The Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry
Newsletter & Bible Study
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Fellow officers, sheepdogs, servant-warriors/leaders, spouses and supporters:
My prayer is that this newsletter finds you staying the course behind Christ our Captain. And inasmuch as God's "course" is always narrow (as is our thin blue line) and often rough to boot (no false "prosperity gospel" mess here), this week's Bible study is very much on topic. I can't encourage you enough to take in this week's important study: The Christian Way is the Narrow Way (as is the "Warrior's Way").
Speaking of important studies, here again is last week's if you missed it: REFUSING to be "Cancelled." And don't forget that I always re-post our newsletters on my Centurion Ministry social media feeds (Facebook and Twitter).
Here locally, our next Centurion/FCPO "cop church" meeting is set for NEXT Tuesday, June 8th, at Calvary Castle Rock starting at 6:30 PM. As always, our fellowship meetings are open to all current, past and future LEOs and their spouses. Scroll down for more info!
Finally, join me in the mission by passing this newsletters on to others as part of our Great Commission "call for service." Blessings! And as always, feel free to reach out if I can be of service.
MC
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RESOURCES
Accomplished author and fellow speaker J. Warner Wallace has a wonderful new website geared towards law enforcement. I'm honored to he's asked me to contribute. Check out the Thin Blue Life.
PRAYER REQUESTS
(1) 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).
(2) Please continue to 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).
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 this coming 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.
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The Christian Way is the Narrow Way
For both Christians in general and even more so for the Christian officer, ours is indeed a NARROW way (be sure you're on the right "road")!
“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it."
Matthew 7:13-14
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Critics (unbelievers and false teachers alike) of this portion of Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount" often complain that our Lord is not being "inclusive." Yet here they are correct: "the Way" of the genuine Christian is in fact rightly an exclusive and "narrow" one! Praise God, it is also a way (the ONLY way -- John 14:6) that is completely INCLUSIVE and full of hope for all who will genuinely "repent and believe" (Mark 1:15).
For context (context is everything), read Matthew 7:13-27. Here God reveals to us that there are ONLY two options: We will either follow Christ wholeheartedly ("all in" for Him) along the "narrow" 4-wheel drive road that ultimately leads to heaven or we will go down the wide, easy and popular 8-lane highway to destruction (ultimately hell). There can be no half-hearted commitment to Jesus! If we are not on the narrow, wholly biblical "road," then we are on the wide road to eternal damnation.
Likewise, those of us serving in our God-ordained profession (Romans 13:1-4) of law enforcement will embrace the fact that getting hired, surviving the academy, making it through field training and our first years on the road (let alone a full career), etc. is a narrow, difficult path indeed (it's not called the "thin blue line" for nothing)!
Now understand that salvation is by grace through faith and not of works (as I say so often, we can't "badge" or earn our way into heaven -- Ephesians 2:8-10). However, good works (including our "good" service in law enforcement) and our obedience to God's commands, will in fact be the "fruit" of a God-changed heart (v. 10). Here's the text: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them .
The Narrow Way
The phrase "narrow is the gate" is fairly easy to understand. A narrow gate is harder to pass through than one that is wide, and only a few people can go through a narrow gate at once. In saying "difficult is the way which leads to life," Jesus was explaining how hard being a genuine Christian really is. The word "difficult" as used here comes from the Greek word thlibo, which means: "to press" -- as in a wine press; press hard upon; narrow, contracted; completing a really heavy bench "press." The word can also be used metaphorically to mean "trouble, afflict, distress."
Likewise, for those of us in law enforcement, we know that ours in in fact the "narrow" -- THIN -- way (and even more so for the all too rare officer that is living "all in" for Christ).
The Broad Way
This is the life that most seek after and are more "comfortable" with: having our own way; maintaining a private life that suits us; seeking after the things of "the world" over the things of God; focusing on "happiness" (vs. joy); compromise; doing what "feels right" (see Proverbs 14:12). Clearly, the wide, easy way is also much more "inclusive" <sigh> as it allows for human effort (worldly "goodness"), modern "culture" and all other religions.
