12月26日
圣诞礼物
“所以，弟兄们，我以上帝的慈悲劝你们，将身体献上，当作活祭，是圣洁的，是上帝所喜悦的；你们如此事奉乃是理所当然的。”
罗马书 12:1
每年12月25日，世界各地人们庆祝圣诞，庆祝神道成肉身。在12月26日，人们开始退换礼物。到元旦的时候，人们又“辞旧迎新”。那么，我们是否要把耶稣和我们的信仰留在马槽里呢？
耶稣当然没有停留在马槽里。当年祂被裹在襁褓中，放在马槽里，而后来被裹尸布包着，置于坟墓中。祂的道成肉身，是祂整个人生的精彩。造物主以有血有肉的身躯进入祂所创造的世界，来献上自己的生命。
我们习惯于消费主义的信仰，自私地接受不配的恩典，肤浅地认识耶稣基督的道成肉身。创造天地的圣洁上帝竟愿意化为血肉之躯降卑来到这个充满残暴、罪恶的世界，这就表明祂对自己的子民尽心竭力的爱。我们如何能把耶稣和我们的信仰留在马槽里呢？
今日祷告：
主耶稣，让我每天都活得更像你。阿们。
December 26
Gift
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
ROMANS 12:1
On December 25 of every year, people around the world celebrate God who took on human flesh. On December 26, people return their gifts. And by the New Year they’ve moved on. Should we leave Jesus, and our faith, in the manger? That isn’t where Jesus stayed. He was wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger, but later he was wrapped in burial cloths and laid in a tomb. His incarnation is an intense story that encompasses his entire life: the Creator took upon himself blood and body and bones and entered humbly into the world of his created ones to sacrifice himself.
We are inclined to opt for a consumerist faith, selfish in its assumption of undeserved grace and shallow in its apprehension of the crude carne of Jesus Christ. That the holy God of the universe would take on the fragility of flesh in this violent, sinful world exposes God’s determination to go to the most extreme lengths to love his people. How can we leave Jesus, and our faith, in the manger?
Pray for the Day:
Lord Jesus, let me be more and more like you every day of my life. Amen.
Leave a Reply