【双语灵修】喜乐与盼望JOY AND HOPE
约翰一书 1:1-4
论到从起初原有的生命之道，就是我们所听见、所看见、亲眼看过、亲手摸过的。 这生命已经显现出来，我们也看见过，现在又作见证，将原与父同在且显现于我们那永远的生命传给你们。 我们将所看见、所听见的传给你们，使你们与我们相交；我们乃是与父并他儿子耶稣基督相交的。 我们将这些话写给你们，使你们[a]的喜乐充足。
12月31日
喜乐与盼望
「我们将永远的生命传给你们，这生命本来与父同在，并且已经向我们显现。」 - 约翰一书 1:2
走过圣诞季，我们今天立于新年的门槛。许多家庭正在收起圣诞装饰，节日派对也已落幕。或许你和我一样，正思想来年，想象并憧憬神为你预备的种种。当我们展望新年与新季节时，也不妨回望一下，神为我们成就的事。
在耶稣借着受死偿还我们的罪债，为我们的缘故复活得新生命，带来救恩多年以后，使徒约翰写下他作为基督跟随者的亲身经历。我们彷佛看见约翰回顾他初遇耶稣时的情景：「这生命已经显现」，约翰的话语流露出当生命之道某日临到他、改变他生命时的惊叹与震撼（参《路加福音》5:1-11）。
虽然我们不像约翰等首批门徒那样亲眼见过耶稣，我们仍有奇妙的故事可讲述。因为神的儿子耶稣来到世上，使我们认识了父，并且得以与天父团契相交。借着信靠耶稣，我们罪得赦免，获得新生命，恢复了与神的关系。
圣诞让我们因神的作为而喜乐，并对前路充满盼望。愿你的生命，在今天并来年，充满认识救主基督的喜乐。
祷告
主耶稣啊，你既在许多年前成为我们中的一员，求你现在和将来都与我们亲近。求你加深我们因认识你而有的喜乐。阿们。
1 John 1:1-4
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31
JOY AND HOPE
We proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. —1 John 1:2
After coming through the Christmas season, we stand today on the verge of a new year. In many homes Christmas decorations are coming down, and Christmas parties are over. Perhaps, like me, you are thinking of the year ahead, imagining and dreaming what God may have in store for you. As we look ahead to the new year and new seasons ahead, we also do well to look back at what God has done for us.
Many years after Jesus had brought salvation by dying to pay for our sin and rising to new life for our sake, the apostle John wrote about his own experience as a follower of Christ. We can picture John looking back on what had happened to him when he first encountered Jesus. “The life appeared,” says John, and his words express the wonder and amazement he experienced when the Word of life came to him one day and changed his life (see Luke 5:1-11).
Though we have not encountered Jesus in the same way his first disciples, like John, did, we still have an amazing story to tell. We have fellowship with the Father because Jesus, God’s Son, has come to make him known. Through faith in Jesus, we experience forgiveness of sin and new life, restoring our relationship with God.
Christmas brings us joy for what God has done and offers hope for what lies ahead. May your life, today and in the coming year, be filled with the joy of knowing Christ the Savior.
Lord Jesus, as you became one of us so many years ago, stay close now and in the years ahead. Deepen our joy in knowing you. Amen.