0131 你明白你的呼召了吗？
耶稣基督的仆人保罗，奉召为使徒，特派传神的福音。《罗马书 1:1》
我们的呼召首要不是成为圣洁的人，而是成为神福音的宣扬者。唯一至关重要的，乃是神的福音应该被认识为永久的真实。真实并非人的善行，或圣洁，或天堂或地狱 ，而是救赎。今天基督工人最关键的需求是需要意识到这一点。身为工人，我们必须习惯于救赎是唯一真实的启示。个人的圣洁是救赎的结果，而不是原因。如果我们把信心寄托在人善上，当考验来临时，我们就会失败。
保罗没有说他把自己分别出来，而是「神乐意，把我从母腹里分别出来…」（加拉太书1:15-16）。保罗对自己的品格并不过于关注；只要我们的目光集中在自己个人的圣洁上，我们就永远无法接近救赎的全部真实。基督工人的失败，是因为他们把追求自身圣洁的渴望置于认识神的渴望之上。「不要要求我为了今日环绕我周围人类生命的污秽，而面对救恩的强烈真实；我想要的是神能为我做的一切，来使我在我自己眼中更加可取。」那样说话是神福音的真实尚未开始触摸到我的迹象；其中毫无对神不计后果的舍弃一切。当我只关注自己的品格时，神无法拯救我。保罗并没有觉察到自己；他是不顾后果地舍弃，完全降服，并被神分别出来为了一个目的，就是宣扬神的福音（参见罗马书9:3）。
来自章伯斯的智慧
祂将要擅自使用你的生命呢？还是你醉心于你对自己未来的构想？神对我们的生命负责，一个伟大的主旨就是不计后果地信赖祂。《蒙神悦纳》
0131 Do You See Your Calling?
…separated to the gospel of God… —Romans 1:1
Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the gospel of God. The one all-important thing is that the gospel of God should be recognized as the abiding reality. Reality is not human goodness, or holiness, or heaven, or hell— it is redemption. The need to perceive this is the most vital need of the Christian worker today. As workers, we have to get used to the revelation that redemption is the only reality. Personal holiness is an effect of redemption, not the cause of it. If we place our faith in human goodness we will go under when testing comes.
Paul did not say that he separated himself, but “when it pleased God, who separated me…” (Galatians 1:15). Paul was not overly interested in his own character. And as long as our eyes are focused on our own personal holiness, we will never even get close to the full reality of redemption. Christian workers fail because they place their desire for their own holiness above their desire to know God. “Don’t ask me to be confronted with the strong reality of redemption on behalf of the filth of human life surrounding me today; what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes.” To talk that way is a sign that the reality of the gospel of God has not begun to touch me. There is no reckless abandon to God in that. God cannot deliver me while my interest is merely in my own character. Paul was not conscious of himself. He was recklessly abandoned, totally surrendered, and separated by God for one purpose— to proclaim the gospel of God (see Romans 9:3).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Is He going to help Himself to your life, or are you taken up with your conception of what you are going to do? God is responsible for our lives, and the one great keynote is reckless reliance upon Him. –Approved Unto God, 10 R