{"id":2563,"date":"2011-10-27T10:29:34","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T14:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/?p=2563"},"modified":"2014-07-21T10:15:26","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T14:15:26","slug":"hes-a-good-man-seriously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/hes-a-good-man-seriously\/","title":{"rendered":"He’s a Good Man? Seriously?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week Paul J. Spencer jumped out of his crashed Cadillac wielding a large knife and stabbed\u00a0Lafayette Police Officer Ron Dombkowski in the face.\u00a0 You heard me right–in the face.\u00a0 Two other officers involved had no\u00a0choice but to fire on Spencer, fatally wounding him but also bringing his murderous actions to an end.\u00a0 Yesterday an independent panel ruled that\u00a0the officers’ actions were\u00a0justified.<\/p>\n

Is anyone bad anymore?<\/h2>\n

Spencer’s mother added to the spectacle\u00a0by repeatedly proclaiming, “My son–he’s a good man.”\u00a0 Seriously?\u00a0 In all deference to a grieving mother, that analysis is outrageous.\u00a0 When a person picks up a large knife and attacks one of our local police officers, he is decidedly something other than a good man.<\/p>\n

What would a person have to do in this culture before people would simply be willing to conclude — “that was bad”\u00a0 or maybe even, “that was sin?” \u00a0And at the expense of sounding like a really old guy, it is fascinating to me how much that dynamic has changed in one generation.\u00a0 When I was growing up, my mamma had very little trouble saying that I was a bad boy.\u00a0 And I never stabbed anyone.\u00a0 In the spirit\u00a0of full disclosure, there was that time I shot my sister with a BB gun, but I digress.\u00a0 But all I had to do was carelessly spill my milk at the supper table, and that earned me the pronouncement\u00a0yet again, “Stevie, you’re a bad boy.”<\/p>\n

My mom was right. I am<\/em> a bad boy. (And so are you.)<\/h2>\n

What would a person have to do in this culture before people would simply be willing to conclude — “that was bad”\u00a0 or maybe even, “that was sin?”<\/p>\n<\/div>The apostle\u00a0Paul\u00a0sounded a lot like my mom.\u00a0 “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10).\u00a0 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).\u00a0 Badness is the universal condition of the sons (and daughters) of Adam.\u00a0 “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men,\u00a0because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).\u00a0 We are all bad boys, period.<\/p>\n

This isn’t trivial. The stakes are high.<\/h2>\n

This is much more than an academic discussion.\u00a0 One of the lessons of this tragic story is the brevity and uncertainty of life.\u00a0\u00a0The upshot is that we should all give\u00a0careful thought to where we believe we will spend eternity.\u00a0 I wonder\u00a0how many people\u00a0in our own community believe they will earn their way to heaven because they were essentially good.\u00a0 If mothers say\u00a0that about their knife wielding sons,\u00a0we shouldn’t be surprised that sons (and daughters)\u00a0draw the same erroneous conclusion.<\/p>\n

Acknowledging our badness points us to the cross of Calvary.\u00a0 It motivates us to admit that we need a Savior and Lord, someone willing to die in our place and qualified to take charge of our lives.\u00a0 Because my mom was honest with me, and about me–I chose to place my faith and trust in Jesus Christ and His righteousness.\u00a0\u00a0Now mom’s\u00a0analysis of me is, “he’s a bad boy, but He has a wonderful Savior who is slowly remaking my son into His image.”\u00a0 That’s an analysis that will stand the test of time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week Paul J. Spencer jumped out of his crashed Cadillac wielding a large knife and stabbed\u00a0Lafayette Police Officer Ron Dombkowski in the face.\u00a0 You heard me right–in the face.\u00a0 Two other officers involved had no\u00a0choice but to fire on Spencer, fatally wounding him but also bringing his murderous actions to an end.\u00a0 Yesterday an… read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":2566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4291,145,64,4210],"yoast_head":"\nHe's a Good Man? Seriously? - Faith Church Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/hes-a-good-man-seriously\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"He's a Good Man? Seriously? - Faith Church Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week Paul J. Spencer jumped out of his crashed Cadillac wielding a large knife and stabbed\u00a0Lafayette Police Officer Ron Dombkowski in the face.\u00a0 You heard me right–in the face.\u00a0 Two other officers involved had no\u00a0choice but to fire on Spencer, fatally wounding him but also bringing his murderous actions to an end.\u00a0 Yesterday an... read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/hes-a-good-man-seriously\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith Church Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-21T14:15:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20170523133654\/shutterstock_62493325.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Viars\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Viars\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/hes-a-good-man-seriously\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/hes-a-good-man-seriously\/\",\"name\":\"He's a Good Man? 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