I’ve just finished reading a book called Citizen Soldiers written by Stephen E. Ambrose. It’s an account of the allied invasion and consequent liberation of Europe from the Germans. One chapter relates to prisoners of war. The author quotes from the memoir of Sergeant Zane Schlemmer of the 82nd Airborne who addressed the treatment of POWs, and I quote, “we had developed an intense hatred for anything and everything German. We were particularly unhappy about sending them, as prisoners, to our rear. We had to stay up there [front line of the battle] and resented anyone going back to shelter and warmth.”

This reminded me of a similar situation in Miracle on the River Kwai, a book first published in 1963 by Captain Ernest Gordon. When I read this story years ago, I thought it was one of the most amazing accounts of grace I’d ever come across. To understand the background behind the following account, one has to read the book. I believe that it has been republished with a new title, To End All Wars, and is available at Koorong. (Unfortunately, the movie by the same name does not do justice to the theme of grace revealed in the book.) The following is a bit of a long read, but it truly encapsulates the point I am wishing to make, about men who have been subjected to the horrors of war and how the grace of God transformed their reactions towards their enemies.

Farther on, we were shunted on to a siding for a lengthy stay. We found ourselves on the same track with several carloads of Japanese wounded. They were on their own and without medical care. No longer fit for action, they had been packed onto railway trucks which were being returned to Bangkok. Whenever one of them died en route, he was thrown off into the jungle. The ones who survived to reach Bangkok would presumably receive some form of medical treatment there. But they were given none on the way.

They were in a shocking state; I have never seen men filthier. Their uniforms were encrusted with mud and blood and excrement. Their wounds, sorely inflamed and full of pus, crawled with maggots. The maggots, however, in eating the putrefying flesh, probably prevented gangrene.

We could understand now why the Japanese were so cruel to their prisoners. If they didn’t care for their own, why should they care for us? The wounded men looked at us forlornly as they sat with their heads resting against the carriages waiting fatalistically for death. They were the refuse of war; there was nowhere to go and no one to care for them. These were the enemy, more cowed and defeated than we had ever been. Without a word, most of the officers in my section unbuckled their packs, took out part of their ration and a rag or two, and with water canteens in their hands went over the Japanese train to help them. Our guards tried to prevent us, bawling, “No goodka! No goodka!” But we ignored them and knelt by the side of the enemy to give them food and water, to clean and bind up their wounds, to smile and say a kind word. Grateful cries of “Aragutto” (“Thank you”) followed us when we left. An allied officer from another section of the train had been taking it all in. “What fools you all are!” he said to me. “Don’t you realise that those are the enemy?”

“Have you never heard the story of the man who was going from Jerusalem to Jericho?” I asked him. He gave me a blank look, so I continued, “He was attacked by thugs, stripped of everything and left to die. Along came a priest; he passed him by. Then came a lawyer, a man of high principles; he passed as well. Next came a Samaritan, a half-caste, a heretic, an enemy. But he didn’t pass by; he stopped. His heart was filled with compassion. Kneeling down, he poured some wine through the unconscious lips, cleaned and dressed the helpless man’s wounds, then took him to an inn where he had him cared for at his own expense.”

“But that’s different!” the officer protested angrily. “That’s in the Bible. These are the swine who’ve starved us and beaten us. They’ve murdered our comrades. These are our enemies.”

“Who is mine enemy? Isn’t he my neighbour? God makes neighbours; we make enemies. You know full well that is where we excel. Mine enemy may be anyone who threatens my privileges – or my security – or my person – as well as those poor wretches who know no better. If they don’t we, at least, should. Whether we like it or not, we are the ones who create the enemy and lose the neighbour. Mine enemy is my neighbour!”

He gave me a scornful glance and, turning his back, left me to my thoughts.

I regarded my comrades with wonder. Eighteen months ago they would have joined readily in the destruction of our captors had they fallen into their hands. Now these same men were dressing the enemy’s wounds. We had experienced a moment of grace, there in those blood-stained railway cars. God had broken through the barriers of our prejudice and had given us the will to obey His command, “Thou shalt love.”

