The Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry
Newsletter & Bible Study
Fellow officers, sheepdogs, servant-warriors/leaders, spouses and supporters:

Let me start off by saying that it would appear God had me on "HOLD!" orders in getting out this edition because of some pressing prayer requests and other points that He clearly wanted me to include. Beyond that, my prayer is that the message(s) shared here will encourage you through these troubling times.

First, the following is my brief "after-action-report" from our Police Week outreach in DC (this and the study below serve as as a follow-up to last week's "When God Says GO!" Bible study:

REFUSING TO BE "CANCELLED"

For many years now, our team has traveled to Washington, D.C. and our National Law Enforcement Memorial to minister (the Greek word is “servant”) to our own during Police Week. Sadly, the 2020 events were cancelled due to the pandemic. Then this year, all official Police Week events in DC – including our outreach -- were again cancelled in spite of much of the country opening up. While I can’t prove it, we believe strongly that these decisions were not made due to the pandemic but rather as a politically-motivated attempt to punish or otherwise "cancel" (cancel-culture wickedness) all of us in law enforcement (part of a 4-letter word I'll share at the end). 

Regardless, God pressed three of us (Jim and Penny Winston and I) to REFUSE to be “cancelled” again. From Tuesday through Sunday of Police Week, we were “boots on the ground” at in DC and environs (we posted a plethora of pics on FB) doing "God's business" in loving on our own.  

One can best describe our outreach as “Christian peer support.” And while we gave out water, tracts, Bibles and a plethora of other resources to hurting officers and family members, what we did can be dumbed down to a single, 4-letter word: “LOVE.” God simply said "GO" to love on our own and be used by Him to be a beacon of light in a very dark time.

While some of the “one-on-one” details of our outreach efforts will remain private (I’ll just say they were fruitful – praise God), there were also some notable "public" events (a few of us MADE them public). The first was our “virtual” Candlelight Service. Aside from last year and this year, normally many thousands of officers and the families of our slain gather on the National Mall for a solemn, candlelight service where the names of our fallen from the previous year are read. While the virtual service took place online this year, two of us (and ONLY two of us) – Jim and I – donned our Class A uniforms (with his bride Penny as backup) and gathered at the Memorial seal to listen to the service via a blue tooth device. Wonderfully, a couple of DC FOP (DC 1) brothers brought candles that we placed at every panel of our Memorial. We then gathered at the seal with lit candles in hand to hear the reading of the names (a time of quiet prayer for Jim, Penny and I). Words are not adequate to describe what occurred there (suffice it to say that the emotions were raw).

Similarly, Jim and I showed in uniform (again, we were alone in this) at our Memorial for the virtual (online) Memorial Service that should have taken place live on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol. 

Bottom line is that -- in obeying His call to be "refuse to be cancelled" -- God gave us a plethora of Devine Appointments to minister to the hurting, give away materials (we stuffed our backpacks with Bibles, tracts, etc.), plant "seeds" (the biblical kind) and just fellowship as well. 

This year's cancelled official events are set for a "re-do" in October and we're planning on being there. That being said, I'll close out this report with another 4-letter word that was very apparent during our time in DC: EVIL. We are seeing great evil in our nation's Capitol (a level of evil I've not seen in my lifetime). Praise God, for those of us who are "in Christ" (genuine Christians), we KNOW Who wins in the end.

Second, I can't encourage you enough to take in the special study I've shared for you below which presents a Biblical (God's) view of memorials (including our own in DC and Memorial Day):

Finally, as we roll into Memorial Day weekend, please join me in my "Code 3" sense of urgency to share the hope we have in Christ with the LIVING whilst also remembering our military brethren who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of this nation. And if you need prayer or counsel, please reach out.

Brothers and sisters, let's not forget that God has our "6" while also leading us from the front!

____________________


PRAYER REQUESTS

(1) THANK YOU for your prayers for fellow officer Jim Winston, his bride Penny Winston and I as we served in DC during Police Week. Please know they were answered! Thanks also to those who prayed for me as I shared at the Calvary Chapel regional pastors' conference.

