什麼是生命影響生命呢？我們的生命會在日常生活中彰顯出來，並且影響生活在我們四週的人。這就是所謂生命影響生命。當我們在生活中與另一個人接觸時，一定會在他的生命中造成影響。我們會在別人的生命中造成好的影響，也會造成壞的影響。正如父親一定會影響兒女，而老師會影響學生，就算是朋友也會互相影響。我們願意為別人，特別是身邊的人，帶來好的影響嗎？
當我們閱讀保羅的生平和他所寫的書信時，讓我們仔細地思想保羅的生命和他每天的生活，好讓他的生命慢慢地影響我們的生命和生活。
當我們了解生命影響生命的重要時，就應意識到自己的責任很重大，因為我們正在每天影響身邊的人。這也是一個很重要的原因，鼓勵我們好好學習保羅的榜樣，希望我們在影響別人的時候，好像保羅影響我們一般。我們要學習保羅，因為保羅學習基督，所以透過學習保羅，我們也在學習基督。我們就可以很確定地知道，當我們的生命影響別人的生命時，乃是讓基督透過我們的生命來影響他人，使他們也經歷耶穌基督的生命。
What does it mean to have life impacting life? We are impacting people by our life which is manifested in our daily living. This is the way how life is impacted by others. It is inescapable that we must impact other’s life in every contact. Just like the father will impact their children, teachers will impact their students, and even among friends impacts are explicit. Do we want to give a good impact on people’s lives, especially on those who are around us?
When we read the epistles of Paul, we should focus on his life and lifestyle, and be ready for any impact made on our life.
If we realize the importance of life impacting life, we will understand why we are held accountable for others, for we are impacting their lives everyday. It is the very reason to motivate us to learn from Paul’s life, and hopefully in return, we will impact people’s lives just like Paul does on us. Paul urges us to learn from him, for he is learning from Christ, so that we will also learn from Christ. If we learn from Paul, we can be sure that the impact we make on people’s life is the impact from Christ, so that they will also be able to experience Christ’s life in us.
愛與管教 Love and Discipline
做父母的難處，許多時候就在愛與管教之間，不知如何兩者兼得。我們都希望孩子才貌出眾、品學兼優、愛神愛人，又孝親敬長。然而，我們也知道，孩子生出來並不必然具備這些條件和美德，都需要做父母的，費盡心力來教導栽培，才或有可能獲得一點點果效。我們因此常常感到做父母真不容易，再加上對人生和兒女的期望常常有誤差，就更難栽培出上述的孩子了。我願意和大家一同在這事情上作些思考，希望產生啟發作用，讓我們從聖經中學習些方法，幫助孩子建立美好的人生。
首先，我們必須先審視自己的人生觀，因為我們只會把自己看為重要的處事待人的態度和技巧教導孩子。原來我們遺傳給孩子的，不單單是生理的素質，也有品格個性和屬靈的氣質，而後者往往比前者更重要，更能影響他們的一生。父母在教導孩子時，第一個難處就是同時要求自己也成長。因此，自己的基督徒品格與靈命成長，便多了一項家庭教育的目的和功能。
第二，人人都需要負起教育的責任，但不是每一個人都有足夠的知識和正確的技巧。做父母的第二個難處，就是找時間去學習教育兒女的知識和技巧。父母都是愛兒女的，但不一定懂得如何去愛。如果我們不懂得去愛兒女，就無法給與兒女正確的管教。
聖經裡有許多我們應該學習的人生觀，也有許多談論神對我們的愛，並祂因為愛我們而作出的管教。基督徒在理論上應該比較懂得做父母，因為我們有新的生命，也在不斷地成長，而且經常經歷神的愛和管教，再加上聖經有許多教養兒女的教導。我們做父母的要經常互相鼓勵，按著聖經的教導來教養兒女，為他們提供全人的培育。
Parenting is not an easy job for most parents for we don’t know how to maximize the advantages of love and discipline in raising children. We want our children to be healthy and talented, to be good in both academia and character, and they are also loving God and caring about people, plus knowing how to respect their parents and elderly. On the other hand, we also realize that those virtues won’t come naturally in kid’s life. Parents sometimes pay extra effort but get very little result in teaching kids. Even worse, we, as parents, don’t necessary have the correct concept of life and always expect wrongly our kids in their growth and development, which minimize the educational effort of bringing them up to such ideal persons. I want to share two fundamental ideas with our parents to inspire us if we can learn something from the Bible.
