0319 亚伯拉罕的信心生活
出去的时候，还不知往哪里去。 《希伯来书 11:8》
在旧约中，一个人与神的关系是通过他生活中的分离程度来看的；这种分离展现在亚伯拉罕的生活中，由他与他的国家和家人的分离可见。今天，当我们想到分离时，并不是指从字面上与那些与神没有个人关系的家人真的分离，而是指心思上和道德上与他们的观点分离。这就是耶稣基督在路加福音14:26中所指的。
过着信心的生活意味着永远不知道你会被带向何处，但确实意味着爱并认识那一位带领者。那确实是一种信心的生活，而不是理解和理性的生活——是认识呼召我们前行的主的生活。信心是扎根在对那个人的认识；而我们掉入的最大陷阱之一，就是认为如果我们有信心，神一定会带领我们在世上成功。
信心生活的最后阶段是品格的达到，在这个过程中我们会遇到许多变化。当我们祷告时，我们感觉到神的同在，然而我们只是短暂地改变了。我们倾向继续回到我们的日常生活方式，而荣耀消失了。
信心的生活不是如鹰展翅上腾那样经历一次又一次荣耀的山顶体验，而是日复一日前后一致的生活；是一种行走卻不疲乏的生活（见以赛亚书 40:31）。那甚至不是成圣的圣洁问题，而是进一步更长远的问题；那是一种经过考验和证明，经得起考验的信心的生活。亚伯拉罕不是成圣的圣洁预表或典范，而是信心生活的预表——一种经过试炼且真实的，建立在真神之上的信心。 「亚伯拉罕信神」（罗马书 4:3）
来自章伯斯的智慧
狂热分子是一个将自己根深蒂固于无敌的无知之中的人。《力图更佳战斗》
0319 Abraham’s Life of Faith
He went out, not knowing where he was going. —Hebrews 11:8
In the Old Testament, a person’s relationship with God was seen by the degree of separation in that person’s life. This separation is exhibited in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and his family. When we think of separation today, we do not mean to be literally separated from those family members who do not have a personal relationship with God, but to be separated mentally and morally from their viewpoints. This is what Jesus Christ was referring to in Luke 14:26.
Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason— a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in the world.
The final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of character, and we encounter many changes in the process. We feel the presence of God around us when we pray, yet we are only momentarily changed. We tend to keep going back to our everyday ways and the glory vanishes.
A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountaintop experience after another, like soaring on eagles’ wings, but is a life of day-in and day-out consistency; a life of walking without fainting (see Isaiah 40:31). It is not even a question of the holiness of sanctification, but of something which comes much farther down the road. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test. Abraham is not a type or an example of the holiness of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith— a faith, tested and true, built on the true God. “Abraham believed God…” (Romans 4:3).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
A fanatic is one who entrenches himself in invincible ignorance. –Baffled to Fight Better, 59 R