照着我所切慕、所盼望的，没有一事叫我羞愧。只要凡事放胆，无论是生是死，总叫基督在我身上照常显大。（腓一20） 

竭尽己心以成全主至高的旨意。“照着我所切慕、所盼望的，没有一事叫我羞愧。”耶稣要求我们凡事顺服，若我们不肯顺服，就必然会大大羞愧。保罗说：“我决志要竭尽所能，成全神至高的旨意。”要达到这个目标，是意志的问题。这不是讨价还价、理长论短，乃是意志的降服，是绝对的、不反悔的、对正要害的降服。但我们往往思前想后、诸多疑虑、自作主张、无法定意顺服，而且还口称是为了顾及别人的需要。我们揣摩测度，心想若顺服了耶稣的呼召，会怎样影响那些人，于是就告诉神说：“袮知道我顺服之后会有怎样的后果？”只要持定目标，神是知道的。把所有顾虑都放下，单单来到神面前，存一个心志－－“竭尽所能，完成神至高的旨意。”

为祂的圣洁荣耀而不折不挠。“无论是生，是死，我全不介怀！”（参21节）保罗立志，不让任何事物阻拦他去成就神的旨意，是不折不扣地惟命是从。我们选择遵行神旨意之前，总会有危机出现，因为神好好跟我们说话的时候，我们多半不理睬。于是祂带领我们到一处地方，叫我们竭诚为祂，那时我们就开始挣扎（原文作争辩）；然后，祂令一个危机局面出现，要我们决定顺从还是逆命。从这里开始，决定性的分界线就出现了。若神生命的改变临到你，你要毫不反悔地顺服。

祈祷◆主啊，我何等渴望藉着祢能力的驱策，祢恩典的抚摸，和祢圣灵的感动，带领我与祢面对面。为着我的迟缓，要那么久才对某些事情有所醒悟，我祈求祢的宽恕。

January 1 Let Us Keep to the Point

“. . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death” —Philippians 1:20

My Utmost for His Highest. “. . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed . . . .” We will all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus the areas of our lives He has asked us to yield to Him. It's as if Paul were saying, “My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest— my best for His glory.” To reach that level of determination is a matter of the will, not of debate or of reasoning. It is absolute and irrevocable surrender of the will at that point. An undue amount of thought and consideration for ourselves is what keeps us from making that decision, although we cover it up with the pretense that it is others we are considering. When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He doesn't know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point— He does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only— my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone.

My Unstoppable Determination for His Holiness. “Whether it means life or death-it makes no difference!” (see Philippians 1:21). Paul was determined that nothing would stop him from doing exactly what God wanted. But before we choose to follow God's will, a crisis must develop in our lives. This happens because we tend to be unresponsive to God's gentler nudges. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him and we begin to debate. He then providentially produces a crisis where we have to decide— for or against. That moment becomes a great crossroads in our lives. If a crisis has come to you on any front, surrender your will to Jesus absolutely and irrevocably.

出去的时候，还不知往哪里去。（来十一8）

你曾否这样出去？若有，那么当有人问你在干什么时，你简直没有合逻辑的话可以回答。作神的工其中一个难题就是－－“你期望做些什么？”你根本不知道该做什么，你唯一知道的，是神知道他在做什么。要经常审查自己对神的态度，看看是否竭尽所能、完全信靠神。这种态度使你不住地稀奇，因你不知道神下一步会怎样做。每天清晨醒来，就是新的“出去”，建立对神的靠赖。“不要为生活谋算……也不要为身体担忧。”你“出去”之前，这些东西都不要再理会了。你是否不住地追问神，他将做些什么，神决不会告诉你。神不会告诉你他怎样行事，他只会向你显明他是谁。你相信神是行神迹的神吗？你肯不肯顺命出去，对他所作的一切，一点也不诧异？

假若神真是你亲近他时所认识的神，忧虑是何等不当哩！让我们的生命不断地靠着神“出去”，那么生命会奇妙得难以形容，且叫耶稣心满意足。你一定要好好学习从信念、教条、经验中出来，直至你与神之间，已全无隔膜。

祈祷◆主啊，我对祢渴慕的心是何等热切地加增，这种心情并非以任何狭隘的方式来表达，乃是藉着荣耀的方式表现出来－－更完全的实现祢的圣洁。

January 2 Will You Go Out Without Knowing?

“He went out, not knowing whither he went.” Hebrews 11:8

Have you been “out” in this way? If so, there is no logical statement possible when anyone asks you what you are doing. One of the difficulties in Christian work is this question – “What do you expect to do?” You do not know what you are going to do; the only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually revise your attitude towards God and see if it is a going out of everything, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in perpetual wonder – you do not know what God is going to do next. Each morning you wake it is to be a “going out,” building in confidence on God. “Take no thought for your life, . . . nor yet for your body” – take no thought for the things for which you did take thought before you “went out.”

Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do; He reveals to you Who He is. Do you believe in a miracle-working God, and will you go out in surrender to Him until you are not surprised an atom at anything He does?

Suppose God is the God you know Him to be when you are nearest to Him – what an impertinence worry is! Let the attitude of the life be a continual “going out” in dependence upon God, and your life will have an ineffable charm about it which is a satisfaction to Jesus. You have to learn to go out of convictions, out of creeds, out of experiences, until so far as your faith is concerned, there is nothing between yourself and God.

密云和幽暗，在他的四围。（诗九十七2）

一个未从神的灵而生的人会对你说，耶稣的教训简单得很。可是你一旦受了圣灵的洗，就会发现“密云和幽暗，在他的四围”。当我们认识耶稣基督的教训，就必恍然大悟。领悟耶稣教训的唯一途径，是神的灵在里面光照。若我们从未把习以为常的宗教鞋，从我们习以为常的宗教脚上脱下；也从未把我们亲近神那种鲁莽随便的态度一概革除，那么我们到底曾否真正站在神的面前，那也是疑问。那些轻率、浮躁的人，根本从未认识耶稣基督。因为在我们明白了耶稣基督所作所行、满怀稀奇兴奋、自由释放之后，就会经历到一种因认识他是谁而无法看透的幽暗。

耶稣说：“我对你们说的话就是灵，就是生命。”一向以来，圣经对我们不过是一大堆的话语——密云和幽暗为何忽然之间变成了灵和生命？因为耶稣在某种特殊情况下，向我们再说了一遍。神就是这样对我们说话，不是藉着异梦，乃是通过话语。人来到神面前，就是凭着最简单的方法——他的话语。

祈祷◆“密云和幽暗在他的四围；公义和公平是他宝座的根基。”与我亲近，噢，主啊，让我可以知道我在你里面是光明的。

January 3 Clouds and Darkness

Clouds and darkness surround Him . . . —Psalm 97:2

A person who has not been born again by the Spirit of God will tell you that the teachings of Jesus are simple. But when he is baptized by the Holy Spirit, he finds that “clouds and darkness surround Him . . . .” When we come into close contact with the teachings of Jesus Christ we have our first realization of this. The only possible way to have full understanding of the teachings of Jesus is through the light of the Spirit of God shining inside us. If we have never had the experience of taking our casual, religious shoes off our casual, religious feet — getting rid of all the excessive informality with which we approach God — it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence. The people who are flippant and disrespectful in their approach to God are those who have never been introduced to Jesus Christ. Only after the amazing delight and liberty of realizing what Jesus Christ does, comes the impenetrable “darkness” of realizing who He is.

Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Once, the Bible was just so many words to us —“clouds and darkness”— then, suddenly, the words become spirit and life because Jesus re-speaks them to us when our circumstances make the words new. That is the way God speaks to us; not by visions and dreams, but by words. When a man gets to God, it is by the most simple way — words.

彼得说：主啊，我为什么现在不能跟你去？（约十三37）

你有时真不明白，为什么不可以照心里所希望的去做。当神给你一张空白的纸，不要擅自涂上什么。只要等候。这白纸可能是要教你明白成圣的意义；也可能是要你体会成圣之后事奉的意义。切勿走在神的引导之前。若有丝毫的疑虑，就不是他的带领了。什么时候有疑惑，就不要动！

起初，你会很清楚看见神的旨意——与某某朋友断交，与某某人断绝商业上的关系。你这样做，很清楚是神的旨意；但是，千万不要单凭那种感觉而贸然行事。否则，所造成的许多错误，可能要费多年的时间才能矫正。只要等候，神会完成他的工作，这不会使我们伤心或失望。既然是神的旨意，就等神去动工吧！

彼得并没有等候神，他只凭己意揣测试炼会什么时候来，谁知试炼就在他意想不到的时候临到。“我愿意为你舍命。”彼得的宣告虽是诚实，却是无知的。“耶稣说……鸡叫以先，你要三次不认我。”耶稣说这话，表明他认识彼得，比彼得认识自己更深。彼得没有跟耶稣去，因为他不认识自己，也不知道自己的有限。人的热诚固然可以引导我们就近耶稣，使我们感受他的奇妙，可是却永不能叫我们成为门徒。人天然的热诚总会有一日否认主，不是此时，就是那时。

祈祷◆我何等渴望被你——炽热、光辉和荣耀的你——完全充满，以致除了你那恩典的光辉外，再不能容下别的东西。

January 4 Why Cannot I Follow Thee Now?

"Peter said unto Him, Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now?" John 13:37

There are times when you cannot understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings the blank space, see that you do not fill it in, but wait. The blank space may come in order to teach you what sanctification means, or it may come after sanctification to teach you what service means. Never run before God's guidance. If there is the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt – don't.

In the beginning you may see clearly what God's will is – the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, something you feel distinctly before God is His will for you to do, never do it on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will end in making difficulties that will take years of time to put right. Wait for God's time to bring it round and He will do it without any heartbreak or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move.

Peter did not wait on God, he forecast in his mind where the test would come, and the test came where he did not expect it. "I will lay down my life for Thy sake." Peter's declaration was honest but ignorant. "Jesus answered him …The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied Me thrice." This was said with a deeper knowledge of Peter than Peter had of himself. He could not follow Jesus because he did not know himself, of what he was capable. Natural devotion may be all very well to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His fascination, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will always deny Jesus somewhere or other.

我所去的地方，你现在不能跟我去，后来却要跟我去。（约十三36）

“说了这话，就对他说，你跟从我吧。”三年前，耶稣曾说：“来跟从我”，那时彼得很轻易就跟从了他。彼得是被耶稣所吸引而自动跟随，并不需要圣灵来帮助。然而后来，他却落到否认耶稣的地步，心碎欲绝。不过，他受了圣灵，耶稣又再一次对他说：“来跟从我。”这时除了主耶稣基督以外，再没有别人了。第一次的“跟从”并没有什么可引起惊奇的，那只是外表上的跟从；如今却是殉道者的跟从（约二十一18）在这期间，彼得曾发咒起誓否认耶稣。此时，他已来到自己的尽头，所有的自满自恃不足倚仗。就在这绝境中，他符合了接受复活主赐与的条件。“他向他们吹一口气说：『你们受圣灵』” 因此，无论神在你身上做了什么改变，都切勿倚仗这些改变，只要建立在主耶稣身上和他所赐的圣灵。

我们纵有誓言与决心，到头来还是否认主，因为我们没有能力实行出来。惟有当我们真正来到自己的尽头，这才能领受圣灵不是幻想出来的。“你们受圣灵”意思是受圣灵的征服。如今在你生命中只有一颗北斗星（意即引导方向者），就是主耶稣基督。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，以你伟大的能力来坚立我，印着耶稣的救赎，我相信自己有权利这样祈求。令我的身体尽献己力，以致你的光辉可以在我身上彰显。

January 5 The Life of Power to Follow

Jesus answered him, 'Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward' —John 13:36

"And when He had spoken this, He said to him, 'Follow Me' " (John 21:19). Three years earlier Jesus had said, "Follow Me" (Matthew 4:19), and Peter followed with no hesitation. The irresistible attraction of Jesus was upon him and he did not need the Holy Spirit to help him do it. Later he came to the place where he denied Jesus, and his heart broke. Then he received the Holy Spirit and Jesus said again, "Follow Me" (John 21:19). Now no one is in front of Peter except the Lord Jesus Christ. The first "Follow Me" was nothing mysterious; it was an external following. Jesus is now asking for an internal sacrifice and yielding (see John 21:18).

Between these two times Peter denied Jesus with oaths and curses (see Matthew 26:69-75). But then he came completely to the end of himself and all of his self-sufficiency. There was no part of himself he would ever rely on again. In his state of destitution, he was finally ready to receive all that the risen Lord had for him. ". . . He breathed on them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit'" (John 20:22). No matter what changes God has performed in you, never rely on them. Build only on a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the Spirit He gives.

All our promises and resolutions end in denial because we have no power to accomplish them. When we come to the end of ourselves, not just mentally but completely, we are able to "receive the Holy Spirit." "Receive the Holy Spirit"— the idea is that of invasion. There is now only One who directs the course of your life, the Lord Jesus Christ.

从那里他又迁到伯特利东边的山，支搭帐棚，西边是伯特利，东边是艾。他在那里又为耶和华筑了一座坛。（创十二8）

敬拜就是把神给你最好的献给他。凡是你最好的东西，当小心处理。你从神得了祝福，就要把它献回给神，作为爱的礼物。在神面前花时间好好地默想，以敬拜的虔诚行动，把那祝福献上给神，假若你把那东西留归自己，它必会变成属灵枯朽之物，正如储藏起来的吗哪一样。神绝不会容许你把属灵的事物留归己用，它必须归还给神，让神将之化为别人的祝福。

伯特利是与神相交的象徵，而艾是世界的意思，亚伯拉罕却搭营在两者之间。我们在外面为神作工有多少价值，是以我们私下与神相交程度的深浅来衡量的。匆忙仓卒当然是不对的，因为敬拜神的时间多的是；但平静无事的日子，也许会成为陷阱。我们支搭帐棚的所在，应该随时可与神有安静的相交，姑勿论我们与世界的接触有多频繁。属灵的生活中这三者总是一致的，他在忙碌中并不一定分为三个阶段——敬拜、等候、作工。有些人像属灵青蛙一般，跳跃而行，从敬拜跳到等候，又从等候跳到工作。神的心意是要三者同时并进。在主的生活中并不急躁。这是一种操练，我们不能一蹴而就。

祈祷◆主啊，我何其清楚工作和活动所引发的危险，是与安静和退隐危险等同，而祢是我唯一安稳的避难所。让我的一切都全然被祢占据。

January 6 Worship

“And he pitched his tent having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east: and there he builded an altar.” Genesis 12:8

Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard a thing for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded. God will never let you hold a spiritual thing for yourself, it has to be given back to Him that He may make it a blessing to others.

Bethel is the symbol of communion with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abraham pitched his tent between the two. The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him. Rush is wrong every time, there is always plenty of time to worship God. Quiet days with God may be a snare. We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three stages in spiritual life – worship, waiting and work. Some of us go in jumps like spiritual frogs, we jump from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God's idea is that the three should go together. They were always together in the life of Our Lord. He was unhasting and unresting. It is a discipline, we cannot get into it all at once.

我与你们同在这样长久，你还不认识我吗？（约十四9）

这些并不是责备的话，也不是诧异之言，耶稣是领导腓力向前。在我们的密友之中，最末一个是耶稣。五旬节之前，门徒所认识的耶稣，是给他们权柄胜过鬼魔，而且带来复兴的那一位（路十18-20）。这固然是一种密切的关系，但更密切的关系还在未来——“我称你们为朋友”。友谊是珍贵的，它是人思想与心灵的契合。其实我们整个人生的操练，就是要与耶稣基督进入一个最亲密的关系里去。我们得过他的祝福，明了他的话，可是，我们认识他吗？

耶稣说：“我去是与你们有益的。”这是为了增进那关系，引导门徒向前。当一个门徒肯下功夫追求主更亲密，他的心就喜乐了。圣经里说的结果子，总是指由于与耶稣基督合一的必然表现（约十五1-4）。

我们一旦与耶稣建立深交，就永不再孤单，也永不再要人同情。我们可以不住的向主倾诉，而不至于自怜自怨。与耶稣亲密的圣徒，从不给人留下他自己的形象。他只将主耶稣的形象毫无阻隔地彰显出来，因为他天性里所有的罅隙，已被主填满了。这种生命给人唯一的印象，就是主赐给与他亲密的人那种强烈的平静与稳妥。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，将你自己那亲切、和善的形象赐给我，让我今天可以讨你的喜悦，使我的生命变得完美，成为周围的人真正的祝福。

January 7 Intimate With Jesus

“Have I been so long with you, and yet hast thou not known Me?” John 14:9

These words are not spoken as a rebuke, nor even with surprise; Jesus is leading Philip on. The last One with whom we get intimate is Jesus. Before Pentecost the disciples knew Jesus as the One Who gave them power to conquer demons and to bring about a revival (see Luke 10:18-20). It was a wonderful intimacy, but there was a much closer intimacy to come – “I have called you friends.” Friendship is rare on earth. It means identity in thought and heart and spirit. The whole discipline of life is to enable us to enter into this closest relationship with Jesus Christ. We receive His blessings and know His word, but do we know Him?

Jesus said, “It is expedient for you that I go away” – in that relationship, so that He might lead them on. It is a joy to Jesus when a disciple takes time to step more intimately with Him. Fruit bearing is always mentioned as the manifestation of an intimate union with Jesus Christ (John 15:1-4).

When once we get intimate with Jesus we are never lonely, we never need sympathy, we can pour out all the time without being pathetic. The saint who is intimate with Jesus will never leave impressions of himself, but only the impression that Jesus is having unhindered way, because the last abyss of his nature has been satisfied by Jesus. The only impression left by such a life is that of the strong calm sanity that Our Lord gives to those who are intimate with Him.

亚伯拉罕在那里筑坛……捆绑他的儿子以撒。（创二十二9）

这件事正反映出我们所犯的错误，以为神对我们最终的要求是死的祭。神所要的祭，是经过死，使我们能行像耶稣所行的：把生命献上。不是“我愿意与你同死”，而是“我愿意把自己投入你的死里，使我可以把生命献给神”。我们似乎认为神总是要求我们丢弃万事的！神纠正了亚伯拉罕这个错误。这门功课我们一生都得学习，因为死发生在我们身上。神从来没有叫我们为牺牲而牺牲。他叫我们有所舍弃，是为了叫我们得着所得着的，就是与他共享的生命。所以，问题是要解开捆锁生命的绳索。一旦藉着与基督同死而解开那绑绳，我们就得以与神相交，把生命献上，作为牺牲。

你若为了要死而把生命献给神，对神是毫无价值的。他要你做“活祭”献上因信耶稣得救成圣而得的一切才智力量，这才是神所悦纳的。

祈祷◆主啊，为着今天那蒙你接纳的事奉良机，我赞美你。为着你所启示的真理，让我每天随时得蒙你的吩咐，我称颂你。

January 8 Does My Sacrifice Live?

“And Abraham built an altar . . and bound Isaac his son.” Genesis 22:9

This incident is a picture of the blunder we make in thinking that the final thing God wants of us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants is the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Jesus did, viz., sacrifice our lives. Not – I am willing to go to death with Thee, but – I am willing to be identified with Thy death so that I may sacrifice my life to God. We seem to think that God wants us to give up things! God purified Abraham from this blunder, and the same discipline goes on in our lives. God nowhere tells us to give up things for the sake of giving them up. He tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having – viz., life with Himself. It is a question of loosening the bands that hinder the life, and immediately those bands are loosened by identification with the death of Jesus, we enter into a relationship with God whereby we can sacrifice our lives to Him.

It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a “living sacrifice,” to let Him have all your powers that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus. This is the thing that is acceptable to God.

愿你们的灵，与魂，与身子，得蒙保守，在我主耶稣基督降临的时候，完全无可指摘。（帖前五23）

“你们的灵（整个灵）……”圣灵最奥妙的工作是隐藏在我们里面，这个隐密处，连我们自己也无法探究。试读诗篇一三九篇。诗人说：你是清早的神，你是深夜的神，你是山峰的神，你是海洋的神。可是，我的神啊，我的灵魂里有比清晨更广远的天际，比黑夜（世间的）更深沉的黝黑，高过任何崇山峻岭，深过任何大海深渊；但你是这一切的神，求你做我的神。我攀不上那颠峰；也达不到那深渊；有许多动机，我追溯不了；有许多梦想，我无法实现。我的神啊，找我出来吧。

你信否神的保守远非我们所能想像？“基督耶稣的血洗净我们一切的罪”这句话若只是感知上的经验，愿神怜悯我们。那在罪中麻木的人，他可以说并不感觉到罪。其实罪得洁净，是靠我们里面的灵。当我们活在光明中，如同神在光明中，那充满耶稣基督生命的圣灵，也必把生命的灵灌注在我们里面。

惟有当神以圣灵的大能，防卫着我们，我们的灵与魂与身子，才得蒙保守，毫无瑕疵，而且在神眼中无可指摘，直到主来。我们往往未懂得把心思放在神这些重要的真理上。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，今天亲临在我们当中，又牵引我们进入你里面；请先由我开始。洁净我，噢，主啊，除去我的一切瑕疵；纵使我对它们仍浑然不知，你却早已一目了然。

January 9 Intercessory Introspection

“And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless.” 1 Thess 5:23

“Your whole spirit. . .” The great mystical work of the Holy Spirit is in the dim regions of our personality which we cannot get at. Read the 139th Psalm; the Psalmist implies – “Thou art the God of the early mornings, the God of the late at nights, the God of the mountain peaks, and the God of the sea; but, my God, my soul has further horizons than the early mornings, deeper darkness than the nights of earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks, greater depths than any sea in nature – Thou Who art the God of all these, be my God. I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths; there are motives I cannot trace, dreams I cannot get at – my God, search me out.”

Do we believe that God can garrison the imagination far beyond where we can go? “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin” – if that means in conscious experience only, may God have mercy on us. The man who has been made obtuse by sin will say he is not conscious of sin. Cleansing from sin is to the very heights and depths of our spirit if we will keep in the light as God is in the light, and the very Spirit that fed the life of Jesus Christ will feed the life of our spirits. It is only when we are garrisoned by God with the stupendous sanctity of the Holy Spirit, that spirit, soul and body are preserved in unspotted integrity, undeserving of censure in God's sight, until Jesus comes.

We do not allow our minds to dwell as they should on these great massive truths of God.

要叫他们的眼睛得开……得蒙赦罪……同得基业。（徒二十六18）

神施恩最完全的首要工作，已包括在这一句里：“得蒙赦罪。”人若经历不到信耶稣的个人体验，几乎都是因为他从未蒙受什么恩典。一个人得救的唯一标志，是他从耶稣基督那里有所领受。作为神的工人，我们的本分就是要开人的眼睛，使他们弃暗投明。可是那并不是得着拯救，那只是一种转变——一个被唤醒的人的改变。我说大多数挂名信徒都属这一类，并不算太过分。

他们眼是开了，却没有接受恩典。转变并不等于重生。今日我们所传的资讯中，就忽略了这个因素。一个人重生，是因为从全能的神那里所领受的一份礼物，而非他自己的抉择。人就是立上许多誓言，而且签署许愿，勇往直前，义无回顾，这一切都不代表“得救”。得拯救是我们被带到一个地步，凭耶稣基督得特权，从神有所领受——就是“得蒙赦罪”。

接踵而来的，就是恩典的第二步工作——“和一切成圣的人同得基业”。人得了重生，便藉着成圣的功夫，甘心情愿地把自己的主权交给主耶稣，并且把自己全然投在神赐福别人的心意上。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求你赐我更亲切和更美善的品性；赐给我属灵的恩赐，和对别人全然忍耐的生命。你的美善将这一切彰显了，噢，主啊，只要我被你充满，我的祈求便成为真实。

January 10 The Opened Sight

“To open their eyes . . . that they may receive . . .” Acts 26:18

This verse is the grandest condensation of the propaganda of a disciple of Jesus Christ in the whole of the New Testament.

The first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the word – “that they may receive remission of sins.” When a man fails in personal Christian experience, it is nearly always because he has never received anything. The only sign that a man is saved is that he has received something from Jesus Christ. Our part as workers for God is to open men's eyes that they may turn themselves from darkness to light; but that is not salvation, that is conversion – the effort of a roused human being. I do not think it is too sweeping to say that the majority of nominal Christians are of this order; their eyes are opened, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is one of the neglected factors in our preaching today. When a man is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People register their vows, and sign their pledges, and determine to go through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, viz., remission of sins.

Then there follows the second mighty work of grace – “an inheritance among them which are sanctified.” In sanctification the regenerated soul deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God's interest in other men.

他们就抓住他（古利奈人西门），把十字架搁在他身上。 (路二十三26)

我们若顺服神，别人所损失的会比我们所损失的还多，这就是那为难的地方了。我们若爱主，顺服他并不觉得付上什么代价，这原是可喜的；但那些不爱他的人，所受的损失就更大了。我们要是顺服神，自然就会打岔其他人的计划，他们就会冷嘲地说：“这就叫做基督教？”我们固然可以不使别人受损，但若要顺服神就万不可如此；要付出的代价，就让它付出去吧！

再次，人性的自尊就出来辩护了，我们说：“我决不从任何人接受任何东西！”我们不接受，就是悖逆神了。主在世上与人的关系如何，我们也得如何，我们决无权指望另谋出路（参阅路八2-3）

我们若说要自己承担全部责任，那么灵命就会沉滞停顿，趑趄不前了。我们根本不可能如此。在神整个宇宙计划中，人就是这样座落其中，以致我们一顺服神，其他人必然受影响。我们愿否顺服神而放弃独立自主、甘心走上自卑的路？还是走另一条路，说：“我绝不叫别人无辜受苦”？我们可以选择不顺服神，使形势缓和，可是我们却叫主忧伤。另一方面，如果我们顺服神，他必会照顾那些因我们顺服而被逼受苦的人。我们只要一味顺服，一切后果就交给神吧。

但要当心这个意念：你顺服神，却指定神照你的意思行事。这要当心！

祈祷◆在一切事情上，噢，主啊，我都承认你。保守我们与你保持和谐，以致别人可以捕捉到属神的喜乐和愉快。

January 11 What My Obedience To GOD Costs Other People

“They laid hold upon one Simon . . . and on him they laid the cross.” Luke 23:26

If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the sting comes in. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything, it is a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal. If we obey God it will mean that other people's plans are upset, and they will gibe us with it – “You call this Christianity?” We can prevent the suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be paid.

Our human pride entrenches itself on this point, and we say – I will never accept anything from anyone. We shall have to, or disobey God. We have no right to expect to be in any other relation than our Lord Himself was in (see Luke 8:2-3).

Stagnation in spiritual life comes when we say we will bear the whole thing ourselves. We cannot. We are so involved in the universal purposes of God that immediately we obey God, others are affected. Are we going to remain loyal in our obedience to God and go through the humiliation of refusing to be independent, or are we going to take the other line and say – I will not cost other people suffering? We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but we shall be a grief to our Lord. Whereas if we obey God, He will look after those who have been pressed into the consequences of our obedience. We have simply to obey and to leave all consequences with Him.

Beware of the inclination to dictate to God as to what you will allow to happen if you obey Him.

没有人的时候，就把一切的道讲给门徒听。（可四34）

我们与神独处。耶稣不会时常把我们拉在一旁，独自把事情向我们讲解；他乃按着我们所能了解的，讲给我们听。别人的生命都不过是比喻，神所要的乃是我们对自己的反省。这是一项缓慢的工作，神要用无尽的时间才把一个人塑造成合他心意的。我们若要被神使用，就要让他带我们认识自己的不足与丑陋。我们对自己认识之少，简直令人惊奇。嫉妒、怠惰、骄傲，我们早已视若无睹。耶稣就是要把我们未蒙他恩典改造之前，所有蕴藏在肉体里的东西显明出来。有多少人肯鼓起勇气往内里一看？

要除掉自以为认识自己的骄傲，这是最难的。唯一明白我们的只有神。在属灵生命中，最大的咒诅就是自负。我们若有机会瞥见自己在神的眼中本来面目，就永不会说：“啊，我是多么不配。”因为我们实实在在不配，所以用不着说出来。一日我们还未完全认识自己真的不配，神就会追着我们，直至与我们碰头。因为只要有一些自负或骄傲存在，耶稣就无法向我们解明真理。他要领我们经过理智骄傲的创痛，或心灵的沮丧；他会披露不合宜的感情－－这些东西是我们从未想过神要用来对付我们的。在教室里，我们听了许多话，但未明白。惟有当神单独与我们相处，我们才真正明白。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，“群众”在今天将会来而又去。帮助我像我的主，留守在孤寂的地方祈祷。

January 12 Have You Ever Been Alone With GOD?

“When they were alone, He expounded all things to His disciples.” Mark 4:34

Our Solitude with Him. Jesus does not take us alone and expound things to us all the time; He expounds things to us as we can understand them. Other lives are parables. God is making us spell out our own souls. It is slow work, so slow that it takes God all time and eternity to make a man and woman after His own purpose. The only way we can be of use to God is to let Him take us through the crooks and crannies of our own characters. It is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves! We do not know envy when we see it, or laziness, or pride. Jesus reveals to us all that this body has been harbouring before His grace began to work. How many of us have learned to look in with courage?

We have to get rid of the idea that we understand ourselves, it is the last conceit to go. The only One Who understands us is God. The greatest curse in spiritual life is conceit. If we have ever had a glimpse of what we are like in the sight of God, we shall never say – “Oh, I am so unworthy,” because we shall know we are, beyond the possibility of stating it. As long as we are not quite sure that we are unworthy, God will keep narrowing us in until He gets us alone. Wherever there is any element of pride or of conceit, Jesus cannot expound a thing. He will take us through the disappointment of a wounded pride of intellect, through disappointment of heart. He will reveal inordinate affection – things over which we never thought He would have to get us alone. We listen to many things in classes, but they are not an exposition to us yet. They will be when God gets us alone over them.

无人的时候，……十二个门徒问……（可四10）

他与我们独处。神藉困苦、创伤、试诱、失望、疾病、爱情的挫折、友谊的破裂，或新友情的建立，把我们带到一个孤单的境况；我们哑口无言，一句话也问不出来。这时，他才开始向我们解说。试看看耶稣怎样训练十二门徒。当时困惑不解的是门徒，不是外面的群众。他们不住地发问，他也不住地讲解：可是要等到他们接受了圣灵，才真正了解（约十四26）。

你若与神同行，你唯一可以明了的事，也是神唯一要你明了的事，就是他要对付你的内心。弟兄的愁苦和疑难，你是一概不明白的。我们以为很明白别人的情况，直到神向我们的毛病给上一服药。其实每人心中都有一大片顽梗愚昧的区域，有待圣灵向我们显明。只有当耶稣抓住我们单独见面，才能作成。我们现在是否与主独处？还是浮游于无谓的思想里？忙乱于无关重要的事奉上？或是为身体作无谓的打算？除非我们停止头脑上杂七杂八的问题、单独面对耶稣，否则他无法向我们讲解真理。

祈祷◆主啊，今天特别是属你的日子；让我们唯独纪念你。那些遍布世界各地、能与你面对面的仆人和使女是有福的。宽恕我的迟缓，因为我需要那么长的时间，才醒觉某些事情。

January 13 Have You Ever Been Alone With GOD?

“When He was alone the twelve . . . asked of Him . . .” Mark 4:10

His Solitude with Us. When God gets us alone by affliction, heartbreak, or temptation, by disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted affection, by a broken friendship, or by a new friendship – when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are dumbfounded, and cannot ask one question, then He begins to expound. Watch Jesus Christ's training of the twelve. It was the disciples, not the crowd outside, who were perplexed. They constantly asked Him questions, and He constantly expounded things to them; but they only understood after they had received the Holy Spirit (see John 14:26).

If you are going on with God, the only thing that is clear to you, and the only thing God intends to be clear, is the way He deals with your own soul. Your brother's sorrows and perplexities are an absolute confusion to you. We imagine we understand where the other person is, until God gives us a dose of the plague of our own hearts. There are whole tracts of stubbornness and ignorance to be revealed by the Holy Spirit in each one of us, and it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone. Are we alone with Him now, or are we taken up with little fussy notions, fussy comradeships in God's service, fussy ideas about our bodies? Jesus can expound nothing until we get through all the noisy questions of the head and are alone with Him.

我可以差遣谁呢？谁肯为我们去呢？我说，我在这里，请差遣我。（赛六8）

神并没有直接呼召以赛亚，是以赛亚听到神在说：“谁肯为我们去呢？”神的呼召不是单为特殊几个人而发，而是对每一个人的。听不听见神的呼召，要视乎我耳朵的状况；而到底听见什么，则视乎我的性情了。“被召的人多，选上的人少。”意思是：很少人有被选上的条件。被选上的人，是藉着耶稣基督与神建立关系，以致性情改变了，耳朵开通了，就听见那微小的声音不住地在问：“谁肯为我们去呢！？”神不是特别指着一个人说：“听着，你去吧！”神并没有强逼以赛亚；以赛亚只在神跟前，刚好听见他的呼召，觉得没有别的话可以回答，就甘心情愿地说：“我在这里，请差遣我。”

别以为神会催逼你，恳求你！（把这意念除去吧。）当日主呼召门徒，也没有从外面施予无法抗拒的压力。他只是平静而热切地要求“跟从我”，是对那些理智清醒能以自主的人发出的。我们若让圣灵带我们与神面对面，也会听见类似以赛亚所听见的——神微小的声音；也会自然而然地回答说：“我在这里，请差遣我。”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我的灵在你面前敬拜，因着你赐给我的浩大恩典，我的眼睛能够看见、我的耳朵能够听闻、我的心灵能够明白，在一切境况的背后，皆有你的脚踪。

January 14 Called Of GOD

“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Isaiah 6:8

God did not address the call to Isaiah; Isaiah overheard God saying, “Who will go for us?” The call of God is not for the special few, it is for everyone. Whether or not I hear God's call depends upon the state of my ears; and what I hear depends upon my disposition. “Many are called but few are chosen,” that is, few prove themselves the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ whereby their disposition has been altered and their ears unstopped, and they hear the still small voice questioning all the time, “Who will go for us?” It is not a question of God singling out a man and saying, “Now, you go.” God did not lay a strong compulsion on Isaiah; Isaiah was in the presence of God and he overheard the call, and realized that there was nothing else for him but to say, in conscious freedom, “Here am I, send me.” Get out of your mind the idea of expecting God to come with compulsions and pleadings. When our Lord called His disciples there was no irresistible compulsion from outside. The quiet passionate insistence of His “Follow Me” was spoken to men with every power wide awake. If we let the Spirit of God bring us face to face with God, we too shall hear something akin to what Isaiah heard, the still small voice of God; and in perfect freedom will say, “Here am I; send me.”

和他一同埋葬……一举一动有新生的样式。（罗六4）

一个人要经历完全的成圣，不能不先经过“白色的葬礼”——旧生命的埋葬。若没有这死的转捩点，成圣只不过是幻影。必须有一次“白色的丧礼”，死才有复活——复活在耶稣基督的生命里头。什么都不能摇动这生命，这是与神合一的生命；而我们的目的只有一个，就是为他作见证。你真的来到生命的尽头了吗？在情绪上你固然时常会来到，但是否真真正正面对它？你不可能兴兴奋奋地死去。死的意思是你不复存在。你有没有答应神，让往日那竭力挣扎、热情充沛的信徒经历成为过去？我们往往巡视坟场的四周，始终不肯死去。我们并不是要竭力求死，乃是“受洗归入他的死”。

你行过你“白色的葬礼”没有？还是在与自己的灵魂愚弄嬉耍？你生命中有没有一个地方标明“末日”？有没有一个地方让你想起当日所受的管教，心中万分感激地说：“是了，就在那时，在那‘白色丧礼’中，我与神立了约”？神的旨意是叫我们成圣。当你一旦觉察到神的旨意是什么，就十分自然地进到成圣的地步。你愿意现在就行那“白色丧礼”吗？你能否向神首肯说，这一天是你在地上的最后一天？首肯的时刻是在你手上。

祈祷◆“非圣洁没有人能见主。”主啊，感谢你，赐下这句话。倘若你不是圣洁的，那会是何等可怕！有些时候，我们是多么容易坠入一个较松散、较卑贱的生活中了；感谢你藉着圣灵的叹息提醒我——我何其渴望它们能带领我与你面对面。宽恕我的迟缓，我需要那么久，才醒悟某些事情。

January 15 Do You Walk In White?

We were buried with Him . . . that just as Christ was raised from the dead . . . even so we also should walk in newness of life —Romans 6:4

No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral”— the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection— a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.

Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).

Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my 'white funeral', that I made an agreement with God.”

“This is the will of God, your sanctification . . .” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God's will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.

我又听见主的声音，说，我可以差遣谁呢？（赛六8）

说到神的呼召，我们很容易忘记一件最重要的事：就是呼召者的本性。海有海的呼声，山有山的呼声，冰山有冰山的呼声；这些呼声只有少数人听见。呼声是事物本性的一种表现，必须有同样的性情才能接收那呼声。神的呼召是神本性的流露，而不是我们的。神的呼声中，有好些线路是预定给我们用的，所以我们才认得那声音。神的声音透过那线路来呼召我们，别人是呼不出来的。在某些特别的事上，与人磋商斟酌是无济于事，我们必须保持与神的密切关系。

神的呼召不是我们本性的反响；我的喜好倾向于个性，也渺不相涉。如果只一直注视自己的个性，想看自己到底适合做什么，那将永远听不见神的呼召。但当我与神深交，就落在以赛亚的情景里了。以赛亚的心灵因经历了重大的事件，与神密切贴近，他惊异的心灵就录下了神呼唤的声音。我们多半只用耳朵听自己，神所说的，一点也听不进去。我们若一旦进入神呼召的音城里，必然彻底改变。

祈祷◆“让我听见你的声音”——这是我的祈祷。我极其盼望去聆听你、去感觉你，被你的同在所震撼。

January 16 The Voice Of The Nature Of GOD

“I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send?” Isaiah 6:8

When we speak of the call of God, we are apt to forget the most important feature, viz., the nature of the One Who calls. There is the call of the sea, the call of the mountains, the call of the great ice barriers, but these calls are only heard by the few. The call is the expression of the nature from which it comes, and we can only record the call if the same nature is in us. The call of God is the expression of God's nature, not of our nature. There are strands of the call of God providentially at work for us which we recognize and no one else does. It is the threading of God's voice to us in some particular matter, and it is no use consulting anyone else about it. We have to keep that profound relationship between our souls and God.

The call of God is not the echo of my nature; my affinities and personal temperament are not considered. As long as I consider my personal temperament and think about what I am fitted for, I shall never hear the call of God. But when I am brought into relationship with God, I am in the condition Isaiah was in. Isaiah's soul was so attuned to God by the tremendous crisis he had gone through that he recorded the call of God to his amazed soul. The majority of us have no ear for anything but ourselves, we cannot hear a thing God says. To be brought into the zone of the call of God is to be profoundly altered.

 神既然乐意将他的儿子启示在我心里……（加一15-16）

神的呼召并不是要我们去做某一种工作；我这样的解释也许是由于与神亲密的相交，使我自然领会该为他做什么。呼召是神本性的表达，而事奉则是适合我个性工作的结果。使徒保罗说：“神乐意将他儿子启示在我心里，叫我把他传在外邦人中。”（传就是神圣的表达）这说明了保罗在地上的职务是要传扬神的儿子。

事奉是内里无限热诚的涌流；可是，深入一点说，其实是没有事奉的呼召的；这乃是我对神的体认和回应，以微不足道的行动表现出来。事奉是属于我天然生命的一部分。神与我们建立关系，叫人认出他的呼声，然后就甘心情愿为爱他而有所行动。事奉神，是人听见了神的呼召而专诚献上爱的礼物。事奉是我的一种表达；而神的呼召是他的表达。因此，当我有了他的性情，又听见他的呼召时，两者就同时响应，互相配合。神的儿子启示在我心里，于是我以诚以爱在日常生活中事奉他。

祈祷◆主啊，你的话来的那么静悄悄，却是无处不在——“若有人服侍我，就当跟从我”，和“若有人服侍我，我父必尊重他”。在这种意义上，请接纳我成为你的仆人。

January 17 The Vocation Of The Natural Life

“But when it pleased God . . . to reveal His Son in me . . .” Galatians 1:15-16

The call of God is not a call to any particular service; my interpretation of it may be because contact with the nature of God has made me realize what I would like to do for Him. The call of God is essentially expressive of His nature; service is the outcome of what is fitted to my nature. The vocation of the natural life is stated by the apostle Paul – “When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him” (i.e., sacramentally express) “among the Gentiles.”

Service is the overflow of superabounding devotion; but, profoundly speaking, there is no call to that, it is my own little actual bit and is the echo of my identification with the nature of God. Service is the natural part of my life. God gets me into a relationship with Himself whereby I understand His call, then I do things out of sheer love for Him on my own account. To serve God is the deliberate love-gift of a nature that has heard the call of God. Service is expressive of that which is fitted to my nature: God's call is expressive of His nature; consequently when I receive His nature and hear His call, the voice of the Divine nature sounds in both and the two work together. The Son of God reveals Himself in me, and I serve Him in the ordinary ways of life out of devotion to Him.

多马说：“我的主，我的神！”（约二十28）

“请你给我水喝。”我们许多人只期望耶稣解我们的渴，没想到我们该叫他得着满足！今天，我们早该倒空一切，竭尽所有服侍基督，而不再是要求主来满足我们。“你们要作我的见证”，不玷污、不妥协、不打折扣的对主尽忠；不论主放我们在什么岗位，都叫主的心满足。

当心那些与我们忠于基督的心争竞的事物。忠于基督最大的敌人是事奉主的工作。因为事奉主，比全然将生命倾倒给主容易。神呼召我们的唯一目的，是叫他心满意足，而不是呼召人去为他做点什么。神不是差派我们去为他打仗，而是在他的战场上被他所用。我们献身于事奉的热诚，是否过于我们爱主的热诚呢？

祈祷◆为着你的话——“父亲怎样怜恤他的儿女，耶和华也怎样怜恤敬畏他的人”——我赞美你。我何其认清我所领受的，绝不是你的严苛，却全然是你的慈爱。噢，愿你向我所施的慈爱、温柔与忍耐，能够透过我向其他人表达出来。

January 18 It Is The LORD!

“Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God.” John 20:28

“Give Me to drink.” How many of us are set upon Jesus Christ slaking our thirst when we ought to be satisfying Him? We should be pouring out now, spending to the last limit, not drawing on Him to satisfy us. “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me” – that means a life of unsullied, uncompromising and unbribed devotion to the Lord Jesus, a satisfaction to Him wherever He places us.

Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for Him. It is easier to serve than to be drunk to the dregs. The one aim of the call of God is the satisfaction of God, not a call to do something for Him. We are not sent to battle for God, but to be used by God in His battlings. Are we being more devoted to service than to Jesus Christ?

忽然有惊人的大黑暗落在他身上。（创十五12）

神什么时候把异象给信徒，就什么时候把他放在他手的阴影底下。圣徒那时的责任，是要安静聆听。在极度强烈的光线下，会产生一种黑暗，那时就得洗耳恭听。创世记十五章就是个好例子。在黑暗中，人只会寻求人的指示，却不等候神的光照。每逢神赐下异象，黑暗却接踵而来的话，就要等候。只要等候神的时间，他会按照给你的异象成就。切勿自告奋勇地帮助神成就他的应许。亚伯拉罕有十三年在静默中度过，在那些年日里，一切自己的办法都行不通，故不能凭头脑理智去解决问题。那段寂静的日子是操练的日子，而不是愁苦的日子。不必故意制造喜乐和勇气，只要心坚依靠神。（赛五十10-11）

我对肉体还有所倚恃吗？还是我已经脱离了对自己、对神的儿女、对书本、对祷告、及兴奋感觉的信赖，甚至是他的祝福，而把信心完全放在神身上，“我是全能的神”——是作为父母的神。我们受操练的目的，是要认识神是真实的。一旦看见神是真实的，其他人就成为影子了。其他信徒无论说什么，做什么，再也无法影响一个建造在神里面的人。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我在重重的黑暗中靠近你，求你为我驱散黑暗，并以你的脸光照我。

January 19 Vision And Darkness

“An horror of great darkness fell upon him.” Genesis 15:12

Whenever God gives a vision to a saint, He puts him, as it were, in the shadow of His hand, and the saint's duty is to be still and listen. There is a darkness which comes from excess of light, and then is the time to listen. Genesis 16 is an illustration of listening to good advice when it is dark instead of waiting for God to send the light. When God gives a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will make you in accordance with the vision He has given if you will wait His time. Never try and help God fulfil His word. Abraham went through thirteen years of silence, but in those years all self-sufficiency was destroyed; there was no possibility left of relying on common-sense ways. Those years of silence were a time of discipline, not of displeasure. Never pump up joy and confidence, but stay upon God (cf. Isaiah 50:10,11).

Have I any confidence in the flesh? Or have I got beyond all confidence in myself and in men and women of God; in books and prayers and ecstasies; and is my confidence placed now in God Himself, not in His blessings? “I am the Almighty God” – El-Shaddai, the Father-Mother God. The one thing for which we are all being disciplined is to know that God is real. As soon as God becomes real, other people become shadows. Nothing that other saints do or say can ever perturb the one who is built on God.

人若不重生，就不能见 神的国。（约三3）

有时我们对祈祷会很感兴趣，但对洗脏靴子却一点兴趣也没有。

从圣灵重生，绝无疑问是神的工作，这如风的来去无踪，像神一样叫人惊讶莫测。我们不晓得它始于何方，却隐藏在我们生命的深处。从神而来的重生，是连绵不绝、永不衰息的永恆开端。这生命在任何时刻都是有生气的——在思想上、话语上、生活上，都是如此；是不住活在神测不透的奇妙中。陈旧腐朽的思想表示有些地方与神脱节了。“我一定要这样做，否则永远也办不成。”这是臣服的第一迹象。我们这一分钟是否活泼重生？还是呆滞不前，绞尽脑汁地去找事情来做？活泼的生命不是从顺服而来，乃是从圣灵而来的。顺服不过使我们活在光中，正如神活在光中一样。

紧紧维持你与神的关系。耶稣祷告说：“使他们合一，正如我们合一一样。”毫无阻隔地，让你生命全然地向他敞开，不要对他装模作样。除神之外，你还能从其他源头支取生命吗？若你不单靠他，还去靠赖别的东西，那么他什么时候走了，你也不觉察。

从圣灵而生的意思是何等深广，超乎我们一般所论的。它给我们新的异象，使我们对每事每物都感到新鲜有趣，这都因神源源不断的生命力。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，吹向我，直至我的意念、心思和气质，都能与你一致。我的依靠在乎你。我再一次透彻认识到，没有了你，我是何其失丧！

January 20 Are You Fresh For Everything?

“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3

Sometimes we are fresh for a prayer meeting but not fresh for cleaning boots!

Being born again of the Spirit is an unmistakable work of God, as mysterious as the wind, as surprising as God Himself. We do not know where it begins, it is hidden away in the depths of our personal life. Being born again from above is a perennial, perpetual and eternal beginning; a freshness all the time in thinking and in talking and in living, the continual surprise of the life of God. Staleness is an indication of something out of joint with God – “I must do this thing or it will never be done.” That is the first sign of staleness. Are we freshly born this minute or are we stale, raking in our minds for something to do? Freshness does not come from obedience but from the Holy Spirit; obedience keeps us in the light as God is in the light.

Guard jealously your relationship to God. Jesus prayed “that they may be one, even as we are one” – nothing between. Keep all the life perennially open to Jesus Christ, don't pretend with Him. Are you drawing your life from any other source than God Himself? If you are depending upon anything but Him, you will never know when He is gone.

Being born of the Spirit means much more than we generally take it to mean. It gives us a new vision and keeps us absolutely fresh for everything by the perennial supply of the life of God.

你幼年的恩爱……我都记得。（耶二2）

我爱神是否像昔日一样甘心自发？还是只指望以仁慈对待我？我有没有许多微小的事可以讨他欢心？还是因路不顺遂而唉哼怨叹？你心若忘记了神所看为宝贵的，就不会喜乐。试想主耶稣需要我－－“请给我水喝”，这是多么美妙的事！过去的一个礼拜里，我怎样表示爱他呢？在我的生活中，有没有彰显他的名呢？

神对他子民说：“你现在不再爱我了，但我很记得你爱我的那段日子。”“我记得……你婚姻般的爱情。”当日我怎样撇开一切，表明诚心爱他；如今，我是否仍对他有这不断涌流的爱情？我除了他别无眷恋的日子，是否要在回忆中去追寻？我如今还在那境地，还是懂得怎样去爱他？我是否深深地爱他而不管前途如何？还是在注视自己该得的地位，估计着该摆上多少事奉？假若我想起神纪念我的日子，却发觉他在我心中已不复昔日重要的地位，就叫我羞愧自卑，因为羞愧会带来忧愁，叫我悔改。

祈祷◆主啊，我何等渴望你带领我与你面对面！我的灵渴想着你、你恩典的触动和你圣灵的气息。

January 21 Recall What GOD Remembers

“I remember . . . the kindness of thy youth.” Jeremiah 2:2

Am I as spontaneously kind to God as I used to be, or am I only expecting God to be kind to me? Am I full of the little things that cheer His heart over me, or am I whimpering because things are going hardly with me? There is no joy in the soul that has forgotten what God prizes. It is a great thing to think that Jesus Christ has need of me – “Give Me to drink.” How much kindness have I shown Him this past week? Have I been kind to His reputation in my life?

God is saying to His people – You are not in love with Me now, but I remember the time when you were – “I remember . . . the love of thine espousals.” Am I as full of the extravagance of love to Jesus Christ as I was in the beginning, when I went out of my way to prove my devotion to Him? Does He find me recalling the time when I did not care for anything but Himself? Am I there now, or have I become wise over loving Him? Am I so in love with Him that I take no account of where I go? or am I watching for the respect due to me; weighing how much service I ought to give?

If, as I recall what God remembers about me, I find He is not what He used to be to me, let it produce shame and humiliation, because that shame will bring the godly sorrow that works repentance.

地极的人都当仰望我，就必得救。（赛四十五22）

我们是否指望神带着许多祝福来拯救我们？他说：“仰望我，就必得救。”属灵生命上最难做到的，就是专心一意仰望神，这可是出于他的祝福。因为困难使我们仰望神，祝福却使我们望到别处去。登山宝训的精意，其实是：把你所有的注意力收窄，直到你的心志、心灵与身体，完全集中在主耶稣身上——仰望他。

不少人对做基督徒存一固定模式，就是其他圣徒的榜样，成了我们集中在神身上的障碍。这样是不会得救的，那太复杂了。“仰望我”不是“将会得救”，而是“就必得救”。我们期盼的东西，只要集中在他身上，就必得着。但我们对神往往心不在焉，或向神怨叹愤懣，可是他却一直在对我们说：“仰望我就得救。”一切困难试炼，如这个暑假我有什么计划，明天又该作什么？这些萦绕在脑际的问题，一经仰望神，都会得着解决了。

醒来吧，仰望神。把盼望建筑在神身上，不论有多少件事情压着你，只管放下它们，一心一意望着他。“仰望我”，必得救，就在你望的一刹那。

祈祷◆主啊，我仰望你。我何其了解“在我里面没有良善”；然而，你的恩典是何等奇妙，我如今竟发现自己的内心，除了你的荣耀以外，再别无他求。

January 22 What Am I Looking At?

“Look unto Me, and be ye saved.” Isaiah 45:22

Do we expect God to come to us with His blessings and save us? He says – Look unto Me, and be saved. The great difficulty spiritually is to concentrate on God, and it is His blessings that make it difficult. Troubles nearly always make us look to God; His blessings are apt to make us look elsewhere. The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is, in effect – Narrow all your interests until the attitude of mind and heart and body is concentration on Jesus Christ. “Look unto Me.”

Many of us have a mental conception of what a Christian should be, and the lives of the saints become a hindrance to our concentration on God. There is no salvation in this way, it is not simple enough. “Look unto Me” and – not “you will be saved,” but “you are saved.” The very thing we look for, we shall find if we will concentrate on Him. We get preoccupied and sulky with God, while all the time He is saying – “Look up and be saved.” The difficulties and trials – the casting about in our minds as to what we shall do this summer, or to-morrow, all vanish when we look to God.

Rouse yourself up and look to God. Build your hope on Him. No matter if there are a hundred and one things that press, resolutely exclude them all and look to Him. “Look unto Me,” and salvation is, the moment you look.

我们众人既然敞着脸，得以看见主的荣光，好像从镜子里反照，就变成主的形状。（林后三18）

信徒最卓越的品德与特征，就是在神面前毫无掩饰，以致他的生命成为别人的一面镜子。我们被圣灵充满而改变，又因“定睛仰望”而成为镜子。一个人若有主的荣光，你必然会觉察出来，也会感到他正是主性情的反照。要提防那些叫这镜子模糊的东西；这些东西多半是好的，却不是最好的。

你我生活的准则，就是要专注地保持向神开放。其他一切如工作、服饰、食物，地上的东西就任它去吧。次要的东西不断涌来，很容易阻碍对神的专一。所以我们要常常瞻仰主的荣光，同时要保持生命完全属灵。旁的事随它去吧，旁的人任他批评吧，却绝不可让任何事务迷糊了与基督一同藏在神里面的生命。不要让忙乱破坏了你与他同住的关系，虽然这是很容易被摇动的。信徒生活上最严格的操练，就是学习不断“看见主的荣光，好像从镜子反照。”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我完全仰赖你。离了你，我就毫无价值。求你今天将智慧、明辨和敏悟的心赐给我。

January 23 Transformed by Beholding

We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image . . . —2 Corinthians 3:18

The greatest characteristic a Christian can exhibit is this completely unveiled openness before God, which allows that person's life to become a mirror for others. When the Spirit fills us, we are transformed, and by beholding God we become mirrors. You can always tell when someone has been beholding the glory of the Lord, because your inner spirit senses that he mirrors the Lord's own character. Beware of anything that would spot or tarnish that mirror in you. It is almost always something good that will stain it— something good, but not what is best.

The most important rule for us is to concentrate on keeping our lives open to God. Let everything else including work, clothes, and food be set aside. The busyness of things obscures our concentration on God. We must maintain a position of beholding Him, keeping our lives completely spiritual through and through. Let other things come and go as they will; let other people criticize us as they will; but never allow anything to obscure the life that “is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Never let a hurried lifestyle disturb the relationship of abiding in Him. This is an easy thing to allow, but we must guard against it. The most difficult lesson of the Christian life is learning how to continue “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord . . . .”

我特意向你显现。（徒二十六16）

保罗在大马色路上所见的异象，绝非霎时的冲动，而是十分清楚肯定是从神而来的指示，因此他说：“故此我没有违背那从天上来的异象。”主其实是对保罗说：“你的一生完全由我作主；除了我，你不能再有任何目标与计划。”“我拣选了他。”

我们重生了，必然都有异象。要是我们要灵命长进，便要行主要我们行的；而最要紧的就是学习不违背异象，不要说那是无法达致的（或作高不可及的）。

单单知道神救赎了世人，又知道圣灵叫耶稣所成就的一切并实现在我身上，这还是不够的；我必须与他有个人的关系，作为根基。保罗所得的不是一篇道理、一套教义，叫他去传扬；他乃是与耶稣基督有一个亲身的经历，让主完全占有了他。第16节最令人触目——“派你作执事作见证”。保罗是效忠于主，而不是一个使命。他是完完全全属于耶稣基督的；此外，便别无所见，也不再为别的事物而活。“我在你们中间不知道别的，只知道耶稣基督并他钉十字架。”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求你以爱慕的枷锁将我与你结连；在你差派我时，以你的眷佑环绕我；加添我的能力，以致我愈来愈能够被你使用。

January 24 The Overmastering Direction

“I have appeared unto thee for this purpose.” Acts 26:16

The vision Paul had on the road to Damascus was no passing emotion, but a vision that had very clear and emphatic directions for him, and he says, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” Our Lord said, in effect, to Paul – Your whole life is to be overmastered by Me; you are to have no end, no aim, and no purpose but Mine. “I have chosen him.”

When we are born again we all have visions, if we are spiritual at all, of what Jesus wants us to be, and the great thing is to learn not to be disobedient to the vision, not to say that it cannot be attained. It is not sufficient to know that God has redeemed the world, and to know that the Holy Spirit can make all that Jesus did effectual in me; I must have the basis of a personal relationship to Him. Paul was not given a message or a doctrine to proclaim, he was brought into a vivid, personal, overmastering relationship to Jesus Christ. Verse 16 is immensely commanding – “to make thee a minister and a witness.” There is nothing there apart from the personal relationship. Paul was devoted to a Person not to a cause. He was absolutely Jesus Christ's, he saw nothing else, he lived for nothing else. “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”

神既然乐意......（加一15-16）

作为神的工人，我们必须学习给神留下应有的地位，就是给他有自由活动的空间。我们会计算量度，说这个那个会这样那样，却忘记腾出空间，给神自由进出的余地。神若突然闯入我们的聚会中，或我们讲道时他来了，我们会诧异吗？不要指望神照你指定的方式来到，只要注目在他身上，这才是给他空间。要指望他来，但不要限制他只能用某种方式来。不论我们认识神有多少，最重要的是要知道：神任何一分钟都可以裂天而降。我们很容易忽视这个突如其来的可能性，其实神做工一向就是如此。神往往出其不意地临到人当中——“神乐意......”。

经常与神保持贴近，以致神奇异的大能随时地从他右手或左手发出。要常在期待当中，给神空间随他的意思降临。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求你以爱慕的枷锁将我与你结连；在你差派我时，以你的眷佑环绕我；加添我的能力，以致我愈来愈能够被你使用。

January 25 Leave Room For GOD

“But when it pleased God. . .” Galatians 1:15

As workers for God we have to learn to make room for God – to give God “elbow room.” We calculate and estimate, and say that this and that will happen, and we forget to make room for God to come in as He chooses. Would we be surprised if God came into our meeting or into our preaching in a way we had never looked for Him to come? Do not look for God to come in any particular way, but look for Him. That is the way to make room for Him. Expect Him to come, but do not expect Him only in a certain way. However much we may know God, the great lesson to learn is that at any minute He may break in. We are apt to over look this element of surprise, yet God never works in any other way. All of a sudden God meets the life – “When it was the good pleasure of God. . .”

Keep your life so constant in its contact with God that His surprising power may break out on the right hand and on the left. Always be in a state of expectancy, and see that you leave room for God to come in as He likes.

野地里的草……神还给它这样的妆饰，何况你们呢？（太六30）

这是耶稣一句很简单的话语，若果我们不单纯，就会大惑不解。我们怎样才能像耶稣那样单纯呢？接受他的灵，承认他，依靠他，顺服他所传递神的话语，这样，生命就会变得单纯了。耶稣说：“试想，天父怎样妆饰野地里的草，你若与他亲近，他岂不更加照样妆饰你？”每次我们灵性上后退，都是因为妄自尊大，以为自己比主耶稣懂得更多。我们让世界的忧虑进来，忘记了天父的“何况……”

“你们看那天上的飞鸟”——它们主要的任务就是服从那生命的律，神便看顾它们了。耶稣说如果你与他有好的关系，同时又顺服圣灵，神自然照顾你。“你想野地里的百合花”——它们被放置在哪里，就生长在那里。我们不少人不肯在所处的地方生长，因此无法扎根。耶稣说，如果我们顺服神，他便会料理其他的一切。耶稣基督撒了谎吗？我们若未经验到那“何况”，是因为我们尚未顺服神，自讨烦恼，落在诸般忧虑里。我们花多少时间向神发问，叫他担忧，而其实我们该毫无束缚地献身在他的工作上？献身就是为某特定的目标，不断地把自己投上。献身不是一次便解决的事。我是否每天不断地把自己分别出来、以神为念？

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着你透过主耶稣的恩典，将你至高无上的父性向我显明，我赞美你。噢，我可以成为天父的孩子了！

January 26 Look Again And Consecrate

“If God so clothe the grass of the field . . . shall He not much more clothe you?” Matthew 6:30

A simple statement of Jesus is always a puzzle to us if we are not simple. How are we going to be simple with the simplicity of Jesus? By receiving His Spirit, recognizing and relying on Him, obeying Him as He brings the word of God, and life will become amazingly simple. “Consider,” says Jesus, “how much more your Father Who clothes the grass of the field will clothe you, if you keep your relationship right with Him.” Every time we have gone back in spiritual communion it has been because we have impertinently known better than Jesus Christ. We have allowed the cares of the world to come in, and have forgotten the “much more” of our Heavenly Father.

“Behold the fowls of the air” – their main aim is to obey the principle of life that is in them and God looks after them. Jesus says that if you are rightly related to Him and obey His Spirit that is in you, God will look after your ‘feathers.’

“Consider the lilies of the field” – they grow where they are put. Many of us refuse to grow where we are put, consequently we take root nowhere. Jesus says that if we obey the life God has given us, He will look after all the other things. Has Jesus Christ told us a lie? If we are not experiencing the “much more,” it is because we are not obeying the life God has given us, we are taken up with confusing considerations. How much time have we taken up worrying God with questions when we should have been absolutely free to concentrate on His work? Consecration means the continual separating of myself to one particular thing. We cannot consecrate once and for all. Am I continually separating myself to consider God every day of my life?

不要为生命忧虑。

今世的忧虑，钱财的迷惑，及其他的私欲一点进入我们心中，就会把神所赐予的生命窒息，这是必须再三告诫的。属世的东西势如潮涌，连连进击，使我们无法摆脱。若不从衣食而来，就会从金钱或贫乏而来；不从朋友而来，就从孤独无友而来；甚至又会从困境而来。这些东西不住地、逐步地蚕食我们属灵的生命，除非我们让圣灵来抵抗，否则这些东西将如洪水泛滥，淹没我们。

“不要为生命忧虑。”主说：“只要关心一件事便够了，那就是你与我的关系。”我们会理性地大声疾呼，说：“真是无稽，我不能不为生计打算，打算吃什么喝什么啊!”耶稣却说不可。不要以为说这话的主根本不明白我们的境况。其实耶稣基督知道得比我们更清楚。他说，我们不应该把这些事当作生活中唯一需要关注的事。什么时候属世的事务与主相争，就要把你和神的关系摆在前头。

“一天的难处一天当就够了。”今日有多少难处在向你威吓？有什么顽童小鬼在窥探说：“看你下个月怎么办？暑期又如何？”耶稣说：“应当一无挂虑。”请你再三思想，慎加明辨！把你的心思放在天父的“何况你们”这一句话上吧。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，使我离开那些关乎感官和时间的事情，引导我进入与大君王同在之境地。保守我的心思意念全属于你。

January 27 Look Again And Think

“Take no thought for your life.” Matthew 6:25

A warning which needs to be reiterated is that the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in, will choke all that God puts in. We are never free from the recurring tides of this encroachment. If it does not come on the line of clothes and food, it will come on the line of money or lack of money; of friends or lack of friends; or on the line of difficult circumstances. It is one steady encroachment all the time, and unless we allow the Spirit of God to raise up the standard against it, these things will come in like a flood.

“Take no thought for your life.” “Be careful about one thing only,” says our Lord – “your relationship to Me.” Common sense shouts loud and says – “That is absurd, I must consider how I am going to live, I must consider what I am going to eat and drink.” Jesus says you must not. Beware of allowing the thought that this statement is made by One Who does not understand our particular circumstances. Jesus Christ knows our circumstances better than we do, and He says we must not think about these things so as to make them the one concern of our life. Whenever there is competition, be sure that you put your relationship to God first.

“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” How much evil has begun to threaten you to-day? What kind of mean little imps have been looking in and saying – Now what are you going to do next month – this summer? “Be anxious for nothing,” Jesus says. Look again and think. Keep your mind on the “much more” of your heavenly Father.

扫罗，扫罗，为什么逼迫我？

对神我是否自作主张？除非我们先经历了圣灵与火的洗，否则永远也不能脱离这个网罗。刚愎自用是会刺伤耶稣基督的，也许别人不会受损害，但主却受了伤。每当我们顽梗、自我、野心勃勃的去行事，我们就伤了耶稣的心。每当我们坚持自己的主张，坚持自己的意向，我们就是逼迫耶稣了。每当我们维护自己的尊严，就势必叫他的灵痛苦担忧。当我们恍悟自己一直再逼迫耶稣，这实在是最沉痛的光照。

我把神的话传给你的时候，这些话对我是否真的如此敏锐？还是我的生活与口所教导的两相违背？我可能教导人成圣，而同时却表现出撒旦的灵，就是逼迫耶稣基督。耶稣的灵只知道一件事，就是与父全然合一。他说：“我心里柔和谦卑，你们要学我的样式。”我所做的一切，应以与他完全合一为根基，而不是凭自己的意志去过敬虔生活。这样我可能被人欺压，被人排挤，被人忽视；但我若肯顺服，主就不用受逼迫了。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，正如你与父合而为一，我也盼望与你合而为一！为着你的荣耀，求你赐给我们这种合一，愿你的脸光照我们，赐给我们平安。

January 28 But It Is Hardly Credible That One Could So Persecute JESUS!

“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” Acts 26:14

Am I set on my own way for God? We are never free from this snare until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. Obstinacy and self-will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed and set upon our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our rights and insist that this is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Jesus. Whenever we stand on our dignity we systematically vex and grieve His Spirit; and when the knowledge comes home that it is Jesus Whom we have been persecuting all the time, it is the most crushing revelation there could be.

Is the word of God tremendously keen to me as I hand it on to you, or does my life give the lie to the things I profess to teach? I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is conscious of one thing only – a perfect oneness with the Father, and He says, “Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.” All I do ought to be founded on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly. This will mean that I can be easily put upon, easily over-reached, easily ignored; but if I submit to it for His sake, I prevent Jesus Christ being persecuted.

主啊，你是谁？（徒二十六15）

“耶和华以大能的手，指教我......”(赛八11) 我们的主一开口，我们再无可躲藏。他来的时候，总要抓住你。神的声音有没有直接临到你？若有，你对他的话里的亲切肯定，对他用你所熟悉的语句，必不至于认不出来。你不是用耳朵听，乃是透过环境际遇去辨认出来。

神必须先破坏我们执着自信的主见。“我晓得我该做什么。”突然，神的声音震撼我们，显出我们是何等的无知。我们如何用自己的方法来事奉主，正表现出自己的无知。我们事奉耶稣的心，与圣灵并不合一，因为没有属基督的灵。我们为他辩护，却伤害了他；我们推崇他的主权，却附从了魔鬼的邪灵。我们说的话没有什么不对，只是我们是敌基督的。“他责备她们说，你们的心如何，你们并不知道。”(路九55) 哥林多前书十三章所说的，才是真正为主发言，因为是出自他的灵。

我有没有以自己的方法，抱着满腔热诚，立志事奉主，然而却逼迫了他？我若自以为尽了一己的任务，却因此伤了主的心，那么，那决不是我应该做的，因为这工作没有使温柔谦卑的灵得以长进，反而带来自满自足。我们总以为凡是不讨好的工作，就是自己的任务！这像不像我们主的表现？“我的神啊，我乐意照你的旨意行。”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我要称颂你声音的语调和能力，你的语调带着温柔和满有恩典的爱，也带有如自然界强风的能力。主啊，让人在这地方听闻你荣耀的声音，亦让我的灵得以听见.

January 29 How Could Someone Be So Ignorant!

Who are You, Lord? —Acts 26:15

“The Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand . . .” (Isaiah 8:11). There is no escape when our Lord speaks. He always comes using His authority and taking hold of our understanding. Has the voice of God come to you directly? If it has, you cannot mistake the intimate insistence with which it has spoken to you. God speaks in the language you know best— not through your ears, but through your circumstances.

God has to destroy our determined confidence in our own convictions. We say, “I know that this is what I should do”-and suddenly the voice of God speaks in a way that overwhelms us by revealing the depths of our ignorance. We show our ignorance of Him in the very way we decide to serve Him. We serve Jesus in a spirit that is not His, and hurt Him by our defense of Him. We push His claims in the spirit of the devil; our words sound all right, but the spirit is that of an enemy. “He . . . rebuked them, and said, ’You do not know what manner of spirit you are of’ ” (Luke 9:55). The spirit of our Lord in His followers is described in 1 Corinthians 13 .

Have I been persecuting Jesus by an eager determination to serve Him in my own way? If I feel I have done my duty, yet have hurt Him in the process, I can be sure that this was not my duty. My way will not be to foster a meek and quiet spirit, only the spirit of self-satisfaction. We presume that whatever is unpleasant is our duty! Is that anything like the spirit of our Lord— “I delight to do Your will, O my God . . .” (Psalm 40:8).

撒母耳……不敢将默示告诉以利。（撒上三15）

神从来不用惊天动地的方式对我们说话，他说话的方式，往往容易被我们误解。我们会说：“不知这到底是不是神的声音？”以赛亚说神的手在他身上沉重（对他说话），也就是说，神用环境的压力。任何发生在我们身上的事，都是神在说话。我们有没有辨认出他的手，还是只当作偶发的事件？

能养成“主啊，请说”的习惯，这样生命就变得多姿多彩。每一次说：“主啊，请说。”要拨出时间来静听！管教不单只为了操练，也是为了要把我带到一个地步，使我能说：“主啊，请说。”请你追忆一下神对你说过的话，你还记得他说过什么吗？是路加福音十一章13节，还是帖撒罗尼迦前书五章23节？我们多听，耳朵就开通，像耶稣随时都听见神的声音。

我应该把神给我的指示，告诉我的“以利”吗？这样就来到顺服的难关了。我们若以神明自居，说我必须保护“以利”，因他是我熟悉的人中最善良的。这样，我就是违背神了。神没有叫撒母耳去告诉以利，他要自作决定。神对你的呼召可能伤害你的“以利”；但是你若设法护卫另一个人，使其不受伤害，这样你心灵与神之间便有了阻隔。你不肯砍下右手，剜出眼睛，只会自取其咎，招来毁灭。

神要你在他面前决定的事，不要咨询别人的意见。你听取人的意见，就不期然的袒护撒旦了。“我没有与属血气的人商量。”这是保罗的态度。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你成为怀中摇签的定夺者，以致我们为着你所成就的事充满欢笑。

January 30 The Dilemma Of Obedience

“And Samuel feared to shew Eli the vision.” 1 Samuel 3:15

God never speaks to us in startling ways, but in ways that are easy to misunderstand, and we say, “I wonder if that is God's voice?” Isaiah said that the Lord spake to him “with a strong hand,” that is, by the pressure of circumstances. Nothing touches our lives but it is God Himself speaking. Do we discern His hand or only mere occurrence?

Get into the habit of saying, “Speak, Lord,” and life will become a romance. Every time circumstances press, say, “Speak, Lord”; make time to listen. Chastening is more than a means of discipline, it is meant to get me to the place of saying, “Speak, Lord.” Recall the time when God did speak to you. Have you forgotten what He said? Was it Luke 11:13, or was it 1 Thess. 5:23? As we listen, our ear gets acute, and, like Jesus, we shall hear God all the time.

Shall I tell my “Eli” what God has shown to me? That is where the dilemma of obedience comes in. We disobey God by becoming amateur providences – I must shield “Eli”, the best people we know. God did not tell Samuel to tell Eli; he had to decide that for himself. God's call to you may hurt your “Eli”; but if you try to prevent the suffering in another life, it will prove an obstruction between your soul and God. It is at your own peril that you prevent the cutting off of the right hand or the plucking out of the eye.

Never ask the advice of another about anything God makes you decide before Him. If you ask advice, you will nearly always side with Satan. “Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.”

特派传神的福音（特派有分别出来之意）。（罗一1）

基本上来说，神呼召我们并不是叫我们做圣洁的人，乃是要我们宣扬他的福音。因为其中最要紧的，就是神的福音是永存的事实。人的良善、圣洁，固然不是那事实，而天堂、地狱也都不是，只有救赎才是。今日基督的工人最要了解的，就是这个。作为工人，我们必须熟悉这个启示，就是救赎是唯一的永存事实。个人的圣洁只是救赎的果，不是因。如果我们把信心寄托于人的良善上，以救恩为果，试炼一来，我们就站立不住了。

保罗并没有说他分别自己，他乃说：“神既喜悦将我分别出来……。”保罗对自己的性情，并没有过分的注意。我们的眼睛一天放在自己的成圣上，一天就不能进入救赎的实际里去。许多工人一败涂地，就是因为他们的愿望只为自己的圣洁，而不是为神。“由于人性是堕落与污秽的，请不要叫我面对救赎崎岖的现实吧！我要的，是神为我做点什么，叫我更欣赏自己。”说这样的话，表明神福音的实际尚未摸着我，我还未完全献身，向神降服。保罗能够忘我，毫无顾虑地撇弃一切，被神分别出来，为的只是一个目标——传扬神的福音（参罗九3）

祈祷◆噢，主啊，对于你的救赎和全备的救恩，我的欣赏是何其吝啬。主啊，驱使我产生更丰富的感恩；让我永远深爱主耶稣基督。

January 31 Do You See Your Calling?

. . . separated to the gospel of God. . . —Romans 1:1

Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the gospel of God. The one all-important thing is that the gospel of God should be recognized as the abiding reality. Reality is not human goodness, or holiness, or heaven, or hell— it is redemption. The need to perceive this is the most vital need of the Christian worker today. As workers, we have to get used to the revelation that redemption is the only reality. Personal holiness is an effect of redemption, not the cause of it. If we place our faith in human goodness we will go under when testing comes.

Paul did not say that he separated himself, but “when it pleased God, who separated me . . .” (Galatians 1:15). Paul was not overly interested in his own character. And as long as our eyes are focused on our own personal holiness, we will never even get close to the full reality of redemption. Christian workers fail because they place their desire for their own holiness above their desire to know God. “Don't ask me to be confronted with the strong reality of redemption on behalf of the filth of human life surrounding me today; what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes.” To talk that way is a sign that the reality of the gospel of God has not begun to touch me. There is no reckless abandon to God in that. God cannot deliver me while my interest is merely in my own character. Paul was not conscious of himself. He was recklessly abandoned, totally surrendered, and separated by God for one purpose— to proclaim the gospel of God (see Romans 9:3).

基督差遣我，原不是为施洗，乃是为传福音。（林前一17）

保罗在此指明，神的呼召是传福音；不过要知道保罗所说的福音究竟是什么意思。福音就是主耶稣基督救赎的实在。我们很容易把成圣作为我们传道的最终目的，然而保罗却把个人的经历作为例证，而非结果。神从来没有吩咐我们去传扬得救或成圣；他乃吩咐我们高举耶稣基督（参约十二32）。我若说耶稣基督在救赎中受苦，为要使我成为圣徒，这便是曲解圣经。耶稣基督在救赎中受苦，乃是要拯救全人类，使他们无瑕疵地重新活在神的宝座面前。我们能够经历救赎，便足以证明救赎之实在大能，可是这仍旧非救赎的终极目标。神若像人一样，对我们日夕要求得救，要求成圣，他将感到多么心烦与厌倦哩！我们朝夕为自己求这求那，求把我拯救出来！真是消耗了神许多的精力！一旦我们触摸到福音的真正意义时，就不会再为个人微不足道的事去烦神了。

保罗一生唯一的愿望就是传福音。他面对创痛、误解、逼迫而不退后，唯一的原因就是这些事保守他对福音忠心不移。

祈祷◆主啊，你最清楚知道，今天早上我何等需要振奋！愿我所说，能让人听闻你荣耀的声音、看见你慈爱的面容，和感受到你那无处不在的灵。

February 1 The Call of God

Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel . . . —1 Corinthians 1:17

Paul states here that the call of God is to preach the gospel. But remember what Paul means by “the gospel,” namely, the reality of redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are inclined to make sanctification the goal of our preaching. Paul refers to personal experiences only by way of illustration, never as the end of the matter. We are not commissioned to preach salvation or sanctification— we are commissioned to lift up Jesus Christ (see John 12:32). It is an injustice to say that Jesus Christ labored in redemption to make me a saint. Jesus Christ labored in redemption to redeem the whole world and to place it perfectly whole and restored before the throne of God. The fact that we can experience redemption illustrates the power of its reality, but that experience is a byproduct and not the goal of redemption. If God were human, how sick and tired He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation and for our sanctification. We burden His energies from morning till night asking for things for ourselves or for something from which we want to be delivered! When we finally touch the underlying foundation of the reality of the gospel of God, we will never bother Him anymore with little personal complaints.

The one passion of Paul's life was to proclaim the gospel of God. He welcomed heartbreak, disillusionment, and tribulation for only one reason— these things kept him unmovable in his devotion to the gospel of God.

若不传福音，我就有祸了。（林前九16）

当心对神的呼召充耳不闻。每一个得救的人，神都呼召他作见证；可是那并不是传道的呼召，那只是传道中的例证。保罗所指的是神催逼他传福音所带来的压力。千万不要把保罗在此所说的，与人来到神面前求拯救一事相提并论。得救是最容易不过的事，因为这是神完成的工作－－“你来就我，我必定拯救。”主并没有把作门徒的条件，作为得救的条件。我们藉耶稣基督的十字架，由定罪而获得拯救。但作门徒却有取舍的余地－－“若有人……”。

保罗是说我们既成为耶稣基督的仆人，无论他要我们做什么或往哪里去，都不必征得我们的同意。我们成为擘开的饼、倒出来的酒，为要叫神喜悦。“为福音分别出来”，就是听见神的呼召。当人听见这个呼召，痛苦随即便来，因为要为这名受苦。所有的生活欲望停止了，所有的期望理想也消失净尽，雄心大志也像花草在萌芽时摘下，如今只剩下一件事——为福音分别出来。一旦呼召临到，却偏行己路、自作抉择，那人便有祸了。

神学院的设立，原是为了你们，要你们看看神在这里是否寻得一个弟兄或一个姊妹，肯摆上自己传福音；也要看看神有没有抓住你。神若真的抓住你，就当留心那些与神为敌的事物。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，吸引我进入与你不可缺少的灵交里。阳光给自然界带来的差别是何等显著：你临到我们时，所带来的差别也是何等的迥异！求你不住的催促，直至我们因你的同在而振奋。

February 2 The Compelling Force of the Call

Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! —1 Corinthians 9:16

Beware of refusing to hear the call of God. Everyone who is saved is called to testify to the fact of his salvation. That, however, is not the same as the call to preach, but is merely an illustration which can be used in preaching. In this verse, Paul was referring to the stinging pains produced in him by the compelling force of the call to preach the gospel. Never try to apply what Paul said regarding the call to preach to those souls who are being called to God for salvation. There is nothing easier than getting saved, because it is solely God's sovereign work— “Look to Me, and be saved . . .” (Isaiah 45:22). Our Lord never requires the same conditions for discipleship that he requires for salvation. We are condemned to salvation through the Cross of Christ. But discipleship has an option with it-“If anyone . . .” (Luke 14:26).

Paul's words have to do with our being made servants of Jesus Christ, and our permission is never asked as to what we will do or where we will go. God makes us as broken bread and poured-out wine to please Himself. To be “separated to the gospel” means being able to hear the call of God (Romans 1:1). Once someone begins to hear that call, a suffering worthy of the name of Christ is produced. Suddenly, every ambition, every desire of life, and every outlook is completely blotted out and extinguished. Only one thing remains— “. . . separated to the gospel. . . .” Woe be to the soul who tries to head in any other direction once that call has come to him. The Bible Training College exists so that each of you may know whether or not God has a man or woman here who truly cares about proclaiming His gospel and to see if God grips you for this purpose. Beware of competing calls once the call of God grips you.

人还把我们看作世界上的污秽。（林前四13）

这并非夸大的话。我们这些称为福音的使者，看不见这话在我们身上实现，不是因为保罗这话不真确，而是我们仍有太多恋栈不舍的事物，以致未让自己成为“世界上的污秽”。“为基督的苦难而受苦”，并不是成圣的证明，乃是“为福音分别出来”的表现。

彼得说：“有火炼的试验临到你们，不要以为奇怪。”我们若对所遇的事以为奇怪，乃是由于我们懦弱胆怯。我们顾惜面子，保持自己不掉入泥泞中去——“我不要低头，我不要折腰”。你大可不必，你是可以咬紧牙根过关的。你可以拒绝神，不让他将你为福音分别出来。你也许会说：“只要福音被传扬，即使自己被看作地上的渣滓，也不介意。”耶稣基督的仆人，就是肯为福音而殉道的人。一个徒有道德修养的人，当他接触到卑污、邪淫和诡诈，人性的良善使他感到极度的恶心，以致退缩不前，在绝望中把心门关闭起来。反之，神救赎的最奇特之处，就是他也爱那些罪恶滔天的人。保罗并没有说神把他分别出来，要造成一个怎样可爱的人，而是“把他儿子启示在我心里”。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，请你以温柔抚慰那被你的话语所刺透而经历破碎的心灵和生命。

February 3 Becoming the “Filth of the World”

We have been made as the filth of the world . . . —1 Corinthians 4:13

These words are not an exaggeration. The only reason they may not be true of us who call ourselves ministers of the gospel is not that Paul forgot or misunderstood the exact truth of them, but that we are too cautious and concerned about our own desires to allow ourselves to become the refuse or “filth of the world.” “Fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ . . .” (Colossians 1:24) is not the result of the holiness of sanctification, but the evidence of consecration-being “separated to the gospel of God . . .” (Romans 1:1).

“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you . . .” (1 Peter 4:12). If we do think the things we encounter are strange, it is because we are fearful and cowardly. We pay such close attention to our own interests and desires that we stay out of the mire and say, “I won't submit; I won't bow or bend.” And you don't have to— you can be saved by the “skin of your teeth” if you like. You can refuse to let God count you as one who is “separated to the gospel . . . .” Or you can say, “I don't care if I am treated like 'the filth of the world' as long as the gospel is proclaimed.” A true servant of Jesus Christ is one who is willing to experience martyrdom for the reality of the gospel of God. When a moral person is confronted with contempt, immorality, disloyalty, or dishonesty, he is so repulsed by the offense that he turns away and in despair closes his heart to the offender. But the miracle of the redemptive reality of God is that the worst and the vilest offender can never exhaust the depths of His love. Paul did not say that God separated him to show what a wonderful man He could make of him, but “to reveal His Son in me. . .” (Galatians 1:16).

原来基督的爱激励我们。（林后五14）

保罗说他被基督的爱统管支配，如同给钳子钳住一样。很少人知道被神的爱抓紧是怎么一回事，因我们往往被自己的经历所约制。但约制保罗的只有一件，就是神的爱，除此便别无所见。“基督的爱激励我们”，信徒身上有没有这个音符，一听便知。在这些人的生命里，圣灵通行无阻。

当圣灵重生了我们，我们作见证的重点在神为我作了什么，这是对的。但受了圣灵的洗，这些就成为过去的经验，我们才开始了解耶稣说“你们是我的见证”的意思了。不是见证耶稣能够做什么，那是初步的见证，而是“见证我”。我们要视所有的事，都是发生在他身上，不论是称许或指责，是逼迫或赞赏。人若未曾被他能力的威严所感召，绝不能为他站立。这是最要紧的事，而奇怪的，这却是基督工人最忽略的。保罗说他被神的爱抓住了，就成了他一生行事的动力。

人说他疯狂，说他拘谨，他也毫不介意。他只为一件事而活，就是叫人相信神的审判和基督的爱。这种为基督的爱丢弃万事的人生，才可以结出生命的果子，将神圣洁与大能的形象刻在人心里。这是神的圣洁，绝不是我们个人的圣洁。

祈祷◆“在柱顶上刻着百合花。” 噢，主啊，这句话在我的脑海中，尤其是我对那粗糙、不起眼的“百合花”是何其无知。愿我藉着表达和经历你的恩典，能属于你。

February 4 The Compelling Majesty of His Power
The love of Christ compels us . . . —2 Corinthians 5:14

Paul said that he was overpowered, subdued, and held as in a vise by “the love of Christ.” Very few of us really know what it means to be held in the grip of the love of God. We tend so often to be controlled simply by our own experience. The one thing that gripped and held Paul, to the exclusion of everything else, was the love of God. “The love of Christ compels us . . . .” When you hear that coming from the life of a man or woman it is unmistakable. You will know that the Spirit of God is completely unhindered in that person’s life.

When we are born again by the Spirit of God, our testimony is based solely on what God has done for us, and rightly so. But that will change and be removed forever once you “receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you . . .” (Acts 1:8). Only then will you begin to realize what Jesus meant when He went on to say, “. . . you shall be witnesses to Me . . . .” Not witnesses to what Jesus can do— that is basic and understood— but “witnesses to Me . . . .” We will accept everything that happens as if it were happening to Him, whether we receive praise or blame, persecution or reward. No one is able to take this stand for Jesus Christ who is not totally compelled by the majesty of His power. It is the only thing that matters, and yet it is strange that it’s the last thing we as Christian workers realize. Paul said that he was gripped by the love of God and that is why he acted as he did. People could perceive him as mad or sane-he did not care. There was only one thing he lived for— to persuade people of the coming judgment of God and to tell them of “the love of Christ.” This total surrender to “the love of Christ” is the only thing that will bear fruit in your life. And it will always leave the mark of God’s holiness and His power, never drawing attention to your personal holiness.

我以你们的信心为供献的祭物，我若被浇奠在其上，也是喜乐，并且与你们众人一同喜乐。（腓二17）

你愿意为建立别人的信心而被浇奠吗？就是把自己的生命，为信仰像献祭一般倾倒出来。还是你说：“我现在还未能献上；我不想神为我选择工作。我要自己挑选奉献的岗位；我要得人的注意，得人的赞赏，说我行事得宜。”

献身服侍神，被人视为英雄的滋味，跟你甘愿走上神为你预备的道路、成为他人脚下的“地毯”，往往是两回事。设若神要教你“我懂得处卑贱”的功课，你甘愿吗？你愿意成为连桶里的一滴水还不如的人，不被人重视，甚至耗尽己力所服侍的人也忘了你吗？你愿意花财费力，不受人服侍而去服侍人吗？在卑贱的工作中而不失圣徒的身份，是许多圣徒办不到的，因为他们感到有失个人尊严。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我的主，愿你使今天成为荣耀的日子。在我对你的事奉上，我祈求能专心一志。

February 5 Are You Ready To Be Poured Out As an Offering? (1)

If I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all—Philippians 2:17

Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for the work of another believer—to pour out your life sacrificially for the ministry and faith of others? Or do you say, “I am not willing to be poured out right now, and I don't want God to tell me how to serve Him. I want to choose the place of my own sacrifice. And I want to have certain people watching me and saying, 'Well done.' ”

It is one thing to follow God's way of service if you are regarded as a hero, but quite another thing if the road marked out for you by God requires becoming a “doormat” under other people's feet. God's purpose may be to teach you to say, “I know how to be abased . . .” (Philippians 4:12). Are you ready to be sacrificed like that? Are you ready to be less than a mere drop in the bucket—to be so totally insignificant that no one remembers you even if they think of those you served? Are you willing to give and be poured out until you are used up and exhausted—not seeking to be ministered to, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work while maintaining a saintly attitude, because they feel such service is beneath their dignity.

我已经预备好被浇奠。（提后四6，意译）

“我现在已预备好献上。”这是意志的抉择，而不是情绪的冲动。告诉神你已预备好献上；就是不顾后果，神怎样安排也没有丝毫的怨叹。神能把你带过难关，这是没有人可以帮你的。外面环境可能依旧，里面的心志却有了不同。在心志里首先经历这种转变，那么当事情临到，就不会斤斤计较了。你若没有与神这样碰头，最终便会自怜自叹。

“用绳索把祭牲绑上、拴在祭坛的角上。”祭坛就是火的意思——焚烧、洁净、隔离，其目的就是断绝一切不由神而来的关系，隔绝所有不属于神的物品。不是你去烧毁，乃是神；你只要把祭牲拴在坛角。当火起来燃烧，不要去惋惜这些东西。经过了火的焚烧，就再没有什么会压制你，或使你沮丧。当重要关头临到，发觉没有什么可以像昔日那样摸着你了。你的“火”是什么？告诉神你预备献上，神便会向你显示他自己，就是你日夕所想的。

祈祷◆“但到了神我们救主的恩慈，和他向人所施的慈爱显明的时候……”噢，主啊，这句话经常萦绕我的心头；然而，我极少将你的恩典和慈爱展示人前！

February 6 Are You Ready To Be Poured Out As an Offering? (2)

I am already being poured out as a drink offering . . . —2 Timothy 4:6

Are you ready to be poured out as an offering? It is an act of your will, not your emotions. Tell God you are ready to be offered as a sacrifice for Him. Then accept the consequences as they come, without any complaints, in spite of what God may send your way. God sends you through a crisis in private, where no other person can help you. From the outside your life may appear to be the same, but the difference is taking place in your will. Once you have experienced the crisis in your will, you will take no thought of the cost when it begins to affect you externally. If you don't deal with God on the level of your will first, the result will be only to arouse sympathy for yourself.

“Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar” (Psalm 118:27). You must be willing to be placed on the altar and go through the fire; willing to experience what the altar represents -burning, purification, and separation for only one purpose- the elimination of every desire and affection not grounded in or directed toward God. But you don't eliminate it, God does. You “bind the sacrifice . . . to the horns of the altar” and see to it that you don't wallow in self-pity once the fire begins. After you have gone through the fire, there will be nothing that will be able to trouble or depress you. When another crisis arises, you will realize that things cannot touch you as they used to do. What fire lies ahead in your life?

Tell God you are ready to be poured out as an offering, and God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be.

但我们素来所盼望……不但如此，……现在已经三天了。（路二十四21）

门徒在这里讲述的都没有错；但他们从其中所得的推断却是错的。任何叫灵性沮丧的事，必然是错的。苦闷和沮丧来到，是咎由自取，不必怨天尤人。沮丧颓唐，来源有二，非此即彼：一是我的私欲得到满足，一是我得不到所欲望的。情欲的意思是必须立刻得着。属灵的欲望叫我逼神应允我，而不是叫我寻求那位有求必应的神。我一向相信神会怎样行，到今日——就是此时此刻——已经三天了，他还未动工，我就有理由沮丧，可以怪责神。什么时候我们要神答允祷告，便已经是走差了。祷告是我们抓住神，而不是抓住祷告的应允。身体健康，便绝不颓丧；颓丧是病态的表现，在属灵上也是这样。属灵的沮丧是错的，要责怪就责怪自己吧。

我们盼望从天看见异象，从地震、雷轰中搜寻神的大能（我们的沮丧表示我们确是这样去搜寻），却没想到神竟一直在最平凡的事物、在我们周遭的人中间。我们若尽上义务，就必看见他。主耶稣的神圣，是在最平凡的事上显现出来，我们一旦明白这一点，对神就有了最深切的认识。

祈祷◆主啊，在每日繁多的责任中，保守我有平静的心；藉着你的抚慰和仁慈，使我成为尊贵。让我在你里面得着平静安稳。

February 7 Spiritual Dejection

We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened —Luke 24:21

Every fact that the disciples stated was right, but the conclusions they drew from those facts were wrong. Anything that has even a hint of dejection spiritually is always wrong. If I am depressed or burdened, I am to blame, not God or anyone else. Dejection stems from one of two sources— I have either satisfied a lust or I have not had it satisfied. In either case, dejection is the result. Lust means “I must have it at once.” Spiritual lust causes me to demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God Himself who gives the answer. What have I been hoping or trusting God would do? Is today “the third day” and He has still not done what I expected? Am I therefore justified in being dejected and in blaming God? Whenever we insist that God should give us an answer to prayer we are off track. The purpose of prayer is that we get ahold of God, not of the answer. It is impossible to be well physically and to be dejected, because dejection is a sign of sickness. This is also true spiritually. Dejection spiritually is wrong, and we are always to blame for it.

We look for visions from heaven and for earth-shaking events to see God's power. Even the fact that we are dejected is proof that we do this. Yet we never realize that all the time God is at work in our everyday events and in the people around us. If we will only obey, and do the task that He has placed closest to us, we will see Him. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes to us when we learn that it is in the everyday things of life that we realize the magnificent deity of Jesus Christ.

愿赐平安的神，亲自使你们全然成圣。（帖前五23-24）

我们成圣，有没有打算按这经文中的标准呢？我们把成圣这句话看得太轻率了。对成圣所要求的代价，我们有没有预备付出？代价是我们减少一切属地的兴趣，而扩大对神国度的兴趣。成圣是我们全神贯注留意神的心意与观点；也是约束身体灵魂所有的智慧，专为完成神的旨意。我们肯不肯让神在我们身上下工夫，成就神分别为圣的目的？他在我们身上的工作完成之后，我们是否肯像耶稣一样，甘愿分别自己为圣归于神？“我为他们的缘故分别为圣”。我们未能进入成圣的经历里，是我们未从神的观点了解成圣的意义。成圣就是与耶稣合而为一，以致那支配他的，也支配我们。我们预备付出那代价吗？就是一切在我们里面不属于神的东西，都要放下。

我们能否与保罗的祷告起共鸣？我们能否说：“主，你能叫一个蒙恩得救的罪人有多圣洁，就求你使我有多圣洁”？耶稣祷告要我们与他合一，正如他与父合一一样。圣灵在人身上唯一的特征，就是叫人酷肖耶稣基督，宛如骨肉，同时摆脱一切与基督相反的性情。我们肯把自己分别出来，让圣灵在我们里头作工吗？

祈祷◆主啊，当我的心思不是完全被你掌管，它很容易胡思乱想！愿我身心灵的主权都稳操在你的手中。

February 8 The Cost of Sanctification

May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely . . . —1 Thessalonians 5:23

When we pray, asking God to sanctify us, are we prepared to measure up to what that really means? We take the word sanctification much too lightly. Are we prepared to pay the cost of sanctification? The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns, and an extensive cultivation of all our godly concerns. Sanctification means to be intensely focused on God's point of view. It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God's purpose alone. Are we really prepared for God to perform in us everything for which He separated us? And after He has done His work, are we then prepared to separate ourselves to God just as Jesus did? “For their sakes I sanctify Myself . . .” (John 17:19). The reason some of us have not entered into the experience of sanctification is that we have not realized the meaning of sanctification from God's perspective. Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the nature that controlled Him will control us. Are we really prepared for what that will cost? It will cost absolutely everything in us which is not of God.

Are we prepared to be caught up into the full meaning of Paul's prayer in this verse? Are we prepared to say, “Lord, make me, a sinner saved by grace, as holy as You can”? Jesus prayed that we might be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (see John 17:21-23). The resounding evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person's life is the unmistakable family likeness to Jesus Christ, and the freedom from everything which is not like Him. Are we prepared to set ourselves apart for the Holy Spirit's work in us?

永在的 神耶和华……并不疲乏，也不困倦。（赛四十28）

疲惫就是生命的活力耗尽。属灵的疲惫并非因罪而来，而是因事奉而来。你疲惫与否，就视乎你的供应从何而得。耶稣对彼得说：“喂养我的羊。”却没有给他饲料。要成为擘开的饼，倒出来的酒，就必须要耗尽你的一点一滴，所以你要赶快得着供应，否则不需多久，你就精疲力竭了。人未懂得直接向主汲取供应之前，他们要透过你去获得；你要像被人吮吸一般，直到他们学会了从神得养料。我们在神面前有这责任，不但要尽忠于他，也要为他的羊群尽上一切。

你事奉神的方式是否令你疲惫不堪？若然，就该重新挑旺你的热诚。你的事奉从哪里出发？是从你个人的同情心，还是基于耶稣基督的救赎？要追溯你热诚的根源，并回想你能力来自何方。你没有权这样说：“主啊，我多么困倦。”他拯救你，叫你成圣，正是要燃烧你。为神耗尽吧，但紧记你的供应从他而来。“我的泉源都在你里面。”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我所渴求的是你！“我的心渴想神，就是永生神，我几时得朝见神呢？”噢，愿你的感动、你的生命、你的美善，此刻临到我，主啊，就在我祷告的这一刻。

February 9 Are You Exhausted Spiritually?

The everlasting God . . . neither faints nor is weary —Isaiah 40:28

Exhaustion means that our vital energies are completely worn out and spent. Spiritual exhaustion is never the result of sin, but of service. Whether or not you experience exhaustion will depend on where you get your supplies. Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My sheep,” but He gave him nothing with which to feed them (John 21:17). The process of being made broken bread and poured-out wine means that you have to be the nourishment for other people's souls until they learn to feed on God. They must drain you completely— to the very last drop. But be careful to replenish your supply, or you will quickly be utterly exhausted. Until others learn to draw on the life of the Lord Jesus directly, they will have to draw on His life through you. You must literally be their source of supply, until they learn to take their nourishment from God. We owe it to God to be our best for His lambs and sheep, as well as for Him.

Have you delivered yourself over to exhaustion because of the way you have been serving God? If so, then renew and rekindle your desires and affections. Examine your reasons for service. Is your source based on your own understanding or is it grounded on the redemption of Jesus Christ? Continually look back to the foundation of your love and affection and remember where your Source of power lies. You have no right to complain, “O Lord, I am so exhausted.” He saved and sanctified you to exhaust you. Be exhausted for God, but remember that He is your supply. “All my springs are in you” (Psalm 87:7).

你们向上举目，看谁创造这万象。（赛四十26）

以赛亚时代神的百姓，只看偶像的面孔，以致缺乏想像力。以赛亚吩咐他们举目望天，就是叫他们再用想像力。大自然对圣徒而言，是神圣的。我们若是神的儿女，在大自然中就必发掘无限的宝藏。一阵微风，一个昼夜，天空的变化，大地的兴衰，都实实在在是神向我们说话。只要我们运用那呆滞已久的想像力，便可以领略。

属灵上的专一是一个考验，要看我们能否利用想像力专一向神。你的“思想”是否向着偶像？这偶像是你自己？你的作为？你事奉的观念？你得救与成圣的经历？那么，你对神的想像力是呆滞了。当你面对困难，你就无能为力，只好在黑暗中忍受吧。你的想像力若是贫乏，切勿回头看自己的经历，因你需要的是神。你要摆脱偶像的羁绊，离开任何阻拦你思想神的事物。醒来吧，接受以赛亚对百姓的吩咐，把“心思意念”转向神。

祷告含混模糊的原因之一是没有想像力，没有决志把自己摆在神面前。我们要先学习怎样做擘开的饼、倒出来的酒，做代祷的工夫，多于做与人接触的工作。想像力是神给圣徒的一种能力，叫他从“己”出来，进入从未经历过的关系里去。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我完完全全地需要你！我来到你面前，求你藉着你的生命，慈爱地使我更新，以致我的理解力、想像力和说话，完全属于你。今天，我寻求你的感动和使人振兴的恩典。

February 10 Is Your Ability to See God Blinded?

Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things . . . —Isaiah 40:26

The people of God in Isaiah's time had blinded their minds' ability to see God by looking on the face of idols. But Isaiah made them look up at the heavens; that is, he made them begin to use their power to think and to visualize correctly. If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in nature and will realize that it is holy and sacred. We will see God reaching out to us in every wind that blows, every sunrise and sunset, every cloud in the sky, every flower that blooms, and every leaf that fades, if we will only begin to use our blinded thinking to visualize it.

The real test of spiritual focus is being able to bring your mind and thoughts under control. Is your mind focused on the face of an idol? Is the idol yourself? Is it your work? Is it your idea of what a servant should be, or maybe your experience of salvation and sanctification? If so, then your ability to see God is blinded. You will be powerless when faced with difficulties and will be forced to endure in darkness. If your power to see has been blinded, don't look back on your own experiences, but look to God. It is God you need. Go beyond yourself and away from the faces of your idols and away from everything else that has been blinding your thinking. Wake up and accept the ridicule that Isaiah gave to his people, and deliberately turn your thoughts and your eyes to God.

One of the reasons for our sense of futility in prayer is that we have lost our power to visualize. We can no longer even imagine putting ourselves deliberately before God. It is actually more important to be broken bread and poured-out wine in the area of intercession than in our personal contact with others. The power of visualization is what God gives a saint so that he can go beyond himself and be firmly placed into relationships he never before experienced.

坚心倚赖你的，你必保守他十分平安。（坚心倚赖：有把心思意念寄放在神身上的意思。）（赛二十六3）

你的想像力是停留在神身上，还是逐渐衰退消失？叫主工人生命枯槁衰竭最主要的原因，就是缺乏想像力。你若从来未运用想像力来到神面前，现在就开始吧。老等神来是无济于事的，你必须把想像力从偶像的脸上转移到神身上，以致得救。想像力是神给我们最大的恩赐，理当全然献给他。你若已经将所有的心思夺回，顺服基督，当试炼临到，你的信心就有了宝贵的资产，因为你可以与神的灵同心同工。要学习把一切合神心意的思想，同自然界所发生的事联系起来——太阳的出没，日月星辰的运转，四时的变换。这样，你的想像力就不会受别的影响，而是受神的支配，为神而用。

“我们和我们的列祖犯罪……忘记了……”——这样就要放一把匕首在你沉睡的地方（意即枕戈待旦，不眠不休的等候神）。“神现时不和我说话”，但其实他是时常和我说话的。要记住你是属于谁，你事奉的是谁。挑起回忆，你爱神的心势必增添十倍。你的想像力也不再呆滞，而是变得活泼、热切；你的盼望也必光辉灿烂不可言状了。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，随着自然界春天的来临，我的灵渴望你那旺盛的生命力能流进我的生命，不住不住地涌流。然而，我是何其丑陋、何其不像基督！不过，这并非情绪低落的感受，而是我在奇异的盼望中看见这情况。

February 11 Is Your Hope In GOD Faint And Dying?

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose imagination is stayed on Thee.” Isaiah 26:3 (R. V. marg.)

Is your imagination stayed on God or is it starved? The starvation of the imagination is one of the most fruitful sources of exhaustion and sapping in a worker's life. If you have never used your imagination to put yourself before God, begin to do it now. It is no use waiting for God to come; you must put your imagination away from the face of idols and look unto Him and be saved. Imagination is the greatest gift God has given us and it ought to be devoted entirely to Him. If you have been bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, it will be one of the greatest assets to faith when the time of trial comes, because your faith and the Spirit of God will work together. Learn to associate ideas worthy of God with all that happens in Nature – the sunrises and the sunsets, the sun and the stars, the changing seasons, and your imagination will never be at the mercy of your impulses, but will always be at the service of God.

“We have sinned with our fathers; . . . and have forgotten” – then put a stiletto in the place where you have gone to sleep. “God is not talking to me just now,” but He ought to be. Remember Whose you are and Whom you serve. Provoke yourself by recollection, and your affection for God will increase tenfold; your imagination will not be starved any longer, but will be quick and enthusiastic, and your hope will be inexpressibly bright.

（百姓）对摩西说：求你和我们说话，我们必听。不要 神和我们说话，恐怕我们死亡。（出二十19）

我们并不是有意违背神，只是我们并不重视神。神给我们命令，我们却不理会。这不是出于故意的反叛，而是我们不爱他，也不尊敬他。“你们若爱我，就必遵守我的命令。”我们如果觉察自己一直在轻慢神，就必满面羞愧自咎，因为我们没有把他放在眼里。

“求你和我们说话……不要神和我们说话。”这表示我们爱神多么少，宁可听他的仆人。我们喜欢听人的见证，却不愿神向我们说话。我们何以会害怕神对我们说话呢？因为知道神一开口，就事在必行；除非我们告诉神，我们不肯听从。若是神仆人的话，就觉得不是绝对的命令，我们会说：“嗯，那不过是你个人的见解，虽然我不否认这可能是真理。”

神一直把我如儿女般看待，而我却老是不理睬他。我是否把神贬低而羞辱他？若我真听见他，那我加在他身上的羞愧便会回到我的头上——“主啊，为什么我这样愚顽？”每次听见神的时候，总会有这种感觉。听见神的声音，我们会愧喜交集，以为听从得如此迟缓。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我要寻求你的面，但若你不启示你自己，我的寻求又有何用处？让我看见你的面，噢，主啊。让我能永远看见你。

February 12 Must I Listen?

“And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” Exodus 20:19

We do not consciously disobey God, we simply do not heed Him. God has given us His commands; there they are, but we do not pay any attention to them, not because of wilful disobedience but because we do not love and respect Him. “If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments.” When once we realize that we have been “disrespecting” God all the time, we are covered with shame and humiliation because we have not heeded Him.

“Speak thou with us . . . but let not God speak with us.” We show how little we love God by preferring to listen to His servants only. We like to listen to personal testimonies, but we do not desire that God Himself should speak to us. Why are we so terrified lest God should speak to us? Because we know that if God does speak, either the thing must be done or we must tell God we will not obey Him. If it is only the servant's voice we hear, we feel it is not imperative, we can say, “Well, that is simply your own idea, though I don't deny it is probably God's truth.”

Am I putting God in the humiliating position of having treated me as a child of His whilst all the time I have been ignoring Him? When I do hear Him, the humiliation I have put on Him comes back on me – “Lord, why was I so dull and so obstinate?” This is always the result when once we do hear God. The real delight of hearing Him is tempered with shame in having been so long in hearing Him.

请说，仆人敬听。（撒上三10）

我在某一件事上专一听神，并不表示我凡事都听从他。我的灵与心志对他的话反应迟钝，正表示我不爱神，也不尊敬他。若我爱朋友，自然体察他的需要。耶稣说：“你们是我的朋友。”这一周里，我有没有违背主的命令呢？我若明白那是主的命令，就不会故意违背了。但我们多数蔑视神，根本不听神在说什么，似乎神从未说过话一般。

属灵生活的极峰，就是达到与耶稣基督合而为一，常常听神说话。神也时常听我（约十一4），若我与耶稣基督联合，就会随时随地专心听他。一朵百合花、一棵树、一位神的仆人，都可以带来神的信息。叫我听不到神的，是缠累我的其他事物。我不肯听他，是我心有外婺，不在适当的事上专心。我只专注在事物上、事奉上、信念上。神只管说，我却置若罔闻。婴孩的态度始终是：“主啊，请说，仆人敬听。”要是没有培养好这种专心聆听的习惯，就只能在某些时刻听到神的声音，其他时间却被世务缠身，无法摆脱。于是我向神就是聋了耳，没有孩子的样式。我今日听见神的声音没有？

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我要称颂你声音的语调和能力，你的语调带着温柔和满有恩典的爱；你的语调亦带有自然界强大风暴的能力。主啊，让你荣耀的声音在这地方被听闻，亦让我的灵得以听见。

February 13 The Devotion of Hearing

Samuel answered, ‘Speak, for Your servant hears’ —1 Samuel 3:10

Just because I have listened carefully and intently to one thing from God does not mean that I will listen to everything He says. I show God my lack of love and respect for Him by the insensitivity of my heart and mind toward what He says. If I love my friend, I will instinctively understand what he wants. And Jesus said, “You are My friends . . .” (John 15:14). Have I disobeyed some command of my Lord's this week? If I had realized that it was a command of Jesus, I would not have deliberately disobeyed it. But most of us show incredible disrespect to God because we don't even hear Him. He might as well never have spoken to us.

The goal of my spiritual life is such close identification with Jesus Christ that I will always hear God and know that God always hears me (see John 11:41). If I am united with Jesus Christ, I hear God all the time through the devotion of hearing. A flower, a tree, or a servant of God may convey God's message to me. What hinders me from hearing is my attention to other things. It is not that I don't want to hear God, but I am not devoted in the right areas of my life. I am devoted to things and even to service and my own convictions. God may say whatever He wants, but I just don't hear Him. The attitude of a child of God should always be, “Speak, for Your servant hears.” If I have not developed and nurtured this devotion of hearing, I can only hear God's voice at certain times. At other times I become deaf to Him because my attention is to other things— things which I think I must do. This is not living the life of a child of God. Have you heard God's voice today?

我在暗中告诉你们的，你们要在明处说出来。你们耳中所听的，要在房上宣扬出来。（太十27）

有时神放我们在黑暗中，是要教导我们听话。鸣鸟在黑暗里学习唱歌，我们也要在神的阴影下学习听他。“我在暗中告诉你们的”——留意神把你放在什么黑暗的地方，在那里你要闭口不言。你如今四面漆黑吗？你的生命与神之间幽暗吗？保持安静吧。在暗中开口，说话会不合宜。黑暗正是静听的时刻。不必告诉别人，不必去寻找黑暗的原因，只要留意静听；你若告诉人，就听不见神在说什么！所以，你在黑暗中要听；神会给你极宝贵的资讯，让你出到光明后，可以向别人分享。

每一次经过黑暗，都会有一种欣喜与谦卑交织的心情（若只有欣喜，就不是真的听见神了）。欣喜的时候听见了神，但主要是谦卑——“我竟花这许多时间才听见！我多么迟钝！而一直以来，神就不断地说话。”这时，神叫你谦卑，使你柔顺，从此听命于他。

祈祷◆主啊，我要用诗人的话来敬拜你——“正直人在黑暗中，有光向他发现。”噢，主啊，我在何等的黑暗中！所以，你必然是光。

February 14 The Discipline Of Heeding

“What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.” Matthew 10:27

At times God puts us through the discipline of darkness to teach us to heed Him. Song birds are taught to sing in the dark, and we are put into the shadow of God's hand until we learn to hear Him. “What I tell you in darkness” – watch where God puts you into darkness, and when you are there keep your mouth shut. Are you in the dark just now in your circumstances, or in your life with God? Then remain quiet. If you open your mouth in the dark, you will talk in the wrong mood: darkness is the time to listen. Don't talk to other people about it; don't read books to find out the reason of the darkness, but listen and heed. If you talk to other people, you cannot hear what God is saying. When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else when you get into the light.

After every time of darkness there comes a mixture of delight and humiliation (if there is delight only, I question whether we have heard God at all), delight in hearing God speak, but chiefly humiliation – What a long time I was in hearing that! How slow I have been in understanding that! And yet God has been saying it all these days and weeks. Now He gives you the gift of humiliation which brings the softness of heart that will always listen to God now.

我们没有一个人为自己活。（罗十四7）

你有没有想过别人灵性的光景，在神面前我们是有责任要承担？例如我暗地里偏离神，四周的人都必受累。我们是“一同坐在天上”、“一个肢体受苦，所有的肢体就一同受苦”。你一旦容让肉体的私欲、思想的怠惰，德行的放松、属灵的迟钝，你的同伴就要受损。你会说：“立这样的标准，谁能当得起呢？”惟有神自己，我们所能承担的是出于神。

“你们要作我的见证”。有多少人肯把精力、智力、德性、灵性的每一分为耶稣基督摆上呢？见证这个字在神的心目中，正是这个意思。是要用时间，要耐心。神留我们在地上是为了什么？得拯救？得成圣？绝不，乃是为他。我愿否为他成为擘开的饼、倒出的酒？我甘愿被剥夺一切，完全舍弃观点立场，只为主使万人作门徒？我以生命作主工人，是对神说不尽的救恩的致谢。记住，每个人都有可能成为被废弃的银子——“……恐怕我传福音给别人，自己反被弃绝了。”

祈祷◆为着你的话——“父亲怎样怜恤他的儿女，耶和华也怎样怜恤敬畏他的人”——我赞美你。我何其认清我所领受到的，绝不是你的严苛，却全然是你的慈爱。噢，愿你向我所施的慈爱、温柔与忍耐，能够透过我向其他人表达。

February 15 Am I My Brother's Keeper?

