害怕死去的麦子
先见见乔太太

经文
约翰福音四27-42
27当下门徒回来,就希奇耶稣和一个妇人说话;只是没有人说:你是要甚么?或说:你为甚么和他说话?
28那妇人就留下水罐子,往城里去,对众人说:
29你们来看!有一个人将我素来所行的一切事都给我说出来了,莫非这就是基督吗?
30众人就出城,往耶稣那里去。
31这其间,门徒对耶稣说:拉比,请吃。
32耶稣说:我有食物吃,是你们不知道的。
33门徒就彼此对问说:莫非有人拿甚么给他吃吗?
34耶稣说:我的食物就是遵行差我来者的旨意,作成他的工。
35你们岂不说到收割的时候还有四个月吗?我告诉你们,举目向田观看,庄稼已经熟了(原文是发白),可以收割了。
36收割的人得工价,积蓄五谷到永生,叫撒种的和收割的一同快乐。
37俗语说:那人撒种,这人收割,这话可见是真的。
38我差你们去收你们所没有劳苦的;别人劳苦,你们享受他们所劳苦的。
39那城里有好些撒玛利亚人信了耶稣,因为那妇人作见证说:他将我素来所行的一切事都给我说出来了。
40于是撒玛利亚人来见耶稣,求他在他们那里住下,他便在那里住了两天。
41因耶稣的话,信的人就更多了,
42便对妇人说:现在我们信,不是因为你的话,是我们亲自听见了,知道这真是救世主。
信息分享
让我们继续来默想关于孤单的真理──生命中最大的孤单就是「一粒麦子害怕死去」的那种孤单。
有一个来自中国的故事,讲述一位年轻女士乔太太有一天到山上去祷告。没多久主开始让她看到,主在她生命中的计划和她自己的方向不同。她于是纳闷的呼喊:「主啊,您为甚么总要按您的意思做呢?何不改变一下也听听我的吧!」主温柔地对她的内心细说:「孩子,并非你的意思不对,不过我的意思是最好的。」她于是降服于神的旨意底下,当她离开时耳边响起这么一句话:「你是属于那些失望和心碎的人,他们要在铁路的转弯处结束自己的生命。」
这个信息令她感到非常困惑,她于是四处查询,最后发现她所居住的城外,在一条铁路的转弯处,确实经常有人在那儿自杀,他们从悬崖跳到下面的沟谷里去。于是,她在那里竖起了一块木板,上面写着:「不要这样做,先去见见乔太太吧。神爱你!」她并且把自己的地址也写在上面。那块木板竖起的第一天,就有几个人因为看到木板上的信息而来敲她的门。她92岁的时候「被接到荣耀中」,那时她已挽救了五千个打算自杀的人。她向自己的欲望死去,走上了神的道路──做一粒落在地里的麦子死了,于是便结出百倍的子粒来。这是不变的真理。
「神的道路带来百倍的收成」
进深研究
腓三1-21;箴二十三26;罗十二1
1. 保罗的态度怎么样?
2. 他如何实行出来?
祈祷
天父,求您帮助我不要固执于自己的计划,以致被困于自我之中。我想与您同工,但不是单靠自己。我知道唯有与您同行我才能够做您想要我做的事情。求您帮助我,奉耶稣的名祈求,阿们。
The Corn of Wheat Afraid to Die
"See Mrs Noby Jo first"

Bible reading:
John 4:27-42
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?"
30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."
32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
35 Don't you have a saying, 'It's still four months until harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
37 Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true.
38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did."
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.
41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."
Message
We continue meditating on the thought that the greatest loneliness is that of a "corn of wheat afraid to die".
A story from China tells how a young woman, Mrs Noby Jo, went out into the hills to pray. Soon the Lord began to show her that His plans for her life led in a different direction to her own. Petulantly she cried: "Lord, why do You always have to have Your way, what about my way for a change?" Gently the Lord whispered into her heart: "My child, it is not that your way is wrong; it is rather that My way is best." She surrendered her will to His, and came away with these words ringing in her ears: "You belong to the discouraged and broken people who commit suicide at the bend of the railway track."
Confused by this message, she made enquiries and discovered that outside the town where she lived was a notorious spot at the bend of the railway track where people intent on committing suicide would throw themselves over a cliff into the deep ravine below. She arranged to put up a sign near the spot that read: "Don't: see Mrs Noby Jo first. God loves you." She added her address and the very first day the sign was put up, several people knocked on her door and said they had come in response to the notice. She was "promoted to glory" at the age of 92, having saved 5,000 people from suicide. When she died to her own desires and took God's way, the grain of wheat that had fallen into the ground and died brought forth fruit a hundredfold. It always does.
"God's way brings forth fruit a hundredfold"
Prayer
Father, help me not to get so caught up in my own plans that I become entangled in myself. I want to start with You, not with myself. It is then, and only then, that I will be able to do what You want me to do. Help me - in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Further study
Philippians 3:1-21
Proverbs 23:26
Romans 12:1
1. What was Paul's attitude?
2. How did he work it out?
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