Scripture: “My times are in Thy hand.” — [Psalms 31:15a]
The plural implies the singular: “My time is in Thy hand. It belongs to Thee; Thou alone hast a right to command it. I yield it wholly and gladly to Thy disposal.” What mighty power time can exert if wholly given up to God!
Time is lord of all things. What is all the history of the world but a proof of how, slowly but surely, time has made man what he is today? All around us we see the proofs. In the growth of the child of manhood, both physically and mentally, in the success in every pursuit, in all our labours and all our attainments, it is under the law of time and its inconceivable power that we spend our lives.
This is specially true in religion and the intercourse with God. Time here too is master. What fellowship with God! What holiness and blessedness! What likeness to His image, and what power in His service for blessing to men! – all on the one condition: that we have sufficient time with God for His holiness to shine on us with its light and its heat, and to make us partakers of His Spirit and His life. The very essence of religion lies in the thought: Time with God. And yet how many of God’s servants there are who, while giving their lives to His service, frankly confess that the feebleness of their spiritual life as missionaries, and the inadequate results of mission work as a whole, are due to the failure to make the leisure, and, when secured, rightly to use it, for daily communion with God,
What can be the cause at the back of this sad confession? Nothing but a lack of faith in the God-given assurance that time spent alone with God will indeed bring into the lives of His servants the power to enable them to use all their time in His fellowship that His abiding presence will be with them all the day.
Oh, my brother, who complainest that overwork, or too much zeal in doing the work, is hindering thy spiritual efficiency, do you not see that if you would but submit your time-table to the inspection of Christ and His Holy Spirit, you would find that a new life would be yours if you fully believed and put into daily practice the word: “My time is in Thy hand.”
Scripture: “We will continue steadfastly in prayer.” — [Acts 6:4] “Prayer was made earnestly of the Church unto God for him.”— [Acts 12:5]
Dr. Mott urges us to believe in the unlimited power of united intercession. In travelling in Asia he was charged by men who have penetrated most deeply into the heart of the problem to press upon the missionary societies the imperative need of more intercession – above all, of united intercession. “We can in no way better serve the deepest interest of the Churches than by multiplying the number of real intercessors, and by focusing the prayers of Christendom upon those great situations which demand the almighty working of the Spirit of God. Far more important and vital than any service we can render to missions is that of helping to release the superhuman energy of prayer, and, through uniting in this holy ministry true intercessors of all lands, to help the ushering in of a new era abounding in signs and wonders characteristic of the working of the living Christ. Immeasurably more important than any other work is the linking of all we do to the fountain of Divine life and energy. The Christian world has not only a right to expect mission leaders to set forth the facts and methods of the work, but also a larger discovery of superhuman resources and a greater irradiation of spiritual power.”
And where is there a greater need of focusing the united intercession of Christendom than on the great army of Missionaries, of whom we spoke in our Introduction? They confess the need of the presence and the power of God’s Spirit in their life and work. They long for the experience of the abiding presence and power of Christ every day. They need it; they have a right to it – shall we not, those of us reading this book, make a part of that great army that pleads with God for that enduement of power which is so absolutely necessary for effective work? Shall we not, like the early Apostles, “continue steadfastly in prayer,” until God sends an abundant answer? As we give ourselves continually to prayer, the power of the promise, “Lo, I am with you alway,” will be proved in our lives.
Scripture: “Pie that hath sent me is with me; He hath not left me alone; for I do always the things that are pleasing to Him.” — [John 8:29]
In these words Christ not only tells what His life with the Father was, but reveals at the same time the law of all intercourse with God-simple obedience.
How strongly He insisted upon it we see in the Farewell Discourse. In chap. xiv. He says three times: “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And then I will pray the Father, and He will give you the Holy Spirit, and the Father will love you, and I will love you and manifest myself to you, and then we will make Our abode with you.” And so three times over in chap. xv.: “If my words abide with you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you”; “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love”; “Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you.”
Obedience is the proof and the exercise of the love of God that has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It comes from love and leads to love, a deeper and a fuller experience of God’s love and indwelling. It assures us that what we ask will be given us. It assures us that we are abiding in the love of Christ. It seals our claim to be called the friends of Christ. And so it is not only a proof of love but of faith too, as assuring us that we “ask and receive because we keep His commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.”
For the abiding enjoyment of the Holy Presence, simple, full obedience is necessary. The New Covenant has made full provision for this: “I will write my law in their hearts; I will put my fear in their heart, that they may not depart from me”; “I will cause them to walk in my statutes and to keep them.”
Blessed obedience, that enables us to abide in His love and gives the full experience of His unbroken presence. Christ did not speak of an impossibility; He saw what in the power of the Spirit we might confidently expect. Let the thought take deep hold of us, It is to the obedient that the word comes, “Lo, I am with you alway,” and to whom all the fullness of its meaning will be revealed.
Scripture: “The disciples came to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast it out? He saith unto them, Because of your little faith. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” — [Matthew 17:19-21]
The disciples had often cast out devils. But here they had been impotent. They asked the Lord what the reason might be. His answer is very simple: “Because of your little faith.”
