2018年12月23日 星期日

2018/12/23聖誕主日信息分享

也許,我們都「太愛」神愛我們,太愛神的慈愛與全能,因為我們的罪可以被赦免,可以向神祈禱一切我們想祈求的,因為神是聽禱告的神,神是愛我們的神……

這些都是符合教義的陳述,而我們也往往從自己的立場與需求出發,去解讀、「領受」這些教義——成功神學不就是這樣嗎?可是,這是不對的,因為神如此不可理喻的愛我們的同時,我們有同樣不可理喻的去愛神嗎?

今天主日的信息,從亞當夏娃的原罪出發,重申了「神犧牲自己的獨生愛子去拯救世上的罪人」的福音,然而,我是否只滿足於自己的被拯救、被赦免去「感謝」神?是的,我在聖誕節的時候,常常只是如此;但今天聖靈觸摸我,讓我感受「犧牲自己的愛子去救贖別人」的感覺,一如今天播放的「守橋工的故事」(捨命的愛)。我鎖不住淚水,因為我懂了:原來神差派耶穌做贖罪的羔羊,是這樣的心情!而我,卻幾乎沒有以「神的子女」的身份,以純然的愛去回應神這樣的慈愛!



小鴿子是自閉兒,照顧他誠然佔據了我大多數的時間與心力,可是他給我純然的愛也多到滿出來,為此,我也回應以純然。在這樣的關係中,神其實要啟示我,我與祂的關係就是要如此,祂只要我愛祂。我曾經形容小鴿子的愛是「霸道無理的愛」,當他需要我時,他誰都不要,那一刻,我感受到獨一無二、無可取代的存在感。對於神,這樣「霸道無理」的純然,我算是輸給小鴿子了。

感謝神,在我們還是罪人的時候就先愛我們;也感謝聖靈的啟示,在今天主日時思想主耶穌釘在十字架上的話語:「我的神,我的神, 為什麼離棄我?」,我明白這是源於聖父聖子彼此深深的愛。當主耶穌在承受罪的痛苦時,祂與天父原本無毫間隔的親密關係被世人的罪扯開一道縫隙,那句話,實在是發自本能的痛苦呼求啊!而神的掩面不看,也是因著愛而承受莫大的痛苦。我們何其有幸,能成為神的兒女,因此,我們怎能不深深深深地愛神!

Perhaps we have all “loved too much” the fact that God loves us—
too in love with His mercy and His omnipotence:
that our sins can be forgiven,
that we may pray for anything we wish,
because God is the One who answers prayer,
because God is the One who loves us…

These are all doctrinally correct statements.
Yet we often interpret and “receive” these truths from our own standpoint and needs—
isn’t this exactly how the prosperity gospel works?
But this is wrong,
because while God loves us in such an unreasonable, incomprehensible way,
do we love God back in an equally unreasonable, wholehearted way?

Today’s Sunday message began with the original sin of Adam and Eve
and restated the gospel:
that God sacrificed His only begotten Son to save sinners.
But have I been satisfied merely to be saved and forgiven,
to simply “thank” God?
Yes—at Christmas time, I am often nothing more than that.
But today the Holy Spirit touched me,
allowing me to feel what it is like
to sacrifice one’s beloved child in order to redeem others,
just like the “Bridge Operator Story” (the love that gives its life).
I could not hold back my tears, because I finally understood:
This is how God felt when He sent Jesus to be the sacrificial Lamb!
And I—
I have hardly ever responded to God’s immeasurable love
with the pure love of a true child of God.

Jabez is autistic,
and caring for him indeed consumes most of my time and energy.
Yet the pure love he gives me overflows,
and I respond to him with the same purity.
Through this relationship,
God has actually been revealing to me
that this is how He wants my relationship with Him to be:
He simply wants me to love Him.
I once described Jabez’s love as
“a fierce, unreasonable love.”
When he needs me, he wants no one else.
In that moment, I feel a unique, irreplaceable sense of being loved.
Before God, in this kind of “fierce and unreasonable” purity,
I have to admit—I fall short compared to Jabez.

Thanks be to God,
who loved us even while we were still sinners.
And thanks be to the Holy Spirit for today’s revelation:
as I reflected on Jesus’ words on the cross,
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
I understood that it came from the deep love
shared between the Father and the Son.
When Jesus bore the agony of sin,
the perfect closeness He had always enjoyed with the Father
was torn open by the weight of human sin.
That cry was a raw, instinctive outpouring of pain.
And the Father turning His face away
was also an act that caused Him immeasurable suffering—
all because of love.

How blessed we are to be called children of God.
How can we not love Him deeply, deeply, deeply?

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