Cyprian of Carthage: Deliver us from evil

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Matthew 6:13

“The Lord’s Prayer has an ending which nearly summarizes the different requests. We say actually at the end: ‘but deliver us from evil,’ understanding by such an expression everything that the enemy can devise against us in this world.

One certain conviction we have: that God is a powerful support since He grants His help to anyone who asks for it. Consequently, when we say: ‘deliver us from evil,’ there is nothing else left for us to ask. Invoking the protection of God against evil means asking for everything we need.

This prayer secures us against any kind of machination of the devil and of the world. Who could be afraid of the world if he has God as his Protector? You see, brothers and sister, how amazing the Lord’s Prayer is. It is truly a compendium of all the requests we could possibly make.”

Cyprian of Carthage in On the Lord’s Prayer (PL4, 538) in Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary, Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World, ed. by Thomas Spidlik (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1994) 353.

Deliver us from evil.

Free us from trusting in money for security. Provide for our needs. Supply that which satisfies. Save us from worldly thinking. Liberate us from lies. Transform us with truth. Protect us from the plague.

Deliver us from evil.

Remind us that in you we have everything we need. From that place, unleash heaven through us. Transform us into generous conduits of love and blessing because we lack nothing in You.

Deliver us from evil.

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.’ So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: ‘Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.’ The eunuch asked Philip, ‘About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?’

Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?’ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. Acts 8:26-39

The apostle Philip is guided by an angel along an unlikely road, a wilderness road. How is the road that you are on at the moment? Does any part of it feel like a wilderness?

The angel has a surprise in store for Philip and the Ethiopian. God was at work in the wilderness. How is God at work in your life in these days?

Notice the energy and joy in this encounter. Philip was guided by the angel and then acted as a guide himself. He received and then he gave.

What has God given you that you want to share with others? Talk to the angel of the Lord about this.

Pray As You Go reading for 30 April 2020. Bill Crowe, a faithful Daily Meditations reader sent this to me. It was so good, I had to share it.

Notice again the progression. We are guided, then we guide. We receive, then we give. And don’t miss the irony. The apostle Philip gives true riches to a person who managed the entire treasury of the queen.

There’s something greater than money. The eunuch did not have it. That means that the wealthy have needs and the poor have something to give. Where is God guiding you? What do you have that you can share?

Generosity, during the pandemic and beyond, comes into view not as the size of a gift or coming from people with wealth but as taking a posture of receiving and giving.

Let us be obedient conduits of material and spiritual blessing. In so doing, our generosity will surprise people in the wilderness of these hard times.

Give us today our daily bread. Matthew 6:11

“The good Jesus understands, as I have said, how difficult a thing He is offering on our behalf, for He knows our weakness, and how often we show that we do not understand what the will of the Lord is, since we are weak while He is so merciful. He knows that some means must be found by which we shall not omit to give what He has given on our behalf, for if we did that it would be anything but good for us, since everything we gain comes from what we give.

Yet He knows that it will be difficult for us to carry this out; for if anyone were to tell some wealthy, pampered person that it is God’s will for him to moderate his eating so that others, who are dying of hunger, shall have at least bread to eat, he will discover a thousand reasons for not understanding this but interpreting it in his own way. If one tells a person who speaks ill of others that it is God’s will that he should love his neighbor as himself, he will lose patience and no amount of reasoning will convince him…

Seeing our need, therefore, the good Jesus has sought the admirable means whereby He has shown us the extreme love which He has for us, and in His own name and in that of His brethren He has made this petition: “Give us, Lord, this day our daily bread.” For the love of God, sisters [and brothers], let us realize the meaning of our good Master’s petition, for our very life depends on our not disregarding it. Set very little store by what you have given, since there is so much that you will receive.

It seems to me, in the absence of a better opinion, that the good Jesus knew what He had given for us and how important it was for us to give this to God, and yet how difficult it would be for us to do so, as has been said, because of our natural inclination to base things and our want of love and courage. He saw that, before we could be aroused, we needed His aid, not once but every day, and it must have been for this reason that He resolved to remain with us. As this was so weighty and important a matter, He wished it to come from the hand of the Eternal Father.”

Teresa of Ávila in The Way of Perfection, translated & edited by E. Allison Peers (Image Books 1964) 96-97.

When I turned to the Lord’s prayer this week, I received a kind note from Barbara Shantz, a faithful Canadian fellow worker. She encouraged me to look at the Lord’s Prayer in the thinking of Teresa of Ávila.

In The Way of Perfection, Teresa reminds us that this is more than earthly provision. Daily we need this spiritual food to nourish our souls. Is your soul hungry or satisfied?