(2) Pray for my "brother-from-a-different-mother" Jim Bontrager of Warrior on the Wall Ministries as God uses him in mighty ways of late (opening up all kinds of speaking ops around the country).

(3) Please pray for medically retired Denver PD Officer John "Adsit Strong" Adsit who is back in the hospital due to complications from his line of duty injuries.

(4) Pray for the families of the fallen (both law enforcement and military Gold Star survivors) this Memorial Day weekend. Again, we can do nothing for those who have passed but we can do MUCH for those who still live (again, the Code 3 sense of urgency I keep talking about).

(5) Pray for a dear law enforcement family in in northern Indiana who are dealing with a plethora of stressful and difficult issues. God knows the details...just pray.

(6) Pray also for a law enforcement family in Kansas who have been fostering some babies that are now being unjustly taken from them. The whole situation is tragic on multiple levels. They need a miracle (ours is a God of miracles). Again, God knows the details....please pray.


How can I pray for YOU? Just reach out and I'll share your requests here (or not -- just let me know what and how much you want me to share).



UPCOMING EVENTS

(1) COLORADO Front Range locals and visitors: the next meeting of our Colorado-based Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry (FCPO Chapter #217) "cop church" fellowship will take place Tuesday, June 8th at Calvary Chapel Castle Rock from 6:30-8:00 PM. We meet in the 4th/5th grade classroom (follow the signs and feel free to shoot me an email for more info). As always, our meetings are open to all current, former and future officers and their spouses.

(2) Registration is now open for the Breaching the Barricade Law Enforcement Conference and Officer Appreciation Day events set for October 8-9, 2021 in northern Indiana. The title of this year's conference is, "Tactical Preparation for Triumph." You'll come away encouraged and Diana and I will be there to serve. Join us.

(3) The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (made up, in part, of retired officers who now serve as chaplains) is hosting a number of Law Enforcement Appreciation Dinners and Retreats around the country (click the link). I know some of the speakers (I keep waiting for an invite -- LOL). Recommended.




Memorial Day(s):

How God Would Have Us View These Solemn Occasions
_______
Having recently returned from our mission outreach to our own during Police Week in DC and now with Memorial Day weekend upon us, God has again pressed me to share a fresh, biblical (His) perspective on "memorial day(s)"-- in this case both Peace Officers Memorial Day and Memorial Day itself.  
 
A memorial helps us keep a memory of something significant alive in our hearts and minds. But are memorials and Memorial Day a biblical concept? As I was praying and studying in preparation for this message (and then reflecting on this Memorial Day weekend and our recent Police Week outreach), God revealed the following to me in His Word: Much like our modern day memorials and memorial remembrances, biblical memorials were set up to remind the faithful of what God has done for them, provide examples to live by, help us to never forget, and ALSO to have a “Code 3” sense of urgency to share the hope we have in Him with the living.
 
From God's perspective (the only one that really counts) as revealed in the Bible, a memorial is a sacrifice, monument or event that brings us into remembrance of something that He has done (versus what others have done). Moreover, the word "memorial" in Scripture comes from a Hebrew word that means to prick, to pierce, or to penetrate the memory.
 
While there are many other examples, I want to focus on two "memorials" that God has preserved in the pages of Scripture: The death of Moses memorialized in Deuteronomy 34:1-12 and the cross of Calvary. 
 
While Moses only spent 120 years on this earth thousands of years ago, he is still "memorialized" today and will forever be listed as one of Israel's greatest prophets. Moses led the nation of Israel out of the slavery in Egypt and through the desert for forty years to the very edge of the Promised Land. He is also thought to be the author (under the direction of the Holy Spirit) of both Job and Genesis. Even though Moses was not permitted to enter the land God had promised to His people, he was able to prepare them for the battles that would come upon their entry. Moreover, Moses left behind an eternal legacy despite the fact that he was not born of greatness or with a gift for leadership. By his own admission, Moses was just a simple shepherd who was "slow of speech" yet God clothed him in "Holy Spirit power" that enabled him to leave an indelible memorial that is truly eternal in nature. 
 
