双语灵修（葛培理牧师）：12月7日 光和阴影

12月7日

光和阴影

你们就是为义受苦，也是有福的……神的旨意若是叫你们因行善受苦，总强如因行恶受苦。

彼得前书3:14,17

所有艺术杰作都包含光和影。幸福的生活不只是充满阳光，而是因光和影产生美。逼迫可以成为祝福，因为它为基督徒生命的光提供了黑暗的背景。最伟大的音乐家通常都是那些知道如何在悲伤中讴歌的人。范妮·克罗斯比的灵性因着对基督的信仰而熠熠生辉，她用失明的眼睛所看到的，远比我们大多数视力正常的人所看到的更多。她给我们带来的许多美好的福音诗歌，激励了我们的心灵和生命。她写了大约两千首赞美诗，其中六十首至今仍广为流传。

保罗和西拉在腓立比一所老鼠泛滥的监狱里夜间唱诗赞美，他们脚戴枷锁，背上满是狱卒鞭打的伤痕。但他们在苦难和逼迫中的忍耐，感化了那个异教徒监狱长，使他归向了神。殉道者的鲜血早已深深融入文明的基石之中，将一块块石头紧密相连。

正如桑顿·怀尔德所说：“若非因为你的伤痛，你的力量又从何而来？……即便是天国中的天使，也无法像一个在人生磨难中破碎的凡人那样劝服那些可怜而迷惘的世人。在爱的使命中，唯有伤痕累累的战士才能胜任。”

你最后一次为义受苦是在什么时候？是为基督的缘故吗？

今日祷告：

天父，求祢赐给我一颗甘愿的心。帮助我在祢使我的生命所经历的试炼中存心忍耐。也求祢这样帮助我在主内的弟兄姐妹；奉耶稣的名，阿们。

December 7

THE NEED FOR SUNSHINE AND SHADOW

If ye suffer for righteousness”sakes,happy are ye…For it is better,if the will of God be so,that ye suffer for well doing,than for evil doing.1 Peter 3:14,17

All the masterpieces of art contain both light and shadow.A happy life is not one filled only with sunshine,but one which uses both light and shadow to produce beauty.Persecution can become a blessing because it forms a dark backdrop for the radiance of the Christian life.The greatest musicians as a rule are those who know how to bring song out of sadness.Fanny Crosby,her spirit aglow with faith in Christ,saw more with her sightless eyes than most of us do with normal vision.She has given us some of the great gospel songs which cheer our hearts and lives.She wrote some two thousand hymns of which sixty are still in common use.

Paul and Silas sang their song of praise at midnight in a rat-infested jail in Philippi,their feet in stocks,their backs raw from the jailer’s whip.But their patience in suffering and persecution led to the conversion of the heathen prison warden.The blood of the martyrs is mixed well into the mortar which holds the stones of civilization together.

In the words of Thornton Wilder:“Without your wounds,where would your power be?…The very angels of God in heaven cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children of earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living.In love’s service only wounded soldiers will do.”

When was the last time you really suffered for righteousness’sake?For the cause of Christ?

Pray for the Day:

Father,give me a willing heart.Help me to be patient and endure any trials that You bring into my life.Do the same for my brothers and sisters in the Lord;in Jesus’Name,Amen.