For example, if we want to be generous in sharing with our neighbor, we must feed on that which can empower us and enrich us and arouse us to faithfulness.

We get this “weighty and important” provision from the hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit stirs us to seek it, and we are not alone in this journey, for our Lord Jesus Christ is with us.

How are you seeking after spiritual food daily to nurture your life of generosity? What disciplines are you adopting to feed from the hand of the Eternal Father?

Give Like Never Before

There is greater need than ever for the poor due to COVID-19. In anticipation of the upcoming HK Government disbursement of HK$10,000 to all qualifying adults without any means test, we request that you prayerfully consider, should you be willing and able, to give any part of that amount to help the grassroots population in HK.

Many of us are hurting right now, yet the following passage is worth meditating on:

As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” Luke 21:1-4

There are NGOs with Relief Funds that will be directly assisting grassroots individuals shepherded by any of their partner churches, without any administrative fees charged. Others are focusing on creating jobs for marginalized youth through soup kitchen type social enterprises.

We would like to stress that we are not insistent on any particular channel of giving, and our only goal is to see Christ’s name glorified through the needs of the poor being met during this most challenging time. Participating organizations will be free to nominate their own NGO or agency that strives to alleviate poverty in our city.

Do start a conversation on this topic with your pastoral staff. Shalom.

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.” 2 Corinthians 8:13-15

Roger Lam in $10,000 Reasons – Give Like Never Before on his blog post dated 29 April 2020. With you, Roger!

There is a global movement to give away our government stimulus checks, whether in Hong Kong, USA, or elsewhere, to those with less than enough. Let’s join it!

The gap is widening between the rich and poor. Those who suffer are suffering more deeply than ever. We must launch a global movement of generosity like the Apostle Paul did among churches.

Pastors, rally your churches to give like never before so that the one who has much does not have too much and the one who has little does not have too little.

May our generosity shine like a light during dark times so that the world may see our faith through our works and so Jesus, who is watching, will celebrate.

LORD my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me. Psalm 30:2

Today’s post is a poem that I received yesterday from my Nigerian friend and fellow worker, Kehinde Ojo. Read it slowly. I pray God ministers generously to your soul. As we call to God for help in the crisis, as David the psalmist said, may He heal us.

“What Corona reveals, God can heal”
by Sarah Bourns

We’ve all been exposed.
Not necessarily to the virus
(maybe…who even knows).
We’ve all been exposed BY the virus.

Corona is exposing us.
Exposing our weak sides.
Exposing our dark sides.
Exposing what normally lays far beneath the surface of our souls,
hidden by the invisible masks we wear.
Now exposed by the paper masks we can’t hide far enough behind.

Corona is exposing our addiction to comfort.
Our obsession with control.
Our compulsion to hoard.
Our protection of self.

Corona is peeling back our layers.
Tearing down our walls.
Revealing our illusions.
Leveling our best-laid plans.

Corona is exposing the gods we worship:
Our health
Our hurry
Our sense of security.
Our favorite lies
Our secret lusts
Our misplaced trust.

Corona is calling everything into question:
What is the church without a building?
What is my worth without an income?
How do we plan without certainty?
How do we love despite risk?

Corona is exposing me.
My mindless numbing
My endless scrolling
My careless words
My fragile nerves.

We’ve all been exposed.
Our junk laid bare.
Our fears made known.
The band-aid torn.
The masquerade done.

So what now? What’s left?
Clean hands
Clear eyes
Tender hearts.

What Corona reveals, God can heal.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:12-15

“The mercy of God is beyond description. While He is offering us a model prayer He is teaching us a way of life whereby we can be pleasing in His sight.

But that is not all. In the same prayer He gives us a method for attracting an indulgent and merciful judgment on our lives. He gives us the possibility of ourselves mitigating the sentence hanging over us and of compelling Him to pardon us. What else could He do in the face of our generosity when we ask Him to forgive us as we have forgiven our neighbor?

If we are faithful in this prayer, each of us will ask forgiveness for our own failings after we have forgiven the sins of those who have sinned against us. I mean those who have sinned against us, not only those who have sinned against our Master.

There is, in fact, in some of us a very bad habit. We treat our sins against God, however appalling, with gentle indulgence: but when by contrast it is a matter of sins against ourselves, albeit every tiny ones, we exact reparation with ruthless severity.

Anyone who has not forgiven from the bottom of the heart the brother or sister who has done him [or her] wrong will not only obtain from this prayer his [or her] own condemnation, rather than mercy. It will be his [or her] own action that draws much more severe judgment on himself [or herself], seeing that in effect by these words we are asking God to behave as we have behaved ourselves.”

