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靈修
新聞
貼圖
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The word "walk" reminds us of daily life with our fellow-men. The Christian in his walk and conversation must follow the leading of the Spirit, and walk by the Spirit. That will be the sign of the spiritual man, who serves God in the Spirit, and does not trust in the flesh.People speak as though the Spirit were only needed in our intercourse with God when we pray, or for our work in the service of the Kingdom. This is a great mistake. God gives us His Spirit to be in us the whole day. We need Him most in the midst of our daily work, because the world has then such power to lead us away from God. We need to pray the Father every morning for a fresh portion of His Spirit for each day. During the course of the day let us remind ourselves that the Spirit is with us, and lift up our hearts to God, remembering that the Spirit abides with us always.
Paul says: "As ye have received Christ Jesus our Lord, so walk ye in Him"; and again: "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ." As I put on my cloak when I go out, so the Christian must put on the Lord Jesus, and show by his conduct that Christ lives in him, and that he walks by the Spirit.
"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." As long as we are not under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the flesh will rule over us. Oh, that we knew the unspeakable value of the grace that God has given! The Spirit of His Son in our hearts will cry "Abba, Father," so that we may walk the whole day in Gods presence as His beloved children. Christian, learn this lesson: the Spirit is given you to teach you that you may walk by the Spirit at all times. Thank God continually for this Divine Leader, who gives us daily renewal from heaven, and enables us to walk and to abide in Christ.
This is a promise pleaded, and so it yields double instruction to us. Anything which the LORD God has spoken we should receive as surely true and then plead it at the throne.
This sentence is a body of divinity in miniature. He who understands its meaning is a theologian, and he who can dive into its fulness is a true master in Israel. It is a condensation of the glorious message of salvation which was delivered to us in Christ Jesus our Redeemer. The sense hinges upon the word “freely.” This is the glorious, the suitable, the divine way by which love streams from heaven to earth, a spontaneous love flowing forth to those who neither deserved it, purchased it, nor sought after it. It is, indeed, the only way in which God can love such as we are. The text is a death-blow to all sorts of fitness: “I will love them freely.” Now, if there were any fitness necessary in us, then he would not love us freely, at least, this would be a mitigation and a drawback to the freeness of it. But it stands, “I will love you freely.” We complain, “Lord, my heart is so hard.” “I will love you freely.” “But I do not feel my need of Christ as I could wish.” “I will not love you because you feel your need; I will love you freely.” “But I do not feel that softening of spirit which I could desire.” Remember, the softening of spirit is not a condition, for there are no conditions; the covenant of grace has no conditionality whatever; so that we without any fitness may venture upon the promise of God which was made to us in Christ Jesus, when he said, “He that believeth on him is not condemned.” It is blessed to know that the grace of God is free to us at all times, without preparation, without fitness, without money, and without price! “I will love them freely.” These words invite backsliders to return: indeed, the text was specially written for such—“I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely.” Backslider! surely the generosity of the promise will at once break your heart, and you will return, and seek your injured Fathers face.
There are times when all the promises and doctrines of the Bible are of no avail, unless a gracious hand shall apply them to us. We are thirsty, but too faint to crawl to the water- brook. When a soldier is wounded in battle it is of little use for him to know that there are those at the hospital who can bind up his wounds, and medicines there to ease all the pains which he now suffers: what he needs is to be carried thither, and to have the remedies applied. It is thus with our souls, and to meet this need there is one, even the Spirit of truth, who takes of the things of Jesus, and applies them to us. Think not that Christ hath placed his joys on heavenly shelves that we may climb up to them for ourselves, but he draws near, and sheds his peace abroad in our hearts. O Christian, if thou art to-night labouring under deep distresses, thy Father does not give thee promises and then leave thee to draw them up from the Word like buckets from a well, but the promises he has written in the Word he will write anew on your heart. He will manifest his love to you, and by his blessed Spirit, dispel your cares and troubles. Be it known unto thee, O mourner, that it is Gods prerogative to wipe every tear from the eye of his people. The good Samaritan did not say, “Here is the wine, and here is the oil for you”; he actually poured in the oil and the wine. So Jesus not only gives you the sweet wine of the promise, but holds the golden chalice to your lips, and pours the life-blood into your mouth. The poor, sick, way-worn pilgrim is not merely strengthened to walk, but he is borne on eagles’ wings. Glorious gospel! which provides everything for the helpless, which draws nigh to us when we cannot reach after it—brings us grace before we seek for grace! Here is as much glory in the giving as in the gift. Happy people who have the Holy Ghost to bring Jesus to them.
The vision came in the midst of common toil, and that is where the Lord delights to give His revelations. He seeks a man who is on the ordinary road, and the Divine fire leaps out at his feet. The mystic ladder can rise from the market place to Heaven. It can connect the realm of drudgery with the realms of grace. 
The book of Hebrews refers to ‘our altar’. Obviously, this is not a physical place. What then does the Scripture mean when it speaks of the altar? When we consider the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it is quite clear that they are forever giving and offering to one another. We know that Jesus gave Himself to the Father as an offering. Likewise, the Father gave Jesus for us. Both the Father and the Son give the Holy Spirit to us.
