Book :
English : Pg. 214 - 269 / 中文 ： Pg. 351 - 432
(Audio PART 9－ Part 10 end)
讨论了马太福音5-6章，在这单元我们探讨7章1-12 节。 作者认为耶稣“登山宝训”这一篇道在7:1-12节，进入了最重要的信息，也就是成为“祷告相爱的群体” Community of Prayerful Love。 祷告、相爱、群体看似没有互相关联的概念，作者却帮助我们看到它们的关系。 因为，我们怎样与神相处，也就怎样与人相处；反过来也成立，怎样与人相处，也就怎样与神相处。 这个单元也让我对于“询问／单纯的请求“(ask/request)有了重新的认知，我们可以询问（请求）人和（请求）神。
1. 第五和六章的小结，衔接到第七章 :
We recall, as we approach these passages, that we have already laid aside anger and contempt, cultivation of lusting, verbal manipulation, payback and getting even, along with the burdens and anxieties of “looking good” and securing ourselves through wealth. （Pg 216, Para 4)
i。马太7:1-12的重要性
For as the Master of knowledge, he here deals with personal and moral reality as it really is, and it really does have an order. We omit that order at our peril. For the teachings in Matt. 7:1–12, this point about order and progression may be even more important than for other parts of the discourse. (Pg 217, Para 6)
2. 没有操纵,只单纯的询问（请求）（no manipulation/ condemnation , just ask/request)
In the first twelve verses of Matthew 7, he deals with the deadly way in which we try to “manage” or control those closest to us by blaming and condemning them and by forcing upon them our “wonderful solutions” for their problems. ….
This almost universal human practice is the subject of verses 1–6, and after his brief but incisive treatment of it, he then shows us a truly effective and gracious way of caring for and helping the people we love in verses 7–12. It is the way of the request, of asking, which naturally progresses into kingdom praying. It is a way that actually works, because it draws people into the kingdom rather than into the web of our devices and plans for them. It creates the community of prayerful love. (Page 216, Para 2-3)
i。马太7:1-12节的内容，涉及我们所有关系的各层面，包括亲人、朋友、同事和邻舍，让我们活出“爱加倍”的爱。
They are absolutely vital points in the overall teaching and its progression. They illustrate the inner texture of kingdom life with family, friends, co-workers, and “next door” neighbors. They illustrate the kingdom attitude toward those closest to us. Without them, the rest of the Sermon would never do as a plan for building the “house” of one’s life upon the rock.
Of course we already know that the positive characterization of the kingdom attitude is agape love, and we have already discussed it at some length. (Pg 217, Para 1-2)
In the previous verses (1–11) agape love has been concretely illustrated in three ways:
