0530 是的—但是!
主啊,我要跟从你,但…… 《路加福音9:61》
假设神告诉你去做某事,那对你的常识来说是一个巨大的考验,是完全违背了常识,你会怎么做?你能退缩吗?如果你养成了肉体行事的习惯,每次你受到考验时你都会做它,直到你透过十足的决心打破这个习惯。灵性上亦为真,你会一次又一次地达到耶稣的要求,但每次你都会在真正的考验点上退缩,直到你决心完全降服于神,将自己交给神。然而我们倾向于说:「是的,但是——假设我在这件事上确实服从神,那么……」或者我们说:「是的,如果神对我的要求不违背我的常识,我会服从祂,但不要要求我在黑暗中迈出一步。」
耶稣基督要求那些信靠祂的人,有天然人所展现的同样无拘无束、冒险的精神。如果一个人想做任何有价值的事情,他必须在某些时候冒着一切风险在黑暗中跳跃。在属灵领域里,耶稣基督要求你冒险,把你通过常识所坚持或相信的一切,藉着信心跳跃到祂所说的。一旦你顺服了,你立刻就会发现祂说的话和常识一样坚定一致的。
藉着常识的检验,耶稣基督的言论可能显得疯狂,但当你用信心的考验来检验它们时,你的发现会以令人敬畏的事实充满你的灵,即它们正是神的话语。要完全相信神,当祂给你带来一个新的冒险机会时,将它献给你,要确保你抓住它。我们在危机中表现得像异教徒一样,整个群众中只有一个人敢于将他的信心投资在神的品格中。
来自章伯斯的智慧
我们面临当神温柔时我们严厉,当神严厉时我们温柔的危险。《神的爱—无敌安慰的信息》
0530 Yes—But…!
Lord, I will follow You, but… —Luke 9:61
Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will come right up to what Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the true point of testing, until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender. Yet we tend to say, “Yes, but— suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about…?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.”
Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he must risk everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith into what He says. Once you obey, you will immediately find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense.
By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God. Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis— only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L