1125 屬靈一致的秘訣
我斷不以別的誇口，只誇我們主耶穌基督的十字架…《加拉太書 6:14》
當一個人剛剛重生時，他似乎是不一致的，因他不相關的情緒和生活中的外在事物或環境之故。使徒保羅在他的生活中有着強大穩定的根本一致性。因此，他可以讓他外在生活雖有改變，卻無內在苦惱，因為他紮根建基在神之上。我們大多數人靈性並不一致，因為我們更關心外在的一致性。在外在的表現上，保羅生活在地下室，批評他的人則活在上層；而這兩個層面並未開始相互接觸。但保羅的一致性是根深蒂固的，他一致性的偉大基礎是在神救贖世界時所承受的痛苦，即基督的十字架。
要向你自己重述你的信仰，回到基督十字架的根基上，摒棄任何不以此為基礎的信仰。在世俗歷史中，十字架是微不足道的事情，但從聖經的角度來看，它比世界上所有王國都還重要。如果我們在講道中不去思想神在十字架上的悲劇，我們的講道就毫無成效。它不能將神的能量傳遞給人；它可能很有趣，但它毫無力量。然而，當我們傳講十字架時，神的能力就被釋放出來。 「…神就樂意用人所當作愚拙的道理，拯救那些信的人…我們卻是傳釘十字架的基督。」（哥林多前書 1:21, 23）
來自章伯斯的智慧
耶穌基督可以承受被誤解；我們不能。我們的弱點在於總是想要為自己辯護。《幫助之地》
1125 The Secret of Spiritual Consistency
God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ… —Galatians 6:14
When a person is newly born again, he seems inconsistent due to his unrelated emotions and the state of the external things or circumstances in his life. The apostle Paul had a strong and steady underlying consistency in his life. Consequently, he could let his external life change without internal distress because he was rooted and grounded in God. Most of us are not consistent spiritually because we are more concerned about being consistent externally. In the external expression of things, Paul lived in the basement, while his critics lived on the upper level. And these two levels do not begin to touch each other. But Paul’s consistency was down deep in the fundamentals. The great basis of his consistency was the agony of God in the redemption of the world, namely, the Cross of Christ.
State your beliefs to yourself again. Get back to the foundation of the Cross of Christ, doing away with any belief not based on it. In secular history the Cross is an infinitesimally small thing, but from the biblical perspective it is of more importance than all the empires of the world. If we get away from dwelling on the tragedy of God on the Cross in our preaching, our preaching produces nothing. It will not transmit the energy of God to man; it may be interesting, but it will have no power. However, when we preach the Cross, the energy of God is released. “…it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.…we preach Christ crucified…” (1 Corinthians 1:21, 23).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves. –The Place of Help, 1051 L