7月17日 信的神迹
我说的话讲的道，不是用智慧委婉的言语。（林前二1－5）
保罗是第一流的学者和演说家；他说这话并非出于下乘的谦逊，乃是说如果他传福音时，若用漂亮的言词去吸引人，就掩盖了神的能力。信耶稣时一项神迹，惟救恩的功效，不是靠话语的魔力、谄媚、说服，而是单凭神的大能。救赎的创造大能，是由传福音，而不是传道者的人格带出来。传道者真正的禁食，不是食物的禁食，而是在辞锋、出奇吸引的字眼，及一切阻拦神福音传送的东西上禁食。传道者是神的代表——就好像神藉我们劝你们一般。他要传的是神的福音。若人单因为我的讲道，而发奋向上，他们就永远无法接近主耶稣。我传福音若有任何高举自己，就必使我成了主耶稣的叛徒，因为我拦阻了他救赎的创造大能作工。
“我若从地上被举起来，就要吸引万人来归向我。”
祈祷◆噢，主啊，我何等需要你！我来到你面前，求你恩慈地将更新的生命赐给我，直至我的理解力、想像力和说话都全属你。今天我所寻求的，是你的感动和振奋的恩典。
July
17 The Miracle of Belief
“My speech and my preaching were not with
persuasive words of human wisdom…” —1 Corinthians 2:4
Paul was a scholar and an orator of the highest
degree; he was not speaking here out of a deep sense of humility, but was
saying that when he preached the gospel, he would veil the power of God if he
impressed people with the excellency of his speech. Belief in Jesus is a
miracle produced only by the effectiveness of redemption, not by impressive
speech, nor by wooing and persuading, but only by the sheer unaided power of
God. The creative power of redemption comes through the preaching of the
gospel, but never because of the personality of the preacher.
Real and effective fasting by a preacher is not
fasting from food, but fasting from eloquence, from impressive diction, and
from everything else that might hinder the gospel of God being presented. The
preacher is there as the representative of God— “…as though God were pleading
through us…” (2 Corinthians 5:20). He is there to present the gospel of God. If
it is only because of my preaching that people desire to be better, they will
never get close to Jesus Christ. Anything that flatters me in my preaching of
the gospel will result in making me a traitor to Jesus, and I prevent the
creative power of His redemption from doing its work.
“And I, if I am lifted up…, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John
12:32).
