God

The Gates of Heaven Cracked Open:

Posted on by jptanabe

A spiritual trip to Belvedere on waking up

Belvedere, where the four-leaf clovers grow
Where my Father spoke
Reviving the dead people
Making them whole
And holy
Dreaming of the new world
To come.
 
With the word
We were revived,
Every Sunday,
At the break of dawn
 
Words
Never heard before.
They pierced our soul
With light
And love
And truth.
 
Words never heard
So deep
The place where God came
To meet the True Parents
And us.
 
Today
After it seemed centuries of our life
Those who followed The True Father
And the True Mother
Came to Belvedere to finally crack open
The GATES OF HEAVEN
 
Those are my brothers and sisters
With their spiritual powers
And loving thoughts
Beyond this world
Pushing together the impossible dream of our life,
The Gates of Heaven cracked open.
 

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel

Peace and the Kingdom of God

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This month of April I was reading two books by the famous Christian couple, Rick and Kay Warren. My motivation is always to find out how they make their marriage work and how do they work well together.

First I read a most moving testimony by Kay Warren somewhere on Facebook. I was moved to tears because her marriage was not working and she was in the pit of hell. As you all know, Faith moves mountains. She could work her way up and be victorious. Her book is called “Choose Joy.” Her joy is rooted in gratitude: No joyful heart without a grateful heart. I had great admiration for Kay Warren, because she could practice “With God all is possible.“

Then I read “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick warren, her husband and Pastor of the Saddleback mega church in California. My take away from this inspiring book is that all research demonstrates than when people lose a sense of purpose in life, they lose the motivation to live at all, so whatever time we have we need to be purposeful. Rick Warren also says “You must begin with God your creator. You were made by God and for God and until you understand that, life will never make sense.”

Today one in four teens wants to commit suicide. In my opinion they are confused where to find their purpose and goal in life.

My husband was wondering in his early twenties why Jesus could not marry and show the way to build successful families and a peaceful world. Today as many of us show the way, God again is speaking. Who searches finds, qui cherche trouve.

Let’s go against the trend to be whoever we feel we are, with many different pronouns and genders. Let’s be simple by asserting that a family is the beginning of God’s kingdom. A peaceful family brings a peaceful world.

And as our Heavenly Parent loves us as a Father and Mother, He also gave us commandments throughout the Bible of how to live. In the Old Testament we got 10 commandments. Jesus told us to love one another and love our enemy as well. In my church we are reciting the Family Pledge, as peaceful families make a peaceful world.

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel

Love letter Excerpts for your Valentine’s Day

Posted on by jptanabe

These letters were written in 1977, where there were no cell phones or texts available. We wrote those letters by hand, stamped them and mailed them. And I kept all of them. They are treasures to our heart of a life of True Love with our Heavenly Father and each other. Only the last letter, written to Dietrich after he passed, was written on the computer after 40 years of our life together.

I truly experienced the love of God when introduce to my husband Dietrich, and looking deeply into his eyes it was like a spiritual experience, going through a tunnel all the way to Heaven and sensing God and his profound love. God was looking at me through Dietrich. It has been our deepest wish that everyone can experience true love with our Heavenly Father and each other as husband and wife. With God all is possible.

Dear Elisabeth, you are more in my thoughts than my studies. Heavenly Father performed one of his miracles to bring the two of us together. My whole outlook on life is changed since I became a married man. I send you my love, your Dietrich

Dear Dieter, there is warmth in my heart when I think Heavenly Father picked me to be your wife. I will pray more for you, with all my love, Elisabeth

Dear Elisabeth, I think of you often, and feel your pure spirit sometimes very intensely in my heart. I feel very close to you, and ask Heavenly Father to guide us strongly in building our relationship.
Let us patiently build what will last for eternity, your Dietrich

Dear Elisabeth, I want to thank our Heavenly Father and you, for this uniquely beautiful Sunday we were able to experience together. My heart is filled with indescribable joy when I think of you, and to realize that God led us together to be united for eternity is too much to be contained in my heart. I feel like overflowing and embracing the whole world. We are tasting just a little bit of God’s love. How beautiful it will be when the whole world is able to fully welcome God’s presence, and to respond to His invincible love.
The more I think of you, Elisabeth, the more I am convinced that it is only you who can be my wife. I send you all my love, Dietrich

I only want to add that true love is eternal, and we continue to grow together and love each other, from two different realms.

Here you can find my letter written to Dietrich shortly after his passing almost seven years ago.

Happy Valentine’s True Love to all my friends.

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel

A Christmas True story

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It was the end of the year 1976 in New York City. I had just come from France a few months earlier and was adapting to the American life, away from my hometown in the French Alps. and Paris where I had lived.

