第一週・週三
📖晨興餧養
羅四17 亞伯拉罕在他所信那叫死人復活，又稱無為有的神面前，是我們眾人的父，如經上所記：『我已經立你作多國的父。』
加四23 然而那出於使女的，是按着肉體生的；那出於自主婦人的，是藉着應許生的。
甚麼叫作神是父？神是父的意思就是：一切都是出乎神的。…神是父，意思就是神是創造者，神是惟一的發起人。子是父差遣來的。『子從自己不能作甚麼，惟有看見父所作的，子纔能作；父所作的事，子也照樣作。』（約五19）這是我們必須有的經歷。我們必須蒙神的恩典，看見我們在神面前不能發起一件事，不配發起一件事。…神是父，一切都是出乎神（倪柝聲文集第二輯第十五冊，六至七頁）。
📖信息選讀
有一天神給你看見『神是父』的時候，那一天是你有福的一天。那一天你會認識你不能作甚麼，你沒有辦法。你並不是勒住自己不作一件事，勒住自己不作兩件事；你乃是問說，神起頭了沒有？這就是亞伯拉罕的經歷。他的經歷就是給我們看見，他不是自己要作神的子民。亞伯拉罕沒有起頭，是神起頭的，是神從伯拉大河那一邊把他帶過來（創十二1～5）。神要他，所以神就呼召亞伯拉罕出來，亞伯拉罕自己連想都沒有想過。阿利路亞！是神要他，是神作的事。
神是父。…〔亞伯拉罕〕蒙召出去的時候，還不知道要往那裏去（來十一8）。…甚麼都是神起頭的，和他自己沒有關係。我們如果真知道神是父，我們自己就沒有這麼多把握，就不能說，我要作甚麼就作甚麼。
還不只這樣。亞伯拉罕連要生一個兒子都不知道。…亞伯拉罕不能發起任何的事，連他自己的兒子也得神給他。這是亞伯拉罕。
亞伯拉罕認識神是父。…我們需要學習的第一個功課就是這一個—我自己不能作甚麼，一切都在乎神，祂是父，祂是一切的起頭。
我們在以撒身上所得着的教訓是甚麼呢？加拉太四章說以撒是子（23）。以撒給我們看見，一切都是從父那裏承受的。我們從創世記十一章起，一直讀到五十章，在亞伯拉罕、以撒、雅各的故事裏，能看出以撒是一個碌碌無奇、平平常常的人。…以撒一生都是享受他父親所傳下來的。不錯，以撒也挖了幾口井；但是，有些井還是從前他父親挖的…（二六18）。以撒所給我們的一個功課就是，我們若不是從父那裏承受，就一無所有。保羅問我們一個問題：『你有甚麼不是領受的？』（林前四7）這就是說，我沒有一件東西不是接受的，我所有的，都是父親給的。這是以撒。
許多人不能作亞伯拉罕，就是因為他不能作以撒。…光有亞伯拉罕的經歷，沒有以撒的經歷，不行；光有以撒的經歷，沒有亞伯拉罕的經歷，也不行。我們要看見神是父，甚麼都是出乎祂；我們也要看見我們是兒子，甚麼都是祂給的。我們作兒子的生命，是從祂來的。我們在神面前不過是一個接受的人。得救是接受的，得勝也是接受的；稱義是接受的，聖別也是接受的；赦罪是接受的，得着釋放也是接受的。接受的原則就是以撒的原則（倪柝聲文集第二輯第十五冊，七至九頁）。
參讀：亞伯拉罕以撒雅各的神，第五、七至八章；帖撒羅尼迦前書生命讀經，第八篇。
WEEK 1 — DAY 3
Morning Nourishment
Rom. 4:17 (As it is written, “I have appointed you a father of many nations”) in the sight of God whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls the things not being as being.
Gal. 4:23 However the one of the maidservant was born according to the flesh, but the one of the free woman was born through promise.
What does it mean to know God as the Father? It means that everything is from God…For God to be the Father means that God is the Creator, the unique Initiator. The Son was sent from the Father. “The Son can do nothing from Himself except what He sees the Father doing, for whatever that One does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:19). This must be our experience. We must receive grace from God to realize that we cannot initiate anything. We are not worthy of initiating anything…God is the Father, and everything originates from Him. (CWWN, vol. 35, “The God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob,” p. 8)
Todays Reading
The day that God shows you that He is the Father will be a blessed day. On that day you will realize that you cannot do anything and that you are helpless. You will not have to try to hold yourself back from doing this thing or that thing. Instead you will ask, “Has God initiated this?” This is the experience of Abraham. His experience shows us that he had no thought of becoming God’s people. Abraham did not initiate anything. It was God who initiated. It was God who brought him from the other side of the Euphrates River (Gen. 12:1-5). God wanted him, and He called him out. Abraham never
thought of this. Hallelujah! God wanted him and God did the work.
God is the Father…When [Abraham] was called to go out, he did not know where he was going (Heb. 11:8)…God was the Initiator of everything for him; he had nothing to do with it. If you know that God is the Father, you will not be so confident and will not say that you can do whatever you want.
This was not all. Abraham did not know that he was going to beget a son… Abraham could not initiate anything. His son was given to him by God. This was Abraham.
Abraham knew God as the Father…The first lesson we have to learn is to realize that we can do nothing and that everything depends on God. He is the Father, and He is the Initiator of everything.
What is the lesson we learn from Isaac? Galatians 4 says that Isaac is the promised son (v. 23). In Isaac we see that everything comes from the Father. The history of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Genesis 11 through 50 shows us that Isaac was an ordinary and unexceptional man…Isaac’s whole life was an enjoyment of his father’s inheritance. It is true that Isaac dug a few wells. But even the wells were first dug by his father…(Gen. 26:18). The lesson that Isaac teaches us is that we have nothing other than what we have inherited from the Father. Paul asked a question: “And what do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7). In other words, there is nothing that we have that has not been received. All that we have comes from the Father. This is Isaac.
Many people fail to become Abraham because they fail to become Isaac. It is impossible to have the experience of Abraham without the experience of Isaac. It is also impossible to have the experience of Isaac without the experience of Abraham. We have to see that God is the Father and that everything proceeds from Him. We also have to see that we are sons and that everything we have is from Him. The life of the Son which we inherit comes from Him. In the eyes of God we are only those who receive. Salvation is received, victory is received, justification is received, sanctification is received, forgiveness is received, and freedom is received. The principle of receiving is the principle of Isaac. (CWWN, vol. 35, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” pp. 8-10)
Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 35, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” chs. 5, 7—8; Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, msg. 8
