0623 常经忧患
他是个「被人厌弃，多受痛苦，常经忧患。」 《以赛亚书 53:3》
我们不像我们的主那样「常经忧患」。我们忍受它并经历它，但我们并没有变得与它亲密。在我们生命之初，并没有把自己带到面对罪的真实的程度。我们用理性的眼光来看待生命，认为如果一个人能够控制自己的本能，并教育自己，他就能创造出一种慢慢地进化成神的生命。但当我们生命继续活下去时，我们发现有某种我们尚未考虑到的东西的存在，那就是罪——它打乱了我们所有的思想和计划。罪使我们的思维基础变得不可预测、无可控制和非理性的。
我们必须认识到罪是生活中的一个事实，而不仅仅是一个缺点。罪是对神公然的反抗，在我的生命中，要么罪，要么神必须死去。新约把我们带到这一个议题上：如果罪在我里面统治，在我里面神的生命将会被杀死；如果神在我里面统治，在我里面的罪就会被杀死。再没有什么比这个问题更根本的了。罪的顶峰是耶稣基督被钉在十字架上，神在地上的历史中的真实，在你我的历史中也是真实的，那就是：罪会杀死在我们里面神的生命。我们必须在心志上接受这个罪的事实，这是耶稣基督来到世上的唯一解释，也是对生命伤恸和悲哀的解释。
来自章伯斯的智慧
我们没有权利决定我们应该被安置在何处，也不能有关于神正在准备我们做什么的预设观念。神设计了一切；无论祂把我们安置在哪里，我们唯一至高的目标应该是在这项特定的工作中，倾注我们的生命，全心委身于神。「凡你手所当做的事，要尽力去做。」《竭诚为主》 4 月 23 日
0623 Acquainted With Grief
He is…a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. —Isaiah 53:3
We are not “acquainted with grief” in the same way our Lord was acquainted with it. We endure it and live through it, but we do not become intimate with it. At the beginning of our lives we do not bring ourselves to the point of dealing with the reality of sin. We look at life through the eyes of reason and say that if a person will control his instincts, and educate himself, he can produce a life that will slowly evolve into the life of God. But as we continue on through life, we find the presence of something which we have not yet taken into account, namely, sin— and it upsets all of our thinking and our plans. Sin has made the foundation of our thinking unpredictable, uncontrollable, and irrational.
We have to recognize that sin is a fact of life, not just a shortcoming. Sin is blatant mutiny against God, and either sin or God must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue— if sin rules in me, God’s life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is nothing more fundamental than that. The culmination of sin was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and what was true in the history of God on earth will also be true in your history and in mine— that is, sin will kill the life of God in us. We must mentally bring ourselves to terms with this fact of sin. It is the only explanation why Jesus Christ came to earth, and it is the explanation of the grief and sorrow of life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L