Prejudice All Dressed Up

Prejudice all Dressed-Up
Learning to Recognizing an Unseen Evil
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10-10-10 / 08-31-11
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There used to be a time when Sunday came around and it was time for Church, the family would put on what was called their ‘Sunday best,’ with shoes shined, clothes crisp and ironed and Mother got to ‘show off’ her new dress, etc. To some degree, that still exists in different parts of the Country and Church cultures. There is also the ‘seeker sensitive’ model where you simply come as you are. Both models are perfectly fine.

Regardless the area of the Country or the Church culture represented, there is ‘someone’ that shows up in far too many Churches all dressed up but finds a way to blend in no matter the model or paradigm. That would be the ‘Prejudice Family.’

Prejudice - sometimes it is so very covert with unabashed disply and then sometimes so very subtle that it is almost inperceptible. When it is the latter or we are blinded to its presence, someone must poke us and give us a nudge that it is present - it is showing.

Prejudice can be found in great variety but for sure, it loves to get dressed up in religious garb and is pretty hard to detect or admit to and is too often denied. In other instances, it has almost become venerable and worshipped.

Prejudice is like lobster-red sunburn on the backs of those who are infected with it or affected by it because it is so, so stinging and abrasive. We grimice and recoil when we encounter it because it is genuinely painful.

For instance, in some cases the younger folk don’t like the ways of the older folk. Sometimes those who are very image conscious (I’ll call them the ‘Haves’) do not like the ‘have-nots.’ In the very, very challenging high school environment where ‘image’ is a matter of life-and-death, the preppies do not like the emos or the athletic types just can’t hang with the academic nerds. Here in Chicago, fan loyalty is almost a sacred thing and for sure, the Cubs fans have no care for the Sox fans and vice-versa. It is a mind-spinning, mind-splitting affair if one tries to keep up with it and measure one’s reactions to each nuance.

There are not too many institutions wracked with more prejudice than the church. Keep in mind that Jesus said that if anyone ‘hates’ his brother he is in danger of judgment. The Greek word that is translated ‘hate’ in this particular verse speaks of ‘having a disregard for’ another. Prejudice does just that: it causes people to either be adversarial and confrontational or completely disassociated from other believers if they are not of our particular flavor.

Prejudice is terrible but if there can be lower levels of prejudice, it is seen in the prejudice that one church or believer has for another church or believer because their faith and dogmas are not absolutely identical.

When the Apostle Paul confronted this issue, he asked the question: is Christ divided? Then he said that we are to make sure there are no schisms and divisions among us because they are absolutely contrary to the covenant connectedness that Jesus preached concerning His kingdom.

The margins of acceptance or tolerance are so narrow church-to-church or believer-to-believer that there is no room for imagining that God’s family could actually be larger than our narrow, exclusive concepts of God and His forgiveness. The church (believers) has not sufficiently wrapped their minds around the fact that God loves each and every believer and each and every doctrinally sound (ie. Nicene Creed) church as much as He does us. We like the idea that we are so right-on and thoroughly correct in our understanding of God and His Word that we are His ‘favorites.’ However, just cannot imagine or be secure enough in His love to see Him ‘feeling’ the same for another group that is not a part of our direct ‘vine’ as He does feel about us. To consider such a thought kind of takes away our religious / spiritual pride that we like to wear like a badge of honor.

You see, we want 'our side' or 'our team' to win. Consequently, we believe that God is on 'our’ side and if He is, that means that He is not on ‘their’ side. It sounds rediculous when you put it out there on paper or in conversation, but it is what it is. In reality, you are not His favorite and neither am I His favorite by some kind of assumed right or privilege. We all are His favorites and that is just fine with me!

What constitutes grounds for mutual-respect and acceptance? Too often we want the criteria to be ‘Exactness.’ However, the grounds for mutual respect and acceptance rests in the fact that every human being is created and given life by God intentionally and holds the same hope and promises for experiencing His life-altering grace as we have. God has honored and elevated every human being (by faith) by giving the life of His Son to be the ransom and price paid for our soul. What honor!

