Calvin Synod Herald, 1978 (78. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1978-11-01 / 11-12. szám

4

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

IF JESUS CAME TO YOUR HOUSE

"GO YE THEREFORE .. "

If Jesus came to your house to spend a day or two —

If He came unexpectedly, I wonder what you’d do.

Oh, I know you’d give your nicest room to such an honored Guest,

And all the food you’d serve to Him would be the very best,

And you would keep assuring Him

you’re glad to have Him there — That serving Him in your own home is joy beyond compare.

But — when you saw Him coming, would you meet Him at the door With arms outstretched in welcome to your Heav’nly Visitor?

Or would you have to change your clothes before you let Him in,

Or hide some magazines and put the Bible where they’d been?

Would you turn off the radio and hope He hadn’t heard

And wish you hadn’t uttered that last loud, hasty word?

Would you hide your worldly music and put some hymn books out?

Could you let Jesus walk right in, or would you rush about?

And I wonder — if the Saviour spent a day or two with you,

Would you go right on doing the things you always do?

Would you keep right on saying the things you always say?

Would life for you continue as it does from day to day?

Would your family conversation keep up its usual pace,

And would you find it hard each meal to say a table grace?

Would you sing the songs you always sing and read the books you read And let Him know the things on which your mind and spirit feed?

Would you take Jesus with you everywhere you’d planned to go,

Or would you maybe change you plans for just a day or so?

Would you b? glad to have Him meet your very closest friends,

Or wouli' you hope they’d stay away until His visit ends?

Would you be glad to have Him stay forever on and on,

Or would you sigh with great relief when He ct last was gone?

It might be interesting to know the things that you would do

If Jesus Christ in person came to spend some time with you.

Recognition of Revs. Alexander and Maria Babos by The Calvin Synod.

II. China — The Daring Venture (1933-1947)

1. When the Lord Jesus commissioned Simon Peter for missionary work, he did not inquire about his language abilities, educational attainments, theological orientation, sacrificial abilities, not that these aspects are unimportant, but because without love they profit nothing, they are nothing in His service! So he asked: “Simon, Son of John, do you love me?” And that He asked three times until the Big Fisherman heard the commissioning “Feed my lambs! Tend my sheep!” with a grieved and wounded heart! Love for Christ sustained by a sense of our unworthiness is the one great essential in any ministry of the Lord for we are sent to bear witness to the love of God manifested in Jesus Christ. This mission is never easy, but He who sends us also empowers us. This is what Sándor Babos experienced in Manchuria. Let me illustrate it with a few quotations from his book, “Under the Shadows of the Pagodas.” — “With great joy I learn the Chinese language. I am happy to be among the Chinese people. I love the Chinese very much, they are kind indeed, though extremely dirty...” Once he held hands with a Chinese child when this joyous love overpoured his heart: T love the company of this child so much. My God! If I would be able to lead all of them to the Lord, that Jesus would be their friend; then I would be really happy!” On another occasion he had to preach unexpectedly in Chinese and when he realized that he was able to communicate the Gospel, he wrote: “Never in my life was I so happy! I could speak to them of Someone who loves not only the Transylvanian people, but the Chinese as well! I wanted to embrace all of them and lead them to the Lord. I felt, all of us were one. There was no white man there; no Chinese, no Hungarian, no heathen, but as men, brothers, sisters, longing for redemption...” — These are the words of a loving missionary! And what do we write in our journal when we preach in English or in Hungarian? Communicating the Gospel?! “Let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit says to the churches!”

2. This compassionate love soon led him to fight against social evil: drugs, poverty, violence, ignorance, superstition, never forgetting that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, and our weapon is the sword of the Spirit! Of course, this was not the first time that he realized how inseparably intertwined are the individual and corporate aspects of life (he stood firm for the rights of the working people in Lupény, too, for which he was sentenced to jail, fined and lost his civil rights and only a special amnesty made it possible to leave Erdély for Manchuria), but now his social consciousness reached world-wide dimen