Scenario 1
1980. Jamaica. General Elections.
A hot contest between Socialists ( The Government ) and the conservative Labour Party ( the Opposition ).
Three years earlier I had become a Born- Again Christian and my life and values had already had dramatic changes- truthfulness and integrity became more important to me than they had ever been in times past.
All Jamaica was in turmoil and people were being killed by political thugs of both sides. The Jamaica Defence Force of which I was the Staff Officer Operations and the Civil Police were deployed night and day to keep these warring political factions from killing each other as well as innocent bystanders.
The Christian Community was convinced that by presenting Jesus Christ to the nation as the way forward, tensions would subside; but the socialists saw a Christian initiative as being supportive of the more Conservative Party.
It was against this background that I , a Christian Lieutenant Colonel in the JDF was asked by the Christian Community to do a series of ads, in uniform. This would project the Lord Jesus as my Saviour to the population and also as the way to true peace at a most troubled time.
After Prayer, I put it to the Commander of the Force and he willingly agreed to it. He saw it as a good opportunity to let the nation see that we in the JDF were genuinely desirous of having peace in the land and were unashamedly calling on the name of the LORD for help.
The ads were done including one in which I was shown alighting from a military helicopter with maps and papers. There was a caption to the effect that with Jesus in my heart I was at peace in these troubled times and so could the viewers if they had JESUS in their hearts.
Scenario 2
A few months after submitting falsified income tax returns, they
were accepted by the department after the normal checks were done.
I was confident that no one would ever be able to find out that
there were untrue declarations in the returns so I was not worried.
As time passed however, I became more and more convicted of my
crookedness and I was faced with a dilemma- should I leave it as it was and
do nothing ? After all no one would ever know.
On the other hand, if I did try to correct it, I may be exposed as a
dishonest person and so jeopardize my career.
What would you have done?
Scenario 3
At age 37, at the rank of Major, I gave my life to JESUS and
immediately started to try and live for HIM. I failed in many, many ways;
but each time I repented and received forgiveness.
Cursing and swearing was one of my most visible and audible problems
and I never seemed to be able to overcome this problem.
On this particular day I was on my way from an open air church
service for my officers and men at which I had been officiating. On seeing
one of my Sergeants doing total nonsense I gave him the tongue lashing of
his life seasoned with the vilest expletives I could think of. This was
considered to be the mark of a tough soldier and was most acceptable in
army circles. In fact , as far as I was concerned he had gotten just what
he deserved.
I then continued on to my office; but once there I became conscious
of my abusive behaviour and my poor Christian witness.
Should I do anything about this?
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