从天上赐下的复兴
踏脚石

经文
何西阿书十四1-9
1以色列啊,你要归向耶和华你的神;你是因自己的罪孽跌倒了。
2当归向耶和华,用言语祷告他说:求你除净罪孽,悦纳善行;这样,我们就把嘴唇的祭代替牛犊献上。
3我们不向亚述求救,不骑埃及的马,也不再对我们手所造的说:你是我们的神。因为孤儿在你─耶和华那里得蒙怜悯。
4我必医治他们背道的病,甘心爱他们;因为我的怒气向他们转消。
5我必向以色列如甘露;他必如百合花开放,如利巴嫩的树木扎根。
6他的枝条必延长;他的荣华如橄榄树;他的香气如利巴嫩的香柏树。
7曾住在他荫下的必归回,发旺如五谷,开花如葡萄树。他的香气如利巴嫩的酒。
8以法莲必说:我与偶像还有甚么关涉呢﹖我─耶和华回答他,也必顾念他。我如青翠的松树;你的果子从我而得。
9谁是智慧人,可以明白这些事;谁是通达人,可以知道这一切。因为,耶和华的道是正直的;义人必在其中行走,罪人却在其上跌倒。
信息分享
这几天我们在思想基督徒的一个倾向,就是从依靠神转为依靠自己,而这往往是灵性倒退的原因。没有甚么比看见自己的子民渴望自我掌控、依赖自我更令神感到厌恶,这不是因为全能的神自负的要掌控一切,而是因为祂知道,倘若我们企图以自己的方式生活,我们会贬低自己的身份,因而不能达成祂在我们身上的计划和美意。我们必须面对一个事实,那就是我们没有办法不倚靠神,因为只有神才是独立存在的。没有我们,祂仍然存在,但假如没有祂,我们就不能存在。
旧约时期的复兴,是出现在以色列人的集体敬拜生活达到高峰的时候。他们承认以自己的方式生活是不行的,只有在倚靠神的时候,才能得到生活的喜乐和果效。我们从今天的经文看到神怎样呼召祂的子民悔改,归向倚靠祂:「当归向耶和华,用言语祷告他。」这表示:「你们清楚明白为甚么而悔改。」
悔改是一块从自我掌控到归向倚靠神的踏脚石,除此以外没有别的方法。因此在所有复兴中,悔改是问题的核心;在复兴中,神强烈地向我们显明一个真理──惟有透过悔改,才能通向与祂建立持久关系的道路。大家要谨记,归向神是一切改变的关键,所有的转变都必须包含核心的改变──远离自我掌控,归向倚靠永活的神。
「归向神是一切改变的关键」
进深研究
代下七1-14;珥二12;赛五十五7
1. 神甚么时候会医治大地?
2. 神的应许是甚么?
祈祷
天父,我明白如果我在倚靠神和自我掌控的问题上跌倒,我在各方面就都会跌倒。求您帮助我不要否认这个事实,要面对它并悔改归向神。奉耶稣的名求,阿们。
Heaven-Sent Revival
The stepping stone

Bible reading:
Hosea 14:1-9
1 [a]Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall!
2 Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him: "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.[b]
3 Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount warhorses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion."
4 "I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots;
6 his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
7 People will dwell again in his shade; they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like the vine— Israel's fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 Ephraim, what more have I[c] to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a flourishing juniper; your fruitfulness comes from me."
9 Who is wise? Let them realize these things. Who is discerning? Let them understand. The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.
Message
Nothing is more abhorrent to God than to see within His people the desire for self-control and self-dependence. This is not because of any egotism in the Almighty that requires Him to be the boss, but because He knows that when we try to run our lives on our own terms we demean ourselves and fall short of His plans and purposes for us. We must face the fact that we are helplessly dependent and that God and God alone is independent. He can exist without us but we cannot exist without Him.
The periods of revival in the Old Testament came at the high peaks of corporate worship in the life of Israel, when the people acknowledged the fact that they could not successfully run their lives on their own terms but were happy and effective only to the degree that they were dependent upon God. In the chapter before us today we see how God called His people back to dependence upon Him by encouraging them to repent: "Take words with you, and return to the Lord." This means (so I believe): "Have a clear idea of what you are repenting of."
The stepping stone from independence to dependence is always repentance. There is simply no other way that it can be done. That is why in all revivals the issue of repentance becomes paramount. In revival God underlines in a dramatic way the truth that the path to a continuous relationship with Him is through repentance. Never forget this. The key to all change is in a returning to God, for every effort to change must invoke at its core a shift in direction - away from dependence on one's own resources to dependence on the living God.
"The key to all change is a returning to God"
Prayer
Father, I see that if I stumble here, over this matter of dependence and independence, I stumble all down the line. Help me not to deny this issue but to face it and repent of it. I do so now in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Further study
2 Chronicles 7:1-14
Joel 2:12
Isaiah 55:7
1. When will God heal the land?
2. What is God's promise?
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