First of all, we need to examine our understanding of life, because we will only teach our kids what we think important in life, and how we handle things and relationships. As matter of fact, we do not pass on to our kid only genetic traits, but also our characters, personalities, and spiritual qualities; and we also know that such personality and spiritual qualities are more important in their life formation. The first difficult thing in parenting is to require us to grow in our personal and spiritual characters as we nurture our kid to grow. The purpose of Christian character formation and spiritual growth to us as parents, therefore, goes beyond personal spirituality and has a very important function in family education.
Secondly, even though everybody should have responsibility in educating others, we may not have adequate knowledge and right skills to educate them. The second difficult thing in parenting is to make time to learn the knowledge and skills in raising kids. Parents love their kids, but they may not know how to love them correctly. If we do not know how to love them correctly, we may not be able to discipline them with good result.
Bible has a lot of good things for us to learn to build healthy personal and spiritual life, and it also tells us God’s love and discipline. Christian parents should have more advantages to be good parents for we have a new life, and have always been experiencing God’s love and discipline. We can also easily consult the Bible for knowledge and skills in raising kids. I encourage Christian parents to have fellowship constantly to encourage each other, and to learn from the Bible the ways to nurture their kids with God’s word, and to provide them a more sound and holistic family education.
首先，我們必須先審視自己的人生觀，因為我們只會把自己看為重要的處事待人的態度和技巧教導孩子。原來我們遺傳給孩子的，不單單是生理的素質，也有品格個性和屬靈的氣質，而後者往往比前者更重要，更能影響他們的一生。父母在教導孩子時，第一個難處就是同時要求自己也成長。因此，自己的基督徒品格與靈命成長，便多了一項家庭教育的目的和功能。
第二，人人都需要負起教育的責任，但不是每一個人都有足夠的知識和正確的技巧。做父母的第二個難處，就是找時間去學習教育兒女的知識和技巧。父母都是愛兒女的，但不一定懂得如何去愛。如果我們不懂得去愛兒女，就無法給與兒女正確的管教。
聖經裡有許多我們應該學習的人生觀，也有許多談論神對我們的愛，並祂因為愛我們而作出的管教。基督徒在理論上應該比較懂得做父母，因為我們有新的生命，也在不斷地成長，而且經常經歷神的愛和管教，再加上聖經有許多教養兒女的教導。我們做父母的要經常互相鼓勵，按著聖經的教導來教養兒女，為他們提供全人的培育。
Parenting is not an easy job for most parents for we don’t know how to maximize the advantages of love and discipline in raising children. We want our children to be healthy and talented, to be good in both academia and character, and they are also loving God and caring about people, plus knowing how to respect their parents and elderly. On the other hand, we also realize that those virtues won’t come naturally in kid’s life. Parents sometimes pay extra effort but get very little result in teaching kids. Even worse, we, as parents, don’t necessary have the correct concept of life and always expect wrongly our kids in their growth and development, which minimize the educational effort of bringing them up to such ideal persons. I want to share two fundamental ideas with our parents to inspire us if we can learn something from the Bible.
First of all, we need to examine our understanding of life, because we will only teach our kids what we think important in life, and how we handle things and relationships. As matter of fact, we do not pass on to our kid only genetic traits, but also our characters, personalities, and spiritual qualities; and we also know that such personality and spiritual qualities are more important in their life formation. The first difficult thing in parenting is to require us to grow in our personal and spiritual characters as we nurture our kid to grow. The purpose of Christian character formation and spiritual growth to us as parents, therefore, goes beyond personal spirituality and has a very important function in family education.
Secondly, even though everybody should have responsibility in educating others, we may not have adequate knowledge and right skills to educate them. The second difficult thing in parenting is to make time to learn the knowledge and skills in raising kids. Parents love their kids, but they may not know how to love them correctly. If we do not know how to love them correctly, we may not be able to discipline them with good result.
Bible has a lot of good things for us to learn to build healthy personal and spiritual life, and it also tells us God’s love and discipline. Christian parents should have more advantages to be good parents for we have a new life, and have always been experiencing God’s love and discipline. We can also easily consult the Bible for knowledge and skills in raising kids. I encourage Christian parents to have fellowship constantly to encourage each other, and to learn from the Bible the ways to nurture their kids with God’s word, and to provide them a more sound and holistic family education.
