第十一週•週一

w11d01-ch

晨興餧養

申十六16 ～ 17『你一切的男丁，要在除酵節、七七節、住棚節，一年三次，在耶和華你神所選擇的地方朝見祂。他們不可空手朝見耶和華；各人要按自己的力量，照耶和華你神所賜的福，奉獻禮物。』

每當神的百姓來敬拜神，他們受吩咐不可空手而來。他們必須雙手充滿美地出產的富餘而來。…百姓至少將三分的十分之一積存起來。（申十六16。）他們必須將他們從美地所得着〔的〕出產…積存起來，不是爲着他們自己的生活，目的乃是爲着敬拜神。這樣，每當他們來在一起敬拜神，他們就將美地出產的富餘帶給神。

美地出產的富餘豫表基督，得着富餘的路是在基督身上勞苦。…你能被帶進美地，但你若懶惰，就不會有富餘；反之，你會作乞丐。我們若殷勤並努力的在神所分給我們的地上勞苦，我們會從這豐富之地得着許多出產。這出產不但足供我們維生，也叫我們得着富餘。（李常受文集一九六四年第四册，一○○至一○一頁。）

信息選讀

富餘是首先的十分之一，不是末後的十分之一。以色列人必須爲主分別每一隻頭生的羊羔，和每種出產的第一個十分之一。這豫表我們被帶進基督裏以後，需要在基督身上勞苦，與聖靈合作，憑基督而活。有些人也許說，我們不該用『勞苦』這辭，因爲今天是恩典時代；他們說一切都在於恩典，不在於工作。沒有疑問，賜給我們的美地乃是恩典。陽光、空氣、秋雨、和春雨也是恩典；然而，我們仍必須耕地。我們不能說，恩典會爲我們耕地；恩典絕不會那樣作。從聖經的起頭，在亞當受造以後，人就必須耕地。我們需要耕地、撒種並收割。恩典不會爲我們作這些事。我們無法使雨從天降下。…那的確是恩典的事。陽光、空氣、雨水、和肥沃的土壤都出於恩典。然而，我們必須領悟，我們都有我們的責任。

每天早晨我們必須早起。沒有一個農夫能懶惰；每一個人早晨都必須早起。倘若我們早晨不早起，花一些時間與基督同在，我確定我們來到聚會中，手中會一無所有。我們會空手來到聚會中。我們需要早點起來，接觸主，讀主的話，並有些禱告，以耕地、撒種、並有所收成。

日復一日，我們必須早起，花時間與主同在；這是我們的勞苦。我們必須禱告；這是我們的勞苦。我們也必須終日運用我們的靈接觸主；這也是我們的勞苦。不僅如此，我們必須對付許多仇敵，包括肉體、己和環境。甚至我們的家人、朋友、親戚、鄰居、同事、同學和室友，也是我們必須對付的問題。我們也必須傳揚福音，並學習幫助別人。這些都是我們該勞苦的項目。倘若我們在這一切事上勞苦，我們就會從我們的美地基督得着豐富的出產。然後，我們來到聚會中，就會雙手滿了基督的豐富而來。因爲我們晝夜在基督身上勞苦，我們就會有豐富的出產，不但足以叫我們在基督裏且憑着基督而活，也足以叫我們來敬拜神。這樣，我們來到神面前，就帶着基督而來。（李常受文集一九六四年第四册，一○一至一○二頁。）

參讀：在聚會中並在福音上的事奉，第一章；一的真正立場，第五章。

WEEK 11 — DAY 1

Morning Nourishment

Deut. 16:16-17 Three times a year all your males shall appear before Jehovah your God in the place which He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles. And they shall not appear before Jehovah empty-handed; each man shall give as he is able to give, according to the blessing of Jehovah your God, which He has given you.

Whenever the people of God came to worship God, they were commanded not to come with their hands empty. They had to come with their hands full of the surplus of the produce of the good land…The people put aside at least three portions of one-tenth (Deut. 16:16)…of the produce they obtained from the good land, not for their own living but for the purpose of worshipping God. In this way, whenever they came together to worship God, they brought a surplus of the produce of the good land to God.

The surplus of the produce of the good land typifies Christ, and the way to have the surplus is to labor on Christ…You can be brought into the good land, but if you are lazy, you will have no surplus. Rather, you will be a beggar. If we are diligent and industrious to labor on the land that God allotted to us, we will have much produce from this rich land. This produce will be enough not only for us to live on but also for us to have a surplus. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 4, “Serving in the Meetings and in the Gospel,” pp. 76-77)

Today’s Reading

The surplus is the first tenth, not the last tenth. The Israelites had to separate every first lamb and every first tenth of the produce for the Lord. This typifies that after being brought into Christ, we need to labor on Christ, to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to live by Christ. Some may say that we should not use the word labor, because today is the dispensation of grace; they say everything is of grace, not of works. There is no doubt that the good land given to us is a grace. The sunshine, the air, the early rain, and the latter rain are also a grace. However, we still have to till the ground. We cannot say that grace will till the ground for us; grace will never do that. From the very beginning of the Scriptures, after Adam was created, man had to till the ground. We need to till the ground, sow the seed, and reap the harvest. Grace
will not do these things for us. We cannot bring rain down from heaven… That is truly something of grace. Sunshine, air, rain, and the rich soil are all of grace. However, we must realize that we all have our responsibility.

Every morning we have to rise up early. Not one farmer can be lazy; everyone has to rise up early in the morning. If we do not rise early in the morning to spend a little time with Christ, I am certain that when we come to the meeting, we will have nothing in our hand. We will come to the meeting with empty hands. We need to rise up a little earlier, contact the Lord, read the Word, and pray a little to till the ground, sow the seed, and reap the harvest.

Day by day we must rise up early to spend some time with the Lord; this is our labor. We have to pray; this is our labor. We also have to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord throughout the whole day; this also is our labor. Moreover, we must deal with many enemies, including the flesh, the self, and the environment. Even our family, friends, relatives, neighbors, colleagues, classmates, and roommates are problems we have to deal with. We also have to preach the gospel and learn to help others. All these are items of the labor we should have. If we labor in all these ways, we will have the rich produce of Christ our good land. Then when we come to the meeting, we will come with our hands full of the riches of Christ. Because day and night we labor on Christ, we will have a rich produce that is not only good enough for us to live in Christ and by Christ but also good enough for us to come to worship God. In this way, when we come to God, we come with Christ. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 4, “Serving in the Meetings and in the Gospel,” pp. 77-78)

Further Reading: CWWL, 1964, vol. 4, “Serving in the Meetings and in the Gospel,” ch. 1; CWWL, 1979, vol. 2, “The Genuine Ground of Oneness,” ch. 5