Amerikai Magyar Reformátusok Lapja, 1933 (34. évfolyam, 1-50. szám)
1933-04-08 / 14. szám
AMERIKAI MAGYAR REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA 7 n——ir=inni—ii------11 . ... -.==11------in 0 0 AZ IFJÚSÁG KÖRÉBŐL. 0 0 □F=l[=: i[==ir=innp=ir-—ir=--------------ir==in C. E. Topic for April 9. WHAT DECIDING FOR CHRIST MEANS. Lesson: Matt. 16:24, 25. Deciding for Christ is no joke, and therefore should not be looked upon lighly or thought of casually. Decision for any great cause requires serious fore-thought, dogged determination and tenacious will power to carry it through. Deciding for Christ demands all these plus a willingness to suffer and bear all consequences cheerfully. But it is worth it. Our freedom-loving Magyar people sacrificed everything on the altar of Liberty in that stormy year of 1848 and yet lost their glorious struggle. They bravely bore their cross of hope — the cross on which their best sons were shamefully crucified by their very rulers, the ruthless, disloyal Hapsburgs. They decided to become free, a divine right they were entitled to enjoy; stuck to that decision; lost and are still suffering from its effects. When John D. Rockefeller was an ambitious young man he used to have visions and dreams of large, productive oil wells dotting the barren fields of the golden West. In a few years he managed to save around six hundred dollars and invested this hard-earned money into oil. For years he stuck to his business like glue. He decided to get something out of the oil business. His investments multiplied; the oil wells appeared; his vision was gloriously fulfilled. You know the rest. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” How many of us can accept this challenge ? Frank Nagy. ONLY AN ORDINARY MAN! It was said of a missionary in one of Grace L. Hill’s novels, “He’s only an ordinary man with a great God. God can do great things with people who are willing to let Him.” Can we not say this of all those who have served in Christ’s name, since He sent forth the twelve, two by two? Were not the apostles ordinary men, simple uncouth fishermen, with a despised tax-collector among them, who saw Jesus, and followed Him?. Was not Paul, the great apostle, an ordinary young man of his day, who met his God on the road to Damascus, and could not ever after be, “disobedient to the heavenly vision”? Was not Francis of Assissi just an ordinary young man, who indulged in a life of pleasure and worldliness, but who renounced everything when he met his God? It seems that whenever God entered into a man’s life — that life was transformed! God did with the lives of these ordinary men what the genius does with ordinary words. “It is like the genius of poetry, which uses ordinary words, but can so blend and baptize them with beauty that they fill the mind and thrill it with a poignant ecstasy, a delicious joy, akin to the rediance and the rapture of lovers.” (The Angel in the Soul, Newton) David Brainerd, missionary to the American Indians, was “not remarkable for his learning, he accomplished no great and widespread results in the field wwhich he had chosen, but the journal of his daily life and spiritual experiences which he kept with care, is full of life and power to this day. In reading it the man’s character, his lofty principles and aims, his saintliness, his loyalty to Jesus Christ, and his perseverance under hardships do not fail to impress the reader and to arouse the desire to follow his example. Brainerd was a truly noble man and a Christian hero of that small class of heroes whose lives seem to shape history.” (Outline of Missionary History, Mason) William Carey, the “father of modem missions,” was the son of a poor weaver, who met his God as he made and mended shoes in his humble shoe-shop. Martin Luther was, “the little monk that shook the world”. The inscription on the tomb-stone of Henry Martyn in letters of English, Armenian, Turkish, and Persian is, “One who was known in the East as a “Man of God”. Plow many of us are worthy ot be called, “men of God”? How many of our ministers and leaders can we point to and say, “He is a man of God.”? Of how many young people in the church can we say, “They are ordinary young men and women — yet — they are different; they seem to radiate a power unknown to non-Cris- tians. Where lies their strength?” Where lay the estrength of Moses? “He endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” Did not all of these men find their strength in seeing Him who is invisible? Their greatness lay not in themselves, but in their God! And, having found Him, they were willing to let Him shape their lives. “God can do great things with people who are willing to let him.” And, having given their lives to Him, they lived no more for self, but found their lives in the lives of others. Let us study the lives of these ordinary men, who, throughout the ages, have met their God, and have let God make them great! Easter is near! Remember Easter! Remember — we have Nagy Ferenc
