建立在磐石上的生命

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马太福音7:24-27   「所以，凡听见我这话就去行的，好比一个聪明人，把房子盖在磐石上。 雨淋，水冲，风吹，撞著那房子，房子总不倒塌，因为根基立在磐石上。 凡听见我这话不去行的，好比一个无知的人，把房子盖在沙土上。 雨淋，水冲，风吹，撞著那房子，房子就倒塌了，并且倒塌得很大。」

拉塞尔·凯尔索·卡特（Russell Kelso Carter）（1849-1928）是一位有许多恩赐和能力的人。他出生于美国马里兰州巴尔的摩，年轻时就被誉为杰出运动员，15岁时立志奉献一生给主，1887年被任命为传道人。他在宾夕法尼亚州军事学院担任过化学，自然科学，土木工程和数学教授。他也是个医生和音乐家。

在30岁那年，他患了很严重的心脏病，徘徊在生死边缘。他有一位要好的同事Connie Ruth Christiansen如此描写当时的卡特：他跪下来向神祷告，不管神医治他与否，他都立定心意服事神。他完完全全抓住《圣经》里的应许，把自己交给神。他相信神的应许，而不是看神是否医治才相信神。

我们常常说要有信心，但是我们的信心从何而来？很多人都凭自己的感觉和判断去揣摩神的旨意，但是凭感觉和判断的人很容易被打倒，因为事情的走向多数不是按着人的心意去发展。

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How God Shows His Love

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 John 4:7-12.  Let’s go!

1 John 4:7-12 (NIV) 
7  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him…….

On verses 7-12:  This is my favourite passage in 1 John, so much so that when Sharleen and I got married this was the passage we chose to be read at our wedding.  This passage is not just beautifully written; more importantly, it is one of the best summaries you will find in the Bible of what Christianity is all about:

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复活的耶稣__颁下大使命

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马太福音28章18-20节   耶稣进前来，对他们说：「天上地下所有的权柄都赐给我了。 所以你们要去，使万民做我的门徒，奉父、子、圣灵的名给他们施洗， 凡我所吩咐你们的，都教训他们遵守。我就常与你们同在，直到世界的末了。」

马太记载了耶稣和门徒们在加利利山上约会时，耶稣最后的嘱咐，也就是我们一般所说的大使命。路加在〈使徒行传〉里记载耶稣复活后，用四十天的时间向门徒讲说神国的事，让我们知道耶稣非常看重这十一个门徒，后来他们制签，又选出马提亚为第十二个门徒，取代了卖主的犹大。这十二个门徒，是耶稣终夜祷告后筛选出来的，在历史上有举足轻重的地位，在〈启示录〉廿一章所说的圣城新耶路撒冷，其城墙有十二根基，根基上有羔羊十二使徒的名字，表明了他们的地位何等重要。他们的工作如同建造圣城的根基。

在交待工作之前，主的第一个宣告是所有相信祂的人不能忽视的：「天上地下所有的权柄都赐给我了。」换句话说，祂已经是天地之主，天上地下的掌权者了，没有任何善恶势力大过耶稣，也没有人的权柄大过耶稣。我们所信的乃是天上地下唯一的真神。在总统府工作的，即使是为总统倒垃圾的人，出了总统府都是趾气高扬的，因为他在总统府做事，和总统很近啊！而我们为天上地下的主做事，岂不更光荣吗？作主皂仆人要明白自己身份的重要性。先为自己定位，才能承担主的托咐。

主的吩咐里有先后的秩序，我们要按著主的秩序，才不会乱套。第一，要使万民做主的门徒。在坊间做徒都要先跟着师傅学习，师傅叫做什么，他就得做什么，要学得师傅满意才能升级或是独当一面。因此做门徒的意思就是要学习跟随主，明白信仰的意义，肯谦卑顺服主，才可以进到第二步。

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Greater Is He Who Is In You

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 John 4:1-6.  Let’s go!

1 John 4:1-3 (NIV) 
1  Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2  This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
3  but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

On verses 1-3:  Why is John telling his readers to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (v1)?  It’s because in John’s day false prophets were spreading ideas that contradicted the gospel message that Jesus Christ the Son of God came into this world, died for our sins, and rose again.  According to early church writers, there was a man called Cerinthus who taught that Jesus was not divine and that he was not supernaturally born of a virgin but that he was the naturally born son of Joseph and Mary.  Cerinthus taught that the only reason why Jesus had any connection with God was because at his baptism he received a spirit from heaven called the Christ and that this spirit left him at his crucifixion.   According to Cerinthus, Jesus and the Christ were two separate beings, implying that Jesus was not God, but a man who temporarily possessed a special spirit for a few years.

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What to Do with a Self-Condemning Heart

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 John 3:18-24.  Let’s go!

1 John 3:18 (NIV) 
18  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

On verse 18:  One of the big themes of 1 John is that true love is shown not just with our words but with our actions.  When it comes to love, actions speak louder than words.  I encourage you to memorize this verse.

