8月5日 令人迷惘的呼召

先知所寫的一切事，都要成就在人子身上……他們不曉得所說的是什麼。（路十八31、34）

神要耶穌基督所受的，似乎是徹頭徹尾的酷災。耶穌基督叫門徒親眼看他受死，領他們到心碎欲絕的境地。耶穌基督的一生，除了從神的觀點以外，無論從任何角度看來，都是絕對的慘敗。可是，在人看來的失敗，在神卻為極大的勝利，因為神的心思永遠與人的不同。在我們生命中，令人狐疑的呼召也會臨到。神的呼召永不明確的說明，乃是內蘊的。神的呼召像海洋的呼召，除了那與海有緣的人外，沒有人聽得見。神的呼召難以明說，因為他的呼召是要人作他的戰友，完成他的計劃。而考驗就是要我們相信神確知自己的目的。事情發生絕非出於偶然，一切全出於神的吩咐。因為神在進行他的計劃。

我們若與神相交，又知道他要帶我們進入他的計劃裡去，就不用再追問他的計劃到底是怎樣。我們在信主的路上愈久，久愈單純，我們不會再問－－“為什麼神讓這事發生？”整件事情的背後，是神莫大的催策。“我的結局都有全能者去塑造。”信徒該信賴的，不是自己的智慧，而是神的智慧聰明。我們若有自己的目標，就會破壞那單純與悠然的安息，而這正是神兒女該有的特徵。

祈禱◆噢，主啊，釋放我，我極之渴望與你有著單純的關係，以致能改變任何事情，並向周遭的人散播恩福和福氣。

August 5 The Baffling Call Of God

“And all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished . . . And they understood none of these things.” Luke 18:31, 34

God called Jesus Christ to what seemed unmitigated disaster. Jesus Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death; He led every one of them to the place where their hearts were broken. Jesus Christ's life was an absolute failure from every standpoint but God's. But what seemed failure from man's standpoint was a tremendous triumph from God's, because God's purpose is never man's purpose.

There comes the baffling call of God in our lives also. The call of God can never be stated explicitly; it is implicit. The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him. It cannot be stated definitely what the call of God is to, because His call is to be in comradeship with Himself for His own purposes, and the test is to believe that God knows what He is after. The things that happen do not happen by chance, they happen entirely in the decree of God. God is working out His purposes.

If we are in communion with God and recognize that He is taking us into His purposes, we shall no longer try to find out what His purposes are. As we go on in the Christian life it gets simpler, because we are less inclined to say – Now why did God allow this and that? Behind the whole thing lies the compelling of God. “There's a divinity that shapes our ends.” A Christian is one who trusts the wits and the wisdom of God, and not his own wits. If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the leisureliness which ought to characterize the children of God.