你无论往那里去,我要跟从你。(路九57)
主叫这人极度的泄气,他用这个态度是因为他知道人心。我们会说:“多可惜,失去了得着那个人的机会!”“竟用北风把他冻结,叫他沮丧而回。”不必为你的主抱歉。主的话往往冒犯和刺伤,直到再无冒犯和刺伤之处。主耶稣对那些至终摧毁人事奉神的东西,绝不怜惜呵护。主的回答不是顺口而出,乃是根据他对人内心的认识而说。若神的灵叫你想起主一句刺伤你的话,那么一定有什么东西,是主想刺伤至死地的。
第58节 这几句话,对那为悦己心而事奉主的人是当头棒喝。弃绝的要求是严峻的,最后只剩下我的主,我,和一个孤绝的盼望。“让那一百倍去或留,你的目标必须是我与你的关系,而我没有枕头的地方。”
第59节 这人不想令耶稣失望,也不想伤父亲的心。我们会把对家人敏感的忠诚,替代了对主耶稣的忠诚,主耶稣竟排在末位。在效忠于谁的矛盾里,必须不惜代价顺服主。
第61节 有人说:“主,我要跟从你,但……”这人准备齐全了,却从不出发。他还有一两项保留。主耶稣肯定的呼召是没有告别的余地,因为告别往往出于不信者,而非基督徒。神的呼召一来,就要出发,且永不会止步。
祈祷◆我们感谢你,因为在你里面没有永别。我们向你祈求,愿你的冠冕和印记临到我们每个人,直至我们能面对面地见你。
September 27: The “Go” Of Renunciation
“Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest.” Luke 9:57
Our Lord’s attitude to this man is one of severe discouragement because He knew what was in man. We would have said – “Fancy losing the opportunity of winning that man!” Fancy bringing about him a north wind that froze him and “turned him away discouraged!” Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to hurt or offend. Jesus Christ has no tenderness whatever toward anything that is ultimately going to ruin a man in the service of God. Our Lord’s answers are based not on caprice, but on a knowledge of what is in man. If the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you, you may be sure that there is something He wants to hurt to death.
V. 58. These words knock the heart out of serving Jesus Christ because it is pleasing to me. The rigour of rejection leaves nothing but my Lord, and myself, and a forlorn hope. “Let the hundredfold come or go, your lodestar must be your relationship to Me, and I have nowhere to lay My head.”
v. 59. This man did not want to disappoint Jesus, nor to hurt his father. We put sensitive loyalty to relatives in place of loyalty to Jesus Christ and Jesus has to take the last place. In a conflict of loyalty, obey Jesus Christ at all costs.
V. 61. The one who says – “Yes, Lord, but . . .” is the one who is fiercely ready, but never goes. This man had one or two reservations. The exacting call of Jesus Christ has no margin of good-byes, because good-bye, as it is often used, is pagan, not Christian. When once the call of God comes, begin to go and never stop going.