Mike P is a thug. Saturday night Mike went to a party to pick up his “baby momma. He is a Blood gang members and his girl is hanging with Neighborhood Crips. This is not a healthy combination. Mike P shows up at the party and gets out of his car. He places a handgun by the front of the car. It is 0430 hours the sun is almost ready to come up. It’s that time of the day where it gets just a little more cold and dark. He stands in the middle of the street calling out this party full of Crips. He stands with his arms spread out wide and screams at them, “What up slobs?!” He is vastly out numbered. Depending on who you listen too, somewhere between 4 and 8 Crips advance on him. Mike P doesn’t flinch. He challenges them again. Four continue to advance. You can feel the tension among the early morning, highly intoxicated party goers. No self respecting Crip would allow a “Blood” to disrespect him or his set in that manner without a challenge. As they approached, Mike P picks up the gun, points it at the advancing group. He calls them bitches.
Decision time. Be a chump and run or stand up like a man (gang thinking) against the gun, even though you are unarmed. The men continued to advance on armed “Blood.” Mike levels the gun at the heads of the Crips. Does he have the will to shoot? It raced through everyone’s minds, especially the guy the gun was pointed at. Mike applies pressure to the trigger. The hammer pulls back from the frame creating space between the shell casing and the metal point that creates the electrical charge that sends the projectile out of the barrel of the gun and into the head of the Crip. In spite of the party noise, the yelling of challenging gang members and the worlds busiest port of entry just 100 yards away, there is dead silence in slow motion as the hammer falls silently through space, toward denting the primer.
Click. Nothing. No bang, No Pop. Nothing. Click. Nothing. The gun fails to fire. Now King Kong challenging a party full of Crips to a fight is in some serious trouble. Figuring he had better fix his gun and quickly, he looks at his handgun in the ambient light of the moon. He turns the barrel of the gun toward his face to look for the problem. In doing so it caused tension on the trigger. That caused the hammer to pull back and fall one more time. This time the gun worked. Mike P shot himself in the face from 6” away. It was not a good day for Mike P.
My friend Rick took his son to the shooting range last week for gun safety lessons. The first thing any firearms instructor tells you is “know where your gun is pointed.” If you control the muzzle and the trigger the gun can’t hurt anyone, nor will you have an accidental discharge. If you watch a cop on TV or the one standing next you on a hot stop, they will never have their finger on the trigger unless they are ready to fire. The muzzle is always down range. Mike P never got the lesson. He had no one to train him. He had a little bit of knowledge. He knew how to load, hold and shoot a gun. That is the recipe for disaster.
Spiritual things are similar. A little bit of Jesus knowledge is dangerous. People may know who he is and that he is God. That is dangerous because it’s a false sense of safety. I want to know more about the Savior but I must be taught. If I’m going to carry Jesus around, I want it to be as safe as possible. I’m not interested in shooting myself in the foot spiritually. That means I need someone to teach me.
John records Jesus talking to the disciples: “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teachings, my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him…” “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will TEACH you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you…”
Here is my point. If you want to know about Jesus, ask. Ask the Holy Spirit for insight. He will give it to you. If I want to grow as a man of God its up to the Holy Spirit and me. I must learn from the Counselor. That takes effort and spiritual muzzle control
BTW Mike P lived. We will arrest him when he is discharged from the hospital for possession of the gun and gang allegations. It truly was a bad day for him.
A
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