Not a lot going on today. Trying to get some more peaches canned and
get ready for winter.
Mathew 22:29-30 Jesus answered and
said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of
God.
30 For in the resurrection
they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in
heaven.
The Sadducees were trying to trick Jesus by placing Him in
untenable positions; this was just one of them.
If He answered one way they could chastise Him, if another, they would
also chastise Him. It would appear He
was in a no win situation.
However, He
turned their arguments back on them. He
was blunt in His statement to them, He accused them of not knowing the
scriptures – and sense they didn’t believe in the resurrection they obviously
did not know the scriptures.
As Christians
we face the same kinds of queries from those that would try and denigrate our
faith in Him. They point to adverse
situations and ask how can a God allow that?
They strive to catch us on our knowledge of His Word by twisting His Word
or even ascribing verses to the Bible that do not exist.
Those that
would challenge us do so with malice in mind.
They take the time to form the questions or accusations ahead of time so
that they believe we will be confounded and not be able to respond; thus, they
believe, they have won the argument.
When we let the
enemy define the terms of a conversation it is not going to be in our favor –
they define the terms so that they become, or at least appear to be, the victor.
It is one of
the reasons we should be prayed up and have a solid understanding of the Word of
God. There are so many ways for our
enemy to attack us that it is difficult to prepare properly for the
battle.
In law
enforcement we always prepared for the worse, hoping that the worse would not
come, but at least we would be ready for it.
That meant
considering what might happen, evaluating the means that it might happen and
then planning and practicing the response to that situation.
The military is
in much the same mode – as is every other emergency service provider. You prepare for the worse, but hope for the
best.
When making
those determinations you also have to evaluate what is the probability of that
happening in your area of responsibilities.
Anything can happen, anywhere, but what is the likelihood?
It is important
to do that evaluation because you cannot afford to prepare for every possible
scenario. What you can do is prepare in
such a manner that if something unexpected comes up you can draw on your plans
for other situations and adapt and apply it for the current problem.
But even still,
you learn that your agency cannot do it all, the possibilities of something
occurring must be evaluated and concentration of funds and efforts applied to
the most probable.
Then because
the agency cannot afford to develop for an unlikely situation, we partner up
with an agency or group that can focus on the problem that we might not face,
but they prepare for it for a broader area, and it the problem does occur we use
there area of expertise to take care of the problem.
For many years
larger agencies, such as Portland and Eugene in Oregon, had their own
specialized crime scene investigators who knew how to process any scene and
could do the laboratory work to process evidence. Smaller agencies could not afford that kind
of specialized work in serious crime scenes so they would call on them for help
– help that was willingly given.
As the years
went on and the equipment became more expensive and the individual expertise
more critical it was decided, rather than allocate funds that could be used in
other area to allow The Oregon State Police to focus on this need and the rest
of us would draw on that resource.
Every Police
officer is trained in the basics. They
know how to protect a crime scene, they know how to investigate crimes, but
sometimes the crime scene is more involved than they are trained for – a murder
scene is a good example – and they bring in the experts. But in most cases the ‘experts’ are not
needed.
The agency
looks at what is happening in their area of responsibility. They look at adjoining communities; they look
at who has resources they can call upon if necessary. The review their budget and make a
determination that the most likely thing to happen in their community must be
addressed and funds and training target that probability.
There is more
to it, of course, but that is the basics for any agency who must prepare for
emergencies.
Christ was
prepared for the Sadducees. He
knew the Scriptures; He knew those that applied to the life of the Jews, their
worship, their sacrifices, the verses which foretold of His coming and most
importantly the truth of the scriptures.
We may not be
as glib as our Lord in facing the advisory.
We may not be able to pull the exact scripture needed to answer the
question or accusation, but we can prepare for the questions that are most asked
– and it may be different from one community to another – so we can allow the
Holy Spirit to help us respond.
There are times
an expert must address that question – but most of the time we can handle it if
we are trained and prepared.
It means we
must study the Word of God and have a clear understanding of who God is. Just because the year is 2015 doesn’t mean He
is any different than He was before the Creation of the Universe.
When someone
tries to trip us up and ‘quote scripture’ we can ask them to show it to us –
then IF they actually know where it is and IF it is quoted accurately, what is
the context? The context can change the
apparently meaning of a verse from false teaching to the truth.
2 Timothy
2:15 Study to shew
thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth.
To study means just that, we
must study God’s Word, we must apply it to our life and in the process we must
rely upon the Holy Spirit to lead us as we talk to others about Christ and His
promises.
1 Peter
3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you
a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and
fear:
This comes not from just study –
but a welling up of the Spirit within us.
One of the reasons a new Christian can be an effective witness and many
times bring others to Christ is the ability to express His great love and why he
has that hope. It is fresh within him
and the Joy comes flowing out – he can’t stop it even if he wanted to.
They may not know ‘all the right
things to say’ but they have experienced that salvation and cleansing that only
Christ can give them and that joy, that wonder comes through to show how Christ
has changed them. The freshness of their
salvation can often be a more effective tool than trying to convert by quoting a
lot of scriptures.
People relate to experiences,
they want to hear the truth that we have found and how it is changing our
lives. Even those that will challenge
and try to destroy us, can be reached through the demonstration of His love for
them through us.
We need to know God’s Word and
the longer we live in Him, the more we should know. But what really grasps the hearts of man is
not the pontificating, but the showing of our love for them and an open and
honest relationship with God.
Later, Art :-)
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