ALL ENCOMPASSING LOVE

„I have loved you with an everlasting love”

(Jeremiah 31,3)

The love of God is not a passing feeling.

Its intensity is seen in giving up His Son to be our Savior and Redeemer.

It is manifested in His eternal saving purpose whereby He engages all His divine power to bring us to glory, so that we may enjoy His love forever.

His love is immutable, it will never change. „How shall I give thee up?” (Hos 11,8). „Having loved his own… he loved them to the end” (John 13,1).

His everlasting love is victorious, it knows no defeat. It is the final source of my God-ward desires. I am loved by Him; so I can love Him.

I go the Him because He draws me with His infallible love.

It is an all-conquering love. As Isaac Watts put it, “Love so amazing, so divine / Demands my soul, my life, my all”.

Lord,

my salvation rest on your love. And I am saved to love you forever.

Thank you. Amen.

THIS CAN BECOME A DAY OF SALVATIONS

„…God guaranteed his covenant with me,
Spelled it out plainly
and kept every promised word—
My entire salvation,
my every desire.”

(2Samuel 23, 5 / The Message Bible)

These are the last words of King David. He was a prolific writer, whose poetry is still with us. Our hymn books and sermons are graced with his thoughts; a man „after God’s heart”. I would not say that these are the last words he uttered before dying, but I believe, he worked on these lines carefully, and left them behind as his last testament.

Read it again, meditate on these phrases!

God’s guarantee.

Covenant with me.

Plain words, and promises kept.

Entire salvation.

My world of desires.

I woke early this morning. After meditating on the king’s testimony in 2Samuel 23, I need to ready myself for a day of activities: meeting with people, working, writing, talking with my kids and Gyöngyöm about our lives, listening to others about theirs, etc.

My God! How could I retell to all of them this message about the guarantees of God? How careful I need to be, to stay within the confines of the Covenant! Do I understand the Word, and will I recognize Him keeping His promises throughout the day? Can I hope that this “entire salvation” will encompass everything, even my prayers for that young man persecuted by the Devil thousands of miles away? Am I willing to roll down my desires to the very end? And even then – will they be OK-d by Him?

Lord Jesus, You are the Great Guarantor. My life is worthless, if you leave me on my own. Stay in me with your Word, and help me to see your presence and workings around me. Let this day become a day of salvations, for your glory and for the benefit of your people. Amen.

THE GRATITUDE OF GREATER EXPECTATIONS

„Great salvation he brings…”

(2Samuel 22,51)

Hannah’s jubilant song of thanksgiving and David’s song of praise form a poetic frame for the books of 1 and 2 Samuel. A duo of earthlings, a mother and a king, whose entrance to the theatre of human events was just as incidental as yours and mine, now speak of the greatest experience we may have: they see the approaching great salvation of God. Hannah’s gratitude for Samuel and David’s reflection on personal and national victories are the starting points, but what they see on the horizon, God’s future mercies closing on them, the “great salvation he brings” is the main point of their testimony.

It is not easy to be thankful. A “Thank-you” forwarded to God in thought or song falls short of His purposes if it deals only with the past. Guidance given, problems solved, prayers answered are acts of a God, who is much bigger than what you and I have seen Him to be. He is even mightier than the sum total of our common experiences. That is why faith’s appreciation is really thankfulness projected into the future. These songs end on the note of gratitude of greater expectations. True thankfulness starts from the past, but takes us to the future.

How thankful are you? What is the tense dominating in your prayer of thanksgiving? The past tense does not do justice to a God waiting on us in the future.

Lord, help me to turn from my personal victories toward the approaching salvation, when the whole World will be filled with your glory! Amen.

POST IT!

Three things are too much for even the earth to bear,
yes, four things shake its foundations—
when the janitor becomes the boss,
when a fool gets rich,
when a whore is voted "woman of the year,"
when a "girlfriend" replaces a faithful wife.

(Proverbs 30,21-23)

As a young man I despised them, but lately I am learning to appreciate the usefulness of lists. The shopping list comes handy in the store, just as the post-it stickers all around the house remind me commitments yet to be fulfilled, things to grab, and important tasks to attend. Once superfluous, nowadays I consider them practical necessities. Putting things in order, readying myself for those uncomfortable lapses in memory, guarding against interfering thoughts and tasks while trying to accomplish something – lists are my new friends.

In the Sixth Chapter of Proverbs we find a list of hateful things as observed by Solomon, and in Chapter 30 there are five other lists, created by Agur, the son of Jakeh. I put these lists on my list; Lord’s willing I plan to preach on them next Spring. They call on us to pay more attention to life. They remind us, that life seeks to follow a created pattern, and violations to that pattern just simply don’t fit. People who insist on living by their own pattern, are fools – teaches this book of wisdom. So, keep these lists close to your heart, use them to weigh your actions, because the artful Weaver of Life’s Patterns wants to keep you on track!

Agur’s lists are not intended to be exhaustive. I am sure, you will agree, this third out of the five, as quoted form the Message Bible is a list of circumstances that offend common sense. Just think about them for a moment, have a mental picture of them, and go on living the life God intended for you!

Each of these situations pictures a person in the wrong place. A boss (in other translations, “the king”) should learn to serve, but do not give the reign to the servant. The great “invention of the French Revolution”, copied by the Leninists was, to turn the whole world upside down. Rulers made in the instant turned out to be even more unfit than the ones they have replaced. The well-fed bonehead will miss the lessons to be learned in situations that would otherwise awaken him to his foolishness. When society worships whoredom, the sense of beauty is lost. Throwing away faithfulness will not manage the pains that come with mid-life crises. Friends, make a note of this, your wife is better in every way than that nice babe whose boyfriend, a weathered piece of furniture like you and me cannot be. If you like the rhyme, post it!