“None of us liveth to himself.” Romans 14:7.

Has it ever dawned on you that you are responsible for other souls spiritually before God? For instance, if I allow any private deflection from God in my life, everyone about me suffers. We “sit together in heavenly places.”“Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.” When once you allow physical selfishness, mental slovenliness, moral obtuseness, spiritual density, everyone belonging to your crowd will suffer. “But,” you say, “who is sufficient for these things if you erect a standard like that?”“Our sufficiency is of God,” and of Him alone.

“Ye shall be My witnesses.” How many of us are willing to spend every ounce of nervous energy, of mental, moral and spiritual energy we have for Jesus Christ? That is the meaning of a witness in God's sense of the word. It takes time, be patient with yourself. God has left us on the earth – what for? To be saved and sanctified? No, to be at it for Him. Am I willing to be broken bread and poured out wine for Him? To be spoilt for this age, for this life, to be spoilt from every standpoint but one – saving as I can disciple men and women to the Lord Jesus Christ. My life as a worker is the way I say “thank you” to God for His unspeakable salvation. Remember it is quite possible for any one of us to be flung out as reprobate silver – “. . . lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

当醒过来，从死里复活。（弗五14）

并非所有推动力都是从神感动来的。有人会对你说：“振作起来吧！把你的闲懒治死，勇往直前！”这属于人的推动力。但神的灵进前来认真地说：“振作吧。”这推动力是从神发出。

年轻的时候，我们都有不少异象理想；可是总有一天，会发觉根本无力实现。所渴望的若无法实行，就会视这等异象理想为已死。然后神对你说：“从死里复活。”当神的感动真的临到，会带出神奇无比的能力，叫我们能从死里复生，作出不可能的事。属灵推动力最特别之处，是我们先要“振作起来”，然后才有生命力。神的感动来了，他说：“从死里复活。”我们必须自己起来，因神并不拖我们起来。主对那枯干了手的人说：“伸出你的手来。”那人一伸手，就得了医治。他必须采取主动。你若肯起来，就必发现神的感动，因为他立即把生命给你。

祈祷◆“肉体是何等经常陷于危险和困顿之中”——然而这在我生命中激起什么呢？当我醒来，愿你以你灵的默示伴随我。

February 16 The Inspiration of Spiritual Initiative

Arise from the dead . . . —Ephesians 5:14

Not all initiative, the willingness to take the first step, is inspired by God. Someone may say to you, “Get up and get going! Take your reluctance by the throat and throw it overboard— just do what needs to be done!” That is what we mean by ordinary human initiative. But when the Spirit of God comes to us and says, in effect, “Get up and get going,” suddenly we find that the initiative is inspired.

We all have many dreams and aspirations when we are young, but sooner or later we realize we have no power to accomplish them. We cannot do the things we long to do, so our tendency is to think of our dreams and aspirations as dead. But God comes and says to us, “Arise from the dead . . . .” When God sends His inspiration, it comes to us with such miraculous power that we are able to “arise from the dead” and do the impossible. The remarkable thing about spiritual initiative is that the life and power comes after we “get up and get going.” God does not give us overcoming life— He gives us life as we overcome. When the inspiration of God comes, and He says, “Arise from the dead . . . ,” we have to get ourselves up; God will not lift us up. Our Lord said to the man with the withered hand, “Stretch out your hand” (Matthew 12:13). As soon as the man did so, his hand was healed. But he had to take the initiative. If we will take the initiative to overcome, we will find that we have the inspiration of God, because He immediately gives us the power of life.

起来吃吧。（王上十九5）

天使没有给以利亚异象，没有向他解释圣经，也没有做什么特殊的事；他只吩咐以利亚做一件最简单的事——起来吃吧。我们若从不曾沮丧，就不是真正生活过的人；只有水晶体才从不会沮丧。人，是会苦闷低沉的，就是会死亡的东西；你对自己的评估里，总要把沮丧的可能性计算在内。

神来临，并不是给我们异象，只是吩咐我们做最寻常的事。沮丧往往令我们转离神创造的寻常事物，但神来到，却感动人做最简单的事。我们以为神绝不会在那些事物里面，谁知稍有行动，就发现他在那里。这样的感动临到我们，就是对抗苦闷低沉的一种动力；要跟着做该做的，依神的感动去做。反之，若我们故意做什么，企图去胜过沮丧，就只会变本加厉；我们若照神的吩咐去做，沮丧就会消失。随即可以起来，遵神的旨意去行。这时，已进入生命的另一更高境界了。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，令我感到惊讶的是，在我外在的生活中，我几乎是完全无力去彰显你和你的美善。愿主我的神的美善，在今天临到我身上。

February 17 The Initiative Against Depression

“Arise and eat.” 1 Kings 19:5

The angel did not give Elijah a vision, or explain the Scriptures to him, or do anything remarkable; he told Elijah to do the most ordinary thing, viz., to get up and eat. If we were never depressed we should not be alive; it is the nature of a crystal never to be depressed. A human being is capable of depression, otherwise there would be no capacity for exaltation. There are things that are calculated to depress, things that are of the nature of death; and in taking an estimate of yourself, always take into account the capacity for depression.

When the Spirit of God comes He does not give us visions, He tells us to do the most ordinary things conceivable. Depression is apt to turn us away from the ordinary commonplace things of God's creation, but whenever God comes, the inspiration is to do the most natural simple thing – the things we would never have imagined God was in, and as we do them we find He is there. The inspiration which comes to us in this way is an initiative against depression; we have to do the next thing and do it in the inspiration of God. If we do a thing in order to overcome depression, we deepen the depression; but if the Spirit of God makes us feel intuitively that we must do the thing, and we do it, the depression is gone. Immediately we arise and obey, we enter on a higher plane of life.

起来，我们走吧。（太二十六46）

门徒该儆醒的时候，却睡着了。当我们发现自己这个样子，就失望灰心。事情既无可追悔，就很容易沮丧说：“事到如今，再无挽回的余地了。”我们若认为这样的沮丧是不经常的，那就错了，这实在是司空见惯的人生经历。当我们醒觉自己错过了大好的行事机会，势必沉溺在失望之中，耶稣基督说：“安睡吧，机会失去不再回来，也无法挽回。但起来吧，百尺竿头，更进一步。”

让过去的事消逝吧！只要消逝在主的胸怀里；然后与他一同迎接不可抗拒的未来。在各自的人生中，我们都有这样的经验——陷在颓唐沮丧中。这种沮丧是从现实而来，我们无法自拔。这里门徒做了无可饶恕的事，就是没有与耶稣一同警醒，反而睡着了。但他却给予他们对抗沮丧的动力——“起来，行下一步吧。”我们有了神的感动，下一步该是什么？完全信靠他，在他救赎的凭据上祷告。

千万别让失败的意识阻碍你新的行动。

祈祷◆主啊，一份茫然的孤寂感似乎围绕着我的生命，它是那样的模糊不清，令我难以将它说明。我没有下过错误的决定，因为我已经按照你所指示的去行，但那种不肯定的感觉却挥之不去。求你抹去这片迷蒙的云雾，将它变成带着秩序和形式的青天。

February 18 The Initiative Against Despair

“Rise, let us be going.” Matthew 26:46

The disciples went to sleep when they should have kept awake, and when they realized what they had done it produced despair. The sense of the irreparable is apt to make us despair, and we say – “It is all up now, it is no use trying any more.” If we imagine that this kind of despair is exceptional, we are mistaken, it is a very ordinary human experience. Whenever we realize that we have not done that which we had a magnificent opportunity of doing, then we are apt to sink into despair; and Jesus Christ comes and says – “Sleep on now, that opportunity is lost for ever, you cannot alter it, but arise and go to the next thing.” Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ, and go out into the irresistible future with Him.

There are experiences like this in each of our lives. We are in despair, the despair that comes from actualities, and we cannot lift ourselves out of it. The disciples in this instance had done a downright unforgivable thing; they had gone to sleep instead of watching with Jesus, but He came with a spiritual initiative against their despair and said – “Arise and do the next thing.” If we are inspired of God, what is the next thing? To trust Him absolutely and to pray on the ground of His Redemption.

Never let the sense of failure corrupt your new action.

兴起发光（赛六十1）

我们踏上第一步，好像神没有在那里一般。空等神来帮助是无济于事的，他不会来；然而当我们有所行动，就发现他在那里了。神的感动往往是道德性的。我们不要老是呆在那里，像一根方木似的，是要起来行动。只要兴起发光，苦差便在神的光中变相。

苦差是磨练人最佳的试金石。苦差不是理想的工作，而是最低贱的工作。但一触及这些工作，就立刻知道我们的属灵情况。约翰福音十三章记载：道成肉身的神作了一件最不讨好的苦差，就是洗渔夫的脚。他说：“我是你们的主，尚且洗你们的脚，你们也当彼此洗脚。”苦差需要神的感动，有神的光照在其中。有些人做一件事，便有好的表现，使那件事染上光彩。可能是一件极普通的事，但当他们做过之后，就完全不同了。每当主叫我们做事，他总叫那事变了形象。我们的主披上了血肉之体，叫它改变形象，使之成为圣徒圣灵的殿。

祈祷◆让神的气息吹向我，直至我的意念和心灵能适当地调校向你。求你在我们当中和我们心内，散发自由、纯洁和能力。

February 19 The Initiative Against Drudgery

“Arise, shine.” Isaiah 60:1

We have to take the first step as though there were no God. It is no use to wait for God to help us, He will not; but immediately we arise we find He is there. Whenever God inspires, the initiative is a moral one. We must do the thing and not lie like a log. If we will arise and shine, drudgery becomes divinely transfigured.

Drudgery is one of the finest touchstones of character there is. Drudgery is work that is very far removed from anything to do with the ideal – the utterly mean grubby things; and when we come in contact with them we know instantly whether or not we are spiritually real. Read John 13. We see there the Incarnate God doing the most desperate piece of drudgery, washing fishermen's feet, and He says – “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet.” It requires the inspiration of God to go through drudgery with the light of God upon it. Some people do a certain thing and the way in which they do it hallows that thing for ever afterwards. It may be the most commonplace thing, but after we have seen them do it, it becomes different. When the Lord does a thing through us, He always transfigures it. Our Lord took on Him our human flesh and transfigured it, and it has become for every saint the temple of the Holy Ghost.

起来，我们走吧。（约十四31）

为求事情做得好而产生的梦想，原是对的。但在实行时仍在发梦，那就不对了。我们的主对门徒说完了那番美好的教训后，我们多半以为他会吩咐门徒好好去默想；但主从来不容让我们只有空想。与神相交，要寻求他的心意，梦想是可以的；但当神已经告诉我们怎样做，我们仍想花时间去做梦，这就不对了，神是不会祝福这事。神对此等梦想，总是鞭辟入里，要给我们一个当头棒喝。这一棒叫我们“不要再坐着、再站着，乃要出去”。

若果我们正安静等候神，他说：“来歇一歇吧！”这是在神面前的默想，为要明白神的心意，但一旦神已经说了，就不要耽搁在梦想里。让神成为你一切的梦想、一切赏心乐事的源头，然后遵行他所吩咐的。在爱情里，你不会一天到晚坐在那里，梦想你所爱的人；你会去为他有所行动；这正是耶稣基督期望我们做的。当神显明他的心意，而我们仍在发梦，那表示我们并不信任他。

祈祷◆在我感到自己变得完全无用，只有软弱的当儿，我何等需要全然抓紧你。我感到自己已经错失了那起点，而我现时似乎在这种感受下屈服。主啊，求你纠正我的意念和理想。

February 20 The Initiative Against Dreaming

“Arise, let us go hence.” John 14:31

Dreaming about a thing in order to do it properly is right; but dreaming about it when we should be doing it is wrong. After Our Lord had said those wonderful things to His disciples, we might have expected that He would tell them to go away and meditate over them all; but Our Lord never allowed “mooning.” When we are getting into contact with God in order to find out what He wants, dreaming is right; but when we are inclined to spend our time in dreaming over what we have been told to do, it is a bad thing and God's blessing is never on it. God's initiative is always in the nature of a stab against this kind of dreaming, the stab that bids us “neither sit nor stand but go.” 

If we are quietly waiting before God and He has said – “Come ye yourselves apart,” then that is meditation before God in order to get at the line He wants; but always beware of giving over to mere dreaming when once God has spoken. Leave Him to be the source of all your dreams and joys and delights, and go out and obey what He has said. If you are in love, you do not sit down and dream about the one you love all the time, you go and do something for him; and that is what Jesus Christ expects us to do. Dreaming after God has spoken is an indication that we do not trust Him.

她在我身上作的是一件美事。（可十四6）

爱若不能叫人忘形，就不是爱。爱若是拘谨、明智、合理、计较、从不会忘形的，那根本不是爱。那可能是感情，令人感觉温暖，却不是真正的爱。

我曾否为神成就一事而虚己忘形，不是因为责任，不是因着有用，也不是因着任何缘故，而单单因为我爱他？我有没有奉上他所看为珍贵的东西？还是我在他伟大的救恩里游手好闲，不去做周围无数正等着我去做的事？不一定是大事，才称为美妙的，日常的、平凡的俗务，都可以见证我向神的顺服。我曾否使主喜悦，正如伯大尼马利亚所做的？

有时神似乎在观察，看我们愿不愿意把真爱毫不保留地表现出来。完全归神，比个人的圣洁更有价值。个人的圣洁使我们只注视本身的洁白，叫我们十分谨慎自己的言行举止，唯恐得罪了神。若我们无保留地归神，完全的爱情就能把这些一概拋开。要除掉这个念头：“我有没有用？”要深信自己无用，这才更接近真相。因为那根本不是有用与否的问题，而在神是否看为宝贵。我们若全然归神，他每时每刻都藉着我们作工。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿我愈来愈渴望将爱心如衣服般穿上，以致当我与人接触，他便成为人最恒久认出的东西。

February 21 Have You Ever Been Carried Away For Him?

“She hath wrought a good work on Me.” Mark 14:6

If human love does not carry a man beyond himself, it is not love. If love is always discreet, always wise, always sensible and calculating, never carried beyond itself, it is not love at all. It may be affection, it may be warmth of feeling, but it has not the true nature of love in it.

Have I ever been carried away to do something for God not because it was my duty, nor because it was useful, nor because there was anything in it at all beyond the fact that I love Him? Have I ever realized that I can bring to God things which are of value to Him, or am I mooning round the magnitude of His Redemption whilst there are any number of things I might be doing? Not Divine, colossal things which could be recorded as marvellous, but ordinary, simple human things which will give evidence to God that I am abandoned to Him? Have I ever produced in the heart of the Lord Jesus what Mary of Bethany produced?

There are times when it seems as if God watches to see if we will give Him the abandoned tokens of how genuinely we do love Him. Abandon to God is of more value than personal holiness. Personal holiness focuses the eye on our own whiteness; we are greatly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, fearful lest we offend Him. Perfect love casts out all that when once we are abandoned to God. We have to get rid of this notion – “Am I of any use?” and make up our minds that we are not, and we may be near the truth. It is never a question of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. When we are abandoned to God, He works through us all the time.

你们要休息_{（英文作安静）}，要知道我是神。（诗四十六10）

坚韧不单是忍耐，乃是在忍耐之上，加上绝对的肯定，知道所期待的必然实现。坚韧也不单是持定，那可能只是怕倒下来的软弱。坚韧是以最大的努力，拒绝相信他所尊崇的英雄会被打败。一个门徒最深的恐惧，不是他会被定罪，而是耶稣基督被贬低，叫他所代表的一切——对人的爱、公义、饶恕和仁慈，至终不能奏凯；而他所表彰的一切只像电光一闪而过。这是，属灵的坚韧力叫我们不要徒然持守而无所事事，乃是著实地作工，确信神绝不被挫败。

若我们的盼望似乎幻灭了，那正是进行洁净的工夫。人心里一切所想所求，都必一一实现。生命中最竭尽心力的事，莫过于等候神。“你遵守了我忍耐之道。”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，今天让你那伟大、使人尊贵和叫人鼓舞的感动临到我们每个人身上。让我们完全不用惊慌，而我们的心灵亦免于过分的追赶。

February 22 The Discipline Of Spiritual Tenacity

“Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

Tenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire. Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be but the weakness of being too afraid to fall off. Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered. The greatest fear a man has is not that he will be damned, but that Jesus Christ will be worsted, that the things He stood for – love and justice and forgiveness and kindness among men – will not win out in the end; the things He stands for look like will-o'-the-wisps. Then comes the call to spiritual tenacity, not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately on the certainty that God is not going to be worsted.

If our hopes are being disappointed just now, it means that they are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled. One of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God. “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience.”

Remain spiritually tenacious.

人子来，不是要受人的服侍，乃是要服侍人。（太二十28）

保罗对事奉的观念与主一样：“我在你们中间作服侍的，像他一样。”“我们为基督的缘故作你们的仆人。”我们常以为一个蒙召作传道的人，是被召成为与众不同的人。对于耶稣基督，他被召的是别人门前的地毯；做他们的属灵领袖，却绝不是他们的上司。保罗说:“我晓得怎样处卑贱。”

保罗对事奉的观念是这样：“我为你们耗尽了最后一分力量，你尽管称赞我，或是指责我，一点也没有关系。”只要有一个人尚未认识耶稣基督，保罗就是欠他的债，要服侍他直到认识主。保罗事奉的根源不是爱人，乃是爱主。我们若献身人类的幸福努力，很快就会心碎而倒退，因为人忘恩负义，比狗更加厉害。但若动机是出于爱神，那么怎样冷酷无情也不能阻拦我们的服侍。

保罗体会耶稣基督怎样对待他，就成为他决意服侍人的秘诀。“我从前是亵渎神的，逼迫人的，侮慢人的。”——不论人怎样对待我，也绝对比不上我昔日怎样以恶毒来对待耶稣基督。我们一旦体会耶稣基督怎样为我们的卑鄙、自私、罪恶服侍到底，那么，不论别人怎样待我们，也不能改变我们为主服侍人的决心。

祈祷◆主啊，你仆人的话，正好标明我内心深切的祷告——我的神，我仰赖你的恩赐，好像我不能从任何人身上寻见，或在人内心的幻想或构思中出现。

February 23 The Determination To Serve

“The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” Matthew 20:28

Paul's idea of service is the same as Our Lord's: “I am among you as He that serveth;” “ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.” We have the idea that a man called to the ministry is called to be a different kind of being from other men. According to Jesus Christ, he is called to be the “door-mat” of other men; their spiritual leader, but never their superior. “I know how to be abased,” says Paul. This is Paul's idea of service – “I will spend myself to the last ebb for you; you may give me praise or give me blame, it will make no difference.” So long as there is a human being who does not know Jesus Christ, I am his debtor to serve him until he does. The mainspring of Paul's service is not love for men, but love for Jesus Christ. If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be crushed and broken-hearted, for we shall often meet with more ingratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow men.

Paul's realization of how Jesus Christ had dealt with him is the secret of his determination to serve others. “I was before a perjurer, a blasphemer, an injurious person” – no matter how men may treat me, they will never treat me with the spite and hatred with which I treated Jesus Christ. When we realize that Jesus Christ has served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin, nothing that we meet with from others can exhaust our determination to serve men for His sake.

我也甘心乐意为你们的灵魂费财费力。（林后十二15）

圣灵一旦将神的爱浇灌在我们心里，我们就立即与耶稣基督一样关怀别人。耶稣基督对任何一种人都有爱心。在事奉的工作上，我们不能以自己的嗜好为指导；这是我们与主的关系中最大的考验之一。牺牲的快乐，在于我为“朋友”舍命，这并不是随手丢出，而是经过深思熟虑后，为他和他对人的爱，甘愿把生命舍去。这也不是为了别的什么使命。保罗只为一个目的而把自己耗尽——为主得人。他时刻被主吸引，而不体贴自己。“向什么样的人，我就作什么样的人。无论如何，总要救些人。”

人若一心独自与主一起，只为建立个人圣洁生命，他对别人就丝毫无益了；他不过把自己安置在台阶上，与人群脱节。保罗成了一个祭牲，他所到之处，主耶稣都使用他，作成神的旨意。我们不少人只追求自己的目标，以致主无法随意使用我们。若我们真的委身于耶稣，就该没有自己的目标了。保罗说他晓得怎样作一块门前的地毯而心无恼怒，因为他的生命已全属于耶稣了。我们很容易转移目标，不归属基督，而专注于那些叫我们心灵得自由的事物。保罗的动机不是这样：“为我弟兄，我骨肉之亲，就是自己被诅咒，与基督分离，我也愿意。”——太狂放，太夸大了，是吗？人在爱情里这样说话，并不是夸大，乃是爱上了基督，如保罗一样。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求你今天保守我们，让我们完全不需要想到自己，只是喜乐地与你一起。

February 24 The Delight Of Sacrifice

“I will very gladly spend and be spent for you;” 2 Corinthians 12:15

When the Spirit of God has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, we begin deliberately to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ's interests in other people, and Jesus Christ is interested in every kind of man there is. We have no right in Christian work to be guided by our affinities; this is one of the biggest tests of our relationship to Jesus Christ. The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend, not fling it away, but deliberately lay my life out for Him and His interests in other people, not for a cause. Paul spent himself for one purpose only – that he might win men to Jesus Christ. Paul attracted to Jesus all the time, never to himself. “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”

When a man says he must develop a holy life alone with God, he is of no more use to his fellow men: he puts himself on a pedestal, away from the common run of men. Paul became a sacramental personality; wherever he went, Jesus Christ helped Himself to his life. Many of us are after our own ends, and Jesus Christ cannot help Himself to our lives. If we are abandoned to Jesus, we have no ends of our own to serve. Paul said he knew how to be a “door-mat” without resenting it, because the mainspring of his life was devotion to Jesus. We are apt to be devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which emancipate us spiritually. That was not Paul's motive. “I could wish my self were accursed from Christ for my brethren” – wild, extravagant – is it? When a man is in love it is not an exaggeration to talk in that way, and Paul is in love with Jesus Christ.

先生没有打水的器具。（约四11）

“神所说的一切奇妙我很钦仰，但他休想我能在生活里真正行出来！”论到主耶稣本身的美德，往往叫我们有一种敬虔的优越感。“你的理想甚高，令我们心悦诚服，但一涉及实际事物，就行不通了。”我们各人对耶稣或多或少总有这样的想法。当我们向人讲说与神立约，人家会好奇地问：“你的钱从哪里来？你怎么应付生活？”因而使我们对耶稣发生质疑。有时这种疑虑会发自我们本身，对主说这件事他也许难以应付。“说信靠主是不错的，但人总要生活的啊，耶稣连打水的器具也没有，他怎样供应我们？”你要留心里面那敬虔的虚伪说：“我不怪主耶稣，只怪自己。”人从来不会怪责自己；我们无能为力的地方，自己知得很清楚，但不满意主的却很多。对他能做而我们所不能的，我们会觉得有损自尊。

当我省察自己，才发现神对任何事物都能应付自如，这样，不满就油然而生，因为我的自卑感在作祟。若真的是这样，要来到神面前承认：“主，我对你有误会，我未能放下自己，去信任你的智慧；我没有离开自我的悟性，去相信你的全能。”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我怀着何等的释然投向你。我对你的需要真是数之不尽，而在那奇异的释放和喜乐中，我发现我所需要的，就只有你。

February 26 Inferior Misgivings About Jesus

“Sir, Thou hast nothing to draw with.” John 4:11

“I am impressed with the wonder of what God says, but He cannot expect me really to live it out in the details of my life!” When it comes to facing Jesus Christ on His own merits, our attitude is one of pious superiority – Your ideals are high and they impress us, but in touch with actual things, it cannot be done. Each of us thinks about Jesus in this way in some particular. These misgivings about Jesus start from the amused questions put to us when we talk of our transactions with God – Where are you going to get your money from? How are you going to be looked after? Or they start from ourselves when we tell Jesus that our case is a bit too hard for Him. It is all very well to say “Trust in the Lord,” but a man must live, and Jesus has nothing to draw with – nothing whereby to give us these things. Beware of the pious fraud in you which says – I have no misgivings about Jesus, only about myself. None of us ever had misgivings about ourselves; we know exactly what we cannot do, but we do have misgivings about Jesus. We are rather hurt at the idea that He can do what we cannot.

My misgivings arise from the fact that I ransack my own person to find out how He will be able to do it. My questions spring from the depths of my own inferiority. If I detect these misgivings in myself, let me bring them to the light and confess them – “Lord, I have had misgivings about Thee, I have not believed in Thy wits apart from my own; I have not believed in Thine almighty power apart from my finite understanding of it.”

难道我越发爱你们，就越发少得你们爱吗？（林后十二15）

天然的爱是期望回报的，但保罗却说：“我不管你爱不爱我，我甘愿竭尽一切牺牲自己，不单是为你的缘故，更是要把你带到神那里。”“你们知道主耶稣基督的恩典，他本来富足，却为你们成了贫穷。”保罗事奉的观念正是：“不管我怎样竭尽心力，也是甘心情愿的。”对保罗来说，这是一件乐事。

一般传统教会对作神仆人的观念，并不是耶稣基督的观念。他的观念是要我们藉着服侍人而事奉他。耶稣基督的思想比社会主义者更富社会主义的色彩。他说在他的国里，最大的要作众人的仆人。作圣徒真正的考验不在传讲福音，乃在洗门徒的脚，就是做那些在人眼光中无足轻重的事，在神看来却是非常重要。保罗乐意为神的缘故，不计算代价地为别人耗尽一切。但我们会把经济和个人问题带过来——“假如神要我到那里，薪金怎样？气候怎样？福利怎样？人总要考虑这些的。”这一切表示我们事奉神仍有保留：而使徒保罗却毫无保留。主耶稣对新约圣徒的观念，保罗都集中在自己的生活中；他不但传播福音，更为别人成为擘开的饼、倒出来的酒。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求你今天使那导致我们在你的事奉中软弱无力的自我意识，永远消失，这样，我们所知道的，便只有耶稣。

February 25 The Destitution Of Service

“Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.” 2 Corinthians 12:15

Natural love expects some return, but Paul says – I do not care whether you love me or not, I am willing to destitute myself completely, not merely for your sakes, but that I may get you to God. “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor.” Paul's idea of service is exactly along that line – I do not care with what extravagance I spend myself, and I will do it gladly. It was a joyful thing to Paul.

The ecclesiastical idea of a servant of God is not Jesus Christ's idea. His idea is that we serve Him by being the servants of other men. Jesus Christ out-socialists the socialists. He says that in His Kingdom he that is greatest shall be the servant of all. The real test of the saint is not preaching the gospel, but washing disciples' feet, that is, doing the things that do not count in the actual estimate of men but count everything in the estimate of God. Paul delighted to spend himself out for God's interests in other people, and he did not care what it cost. We come in with our economical notions –“Suppose God wants me to go there – what about the salary? What about the climate? How shall I be looked after? A man must consider these things.” All that is an indication that we are serving God with a reserve. The apostle Paul had no reserve. Paul focuses Jesus Christ's idea of a New Testament saint in his life, viz.: not one who proclaims the Gospel merely, but one who becomes broken bread and poured out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ for other lives.

你从哪里得活水呢？（约四11）

“井又深。”——比撒玛利亚妇人所想的更深。想想人本性的深奥、生命的奥妙，和你“里面的井”的深度。你是否限制了主耶稣的工作，以致他不能有所作为？假设你心中有一个像无底深井的烦恼，耶稣会对你说: “你心里不要忧愁。”你就耸耸肩说：“可是，主啊，井太深；我无法从其中汲取平静与安慰的水。”其实，耶稣要从上头带下力量来，而不会从人的井里打什么上来。我们若只记得以往让神为我们做过的事，或说：“我当然不会奢望神这样做。”那么，我们就限制了以色列的圣者的工作。要全能才做得到的事，信徒该相信耶稣能够做到。我们若忘记他的全能，就局限了主的工作；那使主的工作显得衰退的是我们，不是他。我们只接受耶稣作安慰者、同情者，而不接受他为全能者。

我们中间有些人之所以成为差劲的基督徒，是因为心中没有全能的基督。我们有基督徒的性情与经历，却没有委身于耶稣基督，向他降服。到有了难题，就说：“他实在无能为力。”是我们限制了他的工作。我们挣扎到井底，想自己去打水；并且在放弃时心安理得地说：“这事不可能。”你知道仰望耶稣就可以做成。你的缺欠深如井，惟有竭力抬头仰望神

祈祷◆噢，主啊，只要我能听见你发出清晰的吩咐，我将产生何等全备的信心！主啊，愿你今天吩咐我。

February Impoverished Ministry Of JESUS

“From whence then hast Thou that living water?” John 4:11

“The well is deep” – and a great deal deeper than the Samaritan woman knew! Think of the depths of human nature, of human life, think of the depths of the “wells” in you. Have you been impoverishing the ministry of Jesus so that He can not do anything? Suppose there is a well of fathomless trouble inside your heart, and Jesus comes and says – “Let not your heart be troubled”; and you shrug your shoulders and say, “But, Lord, the well is deep; You cannot draw up quietness and comfort out of it.” No, He will bring them down from above. Jesus does not bring anything up from the wells of human nature. We limit the Holy One of Israel by remembering what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past, and by saying, “Of course I cannot expect God to do this thing.” The thing that taxes almightiness is the very thing which we as disciples of Jesus ought to believe He will do. We impoverish His ministry the moment we forget He is Almighty; the impoverishment is in us, not in Him. We will come to Jesus as Comforter or as Sympathizer, but we will not come to Him as Almighty.

The reason some of us are such poor specimens of Christianity is because we have no Almighty Christ. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but there is no abandonment to Jesus Christ. When we get into difficult circumstances, we impoverish His ministry by saying – “Of course He cannot do any thing,” and we struggle down to the deeps and try to get the water for ourselves. Beware of the satisfaction of sinking back and saying – “It can't be done”; you know it can be done if you look to Jesus. The well of your incompleteness is deep, but make the effort and look away to Him.

因此我们信……耶稣说，现在你们信吗？（约十六30-31）

“现在我们信。”耶稣说：“你们信吗？时候将到……你们要分散……留下我独自一人。”许多基督的工人留下主独自一人，凭自己的责任感去作工，或凭自己的判断觉得需要而做；这是因为缺少复活主的生命，与神失去了亲密的关系，只倚仗自己信仰上的知识(箴三5-6)。这个不涉及罪恶，也与刑罚无关；只是当发现这事成为我们认识基督的障碍，带来何等的困惑、愁苦、难处，就必然蒙羞抱愧，痛悔地回转。

我们必须更深切地投靠主耶稣复活的生命，养成一种习惯，在一切事情上不断寻求他的指引。可是我们往往会作出合常理的决定，然后才求神赐福。但他无法赐福，因为这事不属他国度的事，而且脱离现实。我们若凭责任感行事，就是坚立了一个标准与耶稣基督敌对。我们自视为“超人”，说：“这件事我要这样那样做。”我们把责任感放在宝座上，代替了主复活的生命。神没有叫我们行在良心或责任感的光中，乃是行在神的光中，正如神行在光中一样。出于责任感的工作，可以言之成理，持之有故；但出于顺服主的工作，没有别的解释——单单出于顺服。正因如此，圣徒容易被人嘲讽和误会！

祈祷◆噢，主啊，当我醒来，仍与你在一起。愿你以大能的复活生命，激发我的血肉之躯；愿你藉着不断涌入的能力，在这一刻唤醒我。

February Do Ye Now Believe?

“By this we believe . . . Jesus answered, Do ye now believe?” John 16:30-31

Now we believe. Jesus says – Do you? The time is coming when you will leave Me alone. Many a Christian worker has left Jesus Christ alone and gone into work from a sense of duty, or from a sense of need arising out of his own particular discernment. The reason for this is the absence of the resurrection life of Jesus. The soul has got out of intimate contact with God by leaning to its own religious understanding. There is no sin in it, and no punishment attached to it; but when the soul realizes how he has hindered his understanding of Jesus Christ, and produced for himself perplexities and sorrows and difficulties, it is with shame and contrition he has to come back.

We need to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus much deeper down than we do, to get into the habit of steadily referring everything back to Him; instead of this we make our common-sense decisions and ask God to bless them. He cannot, it is not in His domain, it is severed from reality. If we do a thing from a sense of duty, we are putting up a standard in competition with Jesus Christ. We become a “superior person,” and say – “Now in this matter I must do this and that.” We have put our sense of duty on the throne instead of the resurrection life of Jesus. We are not told to walk in the light of conscience or of a sense of duty, but to walk in the light as God is in the light. When we do anything from a sense of duty, we can back it up by argument; when we do anything in obedience to the Lord, there is no argument possible; that is why a saint can be easily ridiculed.

你爱我吗？（约二十一17）

彼得这时不再宣告什么了（参太二十六33-35）。人天然的性情总喜欢扬声宣告；但当耶稣基督的问话一针见血时，才显露那人爱的品质。彼得对耶稣的爱，是人本性中爱一个好人的那种爱。那是属于性情里的爱，这也许会深入人的个性里，但并不触及人的内里。真爱是从不宣告什么。耶稣说：“凡在人面前认我的。”承认他的爱不单凭口里所说的话，也凭所行的一切。

除非主的话刺破我们的假面具，否则神的话根本进不到我们里面。神的话刺伤比罪的刺伤更厉害，因为罪使感觉迟钝。但主的话却加强我们的感觉，以致他的刺伤比任何我们所能意想到的刺伤更痛。这痛不单是一般性的，而是更深入的，对准人内心的。主的话刺透我们，将灵与魂分开，再无虚假可以存留。对主的问话，我们不能用感情来敷衍。主直接对你说话时，你不能只说好话，那痛太厉害了。刺痛使任何事物都不再算一回事了。主的话在他儿女身上的刺痛，是不会有错的；刺痛的地方，正是启示的重要开端。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你在今早驱散一切云雾，愿晴朗、猛烈和满有生气的阳光普照大地。

March 1: The Undeviating Question

“Lovest thou Me?” John 21:17

Peter declares nothing now (cf. Matthew 26:33-35). Natural individuality professes and declares; the love of the personality is only discovered by the hurt of the question of Jesus Christ. Peter loved Jesus in the way in which any natural man loves a good man. That is temperamental love; it may go deep into the individuality, but it does not touch the centre of the person. True love never professes anything. Jesus said – “Whosoever shall confess Me before men,” i.e., confess his love not merely by his words, but by everything he does.

Unless we get hurt right out of every deception about ourselves, the word of God is not having its way with us. The word of God hurts as no sin can ever hurt, because sin blunts feeling. The question of the Lord intensifies feeling, until to be hurt by Jesus is the most exquisite hurt conceivable. It hurts not only in the natural way but in the profound personal way. The word of the Lord pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, there is no deception left. There is no possibility of being sentimental with the Lord's question; you cannot say nice things when the Lord speaks directly to you, the hurt is too terrific. It is such a hurt that it stings every other concern out of account. There never can be any mistake about the hurt of the Lord's word when it comes to His child; but the point of the hurt is the great point of revelation.

第三次对他说：“约翰的儿子西门，你爱我吗？”（约二十一17）

你感到主的刺伤痛入骨髓，正中你生命是最敏感的要害吗？魔鬼从不刺入那里，罪恶或人的感情也不刺到那里，惟有神的话才透得过。“彼得因为耶稣第三次对他说……就忧愁。”他开始觉悟在他生命的最深处，是全心爱耶稣的，也开始明白主再三问他的用意。他心里再没有丝毫的疑惑，也不再迷糊了。这时，已没有冲动诉说的余地，也不能用激昂的情绪示爱了。他醒悟自己原来有多爱主，以致他满心赞叹他说：“主啊，你是无所不知的。”彼得开始发现自己多么爱主；但他并没有说：“请看这件那件事便可以证明。”他心里发现对主的爱有多深，就是在天上地下除了主耶稣，再没有别的了。但他一直都不知道，直到主的问话刺入剖开。主的问话总是把我自己显露出来。

主耶稣对彼得是多么忍耐、坦率和巧妙，他总是在合适的时刻才发问。他会把我们引到一个角落，用他毫不放松的问话刺透我们；虽然他并不常是这样，也可能只此一次。不过，我们却觉察到自己真真爱他，比任何口头的宣称更真。

祈祷◆“我在困苦中，你曾使我宽广。”噢，这个在我心中的思想，愈来愈像一个珍贵而涌流不息的恩典泉源！

March 2: Have You Felt The Hurt Of The LORD?

“Jesus said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me?” John 21:17

Have you felt the hurt of the Lord to the uncovered quick, the place where the real sensitiveness of your life is lodged? The devil never hurts there, neither sin nor human affection hurts there, nothing goes through to that place but the word of God. “Peter was grieved because Jesus said unto him the third time. . . .” He was awakening to the fact that in the real true centre of his personal life he was devoted to Jesus, and he began to see what the patient questioning meant. There was not the slightest strand of delusion left in Peter's mind, he never could be deluded again. There was no room for passionate utterance, no room for exhilaration or sentiment. It was a revelation to him to realize how much he did love the Lord, and with amazement he said – “Lord, Thou knowest all things.” Peter began to see how much he did love Jesus; but he did not say – “Look at this or that to confirm it.” Peter was beginning to discover to himself how much he did love the Lord, that there was no one in heaven above or upon earth beneath beside Jesus Christ; but he did not know it until the probing, hurting questions of the Lord came. The Lord's questions always reveal me to myself.

The patient directness and skill of Jesus Christ with Peter! Our Lord never asks questions until the right time. Rarely, but probably once, He will get us into a corner where He will hurt us with His undeviating questions, and we will realize that we do love Him far more deeply than any profession can ever show.

你喂养我的羊。（约二十一17）

这是爱的模造。神的爱不是被造的，乃是他的本性。我们一接受了圣灵，他就使我们与神联合，神的爱就藉我们彰显出来。人的心灵藉着圣灵的内住与神联合，并不就完事；我们是要与父合一，正如耶稣与父合一一样。耶稣与父的合一是怎样的呢？就是父差他到世间来，为我们竭尽所有。然后说：“父怎样差遣了我，我也照样差遣他们。”

彼得这时被主刺心的问话启示，体会自己真的爱主；接着就是将自己耗尽。主对他说：“你不必见证你怎样爱我，也不必宣告你所得的超奇启示，只要喂养我的羊。”耶稣有许多奇特古怪的羊，有肮脏的羊，有粗鲁好斗的羊，还有迷路的羊！神的爱从不会枯干，人的爱若从同一源泉发出，也就同样的不会枯干。神的爱是不理会那个性中的差异。我若爱主，就不该受天然性情所左右；我必须喂养他的羊。这使命是不容间断的。但当心不可依照人天然的同情心去假冒神的爱，否则就是亵渎神的爱。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，但愿我所有的思想、情感和话语，都蕴含着爱——对你的完全之爱，并透过它来与人接触。

March 3rd The Unrelieved Quest

“Feed My sheep.” John 21:17

This is love in the making. The love of God is un-made, it is God's nature. When we receive the Holy Spirit He unites us with God so that His love is manifested in us. When the soul is united to God by the indwelling Holy Spirit, that is not the end; the end is that we may be one with the Father as Jesus was. What kind of oneness had Jesus Christ with the Father? Such a oneness that the Father sent Him down here to be spent for us, and He says – “As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.”

Peter realizes now with the revelation of the Lord's hurting question that he does love Him; then comes the point – “Spend it out.” Don't testify how much you love Me, don't profess about the marvellous revelation you have had, but – “Feed My sheep.” And Jesus has some extraordinarily funny sheep, some bedraggled, dirty sheep, some awkward, butting sheep, some sheep that have gone astray! It is impossible to weary God's love, and it is impossible to weary that love in me if it springs from the one centre. The love of God pays no attention to the distinctions made by natural individuality. If I love my Lord I have no business to be guided by natural temperament; I have to feed His sheep. There is no relief and no release from this commission. Beware of counterfeiting the love of God by working along the line of natural human sympathy, because that will end in blaspheming the love of God.

我却不以性命为念，也不看为宝贵。（徒二十24）

没有异象就去事奉神，是容易的；没有蒙召就去事奉神，也是容易的；因为你根本不需理会神的要求。头脑上的知识，加上信徒的情感就知道，你会干得很成功。心情可优悠自得，只要你从未经历神的呼召。可是，一旦你接受了耶稣基督的差使，神就整日驱策着你；那你再也不能根据头脑上的知识来为他工作。

我看什么为宝贵？我若未被主耶稣抓住，我会看事奉为宝贵，为神摆上的时间为宝贵，以我的生命为宝贵。保罗说，他看生命宝贵，只因他能完成所交托他的使命；他拒绝在任何事上花费他的精力。使徒行转二十章24节中说保罗对别人叫他顾虑自己的安慰，几乎又一种极端的烦恼；除了完成主所交托的使命外，他绝对不管别的。有时实际的工作，会取去人归向神的心，因为实际的工作是根据“记住你在这里多派用场”，“想想你在某项工作上有多难得”。这种态度没有把主耶稣作为方向的指引，却用自己的判断来决定我们在哪里最有用。千万别思量自己有没有用，却要紧记你不属于自己，乃属于主。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，靠着你的恩典，让我张眼看见你，和你的无穷无尽；并且，在关乎你的事工上，让我明白你的心意。

March 4th Could This Be True Of Me?

“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself.” Acts 20:24

It is easier to serve God without a vision, easier to work for God without a call, because then you are not bothered by what God requires; common sense is your guide, veneered over with Christian sentiment. You will be more prosperous and successful, more leisure-hearted, if you never realize the call of God. But if once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God wants will always come like a goad; you will no longer be able to work for Him on the common-sense basis.

What do I really count dear? If I have not been gripped by Jesus Christ, I will count service dear, time given to God dear, my life dear unto myself. Paul says he counted his life dear only in order that he might fulfil the ministry he had received; he refused to use his energy for any other thing. Acts 20:24 states Paul's almost sublime annoyance at being asked to consider himself; he was absolutely indifferent to any consideration other than that of fulfilling the ministry he had received. Practical work may be a competitor against abandonment to God, because practical work is based on this argument – Remember how useful you are here, or – Think how much value you would be in that particular type of work. That attitude does not put Jesus Christ as the Guide as to where we should go, but our judgment as to where we are of most use. Never consider whether you are of use; but ever consider that you are not your own but His.

只要（“喜乐地”，英文译本）行完我的路程，成就我从主耶稣所领受的职事。（徒二十24）

喜乐的意思，是我能圆满地完成被造和重生的目的，而不是因为成功地完成一件事。我们主的喜乐，就是在于遵行父神的旨意，他说：“我父怎样差遣了我，我也照样差遣你们。”我有从主接受职事吗？若有，我必须忠于所托，将生命的价值完全放在达成那使命上面。想想当主对你说：“好，你这又良善又忠心的仆人。”你会何等的心满意足，因已完成主差你去做的事。我们必须寻找人生的岗位，在属灵上说，就是寻找主托付你的是什么。要达成所托，就必须与主同行；要更深认识他，不单是把他作为个人的救主。“我也要指示他，为我的名必须受许多的苦。”“你爱我吗？”然后，“你喂养我的羊。”事奉是不容你取舍的，只有绝对效忠于主；效忠于你最贴近神时所领受的。若你从耶稣接受了一项事奉，就会知道需要并不等于呼召，需要乃是机会，呼召则是忠于你与主相交时所领受的。这并不是说，从此有无数的事奉要划分出来给你，而是你要撇开其他方面事奉的需求。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，恳求你继续赐下力量和纯真的喜乐。让我的动机和心思都能够保持谦卑，不会自以为是优越的人。

March 5th. Is He Really Lord?

“. . . so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus.” Acts 20:24

Joy means the perfect fulfilment of that for which I was created and regenerated, not the successful doing of a thing. The joy Our Lord had lay in doing what the Father sent Him to do, and He says – “As My Father hath sent Me, even so am I sending you.” Have I received a ministry from the Lord? If so, I have to be loyal to it, to count my life precious only for the fulfilling of that ministry. Think of the satisfaction it will be to hear Jesus say – “Well done, good and faithful servant”; to know that you have done what He sent you to do. We have all to find our niche in life, and spiritually we find it when we receive our ministry from the Lord. In order to do this we must have companied with Jesus; we must know Him as more than a personal Saviour. “I will show him how great things he must suffer for My sake.”

“Lovest thou Me?” Then – “Feed My sheep.” There is no choice of service, only absolute loyalty to Our Lord's commission; loyalty to what you discern when you are in closest contact with God. If you have received a ministry from the Lord Jesus, you will know that the need is never the call: the need is the opportunity. The call is loyalty to the ministry you received when you were in real touch with Him. This does not imply that there is a campaign of service marked out for you, but it does mean that you will have to ignore the demands for service along other lines.

就如在许多的忍耐、患难、穷乏、困苦...（林后六4）

没有异象，没有观众，要踏上下一步，实在需要全能神的恩典。奉献的下一步，求学的下一步，读书的下一步，烹饪的下一步，工作的下一步，没有从神来的异象，没有热情的汹涌，也没有观众。这时比传福音更需要神的厚恩，更需要刻意地从神支取，才能走下一步。

每一个信徒要有份于道成肉身的精义，就必须脚踏实地，付诸行动，用十个指头去实践。我们在没有异象、没有刺激、日复一日平凡无奇的生活下，容易萎靡不振。其实，至终为神与人所共认的，是那些在暗中坚忍耐劳的工作。若要生命不至于受摧压，唯一的方法是仰望神而活。

求神使你心灵的眼睛注目于复活的主，这样，一切的辛劳就无法击败你了。要从你心思中不断的除掉繁琐的事物，专心思想约翰福音十三章。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，恳求你继续赐下力量和纯真的喜乐。让我的动机和心思，都能够保持谦卑，不会自以为是优越的人。

March 6th Amid A Crowd Of Paltry Things

“. . . in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses.” 2 Corinthians 6:4

It takes Almighty grace to take the next step when there is no vision and no spectator – the next step in devotion, the next step in your study, in your reading, in your kitchen; the next step in your duty, when there is no vision from God, no enthusiasm and no spectator. It takes far more of the grace of God, far more conscious drawing upon God to take that step, than it does to preach the Gospel.

Every Christian has to partake of what was the essence of the Incarnation, he must bring the thing down into flesh and blood actualities and work it out through the finger tips. We flag when there is no vision, no uplift, but just the common round, the trivial task. The thing that tells in the long run for God and for men is the steady persevering work in the unseen, and the only way to keep the life uncrushed is to live looking to God. Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the Risen Christ, and it will be impossible for drudgery to damp you. Continually get away from pettiness and paltriness of mind and thought out into the thirteenth chapter of St. John's Gospel.

然而靠着爱我们的主，在这一切的事上，已经得胜有余了。（罗八37）

保罗列举许多的事情，似乎会把圣徒与神的爱隔开；但奇特的是，没有任何事物可以将圣徒与神的爱隔绝。这些事可以而且实际的进入人的事奉操练中，隔开了神，叫个人的生命与神分开。但是，绝没有一样能插入神的爱与圣徒的心灵中间。我们信仰的基石，就是神在加略十架上彰显出来那高深莫测、奇妙无比的爱，这爱是我们永远不配得的。保罗说正因为这缘故，我们在这一切事上已经得胜有余，成为超然的得胜者；在那似乎要把我们制服的事上，获得无比的喜乐。

游泳者所惧怕的波涛，对滑浪者却是驾浪凌空的赏心乐事。应用在我们的身上，这些事——患难、困苦、逼迫——在我们里面却生出喜乐来；这些事不是我们争斗的物件、藉着他，我们在这一切困扰里面已经得胜有余。不是“尽管”有这些也得胜，乃是置身其中仍然得胜。信徒从来不会因为“徒有”患难，就体会主里的喜乐，乃是由于在患难之中而体会到的。保罗说：“我在患难中格外喜乐。”

不绝的喜乐，并非建筑在短暂的事上，乃是在神永不改变的爱上。人生的经历不论是可怕的或是单调的，都无法影响神的爱，这爱是在我们的主基督耶稣里的。

祈祷◆主啊，为着如今在我生命中的喜乐——妻儿之爱、所教的学生、圣灵的恩惠——我赞美你。它们所带来的喜乐和福气，是何等奇妙！

March 7: Undaunted Radiance

“Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” Romans 8:37

Paul is speaking of the things that might seem likely to separate or wedge in between the saint and the love of God; but the remarkable thing is that nothing can wedge in between the love of God and the saint. These things can and do come in between the devotional exercises of the soul and God and separate individual life from God; but none of them is able to wedge in between the love of God and the soul of the saint. The bedrock of our Christian faith is the unmerited, fathomless marvel of the love of God exhibited on the Cross of Calvary, a love we never can and never shall merit. Paul says this is the reason we are more than conquerors in all these things, super-victors, with a joy we would not have but for the very things which look as if they are going to overwhelm us.

The surf that distresses the ordinary swimmer produces in the surf-rider the super-joy of going clean through it. Apply that to our own circumstances, these very things – tribulation, distress, persecution, produce in us the super-joy; they are not things to fight. We are more than conquerors through Him in all these things, not in spite of them, but in the midst of them. The saint never knows the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it – “I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation,” says Paul.

Undaunted radiance is not built on anything passing, but on the love of God that nothing can alter. The experiences of life, terrible or monotonous, are impotent to touch the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

我已经与基督同钉十字架。（加二20）

一个真正与耶稣基督联合的人，不但舍弃了罪，更把个人对事物的观点也一概舍弃。从上头、从圣灵而生的意思，就是先放下，然后才得着；而第一步要放下的就是一切虚假。主要我们带到他面前的，不是良善、不是诚实、不是努力，而是罪；他所要接受的就是这些。那他以什么代替我们的罪呢？真正的义。但我们先得放下一切自以为是的伪装，一切自以为配得神恩眷的资格。

然后，圣灵会继续显示我们还有什么要放下的。我必须在任何情况下，放弃自己的主权。我是否愿意视自己与基督同死，放弃一切所有的？放弃感情上羁绊，放弃所有手上执着的东西。不再紧紧抓住，视为己有。

我们放下之先，总会经历刻骨铭心的痛苦。当人真以主的眼光看自己，震惊的不是那些肉体可怕的罪，而是心中对耶稣基督那惊人的高傲本性。当他在主的光中看见自己，那羞愧、惊惧、绝望，必显露无遗。要是你正在面临“放下的问题”，就必须经过那抉择的关头。若能放下一切，神便按他的心意模造你。

祈祷◆“散布亮光是为义人。”主啊，何等的丰收！你的道路是何等的奇妙。

March 8th. The Relinquished Life

“I am crucified with Christ.” Galatians 2:20

No one is ever united with Jesus Christ until he is willing to relinquish not sin only, but his whole way of looking at things. To be born from above of the Spirit of God means that we must let go before we lay hold, and in the first stages it is the relinquishing of all pretence. What Our Lord wants us to present to Him is not goodness, nor honesty, nor endeavour, but real solid sin; that is all He can take from us. And what does He give in exchange for our sin? Real solid righteousness. But we must relinquish all pretence of being any thing, all claim of being worthy of God's consideration.

Then the Spirit of God will show us what further there is to relinquish. There will have to be the relinquishing of my claim to my right to myself in every phase. Am I willing to relinquish my hold on all I possess, my hold on my affections, and on everything, and to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ?

There is always a sharp painful disillusionment to go through before we do relinquish. When a man really sees himself as the Lord sees him, it is not the abominable sins of the flesh that shock him, but the awful nature of the pride of his own heart against Jesus Christ. When he sees himself in the light of the Lord, the shame and the horror and the desperate conviction come home.

If you are up against the question of relinquishing, go through the crisis, relinquish all, and God will make you fit for all that He requires of you.

你们也要去吗？（约六67）

多刺透人心的问题。主最深入人心的话，往往是最简单的话。我们虽然知道耶稣是谁，但他仍然要问：“你们也要去吗？”对主我们必须时刻持着敢作敢为的态度。“从此他门徒中多有退去的，不再和他同行。”他们转身不与耶稣同行，并不回去犯罪，只是回复原形，依然故我。今日不少人为主作工竭尽心力，可是并没有他同行。神要我们持守的，是要我们与耶稣基督合一。成圣之后，属灵生命的操练是循这方向走。神若在你心中清楚地启示他的心意，你不要用什么特别的方法去保持与神的关系，只要顺其自然地、完全靠赖耶稣基督而生活。与神同行的生活除了依循神的路径之外，万不能别开蹊径。这条路就是要绝对忠心爱他。我真知道自己无知——这就是与主同行的秘诀了。

彼得只看见耶稣是他的救主，是世人的救主。但主却要我们与他同负一轭。在第70节耶稣答复了彼得的问话，填补他想法上的漏洞。我们不可以代人作答。

祈祷◆主啊，对于住在我里面的基督，我所给予的滋养是何其短缺；噢，主啊，赦免我。求你让我深深地感受到你的宽恕，以致我不单为着你的救恩而喜乐，更让你的灵充满这里的工作。

March 9: The Time Of Relapse

“Will ye also go away?” John 6:67

A penetrating question. Our Lord's words come home most when He talks in the most simple way. We know Who Jesus is, but in spite of that He says – “Will ye also go away?” We have to maintain a venturing attitude toward Him all the time.

“From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.” They went back from walking with Jesus, not into sin, but they relapsed. Many to-day are spending and being spent in work for Jesus Christ, but they do not walk with Him. The one thing God keeps us to steadily is that we may be one with Jesus Christ. After sanctification the discipline of our spiritual life is along this line. If God gives a clear and emphatic realization to your soul of what He wants, do not try to keep yourself in that relationship by any particular method, but live a natural life of absolute dependence on Jesus Christ. Never try to live the life with God on any other line than God's line, and that line is absolute devotion to Him. The certainty that I do not know – that is the secret of going with Jesus.

Peter only saw in Jesus Someone to minister salvation to him and to the world. Our Lord wants us to be yoke-fellows with Him.

v. 70. Jesus answers the great lack in Peter. We cannot answer for others.

务要传道。（提后四2）

我们得救，并不单是做“导管”，乃是做神的儿女。我们不是变成属灵的媒介，乃是属灵的使者；所传的资讯必须是我们本身一部分。神的儿子本身就是神的资讯，他的话就是灵和生命。我们作他门徒的，生命必须成为资讯的印证。人天然的心喜欢做许多的事奉，但是要心灵真正在罪的自责中破碎，被圣灵浇灌，被搓揉进神的旨意里去，这时生命才成为资讯的印证。

作见证与讲道原有分别。传道人是有神的呼召，决志竭尽一切传神的真理。神把我们从自己的观念里领出来，把我们陶冶塑造，加以使用，正如五旬节后的门徒一般。五旬节并没有教导门徒什么，神只是把门徒变成为他们所传的资讯——“你们要作我的见证”。

你说话的时候，要让神有绝对的自由。神的话释放别人灵魂之先，必须先释放你。然后将你所经历的说出来，为主发光。

祈祷◆无所不知的主神，求你在今天将智慧赐给我，让我的敬拜、正确的行为都讨你的喜悦。主啊，求你在你的完全和美善中，不断向我述说你自己。妙！

March 10: Have A Message And Be One

“Preach the word.” 2 Timothy 4:2

We are not saved to be “channels only,” but to be sons and daughters of God. We are not turned into spiritual mediums, but into spiritual messengers; the message must be part of ourselves. The Son of God was His own message, His words were spirit and life; and as His disciples our lives must be the sacrament of our message. The natural heart will do any amount of serving, but it takes the heart broken by conviction of sin, and baptized by the Holy Ghost, and crumpled into the purpose of God before the life becomes the sacrament of its message.

There is a difference between giving a testimony and preaching. A preacher is one who has realized the call of God and is determined to use his every power to proclaim God's truth. God takes us out of our own ideas for our lives and we are “batter'd to shape and use,” as the disciples were after Pentecost. Pentecost did not teach the disciples any thing; it made them the incarnation of what they preached – “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me.”

Let God have perfect liberty when you speak. Before God's message can liberate other souls, the liberation must be real in you. Gather your material, and set it alight when you speak.

我没有违背那从天上来的异象。（徒二十六19）

我们若失了异象，必须单独承担责任。失去异象的原因，就是灵性上出现问题。我们对神的信仰，若不付诸实践的话，神赐的异象就会消失。要不违背从天上来的异象，唯一的途径是为神倾尽所有，并且不住地、坚持地重温那异象。考验是每分钟里的六十秒，每小时里的六十分钟，而不单是祈祷或培灵会里的事。

“虽然迟延，还要等候。”我们不可能凭自己实现异象，乃是要活在那异象的感动里，直到实现出来。有时我们太现实化了，以致忘记了那异象。起初，我们看见异象，却不等候，往往一冲而出去做；当异象实现，我们又看不见。异象的等候，是考验我们对神的忠心。若只一味专注在实际的工作上，错失了异象的实现，对灵命的造益来说，是大有损害的。

要注意神的旋风，神把圣徒散播出去，唯一的方法是用他的旋风。你最终是否是一条空的豆荚？就在乎你是否真的行在神的亮光中。让神把你散播出去，他不行动，你不要擅自出去。你若选择自己喜欢的地土，必长成空豆荚。若神把你散播出去，就结出果子来。

祈祷◆主啊，求你向我们的生命张口，向我们个人吹出你使生命再造并令人振奋的气息，驱除我们的疾病。

March 11: Vision

“I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” Acts 26:19

If we lose the vision, we alone are responsible, and the way we lose the vision is by spiritual leakage. If we do not run our belief about God into practical issues, it is all up with the vision God has given. The only way to be obedient to the heavenly vision is to give our utmost for God's highest, and this can only be done by continually and resolutely recalling the vision. The test is the sixty seconds of every minute, and the sixty minutes of every hour, not our times of prayer and devotional meetings.

“Though it tarry, wait for it.” We cannot attain to a vision, we must live in the inspiration of it until it accomplishes itself. We get so practical that we forget the vision. At the beginning we saw it but did not wait for it; we rushed off into practical work, and when the vision was fulfilled, we did not see it. Waiting for the vision that tarries is the test of our loyalty to God. It is at the peril of our soul's welfare that we get caught up in practical work and miss the fulfilment of the vision.

Watch God's cyclones. The only way God sows His saints is by His whirlwind. Are you going to prove an empty pod? It will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of what you have seen. Let God fling you out, and do not go until He does. If you select your own spot, you will prove an empty pod. If God sows you, you will bring forth fruit.

It is essential to practise the walk of the feet in the light of the vision.

彼得就对他说：看哪，我们已经撇下所有的跟从你了……（可十28）

主的回答是说为他而撇下，而不是为了门徒自己能换得什么。当心别把商业贸易的精神掺入“撇下”里去——“我把自己给神，因为我要脱离罪，因为我要成圣。”这些都是与神和好的结果，却不是基督教信仰里的精神。“撇下”根本不是为任何东西。我们已经变得太商业化了，到神面前只是为得那一点什么，而不是为他本身。这好像是说：“主啊，我不要你，我要自己；我要自己洁净，充满圣灵；我要登上你的橱窗说：『看神为我做的一切。』”若我们为神撇下，为的是要得更多的，那么，我们的撇下便没有圣灵，只是可怜的商业自利。我们得上天堂，罪得赦免，合神使用，这些在真正的“撇下”里，绝不是原因。真正的撇下，乃是个人专诚的拣选耶稣基督自己。

当我们面对人际关系的屏障，耶稣的地位何在？我们多半遗弃他说：“不错，主，我听见你的呼召；但我母亲阻着去路，还有我的妻子，我的喜好，我无法前行。”耶稣说：“这样，你不能作我的门徒。”

撇下的考验总是与亲情有切肤之痛。越过它，神会尽所有去怀抱你撇下时所伤害的人。要当心撇下不可中途而废。我们多半只在异象中认识什么叫做撇下。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求你使我的悟性与你圣灵的教导一同发出光辉。

March 12: Abandonment

“Then Peter began to say unto Him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed Thee. . . .” Mark 10:28

Our Lord replies in effect, that abandonment is for Himself, and not for what the disciples themselves will get from it. Beware of an abandonment which has the commercial spirit in it – “I am going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy.” All that is the result of being right with God, but that spirit is not of the essential nature of Christianity. Abandonment is not for anything at all. We have got so commercialized that we only go to God for something from Him, and not for Himself. It is like saying, “No, Lord, I don't want Thee, I want myself; but I want myself clean and filled with the Holy Ghost; I want to be put in Thy show room and be able to say – ‘This is what God has done for me.’” If we only give up something to God because we want more back, there is nothing of the Holy Spirit in our abandonment; it is miserable commercial self-interest. That we gain heaven, that we are delivered from sin, that we are made useful to God – these things never enter as considerations into real abandonment, which is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.

When we come up against the barriers of natural relationship, where is Jesus Christ? Most of us desert Him – “Yes, Lord, I did hear Thy call; but my mother is in the road, my wife, my self-interest, and I can go no further.” “Then,” Jesus says, “you cannot be My disciple.”

The test of abandonment is always over the neck of natural devotion. Go over it, and God's own abandonment will embrace all those you had to hurt in abandoning. Beware of stopping short of abandonment to God. Most of us know abandonment in vision only.

神爱世人，甚至将他的独生子赐给他们……（约三16）

救恩并不只是从罪恶中得解救，也不只是个人成圣的经历；救恩乃是神把人从自己解脱出来，与他合一。我对救恩的认识，是从脱离罪开始，以致个人成圣；可是救恩的真谛，是圣灵使我接触到神自己；因这超越自我千万倍的主宰震撼激荡，我被神的牺牲吸引住了。若有人说我们被召是要传圣洁与成圣之道，就偏差了。我们被召是要传耶稣基督。他救我们脱离罪，使我们成圣，这不过是神奇妙牺牲中的一部分。

真正的舍弃，是不会对本身所作的有所知觉，因为整个生命已经被那一位我们为他摆上的主所占有了。你若不知道何为放下舍弃，就不要随便讲说。除非你明白约翰福音三章16节里的意思：神怎样毫无保留地将自己赐给人；否则，你永不会明白何为舍弃。我们的舍弃就是把自己完全交给神，正如神为我们舍了自己，不计算代价一样。舍弃的后果如何，不会在我们的人生观上显露，因为我们的生命已经充满了基督。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，今早让我为过往的一切赞美你——我是那么的任性，你却是那么的慈爱、长久忍耐、满有宽恕和亲切。

March 13: The Abandonment Of God

“God so loved the world that He gave. . .” John 3:16

Salvation is not merely deliverance from sin, nor the experience of personal holiness; the salvation of God is deliverance out of self entirely into union with Himself. My experimental knowledge of salvation will be along the line of deliverance from sin and of personal holiness; but salvation means that the Spirit of God has brought me into touch with God's personality, and I am thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself, I am caught up into the abandonment of God.

To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification, is to get into a side eddy. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ. The fact that He saves from sin and makes us holy is part of the effect of the wonderful abandonment of God.

Abandonment never produces the consciousness of its own effort, because the whole life is taken up with the One to Whom we abandon. Beware of talking about abandonment if you know nothing about it, and you will never know anything about it until you have realized that John 3:16 means that God gave Himself absolutely. In our abandonment we give ourselves over to God just as God gave Himself for us, without any calculation. The consequence of abandonment never enters into our outlook because our life is taken up with Him.

顺从谁，就作谁的奴仆。（罗六16）

要省察自己被什么力量辖制，首先要承认一个难以接受的事实，就是我这样辖制，自己要负责，因为我向此力量屈服了。我若做自己的奴仆，便要自己承担责任，因为我向自己屈服了。同样地，我若顺服神，是因为自己向神降服。

人若自幼顺从了自私自利之心，就会发现这是世上最强暴的捆锁。这种因降服而形成的桎梏，是人本性没有能力摆脱的。你只要对情欲稍为纵容（所谓情欲，就是人一定要立刻得着的，这包括肉体的情欲和心思上的情欲），便成为它的奴仆了。一旦降服，你尽管恨自己不该如此，也无济于事。除非有神的救赎，靠自己绝对没有解救的出路；所以必须完全谦卑屈服在主耶稣面前，惟有他能溃败辖制你的权势。“耶和华用膏膏我……报告被掳的得释放。”我们在极小的事上，便可以发现：“啊！我要放下这嗜好是随时都做得到的。”是不能的。你会发觉这嗜好牢牢地辖制着你，因为你是甘愿向它降服。唱“他断开一切锁链”很容易，但同时却明明活在自我的捆锁里。只有降服于耶稣才能解脱人生中任何的奴役。

祈祷◆主啊，我赞美你，你阻止我即时要为自己寻求各样的东西，你使我唯独寻求你那永久的凭证——你的感动，让我获得在你里面的平安。

March 14: Obedience

“His servants ye are to whom ye obey.” Romans 6:16

The first thing to do in examining the power that dominates me is to take hold of the unwelcome fact that I am responsible for being thus dominated. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because at a point away back I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because I have yielded myself to Him.

Yield in childhood to selfishness, and you will find it the most enchaining tyranny on earth. There is no power in the human soul of itself to break the bondage of a disposition formed by yielding. Yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust (remember what lust is: “I must have it at once,” whether it be the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind) – once yield and though you may hate yourself for having yielded, you are a bondslave to that thing. There is no release in human power at all but only in the Redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One Who can break the dominating power viz., the Lord Jesus Christ – “He hath anointed me . . . to preach deliverance to all captives.”

You find this out in the most ridiculously small ways – “Oh, I can give that habit up when I like.” You cannot, you will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you yielded to it willingly. It is easy to sing – “He will break every fetter” and at the same time be living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. Yielding to Jesus will break every form of slavery in any human life.

跟从的人也害怕。（可十32）

在开始时候，我们自认为清楚认识基督耶稣便欢喜地变卖所有，投身在爱的劳苦中。但如今却不敢这样自信了。耶稣走在前面，看来多么陌生。“耶稣在前头走，门徒就稀奇。”

在耶稣身上有另一面叫门徒寒心，使他们整个属灵生命似乎喘不过气来。这超奇的一位，面如坚石，步伐稳重，令人战栗起来。他不再是策士同伴，因他心里所想的，我一点也不知道，我只有惊愕的份儿。初时我自以为很了解他，可是现今却不敢如此自信。我开始体会到：他与我之间，有了距离；我不再与他亲热了。他在我前面，却不转过身来。我不晓得他到哪里去，那目的地显得极其遥远。

耶稣基督要发掘人一切的罪孽与忧苦，使他显得怪异。看见他这一面时，我们就不认识他了。对于他生命特异之处，也辨认不出来，所以根本不知道从何跟随他。他走在前头——一位陌生的领路者——我们却不能与他并驾齐驱。

要过门徒的生活，这种惊愕的训练，是不可或缺的。但有一种危险，就是回到自己的火场中去，点燃着自己的热心（赛五十10-11）。当惊愕莫名的黑暗临到你，要忍耐直到它过去，因为从这经历中出来后，跟随耶稣就成为说不出来的喜乐了。

祈祷◆想到将来，我的心是何等不安；犹幸我并非老是如此，所以我赞美你。但愿除你以外，我再无需抓紧任何东西！求你使我的热忱不减退，也不松懈下来。

March 15: The Discipline Of Dismay

“And as they followed, they were afraid.” Mark 10:32

At the beginning we were sure we knew all about Jesus Christ, it was a delight to sell all and to fling ourselves out in a hardihood of love; but now we are not quite so sure. Jesus is on in front and He looks strange: “Jesus went before them and they were amazed.”

There is an aspect of Jesus that chills the heart of a disciple to the core and makes the whole spiritual life gasp for breath. This strange Being with His face “set like a flint” and His striding determination, strikes terror into me. He is no longer Counsellor and Comrade, He is taken up with a point of view I know nothing about, and I am amazed at Him. At first I was confident that I understood Him, but now I am not so sure. I begin to realize there is a distance between Jesus Christ and me; I can no longer be familiar with Him. He is ahead of me and He never turns round; I have no idea where He is going, and the goal has become strangely far off.

Jesus Christ had to fathom every sin and every sorrow man could experience, and that is what makes Him seem strange. When we see Him in this aspect we do not know Him, we do not recognize one feature of His life, and we do not know how to begin to follow Him. He is on in front, a Leader Who is very strange, and we have no comradeship with Him.

The discipline of dismay is essential in the life of discipleship. The danger is to get back to a little fire of our own and kindle enthusiasm at it (cf. Isaiah 1:10-11). When the darkness of dismay comes, endure until it is over, because out of it will come that following of Jesus which is an unspeakable joy.

 因为我们众人，必要在基督台前显露出来。（林后五10）

保罗说，我不论是传道人，还是平信徒，“必要在基督台前显露出来”。你若随时随地活在基督圣洁的光中，审判将使你因神在你身上的工作而欢乐。使自己可以面对基督的审判台；尽力行在最圣洁的光中。不管你如何圣洁，若对别人存有一丝恶意，至终必带进魔鬼的灵。只要你下一个属血气的论断，你就尝到地狱的苦味。要立即去到主的光中，对主说：“我的神啊，我在这事上有罪了。”要不然刚硬的心，就会充满全人。罪的刑罚，就是罪的本身。神不但要刑罚罪，罪在人身上的结果，也已证实了。无论怎样挣扎祷告，都不能停止做那些事；那罪的刑罚就是要你渐渐习惯，不再觉得这是罪，除了圣灵的能力，没有其他办法改变罪所带来的后果。

“我们若在光明中行，如同神在光明中……”我们不少人认为行在光中，就是行在我对别人要求的标准中。今日最致命的法利赛主义，不是假冒为善，乃是与现实脱节而不自觉。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着你的恩典，并你在我的内心和动机上所作的工，我感谢你，可是，在我现实的生活中，我能否在世人面前表达你的平安呢？

March 16 The Master Assizes

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 5:10

Paul says that we must all, preacher and people alike, “appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” If you learn to live in the white light of Christ here and now, judgment finally will cause you to delight in the work of God in you. Keep yourself steadily faced by the judgment seat of Christ; walk now in the light of the holiest you know. A wrong temper of mind about another soul will end in the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are. One carnal judgment, and the end of it is hell in you. Drag it to the light at once and say – “My God, I have been guilty there.” If you don’t, hardness will come all through. The penalty of sin is confirmation in sin. It is not only God who punishes for sin; sin confirms itself in the sinner and gives back full pay. No struggling nor praying will enable you to stop doing some things, and the penalty of sin is that gradually you get used to it and do not know that it is sin. No power save the incoming of the Holy Ghost can alter the inherent consequences of sin.

“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light.” Walking in the light means for many of us walking according to our standard for another person. The deadliest Pharisaism to-day is not hypocrisy, but unconscious unreality.

我们立了志向，要得主的喜悦。（林后五9）

“立了志向（英文有劳苦作工的意思）……”乃是尽心竭力，把最大的愿望摆在首位。意即由年首至岁终，持守着最高的理想。这种理想，并不是热心去得人灵魂，或者建立教会、举办奋兴会，而是热衷于“得主的喜悦”。我们的失败，并非由于缺乏属灵的经历，而是没有竭力持定那理想的标竿。每一个礼拜，至少要在神面前结算一次，看看你的生命是否够得上他所要求的水平。

保罗好像一个音乐家，他不管听众赞赏不赞赏，只要获得主人的青睐，就已心满意足了。任何野心只要稍微偏差，不指向“得主喜悦”的目标，就会叫我们成为被弃绝的人。要学习分辨心志的方向，你就会明白为什么要向着主耶稣而活。保罗说：“我怕我的身体会领我走入歧途，因此我不断地提高警觉，攻克己身，叫身服我。”（林前九27）

我必须学习把一切所做的连接在这首要的心志上，同时保守它不间断。在公众面前我在身心里有多少价值，是视乎我私下里的为人。我最高的心志是要讨神喜悦，还是为了次一等看来很高贵的目标？

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着今早的经文，我感谢你——“所以你当归向你的神，谨守仁爱、公平，常常等候你的神。”愿你荣耀的同在充满这广大的营地；阻止罪恶，激发敬虔。

March 17: The Worker’s Ruling Passion

“Wherefore we labour that . . we may be accepted of Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:9

“Wherefore we labour . . . .” It is arduous work to keep the master ambition in front. It means holding one’s self to the high ideal year in and year out, not being ambitious to win souls or to establish churches or to have revivals, but being ambitious only to be “accepted of Him.” It is not lack of spiritual experience that leads to failure, but lack of labouring to keep the ideal right. Once a week at least take stock before God and see whether you are keeping your life up to the standard He wishes. Paul is like a musician who does not heed the approval of the audience if he can catch the look of approval from his Master.

Any ambition which is in the tiniest degree away from this central one of being “approved unto God” may end in our being castaways. Learn to discern where the ambition leads, and you will see why it is so necessary to live facing the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says – “Lest my body should make me take another line, I am constantly watching so that I may bring it into subjection and keep it under.” (1 Cor. 9:27.)

I have to learn to relate everything to the master ambition, and to maintain it without any cessation. My worth to God in public is what I am in private. Is my master ambition to please Him and be acceptable to Him, or is it something less, no matter how noble?

敬畏神，得以成圣。（林后七1）

“我们既有这等应许。”这原是对的，不过只是人的方面；在神的方面来说，透过这些应许，人要承认神的主权。比方，我把身体看为是圣灵的殿呢，还是让劣根性存着，使不能反照神的光？藉着成圣称义，神的儿子住在我里面，但我必须顺服他，叫天然的生命改变成为属灵的生命。

神的教导，是一丝不苟的；他查究你的时候，不要与血肉之人商议，而要立即自洁。在每日的生活行事上，保守自己圣洁无污。

我要除掉肉体及心灵中一切的污秽，使与神的性情一致。我心里的意念与神儿子在我里头的生命，是否吻合？他从不凭自己说什么，乃时常儆醒，对父神不住的顺服。我要持守与主的灵合一，耶稣就会逐渐把我抬举，到他当日的光景里去——完全贴合父神的旨意，至于其他的事就一概不理。我有没有敬畏神，追求这一种圣洁，且力臻完善？神在我身上能遂其所愿吗？人家能从我身上愈来愈多看见神吗？

认认真真对神吧，其他的一切则视作等闲。要切切实实地把神放在首位。

祈祷◆“我是那样愚顽和无知：我在你面前好像畜类。”噢，主啊，这句话将我在你面前的光景表达出来。当我从那纯洁、神圣的神的形象，查看我们的主的要求时，我为着本身的愚顽、如畜类的思想，深感羞愧。

March 18 Shall I Rouse Myself Up To This?

“Perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” 2 Corinthians 7:1

“Having therefore these promises.” I claim the fulfilment of God’s promises, and rightly, but that is only the human side; the Divine side is that through the promises I recognize God’s claim on me. For instance, am I realizing that my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, or have I a habit of body that plainly will not bear the light of God on it? By sanctification the Son of God is formed in me, then I have to transform my natural life into a spiritual life by obedience to Him. God educates us down to the scruple. When He begins to check, do not confer with flesh and blood, cleanse yourself at once. Keep yourself cleansed in your daily walk.

I have to cleanse myself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit until both are in accord with the nature of God. Is the mind of my spirit in perfect agreement with the life of the Son of God in me, or am I insubordinate in intellect? Am I forming the mind of Christ, Who never spoke from His right to Himself, but maintained an inner watchfulness whereby He continually submitted His spirit to His Father? I have the responsibility of keeping my spirit in agreement with His Spirit, and by degrees Jesus lifts me up to where He lived – in perfect consecration to His Father’s will, paying no attention to any other thing. Am I perfecting this type of holiness in the fear of God? Is God getting His way with me, and are other people beginning to see God in my life more and more?

Be serious with God and leave the rest gaily alone. Put God first literally.

出去的时候，还不知往哪里去。（来十一8）

在旧约时代，个人与神的关系，是在“分离”上显出来。这可从亚伯拉罕离开本地本族本家的生平中看出来。在今日，这“分离”却侧重在心思道德方面的意义。我们所亲爱的人若与神没有个人关系，我们对事物的看法就与他们不同了。耶稣基督也强调这一点（路十四26）。

信心是从来不知道要往哪里去，却知道且深爱领路的那一位。我们的生活是信心的生活，不是理智理性的生活，因为知道谁叫我们“去”。信心的根源是出于对神的认识。但有一个最大的陷阱，是我们以为神一定领我们成功顺利。

信心生活的最终阶段，是性格的完成。人个性的改变，有不少是短暂的。我们祷告时，感到神的祝福包围着我们，那时确有了改变。过后回到日常生活中，又依然故我，而那荣光也就消失了。信心的生活不是展翅上腾的生活，乃是脚踏实地的行走而不颓废。这不是成圣的问题；是比成圣更进一步，是经过考验而证实及格的。亚伯拉罕不是成圣的模式，乃是信心生活的模范。他的信心是经过誓言，是建立在真神上。“亚伯拉罕信神”。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿今天因着你的同在和祝福，而充满荣耀。愿我们看见你使你所站的地方成为荣耀之处。

March 19 The Way Of Abraham In Faith

“He went out, not knowing whither he went.” Hebrews 11:8

In the Old Testament, personal relationship with God showed itself in separation, and this is symbolized in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and from his kith and kin. To day the separation is more of a mental and moral separation from the way that those who are dearest to us look at things, that is, if they have not a personal relationship with God. Jesus Christ emphasized this (see Luke 14:26).

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. It is a life of Faith, not of intellect and reason, but a life of knowing Who makes us “go.” The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success.

The final stage in the life of faith is attainment of character. There are many passing transfigurations of character; when we pray we feel the blessing of God enwrapping us and for the time being we are changed, then we get back to the ordinary days and ways and the glory vanishes. The life of faith is not a life of mounting up with wings, but a life of walking and not fainting. It is not a question of sanctification; but of something infinitely further on than sanctification, of faith that has been tried and proved and has stood the test. Abraham is not a type of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith, a tried faith built on a real God. “Abraham believed God.”

我所要作的事，岂可瞒着亚伯拉罕呢？（创十八17）

与神为友的快乐。这一章说出与神真正为友的快乐，较之祈祷时偶尔感到他同在是大有不同。若与神亲密到一个地步，不需要求他向你指示他的心意。这样，你的信心生活就进入成长的阶段了。与神的关系正常，生命就自由快乐；你就是神的旨意，你一切凭理智所作出的决定，就是他在你身上的旨意，除非他有特别的拦阻。你与神有美好愉快的友谊，便可以决定一切事情，因为就是决定错了，他总会阻止；他一阻止，就该立刻停止。

与神为友的困难。亚伯拉罕为什么停止了祷告？他与神的关系还未够亲密，所以在神未答应他的要求之前，便不敢前进。这时他与神的关系，仍有待改进。我们祷告时，若突然中止，说：“唔，我不敢肯定，这也许不是神的旨意。”这样，你还有另一些阶段要经历。我们认识神还未及耶稣的深切，也未达到他要我们应有的认识——“使他们合而为一，像我们合而为一。”试想想你最后祷告的事是什么？是专注于自己的需求呢？还是神自己？是坚持要得一些圣灵的恩赐？还是要见神的面？“你们没有祈求以先，你们所需用的，你们的父早已知道了。”所以，祈求的目的是使你更认识神。“要以耶和华为乐，他就将你心里所求的赐给你。”不住的祷告，使对神有更完全的认识。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，“愿祢昼夜看顾这殿。”愿祢保守和护卫它，远离所有与祢心意相违的东西，并且使我们每一个都成为祢内心深处所切望的人。

March 20 Friendship With God

“Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” Genesis 18:17

Its Delights. This chapter brings out the delight of real friendship with God as compared with occasional feelings of His presence in prayer. To be so much in contact with God that you never need to ask Him to show you His will, is to be nearing the final stage of your discipline in the life of faith. When you are rightly related to God, it is a life of freedom and liberty and delight, you are God’s will, and all your common-sense decisions are His will for you unless He checks. You decide things in perfect delightful friendship with God, knowing that if your decisions are wrong He will always check; when He checks, stop at once.

Its Difficulties. Why did Abraham stop praying when he did? He was not intimate enough yet to go boldly on until God granted his desire, there was something yet to be desired in his relationship to God. Whenever we stop short in prayer and say – “Well, I don’t know; perhaps it is not God’s will,” there is still another stage to go. We are not so intimately acquainted with God as Jesus was, and as He wants us to be – “That they may be one even as we are one.” Think of the last thing you prayed about – were you devoted to your desire or to God? Determined to get some gift of the Spirit or to get at God? “Your Heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him.” The point of asking is that you may get to know God better. “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Keep praying in order to get a perfect understanding of God Himself.

我已经与基督同钉十字架。（加二20）

属灵上的一个迫切需要，就是向罪宣判死亡。就是在一切感情上、理智上，有一个新的信念，遂向罪下判决。这罪就是为自己的权益所持的主权。保罗说：“我已经与基督同钉十字架。”他不是说：“我决定效法基督。”或“我努力跟随基督。”而是“我已经自视与他同死了。”每逢我作这属灵的抉择，并付诸实行，那么基督在十架上为我成就的，便在我里面成全了。我自愿的顺服神，让圣灵把耶稣基督的圣洁，加在我身上。

“但我如今活着……”我依然存在，但生命的主流——那支配我性情的，却急剧地改变了。人的肉身依然，可是昔日撒旦的主权已毁掉了。“我如今在肉身活着……”这不是我想望中的生命，或祈求要得的生命，而是现金活着的，这个别人可见的生命，“是因信神的儿子而活”。这信心不是保罗对耶稣基督的信心，而是神儿子所分与他的信心。

“信神的儿子（或作神儿子的信）。”不再是相信信心，乃是超越一切观感的规限，如同神儿子的信心。

◆噢，主啊，我赞美你，透过基督耶稣我们的主，我们所走的路都满有怜悯、恩慈、恩典和奇迹；但愿我对你和你的作为更加敏锐，我那感恩的心也更像基督。

March 21 Interest Or Identification?

“I have been crucified with Christ.” Galatians 2:20

The imperative need spiritually is to sign the death warrant of the disposition of sin, to turn all emotional impressions and intellectual beliefs into a moral verdict against the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself. Paul says – “I have been crucified with Christ”; he does not say – “I have determined to imitate Jesus Christ,” or, “I will endeavour to follow Him” – but – “I have been identified with Him in His death.” When I come to such a moral decision and act upon it, then all that Christ wrought for me on the Cross is wrought in me. The free committal of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the chance to impart to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.

“. . . nevertheless I live. . . .” The individuality remains, but the mainspring, the ruling disposition, is radically altered. The same human body remains, but the old satanic right to myself is destroyed.

“And the life which I now live in the flesh . . . ,” not the life which I long to live and pray to live, but the life I now live in my mortal flesh, the life which men can see, “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” This faith is not Paul’s faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith that the Son of God has imparted to him – “the faith of the Son of God.” It is no longer faith in faith, but faith which has overleapt all conscious bounds, the identical faith of the Son of God.

我们的心岂不是火热的吗？(路加福音24:32)

我们要学习这火热的心的秘诀。耶稣忽然向我们显现，热火就焚烧起来，我们得了奇妙的异象；然后就要学习怎样持守这火热的心，以致能经历各样的际遇。平淡无奇、日复一日的生活、加上日常的工作与来往的人事，会叫心中的火熄灭——除非我们学会常住在主耶稣里面。

我们作基督徒的痛苦，多半不是因罪而来，乃是因我们不认识自己本性的律，例如，要查验某一种感情是否应该发展，唯一的方法就是看看那感情的后果如何。把它推到逻辑上的结论去，若后果是神会定罪的，就不要让它继续下去；但若那感情是神的灵燃点的，而你却不容它在你生命中占该有的位置，它就会在低一层的水平上发挥作用。情感主义者就是这样造成的。我们若不让感情有正确的宣泄，那么情绪愈高，那堕落的光景就愈惨了。神的灵若激动你，就要尽量付诸实行，不要管后果怎样。我们不能长留在变像的山顶，而必须顺服在山上所接受的亮光。神赐你异象，就要照着异象所指示的，切实去做，不管代价有多大。

心灵所存的火，不是人意可燃点，
灵在吹动又静止，人心活在隐秘里。
但密室启示的顺服，却藉暗地的劳苦完成大工。

祈祷◆这个日子，噢，主啊，是你的日子；求你使它像宝石一般，永远在我们的生命中发光。

March 22 The Burning Heart

“Did not our heart burn within us?” Luke 24:32

We need to learn this secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, the fires are kindled, we have wonderful visions, then we have to learn to keep the secret of the burning heart that will go through anything. It is the dull, bald, dreary, commonplace day, with commonplace duties and people, that kills the burning heart unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus.

Much of our distress as Christians comes not because of sin, but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own nature. For instance, the only test as to whether we ought to allow an emotion to have its way is to see what the outcome of the emotion will be. Push it to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something God would condemn, allow it no more way. But if it be an emotion kindled by the Spirit of God and you do not let that emotion have its right issue in your life, it will react on a lower level. That is the way sentimentalists are made. The higher the emotion is, the deeper the degradation will be, if it is not worked out on its proper level. If the Spirit of God has stirred you, make as many things inevitable as possible, let the consequences be what they will. We cannot stay on the mount of transfiguration, but we must obey the light we received there; we must act it out. When God gives a vision, transact business on that line, no matter what it costs.

“We cannot kindle when we will
The fire which in the heart resides,
The spirit bloweth and is still,
In mystery our soul abides;
But tasks in hours of insight will’d
Can be through hours of gloom fulfill’d.”

你们中间有嫉妒、纷争，这岂不是属乎肉体？（林前三3）

未重生的人根本不知何为肉体。人重生之后，肉体与圣灵相争，圣灵与肉体相争，结果就产生了"肉欲"的问题。保罗说：“在圣灵里行事，就不放纵肉体的情欲。” 如此，肉欲就消失了。

你是否好争论？易被琐事烦恼？“不，信徒不会如此！”保罗却说会。他把这些事与肉体连在一起。在圣经真理中，有哪一项容易引起你的怒气？这便证明你仍然属肉体。若成圣的工夫作成了，这种状态就不复存在。

圣灵若发现你里面有任何错处，并不叫你去纠正；乃是要你接受那光照，然后他才去纠正。光明的子女会立即认罪，赤露敞开地站在神面前。黑暗之子却说：“噢，我可以自圆其说开脱出去的。”所以，一旦光照来了，就要做光明之子，真知道有错，要向神认罪，神自会对付那罪；你若为自己辩护，就仍是黑暗之子。

怎样证明肉欲已经消失了？不要自欺，肉欲一旦克服了，是最真实不过的事。神会让你有无数的机会，去证实他在你身上的奇恩。实际的考验是唯一的证据。你会说：“奇怪得很，若在从前，这件事必叫我怀恨在心！”神在你里面所作的改变，会令你毕生惊讶，没齿难忘。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，你的道路何等奇妙！当我回顾你带领我走过的道路，和你的耐心等待，我便在惊叹、爱意和赞美中浑然忘我。

March 23 Am I Carnally Minded?

“Whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal?” 1 Corinthians 3:3

No natural man knows anything about carnality. The flesh lusting against the Spirit that came in at regeneration, and the Spirit lusting against the flesh, produces carnality. “Walk in the Spirit,” says Paul, “and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh”; and carnality will disappear.

Are you contentious, easily troubled about trifles? “Oh, but no one who is a Christian ever is!” Paul says they are, he connects these things with carnality. Is there a truth in the Bible that instantly awakens petulance in you? That is a proof that you are yet carnal. If sanctification is being worked out, there is no trace of that spirit left.

If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He does not ask you to put it right; He asks you to accept the light, and He will put it right. A child of the light confesses instantly and stands bared before God; a child of the darkness says – “Oh, I can explain that away.” When once the light breaks and the conviction of wrong comes, be a child of the light, and confess, and God will deal with what is wrong; if you vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of the darkness.

What is the proof that carnality has gone? Never deceive yourself; when carnality is gone it is the most real thing imaginable. God will see that you have any number of opportunities to prove to yourself the marvel of His grace. The practical test is the only proof. “Why,” you say, “if this had happened before, there would have been the spirit of resentment!” You will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside.

他必兴旺，我必衰微。（约三30）

你若成为别人心中重要的人，你就偏离了神。作为主的工人，最大的职分是做新郎的朋友。当你发现有人靠近主耶稣，被主得着，就知道你在他身上所产生的影响是对的。你不必伸手去阻止他的痛苦，反而要求神使那痛苦加增十倍，以致世界或地球的任何势力，都不足以叫他与耶稣基督分离。我们若一而再、再而三地滥竽充数，以神明自居，打岔神说：“这个那个不该发生。”我们不但不是新郎忠实的朋友，反而把个人的同情心拿出来。结果，有一天那人会说：“他是个贼，偷去我对耶稣的爱情，如今我连他的形象也看不见了。”

当心，不要错用你与人同乐的心，要在正当的事上与他同乐。“新郎的朋友站着听见新郎的声音就甚喜乐……他必兴旺，我必衰微。”这话是欢喜快乐地说的，不是愁苦地说的，因别人终于看见新郎了！约翰说这就是他的喜乐。主的工人功成身退，不再被人思念。

你要为人尽所有的去警醒守望，直到你在那人身上听见新郎的声音。不管生活如何颠沛困苦，健康如何破败损伤，只要听见他的声音，就当喜从天降，满怀高兴。你可以经常看见耶稣基督先拆毁一个人，然后再建立。（太十34）

祈祷◆噢，我的神，愿我在你的火焰中焚烧和炼净——今天我的渣滓似乎太多；太少流露你那甜蜜而亲切的恩典。主啊，赦免我。

March 24 Decreasing Into His Purpose

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30

If you become a necessity to a soul, you are out of God’s order. As a worker, your great responsibility is to be a friend of the Bridegroom. When once you see a soul in sight of the claims of Jesus Christ, you know that your influence has been in the right direction, and instead of putting out a hand to prevent the throes, pray that they grow ten times stronger until there is no power on earth or in hell that can hold that soul away from Jesus Christ. Over and over again, we become amateur providences, we come in and prevent God; and say – “This and that must not be.” Instead of proving friends of the Bridegroom, we put our sympathy in the way, and the soul will one day say – “That one was a thief, he stole my affections from Jesus, and I lost my vision of Him.”

Beware of rejoicing with a soul in the wrong thing, but see that you do rejoice in the right thing. “The friend of the Bridegroom . . . rejoiceth greatly because of the Bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.” This is spoken with joy and not with sadness – at last they are to see the Bridegroom! And John says this is his joy. It is the absolute effacement of the worker, he is never thought of again.

Watch for all you are worth until you hear the Bridegroom’s voice in the life of another. Never mind what havoc it brings, what upsets, what crumblings of health, rejoice with divine hilarity when once His voice is heard. You may often see Jesus Christ wreck a life before He saves it. (Cf. Matt. 10:34.)

新郎的朋友。（约三29）

人的良善与纯洁，不该拿来吸引人归向自己，只该用作引人归主的磁石。若我圣洁的目的不是归向神，就不是真正的圣洁；这只会掀起越轨的热情，使人偏离正路。一个卓越的圣徒，若不表彰耶稣基督，而只夸耀基督为他所做的事，他就会成为别人的绊脚石。他给人的印象是——“那人品德多么好！”这不是新郎的真朋友；因“我”不断的在兴旺，而他却不然。

为要保持对新郎的友谊和忠诚，就要留心我们和他在道德上、生命上的关系。这些比一切都重要，甚至是顺服。有时没有什么要顺服的，只要保持与耶稣基督在生命上的关系，不让任何事物从中破坏。当然亦有需要顺服的事；如有危机来到，我们便要知道神的旨意如何。可是我们大部分的生活，并非有意识的顺服，而是保持与神的关系——作新郎的朋友。基督徒所做的工作，可能会转移别人专一向主的心，使之外鹜！我们非但不是新郎的朋友，反而往往代天行道，用神的武器，作违背他的工作。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我知道自己近来很少将生命深处对耶稣的信心实践出来，潜藏的动机似乎经常蠢蠢欲动。求你将基督里面的单纯引进我的生命中，使我只留心要获得你的认可。

March 25 The Most Delicate Mission On Earth

“The friend of the Bridegroom.” John 3:29

Goodness and purity ought never to attract attention to themselves, they ought simply to be magnets to draw to Jesus Christ. If my holiness is not drawing towards Him, it is not holiness of the right order, but an influence that will awaken inordinate affection and lead souls away into side-eddies. A beautiful saint may be a hindrance if he does not present Jesus Christ but only what Christ has done for him. He will leave the impression – “What a fine character that man is!” That is not being a true friend of the Bridegroom; I am increasing all the time, He is not.

In order to maintain this friendship and loyalty to the Bridegroom, we have to be more careful of our moral and vital relationship to Him than of any other thing, even of obedience. Sometimes there is nothing to obey, the only thing to do is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, to see that nothing interferes with that. Only occasionally do we have to obey. When a crisis arises we have to find out what God’s will is, but the greater part of the life is not conscious obedience but the maintenance of this relationship – the friend of the Bridegroom. Christian work may be a means of evading the soul’s concentration on Jesus Christ. Instead of being friends of the Bridegroom, we may become amateur providences, and may work against Him whilst we use His weapons.

清心的人有福了，因为他们必得见神。（太五8）

清心不单是无暇无庛，它的含意比这个更广。清心是与神在灵里持久同心所产生的结果，所以我们需要在清心上不断的长进。我们与神的关系可能正确，里面的心也没有玷污；但是外面生命的花朵，却可能受到玷污。神并没有排除这样的可能性，为要叫我们知道要保持异象，就必须持守个人的清洁。我们在神面前生命的花朵，若有丝毫的玷污损伤，就必须放下一切，把它弄好。要记住异象是依傍着品格的——清心的人必得见神。

神用至高无上的恩典叫我们圣洁，但我们也要谨慎持守。我们这个身体会接触别人或其他思想，故很容易沾染污秽。不但里面的圣所要与神有正常的关系，就是外院，也必须与神赐给我们的圣洁，完全一致。外院一玷污，属灵的悟性就随即模糊了。要与主耶稣保持交通，就是说有一些事物不要去做，不要去想，更有些合法的事不要去摸。与人的关系上要不损个人的圣洁，有一个可行的方法，就是对自己说：那男人、那女人，在耶稣基督里是完全的！那个朋友，那个亲戚，在耶稣基督里是安全的。

祈祷◆为着我快要陷入平庸的生活中，我是何等的沮丧和惊骇！主啊，帮助我过着纯洁、有力和只爱慕着你的生活。

March 26 Vision By Personal Purity

“Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8

Purity is not innocence, it is much more. Purity is the outcome of sustained spiritual sympathy with God. We have to grow in purity. The life with God may be right and the inner purity remain unsullied, and yet every now and again the bloom on the outside may be sullied. God does not shield us from this possibility, because in this way we realize the necessity of maintaining the vision by personal purity. If the spiritual bloom of our life with God is getting impaired in the tiniest degree, we must leave off everything and get it put right. Remember that vision depends on character – the pure in heart see God.

God makes us pure by His sovereign grace, but we have something to look after, this bodily life by which we come in contact with other people and with other points of view, it is these that are apt to sully. Not only must the inner sanctuary be kept right with God, but the outer courts as well are to be brought into perfect accord with the purity God gives us by His grace. The spiritual understanding is blurred immediately the outer court is sullied. If we are going to retain personal contact with the Lord Jesus Christ, it will mean there are some things we must scorn to do or to think, some legitimate things we must scorn to touch.

A practical way of keeping personal purity unsullied in relation to other people is to say to yourself – That man, that woman, perfect in Christ Jesus! That friend, that relative, perfect in Christ Jesus!

你上到这里来，我要……指示你。（启四1）

一个人的品格要习于居高，不趋于卑下，才会产生崇高的情操。要是你外在的生活，真与你最崇高的标准相称，神就会对你说：“朋友，再高攀一点吧。”试探的金律是：“攀高一点。”当你升高了，就会碰见其他的试探，这在性质上与从前的不同。撒旦懂得用向上走的策略来试探人，神也是如此，不过效果却有不同。当魔鬼把你放在高位，是叫你对圣洁观念的标准，固定在人血肉之躯无法忍受的地位上。这就变成属灵的杂技表演，你只得立稳，却不敢移动。但当神用恩典把你提升到属天的境地，他不是找一个顶峰给你攀住，而是让你有更广阔的高原，可以任意驱驰。

试以这个礼拜的灵程与去年同一个礼拜作个比较，看看神怎样领你往高处行。我们都站过高处了望，但千万别让神给你一种你不能立即活出来的真理。得了真理，总要努力去实现，而且保持在神的光中。在恩典中的长进，不是拿你有没有后退来衡量，而是对自己现今的属灵光景有一认知——即站在哪里。你听见神对你说：“上来吧，登高一点！”这不是对你个人说，叫你得到更高的位置，乃是对你的品德说的，叫你在悟性上大大有长进。

“我要做的事岂可瞒着亚伯拉罕吗？”神往往要把他所做的向我们隐瞒，直到我们在性情品德上达到一个地步，然后他才向我们显明。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，赐我在你里面满有喜乐。求你为我清除所有的困惑、迷乱和烦扰，让我在今天以清楚的目光看见你的道路。

March 27 Vision By Personal Character

“Come up hither, and I will shew thee things.” Revelation 4:1

An elevated mood can only come out of an elevated habit of personal character. If in the externals of your life you live up to the highest you know, God will continually say – “Friend, go up higher.” The golden rule in temptation is – Go higher. When you get higher up, you face other temptations and characteristics. Satan uses the strategy of elevation in temptation, and God does the same, but the effect is different. When the devil puts you into an elevated place, he makes you screw your idea of holiness beyond what flesh and blood could ever hear, it is a spiritual acrobatic performance, you are just poised and dare not move; but when God elevates you by His grace into the heavenly places, instead of finding a pinnacle to cling to, you find a great table-land where it is easy to move.

Compare this week in your spiritual history with the same week last year and see how God has called you up higher. We have all been brought to see from a higher standpoint. Never let God give you one point of truth which you do not instantly live up to. Always work it out, keep in the light of it.

Growth in grace is measured not by the fact that you have not gone back, but that you have an insight into where you are spiritually; you have heard God say “Come up higher,” not to you personally, but to the insight of your character.

“Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” God has to hide from us what He does until by personal character we get to the place where He can reveal it.

我们再往犹太去吧。门徒说……你还往那里去吗？（约十一7-8）

我可能不明白主耶稣的话，但若如此说他的话有错，就很危险了。若以为顺服神的一句话会羞辱耶稣，这是绝对错误的想法，唯一羞辱主的是不顺服他。我用自己的观点来维护他的荣耀，代替了听从他明确的命令，必然是错的；即使动机的确是想避免叫主受辱。从神来的意思，可从那安静而持续的感动认出来。但当我要反复思考、权衡得失时，随之而来是疑虑争辩，我就是把不属于神的东西带了进来。于是便知道，这意思是不对的。我们多半忠于自己对耶稣的概念，甚少忠于他自己。（试问我们中间有多少人是忠于他的？）忠于耶稣就是听命开步，不凭眼见（太十四29），忠于我自己对耶稣的概念，就是在理智上铺了路。信心不是理智的了悟，信心是在未见之先，立志委身于他。

你是否反复自辩，要靠耶稣走信心之路呢？还是你自己应付？用欢喜快乐的心，无所顾忌地顺服他吧。当他这样对你说，而你却心里反复思量，这是因为你对他的荣誉有所顾虑，而其实你所认为的荣誉，并非主的荣誉。你到底是忠于耶稣？还是忠于你对神的概念？你是忠于他所说的话？还是拿那不出于他的观点来折衷妥协？“他告诉你们什么，你们就作什么。”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我何等需要靠近你。当你进入我的生命，我何需颤抖？

March 28 Isn’t There Some Misunderstanding?

“Let us go into Judea. His disciples say unto Him . . . Goest Thou thither again?” John 11:7-8

I may not understand what Jesus Christ says, but it is dangerous to say that therefore He was mistaken in what He said. It is never right to think that my obedience to a word of God will bring dishonour to Jesus. The only thing that will bring dishonour is not obeying Him. To put my view of His honour in place of what He is plainly impelling me to do is never right, although it may arise from a real desire to prevent Him being put to open shame. I know when the proposition comes from God because of its quiet persistence: When I have to weigh the pros and cons, and doubt and debate come in, I am bringing in an element that is not of God, and I come to the conclusion that the suggestion was not a right one. Many of us are loyal to our notions of Jesus Christ, but how many of us are loyal to Him? Loyalty to Jesus means I have to step out where I do not see anything (cf. Matt. 14:29); loyalty to my notions means that I clear the ground first by my intelligence. Faith is not intelligent understanding, faith is deliberate commitment to a Person where I see no way.

Are you debating whether to take a step in faith in Jesus or to wait until you can see how to do the thing yourself? Obey Him with glad reckless joy. When He says something and you begin to debate, it is because you have a conception of His honour which is not His honour. Are you loyal to Jesus or loyal to your notion of Him? Are you loyal to what He says, or are you trying to compromise with conceptions which never came from Him? “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.”

你们也要预备。（路十二40）

主的工人最需要做的，是随时随地预备面对主，这个并不容易，不管我们的经历怎样。这争战不是对付罪恶、环境，或是艰难，而是对付自己。我们要避免过分专心工作，以致未能随时预备见主。这个逼切的需要不是怎样面对信仰、教义，或个人的价值，乃是怎样面对主。

耶稣很少在我们期望他的时候来到，相反地，他会在我们最意想不到的时候，就出现了，而且往往是在最不合理的情况下哩！主的工人唯一保持忠于神的方法，就是对主的突访随时作准备。

事奉工作不是顶重要的，最重要的是有好的灵性，时刻准备耶稣基督来到。这会令我们的人生，有孩子般惊喜的样式，这也正是他所要求于我们的。我们若要准备好见耶稣基督，就不要披上宗教的外衣（把宗教当作一种高等的文化），而要有属灵的实际。

你若单仰望耶稣，不理会现世宗教的呼喊，只把心思专注在他的事上，与他有共同的思想，人家会说你不切实际，只会梦想。但当主在繁重喧嚣的生活中出现，唯独你准备好见他。不要倚仗别人，也不要倚仗世上最优秀的圣徒；要是他阻拦你，使你看不见耶稣基督，就别管他好了。

祈祷◆“自己好像仆人等候主人……”－－愿我就像这些仆人充满期待、热切、责任心、儆醒和能力。

March 29 Our Lord’s Surprise Visits

“Be ye therefore ready also.” Luke 12:40

The great need for the Christian worker is to be ready to face Jesus Christ at any and every turn. This is not easy, no matter what our experience is. The battle is not against sin or difficulties or circumstances, but against being so absorbed in work that we are not ready to face Jesus Christ at every turn. That is the one great need, not the facing our belief, or our creed, the question whether we are of any use, but to face Him.

Jesus rarely comes where we expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him, and always in the most illogical connections. The only way a worker can keep true to God is by being ready for the Lord’s surprise visits. It is not service that matters, but intense spiritual reality, expecting Jesus Christ at every turn. This will give our life the attitude of child-wonder which He wants it to have. If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious (that is, using religion as a higher kind of culture) and be spiritually real.

If you are “looking off unto Jesus,” avoiding the call of the religious age you live in, and setting your heart on what He wants, on thinking on His line – you will be called unpractical and dreamy; but when He appears in the burden and the heat of the day, you will be the only one who is ready. Trust no one, not even the finest saint who ever walked this earth, ignore him, if he hinders your sight of Jesus Christ.

他见无人拯救、无人代求，甚为诧异。（赛五十九16）

不少人祷告半途而废，对神硬心，是由于对祷告只有一种情感上的兴趣。“我们有祷告呀！”听起来很不错。读点关于祷告的书，知道祷告很有益——使思想安静、灵性高升。可是，以赛亚却暗示说，神对这种祷告的观念大感惊奇。

敬拜与代求必须同时进行，两者是缺一不可的。代求是我们催逼自己去体会主耶稣对所代求的人迫切的心情。但多少时候，我们不是敬拜神，而是在堆砌祷词。我们到底在敬拜，还是与神争论？——“我看不出你（神）有什么办法。”这明明就不是敬拜。一旦看不见神，我们就变得硬心主观。我们把所求的事，仍在神宝座之前，并指明要他怎样做。我们不是在敬拜，也没有寻求主基督的心意。向神硬心，对人也必然没有怜悯。

我们向神敬拜，是否提升到有主的心，使我们能为别人代求？我们是否与神活在圣洁的关系上？还是刚硬武断？“无人真正好好地代求。”那么，你就做那代求的人吧！敬拜神，活在圣洁的关系里；投入真正的代求工作里。要记住：代求是一种工作，是需要一切能力的工作。然而，传讲福音会遇到许多意想不到的困难和陷阱，代祷却不会。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我的灵魂将安息在你这位世界的创造者，以及那位在我里面创造生命的主耶稣基督里。噢，求你赐下圣灵的能力，让我更完全地敬拜你。

March 30 Holiness V. Hardness Towards God

“And He . . . wondered that there was no intercessor.” Isaiah 59:16

The reason many of us leave off praying and become hard towards God is because we have only a sentimental interest in prayer. It sounds right to say that we pray; we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial, that our minds are quieted and our souls uplifted when we pray; but Isaiah implies that God is amazed at such thoughts of prayer.

Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray. Too often instead of worshipping God, we construct statements as to how prayer works. Are we worshipping or are we in dispute with God – “I don’t see how You are going to do it.” This is a sure sign that we are not worshipping. When we lose sight of God we become hard and dogmatic. We hurl our own petitions at God’s throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ. If we are hard towards God, we will become hard towards other people.

Are we so worshipping God that we rouse ourselves up to lay hold on Him so that we may be brought into contact with His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship to God, or are we hard and dogmatic?

“But there is no one interceding properly” – then be that one yourself, be the one who worships God and who lives in holy relationship to Him. Get into the real work of intercession, and remember it is a work, a work that taxes every power; but a work which has no snare. Preaching the gospel has a snare; intercessory prayer has none.

人若看见弟兄犯了不至于死的罪，就当为他祈求，神必将生命赐给他。（约壹五16）

我们若不留意神的灵如何在我们里面工作，就会变成属灵的伪君子。我们看见别人的失败，就把它当作笑柄，肆意批评，并不为他们代求。我们所看见的，原不是出于自己机敏的脑筋，乃是神的灵直接启示我们。因此，我们若不留意那启示的来源，就会变成评论专家，忘记了神所说的——“不至于死的罪，就当为他祈求，神必将生命赐给他”。当心不要扮演伪君子；自己未敬拜神，就花尽时间去纠正别人。

神将一个最奇妙的担子放在圣徒身上，就是为他人守望。神向我们启示一些事情，为叫我们把这些人的担子带到他面前。然后，我们有了基督怜悯的心肠，就为他们代求。我们若这样行，神说会“将生命赐给他”。我们并不是叫神迁就我们，按自己的心意去事奉，乃是激励自己，直至神把他对我们所代求的人的心意传递给我们。

主耶稣在我们身上能否看见他劳苦的功效，就在乎我们是否与他合一，使自己有神的看法，以同样的眼光看代求的人。这样，主才能心满意足。愿我们学习全心全意的代求，以致主对我们这些代求者，能心满意足。

祈祷◆噢，主神啊，我开始模糊地识别到你对我的意义——超过清晨的亮光、超过喜乐和健康、超过你一切的福气。求你今天早上重新莅临到我身上，并且透过你的光，使我整天都散发光辉。

March 31 Heedfulness V. Hypocrisy In Ourselves

“If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him Life for them that sin not unto death.” 1 John 5:16

If we are not heedful of the way the Spirit of God works in us, we will become spiritual hypocrites. We see where other folks are failing, and we turn our discernment into the gibe of criticism instead of into intercession on their behalf. The revelation is made to us not through the acuteness of our minds, but by the direct penetration of the Spirit of God, and if we are not heedful of the source of the revelation, we will become criticizing centres and forget that God says – “. . . he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death.” Take care lest you play the hypocrite by spending all your time trying to get others right before you worship God yourself.

One of the subtlest burdens God ever puts on us as saints is this burden of discernment concerning other souls. He reveals things in order that we may take the burden of these souls before Him and form the mind of Christ about them, and as we intercede on His line, God says He will give us “life for them that sin not unto death.” It is not that we bring God into touch with our minds, but that we rouse ourselves until God is able to convey His mind to us about the one for whom we intercede.

Is Jesus Christ seeing of the travail of His soul in us? He cannot unless we are so identified with Himself that we are roused up to get His view about the people for whom we pray. May we learn to intercede so whole-heartedly that Jesus Christ will be abundantly satisfied with us as intercessors.

有基督耶稣……也替我们祈求……圣灵……替圣徒祈求。（罗八34、27）

我们还需要什么理论去支援自己做代求者的工作呢？基督活着为我们代求，圣灵又为圣徒祈求。我们与人的关系，有没有这种休戚相关的样式，以致我们真像受圣灵教导的儿女，忠于代求的事奉？当从日常的环境中开始——家庭、工作、国家，以及人人共受的境遇——这些事是否重压着我们？是否使我们离开神的面，没有时间敬拜？这样，让我们停住脚步，恢复与神活泼的关系；叫我们与人的关系也恢复代求的位置，使神行奇事。

当心不要因渴望遵行神的旨意而超越了神。我们在许多的事上都走在神的前头，结果被人事和困难的担子压倒，不再敬拜神，也不再代求。每逢重担与压力来到，而我们又没有一种敬拜的态度，这不但会造成对神硬心，更会给自己带来沮丧。神不断的把与我们毫不相干的人给我们，这时，除非我们有敬拜神的心，否则我们最自然的反应，就是冷漠无情地对待他们。给他们一段扎心的经文，或代表神作一番责备的劝导后，就一走了之。这样一个无情的信徒，实在令主痛心。

我们是否与主并圣灵站在同一阵线上，作代求的工作？

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求你探测我心灵最深藏的动机，让圣灵在那里为我们代求，说出我不能发出的祷告。

April 1 Heartiness V. Heartlessness Towards Others

“It is Christ . . . who also maketh intercession for us.” “The Spirit . . . maketh intercession for the saints.” Romans 8:34, 27

Do we need any more argument than this to become intercessors – that Christ “ever liveth to make intercession;” that the Holy Spirit “maketh intercession for the saints”? Are we living in such a vital relationship to our fellow men that we do the work of intercession as the Spirit-taught children of God? Begin with the circumstances we are in – our homes, our business, our country, the present crisis as it touches us and others – are these things crushing us? Are they badgering us out of the presence of God and leaving us no time for worship? Then let us call a halt, and get into such living relationship with God that our relationship to others may be maintained on the line of intercession whereby God works His marvels.

Beware of outstripping God by your very longing to do His will. We run ahead of Him in a thousand and one activities, consequently we get so burdened with persons and with difficulties that we do not worship God, we do not intercede. If once the burden and the pressure come upon us and we are not in the worshipping attitude, it will produce not only hardness toward God but despair in our own souls. God continually introduces us to people for whom we have no affinity, and unless we are worshipping God, the most natural thing to do is to treat them heartlessly, to give them a text like the jab of a spear, or leave them with a rapped-out counsel of God and go. A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to Our Lord.

