網誌分類：Bible |
你只能活一次，為何要活得平平庸庸呢？要致力追求卓越，盡力達到最好。我認為沒有比這一節經文，更能表達何謂卓越：「因為聖靈的果子就是仁愛、喜樂、和平、忍耐、恩慈、良善、信實、溫柔、節制。」（加拉太書5:22）
我可以用它來寫一本九章的好書。從沒有哲學家或心理學家或精神病學家，寫下這九章書，使你有最好的情緒智商，能活出精彩人生。我們現在知道，情緒智商比智商更重要；我們也知道過去一世紀的教育體系，嘗試教育人擺脫情緒，所基於的假設就是，智力是把情緒減到最低。但現在我們明白到這是錯的，因為人根本就是情緒化，而非理智的受造物。
這節經文挑戰我們每個人。今天我要講的就是溫柔。哪間大學能讓你主修溫柔呢？你知道嗎？沒有！哪個宗教的重點是溫柔呢？我希望可以說是基督教，但基督教的重點並不是溫柔。沒有這樣的宗教。雖然耶穌說：「我心裡柔和謙卑，你們當負我的軛，學我的樣式。」雖然基督徒所相信的聖經，一再提到這詞語，但它並不是我們的焦點所在。一名初信者對向她傳福音的人說：「我信主兩年了，我一直研究基督教歷史，也觀察基督徒，我要問你，從何時開始，基督徒不再像耶穌了？」
根據歷史，我們並不溫柔。耶穌是第一個，祂才是原創者；祂是溫柔的巨人。想一想，宗教如何進入文化、進入世界？由一個原始的群體開始，由於畏懼地震、洪水、雷電，他們創造了神明──雷神、憤怒的神，他們創造了宗教──令人畏懼的宗教。我永不會忘記有一次我在中國大陸，女兒嘉露、內子和小兒也跟我一起。我們去了一間古舊的廟宇，裡面有許多偶像，比真人還要大得多，它們的眼睛又圓又大、凸起、充滿怒火；所有偶像都散發著憤怒，沒有溫柔。這就是原始的宗教。
宗教歷史讚揚猶太教合乎道德的一神主義。神成為了一位神，並按著祂形象創造我們。在舊約時代，神開始流露出憐憫和愛。宗教進展到耶穌時期，耶穌就是愛成為肉身：「我賜給你們一條新命令，乃是叫你們彼此相愛；我怎樣愛你們，你們也要怎樣相愛。」一個新的教導，饒恕人70個7次。看看耶穌所教導的積極情緒，再聽祂一再邀請人跟隨祂；新的信仰，新的世界。祂說：「去把福音傳給萬民」，「你們要為我作見證，直到地極」，「告訴人負我的軛，學我的樣式，因為我柔和謙卑。」今天你要在心中對神說：「神，使我成為溫柔的巨人。」溫柔才是世上最強的力量。我想是鍾斯說的，他說：「溫柔是對抗暴力的最強武器。」仔細想想。
溫柔是甚麼？看看字典裡的定義，是許多不同的詞語組合；溫和、仁慈、良善，就是加拉太書5:22所說的。這是第八個詞語，看看之前的：「仁愛、喜樂、和平、忍耐、恩慈、良善、信實」，加起來就是溫柔；最後一個詞語，必定要在最後，就是「節制」；即使溫柔也需要節制。任何事物在本質上都有積極或消極的力量。看看水，雨點，聽聽海灘上海浪拍岸的聲音；水是積極的，是溫柔的；滴滴水點，也可以是毀滅性的。它可以成為巨浪，可以成為洪水。雪花，多麼溫柔，多麼寧靜，落在松葉上；但也就是雪，阻止了拿破崙攻入滑鐵盧。陽光，明亮及燦爛地輕灑在身上、臉上，但沙漠的陽光卻能要你的命。每件事情都有正、反兩面，你的情緒可以被溫柔掌管，或相反，尖刻、吝嗇。但沒有比溫柔更美麗。記得第一個孩子倩娜出生時，我真怕抱著那小小的嬰孩，我很怕抱她，因為我本性溫柔，信不信由你，我怕會把她弄傷。
要變得溫柔往往不容易。記得在阿姆斯特丹遇上了嚴重意外，不曉得過了多久我才醒過來。大腦手術進行了12小時，他們把我送往醫院時，我已昏迷，醫生說，遲20分鐘到達就會不治，因為大腦有血管爆裂。血流了12小時，我的大腦幾乎要淹死。但無論如何，我仍記得，在醫院裡醒來時，內子坐飛機趕來，還不曉得我的死活；我以前講過這件事，那確是神蹟。在那阿姆斯特丹的醫院高層，我無法講話、寫字，內子看著我，想著我的將來怎麼辦。忽然，窗外有隻麻雀拍著翅膀，就在那兒，那兒沒有落腳的地方，也沒有食物，牠就是在那兒拍著翅膀，彷彿神要藉牠說話：「祂看顧麻雀，我知祂也必看顧我。」神多麼溫柔的使用麻雀，多麼溫柔的麻雀。
