[分享] Streams In the Desert for September 21

Li_ebo

  

Streams In the Desert for September 21    

 

“I count all thing but loose for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord.” (Phil. 3:8.)

 

 

 

This is the happy season of ripening cornfields, of the merry song of the reapers, of the secured and garnered grain. But let me hearken to the sermon of the field. This is its solemn word to me. You must die in order to live. You must refuse to consult your own ease and well-being. You must be crucified, not only in desires and habits which are sinful, but in many more which appear innocent and right.

 

If you would save others, you cannot save yourself. If you would bear much fruit, you must be buried in darkness and solitude.

 

My heart fails me as I listen. But, when Jesus asks it, let me tell myself that it is my high dignity to enter into the fellowship of His sufferings; and thus I am in the best of company. And let me tell myself again that it is all meant to make me a vessel meet for His use. His own Calvary has blossomed into fertility; and so shall mine.

 

　Plenty out of pain, life out of death: is it not the law of the Kingdom? --- In the Hour of Silence.

 

Do we call it dying when the bud bursts into flower? --- Selected

 

“Finding, following, keeping struggling,
Is He sure to bless?
Saints, apostles, prophests martyrs,
Answer, ‘Yes.’

 

Li_ebo

 

Streams In the Desert for September 23    

“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his inner being shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38.)

 

 

Some of us are shivering and wondering why the Holy Spirit does not fill us. We have plenty coming in, but we do not give it out. Give out the blessing that you have, start larger plans for service and blessing, and you will soon find that the Holy Ghost is before you, and He will present you with blessings for service, and give you all that He can trust you to give away to others.

There is a beautiful fact in nature which has its spiritual parallels. There is no music so heavenly as an Aeolian harp, and the Aeolian harp is nothing but a set of musical chords arranged in harmony, and then left to be touched by the unseen fingers of the wandering winds. And as the breath of heaven floats over the chords, it is said that notes almost Divine float out upon the air, as if a choir of angels were wandering around and touching the strings.

And so it is possible to keep our hearts so open to the touch of the Holy Spirit that He can play upon them at will, as we quietly wait in the pathway of His service. --- Days of Heaven upon Earth.

When the apostles received the baptism with the Holy Ghost they did not rent the upper room and stay there to hold holiness meetings, but went everywhere preaching the gospel. --- Will Huff.

“If I have eaten my morsel alone,”
The patriarch spoke with scorn;
What would he think of the church were he shown
Heathendom – huge, forlorn,
Godless, Christless, with soul unfed,
While the Church’s ailment is fullness of bread,
Eating her morsel alone?

“Freely ye have received, so give,”
He bade, who hath given us all.
Deaf to their starving call,
For whom the blood of the Lord was shed,
And His body broken to give them bread,
If we eat our morsel alone!”

--- Archbishop Alexander.

“Where is Abel thy brother?” (Gen. 4:9.)

Li_ebo

 

Streams In the Desert for September 24      

“After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit suffered them not.” (Acts 16:7.)

 

 

What a strange prohibition! These men were going into Bithynia just to do Christ’s work, and the door is shut against them by Christ’s own Spirit. I, too, have experienced this in certain moments. I have sometimes found myself interrupted in what seemed to me a career of usefulness. Opposition came and forced me to go back, or sickness came and compelled me to retire into a desert apart.

It was hard at such times to leave my work undone when I believed that work to be the service of the Spirit. But I came to remember that the Spirit has not only a service of work, but a serviced of waiting. I came to see that in the Kingdom of Christ there are not only times for action, but times in which to forbear acting. I came to learn that the desert place apart is often the most useful spot in the varied life of man – more rich in harvest than the seasons in which the corn and wine abounded. I have been taught to thank the blessed Spirit that many a darling Bithynia had to be left unvisited by me.

And so, Thou Divine Spirit, would I still be led by Thee. Still there come to me disappointed prospects of usefulness. Today the door seems to open into life and work for Thee; tomorrow it closes before me just as I am about to enter.

Teach me to see another door in the very inaction of the hour. Help me to find in the very prohibition thus to serve Thee, a new opening into Thy service. Inspire me with the knowledge that a man may at times be called to do his duty by doing nothing, to work by keeping still, to serve by waiting. When I remember the power of the “still small voice,” I shall not murmur that sometimes the Spirit suffers me not to go. --- George Matheson.

