Jordan Lin

最重要的是，門徒訓練教會了我如何實踐耶穌基督的大使命

This year, God has used the MasterLife class to grow me in the application of my faith. Being raised by my loving parents, who are disciples of Christ, I have always taken my belief and relationship with God seriously. However, a major hindrance to my spiritual growth has been the lack of living out God’s will in my daily life. One of the main goals of MasterLife is to “develop a deeper relationship with Christ as you practice the disciplines of a disciple” (Willis, MasterLife).

In fact, the very decision to take on this journey resulted from a test of faith. I am a member of a youth orchestra that I have played with for 3 years. We always had rehearsals on Sunday afternoons, right after worship and Sunday school. When my mom asked if I wanted to join MasterLife, I realized that I had to give up an entire season of orchestra. I felt conflicted and very disappointed that I could only pick one, so I prayed to God to give me discernment and trust in Him. After praying, the answer was clear: I needed to prioritize my spiritual life over my worldly life. The journey of becoming a disciple of Christ is priceless. Jesus often described a life of discipleship as costly and precious. From this experience, I understood that to follow Jesus, I needed to be ready to lay down my own desires.

One aspect of the Christian faith that is often overlooked or misunderstood is the Holy Spirit. MasterLife clarifies the identity of the Holy Spirit and teaches the correct responses to His working. It is often mistakenly believed that the Holy Spirit is a force, feeling, or something that only appears when you are being “spiritual.” In reality, the Scriptures show us that He is a real and living person of the Trinity that helps us, guides us, and walks alongside believers at all times (John 14:16-17). To live a fruitful life with God, it is imperative to recognize the voice of the Spirit, and to respond accordingly. Although the Spirit can inspire us and stir our emotions, it is dangerous to blindly follow your feelings. One way MasterLife has taught me to perceive the Spirit’s message is through His Word. When the Holy Spirit speaks to you, it is always in concordance with God’s will that can be discerned through Scripture. Many times, He can convict you during your daily Bible reading. This is why a habit of devotional time in the Word is a crucial part of spiritual health that cannot be neglected. How would you expect to know God’s will if you refuse to seek the clearest and most direct source of it? Early on, MasterLife aimed to establish a daily habit of reading the Bible, or “Living in the Word.” To facilitate this, God has blessed me with Pastor Wang’s Bible Reading Class, a three year journey through the entirety of God’s Word. Many times, the Scripture has directly convicted me of specific sins during my devotion time. Like water to a plant, the absence of the Word has severe implications to spiritual vigor. On occasional days or weeks I failed to keep up with my devotionals, yielding noticeable consequences . Each time, I grew further from Christ, and struggled in other areas of my life. I had decreased work ethic, increased temptation, and became more bitter to others. Not only do I see this in myself, my parents often noticed and asked me about my relationship with God. Through this journey, I have been through many trials, but each time, I am reminded of my need for spiritual sustenance provided by the Bible and guidance provided by the Spirit.

Most importantly, MasterLife taught me how to follow the Great Commission, something I had always wanted to do, but I was not confident in my ability. Toward the end of the training, all of the students were required to share the Gospel with someone and to document our experience. As the deadline grew closer, I still didn’t have anyone I could think of, as many of my friends have either rejected the message in the past, or were already believers. One Friday, I asked my fellowship group to pray for me, that I would know how and to whom I would share the Gospel. As soon as the prayer ended, I somehow knew exactly who I would talk to: my friend from school, Isaac. I planned to talk to him the following week at school, but I was met with opposition. Every day, I was busy with tests, or had club meetings at lunch. It felt like the enemy was trying to prevent me from doing God’s work. Eventually, I scheduled a discussion with him on the weekend, which worked out. Like many of my friends, Isaac is Jewish, which means I needed to be strategic when sharing the Gospel. As a believer in the Old Testament, he too was well-versed in Scripture, had strong beliefs about God, and had his own religious life. Drawing inspiration from biblical evangelists like Paul, Matthew, I used passages from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Leviticus, and Ezekiel to point to Jesus as the Messiah and Perfect Sacrifice. We both agreed on the destruction that sin had wreaked on this world, and he admitted that logically, there was no way for sinful people (everyone) to stand in the presence of God. By pointing to the sacrificial system, I explained how Jesus was the ultimate sin offering before God for the sins of humanity, reconciling us and God. I also talked about the various messianic prophecies throughout Scripture, including Isaiah 52-53, the Suffering Servant. We read the passage together, and amazingly, Isaac said himself that Jesus was the closest match for the description, despite many rabbinic interpretations of the Suffering Servant being Israel as a nation. After the two-hour long conversation, I asked Isaac if he was willing to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He said that even though he said he couldn’t “just snap [his] fingers and believe”, he told me that he really enjoyed the talk, which prompted him to contemplate realities he hadn’t thought about before. Isaac also expressed his desire to learn more about Jesus and Christianity, at which I was overjoyed. Through MasterLife, I not only learned to grow myself as a disciple of Christ, I also learned to bear fruit and make disciples of others for God’s kingdom.

I cannot express the gratitude I have for my coach, Eric, and my peers in the class for keeping me accountable and helping me to improve. Embarking on the journey of discipleship changed me and refreshed my Spirit. Above all, I recognize that this is only the beginning of the mission as a servant of Jesus, and the lessons and experiences I have learned and gained will be critical to my development as a disciple-maker. It is my desire that God may use this testimony to inspire you to keep growing in the Lord.

