2018-10-03


找到問題的根源Gettingto the Root of the Problem

 [每日靈修] 10/3/2018 駱鴻銘編譯

論到我們的心,聖經有很多話要說。在聖經中,心並不是指一個將血液打到全身的器官,而是靈魂的核心,是人類感情最深的中樞。生命的泉源是從心發出的。(箴四23;參見新譯本)耶穌看到我們財寶的位置與我們心靈的慾望之間有著密切的聯繫(太六21)。找到一個人的藏寶圖,你就找到了他心中的捷徑。

在人類墮落的光景下,心被視為我們問題的根源。聖經說我們有「一顆石心」。我記得我少年時期有兩首歌哀歎人性的這一事實。其中一首被稱為「石心」(Hearts of Stone),另一首是早期爵士樂(Dixieland jazz)的作品,名為「鐵石心腸的漢娜,薩凡納的蛇蝎女」(Hard-Hearted Hannah, the Vamp of Savannah)。

當然,硬心並不是只有吸血鬼才有,也不僅僅是在喬治亞州。它們存在於各地不愛神的墮落生物的胸懷中。石心是鈣化的心。它就像一塊沒有生命的岩石。它對上帝缺乏熱情,對基督沒有感情,不愛祂的話。硬心不知道渴慕上帝的事是怎麼回事。

當耶穌告訴尼哥底母,為了進神的國,他必須重生,祂是在告訴他,他的心有毛病。尼哥底母患有「先天性心臟病」——他出生時就罹患的心臟硬化(sclerosis of the heart)的一種疾病。

活在神的面光中(在神面前禱告):
在上帝面前檢查你的心。求上帝軟化你的心,讓你的靈在祂的手中變得柔軟。

進一步研讀:
太六1921 不要為自己積攢財寶在地上;地上有蟲子咬,能鏽壞,也有賊挖窟窿來偷。只要積攢財寶在天上;天上沒有蟲子咬,不能鏽壞,也沒有賊挖窟窿來偷。因為你的財寶在哪裏,你的心也在那裏。
耶十七9 人心比萬物都詭詐,壞到極處,誰能識透呢?
詩卅三21 我們的心必靠他歡喜,因為我們向來倚靠他的聖名。
詩一〇一2 我要用智慧行完全的道。你幾時到我這裏來呢?我要存完全的心行在我家中。


Getting to the Root of the Problem

The Bible has much to say about the heart. In Scripture, the heart refers not so much to an organ that pumps blood throughout the body as it does to the core of the soul, the deepest seat of human affections. It is out of the heart that the issues of life flow. Jesus saw a close connection between the location of our treasures and the drive of our hearts. Find a man’s treasure map and you have found the highway of his heart.

In this fallen condition, the heart is seen as the root of our problem. We are said to have “a heart of stone.” I remember two songs from my teenage years that lamented this fact of human nature. One was called “Hearts of Stone” and the other, a Dixieland jazz piece, was titled “Hard-Hearted Hannah, the Vamp of Savannah.”

Hardened hearts, of course, are not limited to vamps, nor are they found only in Georgia. They are found in the breasts of fallen creatures everywhere who have no affection for God. The stony heart is calcified. It is like an inert rock. It has no passion for God, no affection for Christ, no love for His Word. The hardened heart knows nothing of a longing for the things of God.

When Jesus told Nicodemus that it was necessary for him to be reborn in order to enter the kingdom of God, He was telling him that he had heart trouble. Nicodemus had a congenital heart defect—a condition of sclerosis of the heart with which he was born.

Coram Deo
Examine your heart before God. Ask God to soften your heart and make your spirit pliable in His hands.

Passages for Further Study
Jeremiah 17:9  Psalm 33:21 Psalm 101:2