1018 传道者忠心的关键
…他们是为主的名出外…《约翰三书 7》
当我们的主问「你爱我吗？」祂告诉我们，我们对祂的爱是如何表现出来的（约翰福音 21:17）。然后祂说：「喂养我的羊。」实际上，祂是说「你要认同我对其他人的关心」，而不是「要我认同你对其他人的关心。」哥林多前书 13:4-8 向我们表明这种爱的特征——它实际上是神的爱的表达。我对耶稣的爱真正的考验是非常实际的考验，其余的都是情绪化言语。
忠于耶稣基督，是圣灵在我里面做成救赎的超自然之工——「所赐给我们的圣灵将神的爱浇灌在我们心里…」（罗马书5:5）。正是我内心的那份爱，透过我与我所遇见每个人接触有效地工作。尽管我生活的常识看法似乎否定祂，并且好像是在宣称祂的力量比不上晨雾之大，我仍保持忠于祂的名。
传道者忠心的关键，乃是他不依恋任何人事物，除了我们的主自己之外。那不表示脱离我们周围的外在；我们的主与生活日常事物有着令人惊讶的接触，但祂的内心除了对神的依附，却是对外界事物疏离。外部的疏离是一种迹象，就是我们往往对外部保持距离的事物，实际上却是一种秘密而不断增长的内心依附。
一个忠心传道者的职责，是专注保持自己灵魂完全且持续地向主耶稣基督的本质敞开。我们的主尝试差派出去做工的人都是平凡人，但他们是被对祂的忠贞所支配的人，那是通过圣灵的工作带出来的。
来自章伯斯的智慧
文明是建立在意味着瞬间即永恒的原则之上。唯一永恒的是神，如果我把其他任何东西视为永恒，我就成了无神论者。我必须只建立在神的基础上（约翰福音14:6）。《至善——祢伟大的救赎》
1018 The Key to the Missionary’s Devotion
…they went forth for His name’s sake… —3 John 7
Our Lord told us how our love for Him is to exhibit itself when He asked, “Do you love Me?” (John 21:17). And then He said, “Feed My sheep.” In effect, He said, “Identify yourself with My interests in other people,” not, “Identify Me with your interests in other people.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 shows us the characteristics of this love— it is actually the love of God expressing itself. The true test of my love for Jesus is a very practical one, and all the rest is sentimental talk.
Faithfulness to Jesus Christ is the supernatural work of redemption that has been performed in me by the Holy Spirit— “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit…” (Romans 5:5). And it is that love in me that effectively works through me and comes in contact with everyone I meet. I remain faithful to His name, even though the commonsense view of my life may seemingly deny that, and may appear to be declaring that He has no more power than the morning mist.
The key to the missionary’s devotion is that he is attached to nothing and to no one except our Lord Himself. It does not mean simply being detached from the external things surrounding us. Our Lord was amazingly in touch with the ordinary things of life, but He had an inner detachment except toward God. External detachment is often an actual indication of a secret, growing, inner attachment to the things we stay away from externally.
The duty of a faithful missionary is to concentrate on keeping his soul completely and continually open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The men and women our Lord sends out on His endeavors are ordinary human people, but people who are controlled by their devotion to Him, which has been brought about through the work of the Holy Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Civilization is based on principles which imply that the passing moment is permanent. The only permanent thing is God, and if I put anything else as permanent, I become atheistic. I must build only on God (John 14:6). The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 L