I decided in order to continue my Rajneesh stories I needed to put into perspective what the Wasco County Sheriff’s Office, and particularly my, other responsibilities were in addition to having to deal with the Rajneesh.  I am sure it will bring back some memories of some of you when you were elected to Office – we have shared memories.

When I ran for Office in the Spring of 1984 the Sheriff was still a bi-partisan position.  I was a life-long Republican, my opponent was a Democrat.  In my first term it became a non-partisan position by State Statute, that is the way it should be.

Neither of us was opposed in the primary so we would be running against each other in the Fall.

I received a campaign check, right after the election in May, from the Republican Committee of Wasco County.  I held onto it for almost a month.  I didn’t call my campaign committee together for that time.

I was having second thoughts.  Among them was the fact I was running against a man who was already in the office and was seeking re-election.  I finally came to the conclusion – after discussion with other Christian’s and prayer – that we needed a change, and the system was set up to ensure the people had a say in the office.

Changes needed to be done and I felt God was allowing me to be that person to do the changing.  If not I would not be elected.

The more I got into the election process the more I became aware of the problems in the Office.  But even that did not prepare me for what I discovered in the first few weeks after I took Office.

Frankly, for me, the Rajneesh were like an angry mosquito, always buzzing about, always trying to disrupt, but they couldn’t do much harm or have much impact – at the time – to the operation of the office.  Except for the need to drive down to serve papers, a lengthy 80 mile plus drive some over dirt roads and it taking several hours – even if only to serve one paper, we spent little time on them.

To be sure we had incidents that we had to address but for the first few months they were quiet, they were licking their wounds  – we figured they were waiting to be more disruptive, but not doing anything open enough for us to address. 

One complaint I had heard about for several years is the Sheriff’s Office was not open to the citizens.  The Sheriff had redacted a lot from reports before giving the press information on what were often very minor incidents in the county. 

It wasn’t necessary.  There was a daily log kept by the dispatchers of calls and activity each day.  Deputies would respond to a call and when completed would radio information to be typed onto the log. 

Most of it was mundane, those that were more serious would be assigned a case file and reports would be written; a brief description would be put on the log.  The information was there for the deputies coming on duty to read and know what had occurred since the last time they worked.

We did not have beginning of shift meetings since there would only be a couple or three people coming on duty AND the shifts were not the same for the Patrol deputies and the rest of the staff.

This was an efficient way of passing along info, and they could get more details if needed.

This was the same log the media could see, there was rarely any information on it that could endanger an on-going investigation.

My first order was to make that log available to reporters.  The first day one came in from one of the local newspapers and wanted to look at the log. 

It was given to him; he just glanced at it, smiled and left.

It was a simple to do and important, it showed we had nothing to hide.  I also made myself very available to the media and answered as honestly, as possible, all questions.

I just wished all of my goals could have been completed as easily, many took several years and a great deal of stress on all of us to get the Office heading in the right direction.

1 Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

And

Most of this chapter deals with the false teaching of no resurrection of the dead.  As Paul pointed out that if there is no resurrection, then Christ could not have been resurrected and our teachings are for nothing.

13-14 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:

¹⁴ And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

But Paul goes on to prove the resurrection of the dead, specifically Christ who walked among them.  He tells them that their belief in Christ is the foundation of their faith and it is truth.  We do not just die, we transition into heavily spirits in the presence of God.

 55-58 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Sometimes I am focused too much on the way to live for Christ and not enough on what it means to live for Christ and what my responsibility is to others.

I watched a program the other day about WW I.  They read from the diary of a young man who was killed in action.  He was about 19 years old at the time of his death.

In the front of the diary, as a kind of forward, he talked about the love he had of his country and of his family.  He left his family and went into the army out of a sense of responsibility to his country.  He understood he might die, but if he did so it was for a worthy cause.

The last thing he wrote was that he would fight every day as if it all depended on him.

Are we doing all we can for Christ, as if everything depended on us?

Are we looking at the people we meet each day as the field in need of harvest that Christ said didn’t have enough laborers?

What is our primary focus in our spiritual life?  Is it to grow in Christ, or to serve Christ?

While they are not mutually exclusive, the first denotes self-gratification and a desire to better oneself; while the latter is a seeking to do whatever we must do to serve Christ.

We want to do better, so we feel we must BE better; instead of just serving, we think we need to have a blueprint placed before us and the only way it will be given to us is by growing closer to Him.

We MUST grow closer to Him.  We must seek Him out, read his Word and contemplate/meditate what He has said in His Word, so we do know how to grow closer to Him.

But our goal should always be to understand Him so we can better serve Him, not to understand Him so we can call ourselves Holy, or Spiritual.  With service comes getting closer to God.

If our goal is to simply become more Spiritual then we will fail.  Eventually, it becomes about US and not God; and we will find ourselves drifting away from Him.

When we work for God, in service to Him, and follow His precious Holy Spirit, allowing Him to work in our lives, our actions will be blessed and they will glorify God. 

We do not know from one day to the next what God may have in store for us.  We may think we do, we may know that our position or responsibility is to do a task assigned to us – teaching, preaching, helping others – but He knows what He wants done and how we factor into HIS plans.

Gideon, David, Joseph, Daniel, Ruth, Ester, Jonah, Peter, Paul, John, and a cast of dozens in God’s Word and of millions through the ensuing years had their lives disrupted and became examples of what a person, dedicated to God, can do for Him.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

Later, Art :-)

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