6月29日 操练的方向

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.