Preface to the Book
Release Date: December 14, 2022
“Chaplain, is it okay to celebrate when we take out our enemies?” Questions about faith hit different in a military setting. My friend threw this one out on a four-month deployment in the Middle East. For the next couple days, we hammered through this question as we looked at different passages of Scripture, read articles, and listened carefully to differing views on the issue. For those few days, we labored at the intersection of faith and the military profession.
The complexity of the question became apparent as we read contrasting texts of Scripture: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles” (Prov 24:17) and “when it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices, and when the wicked perish there are shouts of gladness” (Prov 11:10). We recognized a similar tension in Christianity Today’s article on Osama Bin-Laden’s death, which surveyed diverse Christian responses to that historical moment. Categories began to form in our minds: rejoicing in justice is encouraged, gloating over enemies is condemned, anything that robs a human of God- given dignity is wrong, loving an enemy is complicated for a vocational warrior, and mental wellness is reflected in how warriors deal with enemies.
This was no philosophical exercise; my friend was assessing his current posture and calibrating his future response to the next mission when casualties were inflicted. The gravity of our discussion landed on me and reinforced the importance of grasping how faith informs the profession of arms. The following pages move in the same vein as that deployment conversation and work toward the same critical end; to develop warfighter theology for men and women like my friend that will assist them in navigating the grave ethical and spiritual complexities of wearing the uniform.
George C. Marshall, the famed military man and Nobel Peace Prize winner once said, “The soldier’s heart, the soldier’s spirit, the soldier’s soul, are everything. Unless the soldier’s soul sustains him, he cannot be relied on and will fail himself and his commander and his country in the end.”
This book shares that heartbeat; the spiritual health of the warfighter is the life-blood of the profession of arms. The biblical authors understood this as they looked Godward in their thinking on warfare: “Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle” (Psalm 144:1). The goal of this book is to explore how God equips and trains the warrior to navigate the challenges of wearing the uniform by focusing on the life of David, the epitome of a warrior who lives and fights by faith.
Preface to the Book
Release Date: July 17, 2023
“You have need of endurance.”
(Hebrews 10:36).
There is one constant in life—suffering. And suffering has a way of whittling everything down to the basics, it strips away our wants and leaves us with our needs. When we suffer, we ask the essential questions: How do I keep going? Can I do another day? Where am I going to get the strength to make it through this?
“One foot in front of the other” is no cliché—it’s a call to courage. In a world that holds you down and resists your forward momentum, the slow shuffle ahead is nothing short of heroic. To make it in this life, we must keep moving, keep pushing, keep going. You see, endurance is not a luxury, it’s a necessity; we simply won’t make it without it.
Where does endurance come from? What is it made of? How do we get it? How much can we get? How do we develop it? How do we use it? These are essential questions; one’s we need to explore together. I will frame our discussion under three categories: 1) The Source of Endurance; 2) The Guide to Endurance; 3) The Training Ground of Endurance.
The Source of Endurance
In a breathtaking passage of Scripture, we are guided to the fountainhead of endurance. Paul writes to the Romans, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 15:5-6).
The implications of this divine title are staggering. 1) The Triune God is the model of endurance; in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit we define, understand, and behold the true meaning of endurance. 2) The Triune God is the source of endurance, which means that all endurance is derived from him, gifted by him, and developed in us through his help. 3) As image-bearers, we are called to reflect the God of endurance by being men and women of resilience.
The Guide to Endurance
Paul’s discussion on the source of endurance is preceded by a critical passage that speaks to the function of Scripture as it relates to endurance. “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).
This passage shows the connection between Scripture and endurance, which teaches a few important things. 1) As the source, God authors Scripture to provide us with endurance, it is the primary way God mediates it to us. 2) Practically speaking, endurance is worked in us through the encouragement and promises of the gospel that fuel our hope. (Col 1:11) 3) Scripture is also filled with endless human examples, wisdom, and guidance for developing endurance by faith. 4) Scripture identifies things that will erode our endurance and hinder our ability to persevere.
The Training Ground of Endurance
As Scripture reveals the ways that God provides endurance to us, it identifies the main context through which this happens. Paul, the theologian of endurance, points the way again as he describes the training ground of endurance. “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).
This passage contains several key observations regarding endurance. 1) Suffering is the arena; the place where endurance is produced and the context where God works it into our souls (Rev 1:9, 2 Cor 6:4). 2) Endurance is vitally connected to character; it is an essential ingredient in God’s transforming work in us and the goal of making us more like Jesus. 3) Hope does not happen without endurance, you cannot remove any of the links of this chain—suffering, endurance, and character are all prerequisites of hope (Lam 3:18). 4) We discern the role of the Holy Spirit, the God of endurance, as he works within us and beside us to produce all that is necessary for a hope that will never lead to shame.
How do we put one foot in front of the other? The answer, pursue the God of endurance, follow his guide for endurance, and embrace the training ground of endurance. We must recognize that endurance stands outside us in the Triune God; he grants it to us as a gift, works it out in the context of hardship, and ensures we have it on the rugged journey we walk. Fundamentally, endurance is not produced by us, it is ours by faith (Heb 12:1). We must reframe our entire thinking on this concept, endurance by faith is how we truly put one foot in front of the other.