從信心到果效：我的門徒訓練之旅

林約 Jordan Lin

今年，神藉著門徒訓練的課程幫助我在信仰的實踐中成長。我的父母都是基督的門徒，他們慈愛地養育了我，因此我一直認真對待我的信仰和與神的關係。然而，阻礙我靈性成長的一個主要障礙是：我常常無法在日常生活中實踐神的旨意。門徒訓練課程的主要目標之一是「在操練門徒的紀律中，與基督建立更深的關係」。

事實上，我決定參加這個課程是源自於一場信仰的考驗。我加入了一個青年管弦樂隊，已經演奏了三年。我們總是在主日下午，也就是主日崇拜和主日學之後進行排練。當媽媽問我是否想參加門徒訓練課程時，我意識到我必須放棄整個樂季的管弦樂團演出。我內心感到掙扎，也很失望，因為我只能二選一，所以我向神禱告，求祂賜給我分辨力和對祂的信靠。禱告之後，答案很明確：我需要將我的屬靈生活置於世俗生活之上。成為基督門徒的旅程是無價的。耶穌常常描述門徒的生活為代價高昂卻又無比珍貴。從這段經歷中，我明白，要跟隨耶穌，我必須準備好放下個人的私慾。

在基督信仰中，聖靈常被忽略或誤解。門徒訓練闡明了聖靈的身份，並教導我們如何正確回應祂的作為。人們常常誤以為聖靈是一種力量、一種感覺，或只有在你「屬靈」的時候才會出現。事實上，聖經告訴我們，祂是三位一體中一位真實存在的神，祂幫助我們、引導我們，並且時刻與信徒同在（約翰福音14:16-17）。若要與神同行，擁有豐盛的生命，就必須辨認聖靈的聲音，並做出正確的回應。雖然聖靈可以激勵我們，觸動我們的情感，但盲目地跟隨自己的感覺是危險的。門徒訓練教導我，領受聖靈信息的一個方法是透過祂的話語。當聖靈對你說話時，祂的話語總是與神的旨意相符，而神的旨意可以透過聖經來辨認。很多時候，祂會在你每日讀經的過程中提醒你。這就是為什麼每日靈修讀經習慣的養成是健康靈命不可或缺的一部分。如果你拒絕了最清楚、最直接的途徑來尋求神的旨意，又怎能期待會明白呢？門徒訓練就是幫助人們養成每日讀經的習慣，也就是「活在神的話語中」。為了幫助我做到這一點，神賜福我參加了王牧師的讀經班，這是一段為期三年的通讀神話語的旅程。很多時候，在靈修期間，經文直接讓我意識到自己犯了哪些具體的罪。就像水對植物一樣，缺乏神的話語會對屬靈的生命力造成嚴重的損害。偶爾，我會有一天或幾週沒有堅持靈修，這會帶來明顯的後果。每一次，我都離基督越來越遠，在生活的其他方面也掙扎不已。我做事情的意願下降，更容易受到誘惑，也變得更怨恨他人。不只我自己能感受到這些變化，我的父母也常注意到，並且詢問我與神的關係。在這段旅程中，我經歷了許多考驗，但每次，我都意識到我需要聖經提供的精神食糧和聖靈的指引。

最重要的是，門徒訓練教會了我如何實踐耶穌基督的大使命，這正是我一直想做的，但我對自己的能力缺乏信心。當訓練接近尾聲時，所有學員都被要求與人分享福音，並記錄下自己的經驗。隨著截止日期的臨近，我仍然想不出合適的人選，因為我的許多朋友要麼就是過去拒絕福音，要麼已經信主了。一個星期五，我請團契小組為我禱告，求神讓我知道該如何以及向誰分享福音。禱告結束後，我突然靈光一閃，知道該和誰談：我的同學Isaac。我計劃下週在學校和他談談，但我遇到了阻力。每天，我都忙於考試，或午餐時間參加社團活動。感覺就像仇敵在阻止我做神的工作。最終，我安排在週末和他談話，一切都很順利。像我的許多朋友一樣，Isaac是猶太人，這意味著我在向他傳福音時需要採取一些策略。身為舊約信徒，他也精通聖經，對神有著堅定的信仰，並且有自己的宗教生活。我從保羅、馬太等人汲取靈感，引用以賽亞書、耶利米書、但以理書、利未記和以西結書中的經文，指出耶穌是彌賽亞和完美的贖罪祭。我們都認同罪惡為這個世界帶來的毀壞，他也承認，從邏輯上講，有罪的人（也就是所有人）根本無法站在神面前。我透過講解獻祭制度，解釋了耶穌如何成為在神面前為全人類的罪獻上的最終贖罪祭，使我們與神和好。我還談到了聖經中關於彌賽亞的各種預言，包括以賽亞書52-53章中關於受苦僕人的預言。我們一起讀了那段經文，令人驚訝的是，儘管許多拉比將受苦的僕人解釋為以色列這個國家，但Isaac自己卻說耶穌最符合經文的描述。兩個小時的談話結束後，我問Isaac是否願意接受耶穌為他的主和救主。他說雖然他不能「打個響指就相信」，但他吿訴我，他真的很享受這次談話，這促使他思考一些過去從未想過的問題。Isaac也表達了他想更多地了解耶穌和基督信仰的願望，這讓我非常高興。透過門徒訓練，我不僅學習如何成為基督的門徒，也學會如何結出果實，並為神的國度帶領他人成為門徒。

我無法用言語表達我對教練Eric以及班上同學的感謝之情，他們督促我、幫助我成長進步。踏上門徒訓練之路改變了我，也使我的靈性煥然一新。最重要的是，我深知身為耶穌的僕人，這只是使命的開始，我所學到的經驗教訓，對我日後帶領他人作耶穌的門徒至關重要。我祈求神使用我的見證來激勵大家在主裡不斷成長。