Likewise, the cross of Calvary is also a memorial -- of both love and of death. The cross memorializes Christ's love, substitution (taking our place on the cross) and propitiation (atonement; appeasing the Father by paying the penalty our sin demands):
 
Love: The cross is a memorial of Christ's love for us (John 3:16 and 15:3)

Substitution (1 Peter 1:18): Christ died in OUR place for OUR sin, to save you and bring you into a genuine, life-changing personal relationship with Him. 
 
Propitiation (1 John 1:10): In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 
 
The cross also serves as a memorial to a repentant believer's forgiven sin and an ever-present reminder to the unbeliever of their unforgiven sin (why so many want to "cancel" both the cross and the One who hung on it). 
 
The theme of God's redemptive plan runs through the Bible (a living memorial) from Genesis to Revelation. As we read His Word, we see that the cross symbolizes two things that hit home for us both as cops and military personnel: sacrifice and service. But there is another "S" - salvation - that we sadly often choose to ignore.
 
(1) Sacrifice: Christ voluntarily and sacrificially set aside His Godhead and spent 30 years living “in the flesh” in obscurity and without recognition (undercover, if you will). Then during His three-year public ministry, Jesus faithfully carried out the Father's plan all the way to His horrific torture and death on the cross. Jesus' days on earth are the ultimate example of a sacrificial life (Romans 12:1-2).
 
(2) Service: Jesus said that He "did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). Christ's supreme act of service was dying on the cross so we might have eternal life (the ultimate in "serve and protect"). Our Savior also calls us to deny ourselves, pick up our own cross and follow Him through sacrificial service to others (Luke 9:23).
 
(3) Salvation: Jesus bore our sins upon the cross and died in our place so we could be reconciled to God and receive eternal life. Note again that we can't earn it, be "good" enough or otherwise "badge" our way into heaven or out of hell.  Jesus is the ONLY way we can be saved.

We memorialize those who perform well and give the ultimate in sacrificial service (military and law enforcement). However, greatness in God's kingdom is found ONLY in a saved (meaning someone who has been born again in Him) life of humble obedience that honors and brings glory to God rather than ourselves. God Himself tells us in Proverbs 10:7 that the memory (memorial) of the righteous is a blessing but that the memory (memorial) of the wicked will rot (perish) from the earth.
 
Sadly, a great many of those whose names are etched on our memorials likely did so without a saving faith in Christ (and thus my "Code 3" sense of urgency to share God's love and plan of salvation with the living -- including those serving in our God-ordained profession – be they combat military or law enforcement). The cross of Calvary is the ultimate memorial. Are you pointing others to it and the One who gave His life for us on it?
 
Finally, I’ll close with two warrior-relevant points as we seek God’s direction on memorials and Memorial Day:
 
(1) The life of a soldier or peace officer can demonstrate the highest Christian virtues: While it’s true that our movies sometimes go too far in glamorizing war, this is only the case because there have been many heroics acts in the history of war suitable for our admiration. Soldiers in battle and cops in the field are called on to show courage, daring, service, shrewdness, endurance, hard work, faithfulness and obedience (and for us in law enforcement, even “perfection” -- <sigh>). These virtues fall into the “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just” category that deserve our praise (Philippians 4:8).
 
(2) Military and police service are one of the most common metaphors in the New Testament to describe the Christian life: We are to fight the good fight (1 Timothy 6:12), put on the full “body armor” of God (Ephesians 6:10-18), and “serve and protect” as a “good soldier” of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:3-4). When we remember the sacrifice, single-minded dedication and discipline involved in the life of a soldier, we are calling to mind what we are supposed to be like as Christians in service to Christ.

Finally, it is vital that we understand that all human memorials will one day fade away and ONLY those things that are done for Christ will last. Moreover, we should in fact be asking the most important question that can be asked BEFORE we lose a loved one in battle or otherwise in the line of duty: do they know Christ as Lord and Savior? Do they have a saving faith? Friend, do YOU? Understand that if you CHOOSE to die having rejected Him, you will NOT spend eternity in heaven (praying for the dead is without power and contrary to God's Word). Accordingly, I can't encourage you enough to embrace that hope found only in a right relationship with God in Christ (and then share that hope with others). How? Scroll down to the "Know God?" section below.