“When I cannot understand my Father’s leading,
And it seems to be but hard and cruel fate,
Still I hear that gentle whisper ever pleading,
God is working, God is faithful, ONLY WAIT.”

 

 

 

 

Li_ebo

 

Streams In the Desert for September 25    

“Why go I mourning?” (Psalm 42:9.)

 

 

Canst thou answer this, believer? Canst thou find any reason why thou art so often mourning instead of rejoicing? Why yield to gloomy anticipations? Who told thee that the night would never end in day? Who told thee that the winter of thy discontent would proceed from frost to frost, from snow and ice, and hail, to deeper snow, and yet more heavy tempest of depair? Knowest thou not that day follows night, that flood comes after ebb, that spring and summer succeed winter? Hope thou then! Hope thou ever! For God fails thee not. --- C. H. Spurgeon.

“He was better to me than all my hopes;
He was better than all my fears;
He made a bridge of my broken works,
And a rainbow of my tears.

“The billows that guarded my sea-girt path,
But carried my Lord on their crest;
When I dwell on the days of my wilderness march
I can lean on His love for the rest.

“He emptied my hands of my treasured store,
And His covenant love revealed,
There was not a wound in my aching heart,
But the balm of His breath hath healed.
Oh, tender and true was the chastening sore,
In wisdom, that taught and tried,
Till the soul that He sought was trusting in Him,
And nothing on earth beside.

“ He guided by paths that I could not see,
By ways that I have not known;
The crooked was straight, and the rough was plain
As I followed the Lord alone.
I praise Him still for the pleasant palms,
And the water-springs by the way,
For the glowing pillar of flame by night,
And the sheltering cloud by day.

Never a watch on the dreariest halt,
But some promise of love endears;
I read from the past, that my future shall be
Far better than all my fears.
Like the golden pot, of the wilderness bread,
Laid up with the blossoming rod,
All safe in the ark, with the law of the Lord,
Is the covenant care of my God.”

 

 

 

 

mimi3676

我觉得这个栏目非常好,也提高大家的英语水平,及自己的灵修,但我觉得如果能够用中英文对照版那就更完美了.

Li_ebo

 

Streams In the Desert for September 26    

“We walk by faith, not by appearance.” (2 Cor. 5:7, R. V.)

 

 

By faith, not appearance; God never wants us to look at our feelings.

　Self may want us to; and Satan may want us to. But God wants us to face facts, not feelings; the facts of Christ and of His finished and perfect work for us.

When we face these precious facts, and believe them because God says they are facts, God will take care of our feelings.

God never gives feeling to enable us to trust Him; God never gives feeling to encourage us to trust Him; God never gives feeling to show that we have already and utterly trusted Him.

God gives feeling only when He sees that we trust Him apart from all feeling, resting on His own Word, and on Hid own faithfulness to His promise.

Never until then can the feeling (which is from God) possibly come; and God will give the feeling in such a measure and at such a time as His love sees best for the individual case.

We must choose between facing toward our feelings and facing toward God’s facts. Our feelings may be as uncertain as the sea or the shifting sands. God’s facts are as certain as the Rock of Ages, even Christ Himself, who is the same yesterday, today and forever.

“When darkness veils His lovely face
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.”

 

 

 

Li_ebo

“…我们行事为人，是凭着信心，不是凭着眼见。”（林后5：7）

 

　　神不要我们凭感觉。“己”要我们凭感觉；撒旦要我们凭感觉。但是神要我们凭事实——凭基督已经为我们完成的事实。我们面对了这些宝贵的事实，而且相信它，因为神说过这是事实；有了这样的信心，神就会来支配我们的感觉了。
　　神从来不用感觉来吸引我们去信靠他；神也从来不用感觉来鼓励我们去信靠他。
　　那么，什么时候神才给我们一些感觉呢？当神看见我们已经能不凭感觉来信靠他，安息在他的话语、信实、应许上的时候，他就给我们一些感觉。
　　不到那时候，感觉是不会来的；但是神知道该给我们的分量和时间，因为他知道各人的情形和需要。
　　我们必须选择：我们究竟愿意凭依我们的感觉呢？还是凭依神的事实？我们的感觉象海沙那般不可靠。神的事实象永久的磐石那般稳固，因为耶稣基督昨日、今日，一直到永远是一样的。

Li_ebo

 

Streams In the Desert for September 27    

“I have found an atonement.” (Job 33:24, martgin.)

