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The "thin blue line" covered by the blood of Christ. |
Sorry for the delay in this week's newsletter and Bible study but, praise God, He had a reason in causing me to wait until now to post it. The focus this week is our need for God -- as a nation, as a profession and individually. Understand that I'm not just talking about the fact that each of us must "
repent and believe..." (
Mark 1:15) in Christ as Lord and Savior in order for us to be saved. Rather, I'm referring to the fact that we as a profession and as a nation (and the world in general, for that matter) must collectively repent and embrace God's sovereignty before it is too late. Scroll down to "
A Nation and Profession Desperately in Need of God."
Here on the Colorado Front Range, we have some big news about our
Metro-Denver FCPO chapter (
#217). Over the past eighteen months or so, I have been discipling an Aurora officer (Matt Springer) to eventually take over the law enforcement fellowship at Calvary Aurora. With our move to helping plant a new church (
Truth Church Calvary), and because the Calvary Aurora fellowship has actually become an integral part of that church, God pressed me to move our FCPO Chapter to the Highlands Ranch (south Metro) area where we will be staying the course and back on track starting in April (we'll also be moving to meeting on the
1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month starting at 7 PM as usual).
Meanwhile, those who wish to continue in fellowship at Calvary Aurora can continue to do so under Matt's leadership through a new Calvary Aurora outreach he has dubbed
WayPointOne Ministry. Understand Matt has decided that WayPointOne will
not be a part of the Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers (Matt, however, remains a FCPO member) given Matt's new focus on outreach to fire, military, ambulance/EMS (First Responders) and church security
in addition to law enforcement. Contact Matt at
WayPointOneMinistry@gmail.com for more information and let's keep him in prayer as he steps out in faith.
We're excited about what God is doing with both of these fellowships and with Centurion in general -- stay tuned for more details!
As always, stay safe on the street while being radically
bold
in Christ.
MC
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RESOURCES
(1) Police Major and Law Officer Editor Travis Yates brings some much needed sense to the issues we're facing today (and a great follow-up to my message last week): "Don't Kid Yourself, Tough Guy!"
(2) I've been sharing a lot about "backup" here of late. Police wife and author Vicki Newman knows something about backing up her cop husband and her interview with Family Life is a must hear.
PRAYER REQUESTS
(1)
Please begin praying now for our
Police Week 2018 FCPO Mission Team
. We will be heading to DC on May 12th to minister to our own and the need is very great.
(2) Please pray for this situation and help as the Lord leads. One of the things I do in ministry is coming alongside wounded officers who come here to Craig Hospital from all over the US. One of those was Dep. Chris Dewey who, along with Em, became family. I later had the honor of preaching at Chris' LOD police funeral. What has occurred here is gut wrenching on multiple levels. This is via Em's sister, Hannah (a cop in WI): Emily Dewey's Story.
(3) Wounded Wichita (KS) Officer
Brian Arterburn is again struggling in the aftermath of his line of duty injuries. Please lift him and his bride, WPD Officer Claudale Cavanaugh-Arterburn, in prayer.
Have a prayer request or announcement you would like included here? Need prayer?
Email me
! I also post prayer requests on my Facebook page ("friend" me).
UPCOMING EVENTS
(2) Police Week 2018 is fast approaching (May) and we seek your prayers as we again plan for our national outreach in DC to serve/minister to our own. Stay tuned for more details.
(4) FCPO-Canada is hosting their 2018 National Conference in Newfoundland & Labrador on August 3-5. You'll get to see a special part of Canada while hanging out with a great group of brother and sister servant-warriors.
(5) In addition to my own Centurion Church Security Seminars (again, contact me for details), here's the latest from my friends with Sheepdog Seminars (click the "SEMINAR SCHEDULE" button. This is outstanding, warrior-focused training for cops and civilian sheepdogs alike (and not only in the area of church safety/security). I know and trust the main speakers: Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, retired officer Jimmy Meeks and Carl Chinn (all rock solid and you'll come away encouraged).
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The Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry
The Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry
is a national, FCPO-affiliated, evangelical Christian outreach to our own in law enforcement. These newsletters and Bible studies are part of this effort and past editions can be found on our
website
and our social media
(
Facebook
and
Twitter
) feeds. As always, feel free to adapt these messages for your own individual or group use and please share them with others.