We have here the reply to the great question so often asked, How is it that we cannot live that life of unbroken fellowship with Christ which the Scripture promises? Simply, because of our unbelief. We do not realize that faith must accept and expect that God will, by His almighty power, fulfil every promise He has made. We do not live in that utter helplessness and dependence on God alone which is the very essence of faith. We are not strong in the faith, fully persuaded that what God has promised He is able and willing to perform. We do not give ourselves with our whole heart simply to believe that God by His almighty power will work wonders in our hearts.
But what can be the reason that this faith is so often lacking? “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” To have a strong faith in God needs a life in close touch with Him by persistent prayer. We cannot call up faith at our bidding; it needs close intercourse with God. It needs not only prayer, but fasting too in the larger and deeper meaning of that word. It needs the denial of self, the sacrifice of that pleasing of the flesh and the eye and the pride of life which is the essence of a worldly spirit. To gain the prizes of the heavenly life here on earth needs the sacrifice of all that earth can offer. Just as it needs God to satisfy the human heart, and work His mighty miracles in it, it needs the whole man, utterly given up to God, to have the power of that faith which can cast out every evil spirit. “Prayer and fasting” are essential.
Scripture: “It was the good pleasure of God . . . to reveal His Son in me.” —[Galatians 1:15b-16a]
In all our study and worship of Christ we find our thoughts ever gathering round these five points: The Incarnate Christ, the Crucified Christ, the Enthroned Christ, the Indwelling Christ, and Christ coming in glory. If the first be the seed, the second is the seed cast into the ground, and the third the seed growing up to the very heaven. Then follows the fruit through the Holy Spirit, Christ dwelling in the heart; and then the gathering of the fruit into the garner when Christ appears.
Paul tells us that it pleased God to reveal His Son in Him. And he gives his testimony to the result of that revelation: “Christ liveth in me” (Gal. ii. 20). Of that life he says that its chief mark is that he is crucified with Christ. It is this that enables him to say, “I live no longer”; in Christ he had found the death of self. Just as the Cross is the chief characteristic of Christ Himself – “A lamb as it had been slain in the midst of the throne” – so the life of Christ in Paul made him inseparably one with his crucified Lord. So completely was this the case that he could say: “Far be it from me to glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which I am crucified to the world.”
If you had asked Paul, if Christ so actually lived in him that he no longer lived, what became of his responsibility? the answer was ready and clear: “I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” His life was every moment a life of faith in Him who had loved him and given Himself so completely that He had undertaken at all times to be the life of His willing disciple.
This was the sum and substance of all Paul’s teaching. He asks for intercession that he might speak “the mystery of Christ”; “even the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. ii. 2; i. 27). The indwelling Christ was the secret of his life of faith, the one power, the one aim of all his life and work, the hope of glory. Let us believe in the abiding presence of Christ as the sure gift to each one who trusts Him fully.
Scripture: “And when I saw him, I went down on my face at his feet as one dead. And he put his right hand on me, saying, Have no fear; I am the first and the last and the Living one; And I was dead, and see, I am living for ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hell.” — [Revelation 1:17-18]
Here we have, sixty or more years after the resurrection, Christ’s manifesting Himself to the beloved disciple. John fell as dead at His feet. God had said to Moses, in answer to his prayer “Show me Thy glory:” “Thou canst not see My face: for man cannot see Me and live.” Man’s sinful nature cannot receive the vision of the Divine glory, and live; it needs the death of the natural life for the life of God in glory to enter in. When John fell as dead at Christ’s feet, it proved how little he could endure the wonderful heavenly vision.
When Christ laid His right hand upon him and said, “Fear not; I am He that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore,” He reminded him that He Himself too had passed through death ere He could rise to the life and the glory of God. For the Master Himself and for every disciple, for Moses and for John, there is only one way to the glory of God – death to all that nature which has been in contact with sin and cannot enter heaven.
The lesson is a deep and most needful one to all who long that Jesus shall manifest Himself unto them. The knowledge of Jesus, fellowship with Him, and the experience of His power is not possible without the sacrifice of all that there is in us of the world and its spirit. The disciples had experience of this. Christ had from His first ordination charge (Matthew 10:37-39) – where He had spoken about forsaking father and mother, about taking up the cross, about losing our life for His sake, down to the days before His death, when He said: “Except a corn of wheat die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”; “He that loveth his life shall lose it” – made this the one great charge: Deny self; bear the cross, and follow Me.
We are seeking to find out the secret of getting into such touch with the Lord Jesus that His abiding presence shall be our portion every day. Let us accept the lesson – through death to life. In the power of Christ Jesus, with Whom we have been crucified, and Whose death now works in us, if we will yield ourselves to it, death to sin, death to the world with all its self-pleasing and self-exaltation, is to be the deepest law of our spiritual life. Peter said to Christ: “Spare Thyself” (Matthew 16:22-23); Jesus said to him: “Deny thyself.” The disciples had followed Christ even to the Cross. That was what fitted them to receive the Master’s word: “Lo, I am with you alway.”
Scripture: “Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? He said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest aft things; Thou kntnvest that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto Him, Feed my sheep.” — [John 21:17b]
It was to Mary who loved much that Christ first revealed Himself. Then in Peter’s first vision of the Lord, in His making Himself known in the upper room at Emmaus, in His appearance to the ten, and in the revelation of Himself to Thomas, it was ever to the intense devotion of the prepared heart that Christ manifested Himself. And now in His manifestation of Himself to Peter it is again love that is the keynote.