1. Not condemning or blaming those around us (vv. 1–5).
2. Not forcing “wonderful things” upon them (v. 6).
3. Just asking for what we want from them—and from God (vv. 7–11). Pg 217, Para 5)
ii。我们习惯于论断和责备（怪罪机制），因为我们相信它能纠正人的过错和感觉自己是对的。
Can we really live that way?…At least we need the choice of giving others a good dose of blame and condemnation when it seems appropriate, don’t we? We have great confidence in the power of condemnation to “straighten others out.” And if that fails, should we not at least make clear that we are on the side of the right—no small matter itself? (Pg 218, Para 3)
iii。提醒我们论断和批评对于亲子关系的破坏
C. S. Lewis’s discussion of storage, familial love, is endlessly instructive on this point and is required reading for all who intend to have a decent family life.1 He notes that he has “been far more impressed by the bad manners of parents to children than by those of children to parent.” Parents are seen to treat their children with “an incivility which, offered to any other young people, would simply have terminated the acquaintance.” (Pg 219, Para5)
iv。我们要除去愤怒和藐视
Of course more than half the battle with condemnation is won once we have given up anger and contempt. Condemnation always involves some degree of self-righteousness and of distancing ourselves from the one we are condemning. And self-righteousness always involves an element of comparison and of condemnation. Jesus spoke to “some who were relying upon themselves for their rightness and were despising others” (Luke 18:9). The combination is not accidental. Contempt is a major part of condemnation in the usual case, and when we drop contempt from our soul and our bearing, condemnation rarely occurs, and never with its most devastating effects. (Pg 221, Para 3)
v。分辨判断和论断（怪罪）是不一样的。
Appraise (discernment) vs Condemn
vi。我们要学会抓紧时机，按照处境给予正确的忠告和劝勉。 学习灵巧像蛇，驯良像鸽子。
What is the wisdom of the snake? It is to be watchful and observant until the time is right to act. It is timeliness. One rarely sees a snake chasing its prey or thrashing about in an effort to impress it. But when it acts, it acts quickly and decisively. And as for the dove, it does not contrive. It is incapable of intrigue. Guile is totally beyond it. There is nothing indirect about this gentle creature. It is in this sense “harmless.” The importance scriptural teaching places on guilelessness is very great. One of the traits of the small child, greatest in the kingdom, is its inability to mislead. We are to be like that as adults (Pg 231, Para 2)
3. 我们如何询问(请求，ask)神，也同样的询问(请求，ask)他人。 我们以询问（请求）取代论断和操纵他人。
When we stand thus in the kingdom, our approach to influencing others, for their good as well as ours, will be simply to ask: to ask them to change, and to help them in any way they ask of us. It is a natural extension of this dynamic when we turn to ask God to work in their lives and hearts to bring about changes. These changes will certainly involve more than any conscious choice they could make or we could desire.
And as long as we respect them before God, and are thoughtful and gracious, we can keep asking, in appropriate ways, keep seeking and keep knocking on the door of their lives. We should note that the ask - seek-knock teaching first applies to our approach to others, not to prayer to God. We respect and never forget that the latch of the heart is within. We are glad for that fact and would not override it. We can gently but persistently keep our hopeful expectation before them and at the same time before God. Asking is indeed the great law of the spiritual world through which things are accomplished in cooperation with God and yet in harmony with the freedom and worth of every individual. (Pg 232, Para 1-2)
i。耶稣基督教导我们如何询问（请求），询问（请求）有横向（人与人）和纵向（人与神） 两个面向
Thus Jesus’ teaching about asking, about the request, takes us into the deepest nature of our life together in the kingdom of God as it is now present on earth. This life is shown in both its horizontal (human) and its vertical (divine) dimensions. To understand it totally revolutionizes how we deal with our families, our fellow Christians, and our fellow citizens on earth, both in the kingdom and out. (Para 236, Para 2)
ii。没有答案的祷告（询问／请求）怎么办？
But the request, while powerful, does not always get us what we have in mind as we make it. This is true when it is addressed to other human beings and true when it is addressed to God as prayer. And that is entirely appropriate. It is a great advantage of requesting and prayer that it not be a fail-safe mechanism. For human finitude means that we are all limited in knowledge, in power, in love, and in powers of communication.
Yet we must act. We must go on. Even disregarding ill will, it is small wonder that we do not, and often cannot, grant or be given what is requested of us or by us. We do not know enough, and our desires are not perfect enough for us safely to be given everything we want and ask for. (Pg 239, Para 3-4)
iii。祷告是与神的关系，并不是一套方程式。
So prayer is a total activity, incorporating many elements essential to a personal relationship between two persons—persons different from and related to one another as the Father is to his children on earth. But still the heart of prayer is the request. (Pg 244, Para 3)
iv。我们可以改变神的心意吗？
Now what we see here is a God who can be prevailed upon by those who faithfully stand before him. We should recall here our earlier discussion of how parents respond to the requests of their children. There is nothing automatic about requests. There is no “silver bullet” in prayer. Requests may be granted. Or they may not. Either way, it will be for a good reason. That is how relationships between persons are, or should be.
