1.8 挖掘舊井 Digging the Old Wells

當以撒定居基拉耳時，上帝給了他豐盛的祝福。然而，非利士人嫉妒他的富有，因此要求他離開該地區。以撒出於對生存的渴望，重新挖掘了父親亞伯拉罕被非利士人堵塞的古井。後來，他的僕人又挖出了更多的井，上帝繼續保佑他的百姓。

基督徒或教會常常嘗試尋找新的方法來解決問題，卻忘了曾經行之有效古老的方法。

鍾馬田提醒我們：

閱讀教會歷史，研究過去發生的事，對於計畫教會的未來是大有價值的。……每一次教會因此而復興，她似乎在做以撒所做的事情：他總是先回顧過去的歷史，從其中發現解決問題之道，然後照著去做，就得到像古人一樣的祝福。

當教會面臨失去下一代的挑戰時，解決方案可能不在於找到吸引年輕人加入教會的新方法，而在於「挖掘舊井」，即加強我們的家庭。讓我們學習以撒，挖掘被仇敵關閉的古井，尋找神自己的活水來復興我們！

禱告：親愛的上帝，請幫助我們拒絕新的、非聖經的世界觀，回歸祢聖言中的古老真理。奉耶穌的名，阿們。

When Isaac settled in Gerar, God blessed him abundantly. The Philistines, however, became envious of his prosperity and consequently asked him to leave the area. Out of the desperation to survive, Isaac redug  the old well of his father Abraham which had been stopped up by the Philistines. Later on his servant dug out more wells and God continued to bless His people.

Too often Christians or churches try to find new ways to solve problems yet forget there are ancient ways which had worked well. 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones reminds us: 

“There is great value in the reading of Church history and a study of the past, and nothing, surely, is more important for us at the present time than to read the history of the past and to discover its message….Every time the Church is thus revived, she seems to be doing what Isaac did: she is going back to something that had happened before, rediscovering it and finding the ancient supply.”

As the Church faces the challenge of losing the next generation, the solution may not be in finding new ways of attracting young people to the Church, but rather may be in “digging the old well”, that is, by strengthening our families. Let us learn from Issac to dig the old well that was closed by the enemy to find the living water from God Himself to revive us!

Prayer: Dear God, please help us to reject new, unbiblical ways of the world and to return to the ancient truth from Your Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.