0922 服事者之主人与老师
你们称呼我夫子，称呼我主，你们说得不错，我本来是…我实实在在地告诉你们，仆人不能大于主人…《约翰福音 13:13, 16》
拥有主人和老师并不等于被主宰，被人驱使和被教导；有主人和有老师，意味着有一位比我更了解我自己，比朋友更亲近，能了解我内心最深处，并能全然满足我内心的深处。那意味着有一位让我安全地确知他已满足并解决我心中所有疑虑、不确定性和问题。拥有一位主人和老师就是这样，不折不扣地——「…只有一位是你们的师尊，就是基督…」（马太福音 23:10）。
我们的主从不采取措施迫使我做祂想要的事。有时我希望神能主宰、掌控我，让我做祂要我做的事，但祂不会；而有时我希望祂离开我，但祂没有。
「你们称呼我夫子，称呼我主…」——但祂是吗？老师、师尊和主在我们的词汇中几乎没有什么地位，我们更喜欢救主、使人成圣者和医治者这些词。唯一真正描述被主宰经验之词是爱，而我们对神在祂话语中所启示的爱知之甚少。我们使用「服从、顺从」这个词的方式就证明了这一点。在圣经中，服从是建立在平等关系的基础上，例如，子与父的关系。我们的主不仅仅是神的仆人——祂是神的儿子。「…他虽然为儿子…还是…学会了顺从。」（希伯来书 5:8）。如果我们有意识地注意到我们正在被主宰，那么这个想法本身就是我们没有主人之明证。如果这是我们对耶稣的态度，我们离祂想要与我们的关系还很远；祂希望我们的关系，是祂很容易是我们的主人和老师。如此自然，以至于我们没有意识到这一点——一种关系，在其中我们只知道我们是祂的并顺从祂。
来自章伯斯的智慧
我们都有这样说话的技巧：但愿我不是在如今这个环境中！但愿我没有与这些人一起生活！如果我们的信仰或宗教在我们所处的光景中不能帮助我们，我们要么还需要经历进一步的挣扎，要么我们最好放弃那种信仰和宗教。《痛苦的阴影》
0922 The Missionary’s Master and Teacher
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am ….I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master… —John 13:13, 16
To have a master and teacher is not the same thing as being mastered and taught. Having a master and teacher means that there is someone who knows me better than I know myself, who is closer than a friend, and who understands the remotest depths of my heart and is able to satisfy them fully. It means having someone who has made me secure in the knowledge that he has met and solved all the doubts, uncertainties, and problems in my mind. To have a master and teacher is this and nothing less— “…for One is your Teacher, the Christ…” (Matthew 23:10).
Our Lord never takes measures to make me do what He wants. Sometimes I wish God would master and control me to make me do what He wants, but He will not. And at other times I wish He would leave me alone, and He does not.
“You call Me Teacher and Lord…”— but is He? Teacher, Master, and Lord have little place in our vocabulary. We prefer the words Savior, Sanctifier, and Healer. The only word that truly describes the experience of being mastered is love, and we know little about love as God reveals it in His Word. The way we use the word obey is proof of this. In the Bible, obedience is based on a relationship between equals; for example, that of a son with his father. Our Lord was not simply God’s servant— He was His Son. “…though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience…” (Hebrews 5:8). If we are consciously aware that we are being mastered, that idea itself is proof that we have no master. If that is our attitude toward Jesus, we are far away from having the relationship He wants with us. He wants us in a relationship where He is so easily our Master and Teacher that we have no conscious awareness of it— a relationship where all we know is that we are His to obey.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. –The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L