Meditations

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ Luke 18:13

“A brother named John came from the coast to Father Philimon and, clasping his feet, said to him: ‘What shall I do to be saved? For my intellect vacillates to and fro and strays after all the wrong things.’ After a pause, the father replied: ‘This is one of the outer passions and it stays with you because you still have not acquired a perfect longing for God. The warmth of this longing and of the knowledge of God has not yet come to you.’

The brother said to him: ‘What shall I do, father?’ Abba Philimon replied; ‘Meditate inwardly for a while, deep in your heart; for this can cleanse your intellect of these things.’ The brother, not understanding what was said, asked the Elder: ‘What is inward meditation, father?’ The Elder replied: ‘Keep watch in your heart; and with watchfulness say in your mind with awe and trembling “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me.” For this is the advice which the blessed Diadochos gave to beginners.

The brother departed; and with the help of God and the Elder’s prayers he found stillness and for a while was filled with sweetness by this meditation. But then it suddenly left him and he could, not practice it or pray watchfully. So he went again to the Elder and told him what had happened. And the Elder said to him: ‘You have had a brief taste of stillness and inner work, and have experienced the sweetness that comes from them. This is what you should always be doing in your heart: whether eating or drinking, in company or outside your cell, or on a journey, repeat that prayer with a watchful mind and an undeflected intellect; also chant, and meditate on prayers and psalms. Even when carrying out needful tasks, do not let your intellect be idle but keep it meditating inwardly and praying.

For in this way you can grasp the depths of divine Scripture and the power hidden in it, and give unceasing work to the intellect, thus fulfilling the apostolic commando “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Pay strict attention to your heart and watch over it, so that it does not give admittance to thoughts that are evil or in any way vain and useless. Without interruption, whether asleep or awake, eating, drinking, or to company, let your heart inwardly and mentally at times be meditating on the psalms, at other times be repeating the prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy
upon me.”

Abba Philimon in The Philokalia: The Complete Text: Volume 2, compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarius of Corinth (London: Faber & Faber, 1979) 347.

I am scheduled to depart from China today. Abba Philimon reminds me to finish well, to carry out needful tasks but also to pray nonstop.

I found the names here interesting. Why? I am typing the the day before entering China and I am going to serve a pastor named John who lives on the coast in Qingdao, China.

I feel God telling me to remind him of this truth so that he remembers the things I share with him and does not forget them. He can remember by praying nonstop.

I have learned that I am speaking far more than planned. And they have asked me to teach them all about the Apostolic Fathers. The disciples discipled by the disciples.

Pray with me that the examples of the Apostolic Fathers will inspire them to carry out needful tasks and pray nonstop despite the reality and prospect of persecution.

Pray the testimonies of these saints will inspire them to live out the teachings of Jesus without fear and with great power and peace. Here is a simple list of the main Apostolic Fathers and key writings:

– Clement of Rome (Bishop of Rome)
– Ignatius of Antioch (Bishop of Antioch)
– Polycarp of Smyrna (Bishop of Smyrna)
– Papias of Hierapolis (Bishop)
– Quadratus of Athens

Key Writings of the Apostolic Fathers

– The Didachē (Also known as “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles”)
– The Shepherd of Hermas
– The Epistle of Barnabas
– The Letter to Diognetus
– The Martyrdom of Polycarp
– First and Second Letter of Clement
– Seven Letters of Ignatius
– Letter of Polycarp to the Philippians

They were not included in the New Testament canon as these people did not meet Jesus but were disciples of disciples. But their lives point people to Jesus and Scripture in powerful ways.

But today I am freeing you from the chains on your wrists. Come with me to Babylon, if you like, and I will look after you; but if you do not want to, then don’t come. Look, the whole country lies before you; go wherever you please.” However, before Jeremiah turned to go, Nebuzaradan added, “Go back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the towns of Judah, and live with him among the people, or go anywhere else you please.” Then the commander gave him provisions and a present and let him go. Jeremiah 40:4-5

“I am not arguing here that He who feeds the birds of the air and clothes the lilies of the field with such glory will
certainly provide also for us if we pursue holiness; for those who are still far from real faith in God cannot as yet be
persuaded by this argument. But who, when asked, will refuse to give what is needful to one who lives a holy life?
The barbarous Babylonians who took Jerusalem by force showed respect for the holiness of Jeremiah, and provided him abundantly with all his bodily requirements, giving him not only food but the vessels with which it was the custom to serve guests.