My job at that time was in a showroom in a French jewelry company on Fifth Avenue. That day I had an appointment with a chiropractor, but I never arrived there. In fact something happened that would change my life and destiny.

I was a bit late, and like all New Yorkers, I started rushing, in the streets. As the street light was changing from red to green, I was the first one running to cross the street. I never made it to the other side.

One car had the same idea to dash through the changing light. It hit me in the back, which projected me on to the ground and I saw the four wheels passing over me. I heard people screaming at the horrible scene. In this split second I screamed to God “Heavenly Father my life is for you.” I was surprised at this audacious sentence to my Heavenly Father.

In a dream state I felt the car was lifted over my body in order not to crush me. A band of angels were by my side; a heavenly presence surrounding me.

As I was laying on the ground, trying to figure out what had happened, the car driver came out of his car screamed at me and left.

Another young guy said he called an ambulance and one lady and other passersby stayed with me till the ambulance arrived. The lady said “I saw Jesus, and he saved your life.” These were words of love and comfort.

I did not see Jesus, but I felt a Heavenly presence, I felt the angels dispatched in New York City. That day I was giving my life for God and he gave it back to me.

Besides a serious broken arm injury and a few days at the hospital I was fine. I spent Christmas that year in a cast and was so grateful to be alive.

I always felt I had a life mission. In fact, a few months later, I met my true, forever love. It was a snowy day with snowflakes all around in the beautiful Belvedere estate in Tarrytown, where in the spring the four-leaf clovers grow. There was to be a marriage blessing, and I was there with my new husband to be.

This was my Christmas miracle. Thank you that I could share it with you.

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel

Prophetic Dreams

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When I was visiting my hometowns of La Chambre and St Jean in France, I had several prophetic dreams.

First, I dreamed that I gave birth to a child who could not breathe. It was lifeless. Then the doctor put it in my arms. He then tried to make it breathe by bending it back and forth. Still the child seemed deformed and sick. The doctor put it back in my arms. The legs and arms were falling apart like a broken doll. I was trying to fix it by putting the arms and legs together. I loved this child.

I was being helped. Monique, my spiritual daughter, was helping me to take care of this child, and then other people as well.

At the beginning of the dream there was a scene with people who were immoral and corrupt. At the end of the dream the child appeared alive in the arms of Monique, and I was to go with my child to meet many other parents with their children.

Then, a couple of days later, I dreamed I was in a room with three babies a few months old, sleeping. There were a few more people besides me.

I noticed one baby could not breathe, so I called the nurse who was in the back room. She did not seem to be too eager to do anything. So, I felt it was my responsibility to revive the child. I tapped it three times on the back. Suddenly the young child took a long deep breath and revived.

My interpretation is that God gave us life. In Genesis 2:7, it says God breathed into Adam to give him life: “And the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Without God we have no life. We are lifeless. Spiritual life is more important than physical life.

Today God is seeking His children who are lifeless, who cannot breathe, because they rejected God or led corrupt and immoral lives without any concern for others or for their beloved Heavenly Parent.

Sin has consequences, even if God is a loving parent, we need to attune with our parent’s love and seek His will and direction for our life. Sometimes we need a spiritual parent to help us breathe, to guide us on the way until we reach maturity and can breathe on our own.

The photos below show me with my cousins and my daughter crossing the river to go to le Vallonnet, a village near Saint Sorlin d’Arves in the French Alps, where our common ancestor my great-grandma Sylvie Bartholomé lived.

In another one of my dreams, I saw in beautiful colors the bridge across the River Arc in my hometown. People were crossing that bridge very calmly and peacefully. On the other side it seemed so beautiful, like the new kingdom, a new world in a new heavenly land.

The last dream was very short but the message was very clear. The mountains around my hometown were crumbling down. Big rocks and stones were rolling all the way to the villages. It was a very dangerous situation.

At that moment I felt like a new Joan of Arc, telling the panicked people all in disarray, “This way! Follow me!”

These dreams encouraged me to give spiritual life to the people of my hometown.

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel

My Mountains

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When mountains are around me, I feel at home. I feel my best because I grew up in the French alps in a small village, and both my mom and dad have ancestors from this region.

We never had a TV at home, or even an inside shower or bathroom. We had one stove burning wood, and the bedrooms upstairs were cold. Even so, at night my mom would open my window a crack for fresh air. She said it was healthy.

The toilet was outside next to the home. So, in winter you could easily freeze your butt in there. The telephone came later. To call my grandma I had to go through an operator. I remember my phone number; it was number 31 in la Chambre and my grandma’s phone number was number 1 in Cuines. She probably was the first one to get a telephone then, as her number was one.

Even though while growing up I was not introduced to God, being in nature was the creation God made, and this immense beauty, calm, and serenity impressed me. All the views were breathtaking. In the summer sometimes I would go with my mom and neighbors to bring the cows high up on top of the mountain. Of course, we went on foot and it would take the whole day to arrive there. At 2000 or 3000 meters, you hear only the sounds of nature.

