0131 你明白你的呼召了嗎？
耶穌基督的僕人保羅，奉召為使徒，特派傳神的福音。《羅馬書 1:1》
我們的呼召首要不是成為聖潔的人，而是成為神福音的宣揚者。唯一至關重要的，乃是神的福音應該被認識為永久的真實。真實並非人的善行，或聖潔，或天堂或地獄 ，而是救贖。今天基督工人最關鍵的需求是需要意識到這一點。身為工人，我們必須習慣於救贖是唯一真實的啟示。個人的聖潔是救贖的結果，而不是原因。如果我們把信心寄托在人善上，當考驗來臨時，我們就會失敗。
保羅沒有說他把自己分別出來，而是「神樂意，把我從母腹里分別出來…」（加拉太書1:15-16）。保羅對自己的品格並不過於關注；只要我們的目光集中在自己個人的聖潔上，我們就永遠無法接近救贖的全部真實。基督工人的失敗，是因為他們把追求自身聖潔的渴望置於認識神的渴望之上。「不要要求我為了今日環繞我周圍人類生命的污穢，而面對救恩的強烈真實；我想要的是神能為我做的一切，來使我在我自己眼中更加可取。」那樣說話是神福音的真實尚未開始觸摸到我的跡象；其中毫無對神不計後果的捨棄一切。當我只關注自己的品格時，神無法拯救我。保羅並沒有覺察到自己；他是不顧後果地捨棄，完全降服，並被神分別出來為了一個目的，就是宣揚神的福音（參見羅馬書9:3）。
來自章伯斯的智慧
祂將要擅自使用你的生命呢？還是你醉心於你對自己未來的構想？神對我們的生命負責，一個偉大的主旨就是不計後果地信賴祂。《蒙神悅納》
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