我還記得當護士進來，荷蘭的護士非常好，他們在阿姆斯特丹救了我的命。一位護士進來，她一言不發，只是用手指頭輕撫我的額，向我微笑，那帶著醫治的能力，我仍然記得。
多年後我去意大利宣教，內子也一起去。一天早上她說：「我覺得很不適，我的心臟很不妥，我帶了藥。」我說：「也許你心臟病發，吃一顆吧。」我把藥拿給她，給了她兩顆。醫生說那救了她的命，因為她那次是嚴重的心臟病，她該在醫院接受六次繞道（搭橋）手術。我請了醫生，他們隨救護車來到，他們把她放在帆布床上，把她抬出去。當他們把她抬上救護車時，一名救護員輕撫她的頭髮，她永遠不會忘記他輕撫她的頭髮。 溫柔的巨人，他們在各處地方，你是其中一個。然後她被送進急症室，任何人都不能進去。當時我們跟南韓的趙鏞基牧師一起宣教，當得悉艾慧入院，他親自前往醫院，幾乎是馬上就去；他闖進急症室，他不能那樣做的，他們要他出去；他們講意大利語，他講韓語，無法溝通。他沒有離開，他握著艾慧的腳指，輕輕的握著。她還記得。
你可以成為溫柔的巨人，這要改變你的家庭、你的世界、你的事業。溫柔並不是讓人瞧不起的懦弱，不，溫柔是世上最強的武器。祂就是今天活著的能力，祂在召喚你跟隨祂，「我心裡柔和謙卑，你們當負我的軛，學我的樣式。」我邀請你選擇溫柔的積極思想，放棄尖刻，讓積極的情緒主宰你的情感。你有身體，這麼高、這麼重、這樣的膚色，這是你無法改變的；但你是一個有情感的受造物，獨立、能選擇作哪一種情緒化的受造物。我找尋聖經經文，箴言，很久以前，所羅門說：「柔和的舌頭能折斷骨頭。」
如何成為溫柔的巨人？要明白到你能傳達信息；溫柔就是透過你的個性向身邊的人傳達。該如何運用你的溫柔呢？溫柔，就是你所運用的詞彙。今天美國社會的言語裡，有些可怕、憤怒、不文明的詞彙。聽聽清談節目，聽聽新聞報導員，聽聽那些政客，聽聽那些國會議員、參議員……都不再有禮貌。我們渴求溫柔，要仁慈、要客氣、要有禮。小心選擇說話，遣詞用字要帶著尊重；溫柔，表現於我們的用詞，表現於我們的語氣，表現於我們的外表。
溫柔是看得出來的；微笑的雙眼、柔和的面容，外表、言語……想一想，跟人講話時你若照照鏡子，會看到怎樣的你？一個表情、一句說話、一個觸摸，拍拍肩膀、摸摸臉頰、輕觸前額、輕撫頭髮……你我今天活在一個充滿衝突的世界，我們失掉了許多文明，許多關係是不愉快，卻又無法否認；粗陋、殘酷、侮辱、輕蔑……我想邀請你加入一個新運動，把耶穌基督的信息帶出去，使人的行為改變，以致他們可憑著外表、言語、觸摸和你的溫柔，得知你是基督徒。
你是溫柔的巨人，作個溫柔的巨人，聽耶穌的話。祂今天邀請你接受這樣的信心，接受這真能改變人的宗教。這是最後的話，是信仰要帶領你去的，是你要進到的。
作個溫柔的巨人，是你今天要作的決定。說「耶穌，我願像祢。」有能力但帶著憐憫，強壯而溫柔；是巨人，但柔和。阿們。我們一同禱告。
神啊，今天祢再次對我們說話。藉著耶穌兩千年前所說的話。噢，主啊，今天我們作出決定，要成為耶穌基督的跟隨者；我們不曉得前路如何，但求祢使我們成為美麗的基督徒，像耶穌一樣。阿們。
You’ve only one life to live, why live it on a mediocre level. Commit yourself to excellence. Get what you can that’s good and the best out of it. And I’ve never heard a single Bible verse that sums it up better, in my opinion, than Galatians 5:22. The fruit of the Spirit, nine words: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Fantastic.
