Author: lesterhutson316

Everybody has a stake in the police business. Yes, everybody including you. Most of us see law enforcement as us and them. Yes, there is the official law enforcement community at various levels: city police, sheriff, state troopers, game wardens, National Guard, the military and the list continues. Yet, peacekeeping is everybody’s business; mine and yours.

The need for law and order is embedded in every fabric of society. Even little babies need someone to help them with boundaries: fire is hot, poisons can kill, the rights of others must be respected. Without boundaries they become hazards to themselves and others. Homes, schools, businesses, churches, governments and even police forces cannot function very well without some measure of law and order.

At the heart of law and order are such factors as honesty, integrity, justice, personal responsibility and accountability, respect for the rights and property of others and obedience to God-ordained authority. (Oh yes, it’s pretty obvious that Jesus Christ was right in the bull’s-eye of where life really is!)

Just how do you insure “honesty, integrity, justice, personal responsibility and accountability, respect for the rights and property of others and obedience to God-ordained authority” in “homes, schools, businesses, churches governments and even police forces?” Do you keep raising taxes and hire more law enforcement officers? Will more and tougher laws do it? Is the answer stiffer penalties and more incarceration facilities? No, no, no! We all know better.

It is obvious that law enforcement starts in the heart. (Oh yes; there’s that Jesus stuff again.) Law, order and peace come when people learn to police themselves. Their own honesty (not a policeman) keeps them from taking what is not theirs. A bicycle in the yard or an unlocked car or home is safe. They don’t cheat on others by cutting in line: at the cafeteria or on the freeway. It is not a contract that makes them pay their bills. On time! It’s their own heart that makes them tell the truth and treat other people with respect and kindness. Before God their own heart moves them to do the right thing.

What happens to a society that leaves God out of the equation? Look around. America has been moving away from God for a long time. One of the ramifications is a diminishing of self-policing. With the diminishing of self-policing has come a steady rise in lawlessness, violence and civil disorder at every level of society: the breakup of homes, vastly increased crime, bigger and beefed up police forces at all levels, more incarceration facilities and a huge tax burden.

It is the personal responsibility of every person to police himself. Failure to do that ultimately breaks a society. As fewer and fewer people police themselves lawlessness, violence, bedlam and chaos grow to an unsustainable level. Usually a bloodbath takes place and a dictator with an iron fist steps up; everybody loses.

Who is your policeman? Who keeps you honest and doing the right thing? No Christian should need a policeman or a contract. Love for our God is enough. Oh how our world needs more Christians; not professors who wear the name but are void of the earmarks, but real Christians whose lives have been changed from the inside out by a personal meeting in the heart with Jesus Christ!

Most good beliefs and practices are now in question. Even Christianity’s most sacred book is on the list; it is under attack in multiple ways. Even so it is still regarded as “the Word of truth.” To avoid twisting it’s messages and falsely making it say what it doesn’t say, all who use the Bible are commanded to “rightly divide” it. It is very easy to do otherwise. I suspect that most who do not rightly divide the Bible (the Scriptures) are unaware of what they’re doing.

Preachers (especially pastors) have the greatest potential for twisting and misrepresenting the Word of truth. They’re regularly and often up there in the pulpit. They’re the teachers, the pacesetters and regarded as the authorities on the Bible. They preach sermons and teach lessons on what the Bible says and means. Some of them write books. On a trip from Houston to New York one uncorrected wrong turn can get you far off course, and one wrong position on a Bible truth can lead to major falsehoods.

For example, at the time of Christ and the Apostles who followed Him, orthodoxy was regarded as what Christ and the Apostles said. The 27 books of the New Testament along with the Old Testament were known as the Scriptures. Adherence to the Scriptures was orthodoxy; positions contrary to the Scriptures were considered heresy. Within a few years Christian leaders (especially preachers) began putting their slants and interpretations on the Scriptures. For one thing they began viewing the church as all who claimed to be Christians. They forsook the position of the Scriptures that a church is a local assembly of baptized believers covenanted together to keep the ordinances and carry out the great commission. Soon the new order saw orthodoxy as what the church taught, not as what the Scriptures teach. Any beliefs contrary to the positions of the church were considered heresy and those who embraced them were viewed as heretics. Really! Those who believed exactly what Jesus and the Apostles taught were considered heretics and millions of them were persecuted, tortured and killed simply because they believed and practiced what the Scriptures teach.

