5月7日 永恆的建造

你們哪一個要蓋一座樓，不先坐下算計花費，能蓋成不能呢？（路十四28）

主所指的代價，不是要我們去計算，他已經計算好了。就是三十年在拿撒勒，三年被人擁戴、譭謗和憎恨，客西馬尼園無底的痛苦，加略山上被宰殺－－成為整個時間與永恆轉動的樞軸。

耶穌基督已計算了代價。所以世人最終也無法指著他說：“這人動了工，卻不能完工。”在26、27及33節中，主陳明作門徒的條件；在他建造大工所用的人，是他已經為他們付上一切代價的人。“人到我這裡來，若不恨……就不能作我的門徒。”主的意思是在他建造大工上用得著的人，是那些熱切地、忠心地愛他超過地上任何最親密者的人。條件非常嚴格，但卻是榮耀的。

我們一切所建造的都要經神檢驗。神察驗的火，是否發覺在主的根基上竟建立了我們自己的事業？現在正是建立事業的大好機會，是我們努力為神工作的日子，可是其中卻密佈著網羅。其實認真地說，我們根本不能為神作工。耶穌把我們放在他的工程上，完全放在他建造的大計中，我們是沒有權選擇要被放在什麼地方。

祈禱◆主啊，引導我們的心思進入你的計劃中。許多人已步向你那榮耀卻帶有危險的開放境地。主啊，請傾注你那浩大的能力，來糾正我們的生命，使它成為煥發著健康的豐盛生命。

May 7 Building For Eternity

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” Luke 14:28

Our Lord refers not to a cost we have to count, but to a cost which He has counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal and hatred, the deep unfathomable agony in Gethsemane, and the onslaught at Calvary – the pivot upon which the whole of Time and Eternity turns. Jesus Christ has counted the cost. Men are not going to laugh at Him at last and say – “This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”

The conditions of discipleship laid down by Our Lord in vv. 26, 27 and 33 mean that the men and women He is going to use in His mighty building enterprises are those in whom He has done everything. “If any man come to Me, and hate not . . . he cannot be My disciple.” Our Lord implies that the only men and women He will use in His building enterprises are those who love Him personally, passionately and devotedly beyond any of the closest ties on earth. The conditions are stern, but they are glorious.

All that we build is going to be inspected by God. Is God going to detect in His searching fire that we have built on the foundation of Jesus some enterprise of our own? These are days of tremendous enterprises, days when we are trying to work for God, and therein is the snare. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus takes us over for His enterprises, His building schemes entirely, and no soul has any right to claim where he shall be put.