Even though I did not know about God, looking back I felt His presence in this immensity. Away from people, the sins of the world, away from anything human, I could hear something else there in my mountains. Being on top of the peak, you see the other side of the mountains; you are closest to the sky, and then to Heaven.

After we married, Dietrich and I and our children paid many visits to my hometown. One summer I recall, I really wanted to go back there on top of the mountains through a difficult and hazardous path, but I wanted to, even though I had physical limitations for walking such a path. Of course, my family always went with my brother leaving at 3.00 or 4.00 am before the sunrise, and picked Edelweiss and Génépi, a mountain plant, to make liquor and ease the digestion.

So, Dietrich and I went one morning. This trip represented the course and road of our lives. After just one hour, I was already exhausted. I needed vitamins, drink, snacks, and the like, and needed to rest. After some rest I could hardly climb, so Dietrich pushed me from behind; that was helpful. Then he pulled me by holding a stick; that was helpful too. At the end, he took me on his back. But we did arrive there. We arrived at our goal, at our destination. It was a very joyful moment.

This summer, going back to my hometown, I took the cable car to go to the top of my mountains. I just wanted to see all the valleys where my ancestors came from, and pray there by myself but together with our Heavenly Father. With only the sounds of nature, there was God.

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel

End of Times and Kingdom of God

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This morning I stopped at my Wells Fargo bank in sunny San Diego. My teller, Laura, had a sign stuck under her name. It says: I am Ukrainian. She was a pretty, blonde young lady with sparkles in her hair in the form of pink barrettes, like princesses have, and sparkling rings on her fingers.

I told her “I am so sorry for all the suffering in your country,” and asked her if she had relatives there. She said her mom and dad just made it to America and now are staying with her, but all her other relatives were killed and died in the first two days of the war. For a moment I thought I misunderstood. She repeated it and was teary-eyed. I became teary-eyed too, and could not contain my tears as my heart was going out to her people.

As you all know by now my husband and I are from Europe, Austria-Germany and France. From Dietrich’s side there are ancestors as well from Hungary and some other eastern countries. In fact, Gisela, my husband’s sister, and I had planned an adventure trip (which was never realized) to take the train from Vienna, Austria, through Hungary and arrive at the first town in Ukraine, and spend the night there. Hungary is on the border of Ukraine.

I always felt Hungarians and Ukrainians are the same family, and all of my and my husband’s ancestors are one family now. We come from so many different countries and they all share the same descendants with my Americans kids. How can we fight?

One day I had a beautiful experience in Hungary, in Sopron. Lots of Viennese go there (one hour by train from Vienna) because it is very cheap there: the restaurants, clothing, massage parlor, hair salon etc. The city is also very artistic and I went there several times to connect with the life of our ancestors’ family.

A few years ago when I went to my habitual hair stylist there, she asked where my husband was as he usually came to pick me up and return together to Vienna. I told her he passed away, and then she remembered all the beautiful moments she witnessed with our couple. She started shedding tears for someone she saw just a few times. I did not know that our love could reach a stranger. She remembered my man.

I read in the news that at least 50 trains a day are pouring into Vienna, coming from Ukraine through Hungary with refugees from the war zone. May they finally find peace as they rebuild their lives, and may global leaders pray to find a way to global peace in consultation with God.

What I wanted to say is we are all one family under God, Our Heavenly Parent, who since the beginning of time wished to have only loving families who care for and love each other. God could not prevent the fall of man because he gave us freedom and responsibility.

Freedom is so precious; people now are giving their lives for it. We are born free, but because of the fall of man we needed a savior. Jesus came and went and said he will come back.

When the marriage supper of the lamb happens will we see the signs, and recognize the Lord of the Second Advent and his bride who will show the way of true love, and after all these terrors of wars and rumors of war truly establish the kingdom of God on this earth, together with us with our own hands.

Watch the video above to learn more about God’s kingdom.

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel

May His Kingdom Come!

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The reason for Jesus’ coming was to establish the kingdom of God on the earth.

Jesus brought a revolutionary heart when he said “God is your father.”
No one never said such a thing before, that we are children of God, that God is our father.

Jesus was proclaimed the Prince of Peace, Christ, and Messiah. He fought evil all his life and one of his ministries was to liberate people from evil spirits and heal them. He saw that the evil spirits could give people diseases and disfunction. That is why today we feel the power of those evil forces, and there will be wars and rumors of war before Christ comes again.

Another of his great statements was, “Love your enemy.” Those powerful declarations can conquer the world.

