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經文：「其餘的人，可以用板子，或船上的零碎東西上岸。這樣，眾人都得了救上了岸。」（徒27:44） 保羅前往羅馬的那段奇特的經歷；所受的試煉和所得的榮耀；眞是我們走信心道路的重要典範，其中最寶貴的教訓是：在人所遭遇的一切困難狹窄處，都有神獨特的辦法和預備。 按著一般人的眼光來看，信心的道路一定是布滿鮮花；任何時候神要拯救祂的子民脫離危險，祂就立刻將他們從困難中提出來。然而，事實恰巧相反。聖經中的故事告訴我們：從亞伯開始一直到最後的殉道者，這些見證人都是先經過試煉才能得到榮耀。 保羅的經歷告訴我們：作為神的子民，無論受多少苦仍能不在靈裡受壓。保羅因為在大馬色宣傳耶穌的緣故，猶太人商議要殺他。當時並沒有從天降下火燄雷電並戰車戰馬，好將這位大使徒從仇敵的勢力範圍下護送離開。他是「用筐子…從城牆縋下去」的（徒9:25）。想想，被裝進洗衣筐，像一包等待送洗的髒衣服一般，主的僕人竟這樣狼狽地被從窗戶垂吊下地！ 後來保羅被下在監裡，我們看見他是如何被親友遺棄，又是如何遭受殘酷可恥的鞭打；就算是在神施行拯救以後，他的遭遇還是在波濤洶湧的海中顚簸，直到拯救來了，仍然沒大船從天而降將這位尊貴的囚犯迎接出去，也沒有天使站在水面平靜猖獗的怒濤；船上所有人，必須有的抓住船桅，有的抓住木板，有的攀在船的碎片，有的直接下水游泳，才能得救上岸。而這，就是神對待我們的方法。 因此許多時候，神並不會立刻將我們從試煉中救出來，因為祂知道經過試煉以後，我們的信心會成為精金。--譯自信心道路上的艱難 Hard Places in the Way Faith 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "And the rest, some on boards, some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land" (Acts 27:44). The marvelous story of Paul's voyage to Rome, with its trials and triumphs, is a fine pattern of the lights and shades of the way of faith all through the story of human life. The remarkable feature of it is the hard and narrow places which we find intermingled with God's most extraordinary interpositions and providences. It is the common idea that the pathway of faith is strewn with flowers, and that when God interposes in the life of His people, He does it on a scale so grand that He lifts us quite out of the plane of difficulties. The actual fact, however, is that the real experience is quite contrary. The story of the Bible is one of alternate trial and triumph in the case of everyone of the cloud of witnesses from Abel down to the latest martyr. Paul, more than anyone else, was an example of how much a child of God can suffer without being crushed or broken in spirit. On account of his testifying in Damascus, he was hunted down by persecutors and obliged to fly for his life. but we behold no heavenly chariot transporting the holy apostle amid thunderbolts of flame from the reach of his foes, but "through a window in a basket," was he let down over the walls of Damascus and so escaped their hands. In an old clothes basket, like a bundle of laundry, or groceries, the servant of Jesus Christ was dropped from the window and ignominiously fled from the hate of his foes. Again we find him left for months in the lonely dungeons; we find him telling of his watchings, his fastings, and his desertion by friends, of his brutal and shameful beatings, and here even after God has promised to deliver him, we see him for days left to toss upon a stormy sea, obliged to stand guard over the treacherous seaman, and at last when the deliverance comes, there is no heavenly galley sailing from the skies to take off the noble prisoner; there is no angel form walking along the waters and stilling the raging breakers; there is no supernatural sign of the transcendent miracle that is being wrought; but one is compelled to seize a spar, another a floating plank, another to climb on a fragment of the wreck, another to strike out and swim for his life. Here is God's pattern for our own lives. Here is a Gospel of help for people that have to live in this every day world with real and ordinary surroundings, and a thousand practical conditions which have to be met in a thoroughly practical way. God's promises and God's providences do not lift us out of the plane of common sense and commonplace trial, but it is through these very things that faith is perfected, and that God loves to interweave the golden threads of His love along the warp and woof of our every day experience.--Hard Places in the Way of Faith ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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