Are we in the direct line of the intercession of our Lord and of the Holy Spirit?

耶稣打发我来，叫你能看见。（徒九17）

保罗恢复视力后，他属灵的眼睛就注目在耶稣基督身上，他此后的生活和传道，就只以耶稣基督为中心——“我在你们中间，不知道别的，只知道耶稣基督，并他钉十字架。” 除了耶稣基督的荣面，保罗的心思意念绝不诱于任何事物，受其操纵。我们藉着耶稣基督所启示的亮光，学习在主里保持毫无玷污。

一个属灵人不变的特征，就是把主耶稣基督的人格，转化为自己的人格，然后将神的旨意传达与别人。他人生中所专注爱恋的，就是耶稣基督。每当你碰到一个人有这样的素质，你就知道他是合神心意的。不要让任何事物转移你对耶稣基督的注意力，这是属灵的考验。所谓不属灵，就是其他事物对你的吸引与日俱增。

“自我定睛注视耶稣， 尘世一切，视若无睹， 我灵注视不移， 定睛被钉的主。”

祈祷◆噢，主，我的神、我的力量、我的盼望和我的喜乐，纵然是缓慢，但我似乎肯定可以逐渐更清晰地辨认你。求你在今天将人世间所制造的云雾驱散。

April 2 The Glory That Excels

“The Lord . . . hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight.” Acts 9:17

When Paul received his sight, he received spiritually an insight into the Person of Jesus Christ, and the whole of his subsequent life and preaching was nothing but Jesus Christ – “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” No attraction was ever allowed to hold the mind and soul of Paul save the face of Jesus Christ.

We have to learn to maintain an unimpaired state of character up to the last notch revealed in the vision of Jesus Christ.

The abiding characteristic of a spiritual man is the interpretation of the Lord Jesus Christ to himself, and the interpretation to others of the purposes of God. The one concentrated passion of the life is Jesus Christ. Whenever you meet this note in a man, you feel he is a man after God’s own heart.

Never allow anything to deflect you from insight into Jesus Christ. It is the test of whether you are spiritual or not. To be unspiritual means that other things have a growing fascination for you.

“Since mine eyes have looked on Jesus,
I’ve lost sight of all beside,
So enchained my spirit’s vision,
Gazing on the Crucified.”

巴不得你在这日子知道关系你平安的事。无奈这事现在是隐藏的，叫你的眼看不出来。（路十九42）

耶稣威武地进入耶路撒冷，合城都震动了；可是，有一个怪异的神袛在那里，就是骄傲的法利赛主义；表面是敬虔公正，却是“粉饰的坟墓”。在我的年日里，令我瞎了眼的究竟是什么呢？我有了一个外邦的神袛？我所指的并不是丑恶的怪物，乃是辖制我的性情。神曾经三番四次使我面对这个外邦的神袛；我知道要降服神，把它弃掉，却始终没有付诸实行。我咬紧牙龈要冲过难关，却仍然受制于这古怪的神明。我看不见使我平安的事。我们可以一方面让圣灵毫无拦阻地得着，而另一方面却在神面前不断责备自己，这实在是一件可怕的事。

“巴不得你知道”——神在耶稣的眼泪里，直接摸着人的心。这话表示罪有应得；我们看不清的事，神要我们承担责任。“这事现在是隐藏的，叫你的眼看不出来”——是因为我们未曾降服。那“早该如此！”是多么悲惨绝伦呀！神关了的门，就永不再开。但他开了其他的门，并提醒我们有些门是我们关的，有些门则不需要关。我们的想像力千万不要迟钝才好。当神把旧事重提，我们不必惧怕，让回忆过去吧！它是神的用人，要责备、管教和追悔。神会把那“早该如此”，变成未来的优良教育。

祈祷◆主啊，对于要选择的方向，我仍感模糊；这个决定已远超越我的判断能力。我并非对你怀疑，只是，眼前的一切却是那样全然隐蔽。

April 3 If Thou Hadst Known!

“If thou hadst known . . . in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” Luke 19:42

Jesus had entered into Jerusalem in triumph, the city was stirred to its foundations; but a strange god was there, the pride of Pharisaism; it was religious and upright, but a “whited sepulchre.”

What is it that blinds me in this “my day”? Have I a strange god – not a disgusting monster, but a disposition that rules me? More than once God has brought me face to face with the strange god and I thought I should have to yield, but I did not do it. I got through the crisis by the skin of my teeth and I find myself in the possession of the strange god still; I am blind to the things which belong to my peace. It is an appalling thing that we can be in the place where the Spirit of God should be getting at us unhinderedly, and yet increase our condemnation in God’s sight.

“If thou hadst known” – God goes direct to the heart, with the tears of Jesus behind. These words imply culpable responsibility; God holds us responsible for what we do not see. “Now they are hid from thine eyes” – because the disposition has never been yielded. The unfathomable sadness of the “might have been!” God never opens doors that have been closed. He opens other doors, but He reminds us that there are doors which we have shut, doors which need never have been shut, imaginations which need never have been sullied. Never be afraid when God brings back the past. Let memory have its way. It is a minister of God with its rebuke and chastisement and sorrow. God will turn the “might have been” into a wonderful culture for the future.

看哪，时候将到，……你们要分散。（约十六32）

耶稣不是在责备门徒，他们的信心是真实的，只不过受到困扰；以致在实际的事情临到时，信心没有发生果效。他们分散，各顾各的事，而这些事不是属基督的。我们与神有了分别为圣的关系后，就必须在实际行动上活出信心来。我们被解散，不是到工厂上去，而是到个人内心的绝境里，叫我们体会什么叫做向神的赐福死去。我们准备好吗？这不是我们所拣选的，乃是神所安排的环境，带我们进入这经历里去。

除非我们有了这样的经历，否则，我们的信心不过是建立在感觉与福气之上，为二者所支撑而已。一旦我们到了这个地步，不论神放我们在哪里，也不论落到怎样的绝境，我们仍然可以赞美神，知道一切都尽善尽美，这才是信心真实地发挥出来。

“……留下我独自一人。”我们有没有因着追逐个人的嗜欲，偏离神旨，留下耶稣独自一人？这是因为我们在所遇的环境里看不见神吗？黑暗来临，也是出于神的全能。我们预备让神照他的心意对待我们吗？就是甘愿抛弃我们能察觉的福气吗？除非等到耶稣基督作我们的主，否则我们总会去争取自己的目标；我们的信心是真实的，却仍未坚固。神从来不草率行事；只要我们等候，神必要指明。但我们所专注的不是神，而是他的赐福。只意识到神的赐福，乃是灵程的初阶。“你们可以放心，我已经胜了世界。”我们需要属灵的刚毅。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我何等需要你！求你今天以丰盛的能力，临到我们实际的环境中。

April 4 Those Borders Of Distrust

“Behold, the hour cometh . . . that ye shall be scattered.” John 16:32

Jesus is not rebuking the disciples, their faith was real, but it was disturbed; it was not at work in actual things. The disciples were scattered to their own interests, alive to interests that never were in Jesus Christ. After we have been perfectly related to God in sanctification, our faith has to be worked out in actualities. We shall be scattered, not into work, but into inner desolations and made to know what internal death to God’s blessings means. Are we prepared for this? It is not that we choose it, but that God engineers our circumstances so that we are brought there. Until we have been through that experience, our faith is bolstered up by feelings and by blessings. When once we get there, no matter where God places us or what the inner desolations are, we can praise God that all is well. That is faith being worked out in actualities.

“. . . and shall leave Me alone.” Have we left Jesus alone by the scattering of His providence? Because we do not see God in our circumstances? Darkness comes by the sovereignty of God. Are we prepared to let God do as He likes with us – prepared to be separated from conscious blessings? Until Jesus Christ is Lord, we all have ends of our own to serve; our faith is real, but it is not permanent yet. God is never in a hurry; if we wait, we shall see that God is pointing out that we have not been interested in Himself but only in His blessings. The sense of God’s blessing is elemental.

“Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Spiritual grit is what we need.

耶稣同门徒来到一个地方，名叫客西马尼，就对他们说……你们在这里等候，和我一同儆醒。（太二十六36、38）

纵然我们无法体会主在客西马尼的痛苦，但我们也不要误解。这是神人一体面对罪恶的痛苦。因此就我们个人的经历，是无法体会的。客西马尼与各各他，是耶稣所专有的，叫我们得生命的门。

耶稣在客西马尼，并不是因十架的死亡而恐惧；他曾强调说，他是为死而来的。他所恐惧的是不能以“人子”的身分过这一关。作为神子，耶稣绝对可以过关，撒但不能碰他分毫；但撒但要毁灭的，是他以一个孤独的个体过这一关；就是说，使他不能成为救主。试以主受试探的情景去读客西马尼痛苦的祷告：“魔鬼暂时离开耶稣。”在客西马尼，撒但最后向主以人子身份所施的袭击，是在客西马尼。

客西马尼的痛苦，是神子为要完成他作世人救主的使命所忍受的痛苦。幔子裂开，显示他付出何等的代价，为叫我们可以成为神的儿子。我们如此容易得救，是基于他的痛苦。基督的十字架，是人子的胜利。这不但表明我们的主已经得胜，而且带来人类的拯救。如今人人可以来到神面前，完全因为“人子”所经历的痛苦。

祈祷◆主啊，我对你的救赎和完全的救恩，是何其缺乏欣赏。主啊，驱使我产生丰富的感恩；让我对主耶稣基督怀着永远的爱。

April 5 His Agony And Our Fellowship

“Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, tarry ye here, and watch with Me.” Matthew 26:36, 38

We can never fathom the agony in Gethsemane, but at least we need not misunderstand it. It is the agony of God and Man in one, face to face with sin. We know nothing about Gethsemane in personal experience. Gethsemane and Calvary stand for something unique; they are the gateway into Life for us.

It was not the death on the cross that Jesus feared in Gethsemane; He stated most emphatically that He came on purpose to die. In Gethsemane He feared lest He might not get through as Son of Man. He would get through as Son of God – Satan could not touch Him there; but Satan’s onslaught was that He would get through as an isolated Figure only; and that would mean that He could be no Saviour. Read the record of the agony in the light of the temptation: “Then the devil leaveth Him for a season.” In Gethsemane Satan came back and was again overthrown. Satan’s final onslaught against our Lord as Son of Man is in Gethsemane.

The agony in Gethsemane is the agony of the Son of God in fulfilling His destiny as the Saviour of the world. The veil is drawn aside to reveal all it cost Him to make it possible for us to become sons of God. His agony is the basis of the simplicity of our salvation. The Cross of Christ is a triumph for the Son of Man. It was not only a sign that Our Lord had triumphed, but that He had triumphed to save the human race. Every human being can get through into the presence of God now because of what the Son of Man went through.

他被挂在木头上亲身担当了我们的罪。（彼前二24）

耶稣的十字架，说明神对罪恶的审判。但千万别以为耶稣的十字架是一种殉道精神；十字架是至高无上的胜利，连地狱的根基也震动了。不论今生或是来世，再没有比耶稣基督在十字架上所成就的更加确实。他挽回了全人类，使他们与神恢复正常的关系。他使救赎成为人类生命的根基，也就是说，他为人开了一道通往神的途径。

十字架并非偶然临到耶稣的，他是为此目的而来。他是“那创世以先被杀的羔羊”。道成肉身的整个意义，就是十字架。当心别把神在肉身显现，与人子成为罪分开来看。道成肉身的目的，正是为了显露自己。十字架是今生与永世的中心，是两者的谜底。

十字架不是人的十字架，是神的十字架，神的十字架永远不能以人的经历去体验。十字架是神本性的显露，是任何人得以达致与神合一的通道。我们是来到十字架面前，不是越过去；我们住在十字架所带进来的生命里。

救恩的中心，就是耶稣的十字架；救恩所以如此易得，是因为神付出了重大的代价。十字架是神与罪人碰头的地方，这猛然的撞击，开拓了生命的路；可是，这撞击是发生在神心里的。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着你在我们最核心的问题上施行大能的救赎，我赞美你。愿藉着你的大能，使我复活，进入新的生命。

April 6 The Collision Of God And Sin

“Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” 1 Peter 2:24

The Cross of Jesus is the revelation of God’s judgment on sin. Never tolerate the idea of martyrdom about the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Cross was a superb triumph in which the foundations of hell were shaken. There is nothing more certain in Time or Eternity than what Jesus Christ did on the Cross: He switched the whole of the human race back into a right relationship with God. He made Redemption the basis of human life, that is, He made a way for every son of man to get into communion with God.

The Cross did not happen to Jesus: He came on purpose for it. He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The whole meaning of the Incarnation is the Cross. Beware of separating God manifest in the flesh from the Son becoming sin. The Incarnation was for the purpose of Redemption. God became incarnate for the purpose of putting away sin; not for the purpose of Self-realization. The Cross is the centre of Time and of Eternity, the answer to the enigmas of both.

The Cross is not the cross of a man but the Cross of God, and the Cross of God can never be realized in human experience. The Cross is the exhibition of the nature of God, the gateway whereby any individual of the human race can enter into union with God. When we get to the Cross, we do not go through it; we abide in the life to which the Cross is the gateway.

The centre of salvation is the Cross of Jesus, and the reason it is so easy to obtain salvation is because it costs God so much. The Cross is the point where God and sinful man merge with a crash and the way to life is opened – but the crash is on the heart of God.

耶稣嘱咐他们说，人子还没有从死里复活，你们不要将所看见的告诉人。（可九9）

人子还未在你面前复活，什么都不要说——直到基督复活的生命完全掌管你，使你真正明白基督的教训。当你里面有真正的改变，耶稣所说的话就很清楚明白，以致你稀奇何以从前看不出来。你从前不明白，因为你的性情没有地方容纳他的话语。

主并没有隐藏这些事，只是我们属灵的生命未到一个合适的地步，所以承担不起这些事。“我还有好些事要告诉你们，但你们现在担当不了。”我们必须与主复活的生命有了连接，才能接受他的话。耶稣复活的生命如何流注，我们有所知闻吗？证明我们知道的证据就是：我们能够明白他的话。我们若没有神的灵，神是无法向我们启示什么的。刚硬的态度，足以阻碍神向我们显明真理。我们若对某一项教义坚持己见，神的亮光就不再照明，我们便无法得见。可是一旦他复活的生命支配我们，这愚顽不灵的光景，就会立即终止！

“不要告诉人……”但许多人都把山上变像的事实告诉人，他们见了异象，就大作见证；可是，灵命却未成熟，因人子还未在他们心里复活。他什么时候才成形在你我身上呢？

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你使我们变得柔和与温顺，被你所激励和振奋，求你提升我们进入与你荣耀相交的境地，以致我们可以捕捉你的形像。

April 7 Why Are We Not Told Plainly?

“He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.” Mark 9:9

Say nothing until the Son of man is risen in you – until the life of the risen Christ so dominates you that you understand what the historic Christ taught. When you get to the right state on the inside, the word which Jesus has spoken is so plain that you are amazed you did not see it before. You could not understand it before, you were not in the place in disposition where it could be borne.

Our Lord does not hide these things; they are unbearable until we get into a fit condition of spiritual life. “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” There must be communion with His risen life before a particular word can be borne by us. Do we know anything about the impartation of the risen life of Jesus? The evidence that we do is that His word is becoming interpretable to us. God cannot reveal anything to us if we have not His Spirit. An obstinate outlook will effectually hinder God from revealing anything to us. If we have made up our minds about a doctrine, the light of God will come no more to us on that line, we cannot get it. This obtuse stage will end immediately “when” His resurrection life has its way with us.

“Tell no man . . ” – so many do tell what they saw on the mount of transfiguration. They have had the vision and they testify to it, but the life does not tally with it, the Son of man is not yet risen in them. I wonder when He is going to be formed in you and in me?

基督这样受害，又进入他的荣耀，岂不是应当的吗？（路二十四26）

主的十字架是进入生命的门：他的复活，表示他有能力把他的生命传递给我。我重生之后，就从复活的主接受他的生命。主复活的目的，为要领“许多儿子进入荣耀里”。他达成任务后，就有权柄叫我们成为神的儿女。我们从未有过神子与神的这种关系；但却因着神子，获得了儿子的位分。主从死里复活，进入了一种崭新的生命，这生命是他成肉身以前未曾有过的。他复活的生命是前所未有的；因此他的复活对我们来说，叫我们也有像他一样复活的生命，而不是我们旧有的生命。有一天，我们将有一个像他荣耀的身体。如今，我们也可享受他复活的效应，行事为人有新生的样式，使我认识他复活的大能。

“正如你曾赐给他权柄，管理凡有血气的，叫他将永生赐给你所赐给他的人。”（约十七2）在工作效果来说，“圣灵”一词是指此时此地在人心中作工的永恒生命。圣灵就是那赐予能力的神，把救赎实现在我们的经历里。感谢神，只要我们顺服圣灵，他就能在我们里面陶铸耶稣的性情，这是荣耀而严肃的确切事实。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你今天与我们真实地同在——愿圣灵同在的极大喜乐弥漫我们。

April 8 His Resurrection Destiny

“Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?” Luke 24:26

Our Lord’s Cross is the gateway into His life: His Resurrection means that He has power now to convey His life to me. When I am born again from above, I receive from the Risen Lord His very life.

Our Lord’s Resurrection destiny is to bring “many sons unto glory.” The fulfilling of His destiny gives Him the right to make us sons and daughters of God. We are never in the relationship to God that the Son of God is in; but we are brought by the Son into the relation of sonship. When Our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new life, to a life He did not live before He was incarnate. He rose to a life that had never been before; and His resurrection means for us that we are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we shall have a body like unto His glorious body, but we can know now the efficacy of His resurrection and walk in newness of life. “I would know Him in the power of His resurrection.”

“As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.” “Holy Spirit” is the experimental name for Eternal Life working in human beings here and now. The Holy Spirit is the Deity in proceeding power Who applies the Atonement to our experience. Thank God it is gloriously and majestically true that the Holy Ghost can work in us the very nature of Jesus if we will obey Him.

这事以后，门徒中间有两个人……耶稣变了形像向他们显现。（可十六12）

得救与看见耶稣，是两回事。许多人在神的恩上有分，却从未见过耶稣。但若见了耶稣，你就完全改观了，其他事物再不像往日那样吸引你。要时常分辨清楚，你看见的是耶稣本身，还是他为你成就的事。如果你只知道他为你做的事，那么你的神还未够伟大；要是你真看见耶稣本身，那么，纵使经历千变万化，你仍能坚定不移，“如同看见那不能看见的主”。那生来瞎眼的人，并不认识耶稣是谁，直等到主出现，又向他启示自己，他才恍然大悟。耶稣为谁行事，就为谁显现；只是我们不能规定他什么时候显现。他任何时刻都可能蓦然出现；“如今我看见他！”

耶稣不但向你显现，也向你的朋友显现：别人不能藉着你的眼睛看见耶稣。一个人看见主，另一个没看见，隔膜就从此形成，除非神领你的朋友到他面前来。你见过耶稣吗？要是见过，你一定盼望别人也看见他。“他们就去告诉其余的门徒，其余的门徒也是不信。”即使他们不信，你仍要去传。

“啊，但愿我能告诉你，你一定会相信的！
啊，但愿我能说出我所见的！
我怎样说才好？你怎样才接纳？
怎么样？除非他带你去尝受我所经历的。”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，让我今天听见你荣耀的声音。噢，对我说话，以你振兴的大能，在我的心灵、思想和言语中，创造属你的安宁。

April 9 Have I Seen Him?

“After that He appeared in another form unto two of them.” Mark 16:12

Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many are partakers of God’s grace who have never seen Jesus. When once you have seen Jesus, you can never be the same, other things do not appeal as they used to do.

Always distinguish between what you see Jesus to be, and what He has done for you. If you only know what He has done for you, you have not a big enough God; but if you have had a vision of Jesus as He is, experiences can come and go, you will endure “as seeing Him Who is invisible.” The man blind from his birth did not know Who Jesus was until He appeared and revealed Himself to him. Jesus appears to those for whom He has done something; but we cannot dictate when He will come. Suddenly at any turn He may come. “Now I see Him!”

Jesus must appear to your friend as well as to you, no one can see Jesus with your eyes. Severance takes place where one and not the other has seen Jesus. You cannot bring your friend unless God brings him. Have you seen Jesus? Then you will want others to see Him too. “And they went and told it unto the residue, neither believed they them.” You must tell, although they do not believe.

“O could I tell, ye surely would believe it!
O could I only say what I have seen!
How should I tell or how can ye receive it,
How, till He bringeth you where I have been?”

因为知道我们的旧人和他同钉十字架，使罪身灭绝，叫我们不再作罪的奴仆。（罗六6）

同钉十字架。我对罪所作的道德判决，是要花很长时间的。可是，这却是我生命的转捩点。我看准了，耶稣基督既为世人的罪而死，照样地，罪也必须在我里面死去。不是要把罪约束、压抑或是抵挡，乃是要把它钉死在十字架上。没有人可以使别人下这决心；我们也许会在宗教意识里同意，但我们必须照保罗在此所强调的，作出决定。

要鼓起勇气，振作起来，花时间与神单独相对，作一个道德上的抉择，对主说：“主啊，让你的死成为我的死，直至我知道罪已在我里面死去。”要斩钉截铁，下定决心，把罪治死。

对保罗来说，这不是一种属灵的期望，而是一个非常基本而肯定的经验。我肯不肯让神的灵鉴察我，直到我真知道罪的本相——就是在我里面与神的灵相争的事物？若肯的话，我接受神对罪的判断——就是与耶稣同死吗？我必须解决这个基本的意志问题，在神面前寻求清楚，否则不能算己“向罪死了”。

我有没有进入与基督同钉的最高福祉里，直到我血肉之躯，除了基督的生命以外，再无别的？“我已经与基督同钉十字架，现在活着的，不再是我，乃是基督在我里面活着。”

祈祷◆“我的灵在生病”——何等适切地描述我今天的状况！求你控制它，帮助我在当中起来和超越它。

April 10 Moral Decision About Sin

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Romans 6:6

Co-Crucifixion. Have I made this decision about sin – that it must be killed right out in me? It takes a long time to come to a moral decision about sin, but it is the great moment in my life when I do decide that just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world, so sin must die out in me, not be curbed or suppressed or counteracted, but crucified. No one can bring anyone else to this decision. We may be earnestly convinced, and religiously convinced, but what we need to do is to come to the decision which Paul forces here.

Haul yourself up, take a time alone with God, make the moral decision and say – “Lord, identify me with Thy death until I know that sin is dead in me.” Make the moral decision that sin in you must be put to death.

It was not a divine anticipation on the part of Paul, but a very radical and definite experience. Am I prepared to let the Spirit of God search me until I know what the disposition of sin is – the thing that lusts against the Spirit of God in me? Then if so, will I agree with God’s verdict on that disposition of sin – that it should be identified with the death of Jesus? I cannot reckon myself “dead indeed unto sin” unless I have been through this radical issue of will before God.

Have I entered into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ until all that is left is the life of Christ in my flesh and blood? “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”

我们若在他死的形状上与他联合，也要在他复活的形状上与他联合。（罗六5）

一同复活。要证明我的确已与耶稣同钉十字架，就是我明显有像他的地方。耶稣的灵进入我里面，重整了我向神的生命。耶稣的复活，使他有权柄把神的圣灵充满我；而我这生命，是必须建造在他生命的根基上。我现在有耶稣复活的生命，在圣洁上可表明出来。

在使徒保罗的书信中，有个一贯的思想，就是决志——作这道德上的抉择，承认与耶稣同死后，耶稣复活的生命就充满我每一部分。人在肉身活出神儿子的生命，必须有超人的能力才行。

圣灵绝不处于客人的地位，他是无孔不入的。我一旦决志让旧人（罪的遗传）与耶稣同死，圣灵就开始进袭我。他要管理一切，要我行在光中，要使我顺服。我既对罪作了道德的判决，就很容易向罪死，因为耶稣的生命已经住在我里面。

人性若只有一个印记，圣洁同样也只有一个，就是耶稣的圣洁，而这圣洁正是他赐给我的。神把他儿子的圣洁放在我里面，我就属于一个新的属灵族类。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，在这新的一天，以你的恩典帮助我完全感受到你的大能，并你在我周围。让我面对着你的荣耀，以致我可以“变成主的形状，荣上加荣”。

April 11 Moral Divinity

“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” Romans 6:5

Co-Resurrection. The proof that I have been through crucifixion with Jesus is that I have a decided likeness to Him. The incoming of the Spirit of Jesus into me readjusts my personal life to God. The resurrection of Jesus has given Him authority to impart the life of God to me, and my experimental life must be constructed on the basis of His life. I can have the resurrection life of Jesus now, and it will show itself in holiness.

The idea all through the apostle Paul’s writings is that after the moral decision to be identified with Jesus in His death has been made, the resurrection life of Jesus invades every bit of my human nature. It takes omnipotence to live the life of the Son of God in mortal flesh. The Holy Spirit cannot be located as a Guest in a house, He invades everything. When once I decide that my “old man” (i.e., the heredity of sin) should be identified with the death of Jesus, then the Holy Spirit invades me. He takes charge of everything, my part is to walk in the light and to obey all that He reveals. When I have made the moral decision about sin, it is easy to reckon actually that I am dead unto sin, because I find the life of Jesus there all the time. Just as there is only one stamp of humanity, so there is only one stamp of holiness, the holiness of Jesus, and it is His holiness that is gifted to me. God puts the holiness of His Son into me, and I belong to a new order spiritually.

死也不再作他的主了……他活是向 神活着。这样，你们向罪也当看自己是死的，向 神在基督耶稣里，却当看自己是活的。（罗六9-11）

同享永生，永生是耶稣基督以人的身份所表现的生命。若我们从神而生，在这必朽的肉身所彰显的生命，正是这种生命，而非它的副本。永生不是从神而来的恩赐，乃是神把自己赐给我们。耶稣所彰显出来的能力与权柄，在我们对罪作道德判决时，因着神的恩典，在我们身上彰显出来。

“圣灵降临在你们身上，你们就必得着能力。”——这能力并不是从圣灵而来的恩赐，乃是圣灵本身。换言之，这并不是圣灵所赐的什么东西。我们一旦与他的死认同后，就藉着十字架得着耶稣的生命。若觉得与神和好是件难事，那就一定是我们对罪未肯作确定的判决。只要一作决定，神丰盛的生命就立即进来。耶稣来了，是要供应永恒的生命：“叫神一切所充满的，充满了你们。”

永生与时间原不相关，永生是耶稣在地上时的生命。生命唯一的源头就是主耶稣基督。只要肯“放手”，最软弱的信徒也能经历神儿子的能力。我们旧我的能力，若有任何残余存在，都会叫耶稣的生命受阻。我们要慢慢地放手，让神生命的洪流涌进我们每一部分，以致人就认出我们是耶稣的门徒。

祈祷◆主啊，我感到自己渴望你的同在，并得着你极之美好和满有喜乐的赐福。主啊，我将此心愿交给你，若你认为是好的话，请赐给我。

April 12 Moral Dominion

“Death hath no more dominion over Him . . . in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.” Romans 6:9-11

Co-Eternal Life. Eternal life was the life which Jesus Christ exhibited on the human plane, and it is the same life, not a copy of it, which is manifested in our mortal flesh when we are born of God. Eternal life is not a gift from God, eternal life is the gift of God. The energy and the power which was manifested in Jesus will be manifested in us by the sheer sovereign grace of God when once we have made the moral decision about sin.

“Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost” – not power as a gift from the Holy Ghost; the power is the Holy Ghost, not something which He imparts. The life that was in Jesus is made ours by means of His Cross when once we make the decision to be identified with Him. If it is difficult to get right with God, it is because we will not decide definitely about sin. Immediately we do decide, the full life of God comes in. Jesus came to give us endless supplies of life: “that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Eternal Life has nothing to do with Time, it is the life which Jesus lived when He was down here. The only source of Life is the Lord Jesus Christ.

The weakest saint can experience the power of the Deity of the Son of God if once he is willing to “let go.” Any strand of our own energy will blur the life of Jesus. We have to keep letting go, and slowly and surely the great full life of God will invade us in every part, and men will take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.

你要把你的重担卸给耶和华。（诗五十五22）

我们必须分辨什么是我们所当负的担子，又什么是我们不当背负的。我们千万不要背负罪与疑惑的担子，但有些担子却是神放在我们身上的。神之所以不把担子挪开，是要我们把这些担子卸给他。“把他放在你身上的卸给他。”如果我们为神承担一份工作，却与他失去联络，那责任感会压得你透不过气来；但我们若懂得把神放在我们身上的，转回给他，有他的同在，那责任感的担子就得以卸下。

不少工人凭着一腔热血，鼓起勇气出去，却与耶稣基督没有亲密的相交，所以不消多久，就受压难当。他们不知如何应付重担，结果便产生了厌倦。人们会说：“好一个开头，落得何等凄凉的收场！”

“把重担卸给神”——你一向自负重担，现在要把担子的一端放在神的肩头上。“政权必担在他肩头上。”把神给你的委付与神；不是把它丢掉，而是把它连自己一起交给他，与神同工，担子便变得轻省了。切勿让自己与担子分开。

祈祷◆主啊，求你呼唤我的名字，让我因那奇妙的呼唤而振奋！你一次的呼唤、一次的接触，将会带来何等大的改变，我们都会在狂喜之中！噢，为何你不是经常这样做呢？

April 13 What To Do Under The Conditions

“Cast thy burden upon the Lord.” Psalm 55:22

We must distinguish between the burden-bearing that is right and the burden-bearing that is wrong. We ought never to bear the burden of sin or of doubt, but there are burdens placed on us by God which He does not intend to lift off, He wants us to roll them back on Him. “Cast that He hath given thee upon the Lord.” (R.V. marg.) If we undertake work for God and get out of touch with Him, the sense of responsibility will be overwhelmingly crushing; but if we roll back on God that which He has put upon us, He takes away the sense of responsibility by bringing in the realization of Himself.

Many workers have gone out with high courage and fine impulses, but with no intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ, and before long they are crushed. They do not know what to do with the burden, it produces weariness, and people say – “What an embittered end to such a beginning!”

“Roll thy burden upon the Lord” – you have been bearing it all; deliberately put one end on the shoulders of God. “The government shall be upon His shoulder.” Commit to God “that He hath given thee”; not fling it off, but put it over on to Him and yourself with it, and the burden is lightened by the sense of companionship. Never disassociate yourself from the burden.

你们当负我的轭，学我的样式。（太十一29）

“主所爱的他必管教。”我们为何常发怨言！主带我们到一个地步，叫我们与他相交，我们却唏嘘悲叹的说：“主啊，让我像别人一样吧！”耶稣要我们担着轭的一头——“我的轭是容易的，来我这边，我们一起挑吧。”你对主耶稣是否认同？若然，你会为他所加给你的压力而感激神。

“软弱的，他加力量。”神一来，就把我们从感情的枷锁中释放出来，使我们的怨声化为颂赞。而唯一能认识神能力的，就是负主的轭，学他的样式。

“因靠耶和华而得的喜乐是他们的力量。”圣徒的喜乐从何而来？我们若不认识某些圣徒，我们会以为：“哈，他（她）什么重担也没有。”若把面纱揭开，神的平安、喜乐赫然在他身上，就足以证明担子也在那里。

神所加给的担子，会把葡萄压榨成酒；但人多半只看见所榨出来的酒。天上地下没有任何权势，足以征服住在人心灵里的圣灵。因那是内心的得胜者。你里面若有怨叹，要不留情地把它踢走。在神的能力上软弱，简直是一种罪行。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，在你面前，我就像一个具有人形、内里却是丑陋而不毛的旷野；然而，赞美你的名，因你能够使“旷野和干旱之地必然欢喜；……又像玫瑰花开。”

April 14 Inspired Invincibility

“Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.” Matthew 11:29

“Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth.” How petty our complaining is! Our Lord begins to bring us into the place where we can have communion with Him, and we groan and say – “O Lord, let me be like other people!” Jesus is asking us to take one end of the yoke – “My yoke is easy, get alongside Me and we will pull together.” Are you identified with the Lord Jesus like that? If so, you will thank God for the pressure of His hand.

“To them that have no might He increaseth strength.” God comes and takes us out of our sentimentality, and our complaining turns into a pæan of praise. The only way to know the strength of God is to take the yoke of Jesus upon us and learn of Him.

“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Where do the saints get their joy from? If we did not know some saints, we would say – “Oh, he, or she, has nothing to bear.” Lift the veil. The fact that the peace and the light and the joy of God are there is proof that the burden is there too. The burden God places squeezes the grapes and out comes the wine; most of us see the wine only. No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God in a human spirit, it is an inner unconquerableness.

If you have the whine in you, kick it out ruthlessly. It is a positive crime to be weak in God’s strength.

只是邱坛还没有从以色列中废去，然而亚撒的心一生诚实。（代下十五17）

亚撒外在的顺服并不完全——他大体上是对的，但并不完全。若说“不大要紧”的事，要特别当心。对你不大要紧的，对神可能十分要紧。对神的儿女来说，没有一件事是小的。我们阻止神来教导我们到底要多久呢？但神不会失去耐性。你说：“我知道自己对得起神。”可是邱坛犹在，你仍有未顺服的事。你是否一面坚称自己对得起神，一面在生活上仍有些东西令你犹豫不决？一有犹豫，要立即放手，不管这是什么。没有什么事是无关重要的。

在你身体上、思想上，有没有任何东西，叫你不能专心的？你大致上没有问题了，但却很随便马虎；那就是在专心的事上出了岔子。你的心脏不能“告假”、停止跳动，同样的，你属灵的专一也不能“告假”，稍有松懈。你德行的操练若放假一天，你的道德就堕落了；你的灵若放假一天，你就不再属灵。神要你完全属他，这就是说，你要警醒自守，保持最佳状态。这实在需要很长的时间，但有些人却以为两三分钟就可以一飞冲天！

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你的光穿透我。将你满意的笑容和福祉赐给我，使我整个人都属于你。

April 15 The Relapse Of Concentration

“But the high places were not taken away out of Israel; nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.” 2 Chronicles 15:17

Asa was incomplete in his external obedience, he was right in the main but not entirely right. Beware of the thing of which you say – “Oh, that does not matter much.” The fact that it does not matter much to you may mean that it matters a very great deal to God. Nothing is a light matter with a child of God. How much longer are some of us going to keep God trying to teach us one thing? He never loses patience. You say – “I know I am right with God”; but still the “high places” remain, there is something over which you have not obeyed. Are you protesting that your heart is right with God, and yet is there something in your life about which He has caused you to doubt? Whenever there is doubt, quit immediately, no matter what it is. Nothing is a mere detail.

Are there some things in connection with your bodily life, your intellectual life, upon which you are not concentrating at all? You are all right in the main but you are slipshod; there is a relapse on the line of concentration. You no more need a holiday from spiritual concentration than your heart needs a holiday from beating. You cannot have a moral holiday and remain moral, nor can you have a spiritual holiday and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely His, and this means that you have to watch to keep yourself fit. It takes a tremendous amount of time. Some of us expect to “clear the numberless ascensions” in about two minutes.

你们当趁着有光，信从这光。（约十二36）

我们都有踌躇满志的时刻，那时便会说：“我觉得万事都能胜任，巴不得经常如此。”神的旨意并不要我们如此。那些时刻，是深入体验的时候，藉着这种体验，要在平淡的日子里把真理活出来。若没有那高超的时刻，许多人就在日常生活的轮子上，颓废无用。我们应该把日常生活提升到灵程高处所体验的水平。

切勿让在高处所获的感受如烟云消散，也不要安于自逸的说：“如此的心境多么美妙啊！”要立即行动，进入事奉。你若不甘心地做，就更该去做。若在祷告中会见神，他叫你做什么，要立即去做。别说：“我会去做。”振作起来，把你与生俱来的惰性甩掉。懒惰的人总渴想得意的时刻，总爱谈怎样攀上高峰。但是，我们要学习照着山上所见的，行在灰暗的生活中。

你一次迷惑，不必气馁，重头再来吧。要烧绝栈道，义不回顾，心甘情愿地站在神面前，而且决不朝秦暮楚。你要认清所决志的，是根据在高山上所见的亮光。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，但愿我的一切思想、情感和言语都带着爱——对你完全的爱，并且透过这爱去接触人。

April 16 Can You Come Down?

“While ye have light, believe in the light.” John 12:36

We all have moments when we feel better than our best, and we say – “I feel fit for anything; if only I could be like this always!” We are not meant to be. Those moments are moments of insight which we have to live up to when we do not feel like it. Many of us are no good for this workaday world when there is no high hour. We must bring our commonplace life up to the standard revealed in the high hour.

Never allow a feeling which was stirred in you in the high hour to evaporate. Don’t put your mental feet on the mantelpiece and say – “What a marvellous state of mind to be in!” Act immediately, do something, if only because you would rather not do it. If in a prayer meeting God has shown you something to do, don’t say – “I’ll do it”; do it! Take yourself by the scruff of the neck and shake off your incarnate laziness. Laziness is always seen in cravings for the high hour; we talk about working up to a time on the mount. We have to learn to live in the grey day according to what we saw on the mount.

Don’t cave in because you have been baffled once, get at it again. Burn your bridges behind you, and stand committed to God by your own act. Never revise your decisions, but see that you make your decisions in the light of the high hour.

那时西门彼得赤着身子，一听见是主，就束上一件外衣，跳在海里。（约二十一7）

曾否有一次经历叫你立意不顾一切撇下所有呢？这是意志的一关。你可能在外面碰过许多事，但对你没有丝毫改变。要真正撇下一切的，是在里面的改变，而不是外面的。表面上的撇弃，可能正表示你里面仍受捆绑。

你曾否破釜沉舟地顺服耶稣基督？这是一项意志的抉择，而非感情用事；感情只是整个抉择的附属品。你若把感情放在首位，就永远办不成这项交易。不要问神这交易的后果到底是怎样，只要就眼前可见的事来作个决定，不管这是简单还是困难的事。

你若在波涛汹涌中听见主的呼声，只管乘风破浪，凭着信念出去！只要保持你与主的关系，就不用怕一切的冲击！

祈祷◆“你们要将一切的忧虑卸给神，因为他顾念你们。” 噢，主啊，这句话是多么的奇妙！不良的思想总是偶尔出现，需要你经常将它们驱走。我仰赖你更新我的思想。

April 17 Neck Or Nothing

“Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him . . . and did cast himself into the sea.” John 21:7

Have you ever had a crisis in which you deliberately and emphatically and recklessly abandoned everything? It is a crisis of will. You may come up to it many times externally, but it amounts to nothing. The real deep crisis of abandonment is reached internally, not externally. The giving up of external things may be an indication of being in total bondage.

Have you deliberately committed your will to Jesus Christ? It is a transaction of will, not of emotion; the emotion is simply the gilt-edge of the transaction. If you allow emotion first, you will never make the transaction. Do not ask God what the transaction is to be, but make it in regard to the thing you do see, either in the shallow or the profound place.

If you have heard Jesus Christ’s voice on the billows, let your convictions go to the winds, let your consistency go to the winds, but maintain your relationship to Him.

神……呼叫说……他说，我在这里。（出三4）

神说话的时候，我们却像在五里雾中，毫无反应。摩西的回答，表示他站在某一岗位上。常作准备的意思，就是与神有正常的关系，又知道自己目前所站的岗位。我们往往很急切地告诉神，我们想到哪里去。但那对神工作常作准备的人，呼召一临到，他们就夺得奖赏。我们总是等待特别的时机、特别的激情，当这临到，我们就会迅速回答：“我在这里。”耶稣基督被高举上升，我们就愿意与他一同上升；但对不为人所知的任务，我们往往不准备承担。

为神常作准备的意思，就是事无大小，我们都乐意去做。我们行事没有选择的余地；不论神的计划怎样，我们都乐于遵循。无论什么任务临到，我们听见神的声音，如同我们的主听见他父的声音一样。我们当存着活泼的爱，作好充分准备，随时待命而发。父怎样对待耶稣基督，他也盼望父照样对待我们。他可以任意差遣我们，叫我们承担愉快的任务，或卑微的任务；因为我们与主合一，正如父与主合一一样。“叫他们合而为一，像我们一样。”

要随时准备神突然来访。一个常作准备的人是不必再作准备的了。试想想神呼召我们后，我们花多少时间去作准备！那火烧的荆棘，正象征一个常作准备的心灵四周的景象，有神的同在，火烧得更熊。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，最能够感受你的，可能就是我自己，愿你的旨意能毫无障碍地在我里面并透过我得以成就。

April 18 Readiness

“God called unto him and he said, Here am I” Exodus 3:4

When God speaks, many of us are like men in a fog, we give no answer. Moses’ reply revealed that he was somewhere. Readiness means a right relationship to God and a knowledge of where we are at present. We are so busy telling God where we would like to go. The man or woman who is ready for God and His work is the one who carries off the prize when the summons comes. We wait with the idea of some great opportunity, something sensational, and when it comes we are quick to cry – “Here am I.” Whenever Jesus Christ is in the ascendant, we are there, but we are not ready for an obscure duty.

Readiness for God means that we are ready to do the tiniest little thing or the great big thing, it makes no difference. We have no choice in what we want to do, whatever God’s programme may be we are there, ready. When any duty presents itself we hear God’s voice as Our Lord heard His Father’s voice, and we are ready for it with all the alertness of our love for Him. Jesus Christ expects to do with us as His Father did with Him. He can put us where He likes, in pleasant duties or in mean duties, because the union is that of the Father and Himself. “That they may be one, even as We are one.”

Be ready for the sudden surprise visits of God. A ready person never needs to get ready. Think of the time we waste trying to get ready when God has called! The burning bush is a symbol of everything that surrounds the ready soul, it is ablaze with the presence of God.

约押虽然没有归从押沙龙，却归从了亚多尼雅。（王上二28）

约押在大考验中站得住，始终对大卫绝对效忠，没有随从那野心勃勃、欺世惑众的押沙龙。但到了晚年，却跟随了贪鄙的亚多尼雅。所以要常常提高警觉；有一个人可以这样倒退，众人都有这倒退的可能（林前十13）。你过了大难关吗？现在就要在最小的事上留心。那最不为人注意的小事，要懂得留心。

我们会很随意的说：“既然经过这样大的考验，就不会再回到世俗中去，留恋世事了。”不要自以为知道试探的来源；最不可能发生的事，往往是最致命的。在一次重大的属灵转变过后，那隐而不露的试探就开始出现了；这不会很昭彰明显，却潜藏在那里，若不警觉，就必把你绊倒。你在烈火的考验下曾经持守纯正，向神忠贞，如今却要当心暗潮。但不必无病呻吟，内省自疚，对前途恐惧不前，只要保持警觉，在神面前有一种清晰能力。没有防卫看守，力量就会变弱，那暗潮便会涌入，叫防守崩陷。圣经人物很多都在优点上失败，而不是在弱点上。

“蒙神能力保守”——这是唯一安全之方。

祈祷◆主啊，今天我要奉你的名讲道；求你使它藉着你的能力而发放。使我的灵魂确实认识你，让我在所有深入和终极的意义上只专注于你。

April 19 Is It Not In The Least Likely?

“For Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom.” 1 Kings 2:28

Joab stood the big test, he remained absolutely loyal and true to David and did not turn after the fascinating and ambitious Absalom, but yet towards the end of his life he turned after the craven Adonijah. Always remain alert to the fact that where one man has gone back is exactly where any one may go back (see 1 Cor. 10:13). You have gone through the big crisis, now be alert over the least things; take into calculation the “retired sphere of the leasts.”

We are apt to say – “It is not in the least likely that having been through the supreme crisis, I shall turn now to the things of the world.” Do not forecast where the temptation will come, it is the least likely thing that is the peril. In the aftermath of a great spiritual transaction the “retired sphere of the leasts” begins to tell; it is not dominant, but remember it is there, and if you are not warned, it will trip you up. You have remained true to God under great and intense trials, now beware of the undercurrent. Do not be morbidly introspective, looking forward with dread, but keep alert; keep your memory bright before God. Unguarded strength is double weakness because that is where the “retired sphere of the leasts” saps. The Bible characters fell on their strong points, never on their weak ones.

“Kept by the power of God” – that is the only safety.

神的应许，不论有多少，在基督里都是是的，所以藉着他也都是实在的。（林后一20）

耶稣在马太福音二十五章所说的比喻，是一个警告，指出我们对自己的能力也会判断错误。这比喻所论到的与天然的禀赋毫不相涉，乃是指圣灵所赐给人的恩赐所言。属灵的才干决不是以学识或才智去衡量，而是以神的应许去衡量。我们所得的若少于神所要我们得的，过不多时，我们就会埋怨神，好像那仆人埋怨主人一样：“你对我要求这么高，却没有给我足够的能力，你太苛求了；你放我在这岗位上，我根本无法向你效忠。”这涉及神的全能的问题，切勿说“我不能”。千万别让天然的才干限制了你。我们若接受了圣灵，神就希望圣灵的工作在我们身上彰显出来。

但仆人事事自以为是，反倒处处怪责主人：“你的要求，与你所赋予我的才干，根本不成比例。”神说：“先求我的国和我的义，这些东西都要加给你们了。”你竟忧愁挂虑，对神大肆谤渎？忧虑意味着这仆人在想：“我知道你会在我遇危难时，丢下我不顾。”一个天生怠惰的人，总是吹毛求疵说：“我根本没有机会。”一个在属灵上怠惰的人，同样向神吹毛求疵。懒惰的人总爱我行我素，有他独创的主意。

不要忘记，在属灵上的才干，是以神的应许来量度的。神能成就他的应许吗？答案就视乎我们有没有接受圣灵。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你今天与我们真实地同在——愿圣灵同在的极大喜乐弥漫四周。

April 20 Can A Saint Slander God?

“For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen.” 2 Corinthians 1:20

Jesus told the parable of the talents recorded in Matthew 25 as a warning that it is possible for us to misjudge our capacity. This parable has not to do with natural gifts, but with the Pentecostal gift of the Holy Ghost. We must not measure our spiritual capacity by education or by intellect; our capacity in spiritual things is measured by the promises of God. If we get less than God wants us to have, before long we will slander Him as the servant slandered his master: “You expect more than You give me power to do; You demand too much of me, I cannot stand true to You where I am placed.” When it is a question of God’s Almighty Spirit, never say “I can’t.” Never let the limitation of natural ability come in. If we have received the Holy Spirit, God expects the work of the Holy Spirit to be manifested in us.

The servant justified himself in everything he did and condemned his lord on every point – “Your demand is out of all proportion to what you give.” Have we been slandering God by daring to worry when He has said: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”? Worrying means exactly what this servant implied – “I know You mean to leave me in the lurch.” The person who is lazy naturally is always captious – “I haven’t had a decent chance,” and the one who is lazy spiritually is captious with God. Lazy people always strike out on an independent line.

Never forget that our capacity in spiritual matters is measured by the promises of God. Is God able to fulfil His promises? Our answer depends on whether we have received the Holy Spirit.

腓力，我与你们同在这样长久，你还不认识我吗？（约十四9）

我们的主必定时常感到惊愕，稀奇我们为何不够单纯。人的主见，常显明自己的愚昧；我们若单纯一点，就不会愚昧，就能时时懂得分辨了。腓力期望获得神秘莫测的启示，却不从他所认识的主身上去找。神的奥秘并不在于将成的事，乃在现今；虽然我们预期那奥秘会在将来一些震撼、历史性的事件中揭示出来。我们顺服耶稣并不迟疑；但我们所发的问题，可能伤透他的心：“求主将父显给我们看。”他立刻回答说：“他就在这里，一直在这里，不在别处。”我们期望神向他儿女显现，但是，神却只在他儿女里面彰显他自己。当别人看见他，神的儿女却看不见。我们想要感觉到神在我们里面作工；但我们不能一面敏感于自己的意识，一面又保持清晰的头脑。我们若求神给我们经历，或追求感觉，就会伤主的心。我们所发的问题伤了主的心，因为那原不是儿女应问的问题。

“你们心里不要忧愁。”——我是否任由我的心忧虑、伤主的心？我若真正相信主，我的生活是否与信心相称？我有没有让什么烦扰我？有什么可怕的问题进来？我必须与主心心相印，以致我能接受一切临到我的事，都是从他而来的。神的引导从不延迟，他总是现在就引导。只要明白主是此时此地的主，就必即时大得释放。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，在这新一天，愿你的恩典帮助我完全感受到你的接近和你的大能。让我面对着你的荣耀，以致我可以“变成主的形状，荣上加荣。”

April 21 Now Don’t Hurt The Lord!

“Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip?” John 14:9

Our Lord must be repeatedly astounded at us – astounded at how un-simple we are. It is opinions of our own which make us stupid, when we are simple we are never stupid, we discern all the time. Philip expected the revelation of a tremendous mystery, but not in the One Whom he knew. The mystery of God is not in what is going to be, it is now; we look for it presently, in some cataclysmic event. We have no reluctance in obeying Jesus, but it is probable that we are hurting Him by the questions we ask. “Lord, show us the Father.” His answer comes straight back – “There He is, always here or nowhere.” We look for God to manifest Himself to His children: God only manifests Himself in His children. Other people see the manifestation, the child of God does not. We want to be conscious of God; we cannot be conscious of our consciousness and remain sane. If we are asking God to give us experiences, or if conscious experience is in the road, we hurt the Lord. The very questions we ask hurt Jesus because they are not the questions of a child.

“Let not your heart be troubled” – then am I hurting Jesus by allowing my heart to be troubled? If I believe the character of Jesus, am I living up to my belief? Am I allowing anything to perturb my heart, any morbid questions to come in? I have to get to the implicit relationship that takes everything as it comes from Him. God never guides presently, but always now. Realize that the Lord is here now, and the emancipation is immediate.

我们众人既然敞着脸，得以看见主的荣光……（林后三18）

神的仆人必须时常独处，以致不觉得自己是孤单的。在信徒生活的初期，很容易灰心失意，本来是领导的人黯然消失，本来与我们一起事奉的人离开了。我们必须视为寻常，以致不觉得自己是孤单的。“没有人前来帮助，竟都离弃我…..惟有主站在我旁边。”（提后四16-17）。我们的信心，不是建立在会熄灭的光上，乃是在那不灭的光。我们会为“伟人”逝世而伤心，除非明白他们是命定要过去的。那不能消逝的，只有一件，就是仰望神的脸。

别让任何事物阻碍你仰望神，从他的面光中，去正视你自己和你的信念；每次讲道之前，记得先仰望向神，把事情全摆在他脸光之下；这样，必一直有他的荣光。主的工人必须不断的与神面对面，然后才去向人传道。基督工作的特色，就是有那不自觉的荣光同在。“摩西不知道自己的面有荣光，因耶和华和他说话而使他发光。”神从没有叫我们把疑惑显示出来，也没有叫我们把与神相交的喜乐张扬。神工人生活的秘诀，就是一直与神保持和谐的关系。

祈祷◆噢，主，我的神，你是何等的奇妙和大有能力，让我知道救赎是伟大地把启示实现。

April 22 The Light That Fails

“We all with open face beholding . . . the glory of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18

A servant of God must stand so much alone that he never knows he is alone. In the first phases of Christian life disheartenments come, people who used to be lights flicker out, and those who used to stand with us pass away. We have to get so used to it that we never know we are standing alone. “All men forsook me . . notwithstanding the Lord stood with me” (2 Tim. 4:16-17). We must build our faith, not on the fading light, but on the light that never fails. When “big” men go we are sad, until we see that they are meant to go, the one thing that remains is looking in the face of God for ourselves.

Allow nothing to keep you from looking God sternly in the face about yourself and about your doctrine, and every time you preach see that you look God in the face about things first, then the glory will remain all through. A Christian worker is one who perpetually looks in the face of God and then goes forth to talk to people. The characteristic of the ministry of Christ is that of unconscious glory that abides. “Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.”

We are never called on to parade our doubts or to express the hidden ecstasies of our life with God. The secret of the worker’s life is that he keeps in tune with God all the time.

与神同工。（林前三9）

当心别让任何为神的工作，叫你离开对神的专注。许多主的工人敬拜自己的工作。工人唯一应该关注的，是集中于神身上，其他生活的一切，如精神、道德、灵性等等，都像赤子般的自由——一个敬拜神的孩子，不是背逆的儿女。神的工人若没有这种认真对神专注的心，就很容易被工作打垮，以致身体、心思、精神，没有丝毫的自由；结果身体疲惫耗尽，心力交瘁，失去自由，生活也没有乐趣。精神、心思、心灵被重压到一个地步，以致神的祝福也无法临到。另一方面，当你真的专注在神身上，生活的各方面都自由了，因只有神在掌管。工作的责任不在你身上；你唯一的责任是保持与神有活泼不断的关系，不让任何事物阻碍你与他合作。成圣后的自由，是儿女的自由，一切叫生命受制的东西都没有了。但要记住，你的自由是单单为了一件事——绝对忠于你的同工。

我们没有权去命令神该放我们在哪里，或自作主张地要神在哪方面操练我们。神安排一切；不论他放我们在哪里，我们最大的目的是要在那工作上面尽我们的忠诚。“凡你手所当作的事，要尽力去作。”

祈祷◆主啊，我何其像那没有为午夜到访的友人预备什么的人！许多人正急待拯救，将责任完全承担起来吧！愿你恩慈的同在覆遍这地。

April 23 The Worship Of The Work

“Labourers together with God.” 1 Corinthians 3:9

Beware of any work for God which enables you to evade concentration on Him. A great many Christian workers worship their work. The one concern of a worker should be concentration on God, and this will mean that all the other margins of life, mental, moral and spiritual, are free with the freedom of a child, a worshipping child, not a wayward child. A worker without this solemn dominant note of concentration on God is apt to get his work on his neck; there is no margin of body, mind or spirit free, consequently he becomes spent out and crushed. There is no freedom, no delight in life; nerves, mind and heart are so crushingly burdened that God’s blessing cannot rest. But the other side is just as true – when once the concentration is on God, all the margins of life are free and under the dominance of God alone. There is no responsibility on you for the work; the only responsibility you have is to keep in living constant touch with God, and to see that you allow nothing to hinder your co-operation with Him. The freedom after sanctification is the freedom of a child, the things that used to keep the life pinned down are gone. But be careful to remember that you are freed for one thing only – to be absolutely devoted to your co-Worker.

We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.”

然而不要因鬼服了你们就欢喜。（路十20）

作主工人的，世俗不会成为网罗，罪恶也不会成为陷阱，可是属灵的放纵则会。这就是说，承受现今宗教潮流的模式，只专注于属灵的成功。除了神的赞许，千万不要追逐别的事物。要“出到营外就了他去，忍受他所受的凌辱。”耶稣吩咐门徒不要为事奉的成功而欢欣，但这却偏偏是大多数人最庆幸的。我们的眼光是很商业化的——有多少人得救、成圣、于是就感谢神，因一切都办妥了。神的恩已立好根基，我们乃是在这根基上作工；我们不是去拯救灵魂，乃是叫他们作门徒。救恩与成圣是神无限恩典的工作；身为他的门徒，我们的工作就是要使人作门徒，直至他们全然顺服神。一个全然归神的生命，比一百个仅仅被圣灵唤醒的人，更为神所珍贵。作为神的工人，我们必须在属灵上繁殖同类的生命，这要成为我们作神工人的明证。

神既藉着恩典把我们带到更高的生活水平，我们就有责任使别人也达到这种水平。除非工人过的是与基督一样藏在神里面的生活，他势必成为惹人讨厌的独裁者，而不是一个在主里作门徒的人。我们不少人是独裁者，喜欢支配人，操纵聚会，唯我独尊。耶稣却从来没有这样对我们。主每逢提到作门徒，他便一定加一个“若”字，他从来不用强制的命令说“你必须”。作门徒是有选择的余地的。

祈祷◆我在多方面需要你！我赞美你，因为你让人寻见。主啊，让我寻见你；但惟有当你亲自来到，我才可以寻见你。

April 24 The Warning Against Wantoning

“Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you.” Luke 10:20

As Christian workers, worldliness is not our snare, sin is not our snare, but spiritual wantoning is, viz.: taking the pattern and print of the religious age we live in, making eyes at spiritual success. Never court anything other than the approval of God, go “without the camp, bearing His reproach.” Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us do rejoice. We have the commercial view – so many souls saved and sanctified, thank God, now it is all right. Our work begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation; we are not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace; our work as His disciples is to disciple lives until they are wholly yielded to God. One life wholly devoted to God is of more value to God than one hundred lives simply awakened by His Spirit. As workers for God we must reproduce our own kind spiritually, and that will be God’s witness to us as workers. God brings us to a standard of life by His grace, and we are responsible for reproducing that standard in others.

Unless the worker lives a life hidden with Christ in God, he is apt to become an irritating dictator instead of an indwelling disciple. Many of us are dictators, we dictate to people and to meetings. Jesus never dictates to us in that way. Whenever Our Lord talked about discipleship, He always prefaced it with an “IF,” never with an emphatic assertion – “You must.” Discipleship carries an option with it.

无论得时不得时，总要专心。（提后四2）

不少人有这一种病态情况，就是在“不得时”专心。“时”不是指时间，乃是指我们。“无论得时不得时”，就是不论我们喜欢或不喜欢。如果我们只做心想做的事，我们就永远会一事无成。在属灵的领域里，有好些派不上用场的人；也有属灵的老人，这等人若没有超然的启示，是不肯动一个指头的。其实要证明我们与神的关系，乃是本分，不管我们是否有感动。

作主工人很大的陷阱，就是高举自己某一刻的特殊经历。当神的灵给你启示与亮光，你就说：“从此我为神持守这个地位。”错了，你不能，神必使你不能如此。经历完全是神所赐的，你不能随私意据为己有。你若自称必能保持高峰状态，你就成为难以忍受的累赘；而你也要神不住地启示感动，否则就什么也不肯作。你若把自己超然的经历当作神，你会发觉神将从你生命中消失，除非你肯尽你的本分，学会不再崇信自己的超然经历。

祈祷◆主啊，我的灵魂今天最需要的，是解脱和美化。我来到你面前，我的肉身需要你成为救主和主，求你修补我对你失却热忱和敏锐的灵，以致我可以在这里为你发挥适当的影响力。

April 25 Instant In Season

“Be instant in season, out of season.” 2 Timothy 4:2

Many of us suffer from the morbid tendency to be instant “out of season.” The season does not refer to time, but to us – ‘Be instant in season, out of season,” whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would do nothing for ever and ever. There are unemployables in the spiritual domain, spiritually decrepit people, who refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that we are rightly related to God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.

One of the great snares of the Christian worker is to make a fetish of his rare moments. When the Spirit of God gives you a time of inspiration and insight, you say – “Now I will always be like this for God.” No, you will not, God will take care you are not. Those times are the gift of God entirely. You cannot give them to yourself when you choose. If you say you will only be at your best, you become an intolerable drag on God; you will never do anything unless God keeps you consciously inspired. If you make a god of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life and never come back until you do the duty that lies nearest, and have learned not to make a fetish of your rare moments.

你带着你的儿子……在我所要指示你的山上，把他献为燔祭。（创二十二2）

一个人如何领会神的旨意，乃在于他的个性（参诗十八25-26）。亚伯拉罕对神命令的领会，就是要把儿子杀了。他只好把传统的观念抛在脑后，忍受极度痛苦的考验。神只有用这个方法去炼净他的信心。我们若存诚实的心顺服神，神自然会将我们从传统对他的误解中释放出来。有许多信念是我们要摒弃的，就如：神要把一个孩子取去，因为那母亲太爱他了。这简直是魔鬼的谎话，是嘲弄神的本性。魔鬼会不惜代价阻碍我们踏上登高之路，不让我们除掉对神误解的传统观念。可是，只要我们忠于神，他就会带我们经过考验，使我们从经验中更认识他。

亚伯拉罕对神信心的伟大处，在于他肯为神赴汤蹈火、在所不辞。他只一心听从神，不惜违反任何观念。亚伯拉罕并非一己信念的忠实信徒，否则他就会一意孤行，杀了以撒，说那天使的呼叫是魔鬼的声音了。这只是狂妄者的态度。只要你保持对神的忠诚，神必领你经过一切障碍，进入内室得以认识他；但其中有个关键，就是放弃传统的信念与看法。不要求神试验你，切勿像彼得那样宣称：“我什么都肯做，甚至愿与你同死。”亚伯拉罕并没有作此宣告，他始终对神忠诚，神也就炼净了他的信心。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我投向你，我所感觉得到的，惟独是你。取去我那些繁赘、夸大和冲动的谎话，让我安静地等候你。

April 26 The Supreme Climb

“Take now thy son . . and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” Genesis 22:2

Character determines how a man interprets God’s will (cf. Psalm 18:25-26). Abraham interpreted God’s command to mean that he had to kill his son, and he could only leave this tradition behind by the pain of a tremendous ordeal. God could purify his faith in no other way. If we obey what God says according to our sincere belief, God will break us from those traditions that misrepresent Him. There are many such beliefs to be got rid of, e.g., that God removes a child because the mother loves him too much – a devil’s lie! and a travesty of the true nature of God. If the devil can hinder us from taking the supreme climb and getting rid of wrong traditions about God, he will do so; but if we keep true to God, God will take us through an ordeal which will bring us out into a better knowledge of Himself.

The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God. He was there to obey God, no matter to what belief he went contrary. Abraham was not a devotee of his convictions, or he would have slain Isaac and said that the voice of the angel was the voice of the devil. That is the attitude of a fanatic. If you will remain true to God, God will lead you straight through every barrier into the inner chamber of the knowledge of Himself; but there is always this point of giving up convictions and traditional beliefs. Don’t ask God to test you. Never declare as Peter did – “I will do anything, I will go to death with Thee.” Abraham did not make any such declaration, he remained true to God, and God purified his faith.

你为自己图谋大事吗？（耶四十五5）

你是否正为自己图谋大事？你不是求成为一个伟人，而是为自己向神求大事。神盼望你与他更亲密的关系，过于领受他的恩赐，他要你认识他。大事是偶发的，会来也会去；神从来不会给我们一些偶然的东西。其实，与神建立正常的关系是最容易不过的，除非我们所要的不是神，而是他所赐的东西。

你若单向神求东西，那么在撇下一切归神的路上，你还未踏上第一步，你不过是照着自己的意思去作基督徒。“我曾经求神给我圣灵，但他并没有给我预期的平安与安息。”神马上就会指出原因——你根本不是寻求主，只是为自己有所图谋。耶稣说：“你们祈求，就给你们。”你要的可以向神求，但是你所求的若不对，就得不着。当你与神亲近，就不再是求东西了。“你们没有祈求以先，你们所需用的，你们的父早已知道了。”那么为何还要求呢？这是要你们更认识他吧。

你为自己图谋大事吗？“神啊，求你以圣灵给我施洗。”神若不应允，乃是由于你尚未完全归顺他，你还有些事不肯做的。你肯不肯扪心自问：你向神所求的到底是什么？为什么要这些？神总是为了最终的完美，而不顾现今暂时的好处。他不会只令你现今快乐幸福，而是为那最终的完美而作工——“叫他们合而为一，像我们合而为一。”

祈祷◆主啊，当我今天向你发声，愿你的亮光和恩典临到我们。愿我们“凡事尊荣我们救主神的道”。

April 27 What Do You Want?

“Seekest thou great things for thyself?” Jeremiah 45:5

Are you seeking great things for yourself? Not seeking to be a great one, but seeking great things from God for yourself. God wants you in a closer relationship to Himself than receiving His gifts, He wants you to get to know Him. A great thing is accidental, it comes and goes. God never gives us anything accidental. There is nothing easier than getting into a right relationship with God except when it is not God Whom you want but only what He gives.

If you have only come the length of asking God for things, you have never come to the first strand of abandonment, you have become a Christian from a standpoint of your own. “I did ask God for the Holy Spirit, but He did not give me the rest and the peace I expected.” Instantly God puts His finger on the reason – you are not seeking the Lord at all, you are seeking something for yourself. Jesus says – “Ask, and it shall be given you.” Ask God for what you want, and you cannot ask if you are not asking for a right thing. When you draw near to God, you cease from asking for things. “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him.” Then why ask? That you may get to know Him.

Are you seeking great things for yourself? “O Lord, baptize me with the Holy Ghost.” If God does not, it is because you are not abandoned enough to Him, there is something you will not do. Are you prepared to ask yourself what it is you want from God and why you want it? God always ignores the present perfection for the ultimate perfection. He is not concerned about making you blessed and happy just now; He is working out His ultimate perfection all the time – “that they may be one even as We are.”

但你无论往哪里去，我必使你以自己的命为掠物。（耶四十五5）

主对信靠他的人，有一个坚定不移的秘密，就是“我要把你的生命给你”。除了生命，人还要什么呢？生命是最重要的。“以自己的命为掠物”，意思是不论你到哪里去，甚至进入地狱，你仍然能够带着生命出来，没有任何事物能害你的。我们多半被事物的荣美所吸引；其实受吸引的不该是属物质的产业，而是所蒙的祝福。一切都会过去；但有一样比这些更荣美，且永不过去－－就是“与基督一同藏在神里面的生命”。

你是否愿意与神联合，不再注目于你所谓的“大事”上？你愿否尽弃所有，付之东流？放弃一切就是不再问：“那么，这个又怎么办？”要提防一切的假设。一旦容让“怎么办”，就是意味着你仍未肯放弃一切，仍未肯完全信靠神。只要你肯放下一切，就不再担心神会怎样办。你若完全撇下给神，他就立即说：“我必使你以自己的命为掠物。”人对生命厌倦的原因，是神没有赏给他们什么，他们并未得着生命的掠物。要脱离这景况，就要完全向神降服。若向神完全顺服，你会成为地上最惊喜的人；神完全得着你，是把生命赐给你。但如果你尚未到达这地步，可能是你不肯顺服，也可能是你不够单纯。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我的灵魂因着信靠你而发出赞美，愿我的灵魂紧随着你的抚摸和笑容，除去我任何混乱的思想或幻想，免致我在基督里的真纯遭受污染。

April 28 What You Will Get

“Thy life will I give thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.” Jeremiah 45:5

This is the unshakable secret of the Lord to those who trust Him – “I will give thee thy life.” What more does a man want than his life? It is the essential thing. “Thy life for a prey” means that wherever you may go, even if it is into hell, you will come out with your life, nothing can harm it. So many of us are caught up in the shows of things, not in the way of property and possessions, but of blessings. All these have to go; but there is something grander that never can go – the life that is “hid with Christ in God.”

Are you prepared to let God take you into union with Himself, and pay no more attention to what you call the great things? Are you prepared to abandon entirely and let go? The test of abandonment is in refusing to say – “Well, what about this?” Beware of suppositions. Immediately you allow – What about this? – it means you have not abandoned, you do not really trust God. Immediately you do abandon, you think no more about what God is going to do. Abandon means to refuse yourself the luxury of asking any questions. If you abandon entirely to God, He says at once, “Thy life will I give thee for a prey.” The reason people are tired of life is because God has not given them anything, they have not got their life as a prey. The way to get out of that state is to abandon to God. When you do get through to abandonment to God, you will be the most surprised and delighted creature on earth; God has got you absolutely and has given you your life. If you are not there, it is either because of disobedience or a refusal to be simple enough.

将来如何，还未显明。（约壹三2）

我们本性喜欢一五一十地计算得清清楚楚，于是视未确定的事为坏事。我们总爱假设一个可达的目标；其实，属灵生命的本质不是这样的。属灵生命的本质是在未确定的时候，便心里坚定；因此，我们不必到处筑巢，安身立命。理智会说：“唔，假如我在那情况之下……”但我们根本不能置身于自己尚未经历过的情况。

安稳是属世生活的表记，而在不稳定中靠主恩安详，是属灵生命的标志。相信神，就意味着我们对生活各方面的事情不肯定，因为我们不晓得一天将会发生什么事。这句话一般都是存着愁叹来说；其实，这应该是一句满有希望的说话才对。我们虽不知下一步如何，但我们相信神。

那只要将自己一切交给神，并尽上本份，神就会使我们每时每刻充满惊喜。可是，我们若只高举一些教条，死就进来了；我们不是相信神，而是相信他的信念。耶稣说：“你们若不……变成小孩子的样式……。”属灵生命是赤子的生命。我们对神并非不肯定，乃是不肯定他下一步怎样做。若我们只对信仰肯定，就是把自己抬高，变得严厉自尊，只对自己的见解下结论；但我们若与神有正常的关系，生命就充满自然的、欢乐的期望，因为对未来的事并没有把握。

耶稣说：“你们也当信我。”他不是说：“你们要信某些关于我的事。”完全交托他吧！虽然不知道他何时临到，但他必然会临到。持守对他的忠贞吧。

祈祷◆主啊，为着过去的那段时间，我敬拜你。你让我看见那许多的人，荣耀地与你进入正常的关系！它是那么奇妙，使我难有足够的言词去赞美你。

April 29 The Graciousness Of Uncertainty

"It doth not yet appear what we shall be." 1 John 3:2

Naturally, we are inclined to be so mathematical and calculating that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing. We imagine that we have to reach some end, but that is not the nature of spiritual life. The nature of spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty, consequently we do not make our nests anywhere. Common sense says – “Well, supposing I were in that condition . . .” We cannot suppose ourselves in any condition we have never been in. Certainty is the mark of the common-sense life: gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness, it should be rather an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. Immediately we abandon to God, and do the duty that lies nearest, He packs our life with surprises all the time. When we become advocates of a creed, something dies; we do not believe God, we only believe our belief about Him. Jesus said, “Except ye become as little children.” Spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, but uncertain of what He is going to do next. If we are only certain in our beliefs, we get dignified and severe and have the ban of finality about our views; but when we are rightly related to God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy.

"Believe also in Me," said Jesus, not – "Believe certain things about Me." Leave the whole thing to Him, it is gloriously uncertain how He will come in, but He will come. Remain loyal to Him.

爱是恒久忍耐，又有恩慈……（林前十三4-8）

爱不是预先精打细算，而是自然流露的，是不知不觉地涌现。保罗所举出的爱，不是清单式地计算出来。我们不能说：“好，现在我不再思想恶事，我要凡事相信。”爱的特质是自动自发。我们不是把耶稣的话摆在面前，当准则去遵行；而是当他的灵在我们里面自由作工，我们就不知不觉地照着他的标准去生活。当我们回顾过去的经历，就会诧异某种感情是如此公正无私，这就证明有真爱自然流露在其中。神的生命在我们里面，但每每等到我们经历过后，才恍然发觉。

爱的泉源是在神里面，而不是在我们里面。若想在自己天然性情中去找神的爱，简直是缘木求鱼。只有当圣灵将神的爱浇灌在我们心里，我们才有真正的爱。

若我们想向神证明是多么爱他，这正表示我们并不爱他；若要证明爱他，就要让爱自动自发地流露出来。回想起来，也说不出为何我们会这样做，是神的爱在里面流露，故我们有这样的表现。神的生命是自然的彰显，因为爱的泉源是在圣灵里面（罗五5）

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我何等需要被你的同在所充满和振奋。赐我在你里面得着愉快而宁静的信心，它正是圣灵的凭证。

April 30 The Spontaneity Of Love

“Love suffereth long, and is kind . . .” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is not premeditated, it is spontaneous, i.e., it bursts up in extraordinary ways. There is nothing of mathematical certainty in Paul’s category of love. We cannot say – “Now I am going to think no evil; I am going to believe all things.” The characteristic of love is spontaneity. We do not set the statements of Jesus in front of us as a standard; but when His Spirit is having His way with us, we live according to His standard with out knowing it, and on looking back we are amazed at the disinterestedness of a particular emotion, which is the evidence that the spontaneity of real love was there. In everything to do with the life of God in us, its nature is only discerned when it is past.

The springs of love are in God, not in us. It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally, it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

If we try to prove to God how much we love Him, it is a sure sign that we do not love Him. The evidence of our love for Him is the absolute spontaneity of our love, it comes naturally. In looking back we cannot tell why we did certain things, we did them according to the spontaneous nature of His love in us. The life of God manifests itself in this spontaneous way because the springs of love are in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 5:5)

因我们行事为人，是凭着信心，不是凭着眼见。（林后五7）

有些时候，我们感觉到神的关顾；之后，他就开始使用我们。不久，我们便装出一副可怜兮兮的样子，整天说什么试炼困难；其实，神一直训练我们在隐藏中尽自己的本分。属灵方面来说，除非是不得已，没有一个人愿意隐藏自己。神若关上天门，我们能尽什么本分？有些人整天想着头上有发光的金圈，做荣光四射的圣徒，充满了感动启示，并有圣徒经常造就。徒有外表（原文作镀金边）的圣徒是无用的，是不正常的。他无法过平凡的生活，而且根本不像神。我们活在地上，不是做行将长成的天使。我们在世作工，是因为我们已从上面而生，有极大无比的能力，得以在磨难中站立。

要是我们想把罕有的启示经历重演一遍，就表示我们要的不是神。我们只是宝贵与神说话的时刻，并且坚持要他再来一次。其实神是要我们行在信心中。我们多少人曾袖手旁观地说：“神若不向我显现，我是无能为力的。”他不会显现。这样，就是没有启示，没有神出奇不意的触摸，我们也得着手去做。那知，“原来他一直在这里，我竟然不知！”不要为那罕有的时刻而活，这只是惊喜的礼物。当神看我们没有走歪，就会将启示显明出来。千万别把启示的一刻作为标准，我们的标准乃是尽自己的本分。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着你的释放和鼓励，我感谢你。那近乎璀璨的喜乐已涌流在我心内。愿你那宁静的平安在此刻充满我。

May 1 Insight Not Emotion

"I have to lead my life in faith, without seeing Him." 2 Corinthians 5:7

For a time we are conscious of God's attentions, then, when God begins to use us in His enterprises, we take on a pathetic look and talk of the trials and the difficulties, and all the time God is trying to make us do our duty as obscure people. None of us would be obscure spiritually if we could help it. Can we do our duty when God has shut up heaven? Some of us always want to be illuminated saints with golden haloes and the flush of inspiration, and to have the saints of God dealing with us all the time. A gilt-edged saint is no good, he is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and altogether unlike God. We are here as men and women, not as half-fledged angels, to do the work of the world, and to do it with an infinitely greater power to stand the turmoil because we have been born from above.

If we try to re-introduce the rare moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are making a fetish of the moments when God did come and speak, and insisting that He must do it again; whereas what God wants us to do is to "walk by faith." How many of us have laid ourselves by, as it were, and said – "I cannot do any more until God appears to me." He never will, and without any inspiration, without any sudden touch of God, we will have to get up. Then comes the surprise – "Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!" Never live for the rare moments, they are surprises. God will give us touches of inspiration when He sees we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never make our moments of inspiration our standard; our standard is our duty.

虽然迟延，还要等候。（哈二3）

忍耐不是置之不理；忍耐是一座极其坚强的磐石，受得起一切的打击。忍耐的根源，是看见了神的异象；因为看见神，就带来品德上的启示。摩西之所以能坚忍，不是因为他对正义与责任的理想，而是因为看见了神。他恒心忍耐，“如同看见那不能看见的主。”一个有神异象的人，不是投身于一件工作或某一项任务，而是献身于神自己。异象是否出于神，是看得出来的，只要看所带来的启示便可知；生命会变得广大和滋润，因为一切由神发动。神若在属灵上给你一段旷野试探的时期，像他儿子所经历的，完全没他的话语，你就要忍耐；恒心忍耐，是因为你看见神。

“虽然迟延，还要等候。”要证明我们的确看见了异象，是要伸手去抓住那超乎我们所能抓住的（意即竭力追求）。属灵的自满是不好的。诗人说：“我拿什么报答耶和华？”“我要举起救恩的杯。”我们很容易自满自足－－“现在我得着了；现在我完全圣洁了；现在我能够忍受了。”这样我们马上就会跌倒。我们的目标必须超越实际的。“我不是以为自己已经得着了，已经完全了。”我们有的若只是经历，就一无所有了；但我们若有神异象的启示，那所有的就远超过所经历的了。要当心属灵懈怠的危险。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，在我自觉的生活中，但愿能流露更多的爱、怜悯、敬虔和对你的热爱。求你使我对周围的人能有善意的表现，并以忍耐和温柔去待他们。

May 2 The Passion Of Patience

Patience is not indifference; patience conveys the idea of an immensely strong rock withstanding all onslaughts. The vision of God is the source of patience, because it imparts a moral inspiration. Moses endured, not because he had an ideal of right and duty, but because he had a vision of God. He “endured, as seeing Him Who is invisible.” A man with the vision of God is not devoted to a cause or to any particular issue; he is devoted to God Himself. You always know when the vision is of God because of the inspiration that comes with it; things come with largeness and tonic to the life because everything is energized by God. If God gives you a time spiritually, as He gave His Son actually, of temptation in the wilderness, with no word from Himself at all, endure, and the power to endure is there because you see God.

“Though it tarry, wait for it.” The proof that we have the vision is that we are reaching out for more than we have grasped. It is a bad thing to be satisfied spiritually. “What shall I render unto the Lord?” said the Psalmist. “I will take the cup of salvation.” We are apt to look for satisfaction in ourselves – “Now I have got the thing; now I am entirely sanctified; now I can endure.” Instantly we are on the road to ruin. Our reach must exceed our grasp. “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect.” If we have only what we have experienced, we have nothing; if we have the inspiration of the vision of God, we have more than we can experience. Beware of the danger of relaxation spiritually.

靠着圣灵，随时多方祷告祈求。（弗六18）

我们代求的时候，会发觉对神的顺服，与别人的得失有极大的关系，这是我们想不到的。但有一个危机，就是那些神听了祷告而逐渐被提升到另一个不同领域里的人，我们用人的同情心去代求。一旦我们从与神同心去关怀别人，退到用同情心去代祷，那与神息息相关的联系就失去了。我们把同情心掺入代祷中，便是故意顶撞神。

除非我们完全认识神，否则无法作有效的代求。我们与神的关系最大的分化力，就是个人的同情与偏见。认同是代求的钥匙，一旦停止与神同心，就是同情心而不是罪在作祟，不一定是罪阻碍我们与神的关系，同情心也会。对自己的同情，对别人的同情，令我们说：“我不要让这样的事发生。”这样，与神密切的关系就立时中断。

代求根本没有时间，也没有倾向于为自己的愁肠祷告。你不用排除自己的忧愁，因为根本不应该有自己的成分在里面。你这时是与神同心，完完全全地关怀别人。神呼召我们代求，是要明辨，不是要吹毛求疵、

祈祷◆主啊，当我们开始在晨祷中“为我们的国家代求”，恳求你的灵指引我们。

May 3 Vital Intercession

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spiritt." Ephesians 6:18

As we go on in intercession we may find that our obedience to God is going to cost other people more than we thought. The danger then is to begin to intercede in sympathy with those whom God was gradually lifting to a totally different sphere in answer to our prayers. Whenever we step back from identification with God's interest in others into sympathy with them, the vital connection with God has gone, we have put our sympathy, our consideration for them in the way, and this is a deliberate rebuke to God.

It is impossible to intercede vitally unless we are perfectly sure of God, and the greatest dissipator of our relationship to God is personal sympathy and personal prejudice. Identification is the key to intercession, and whenever we stop being identified with God, it is by sympathy, not by sin. It is not likely that sin will interfere with our relationship to God, but sympathy will, sympathy with ourselves or with others which makes us say – “I will not allow that thing to happen.” Instantly we are out of vital connection with God.

Intercession leaves you neither time nor inclination to pray for your own “sad sweet self.” The thought of yourself is not kept out, because it is not there to keep out; you are completely and entirely identified with God's interests in other lives.

Discernment is God's call to intercession, never to fault finding.

弟兄们，我们既因耶稣的血，得以坦然进入至圣所。（来十19）

当心别以为代求是把自己的同情心带到神面前，然后要求他照我们所求的成就。我们能亲近神，完全是由于主耶稣作成这赎罪的工作。我们是“因耶稣的血，坦然进入至圣所”。

属灵的固执是代求中最大的障碍。因为同情心的根据，是我们里面和别人里面那些自以为不必用血来救赎的部分。我们以为还有些好处与德行，是不必用血来救赎的。这观念所产生的障碍，叫我们无法代求。我们没有与神爱人的心合一，我们生神的气；我们总有自己的主意，代求就成为天然同情心的自我吹擂。耶稣自己成为罪，就把人所有的同情心彻底地改变了。替代式的代求，就是立志把我们对人的天然同情心，换上神对人爱顾的心。

我是固执的还是被神的心替代了？与神的关系是失调还是和谐？在闹意气还是属灵？偏行己路还是与神同心？

祈祷◆主啊，你最明白在展开未来之前那种奇异的感觉。此刻极之需要提升我的情绪、思想和心态。求你确证我的思想。

May 4 Vicarious Intercession

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” Hebrews 10:19

Beware of imagining that intercession means bringing our personal sympathies into the presence of God and demanding that He does what we ask. Our approach to God is due entirely to the vicarious identification of our Lord with sin. We have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.”

Spiritual stubbornness is the most effectual hindrance to intercession, because it is based on sympathy with that in ourselves and in others that we do not think needs atoning for. We have the notion that there are certain right and virtuous things in us which do not need to be based on the Atonement, and just in the domain of “stodge” that is produced by this idea we cannot intercede. We do not identify ourselves with God's interests in others, we get petulant with God; we are always ready with our own ideas, and intercession becomes the glorification of our own natural sympathies. We have to realize that the identification of Jesus with sin means the radical alteration of all our sympathies. Vicarious intercession means that we deliberately substitute God's interests in others for our natural sympathy with them.

Am I stubborn or substituted? Petted or perfect in my relationship to God? Sulky or spiritual? Determined to have my own way or determined to be identified with Him?

因为时候到了，审判要从神的家起首。(彼前四17)

作主的工人必须记住，救恩是从神来的，不是人自己可以得到；因此，这是一道测不透的深渊。救恩是神一个极高超伟大的意念，而不是一个经历。经历只不过是一道门，让救恩进入我们的生命里。千万别传扬经历，乃要传扬经历背后神伟大的意念。我们传道，并不是宣布人怎样可以得救，脱离地狱，变成有道德、圣洁的人；我们乃是传达神的好消息。

在耶稣基督的教训中总夹着审判，这是神爱的表征。若有人觉得接近神是件难事，我们不必表示同情，因为这不是神的错。我们也不必设法解释困难的缘故，只要把神真理讲出来，圣灵就会指出毛病所在。传道最大的考验，就是要把各人带进审判里去。神的灵会个别对付每一个人。

耶稣若给我们一条命令，而不给我们力量去实行的话，他就是个说谎者。若我们让自己的无力实行成为顺服的拦阻，那就是在对神说，他有些事考虑不周详。任何的自倚自恃，都必须被神粉碎。完全的软弱与信赖，往往是圣灵彰显他能力的时候。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你的赐福今天临到我们，那么多人正需要你。求你拯救的大能在我们当中运行，掌管和振奋我们。

May 5 Judgment On The Abyss Of Love

“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.” 1 Peter 4:17

The Christian worker must never forget that salvation is God's thought, not man's; therefore it is an unfathomable abyss. Salvation is the great thought of God, not an experience. Experience is only a gateway by which salvation comes into our conscious life. Never preach the experience; preach the great thought of God behind. When we preach we are not proclaiming how man can be saved from hell and be made moral and pure; we are conveying good news about God.

In the teachings of Jesus Christ the element of judgment is always brought out, it is the sign of God's love. Never sympathize with a soul who finds it difficult to get to God, God is not to blame. It is not for us to find out the reason why it is difficult, but so to present the truth of God that the Spirit of God will show what is wrong. The great sterling test in preaching is that it brings everyone to judgment. The Spirit of God locates each one to himself.

If Jesus ever gave us a command He could not enable us to fulfil, He would be a liar; and if we make our inability a barrier to obedience, it means we are telling God there is something He has not taken into account. Every element of self-reliance must be slain by the power of God. Complete weakness and dependence will always be the occasion for the Spirit of God to manifest His power.

基督释放了我们，叫我们得以自由。（加五1）

一个有属灵深度的人，绝不会要求你说：“你要信这个信那个。”他只会要求你的生活能够符合耶稣的标准。神没有叫我们相信圣经，乃是叫我们相信圣经所显示的那一位主（比较约五39－40）。我们蒙召是传扬良心得释放，而不是见解上得自由。我们若在基督的自由里得释放，那么别人也会被带进同样的自由里－－那自由就是认识耶稣基督统驭万有的权柄。

总要照耶稣的标准去量度你的生活。你的颈项只可以套上主的轭，绝不负别的轭；同时，要当心别替人家套上那不是出于耶稣基督的轭。我们常以为人人都要与我们有同一样的观点，否则就是错的。神从不这样看，因此他要花许多时间去纠正我们的错误。自由只有一种，就是耶稣在我们的心里作工，使我们能够做合宜的事。

不要烦躁不安、失去耐性，要记住神怎样对待你－－用忍耐与温柔；但却不要减弱神的真理。让主的道自由作工，不必为它歉疚。耶稣说：“去，使万民作我的门徒”，而不是使人信服你的见解。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，你是何等奇妙、伟大和有力量，我要投向你。除了你以外，使我拒绝任何的统治。

May 6 Liberty On The Abyss Of The Gospel

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.” Galatians 5:1

A spiritually minded man will never come to you with the demand – “Believe this and that;” but with the demand that you square your life with the standards of Jesus. We are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the One Whom the Bible reveals (cf. John 5:39-40). We are called to present liberty of conscience, not liberty of view. If we are free with the liberty of Christ, others will be brought into that same liberty – the liberty of realizing the dominance of Jesus Christ.

Always keep your life measured by the standards of Jesus. Bow your neck to His yoke alone, and to no other yoke whatever; and be careful to see that you never bind a yoke on others that is not placed by Jesus Christ. It takes God a long time to get us out of the way of thinking that unless everyone sees as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God’s view. There is only one liberty, the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.

Don’t get impatient, remember how God dealt with you – with patience and with gentleness; but never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples,” not “make converts to your opinions.”

你们哪一个要盖一座楼，不先坐下算计花费，能盖成不能呢？（路十四28）

主所指的代价，不是要我们去计算，他已经计算好了。就是三十年在拿撒勒，三年被人拥戴、毁谤和憎恨，客西马尼园无底的痛苦，加略山上被宰杀－－成为整个时间与永恒转动的枢轴。

耶稣基督已计算了代价。所以世人最终也无法指着他说：“这人动了工，却不能完工。”在26、27及33节中，主陈明作门徒的条件；在他建造大工所用的人，是他已经为他们付上一切代价的人。“人到我这里来，若不恨……就不能作我的门徒。”主的意思是在他建造大工上用得着的人，是那些热切地、忠心地爱他超过地上任何最亲密者的人。条件非常严格，但却是荣耀的。

我们一切所建造的都要经神检验。神察验的火，是否发觉在主的根基上竟建立了我们自己的事业？现在正是建立事业的大好机会，是我们努力为神工作的日子，可是其中却密布着网罗。其实认真地说，我们根本不能为神作工。耶稣把我们放在他的工程上，完全放在他建造的大计中，我们是没有权选择要被放在什么地方。

祈祷◆主啊，引导我们的心思进入你的计划中。许多人已步向你那荣耀却带有危险的开放境地。主啊，请倾注你那浩大的能力，来纠正我们的生命，使它成为焕发着健康的丰盛生命。

May 7 Building For Eternity

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” Luke 14:28

Our Lord refers not to a cost we have to count, but to a cost which He has counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal and hatred, the deep unfathomable agony in Gethsemane, and the onslaught at Calvary – the pivot upon which the whole of Time and Eternity turns. Jesus Christ has counted the cost. Men are not going to laugh at Him at last and say – “This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”

The conditions of discipleship laid down by Our Lord in vv. 26, 27 and 33 mean that the men and women He is going to use in His mighty building enterprises are those in whom He has done everything. “If any man come to Me, and hate not . . . he cannot be My disciple.” Our Lord implies that the only men and women He will use in His building enterprises are those who love Him personally, passionately and devotedly beyond any of the closest ties on earth. The conditions are stern, but they are glorious.

All that we build is going to be inspected by God. Is God going to detect in His searching fire that we have built on the foundation of Jesus some enterprise of our own? These are days of tremendous enterprises, days when we are trying to work for God, and therein is the snare. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus takes us over for His enterprises, His building schemes entirely, and no soul has any right to claim where he shall be put.

你既遵守我忍耐的道。（启三10）

忍耐不单是忍受。圣徒的生命在神手中，有如弓箭在射箭者的手上。神正瞄准一些我们看不见的东西，在用力拉开弓；圣徒却说：“我再也受不了。”神不加理会，反而继续拉紧，直至目标在望，才松手让箭射出。放心把自己放在神手中。你现在正要忍耐什么呢？只要用忍耐的信心，保持你与耶稣基督的关系。“他虽然杀我，我仍要等候他。”

信心不是悲观的情绪，乃是强而有力的信任，是建造在神圣洁的爱上。你如今看不见他，也不明白他在做什么，但你是认识他的。我们心灵的平稳，在乎我们是否建立在神至圣的爱这永恒的真理上；否则，信心必如船触礁而覆没。信心是你人生中最英勇的奋斗，是不顾一切的把自己交托神，一心投靠他。

神在耶稣基督里已赴汤蹈火、不顾一切地救了我们；如今他要我们不惜牺牲一切，全心信靠他。我们里面还有许多地方是信心尚未耕耘过的，就是神的生命尚未触摸到的。在耶稣基督的生命里，却没有这样的光景，我们也不该有。“认识你……这就是永生。”永生的真正意义，就是一种面对任何事情而不动摇的生命。我们若有这种看见，人生就成为一页罗曼史，能够每时每刻经历到奇妙的事。神一直在操练我们，好使我们进入这能力的中心里去。

祈祷◆主啊，我理应成为何等样的人！我那充满恩典的生命在你的掌管下是那么奇妙；然而，我仍发觉自己是那么气量狭小。主啊，我还可以说什么呢！

May 8 The Patience Of Faith

“Because thou hast kept the word of My patience.” Revelation 3:10

Patience is more than endurance. A saint's life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says – “I cannot stand any more.” God does not heed, He goes on stretching till His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly. Trust yourself in God's hands. For what have you need of patience just now? Maintain your relationship to Jesus Christ by the patience of faith. “Though He slay me, yet will I wait for Him.”

Faith is not a pathetic sentiment, but robust vigorous confidence built on the fact that God is holy love. You cannot see Him just now, you cannot understand what He is doing, but you know Him. Shipwreck occurs where there is not that mental poise which comes from being established on the eternal truth that God is holy love. Faith is the heroic effort of your life, you fling yourself in reckless confidence on God.

God has ventured all in Jesus Christ to save us, now He wants us to venture our all in abandoned confidence in Him. There are spots where that faith has not worked in us as yet, places untouched by the life of God. There were none of those spots in Jesus Christ's life, and there are to be none in ours. “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee.” The real meaning of eternal life is a life that can face anything it has to face without wavering. If we take this view, life becomes one great romance, a glorious opportunity for seeing marvelous things all the time. God is disciplining us to get us into this central place of power.

没有异象，民就放肆。（箴二十九18）

理想与异象是不同的。理想没有道德性的启示；异象则有。沉湎在理想中的人，甚少有所作为。一个人可以用对神的看法，作为逃避责任的藉口。约拿曾自辩说，神既然是公义怜悯的，因此一切都必妥当。我也许对神有十分正确的观念，但这可能成为我不尽本分的理由。若有异象，生命必然公义正直，因为异象带来道德的催逼。

理想可以缓顿以至消灭，试审察一下你的属灵状况，看看是只有理想，还是真有异象。“啊，人所达致的，该超过他所把握的，否则，天堂何价？”“没有异象……”一旦看不见神，我们就会放肆，不受约束，不作祷告，在小事上把神撇在一边，依照自己的意思行事。我们若一手包办，自作主张，不期望神介入，我们就在走下坡，失去了异象。我们今日的态度，是否从神的异象而来的呢？我们期望神行大事，胜于往日吗？我们属灵的展望是否活泼有力？

祈祷◆噢，主啊，某些情绪似乎很容易令人悄悄地从你的身边和你的计划中溜走。可是，主啊，我不相信这是现在的情况；我所相信的，是人可能像一头野兽那样进入你的计划中，没有判断能力，也缺乏异象。主啊，我深愿成为你的儿子。

May 9 Grasp Without Reach

“Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.” Proverbs 29:18 (R.V.)

There is a difference between an ideal and a vision. An ideal has no moral inspiration; a vision has. The people who give themselves over to ideals rarely do anything. A man's conception of Deity may be used to justify his deliberate neglect of his duty. Jonah argued that because God was a God of justice and of mercy, therefore everything would be all right. I may have a right conception of God, and that may be the very reason why I do not do my duty. But wherever there is vision, there is also a life of rectitude because the vision imparts moral incentive.

Ideals may lull to ruin. Take stock of yourself spiritually and see whether you have ideals only or if you have vision.

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?”

“Where there is no vision. . . .” When once we lose sight of God, we begin to be reckless, we cast off certain restraints, we cast off praying, we cast off the vision of God in little things, and begin to act on our own initiative. If we are eating what we have out of our own hand, doing things on our own initiative without expecting God to come in, we are on the downward path, we have lost the vision. Is our attitude today an attitude that springs from our vision of God? Are we expecting God to do greater things than He has ever done? Is there a freshness and vigour in our spiritual out look?

“…有了信心，又要加上德行…” (彼后1:5)

“加上”的意思是要有所行动。我们常有一个危险，就是忘记我们不能作上帝作的事，上帝也不会作我们能作的。我们不能救自己，也不能叫自己成圣–那是上帝作的事。上帝既不会给我们好的习惯或者性格，也不会强迫我们行在他的旨意里。我们自己必须作这些事。神在我们里面作工，但我们自己必须“作成”我们“得救的功夫”（腓2:12）。“加上”意味着我们必须养成作事情的习惯，而这在一开始总是很困难。采取主动要有一个开头–把自己带到必走之路上。

要警醒本来清楚知道神的旨意却要反复询问的倾向。采取主动–停止犹豫–迈开第一步。当上帝告诉你他的心意时，靠信心马上就付诸行动，永远都不要再考虑或者改变最初的决定。如果当神要你去做一件事，你却犹犹豫豫，那你就在不经意间摒弃了神的恩典。自己要采取主动，现在就做出决定，不要让自己那么容易就回头。破釜沉舟之时，告诉自己，“我要写那封信”，或者“我要把那笔债还掉”；然后就去作吧！不要轻易改变！

我们必须养成在一切事情上仔细聆听神声音的习惯，明白他的心意并听从他的命令。如果当灾难到来时，我们能条件反射般地转向神，我们就知道自己已经养成了这种习惯了。采取主动必须从目前所站的岗位上开始，而不是那些我们还没有经历过的。

May 10 Take The Initiative

“Add to your faith virtue. . .” (“Furnish your faith with resolution.”) (MOFFATT.) 2 Peter 1:5

“Add” means there is something we have to do. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save ourselves nor sanctify ourselves, God does that; but God will not give us good habits, He will not give us character, He will not make us walk aright. We have to do all that ourselves, we have to work out the salvation God has worked in. “Add” means to get into the habit of doing things, and in the initial stages it is difficult. To take the initiative is to make a beginning, to instruct yourself in the way you have to go.

Beware of the tendency of asking the way when you know it perfectly well. Take the initiative, stop hesitating, and take the first step. Be resolute when God speaks, act in faith immediately on what He says, and never revise your decisions. If you hesitate when God tells you to do a thing, you endanger your standing in grace. Take the initiative, take it yourself, take the step with your will now, make it impossible to go back. Burn your bridges behind you – “I will write that letter”; “I will pay that debt.” Make the thing inevitable.

We have to get into the habit of hearkening to God about everything, to form the habit of finding out what God says. If when a crisis comes, we instinctively turn to God, we know that the habit has been formed. We have to take the initiative where we are, not where we are not.

有了爱弟兄的心，又要加上爱众人的心。（彼后一7）

对大多数人来说，爱的意义是模糊的；人谈论爱，却不知爱是什么。爱是一个人对另一个人超出一切的欣赏。属灵方面，耶稣要求我们拣选他超过一切（路十四26）。当圣灵将神的爱浇灌在我们心里，耶稣基督就很自然的居首位了。从此，我们就能活出彼得在此所列举的种种德行了。

首先，神要把我的伪装、外表的敬虔，一概拆除。圣灵显明神爱我，不是因为我可爱，而是因为他爱的本性。他对我说：“好了，如今你要用同样的爱去爱别人。”“我怎样爱你们，你们也要怎样相爱。”“我会把好些你看不在眼内的人，摆在你周围，你必须用我的爱去爱他们，像我爱你们一样。”爱是不能矫揉造作的。不少人试着这样作，但不久就厌倦了。

“主长久忍耐……”让我看看自己，又看看他怎样待我。神爱我到一个地步，以致我一切的罪恶、卑鄙、自私、恶行，他都不追究；因此我就能活在世上，以神的爱去爱人。神对我的爱既是用之不竭，我对别人的爱也必须如此。若我一动怒，在恩典中的长进就会停止。我所以发怒，是因为要与一个怪癖的人共处。但试想，从前我与神相处，叫他多么难堪！我们是否愿意与主耶稣合而为一，让他的生命与温馨每时每刻流露出来？不论人性的爱，或神圣的爱，都需要加以培育，才能存留。爱虽然是自然流露的，却要操练去持守。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，以你活泼的能力、恩赐和美善，影响我们生活的每一方面，使它能反映出你脸上的荣光。这似乎是我全部的祷告。

May 11 You Won't Reach It On Tiptoe

“Add to your brotherliness . . . love.” 2 Peter 1:7

Love is indefinite to most of us, we do not know what we mean when we talk about love. Love is the sovereign preference of one person for another, and spiritually Jesus demands that that preference be for Himself (cf. Luke 14:26). When the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ is easily first; then we must practise the working out of these things mentioned by Peter.

The first thing God does is to knock pretence and the pious pose right out of me. The Holy Spirit reveals that God loved me not because I was lovable, but because it was His nature to do so. Now, He says to me, show the same love to others – “Love as I have loved you.” “I will bring any number of people about you whom you cannot respect, and you must exhibit My love to them as I have exhibited it to you.” You won't reach it on tiptoe. Some of us have tried to, but we were soon tired.

“The Lord suffereth long. . . .” Let me look within and see His dealings with me. The knowledge that God has loved me to the uttermost, to the end of all my sin and meanness and selfishness and wrong, will send me forth into the world to love in the same way. God's love to me is inexhaustible, and I must love others from the bedrock of God's love to me. Growth in grace stops the moment I get huffed. I get huffed because I have a peculiar person to live with. Just think how disagreeable I have been to God! Am I prepared to be so identified with the Lord Jesus that His life and His sweetness are being poured out all the time? Neither natural love nor Divine love will remain unless it is cultivated. Love is spontaneous, but it has to be maintained by discipline.

你们若充充足足的有这几样，就必使你们在认识我们的主耶稣基督上，不至于闲懒不结果子了。（彼后一8）

习惯开始形成时，我们是知道的。好些时候，我们自觉在德行、忍耐、虔诚上有了长进，但这不过是生命的初阶。但若老是停留在这地步，在灵性上必定趾高气扬，夜郎自大。而正确的做法是把习惯溶在主的生命里，直至每一种习惯，都不再是自觉的表现。属灵的生命需要经常自省，因为还有好些品质未加上去。到了最终，与主的关系就极为单纯了。

神可能只是你的一套信徒习惯，在指定的时间内祈祷读经。假若你崇拜的是这些习惯，而不是习惯所象征的意义－－“我现在没空，我正在祷告，这是我亲近神的时间。”天父可能会把那些时间颠倒。这只是你习惯的时间，你身上仍缺少一些品质。要找出缺点，然后在需要加上去的品质上多多操练。

爱不是习惯，是到了忘掉习惯的地步，达到不自觉的境地。你若自觉圣洁，那么必然有些事你认为是干不来的，在某些关系上你也未够单纯；那就是说你还要加上的品质。只有耶稣所过的生活，才是超人的生活，他随时随地都与神同在，没有丝毫隔膜。你有没有什么地方与神有隙，不能与他契合无间？让神在特别的环境下施以压力，知道你得着他。那时，你的生命就如婴孩一般单纯。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求你向我们解明真理，让我们明白，并使我们在你里面得以刚强。

May 12 Make A Habit Of Having No Habits

“For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful.” 2 Peter 1:8 (R.V.)

When we begin to form a habit we are conscious of it. There are times when we are conscious of becoming virtuous and patient and godly, but it is only a stage; if we stop there we shall get the strut of the spiritual prig. The right thing to do with habits is to lose them in the life of the Lord, until every habit is so practised that there is no conscious habit at all. Our spiritual life continually resolves into introspection because there are some qualities we have not added as yet. Ultimately the relationship is to be a completely simple one.

Your god may be your little Christian habit, the habit of prayer at stated times, or the habit of Bible reading. Watch how your Father will upset those times if you begin to worship your habit instead of what the habit symbolizes – I can't do that just now, I am praying; it is my hour with God. No, it is your hour with your habit. There is a quality that is lacking in you. Recognize the defect and then look for the opportunity of exercising yourself along the line of the quality to be added.

Love means that there is no habit visible, you have come to the place where the habit is lost, and by practice you do the thing unconsciously. If you are consciously holy, there are certain things you imagine you cannot do, certain relationships in which you are far from simple; that means there is something to be added. The only supernatural life is the life the Lord Jesus lived, and He was at home with God anywhere. Is there anywhere where you are not at home with God? Let God press through in that particular circumstance until you gain Him, and life becomes the simple life of a child.

对神、对人，常存无亏的良心。（徒二十四16）

神的命令，是向他儿子而发的，也就是向我们这些有他儿子在里面的人而发的。他的命令固然难行，但若一旦听从，就有从天上来的能力，便变得容易。良心使我依附最高的标准，并且告诉我什么是最高的要求，教我应该怎样去行。它是心灵的眼睛，可以举目向神，又或举目向他所定的最高的标准，因此良心的标准因人而异。我若经常仰望神，我的良心必然向着神完全的律法，指示我所当行的。问题是我肯不肯顺从？我必须保持良心的敏锐，使我行事不至于冲撞神。我与神儿子应该同心同德，就是不论在任何境况下，心意都得以更新，叫我知道“何为神的善良、纯全可喜悦的旨意”。

神对我们的管教是极其彻底的。我的耳朵是否敏锐地听得见圣灵最微小的声音而知道当作的是什么？“不要叫神的灵担忧”，他的声音并不如雷霆；他的声音是极其微小，很容易就被疏略过去。要使良心对神敏感，就要养成经常向神敞开的习惯。一有迟疑，须即停止。“我为什么不可以这样？”那你已在歧路上了。良心一说话，就再没有迟疑的余地。你若让一件事拦阻了你与神在隐密处的交通，那太冒险了。不管是什么，放下它吧！要常保持内心视野清晰。

祈祷◆主啊，求祢抚摸我，让我生命的堤岸沐浴祢爱所赐的平安中，我便充满了赞美。

May 13 The Habit Of A Good Conscience

“A conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.” Acts 24:16

God's commands are given to the life of His Son in us, consequently to the human nature in which His Son has been formed, His commands are difficult, but immediately we obey they become divinely easy.

Conscience is that faculty in me which attaches itself to the highest that I know, and tells me what the highest I know demands that I do. It is the eye of the soul which looks out either towards God or towards what it regards as the highest, and therefore conscience records differently in different people. If I am in the habit of steadily facing myself with God, my conscience will always introduce God's perfect law and indicate what I should do. The point is, will I obey? I have to make an effort to keep my conscience so sensitive that I walk without offence. I should be living in such perfect sympathy with God's Son, that in every circumstance the spirit of my mind is renewed, and I “make out” at once “what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

God always educates us down to the scruple. Is my ear so keen to hear the tiniest whisper of the Spirit that I know what I should do? “Grieve not the Holy Spirit.” He does not come with a voice like thunder; His voice is so gentle that it is easy to ignore it. The one thing that keeps the conscience sensitive to Him is the continual habit of being open to God on the inside. When there is any debate, quit. “Why shouldn't I do this?” You are on the wrong track. There is no debate possible when conscience speaks. At your peril, you allow one thing to obscure your inner communion with God. Drop it, whatever it is, and see that you keep your inner vision clear.

使耶稣的生，也显明在我们身上。（林后四10）

要养成述说神在我们身上所成就的恩典的习惯。这不是从地狱里得拯救的问题，而是我们得救之后，在肉身上如何彰显神儿子的生命问题。在不愉快的事上，正显示我们有没有彰显神的生命。我是流露神儿子的温良，还是表现离开神后自我的怒气？唯一令我欣然接受不愉快的事情的，就是神儿子的生命在我身上彰显的热切期望。不管事情多么不如意，只要说：“主，我乐意在这事上遵从你。”神儿子即时就会出现，在我的生命中彰显祂的荣耀。

千万不可迟疑，一旦你顺服那光，神的儿子就从那里透射出来。要是你心里争辩，就必叫圣灵担忧。你必须保持内在情况良好，让神儿子的生命彰显出来。若给自怜留地步，你就不健康了。我们生活的环境，是表彰神儿子何等完全、何等圣洁的机会。什么事情叫你心慌意乱，就是表彰神又一新的机会。自己选择不愉快的事与因神的安排而有不愉快的事，是截然不同的。若神放在你那里，祂是绰有裕余地供应你。

保持心灵健壮，好彰显神儿子的生命。不可沉湎在记忆里，让神的话活泼有力地活在你里面吧！

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求祢今天向我们彰显祢的生命。让这里的每一个人，开始呼吸到自由的空气，并归向祢，在敬虔和恩典中得以坚固。

May 14 The Habit Of Enjoying The Disagreeable

“That life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” 2 Corinthians 4:10

We have to form habits to express what God's grace has done in us. It is not a question of being saved from hell, but of being saved in order to manifest the life of the Son of God in our mortal flesh, and it is the disagreeable things which make us exhibit whether or not we are manifesting His life. Do I manifest the essential sweetness of the Son of God, or the essential irritation of “myself” apart from Him? The only thing that will enable me to enjoy the disagreeable is the keen enthusiasm of letting the life of the Son of God manifest itself in me. No matter how disagreeable a thing may be, say – “Lord, I am delighted to obey Thee in this matter,” and instantly the Son of God will press to the front, and there will be manifested in my human life that which glorifies Jesus.

There must be no debate. The moment you obey the light, the Son of God presses through you in that particular; but if you debate you grieve the Spirit of God. You must keep yourself fit to let the life of the Son of God be manifested, and you cannot keep yourself fit if you give way to self-pity. Our circumstances are the means of manifesting how wonderfully perfect and extraordinarily pure the Son of God is. The thing that ought to make the heart beat is a new way of manifesting the Son of God. It is one thing to choose the disagreeable, and another thing to go into the disagreeable by God's engineering. If God puts you there, He is amply sufficient.

Keep your soul fit to manifest the life of the Son of God. Never live on memories; let the word of God be always living and active in you.

使你们知道他的恩召有何等指望。（弗一18）

要记得你蒙拯救的目的是什么－－是叫神儿子的生命在你必朽的肉身上彰显出来。要殚精竭虑，去体会成为神儿女的恩召；要每次正面面对所遭遇的。

你虽然没有办法救自己，却必须有所事事，以表彰所得的救恩。你要把神做在你身上的表扬出来。你有没有用舌头、脑筋、精神去努力表扬？你若仍然是昔日可怜的老样子，孤行己意，那么你说神已拯救你，并叫你成圣，这不过是谎话。

神是大工程师，他容许困难临到你身上，要看你能否越过－－“我靠着神跳过墙垣”。神不会放松对他儿女的要求。彼得说：“有火炼的试验临到你们，不要以为奇怪。”把握机会，面对现实，付诸行动！不管痛苦多大，只要神有机会藉着你彰显他自己就好了。

但愿神不再看见我们里面的怨叹，却看见我们充满属灵的果敢与奋勇，准备面对任何从神而来的事物。我们必须操练自己，叫神儿子可以在我们必朽的肉身上彰显出来。生命唯一的目标，就是彰显神的儿子，并且不再向神发号施令。我们的主从来没有指挥他的父，我们在此也不得指挥神；我们在世上是要顺服他的旨意，使他能在我们身上成就他所要成就的。我们若明白这点，神就会使我们成为擘开的饼、倾出来的酒，去喂养与滋润别人。

祈祷◆主啊，你已经启示了很多真理，还有不少事情要告诉我们，可是，我感到自己的生活太少按着你所指示的去行。主啊，加力给我，让我彰显你的荣耀。

May 15 The Habit Of Rising To The Occasion

“That ye may know what is the hope of His calling...” Ephesians 1:18

Remember what you are saved for – that the Son of God might be manifested in your mortal flesh. Bend the whole energy of your powers to realize your election as a child of God; rise to the occasion every time.

You cannot do anything for your salvation, but you must do something to manifest it, you must work out what God has worked in. Are you working it out with your tongue, and your brain and your nerves? If you are still the same miserable crosspatch, set on your own way, then it is a lie to say that God has saved and sanctified you.

God is the Master Engineer, He allows the difficulties to come in order to see if you can vault over them properly – “By my God have I leaped over a wall.” God will never shield you from any of the requirements of a son or daughter of His. Peter says – “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you.” Rise to the occasion; do the thing. It does not matter how it hurts as long as it gives God the chance to manifest Him self in your mortal flesh.

May God not find the whine in us any more, but may He find us full of spiritual pluck and athleticism, ready to face anything He brings. We have to exercise ourselves in order that the Son of God may be manifested in our mortal flesh. God never has museums. The only aim of the life is that the Son of God may be manifested, and all dictation to God vanishes. Our Lord never dictated to His Father, and we are not here to dictate to God; we are here to submit to His will so that He may work through us what He wants. When we realize this, He will make us broken bread and poured out wine to feed and nourish others.

