7月13日 撒但企图使基督徒失去圣洁
撒但企图使基督徒失去圣洁
基督徒的鲜血令撒但感到甘甜，但基督徒的敬虔之血却令牠觉得更加甘甜。
因此，单纯的圣洁就是灵魂扬起的旗帜，公开宣告与撒但为敌，与神为友；而魔鬼则竭力要射下这面旗帜。这便是那场争战的根源所在，只要撒但仍是不洁的邪灵，圣徒仍是神圣洁的儿女，这场争战就永无休止：“凡立志在基督耶稣里敬虔度日的也都要受逼迫。”（提后3:12）
逼迫者常常试图将自己的恶意伪装在善行的幌子之下；但神的灵看穿了牠们伪善的面纱，也洞悉牠们从地狱领受了怎样的指令。神的灵告诉我们，敬虔正是撒但张弓搭箭所瞄准的靶心。当然，世上存在着不止一种所谓的敬虔，但撒但所反对的惟有那真正的敬虔，也就是“凡立志在基督耶稣里敬虔度日的”。
基督徒的鲜血令撒但感到甘甜，但基督徒的敬虔之血却令牠觉得更加甘甜。牠宁愿将圣徒与他的敬虔剥离开来，也不愿仅仅因他的敬虔而将他屠杀。然而，为了不使自己显得太过暴露，它常常在较小的战场上玩弄伎俩，将残忍发泄在圣徒的身体上；但这只有在牠无法掳获他们灵魂的时候才会发生：“被锯锯死，受试探，被刀杀”（来11:37）。逼迫者最渴望的，莫过于引诱他们陷入罪中并背道离弃主；因此，在杀害基督徒之前，他们往往先严厉地试探他们。魔鬼若能剥去圣徒的军装，用贿赂引诱他偏离圣洁信仰宣告中的坚固根基，便认为自己取得了彻底的胜利。
魔鬼宁愿看到基督徒被罪和不义玷污，而不只是被鲜血与痛苦玷污，因为牠已经学到，逼迫不过是在修剪教会，随后教会只会生长得更加繁茂；真正能毁坏教会的，是不义。因此，逼迫者不过是在替神犁地，而就在这整个过程中，神正用圣徒的鲜血在田里撒下种子。
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：书18-19章，诗149-150章，
个人灵修：耶9章，太23章
JULY 13, MONDAY
SATAN WANTS CHRISTIANS TO BE UNHOLY
Christian blood is sweet to Satan but the blood of the Christian’s godliness is far sweeter.
Simple holiness, then, is the flag which the soul hangs out to declare open defiance of Satan and friendship with God, even as the devil strives to shoot it down. And here is the ground of that quarrel, which will never end as long as Satan is an unclean spirit and the saint a holy child of God: “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12).
Persecutors often try to disguise their malice under the pretense of good works; but the Spirit of God looks through their hypocritical mufflers and knows the instructions they have from hell. God’s Spirit tells us that godliness is the target at which Satan levels his arrows. Of course there are more kinds of godliness in the world than one, but Satan opposes only the true one: “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus.”
Christian blood is sweet to Satan but the blood of the Christian’s godliness is far sweeter. He prefers to sever the saint from his godliness rather than butcher him for it. Yet so he will not be too conspicuous, he often plays at small game and expresses his cruelty upon saints’ bodies; but this happens only when he cannot capture their souls; “They were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain” (Hebrews 11:37). What the persecutors wanted more than anything else was to entice them into sin and apostasy; thus they tempted Christians severely before they killed them. The devil considers it a complete triumph if he can strip away the saint’s armor and bribe him away from steadfastness in his holy profession.
The devil would rather see Christians defiled with sin and unrighteousness than defiled in blood and pain, for he has learned that persecution only trims the church, which soon comes back up all the thicker; it is unrighteousness which ruins it. Persecutors, then, only plow God’s field for Him and all the time He is sowing it with the saints’ blood.