Well, Ken, and the team he was leading on the latest murder investigation, captured the suspect yesterday.  In addition they found another murder suspect, from an investigation Ken headed up in April, who had disappeared in the wind – but had a warrant out for her arrest.

Two murder suspects taken off the street for two separate crimes in one day.

Yesterday was a good day for Justice in Coos Bay!

Mathew 26:14-16 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests,

¹⁵ And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.

¹⁶ And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

Judas, probably the most despised person in the New Testament for most Christians.

How could he possibly live with Jesus for three years and then betray Him?

He was the only one to turn his back on Jesus – well except for Peter, who denied Him, but recanted.  Judas betrayed him to the Jewish leaders and accepted money for it – but when he tried to give it back they refused to accept it – they basically mocked him and because he regretted his role in Jesus’ arrest and prosecution he hung himself.

Mathew 27:3-4 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

⁴ Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.

Jesus walked around in public every day, people saw Him.  He had confrontations with the leaders on a regular basis, yet, when they went to apprehend Him He was always able to get away.

They needed someone from the inside to let them know where He was and how they could contact Him out of the view of the multitudes that often surrounded Him.

Judas became that someone.  Why Him?  Were any of the other disciples tempted?  Why did He get tempted and then betrayed Jesus?  Why, after three years of listening to Jesus, walking with Him, seeing His miracles and accepting His leadership did he yield to the temptation and betray Him?

There are speculations; he was the treasurer of the group and money meant more to him than to any of the others – he was disillusioned by Jesus when He didn’t take up the mantle as King as the people thought He would, thus Judas didn’t hold Jesus in the same esteem as the others, and maybe even felt he was a fraud.  There are, dozens of thoughts, but in the end it doesn’t matter why.

What matters is he did it.  When he realized how far the leaders of the Jews would go and actually demanded Jesus’ death, he repented to them and tried to wash his hands of it all by returning the money – and the leaders would not accept the money, nor would they let him off the hook – he had betray Jesus.

Rather than trying to make contact with Jesus – even if he couldn’t have done it before Jesus was crucified, he certainly could have at the crucifixion – and told Him he was sorry and ask forgiveness, he took his own life.

What a despicable person, right?

None of us would EVER do such a thing.

However, if satan can get one of Jesus closest allies, a man who walked and talked with Jesus ever day to betray Him, what makes us think that we would never do such a thing?

Hebrews 12:14-17  Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

¹⁵ Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

¹⁶ Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

¹⁷ For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

As I read the verses on Judas I began to think of my own life – how many times have I betrayed Christ, how many times have I shunted my responsibility to hold Him in the highest esteem no matter what?

We are warned, throughout the Bible, that we must always place God first in our lives and not allow the world to jeopardize our salvation.

But we see it often, where followers of Christ, betray Him – His teachings – His love for others – His desire to save.

We see them giving up their salvation in order to make money; get a big promotion; make them feel more important; to gain power over others. 

We note the larger transgressions – the evangelist that has been sinning in a manner that he has vociferously preached against.  The Pastor who takes advantage of a member(s) of his congregation and uses them for his own pleasure – or to obtain money, or the things it will buy, illicitly. 

We see the misuse of funds entrusted to a person – embezzlement in all types of professions, both secular and within the church.

We see people who know who Christ is, refuse to acknowledge Him and His right to have any say in our lives; when confronted with their faith they back pedal and deny their affiliation with Him.

People preferring the world’s accolades to their salvation in Christ, having their egos stroked – a temptation we all face in one way or another.

We are warned to stay away from them – but we are also warned not to become one of them. 

Little temptations, once acted upon, can lead to bigger temptations and bigger sins as we, at first, drift away from God and then we go into a full throttled run from Him.

Then, we, hopefully (before it is too late) realize how far we have gone from God.  How we are selling our birthright – our right of salvation when we were born again, in Christ, for the world’s empty promises and satisfactions.

We have two choices, go to Jesus and ask forgiveness – or, decide it is of no use and continue our downward spiral into eternal death. 

We had a bearing on Christ crucifixion – He died that our sins would be forgiven, if we didn’t sin we would have no need for His death on our conscience.  But, we do have His death on our conscience and if we fall away from Him we have the responsibility of the fact, for us – He died in vain - and we may lead others away from Him.

We grieve Him when we disobey, but while that is a very good reason to shy away from sin, the end result is our death if all we do is feel sorry for our sins, but do not ask His forgiveness.

Judas felt sorry for what he had done, but did not seek forgiveness. 

Peter felt sorry for what he had done, and felt instant remorse and forgiveness.

Judas killed himself.

Peter went on to become one of the respected leaders of the church.

Both denied Christ, both had to come to terms with their sin – one chose death, one chose Christ’s forgiveness.

We have that same choice.

It is a good reason for us to ask God to search our hearts daily that we follow Him at all times – and should we fail ask forgiveness rather than continue our downward spiral into hell.

We were forgiven when we accepted Christ the first time, no matter what our sins were, and He will forgive us once again when we fail, and come back to Him.

Judas was a sinner who did a traitor’s act, but when we deny Christ we are no better.  The difference is we know Christ will forgive us.

Later, Art :-)

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