As I said in an earlier post, from time to time I will talk about people who have had some impact on my life, particularly as a law enforcement officer.  Today I thought I would begin to tell you of my first sergeant, Dalton.

As a Reserve Officer I had worked with most of the officers.  But there was one shift that NO reserves worked, at least not on those days the Sergeant worked.  It was Graveyard, the midnight to 8:00 am shift.  The Sergeant was Sgt. Eggleston.  He not only did not like reserve officers, his philosophy was “I would rather have no officer on the street than to have a reserve working.”  Sarge had come to us from a similar size department almost 15 years prior to me joining.  He was hired as a sergeant and given Graveyard shift.  While other sergeants came and went and they rotated their shifts, he never left Graveyard.  It was his domain, and NO ONE questioned him.  Even the Chief almost always let him have his way.  I had asked the sergeant once if I could ride and was given a direct and stern “NO!”  I was surprised, as far as I knew I had a good reputation among the officers.

Linderman the shift’s patrolman First Class (PFC), equivalent to a corporal’s position, talked to me later.  He told me not to take it personally.  While Sarge was working in the other department he had a reserve riding with him.  They responded to a fight call in a bar.  It was a brawl, with several people fighting.  Sarge was the first unit there and his back up was still minutes away.  He went on in, because he had a reserve riding with him.  However, the reserve never went into the bar and Sarge was hurt pretty bad; it laid him up for several weeks.  When the reserve was asked where he had gone, he stated, “I decided right then and there I didn’t want to be a police officer and walked away.”  Sarge learned; and no matter what anyone else said, he wanted nothing to do with reserves.  No one challenged him.  I always made a point of saying hello to him, though, whenever I saw him.  I liked the man, and from what I had heard from other officers, he knew how to be a good cop.

I learned when I was commissioned as a Probationary Police Officer what my shift assignment was; I would be going to Graveyard shift, with Sergeant Eggleston.   Now I wanted to go to the shift, but I have to admit I was apprehensive it was the same feeling I was getting as I drove down the hill into the ranch/city.  I wasn’t afraid, but, nervous; I didn’t know how Sgt. Eggleston was going to treat this former reserve and new probationer.   I arrived at the appointed time of 11:30 pm.  Sarge was already there; he usually came in around 10:00 pm.  He looked at me and said, “Heard you might be coming over.  You’ll be riding with Linderman until bar closing.  At that time I want you to come in and work with Dorthea to learn the desk.”

It was a quiet night and about 2:35 am I came into the office.  When I first started we had three “matrons;” one Matron for each shift.  Dorthea was the Graveyard Matron.  The Matrons worked Monday through Friday.  They had several duties one of which was manning the radio and assisting the officer in the field with checks for the status of the citizen the officer may have stopped.  They answered the phone, and if necessary they would dispatch us to the call.  They also handled all walk in traffic, typed reports and records filed papers as any records clerk is required to do.  They also monitored the jail in the basement.  Each shift was assigned certain additional duties, for example Graveyard Matron counted out the money from the meters and parking tickets as well as posting the tickets.  On the weekends an officer took over the office duties.  Usually that task was rotated between the officers.  However, until an officer could be turned loose on his own, that officer worked the desk on the weekends.  While I had been around the department for almost a year, I had never had any experience with the desk duty.

Dorthea showed me how to work the teletype, check for warrants, the differences between our radio and the county radio that was sometimes monitored.  She had me run some registrations and checks for warrants on the teletype.  The officers working the desk were not expected to do the paperwork, but we did have to do all dispatching duties. 

That morning, like almost every work day, Sarge came in about 4:10 am.  Part of Graveyard’s responsibility was to go to a local all night restaurant and pick up the breakfast for the inmates at 4:30 am.  Swing Shift “fed” the inmates at 4:30 pm; the law required two meals and they could not be more than 14 hours apart.  When Sarge worked he always took care of breakfast.  Then he would clean the office and do paperwork the rest of the shift.  On occasion he would go back out, but not often.  He was available to assist an officer, if needed, but other than an assist he pretty much stayed in the office.

That morning, after he had fed the inmates and cleaned the office, he took me out to breakfast. 

To be continued,

Genesis 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Those of you that read through my tombs know that I often point to the physical beauty and the complexity of the world as confirmation of a Creator – and that Creator is God.

I was called on it the other day.  How can God say everything He created was good?  How can I praise the beauty of the world with there is so much ugliness?  We look around us and see hunger, we see man attacking man, we see poverty and greediness, people dying from disease and violence, we see desolation caused by earthquakes, volcanoes and hurricanes.  To this person the world was not good and did not understand how anyone who could make such a Pollyanna statement.

Angry, upset stating if there is a God, He is not who we say He is.  He is not a loving caring God or none of this would be happening.

Every believer hears this comment often.  The state of the world is God’s fault for not correcting it and/or allowing it to happen.

