Sadly, no surprise here with crime out of control in Albuquerque. The City murder rate is so heart breaking and the Mayor fails to beef up staffing of APD. I talk to many Police Officers, every month, and they are so discouraged by the lack of staffing and crime being out of control. The main problem however is this:
Why is the World full of evil?
“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts” Eph 4: 17, 18.
The Scriptures call the mind of the natural man “blinded” 2 Cor. 4:4, “depraved” Romans 1:28, “corrupt” 1 Tim. 6:5, and “unspiritual” Col. 2:18. The natural mind thinks from a humanistic, sin-debased viewpoint. The viewpoint of the flesh directs its thoughts. The sinful mind is under the control of Satan and can never please God because it concentrates on things of the world and not things of the Spirit. The natural mind walks the road of hopelessness and self-destruction.
ABQ Journal Report on Albuquerque Sees Highest Number of Murders in 20 years
Jesus is the answer. It is so very important for us to reach the world For our Lord, to carry out the Great Commission, be salt and light! AMEN!
The Great Commission Matthew 28:
…18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.19Therefore go and make disciples ofallnations,baptizing them in the name of theFather,and of theSon, and of the Holy Spirit,20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”…
Pastor Don Kimbro of Albuquerque wrote this awhile back here at FGGAM:
And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. – Ezekiel 36:24
I remember the event as if it were yesterday. I was a new volunteer with Prison Fellowship Ministries that reached out to inmates in prisons all over the world. It was founded by the late Chuck Colson. He was speaking in Albuquerque at a fund-raising event and I had been invited to attend. He was a dynamic speaker and that night one thing he said has affected me more than anything else I have ever heard anyone say.
Crime in America
He was speaking about the Criminal Justice System and all the approaches to the problem of crime in America. He said that no matter what we do to help with the rehabilitation of prisoners, whether it be education, job skills training, counseling, mentoring, half-way houses and all of the myriad of programs, the end result is the same. Crime continues to increase and most inmates return to prison within a year or so of their release. Billions of dollars later and we’re still building prisons, jails, detention centers and juvenile facilities as fast as we can. This is confirmed by the fact that today America has more people in prison than any nation in the world.
“What’s the answer?” Colson asked the huge gathering at the hotel that night. Then he gave us the answer: “Crime is a matter of the heart and until the heart changes crime will continue to be our biggest problem in America. The only one who can change the human heart is Jesus Christ.” I’ve never forgotten that statement. I have used it many times in many applications because it is appropriate to so many situations and circumstances of life in which we fail or fall short of God’s best. Maybe it applies to someone you know today.