The words of Jesus came to me: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven.”

The reply Reason made to such a command was, “But we have to be practical because we live in a practical world. It doesn’t pay to love – particularly your enemy.”

Now faith answered, “Quite true. One need but look at the Cross to see this demonstrated. But – there is no other way to love. ‘Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone.’”

Our experience of life in death had taught us that the way to life leads through death. To see Jesus was to see in Him that love which is the very highest form of life, that love which has sacrifice as the logical end of its action. To hang on to life, to guard it jealously, to preserve it, is to end up by burying it. Each of us must die to the physical life of selfishness, the life controlled by our hates, fears, lusts and prejudices in order to live in the flesh the life that is of the spirit. This is the basic law that cannot be broken except at great cost.

We were beginning to understand that as there were no easy ways for God, so there were no easy ways for us. God, we saw, was honouring us by allowing us to share in His labours, aye, in His agony – for the world He loves. God, in finding us, had enabled us to find our brother.

Ernest Gordon (Capt), Miracle on the River Kwai

This week Pastor Helen Bates shared with life group leaders some excerpts from John Ortberg's writings on the subject of the Holy Spirit and our part in spiritual maturity. One particular part struck a chord. John stated that

"if you are struggling with impatience, training may mean rearranging life around opportunities for the Spirit to increase your patience. Deliberately drive in the slow lane on the freeway. Purposely get in the longer line at the grocery store. If the Holy Spirit is calling you to break patterns of sin, merely trying leads to frustration, but deliberately training leads to change."

It brought to mind the time, about three years ago, when I decided to resume riding a motorcyle to work after a twenty year break. From where I live, it's approximately a 90 kilometre round trip. It wasn't long before I realised that a lot of things had changed since I last rode. The bike I was riding was more powerful, there was a lot more traffic on the road and people seemed to be more impatient than ever to get where they were going. In the interests of self-preservation, I decided that I would have to build into my travelling certain practices. One of them was to deliberately head towards the slow lane on the freeway. Initially, I thought it would give me time to gain the equivalent of my sealegs.

It was strange at first because I found that I was the only motorcycle rider in that lane, at that speed. In time I realised that what had started as a concern for safety had become a lesson in humility. (I think it was John Eldridge who said that most sins fall under the categories of pride and idolatry. I have to tell you that pride is something that I battle with every day.) The truth is that there was a temptation to demonstrate the power of my bike and my riding ability - pride. Cars and bikes were zipping past me and people were cutting in front of me, forcing me to slow even more to allow a safety margin. I was constantly having to exercise humility. Over time, I discovered that I'd had a change of heart. I consciously prepared myself for these things to happen. I experienced a calmness and a lack of frustration. I also found that, as I gave way to people coming into my lane, they often responded with friendly waves. Drivers in general seemed to treat me with respect which was a pleasant surprise. Better still, I found this attitude of putting others first spilled over into other areas of my life. For me, the breakthrough in my sin has been as John Ortberg said, not trying to be humble, but choosing behaviours that require humility.

The doleful reality is that very few human beings really do concretely desire to hear what God has to say to them. This is shown by how rarely we listen for his voice when we are not in trouble or when we are not being faced with a decision that we do not know how to handle. People who understand and warmly desire to hear God's voice will, by contrast, want to hear it when life is uneventful just as much as they want to hear it when they are facing trouble or big decisions. This is a test that we should all apply to ourselves as we go in search of God's word: do we seek it only under uncomfortable circumstances? Our answer may reveal that our failure to hear God's voice when we want to is due to the fact that we do not in general want to hear it, that we want it only when we think we need it.

- Dallas Willard, Hearing God

The World's Most Tragic Waste

The man who dies out of Christ is said to be lost, and hardly a word in the English tongue expresses his condition with greater accuracy. He has squandered a rare fortune and at the last he stands for a fleeting moment and looks around, a moral fool, a wastrel who has lost in one overwhelming and irrecoverable loss, his soul, his life, his peace, his total, mysterious personality, his dear and everlasting all.

- A. W. Tozer

Those who are the most inclined to trust God without any evidence except His Word always receive the greatest amount of visible evidence of His love.

