Chambers/Utmost/9-22
주님은 나의 최고봉 | ⇐ 9月21日 | 9月23日 ⇒
9月22日
Classic: The Key To The Master’s Orders
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest. — Matthew 9:38
The key to the missionary problem is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer, not work, that is, not work as the word is popularly understood to-day because that may mean the evasion of concentration on God. The key to the missionary problem is not the key of common sense, nor the medical key, nor the key of civilization or education or even evangelisation. The key is prayer. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest.” Naturally, prayer is not practical, it is absurd; we have to realize that prayer is stupid from the ordinary commonsense point of view.
There are no nations in Jesus Christ’s outlook, but the world. How many of us pray without respect of persons, and with respect to only one Person, Jesus Christ? He owns the harvest that is produced by distress and conviction of sin, and this is the harvest we have to pray that labourers may be thrust out to reap. We are taken up with active work while people all round are ripe to harvest, and we do not reap one of them, but waste our Lord’s time in over-energised activities. Suppose the crisis comes in your father’s life, in your brother’s life, are you there as a labourer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? “Oh, but I have a special work to do!” No Christian has a special work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ’s own, one who is not above his Master, one who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls to no special work: He calls to Himself. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,” and He will engineer circumstances and thrust you out.
Updated: The Missionary’s Master and Teacher
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am ….I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master… —John 13:13, 16
To have a master and teacher is not the same thing as being mastered and taught. Having a master and teacher means that there is someone who knows me better than I know myself, who is closer than a friend, and who understands the remotest depths of my heart and is able to satisfy them fully. It means having someone who has made me secure in the knowledge that he has met and solved all the doubts, uncertainties, and problems in my mind. To have a master and teacher is this and nothing less— “…for One is your Teacher, the Christ…” (Matthew 23:8).
Our Lord never takes measures to make me do what He wants. Sometimes I wish God would master and control me to make me do what He wants, but He will not. And at other times I wish He would leave me alone, and He does not.
“You call Me Teacher and Lord…”— but is He? Teacher, Master, and Lord have little place in our vocabulary. We prefer the words Savior, Sanctifier, and Healer. The only word that truly describes the experience of being mastered is love, and we know little about love as God reveals it in His Word. The way we use the word obey is proof of this. In the Bible, obedience is based on a relationship between equals; for example, that of a son with his father. Our Lord was not simply God’s servant— He was His Son. “…though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience…” (Hebrews 5:8). If we are consciously aware that we are being mastered, that idea itself is proof that we have no master. If that is our attitude toward Jesus, we are far away from having the relationship He wants with us. He wants us in a relationship where He is so easily our Master and Teacher that we have no conscious awareness of it— a relationship where all we know is that we are His to obey.
한글: 선교의 주인
요 13:13 “너희가 나를 선생이라 또는 주라 하니 너희 말이 옳도다. 내가 그러하다.”
주인을 모시는 것과 지배 받으며 사는 것은 같은 것이 아닙니다. 주인을 모시는 것은 내가 나 자신을 아는 것보다 나를 더 잘 아시는 분이 있다는 뜻입니다. 그 분은 어떤 친구보다도 가깝고 내 마음의 가장 깊은 곳을 아시며 내 영혼을 만족시키시는 분이십니다. 그분은 나의 마음 속의 모든 근심과 문제들을 아시고 해결해 주심으로 나를 안심시키는 분이십니다. 주인을 모신다는 것은 바로 “오직 한분 너희의 주인, 바로 그리스도”을 주로 모시는 것입니다.
우리 주님은 절대로 순종을 강요하지 않으십니다. 주님은 주께서 원하시는 것을 내가 하도록 하기 위하여 어떤 수단을 취하지 않습니다. 때로는 우리는 하나님께서 친히 나를 다스리셔서 나로 하여금 어떤 일을 하게 했으면 하고 바라기도 합니다. 그러나 그분은 그렇게 하지 않으십니다. 다른 때는 그 분이 나를 홀로 내버려 두셨으면 하고 바라는 때도 있지만, 그 때도 주님은 그렇게 하지 않으십니다.
“너희가 나를 선생이라 또는 주라 하니.” 정말로 예수님께서 당신의 선생이요 주이십니까? “선생”(Master)과 “주”(Lord)는 우리가 자주 쓰는 용어가 아닙니다. 우리는 구세주, 거룩케 하시는 분, 치유자라는 용어를 선호합니다. 우리의 경험으로 볼 때 주님의 다스리심을 서술할 수 있는 유일한 단어는 사랑입니다. 그러나 아쉽게도 우리는 하나님께서 계시하시는 사랑에 대하여 거의 아는 바가 없답니다. 이는 우리가 순종이라는 단어를 어떻게 사용하는가를 보면 알 수 있습니다. 성경에서 순종이란 아버지와 아들의 관계처럼 동등한 관계에 근거를 두고 있습니다. 우리 주님은 하나님의 종이 아니라 하나님의 아들이셨습니다. “그가 아들이시라도 순종을 배워.” 만일 우리가 지배 받고 있다고 생각한다면 우리는 선생이 없는 것입니다. 또한 지배 받는 것처럼 예수님을 대한다면 우리는 주님이 원하시는 관계와 거리가 먼 것입니다. 주님께서는 우리가 지배 받고 있다는 의식이 없이 우리의 주인이 되시는 관계를 원하십니다. 우리가 아는 모든 것은 우리는 주님의 소유이기에 마땅히 주님께 순종해야 한다는 것입니다.