1 John 3:19-20 (NIV) 
19  This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20  whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

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复活的耶稣_葡萄树和枝子

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约翰福音15章5节       我是葡萄树，你们是枝子。常在我里面的，我也常在他里面，这人就多结果子；因为离了我，你们就不能做什么。

亲爱的朋友，当我们即将进入行动管制令的另一个周末时，我们在家里与信徒保持联系，这里有一些伟大的名言和思想来激发我们的信心。

“没有素质的讲道，不会让人感到被冒犯；既不会让听道者对自己不满，他也不会去挑战传道者。”——乔治·怀特菲尔德（George Whitefield）

“如果你要与耶稣基督同行，你将会被敌对……在我们的时代，要做一个真正的基督徒，是需要遭受毁谤的。”——乔治·怀特菲尔德（George Whitefield）

“神给我生命的目的，就是要我渴慕荣耀祂，同时也渴慕经历在那荣耀中的喜乐，这两者是同一个渴慕。”——乔纳森·爱德华兹（Jonathan Edwards）

“立志一：我要为神而活。立志二：纵然没有人愿意这么做，我还是坚决如此行。”——乔纳森·爱德华兹（Jonathan Edwards）

“祷告是信心的自然的表现，就好像生命需要呼吸一样。”——乔纳森·爱德华兹（Jonathan Edwards）

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复活的耶稣_提比哩亚海边的早餐

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约翰福音21章16节   耶稣第二次又对他说：「约翰的儿子西门，你爱我吗？」

提比哩亚海最初名叫「革尼撒勒湖」，后称为「加利利海」，最后因为湖畔新建的「提比哩亚城」而改名为「提比哩亚海」。所以提比哩亚海就是加利利海。

这是一个非常美丽而温暖的故事。彼得和几个门徒一起打渔去了，耶稣在海边为他们准备烤鱼早餐。就好像大约三年前他们的初遇，彼得和同船的人一夜辛劳，却一无所获。耶稣叫他们：「把船开到水深之处，下网打鱼。」他们下了网，就圈住许多鱼，网险些裂开，鱼装满了两只船。这次他们辛劳整夜也是一无所获，耶稣说：「你们把网撒在船的右边，就必得着。」他们便撒下网去，竟拉不上来了，因为鱼甚多。跟耶稣同工一定很有趣，在我们无能为力，十分失望时，只要祂一出声，必水到渠成。

〈约翰福音〉21章几乎可以说是以彼得为主角，因为1.是彼得发起去打渔，2.一知道是主耶稣时，彼得就跳下海到主那里；3.在早餐之后，主单单问彼得是否爱祂，4.并把喂羊的责任交给彼得，5.预言彼得的受难。

有的解经家把耶稣这三次问彼得的「爱」做了一些解释。第一个希腊原文是‘agape’，是神爱世人那种超越的爱（divine love）。第二个是‘phileo’，是属于兄弟、手足情分的那种爱（brotherly love）。主三次问彼得‘你爱我吗？’前两次用的是‘agape’，第三次用的是‘phileo’。而彼得三次都是以‘phileo’来回答主。有的人说‘agape’的爱超越‘phileo’的爱，但也有人持相反的意见。这两个字在希腊文圣经里经常交替使用，因此我们不要在这两字上伤脑筋。

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Let God’s Word Bring Us To Our Knees

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 John 3:9-17.  Let’s go!

1 John 3:9-11 (NIV) 
9  No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 
10  This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. 
11  This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
 
On verses 9-11:  John puts it in such black and white terms: 

Those who do what is right belong to God.  Those who sin don’t belong to God.  (v9-10)
Those who love their fellow brothers and sisters belong to God.  Those who hate their fellow brothers and sisters don’t belong to God (v10b-11).
So say you’re someone who has trusted Jesus as your Saviour.  You believe you are a child of God based on John 3:16 and other Bible verses.  Yet you know for a fact that from time to time you still sin and you still don’t love others as you should all the time.  How are we to take these verses from 1 John 3:9-11?  

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复活的耶稣_不信的多马

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约翰福音20章29节  耶稣对他说：「你因看见了我才信，那没有看见就信的有福了！」

如果福音书只有前三本，我们就只知道多马的名字，无从追寻他的事蹟。感谢主！约翰替我们记下了许多宝贝而独特的史料，使我们得着教训。

多马是双生子的意思。有人说，他本名犹大，后来见十二门徒中有雅各的儿子犹大，又有卖主的加略人犹大，为了分别起见，就叫他的诨名：双生子。多马又叫低士马，多马是希伯来语，低士马是希腊语，都是双生子的意思，与利百加生下以扫雅各「双子」那个字是同一个字（创廿五）。想必他定是双生子之一，就是不知道另外那个双生子在哪里？后来又怎样？多马却因跟从主而留名于后世，受人纪念，可见服事主的人总不吃亏。

一、多疑的多马

提起多马，就想到不信，正如提起犹大，就想到卖主，提起底马就想到贪爱世界一样。圣经中提到多马三次发言，三次都显出他的疑惑不信。

第一次是在拉撒路死了的时候，主说：「拉撒路死了，我没有在那里就欢喜，这是为你们的缘故，好叫你们相信；如今我们可以往他那里去吧！」多马就对其他门徒说：「我们也去和他同死吧（约11:15-16）」。第二次是在最后的晚餐席上，主说：「我去为你们预备了地方，就必再来接你们到我那里去。」多马说：「主啊！我们不知道你往哪里去，怎么知道那条路呢（约14:5）？」第三次就是主复活后向门徒显现，多马竟不在场，后来门徒告诉他，他们已经看见主了。多马却说：「我非看见他手上的钉痕，用指头探入那钉痕，又用手探入他的肋旁，我总不信（约20:25）」。

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The More You Look at Jesus, the More Like Jesus You Become

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 John 3:1-8.  I used to think that 1 John was an easy book to read.  While there are still parts of 1 John that I find very clear and easy to understand, there are other parts of 1 John that come across to me as a little cryptic and that require us to meditate deeply in order to grasp the deep truths that John is communicating.  So let’s break down this passage verse by verse to uncover what John is talking about.

1 John 3:1a (NIV) 
1  How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

On verse 1a:  When our sin had disqualified us from God’s presence and we had no right to have anything to do with God, God lavished His love on us when He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross.  It is through Jesus Christ that we too can be called children of God.   That’s the identity changing love of our God.  Because of His love, we’re no longer the same.  We go from sinners to saints, from excluded to included, from being orphaned to being part of His family.  It’s not because of anything we have done but because of His grace.

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