理解歷史進程Comprehending the Course ofHistory
[每日靈修] 12/20/2018, 駱鴻銘編譯
在這段歷史中最引人注目的是在救贖工作中所顯明的神的護理之手。上帝是有長期計劃的上帝。祂不會屈服於過於人性的傾向，對即時滿足和短期目標感到滿意。
上帝從一開始就看到了結局，並統治著歷史的過程，不為所動地將它推向既定的命運。在亞伯拉罕一生的事務中，上帝按照祂的護理，引導歷史走向大衛的王權，且遠超於此，直到基督的王權。
這些家譜表明，基督的第一次降臨並不是上帝的事後發明，是對此瘋狂世界的一種快速修補。相反，它展示出上帝在世界建立之前所命定的一個奇妙救贖大劇，漸進卻穩妥地藉著歷史的註腳使它實現。
凡在第一次降臨中歡喜快樂的人，都因會祂應許必然有第二次降臨而得到安慰。作為二十一世紀的基督徒，我們生活在一個過渡時期——兩次降臨之間，它定義了、制約了、救贖了我們生命的意義。
活在神的面光中（在神面前禱告）：
通過閱讀馬太福音第二十四章，將你的思想聚焦在耶穌基督的第二次降臨上。
進一步研讀：
詩七七15 你曾用你的膀臂贖了你的民，就是雅各和約瑟的子孫。
詩七七12 我也要思想你的經營，默念你的作為。
詩九十2 諸山未曾生出，地與世界你未曾造成，從亙古到永遠，你是神。
Comprehending
the Course of History
What
is striking in this history is the manifest hand of providence in the work of
redemption. God is a God of long-range planning. He does not succumb to the
all-too-human tendency toward immediate gratification and short-term goals.
God
sees the end from the beginning and rules the course of history, moving it
inexorably toward its appointed destiny. In the affairs of the life of Abraham,
God was providentially directing history toward David’s kingship and far beyond
to the kingship of Christ.
The
genealogies show that the first advent of Christ was not an afterthought in
God’s mind, a sudden quick-fix remedy for a world run amok. Rather, it displays
a marvelous drama of redemption that God ordained before the foundation of the
world and gradually but surely brought to pass in the footnotes of history.
All
who rejoice in the first advent are comforted by the certainty of the promised
second advent. We, as twenty-first-century Christians, live in an interim
period—the time between two advents that define, condition, and redeem the
meaning of our lives.
Coram
Deo
Focus
your thoughts on the second advent of Jesus Christ by reading Matthew 24.
Passages
for Further Study
Psalm
77:15
Psalm
77:12
Psalm
90:2