Captain Ron?

Okay, seriously...can you believe this pic? It was sent to me from a dear friend - Johnny Oxnard - from, guess where...Oxnard, California. Recently, the Lord did in fact bless me and a number of other officers by promoting us to the rank of Captain. Praise God! I feel humbled and extremely blessed. Hooah! Thank you, Jesus. And, thank you, Johnny, for the laugh!

Terrified To Go To Heaven?

This morning I encountered a couple standing out in front BJACH. As I passed by I asked, “How’s it going?” To my surprise, the man answered, “Terrible.” So, I stopped to ask him why. He told me, “I’m beyond hope, Chaplain.” I explained briefly that no one is beyond hope. To this he answered, “All you Christians want to go heaven, but none of you want to die.” I answered, “I disagree with you. Eternity begins when you receive Christ, not some day down the road when you fall over and die. I’m already living eternally.” He paused then said, “Alright” sort of halfheartedly. I told him I hoped things would begin to turn around for him and if there was anything I could do to please let me know. As I walked away though, I thought of how there was in fact some truth to what this man said. I know many Christians who are in fact afraid to die. I’ve even had the privilege to be with two elderly Christian men who on their death beds fought hard until the very end. Both professed Christ as Lord, and yet both struck me as being terrified to go to Heaven.

What we need to understand is that Heaven is a place. We Christians are not saved to a place but rather to a relationship with God. This whole, “Raise your hand if you want to go to Heaven” routine is completely unbiblical as is its counterpart, “If you don’t want to go to Hell, pray this prayer.” Heaven is merely the place where we will experience the fullness of our relationship with God. It is not the end of salvation nor is it the prize.

One afternoon several years ago I was running during the middle of the day. The sun was shining bright, and I entered under the shade of a tree to catch my breath. As I stepped closer to the edge of the shadow to cross back over into the light and continue my way home, the Lord spoke to my heart, and I understood what death was to be like for me. Just as I stepped out of the shadow of that tree to step into the light of the sun, I will one day step out of the shadow of this life into the light of the next.

I confess. As a Christian, I do want to go to Heaven, but only because Jesus is there.

The world’s watching us, Christians, watching to see whether or not there really is some truth to our hope. And, we owe them a good death. Whether abroad on the fields of battle or here at home in Garrison, we owe them a death that sings aloud of our faith, not in a place called Heaven, but in a person named Jesus.

I’m not terrified to go to Heaven. Are you?

Memorial Day

This week I had the privilege to take part in a Memorial Ceremony honoring a fallen soldier killed by an IED in Iraq. I did not personally know the soldier nor did I have the opportunity to meet any of his family. He was young, married, and had a two year old child. This man's sacrifice and the sacrifice of his family and unit have deeply impacted me and truly taught me the significance of this special day. Memorial Day is in fact a holy day. Whether you agree with this war or not, the reality remains the same - American men and women are dying, parents and spouses are greiving the loss of their loved ones, and children are now growing up in single parent households. Support these warriors. Honor our soldiers. Pray for victory, and above all, continue to pray for peace.

"Not I, but Christ Liveth In Me." - Galatians 2.20

"Jesus is the greatest murderer, thief, liar, adulterer mankind has ever known!"

The relationship between Jesus and a believing soul is unique and cannot be well explained in words. In a transfusion, the blood of one man becomes another man's blood. If the latter man is injured and there is a shedding of blood immediately after the transfusion, not the blood of the donor is shed, but that of the recipient. It has become his. In a heart transplant, the heart is no longer that of a corpse, but that of a livng man. So it is between Jesus and the believing soul. A transfusion, a transplantation, a change of personalities takes place.

Luther puts it like this: "The Father says to Christ, 'You become Peter who denies, Saul who persecutes, Judas who betrays, Magdalene who sins. Then the Law sees Jesus full of all these offenses and tells Him that He must die.' Jesus is the greatest murderer, thief, liar, adulterer mankind has ever known. Not in the sense that He committed these crimes, but that He appropriated them to Himself." He has become my sinning personality. In exchange, He gives me His personality. In his commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, Luther daringly says, "The Christian is Christ."

Luther stands on biblical ground here. The greatest teachers of Christianity have taught the same thing. Ignatius wrote, "Christ is our inseparable life." Thomas Acquinas said that Christ and the Christian are 'quasi one mystical person.'

All your sufferings are His.

