0930 呼召的分配
現在我為你們受苦，倒覺歡樂，並且為基督的身體，就是為教會，要在我肉身上補滿基督患難的缺欠。《歌羅西書 1:24》
我們把自己的屬靈奉獻並試圖變成神的呼召，但當我們與神和好時，神把這一切都拋在一邊。然後祂給我一個巨大的痛苦，將我們注意力繫於某事，我們甚至從未夢想過那可能是祂對我們的呼召。在光芒閃現時刻，我們看到了祂的目的，我們說：「我在這裡！請差遣我。」（以賽亞書 6:8）
這個呼召與個人成聖無關，而是與擘開的餅和澆奠的酒有關。然而，如果我們反對神選擇用來壓碎我們的指頭，神就永遠無法將我們變成酒。我們說：「如果神只用祂自己的手指，以特殊的方式使我成為擘開的餅，澆奠的酒，我就不會反對！」但當祂使用我們不喜歡的人，或我們曾說絕不會屈服的某些環境來壓垮我們時，那時我們就會反對。然而，我們絕不可試圖選擇自己的殉難地點。如果我們要被釀成酒，我們就必須被壓碎——你不能喝葡萄，葡萄只有在被壓榨後才會變成酒。
我想知道神用什麼手指頭來擠壓你？你是否像大理石那樣堅硬並逃離？如果你還沒有成熟，如果神還是擠壓你，所出產的酒會非常的苦。成為一個聖潔的人，意味着我們天然生命的元素在服事神的過程中，被神護佑地破碎時，經歷到神的臨在。我們必須被放在神裡面，與神一致，然後我們才能在神手裡成為擘開的餅。要與神保持正確的關係，讓祂做祂想做的事，你會發現祂正在生產讓祂其他兒女得益處的餅和酒。
來自章伯斯的智慧
神設計環境要看我們如何行事。我們會成為天父的孩子？或會再次回到卑鄙、常識的態度？我們會冒一切風險並忠於祂嗎？「你要至死忠心，我就賜給你生命的冠冕。」生命的冠冕意味着我將看到我的主最終獲得了勝利，甚至在我身上也是。《至善—朝聖者歌集》
0930 The Assigning of the Call
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church… —Colossians 1:24
We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).
This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, “If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!” But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed—you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.
I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.
God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me. The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L