Magyar Egyház, 1966 (45. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1966-05-01 / 5. szám
8 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ withered away into a gray, empty world? Have you ever seen a man, who has lost his taste, who cannot taste food, drink, or fruits? Have you ever seen petrified trees? If you have, you can easily imagine a man from whom the Holy Spirit has withdrawn, for His soul becomes petrified, his eyes blind, and his sensitive soul frozen. Such a man has only today, not tomorrow. Such a man is dead among the living. * When the Apostle Paul arrived in Ephesus, he found there a little congregation, and he asked this question of them: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit...?” upon which the Ephesians answered honestly with surprise: “No, we have never even heard, that there is a Holy Spirit. . .” (Acts 19:2) They soon learned who the Holy Spirit was from the Holy Spirit Himself who gave them the power to do impossible things. In our lives we have heard a great deal about the Holy Spirit, yet we have not experienced His power, and there are many who will ask with the Ephesians: “We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” Believe me, there is a Holy Spirit, and He has intervened in you life many times already, but you did not know that He was at your side. It is His work that you even listen to a sermon about Him in the church. Jesus promised His disciples that He would be with them until the end of the world. Just as He said this a cloud hid Him from the eyes of the desciples and He was taken into heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father. Before He left He promised that He would send the Holy Spirit. He fulfilled His promise and He sent the Holy Spirit in the presence of the 3,000. As Peter tells them: “. . . as you see and hear, He poured out His Holy Spirit upon us.” Jesus Christ will be with us until the end of the world in the person of the Holy Spirit. This omnipresent Holy Spirit was present at the creation of the world. The leaders of the Old Testament were men led by the Holy Spirit. The prophets wrote the Word of God with the help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus fulfilled His promise and He was present everywhere with His disciples, and His people. Whether you see Him or not Jesus is with us everyday in His Holy Spirit. He was with us yesterday, He is with us today, and He will be with us when our heart beats its last beat. Without the Holy Spirit there is no church life. Our fathers said that church can only be where the Word is proclaimed purely, where the Sacraments are administered rightly, where church discipline is practiced according to the Word of God, and where charity is practiced. We can express all this in one sentence: Church can only be where the Holy Spirit is at work. Without the Holy Spirit there is no church life, no worship, and that is why our prayers cry out from the depths: “take not thy Holy Spirit from us . . .” The Holy Spirit is present at every worship service. He impels me go to church, he wakens faith in my heart, and He makes my heart restless until it shall rest in God. He is present at every sermon so that we lose sight of the minister and the Word of God speaks to us. If the World of God does not speak to us, then the sermon is being proclaimed in human wisdom or the Holy Spirit has not opened our hearts. The Holy Spirit is a power to open lips and hearts, He opens the lips to confess Christ, He opens hearts to accept consolation and the good news of the gospel. The Holy Spirit is present at baptism, when the pastor pours the water upon the head of the infant, He espouses the baptized infant to Christ and into the household of the New Covenant. He gives absolution at the communion table, He makes us understand what a great sacrifice was made for us. He shows us our terrible sins, He makes us accept the good news that God forgives the penitent soul and that eternal life is given to us. He makes us remember the Words of Jesus, He gathers us into the church of Christ, He teaches us to pray, to hope, He speaks to us sweetly that we are God’s children, He makes us believe that Jesus is our Savior Lord who has paid the price for our sins. God bestows upon us His free grace through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. He makes us discover secrets, the sweetest secret being that God loves us with an everlasting love, and that He awaits our home-coming to forgive us. He sanctifies us, He sets us aside for the purposes of God, and He makes our sinful bodies to be the temples of the living God. He makes us see visions and dreams, He tells us Who God is, and what He wants with us, He guides the Christian, He shows him what the will of God is. He teaches us to love our fellow-men, He leads us into our churches, and sends us into the mission field for Christ. He comforts us in the time of sorrow, He begins to speak to us in a still, small voice about God Who holds our lives, our loved ones, and our death in His hands. Time and again He points at Golgotha, at the great love which made this great sacrifice for us. He gives us strength to fight the battles of life, He makes us brave, as He did the disciples, He gives us joy and peace. He drives fear from our hearts and we even cross the valley of death with a smile. This Holy Spirit watches over our churches and He prepares coming generations to carry on the fatherly heritage. He cleanses with His fire, He opens our lips to speak, to bear witness to Christ even in places where we did not dare to speak before. He gives us tasks and He fills the old wine-skins of the church with fiery new wine. The Holy Spirit was poured out upon prayerful and waiting disciples. They were in the upper room in Jerusalem where they had had the Last Supper and where they had met with the risen Christ. We must wait for the Holy Spirit, we must pray for His coming, for God sends His Spirit where people gather with one accord to study the Word. We cannot live without the Holy Spirit, for without the Holy Spirit a man’s soul will turn to stone. Those who refuse the invitation of the Holy Spirit sin against Him, and will not receive forgiveness of their sins. May our prayer always be: “God, take not Thy Holy Spirit from me . . .” Protestant Disappointment Over Mixed Marriages Changes (EPS, Geneva) — The predominant tone of comments received in Geneva on the new Vatican regulations governing mixed marriages has been critical reserve, tempered by the hope that they represent only the first step towards a finally more acceptable reform of Roman Catholic church law. The attitude of many Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican observers was summed up in statements made by Dr. Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the course of his historic trip to Rome and Geneva.
