为自己祷告（五十二）

由清教徒谈圣洁生活（三）

15.01.2014 祷告会

引言

大家平安！

我们已分享清教徒很注重内在生命的圣洁，也知道非靠个人的能力得着。另一方面，圣洁生活也非一时的，必须不断的操练。

 

由Owen的作品中让我们来分享他一段的话：“Holiness is both God’s promised gift and man’s prescribed duty: ‘neither can we perform our duty herein without the grace of God; nor doth God give us this grace unto any other end but that we may rightly perform our duty.’ …Sanctification has a double aspect. Its positive side is vivification, the growing and maturing of the new man; its negative side is mortification, the weakening and killing of the old man, the new powers and inclinations which generation implanted within us. ”

 

（一）           追求圣洁—看John Owen的教导

1.1  天天操练

由不断操练中而成为一种习惯，并且必须藉生活中每个行动去学习。

“Frequency of acts doth naturally increase and strengthen the habits whence the proceed. And in spiritual habits, it is so, moreover, by God’s appointment…They grow and thrive in and by their exercise.”

“the actual aid, assistance and internal operation of the Spirit of God is necessary unto the producing of every holy act of our mind, wills and affection, in every duty whatsoever.” ‚

 

1.2  默想

在默想中要注意两件事：注目于上主的美善与自我的罪恶。John Owen的作品中的一些信息：

“Meditate on the excellence of God’s majesty and your own infinite, inconceivable distance from Him. This will prompt you to recognize your evil heart, a recognition which strikes at the root of any indwelling sin within you.”

“Meditate much on your unacquaintedness with God. Little as you may know of Him, it is more than enough to keep you low and humbled…God, by our infirmity and weakness, keeps us in continual dependence upon Him for teachings and revelation of Himself from His Word…Let us, then, discerning once more the awful distance between the inconceivably great God and our own smallness, fill our soul with a holy and awesome fear of Him. ” ƒ

我们在默想中认识这位善及圣洁的神，我们就在他面前自卑并且信靠他，心中也孕育出敬畏上主的心，我们的内心必定有所觉悟、知罪及悔改的心态。

 

1.3  畏惧与依靠

人为何会畏惧？原因有二：第一因为对人、事或物不清楚，因不认识而不知道如何面对与处理而自动产生畏惧。其次，个人的自卑、不足或知道对方是有权威与圣洁的。我们自动畏惧。

另一方面是依靠，我们会依靠别人乃是知道他是强者。相反，我们承认我们是弱者，如此我也就希望有强者可以依靠。

让我们再看本仁约翰的分享：

“畏惧心使一个人的灵性上生出尊敬神的心，遵守神的道……小心翼翼的保守，不向左走，亦不向右走，却走在正道上。务使他终身不做污辱神圣名的事，不使敌人毁谤神的名，不使圣灵担忧，心中常存平安。”

而Owen进一步指出这份畏惧使信徒更依靠神过圣洁生活：

“And we have a due regard unto the promise when we (1) we walk in a constant sense of our inability to comply with the command…from any power in ourselves; (2) When we adore that grace which hath provided help and relief for us; (3) When we act faith in prayer and expectation on the promise for supplies of grace enabling us to holy obedience.”

 

结论

圣洁生活与生命非用言语或文字来表达与传递，圣洁生活乃是天天默想与操练直到自然的成为习惯，而自动的生活出来。是的，真不容易，但当你谦卑、畏惧与依靠上主的心，一切都是美好的。

 

一则祷文

天父上帝，给我信心、耐心与恒心，让我学像本仁约翰及John Owen他们天天操练、默想与依靠你的心而达到美好的生活。

反观我因太忙碌中常忽略操练与默想而依靠自己，难怪我的生活一团糟。求主赦免，我要重新靠主而得力来过圣洁生活。奉主的圣名求。阿们。

 

讨论问题

（1）    对圣洁生活，你如何看待？
[ ]认真             [ ]随便             [ ]还好
（2）    分享你个人圣洁生活的操练经历。
（3）    Owen与本仁约翰的圣洁生活操练有否帮助你？

 

————————

注：至ƒ参阅清教徒资源