On the sixth day of creation, when God made that comment, the world was perfect.  There were no flaws.  There was no death.  We look at meat eating animals today, but in the Garden there were no meat eaters, there was no death. 

Verses 29-30 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

³⁰ And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My, ate vegetation, not each other.  Man did not eat meat, he was a vegetarian. 

There was no illness, there was no pain and there was no struggle to live.  Everything every creature and man wanted or needed was there for them to eat.  Neither man nor beast had anything to fear, they lived in harmony.  On that day, and for many others the world was perfect.

So what happened?  Have you ever assigned something to someone only to have them create a problem so great that it took hours and money to fix – or it had to be discarded and another thing purchased to replace it?  You had faith in them, they knew what they were supposed to do, they knew how to do it, but they deliberately didn’t follow the protocol or their orders?  When they deliberately disobey orders, it doesn’t go well, does it?

Verses 26-28 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

²⁸ And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Adam and Eve were created to take care of earth and all the things within it – as well as give pleasure to God as He walked and talked with them in this beautiful garden. 

They didn’t have to work hard, everything grew.  They didn’t have to worry about animals attacking them or each other, they didn’t have to wonder where their next meal was coming from; they didn’t worry about diseases or natural disasters.  When we speak about heaven on earth, this was as close as it gets.  The world was perfect when they were given the responsibility to take care of it.

But because they disobeyed God, they brought sin into the world and the world was no longer perfect.  We have been going down hill ever since.

So why hasn’t God done something about it?  He did.  He sent a flood – remember?

Genesis 6:5-8  And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

⁶ And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

⁷ And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

⁸ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

7:22-23 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

²³ And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

God started over with man, and the animals, and gave man another opportunity to get right with Him.  He also promised He would never send such a flood again.

But man continued to sin.  Continued to think he could be equal to God and to become a god. 

Genesis 11:4-8 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

⁵ And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

⁶ And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

⁷ Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

⁸ So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

God gave man dominion over the earth.  He also gave Him the ability to make decisions.   Adam used that ability to disobey God and sin against Him.  As a result, man has been under the pain and results of that disobedient act.  And unfortunately, man continues to be disobedient.

God has given man many opportunities to turn back to Him.  The Old Testament is full of examples of men who have served Him and men who have denied Him – and what happens when they do.

God has told us what will eventually happen through His prophets and in the writings of the Apostles.  He told the Jews of old that He would send a redeemer who would allow them to have the same relationship with Him that Adam had before he sinned. 

Jerimiah 33:13-15  In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that telleth them, saith the Lord.

¹⁴ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.

¹⁵ In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.

And He did:

Luke 1:30-33 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.

³¹ And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.

³² He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

³³ And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

Acts 13:22-23 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.

²³ Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus:

And man has continued to reject Him.  God has given man many opportunities to change, to turn back to Him; yet man continues to reject Him.  Not all, of course, so there is hope for man.

So why doesn’t God just come down and correct the situation.  Why does He continue to allow satan rule over us?  God could, if He wanted, wipe all of the ugliness off of the earth.

Yep, He can.  But He wants to give man as much opportunity He can to turn to Him.   He has chosen to use men who have turned their lives over to Him to spread His Gospel.

1 Corinthians 1:21  For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

God uses man to spread His Word.  While we may look at the persecution and torture as evil – and it is – God looks at it not only as evil, but as an opportunity for His people to spread His Word.  Paul’s persecution of the Christians forced them to flee, but in doing so, they told others of their new found faith, and many were saved because of it.

Acts 8:3-4  As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.

⁴ Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.

Still as now, the multitudes would not accept Christ and the guidance of God through the Holy Spirit.  To them nothing seemed to change – but Peter points out they have, we are still in peril of being destroyed.  The only thing that stands between us and the final days of the last days, and condemning those that are not in His service in this world, is His patience and desire to have as many people saved as possible.

2 Peter 3:4-9  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

⁵ For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

⁶ Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

⁷ But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

⁸ But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

⁹ The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

So how do we convey that to the unbeliever?  The same way Jesus did, by using the Word of God to tell them.  There will be those who choose not to listen.  There will be those who will listen but not understand or choose to still go their own way. 

But in God’s Word is His presence.  His Holy Spirit works on people.  He will show them Christ in us, but He can be more effective when we use God’s Word in our witness.  We know it is sharper than any two edged sword and will strike at the heart.

That is why it is so important to study His Word, so we are prepared for those opportunities we have to talk about Jesus.

We do not have to defend the Word of God, nor do we need to apologize for our beliefs.  The Word of God is the basis for what determines right from wrong in this World.  We do not have to give up that base just because others condemn it, or because the accuse God as not being loving enough.  The Holy Spirit will bring it home to them, one way or another. 

While we may not fully understand how that works, we know that God does and that is all that matters.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again