And They Shall Not Learn War Anymore

Thank you very much. That was lovely. I always enjoyed the 23rd Psalm. It was very comforting. All of us have read that in difficult times, I'm sure. Glad to come up and be with you. Thanks for the invitation. And, uh, Darris promised me a great lunch. Hopefully I earn it. Now, you're out here in the middle of nowhere. I went through Fort Wayne a long time ago. Like we came through when Les McCombs was the pastor over in South Bend. Anybody here back in those days? A couple people, yeah.

I was really little back then. It's been quite a few years, so it gives away our ages. Beautiful part of the country, beautiful part of the grain belt and the blessings of Abraham. It's always a joy to... The people in the Midwest, you know, the closer you are to agriculture, the closer you are to God. I'm not convinced of that, even when you travel around the world. You get into the cities too much and too far away from it, and it doesn't...

It doesn't do the same thing. The king of Thailand, he complained about that a lot. He really doesn't like Bangkok, and the city's growing so big. In particular, the fact that he built all these high-rises, and he says, you know, we're so dependent on the world's technology. They build all these teak houses above the ground, and they have it so they're aired out, and they be cool, and he says, power goes down. Everybody has to leave the buildings and do all these things, so...

Technology is good, but also brings with it the various problems. I've got a sermon I'm going to give to you today that I've given a couple times. I actually gave it to Feasts. It's a Feasts' sermon, but I'm finding it's actually apropos to so many things in our lives today that I'm going to bring it to you. It's entitled, They Shall Not Learn War Anymore. We're all familiar with Micah 4.3, which was read, I'm sure, a couple months ago at the Feasts, where he said, he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off.

They shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks, and nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. We yearn for this time of peace. We had pictures painted for us a month ago at the Feasts about how peaceful it would be to envision that. And yet we have trials in this world to overcome, to learn the way of peace, to develop our love of God and our love of mankind, and our love for one another, which is difficult at times.

Six thousand years, man, has not been able to do that. And even in the Church, we haven't always been able to do that the way we should. And all of this is part of not learning war anymore. We're all given opportunities to learn, all of us. Opportunities that we don't always see as opportunities. Sometimes they're more like challenges. And today I'm going to talk about one of the opportunities that my wife and I have had that helped us to learn some things that I never expected to learn or to have to go through.

It was an opportunity to take care of Michelle's father. Michelle had always told me, growing up, I forgot I'm married, you know, growing together and stuff, we'd talk about our parents and never expecting to get old. But as they get older, she always said, well, we'll never have to take care of my parents because they were very health-conscious, Jack Lane-types exercise, you know, juice, juice, and fish, and vegetables, and just, you know, very healthy in that sense. But what happened about four years ago was her father was out painting his house, which he perpetually did, I think. I think he started at one corner and just kept going around year by year.

And cleaning his gutters knew it was about, you know, 100 degrees, super hot for Pennsylvania where they were. And he came in to get some water, because he had dehydrated, and he passed out. And they took him to the hospital, and his heartbeat was only 46, 48 beats per minute, and they decided that something's wrong, and so they put a pacemaker in. They didn't thin his blood properly, and they didn't check also to see that his heart rate had been that for the last 25 years.

That was his operating heart rate. A month later, because they didn't thin his blood, he had a blood clot for him and gave him a massive stroke. It took about 60 or 70 percent of his brain. And so a man who was out cleaning his gutters, doing his stuff at age 80, fully functional, all of a sudden, half his body function has disappeared. His ability on his left side was gone, a lot of the bowel control and various things. He could move his right arm and right leg a little bit, and he could still talk, but that was even difficult because different things would come out because of different sections of his brain.

And they were trying to take care of him up there. They put him in different hospitals and different things. Neither of her siblings were able to be able to get much help. And Michelle's mom was 4'10 on a good day and about 90 pounds. Taking care of this 165 pound man who was over 6' tall wasn't really something she could do. And in place he was in, he'd gotten some bed sores and things like that. Finally, Michelle and I said, look, we can't really move up there and do anything, we're going to bring him down and we'll try to help because Michelle's in the holistic medicine and various things.

