Daily Devotion - Dec 14 - ¯îºz¥Ì¬u Streams in the Desert

荒漠甘泉 Streams in the Desert

基督居首位

經文: 「有個門徒對祂說，求主教導我們禱告……耶穌說，你們禱告的時候，要說……願您的國降臨。」（路十一1~2）

當門徒對祂說：「教導我們禱告」的時候，我們的主就想起了永世，所以祂說：「你們禱告，要這樣說。」（太六9）

主所教導我們的禱告，和我們所常聽見的禱告，相差多遠呢！我們常照我們自己的心意禱告：「哦，主阿，祝福我、我的家、我的教會、我的本鄉、我的本國….。」我們所求的，和上帝的國相差得太遠了。

我們的主放在前面的，我們偏把它漏去。主的次序是：先世界，後個人。主教導我們先按照上帝對於全世界願望和目的，為全世界祈求，然後纔教導我們為自己祈求日用的飲食。

主耶穌既然把祂一切都給我們，連性命也在十字架上為我們捨棄，如果，祂要求我們把祂的國放在第一位祈求，豈是過分的呢？只有讓基督在凡事上居首位的人，纔能得著屬天的能力。──法蘭西斯（Dr. Francis）

「祂的國沒有窮盡」（路一33）。

佈道事業並不是教會的後見乃是機督的先見。──范達愛克（Henry van Dyke）


Christ's Business is Supreme

Scripture: "His disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray . . . and he said unto them, When ye pray, say. . . Thy kingdom come" (Luke 11:1, 2).

When they said, "Teach us to pray," the Master lifted His eyes and swept the far horizon of God. He gathered up the ultimate dream of the Eternal, and, rounding the sum of everything God intends to do in the life of man, He packed it all into these three terse pregnant phrases and said, "When you pray, pray after this manner."

What a contrast between this and much praying we have heard. When we follow the devices of our own hearts, how runs it? "O Lord bless me, then My family, My church, My city, My country," and away on the far fringe as we close up, there is a prayer for the extension of His Kingdom throughout the wide parish of the world.

The Master begins where we leave off. The world first, my personal needs second, is the order of this prayer. Only after my prayer has crossed every continent and every far-flung island of the sea, after it has taken in the last man in the last backward race, after it has covered the entire wish and purpose, of God for the world, only then am I taught to ask for a piece of bread for myself.

When Jesus gave His all, Himself for us and to us in the holy extravagance of the Cross, is it too much if He asks us to do the same thing? No man or woman amounts to anything in the kingdom, no soul ever touches even the edge of the zone of power, until this lesson is learned that Christ's business is the supreme concern of life and that all personal considerations, however dear or important, are tributary thereto. --Dr. Francis

When Robert Moffat, the veteran African missionary and explorer, was asked once to write in a young lady's album, he penned these lines:

"And His Kingdom shall have no frontier" (Luke 1:33, the old Moravian version).

The missionary enterprise is not the Church's afterthought; it is Christ's forethought;
--Henry van Dyke


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