That can make a great book with nine chapters and never before has a philosopher or a psychologist or a psychiatrist put together the nine chapters that make life at its best by giving you peak emotional quotient. We now know that EQ is more important than IQ. And we now know that many parts of the educational system have been designed in the past century to try to educate emotion out of people on the assumption that intelligence is the minimizing of emotion. We now come to realize that’s a bad move because the human being is first of all, an emotional creature, not an intellectual creature.
So here we are in the one Bible verse that can challenge all of us and I’m today up to the second to the last word. The word is gentleness. Wow. Wow. What university has a course where you can major in gentleness, do you know? No university. What religion focuses on gentleness? I want to pause because I wish I could say Christianity. But it hasn’t focused on gentleness. No religion does. Even though Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you; learn of Me for I am gentle and lowly of heart.” Even though the Holy Bible that we Christians believe in comes to that word again and again and again, somehow it got lost in our focus. A convert to Christianity went to the person who converted her and said, ‘you know I’ve been a Christian two years and I’ve been studying Christian history and studying the Christian world, and I have to ask you, when did the Christians stop being like Jesus was?’
We have not been known through history for gentleness. No. Jesus was the first and the original. Wow. Gentle giant. Stop and think for a moment, of how religion came into this civilization, into the world. It started with a primitive people, born in fear the earthquake, the flood, the thunder. Oh. Then they created gods, gods of thunder, gods of wrath. They created a religion and it was a fearful religion. I’ll never forget one of the first times that I went through mainland China, my daughter Carol was with me and my wife and son. At any rate, we went to this one temple, it was an old, old temple, and there were idols, much larger than human beings in size. Their eyes were huge, round, bulging, flaming anger. The whole idol radiated wrath, not gentleness. That was religion on the primitive level.
The history of religion credits Judaism for ethical monotheism where God became one God and He created us in His image. And mercy and love began to come through God in the Old Testament. Yes. And then, it wasn’t enough. Religion progressed to Jesus and Jesus was love incarnate. “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you.” A new teaching: forgive seventy times seven. Look at these positive emotions that Jesus is teaching. Then hear Him again inviting people to become followers of Him. A new faith, a new world when He said “go to all the world and preach this gospel to all creatures. You shall be My witnesses to the ends of the earth. Tell people to take My yoke and learn of Me for I am gentle.” And many of you listening to me this morning are going to pick up something, walk out of here and you’re going to in your heart say God make me a gentle giant because gentleness ultimately is the greatest power in the world. I think it was E. Stanley Jones who said that. Gentleness is the most powerful weapon, he said, against violence. Whew. Think that over.
What is gentleness? Well, read the dictionary definition and it’s a variety of words that bring it all together. Its tenderness, its kindness, its goodness, it’s really everything that’s summed in this Bible verse, Galatians 5:22. This is the eighth word, look at the previous words. It’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, it adds up to gentleness. The last word, has to be the last word, it means self-control. Yes, because even gentleness is something that you can control. In nature everything can have a positive or a negative force. Look at water, the raindrop. Listen to the trickle of the wave on the beach. Water is so positive, so gentle. The dripping of the water. But it can be disastrous. It can be a tidal wave. It could be a flood. The snowflake, so gentle, so quiet, on a pine leaf but it was the snowflake that stopped Napoleon from getting into Waterloo. Yeah. The sun, bright and cheerfully tender on the skin, gentle on the face, but it can kill you in the desert. Everything can be positive or negative. Your emotional system can be dominated by gentleness or the opposite: harshness, meanness. But nothing is more beautiful than gentle. Oh, I remember when my first child was born, Sheila, wow. I was so afraid to hold that little bitty baby. So afraid to hold it because I have a gentle nature, believe it or not, but I was afraid that I would hurt the little one.
Gentleness does not always come easy. No. Beautiful, I remember when I had that terrible accident in Amsterdam. I woke up after I don’t know how many hours. I think the surgery on my brain was 12 hours. When they got me to the hospital I was in a coma. The doctor said 20 minutes from being a DOA because my blood vessel broke in the brain and had been leaking for 12 hours. My brain was close to drowning. Well anyway, when I came through I still remember that in the hospital when my wife flew in not knowing whether I’d live or die and I’ve told you this before but it’s a miracle. On that high floor in the Amsterdam hospital and I could not talk and I could not write and I could not speak. And my wife looked at me and wondered what my future would be when suddenly; right outside my window there fluttered a sparrow. Way up there, no place to sit, no place to eat, it just fluttered as if a message from God saying, “His eye is on the sparrow and I know He cares for me.” What gentleness God uses is a sparrow, what a gentle bird.