I like to engage people wherever I go hoping that I will get an open door to minister to them. People are 90+ % of the time gracious and respond in kind. However, there is one exception that I run into every once in a while – in a Christian bookstore. That is the one place (not all of the Christian bookstores but the one I visit) where I do not find open, warm and friendly greetings. It feels like I have walked into a high security area where the workers that are present are the guards who are just waiting for our infraction of some kind. I know that sounds hard, but it is my experience.

Another observation is that when faith starts becoming institutional and is no longer organic, everything exists for the maintenance and perpetuation of the ‘institution.’ The ideas is that ‘we’ must keep everyone that we can from our particular form of faith and religion and churches become cloistered, exclusive and their own stardard by which everyone else is measured. Thus, we create an ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality.

The religious ritual works like this. When religious prejudice is present, one begins to gather data and information about the person we are engaging for the first time. In such situations, you can either look for commonalities as a means of putting a value on the person in order to establish acceptance. Or, we can look for differences using them as a means of eliminating any possibility of acceptance. Or, we can be like Jesus and accept them with open arms just as He did us.

The place we give people in our hearts is where prejudice begins or ceases to exist. That is why it is such a serious issue to Christ. When Jesus saw the ‘people,’ which included the people who would turn against Him and crucify Him, He saw them through the eyes of His Father and was moved with compassion for them and their needs. He was in Galilee of the Gentiles when He saw the multitudes and was moved with compassion. These were people whom a Jew should have disdained and abhorred from a religious / faith standpoint. However, He saw them through the eyes of His Father.

God existed long before any church and faith tradition began. He lived and continues to live outside any boundaries erected by man or otherwise. He cannot be contained. If you feel that you are exclusive in your claim on God and His affections, I’m here to let you know that your dogma can’t contain Him. If you believe that you are outside the commonwealth of His love, acceptance and forgiveness, even those boundaries cannot contain Him. If you think you are the only church or faith that is right, then you serve a very small, predictable god.

God’s love extends without parameters far beyond the walls of separation and isolation that dogma and tradition have erected. He reaches past our prejudice and idiotic small-mindedness to meet those who are like the Biblical ‘woman at the well’ who discovered that His love and forgiveness know no barriers.

Yes, I believe that I am ‘right’. However, I also believe that every believer who has found Life in the vicarious death, burial and resurrection of Christ are also right – as are their particular church which holds to the same. I see it, then, that if I am ‘against’ them just because they aren’t my ‘brand,’ I am actually against THE Body of Christ and have unjust, unfounded prejudice that hurts Him and His ministry.

I do not necessarily agree with everything that I hear being preached on Christian television. However, God IS using these soldiers of the Cross to reach people that I could never reach in ten lifetimes. God is using many of them to reach the un-saved at their point of knowledge and faith. And, the bottom line is a ‘net gain’ for the Kingdom of God as God takes their ‘foolish preaching’ to convince multitudes of His reality. In this, I rejoice and covenant never to impede their credibility with the platforms of influence and speaking God has afforded me.

What I do mind, are the ministers who take the valuable Harvest-reaching time to discredit another harvester who is helping to see that the Father’s house is filled. It is a waste of time and akin to sabotage to spend limited, valuable public time to discredit the work and ministry of another laborer in the field (unless the laborers infractions are absolute and undeniable). If they are preaching Christ and Him crucified, buried and raised from the dead, leave them alone and be certain not to help eradicate their platform and influence while they are de-populating hell and populating Heaven. I’m just sayin . . . .
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Bishop Freddie Steel – Life Church of Chicagoland – www.lifeinchicago.org - revfts@usa.net
6600 W. 127th Street – Palos Heights, IL 60463 - 708-824-1501

"When The Worlds Collide" The Demand for Strife-free Living

The Demand for Strife-free Living
Pastor Freddie Steel – revfts@usa.net
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There are two worlds colliding – this physical, temporal world and the unseen Kingdom of God that has its domain in us and then works outwardly through us. It is a kingdom of righteous, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Suggestions for Strife-free Living -

- Paul emphatically tells us that the ‘servant of God’ must not strive.

