馬可福音13:32-37
耶穌說：「但那日子，那時辰，沒有人知道，連天上的使者也不知道，子也不知道，惟有父知道。你們要謹慎，警醒祈禱，因為你們不曉得那日期幾時來到。這事正如一個人離開本家，寄居外邦，把權柄交給僕人，分派各人當做的工，又吩咐看門的警醒。所以，你們要警醒；因為你們不知道家主甚麼時候來，或晚上，或半夜，或雞叫，或早晨；恐怕他忽然來到，看見你們睡著了。我對你們所說的話，也是對眾人說：要警醒！」
垃圾時間(Garbage time)常用於有時間限制的多種體育賽事，通常在一場比賽中，雙方隊伍的得分分數差距太大，已經難以改變勝負結果，這時剩餘的比賽時間就被稱為垃圾時間。在垃圾時間，雙方成員就不大會盡力投入比賽，大家準備搓掉時間而結束比賽。
也許我們會想：我已經信神，可以得永生了，那我剩餘的人生呢？是不是就等於是體育賽事中的垃圾時間？
在一支隊伍吞下11敗後又即將接續吞下敗仗時，教練準備放棄比賽，派出板凳球員上場來消磨垃圾時間；但這位在過去23場比賽只上場不到55分鐘的球員，卻為球隊帶來了最好的成績。我們可以從林書豪的身上得到學習。
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 2 Kings 6:24-33. As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first. See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
2 Kings 6:24-30 (NIV)
24 Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria.
25 There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels.
26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”
On verses 24-30: King Ben-Hadad of Aram has laid seige to Samaria, Israel’s capital city. Without access to food, Samaria suffers a severe famine. The Israelites in Samaria are so desperate that in verses 26-29 we read about two Israelite mothers who apparently agreed that they would eat their sons to survive. Now that one mother’s son has been eaten, the other mother refuses to let her own son suffer the same fate.
詩篇4:6 誰能指示我們甚麼好處？耶和華啊，求祢仰起臉來，光照我們。
詩篇31:16 求祢使祢的臉光照僕人，憑祢的慈愛拯救我。
小兄弟倆人合住在小房間裏，白天沒有陽光，覺得非常陰暗。他們看見外面的陽光很是羨慕，兩人就商量說，我們去把外面的陽光掃一點進來。
於是，兄弟倆拿著掃帚和畚箕，走到外面去掃陽光。掃的時候，畚箕裏好像裝滿了陽光，等到他們把畚箕搬到房間裏的時候，裏面的陽光就不見了。這樣一而再，再而三的掃了許多次，屋內還是一點陽光都沒有。
母親看見很訝異，問說：「你們作甚麼？」他們回答說：「房間裏太黑了，我們要掃一點陽光進來。」母親說：「傻孩子，只要把窗戶打開，陽光自然會進來，何必掃呢？」
詩篇4:6 誰能指示我們甚麼好處？耶和華啊，求祢仰起臉來，光照我們。
詩篇31:16 求祢使祢的臉光照僕人，憑祢的慈愛拯救我。
小兄弟倆人合住在小房間裏，白天沒有陽光，覺得非常陰暗。他們看見外面的陽光很是羨慕，兩人就商量說，我們去把外面的陽光掃一點進來。
於是，兄弟倆拿著掃帚和畚箕，走到外面去掃陽光。掃的時候，畚箕裏好像裝滿了陽光，等到他們把畚箕搬到房間裏的時候，裏面的陽光就不見了。這樣一而再，再而三的掃了許多次，屋內還是一點陽光都沒有。
母親看見很訝異，問說：「你們作甚麼？」他們回答說：「房間裏太黑了，我們要掃一點陽光進來。」母親說：「傻孩子，只要把窗戶打開，陽光自然會進來，何必掃呢？」
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 2 Kings 6:1-23. As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first. See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
2 Kings 6:1-6 (NIV)
1 The company of the prophets said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us.
2 Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to live.” And he said, “Go.”
3 Then one of them said, “Won’t you please come with your servants?” “I will,” Elisha replied.
4 And he went with them. They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees.
5 As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. “Oh, my lord,” he cried out, “it was borrowed!”
6 The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float.
On verses 1-6: The number of prophets Elisha is discipling is growing, so Elisha’s disciples propose that they build a new facility for them to meet near the Jordan River. They begin to cut down trees in the Jordan. While one of the young prophets is cutting, his ax head flies off its handle and falls into the water. The young prophet is distraught because the ax head was not his, but was borrowed.
