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經文：「耶和華...在那裡試驗他們。」（出15:25） 某天我到一家大鋼鐵廠的試驗室去參觀。看到四周都是一間間分隔的房間。我看見鋼材測試到達每個限度，就會用數值標著它們的優劣等級。 這些鋼材有的一絞就斷，有的可以拉得很長，有的可以壓得很緊；它們的扭力，張力，和壓力大小，都有數值標在上面，這樣廠主就知道每一塊鋼材的承受度。他也知道任一塊鋼材如果用來造大船、建房屋，或者造橋樑，能夠承受多少力量。他知道，因為試驗室這樣告訴他。 同樣，神的孩子也是如此受試驗；神不要我們像玻璃或者瓷器的花瓶一樣脆弱。祂要我們像堅韌的鋼那般，無論怎麼受絞受壓都不會破碎。 神不要我們作溫室裡的花朵，祂要我們作經得起風雨打擊的橡樹；祂不要我們作能被風吹散的沙丘，祂要我們作不畏狂風的花崗岩。為了使我們可以如此堅固，神必須帶我們到祂受苦的試驗室。我們之中有許多人都可以為自己做見證：受苦實在是神信心的試驗室。--馬克康該 J.H.McC 信心光用說的是很容易，但是神常常將我們丟入火爐好來提煉我們，要把貴重與劣質分別出來。那麼，如果顚簸我們生活的颶風，能使我們的主更顯寶貴的話，這些顚簸也算是舒適的了。因為有基督同在的風雨，比無基督同在的平靜更好！--馬克特夫 Macduff 「若不經過受苦，神沒有辦法使你的生命成熟。」 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "There he proved them" (Exod. 15:25). I stood once in the test room of a great steel mill. All around me were little partitions and compartments. Steel had been tested to the limit, and marked with figures that showed its breaking point. Some pieces had been twisted until they broke, and the strength of torsion was marked on them. Some had been stretched to the breaking point and their tensile strength indicated. Some had been compressed to the crushing point, and also marked. The master of the steel mill knew just what these pieces of steel would stand under strain. He knew just what they would bear if placed in the great ship, building, or bridge. He knew this because his testing room revealed it. It is often so with God's children. God does not want us to be like vases of glass or porcelain. He would have us like these toughened pieces of steel, able to bear twisting and crushing to the uttermost without collapse. He wants us to be, not hothouse plants, but storm-beaten oaks; not sand dunes driven with every gust of wind, but granite rocks withstanding the fiercest storms. To make us such He must needs bring us into His testing room of suffering. Many of us need no other argument than our own experiences to prove that suffering is indeed God's testing room of faith.--J. H. McC It is very easy for us to speak and theorize about faith, but God often casts us into crucibles to try our gold, and to separate it from the dross and alloy. Oh, happy are we if the hurricanes that ripple life's unquiet sea have the effect of making Jesus more precious. Better the storm with Christ than smooth waters without Him.--Macduff What if God could not manage to ripen your life without suffering? ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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