|
『我的恩典是夠你用的。』（林後十二章九節）
神樂意在我受特殊試煉和痛苦的環境下將我最小的孩子取去；當我將孩子安放在墳墓裏，回到家中以後，我覺得我應該對弟兄姊妹們宣講一些試煉的意義。
我就選擇這個題目來作主日的信息；但是在我預備資料的時候，我發現我所要講的，連我自己也不能相信；我就跪下來求神給我夠用的恩典。我這樣懇求了之後，張開眼睛來看見一幅彩色的經文－這幅經文，是前幾天我陪著孩子在遊戲所的時候，我的母親送到家中來的；我雖然未曾看見過，卻曾聽見過我的僕人這樣告訴我，我也曾吩咐我的僕人將它掛在牆上。
在我回家以後，我也未曾去注意上面的字句；這時候，我仰起面來，拭乾了眼睛，幅上的字句吸引了我的眼光：『我的恩典是夠你用的。』
『是』字是鮮綠色的，『我的』和『你』另是一種顏色。
這個信息立即進入了我的心內，責備我不該求神給我夠用的恩典；因為神已經很清楚地告訴了我：『我恩典是夠你用的，你怎麼還來要求？只要起來相信，你就要發現這句話是多麼真實！』神已經用最簡易的字句告訴我們：『我的恩典是（不是將要、或者、可能）夠你用的。』
從那時候起，『我的』，『是』，『你』，都深深地刻上了我的心版；感謝神，從那天起，直到現在，我天天活在這個信息的實現中。
這次我所得到的領悟，真願意別人也得到：總當將神的事實看為事實，千萬不要將事實當作希望、懇求；甚麼時候你相信一個事實，你就會發見這個事實是有能力的。－韋迫伯魯（Prebendary H. W. Webb Peploe）
***************************************
"IS." (2 Cor. 12:9.)
IT had pleased God to remove my youngest child under circumstances of peculiar trial and pain; and as I had just laid my little one's body in the churchyard, on return home, I felt it my duty to preach to my people on the meaning of trial.
Finding that this text was in the lesson for the following Sabbath, I chose it as my Master's message to them and myself; but on trying to prepare the notes, I found that in honesty I could not say that the words were true; and therefore I knelt down and asked God to let His grace be sufficient for me. While I was thus pleading, I opened my eyes and saw a framed illuminated text, which my mother had given me only a few days before, and which I had told my servant to place upon the wall during my absence at the holiday resort where my little one was taken away from us.
I did not notice the words on returning to my house; but as I looked up and wiped my eyes, the words met my gaze, "My grace is sufficient for thee."
The "is" was picked out in bright green while the "My" and the "thee" were painted in another color.
In one moment the message came straight to my soul, as a rebuke for offering such a prayer as, "Lord, let Thy grace be sufficient for me;" for the answer was almost as an audible voice, "How dare you ask that which is?" God cannot make it any more sufficient than He has made it; get up and believe it, and you will find it true, because the Lord says it in the simplest way: "My grace is (not shall be or may be) sufficient for thee."
"My" "is" and "thee" were from that moment, I hope, indelibly fixed upon my heart; and I (thank God) have been trying to live in the reality of the message from that day forward to the present time.
The lesson that came to me, and which I seek to convey to others, is, Never turn God's facts into hopes, or prayers, but simply use them as realities, and you will find them powerful as you believe them. --- Prebendary H. W. Webb Peploe.
He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase;
To added affliction He addeth His mercies,
To multiplied trials His multiplied peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father's full giving is only begun.
His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth and giveth and giveth again.
─Annie Johnson Flint.
|