Spring 2007 edition

• Testimony of Stone Li (Cantonese, 廣東話版), given on Jan 14, 07. Stone Li has been battling cancer for three years. Here, he shares his struggles, his understanding of why God doesn't heal him miraculously, why God doesn't always take away our sufferings, and God's ultimate goal in the lives of His people.
  
  Click on the above link to download the audio file (mp3, 15.8 Mbytes, 34 min.)
  
  
• AF Spring Calendar (updated 1/5/07)
  
  
• Christmas Celebration Pictures
  
  
• 查經回應 - 最大的奧秘
  
  
• AF Bible Study Afterthoughts - The Greatest Mystery
  
  

Jan 5
Prayer & Sharing
Singspiration: Victoria & Stanley

Jan 12
Bible Study - Ephesians 3: 14-20
Singspiration: Betty F's small group

The application question of the previous Bible Study: reflect and share your personal experience on the unfathomable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8).

Jan 19
General Meeting:
從不論斷，從不抱怨 (總結) - 萬家歡暢”杜蟲”夜
Refreshment: Carrie

- 四條蟲の著錯皮鞋走錯佬
- 尋找杜蟲好方法 (分組 )
- 屬靈花塔餅 (Karena 聖經教導)

Jan 26
Small Groups

Feb 2
Prayer & Sharing
Singspiration: Janet Lau, Pearl, & Stanley

Feb 9
Bible Study
Singspiration: Amy & Herrick's small group

Feb 16
General Meeting: Chinese New Year
Refreshment: Tom Thai

Feb 23
Small Groups

Mar 2
Prayer & Sharing
Singspiration: Victoria

Mar 9
Bible Study
Singspiration: Janet Suen's small group

Mar 16
General Meeting:
傾得埋，抵得諗，照得住 - 一舉三”Ducks”
Refreshment: Sylvia

Mar 23
Small Groups

Mar 30
Outreach

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團契查經回應
內容取自 J.I. Packer 的<<認識神>>; submitted by Howard Lau

神道成肉身

一般知識分子很難接受耶穌基督傳講的福音﹒因基督教宣講的信仰實在超乎人所能理解。但令人惋惜的是﹒有些人在錯誤的地方尋找難題, 為信仰添上不必要的困難。 就以代贖為例﹒許多人覺得很難接受。 他們會說, 我們怎能相信拿撒勒人耶穌的死能除去世人的罪? 祂只是一個在羅馬極刑下受死的人, 祂的死又怎能承擔我們今天所犯的罪, 使我們得著神的赦免?

或以復活為例, 它似乎是許多人的絆腳石。 他們質疑耶穌的身體怎能從死里復活? 確是很難否定空墳的事實, 不過, 要相信耶穌的身體從死裏復活, 進入永生, 豈不是更難? 倒不如相信祂只是短暫昏厥, 然後甦醒過來, 或是屍體被盜去等, 豈不比相信基督教的復活教義更容易?

又或是讓我們以二十世紀復原派信徒廣泛否定的童貞女產子為例。 許多人會說, 您會有人相信這個生物學上的異常現象? 或是講到福音書中的神蹟時, 許多人認為這正是困難所在。 他們相信耶穌確曾治好人的病 (從證據顯示﹒很難否定這點, 但畢竟歷史中不乏這類「神醫」); 可是, 怎能相信祂曾在水面上行走、使五千人吃飽, 或使死人復活? 這類故事實在令人難以置信。 凡此種種的問題, 都令今天許多站在信仰邊緣的人深感困惑。

最大的奧秘

其實福音最大的難題和最大的奧祕, 根本不是上述那些。 它不在於受難節的代贖信息, 或復活節的復活信息, 而在於聖誕節所宣講的--神降世為人的信息。 真正棘手的難題是基督教聲稱拿撒勒人耶穌, 乃是由神降生為人--神的第二個位格, 成為「第二個人」(林前十五47)決定了人類的終局命運, 並作全人類的第二位代表, 且能在不損其神性的情況下取了人性, 以致拿撒勒人耶穌可以在同一時間, 既全然是神, 又全然是人。

這涉及兩個奧祕: 在獨一神裏面竟有多過一個位格, 以及在耶穌身上竟是神和人的二合為一, 而且這事正發生在首個聖誕節裏。 這一點正是基督教信仰的啟示中最難解和最深不可測的。 「道成了肉身」(約一14); 神成為人; 神的兒子成了猶太人; 全才能者成了一個弱小的嬰孩, 降生在世上, 像其他所有的嬰孩一樣, 只能臥著四周張望, 扭動著身體, 發出啼哭聲, 倚賴別人的餵養、換尿布和牙牙學語。 神的兒子要經過嬰兒期絕不是幻象或謊話, 而是事實。 你愈思想這件事, 你就愈覺得難以接受。 道成肉身的真理簡直比虛構小說的情節更荒誕離奇。 在不信的人中, 它是基督教信仰的真正絆腳石。 無論是猶太人、回教徒、神體一位論派(否定基督的神性)、耶和華見證人, 以及對上述難題(有關童貞女產子、耶穌行神蹟、代贖和復活等)感到困惑的人, 無不對此感到難以接受。 人無法相信道成肉身這真理, 或至少對此信心不足, 便是他們對福音故事產生許多疑問的主要原因。 只要他們明白道成肉身是一個事實, 其他問題便可迎刃而解。

