第一週•週五

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晨興餧養

西三4 『基督是我們的生命，祂顯現的時候，你們也要與祂一同顯現在榮耀裏。』               

二19『…持定元首；本於祂，全身藉着節和筋，得了豐富的供應，並結合一起，就以神的增長而長大。』

基督作我們裏面的長大，就是國度的來臨。禱吿說『願你的國來臨』，這雖然很好，但禱告說『主阿，願你在我裏面長大』更實際。『願你的國來臨，』可能只是一個宗教儀式上的套語。雖然這禱告被千千萬萬的基督徒複誦超過一千九百年了，國度仍然沒有來臨。主答應那個禱告不太困難，但我們要讓祂在我們裏面長大就很困難。…藉着靈裏貧窮和清心，我們就能讓主有立場在我們裏面長大；這長大就是國度真正的來臨。我們越快讓祂在我們裏面長大，就越加快國度的來臨。(李常受文集一九七二年第二册，六三至六四頁。)

信息選讀

心清〔參太五8〕乃是動機的事。我們不該在神自己之外有任何的目標。清心就是只尋求神。…我們都需要禱告說，『主阿，賜我一顆清潔的心。純淨我的動機，直到我只有惟一的目標：我的全人完全専注於神。』…我們不該只在意平安、快樂、物質的祝福、或屬靈的祝福，並且我們不該尋求這些事物。我們的心應當置於神。神乃是我們的目標，祂乃是我們的動機。願主對付我們的心，直到我們的心單一、簡單，絕對専注於神白己，直到一個地步，我們不尋求別的事物。

你若要接受基督，就必須禱告說，『主阿，使我靈裏貧窮，使我清心。主阿，倒空我的靈，純淨我的心。賜我單一爲着你的心。』…主耶穌就要立刻進到我們裏面。首先，祂要進到我們靈裏，然後祂要開始將祂自己，從我們的靈擴展到我們心裏。祂不僅要作國度的種子進到我們裏面，祂也要長在我們表面。當祂生長時，就一直在我們擴展並擴增。就是國度的生長，這也就是國度逐漸的來臨。

在馬太七章十六節主耶穌問說，『人豈能從荊棘收取葡萄？或從蒺藜收取無花果？』…我們必須承認，在我們自己裏面，我們不是葡萄和無花果，我們乃是荊棘和蒺藜。…基督的生命乃是結葡萄的生命，也是結無花果的生命。…當這生命進到我們裏面，就會産圭葡萄和無花果，作生命的彰顯。

我們需禱告求主憐憫，使我們靈裏貧窮，心裏純潔，在我們所作的一切事上，按着神的旨意是對的。我們若這樣稽告，主耶穌就要一點一點的頂替我們，也要一部分一部分的充滿我們。祂要一直在我們裏面生長，並一直在我們裏面擴增。至終我們不再產生荊棘和蒺藜，乃要產生葡萄和無花果：這些乃是國度生命兩種不同的彰顯。葡萄和無花果二者都是用來餧養人的。就是國度的生活。不是外面的行爲；乃是內裏生命的彰顯，就是基督従我們裏面擴展。如果祂要擴展到我們裏面的全人，我們就需要靈貧心清，並且従我們所作的一切事上，不照着我們的觀念，乃按着神自己是對的。這就是基督將祂自己撒在我們裏面，並將祂自己擴展到我們裏面，使我們有團體生活的路。這團體的生活就是國度：這就是召會生活的實際。基督作生命，正將祂自己擴展到我們裏面。現在我們能更充分的看見，國度乃是以基督作生命，帶着祂一切的活動擴展到我們裏面的總和。(李常受文集一九七二年第二册，六二至六三、六七至六八頁。)

參讀：真理課程三級卷四，第五十四課：國度與召會，第二章。

WEEK 1 — DAY 5

Morning Nourishment 

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Col. 3:4 When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.

      2:19 …Holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.

The growing of Christ within us is the coming of the kingdom. It is good to pray, “Your kingdom come,” but it is more practical to pray, “Lord, grow within me.” “Your kingdom come” may be no more than a religious formula. Although this prayer has been repeated by millions of Christians for more than nineteen hundred years, still the kingdom has not come. It is not difficult for the Lord to answer that prayer, but it is difficult for us to allow Him to grow within us…By being poor in our spirit and pure in our heart, we can give the Lord the ground to grow within us, and this growth will be the real coming of the kingdom. The more quickly we allow Him to grow in us, the more we hasten the coming of the kingdom. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 2, “The Kingdom,” pp. 51-52)

Today’s Reading

Purity of heart [cf. Matt. 5:8] is a matter of motive. We should not have any goal other than God Himself. To be pure in heart is to seek only God…We all need to pray, “Lord, grant me a pure heart. Purify my motives until I have a single goal, and my whole being is completely zeroed in on You.”…We should not care only for peace, for joy, for physical blessings, or for spiritual blessings, and we should not seek those things. Our heart should be set upon God. God is our goal, and He is our motive. May the Lord deal with our hearts until they are single and simplified and are absolutely zeroed in on God Himself to such an extent that we seek nothing else.

If you want to receive Christ, you need to pray, “Lord, make me poor in my spirit and pure in my heart. Lord, empty my spirit and purify my heart. Grant me a single heart for You.”… Immediately, the Lord Jesus will come into us. First, He will come into our spirit, and then He will begin to spread Himself from our spirit into our heart. Not only does He come into us as the seed of the kingdom, but He also grows within us. As He grows, He spreads and increases within us all the time. This is the growing of the kingdom, and this is the gradual coming of the kingdom.

In Matthew 7:16 the Lord Jesus asked, “Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?”…We must admit that in ourselves we are not grapes or figs; we are thorns and thistles …The life of Christ is a grape-producing life and also a fig-producing life…When this life gets into us, the grapes and the figs will come out as the expression of life.

We need to pray for the Lord’s mercy that we may be poor in spirit, pure in heart, right in all that we do, and right according to God’s will. If we pray in this way, the Lord Jesus will take us over little by little, and He will fill us up part by part. He will grow in us, and He will increase within us all the time. Eventually, we will no longer produce thorns and thistles, but we will produce  grapes and figs, which are simply two different expressions of the kingdom life. Both grapes and figs are used for feeding others. This is the kingdom life. This is not outward conduct; it is the expression of the inward life, which is Christ spreading within our being. If He is to spread into all our inward being, we need to be poor in our spirit, pure in our heart, and right in all that we do, not according to our concepts but according to God Himself. This is the way for Christ to sow Himself into us and to spread Himself into our being so that we may have a corporate life. This corporate life is the kingdom. This is the reality of the church life. Christ as life is spreading Himself into us. Now we can see in a fuller way that the kingdom is the totality of Christ as life spreading into us with all His activities. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 2, “The Kingdom,” pp. 51, 54-55)

Further Reading: Truth Lessons—Level Three, vol. 4, lsn. 54; The Kingdom and the Church (booklet), ch. 2