To serve and protect

“The thin blue line” is a reference to police who form a boundary between lawless chaos and a safe, peaceful society. Though our law enforcement is not a perfect system, I am grateful to those men and women who keep the bad guys from taking over! While I am not always thrilled to see a police cruiser pull up behind my car, I know that ultimately it is the charge of that law officer to serve and protect.

Disciple, you and I have a similar commission in this world, to work to counteract and restrain evil. Do you know this is your high and holy calling? Jesus describes the functional nature of our mission by calling us ‘salt and light.’ In His time, salt was much more than a flavoring of food. In that pre-refrigeration age it was a critical preservative. Christians are to serve that function in the world today. Don’t just think of great movements involving millions of like-minded believers. Individually, we can have a noticeable effect, and we should! In the dark world, our love of God will make the Way plain for others.

Does your family know you as a person of prayer, a person of wisdom to whom they can turn for solid counsel, as a person of compassion on whom they can lean in the hard times? Do your daily decisions reveal a quality of life that compels those with whom you work to say ‘thank God’ for you? Isn’t that what Jesus means when He says, “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden… let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father."? (Matthew 5:14,16, NLT)

Ask yourself, would the people that I live with be worse off if I did not exist? Am I functioning as ‘salt and light’?

It’s an honor to serve and protect! Just as police officers feel a justifiable sense of honor and privilege, wearing their badge of public trust with a sense of obligation, so should we. We don’t have to announce our good works with trumpets. Indeed, Jesus forbade it. We just live to give, loving in big and small ways, asking the Spirit of God to work quietly and persistently through us to push back the influence of evil.

Here’s a word from the Word. Keep it in your conscious mind today and let it challenge every word and action.
" In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. … I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere." (Ephesians 4:1, The Message) "I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd." (Ephesians 4:17, The Message) "Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside." (Ephesians 4:22-23, The Message) "Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents." (Ephesians 5:1, The Message)

_________________________

Jesus, use me and O Lord, don't refuse me,
For surely there's a work that I can do;
And even tho' it's humble, Lord,
Help my will to crumble,
Tho' the cost be great I'll work for You.

Dear Lord, I'll be a witness,
If You will help my weakness.
I know that I'm not worthy, Lord, of Thee.
By eyes of faith I see Thee,
Upon the cross of Calv'ry;
Dear Lord, I cry let me Thy servant be.

Jesus Use Me
Campbell, Jack / Campbell, Billy
© 1956 Gospel Publishing House (Assigned to Lorenz Corporation, 1998)

CCLI License No. 810055