灵命日粮  -  2007 年 7 月 4 日
为自由欢呼
读经: 罗马书6章15-23节
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金句: 「因为赐生命圣灵的律在基督耶稣里释放了我，使我脱离罪和死的律了。」(罗马书8章2节）
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全年读经: 约伯记28-29章；使徒行传13章1-25节
 
纽西兰的摄影记者欧拉福·维格曾遭绑架，被囚为人质达13天之久。在获释之后，他满脸欣喜地告诉大家：「我从没有像现在那么真切地感觉到自己活着。」
不知为什么，重获自由的感觉似乎比拥有自由更令人振奋。
对平日就享有自由的人来说，欧拉福的喜悦是一个很好的提醒，可以让我们意识到自己是多么容易忘记上帝所赐的福分。这一点若从属灵意义来讲也是如此。作基督徒的日子久了，我们往往会忘记被罪捆绑的滋味，变得踌躇满志，甚至不知感恩。这时候，上帝为了提醒我们，便差来一名初信者，以活泼的见证述说上帝所做的事，使我们能次体会「脱离罪和死的律」所带来的喜乐（罗马书8章2节）。
或许这种自由让你觉得乏味，又或者你易于定睛在力不能及的事上，这时你要思想：你已不再是罪的奴仆，而是已得释放的圣徒，并与耶稣基督同享永生（6章22节）！
为你在基督里所享有的自由而感恩、欢呼吧！因为你已成为上帝的仆人，有能力和自由去做许多事。JAL

我们肉身充满罪恶，
若要活得正直纯全，
没有主便绝无可能，
他已受死使我自由。Sper

为基督而活可带来真正自由。

July 4, 2007
Celebrate Freedom
READ: Romans 6:15-23
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. —Romans 8:2
  
After being kidnapped, held hostage for 13 days, and released, New Zealand news cameraman Olaf Wiig, with a broad smile on his face, announced, “I feel more alive now than I have in my entire life.”
For reasons difficult to understand, being freed is more exhilarating than being free.
For those who enjoy freedom every day, Olaf’s joy was a good reminder of how easily we forget how blessed we are. This is also true spiritually. Those of us who have been Christians for a long time often forget what it’s like to be held hostage by sin. We can become complacent and even ungrateful. But then God sends a reminder in the form of a new believer who gives an exuberant testimony of what God has done in his or her life, and once again we see the joy that is ours when we are “free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2).
If freedom has become boring to you, or if you tend to focus on what you can’t do, consider this: Not only are you no longer a slave to sin, but you are freed to be holy and to enjoy eternal life with Christ Jesus! (6:22).
Celebrate your freedom in Christ by taking the time to thank God for the things you are able and free to do as His servant. —Julie Ackerman Link

The sinful flesh in which we dwell
Makes living righteously
Impossible without the Lord,
Who died to set us free. —Sper

Living for Christ brings true freedom.