荒漠甘泉04/03

荒漠甘泉∕4 月 3日

原作∕Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

 

「因你們要在火中榮耀耶和華。」(聖經以賽亞書二十四章 15 節英文聖經直譯)

 

  注意這小字「在」!我們要在火中 ── 試煉中(聖經彼得前書四章 12 節) ── 榮耀祂。雖然那裡是一個受苦的地方,我們要用信心來榮耀祂。我們相信祂是良善的、慈愛的,祂既准予「火煉的試驗臨到」我們,祂必賜我們夠用的力量來承擔。

 

  我們相信試煉過後,我們會有更多讚美和感謝的根據;並且我們的信心「既被試驗,就比那被火試驗,仍然能壞的金子,更顯寶貴。可以在耶穌基督顯現的時候,得著稱讚、榮耀、尊貴」(聖經彼得前書一章 7 節)。── 濮登

 

  三個人從七倍熱的爐中挺身而出,一無改變 ── 身體不傷、頭髮不焦、衣裳不變色,也沒有火燎氣味。前後不同的就是身上缺了捆綁,臉上添了榮光。難怪褻瀆神的尼布甲尼撒不得不屈服來讚美榮耀神了。今天基督徒從試煉的爐中出來的時候,也該這樣 ── 脫了捆綁,添上榮光,絲毫不受火的影響。──

 

  有很多人壓著最重的擔子,心中仍滿了喜樂,豈非可奇?有很多人在仇敵逼迫攻擊之下,仍能得勝有餘,豈非可敬?有很多人身體破碎,仍保持著完好的信心,豈非可羨?他們的見證何等美好! ── 喬懷德

 
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"Glorify ye the Lord in the fires."(Isa. 24:15.)

MARK the little word "in" ! We are to honor Him in the trial─in that which is an affliction indeed and though there have been cases where God did not let His saints feel the fire, yet, ordinarily, fire hurts.  But just here we are to glorify Him by our perfect faith in His goodness and love that has permitted all this to come upon us.

And more than that, we are to believe that out of this is coming something more for His praise than could have come but for this fiery trial. We can only go through some fires with a large faith; little faith will fail. We must have the victory in the furnace. --- Margaret Bottome.

A man has as much religion as he can show in times of trouble. The men who were cast into the fiery furnace came out as they went in─except their bonds. How often in some furnace of affliction God strikes them off! Their bodies were unhurt─their skin not even blistered. Their hair was unsinged, their garments not scorched, and even the smell of fire had not passed upon them. And that is the way Christians should come out of furnace trials─liberated from their bonds, but untouched by the flames.

Is there not something captivating in the sight of a man or a woman burdened with many tribulations and yet carrying a heart as sound as a bell? is there not something contagiously valorous in the vision of one who is greatly tempted, but is more than conqueror? Is it not heartening to see some pilgrim who is broken in body, but who retains the splendor of an unbroken patience? What a witness all this offers to the enduement of His grace! --- J. H. Jowett.

 

 

 

發表於2008/06/19 01:08 (4019閱讀)


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