与神的性情有份。（彼后一4）

我们既是凭应许与神的性情有份，就必须习惯地把神的性情“运用”在我们的人性里。这样，首先要养成的习惯，就是明白神的供给。我们说：“呀！我没有这能力，买不起哩！”这句话藏着最大的谎话。在大自然里谈金钱，颇令人觉得不是味道；在属灵上也是如此。在我们说话里，似乎说神对我们非常的吝啬！我们以为在一天结束时说“好了，这天刚好够用，总算挣扎过去”，这样才是真的谦逊，其实在主耶稣里，全能的神的一切都是我们的。我们若顺服神，他可以吩咐最后一粒沙、最远的一颗星来祝福我们。环境困苦又有何妨？难道环境不可以困难吗？我们若纵容自己自怜自悯，享受自怨自艾的凄凉，就是弃绝神给我们的丰盛，也拦阻别人得着他的供应。没有罪比自怜的罪更大，因为它遮掩了神，把自我放在宝座上。它叫我们口吐怨言，使我们的生命成为不知足的属灵海绵，一点也不美，也不大方。

当神开始对我们满意，他就会把一切虚浮的财富挪开，直至我们认识一切泉源都在他里面。神的恩惠、权能，若不能在我们身上彰显（我们不自觉的），神就要追究我们。“神能将各样的恩惠，多多的加给你们。”所以要学习把神的恩惠施予别人。身上常带着神的印记，这样，神的祝福必常藉你流露。

祈祷◆主啊，让你能力的甜美和完全，在今天临到我。让我得着伟大、丰富、充满恩慈和喜乐的属神生命。

May 16 The Habit Of Wealth

“Partakers of the divine nature.” 2 Peter 1:4

We are made partakers of the Divine nature through the promises; then we have to “manipulate” the Divine nature in our human nature by habits, and the first habit to form is the habit of realizing the provision God has made. “Oh, I can't afford it,” we say – one of the worst lies is tucked up in that phrase. It is ungovernably bad taste to talk about money in the natural domain, and so it is spiritually, and yet we talk as if our Heavenly Father had cut us off with a shilling! We think it a sign of real modesty to say at the end of a day – “Oh, well, I have just got through, but it has been a severe tussle.” And all the Almighty God is ours in the Lord Jesus! And He will tax the last grain of sand and the remotest star to bless us if we will obey Him. What does it matter if external circumstances are hard? Why should they not be! If we give way to self-pity and indulge in the luxury of misery, we banish God's riches from our own lives and hinder others from entering into His provision. No sin is worse than the sin of self-pity, because it obliterates God and puts self-interest upon the throne. It opens our mouths to spit out murmurings and our lives become craving spiritual sponges, there is nothing lovely or generous about them.

When God is beginning to be satisfied with us He will impoverish everything in the nature of fictitious wealth, until we learn that all our fresh springs are in Him. If the majesty and grace and power of God are not being manifested in us (not to our consciousness), God holds us responsible. “God is able to make all grace abound,” then learn to lavish the grace of God on others. Be stamped with God's nature, and His blessing will come through you all the time.

正祝福的时候，他就离开他们，被带到天上去了。（路二十四51）

主登山变像之后的经历，是我们没法体验的。从那时起，主的生命完全是为了代赎。登山之前，他过的是正常人的生活；登山之后，经过客西马尼、十字架，以至复活，都不是我们所熟悉的。他的十字架，是人类进入神生命的门；他的复活，使他有赐人永生的权柄；他的升天，使天门为人敞开。

在升天的山上，登山变像的意义就明显了。耶稣若在登山变像时升了天，他就是独自而去，对我们只是一个荣耀的形像而已。可是，他纡尊降贵，从山上下来，与堕落的人类等量齐观。

升天是登山变像的实现，我们的主这时回到他原有的荣耀里去；可是他不单是以神儿子的身份回去，也以人子的身份回到神那里去。因为人子升天，人就有自由的通道直接去到神宝座前。

作为人子，耶稣故意限制了他的权能、全知，以及无所不在的自由；升天后却全部在他掌管之中了。耶稣基督为人子，有着神宝座的一切权能，从他升天之日起直到今天，他是万王之王，万主之主。

祈祷◆主啊，我的每一方面，都彻底、完全和绝对需要你。我是一个等待你注满的庞大潭穴，以你的荣耀和美善注满我，直至涌流不息。

May 17 His Ascension And Our Union

“And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.” Luke 24:51

We have no corresponding experience to the events in Our Lord's life after the Transfiguration. From then onwards Our Lord's life was altogether vicarious. Up to the time of the Transfiguration He had exhibited the normal perfect life of a man; from the Transfiguration onwards – Gethsemane, the Cross, the Resurrection – everything is unfamiliar to us. His Cross is the door by which every member of the human race can enter into the life of God; by His Resurrection He has the right to give eternal life to any man, and by His Ascension Our Lord enters heaven and keeps the door open for humanity.

On the Mount of Ascension the Transfiguration is completed. If Jesus had gone to heaven from the Mount of Transfiguration, He would have gone alone; He would have been nothing more to us than a glorious Figure. But He turned His back on the glory, and came down from the Mount to identify Himself with fallen humanity.

The Ascension is the consummation of the Transfiguration. Our Lord does now go back into His primal glory; but He does not go back simply as Son of God; He goes back to God as Son of Man as well as Son of God. There is now freedom of access for anyone straight to the very throne of God by the Ascension of the Son of Man. As Son of Man Jesus Christ deliberately limited omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience in Himself. Now they are His in absolute full power. As Son of Man Jesus Christ has all power at the throne of God. He is King of kings and Lord of lords from the day of His Ascension until now.

你们看那天上的飞鸟，……你想野地里的百合花……。（太六26-28）

试想想野地的百合花怎样长起来，它们无非是顺应自然而生！又试想想大海、空气、太阳、星星、月亮－－这一切就是这样存在，然而，它们所达成的是何等的任务！许多时候，我们凭着自己的努力，去作一个言行一致、有用的人，反而将神原要我们对别人的影响破坏了。耶稣说，属灵的生长只有一个途径，就是在神自己。“不要顾虑自己对被人是否有帮助，相信我吧！”

注目在至高的源头上，你就有生命的活水流出来。我们若用人的常识本能，是无法得着生命的泉源；所以耶稣教导我们不是靠自己的守望，乃是专注在天父身上。天父知道我们所处的景况，只要我们专心仰望他，就可像百合花一般生长。

对我们影响最大的人，不是那些整天唠唠叨叨教训我们的人，而是那些生活如星辰、如野地百合花般单纯真诚的人。这样的生命才足以模造我们。你要是想合神使用，就要与耶稣基督建立正常的关系，这样，他便会叫你一生在不知不觉中时刻为他所使用。

祈祷◆今早我怀着崇敬的心靠近你，感到你是我的天父，并且完全知悉你忍耐着我不真实的一面。但是，主啊，我现在似乎不关心自己是否真实，因为你本身就是最伟大的实体。

May 18 Careful Unreasonableness

“Behold the fowls of the air.” . . . “Consider the lilies of the field.” Matthew 6:26, 28

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they simply are! Think of the sea, the air, the sun, the stars and the moon – all these are, and what a ministration they exert. So often we mar God's designed influence through us by our self-conscious effort to be consistent and useful. Jesus says that there is only one way to develop spiritually, and that is by concentration on God. “Do not bother about being of use to others; believe on Me” – pay attention to the Source, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. We cannot get at the springs of our natural life by common sense, and Jesus is teaching that growth in spiritual life does not depend on our watching it, but on concentration on our Father in heaven. Our heavenly Father knows the circumstances we are in, and if we keep concentrated on Him we will grow spiritually as the lilies.

The people who influence us most are not those who buttonhole us and talk to us, but those who live their lives like the stars in heaven and the lilies in the field, perfectly simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mould us.

If you want to be of use to God, get rightly related to Jesus Christ and He will make you of use unconsciously every minute you live.

谁能使我们与基督的爱隔绝呢？（罗八35）

神并不叫人与患难绝缘；他说：“在患难中，我要与他同在。”人生不管遭受怎样重大苦难的打击，一概都不能叫人与神的关系隔绝。我们“在这一切事上已经得胜有余了”，保罗在此并不是说些虚幻的事，而是指一些极其真实的事；他说我们在这些事上所以是优胜者，不是靠一己的机智，一己的勇气，也不是靠任何其他事物，乃是根据一件事实；我们与神在基督耶稣里的关系，而这关系不是任何事物可以影响的。不管对也好错也好，我们的景况就是这样，环境际遇就是这样。那些环境一帆风顺的基督徒，我为他们感到可惜。

“难道是患难吗……？”患难绝不是什么赏心乐事；它所包罗的范围极大，举凡困倦、屈辱、劳累等都接踵而至，但都不能叫我们与神的爱隔绝。千万别让忧虑和患难阻碍你认识神爱你这事实。

“是困苦吗……？”当事事不如意，人说神的爱只是谎言，而正义也不存在，神的爱仍然靠得住吗？“是饥饿吗……？”我们饿着肚子的时候，是否仍然相信神的爱，而且得胜有余呢？除非耶稣基督是个骗子，把保罗蒙在鼓里；否则，必定有极不寻常发生在这个人身上，叫他在万事不如意之中，仍然抓紧神的爱。在这一切事情上，逻辑已经失去它的功用。只有一件事可作解释－－就是神在耶稣基督里的爱。让我重整旗鼓，再接再厉吧！

祈祷◆主啊，为着我身处的地方，我赞美你；可是在我里面正开始猜想－－这是否你为我预备的地方？求你牢牢地拖带我实行你的旨意。我可能只是烦躁不安，求你使我安静和得力，以致我不会因疑惑而得罪你。

May 19 “Out Of The Wreck I Rise”

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Romans 8:35

God does not keep a man immune from trouble; He says – “I will be with him in trouble.” It does not matter what actual troubles in the most extreme form get hold of a man's life, not one of them can separate him from his relationship to God. We are “more than conquerors in all these things.” Paul is not talking of imaginary things, but of things that are desperately actual; and he says we are super-victors in the midst of them, not by our ingenuity, or by our courage, or by anything other than the fact that not one of them affects our relationship to God in Jesus Christ. Rightly or wrongly, we are where we are, exactly in the condition we are in. I am sorry for the Christian who has not something in his circumstances he wishes was not there.

“Shall tribulation . . . ?” Tribulation is never a noble thing; but let tribulation be what it may – exhausting, galling, fatiguing, it is not able to separate us from the love of God. Never let cares or tribulations separate you from the fact that God loves you.

“Shall anguish . . . ?” – can God's love hold when everything says that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?

“Shall famine . . . ?” – can we not only believe in the love of God but be more than conquerors, even while we are being starved?

Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver and Paul is deluded, or some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are all against God's character. Logic is silenced in the face of every one of these things. Only one thing can account for it – the love of God in Christ Jesus. “Out of the wreck I rise” every time.

你们常存忍耐，就必保存灵魂。（路二十一19）

人重生了，他的思想和理智有一段时候就没有往日那样明达。我们要把新生命表现出来，要培养基督的心。“要用忍耐保存灵魂。”我们大多数人宁可站在信徒生活的门槛上，而不根据神所赋予里头的新生命来建立自己的灵命。我们失败，是因为不明白自己的本相，在许多事上，只一意抵赖魔鬼，而不归咎在自己那不受约束的本性上。试想想我们受激动时那副样子便可知了。

有些事是我们不可祈求的：例如情绪。情绪不是祷告可以驱散的，是要一脚把它踢开。人的情绪，多半是根据肉体的情况而定，与德性无关。要经常竭力拒绝听从因肉体情况而生发的情绪，一秒钟也不可容让。我们要揪着自己的领口，振作起来，就会发觉能够做自己以为不能做的事。我们不肯做，就成了自己的咒诅。信徒的生命，是属灵勇气在肉身的一种表现。

祈祷◆主啊，为着你的说话－－“你们常存忍耐，就必保存灵魂"－－我赞美你。当我正按着你的心意，努力要得着灵魂时，为着你那将要临到的恩典，我赞美你。

May 20 The Realm Of The Real

“In your patience possess ye your souls.” Luke 21:19

When a man is born again, there is not the same robustness in his thinking or reasoning for a time as formerly. We have to make an expression of the new life, to form the mind of Christ. “Acquire your soul with patience.” Many of us prefer to stay at the threshold of the Christian life instead of going on to construct a soul in accordance with the new life God has put within. We fail because we are ignorant of the way we are made, we put things down to the devil instead of our own undisciplined natures. Think what we can be when we are roused!

There are certain things we must not pray about – moods, for instance. Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking. A mood nearly always has its seat in the physical condition, not in the moral. It is a continual effort not to listen to the moods which arise from a physical condition, never submit to them for a second. We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and shake ourselves, and we will find that we can do what we said we could not. The curse with most of us is that we won't. The Christian life is one of incarnate spiritual pluck.

你们要先求他的国和他的义，这些东西都要加给你们了。（太六33）

我们一听到耶稣这句话，会觉得是极度革命性的，是前所未闻的论调。耶稣说要“先求神的国”，我们的理论则刚好相反；就是最体贴圣灵的人也会说：“我要生活呀，我一定要赚这么多的钱；一定要有衣有食才行。”可见我们一生最关注的，不是神的国，而是怎样谋生过活。耶稣却把次序倒转过来；你当先与神建立良好的关系，当作人生当务之急，而千万别把注意力转移到其他事物之上。“不要为生命忧虑……”主指出我们为生活而挂虑，是完全没有理由的。他不是说什么都不思想的人是有福的，因这样的人是愚不可及。耶稣是教导门徒要把与神的关系视作生命的重心，而其他事则视作等闲。耶稣这里的意思是：别把吃什么喝什么作为你生命的决定因素，只要专注在神身上。有些人由于不注意饮食，而招致损害；有些人则不注意衣着，而不修边幅；他们都忽略地上的事，神却要他们自己承担。耶稣的意思是要把与神的关系，放在人生的首位，其他一切都属次要。

让圣灵把耶稣这番话的教训溶在我们里面，这是信徒生命中最严格的训练。

祈祷◆主啊，今天早上，求你使我与那些奇异的景象和声音隔绝；将我从那些联系着现今和最近的东西中解脱出来，以你的灵完完全全地充满这天。

May 21 Divine Reasonings Of Faith

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33

Immediately we look at these words of Jesus, we find them the most revolutionary statement human ears ever listened to. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” We argue in exactly the opposite way, even the most spiritually-minded of us – “But I must live; I must make so much money; I must be clothed; I must be fed.” The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God, but how we are to fit ourselves to live. Jesus reverses the order: Get rightly related to God first, maintain that as the great care of your life, and never put the concern of your care on the other things.

“Take no thought for your life. . . .” Our Lord points out the utter unreasonableness from His standpoint of being so anxious over the means of living. Jesus is not saying that the man who takes thought for nothing is blessed – that man is a fool. Jesus taught that a disciple has to make his relationship to God the dominating concentration of his life, and to be carefully careless about everything else in comparison to that. Jesus is saying – “Don't make the ruling factor of your life what you shall eat and what you shall drink, but be concentrated absolutely on God.” Some people are careless over what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it; they are careless about what they wear, and they look as they have no business to look; they are careless about their earthly affairs, and God holds them responsible. Jesus is saying that the great care of the life is to put the relationship to God first, and everything else second.

It is one of the severest disciplines of the Christian life to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into harmony with the teaching of Jesus in these verses.

使他们都合而为一，正如你父在我里面，我在你里面，使他们也在我们里面。（约十七21）

你的道路若是孤单，请读约翰福音第十七章。你可以在这里得到正确的解释－－耶稣正求父叫你与父合一，如同他与父合一一样。你是尽力使这祷告得到答允？还是你的人生另有目标？

你既成为门徒，就不能像昔日一般独立自主了。神的目的不是要应允我们的祈求，而是藉我们的祷告，叫我们能分辨他的心意，这在约翰福音第十七章已显示出来。有一个祷告是神必然应允的，就是主耶稣的祷告－－“叫他们合而为一，如同我们合而为一”。我们与主耶稣是这样亲密吗？

神关注的并不是我们的计划。他不曾说：“你愿意经历这痛苦的困扰吗？”他容让这些事发生，自有他的目的。我们所经历的事，要不是叫我们变得更温柔、更完美、更高贵，就会叫我们更吹毛求疵、更挑剔、更坚持己意。经历可以叫我们成为妖魔，也可以叫我们变作圣徒，关键完全在乎我们与神的关系。我们若说：“愿你的旨意成就。”就能得着约翰福音第十七章的安慰，就知道天父以智慧行万事。当我们知道神的用心，就不会卑鄙无耻。耶稣所祷告的，是要我们完全与他合一，正如他与父合一一样。有些人仍离得很远，但神不会任凭我们，必使我们真正与他合一，因为耶稣已为我们祷告，盼望我们可以达到这境界。

祈祷◆对于在世上为你结果子，我是那么无助，我是那么胸襟狭小，多么的不像你。求你赦免我，并且愿我因着住在耶稣里面，可以多结果子，荣耀天父。

May 22 Now This Explains It

“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, are in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.” John 17:21

If you are going through a solitary way, read John 17, it will explain exactly why you are where you are – Jesus has prayed that you may be one with the Father as He is. Are you helping God to answer that prayer, or have you some other end for your life? Since you became a disciple you cannot be as independent as you used to be.

The purpose of God is not to answer our prayers, but by our prayers we come to discern the mind of God, and this is revealed in John 17. There is one prayer God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus – “that they may be one, even as We are One.” Are we as close to Jesus Christ as that?

God is not concerned about our plans; He does not say – Do you want to go through this bereavement, this upset? He allows these things for His own purpose. The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, nobler men and women; or they are making us more captious and fault-finding, more insistent upon our own way. The things that happen either make us fiends, or they make us saints; it depends entirely upon the relationship we are in to God. If we say – “Thy will be done,” we get the consolation of John 17, the consolation of knowing that our Father is working according to His own wisdom. When we understand what God is after we will not get mean and cynical. Jesus has prayed nothing less for us than absolute oneness with Himself as He was one with the Father. Some of us are far off it, and yet God will not leave us alone until we are one with Him, because Jesus has prayed that we may be.

不要为生命忧虑吃什么、喝什么，为身体忧虑穿什么。（太六25）

耶稣把信徒合乎理智的忧虑，当作不信。我们若受了圣灵，他一定会追问我们说：“在朋友当中，这一天安排妥当的假期，这些新书中，神的位置在哪里？”他总要追问我们，直到我们以神为首。什么时候我们把别的东西摆在首位，就会产生混乱。

“不要忧虑。”不要把未来临的事压在自己肩上。忧虑不但是错，而且是不信；因为忧虑就是不信神能解决我们生活上实际的细节问题，而我们的忧虑往往是这些问题。你有没有留意主耶稣说什么会挤住神的道？魔鬼吗？不是！乃是今生的思虑，这些总是琐琐碎碎的忧虑。我看不见，就信不过，这就是不信的起头。唯一能救治不信的，乃是顺服圣灵。耶稣对门徒所说的一句重要的话，就是撇下。

祈祷◆无所不能的主神，我的灵是何等欣喜地知道，你看顾麻雀，亦数算我们的头发！主啊，向我吹气，直至我的身体和思想都敬拜你。

May 23 Careful Infidelity

“Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body what ye shall put on.” Matthew 6:25

Jesus sums up common-sense carefulness in a disciple as infidelity. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will press through and say – Now where does God come in in this relationship, in this mapped out holiday, in these new books? He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.

“Take no thought . . .” don't take the pressure of forethought upon yourself. It is not only wrong to worry, it is infidelity, because worrying means that we do not think that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never any thing else that worries us. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the word He puts in? The devil? No, the cares of this world. It is the little worries always. I will not trust where I cannot see, that is where infidelity begins. The only cure for infidelity is obedience to the Spirit.

The great word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon.

我一看见，就仆倒在他脚前，像死了一样。（启一17）

也许你像约翰一样，与主耶稣相知甚深。但当他突然以完全陌生的面貌出现，你只能仆倒他脚前像死去一样。有时神不能以别的办法显示他自己，就只好以他的威严显现。那异象中的威荣，叫你在绝望中心怀兴奋。那时，你要再起来，就必须捉着神的手了。

“他用右手按着我说。”在惊恐中，有人触摸你，你便晓得那是耶稣基督的右手。不是阻止、纠正或管教的右手，而是永在的父的右手。无论他的手什么时候放在你身上，总有难以形容的平安与安慰，因为知道有永远的膀臂在扶持，就得着供应、安慰与力量。神的抚摸一来，就再没有什么能叫你恐惧的了。主耶稣带着天上的荣耀，对一个微不足道的门徒说：“不要惧怕。”他的仁慈是那样的温柔，我对他有这样的认识吗？

留心那些令人绝望的事物。有一种绝望是没有喜乐、没有展望、没有曙光。可是只要我知道“在我里头，就是在我肉体之中，没有良善”，那时绝望中的喜乐就来了。在神荣耀的彰显之中，我必须谦恭俯伏。若要起来，神必亲手搀扶。除非我到了一切的尽头，否则神不能为我作什么。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，在属灵和各方面，愿你加倍地保守这圣灵的殿。赐给我们你所喜悦的光辉和明亮。

May 24 The Delight Of Despair

“And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.” Revelation 1:17

It may be that like the apostle John you know Jesus Christ intimately, when suddenly He appears with no familiar characteristic at all, and the only thing you can do is to fall at His feet as dead. There are times when God cannot reveal Himself in any other way than in His majesty, and it is the awfulness of the vision which brings you to the delight of despair; if you are ever to be raised up, it must be by the hand of God.

“He laid His right hand upon me.” In the midst of the awfulness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. The right hand not of restraint nor of correction nor of chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father. Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it is ineffable peace and comfort, the sense that “underneath are the everlasting arms,” full of sustaining and comfort and strength. When once His touch comes, nothing at all can cast you into fear again. In the midst of all His ascended glory the Lord Jesus comes to speak to an insignificant disciple, and to say – “Fear not.” His tenderness is ineffably sweet. Do I know Him like that?

Watch some of the things that strike despair. There is despair in which there is no delight, no horizon, no hope of anything brighter; but the delight of despair comes when I know that “in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.” I delight to know that there is that in me which must fall prostrate before God when He manifests Himself, and if I am ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God. God can do nothing for me until I get to the limit of the possible.

你向左，我就向右；你向右，我就向左。（创十三9）

你一开始过信靠神的生活，就会有许多满有吸引和有利的机会出现在你面前，而这些都是你理所应得的。可是你若凭信心生活，就会主动放弃这些权益，让神替你选择。神有时让你置身于试验之中，若你不是凭信而活，图谋切身的福利并不算错。但你既然信靠神，就当快快乐乐地放下自己的权利，让神替你去选择。这个操练，是藉着对神话语的顺服，使人天然的本质改造成属灵的样式。

人生若以权利来做指南，就会把属灵的生命窒息了。在信靠神的生活中，最大的敌人并不是罪，而是不及标准的善良。善良永远是至善的仇敌。亚伯拉罕易地而居，本是世间最明智之举，因他有主权。但他不作选择，以致周遭的人都视他为愚妄。我们许多人灵性不长进，是因为要自己选择自以为好的，不信靠神去替我们选择。我们要学习注目在神的标准上生活。“你当在我面前。”

祈祷◆主啊，你的道路就像你那般完美；而我的道路就像我自己那样不完全。感动我，让我今天能有效地认同你的感觉和你的道路。

May 25 The Test Of Self-Interest

“If thou will take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.” Genesis 13:9

As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and luxurious prospects will open up before you, and these things are yours by right; but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God choose for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the right and proper thing to consider if you were not living a life of faith; but if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and leave God to choose for you. This is the discipline by means of which the natural is transformed into the spiritual by obedience to the voice of God.

Whenever right is made the guidance in the life, it will blunt the spiritual insight. The great enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but the good which is not good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. It would seem the wisest thing in the world for Abraham to choose, it was his right, and the people around would consider him a fool for not choosing. Many of us do not go on spiritually because we prefer to choose what is right instead of relying on God to choose for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eye on God. “Walk before Me.”

不住的祷告。（帖前五17）

我们对祷告的观念，会影响我们对祷告态度的正误。我们若视祷告如胸中的呼吸，如心中的血液，这就对了。血不停地流，呼吸也不间断；我们虽不自觉，它却一直在运行着。耶稣使我们与神联合，我们未必时常感觉得到。若我们顺服他，就知道他实在是时常如此。祷告不是一项活动，乃是生命。当心那些阻碍随时祷告的东西。“不住祷告”，保持赤子般的习惯，随时在心中向神祷告。

耶稣从未提及落空的祷告。他确实知道祷告必蒙应允。我们有没有靠着圣灵，有主耶稣对祷告那种不可言状的信心？还是觉得神有时不听人祷告？“祈求就得着。”我们说：“但……但……”。

神用最奇妙的办法应允祷告，不是有时听有时不听，乃是时时都听。不过祷告得应允，未必是照我们所要的。我们指望神答允祷告吗？我们的危险就是把耶稣所说的简化，使之符合人的常理；其实若只是常理，就不值得说出了。耶稣所讲的祷告，是超然的启示。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，有太多的事需要祈求，有太多的人需要拯救。我何等渴望地仰望你。

May 26 Think As Jesus Taught

“Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17

We think rightly or wrongly about prayer according to the conception we have in our minds of prayer. If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly. The blood flows ceaselessly, and breathing continues ceaselessly; we are not conscious of it, but it is always going on. We are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect joint with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life. Beware of anything that stops ejaculatory prayer. “Pray without ceasing,” keep the childlike habit of ejaculatory prayer in your heart to God all the time.

Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer, He had the boundless certainty that prayer is always answered. Have we by the Spirit the unspeakable certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when God does not seem to have answered prayer? “Every one that asketh receiveth.” We say – “But . . . , but . . .” God answers prayer in the best way, not sometimes, but every time, although the immediate manifestation of the answer in the domain in which we want it may not always follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?

The danger with us is that we want to water down the things that Jesus says and make them mean something in accordance with common sense; if it were only common sense, it was not worth while for Him to say it. The things Jesus says about prayer are supernatural revelations.

你们要在城里等候，直到你们领受从上头来的能力。（路二十四49）

门徒要等候五旬节的来临，不单是为了准备自己，更是要等主得荣耀，成为一件历史事实。他得荣耀就怎样了？“他既被神的右手高举，又从父受了所应许的圣灵，就把你们所看见所听见的，浇灌下来”。约翰福音七章39节所作的注解－－“那时还没有赐下圣灵来，因为耶稣尚未得着荣耀。”并不适用在我们身上，因为圣灵已经赐下来了，主也得了荣耀。我们所等候的，不是神旨，而是自己有没有预备好。

五旬节前，圣灵的感动与能力已在作工，但他并不在那里。主一升天得荣耀，圣灵就降临世间，而且一直在这里了。我们必须领受这个启示，知道他在这里。接受圣灵，是信徒必须一直持守的。我们接受了圣灵，就从升天的主接受了生气蓬勃的生命。

叫人改变的并不是圣灵的洗，乃是升天的基督藉圣灵进入人生命中。我们往往把新约中不可分割的事分割开来。圣灵的洗不是一种在耶稣基督之外的经历，而是基督升了天的明证。

圣灵的洗不会叫你想到时间和永恒，却令你想到宝贵的现今。“认识你……这就是永生。”现在就开始认识他，直到永远。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我感谢你的话语－－“不是倚靠势力，不是倚靠才能，乃是倚靠我的灵方能成事。”今天，我祈求你的灵给予我这种帮助，让我可以使你满意。

May 27 The Life That Lives

“Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” Luke 24:49

The disciples had to tarry until the day of Pentecost not for their own preparation only; they had to wait until the Lord was glorified historically. As soon as He was glorified, what happened? “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.” The parenthesis in John 7:39 (“For the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified”) does not apply to us; the Holy Ghost has been given, the Lord is glorified; the waiting depends not on God's providence, but on our fitness.

The Holy Spirit's influence and power were at work before Pentecost, but He was not here. Immediately Our Lord was glorified in Ascension, the Holy Spirit came into this world, and He has been here ever since. We have to receive the revelation that He is here. The reception of the Holy Spirit is the maintained attitude of a believer. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive quickening life from the ascended Lord.

It is not the baptism of the Holy Ghost which changes men, but the power of the ascended Christ coming into men's lives by the Holy Ghost that changes them. We too often divorce what the New Testament never divorces. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is not an experience apart from Jesus Christ: it is the evidence of the ascended Christ.

The baptism of the Holy Ghost does not make you think of Time or Eternity, it is one amazing glorious NOW. “This is life eternal that they might know Thee.” Begin to know Him now, and finish never.

到那日，你们什么也就不问我了。（约十六23）

那日是指什么时候呢？就是当升天的主使你与父神合一之日。那日你与父合一，正如耶稣与父合一。耶稣说：“到那日你什么都不用问我了。”耶稣复活的生命尚未在你身上彰显时，你总要问这个问那个；然而过了不久，什么问题都没有了，因为再也没有什么要问的。你已经达到全心倚靠复活主的地步，神的旨意与你完全契合。你现今是过着这样的生活吗？若不是的话，为什么呢？

也许还有无数令你难以了解的事，可是这些并不能成为你与神之间的阻隔。“到那日，你们什么也就不问我了。”－－你不用问，因为你确实知道神必使他的旨意成就。约翰福音四十章1节成为你心灵的状况的话，便再没有什么要问的了。若有任何险奥难明的事介入你与神之间，切勿用自己的智慧求答案，要在性情中去找，因症结就在那里。当你肯降服主耶稣，理智就会清醒了。那时你就经历到父子之间无差距的关系，因为主使你与父合一了。“到那日，你什么也就不问我了。”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我内心极之渴望得到一个标记，表明你注视我。愿你赐予我一个记号，让我知道我在你的计划中被你所使用。

May 28 Unquestioned Revelation

“And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing.” John 16:23

When is “that day”? When the Ascended Lord makes you one with the Father. In that day you will be one with the Father as Jesus is, and “in that day,” Jesus says, “ye shall ask Me nothing.” Until the resurrection life of Jesus is manifested in you, you want to ask this and that; then after a while you find all questions gone, you do not seem to have any left to ask. You have come to the place of entire reliance on the resurrection life of Jesus which brings you into perfect contact with the purpose of God. Are you living that life now? If not, why shouldn't you?

There may be any number of things dark to your understanding, but they do not come in between your heart and God. “And in that day ye shall ask Me no question” – you do not need to, you are so certain that God will bring things out in accordance with His will. John 14:1 has become the real state of your heart, and there are no more questions to be asked. If anything is a mystery to you and it is coming in between you and God, never look for the explanation in your intellect, look for it in your disposition, it is that which is wrong. When once your disposition is willing to submit to the life of Jesus, the understanding will be perfectly clear, and you will get to the place where there is no distance between the Father and His child because the Lord has made you one, and “in that day ye shall ask Me no question.”

到那日，你们要奉我的名祈求……父自己爱你们。（约十六26-27）

“到那日，你们要奉我的名祈求”，就是依神的本性祈求，并不是“用我的名作为符咒”，乃是“你既与我如此亲密，就必与我合而为一”了。“那日”不是将来的某一日，而是指此时此地。“父自己爱你们”－－那合一是如此的完整与绝对！主并非说，人生从此就没有逆境；而是他深知父神的心意，便藉着圣灵的洗，把我们提升到天上，在那里将神的旨意显明给我们。

“你们若向父求什么……”“那日”，是神与圣徒的关系不受拦阻的日子。耶稣如何站在父神面前，洁白无暇，我们也藉着圣灵的洗所产生的大能功效，同样被提升到那关系里去－－“使他们合而为一，像我们一样。”

“……他就必因我的名，赐给你们。”耶稣说，父神知道我们的祷告。何等大的挑战！因着耶稣复活升天的大能，并神所差下来的圣灵，我们得以进到与父神至高的旨意联合。在耶稣基督放我们在这高贵的地位上，我们得以奉他的名，以他的性情祷告；这性情也就是圣灵赐给我们的。

耶稣说：“你们奉我的名，无论向父求什么，他就赐给你们。”耶稣基督至尊的品德，是经得起他自己话语的考验的。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，今天是大施恩福的日子。为着你伟大的计划，我感谢你；噢，主啊，以你的能力和恩典来推行你的计划。

May 29 Undisturbed Relationship

“At that day ye shall ask in My name . . .” “The Father Himself loveth you.” John 16:26, 27

“At that day ye shall ask in My name,” i.e., in My nature. Not – “You shall use My name as a magic word,” but – “You will be so intimate with Me that you will be one with Me.” “That day” is not a day hereafter, but a day meant for here and now. “The Father Himself loveth you” – the union is so complete and absolute. Our Lord does not mean that life will be free from external perplexities, but that just as He knew the Father’s heart and mind, so by the baptism of the Holy Ghost He can lift us into the heavenly places where He can reveal the counsels of God to us.

“Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name. . . .” “That day” is a day of undisturbed relationship between God and the saint. Just as Jesus stood unsullied in the presence of His Father, so by the mighty efficacy of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, we can be lifted into that relationship – “that they may be one, even as We are One.”

“He will give it you.” Jesus says that God will recognize our prayers. What a challenge! By the Resurrection and Ascension power of Jesus, by the sent-down Holy Ghost, we can be lifted into such a relationship with the Father that we are at one with the perfect sovereign will of God by our free choice even as Jesus was. In that wonderful position, placed there by Jesus Christ, we can pray to God in His name, in His nature, which is gifted to us by the Holy Ghost, and Jesus says – “What soever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you.” – The sovereign character of Jesus Christ is tested by His own statements.

主，我要跟从你，但……（路九61）

假如神叫你做一件与常理大相径庭的事，你会怎样呢？退缩？在肉身上养成的习惯，须以坚定的决心去改变，否则就会一直做下去。在属灵上，也是如此。你屡次遵主的话起来，但到了某一关头，就会裹足不前，甚至毅然放弃。“好的，但－－假定我在这事上顺服神，……又怎样？”“好了，我心顺服神，只要他让我用自己的智慧，不踏足在黑暗中。”耶稣基督要求倚靠他的人，有天然的那种冒险精神。若有人要做一件有价值的事，他有时必须孤注一掷。属灵的领域里，主也要求你用理智所坚持的一切撇下，投入他的话语里去。你这样做，就会发现他所说的合符理智。在常理下，耶稣基督的话似乎是疯狂的；可是，在信心跟前，你就会惊讶地发现这正是神的话。要全心信靠神，当他领你去探险，要立刻接受。我们在危机之中，往往表现得像不信的人。所以千万人中也许只有一个，肯将信心寄放在神身上。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，靠着你的恩典，我的思想能够明白那么多，所说的话也能那么多－－求你使我的心灵和行为不单与思想踏着同一步伐，更能够超越它。

May 30 “Yes – But . . . !”

“Lord, I will follow Thee; but . . .” Luke 9:61

Supposing God tells you to do something which is an enormous test to your common sense, what are you going to do? Hang back? If you get into the habit of doing a thing in the physical domain, you will do it every time until you break the habit determinedly; and the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will get up to what Jesus Christ wants, and every time you will turn back when it comes to the point, until you abandon resolutely. “Yes, but – supposing I do obey God in this matter, what about . . . ?” “Yes, I will obey God if He will let me use my common sense, but don't ask me to take a step in the dark.” Jesus Christ demands of the man who trusts Him the same reckless sporting spirit that the natural man exhibits. If a man is going to do anything worth while, there are times when he has to risk everything on his leap, and in the spiritual domain Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold by common sense and leap into what He says, and immediately you do, you find that what He says fits on as solidly as common sense. At the bar of common sense Jesus Christ's statements may seem mad; but bring them to the bar of faith, and you begin to find with awestruck spirit that they are the words of God. Trust entirely in God, and when He brings you to the venture, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis, only one out of a crowd is daring enough to bank his faith in the character of God.

以信靠神为首。“耶稣却不将自己交托他们，因为他知道万人。”（约二24-25）

我们的主不信赖人，可是他对任何人都从来不存疑心、不怀苦毒、不失盼望，因为他先依靠神。他完全信得过神为每一个人行事那颗恩慈的心。我若把信心先放在人身上，结果就会失望。我会变得苦毒，因为硬要人做到十全十美，而这却是没有人能达致的。所以，除了神的恩典之外，无论对自己、对人，都不可信赖。

以神的需要为首。“我来了为要照你的旨意行。”（来十9）

人的顺服，往往是看见某一种需要才有所摆上。但主的顺服，乃是遵行他父的旨意。今日的呼声是“要去工作。外邦人因没有神而走向死亡，我们要把耶稣传给他们。”可是在作工之先，我们必须先让神在我们身上得到满足。“你们在此等候，直到……”等候的目的，就是要我们好好的连接在神的需要上。当神对我们的需求达到了，他就会开路，使我们知道在别处的需要。

以神所托付的为首。“凡为我的名，接待一个像这小孩子的，就是接待我。”（太十八5）

神把自己当作一个婴孩托付了我，期望我的生命像“伯利恒”。我天然的生命有没有藉着神儿子内住的生命而变化更新？神终极的目的，是要在我这必死的身上，彰显他儿子的荣耀。

祈祷◆主啊，我知道你有丰盛的恩典，也一直满有平安；求你将恩典与平安赐给我。你最清楚知道，我们的属灵生命是如何倚赖着肉身所感受到的平安。

May 31 God First

Put God First in Trust. “Jesus did not commit Himself unto them . . . for He knew what was in man.” John 2:24-25

Our Lord trusted no man; yet He was never suspicious, never bitter, never in despair about any man, because He put God first in trust; He trusted absolutely in what God's grace could do for any man. If I put my trust in human beings first, I will end in despairing of everyone; I will become bitter, because I have insisted on man being what no man ever can be – absolutely right. Never trust anything but the grace of God in yourself or in anyone else.

Put God's Needs First. “Lo, I come to do Thy will, 0 God.” Hebrews 10:9

A man's obedience is to what he sees to be a need; Our Lord's obedience was to the will of His Father. The cry to-day is – “We must get some work to do; the heathen are dying without God; we must go and tell them of Him.” We have to see first of all that God's needs in us personally are being met. “Tarry ye until. . . .” The purpose of this College is to get us rightly related to the needs of God. When God's needs in us have been met, then He will open the way for us to realize His needs elsewhere.

Put God's Trust First. “And whoso receiveth one such little child in my name receiveth Me.” Matthew 18:5

God's trust is that He gives me Himself as a babe. God expects my personal life to be a “Bethlehem.” Am I allowing my natural life to be slowly transfigured by the indwelling life of the Son of God? God's ultimate purpose is that His Son might be manifested in my mortal flesh.

人子啊，这些骸骨能复活吗？（结三十七3）

那个罪人能够转为圣徒吗？那扭曲的生命能变得正直吗？唯一的回答是：“主啊，你是知道的，我不知道。”切勿捧出属灵的道理轻蔑地说：“那当然，只要多读点圣经，好好灵修祷告，我看就没有问题了。”

动手做点事总比信靠神来得容易；我们往往把冲动误认为感动。因此，真正与神同工的人就寥寥无几，而为神工作的人却很多。我们宁可为神工作，而不愿信靠他。我真相信神能成就我所不能做的吗？我对人绝望到什么程度，就视乎神为我做了什么。我是否经历神奇妙的大能，以致我不再对任何人感到绝望？到底有没有丝毫属灵的果效成就在我身上？愈是惊惧，就愈缺乏属灵的经历。

“我的民哪，我开你们的坟墓。”神要让你看见人离开神的本相前，就必先让你看看你自己。神的灵若让你看见离开神恩典的光景（只有圣灵作工才会这样），你就会发现任何罪行，只不过是你罪性的一半而已，你也可能犯上同样的罪。我的坟墓被神打开，“我也知道，在我里头，就是在我肉体之中，没有良善。”神的灵不断地揭开人的本性，就是他离开神恩典时的本相。

祈祷◆主啊，我愿意在你面前倾出我的心－－我的灵此刻并没有卓越的经验，我的悟性也不灵敏，它们都反应迟缓；然而，我敬拜你，你永不迟缓或疲惫，你最清楚认识我的构造。

June 1 The Staggering Question

“Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel 37:3

Can that sinner be turned into a saint? Can that twisted life be put right? There is only one answer: “O Lord, Thou knowest, I don't.” Never trample in with religious common sense and say – “Oh, yes, with a little more Bible reading and devotion and prayer, I see how it can be done.”

It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we mistake panic for inspiration. That is why there are so few fellow workers with God and so many workers for Him. We would far rather work for God than believe in Him. Am I quite sure that God will do what I cannot do? I despair of men in the degree in which I have never realized that God has done anything for me. Is my experience such a wonderful realization of God's power and might that I can never despair of anyone I see? Have I had any spiritual work done in me at all? The degree of panic is the degree of the lack of personal spiritual experience.

“Behold, O my people, I will open your graves.” When God wants to show you what human nature is like apart from Himself, He has to show it you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He only does it when His Spirit is at work), you know there is no criminal who is half so bad in actuality as you know yourself to be in possibility. My “grave” has been opened by God and “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.” God's Spirit continually reveals what human nature is like apart from His grace.

谁敬畏耶和华？（诗二十五12）

你被什么缠绕着？你会说：“没有。”其实人都有些东西缠绕着，而这通常就是我们自己；若是信徒，缠绕我们的，就是我们的经历。诗人说我们要被神缠绕不息。要生命持续不息的，应该是与神同在，而不是单单想念他。我们内外的生命，应该被神无间歇地萦绕着。像一个小孩子对母亲的紧缠；虽然他并没有刻意想着她，可是一有危难，那常存的关系就是他母亲。因此，我们生活、作工、存留，都在于神。我们通过神来观察事物，因为对神常存的知觉，每时每刻都浮现在我们眼前。

神若在我们周遭萦绕不歇，就没有什么可以进袭－－没有忧虑、患难、焦急。这样，我们就明白为何主这样强调忧虑的罪。神若围绕我们，我们岂敢对他毫无信心？神的围绕，是抵御敌害的最有效屏障。

“他必安然居住。”生命若与基督一同藏在神里面，即使在患难、误会、谗谤围攻之下，他也必保守我们安然无恙。对于神时刻同行的奇妙体会，我们往往失之交臂。“神是我们的避难所”－－什么也透不过这荫庇。

祈祷◆呀，主啊，你的面容、你的感动、你的赐福，是我心所寻求的。主啊，感动我，直至我的每一部分，都被你恩慈和带有能力的平安所震撼和振奋。

June 2 What Are You Haunted By?

“What man is he that feareth the Lord?” Psalm 25:12

What are you haunted by? You will say – By nothing, but we are all haunted by something, generally by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our experience. The Psalmist says we are to be haunted by God. The abiding consciousness of the life is to be God, not thinking about Him. The whole of our life inside and out is to be absolutely haunted by the presence of God. A child's consciousness is so mother-haunted that although the child is not consciously thinking of its mother, yet when calamity arises, the relationship that abides is that of the mother. So we are to live and move and have our being in God, to look at everything in relation to God, because the abiding consciousness of God pushes itself to the front all the time.

If we are haunted by God, nothing else can get in, no cares, no tribulation, no anxieties. We see now why Our Lord so emphasized the sin of worry. How can we dare be so utterly unbelieving when God is round about us? To be haunted by God is to have an effective barricade against all the onslaughts of the enemy.

“His soul shall dwell at ease.” In tribulation, misunderstanding, slander, in the midst of all these things, if our life is hid with Christ in God, He will keep us at ease. We rob ourselves of the marvellous revelation of this abiding companionship of God. “God is our Refuge” – nothing can come through that shelter.

耶和华与敬畏他的人亲密，他必将自己的约指示他们。（诗二十五14）

朋友的标记是什么？是他把隐藏的愁苦告诉你？不是的，是他把隐藏的喜乐告诉你。许多人会把心底的愁苦向人倾诉，但是倾吐心底的喜乐才是亲密的最高表现。我们是让神向我们吐露他的喜乐，还是不断地把自己的心事向他倾吐，不容他有机会向我们说话？初信主的时候，对神有一大堆的请求；后来就发现神希望我们与他建立关系，摸着他的心意。耶稣对祷告的观念－－照你的旨意而行－－我们有没有紧紧遵守，以致获得神的奥秘？我们觉得宝贵的往往不是神所赐的大福，而是一些细微的事物。因为这些表示他与我们奇妙无比的亲密，深知我们生命的任何细节。

“……耶和华必指示他当选择的道路。”起初我们所要的，知道神爱引导；后来既然知道日益活在神里面，就不需要追问他的旨意是什么，因为根本没有想过还有其他可选择的旨意。我们得救成圣了，神就依我们一般的选择来引导我们；若我们选了神不喜悦的，他就会阻止，我们就要听从。一有疑惑，要立刻止步。切勿诸多辩驳说：“为什么不可以？”神借我们的选择教导我们，也就是说，他引导我们依常理来选择，我们不必经常问：“主啊，你的旨意怎样？”这样反阻碍了圣灵的工作。

祈祷◆啊，主啊，愿意跟从你是何等有益和重要的事。我愿意和极之渴望你的旨意得以成就。当我预期没有东西比你的旨意那样满有荣耀，我整个人都深深地感到喜乐。

June 3 The Secret Of The Lord

“The secret (friendship R.V.) of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” Psalm 25:14

What is the sign of a friend? That he tells you secret sorrows? No, that he tells you secret joys. Many will confide to you their secret sorrows, but the last mark of intimacy is to confide secret joys. Have we ever let God tell us any of His joys, or are we telling God our secrets so continually that we leave no room for Him to talk to us? At the beginning of our Christian life we are full of requests to God, then we find that God wants to get us into relationship with Himself, to get us in touch with His purposes. Are we so wedded to Jesus Christ's idea of prayer – “Thy will be done” – that we catch the secrets of God? The things that make God dear to us are not so much His great big blessings as the tiny things, because they show His amazing intimacy with us; He knows every detail of our individual lives.

“. . . him shall He teach in the way that He shall choose.” At first we want the consciousness of being guided by God, then as we go on we live so much in the consciousness of God that we do not need to ask what His will is, because the thought of choosing any other will never occur to us. If we are saved and sanctified God guides us by our ordinary choices, and if we are going to choose what He does not want, He will check, and we must heed. Whenever there is doubt, stop at once. Never reason it out and say – “I wonder why I shouldn't?” God instructs us in what we choose, that is, He guides our common sense, and we no longer hinder His Spirit by continually saying – “Now, Lord, what is Thy will?”

因为主曾说：“我总不撇下你，也不丢弃你。”（来十三5）

我思想的路向如何？是转向神的话，还是转向自己的恐惧？我有没有学习不去讲述神说什么，而是先听他说些什么，然后才开口？“主曾说：‘我总不撇下你，也不丢弃你。’所以我们可以放胆说：‘主是帮助我的，我必不惧怕，人能把我怎么样呢？’”

“我总不失信。”（中文圣经作“我总不撇下你”）－－不管我是罪污、自私、固执、背逆，神总不撇下我。我真有让神对我说：“我总不失信”？若我曾听过神如此说，让我如今听他再说吧。

“我总不丢弃你。”有时并非是困难叫我觉得神丢弃我，而是枯燥乏味的生活。没有困难的高山可以攀登，也没有异象赐下，更没有什么兴奋美丽的东西，只是日复一日的平凡生活－－在这景况下，我有听见神如此说呢？

在我们的意念中，总以为神会行奇事，装备我们将来要成就伟大的工作。可是，我们若在神的恩中生活，便会发现神就在此时此地荣耀他自己。我们若有“神如此说”作后盾，就有最奇异莫名的能力临到，使我们在平凡的生活中欢呼歌唱。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求你荣耀的复活，进入我们的生命、路程和行动中。求你今天的医治、盼望、恩典和美善，强而有力地临到。

June 4 The Never-Failing God

“For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5

What line does my thought take? Does it turn to what God says or to what I fear? Am I learning to say not what God says, but to say something after I have heard what He says? “He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”

“I will in no wise fail thee” – not for all my sin and selfishness and stubbornness and waywardness. Have I really let God say to me that He will never fail me? If I have listened to this say-so of God's, then let me listen again.

“Neither will I in any wise forsake thee.” Sometimes it is not difficulty that makes me think God will forsake me, but drudgery. There is no Hill Difficulty to climb, no vision given, nothing wonderful or beautiful, just the commonplace day in and day out – can I hear God's say-so in these things?

We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing, that He is preparing and fitting us for some extraordinary thing by and bye, but as we go on in grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, in the present minute. If we have God's say-so behind us, the most amazing strength comes, and we learn to sing in the ordinary days and ways.

主曾说……所以我们可以放胆说……(来十三5-6)

“我如此说”必须以“神如此说”做根基。神既说：“我总不撇下你。”我就可以勇敢地说：“主是帮助我的，我必不惧怕。”－－我不会被恐惧侵扰。这不是说我不会有恐惧的试探，乃是我知道神曾如此说。这样我就会鼓起勇气，像孩子一鼓作气似的，竭力达到父亲所要求的水平。不少人在恐惧中信心动摇，忘记了神曾“如此说”，忘记了在圣灵里深深地吸一口气。唯一脱离恐惧的方法，就是听神“如此说”。

你害怕的是什么？你不是懦夫，你要面对现实，可是总有一种恐惧的感觉。你在孤独无援之中，要说：“主是帮助我的，就在此时此地。”你有没有学习先听神的话，然后才开口说话？抑或你擅自发言，然后企图拿神的话来支持？你当抓住父神的“如此说”，然后勇气十足地说：“我必不惧怕。”路上的凶险不要紧，因他已说过：“我总不撇下你。”

另一样阻隔神“如此说”的，就是意志薄弱。我们在难处中，往往很柔弱；难处就成为强大的巨人，而我们反而像蚱蜢，就像神不存在一般。要记住神如此说：“我总不撇下你。”我们是否学会听见神的主音响起就唱和？我们是否时常有这勇气：“主是帮助我的。”还是就此一蹶不振？

祈祷◆主啊，现在向我说话，为着今天的日子激励我；那深沉而具有破坏力的暗晦，似乎正紧紧操纵着我的能力。主啊，与我们同在。

June 5 God's Say-So

“He hath said . . . so that we may boldly say . . .” Hebrews 13:5-6

My say-so is to be built on God's say-so. God says – “I will never leave thee,” then I can with good courage say – “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear – ” I will not be haunted by apprehension. This does not mean that I will not be tempted to fear, but I will remember God's say-so. I will be full of courage, like a child “bucking himself up” to reach the standard his father wants. Faith in many a one falters when the apprehensions come, they forget the meaning of God's say-so, forget to take a deep breath spiritually. The only way to get the dread taken out of us is to listen to God's say-so.

What are you dreading? You are not a coward about it, you are going to face it, but there is a feeling of dread. When there is nothing and no one to help you, say – “But the Lord is my Helper, this second, in my present outlook.” Are you learning to say things after listening to God, or are you saying things and trying to make God's word fit in? Get hold of the Father's say-so, and then say with good courage – “I will not fear.” It does not matter what evil or wrong may be in the way, He has said – “I will never leave thee.”

Frailty is another thing that gets in between God's say-so and ours. When we realize how feeble we are in facing difficulties, the difficulties become like giants, we become like grasshoppers, and God becomes a nonentity. Remember God's say-so – “I will in no wise fail you.” Have we learned to sing after hearing God's key-note? Are we always possessed with the courage to say – “The Lord is my helper,” or are we succumbing?

作成你们得救的功夫。（腓二12-13）

你的意志是与神一致的，但你肉体中有一种倾向，叫你无法实行所该行的。当主进入你的心，良心就会唤醒意志，而意志必定是与神一致的。你会说：“可是我不知道自己的意志是否与神的一致。”仰望耶稣，你就必发现你的良心与意志是与他相合的。那在你里面叫你说“我不会”的，是比意志更薄弱的背逆顽梗，它们永远与神背道而驰。在人最深处的是他的意志，而不是罪。意志是神创造人最基本的元素；罪确实闯进人心的偏颇性情。一个重生的人意志的根源是全能的神。“因为你们立志行事，都是神在你们心里运行，为要成就他的美意。”

你要把神在你身上所成就的，谨慎地活出来。你不是自己去成全救恩，而是活出救恩，以坚定不移的信心倚靠主完全的救赎，作为根基。这样，你心里所发出来的意志，就不会与神相违；神的旨意就是你的旨意，你顺其自然的选择就会跟神的旨意一致，生命乃像呼吸一样自然。神是你意向的根源。因此你可以完成他的旨意。顽梗是不明智的楔子，阻碍真理，不肯受光照；唯一的方法是用炸药把它炸开，这炸药就是对圣灵的顺服。

我相信全能的神是我意志的源头吗？神不但期望我遵行他的旨意，他更在我里面实行出来。

祈祷◆主啊，当我仰望你的时候，求你高举我。求你将你的脸光光照我，让我可以将它反照给你。

June 6 Work Out What God Works In

“Work out your own salvation.” Philippians 2:12-13

Your will agree with God, but in your flesh there is a disposition which renders you powerless to do what you know you ought to do. When the Lord is presented to the conscience, the first thing conscience does is to rouse the will, and the will always agree with God. You say – “But I do not know whether my will is in agreement with God.” Look to Jesus and you will find that your will and your conscience are in agreement with Him every time. The thing in you which makes you say “I shan't” is something less profound than your will; it is perversity, or obstinacy, and they are never in agreement with God. The profound thing in man is his will, not sin. Will is the essential element in God's creation of man: sin is a perverse disposition which entered into man. In a regenerated man the source of will is almighty. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” You have to work out with concentration and care what God works in; not work your own salvation, but work it out, while you base resolutely in unshaken faith on the complete and perfect Redemption of the Lord. As you do this, you do not bring an opposed will to God's will, God's will is your will, and your natural choices are along the line of God's will, and the life is as natural as breathing. God is the source of your will, therefore you are able to work out His will. Obstinacy is an unintelligent ‘wadge’ that refuses to be enlightened; the only thing is for it to be blown up with dynamite, and the dynamite is obedience to the Holy Spirit.

Do I believe that Almighty God is the source of my will? God not only expects me to do His will, but He is in me to do it.

你们奉我的名，无论求什么，我必成就。（约十四13）

我有没有从事这内在的事奉？代祷没有网罗、没有沉迷或骄傲的危险，是一种隐藏的事奉，它所结出的果子可以荣耀父神。我是让属灵生命消磨虚耗，还是把一切集于一点－－我主的代赎？耶稣基督在我生命里头，是否愈来愈占据掌管？如果我生命中唯一的重心、最大的原动力是主的代赎，这样我生活的每一方面都必为他结果子了。

我必须花工夫去体察哪里是能力的枢纽。我有没有花上片刻的时间去注意这件事？“你们若常在我里面”－－要从这中心不断地去实行、去思想、去工作－－“你们无论求什么，我必成就。”

我是住在他里面吗？我有花时间去住在他里面吗？我生命中最大的能力源头是什么？是工作、事奉、为人牺牲，还是尽力为神工作？在我生命中产生最大能力的，应该是主的救赎。影响我们最厉害的，并非花时间最多的事物，而是那些在我们心里产生最大的能力。我们必须限制以及集中自己的心力。

“你们奉我的名，无论求什么，我必成就。”住在耶稣里的门徒，就是神的心意；他表面上自由的选择，乃是神预定的旨意。很神秘吗？逻辑上矛盾荒谬吗？不错，但对圣徒却是荣耀的真理。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着那恩典的宝座，让我在耶稣基督里可以坦然无惧地领受怜悯，并得着今天的恩典去荣耀你，我赞美你。

June 7 Don't Slack Off

“Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do.” John 14:13

Am I fulfilling this ministry of the interior? There is no snare or any danger of infatuation or pride in intercession, it is a hidden ministry that brings forth fruit whereby the Father is glorified. Am I allowing my spiritual life to be frittered away, or am I bringing it all to one centre – the Atonement of my Lord? Is Jesus Christ more and more dominating every interest in my life? If the one central point, the great exerting influence in my life is the Atonement of the Lord, then every phase of my life will bear fruit for Him.

I must take time to realize what is the central point of power. Do I give one minute out of sixty to concentrate upon it? “If ye abide in Me” – continue to act and think and work from that centre – “ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Am I abiding? Am I taking time to abide? What is the greatest factor of power in my life? Is it work, service, sacrifice for others, or trying to work for God? The thing that ought to exert the greatest power in my life is the Atonement of the Lord. It is not the thing we spend the most time on that moulds us most; the greatest element is the thing that exerts most power. We must determine to be limited and concentrate our affinities.

“Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do.” The disciple who abides in Jesus is the will of God, and his apparently free choices are God's fore-ordained decrees. Mysterious? Logically contradictory and absurd? Yes, but a glorious truth to a saint.

你们既知道这事，若是去行就有福了。（约十三17）

你若不切断锚索，神就会用风暴来把它们折断，好送你出去。把所有的交给神，在他旨意的狂澜中出去，你的眼就必开启。你若相信耶稣，就不可老是留在风平浪静的港口内，满心快乐地度日，被缆绳一直拴住。你必须从港口出来，进入神的深处，亲自探索，要得属灵的亮光，能以分辨是非。

若是做了该做的事，你随即就知道得更多。试检讨一下你的灵性在什么地方停滞了。你就必发现在某一件该做的事上你没有去做，因为觉得没有逼切的呼召。如今你失去了知觉与分辨力了。在紧要关头上，你的灵性分了心，不能收敛起来。不继续求知，是很危险的。

虚伪的顺服，就是制造自我牺牲，误把热情当做明辨。牺牲自己比达成属灵任务容易很多，这就是罗马书十二章1至2节所说的。察验神的心意，成全他在你身上的旨意，比自我牺牲的壮举要好很多。“听命胜于献祭。”当神要在你身上成就还未成就的，要追忆你往日听见神的光景。“若是去行……就知道……”。

祈祷◆主啊，在关于人的事情上，我的思想模糊。求你成为他们的坚固城堡，因为似乎没有人注意或关心他们。让他们免受敌人的压迫，因着他们对你的忠心，愿你保存他们。主啊，愿你以大能承担此事。

June 8 What Next?

“If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” John 13:17

If you do not cut the moorings, God will have to break them by a storm and send you out. Launch all on God, go out on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and you will get your eyes open. If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the smooth waters just inside the harbour bar, full of delight, but always moored; you have to get out through the harbour bar into the great deeps of God and begin to know for yourself, begin to have spiritual discernment.

When you know you should do a thing, and do it, immediately you know more. Revise where you have become stodgy spiritually, and you will find it goes back to a point where there was something you knew you should do, but you did not do it because there seemed no immediate call to, and now you have no perception, no discernment; at a time of crisis you are spiritually distracted instead of spiritually self-possessed. It is a dangerous thing to refuse to go on knowing.

The counterfeit of obedience is a state of mind in which you work up occasions to sacrifice yourself; ardour is mistaken for discernment. It is easier to sacrifice yourself than to fulfil your spiritual destiny, which is stated in Romans 12:1-2. It is a great deal better to fulfil the purpose of God in your life by discerning His will than to perform great acts of self-sacrifice. “To obey is better than sacrifice.” Beware of harking back to what you were once when God wants you to be something you have never been. “If any man will do . . . he shall know.”

因为凡祈求的就得着。（路十一10）

没有一件事比祈求更难的了。我们会渴望、爱慕，甚至受煎熬；但非等到山穷水尽，无路可走，我们决不会祈求。只有一种不现实的感觉才催使我们去祈求。你有没有从德性贫乏的深坑中向神祈求？“你们中间若有缺少智慧的，可以向神求……”但千万要弄清楚你是真的缺少智慧，你无法照自己的意思随时面对实际的事物。你若觉得没有属灵的实在，第二步最佳的办法就是照主的话求圣灵（参路十一13）。圣灵的工作就是把耶稣为你所成就的一切，变成真实。

“凡祈求的就得着。”这不是说，你不求就得不着（比较太五45），而是说你未去到求的地方，就始终不能从神领受什么。领受的意思就是已与神建立父子的关系，在理智上、精神上，以及属灵的悟性上，都知道是从神而来的。

“你们中间若有缺少智慧的……”你知道自己的缺乏，因为你摸着了属灵的实际。请勿把你理智的闪灯亮起。人们会说：“传简单的福音给我们吧；不用叫我们成为圣洁，因为这使人觉得自己一贫如洗，这感觉并不好受。”“求”就是乞求的意思。有些人家徒四壁而安于贫穷，我们中间一些人在属灵上也是如此。心目中若有目的去求，就永不会从神获得；因为是出于情欲，而不是由于贫穷。乞丐求乞，除了一贫如洗的理由之外，便没有别的理由。因此他并不耻于求乞－－灵里贫穷的人有福了。

祈祷◆主啊，为着这教会，我称颂你，因为她正证明你是“穷乏人的力量、是急难中困苦人的力量，是波浪中的避难所、是热气下的庇荫”。

June 9 The Next Best Thing To Do

“For every one that asketh receiveth.” Luke 11:10

There is nothing more difficult than to ask. We will long and desire and crave and suffer, but not until we are at the extreme limit will we ask. A sense of unreality makes us ask. Have you ever asked out of the depths of moral poverty? “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God . . . ”but be sure that you do lack wisdom. You cannot bring yourself up against reality when you like. The next best thing to do if you are not spiritually real, is to ask God for the Holy Spirit on the word of Jesus Christ (see Luke 11:13). The Holy Spirit is the One who makes real in you all that Jesus did for you.

“For every one that asketh receiveth.” This does not mean you will not get if you do not ask (cf. Matt. 5:45), but until you get to the point of asking you won't receive from God. To receive means you have come into the relationship of a child of God, and now you perceive with intelligent and moral appreciation and spiritual understanding that these things come from God.

“If any of you lack wisdom . . .” If you realize you are lacking, it is because you have come in contact with spiritual reality; do not put your reasonable blinkers on again. People say – Preach us the simple gospel: don't tell us we have to be holy, because that produces a sense of abject poverty, and it is not nice to feel abjectly poor. “Ask” means beg. Some people are poor enough to be interested in their poverty, and some of us are like that spiritually. We will never receive if we ask with an end in view; if we ask, not out of our poverty but out of our lust. A pauper does not ask from any other reason than the abject panging condition of his poverty, he is not ashamed to beg. – Blessed are the paupers in spirit.

寻找就寻见。（路十一9）

“你们求也得不着，因为你们妄求。”你求的若是今生的事物，而不是从神来的，就是妄求，就是出于实现自我的欲望。你愈是实现自我，就愈不会寻求神。“寻找就寻见。”去实行吧，聚精会神在寻找方面。你是全心寻求神，还是在受刺激痛楚之下，向神没精打采地哀求？寻找，要专心，那你就寻见。

“你们一切干渴的都当就近水来。”你是渴慕神，还是漠然不关心－－只满足于自己的经历，以致对神再无所求？经历是个通道，不是目的。要谨慎，不要把信心建筑在经历之上，那铿然之声必随即响起，加以责难，因你无法把所找到的传给别人，你只能叫他羡慕你所得着的。

“叩门，就给你们开门。”“要亲近神。”叩门－－那门是关闭的，叩的时候你会心惊胆战。“洁净你们的手”－－稍为用力一点叩，就会发现自己的污秽。“洁净你们的心”－－这一层更加深切了；这是你很真诚逼切，什么都肯做了。“要受苦”－－你曾否因你内在的光景在神面前受苦？这时你已没有丝毫自怜了，只有一种因诧异而来的心碎，因发觉原来自己的本相是这样的。“自卑”－－叩神的门是一件卑躬屈膝的事－－你要与那被钉十架的大盗同叩门。“叩门的就给他开门。”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，但愿我对你有更活泼的感应，而你的丰盛一直与我同在。

June 10 The Next Best Thing To Do

“Seek, and ye shall find.” Luke 11:9

“Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss.” If you ask for things from life instead of from God, you ask amiss, i.e., you ask from a desire for self-realization. The more you realize yourself the less will you seek God. “Seek, and ye shall find.” Get to work, narrow your interests to this one. Have you ever sought God with your whole heart, or have you only given a languid cry to Him after a twinge of moral neuralgia? Seek, concentrate, and you will find.

“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” Are you thirsty, or smugly indifferent – so satisfied with your experience that you want nothing more of God? Experience is a gateway, not an end. Beware of building your faith on experience, the metallic note will come in at once, the censorious note. You can never give another person that which you have found, but you can make him homesick for what you have.

“Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” “Draw nigh to God.” Knock – the door is closed, and you suffer from palpitation as you knock. “Cleanse your hands” – knock a bit louder, you begin to find you are dirty. “Purify your heart” – this is more personal still, you are desperately in earnest now – you will do anything. “Be afflicted” – have you ever been afflicted before God at the state of your inner life? There is no strand of self-pity left, but a heartbreaking affliction of amazement to find you are the kind of person that you are. “Humble yourself” – it is a humbling business to knock at God’s door – you have to knock with the crucified thief. “To him that knocketh, it shall be opened.”

到我这里来。（太十一28）

我想到那里去吗？现在就可以去了。人生真正重大的问题本来是极少的，而这些问题都在“到我这里来”这句话里得了答案。不是做这个，不做那个；而是“到我这里来”。只要来到耶稣跟前，生活就会按照我真正的渴望度过；我会真的脱离罪，真正找到主所赐的乐歌。

你曾否到耶稣这里来？当心你心中的顽梗，叫你宁愿做许多别的事，也不甘愿像个天真的孩子般“到我这里来”。你若真想断绝罪，就必须来就耶稣。耶稣基督拿自己做试金石。请留意他如何用“来”这个字。在人最意想不到的时刻，主微声说“到我这里来”，你立即就被他吸引过去。

与基督的接触，会改变人的一切。你要绝圣去智，成为愚拙，来亲就耶稣，照他所说的去行。“来”的态度就是肯完全放弃一切，立志将所有的交付他。

“我就使你们得安息”，就是说“我会扶持你”。不是“我会把你送上床，执着你的手，哼着眠歌，把你送入梦乡”。而是“我要叫你从床上起来，从颓废疲惫中出来，从半生不死得状况下出来；我要以生命的灵充满你，你便有完全的生命。”我们有时会可怜兮兮地说：“为神的旨意而受苦！”这种态度，哪能彰显儿子无上的生命力与大能呢？

祈祷◆“如甘霖滋润田地”；“如露水降在以色列”－－噢，主啊，今天早上这些话来到我的脑海中，是带着甜蜜的迫切感。愿你今天好像甘霖、露水般临到我们当中，滋润、塑造和赐福我们。我怀着极大和欢欣的期望来到你的面前。

June 11 Getting There

“Come unto Me.” Matthew 11:28

Do I want to get there? I can now. The questions that matter in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by the words – “Come unto Me.” Not – Do this, or don't do that; but – “Come unto Me.” If I will come to Jesus my actual life will be brought into accordance with my real desires; I will actually cease from sin, and actually find the song of the Lord begin.

Have you ever come to Jesus? Watch the stubbornness of your heart, you will do anything rather than the one simple childlike thing – “Come unto Me.” If you want the actual experience of ceasing from sin, you must come to Jesus.

Jesus Christ makes Himself the touchstone. Watch how He used the word “Come.” At the most unexpected moments there is the whisper of the Lord – “Come unto Me,” and you are drawn immediately. Personal contact with Jesus alters everything. Be stupid enough to come and commit yourself to what He says. The attitude of coming is that the will resolutely lets go of everything and deliberately commits all to Him.

“. . . and I will give you rest,” i.e., I will stay you. Not – I will put you to bed and hold your hand and sing you to sleep; but – I will get you out of bed, out of the languor and exhaustion, out of the state of being half dead while you are alive; I will imbue you with the spirit of life, and you will be stayed by the perfection of vital activity. We get pathetic and talk about “suffering the will of the Lord!” Where is the majestic vitality and might of the Son of God about that?

拉比，在哪里住？……你们来看……来跟从我。（约一38-39）

“这一天便与他同住。”我们中间不少往往就是这样，一觉之后，清醒过来，又去面对现实。一己的利益来到，就不再与主同住了。其实，任何的一种生活情况都不足以阻碍我们，使我们不与主同住（即不住在主里）。

“你是西门，你要称为矶法。”神在我们生命中，只有在骄傲、自满、自利被抹除的地方，写下新的名字。有些人的新名是斑点式的，像属灵的麻疹一般。在某些地方，我们看来很不错。当属灵情绪高昂，我们会认为自己是高等圣徒；不过，在情绪低落的时候，请别看我们了。作门徒的，是全身都写满了新名；自私自利、骄傲自满等，全都被抹掉了。

骄傲即是神化自我。对今人来说，这已不是法利赛人的模式，乃是税吏的模式了。“啊，我不是圣徒哩”，这个说法在人的傲气中，是可以接受的；可是却无形中是对神的亵渎。其实际上的意思是说：你抗拒神，不要他使你成为圣徒。“我太软弱，无可救药，救恩对我也无济于事。”在人面前的谦逊，可能无形中亵渎了神。你为什么不是圣徒？是你不要作圣徒，还是你不信神能使你成为圣徒？你说：“神若救我，把我直接带上天堂就好了。”其实这正是他要做的！“我们来就他，与他同住吧。”不要作茧自缚，要让耶稣成为你的一切；这样，他就必带着你一同归家，直到永永远远。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我的思想有多少部分被近来环绕身边的兴趣所占据，以致这些身旁的东西都成了中心。愿你自己成为我生命中固定的中心，和环绕我身边的一切。

June 12 Getting There

“Master, where dwellest Thou? . . Come and see.” “Come with Me.” John 1:39

“They abode with Him that day.” That is about all some of us ever do, then we wake up to actualities, self-interest arises and the abiding is passed. There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus.

“Thou are Simon, thou shall be called Cephas.” God writes the new name on those places only in our lives where He has erased the pride and self-sufficiency and self-interest. Some of us have the new name in spots only, like spiritual measles. In sections we look all right. When we have our best spiritual mood on, you would think we were very high-toned saints; but don't look at us when we are not in that mood. The disciple is one who has the new name written all over him; self-interest and pride and self-sufficiency have been completely erased.

Pride is the deification of self, and this today in some of us is not of the order of the Pharisee, but of the publican. To say “Oh, I'm no saint,” is acceptable to human pride, but it is unconscious blasphemy against God. It literally means that you defy God to make you a saint, “I am much too weak and hopeless, I am outside the reach of the Atonement.” Humility before men may be unconscious blasphemy before God. Why are you not a saint? It is either that you do not want to be a saint, or that you do not believe God can make you one. It would be all right, you say, if God saved you and took you straight to heaven. That is just what He will do! “We will come unto Him, and make our abode with Him.” Make no conditions, let Jesus be everything, and He will take you home with Him not only for a day, but for ever.

来跟从我。（可一17）

跟从耶稣最大的阻碍之一是性情做藉口。自己的性情加上天然的倾向，往往成为我们就近主的障碍。来到主面前，首先会发现他并不理会我们天然的倾向。我们都有一种概念，以为可以把自己的天赋才能奉献给神。其实，你根本不可能把不属于你的东西奉献出来，只有一样是你可以奉献的，就是你的主权（罗十二1）。只要你把自己的主权交给神，他就会在你身上作一项神圣的试验；而他的试验是必然成功的。圣徒的标志之一，就是在德行上的创新力，这种创新力是从向主耶稣完全降服而来的。在圣徒的生命中，有一股奇异的活泉不断的涌出来，把生命重生。神的灵是一口水井，他所涌出来的泉水是万古常新的。圣徒知道是神安排各种环境际遇，因此不怨叹愁苦，反而不顾一切地奔向耶稣。切勿从经验中制造原则；神在别人身上所做创新的工作，必作在你身上。

你若完全委身于耶稣，他叫你“来”，你就来，这样他就会继续透过你说“来”；你在世上就不断的发出基督“来”的呼声。这是每个降服主，到耶稣跟前来的人必然的结果。我有没有来就耶稣？我现在肯不肯来？

祈祷◆噢，主啊，你伟大而荣耀的计划，在我们众人心灵的目光前，已经成就和正在成就。主啊，我们虽不见前路，却认识和信靠你。愿你保守我们的思想和心灵，在你里面得以刚强和平静。

June 13 Getting There

“Come ye after Me.” Mark 1:17

One of the greatest hindrances in coming to Jesus is the excuse of temperament. We make our temperament and our natural affinities barriers to coming to Jesus. The first thing we realize when we come to Jesus is that He pays no attention whatever to our natural affinities. We have the notion that we can consecrate our gifts to God. You cannot consecrate what is not yours; there is only one thing you can consecrate to God, and that is your right to yourself (Romans 12:1). If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you. God's experiments always succeed. The one mark of a saint is the moral originality which springs from abandonment to Jesus Christ. In the life of a saint there is this amazing wellspring of original life all the time; the Spirit of God is a well of water springing up, perennially fresh. The saint realizes that it is God who engineers circumstances, consequently there is no whine, but a reckless abandon to Jesus. Never make a principle out of your experience; let God be as original with other people as He is with you.

If you abandon to Jesus, and come when He says “Come,” He will continue to say “Come” through you; you will go out into life reproducing the echo of Christ's “Come.” That is the result in every soul who has abandoned and come to Jesus.

你们要常在我里面。（约十五4）

藉着救赎，耶稣的灵进到我里面。此后，我就得完全按照主的心意耐心地被塑造。神不会使我像耶稣一样去思想，我必须自己去做，我必须将所有的心意夺回，使之顺服基督。“常在我里面。”－－在知识上、金钱上，并在一切与人生有关的事上。我们不是活在一个匣子里。

我有没有阻挠神行事；认为这些事会妨碍我与他的交通？这是鲁莽的态度。环境怎样根本不重要，重要的是我是否确实的住在主里，正如我在祷告中与主同住一样。我无须自行改变或调整环境；对于主，这种内住的光景是分毫不受影响的。主无论置身何处，都与神同住。他从不挑选环境，只柔和谦卑的顺服父神为他所作的一切安排。试想主的人生是何等的闲适！至于我们，却把神置于紧张关头，没有与基督一同藏在神里面的那种平稳。

想想那些妨碍你与主同住的东西：“主啊，是的，不过等一下，我要先做这个；是的，我完成了这个就与你同住；过了这个星期就没事了，那时就可以与你同住。”赶快行动吧！现在就住在主里！在起初的阶段，要不断的努力工作，直至成为生命的律，使你在不知不觉中便与他同住。所以，你无论置身何处，都要立志住在耶稣里面。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我怀着赞美和感恩来到你面前，但仍然渴求对你的良善自觉地有更深的欣赏。求你在今天赐福予我，让我有更广阔的胸怀和能力去赞美你。

June 14 Get A Move On

“Abide in Me.” John 15:4

The Spirit of Jesus is put into me by the Atonement, then I have to construct with patience the way of thinking that is exactly in accordance with my Lord. God will not make me think like Jesus, I have to do it myself; I have to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. “Abide in Me” – in intellectual matters, in money matters, in every one of the matters that make human life what it is. It is not a bandbox life.

Am I preventing God from doing things in my circumstances because I say it will hinder my communion with Him? That is an impertinence. It does not matter what my circumstances are, I can be as sure of abiding in Jesus in them as in a prayer meeting. I have not to change and arrange my circumstances myself. With Our Lord the inner abiding was unsullied; He was at home with God wherever His body was placed. He never chose His own circumstances, but was meek towards His Father’s dispensations for Him. Think of the amazing leisure of Our Lord’s life! We keep God at excitement point, there is none of the serenity of the life hid with Christ in God about us.

Think of the things that take you out of abiding in Christ – Yes, Lord, just a minute, I have got this to do; Yes, I will abide when once this is finished; when this week is over, it will be all right, I will abide then. Get a move on; begin to abide now. In the initial stages it is a continual effort until it becomes so much the law of life that you abide in Him unconsciously. Determine to abide in Jesus wherever you are placed.

有了……加上……（彼后一5）

彼得说（4节），你们既承受了属天的性情，如今就要专心一致，竭力养成良好的习惯。“加上”的意义，是就品格方面而言。不论是天然的或超然的，人的品格绝不是与生俱来的，他必须加以后天的培养。习惯也不是与生俱来的，我们要根据神所赐的新生命，去养成习惯。神的意思不是要我们做闪闪发光的标本，而是要我们在日常平凡的生活中，表现出他恩惠的奇妙。一般的俗务乃是人格的试金石；属灵生命的大障碍就是要做大事。“耶稣……拿一条毛巾……洗门徒的脚。”

有时生活缺乏亮光，便没有什么值得兴奋的，只是日复一日，从事平凡的作业。神却用例行的事务，给我们启示。别期望神天天给你兴奋的时刻，要学习靠着神的能力，活在常务中。“加上”是难的，我们常说不指望神用舒适的花轿将我们抬进天堂，但我们的行事为人却往往与此相反。我所顺服的不论是多微小的事，都有神恩典的大能在背后。我之所以尽本分，不是因为职责所在，乃是因我信神安排的一切；这样，我一顺服，神超然的恩惠就透过救赎临到我身上。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我的灵经历你的新恩，然而我在你大能的恩典中成长是何等缓慢！求你速速临到我身上，使我今天的体验，如自然界一般延展至壮阔的地平线。

June 15 Get A Move On

“And beside this . . . add . .” 2 Peter 1:5

You have inherited the Divine nature, says Peter (v.4), now screw your attention down and form habits, give diligence, concentrate. “Add” means all that character means. No man is born either naturally or supernaturally with character, he has to make character. Nor are we born with habits; we have to form habits on the basis of the new life God has put into us. We are not meant to be illuminated versions, but the common stuff of ordinary life exhibiting the marvel of the grace of God. Drudgery is the touchstone of character. The great hindrance in spiritual life is that we will look for big things to do. “Jesus took a towel...and began to wash the disciples' feet.”

There are times when there is no illumination and no thrill, but just the daily round, the common task. Routine is God's way of saving us between our times of inspiration. Do not expect God always to give you His thrilling minutes, but learn to live in the domain of drudgery by the power of God.

It is the “adding” that is difficult. We say we do not expect God to carry us to heaven on flowery beds of ease, and yet we act as if we did! The tiniest detail in which I obey has all the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. If I do my duty, not for duty's sake, but because I believe God is engineering my circumstances, then at the very point of my obedience the whole superb grace of God is mine through the Atonement.

人为朋友舍命，人的爱心没有比这个大的。……我乃称你们为朋友。（约十五13、15）

耶稣虽然没有叫我为他死，却要我为他把生命放下。彼得说：“我愿意为你舍命。”他说的是真心话，他的英雄意识是伟大的。若不能像彼得那样宣告，实在太差劲了。我们的责任感只有藉着英雄意识，发挥出来。主曾否问你说：“你不愿意为我舍命吗？”在平凡的生活中，因不忘从上而来的呼召而放下生命，比一死了之困难得多。人生不是为壮烈的一刻而活，乃是在平凡的路上，行在启示的光中。耶稣一生中，也只有一个壮烈的时刻，就是在登山变像的时候；后来他再度从荣耀中倒空自己，下到鬼附的山谷里。三十年之久，耶稣摆上自己的生命来遵行父神的旨意。

约翰说：“我们也当为弟兄舍命。”这样行是违反人性的。我若是耶稣的朋友，就要定意为他放下自己的生命。难是难的，感谢神，难并不要紧！救恩是易得的，因为神付出了重大的代价，但要在我生命中彰显出来，却是困难重重。神救了一个人，把圣灵赐给他，然后认真的对他说：“好了，要忠于我，即使周遭的事物会令你不忠。”“我乃称你们为朋友。”要忠于你的朋友，要紧记你肉身的生命，是神尊荣得失之所系。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着你所赐的救恩，为着圣徒的祷告所带来的好处和祝福，我赞美你。可是，我是那样悄悄地领受了你的恩惠，很久才开始思想自己是否配得领受，或是表现得好像自己配得领受一样。主啊，赦免我。

June 16 What Do You Make Of This?

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.” . . . “I have called you friends.” John 15:13, 15

Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him. Peter said – “I will lay down my life for Thy sake” and he meant it; his sense of the heroic was magnificent. It would be a bad thing to be incapable of making such a declaration as Peter made; the sense of our duty is only realized by our sense of the heroic. Has the Lord ever asked you – “Wilt thou lay down thy life for My sake?” It is far easier to die than to lay down the life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling. We are not made for brilliant moments, but we have to walk in the light of them in ordinary ways. There was only one brilliant moment in the life of Jesus, and that was on the Mount of Transfiguration; then He emptied Himself the second time of His glory, and came down into the demon-possessed valley. For thirty-three years Jesus laid out His life to do the will of His Father, and, John says, “we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” It is contrary to human nature to do it.

If I am a friend of Jesus, I have deliberately and carefully to lay down my life for Him. It is difficult, and thank God it is difficult. Salvation is easy because it cost God so much, but the manifestation of it in my life is difficult. God saves a man and endues him with the Holy Spirit, and then says in effect – “Now work it out, be loyal to Me, whilst the nature of things round about you would make you disloyal.” “I have called you friends.” Stand loyal to your Friend, and remember that His honour is at stake in your bodily life.

你们不要论断人，免得你们被论断。（太七1）

耶稣对论断的看法是：“不要”。一般信徒是最擅于挑剔的。批评是人的本性，但在属灵领域里，批评绝不能成事。批评就是将被批评者的力量削弱。其实只有圣灵才真有批评的身分，指出错处而不至招来伤害。你若带着挑剔的脾气，是无法与神交通契合的。你会变得刚硬、敌视、残忍，或沾沾自喜，以为高人一等。耶稣说，作为一个门徒，应当培养口不言人过的品质。这不是一劳永逸的，要随时当心，不让任何事使你自高、睥睨一切。

耶稣洞悉一切，谁也无可遁形。我若见你眼中有刺，那我眼中必然有梁木。我见到你的任何错失，神都在我身上找到了。我什么时候论断人，就什么时候定自己的罪（罗二17-20）。不要在他人身上滥施尺度，每个人总有些隐情，是我们无法了解的。神首先要来一次属灵大扫除，使我们不再骄傲自满。每想到若非神的恩典，我里面根本一无所有，那就不会对任何人感到绝望了。

祈祷◆主啊，我仰望你，求你帮助我正确地敬拜你。为着我与生俱来可敬拜你，我赞美你，可是，我的生活却没有速速按照着它当行的去回应你和你的美善。主啊，帮助我。

June 17 The Uncritical Temper

“Judge not, that ye be not judged.” Matthew 7:1

Jesus says regarding judging – Don't. The average Christian is the most penetratingly critical individual. Criticism is a part of the ordinary faculty of man; but in the spiritual domain nothing is accomplished by criticism. The effect of criticism is a dividing up of the powers of the one criticized; the Holy Ghost is the only One in the true position to criticize, He alone is able to show what is wrong without hurting and wounding. It is impossible to enter into communion with God when you are in a critical temper; it makes you hard and vindictive and cruel, and leaves you with the flattering unction that you are a superior person. Jesus says, as a disciple cultivate the uncritical temper. It is not done once and for all. Beware of anything that puts you in the superior person's place.

There is no getting away from the penetration of Jesus. If I see the mote in your eye, it means I have a beam in my own. Every wrong thing that I see in you, God locates in me. Every time I judge, I condemn myself (see Romans 2:17-20). Stop having a measuring rod for other people. There is always one fact more in every man's case about which we know nothing. The first thing God does is to give us a spiritual spring-cleaning; there is no possibility of pride left in a man after that. I have never met the man I could despair of after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God.

彼得就……在水面上走，要到耶稣那里去。只因见风甚大，就害怕。（太十四29-30）

风虽然大，浪虽然高，但彼得却视若无睹。他并不怕波涛汹涌，因为他一心一意只知道主，而且因主在水面上走。过后，他发现到现实的环境，随即就下沉了。何以主不使他在水底行走，像在水面上一样呢？若不认识是主耶稣，两者都不能行。

在某些事上，我们会毅然信靠神，稍后就姑息自己，便往下沉了。所以只要认清是主，就不必问他怎样处理环境。现实本来就是如此，你一旦注目其上，就被它支配，看不见耶稣了。神就会责备你说：“为什么疑惑呢？”不管现实环境怎样，总要认识耶稣，保持对他完全的信赖。

神的话一发出，只要你有一刻的迟疑，就完了。切勿说：“唔，他到底有没有说过呢？”这时要立即孤注一掷，把一切投在他身上。你不知道他什么时候说话，但只要稍微认识他，就该不顾一切地投上。只有舍弃一切，你才会认出他来。只有当你不顾一切时，才更清楚认出他的声音。

祈祷◆主啊，求你在这天，让那使我们在你的事奉中软弱下来的自我意识永远消失，使我们所认知的就只有耶稣。

June 18 Don't Think Now, Take The Road

“And Peter . . . walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid.” Matthew 14:29-30

The wind was actually boisterous, the waves were actually high, but Peter did not see them at first. He did not reckon with them, he simply recognized his Lord and stepped out in recognition of Him, and walked on the water. Then he began to reckon with the actual things, and down he went instantly. Why could not our Lord have enabled him to walk at the bottom of the waves as well as on the top of them? Neither could be done saving by recognition of the Lord Jesus.

We step right out on God over some things, then self-consideration enters in and down we go. If you are recognizing your Lord, you have no business with where He engineers your circumstances. The actual things are, but immediately you look at them you are overwhelmed, you cannot recognize Jesus, and the rebuke comes: “Wherefore didst thou doubt?” Let actual circumstances be what they may, keep recognizing Jesus, maintain complete reliance on Him.

If you debate for a second when God has spoken, it is all up. Never begin to say – “Well, I wonder if He did speak?” Be reckless immediately, fling it all out on Him. You do not know when His voice will come, but whenever the realization of God comes in the faintest way imaginable, recklessly abandon. It is only by abandon that you recognize Him. You will only realize His voice more clearly by recklessness.

你爱我吗？……你牧羊我的羊。（约二十一16）

耶稣并没有叫人追随祂的思想，而是要你看顾祂的羊，使他们因认识祂而得着滋养。我们把事奉的工作视作事奉主；但耶稣基督却视我们与祂的关系为事奉，而不是我们为祂所做的工作。做门徒，是基于对耶稣基督的忠诚，而不是由于服从一套信徒规条。“人到我这里来，若不爱我胜过……，就不能作我的门徒。”没有争议，也没有强逼，只直截了当地－－“你若做我的门徒，必须专心归我”。一个人被圣灵摸着了，就说：“我如今认识了耶稣是谁。”这就是专心归依的根源。

时至今日，我们已把信条代替了个人的信仰，所以致力于事工的人多，而一心归服耶稣基督的人却少。人不要归服耶稣，只想致力于他所创立的事工。他们只认耶稣为同志。主首先顺服的，是祂父的旨意，而不是人群的需要。他之所以救人，是顺服父神的必然结果。我若只致力于人群的事工，不久就会精疲力竭，落到爱心冷淡的地步；但若我爱耶稣基督，就是人把我当作地席，我仍要服侍他们。门徒生活的秘诀就是全心归依基督。那生命的特征是隐藏不露，就如一粒麦子落在地里死了，不久就萌芽生长，改变整个田园的景象（约十二24）。

祈祷◆愿祢感动我的灵，使它被祢所充满，直至涌溢。愿祢透过我的意念思想，直至我形成“在基督耶稣里的心怀意念”。

June 19 Service Of Passionate Devotion

“Lovest thou Me? . . . Feed My sheep.” John 21:16

Jesus did not say – Make converts to your way of thinking, but look after My sheep, see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Me. We count as service what we do in the way of Christian work; Jesus Christ calls service what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on adherence to a belief or a creed. “If any man come to Me and hate not . . . , he cannot be My disciple.” There is no argument and no compulsion, but simply – If you would be My disciple, you must be devoted to Me. A man touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says – “Now I see Who Jesus is,” and that is the source of devotion.

Today we have substituted credal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many are devoted to causes and so few devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is a source of deep offence to the educated mind of today that does not want Him in any other way than as a comrade. Our Lord's first obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of men; the saving of men was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted to the cause of humanity only, I will soon be exhausted and come to the place where my love will falter; but if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity though men treat me as a door-mat. The secret of a disciple's life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of the life is its unobtrusiveness. It is like a corn of wheat, which falls into the ground and dies, but presently it will spring up and alter the whole landscape (John 12:24).

约伯为他的朋友祈祷，耶和华就使约伯从苦境转回。（伯四十二10）

以自我为中心的病态式祈祷，苦苦哀求一意强求自己的好转，在新约中是找不到的。我若要努力弄好与神的关系，正表明我正离弃神救赎的大恩。“主啊，你若垂听我祷告，我的心就洁净；你若帮助我，我就行事正直。”我无法使自己的生命在神面前正直，也无法使生命完全；只有接受主耶稣白白的救赎，我才可以与神有正常的关系。我谦卑地接受这个事实吗？我必须放下一切权利，放下一切为自己付出的努力，把自己完全的放在神手中，然后以祭司的身分做代求的工作。今日许多祷告是出于对救恩的不信。耶稣不是开始拯救我们，而是已经救了我们，事情已经成就，因此求他再做是一种侮辱。

你若尚未得着百倍的恩典，未领悟话语的亮光，那就该开始为你的朋友祷告，进入内室的事奉。“约伯为他的朋友祈祷，耶和华就使约伯从苦境中转回。”作为一个得救的人，你生命的真正事业就是为人代求。不论神把你放在什么环境里，都要立刻祷告，求他救赎的大工在别人身上成就，正如在你身上一样。现在就为你的朋友祈祷，为那些与你有接触的人祈祷吧！

祈祷◆噢，主啊，打发更多工人到我们这里来，直至这教会挤满了人，而你能透过他们，在全地荣耀你自己。

June 20 Have You Come To "When" Yet?

“And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.” Job 42:10

The plaintive, self-centred, morbid kind of prayer, a dead-set that I want to be right, is never found in the New Testament. The fact that I am trying to be right with God is a sign that I am rebelling against the Atonement. “Lord, I will purify my heart if You will answer my prayer; I will walk rightly if You will help me.” I cannot make myself right with God, I cannot make my life perfect; I can only be right with God if I accept the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute gift. Am I humble enough to accept it? I have to resign every kind of claim and cease from every effort, and leave myself entirely alone in His hands, and then begin to pour out in the priestly work of intercession. There is much prayer that arises from real disbelief in the Atonement. Jesus is not beginning to save us, He has saved us, the thing is done, and it is an insult to ask Him to do it.

If you are not getting the hundredfold more, not getting insight into God's word, then start praying for your friends, enter into the ministry of the interior. “The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.” The real business of your life as a saved soul is intercessory prayer. Wherever God puts you in circumstances, pray immediately, pray that His Atonement may be realized in other lives as it has been in yours. Pray for your friends now; pray for those with whom you come in contact now.

你们是……有君尊的祭司。（彼前二9）

我们凭什么资格成为君尊的祭司？是凭救赎。我们有没有立志放下自己，投身在祭司祷告的职分上？整天只顾审查自己是否合水准，就产生以自我为中心、自怨自艾的基督徒，而不是活泼有力、天真无邪神的儿女。除非我们与神有正确的关系，否则只会挣扎求存，说：“看我打了何等的胜仗！”这态度一点也表现不出救赎的奇能。要不顾一切地相信救恩是完全的，然后只照耶稣所说的－－为那半夜来找你的朋友祷告，为圣徒祷告，为万人祷告。祷告时要知道只有在耶稣基督里才得完全，不要说：“主啊，我已尽了所能，求你听我祷告。”

到底神何时才把我们从以自我为中心的恶习中释放出来？我们要对自己厌恶至死，以致神无论说我们什么，我们也不觉得诧异。我们内心的卑污，实无法可测。只有一处是我们可得完全的，就是在耶稣基督里。我们进入他那里，就要竭尽所能作内室的事奉。

祈祷◆愿你在今天施福予我们，护卫我们的意念和心灵，抵挡模糊的幻想和虚假的情绪，以及那如幽灵的想像，保守我们完全属你。

June 21 The Ministry Of The Interior

“But ye are . . . a royal priesthood.” 1 Peter 2:9

By what right do we become “a royal priesthood”? By the right of the Atonement. Are we prepared to leave ourselves resolutely alone and to launch out into the priestly work of prayer? The continual grubbing on the inside to see whether we are what we ought to be generates a self-centred, morbid type of Christianity, not the robust, simple life of the child of God. Until we get into a right relationship to God, it is a case of hanging on by the skin of our teeth, and we say – What a wonderful victory I have got. There is nothing indicative of the miracle of Redemption in that. Launch out in reckless belief that the Redemption is complete, and then bother no more about yourself, but begin to do as Jesus Christ said – pray for the friend who comes to you at midnight, pray for the saints, pray for all men. Pray on the realization that you are only perfect in Christ Jesus, not on this plea – “O Lord, I have done my best, please hear me.”

How long is it going to take God to free us from the morbid habit of thinking about ourselves? We must get sick unto death of ourselves, until there is no longer any surprise at anything God can tell us about ourselves. We cannot touch the depths of meanness in ourselves. There is only one place where we are right, and that is in Christ Jesus. When we are there, then we have to pour out for all we are worth in this ministry of the interior.

因为你们怎样论断人，也必怎样被论断。你们用什么量器量给人，也必用什么量器量给你们。（太七2）

这句话不是信口开河的瞎猜，而是神永恒的定律。你怎样论断人，就得同样的回报。报复与报应是不同的。耶稣说人生是以报应为本的－－你用量器量人，人也必用什么量器量你。你若善于挑剔别人，那你所得的也必如此。你付出多少，就收回多少。这定律是由神的宝座上颁下来的（诗十八25-26）

罗马书第二章对这定律更为肯定。其中说人批评别人，自己正犯了同样的罪。神不单看外面的行为，更看人内心的动机。首先，我们不信圣经的话。试问我们真的相信所批评别人的，正是自己所犯上的罪吗？我们所以能看见别人的虚伪、欺诈、虚浮，是因为我们自己心中也有这些东西。圣徒最大的特征是谦卑－－“是的，若不是神的恩典，这些东西或其他罪恶，都会发生在我身上，因此我无权批判。”

耶稣说：“你们不要论断人，免得你们被论断。”你若论断人，神则必照你所论断的量你。我们谁敢对神说：“我的神，请你照我论断他人的判断我吧”?我们判断别人为罪人，若神也同样判断我们，我们早已在地狱了。可是，神却透过耶稣基督奇妙的代赎来判断我们。

祈祷◆噢，我只求得尝祢的灵如风吹拂，或得驱策、或使苏醒、或蒙释放、或被感动，我就心满意足了。

June 22 The Undeviating Test

“For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Matthew 7:2

This statement is not a haphazard guess, it is an eternal law of God. Whatever judgment you give, it is measured to you again. There is a difference between retaliation and retribution. Jesus says that the basis of life is retribution – “with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” If you have been shrewd in finding out the defects in others, remember that will be exactly the measure given to you. Life serves back in the coin you pay. This law works from God's throne downwards (cf. Psalm 18:25-26).

Romans 2 applies it in a still more definite way, and says that the one who criticizes another is guilty of the very same thing. God looks not only at the act, He looks at the possibility. We do not believe the statements of the Bible to begin with. For instance, do we believe this statement, that the things we criticize in others we are guilty of ourselves? The reason we see hypocrisy and fraud and unreality in others is because they are all in our own hearts. The great characteristic of a saint is humility – Yes, all those things and other evils would have been manifested in me but for the grace of God, therefore I have no right to judge.

他……多受痛苦，常经忧患。（赛五十三3）

我们所经的忧患与主所经的不同；我们是忍受、经历，却与忧患没有密切的关系。我们从起头就不肯接受罪恶这个事实，对人生采取一种合乎理性的观点，以为人只要约束自己、教育自己，生命就能逐渐似神。可是日久便发觉有一种东西存在，是意想之外的，就是罪。它把我们一切筹算破坏了。罪使事物本末倒置，毫无道理可言。我们必须承认罪是一个事实，不是一种缺陷；罪是对神赤手空拳的反叛。在我生命中不是神死，就是罪死。新约的真理使我们面对这个问题。若罪在我里面掌权，神在我里面的生命就死了；若神在我里面掌权，罪在我里面就要死；除此之外，不可能有别的结果了。人滔天的大罪，就是把耶稣基督钉在十架上。神在世上的历史如何，你我的生命史上也必如何。我们必须承认，罪是人生苦痛忧患的因由。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，你是没有时间性的，因为“在你看来，千年如已过的昨日”；可是，对我这却截然不同。你弥补我那被腐败所吞蚀的年日，在基督耶稣里使我成为一个新造的人！求你接纳我对你的感恩。

June 23 Acquaintance With Grief

“A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” Isaiah 53:3

We are not acquainted with grief in the way in which Our Lord was acquainted with it; we endure it, we get through it, but we do not become intimate with it. At the beginning of life we do not reconcile ourselves to the fact of sin. We take a rational view of life and say that a man by controlling his instincts, and by educating himself, can produce a life which will slowly evolve into the life of God. But as we go on, we find the presence of something which we have not taken into consideration, viz., sin, and it upsets all our calculations. Sin has made the basis of things wild and not rational. We have to recognize that sin is a fact, not a defect; sin is red-handed mutiny against God. Either God or sin must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue. If sin rules in me, God's life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is no possible ultimate but that. The climax of sin is that it crucified Jesus Christ, and what was true in the history of God on earth will be true in your history and in mine. In our mental outlook we have to reconcile ourselves to the fact of sin as the only explanation as to why Jesus Christ came, and as the explanation of the grief and sorrow in life.

现在却是你们的时候，黑暗掌权了。（路二十二53）

不承认罪的事实，会带来人生一切的祸患。你可以大谈人性的尊严，可是人性中有一种东西，在你一切的理想面前，会当面嗤笑你。你若不肯承认人性的邪恶自私、有根本上的罪过，这样，当这些东西袭击你时，你就会与它妥协，并说抵抗也是没用。你有没有准备面对这个关头，面对这黑暗的权势？还是你对自己的评价，没有把罪算在内？你与亲属的关系，与朋友的关系，有没有承认有罪的事实存在？若没有，不需多久，你就会被罪追上，与之妥协了。

但若你承认罪的事实，就必立即觉察到危险－－“对啦，我知道这是什么一回事了。”承认罪的事实，并不会破坏友情的根基，反而使彼此看清楚人生基本是可恶的。我们要时时当心，防备那种不承认罪之事实的人生观。

耶稣基督虽不信任人，却不挑剔多疑，因为祂深信为人有所不为。人得到安全的保障是由于清洁，而不是因为无罪。无罪的人是不可靠的。成为无罪，不是人可以做到，只有神才可要求人洁净敬虔。无邪是孩童的特征，但成人则要承认罪这事实。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，以你的恩典和荣耀淹没我，让你那浩瀚的潮水覆盖所有。

June 24 Reconciling One's Self To The Fact Of Sin

"This is your hour, and the power of darkness." Luke 22:53

It is not being reconciled to the fact of sin that produces all the disasters in life. You may talk about the nobility of human nature, but there is something in human nature which will laugh in the face of every ideal you have. If you refuse to agree with the fact that there is vice and self-seeking, something downright spiteful and wrong in human beings, instead of reconciling yourself to it, when it strikes your life, you will compromise with it and say it is of no use to battle against it. Have you made allowance for this hour and the power of darkness, or do you take a recognition of yourself that misses out sin? In your bodily relationships and friendships do you reconcile yourself to the fact of sin? If not, you will be caught round the next corner and you will compromise with it. If you reconcile yourself to the fact of sin, you will realize the danger at once – Yes, I see what that would mean. The recognition of sin does not destroy the basis of friendship; it establishes a mutual regard for the fact that the basis of life is tragic. Always beware of an estimate of life which does not recognize the fact that there is sin.

Jesus Christ never trusted human nature, yet He was never cynical, never suspicious, because He trusted absolutely in what He could do for human nature. The pure man or woman, not the innocent, is the safeguarded man or woman. You are never safe with an innocent man or woman. Men and women have no business to be innocent; God demands that they be pure and virtuous. Innocence is the characteristic of a child; it is a blameworthy thing for a man or woman not to be reconciled to the fact of sin.

我说什么才好呢？父啊，救我脱离这时候，但我原是为这时候来的。（约十二27-29）

身为一个圣徒，我对愁苦困难的态度，不是求神拦阻，乃是求神叫我经过痛苦的火炼，保存他造在我里面的生命。我们的主在愁苦的火中，接受了自己。他没有摆脱那时刻，却从那时刻中出来了。

我们说世上不该有忧患，但事实上忧患却存在，而且我们还要从火中体认自己。若我们企图逃避忧患，不肯面对它，实在是愚不可及的。忧患是人生中最具体的事实；硬说世上不该有忧患是无济于事的。罪恶、忧患、痛苦的确存在；我们没有资格说神容让痛苦存在是错的。

忧患虽然把人许多肤浅的东西都烧掉，却不一定使人更完美。忧患可以建立人，也可以毁灭人。在成功之中，很难建立自己，因为你会得意忘形。在枯燥而单调的生活中，也找不到自己，因你会大发牢骚。惟有在忧患的火中，你才找着自己。为什么会这样是另一回事；在圣经中，在人的经历中，都证实如此。一个从忧患中找到自己的人，很容易辨认出来。你有困难去找他，必然大得帮助，他必乐于帮助你。一个未受过苦的人，多偏于浮夸，也没有时间理会你。你若从苦难的火中找着自己，神便会使你成为别人的供应。

祈祷◆主啊，藉着你那不可逃避和满有能力的抚摸，今天向我显明你的慈爱，并在你温柔的大能中，按照你的计划使用我！

June 25 Receiving One's Self In The Fires Of Sorrow

“What shall I say? Father, save me, from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.” John 12:27-29 (R.V.)

My attitude as a saint to sorrow and difficulty is not to ask that they may be prevented, but to ask that I may preserve the self God created me to be through every fire of sorrow. Our Lord received Himself in the fire of sorrow, He was saved not from the hour, but out of the hour.

We say that there ought to be no sorrow, but there is sorrow, and we have to receive ourselves in its fires. If we try and evade sorrow, refuse to lay our account with it, we are foolish. Sorrow is one of the biggest facts in life; it is no use saying sorrow ought not to be. Sin and sorrow and suffering are, and it is not for us to say that God has made a mistake in allowing them.

Sorrow burns up a great amount of shallowness, but it does not always make a man better. Suffering either gives me my self or it destroys my self. You cannot receive your self in success, you lose your head; you cannot receive your self in monotony, you grouse. The way to find yourself is in the fires of sorrow. Why it should be so is another matter, but that it is so is true in the Scriptures and in human experience. You always know the man who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself, you are certain you can go to him in trouble and find that he has ample leisure for you. If a man has not been through the fires of sorrow, he is apt to be contemptuous, he has no time for you. If you receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people.

我们……劝你们，不可徒受他的恩典。（林后六1）

你昨天所得的恩典，今天已不合用了。恩典是神丰盛的恩宠；你随时随地都可以取用。“在许多的忍耐、患难、穷乏、困苦”－－这些都是忍耐的考验。你在这些事上有没有失去神的恩典？你有没有说：“算啦，这次不计其内。”问题不在于祷告求神帮助；乃是现在就取用神的恩典。我们往往把祈祷当作工作的准备，但在圣经里根本不是如此。祈祷是支取神恩典的一种操练。

不要说：“我只管忍受一下，等到苦难过去就好好的祷告祷告。”现在就祈祷吧！在正有需要时，支取神的恩典吧。祈祷是最实际的事，而不是虔诚的一种反射行动。祷告是支取神恩典最后学习的功课。

“鞭打、监禁、扰乱、劳动”－－在这一切事上不断支取神的恩典，会使你成为别人眼中的奇迹。现在就支取，不是等一会儿才做。属灵的字汇中有一个词语，就是现在。不管环境怎样，只管不断支取神的恩典。你支取神的恩典一个最大的明证，就是在你受人羞辱时，所表彰的除了神的恩典之外，再无别的。

“一无所有……”不再有任何保留。要把你最好的倾尽，常常贫穷无有。对神所赐的礼物，绝不精打细算地收藏。这就是贫穷中的胜利。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求你今天赐下你的恩典。

June 26 Always Now

“We . . . beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.” 2 Corinthians 6:1

The grace you had yesterday will not do for to-day. Grace is the overflowing favour of God; you can always reckon it is there to draw upon. “In much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses” – that is where the test for patience comes. Are you failing the grace of God there? Are you saying – Oh, well, I won't count this time? It is not a question of praying and asking God to help you; it is taking the grace of God now. We make prayer the preparation for work, it is never that in the Bible. Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God. Don't say – I will endure this until I can get away and pray. Pray now; draw on the grace of God in the moment of need. Prayer is the most practical thing, it is not the reflex action of devotion. Prayer is the last thing in which we learn to draw on God's grace.

“In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours” – in all these things manifest a drawing upon the grace of God that will make you a marvel to yourself and to others. Draw now, not presently. The one word in the spiritual vocabulary is Now. Let circumstances bring you where they will, keep drawing on the grace of God in every conceivable condition you may be in. One of the greatest proofs that you are drawing on the grace of God is that you can be humiliated without manifesting the slightest trace of anything but His grace.

“Having nothing . . .” Never reserve anything. Pour out the best you have, and always be poor. Never be diplomatic and careful about the treasure God gives. This is poverty triumphant.

我与你同在，要拯救你。（耶一8）

神应允耶利米要亲自拯救他－－“要以自己的命为掠物。”这是神对他儿女的应许。神不论差我们到那里，都必保护我们。私人财物是无足轻重的，对这些东西我们要看得开，否则，就会有震惊、伤心和痛苦。这就是在全能者的荫下得拯救。

登山宝训中说，我们若奉主耶稣的差遣，就无暇为自己争取什么。耶稣的意思其实是说：“不必理会人家是否对你公平。”追求公平，表示人偏离了对主的忠诚。不要指望在这世界中找到公平，但要不断的施行公平。我们若求公平，就会抱怨，沉溺在自怜不满的光景中－－“我为何受这样的待遇？”我们只要专心爱主，就不用理会任何遭遇：公平也好，不公平也好。

耶稣说：人若恒久遵行他的话，他必保护他；人若要自己保护自己，就在他的拯救里无份了。有些敬虔热心的人，在这事上却与不信者无异；他们不信任神，高举理智，只把神的名挂上去吧。的确，我们往往倚靠自己的聪明，没有一心仰赖神。

祈祷◆噢，主啊！我认识你的恩福并赞美你，作为你仆人的我所寻求的，正是那难以描述的感动和动力－－我不知道自己要寻求的是什么，但你却知道。我何等渴慕你！

June 27 The Overshadowing Personal Deliverance

“I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.” Jeremiah 1:8

God promised Jeremiah that He would deliver him personally – “Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey.” That is all God promises His children. Wherever God sends us, He will guard our lives. Our personal property and possessions are a matter of indifference, we have to sit loosely to all those things; if we do not, there will be panic and heartbreak and distress. That is the inwardness of the overshadowing of personal deliverance.

The Sermon on the Mount indicates that when we are on Jesus Christ's errands, there is no time to stand up for ourselves. Jesus says, in effect, Do not be bothered with whether you are being justly dealt with or not. To look for justice is a sign of deflection from devotion to Him. Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it. If we look for justice, we will begin to grouse and to indulge in the discontent of self-pity – Why should I be treated like this? If we are devoted to Jesus Christ we have nothing to do with what we meet, whether it is just or unjust. Jesus says – Go steadily on with what I have told you to do and I will guard your life. If you try to guard it yourself, you remove yourself from My deliverance. The most devout among us become atheistic in this connection; we do not believe God, we enthrone common sense and tack the name of God on to it. We do lean to our own understanding, instead of trusting God with all our hearts.

或者可以得着基督耶稣所以得着我的。（腓三12）

切勿自告奋勇作主的工人；可是一旦被神呼召，你若偏左又偏右，就有祸了。我们原不是选择为神工作，所以去作工，乃是因为神得着了我们。绝不该这样想：“噢，我不适合做这个。”你所要传的道，是由神决定的，不是凭你个人天然的喜好决定。你的心灵要紧紧贴近神，要记住你蒙召不单是作见证，更要传福音。每个信徒都要作见证，但传道的呼召，则必须有神的手狠狠地抓住。你的生命是单为这一件事被神抓住吗？我们有多少人是这样？

千万不可把神的话打折扣，要按照他最严肃的真理去传。对神的话要忠心；但对人的关系上，则记住你是谁－－不是天上制造的特种人，而只是一个蒙恩的罪人。“我不是以为自己已经得着了。我只有一件事……”

祈祷◆主啊，求你按照你容许的方式和程度，让我能看见你、感受你、相信你和完全认识你。除你以外，我还等候谁呢？

June 28 Apprehended By God

“If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended.” Philippians 3:12

Never choose to be a worker; but when once God has put His call on you, woe be to you if you turn to the right hand or to the left. We are not here to work for God because we have chosen to do so, but because God has apprehended us. There is never any thought of – “Oh, well, I am not fitted for this.” What you are to preach is determined by God, not by your own natural inclinations. Keep your soul steadfastly related to God, and remember that you are called not to bear testimony only, but to preach the gospel. Every Christian must testify, but when it comes to the call to preach, there must be the agonizing grip of God's hand on you, your life is in the grip of God for that one thing. How many of us are held like that?

Never water down the word of God, preach it in its undiluted sternness; there must be unflinching loyalty to the word of God; but when you come to personal dealing with your fellow men, remember who you are – not a special being made up in heaven, but a sinner saved by grace.

“I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do . . .”

若是右手叫你跌倒，就砍下来丢掉。宁可失去百体中的一体，不叫全身下入地狱。（太五30）

耶稣并没有叫每个人把右手砍掉，他只是说：“若你右手阻碍你与我同行，就把它砍下来。”有许多事本来是完全合情合理的，但你若要专心跟从神，就不能去做了。右手是你最有用的东西，但耶稣说如果它阻碍你跟从他，就把它砍掉。这种锻炼的方法，是人类空前最严厉的。

神藉着重生改变了一个人，那生命起初的特征就是残废。你有许多事不敢做了，而那些事在你眼中，在认识你的世界眼中，是等于你的右手或眼睛那样重要。不属灵的人就会说：“这件事有何不妥？你真是太古怪了！”有史以来，从没有一个圣徒开始的时候，不是从无手无足的残缺中起步的。可是，宁可被神视为美好而带着残废进入永生，胜过在人眼中看为美丽，在神却视为残废。重生初期，有许多事情是耶稣藉着残废禁止你做的；虽然别人作这些事或许完全没有问题，你却不可作。但得小心；不可以用你所受的限制去批评别人。

生命的开始是残废的，但在第四十八节中，耶稣却展开了一幅丰盛生命的图画－－“你们要完全，像你们的天父完全一样。”

祈祷◆主啊！愿你今天带领我进入你更多恩慈和奇妙的作为中。愿你那满有恩典和能力的慈手，今天覆庇我。

June 29 Direction Of Discipline

“And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” Matthew 5:30

Jesus did not say that everyone must cut off the right hand, but – If your right hand offends you in your walk with Me, cut it off. There are many things that are perfectly legitimate, but if you are going to concentrate on God you cannot do them. Your right hand is one of the best things you have, but, says Jesus, if it hinders you in following His precepts, cut it off. This line of discipline is the sternest one that ever struck mankind.

When God alters a man by regeneration, the characteristic of the life to begin with is that it is maimed. There are a hundred and one things you dare not do, things that to you and in the eyes of the world that knows you are as your right hand and your eye, and the unspiritual person says – Whatever is wrong in that? How absurd you are! There never has been a saint yet who did not have to live a maimed life to start with. But it is better to enter into life maimed and lovely in God's sight than to be lovely in man's sight and lame in God's. In the beginning Jesus Christ by His Spirit has to check you from doing a great many things that may be perfectly right for everyone else but not right for you. See that you do not use your limitations to criticize someone else.