* Strife is to a relationship what the absence of oil is to an engine – melt down.
* The enemy uses people, even well-meaning people, who are affected by the enemy’s agitations themselves who will pass along the virus of strife.
* Watch out for instances where people will want to draw you into conflict in these places:
- work; home; traffic; business places; church; etc;
- being on guard for the subtle attacks does not mean you are on the defensive – life does not mean to be lived that way. However, you must be sober and vigilant for your adversary has an agenda – it is to conquer and divide.

- Each time believers are drawn into strife, it is like pulling soldiers off of the front line or away from the battlefield itself and all are weakened.
* strife renders a ‘soldier’ ineffective because the Holy Spirit rules the Kingdom of God initially within – the Kingdom bears witness of its rule with unbroken evidence and fruit including righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost;
* whenever strife (which is the antithesis of God’s Kingdom and a tool of the enemy) is embraced, the believer is, in essence, collaborating with the enemy kingdom and betrays his devotion and commitment to the Kingdom of His Father.

- Agreeing with the adversary does not make sense. However, Scripture gives us that very instruction.

* agreeing with an adversary while you are ‘in the way’ seems like weakness and compromise. The wisdom in this strategy:
- keeps you from engaging in warfare alone, or in isolated places;
- helps you to submit your life to the promises and care of God by trusting Him to handle the issues of strife as He sees fit on your behalf;
- The patience, compromise, deflecting the assault rather than engaging it may look weak to Americans who want to save face publicly or feel we are all ‘self-made.’ However, there is nothing weak about it. Scripture tells us that Moses was the ‘meekest’ man alive. The word ‘meekness’ does not mean weakness but it actually means ‘power under control.’

- The enemy should never be permitted to set the stage and circumstances for engagement.

* the enemy lies in wait to provoke the believer to react and respond – he sets traps. When we respond to his trap, our warfare posture immediately becomes a defensive posture which is unfortunate because the church is best in warfare with the offensive posture.
- determine what things you really need to react to and defend and give them a rating of importance;
- make sure you do not engage in strife and debate for the sake of ‘saving face’ or out of responding to soulish insults;
- you have been crucified in Christ and raised to a new life in Christ; therefore, you cannot offend a dead man; you can’t insult a dead man; you can’t arouse a dead man; dead men are unoffendable;
- we are not called to debate and defend the Gospel nearly as much as we are called to liberally share ‘Good News.’
- do not engage in differences in doctrinal views that will engender strife and debate needlessly;
- determine to have fellowship, devoted, defended, unbroken fellowship, with your fellow believers based on the absolutes of the inerrancy of Scripture, the virgin birth, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus;
- refuse to pass along e-mails that may contain truth but also hold potential for creating offenses and further dividing the Body; save such information for settings where you can enlighten and inform like-minded or receptive people in face-to-face settings;
- check your motives for passing along e-mails that can incite; there is a huge difference between inciting and instructing;
- if every believer who uses e-mail would spend that same effort and energy in sending along the Good News, we will find that, prayerfully, the multitudes within the church who have been wounded and disillusioned might begin to find atmospheres of safety and healing within our ranks;
- the Church has been passed along, from Christ, His ministry – a ministry of reconciliation; we are to be bridge-builders who are establishing inroads between the unchurched and Jesus; go get some ‘wood’ and let’s take our energy and invest it in brining men, women, and children close and introduce them to One Who will be their new Best Friend.

While coming to the most important season in the existence of the Church, the enemy will throw every kind of distraction our way to draw our attention to base and temporary issues. Battles are lost and won depending on how effective the distractions can be.

