第四週■週四
晨興餧養
羅四 17『亞伯拉罕在他所信那叫死人復活，又稱無爲有的神面前，是我們眾人的父，如經上所記：「我已經立你作多國的父。」』
林後四 16『所以我們不喪膽，反而我們外面的人雖然在毀壞，我們裏面的人卻日日在更新。』
請記得，神允許我們經過各種爲難，就是爲着這個原因，就是要使我們認識祂是復活的神。祂時常引我們進入死地，因爲只有在死裏，我們纔能經歷復活的生命。
聖經說到兩個創造：舊造與新造。…那裏有神，那裏就有新。在上的耶路撒冷稱爲『新耶路撒冷』，因爲其中滿了神。頭一個創造雖是活神的創造，卻沒有神聖的內容。然而，復活的神從死裏所復起的創造，具有神聖且屬人的內容。…頭一個創造…，神…任其經過死，好使其得以在復活裏顯出，成爲具有兩種性情，就是結合神性與人性的創造。（李常受文集一九五七年第三册，三三至三四頁。）
信息選讀
同工們彼此相愛，在和諧中一同作工，他們可能以爲彼此的愛，以及他們的配搭是屬靈的事。…但這可能只是屬人的關係，沒有任何神聖的內容。…然而有一天，神的手臨到，這配搭被帶到盡頭。…他們爲此憂傷，禱告並渴望恢復從前的和諧。然而他們越禱告，就越沒有和諧。直到有一天，他們確實向自己的舊經歷死了，他們就發現彼此之間有了一種新的關係，這種關係…乃是屬人且神聖的一。
舊造雖然是藉活神大能的手造成的，但神自己並沒有住留在舊造裏。舊造是神所創造的；舊造展示神的大能，卻無法展示神的同在。舊造如何能變化成爲新的？乃是藉着神的進入。然而如何能有神的進入？主要的難處就在這裏：舊性情必須破碎，神纔有路進來。弟兄姊妹，你生命中的每一件事，都必須經過死的最終試驗，使復活的神有路。你若僅僅認識活神，你的認識就太客觀。神是神，你是你。你需要認識復活的神；惟有藉着死，神纔能爲自己打通一條路，進到你的生命裏。
苦難所帶給舊造的毀壞，給復活的神機會，把祂自己分授到祂的造物裏，使其從死的過程裏出來時，在其構成上有了神聖的元素。宇宙中苦難的主要目的，特別對神的兒女來說，乃是要藉此使神的性情得以作到人的性情裏。…（林後四 16。）藉着外面毀壞的過程，裏面的過程得以發生，將新的構成成分加到我們的生命裏。
你〔若〕想要有分於新造，…想要認識永遠的新，…那麼當神要帶你經過毀壞的過程時，你必須向祂表同意。你不需要懼怕，因爲神知道如何分配苦難。…祂準確無誤的量過萬事，揀選特定的試煉，配合特定的需要。祂爲每個人所選定的分，總是爲着這目標，就是使我們生命裏神聖的內容得以加增。祂若懲治我們，總是『爲了我們的益處，使我們有分於祂的聖別』。（來十二 10。）『萬有都互相効力，叫…人得益處，就是按祂旨意被召的人。』（羅八 28。）得甚麼益處？就是『模成神兒子的形像』。（29。）（李常受文集一九五七年第三册，三四至三六頁。）
參讀：活神與復活的神，第三篇；哥林多後書生命讀經，第一篇。
WEEK 4 — DAY 4
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.
2 Cor. 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
Remember that God allows us to go through all sorts of distresses for the very reason that we may know Him as the God of resurrection. He constantly leads us into “death” situations because only in death can we experience resurrection life.
The Bible speaks of two creations, the old and the new…Where God is, there is always newness. The Jerusalem above is called New Jerusalem because it is full of God. The first creation, even though it is the creation of the living God, has no divine content, but what the God of resurrection raises from the dead has a divine as well as a human content…The first creation…is allowed by God Himself to pass into death so that it may emerge in resurrection as a creation of dual nature, that is, combining the natures of God and man. (CWWL, 1957, vol. 3, “The Living God and the God of Resurrection,” pp. 22-23)
Todays Reading
It is possible for fellow workers, who love one another and work together harmoniously, to imagine that their mutual love and their cooperation are a spiritual thing…Yet it may simply be a human relationship without any divine content. But one day the hand of God falls upon it, and the cooperation comes to an end…They are distressed about it and pray and yearn for a restoration of their former harmony, but the more they pray, the more it evades them. Then one day, when they have really died to their old experience, they find themselves in a new relation—…a oneness that is both human and divine.
Though the old creation has come into being by the mighty hand of the living God, He Himself does not reside within it. It is created by Him, and it displays His might, but it does not display His presence. How can the old creation be transformed into the new? It is by the incoming of God. But how can His incoming be secured? This is the point at which a major difficulty arises. The old nature must be shattered to make way for Him. Brothers and sisters, everything in your life must pass the supreme test of death in order to make a way for the God of resurrection. If you only know the living God, your knowledge will be too objective. God will be God; you will be you. You need to know the God of resurrection, and it is only through death that He can cleave a way for Himself into your life.
The devastation [that suffering] brings to the old creation provides an opportunity for the God of resurrection to impart Himself into His creatures so that they emerge from the death process with a divine element in their constitution. The primary purpose of suffering in this universe, particularly as it relates to the children of God, is that through it the very nature of God may be wrought into the nature of man…(2 Cor. 4:16). Through a process of outward decay, an inward process is taking place that is adding a new constituent to our lives.
To be partakers of the new creation,…to know perennial newness,… you must give your consent to God when He seeks to lead you through devastating processes. And you need have no fear, for God knows how to apportion suffering…He measures all things with unfailing accuracy and selects the particular trial suited to the particular need. He invariably chooses the lot of each one with this goal in view—an increase of the divine content in our life. If He chastises us, it is always “what is profitable that we might partake of His holiness” (Heb. 12:10). “All things work together for good to those…who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). What good? It is this, that we may be “conformed to the image of His Son” (v. 29). (CWWL, 1957, vol. 3, “The Living God and the God of Resurrection,” pp. 23-25)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1957, vol. 3, “The Living God and the God of Resurrection,” ch. 3; Life-study of 2 Corinthians, msg. 1
