The Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry: An Uncompromising New Year

Monday, December 27, 2010

An Uncompromising New Year

Fellow Sheepdogs:

Most of us – by the grace of God -- survived the Christmas weekend (Anyone else notice that you duty rig seems to have shrunk??!) and are preparing for the next wave starting this Friday (New Year’s Eve) with the standard fair of drug and alcohol-induced carnage. This year our LODD are up at least forty percent over the 2009 totals and we lost four more fellow officers over the Christmas weekend alone (not including all who were injured). This begs the question, “Are you ready?” If your earthly life ended today, where would you spend eternity? Perhaps you think you’re “good enough” to get a “pass” into Heaven due to your LE service or otherwise. I touched on this subject in my newsletters leading up to Christmas and some of my readers have taken me to task for it. Let me say that your argument is not with me but rather with God. Moreover, this ministry will NOT compromise on matters of biblical truth. Tulsa PD Captain and fellow law enforcement ministry brother Travis Yates of Ten-Four Ministries (http://tenfourministries.org/) sent me the following article on the subject that is both disturbing and eye-opening: http://www.sermonaudio.com/new_details.asp?ID=30706. My own reaction was a huge “WOW!” Bottom line is this: it does not matter what you and I “believe” if what we believe does not line up with God’s inerrant word (aka, the Bible). The only thing that matters is the truth and God’s word is the personification of truth. Accordingly, this will be the subject of our year-end Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry/FCPO-Denver Bible study this Thursday, December 30th, starting at 7:00 PM at Calvary South Denver in Littleton. I’ll post a detailed recap in next week’s newsletter for all our readers everywhere else…stay tuned!

Speaking of Travis, I will once again be joining him this Friday, December 31st, at 12:00 (Noon) CST for another edition of Centurion Radio where we will be discussing servant leadership in law enforcement from a thoroughly biblical perspective. I encourage you to join us, call-in, or listen online after-the-fact as your schedule permits. Go to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ten-four-ministries/2010/12/31/centurion-radio-14-servant-leadership for a preview and to learn how you can take part. Travis’s programs are always entertaining and spot-on for all in our profession. Listeners can also check out previous programs by going to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ten-four-ministries.

Citing just one recent example, Travis’s guest for the December 17th show was my friend Lt. Jim Glennon, a world-renouned law enforcement trainer, speaker and author of the highly-acclaimed new book Arresting Communication. Check it out at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ten-four-ministries/2010/12/17/centurion-radio-13-arresting-communication. Jim can be reached via at www.lifelinetraining.com. Hope you can join us this Friday for the 2010 finale!

Also on the subject of Travis and leadership, he will be hosting Lt. Col. Dave Grossman in Oklahoma on April 7th, 2011. I will be a part of this unique event and we strongly encourage you to join us in Tulsa. Travis and I will have much more on this in the coming weeks and months – stand-by!!

I’ve posted the latest prayer requests, announcements and local (FCPO-Denver) meeting schedule here on our website (next post below). Please take the time to check back frequently as I update the website on an almost daily basis. Don’t forget that we’re also on Facebook (search The Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry and FCPO-Denver)!

FCPO-Denver and “Locals” News:

** BAPTISM Service! We will have our first-ever (hopefully “1st Annual”) baptism service on Saturday, January 15th. This will be for officers and their family members who have accepted Christ as Savior but have not yet been baptized. No, infant baptism is not a biblical concept. Those interested need to shoot me an email ASAP to fullarmor911@yahoo.com. I will also be teaching on baptism at our Thursday, January 13th meeting and I’ll need a headcount by the 6th of January.

** GraceFM (89.7 FM in the Denver area) has launched! They are still working out the kinks to be able to listen online (for the rest of the country) but they are in fact on the air. Great teaching and great Christian music without all the ads. See http://www.897gracefm.com/ for more!

In closing and in keeping with our theme for this week’s Bible study, our own Det. James “Jimmy” Wattles of History Channel’s Gangland fame (and a legend in his own right) sent me the following piece about legendary Green Beret MSgt. Roy P. Benavidez and his heroic action in Vietnam that earned him the Medal of Honor. His story is truly amazing and is a tribute to all the Vietnam vets whose stories haven’t been told or have been ignored. Go to http://biggeekdad.com/2010/01/tango-mike-mike/.

I’ll leave you with this question: Did Roy know Christ as his Savior and where will he spend eternity? Like all of us, Roy had a choice to make. How choose you? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15). Our prayer is that all of you will make the right choice – the ONLY choice – so that you can truly have a safe, joyous and thoroughly uncompromising New Year. Blessings!

Our Core Verses

COPS -- God's ministers for good and a terror against evil. We do not bear the sword in vain.

(Paraphrase...for full text, see the Bible in Romans 13:1-4)

Psalm 82:3-4

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

Isaiah 1:17

Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.ressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.he widow.

Colorado Law Enforcement Ministry Meeting Schedules

The Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry (FCPO-Denver)

On the local front (meaning Colorado Front Range) we typically meet for iron sharpens iron fellowship and Bible study every 2nd and 4th Tuesday evening of each month at Calvary Castle Rock. Email me for details at thecenturionministry@gmail.com or give me a shout at 720-371-1022

Men of Courage Law Enforcement Ministry

Buena Vista (CO) PD Sgt. Dean Morgan is leading a law enforcement fellowship/Bible study in Chaffee County and the surrounding area. Contact Dean at interceptor@policeone.com for more info.