A while back I heard a sermon from John 8 on the woman taken in adultery. The preacher cleverly made Pharisees out of all who believe in standards. As I sat there I couldn’t help thinking of God and His 10 Commandments. They are standards, and there are multitudes of other standards throughout the Bible. How many times have you sat in a church and heard the just as I am routine? A wonderful message on how God receives fallen, broken-down sinners just like they are! The beautiful picture of grace apart from works for salvation shines forth. It’s so appealing to those whose lives are in a hopeless mess; however, something is missing. The sinner comes forward to receive the miraculous change; but the next day he wants another drink or fix, he’s still in a financial mess and all his passions are alive and well. Somehow in church he didn’t get the true picture that God receives sinful men just like they are; but that doesn’t mean all the problems are gone, that God is going to leave you like you are or that the road ahead will be easy.

Those who do not get or give the true picture of the Word of truth miss the point. Be careful before jumping on a new bandwagon. Since Jesus Christ was here there have been many Pied Pipers, people (especially preachers) who had great new takes on what the Scriptures mean. Beware! Some of them may be right; most of them probably aren’t. Look at professing Christianity today. What a checkered, self-contradictory mix! People with every imaginable conflicting idea, all claiming they got it from the Bible! That’s especially true in this day when old Christianity is generally scorned, a witch hunt for dirty laundry among old-timers is highly popular, attack books are in vogue by those who despise bigotry and negativism (talk about the pot calling the kettle black) and old Christians and proven Bible-based beliefs are being thrown under the bus. All by the charismatic new breeds who are so much smarter than those who went before them.

Look before you leap. Beware of Pied Pipers. Stay with the Scriptures! Do not be deceived by someone with charisma, who quotes lots of Scriptures, who seems intellectual or who has come up with some great new revelation. Insist on truth rightly divided. Reject that which is twisted or skewed. Be a true Berean. Search the Scriptures to see whether or not what you hear is true. Make the Word of truth your standard of judgment for all things and people.

Identity is pretty important. There are aspects of all of us, including our nation, of which we are embarrassed and ashamed; but it’s pretty radical to desert your roots and heritage because of a few bad apples and because the times have changed. There are a few corrupt law enforcement people and some bad doctor; but God forbid that we damn them all! America is sin-sick, on a collision course to disaster; but I’m an American, and not ashamed to say so. Even when I’m in Europe or Egypt! There are some REALLY corrupt preachers; but I’m a preacher, and not about to hide it by calling myself spokesman or messenger or some other watered-down name.

There’s power in a name. It’s a distinctive. It tells people who you are, what you believe and lots of other information about you. On a check, on a legal document, on a marriage license, on a tombstone! It’s you. It’s your church. It’s your moniker. It identifies you, sets you apart! It brands you.

Jesus has a name. No other name carries more scorn, has been hated more. This name has been mocked, ridiculed, prostituted, abused and smeared. Every imaginable godless thing you can imagine has been done in the name of Jesus. The Conquistadors pillaged, conquered and murdered in the name of Jesus Christ. This day millions hate Him and the truths that are uniquely and distinctively His. Should we change His name? Should we rename Him to something without so much controversy and baggage? Should we hide who He really is in hopes of attracting people when our real goal is to bring people to Him?

I don’t mind telling you that Jesus is the sweetest, most precious name I know. I don’t say that arrogantly or defiantly; I say it humbly and sincerely. I want to bring everybody I can to Him. I don’t want to hide Him; He told me to put Him on a candlestick and exalt Him. I know the name of Jesus turns off multitudes of people, there’s a built-in offence in the cross; but we dare not change His name or His message. There is no hope anywhere else.

These days there is a wave, a move among good people to vail who they really are. The motive seems to be noble; we want to reach more. Since so many people are turned off and want nothing to do with Christians of strong convictions, the growing trend among churches is to hide or mask who they really are. The idea seems to be that we don’t want those we hope to reach to be turned off by our name.

There’s a lot of baggage in the name Baptist especially Independent Baptist. Oh yes! It is sadly true that some of us have been pretty ugly: cantankerous and ill-tempered, mean-spirited, negative and critical, unreasonable, anti-intellectual, extremely judgmental, self-righteous, harsh and lots more. Some of our brethren want to shun that image. That’s understandable; but to erase name, your identity and vail who you really are? I have observed that most of those bad and repulsive characteristics cut across the board: Baptists of all stripes, Lutherans, Catholics, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Bible churches; and yes, atheists, homosexuals, Americans and the populace in general. The grass always seems to greener on the other side of the fence, but it rarely is. It’s easy to jump out of a frying-pan and land in a fire.

