Can you be a Christian and a cop?

This was the question posed at Cost Coffee, Snow Hill in the centre of Birmingham by the West Midlands Christian Police Network on Tuesday 25th September 2012. Three members of the network Detective Chief Inspector Matt Markham, Detective Chief Inspector Shaun Edwards and Sergeant Gordon Blake shared a little of their life journeys and talked about how they balanced their Christian faith with their roles within West Midlands Police.

The resounding response was yes, all three officers were in agreement that their job gives them a great opportunity to demonstrate the attributes of Jesus Christ; love, compassion, justice, standing up for those who can’t stand up for themselves and seeking to make people’s lives better.

The evening was broken up by live music performed by a local group of musicians and singers who gave excellent performances of such tracks as Emile Sande’s ‘Read all About It’ and Nina Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’ plus a number of other numbers old and new.
 

The event was well received by all who attended a mixture of serving officers and staff, friends of officers and members of local church communities. The network will be looking to continue with similar events around the force area.

Faithful

I love the song ‘Faithful’ by Chris Tomlin; it is taken straight out of scripture and serves to remind us of the faithfulness of God, the lyrics are printed below take time to read through them, think about them and let their meaning encourage and inspire you, click on the link to listen to it while you read.

Faithful   (click to follow link)

Faithful, forever You are faithful

Father to the fatherless

You uphold the one who feels forsaken

You are faithful, God

Faithful, forever You are faithful

Lover of the wounded heart

You defend the poor and the forgotten

You are faithful, God

And I will sing to the maker of Heaven and Earth

God, You reign forever and Your love will endure

Faithful and true is the name of the Lord

You are faithful, God

Faithful, forever You are faithful

Shelter for the fragile soul

You lift us up, You hold us all together

You are faithful, God

 

You are there in every season of my soul

You are there, You're the anchor that will hold

You are there, in the valley of the shadows

You are faithful, God

Artist – Chris Tomlin

Album – ‘And if our God is for us...’

The truth of this message and the message I posted a few weeks ago ‘Our Hope in Christ’ has been very real to me personally over recent weeks as I have suffered some personal tragedy. God is faithful no matter what we are going through, whatever circumstances we find ourselves in it doesn’t change the nature of our Father God. For him not to be faithful would mean he would have to deny his very nature. “God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.” 1 Corinthians 1:9.

God will never change his mind about you; he loves you and loves you eternally “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3

Whatever you may be facing God is interested and wants to help you through it let the faithfulness of God be your strength and encouragement.

Keeping in Step

Ecclesiastes 7:13 (New Living Translation 1996) – “Notice the way God does things; then fall into line. Don’t fight the ways of God, for who can straighten out what he has made crooked.”

This is what we are called to do, God never promised us an easy life, in fact he promised just the opposite Jn 16:33 – “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart I have overcome the world.” However if we grasp the truth of this passage in Ecclesiastes it will make our journey through life a lot less fraught with toil and disappointment. 

Time and again Jesus said in his teachings in the Gospels “I only do what I see my Father doing” We need to develop such a relationship with God that we can see where he is working and moving and put our effort into that.

In our own lives we can’t win against God, we can fight against him all we like but he is sovereign and ultimately God will win. 

God will not always do things the way we except either and sometimes he may want to take us the long way round but, whatever God does will always be for a purpose perhaps to teach us something or develop something in our character. But whatever the reason we need to see where he is walking and place our feet firmly in his footsteps.

 

Let me give another example; in John 5:1-15 we read the story of the healing of the man at the pool in Jerusalem, in this story there were a great many sick and dying people that Jesus could have helped but he went up to one man in that vast crowd of need and healed him. Why just the one, could he not have prayed for all the others as well? I believe that because of the close relationship he had with his Father he saw where God wanted to work and threw himself into it.

This was why Jesus saw so much success in his life because he knew where and when God wanted to work and got behind it. He noticed the way God did things and fell into line, we need to develop this trait in our own lives too then we will truly be able to say as Paul did: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” 1 Corinthians 2:4-5

Notice what God is doing, where he is doing it and who he is doing it in and get stuck in!!

Our Hope in Christ

Times are changing, not just within Policing but everywhere else too. The world’s systems are being shaken and the ones that are not of God are falling. We shouldn’t be surprised by this a thorough shaking is promised in Haggai 2:6 and reinforced and expanded upon in Hebrews 12:25b-27 where it states:

Now God is speaking from heaven. So now it will be worse for those who refuse to listen to him. When he spoke before, his voice shook the earth. But now he has promised, “Once again I will shake the earth, but I will also shake heaven.”  The words “once again” clearly show us that everything that was created will be destroyed—that is, the things that can be shaken. And only what cannot be shaken will remain. (Easy-to-Read-Version)

But we can be encouraged by the last phrase in the above passage; God is in control, any person, anything, that is of him will stand strong:

The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. Hebrews 11:1 (The Message)

I am constantly touched and encouraged by the following song by Matt Redman, entitled My Hope click the link to listen to it on YouTube or if you can’t get it there the lyrics are below.

If you’ve not got it download it, stick it on repeat and just let the truth of the words wash over you and strengthen your soul. Take time to read the words through and think about the truth in them, we have the strongest foundation ever if we trust in Jesus.

Matt Redman - My Hope
Album: We Shall Not Be Shaken

My hope is built on nothing else
Than Jesus blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly live on Jesus' name

When the mountains are falling
When the waters are rising
I shall be safe in You
Though the nations are quaking
Every kingdom be shaken
Still I will rest in You

When darkness seems to hide Your face
I rest on Your unchanging grace
In every high and storming gale
My anchor holds within the veil

Does God Speak?

God is not silent, has never been silent. It is the nature of God to speak. The second Person of the Holy Trinity is called the Word. The Bible is the inevitable outcome of God's continuous speech. It is the infallible declaration of His mind for us put into our familiar human words.

The Pursuit of God - A.W. Tozer