一月二十四日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/01/0124.mp3″]
经文: 马大伺候的事多心里忙乱。(路加福音十:40)
她的错误不在于祂伺候主。每个基督徒必须成为一个仆人。“我要事奉”应该成为天国中每位尊贵王子的座右铭。“伺候的事多”也不是她的错误。但愿我们的意念、心思和手在事奉主上有分,事奉永不嫌太多。马大因为有机会使她的尊贵客人喜乐而高兴,因此她忙碌地为主准备丰盛的食物,这也不是她的错误。她的错误乃在她“因伺候的事多心里忙乱”,结果她忘记了主,却只注意事奉。她让事奉占了优势而忽略了与主相交,结果完成的事,却因忽略另一件事而失色了。我们必须是马大和马利亚的结合。我们应该多有事奉,同时也多有与主相交。为此我们需要很大恩典。事奉似乎比相交容易。约书亚在与亚玛力人交战时永不疲乏,但是摩西在山顶上祷告时,需要二位助手来扶持他的双手。灵里的操练增加时,我们会很容易疲倦。结出最美好的果子是最困难的;培养天国中最大的恩赐也是最困难的。我们虽然没有忽略那本身是美好的永恒事业,也应当欣赏与耶稣有活泼、单独的相交。我们绝不能忽视坐在救主的脚前,但是不是让此成为不服事祂的藉口。为我们灵命的健康、为祂的荣耀、为我们自己能被使用,首要之务就是让我们与主耶稣保持不断的相交。我们必须让自己信心中必要的灵性超越世界上一切的事物。
Evening, January 24
Scripture: “Martha was cumbered about much serving.”(Luke 10:40)
Her fault was not that she served: the condition of a servant well becomes every Christian. “I serve,” should be the motto of all the princes of the royal family of heaven. Nor was it her fault that she had “much serving.” We cannot do too much. Let us do all that we possibly can; let head, and heart, and hands, be engaged in the Master’s service. It was no fault of hers that she was busy preparing a feast for the Master. Happy Martha, to have an opportunity of entertaining so blessed a guest; and happy, too, to have the spirit to throw her whole soul so heartily into the engagement. Her fault was that she grew “cumbered with much serving,” so that she forgot him, and only remembered the service. She allowed service to override communion, and so presented one duty stained with the blood of another. We ought to be Martha and Mary in one: we should do much service, and have much communion at the same time. For this we need great grace. It is easier to serve than to commune. Joshua never grew weary in fighting with the Amalekites; but Moses, on the top of the mountain in prayer, needed two helpers to sustain his hands. The more spiritual the exercise, the sooner we tire in it. The choicest fruits are the hardest to rear: the most heavenly graces are the most difficult to cultivate. Beloved, while we do not neglect external things, which are good enough in themselves, we ought also to see to it that we enjoy living, personal fellowship with Jesus. See to it that sitting at the Saviour’s feet is not neglected, even though it be under the specious pretext of doing him service. The first thing for our soul’s health, the first thing for his glory, and the first thing for our own usefulness, is to keep ourselves in perpetual communion with the Lord Jesus, and to see that the vital spirituality of our religion is maintained over and above everything else in the world.