And so we decided we offered to help take care of him. And so we agreed for 6 months that he'd be down there. He and Michelle's mom, and that turned into 2 years. But it was interesting. We're all to have stories about things that happened to us, and it's interesting. It's how you tell them makes a difference. How you see them makes a difference as well. And also, very important, how you react to situations.

How you handle them. Turn to Philippians 4-8. It's interesting what Paul wrote, something that a lot of sociologists and psychologists use to counsel. A man named Victor Frankel in World War II was in the concentration camp. He wrote a book entitled, In Search for Meaning. He figured out that your mental state was more important than your physical state. And he was able to survive in the death camps for longer than almost anyone ever had, several years. Because he said, they can take away my... and do things to my body, but they can't take my mind.

And so how do you think? Philippians 4-8 says, finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, and whatsoever things are of good report. If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. Oftentimes we get overwhelmed with things and we don't see things in a positive light, which is what we have to do. In the two years that we took care of Michelle's dad, it was an ordeal.

Some of you have no idea what it's like. Some of you think you do, and some of you possibly are doing it and know exactly what it is to take care of someone who can't function for themselves. I guess the lesson Michelle learned was never say never, because here we were, taking care of them. You think of different scriptures and things of how you're going to handle this and what you learn from it. A couple come to mind, and to me, Hebrews 5.8, it's interesting when it says, that though he were a son, yet he learned obedience through the things that he suffered.

At the same time, Christ talks of joy. In the book of John, in John 15.1, it says, these things I've spoken to you that your joy might be full, that your joy would remain in you. I always wondered sometimes, being joyful when Christ is about to be crucified, and yet his outlook on people, when they're crucifying even, is, you know, forgive them, Father, they don't know what they're doing. So we have to see joy in all parts of our lives, an opportunity. We must see things differently. We know that blessings will come, that God takes care of us, but we learn an awful lot of things from these things.

And when you do something like taking care of someone who can't take care of themselves, a lot of scriptures jump out at you. Scriptures that make you look at yourself a little differently, and understand what is meant. Like Paul in Philippians 2.3, when he writes there, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in the lowliness of mind, let each esteem the other better than themselves. In our society, that wants to pull everybody up by themselves, be the primary, the first one, you know, please me now, that Scripture doesn't ring very many places.

But you understand foot-washing when you take care of a paralyzed person. It's more than just a ritual. It's more than just something that you go through. And all too often, sometimes I think ours, I didn't pass it anywhere, you had a thousand people at the foot-washing, it was kind of commercialized, almost, running people through the assembly line, you didn't even know who you were washing their feet at times. I had to ask people, what's your name? And you learn things.

God tells us not to judge other people. And when you learn about people and you see that, you don't really know what makes up another person and what makes them be the way they are. And I never really understood Michel's dad until he went through this ordeal. There are things about him that I wondered. In the 34 years I've married, one thing that he had never done with me has told me a war story.

I knew he'd been in World War II, but I didn't know anything about what he really did. I suppose I was intentional. I imagine he suppressed the memories. But it was interesting that with the brain damage that he had, the section of his brain, the memory from that time period, was fully aware. And he started telling me stories about the war, stories that seemed incredible, that I didn't really understand them. And every time he told me a story, so many spiritual things came to my mind and lessons that we can all learn from that.

And I wondered about the veracity of what he told me, because we didn't really know how much... because some of the things he'd say because of the other section, you'd ask questions, you wouldn't get straight answers. And so when we went to the veterans, because we figured he'd been in World War II, we could try to get some help from them, because it was very difficult. We had a hyperbaric chamber, we put him in, managed to heal up his bed sores and things, give him more oxygen, and we had the lifts, and all that.

We turned our house into a medical facility for him. And so when the veterans said, well, you have to get a record, so write all the people that he served with and get them to write what he did. Well, he's 80-some years old. He was one of the youngest guys in his company, and everybody's dead, basically. And so we couldn't do that, so we had to go to the war morals into the records and start looking up and reading about that.

