Enemy Mine

Job 31:29-30
29"Did I ever crow over my enemy's ruin? Or gloat over my rival's bad luck? 30No, I never said a word of detraction, never cursed them, even under my breath.

Proverbs 24:15-18
15Don't interfere with good people's lives; don't try to get the best of them. 16No matter how many times you trip them up, God-loyal people don't stay down long; Soon they're up on their feet, while the wicked end up flat on their faces. 17Don't laugh when your enemy falls; don't crow over his collapse. 18GOD might see, and become very provoked, and then take pity on his plight.

Proverbs 25:21-22
21If you see your enemy hungry, go buy him lunch; if he's thirsty, bring him a drink. 22Your generosity will surprise him with goodness, and GOD will look after you.


Nobody questions what kind of a man Job was, really. He was a righteous man. And we regard Solomon's Proverbs with a general sense of wonder and appreciation for the wisest man of his day and age. Solomon had his issues, but being a fool was not high on that list, despite having too many wives to even begin to be a good husband to. We pretty much trust these guys to know what they are talking about. But is pretty much good enough when it comes to something as momentous as the death of a sworn enemy of our nation whom we have hunted for nearly ten years?

Let's go to the final authority. Let's go to Jesus. If rejoicing is the right move for when a national enemy dies, Jesus will tell us. Here is what Jesus says about enemies ...

What Jesus has to say about enemies …

Ralph and his neighbor, Fritz were talking …

R: “Hey, I met Jesus the other day.”

F: “Yeah? So what’s he like?”

R: “Kinda weird, actually.”

F: “You don’t say. How so?”

R: “He said the old love your neighbor and hate your enemy thing ain’t right.”

F: “No kidding! So did he say what it is supposed to be?”

R: “He said, ‘love your enemies and pray for people that abuse you.’ Can you
believe that?”

F: “You sure you heard him right? I mean, I know people say he’s pretty radical, but that sounds plain old crazy.”

R: “Yeah. He was giving a speech and they had his notes printed out and I got a copy. Take a look …”

F: “Hmm… yeah, you got it right, I guess. Can I keep this and read the rest of his speech?”

R: “Yeah, Fritz. You read it all through to the end. I just finished it and I think we need to talk about this stuff.”

F: “Okay Ralph. I’m going to go read it right now. See you back here after supper?”

R: “Absolutely, Fritz. I’ll bring something to drink; you bring some of your wife’s cookies.”

F: “Sounds good to me. See ya, Ralph.”

R: “Real soon, Fritz. Real soon.”

Here’s what Ralph had highlighted for Fritz to read … (borrowed from Matthew 5:43-48, the Message)

"You have heard that it was said, `YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.'

"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Fritz wondered to himself, “Why would he say that?” Then he kept on reading and it was like Jesus was answering his thoughts !!

"so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

“Wow!” thought Fritz. “I guess I never thought about God sending rain and sunshine for everybody; but it certainly makes sense to me.” And he kept on reading …

"For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
"If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
"Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

By the time he got done with the whole speech, Fritz could hardly wait to go out and talk to Ralph again. He even talked to his wife over dinner about it. She was stunned to hear him speak and missed his question. “Wh-what did you ask me?”

Then she listened as her obviously excited husband read the section Ralph had highlighted and asked her again, “What do you make of that?” Bernie (short for Bernice) answered, “He sounds like the preacher at my mother’s church. You know, the one you liked when we visited there last year. You don’t have to share that with Ralph, though. And it looks like he’s ready to meet with you over by the fence again. Go ahead, I’ll clean up. Then you can come back in and we’ll talk when you two have it all figured out.”

Fritz was already headed out the door …

**** **** **** **** ****

What about it? Could you live out what Fritz and Ralph heard from Jesus?
Or is it too late already? Have you already been rejoicing over a fallen enemy?


God have mercy on us.

Baptism & The Holy Spirit

Francis Chan - Baptism & The Holy Spirit from Wes Woodell on Vimeo.

View the video. Listen to what Patrick is saying. Then answer the four questions.

