"Let's Roll!" A Christian Cop's September 11th Message for Today

My Fellow Warriors:

This week’s Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry newsletter is necessarily a tad long but please take the time to read it through.

UPCOMING MEETING announcement for our locals and visitors:

Due to the fact that a number of us will be flying out to Gulfport (MS) on Friday AM to attend the Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers (FCPO) National Conference, this Thursday's (9/9) fellowship meeting will be much shorter than usual – hopefully no more than an hour or so. Regardless, I will be teaching a special September 11th (Patriots Day) message that directly impacts all of us in the law enforcement profession. We’ll also have our usual time of worship, prayer and fellowship. Please join us if you can – and don’t forget to invite your wives and colleagues! For everyone else, I’ll post my usual recap – see below -- in next week’s newsletter and on our website.

Regarding same, don’t forget to check back frequently for the latest prayer requests, announcements, meeting updates, updated links/resources, and more.

FCPO FALL NEWSLETTER is here! Check it out and pass it on: http://www.fcpo.org/newsletters/FCPO_Fall_2010.pdf.


MESSAGE RECAP:

We had a great time of fellowship, tactical (profession-relevant) Bible study and prayer last Thursday as we explored the life of Samson as revealed in Judges 13-16. Samson’s story is in many ways OUR story as servant-warriors (law enforcement officers, combat military personnel, etc.). Here’s the recap for all our readers who could not be with us:

Judges 13: Israel is once again in rebellion and compromise (SIN) against God with the just consequences being yet another forty-year period of subjugation at the hands of their sworn enemies, the Philistines.

Judges 13:3-5: Pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord to Samson’s heretofore barren parents announcing that they would have a son who would begin the deliverance of their people. Samson’s God-given physical strength and warrior prowess would make him a real-life “superhero” – a non-fiction Superman.

Judges 14: Compromise begins in the form of rebellion against God’s laws – lust, rejection of God's word and other forms of disobedience. Samson becomes unequally yoked (II Cor. 6:14-16, Exodus 34:16, Deut. 7:3, etc.) with a woman who is both an unbeliever and an enemy of Israel. The results are a litany of further disobedience (sin) – including veiled references to alcohol abuse (getting drunk).

Judges 15: Still, in the midst of overt disobedience, Samson is nevertheless used by God for His glory and purpose. Samson (v. 20) begins to judge Israel (lead, serve/protect – strong law enforcement analogy). Like with Samson, God can still use us in spite of our own sin and rebellion.

Judges 16: Samson’s “Kryptonite,” like with a great many of us serving in our God-ordained profession, was sexual sin. Samson again compromises his calling by engaging in sex outside of marriage -- first with a prostitute and later with Delilah. Regardless of his sin and the eventual consequences, God provides another example of Samson’s supernatural physical strength in v. 3: he physically tears off the two-story high gates from the wall of the fortified city of Gaza – posts and all -- and carries them on his shoulders to the top of a hill some 38 miles away (we're talking tons here)! While this act is clearly superhuman in nature, the passage does not reveal Samson ever giving any of the glory to God. Rather, the text leaves us to conclude that Samson has come to believe that his power is his alone (sins of arrogance and pride).

Judges 16:19-20: Consequences of Compromise: God – in an act of discipline -- ultimately abandons Samson to the consequences of his sin by withdrawing His grace and power. Similar examples of such actions are detailed in Genesis 6:3, Proverbs 1:24-31, *Judges 10:13-4, and *Romans 1:24-32.

A modern example is detailed in Kevin McDowell’s book, Samson of a Man: Saved Soul, Wasted Life. Kevin writes, “God loves His children too much to let them continue in sin. If a believer will not willingly fall on the stone and be broken then God will grind him or her to powder. God is gracious, merciful and patient. He’s not vengeful toward His children. Yet He disciplines those He loves. In 2001, after decades of habitual sin, God crushed me. There had been many opportunities for me to repent. But out of fear I had been unwilling to confess the depths of the sexual depravity that plagued my life. So God forced everything into the light…” Familiar indeed!

Judges 16:28-31: Samson -- blinded, weak and utterly crushed -- finally repents of his sin and calls on the Lord. Sadly, even that act of repentance carried the weight of prideful sin: instead of acting for God’s glory, Samson sought only revenge (Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes. V. 28). However, this also shows that God never forsook Samson, even when he was disobedient. God's mercy was there for Samson even in a Philistine dungeon. All Samson had to do was turn his heart back towards God and receive them.

