随时儆醒等待祂再来
中英文作者:杨光(《真理报》加西版2008年6月号)

到处都有饥荒和地震，这一切不过是痛苦的开始。马太福音24:7-8（新译本）

每次看四川大地震的报道就忍不住流泪，为那些丧生的孩子、父母、夫妻、为丢失的潜力、为摧毁的家园、为丧失亲友的人而流泪。余震预测在以后的几个星期里会继续毁灭城镇。而五.一二大地震之前不久，旋风纳尔吉斯横扫缅甸南部海岸，造成极大的破坏，同时世界各地因食物短缺、物价猛涨而恐慌。到处都有饥荒和地震......

马太福音第廿四和廿五章里记载着，耶稣清楚地列出我们会看到的世代终结的预兆。地震是其中最早的兆头，但这只是生产之难的开始，自然界最早的大动荡，就像孕妇分娩开始时的震痛，意味着临盆前要忍受的痛苦。

然而，可这只是开始，更痛苦的时期还在后面。

尽管前景黯淡堪虑，耶稣说这些话不是为了吓唬我们晚上睡不着觉，而是为了我们到时不会受惊吓，为了让我们随时儆醒等待祂再来，为了我们能坚忍到底，为了我们不被焦虑和恐惧所困却忘记去安慰关爱他人、向他们传福音。这就是耶稣在绵羊和山羊的比喻里和在升天前讲的“大使命”：给饿的吃，给渴的喝，接待作旅客的，给赤身的穿，照料生病的，探望被囚的，去使万民作祂的门徒。

这最近的自然大灾害，又一次提出了基督徒由始以来必须面对的问题：在这多灾多难的世界里，那位是爱、怜悯、恩典和一切良善的神在哪里？在他的书《我不曾认识的耶稣》里，腓力普．燕希却认为这问题应该改为：教会在哪里？耶稣留给我们的工作是把贫穷的、受逼迫的和孤儿寡妇当做耶稣来服侍，直到祂再来时将这个败坏堕落的世界更新成完美的国度。所以，不要光站在一旁敬佩那些牺牲一切去顺服“大使命”的人，与其等到一场像四川地震一样的大灾难将我们从自满中唤醒，我们作为基督身体的岂不是应该在任何时候都服侍他人，为他人着想吗？

虽然最近为四川踊跃提供物资支持是很可贵的，虽然每天都从灾区传出救援工作中的英勇行动，但对于基督徒来说，这不应该是异常现象，而应该是作神儿女的行为常态，不单是为了远方的，而且更为了自己周围那些有需要的。可惜的是，我自己在这方面的成绩不怎么样，但我们知道任何时候求神赦免而得救恩都不算晚。同样的，现在开始使生命和行为符合作为基督在世上的代表，符合作为 神被圣灵充满的儿女也不算晚。如此，我们不要忘记最后的奖勉将会是主人的赞许：“好，你这又良善又忠心的仆人......，可以进来享受你主人的快乐！”

Stay Alert for His Return
By Linda Yang
There will be times when there is no food for people to eat, and there will be earthquakes in different places. These things are like the first pains when something new is about to be born. Matthew 24:7b-8 (NCV)

It's hard to watch the news coming out of Sichuan without shedding tears, for the lost children, lost parents, lost husbands and wives, lost potential, lost homes, and those who lost loved ones. The destruction continues as after-shocks of various degrees are predicted to last for the next few weeks. And shortly before the 5.12 earthquake, Cyclone Nargis devastates Burma's southern coastline while the rest of the world is in a panic over food shortages and rising prices. There will be famines and earthquakes...

Matthew records, in chapters 24 and 25, Jesus' clear outline of what we are to expect as the end of the age draws near. Earthquakes are near the top of the list, the earliest signs of the end, but constitute only the beginning of nature's convulsions, only the first birth pains, like that of a pregnant woman who is just beginning to feel the contractions, signifying labourious hours to come.

In short, this is only the beginning. Worse times will definitely follow.

However grim and bleak our prospects may be, Jesus did not say all of this to frighten us or keep us awake at night. He said it so that we will not be surprised when it comes, so that we will stay alert for his return, so that we will stand firm until the end, and so that we will not be so seized by anxiety and fright that we forget to comfort and care for and witness to the rest of the world. For that is the commission that Jesus left with us in his parable of the sheep and the goats and before his ascension into heaven: to give the hungry food, to give the thirsty drink, to be hospitable to strangers, to clothe the needy, to care for the sick, to visit those in prison, and to go and make disciples of all nations.

This latest major natural disaster raises the age-old question with which Christians are confronted: Where is God, the God of love and mercy and grace and all things good, in the midst of such suffering? But Philip Yancey insists in his book The Jesus I Never Knew that the question should be: Where is the church? Jesus had left us with the task of serving the poor, the oppressed, orphans, and widows as if they were Jesus until His return to make new and perfect this flawed and fallen world. Rather than merely admiring from a distance those who gave their lives to follow the commission, rather than being stirred out of complacency only by such terrifyingly tragic disasters such as the Sichuan earthquake, shouldn't we, as the Body of Christ, always be serving and thinking of others?

Though the recent effort to provide financial aid and material assistance to Sichuan is commendable, and altruistic heroism are being reported daily from the devastated areas, this should not be an anomaly but a norm for Christians - not only for people in far away lands, but for the needy that surrounds us. Sadly, my track record is not so good. However, just like it is never too late to ask for God's forgiveness and be saved, it is also never too late to begin living and acting as representatives of Christ on earth, as true Spirit-filled children of God. And let us not forget that our reward will be hearing the Master's approving words: "Well done, good and faithful servant! ... Come and share your master's happiness!"