There’s a deceptive ring to hiding who you really are in order to reach people. Maybe your name no longer fits, and you need to change it; but to basically be who’ve always been, and hide that reality so that prospects won’t recognize you till you’ve got ‘um somehow flies in the face of integrity and fundamental honesty. I see no justification of deception anywhere in the Bible.

I’m a Hutson, an American, a Christian and a Baptist. In all of these areas of my heritage there have been some really godless people; but I’m still a Hutson, an American, a Christian and a Baptist. I’m not about to let God-dishonoring people in either category drive me away from my heritage, my name. It saddens me to see Baptists dropping Baptist while calling themselves baptistic. What kind of mind and word game is that? I for one am glad to be identified with that long heritage of men and women who since Christ have stood for the Bible at a great price. I’m not ready to disassociate myself from them in beliefs, practices or name.

Old things: old coins, old furniture, old thunderbirds and corvettes, old churches, old people, old preachers, old songs, old doctrines. What about libraries and museums which are full of old books, microfilm and other historical artifacts? Is a Holocaust museum important? Should we revise our Constitution and our history textbooks? Is the Constitution an evolving document? How about the Bible? Should we listen to Einstein, Henry Morris and Spurgeon? Is it time to abandon “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” Should we throw caution to the side and buy the new catch phrase, “If you keep doing the same old thing you’ve been doing, you’ll keep getting the same old results you’ve been getting?” Is there something fatally wrong with the beliefs and practices that got the message of Christ to this generation in spite of 2,000 years of overwhelming odds? What’s so wrong with preaching, praying, singing, giving and the Lord’s Supper? Should we be so ready to desert an English translation of the Bible that has single-handedly had a greater impact upon the whole world for the last 4 centuries than all other books combined?

Age alone is not the determining factor in whether or not something is good or bad. Claims or words alone do not determine the truth or validity of anything. It has been well said that things are not always what they seem, but they are always what they are.

God has weighed-in on this subject. Big time! In His 10 Commandments (not suggestions), He said great weight (that’s what honour means) should be placed on fathers and mothers. That includes immediate parents, but also the wisdom of the ages. This commandment was to all Israeli children about their immediate parents, but it was also to the nation corporately (Exodus 19:3). “That thy days may be long upon the land which The Lord thy God giveth thee” is a promise of national longevity in the land, not merely a promise that any obedient child would live to a ripe old age. For Israel (or America) to prosper and survive from generation to generation in the land, she would have to master respect for the wisdom of the ages. (In the context in which God gave these commandments the thinking of God must remain society’s central authority and guide.)

Dad and Mom are not infallible or right on everything; neither is your beloved old pastor or forefathers in the faith. But, beware lest you flippantly toss them aside. Doctrine and practices that have stood the tests of time and lasted for centuries merit serious consideration. All of them are not bad. People have been getting saved, worshipping God and mentoring a next generation quite successfully for a long time. Yes, there is considerable baggage in much that’s old, but it’s never good to throw out the baby with the dirty bathwater.

There is a new battering ram on the scene for beating up old churches, old preachers, old music and many things long held sacred: “If you keep doing the same ole things, you’ll keep getting the same ole results.” The man currently in the White House was swept into office on the promise of change. Like the Pied Piper he piped and the multitudes fell in line without thinking through what change really meant. Obviously things have not turned out very well. It’s pretty easy to jump out of the frying-pan right into the fire. It’s always wise to look before you leap.

There is old baggage, but there is new baggage too; and old baggage can turn up as new baggage in different clothing. You don’t get away from cantankerous, mean-spirited Pharisees by changing names or locations. Hypocrites, bullies, the rude, the unprincipled and those without integrity seem to be everywhere. Such things are human-nature, character problems. They are universal and not limited to Baptists (Independent or otherwise).

“Honour thy father and thy mother” is a part of God’s bulwark against change for the worse. Idealism does not always bring about improvement. Just look at Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution and a world that has embraced Darwinian Evolution. These days old-line churches, old men like me with old Bible beliefs like mine and the way we’ve done church for a long, long time are taking a pretty bad beating. The seekers, the emergers, the millenniums and others have a better way. Many are leaving the old paths that somehow got the glorious truths of God to us. The verdict is still out; but I suspect that when the final word is spoken and God’s appraisal of what was glitter and what was gold is made, those who gave serious consideration and weight to the thinking and positions of their fathers and their mothers will be glad they did.