耶穌若只是一個道德高尚、信仰虔誠的人, 要相信新約記載祂生平和工作的所有事跡便極其困難。 但耶穌若是永生之道、父神「曾藉祂創造世界」(來一2), 那麼, 祂的降世、為人和復活, 便只不過是創造能力的另一次作為, 根本不足為怪。 祂作為生命的主, 能從死裏復活, 亦非怪事。 祂若真是神的兒子, 那麼,令人震驚的應該是祂竟然會死, 而不是祂能復活。

查理﹒衛斯理(Charles Wes|ey)曾經寫道:「這是奧秘中的奧秘! 那永活者竟然會死! 」 相比之下, 那永活者的復活便不再是奧秘。 這位永活的神子若能真的順服至死, 那麼, 祂的死能拯救全人類脫離滅亡的厄運, 便不足為怪了。 只要我們接受耶穌的神性, 便沒有理由覺得難以相信其餘的一切; 它們是完整的一塊, 可天衣無縫地併合起來。 道成肉身這真理本是一個無法測透的奧祕, 但新約所記載的一切全賴它才變得合理。

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Bible Study Afterthoughts
Taken from J.I. Packer's Knowing God;   submitted by Howard Lau

God Incarnate

It is no wonder that thoughtful people find the gospel of Jesus Christ hard to believe, for the realities with which it deals pass our understanding. But it is sad that so many make faith harder than it need be, by finding difficulties in the wrong places.

Take the atonement, for instance. Many feel difficulty there. How, they ask, can we believe that the death of Jesus of Nazareth--one man, expiring on a Roman gibbet--put away a world's sins? How can that death have any bearing on God's forgiveness of our sins today?

Or take the resurrection, which seems to many a stumbling block. How, they ask, can we believe that Jesus rose physically from the dead? Granted, it is hard to deny that the tomb was empty-but surely the difficulty of believing that Jesus emerged from it into unending bodily life is even greater? Is not any form of the theory of temporary resuscitation after a faint, or of the stealing of the body, easier to credit than the Christian doctrine of the resurrection?

Or, again, take the virgin birth, which has been widely denied among Protestants in this century. How, people ask, can one possibly believe in such a biological anomaly?

Or take the Gospel miracles, many find a source of difficulty here. Granted, they say, that Jesus healed (it is hard, on the evidence, to doubt that he did, and in any case history has known other healers); how can one believe that he walked on the water, or fed the five thousand, or raised the dead? Stories like that are surely quite incredible. With these and similar problems many minds on the fringes of faith are deeply perplexed today.

The Greatest Mystery

But in fact the real difficulty, the supreme mystery with which the gospel confronts us, does not lie here at all. It lies not in the Good Friday message of atonement, nor in the Easter message of resurrection, but in the Christmas message of Incarnation. The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man - that the second person of the Godhead became the "second man" (1 Cor 15:47), determining human destiny, the second representative head of the race, and that he took humanity without loss of deity, so that Jesus of Nazareth was as truly and fully divine as he was human.

Here are two mysteries for the price of one - the plurality of persons within the unity of God, and the union of Godhead and manhood in the person of Jesus. It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie. "The Word became flesh" (John 1:14); God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. And there was no illusion or deception in this: the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation.

This is the real stumbling block in Christianity. It is here that Jews, Muslims, Unitarians, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many of those who feel the difficulties concerning the virgin birth, the miracles, the atonement, and the resurrection have come to grief. It is from misbelief, or at least inadequate belief, about the Incarnation that difficulties at other points in the gospel story usually spring. But once the Incarnation is grasped as a reality, these other difficulties dissolve.

If Jesus had been no more than a very remarkable, godly man, the difficulties in believing what the New Testament tells us about his life and work would be truly mountainous. But if Jesus was the same person as the eternal Word, the Father's agent in creation, "through whom also he made the worlds" (Heb 1:2 RV), it is no wonder if fresh acts of creative power marked his coming into this world, and his life in it, and his exit from it. It is not strange that he, the Author of life, should rise from the dead.

If he was truly God the Son, it is much more startling that he should die than that he should rise again. "'Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies," wrote Wesley; but there is no comparable mystery in the Immortal's resurrection. And if the immortal Son of God did really submit to taste death, it is not strange that such a death should have saving significance for a doomed race. Once we grant that Jesus was divine, it becomes unreasonable to find difficulty in any of this; it is all of a piece and hangs together completely. The Incarnation is in itself an unfathomable mystery, but it makes sense of everything else that the New Testament contains.

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Christmas Celebration Pictures

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