On this Memorial Day (and all days after), let's indeed honor and remember those who paid the ultimate price for our freedoms but let us do so with with a Code 3 sense of urgency for the living (ultimate "backup" -- I long to spend eternity in heaven with my heroes).

Blessings.

_____________________


KNOW GOD?

(1) Do you hold to an utterly false hope that you can "earn" or otherwise "badge" your way into heaven and escape hell because you consider yourself to be a "good" cop or a "good person"? That you can be "good" enough without knowing Christ as Lord and Savior? That mere "belief" is enough to "save" you (as our Lord, through James, tells us, "...even the demons believe, and tremble" -- James 2:19)? That you somehow "deserve" heaven because of your so-called "good" and honorable service in law enforcement? Take  the  Good Person Test  and see how you do!  

(2) Jesus' first recorded words in His earthly adult ministry included, "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 to our sin (as God defines it). To "believe" (pisteuo in the original Greek -- a different word than James used in James 2:19) as Jesus intends it here is to wholeheartedly trust and surrender your life to Him in faith in the same way we have "faith" that our body armor will do its job against the rounds it is intended to stop; that a well-maintained weapon will function properly when used in against criminals intent on destroying us or others; or that our parachute will open when it is supposed to on a combat jump (we stake our very lives on it)! For more, see What does it mean to believe in Jesus?

(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." Again, note our Lord's emphasis on the word "must" (not "may" or "should" or even "someday"). Friends, this is ultimately the life-saving AND life-changing  personal relationship (and NOT "religion") with Jesus Christ that I stress here every week (see What does it mean to be a born again Christian?). HINT: there is no other kind.

(4) NOW then, with this in place, go to:  How can I be saved? 

(5) Need more? Then check out this powerful, short video message from Maj. Travis Yates:  Cops and Salvation.

(6) Have you now said "yes" to Jesus as Lord and Savior but are wondering what to do next? The "now what" is also vital in dealing with the issues that contribute to police suicide, PTSi and more. Click on,  Now what?  

Questions? I'm here to serve -- contact me.    
MC

ABOUT US


The Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry is a national, FCPO-affiliated, non-denominational, evangelical Christian outreach to our own in law enforcement. These newsletters and profession-focused Bible studies are part of this effort and past editions can be found on our website and social media  feeds. Our desire is (1) to be used of God to WIN the lost in our profession to a saving faith in Christ; (2) to DISCIPLE the Christian officer; (3) SEND out discipled (trained) officers to "repeat" 1 and 2; (4) to SUPPORT police marriages; (5) to transform our God-ordained profession by infusing it with all-in Christian officers; and (6) to IMPACT (reduce) police suicides and PTS with the Cure found in Christ Jesus alone. In keeping with these 6 points, please feel free to adapt these messages for your own individual or group use and share them with others. 

The Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers (FCPO-USA) exists to provide biblical support ("backup"), accountability and iron sharpens iron fellowship for Christian officers first in the U.S. and throughout the world as well. Our Denver-area FCPO chapter (FCPO Chapter #217) is a Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry affiliate. Locally, we generally meet every 2nd and 4th Tuesday evening of the month at Calvary Chapel Castle Rock starting at 6:30 PM for profession-focused, uncompromising Bible study, prayer and "iron sharpens iron" fellowship (and spouses are both welcome and encouraged to attend with their LEO). Contact me for further details.

The Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry is led by veteran police officer, chaplain and evangelist Michael "MC" Williams. MC is an active State Criminal Investigator, retired (after 34 years) Police Officer (Det., Sgt., Lt.) and sought-after instructor and speaker at churches (including the popular Centurion Church Security Seminar), retreats and both police and civilian training conferences and seminars around the country. Contact MC via email for details on how to book him for your event.

Finally, we covet your prayer and financial support for this vital ministry outreach. Reference the latter, you can give in two ways:
(1) Send a check to the address posted below.
or
(2) Go the the FCPO Giving Page, select "Donation to a Local Chapter" from the drop-down menu, enter the amount, click "SUBMIT" and then designate "FCPO #217" or the "Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry."


The Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry, P.O. Box 630854, Littleton, CO 80163 | Email Address | (720) 371-1022 | Website