Neilos of Sinai in The Philokalia: The Complete Text: Volume 1, compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarius of Corinth (London: Faber & Faber, 1979) 211.

Notice that sometimes God supplies “provisions and a present” through the least likely sources.

In this scene, the Babylonians have conquered the Jewish people and rather than harm the holy man, they help him. Rather than deprive him, they delight to show him kindness.

It teaches us that God can do anything. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts not our thoughts.

And so my focus is to trust God to supply provisions and a present while pursuing holiness on my last full day in China. Join me wherever you are. And thanks for your prayers for safe travel tomorrow from Qingdao to Manila.

And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Luke 10:41-42

“Keep to a sparse and plain diet, not seeking a variety of tempting dishes. Should the thought come to you of getting extravagant foods in order to give hospitality, dismiss it, do not be deceived by it: for in it the enemy lies in ambush, waiting to tear you away from stillness. Remember how the Lord rebukes Martha (the soul that is over-busy with such things) when He says: ‘You are anxious and troubled about many things: one thing alone is needful’ – to hear the divine word; after that, one should be content with anything that comes to hand. He indicates all this by adding: ‘Mary has chosen what is best, and it cannot be taken away from her’. You also have the example of how the widow of Zarephath gave hospitality to the Prophet (cf. 1 Kings 17:9-16). If you have only bread, salt or water, you can still meet the dues of hospitality. Even if you do not have these, but make the stranger welcome and say something helpful, you will not be failing in hospitality.”

Evagrios the Solitary in The Philokalia: The Complete Text: Volume 1, compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarius of Corinth (London: Faber & Faber, 1979) 32.

Notice what Evagrios is saying to us.

To “keep a sparse and plain diet” and to not seek “a variety of tempting dishes” is about mortifying the desires of the flesh or controlling your wants so they do not control us.

He adds “one should be content with anything that comes to hand.”

I pray this for myself in China this week and for readers wherever you are. May God help us “choose what is best” and offer hospitality that aims at giving something better than food – words that are “helpful.”

Praying my preaching today is “helpful” for all who hear.

Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Matthew 23:26

“The texts of the Philokalia are, then, guides to the practice of the contemplative life. They constitute, as St Nikodimos puts it in his introduction, ‘a mystical school of inward prayer’ where those who study may cultivate the divine seed implanted in their hearts at baptism and so grow in spirit that they become ‘sons of God’ (John 1:12), attaining through such deification ‘the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’ (Ephesians 4:13).

The emphasis is therefore on inner work, on the cleansing of ‘the inside of the cup and plate, so that their outside may also be clean’ (Matthew 23:26). This does not mean that what one might call outer work – the keeping of the commandments and the practice of the moral virtues – is of no importance. On the contrary, such work is a pre-condition of that purification without which no real progress in inner work can be made.

Indeed, in this respect outer and inner complement one another. Atrophy or defeat follow only when outer work is practiced as an end in itself, and the one thing needful – the inner practice of guarding the intellect and of pure prayer – is neglected. St Nikodimos himself remarks that such neglect is only too common: many there are who wear their whole life away in outer work, with the result that grace diminishes in them and they fail to realize the illumination of consciousness and purity of heart which are the goal of the spiritual path that the Philokalia charts for us.”

E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer in the “Introduction” to The Philokalia: The Complete Text: Volume 1, compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarius of Corinth (London: Faber & Faber, 1979) 14.

I have shifted from Meister Eckhart to Nikodimos and Makarius in The Philokalia to gain insight and inspiration for my service in China and to equip and inspire you for your service wherever God has you.

Nikodimos reminds us that it is needful to give attention to “the inner practice of guarding the intellect and of pure prayer.” We tend to neglect these things. It’s like we say to God, “I can take it from here.”

