經文: 「我們把所看見所聽見的向你們宣揚,使你們也可以和我們心靈相通。我們是與父和祂的兒子耶穌基督心靈相通的。」—「聖經[新譯本]·約翰一書 1章3節」
這段經文給人多麼大的啟示呀!一個福音使者所傳揚的信息,莫過於告訴世人,耶穌已為眾人打開一條又新又活的路,就是每一個人,每天都可以自由地來到耶穌面前與祂相近相親。傳道者自己也活出這樣的蒙福生活,他每天的生活就是一篇鏗鏘有力的講道,向世人證明一個平凡人,也能過著時時刻刻有主同在的生活,在地彷若已在天。
這段經文也提醒牧者或傳道人,每天首要的工作是親近主,與主有紮實深厚的親密關係,如此才能滿心喜樂地分享他的見證,也才能懇切篤定地向別人傳揚,他的經歷是真實的,他的話語信息才能有力地扎入人心,說:「我們將這些話寫給你們,使你們的喜樂充足。」(約翰壹書 一4)
在一九一四年IRM的十月份刊物上,有一篇文章,提到奇士偉(Keswick)佈道團主任的信念:「平信徒只要養成一個習慣,就是毫無保留地降服耶穌,全心全意地順服聖靈的感動,讓主耶穌來掌管你全人,你就可以過著時時刻刻有耶穌同在的奇妙生活。」,這樣的教導叫我們明白,我們可以藉著聖靈隨時隨地支取上帝的愛與能力,並且鼓勵我們效法耶穌的榜樣,祂是怎樣順服天父的旨意——喝下苦杯,走上十字架;我們也當如此將自己當作活祭獻上,因為如此事奉乃是理所當然的。
與上帝每日時刻同在,乃是使服事得力和過得勝生活的祕訣,並能向眾人見證,因著有耶穌同在與聖靈的內住,我們可以脫離罪惡的網羅、勝過罪惡的權勢,轉而將自己的肢體當作義的器具,而且越服事主就越喜樂。
就是這樣「與主同在」的親密關係,顯明聖經的應許:「我就常與你們同在。」(馬太福音 廿八20),每一位傳道人或平信徒都需要這樣的生活,而且也可以有權利向上帝求告,擁有這樣「與主相親」的生活;也惟有如此的生活,才能帶出影響力,打通週圍人的心,讓他們羨慕嚮往能擁有這樣的生活。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
(每日靈修 7月26日)
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
『 John’s Missionary Message 』
Scripture: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” — (1 John 1:3)
What a revelation of the calling of the preacher of the Gospel! His message is nothing less than to proclaim that Christ has opened the way for us simple men to have, day by day, living, loving fellowship with the holy God. He is to preach this as a witness to the life he himself lives in all its blessed experience. In the power of that testimony, he is to prove its reality, and to show how a sinful man upon earth can indeed live in fellowship with the Father and the Son.
The message suggests to us that the very first duty of the minister or the missionary every day of his life is to maintain such close communion with God that he can preach the truth in the fullness of joy, and with the consciousness that his life and conversation are the proof that his preaching is true, so that his words appeal with power to the heart: “These things write we unto you that your joy may be full.”
In an article in the I. R. M. of October 1914, on the influence of the Keswick Convention on mission work, the substance of Keswick teaching is given in these words: “It points to a life of communion with God through Christ as a reality to be entered upon, and constantly maintained, by the unconditional and habitual surrender of the whole personality to Christ’s control and government, in the assurance that the living Christ will take possession of the life thus yielded to Him.” It is such teaching, revealing the infinite claim and power of Christ’s love as maintained by the power of the Holy Spirit, that will encourage and compel men to make the measure of Christ’s surrender for them the only measure of their surrender to Him and His service.
It is this intimate fellowship with Christ as the secret of daily service and testimony that has power to make Christ known as the deliverer from sin and the inspiration of a life of wholehearted devotion to His service.
It is this intimate and abiding fellowship with Christ that the promise, “I am with you alway,” secures to us. This is what every missionary needs, what every missionary has a right to claim, and by which alone he maintains that spiritual efficiency that will influence the workers and the converts with whom he comes in contact.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 26 July 」