The altar of Yahweh could firstly be described as a meeting place. In the fellowship of the Godhead, Each brings Their person and gives it to the Other. This of course is the way of the Christian life. We are reminded here that Paul said the Macedonians ‘firstly gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God’. Our offerings are nothing if they do not truly represent us. Paul commended the Macedonian Christians for understanding this most fundamental expression of offering. Evidently in giving themselves, they were offering on an altar. They were evidently ‘meeting’ Paul and the brethren in the fellowship of offering upon this altar. The apostle referred to it as the altar ‘which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat’. We can conclude that an altar describes the meeting place of the giver and the recipient. Paul glorified the fellowship of ‘giving and receiving’ and commends it to us as an essential mode of Christian living. The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world was most certainly the offering of the Son. He gave Himself to the Father and the Holy Spirit upon the altar of Their fellowship.
The apostle Paul was constantly indebted to the church in Jerusalem. He understood that the Gentile churches had shared in spiritual things which came forth from Jerusalem in the beginning. Therefore, he believed the Gentile churches were indebted to priest to the Jerusalem church in
material things. The very first initiative which Paul undertook was an
offering for the church in Jerusalem. He raised this offering in conjunction with Barnabas. Barnabas was always a helper, bringing encouragement
to all the churches. He was a man of offering. He was among the first to
lay an offering at the apostles’ feet. It is not surprising then, that he was an equal participant with Paul in this initiative. This was the precedent which followed Paul throughout his whole ministry life. He saw himself as a priest of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ‘ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that his offering of the Gentiles might become acceptable,
sanctified by the Holy Spirit’.
We are thankful that Paul learned the secret of offering, and therefore
testified, ‘I can do all things through Him who strengthens me’. The power
of God was being perfected in his weakness. This motivated Paul to raise an offering from among all the Gentile churches for the saints in Jerusalem. The churches in Macedonia enthusiastically joined Paul and became
sharers with him in his afflictions. In a great ordeal of affliction, ‘their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their
liberality’. As these churches poured themselves out, and we know they did, they found an abundance of grace. The fruit of their sonship increased
and multiplied as an overflow for those in greater need. Paul referred to
this as the grace of God in the churches of Macedonia.
When we are weighed down with anxious thoughts, then we must cast our cares on Him, for He knows our need before we ask or think. Therefore, prayer is not of itself, fundamentally and firstly, a petition to get an answer to an anxious need. Prayer is the place of solitude. Prayer is the place of peace. Prayer is the place of comfort, where we know that He knows. Where are your concerns today? Don’t let frustration get hold of you. If you are volatile; even angry about the things that have happened, remember that what began as concern gave way to worry, then anxiety, then anger. Why are you worried about many things? There is a constant pressure upon us to be drawn to the worries of life as if by reason of thought we can rationalise a better position or a better outcome. The only way that we will get the outcome we need is to choose and follow one master. In our mind, in our heart, in our emotions, there are many things besetting us. The heavenly Father knows our needs. He knows that all the Gentiles, all the nations, seek these things. If anxiety is our default mode, then we are no different to anyone in the world. Be anxious for nothing by putting Him first and seeking first the kingdom. Whatever you are concerned about, put it second to doing the will of God in His kingdom. And the Scripture guarantees you, that ‘all these things will be added to you’. As the apostle James wrote, submit yourself to God. Will you resist the onslaught of the worry, the apparent lack of resolution, the apparent lack of answer, the apparent uncertainty, and submit yourself to God? Will you cast your cares upon Him?
The key to being a son of God is to receive the life of the Son. And we are being given the privilege of being priests of God. Our priesthood is activated by Christ’s blood, enabling us to be priests of His body and blood. The Scriptures show that Christ’s blood enables the service of our offering. His blood gives us the capacity to present our bodies a living sacrifice and follow in the path of sanctified obedience, thus fulfilling our destiny as sons of God. Let us consider this question: what is Christ’s blood? It is His life. We cannot present ourselves to God using our own blood as the agency of our life and capacity to make offering. God has made a way whereby His life, that is, His blood, becomes the capacity for our offering. When we think of blood, we think of life. If all of your blood was drained from you, you wouldn’t have any life left in you. A person can’t be divided from their life. Christ can give us His life to live, in our heart by faith. The blood of Jesus is the life of Jesus in your heart, and it is this life that enables us to change. That is the power of His life, and that life is sonship life. ‘The words that I speak are Spirit and life.’ His identity is in His Spirit and, while we share Christ’s life, we cannot share His identity. Christ’s identity is His intrinsic name as Yahweh the Son. You can receive a blood transfusion from another person. Their life saves your life, but their identity is not shared with you. So we can see that there is a difference between our identity and our life. Jesus gives us His life. But He also comes into our heart by the Spirit. The Spirit of Christ is in us so we are able to fellowship with Him, both in our heart and in one another, in the community of the body of Christ.
