因这十字架,就我而论,世界已经钉在十字架上。就世界而论,我已经钉在十字架上。(加六14)
我若着眼沉思基督的十字架,就不会成为一个主观的敬虔者,只注意自己的洁白,而会全心全意关注主耶稣所关注的事。我们的主不是隐居者,也不是苦行者,他没有将自己与社会隔绝,可是在他里面,却是一直与这世界分开。他并不是高高在上,但他活在另一个世界里。他十分入世,甚至当时一些宗教人士形容他为贪食好酒,但主从不让任何事物阻碍他分别为圣。
假冒的分别为圣,就是故意放弃一些东西,以为这样可以储藏属灵的能力,留日后之用,但那是绝对错误的。神的灵曾粉碎许多人的罪,可是人仍未得释放。今日所见的宗教生活,与主耶稣一生活泼的圣洁生活截然不同。“我不求你叫他们离开世界,只求你保守他们脱离那恶者。”我们活在世上,却不属这世界;我们与世界的脱离是在根基上,不是在外表上。
我们绝不可让任何事物干扰属灵能力的分别为圣。分别出来是我们的本份,成圣则是神的工作;我们必须坚心决意只关注神所关注的事。对于困扰的问题,就问一问:“这是主耶稣所关注的吗?还是与主为敌的灵所关注的事?”
祈祷◆噢,主啊,愿你膏立这个地方来赞美你;愿你膏立我们这里的每一个人来赞美你。愿你在这一刻,将圣灵那愉快的微风吹拂我们。
November 27: The Consecration Of Spiritual Energy
“By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Galatians 6:14
If I brood on the Cross of Christ, I do not become a subjective pietist, interested in my own whiteness; I become dominantly concentrated on Jesus Christ’s interests. Our Lord was not a recluse nor an ascetic, He did not cut Himself off from society, but He was inwardly disconnected all the time. He was not aloof, but He lived in another world. He was so much in the ordinary world that the religious people of His day called Him a glutton and a wine-bibber. Our Lord never allowed anything to interfere with His consecration of spiritual energy.
The counterfeit of consecration is the conscious cutting off of things with the idea of storing spiritual power for use later on, but that is a hopeless mistake. The Spirit of God has spoiled the sin of a great many, yet there is no emancipation, no fullness in their lives. The kind of religious life we see abroad to-day is entirely different from the robust holiness of the life of Jesus Christ. “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” We are to be in the world but not of it; to be disconnected fundamentally, not externally.
We must never allow anything to interfere with the consecration of our spiritual energy. Consecration is our part, sanctification is God’s part; and we have deliberately to determine to be interested only in that in which God is interested. The way to solve perplexing problems is to ask – Is this the kind of thing in which Jesus Christ is interested, or the kind of thing in which the spirit that is the antipodes of Jesus is interested?