0103 密雲和黑暗
密雲和幽暗，在祂的四圍。《詩篇97:2》
一個尚未被神的靈重生的人會告訴你：耶穌的教導很簡單。但當他受聖靈的洗，他就會發現「密雲和幽暗，在祂的四圍…。」當我們與耶穌基督的教訓密切接觸時，我們第一次意識到這一點。要完全理解耶穌教訓的唯一可能途徑，乃是透過神的靈在我們裡面光照我們。如果我們從未將我們散漫、宗教性的鞋子從我們散漫、宗教性的腳脫下，就是除去我們與神接觸的所有過度的隨意，那麼我們曾否站在祂的面前，那是令人懷疑的。那些輕率和不尊敬地接近神的人，是從未認識耶穌基督的人。只有在明白耶穌基督作為的驚喜和自由之後，隨之而來的才是認識祂所是的深奧「幽暗」。
耶穌說：「我對你們所說的話就是靈，就是生命。」（約翰福音6:63）。曾經，聖經對我們來說只是很多的話，就是「雲彩和黑暗」；然後，突然間，這些話語因為耶穌在我們的境遇中再度向我們說出，就變成新的，變成靈和生命。這就是神對我們說話的方式；不是透過異象和異夢，而是透過祂的話。當人來到神面前，那是藉著最簡單的方式 — 話語。
來自章伯斯的智慧
我們沒有根本上的自由；外在境遇不在我們手中，而是在神的手中，我們唯一的自由是在於我們與神的個人關係。我們不為所處的環境負責，但我們要為允許這些環境如何影響我們而負責；我們可以讓它們壓倒我們，或讓它們改變我們成為神要我們所是的人。《改變像祂的樣式》
0103 Clouds and Darkness
Clouds and darkness surround Him… —Psalm 97:2
A person who has not been born again by the Spirit of God will tell you that the teachings of Jesus are simple. But when he is baptized by the Holy Spirit, he finds that “clouds and darkness surround Him….” When we come into close contact with the teachings of Jesus Christ we have our first realization of this. The only possible way to have full understanding of the teachings of Jesus is through the light of the Spirit of God shining inside us. If we have never had the experience of taking our casual, religious shoes off our casual, religious feet— getting rid of all the excessive informality with which we approach God— it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence. The people who are flippant and disrespectful in their approach to God are those who have never been introduced to Jesus Christ. Only after the amazing delight and liberty of realizing what Jesus Christ does, comes the impenetrable “darkness” of realizing who He is.
Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Once, the Bible was just so many words to us — “clouds and darkness”— then, suddenly, the words become spirit and life because Jesus re-speaks them to us when our circumstances make the words new. That is the way God speaks to us; not by visions and dreams, but by words. When a man gets to God, it is by the most simple way— words.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not fundamentally free; external circumstances are not in our hands, they are in God’s hands, the one thing in which we are free is in our personal relationship to God. We are not responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us; we can either allow them to get on top of us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be. Conformed to His Image, 354 L