We can easily understand why Christ asked the question thrice, Lovest thou Me? It was to remind Peter of the terrible self-confidence in which he had said: “Though I should die with Thee, I will not deny Thee”; of the need of quiet, deep heart-searching ere he could be sure that his love was real and true; of the need of deep penitence in the consciousness of how little he could trust himself; and then of love being the one thing needful for the full restoration to his place in the heart of Jesus, the first and highest condition for feeding His sheep and caring for His lambs.
God is love. Christ is the Son of His love. Having loved His own, He loved them to the uttermost, and said: “As the Father loved me, I also have loved you.” He asked that they should prove their love to Him by keeping His commandments and loving each other with the love with which He loved them. In heaven and on earth, in the Father and in the Son, and in us, and in all our work for Him and our care for souls, the greatest thing is love.
To everyone who longs to have Jesus manifest Himself – “I am with you alway” – the chief, the essential requisite is love. Peter teaches us that such love is not in the power of man to offer. But such love came to him through the power of Christ’s death to sin, and that power of His resurrection life, of which Peter became partaker. As he puts it in his first Epistle: “Whom having not seen, we love; in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Thank God, if Peter the self-confident could be so changed, shall not we believe that Christ will work in us the wondrous change too, and manifest Himself to a loving heart in all the fullness of His precious word: “Lo, I am with you alway.” It is to love that Christ will manifest Himself, as the only fitness for feeding His sheep and tending His lambs.
Posted: 2022-07-25 by Gospel
💜《神的心意-God’s Best Secrets》20220724『時間的力量-The Power of Time』— 慕安德烈 [Andrew Murray]
經文: 「我終身的事在祢手中。」— [聖經·詩篇 31章15a節]
終身的事意謂著一生的事,「是的,我每一天的時間,都屬乎祢,祢有權使喚我,我完全地將自己委身與祢,任憑主差遣。」若我們全心全意地將自己擺在祭壇上,讓這一生由主使用,那將成就何等大的事啊!
時間是一切事情的主宰,世界局勢及歷史的推展,就是最好的明證,上帝的手慢慢地又穩定地推動歷史的齒輪,朝祂預定的計劃滾動且絕不誤事。我們從歷史的軌跡到目前的現況,豈不見聖經預言都一樣一樣地應驗了;上帝的確是行動的上帝,是全地的主,人類歷史的掌權者。
就個人的成長過程而言,時間仍扮演重要的因素,想想看一個嬰孩如何長大,智慧與身量如何漸趨成熟,這都歸功於時間的推移;一切人為的努力與成就,也是需要付上時間的代價,因此時間是一切事情的基本要素。
在信仰的事上也是如此,要親近上帝向祂禱告,需要花時間。啊!與祂同在的時間何等甘甜!何等蒙福!與祂親近就如同敞著臉仰望太陽,逐漸被改變成祂的形象,因著與上帝連結,就得著足夠的能力來服事祂。這一切都在於一個條件,就是要分別一段時間給耶穌,讓我們整個浸沐在上帝的愛與光中,使我們有份於祂的生命與情感。總之,我們必須花時間來親近上帝、等候主。
然而有許多熱心服事主的僕人,坦誠他們靈性生活軟弱、工作沒什麼效果,實在是因為沒有每天來到主耶穌腳前,讀祂的話及向祂禱告。為什麼會有這樣情況?說穿了就是對上帝的信心不夠,不相信這段「分別為聖」的時間是有價值的,不相信上帝要祝福這段與祂在「密室獨處」的時間,藉著祂同在的力量,能使他們一整天都活在祂的愛與光中。
喔!親愛的弟兄姐妹,有人抱怨太多的服事,使得他們靈修時間不夠,以致工作的效果不彰;但我們是不是應該把每天的時間表呈在主耶穌面前,求祂親自來鑑察、親自來調整,使我們所行的合乎祂的心意,如此你將會有新的生活開展在你的面前,印證聖經的真理:「上帝哪!我終身的事在祢手中。」
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 7月24日]
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
[圖片版權屬「遠東福音會」所有,在此僅供分享福音用途。]
『 The Power of Time 』
Scripture: “My times are in Thy hand.” — [Psalms 31:15a]
The plural implies the singular: “My time is in Thy hand. It belongs to Thee; Thou alone hast a right to command it. I yield it wholly and gladly to Thy disposal.” What mighty power time can exert if wholly given up to God!
Time is lord of all things. What is all the history of the world but a proof of how, slowly but surely, time has made man what he is today? All around us we see the proofs. In the growth of the child of manhood, both physically and mentally, in the success in every pursuit, in all our labours and all our attainments, it is under the law of time and its inconceivable power that we spend our lives.
This is specially true in religion and the intercourse with God. Time here too is master. What fellowship with God! What holiness and blessedness! What likeness to His image, and what power in His service for blessing to men! – all on the one condition: that we have sufficient time with God for His holiness to shine on us with its light and its heat, and to make us partakers of His Spirit and His life. The very essence of religion lies in the thought: Time with God. And yet how many of God’s servants there are who, while giving their lives to His service, frankly confess that the feebleness of their spiritual life as missionaries, and the inadequate results of mission work as a whole, are due to the failure to make the leisure, and, when secured, rightly to use it, for daily communion with God,
What can be the cause at the back of this sad confession? Nothing but a lack of faith in the God-given assurance that time spent alone with God will indeed bring into the lives of His servants the power to enable them to use all their time in His fellowship that His abiding presence will be with them all the day.