If you need help, where ever you may be in the world, email me (grz311@yahoo.com) or call me (USA 219-678-8148). Just do not wait, do not delay.

How was Jesus able to live without sinning?

Think about it. You, an imperfect being, love your son. Sometimes you even mess that up, but because you are who you are - not because you stop loving your son.

God also loved His son, a part of Himself that chose to be found in every respect just like every other man - with one exception: who he was. Becoming a man changed the power at his disposal, changed the way he saw things (new perspective - from inside human skin), and changed the way he he had to operate among men so that his example meant and counted for something special. But becoming human did not change who he was. Jesus could still say, "I am that I am" just like the Father could, because he was still, in who he was, God - even though he gave up practically everything else that we think of God being and being able to do.

In a very limited way, it is kind of like Bill Gates becoming a pauper. Bill would be just as penniless as any other poverty-stricken person, but there would still be something different about Bill - who he was as a person. Bill the person would still have the entrepreneurial spirit that got him into that group with Steve Jobs and the others in college. And he would still have that internal drive that took him from a kid on student loans to having more money than the banks who make those loans. He would be poor, at least for a while, but he would never stop being Bill Gates. If he wanted to regain the power and prestige and perks of being the founder of a Microsoft empire, he would have to do again what he did back when he was first trying to design a PC in his parents' garage.

That is, in a very limited way, what Jesus did. Why did he not sin, if he was just like you and me (who definitely have, and sometimes still do, sin)? Because of who he was Jesus did not sin - for even while fully man, he was still God who became man - with the same drives and will and love and mercy and sense of right and wrong and so on that makes God who He is. Jesus could do what we cannot because in the end, whether in heaven on a throne or on earth in human flesh, he was still God at the very core of his being. Living according to his Father's will was living according to his own will. He could do what his Father wanted perfectly because his Father's sense of perfection and will for mankind was still in the make-up of who he was without omniscience and without omnipresence and without being omnipotent while in the flesh. Whi he is and was while on Earth are the same as who he was and ever will be while in heaven. What changed was the packaging and the power, NOT the identity and sense of self.

This is why when we come to Christ, the more we self-identify with Him, the easier it is to see temptation for what it really is and resist it...even for us! It is transforming and progressive and so powerful it can take a murderous hater of disciples of Jesus and transform him into an amazing missionary and evangelist of God's power in Christ through the speaking and living of the gospel to the Gentiles.

He transformed Paul and all the other apostles and disciples we read about in the NT, just the same as He has been transforming you and me. We sin because we self-identify (deservedly) as sinners. He did not sin because he self-identified completely with God.

I hope that helps.

Looking for a follower of Jesus

Looking for a follower of Jesus
(a traveler’s short story)

One day a visitor walked into a village and asked if there were any followers of Jesus living in the village. Eventually he was directed to the village chief among the elders of the village. Again the visitor asked if there were any followers of Jesus living in that village. The chief replied, “There are three men in this village who claim to know a man named Jesus. I do not know this Jesus, but I will send you to these men and let you decide for yourself if they know this Jesus.” The visitor gladly wrote down directions to the three men’s homes who claimed to know someone named Jesus. Taking his leave of the chief and the village elders, he went in search of the three men.

When the visitor came to the first home, he found a sunburned man lounging in a pool of water that had been created by damming up the little creek that ran through his property. The visitor greeted the man and asked if he could have a drink of water and was told that he could have a bottle of water for his shirt. The visitor was very thirsty, so he gave the man his shirt in exchange for the bottle of water. Then the visitor continued on his way.

When the visitor came to the second home, he found a man who was sitting down and caring for his blistered feet near a table piled high with food. The visitor greeted the man and asked if he could have something to eat and was told that the man would give him a bag of food in exchange for his socks and shoes. The visitor was very hungry, so he gave the man his socks and shoes in exchange for the bag of food. Then the visitor continued on his way once more, taking his bottle of water and his bag of food to find the home of the third man who claimed to know Jesus.