I know, Mr. McNeely's a war buff, and I know he knows a lot of these things, and many of you, some of you probably served in World War II, or your parents did. It's a sacrifice to be in a war. No question about it. To be willing to die for something, to die for your country. Romans 12.1, Paul makes the statement there, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

It's reasonable. Do you really believe the promises in the Bible enough to step out in faith, enough to die for? Is it worth living for? It's a sacrifice. Ted Jomone, Michelle's father, had a real sense of duty for his country. He joined at 17 with his two older brothers. He joined what would prove to be the most elite unit of the war, the screaming eagles of the 101st Airborne.

He thought it was a great deal, he told me. You get paid, and you get an extra $50 for hazard pay. And besides, we'd all be home by Christmas. That's what he thought. He didn't fully know the hazards that he was going to go through. The 101st Airborne Division would be awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation.

The first time in the history of the United States Army that a whole division would be so honored for their heroism. Ted became a paratrooper. He was going to be dropped from planes day or night, wherever they dropped him, in whatever place he would land.

He had a 125-pound backpack on his back, a 75-pound bag with ammunition to be strapped to his leg. And they'd practice jumping and stuff. The interesting thing to me, joining the paratroopers, is that Ted Jomone couldn't swim. I can't imagine jumping on a plane over in Europe with all the lakes and the rivers and things. When I think of my baptism, I didn't really know how heavy a pack I would carry, just as I'm sure none of you did. What would be strapped to my leg, and where I would be dropped, but I knew I had to trust and obey God, because that's what's required.

When I signed up, was I scared? No. I wasn't scared. It's a good deal. I went through 12 years in prayer. I saw Ambassador to college. I saw the camps. I saw all these things. It was a wonderful time. I didn't want to miss the war, quote-unquote. I wanted to be part of a spirit being the glory that it would be. I wanted salvation. It was a good deal.

Keep 10 commandments. If you mess up, you repent. Somebody else paid the price for you. Besides, we'd all be home by... anybody remember 1975? But scared? At times of testing, yes. I've been scared. Would God always be there? You knew it mechanically. You knew it, but did you really believe it? How would God save me in this situation? Would I get drawn away by Satan? Would I always recognize what he is doing and what my duty would be no matter where I would be dropped?

You don't really know. I've been dropped in a great many countries and places where I didn't know the culture, didn't know the language, didn't know the people. And yet had to work and do things. To follow God and trust Him, what He was doing.

Tejumon's first duty was in Normandy, in the invasion. He wasn't on the beaches. He was dropped behind enemy lines. 101st was kind of a diversion in the sense to make the Germans have to turn around and look back the other way. And so it was difficult. And he told me about it as he was flying.

He said it was scary being on the plane because so much artillery and flak was being sent up and one of the planes next to him blew up and everybody in it crashed and more likely died, I would imagine. And their pilot pulled the green light way ahead of time because they were getting hit. The bullets were coming through the plane. And so they pushed him out of the plane, going 50, 60 miles faster than they're supposed to be going. And so when he jumped out, his bag ripped off his leg just like most of them did.

And he started down. In his parachute, he had watched us see the bullets coming by and he said the bullets didn't bother him, but the tracer bullets did because the parachutes were made of silk. He said a couple of friends got hit with the tracer bullets and the parachutes went up in flames and see his friends falling to the ground.

No parachute. It scared him. And he dropped and when he landed, he said he hit water. Imagine the terror when he hit the water. But then he managed to be more of a marsh instead of a lake, and so he landed about waist-deep. He started walking out of it. He heard a noise and they'd given them his little clickers called crickets. That's all you've heard of. Anybody seen different war films where they'd click them and supposedly if you were a friend, you'd click back. And he clicked and nothing happened. He clicked again and nothing happened.

He pulled his gun and started to shoot. He saw a piece of uniform with what little light there was and decided to yell at something in English and there was another soldier, terrified, scared just like he was. Felt scared he didn't even click a cricket. So the first person he almost shot wasn't even an enemy, but a fellow American. Sadly, the enemy caught on to this and they could take their machine gun bolts and make the same sound.

A lot of people got killed thinking they were talking to a friend when in reality they were being talked out as an enemy. Turn to 2 Corinthians 11, because sometimes people mistake people trying to help them for the enemy. We might take someone being your or my brother's keeper seriously. We might think they're trying to harm us when they're not. And we might take people that are friends that may in harm.

