0717 信的神迹
我说的话，讲的道，不是用智慧委婉的言语…《哥林多前书 2:4》
保罗是一位最高水平的学者和演说家，他在这里并不是出于极深的谦卑才这样说，他是说当他传福音时，如果他以卓越的演说给人们留下深刻的印象，他就会遮盖了神的大能。信耶稣，乃是神迹，只能通过救赎的效力所产生，不是通过令人印象深刻的演说，也不是通过争取和说服，而只是通过神十足独立的力量。救赎的创造大能来自于传讲福音，永远不是因为传道人的人格。
传道人真实及有效的禁食，不是禁食物，而是禁雄辩口才，禁令人印象深刻的措辞，禁一切可能阻碍神的福音被陈述的事物。传道人在这里是作为神的代表——「…就好像神藉我们劝你们一般…」（哥林多后书 5:20）；他在那里陈述神的福音。如果人们仅仅因为我的讲道而渴望变得更好，他们永远无法接近耶稣基督。
在我传福音中，任何我的自信都会导致我成为耶稣的叛徒，并且我会阻碍了祂救赎的创造大能作工。去发挥作用。
「我若从地上被举起来，就要吸引万人来归我。」（约翰福音 12:32）。
来自章伯斯的智慧
我们在黑暗中才是真实的我们；其他一切都是名誉。神看的是我们在黑暗中的所是：我们思维中的想象，内心的思想，身体的习惯；这些是在神眼中标记我们的事情。《神的爱——不被注意的事工》
0717 The Miracle of Belief
My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom… —1 Corinthians 2:4
Paul was a scholar and an orator of the highest degree; he was not speaking here out of a deep sense of humility, but was saying that when he preached the gospel, he would veil the power of God if he impressed people with the excellency of his speech. Belief in Jesus is a miracle produced only by the effectiveness of redemption, not by impressive speech, nor by wooing and persuading, but only by the sheer unaided power of God. The creative power of redemption comes through the preaching of the gospel, but never because of the personality of the preacher.
Real and effective fasting by a preacher is not fasting from food, but fasting from eloquence, from impressive diction, and from everything else that might hinder the gospel of God being presented. The preacher is there as the representative of God— “…as though God were pleading through us…” (2 Corinthians 5:20). He is there to present the gospel of God. If it is only because of my preaching that people desire to be better, they will never get close to Jesus Christ.
Anything that flatters me in my preaching of the gospel will result in making me a traitor to Jesus, and I prevent the creative power of His redemption from doing its work.
“And I, if I am lifted up…, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are only what we are in the dark; all the rest is reputation. What God looks at is what we are in the dark—the imaginations of our minds; the thoughts of our heart; the habits of our bodies; these are the things that mark us in God’s sight. The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 669 L