Calvin Synod Herald, 2008 (109. évfolyam, 1-10. szám)
2008-09-01 / 9-10. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD 7 When Asking for God’s blessing for our work, it will be granted... “Life is hard ...” We read in the papers, see on the TV and hear on the radio what is going to happen if we want to finish this sentence. For example, life can be hard, but it will be unbearable without God and friends in our lives. Our congregation here at Norridge Reformed Church in Norridge, Illinois, exemplifies that when asking for God’s blessing for our work, it will be granted. A good example is the sail on a boat: no matter how the wind blows, if the sail is not set you will not go anywhere. So if we wait for God’s blessing with our arms folded, doing nothing but waiting, nothing will happen because God is not able to bless what is not being done. God will bless what we do. Here are some stories of God’s blessings for us when we turned to Him and did we something about what we whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.” (Romans 9:5) D. The work of the Redeemer will never pass away. “But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.” (Hebrews 7:24) “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:28) E. The Holy Spirit assures believers that Christ will finish what He starts. “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14) IV. Life Gets Better for Believers A. Though the anguish of sin continues in the present life, the certainty of redemption comforts the healing believer. “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” (Proverbs 4:18) B. The light of the Redeemer grows stronger in believers. “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12) C. Experience with Jesus educates believers, yielding sanctification. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18) D. The triple knowledge of God’s comforted people leads them into Scripture. “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (2 Peter 1:19-21) Dr. Edwin P. Elliott, Jr., The Reformed Presbyterian Church, Manassas, Virginia asked His blessing for. We can start in November of2007. We had a guest visiting with us, Bojté Csaba, who takes care of orphans. He has dedicated his life to taking care of these orphan children, and after we said our goodbyes to our guest, a few of us stayed together for a while to talk. We were talking about how we would like to have a much nicer chapel and how bad it was that the windows wouldn’t open and we could not accommodate more than 35 people for services in our present chapel. In the middle of our conversation we realized the question was “why do we just complain and not do something to take care of these matters?” And so for the Christmas of 2007 we gave a true gift to our congregation. We imagined what the chapel would look with white walls instead of the dark paneling. What it would be like if we replaced the old fluorescent lighting with modem recessed ceiling lights? What if the people in the back rows of the chapel could hear what the minister was talking about.? And, how would it be to fit more than 30 - 35 people in the room? And if this was OK for many years, decades, why should we want to change this now? We started to figure out how much this dream would cost the congregation and where we could get the resources to do this. We had an idea and we didn’t let this idea fade away. Pretty soon we found a plumber in the group and then we found a person who could do the electrical work and we had skilled painters. We had many ambitious men who offered their labor to accomplish the dream of remodeling our chapel. Even though none of us had any construction experience we did have one man who knew what needed to be done and under his guidance and leadership we did the job very well. It didn’t matter if we ate or if we were tired, we just continued to work to finish our new chapel. The women of the congregation began to take care of us. Once a day they brought cooked food for us. Everyone helped with the remodeling, doing whatever they were capable of doing whenever they could. We did this job on a strictly voluntary basis. Everyone donated their time. We welcomed all but never forced anyone, and during the construction we held our services in the living room of the minister’s home. Within five weeks we completed the new chapel. It turned out much nicer that we even imagined it would. When we counted all of the donated labor hours it was over 1500 hours, so the remodeling costs were only for the materials. And this price stayed under the $10,000.00 budget approved by the congregation. The roomier chapel allowed us to celebrate Christmas and Easter with 100 people sitting comfortably. And gave us a place for a Scout Christmas caroling program. Continued on page 8
