father’s purpose as the Messiah is to restore the world back to God’s original ideal. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sinned. They developed a self-centred fallen nature. Lying, cheating, disrespect, stealing and killing are all examples of this. And this has been passed on to all their descendants. To restore this, the mistakes of Adam and Eve must be reversed.
Fundamentally, they disobeyed God’s word and they surrendered to God’s enemy, Satan. To restore this all people must obey God’s word and voluntary surrender to His representative, the Messiah.
God cannot just forgive fallen people. He gave us a portion of responsibility. People must first of all repent for their sins and demonstrate a sincere desire to return to God by obeying God’s word. They must reverse the pattern of disobedience, by making indemnity conditions. Indemnity means to do something to restore a loss, an injury or mistake.
Examples:
1. Two friends are angry towards each other and have a fight, and lose their friendship. To restore their friendship, they have to make the condition of apologizing to each other.
2. If you injure your leg while doing sport, to restore your leg back to normal you need make a condition to receive medical care and rest, for the injury to be healed.
3. If your tests results in school go down, because you become lazy, to restore this you have to make a condition to work hard in order to improve your results.
Fallen people have to make indemnity conditions to get rid of their fallen nature, separate from Satan’s influence and restore their relationship to God. But this will not happen automatically, Throughout history God has chosen certain people who were willing to make indemnity conditions on behalf of the fallen world. The person with the biggest and most important responsibility is the Messiah. First the Messiah has to do this and then the chosen people who follow him. These conditions open the way for all people to return to God.
2) Review the previous story (Prison Again).
The persecution got worse. Newspapers spread many rumours and parents wanted Father to be sent to court. He was arrested with six other members and sent to prison for 2 years.
They were found guilty of evading the army, brainwashing and of being with women! But after 3 months they were found totally innocent and released from prison.
* Even though Father was found innocent, news of his release was printed in a small article on the inside pages, not a big headline This was unjust, but Father didn’t dwell upon it. He was thinking how to continue with his mission and spread the message to many more people.
3) Tell the story (The First 40-Day Condition-part 1)
Father asked the members in Seoul to go to the countryside for 40 days to teach the Divine Principle. He told them that they must serve korean people and share their suffering. This meant leaving their families and jobs for a long time. A bus was rented and each member was dropped off in a different village. The last member to be dropped off was a teenage girl . She tried to help in the village, but the people ignored her. On the first night she had to sleep outside alone.
Sanne Far bad medlemmarna i Seoul att åka till lansbygden under 40 dagar för att undervisa i de Gudomliga Principerna. Han sade åt dem att de måste tjäna det koreanska folket och dela deras lidande. Detta betydde att de måste lämna sina familjer och arbeten under en lång tid. Man hyrde en buss och varje medlem blev avlämnad i varsin by.Den sista medlemmen som blev avlämnad var en tonårsflicka. Hon försökte hjälpa till med olika saker i byn men människorna ignorerade henne. Den första natten fick hon sova ensam utomhus
Key points of the story
1. Father asked members to do a 40 day condition in the countryside for three reasons:
a) teach the Divine Principle, b) serve the people, c) suffer with them
3. This was a big challenge. They had to leave their jobs and families and would be all alone in a strange new place.
4. A bus took each person to a different place.
5. The last person, a teenage girl, was dropped off in an isolated farming village. She brought clothes, a few won (Korean money), her Bible and Divine Principle notes.
7. She asked if she could help in some way. Nobody wanted he help, nobody offered a place to stay
8. She slept outside on the first night, with only God to rely upon
4) Questions
* Which people in the Bible did 40 day conditions?
* Moses fasted for 40 days before receiving the 10 commandments
* Moses sent spies into Canaan for 40 days.
* Jesus fasted 40 days before beginning his mission
* What is the meaning of the number 40?
40 symbolizes separation from Satan.
* What three things did Father ask members to do during the 40-day condition?
Teach the Divine Principle, serve the people and suffer with them
* Why did Father ask these three things?
Divine Principle – To spread God’s word
Serve – This expresses God’s love towards people. God’s love opens people’s hearts and minds
Suffer with them – To understand people’s situation, and feel God’s love for them
* What would be difficult for them ?
They had to leave their jobs and families and be all alone in a strange new place.
* What things did the girl bring with her?
Clothes, a few won, her Bible and Divine Principle notes
* How did she feel when she arrived?
lonely, afraid
* What did she do to cope with her lonely situation?
She prayed, She had to rely upon God.
* What did she try to do first?
She asked if there was a place she could stay and is she could help in any way
* How did people react?
They were suspicious and unhelpful.
* How would you survive in such a situation?
* When people are in a difficult situation they turn to God more, because there is no one else to turn to. The 40-day condition put the members in a situation to develop their faith and rely upon God. The only thing the girl could do was pray and ask God to help her. But what can we do to rely more upon God in our daily life? When we have everything we need and are comfortable, it is easy to forget about God. One way is to make prayer conditions . When we pray we invite God to be with us each day.
Some examples of prayer conditions:
“For 3 days I’m going to pray about all the things I can thank God for.”
“ For 7 days I’m going to ask God how I can love each person in my family.”
“ For 21 days I’m going to pray for True Parents and their children, to understand them better.”
5) Activities
* Complete the worksheet – Predict what might happen next in the story and write about it.
* Interview parents Ask if they have done a 40 day condition in a new place like the girl in the story. Write it down and report back to the class in the next lesson.
6) Review the lesson aims
* To learn about indemnity conditions
Indemnity conditions are done to restore some loss, injury or mistake. Fallen people must do conditions to restore our relationship with God.
* To understand the purpose of doing this 40-day condition
Teach the Divine Principle, serve the people and suffer with them
* To learn to rely upon God
By making prayer conditions we invite God into our lives more
7) End with a prayer