- Charles Gallaudet Trumbull

"My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life for many years, and bring you prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you; write them on the tablet of your heart, then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man."

Proverbs 3:1-4

I was first introduced to John Ortberg, former pastor at Willow Creek, some years ago at a Global Leadership Conference. The theme of his talk was about 'shadow mission'-- that is, that so often, we think that what we're doing for God is from God, but in fact many of the things we do for God are motivated by our own desire for self-fulfillment. That resonated with me and from then on, I have read many of John's books, and the following are some his quotes. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I have.



'Here is a deep truth about water-walking: The fear will never go away. Why? Because each time i want to grow, it will involve going into new territory, taking on new challenges. And each time I do that, I will experience fear again. The fear will never go away, as long as i continue to grow.'

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'Character comes as a byproduct of a pursuit of God and the Kingdom of God.'

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'The journey to integrity requires the cultivation of a desire: I must want to be good more than I want to do well. It requires a decision: I will choose to play with integrity and lose rather than cheat and win. It requires a belief: I cannot succeed in what I do and fail in who I am.'

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'Surrender means giving up ultimate mastery of my life. However, I am not called to do this grudgingly. A person may yield to a stronger person, or an army to a stronger army. One may yield to God because he is almighty. None of this is full surrender. Only if one experiences that God is good is it possible to surrender to him unconditionally one's whole heart, soul, and being.'

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'To be a follower of Jesus, you must renounce comfort as the ultimate value of your life.'

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'Failure does not shape you; the way you respond to failure shapes you.'

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'Look at most sin, yours and mine-- and underneath it you will find fear.'

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'This is a story of an unopened gift, the story about the sin of unrealised potential. This is why one of the greatest temptations most of us face, that could block us from getting out of the boat, is comfort. Comfort will often keep us from growth.'

'If John the Baptist lived today he would be medicated and diagnosed bipolar. He would be one more certified lunatic. And that's just what would happen if the church were in charge of his diagnosis. Confronted by John, we have to stop and ask ourselves: "If this is what the person looked like who prepare the way for Jesus, then what should the disciple of Jesus Christ look like who comes after Jesus." '

-Erwin McManus

In 2003 I was visiting a church in a town called Marion, South Dakota-- and while waiting out in the foyer, i came across a little book with messages of inspiration. The following caught my attention, so I recorded them in my journal at the time. I'd like to share them with you now...

Letter to the editor: "I have been attending services quite regularly for the past 30 years and during that time I have listened to no less than 3000 sermons. But to my consternation, I discovered I cannot remember a single one of them. I wonder if a minister's time might be more profitable spent on something else."

Response: "I have been married for 30 years. During that time I have eaten 32,850 meals, mostly of my wife's cooking. Suddenly I have discovered that I cannot remember the menu of a single meal. Yet I received nourishment from every one of them. I have a distinct impression that without them I would have starved to death a long time ago."

-Author unknown

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A weatherman boasted, "I'm 90% right 10% of the time."
Some people resort to this kind of double-talk to cover up a poor record. The Bible's prophetic record, though, truly is accurate. Look at a few examples. The Lord Jesus was born in the city of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) at a time specified (Daniel 9:25). Infants in Bethlehem were massacred as prophesied (Jeremiah 31:15). Jesus went down into Egypt and returned (11:1). Isaiah foretold Christ's ministry in Galilee (Isaiah 9:1-2). Zachariah predicted His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a colt (Zachariah 9:9) and His betrayal for thirty pieces of silver (Zachariah 11:12-13). King David had never seen a Roman crucifixion, yet in Psalm 22, under divine inspiration, he penned a graphic portrayal of Jesus' death. Isaiah 53 gives a detailed picture of our Lord's rejection, mistreatment, death, and burial. We have a book of prophecy that's right all of the time."

- Author unknown

"It is a sin to bore people with God's word."

- Joe Aldrich, Lifestyle Evangelism USA

"I've been around prisoners a long time, and I've tried out a lot of programs to help these men. Let me tell you the conclusion: Only God can change a man, and that's the message of this evening."