God is great enough that he can conduct his affairs in this way. His nature, identity, and overarching purposes are no doubt unchanging. But his intentions with regard to many particular matters that concern individual human beings are not. This does not diminish him. Far from it. He would be a lesser God if he could not change his intentions when he thinks it is appropriate. And if he chooses to deal with humanity in such a way that he will occasionally think it appropriate, that is just fine. (Pg 246, Para 3-4)
4. 祷告 － 透过祷告，神训练我们与祂一同治理这国度 （Prayer Trains Us to Reign）
i。祷告是要附上努力的代价，它要求祷告者做出改变。 只有当我们有了合神心意的品格，祂才能委托我们行大事。
Prayer as kingdom praying is an arrangement explicitly instituted by God in order that we as individuals may count, and count for much, as we learn step by step how to govern, to reign with him in his kingdom. To enter and to learn this reign is what gives the individual life its intended significance. This high calling also explains why prayer frequently requires much effort, continuous effort, and on some matters possibly years and years of effort. Prayer is, above all, a means of forming character. It combines freedom and power with service and love. What God gets out of our lives—and, indeed, what we get out of our lives—is simply the person we become. It is God’s intention that we should grow into the kind of person he could empower to do what we want to do. Then we are ready to “reign for ever and ever” (Rev.
22:5). (Pg 250, Para 3)
ii。等候神，不是被动的，而是积极成为神要我们成为的。很多时候，是要面对艰难时刻的。
And a major element in this training is experience in waiting for God to move, not leaping ahead and taking things into our own hands. Out of this waiting experience there comes a form of character that is priceless before God, a character that can be empowered to do as one chooses. This explains why James says that patience in trials will make us “fully functional” (teleion), “perfect” (1:4). (Pg 250, Para 5)
iii。持之以恒等候神的答案，我们要继续坚持的询问（请求），单纯的相信
Sometimes we must wait for God to do as we ask because the answer involves changes in other people, or even ourselves, and that kind of change always takes time. Sometimes, apparently, the changes in question involve conflicts going on in a spiritual realm lying entirely outside human affairs (Dan. 10:13). We always live in a larger context of activities we do not see. But whatever the exact cause, Jesus emphatically taught that we are to stay with our request. That is, quite simply, an aspect of all serious human relationships. We stay with an issue until it is resolved one way or another. (Pg 251, Para 1)
iv。对祷告的错误观念 （Misconception of prayer）
The main teaching here is that we should expect prayer to proceed in the manner of a relationship between persons. Of course it will be in the manner of such relationships at their best, but the general character of requesting will remain. In fact, the contrary assumption possibly causes more people to “drop out” of praying than anything else. Praying is mistakenly thought to be like plunking your money into a soft drink machine or like dropping a bomb. You do a simple act one time, and then mechanism takes over to produce the inevitable result. I have even heard people seriously teach that if you ask God for the same thing a second time, that only proves to him you didn’t believe the first time—as if he didn’t know already.
This view also leads to misguided efforts to word everything just right: for example, being sure to say, “In Jesus’ name,” or, “If it be thy will.” The idea that if we get it “just right” it will work treats prayer like the drink machine. Prayer is never a mechanism. It is always a personal negotiation, as the earlier quotation from C. S. Lewis so wisely suggests. Jesus’ constant effort in his teaching about prayer is to drive this point home. (Pg 252, Para 3-4)
5. 主祷文 － 最重要的祷告 ：作者对于主祷文有很丰富的见解和体验。值得你特别注意。 就算你看不完这单元，也得单单读这一部分 ： English Pg 253- 268， 中文 Pg 406-430。
i。主祷文是我们学习祷告的参考和祷告生活的架构。作者举例他怎么使用主祷文。（Pg 268， Para 3-5）
It is a prayer that teaches us to pray. It is a foundation of the praying life: its introduction and its continuing basis. It is an enduring framework for all praying. You only move beyond it provided you stay within it. It is the necessary bass in the great symphony of prayer. It is a powerful lens through which one constantly sees the world as God himself sees it. (Pg 269, Para 1).
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