双语灵修（葛培理牧师）：2月13日: 神的选民

2月13日

神的选民

……所以你们既是神的选民、圣洁蒙爱的人……

——歌罗西书 3：12

当代作家刻画出了这个时代的悲观主义，许多人更是举起双手绝望地说：“人的困境是无解了。”

海明威曾经说过：“我也就生活在真空里了，那种孤寂的情形活像电池用完后，又没有电流可接的一个无线电真空管。”

在《长日入夜行》中，尤金·奥尼尔就是当代哲学态度的典型代表。他说：“生活的唯一意义就是死亡。”

我却要对已经过世的海明威和奥尼尔说， “生的意义远高过死。”生活的意义远高过没插电的无线电真空管。耶稣教导我们做人的尊严和重要性。上帝把我们放在地球上是有特殊的目的的，那就是与神相交并荣耀神。

今日祷告：

慈爱的天父，祢对我的爱超越了我对生活的绝望，是祢给了我迫切寻求的意义。奉耶稣的名，阿们。

February 13

 Chosen by God

……you have been chosen by God who has given you this new kind of life……
—Colossians 3:12 (TLB)

Modern writers depict the pessimism of our time and many of them throw up their hands in despair and say,

“There is no answer to man’s dilemma.” Hemingway once said, “I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead, and there is no current to plug into.”

Eugene O’Neill in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” typifies the philosophical attitude of our day. He says, “Life’s only meaning is death.”

I say to Hemingway and to O’Neill, who have already gone on, “There is more to life than death.” There is more to life than a radio tube that needs a place to plug into. Jesus taught us the dignity and importance of being a person. God put us on this earth for a purpose, and our purpose is fellowship with God and to glorify God.

Prayer for the day:

Loving Father, Your love for me transcends the hopelessness of this life and gives me the purpose I so desperately need. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.