从天上赐下的复兴
商店仍要营业

经文
14你要写信给老底嘉教会的使者,说:那为阿们的,为诚信真实见证的,在神创造万物之上为元首的,说:
15我知道你的行为,你也不冷也不热;我巴不得你或冷或热。
16你既如温水,也不冷也不热,所以我必从我口中把你吐出去。
17你说:我是富足,已经发了财,一样都不缺;却不知道你是那困苦、可怜、贫穷、瞎眼、赤身的。
18我劝你向我买火炼的金子,叫你富足;又买白衣穿上,叫你赤身的羞耻不露出来;又买眼药擦你的眼睛,使你能看见。
19凡我所疼爱的,我就责备管教他;所以你要发热心,也要悔改。
20看哪,我站在门外叩门,若有听见我声音就开门的,我要进到他那里去,我与他他与我一同坐席。
21得胜的,我要赐他在我宝座上与我同坐,就如我得了胜,在我父的宝座上与他同坐一般。
22圣灵向众教会所说的话,凡有耳的,就应当听!
信息分享
在分析了复兴的一些元素以后,我们现在来思想一些观点,是那些认为复兴跟今天的教会毫无关系的人所提出的(这些人为数不少)。有些人说教会本质上是宗教机构,它和其他的法律和医疗机构一样拥有可以为有需要的人提供帮助的资源。持有这种主张的人说,教会拥有我们所需要的东西如圣餐、各种崇拜的仪式、诗歌、团契等等,让我们可以好好地过活。他们说,若有人在灵性上出了毛病,他们只需要到教会去,就可找到属灵的良药。
罗伯茨(Emyr Roberts)和戴维斯(Geraint Davies)在《灵性复兴及其果子》(Revival and Its Fruit)小册子中正确的处理了这个问题,说:「这样说来,教会好像一家商店,与会众是分别独立存在的;哪怕没有人来,教会这家商店仍要营业。」毫无疑问,个人对教会的看法影响了对灵性复兴的看法;那些认为教会是一间独立机构,而不是由神的话语和圣灵所维系起来的群体,这样的人肯定无视复兴的重要。
但教会是甚么?它并不是一幢建筑物,而是一个有属灵生命的群体。教会生存的秘诀是不间断地向赐下生命的圣灵敞开自己;教会不仅仅是从圣灵而来,也是倚靠圣灵生存和兴盛。
「教会倚靠圣灵生存和兴盛」
进深研究
来一1-14,八4-6;林前十11;彼后二6
1. 为甚么神要给我们看教会的历史呢?
2. 影像有甚么重要性?
祈祷
天父,我清楚的意识到除非圣灵的红色血液和大能流过教会的血管,否则教会就会变得软弱无力,甚至贫血。父阿,求您把您的生命和涌流的能力赐给我们,恳求您今天就赐下,阿们。
Heaven-Sent Revival
"The shop is always open

Bible reading:
Revelation 3:14-22
14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation.
15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
17 You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.
22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Message
Having examined some of the ingredients of a spiritual revival we consider now arguments advanced by those (and there are many) who believe that revival is an irrelevant issue in today's Church. Some say the Church is essentially a religious institution not wholly unlike the institutions of law and medicine. And just as the institutions of law and medicine have the resources to meet the needs of those who wish to draw upon them, so also has the Church. The exponents of this view say that the Church possesses everything we need to live an effective life - sacraments, hallowed forms of worship, hymns, fellowship, and so on. If someone is spiritually sick, so they say, all that person has to do is make their way to the Church and they will find there the medicine they need for their soul.
Emyr Roberts and Geraint Davies in their booklet Revival and Its Fruit rightly take issue with this view and say of it: "In this sense the Church exists independently of the congregation; if nobody calls, the shop is always open." There can be little doubt that one's view of revival depends on one's view of the Church. Those who see the Church as an institution rather than a community of people brought into being and maintained by the Holy Spirit and the Word will regard revival as irrelevant.
But what is the Church? It is not a building but a body made alive by the Holy Spirit. And the secret of her survival is in continually opening herself to the Spirit who gave her life. She was not only born of the Spirit but survives and thrives by the Spirit.
"The Church survives and thrives by the Spirit"
Prayer
Father, I see that unless the red blood of the Spirit's energy and power flows through the veins of the Church she becomes weak and faint and anaemic. Give us, oh give us, a greater flow of Your life and power. Start in me today. Amen.
Further study
Hebrews 1:1-14; 8:4-6
1 Corinthians 10:11
2 Peter 2:6
1. Why has God given us a historical account of the Church?
2. What is the significance of a shadow?
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