赶紧与他（对头）和息。（太五25）

耶稣基督定下了一个原则－－知道该做的现在就去做，而且要快快的做；否则，那无法避免的历程就必发生，而你也得尝受痛苦。神的律是不更改的，人也无法逃避。耶稣的教训是针对我们本质而说的。

要仇敌尊重我的权利，是很自然的事，可是耶稣却说偿还仇敌的一切，才是最急切而有永恒价值的事。从主的角度看来，我被人欺诈与否，并不要紧；要紧的是我不欺诈人。我是否坚持争取自己的权益，还是站在主的立场，偿还我所欠的？

要快快的做，立即审判自己。不论在道德上，或属灵上，都必须立刻去做；否则那无情的历程就必开始。神一心要他的儿女清洁雪白，任何不顺服他教训的，他的灵就会不遗余力地工作。

我们若一味坚持自己无辜，就表示还有些地方不顺服。怪不得圣灵这么强烈地催逼我们要常在光明中。

“赶快与他和息。”你是否一瞬间就察觉与人的关系中有愤怒存在？快快认罪，在神面前赶快解决，与那人和好－－现在就要去做。

祈祷◆主啊，愿你成为我生命中一道生机蓬勃、宁谧安恬的广阔河流。愿你今天向我们每一个人展示更多的爱与温柔－－尤其是我，因为许多人被我直接影响。

June 30 Do It Now

“Agree with thine adversary quickly.” Matthew 5:25

Jesus Christ is laying down this principle – Do what you know you must do, now, and do it quickly; if you do not, the inevitable process will begin to work and you will have to pay to the last farthing in pain and agony and distress. God's laws are unalterable; there is no escape from them. The teaching of Jesus goes straight to the way we are made up.

To see that my adversary gives me my rights is natural; but Jesus says that it is a matter of eternal and imperative importance to me that I pay my adversary what I owe him. From our Lord’s standpoint it does not matter whether I am defrauded or not; what does matter is that I do not defraud. Am I insisting on my rights, or am I paying what I owe from Jesus Christ's standpoint?

Do the thing quickly, bring yourself to judgment now. In moral and spiritual matters, you must do it at once; if you do not, the inexorable process will begin to work. God is determined to have His child as pure and clean and white as driven snow, and as long as there is disobedience in any point of His teaching, He will prevent none of the working of His spirit. Our insistence in proving that we are right is nearly always an indication that there has been some point of disobedience. No wonder the Spirit so strongly urges to keep steadfastly in the light!

“Agree with thine adversary quickly.” Have you suddenly turned a corner in any relationship and found that you had anger in your heart? Confess it quickly, quickly put it right before God, be reconciled to that one – do it now.

“没有一个天堂有一个地狱的角落。”神一心要使你纯洁、正直、无暇，就一刻不容你离开圣灵的监察。他催逼你一知罪，便立刻接受审判。可是你不肯，于是后果就来了，你如今在监牢中，必须还清每一文钱，才可以出来。你会说：“这岂是慈悲仁爱的神吗？”从神那方面看来，这正是他荣耀的爱。神要叫你出来时圣洁无暇；同时他要你看透自己的本性－－就是要抓紧权利。一旦你肯让神改变你，他再造的大能就产生功效。一旦你明白神的用心，是要你与他有正确的关系，也与其他人有正确的关系，神就会用尽宇宙一切的权能，助你走上正途。

请你现在立志－－“我肯，主啊，今晚我必定写那封信”；“我现在就与那人和好”。

耶稣基督这信息是对你的意志与良心而讲的，而不是对你的理智而发出。你若拿登山宝训去强辩，就会把心中的呼召声冲淡了。

“我不明白为什么与神没有进展？”你有没有偿还神心目中的债？你一直拖延的事，现在就做吧。每一个道德呼声背后，都有一个“应该”。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，但愿我能看见你的面容，认识你的能力和那使人兴奋的恩典。愿你靠近我这个已完全复原的生命，并且求你宽恕我忽略了你如何使我复原。

July 1 The Inevitable Penalty

“Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou have paid the uttermost farthing.” Matthew 5:26

There is no heaven with a little corner of hell in it. God is determined to make you pure and holy and right; He will not allow you to escape for one moment from the scrutiny of the Holy Spirit. He urged you to come to judgment right away when He convicted you, but you did not; the inevitable process began to work and now you are in prison, and you will only get out when you have paid the uttermost farthing. “Is this a God of mercy, and of love?” you say. Seen from God's side, it is a glorious ministry of love. God is going to bring you out pure and spotless and undefiled; but He wants you to recognize the disposition you were showing – the disposition of your right to yourself. The moment you are willing that God should alter your disposition, His recreating forces will begin to work. The moment you realize God's purpose, which is to get you rightly related to Himself and then to your fellow men, He will tax the last limit of the universe to help you take the right road. Decide it now – “Yes, Lord, I will write that letter to-night”; “I will be reconciled to that man now.”

These messages of Jesus Christ are for the will and the conscience, not for the head. If you dispute the Sermon on the Mount with your head, you will blunt the appeal to your heart.

人到我这里来，若不爱我胜过……就不能作我的门徒。（路十四26、27、33）

耶稣基督说人生中最亲密的关系，若与他的要求相冲突的话，就必须立刻选择顺服他。作门徒的意思，就是把自己诚意地奉献给一位——我们的主耶稣基督。对一个有位格的主奉献，与对一个原则或运动献身，并不相同。我们的主从没有宣告一项运动，他宣告的乃是叫人对他个别的献身。作门徒就是做主忠诚的爱奴。我们这些自称基督徒的人，许多根本就不专心爱主。除非圣灵把爱浇灌给人，否则世上没有一个人懂得热诚爱主。我们也许会仰慕他、尊敬他，但却不会爱他。唯一爱耶稣的就是圣灵，是他把神的爱倾泻入我们心中。圣灵一见有荣耀耶穌耶稣的机会，就会占有你的心、你整个的人，使你在主耶稣的热爱中燃烧发光。

基督徒的生命，都盖上了“自然的道德创造力”的印记，所以门徒像主耶稣一样被人指责为：矛盾不一。其实，主耶稣时刻对神都是如一。信徒也该对神的儿子始终如一，而不是在死硬的教条上持守。人把自己倾进教条里去，神却要把人的偏见炸毁，叫他们懂得专心爱他。

祈祷◆我何等需要看见你那威严、大能和荣耀的作为！我们所有人都只需要你的触摸，使一切事物都变成崭新而奇妙，并且抗衡任何不属于你的影响和标准。愿你的同在使我们得以洁净和满有能力。

July 2 The Conditions Of Discipleship

“If any man come to Me, and hate not . . . he cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:26, also 27, 33

If the closest relationships of life clash with the claims of Jesus Christ, He says it must be instant obedience to Himself. Discipleship means personal, passionate devotion to a Person, Our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a difference between devotion to a Person and devotion to principles or to a cause. Our Lord never proclaimed a cause; He proclaimed personal devotion to Himself. To be a disciple is to be a devoted love-slave of the Lord Jesus. Many of us who call ourselves Christians are not devoted to Jesus Christ. No man on earth has this passionate love to the Lord Jesus unless the Holy Ghost has imparted it to him. We may admire Him, we may respect Him and reverence Him, but we cannot love Him. The only Lover of the Lord Jesus is the Holy Ghost, and He sheds abroad the very love of God in our hearts. Whenever the Holy Ghost sees a chance of glorifying Jesus, He will take your heart, your nerves, your whole personality, and simply make you blaze and glow with devotion to Jesus Christ.

The Christian life is stamped by 'moral spontaneous originality', consequently the disciple is open to the same charge that Jesus Christ was, viz., that of inconsistency. But Jesus Christ was always consistent to God, and the Christian must be consistent to the life of the Son of God in him, not consistent to hard and fast creeds. Men pour them selves into creeds, and God has to blast them out of their prejudices before they can become devoted to Jesus Christ.

祸哉，我灭亡了。因为我是嘴唇不洁的人。（赛六5）

我来到神面前，自觉是个罪人。那意识不会是模棱两可的，我必然是意识到我生命的某一方面有罪。人可以很容易地说：“是的，我是个罪人。”但当他一旦来到神面前，就不能凭这句话轻轻逃过去。那知罪的意念会集中在——“我这个不是，那个不对。”人来到神面前总有这个标记。罪的意识不会模糊不清，一定是集中在个人的某一些事上。神起初总是藉圣灵指控我们心中的某一件事，我们若在这件事上承认自己有罪，他便把我们引进下面最大的罪根性区。我们若是在神面前，他总是这样对付我们。

这个把罪恶集中的经历，不论在最伟大的圣徒或最渺小的罪人身上，都毫无分别。在这经历第一级阶梯上的人会说：“我不知过错何在，但神的灵必会指出我在哪一件事上犯了错。”以赛亚看见圣洁的神，他就察觉自己是嘴唇不洁的人。“将炭沾我的口说，看哪，这炭沾了你的嘴，你的罪孽便除掉，你的罪恶就赦免了。”洁净的火必要施于罪恶集中之处。

祈祷◆主啊，愿你的纯洁渗透我们的思想、身体和感情；让我们完全认知和迅速彰显你那活泼而使人充满生气的作为。愿你那丰富的能力，进入我们的生活中。

July 3 The Concentration Of Personal Sin

“Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.” Isaiah 6:5

When I get into the presence of God, I do not realize that I am a sinner in an indefinite sense; I realize the concentration of sin in a particular feature of my life. A man will say easily – ‘Oh, yes, I know I am a sinner’; but when he gets into the presence of God he cannot get off with that statement. The conviction is concentrated on – I am this, or that, or the other. This is always the sign that a man or woman is in the presence of God. There is never any vague sense of sin, but the concentration of sin in some personal particular. God begins by convicting us of the one thing fixed on in the mind that is prompted by His Spirit; if we will yield to His conviction on that point, He will lead us down to the great disposition of sin underneath. That is the way God always deals with us when we are consciously in His presence.

This experience of the concentration of sin is true in the greatest and the least of saints as well as in the greatest and the least of sinners. When a man is on the first rung of the ladder of experience, he may say – I do not know where I have gone wrong; but the Spirit of God will point out some particular definite thing. The effect of the vision of the holiness of the Lord on Isaiah was to bring home to him that he was a man of unclean lips. “And he laid it upon my mouth, and said Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” The cleansing fire had to be applied where the sin had been concentrated.

不要心怀不平，以致作恶。（诗三十七8）

心怀不平就是思想上或灵性上的反抗状态。口头上说不要心怀不平，与内心真的没有不平是两回事。说“安息在主里”、“忍耐等候主”多么容易，但风浪一至，生活落在困逼苦恼中，真能安息在主里吗？若这个“不要”在此行不通，在其他方面就更无功效。这“不要”不但要在平安无事的日子行得通，也必须在烦恼的日子行得通，否则，这就完全没有意义。再者，若在你身上行不通，就别希冀在别人身上行得通了。安心靠主是完全不仗赖外在的环境，只在乎你与神的关系。

不安结果总变成罪。我们以为一点点的焦虑忧心是表示自己的聪明，其实这正显示我们的劣根性。不安不平是从偏行己路而来的。我们的主从不焦虑，从不忧心，因为他来到世上并非为了自己，乃是要实现神的旨意。你若是神的儿女，心怀不平是坏透了的。

你是否认为当前的处境连神也难倒了？这个思想是否支撑着你愚顽的心？把所有“假如”放在一旁，住在全能者的荫下。郑重的对神说你不再为那事心怀不平。一切的不平与挂虑，其实是离开神而自作打算。

祈祷◆主啊，我自觉深切地渴慕你和你的生命，我从诗篇九十一篇中找到保证——“他必救你”。主啊，我对它深信不疑，并且，为着你保护看顾我，我感谢你。

One Of God's Great Don'ts

“Fret not thyself, it tendeth only to evil doing.” Psalm 37:8 (R.V.)

Fretting means getting out at elbows mentally or spiritually. It is one thing to say “Fret not,” but a very different thing to have such a disposition that you find yourself able not to fret. It sounds so easy to talk about “resting in the Lord” and “waiting patiently for Him” until the nest is upset – until we live, as so many are doing, in tumult and anguish, is it possible then to rest in the Lord? If this “don't” does not work there, it will work nowhere. This “don't” must work in days of perplexity as well as in days of peace, or it never will work. And if it will not work in your particular case, it will not work in anyone else's case. Resting in the Lord does not depend on external circumstances at all, but on your relationship to God Himself.

Fussing always ends in sin. We imagine that a little anxiety and worry are an indication of how really wise we are; it is much more an indication of how really wicked we are. Fretting springs from a determination to get our own way. Our Lord never worried and He was never anxious, because He was not “out” to realize His own ideas; He was “out” to realize God's ideas. Fretting is wicked if you are a child of God.

Have you been bolstering up that stupid soul of yours with the idea that your circumstances are too much for God? Put all “supposing” on one side and dwell in the shadow of the Almighty. Deliberately tell God that you will not fret about that thing. All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God.

当将你的事交托耶和华，并倚靠他，他就必成全。（诗三十七5）

别在神以外筹算，我们很多时候为事情筹算，却没有把神放在里面；在这情况下，神往往用他奇妙的方法破坏我们的计划。我们闯进不是神所安排的环境里去，才猛然发觉自己在神以外行事，没有让神成为生活的主导。若要除去忧虑，唯一的办法是把神带到我们一切的筹算里，让他成为最大的动因。

在宗教上，我们晓得该把神放在首位，但在实际的日常生活里，却无法把他放在第一位。若我们必须披上星期日的精神状态才来亲近神，那么我们就永不会亲近神。我们必须按自己的本相来到神面前。

不要计算恶事，神真要我们不计算恶事吗？“爱……不计算人的恶。”爱并非不知恶的存在，而是不把恶计算。离开了神，我们便会计算恶；我们会从恶的立场去筹算、去推断。

别为未来的困境筹算，你若信靠主耶穌，就不会为未来筹谋。耶穌说：“你们心里不要忧愁。”神不会叫你的心没有忧愁，而是“不要……”，那是一项命令。因此一日之中，尽管是一百零一次，总要逼自己遵行，直至养成习惯，事事把神放在首位，一切的筹算有他在内。

祈祷◆“你们奉我的名无论求什么，我必成就。”噢，主啊，那是多么的奥妙，又是多么的简单——我祈求，同时相信你会藉着我的祷告，创造一些前所未有的东西，来答允我的祈求。

July 5 Don't Calculate Without God

“Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass.” Psalm 37:5

Don't calculate without God. 

God seems to have a delightful way of upsetting the things we have calculated on without taking Him into account. We get into circumstances which were not chosen by God, and suddenly we find we have been calculating without God; He has not entered in as a living factor. The one thing that keeps us from the possibility of worrying is bringing God in as the greatest factor in all our calculations.

In our religion it is customary to put God first, but we are apt to think it is an impertinence to put Him first in the practical issues of our lives. If we imagine we have to put on our Sunday moods before we come near to God, we will never come near Him. We must come as we are.

Don't calculate with the evil in view. 

Does God really mean us to take no account of the evil? “Love . . . taketh no account of the evil.” Love is not ignorant of the existence of the evil, but it does not take it in as a calculating factor. Apart from God, we do reckon with evil; we calculate with it in view and work all our reasonings from that standpoint.

Don't calculate with the rainy day in view. 

You cannot lay up for a rainy day if you are trusting Jesus Christ. Jesus said – “Let not your heart be troubled.” God will not keep your heart from being troubled. It is a command – “Let not . . .” Haul yourself up a hundred and one times a day in order to do it, until you get into the habit of putting God first and calculating with Him in view.

发光的沙，要变为水池。（赛三十五7）

在一件事实现以前，我们往往有异象。当我们发现异象虽然真确，但在我们身上却未实现时，撒旦的试探就来了。我们很容易放弃，认为继续也无济于事。异象未能实现，并且来到自卑的山谷中。

“生命不是无人开采的矿藏，乃是地心暗处掘出来的铁块，经千锤百炼，为要模造成合用的器皿。”

神给我们异象，然后带我们到山谷去锤炼，捏成该异象的形状。不少人就是在山谷中仆倒放弃。只要忍耐，每一个异象都要实现。想想神无穷的闲暇！他从不匆忙，而我们却总是忙得喘不过气来。在异象的荣光中，我们一鼓作气去作工，可是，那异象还未在我们里面成为真实。所以，神必须带我们到山谷中，经过水火的模造，直至神可以叫异象确切地在我们身上实现。自从我们有了这异象，神就一直作工，要使我们成为理想的模样，只是我们一次又一次地从他手中逃脱，想模造成自己的形象。

异象不是空中楼阁，乃是神对你的心意。让他把你放在旋盘中，照他意思去转动陶造。这样，神是神，你是你，你就必然变成与异象一模一样的形状。在这过程中，不要灰心。只要真见过神的异象，无论你怎样设法满足于次一等的状况，神也不会放过你。

祈祷◆主啊，愿我们全然交在你的手中，帮助我们能够选择你的带领，“就是我们的神以我们配得所受的呼召”。

July 6 Vision And Reality

“And the parched ground shall become a pool.” Isaiah 35:7

We always have visions, before a thing is made real. When we realize that although the vision is real, it is not real in us, then is the time that Satan comes in with his temptations, and we are apt to say it is no use to go on. Instead of the vision becoming real, there has come the valley of humiliation.

“Life is not as idle ore,
But iron dug from central gloom,
And batter'd by the shocks of doom
To shape and use.”

God gives us the vision, then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of the vision, and it is in the valley that so many of us faint and give way. Every vision will be made real if we will have patience. Think of the enormous leisure of God! He is never in a hurry. We are always in such a frantic hurry. In the light of the glory of the vision we go forth to do things, but the vision is not real in us yet; and God has to take us into the valley, and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the place where He can trust us with the veritable reality. Ever since we had the vision God has been at work, getting us into the shape of the ideal, and over and over again we escape from His hand and try to batter ourselves into our own shape.

The vision is not a castle in the air, but a vision of what God wants you to be. Let Him put you on His wheel and whirl you as He likes, and as sure as God is God and you are you, you will turn out exactly in accordance with the vision. Don't lose heart in the process. If you have ever had the vision of God, you may try as you like to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never let you.

“你们要进窄门。因为……引到永生，那门是窄的，路是小的，找着的人也少。”马太福音7：13－14

如果我们准备像耶稣的门徒那样去生活，我们就要记住所有崇高的事情都是艰难的事。基督徒的生活是极为艰难的，但是这艰难不是让我们软弱投降，而是要激起我们去战胜困难。我们是否深深感激耶稣基督那无比的救恩而竭尽全力为他而活呢？

神因着他至高无上的恩典，藉着耶稣的挽回祭拯救人；我们立志行事都是他在我们里面运行，为要讨他的喜悦；但我们必须在实际的生活里把这救恩行出来。一旦我们开始站在他救赎的根基上去遵行他的命令，我们会发现我们是可以做到的。如果我们失败了，这是因为我们还不够老练。危机会揭露出我们是否一直在实践他的命令。如果我们顺服神的灵，并在我们肉身里实行神藉着他的灵放在我们里面的命令，当危机来的时候，我们就会发现我们的本性和神的恩典都会支援我们过去。

感谢神给了我们困难的事情去做！他的拯救是令人高兴的，但同时也是伟大的、圣洁的。它测试我们是否配得。耶稣要把许多“儿子”带进荣耀里，神不会让我们逃避作为“儿子”的要求。神的恩典使人转变成为耶稣基督的样式，而不是成为一个懦夫。在实际的生活中活出耶稣门徒的生命需要许许多多的操练。成为高尚是需要付出努力的。

July 7 All Noble Things Are Difficult

“Enter ye in at the strait gate . . because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way. . .” Matthew 7:13-14

If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Do we so appreciate the marvellous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?

God saves men by His sovereign grace through the Atonement of Jesus; He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure; but we have to work out that salvation in practical living. If once we start on the basis of His Redemption to do what He commands, we find that we can do it. If we fail, it is because we have not practised. The crisis will reveal whether we have been practising or not. If we obey the Spirit of God and practise in our physical life what God has put in us by His Spirit, then when the crisis comes, we shall find that our own nature as well as the grace of God will stand by us.

Thank God He does give us difficult things to do! His salvation is a glad thing, but it is also a heroic, holy thing. It tests us for all we are worth. Jesus is bringing many “sons” unto glory, and God will not shield us from the requirements of a son. God's grace turns out men and women with a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, not milk sops. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the noble life of a disciple of Jesus in actual things. It is always necessary to make an effort to be noble.

“……今日就可以选择所要事奉的。” 约书亚记24：15

意志是全人的活动。我不能放弃我的意志，我必须要训练我的意志。我必须要立志顺服，立志接受上帝的灵。当上帝给了我们真理的异像时，他要做什么不是一个问题，问题是我们要做什么。主已经把一些大的任务摆在我们面前，最好要做的事是回想从前被上帝感动的时候你做了什么？就是在你得救的时候，或者第一次看到耶穌，或者认识到一些真理。那时候对上帝顺服忠心是容易的。当上帝的灵把一些新的任务带到你面前时，现在就回想从前的那些时候吧。

“今日就可以选择所要事奉的。”这是经过深思熟虑的计算，不是你可以容易进入的事情；其他一切都被暂时搁置，直到你做出决定。这任务是在你与上帝之间的，不要和属血气的商量这事。对于每一个新的任务，其他人会越来越远离它，这正是压力来的地方。上帝允许他的圣徒的意见影响到你，但你被带领到越来越远，别人无法确实理解你所走的路。你不用去发现上帝把你带到哪里，上帝唯一要向你解释的事就是他自己。

向他宣告：“我要忠心。”一旦你选择了向耶穌基督忠心，你就不再是你自己的见证。不要咨询别的基督徒，只要在他面前宣告——我要服侍你。立志忠心——并且也为别人的忠心而赞许他们。

July 8 The Will To Loyalty

“Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” Joshua 24:15

Will is the whole man active. I cannot give up my will, I must exercise it. I must will to obey, and I must will to receive God's Spirit. When God gives a vision of truth it is never a question of what He will do, but of what we will do. The Lord has been putting before us all some big propositions, and the best thing to do is to remember what you did when you were touched by God before – the time when you were saved, or first saw Jesus, or realized some truth. It was easy then to yield allegiance to God; recall those moments now as the Spirit of God brings before you some new proposition.

“Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” It is a deliberate calculation, not something into which you drift easily; and everything else is in abeyance until you decide. The proposition is between you and God; do not confer with flesh and blood about it. With every new proposition other people get more and more “out of it,” that is where the strain comes. God allows the opinion of His saints to matter to you, and yet you are brought more and more out of the certainty that others understand the step you are taking. You have no business to find out where God is leading, the only thing God will explain to you is Himself.

Profess to Him – ‘I will be loyal.’ Immediately you choose to be loyal to Jesus Christ, you are a witness against yourself. Don't consult other Christians, but profess before Him – I will serve Thee. Will to be loyal – and give other people credit for being loyal too.

你们不能事奉耶和华。（书二十四19）

除了神以外，你对别的东西有没有丝毫的靠赖？对天然的德行，对环境等因素，是否仍有残余的倚恃？在这项新旨意中，你还有哪方面是靠赖自己的？这就是彻底清查的意思。是的，你可以说：“我无法过圣洁的生活。”这是真的；但你可以决志让耶稣基督使你圣洁。“你们不能事奉耶和华。”但你可以让神的大能透过你作工。你与神的关系是否美好和谐，以致他能在你身上彰显他奇妙的生命？

“我们定要事奉耶和华。”这不是一时的冲动，而是一个立定心意的交付。你会说：“神绝不会呼召我作这个，我太不配了，这不会是指着我说的。”实在是你，你愈软弱无能，便愈合适。一个仍有所倚恃的人不会说：“我定要事奉耶和华。”

我们常说：“若我真能信多好！”但问题却是“若我真肯信多好”。难怪耶稣基督这样强调不信的罪。若真相信神所言属实，我们会变成怎么样的人呢？我是否真正肯让神在我身上成为一位说什么就成就什么的神？

祈祷◆主啊，你的面容、你的感动、你的赐福，是我今天所寻求的。感动我，主啊，直至我的每一部分，都被你满有恩慈而带有能力的平安所震撼和振奋。

July 9 The Great Probing

“Ye cannot serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:19

Have you the slightest reliance on anything other than God? Is there a remnant of reliance left on any natural virtue, any set of circumstances? Are you relying on yourself in any particular in this new proposition which God has put before you? That is what the probing means. It is quite true to say – “I cannot live a holy life,” but you can decide to let Jesus Christ make you holy. “Ye cannot serve the Lord God”; but you can put yourself in the place where God's almighty power will come through you. Are you sufficiently right with God to expect Him to manifest His wonderful life in you?

“Nay, but we will serve the Lord.” It is not an impulse, but a deliberate commitment. You say – But God can never have called me to this, I am too unworthy, it can't mean me. It does mean you, and the weaker and feebler you are, the better. The one who has something to trust in is the last one to come anywhere near saying – “I will serve the Lord.”

We say – “If I really could believe!” The point is – If I really will believe. No wonder Jesus Christ lays such emphasis on the sin of unbelief. “And He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” If we really believed that God meant what He said – what should we be like! Dare I really let God be to me all that He says He will be?

又要彼此相顾，激发爱心，勉励行善。你们不可停止聚会。（来十24-25）

我们都有属灵的惰性，就是不想面对生命的颠簸与艰难，只望安之乐之过退休的生活。希伯来书第十章的要点是我们彼此激励，齐集聚会——二者都需要积极自发。这是实现基督的自发，而非实现自我的自发。若离群独处，过着退隐的生活，这与主耶穌的属灵教导根本相违。

当我们遇见不义、诡诈、忘恩、扰乱时，灵性便受到考验。这些事很容易使我们陷入属灵的怠惰中。我们以读经祷告作为退隐的工具，利用神来取得平安喜乐。换言之，我们并不是要活出基督，而只想去享受他，这就是方向错误的第一步。其实这一切只是果效，我们却把它们变作目标。

彼得说：“我自以为应当……提醒你们，激发你们。”神用充满属灵活力的使者击打我们，是最不好受的。活跃的工作与属灵活力是两回事，但前者可以假冒后者。属灵惰性的危机在于不想被激发，只想过属灵退隐的生活。主耶穌从不鼓励退隐的思想，他说：“去告诉我的弟兄……”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你的恩福今天在此地临到我们：使我们脱离怠惰和灵性上的懒散，让你所保证的全然成就。

July 10 The Spiritual Sluggard

“Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works; not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” Hebrews 10:24-25

We are all capable of being spiritual sluggards; we do not want to mix with the rough and tumble of life as it is, our one object is to secure retirement. The note struck in Hebrews 10 is that of provoking one another and of keeping together – both of which require initiative, the initiative of Christ-realization, not of self-realization. To live a remote, retired, secluded life is the antipodes of spirituality as Jesus Christ taught it.

The test of our spirituality comes when we come up against injustice and meanness and ingratitude and turmoil, all of which have the tendency to make us spiritual sluggards. We want to use prayer and Bible reading for the purpose of retirement. We utilize God for the sake of getting peace and joy, that is, we do not want to realize Jesus Christ, but only our enjoyment of Him. This is the first step in the wrong direction. All these things are effects and we try to make them causes.

“I think it meet,” said Peter, “. . . to stir you up by putting you in remembrance.” It is a most disturbing thing to be smitten in the ribs by some provoker of God, by someone who is full of spiritual activity. Active work and spiritual activity are not the same thing. Active work may be the counterfeit of spiritual activity. The danger of spiritual sluggishness is that we do not wish to be stirred up, all we want to hear about is spiritual retirement. Jesus Christ never encourages the idea of retirement – “Go tell My brethren . .”

“使人认识基督。”（腓三10）

圣徒的积极性并非朝着自我实现的方向，而是朝着认识基督进发。属灵的信徒绝不相信际遇出于偶然，也不会认为他的人生又属世又属神，他会视一切环境和际遇，领他更认识基督；也会不顾一切的弃绝。圣灵定意要使我们生命的每一方面都彰显基督。他曾一次又一次地把我们带到同一点，直至我们在那一点上彰显基督。自我实现叫人高举工作；圣徒却在工作上高举基督。或吃或喝或洗门徒的脚，不论是作什么，总要积极地在其中彰显基督。我们生命的每一阶段，都可在主耶稣的生命中找出互相对照之处。主就是在最低贱的工作上，也彰显与父神的关系。“耶稣知道自己是从神出来，又要归到神那里去，就……拿一条毛巾……洗门徒的脚。”

属灵圣徒的目标是要“认识基督”。我在今天的环境中认识基督吗？若不，就是叫他失望了。我不是要自我实现，乃是要认识基督。在属灵的工作中，原动力往往出于看见事工的需要，于是就去做。属灵的信徒却永不抱这种态度，他的目标是要在一切所处的环境中活出基督。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，凭着我单纯信靠那居住在我里面、又使我与你的属灵连结起来的圣灵，我仰望你；帮助我完全属你。

July 11 The Spiritual Saint

“That I may know Him.” Philippians 3:10

The initiative of the saint is not towards self-realization, but towards knowing Jesus Christ. The spiritual saint never believes circumstances to be haphazard, or thinks of his life as secular and sacred; he sees everything he is dumped down in as the means of securing the knowledge of Jesus Christ. There is a reckless abandonment about him. The Holy Spirit is determined that we shall realize Jesus Christ in every domain of life, and He will bring us back to the same point again and again until we do. Self-realization leads to the enthronement of work; whereas the saint enthrones Jesus Christ in his work. Whether it be eating or drinking or washing disciples feet, whatever it is, we have to take the initiative of realizing Jesus Christ in it. Every phase of our actual life has its counterpart in the life of Jesus. Our Lord realized His relationship to the Father even in the most menial work. “Jesus knowing . . . that He was come from God, and went to God . . . took a towel . . . and began to wash the disciples' feet.”

The aim of the spiritual saint is “that I may know Him.” Do I know Him where I am to-day? If not, I am failing Him. I am here not to realize myself, but to know Jesus. In Christian work the initiative is too often the realization that something has to be done and I must do it. That is never the attitude of the spiritual saint, his aim is to secure the realization of Jesus Christ in every set of circumstances he is in.

直等到我们众人……长大成人，满有基督长成的身量。（弗四13）

整个人类要重新恢复与神的关系，这正是主耶稣的救赎所成就的。教会什么时候只顾发展本身的组织，就不再是一个属灵的团体了。主耶稣使人类恢复原位的计划，是要人不单个别地，也要在整体上彰显基督。主耶稣差遣使徒和教师，就是为此目的——叫神在教会整体中彰显。我们不是为发展自己属灵的生命，也不是为享受属灵的安静；我们乃是要活出基督，好叫基督的身体得以建立。我是在建立基督的身体吗？还是只求个人的发展？最重要的是我个人与耶稣的关系——“使我认识基督”。要完成神的计划就要完全把自己交付他。每当我要为自己求什么，与神的关系就有所偏差。我们若发现自己并不在乎彰显基督，而只追求彰显他为我所做的事，会为此感动极大羞愧。“我的目标是神自己，而不是喜乐，不是平安，也不是祝福。单是神自己，我的神。”我是否以此衡量自己的生命？还是以次一等的标准来衡量？

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我赞美你。因为当我想到你那奥妙的身体中的肢体，脑海中浮现那伟大的思想。我何等渴望迅速地更多认识到它的奥秘。

July 12 The Spiritual Society

“Till we all come . . unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:13

Rehabilitation means the putting back of the whole human race into the relationship God designed it to be in, and this is what Jesus Christ did in Redemption. The Church ceases to be a spiritual society when it is on the look-out for the development of its own organization. The rehabilitation of the human race on Jesus Christ's plan means the realization of Jesus Christ in corporate life as well as in individual life. Jesus Christ sent apostles and teachers for this purpose – that the corporate Personality might be realized. We are not here to develop a spiritual life of our own, or to enjoy spiritual retirement; we are here so to realize Jesus Christ that the Body of Christ may be built up.

Am I building up the Body of Christ, or am I looking for my own personal development only? The essential thing is my personal relationship to Jesus Christ – “That I may know Him.” To fulfil God's design means entire abandonment to Him. Whenever I want things for myself, the relationship is distorted. It will be a big humiliation to realize that I have not been concerned about realizing Jesus Christ, but only about realizing what He has done for me.

“My goal is God Himself, not joy nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God.”

Am I measuring my life by this standard or by anything less?

当乌西雅王崩的那年，我见主坐在高高的宝座上。（赛六1）

我们心灵与神的历程，往往是英雄人物式逝去的历程。神一次又一次地把我们的朋友挪开，使他自己可以代替他们的地位，我们却因此失败灰心。就个人经验来说：那年那个替代了神位置的人死了——我是否万念俱灰？病了？颓丧灰心？还是看见了主？

我对神的异象，有赖于我品性的状况。品性决定启示。我若要说“我看见了主”，就必先在品性上有了与神相呼应的成分。在我重生得见神的国以前，所看见的都随我的偏见而定；我需要接受手术，切除外在的事物，也需要内里的洁净。第一是神，第二、第三也是神，直到生命单单面对神，其他人都无关重要。“世上除你还有谁？我的神，只有你。”不断付代价，让神知道你甘愿达成异象。

祈祷◆主啊，我感谢你，因为我发现自己在盼望你再来时深感热切的喜乐！噢，由此我可以在你眼前蒙恩，并且，要让自己的行事为人，与你的伟大救恩更为相称！

July 13 The Price Of Vision

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord.” Isaiah 6:1

Our soul's history with God is frequently the history of the “passing of the hero.” Over and over again God has to remove our friends in order to bring Himself in their place, and that is where we faint and fail and get discouraged. Take it personally: In the year that the one who stood to me for all that God was, died – I gave up everything? I became ill? I got disheartened? or – I saw the Lord?

My vision of God depends upon the state of my character. Character determines revelation. Before I can say “I saw also the Lord,” there must be something corresponding to God in my character. Until I am born again and begin to see the Kingdom of God, I see along the line of my prejudices only; I need the surgical operation of external events and an internal purification.

It must be God first, God second, and God third, until the life is faced steadily with God and no one else is of any account whatever. “In all the world there is none but thee, my God, there is none but thee.” Keep paying the price. Let God see that you are willing to live up to the vision.

只是我告诉你们，不要与恶人作对。有人打你的右脸，连左脸也转过来由他打。（太五39）

这经文说出作基督徒的谦卑。依常情来说，不还手是懦夫；但在属灵上，不还手表明有神的儿子在他里头。你被侮辱时，不但不要动怒，更要藉这机会表彰神的儿子。你无法模仿耶稣的性情，有就有，没有就没有。对一个圣徒来说，个人受辱是表彰主耶稣美妙的机会，这真令人难以置信。

登山宝训不是——做你当做的，而是——做非你分内的。你本不必走第二里路，不必转左脸，但耶稣说若我们是他的门徒，就必须这样行。我们不该存这样的心：“唉，我受这样的冤屈误会，再也无能为力了。”每次我坚持自己的权益，就伤害了神的儿子；我若接受那一击，就叫耶稣免受伤害。这正是补满基督患难缺欠的意思。主的门徒只知道主的荣耀，而非他自己的声誉，这是系于一生的目标。切勿从他人身上要求正义，自己也不可不去行义。我们往往寻找公义；但登山宝训却说不要找公义，要时常施行公义。

祈祷◆主啊，当我想起你的一切美善、奇妙和恩典，赞美和忧虑的心便在我里面此起彼落。噢，主啊，我所祈求的是：你在我里面最想寻见的一切，正是我必须在现实生活中实践出来的东西。

July 14 The Account With Persecution

“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:39, etc

These verses reveal the humiliation of being a Christian. Naturally, if a man does not hit back, it is because he is a coward; but spiritually if a man does not hit back, it is a manifestation of the Son of God in him. When you are insulted, you must not only not resent it, but make it an occasion to exhibit the Son of God. You cannot imitate the disposition of Jesus; it is either there or it is not. To the saint personal insult becomes the occasion of revealing the incredible sweetness of the Lord Jesus.

The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is not – Do your duty, but – Do what is not your duty. It is not your duty to go the second mile, to turn the other cheek, but Jesus says if we are His disciples we shall always do these things. There will be no spirit of – “Oh, well, I cannot do any more, I have been so misrepresented and misunderstood.” Every time I insist upon my rights, I hurt the Son of God; whereas I can prevent Jesus from being hurt if I take the blow myself. That is the meaning of filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. The disciple realizes that it is his Lord's honour that is at stake in his life, not his own honour.

Never look for right in the other man, but never cease to be right yourself. We are always looking for justice; the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is – Never look for justice, but never cease to give it.

无论是希腊人，化外人……我都欠他们的债。（罗一14）

保罗深觉自己欠了耶稣基督的债，他被这个感觉完全淹没，以致要把自己耗尽来偿还。保罗的生命给每一个尚未蒙拯救的人，有没有一种欠了基督的感觉？作为一个圣徒，我生命的属灵尊荣在于偿还我欠基督的债。我生命中每一点一滴有价值之处，全因主耶稣的救赎大工；我有没有作任何事，使他的大工在别人身上得以实际彰显？只有当圣灵在我里面，使我有这欠债的感觉时，我才能作这工。我在人类中并非超凡的人，乃是主耶稣的奴仆。“你们不是自己的人。”保罗把自己卖了给耶稣基督。他说：“我因着耶稣的福音，欠了全世界人的债；我唯一的自由，就是做一个十足的奴仆。”人一旦体验了这份属灵的尊荣，生命就有这个特质。不要再为自己祈祷，而要作耶稣基督的奴仆，为别人把自己燃烧。作擘开的饼、倒出来的酒，实际上就是这个意思。

祈祷◆主啊，愿你再次感动我的灵、魂、体。倘若我的饮食妨碍了你在我里面的工作，或阻碍了你透过我所行的事，请向我显示，并保守我属于你，以致无论我或吃或喝，或做任何的事情，都可以荣耀你。

July 15 The Point Of Spiritual Honour

“I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians.” Romans 1:14

Paul was overwhelmed with the sense of his indebtedness to Jesus Christ, and he spent himself to express it. The great inspiration in Paul's life was his view of Jesus Christ as his spiritual creditor. Do I feel that sense of indebtedness to Christ in regard to every unsaved soul? The spiritual honour of my life as a saint is to fulfil my debt to Christ in relation to them. Every bit of my life that is of value I owe to the Redemption of Jesus Christ; am I doing anything to enable Him to bring His Redemption into actual manifestation in other lives? I can only do it as the Spirit of God works in me this sense of indebtedness.

I am not to be a superior person amongst men, but a bondslave of the Lord Jesus. “Ye are not your own.” Paul sold himself to Jesus Christ. He says – I am a debtor to everyone on the face of the earth because of the Gospel of Jesus; I am free to be an absolute slave only. That is the characteristic of the life when once this point of spiritual honour is realized. Quit praying about yourself and be spent for others as the bondslave of Jesus. That is the meaning of being made broken bread and poured out wine in reality.

何况你们在天上的父，岂不更把好东西给求他的人吗？（太七11）

耶稣为那些有他的灵在心中的人，设下一些行为的法则。他藉这几句简单的辩论，要我们满心相信神是控制一切事情的。意思就是：门徒必须完全信靠，同时渴切寻找祈求。

你的心思要牢扣神在这里的意念，这样，困难一旦临到，你就像呼吸一样，记得：“嗨，我的父完全知道！”你不必费力，这个意念是在困惑压逼之中自然出来的。以往你会去找这个人那个人帮忙，如今你既对神至高的掌管如此坚信，你就去找神。耶稣在此为有他灵的人奠下行为的法则，原则就是——神是我的父，他爱我，没有忘记我的每一件事，那么我何必忧虑呢？

耶稣说神有时候不把黑幕挪开，你仍要信靠他。神似乎像个狠心的朋友，他其实不是。他似乎像个不合理的父亲，他实在不是。他似乎像不公正的审判官，他绝非如此。要记住，神实在一切事的背后。这观念要加强且不住的增长。除非神的旨意在背后，否则没有任何事可以发生，因此你大可以完全信靠安息。祈祷不光是祈求，更是一种生发自然祈求气氛的心态。“你们祈求，就给你们。”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，以你充沛的能力、恩慈和美善，来激励我的生命；让它有机会显露你的面容。这似乎便是我全部的祷告。

July 16 The Notion Of Divine Control

“How much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?” Matthew 7:11

Jesus is laying down rules of conduct for those who have His Spirit. By the simple argument of these verses He urges us to keep our minds filled with the notion of God's control behind everything, which means that the disciple must maintain an attitude of perfect trust and an eagerness to ask and to seek.

Notion your mind with the idea that God is there. If once the mind is notioned along that line, then when you are in difficulties it is as easy as breathing to remember – Why, my Father knows all about it! It is not an effort, it comes naturally when perplexities press. Before, you used to go to this person and that, but now the notion of the Divine control is forming so powerfully in you that you go to God about it. Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct for those who have His Spirit, and it works on this principle – God is my Father, He loves me, I shall never think of anything He will forget, why should I worry?

There are times, says Jesus, when God cannot lift the darkness from you, but trust Him. God will appear like an unkind friend, but He is not; He will appear like an unnatural Father, but He is not; He will appear like an unjust judge, but He is not. Keep the notion of the mind of God behind all things strong and growing. Nothing happens in any particular unless God's will is behind it, therefore you can rest in perfect confidence in Him. Prayer is not only asking, but an attitude of mind which produces the atmosphere in which asking is perfectly natural. “Ask, and it shall be given you.”

但那等候耶和华的……行走却不疲乏。（赛四十31）

行路并无甚刺激，但却是一切坚定品质的考验。“行走却不疲乏”，是能力最高的境地。圣经中用“行走”来描画人的品质——“约翰见耶稣行走，就说，看哪，这是神的羔羊！”圣经的话从不抽象，总是生动而真实。神没有说：“你要属灵。”他是说：“行在我里面。”我们的身体或情绪上处于不健康的状态，就会寻求刺激，寻求凌空飞翔的经历，就会招来属灵破产的结局。

神同在的真实，不在乎地方，只在乎我们决心把主常摆在面前。许多的问题，都出自不肯信赖他同在的事实。诗人说：“虽然……我们也不害怕。”若我们倚靠他，也能有同样的经历；不是倚靠神同在的感觉，而是抓紧神同在的真实。——“噢，他原来一直都在这里！”。当然，在紧急关头时可以求主指引，但却不需要一天到晚说：“主啊，带领我这个，带领我那个。”他必会带领的。我们按常理作的决定，若不合神的心，他自会插手阻拦；这时，我们就得安静，等候他的引导。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，你的道路何等奇妙！当我回想你带领和陪同我走过的道路，我便在惊叹、爱意和赞美中浑然忘我。

July 20 Dependent On God's Presence

“They that wait upon the Lord . . . shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31

There is no thrill in walking; it is the test of all the stable qualities. To “walk and not faint” is the highest reach possible for strength. The word “walk” is used in the Bible to express the character – “John looking on Jesus as He walked, said, Behold the Lamb of God!” There is never any thing abstract in the Bible, it is always vivid and real. God does not say – Be spiritual, but – “Walk before Me.”

When we are in an unhealthy state physically or emotionally, we always want thrills. In the physical domain this will lead to counterfeiting the Holy Ghost; in the emotional life it leads to inordinate affection and the destruction of morality; and in the spiritual domain if we insist on getting thrills, on mounting up with wings, it will end in the destruction of spirituality.

The reality of God's presence is not dependent on any place, but only dependent upon the determination to set the Lord always before us. Our problems come when we refuse to bank on the reality of His presence. The experience the Psalmist speaks of – “Therefore will we not fear, though . . .” will be ours when once we are based on Reality, not the consciousness of God's presence but the reality of it – Why, He has been here all the time!

At critical moments it is necessary to ask guidance, but it ought to be unnecessary to be saying always – “O Lord, direct me here, and there.” Of course He will! If our common-sense decisions are not His order, He will press through them and check; then we must be quiet and wait for the direction of His presence.

虚心的人有福了。（太五3）

当心不要把主教师的身分放在第一位。耶稣基督若光是一位教师，他所作的无非是设立了一些我无法达到的标准来戏弄我。若根本是无法达到的理想，介绍给我有何用？我不知道反更妙。要我清心，要我连非份内的事也作，要我完全归向神，可是我却无力达到，告诉我这些有何益处？若要基督的教训对我真有意义，而不是引至绝望的空理想，我就必须以耶稣基督为救主。我在神的灵里重生后，就晓得耶稣基督来不是单为教导；他更要使我成为他所教导的。救恩是主耶稣能够把他的性情放进任何人里面。而神所给的一切标准，都是根据主耶稣的性情而定。

对一个未有新生命的人，登山宝训只会带来绝望，这正是主耶稣的用意。因为我们若仍然自以为义，自高自傲，以为自己可以实践主的教训，神就会任由我们，让难处揭露我们的无知，叫我们像叫化子一般来亲就他，接受他的施予。“心灵贫乏的人有福了。”这是天国的第一原则。主耶稣国度的基石是贫穷，不是产业；不是决志接受耶稣基督，而是完全无能为力的：“我不知从何着手。”那时耶稣说：“你有福了。”这就是门，我们往往要花好长时间才相信自己真的贫穷！若知道自己贫穷，就是已经来到耶稣基督作工的道德前线。

July 21 The Gateway To The Kingdom

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Matthew 5:3

Beware of placing Our Lord as a Teacher first. If Jesus Christ is a Teacher only, then all He can do is to tantalize me by erecting a standard I can not attain. What is the use of presenting me with an ideal I cannot possibly come near? I am happier without knowing it. What is the good of telling me to be what I never can be – to be pure in heart, to do more than my duty, to be perfectly devoted to God? I must know Jesus Christ as Saviour before His teaching has any meaning for me other than that of an ideal which leads to despair. But when I am born again of the Spirit of God, I know that Jesus Christ did not come to teach only: He came to make me what He teaches I should be. The Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into any man the disposition that ruled His own life, and all the standards God gives are based on that disposition.

The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount produces despair in the natural man – the very thing Jesus means it to do. As long as we have a self-righteous, conceited notion that we can carry out Our Lord's teaching, God will allow us to go on until we break our ignorance over some obstacle, then we are willing to come to Him as paupers and receive from Him. “Blessed are the paupers in spirit,” that is the first principle in the Kingdom of God. The bedrock in Jesus Christ's kingdom is poverty, not possession; not decisions for Jesus Christ, but a sense of absolute futility – I cannot begin to do it. Then Jesus says – Blessed are you. That is the entrance, and it does take us a long while to believe we are poor! The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works.

神的旨意就是要你们成为圣洁。（帖前四3）

死的一面。在成圣的工夫上，神不但在生方面对付我们，也要在死方面对付我们。很多人在死里停留太久，以致死气沉沉。成圣之前，必有一场生死战，必有某些东西拖着我们，叫我们厌恶主。当神的灵向我们启示成圣的意思，争战就开始了。“人到我这里来……若不恨（原文）自己的性命，就不能作我的门徒。”

在成圣的过程中，神的灵把我的外衣脱掉，只剩下我“自己”，就是到了死地。我甘愿单做自己吗？再没有别的了——没有朋友、没有父亲、没有弟兄、没有自我的筹算，单单准备去死，这就是成圣的条件。怪不得主耶稣说：“我来不是叫地上太平，乃是叫地上动刀兵。”这就是战争所在，许多人就在此扑倒：我们不肯在这点上与主耶稣的死联合。我们会说：“这个太严厉了，他不能冀求我这样做。”我们的主的确是严厉的，他的确要求我们如此行。

我愿不愿意单单做“自己”，脱去一切人对我的看法，以及我自己对自己的看法，然后把这赤裸的“己”交给神？我若这样行，神就使我全然成圣。从此，在我生命中，除了神以外，一切都变得不重要了。我若求神：“主啊，指示我成圣之道。”他就指示我。成圣就是与耶稣合而为一，他不是把一些东西放进我里面；乃是他自己在我里面。

July 22 Sanctification

“This is the will of God, even your sanctification.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3

The Death Side. In sanctification God has to deal with us on the death side as well as on the life side. Many of us spend so much time in the place of death that we get sepulchral. There is always a battle royal before sanctification, always something that tugs with resentment against the demands of Jesus Christ. Immediately the Spirit of God begins to show us what sanctification means, the struggle begins. “If any man come to Me and hate not . . his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”

The Spirit of God in the process of sanctification will strip me until I am nothing but “myself,” that is the place of death. Am I willing to be “myself,” and nothing more – no friends, no father, no brother, no self-interest – simply ready for death? That is the condition of sanctification. No wonder Jesus said: “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” This is where the battle comes, and where so many of us faint. We refuse to be identified with the death of Jesus on this point. “But it is so stern,” we say; “He cannot wish me to do that.” Our Lord is stern; and He does wish us to do that.

Am I willing to reduce myself simply to “me,” determinedly to strip myself of all my friends think of me, of all I think of myself, and to hand that simple naked self over to God? Immediately I am, He will sanctify me wholly, and my life will be free from earnestness in connection with every thing but God.

When I pray – “Lord, show me what sanctification means for me,” He will show me. It means being made one with Jesus. Sanctification is not something Jesus Christ puts into me: it is Himself in me. (1 Cor. 1:30.)

你们得在基督耶稣里，是本乎神，神又使他成为我们的……圣洁。（林前一30）

生的一面。成圣的奥秘就是耶稣基督把自己完全赐给我，这不是渐进的，而是当我凭信体认耶稣基督成为我的圣洁那一刻，就即时得着。耶稣的圣洁成为我的圣洁，而且从我身上彰显出来；这正是成圣的意思。

圣洁生活的秘诀，不在仿效耶稣，而是让他的完美在我身上彰显。成圣是：“基督在我里面。”我因信领受他那奇妙的生命——神无上恩惠的礼物。我愿意让神使成圣在我里面成为真实，就像他自己的话语一样真实吗？成圣就是耶稣基督圣洁的品质传了给我。每一个分别为圣的人，彰显的都是他的忍耐、他的爱心、他的信实、他的无暇、他的敬虔。成圣不是向耶稣支取圣洁的能力，而是支取他本身的圣洁；是他使圣洁在我身上彰显出来。成圣是赐予，不是模仿。模仿是另一回事。在耶稣基督里，一切皆完全；而成圣的奥秘，就在于我可以取用他一切的完美。于是慢慢地，但肯定地，我便开始过有条不紊、健康、圣洁的生活，是“蒙神能力保守的”。

祈祷◆主啊，真的，我不需要更多的证据，证明你话语中有关人内心的真理；即使那是你的心意，我还是不想在这方面再知道更多。我想更多认识的，是关乎你伟大和满有恩典的救赎。

July 23 Sanctification

“Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us . . . sanctification.” 1 Corinthians 1:30

The Life Side. The mystery of sanctification is that the perfections of Jesus Christ are imparted to me, not gradually, but instantly when by faith I enter into the realization that Jesus Christ is made unto me sanctification. Sanctification does not mean anything less than the holiness of Jesus being made mine manifestly.

The one marvellous secret of a holy life lies not in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfections of Jesus manifest themselves in my mortal flesh. Sanctification is “Christ in you.” It is His wonderful life that is imparted to me in sanctification, and imparted by faith as a sovereign gift of God's grace. Am I willing for God to make sanctification as real in me as it is in His word?

Sanctification means the impartation of the Holy qualities of Jesus Christ. It is His patience, His love, His holiness, His faith, His purity, His godliness, that is manifested in and through every sanctified soul. Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy; it is drawing from Jesus the holiness that was manifested in Him, and He manifests it in me. Sanctification is an impartation, not an imitation. Imitation is on a different line. In Jesus Christ is the perfection of everything, and the mystery of sanctification is that all the perfections of Jesus are at my disposal, and slowly and surely I begin to live a life of ineffable order and sanity and holiness: “Kept by the power of God.”

你们的义，若不胜于文士和法利赛人的义，断不能进天国。（太五20）

门徒的特征不是行善，而是出于善的动机，因为他在神超然的恩中成了善。唯一超越善行的，就是成善。耶稣来，是要把胜过文士和法利赛人的义的新遗传，放进愿意的人里头。耶稣说：“你若做我的门徒，不单行为要正，连动机、梦想、心灵的隐秘处也要正。动机要纯正得连全能的神也无可指摘。”谁能站在神永恒的光中无可指摘呢？只有神的儿子。而耶稣基督宣称藉着救恩，就能使任何人在他的性情上有份，使他纯洁如小孩子一样。神所要求的纯正，是人无法达到的，除非我里面能重新再造，而耶稣的救恩正成就这事。

人无法凭守律法得洁净，主耶稣给我们的也不是规则法条；他的教训是真理，只有他放进我们里面的性情，才可领会主救恩的奇妙，这就是他改变人的罪性。他不是改变人性，乃是改变人的本源。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，发出你的光辉，让它运行在这地上，正如你曾在渊面上运行一样。在你属灵的领域中大大作工，帮助我竖立祷告的山岭，并借助云彩，将祝福沛然降下。

July 24 Disposition And Deeds

“Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20

The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in motive because he has been made good by the super-natural grace of God. The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being. Jesus Christ came to put into any man who would let Him a new heredity which would exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus says – If you are My disciple you must be right not only in your living, but in your motives, in your dreams, in the recesses of your mind. You must be so pure in your motives that God Almighty can see nothing to censure. Who can stand in the Eternal Light of God and have nothing for God to censure? Only the Son of God, and Jesus Christ claims that by His Redemption He can put into any man His own disposition, and make him as unsullied and as simple as a child. The purity which God demands is impossible unless I can be remade within, and that is what Jesus has undertaken to do by His Redemption.

No man can make himself pure by obeying laws. Jesus Christ does not give us rules and regulations; His teachings are truths that can only be interpreted by the disposition He puts in. The great marvel of Jesus Christ's salvation is that He alters heredity. He does not alter human nature; He alters its mainspring.

……有福了。（太五3-10）

初读主耶稣的话时，但觉平平无奇，于是不自觉地拋诸脑后。例如八福就似乎只是一套温和优美的观念。是为那些超世闲逸的人而设的，对于这个冷酷、平凡的世界，并无实际用场。可是，不久我们就会发现，八福其实有圣灵的炸药，当碰到生活环境的引发线，就会爆炸。圣灵会提醒人八福中的某一项，我们就会说：“多令人震惊的一句话呀！”我们就得决定，是否愿意接受属灵上的重大的改变。我们若肯顺服，在所处的环境中就必产生得救的人，也可以依字面应用登山宝训。按字面意义来解释登山宝训是小孩的玩意；但照神的灵把主的话应用在我们的际遇上，却是圣徒一项严肃的功课。

耶稣的教训与我们看事的常理大不相同，开始的时候会令人浑身不舒服。当圣灵把主的话应用在我们实际环境中，我们便要慢慢学习，依从主耶稣的观念来做事及说话。登山宝训不是一套规条，而是生活的写照，就是当我们顺服圣灵时所活出的生命。

祈祷◆主啊，最近我感到晦暗而不明朗，好像你正在带领我进入一个真理的范畴，是我前所未到过的。主啊，高举我，直至我看见你；支持我，直至我完成你的计划。

July 25 Am I Blessed Like This?

“Blessed are . . .” Matthew 5:3-10

When we first read the statements of Jesus they seem wonderfully simple and unstartling, and they sink unobserved into our unconscious minds. For instance, the Beatitudes seem merely mild and beautiful precepts for all unworldly and useless people, but of very little practical use in the stern workaday world in which we live. We soon find, however, that the Beatitudes contain the dynamite of the Holy Ghost. They explode, as it were, when the circumstances of our lives cause them to do so. When the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance one of these Beatitudes we say – ‘What a startling statement that is!’ and we have to decide whether we will accept the tremendous spiritual upheaval that will be produced in our circumstances if we obey His words. That is the way the Spirit of God works. We do not need to be born again to apply the Sermon on the Mount literally. The literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount is child's play; the interpretation by the Spirit of God as He applies Our Lord's statements to our circumstances is the stern work of a saint.

The teaching of Jesus is out of all proportion to our natural way of looking at things and it comes with astonishing discomfort to begin with. We have slowly to form our walk and conversation on the line of the precepts of Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit applies them to our circumstances. The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of rules and regulations: it is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is getting His way with us.

从心里发出来的……（太十五18-20）

我们起初都信任自己的无知，称之为无罪；又信任自己的无罪，称之为清洁。于是当我们听见主这番严厉的话，就会怯生生地说：“我从不觉得自己心中有这些可怖的脏东西呀！”我们厌恶主所揭示的。若耶稣基督不是人心里至高的权威，他就根本不值一顾。我是否愿意信任他的明察，还是信任自己的天真无知？只要我试验一下自己的清白，就势必栗然醒觉主话的真实，也必震惊于自己偏向邪恶的性情。我之所以未沦为恶匪，无非是胆子不够大，及文明社会的保障罢了。若在神面前赤露敞开，就必知道他的诊断无误。

耶稣基督的救恩是唯一的保障。我若把自己交给他，就不必经历内心那些可怕的性情。清洁太深邃了，凭天性我无法达至，但当圣灵来到就把那在主耶稣生命中彰显的灵，带进我生命中，我就变成毫无玷污的纯洁。

祈祷◆噢，我的神，我在你的火焰中被焚烧和炼净——今天我所发现的渣滓似乎太多，在我处理别人的错失上，却太少流露你那甜蜜而亲切的恩典。主啊，赦免我。

July 26 The Account With Purity

“Out of the heart proceed . . .” Matthew 15:18-20

We begin by trusting our ignorance and calling it innocence, by trusting our innocence and calling it purity; and when we hear these rugged statements of Our Lord's, we shrink and say – But I never felt any of those awful things in my heart. We resent what Jesus Christ reveals. Either Jesus Christ is the supreme Authority on the human heart, or He is not worth paying any attention to. Am I prepared to trust His penetration, or do I prefer to trust my innocent ignorance? If I make conscious innocence the test, I am likely to come to a place where I find with a shuddering awakening that what Jesus Christ said is true, and I shall be appalled at the possibility of evil and wrong in me. As long as I remain under the refuge of innocence I am living in a fool's paradise. If I have never been a blackguard, the reason is a mixture of cowardice and the protection of civilized life; but when I am undressed before God, I find that Jesus Christ is right in His diagnosis.

The only thing that safeguards is the Redemption of Jesus Christ. If I will hand myself over to Him, I need never experience the terrible possibilities that are in my heart. Purity is too deep down for me to get to naturally: but when the Holy Spirit comes in, He brings into the centre of my personal life the very Spirit that was manifested in the life of Jesus Christ, viz., Holy Spirit, which is unsullied purity.

人若立志遵着他的旨意行，就必晓得这教训……（约七17）

属灵悟性的金科玉律，不是智力，而是顺服。人若想得着科学知识，可循智力好奇去求；但人若要洞悉主耶稣的教训，只有靠顺服。事情对我来说是隐晦难明的，可以肯定必然有什么我是不肯去做的。智力上的暗晦从无知而来；属灵的黑暗却由不肯顺服而来。人领受了神的话语后，总即时落在考验之中。我们不肯顺服，却又稀奇自己何以在灵性上不见长进。耶稣说：“你在祭坛献礼物的时候，若想起弟兄向你怀怨……先去同弟兄和好。”耶稣的教训正命中我们生活的要害，在他面前我们一秒钟也不能装假。他的教导是彻底的。神的灵把自我维护的墙凿开，又使我们对从未想过的事敏感起来。

主耶稣若指出什么，不要规避。你若规避，就成了宗教骗徒。留意那些你耸肩不顾的事，就会明白为什么灵性停滞不前。去吧，即使冒着被人称为宗教狂热者的危险，也必须顺服神的吩咐。

祈祷◆“当他隐藏他的面，谁能看见他呢？”在这些等候的日子中，你与我们同在的记号是何其渺小。我不求任何外在成功的记号，只求能感应你的赐福和认可。

July 27 The Way To Know

“If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine . . .” John 7:17

The golden rule for understanding spiritually is not intellect, but obedience. If a man wants scientific knowledge, intellectual curiosity is his guide; but if he wants insight into what Jesus Christ teaches, he can only get it by obedience. If things are dark to me, then I may be sure there is something I will not do. Intellectual darkness comes through ignorance; spiritual darkness comes because of something I do not intend to obey.

No man ever receives a word from God without instantly being put to the test over it. We disobey and then wonder why we don’t go on spiritually. ‘If when you come to the altar,’ said Jesus, ‘there you remember your brother hath ought against you . . . don't say another word to Me, but first go and put that thing right.’ The teaching of Jesus hits us where we live. We cannot stand as humbugs before Him for one second. He educates us down to the scruple. The Spirit of God unearths the spirit of self-vindication; He makes us sensitive to things we never thought of before.

When Jesus brings a thing home by His word, don't shirk it. If you do, you will become a religious humbug. Watch the things you shrug your shoulders over, and you will know why you do not go on spiritually. First go – at the risk of being thought fanatical you must obey what God tells you.

耶稣随即催门徒上船，先渡到那边……（可六45-52）

我们很容易这样想：主若催逼我们，我们若顺服他，他就必叫我们大大的成功。千万别把成功的梦想，当作神对我们的计划；神的计划可能恰好相反。我们以为神要领我们到某一特定的目的——一个理想的目标；其实并不是。到达某一目的，只是附带的事。我们所称为过程的，神却称为目标。

我对神的计划有何梦想？他的计划就是要我现在倚靠他和他的能力。在动荡不安之中，我若能保持平静不疑惑，这就是神计划的目标。神作工不是为某一个特别的终点；他的目标就在过程之中——要我看见他正行在波浪上；虽然不见边岸，没有目的地，但有一个肯定的确信，深知必然平安无事，因为我看见他正在海面上行走。这是过程，不是目标，使神得着荣耀。神的训练是即时的，不是等一会儿的。他的计划是这一分钟，不是将来某件事。我们不必顾及顺服之后会怎样；若牵挂以后会怎样，就走错了路。人所谓的训练与预备，神却称为目的。

神的目的是要我如今就知道，他能在我生命的混乱动荡中行走。若我们在前方另有目标，就不会充分关注当前；若我们意识到顺服就是目的，那么临到我们的每一刻都变得如珍如宝了。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，倘若那需要是出于你，我便欢喜！为着你教训我们“有火炼的试验临到你们，不要以为奇怪，倒要欢喜”，我赞美你。

July 28 After Obedience – What?

“And straightway He constrained His disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side. . . .” Mark 6:45-52

We are apt to imagine that if Jesus Christ constrains us, and we obey Him, He will lead us to great success. We must never put our dreams of success as God's purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end.

What is my dream of God's purpose? His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process – that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.

God's training is for now, not presently. His purpose is for this minute, not for something in the future. We have nothing to do with the afterwards of obedience; we get wrong when we think of the afterwards. What men call training and preparation, God calls the end.

God's end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now. If we have a further end in view, we do not pay sufficient attention to the immediate present: if we realize that obedience is the end, then each moment as it comes is precious.

看哪，他驾云降临。（启一7）

在圣经里，云总与神有关。云就是我们个人生命中里里外外的悲哀痛苦，这些似乎与神的本质相违，但神的灵却正用这些云教我们在信心中行走。若没有云，就无法有信心。“云不过是我父脚下的尘。”云是他在这里的表征，当我们明白愁苦是与神一起来的云，那是何等的启示啊！没有云，神就无法就近，他不会万丈光芒地来。

不要说神要在试炼中教导我们什么，其实他要用每一朵云，去掉我们学的一些东西。神用云的目的，是要简化我们的信心，直到我们与他的关系像一个小孩子一样——只有神和我，别人不过是影儿。别人若不成为影儿，云和黑暗就必不断临到。我与神的关系，是否日益单纯？似乎难以明白神的旨意，与我们对他的认识有一定的关系；我们必须学习在认识神的光中，明白生命中的奥秘。除非我们能面对最黑暗的人生，而对神的性情仍无所歪曲，否则我们仍未认识神。

“他们进入云里，就甚惧怕……”在你的云里“除耶稣以外”，还有谁？若有，那云就会愈变愈黑。你一定要“不见一人，只见耶稣”。

祈祷◆噢，我的父神，云彩只是你足下的尘土！当恐惧过后，让我在神的眷佑、或神的属性、或神的恩典的每朵云彩中，不见别人，只见耶稣，直至恐惧不再存在。

July 29 What Do You See In Your Clouds?

“Behold, He cometh with clouds.” Revelation 1:7

In the Bible clouds are always connected with God. Clouds are those sorrows or sufferings or providences, within or without our personal lives, which seem to dispute the rule of God. It is by those very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were no clouds, we should have no faith. “The clouds are but the dust of our Father's feet.” The clouds are a sign that He is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow and bereavement and suffering are the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near without clouds, He does not come in clear shining.

It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials: through every cloud He brings, He wants us to unlearn something. His purpose in the cloud is to simplify our belief until our relationship to Him is exactly that of a child – God and my own soul, other people are shadows. Until other people become shadows, clouds and darkness will be mine every now and again. Is the relationship between myself and God getting simpler than ever it has been?

There is a connection between the strange providences of God and what we know of Him, and we have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God. Unless we can look the darkest, blackest fact full in the face without damaging God's character, we do not yet know Him.

“They feared as they entered the cloud . . .” – Is there anyone “save Jesus only” in your cloud? If so, it will get darker; you must get to the place where there is “no one any more save Jesus only.”

耶稣却不将自己交托他们……因他知道人心里所存的。（约二24-25）

觉醒就是在生命中再没有错误的判断。受错觉的蒙骗，会使我们对人的批评变得苛刻，好冷嘲热讽。但从神而来的觉醒，却使我们认清人的本相，而又不愤世嫉俗，也没有尖酸苦毒的说话。人生许多的痛苦，都是由于我们受错觉的蒙蔽。对别人的观感，我们只凭自己的想法，而非忠于事实。对我们来说，每一事物若非好便是坏。不愿从错觉中醒悟，是导致人生种种痛苦的因由。情形就是这样：我们若爱一个人，却不爱神，便会要求他完全正直无暇。一旦得不到，就变得残酷，要报复；我们要求的，是一个人无法做到的。只有主耶稣才能满足人心中最深的渴求。主耶稣对每种人际关系的看法，是相当严厉的；因为他知道任何一种不忠于主为基础的关系，到头来必定悲剧收场。主虽然不把自己交托给人，但他从不多疑，也不尖刻苦毒。他对神的信赖，以及对他恩典全能的信赖，使他对任何人都不绝望。我们的信赖若在人身上，结果必是对人失望。

祈祷◆主啊，对于你道路的细节，我虽然一无所知，但我期盼你奇妙的作为尽快显明。我是何其全然安息，得见你的道路时，又是何其释然。

July 30 The Discipline Of Disillusionment

“Jesus did not commit Himself unto them for He knew what was in man.” John 2:24-25

Disillusionment means that there are no more false judgments in life. To be undeceived by disillusionment may leave us cynical and unkindly severe in our judgment of others, but the disillusionment which comes from God brings us to the place where we see men and women as they really are, and yet there is no cynicism, we have no stinging, bitter things to say. Many of the cruel things in life spring from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts; we are true only to our ideas of one another. Everything is either delightful and fine, or mean and dastardly, according to our idea.

The refusal to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering in human life. It works in this way – if we love a human being and do not love God, we demand of him every perfection and every rectitude, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictive; we are demanding of a human being that which he or she cannot give. There is only one Being Who can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Why Our Lord is apparently so severe regarding every human relationship is because He knows that every relationship not based on loyalty to Himself will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no man, yet He was never suspicious, never bitter. Our Lord's confidence in God and in what His grace could do for any man, was so perfect that He despaired of no one. If our trust is placed in human beings, we shall end in despairing of everyone.

但忍耐也当成功，使你们成全完备，毫无缺欠。（雅一4）

大部分人在生活上大体没有问题，可是在某些事上却很马虎。这不是罪的问题，而是属肉体的生命，叫我们马虎。得过且过是对圣灵的一种侮辱。我们不应在任何事上懒散马虎，不管是饮食，或是敬拜神。

我们与神不仅要有良好的关系，而这关系的外在表现也要正确。神不会容许任何事逃过他，每一细节他都鉴察。他会用无数的方法，把我们一次又一次地带到同一问题上。他会不厌其烦地重复又重复地，直到我们学好了那功课，因为他是要成全完备的产品。也许是冲动，也许是心不在焉，又或许是惟我独尊的个人主义，他会一而再、再而三、恒切忍耐地带我们回到同一的功课上。神总要我们觉醒，知道这件事不妥当。

对神救赎的启示，我们有美好的学习，对他我们是全心全意的；他在我们身上作成的奇妙大工，叫我们知道在大体上与他的关系是正常的；但如今圣灵却藉雅各说：“忍耐也当成功（让你们的忍耐成为一件制成品——英译）”当心苟且马虎的态度——“不管它，暂且算了吧。”不论是什么，神一定会坚持地指出，直至我们完全。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你的脸光临到我们，让你伟大而荣耀的声音和同在，覆遍这地。

July 31 Till You Are Entirely His

“Let your endurance be a finished product, so that you may be finished and complete, with never a defect.” James 1:4 (MOFFATT)

Many of us are all right in the main, but there are some domains in which we are slovenly. It is not a question of sin, but of the remnants of the carnal life which are apt to make us slovenly. Slovenliness is an insult to the Holy Ghost. There should be nothing slovenly, whether it be in the way we eat and drink, or in the way we worship God.

Not only must our relationship to God be right, but the external expression of that relationship must be right. Ultimately God will let nothing escape, every detail is under His scrutiny. In numberless ways God will bring us back to the same point over and over again. He never tires of bringing us to the one point until we learn the lesson, because He is producing the finished product. It may be a question of impulse, and again and again, with the most persistent patience, God has brought us back to the one particular point; or it may be mental wool-gathering, or independent individuality. God is trying to impress upon us the one thing that is not entirely right.

We have been having a wonderful time this Session over the revelation of God's Redemption, our hearts are perfect towards Him; His wonderful work in us makes us know that in the main we are right with Him. “Now,” says the Spirit, through St. James, “let your endurance be a finished product.” Watch the slipshod bits – “Oh, that will have to do for now.” Whatever it is, God will point it out with persistence until we are entirely His.

耶稣吩咐完了十二个门徒，就离开那里，往各城去传道教训人。（太十一1）

若神叫你“去”，你却因为过于牵挂本地的人而留下来；那么，你反剥夺了他们领受主耶稣教训的机会。你若顺服，把一切后果交给神，他就到你的城里去教训人。你一天不顺服，就成了阻碍。当心辩论一开始，你所谓的责任，就与主的命令相抗衡。“我知道神叫我去，但他们——我的责任却在此。”这样说，就表示你不把主的话当真。他吩咐我们不要去教导的地方，他自己会去。

“夫子……我们搭三座棚。”我们是否在别人身上，充当了业余的神明？我们教导别人的声音，是否使神根本无法就近他人？要闭嘴，保持心灵的敏锐。神要把他儿子的事教训我们，要把我们祷告的时间变成登山变像的经历。可是，我们却不让他这样做。我们自以为知道神一定用某种方法行事时，他就不再用那种方法。他吩咐我们在那里等候，他就在那里作工。

“等候，直到……”等候神，他就必作工。可是等候的时候，不要因为看不到出路而鬱鬱不乐。我们能否离开自己那份属灵的激情去等候神？等候不是抱着手呆着，乃是学习按神的吩咐而行。神在这几方面的作为，我们甚少人认识。

祈祷◆主啊，在这个早上，我的处境对我的意识构成极大的压力。让我的思想、情感，我的整个本性，去思想你为我所命定的是什么；由此，我便可以知道我所做的并没有错。

August 1 Something More About His Ways

He comes where He commands us to leave.

“When Jesus had made an end of commanding his disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.” Matthew 11:1.

If when God said “Go”, you stayed because you were so concerned about your people at home, you robbed them of the teaching and preaching of Jesus Christ Himself. When you obeyed and left all consequences to God, the Lord went into your city to teach; as long as you would not obey, you were in the way. Watch where you begin to debate and to put what you call duty in competition with your Lord's commands. “I know He told me to go, but then my duty was here”; that means you do not believe that Jesus means what He says.

He teaches where He instructs us not to.

“Master, . . . let us make three tabernacles.”

Are we playing the spiritual amateur providence in other lives? Are we so noisy in our instruction of others that God cannot get anywhere near them? We have to keep our mouths shut and our spirits alert. God wants to instruct us in regard to His Son, He wants to turn our times of prayer into mounts of transfiguration, and we will not let Him. When we are certain of the way God is going to work, He will never work in that way any more.

He works where He sends us to wait.

“Tarry ye . . . until . . .” Wait on God and He will work, but don't wait in spiritual sulks because you cannot see an inch in front of you! Are we detached enough from our own spiritual hysterics to wait on God? To wait is not to sit with folded hands, but to learn to do what we are told.

These are phases of His ways we rarely recognize.

在世上你们有苦难，但你们可以放心，我已经胜了世界。（约十六33）

一般人都以为基督徒的人生，是没有苦难的。其实并非如此，基督徒乃是患难中得拯救。“住在至高者隐密处的，必住在全能者的荫下……祸患必不临到你。”没有灾难能临到你与神合一的处所。你若是神的儿女，必定会遭遇困难，但主耶稣说不必惊奇：“在世上你们有苦难，但你们可以放心，我已经胜了世界。”意思就是没有什么值得你害怕。在信主前不屑谈苦难的人，重生后往往变得软弱无力，因为他们对作圣徒有错误的理解。

神没有给我们胜过一切的生命；却在我们夸胜时，赐给生命。压力就是力量。没有压力，就没有力量。你求神赐生命、自由与喜乐吗？除非你肯接受压力，否则他无法把这些赐给你。你一面对压力，就得力量。胜过胆怯，踏上那一步，神就让你得吃生命树的果子，你就得着滋养。你若消耗体力，会觉得疲惫；但若你在属灵上愈用力，便愈发得力。神从来不赐明天的力量，也不赐下一刻的力量，他只给你胜过现今压力的力量。我们很容易以常理去面对困难；但圣徒若被苦难压透，反会大大喜乐，因为事情是这样困难，除了神以外，根本没有人能有办法。

祈祷◆主啊，你的思想是何等令人惊服！可是，我何时才发现自己顺服的心全然被你所占据？我似乎已被本身的渺小、自私和罪恶弄得毫无力量。

August 2 The Discipline Of Difficulty

“In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

An average view of the Christian life is that it means deliverance from trouble. It is deliverance in trouble, which is very different. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High . . . there shall no evil befall thee” – no plague can come nigh the place where you are at one with God.

If you are a child of God, there certainly will be troubles to meet, but Jesus says do not be surprised when they come. “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, there is nothing for you to fear.” Men who before they were saved would scorn to talk about troubles, often become “fushionless” after being born again because they have a wrong idea of a saint.

God does not give us overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome. The strain is the strength. If there is no strain, there is no strength. Are you asking God to give you life and liberty and joy? He cannot, unless you will accept the strain. Immediately you face the strain, you will get the strength. Overcome your own timidity and take the step, and God will give you to eat of the tree of life and you will get nourishment. If you spend yourself out physically, you become exhausted; but spend yourself spiritually, and you get more strength. God never gives strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the minute. The temptation is to face difficulties from a common-sense standpoint. The saint is hilarious when he is crushed with difficulties because the thing is so ludicrously impossible to anyone but God.

看哪，我们上耶路撒冷去。(路十八31)

在主耶稣的生命中，耶路撒冷是他成就父神旨意的顶峰。“我不求自己的意思，只求那差我来者的意思。”在救主的一生中，这是他唯一最大的关注。路途上所遇的一切，不论忧喜成败，从不使他偏离这个目标。

“他就定意向耶路撒冷去。”最重要的是知道上耶路撒冷去，是要完成神的计划，而不是我们自己的计划。很自然的，雄心是出于我们自己；但在信徒的生命中，该没有自己的目标。今天太多人提出自己为基督而作的决定－－我们决志作基督徒，我们决定做这做那－－但新约带出的资讯，却是神自己的催逼。

“不是你们拣选了我，是我拣选了你们。”我们并未有意识地同意神的计划，乃是在不知不觉中进到神的计划里去。我们根本不知道神怎样筹算，而且一日比一日模糊。神的目标似乎总是达不到，其实是因为我们太短视，看不见他的目标。初信之时，我们对神的计划有自己的想法－－“我应该到某处某处。”“神呼召我作这特别的工作。”于是，我们去了，做了，但神的催逼依然存在。我们所作的工算不得什么，与神的催逼比较，不过是平台架而已。“耶稣带着十二个门徒。”他不住地带领着我们，我们还有许多未进入之地。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我来到你面前；无论自觉或非自觉地，我怀着极大的需要靠近你。求你为着你的荣耀高举我、带领我、充满我，使我能和谐地配合你的计划和旨意。

August 3 The Big Compelling Of God

“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem.” Luke 18:31

Jerusalem stands in the life of Our Lord as the place where He reached the climax of His Father's will. “I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me.” That was the one dominating interest all through our Lord's life, and the things He met with on the way, joy or sorrow, success or failure, never deterred Him from His purpose. “He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.”

The great thing to remember is that we go up to Jerusalem to fulfil God's purpose, not our own. Naturally, our ambitions are our own; in the Christian life we have no aim of our own. There is so much said today about our decisions for Christ, our determination to be Christians, our decisions for this and that, but in the New Testament it is the aspect of God's compelling that is brought out. “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.” We are not taken up into conscious agreement with God's purpose, we are taken up into God's purpose without any consciousness at all. We have no conception of what God is aiming at, and as we go on it gets more and more vague. God's aim looks like missing the mark because we are too short sighted to see what He is aiming at. At the beginning of the Christian life we have our own ideas as to what God's purpose is – ‘I am meant to go here or there,’ ‘God has called me to do this special work’; and we go and do the thing, and still the big compelling of God remains. The work we do is of no account, it is so much scaffolding compared with the big compelling of God. “He took unto Him the twelve,” He takes us all the time. There is more than we have got at as yet.

耶稣带着十二个门徒。（路十八31）

神信任我们，这是多大的勇气！你说：“他挑选了我，实在不智，因为我一无所有，也一文不值。”这正是神拣选你的原因。你若自以为有，神就无法拣选你，因为你还有自己的目的。你若让他带你去到自满自足的尽头，他就能拣选你一同上耶路撒冷。这样，就成就他没有与你商量的计划。

我们常因一个人具有天然才干，便说他可以成为好的基督徒。其实，问题不在我们的装备，而在我们的贫穷；不在我们带什么来，而在神放什么在我们里面；不在知识、经验、天然的德行或坚强的个性－－这一切都无关重要。唯一要紧的，是我们在神的强力催策下，成为与他同行的人（比较林前一26-30）。对自认为对神有用的人，神不会做什么。作为基督徒，我们绝不是为自己的目标，而是单为神的目标。神的目标绝不同人的目标。我们不知道神怎样打算，但无论发生什么事，也必须保持与他的关系。绝不可容让任何事损害我们与神的关系，若这关系有损，就必须花时间去复原。基督教的重点不在于我们所作的工，乃在我们所持守的关系，以及因着这关系而产生的情操。神要我们看守的就是这个，而不断受到攻击的也正是这个。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，你何等清楚地向我显明，最重要的是神，惟独是神。愿我在这伟大的认知上，绝不绊跌任何人。

August 4 The Brave Comradeship Of God

“Then He took unto Him the twelve.” Luke 18:31

The bravery of God in trusting us! You say – “But He has been unwise to choose me, because there is nothing in me; I am not of any value.” That is why He chose you. As long as you think there is something in you, He cannot choose you because you have ends of your own to serve; but if you have let Him bring you to the end of your self-sufficiency then He can choose you to go with Him to Jerusalem, and that will mean the fulfilment of purposes which He does not discuss with you.

We are apt to say that because a man has natural ability, therefore he will make a good Christian. It is not a question of our equipment but of our poverty, not of what we bring with us, but of what God puts into us; not a question of natural virtues of strength of character, knowledge, and experience – all that is of no avail in this matter. The only thing that avails is that we are taken up into the big compelling of God and made His comrades (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26-30). The comradeship of God is made up out of men who know their poverty. He can do nothing with the man who thinks that he is of use to God. As Christians we are not out for our own cause at all, we are out for the cause of God, which can never be our cause. We do not know what God is after, but we have to maintain our relationship with Him whatever happens. We must never allow anything to injure our relationship with God; if it does get injured we must take time and get it put right. The main thing about Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain and the atmosphere produced by that relationship. That is all God asks us to look after, and it is the one thing that is being continually assailed.

先知所写的一切事，都要成就在人子身上……他们不晓得所说的是什么。（路十八31、34）

神要耶稣基督所受的，似乎是彻头彻尾的酷灾。耶稣基督叫门徒亲眼看他受死，领他们到心碎欲绝的境地。耶稣基督的一生，除了从神的观点以外，无论从任何角度看来，都是绝对的惨败。可是，在人看来的失败，在神却为极大的胜利，因为神的心思永远与人的不同。在我们生命中，令人狐疑的呼召也会临到。神的呼召永不明确的说明，乃是内蕴的。神的呼召像海洋的呼召，除了那与海有缘的人外，没有人听得见。神的呼召难以明说，因为他的呼召是要人作他的战友，完成他的计划。而考验就是要我们相信神确知自己的目的。事情发生绝非出于偶然，一切全出于神的吩咐。因为神在进行他的计划。

我们若与神相交，又知道他要带我们进入他的计划里去，就不用再追问他的计划到底是怎样。我们在信主的路上愈久，久愈单纯，我们不会再问－－“为什么神让这事发生？”整件事情的背后，是神莫大的催策。“我的结局都有全能者去塑造。”信徒该信赖的，不是自己的智慧，而是神的智慧聪明。我们若有自己的目标，就会破坏那单纯与悠然的安息，而这正是神儿女该有的特征。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，释放我，我极之渴望与你有着单纯的关系，以致能改变任何事情，并向周遭的人散播恩福和福气。

August 5 The Baffling Call Of God

“And all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished . . . And they understood none of these things.” Luke 18:31, 34

God called Jesus Christ to what seemed unmitigated disaster. Jesus Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death; He led every one of them to the place where their hearts were broken. Jesus Christ's life was an absolute failure from every standpoint but God's. But what seemed failure from man's standpoint was a tremendous triumph from God's, because God's purpose is never man's purpose.

There comes the baffling call of God in our lives also. The call of God can never be stated explicitly; it is implicit. The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him. It cannot be stated definitely what the call of God is to, because His call is to be in comradeship with Himself for His own purposes, and the test is to believe that God knows what He is after. The things that happen do not happen by chance, they happen entirely in the decree of God. God is working out His purposes.

If we are in communion with God and recognize that He is taking us into His purposes, we shall no longer try to find out what His purposes are. As we go on in the Christian life it gets simpler, because we are less inclined to say – Now why did God allow this and that? Behind the whole thing lies the compelling of God. “There's a divinity that shapes our ends.” A Christian is one who trusts the wits and the wisdom of God, and not his own wits. If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the leisureliness which ought to characterize the children of God.

到那日，你们要奉我的名祈求。（约十六26）

我们往往以为十字架是我们要捱过去的东西；我们捱过去，是为了要走进去。其实十字架对我们只有一个意义－－完全绝对的与耶稣基督合而为一，没有什么比祷告更能实现我们与主合一。

“你们没有祈求以先，你们所需用的，你们的父早已知道了。”这样还有何需求呢？祷告的目的不是为求答允；而是与神完全的合一。如果祷告是为求答允，我们就会对神抱怨不满。其实神每次都有回答，不过并非一定照我们所期望的。我们灵里面的抱怨，只表示我们不甘愿在祷告上与主合一。在此不是要证明神听祷告，而是要作神恩惠的活证。“我并不是要为你们求父，因父已经爱你们。”你与神的关系有没有这样密切，以致主耶稣的祷告生活，成为你祷告生活的唯一理由？主耶稣代祷的生命，是否成了你有力的生命？“到那日”，你既与主完全合一，就再没有分别了。

当祷告不蒙应允，千万不要归咎别人，这是撒旦常用的网罗。祷告不蒙应允，其中必有原因，就是神要给你深切的教训，这教训不是为别人，乃是单单为你。

祈祷◆“愿你赦免我隐而未现的过错。求你拦阻仆人不犯任意妄为的罪。”噢，如此我便能够发现你在我里面所展示的平安和纯洁！

August 6 The Cross In Prayer

“At that day ye shall ask in My name.” John 16:26

We are too much given to thinking of the Cross as something we have to get through; we get through it only in order to get into it. The Cross stands for one thing only for us – a complete and entire and absolute identification with the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is nothing in which this identification is realized more than in prayer.

“Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him.” Then why ask? The idea of prayer is not in order to get answers from God; prayer is perfect and complete oneness with God. If we pray because we want answers, we will get huffed with God. The answers come every time, but not always in the way we expect, and our spiritual huff shows a refusal to identify ourselves with Our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove God answers prayer; we are here to be living monuments of God's grace.

“I say not that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you.” Have you reached such an intimacy with God that the Lord Jesus Christ's life of prayer is the only explanation of your life of prayer? Has Our Lord's vicarious life become your vital life? “At that day” you will be so identified with Jesus that there will be no distinction.

When prayer seems to be unanswered, beware of trying to fix the blame on someone else. That is always a snare of Satan. You will find there is a reason which is a deep instruction to you, not to anyone else.

岂不知我应当在我父的家里吗？ (路二49)

主的童年是成熟的成年。祂的童年是一个永恒的事实。我是否圣洁无瑕的孩子，像我的救主一样？我是活在父神的家里？这是否我对人生的看法？神的儿子在我里面，是否活在祂父的家里？

永恒的真实是神自己，祂的吩咐是时刻不断的。我是否时刻与真实连系？还是事情不顺遂、生命起了波澜时才祷告？我必须学习与我的主无间断的联合，这是许多人还未学会的。“我应当以我父的事为念。”生命的每一刻都活在我父家里。

单拿你自己的环境来看，你是否与主的生命紧密地合一？单纯地作神的孩子，不断与祂谈话，又知凡事皆出于祂的手？那永恒神的儿子在你的里面，是否活在父的家里？祂事奉的生命带来的诸般恩典，有没有透过你在家庭、工作并亲友间流露？你是否因着父神的旨意，在你的成圣上神子与你建立的关系，让祂作主，与祂保持完全的合一？

主代赎的生命，要成为你纯一有力的生命。昔日祂活在世人中间所作所行的，今天活在你里面，也要照样行。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我的本性似乎是何等不愿意思想祢恩典的深奥真理，然而，我岂可不认识与祢相交的能力和纯洁？

August 7 Prayer In The Father's House

“Wist ye not that I must be in My Father's house?” Luke 2:49 (R.V.)

Our Lord's childhood was not immature man-hood; our Lord's childhood is an eternal fact. Am I a holy innocent child of God by identification with my Lord and Saviour? Do I look upon life as being in my Father's house? Is the Son of God living in His Father's house in me?

The abiding Reality is God, and His order comes through the moments. Am I always in contact with Reality, or do I only pray when things have gone wrong, when there is a disturbance in the moments of my life? I have to learn to identify myself with my Lord in holy communion in ways some of us have not begun to learn as yet. “I must be about My Father's business” – live the moments in My Father's house.

Narrow it down to your individual circumstances – are you so identified with the Lord's life that you are simply a child of God, continually talking to Him and realizing that all things come from His hands? Is the Eternal Child in you living in the Father's house? Are the graces of His ministering life working out through you in your home, in your business, in your domestic circle? Have you been wondering why you are going through the things you are? It is not that you have to go through them, it is because of the relation into which the Son of God has come in His Father's providence in your particular sainthood. Let Him have His way, keep in perfect union with Him.

The vicarious life of your Lord is to become your vital simple life; the way He worked and lived among men must be the way He lives in you.

所要生的圣者，必称为神的儿子。（路一35）

神的儿子若住在我这肉身里，他的神圣、无罪、单纯和与父的合一，能藉着我彰显吗？神的儿子怎样历史性地藉童女马利亚降生世上，也在每一个圣徒里面降生。神儿子降生在我里面，是神自己直接的行动。然后我这作为神儿女的，必须用儿女的权利，也就是时刻与父面对面。我是否常常惊异地对自己说：“你为何总是打岔？岂不知我该以我父的事为念吗？”不论环境怎样，那圣洁无暇永恒的儿子，必须与他的父亲保持联系。

我是否这样单纯地与我的主合一？他奇妙的旨意在我身上得以通行吗？神能否看见他儿子成形在我里面？还是我可以地把他放在一旁？啊，这些日子太多扰攘！人人都在喧嚷－－为了什么？要把神儿子置于死地。此时没有地方为神的儿子存留，没有地方与父静交。神的儿子在我里面祷告呢？还是听我支配？他在我里面的工作，是否与他昔日在肉身时的工作一样？在我里面神的儿子，有没有为了达成他的目标而经受苦难？我们愈认识成熟圣徒的内在生命，就愈明白神的计划－－“是要补满基督患难的缺欠。”既是“补满”，就常有可为之处。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我何等爱慕你，但我所渴求的，是更加自觉地敬拜你、与你相交和赞美神。求你洁净我因远离你而产生的玷污。

August 8 Prayer In The Father's Honour

“That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Luke 1:35

If the Son of God is born into my mortal flesh, is His holy innocence and simplicity and oneness with the Father getting a chance to manifest itself in me? What was true of the Virgin Mary in the historic introduction of God's Son into this earth is true in every saint. The Son of God is born into me by the direct act of God; then I as a child of God have to exercise the right of a child, the right of being always face to face with my Father. Am I continually saying with amazement to my common-sense life – why do you want to turn me off here? Don't you know that I must be about my Father's business? Whatever the circumstances may be, that Holy Innocent Eternal Child must be in contact with His Father.

Am I simple enough to identify myself with my Lord in this way? Is He getting his wonderful way in me? Is God realizing that His Son is formed in me, or have I carefully put Him on one side? Oh, the clamour of these days! Everyone is clamouring – for what? For the Son of God to be put to death. There is no room here for the Son of God just now, no room for quiet holy communion with the Father.

Is the Son of God praying in me or am I dictating to Him? Is He ministering in me as He did in the days of His flesh? Is the Son of God in me going through His passion for His own purposes? The more one knows of the inner life of God's ripest saints, the more one sees what God's purpose is – “filling up that which is behind of the affliction of Christ.” There is always something to be done in the sense of “filling up.”

父啊，我感谢你，因为你已经听我。（约十一41）

当神的儿子祷告，他只有一个意念，就是父自己。神必然听他儿子的祷告，因此神子若成形在我里面，父也必听我的祷告。我要留心让神子在我肉身上彰显。“你们的身子就是圣灵的殿”，也就是神儿子的“伯利恒”。神子在我身上有得着他自己的机会吗？神儿子的生命是否直接纯全地在我身上活出，正如在他的历史生命中活出一样？作为一个普通人，在我日常生活里，神永恒之子向他父的祷告有没有在我里面出来？“到那日，你们要奉我的名祷告……”哪一日？就是圣灵进入我里面，叫我真与主成为一体的那日。

主耶稣在你生命中是否感到心满意足？还是你在我行我素？不要让人的常理闯进来，把神的儿子挤到一角去。常理是神给人类的一份礼物，可是并不是神儿子的礼物。神儿子所赐的是超然之理，所以不要把常理放在宝座上。神的儿子体察父心，但常理从不。我们的智慧从来不会敬拜神，除非因着住在我们里面的神子而得着改变。我们要留意身体对他完全顺服，让他可以随时自由作工。我们在人生的一切事上，是否对主完全投靠，以致他的生命在我们肉身上彰显无遗？

祈祷◆主啊，愿我“像一颗树栽在溪水旁，按时候结果子”，求你向我证明这句话的真实。

August 9 Prayer In The Father's Hearing

“Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me.” John 11:41

When the Son of God prays, He has only one consciousness, and that consciousness is of His Father. God always hears the prayers of His Son, and if the Son of God is formed in me the Father will always hear my prayers. I have to see that the Son of God is manifested in my mortal flesh. “Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost,” i.e., the Bethlehem of the Son of God. Is the Son of God getting His chance in me? Is the direct simplicity of the life of God's Son being worked out exactly as it was worked out in His historic life? When I come in contact with the occurrences of life as an ordinary human being, is the prayer of God's Eternal Son to His Father being prayed in me? “In that day ye shall ask in My name. . . .” What day? The day when the Holy Ghost has come to me and made me effectually one with my Lord.

Is the Lord Jesus Christ being abundantly satisfied in your life or have you got a spiritual strut on? Never let common sense obtrude and push the Son of God on one side. Common sense is a gift which God gave to human nature; but common sense is not the gift of His Son. Supernatural sense is the gift of His Son; never enthrone common sense. The Son detects the Father; common sense never yet detected the Father and never will. Our ordinary wits never worship God unless they are transfigured by the indwelling Son of God. We have to see that this mortal flesh is kept in perfect subjection to Him and that He works through it moment by moment. Are we living in such human dependence upon Jesus Christ that His life is being manifested moment by moment?

所以那照神旨意受苦的人，要一心为善，将自己灵魂交与那信实的造化之主。（彼前四19）

故意选择受苦是不妥当的；但若是为了神的旨意而甘心受苦，就完全不同了。正常的圣徒不会选择受苦；像主耶稣一样，他的选择是为了神的旨意，不管这是否需要受苦。没有圣徒能干预别的圣徒在受苦上的操练。

一个满足主心意的圣徒，能使别的圣徒靠神坚强、成熟起来。能帮助我们的，并非那些一味同情我们的人。他们会成为阻碍，因为同情可能叫人软弱。最明白圣徒的，就是最靠近主心怀的圣徒。我们若接受别人的同情，反应就是－－“神对我实在太苛刻了。”所以主耶稣说自怜出于魔鬼（太十六23）。他从不反驳，也从不维护自己。

不要以为主耶稣在世时需要人的同情；他从不接受人的同情，是因为深知地上没有人真明白他的使命。他只接受天父及天使的同情（比较路十五10）。按世人的眼光来看，神把圣徒放在最无出色的角落去，实在是极大的浪费。我们会说：“神放我在这里，因为我非常有用。”耶稣却从不这样衡量自己的生命。其实神是把圣徒放在能荣耀他的地方，我们是无权选择到底那是什么地方。

祈祷◆主啊，我完全仰赖你；在你出现之前，我若有“迷失”的感觉，相信对我是好的.

August 10 The Sacrament Of The Saint

“Let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well-doing.” 1 Peter 4:19

To choose to suffer means that there is something wrong; to choose God's Will even if it means suffering is a very different thing. No healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he chooses God's will, as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not. No saint dare interfere with the discipline of suffering in another saint.

The saint who satisfies the heart of Jesus will make other saints strong and mature for God. The people who do us good are never those who sympathize with us, they always hinder, because sympathy enervates. No one understands a saint but the saint who is nearest to the Saviour. If we accept the sympathy of a saint, the reflex feeling is – Well, God is dealing hardly with me. That is why Jesus said self-pity was of the devil (see Matt. 16:23). Be merciful to God's reputation. It is easy to blacken God's character because God never answers back, He never vindicates Himself. Beware of the thought that Jesus needed sympathy in His earthly life; He refused sympathy from man because He knew far too wisely that no one on earth understood what He was after. He took sympathy from His Father only, and from the angels in heaven. (Cf. Luke 15:10.)

Notice God's unutterable waste of saints, according to the judgment of the world. God plants His saints in the most useless places. We say – God intends me to be here because I am so useful. Jesus never estimated His life along the line of the greatest use. God puts His saints where they will glorify Him, and we are no judges at all of where that is.

以后不再见他了。（王下二12）

倚赖以利亚是没有错的，只要是神把他给你；可是别忘记，总有一天他会离开。他不再做你的领导，因为神认为他不应该再做你的领导。你会说：“没有以利亚，我无法前行。”但神说你一定要前行。

独自在你的约但（14节）。约但是分离的表征，表示再没有人与你相交，没有人分担你的责任。你必须把从以利亚学习所得的，拿出来考验。你跟以利亚过约但河不知有多少次了，但如今你得独自面对。空说不能过，是没有用处的。这事已经临到，你必定要前行。你若要知道神是否如你所信的一样，就得单独过你的约但河。

独自在你的耶利哥（15节）。你曾在耶利哥看见以利亚行大事，但当你来到自己的耶利哥，就退缩，不肯主动去信靠神，只想别人去替你担当。可是，你若遵从以利亚所学的，就必得着神与你同在。

独自在你的伯利恒（23节）。在伯利恒你来到自己才智的尽头，这却是神智慧的开端。千万不可在智穷力竭时，仆倒恐慌之中，要紧靠着神，忠于他，他自有方法把真理显明，使你的生命成圣。把你跟以利亚所学的行出来，用他的外衣和他的祈祷。立志信靠神，不要再寻找你的以利亚了。

祈祷◆主啊，我的生命是如此倾斜，如此充满漏洞，求你今天让我全神贯注于你！愿我回到你的家中，重新过着完全倚靠你的生活。

August 11 This Experience Must Come

“And he saw him no more.” 2 Kings 2:12

It is not wrong to depend upon Elijah as long as God gives him to you, but remember the time will come when he will have to go; when he stands no more to you as your guide and leader, because God does not intend he should. You say – “I cannot go on without Elijah.” God says you must.

Alone at your Jordan. v.14. Jordan is the type of separation where there is no fellowship with anyone else, and where no one can take the responsibility for you. You have to put to the test now what you learned when you were with your Elijah. You have been to Jordan over and over again with Elijah, but now you are up against it alone. It is no use saying you cannot go; this experience has come, and you must go. If you want to know whether God is the God you have faith to believe Him to be, then go through your Jordan alone.

Alone at your Jericho. v.15. Jericho is the place where you have seen your Elijah do great things. When you come to your Jericho you have a strong disinclination to take the initiative and trust in God, you want someone else to take it for you. If you remain true to what you learned with Elijah, you will get the sign that God is with you.

Alone at your Bethel. v.23. At your Bethel you will find yourself at your wits' end and at the beginning of God's wisdom. When you get to your wits' end and feel inclined to succumb to panic, don't; stand true to God and He will bring His truth out in a way that will make your life a sacrament. Put into practice what you learned with your Elijah, use his cloak and pray. Determine to trust in God and do not look for Elijah any more.

你们这小信的人哪，为什么胆怯呢？（太八26）

我们恐惧的时候，最不可少的就是向神祷告；可是，我们的主有权要求属他的人，对他有一种深切了解的信任。神期望他的儿女对他大有信心，以致在任何重要关头仍然站得住。但我们对神的信任往往只止于某一点，就回复祷告初阶时的惊惶失措，像那些不认识神的人一样。在走投无路时，我们表现得对神毫无信心，也不信他掌管全世界；他似乎睡了，我们只看见前面的风浪。

“你们这小信的人哪！”门徒是何等难过－－“又失败了！”我们也会同样难过。我们知道其实可以叫主的心欢畅快乐－－只要对他保持绝对的信心，不管前路如何。人生风平浪静时，我们会安然的尽人的力量做到最好；但当危难一到，就立即显出倚靠的到底是谁。我们若不断地学习敬拜神、信靠他，那么在风浪的日子，对他的信心也同样至死不移。我们多次的谈到成圣的问题－－最终的目的是什么呢？就是在神里面安息，与神合一。这合一不但使我们在他眼前成为无可指摘的，更叫我们成为他的喜乐。

祈祷◆主啊，我的快乐全在乎对你的纪念，否则对你那欢愉而单纯的信靠，不过是一种轻率的举动。愿你今天让快乐四面环绕我们。

August 12 The Theology Of Rest

“Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” Matthew 8:26

When we are in fear we can do nothing less than pray to God, but Our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His Name should have an understanding confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the reliable ones. Our trust is in God up to a certain point, then we go back to the elementary panic prayers of those who do not know God. We get to our wits' end, showing that we have not the slightest confidence in Him and His government of the world; He seems to be asleep, and we see nothing but breakers ahead.

“0 ye of little faith!” What a pang must have shot through the disciples – ‘Missed it again!’ And what a pang will go through us when we suddenly realize that we might have produced down right joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident in Him, no matter what was ahead.

There are stages in life when there is no storm, no crisis, when we do our human best; it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we have been learning to worship God and to trust Him, the crisis will reveal that we will go to the breaking point and not break in our confidence in Him.

We have been talking a great deal about sanctification – what is it all going to amount to? It should work out into rest in God which means oneness with God, a oneness which will make us not only blameless in His sight, but a deep joy to Him.

不要消灭圣灵的感动。（帖前五19）

圣灵的声音柔如微风，除非与神完全契合，否则不能听见。圣灵的拦阻来得极其柔细，你若不够敏感，就不能察觉他的声音。消灭了他的感动，你属灵的生命就受亏损。他拦阻的声音总是微细的，只有圣徒才听得见。

当心在你个人的见证里，要追述过去说：“许多年前，我得救了。”你若行在光中，就不必追忆，过去一切已经融合在今日与神的合一里了。你若不在光中行，就会变成一个感情用事的信徒；你若活在回忆之中，见证也变得生硬。当心别拿过去行在光中的经历，来缝补你现今不肯在光中行的破洞。圣灵一拦阻，就要停下来回转，否则，你就使他忧伤而不自知。

假设神叫你面临一个重要关头，你就差一点点未能胜过。然后神会叫你再面对同样的情形，不过没有上次那么明显。渐渐地，你对神的辨认减弱了，因自己未曾顺服而带来的羞辱却加强。

若你仍继续叫圣灵担忧，终有一天机会不再有，因为你把圣灵忧伤得退去了。但你若在这重要关头中夸胜，无边的赞美就要对神升起。对那些不断刺痛神的东西，你绝不应表同情。会刺伤神的那些东西，你必须撇弃。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我举目仰望你，将我的盼望、我的祷告呈献给你。求你从高处藉着圣灵的内住使我重新得力，以致神的亮光在今天可以在我们周围和里面点燃起来。愿你按着本身的喜悦，以甜蜜和荣耀来充满这天。

August 13 Quench Not The Spirit

“Quench not the Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 5:19

The voice of the Spirit is as gentle as a zephyr, so gentle that unless you are living in perfect communion with God, you never hear it. The checks of the Spirit come in the most extraordinarily gentle ways, and if you are not sensitive enough to detect His voice you will quench it, and your personal spiritual life will be impaired. His checks always come as a still small voice, so small that no one but the saint notices them.

Beware if in personal testimony you have to hark back and say – “Once, so many years ago, I was saved.” If you are walking in the light, there is no harking back, the past is transfused into the present wonder of communion with God. If you get out of the light you become a sentimental Christian and live on memories, your testimony has a hard, metallic note. Beware of trying to patch up a present refusal to walk in the light by recalling past experiences when you did walk in the light. Whenever the Spirit checks, call a halt and get the thing right, or you will go on grieving Him without knowing it.

Suppose God has brought you up to a crisis and you nearly go through but not quite, He will engineer the crisis again, but it will not be so keen as it was before. There will be less discernment of God and more humiliation at not having obeyed; and if you go on grieving the Spirit, there will come a time when that crisis cannot be repeated, you have grieved Him away. But if you go through the crisis, there will be the pæan of praise to God. Never sympathize with the thing that is stabbing God all the time. God has to hurt the thing that must go.

你不可轻看主的管教，被他责备的时候，也不可灰心。（来十二5）

消灭圣灵的感动是很容易的，只要我们轻看主的管教，在他责备的时候灰心，那便成了。我们对圣灵的认识若是肤浅，就会把影子当作实体，圣灵一拦阻，我们就会说：“嗯，那一定是魔鬼。”

圣灵说：“不要再在这事上盲目了；你不知道自己所处的光景。我一直未能向你显示，但现在我要向你启示。”这时候，你不可消灭圣灵的感动，也不可轻看他。当主这样管教你，就让他去做吧，让他恢复你与神的正常关系。“被他责备的时候，也不可灰心。”我们往往生神的气说：“唉，我也没有办法；我曾祷告，但事情并不如理想，我要全部放弃了。”试想若在生活其他事情上也这样说，会带来怎样的后果！

我是否愿意让神用大能抓紧我，以致他在我身上作他的工作？成圣不是要神为我作什么，乃是神要在我身上作什么。他必要使我心志上有正确的态度，以致不惜任何代价，我也愿意全然成圣。

祈祷◆愿你使我对你的感觉、辨认和专注更加敏锐，以致我最关注的是与你的关系。

August 14 Chastening

“Despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.” Hebrews 12:5

It is very easy to quench the Spirit; we do it by despising the chastening of the Lord, by fainting when we are rebuked by Him. If we have only a shallow experience of sanctification, we mistake the shadow for the reality, and when the Spirit of God begins to check, we say – oh, that must be the devil.

Never quench the Spirit, and do not despise Him when He says to you – “Don't be blind on this point any more; you are not where you thought you were. Up to the present I have not been able to reveal it to you, but I reveal it now.” When the Lord chastens you like that, let Him have His way. Let Him relate you rightly to God.

“Nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.” We get into sulks with God and say – “Oh, well, I can't help it; I did pray and things did not turn out right, and I am going to give it all up.” Think what would happen if we talked like this in any other domain of life!

Am I prepared to let God grip me by His power and do a work in me that is worthy of Himself? Sanctification is not my idea of what I want God to do for me; sanctification is God's idea of what He wants to do for me, and He has to get me into the attitude of mind and spirit where at any cost I will let Him sanctify me wholly.

你们必须重生。（约三7）

“人老了，如何能重生呢？”答案是在于人肯死去－－对自己的权利、德行、宗教，以及其他一切全然死去，然后接受一个他从来没有的生命。这新生命是从有意识的悔改，及不自觉的成圣中孕育出来。

“凡接待他的。”（约一12）我对耶稣的认识，是因内在属灵生命的体会，还是从听人家讲论而来？我生命中有没有什么使我与主耶稣相连，使我以他为个人救主？一切的灵性历史，都必须以个人认识作为基石。重生的意思，就是我看见了主耶稣。

“人若不重生，就不能见神的国。”（约三3）我是否在寻找天国？还是看到神的统治？重生使我有了新的异象，叫我能够体察神的统治。他的统治其实一直存在，是与他的本性相符的；如今我既接受了他，就看得见他的统治。“凡从神生的，就不犯罪。”（约壹三9）我是设法不犯罪？还是已经停止犯罪？从神生的，就有神超然的能力，可以停止犯罪。圣经从没有问：基督徒应否犯罪？圣经强调基督徒必不可犯罪。新生命的效能就是使我们不犯罪，不单是有能力不犯罪，而是根本停止去犯。约翰一书三章9节不是说我们没有犯罪的可能；乃是说我们若顺服神在我们里面的生命，就不会犯罪。

祈祷◆主啊，我似乎令你忧心－－那将会带来什么后果呢？让我在你的门口守候和等待。

August 15 Signs Of The New Birth

“Ye must be born again.” John 3:7

The answer to the question “How can a man be born when he is old?” is – When he is old enough to die – to die right out to his “rag rights,” to his virtues, to his religion, to everything, and to receive into himself the life which never was there before. The new life manifests itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness.

“As many as received Him.” (John 1:12) Is my knowledge of Jesus born of internal spiritual perception, or is it only what I have learned by listening to others? Have I something in my life that connects me with the Lord Jesus as my personal Saviour? All spiritual history must have a personal knowledge for its bedrock. To be born again means that I see Jesus.

“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3) Do I seek for signs of the Kingdom, or do I perceive God's rule? The new birth gives a new power of vision whereby I begin to discern God's rule. His rule was there all the time, but true to His nature; now that I have received His nature I can see His rule.

“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin.” (1 John 3:9) Do I seek to stop sinning or have I stopped sinning? To be born of God means that I have the supernatural power of God to stop sinning. In the Bible it is never – Should a Christian sin? The Bible puts it emphatically – A Christian must not sin. The effective working of the new birth life in us is that we do not commit sin, not merely that we have the power not to sin, but that we have stopped sinning. 1 John 3:9 does not mean that we cannot sin; it means that if we obey the life of God in us, we need not sin.

他按着名叫自己的羊。（约十3）

当我误会祂时，祂认识我吗？（约二十17）人可以认识所有教义，却不一定认识耶稣。若教义只是霸占了与主的相亲，那人就陷入危机里。马利亚为什么哭？教义对马利亚来说，无重于脚下的草。任何法利赛人都可以在教义上愚弄马利亚，可是有一件事实却是他们无法抹煞的；耶稣曾从她身上赶出七个鬼。不过祂的赐福，绝对比不上祂自己。马利亚“看见耶稣站在那里，却不知道是耶稣。”但当她一听见祂的声音，便立刻知道说话的那一位原与她有关系。“夫子！”

在我固执地怀疑时，祂认识我吗？（约二十27）我有没有对主某一方面存疑－－怀疑人家的见证，因为我没有那样的经历？门徒告诉多马看见了主，多马却怀疑－－“我非看见……我总不信。”多马需要主耶稣个人的接触。祂什么时候触摸，怎样触摸，我们不晓得，但当这临到，是何等的宝贵哩。“我的主，我的神！”

我自私地不认祂时，祂认识我吗？（约二十一15-17）彼得曾发咒起誓不认耶稣，但主复活以后，却单独向他显现。祂扶起他，然后又在别人面前复兴他。“主啊，你知道我爱你！”（约二十15-17）我与耶稣基督有没有一段个人的历史？门徒的标记之一，就是与主紧密的联系，深切的认识祂，以致任何东西也不能摇动对祂的信心。

祈祷◆我们所需要的就只有你！愿今天我们与你的亲密关系，成为永远难忘的日子！

August 16 Does He Know Me?

“He calleth . . . by name.” John 10:3

When I have sadly misunderstood Him? (John 10:17) It is possible to know all about doctrine and yet not know Jesus. The soul is in danger when knowledge of doctrine outsteps intimate touch with Jesus. Why was Mary weeping? Doctrine was no more to Mary than the grass under her feet. Any Pharisee could have made a fool of Mary doctrinally, but one thing they could not ridicule out of her was the fact that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her; yet His blessings were nothing in comparison to Himself. Mary “saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus . . ;” immediately she heard the voice, she knew she had a past history with the One who spoke. “Master!”

When I have stubbornly doubted? (John 10:27) Have I been doubting something about Jesus – an experience to which others testify but which I have not had? The other disciples told Thomas that they had seen Jesus, but Thomas doubted – “Except I shall see . . , I will not believe.” Thomas needed the personal touch of Jesus. When His touches come, or how they come, we do not know; but when they do come they are indescribably precious. “My Lord and my God!”

When I have selfishly denied Him? (John 21:15-17) Peter had denied Jesus Christ with oaths and curses, and yet after the Resurrection Jesus appeared to Peter alone. He restored him in private, then He restored him before the others. “Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee.”

Have I a personal history with Jesus Christ? The one sign of discipleship is intimate connection with Him, a knowledge of Jesus Christ which nothing can shake.