Oh, my brother, who complainest that overwork, or too much zeal in doing the work, is hindering thy spiritual efficiency, do you not see that if you would but submit your time-table to the inspection of Christ and His Holy Spirit, you would find that a new life would be yours if you fully believed and put into daily practice the word: “My time is in Thy hand.”
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 24 July 」
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Posted: 2022-07-23 by Gospel
💜《神的心意-God’s Best Secrets》20220723『代禱的功效-The Power of Intercession』— 慕安德烈 [Andrew Murray]
經文: 「彼得被囚在監裡,教會卻為他切切的禱告上帝。」— [聖經·使徒行傳 12章5節]
摩特博士極力教導我們相信「同心禱告」能產生「無可限量」的能力。在亞洲巡迴旅行時,他有強烈的負擔,向這些宣教機構傳遞這重要的訊息-代禱的力量,尤其是同心合意的禱告。「我們對教會最好的服事莫過於參加禱告會,而且人數越多越好。」,特別是那種需要上帝動大工的福音工作,更需要迫切合一的爭戰禱告。服事上帝的事工中,最有效最有能力的,莫過於弟兄姐妹們同心合意地禱告,因為從禱告中釋放出來的超自然能力,是最厲害的武器,可以帶出神蹟奇事,證明上帝的大能。許多弟兄姐妹們同心合意禱告,前來與神聖的生命泉源連結支取屬天的能力,那是何等無法測度的浩大能力。宣教機構不只需要一個領袖人物,領導策劃傳福音的計劃與事工而已,更需要動員會眾同心合意禱告與那能力的源頭連接。誠然有強大禱告網托住的事工,會有多麼大的不同!
宣教團體最需要的莫過於同心合意的禱告,他們承認上帝的同在與能力是他們生活與工作得力的泉源,他們渴望每天能有上帝時刻同在的經歷;他們需要上帝的同在,而且他們也有權利得到祂-尤其讀了本書後,我們明白可以向上帝求,以得到膏油作有效果的服事。我們豈不該也像初代的使徒那樣迫切用力地禱告,直到上帝給我們回應,相信只要我們有一顆渴慕持續禱告的心,上帝的應許:「我必與你同在。」(出埃及記 三12)必實現在我們生活中。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 7月23日]
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
『 The Power of Intercession 』
Scripture: “We will continue steadfastly in prayer.” — [Acts 6:4] “Prayer was made earnestly of the Church unto God for him.”— [Acts 12:5]
Dr. Mott urges us to believe in the unlimited power of united intercession. In travelling in Asia he was charged by men who have penetrated most deeply into the heart of the problem to press upon the missionary societies the imperative need of more intercession – above all, of united intercession. “We can in no way better serve the deepest interest of the Churches than by multiplying the number of real intercessors, and by focusing the prayers of Christendom upon those great situations which demand the almighty working of the Spirit of God. Far more important and vital than any service we can render to missions is that of helping to release the superhuman energy of prayer, and, through uniting in this holy ministry true intercessors of all lands, to help the ushering in of a new era abounding in signs and wonders characteristic of the working of the living Christ. Immeasurably more important than any other work is the linking of all we do to the fountain of Divine life and energy. The Christian world has not only a right to expect mission leaders to set forth the facts and methods of the work, but also a larger discovery of superhuman resources and a greater irradiation of spiritual power.”
