密云和幽暗，在他的四围。（诗九十七2）
一个未从神的灵而生的人会对你说，耶稣的教训简单得很。可是你一旦受了圣灵的洗，就会发现“密云和幽暗，在他的四围”。当我们认识耶稣基督的教训，就必恍然大悟。领悟耶稣教训的唯一途径，是神的灵在里面光照。若我们从未把习以为常的宗教鞋，从我们习以为常的宗教脚上脱下；也从未把我们亲近神那种鲁莽随便的态度一概革除，那么我们到底曾否真正站在神的面前，那也是疑问。那些轻率、浮躁的人，根本从未认识耶稣基督。因为在我们明白了耶稣基督所作所行、满怀稀奇兴奋、自由释放之后，就会经历到一种因认识他是谁而无法看透的幽暗。
耶稣说：“我对你们说的话就是灵，就是生命。”一向以来，圣经对我们不过是一大堆的话语——密云和幽暗为何忽然之间变成了灵和生命？因为耶稣在某种特殊情况下，向我们再说了一遍。神就是这样对我们说话，不是藉着异梦，乃是通过话语。人来到神面前，就是凭着最简单的方法——他的话语。
祈祷◆“密云和幽暗在他的四围；公义和公平是他宝座的根基。”与我亲近，噢，主啊，让我可以知道我在你里面是光明的。
January 3 Clouds and Darkness
Clouds and darkness surround Him . . . —Psalm 97:2
A person who has not been born again by the Spirit of God will tell you that the teachings of Jesus are simple. But when he is baptized by the Holy Spirit, he finds that “clouds and darkness surround Him . . . .” When we come into close contact with the teachings of Jesus Christ we have our first realization of this. The only possible way to have full understanding of the teachings of Jesus is through the light of the Spirit of God shining inside us. If we have never had the experience of taking our casual, religious shoes off our casual, religious feet — getting rid of all the excessive informality with which we approach God — it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence. The people who are flippant and disrespectful in their approach to God are those who have never been introduced to Jesus Christ. Only after the amazing delight and liberty of realizing what Jesus Christ does, comes the impenetrable “darkness” of realizing who He is.
Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Once, the Bible was just so many words to us —“clouds and darkness”— then, suddenly, the words become spirit and life because Jesus re-speaks them to us when our circumstances make the words new. That is the way God speaks to us; not by visions and dreams, but by words. When a man gets to God, it is by the most simple way — words.