And then I still remember the time when a nurse came and those Dutch nurses are wonderful, too. They saved my life there in Amsterdam. And a nurse came and she didn’t say anything. She just took her fingers and she stroked my forehead and smiled. It was so healing. I can still remember it.
Many years later I was on a mission in Italy. My wife was with me and in the morning she said, oh I’m sick, I’m very sick. And I’d had my heart thing, so I had medicine with me, I said, maybe you’re getting a heart attack. Take one of these and I gave it to her. Gave her two. The doctor said it probably saved her life because she had a severe attack; she would land up at a hospital getting six by-passes. Gosh. And I called the doctors of course, they came with an ambulance and they put her on a cot and they were carrying her out and as they did that, as she was being put into the ambulance, the paramedic stroked her hair. She never forgot it. Stroked the hair.
Gentle giants. They’re all over the place. You are one of them. Then she was put into the emergency room. No one was allowed in the emergency room. We were on a mission with David Yonggi Cho from Seoul Korea. He’d heard that Arvella was being taken to the hospital. He made it to the hospital, got there almost immediately, and he burst into the emergency room. He’s not allowed to do that. And they told him get out of here, you can’t come in here, but they spoke Italian and he spoke Korean and neither one of them understood anybody else. So he didn’t leave. And he took a hold of Arvella’s toes and held them gently. She still remembers that.
You can be a gentle giant. That’s going to change your family, your world, your business. Gentleness should not be looked upon as terrible weakness, no, no. Gentleness is the most powerful weapon in the world.
Yes, He is the power that’s alive today, calling for you and you and you to become His followers. Take my yolk upon Me; learn of Me for I am gentle and lowly of heart. Wow. I invite you to choose the positive thinking of gentleness instead of harshness. Let the positive emotions dominate your emotional self. You are a body self. So high, so much weight, certain coloring. Can’t do anything about that. But you are also an emotional creature, independent and capable of choosing what kind of an emotional self you will be. I urge you, you know that gentleness comes through the Bible; I was looking through the Bible verses. In Proverbs, way back then, Solomon said, “A gentle tongue breaks a bone.” Wow.
You know, how can you be a gentle giant? Understand that all of what you are is a communicating creature. And gentleness is to be communicated through your personality to those you mingle with. And let me say how you should apply gentleness. Gentleness: it’s the words that you use. There are some horrific, angry, uncivil words in the language of our culture in America today. Listen to some of the talk show people. Listen to some of the newscasters who will form a panel and debate. Listen to the politicians. Listen to the congressmen, the senators. Civility is short cut. There’s a hunger for gentleness. Be kind, be polite, be courteous. Pick your language carefully. Choose the words that are respectful. Gentleness. It’s in the words we use. It’s in the tone that we have when we use these words. It’s in the look. Gentleness can be in the look. The smiling eyes, the soft and tender face, a look, a word.
Think what you look like if you could see yourself in a mirror when you’re talking to others. A look, a word, and a touch. The touch on the shoulder, a touch on the cheek, a touch on the forehead, a touch on the hair. You and I are living in a very conflicted world today and we’ve lost a lot of our civilization in our culture today. A lot of the relationships are brutal, they’re uncouth, their crude, their course, their insulting. The sneer, the insult. I’m asking you to join me in a new movement, a movement to bring the message of Jesus Christ to a level where it will affect people’s behavior so that they will know you as a Christian by the look, by the word, by the touch, by your gentleness. You are gentle giant. Wow.
Become a gentle giant. Listen to Jesus. He’s inviting you today to take the kind of faith, kind of religion that really transforms persons. That’s the last word; that’s where faith has to lead you. And that’s where you come in. Be a gentle giant. It’s a decision you make today saying Jesus, I want to be like You. Powerful but merciful. Strong but tender. A giant but gentle. Amen. Let us pray.
Oh God, You’ve been talking to us again today, talking to us through the words of Jesus that are over 2,000 years old. And oh Lord, we’re making decisions today to become followers of Jesus Christ. We don’t know where it’s going to lead us but help us to become beautiful Christians like Jesus. Amen.