And where is there a greater need of focusing the united intercession of Christendom than on the great army of Missionaries, of whom we spoke in our Introduction? They confess the need of the presence and the power of God’s Spirit in their life and work. They long for the experience of the abiding presence and power of Christ every day. They need it; they have a right to it – shall we not, those of us reading this book, make a part of that great army that pleads with God for that enduement of power which is so absolutely necessary for effective work? Shall we not, like the early Apostles, “continue steadfastly in prayer,” until God sends an abundant answer? As we give ourselves continually to prayer, the power of the promise, “Lo, I am with you alway,” will be proved in our lives.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 23 July 」
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Last Updated: 2022-07-22 by Gospel
💜《神的心意-God’s Best Secrets》20220722『順服的力量-The Power of Obedience』— 慕安德烈 [Andrew Murray]
經文: 「那差我來的,是與我同在,祂沒有撇下我獨自在這裡,因為我常作祂所喜悅的事。」— [聖經·約翰福音 8章29節]
在這段話中,耶穌不僅告訴我們祂與天父的關係,也顯示與上帝溝通來往的準則-單純地信靠順服。
在最後的晚餐席上,祂特別強調這點,曾三次提到:「人若愛我,就必遵守我的道;我父也必愛他,並且我們要到他那裡去,與他同住。」(約翰福音 十四23)。另外在約翰福音第十五章,祂又三次說到:「你們若常在我裡面,我的話也常在你們裡面,凡你們所願意的,祈求就給你們成就。」(約翰福音 十五7),「你們若遵守我的命令,就常在我的愛裡;正如我遵守了我父的命令,常在祂的愛裡。」(約翰福音 十五10),「你們若遵行我所吩咐的,就是我的朋友了。」(約翰福音 十五14)。
順服遵行上帝的旨意,就是上帝的愛藉著聖靈澆灌在我們心中的彰顯和感動,與自己付上實際行動的回應。順服是來自於上帝的愛,也是對這愛的回應,以及對耶穌內住更深的經歷;耶穌更應允我們,要將我們心裡所願的賜給我們。耶穌又稱我們為祂的朋友,這不但是祂慈愛的表現,更是我們信心的仰賴,經上說:「我們一切所求的,就從祂得著,因為我們遵守祂的命令、行祂所喜悅的事。」(約翰壹書 三22)。
為要讓耶穌內住我們心中,單純並全然地順服是不可或缺的條件,誠如舊約所載:「我要將我的律法……寫在他們心上,我要作他們的上帝,他們要作我的子民。」(耶立米書 卅一33)。是的,只要絕對順服,就能經歷到祂時時刻刻的同在,這並不是不可能的,因為耶穌說藉著聖靈的大能,在祂沒有難成的事;我們要緊緊抓住這真理,很有信心地期盼這經驗,耶穌對那些順服遵行祂旨意的人說:「我必與你同在。」(出埃及記 三12),那些順服遵行祂旨意的人,也必明白這真理所啟示的真義。
[圖片版權屬「中國浸信會神學院」所有,在此僅供分享福音用途。]
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 7月22日]
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
『 The Power of Obedience 』
Scripture: “Pie that hath sent me is with me; He hath not left me alone; for I do always the things that are pleasing to Him.” — [John 8:29]
In these words Christ not only tells what His life with the Father was, but reveals at the same time the law of all intercourse with God-simple obedience.
How strongly He insisted upon it we see in the Farewell Discourse. In chap. xiv. He says three times: “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And then I will pray the Father, and He will give you the Holy Spirit, and the Father will love you, and I will love you and manifest myself to you, and then we will make Our abode with you.” And so three times over in chap. xv.: “If my words abide with you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you”; “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love”; “Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you.”
Obedience is the proof and the exercise of the love of God that has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It comes from love and leads to love, a deeper and a fuller experience of God’s love and indwelling. It assures us that what we ask will be given us. It assures us that we are abiding in the love of Christ. It seals our claim to be called the friends of Christ. And so it is not only a proof of love but of faith too, as assuring us that we “ask and receive because we keep His commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.”
For the abiding enjoyment of the Holy Presence, simple, full obedience is necessary. The New Covenant has made full provision for this: “I will write my law in their hearts; I will put my fear in their heart, that they may not depart from me”; “I will cause them to walk in my statutes and to keep them.”
Blessed obedience, that enables us to abide in His love and gives the full experience of His unbroken presence. Christ did not speak of an impossibility; He saw what in the power of the Spirit we might confidently expect. Let the thought take deep hold of us, It is to the obedient that the word comes, “Lo, I am with you alway,” and to whom all the fullness of its meaning will be revealed.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 22 July 」
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Posted: 2022-07-21 by Gospel
💜《神的心意-God’s Best Secrets》20220721『為什麼我們不能?Why could we not?』— 慕安德烈 [Andrew Murray]
經文: 「門徒暗暗的到耶穌跟前說:我們為什麼不能趕出那鬼呢?耶穌說:是因你們的信心小……這一類的鬼,若不禱告禁食,牠就不出來。」— [聖經·馬太福音 17章19-21節]
耶穌的門徒常常趕鬼,但這次他們能力不夠,趕不走鬼,他們就來請教耶穌,耶穌的答案很簡單:「因你們的信心小。」
我們也常問為何我們很難保持耶穌時刻的同在,就像聖經所應許的?答案很簡單:因為我們不信。我們不明白「信」就是接受上帝所「應許的」,並寄望其發生;信心的真義就是承認自己完全無助,惟有絕對地信靠上帝、依賴上帝。我們信心太軟弱,我們信不來「上帝說到就會做到」,我們沒有全心全意相信「上帝有奇妙大能」,能做感化改變人心的工作。
為何我們缺乏大的信心?「這一類的鬼,若不禱告禁食,牠就不出來。」,若要對上帝有強大的信心,就必須持續不斷強而有力的禱告。信心的成長不是一蹴可及的,它需要付上代價;不僅是禱告而已,而是禁食迫切地禱告,且抓住上帝的話語直到祂成就。強而有力的禱告,需要棄絕老我,戒除肉體的情慾、眼目的驕傲;因為這一切都來自於世界的靈,若要得天國的獎賞,須犧牲這地上所提供的享受,只讓上帝滿足我們的心,讓祂在我們心中作奇妙工作,藉著信心的大能,趕走一切的邪靈。是的,為要趕走頑強邪惡的靈,「禁食禱告」是迫切必要的。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 7月21日]
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
『 Why could we not? 』
Scripture: “The disciples came to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast it out? He saith unto them, Because of your little faith. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” — [Matthew 17:19-21]
The disciples had often cast out devils. But here they had been impotent. They asked the Lord what the reason might be. His answer is very simple: “Because of your little faith.”
