尋找上帝Finding God
[每日靈修] 11/15/2018, 駱鴻銘編譯
我們都聽過福音佈道家從啟示錄中引用：「看哪，我站在門外叩門，若有聽見我聲音就開門的，我要進到他那裡去，我與他，他與我一同坐席。」（啟示錄三20）。通常福音佈道家將這段經文作為對未悔改之人的訴求，說：「耶穌正在敲你的心門。如果你把心門打開，祂就會進來。」然而，在原文當中，這些話耶穌是對教會說的。這不是一個福音佈道的訴求。
所以呢？關鍵在於尋求是非信徒不能自己做的事情。不信的人不會尋求。不信的人不會敲門。尋求是信徒的事。愛德華茲（Jonathan Edwards）說：「尋求上帝的國度是基督徒生活的要務。」尋求是信心的結果，而不是信心的成因。
當我們歸信基督時，我們使用「發現」的說法來表達我們的轉變。我們論到「尋找基督」。我們可能會看到「我發現它」的保險槓貼紙。這些陳述確實是真的。具有諷刺意味的是：我們一旦找到了基督，它不是我們尋求的終點，而是起點。通常，當我們找到我們正在尋找的東西時，它標誌著我們搜索的結束。但是當我們「找到」基督時，它卻是我們尋找的開始。
基督徒生活始於回轉；它不會在它開始的地方結束。它會成長；信上加信，恩上加恩，命（生命）上加命。這種成長的動能是通過不斷尋求上帝而得著的。
活在神的面光中（在神面前禱告）：
在你的屬靈生命中，你是從信上加信、恩上加恩、命上加命嗎？你是否不斷地在尋求上帝？
進一步研讀：
約十四23~24 耶穌回答說：「人若愛我，就必遵守我的道；我父也必愛他，並且我們要到他那裏去，與他同住。不愛我的人就不遵守我的道。你們所聽見的道不是我的，乃是差我來之父的道。
約十五10 你們若遵守我的命令，就常在我的愛裏，正如我遵守了我父的命令，常在他的愛裏。
Finding God
We
have all heard evangelists quote from Revelation: “Behold, I stand at the door
and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him
and dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20). Usually the evangelist applies
this text as an appeal to the unconverted, saying: “Jesus is knocking at the
door of your heart. If you open the door, then He will come in.” In the
original saying, however, Jesus directed His remarks to the church. It was not
an evangelistic appeal.
So
what? The point is that seeking is something that unbelievers do not do on
their own. The unbeliever will not seek. The unbeliever will not knock. Seeking
is the business of believers. Jonathan Edwards said, “The seeking of the
Kingdom of God is the chief business of the Christian life.” Seeking is the
result of faith, not the cause of it.
When
we are converted to Christ, we use language of discovery to express our
conversion. We speak of finding Christ. We may have bumper sticker that read,
“I Found It.” These statements are indeed true. The irony is this: Once we have
found Christ it is not the end of our seeking but the beginning. Usually, when
we find what we are looking for, it signals the end of our searching. But when
we “find” Christ, it is the beginning of our search.
The
Christian life begins at conversion; it does not end where it begins. It grows;
it moves from faith to faith, from grace to grace, from life to life. This
movement of growth is prodded by continual seeking after God.
Coram
Deo
In
your spiritual walk, are you moving from faith to faith, from grace to grace,
from life to life? Are you continually seeking after God?
Passages
for Further Study
John
14:23–24
John
15:10