As the visitor was on his way to the home of the third man, now sunburned and with sore feet, a servant came pulling a rickshaw that had a top to provide shade and gave the visitor a ride the rest of the way to the third man’s home. It was quite a ways up a hill to the third man’s home and so the visitor asked the servant to pull over in the shade of some trees where he offered to share his bottle of water and bag of food with the servant in a small picnic meal. Before the servant would eat, though, he found an aloe plant and broke open the leaves and squeezed out some aloe oil on the visitor’s sunburned shoulders and sore feet. Then they shared their small picnic together and continued to the third man’s home. When they arrived, the visitor was stunned when the servant turned and welcomed him to his home, bringing him an ‘I Love Jesus’ T-shirt and a pair of sandals for his feet. Then he asked the visitor if he would consent to stay over for the evening and enjoy his hospitality. Until they went to sleep, they spoke together about Jesus and the visitor told the man how good it was to find someone who knew Jesus as he was traveling. And so the visitor stayed at the third man’s home and prayed for God’s blessing on the man and his home before leaving the next morning to return to the village.

Being now well rested and well fed and no longer thirsty, and wearing his new shirt and sandals, the trip down the hill and back to the village seemed to take only a fraction of the time it had taken to visit the three men’s homes. There the visitor was greeted by the village chief and the elders and was asked if he had found a follower of Jesus. The visitor said, “Yes, I found one follower of Jesus.” The chief and elders congratulated the visitor on completing his quest, and then they asked how the visitor knew that only one of the men who claimed to know Jesus was actually a follower of Jesus, and also how he could tell which one it was.

The visitor said, “When the first man saw I was thirsty, he would only give me water in exchange for my shirt. When the second man saw I was hungry, he would only give me food in exchange for my socks and shoes. But when the third man saw me coming along the path, he gave me a ride up the hill and aloe oil for my sunburn and he gave me these sandals and this ‘I Love Jesus’ T-shirt and a place to stay for the night.” Then the visitor took out his Bible and read these verses to the chief and the elders:

“John 13:34-35
(Jesus said) A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

1 John 3:16-18
(Jesus’ apostle, John, wrote) By this we know love: that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."

The visitor closed his Bible and looked at the chief and the elders and continued his explanation. “I knew him by his love. And when he gave me this T-shirt and these sandals, I knew why he loved a stranger traveling on the road. You should ask him about Jesus. I am sure he would enjoy telling you about our Lord.” And so the visitor went on his way and continued his travels.

Why I Love Him

(Adapted by Glenn Ziegler from Why I Love Her by John Mitchum)

You ask me why I love Him? Well, give me time and I’ll explain.
Have you seen the Father’s glory in the sunset or the rain?
Have you felt the Spirit’s presence as you walk the narrow way?
Have you heard the Savior weeping just outside Lazarus’ grave?

Have you seen the boat full of disciples in the storm - and heard them whine?
Have you seen the Master walking cross the water to their side?
Do the Beatitudes inspire you as you sit at Jesus’ feet?
Have you traveled days to see Him, just hoping to hear Him speak?

Has your life been changed forever by the One who built God’s kingdom on the rock?
Do you think of Him as you pass a homeless person who only has one sock?
Have you seen the way He treats sinners? Have you heard our Savior sigh …
As He watches us ignore the lost, have you heard Him softly cry?

Did you sing Hosanna to heaven as He rode into the city?
Did you feel the Father’s disappointment as He cleared the Temple street?
Have you eaten the bread He blessed, remembering the body of our Lord?
Have you sipped the cup He offered, considering the blood that He outpoured?

Have you felt the disciples’ loneliness as they hid themselves away?
Felt the shame of their self-protection as He gave His life that day?
And were you as doubtful as was Thomas until you saw His hands and feet?
Have you longed to fall as he did confessing his love at Jesus’ feet?

Every day in every place we go, there is someone feeling pain.
Do you seek to share their burden just to help them ease the strain?
Is it the Master’s steps you follow? Is He your reason? Is He your ‘why’?
My Jesus is my greatest love, the One who for us died.

What are you most thankful for about your church and/or its ministry leaders?