We have here the reply to the great question so often asked, How is it that we cannot live that life of unbroken fellowship with Christ which the Scripture promises? Simply, because of our unbelief. We do not realize that faith must accept and expect that God will, by His almighty power, fulfil every promise He has made. We do not live in that utter helplessness and dependence on God alone which is the very essence of faith. We are not strong in the faith, fully persuaded that what God has promised He is able and willing to perform. We do not give ourselves with our whole heart simply to believe that God by His almighty power will work wonders in our hearts.
But what can be the reason that this faith is so often lacking? “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” To have a strong faith in God needs a life in close touch with Him by persistent prayer. We cannot call up faith at our bidding; it needs close intercourse with God. It needs not only prayer, but fasting too in the larger and deeper meaning of that word. It needs the denial of self, the sacrifice of that pleasing of the flesh and the eye and the pride of life which is the essence of a worldly spirit. To gain the prizes of the heavenly life here on earth needs the sacrifice of all that earth can offer. Just as it needs God to satisfy the human heart, and work His mighty miracles in it, it needs the whole man, utterly given up to God, to have the power of that faith which can cast out every evil spirit. “Prayer and fasting” are essential.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 21 July 」
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Posted: 2022-07-20 by Gospel
💜《神的心意-God’s Best Secrets》20220720『保羅:心中的啟示-Paul: CHRIST Revealed in Him』— 慕安德烈 [Andrew Murray]
經文: 「上帝……樂意將祂兒子啟示在我心裡。」— [聖經·加拉太書 1章15b-16a節]
當我們研讀耶穌生平,學習認識敬拜祂,會發現我們思想環繞著五個主題:道成肉身的耶穌,釘十字架的耶穌,坐寶座的耶穌,內住的耶穌,榮耀再來的耶穌。若說道成肉身的耶穌是種子,釘十架的耶穌就是埋在土裡的種子;升天坐寶座的耶穌,就是已發芽生長的種子直到天庭;然後藉著聖靈的運作,內住信徒心中;最後耶穌再來的時候,就是果實收成的時候。
保羅教導我們,上帝樂意將祂的兒子基督耶穌,啟示在我們心中,因此保羅說:「乃是基督在我裡面活著。」(加拉太書 二20),這樣生活的特色是,算自己的「老我」是與耶穌同釘十架,是死的;因此他能夠說:「現在活著的,不再是我,乃是基督在我裡面活著。」(加拉太書 二20)。
在耶穌裡保羅治死「老我」,就像十字架是耶穌的標誌 -「寶座上被殺的羔羊」- 因此保羅裡面基督的生命是與釘十架的主不可分割的,這事實是如此確實完整,以致於保羅敢這麼說:「我斷不以別的誇口,只誇我們主耶穌基督的十字架,因這十字架……我已經釘在十字架上。」(加拉太書 六14)。
如果你問保羅,現在活著的不再是他自己,乃是耶穌在他裡面活,那麼他本身的責任何在?他的答案會是這樣:「我如今在肉身活著,是因信上帝的兒子而活,祂是愛我,為我捨己。」(加拉太書 二20),藉著聖靈的幫助與門徒的信心,耶穌的生命時時刻刻與愛祂的門徒同在,祂也負全責讓門徒能活出得勝的生命。
這些就是保羅所傳講信息的重點,他請眾信徒為他禱告,好使他能在外邦人中傳講解開「基督的奧祕」,也能把福音的奧祕及這榮耀的盼望傳講的明白。內住的耶穌是信心生活的奧祕,是保羅生活與工作的目標,是他服事的力量,也是他榮耀的盼望。讓那些完全仰望依靠上帝的信徒,能相信並經歷到耶穌的同在與內住,領悟到這正是「以馬內利」的上帝,也是給屬祂的百姓最好的禮物。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 7月20日]
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
[圖片版權屬「大同村教會」所有,在此僅供分享福音用途。]
『 Paul: CHRIST Revealed in Him 』
Scripture: “It was the good pleasure of God . . . to reveal His Son in me.” —[Galatians 1:15b-16a]
In all our study and worship of Christ we find our thoughts ever gathering round these five points: The Incarnate Christ, the Crucified Christ, the Enthroned Christ, the Indwelling Christ, and Christ coming in glory. If the first be the seed, the second is the seed cast into the ground, and the third the seed growing up to the very heaven. Then follows the fruit through the Holy Spirit, Christ dwelling in the heart; and then the gathering of the fruit into the garner when Christ appears.
Paul tells us that it pleased God to reveal His Son in Him. And he gives his testimony to the result of that revelation: “Christ liveth in me” (Gal. ii. 20). Of that life he says that its chief mark is that he is crucified with Christ. It is this that enables him to say, “I live no longer”; in Christ he had found the death of self. Just as the Cross is the chief characteristic of Christ Himself – “A lamb as it had been slain in the midst of the throne” – so the life of Christ in Paul made him inseparably one with his crucified Lord. So completely was this the case that he could say: “Far be it from me to glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which I am crucified to the world.”
If you had asked Paul, if Christ so actually lived in him that he no longer lived, what became of his responsibility? the answer was ready and clear: “I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” His life was every moment a life of faith in Him who had loved him and given Himself so completely that He had undertaken at all times to be the life of His willing disciple.