-Max Mustain
Warden Of Sandstone Correctional Centre, Minnesota, USA

Fear Not

What would you guess is the most common command in scripture? The single command in scripture that occurs more often than any other-- God's most frequently repeated instruction-- is formulated in two words: Fear Not. Do not be afraid. Be strong and courageous. You can trust me. Fear Not.

Why does God command us not to fear? My hunch is that the reason God says "Fear Not" so much is not that he wants us to be spared emotional discomfort. In fact usually he says it to get people to do something that is going to lead them into greater fear anyway.

I think God says "Fear Not" so often because fear is the number one reason human beings are tempted to avoid what God asks them to do. Fear is the number one reason why people refuse to get out of the boat. So we need this command all the time.

Lloyd Ogilvie notes there are 366 "Fear Not" verses in the Bible-- one for every day of the year, including one for leap year!

-John Ortberg
If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat

Relationships

"I began to discover through relationships with people who did not follow Christ, that what I knew was not nearly as important as how I treated them."

- Eric Bryant, Peppermint-Filled Pinatas

Suffering Produces Something

"I asked Dr Paul Brand to give me examples of Christians he knew who had undergone tremendous suffering. He sited several examples in detail. When I asked whether the pain had turned them toward God or away from God, he thought at length, and concluded that there was no common response. Some grew closer to God, some bitterly drifted from Him. The difference, Brand said, was in their attitude toward cause. Those hung up with questions ("What did I do to deserve this? What is God trying to tell me? Am I being punished?") Often bitterly turned against God or else resigned themselves to a fatalistic despair. The most triumphant sufferers were those who sought the best response for Christians, and trusted God fully despite their painful conditions."

- Philip Yancey
Where Is God When It Hurts

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I read this nearly 32 years ago. I was a new Christian, and had no idea what lay ahead of me, or how much this statement would effect my life. I only know that i was moved when i read it. There have been times in my life like many others when I have suffered not really knowing why, nor knowing the outcome. I have to say-- and am glad to say, that during these testing times rather then moving away from God, I have pressed in on Him. And oh, how wonderful that has been.

some inspirational starters......

There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge;
That is curiosity.
There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others;
That is vanity.
There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve;
That is love.

Bernard Clairvaux (1090-1153)



It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly . . . who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be those cold and timid souls who have never known victory or defeat.

Teddy Roosevelt



True spirituality manifests itself in certain dominant desires. These are ever-present, deep settled wants sufficiently powerful to motivate and control life. For convenience let me number them . . .

1. The desire to be holy rather than happy.
2. He wants to see the honour of God advanced through his life even if it means that he himself must suffer temporary dishonour or loss.
3. The spiritual man wants to carry his cross . . . that extra adversity that comes to us as a result of our obedience to Christ.
4. He sees everything from God’s viewpoint.
5. Another desire of the spiritual man is to die right rather than to live wrong . . . he wants most of all to be right, and he is happy to let God decide how long he shall live. He knows that he can afford to die now that he is in Christ, but he knows that he cannot afford to do wrong, and this knowledge becomes a gyroscope to stabilise his thinking and his acting.
6. He desires to see others advance at his expense.
7. The spiritual man habitually makes eternity-judgments instead of time-judgments . . . All this must be by the operation of the Holy Spirit within him. No man can become spiritual by himself. Only the free Spirit can make a man spiritual.

A.W. Tozer, Marks of a Spiritual Man

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In relation to Tozer's comments, I remember a time many years ago, I was boarding with some people who had a rather precocious 15-year-old son. He was very interested in the fact that I was a Christian. He was more interested that I took this lifestyle seriously. After lengthy conversations one day, he concluded that I was a 100% Christian. From someone who was looking from the outside in, that was quite a compliment. I've always been very serious about being genuine and the above checklist has helped my life's compass travel in due-north direction. I'd like to say, looking at this checklist, that I've been able to tick all the boxes... but life doesn't work that way. Sometimes I'm doing well in some areas-- others need a lot of work. The main thing is, as every day passes, I'm moving forward, not standing still, not going backwards-- but moving forward.