The chattel of this life cannot fulfill as Americans have hoped they would. Let’s be mobilized as triage and paramedic units who will push past the screaming distractions and the many opportunities to be offended by the world and by one another and minister to and help heal every wounded soul Father God places in our path.
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Pastor Freddie Steel - Life Church of Chicagoland - revfts@usa.net - www.lifeinchicago.org

‘Creating A Climate Of Healing’

“Adversarial Relationships and the New Administration”

Creating A Climate Of Civility And Healing

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Bishop Freddie Steel - January 12, 2009

Saddleback mega-church pastor Rick Warren is right-on when he speaks about the need for civility in the political processes of America and in our culture. It is my opinion that America’s soul is still wounded by events of her history and passionate appeals or demands are made to satisfy unjust acts and attitudes that nearly brought her to ruin. I am not so sure that all, or even many of the attitudes and events and their fallout, can ever be adequately reversed or addressed. However, I am certain, convinced, that we can do several things to change the current atmosphere where these many wounds have a better chance to heal.

I just read an article, dated today, that covered studies by Northwestern University’s Feinburg School of Medicine and their findings on a connection between Alzheimer disease and glucose. In short, they are proposing that Alzheimer disease is related to stress on the brain cells later in life and an inadequate amount of glucose that is required to keep the brain healthy. Keep in mind, from my point of view, there are many kinds of stressors that can plague the mind, and they essentially fit into two categories: external, and internal. Let me speak to the internal stressors of anger, resentment, bitterness, guilt, shame, etc.

To help explain my opinion, I turn to the catholic letter (universal letter) of James, a book of the Bible near the end of the New Testament. ‘James’ was not written to individual churches addressing issues pertinent to that specific body like Apostle Paul did when he wrote to the Church at Ephesus or the Church at Corinth. James is a letter, a book in the Bible, that is relevant to every church, everywhere and deals with things such as faith: warning against prejudice; guarding your tongue and your words; true wisdom as opposed to humanly-contrived wisdom; how to draw close to God; warnings against judging other, etc. And, believe it or not, James writes about glucose! Here’s what he says.

“People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. 10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right!

11 Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? 12 Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.

True Wisdom Comes from God

13 – “If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s-kind-of-wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.” James 3: 7-17 NLT

These are harsh words, for sure. However, we can take it, we have endured a ‘hostile’ environment for quite awhile now. The truth I would like to lift up covers three ideas:

(1) healing the tongue is not a hopeless task or aspiration;

(2) do not speak ill of your fellow brother who is due the very same liberal measures of grace that you have received from God;

(3) the corporate body can be healed with glucose.

Where the English words ‘fresh water’ are used, they are being translated from the written texts that used the word ‘glucose’ to illustrate what happens in our verbal communicating. James says point-blank that our words create an atmosphere and have profound effects on the hearers, those on the receiving end. Emphatically, James says that salt water and the healing properties of glucose cannot flow from the same found (your words). It has to be one or the other and we are to choose which one we use. Here is where the beauty begins in looking at the restorative and healing qualities of glucose.

Glucose is to the body what fuel is to an engine. Just as fuel is absolutely essential for an engine to begin to run, glucose is essential for starting the engine of good, civil, relationship and communicating. Glucose is a sugar and is the circulating sugar in the blood that is the major source of our energy. Interestingly, this type of sugar is profoundly abundant in grapes and grapes are touted by home remedies and clinical studies as being full of healing and restorative qualities.

We are, essentially, starving one another. If our words are that powerful (and Bible truth and academic research prove they are), then our words have the power to heal or to wound. I appreciate having the opportunity to listen to many different news sources on the tv and, very rarely, on the radio as well. However, in all frankness, these news outlets are not just fountains; they are rivers and oceans of vitriolic and demeaning talk. In other words, the combined streams from the tv or radio news media that originate the same or transmit from other sources the same, suck the very life out of the relational life of our nation.

