Daily Devotion - Apr 26 - ¥q¥?‾u‥C?eAF-×(c]) Evening by Evening

司布真每日靈修(夜) Evening by Evening 四月二十六日 經文: 那儆醒……的，有福的。（啓示錄十六：15） 「我是天天冒死。」使徒保羅在哥林多前書第十五章第三十一節中說道。早期的基督徒無論到何處皆是冒著生命的危險。我們今天不會再經歷這種可怕的迫害。即或我們會遇到迫害，主也將賜恩典使我們能承擔試驗。但是今日在我們基督徒生活中所面臨的試驗，比起那些憤怒時代中的試驗，似乎更能將我們壓倒。要我們忍受世人的譏嘲尚且容易。世上的諂媚、甜言密語、和假冒為善則較難抵擋。但我們的危險是在於我們可能致富而變為驕傲，或者接受了現今邪惡世界之價值觀而喪失信心。如果財富不能試探你，對世界的關愛也是同樣危險的。我們即使不被吼叫的獅子撕扯成碎片，也會被大熊的擁抱致死。魔鬼並不計較採取何種手段，只要能摧毀我們對基督的愛和對祂的信靠祂就喜歡。教會在這些溫和平順的日子中，比起在那些困難的時期，似呼更容易喪失她的誠信篤實。現在我們必須儆醒了。因為我們是行在崎嶇的路上。除非我們對耶穌的信心是真實的，對祂的愛如燃燒的火焰，否則我們就會沈睡以至於自我毀滅。在如今不持嚴謹信仰的世代中，許多自稱為基督徒的人有朝一日將被判為稗子而非麥子。基督徒啊，不要以為現在是可以不必儆醒或不必對上帝熱心的時刻，反之，現在比過去任何時刻更需儆醒與熱愛。但願永�的靈在你�面展現祂的全能，使你在此平順的日子，也和在困難的日子一樣，能說：「然而靠著愛我們的主，在這一切的事上，已經得勝有餘了。」（羅八：37） Evening, April 26 Scripture: "Blessed is he that watcheth."(Revelation 16:15) "We die daily," said the apostle. This was the life of the early Christians; they went everywhere with their lives in their hands. We are not in this day called to pass through the same fearful persecutions: if we were, the Lord would give us grace to bear the test; but the tests of Christian life, at the present moment, though outwardly not so terrible, are yet more likely to overcome us than even those of the fiery age. We have to bear the sneer of the world—that is little; its blandishments, its soft words, its oily speeches, its fawning, its hypocrisy, are far worse. Our danger is lest we grow rich and become proud, lest we give ourselves up to the fashions of this present evil world, and lose our faith. Or if wealth be not the trial, worldly care is quite as mischievous. If we cannot be torn in pieces by the roaring lion, if we may be hugged to death by the bear, the devil little cares which it is, so long as he destroys our love to Christ, and our confidence in him. I fear me that the Christian church is far more likely to lose her integrity in these soft and silken days than in those rougher times. We must be awake now, for we traverse the enchanted ground, and are most likely to fall asleep to our own undoing, unless our faith in Jesus be a reality, and our love to Jesus a vehement flame. Many in these days of easy profession are likely to prove tares, and not wheat; hypocrites with fair masks on their faces, but not the true-born children of the living God. Christian, do not think that these are times in which you can dispense with watchfulness or with holy ardour; you need these things more than ever, and may God the eternal Spirit display his omnipotence in you, that you may be able to say, in all these softer things, as well as in the rougher, "We are more than conquerors through him that loved us." www.glorypress.com