Even in spite of his sin, God still used Samson to fulfill His purposes and this Judge of Israel was ultimately listed in God’s “Hall of Heroes” in Hebrews 11:32. Sadly, Samson’s story is also one of wasted potential. Imagine what Samson could have accomplished for the Lord had he done all for His purposes and glory instead of his own! While Samson ultimately came to understand the true source of his strength, he never understood his true purpose or realized his true potential. Like with many of us in law enforcement, Samson was “bold before men but weak before women.” Samson was given a call – an assignment from God -- to deliver His people from the yoke of slavery and oppression but instead spent much of his time fraternizing with the very enemy he was born to destroy (what I like to call, "drinking out of your own toilet").

The lessons God has for us in the life and death of Samson are that if we knowingly, intentionally (culpable mental state…) and repeatedly give in to temptation (sin), there will be consequences, and those consequences may very well be justifiably severe! Samson also shows the danger of being a loner: both as a warrior and a leader, Samson forsook any form of backup and held himself accountable to no one. Everything Samson did he did alone and for his own pleasure. He judged (lead) Israel for 20 years and never sought or used help from others – including God. This is definitely NOT God’s plan for us.

As with Samson, sexual sin in our profession and even in the ministry is epidemic (pornography, sex outside marriage, adultery, etc.). It destroys families, careers and lives. Novelist and former LAPD officer/detective Joseph Wambaugh wrote that “booze and broads” are responsible for destroying more police careers than any other outside influence – true indeed!

The good news of Samson’s story is that it is not too late to TURN (repent) from our sin and start over. It does not matter how badly we have failed in the past. God loves YOU. He sent His only Son to die on the cross for YOU – to pay the price for YOUR sins. Please – I beg you – come to Him TODAY. God tells us through Paul in Romans 10:13 that, Everyone who calls (sincerely repents and seeks Christ as Lord and Savior) on the Name of the Lord will be saved. Is that you? Are you right with God today? Do you know Him as your Savior but, like Samson, have fallen away? God has a perfect plan for your life but you must come to Him on HIS terms (and His terms alone) in order to be saved and realize the potential He has for you.

Billy Graham wrote, “Over the years I have talked to thousands of people who have asked me how to find their way to God. Some have sat in church pews all their lives but never come to personally know God. Others have sought for ultimate meaning in all sorts of ways but never found the peace of mind for which they were searching. Some simply realize that there is something vital missing in their lives.

The Bible teaches that this sense of lostness is rooted in the fact that we live in a fallen world in which we are all handicapped by a sin nature: we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). And despite our best efforts we are unable to remove the haunting weight of guilt that separates us from our Creator.

God sent his Son to solve our dilemma. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). Jesus Christ made the way to God for us by his death on the Cross. He purchased our salvation by the shedding of his blood. His death and resurrection made a new and everlasting covenant between God and humanity. Jesus told his disciples, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). He did not merely point the way to God. He himself claimed to be the only way to the Father and the source of eternal truth and life.

The way to God is through personal faith in Jesus Christ. Intellectual acceptance of Christ is not enough. You must come to him determined to turn from what displeases him, with a total trust in Christ's saving power for you. Christ promises those who turn to him: Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed from death to life (John 5:24).

Today you can come to him by surrendering your life and heart to Christ. The Bible says: To all who received him (Jesus Christ), to those who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12). Right where you are you can pray something like this: "Lord, I know that I have sinned and need your forgiveness. I believe that Jesus Christ died for me and rose from the dead. I invite you into my life to be my Lord and Savior."

If you sincerely put your faith in Christ, God promises not only to forgive you, but also to receive you into his family. It's the greatest discovery you will ever make!”

My fellow sheepdogs (from Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s article --http://killology.com/sheep_dog.htm) and shepherds (servant-warriors and servant-leaders) -- that is my prayer for you today. Service in our God-ordained profession does not provide us with a “get out of hell” pass. We can’t make it to heaven on our own strength or our own “good” deeds. Christ is the ONLY way -- surrender your life to Him today as tomorrow may very well be too late and there are NO second chances after this life ends.

Let’s follow hard after our Lord and be all that He has called us to be. Stay the course and finish strong!