January 06, 2014

Worship

He moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord —Genesis 12:8

Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love-gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard it for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded (see Exodus 16:20). God will never allow you to keep a spiritual blessing completely for yourself. It must be given back to Him so that He can make it a blessing to others.

Bethel is the symbol of fellowship with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abram “pitched his tent” between the two. The lasting value of our public service for God is measured by the depth of the intimacy of our private times of fellowship and oneness with Him. Rushing in and out of worship is wrong every time— there is always plenty of time to worship God. Days set apart for quiet can be a trap, detracting from the need to have daily quiet time with God. That is why we must “pitch our tents” where we will always have quiet times with Him, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three levels of spiritual life— worship, waiting, and work. Yet some of us seem to jump like spiritual frogs from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God’s idea is that the three should go together as one. They were always together in the life of our Lord and in perfect harmony. It is a discipline that must be developed; it will not happen overnight.


敬拜

從那裡他又遷到伯特利東邊的山,支搭帳棚,西邊事伯特利,東邊事艾。他在那裡又為耶和華築了一座壇。 (創十二8)

敬拜就是把神給你最好的獻給他凡是你最好的東西,當小心處理你從神得了祝福,就要把它獻回給神,作為愛的禮物。在神面前花時間好好地默想,以敬拜的虔誠行動,把那祝福獻上給神,假若你把那東西留歸自己,它必會變成數領枯朽之物,正如儲藏起來的嗎哪一樣。神絕不會容許你把屬靈的事物留歸己用,它必須歸還給神,讓神將之化為別人的祝福

伯特利是與神相交的象徵,而艾是世界的意思,亞伯拉罕卻搭營在兩者之間。我們在外面為神作工有多少價值,是以我們私下與神相交程度的深淺來衡量的。匆忙倉卒當然是不對的,因為敬拜神的時間多的是;但平靜無事的日子,也許會成為陷阱。我們支搭帳棚的所在,應該隨時可與神有安靜的相交,姑勿論我們與時間的接觸有多頻繁。屬靈的生活中這三者總是一致的,他在忙碌中並不一定分為三個階段——敬拜、等候、作工。有些人像屬靈青蛙一般,跳躍而行,從敬拜跳到等候,又從等候跳到工作。神的心意是要三者同時並進在主的生活中並不急躁。這是一種操練,我們不能一蹴而就

祈禱◆主啊,我何其清楚工作和活動所引發的危險,是與安靜和退隱危險等同,而祢是我唯一安穩的避難所。讓我的一切都全然被祢佔據。

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