2 Corinthians 11 verse 13, After false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Things don't always appear the way they seem. Therefore it's no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose then shall be according to their works. Satan knows our crickets. He knows how to counterfeit them. He knows how to work with us. It's sad.

But are we close enough to see the truth? The Bible says that Satan deceives the whole world. Are we deceived sometimes? It's difficult. We have to be close enough to God to be able to learn peace, to learn his love, to recognize the enemy. Somehow Ted Jomone didn't shoot his comrade. The two marched together until they found their respective companies, or what made up what was left of them. The Ted's Company was Company H, headed by Lieutenant Wiezbowski. They were ordered to take a section of land, which was critical for the movement of the troops.

It was interesting that he ended up in a minefield with a pillbox in front of them. His lieutenant was shot in the leg, so Ted Jomone grabbed his lieutenant, dragged him back about 100 yards back, and found some trees to protect him. He got put in for a silver star for that. But it was interesting because the lieutenant said, no, we can't stay here in the safety.

We've got to take that position. He says, Jomone, you're lucky. He says, get out there and take it out. So Ted Jomone ran through this minefield, which had already blown up a couple of people, and took out the enemy section. He didn't do it for a reward. He was scared. He did it because it was his duty. And it was the right thing for him to do, under orders. I don't know why God protected him from that. Maybe it was chance, maybe not. But his sense of duty was admirable.

So I asked, do we have the same duty to God when we come under challenges and test? Do we obey when it seems hopeless in the minefields of this world that we walk through? Do we cast aside all fear and doubt and step forward in faith?

Again, I always read Hebrews 11 when I get down. And the story is the Old Testament, but like Hebrews 12.1, it tells us why those people happen.

Verse 12, or verse 1 of Hebrews 12, it says, Therefore we are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, so many people, yes, with flaws, with sins, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and run with patience the race that is before us. We are in a race, and we have to run it. And there are difficulties, and we do sin at times.

We have to get up and go on, climb back up, go through the minefields. The race is usually a lot of little things. All too many people want to do the great big thing. They want to slay the Goliath, so everybody recognizes them. Usually for their recognition, not because it's the right thing to do. Are we too important to do the little things? The little things that God gives us to do, the opportunities to help one another, to help take care of someone, whatever way it is.

Our duty has to transcend human ability. Again, turning to Romans 12. I read the first verse over to a couple more now, where we are to present our bodies of living sacrifice, acceptable to God. It's interesting, it says it's our reasonable service in verse 1. You know, Cain, when he was caught, when he killed his brother, he thought it was unreasonable. Am I my brother's keeper? Why am I? My burden is greater than I can bear. The excuses you hear.

We don't have excuses. We have God's Spirit, we have His Word, and we can be comforted by that. Verse 2, Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. You have to prove that. Too many of us want to make God's will our will. The problem is, when it doesn't go the right way, then who's wrong?

It's sad. Verse 3, For I say, through the grace given to me, to every man that's among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Following God, in faith, stepping out, dropping where you don't know. What is your measure of faith? Again, is the cause worth it to you? Do you really believe the promise is enough to step out on faith and trust God? And do you pick yourself up after one battle, ready for the next? Or do you fall away?

From Normandy, the 101st next mission, was Carrington. It was June of 1944. It was interesting because I finally rented the movie Band of Brothers, after my father-in-law started telling me all these things, played it with him, and I played all the volumes. He narrated it for me. It was interesting. We came to Normandy, and they'd mentioned company, you know, this company, that company. Oh, they landed here. He still had memorized every place, every one of them landed.

When they came to Carrington and mentioned the word, he said, oh, that was Purple Heart Lane. And the next thing they now just said, the soldiers knew this was Purple Heart Lane. Purple Heart Lane and Carrington was where Colonel Cole of San Antonio saw that their units were running short of ammunition. They couldn't do a normal battle, just keep shooting and hope they could overpower them with just arms. And so he knew also if they didn't take the hill and that section, that they couldn't secure for reinforcements, and they couldn't advance the troops on the march.

