AVV CHAPLAIN 23 Jun 2024 (a draft)

There are two widely different quotations I’ve been thinking of this past week, the first is from my Bible study, and the second, is from my time as a cadet at the Air Force Academy.

 

The first quote is from Ecclesiastes 3:1 and 7, which reads: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak.”

 

We as a nation, and certainly as Virginia Veterans are at a highly consequential time…a time to tear apart the destruction we’ve seen transpire…there can be no mending until that is done. WE have extended our time in silence for too long and it is time to speak…the way things are going, it may be our last opportunity. And we tear and speak by getting EVERY Veteran to vote!

 

The second quote is from the 1970 movie “Patton.” I first saw it with my classmates, while enduring the basic cadet physicality of Jack’s Valley in 1972. Fully realizing it was a George C. Scott “caricature,” however, it was, and remains, motivational…just listen:

            Now, an army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team.

            Now, some of you boys, I know, are wondering whether or not you'll chicken out under fire. When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do. Now, there's another thing I want you to remember. I don't want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We're not holding anything. Thirty years from now when you're sitting around your fireside with your grandson on your knee, and he asks you, "What did you do in the great World War II?" -- you won't have to say, "Well, I shoveled ---- in Louisiana.

 

We are indeed in a battle for our United States. AVV is a Team, an organization that understands time is running out, and that we must speak overwhelmingly through the ballot box. We are not interested in holding or squeaking by, but rather, by being decisive in our just cause. NOW is AVV time!

 

Lord, You have put us here in THIS time for us to do Your will now! Let us not waste the time we have. Give us the wisdom and magnify our time to accomplish good works, in Jesus’ name. AMEN.

 

So what time is it? AVV TIME! Every Veteran, Every Vote!

Newsletter submission for the May 2024 AVV Edition 

AVV – Chaplain – 21 April 2024

 The current American situation, the response of many to Israel, in particular the “mob reaction,” calls to my mind “community organizing,” a phrase that became widely known in the mid-2000s. The person credited with defining that profession, Saul Alinsky, espoused that a successful organizer should be “an abrasive agent to rub raw the resentments of the people of the community; to fan latent hostilities of many of the people to the point of overt expressions.” Now those “expressions” might lead to picketing, demonstrating, or in some other way, taking action. Within the preface of his book, “Rules for Radicals,” Alinsky dedicates his tome to “the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom—Lucifer.”

 What are we to remember? Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, verse 12: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” We are to remember that, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” John 3:17

What are we to do? According to 1 Thessalonians 5:22, “reject every kind of evil.” Even though the ultimate battle has already been won, we are to continue to fight, with confidence, because we know the end of the story.

Can we do anything else? PRAY, due to the spiritual battle we are in, VOTE and then get fellow Veterans to pray and to vote!

“Ask Not…” Article written for American Veterans Vote April Newsletter as the CHAPLAIN

 “Ask Not…”

 

Sometimes as problems or situations arise, I find myself failing to ask the right question, and when that happens, I may get an answer that doesn’t really solve my problem. Can anyone relate?

 

Let’s step back in history a bit. Moses has died and his successor, Joshua, is leading Israel into the promised land (Canaan), just as the Lord had promised. In doing so, Israel had miraculously crossed the Jordan river on foot, 40 years after their ancestors crossed the Red Sea, on foot with Moses. The promised land was inhabited, and the people there were enemies of Israel…but something happened as Joshua neared Jerico, in Canaan (Joshua 5:13-14):

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

“Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.”

 

In this situation, Joshua, like we might today, inquired whether the man was for him or against him…but since Joshua was on a mission from the Lord, perhaps Joshua should have asked the man if he was for the Lord or not.

 

Similarly, during President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address on January 20, 1961, the new president posed the question, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Not just a patriotic spirit but asking the right question.

 

Even today, the question is not so much, “is God for us,” but rather “are we for God?” Do we align ourselves with His will? As we go about our lives, do we really ponder the phrase “endowed by their Creator” as written in our nations’ Declaration of Independence? While going forward, encouraging other veterans to do their civic duty and vote, let us be mindful of asking the right questions, remembering Who is really in charge, as we pray for our nation.