This was the sum and substance of all Paul’s teaching. He asks for intercession that he might speak “the mystery of Christ”; “even the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. ii. 2; i. 27). The indwelling Christ was the secret of his life of faith, the one power, the one aim of all his life and work, the hope of glory. Let us believe in the abiding presence of Christ as the sure gift to each one who trusts Him fully.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 20 July 」
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Posted: 2022-07-19 by Gospel
💜《神的心意-God’s Best Secrets》20220719『約翰:浴火重生-John: Life from the dead』— 慕安德烈 [Andrew Murray]
經文: 「我一看見,就仆倒在祂腳前,像死了一樣。祂用右手按著我,說:不要懼怕!我是首先的,我是末後的,又是那存活的;我曾死過,現在又活了,直活到永永遠遠;並且拿著死亡和陰間的鑰匙。」— [聖經·啟示錄 1章17-18節]
耶穌復活升天後六十多年,祂向所愛的門徒約翰顯現,約翰就仆倒在主面前像死了一樣。當摩西向主求告:「求祢顯出祢的榮耀給我看。」(出埃及記 33章18節),上帝回答:「你不能看見我的面,因為人見我的面不能存活。」(出埃及記 33章20節),因為人罪惡的本性,無法面對上帝聖潔的光,一遇見那光必死無疑,我們必須治死老我方能接近聖潔的上帝。約翰見到耶穌向他顯現,就仆倒在祂腳前像死了一樣,可見連約翰都無法面對、接近那聖潔的光。
耶穌用右手按著他說:「不要懼怕……我是……那存活的,我曾死過,現在又活了,直活到永永遠遠。」,這就是要提醒約翰,連耶穌都要通過死亡,才能獲得復活的榮耀;因此無論是救主自己,或是摩西、或是約翰或是門徒,要得榮耀的唯一通路-就是治死有罪惡天性的老我,才能有份於上帝的生命。
那些渴望耶穌向他們顯現的信徒,必須確認一個事實-若不捨棄自己以及世俗一切的慾望,就無法與耶穌合一,耶穌也無法在靈裡向我們顯現。其實門徒們蠻熟悉這真理,耶穌曾向他們說:「愛父母過於愛我的,不配作我的門徒,愛兒女過於愛我的,不配作我的門徒。不背著他的十架跟從我的,也不配作我的門徒。得著生命的,將要失喪生命,為我失喪生命的,將要得著生命。」(馬太福音 10章37-39節)。耶穌也曾說:「一粒麥子不落在地裡死了,仍舊是一粒;若是死了,就結出許多子粒來。」(約翰福音 12章24節)。是的,那愛惜生命的,必要失喪生命。耶穌向我們提出一個挑戰,要捨己背起自己的十字架來跟從祂。
我們一直在尋找每天能時時刻刻與主同在的祕訣,讓我們緊記一個原則-置諸死地而後生。靠著耶穌的力量,我們與祂同釘十字架,當「死」的力量在我們身上發動,我們就要向罪死,向世界死,向眼目的情慾死,向自傲自滿的心死;惟有治死老我,才可以浴火重生,此乃屬靈的定律。彼得對耶穌說:「主啊!萬不可如此,這事必不臨到祢身上。」但耶穌說:「你不體貼上帝的意思,只體貼人的意思。」(馬太福音 16章22-23節);反之,當門徒們願意背起十字架跟隨耶穌,甚至到死的地步,耶穌就說:「我就常與你們同在,直到世界的末了。」(馬太福音 28章20節)。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 7月19日]
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
『 John: Life from the dead 』
Scripture: “And when I saw him, I went down on my face at his feet as one dead. And he put his right hand on me, saying, Have no fear; I am the first and the last and the Living one; And I was dead, and see, I am living for ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hell.” — [Revelation 1:17-18]
Here we have, sixty or more years after the resurrection, Christ’s manifesting Himself to the beloved disciple. John fell as dead at His feet. God had said to Moses, in answer to his prayer “Show me Thy glory:” “Thou canst not see My face: for man cannot see Me and live.” Man’s sinful nature cannot receive the vision of the Divine glory, and live; it needs the death of the natural life for the life of God in glory to enter in. When John fell as dead at Christ’s feet, it proved how little he could endure the wonderful heavenly vision.
When Christ laid His right hand upon him and said, “Fear not; I am He that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore,” He reminded him that He Himself too had passed through death ere He could rise to the life and the glory of God. For the Master Himself and for every disciple, for Moses and for John, there is only one way to the glory of God – death to all that nature which has been in contact with sin and cannot enter heaven.
The lesson is a deep and most needful one to all who long that Jesus shall manifest Himself unto them. The knowledge of Jesus, fellowship with Him, and the experience of His power is not possible without the sacrifice of all that there is in us of the world and its spirit. The disciples had experience of this. Christ had from His first ordination charge (Matthew 10:37-39) – where He had spoken about forsaking father and mother, about taking up the cross, about losing our life for His sake, down to the days before His death, when He said: “Except a corn of wheat die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”; “He that loveth his life shall lose it” – made this the one great charge: Deny self; bear the cross, and follow Me.
