Where is God? Where is He not?

2015. július 29., szerda

We have many disappointments in life, working like a big STOP sign for us. We have to stop for a minute to see what we have deeply in our souls. But if we disappointed in somebody or something, we don’t turn to God, but everything else especially when we disappointed in God. Today we had a really heavy theme at the morning keynote speech also presented by Zoltán Sóskuti.

We can be disappointed in people: parents, friends, lovers and also in God. These disappointments could be our friends, but it takes a long time to make them friends. We can be sardonic, we can accept or close off our heart. We have to process it. But it is really hard, because we have to face the pain. We must not project it on everybody we met with. Disappointment in somebody is really bad but disappointment in ourselves is much worse. It’s really hard to process because it is ruining our self-trust. But the question is: Can we talk about Christian self-trust? Is it an existing thing?

If our disappointment is in ourselves and in God too, it is because we don’t understand Him. We are only looking at things from our perspective, not from God’s point of view. When we have disappointment in God, our faith will be questioned. We only see that He is not listening, He doesn’t care about us, He doesn’t love us. All we can ask Him in such a situation is: WHY?

Disappointments are unavoidable, because we are humans. We are arrogant, guilty, small-minded and vain. That’s why I can get disappointed in others and vice versa. There are humans in the Church too, but God is working on and in it, because God is GOD. We can’t understand Him.

The question is what can we do with the disappointments of our life? Are we closing ourselves up or developing? Our life is all about running through life without enjoying it. We are chasing grades, money and prestige.  Disappointments help us to stop for a bit and examine our heart to see what is deep in our souls. Disappointments give us a chance to ask God about our biggest questions and change our way of life. We get a chance at being submissive and in this way uplift other people.

We have to know, that when we are walking in disappointment thinking we are lonely, God is walking with us. God is with us in our feelings, but we don’t even know about it, because we only care about us. It would be much better if we run to Him.

Trust means I could be vulnerable. Jesus took it literally, in his actions. Why then can’t we trust?

The presence of God brings us a new type of trust. We can put Him first, so our scars, our disappointments will be our friends. ‘It is good to trust and hope in God, God is great’.

Later the international guests attended a special program about the Hungarian Reformed Church, titled “The Church behind Starpoint”, presented by Balázs Ódor, the Ecumenical Officer of RHC. At the beginning there was an interactive game, in which the attendants had to answer some questions about the important figures and dates of the RHC. Placing the papers with the numbers in correct order, they could reconstruct the text puzzle on ‘The Call’ of the RHC which can be found here. After that they formed groups in which they had to answer questions about the countries the attendants came from. The members of the two groups reaching the highest points in the game got a t-shirt from the RHC.

After a little break they met with the co-workers of the Roma Mission. They heard a presentation from one Roma Congregation in Büssü. Büssü is a small village in the South-West part of Hungary. The 80% of the inhabitants are Roma. Büssü and its four neighbouring villages belong to a congregation with 150 members. The presentation’s theme was to introduce the congregation and their everyday struggles to the attendants.

At the beginning of the evening devotion Dr. Károly Fekete, the Bishop of the Transtibiscan Reformed Church District greeted all the attendants of Starpoint. He wished all the attendants God’s blessing and help that could strengthen our trust in Him.

The evening devotion was presented by István Boldizsár Mikló, a pastor from Jákóhodos. He was talking about the fact that there is always disappointment side by side with trust. But how can I trust in somebody despite of all these things. How can I make a decision to trust? Daniel’s friends saw the destruction of their country, their cities and pagans treading on their holy temple’s ruins. But what are they disappointed in? In God, or in their expectations? 

People were disappointed in Jesus too, because from their perspective he did nothing at the cross. But he did the most with doing anything.

We have to trust in God’s promising like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. God is fulfilling his promises maybe not at the time that we are waiting for it. We have to trust in Him, because that which what we trust our heart with, would be our god. This will not save us from fire, but we could know that God is there with us. Some people say that it is too good to be true. But it is true because of it. We have to make a decision about trusting in God.

After the evening devotion they could attend concerts and later a vigil beginning at 11.30 pm.

Maria Porcs

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Reformed Church in Hungary

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We encourage you to read our  former GM intern Kearstin Bailey's blog about her time, spent in Hungary.