One Enemy

There is but one enemy
You are not it

It is the one with stealth
Working behind the scenes

He seeks to cause division
Using anger, jealously and pride

He plants seeds of doubt
Watered by human failure

He preys on our humanity and weakness
Manipulating our emotions

His arrows are well timed
In conjunction with anger, hunger and fatigue

He magnifies a hurt
Makes us believe it was done with intent

He cajoles us
Forgiveness and grace are undeserved

He pumps up our pride
Feeds our self inflated ego

He bring us low
With remembrances of a multitude of sins

Unless we take every thought captive
We are so easily led astray

May we always remember
Never forget

There is but one enemy
You are not it


Susan Bunts Wachtel
July 17, 2009


Dedicated to my precious friend Ruth…thank you for your wise counsel that always brings me back to God.

The Morning Report

Condemnation reporting for duty
Master, how grand
We’ve been given another day
To try and thwart God’s revealed plan

To try to keep one more human soul
From receiving salvation through Jesus Christ
To beat down and render His believers ineffective
With the baggage of their own sin

Let me tell you about yesterday’s successes
We have those mired in the muck of their own sin
Blinded to the fact that there is no one righteous
Not understanding that Christ died for them anyway

We have one who calls himself Christian
But temptation achieved great success
Causing him to turn away and fall into sin
Because he failed to take every thought captive

Now instead of sharing the Gospel message
He’s preoccupied with covering his own sin
Lest he be called a hypocrite
Justifying why he chose to do that which God declared sinful

With the holidays upon us
Opportunities abound
Christian thinks she will share the Gospel message
With family and friends yet unsaved

But we reminded her that they are unworthy sinners
Undeserving to receive forgiveness and salvation
Through the sacrificial atoning death
Of that Babe born in Bethlehem, lo so many years ago

We will provoke irritation and disgust
In self-righteousness she won’t want to have anything to do with them
Much less walk in love and be quick to forgive
She’ll abandon her plan to share the Gospel with the ones bound for hell

Instead she’ll be quick to condemn and slow to pray
Focused on the sinner and their sin
Oblivious to the real enemy
The hater of every human soul


By Susan Bunts Wachtel
January 1, 2009

May we be mindful that there is only one true enemy. He desires that we be focused on the sin not the sinner, so disgusted and put off that we won’t think them worthy of sharing the Gospel. In doing so we walk in the sin of pride and self righteousness.