你們當追念 You Should Remember
（彌迦書Micah 6:5）
「我的百姓阿，你們當追念…好使你們知道耶和華公義的作為」。這一句話是先知常向百姓說的。先知要求百姓不要忘記過去的歷史，因為這是我們認識神的作為的重要材料。
神賜給人一個很重要又極寶貴的能力，就是記憶力。有了記憶能力，人就有時間感，人生就有延續性，歷史才會出現。我們可以說，記憶造就了我們的歷史和文化，把人的世界從動物的層面提升至人文的高度。
一個人對自己的過去的認知和解釋，直接影響他對自己的現在和將來的掌握。神經常透過幫助我們對過去的事情進行記憶、反省和詮釋來啟示我們，並賜我們智慧來面對今天與明天的挑戰，並作出正確的抉擇。先知要求百姓在反省歷史時，必須看出神的作為。神常常感動祂的僕人，為以色列人提供詮釋他們的過去的原則和屬靈的角度，讓他們看見神在歷史中的作為。
我們也要學習反省和詮釋自己所走過的人生道路，不然就無法看見神在人生中的帶領。當我們反省和詮釋自己的人生時，也需要使用聖經所提供的原則和角度，讓我們的人生離開一大堆純粹生活或求生存的雜亂瑣事，提升至屬靈的高度，看見神在我們個人生命中的作為和旨意。
經文默想
請你嘗試回憶過去的人生，並從中理解神在你的過去的作為。使用這些理解來思考你的現在和將來，尋求神在你的人生中的旨意。
“My people, remember …that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord”. It was the statement that the prophets always used to remind the Israelites. They reminded them not to forget their history, for in their past had stored the richest treasure of God’s actions and revelations.
God has given us the most important and valuable power, and it is the power of memory. Once if we possess the ability to remember, we have the sense of time which gives the continuity in our life to make history possible. That is our memory which gives birth to our history and culture, and our life will be ascended from the animal world to the human civilizations.
How a person understands and interprets his past will determine the way he handles his present and future. God always inspires us by helping us to reflect on and interpret our past to give us wisdom to handle challenges and to make right decisions. When the prophet reminded his people to learn from their history, he wanted them to see God’s righteous acts. God often through revealing to the prophets teaches His people the spiritual principles and perspectives to interpret their past to realize His acts in history.
We must learn to reflect on and interpret our past, or otherwise, we cannot see how God leads our way in life. When we reflect on our past, we should use the biblical principles and perspectives to do the interpretation, so that we won’t be lost in the midst of the massive fragments and happenings, and be able to lift our eyes to the spiritual level to see the will of God in our life.
Meditation
Let us reflect on our past and find out the guidance of God in our life. With such understanding we may know God’s plan for us.
「我的百姓阿，你們當追念…好使你們知道耶和華公義的作為」。這一句話是先知常向百姓說的。先知要求百姓不要忘記過去的歷史，因為這是我們認識神的作為的重要材料。
神賜給人一個很重要又極寶貴的能力，就是記憶力。有了記憶能力，人就有時間感，人生就有延續性，歷史才會出現。我們可以說，記憶造就了我們的歷史和文化，把人的世界從動物的層面提升至人文的高度。
一個人對自己的過去的認知和解釋，直接影響他對自己的現在和將來的掌握。神經常透過幫助我們對過去的事情進行記憶、反省和詮釋來啟示我們，並賜我們智慧來面對今天與明天的挑戰，並作出正確的抉擇。先知要求百姓在反省歷史時，必須看出神的作為。神常常感動祂的僕人，為以色列人提供詮釋他們的過去的原則和屬靈的角度，讓他們看見神在歷史中的作為。
我們也要學習反省和詮釋自己所走過的人生道路，不然就無法看見神在人生中的帶領。當我們反省和詮釋自己的人生時，也需要使用聖經所提供的原則和角度，讓我們的人生離開一大堆純粹生活或求生存的雜亂瑣事，提升至屬靈的高度，看見神在我們個人生命中的作為和旨意。
經文默想
請你嘗試回憶過去的人生，並從中理解神在你的過去的作為。使用這些理解來思考你的現在和將來，尋求神在你的人生中的旨意。
“My people, remember …that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord”. It was the statement that the prophets always used to remind the Israelites. They reminded them not to forget their history, for in their past had stored the richest treasure of God’s actions and revelations.
God has given us the most important and valuable power, and it is the power of memory. Once if we possess the ability to remember, we have the sense of time which gives the continuity in our life to make history possible. That is our memory which gives birth to our history and culture, and our life will be ascended from the animal world to the human civilizations.
