經文: 「你們明顯是基督的信,藉著我們修成的;不是用墨寫的,乃是用永生上帝的靈寫的;不是寫在石版上,乃寫在心版上。」— (聖經·哥林多後書 3章3節)
哥林多教會就是保羅的「薦函」,看出保羅為他們付出多大的心血力氣,雖然保羅不為自己爭取什麼,但上帝指派他做 「聖靈的執事」,要他用「上帝的靈」將上帝的律法「刻在信徒的心版上」。他自己也這麼宣稱:「我們不是自以為自足了,我們一切的供應來自於上帝,而上帝派我們做新約的執事。」
能做眾人的僕人,服事眾弟兄姐妺,是何等美好的事工。傳道人就是聖靈的執事,要將上帝的名和愛,寫在祂百姓的心中。難怪保羅說摩西在西奈山與上帝面對面所顯的榮光(哥林多後書 三7-11)還不如現在服事者的榮光。保羅接著又說:「我們眾人既然敞著臉,得以看見主的榮光,好像從鏡子裡返照,就變成主的形狀,榮上加榮,如同主的靈變成的。」(哥林多後書 三18)
喔!求主恢復信徒起初傳福音的火熱與大能,讓牧師與全教會的信徒,在靈裡合一,同心禱告,讓聖靈自由運行,光照開啟信徒心眼,得以定睛於主身上的同時,就被改變成主的形象,榮上加榮。
此外,還有一個更大的呼召,就是上帝要保守我們在禱告時,聖靈有祂應有的位置,將上帝的話釋放出能力,讓上帝豐富的恩典流露出來,更讓上帝的榮耀彰顯出來。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
(每日靈修 11月3日)
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
『 The Ministry of the Spirit 』
Scripture: “For you are clearly a letter of Christ, the fruit of our work, recorded not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in stone, but in hearts of flesh.” — (2 Corinthians 3:3)
The Corinthians’ Church was a “letter of recommendation” for Paul, showing how much he had done for them. Although he claimed nothing for himself, God had enabled him as a “minister of the Spirit,” to write in their hearts “with the Spirit of the living God.” He himself declared: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is from God; who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant.”
What a wonderful presentation of the work of a minister for his people! A preacher prepared to be a minister of the Spirit, with power to write in the hearts of his people the name and the love of Christ. No wonder that when (vers. 7-11), speaking of the glory that was upon the face of Moses when he communed with God, Paul says, “The ministration of the Spirit is more glorious by reason of the glory that excelleth.” He then (ver. 18) speaks of how “we all, with open face reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
Oh, that God would restore the ministry of the Gospel to its original power! Oh, that all ministers and church-members would unite in the prayer that God, by the mighty working of His Spirit, would give the ministry of the Spirit its right place, and teach the people to believe that when Christ is preached to them, they are beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and may be changed into the same image by the Spirit of the Lord!
What a call that is for us to persevere in the prayer that the Holy Spirit may again have His rightful place in the ministry of the Word, so that the exceeding and abundant glory of this ministry may be manifested.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 3 November 」