The Measure of Your Loyalty
"You are only as loyal to Jesus as you are to your least favorite person."
By His substitutionary death for all of mankind, Jesus proved Himself to be loyal to absolutely everyone. Consistent with this doctrine is the call of Scripture that those who have received this act of love should, likewise, be loyal to all. Even to their enemies! To be disloyal to those for whom Christ died is to be disloyal to Him.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:43-45).
The Blaster
Fact of Fiction? It is legal to have your car retro-fitted with a flame thrower to ward of carjackers in South Africa. Fact!
With carjacking rampant in 1990s South Africa (in excess of 13,000 incidents per year), inventor Charles Fourie patented “The Blaster,” a flame-throwing device that could be retro-fitted to cars to ward off would-be attackers. “Casting a man-high fireball, reportedly with no damage to the paint, the Blaster … squirts liquefied gas from a bottle in the automobile's trunk through two nozzles, located under the front doors. The gas is then ignited by an electric spark, with fiery consequences.”
CNN reports that South African courts “allow killing if convinced that it's in self-defense.” Never mind the fact that flames shoot from both sides of the car simultaneously, posing great risk to pedestrians and passersby. In a society wherein cars are, for many, a luxury, some were willing to go to great lengths to stay in "the driver’s seat."
Can you imagine lighting someone on fire to stop them from stealing your car? Wouldn't it be better to just give them the car? ". . . Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?" (1 Corinthians 6:7).
Post Script: Wondering how the invention fared in its battle against crime? Motortorque.com (http://motortorque.askaprice.com/blog/tag/flamethrower-car/) reported in 2009 that fewer than 1000 were ever sold, suggesting that criminals simply resorted to shooting their victims from a distance, effectively nullifying the Blaster’s usefulness.
The Legacy of Forgiveness
Chrisitan author and writer for such publications as Our Daily Bread writes:
Five years after World War II ended, Marvin Maris met Taizo Fujishiro at a seminary in Chicago. Although the two had once been on opposing sides during the war, Maris remained a friend to Fujishiro. He prepared class notes for him, taught him how to drive, and invited him to celebrate Christmas together. After Taizo returned to Japan, they continued to stay in touch.
Forty years later, Maris’s granddaughter, Connie Wieck, went to Japan to teach English. She called Fujishiro and introduced herself. The next day they met for lunch. Taizo told her all about her grandfather, his first American friend.
Later Connie wrote: “Having grown up in a town where many veterans still carried deep pain … I never believed forgiveness could happen between people who were directly involved in such a dark history. Yet the friendship between my grandfather and Taizo proved otherwise.”
The apostle Paul described the miracle of salvation by writing, “When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10). And John reminds us that those who have been forgiven must love their brothers and sisters (1 John 2:9-12).
The legacy of God’s forgiveness will be passed on from generation to generation if we humbly receive His gift of forgiveness in Christ and extend it to others.