Pastor Novak

SEEING THE UNSEEN

“Ears that hear and eyes that see — we get our basic equipment from God!”
(Proverbs 20:12 / The Message Bible)

The decorations on the walls in Dr. Koppany’s office are all about the different parts and inner workings of the human eye. The yearly visit with the Hungarian optometrist is necessitated by my weakening eyesight, but we like to discuss matters relating to our spiritual sight as well. He is a Methodist believer, a dedicated professional, whose opinions in both areas, the physical and the spiritual, are based on his deep, personal insights.

The colorful charts and displays in the physician’s office portray the delicate structure of the eye. This little organ is a bundle of tens of millions of electrical connections, enabled to handle almost two million simultaneous messages. The tiny muscles in the eye are amongst the body’s strongest. They move about one hundred thousand times daily, to bring the objects viewed into sharp focus. A similar exercising of the leg muscles would entail a fifty-mile walk, in one day!

How much more precious is spiritual sight; man’s God-given ability to absorb information about the unseen world! Yet, the Bible teaches, natural man is spiritually blind. Sin obstructs our spiritual sight. It is the work of grace received to have the first unobstructed glimpses of our sorrowful spiritual state. That is when and why we cry for the Lord’s mercy. Seeing more, seeing clearly, beholding His glory, viewing ourselves as He sees us, and then, believing even the unseen, these are spiritual terrains grasped thru eyes touched by the healing power of God’s grace.

The Spirit of God maintains our spiritual sight. He energizes our perceptions and will to focus on the significant. He keeps us in balance so that the multitudes of charges and impulses running through being will lead to a deepened understanding of truth. His guidance in the interpretation of spiritual information helps us to be obedient to the Truth, who came to the world to be revealed. For the greatest tragedy of life is not seeing Jesus Christ, the God incarnate. We are re-created to behold Him in glory!

Lord, I say with the blind man in the Gospels: “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). You are my Healer. I praise you, and go on worshipping you as one who sees life full of your presence. Amen..

STOOPED TO THE RELIGION OF SELF-HOOD

„Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding”

(Proverbs 3:5)

In this sentence man is portrayed in two possible postures as to the realities of life. Let us start with the second, in order to avoid a common mistake in the interpretation of this verse. Without question, right understanding of life is the goal set forth by the Teacher speaking to us in Proverbs. The messages in this book appeal to our search for meaning, and the conclusions encased in proverbial clarity show man’s ability for analytical thinking. Understanding handed down from previous generations coupled with our own knowledge and experiences fuel the engine of societal and personal progress. Belittling our God-given ability and responsibility to reason would lead us to a position of disobedience as to God’s creative purposes.

Unintelligent living cannot be sanctified by revealed truth. The Gospel has no footing in our soul until at least a very basic openness for truth is present. As sectors for truth are being deleted (or filled with emotionalism) by newer waves of postmodern un-thinking, modern man, stooped to the religion of self-hood, cannot worship the God of Truth revealed in Christ Jesus. This is to say, the prohibition is not against careful thinking, but against misplaced trust.

What the Teacher is saying that, God is to be worshipped in order for human understanding to have its rightful place. Faith and knowledge, worship of God and human progress are joined together as expressions of wisdom. “Fools despise wisdom and instruction…,” BUT, “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge…” (Prov 1,7).

The verb “trust” connotes the idea of prostrating oneself to the point of lying helplessly face downwards. “Leaning” is to “support one self”. In other words, this wonderful verse in Proverbs tells us, to “trust ourselves under the protection of God we worship, instead of placing our expectations solely on our understanding of life”. Again, the message in this verse is about the dangers of misplaced trust and not about the fallacies of human knowledge.

Lord, we realize that searching for truth we must find our rightful place in your presence. Help us to learn right living as worshippers of Christ, who is the Fountain of Life Everlasting. Thank you for the blessings of life! Amen.

SWEEPING WRONGS UNDER THE RUG

„Showing forbearance to one another in love”

(Ephesians 4,2)

It is likely that you did not hear the word “forbearance” being used around you recently. Looking up the meaning of the word explains the reasons for the silence. These are the definitions of forbearance: “tolerance and restraint in the face of provocation; a delay in enforcing rights or claims or privileges; refraining from acting”. Another usage goes like this: “the act of a creditor who refrains from enforcing a debt when it falls due”. Once the practice is out use there is no reason to stick with the word.

No matter what the world does, believers are commanded to practice forbearance to one another. The Greek expression translated as “showing forbearance” actually means “suppressing something with silence”. In this context it conveys the idea of throwing a blanket over those things that would be obstacles to healthy relationships. Guess what! – a certain kind of „sweeping of the sins under the rug”, is commanded by the Scriptures.

In Proverbs we read, “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions” (10,12). In certain situations forbearance is the only option for lovingly maintain a relationship. As the apostle teaches, there is place for this kind of love in our churches. The obstacles to the relationship need to be covered inside of us, so that we are enabled to relate in spite the wrongs done to us.

This is how God relates to you and me.

Lord, confessing my unworthiness of your love, I thank you for sending Christ to die for me. Help me to love others; even my enemies. My desire is to show forbearance to others in love. Amen.