Is America sick? Well, for sure, we have been wounded and have many, many wounded souls. And, our current culture and communication methods are not helping. The bitterness of life itself is an adequate catalyst, for many, to incite rancid communicating at home and in everyday life. None would deny that the defaming and critically demeaning words spoken to children when they are impressionable can damage and alter their emotional health and growth that may never be righted until they are well grown if healing occurs even then.

For several years I visited a fellow in a super-max unit of a state prison. He is bright, good looking, and has some great qualities. He told me a heart breaking thing during one visit. He said, “Freddie, I’m only doing what Dad said I would be doing. I’m only doing what Grandmother said I would be doing: you will end up in prison just like me.” See, those are abusive statements just like: ‘you are so stupid and you will never make it in this life;’ ‘you are a fat disgrace and look like an elephant.’ Regrettably, this can be talk that is typical in many families and can come from dads, moms, husbands or wives that create an unhealthy atmosphere sure to create hurt, resentment, and failure.

It doesn’t mean that, as humans, we should not have moments of resentment, bitterness, anger or hate. However, it does mean that if those cancerous feelings are not assuaged in a timely manner, those emotions will show up in our communicating and our relationships and will poison the atmosphere, the hearers, and their future life. This kind of talk fills the relationship with carbon-monoxide that has had the very oxygen of relational life sucked out of the midst.

Glucose is an important source of fuel for the body, especially for the brain and for red blood cells which have no other sources of fuel. Glucose is stored in the body in the liver and muscles and is also used in tissues to provide energy. In other words, if a body, whether an individual, a home, a family, a church, or a nation, does not have enough glucose, its muscles will atrophy and waste away, it will have no energy to endure and sustain, its brain will be deprived and develop phobias and paralyses, and will, eventually, cannibalize itself to survive. Cannibalism, relationship-cannibalism, is what I would call what I hear and see coming from too many entirely too often.

Though it sounds gross, I hope that this illustration explains the how’s and the why’s for many of the verbal injuries being inflicted throughout our culture today. Here are some action-steps that will help you be a healer for the souls of mankind.

1. Pay attention to the tone in your voice and if it is rancid, reconstitute what you were going to say.

2. If you have a critical eye for others but you want grace for yourself, start extending grace which, by nature, means that the recipient does not have to necessarily be worthy or deserving of the grace in order to receive it – just like you.

3. If you are preparing to communicate and are angry or upset, wait. Be patient.

4. We are patient with people or things in direct proportion to the value and esteem we place on the same. Extending patience says, in essence, ‘I don’t have to manipulate things’ or ‘I don’t know everything concerning the issue’ and can, should, therefore wait – be patient.

5. If you have grace extended to you, do the same.

6. The Bible says that ‘a soft word turns away wrath.’ In your everyday interaction with service providers, with people with whom you do not immediately identify with or relate to, deflect aggression or insults by refusing to respond in-kind. In other words, you will either employ boxing tactics or judo tactics in times of confrontation. Boxing rarely, if ever works. However, judo deflects the assault. In this illustration, however, it is not for the purpose of subduing your ‘opponent’ but for neutralizing the toxic environment.

What could be the source of the dissatisfaction, the complaining, the polarities that separate us from one another, from convivial co-existence? In my opinion, it boils down to ‘greed.’ The drive of greed, the addiction of greed, says that we want or we need more to be satiated in life. Don’t be fooled. Things were never meant to satisfy or define life for us. Greed’s greatest argument may be one concerning a distorted view of life that says ‘I deserve this’ no matter what it may cost one’s self or others in the process.

Greed never provides us with a definition of when ‘enough is enough:’ Because of greed, ‘enough’ remains elusive, always just out of reach. Greed can be neutralized in much the same way that soft words are able to turn away wrath.

Gratitude is the gargantuan essential of life that renders every argument against greed inviolate. Gratitude is much like glucose, it has healing properties. The cancer of greed can be so rampant that a perpetual dissatisfaction occurs in the soul of its victims. Then, the ever-elusive point of satisfaction that would mute the voice of greed that is screaming for vindication is not discovered and allowed to speak and challenge the false claims of greed. In other words, when is enough, enough?

