葛德文（Godwin K. Lekundayo）

上帝的时间表

身为一名区任牧师，我学到了天国的时间观念。事情发生于我在坦桑尼亚为期三周的布道会上。

主办方选择在旱季的莫希市（Moshi）举办布道会。它位于非洲最高峰乞力马札罗山脚下。 可布道会开始一周之后，大雨就倾盆而下。

我担心这场大雨会阻拦人们来参加布道会，所以我建议将布道会延期。

一位平信徒的话使我感到惊讶，他也是当地福音事工委员会的主席，他拒绝了我的提议。 “不！ 牧师，我们不能延期，”他说，“我们很早就开始为这次布道会祷告了，而且上帝听见了我们的祷告，祂也预知了这场大雨。”

“那么，我们该怎么做呢？” 我说，“你也看到了，这场雨下得特别大！”

“我们必须要有那么一点小信心，相信我们的上帝很在乎我们这次聚会的时间。”他说。

“我们来祷告。我们良善的主，祢可以尽情地让大雨落下，但请在下午三点半到六点半这段时间将大雨止住。”

这样的话，人们会有三十分钟的时间，在下午四点时抵达会场，在六点布道会结束后，有三十分钟的时间返回家里。 我不是很确信这样的祷告是否行得通，可是我还是加入了祷告的行列。

隔天早上，大雨滂沱。 这场大雨持续到了下午。 果然，大雨准时在下午三点半停住了。 我们的布道会在下午四点开始，接着我证道直到傍晚六点，雨在六点半又下了起来。

天气按照着这样的时间表持续了两周。 大雨下到下午三点半就停了，然后六点半之后又开始下。

有一天，一位慕道友三点就到了会场，他想抢先占到好位置。他等了一会之后，看到大雨如注，他觉得这天的布道会应该会被取消，就离开了。第二天，他问我们昨天聚会没有。

“当然有聚会啊，”我回答：“我们没有向上帝祷告说在三点的时候止住风雨，而是在三点半，所以你应该要留意一下准确的时间。”

“我不会再犯同样的错误了，”他说。

从那以后，他都会等到三点半才出发来会场，却从来没有被淋湿过。

安息日的时候，我们突然想到，我们忘记向主祷告，请祂在早上聚会的时间止住风雨，不过上帝知道我们的软弱，从早上九点到中午都没有下雨。

在最后一个安息日，我在河里为12个人施洗，当我带领最后一位受浸者从水里起来时，开始下雨了。 “你是蒙福的，”我告诉他，“你以河水受洗，也以从天国沛降的雨水受洗。” 这个经验教导我，上帝对于时间是很敏锐的，尽管上帝不像我们受到时间的限制，但祂的确期盼我们也对时间有敏锐度并成为时间的好管家，保罗告诉我们：“你们要谨慎行事，不要像愚昧人，当像智慧人，要爱惜光阴。” （弗5:15-16）

如果我在布道会上讲道超时，大家就得淋着雨走回家了，有的人可能会因此感冒，或者干脆就不来了，这就显得合理的时间管理非常重要了。

我邀请您和我一起向上帝祷告，使我们能够对时间有敏锐的心，“求你指教我们怎样数算自己的日子，好叫我们得着智慧的心。” （诗90:12）

来源：本文译自《圣工消息》（社会青年季刊）2023年第二季

God’s Time

As a district pastor, I learned about heaven’s understanding of time. The occasion: I was leading evangelistic meetings for three weeks in Tanzania.

Organizers chose the dry season for the meetings in Moshi, a city at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. But heavy rains started to fall after the first week.

Worried that the rain would keep people at home, I suggested that we reschedule the meetings for later.

To my surprise, the chairman of the local evangelistic committee, a lay person, refused. “No, pastor, we are not going to postpone,” he said. “We prayed about these meetings early enough, and our Lord heard our prayers and knew the rain would fall.”

“So, what shall we do?” I said. “You can see that it is raining heavily.”

“We have to have a little faith to believe that our God can be sensitive about the time of the meetings,” he said.

“Let’s pray this way, “Our good Lord, You can allow the rains to fall as much as You wish, but let there be no rain from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.”

This way people would have 30 minutes to travel to the 4 p.m. meetings and 30 minutes to return home after the meetings ended at 6 p.m. I wasn’t sure about such a request, but I joined in the prayer.

The next morning, the rain fell in torrents. The downpour continued into the afternoon. But exactly at 3:30 p.m., it stopped. Our meeting started at 4 p.m., and I preached until 6 p.m. The rain started again at 6:30 p.m.

The weather followed this schedule for two weeks. Rain poured down until 3:30 p.m., stopped, and then started again at 6:30 p.m.

One day, a visitor arrived at the meeting site at 3 p.m. to get a good seat. He waited for some time and, seeing the heavy downpour, decided that the meeting would be canceled and left.

The next day he asked whether we had met. “Of course,” I replied. “We didn’t ask God to stop the rain at 3 p.m. We asked for 3:30 p.m., so you should have been sensitive about that.”

“I’ll never make that mistake again,” the man said. After that, he waited until 3:30 p.m. to make his way to the meetings, and he never got wet.

After that, he waited until 3:30 p.m. to make his way to the meetings, and he never got wet.

On Sabbath, we suddenly realized that we had forgotten to ask the Lord to stop the rain for the morning worship services. But God knew our weakness, and no rain fell from 9 a.m. until noon.

On the last Sabbath, I baptized 12 people in a river. As I brought the last person out of the water, the rain started to fall. “You are so blessed,” I told him. “You are being baptized by the river water and by heavenly rain.” The experience taught me that God is sensitive to time. While God may not face time constraints as we do, He does expect us to be sensitive to time, too, and to be good stewards of time. Paul tells us, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time” Eph. 5:15-16(NKJV).

If I had gone overtime in those evangelistic meetings, people would have had to walk home in the rain. Some may have caught colds or simply not returned. Time management is important.

Let me invite you to join me in praying to the Lord to be sensitive to time: “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Ps. 90:12).

Please find the original article at: https://am.adventistmission.org/mqa23q1-12