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.