Ingratitude also overshadows a worthy and venerable essential of life – honor. The Bible tells us that we are to give and express honor to whom honor is due. God puts a high premium on giving and learning to receive and live with honor. I believe that honor dictates that we give honor to the office or the role if you are not inclined to honor a deserving person because of personal prejudice, etc. How does that play out in everyday life?

Once again it is my opinion that Americans are infested with a spirit of criticism. Since we know so much, and since we feel we deserve so much, then we feel that we are at liberty to criticize so much. That is what happens when the venerable code of honor has been dashed to the ground and trampled under-foot. If one is not careful, and since we are so finite, we will find ourselves actually criticizing Father God and His rule over our lives. If you believe Father God is the Sovereign and continues to direct all of the affairs of life, then we do well to come down from our own personal thrones and bow and defer to His omniscience.

Whomever I may vote for in elections, my roles as a follower of Christ and a good citizen dictate that I am to adopt a Biblical attitude concerning leaders as outlined in Scripture.[i]

1 Timothy 2: 1-8 - “I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. 2 Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. 8 In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy.

When a new president or leader comes to office, regardless of whether they were my pick or not, they are now ‘my family’s (ie. American family) president or leader. If they succeed, my family succeeds. But that is not the main motivation for me with regard to supporting my leaders. God’s Word says that I am to pray for my leaders and trust Him with my life and my country’s future. Additionally, I know for certain, that to criticize, complain against, to defame or dishonor is not an option for a Christ-follower who wants to obey God’s Word. If might be well that we encourage those whom we are able to encourage, to pray for our leaders when the demand for party self-vindication and trash talk are present.

Jesus said that from our innermost being, the depth of our soul, there will flow springs and rivers of Living Water: He was speaking of the Holy Spirit. Multitudes are dying of thirst and the fountains of natural origin cannot satisfy this longing. Won’t you begin to give cups of cold, refreshing water to those whom Father God puts in your path daily or occasionally? You can certainly cut off the supply of rancid or salt water – you choose which you will draw from.

Begin to develop a list of the reasons you have for being grateful – start there. You can either complain that the waitress took too long or didn’t serve you adequately or you can bow your head and tell Father God how grateful you are to be able to enjoy something that multitudes around the globe will never, ever experience in their lifetime: a good and complete meal served to them in comfortable surroundings.

You can get impatient with the person who is in the grocery check-out line ahead of you or you can scan your surroundings, a veritable utopia-like, too-hard-to-believe-its-true surrounding for most of the world, and be grateful you are privileged and at liberty to partake.

Let me end with the words of a song written and made famous by Burt Bacharach.

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love, It's the only thing that there's just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love, No, not just for some but for everyone.”

Used by permission: CCLI License # on file

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Bishop Freddie Steel

Life Church of Chicag

Technorati Tags: Blogs,God,Christ,Church,Jesus,Forgiveness,Love,Mercy,Compassion,Grace

oland - revfts@usa.net

6600 W 127^th Street – Palos Heights, IL 60463

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"Who Is Your Enemy Anyway?"

Who Is Your Enemy Any Way?
Freddie Steel - November 20, 2008

Battle and demarcation lines seem to be ever increasingly drawn between groups and factions. It might be that we have become accustomed to judging people by appearance and labels only. For instance, in America our vehicles are the single most important status statements followed closely by the neighborhood or house we life in. If we see a humble-looking site on the interstate highway, someone in an earlier model vehicle that lacks many of the new toys and accessories, it might be easy to feel sorry for or impatient with that one who is not in the same echelon and stream that the rest of prosperous, in-the-know Americans do.

Last night I was in a grocery store in an up-scale neighborhood waiting in line to check out. The customer at the check-out appeared to be in her late sixties and appeared to also be someone of a lower-income bracket. I noticed that her hair had been colored and needed a ‘touch up.’ The gentleman just in front of me turned around after we had been standing in line a good while and introduced himself by saying ’hey, did you notice that hair style up front’? He was, for some reason, disgusted with the elderly ladies appearance. Wow, the affinity that this man made with a sister of society was in the form of criticism, criticism for someone he didn’t know and for whom I felt compassion because she appeared to be someone in need.