We are lead by Police Officer and Chaplain/Evangelist Michael "MC" Williams, a 30-year law enforcement veteran and sought-after instructor and speaker at churches [including the well-received Centurion Church Security Seminar] retreats and both law enforcement and civilian conferences and seminars around the country. Contact MC via email for more.
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Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers
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FCPO-USA exists to provide biblical support ("backup"), accountability and iron sharpens iron fellowship to Christian officers first in the U.S. and throughout the world as well. Our metro-Denver chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers -- (aka FCPO Chapter 217) -- is a Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry affiliate. Starting in April, we'll begin meeting most 1st and 3rd Tuesday evenings in Highlands Ranch (email me for details) for profession-focused (and life-focused)
Bible study, prayer and servant-warrior/iron sharpens iron fellowship. Spouses are both welcome and encouraged to attend with their LEO.
Our first meeting in Highlands Ranch is set for Tuesday, April 17th at 7 PM.
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"A Nation and Profession Desperately in Need of God"
Watching what has been going on in America of late ("late" being perhaps the last 40 years, although the last two years in particular are like an air raid siren) has been heartbreaking. Moveover, we are seeing much the same occurring within our God-ordained profession of law enforcement (Romans 13:1-4). While there is a price that MUST be paid for our disobedience, is there still time for us? Folks, if there is to be a "yes" answer to that question, it must include embracing the fact that ours is a nation and a profession desperately in need of God (and thus again is my Code 3 sense of urgency)!
Marine, and fellow servant-warrior and partner in ministry, Chaplain Jim Bontrager, wrote the following (including this quote from C.S. Lewis):
"In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid geldings to be fruitful." - C.S. Lewis
To that I add, we teach kids there is no God, that it's survival of the fittest for reproductive rights and act surprised when they come into a school on a murderous rampage.
We make a mockery of manhood and scoff at the role of fathers in the discipline of their children, then stand aghast watching police officers confronting rebels...self centered thugs who exploit and harm others in their quest to get what THEY want.
I could go on and on but the reality is this: It's time to address the real reason America is falling -- unbroken hearts and demonic ideology that glorifies self. God will not be mocked and we will reap what we have sown. His ways cannot be discarded.
It was He who established morality, right and wrong absolutes to be applied throughout life. It was He who established the sexes and the unique roles they play in producing whole individuals. It was He that established the family, His institution designed to produce self controlled children that learn respect and grow to be self-governing, responsible adults. It was he who ordained the design for civil liberty; self governing individuals who understood that America is not a shark feed of individual rights but a country where responsibilities to your neighbor is among the highest of considerations.
Turning back to Him is our only hope!
AMEN Jim! His post is a great way to start off this introspective Bible study dealing with this issue. Moreover, I would be remiss if I failed to add that many of the comments to my most recent Law Officer article,
Running to the Sound of Gunfire
(yes, same title as last week's Bible study), including many that came from fellow officers, provides a sad exclamation point for this message.
The central passage of Scripture for our study is Psalm 85, which reads in part,
"
Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?"
What is the future of the United States of America? Are we doomed to just go the way that so many other once-great nations have gone? Is America headed to the ash heap of history? Are our greatest days behind us, or could they still yet be ahead? Is there any hope for America? For our God-ordained profession of law enforcement? While it is true that no one can answer those questions with any immediate certainty, we know this much: there is no biblical evidence that America will be the world's superpower of the last days! In fact, it can be rightly argued that we are nowhere to be found during the
Great Tribulation.
Now understand that, should the Lord tarry, the United States is not the first, nor will it be the last, nation to rise and fall. Every nation's days are numbered and ours, while perhaps the most unique and blessed nation in the world's history, is no exception. Rome was once the mightiest empire on the face of the earth but it collapsed internally before she was conquered externally.
While we as a country can be diligent to guard against enemies on the outside, we have allowed rot and wickedness -- like a Trojan horse -- to take us down from within.
