Magyar Egyház, 1988 (67. évfolyam, 2-4. szám)
1988-07-01 / 4. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 11. oldal settled in Hungary. The Hungarians and the Germans should be allowed to live within those basic human rights that are guaranteed on paper but denied in practice by the Romanians. The thousands of Hungarian and Saxon villages should not be allowed to be destroyed by Ceausescu and his vindictive regime. Here we should also mention the fact that years ago when the Bible Society sent 20,000 Bibles to Transylvania, they were destroyed by the government. They made toilet paper out of the Hungarian Bibles. National groups that are prevented from using their own languages, and forced to practice an alien culture kindergarten through high school are doomed to die. When the Germans and Hungarians of Romania are considered to be second class citizens because of their ethnic background, and they are forbidden to speak up for themselves, then it becomes our responsibility to speak up for them and act in their behalf. In Genesis 4 when Cain killed Abel he was asked where his brother was. He replied, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The blood of his brother cried out from the ground. The moral lesson of the above Old Testament story is that we are indeed our brother’s keepers. We have moral obligations toward each other. If our brothers get killed, their blood will cry out from the ground. We are asking for your moral help. We are asking for your prayers, and last but not least we are asking for your donations to help the refugees. Rev. Paul Kantor Hungarian Reformed Ministerial Association, President FIRSTHAND RELIGION Text: “0 taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” (Ps. 34:8.) A secondhand religion has some value. (1) We must all begin with tradition, the Church and its ceremonies, if we are to develop a religious life. (2) There is always the possibility that those who possess only a secondhand religion may someday come to know God more intimately. (3) A secondhand religion may be of value in helping to preserve some of life’s decencies and may assist in keeping the salt of society from losing its savor. But when we have said all that can be said about the worth of secondhand religion, it still remains very inadequate for the life of the Church and the propagation of the Christian faith. Without large element of firsthand religion, even that religion which is secondhand will too vanish away. If a church is to be a living witness for God in a community, its people must possess a firsthand knowledge of God. Let us consider some of the positive values of a firsthand religion. I. It is only a firsthand religion that can maintain the spiritual glow. Many Christians have forgotten the necessary and continuing process of sanctification. “The perseverance of the saints is made up of ever new beginnings” (Alexander Whyte). The man who is saved is the man who endures to the end. Such endurance requires grace -— grace for every day, to carry out life’s duties and to conquer boredom, to master trials and be victorious over temptations. We need a firsthand acquaintance with God and his saving grace in Christ as he is revealed in the Bible, worshipped in the Church, and made real in the fellowship of the faithful. These means of grace make possible a fresh apprehension of God which will enable the believer to maintain the spiritual glow. II. A firsthand religion verifies its truth in everyday living. There is an immediacy and a freshness about firsthand religion that cannot be duplicated by other means. Izaak Walton described John Donne in the pulpit of St. Paul’s, London, “preaching the Word so, as showed his own heart was possessed with those very thoughts and joys that he labored to distil into others.” Christian living that is based on a firsthand knowledge of God will witness to the truth in a similar manner in our time. III. Only a firsthand religion has redemptive power. The motivating, constraining, and directing agent in all of St. Paul’s actions was the living Lord. Paul knew whom he had believed and this knowledge, together with his spiritual compulsion, made him a missionary of the Cross. Christianity exists by mission as a fire exists by burning, and and there is no sense of mission in our faith apart from a heart-warming experience of God in Christ who calls his disciples to think, speak, and work for him. Christian people must have a true sense of direction, a high and genuine purpose, a love that endures, and a power that will enable them to execute Christian responsibilities in the midst of a largely anti-Christian environment. This means that they must be equipped with the whole armor of God for their holy warfare. Religion to them must be experimental. IV. Only a firsthand religion puts a song in the heart. The Church has “come singing down through the ages” because she has received Good News from God in Jesus Christ. She is directed to sing because of the momentous tidings she has for sinful men. When a man finds Christ, or rather is found of him, his joy cannot be hemmed in. He must express his emotions in song. He breaks forth into praise at the miracle God has wrought in his own soul. Only firsthand religion will sing its way into the life of mankind. The psalmist praised God continually because he had tasted and seen that the Lord is good. Religion for him was not hearsay, but personal relationship with God. A DETROIT-ALLEN PARKI MAGYAR REFORMÁTUS EGYHÁZ társlelkészi állásra pályázatot hirdet: Ft. Ábrahám Dezső nyugalomba menetele után. Főhangsúly a magyar nyelvű szolgálatokon van, de angol tudás is szükséges. Bővebb információért forduljon: Nt. Bertalan A. Imre lelkészhez vagy Vig Edmund főgondnokhoz, vagy Mathia Elemérhez, a Bizottság Elnökéhez. Telefonszámok: egyháznál 313-382-1001 parókián: 928-2146
