7月31日 滥用享乐
滥用享乐
果子若不合时令，吃下便会伤身。正如圣经所言：“怀抱有时，不怀抱有时”（传3:5）。
缺乏节制与清醒的人，断不能活出公义的生命。敬虔的生活或许容许你将今生的享乐当作菜肴的佐料，浅尝辄止，却绝不容许你将其视为主食，大快朵颐。可悲的是，有些人竟深陷享乐之中，仿佛一旦失去了这些，便无法苟活。
诱惑的香气一旦冲昏了人的头脑，麻醉了人的判断力，人便会沉迷其中，再也无法舍弃这些享乐。昔日的犹太人便是如此：当他们在巴比伦的土地上安居乐业、渐渐富足时，竟宁愿将自己的骸骨埋葬异乡，也不愿返回耶路撒冷重拾敬虔的信仰。主人固然不介意仆人吃饱喝足，可仆人若偏偏在需要尽忠当差时喝得酩酊大醉，主人绝不会喜悦。一个醉汉如何办不好主人的差事，基督徒若被受造之物的安逸与世俗的魅力所缠累，也照样无法在圣洁中服侍他的神。
果子若不合时令，吃下便会伤身。圣经说：“怀抱有时，不怀抱有时”（传3:5）。在某些特定的时刻，圣洁的准则绝不容许我们去做某件事，哪怕这件事在平时本是无可厚非的。
主日便是一个极好的例证。在这一天，一切属肉体的享乐都当止息。神呼召我们去享受那更高的喜乐，祂期盼我们卸下一切属世的俗务，好亲自品尝祂的美善。圣经说：“你若在安息日掉转你的脚步，在我圣日不以操作为喜乐，称安息日为可喜乐的，称耶和华的圣日为可尊重的；而且尊敬这日，不办自己的私事，不随自己的私意，不说自己的私话，你就以耶和华为乐”（赛58:13-14）。
人若不肯舍己，不肯弃绝属肉体的享乐，就断不能在分别为圣的日子里尊荣神，更无从品尝与神亲密相交的甘甜。
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：士14章，徒18章，
个人灵修：耶27章，可13章
JULY 31, FRIDAY
IMPROPER USE OF PLEASURE
Fruit eaten out of season is bad. Scripture speaks of “a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing” (Ecclesiastes 3:5).
No one can live righteously without living soberly too. Godliness might allow you to taste of these pleasures as garnish but not to feed on them as solid meat. Sad to say, some live in pleasures as if they could not live without them.
Once the aroma of enticements rises to the brain and intoxicates a man’s judgment, he is so enchanted that he cannot think of parting with them. When the Jews started to thrive on Babylonian soil, for example, they were willing to lay down their bones there rather than return to godliness in Jerusalem. A master never minds his servant having plenty of food and drink, but he does not appreciate it if that servant becomes drunk just when he has a responsibility to perform. Yet this drunken man can do his master’s business about as well as a Christian overcharged with creature-comforts and worldly fascination can serve his God in holiness.
Fruit eaten out of season is bad. Scripture speaks of “a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing” (Ecclesiastes 3:5). In certain seasons the power of holiness will not allow something which is acceptable at another time.
The Lord’s day is an example—all carnal pleasures are inappropriate then. God calls us to higher pleasures and expects us to put aside everything else so we can taste His goodness. “If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord” (Isaiah 58:13–14). It is impossible to taste the sweetness of communion with God and honor Him in sanctifying His day unless you deny yourself carnal pleasures.