0403 如果你知道！
巴不得你在这日子知道关系你平安的事；无奈这事现在是隐藏的，叫你的眼看不出来。 《路加福音 19:42》
耶稣胜利地进入耶路撒冷，这座城市从根基上都被搅动了，但那里却有一个奇怪的神——法利赛人的骄傲。这是一个看似虔诚正直的神，但耶稣将它比作「粉饰的坟墓，外面好看，里面却装满了死人的骨头和一切的污秽。」（马太福音23:27）
是什么使你「在这日子」看不到神的平安？你是否有个奇怪的神——不是令人噁心的怪物，而可能是控制你生活不圣洁的本性？神不止一次让我面对我生命中奇怪的神，我知道我应该放弃它，但我没有这样做。我「好不容易」才度过危机，却发现自己仍然受那个奇怪的神的控制，我对那些真正让我平安的事情视而不见。令人震惊的是，我们可以处在神的灵对我们应该完全不受阻碍之地，但我们却只会使情况变得更糟，增加我们在神眼中的责备。
「如果你知道的话……」神的话直戳人心，背后有耶稣的眼泪；这些话暗示了我们要为自己的过错负责。神要我们对我们因罪而拒绝看到或无法看到的事情负责。而「现在它们对你的眼来说是隐藏的」，因为你从未完全将你的本性降服于祂。哦，对可能发生的事情有着深深、无尽的悲伤！神永远不会再打开已经关闭的门；祂打开其他的门，但祂提醒我们，有些门是我们已经关上的——那些门本来不需要关上的。当神带你回到过去时，永远不要害怕。让你的记忆自由而行；它是神的使者，带给你责备和悲伤。神会将原本可能发生的事情变成未来成长的美好教训。
来自章伯斯的智慧
「是我拣选了你们。」（约翰福音 15:16）。在你的信条中保留这个伟大的注解。不是你拥有了神，而是神拥有了你。《竭诚为主》， 10月25日
0403 “If You Had Known!”
If you had known…in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. —Luke 19:42
Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly and the city was stirred to its very foundations, but a strange god was there– the pride of the Pharisees. It was a god that seemed religious and upright, but Jesus compared it to “whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27).
What is it that blinds you to the peace of God “in this your day”? Do you have a strange god– not a disgusting monster but perhaps an unholy nature that controls your life? More than once God has brought me face to face with a strange god in my life, and I knew that I should have given it up, but I didn’t do it. I got through the crisis “by the skin of my teeth,” only to find myself still under the control of that strange god. I am blind to the very things that make for my own peace. It is a shocking thing that we can be in the exact place where the Spirit of God should be having His completely unhindered way with us, and yet we only make matters worse, increasing our blame in God’s eyes.
“If you had known….” God’s words here cut directly to the heart, with the tears of Jesus behind them. These words imply responsibility for our own faults. God holds us accountable for what we refuse to see or are unable to see because of our sin. And “now they are hidden from your eyes” because you have never completely yielded your nature to Him. Oh, the deep, unending sadness for what might have been! God never again opens the doors that have been closed. He opens other doors, but He reminds us that there are doors which we have shut– doors which had no need to be shut. Never be afraid when God brings back your past. Let your memory have its way with you. It is a minister of God bringing its rebuke and sorrow to you. God will turn what might have been into a wonderful lesson of growth for the future.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
“I have chosen you” (John 15:16). Keep that note of greatness in your creed. It is not that you have got God, but that He has got you. –My Utmost for His Highest, October 25, 837 R