6月19日 熱誠的事奉

你愛我嗎？……你牧養我的羊。（約二十一16）

耶穌並沒有叫人追隨祂的思想，而是要你看顧祂的羊，使他們因認識祂而得著滋養。我們把事奉的工作視作事奉主；但耶穌基督卻視我們與祂的關係為事奉，而不是我們為祂所做的工作。做門徒，是基於對耶穌基督的忠誠，而不是由於服從一套信徒規條。“人到我這裡來，若不愛我勝過……，就不能作我的門徒。”沒有爭議，也沒有強逼，只直截了當地－－“你若做我的門徒，必須專心歸我”。一個人被聖靈摸著了，就說：“我如今認識了耶穌是誰。”這就是專心歸依的根源。

時至今日，我們已把信條代替了個人的信仰，所以致力於事工的人多，而一心歸服耶穌基督的人卻少。人不要歸服耶穌，只想致力於他所創立的事工。他們只認耶穌為同志。主首先順服的，是祂父的旨意，而不是人群的需要。他之所以救人，是順服父神的必然結果。我若只致力於人群的事工，不久就會精疲力竭，落到愛心冷淡的地步；但若我愛耶穌基督，就是人把我當作地席，我仍要服侍他們。門徒生活的秘訣就是全心歸依基督。那生命的特徵是隱藏不露，就如一粒麥子落在地裡死了，不久就萌芽生長，改變整個田園的景象（約十二24）。

祈禱◆願禰感動我的靈，使它被禰所充滿，直至湧溢。願禰透過我的意念思想，直至我形成“在基督耶穌裡的心懷意念”。

June 19 Service Of Passionate Devotion

“Lovest thou Me? . . . Feed My sheep.” John 21:16

Jesus did not say – Make converts to your way of thinking, but look after My sheep, see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Me. We count as service what we do in the way of Christian work; Jesus Christ calls service what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on adherence to a belief or a creed. “If any man come to Me and hate not . . . , he cannot be My disciple.” There is no argument and no compulsion, but simply – If you would be My disciple, you must be devoted to Me. A man touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says – “Now I see Who Jesus is,” and that is the source of devotion.

Today we have substituted credal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many are devoted to causes and so few devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is a source of deep offence to the educated mind of today that does not want Him in any other way than as a comrade. Our Lord's first obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of men; the saving of men was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted to the cause of humanity only, I will soon be exhausted and come to the place where my love will falter; but if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity though men treat me as a door-mat. The secret of a disciple's life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of the life is its unobtrusiveness. It is like a corn of wheat, which falls into the ground and dies, but presently it will spring up and alter the whole landscape （John 12:24）.