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每日箴言
教会,一个新的家庭
“你往哪里去,我也往那里去;你在哪里住宿,我也在那里住宿;你的国就是我的国,你的神就是我的神。” - 得 1:16
灵修
在今天的故事中,嫁入拿俄米的家的路得,承诺要留在拿俄米身旁,并且要像拿俄米的族人那样敬拜神。在路得记的结尾,我们看到拿俄米得了一个孙子,是路得和一位名叫波阿斯的至近亲属所生的,波阿斯娶了寡妇路得,又接纳她的婆婆加入他的家庭(路得记4)。神赐一个大家庭给拿俄米,她家族的希望因此得以重燃。
在一个有很多来自外地的人的教会中,我也有类似的经历,来自很多不同地方的人,彼此成为一个大家庭。我特别记得一位名叫嘉露的女士,她自己虽没有孙儿女,但她像祖母那样对待我的儿女。
教会其中一个作用,是要重新塑造我们对家庭的看法;成为教会这个大家庭的成员,表示我们接受那些与我们没有血缘的人,我们的关系乃是建立在耶稣的宝血上的。
初代教会很快便成为一个彼此依赖的群体,他们甚至以弟兄姐妹相称。
教会的大家庭时常都要面对一个挑战,就是要明白我们的关系是基于我们与神的关系,是神呼召我们成为一个大家庭的。
祷告
父神啊,我们是祢的儿女,求祢帮助我们,让我们有彼此相爱和因信以弟兄姊妹相称的教会大家庭,当我们没有这样行时,求你赦免。奉我们至圣的弟兄耶稣的名祈求,阿们。
普世佳音每日箴言
Church: A New Family
“Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” — Ruth 1:16
Devotion
In our story for today, Ruth, who married into Naomi’s family, pledges to remain with Naomi and to join with her people and worship God. At the end of the book of Ruth, we find Naomi with a grandchild, born to Ruth and a kinsman-redeemer named Boaz, who has married the widow Ruth and taken her mother-in-law Naomi into his household (Ruth 4). Hope is restored to this family through God’s provision of extended family members who show his love to one another.
I experienced something like that in a church full of transplants. People from many places became a large extended family to one another. I especially remember a woman named Carol who had no grandchildren but became a grandmother to my own children.
One purpose of the church is to reshape our understanding of family. Being part of a church family means including people who are not related by blood—except for the blood of Jesus.
The early church quickly became a community in which people relied on one another and even called each other brothers and sisters.
One of the ongoing challenges of being a church family is to understand that our relationships are to be shaped by our relationship with God. God is making us into a family.
Prayer
Father God, help us, your children, to have church families in which we love each other as brothers and sisters in faith. Forgive us when we do not act that way. In the name of our Brother, Jesus, Amen.
诵读:楚云丨片头: 张妙阳
感谢《普世佳音》制作上传网络
文字校对:李清
图文编排:裕化
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