9月15日 预备迎接试炼
预备迎接试炼
正如基督整个身体被举在十字架上，如今祂身体上的任何肢体，也别指望能逃避十字架。
作为信徒，我们的责任是预备好忍受神在我们基督徒道路上所安排的一切艰难与试炼。圣徒永远不会免于这些试炼。正如基督论到穷人时所说，他们常与我们同在，试炼也是如此。奥古斯丁曾说，基督所流的血汗，预表了祂将在祂那奥秘的身体中所要忍受的苦难。正如基督整个身体被举在十字架上，如今祂身体上的任何肢体，也别指望能逃避十字架。当十字架临到我们每个人时，如果我们只是被动地屈从于神的旨意，并不能彰显救主的荣耀。我们必须带着主动且圣洁的忍耐，预备好顺服；如果那是神的旨意，我们甚至要预备好被带入死亡的深处。
我听过一则墓志铭，是绝不该刻在基督徒墓碑上的：“这里躺着一个违背自己意愿的人。”保罗拥有基督圣洁的心志，因此他宣告说：“我为主耶稣的名，不但被人捆绑，就是死在耶路撒冷也是愿意的。”（徒21:13）怀疑者或许认为，使徒的勇敢只在仇敌尚远时才茂盛，一旦必须直面死亡就会凋谢成恐惧。绝非如此，保罗即使到了那时，依然坚守他起初的宣告：“我现在被浇奠，我离世的时候到了。”（提后4:6）
你若仔细听，就会发现保罗说话时，仿佛他的死已然发生。在致命一击落下之前，他已经死了。这不是死于恐惧，而是死于对死亡的完全顺服与交托。从法律意义上讲，当法官宣判的那一刻，罪犯就已经是个死人了，尽管这死囚或许还能苟活数周。那么，从福音的意义来说，那些甘心将自己交托在天父权柄之下，并预备好面对死亡的人，我们也可以说他们已经死了。
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：撒下11章，林后4章，
个人灵修：结18章，约19章
SEPTEMBER 15, TUESDAY
PREPARATION FOR TRIALS
Just as Christ’s whole body was lifted up on the cross, no member of His can expect to escape the cross now.
It is our duty as believers to be prepared to endure any hardship and trial which God lays out for us in our Christian walk. And saints will never be without these trials. As Christ said of the poor, they will always be with us. Augustine said the bloody sweat which Christ felt signified the sufferings which He would endure in His mystical body. Just as Christ’s whole body was lifted up on the cross, no member of His can expect to escape the cross now. When it comes to each of us, it will not speak glory for the Savior if we merely yield passively to God’s will; we must be ready with an active and holy patience to obey, to be led down into the very chambers of death itself, if that is God’s choice.
I heard about an epitaph which should never be engraved on a Christian’s gravestone: “Here lies one against his will.” Paul had the holy mind of Christ when he confessed: “I am ready not to be bound only, but also die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 21:13). Skeptics might think the apostle’s boldness flourished only when the enemy was far away, but faded into fear when he had to look death in the face. No, Paul stood on his earlier profession even then: “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand” (2 Timothy 4:6).
If you listen closely you will hear Paul speaking as if his death had already happened. And he was dead before the stroke was given—not from fear, but from complete resignation to it. A criminal is dead in the sense of the law as soon as the judge speaks the sentence, although the condemned man may survive weeks afterwards. In a Gospel sense, then, we say those are dead who have willingly put themselves under the authority of their Father and are ready for death.