It was critical, the invasion, that they take that section of land and clear the area. So instead of hunkering down in safety, he gathered 750 men together. They put bayonets on their rifles, and they charged the enemy positions. At the end of that charge, there were 125 men left standing. Ted Jomone was one of those men. And I'll read from the archives. The Purple Heart Lane Airborne Memorial Museum will be located on the northern side of Carrington, in the field where the 101st Airborne Division's first Medal of Honor recipient, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Cole, led his heroic bayonet charge of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment. I asked him, why did you survive? I expected him to say luck, but he didn't.

He said training. I said, what do you mean, training in Georgia? He said, where you were training? No, no, not that. That was too short. There wasn't much there. I said, what do you mean? He said, my father was in World War I, and he saw World War II coming. He knew it was coming. So at age 13, he took all three of his teenage boys out and trained us to use a bayonet. I can't imagine training my teenage son to use a bayonet for several years.

But they practiced with a bayonet. Because of that, I knew how to use it, and I survived. Are we trained for the challenges we have ahead? How well are we trained? Do we understand that everything God does for us is to push us on? Turn to 2 Timothy 3. Because the old people among you know, and the young will find out, there are a lot of challenges in your spiritual journey that you have to go through. Some extreme challenges. Past training gets you through those challenges. The history of others, the history of friends, your own history.

Those experiences get you through. Timothy is told by Paul in 2 Timothy 3.12, Yes, and all that will live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution. That's part of the journey, part of the trip. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

But continue you in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them. We have to continue. Push on. For Timothy, from a child, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. That's why the Bible so often says, train your children. Not only train, but train them diligently because they need it. And all too often we get complacent. We go through cycles where the church is messed up, and then we train, and then we get complacent.

Things seem calm and you don't train as much. We have some gaps in the church in generations that we lost too many because we haven't trained in the way we should, perhaps. It's difficult. But all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It all helps. For profitable for doctrine, for approval, for correction, instruction in righteousness, our band at training, so to speak, to prepare us for what's coming ahead.

Why? Verse 17, It's our works and things that we do that help us go on. Ted Jomone's training saved him at Carrington. Our training will allow Jesus Christ to save us. But training is not an end in itself. You can train forever. You go to college, you learn to train, you learn to be a teacher. Eventually you've got to get in the classroom. You've got to go out there. And training prepares you for the next challenge. That's why I've always prayed, throughout my 50-something years in the church, that God, please let this be my training and not my preparation.

Let it be my test, not my trial. Prepare me for the next one. The stories in the Bible always gave me strength. Strength for deliverance, that God would always be there. And so the tests go on. And I've prayed God how many times? And the answer is, every time. Every time. Until you die. Ted Jameau's next assignment was Market Gardens.

Market Gardens was in September of 1944. It was the invasion of Holland. I'll read from the World War II database. The plan, called Operation Market Garden, was for the largest airborne drop in military history. Three Allied divisions would be involved. The U.S. Army 101st Airborne would drop at Einhoven and take the Canal Crossing at Beggall. The Canal Road was also known as Hell's Highway. The airborne units had suffered heavily in the Normandy campaign and were still reorganizing in their camps in England when the orders came down. They had returned in early August after 40 days of fighting.

Some 40 percent of their members would never leave Normandy or the coast or Carrington, resting in Allied cemeteries. On September 26, Montgomery ordered the first airborne to break out of Arnheim and rejoin the Allied forces to the south.

Out of 10,000 men dropped into Arnheim, only 2,300 came out. 1,400 were dead and over 6,000 were prisoners of war. It truly was Hell's Highway. It was in Market Garden that the second Congressional Medal of Honor was given out. A young scout named Joe Mann—and I'd read about Joe Mann in the history books when I was younger in the war because his story is pretty well known— but it was interesting because Joe Mann was a scout. He went and advanced the line. He had tried to look for snipers from the enemy.

He was a sharpshooter sniper himself. But he had been shot in both arms and legs, and he couldn't move. So his company had grabbed him and dragged him back into the foxholes that they had dug and the ditches along the side of the road. Joe Mann was there, bleeding, and they put cotton swabs in and wrapped him up like they did for men behind lines.