Unfortunately, the church wrestles with some of the same – judging by sight that is. I liken this to what occurred during World War II. Sharp divisions existed between high-ranking military leaders who were preoccupied with egos, pride, prejudice, and self-interests insomuch that decisions were influenced and made to save face, advance self interests, etc. and thousands of young lives were needlessly lost. You could say that we helped the enemy by turning against one another and by losing sight of who the real enemy was.

Who Is Your Enemy?

The enemy is not our brothers or sisters in Christ. I encourage the church to find common ground to use as the foundation for fellowship. When a person or a church believes in the inerrancy of Scripture, the virgin birth and the sinless life of Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection, the grounds for fellowship are established.

An interpretation of Scriptures that is slightly or somewhat different from yours (but does include the tenets stated above) does not make your enemy or require that you defend your view and interpretation.

Your enemy is not the multitudes and masses that rail against or find themselves indifferent to God and His Son, Jesus. If they rail against you and hate you and the God you serve, they still aren’t your enemy. Those involved in aborting babies or sexual perversions are not your enemies. If they aren’t your enemies then, who are they?

These that I listed just above are not your enemies, but those for whom Jesus had compassion and died so as to give them eternal life. Those who betrayed Him were not His enemies. Those who cursed Him, spit on Him, beat and flogged Him were not His enemies. The leaders in government were not His enemies. Jesus loved them all and saw them not so much as evil or undeserving but as those dying of thirst for the life-giving water that would heal and change their lives. For God so loved them, even when they / we were unlovable and trapped in sin, that He gave.

Jesus And His Enemies –
What did Jesus do for those who mocked, scourged, and killed Him? He loved them, He prayed for them, He had compassion on them, and He served them.

Jesus came to love and to give. Then, He gave to us His ministry and the assignment to a ministry of reconciliation: reconciling men’s broken fellowship with Father God and restoring them to Father God’s love, acceptance, and forgiveness.

Bridge Builders And Water Boys –

We are bridge builders and water boys. For the world, we are building a bridge back to the Father constructed of His love and mercy. Remember, bridges get walked on and walked across. We are also water boys / girls and have buckets of life-giving Water to share with anyone, anywhere, at anytime. We are not repulsed by their thirst or condition, but we are moved with compassion as Jesus was and we see people who are simply dying of thirst for what we claim we have – Living Water.

The story is told of a young lady and an officer in the Japanese Air Force during World War II. The young lady was the daughter of missionaries serving in the Philippines. When the Japanese landed in the Philippines, the missionary family and others headed to the mountains to hide in safety. The Japanese found them and a radio in their possession. Though it was only a regular radio, they were accused of being spies and that the radio also transmitted. The Japanese killed the missionary parents in front of their daughter.

The young lady was being consumed with hatred for the Japanese and what they did to her family. She asked God how she could be free from the hatred in her heart. God inspired her to push past her hurts and serve those who directly or indirectly were responsible for her parent’s murder.

She started working as a volunteer in a Prisoner of War camp for Japanese officers. She graciously served them daily. One day, the officer who led the air attack on Pearl Harbor asked her why she was serving them so graciously and did she not know they were the enemy. She told the officer her story and that she started being healed of her hatred for them when she began serving them. She told the Japanese officer that she forgave him and that she loved him.

Such displays of grace were not common. In this case, the officer was so overwhelmed with the young missionary’s story and service that it convinced Him that her God was real and He accepted Christ as his Savior. The story is told in the book ‘God’s Samurai.’

Pray for, bless, and do good for those who hate you and use you. That formula worked then and it will work well now – who can withstand that kind of love?

Bishop Freddie Steel - revfts@usa.net - www.lifeinchicago.org[i]

[i] 11-20-08