John Cassian in Conferences 9, 22 (SC54, 59f) in Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary, Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World, ed. by Thomas Spidlik (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1994) 351.

The deeper I mine the Lord’s Prayer, the more I discover. It’s a gold mine.

God wants you and I to live generously toward others the way we want Him to act toward us. He’s watching everything. He desires that we abandon our sinful proclivity to treat the shortfalls of others with “ruthless severity” while viewing our own sins with “gentle indulgence.”

So, notice the connection between generosity, forgiveness, and mercy. God is inviting us to show the posture of our hearts toward Him by living mercifully toward others. When we live this way, as Cassian would likely say, God can’t help but extend His abundant kindness toward us.

Notice that generosity toward others (coupled with forgiveness and mercy) comes into view as the avenue for showing God what we believe and how we pray He acts toward us.

As the prayer ends in today’s Scripture above, Jesus is making it clear that our actions seal our forgiveness, not because we earn it, but because they reveal the posture of our hearts. May this be our prayer then today.

Father in Heaven, because of your grace and kindness extended toward us, help us to forgive our debtors (people who owe us things) and help us to forgive those who have sinned against us (including those who have wronged or hurt us in any way, great or small) in a generous and merciful manner. Treat us the same way we treat them. Do this by the power of your Spirit at work in us. Hear our prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. Proverbs 3:8-9

“Bread represents life, and bread is easy to get. Moreover, nature herself gives us something to put on it to make it more tasty. The best thing to eat with bread is the peace of a good conscience. Then the bread is eaten with gusto, because it is being eaten in holiness of life.

But if you want to experience the taste of bread otherwise than in symbolic description, in the physical sense in fact, you have hunger to eat it with. Therefore, first of all, don’t eat too much you will lose your appetite for a long time. And then, let your dinner be preceded by sweat. ‘In the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread,’ is the first commandment mentioned in the Scriptures [Gen. 3:19].

The Lord’s Prayer speaks of ‘daily’ bread. In saying that, let us remember that the life in which we ought to be interested is ‘daily’ life. We can, each of us, only call the present time our own. Why should we worry ourselves by thinking about the future?

Our Lord tells us to pray for today, and so he prevents us from tormenting ourselves about tomorrow. It is as if he were to say to us: ‘He who gives you this day will also give you what you need for this day. He it is who makes the sun to rise. He it is who scatters the darkness of night and reveals to you the rays of the sun.'”

Gregory of Nyssa in On the Lord’s Prayer (PG44, 1173) in Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary, Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World, ed. by Thomas Spidlik (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1994) 350.

In God’s providence, Pastor James Hoxworth, our pastor at the Bridge Church at Bear Creek, is turning our attention to the Lord’s prayer at the same time my Patristic (Early Fathers) devotional book took me there.

And I see the Lord’s Prayer on the wall daily. I pause often to pray it often when I got up and down the stairs going to and from my office. It’s on the wall at the landing part way up the stairs (see the new header photo above). I am particularly drawn to the request at the heart of the prayer for daily bread.

Today’s Scripture from the Old Testament reminds us that we are surrounded with lies which tempt us to focus on everything but depending on God for daily bread. These lies tempt us to seek after possessions, pleasure, or power, which is why the monastic traditions make vows of poverty, chastity, and humility. We are bombarded with these lies. They link to overeating, self-indulgence, underworking, oppression, injustice, and all manner of corrupted thinking linked to provision.

Consider some examples of the implications of being influenced by such thinking. It is impossible to be generous if we don’t trust God for our daily bread. We cannot be generous if we think the fruit of our work belongs to us. We will never experience the joy of generosity if we think we have to hold on to money to try to secure the future. All that thinking is falsehood and lies.

So, on this Lord’s day during COVID-19, give thanks for daily bread, and if you have more than you need, share generously with any neighbors you know who may be in need. Give generously with your local church, give to missionaries and ministries you support, and remember the poor, as is it is Jesus Himself in our midst.

I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what He will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright — but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness.” Habakkuk 2:1-4

“The specific instructions to inscribe the vision and make it plain on tablets underscores its significance not only for the crucial hour in which Habakkuk lived, but all for the generations to come…The significance of this vision finds further emphasis by the reason given for its clear inscription. Habakkuk is to make it plain on the tablets so that he who proclaims it may run. Rather than envisioning a placarded statement so large that a person running by might read it, the context of a prophetic vision inscribed on tablets for the ages to come suggests the “running” of a messenger “to proclaim” the vision…

Habakkuk must inscribe his vision plainly so that he who proclaims it may run. The abiding inscription of the vision suggests that the bearer of this message shall not be a single individual. Instead, many through the ages to come shall rush to declare this divine word… How can God fulfill His promises to His people when He is about to devastate them? The divine answer to His perplexity must be inscribed on tablets, and many proclaimers in the ages to come must run with the message that resolves this problem… It is not merely for the present generation. It is for the ages to come.”

