When I first came into the
office to orient myself with the Sheriff’s Office, the Sheriff showed me a
letter of complaint he had received against one of the Deputies from the
Rajneesh Chief of Police. He said I get
these all the time.
I asked if he was going to
answer it, and he said no.
The letter ended with how
wonderful it was to be a Chief of Police in a crime free community that is so
much greater than what we had to see. It
was a common statement, he said, and it came in every letter.
I only had a few letters that
came into my Office from the Chief in regards to my deputies’ actions. I always answered them.
I remembered one, in particular,
that came in concerning a deputy’s driving too fast on the county road going
through the property.
It seems that he was driving
along the road and one of the Rajneesh was driving in front of him – adhering
‘to the speed limit of 25.’ The deputy
had the nerve to pass the Rajneesh and put everyone’s life in danger.
I talked to the deputy. He said that the car was going around 15 to
20 mph, but where he passed her was in a wide spot in the road and he had plenty
of room and visibility to pass safely.
He believed the driver was
intentionally trying to slow him down and interfere with him.
I wrote back to the Chief that I
had discussed it with my deputy. He told
me that the car was going too slow and was hampering him in his official duties;
he was able to pass her in a safe location and did so safely.
I also told her if we had any
further incidents of this nature the deputies were instructed to issue citations
and/or make arrests.
We never had another incident of
that nature.
I found, at least in things
involving my Office, that if we were able to show that we knew what we were
talking about and were willing to take action, they backed off.
1 Kings
11:1-4 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with
the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians,
and Hittites:
2
Of the nations concerning which the
Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to
them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your
heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in
love.
3
And he
had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives
turned away his heart.
4
For it came to pass, when Solomon was
old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was
not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his
father.
Solomon, who was given great
favors by God.
Solomon, who was wiser than any
man.
Solomon, who was respected and
loved by his people.
Solomon, whom God had entrusted
with the building of His house.
Solomon, who possessed great
wealth.
Solomon, who was given tribute
by many nations.
Solomon, who turned from God and
worshiped the ‘gods’ brought into his life by his wives and concubines.
If this can happen to the wisest
man on earth, it can happen to any of us.
We must ask ourselves who or
what we are bringing into our lives that might turn our heart from God.
Satan has patience. He knows that if he can continually attack us
from different ways we will weaken. As
we weaken our resolve to serve God can falter.
Eventually we can fall before God and fail Him.
It is not an irreversible
situation, God has great mercy and He is willing to forgive us when we realize
we have fallen away from Him, but it does impact our ability to serve Him
effectively.
Those fallings away, even if
they happened years ago, can come back to haunt us both physically and
mentally. We may have injured ourselves
and the old wounds cause health issues later.
Satan is very good at trying to
block our activity for God by bringing up failures and those times we strayed
from God. He hammers us with doubts and
concerns about whether we can serve God, even in a small way, because we have
failed in the past.
We need to be careful about whom
we choose to listen to, and weigh words of advice asking for discernment from
the Spirit of God who can help us distinguish right from wrong.
We have many things that
distract us today; television, radio, movies, magazines, and all kinds of social
networking are ramping up their desirability. It seems that every business and everybody has
a social media page where we can interact with them.
Almost every commercial or
advertisement encourages us to go to their website for more information. We have instant contact with others just by
pressing a couple of buttons.
Many have become so dependent on
this electronic age that they have become addicted – as much as any drug addict
is addicted to their drug. Withdrawal
from their cloying call is extremely difficult.
While the distractions are
great, satan has always caused distractions in the Christians’ lives. There is always something he can use to pull
our minds away from God; to keep us from allowing God to rule in our lives. His methods are new, but his message and
desires are not.
The push for instant
communications grows. We must have
access, immediately, to information or people. It is billed as a must have in today’s society
and those of us that don’t adhere to this great technology will fall behind.
However, there is no excuse for
falling away from God. There wasn’t with
Solomon, there isn’t with us.
God has had instant
communications since time began. We can
access Him at any time. We can ask Him
questions, advice and guidance with but a thought and a prayer.
We don’t want to let today’s
technologies or the false teachings of others interfere with that
communication. We don’t want static
caused by our unbelief or distractions to keep Him message from coming in
clearly.
We need to identify anything
that is causing us to be led astray and get it out of our life.
John
8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto
them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk
in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The site is acting up for some reason, you can get the rest of my comments by scrolling down - sorry about the problem, Art
Satan would like to turn out
that light, or at the very least turn it away from us. He knows that as long as we follow Christ he
loses; he is not a good loser. He works
in darkness with the sleight of hand of a master magician.
Focusing our minds in one
direction while doing his damage from another; he loves to bring outside
influence to corrupt our minds so that he can destroy our relationship with God
and our credibility to others.
Solomon was known for his
wisdom, but he is also known for his failures and his turning away from God.
All Solomon’s wisdom, wealth and
power in his early life were for naught as he turned from God.
May we have the wisdom Solomon
first attained and never sacrifice it for things of this world that will
extinguish our souls.
Later, Art :-)
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