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 2 Kings 5:13-27. As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first. See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
2 Kings 5:13-14 (NIV)
13 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”
14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
On verses 13-14: Elisha had told Naaman to wash himself seven times in the Jordan River and his leprosy would be cleansed. Naaman was outraged at how “unspiritual” Elisha’s advice was, believing Elisha’s advice to be purely practical and natural instead of supernatural (v11-12). Yet his servants advise Naaman to take Elisha’s advice seriously (v13). Naaman follows Elisha’s advice. When he dips himself 7 times in the Jordan River, his leprosy is cleansed and his skin is restored (v14).
11 到了一個地方，因為太陽落了，就在那裡住宿，便拾起那地方的一塊石頭枕在頭下，在那裡躺臥睡了。 12 夢見一個梯子立在地上，梯子的頭頂著天，有神的使者在梯子上上去下來。 13 耶和華站在梯子以上[a]，說：「我是耶和華你祖亞伯拉罕的神，也是以撒的神，我要將你現在所躺臥之地賜給你和你的後裔。 14 你的後裔必像地上的塵沙那樣多，必向東西南北開展。地上萬族必因你和你的後裔得福。 15 我也與你同在，你無論往哪裡去，我必保佑你，領你歸回這地，總不離棄你，直到我成全了向你所應許的。」
雅各的經歷讓我想起四十年前隻身啟程前往美國求學的旅程，印象雖有點模糊，但是那種不知未來的不安情緒卻是無法遺忘。很感謝神，祂安排了一位老教授坐我鄰座，因轉機需在東京留宿一晚，我就跟著他後面出關、入關，一直平安到美國。那時候，我真實的領受到雅各單純、平凡的禱告，「保佑我，給我吃，給我穿，使我平平安安地回家」，因為我需要。
現在的禱告內容多了許多，工作難題、人際關係、家人需要、服事代禱…，牧者還不斷提醒我們要感謝，要讚美。是的！聖經教導我們在禱告中交託我們許許多多的生活需要，但是，有些時候我還是會渴慕像雅各那樣單純、平凡的禱告；因為我相信未祈求以先，天父已經知道我所需用的，而「有得吃，有得穿，享平安」就是我最平凡的需要。
馬太福音7:1-2
你們不要論斷人，免得你們被論斷。因為你們怎樣論斷人，也必怎樣被論斷；你們用甚麼量器量給人，也必用甚麼量器量給你們。
網路一篇文章寫著：有個人初到美國不久，某天早晨到公園散步，看到一些白人坐在草坪上聊天、曬太陽。他心想：「美國人生活真是悠閒，有錢又懂得享受生活。」
走了不久，又看到幾個黑人也悠閒地坐在草坪的另一邊，這位先生不禁想到：「唉！黑人失業的問題真嚴重，這些人大概都在領社會救濟金過生活。」
一個人對同樣悠閒地坐在草坪上的白人和黑人，從既有的印象或認知，竟然可以產生如此南轅北轍的主觀想法。哈茲立特有句話：「偏見是無知的孩子。」說得一點都不錯，「人」合「扁」為偏，人一旦有了偏見，就會把「人」看「扁」、看「偏」了。
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 2 Kings 5:1-12. As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first. See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
2 Kings 5:1-12 (NIV)
1 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.
2 Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife.
3 She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
On verses 1-12: Naaman was a high-powered commander of Aram’s army, yet he had a disease that his influence, intelligence and experience could not solve. He had leprosy. So with the recommendation of an Israelite slave girl in his house, Naaman gets permission from the king of Aram to go to the king of Israel to see if Elisha the prophet can heal him. Naaman brings with him a huge amount of gold and silver.
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 2 Kings 4:18-44. As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first. See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
2 Kings 4:18-37 (NIV)
18 The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers.
19 “My head! My head!” he said to his father. His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”
20 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.
21 She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.
On verses 18-37: Here God uses Elisha to raise a dead boy back to life. We’ll look at some of the lessons we can learn from this incredible miracle when we talk about verses 42-44.
But for now notice that the Shunammite woman was willing to pour out her heart in front of Elisha, but not in front of Elisha’s servant Gehazi.
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