In contrast, God's "way" to heaven is "narrow" in the sense of having an exclusive requirement for entrance: a radical, "born again," life-saving/life-changing faith in Jesus Christ alone (no "other" way). Genuine salvation is found only in the Person of Jesus Christ; He alone is "the way, the truth and life" and "no one" (that means NO one) "comes to the Father" (heaven) except through Him (see John 14:6).
Dr. Luke in Luke 13:23-24 adds even more context: "And someone said to Him, 'Lord, will those who are saved be few?' And He said to them, 'Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.'"
Jesus says that the narrow gate -- like a cop's life -- leads to a narrow, "hard" road (one that will take us through hardships and difficulties -- what the Bible calls trials and tribulations). God's Word (the Bible) also reveals that following Jesus requires crucifying our flesh; living by faith; picking up our cross; enduring trials with Christlike patience and living a lifestyle separate from that of "the world." When faced with the choice between a narrow, bumpy 4-wheel drive road and a wide, paved highway, most will choose the wide, easier one that offers worldly comfort and pleasure. When faced with the reality of denying themselves to follow Jesus, most people tragically turn away (John 6:66).
The "inclusive" part of all this is that God offers salvation to EVERYONE, but ONLY on His terms (the "exclusive" side). We must come to salvation via "the Way" Christ alone can provide and versus doing it our own way (a road that will ultimately lead to destruction). Nor can we come to a holy God based on our own efforts, being "good" or our service in law enforcement. Compared to His righteousness, we are all filthy and lost (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:10). God cannot simply overlook our sin. He is merciful, but He is also just. Justice requires that sin be paid for. At great cost to Himself, Jesus paid that price for us. Without the blood of Jesus covering our sin, we stand guilty and condemned before a just and holy God (Romans 1).
Clearly, we all deserve to stay on the "wide road that leads to destruction." But God loves us so much that He sacrificed His own Son so that ANYONE who surrenders all to Him in faith (the narrow way) can be saved (John 3:16-19). However, He also knows that in our self-centered, sin-saturated world there are not many who will desire Him enough to come to Him on His terms: Jeremiah 29:13 (right after the oft-MISquoted v. 11) says, "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart."
Satan has paved the "highway to hell" with fleshly temptations, worldly attractions, and moral compromises. Most people allow their feelings, passions and desires to dictate the course of their lives. They choose temporary, earthly pleasure over the self-sacrifice required in following Jesus. The narrow gate/way is ignored and even vilified. Most people would rather create their own religions and design their own gods (remember that Satan is described as the "god" of this world -- 2 Cor. 4:4). So it is with sorrow (and not "discrimination"), that Jesus declared that the road to eternal life is "narrow, and only a few find it."
Pastor and noted Bible commentator Matthew Henry summarizes Jesus' teaching in today's passage: "We must endure hardship, must wrestle and be in agony, must watch in all things, and walk with care and circumspection. We must go through much tribulation."
Sadly, those who do consider the narrow way often conclude that Jesus' teaching is too tough because of the obedience that is required. Difficult? Yes, but by no means impossible! As born again believers we have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit to help us and the rewards are ultimately both unimaginably awesome and eternal. Do YOU have that?
Clearly, the wide way is an easy road (well, in this life), full of options, physical pleasure and latitude. The wide way is the way of self. People on the wide way live as they please. They may be moral or immoral, nice or mean, good or bad, religious or non-religious, cops or criminals. But, without Christ, NONE of the "good" will matter. In the end, the ONLY thing that matters will be if you've trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior and, in His power, are following Him on "the narrow way."
For more on this, see The Roman Road (yes, it's rough and narrow but with incredible engineering, "views" and rewards) and then watch this 10-minute segment of Paul Washer's sermon on The Narrow Way.
So what road are you on? What gate are you passing through? If you're answer is anything but the NARROW (God's) way, I BEG you to consider the KNOW GOD? section below.
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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.
(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?
MC
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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
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