 

 

Divine healing is just divine life. It is the headship of Christ over the body. It is the life of Christ in the frame. It is the union of our members with the very body of Christ and the inflowing life of Christ in our living members. It is as real as His risen and glorfied body. It is as reasonable as the fact that He was raised from the dead and is a living Man with a true body and a rational soul today at God’s right hand.

That living Christ belongs to us in all His attributes and powers. We are members of His body, His flesh and His bones, and if we can only believe and receive it, we may live upon the very life of the Son of God. Lord, help me to know “the Lord for the body and the body for the Lord.” --- A. B. Simpson.

“The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty.” (Zeph. 3:17). This was the text that first flashed the truth of Divine healing into my mind and worn-out body nearly a quarter century ago. It is still the door, wide open more than ever, through which the living Christ passes moment by moment into my redeemed body, filling, energizing, vitalizing it with the presence and power of His own personality, turning my whole being into a “new heaven and new earth.” “The Lord, thy God.” Thy God. My God. Then all that is in God Almighty is mine and in me just as far as I am able and willing to appropriate Him and all that belongs to Him. This God, “Mighty,” ALL Mighty God, is our INSIDE God. He is, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in the midst of me, just as really as the sun is in the center of the heavens, or like the great dynamo in the center of the power-house of my three-fold being. He is in the midst, at the center of my physical being. He is in the midst of my brain. He is in the midst of my nerve centers.

For twenty-one years it has been not only a living reality to me, but a reality growing deeper and richer, until now at the age of seventy years, I am in every sense a younger, fresher man than I was at thirty. At this present time I am in the strength of God, doing full twice as much work, mental and physical, as I have ever done in the best days of the past, and this observe, with less than half the effort then necessary. My life, physical, mental and spiritual, is like an artesian well—always full, overflowing. To speak, teach, travel by night and day in all weather and through all the sudden and violent changes of our variable climate, is no more effort to me than it is for the mill-wheel to turn when the stream is full or for the pipe to let the water run through.

My body, soul and spirit thus redeemed,
Sanctified and healed I give, O Lord, to Thee,
A consecrated offering Thine ever more to be.
That all my powers with all their might
In Thy sole glory may unite. --Hallelujah!

--- Dr. Henry Wilson.

Li_ebo

《荒漠甘泉》9月27日

　　“我已经得了赎价。”（伯 33:24）

 

　　信心医病是信心生活中的一部分。这就是基督在我们身体上掌权。这就是基督的生命在我们身体上活出来，这就是我们的身体与基督的身体联合了，基督的生命流到我们身体上来。所以，我们今天所有的，乃是他升天以后得荣耀的身体。他从死里复活，今天带着一个复活的身体，坐在神的右边。我们今天所有的，就是那样的身体。
　　这活着的基督是属于我们的，他一切的品性和能力也是属于我们的。我们是他身上的肢体——他的肉，他的骨——只要我们能相信，能接受，我们立刻可以活出神儿子的生命来。主阿，求你使我知道什么叫做“身体…是为主。主也是为身子”（林前6：13）。——宣信
　　“在你中间的耶和华你的神是大有能力的”（番3：17）。二十余年前把信心医病的真理照入我心中，叫我破坏的身体得到医治的，就是这节圣经。直到今天，这节圣经仍是一扇门户，大大地开放着，好叫基督时时得进入这买回的身体来，用他自己的同在和能力充满、灌溉、活动，把我的全人造成一个“新天新地”（启21：1）。“耶和华你的神”！啊！你的神！我的神！神既是我的，那么在神里面一切也定规是我的了，定规在我里面了；我能够信多少，我愿意用多少，这是我自己的事。这位神，“大有能力的”神，全能的神，是我们里面的神！这是何等的权力！他——父、子、灵——在我里面，在我身体里面，在我头脑里面，在我神经里面。
　　二十一年以来这不但是我实在的经历，并且是一个日深一日日丰一日的经历。现在我七十岁了。却比叁十岁的时候还健壮，还新鲜。靠着神的力量，我现在的体力上、智力上，都负担着常人两倍的工作，却还用不到一半气力。我的体力、灵力，都象喷水井一般——一直是漫溢的，泛滥的。无论讲道、教书，日夜旅行在各种气候下都象管子通水那般容易。