双语灵修（葛培理牧师）：8 月 6 日 战胜死亡

8 月 6 日

战胜死亡

知道基督既从死里复活，就不再死，死也不再作他的主了。

罗马书 6:9

当我太太和我还是大学生时，我们常到乡下散步。附近有一个古老的墓地，我们会到那里去阅读墓碑上的墓志铭。从那时起，我就喜欢到世界各地古老的墓地去。当我们漫步穿过墓地，看着墓碑，或走进教堂观看那些古老的纪念碑时，我们会见到大多数墓碑上都有这样的标题：“长眠于此。”接下来是名字、死亡日期，也许还有一些对死者优良品质的赞 誉。但耶稣坟墓上的墓志铭却截然不同！它既不用金子写，也不用石头刻。天使所出之言与其他墓碑上写的完全相反：“祂不在这里，照祂所说的，已经复活了”（马太福音 28:6）。

伊凡·屠格涅夫（Ivan Turgenev）在他的巨著《父与子》的结尾，描述了俄罗斯偏远角落的一个村庄墓地。在众多坟墓中，有一座人迹罕至，野兽也不曾践踏，只有飞鸟在上面栖息、在黎明时吟唱。常有一对年迈的老夫妇，迈着沉重的步伐，相互搀扶着，从附近的村庄来看望这座坟墓。他们跪在栏杆旁，凝视着那块石头，石头下面就躺着他们的儿子，他们缅怀着，哭泣着。说了几句话之后，他们擦去石头上的灰尘，立起一根冷杉树枝，然后开始祈祷。在这里，他们似乎离儿子和对他的回忆更近。然后屠格涅夫问道：“难道他们的祈祷和眼泪竟是徒劳无益的吗？难道爱，那永不改变的挚爱竟是苍白无力的吗？哦，不，无论那墓穴中藏着的心是怎样的放纵、可耻和悖逆，那上面生长的花朵都天真而安祥地瞧着我们。它们不仅诉说着永远的平安，诉说着那漠然的自然界中极大的平安；还诉说着那无尽的和好与不朽的生命。”

屠格涅夫带来了无尽和好的盼望。这种盼望基于什么呢？是基于耶稣基督的复活！

今日祷告：

天父，我们的盼望在于耶稣的复活。因为这个盼望，我们给世界带来了希望。感谢主！祷告奉耶稣的名，阿们。

August 6

DEATH DEFEATED

Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. Romans 6:9

When my wife and I were students in college, we used to take long walks into the country. Nearby was an old graveyard where we would go to read the epitaphs on the tombstones. Ever since then, I have liked to go to old cemeteries in various parts of the world. When we wander through a graveyard and look at the tombstones or go into a church and examine the old monuments, we see one heading on most of them: “Here lies.” Then follows the name, with the date of death and perhaps some praise of the good qualities of the deceased. But how different is the epitaph on the tomb of Jesus! It is neither written in gold nor cut in stone. It is spoken by the mouth of an angel and is the exact reverse of what is put on all other tombs: “He is not here: for he is risen, as he said” (Matthew 28:6).

At the end of his great book Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev describes a village graveyard in one of the remote corners of Russia. Among the many neglected graves was one untouched by man, untrampled by beast. Only the birds rested upon it and sang at daybreak. Often from the nearby village two feeble old people, husband and wife, moving with heavy steps and supporting one another, came to visit this grave. Kneeling down at the railing and gazing intently at the stone under which their son was lying, they yearned and wept. After a brief word they wiped the dust away from the stone, set straight a branch of a fir tree, and then began to pray. In this spot they seemed to be nearer their son and their memories of him. And then Turgenev asks, “can it be that their prayers, their tears, are fruitless? Can it be that love, sacred, devoted love, is not all powerful? Oh no, however passionate, sinning, and rebellious the heart hidden in the tomb, the flowers growing over it peep serenely at us with their innocent eyes. They tell us not of eternal peace alone, of that great peace of indifferent nature; they tell us, too, of eternal reconciliation and of life without end.”

Turgenev was offering hope of an eternal reconciliation. But upon what is that hope based? It is based upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Pray for the Day:

Father, it is in the resurrection of Jesus that our hope lies. Because of this hope, we offer hope to the world. Thank You, Lord; in Jesus’ Name, Amen.