My friends, life is hard—brutally so at times. We need endurance. In the following pages, these meditations speak to these various elements of endurance in different ways. Think of them as anchor points for the steep climb of faith, clip in, and rest for a moment before you strain upward again. My prayer is that the God of Endurance would enable you to keep putting one foot in front of the other no matter what you are facing.
Preface to the Book
Release Date: January 1, 2024
“Fight the good fight of faith”
(1 Timothy 6:12)
After twenty-one years of professional fighting, an undefeated record, and fifteen major world championships, Floyd Mayweather Jr. said, “boxing is easy, life is much harder.” I can’t speak to a career in the ring, but I do know that the battles we wage as humans, spouses, parents, and friends are just as real and sometimes more rigorous than a boxing match. The relational, emotional, and spiritual wounds from these bouts run deeper in my soul than any broken bone.
This is precisely why fight language is used to describe the journey of faith. The old-fashioned fistfight is a prism through which to see faith. But how? What God says and what feel rarely line up. God’s word says we are clean and forgiven; we feel guilty and unworthy. God’s word says we are chosen and accepted; we feel lonely and rejected. The fight of faith reaches past our emotions to what God says. This doesn’t just happen; we have to fight for it.
The fight of faith is a war on our greatest enemies—Satan, sin, death, and hell. These eternal enemies threaten to unravel us and our only hope to conquer them lies outside ourselves in Jesus Christ. We battle to believe what Jesus has done for us; this is how we overcome (1 Jn 5:5, Rev 12:11). To put on the armor of God is to be clothed and hidden in the work of Christ (Eph 6:10-20, Is 59:16-17), it is to rest in his victory for us. The gospel is how we fight—we press into it, trust it, believe it, hope in it, return to it, cling to it, and strive to never let it go.
Any good fighter must condition and train, hone their skills and learn from their losses. When every night is fight-night, we must be ready to go. Any good faith training regimen will include these five things:
- Condition, Condition, Condition- Fighting takes training, practice and rigor. Step into the ring with no conditioning, your downfall is certain. The fight of faith requires mastering the mechanics of hearing God’s Word, pressing his promises into our souls, and holding onto them with all our might (Rom 10:17, Heb 10:23, 1 Cor 15:2). Doing this intentionally, repeatedly, and strategically conditions us for the cage (1 Cor 9:26).
- No Matter What, Keep Your Hands Up- One author said that “life is war, that’s not all it is, but it is always that.” The battle is always on for the Christian. A punch in the face is always just around the corner and the enemy’s “opportune time” is the moment we put our hands down (Lk 4:13). Peter’s call to vigilance is a call to remember life is a cage match (1 Pet 5:8). The moment our hands come down is the moment we are getting dominated. Keep your hands up.
- Get Up Again and Again and Again- You’re going to get your nose broken, take heart—it means you are in the fight! Paul pointed to the marks he bore for following Jesus as signs of his battle worn faith (Gal 6:17), it’s no different for you. When you get smoked, get back up, keep swinging, don’t lay down! Internalize Micah’s fighting spirit: “though I fall, I will rise” (Mic 7:8) and realize that it has nothing to do with how many times you get dropped, it’s all about how much you get back up (Prov 24:16). The grit of getting on your feet over and over again develops the muscles of faith, it engages the discipline of repentance, and it pushes us back to the gospel. Always get up, always.
- Trust Your Corner Team- While it may appear that someone is in the cage alone, in reality there is an entire community surrounding them and a corner team coaching them. “Don’t drop your hands!” “Move, Move, Move!” “Go for the body!” Listen to their guidance and heed their instruction, they see things you don’t and they bring perspective that’s needed to weather every round. Further, they are there to pick you up, wipe your sweat and blood, heal up your wounds, and tell you to keep swinging (Eccl 4:9-10, Heb 3:12-14). Winning a fight is never a solo endeavor, trust your corner team.
- Fight Like Hell- The stakes are high; we are fighting for our lives. The only way to fight hell is to fight like hell. Hell doesn’t quit, darkness never let ups, it’s ever-vigilant, always growing stronger, always getting more strategic, always coming. That’s how we have to fight—with rage like the evil one, perseverance like our sin, tenacity like our conscience, and unquenchable fire like hell. There’s too much on the line to enter the arena in any other way. Christ’s battle rigor won our salvation, ours is the fight to continue believing, trusting, and obeying him at any cost. My dear friends, fight like hell.
These 50 meditations are intended to help equip you for the ring. My prayer is that these pages would provide encouragement from the corner, spiritual conditioning, and strategic perspective for the fight of faith.
Preface to the Book
Release Date: Coming December 2024
“For freedom Christ has set us free”
(Galatians 5:1)
Freedom. We need it and ache for it, but it often eludes us. There is tension in our souls: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Rom 7:15). We are the greatest threat to our freedom; this is not unique to us, it’s the human condition.
We need the good news of the bleeding God who liberates us from sin, condemnation, and the power of evil. Jesus came to rescue us from ourselves (2 Cor 5:15). He came to deliver us from entanglement, to release and liberate us. He came to forgive and free us.
And, free people, free people; this is the cardinal principle of forgiveness. As we grasp the freedom we have received, we will give it to others. As C.S. Lewis says, “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” These 50 meditations explore the freeing power of the cross and the life of forgiveness.