第十三天 禁食進入愛的狂喜

中譯 : Rebecca  文字整理：林琬儀  TOD大衛會幕禱告部

「噢！我脫開了地上捆綁

能夠在藍天飛舞

我以歡笑作為我的翅膀

我向著太陽往上攀爬

我享受太陽照射在雲端空隙間所帶給我的歡樂

我在天際翱翔

做你無法想像的事」～John Gillespie Magee Jr.

John 在二次大戰時是一名戰鬥機駕駛員，他19歲時就因空難離世，在他離世前他寫下了上述的詩來描述飛上高天飛翔的自由，彷彿可以碰到神的面，帶來極大的喜樂⋯⋯

Surly這個字的意思是脾氣不太好，情緒起伏大，不好相處⋯⋯我們在地上的存在經驗，好像就是那個脾氣不好，說話尖酸，一下就翻臉的很粗糙的存在感，但是到了高天之上，自由翱翔，碰到神的喜樂，真是一個極大的對比。

1906年加州的阿蘇薩大復興，Frank Bartleman曾與主耶穌相遇，之後幾天他都無法與人說話，因為屬地的粗糙無法相比。約翰衞斯理曾拜訪早期摩拉維亞社區，這社區曾經歷過 神的同在在其中，他說我住在一群人當中，他們所談論的都是屬天的事。

約翰的門徒曾問耶穌，為什麼你的門徒都不禁食？耶穌回答說，新郎還在的時候，他們不禁食，但當新郎離開的時候，他們就要開始禁食了。耶穌並不是在指責約翰的門徒，耶穌的意思是，你們現在所生活的環境是新郎還和你們在一起，可是我離開了以後，我就會啟動一個新的禁食的世紀，那會把約翰的禁食帶入一個更高的領域。教會既是基督的新婦，比約翰還要更深地渴望祂的再來，就像新娘愛新郎，勝過朋友愛新郎。所以新娘的禁食就成為一個管道，他的渴慕不斷，不斷的加增，就像飛機不斷地升高，突破地上的攔阻，衝入高天，在高天翱翔，享受愛的狂喜。

上帝曾藉著先知耶利米對以色列民說：我還記得你幼年對我的奉獻，你對我的愛就像新娘愛新郎的愛，你在曠野中追求我⋯⋯透過這四十天禁食的曠野，我們會找到那翱翔的自由，我們會脫離屬地的捆綁，回到我們年幼之時對神的奉獻。這些都是小的享受，不要被這些小小的享受奪去了我們靈魂深處對神真正的渴望。當我們對所有的事都死了，我們就會經驗復活的能力，而且我們也會在神的右邊有永遠的福樂。

禱告

主啊！我們禱告你引導我們進入曠野，並且在那裡對我們柔聲說話，撫慰對我們的靈魂，祢用愛安慰我們貼近你的心，讓我們能夠唱我們幼年時對祢所唱的歌，讓我們與祢進入婚約，祢聘我們為祢的新娘，像何西阿書二章所寫的，再向祢的新娘彰顯祢的愛吧⋯⋯

 

Day13  Fasting Into The Ecstasy of Love

“Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings. Sunward I’ve climbed and enjoyed the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds and done a hundred things you’ve not dreamed of…” - John Gillespie Magee Jr.

John Gillespie Magee Jr. was a fighter pilot in World War II. He penned this amazing poem on the freedom of flight. He died in an air crash at the age of 19, but not before leaving the world with the shimmering imagery comparing the natural ecstasy of flight, and its soaring to unknown heights and its feeling of unfettered freedom, to the extreme pleasures of actually reaching up and touching the face of God.

Surly definition: ill-tempered, glum, morose, moody, uncivil, sour, grumpy.

How rough and crusty, how ill-tempered this earthbound existence seems when compared to the ecstasy of touching God. In 1906 prior to the great Azusa Street revival, Frank Bartleman had a face-to-face encounter with Jesus. He said that afterward for days he could hardly hold a human conversation because of its unseemly earthly surliness. John Wesley, when he visited the early Moravian community in its first love of encounter with the abiding Presence commented, “I dwelt among a people whose conversation was in heaven.”

Jesus when asked by John’s disciples, “Why do your servants not fast?” said, “When the bridegroom is gone then my servants will fast.” This was not a rebuke to John’s disciples. Jesus was saying that “You are living in the dispensation when I, the bridegroom, am with you now, but when I go I will inaugurate a new era of fasting that will take John’s fastings to an even higher level!” The Church, being the Bride of Christ, will long for Him and His coming in an even greater measure than John, just as the bride loves the bridegroom even more than the friend of the bridegroom. The bride’s fastings will be the channel for her ever-increasing longings, the flight pattern into the ecstasy of love.

God, through the prophet Jeremiah, declared over the children of Israel, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you went after Me in the wilderness!” It is in the wilderness of the 40-day fast that we find the flight of freedom from the surly bonds of earth and return to the devotion of our youth. All of these lesser pleasures usurping our soul’s affections are stripped away and we, being dead to everything, experience resurrection power and find pleasures at His right hand forever.

Prayer:

Lord, we pray that You would allure us into the wilderness and speak tenderly to us, tenderly to our souls. In love and compassion, draw us to your heart and let us sing as we sang in the days of our youth. Betroth us to you forever. Come show your love to your bride again. Hosea 2.