Immanuel: Practicing Presence | Week Six | Matthew 5:43-48 | June 14th, 2026

This week, Wendy closed the "Emmanuel: Practicing Presence" series with a message on how God is with us in our enemies, and argued that Jesus's command to love our enemies corrects a misreading of the Old Testament that treated hatred as permissible toward outsiders. She walks through four steps for escaping what she calls "enemy mode" (listed below) and frames love as the more powerful and life-giving alternative to hate, and we are urged to move these practices from theory into action during the week ahead.

Escaping “Enemy Mode”
1. Identify who your enemies are
2. Surrender your hatred to God in trust that He will handle justice
3. Reframe your enemies by seeing them through God's eyes as fellow fallen people and beloved children
4. Pray for and actively bless those who persecute you