If we want God’s grace to abound in and through us. If we want our good works and generosity to grow in strength and power and blessing, we must focus on the inside and the outside will take care of itself.

Thanks for your prayers for me ministering in Qingdao, China this week. May God bless you wherever He has you serving and as you “guard your intellect and pray” leaving the rest up to Jesus.

“I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.” Philippians 4:18

“St. Gregory writes of four things needful for a man who hears the word of God and keeps it.

The first is that he should have mortified himself to all stirrings of the flesh, and having slain all transient things in himself, should himself too be dead to all transient things. The second is that he should be wholly and entirely raised up in God with knowledge, with love and with true inwardness. The third is that he should never do to anyone what he would not like to have done to him. The fourth is that he should be bounteous both with material things and with spiritual goods, giving both generously.

Many a man appears to give, but in reality gives nothing at all. These are people who give their goods to those whose possessions are greater than their own, where their gift is perhaps not wanted, or they give it where they obtain some service for their gift, or where they are given something in return, or where they expect to be honored. Such people’s gifts can more properly be called begging than giving, for in truth they give nothing.

Our Lord Jesus Christ was free and poor in all the gifts that He bounteously gave us: in all his gifts He never sought His own: rather did He desire only the praise and glory of the Father and our salvation, and He continued suffering and giving himself for true love until his death.

If now a man wants to give for the love of God, let him thus give away material goods purely for God’s sake, with no eye to profit or exchange or any transitory honor, and let him seek nothing for himself, but only God’s honor and glory, and to help his neighbor in God’s name, if through need he lacks something.

And so too he should give spiritual goods, wherever he knows that his fellow Christian is willing to receive them in order to better his life for God’s sake – and for this he shall not seek any thanks or reward from that man or any advantage, nor should he want any reward from God for this service, but only that God may be glorified. In this way he should be free in his giving as Christ was free and poor in all the gifts He gave us. If a man gives thus, that is true giving. Whoever has these four things may truly have confidence that he has heard God’s word and kept it.”

Gregory of Sinai as cited by Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1328) in “Sermon Eighty-Nine” in The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, translated and edited by Maurice O’C. Walshe (New York: Crossroad, 1987) 432-433.

I am praying my service to Pastor John and the Chinese church in Qingdao, like Epaphroditus to Paul and the church in Philippi, is a “fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.”

Read today’s post again. It’s so rich. So deep. So powerful.

I pray God helps you grasp the four things needful and serve as a conduit of true giving. I pray this for me today and for each one reading this wherever you are.

Reading Gregory of Sinai, directs me to see what is ‘needful’ in The Philokalia next. His writing are found there.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 1 Corinthians 15:10

“This is the word of St. Paul. He says, “All that I am, I am by the grace of God.” Now this sermon seems to rise above grace and being and understanding and will and all desire – so how can St. Paul’s words be true? The answer is that St. Paul’s words are true: it was needful for the grace of God to be in him, for the grace of God effected in him that the accidental in him was perfected as essence. When grace had ended and finished its work, Paul remained that which he was.”

Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1328) in “Sermon Sixty-Two” in The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, translated and edited by Maurice O’C. Walshe (New York: Crossroad, 1987) 424.

Each of us, like St. Paul, are what we are by the grace of God.

This word ‘grace’ means by the undeserving favor of God lavished on us through Jesus Christ, we are what we are. We are tools in His hand. We are conduits of His matchless love. We are messengers of divine hope. We are teachers of life-giving truth.

We are what we are because of Him. So, let us pause to worship.

Father in heaven, thanks for what you have made each of us by Your grace. Through Your Holy Spirit cause Your mercy, generosity, and love to flow through us. Make it so for me in China and readers everywhere. Hear our prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3

“To be poor in spirit, a man must be poor of all his own knowledge: not knowing anything, not God, nor creature nor himself. For this it is needful that a man should desire to know and understand nothing of the works of God. In this way a man can be poor of his own knowledge.”

Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1328) in “Sermon Sixty-Two” in The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, translated and edited by Maurice O’C. Walshe (New York: Crossroad, 1987) 423.

