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The "thin blue line" covered by the blood of Christ. |
This week's newsletter and police-focused Bible study comes to you in the wake of
Memorial Day 2017 and our Police Week outreach in Washington, DC. Prior to my departure for the latter, I asked one of my FCPO chapter members -- APD Officer
Matt Springer -- to share a message with us at our May 11th "cop church" fellowship. That message -- "
The Oath" -- is recapped for you below (and has a great nexus to Memorial Day as well). As always, our hope is that it will both challenge and bless you.
The latest OFFICIAL
Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers-USA newsletter is up! The June
FCPO Dispatch includes more about our Police Week outreach and a plethora of other great info.
Speaking of these newsletters and Bible studies, did you miss last week's edition? Need to access a prior one for reference? I
always re-post them on our
Facebook
,
Twitter
feeds (and our
website
as well). Here again is "In Valor There is Hope."
Finally, and with Memorial Day
still very fresh, let it serve as yet another reminder for what MUST be our "
Code 3
" sense of urgency in sharing the hope we have in Christ with our own (military and law enforcement alike) and others in general: there is no "RIP" unless we are first born again in Him.
As always, I encourage you take the time to review the new
prayer requests,
resources
and the 411 about relevant
upcoming events
around the country that I've posted for you below. Blessings!
MC
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RESOURCES
PRAYER REQUESTS
(1) Please pray for Jim Bontrager, Kristi Neace, Rick Neace, Jim Wilson and Brent and Vicki Newman as they minister to our own at the Above Reproach Law Enforcement Conference in Clovis and Fresno, CA this June 1-3.
(2) Pray that the seeds God used us to plant during our Police Week outreach will bear much fruit.
(3) Pray for a Oregon officer facing persecution for his faith (having the audacity to stand on the truth of God's inerrant Word).
Have a prayer request or announcement you would like included here? Need prayer?
Email me
! I also post prayer requests on my Facebook page ("friend" me).
UPCOMING EVENTS
(2) Here's the ever-changing (new seminars being added) 2017-2018
Sheepdog Seminars Schedule.
Carl Chinn, Lt. Col Dave Grossman and
Jimmy Meeks are all personal friends -- you'll be blessed!
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The Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry
The Centurion Law Enforcement Ministry
is a FCPO-affiliated, evangelical Christian outreach to our own in law enforcement. These newsletters and Bible studies are part of this effort and past editions can be found on our
website
and on social media
(
Facebook
and
Twitter
)
pages. Feel free to adapt these messages for your own individual or group use and please share them with others.
In addition, I regularly speak at both law enforcement and civilian conferences and events around the country -- please shoot me an email if I can be of service to your church, agency or organization.
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Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers
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FCPO-USA exists to provide biblical support ("backup"), accountability and iron sharpens iron fellowship to Christian officers first in the U.S. and throughout the world as well. My chapter -- FCPO #217/-((FCPO Metro Denver and Aurora), typically meets every 2nd and 4th Thursday at Calvary Aurora (High School Room, 7 PM) for "cop church" Bible study, prayer and servant-warrior fellowship
. Spouses are both welcome and encouraged to attend with their LEO! Our next meeting is set for Thursday, June 8th.
Information on the other
FCPO chapters
meeting around the country (including the new chapter here in Arvada, CO) can be found on the
Chapter Locator
pages on the
FCPO-USA
website.
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The Oath
Hebrews 6:13-20
In this week's Bible study/devotional, I've sought to do my best to properly recap the message shared by Aurora (CO) PD Officer Matt Springer at our May 11th FCPO-Aurora "cop church" fellowship. He started by sharing his own oath of office which he took before God Himself on March 12, 2004:
"I, Matthew Springer, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America and the State of Colorado, and to the charter of the ordinances of the City of Aurora; and that I will defend and protect the lives, safety, and property of the people of Aurora, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the Office of Police Officer according to the best of my ability, so help me God..."
So what then is an oath? Consider the following definition: "A
solemn promise, often invoking a divine witness, regarding one's future action or behavior." The
Hebrew word is alah -- to swear, curse or put under an oath." And the word "solemn" in this context? An oath "m
ade
with deep sincerity or invoking the force of religion."
If we look carefully at our service oaths, there is rarely an expiration date. Here's part of the I swore when I was commissioned in the military: "I, Michael Williams, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter, so help me God."
But do we always keep our oaths or live up to our calling? Consider just the following examples of how we don't:
(1) April 14, 2017 -- two San Antonio police officers arrested for drunk driving in one night.
(2) March 1, 2017 -- seven Baltimore Police Officers arrested on charges of racketeering, robbery and drugs.
(3) April 26, 2017 -- A Philadelphia police officer arrested on child pornography charges.
Not enough? What about those who cheat on their spouses (yes, a violation of an oath taken before God at our weddings)?
Clearly, a great many of us lose sight of our oaths -- sworn promises taken before a sovereign God. Even if "so help me God" is removed, and regardless of whether or not you're a Christian or even believe in God, the
evidence is irrefutable
, and
Romans 13:1-4
remains our God-ordained commission. Because of sin, we break our oaths on a regular basis in one form or another, yet God most certainly does not. Consider our central text for this message:
13
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
(
Hebrews 6:13-20)
We can rest assured, that God is faithful both to fulfill His promises and to hold us to ours. Now some will argue that Scripture charges us to NOT take an oath at all. Again, context is everything when seeking to understand such passages as
Matthew 5:33-37 and
James 5:12 --
"Above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath. Let your yes be 'yes' and your no be 'no,' so that you may not fall under condemnation." That context, of course, is that we must take our oaths very seriously.
So then why does GOD swear oaths before us? Being perfect, He does so to build our faith, set an example for us and give us confidence and hope in His unchanging, timeless promises (Genesis 3, 12, 15 and 22 -- for starters). Paul, writing under the direction of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 3:29, adds to the timeless nature of an oath:
"and if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise"
(the promise of blessing -- of Abraham's seed -- will bless the nations).
The culmination of God's oaths to mankind is found within
John 3:16
- "
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life
." Can we trust Him in this?
Hebrews 10:29 and 2 Timothy 3:13 provide an emphatic "YES!" --
"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for HE who has promised is faithful" and
"If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny himself."
Again, because of our sin nature, our oaths are subject to failure (thus again the warnings against taking them flippantly) and a righteous penalty for breaking them (ultimately an eternal sentence to hell). But if we are born again in Christ (the "rest of the story" -- John 3:1-21), we have the promise of the forgiveness of our sin, spending eternity with Him in heaven and the fulfillment of another oath (promise) in the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-17) to help us walk in obedience to Him and fulfill our oaths in this life.
So do you have that? Can you lay claim to the oaths of God?
You can! Consider the following:
(1) Jesus' first words in His earthly ministry were: "
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 our sin. To
believe
as God intends it to
completely and radically surrender to Him in
faith
("believe" and "faith" have the same Greek root meaning) in the same way you have faith that your body armor will stop the rounds it is designed to stop or that a skydiver's parachute will open (we stake our lives on it)! Moreover, the words repent and believe are literally two sides of the same coin in meaning and intent.
(2) As noted in
John 3:1-21, Jesus said, "...
you must be born again." Note our Lord's emphasis on
must (not "may" or "should"): this is the
life-saving/life-changing personal relationship (not "religion") with Christ that I stress so often. See
What does it mean to be a born again Christian.
Then see:
(a) Take the
Good Person Test
and see how you do (as shown in this study, you can't ever be "good" enough without Christ). Then go to...
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