_______________

TCLEM Mission Statement

The mission of The Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry (TCLEM), is to educate law enforcement officers (police, deputies, troopers, investigators, parole/probation, corrections, military, etc.) about God's unique call on their lives as outlined in God's word (Bible) and to lead officers and their families to a saving knowledge of and close personal relationship with our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. Through same, we also seek to positively impact our profession by raising up Christian servant-leaders and reduce our historically high rates of divorce, alcoholism, depression, suicide and related issues.

Law enforcement is a God-ordained ministry of service and protection for our society as outlined in the Bible in Romans 13. Inasmuch as our very authority as peace officers is given to us by God, TCLEM seeks to affirm our calling as servant-warriors ("sheepdogs") and leaders while at the same time developing the our spiritual, family and personal lives through Bible study, peer fellowship, and group accountability along with active involvement in a solid Christ-centered/Bible-based church. We also seek to infuse our profession with godly leaders who will in fact LEAD (serve) from a biblical world view.

What We Believe (Statement of Faith)

(1) WE BELIEVE the only true basis of Christian fellowship is Christ's sacrificial agape love, which is greater than any secondary differences we possess, and without which we have no right to claim ourselves Christians.

(2) WE BELIEVE in all the fundamental doctrines of orthodox evangelical Christianity as detailed in God's word (Bible).

(3) WE BELIEVE the sixty-six books of the Bible (i.e. Old and New Testament) comprise the totality of Holy Scripture and is inerrant in the original text, and remains God-breathed/God-inspired and infallible in all its substance, and therefore, it is the supreme and final authority in faith, theology, and life. 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Psalm 119:11, 89, 105.

(4) WE BELIEVE that our Lord has called us to share the Word of God in such a way that its message can be applied to an individual's life and, in particular as it relates to our service in the God-ordained calling of law enforcement. We also believe that it is the responsibility and privilege of every Christian to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and to seek to make growing disciples. Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8.

(5) WE BELIEVE there is only One true, eternally existent God. He exists in three co-equal persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The triune God is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, and is worthy of worship and obedience. Deut. 6:4-5; Genesis 1:31, Luke 3:21-22; Matthew 28:18-20, Rev. 4:11.

(6) WE BELIEVE in one God who is Creator of heaven and earth, Spirit, personal, transcendent, sovereign, life, love, truth, almighty, simple (i.e. one without parts), timelessly eternal, unchangeable, wise, just, holy, relational, dynamic and infallible in all things.

(7) WE BELIEVE that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, possessing two distinct natures which are co-joined in one person, that He was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless and miraculous life, provided for the atonement of our sins by His vicarious substitutionary death on the Cross, was bodily resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit, physically ascended back to the right hand of God the Father in heaven, and lives to make intercession for us. After Jesus ascended to Heaven, He poured out His Holy Spirit on the believers in Jerusalem, enabling them to fulfill His command to preach the gospel to the entire world, an obligation shared by all believers today. John 1:1-3,14; Matthew 1:18-25; Philippians 2:5-9; Colossians 1:15; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Acts 1:11.

(8) WE BELIEVE that all people are by nature separated from God and responsible for their own sin, but that salvation, redemption, and forgiveness are freely offered as a gift by the Lord Jesus Christ to all based on His grace alone. When a person sincerely repents of their sin and enters into a life-saving/life-changing personal relationsship (not "religion") with Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, they are immediately born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit, all their sins are forgiven, and they become a child of God -- changed, and destined to spend eternity with Him. John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-10; 2 Corinthians 5:21.

(9) WE BELIEVE in all the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Scriptures, and that they are valid for today, and should be exercised within scriptural guidelines, seeking to exercise them in love that the whole Body of Christ might be edified. John 14:16-19; 16:7-15; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 8:9,11; Titus 3:5.

(10) WE BELIEVE in the pre-tribulation rapture of the church, and we believe that the physical second coming of Christ with His saints to rule on the earth will be personal, premillennial, and visible. This motivates us to holy living, heart-felt worship, committed service, diligent study of God's Word, regular fellowship, and participation in the two ordinances the Lord gave the church - adult baptism by immersion and Holy Communion. Revelation 3:10, Thessalonians 5:9.

(11) WE BELIEVE there is a real personal devil of great evil, cunning, and power, who seeks to tempt, kill, steal, and destroy, yet his power is limited by God to only what God permits him to do; that the devil has been defeated positionally at the cross of Christ, and will be defeated practically at Christ's glorious second coming which will ultimately eventuate in the quarantine and punishment of the Satan (aka the Devil, Beast, and False Prophet, etc.) in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone where they will be tormented day and night forever (what has been traditionally called "Hell"). Luke 10:18; Matthew 4:10; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11, etc.

(12) WE BELIEVE that our Lord is clear that there is ONLY ONE WAY to Christ and that is through a life-changing personal relationship with the Risen Savior. 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.

Are you ready to receive Christ today? If so, scroll up towards the top of this page to the links under How Can I be Saved (AKA True "Officer Safety"). Please feel free to contact me if you need help in this area -- it would be my honour to lead you "home" to Christ!

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!

Donate to the Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry

We do accept donations to support our ministry and outreach, including but not limited to leading officers to Christ, support for wounded officers; "officer down" outreach; chaplain and counseling services; speaking engagements; website expenses; ministry apparel, etc. Donations can be made out to The Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry and mailed to

P.O. Box 630854
Littleton, CO 80163

That said, support your church first...and then donate if the Holy Spirit inspires you to do so. Thanks in advance for your support.