The Heart Of The Matter

Matthew 22:37-40 (NIV) Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

While a rookie police officer I had to ride for the first six months with a Training Officer. One night my Training Officer and another decided that they would have a contest. We would see who could give out the most tickets in one evening. (Yes, this is a true story. Yes, Policemen are people too.) Being new to the job and ready to protect and serve the public I thought the night would be filled with dangerous traffic stops where we would be stopping speeders and drunk drivers while making the streets safer for the public. My T/O drove us to a quiet neighborhood in the poverty stricken part of our district and began to slowly drive down the residential street. Suddenly he stopped and said,

“There’s one!”

I looked around for the danger not seeing any other moving cars on the road but he grabbed his ticket book and ordered me out of the squad car. I followed him to an old parked car and watched as he wrote a ticket for expired registration and placed it on the car’s windshield. We spent the next eight hours giving out tickets to cars that were parked too close to the sidewalk, too far from the sidewalk, broken windshields, expired tags, and a variety of other minor infractions. At first I was disappointed that we were being so petty but soon I begin to count the tickets that were piling up and reveled in the thought of “winning” the competition. Thankfully this only happened one night and I was able to actually do police work for the rest of my training. But that night four police officers who could have been serving the community spent far too much time competing against each other and not accomplishing their mission. Christians can do the same thing.

God has called us to fulfill His will. There is a mission field all around us and people are in need of someone to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. This is their only hope. Death has them in its grip and hell is enlarging its mouth to receive the multitude that are lost in this world but far too often God’s people are busy looking for minor infractions. There are hurting souls, ruined lives, blinded eyes, and dying hearts that need someone to rescue them and until God’s Church rises up in love they will continue to perish. There is no time for pettiness, no time for competition, no time for games, we must be about the Father’s business.

The Pharisees that confronted Jesus were too busy finding the minor infractions of life. They had forgotten the purpose that God had given us the law. Not to condemn but to lift up. God’s didn’t want us to fail, He wants us to succeed and in order to do that we must take hold of each commandment filled with the love of God. The Law of God was written from a heart of love, God’s heart, and to keep those commandments we must respond to them with the same heart. That is why outside of Christ it is impossible to keep the Law.

Many today are striving in their own strength to please God, believing that their labor will somehow endear them to a holy God. They will spend their night in futility trying to attain that which can only be received as a free gift. God’s love is given to each of us freely. When we receive that love and allow it to become the catalyst for every action we can finally begin to walk in understanding, knowing the heart of God.

Oh, for those that need closure, my Training Officer and I lost the competition but to this day I still know what a 4000a CVC violation is.

The God of All Comfort

Matthew 5:4 (KJV) Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

     Today I would like you to consider the Apostle Paul.  Here was a man that never knew if he was going to be alive the next day.  Compassed about on every hand by those that would like to kill or imprison him.  Pressed daily by the enemies of the cross.  Persecuted by those that disagreed with his theology.  His enemies were many and they were powerful.  Yet, Paul could be found in all places, at all times, praising and glorifying the Lord Jesus.  We find him in prison with Silas twisted in the cruel stocks of the Romans singing praises to God.  We find him in the midst of a storm that was about to leave him ship wrecked encouraging those around him to trust in the Lord.  Paul was not a victim of his circumstances.  Oh no!  Paul seemed to rise above his circumstances with purpose and clarity that defied explanation.  Men and women like Paul walk into disastrous situations with calm assurance and bring clarity and comfort to those around them. 

     As a police officer, I was dispatched to many situations where civility and calm had broken down into chaos.  When you walk into a bar or home and people are beating each other or threatening each others with weapons the last thing that is needed is another hot head.  You can’t have a melt down and feel sorry for yourself because your perfect day has been interrupted by this overwhelming problem, so, you rely on your training and knowledge to bring calm, comfort, to the situation.  It always helps to know that there are 500 more police officers to back you up.  Your response is from a position of strength.  You never stand alone.  Walking with Jesus is like that.  He said that “Anything you ask in my name the Father will give it to you.”  (John 15:16)  He said, “I will never leave you”.  We can depend on God to be with us as we face the storm. 

    In our passage today Jesus tells His disciples, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”  This week we have spent much time discerning the blessedness of mourning our sin.  The emptying of self establishes the foundation for the filling of our souls with the Spirit of the Living God.  “You are not your own, you were bought with a price.” (1 Cor. 6:19)  This is the comfort, the peace, which passes all understanding.  I’m not here trying to figure out a path to victory.  I am here to follow Jesus!  I am here to obey His command!  He will lead me beside still waters!  He will restore my soul!  We cry out with Job, “Though God slay me yet I trust Him…He also shall be my salvation.”  (Job 13:15)  We can stand in calm assurance even though our enemies rage like a roaring lion. 

    Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:3, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.  Who comforts us in all our tribulation…”  On this journey we may find ourselves ship wrecked, imprisoned, cast out of town, cast down into a pit, compassed on every side, but no matter what may come our way we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ.  Why?  Because He loves us!  He died for us!  He rescued us!  He restores us!  Child of God know this, there is nothing too hard for God and there is no where that He cannot go, that He will not go, for you.  I don’t know about you but I feel like praising His name!

I Ain't 'Fraid of no Ghost

Psalm 27:1 (KJV) - The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Do you remember what movie theme song that line was from? Our enemy has used fear as a weapon against the children of God from the beginning. Creating a crisis in our lives and then motivating us to respond out of fear. Fear of losing, fear of pain, fear of humiliation, fear for our life, fear we won’t have enough, the list goes on and on. Satan loves to make us feel insecure. I have seen men cower behind cars in the face of gun fire or freeze in their place when confronted by an attacker. One of the greatest dangers of fear is inaction. It can paralyze the strongest among us and stop us in our tracks. I remember once as a patrol officer my partner and I were dispatched to a “man with a knife” call. There were four police officers that responded to the call and I was trying to reason with the man. I had my baton and mace out as I was talking to the man, a former Laotian Army Captain, who was very drunk. The other officers were standing behind me with their guns drawn. The man was about 20 feet from me and there were civilians around that I felt were in danger so I sprayed mace in the man’s face to disable him. I expected the man to fall to his feet but instead he became enraged and ran at me. In a split second he had covered the 20 feet. He was holding the knife in an attack position like an army commando would. His training was proficient and he was going to kill me. The police officers behind me should have opened fire and shot the man but instead they froze. Fortunately I was able to defend against the attack and disable the man. In that moment, facing the same threat, some allowed fear to overcome them and other trusted in their training and stepped into the battle.
Often our lives are just like that confrontation. The enemy is upon us without warning and we must trust in what we know to be truth in order to overcome him. Paul says in Romans 8:31, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” Let me warn you right now! Lots of people and things can be against you. The enemy hates you and the image of God that is in you. He will attack you and try to destroy you. People will lie about you, slander you, undermine you, try to tear you down, and set in wait for you. The idea of Romans 8:31 isn’t that our lives will be a bed of roses with everyone just falling over before we get there, it is that with God we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord! You are a vessel of the Holy Spirit! God lives in you and when you learn to trust Him and follow His ways there is no weapon formed against you that can prosper.
When that knife wielding, former jungle fighter, lunged at me I had no time to reason. I had to trust my training. My baton blocked his knife and using a technique that I had practiced time and time again in the police academy I disabled his arm and used his own momentum to place him on the ground. The battle was over and I had won. When the enemy comes at you like a flood overcome your fear with the faith. Faith that God has equipped you with everything you need to stand against the attacks of the enemy.