He also said that he will come back to fulfill the marriage supper of the lamb. Today we are living in such a time as this. It means that at his return, Jesus will find his bride. And with this event (the marriage supper of the lamb) his kingdom will finally be firmly established on the earth.

He prayed, “May your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” We will then enter the kingdom as couples. People will have to learn to love with true love. It will take a revolution of heart. It will not be easy. But the Second Coming will show the model. The first coming emphasized individual salvation; the second coming will be to establish family salvation.

We love Jesus even 2000 years after his first coming. And, as my neighbor said, he feels it in his bones that Jesus is coming soon, or already came again.

May you be blessed this coming holiday season.

America, Land that We Love

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When I first came to America with a group from Europe, my spiritual daughter Christiane, who was already there, handed me a beautiful huge Hallmark card which said: “America land that we love.”

At that time, I had never heard about Hallmark cards, and was overwhelmed by the sky scrapers. It felt like I was stepping in another world a new world, a dream world, so different from the European countries where we were coming from. It seemed that we had already made the decision that America was the land we loved.

I love America because when you first arrive in New York from somewhere else, you feel liberated.

I love America because if you go out for breakfast there is bottomless coffee, as many as you wish. If you are a senior, it is discounted. In my country if you order a coffee and they happen to be busy, you remind them and they bring two coffees instead. Even if you order just one, they make you pay for two anyway.

I love America because there are Burger Kings everywhere. They always make it YOUR way.

When I go to France or Austria and miss America, I go to a Burger King.

I love America because you can order drinks with free refills. The drink size makes you feel so loved: Small, medium, large, and supersize.

I love America because the ice creams are jumbo size, with glittery colorful candies, nuts and chocolate on top.

I love America because if you take the bus and happen to have no change, sometimes they can let you ride anyway.

I love America because if you are working for a cause you like, you can do a “GoFundMe” and strangers donate.

I love America because if your neighbor catches you with a tear drop, she will ask what’s wrong, and before you know it her whole church is praying for you.

I love America because on his death bed my dad told me: Always remember and be grateful that the Americans saved us during the war here in France. They have strength, leadership, generosity, power, courage and love.

I love America because it is the country of Elvis Presley.

I love America, because this is where I met my true love.

I love America because my children are Canadian, French, and above all American. They can be all of the above.

But mostly I love America because on the coins it says “In God we trust.”

But mostly I love America because some states like South Dakota can affirm in their motto “Under God the people rule,” and their governor’s motto is “family and faith.”

But mostly I love America because it has been God’s country.

Bird Stories

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A long time ago, when I was living in Italy, one day I started dancing in the streets of Milano. I was feeling so happy I was literally running to the Unification Church center because I thought I had finally found what I was looking for.
 
One night, coming back home and feeling emotionally distressed and disturbed by what I was learning, and losing at that time my so called “boyfriend,” I threw my bag and coat on the sofa and headed to the kitchen. There were two birds in a cage there with the purpose of singing for me or on display for me to look at their beautiful colors. I sat by the kitchen table and started crying. That’s what I do if I do not know how to find my way.
 
Warm tears started falling from my eyes. I noticed when I started crying the birds started singing. I paused, and they paused too. Then I started crying again, then sobbing. The more I was sobbing the more the birds sang with joy and more loudly. How could this be?  I thought, I am in turmoil and those birds seems happy about my circumstances.
 
It was God’s plan back then, through the beautiful creation that God made, He gave me insight that all those dramas will pass, and that He had me on the road He wanted me to be on. The road where I would find my direction, and the true purpose of my life, my life mission and above all the man of my life, my true love for eternity. Love cannot be felt alone. We arrive at the kingdom in pairs.
Blossom-headed parakeets
Lately I have been working together with Dr. Tanabe a colleague of my husband, Dietrich. She also has birds in her kitchen. When talking meaningful things, or sharing some passages to include in a book, or a new idea, her birds would accompany our discussions with joyful singing. And when they sang louder than our voices, we were on the right track. We felt God’s touch every time this happened.
 
Rev. Moon, affectionately called True Father, shared this bird story in a message entitled “Where And How Do You Want To Live Your Life?” which he gave at Belvedere on June 9, 1996:

“When Father was growing up he felt he had to conquer every aspect of creation. Once Father caught a mother bird and three baby birds together and kept them in his house. At that point Father didn’t realize that there was a father bird. All of a sudden the father bird appeared and began to cry in a sad voice. When this father bird looked at Father, he cried even more sadly because True Father was the destroyer of this bird’s family. Then Father released the birds, one by one. The sad tone of the father bird’s song lessened. Finally, when all three baby birds were released this father bird seemed content. But when the mother bird was released then the whole family of birds greeted Father and then flew away. How did Father know that they came and greeted him? Because they circled Father’s house and then flew away.“

We can learn so much about life and love from birds. Birds are truly comforting to people’s heart.

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel