6月29日 操練的方向
若是右手叫你跌倒,就砍下來丟掉。寧可失去百體中的一體,不叫全身下入地獄。(太五30)
耶穌並沒有叫每個人把右手砍掉,他只是說:“若你右手阻礙你與我同行,就把它砍下來。”有許多事本來是完全合情合理的,但你若要專心跟從神,就不能去做了。右手是你最有用的東西,但耶穌說如果它阻礙你跟從他,就把它砍掉。這種鍛煉的方法,是人類空前最嚴厲的。
神藉著重生改變了一個人,那生命起初的特徵就是殘廢。你有許多事不敢做了,而那些事在你眼中,在認識你的世界眼中,是等於你的右手或眼睛那樣重要。不屬靈的人就會說:“這件事有何不妥?你真是太古怪了!”有史以來,從沒有一個聖徒開始的時候,不是從無手無足的殘缺中起步的。可是,寧可被神視為美好而帶著殘廢進入永生,勝過在人眼中看為美麗,在神卻視為殘廢。重生初期,有許多事情是耶穌藉著殘廢禁止你做的;雖然別人作這些事或許完全沒有問題,你卻不可作。但得小心;不可以用你所受的限制去批評別人。
生命的開始是殘廢的,但在第四十八節中,耶穌卻展開了一幅豐盛生命的圖畫--“你們要完全,像你們的天父完全一樣。”
祈禱◆主啊!願你今天帶領我進入你更多恩慈和奇妙的作為中。願你那滿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.