This post contains a profound paradox that is needful for all of us to grasp.

We must not try to figure God out. We must only trust Him. In so doing, His generosity of spirit replaces our poverty of spirit. We get the kingdom!

I have traveled halfway around the world to teach people about a God we cannot even begin to understand.

Someone said to me, “I am praying for the safety of the people you serve after you leave, Qingdao.” This is what those I will served have told me in advance.

“Gary, don’t worry about what will happen to us. Give thanks for what you will teach us. It will make what time God gives us more productive for the kingdom.” Pray with and for me that God will do His best work and convey living truth through me.

He wants to do it through you too. Surrender yourself in poverty of spirit. Watch His generosity work!

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

“Note the wondrous work that God performs in the soul, as it says, “What wonders shall come of this child?” It is needful that every tool is adequate to the work the craftsman performs, if that work is to be perfect: for man is God’s instrument, and the tool works according to the nobility of the craftsman.”

Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1328) in “Sermon Sixty-Two” in The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, translated and edited by Maurice O’C. Walshe (New York: Crossroad, 1987) 316.

It is remarkable that God works through people.

I am sure when He looks at each of us, He says, “What wonders shall come of this child?” Today we hear that it is needful that every tool is adequate for the work God has for us.

Think of the meaning of this. I am an adequate in the hand of God.

This tells me that I can do whatever He sets before me because I am but a tool in His hand. He is the Master Craftsman doing good through each of us. Doing things that He has prepared us to do.

I traveled to China today to do good work He has prepared for me. I did the next seven posts in advance because I will not have access to post until 4 February 2026.

The iconic Qingdao cityscape is pictured above in a stock photo.

Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10

“Now let me instruct you about virtue. Virtuous living depends in three points on the will. One thing is to resign one’s will to God, for it is needful to do fully what one then knows, whether in taking or in leaving. There are three kinds of will.

The first is sensible will, the second is rational will, the third is eternal will. The sensible will seeks guidance, so that one needs a proper teacher. The rational will means following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and the saints, that is, so that words, deeds and way of life are alike directed to the highest end. When all this is accomplished, God will give something more in the ground of the soul, that is, an eternal will consonant with the loving commands of the Holy Ghost.

Then the soul says, ‘Lord, tell me what thy eternal will is.’ And then, if the soul has satisfied the condition we have just mentioned, and if God so pleases, the Father will speak His eternal Word into the soul.”

Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1328) in “Sermon Nine” in The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, translated and edited by Maurice O’C. Walshe (New York: Crossroad, 1987) 88.

Two days ago, surrender. Yesterday, orderly, understanding, and mindful service. Today, the path of virtue depends on resigning my sensible, rational, and eternal will to God.

I must seek guidance from God alone, walk in the footsteps of Jesus, and I figure it out as I live it out that I am here not to advance temporal but rather eternal purposes.

I think I am ready. I have had strategic meetings in Vietnam and head into China tomorrow. Are you ready for whatever next steps God has for you? Readiness links to resigning the will.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5

“Three things especially are needful in our works: to be orderly, understanding, and mindful. ‘Orderly’ I call that which corresponds in all points to the highest. ‘Understanding’ I call knowing nothing temporal that is better. ‘Mindful’ I call feeling living truth joyously present in good works.”

Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1328) in “Sermon Nine” in The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, translated and edited by Maurice O’C. Walshe (New York: Crossroad, 1987) 87.

Coming after the call to surrender yesterday, I feel I get the needful perspective for serving today: be orderly, understanding, and mindful.

By orderly, I must have my proverbial attachments in order and attach to God as highest. By understanding, I do well to detach from the temporal. And by mindful, if I am paying attention, I get to experience the living truth joyously present in my good works.

If I look closely into my heart, I see that sometimes my heart and mind can be disordered, I can lack understanding, and I can appear not at all mindful. God help me. God help other like me.

It seems to be orderly I must keep my focus on God. To grow in understanding, I must discern what God desires in every situation. And to be mindful, I must generously serve as the conduit of living truth.

This rings true for me in Asia and you too, wherever you are.