They didn't have hospitals. But the guys were going to take him back to the hospital. And Joe Mann said, No, no, no. Don't take me back. He says, You can take me back tomorrow. He says, Tonight, it's late, and you men are going to have to charge tomorrow at the Germans. And the German forces are much stronger than the Allies had thought. And so he said, I'll watch tonight. I'll stay up because I won't be doing any charging. And so you guys get some sleep.

So he stood guard for these men. And the next morning, instead of them advancing on the enemy, the enemy advanced on them. The grenade landed in the foxhole where Joe Mann was. And Joe Mann, everybody knew they were going to die in there with that thing. And Joe Mann said, I'll take it, man. And rolled over on the grenade and died to save his comrades. And you may ask, what does this story have to do with Ted Jomone? Ted Jomone was in the foxhole with Joe Mann. Joe Mann saved his life. Interesting to have someone die for you. And you think about John 15, 12, where Christ says, this is my commandment, that you love one another. This I have loved you.

And greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And he says, you're my friends. If you do, well, I command you. Jesus is our friend. He rolled over on the grenade for us. He didn't get any medals for it in the sense that the world recognizes it in the same way.

He died alone. His disciples deserted him at his death, even. It was interesting, because with these things happening to Ted Jomone, it changed him. The next day, he told me it was one of the worst days of his life. Because he may get made a squad later, after that. And so he was leading his small little group in the squad. And they were sitting at Fox Hall, the Germans were coming, and his friend, that he had gone through training, one of the few people that he had been with every day throughout his training, through Normandy, through Carrington, and through Market Gardens.

And he was looking up. His friend kept popping up to see if they were coming and throwing grenades, because he was so concerned because of what happened the day before with Joe Mann. And Michelle's father would say, no, get down. Stay down. If they throw it in, we'll throw it out. Don't stand up. And as he stood up one time to look out again, Michelle's dad grabbed him to drag him down. And as he grabbed him to drag him down, a sniper shot him in the head.

And the man died in his arms. His best friend died in his arms. As tears came to his eyes with that, I could tell that that affected him. I could tell that that was why he had a hard time getting close to people. Because when you see your friends dying off like that, it takes a toll on you. And I'm sure he asked himself by the way he was talking, why me? Turn to Acts 12, if you would, because I've asked the question, why me? A number of times, and I'm sure you have in some ways.

We're not alone in that. The apostles, I'm sure, asked those questions. In Acts 12, verse 2, And he, Herod, killed James, the brother of John, with a sword. Because he sought to please the Jews, he proceeded to take Peter also.

These were the days of unleavened bread. And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, intending, after the Passover, to bring him forth to the people. I'm going to kill him again, make some more points. Peter, therefore, was kept in prison. But prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. And when Herod would have brought him forth, that same night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and the keepers before the door that kept the prison. He wasn't going to get out. And behold, the angel of the Lord came to him, and light shined in the prison, and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, arise quickly, and his chains fell off his hands.

Peter was delivered.

Now, what was Peter thinking during this time? Well, I'm sure he thought about Christ when Christ said to him, they're going to take you someplace you don't want to go. Well, he was someplace he didn't want to go. James had been beheaded, so Christ didn't deliver James. So Peter had to think, I'm going to die. This is it for me. And he's delivered. And I'm sure as he's walking out of there, he's saying, why me? Why wasn't James delivered? Why did God do this for me for him? We all ask some of those questions.

It's difficult. If you ask why me at times, you're not alone. But God has something for each of us. James obviously qualified. Peter had more that God wanted him to do. And that wasn't the time that Christ had spoken about where they had taken. That was yet to come. Good deeds and character often come out in warfare. Some are recognized, some are not. Do we allow God's spirit to bring our deeds to the forefront in our spiritual warfare?

Do we take the hits for others? Or do we try to feed our own egos? A lot of people tell stories about the war. Pride and vanity sometimes get in the way. We have to learn to help other people. Because Christ was about helping us get into his kingdom. And we have to be about helping others. I know with Mr. Armstrong there were a lot of things I had to do for him. And my job was to make him look good. But at times you want to look good, too. I remember he used to type. He'd always have me read his articles to him.

