Infect Your Enemies
February 20, 2012 Leave a comment
Infect Your Enemies
Hello again XXX,
I do not have what I wrote to you from my cell phone earlier, however, let me start out again….
As a Christ follower, I believe Evil is to be conquered by Good, not more Evil… One does not stop Evil by becoming and doing the same. Jesus did not do it that way. Of first importance in stopping Evil is the Gospel, the Good News regarding the Death, the Burial, and the Resurrection of Jesus…. The violence you speak of about Christ’s death is violence not on the part of Jesus, but on the part of Evil people, like Saddam Hussein, whom we have spoken of. Jesus’ disciples attempted to resort to violence, the sword, but Jesus said NO MORE…. He said, my Kingdom is not of this world, IF it were, then would my servants fight. As a Christ follower, I also believe my Kingdom is NOT of this world, therefore, to me, a lot of what you bring up regarding politics is a moot point and my personal political opinions about what kingdoms of this world should do in the physical realm are not relevant. From a Spiritual point of view, I think Israel should turn to Jesus. I likewise think Iran should turn to Jesus. I likewise think the United States should turn to Jesus, and hear and act upon the Gospel message, which is the Good News that has defeated Evil….
Knowing that the unlikelihood of this happening in the immediate future leads me to believe that anything that what I personally, or other Christ followers, can do should be to infect our enemies with the Spirit of Jesus…. We don’t even have to use words to do this… Showing Love to each other is a recommended way of doing it, so the whole world will know about it, and showing Love to our enemies is another recommended way of infecting our enemies. Love is a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) against Evil. Evil against Evil has proven for thousands of years to be ineffective. I can cite all the “proof texts” one wants, to “prove” it, but if one is already infected with the Spirit of Jesus, that person will already have ears to hear and eyes to see there is some value in this radical Love.
To this end, I hope to go with FOR, (Fellowship of Reconciliation), on their delegation to Iran in May, if it is God’s will, and if I can arrange the finances and time off…. I would like to do something, even small, to help further FOR’s previous relationships with Iran, and to help in their mission this coming May. If I do nothing but share Christ’s love, hold a Muslim baby, tell some Iranians about my physical father who served in Iran in WWII, express my love for the Iranian people, regardless of their government, and hopefully infect them with the Spirit of Jesus, that will be more than enough… No preaching, and proselytizing will be needed…
As far as your links go, I looked at them briefly, and will attempt to look at them in more detail later. As I mentioned, Iraq should have had weapons of mass destruction, since we sold a lot of them to them, ourselves, and possessed the receipts… It was my view that the UN inspectors for several years could not find them, and we could not find them after we invaded Iraq either…. Either way, this falls back into the subject of fighting Evil with Evil. If we do that, would it not be more important to attack Korea, Pakistan, Israel, China, India, and other nations with actually proven Weapons of Mass Destruction? We attacked Iraq under a similar concept to the zone of immunity concept being thought of now. Time was running out for us, since it would be too hot in the desert soon to go to war, (it has been very hot for 9 years now) so we rushed to war, without even thinking of the points in the “just war” theory, which has never, ever been used anyway….. Religions and nations also rushed to join in… Now we appear to be rushing to join in again in similar way, before the “zone of immunity” closes in on us…..
It appears to me that all your links, both Republican and Democratic alike, approve of the concept of fighting Evil with Evil. This seems to be the main disagreement we have…. I personally believe we should NOT as Christ followers fight Evil with more Evil… This is the first point I think needs to be considered in view of the Gospel of Peace, the gospel of Grace, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God….. The “American Narrative”, as you mention, is of much lesser importance to me than the Gospel… Nationalism is actually one of the main problems we need to face up to, not trumpet and sing to…. I quote you: “I don’t doubt our government has a well developed talent for lying to us.”, and I agree with you.. After all, that is one of my first points when I said “the powers have lied to you before”, not only our powers, but the powers of the whole world who have already been defeated on the cross, and hopefully, one day will be redeemed, since all things in heaven and earth were created by and for the redeemer…. Humans were not in heaven at the time of this statement… Excepting, one, Human/Divine personage….
The Spirit of Jesus is a weapon of mass destruction against Evil… Infect your enemies with Love. That is very important to me…. Infect Everyone with Love…. Your friends too… Infect them with the Spirit of Jesus.
Grace & Peace,
About jcooperforpeace
jcooperFORpeace 