0910 服事者的武器（1）
…你在無花果樹底下，我就看見你了。《約翰福音 1:48》
在日常場合的敬拜。我們假設如果面臨重大危機，我們會做好爭戰的準備，但並不是危機在我們內心構建了什麼——它只是揭示了我們已經構建了什麼。你是否發現自己在說：「如果神呼召我去爭戰，我必然會迎刃而上」？然而，你不會迎刃而上，除非你在神的訓練場上做到了。如果你現在不做神在你生命中所安排最近的任務，那麼當危機來臨時，你將被顯明是不適合爭戰的。危機總是能揭示一個人真實的品格。
私人敬拜神的關係是靈性健康最重要的要素。正如拿但業在這段經文中所經歷的那樣，時候到了，私下的「無花果樹」生活將不再可能。一切都會暴露在光天化日之下，如果你在自己家裡日常場合中一向沒有敬拜神，你會發現自己是毫無價值。如果與神的個人關係中你的敬拜是正確的，那麼當祂使你得自由時，你才準備好了。在只有神看見的未受注意的生命中，你是變得完全適合。當危機的壓力來臨時，你是可以被神信賴的。
你是否在說：「但在我目前處境中，不能期待我過成聖的生活；我現在沒有時間禱告或讀經；此外，我的爭戰機會還沒有到來，但當它來臨時，我當然會做好準備」？不，你不會的。如果你沒有在日常場合中敬拜神，當你參與神的工作時，你自己不僅是毫無用處，同時還會成為你周圍人的障礙。
神的訓練場，找到服事者的武器所在，就是聖徒隱私、個人的敬拜生活。
來自章伯斯的智慧
隨着年齡的增長，我是否變得更高尚、更好、更有幫助、更謙卑呢？我是否展現出讓人認識到與耶穌同在的生命？或者我是否變得更加自我主張，更加有意地堅持自己的方式？對自己說真話是一件很偉大的事情。《幫助之地》
0910 Missionary Weapons (1)
When you were under the fig tree, I saw you. —John 1:48
Worshiping in Everyday Occasions. We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us— it simply reveals what we are made of already. Do you find yourself saying, “If God calls me to battle, of course I will rise to the occasion”? Yet you won’t rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God’s training ground. If you are not doing the task that is closest to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crisis comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit. Crises always reveal a person’s true character.
A private relationship of worshiping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness. The time will come, as Nathanael experienced in this passage, that a private “fig-tree” life will no longer be possible. Everything will be out in the open, and you will find yourself to be of no value there if you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions in your own home. If your worship is right in your private relationship with God, then when He sets you free, you will be ready. It is in the unseen life, which only God saw, that you have become perfectly fit. And when the strain of the crisis comes, you can be relied upon by God.
Are you saying, “But I can’t be expected to live a sanctified life in my present circumstances; I have no time for prayer or Bible study right now; besides, my opportunity for battle hasn’t come yet, but when it does, of course I will be ready”? No, you will not. If you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions, when you get involved in God’s work, you will not only be useless yourself but also a hindrance to those around you.
God’s training ground, where the missionary weapons are found, is the hidden, personal, worshiping life of the saint.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.– The Place of Help