5月7日 永恒的建造

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.