双语灵修（葛培理牧师）：4月30日 彼此和睦

4月30日

彼此和睦

“使人和睦的人有福了！因为他们必称为神的儿子。”

马太福音5:9

对一个基督徒来说，与神和好、拥有神的平安是不够的。我们向上与天父的关系必须有一个向外的生命相配合，否则我们的信就是徒然。主耶稣说，我们要尽心尽力爱神，并且爱人如己。这种同时对神和对人的爱犹如电池的两极，除非两极相连，否则我们不会有电力。个人的信心如果没有与群体的连结，就没有意义。只有一个例外，就是那个十字架上的强盗。

我曾经看过一个漫画，一个人划船驶向一个标为“天堂”的黄金海岸，他一路高唱“哈利路亚，我要去天堂！”，却完全不顾其他在水里挣扎的人。那不是一个基督徒的样式。

如果我们与神和好并拥有神的平安，我们就会成为和平使者。我们不仅会与邻居和睦相处，而且会带领他们认识基督里真正的平安。每个人都可以借着基督体验上帝的平安。“因他使我们和睦，将两下合而为一，拆毁了中间隔断的墙；”（以弗所书2:14）

当我们在神里面有平安的时候，我们的生活就有了新的维度。我们用几何中的一个直角三角形来描述这样的维度。三角形的顶点代表上帝，垂直线与基线的交点代表你自己，而水平线的另一端代表其他人。这样，以几何图的形式，你可以直观地看到我们与上帝以及他人的关系图。我们的生命（在找到上帝的平安之前，只是一个以自我为中心的点）现在与两个世界有着重要的联系。平安从神那里流淌下来，流向我们的邻舍。我们只是它流通的管道。但是仅仅成为管道我们就得到了平安。

今日祷告：

天父，让我在心里经历祢的平安。让我通过福音将你的平安带给世界，让我与邻舍和睦相处，并将平安带到他们中间，愿祢使用我来成就祢的旨意；奉耶稣的名，阿门。

April 30

PEACE IS NOT PASSIVE

Blessed are the peacemakers:for they shall be called the children of God.Matthew 5:9

To have peace with God and to have the peace of God is not enough.This vertical relationship must have a horizontal outworking,or our faith is in vain.Jesus said that we were to love the Lord with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves.This dual love for God and others is like the positive and negative poles of a battery-unless both connections are made,we have no power.A personal faith is normally useless unless it has a social application.A notable exception would be the thief on the cross.

I once saw a cartoon of a man rowing a boat toward a golden shore labeled“heaven.”All around him were men and women struggling in vain to reach the shore and safety,but he was heedless of their peril.He was singing.“I am bound for heaven,hallelujah!”That is not an adequate picture of the Christian life.

If we have peace with God and the peace of God,we will become peacemakers.We will not only be at peace with our neighbors,but we will be leading them to discover the source of true peace in Christ.Every person can experience the peace of God through Christ:“For he is our peace”(Ephesians 2:14).

Our lives take on new dimensions when we find peace with God.To explain this in simpler terms,let us visualize a right-angle tringle sitting on its horizontal base.At the apex or highest point in this triangle write the letter“G,”representing God.At the point where the perpendicular line meets the base write the letter“Y,”representing you.Then,at the opposite end of the horizontal line write the letter“O,”which represents others.There,in geometric form,you have a visual diagram of our relationship with God and man.Our lives(which before we found the peace of God were represented by a single dot of self-centeredness)now take in an area in vital contact with two worlds.Peace flows down from God and out to our fellow men.We become merely the conduit through which it flows.But there is peace in being just a“channel.”

Pray for the Day:

Father,Let me experience Your peace within my heart.Let me bring Your peace to the world through the Gospel,and let me have peace with my neighbors and encourage peace among my neighbors,so that You can work through me to accomplish Your purpose;in Jesus’Name,Amen.