0616 你願意捨棄自己的生命嗎？
人為朋友捨命，人的愛心沒有比這個大的…我乃稱你們為朋友…《 約翰福音 15:13, 15》
耶穌並不要求我為祂死，但要我為祂捨棄生命。彼得對主說：「主啊，我為什麼現在不能跟你去？我願意為你捨命。」 他是認真的（約翰福音 13:37）。他有一種偉大的英雄感。對於我們來說，無法像彼得那樣做出同樣的聲明是不好的——我們的責任感只有通過我們的英雄主義意識才能充分實現。主是否曾問過你：「你願意為我捨命嗎？」(約翰福音 13:38)。死亡比每天進進出出懷着神崇高呼召的意識而捨命，是要容易多了。我們受造不是為生命中輝煌時刻而被造，但我們必須在在日常生活方式中行走在其光中。耶穌的生命中只有一次輝煌的時刻，那就是在變像山上；正是在那裡，祂第二次倒空了自己的榮耀，然後下到被鬼附的山谷（見馬可福音9:1-29）。三十三年來，耶穌舍了祂的生命去遵行天父的旨意。「主為我們捨命，我們從此就知道何為愛，我們也當為弟兄捨命。」(約翰一書 3:16)。然而，那是與我們人性相反的。
如果我是耶穌的朋友，我必須刻意並謹慎地為祂捨命。那是很難做到的一件事，感謝神，它是一件困難的事；救恩對我們來說是容易的，因為神付出了昂貴的代價。但在我的生命中展示救恩是很困難的。神拯救一個人，以聖靈充滿他，然後實際上說：「現在你在你的生活中要做出來，並對我忠誠，即使你周圍每件事物的本質要使你不忠誠。」耶穌對我們說，「…我稱你們為朋友…」，要保持對你的朋友忠誠，並記得祂的尊榮在你的肉身生活是有風險的。
來自章伯斯的智慧
熾熱的熔爐是在神的直接許可下而存在的。認為無論我們的環境如何，我們都會得到發展成長，這是一種誤導。我們因它們而發展成長。在環境中的掌握，是需要的，而不是對環境的掌握。《神的愛——無敵安慰的信息》
0616 Will You Lay Down Your Life
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends….I have called you friends… —John 15:13, 15
Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him. Peter said to the Lord, “I will lay down my life for Your sake,” and he meant it (John 13:37). He had a magnificent sense of the heroic. For us to be incapable of making this same statement Peter made would be a bad thing— our sense of duty is only fully realized through our sense of heroism. Has the Lord ever asked you, “Will you lay down your life for My sake?” (John 13:38). It is much easier to die than to lay down your life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling of God. We are not made for the bright-shining moments of life, but we have to walk in the light of them in our everyday ways. There was only one bright-shining moment in the life of Jesus, and that was on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was there that He emptied Himself of His glory for the second time, and then came down into the demon-possessed valley (see Mark 9:1-29). For thirty-three years Jesus laid down His life to do the will of His Father. “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). Yet it is contrary to our human nature to do so.
If I am a friend of Jesus, I must deliberately and carefully lay down my life for Him. It is a difficult thing to do, and thank God that it is. Salvation is easy for us, because it cost God so much. But the exhibiting of salvation in my life is difficult. God saves a person, fills him with the Holy Spirit, and then says, in effect, “Now you work it out in your life, and be faithful to Me, even though the nature of everything around you is to cause you to be unfaithful.” And Jesus says to us, “…I have called you friends….” Remain faithful to your Friend, and remember that His honor is at stake in your bodily life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The fiery furnaces are there by God’s direct permission. It is misleading to imagine that we are developed in spite of our circumstances; we are developed because of them. It is mastery in circumstances that is needed, not mastery over them. –The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 674 R