I am thankful that God reached out to them and made them the men and women they are today. And I am thankful God is still working through each one and in each one. I am thankful for their willingness to learn and submit to God. And I am thankful that each one is willing to take a stand and take the heat. I am grateful that these are prayer warriors, in support of everything else we do. And I am grateful for their willingness to train up those who will come behind them. For all these things and more, I am thankful.

Glenn Ziegler
Merrillville Christian Church


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Christians Persecuted In America?

A small home bible study group claimed they were being persecuted by a county office in big, bad, who-knows-what-they-believe-out-there California, USA. (Apologies to everyone who lives in that beautiful and much maligned state. That was a very small attempt at sarcasm related to the way CA used to be viewed in the Bible Belt...and in some areas, still is so viewed by some folks.)

My take on the facts, at this time, after a brief investigation on the internet:

This is a non-issue that was resolved according to county ordinances, given the time for the investigation to work through its legal stages. Someone complained about some issues with a group that was gathered at a house near their friends' home and a standard form letter was sent, but the wrong form letter, indicating that ordinance violations were being investigated and fines and permit fees would be assessed for any violations of local ordinances as to land use and assembly. In the end, it was made clear that the county had no interest in pursuing a mistaken form letter demand. The county admitted the error and followed their internally prescribed steps to investigate and respond to the issue - eventually informing the home owner that the county was dropping the matter because no legal action was warranted.

In a litigious society, it is not surprising that certain individuals and/or groups of professing Christians will also get caught up in the desire to litigate instead of negotiating or (gasp!) serving our neighbors...or simply waiting for the system to have time to work. So few can even begin to grasp the concept of actually deciding not to pursue every right they might claim that religious groups of all kinds (though we admittedly hear disproportionately more from groups professing to 'Christian') are turning more and more directly to civil courts to settle disputes with one another, with local governance/ordinances, and with other interest groups (like neighbors and neighborhood associations and even neighbors' friends). One can only wonder what folks would do if a house was so fully packed with people listening to a guest teacher that you'd have to cut a hole in the roof in order to get in! (How many times and ways can you see THAT turning into lawsuits??!!!)

Further reflections:

It saddens me to think that more and more children are being raised to think of this kind of response from a group (however small or large) of Christians (led by their pastor, no less) as normative behavior. Paul addressed this to some extent, as had Jesus also, to some extent, during His ministry. And it seems important to me that neither Jesus nor Paul advocated the public outrage approach, nor the take-those-who-offend-you-to-court approach, either.

Perhaps this should come as no surprise to someone raised in a spiritual heritage defined, transformed, mutilated and splintered by litigious actions over a hundred years ago - and for which there has still yet been no wide-scale resolution of the original issues. Instead, myriad other issues have been used to solidify the dissolution of a unity movement that died when the first case went to court, no matter how we try to revive its corpses or deny that THAT movement has died. In its place today we have a hollow shell of a claim to similar interests, while most of the things being pursued today bear little resemblance to the kind of efforts that were taken when Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell were alive, much less during the time when they labored so long and hard to get the thing started. What is left today remains more as a testimony to the evolution of groups into that which was once opposed than as a living testimony to the kind of effort Stone and Campbell envisioned and plead for so passionately. So why should we be surprised when someone claims to follow Christ and then takes actions in opposition to those advocated by the Christ and by His apostles?

So, no, I am not surprised. I am saddened, though, that the lost have been handed on a platter more lame reasons to resist efforts to reach them with the gospel; and I am also sadly resigned to having to address the difference between what Jesus taught and what many claiming to follow Him have pursued instead. Stories like this one give me nightmares about what it must be like to hear so many crying out, "Lord, Lord" when there is so little attention paid to what the One being addressed taught. It must rip His heart to hear the cries He longs for coming from us when we ignore His teachings and yet cry when things don't go well for us, as if we should expect things to go well anyway - having chosen to follow One who was crucified, literally, for those very teachings and for the sake of those who killed Him. Shall we expect to be treated differently, on however mild or harsh a level, than He was treated? Jesus said we should expect what He received.

If I follow Jesus, and if I believe Him, then the kind of persecution we will face is going to get a lot worse than an erroneous assembly citation in the mail. And the question remains: What will we do then?

Blessings,

Glenn