0322 火热之心
我们的心岂不是火热的吗？ 《路加福音 24:32》
我们需要学习火热之心的秘诀。突然，耶稣向我们显现，火焰被点燃，并我们被赐下奇妙的异象；但接下来我们必须学会保持火热之心的秘诀——一颗能够经受一切的心。就是那些简单、沉闷的日子，伴随司空见惯的职责和人，会窒息我们火热的心，除非我们学会了住在耶稣里的秘诀。
我们作为基督徒所经历的许多痛苦并不是罪的结果，而是因为我们对自己本性的法则无知。例如，我们应该用来决定是否允许某种特定情感在我们生活中发展的唯一测试，乃是检查该情感的最终结果是什么。想清楚它的逻辑结论，若结果是神会谴责的，要立即停止。但如果那是一种被神的灵点燃的情感，而你不允许它在你的生活中发挥作用，那么它会引发更低于神想要的水平的反应。这就是不切实际和过于情绪化的人所形成的方式。情感越高，如果没有在预期的水平上运用，其腐败的程度就越深。如果神的灵感动了你，要尽可能地做出不可撤销的决定，并让后果顺其自然。我们不能永远停留在「变像山」上，沐浴在我们山顶经历的光中（见马可福音9:1-9）。但我们必须顺服我们在那里所得到的亮光，我们必须付诸行动。当神赐给我们异象时，我们必须在那点上与祂互动，无论代价是什么。
我们不能随愿点燃
心里已存的火焰
灵吹动又安静，
我们的灵魂住在神秘之中；
但洞察力之时完成的任务
可在忧郁之时完成。
来自章伯斯的智慧
圣经是事实的联系，其中的真实性必须经过考验。生活可能会一帆风顺一段时间，突然间却发生丧亲之痛，或某个危机；单恋或新恋，灾难，生意倒闭，或令人震惊的罪，而我们再次打开圣经，神的话就直接触动我们心灵，我们会说：「哎呀，我以前在那里从未见过。」《神手之荫》
0322 The Burning Heart
Did not our heart burn within us…? —Luke 24:32
We need to learn this secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, fires are set ablaze, and we are given wonderful visions; but then we must learn to maintain the secret of the burning heart— a heart that can go through anything. It is the simple, dreary day, with its commonplace duties and people, that smothers the burning heart— unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus.
Much of the distress we experience as Christians comes not as the result of sin, but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own nature. For instance, the only test we should use to determine whether or not to allow a particular emotion to run its course in our lives is to examine what the final outcome of that emotion will be. Think it through to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something that God would condemn, put a stop to it immediately. But if it is an emotion that has been kindled by the Spirit of God and you don’t allow it to have its way in your life, it will cause a reaction on a lower level than God intended. That is the way unrealistic and overly emotional people are made. And the higher the emotion, the deeper the level of corruption, if it is not exercised on its intended level. If the Spirit of God has stirred you, make as many of your decisions as possible irrevocable, and let the consequences be what they will. We cannot stay forever on the “mount of transfiguration,” basking in the light of our mountaintop experience (see Mark 9:1-9). But we must obey the light we received there; we must put it into action. When God gives us a vision, we must transact business with Him at that point, no matter what the cost.
We cannot kindle when we will
The fire which in the heart resides,
The spirit bloweth and is still,
In mystery our soul abides;
But tasks in hours of insight willed
Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is a relation of facts, the truth of which must be tested. Life may go on all right for a while, when suddenly a bereavement comes, or some crisis; unrequited love or a new love, a disaster, a business collapse, or a shocking sin, and we turn up our Bibles again and God’s word comes straight home, and we say, “Why, I never saw that there before.” –Shade of His Hand, 1223 L