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August 22
"And the rest, some on boards, some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land." (Acts 27:44.)
ＴHE marvelous story of Paul's voyage to Rome, with its trials and triumphs, is a fine pattern of the lights and shades of the way of faith all through the story of human life. The remarkable feature of it is the hard and narrow places which we find intermingled with God's most extraordinary interpositioons and providences.
It is the common idea that the pathway of faith is strewm with flowers, and that when God interposes in the life of His people, He does it on a scale so grand that He lifts us quite out of the plane of difficulties. The actual fact, however, is that the real experience is quite contrary. The story of the Bible is one of alternate trial triumph in the case of everyone of the cloud of witnesses from Abel down to the latest martyr.
Paul, more than anyone else, was an example of how much a child of God can suffer without being crushed or broken in spirit. On account of his testifying in Damascus, he was hunted dowm by persecutors and obliged to fly for his life, but we behold no heavenly chariot transporting the holy aposte amid thunderbolts of flame from the reach of his foes, but "through a window in a basket," was he let down over the walls of Damascus and so escaped their hands. In an old clothes basket, like a bundle of laundry, or groceries, the servant of Jesus Christ was dropped from the window and ignominiously fled from the hate of his foes.
Again we find him left for months in the lonely dungeons; we find him telling of his watchings, his fastings, and his desertion by friends, of his brutal and shameful beatings, and here even after God has promised to deliver him, we see him for days left to toss upon a stormy sea, obliged to stand guard over the treacherous seaman, and at last when the deliverance comes, there is no heavenly galley sailing from the skies to take off the noble prisoner; there is no angel form walking along the waters and stilling the raging breakers; there is no supernatural sign of the transcendent miracle that is being wrought; but one is compelled to seize a spar, another a floating plank, another to climb on a fragment of the wreck, another to strike out and swim for his life.
Here is God's pattern for our own lives. Here is a Gospel of help for people that have to live in this every day world with real and ordinary surroundings, and a thousand practical conditions which have to be met in a thoroughly practical way.
God's promises and God's providences do not lift us out of the plane of common sense and commonplace trial, but it is through these very things that faith is perfected, and that God loves to interweave the golden threads of His love along the warp and woof of our every day experience.
─Hard Places in the Way of Faith.
「凡較力爭勝的，諸事都有節制。」「我是攻克己身，叫身服我。」哥林多前書九章25、27節
保羅在此提醒我們知道一個原則：如要在公眾比賽的場合得勝，必須要在「諸事上都有節制」。每件事，即使有多大的誘惑力，只要有妨害，就得放棄或擱置，這樣才可贏得世界上的獎品，何況擁有一切的基督要賜給我們不朽壞的冠冕——，為此，我們豈不更要全心盡力跟隨主耶穌。
保羅說：「我是攻克己身，叫身服我。」他不准許任何事來妨害自己，他告訴我們：「我只有一件事：向著標竿直跑，要得獎賞。」不以滿足自己的食慾來吃喝，不求安逸的生活，乃在日常生活中表現出背十字架的記號，像主一樣凡事犧牲。我們從下列經文可看出他一生所有的：（林前五11－13），和（林後四8－12，六4－10，十一23－27）。十字架不僅是他宣道的主題，也是他生命的特質。
我們必須向神祈求，使這種性情能在基督徒身上找著，使我們藉著聖靈的大能而能傳揚福音。當基督死的大能在傳道人身上運行時，基督的生命才能為會眾所察覺。讓我們祈求能在老舊的地方與十字架交通，使神的兒女都能順服：「但願你們能以基督的心為心。」祂自己卑微，存心順服以至於死在十字架上，而「我們若在祂死的形式上與祂聯合，也要在祂復活的形狀上與祂聯合。」（羅六5）
「我是用水給你們施洗……但那……祂要用聖靈與火給你們施洗。」馬太福音三章11節
我的經驗到了能說這樣話──「我是……但祂」──的地步麼？不到那時，絕不知道聖靈的洗是甚麼意思。「我是」就完結了，我不能做甚麼；「但祂」，從這裡開始──祂能做人所不能的事。我歡迎基督來麼？只要有甚麼攔阻著，無論是善是惡，祂就不來。當祂來的時候，我準備將我所做的件件錯事暴露出來麼？祂只肯在那種情況之下來。我在甚麼地方知道我的不潔，祂就從那個地方來；反過來說，我在甚麼地方想到我是潔淨的，祂從甚麼地方退出去。
悔改不是帶進罪的感覺，而是使人感覺自己的不配和無用。當我悔改的時候，我確覺我自己絕對的無用，就是提鞋之微也是不配的。我曾像那樣悔改過麼？或有一點覺到自己的力量夠了呢？神不能進入我生命的緣故，是因為我沒有完全悔改。
「祂要用聖靈與火給你們施洗」。約翰未說聖靈的洗是一種經驗。卻說是耶穌基督所完成的一種工作，「祂要給你們施洗」。凡受聖靈洗禮的人，所僅有而清白的經驗，是絕對不配，絕對無用的感覺。
「我是」這也是那不要緊的；「但祂」來，則奇妙的事件必然發生。不要依靠自己，應該走到事事依靠祂的地步。
「誰行作成就這事，從起初宣召歷代呢？就是我——耶和華！我是首先的，也與末後的同在。」以賽亞書四十一章4節
有成千上萬的基督徒，在他們開始聖潔之旅以後，因為單靠經驗而不靠使其成聖的主，竟然不到一半就完全停頓下來。由於這些人認為他們已經徹底、永遠地從罪中得到釋放，故沈迷於起初的經驗，想像他們永遠不會像過去那樣受試探，或是受引誘。
無怪乎當這些人在走進真正的基督徒生活中時，會失敗和跌倒。由於他們很驚訝、困惑，所以他們遽下結論，認為他們的經驗一定有什麼錯誤。通常，這些人會繼續嘗試，但會再次跌倒，直到最後被自己的經驗弄得精疲力竭，甚至斷言成為聖潔的經驗是一個妄想，或者不適合他們。這些人難免又會回到老我的生活方式中，而他們最後的光景比起初更加地悲慘。
今天，我們每個人都需要明白，成聖並非是一種境界，乃是擁有基督——復活的主在我們的裡面。
主耶穌，懇求您賜給我們您的心腸、您的信心、您的生命，以及您自己。