0612 到达那里（2）
他们说：「拉比，在哪里住？」耶稣说：「你们来看。」 《 约翰福音 1:38-39》
在那里，我们自身利益沉睡之处，真正利益就被唤醒。「他们…这一天便与他同住。」 这就是我们中一些人所做的全部。我们与祂在一起的时间很短，醒来后即面对我们自己的生活现实。我们的私利上升，我们与祂同在成为过去。然而，生活中没有任何情况是我们不能住在耶稣里面的。
「你是约翰的儿子西门，你要称为矶法」（约翰福音 1:42）。神只在我们生命中那些祂已经抹去我们的骄傲、自给自足和自私自利的地方，写下我们的新名字。我们中的一些人的新名字只写在某些地方，好像灵麻疹。在我们生活的那些领域，我们看起来还不错。当我们处于最好的灵性状态时，你会认为我们是最高品质的圣徒。但当我们不处于那种心情时，不要胆敢看我们。真正的门徒，他的新名字是写在全身的人——自我利益、骄傲、自满都被彻底抹去了。
骄傲是把「自我」当作我们的神的罪。今天我们中的一些人这样做，不是像法利赛人，而是像税吏（见路加福音18:9-14）。如果你说，「哦，我不是圣徒」，按照人类的骄傲标准，这是可以接受的，但这是无意识地亵渎神。你藐视神让你成为圣徒，仿佛在说：「我太软弱、太绝望了，在基督十字架的赎罪之外。」你为什么不是个圣徒？要么是你不想成为圣徒，要么就是你不相信神能使你成为圣徒。你说如果神拯救你，并直接带你到天堂就好了。那正是祂要做的！我们不仅要与祂同住，而且耶稣谈到祂的父和祂自己时说：「…我们要到他那里去，与他同住」（约翰福音 14:23）。不要给你的生活设定条件——让耶稣成为你的一切，祂会带你回家与祂在一起，不仅是一天，而是永恒。
来自章伯斯的智慧
我们容易认为发生在我们身上的一切，都要转化为有益的教训；它是要成为比教训更好的东西，即转化为品格。我们会发现，神带我们进入的领域并不是要教导我们什么，而是要陶塑我们。《神的爱——不被注意的事工》
0612 Getting There (2)
They said to Him, “Rabbi…where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” —John 1:38-39
Where our self-interest sleeps and the real interest is awakened. “They…remained with Him that day….” That is about all some of us ever do. We stay with Him a short time, only to wake up to our own realities of life. Our self-interest rises up and our abiding with Him is past. Yet there is no circumstance of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus.
“You are Simon….You shall be called Cephas” (John 1:42). God writes our new name only on those places in our lives where He has erased our pride, self-sufficiency, and self-interest. Some of us have our new name written only in certain spots, like spiritual measles. And in those areas of our lives we look all right. When we are in our best spiritual mood, you would think we were the highest quality saints. But don’t dare look at us when we are not in that mood. A true disciple is one who has his new name written all over him— self-interest, pride, and self-sufficiency have been completely erased.
Pride is the sin of making “self” our god. And some of us today do this, not like the Pharisee, but like the tax collector (see Luke 18:9-14). For you to say, “Oh, I’m no saint,” is acceptable by human standards of pride, but it is unconscious blasphemy against God. You defy God to make you a saint, as if to say, “I am too weak and hopeless and outside the reach of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.” Why aren’t you a saint? It is either that you do not want to be a saint, or that you do not believe that God can make you into one. You say it would be all right if God saved you and took you straight to heaven. That is exactly what He will do! And not only do we make our home with Him, but Jesus said of His Father and Himself, “…We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23). Put no conditions on your life— let Jesus be everything to you, and He will take you home with Him not only for a day, but for eternity.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching; it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz. into character. We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something. The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 664 L