Historian Will Durant, in his book on Rome's history,
Caesar and Christ, said, "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within. The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in her people, her morals. The difference between Rome and the U.S. is that we were founded on Judeo-Christian values. We've strayed from the original vision of our founding fathers, the vision that produced "America." What was once 'freedom of religion' (emphasis not on "religion" but on "relationship" with God) has now become 'freedom from religion.'"
Sadly, even wickedly, we have sat by and allowed God to be removed and even excluded from our schools, military, police departments, sporting events, public venues, and workplaces. Instead of Christmas, when we should focus on Jesus, we have Happy Holidays (God forgive us) and Winter Solstice. Instead of Good Friday and Easter, we have Spring Break lawlessness. It seems to me that America has gone out her way in recent years to turn from and even reject God. But America needs God's intervention.
We saw many turn back to the Lord after 9/11. Remember those prayer vigils on street corners and packed churches? Remember the members of Congress spontaneously singing "God Bless America"? Will it take another "9/11" for God to get our attention? Will it be too late?
Speaking on this topic (9/11), pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie said, "These memories give me hope that there could be at least one more great revival in America's future. If we do not have revival, I do believe that judgement is inevitable."
Peter Marshall, former chaplain to the U.S. Senate, once said, "The choice before us is plain: Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration." God was able to turn the very wicked nation of Nineveh around in the days of Jonah (
Jonah 3). Can that still happen for us as a nation and a profession?
Many will point to
II Chronicles 7:14 (
If my people who are called by my name
humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.) and say it is for us today in America. Is that true? While there are many points of application for us in this passage, here's the correct (sound doctrine) exegesis:
Is 2 Chronicles 7:14 for us today?
So what then can we do? With the understanding that we are very likely in the "last days," and, as Greg rightly says, "judgement is inevitable," are we simply to give up? On the contrary, now, more than ever, is the time for us to live our faith radically while being on our collective knees in repentance and prayer for America, for our profession and for all those who are either prodigals or outright unbelievers.
God gave the prophet Isaiah a word for us that does have powerful application for today (and one that includes a "call to arms" for His sheepdogs):
"Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.' If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday. And the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; You will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell" (
Isaiah 58:8-12, NASB).
So the answer, then, is a wholehearted devotion to biblical obedience and while at the same time coming together to repent, pray and fast in accordance with a passage that my friend and mentor
Jack Crans quotes often --
Joel 1:14 -- which says, "
Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD." Will you do that? The time is late and the need dire. To quote one of my favorite Presidents (Ronald Reagan), "If not us, who? If not now, when?" Again, "Code 3" sense of urgency!
We know there have been some great
spiritual awakenings in our history as well. Let's seek God's face and pray that America will turn back to Him in these last days.
Finally, understand again that we must be first saved ourselves (born again in Christ) if we are to have a genuine impact on our nation, our agencies, our communities and our families. Is that you? Are you sure? If not, I beg you to dig into the following:
(1) J
esus' first recorded words in His earthly ministry were: "
Repent and believe in the Good News
" (
Mark 1:15
).
To
repent
is a "180" -- a complete, radical change of mind and heart as it relates our sin. To
believe
as He intends it here is to cry out to God for your salvation and wholeheartedly
surrender in faith to Christ
in the same way we have "faith" that our body armor will do its job against the rounds it is intended to stop, that our brakes will work when running Code, or that a skydiver's parachute will open when it is supposed to (we stake our very lives on it)! And the "Good News" that Jesus refers to here is of course His Gospel and plan of salvation.
(2) Understand that you can't "earn" or otherwise "badge" your way into heaven (or out of hell) by your worldly "goodness" or by being a "good cop." Without first embracing Christ and his redeeming blood He shed for you on the cross, you can NEVER be "good" enough to make it into heaven or escape the righteous and just consequences for our crimes (sin): hell! Don't believe that? Take the "Good Person Test" and see how you do!
(3) This same concept of "
believe" (the saving kind) is further revealed in
John 3:1-21 where Jesus says, "...
you must be born again." Note our Lord's emphasis on the word "
must" (not "may" or "should"): this is ultimately the
life-saving/life-changing personal relationship with Christ that I stress here every week (see
What does it mean to be a born again Christian?).
So now with this foundation in place, see:
If you've made a decision for Christ and don't know what to do next, see, Now what?
Running with you to the sound of gunfire!
MC
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