7月25日 我有這福嗎？

……有福了。（太五3-10）

初讀主耶穌的話時，但覺平平無奇，於是不自覺地拋諸腦後。例如八福就似乎只是一套溫和優美的觀念。是為那些超世閒逸的人而設的，對於這個冷酷、平凡的世界，並無實際用場。可是，不久我們就會發現，八福其實有聖靈的炸藥，當碰到生活環境的引發線，就會爆炸。聖靈會提醒人八福中的某一項，我們就會說：“多令人震驚的一句話呀！”我們就得決定，是否願意接受屬靈上的重大的改變。我們若肯順服，在所處的環境中就必產生得救的人，也可以依字面應用登山寶訓。按字面意義來解釋登山寶訓是小孩的玩意；但照神的靈把主的話應用在我們的際遇上，卻是聖徒一項嚴肅的功課。

耶穌的教訓與我們看事的常理大不相同，開始的時候會令人渾身不舒服。當聖靈把主的話應用在我們實際環境中，我們便要慢慢學習，依從主耶穌的觀念來做事及說話。登山寶訓不是一套規條，而是生活的寫照，就是當我們順服聖靈時所活出的生命。

祈禱◆主啊，最近我感到晦暗而不明朗，好像你正在帶領我進入一個真理的範疇，是我前所未到過的。主啊，高舉我，直至我看見你；支持我，直至我完成你的計劃。

July 25 Am I Blessed Like This?

“Blessed are . . .” Matthew 5:3-10

When we first read the statements of Jesus they seem wonderfully simple and unstartling, and they sink unobserved into our unconscious minds. For instance, the Beatitudes seem merely mild and beautiful precepts for all unworldly and useless people, but of very little practical use in the stern workaday world in which we live. We soon find, however, that the Beatitudes contain the dynamite of the Holy Ghost. They explode, as it were, when the circumstances of our lives cause them to do so. When the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance one of these Beatitudes we say – ‘What a startling statement that is!’ and we have to decide whether we will accept the tremendous spiritual upheaval that will be produced in our circumstances if we obey His words. That is the way the Spirit of God works. We do not need to be born again to apply the Sermon on the Mount literally. The literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount is child's play; the interpretation by the Spirit of God as He applies Our Lord's statements to our circumstances is the stern work of a saint.

The teaching of Jesus is out of all proportion to our natural way of looking at things and it comes with astonishing discomfort to begin with. We have slowly to form our walk and conversation on the line of the precepts of Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit applies them to our circumstances. The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of rules and regulations: it is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is getting His way with us.