"Geek"ing it up

Not only have I had fun cleaning this summer (see previous post), but I've also been taking Greek in an intensive format. I just finished part one and will begin part two in a few days. I have just begun to see fruits of all my labor. I'll share one tidbit with you:

I know we have all heard the "Lord's Prayer," in fact, why don't you recite it now (for good measure). What is the line that begins "deliver us ..."

I'll wait while you race to the end of the prayer to get it. (I'm humming "Surely God is With Us" by Rich Mullins while waiting- if you were wondering.)

If you are like me, you learned the prayer by saying "deliver us from evil," which sounds awesome, right??? (If not a little out of kilter with reality.) But, in Greek (the language the New Testament writers used), the words actually say, "deliver us from the evil one." Aaahhh... that takes on whole new meaning. Realistically, we meet evil head on every day in different forms (sometimes even within ourselves) and we know that God doesn't rescue us from all evil (or we'd never get sick, make our spouse clean up the mess we made, or experience hatred toward/from other people). But, what Scripture says is that God will rescue us from the "evil one," Satan. God will not let us be overcome by the "deceiver." God has already conquered evil through Jesus' death and resurrection and will in the future bring about this reality through our life after death. Of course, it seems that God also expects us to begin bringing about His kingdom on the earth now- and maybe we'd get a taste of what heaven is all about... but I'll leave that for another post. All of this reminds me of the promise in Romans 8:31-39. I'm thankful that we have a God who cares about each person and will not let anything, including the evil one, separate us from Him.

So, fight the twenty plus years of memorization and pray with me that God will deliver us from "the evil one."