- Taken from Richard Wurmbrand's REACHING TOWARD THE HEIGHTS, June 10 reading.

Thank You, Captain

"As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God."
- John 1:12

Once when Napoleon was riding in a parade his horse went berserk. Seeing the emperor was about to be thrown, a foot soldier, at the risk of his own life, grabbed the loose reins and through sheer strength stopped the wild horse and held it still.

Napoleon said, "Thank you, Captain."
The newly made captain understood and went directly to the officers' dining room. Sitting down he began to address the officers as his comrades.
"How dare you?" they asked.
"Why not?" he answered. "I am a captain."
They mocked, "A captain? You? But you don't have a captain's bars, neither the proper education, nor a company to command."
"I have none of this yet," he replied confidently, "but I am a captain, because Napoleon called me one."

What's the point? No child of God should be dismayed that he does not have the behavior of a saint, that he does not have the necessary knowledge, that he may not be acknowledged as a fellow believer by those around him. He has been called "a child of God" by the King of Kings. And, this is enough.

He who has given you this name will lead you through life, through its highs and lows, even through death itself to the fulfilling of your high calling. Only believe that you are in fact a child of God. In its own time, the rest will certainly come.

Taken from Richard Wurmbrand's REACHING TOWARD THE HEIGHTS.

Be blessed!

Living the Dream?

Now, there's a response I often hear from soldiers when I ask them, "How's it going?" It usually goes something like this, "Just living the dream, Sir". Naturally, there's a subtle hint of humorous sarcasm in the tone as well. But, its got me thinking. Am I 'living the dream'? And, the answer is "No". After all, I never 'dreamed' of becoming a pastor much less an Army Chaplain or even a Christian for that matter! I never dreamed of living in Louisianna - ever. And, I never dreamed that Uncle Sam would provide me with an all expense paid, 15 month trip to sunny and sandy Iraq. Fortunately though, while I may not be 'living the dream'; I am in fact living out my destiny. There's a difference you know? Dreams are birthed from somewhere within us while our destinies are something that is bestowed upon us by God. Dreams are something we wake up from while our destinies are what we wake up to. And, each of us have been destined for greatness! God knows the plans He has for us: "I know the thoughts that I think toward you," says the Lord, "thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11). Despite my many failures in life, misgivings, and regrets, it is this sense of destiny that continues to woo and wow me, and it is the love of God that assures me that I haven't already ruined it all, that there is still hope, that there is still a future worth living and pursuing. And, that's no mere dream.

One day in the Fall of '97 when I was 23 I returned home after a day of teaching English and coaching football (my dream was to become a college head football coach) to a quiet home and an even quieter study. I sat down in my office chair as an atheist, and when I arose I knew God existed. To explain how that happened would require more space and time than I have here, but God did it. He broke into the history of my life and awakened me to my destiny.

I'm not living the dream; I'm living something else.

How about you?

What's Wrong With Being A Bookworm?

You may not know this about me, but I love to read. It's ironic, but this love for reading was birthed through many academic failings in grade school. My parents, who are both educators, held my brother and me to high academic standards. The only problem, of course, was that we were both poor students! As a result, we were often grounded for weeks for making "C"s, "D"s, and "F"s. TV was out including playing Space Invaders on the Atari (remember the Atari?). Building web pages, surfing the net, and online chatting hadn't come into style yet, so we found other ways to amuse ourselves and escape the mundane existence that had then become life - primarily, we read. And, reading itself proved to be a difficult venture; I didn't learn my ABC's until well into the first grade. But, through my parent's insistence and my surplus of time, the letters began to form words, and the words began to form sentences, and the sentences began to form paragraphs until pages and pages and pages of text had been devoured. And, while I still hated school, I loved to read. My love for reading didn't really improve my grades either, for now I found myself doing the bare minimum in class so that I could continue whatever it was I was reading at the time (my poor parents!). I once thoughtlessly and haphazardly bubbled in all the answers on the CAT (California Achievement Test) so I could spend the remaining hours reading my latest Young Hitchcock novel. Who cares about these standardized tests anyway? I scored so poorly on that exam that the administration of my school called my mother to schedule a special academic meeting to assess my obvious learning needs. And, things didn't improve with time either. Later in college, I once canceled a date (no, it wasn't with Amie) to finish reading Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. Anyway, you get the point. I confess; I'm a bookworm! So, what are you reading?