We are seeking to find out the secret of getting into such touch with the Lord Jesus that His abiding presence shall be our portion every day. Let us accept the lesson – through death to life. In the power of Christ Jesus, with Whom we have been crucified, and Whose death now works in us, if we will yield ourselves to it, death to sin, death to the world with all its self-pleasing and self-exaltation, is to be the deepest law of our spiritual life. Peter said to Christ: “Spare Thyself” (Matthew 16:22-23); Jesus said to him: “Deny thyself.” The disciples had followed Christ even to the Cross. That was what fitted them to receive the Master’s word: “Lo, I am with you alway.”
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 19 July 」
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Posted: 2022-07-18 by Gospel
💜《神的心意-God’s Best Secrets》20220718『彼得:偉大的愛-Peter: The Greatness of LOVE』— 慕安德烈 [Andrew Murray]
經文: 「彼得因為耶穌第三次對他說,你愛我嗎?就憂愁,對耶穌說:主啊!祢是無所不知的,祢知道我愛祢。耶穌說:你餵養我的羊。」— [聖經·約翰福音 21章17b節]
因著馬利亞迫切尋找主,找不到就不甘休,所以在七日的第一日清早,耶穌復活,在未升天之前首先向抹大拉的馬利亞顯現;這事以後,門徒中間有兩個人往鄉下去,走路的時候,耶穌變了形象向他們顯現;後來十個門徒坐席的時候,耶穌也向他們顯現,並讓多馬摸祂的釘痕,現在又向彼得顯現,在這幾次顯現事件裡,「愛」是最重要的關鍵。
我們很容易了解,為何耶穌要問彼得三次:「你愛我嗎?」,其實這是提醒他曾自信滿滿地說:「主阿!我就是同祢下監,同祢受死,也是甘心。」(路加福音 22章33節)。主耶穌問他三次,就是要他深刻反省,對主耶穌的愛是真實不改變的嗎?然而事實證明遇到考驗時,人的軟弱會顯露無遺,人的承諾是靠不住的。要如何彌補人一時的軟弱跌倒呢?唯一的方法就是餵養主耶穌的羊群,才能恢復他在主耶穌心中的地位。
上帝就是愛,耶穌基督是上帝的兒子,上帝愛耶穌,耶穌也愛屬祂的人到底:「我愛你們,正如父愛我一樣。」(約翰福音 15章9節);耶穌又說愛祂的必遵行上帝的命令,並且要彼此相愛。無論天上和地下,無論我們自身或是關懷羊群,最重要的一件事,就是要有「愛」。
無論任何人,若想要有耶穌的同在與內住,最重要的關鍵就是「愛」,若沒有「愛」,耶穌就無法向他們顯現。彼得教導我們這樣的愛不是來自於人,乃是源自於耶穌向罪死,並從死裡復活的能力;而信靠耶穌的人,就有份於這樣的能力與愛。就如經上所記:「你們雖然沒有見過祂,卻是愛祂;如今雖不得看見,卻因信祂就有說不出來,滿有榮光的大喜樂。」(彼得前書 1章8節)。感謝上帝,假若自以為站立得穩卻跌倒的彼得,能有這樣大的改變,我們也一樣可以有這樣大的改變,只要耶穌動工在我們心裡面,我們也有一顆愛的心向著祂,祂就要向我們顯現,並吩咐我們要餵養祂的小羊。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 7月18日]
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
『 Peter: The Greatness of LOVE 』
Scripture: “Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? He said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest aft things; Thou kntnvest that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto Him, Feed my sheep.” — [John 21:17b]
It was to Mary who loved much that Christ first revealed Himself. Then in Peter’s first vision of the Lord, in His making Himself known in the upper room at Emmaus, in His appearance to the ten, and in the revelation of Himself to Thomas, it was ever to the intense devotion of the prepared heart that Christ manifested Himself. And now in His manifestation of Himself to Peter it is again love that is the keynote.
We can easily understand why Christ asked the question thrice, Lovest thou Me? It was to remind Peter of the terrible self-confidence in which he had said: “Though I should die with Thee, I will not deny Thee”; of the need of quiet, deep heart-searching ere he could be sure that his love was real and true; of the need of deep penitence in the consciousness of how little he could trust himself; and then of love being the one thing needful for the full restoration to his place in the heart of Jesus, the first and highest condition for feeding His sheep and caring for His lambs.
God is love. Christ is the Son of His love. Having loved His own, He loved them to the uttermost, and said: “As the Father loved me, I also have loved you.” He asked that they should prove their love to Him by keeping His commandments and loving each other with the love with which He loved them. In heaven and on earth, in the Father and in the Son, and in us, and in all our work for Him and our care for souls, the greatest thing is love.
To everyone who longs to have Jesus manifest Himself – “I am with you alway” – the chief, the essential requisite is love. Peter teaches us that such love is not in the power of man to offer. But such love came to him through the power of Christ’s death to sin, and that power of His resurrection life, of which Peter became partaker. As he puts it in his first Epistle: “Whom having not seen, we love; in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Thank God, if Peter the self-confident could be so changed, shall not we believe that Christ will work in us the wondrous change too, and manifest Himself to a loving heart in all the fullness of His precious word: “Lo, I am with you alway.” It is to love that Christ will manifest Himself, as the only fitness for feeding His sheep and tending His lambs.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 18 July 」
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