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經文：「忽然起了暴風雨。」（可4:37） 在信徒的生活中，有許多風雨都是突然發生的：憂患、失望、挫敗、病痛等等。也有許多風雨是漸漸襲來的。起初只有手掌那麼大的一點，後來漸漸造成我們的威脅。 雖然如此，這些風雨都是神所許可，為要使我們得益處。祂願意有橡樹，祂就栽了一棵，且讓樹在風雨中飄搖，使它根深幹高，成為林中之王。照樣，神願意造就一個可用之才，神就把他放在風雨之中，讓他經過風雨的生活。 世上許多作大事業的偉人，都是經歷過艱難和痛苦。神國的偉人，也是如此。如果神要使用一個人，必定先答應這人獻身的祈禱：「主阿，拿我、擘我、用我。」 然而當風雨一過，天地顯得更美好；天空飾著彩色的虹，草木的葉上鑲著閃亮的珠粒。照樣，風雨之後，信徒穿上聖潔的生活，臉上帶著屬天的光彩。 親愛的，你經歷過神所預備的風雨麼？你願意免去一時的痛苦，從風雨中逃出來呢？還是讓風雨將你提升到更高更豐盛的生命中？--選 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "And there arose a great storm" (Mark 4:37). Some of the storms of life come suddenly: a great sorrow, a bitter disappointment, a crushing defeat. Some come slowly. They appear upon the ragged edges of the horizon no larger than a man's hand, but, trouble that seems so insignificant spreads until it covers the sky and overwhelms us. Yet it is in the storm that God equips us for service. When God wants an oak He plants it on the moor where the storms will shake it and the rains will beat down upon it, and it is in the midnight battle with elements that the oak wins its rugged fibre and becomes the king of the forest. When God wants to make a man He puts him into some storm. The history of manhood is always rough and rugged. No man is made until he has been out into the surge of the storm and found the sublime fulfillment of the prayer: "O God, take me, break me, make me." The beauties of nature come after the storm. The rugged beauty of the mountain is born in a storm, and the heroes of life are the storm-swept and the battle-scarred.You have been in the storms and swept by the blasts. Have they left you broken, weary, beaten in the valley, or have they lifted you to the sunlit summits of a richer, deeper, more abiding manhood and womanhood? Have they left you with more sympathy with the storm-swept and the battle-scarred? --Selected ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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