双语灵修（葛培理牧师）：11月23日  神有定时

11月23日 

神有定时

……有公义的冠冕为我存留，就是按着公义审判的主到了那日要赐给我的；不但赐给我，也赐给凡爱慕他显现的人。

提摩太后书4:8

许多人都在问：“历史将走向何方？”细心研读圣经的人会发现，上帝掌控着命运的时钟。在世界的混乱中，上帝全能的手在做工，实现祂不变的计划和目的；世上的国都将成为主耶稣基督的国，“因为基督必要作王，等神把一切仇敌，都放在祂的脚下”（哥林多前书15:25）。

共产主义者说，他们能主宰时间和历史，但他们却忽视了耶稣基督再来的事实。祂掌控一切，祂将决定结果。有一点圣经很明确，那就是：“将来要向那等候祂的人第二次显现”（希伯来书9:28）。

基督徒对主再来应该持有什么样的态度呢？最近有个人对我说：“好吧，主快来了；那我们还有什么可做的呢？”这种宿命论的态度不是主耶稣基督所教导的。当祂告诉门徒祂将再来时祂说：“你们去作生意，直等我回来”（路加福音19:13），并且“主人来到，看见他这样行，那仆人就有福了”（马太福音24:46）。

德怀特·L·穆迪曾经说过：“我把这世界看作一艘失事的船，它越来越往下沉。上帝对我说，‘穆迪，这里有一艘救生艇，在船沉没之前，尽你所能去救人吧！”如果穆迪时代，世界末日似乎已经临近，那么我们离历史的结局又该有多近呢？

如果说，有哪一天我们应该开着救生艇，竭尽全力去救更多人的话，那就是现在。这就是为什么我们无论身在何处都要尽可能地传扬福音。

我们相信，这是个荣耀的时机，去传扬基督救赎的恩典和能力，并在一切虚假意识形态的反对声浪中传扬福音。

伟大的英国福音布道家乔治·怀特菲尔德说：“我每天都在等候神儿子的到来。”他也确实传讲了基督的福音。我们还能少做工吗？

今日祷告：

哦，天父，福音传遍天下是如此紧迫。我们都知道好些人迷失了方向，帮助我们向他们分享福音，祈求祢使更多人得救，进而带领其他人归向基督；奉耶稣的名，阿们。

November 23

GOD CONTROLS THE CLOCK

…There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day:and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:8

Many people are asking, “Where is history heading?” A careful student of the Bible will be led to see that God controls the clock of destiny. Amidst the world’s confusion, God’s omnipotent hand moves, working out His unchanging plan and purpose; and the kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25).

The Communists say that time and history are on their side. But they ignore the fact that Jesus Christ is coming to earth again. He is in control, and He will determine the outcome. If the Bible is clear at any point, it is this:“Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time” (Hebrews 9:28).

What is to be the attitude of the Christian toward the fact of Christ’s coming? One man said to me recently, “Well, the Lord is coming soon; so what is there to do anything about?” Such a fatalistic attitude is not the one taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. When He told His disciples of his return to earth,He said,“Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13), and “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing” (Matthew 24:46).

Dwight L.Moody once said, “I look upon this world as a wrecked vessel. Its ruin is getting nearer and nearer.God said to me, ‘Moody, there’s a lifeboat.Go out and rescue as many as you can before the ship sinks.’” If the end seemed about to come in Moody’s day, how much closer must we be to the climax of history?

If there was ever a time when we should man the lifeboats and go out and rescue as many as we can, it is now. That is why we are proclaiming the Gospel in the strategic centers of the world wherever we can.

We believe this is a day of glorious opportunity to proclaim the saving grace and power of Christ,and to declare the Gospel against the opposition of every false ideology.

George Whitefield,the great English evangelist,said,“I am daily waiting for the coming of the Son of God.”But he did proclaim the Gospel of Christ.Can we do less?

Pray for the Day:

O Father, the Gospel going into the world is so urgent. All of us know people who are lost.Help us to share the good news with them, and I pray that many of them will be saved and will in turn lead others to Christ; in Jesus’Name, Amen.