God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . —Galatians 6:14
When a person is newly born again, he seems inconsistent due to his unrelated emotions and the state of the external things or circumstances in his life. The apostle Paul had a strong and steady underlying consistency in his life. Consequently, he could let his external life change without internal distress because he was rooted and grounded in God. Most of us are not consistent spiritually because we are more concerned about being consistent externally. In the external expression of things, Paul lived in the basement, while his critics lived on the upper level. And these two levels do not begin to touch each other. But Paul’s consistency was down deep in the fundamentals. The great basis of his consistency was the agony of God in the redemption of the world, namely, the Cross of Christ.
State your beliefs to yourself again. Get back to the foundation of the Cross of Christ, doing away with any belief not based on it. In secular history the Cross is an infinitesimally small thing, but from the biblical perspective it is of more importance than all the empires of the world. If we get away from dwelling on the tragedy of God on the Cross in our preaching, our preaching produces nothing. It will not transmit the energy of God to man; it may be interesting, but it will have no power. However, when we preach the Cross, the energy of God is released. “. . . it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. . . . we preach Christ crucified . . .” (1 Corinthians 1:21, 23).
屬靈貫徹的秘訣
但我斷不以別的誇口，只誇我們主耶穌基督的十字架。 （加六14）
一個人在重生之初，會有很多不一致的地方- 有一些互不協調的情感，也有一些互不相連的事物。在使徒保羅最深處有堅強穩固的貫徹如一，任憑外在生活怎樣改變，也不受騷擾，因為他是紮根在神的根基上。我們沒有屬靈上的協調，多半是因為我們太著意於外在事物的協調。保羅住在地下室，而我們卻活在表面事物上的上層，兩者未有相通的機會。保羅的協調是建基於最基本的事上。他協調最大的根源，就是神救贖人類所付上的痛苦- 耶穌基督的十字架。
你要向自己重述所信的是什麽，然後把其馀的事物除掉，歸回那唯一的基石- 主耶穌的十字架。從歷史的觀點看來，十字架是微不足道的。可是從聖經觀點來看，卻比世上所有王國更重要。我們傳講的資訊，若不提神在十字架上的慘痛，就必無所成，神的能力也無法傳遞給人。這聽來似乎很有趣，但確是沒有十架，就毫無能力。當傳揚十字架，神的能力就釋放出來。 [神就樂意用人所當作愚拙的道理，拯救那些信的人。 ][我們卻是傳釘十字架的基督。 ]
祈禱◆主啊，我在你面前的生活，似乎是毫無目的、黯淡無光，直至你在我裡面出現。因著我相信你大能的救贖，我敬拜你。可是，噢！能夠察覺你的感動卻是另一回事！
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