新视域的力量
不必倚靠航位推算
经文
使徒行传二十六1-18
1亚基帕对保罗说：准你为自己辩明。于是保罗伸手分诉，说：
2亚基帕王阿，犹太人所告我的一切事，今日得在你面前分诉，实为万幸；
3更可幸的，是你熟悉犹太人的规矩和他们的辩论；所以求你耐心听我。
4我从起初在本国的民中，并在耶路撒冷，自幼为人如何，犹太人都知道。
5他们若肯作见证就晓得，我从起初是按着我们教中最严紧的教门作了法利赛人。
6现在我站在这里受审，是因为指望神向我们祖宗所应许的；
7这应许，我们十二个支派，昼夜切切的事奉神，都指望得着。王阿，我被犹太人控告，就是因这指望。
8神叫死人复活，你们为甚么看作不可信的呢？
9从前我自己以为应当多方攻击拿撒勒人耶稣的名，
10我在耶路撒冷也曾这样行了。既从祭司长得了权柄，我就把许多圣徒囚在监里。他们被杀，我也出名定案。
11在各会堂，我屡次用刑强逼他们说亵渎的话，又分外恼恨他们，甚至追逼他们，直到外邦的城邑。
12那时，我领了祭司长的权柄和命令，往大马色去。
13王阿，我在路上，晌午的时候，看见从天发光，比日头还亮，四面照着我并与我同行的人。
14我们都仆倒在地，我就听见有声音用希伯来话向我说：扫罗！扫罗！为甚么逼迫我？你用脚踢刺是难的！
15我说：主阿，你是谁？主说：我就是你所逼迫的耶稣。
16你起来站着，我特意向你显现，要派你作执事，作见证，将你所看见的事和我将要指示你的事证明出来。
17我也要救你脱离百姓和外邦人的手。
18我差你到他们那里去，要叫他们的眼睛得开，从黑暗中归向光明，从撒但权下归向神；又因信我，得蒙赦罪，和一切成圣的人同得基业。
信息分享
我们所能够全面地察看生命的地方，就只有是在神的圣所中，或者说，在有神同在之处。当我们在神那里时我们那些忘记了或忽略了的事情都会得到提醒。英文圣经其中一个译本Good News Bible对使徒行传二十六章9节的翻译是：「我自己以为我应该尽一切努力对抗拿撒勒人耶稣。」你看到保罗的问题的根源吗？那是「我自己以为」。这不也是我们很多问题背后的原因？我们说：「我自己以为……」而不是问：「神有甚么想法？」
有时水手们会以他们航行的距离和方向，不是靠天文观察，来确定船只的位置，这称为「航位推算」。当天气恶劣的时候确实有这么做的必要，但这其实是非常危险的。有一位海员说：「因为不恰当的航位推算，而造成一些本来经得起风浪的船只的沉没，比所有其它因素加起来所造成的沉没更多。」
有些人以类似航位推算的方法来对待生命的航行，但这是没有必要的。神已经为我们在圣经里以慈爱绘画了地图，我们的责任是研究地图，借以明白祂的目的和道路。因为我们越认识圣经，便越认识神。我们不能忽略历史或科学事实所提供的帮助，但如果我们所走的没有按着圣经的指示，就很容易迷失方向。我们不能倚赖航位的推算，必须倚靠神圣的定向。
「我们必须倚靠神圣的定向」
进深研究
士十七1-6，二十一25
1. 经文对关于以色列的后代说了些甚么？
2. 它们所说的对我们是否能起同样的作用？
祈祷
天父，在海面航行需要以准确和固定的点来定位，我生命的航程也是这样。亲爱的天父，我很感谢您，因为在您里面有我所需要的所有定位点。阿们。
The Power of a New Perspective
No need for dead reckoning
Bible reading:
Acts 26:1-18
1 Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You have permission to speak for yourself." So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense:
2 "King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews,
3 and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.
4 "The Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem.
5 They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee.
6 And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today.
7 This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me.
8 Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?
9 "I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
10 And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord's people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.
11 Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities.
12 "On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.
13 About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions.
14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,[a] 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'
15 "Then I asked, 'Who are you, Lord?' " 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' the Lord replied.
16 'Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me.
17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them
18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'
Message
The place where we can see life as a whole is in the sanctuary of God, or, if you prefer, in the presence of God. There we are reminded of things we have forgotten or ignored. See how the Good News Bible translates Acts 26:9: "I myself thought that I should do everything I could against the cause of Jesus of Nazareth." Here you see the root of Paul's problem: "I myself thought". And is not that the underlying cause of many of our problems too? We say, "I myself thought..." instead of asking: "What does God think?"
Sometimes sailors will attempt to establish the position of their ships by estimating the distance and direction they have travelled, rather than by astronomical observation. This is called "dead reckoning". It is sometimes necessary in foul weather but it is fraught with peril. One mariner has said: "Undue trust in the dead reckoning has produced more disastrous shipwrecks of seaworthy ships than all other causes put together."
There are people who attempt the voyage of life by dead reckoning, but there is no need. God has charted the map for us with loving care in the Scriptures, and our plain duty is to study the chart so that we might become better acquainted with His purposes and His ways. For the better we know the Scriptures, the better we will know God. We cannot ignore the facts of history or science - they help - but if our perspective is not drawn from the Scriptures it will lead us astray. We must not rely on dead reckoning but on divine reckoning.
"We must rely on divine reckoning"
Prayer
O Father, just as the art of navigation requires definite and fixed points from which to take a bearing, so does my voyage through life. I am grateful, dear Father, that in You I have all the fixed points I need. Amen.
Further study
Judges 17:1-6; 21:25
1. What was said of the children of Israel?
2. Can the same be said of us?
本文英文版权属 CWR 所有，承蒙允准刊载。
背景音乐版权属 赞美之泉音乐事工 所有，承蒙允准使用。