What is wickedness to God? It is forsaking God and counting on man’s strength as per Jeremiah 1:16, Psalm 18:21, Jeremiah 17:5-6.

My closest friend whom I knew more than 3 decades was a three generation Christian. Though I was a non-believer then, we went through thick and thin together and I even stood by him and was an instrument God used to help him to get out from a crisis.

He used to share with me the burden and his love for retarded and handicapped children whom he had spent a great deal of time to look after them and the plans he had for them in future. Understand from our close associate in Germany in the 80s that he said when he reaches 40 years, he desires to be a pastor. Instead, he became a social worker and later a well known and recognized politician at the age of 59 years.

He had a hand in my salvation as I knew that he had kept me constantly in his prayer. He was mentoring me when I first became a Christian at the turn of the Millennium and he loved the Lord. However, after the Fire encounter with God (Zechariah 13:9, Matthew 3:11) when I attended a short course at a Chinese Seminary in California 2004 had transformed me from an ordinary Christian to an extreme disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I became on fire for God and enjoyed an intimate relationship with Jesus. Through this intimate relationship and by His grace, my spiritual senses were opened to see and I began to understand things that even many servants of God could not see unless the Lord revealed to them (Luke 24:31-32, 45). As a result, our close friendship began to drift apart.

What happened to this friend then?

In 2006, I desired my close friend to experience the same extreme encounter with God too. It was done out of my love for him. Hence, we made an appointment to meet him. However, our mission was unsuccessful due to our lack of wisdom and experience. For a baby Christian like me to minister to such a senior Adult Christian, it seemed too much a humiliation to him. He cooked up a story to excuse himself and left the fellowship before it even started. From then on, he kept his distance from me.

God gave me a dream of his sin of idolatry and dropped a message in my heart that I should write to him to convey the dream to him. He responded very rudely saying evil and very unpleasant things to me.

• Ezekiel 3:18-19, “When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for[b] their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.”

I did not give up on him and made many attempts to contact him vide email, SMS, phone or even asking a close friend of him to arrange for a fellowship. This was despite that he made a phone call to me and he told me to maintain our relationship on a ‘status quo’ basis which carried the meaning of ‘strictly no contact and no talk’ basis.

• John 12:39-40, Jesus says, “For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: “He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so that they can either see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, not turn – and I would heal them" (Also read Matthew 13:14-15).

This is His promise that if we know our sin and repent, He will heal us. In our ministry, God has used us as instruments to heal and to set many Christians free from sicknesses and bondages after they are led to a stage of repentance.

• Ecclesiastes 5:4-6, “When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfil it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfil your vow. 5 It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfil it. 6 Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands?

Despite being a very fit person, he was diagnosed with cancer and it finally took his life last month. The above scripture has to be taken seriously by all of us. We must be very cautious and considerate in all our approaches and addresses to God (Ecclesiastes 5:2): Be not rash with thy mouth, in making prayers, or protestations, or promises; let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
追念一位已故亲密好友

对上帝而言，什么是邪恶？就是离弃上帝，只靠人自己的能力，正如耶利米书1:16，诗篇18:21和耶利米书17:5-6所说的。

我认识超过三十年的亲密好友，是一位第三代的基督徒。在我还是个非信徒时，我们一起经历了生活上的风风雨雨，且同舟共济。我相信，神在那时已使用我这器皿，来帮助他度过一场危机。

他时常与我分享他对智障和残疾儿童的负担和爱心，不但花了许多时间来照顾他们，并为他们计划将来。八十年代，我从我们在德国的一位密切联系得知，他说过在四十岁时要当一位牧师。相反的，他却成了一名社工，最后在59岁的时候，成为一个众所周知和公认的政治家。

我知道他在我的救恩上有份，因他一直不断地为我的救赎而神祈祷。他非常的爱主。在我刚信主时，他也不断给于我指导。然而，在2004年我参加了加利福尼亚州的一个中文短期课程，经历过神的圣火（撒迦利亚书13:9，马太福音3:11）后，我从一个普通的基督信徒变成一个很积极的基督门徒。

我对神充满着的火热，并享受与主耶稣亲密的关系。透过这种亲密的关系和靠着祂的恩典，我属灵的感官被打开，得以看到和开始明白许多除非主现露给他仆人知道，否则是无法明白的事情（路加福音24:31-32，45）。从此，我们亲密的友谊也开始渐渐的疏远了。

过后，这位朋友发生了什么事呢？

在2006年，因着对他的关爱，我希望我这位亲密的朋友也能体验到与神同在的最亲密关系。因此，我们相约见面。不过，这次的相约却不能成功地完成使命，主要的原因是我们缺乏智慧和经验。对于一个像我如婴儿这般的基督徒去服事一位信主多年的基督徒，对他似乎是一种屈辱。他找了个借口，在团契还没开始之前便离开。从此之后，他便与我保持距离。

之后, 上帝给了我一个梦， 就是他有崇拜偶像的罪。同时也赐下话语要我向他转达这个梦。但是他很粗暴地回应我，并对我说了一些邪恶和非常不礼貌的话。

• “我何时指着恶人说，他必要死。你若戒他，也不劝戒他，使他离开恶行，拯救他的性命，这恶人必死在罪孽之中。我却要向你讨他丧命的罪（原文作血）。倘若你警戒恶人，他仍不转离罪恶，也不离开恶行，他必死在罪孽之中，你却救自己脱离了罪。”（以西结书3:18-19）

尽管他曾打电话告诉我要和我保持距离和维持断绝联系的状态；我还是没有放弃他，多次试图用电子邮件，短讯，电话，与他联络，甚至要求他亲密的朋友安排会面，但都不得要领。

 “他们所以不能信，因为以赛亚又说，主叫他们瞎了眼，硬了心，免得他们眼睛看见，心里明白，回转过来，我就医治他们。”（约翰福音12:39-40）

这是祂的诺言。如果我们知道我们的罪孽而要悔改，祂会医治我们。在我们的事工里，神使用了我们作为医治的工具，带领他们忏悔，并誏许多生病和被捆绑的基督徒得以释放。

 “你向神许愿，偿还不可迟延。因他不喜悦愚昧人。所以你许的愿应当偿还。你许愿不还，不如不许。不可任你的口使肉体犯罪。也不可在祭司（原文作使者）面前说是错许了。为何使神因你的声音发怒，败坏你手所作的呢？”（传道书5:4-6）

尽管他是一位非常健康的人，却被诊断出患有癌症，终在上个月病逝。我们对以上的经文应当采取认真的态度。我们必须非常小心谨慎，特别是我们临近神和向神所说过的话。“你在神面前不可冒失开口，也不可心急发言。”（传道书5:2）