When I became his aide, I had to do all sorts of work. But I noticed that as he typed, and he'd asked me to read it, we'd change his typewriters. He had small ones when I first started working. And we'd actually had to take keys out of the keyboard to make the other keys fit. And put big types so it could hit. And he could see it a little better. But he still typed with two fingers on each hand because of the old manual typewriters he'd learned on.

But it was interesting because he always wanted me there working with him. And so there was a red chair here. And some of you have been to Pasadena back in those days know where Mr. Armstrong's desk was. And I would sit there and he would type. But I had my work to do. So I'd be on the side of him where he couldn't see me on his blind side.

And so when he had typed, it was interesting. He'd give me the papers to read. Well, he'd always – I'd read these papers. And when I first started reading, because of the key changes with the typewriter, he'd miss a lot of keys.

And it would take me some time to decipher and figure it out. So I'd read kind of slow. And finally he asked me, so why are you reading so slow? And I said, well, Mr. Armstrong, you know, you miss a lot of the keys and stuff.

No, I don't. Let me see that. He grabs the paper and he takes it back to find Glastoney. He looks at it. I'm worthless. I'm useless. I should die. I'm only good to type and write articles. I can't do this.

And he was so discouraged. He wanted to quit. And I realized that I couldn't have him feel this way. And so I started trying to read better, memorize the letters he'd missed. The L's were semicolons, the M's were N's, and the S's were 8. I mean, you knew it was always close by. And so I got so I could read things that somebody else would have difficulty reading.

It was kind of like learning another language, and the miss typewriter language. And so actually he started thinking his typing was improving, because I was reading better to him. And the funny thing was, I had work to do, and so I would sit in that chair where he couldn't see me, and then when he'd start typing, I would get up out of the chair and leave and go to my office, which was right through the door there. I could hear him typing and know he was there.

If he yelled my name, I could run back in real quick. But I knew every time you get to the end of the keyboard, and the old typewriter just said, you hear, ding, you know, da-da-da-da-da, ding, da-da-da, ding. Well, I knew how many dings there were on the page, and so I'd just count dings in the back of my mind while I was doing my work.

When he'd get down toward the last couple of dings, I'd run back in and sit in the chair, and he never knew I left. But I came in this one day, and I ran in, sit in the chair, and I looked over at the typewriter, and he had run out of ribbon.

He had three lines on the page, and I'm thinking, what am I going to do this time? Because if he couldn't tell that he was missing keys, what's he going to feel like if he can't even tell he's not putting black on white? And so he pulls it out and gives it to him, and he says, this is some of the best stuff I've written. And I'm sitting there trying to think, what am I going to do?

And as I started reading slowly the first three lines, I noticed I changed the typewriters to 220-volt, even though U.S. is 110, because if you plug a 110 into a 220, it really fries it bad. If you plug 110 into a 220, you know, you go the opposite direction to burn it up, and I'd rewired a typewriter in Kenya one time, so I didn't want to do that again.

But because of the 60 cycles versus 50, the typewriter hit about 20 percent harder. Well, it actually put a little impression, a light one. I could roll his heavy-pond paper, and I could roll the paper and read this foreign typing language off. And about halfway through, he says, well, you're reading slower today, and I just thought I'm having a bad day. Didn't tell him anything about the missing letters. Got through it fine. It was noon, and I thought, well, who'd go to lunch? I'll put a ribbon in, retype it, and everything will be fine.

He had some Chinese students who were coming in to give him a vase. We had a couple of years where we had projects with the students from the China. And they were going to give him a little closing vase as a gift, just a thank you.

So they brought him in there, and he talked to him and did the vase. They told him about the trip. And just before he gets up to leave, he says, oh, Aaron, get that page. I want you to read this article to him. And so I run over and get the paper. And he's sitting here, and I'm on the chair here, and the students are on the couch here, and I had to tilt the paper this way to get the light right. And they're wondering what's so great about this article that they can tell has three lines on the page. And so they're kind of looking at each other and mumbling a little.

