0106 敬拜
從那裡他又遷到伯特利東邊的山，支搭帳棚。西邊是伯特利，東邊是艾。他在那裡又為耶和華築了一座壇，求告耶和華的名。《創世紀12:8》
敬拜就是將神所賜予你的，把最好的奉獻給祂。要小心處理你所有的最好的；每當你從神那裡得到祝福，要將它作為愛的禮物獻給祂。花時間在神面前默想，在有意地敬拜中，將這份祝福奉獻回去給祂。如果你為自己存留這祝福，它將變成靈性上的枯乾腐爛，就像儲存的嗎哪一樣（參見出埃及記16:20）。神絕不允許你將屬靈祝福完全留給你自己，那必須還給祂，好讓祂能使用成為他人的祝福。
伯特利象徵與神的相交，艾是世界的象徵，亞伯蘭在兩者之間「支搭帳棚」。我們為神公開事奉的恆久價值，是以我們私下與神相交與合一的深度來衡量。每一次匆忙進出的敬拜，都是錯誤的——我們總有足夠的時間來敬拜神。專門安排幾天的安靜時間，可能是個陷阱，它分散了每日與神安靜相交的需要。這就是為什麼不管世界多麼喧囂，我們必須在其中「支搭帳棚」，以便能夠時常與神有安靜相交之處。屬靈生命並不存在三個層面中——敬拜、等候和作工。然而，我們有些人似乎像靈性青蛙一樣，從敬拜跳到等候，從等候跳到作工。神認為這三者應該是合而為一。在我們的主的生活中，它們總是合而為一，完美和諧的。這是一種必須培養的操練；它不會在一夜之間發生。
來自章伯斯的智慧
耶穌基督總是不屈服於我對自己權利的要求。我們的主關於門徒訓練的所有教導中，唯一一個必要要素就是捨棄、沒有計算、沒有任何自我利益的痕迹。《真的門徒》
0106 Worship
He moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. —Genesis 12:8
Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love-gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard it for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded (see Exodus 16:20). God will never allow you to keep a spiritual blessing completely for yourself. It must be given back to Him so that He can make it a blessing to others.
Bethel is the symbol of fellowship with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abram “pitched his tent” between the two. The lasting value of our public service for God is measured by the depth of the intimacy of our private times of fellowship and oneness with Him. Rushing in and out of worship is wrong every time— there is always plenty of time to worship God. Days set apart for quiet can be a trap, detracting from the need to have daily quiet time with God. That is why we must “pitch our tents” where we will always have quiet times with Him, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three levels of spiritual life— worship, waiting, and work. Yet some of us seem to jump like spiritual frogs from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God’s idea is that the three should go together as one. They were always together in the life of our Lord and in perfect harmony. It is a discipline that must be developed; it will not happen overnight.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest. —Disciples Indeed