你还缺少一件，要变卖你一切所有的……你还要来跟从我。（路十八22）

“他听见这话……”你听过主说严厉的话吗？若没有，可能你从未听见他的话。我们听了主说许多话，却没有听见。若是真听见，他的话会显得出奇的严厉。耶稣似乎并不在乎这人是否照他的话去行。他也没有设法去挽留他。他只说：“变卖你所有的，来跟从我。”我们的主从不乞求，不劝诱，也不笼络。他只用人从未听过的严厉话，然后就顺其自然。

我听过主说严厉的话吗？他直接对我说话时，我是否立意恭听？我是否直截地听他向我说话，而不是随意解说？这个人确实明白耶稣的话，他听见了，又衡量过，然而这些话叫他心碎。他不是侮慢地离开，乃是忧愁地离开，颓丧极了。他怀着满腔热诚来见耶稣，耶稣的话却给他一盆冷水。他的话没有带来忠诚的奉献，相反地却叫人心碎地灰心失意。耶稣没有去追他，是任他离去。主知道他的话一发出，人听见了，总有一天会结出果子。可怕的事实却是我们当中好些人，不让主的话在实际生活上结果。一旦我们决志忠于主，我不知道我们会说些什么。但有一点可以肯定，他绝不会苛责我们。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着这些日子以来，你赐给我们的身心健康，我感谢你。噢，主啊，求你继续赐予我们。使我们脱离一切虚假的情绪、感伤和悲哀。愿你今天以活力和喜乐来赐福我们各人。

August 17 Are You Discouraged In Devotion?

“Yet lackest thou one thing; sell all that thou hast . . and come, follow Me.” Luke 18:22

“And when he heard this . . .” Have you ever heard the Master say a hard word? If you have not, I question whether you have heard Him say anything. Jesus Christ says a great deal that we listen to, but do not hear; when we do hear, His words are amazingly hard.

Jesus did not seem in the least solicitous that this man should do what He told him, He made no attempt to keep him with Him. He simply said – Sell all you have, and come, follow Me. Our Lord never pleaded, He never cajoled, He never entrapped; He simply spoke the sternest words mortal ears ever listened to, and then left it alone.

Have I ever heard Jesus say a hard word? Has He said something personally to me to which I have deliberately listened? Not something I can expound or say this and that about, but something I have heard Him say to me? This man did understand what Jesus said, he heard it and he sized up what it meant, and it broke his heart. He did not go away defiant; he went away sorrowful, thoroughly discouraged. He had come to Jesus full of the fire of earnest desire, and the word of Jesus simply froze him; instead of producing an enthusiastic devotion, it produced a heart-breaking discouragement. And Jesus did not go after him, He let him go. Our Lord knows perfectly that when once His word is heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. The terrible thing is that some of us prevent it bearing fruit in actual life. I wonder what we will say when we do make up our minds to be devoted to Him on that particular point? One thing is certain, He will never cast anything up at us.

他听见这话，就甚忧愁，因为他很富有。（路十八23）

这年轻富有的官黯然无语，忧忧愁愁地走了。他无话可说，他明白耶稣的话，不带半点怀疑，但主的话却叫他产生一种无以名状的忧愁。有过这样的经历吗？神曾否指着你最好的东西要你献给他？那或许是你某些特质、你所宝贵的关系、心灵与思想所想慕的事情，那时你忧愁得无言以对。主不会追逼你，也不求你，他每次在这事上遇着你，只会简单地说：“你若是认真的话，条件就是这些。”

“去变卖你所有的”，把一切在道德上可能成为你财产的东西挪去，赤裸裸的只剩下一个有意识的人站在神面前，然后把这个体交给神。争战就是在此 – 在神面前的决志。你是否忠于自己的意思，过于忠于主？若然，就很可能会听见他那叫你忧愁的严厉话。他所说的话的确严厉，只有对于那些具有他性情的人，才变得容易。当心不要让任何东西把主耶稣严厉的话削弱了。

我可以以个人贫乏为富足，或自觉一无是处，以致无法作主耶稣的门徒；我也可能太自觉于个人的价值，而无法作主的门徒。我能否在一无所有中，丢弃一无所有的自觉而真正一无所有？不然，我们便会变得灰心。灰心是自爱的幻灭，而自爱可以是爱上了对主耶稣的那份渴慕追求 – 而不是主自己。

August 18 Have You Ever Been Expressionless With Sorrow?

“And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.” Luke 18:23

The rich young ruler went away expressionless with sorrow; he had not a word to say. He had no doubt as to what Jesus said, no debate as to what it meant, and it produced in him a sorrow that had not any words. Have you ever been there? Has God's word come to you about something you are very rich in – temperament, personal affinity, relationships of heart and mind? Then you have often been expressionless with sorrow. The Lord will not go after you, He will not plead, but every time He meets you on that point He will simply repeat – If you mean what you say, those are the conditions.

“Sell all that thou hast,” undress yourself morally before God of everything that might be a possession until you are a mere conscious human being, and then give God that. That is where the battle is fought – in the domain of the will before God. Are you more devoted to your idea of what Jesus wants than to Himself? If so, you are likely to hear one of His hard sayings that will produce sorrow in you. What Jesus says is hard, it is only easy when it is heard by those who have His disposition. Beware of allowing anything to soften a hard word of Jesus Christ's.

I can be so rich in poverty, so rich in the consciousness that I am nobody, that I shall never be a disciple of Jesus; and I can be so rich in the consciousness that I am somebody that I shall never be a disciple. Am I willing to be destitute of the sense that I am destitute? This is where discouragement comes in. Discouragement is disenchanted self-love, and self-love may be love of my devotion to Jesus.

可以到我这里来。（太十一28）

神的心意是要我们过一个完全以基督为中心的生活，但有时外界的攻击来了，我们就掉进向内观察的圈中，还以为这些东西早已对付了。自觉是破坏我们在神里面完整生命的第一个敌人，并且会不断带来摔跤。自觉不是罪，神经质的个性，或突然碰到新环境，都会产生自觉。神的心意是要我们在他里面绝对完全。任何搅扰我们在他里面安息的东西，都必须接受治疗，置之不理并非治方，而治疗的方法是来到主耶稣面前。我们若来就他，求他叫我们有基督的意识，他一定会作工，直到我们住在他里面。

绝不可让在主里的生命分割而置之不理。当心滴漏，就是因朋友或环境的影响，而造成生命的分割。当心任何破坏你与主合一、叫你单独看自己的事。保持属灵状态的正常，是至重要的。解决的办法很简单－－“到我这里来。”这句话就是我们有多少实质，我们的心志、道德、灵性有多少深度的考验。若有任何虚假的成分，那我们宁愿争辩，也不愿到耶稣那里。

祈祷◆主啊，为着今早我内心的平安感觉，我赞美你。为着救赎的深刻启示，我何其称颂你！愿你的光辉从无云的青空上，照耀我们！

August 19 Self-Consciousness

“Come unto Me.” Matthew 11:28

God means us to live a fully-orbed life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside, and we tumble into a way of introspection which we thought had gone. Self-consciousness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of the life in God, and self-consciousness continually produces wrestling. Self-consciousness is not sin; it may be produced by a nervous temperament or by a sudden dumping down into new circumstances. It is never God's will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs rest in Him must be cured at once, and it is not cured by being ignored, but by coming to Jesus Christ. If we come to Him and ask Him to produce Christ-consciousness, He will always do it until we learn to abide in Him.

Never allow the dividing up of your life in Christ to remain without facing it. Beware of leakage, of the dividing up of your life by the influence of friends or of circumstances; beware of anything that is going to split up your oneness with Him and make you see yourself separately. Nothing is so important as to keep right spiritually. The great solution is the simple one – “Come unto Me.” The depth of our reality, intellectually, morally and spiritually, is tested by these words. In every degree in which we are not real, we will dispute rather than come.

我就使你们得安息。（太十一28）

若有任何事物开始分化你与耶稣基督的关系，就要立即转向他，求他使你安息。不可容让任何制造不安的东西存留，要视一切分化的东西为摔跤的物件，而不要去容忍。对主说：“主啊，请证实你的意识却在我里面。”自我的意识就必退去，只要他成为一切的一切。不要让自觉意识不断的占据，因为慢慢地就会变成自怜，而自怜是属撒但的。“我被人误会了，他们该向我道歉；这一点我早就该澄清了。”不要理会别人怎样，求神给你基督的意识，他会使你绝对安全。完全的生命是小孩子的生命。当我有强烈的自觉，必然是出了乱子。只有生病的人才知道健康为何物。神的孩子不会意识到神的旨意，因为他就是神的旨意。当我们稍有偏离，才会问“你的旨意是什么？”神的孩子绝不求神让他知道神听祷告，因为他确实知道神一向垂听祈祷。

我们若想用常理去胜过自觉意识，反会使它增强。耶稣说：“到我这里来，我就使你们得安息。”也就是说，基督的意识取代了自我的意识。耶稣一来，就带来安息，这是最完美的安息，是永不自觉的。

祈祷◆我的心灵和肉体向永生神呼求！啊，我是何等软弱无力！主啊，你是我的活力和喜乐！

August 20 Completeness

“And I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once and ask Him to establish rest. Never allow anything to remain which is making the dis-peace. Take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against, and not to suffer. Say – Lord, prove Thy consciousness in me, and self-consciousness will go and He will be all in all. Beware of allowing self-consciousness to continue because by slow degrees it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is Satanic. Well, I am not understood; this is a thing they ought to apologize for; that is a point I really must have cleared up. Leave others alone and ask the Lord to give you Christ-consciousness, and He will poise you until the completeness is absolute.

The complete life is the life of a child. When I am consciously conscious, there is something wrong. It is the sick man who knows what health is. The child of God is not conscious of the will of God because he is the will of God. When there has been the slightest deviation from the will of God, we begin to ask – What is Thy will? A child of God never prays to be conscious that God answers prayer, he is so restfully certain that God always does answer prayer.

If we try to overcome self-consciousness by any common-sense method, we will develop it tremendously. Jesus says, “Come unto Me and I will give you rest,” i.e., Christ-consciousness will take the place of self-consciousness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest, the rest of the perfection of activity that is never conscious of itself.

虚心的人有福了。（太五3）

依我们的标准来看，新约所注意的事物，似乎都是微不足道的。“虚心的人有福了”，按原意解释是贫穷的人有福了。贫穷的人，何等平凡！今日的讲台很容易侧重意志的力量、品性的美善－－一些易于惹人注目的东西。今日常听的口号－－为主决志，其实是强调了一件我们的主从不信任的事。他从没有叫我们为他决志，他只要我们降服，这是截然不同的两件事。耶稣基督国度的基础，是在于未经修饰的平凡事物。叫我蒙福的，是我的贫穷。我若自知没有意志力、没有高贵的品质，耶稣就会说：“你有福了。”因为我是透过贫穷无有，得以进入他的国。我不能以好人的身分进入，只能以一无所有的叫化子身分进去。

一切表彰神可爱事物的真正品质，必然是不自觉的。自觉有影响力，是自负及非信徒的表现。若我说：“我怀疑自己到底是否有用。”立时就与主的生命失了连络。“信我的，要从他腹中流出活水的江河来。”我若检查那流出来的水，就失去了主的能力。哪些人影响我们最深？不是那自以为影响了我们的人，而是那些完全不知道影响我们的人。在基督徒的生命中，内涵的东西总不是自知自觉的；一旦意识到，就会失掉那未经修饰的美，这正是主耶稣亲手抚摸的特质。我们往往可以知道耶稣何时在作工，因为他能在平凡中制造超卓。

祈祷◆主啊，我要赞美你，你在每个人的生命中，也透过每个人的生命，来实行你完美的旨意。

August 21 The Ministry Of The Unnoticed

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Matthew 5:3

The New Testament notices things which from our standards do not seem to count. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” literally – Blessed are the paupers – an exceedingly commonplace thing! The preaching of to-day is apt to emphasize strength of will, beauty of character – the things that are easily noticed. The phrase we hear so often, Decide for Christ, is an emphasis on something Our Lord never trusted. He never asks us to decide for Him, but to yield to Him – a very different thing. At the basis of Jesus Christ's Kingdom is the unaffected loveliness of the commonplace. The thing I am blessed in is my poverty. If I know I have no strength of will, no nobility of disposition, then Jesus says – Blessed are you, because it is through this poverty that I enter His Kingdom. I cannot enter His Kingdom as a good man or woman, I can only enter it as a complete pauper.

The true character of the loveliness that tells for God is always unconscious. Conscious influence is priggish and un-Christian. If I say – I wonder if I am of any use – I instantly lose the bloom of the touch of the Lord. “He that believeth in me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water.” If I examine the outflow, I lose the touch of the Lord.

Which are the people who have influenced us most? Not the ones who thought they did, but those who had not the remotest notion that they were influencing us. In the Christian life the implicit is never conscious, if it is conscious it ceases to have this unaffected loveliness which is the characteristic of the touch of Jesus. We always know when Jesus is at work because He produces in the commonplace something that is inspiring.

我是用水给你们施洗，……但……他要用圣灵与火给你们施洗。（太三11）

我是否已经到达可以说“我是……但他”的地步？未经历这一刻，便实在不知道圣灵的洗到底是什么意思。我果真到了尽头，一无办法；他就在此开始作人所无法作的。我预备好迎接他的来临吗？若路上有东西阻隔，不论是好是坏，他都不能来。在他来的时候，我是否预备好让他把我一切的错失带到光中对付？他正要在这些事上临到你。我明知不洁的地方，他就插足其中；我以为洁净的地方，他就离去。

悔改并不会带来罪疚感，只会叫人觉得自己绝对的不配。我悔改时，知道自己无能为力，连替他提鞋也不配。我有没有这样悔改过？还是暗地里还为自己留一点余地？神仍未能进入我的生命，是因为我还未彻底悔改。“他要用圣灵与火给你们施洗。”约翰并没有把圣灵的洗当作一个经历，他是视之为耶稣基督的工作。“他要给你们施洗。”凡受过圣灵施洗的人，唯一的知觉就是自己完全不配。“我是……”这样或那样，“但他”来了，奇妙的事就发生。我们退居末位吧，让他成就一切。

祈祷◆主啊，我多么贫乏！那么多的软弱潜伏在隐藏的地方，要将我整个人摧毁。噢，主啊，我投向你。我何等需要认识到，离开了你，我便不能作什么。

August 22 “I Indeed… But He”

I indeed baptize you with water . . but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire.” Matthew 3:11

Have I ever come to a place in my experience where I can say – “I indeed – but He”? Until that moment does come, I will never know what the baptism of the Holy Ghost means. I indeed am at an end, I cannot do a thing: but He begins just there – He does the things no one else can ever do. Am I prepared for His coming? Jesus cannot come as long as there is anything in the way either of goodness or badness. When He comes am I prepared for Him to drag into the light every wrong thing I have done? It is just there that He comes. Wherever I know I am unclean, He will put His feet; wherever I think I am clean, He will withdraw them.

Repentance does not bring a sense of sin, but a sense of unutterable unworthiness. When I repent, I realize that I am utterly helpless; I know all through me that I am not worthy even to bear His shoes. Have I repented like that? Or is there a lingering suggestion of standing up for myself? The reason God cannot come into my life is because I am not through into repentance.

“He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire.” John does not speak of the baptism of the Holy Ghost as an experience, but as a work performed by Jesus Christ. “He shall baptize you.” The only conscious experience those who are baptized with the Holy Ghost ever have is a sense of absolute unworthiness.

I indeed was this and that; but He came, and a marvellous thing happened. Get to the margin where He does everything.

你祷告的时候，要进你的内屋，关上门，祷告你在暗中的父。（太六6）

耶稣不是说“梦想你在暗中的父”，而是“祷告你在暗中的父”。祷告是一项意志的行动。我们进到内室，关上门，这时最难的事就是祷告。我们无法控制心思，就是思想的浮游。私祷最大的争战，就是要胜过心不在焉。必须控制心思，集中心力去祷告。

我们必须选一个地方来祷告，可是我们一进去，那蝇灾就来了－－这个要做，那个也要做。“关上门。”在隐密处的安静，就是着意地把情感的门关上，只纪念神自己。神是在暗中的，他从暗中察看；他看我们，不同别人看我们，也不同我们看自己。活在内室之中，就根本没有可能怀疑神，我们对他比对一切更肯定。耶稣说是在暗中的，而不在别的地方。进入内室，你就会在一切日常事务当中，发现神时刻同在。要习惯每一件事与神来往。每天清早张开眼，就该把门向神大开，让神进来，否则你整天的工作就不对劲。向神大开心门，向暗中的父祷告，这样，你每一件生活中公开的事，都必打上神同在的印记。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，在清晨的时间与你相交是何等美好。愿你耐心地帮助我，将这宁静的高贵时刻，转化在这天的活动中。

August 23 Prayer Choice And Prayer Conflict

“When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and pray to thy Father which is in secret.” Matthew 6:6

Jesus did not say – Dream about thy Father in secret, but pray to thy Father in secret. Prayer is an effort of will. After we have entered our secret place and have shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray; we cannot get our minds into working order, and the first thing that conflicts is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is the overcoming of mental wool-gathering. We have to discipline our minds and concentrate on wilful prayer.

We must have a selected place for prayer and when we get there the plague of flies begins – This must be done, and that. “Shut thy door.” A secret silence means to shut the door deliberately on emotions and remember God. God is in secret, and He sees us from the secret place; He does not see us as other people see us, or as we see ourselves. When we live in the secret place it becomes impossible for us to doubt God, we become more sure of Him than of anything else. Your Father, Jesus says, is in secret and nowhere else. Enter the secret place, and right in the centre of the common round you find God there all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on a wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God.

你们中间，谁有儿子求饼，反给他石头呢？（太七9）

主在这里拿一个好孩子求好东西作比方，来说明祷告。我们似乎觉得神听不听祷告，跟我们与他的关系无关（比较太五45）。不要说得不着所求的，是出于神的旨意。不要就此颓然丧志，要找出原因，翻开索引。你与妻子、丈夫、儿女、同学的关系正常吗？你是个好孩子吗？“主啊，我易怒，又暴躁，但是真想得着属灵的福气。”可是你得不着，直到你变成了好孩子。

我们把悖逆当作敬虔；把与神争论当作抛弃一切。我们不去查一下索引。我是否还有未偿还的债，却又向神求金钱买东西？我是否一面求神给我自由，一面却不肯把自由给属我的人？我未饶恕人家的过犯，对别人不仁，在亲友中未活出神的样式。（第12节）我惟独藉重生才可以成为神的儿女，而作为神的儿女，只有行在光中才算是好儿女。祷告对许多人变成一种虔诚的陈腔滥调，成为情感的事，一种与神的神秘相交。在属灵上，我们最擅于制造烟雾。但只要我们翻查一下索引，就必知道毛病出在何处－－朋友、债项、心思的粗暴。我们生活若不像神的儿女，祷告是毫无用处的。若像神的儿女，耶稣说：“凡祈求的，就得着。”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，今天早上我谦恭地祈求，充满了崇拜和敬仰；当我想起自己的生命是如何备受保护，内心便充满了谦卑。

August 24 The Spiritual Index

“Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?” Matthew 7:9

The illustration of prayer that Our Lord uses here is that of a good child asking for a good thing. We talk about prayer as if God heard us irrespective of the fact of our relationship to Him (cf. Matthew 5:45). Never say it is not God's will to give you what you ask, don't sit down and faint, but find out the reason, turn up the index. Are you rightly related to your wife, to your husband, to your children, to your fellow-students – are you a “good child” there? “0 Lord, I have been irritable and cross, but I do want spiritual blessing.” You cannot have it, you will have to do without until you come into the attitude of a good child.

We mistake defiance for devotion; arguing with God for abandonment. We will not look at the index. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want when there is something I have not paid for? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? I have not forgiven someone his trespasses; I have not been kind to him; I have not been living as God's child among my relatives and friends. (v.12.)

I am a child of God only by regeneration, and as a child of God I am good only as I walk in the light. Prayer with most of us is turned into pious platitude, it is a matter of emotion, mystical communion with God. Spiritually we are all good at producing fogs. If we turn up the index, we will see very clearly what is wrong – that friendship, that debt, that temper of mind. It is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then, Jesus says – “Everyone that asketh receiveth.”

我乃称你们为朋友。（约十五15）

除非我们完全的投上，否则不能真正体会献上的喜乐。自我的降服是最难的事－－“如果……我就肯了！”“或许我也该把生命奉献给神。”其中是没有丝毫舍己的喜乐。待我们真的完全舍弃了，圣灵就叫我们尝到主耶稣的喜乐。舍己的最终目标是为“朋友”（主耶稣）舍命。圣灵一来，最大的心愿就是为耶稣舍命；以往舍己的意念从不会触动我们的心，因为舍己是圣灵的爱。

主舍己的一生是我们的榜样－－“我的神，我乐意照你的旨意行。”主的舍己是满有喜乐的。我已经完全降服耶稣基督了吗？耶稣基督若不是我们的目标，我们的舍己奉献就毫无益处；我们的奉献若是专注在他身上，那模造的工夫就必逐渐明朗地显明。

当心别让私欲阻碍你行在神的爱中。扼杀人性的爱最残酷的方法之一，源自渴想追求个人私欲而否定别人需要。圣徒唯一的吸引是主耶稣自己。对神的爱并非情感用事，因为圣徒以神的爱去爱，是最实际不过的事。

“我乃称你们为朋友。”这友谊的根基是我们里面新造的生命。这新生命只与神的生命相连，与旧生命没有半点关系，是无可言喻的谦和，没有玷污的洁净，绝对忠于神。

August 25 The Fruitfulness Of Friendship

“I have called you friends.” John 15:15

We never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we abandon in every particular. Self-surrender is the most difficult thing – I will if . . . ! Oh, well, I suppose I must devote my life to God. There is none of the joy of self-sacrifice in that.

As soon as we do abandon, the Holy Ghost gives us an intimation of the joy of Jesus. The final aim of self-sacrifice is laying down our lives for our Friend. When the Holy Ghost comes in, the great desire is to lay down the life for Jesus, and the thought of sacrifice never touches us because sacrifice is the love passion of the Holy Ghost.

Our Lord is our example in the life of self-sacrifice – “I delight to do Thy will, O my God.” He went on with His sacrifice with exuberant joy. Have I ever yielded in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If Jesus Christ is not the lodestar, there is no benefit in the sacrifice; but when the sacrifice is made with the eyes on Him, slowly and surely the moulding influence begins to tell.

Beware of letting natural affinities hinder your walk in love. One of the most cruel ways of killing natural love is by disdain built on natural affinities. The affinity of the saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not sentimental, for the saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing.

“I have called you friends.” It is a friendship based on the new life created in us which has no affinity with our old life, but only with the life of God. It is unutterably humble, unsulliedly pure, and absolutely devoted to God.

我留下平安给你们，我将我的平安赐给你们。（约十四27）

有时我们感觉平安，是因为无知；但当我们醒悟人生的现实，内心平安就消失了。除非我们从主耶稣得着平安，否则就不能有内在的平安。主耶稣说平安，他就成就平安。他的话永远是“灵和生命”。我接受了他所说的话吗？“我将我的平安赐给你们。”－－这平安是由于定睛在他脸上，体会他那不能动摇的安稳而来的。

你如今是否因困扰而痛苦？在神的允许下，你正受着风浪的冲击，虽然翻开信心的礁石，却仍找不着平安、喜乐与安慰。一切都绝望了，你该仰望主，接受他那无法动摇的平安。你若能彰显他的平安，便证明你与神有正确的关系，因为你可以自由地把心转向他。要是你与神的关系不对劲，你的心除了转向自己之外，便无路可通。若让任何事物掩蔽主的脸，你不是没有平安，就是活在虚假的稳妥里。

你现今是否仰望耶稣？在你逼近眉睫的事上去接受他的平安？若然，他要藉着你，也要在你里面，成为最美妙平安的福气。可是你若担忧，就拦阻了他，那你受的苦，就是咎由自取了。我们受困扰，是因为未有想到他。人一与主相会，困惑就必离开，因为在他没有困惑的事。我们唯一要注意的，是住在他里面。把一切铺陈在他面前，在一切困难、伤痛、愁苦之中，听他说：“你们心里不要忧愁。”

祈祷◆主啊，愿你的脸光临到我，并赐给我平安。你的平安，深如无法测度的大海，高如难以量度的高天。愿你在此刻感动我，直至光明、生命和自由穿透我。

August 26 Are You Ever Disturbed?

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.” John 14:27

There are times when our peace is based upon ignorance, but when we awaken to the facts of life, inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When Our Lord speaks peace, He makes peace, His words are ever “spirit and life.” Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? “My peace I give unto you” – it is a peace which comes from looking into His face and realizing His undisturbedness.

Are you painfully disturbed just now, distracted by the waves and billows of God's providential permission, and having, as it were, turned over the boulders of your belief, are you still finding no well of peace or joy or comfort; is all barren? Then look up and receive the undisturbedness of the Lord Jesus. Reflected peace is the proof that you are right with God because you are at liberty to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. If you allow anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you, you are either disturbed or you have a false security.

Are you looking unto Jesus now, in the immediate matter that is pressing and receiving from Him peace? If so, He will be a gracious benediction of peace in and through you. But if you try to worry it out, you obliterate Him and deserve all you get. We get disturbed because we have not been considering Him. When one confers with Jesus Christ the perplexity goes, because He has no perplexity, and our only concern is to abide in Him. Lay it all out before Him, and in the face of difficulty, bereavement and sorrow, hear Him say, “Let not your heart be troubled.”

应当趁着有光行走，免得黑暗临到你们。（约十二35）

应当把你在山上与神同在时所见的活出来。你若不顺从光，光就会变成黑暗。“你里头的光若黑暗了，那黑暗是何等大呢！”每当你放开成圣的问题，或任何事上神给你的亮光，你属灵生命就开始陷入枯干腐烂之中。要不断把真理活出来，在每一个范畴内都要实行，否则你所得的光，反成了咒诅。

最难对付的人，就是因过去的经历自满自足，却又没有把经历付诸实行的人。你若说成圣了，就要表现出来。经历若是真的，就必然在生活中流露。当心那些叫你自我放纵的信念，不论它们有多动听，都是从暗坑中出来的。

神学必须在最实际的关系中表现出来。主说：“你们的义若不胜于文士和法利赛人的义……”那就是说，你必须比最具德行的人更有道德。你可以懂得一切成圣的教义，但到底有没有在生活上行出来？你生命的每一部分：身体、道德、灵性，都要凭救赎的标准去审定。

祈祷◆主啊，愿我“像一颗树栽在溪水旁，按时候结果子”。求你显明这句话的真实。

August 27 Theology Alive

“Walk while ye have the light lest darkness come upon you.” John 12:35

Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mount with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” The second you waive the question of sanctification or any other thing upon which God gave you light, you begin to get dry rot in your spiritual life. Continually bring the truth out into actuality; work it out in every domain, or the very light you have will prove a curse.

The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the smug satisfaction of an experience to which he can refer back, but who is not working it out in practical life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it is shown in the life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent; it came from the pit, no matter how beautiful it sounds.

Theology must work itself out in the most practical relationships. “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees . . .” said Our Lord, i.e., you must be more moral than the most moral being you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you running it out into the practical issues of your life? Every bit of your life, physical, moral and spiritual, is to be judged by the standard of the Atonement.

求主教导我们祷告。（路十一1）

祈祷在人的生命中并无地位。我们常听到这样的说法：一个人若不祷告，他的生命就会受亏损。这个我不同意。受亏损的是在他里面神儿子的生命，那生命不是靠食物养活，而是靠祷告养活的。人重生以后，神儿子的生命就住在他里面；他可以养育这生命，也可以叫它饿坏。祷告是属神生命得滋养的方法。我们一般对祷告的看法，并不是新约圣经的看法。我们往往视祷告为从神求讨东西的途径。但圣经中的祷告，是叫我们得以认识神自己。

“凡祈求的，就得着。”我们在神面前埋怨，或与他辩论，或对他冷漠，却甚少求什么。试看有小孩子样式的儿女那种坦率大胆，是多么可爱！我们的主说：“你们若不回转，变成小孩子的样式－－”求吧。神必然成就。给主耶稣一个机会，让他可以自由行事。人非到了尽头，不会这样作。

当人到了尽头去祈求，并不是懦弱，因为这是唯一通往现实的方法。在神面前，只管按你的本相，摆出你那来到尽头的问题。每当你自满自足，就不会来求神。与其说“祷告改变万事”，不如说祷告改变我，然后我改变万事。神的行事方法，就是藉基于救赎的祷告，改变一个人对事物的看法。祷告不是改变外在事态，乃是在人的本性上行奇事。

祈祷◆“主－－我们的神、全能者作王了。”主啊，这句话是何等伟大和令人振奋。愿我因着知道你作王，而充满了宁谧的平安。

August 28 What's The Good Of Prayer?

“Lord, teach us to pray.” Luke 11:1

It is not part of the life of a natural man to pray. We hear it said that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question it. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a man is born from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it. Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.

“Ask and ye shall receive.” We grouse before God, we are apologetic or apathetic, but we ask very few things. Yet what a splendid audacity a childlike child has! Our Lord says – “Except ye become as little children.” Ask, and God will do. Give Jesus Christ a chance, give Him elbow room, and no man will ever do this unless he is at his wits' end. When a man is at his wits' end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get into touch with Reality. Be yourself before God and present your problems, the things you know you have come to your wits' end over. As long as you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.

It is not so true that “prayer changes things” as that prayer changes me and I change things. God has so constituted things that prayer on the basis of Redemption alters the way in which a man looks at things. Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man's disposition.

我不是对你说过，你若信，就必看见神的荣耀吗？（约十一40）

每次你凭信心出去闯荡，总会发觉在常理的环境下，有些事物是完全违反你的信心的。常理并不是信心，信心也不是常理，二者的关系就是天然生命与属灵生命之间的关系。当理性叫你不能信靠主，你仍能坚信他吗？当生活中的事实高呼这是“谎话”，你能否依然信靠主的话勇往直前？在山上很容易说：“我相信神会成就。”但你必须下到鬼附的山谷去，面对讽刺的现实－－对你山上变像信念当面讥讽的现实。每次在我清楚自己有信心时，就必遇到与信心互相抵触的事情。我若说相信神会供给我需用的一切，然后不名一文，又没有出路，那我能否通得过这信心的考验？还是会倒退？

信心必须受试验，只有经过争战，信心才能成为你个人的产业。你的信心如今遇何试炼？这试炼或证明你的信心正确，或会置之于死地。“凡不因我跌倒的，就有福了。”最终的目标是对主的信靠。坚定信靠他，一切反对的事物只会更坚定你的信心。信心的生活要不断经历考验，而最后最大的考验，就是死。求神保守我们常装备好去作战：信心是对神说不出来的信任，绝不去想神不支持我们。

祈祷◆噢，我惊讶自己竟那么迟缓去发出赞美；愿你使我快速而正确地赞美你。愿你赐给我适当的感觉，强烈地认知到你的美善，以致我能使你的内心充满喜乐满足。

August 29 Sublime Intimacy

“Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” John 11:40

Every time you venture out in the life of faith, you will find something in your common-sense circumstances that flatly contradicts your faith. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? Can you venture heroically on Jesus Christ's statements when the facts of your common-sense life shout – “It's a lie?” On the mount it is easy to say – ‘Oh, yes, I believe God can do it’; but you have to come down into the demon-possessed valley and meet with facts that laugh ironically at the whole of your mount-of-transfiguration belief. Every time my programme of belief is clear to my own mind, I come across something that contradicts it. Let me say I believe God will supply all my need, and then let me run dry, with no outlook, and see whether I will go through the trial of faith, or whether I will sink back to something lower.

Faith must be tested, because it can be turned into a personal possession only through conflict. What is your faith up against just now? The test will either prove that your faith is right, or it will kill it. “Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me.” The final thing is confidence in Jesus. Believe steadfastly on Him and all you come up against will develop your faith. There is continual testing in the life of faith, and the last great test is death. May God keep us in fighting trim! Faith is unutterable trust in God, trust which never dreams that He will not stand by us.

然而不要因鬼服了你们就欢喜，要因你们的名记录在天上欢喜。（路十20）

耶稣在这里其实是说：不要因工作成功而欢喜，要因与我亲密的关系而欢喜。信徒事奉的网罗，往往是因成功而欢喜，因得神使用而欢喜。其实你若与他有正确的关系，他要藉你成就的，实难以估量。所以，要保持与他紧密的相连，那么不论环境如何，不管你每天碰见什么人，他都会透过你倾倒活水，而因着他的怜悯不让你察觉。藉救赎及成圣你与神连合了，那么不论你在哪里，都是出于神。若你保守自己在光明中，正如神在光明中一样，他就会藉着你在环境中的反应，成就他的计划。

今日的趋势是把重点放在事奉上。当心有些人把自己的用处，作为身分的根据。若拿用处作考验的根据，耶稣基督就是地上最大的失败。圣徒的指标该是神自己，不是用处有多少。算得上有价值的是神透过我们所作的工，而不是我们自己为神作的工。我们的主所关注的，是一个人与父的关系有多深。耶稣正率领许多儿子进到荣耀里去。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我因你的话－－“好像人得了许多掳物”－－而感到欢喜。当我今天向你祈求，愿你将你的话放在我的口中，求你成就，以致凡我口所发出的，都是你的话。

August 30 Am I Convinced By Christ?

“Notwithstanding in this rejoice not . . . , but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:19, 20

Jesus Christ says, in effect, Don't rejoice in successful service, but rejoice because you are rightly related to Me. The snare in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service, to rejoice in the fact that God has used you. You never can measure what God will do through you if you are rightly related to Jesus Christ. Keep your relationship right with Him, then whatever circumstances you are in, and whoever you meet day by day, He is pouring rivers of living water through you, and it is of His mercy that He does not let you know it. When once you are rightly related to God by salvation and sanctification, remember that wherever you are, you are put there by God; and by the reaction of your life on the circumstances around you, you will fulfil God's purpose, as long as you keep in the light as God is in the light.

The tendency to-day is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make usefulness their ground of appeal. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure that ever lived. The lodestar of the saint is God Himself, not estimated usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that Our Lord heeds in a man's life is the relationship of worth to His Father. Jesus is bringing many sons to glory.

要叫我的喜乐，存在你们心里，并叫你们的喜乐可以满足。（约十五11）

耶稣的喜乐是什么？若在耶稣身上应用“快乐”这词，实在是一种侮辱。耶稣的喜乐是对父绝对的顺服与舍己。因作成他父差他来作的工而喜乐。“我乐意照你的旨意行。”耶稣的祷告是要我们的喜乐日趋完备，直到像他的喜乐一样。我有没有让主把喜乐带给我？

生命的满溢不是在身体的健康，不是在外在的事物，不是在看见神的事工成就，乃在对神完全的明白，有耶稣与父神那种契合。拦阻这喜乐的第一件事，是挑剔猜度而来的恼怒。耶稣说今生的忧虑会阻塞神的话。我们还未知身处何方，已经被纷繁的事物抓住了。神为我们所作成的一切只带我们来到门槛，他还要我们进入，作他的见证，活出耶稣是谁。更与神连合，从而得喜乐，就有活水从你涌流。要做活水的中心，让主透过你倒出活水。不要在沉浸在自觉里，不要做成圣的自负者，要藏在基督里活。与神连合的生命，自然得像呼吸一般。那些最叫你蒙福的人，是那些不觉自己成为别人祝福的人。

祈祷◆噢，神啊，让我更多的认识你，并更切实地认识你的儿子、我的救主和主。愿你赐我愈来愈认识你的主权和统治，并且愈享受在你里面的单纯喜乐。

August 31 My Joy . . . Your Joy

“That My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” John 15:11

What was the joy that Jesus had? It is an insult to use the word happiness in connection with Jesus Christ. The joy of Jesus was the absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father, the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do. “I delight to do Thy will.” Jesus prayed that our joy might go on fulfilling itself until it was the same joy as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?

The full flood of my life is not in bodily health, not in external happenings, not in seeing God's work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, and in the communion with Him that Jesus Himself had. The first thing that will hinder this joy is the captious irritation of thinking out circumstances. The cares of this world, said Jesus, will choke God's word. Before we know where we are, we are caught up in the shows of things. All that God has done for us is the mere threshold; He wants to get us to the place where we will be His witnesses and proclaim Who Jesus is.

Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. Be a centre for Jesus Christ to pour living water through. Stop being self-conscious, stop being a sanctified prig, and live the life hid with Christ. The life that is rightly related to God is as natural as breathing wherever it goes. The lives that have been of most blessing to you are those who were unconscious of it.

你们要圣洁，因为我是圣洁的。（彼前一16）

要经常对自己重申人生的目标。人最终的目标，不是幸福，不是健康，而是圣洁。今天我们有太多要眷恋的东西，以致分心。正直、良善、崇高的喜好，自有它们的价值；可是神却要叫它们退缩一旁。因为最重要的事，是人愿否接纳那能使他变得圣洁的神。人要不惜任何代价，与神建立密切正确的关系。

我真相信要成为圣洁吗？真相信神能进入我里面，使我成圣吗？若你的讲道真叫我相信自己不洁，我会对你所讲的产生反感。我对所传的福音产生强烈的反感，因为它暴露了我的不洁，但同时也挑起了我强烈的渴求。神对人类一项终极的命定，就是要我们圣洁。他唯一目的是制造圣徒。神不是一副永远只赐福予人的机器；他来救人也不是出于可怜同情。他来拯救，因为他创造的人原是圣洁的。救赎就是藉着耶稣基督的死，神把我重新与他联合，再没有任何阻隔的影儿。

千万不可因同情自己或别人，而容许任何与圣洁的神不相合的事。圣洁就是不玷污－－舌头不玷污，思想不玷污，因为生活上任何细节都在神细察之下。圣洁不单是神赐给我的，更是我怎样彰显神所赐给我的。

祈祷◆主，全能的神，你是圣洁的；你的奇妙非赞美所能说尽，你应许过以你的恩典来使我成为圣洁。

September 1 Destiny Of Holiness

“Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:16 (R.V.)

Continually restate to yourself what the purpose of your life is. The destined end of man is not happiness, nor health, but holiness. Nowadays we have far too many affinities, we are dissipated with them; right, good, noble affinities which will yet have their fulfilment, but in the meantime God has to atrophy them. The one thing that matters is whether a man will accept the God Who will make him holy. At all costs a man must be rightly related to God.

Do I believe I need to be holy? Do I believe God can come into me and make me holy? If by your preaching you convince me that I am unholy, I resent your preaching. The preaching of the gospel awakens an intense resentment because it must reveal that I am unholy; but it also awakens an intense craving. God has one destined end for mankind, viz., holiness. His one aim is the production of saints. God is not an eternal blessing-machine for men; He did not come to save men out of pity: He came to save men because He had created them to be holy. The Atonement means that God can put me back into perfect union with Himself, without a shadow between, through the Death of Jesus Christ.

Never tolerate through sympathy with yourself or with others any practice that is not in keeping with a holy God. Holiness means unsullied walking with the feet, unsullied talking with the tongue, unsullied thinking with the mind – every detail of the life under the scrutiny of God. Holiness is not only what God gives me, but what I manifest that God has given me.

信我的人……从他腹中要流出……（约七38）

耶稣不是说：“信我的人，要领受神丰盛的福分。”他乃是说：“信我的人，要从他里面流出领受的一切。”主的教训总是与自我实现相违。他的目的不是要发挥个人，而是要使人完全像他。神儿子的特质就是自我的倾倒。我们若相信耶稣，那么最重要的不是得着什么，乃是我们倒出多少。神不是造我们成为颗颗圆润的葡萄，乃是要把我们的甜汁挤出来。在属灵的领域里，生命不能以成功来衡量，而是要看我们倒出什么，这个也是我们无法估量的。

伯大尼的马利亚打破玉瓶，倒在耶稣的头上，没有人能看出是什么理由；门徒甚至看为浪费。但耶稣称赞马利亚这爱的倾尽，并说凡福音传到的地方，“也要述说这女人所作的以为纪念”。主若看见我们行马利亚所行的，不计较经济得失，完全献上给他的时候，他的喜乐是无法形容。神倾尽他儿子的生命，为拯救世界，我们能否为他倾尽生命？“信我的人，从他腹中要流出活水的江河来。”－－许多的生命会不断得着更新。如今是把生命之瓶打破的时候，不要再眷恋追求自我满足，要把生命倾出去。主正在问谁肯为他这样倾出？

祈祷◆噢，主啊，在绝对的贫乏中，我投向你。求你在肉身、思想、道德和灵性上临到我，使我有效地彰显你、归荣耀予你。

September 2 The Sacrament Of Sacrifice

“He that believeth in Me . . out of him shall flow. . . .” John 7:38

Jesus did not say – “he that believeth in Me shall realize the blessing of the fulness of God,” but – “he that believeth in Me out of him shall escape everything he receives.” Our Lord's teaching is always anti-self-realization. His purpose is not the development of a man; His purpose is to make a man exactly like Himself, and the characteristic of the Son of God is self-expenditure. If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain, but what He pours through us that counts. It is not that God makes us beautifully rounded grapes, but that He squeezes the sweetness out of us. Spiritually, we cannot measure our life by success, but only by what God pours through us, and we cannot measure that at all.

When Mary of Bethany broke the box of precious ointment and poured it on Jesus' head, it was an act for which no one else saw any occasion; the disciples said it was a waste. But Jesus commended Mary for her extravagant act of devotion, and said that wherever His gospel was preached “this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.” Our Lord is carried beyond Himself with joy when He sees any of us doing what Mary did, not being set on this or that economy, but being abandoned to Him. God spilt the life of His Son that the world might be saved; are we prepared to spill out our lives for Him?

“He that believeth in Me out of him shall flow rivers of living water” – hundreds of other lives will be continually refreshed. It is time now to break the life, to cease craving for satisfaction, and to spill the thing out. Our Lord is asking who of us will do it for Him?

……他却不肯喝，将水奠在耶和华面前……(撒下二十三16)

对你来说，什么东西像是从伯利恒井里打来的水？是爱？朋友？还是属灵的祝福？你若只顾满足自己，就必危害自己的灵命。这样，就无法把它倾在主面前。凡是拿来满足自己的东西，必无法分别为圣归神。你若拿神的赐福来满足自己，就必致败坏。你必须把它献上，完全倾倒。

我怎样把天然的爱或属灵的祝福倾倒给主呢？只有一个方法，就是立定心志。一个不认识神的人，永没法接受别人所作的某些事，因为这些事并非人力所能报偿的。要是我说：“这太伟大了，我不配受，根本不是血肉之躯的人可以接受的，我必须把它倾出来给主。”就在这一刻，这些东西就倾在涌流四方的活泉里。我若不这样倾倒，就会危害自己和所爱的人，因为它会变成情欲。在并不污秽卑劣的事情上，也可以产生贪恋的情欲。爱必须为主完全倾倒，才能达到主变像的境界。

若为自己紧紧抓住神的赐福，你就会愈来愈苦涩烦躁；相反地，你若早把它浇奠在主前，就早已成为从天而降最愉快的人。你若只会一味接受赐福，而从不学习为主倾倒，别人的眼界就永不会因你得着扩阔。

祈祷◆主啊，这个早上，我怀着一份灵性失败的感觉，来到你面前。藉着你的恩典来洁净我，让我重回基督耶稣在天上的地方。

September 3 The Waters Of Satisfaction Scattered

“Nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord.” 2 Samuel 23:16

What has been like water from the well of Bethlehem to you recently – love, friendship, spiritual blessing? Then at the peril of your soul, you take it to satisfy yourself. If you do, you cannot pour it out before the Lord. You can never sanctify to God that with which you long to satisfy yourself. If you satisfy yourself with a blessing from God, it will corrupt you; you must sacrifice it, pour it out, do with it what common sense says is an absurd waste.

How am I to pour out unto the Lord natural love or spiritual blessing? In one way only – in the determination of my mind. There are certain acts of other people which one could never accept if one did not know God, because it is not within human power to repay them. But immediately I say – This is too great and worthy for me, it is not meant for a human being at all, I must pour it out unto the Lord, then these things pour out in rivers of living water all around. Until I do pour these things out before the Lord, they endanger those I love as well as myself because they will turn to lust. We can be lustful in things which are not sordid and vile. Love has to get to its transfiguration point of being poured out unto the Lord.

If you have become bitter and sour, it is because when God gave you a blessing you clutched it for yourself; whereas if you had poured it out unto the Lord, you would have been the sweetest person out of heaven. If you are always taking blessings to yourself and never learn to pour out anything unto the Lord, other people do not get their horizon enlarged through you.

他们本是你的，你将他们赐给我。（约十七6）

传道者就是得到圣灵启迪，知道“你不是自己”的人。能够说“我不属于自己”，就是灵命达到了一个高峰。生命的真正本质，是故意把主权放弃，一心尊尚另一位为主，这另一位就是耶稣基督。圣灵把耶稣的本性向我解明，是要叫我与主合一，而不是要我成为可夸耀的展览品。主从不单凭他为门徒所作的事，而差派他们出去，直到他复活了，因着圣灵的能力，门徒认识耶稣是谁，然后他才说：“去。”

“人到我这里来，若不恨……不能作我的门徒。”他不是说那人不能做个正直良善的人，而是不能称为“我的”。每一个主所说的关系，都可以是与主争竞的。我若选择属于母亲，或妻子，或自己，这样耶稣会说：“你不能作我的门徒。”这不是说我并不得救，而是我不能成为“他的”。

主视门徒为他的产业，他要向他们负责。“你们就是我的见证。”我们不是要为耶稣做什么，乃是要成为他所喜悦的。作传道人的秘诀是－－我属他，透过我成就他的大工。

我们要完全属他。

祈祷◆主啊，愿你今天临到我，带领我进入你神性计划的一切美善中；感动我的心，让我能明白你的道路，并在其中欢喜快乐。

September 4 His!

“Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me.” John 17:6

The missionary is one in whom the Holy Ghost has wrought this realization – “Ye are not your own.” To say, “I am not my own” is to have reached a great point in spiritual nobility. The true nature of the life in the actual whirl is the deliberate giving up of myself to another in sovereign preference, and that other is Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit expounds the nature of Jesus to me in order to make me one with my Lord, not that I might go off as a showroom exhibit. Our Lord never sent any of the disciples out on the ground of what He had done for them. It was not until after the Resurrection, when the disciples had perceived by the power of the Holy Spirit Whom He was, that Jesus said “Go.”

“If any man come to me and hate not . . . , he cannot be My disciple,” not, he cannot be good and upright, but, he cannot be one over whom Jesus writes the word “Mine.” Any one of the relationships Our Lord mentions may be a competitive relationship. I may prefer to belong to my mother, or to my wife, or to myself; then, says Jesus, you cannot be My disciple. This does not mean I will not be saved, but it does mean that I cannot be “His.”

Our Lord makes a disciple His own possession, He becomes responsible for him. “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me.” The spirit that comes in is not that of doing anything for Jesus, but of being a perfect delight to Him. The secret of the missionary is – I am His, and He is carrying out His enterprises through me.

Be entirely His.

同我警醒。（太二十六40）

“同我警醒。”－－完全没有自己的私见，单单与主一同警醒。初时，我们不会与主一同警醒，只会为他警醒。我们不懂得透过圣经的启示和生活的环境，与他一同警醒。主一直想用一个特定的客西马尼，带我们与他同心，有一同的体验，可是我们不肯去。我们说：“不，主啊，我看不出这有何用处，太苦了。”怎样可以与一个难以捉摸的物件一同警醒呢？我们若不明白他受苦的目的，怎能对耶稣有充分的了解，以致肯在客西马尼与他一同警醒？我们根本不懂得怎样与他一同警醒，只习惯于他与我们一同警醒的观念。

门徒爱耶稣，只到天然本能的限度为止，因他们不明白他在做什么。在客西马尼园中，他们因忧愁睡着了。在三年亲密关系结束的时候，他们都离弃他逃跑了。“他们都被圣灵充满。”同样是“他们”，只是奇妙的事发生了。就是主的死、复活、升天，门徒被圣灵充满，主曾说：“圣灵降临在你们身上，你们就必得着能力。”就是他们已学会终其一生与主一同警醒。

祈祷◆主啊，今天早上，为着你的话－－“主用手搀扶他”，我感谢你。

September 5 The Missionary Watching

“Watch with Me.” Matthew 26:40

“Watch with Me” – with no private point of view of your own at all, but watch entirely with Me. In the early stages we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revelation of the Bible; in the circumstances of our lives. Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself in a particular Gethsemane, and we will not go; we say – “No, Lord, I cannot see the meaning of this, it is bitter.” How can we possibly watch with Someone Who is inscrutable? How are we going to understand Jesus sufficiently to watch with Him in His Gethsemane, when we do not know even what His suffering is for? We do not know how to watch with Him; we are only used to the idea of Jesus watching with us.

The disciples loved Jesus Christ to the limit of their natural capacity, but they did not understand what He was after. In the Garden of Gethsemane they slept for their own sorrow, and at the end of three years of the closest intimacy they “all forsook Him and fled.”

“They were all filled with the Holy Ghost” – the same “they,” but something wonderful has happened in between – Our Lord's Death and Resurrection and Ascension; and the disciples have been invaded by the Holy Spirit. Our Lord had said – “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you,” and this meant that they learned to watch with Him all the rest of their lives.

活水……江河。（约七38）

河流所到之处，是源头无法可知的。耶稣说我们若领受了他的丰盛，不管我们的生命多微小，也能像活水江河，造福地极。这涌流不是我们的功劳－－“信……这就是神的工作……”。神很少让一个人知道自己给别人带来多大的祝福。河流是百折不挠的，能克服一切障碍。它顺流而下，遇到障碍物，停滞一下，不一会又会绕过它继续涌流。有时河流好像突然消失好几里，但一下子又再复现，变得又大又宽阔。你看见神在使用很多人的生命，但你的生命却出现了障碍物，你觉得自己毫无用处。这时要注目源头，神会带你绕道而行，或是把障碍挪开。不要注目在难处上，只要对准源头，难处对于从你里面流出的江河，是毫无办法的。不要让任何事物，包括感情与经历，介入你与主耶稣之间；不要让任何事物，使你与那最高的总源头隔开。

想想你里头孕育着何等光远而又具医治力的河流！神向我们敞开他奇妙的真理，每一个敞开处，都表示他要把江河更大的能力透过我们涌流，你若相信主耶稣，就必发现神正在你里面培育强而有力的水流，要成为别人的祝福。

祈祷◆“你不要怕他们，因那为你争战的是耶和华－－你的神。”主啊，今早当我读经，这句话一直浮现在我脑海中。我何等完全地仰赖你！

September 6 Diffusiveness Of Life

“Rivers of living water.” John 7:38

A river touches places of which its source knows nothing, and Jesus says if we have received of His fulness, however small the visible measure of our lives, out of us will flow the rivers that will bless to the uttermost parts of the earth. We have nothing to do with the outflow – “This is the work of God that ye believe. . . .” God rarely allows a soul to see how great a blessing he is.

A river is victoriously persistent, it overcomes all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, then it comes to an obstacle and for a while it is baulked, but it soon makes a pathway round the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, and presently emerge again broader and grander than ever. You can see God using some lives, but into your life an obstacle has come and you do not seem to be of any use. Keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you round the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never get your eyes on the obstacle or on the difficulty. The obstacle is a matter of indifference to the river which will flow steadily through you if you remember to keep right at the Source. Never allow anything to come between yourself and Jesus Christ, no emotion, or experience; nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.

Think of the healing and far-flung rivers nursing themselves in our souls! God has been opening up marvellous truths to our minds, and every point He has opened up is an indication of the wider power of the river He will flow through us. If you believe in Jesus, you will find that God has nourished in you mighty torrents of blessing for others.

我所赐的水，要在他里头成为泉源。（约四14）

主所描写的，不是一条河道，乃是一个活泉。“要被充满”，这样，圣徒与主耶稣生命关系的甜美，就会丰富不绝地涌流，正如主倾倒给他的一样。你若发现生命并不能如意地涌流，问题一定是在你身上；一定是有阻塞的障碍物。要保持与源头接驳，这样你就会大得福祉？不，你会有活水江流涌流，是无法遏止的生命。

我们要成为活水涌流的江河，让主耶稣涌流而出，使每个人得福。有些人像死海，只接受而不付出，因为他们与主耶稣得关系并不和谐。我们接受他的生命，是肯定的；这样，他透过我们涌流，也该是肯定的。主若没有顺畅的涌流，你与他的关系必然有了缺陷。你与他之间有何阻隔？什么阻拦你对他的信念？若没有，耶稣说：“你要涌流出活水江河。”不是福气的传递，不是经验的申述，乃是江河的涌流。要持定源头，谨守对主的信心和与他的关系，这样，你就有不住的水供应别人，不枯干，也不死涸。

个别信徒要涌流出江河，是否夸张之言？你会说：“我看不见江河。”记着不要从“我是什么人？”的观点来看自己。神工作的历史，往往是从隐藏的、不为人知的、被人忽视的，但对主耶稣基督坚贞不移的人开始。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，让我重拾那因你与我同在而有的独特喜乐，使我在这个地方全属于你。我似乎不适宜作任何事情，惟独等候你。噢，主啊，给我显示一个永久的标记。

September 7 Springs Of Benignity

“The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water.” John 4:14

The picture Our Lord gives is not that of a channel but a fountain. “Be being filled,” and the sweetness of vital relationship to Jesus will flow out of the saint as lavishly as it is imparted to him. If you find your life is not flowing out as it should, you are to blame; something has obstructed the flow. Keep right at the Source, and – you will be blessed personally? No, out of you will flow rivers of living water, irrepressible life.

We are to be centres through which Jesus can flow as rivers of living water in blessing to every one. Some of us are like the Dead Sea, always taking in but never giving out, because we are not rightly related to the Lord Jesus. As surely as we receive from Him, He will pour out through us, and in the measure He is not pouring out, there is a defect in our relationship to Him. Is there anything between you and Jesus Christ? Is there anything that hinders your belief in Him? If not, Jesus says, out of you will flow rivers of living water. It is not a blessing passed on, not an experience stated, but a river continually flowing. Keep at the Source, guard well your belief in Jesus Christ and your relationship to Him, and there will be a steady flow for other lives, no dryness and no deadness.

Is it not too extravagant to say that out of an individual believer rivers are going to flow? “I do not see the rivers,” you say. Never look at yourself from the standpoint of – Who am I? In the history of God's work you will nearly always find that it has started from the obscure, the unknown, the ignored, but the steadfastly true to Jesus Christ.

将各样的计谋，各样阻拦人认识神的那些自高之事，一概攻破了。（林后十5）

从罪得释放，并不等于从人性中得释放。人性中有些东西（例如偏见），圣徒要不顾，才能毁灭；有些东西要靠强力，就是神属天的能力来拆毁；而另外有些东西则不用争战，我们只管站住，静静观看神的拯救。任何理论或观念，若阻碍了对神的认识，就必须立志靠神的能力去拆毁，而不是靠肉体的努力或妥协（林后十4）。

惟有当我们的性情被神改造，进入成圣的经验里去，这一场争战才可开始。这场仗不是向罪打，我们永无法与罪对抗：耶稣基督的救赎已对付了罪。战线是在于把天然生命转为属灵生命，这不是容易的，神也不想把这事变得容易。这事的作成，是要经过一连串的道德选择，神使我们成圣，并不在品性上；乃是叫我们无罪，然后把这无罪透过一连串的道德选择，转变成为圣洁的品性。这些选择往往不断与我们天然生命的盘踞点，及那些阻拦我们认识神的堡垒对抗。我们一回头，在神的国里一事无成；或者，我们可以决意拆毁这些东西，让耶稣多得一个儿子进到荣耀里去。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿这天成为一个完全属乎你这位王的日子。感动我们，噢，主啊，让我们在属灵和物质上的一切生活，都可以配合你的计划。只要是出于你的感动，一切都会变得美好。

September 8 Do It Yourself

“Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God.” 2 Corinthians 10:5

Deliverance from sin is not deliverance from human nature. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, which the saint has to destroy by neglect; and other things which have to be destroyed by violence, i.e., by the Divine strength imparted by God's Spirit. There are some things over which we are not to fight, but to stand still in and see the salvation of God; but every theory or conception which erects itself as a rampart against the knowledge of God is to be determinedly demolished by drawing on God's power, not by fleshly endeavour or compromise (v. 4).

It is only when God has altered our disposition and we have entered into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin: Jesus Christ deals with sin in Redemption. The conflict is along the line of turning our natural life into a spiritual life, and this is never done easily, nor does God intend it to be done easily. It is done only by a series of moral choices. God does not make us holy in the sense of character; He makes us holy in the sense of innocence, and we have to turn that innocence into holy character by a series of moral choices. These choices are continually in antagonism to the entrenchments of our natural life, the things which erect themselves as ramparts against the knowledge of God. We can either go back and make ourselves of no account in the Kingdom of God, or we can determinedly demolish these things and let Jesus bring another son to glory.

又将人所有的心意夺回，使他都顺服基督。（林后十5）

这是信徒成圣须竭尽心力的另一面。保罗说：“我将所有计划都封锁，使它们都归服于基督。”（摩法特译本）今天多少基督徒的事工是没有纪律，只出于一时冲动的！主每一件事都律己，遵照父的旨意。他没有一丝行动，是脱离父的旨意，出于私意的冲动－－“子凭自己不能作什么。”

再看看我们自己－－有活现的宗教经历，就立刻冲动地把计划付诸行动，而不是把它约束在对基督的顺服里。这时代太强调实际工作，以致那些为主把计划俘掳的人，被批评为不热心为神，也不爱灵魂。真心的热诚在于顺服神，而不在于人性、不受约束的事奉热诚。圣徒还未把每一计划俘掳，就按本性－－未经定志律己而来的属灵性情－－怂动去作神的工作，这虽是不可思议，却确有其事。

我们很容易会忘记人不单要在救恩上归服基督，也要归服于基督对神、对世界、对罪、对魔鬼的观点。这就是说，他必须藉心意的更新而改变。

祈祷◆主啊，我来到你面前。求你将你的生命丰盛地赐给我，直至我的理解力、想像力和言语，都全属于你。你更新了我的灵，使我重获救恩之乐，你是何等伟大！

September 9 Do It Yourself

“Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5

This is another aspect of the strenuous nature of sainthood. Paul says, “I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ.” (Moffatt.) How much Christian work there is to-day which has never been disciplined, but has simply sprung into being by impulse! In Our Lord's life every project was disciplined to the will of His Father. There was not a movement of an impulse of His own will as distinct from His Father's – “The Son can do nothing of Himself.” Then take ourselves – a vivid religious experience, and every project born of impulse put into action immediately, instead of being imprisoned and disciplined to obey Christ.

This is a day when practical work is overemphasized, and the saints who are bringing every project into captivity are criticized and told that they are not in earnest for God or for souls. True earnestness is found in obeying God, not in the inclination to serve Him that is born of undisciplined human nature. It is inconceivable, but true nevertheless, that saints are not bringing every project into captivity, but are doing work for God at the instigation of their own human nature which has not been spiritualized by determined discipline.

We are apt to forget that a man is not only committed to Jesus Christ for salvation; he is committed to Jesus Christ's view of God, of the world, of sin and of the devil, and this will mean that he must recognize the responsibility of being transformed by the renewing of his mind.

你在无花果树底下，我就看见你了。（约一48）

我们以为面临重大关头的时候，自己必然应付得来；可是，重大关头只会揭露我们的本相，不会给我们加增什么。“要是神呼召我，我自会应付得来。”除非你能善于神所托付的工作，在神面前有真材实料；否则，在重大关头时，你必不能应付。倘若现在你连神在你身旁安排的事也不作，当重大关头来到，你不但担当不起，反而显得不合用。危机往往能把人的本性显露出来。

在隐秘处敬拜神，是人合用与否的先决条件。时候到了，不会再有“无花果树下”的生活，你要出到外头，在日光之下工作。那时你会发现，除非在家中你一向敬拜神，否则就一无可取。所以要有正确的敬拜态度，这样，当神释放你，你才准备妥当；因为在除了神就没有人看得见的生命里，你已完全茁壮合用。考验来到，神才可以倚重你。

“现今的环境不容我过成圣的生活，我现在没有时间读经祈祷，机会还未来到，若时机一到，我自然可以应付。”错了。你若不经常在日常生活敬拜主，一旦做神的工作，你不但无用，更会成为同工极大的障碍。

圣徒私下隐藏的敬拜生活，乃是神的训练场地，是传道者的弹药所在。

祈祷◆噢，主，我的神，帮助我敬拜你。为着你的恒久不变，我赞美你。感动我，噢，主啊，藉着你的能力更新我的灵，使它对你和你的真理更加渴慕与感激。

September 10 Missionary Munitions

“When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.” John 1:48

We imagine we would be all right if a big crisis arose; but the big crisis will only reveal the stuff we are made of, it will not put anything into us. “If God gives the call, of course I will rise to the occasion.” You will not unless you have risen to the occasion in the workshop, unless you have been the real thing before God there. If you are not doing the thing that lies nearest, because God has engineered it; when the crisis comes instead of being revealed as fit, you will be revealed as unfit. Crises always reveal character.

The private relationship of worshipping God is the great essential of fitness. The time comes when there is no more “fig-tree” life possible, when it is out into the open, out into the glare and into the work, and you will find yourself of no value there if you have not been worshipping as occasion serves you in your home. Worship aright in your private relationships, then when God sets you free you will be ready, because in the unseen life which no one saw but God you have become perfectly fit, and when the strain comes you can be relied upon by God.

“I can't be expected to live the sanctified life in the circumstances I am in; I have no time for praying just now, no time for Bible reading, my opportunity hasn't come yet; when it does, of course I shall be all right.” No, you will not. If you have not been worshipping as occasion serves, when you get into work you will not only be useless yourself, but a tremendous hindrance to those who are associated with you.

The workshop of missionary munitions is the hidden, personal, worshipping life of the saint.

我是你们的主，你们的夫子，尚且洗你们的脚，你们也当彼此洗脚。（约十三14）

把握每天的机会事奉，是不拣选自己的环境，而是在神安排的任何环境下，都为神所用。我们在现有环境下表现的特性，可以代表在任何别的环境下的表现。耶稣所作的，是最卑下的日常工作；这就是说我需要神全部的能力，才能依他的脚踪作最平常普通的事。我能像他那样用一条毛巾吗？毛巾、碗碟、鞋，以及一切日常生活中卑微的事，比别的东西更能反映出我们的本相。最低贱的任务，若要做得完全，就需要我们里面那位道成肉身的全能主去做。

“我给你们作了榜样，叫你们照着我向你们所作的去作。”留意神摆在你周围的人；他要藉此使你认识在他眼中你是怎么样的人，你会因此而羞愧。他现在说：“要照我向你所作的，向那个人行。”你会说：“呀！到了海外的禾场，我自然会一一去做了。”这样的说法，就等于去到战壕才制造弹药，结果在制造的当儿，就送命了。

我们要与神行第“二里路”。有些人在头十码就放弃了，因为神要我们行看不见方向的路，我们就说：“我还是等到重大关头来到时再走。”若你在日常小事上不稳步前进，危机来到时，你什么也做不来。

祈祷◆“耶和华必作王”；噢，主啊，今天愿你统治的能力，为着你的荣耀，在你仆人身上彰显。

September 11 Missionary Munitions

If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet.” John 13:14

Ministering as opportunity surrounds us does not mean selecting our surroundings, it means being very selectly God's in any haphazard surroundings which He engineers for us. The characteristics we manifest in our immediate surroundings are indications of what we will be like in other surroundings.

The things that Jesus did were of the most menial and commonplace order, and this is an indication that it takes all God's power in me to do the most commonplace things in His way. Can I use a towel as He did? Towels and dishes and sandals, all the ordinary sordid things of our lives, reveal more quickly than anything what we are made of. It takes God Almighty Incarnate in us to do the meanest duty as it ought to be done.

“I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you.” Watch the kind of people God brings around you, and you will be humiliated to find that this is His way of revealing to you the kind of person you have been to Him. Now, He says, exhibit to that one exactly what I have shown to you.

“Oh,” you say, “I will do all that when I get out into the foreign field.” To talk in this way is like trying to produce the munitions of war in the trenches – you will be killed while you are doing it.

We have to go the “second mile” with God. Some of us get played out in the first ten yards, because God compels us to go where we cannot see the way, and we say – “I will wait till I get nearer the big crisis.” If we do not do the running steadily in the little ways, we shall do nothing in the crisis.

你们不知道所求的是什么。（太二十22）

在属灵生命中，有时会有困惑的时刻；若强说没有是解决不了问题的。这不是对或不对的问题，而是神有时要领你走一条你不明白的路，只有经过了这一段困惑时期，你才知道神想要的是什么。他的友情隐藏了（路十一5-8）。耶稣比喻中的那个人，好像对他的朋友漠不关心；有时候，在我们看来，天父也好像那个人。时候到了，一切都会明朗。心中的友情被云层遮蔽，有时连爱本身也要在痛苦与眼泪中等待那更完全契合的福气。当神似乎完全隐藏了，你能否依然因着对他的信心而坚持？

他的父爱在阴影里（路十一11-13）。耶稣说，天父有时像一个不近人情的父亲，冷漠不仁；要记住他不是这样的。我已告诉你：“凡祈求的就得着。”若此刻他的脸被阴影遮蔽，要持守到底，因为至终他必向你清楚解明，叫你知道他所容许的事都有其用意。他信实不比寻常（路十八1-8）。“人子来的时候，遇得见世上有信德吗？”他能否找到在困惑中仍紧抓着他信心的人？要在信心中起步，知道耶稣所说的是可信的，虽然当时你不明白他所作的。在你所祈求的事以外，神还有更重大更危急的事。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，今天我将要奉你的名传讲你的资讯，但我至今仍没有圣灵的感动。噢，因着耶稣基督的缘故，求你将你的思想传达至我那灵性迟缓的脑袋中。

September 12 By Spiritual Confusion

“Ye know not what ye ask.” Matthew 20:22

There are times in spiritual life when there is confusion, and it is no way out to say that there ought not to be confusion. It is not a question of right and wrong, but a question of God taking you by a way which in the meantime you do not understand, and it is only by going through the confusion that you will get at what God wants.

The Shrouding of His Friendship. Luke 11:5-8. Jesus gave the illustration of the man who looked as if he did not care for his friend, and He said that that is how the Heavenly Father will appear to you at times. You will think He is an unkind friend, but remember He is not; the time will come when everything will be explained. There is a cloud on the friendship of the heart, and often even love itself has to wait in pain and tears for the blessing of fuller communion. When God looks completely shrouded, will you hang on in confidence in Him?

The Shadow on His Fatherhood. Luke 11:11-13. Jesus says there are times when your Father will appear as if He were an unnatural father, as if He were callous and indifferent, but remember He is not; I have told you – “Everyone that asketh receiveth.” If there is a shadow on the face of the Father just now, hang onto it that He will ultimately give His clear revealing and justify Himself in all that He permitted.

The Strangeness of His Faithfulness. Luke 18:1-8. “When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” Will He find the faith which banks on Him in spite of the confusion? Stand off in faith believing that what Jesus said is true, though in the meantime you do not under stand what God is doing. He has bigger issues at stake than the particular things you ask.

你所托付我的事，我已成全了。（约十七4）

顺服不在于外在生活的顺服，而在于意志的顺服，这点一旦达到，一切问题都解决了。在人一生中，要面临的决定性时刻并不多；其中最决定性的时刻，就是意志的顺服。神从来不强逼人顺服他，也不会苦苦哀求人顺服，他是等候人甘心情愿把意志降服。这场仗是一次过的，打完就不必再打。

得释放的顺服。“到我这里来，我就使你得安息。”只有在我们明白了救恩的意义后，才会把意志降服于主，得着安息。任何叫人心思困惑的事，都是对意志的呼唤－－“到我这里来。”这是出于自愿的行动。

献身的顺服。“若有人要跟从我，就当舍己。”这里的降服，是指把己交给耶稣，成为一个有他安息的己。“你若愿作我的门徒，就把你自己的主权交给我。”这样，你余下的人生，就是这个降服的彰显。一旦这样降服了，就不再有什么“假如”。我们不必再理会环境，因为耶稣就是一切。

至死的顺服（约二十一18-19）。“……别人要把你束上……”你懂不懂什么叫做视死如归？当心在狂喜中对神许下顺服的愿；你很容易会收回的。要紧的是你与耶稣在他的死上联合，直至他不感兴趣的东西，你也一点不再感兴趣。

顺服之后又怎样？顺服之后的整个生命，就是渴求与神亲密无间的契合。

祈祷◆主啊，我恳求能够看见你。我一直被外院的生活所占据，远离了你；求你宽恕我，吸引我靠近你，以致我能再次与你共用罕有的相交。

September 13 After Surrender – What?

“I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” John 17:4

Surrender is not the surrender of the external life, but of the will; when that is done, all is done. There are very few crises in life; the great crisis is the surrender of the will. God never crushes a man's will into surrender, He never beseeches him, He waits until the man yields up his will to Him. That battle never needs to be re-fought.

Surrender for Deliverance. “Come unto Me and I will give you rest.” It is after we have begun to experience what salvation means that we surrender our wills to Jesus for rest. Whatever is perplexing heart or mind is a call to the will –“Come unto Me.” It is a voluntary coming.

Surrender for Devotion. “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself.” The surrender here is of my self to Jesus, my self with His rest at the heart of it. “If you would be My disciple, give up your right to yourself to Me.” Then the remainder of the life is nothing but the manifestation of this surrender. When once the surrender has taken place we never need “suppose” anything. We do not need to care what our circumstances are, Jesus is amply sufficient.

Surrender for Death. John 21:18-19. “. . . another shall gird thee.” Have you learned what it means to be bound for death? Beware of a surrender which you make to God in an ecstasy; you are apt to take it back again. It is a question of being united with Jesus in His death until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal to Him.

After surrender – what? The whole of the life after surrender is an aspiration for unbroken communion with God.

向基督所存纯一清洁的心。(林后十一3)

纯一是看清事务的要诀。圣徒有时思路不清，可是应该可以毫无困难的看得清楚。属灵的迷乱并不是靠思想可以得出头绪。

必须顺服神，就清楚了。属乎理性的事，你可以赖思想得着出路，但属灵的事，只会愈想愈一团糟。若在什么事上神的手加压力，就要顺服，把幻想拘禁在你对基督的顺服里；这样，一切就会明亮如白昼。理智是在后面才用的，但凭自己的聪明去看事物，就一无所见。 (太十一25)

我们若容让极小的事不顺服圣灵的控制，就会陷入属灵的迷乱中，即使花上多少思虑，也不能叫事态明朗。属灵的乱堆，只有靠顺服才可以澄清。我们一顺服，就能辨明。这是叫我们羞愧，因为在迷乱之中，我们知道问题是出于心志的状态。天然的视力若交给圣灵，就变成透察神旨意的能力，而整个生命也就能保持纯一。

祈祷◆噢，我何等渴望被祢全然占有，让我的身、心、灵都被祢如火挑旺。黑暗中仍潜伏着许多东西，这些东西是何等的丢脸。

September 14 Imagination V. Inspiration

“The simplicity that is in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:3

Simplicity is the secret of seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly for a long while, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think a spiritual muddle clear, you have to obey it clear. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will think yourself into cotton wool. If there is something upon which God has put His pressure, obey in that matter, bring your imagination into captivity to the obedience of Christ with regard to it and everything will become as clear as daylight. The reasoning capacity comes afterwards, but we never see along that line, we see like children; when we try to be wise we see nothing (Matthew 11:25).

The tiniest thing we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is quite sufficient to account for spiritual muddle, and all the thinking we like to spend on it will never make it clear. Spiritual muddle is only made plain by obedience. Immediately we obey, we discern. This is humiliating, because when we are muddled we know the reason is in the temper of our mind. When the natural power of vision is devoted to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the power of perceiving God's will and the whole life is kept in simplicity.

将那些暗昧可耻的事弃绝了。（林后四2）

你有没有将暗昧可耻的事弃绝？－－那些你廉耻之心不想敞露的东西。要遮掩这些事并不难。你心中是否有一些念头，是不想放在光中的？当这些念头一出现，就要立刻弃绝，完全的弃绝，直至没有丝毫可耻诡诈在你里面隐藏。嫉忌、贪恋、争竞－－未必是出于罪根性，而是因为你在过去的日子中，肢体惯于和这种事打交道（参罗六19，彼前四1-2）。你要不住的警醒，使生命没有丝毫可耻的东西生长。

“不行诡诈”，诡诈就是运用手段以求达到目的。这是个极大的网罗。若你知道神只容许你以某一方法行事，那么就不可用别的方法。不然，神的责难必然临到。人家做的事，在你看来是行诡诈，但在他们可能并非诡诈，因为神给你另一个观点。切勿削弱竭诚为主的敏锐性触觉。你所作的某件事，可能叫你离开神的旨意去追求别的目标：若是这样，诡诈就随之而生，而你对神也变得迟钝。许多人退后，是由于不敢从神的观点看事物。一个人若要越过自己已接纳的信念，在属灵上就有大危机。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求你护卫我生命的中心免受腐蚀；愿你隐密地保守我，使我与你有着满意的关系，以致我能彰显你的荣耀。

September 15 What To Renounce

“But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty.” 2 Corinthians 4:2

Have you “renounced the hidden things of dishonesty” – the things that your sense of honour will not allow to come to the light? You can easily hide them. Is there a thought in your heart about anyone which you would not like to be dragged into the light? Renounce it as soon as it springs up; renounce the whole thing until there is no hidden thing of dishonesty or craftiness about you. Envy, jealousy, strife – these things arise not necessarily from the disposition of sin, but from the make-up of your body which was used for this kind of thing in days gone by (see Romans 6:19 and 1 Peter 4:1-2). Maintain a continual watchfulness so that nothing of which you would be ashamed arises in your life.

“Not walking in craftiness,” that is, resorting to what will carry your point. This is a great snare. You know that God will only let you work in one way, then be careful never to catch people the other way; God's blight will be upon you if you do. Others are doing things which to you would be walking in craftiness, but it may not be so with them: God has given you another standpoint. Never blunt the sense of your Utmost for His Highest. For you to do a certain thing would mean the incoming of craftiness for an end other than the highest, and the blunting of the motive God has given you. Many have gone back because they are afraid of looking at things from God's standpoint. The great crisis comes spiritually when a man has to emerge a bit farther on than the creed he has accepted.

你祷告的时候，要进你的内屋，关上门，祷告你在暗中的父。（太六6）

在宗教信仰中，最主要的观念就是仰望神，不仰望人。切不可有这个动机：希望人家知道你时刻祷告。要进入内室，在没有人知道你在祷告的地方，关上门，暗中与神交谈。祷告唯一的动机，就是认识你在天上的父。若要过门徒的生活，就要按时在暗中祷告，此外别无他途。

“你们祷告，不可……用许多重复话。”（第7节）神听我们祷告，并不是因为我们恳切；他并不受我们的迫切诚心打动，他听我们只因他的救赎。祷告并非单单向神求东西，那只是最原始的起点。祷告是与神完全的合一。神的儿子若藉重生成形在我们里面，他必然会超越我们的常理观念，改变我们对所求事物的态度。

“凡祈求的，就得着。”我们祷告时往往用敬虔的术语，可是我们的意志并不在里面，然后我们又怨神不垂听；其实我们根本就没有求什么。耶稣说：“你们要什么，可以求。”求的意思就是我们的意志也在里面。耶稣把小孩子的至纯与祷告相提并论；但我们却发出批判：“好是好的，可是……”。耶稣说：“求吧。”但得记着我们所求于神的必须与主耶稣所彰显神的心意相符。

祈祷◆主啊，今早的“每日亮光”发出何其有力的话语：“要刚强和具有勇气；不要恐惧，也不要丧胆；因为无论你往哪里去，主你的神都会与你在一起。”阿们！哈利路亚！

September 16 The Divine Region Of Religion

“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret.” Matthew 6:6

The main idea in the region of religion is – Your eyes upon God, not on men. Do not have as your motive the desire to be known as a praying man. Get an inner chamber in which to pray where no one knows you are praying, shut the door and talk to God in secret. Have no other motive than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to conduct your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer.

But when ye pray use not vain repetitions . . . (v.7). God does not hear us because we are in earnest, but only on the ground of Redemption. God is never impressed by our earnestness. Prayer is not simply getting things from God, that is a most initial form of prayer; prayer is getting into perfect communion with God. If the Son of God is formed in us by regeneration, He will press forward in front of our common sense and change our attitude to the things about which we pray.

“Everyone that asketh receiveth.” We pray pious blether, our will is not in it, and then we say God does not answer; we never asked for anything. “Ye shall ask what ye will,” said Jesus. Asking means our will is in it. Whenever Jesus talked about prayer, He put it with the grand simplicity of a child: we bring in our critical temper and say – Yes, but . . . Jesus said “Ask.” But remember that we have to ask of God things that are in keeping with the God Whom Jesus Christ revealed.

你们所遇见的试探，无非是人所能受的。（林前十13）

“试探”一词地位日益低落，我们很容易把这词错用。试探并非等于罪。凡是人，都会遇到试探。若说不会受试探，实在是自贬身价。不过，许多人所受的试探，本是不该受的。这完全是由于我们不肯让神领我们到一个更高的境地，去面对另一种试探的缘故。

人内在的性向，就是他人的性格，决定他外在所受的试探。所受的试探是配合受试探者的本质，同时也显出他的潜能。每一个人都有他独特受试探的背景，试探也会沿着他主要的性向而来。

试探为人所要实现的最高目标提供了一条捷径－－并不是我走向邪恶，乃是朝着我认为善的方向走。试探是一些令我一时感到困惑的东西，因我不知它到底是对还是错。向试探低头，就是奉情欲为神；也证明过去不是没有犯这罪，只是不敢做出来。

试探是无可避免的，对一个人的完整生命是不可或缺的。别以为从没有人像你一样，受到这样的试探；你所经历的，其实是整个人类共有的经历，并非前所未有。神不会救我们离开试探，他乃是在试探当中救拔我们（来二18）。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我们对你的认知，被即时的现况所堵塞，产生了窒息的感觉；求你拯救和悦纳我们。

September 17 What's The Good Of Temptation?

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.” 1 Corinthians 10:13

The word “temptation” has come down in the world; we are apt to use it wrongly. Temptation is not sin, it is the thing we are bound to meet if we are men. Not to be tempted would be to be beneath contempt. Many of us, however, suffer from temptations from which we have no business to suffer, simply because we have refused to let God lift us to a higher plane where we would face temptations of another order.

A man's disposition on the inside, i.e., what he possesses in his personality, determines what he is tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits the nature of the one tempted, and reveals the possibilities of the nature. Every man has the setting of his own temptation, and the temptation will come along the line of the ruling disposition.

Temptation is a suggested short cut to the realization of the highest at which I aim – not towards what I understand as evil, but towards what I understand as good. Temptation is something that completely baffles me for a while, I do not know whether the thing is right or wrong. Temptation yielded to is lust deified, and is a proof that it was timidity that prevented the sin before.

Temptation is not something we may escape, it is essential to the full-orbed life of a man. Beware lest you think you are tempted as no one else is tempted; what you go through is the common inheritance of the race, not something no one ever went through before. God does not save us from temptations; He succours us in the midst of them (Heb. 2:18).

因我们的大祭司，并非不能体恤我们的软弱，他也曾凡事受过试探，与我们一样，只是他没有犯罪。（来四15）

未重生之前，我们唯一的试探是雅各所说的：“各人被试探，乃是被自己的私欲牵引诱惑的。”可是重生之后，便被提升到另一范围的试探，就是面对主所受的试探。主耶稣受的试探对我们并不吸引，在人性中全无地位。主的试探与我们的试探是两个完全不同的领域，直等到我们重生了，成为他的弟兄。主耶稣受的试探不是人的试探，乃是“神成为人”的试探。我们重生之后，神的儿子在我们里面成形，他在我们的肉身生命中，面对他昔日在地上所面对的。撒旦并不引诱我们去做坏事，乃是要我们失去神藉重生放进我们里面的生命，就是在神手中成为贵重合用的潜能。它并不是要引诱人犯罪，乃是要改变人的观点。惟有圣灵才可以侦察出这是魔鬼的试探。

试探是外在势力对人的考验，要攻击人性中所拥有的。这就解明了主耶稣所受的试探。耶稣受洗之后，接受了除去世人罪孽的责任，神的灵就立即把他放在魔鬼的考验场里。不过他没有被打倒，他经过试探，却没有犯罪，仍然保持他人格的完整。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，对于与你一同守望、与你一同经历试探的意义，我所了解的是何等肤浅。愿你在今天早上吸引我靠近你，以你的大能使我专注于你，直至我的生活言谈只为了你。

September 18 His Temptation And Ours

“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15

Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is that mentioned by St. James – “Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” But by regeneration we are lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, viz., the kind of temptations Our Lord faced. The temptations of Jesus do not appeal to us, they have no home at all in our human nature. Our Lord's temptations and ours move in different spheres until we are born again and become His brethren. The temptations of Jesus are not those of a man, but the temptations of God as Man. By regeneration the Son of God is formed in us, and in our physical life He has the same setting that He had on earth. Satan does not tempt us to do wrong things; he tempts us in order to make us lose what God has put into us by regeneration, viz., the possibility of being of value to God. He does not come on the line of tempting us to sin, but on the line of shifting the point of view, and only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.

Temptation means the test by an alien power of the possessions held by a personality. This makes the temptation of Our Lord explainable. After Jesus in His baptism had accepted the vocation of bearing away the sin of the world, He was immediately put by God's Spirit into the testing machine of the devil, but He did not tire, He went through the temptation “without sin,” and He retained the possessions of His personality intact.

我在磨炼之中，常和我同在的就是你们。（路二十二28）

我们受试探的时候，主耶稣与我们同在，这是不错的。可是，他受试探时我们与他同行吗？不少人一经验到主为我们成就什么之后，就不再与他往前行了。注意神把你的环境转移，看你是否仍与主耶稣同行，还是与世界为友，随从肉体与魔鬼。我们佩戴着他的徽号，可是有没有与他同行？“从此他门徒中多有退去的，不再和他同行。”耶稣在一生中不断受到试探；那么，神儿子在我们里面的生命，也会不断受试探。我们现在的生活是否与耶稣同行？

我们会有保护自己的念头，以为应该躲避一些神安排在我们周围的东西。千万不可！神所安排的际遇，不管是什么，我们都必须面对；同时在他的试探里，要与他不断同行。那些试探不是对我们而发，乃是对他，对我们里面神的儿子而发的。耶稣基督的尊荣，系于我们这肉身上，我们是否持守对神儿子的忠贞？

你不断与主同行吗？这条路要经过客西马尼园、城门口，直到营外；这道路孤单寂寞，你不会再看见任何足迹，只剩下一个声音说：“跟从我。”

祈祷◆主啊，为着这个清晨，我能享有与你相交这个珍贵权利，我赞美你；愿你今天在我里面动工，以致我可以“立志行事……为要成就你的美意”。

September 19 Do You Continue To Go With Jesus?

“Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations.” Luke 22:28

It is true that Jesus Christ is with us in our temptations, but are we going with Him in His temptations? Many of us cease to go with Jesus from the moment we have an experience of what He can do. Watch when God shifts your circumstances, and see whether you are going with Jesus, or siding with the world, the flesh and the devil. We wear His badge, but are we going with Him? “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him.”

The temptations of Jesus continued throughout His earthly life, and they will continue throughout the life of the Son of God in us. Are we going with Jesus in the life we are living now?

We have the idea that we ought to shield ourselves from some of the things God brings round us. Never! God engineers circumstances and whatever they may be like we have to see that we face them while abiding continually with Him in His temptations. They are His temptations, not temptations to us, but temptations to the life of the Son of God in us. The honour of Jesus Christ is at stake in your bodily life. Are you remaining loyal to the Son of God in the things which beset His life in you?

Do you continue to go with Jesus? The way lies through Gethsemane, through the city gate, outside the camp; the way lies alone, and the way lies until there is no trace of a footstep left, only the voice, “Follow Me.”

所以你们要完全，像你们的天父完全一样。（太五48）

在这经文中，主劝勉我们对所有人都要宽大慷慨。在属灵的生活中，当心依从人性的喜好行事。人人都有天然的喜好，我们喜欢某些人，不喜欢某些人。切勿让这些喜好操纵我们基督徒的生命。“我们若在光明中行，如同神在光中”，神可以使我们与天性不喜欢的人相交。

主给我们的榜样不是一个好人，也不是一个好的基督徒，乃是神自己。“所以你们要完全，像你们的天父完全一样。”－－向人表彰神向你表彰的；神在实际生活上会给我们足够的机会，去证明我们是否像他一样完全。作门徒，就是立志要爱神所关注的人。“叫你们彼此相爱，我怎样爱你们，你们也要怎样相爱。”

信徒品德的表现不在于善行，乃在于像神。若神的灵已改变你的内心，你生命所表现的是属天的特性，而不是好人的特性。神的生命在我们里面，表现的就是神的生命，不是力求敬虔的人的生命。信徒的秘诀，就是藉神的恩典，使超然的在他里面成为自然，这种经历并非在与神相交的时刻中表现，而是在日常生活的细节中实行。当我们碰到叫人头昏脑胀的事，便会稀奇自己竟有能力保持平静安稳。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，当今天这个属你的日子正要展开，愿你在一切事情上成为我们独特的珍宝。愿你的灵充满我们，以致我们各人都被那甜蜜、惬意的属灵能力所改变。

September 20 The Divine Rule Of Life

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:48

Our Lord's exhortation in these verses is to be generous in our behaviour to all men. In the spiritual life beware of walking according to natural affinities. Everyone has natural affinities; some people we like and others we do not like. We must never let those likes and dislikes rule in our Christian life. “If we walk in the light as God is in the light,” God will give us communion with people for whom we have no natural affinity.

The Example Our Lord gives us is not that of a good man, or even of a good Christian, but of God Himself. “Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect,” show to the other man what God has shown to you; and God will give us ample opportunities in actual life to prove whether we are perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. To be a disciple means that we deliberately identify ourselves with God's interests in other people. “That ye love one another; as I have loved you . . .”

The expression of Christian character is not good doing, but God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit Divine characteristics in your life, not good human characteristics. God's life in us expresses itself as God's life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian is that the supernatural is made natural in him by the grace of God, and the experience of this works out in the practical details of life, not in times of communion with God. When we come in contact with things that create a buzz, we find to our amazement that we have power to keep wonderfully poised in the centre of it all.

耶和华从我出胎造就我作他的仆人。（赛四十九5）

我们一清楚在耶稣基督里被神选召，第一件发生的事就是偏见、狭隘的思想、爱国主义的破灭，变成神的仆人，为完成他的计划。整个人类原是为荣耀神、永远享受神而被造的。罪恶把人类带入歧途，但却不能改变神原意的一丝一毫。我们重生得救时，就立时进入神对人类伟大的用心里去；我是为神而被造的，神创造了我。明白神的选召，是世上最快乐不过的体会，我们必须信赖神伟大的创造计划。神要作在我们身上的第一件事，就是要把对世界的关注，灌注到一颗心的通道里去。他把爱，就是自己的本性，引进我们里面，而全能神的本性，就集中在约翰福音三章16节：“神爱世人……”。

我们要保持心灵向神创造的本意敞开，不要把自己的意念搀杂在里面。若非如此，不管我们多痛苦，神也要把我们的意图压碎。传道者的任务就是作神的仆人，让神得着荣耀。若我们明白在主的救恩里成为完全适合神用的人，就明白主耶稣的要求何以这样决绝。他要求他的仆人绝对的正直，因为他已把神的本性放在他们里面。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着我所负责的这些人，我恳求你带领我与你的计划活泼相连。为着今天所拥有的一切机会，求你重新膏立我。让我看见你救恩的作为。

September 21 Missionary Predestinations

“And now, saith the Lord, that formed me from the womb to be His servant.” Isaiah 49:5

The first thing that happens after we have realized our election to God in Christ Jesus is the destruction of our prejudices and our parochial notions and our patriotisms; we are turned into servants of God's own purpose. The whole human race was created to glorify God and enjoy Him for ever. Sin has switched the human race on to another tack, but it has not altered God's purpose in the tiniest degree; and when we are born again we are brought into the realization of God's great purpose for the human race, viz., I am created for God, He made me. This realization of the election of God is the most joyful realization on earth, and we have to learn to rely on the tremendous creative purpose of God. The first thing God will do with us is to “force through the channels of a single heart” the interests of the whole world. The love of God, the very nature of God, is introduced into us, and the nature of Almighty God is focused in John 3:16 – “God so loved the world. . .”

We have to maintain our soul open to the fact of God's creative purpose, and not muddle it with our own intentions. If we do, God will have to crush our intentions on one side however much it may hurt. The purpose for which the missionary is created is that he may be God's servant, one in whom God is glorified. When once we realize that through the salvation of Jesus Christ we are made perfectly fit for God, we shall understand why Jesus Christ is so ruthless in His demands. He demands absolute rectitude from His servants, because He has put into them the very nature of God.

Beware lest you forget God’s purpose for your life.

你们称呼我夫子，称呼我主，你们说的不错，我本来是。（约十三13）

有一位主人与被人驱使，是两回事。有一位主人，就是有一位比我更认识我的人；他比朋友更亲密；他深入我内心的深处，叫我满足；他解决我心思里一切的困惑与疑难，叫我安稳。这就是主人的意思，不折不扣－－只有一位是我们的主人，就是基督。

主从不勉强人顺服，也不会设计使我们做他要我做的。有时我宁愿神管制我，迫我做某些事，可是他不会这样；有时我又希望他不要管我，但他也不会这样。“你们称呼我夫子，称呼我主”－－他果真是吗？夫子和主，在我们的字汇中很少出现；我们喜欢用救主、使人成圣者、医治者等字眼。唯一可以描写有一位主人这经历的字眼，就是爱，而我们对神所启示的爱，认识又那么少。这在我们对“顺服”一词的运用上，就可以看出来。在圣经中，顺服是根据平等关系而言，就是儿子与父亲的关系。我们的主并不是神的仆人，他是神的儿子。“他虽然为儿子，还是……学了顺服。”若我们以为是被辖管，这就是我们并未有主人的明证；这种对耶稣的态度，与他所想望的关系相距实在太远。他要我们与他的关系，应该是自然地以他为主人，只知道我们属他、听他的话。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我怀着灵性上极之枯干和贫乏的感觉，来到你面前；噢，主啊，为着你的名，求你激发我。我不会在你面前悲叹，却会被你的灵所充满。

September 22 The Missionary's Master

“Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.” John 13:13

To have a master and to be mastered is not the same thing. To have a master means that there is one who knows me better than I know myself, one who is closer than a friend, one who fathoms the remotest abyss of my heart and satisfies it, one who has brought me into the secure sense that he has met and solved every perplexity and problem of my mind. To have a master is this and nothing less – “One is your Master, even Christ.”

Our Lord never enforces obedience; He does not take means to make me do what He wants. At certain times I wish God would master me and make me do the thing, but He will not; in other moods I wish He would leave me alone, but He does not.

“Ye call me Master and Lord” – but is He? Master and Lord have little place in our vocabulary, we prefer the words Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer. The only word to describe mastership in experience is love and we know very little about love as God reveals it. This is proved by the way we use the word obey. In the Bible obedience is based on the relationship of equals, that of a son with his father. Our Lord was not God's servant, He was His Son. “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience . . .” If our idea is that we are being mastered, it is a proof that we have no master; if that is our attitude to Jesus, we are far away from the relationship He wants. He wants us in the relationship in which He is easily Master without our conscious knowledge of it, all we know is that we are His to obey.

看哪，我们上耶路撒冷去。（路十八31）

在天然生命中，我们会按着发展而改变自己的野心。可是在信徒生命中，目标一开始就摆明出来，而这目标是始终如一的：主自己。我们始于基督，也终于基督－－“直等到我们……长大成人，满有基督长成的身量。”我们并不是依自己认为的理想信徒生命而行。传道人的目标是要行神的旨意，不是要大得使用，不是要赢得许多不信的人。他当然要合用，也当然要赢多人信主，但那不是他的目标。他的目标是遵行神的旨意。

在主的一生中，耶路撒冷是他在十架上成就天父旨意的顶峰。我们若未与他同往，就并未与他同行。主上耶路撒冷的路上，没有什么事物可以叫他灰心。在备受攻击的村镇，他没匆匆避过；在大受拥戴的地方，他也不会流连不去。不管人对他感恩或是忘恩，总不能叫他走向耶路撒冷的心意改变一丁点儿。

“仆人不能高过主人。”在往耶路撒冷的路上，我们也要遭遇同样的事。神的工作会透过我们彰显，有人得着祝福，一两个人会表示感激，其他的人可能会忘恩负义。可是，不要让任何事物使我们偏离上耶路撒冷的路。

“他们在那里钉他十字架。”这就是主到耶路撒冷所遭遇的，而这却开启我们得救的门。圣徒的终局不是钉十字架；凭神的恩典，他们的终局是荣耀的。在这当儿，我们口号是：也上耶路撒冷去。

祈祷◆主啊，我能够认识你是何等美好；我何其需要靠近你。当你成为我的生命时，我怎能颤抖！

September 23 The Missionary's Goal

“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem.” Luke 18:31

In the natural life our ambitions alter as we develop; in the Christian life the goal is given at the beginning, the beginning and the end are the same, viz., Our Lord Himself. We start with Christ and we end with Him – “until we all attain to the stature of the manhood of Christ Jesus,” not to our idea of what the Christian life should be. The aim of the missionary is to do God's will, not to be useful, not to win the heathen; he is useful and he does win the heathen, but that is not his aim. His aim is to do the will of his Lord.

In Our Lord's life Jerusalem was the place where He reached the climax of His Father's will upon the Cross, and unless we go with Jesus there we will have no companionship with Him. Nothing ever discouraged Our Lord on His way to Jerusalem. He never hurried through certain villages where He was persecuted, or lingered in others where He was blessed. Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned Our Lord one hair's breadth away from His purpose to go up to Jerusalem.

“The disciple is not above his Master.” The same things will happen to us on our way to our Jerusalem. There will be the works of God manifested through us, people will get blessed, and one or two will show gratitude and the rest will show gross ingratitude, but nothing must deflect us from going up to our Jerusalem.

“There they crucified Him.” That is what happened when Our Lord reached Jerusalem, and that happening is the gateway to our salvation. The saints do not end in crucifixion: by the Lord's grace they end in glory. In the meantime our watchword is – I, too, go up to Jerusalem.

所以你在祭坛上献礼物的时候，若想起弟兄向你怀怨，就把礼物留在坛前，先去同弟兄和好，然后来献礼物。（太五23-24）

我们很容易幻想自己会达到一个完全准备妥当的地步，但其实准备功夫不是突然间可以作成，准备乃是一个不断持续的过程。陷进固有的经历中，是一种危险。我们要准备加上准备。“牺牲精神”对青年信徒来说，是很具吸引力。按人性论，唯一吸引我们向主耶稣的，就是那英雄气概。可是在主话的细察下，这热潮要受到考验。主说：“先去同弟兄和好。”“去”的准备，是先让神的话查验。单有英雄气概是不够的。圣灵要在你身上查出不合用于事奉的意向。这意向，除了神以外，没有人能查察出来。你有什么东西要向神隐藏？若有，就让神用他的光来搜查。若有罪，就要认罪，不要单单承认。不管是怎样卑躬，你愿意顺服主吗？

千万不可不顾良心的谴责。若神的灵叫你想起那事，那事就是重要的，是他所要查察的。你以往不断要找些大的事来放弃，神却要你注意些小事。因为在这小事的背后，正藏着顽梗的大本营：“我不肯放弃自己的主权。”若要作耶稣基督的门徒，神要你放弃的正是你的主权。

祈祷◆主啊，让今天充满了对你的赞美。愿你使我脱离各式各样的烦扰。为着我的思想能专注于你，我赞美你，但我仍渴望你的美善临到我身上。

September 24 The “Go” Of Preparation

“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there thou rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” Matthew 5:23, 2

It is easy to imagine that we will get to a place where we are complete and ready, but preparation is not suddenly accomplished, it is a process steadily maintained. It is dangerous to get into a settled state of experience. It is preparation and preparation.

The sense of sacrifice appeals readily to a young Christian. Humanly speaking, the one thing that attracts to Jesus Christ is our sense of the heroic, and the scrutiny of Our Lord's words suddenly brings this tide of enthusiasm to the test. “First be reconciled to thy brother.” The “go” of preparation is to let the word of God scrutinize. The sense of heroic sacrifice is not good enough. The thing the Holy Spirit is detecting in you is the disposition that will never work in His service. No one but God can detect that disposition in you. Have you anything to hide from God? If you have, then let God search you with His light. If there is sin, confess it, not admit it. Are you willing to obey your Lord and Master whatever the humiliation to your right to yourself may be?

Never discard a conviction. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to have brought it to your mind, it is that thing He is detecting. You were looking for a great thing to give up. God is telling you of some tiny thing; but at the back of it there lies the central citadel of obstinacy: I will not give up my right to myself – the thing God intends you to give up if ever you are going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

有人强逼你走一里路，你就同他走二里。（太五41）

除非主在我们身上行超然的工作，否则他所要求的那种是不可能的。主耶稣要求门徒在遇到暴虐不平时，不可有丝毫的怨恨，即使藏在内心也不可。无论怎样的热诚，也受不住主耶稣加在工人身上的考验。只有一件事可以，就是与他有密切的关系，经历过他洁净的磨坊，以致只有一个心志留存－－“我在此任神差派往何方。”别的东西都可以消失，但与主的关系绝对不可。

登山宝训不是一套理想。它说明了我内心要发生的事：就是当主改变我，把他自己的性情放在我里面时所要成就的光景。只有耶稣基督才能达成登山宝训。我们若要做主的门徒，就必须循超然的途径；若死持作门徒的存心，就必不能作门徒。“我拣选了你们。”这是神恩典的开始。这个催迫是我们无法逃避的，我们可以不听命，但我们断不能产生这个催迫。神超然的恩典是图画的主笔，我们无法追溯他工作的起源。他塑造门徒的工作是超然的，并不建基于天然的力量。神不会叫我们做人力容易达成的事，他只叫我们做那些凭恩典才能应付裕如的事，而十字架往往就循这个途径而来。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着那环绕我、使我犹如在天堂的圣徒祈祷，我赞美你。为着那透过你的救赎而临到我的无言恩典，我称颂你。

September 25 The “Go” Of Relationship

“And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.” Matthew 5:41

The summing up of Our Lord's teaching is that the relationship which He demands is an impossible one unless He has done a supernatural work in us. Jesus Christ demands that there be not the slightest trace of resentment even suppressed in the heart of a disciple when he meets with tyranny and injustice. No enthusiasm will ever stand the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His worker, only one thing will, and that is a personal relationship to Himself which has gone through the mill of His spring-cleaning until there is only one purpose left – I am here for God to send me where He will. Every other thing may get fogged, but this relationship to Jesus Christ must never be.

The Sermon on the Mount is not an ideal, it is a statement of what will happen in me when Jesus Christ has altered my disposition and put in a disposition like His own. Jesus Christ is the only One Who can fulfil the Sermon on the Mount.

If we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must be made disciples supernaturally; as long as we have the dead set purpose of being disciples we may be sure we are not. “I have chosen you.” That is the way the grace of God begins. It is a constraint we cannot get away from; we can disobey it, but we cannot generate it. The drawing is done by the supernatural grace of God, and we never can trace where His work begins. Our Lord's making of a disciple is supernatural. He does not build on any natural capacity at all. God does not ask us to do the things that are easy to us naturally; He only asks us to do the things we are perfectly fitted to do by His grace, and the cross will come along that line always.

若想起弟兄向你怀怨……（太五23）

当你来到祭坛前，想起弟兄向你怀怨，若这不是病态地、敏感地翻出来的事，而是“想起”，那就是说神的灵在提醒你，那么就要“先去同弟兄和好，然后来献礼物”。圣灵要彻底教导你的时候，千万不要拒绝他在你里面那种极度的敏感性。

“先去同弟兄和好……”主的吩咐是简明的:“先和好。”从原路回去，依从祭坛所得的指示回去。对那向你怀怨的人，要有正确的态度，以致和解就像呼吸一样自然。耶稣并没有提到另外那个人，他只说－－你去。不必考虑自己的主权。圣徒的印记就是放弃自己的主权，顺服主耶稣。

“然后来献礼物。”过程很清楚。首先，是放下英雄气概；然后被圣灵敏锐的查察，在悔罪中停下来；接着向神的话顺服，对那怀怨的，在心志与心性上，建立无可指摘的态度；最后是快乐的、单纯的、无阻拦的向神献上礼物。

祈祷◆“我们的主为大，最有能力；他的智慧无法测度。”所有能力和智慧肯定是属于你，而我又肯定地渴望着你，并藉着你的恩典，叫你的道路能在我身上通行无阻。

September 26 The Unblameable Attitude

“If . . thou rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee. . . .” Matthew 5:23

If when you come to the altar, there you remember that your brother has anything against you, not – If you rake up something by a morbid sensitiveness, but – “If thou rememberest,” that is, if it is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God: “first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” Never object to the intense sensitiveness of the Spirit of God in you when He is educating you down to the scruple.

“First be reconciled to thy brother . . .” Our Lord’s direction is simple, “first be reconciled.” Go back the way you came, go the way indicated to you by the conviction given at the altar; have an attitude of mind and a temper of soul to the one who has something against you that makes reconciliation as natural as breathing. Jesus does not mention the other person, He says – you go. There is no question of your rights. The stamp of the saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus.

“And then come and offer thy gift.” The process is clearly marked. First, the heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, then the sudden checking by the sensitiveness of the Holy Spirit, and the stoppage at the point of conviction, then the way of obedience to the word of God, constructing an unblameable attitude of mind and temper to the one with whom you have been in the wrong; then the glad, simple, unhindered offering of your gift to God.

你无论往那里去，我要跟从你。（路九57）

主叫这人极度的泄气，他用这个态度是因为他知道人心。我们会说：“多可惜，失去了得着那个人的机会！”“竟用北风把他冻结，叫他沮丧而回。”不必为你的主抱歉。主的话往往顶撞刺伤，知道无可再顶撞刺伤。主耶稣对那些至终摧毁人事奉神的东西，绝不怜惜呵护。主的回答不是顺口而出，乃是根据他对人内心的认识而说。若神的灵叫你想起主一句刺伤你的话，那么一定有什么东西，是主想戳伤至死地的。

第58节 这几句话，对那为悦己心而事奉主的人是当头棒喝。弃绝的要求是严峻的，最后只剩下我的主，我，和一个孤绝的盼望。“让那一百倍去或留，你的目标必须是我与你的关系，而我没有枕头的地方。”

第59节 这人不想令耶稣失望，也不想伤父亲的心。我们会把对家人敏感的忠诚，替代了对主耶稣的忠诚，主耶稣竟排在末位。在效忠的矛盾里，必须不惜代价顺服主。

第61节 有人说：“主，我要跟从你，但……”这人准备齐全了，却从不出发。他还有一两项保留。主耶稣肯定的呼召是没有话别的余地，因为话别往往出于不信者，而非信徒。神的呼召一来，就要出发，不可止步。

祈祷◆我们感谢你，因为在你里面没有永别。我们向你祈求，愿你的冠冕和印记临到我们每个人，直至我们能面对面地见你。

September 27 The “Go” Of Renunciation

“Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest.” Luke 9:57

Our Lord's attitude to this man is one of severe discouragement because He knew what was in man. We would have said – “Fancy losing the opportunity of winning that man!” Fancy bringing about him a north wind that froze him and “turned him away discouraged!” Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to hurt or offend. Jesus Christ has no tenderness whatever toward anything that is ultimately going to ruin a man in the service of God. Our Lord's answers are based not on caprice, but on a knowledge of what is in man. If the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you, you may be sure that there is something He wants to hurt to death.

V. 58. These words knock the heart out of serving Jesus Christ because it is pleasing to me. The rigour of rejection leaves nothing but my Lord, and myself, and a forlorn hope. “Let the hundredfold come or go, your lodestar must be your relationship to Me, and I have nowhere to lay My head.”

v. 59. This man did not want to disappoint Jesus, nor to hurt his father. We put sensitive loyalty to relatives in place of loyalty to Jesus Christ and Jesus has to take the last place. In a conflict of loyalty, obey Jesus Christ at all costs.

V. 61. The one who says – “Yes, Lord, but . . .” is the one who is fiercely ready, but never goes. This man had one or two reservations. The exacting call of Jesus Christ has no margin of good-byes, because good-bye, as it is often used, is pagan, not Christian. When once the call of God comes, begin to go and never stop going.

你还缺少一件，……你还要来跟从我。（可十21）

那年轻富有的官有股追求完美的热情，他一看见主耶稣，就想像他。主呼召门徒的时候，从不把个人的圣洁放在首位；他以自我主权的绝对降服、与他完全认同为先决条件－－这是一种不夹杂别的关系的关系。路加福音十四章26节与救恩成圣完全无关，这经文是论到与主无条件的认同。很少人真认识降服于主的绝对一“去”不回。

“耶稣看着他就爱他。”被耶稣的目光触及意味着永远脱离其他任何人或物。他曾否看着你？主的目光改变人、抓住人。你向神特别柔顺的时候，一定是曾经被主目光看过。你若刚硬坚持己意，自以为义，把过错归咎别人，就表示你天性中仍有大部分未经主目光的注视而改变。

“你还缺少一件……”在主看来，唯一“善美”之事，就是与他联合，没有别的事物在中间阻隔。“变卖你所有的……”我必须放下自己，直到只剩下一个意识。我必须彻底舍弃一切，不是为灵魂得救（只有一件事可以救人－－就是绝对仰望耶稣基督），乃是为跟从耶稣。“来跟从我。”这道路就是他当日所行的道路。

祈祷◆主啊，我完完全全地来到你面前。我感到自己全然地需要你，我只等候你向我说话，此外我还能向你说什么呢？正如沙漠的沙粒静卧在阳光之下，让我也在你面前坦然躺下。

September 28 The “Go” Of Unconditional Identification

“One thing thou lackest: . . come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” Mark 10:21

The rich young ruler had the master passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never puts personal holiness to the fore when He calls a disciple; He puts absolute annihilation of my right to myself and identification with Himself – a relationship with Himself in which there is no other relationship. Luke 14:26 has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification, but with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us know the absolute “go” of abandonment to Jesus.

“Then Jesus beholding him loved him.” The look of Jesus will mean a heart broken for ever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever looked at you? The look of Jesus transforms and transfixes. Where you are “soft” with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on your own way, certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, it is an indication that there are whole tracts of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.

“One thing thou lackest . . .” The only “good thing” from Jesus Christ's point of view is union with Himself and nothing in between.

“Sell whatsoever thou hast . .” I must reduce myself until I am a mere conscious man, I must fundamentally renounce possessions of all kinds, not to save my soul (only one thing saves a man – absolute reliance upon Jesus Christ) – but in order to follow Jesus. “Come, and follow Me.” And the road is the way He went.

我是不得已的，若不传福音，我就有祸了。（林前九16）

我们很容易忘记神那神秘超然的触摸。你若能清楚说明在哪里得到神怎样的呼召，我就怀疑你是否真有神的呼召。神的呼召不是这样来的，它比这更超然。一个人在一生中对这呼召的体认，可能是像霹雳雷响般骤至，也可以像黎明般逐渐破晓。但无论它怎样来，总随着超然的暗涌而来，不能以言辞来说明，而且总带着火光。这无法测度、超然、叫人惊愕、抓住你整个生命的呼召，随时都会突然临到－－“我拣选了你。”神的呼召与得救成圣没有关系。不是因为你成圣了，所以召你去传福音；传福音的呼召与此全然不同，保罗形容这是一件不得已的必然任务。

若你阻挡了神在你生命中超然的呼召，试查察一下，看看你哪一方面没有把神放在首位，只以自己事奉的见解，或性格的专长为首。保罗说：“若不传福音，我就有祸了。”他既已体认神的呼召，就专为此努力，心无旁骛。

人被神呼召，不必理会环境怎样不利，万事都要互相效力至终指向神的目标。你若顺服神的计划，他不但把你意识可及的生命，就是生命中你无法探测的深邃，都调协和谐起来。

祈祷◆愿今天充满了神的能力、声音和平安。我何其渴望在一切事物中认知到你那宽大的心！愿你保守我里面那种被呼召的感觉，历久弥新和充满活力。

September 29 The Consciousness Of The Call

“For necessity is laid upon me: yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” 1 Corinthians 9:16

We are apt to forget the mystical, supernatural touch of God. If you can tell where you got the call of God and all about it, I question whether you have ever had a call. The call of God does not come like that, it is much more supernatural. The realization of it in a man's life may come with a sudden thunder-clap or with a gradual dawning, but in whatever way it comes, it comes with the undercurrent of the supernatural, something that cannot be put into words, it is always accompanied with a glow. At any moment there may break the sudden consciousness of this incalculable, supernatural, surprising call that has taken hold of your life – “I have chosen you.” The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. It is not because you are sanctified that you are therefore called to preach the gospel; the call to preach the gospel is infinitely different. Paul describes it as a necessity laid upon him.

If you have been obliterating the great supernatural call of God in your life, take a review of your circumstances and see where God has not been first, but your ideas of service, or your temperamental abilities. Paul said – “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” He had realized the call of God, and there was no competitor for his strength.

If a man or woman is called of God, it does not matter how untoward circumstances are, every force that has been at work will tell for God's purpose in the end. If you agree with God's purpose He will bring not only your conscious life, but all the deeper regions of your life which you cannot get at, into harmony.

现在我为你们受苦，倒觉快乐，并且为基督的身体，就是为教会，要在我肉身上补满基督患难的缺欠。（西一24）

我们在自以为是的分别为圣上，自己制造出呼召来；但当我们与神的关系和谐无间，他就把一切挪开，把我们接驳到我们从未梦想过的东西。这过程痛苦得可怖，但就在金光闪耀的一瞬，却看出神的心意。就说：“我在这里，请差遣我。”

这呼召与个人成圣无关，乃是要我们成为破碎的饼、浇奠的酒。若拒绝神的挤压，酒永远不会成酒。但愿神用自己的指头，用特别的方法来使我成为擘开的饼、浇奠的酒就好了！但他往往用我们不喜欢的人，或用我们曾说死也不依顺的环境来做压器，于是，我们就抗拒了。我们千万不可自己挑选殉道的场景。若要成酒，就必须被压榨；葡萄是不能喝的，必须被挤压才能成酒。我不知道神用什么样的指头来挤压，而你就像弹子一般滚避开去。若神在你尚未成熟时压榨你，那酒就会苦涩得可怕。分别为圣的意思，就是天然生命的每一部分，被神破碎。在事奉中，有神自己的临在。我们若要在他手中成为擘开的饼，就要先与他配合。要与神有正确的关系，让他可以随意而行。这样你会发现，他要用你做出对其他儿女有益的饼和酒来。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你今天使我脱离慌张忙乱，让我保持平静和单纯属你。愿你使这个地方成为神的居所，以及人灵魂进入天堂的门槛。

September 30 The Commission Of The Call

“Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake.” Colossians 1:24

We make calls out of our own spiritual consecration, but when we get right with God He brushes all these aside, and rivets us with a pain that is terrific to one thing we never dreamed of, and for one radiant flashing moment we see what He is after, and we say – “Here am I, send me.”