O. Palmer Robertson in The Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990) 168-170.

If you want to read a message from God that will minister to your soul in this COVID-19 season, read Habakkuk. It’s a short little book. The GTP board and staff read this excerpt from it together at our GTP board meeting this week.

Habakkuk starts chapter one with lament. He cries out to God. This is part of God’s answer in chapter two. Then chapter three ends with a prayer and declaration of His confidence in God.

We are living in a time when we get to read what Habakkuk inscribed on those tablets because it was passed down for us. What does this have to do with generosity?

The one who follows God right design for life and living will be sustained by his faithfulness. In other words, God will shake those who don’t follow His ways but will sustain those who do.

These are not times for hoarding but for helping. And our help is not just for those around us for generations after us. Let us remind everyone to serve the living God with faithfulness.

Our generosity is giving perspective and living out the right posture in hard times. We’ve got this. God’s got us. I hope this was plain inspiration so you can run with it.

Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Luke 9:58

“Lord, when I came into this world, I did not bring anything with me, and when I leave it, I shall not take anything out. So long as I have something to eat and clothes to wear, I am happy. Because if you want to become rich you fall into temptation, into foolish desires which carry one away and lead towards death. The root of all evil is covetousness. Many who have coveted riches have turned aside from the faith and encountered affliction.

But I will encounter You, You who are truly poor, because although You were rich, for my sake You became poor. Who could possibly have an accurate idea of Your riches? And who could have an accurate idea of Your poverty?

What poverty, the poverty of the Lord!

You were conceived in a virgin’s womb, You were enclosed in the body of Your mother. What poverty!

You were born in a narrow room, they wrapped You in swaddling clothes and laid You in a manger. And then the King of heaven and earth, Creator and Maker of all things visible and invisible, drinks, eats, cries, grows up, reveals His age, and hides His majesty. In the end He is arrested, flogged, mocked, spat upon, slapped in the face, crowned with thorns, fastened to the cross, transfixed by a lance.

What poverty!

Lord, when I meditate on Your poverty, whatever I may look at loses any attraction for me.”

Augustine of Hippo in Sermon 14 (PL38:115) in Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary, Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World, ed. by Thomas Spidlik (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1994) 307-308.

While at home on COVID-19 lockdown, we may say to ourselves, I need this, or I want that. Let’s shift our focus from ourselves and think about Jesus. Imagine leaving the glory of heaven and coming to earth in poverty and not complaining one bit. Jesus did not even have a place to lay His head.

The length of our crisis is unknown. It may only be getting started. I think God may be trying to teach us to embrace the poverty of Christ. We can do this by being generous with what we have and by entrusting our needs, cares, worries, and fears to the Father. We’ve got this. God’s got us.

“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ Luke 16:27-28

“It may seem an extraordinary thing to do, to sell all you have and give the proceeds to the poor. Actually, however, it is a natural action. It is like going back to creation, to our own birth itself.

When Job had lost all his possessions he did not think what had happened to him was anything abnormal. He soothed the pain by saying: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return’ [Job 1:21]. As if to say: ‘All that has happened is that I find myself as I was when I was born.’

It is natural for human beings to be deprived of everything, to end up with nothing but their own bodies.

But it becomes much greater than something simply natural if someone does it voluntarily, for the love of God. It is like death. To die for the love of God is martyrdom.

When Adam and Eve were created they did not possess anything. Not only had they no wealth: they did not even have clothes. They were like a child which comes naked from its mothers womb. They were in the position Job describes. They were as Paul has said: ‘We brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world’ [1 Tim. 6:7].

Let people look at their beginning and their end, and try to be like that also during the time in between.”

Philoxenus of Mabbug in Homily 9, 338ff. (SC44, p.301ff) in Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary, Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World, ed. by Thomas Spidlik (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1994) 306-307.

What will be said of “the time in between” your birth and death? Each of us is writing a story related to our living, giving, serving, and loving.

Will it be said that you traveled light through life and stored up much in heaven? You will have provisioned yourself prudently for endless enjoyment.

Or, will you follow the pattern of the world which is materialism with miserly giving? Such people will likely end up in eternal regret like the rich man in today’s Scripture.

It’s not that our handling of money in “the time in between” secures our eternal destiny. It’s actually bigger than that. It reveals the path we have chosen in our hearts.