How a person understands and interprets his past will determine the way he handles his present and future. God always inspires us by helping us to reflect on and interpret our past to give us wisdom to handle challenges and to make right decisions. When the prophet reminded his people to learn from their history, he wanted them to see God’s righteous acts. God often through revealing to the prophets teaches His people the spiritual principles and perspectives to interpret their past to realize His acts in history.
We must learn to reflect on and interpret our past, or otherwise, we cannot see how God leads our way in life. When we reflect on our past, we should use the biblical principles and perspectives to do the interpretation, so that we won’t be lost in the midst of the massive fragments and happenings, and be able to lift our eyes to the spiritual level to see the will of God in our life.
Meditation
Let us reflect on our past and find out the guidance of God in our life. With such understanding we may know God’s plan for us.
與神同行 Walking With God
(彌迦書Micah 6:1-8)
彌迦書第六章記載了神傳召以色列人對質公堂一事。雖然以色列人矢口否認犯罪，但世人都犯了罪是不證自明的事實。一切宗教的起源最少有一個普遍而深刻的內在原因，就是人自覺或潛意識地感到罪疚，而向神尋求赦免的手段。
於是，種種尋求神的赦免和保佑的宗教手段，便出現在人的宗教活動和文化中。殊不知，這些宗教手段不單無法為他們賺取神的赦免和祝福，更把人推向自義自大的罪裡，使人離開神越來越遠。
先知很清楚以色列人會如何向神狡辯：神呀，祢指責我們犯罪，無非是要我們向祢多獻祭。我們就把千千萬萬的牛羊獻給祢吧。如果祢還以為不夠的話，我們就把長子也獻給祢好了！這樣，祢也應該滿足了吧！祢就賜給我們內心的平安，賜福給我們，讓我們可以安心放手去為所慾為。
先知代表神向他們發出既是慨嘆又是鼓勵，說，「世人哪，耶和華已指示你何為善；祂向你所要的是甚麼呢？只要你行公義，好憐憫，存謙卑的心，與你的神同行。」神要我們不是奉行什麼宗教的禮儀，也不是獻什麼祭牲；神所要的是我們樂意與祂同行。
什麼是與神同行呢？從先知的這句話中，我們可以發現最少有三點意思。第一，認識並堅守聖經的真理（行公義）；第二，彼此相愛，建立和好的關係（好憐憫）；第三，向神存著開放的心，順服祂的帶領（存謙卑的心）；以這三種的態度來過我們的生活，並在生活中事奉祂，就是與神同行了。
經文默想
讓我們把彌迦書六章八節背起來，並默想自己如何每天與神同行。
彌迦書第六章記載了神傳召以色列人對質公堂一事。雖然以色列人矢口否認犯罪，但世人都犯了罪是不證自明的事實。一切宗教的起源最少有一個普遍而深刻的內在原因，就是人自覺或潛意識地感到罪疚，而向神尋求赦免的手段。
於是，種種尋求神的赦免和保佑的宗教手段，便出現在人的宗教活動和文化中。殊不知，這些宗教手段不單無法為他們賺取神的赦免和祝福，更把人推向自義自大的罪裡，使人離開神越來越遠。
先知很清楚以色列人會如何向神狡辯：神呀，祢指責我們犯罪，無非是要我們向祢多獻祭。我們就把千千萬萬的牛羊獻給祢吧。如果祢還以為不夠的話，我們就把長子也獻給祢好了！這樣，祢也應該滿足了吧！祢就賜給我們內心的平安，賜福給我們，讓我們可以安心放手去為所慾為。
先知代表神向他們發出既是慨嘆又是鼓勵，說，「世人哪，耶和華已指示你何為善；祂向你所要的是甚麼呢？只要你行公義，好憐憫，存謙卑的心，與你的神同行。」神要我們不是奉行什麼宗教的禮儀，也不是獻什麼祭牲；神所要的是我們樂意與祂同行。
什麼是與神同行呢？從先知的這句話中，我們可以發現最少有三點意思。第一，認識並堅守聖經的真理（行公義）；第二，彼此相愛，建立和好的關係（好憐憫）；第三，向神存著開放的心，順服祂的帶領（存謙卑的心）；以這三種的態度來過我們的生活，並在生活中事奉祂，就是與神同行了。
經文默想
讓我們把彌迦書六章八節背起來，並默想自己如何每天與神同行。
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