This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. God can never make us wine if we object to the fingers He uses to crush us with. If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way! But when He uses someone whom we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, and makes those the crushers, we object. We must never choose the scene of our own martyrdom. If ever we are going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed; you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

I wonder what kind of finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you, and you have been like a marble and escaped? You are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you, the wine would have been remarkably bitter. To be a sacramental personality means that the elements of the natural life are presenced by God as they are broken providentially in His service. We have to be adjusted into God before we can be broken bread in His hands. Keep right with God and let Him do what He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

耶稣带着彼得、雅各、约翰暗暗地上了高山……(可九2)

我们都有过山上的经历－－从神的观点看事物，于是就想留在那里不再下来。可是，神绝不容许我们留在那里。属灵生命的考验，是看你下山以后的能力。若只有上山才有能力，那就有点不对劲了。在神的山上，固然好极了，但上山的目的，是叫人以后下来到被魔鬼辖制的人中间，把他们向上推。我们不是为山峰、晨曦、美景而造，那些只是感性的时刻。我们乃是为山谷而造，为那日常平凡的事而造，为要考验我们的能力。属灵的自私总是盼望可以重演山上的经历，以为只要留在山上，就可以说话生活如天使一般。其实，高峰的生活是例外的，在与神的相交中有它的作用；但必须当心，别让属灵的自私把高山的经历视作唯一去追求的东西。

我们常以为凡事都是为教导我们，但其实比教导更好的，就是使凡遭遇的变成我们的个性。山顶的经历不是要教导我们，乃是要塑造我们。“这事有什么用处？”这样问有很大的危险。属灵的事不是这样计算的。山顶上的经历是罕有的，是神为特别的目的而设的。

祈祷◆主啊，我最渴望的，是在你里面生根建造－－以神为中心，专注于神，热心于神和爱神。我的灵魂何等渴望认识你，并且得着平静。

October 1 The Sphere Of Exaltation

“Jesus leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves.” Mark 9:2

We have all had times on the mount, when we have seen things from God's standpoint and have wanted to stay there; but God will never allow us to stay there. The test of our spiritual life is the power to descend; if we have power to rise only, something is wrong. It is a great thing to be on the mount with God, but a man only gets there in order that afterwards he may get down among the devil-possessed and lift them up. We are not built for the mountains and the dawns and aesthetic affinities, those are for moments of inspiration, that is all. We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff we are in, and that is where we have to prove our mettle. Spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mount. We feel we could talk like angels and live like angels, if only we could stay on the mount. The times of exaltation are exceptional, they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware lest our spiritual selfishness wants to make them the only time.

We are apt to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching, it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz., into character. The mount is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a great snare in asking – What is the use of it? In spiritual matters we can never calculate on that line. The moments on the mountain tops are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God's purpose.

你若能作什么，求你怜悯我们，帮助我们。（可九22）

每次高峰经历之后，神会突然把我们带下山去，面对既不美丽，也不诗意，更无兴奋可言的现实。山峰的高度是以山谷中单调的生活来量度的，但正是这山谷的生活，才是荣耀神的生活。我们在山顶上看见神的荣耀，但却永不会在那里为荣耀他而活。在谦卑低微的境地中，才真正显露我们对神的价值，显出我们的忠贞。在英雄的高台上，多半人都可以大显身手，因为我们心中有自私的天性；但神却要我们处身在枯燥平凡的境地，要我们在山谷中，单凭与他的关系而活。彼得以为留在山上最好不过，可是主耶稣却把门徒从山上带下山谷，在那里，山上的异象才得以启露。

“你若能作什么……”在山谷的卑微中，才能把我们多疑的根拔掉。试回想你的经历，在你认识主耶稣是谁以前，你是一个奸狡的不信者。在山上的时候，你什么都相信，可是在山谷中面对现实时又如何呢？你大可以作见证，说成圣之道，可是对那如今令你屈辱的事，你如何处理？上一次你与神在山上，看见天上地下权柄都在耶稣手中；如今在卑下的山谷中，你有没有疑惑？

祈祷◆主啊，昔日我在你面前的生活，仿如四处漂流、黯淡无光，直至你在我里面出现。因着我相信你大能的救赎，我称颂你，可是，噢，能察觉你的感动竟然会带来如此的分别！

October 2 The Sphere Of Humiliation

“If Thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.” Mark 9:22

After every time of exaltation we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountain top is measured by the drab drudgery of the valley; but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mount, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the sphere of humiliation that we find our true worth to God, that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at the heroic pitch because of the natural selfishness of our hearts, but God wants us at the drab commonplace pitch, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship to Him. Peter thought it would be a fine thing for them to remain on the mount, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mount into the valley, the place where the meaning of the vision is explained.

“If Thou canst do any thing . . .” It takes the valley of humiliation to root the scepticism out of us. Look back at your own experience, and you will find that until you learned Who Jesus was, you were a cunning sceptic about His power. When you were on the mount, you could believe anything, but what about the time when you were up against facts in the valley? You may be able to give a testimony to sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you just now? The last time you were on the mount with God, you saw that all power in heaven and in earth belonged to Jesus – will you be sceptical now in the valley of humiliation?

非用祷告禁食，这一类的鬼总不能出来。（可九29）

“我们为什么不能赶他出去呢？”这问题的答案在于人与主耶稣的关系。只有集中在主身上，加倍的仰望主，才能把这类鬼赶出去。若不集中靠神的能力去作神的工，只靠自己的主意，就变得无能，像昔日门徒一样。我们热心为他作工，却又不认识他，只会给神带来羞辱。

当你面临一件困难的事，外表看来好像没有什么改变，可是你却晓得事情必得以解决，因为你专注在主耶稣身上。这就是你事奉的途径－－与主之间毫无阻隔。若有任何阻隔的话，就必须挪开，不是因恼怒而置之不理，也不是越过它，而是面对它，把它直接带到主耶稣面前。那样，这件事和所有与此相关的，都会荣耀神；你甚至诧异莫名，直到面对面见主那一天才会完全明白。

我们要像鹰一般展翅上腾，但必须知道如何降落。圣徒的能力，就是能降落，能在平地上生活。保罗说：“我靠着那加给我力量的，凡事都能作。”他所指的事，多半是低贱的事，我们大可拒绝降卑，说：“谢了，我还是喜欢与神在山顶上。”主耶稣是真实的，我能否在这亮光中面对现实？还是让事情完全抹煞了我对他的信心，以致陷在恐慌中？

祈祷◆主啊，将我高举至你那里，以致你救恩那丰富和充满光辉的喜乐，能为着你的荣耀而面临我和照亮我。愿你使我与你之间的祈祷保持畅通。

October 3 The Sphere Of Ministration

“This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” Mark 9:29

“Why could not we cast him out?” The answer lies in a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. This kind can come forth by nothing but by concentration and redoubled concentration on Him. We can ever remain powerless, as were the disciples, by trying to do God's work not in concentration on His power, but by ideas drawn from our own temperament. We slander God by our very eagerness to work for Him without knowing Him.

You are brought face to face with a difficult case and nothing happens externally, and yet you know that emancipation will be given because you are concentrated on Jesus Christ. This is your line of service – to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it in irritation, or by mounting up, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ, then that very thing, and all you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way you will never know till you see Him face to face.

We must be able to mount up with wings as eagles; but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and the living down. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” said Paul, and the things he referred to were mostly humiliating things. It is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say – “No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountain top with God.” Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they are efface altogether my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?

蒙召作圣徒。（林前一2）

为你所看见而未达成的一切感谢神。你见到异象，但其实你一点也未达那境地。我们往往在山谷中退后回头，但山谷却正是我们是否被选上的考验。我们未能接受打击，就是要实现异象必须有的打击。我们看见自己的缺欠，也看见神心目中要我们达到的，但我们到底愿不愿意有被神击打、塑造、使用的异象？神的熬炼，总是从平凡的方法，透过平凡的人而来的。

有时我们不晓得神的用意是什么；但到底我们的异象能否变作我们的个性，全在乎我们，不在乎神。若我们留恋山顶，活在异象的回忆中，那么在现实平凡的人生中，我们实一无用处。我们必须学习倚靠异象所见的去活，不是靠当时那种极乐，也不是靠刻意的默想神。要在异象的真光中活，直至把异象完全实现。所有训练都是朝这个方向走，要学习感谢神让我们知道他的要求。

在神说“做”的时候，那小小的“我”总是怏怏不乐。要把“我”在神的义怒下萎缩，神说：“我是自有永有的，我差遣你。”他必须作主。若知道神透察我们生活的每一洞口，那是何等的启迪哩！他像电光般把我们搜出来，没有谁像神那样认识人。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着昨天我能迅速认知你在我里面，我感谢你；求你帮助我今天在稳定和持续的祷告中，与你心意联合。

October 4 The Vision And The Verity

“Called to be saints.” 1 Corinthians 1:2

Thank God for the sight of all you have never yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not there yet by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the blows which must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to have the vision “batter'd to shape and use” by God? The batterings always come in commonplace ways and through commonplace people.

There are times when we do know what God's purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends upon us, not upon God. If we prefer to loll on the mount and live in the memory of the vision, we will be of no use actually in the ordinary stuff of which human life is made up. We have to learn to live in reliance on what we saw in the vision, not in ecstasies and conscious contemplation of God, but to live in actualities in the light of the vision until we get to the veritable reality. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making known His demands.

The little “I am” always sulks when God says do. Let the little “I am” be shrivelled up in God's indignation – “I AM THAT I AM hath sent thee.” He must dominate. Is it not penetrating to realize that God knows where we live, and the kennels we crawl into! He will hunt us up like a lightning flash. No human being knows human beings as God does.

这就如罪是从一人入了世界，死又是从罪来的，于是死就临到众人，因为众人都犯了罪。（罗五12）

圣经不是说神因一人的罪，就刑罚所有的人；圣经乃是说人的罪性－－我对自我主权的把持，是由一人进入人类。然而另一个人担负了人类的罪，把罪除掉（来九26），这是何其奥秘的启示哩。罪性并非指错失或道德的败落，而是自我实现的倾向－－我是自己的神。这倾向可以表现得很道德，也可以很不道德，但只有一个根基，就是对自我主权的把持。主耶稣不论碰到罪大恶极的人，还是正人君子，他均不理会前者道德的败落或后者道德的操守；他所注意的，是我们所看不见的－－人的意向。

罪是与生俱来的，是人无能为力的，但神藉着救赎对付了罪。神藉主耶稣的十字架拯救整个人类，使我们可以脱离那因罪而来的咒诅。神从不因人有遗传的罪根而定人的罪。定罪不是由于我生来承袭了罪，乃是因知道主耶稣来救赎我，而我仍拒绝他，那是我就要被定罪了。“光来到世间，世人……不爱光倒爱黑暗，定他们的罪就是在此。”

祈祷◆主啊，愿你今天将圣灵的直觉力和先天的灵感赐给我，让我可以在一切事情上识别你。愿你恩慈的同在和平安，充满这一天。

October 5 The Bias Of Degeneration

“Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Romans 5:12

The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man's sin; but that the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race by one man, and that another Man took on Him the sin of the human race and put it away (Heb. 9:26) – an infinitely profounder revelation. The disposition of sin is not immorality and wrong-doing, but the disposition of self-realization – I am my own god. This disposition may work out in decorous morality or in indecorous immorality, but it has the one basis, my claim to my right to myself. When Our Lord faced men with all the forces of evil in them, and men who were clean living and moral and up right, He did not pay any attention to the moral degradation of the one or to the moral attainment of the other; He looked at something we do not see, viz., the disposition.

Sin is a thing I am born with and I cannot touch it; God touches sin in Redemption. In the Cross of Jesus Christ God redeemed the whole human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a man responsible for having the heredity of sin. The condemnation is not that I am born with a heredity of sin, but if when I realize Jesus Christ came to deliver me from it, I refuse to let Him do so, from that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “And this is the judgment” (the critical moment), “that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light.”

神……乐意将他儿子启示在我心里。（加一15-16）

主耶稣若要把我重生过来，要面对什么困难呢？我承袭的罪性，是我无能为力的；我并不圣洁，自己也不可能圣洁。若主耶稣所能作的，只是告诉我要圣洁，他的教训只会带来绝望；但主耶稣若是生命的再造者，能把自己圣洁的遗传放进人里面，我便可以明白要圣洁是什么意思。救赎就是主耶稣把自己的性情传袭到任何人身上，而他所设的标准，就是根据他的教训，为放进去的生命而设的。我在道德方面能作的，就是承认神在十字架上对罪的判定。

新约对重生的教训，就是当人深深感到属灵的需要，神就把圣灵放进他的灵里去，他的灵就被神儿子的灵所感动－－“真等到基督成形在你们心里”。救赎的道德神迹，就是神把一个新性情放在我里面，以致我能活出全新的生命来。当我来到自己欠缺的极限，知道自己的有限时，耶稣说：“你有福了。”但要到达那境地，除非我先意识到自己的需要，否则，神不能把耶稣基督的性情放在我里面。正如罪性是因一人进入人类，同样，圣洁也藉另一个人进入。救赎就是透过主耶稣，把我从罪的传袭中救出来，领受一个无玷污的遗传，就是圣灵。

祈祷◆主啊，我的灵性－－或更准确地说，是我的思想领域－－仍是何等愚钝和模糊，以致琐碎的事情占据了庞大的范围，却将生命中那些重要的问题挤掉。求你拯救的大能释放我。

October 6 The Bent Of Regeneration

“When it pleased God . . to reveal His Son in me.” Galatians 1:15, 16

If Jesus Christ is to regenerate me, what is the problem He is up against? I have a heredity I had no say in; I am not holy, nor likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is to tell me I must be holy, His teaching plants despair. But if Jesus Christ is a Regenerator, One Who can put into me His own heredity of holiness, then I begin to see what He is driving at when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into any man the hereditary disposition that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives are based on that disposition: His teaching is for the life He puts in. The moral transaction on my part is agreement with God’s verdict on sin in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a man is struck by a sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God, “until Christ be formed in you.” The moral miracle of Redemption is that God can put into me a new disposition whereby I can live a totally new life. When I reach the frontier of need and know my limitations, Jesus says – “Blessed are you.” But I have to get there. God cannot put into me, a responsible moral being, the disposition that was in Jesus Christ unless I am conscious I need it.

Just as the disposition of sin entered into the human race by one man, so the Holy Spirit entered the human race by another Man; and Redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin and through Jesus Christ can receive an unsullied heredity, viz., the Holy Spirit.

神使那无罪的，替我们成为罪，好叫我们在他里面成为神的义。（林后五21）

罪是一种根本的关系；不是指所犯的错事，而是错的本体，就是故意极力脱离神独立。基督教信仰是把一切建基在正视罪的本质。其他宗教对付许多罪行，圣经只对付一样罪。主耶稣首先面对的，就是罪的遗传。我们传福音若忽略这一点，就使福音失却了叫人扎心及爆炸性的信息。

圣经的启示不是耶稣怎样担负我们肉体上的罪，而是他担负了没有人可以触及的罪根。神叫自己的儿子成为罪，为叫罪人可以成为圣洁。在整部圣经中，我们看见主担当世人的罪，担在自己肩头上，亲自承担一切。“神使那无罪的，替我们成为罪。”正因他这样做，就为全人类建立了救赎的根基。主耶稣恢复了人类原来的地位，把他们放在神本来计划的地位上。任何人都可以因主耶稣在十字架上成就的，与神连合。

人无法自救，救赎是出于神，并且已经完全成就。救赎与人的关系，在于人的反应。我们必须把救赎的启示，与个人生命中得救的经历清楚区别。

祈祷◆主啊，为着你今早赐给我的感动，我感谢你－－可是，我却是那么令人惊愕地毫无生气和毫不美丽！不过，这个对自己的认识，只表明当你不在我里面时我的生命境况。

October 7 Reconciliation

“For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

Sin is a fundamental relationship; it is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independence of God. The Christian religion bases everything on the positive, radical nature of sin. Other religions deal with sins; the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ faced in men was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the Gospel that the message of the Gospel has lost its sting and its blasting power.

The revelation of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took upon Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took upon Himself the heredity of sin which no man can touch. God made His own Son to be sin that He might make the sinner a saint. All through the Bible it is revealed that Our Lord bore the sin of the world by identification, not by sympathy. He deliberately took upon His own shoulders, and bore in His own Person, the whole massed sin of the human race – “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin,” and by so doing He put the whole human race on the basis of Redemption. Jesus Christ rehabilitated the human race; He put it back to where God designed it to be, and anyone can enter into union with God on the ground of what Our Lord has done on the Cross.

A man cannot redeem himself; Redemption is God's “bit,” it is absolutely finished and complete; its reference to individual men is a question of their individual action. A distinction must always be made between the revelation of Redemption and the conscious experience of salvation in a man's life.

到我这里来。（太十一28）

要我到耶稣那里去，岂非卑躬屈膝？试想想有什么事令我们不想到耶稣那里去。若想知道自己的真面目，可以用“到我这里来”这句话考一考自己。你若有任何不真诚，都会千方百计争辩，不肯到主那里去；你会逃避，不肯去；你宁可吃苦也不去；你宁可作任何事，也不愿走这最后一程自认完全无知的路－－“依我本相到主跟前”。只要你仍有一丁点儿属灵的自负，总会期望神叫你做大事，而他只叫你到他那里去。

“到我这里来。”听见这句话时，便知道你未去他那里以前，某些事情必然发生。圣灵会指示你所当作的，叫你从根本的问题上下斧，除掉那阻路的东西。你不去解决，就无法再前进。圣灵会指出死结所在，但他不能强行解开，他要你自己甘愿去解开。

多少时候，你来到神面前祈求，觉得这一次总可以成就了，可是每次都空手而回。其实神一直张开手等待你，要得着你，也要你得着他。想想主耶稣那无法淹没、无可抗拒、不厌其烦的忍耐－－“到我这里来”。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，诗人的话对我何其真实－－“我的性命几乎归于尘土。”我的灵魂铺满了尘土，主啊，求你按照你的话语激发我。言语藉着你的灵而得着生机，它所带来的生命将是何等完美！主啊，愿你现在便发声。

October 8 The Exclusiveness Of Christ

“Come unto Me.” Matthew 11:28

Is it not humiliating to be told that we must come to Jesus! Think of the things we will not come to Jesus Christ about. If you want to know how real you are, test yourself by these words – “Come unto Me.” In every degree in which you are not real, you will dispute rather than come, you will quibble rather than come, you will go through sorrow rather than come, you will do anything rather than come the last lap of unutterable foolishness – “Just as I am.” As long as you have the tiniest bit of spiritual impertinence, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do a big thing, and all He is telling you to do is to “come.”

“Come unto Me.” When you hear those words you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, anything at all that will put the axe at the root of the thing which is preventing you from getting through. You will never get further until you are willing to do that one thing. The Holy Spirit will locate the one impregnable thing in you, but He cannot budge it unless you are willing to let Him.

How often have you come to God with your requests and gone away with the feeling – Oh, well, I have done it this time! And yet you go away with nothing, whilst all the time God has stood with outstretched hands not only to take you, but for you to take Him. Think of the invincible, unconquerable, unwearying patience of Jesus – “Come unto Me.”

将肢体献给义作奴仆，以至于成圣。（罗六19）

我不能救自己，叫自己成圣，也不能赎罪；我不能救赎世界，把歪的弄直，把不纯的变为纯净，把不洁的变为圣洁。这完全是神至高无上的作为。我对主耶稣成就的一切，有没有信心呢？他成就完全的救恩，我有没有时刻谨记？最重要的不是作什么，而是相信。基督的救赎不是一个经验，乃是神透过基督成就的大作为，我要把信心建基其上。若我的信心寄托在自己的经历上，就产生最不合圣经的模式－－一个孤立的生命，因为我只注视自身的洁白。要提防那种不以主的救赎为根基的敬虔，这生命毫无用处，只是避世的退隐，对神无用处，对人也无裨益。要以主耶稣来衡量每一种经历。除非我们把所有事物建基在主的救赎上，否则一切所作的都不能讨神喜悦。

主耶稣的救赎必须在我的生活上产生实际自然的功效。每次我顺服，神就在我这一方，他的恩典与我天性的顺服就契合为一了。顺服就是把一切都投在主的救赎上，于是就立即得着神恩典的悦纳。

提防那些否定天然人性的敬虔自守，因这只是个假壳。要经常去到救赎的案前，问自己：在这件或那件事上，(在我身上的)救赎大工有被显明出来吗？

祈祷◆主啊，我来到你的面前，求你自己像一团火那样四面护卫我，而你的荣耀就在其中。这个祈求听起来全属自私，可是，我却不懂得用别的方法来表达。噢，主啊，你是最清楚知道的。

October 9 Pull Yourself Together

“Yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.” Romans 6:13-22

I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot atone for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I can not make right what is wrong, pure what is impure, holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Have I faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made a perfect Atonement, am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The great need is not to do things, but to believe things. The Redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith upon it. If I construct my faith on my experience, I produce that most unscriptural type, an isolated life, my eyes fixed on my own whiteness. Beware of the piety that has no pre-supposition in the Atonement of the Lord. It is of no use for anything but a sequestered life; it is useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every type of experience by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the pre-supposition of the Atonement.

The Atonement of Jesus has to work out in practical, unobtrusive ways in my life. Every time I obey, absolute Deity is on my side, so that the grace of God and natural obedience coincide. Obedience means that I have banked everything on the Atonement, and my obedience is met immediately by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.

Beware of the piety that denies the natural life, it is a fraud. Continually bring yourself to the bar of the Atonement – where is the discernment of the Atonement in this thing, and in that?

父啊，天地的主，我感谢你！因为你将这些事向聪明通达人就藏起来，向婴孩就显出来。（太十一25）

在属灵的关系上，没有渐长这回事；有就有，没有就是没有。神并不是愈来愈洗清我们的罪，而是我们若行在光中，一切罪就除掉了。问题是顺服与否，若顺服，那关系就随即完全了。只要一秒钟不顺服，黑暗与死亡就随即作工。

神所有的启示全都是隐密的，不能靠哲学或思想开启；只有靠顺服，才向我们开启。一顺服，亮光就来。不是牵肠挂肚地要进入真理，乃是要浸在真理中，好叫他能在你里面作工。要认识真理，就只有靠重生，而不是靠追寻。顺服神告诉你的事，下一步他就会向你显明。关于圣灵的工作，我们可以读万卷书，但只要有五分钟的完全顺服，事情就明朗如目光。“我想总有一天会明白的。”其实你如今就可以明白，不是靠研究，乃是靠顺服。一点点的顺服，就能打开天门，神深奥的真理就立即属于你了。你若尚未顺服神向你启示的真理，他不会再向你显示更多真理。要当心变得“聪明通达”。“人若立志遵着他的旨意行，就必晓得...”(约7:17)

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿我从肉体和心灵的各种污秽中自洁；除去属灵生命中所有的粗糙品质，以致我可以在满足的喜乐中，在你里面居住。

October 10 Whereby Shall I Know?

“I thank Thee, 0 Father . . . because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” Matthew 11:25

In spiritual relationship we do not grow step by step; we are either there or we are not. God does not cleanse us more and more from sin, but when we are in the light, walking in the light, we are cleansed from all sin. It is a question of obedience, and instantly the relationship is perfected. Turn away for one second out of obedience, and darkness and death are at work at once.

All God's revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God's truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. Obey God in the thing He shows you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. One reads tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when one five minutes of drastic obedience would make things as clear as a sunbeam. “I suppose I shall understand these things some day!” You can understand them now. It is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience, and heaven opens and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming “wise and prudent.”

听见拉撒路病了，就在所居之地，仍住了两天。（约十一6）

神有没有因为信任你，对你默不作声－－一个满有意义的沉默？神的沉默就是他的回答。试想在伯大尼那几天的死寂！在你生命中，有类似的日子吗？神能否这样信任你？还是你仍不断求取眼见的答复？要是你得不着那祝福就不肯前行，神也会赐下；但他若沉默，是表示要使你对他有更深切的认识。你是否因为神未明明地回答你而忧愁？你会发现神最亲密待你，就是完全的沉默，不是绝望的死寂，而是愉快对你，因为他看到你可以承受一个更大的启示。如果神对你沉默，要赞美他，他正带你进入他伟大的计划中。神何时彰显他的答复，在乎他的主权。时间对神不是什么一回事。你曾说：“我求饼，他却给石头。”其实他没有这样作，今日你要发现神赐给你的是生命的饼。

神的沉默有一奇妙之处，就是把他的安静传给你，使你变得完全的坚信－－“我知道神听了我。”他的沉默表示他听见了。若你一意要神答允赐福你的祷告，他是会成就的；可是他不会赐你沉默的恩典。若耶稣基督引导你明白祷告是为荣耀父神，那么，他就会给你一个先兆，表示他与你的亲密关系－－沉默。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿这刻你以同在的光辉和你靠近的感觉来施福予我。虽然我惟独信靠你，但仍渴求自觉地以你的同在为乐，愿你将它赐给我。

October 11 After God's Silence – What?

“When He had heard therefore that he was sick, He abode two days in the same place where he was.” John 11:6

Has God trusted you with a silence – a silence that is big with meaning? God's silences are His answers. Think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything analogous to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking for a visible answer? God will give you the blessings you ask if you will not go any further without them; but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into a marvellous understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? You will find that God has trusted you in the most intimate way possible, with an absolute silence, not of despair, but of pleasure, because He saw that you could stand a bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, praise Him, He is bringing you into the great run of His purposes. The manifestation of the answer in time is a matter of God's sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you said – “I asked God to give me bread, and He gave me a stone.” He did not, and to-day you find He gave you the bread of life.

A wonderful thing about God's silence is that the contagion of His stillness gets into you and you become perfectly confident – “I know God has heard me.” His silence is the proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will bless you in answer to prayer, He will do it, but He will never give you the grace of silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, He will give you the first sign of His intimacy – silence.

以诺与神同行。（创五24）

一个人属灵生命与个性的考验，不是在特殊情况下的表现，乃在平凡无奇的时日中所行所作。人的价值视乎他在隐藏时对普通事物所抱的态度（比较约一36）。要达致与神同步的境地，是一件痛苦的事，那是属灵上“第二阵风”的经历。学习与神同行，总有跟不上他步伐的困难；但一旦跟上了，所表现的唯一特质，就是神的生命。个人的生命在与神结合中隐藏了，所表现的只有神的步伐与能力。

与神步伐一致是不容易的，因为一开始与神同行，就会发现我们才走了三步，他已在老远了。他有他作事的方法，我们必须学习并接受操练，才能以他的方法作事。耶稣“不灰心，也不丧胆”，因为他从不以他个人的观点去行事，乃是以他父的观点，我们也要如此。属灵真理是在熏陶下学习的，而不是靠头脑的推理。神的灵改变我们看事物的态度，于是从来不可能的事，也变得可能了。与神同行，就是与神联合。要做到这个，需时甚久，但要持之以恒。不要因现在的痛苦而放弃，不久，你会得着新的异象与目标。

祈祷◆主啊，如此众多的活动，如此众多的事情，如此众多的人！愿你因你的荣耀，以宽大的心胸和美善的属性来赐福今天。

October 12 Getting Into God's Stride

“Enoch walked with God.” Genesis 5:24

The test of a man's religious life and character is not what he does in the exceptional moments of life, but what he does in the ordinary times, when there is nothing tremendous or exciting on. The worth of a man is revealed in his attitude to ordinary things when he is not before the footlights (cf. John 1:36). It is a painful business to get through into the stride of God, it means getting your second wind spiritually. In learning to walk with God there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride; but when we have got into it, the only characteristic that manifests itself is the life of God. The individual man is lost sight of in his personal union with God, and the stride and the power of God alone are manifested.

It is difficult to get into stride with God, because when we start walking with Him we find He has outstripped us before we have taken three steps. He has different ways of doing things, and we have to be trained and disciplined into His ways. It was said of Jesus – “He shall not fail nor be discouraged,” because He never worked from His own individual standpoint but always from the standpoint of His Father, and we have to learn to do the same. Spiritual truth is learned by atmosphere, not by intellectual reasoning. God's Spirit alters the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and things begin to be possible which never were possible before. Getting into the stride of God means nothing less than union with Himself. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don't give in because the pain is bad just now, get on with it, and before long you will find you have a new vision and a new purpose.

他出去到他弟兄那里，看他们的重担。（出二11）

摩西看见自己的同胞受欺压，深觉自己是他们的救星；于是按自己的义愤，伸手为他们伸冤。他为神的正义出手，神却容许人把他赶逐到绝境里去，要他在旷野牧羊四十年。时候满足，神显现告诉他去领百姓出来；摩西那时说：“我是什么人，竟能去？”摩西起初就知道自己是拯救百姓的那一位，但却先要经过神的训练。他的观点是没有错的，但在没有学会与神联合以前，他仍是未合用的工人。

我们看见神的异象，又清楚神的心意，于是着手去做；然后，是类似那四十年旷野的经历，似乎神完全不理这回事了。正当我们完全绝望，神的呼召又重新临到，我们就颤抖地说：“我是谁？”我们必须学习跨出第一大步－－“那自有永有的差遣你！”我们必须认识到凭个人的血气为神工作，是狂妄的表现；我们个人的特质，必须与神相交才能炽热起来（太三11）。我们往往着重个人对事物的看法，有异象就说：“这就是神要我做的。”但我们的步伐还未与神一致。若你正陷入失望的阶段，等着吧，辽远的拓展就在前头。

祈祷◆主啊，为着昨晚的睡眠，我感谢你；为着你既不打盹，也不睡眠，不论日夜都保护我们，我称颂你。

October 13 Individual Discouragement And Personal Enlargement

“Moses went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens.” Exodus 2:11

Moses saw the oppression of his people and felt certain that he was the one to deliver them, and in the righteous indignation of his own spirit he started to right their wrongs. After the first strike for God and for the right, God allowed Moses to be driven into blank discouragement, He sent him into the desert to feed sheep for forty years. At the end of that time, God appeared and told Moses to go and bring forth His people, and Moses said – “Who am I, that I should go?” In the beginning Moses realized that he was the man to deliver the people, but he had to be trained and disciplined by God first. He was right in the individual aspect, but he was not the man for the work until he had learned communion with God.

We may have the vision of God and a very clear understanding of what God wants, and we start to do the thing, then comes something equivalent to the forty years in the wilderness, as if God had ignored the whole thing, and when we are thoroughly discouraged God comes back and revives the call, and we get the quaver in and say – “Oh, who am I?” We have to learn the first great stride of God – “I AM THAT I AM hath sent thee.” We have to learn that our individual effort for God is an impertinence; our individuality is to be rendered incandescent by a personal relationship to God (see Matthew 3:17). We fix on the individual aspect of things; we have the vision – “This is what God wants me to do;” but we have not got into God's stride. If you are going through a time of discouragement, there is a big personal enlargement ahead.

耶稣进前来，对他们说：“天上地下所有的权柄都赐给我了。所以你们要去使万民作我的门徒，……。”（马太福音28：18-19）

差传的基础是主耶稣的主权，而不是外邦人的需要。我们很容易视主耶稣为我们事奉神的助手，而主其实是门徒绝对、至高无上的主人。祂不是说，我们若不去，外邦人就失丧了。祂只是说：“所以你们要去，使万民作我的门徒。 ”依从我至高的权柄，去吧；因着在我里面活生生的经历，去教导并传扬。

“十一个门徒往加利利去，到了耶稣约定的山上。（马太福音28:16）”我若要认识基督普世的主权，就必须亲自认识祂，知道怎样独自与祂相处。我必须用时间去敬拜我所佩戴的名，就是基督。“到我这里来。（马太福音11：28）”——那就是见主耶稣的地方。你劳苦担重担吗？多少传道人正是如此。主宣告祂对整个世界的主权，我们却看为次要，但这是主对门徒亲口说的话。

“所以你们要去…… ”“去”的意思是“活出来”。使徒行传1：8“但圣灵降临在你们身上，你们就必得着能力，并要在耶路撒冷，犹太全地，和撒玛利亚，直到地极，作我的见证。”是描写怎样去。耶稣没有说去耶路撒冷、犹太、撒马利亚；但祂说：“作我的见证。”至于“去”的地方，祂会负责安排。

“你们若常在我里面，我的话也常在你们里面，……（约翰福音15:7）”这是保持我们个人生命活泼的途径。神放我们在什么地方都无关重要，因为祂自会安排。

“我却不以性命为念，也不看为宝贵，只要行完我的路程，成就我从主耶稣所领受的职事，证明　神恩惠的福音。(使徒行传20：24)”这就是我们工作的态度，直到死那一天。

October 14 The Key To The Missionary

“All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” Matthew 28:18-20

The basis of missionary appeals is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the heathen. We are apt to look upon Our Lord as One Who assists us in our enterprises for God. Our Lord puts Himself as the absolute sovereign supreme Lord over His disciples. He does not say the heathen will be lost if we do not go; He simply says – “Go ye therefore and teach all nations.” Go on the revelation of My sovereignty; teach and preach out of a living experience of Me.

“Then the eleven disciples went . . unto a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.” v. 16. If I want to know the universal sovereignty of Christ, I must know Him for myself, and how to get alone with Him; I must take time to worship the Being Whose Name I bear. “Come unto Me” – that is the place to meet Jesus. Are you weary and heavy laden? How many missionaries are! We banish those marvellous words of the universal Sovereign of the world to the threshold of an after-meeting; they are the words of Jesus to His disciples.

“Go ye therefore. . . .” Go simply means live. Acts 1:8 is the description of how to go. Jesus did not say – Go into Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, but, “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me” in all these places. He undertakes to establish the goings.

“If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you. . . ” – that is the way to keep going in our personal lives. Where we are placed is a matter of indifference; God engineers the goings.

“None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself . . .” That is how to keep going till we're gone.

祂为我们的罪作了挽回祭，不是单为我们的罪，也是为普天下人的罪。（约翰一书2：2）

宣道信息的中心，就是耶稣基督作了挽回祭。试拿基督任何其他方面的工作看——医治、拯救、成圣；这些都不是无限的。“神的羔羊，除去世人罪孽的。（约翰福音1：29）”才是无限的。宣道的信息就是耶稣基督为普天下人的罪作了挽回祭，宣道士也就是被这一个启示充满的。

宣道信心的中心，不是耶稣基督的仁慈和良善，也不是祂彰显了父神；而是基督把我们从罪中释放，那是最无限的重点，就是祂为我们的罪作了挽回祭。宣道信息不是爱国主义，不是单为某国或某人，乃是为整个世界的。圣灵进到我里面，并不投我的喜好，祂来是要带我与主耶稣联合。

宣道士是与他的主联合，他传扬的不是自己的观点，而是神的羔羊。要归属于一个宣传“主为我们作过什么”的集团、要成为一个热衷于神迹治病或成圣或灵洗的份子较容易。可是，保罗并不是说：“我若不传主为我所作的，我就有祸了。”他乃是说：“若不传福音，我便有祸了。（哥林多前书9：16）”，“神的羔羊，除去世人罪孽的。（约翰福音1：29）”这就是福音。

October 15 The Key To The Missionary Message

“And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:2

The key to the missionary message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus. Take any phase of Christ's work – the healing phase, the saving and sanctifying phase; there is nothing limitless about those. “The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world! ” – that is limitless. The missionary message is the limitless significance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is one who is soaked in that revelation.

The key to the missionary message is the remissionary aspect of Christ's life, not His kindness and His goodness, and His revealing of the Fatherhood of God; the great limitless significance is that He is the propitiation for our sins. The missionary message is not patriotic, it is irrespective of nations and of individuals, it is for the whole world. When the Holy Ghost comes in He does not consider my predilections, He brings me into union with the Lord Jesus.

A missionary is one who is wedded to the charter of his Lord and Master, he has not to proclaim his own point of view, but to proclaim the Lamb of God. It is easier to belong to a coterie which tells what Jesus Christ has done for me, easier to become a devotee to Divine healing, or to a special type of sanctification, or to the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Paul did not say – “Woe is unto me, if I do not preach what Christ has done for me,” but – “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel.” This is the Gospel – “The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!”

所以，你们当求庄稼的主打发工人出去收他的庄稼。（马太福音9：38）

宣道的钥匙在神手中，这钥匙是祷告，不是工作，更不是今天一般人以为的“工作”，因为这些可能叫人逃避，不以神为中心。宣道的钥匙不是一般常理、医疗、文化、教育，甚至不是布道工作。钥匙乃是祷告。“你们当求庄稼的主”依人来看，祷告是不切实际的，是无稽的；从常理角度来看，祷告是愚蠢的。

在主耶稣眼中，没有国族，只有全世界。我们有多少人祷告时，没有理会人，只专注于耶稣基督？因苦知罪而生的庄稼属于祂，这庄稼正是我们要求工人去收割的。四周熟透的庄稼等着收割，我们却只顾从事许多忙碌的活动，一个也不收割，在虚耗精力的事工上浪费了主的时间。假如危难临到你父亲或兄弟，你会不会为主耶稣作收庄稼的人？“啊，我另有特别的事工要做！”没有一个信徒有特别的事工要作，信徒被召归于主，他不能高于主人，也不能指挥主人，自作主张。主并没有召我们做什么特别的工作，祂只召我们归祂。“求庄稼的主”这样，祂预备环境，打发你出去。

October 16 The Key To The Master's Orders

“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:38

The key to the missionary problem is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer not work, that is, not work as the word is popularly understood to-day because that may mean the evasion of concentration on God. The key to the missionary problem is not the key of common sense, nor the medical key, nor the key of civilization or education or even evangelization. The key is prayer. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest.” Naturally, prayer is not practical, it is absurd; we have to realize that prayer is stupid from the ordinary common-sense point of view.

There are no nations in Jesus Christ's outlook, but the world. How many of us pray with out respect of persons, and with respect to only one Person, Jesus Christ? He owns the harvest that is produced by distress and conviction of sin, and this is the harvest we have to pray that labourers may be thrust out to reap. We are taken up with active work while people all round are ripe to harvest, and we do not reap one of them, but waste our Lord's time in over-energized activities. Suppose the crisis comes in your father's life, in your brother’s life, are you there as a labourer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? “Oh, but I have a special work to do!” No Christian has a special work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ's own, one who is not above his Master, one who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls to no special work: He calls to Himself. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,” and He will engineer circumstances and thrust you out.

我实实在在地告诉你们，我所作的事，信我的人也要作；并且要作比这更大的事，因为我往父那里去。（约翰福音14：12）

祷告不是装备我们去做更大的事；祷告本身就是最大的事。我们往往视祷告为超然能力的操练，好预备我们做神的工。但按主的教训，祷告是救赎的神迹在我身上运行，以致神的大能可把这神迹成就在别人身上。果子若要存留，必须藉祷告，但得记着祷告是建基在救赎的苦痛上，而不是自我的痛苦。惟有小孩子的祷告才蒙应允，明哲人反得不着。

不管你在什么地方，祷告就是那要打的仗。不管神安排怎么样的环境，你的责任就是祷告。切勿这样想：“我在这岗位上一无用处。”因为你不守住岗位，那才真是一无用处。神不论加给你怎样的际遇，总要祷告，每时每刻向祂倾吐。“你们若奉我的名求什么，我必成就。”（约翰福音14:14）我们激奋时才肯祷告，这其实是最严重的属灵自私。我们要依着神的方向去做工，而祂说“要祷告”，“所以你们当求庄稼的主，打发工人出去收他的庄稼。”（马太福音9:38）

劳苦的工作，没有刺激兴奋可言；但惟有藉劳苦做工的人，理想才得以实现。同样，做工的信徒能使主的心意实现。你在祷告中劳苦，从神的角度看来，果效是不住实现的。将来当帕子揭开，知道不少灵魂因着你不住的顺服而得救，那是何等的惊喜。

October 17 Greater Works

“And greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father.” John 14:12

Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work. We think of prayer as a common-sense exercise of our higher powers in order to prepare us for God's work. In the teaching of Jesus Christ prayer is the working of the miracle of Redemption in me which produces the miracle of Redemption in others by the power of God. The way fruit remains is by prayer, but remember it is prayer based on the agony of Redemption, not on my agony. Only a child gets prayer answered; a wise man does not.

Prayer is the battle; it is a matter of indifference where you are. Whichever way God engineers circumstances, the duty is to pray. Never allow the thought – “I am of no use where I am;” because you certainly can be of no use where you are not. Wherever God has dumped you down in circumstances pray, ejaculate to Him all the time. “Whatsoever ye ask in My name, that will I do.” We won't pray unless we get thrills, that is the intensest form of spiritual selfishness. We have to labour along the line of God's direction, and He says pray. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest.”

There is nothing thrilling about a labouring man's work, but it is the labouring man who makes the conceptions of the genius possible; and it is the labouring saint who makes the conceptions of his Master possible. You labour at prayer and results happen all the time from His standpoint. What an astonishment it will be to find, when the veil is lifted, the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you had been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.

因他们是为主的名出外，对于外邦人一无所取。（约翰三书7节）

主曾告诉我们，怎样才是爱祂。“你爱我吗？（约翰福音21：15-17） ”“你喂养我的羊。（约翰福音21：15-17） ”——把你放在我对人的关怀里，而不是把我放在你对人的兴趣里。哥林多前书13：4-8节“爱是恒久忍耐，又有恩慈；爱是不嫉妒；爱是不自夸，不张狂，不作害羞的事，不求自己的益处，不轻易发怒，不计算人的恶，不喜欢不义，只喜欢真理；凡事包容，凡事相信，凡事盼望，凡事忍耐。爱是永不止息。 ”描述这爱的品质，是神自己的爱。我对主耶稣爱的考验，是在实际事情上，其他的不过是空口的卖弄爱情。

我对主耶稣的忠心，是圣灵在我心里做成超自然的救赎圣工，把神的爱浇灌在我心里。这爱在我与人接触时，就产生功效。虽然一切的常理都否定祂，说祂好像晨雾般虚渺，但我仍忠于祂的名。

传道者忠贞的要决，就是单归附主耶稣，不受任何人任何事的缠累，但又不是与外界隔绝。主不断与外界事物接触，祂的分别为圣，是在于内心朝向神。外表的隔绝，往往表示人里面暗暗地恋慕着表面上拒绝的东西。

传道者的忠贞，是要保持心灵单向主耶稣开敞。主所差派出去做工的人，均是平凡人，只是圣灵在他们里面加上专一不移的忠贞。

October 18 The Key To Missionary Devotion

“For His name's sake they went forth.” 3 John 7

Our Lord has told us how love to Him is to manifest itself. “Lovest thou Me?” “Feed My sheep” – identify yourself with My interests in other people, not, identify Me with your interests in other people. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 gives the character of this love, it is the love of God expressing itself. The test of my love for Jesus is the practical one, all the rest is sentimental jargon.

Loyalty to Jesus Christ is the supernatural work of Redemption wrought in me by the Holy Ghost Who sheds abroad the love of God in my heart, and that love works efficaciously through me in contact with everyone I meet. I remain loyal to His Name although every common-sense fact gives the lie to Him, and declares that He has no more power than a morning mist.

The key to missionary devotion means being attached to nothing and no one saving Our Lord Himself, not being detached from things externally. Our Lord was amazingly in and out among ordinary things; His detachment was on the inside towards God. External detachment is often an indication of a secret vital attachment to the things we keep away from externally.

The loyalty of a missionary is to keep his soul concentratedly open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The men and women Our Lord sends out on His enterprises are the ordinary human stuff, plus dominating devotion to Himself wrought by the Holy Ghost.

我的国不属这世界。 (约18:36)

如今主耶穌基督很大的敌人，是我们对实际事工的观念，它不从新约圣经而来，而是从这世界的系统而来，在支持各种活动上付出了无穷的精力，几乎没有了与神同在的个人关系。把重点放在了错误的事情上。耶穌说：“ 神的国来到不是眼所能见的。因为 神的国就在你们心里。”（路17:20-21）它是一个隐藏的、不明显的事物。一个活跃的基督徒工人经常活在商店的橱窗里。其实，只有内心的最深处才展现出生命的力量。

我们必须除去现在所处的宗教时代的精神灾祸，在主的生命里，并没有那种我们热崇的事工活动所出现的拥挤和匆促，作主门徒的要象他的主一样。耶穌基督的国度里最中心的事，是与他的个人关系，而不是对人的外在贡献。

这所圣经训练学院的力量，不在于实际的活动。它全部的力量在于这个事实：将你浸透在神的里面。你根本不知道神要如何安排你的环境，也不知道你要在国内或者国外遭遇怎样的压力，如果你浪费你的时间、精力在过于活跃的活动上，而不是沉浸在关于神的救赎的伟大基要真理上，当压力来时你就会被折断。但是，如果花时间沉浸在神的里面，切实地在神里面扎根，那么无论发生什么，你都将保持对他的忠诚。

October 19 The Unheeded Secret

“My kingdom is not of this world.” John 18:36

The great enemy to the Lord Jesus Christ in the present day is the conception of practical work that has not come from the New Testament, but from the systems of the world in which endless energy and activities are insisted upon, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, for lo the kingdom of God is within you,” a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives in the shop window. It is the innermost of the innermost that reveals the power of the life.

We have to get rid of the plague of the spirit of the religious age in which we live. In Our Lord's life there was none of the press and rush of tremendous activity that we regard so highly, and the disciple is to be as His Master. The central thing about the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship to Himself, not public usefulness to men.

It is not its practical activities that are the strength of this Bible Training College, its whole strength lies in the fact that here you are put into soak before God. You have no idea of where God is going to engineer your circumstances, no knowledge of what strain is going to be put on you either at home or abroad, and if you waste your time in over-active energies instead of getting into soak on the great fundamental truths of God's Redemption, you will snap when the strain comes; but if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in God on the unpractical line, you will remain true to Him what ever happens.

“ 神的旨意就是要你们成为圣洁。”帖前4：3

神是否愿意使我成圣并不是一个问题，而是这是我的心愿吗？我是否愿意让神将所有赎罪已经成功的事做在我的里面？我是否愿意让耶穌成为我的圣洁，让耶穌的生命在我的肉身里彰显？当心你会说：“噢，我渴望成圣。”其实，你并非如此，你要停止渴望，付出实际行动达到预定目标。“我两手空空。”要以绝对的信心接受耶稣基督成为你的圣洁，耶稣救赎的伟大奇跡将在你里面成为真实。耶穌所成就的一切,因着神充满爱的礼物白白的给了你。作为一个得救和得以成圣的灵魂，我的态度是完全谦卑的圣洁（并没有骄傲的圣洁这件事），这圣洁是基于痛苦难忍的悔改，及无法言说的羞愧和降卑；同时令人惊异地认识到，当我根本对他毫不在意时，神的爱将自己托付给我，他为我的得救和成圣完成了一切（参看罗5:8）。保罗说没有一件事“能叫我们与 神的爱隔绝；这爱是在我们的主基督耶穌里的。”（罗8:39）

成圣使我与耶穌基督合一，并在他里面与神合一，这只能藉由基督的赎罪才能做到。不要把效果当成原因。在我里面的效果是顺服、事奉和祷告，这是出于无法用言语表达的感谢和崇拜，为着因赎罪而在我里面做出的非凡的成圣。

October 20 Is God's Will My Will?

“This is the will of God, even your sanctification.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3

It is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me; is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me all that has been made possible by the Atonement? Am I willing to let Jesus be made sanctification to me, and to let the life of Jesus be manifested in my mortal flesh? Beware of saying – Oh, I am longing to be sanctified. You are not, stop longing and make it a matter of transaction – “Nothing in my hands I bring.” Receive Jesus Christ to be made sanctification to you in implicit faith, and the great marvel of the Atonement of Jesus will be made real in you. All that Jesus made possible is made mine by the free loving gift of God on the ground of what He performed, my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness), a holiness based on agonizing repentance and a sense of unspeakable shame and degradation; and also on the amazing realization that the love of God commended itself to me in that while I cared nothing about Him, He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification (see Rom. 5:8. R.V.). No wonder Paul says nothing is “able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God, and it is done only through the superb Atonement of Christ. Never put the effect as the cause. The effect in me is obedience and service and prayer, and is the out come of speechless thanks and adoration for the marvellous sanctification wrought out in me because of the Atonement.

“你们却要在至圣的真道上造就自己。”犹 20

我们的主既没有冲动的本性，也不是冷血无情，他有一种镇定的力量永远不会陷入恐慌。我们大多数人是按着自己性情的方式来过基督徒的生活，而不是按着神的方式。冲动是天然生命的特性，但我们的主却总是不顾它，因为冲动会阻碍门徒生命的成长。留意神的灵如何阻止我们的冲动，他的阻止带来一种自觉愚蠢仓促，使我们立刻想要为自己辩护。对于一个孩子，冲动还可以接受，但对于一个大人，冲动就是灾难性的了。一个冲动的人常是一个耍小孩子脾气的人。冲动必须要藉着管教训练成为直觉。

作门徒完全建造在神超自然的恩典上。行走在水面对于凭着一股冲动的勇气是容易的，但行走在干地上作耶稣基督的门徒却是一件不同的事情。彼得在水面上向耶稣走去，但在地上却远远地跟着他。我们不需要神的恩典去面对危机，人的本性和骄傲已经足够了。我们可以高贵地面对压力，但每天二十四小时活出圣徒的生活，像一个门徒一样经受劳苦，过一个平凡、没人留意、被人忽视的生活，就一定需要神超自然的恩典。我们的天性想要为神做一件特别的事，但不需要这样。我们应当在平凡事上成为不平凡，在简陋的街道中，在卑劣的人群中成为圣洁，这不是五分钟学得会的功课。

October 21 Direction By Impulse

“Building up yourselves on your most holy faith.” Jude 20

There was nothing either of the nature of impulse or of cold-bloodedness about Our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the line of our temperament, not along the line of God. Impulse is a trait in natural life, but Our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God checks impulse, His checks bring a rush of self-conscious foolishness which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulse is all right in a child, but it is disastrous in a man or woman; an impulsive man is always a petted man. Impulse has to be trained into intuition by discipline.

Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on the water is easy to impulsive pluck, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is a different thing. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he followed Him afar off on the land. We do not need the grace of God to stand crises, human nature and pride are sufficient, we can face the strain magnificently; but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes.

圣灵与我们的心同证……（罗八16）

我们常存交易的心到神面前。我们顺服神吩咐之前，先要求印证。“为什么神不向我显示他自己？”他不能。不是他不肯，而是不能，因为你若不完全降服于神，你就成为神向你显示的拦阻。你一降服，他就即时为自己作见证；他不能向你见证，乃是向他在你里面的本性见证。若你先得着见证，那不过是情感作用。在你不再理论争辩的那一刻，神便见证他的作为，你会因自己的悖逆而诧异，因为你竟让神苦等。若你仍为神是否能救人脱罪的问题争辩的话，最好是让他去做，或干脆对他说：“你无此能力”。不要引用这人或那人的话，试试马太福音十一章28节的话－－“到我这里来。”你若劳苦担重担，来吧；你若自知有罪，求吧（路十一13）。

我们天然常理的抉择，往往来得很简单，很容易误认作圣灵的见证；可是，圣灵只对他的本性和救赎的工作见证，而不能向我们的推理见证。若一味要圣灵向我们的理性见证，难怪我们总在黑暗疑云中。把这些一概抛开，信靠神，他自然给我们见证。

祈祷◆主啊，我无助地来到你面前，却盼望因着你的灵的内住，我可以被你的爱、你神性无私的属性、你慈怜的忍耐所充满，不再被个人的因素所伤害。

October 22 The Witness Of The Spirit

“The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit. . .” Romans 8:16 (R.V.)

We are in danger of getting the barter spirit when we come to God, we want the witness before we have done what God tells us to do. “Why does not God reveal Himself to me?” He cannot, it is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the road as long as you won't abandon absolutely to Him. Immediately you do, God witnesses to Himself, He cannot witness to you, but He witnesses instantly to His own nature in you. If you had the witness before the reality, it would end in sentimental emotion. Immediately you transact on the Redemption, and stop the impertinence of debate, God gives on the witness. As soon as you abandon reasoning and argument, God witnesses to what He has done, and we are amazed at our impertinence in having kept Him waiting. If you are in debate as to whether God can deliver from sin, either let Him do it, or tell Him He cannot. Do not quote this and that person, try Matthew 11:28 – “Come unto Me.” Come, if you are weary and heavy laden; ask, if you know you are evil (Luke 11:13).

The Spirit of God witnesses to the Redemption of Our Lord, He does not witness to anything else; He cannot witness to our reason. The simplicity that comes from our natural common-sense decisions is apt to be mistaken for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of Redemption, never to our reason. If we try to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder we are in darkness and perplexity. Fling it all overboard, trust in Him, and He will give the witness.

“若有人在基督里，他就是新造的人，旧事已过，都变成新的了。”林后5:17

我们的主从不看护我们的成见，他只克服它们，清理它们。我们想像神对我们的特别成见有着特别的兴趣；我们很肯定神不会像对付其他人那样对付我们。“神一定会非常严厉的对付其他人，他当然知道我的成见是对的。”可是我们必须认识到神不但不站在我们的成见这边，反而有意地要将它们清扫出去。我们所受的道德教育的一部分是，让神的旨意除去我们的成见，并看看他怎么做。神毫不在意我们带给他什么。神只想要我们做一件事，就是无条件的降服。

当我们重生的时候，圣灵开始将他的新创造做在我们里面，必有一天旧秩序所遗留的会荡然无存，离开旧的仪式，离开旧的态度，“所有的都是属神的。”我们如何得到那没有情欲、没有自我利益、对别人的刺痛不敏感、有不轻易发怒的爱、不思想罪恶、常待人有恩慈的生命呢？唯一的办法是不让一点点旧生命留下来，而只单单完全地信靠神，以致我们不再想要神的祝福，只想要他自己。我们是否到达一个地步，神可以撤回他的祝福而不会影响我们对他的信靠？当一旦我们看到神在做工，我们就不会为所发生的事烦扰，因为我们正实际的信靠我们在天上的父，他是这世界无法看到的。

October 23 Not A Bit Of It!

“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Our Lord never nurses our prejudices, He mortifies them, runs clean athwart them. We imagine that God has a special interest in our particular prejudices; we are quite sure that God will never deal with us as He has to deal with other people. “God must deal with other people in a very stern way, but of course He knows that my prejudices are all right.” We have to learn – “Not a bit of it!” Instead of God being on the side of our prejudices, He is deliberately wiping them out. It is part of our moral education to have our prejudices run straight across by His providence, and to watch how He does it. God pays no respect to anything we bring to Him. There is only one thing God wants of us, and that is our unconditional surrender.

When we are born again, the Holy Spirit begins to work His new creation in us, and there will come a time when there is not a bit of the old order left, the old solemnity goes, the old attitude to things goes, and “all things are of God.” How are we going to get the life that has no lust, no self-interest, no sensitiveness to pokes, the love that is not provoked, that thinketh no evil, that is always kind? The only way is by allowing not a bit of the old life to be left; but only simple perfect trust in God, such trust that we no longer want God's blessings, but only want Himself. Have we come to the place where God can withdraw His blessings and it does not affect our trust in Him? When once we see God at work, we will never bother our heads about things that happen, because we are actually trusting in our Father in Heaven Whom the world cannot see.

“感谢 神！常率领我们在基督里夸胜。”林后2：14

对于一个为神工作的工人，他的观点不能是接近他所能达到的最高，而必须是最高。要当心只是费力地维持神的观点，要每天这样做，一点点地，不要考虑期限。没有任何外在的力量可以触到神的观点。

我们要维持的观点乃是，我们在这世上单单是为一个目的，即成为基督得胜的军队中的俘虏。我们不是在神的陈列室里，我们在世是要展示一件事－－我们的生命被耶稣基督绝对的俘虏。其他的观点是何等渺小－－“我在独自为耶稣争战，我要维持基督的事业，为他坚守岗位”。保罗说，我在胜利者的队伍里，无论遇到什么困难，我总是在得胜中。这个观念是否实际在我们里面运行呢？保罗喜乐的秘诀是神带领他，一个双手沾染了鲜血的反叛耶稣基督的人，成为了耶稣基督的俘虏，现在这就是他在世的全部目的。保罗的喜乐就是成为主的俘虏，对天地里的一切再没有其他的兴趣。对于一个基督徒来说，谈论如何得到胜利是一件羞耻的事。得胜者应当完全的得着我们，以致始终都是他的得胜，我们也藉着他成为了得胜者。

“因为我们在 神面前，无论在得救的人身上，或灭亡的人身上，都有基督馨香之气。”（15节）我们被耶稣的香气包围，无论我们走到哪里，都叫神舒畅，使人奇妙的恢复与神的关系。

October 24 The Viewpoint

“Now thanks be to God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 2:14

The viewpoint of a worker for God must not be as near the highest as he can get, it must be the highest. Be careful to maintain strenuously God's point of view, it has to be done every day, bit by bit; don't think on the finite. No outside power can touch the viewpoint.

The viewpoint to maintain is that we are here for one purpose only, viz., to be captives in the train of Christ's triumphs. We are not in God's showroom, we are here to exhibit one thing – the absolute captivity of our lives to Jesus Christ. How small the other points of view are – I am standing alone battling for Jesus; I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold this fort for Him. Paul says – I am in the train of a conqueror, and it does not matter what the difficulties are, I am always led in triumph. Is this idea being worked out practically in us? Paul's secret joy was that God took him, a red-handed rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive, and now that is all he is here for. Paul's joy was to be a captive of the Lord, he had no other interest in heaven or in earth. It is a shameful thing for a Christian to talk about getting the victory. The Victor ought to have got us so completely that it is His victory all the time, and we are more than conquerors through Him.

“For we are unto God a sweet saviour of Christ.” We are enwheeled with the odour of Jesus, and wherever we go we are a wonderful refreshment to God.

“向什么样的人，我就作什么样的人。无论如何总要救些人。”林前 9：22

一个基督徒工人要学会如何在卑贱的事中成为属神的高尚之人。千万不要用这个藉口－－如果我在其他地方就好了！所有属神的人都是平凡人，只是因神所给予他们的内容而成为特别。除非我们在心智和情感上都有了正确的内容，否则我们会对神毫无用处。我们不是选择作神的工人。许多人刻意地选择作神的工人，但在他们里面没有神全能的恩典，也没有他大能的话语。保罗的整个心、思想和灵魂都被耶稣基督降世的伟大使命所吸引，他从没有忘记这件事。我们也要自己面对这个中心的事实－－耶稣基督并他钉十字架。

“我已经拣选了你。”要在你的信条里牢记这伟大的话语。不是你得到了神，而是他得到了你。在这所学校里，神在做工，他改变人，他打碎人，他模造人，按照他所拣选的去做。我们不知道他为什么做这个，他只是为了一个唯一的目的－－就是他可以说，这是属于我的男人，这是属于我的女人。我们要在神的手里，好让他把人栽种在磐石上，就像栽种我们一样。

不要自己选择去做一个工人，但是当神呼召你时，如果你左推右搪，就有祸了。他会在你身上做些事情，是呼召你以前所未做过的；他会对付你，不像对其他人那样。让他按他的方式做吧。

October 25 The Eternal Crush Of Things

“I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” 1 Corinthians 9:22

A Christian worker has to learn how to be God's noble man or woman amid a crowd of ignoble things. Never make this plea – If only I were somewhere else! All God's men are ordinary men made extraordinary by the matter He has given them. Unless we have the right matter in our minds intellectually and in our hearts affectionately, we will be hustled out of usefulness to God. We are not workers for God by choice. Many people deliberately choose to be workers, but they have no matter in them of God's almighty grace, no matter of His mighty word. Paul's whole heart and mind and soul were taken up with the great matter of what Jesus Christ came to do, he never lost sight of that one thing. We have to face ourselves with the one central fact – Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

“I have chosen you.” Keep that note of greatness in your creed. It is not that you have got God but that He has got you. Here, in this College, God is at work, bending, breaking, moulding, doing just as He chooses. Why He is doing it, we do not know; He is doing it for one purpose only – that He may be able to say, This is My man, My woman. We have to be in God's hand so that He can plant men on the Rock as He has planted us.

Never choose to be a worker, but when God has put His call on you, woe be to you if you turn to the right hand or to the left. He will do with you what He never did with you before the call came; He will do with you what He is not doing with other people. Let Him have His way.

“父怎样差遣了我，我也照样差遣你们。”约 20：21

宣教士是被耶稣所差遣的人，正如耶稣被神差遣一样。最重要的不是人的需要，而是耶稣的命令。激励我们为神工作的根源是在后面，而不是在前面。今日的趋势是将激励放在前面，把每一件事带到我们面前，使其达到我们对胜利的看法。在新约里面，激励是放在我们后头，就是主耶稣。目标是向他真诚，实现他的事业。

一定不可以忽视个人对主耶稣和他的观点的忠诚。在宣教事业中，很大的危险是神的呼召被人的需要逐渐削弱，以致人的同情心绝对地压倒了被耶稣差遣的意义。需要是如此巨大，环境是如此令人困惑，以致我们心思里的所有力量都动摇和失败。我们忘记了在所有宣教事业背后最大的原因首先不是人的高尚，不是人的教育，也不是满足他们的需要；居首位的和最重要的是耶稣基督的命令－－“所以，你们要去，使万民作我的门徒。”（太28：19）

当回过头来看属神的男女的生平，趋向说－－“他们有何等奇妙机敏的智慧！他们如此完全地明白神的旨意！”其实这机敏的心思乃是神的心思，根本不是人的智慧。我们本当信任神的属天指引的时候，我们却信任人的智慧；神藉着小孩子一样的人来引导我们，他们是“愚拙”而完全信靠神的智慧和他超自然才能的人。

祈祷◆主啊，求你今天在我的祷告、敬拜和工作中，以你的灵重新膏抹我，以致在一切事情上，你都可以得居优越的位置。

October 26 What Is A Missionary?

“As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” John 20:21

A missionary is one sent by Jesus Christ as He was sent by God. The great dominant note is not the needs of men, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in work for God is behind, not before. The tendency to-day is to put the inspiration ahead, to sweep everything in front of us and bring it all out to our conception of success. In the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, the Lord Jesus. The ideal is to be true to Him, to carry out His enterprises.

Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and His point of view is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary enterprise the great danger is that God's call is effaced by the needs of the people until human sympathy absolutely overwhelms the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, the conditions so perplexing, that every power of mind falters and fails. We forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary enterprise is not first the elevation of the people, nor the education of the people, nor their needs; but first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ – “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.”

When looking back on the lives of men and women of God the tendency is to say – What wonderfully astute wisdom they had! How perfectly they understood all God wanted! The astute mind behind is the Mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the Divine guidance of God through childlike people who were foolish enough to trust God's wisdom and the supernatural equipment of God.

所以你们要去，使万民作我的门徒。（太二十八19）

耶稣基督不是说：“去拯救灵魂。”（灵魂的得救，是神超然的工作。）他乃是说：“去，使万民作我的门徒。”除非你自己先作门徒，否则无法叫人作门徒。昔日门徒第一次奉差遣出去，因为污鬼也服了他们，欢乐而回。耶稣就说：“不要因工作成功而欢欣；快乐最大的秘诀，是与我保持正确的关系。”宣教士最要紧的是对神的呼召效忠，知道他唯一的目标是使人作主的门徒。有时对灵魂的热切，不是由神而来，而是出于想人家跟从自己的观点。

宣教士的挑战，并不是人难以得救；不是退后的人难以回转；也不是人的冷漠、毫不动心；而是他与主耶稣基督的关系。“你们信我能作这事吗？”我们的主不断问这个问题，每遇一事，主都会这样问。我们唯一的大挑战是－－我认识我的复活主吗？我认识他内居的灵的大能吗？我是否因着对主耶稣话语的完全信靠，以致在神眼中成为智慧的，而在世界看来却是愚拙？还是我抛弃了那超然的地位，也就是神对宣教士唯一的呼召－－对主耶稣基督无限的信赖？我若用其他任何方法，就脱离了主所定下的方法了，主说：“天上地下所有的权柄都赐给我了，所以你们要去……”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，吸引我靠近你；愿我以你自己为荣，因为你将我这样的一个罪人，变成你有用的仆人。

October 27 The Method Of Missions

“Go ye therefore, and teach (disciple) all nations.” Matthew 28:19

Jesus Christ did not say – Go and save souls (the salvation of souls is the supernatural work of God), but – “Go and teach,” i.e., disciple, “all nations,” and you cannot make disciples unless you are a disciple yourself. When the disciples came back from their first mission they were filled with joy because the devils were subject to them, and Jesus said – Don't rejoice in successful service; the great secret of joy is that you are rightly related to Me. The great essential of the missionary is that he remains true to the call of God, and realizes that his one purpose is to disciple men and women to Jesus. There is a passion for souls that does not spring from God, but from the desire to make converts to our point of view.

The challenge to the missionary does not come on the line that people are difficult to get saved, that backsliders are difficult to reclaim, that there is a wadge of callous indifference; but along the line of his own personal relationship to Jesus Christ. “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” Our Lord puts that question steadily, it faces us in every individual case we meet. The one great challenge is – Do I know my Risen Lord? Do I know the power of His indwelling Spirit? Am I wise enough in God's sight, and foolish enough according to the world, to bank on what Jesus Christ has said, or am I abandoning the great supernatural position, which is the only call for a missionary, viz., boundless confidence in Christ Jesus? If I take up any other method I depart altogether from the methods laid down by Our Lord – “All power is given unto Me . . , therefore go ye.”

因为我们作仇敌的时候，且藉着神儿子的死，得与神和好，既已和好，就更要因他的生得救了。（罗五10）

我不是因我的信得救，我是因着信，知道自己得救。悔改不能救我；悔改只表示我体会神在基督耶稣里所成就的。危险的是把重点放在果效，而不放在原因上。因为我顺服，所以与神和好－－我的成圣。不！我与神和好，是因为在一切以先，基督死了。当我转向神，凭信心接纳神所启示我－－耶稣基督救赎的大能－－就立时进入与神和好的境地；又凭着神恩典超然的神迹，我立在称义的地位上。这不是因为我认罪，不是因为我悔改，而是因为主耶稣所成就的。神的灵带来一道透彻的光芒，于是我知道自己得救了，虽然我不知道这到底怎样发生的。

神的救赎并不建基于人的逻辑，乃建基于耶稣的舍身。我们得以重生，是因为主的救赎。有罪的人可以成为新造的人，不是由于他们悔改，不是由于他们相信，乃是由于神在主耶稣里奇妙的工作，这是一切经历之首。称义成圣的稳固保障，是神自己。我们不必去做什么，因为一切已在救赎中作成了。神奇妙的作为使超然的成为自然，我们可以认识主耶稣已成就的－－“成了”。

祈祷◆主啊，因着在你这位众光之父里，“没有改变，也没有转动的影儿”，我便欢喜快乐。愿你使我能辨别你的统治和管理。

October 28 Justification By Faith

“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Romans 5:10

I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing. It is not repentance that saves me, repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause. It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration. Never! I am put right with God because prior to all, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals I can accept, instantly the stupendous Atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God; and by the supernatural miracle of God's grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved.

The salvation of God does not stand on human logic, it stands on the sacrificial Death of Jesus. We can be born again because of the Atonement of Our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creatures, not by their repentance or their belief, but by the marvellous work of God in Christ Jesus which is prior to all experience. The impregnable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We have not to work out these things ourselves; they have been worked out by the Atonement. The supernatural becomes natural by the miracle of God; there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done – “It is finished.”

神使那无罪的，替我们成为罪，好叫我们在他里面成为神的义。（林后五21）

现代人以为耶稣为我们的罪死，是因为他同情我们。但新约的观点却不然，他并非因同情而背负我们的罪，他乃是因为与我们认同。神使他成为罪。他的死，叫我们得以除罪；而他的死，是顺服他父的旨意，而不是出于对我们的同情。我们蒙神悦纳，不是因为顺服，或答应放弃什么东西，乃是因为基督的死，除此别无他法。我们说耶稣基督来，是彰显神为父的地位，和他的恩慈；但新约却说：他来是担当世人的罪。他彰显父神，只是向那些认他为救主的人。主从来没有向世人说他自己就是彰显父神的那一位，他只说自己是绊脚石（约十五22-24）。约翰福音十四章第9节是对门徒说的。

新约从没有说基督为我死，所以我就免罚了。新约的教训是“他为万人死”（不是代替了我死），而我在他的死上与他合一，就从罪中得着释放，并承受了他的义。新约所教导的代替是有双重的意义：“神使那无罪的，替我们成为罪，好叫我们在他里面成为神的义。”除非我决意让基督成形在我里面，否则，基督就不是“替”我死了。

祈祷◆主啊，为着再次感受到与你之间有着喜乐的相交，我赞美你。愿你将平静的思想和坚定的决心赐给我。让我毫无怀疑和毫不偏斜地属于你。

October 29 Substitution

“He hath made Him to be sin for us . . . that we might be made the righteousness of God. . .” 2 Corinthians 5:21

The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy. The New Testament view is that He bore our sin not by sympathy, but by identification. He was made to be sin. Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the explanation of His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy with us. We are acceptable with God not because we have obeyed, or because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and in no other way. We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the Fatherhood of God, the loving-kindness of God; the New Testament says He came to bear away the sin of the world. The revelation of His Father is to those to whom He has been introduced as Saviour. Jesus Christ never spoke of Himself to the world as one Who revealed the Father, but as a stumbling block (see John 15:22- 24). John 14:9 was spoken to His disciples.

That Christ died for me, therefore I go scot free, is never taught in the New Testament. What is taught in the New Testament is that “He died for all” (not – He died my death), and that by identification with His death I can be freed from sin, and have imparted to me His very righteousness. The substitution taught in the New Testament is twofold: “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” It is not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me.

人非有信，就不能得神的喜悦。（来十一6）

反常理的信心，是宗教狂热；反信心的常理，是理性主义。信心的生活却将二者调和成正确的关系。常理不是信心，信心也非常理。二者代表了自然与超然的关系，直觉与启示的关系。耶稣基督所说的一切话，非从常理，乃从启示，在常理无效之际，他的话依然有效。信心必须受试验，然后这信心才真实。“我们知道万事都互相效力”，这样，无论什么事发生，神的炼金术总能把理想的信心变作实际。信心必须从个人开始，神整个计划就是使理想的信心，在他儿女身上实现。

日常生活中每一细节，都在启示神，叫我们可以在实际经历中，证实我们所信的。信心是一项极主动的原则，总把主耶稣放在首位－－“主啊，你这样说过（太六33），看来全不合理，但我要依你的话去做。”若要把头脑的信心变成个人产业，便时常都要经历争战，不是偶尔经历。神放我们在某一环境中，是要教育我们的信心；因为信心的本性是使目标成真。在我们认识耶稣之前，神只是一个抽象的概念，我们无法对祂有信心；但一旦听见耶稣说：“人看见了我，就看见了父。”我们就有了实际的东西，信心就毫无止境。信心就是透过耶稣基督之灵的能力，全人与神建立正确的关系。

祈祷◆但如今，“神啊，求你坚固我的手”－－主啊，请在这一刻，到我这里来，以你自己来充满我，那么，我便不会再有未满足的渴求。

October 30 Faith

“Without faith it is impossible to please Him.” Hebrews 11:6

Faith in antagonism to common sense is fanaticism, and common sense in antagonism to faith is rationalism. The life of faith brings the two into a right relation. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual; of impulse and inspiration. Nothing Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, it is revelation sense, and it reaches the shores where common sense fails. Faith must be tried before the reality of faith is actual. “We know that all things work together for good,” then no matter what happens, the alchemy of God's providence transfigures the ideal faith into actual reality. Faith always works on the personal line, the whole purpose of God being to see that the ideal faith is made real in His children.

For every detail of the common-sense life, there is a revelation fact of God whereby we can prove in practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle which always puts Jesus Christ first – Lord, Thou hast said so and so (e.g., Matthew 6:33), it looks mad, but I am going to venture on Thy word. To turn head faith into a personal possession is a fight always, not sometimes. God brings us into circumstances in order to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make its object real. Until we know Jesus, God is a mere abstraction, we can not have faith in Him; but immediately we hear Jesus say – “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,” we have something that is real, and faith is boundless. Faith is the whole man rightly related to God by the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

你们若有信心像一粒芥菜种（太十七20）

我们往往认为神会因我们的信心报答我们。初时可能是这样，但其实我们不能藉信心赚取什么。信心使我们与神的关系正确，以致神有机会作工。你若是圣徒，神往往要把你的经验底板抽去，好使你直接与他接触。神要你明白，这是信心的生命，而不是情感化地享受他祝福的生命。你早期的信心生命是狭窄的、紧张的，环绕着一小撮光明的经历，满了阳光与甜蜜，可是其中信心的成份，与常理的成份差不多同等。后来神把可见的祝福挪开，教你行信心的路，你如今在他手上更有价值，远超那些感觉喜乐、满有激动见证的日子。

信心必须经过试验。信心真正的考验，不是在于我们觉得难以信靠神，而是在于我们对神的性情必须有清楚的认识。信心的实现，必须经过一连串个别孤立的考验。不要把信心的试验与一般生活的操练混为一谈。许多我们成为信心的考验，不过是活在地上无法避免的事情。圣经中的信心，是在一切违反神自己的事上，还持定信神－－“不管神怎样做，我必定忠于神的本性。”“他虽然杀我，我仍要信靠他。”－－这是圣经中信心的最高表现。

祈祷◆主啊，今天早上，一堆微小但实际的事情挤进我的思想，我将它们直接带到你的面前。你以智慧说：“住了吧！静了吧！”愿我们那接受你吩咐的生命，承认你的平静是何等美好。

October 31 Discernment Of Faith

“Faith as a grain of mustard seed. . .” Matthew 17:20

We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, it may be so in the initial stages; but we do not earn anything by faith, faith brings us into right relationship with God and gives God His opportunity. God has frequently to knock the bottom board out of your experience if you are a saint in order to get you into contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of sentimental enjoyment of His blessings. Your earlier life of faith was narrow and intense, settled around a little sun-spot of experience that had as much of sense as of faith in it, full of light and sweetness; then God withdrew His conscious blessings in order to teach you to walk by faith. You are worth far more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight and thrilling testimony.

Faith by its very nature must be tried, and the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God's character has to be cleared in our own minds. Faith in its actual working out has to go through spells of unsyllabled isolation. Never confound the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, much that we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith in the Bible is faith in God against everything that contradicts Him – I will remain true to God's character whatever He may do. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” – this is the most sublime utterance of faith in the whole of the Bible.

岂不知……你们不是自己的人。（林前六19）

一个在耶稣基督受苦上有份的人，根本就没有所谓的私生活，亦即“世界里的世界”。神把圣徒的私生活打碎了，造成一条通道，是通往他自己的通道。除非人与主耶稣认同，否则没有人能受得住这个。我们成圣，不是为自己，乃是蒙召同得福音的好处；与我们无关的事发生，为要叫我们与神相交。所以，要让神旨意通行，否则你不但在他救赎世界的大工上没有丝毫用处，反成为阻碍。

神首先做的，是使我们面对最粗陋的现实，直至我们对任何发生在个人身上的事不再介怀，只要他救赎的目的达成。我们为何不可以经历一下心痛欲绝呢？通过这些门徒，神开启与他儿子相通的道路。多半人一受痛楚就仆倒；我们坐在神心意的门槛上，死在自怜自悯之中。信徒间所谓同情心，更加速了死亡率。神却不是这样，他拿着他儿子钉痕的手，说：“进来与我相交，起来发光。”若破碎的心灵能使神的旨意在世上成就，那么，要为他破碎你的心而感谢他。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你今天的话带着能力和恩慈。愿你引导我，与你进入内心隐密的相交，以致你可以正确地传达你自己。

November 1 Ye Are Not Your Own

“Know ye not that . . ye are not your own?” 1 Corinthians 6:19

There is no such thing as a private life – “a world within the world” – for a man or woman who is brought into fellowship with Jesus Christ's sufferings. God breaks up the private life of His saints, and makes it a thoroughfare for the world on the one hand and for Himself on the other. No human being can stand that unless he is identified with Jesus Christ. We are not sanctified for ourselves, we are called into the fellowship of the Gospel, and things happen which have nothing to do with us, God is getting us into fellowship with Himself. Let Him have His way, if you do not, instead of being of the slightest use to God in His Redemptive work in the world, you will be a hindrance and a clog.

The first thing God does with us is to get us based on rugged Reality until we do not care what becomes of us individually as long as He gets His way for the purpose of His Redemption. Why shouldn't we go through heartbreaks? Through those doorways God is opening up ways of fellowship with His Son. Most of us fall and collapse at the first grip of pain; we sit down on the threshold of God's purpose and die away of self-pity, and all so called Christian sympathy will aid us to our death bed. But God will not. He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, and says – “Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine.” If through a broken heart God can bring His purposes to pass in the world, then thank Him for breaking your heart.

你们若爱我，就必遵守我的命令。（约十四15）

我们的主从不坚持要人顺服他；他虽然强调什么是当行的，却从不运用手段强逼我们去行。我们顺服他必须出于灵里的合一。因此，主谈到作门徒时，总加上“若”字 – 你要是不想，可以不做。“若有人要跟从我，就当舍己。”你要放弃自己的主权，把它交给主。主并不是论及永世的地位，他乃是说在现今的景况中，怎样才可以成为他合用的器皿。正因如此，主的话听来是这样严厉（比较路十四26）。千万不要撇下说这话的那一位主，去解释经文。

主并没有给我什么规条，他把标准说得很清楚；我若是爱他，会毫不犹豫去遵行他的话。若我犹豫不行，就表明我另有所爱，而这一位与他争竞的，就是我自己。主耶稣不会推我顺服他，我必须自己顺服。一顺服，我就成就了在属灵领域中神所命定的。个人生命中也许充塞了无数琐事，根本无人留意的；可是若在这等无常的际遇中顺服主，这些事就成为我见神面的洞口。

当我与神面对面，会发现千万人因我的顺服而蒙福。人的心一旦顺服，神的救赎就必然产生创造力。我若顺服基督，神的救赎就会透过我涌流到别的生命上，因为在顺服的行动背后，是全能神的实体。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你探测我灵里最深藏的动机 – 圣灵就在此处为我们代求，并且看出我们未能表达的祷文。

November 2 Authority And Independence

“If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments.” John 14:15 (R.V.)

Our Lord never insists upon obedience; He tells us very emphatically what we ought to do, but He never takes means to make us do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit. That is why whenever Our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an IF – you do not need to unless you like. “If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself,” let him give up his right to himself to Me. Our Lord is not talking of eternal positions, but of being of value to Himself in this order of things, that is why He sounds so stern (cf. Luke 14:26). Never interpret these words apart from the One Who uttered them.

The Lord does not give me rules, He makes His standard very clear, and if my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without any hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love some one else in competition with Him, viz., myself. Jesus Christ will not help me to obey Him, I must obey Him; and when I do obey Him, I fulfil my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small petty incidents, altogether unnoticeable and mean; but if I obey Jesus Christ in the haphazard circumstances, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God, and when I stand face to face with God I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When once God's Redemption comes to the point of obedience in a human soul, it always creates. If I obey Jesus Christ, the Redemption of God will rush through me to other lives, because behind the deed of obedience is the Reality of Almighty God.

我已经与基督同钉十字架，现在活着的，不再是我，乃是基督在我里面活着。（加二20）

这句话的意思是我亲手折断自己的主权，完全降服于主耶稣至高的权威。没有人可以替我做，我必须自己去行。神可以在一年有三百六十五次叫我们面临作决定的时刻，可是他不能推我过去。我必须打破脱离神而独立的外壳，释放整个人格，与他合一；不再跟从自己的主意，完全效忠主耶稣。一旦如此，就无可争辩了。很少人真正知道什么叫效忠基督 – 就是“为我（主）的缘故。”有这个才有精忠的圣徒。

这破碎的关键到了没有？其他的事都不过是敬虔的伪壳。决定性的一点是 – 我肯不肯无条件投降，顺服基督？我必须打破实现自我的企图，这样，与主认同的超然事实就随即出现，圣灵的见证就明明可见 – “我已经与基督同钉十字架。”

我对基督教的热诚，就是特意把自己的主权舍弃，作耶稣基督的奴仆。若非如此，我尚未踏上成圣之路。

只要每年有一个学生被神呼召，就是以肯定这间神学院的存在价值。若只作为一间机构，这学院没有什么价值。它不是为学术研究，其最大的用意是让神可以随意得着人的生命。他可以随意使用我们吗？还是我们仍然让自我实现的念头占据？

祈祷◆主啊，因着我肉体的软弱，我与你的相交也显得枯燥乏味，然而我的心却是欣喜的，我的肉体亦将在盼望中安息。

November 3 A Bond-Slave Of Jesus

“I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Galatians 2:20

These words mean the breaking of my independence with my own hand and surrendering to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to the point three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot put me through it. It means breaking the husk of my individual independence of God, and the emancipating of my personality into oneness with Himself, not for my own ideas, but for absolute loyalty to Jesus. There is no possibility of dispute when once I am there. Very few of us know anything about loyalty to Christ – “For My sake.” It is that which makes the iron saint.

Has that break come? All the rest is pious fraud. The one point to decide is – Will I give up, will I surrender to Jesus Christ, and make no conditions whatever as to how the break comes? I must be broken from my self-realization, and immediately that point is reached, the reality of the supernatural identification takes place at once, and the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable – “I have been crucified with Christ.”

The passion of Christianity is that I deliberately sign away my own rights and become a bond-slave of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I do not begin to be a saint.

One student a year who hears God's call would be sufficient for God to have called this College into existence. This College as an organization is not worth anything, it is not academic; it is for nothing else but for God to help Himself to lives. Is He going to help Himself to us, or are we taken up with our conception of what we are going to be?

你们亲近神，神就必亲近你们。（雅四8）

我们必须让人有机会行神的真理，这责任是个人的，别人无法代行。他必须蓄意去行，但福音的资讯也该引导他的行动。不肯行动叫人瘫痪，使人依然故我；一有行动，就不同了。多少被神的灵感动的人，都因不肯行动而受阻挡。行动的那一刻，我就活了；其余的时候，我不过是存在的个体。以整个意志投入行动，就是我存在的个体。以整个意志投入行动，就是我真正活着的时候。

不要让神放在你心里的某一真理成为过去，无所行动。不单是肉身的行动，更是意志上的。不管用笔墨或用血，要把它记录下来。最柔弱的信徒若与耶稣基督相交，在他行动的那一刻，就得着释放，神的大能就属于他了。我们明白神的真理，承认自己的错，又重蹈覆辙；以后又再达到真理，但不久又故态复萌；这情况要到我们学会不应回头才停止下来。对救主的话要全无保留地接纳，与他来一次交易。他说“来”，就是交易的意思。“到我这里来。”我们往往非到最后也不肯“来”。其实过来人就知道，一“来”，神超然的生命就立刻进到他里面。世界、肉体、魔鬼对他的控制就立刻瘫痪，不是因为你的行动，而是因你的行动把你连接到神救赎的大能去。

祈祷◆主啊，我只有一件事情 – 就是有声和无声的需要你。“灵性贫乏”这词，正描述了我对自己的一点认识。我来到你面前，全然地需要你。

November 4 The Authority Of Reality

“Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.” James 4:8

It is essential to give people a chance of acting on the truth of God. The responsibility must be left with the individual, you cannot act for him, it must be his own deliberate act, but the evangelical message ought always to lead a man to act. The paralysis of refusing to act leaves a man exactly where he was before; when once he acts, he is never the same. It is the foolishness of it that stands in the way of hundreds who have been convicted by the Spirit of God. Immediately I precipitate myself over into an act, that second I live; all the rest is existence. The moments when I truly live are the moments when I act with my whole will.

Never allow a truth of God that is brought home to your soul to pass without acting on it, not necessarily physically, but in will. Record it, with ink or with blood. The feeblest saint who transacts business with Jesus Christ is emancipated the second he acts; all the almighty power of God is on his behalf. We come up to the truth of God, we confess we are wrong, but go back again; then we come up to it again, and go back; until we learn that we have no business to go back. We have to go clean over on some word of our redeeming Lord and transact business with Him. His word “come” means “transact.” “Come unto Me.” The last thing we do is to come; but everyone who does come knows that that second the supernatural rush of the life of God invades him instantly. The dominating power of the world, the flesh and the devil is paralysed, not by your act, but because your act has linked you on to God and His redemptive power.

倒要欢喜，因为你们是与基督一同受苦。（彼前四13）

如果你要蒙神使用，你便要经历许多事；不是为你本身而遭遇，乃是要把你造成神手中合用的器皿，使你明白别人心里的景况，以致不会因所遇见的感到诧异。“唉，我不能应付那个人。”为什么不能？神让你有足够的机会在他面前学习这功课，只是你故意避开，认为这样花时间太愚蠢了。

基督受的苦不是普通人的苦，他乃是按神的旨意受苦，不是照人的看法受苦。只有当我们与基督联合，才会明白神的用意。基督教文化的一部分，就是要明白神的目的。在教会历史中，可以见到人逃避与主一同受苦的倾向；人总是想用自己的捷径，以求完成神的使命。可是，神的道路却必定是那漫长受苦的路。

我们有分于基督的受苦吗？我们肯不肯让神把个人的野心除掉？肯不肯藉生命的改变，把个人的志向毁掉？这不是说可以完全明白为何神领我们这样走：这样会叫我们成为属灵的自大者。当时我们无法知道神的心意，我们会或多或少有点误解；过后却全恍然大悟，说：“看，神把我装备了，我竟然不察觉！”

祈祷◆主啊，愿那些在肉身上担负重压的人，能藉着你的支持来继续承担。愿你使他们能避免敌人的严苛对待，愿主的喜乐能奇妙地成为他们的力量。

November 5 Partakers Of His Sufferings

“Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings.” 1 Peter 4:13

If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a multitude of experiences that are not meant for you at all, they are meant to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what transpires in other souls so that you will never be surprised at what you come across. Oh, I can't deal with that person. Why not? God gave you ample opportunity to soak before Him on that line, and you barged off because it seemed stupid to spend time in that way.

The sufferings of Christ are not those of ordinary men. He suffered “according to the will of God,” not from the point of view we suffer from as individuals. It is only when we are related to Jesus Christ that we can understand what God is after in His dealings with us. It is part of Christian culture to know what God's aim is. In the history of the Christian Church the tendency has been to evade being identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ; men have sought to procure the carrying out of God's order by a short cut of their own. God's way is always the way of suffering, the way of the “long, long trail.”

Are we partakers of Christ's sufferings? Are we prepared for God to stamp our personal ambitions right out? Are we prepared for God to destroy by transfiguration our individual determinations? It will not mean that we know exactly why God is taking us that way, that would make us spiritual prigs. We never realize at the time what God is putting us through; we go through it more or less misunderstandingly; then we come to a luminous place, and say – “Why, God has girded me, though I did not know it!”

你信这话吗？（约十一26）

马大相信耶稣有能力行事；她相信他若在场，就可以医治她的弟弟。她也相信耶稣与神有特别的关系，他求神什么，神都成就。可是，她需要与耶稣有更亲密的个人关系。马大的信心是在未来才实现的；耶稣领她体验，直至信心成为她个人的财富，然后形成一个特有的产业 – “主啊，是的，我信你是基督……”

主对你是否也一样？主是否教导你，使你进入与他个人亲密的关系里？让神的问题追逼你 – “你信这话吗？”你怀疑的是什么？你所遭遇的，有否像马大的一样，把你带到一处，叫你的信仰快要变成个人的信仰？这个地步，非透过难处而产生个人问题，不能达致。

相信就是完全委身。在心智上委身，就是把一切与这委身无关的事摈弃；在信仰上委身，在道德上就绝不与其他信仰妥协；在特殊信仰上委身，就把灵交给耶稣基督，决志只让主居首位。当我面对主耶稣，他对我说：“你信这话吗？”我会发现信心像呼吸一样自然，而诧异以往为何愚昧地不信靠。

祈祷◆主啊，并非基于任何不配的感觉，或自觉不足，或是任何关乎自己的思想；我来，只因你是你。

November 6 Programme Of Belief

“Believest thou this?” John 11:26

Martha believed in the power at the disposal of Jesus Christ, she believed that if He had been present He could have healed her brother; she also believed that Jesus had a peculiar intimacy with God and that whatever He asked of God, God would do; but she needed a closer personal intimacy with Jesus. Martha's programme of belief had its fulfilment in the future; Jesus led her on until her belief became a personal possession, and then slowly emerged into a particular inheritance – “Yea, Lord, I believe that Thou art the Christ. . . ”

Is there something like that in the Lord's dealings with you? Is Jesus educating you into a personal intimacy with Himself? Let Him press home His question to you – “Believest thou this?” What is your ordeal of doubt? Have you come, like Martha, to some overwhelming passage in your circumstances where your programme of belief is about to emerge into a personal belief? This can never be until a personal need arises out of a personal problem.

To believe is to commit. In the programme of mental belief I commit myself, and abandon all that is not related to that commitment. In personal belief I commit myself morally to this way of confidence and refuse to compromise with any other; and in particular belief I commit myself spiritually to Jesus Christ, and determine in that thing to be dominated by the Lord alone.

When I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and He says to me – “Believest thou this?” I find that faith is as natural as breathing, and I am staggered that I was so stupid as not to trust Him before.

万事都互相效力，叫爱神的人得益处。（罗八28）

信徒的际遇是神所命定的，信徒生命中没有偶然那一回事。神在他的旨意中，预备一些你不明白的环境，但神的灵却明白。他把你带到某些地方，叫你遇到某些人，遭遇某些事，为使圣灵的代求透过你，行在某一道路上。切勿在环境中说：“我要自己作主；我要当心这个，小心那个。”一切环境都在神手中，所以不必为所处的环境满腹狐疑。你代求的责任，不是要千辛万苦，乃是用神给你日常的生活际遇，把神安排给你碰到的人带到他座前，让你里面的圣灵有机会为他们代求。这样，神就能透过圣徒得着整个世界。

我是否无目的，叫圣灵难以工作？我是否要代替圣灵来工作？在代求的事上，我要尽上人的本分，这是指我所处的环境，和我接触的人。我得把这有知觉的生命作圣灵的圣地，把不同的人带到神面前，让圣灵为他们代求。你的代求不能代替我的，我的代求也不能代替你的，只有圣灵在我们个别生命中代求。没有这代求，人的生命就必受到亏损。

祈祷◆主啊，我投向你，因着你大能的救赎，我以那伟大的胜利祷文来作祈祷：“我们若照他的旨意求什么，他就听我们，这是我们向他所存坦然无惧的心。”

November 7 The Undetected Sacredness Of Circumstances

“All things work together for good to them that love God.” Romans 8:28

The circumstances of a saint's life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you cannot understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God is bringing you into places and among people and into conditions in order that the intercession of the Spirit in you may take a particular line. Never put your hand in front of the circumstances and say – I am going to be my own providence here, I must watch this, and guard that. All your circumstances are in the hand of God, therefore never think it strange concerning the circumstances you are in. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to enter into the agony of intercession, but to utilize the common-sense circumstances God puts you in, and the common-sense people He puts you amongst by His providence, to bring them before God's throne and give the Spirit in you a chance to intercede for them. In this way God is going to sweep the whole world with His saints.

Am I making the Holy Spirit's work difficult by being indefinite, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession, and the human side is the circumstances I am in and the people I am in contact with. I have to keep my conscious life as a shrine of the Holy Ghost, then as I bring the different ones before God, the Holy Spirit makes intercession for them.

Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, but the Holy Ghost makes intercession in our particular lives, without which intercession someone will be impoverished.

我们本不晓得当怎样祷告，只是圣灵亲自用说不出来的叹息，替我们祷告。（罗八26）

我们都知道圣灵是祷告的能源，我们也知道什么叫做在圣灵里祷告；但我们不大领会圣灵在我们里面，说出我们所说不出来的祷告。当我们在神里面重生，圣灵就住进我们里面，为我们表达那些说不出来的话。圣灵在你里面，“照着神的旨意替圣徒祈求”。神鉴察你的心，不是要知道你表面的祷告是什么，乃是要知道圣灵的祷告。

神的灵需要信徒献上自己，作为代祷的圣地。“你们的身体是圣灵的殿。”耶稣基督洁净圣殿时，“不许人拿着器具从殿里经过”。神的灵不容你为自己的目的而使用身体。主耶稣毫不留情地赶出殿里作买卖的人，说：“我的殿必称为万国祷告的殿，你们倒使它成为贼窝了。”我们真体会身体是圣灵的殿吗？若然，就要小心为主保持不玷污。记得要把我们的生命，即使只是人格中的一小部分，看作圣灵的圣地。他会管理我们所不知的部分，至于可知觉的部分，就得当心，因为我们负责任。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你赐下圣灵的能力，让我更完全地敬拜你。让我的灵被你的圣灵耀目地贯注，因而满有能力，以致主耶稣和他的完全，可以在我这必死的身体得以彰显。

November 8 The Unrivalled Power Of Prayer

“We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Romans 8:26

We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; we know what it is to pray in the Spirit; but we do not so often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays in us prayers which we cannot utter. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.

“He,” the Spirit in you, “maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God,” and God searches your heart not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what is the prayer of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of God needs the nature of the believer as a shrine in which to offer His intercession. “Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.” When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, He “would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.” The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and said – “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

Have we recognized that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, though it is only a tiny bit of our personality, is to be regarded by us as a shrine of the Holy Ghost. He will look after the unconscious part that we know nothing of; but we must see that we guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.

现在我为你们受苦，倒觉欢乐，并且为基督的身体，就是为教会，要在我肉身上补满基督患难的缺欠。（西一24）

主的工人要作神圣的中间人，与主和他的救赎认同，以致主能不断地透过他创造新生命。不是工人自己的人格影响另一个人，乃是基督的真正同在，透过工人的生命流露出来。我们按新约的记载传扬主耶稣，并他受苦的历史事实，我们的话就变成神圣；神就使用这些话，因着他救赎的计划，在听者身上创造新生，否则，这些人就不能成为新造的人。若我们传的是救赎在人生命中的效用，而不是传扬有关主耶稣自己的启示，那么在听者身上成就的就不是新生命，只是精美的属灵教化而已。神的灵也不能为此作见证，因为这是属于另一领域的事。我们必须留意自己活在与神同心同工中，以致在我们传他的真理时，他能够在人心灵中，成就只有他才能够成就的事。

“多可爱的个性！”“这人真了不起！”“多超越的卓见！”神的福音在这些之上有什么出路？福音无法通过，因为这只能吸引人归我，而不能吸引人归他。人若以人格吸引人，人注目的就是他的人格；若他与主的品格合一，他的吸引力就在于主耶稣的能力。信徒的危机是在于荣耀人，耶稣却说我们要“举起”的是他。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你今天在大能和威严中，在更多方面得胜。保守我的心灵远离世俗化。

November 9 Sacramental Service

“Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. . . .” Colossians 1:24

The Christian worker has to be a sacramental “go-between,” to be so identified with his Lord and the reality of His Redemption that He can continually bring His creating life through him. It is not the strength of one man's personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through the elements of the worker's life. When we preach the historic facts of the life and death of Our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacramental, God uses them on the ground of His Redemption to create in those who listen that which is not created otherwise. If we preach the effects of Redemption in human life instead of the revelation regarding Jesus, the result in those who listen is not new birth, but refined spiritual culture, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in another domain. We have to see that we are in such living sympathy with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in souls the things which He alone can do.

What a wonderful personality! What a fascinating man! Such marvellous insight! What chance has the Gospel of God through all that? It cannot get through, because the line of attraction is always the line of appeal. If a man attracts by his personality, his appeal is along that line; if he is identified with his Lord's personality, then the appeal is along the line of what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men; Jesus says we are to lift Him up.

……在基督福音上和神同工……（帖三2，新译本）

人成圣以后，很难再明说自己的人生目标是什么，因为神已藉圣灵把你放在他的计划里。如今在他对全世界的计划中，他使用你，正如他在我们的救赎计划中，使用他的名字一样。你若为自己求大事 – 神呼召我做这个那个，就是限制了神对你的使用。只要你对自己的品性仍感关注，或仍抱个人的野心，就无法与神的心意认同。要与神合一，必须把自己的意念决绝地抛弃，让神带你到他对全世界的计划中。这样，你的行动既全在主里，就必无法明白所行的路。

人生的目标是属神的，不是属自己的，这一点我们必须学习。神按着他美好的旨意用我，要求我信赖他，不要说：“主啊，这事叫我心痛。”我这样说就成了一个阻碍。若不再对神说我要什么，他才能毫无阻隔地把所要的给我。他可以把我压碎，也可以叫我高升，他可以随己意而行。神只要求我对他完全信任，信任他和他的良善。自怜自悯出于魔鬼，我若走这条路，神就不能用我于全世界的计划里。我若活在一个“世界里的世界”，深怕走到外面会冻僵，神就永无法带我出来。

祈祷◆主啊，愿你发声，让我可以听见和明白。我的属灵生命似乎太表面化，能察觉到带有恩慈的能力是那么少；求你激励我，直至我与你一同发光。

November 10 Fellowship In The Gospel

“Fellow labourer in the gospel of Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 3:2

After sanctification it is difficult to state what your aim in life is, because God has taken you up into His purpose by the Holy Ghost; He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself – God has called me for this and that; you are putting a barrier to God's use of you. As long as you have a personal interest in your own character, or any set ambition, you cannot get through into identification with God's interests. You can only get there by losing for ever any idea of yourself and by letting God take you right out into His purpose for the world, and because your goings are of the Lord, you can never understand your ways.

I have to learn that the aim in life is God's, not mine. God is using me from His great personal standpoint, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him, and never say – Lord, this gives me such heart-ache. To talk in that way makes me a clog. When I stop telling God what I want, He can catch me up for what He wants without let or hindrance. He can crumple me up or exalt me, He can do anything He chooses. He simply asks me to have implicit faith in Himself and in His goodness. Self pity is of the devil, if I go off on that line I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. I have "a world within the world" in which I live, and God will never be able to get me outside it because I am afraid of being frost-bitten.

你带着你的儿子……（创二十二2）

神的命令是：现在就带去，不是等一会儿。我们辩论的伎俩是高超的，知道某件事是对的，但总设法找借口拖延，不立刻去做。要攀上神的高峰，绝不可等一会儿，必须立刻去做。牺牲首先在意志里作成；然后才有实际的行动。“亚伯拉罕清早起来……起身往神指示他的地方去了。”（第3节）亚伯拉罕的单纯多可爱！神对他说的话，他没有与属肉身的人商量。你要是想与属肉身的人商量，就是与你的自怜和观点，以及一切在你与神的个人关系以外的东西商量。那你就得当心，这些东西是争夺并拦阻你对神的顺服。

亚伯拉罕并没有推荐自己去奉献。总要提防自我拣选为神工作，自我牺牲可以是病态的。若神给你的杯是甜的，存感恩的心去喝；若苦的，就与他联合去喝。若神为你铺设的道路是困苦的，仍要走上去；但千万不要挑选殉道。神拣选亚伯拉罕接受磨难，亚伯拉罕没有异议，只勇往直前。你若非与神亲密地一同生活，就很容易会指控神。在未有经历磨难以先，你没有权利下断语，因为在磨难中，你会更认识神。神一直为他至高的目标而作工直至他的心意与人的心意合而为一。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，靠近我，进入我知觉的领域，直至我完全被你所占有。愿今天闪耀着你的能力。

November 11 The Supreme Climb

“Take now thy son.” Genesis 22:2

God's command is – Take now, not presently. It is extraordinary how we debate! We know a thing is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it at once. To climb to the height God shows can never be done presently, it must be done now. The sacrifice is gone through in will before it is performed actually.

“And Abraham rose up early in the morning and went unto the place of which God had told him” (v. 3). The wonderful simplicity of Abraham! When God spoke, he did not confer with flesh and blood. Beware when you want to confer with flesh and blood, i.e., your own sympathies, your own insight, anything that is not based on your personal relationship to God. These are the things that compete with and hinder obedience to God.

Abraham did not choose the sacrifice. Always guard against self-chosen service for God; self-sacrifice may be a disease. If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him. If the providential order of God for you is a hard time of difficulty, go through with it, but never choose the scene of your martyrdom. God chose the crucible for Abraham, and Abraham made no demur; he went steadily through. If you are not living in touch with Him, it is easy to pass a crude verdict on God. You must go through the crucible before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, because in the crucible you learn to know God better. God is working for His highest ends until His purpose and man's purpose become one.

若有人在基督里，他就是新造的人，旧事已过，都变成新的了。（林后五17）

你对自己灵魂的得赎有什么看法？救恩的经历是在你实际生活里，一切都真正的改变了，你不再用以往的观点看事物；你的喜好是新的，旧的东西已失去力量。这经历的试金石是——神到底有没有改变了你最看重的东西？你若仍然留恋旧事，又说已重生了，那实在是无稽的，是在欺哄自己。你若已重生，神的灵就在你生活及心思上，显明他的改变。当抉择关头来到，对于自己那显著奇妙的改变，你会是世上最稀奇诧异的那一个，因为你根本没可能会这样做的，这完全想不到的改变，正是你得救的明证。

我的得救与成圣，叫我有什么改变？例如我能否坦然面对哥林多前书十三章的教导，还是我要含糊躲闪？圣灵在我里面成就的救恩，把我完全释放。只要我行在光中，正如神在光中，神对我便没有可责之处，因为他在远超乎我意识范围的每一细节中作工。

祈祷◆主啊，你的美善是那么无可比拟，我们“好像做梦的人。我们满口喜笑、满舌欢呼”；为着我们将再次带着禾捆喜乐地回来的日子，我们赞美你。

November 12 The Transfigured Life

“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

What idea have you of the salvation of your soul? The experience of salvation means that in your actual life things are really altered, you no longer look at things as you used to; your desires are new, old things have lost their power. One of the touchstones of experience is – Has God altered the thing that matters? If you still hanker after the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above, you are juggling with yourself. If you are born again, the Spirit of God makes the alteration manifest in your actual life and reasoning, and when the crisis comes you are the most amazed person on earth at the wonderful difference there is in you. There is no possibility of imagining that you did it. It is this complete and amazing alteration that is the evidence that you are a saved soul.

What difference has my salvation and sanctification made? For instance, can I stand in the light of 1 Corinthians 13, or do I have to shuffle? The salvation that is worked out in me by the Holy Ghost emancipates me entirely, and as long as I walk in the light as God is in the light, He sees nothing to censure because His life is working out in every particular, not to my consciousness, but deeper than my consciousness.

……神的儿子……他是爱我，为我舍己。（加二20）

我们要与自己的情绪搏斗，完全归向主耶稣；从自我的小圈子中出来，完全降服于他。试想想新约中的耶稣基督是谁，然后想想我们可怜的信心多么渺小 – “我没有这种经历，又没有那种经历！”试想想对主耶稣的资讯该存的指望 – 他能把我们无可指摘地带到神的宝座前，完全无瑕疵，完全改变称义。我们要心存何等崇敬的信心。他成为我们的智慧、我们的义、我们的成圣与救赎。我们凭什么说为神的儿子有所牺牲！从地狱和沉沦蒙救赎的人，竟胆敢说牺牲！

我们要经常保持对耶稣基督的信心；不是一个祈祷会里的耶稣；不是一本书中的耶稣，乃是新约中的耶稣，是神成了肉身，把我们治死在他脚前的那一位。信心必须是对准给我们经历的那一位。主耶稣要求我们毫无保留地归他。我们实在无法经历到主耶稣，也无法把他拘禁在我们心里，可是信心却对他有坚强不移的靠赖。在这一点上，我们看见圣灵对不信是多么不耐烦。一切的恐惧都是可恶的，因为恐惧是源于我们不肯培育信心。人若与主合一，怎可能再落在恐惧疑惑里？应该充满无法抑制、得胜的信心凯歌。

祈祷◆主啊，愿今天在我们眼前，展现你在我们当中那使人振奋和更新的临在，为此我们只有欣喜，因为我们对永恒如何具体介入时间之中，有了新的盼望。

November 13 Faith And Experience

“The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

We have to battle through our moods into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus, to get out of the hole-and-corner business of our experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think Who the New Testament says that Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meanness of the miserable faith we have – I haven't had this and that experience! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims – that He can present us faultless before the throne of God, unutterably pure, absolutely rectified and profoundly justified. Stand in implicit adoring faith in Him, He is made unto us “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” How can we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! Our salvation is from hell and perdition, and then we talk about making sacrifices!

We have to get out into faith in Jesus Christ continually; not a prayer meeting Jesus Christ, nor a book Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, Who is God Incarnate, and Who ought to strike us to His feet as dead. Our faith must be in the One from Whom our experience springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute abandon of devotion to Himself. We never can experience Jesus Christ, nor ever hold Him within the compass of our own hearts, but our faith must be built in strong emphatic confidence in Him.

It is along this line that we see the rugged impatience of the Holy Ghost against unbelief. All our fears are wicked, and we fear because we will not nourish ourselves in our faith. How can any one who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! It ought to be an absolute pæan of perfectly irrepressible, triumphant belief.

耶和华在路上引领我……（创二十四27）

我们应该与神合一到一个地步，不必一天到晚求他指引。成圣就是成为神的儿女，而儿女的生命就是顺服－－一旦不顺服，就立刻直觉地感到一种隔膜。在属灵的范畴里，这隔膜是圣灵的一个警告。当圣灵警告，我们就该立即停下来，在心灵里更新，好知道神的旨意。我们若是神的灵重生的，仍不住求神引我到这里、到那里，就是不敬虔。“耶和华引领我”，回顾过去，我们可以处处看见神奇妙无比的安排。我们若是从神生的，就必归荣耀给神。在特殊的事上容易看见神的作为，可是只有在属灵上有操练，才会在每一细节上看见神。别忽略一些偶然的事，认为这些是在神的旨意以外；要随时随地明白神的安排。

当心只顾崇拜自己一贯的信念，而不是专心爱神。“我永不做那件事”－－若你是个圣徒的话，很可能你不能不做。主在世上是最不持守一贯做法的人，但他从不违背父神。圣徒唯一要持守的，不是一套原则，乃是神的生命。有神的生命，才不断增加对神心意的认识。做狂热主义者容易，做忠心耿耿的人难，因为要效忠神，需要一种出奇的谦卑；尤其是对在宗教上的虚伪，尤为困难。

祈祷◆“凡有智慧的……也必思想耶和华的慈爱。”主啊，那是多么美好！为着你的荣耀，请赐给我这个记号。今天，我仰望你；愿你的恩惠和美善丰厚地临到我们。

November 14 Discovering Divine Designs

“I being in the way, the Lord led me. . .” Genesis 24:27

We have to be so one with God that we do not continually need to ask for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God, and the natural life of a child is obedience – until he wishes to be disobedient, then instantly there is the intuitive jar. In the spiritual domain the intuitive jar is the monition of the Spirit of God. When He gives the check, we have to stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind in order to make out what God's will is. If we are born again of the Spirit of God, it is the abortion of piety to ask God to guide us here and there. “The Lord led me,” and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design, which, if we are born of God, we will credit to God.

We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the culture of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never allow that the haphazard is anything less than God's appointed order, and be ready to discover the Divine designs any where.

Beware of making a fetish of consistency to your convictions instead of being devoted to God. I shall never do that – in all probability you will have to, if you are a saint. There never was a more inconsistent Being on this earth than Our Lord, but He was never inconsistent to His Father. The one consistency of the saint is not to a principle, but to the Divine life. It is the Divine life which continually makes more and more discoveries about the Divine mind. It is easier to be a fanatic than a faithful soul, because there is something amazingly humbling, particularly to our religious conceit, in being loyal to God.

主啊，这人将来如何？……与你何干？你跟从我吧。（约二十一21-22）

我们最难学的功课之一，就是放弃对别人生命的干涉。我们要经很长的时间才明白，干涉神在别人生命中的吩咐，是很危险的。你看见人家受苦，你就说：“他不该受苦，我要设法使他不受苦。”那你便是阻挠神容许的旨意。神说：“与你何干？”若你的灵性停滞不前，不可听其自然，必须到神面前寻出根源。很可能是因为你在干扰别人的生命；或提供你无权提供的；或指点你无权指点的。要是神真要你劝勉别人，他必定叫你的劝勉直接有圣灵感动。你的责任是保持与神有正确良好的关系，以致他的智慧能随时随地透过你叫他人得福。

我们多半活在自我意识的边缘上－－自觉是在事奉神，自觉爱神。这都是不成熟的，并不属于那真正的生命。成熟的表现是不再凭观感知觉；我们对神完全的归服，以致不再意识到自己被神使用。我们若仍意识到被神用作擘开的饼和浇奠的酒，那么就得追求另一个境界，就是把自觉的意识，以及神透过我们工作的意识，都同时消除。圣徒是从不自觉是圣徒，他们只知依靠神。

祈祷◆噢，愿我藉着你内住的圣灵，将我与敬拜、美善和圣洁联合起来。主啊，感动我的身体和心灵，直至它们能为着你而融合为一。

November 15 What Is That To Thee?

“Lord, what shall this man do? . . What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” John 21:21,2

One of our severest lessons comes from the stubborn refusal to see that we must not interfere in other people's lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God's order for others. You see a certain person suffering, and you say – He shall not suffer, and I will see that he does not. You put your band straight in front of God's permissive will to prevent it, and God says – “What is that to thee?” If there is stagnation spiritually, never allow it to go on, but get into God's presence and find out the reason for it. Possibly you will find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another; proposing things you had no right to propose; advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit; your part is to be so rightly related to God that His discernment comes through you all the time for the blessing of another soul.

Most of us live on the borders of consciousness – consciously serving, consciously devoted to God. All this is immature, it is not the real life yet. The mature stage is the life of a child which is never conscious; we become so abandoned to God that the consciousness of being used never enters in. When we are consciously being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, there is another stage to be reached, where all consciousness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint; a saint is consciously dependent on God.

无论作什么，都要为荣耀神而行。（林前十31）

道成肉身的奇迹，湮没在平凡的童年生活；登山变像的辉煌光彩，消失在鬼附的山谷间；复活的荣耀，降卑成为海旁早餐。这不是反高潮，而是神极大的启示。

我们总有一种倾向，就是想去追求超奇的经历；错把英雄感当作真英雄。在重大关头昂然度过是一回事，在每天生活中荣耀神，没有人作证，没有光彩，丝毫不被注意，又是另一回事。我们有时虽然不求中世纪那种圣人的光环，也想做些事令人家说：“看他是个多么会祈祷的人！”或“她多虔诚，多热心！”可是，若你对主耶稣有正确的委身，你已进入那超然的高峰，那里再没有人注意你，人所注意的是神透过你流露出来的大能。

“噢，我从神得到一个奇妙的呼召！”其实要在最卑微的生活上荣耀神，正需要那全能的神在我们里面，才可以做得到。惟有圣灵在我们里面，才能使我们完全地属于他，以致全不为人所注意。圣徒生命的考验不在于成功，而是在实际生活上的忠心。我们会以在基督教事工上的成功作目标，可是正确的目标，乃是在生活上彰显神的荣耀，在属世的环境下，活出与基督一同藏在神里面的生命。属神的理想生命，是在人与人之间的实际关系上表现出来。

祈祷◆主啊，在今天的读经中，一下这句话使我的心灵震荡－－“摩西这样行，耶和华怎样吩咐他，他就照样行了。”

November 16 Still Human!

“Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

The great marvel of the Incarnation slips into ordinary childhood's life; the great marvel of the Transfiguration vanishes in the devil-possessed valley; the glory of the Resurrection descends into a breakfast on the sea-shore. This is not an anti-climax, but a great revelation of God.

The tendency is to look for the marvellous in our experience; we mistake the sense of the heroic for being heroes. It is one thing to go through a crisis grandly, but another thing to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, no one paying the remotest attention to us. If we do not want mediaeval haloes, we want something that will make people say – What a wonderful man of prayer he is! What a pious devoted woman she is! If you are rightly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the sublime height where no one ever thinks of noticing you, all that is noticed is that the power of God comes through you all the time.

Oh, I have had a wonderful call from God! It takes Almighty God Incarnate in us to do the meanest duty to the glory of God. It takes God's Spirit in us to make us so absolutely humanly His that we are utterly unnoticeable. The test of the life of a saint is not success, but faithfulness in human life as it actually is. We will set up success in Christian work as the aim; the aim is to manifest the glory of God in human life, to live the life hid with Christ in God in human conditions. Our human relationships are the actual conditions in which the ideal life of God is to be exhibited.

你既行了这事……我便指着自己起誓说，论福，我必赐大福给你……。（创二十二15-19）

亚伯拉罕接触到神的本性，他如今明白神的真实。“神自己，是我的目标，不论代价，亲爱的主，不论何方。”

不论代价，不论何方，就是自己没有任何可选择的，只求神带领到达目标。若神对我里面的性情说话，我根本不会质疑发问，只会马上顺服。耶稣说：“来”，我就来；他说：“放手”，我就放手；他说：“这事要信靠神”，我就信靠。整个过程证明了神的性情在我里面。

神对我启示他自己，决定于我的品性，而不在于神的品性。“由于我是卑贱的，以致你的道路，在我看来也往往是卑贱的。”在顺服的操练下，我来到亚伯拉罕曾到之处，认识神是谁。我没有在主耶稣里与神面对面以前，没有遇到一位真的神，但如今我知道“在整个世界中，除你以外，我再没有谁”。

神的应许对我们毫无价值，除非我们藉顺服明白神的本性。圣经的话可以念过三百六十五次，而仍对我们毫无意义。但突然我们却看出神的意思，因为在某些事上我们顺服神，他的性情立刻向我们敞开了。“神的应许不论有多少，在基督都是是的，所以藉着他也是实在的。”这个“是的”，必须从顺服中出来；我们若藉着生命中的顺服对应许说“阿们”，那应许就属于我们。

祈祷◆主啊，求你唤醒我，以致我那必死的身体，能真正成为一个顺服圣灵的仆人。

November 17 The Eternal Goal

“By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing . . . that in blessing I will bless thee. . . .” Genesis 22:15-19

Abraham has reached the place where he is in touch with the very nature of God, he understands now the Reality of God.

“My goal is God Himself . . .
At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.”

“At any cost, by any road” means nothing self-chosen in the way God brings us to the goal.

There is no possibility of questioning when God speaks if He speaks to His own nature in me; prompt obedience is the only result. When Jesus says – “Come,” I simply come; when He says – “Let go,” I let go; when He says – “Trust in God in this matter,” I do trust. The whole working out is the evidence that the nature of God is in me.

God's revelation of Himself to me is determined by my character, not by God's character.

“‘Tis because I am mean,
Thy ways so oft look mean to me.”

By the discipline of obedience I get to the place where Abraham was and I see Who God is. I never have a real God until I have come face to face with Him in Jesus Christ, then I know that “in all the world, my God, there is none but Thee, there is none but Thee.” The promises of God are of no value to us until by obedience we understand the nature of God. We read some things in the Bible three hundred and sixty-five times and they mean nothing to us, then all of a sudden we see what God means, because in some particular we have obeyed God, and instantly His nature is opened up. “All the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen.” The “yea” must be born of obedience; when by the obedience of our lives we say “Amen” to a promise, then that promise is ours.

天父的儿子若叫你们自由，你们就真自由了。（约八36）

人若还存在留任何的自负，总是说：“我办不到。”但“人格”永不说“办不到”，它会不断吸取。“人格”总是渴求得到更多，因为我们是被造成这样的。我们被造，对神有极大的渴求；阻隔我们近神的，是罪和我们的“个性”。神救我们脱离罪；我们却要救自己脱离个性，就是要天然的生命作活祭献给神，直至因顺服而改变成属灵的生命。

在属灵生命的过程中，神不会理会我们天然的个性，他的命令会直闯我们天然的生命。我们要协助神，而不要阻挡他说：“我办不到。”神不会操练我们，我们要操练自己。神不会管制我们每一个念头与幻想，这工作我们要自己做。不要说：“主啊，我思想时常浮游，好苦！”那就不要再浮游，不要再受个性的操纵，乃要释放出来，活出真正的个性。

“天父的儿子若叫你们自由……”不要用“救主”代替“儿子”，救主救我们离罪；这个自由却是从“儿子”而来的。保罗在加拉太书二章20节正是这意思：“我已经与基督同钉十字架”，他天然的“个性”已破碎了，他的人格与主合一，不是混合，乃是合一。“你们就真自由了”，自由的本质是内里的自由。我们坚持的是主动，而不是被动的推向与主耶稣认同。

祈祷◆主啊，我何等需要你和渴慕你。求你完完全全地回到我里面，将你的生命注满我们的意念和心灵，直至满溢，愿荣耀归于你的名。

November 18 Winning Into Freedom

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:36

If there is any remnant of individual conceit left, it always says “I can't.” Personality never says “I can't,” but simply absorbs and absorbs. Personality always wants more and more. It is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God; and sin and our individuality are the things that keep us from getting at God. God delivers us from sin: we have to deliver our selves from individuality, i.e., to present our natural life to God and sacrifice it until it is transformed into a spiritual life by obedience.

God does not pay any attention to our natural individuality in the development of our spiritual life. His order runs right across the natural life, and we have to see that we aid and abet God, not stand against Him and say – I can't do that. God will not discipline us, we must discipline ourselves. God will not bring every thought and imagination into captivity; we have to do it. Do not say – O Lord, I suffer from wandering thoughts. Don't suffer from wandering thoughts. Stop listening to the tyranny of your individuality and get emancipated out into personality.

“If the Son shall make you free ...” Do not substitute ‘Saviour’ for ‘Son’. The Saviour sets us free from sin; this is the freedom of being set free by the Son. It is what Paul means in Gal. 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ,” his natural individuality has been broken and his personality united with his Lord, not merged but united. “Ye shall be free indeed,” free in essence, free from the inside. We will insist on energy, instead of being energized into identification with Jesus.

他既来了，就要叫世人为罪、为义、为审判，自己责备自己。（约十六8）

很少人真懂得什么叫做为罪责备自己，我们做错事之后，只有烦恼；可是圣灵叫人为罪自责，把地上一切的关系删除，只剩下一个关系，就是“我犯罪得罪了你，惟独得罪了你”。人若这样为罪自责，他的良心会告诉他，神不会赦免他。若神赦免他，他的公义感就比神更高了。但神实在赦免，这是要透过耶稣的死，使神心肠撕裂破碎，才做得到。神恩典的奇妙，在于他藉主耶稣的死赦罪，以致他赦罪仍忠于自己的本性。若说神是爱，所以他赦免我们，这是很肤浅无稽的。我们若曾为罪自责，就绝不会这样说了。神的爱等如加略山，一丝一毫不减。神的爱在十字架上完全表现出来，此外别无他处。神惟独根据主的十字架而赦免我。在那儿，他的心才得以满足。

赦免不单是我从地狱中被救出来，进入天堂（没有人以这个看法接受赦免）；赦免的意思是，我得赦免进入一个新造的关系里，进入与神在基督的合一里。救赎的奇迹是神把我这不洁的人，改变成他的标准，是圣洁的；把新的个性－－耶稣基督的个性－－放进我里面。

祈祷◆对于在世上为你结果子上，我是何等的无助，那么的气量狭小，而且毫不像你。求你赦免我，并且藉着住在耶稣里面，愿我多结果子，荣耀父神。

November 19 When He Is Come

“And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin. . . .” John 16:8 (R.V.)

Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin; we know the experience of being disturbed because of having done wrong things; but conviction of sin by the Holy Ghost blots out every relationship on earth and leaves one relationship only – “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned!” When a man is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every power of his conscience that God dare not forgive him; if God did forgive him, the man would have a stronger sense of justice than God. God does forgive, but it cost the rending of His heart in the Death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the Divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. When we have been convicted of sin we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary, and nothing less; the love of God is spelt on the Cross and nowhere else. The only ground on which God can forgive me is through the Cross of my Lord. There, His conscience is satisfied.

Forgiveness means not merely that I am saved from hell and made right for heaven (no man would accept forgiveness on such a level); forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a recreated relationship, into identification with God in Christ. The miracle of Redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One, by putting into me a new disposition, the disposition of Jesus Christ.

我们藉这爱子的血……过犯得以赦免。（弗一7）

别以为神既是父亲－－他既是这样慈爱，必会赦免我们。这种情感作用在新约是没有的。神赦免我们，唯一的根源就是基督十字架上的大悲剧；若把赦免放在任何别的根据上，是无形的亵渎。神赦免我们，唯一原因是叫我们重生与他和好，是藉基督的十字架，此外别无他法。赦免是多么容易接受的事，可是却付上加略山的苦楚。我们接受赦罪，接受所赐的圣灵，凭单纯的信心得以成圣，却忘记了是神付出极大的代价为我们成就的。

赦免是神恩典的神圣奇迹：他要付出基督的十字架，才能赦罪，而仍不失为圣洁的神。切勿接受一个把救赎删去，只以神为父的观点。神的启示是他不能赦免；若赦免就违反他的本性。我们蒙赦的唯一途径，是藉救赎归回神。神的赦免惟有在超然的领域上，才不反其自然。

若拿赦罪的奇迹来比较，成圣的经历就显得微不足道。成圣不过是人生命蒙赦罪之后奇妙的表现，在人心中挑起最深感激的，该是神赦免罪。保罗从未忘怀这一点。你一旦体会神为赦免你的罪所付出的，你就会被抓住，被神的爱深深激励。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着你透过主耶稣的恩典，向我显明你至高的父性，我赞美你。噢，我因此可以成为天父的孩子了！

November 20 The Forgiveness Of God

“In whom we have . . . the forgiveness of sins.” Ephesians 1:7

Beware of the pleasant view of the Fatherhood of God – God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That sentiment has no place whatever in the New Testament. The only ground on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ; to put forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive sin and reinstate us in His favour is through the Cross of Christ, and in no other way. Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony of Calvary. It is possible to take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and our sanctification with the simplicity of faith, and to forget at what enormous cost to God it was all made ours.

Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace; it cost God the Cross of Jesus Christ before He could forgive sin and remain a holy God. Never accept a view of the Fatherhood of God if it blots out the Atonement. The revelation of God is that He cannot forgive; He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God by the Atonement. God's forgiveness is only natural in the supernatural domain.

Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is slight. Sanctification is simply the marvellous expression of the forgiveness of sins in a human life, but the thing that awakens the deepest well of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven sin. Paul never got away from this. When once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vice, constrained by the love of God.

你所托付我的事，我已成全了。（约十七4）

耶稣基督的死，是神的心意在历史上表现出来。绝不可把耶稣的死视作殉道，以为是偶然之事，并且是可避免的。他的死，是他来世的原因。不要传讲神是父亲、因着他的爱赦免我们的道理。这个说法与耶稣基督所显明的神不符；若这样，便使十字架变得可有可无，而救赎更是多余的。神赦免罪恶，完全是因为基督的死。除了他儿子的死，神无法赦免罪，而耶稣也因他的死而被高举为救主。“耶稣……因为受死的苦，就得了尊贵荣耀为冠冕。”震撼宇宙最辉煌的胜利，就是基督在十字架上的话：“成了。”在救赎的大功上，这话是决定性的。

对神的爱有错误的观念，以致轻乎了神的圣洁，都与耶稣基督所启示的不符。千万不要以为耶稣因为同情可怜我们，就站在我们一方敌对神，也不要以为他因怜悯我们而为我们成为咒诅。耶稣基督成为咒诅，是出于至高者的命定。我们对这咒诅的体会，就是为罪自责；而神给我们羞耻与悔罪的恩赐，这是他极大的怜悯。耶稣基督恨透人所犯的罪，而加略山正量度出他的恨有多深。

祈祷◆主啊，对于住在我里面的基督，我所给予的滋养是何其不足；噢，主啊，赦免我。求你让我充满赦罪的感觉，以致我不单在你的救恩中得着喜乐，更为着这里的工作被你的灵所充满。

November 21 It Is Finished

“I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” John 17:4

The Death of Jesus Christ is the performance in history of the very Mind of God. There is no room for looking on Jesus Christ as a martyr; His death was not something that happened to Him which might have been prevented: His death was the very reason why He came.

Never build your preaching of forgiveness on the fact that God is our Father and He will forgive us because He loves us. It is untrue to Jesus Christ's revelation of God; it makes the Cross unnecessary, and the Redemption “much ado about nothing.” If God does forgive sin, it is because of the Death of Christ. God could forgive men in no other way than by the death of His Son, and Jesus is exalted to be Saviour because of His death. “We see Jesus because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour.” The greatest note of triumph that ever sounded in the ears of a startled universe was that sounded on the Cross of Christ – “It is finished.” That is the last word in the Redemption of man.

Anything that belittles or obliterates the holiness of God by a false view of the love of God, is untrue to the revelation of God given by Jesus Christ. Never allow the thought that Jesus Christ stands with us against God out of pity and compassion; that He became a curse for us out of sympathy with us. Jesus Christ became a curse for us by the Divine decree. Our portion of realizing the terrific meaning of the curse is conviction of sin, the gift of shame and penitence is given us – this is the great mercy of God. Jesus Christ hates the wrong in man, and Calvary is the estimate of His hatred.

所以你们或吃或喝，无论作什么，都要为荣耀神而行。（林前十31）

别以为生活上浅显的事，不是出于神；这些事与深奥的事一样，同是出于神。你不肯表现肤浅，不是由于你对神的忠诚虔敬，而是你想叫人觉得你并不肤浅；这样，正好表现了你属灵的骄傲。若是如此，你就得当心：不要让鄙视在你心里成形，使你随时指控人，因为觉得人人都比你肤浅。当心别以高深莫测自居；神也是成了婴孩而来的。

肤浅并不是奸恶的表现，也并不表示没有深度，海洋也有边岸。生活中表面化的常事，如饮食、行走、谈话，都是神所定的。这也是主的生活。作为神的儿子，他也这样生活，他说：“学生不能高过先生。”

我们的保障是在于浅显的事。我们必须以平常之道过日常平凡的生活。深奥的事，是神在浅近的事以外赐给我们。除了向神，我们不必向任何人显露深度。我们往往太过专注于自己的品性，以致不肯在日常平凡生活中，活得像基督徒。要下决心除了神，不把任何人放在心内；这样你会发现第一个要摒弃不管的，就是最会假冒的家伙——你自己。

祈祷◆主啊，愿你今天将圣灵的直觉力和你所有的灵感赐给我，以致我可以在一切事情上辨别你。愿你恩慈的同在和平安充满这一整天。

November 22 Shallow And Profound

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow concerns of life are not ordained of God; they are as much of God as the profound. It is not your devotion to God that makes you refuse to be shallow, but your wish to impress other people with the fact that you are not shallow, which is a sure sign that you are a spiritual prig. Be careful of the production of contempt in yourself, it always comes along this line, and causes you to go about as a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than you are. Beware of posing as a profound person; God became a Baby.

To be shallow is not a sign of being wicked, nor is shallowness a sign that there are no deeps: the ocean has a shore. The shallow amenities of life, eating and drinking, walking and talking, are all ordained by God. These are the things in which Our Lord lived. He lived in them as the Son of God, and He said that “the disciple is not above his Master.”

Our safeguard is in the shallow things. We have to live the surface common-sense life in a common-sense way; when the deeper things come, God gives them to us apart from the shallow concerns. Never show the deeps to anyone but God. We are so abominably serious, so desperately interested in our own characters, that we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life.

Determinedly take no one seriously but God, and the first person you find you have to leave severely alone as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.

耶和华啊，求你怜悯我们，怜悯我们！因为我们被藐视，已到极处。（诗一二三3）

最要当心的，不是那些破坏我们对神信仰的事，而是破坏我们基督徒性情的事。“所以当谨守你们的心，不可行诡诈。”心智的影响至大，它是直透人心灵的仇敌，叫人的心偏离神。心智的某些倾向，是绝不容稍有放任的；若放任，就使我们对神的信心偏离。除非恢复在神面前安息的心，否则我们对他的信心就尽失，掌管我们的只是对肉体和智慧的信心。

提防“今生的忧虑”，因为这些事叫心灵产生错误的性情。很细微的事也足以分散我们对神的心，其能力之大，叫人诧异。要拒绝被今生的挂虑所占有。

另一分心的事，就是好辩的欲念。圣奥古斯丁祷告说：“主啊，救我脱离自我辩护的情欲。”心智的倾向，会破坏对神的信心。“我一定要为自己解释清楚，我一定要叫人明白。”主从来不解释什么；他让错处自己更正。

我们有时察觉别人的属灵生命停滞不前，接着就批评起来；这样，我们就阻塞了通往神的道路。神给我们洞悉力，并不是要我们批评，乃是要我们代求。

祈祷◆多少时候，我发现在我里面的是“律”，而不是我的智力，“看见耶和华的使者而跨进田间”。主啊，求你加添我属灵的敏锐，以致我可以察觉到你最微小的举动。

November 23 Distraction Of Antipathy

“Have mercy upon us, 0 Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly piled with contempt.” Psalm 123:3

The thing of which we have to beware is not so much damage to our belief in God as damage to our Christian temper. “Therefore take heed to thy spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.” The temper of mind is tremendous in its effects, it is the enemy that penetrates right into the soul and distracts the mind from God. There are certain tempers of mind in which we never dare indulge; if we do, we find they have distracted us from faith in God, and until we get back to the quiet mood before God, our faith in Him is nil, and our confidence in the flesh and in human ingenuity is the thing that rules.

Beware of “the cares of this world,” because they are the things that produce a wrong temper of soul. It is extraordinary what an enormous power there is in simple things to distract our attention from God. Refuse to be swamped with the cares of this life.

Another thing that distracts us is the lust of vindication. St. Augustine prayed – “O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself.” That temper of mind destroys the soul's faith in God. “I must explain myself; I must get people to understand.” Our Lord never explained anything; He left mistakes to correct themselves.

When we discern that people are not going on spiritually and allow the discernment to turn to criticism, we block our way to God. God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.

看哪，仆人的眼睛怎样望主人的手……我们的眼睛也照样望耶和华我们的 神……（诗一二三2）

这节经文是对神完全信赖的描写。仆人的眼如何注视主人，我们的眼也同样仰望神，以致对他的容貌认识日增（赛五十三1）。我们一不仰望神，就产生属灵的漏症。这漏症不是由于外在的烦恼，而是在于我们有这样的幻想：“我想自己伸展得太用力了，用脚尖站立，努力像神，而不作一个谦卑平凡人。”要知道并没有太过竭力这一回事。

例如：你因着为神站起来而面临危机，但你有圣灵的印证，知道怎样去作才对。可是随着年日过去，你却逐渐有这样的结论——“看来，我不是过分自负吗？我所作的不是太‘过火’吗？”你那些讲理智的朋友说：“别傻啦，你当时说起那个属灵醒觉，我们就看出是一时的冲动，你受不起那种压力的，神也不期望你这样做。”你就会说：“这个，我想自己的期望也太过了。”听来多谦卑，可是对神的信赖已尽失，开始信赖世界的见解。你不再仰赖神，不再抬头注视他，这就是危机。惟有等到神突然把你停住，你才晓得自己是在倒退。所以，一发现有漏症，就该立即补救。要承认在你与神之间有了阻隔，并且要立刻去对付。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我在举止和行为上何等缓慢地表现神仁慈的恩典！你的美誉何时才为着你的荣耀临到我身上？

November 24 Direction Of Aspiration

“Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters . . . so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God.” Psalm 123:2

This verse is a description of entire reliance upon God. Just as the eyes of the servant are riveted on his master, so our eyes are up unto God and our knowledge of His countenance is gained (cf. Isaiah 53:1. R.V). Spiritual leakage begins when we cease to lift up our eyes unto Him. The leakage comes not so much through trouble on the outside as in the imagination; when we begin to say – “I expect I have been stretching myself a bit too much, standing on tiptoe and trying to look like God in stead of being an ordinary humble person.” We have to realize that no effort can be too high.

For instance, you came to a crisis when you made a stand for God and had the witness of the Spirit that all was right, but the weeks have gone by, and the years maybe, and you are slowly coming to the conclusion – ‘Well, after all, was I not a bit too pretentious? Was I not taking a stand a bit too high?’ Your rational friends come and say – Don't be a fool, we knew when you talked about this spiritual awakening, that it was a passing impulse, you can't keep up the strain, God does not expect you to. And you say – Well, I suppose I was expecting too much. It sounds humble to say it, but it means that reliance on God has gone and reliance on worldly opinion has come in. The danger is lest no longer relying on God you ignore the lifting up of your eyes to Him. Only when God brings you to a sudden halt, will you realize how you have been losing out. Whenever there is a leakage, remedy it immediately. Recognize that something has been coming between you and God, and get it readjusted at once.

但我断不以别的夸口，只夸我们主耶稣基督的十字架。（加六14）

一个人在重生之初，会有很多不一致的地方 – 有一些互不协调的情感，也有一些互不相连的事物。在使徒保罗最深处有坚强稳固的贯彻如一，任凭外在生活怎样改变，也不受骚扰，因为他是扎根在神的根基上。我们没有属灵上的协调，多半是因为我们太着意于外在事物的协调。保罗住在地下室，而我们却活在表面事物上的上层，两者未有相通的机会。保罗的协调是建基于最基本的事上。他协调最大的根源，就是神救赎人类所付上的痛苦 – 耶稣基督的十字架。

你要向自己重述所信的是什么，然后把其余的事物除掉，归回那唯一的基石 – 主耶稣的十字架。从历史的观点看来，十字架是微不足道的。可是从圣经观点来看，却比世上所有王国更重要。我们传讲的资讯，若不提神在十字架上的惨痛，就必无所成，神的能力也无法传递给人。这听来似乎很有趣，但确是没有十架，就毫无能力。当传扬十字架，神的能力就释放出来。“神就乐意用人所当作愚拙的道理，拯救那些信的人。”“我们却是传钉十字架的基督。”

祈祷◆主啊，我在你面前的生活，似乎是毫无目的、黯淡无光，直至你在我里面出现。因着我相信你大能的救赎，我敬拜你。可是，噢！能够察觉你的感动却是另一回事！

November 25 The Secret Of Spiritual Coherence

“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Galatians 6:14

When a man is first born again, he becomes incoherent, there is an amount of unrelated emotion about him, unrelated phases of external things. In the apostle Paul there was a strong steady coherence underneath, consequently he could let his external life change as it liked and it did not distress him because he was rooted and grounded in God. Most of us are not spiritually coherent because we are more concerned about being coherent externally. Paul lived in the basement; the coherent critics live in the upper storey of the external statement of things, and the two do not begin to touch each other. Paul's consistency was down in the fundamentals. The great basis of his coherence was the agony of God in the Redemption of the world, viz., the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. In external history the Cross is an infinitesimal thing; from the Bible point of view it is of more importance than all the empires of the world. If we get away from brooding on the tragedy of God upon the Cross in our preaching, it produces nothing. It does not convey the energy of God to man; it may be interesting but it has no power. But preach the Cross, and the energy of God is let loose. “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” “We preach Christ crucified.”

只夸我们主耶稣基督的十字架。（加六14）

若你要在必死的肉身上体验、认识神的能力（就是耶稣复活的生命），就必须专注于他的悲剧。不要在属灵的徵兆里追寻个人的利益，只要单单注视神的悲剧，那么神的能力就必立即在你里面。“仰望我”，注意那客观的源头，然后那主观的能力就必出现。我们若不集中在正确的事上，就会失掉能力。十字架的果效，就是救恩、成圣、医治等；可是我们并不是传这些，乃是传耶稣基督和他钉十字架。宣扬耶稣，果效就自然产生。把你传讲资讯的焦点放在神的中心上，那么即或会众似乎并不在意，也必然会有改变。若我传讲的是自己的事，那么所讲的对你便毫无意义，正如你讲你的，与我不相干一样。可是，若我传讲的是神的真理，你必被他抓住，而我也同样被抓住。我们必须集中灵力的中心，就是十字架，接驳在能力的源头上，能力就释放出来。在圣洁运动及追求属灵经历的聚会中，我们很容易把注意力放在十字架的果效上，而忽略基督的十字架。

今日教会被指为软弱无能，这批评实在是有道理的。教会软弱的原因之一，是没有集中属灵的能力，没有浸透在加略山上的悲剧，也没有多点想救赎的真义。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我的神，你是何等奇妙和大有能力地让我知道，过去所发生的救赎，是一项充满启示的伟大事情。

November 26 The Concentration Of Spiritual Energy

“. . . save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Galatians 6:14

If you want to know the energy of God (i.e., the resurrection life of Jesus) in your mortal flesh, you must brood on the tragedy of God. Cut yourself off from prying personal interest in your own spiritual symptoms and consider bare-spirited the tragedy of God, and instantly the energy of God will be in you. “Look unto Me,” pay attention to the objective Source and the subjective energy will be there. We lose power if we do not concentrate on the right thing. The effect of the Cross is salvation, sanctification, healing, etc., but we are not to preach any of these, we are to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The proclaiming of Jesus will do its own work. Concentrate on God's centre in your preaching, and though your crowd may apparently pay no attention, they can never be the same again. If I talk my own talk, it is of no more importance to you than your talk is to me; but if I talk the truth of God, you will meet it again and so will I. We have to concentrate on the great point of spiritual energy – the Cross, to keep in contact with that centre where all the power lies, and the energy will be let loose. In holiness movements and spiritual experience meetings the concentration is apt to be put not on the Cross of Christ, but on the effects of the Cross.

The feebleness of the churches is being criticized to-day, and the criticism is justified. One reason for the feebleness is that there has not been this concentration of spiritual energy; we have not brooded enough on the tragedy of Calvary or on the meaning of Redemption.

因这十字架，就我而论，世界已经钉在十字架上。就世界而论，我已经钉在十字架上。（加六14）

我若着眼于基督的十字架，就不会成为一个主观的敬虔者，只注意自己的洁白；而会一心一意关注主耶稣所关注的事。我们的主不是隐逸者，也不是遁世苦行者，他没有把自己与社会隔绝，可是在他里面，却是一直与这世界分开。他并不是高高在上，但他活在另一个世界里。他十分入世，甚至当时一些宗教人士形容他为贪食好酒，但主从不让任何事物阻碍他分别为圣。

假冒的分别为圣，就是故意放弃一些东西，以为这样可以储藏属灵的能力，留日后之用，但那是绝对错误的。神的灵曾粉碎许多人的罪，可是人仍未得释放。今日所见的宗教生活，与主耶稣一生活泼的圣洁生活截然不同。“我不求你叫他们离开世界，只求你保守他们脱离那恶者。”我们活在世上，却不属这世界；我们的分割是在根基上，不是在外表上。

我们绝不可让任何事物干扰属灵能力的分别为圣。分别出来是我们的本份，成圣则是神的工作；我们必须坚心决意只关注神所关注的事。对于困扰的问题，就问一问：“这是主耶稣所关注的吗？还是与主为敌的灵所关注的事？”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你膏立这个地方来赞美你；愿你膏立我们这里的每一个人来赞美你。愿你在这一刻，将圣灵那愉快的微风吹拂我们。

November 27 The Consecration Of Spiritual Energy

“By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Galatians 6:14

If I brood on the Cross of Christ, I do not become a subjective pietist, interested in my own whiteness; I become dominantly concentrated on Jesus Christ's interests. Our Lord was not a recluse nor an ascetic, He did not cut Himself off from society, but He was inwardly disconnected all the time. He was not aloof, but He lived in another world. He was so much in the ordinary world that the religious people of His day called Him a glutton and a wine-bibber. Our Lord never allowed anything to interfere with His consecration of spiritual energy.

The counterfeit of consecration is the conscious cutting off of things with the idea of storing spiritual power for use later on, but that is a hopeless mistake. The Spirit of God has spoiled the sin of a great many, yet there is no emancipation, no fullness in their lives. The kind of religious life we see abroad to-day is entirely different from the robust holiness of the life of Jesus Christ. “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” We are to be in the world but not of it; to be disconnected fundamentally, not externally.

We must never allow anything to interfere with the consecration of our spiritual energy. Consecration is our part, sanctification is God's part; and we have deliberately to determine to be interested only in that in which God is interested. The way to solve perplexing problems is to ask – Is this the kind of thing in which Jesus Christ is interested, or the kind of thing in which the spirit that is the antipodes of Jesus is interested?

如今却蒙神的恩典……就白白地称义。（罗三24）

神恩惠的福音挑起人心灵强烈的强求，但同时又叫人产生同样强烈的反抗，因为福音带来的启示，是难以下咽的。人有一种自傲，就是宁可一味施予，但要近前来接受不太愿意。我可以殉道舍生，可以献上自己，可以做任何事，但不要把我贬卑至只配下地狱的罪人，告诉我除了接受耶稣基督的救恩外，别无他法。

我们必须认识，人无法从神赚取或赢得什么；我们若不肯接受神的礼物，就不要指望得着什么。属灵最大的福气，就是认识自己绝望；若未认识这一点，主就无能为力。我们若仍以为自己有所作为，他就无法为我们做什么。我们一日自恃、独立、自以为富足，神就一日无法有所作为。只有在我们感到属灵的饥饿时，才能接受圣灵。神藉圣灵把他的本性赐给我们，把耶稣活泼的生命赐给我们，把那“超然的”放在我们里面。那“超然的”一旦进入，就把我们提升至“天上”，我们就被高举在主耶稣所活的国度里了。（约三5）

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你使我重新获得敏锐的属灵洞察力；愿你藉着主耶稣基督丰富的恩典将我举起，进入你的光明中。在更多认识你和你的道路上，我是何等缓慢！

November 28 The Bounty Of The Destitute

“Being justified freely by His grace. . .” Romans 3:24

The Gospel of the grace of God awakens an intense longing in human souls and an equally intense resentment, because the revelation which it brings is not palatable. There is a certain pride in man that will give and give, but to come and accept is another thing. I will give my life to martyrdom, I will give myself in consecration, I will do anything, but do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do is to accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

We have to realize that we cannot earn or win anything from God; we must either receive it as a gift or do without it. The greatest blessing spiritually is the knowledge that we are destitute; until we get there Our Lord is powerless. He can do nothing for us if we think we are sufficient of ourselves, we have to enter into His Kingdom through the door of destitution. As long as we are rich, possessed of anything in the way of pride or independence, God cannot do anything for us. It is only when we get hungry spiritually that we receive the Holy Spirit. The gift of the essential nature of God is made effectual in us by the Holy Spirit, He imparts to us the quickening life of Jesus, which puts “the beyond” within, and immediately “the beyond” has come within, it rises up to “the above,” and we are lifted into the domain where Jesus lives. (John 3:5)

他要荣耀我。（约十六14）

今日的宗教敬虔运动，完全没有新约的艰苦实况，不需要耶稣基督的死，要的只是虔诚的气氛、祷告和热心。这一类经验不是超然的，也并不神奇，不需要神的爱情，没有羔羊鲜红的血，没有圣灵的印记，也没有任何记号，叫人看见了惊异说：“这是神大能的作为。”惟有“神大能的作为”才是新约的要义。

新约的信徒经历，是个人对主耶稣基督热切的爱慕。至于其他所谓信徒经历，都与耶稣本身脱节，并不是新生命的活出，只是一个以耶稣为模范的意念而已。今日他被当作一个有名无实的宗教首领，被视作一个楷模罢了。当然他是楷模，但他远超乎此。他是救恩，他就是神的福音。

耶稣说：“真理的圣灵来了……他要荣耀我。”当我接受了新约的启示，就是接受了神所赐的圣灵；圣灵会向我解明耶稣的作为，把耶稣基督为我所作的客观事实，变作我的主观经历。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，唤醒我、激励我，以致我那必死的身体，能真正顺服祢的灵。

November 29 The Absoluteness Of Jesus Christ

“He shall glorify Me.” John 16:14

The pietistic movements of to-day have none of the rugged reality of the New Testament about them; there is nothing about them that needs the Death of Jesus Christ; all that is required is a pious atmosphere, and prayer and devotion. This type of experience is not supernatural nor miraculous, it did not cost the passion of God, it is not dyed in the blood of the Lamb, not stamped with the hall-mark of the Holy Ghost; it has not that mark on it which makes men say, as they look with awe and wonder – “That is the work of God Almighty.” That and nothing else is what the New Testament talks about.

The type of Christian experience in the New Testament is that of personal passionate devotion to the Person of Jesus Christ. Every other type of Christian experience, so called, is detached from the Person of Jesus. There is no regeneration, no being born again into the Kingdom in which Christ lives, but only the idea that He is our Pattern. In the New Testament Jesus Christ is Saviour long before He is Pattern. To-day He is being despatched as the Figurehead of a Religion, a mere Example. He is that, but He is infinitely more; He is salvation itself, He is the Gospel of God.

Jesus said, “When He the Spirit of truth is come . . . He shall glorify Me.” When I commit myself to the revelation made in the New Testament, I receive from God the gift of the Holy Spirit Who begins to interpret to me what Jesus did and does in me subjectively all that Jesus Christ did for me objectively.

他所赐我的恩，不是徒然的。（林前十五10）

我们不断地诉说自己无能，实在是对创造主的侮辱。一味怨叹自己不成事，等于毁谤神疏于照顾。若你经常用神的眼光察看那些在人听来是谦卑的话，便会惊讶那话是多么不合情理。“啊，我不敢说自己已经成圣，我不是个圣徒。”向神说这话，就等于说：“主啊，你无法救我、叫我成圣，我没有好的机缘，我身体、心灵太多缺陷，主啊，没可能。”在人面前听来，可能谦卑非常，但在神面前却是轻慢。

反之，在神面前听来谦卑的，在人听来可能变得骄傲。你说：“感谢神，我知道我得救了，成圣了。”在神面前，是谦卑的顶峰，表示你已完全把自己归服神，你深知他是真实的。别理会人家听来是否谦卑，只要常常在神面前谦卑，让他成为你的一切。

只有一个关系是绝顶重要的，就是你与救主个人的关系。其他一切只管失去，却要不惜任何代价持守与主的关系，神就会透过你的生命成就他的计划。在神的计划中，一个人的生命可以有无比的价值，你的生命也可能如此。

祈祷◆无所不能的主神啊，你在耶稣基督里彰显了自己，如今我来到你的面前，毫不掩饰自己绝对需要你，并且在自己的贫乏中欢喜快乐。

November 30 By The Grace Of God I Am What I Am

“His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:10

The way we continually talk about our own inability is an insult to the Creator. The deploring of our own incompetence is a slander against God for having overlooked us. Get into the habit of examining in the sight of God the things that sound humble before men, and you will be amazed at how staggeringly impertinent they are. “Oh, I shouldn't like to say I am sanctified; I'm not a saint.” Say that before God; and it means – “No, Lord, it is impossible for You to save and sanctify me; there are chances I have not had; so many imperfections in my brain and body; no, Lord, it isn't possible.” That may sound wonderfully humble before men, but before God it is an attitude of defiance.

Again, the things that sound humble before God may sound the opposite before men. To say "Thank God, I know I am saved and sanctified" is in the sight of God the acme of humility, it means you have so completely abandoned yourself to God that you know He is true. Never bother your head as to whether what you say sounds humble before men or not, but always be humble before God, and let Him be all in all.

There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal Redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all costs, and God will fulfil His purpose through your life. One individual life may be of priceless value to God's purposes, and yours may be that life.

因为凡遵守全法律的，只在一条上跌倒，他就是犯了众条。（雅二10)

律法并不因我们是软弱的人而稍徇情面，它不理会我们有什么遗传因素和缺陷，只要求我们绝对道德。律法从不更改，不管你是最高尚还是最软弱的，它永远都不改变。神所定的律法，并不迁就人的软弱，也不因人的缺点而修改，它是永远绝对的。我们若不领会这一点，是因为我们并未真正活着；一旦活着，生命就成了一个悲剧。“我以前没有律法是活着的，但是诫命来到，罪又活了，我就死了。”若明白这点，神的灵就叫我们自知有罪。除非人到了自知绝望的地步，否则耶稣基督的十字架不过是一场闹剧。自觉有罪，叫人对捆绑人的律法产生恐惧，又叫人绝望，因为“被卖给罪”。我，一个污秽的罪人，永无法与神和好，是绝无可能的。只有一个方法可以与神和好，就是藉耶稣基督的死。我必须除掉那潜伏的思想，以为可以因顺服得与神和好－－有谁能绝对完全顺服神哩！

当律法带着“假若”而来，我们才体会它势力之大。神从不勉强我们。我们有时想神逼我们去做，但心情变了时，又想神不要管我们。当神的旨意得势，就不会有被逼的感觉了。我们若是定志顺服他，他就会以无穷的大能，召唤最远的星，及最后的一粒沙来帮助我们。

祈祷◆主啊，我完全投向你。愿这样的气氛充满我们、环绕我们，好叫我们成为涌流活水江河的人。

December 1 The Law And The Gospel

“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10

The moral law does not consider us as weak human beings at all, it takes no account of our heredity and infirmities, it demands that we be absolutely moral. The moral law never alters, either for the noblest or for the weakest, it is eternally and abidingly the same. The moral law ordained by God does not make itself weak to the weak, it does not palliate our shortcomings, it remains absolute for all time and eternity. If we do not realize this, it is because we are less than alive; immediately we are alive, life becomes a tragedy. “I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” When we realize this, then the Spirit of God convicts us of sin. Until a man gets there and sees that there is no hope, the Cross of Jesus Christ is a farce to him. Conviction of sin always brings a fearful binding sense of the law, it makes a man hopeless – “sold under sin.” I, a guilty sinner, can never get right with God, it is impossible. There is only one way in which I can get right with God, and that is by the Death of Jesus Christ. I must get rid of the lurking idea that I can ever be right with God because of my obedience – which of us could ever obey God to absolute perfection!

We only realize the power of the moral law when it comes with an “if.” God never coerces us. In one mood we wish He would make us do the thing, and in another mood we wish He would leave us alone. Whenever God's will is in the ascendant, all compulsion is gone. When we choose deliberately to obey Him, then He will tax the remotest star and the last grain of sand to assist us with all His almighty power.

这不是说，我已经得着了，已经完全了……（腓三12）

以为神要把我们造成一个完全的样本，好表彰他的能力，这是个陷阱。神的目的是要我们与他合一。强调圣洁的运动，很容易使我们有一种观念，就是以为神要制造一些圣洁的样本，放在他的博物馆里。你若一心追求这种个人圣洁的观念，你生命的指标就不是神，而是你所称为彰显神的东西。你说：“神的旨意绝不会叫我生病。”若按神的旨意，他的儿子也要受压伤的话，为什么他不可以压伤你？神旨意的彰显，不在乎你认为圣徒应该怎样；你与耶稣基督的关系，才是最重要的。不论健康或生病，都要一心归依他。

信徒的完全，绝不是人的完全。信徒的完全是与神关系的完全，在人生毫不相干的大小事上显明出来。当你顺服主耶稣的呼召，第一件叫你惊讶的事，就是你所作的都无关痛痒。另一件叫你诧异的事，是别人都似乎过着合情合理的生活，他们的生活很容易使你觉得不需要神——即使单靠人努力与热心，也能达到神的要求。可是在失落的世界里，这是绝不可能的。我被召是要过一个与神有完美关系的生活，以致我的生命能引发别人对神的渴慕，而不是对我本身的钦仰。只顾自己，会减低给神使用的效能。神不是要把我塑造到十全十美，好放在陈列室里；他是要带领我到一个他可以使用我的地方。让神喜欢怎样做就怎样做。

祈祷◆主啊，今天早上，我察觉自己多么强烈的需要你；愿你照你在基督耶稣里的丰盛，满足我的需要，直至我完全被你的供应所改变。

December 2 Christian Perfection

“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. . . .” Philippians 3:12

It is a snare to imagine that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do; God's purpose is to make us one with Himself. The emphasis of holiness movements is apt to be that God is producing specimens of holiness to put in His museum. If you go off on this idea of personal holiness, the dead-set of your life will not be for God, but for what you call the manifestation of God in your life. “It can never be God's will that I should be sick.” If it was God's will to bruise His own Son, why should He not bruise you? The thing that tells for God is not your relevant consistency to an idea of what a saint should be, but your real vital relation to Jesus Christ, and your abandonment to Him whether you are well or ill.

Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship to God which shows itself amid the irrelevancies of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that strikes you is the irrelevancy of the things you have to do, and the next thing that strikes you is the fact that other people seem to be living perfectly consistent lives. Such lives are apt to leave you with the idea that God is unnecessary, by human effort and devotion we can reach the standard God wants. In a fallen world this can never be done. I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life produces a longing after God in other lives, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God is not after perfecting me to be a specimen in His show-room; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He likes.

我说的话讲的道，不是用智慧委婉的言语，乃是用圣灵和大能的明证。（林前二4）

传福音的时候，会拦阻人接触神的实体。宣扬救恩之道时，你对神的信心有根有基。千万不可依靠自己阐释的精确；在你阐释的当儿，紧记依靠圣灵。要靠赖神救赎的大能，相信这能力的确实，这样，他就要在人心中创造他自己的生命。

你一旦扎根于那真正的实体，就无可动摇。但若信心建基于经历，那么，任何事情都可以推翻你的信心；神和他救赎大能的真实，是无法推倒的；把信心建基其上，你就像神一样永远坚定。你一旦与主耶稣接触过，就永不再动摇了，这就是成圣的意思。我们若把成圣单放在经历上，忘记了成圣本身也需要先经洁净（约十七19），神就会对人的经历加以否定。我要立志把成圣的生命交给神使用，这样他能用我做他的手、他的脚。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，当我没有用足够的时间祈祷，感谢你给予那些无以言状的预感和心灵之光。主啊，如今我仰望你；愿你临近，噢，恩慈的主啊，愿你临近，并且愿你在今天赐给我恩典，使我在你里面欢喜快乐。

December 3 Not By Might Nor By Power

“And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” 1 Corinthians 2:4

If in preaching the Gospel you substitute your clear knowledge of the way of salvation for confidence in the power of the Gospel, you hinder people getting to Reality. You have to see that while you proclaim your knowledge of the way of salvation, you yourself are rooted and grounded in faith in God. Never rely on the clearness of your exposition, but as you give your exposition see that you are relying on the Holy Spirit. Rely on the certainty of God's redemptive power, and He will create His own life in souls.

When once you are rooted in Reality, nothing can shake you. If your faith is in experiences, any thing that happens is likely to upset that faith; but nothing can ever upset God or the almighty Reality of Redemption; base your faith on that, and you are as eternally secure as God. When once you get into personal contact with Jesus Christ, you will never be moved again. That is the meaning of sanctification. God puts His disapproval on human experience when we begin to adhere to the conception that sanctification is merely an experience, and forget that sanctification itself has to be sanctified (see John 17:19). I have deliberately to give my sanctified life to God for His service, so that He can use me as His hands and His feet.

得胜的……（启二7）

不管天然生命或是在恩典中的生命，都不可能没有争战。物质、精神、道德、以及属灵生命的基础，在于敌对。这是生命中显而易见的事实。健康就是物质生命与外在自然界之间的平衡。人必须内在有足够的活力，对抗外界的东西，才能维持健康。外在的东西，可以危害肉体的生命，置我于死地。在我生时养活我的东西，在我死后把我分化。我若有足够的战斗力，就有健康的平衡。精神生活也是如此，若要保持强健的智力，必须斗争，然后心智的平衡－－思想－－才能产生。

在道德方面，都是我里面德行的敌人。我能否得胜，生发善行，就视乎我道德的力量如何了。只要我一争战，在那一事上，我就有了道德。没有人的德行是自然而然的；德行是要经后天的奋斗而取得的。

灵性方面，亦是如此。耶稣说：“在世上你们有苦难。”任何不属灵的东西，都是于我有害。但“你们可以放心，我已经胜了世界。”我要学习胜过那些敌对我的，这样就可以产生圣洁的平衡；而面对敌挡，也成了兴奋的事。圣洁就是我的性情与神藉耶稣基督所表现的律，二者之间的平衡。

祈祷◆主耶稣啊，你在两千年前曾“道成肉身”，来到这世上。愿你今天再次临到这里，藉着我的肉身彰显你自己－－“基督在你里面，成为荣耀的盼望”。

December 4 The Law Of Antagonism

“To him that overcometh. . . .” Revelation 2:7

Life without war is impossible either in nature or in grace. The basis of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual life is antagonism. This is the open fact of life.

Health is the balance between physical life and external nature, and it is maintained only by sufficient vitality on the inside against things on the outside. Everything outside my physical life is designed to put me to death. Things which keep me going when I am alive, disintegrate me when I am dead. If I have enough fighting power, I produce the balance of health. The same is true of the mental life. If I want to maintain a vigorous mental life, I have to fight, and in that way the mental balance called thought is produced.

Morally it is the same. Everything that does not partake of the nature of virtue is the enemy of virtue in me, and it depends on what moral calibre I have whether I overcome and produce virtue. Immediately I fight, I am moral in that particular. No man is virtuous because he cannot help it; virtue is acquired.

And spiritually it is the same. Jesus said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation,” i.e., every thing that is not spiritual makes for my undoing, but – “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” I have to learn to score off the things that come against me, and in that way produce the balance of holiness; then it becomes a delight to meet opposition.

Holiness is the balance between my disposition and the law of God as expressed in Jesus Christ.

惟独在宝座上，我比你大。（创四十一40）

在神的主权下，我必须向神交代怎样管理自己的身体。保罗说他不能徒受神的恩典，就是把神的恩典当作无用的。神的恩典是绝对的，耶稣的救恩是完全的，是永远有功效的。我不是在蒙拯救中，乃是已经得救。救恩正如神的宝座一样永恒不改；我要作的，是把神放进我里面的活出来。“作成你们得救的功夫”是我的责任，意思是我要明明的，着力的，而不是隐秘的，以我的身子活出主耶稣的生命。“我是攻克己身，叫身服我。”每一圣徒都当把身体服在神绝对的管治下。神要我们管理整个圣灵的殿，管理自己的幻想和情感。为此我们要负责任，绝不可放任感情。我们往往严于责人，宽于恕己；为自己制造许多藉口，却定别人的罪，因为那些事是我们自己天性不喜好的。

保罗说：“我以神的慈悲劝你们，将身体献上，当作活祭。”决定的因素在于：“我同意以我的身体作神的殿吗？”若然，那我整个身体的律就总括在这个启示里：我的身体是圣灵的殿。

祈祷◆主啊，我肉身的生命若没有了你，是何等暗晦、冷漠和忧郁；求你以你神性的生命，来充满我。

December 5 The Temple Of The Holy Ghost

“Only in the throne will I be greater than thou.” Genesis 41:40

I have to account to God for the way in which I rule my body under His domination. Paul said he did not “frustrate the grace of God” – make it of no effect. The grace of God is absolute, the salvation of Jesus is perfect, it is done for ever. I am not being saved, I am saved; salvation is as eternal as God's throne; the thing for me to do is to work out what God works in. “Work out your own salvation,” I am responsible for doing it. It means that I have to manifest in this body the life of the Lord Jesus, not mystically, but really and emphatically. “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.” Every saint can have his body under absolute control for God. God has made us to have government over all the temple of the Holy Spirit, over imaginations and affections. We are responsible for these, and we must never give way to inordinate affections. Most of us are much sterner with others than we are in regard to ourselves; we make excuses for things in ourselves whilst we condemn in others things to which we are not naturally inclined.

“I beseech you,” says Paul, “present your bodies a living sacrifice.” The point to decide is this – “Do I agree with my Lord and Master that my body shall be His temple?” If so, then for me the whole of the law for the body is summed up in this revelation, that my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.

我把虹放在云彩中，这就可作我与地立约的记号了。（创九13）

神的旨意是要人类与他有道德上的关系，而他的约就是为此。“为什么神不救我？”他已经救了我，只是我还没有与他建立关系。“为什么神不作这个？又不作那个？”他已经做了，问题是我是否肯踏进这个约的关系里？神一切大恩已经作成，不过我要先因他的约，与他建立关系，这一切才成为我的。

等待神是不信的化身，表示我对他不信任；我等待神在我里面作事，好叫我可以信得过他。神不会这样做，因为这不是神与人关系的基础。在人与神的约中，人要离开自己，正如神在他与人的约中付出自己一样。问题是在于我们对神的信心－－一样非常难得的东西。我们往往只信自己的感觉；要神把东西放进我们手里，知道实在有了，否则就不肯信。得着了，就说“如今我信了。”这并不是信。“仰望我的，必然得救。”

我若当真与神立约，完全交托，不再自觉有功，不再有人的成分在内，只意识到完全与神合一，那时一切都会变得平安喜乐。

祈祷◆主啊，愿你今天以充沛的能力，以及甜蜜的恩慈和美善，来感动我们每个人的生命；让它有机会彰显你的面容和能力。

December 6 The Bow In The Cloud

“I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth.” Genesis 9:13

It is the Will of God that human beings should get into moral relationship with Him, and His covenants are for this purpose. Why does not God save me? He has saved me, but I have not entered into relationship with Him. Why does not God do this and that? He has done it, the point is – Will I step into covenant relationship? All the great blessings of God are finished and complete, but they are not mine until I enter into relationship with Him on the basis of His covenant.

Waiting for God is incarnate unbelief, it means that I have no faith in Him; I wait for Him to do something in me that I may trust in that. God will not do it, because that is not the basis of the God-and-man relationship. Man has to go out of himself in his covenant with God as God goes out of Himself in His covenant with man. It is a question of faith in God – the rarest thing; we have faith only in our feelings. I do not believe God unless He will give me something in my hand whereby I may know I have it, then I say – “Now I believe.” There is no faith there. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved.”

When I have really transacted business with God on His covenant and have let go entirely, there is no sense of merit, no human ingredient in it at all, but a complete overwhelming sense of being brought into union with God, and the whole thing is transfigured with peace and joy.

依着神的意思忧愁，就生出没有后悔的懊悔来，以致得救。（林后七10）

对罪的自责，这些话说的最贴切：“我的罪，我的罪啊，落在你身上，我的救主，多悲痛！”认罪是一个人最罕有的打击，那是认识神的门槛。耶稣基督说圣灵来，是叫人为罪自责；当圣灵唤醒人的良心，叫他面对神的时候，使他不安的，不是与人的关系，而是与神的关系－－“我向你犯罪，惟独得罪了你，在你眼前行了这恶。”认罪、赦免和圣洁三者奇妙的交织着，只有蒙赦罪的人，才成为圣洁。他蒙赦免的证据，是因着神的恩典，以致前后判若两人。悔改总叫人承认：“我犯了罪。”一个人肯这样忠心表示，就是神作工的最大明证。若非这样，那就只不过是因犯错事而生的懊悔，是鄙屑自己的一种反射作用罢了。

进入神的国度，是藉着悔改的苦痛，刺透人自以为是的高贵良善；然后圣灵来了，在人里面开始创造神儿子的生命。新生命的表彰，是明明的悔改，与不知不觉的成圣，绝不会有相反表现的。基督信仰的基石是悔改。严格来说，人无法自己悔改，悔改是神的礼物。古代清教徒就常求“眼泪的恩赐”。所以什么时候你不再觉得悔改的好处，就是在黑暗里了。试省察自己，是否已忘记了怎样知错。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，藉着你的圣灵和恩典，我的内心产生和孕育了极大的渴望－－愿我能适当地赞美你。

December 7 Repentance

“For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.” 2 Corinthians 7:10

Conviction of sin is best portrayed in the words –

“My sins, my sins, my Saviour,
How sad on Thee they fall.”

Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict of sin, and when the Holy Spirit rouses a man's conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not his relationship with men that bothers him, but his relationship with God – “against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.” The marvels of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man, he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God's grace. Repentance always brings a man to this point: I have sinned. The surest sign that God is at work is when a man says that and means it. Anything less than this is remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself.

The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man's respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life. The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a man cannot repent when he chooses; repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for “the gift of tears.” If ever you cease to know the virtue of repentance, you are in darkness. Examine yourself and see if you have forgotten how to be sorry.

因为他一次献祭，便叫那得以成圣的人永远完全。（来十14）

若以为得赦免是因为自己的悔罪，实在是践踏神儿子的血。神赦免我们，对我们无比的宽恕，是因为耶稣基督的死。我们的悔改，只是我们对他成就了的救赎工作，有个人体认而产生的后果。“基督耶稣成了我们智慧、公义、圣洁与救赎。”一旦知道基督成为我们这一切时，神无比的喜乐就开始了；神的喜乐何时止住，死亡的定案就仍然作祟。

不管我们是什么人，是怎么样的人，耶稣基督的死，都可以使我们与神重新建立关系。不是因为耶稣基督苦苦哀求，乃是因着他的死，我们才得拯救，此外别无他途。这不是赚回来的，而是白白领受。若一味苦求，故意拒绝十字架，那是绝无功效的。这样做，是叩错了主并未开启的门。我不想走那条路，把我当作罪人般看待，太屈辱了。“除他以外，别无拯救……”表面看来无情，其实是神真正的用心，开放无阻的通道，让人到他那里去。“我们在宝血中得蒙赦罪。”与基督耶稣同钉十字架，就是向一切不在他里面的东西死去。

神有理由拯救坏人，倘若他能改变他们。我们的主不会把我们的错事，一概当作对的。救赎就是神藉耶稣的死所成就的和解，叫不洁的人成为圣洁。

祈祷◆“求你使我专心敬畏你的名！”我的心充塞着自私、自觉和次好的东西，它们在我脑中盘旋，妨碍我的祈祷。主啊，愿你全能的手帮助我！

December 8 The Impartial Power Of God

“For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” Hebrews 10:14

We trample the blood of the Son of God under foot if we think we are forgiven because we are sorry for our sins. The only explanation of the forgiveness of God and of the unfathomable depth of His forgetting is the Death of Jesus Christ. Our repentance is merely the outcome of our personal realization of the Atonement which He has worked out for us. “Christ Jesus . . . is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” When we realize that Christ is made all this to us, the boundless joy of God begins; wherever the joy of God is not present, the death sentence is at work.

It does not matter who or what we are, there is absolute reinstatement into God by the death of Jesus Christ and by no other way, not because Jesus Christ pleads, but because He died. It is not earned, but accepted. All the pleading which deliberately refuses to recognize the Cross is of no avail; it is battering at another door than the one which Jesus has opened. I don't want to come that way, it is too humiliating to be received as a sinner. “There is none other Name . . .” The apparent heartlessness of God is the expression of His real heart, there is boundless entrance in His way. “We have forgiveness through His blood.” Identification with the death of Jesus Christ means identification with Him to the death of everything that never was in Him.

God is justified in saving bad men only as He makes them good. Our Lord does not pretend we are all right when we are all wrong. The Atonement is a propitiation whereby God through the death of Jesus makes an unholy man holy.

凡属基督耶稣的人，是已经把肉体，连肉体的邪情私欲，同钉在十字架上了。（加五24）

天然生命不是罪恶的，我们必须脱离罪，不再与罪有任何瓜葛。罪属于地狱和魔鬼；我，神的儿女，属于天堂和神。问题不是要放弃罪，而是放弃自己的主权，我天然的独断与自恃，是争战之所在地。天然观点看来善美正确的东西，往往使我们得不着神最好的。天然善行往往是降服于神的拦阻。洞悉这一点，就到了心灵大战的核心。少有人为错失、卑污、邪恶争辩，但却会为善德争辩。善事是至善的对头，天然善行愈高，与耶稣基督的敌对就愈劲。“在基督里的人是把肉体钉在十字架上了。”你要付出天然生命的一切，不是一部分。耶稣说：“人若要作我的门徒，就当舍己。”就是放下自己的主权；人先要认识耶稣基督是谁，才能这样放下。当心，不要拒绝参加你自主权的丧礼。

天然生命不是属灵的，只有献上，才成为属灵。若不彻底把天然生命当祭物献上，超然的生命就无法在我们里面成为天然的。这条不是康庄大道，各人必须下定决心。这也不是祈祷的问题，而是行动的问题。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我何等肯定自己需要对你有一个更崇高的观念。在这个祈求中，我愿放下所有次要的东西，为了叫自己配去荣耀你。

December 9 The Offence Of The Natural

“And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Galatians 5:24

The natural life is not sinful; we must be apostatized from sin, have nothing to do with sin in any shape or form. Sin belongs to hell and the devil; I, as a child of God, belong to heaven and God. It is not a question of giving up sin, but of giving up my right to myself, my natural independence and self-assertiveness, and this is where the battle has to be fought. It is the things that are right and noble and good from the natural stand point that keep us back from God's best. To discern that natural virtues antagonize surrender to God, is to bring our soul into the centre of its greatest battle. Very few of us debate with the sordid and evil and wrong, but we do debate with the good. It is the good that hates the best, and the higher up you get in the scale of the natural virtues, the more intense is the opposition to Jesus Christ. “They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh” – it is going to cost the natural in you everything, not something. Jesus said – “If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself,” i.e., his right to himself, and a man has to realize Who Jesus Christ is before he will do it. Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence.

The natural life is not spiritual, and it can only be made spiritual by sacrifice. If we do not resolutely sacrifice the natural, the supernatural can never become natural in us. There is no royal road there; each of us has it entirely in his own bands. It is not a question of praying, but of performing.

亚伯拉罕有两个儿子，一个是使女生的，一个是自主之妇人生的。（加四22）

保罗在加拉太书这一章中，不是讨论罪的问题，而是讨论天然与属灵二者的关系。天然的必须献上，成为属灵，否则在实际生活上，会产生很大的分歧。为什么神要命定天然生命必须被钉死？神并没有如此命定。这并不是神的命令，而是他许可的旨意。神的命令是要肉体的生命藉顺服成为属灵；因为罪，肉体的生命才必须成为祭品。

亚伯拉罕必须先献上以实玛利，才能献上以撒。不少人想在未治死肉体之先，就献属灵的祭给神。向神献属灵的祭唯一的途径，就是把身体当作活祭献上。成圣不只是脱离罪恶，乃是立志把神所救赎出来的这个自己交付神，是不惜任何代价的。

若不把天然生命献给属灵生命，那肉体生命会嘲弄神儿子在我们里面的生命，而产生一种延续的拉锯战。这是一个不受约束的属灵品性必然的后果。我们走差路，是因为执意不肯在身体、道德及心志上操练管治自己。“作孩子的时候，不受约束”。如今你必须约束自己。否则，你会毁掉整个为神而活的生命。

我们若放任肉体的生命，神就不与它同在；但当我们肯把它放逐出去，决意制服它，神就与它同在，启开活井绿洲，成就对肉体生命的一切应许。

祈祷◆愿你使这一整天，成为甘甜和喜乐的日子。愿你那随心所欲的大能，恩慈地临到我的身心灵，让我们藉此承担今天的一切事情。

December 10 The Offering Of The Natural

“Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.” Galatians 4:22

Paul is not dealing with sin in this chapter of Galatians, but with the relation of the natural to the spiritual. The natural must be turned into the spiritual by sacrifice, otherwise a tremendous divorce will be produced in the actual life. Why should God ordain the natural to be sacrificed? God did not. It is not God's order, but His permissive will. God's order was that the natural should be transformed into the spiritual by obedience; it is sin that made it necessary for the natural to be sacrificed.

Abraham had to offer up Ishmael before he offered up Isaac. Some of us are trying to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God before we have sacrificed the natural. The only way in which we can offer a spiritual sacrifice to God is by presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. Sanctification means more than deliverance from sin, it means the deliberate commitment of myself whom God has saved to God, and that I do not care what it costs.

If we do not sacrifice the natural to the spiritual, the natural life will mock at the life of the Son of God in us and produce a continual swither. This is always the result of an undisciplined spiritual nature. We go wrong because we stubbornly refuse to discipline ourselves, physically, morally or mentally. “I wasn't disciplined when I was a child.” You must discipline yourself now. If you do not, you will ruin the whole of your personal life for God.

God is not with our natural life while we pamper it; but when we put it out in the desert and resolutely keep it under, then God will be with it; and He will open up wells and oases, and fulfill all His promises for the natural.

若有人要跟从我，就当舍己。（太十六24）

个性是个人生命的外壳，会拒人千里之外，又会把人隔离。不错，个性是每个人的特质，但若错把个性当作个人生命的话，我们只会一直与人隔绝。个性是神创造的天然保障，为覆庇生命的外衣。但是若要生命与神相交，则必须放下我们的个性。个性会冒充性格，正如情欲冒充爱情。神造人的天性，是为他自己；而个性却把人的天性低贬成只为自己。

个性的特征，就是独立自主、自我表现。最拦阻属灵生命的，是个性不断涌流。你若说“我不相信”，是因为个性的拦阻。个性永不会相信。反之，性格却不能不信。圣灵在你身上作工时，会把你推到个性的尽头处，这时你只能说“我不愿”；或降服于神，打破个性的外壳，让个人生命流出来。圣灵每次往往集中在一件事上（参太五23-24）。叫你不肯与弟兄和好的，就是你的个性。神要你与他联合，可是你若不肯放下自己的主权，就无法实现。“就当舍己”－－舍弃自己独立的主权，这样，真正的生命才有生长的机会。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我的主人，愿我今天自觉地属于你，以致我与你在一起。因着你拥有了我而充满了童真的喜悦。

December 11 Individuality

“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself.” Matthew 16:24

Individuality is the husk of the personal life. Individuality is all elbows, it separates and isolates. It is the characteristic of the child and rightly so; but if we mistake individuality for the personal life, we will remain isolated. The shell of individuality is God's created natural covering for the protection of the personal life; but individuality must go in order that the personal life may come out and be brought into fellowship with God. Individuality counterfeits personality as lust counterfeits love. God designed human nature for Himself; individuality debases human nature for itself.

The characteristics of individuality are independence and self-assertiveness. It is the continual assertion of individuality that hinders our spiritual life more than anything else. If you say – “I cannot believe,” it is because individuality is in the road; individuality never can believe. Personality cannot help believing. Watch yourself when the Spirit of God is at work. He pushes you to the margins of your individuality, and you have either to say – “I shan't,” or to surrender, to break the husk of individuality and let the personal life emerge. The Holy Spirit narrows it down every time to one thing (cf. Matthew 5:23-24). The thing in you that will not be reconciled to your brother is your individuality. God wants to bring you into union with Himself, but unless you are willing to give up your right to yourself He cannot. “Let him deny himself” – deny his independent right to himself, then the real life has a chance to grow.

使他们合而为一，像我们合而为一。（约十七22）

性格就是指我们与别人不同的特质，是独特的，难以估量的，就连我们自己也往往不尽了解。海上的小岛，往往是大山顶尖。性格就如小岛，至于底下的奥秘，我们一无所知，因此便无法衡量自己。我们自以为自知，但最终才知道只有一位明白我们，就是造我们的神。

性格是属灵生命的特质，正如个性是天然生命的特质。我们只能以性格，而断不能以个别性和独立性来说明主的身份。“我与父原为一。”性格是可以融合的，只有当你与别人融合，才显出你真正身份。当爱或是神的灵激动一个人，他就会改变，不再坚持自己分隔的个别性。主从不按个性，也就是人与人隔离的身份说话，他只提到性格－－“使他们合而为一，像我们合而为一”。你若把自己的主权放弃给神，你性格的真本质就立刻向神呼应。耶稣基督把人的性格释放了，而人的个性也随之改变。改变的元素是爱，就是个人对主耶稣的忠诚。爱是人格的倾出，与另一个人格相通契合。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，这是你的日子，我祈求你以你那极大的恩福施恩给我。能够靠近你是何等的奇妙！

December 12 Personality

“That they may be one, even as we are one.” John 17:22

Personality is that peculiar, incalculable thing that is meant when we speak of ourselves as distinct from everyone else. Our personality is always too big for us to grasp. An island in the sea may be but the top of a great mountain. Personality is like an island, we know nothing about the great depths underneath, consequently we cannot estimate ourselves. We begin by thinking that we can, but we come to realize that there is only one Being Who understands us, and that is our Creator.

Personality is the characteristic of the spiritual man as individuality is the characteristic of the natural man. Our Lord can never be defined in terms of individuality and independence, but only in terms of personality, “I and My Father are one.” Personality merges, and you only reach your real identity when you are merged with another person. When love, or the Spirit of God strikes a man, he is transformed, he no longer insists upon his separate individuality. Our Lord never spoke in terms of individuality, of a man's “elbows” or his isolated position, but in terms of personality – “that they may be one, even as We are one.” If you give up your right to yourself to God, the real true nature of your personality answers to God straight away. Jesus Christ emancipates the personality, and the individuality is transfigured; the transfiguring element is love, personal devotion to Jesus. Love is the outpouring of one personality in fellowship with another personality.

常常祷告，不可灰心。（路十八1）

你若不深信救赎的实在，就无法代求；因为你只会把代求变成对人类无可奈何的同情，徒增人的自满自足，与神隔绝。代求，是把激动你心的那个人或事，带到神面前，直到你被神对那人那事的态度所推动。代求是“补满基督患难的缺欠”，无怪乎代求的人那么少。很多人说代求是“设身处地的为那人着想”，不！代求其实是把自己放在神的位置上，从他的角度看事物。

作为一个神的工人，你所知道的实情是神要你知道的，否则便会重压难当。知得过多，过于神要你知道的，你就无法祷告；因人的景况把你压下去，以致你不能进入现实去。

我们的工作是在凡事上与神联系，可是我们却因做个活跃不已的工人，而推卸这个职责。我们拼命做一些可统计的工作，但不做代求的工作。代求是完全没有缠绕网罗的，因为可使我们与神的关系完全敝开。

代求时要当心的，就是不要草草了事。心灵必须着实地接触神的生命。试想神在我们生命的路途上，叫我们遇见多少的人，而我们却轻易的让他们溜走。若我们踏稳在救赎的根基上祷告，神就会创造除代求以外无法成就的新事。

祈祷◆主啊，愿你高举我，使我靠近你，以致你那完美的闪耀着喜乐的救恩，能为着你的荣耀而临到我和照亮我。求你保守我，让我向你的代求通行无阻。

December 13 What To Pray For

“Men ought always to pray, and not to faint” Luke 18:1

You cannot intercede if you do not believe in the reality of the Redemption; you will turn intercession into futile sympathy with human beings which will only increase their submissive content to being out of touch with God. In intercession you bring the person, or the circumstance that impinges on you before God until you are moved by His attitude towards that person or circumstance. Intercession means filling up “that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ,” and that is why there are so few intercessors. Intercession is put on the line of – “Put yourself in his place.” Never! Try to put yourself in God's place.

As a worker, be careful to keep pace with the communications of reality from God or you will be crushed. If you know too much, more than God has engineered for you to know, you cannot pray, the condition of the people is so crushing that you cannot get through to reality.

Our work lies in coming into definite contact with God about everything, and we shirk it by becoming active workers. We do the things that can be tabulated but we will not intercede. Intercession is the one thing that has no snares, because it keeps our relationship with God completely open.

The thing to watch in intercession is that no soul is patched up, a soul must get through into contact with the life of God. Think of the number of souls God has brought about our path and we have dropped them! When we pray on the ground of Redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.

我留下平安给你们，我将我的平安赐给你们……你们心里不要忧愁……（约十四27）

个人经历若有什么难过的事，我们很容易会责怪神；但出错的实在不是神，而是我们。我们必定有什么执着不肯放手，一旦肯放手，一切就必晴朗如白昼。若我们要同时事奉神，又事奉自己，就必产生困惑。我们必须对神抱完全信赖的态度，这样，过成圣生活就轻而易举了。有难处是因我们侵夺圣灵的主权，欲达成自己的目的。

你什么时候顺服神，他的印证就是平安。那无比的平安，不是天然的，乃是主耶稣的平安。若平安不来，就要等候直至得着，或找出没有平安的因由。若你行事是出于冲动，或英雄气概，主的平安就不会印证；因为其中没有对神的单纯与信心。单纯的灵是从圣灵而生的，不是出于你的决定，每一个决定都带来反作用，以致失掉单纯。

我一不顺服，问题就来了。我若顺服，问题就不会出于我与神之间，而只会挑旺我的心，叫我稀奇神启示的奇妙。神与我之间任何的问题，都是出于顺服。反之，若许多的问题在我顺服神的当儿出现，只会增加我惊喜的欣愉，因为我知道天父是明察的，我将可细察他怎样解决这些问题。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我投向你。我原本是一个无家可归的人，直至你以你平安的稳妥、你慈爱的甜蜜感觉感动我，我的生命才产生改变。

December 14 The Great Life

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: . . Let not your heart be troubled.” John 14:27

Whenever a thing becomes difficult in personal experience, we are in danger of blaming God, but it is we who are in the wrong, not God, there is some perversity somewhere that we will not let go. Immediately we do, everything becomes as clear as daylight. As long as we try to serve two ends, ourselves and God, there is perplexity. The attitude must be one of complete reliance on God. When once we get there, there is nothing easier than living the saintly life; difficulty comes in when we want to usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit for our own ends.

Whenever you obey God, His seal is always that of peace, the witness of an unfathomable peace, which is not natural, but the peace of Jesus. Whenever peace does not come, tarry till it does or find out the reason why it does not. If you are acting on an impulse, or from a sense of the heroic, the peace of Jesus will not witness; there is no simplicity or confidence in God, because the spirit of simplicity is born of the Holy Ghost, not of your decisions. Every decision brings a reaction of simplicity.

My questions come whenever I cease to obey. When I have obeyed God, the problems never come between me and God, they come as probes to keep the mind going on with amazement at the revelation of God. Any problem that comes between God and myself springs out of disobedience; any problem, and there are many, that is alongside me while I obey God, increases my ecstatic delight, because I know that my Father knows, and I am going to watch and see how He unravels this thing.

你当努力，在神面前得蒙喜悦，作无愧的工人，接着正意分解真理的道。（提后二15）

要是你不能在任何题目上表达自己，就当好好努力，直至你能表达出来，否则，有些人会因此一生贫瘠。试把神某些真理对自己再三说出来，力求改进，神会藉你的话叫别人得益。要进入神的压酒池，竭力用各种方式把道理表达，时候到了，那些话就成为别人得力的美酒。若你懒洋洋地说：“我自己不必努力去表达，我可以借用别人的话。”这样，不但自己无用，对别人也无益。试把神的真理说出来，这样你就给神机会，把资讯带给人。

经常保持反诌的习惯，刺激脑袋再三思想那些理所当然的东西。经过苦练，岗位才真正成为我们的。一个作者叫你收益最大，不是因他把你从不知晓的东西告诉你，而是他把你不能表达的东西表达出来。

祈祷◆主啊，我愿称颂和赞美你，然而，当我身体软弱，我感到赞美你是何其困难，但为何必然是这样呢？这意味着惟有当我感到愉快，我才赞美你。但愿我的心能持续不断地赞美你！

December 15 Approved Unto God

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15

If you cannot express yourself on any subject, struggle until you can. If you do not, someone will be the poorer all the days of his life. Struggle to re-express some truth of God to yourself, and God will use that expression to someone else. Go through the winepress of God where the grapes are crushed. You must struggle to get expression experimentally, then there will come a time when that expression will become the very wine of strengthening to someone else; but if you say lazily – “I am not going to struggle to express this thing for myself, I will borrow what I say,” the expression will not only be of no use to you, but of no use to anyone. Try to state to yourself what you feel implicitly to be God's truth, and you give God a chance to pass it on to someone else through you.

Always make a practice of provoking your own mind to think out what it accepts easily. Our position is not ours until we make it ours by suffering. The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance.

所以要拿起神所赐的全副军装……随时多方祷告祈求……（弗六13-18）

你要与拦阻你亲近神的东西摔跤，为别人祷告时也要摔跤；但千万不要在祷告中与神摔跤，那是不合圣经真理的。你若真与神摔跤，势必一生瘸腿。若神给你一些你不想要的东西，就像雅各一样抓住神，与他摔跤，你就迫使神折断你的腿骨。不要做阻挡神路的人，要在神面前与世上的事物摔跤，因为借着他“已经得胜有余”。在神面前摔跤，必在他国度里见功效。若要我为你代祷，而我在基督里并不完全的话，祷告就无功效；但若我在基督里完全，祷告就随时生效。惟有在完全里，祷告才有功效——“所以要拿起神所赐的全副军装......”

总要分辨什么是神完美纯全的旨意，什么是他容许发生的事，后者是神借以完成他在我们身上的计划。我们不能更改神的旨意，但必须在他面前与一切他容许发生在我们身上的事情摔跤。我们对这些事情的反应，能帮助我们看清楚他在我们身上的旨意。“万事都互相效力，叫爱神的人得益处”－－这里指那些忠于神的吩咐和主耶稣恩召人。神容许发生的事情，往往是他用来显露真正属他的儿女的一个考验。我们不卑躬屈就、不加思索地说：“这是神的旨意。”我们不是与神争斗或摔跤，乃是与那些事情摔跤。当心不可在神面前怠惰地闲坐，而是勇敢地光荣而战，你会发现主的能力充满你。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，倘若我有任何刚强的一面，那只是在你里面得着的刚强。今天早上，我因想起这话而满心欢喜－－“你们要靠着主，倚赖他的大能大力作刚强的人。”

December 16 Wrestling Before God

“Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God . . . praying always . . . ” Ephesians 6:13, 18

You have to wrestle against the things that prevent you from getting to God, and you wrestle in prayer for other souls; but never say that you wrestle with God in prayer, it is scripturally untrue. If you do wrestle with God, you will be crippled all the rest of your life. If, when God comes in some way you do not want, you take hold of Him as Jacob did and wrestle with Him, you compel Him to put you out of joint. Don't be a hirpler in God's ways, but be one who wrestles before God with things, becoming more than conqueror through Him. Wrestling before God tells in His Kingdom. If you ask me to pray for you and I am not complete in Christ, I may pray but it avails nothing; but if I am complete in Christ my prayer prevails all the time. Prayer is only effective when there is completeness – “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God.”

Always distinguish between God's order and His permissive will, i.e., His providential purpose towards us. God's order is unchangeable; His permissive will is that with which we must wrestle before Him. It is our reaction to the permissive will of God that enables us to get at His order. “All things work together for good to them that love God” – to those who remain true to God's order, to His calling in Christ Jesus. God's permissive will is the means whereby His sons and daughters are to be manifested. We are not to be like jelly-fish saying, “It's the Lord's will.” We have not to put up a fight before God, not to wrestle with God, but to wrestle before God with things. Beware of squatting lazily before God instead of putting up a glorious fight so that you may lay hold of His strength.

然而属血气的人不领会 神圣灵的事，反倒以为愚拙。（林前二14）

神的福音能叫人产生对福音的需要。保罗说：“如果我们的福音蒙蔽......”是对那些恶人蒙蔽吗？不是的。“就是蒙蔽在灭亡的人身上，此等不信之人，被这世界的神弄瞎了心眼。”大多数人都有自己持守的道德观念，觉得不需要福音。神于是造出这个需要来；他若不彰显自己，根本没有人觉得有此需要。耶稣说：“祈求，就给你们。”但人未祈求，神就不能给；不是他保留不给，但这是他根据救赎所定下的原则。正因我们求，神就作工，为我们创造那些未求之前不存在的东西。救赎的精义，就是不断的创造；救赎既在我们里面创造了神的生命，也创造属于那生命的东西。惟有叫人产生这需要的，才能满足这需要，这就是救赎的意思－－它创造，它也满足。

“人子若从地上被举起来，就必吸引万人来归我。”我们传讲自己的经历，别人虽感兴趣，可是却不唤起他的需要。若耶稣基督被举起来，神的灵便叫人觉得需要基督。在传扬福音的背后，是神不断创造的救赎大工在人心里动工。个人见证绝对不能拯救人，“我对你们说的话，就是灵，就是生命。”

祈祷◆主啊，我何其渴望看见你、听见你、默想你和愈来愈像你！你曾经说过：“又要以耶和华为乐，他就将你心里所求的赐给你。”

December 17 Redemption Creates The Need It Satisfies

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.” 1 Corinthians 2:14

The Gospel of God creates a sense of need of the Gospel. Paul says – “If our gospel be hid, it is hid” – to those who are blackguards? No, “to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.” The majority of people have their morality well within their own grasp, they have no sense of need of the Gospel. It is God Who creates the need of which no human being is conscious until God manifests Himself. Jesus said – “Ask, and it shall be given you,” but God cannot give until a man asks. It is not that He withholds, but that that is the way He has constituted things on the basis of Redemption. By means of our asking, God gets processes into work whereby He creates the thing that is not in existence until we do ask. The inner reality of Redemption is that it creates all the time. As the Redemption creates the life of God in us, so it creates the things belonging to that life. Nothing can satisfy the need but that which created the need. This is the meaning of Redemption – it creates and it satisfies.

“I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” We preach our own experiences and people are interested, but no sense of need is awakened by it. If once Jesus Christ is lifted up, the Spirit of God will create a conscious need of Him. Behind the preaching of the Gospel is the creative Redemption of God at work in the souls of men. It is never personal testimony that saves men. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.”

我们晓得万事都互相效力，叫爱神的人得益处。（罗八28）

只有忠心耿耿的人，才相信神安排环境。我们往往过于随便，不相信自己的境遇是神所安排；口头上虽然说相信，但当事情发生，往往视作人的作为。在任何情况下忠心，是指只有一个忠心的对象，就是我们的主。神若忽然改变某一个环境，我们就发现自己的不忠，因为没有看出这是出于神。我们根本看不出他的用意，而那件事我们的一生中也不会再重演。忠心的考验都是在那刻临到的。我们若学会在苦痛的环境中敬拜他，神愿意的话，可以在两秒钟内把环境扭转。

向耶稣基督效忠，是我们今日抗拒的事。我们可以忠于工作、事奉、或任何事情，但别叫我们效忠耶稣基督。不少信徒对效忠基督感到不耐烦。信主的人把主从宝座上推下来，比世界的人更甚。神成为一部祝福人的机器，耶稣基督成为工人中的工人。重点不是在我们为神工作，而是在我们完全效忠，以致他能透过我作工－－“我寄望于你的，是要你全力事奉，不发怨言，不求解释。”神要用我们，像他用他儿子一样。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你今天的脸光光照我们，使我们都以极大的甜蜜和自由来配合你的计划，并且活泼轻快地与你一起走过。

December 18 The Test Of Loyalty

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” Romans 8:28

It is only the loyal soul who believes that God engineers circumstances. We take such liberty with our circumstances, we do not believe God engineers them, although we say we do; we treat the things that happen as if they were engineered by men. To be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, and that is to our Lord. Suddenly God breaks up a particular set of circumstances, and the realization comes that we have been disloyal to Him by not recognizing that He had ordered them; we never saw what He was after, and that particular thing will never be repeated all the days of our life. The test of loyalty always comes just there. If we learn to worship God in the trying circumstances, He will alter them in two seconds when He chooses.

Loyalty to Jesus Christ is the thing that we “stick at” to-day. We will be loyal to work, to service, to anything, but do not ask us to be loyal to Jesus Christ. Many Christians are intensely impatient of talking about loyalty to Jesus. Our Lord is dethroned more emphatically by Christian workers than by the world. God is made a machine for blessing men, and Jesus Christ is made a Worker among workers.

The idea is not that we do work for God, but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us – “I reckon on you for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on Mine.” God wants to use us as He used His own Son.

我来，并不是叫地上太平，乃是叫地上动刀兵。（太十34）

若有人的遭遇令你觉得神是冷酷无情的，不要对这人表示同情。神比想像中更柔和，他有时让我们经历艰难，是为我们的好处。人若不能通达主前，是由于他藏着不肯放下的东西－－“我承认有错，但我不打算放弃它。”对这样的人是不需要同情的：即使他们憎恶敌挡我们的信息，也要直斥其非。人都爱神的祝福，可是却不肯接受那些命中要害的东西。

神若是使用你作他的仆人，你的信息就该不通融迁就，直指问题根源，否则人就得不着医治。把信息清楚传讲，使人无可避讳。先从人的本相着手，直到他们发现自己的缺欠，然后举出主耶稣的榜样，“我们永远也不能像耶稣一样！”你就立即说：“耶稣基督说你必须如此。”“我们怎能如此？”“你不能，除非你有了更新的圣灵。”（路十一13）

先要唤起人的需要，你的信息才生果效。世上千万人心中没有神，生活依然快活。我在耶稣未来以先，原是快活的，道德也不差，他来到底做什么？原来那种快乐平安是建筑在错误的水平上；耶稣基督来，就是要用刀剑刺透一切不是建基于与他个人关系的平安。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，今天我来到你的面前，愿你的美善、恩典和充满安慰的平安临到我。愿没有任何风暴、不适或焦虑，触动你在我生命中和在此处的平安。

December 19 What To Concentrate On

“I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Matthew 10:34

Never be sympathetic with the soul whose case makes you come to the conclusion that God is hard. God is more tender than we can conceive, and every now and again He gives us the chance of being the rugged one that He may be the tender One. If a man cannot get through to God it is because there is a secret thing he does not intend to give up – I will admit I have done wrong, but I no more intend to give up that thing than fly. It is impossible to deal sympathetically with a case like that: we have to get right deep down to the root until there is antagonism and resentment against the message. People want the blessing of God, but they will not stand the thing that goes straight to the quick.

If God has had His way with you, your message as His servant is merciless insistence on the one line, cut down to the very root, otherwise there will be no healing. Drive home the message until there is no possible refuge from its application. Begin to get at people where they are until you get them to realize what they lack, and then erect the standard of Jesus Christ for their lives – “We never can be that.” Then drive it home – “Jesus Christ says you must.” “But how can we be?” “You cannot, unless you have a new Spirit.” (Luke 11:13.)

There must be a sense of need before your message is of any use. Thousands of people are happy without God in this world. If I was happy and moral till Jesus came, why did He come? Because that kind of happiness and peace is on a wrong level; Jesus Christ came to send a sword through every peace that is not based on a personal relationship to Himself.

我若从地上被举起来，就要吸引万人来归我。（约十二32）

很少人真正明白主耶稣受死的原因。若世人需要的只是同情，那么耶稣的十字架不过是场闹剧，根本用不着。世界所需要的，不是一点点爱，乃是开刀动手术。

当你面对一个在灵性上遇到困难的人，要提醒自己那在十字架上的耶稣基督。若那人可以从别的途径到神那里，耶稣基督的十字架就是多余。你若以为能用自己的同情心或体谅去帮助人，你就是主的叛徒。你必须与神保持正确的关系，依他的方法为他倾倒，而不是忽略了神、依人的方法去倾倒，但今日最响的调子，却是温和派的宗教。

有一件事不能不做的，就是每时每刻高举被钉的主耶稣。任何教义不植根于耶稣的十字架的，必领人入歧途。工人若深信耶稣基督，紧抓他救赎的真实，和他说话的人必然被吸引。神的工人是否有用，全赖他与耶稣基督的单纯关系。而这种关系是长存的，也是日益加深的。

新约的工人蒙召，是要揭发罪恶并指出耶稣是救主，因此他不能诗情画意，乃是要严谨开刀。我们被差是要高举主耶稣，不是要发表美妙的论说。我们对人的察验必须深入，像神察验我们一样；对圣经要敏锐，把真理直截阐明，勇敢地应用出来。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我察觉到我最近的内心是何其缺少将我对耶稣的信心实践出来，那些隐藏的意欲似乎经常出没。愿你将基督里的单纯引进我的生命，又使我对事情有更深入的看法－－唯一关注的是凡事获得你的认可。

December 20 The Right Lines Of Work

“I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.” John 12:32

Very few of us have any understanding of the reason why Jesus Christ died. If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is a farce, there was no need for it. What the world needs is not “a little bit of love,” but a surgical operation.

When you are face to face with a soul in difficulty spiritually, remind yourself of Jesus Christ on the Cross. If that soul can get to God on any other line, then the Cross of Jesus Christ is unnecessary. If you can help others by your sympathy or understanding, you are a traitor to Jesus Christ. You have to keep your soul rightly related to God and pour out for others on His line, not pour out on the human line and ignore God. The great note to-day is amiable religiosity.

The one thing we have to do is to exhibit Jesus Christ crucified, to lift Him up all the time. Every doctrine that is not imbedded in the Cross of Jesus will lead astray. If the worker himself believes in Jesus Christ and is banking on the Reality of Redemption, the people he talks to must be concerned. The thing that remains and deepens is the worker's simple relationship to Jesus Christ; his usefulness to God depends on that and that alone.

The calling of a New Testament worker is to uncover sin and to reveal Jesus Christ as Saviour, consequently he cannot be poetical, he must be sternly surgical. We are sent by God to lift up Jesus Christ, not to give wonderfully beautiful discourses. We have to probe straight down as deeply as God has probed us, to be keen in sensing the Scriptures which bring the truth straight home and to apply them fearlessly.

我们所领受的……乃是从 神来的灵，叫我们能知道 神开恩赐给我们的事。（林前二12）

救赎本身是事实，而不是我对救恩的经历；不过若不是用我能体会的语言传递出来，救恩对我就毫无意义。重生之后，神的灵就立即把我从自己和自己的经历中领出来，使我与耶稣基督连合。若我仍留在自己的经历中，那些经历必然不是从救恩而来。那经历若是由救恩产生的，最好的明证是我脱离自己，不再以自己的经历作为事实的基础，而只专注于带来这些经历的实体。我的经历若不叫我对准源头－－主耶稣，就一文不值。

你若堵住圣灵，要为自己制造一些主观的经历，你会发觉他会爆溢而出，把你带回历史的基督面前。经历若不植根于神，也不叫你对神产生信心，就不当培育。若然，不管你所见的异象是什么，你的经历与基督敌对的，主耶稣是你经历中的主？还是你要经历作他的主？有没有经历是比主更宝贵的？他要作你的主，你对那些不以他为主的经历不应重视。你会来到一个地步，神叫你对自己的经历不耐烦－－“不管我的经历是什么，我只求持定神。”你若有很多机会谈及自己的经历，就得对自己无情一点。肯定自信的信心，不是信心；对神有把握的信心，才是唯一的信心。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求你除去这思想上的枷锁，为我带来平安、纯洁和能力。愿今天你以温柔、怜悯和恩典来充满我。

December 21 Experience Or Revelation

“We have received . . . the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:12

Reality is Redemption, not my experience of Redemption; but Redemption has no meaning for me until it speaks the language of my conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me right out of myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am left with my experiences, my experiences have not been produced by Redemption. The proof that they are produced by Redemption is that I am led out of myself all the time, I no longer pay any attention to my experiences as the ground of Reality, but only to the Reality which produced the experiences. My experiences are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source, Jesus Christ.

If you try to dam up the Holy Spirit in you to produce subjective experiences, you will find that He will burst all bounds and take you back again to the historic Christ. Never nourish an experience which has not God as its Source and faith in God as its result. If you do, your experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions you may have had. Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you try to lord it over Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? He must be Lord over you, and you must not pay attention to any experience over which He is not Lord. There comes a time when God will make you impatient with your own experience – I do not care what I experience; I am sure of Him.

Be ruthless with yourself if you are given to talking about the experiences you have had. Faith that is sure of itself is not faith; faith that is sure of God is the only faith there is.

若不是差我的父吸引人，就没有能到我这里来的。（约六44）

神吸引我的时候，就是要运用意志的时候－－我对神赐的启示有反应吗？我肯到他那里去吗？把属灵的事拿来议论，是不合体统的；神说话的时候，不要人讨论。信心不是一项智力上的举动，乃是一种道德的反应，特意要把自己投上去。我愿否绝无保留地把自己投上，照神所说的去做？若肯，就会发现自己扎根于安稳如神宝座的实体上。

传福音的时候，记得要提出意志的问题。信仰必须出于意志。意志必须顺服，而不是屈服在说服力之下，乃是立志全部投向神和他所说的话，直至不再把信心建在自己所作的事上，而是惟独信神。其中的拦阻在于我不肯信神，只信自己头脑的理解。以感觉上来说，我必须不顾一切的投注，必须凭意志相信；这样，我必须尽很大的努力，把以往对事物的看法丢弃，只对准神自己，否则便无法做到。

人有一种向自己以外去寻索的本能。是神先吸引我，我与他的首要关系，是个人的，不是理智上的。我因着神的吸引，和我决意的相信，便进入与神的关系中，然后，开始在理智上体会并明白这相交的奇妙。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你大能的同在，今天如帐棚般四面环绕我，愿你的荣耀就在其中。

December 22 The Drawing Of The Father

“No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him.” John 6:44

When God draws me, the issue of my will comes in at once – will I react on the revelation which God gives – will I come to Him? Discussion on spiritual matters is an impertinence. Never discuss with anyone when God speaks. Belief is not an intellectual act; belief is a moral act whereby I deliberately commit myself. Will I dump myself down absolutely on God and transact on what He says? If I will, I shall find I am based on Reality that is as sure as God's throne.

In preaching the gospel, always push an issue of will. Belief must be the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to persuasive power, a deliberate launching forth on God and on what He says until I am no longer confident in what I have done, I am confident only in God. The hindrance is that I will not trust God, but only my mental understanding. As far as feelings go, I must stake all blindly. I must will to believe, and this can never be done without a violent effort on my part to disassociate myself from my old ways of looking at things, and by putting myself right over on to Him.

Every man is made to reach out beyond his grasp. It is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the first place is a personal one, not an intellectual one. I am introduced into the relationship by the miracle of God and my own will to believe, then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transaction.

但我断不以别的夸口，只夸我们主耶稣基督的十字架。（加六14）

耶稣基督的福音总牵涉到意志的问题。我接受神在基督十字架上对罪的宣判吗？我对耶稣的死有丝毫兴趣吗？我愿意与他的死连合，对罪、对世界、对自己的兴趣完全死去，以致除了他，将一切看为有损吗？作门徒的最大权利，就是在十字架上签上名字，表示对罪死了。你要单独来到耶稣面前，对他说你不愿意罪从你身上除净，或对他说你愿意不计代价，与他的死连合。只要你凭信与十架的主相遇，一种超然死的体验随即而生，你会有超乎知识的知识，告诉你“旧人”已经与基督同钉。旧人与基督同钉的明证，就是神在你里面的生命，叫你顺服主的声音，如今是出奇的轻省容易。

有时候，主会让我们看看没有了他我们会怎样，要证明他说：“离了我，你们就不能作什么。”因此，基督教的基石是个人对主耶稣全心全意的爱慕效忠。我们往往以为初信主进入天国时那种惊喜之情，就是神的目的；其实他给我们这经历，目的是要我们体会什么是与主耶稣合一。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着你自己，和靠着你那无所不能的恩典，我学习进入你的同在中；我赞美你。愿你的恩典、亮光和智慧触摸我的身体和心灵；愿你的触摸带来光明和生气。

December 23 How Can I Personally Partake In The Atonement?

“But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” Galatians 6:14

The Gospel of Jesus Christ always forces an issue of will. Do I accept God's verdict on sin in the Cross of Christ? Have I the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death, to be killed right out to all interest in sin, in worldliness, in self – to be so identified with Jesus that I am spoilt for every thing else but Him? The great privilege of discipleship is that I can sign on under His Cross, and that means death to sin. Get alone with Jesus and either tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you; or else tell Him that at all costs you want to be identified with His death. Immediately you transact in confident faith in what Our Lord did on the Cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place, and you will know with a knowledge that passeth knowledge that your “old man” is crucified with Christ. The proof that your old man is crucified with Christ is the amazing ease with which the life of God in you enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.

Every now and again, Our Lord lets us see what we would be like if it were not for Himself; it is a justification of what He said – “Without Me ye can do nothing.” That is why the bedrock of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the ecstasy of our first introduction into the Kingdom for the purpose of God in getting us there; His purpose in getting us there is that we may realize all that identification with Jesus Christ means.

你们的生命与基督一同藏在 神里面。（西三3）

我与基督一同藏在神里面的生命有大能安稳，这事实是神的灵见证的，并且也不断见诸新约各书信中。我往往视成圣生活为最不稳定的东西，其实这是最有保障的，因为全能的神在里面、在后面支持着。最不稳固的生活，是不靠神而活。我们若已重生，只要肯听神的警告，行在光中，最容易的是与神有正确的关系，而最难的是走差路。

有时想脱离罪恶，被圣灵充满，行在光明中，好像高山的顶峰崇高峻妙，我们就会说：“可惜，我怎么也攀不上去！”但一旦靠神恩典上去了，却发现这原来不是一个山顶，而是一片高原，有足够的地方生长。“你使我的道路宽广。”

你若真看见耶稣，我保证你不会对他疑惑。当他说“你心里不要忧愁”，你若真看见他，必然不会忧愁，因为他在这里，根本不用疑惑。每次你单独与他相交，他的话都活现出来。“我将我的平安赐给你们。”这平安要从头顶渗透至脚踵，是无可抗拒的可靠。“你们的生命与基督一同藏在神里面”，主无比的平安就临到你。

祈祷◆“与基督一同藏在神里面”的生命，是何等喜乐的生命！可是，我的神，尽管有着你一切的恩典和忍耐，我仍然不敢有一刻想到我离开这生命有多远。然而，我是你所造的，我要感谢你。

December 24 The Hidden Life

“Your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3

The Spirit of God witnesses to the simple almighty security of the life hid with Christ in God and this is continually brought out in the Epistles. We talk as if it were the most precarious thing to live the sanctified life; it is the most secure thing, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most precarious thing is to try and live without God. If we are born again it is the easiest thing to live in right relationship to God and the most difficult thing to go wrong, if only we will heed God's warnings and keep in the light.

When we think of being delivered from sin, of being filled with the Spirit, and of walking in the light, we picture the peak of a great mountain, very high and wonderful, and we say – “Oh, but I could never live up there!” But when we do get there by God's grace, we find it is not a mountain peak, but a plateau where there is ample room to live and to grow. “Thou hast enlarged my steps under me.”

When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. When He says – “Let not your heart be troubled,” if you see Him I defy you to trouble your mind, it is a moral impossibility to doubt when He is there. Every time you get into personal contact with Jesus, His words are real. “My peace I give unto you,” it is a peace all over from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, an irrepressible confidence. “Your life is hid with Christ in God,” and the imperturbable peace of Jesus Christ is imparted to you.

必有童女怀孕生子，给他起名叫以马内利。就是 神与我们同在的意思。（赛七14）

他在历史中诞生。“因此所要生的圣者，必称为神的儿子。”（路一35）耶稣基督是降生到世界，不是从这世界而出。他不是从历史演进而生，乃是从历史以外而来。耶稣基督不是人类最好的一个；他是完全无法算在人类之内的一位。他不是人变作神，乃是神成了肉身，成了人的形状，是从外而来的。他的生命最崇高最圣洁，却从最卑微的门进来。主的诞生，是降临人间。

他在我里面诞生。“我为你们再受生产之苦，直等到基督成形在你们心里。”(加四19) 主是从外面进到人类历史，同样也从外面进到我里面。我有没有让自己的生命，成为神儿子的伯利恒？我必须从神而生，这与天然的生产完全不同，否则便不能进入神的国度里。“你们必须重生”，这不是命令，而是一项基本的事实。新生的本质，就是我完全降服于神，以致基督成形在我里面，他的本性开始透过我工作。

神在肉身显现－－这是救恩为你我所成就的事实。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，当我们在今早思想以赛亚书第五十三章，愿祢的荣耀将它显明；愿祢使我们变得柔和与温顺，被祢所激励和振奋，并且将我们提升至这种荣耀的事奉，以致我们可以捕捉祢的形象。

December 25 His Birth And Our New Birth

“Behold, a virgin shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” Isaiah 7:14 (R.V.)

His Birth in History. “Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35.) Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not evolve out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being, He is a Being Who cannot be accounted for by the human race at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate, God coming into human flesh, coming into it from outside. His life is the Highest and the Holiest entering in at the Lowliest door. Our Lord's birth was an advent.

His Birth in Me. “Of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” (Gal. 4:19.) Just as Our Lord came into human history from outside, so He must come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter into the realm of the Kingdom of God unless I am born from above by a birth totally unlike natural birth. “Ye must be born again.” This is not a command, it is a foundation fact. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me.

God manifest in the flesh – that is what is made profoundly possible for you and me by the Redemption.

我们若在光明中行，如同神在光明中……他儿子耶稣的血也洗净我们一切的罪。（约壹一7）

自觉脱离罪，得享自由；并不等于已蒙救赎，从罪中得释放。若混淆二者，那是严重的错误。人必须重生，才知何为罪；而罪就是耶稣在十字架上所面对的。我从罪中得释放的证据，就是认识我里头的罪。主耶稣的救恩使人有份于他绝对的完全，叫人知道罪是什么。

圣灵使救恩在我们里面生效，在非意识的领域，也在意识可及的领域；只有当我们体会圣灵在我们里面那无可比拟的能力，我们才明白约翰一书一章7节的意思：“耶稣的血也洗净我们一切的罪。”这不单指人意识到的罪，更是指因内住的圣灵而对罪有深切的认识。

我若像神一样行在光中——不是自己良心的光，而是神的光——没有任何遮掩，就必稀奇地领悟耶稣的血洗净我一切的罪，以致神无法找出可指摘的。在我的意识中，他叫我对罪有一种敏锐而强烈的知觉。神的爱又在我里面，叫我像圣灵恨罪一样，恨恶一切与神圣洁相违的东西。行在光中的意思，就是每一件黑暗的事物，都驱策我更接近光的中枢。

祈祷◆洁净我，噢，主啊，使我脱去灵里一切的罪污，愿你那充满光辉的美善，今天临到我身上。

December 26 Placed In The Light

“If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7

To mistake conscious freedom from sin for deliverance from sin by the Atonement is a great error. No man knows what sin is until he is born again. Sin is what Jesus Christ faced on Calvary. The evidence that I am delivered from sin is that I know the real nature of sin in me. It takes the last reach of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, that is, the impartation of His absolute perfection, to make a man know what sin is.

The Holy Spirit applies the Atonement to us in the unconscious realm as well as in the realm of which we are conscious, and it is only when we get a grasp of the unrivalled power of the Spirit in us that we understand the meaning of 1 John 1:7, “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.” This does not refer to conscious sin only, but to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which only the Holy Ghost in me realizes.

If I walk in the light as God is in the light, not in the light of my conscience, but in the light of God – if I walk there, with nothing folded up, then there comes the amazing revelation, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses me from all sin so that God Almighty can see nothing to censure in me. In my consciousness it works with a keen poignant knowledge of what sin is. The love of God at work in me makes me hate with the hatred of the Holy Ghost all that is not in keeping with God's holiness. To walk in the light means that everything that is of the darkness drives me closer into the centre of the light.

耶和华说：“以色列啊，你若回来归向我……”（耶四1）

争战的胜败决定于在神面前意志的隐秘处，而不是外在的世界。神的灵提醒我，催促我独自见神，在他面前作战。若不这样行，我每次必败。争战是一分钟还是一年，是在于我的决定，而不是神；但必须在神面前自己摔跤，断然弃绝主权。没有什么能打倒一个在神面前争战胜利的人。

我若说：“还是等到事情来到，再试试神吧！”我必发觉自己办不到。我要在神面前，独自在心灵的隐秘处，没有他人骚扰的地方，好好解决；然后放胆地出去，因为知道仗已经打赢了。若在那里打败，灾祸难处必然不绝临到，就如神的命令一样坚定。仗打不赢的道理，是我想先从外在世界去打；其实应该独自见神，在那里先打胜了，才可一次性解决问题。

对待其他人也是如此，要把他们推到意志的边缘－－完全归服的起点。有时候，神带我们来到一个顶点，就是生命的大分水线。从那一点，我们或是逐渐变得怠惰、毫不起劲地过着一种无大用处的信徒生活；或是为神的至高荣耀燃烧自己——竭诚为主。

祈祷◆噢，我的神，请你现在感动我。在其中一次改变生命的触动中，你确实从所有事物中清楚而具体地启示你自己；在那些灿烂的时刻中，我看见你、敬拜你，并赞叹你。

December 27 Where The Battle's Lost And Won

“If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord. . . .” Jeremiah 4:1

The battle is lost or won in the secret places of the will before God, never first in the external world. The Spirit of God apprehends me and I am obliged to get alone with God and fight the battle out before Him. Until this is done, I lose every time. The battle may take one minute or a year, that will depend on me, not on God; but it must be wrestled out alone before God, and I must resolutely go through the hell of a renunciation before God. Nothing has any power over the man who has fought out the battle before God and won there.

If I say, “I will wait till I get into the circumstances and then put God to the test,” I shall find I cannot. I must get the thing settled between my self and God in the secret places of my soul where no stranger intermeddles, and then I can go forth with the certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity and disaster and upset are as sure as God's decree. The reason the battle is not won is because I try to win it in the external world first. Get alone with God, fight it out before Him, settle the matter there once and for all.

In dealing with other people, the line to take is to push them to an issue of will. That is the way abandonment begins. Every now and again, not often, but sometimes, God brings us to a point of climax. That is the Great Divide in the life; from that point we either go towards a more and more dilatory and useless type of Christian life, or we become more and more ablaze for the glory of God – My Utmost for His Highest.

你们若不回转，变成小孩子的样式……（太十八3）

这话不但在我们初信之时十分真确，就是在我们生命的每一天，也要回转，向神作小孩子。我们若信赖自己的头脑过于神，他就要我们负责后果。我们的身体既在神安排下进入新的境况，就要让天然生命顺服圣灵的指挥。一次成功，并不等于第二次也可以成功。肉体生命与属灵生命的关系，是不断的回转，这是我们本性所不愿的。不管在什么环境下，神的灵始终不变，神的救恩也不变，但我们要“穿上新人”。我们每次不肯回转，神都要我们自己负责，因为我们的拒绝，是出于故意的顽梗。我们不要被肉体的生命管辖，必须让神掌管。

属灵生命的阻碍，是不肯经常回转悔改，我们用许多顽梗的藉口，在神的宝座前自傲地说：“我不肯。”我们尊崇独立固执，给它们错误的称号。神看作顽梗的软弱，我们却称之为力量。我们生命中还有许多地方未受管治的，这只有靠经常回转才可以达成。逐渐地，我们必然被圣灵收复所有失地。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿我能被你带进你与我同在的境地，从你的立场观看事情。今天早上，我要向你的百姓说话，噢，主啊，以你恩慈的灵重新膏立我。

December 28 Continuous Conversion

“Except ye be converted, and become as little children. . . .” Matthew 18:3

These words of Our Lord are true of our initial conversion, but we have to be continuously converted all the days of our lives, continually to turn to God as children. If we trust to our wits instead of to God, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. Immediately our bodies are brought into new conditions by the providence of God, we have to see that our natural life obeys the dictates of the Spirit of God. Because we have done it once is no proof that we shall do it again. The relation of the natural to the spiritual is one of continuous conversion, and it is the one thing we object to. In every setting in which we are put, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered, but we have to “put on the new man.” God holds us responsible every time we refuse to convert ourselves, our reason for refusing is wilful obstinacy. Our natural life must not rule, God must rule in us.

The hindrance in our spiritual life is that we will not be continually converted, there are wadges of obstinacy where our pride spits at the throne of God and says – I won't. We deify independence and wilfulness and call them by the wrong name. What God looks on as obstinate weakness, we call strength. There are whole tracts of our lives which have not yet been brought into subjection, and it can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.

从此他门徒中多有退去的，不再和他同行。（约六66）

神藉圣灵，透过他的话语显示他的心意，使你心灵兴奋万分；但你若不行在这异象的光中，就沉沦在奴隶的状态中，受制于一种不属于主的观点。你若心里不服从天上来的异象，就必服役于主耶稣以外的观点。不要指着别人说：“看哪，他持那些观点，仍然顺利亨通，我为什么不可以？”你要行在异象的光中，不要与人比较，或判断别人，那是他与神之间的事。你若发现自己所喜悦的观点，与天上来的异象相违，你为此争辩，渐渐里面就会产生一种拥有感和个人权利感，这些都是主耶稣所弃绝的。他反对这些，因为这一切是叫人离开神的根源。“人的生命不在乎家道丰富。”我们不体会这一点，是因为我们漠视主基本的教训。

我们很容易回想过往美妙的经历。可是，神的光若向你显示一个标准，而你未能达到或不想达到，那你就开始退后了，因为这表示你的良心对真理并未作出回应。真理一旦启明，人便再也无法依然故我。那一刻就决定，你是向前做主的真门徒，还是退后做逃兵。

祈祷◆主啊，愿我们四周的每一寸空间，今天都被你所充满。愿你引导的手，适当而奇妙地掌管一切；愿你将我们举起，进入你奇妙的计划中，并且使我们不至冲动鲁莽。

December 29 Deserter Or Disciple?

“From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.” John 6:66

When God gives a vision by His Spirit through His word of what He wants, and your mind and soul thrill to it, if you do not walk in the light of that vision, you will sink into servitude to a point of view which Our Lord never had. Disobedience in mind to the heavenly vision will make you a slave to points of view that are alien to Jesus Christ. Do not look at someone else and say – Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why cannot I? You have to walk in the light of the vision that has been given to you and not compare yourself with others or judge them, that is between them and God. When you find that a point of view in which you have been delighting clashes with the heavenly vision and you debate, certain things will begin to develop in you – a sense of property and a sense of personal right, things of which Jesus Christ made nothing. He was always against these things as being the root of everything alien to Himself. “A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth.” If we do not recognize this, it is because we are ignoring the undercurrent of Our Lord's teaching.

We are apt to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we have had. If there is one standard in the New Testament revealed by the light of God and you do not come up to it, and do not feel inclined to come up to it, that is the beginning of backsliding, because it means your conscience does not answer to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you for going on as a more true disciple of Jesus Christ or for going back as a deserter.

我的泉源都在你里面。（诗八十七7）

我们的主从不修补天然美德，他乃是从里面重新再造。“穿上新人”，意思是你要给肉体的生命穿上与新生命相配的衣服。神种在我们里头的生命，会萌发本身的美德，不是亚当的，乃是主耶稣的。你成圣以后，会叫你对天然美德，并个人一切力量的信心枯萎，直至你学会怎样从主耶稣复活的泉源中支取生命。你若正经历那干涸的阶段，就得感谢神。

神在我们里面作工的征象，就是败坏我们对天然德行的信念，因为那些本不是神应许的，不过是他初造人时所剩余的品质。我们总是抓住天然品德，而神却不住要我接驳到主耶稣的生命去，他的美德是无法用天然德行来比较的。最可悲的是事奉神的人，一味仗赖从遗传而得的品质，这些并不是神恩典所赐下的。神不会建立并改变天然的德行，因为天然德行不能达到耶稣万分之一的心意。任何天然的爱、忍耐、清洁，都不可能达到他的要求。只有把肉体生命的每一部分配合神放在我们里头的生命，他才能透过我们彰显主耶稣的美德。而我们所有的一切美德也只是他的。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，你是永远的活井，我所有清新的泉源都在你里面。我来到你面前；愿你大能的生命在我里面涌现，真正地流入我的身体和心灵中。

December 30 “And Every Virtue We Possess”

“All my fresh springs shall be in Thee.” Psalm 87:7 (P.B.V.)

Our Lord never patches up our natural virtues, He re-makes the whole man on the inside. “Put on the new man,” i.e., see that your natural human life puts on the garb that is in keeping with the new life. The life God plants in us develops its own virtues, not the virtues of Adam but of Jesus Christ. Watch how God will wither up your confidence in natural virtues after sanctification, and in any power you have, until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through a drying-up experience!

The sign that God is at work in us is that He corrupts confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but remnants of what God created man to be. We will cling to the natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us into contact with the life of Jesus Christ which can never be described in terms of the natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people in the service of God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them, depending on what they have by the accident of heredity. God does not build up our natural virtues and transfigure them, because our natural virtues can never come anywhere near what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every bit of our bodily life into harmony with the new life which God has put in us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.

“And every virtue we possess
Is His alone.”

以色列的 神必作你们的后盾。（赛五十二12）

脱离昨天的保证。“神需要用过去的事。”年终的时候，我们会期待地指望神带领将来，但回想过去，也会带来焦虑。今天对神恩典的享受，很容易受过去的罪与错失影响。可是神是管理昨天的神，他容许过去的回忆存留，为的是将来的属灵培育。神有时用过去提醒我们，免得我们停在现今肤浅的满足里。

昨天的保证。“因为耶和华必在你们前头行。”这是满有恩典的启示，神在我们失败的地方守卫，留意不让我们重蹈覆辙。若他不作后盾，我们势必再犯。神的手伸到昨天去，为我们的良心清除存货。

今天的保证。“你们出来必不至急忙。”在进入新一年之际，让我们不要急躁鲁莽、兴奋忘旧，也不要轻率冲动，只要从忍耐中得力，知道以色列的神必在前头行。昨天无可挽回，错过的机会永难再得，但神可以把这摧毁性的焦虑，变成建设性的心思，作将来之用。让过去睡吧，但要睡在主耶稣的怀里。

把一去不复返的过去放在他手中，然后与他一同踏进必要来到的将来。

祈祷◆主耶稣啊，“父一切的丰盛，都在你里面居住”；“万物都交在你的手里”；“天上地下所有的权柄都赐给你了”－－噢，我天上的父神，愿你按照你在基督耶稣荣耀里的丰盛，满足我一切的需要。

December 31 Yesterday

“The God of Israel will be your rereward.” Isaiah 52:12

Security from Yesterday. “God requireth that which is past.” At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise from remembering the yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God's grace is apt to be checked by the memory of yesterday's sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present.

Security for Tomorrow. “For the Lord will go before you.” This is a gracious revelation, that God will garrison where we have failed to. He will watch lest things trip us up again into like failure, as they assuredly would do if He were not our rereward. God's hand reaches back to the past and makes a clearing-house for conscience.

Security for Today. “For ye shall not go out with haste.” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the flight of impulsive thoughtlessness, but with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us; it is true that we have lost opportunities which will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ.

Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him.