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Dietrich Bonhoeffer's comment in Life Together is worth consideration: “l can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed in intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner. This is a happy discovery for the Christian who begins to pray for others. There is no dislike, no personal tension, no estrangement that cannot be overcome by intercession as far as our side of it is concerned. Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the fellowship must enter every day. The struggle we undergo with our brother in intercession may be a hard one, but that struggle has the promise that it will gain its goal.”

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Well said. Valuable viewpoint from your priest friend. Praying for that person to change so that at the least he won't do the same to someone else makes excellent sense and provides a motivation I hadn't thought of in praying for my enemies - or at least those I dislike or detest.

It's well worth noting that Jesus in His prayer to the Father said this in John 17:15 -

"My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one."

One can mine a lot from that, including that Jesus certainly knew the world would shape us, because after all, we live in it and must accommodate those around us too. How can we not, if even if someone we think is wrong - we must love them and accept and trust that God is also working in them in His way - not necessarily our way. Love isn't always about being right.

Secondly, while Jesus certainly tells us to pray for our enemies, and even to love them - that doesn't mean they aren't still our enemies:

Romans 12:19 - Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

So, as much as possible, let go and let God. He knows our weaknesses. He certainly knows when we pray through gritted teeth for those we can't stand. And it's OK. Because He knew before we were even born, the arc of our life, from beginning to end - and still He loves us and cares for us, and died for us, despite our faults.

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founding

Another Reason to Pray for Enemies - What an amazing article and principle behind forgiveness! You truly came across a blessed priest. I know I have wounds from friends that go back decades. I feel that I finally have a forgiveness tool that can allow the healing to begin. Knowing something of your recent history, I can see where this really hit home with you as well.

Culturally Compromised—What Else Is New? - Reminds me of the old goldfish asking the young ones how they liked the water. One of the young ones turns to the other and asks, "What's water?"

I don't think we need to feel guilty or apologize for living in the culture we do. But we do need the humility and wisdom to realize we are social animals of our day and time, and approach all others of other cultures with grace and humility by keeping that in mind.

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When you threw Trump under the bus (just out of ego and hubris because you didnt like his rough manner) after he had singlehandedly and bravely set in motion overturn of Roe I think YOU are an example of very bad discipleship!! and now we have Biden-Harris-Schumer-Peolosi...thanks "brother"!!!

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The mobile phone or computer algorithms must have difficulty classifying me. Hybrid Christian perhaps if there's such a category.

My parents were Methodists but sent me from age 4 to an English Baptist despite us living in Wales....it's a language thing! I was baptised there by full immersion in 1956. My Baptist wife eventually divorced me while I was working in PNG. By snail-mail from the UK I asked a Catholic priest whose work I had admired on the island if I could join him in his social programme there.

Within a few months I had a UK passport with employment shown as 'Lay Missionary'. While working I married a young islander who was member of the SDA Church. Then the Bishop transferred me to run 3 of his coconut/cocoa plantations further along the coast miles from the parish. The only church in the area was an United Church and so I attended it and helped as a Lay-preacher.

30 years after I first arrived in New Guinea I was once again back in my original Baptist Church. With my ecumenical lifestyle I have been bothered by some of the anti-Catholic ethos there is even in what some of my friends would says the Baptist is a liberal Christian organisation. I often wonder why the Baptist Missionary Society must send missionaries to nations worldwide that had Christian hundreds of years before Williams Carey had been born.

My final rants include once attending a Evangelical Congregational church in 1961where the preacher's extempore prayer included asking God to crash the plane that was carrying Queen Elizabeth on her first of three meetings with the Pope. I had not long completed National Service in The Welsh Guards and is seemed treasonous.

My final one though

In 2005 I wrote to NTM criticising them for accounts on their webpages re their work in 'heathen' 'under darkness still' PNG. Their rather curt reply said, 'I've been to the UK and seen that some things that struck me absolutely daft, but I'd hesitate to think that visiting would offer me the necessary insights to evaluate what was truly going on.'

They must have thought I might have been on a world cruise and had briefly seen the islands. My reply gave a resume of my 30 years on the island as Lay-misso, Local Govt. Adviser for the Australian Govt. and years later a Local Govt. Councillor, Provincial Assembly Member. They never replied to that.

Just last week I noted that NTM after their own sex scandals became public they changed their name to Ethnos-360 but last week on line I was reading news of their presenting a new translation of the Bible to the Tigak tribe and I saw a building with a name-board 'PNG NTM'

Thanks for you weekly missive in His cause

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We'lll see if under Russell Moore, CT crosses its apparently ultimate (if unstated) taboo - criticize an established legal record of corporation or governmental law-breaking that harms/kills people.

I'm not holding my breath - 'love of money is the root of all evil" and CT "loves" the money of corporate America, directly or indirectly. And Corporate America understands it can parlay this CT "love" into its silence about its sins - kind of a modern day indulgence buying/giving transaction.

No, not surprisingly, the Pope and his Cardinals have not deigned to respond to my March letter to him, making similar points, see https://whsknox.blogs.com/2022/pope-carson-march-14-2022.pdf

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