11月9日 神圣的事奉
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.