And I'm reading this thing, and then I keep reading, and there's nothing left to read. And then you could really hear him mumbling over there. Because I kept reading after nothing's on the page, and they thought the force was with me. But it was fascinating, because sometimes you just have to do things that make other people feel better about themselves. And all of us want to look good. But my job was about making him more efficient. And each of our jobs is about making someone else be a little closer to the kingdom, a little more confident, a little more encouraged.

That's what it's about. Do we get tired and want to stop? Of course we do. We all have things that we have to do. The last five years with Mr. Armstrong, I had two days off. I had Thanksgiving Day off one year and Christmas Day off another year. We weren't keeping Christmas, but I had this school. Perra was doing a ski trip, and I had them ask me to be a chaperone so I could go skiing.

And he spent the whole day telling me how I was going to break my leg and kill myself and I'd be useless to him. He let me go. But I set him up for TV, so he had TV to do. So he was busy. And he told them how I was going to kill myself too, but I didn't. Interesting. Ted Jamal was exhausted after Normandy and Carrington and Market Gardens. You'd think that would be enough for one man, but his next stop was the Battle of the Bulge, and more particularly Bastogne.

From the record, the seizure of the harbor at Antwerp with the encirclement of the Allied armies required the German army mechanized forces to use the roadways in order to maintain the speed of their offensive. All seven main roads in the Ardennes mountain range converged on the small town of Bastogne. Control of the crossroads of Bastogne was vital to the Germans to speed up their advance and improve the resupply of the German columns, as the poor weather conditions made cross-country travel difficult.

The battle lasted from mid-December 1944 through January 1945. The 501st was the first to fight at Bastogne when one of its battalions ran into the enemy near Neff, a few kilometers out of Bastogne. Thus began the heroic defense of Bastogne in which the 501st gave up not one foot of ground and in which the division and its comrades and arms stopped everything that were thrown at them cold.

Everything the Germans could throw at them, it ruined Hitler's offensive timetable and eventually won the 101st, the first presidential unit citation ever awarded to a full division. All seven highways leading to Bastogne were cut off by the German forces by noon of December 21st. By nightfall, the conglomeration of airborne and armored infantry forces were recognized by both sides as being totally surrounded.

The American soldiers were outnumbered. They were lacking in cold weather gear, lacking in ammunition, lacking in food, and lacking in medical supplies, and lacking in leadership, and the officers, including the 101st commander, Major General Taylor, were elsewhere. And due to some of the worst winter weather in years, the surrounded U.S. forces could not resupply by air, and tactical support was not available.

The most famous quote from the battle came from the 101st acting commander, Brigadier General McAuliffe. When confronted with the written request from German General Luftwyds for surrender of Bastogne, he simply replied, nuts. After the battle, the newspapers referred to the division as the Battered Bastards of Bastogne. I asked her dad about Bastogne as he started talking. He said Bastogne was hell. He said it was worse than anything he'd ever gone through, even though his friends had died, and the various things that had happened.

He said they were shooting into the trees, and the tree burst, and the trees would fall and hit you. He got his Purple Heart, although he'd been hit several times before in other battles, he was never anywhere where they could be taken care of. But he got his Purple Heart in Bastogne, something shrapnel and tree hit his leg, took a chunk of his leg out. They wrapped it up, and he kept fighting, just as all of them did.

His toes were freezing, like all the men were. It was so cold. They had not been supplied with winter uniforms because they were going to be home before the winter, supposedly. They wanted to amputate the men's toes, many of them. He said it was just day after day, the same thing.

Praying for something to drop, whether to declare, praying for someone to drop supplies and food to them. They felt so alone. Some of it, they did drop a lot of supplies, blind, in the Air Force, where they could. He said some did get through, but very little of also went to the enemy, and he felt so alone. Turn to 2 Kings 6, if you would, because we all feel alone at times.

We comfort one another as much as we can, but it's a normal feeling to be alone. Elisha's servant felt alone. The story has always fascinated me in 2 Kings 6. Verse 8, we'll start, where it says, The king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servant, saying, In such is such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, Beware that you don't pass in such a place, for there the Syrians are coming down.

And the king of Israel sent to that place, where the man of God told him, and warned him, and saved him. Saved him there not once, not twice, but many times. Every time the king had gone somewhere, the Israelis knew not to be there. And this smote the heart of the king of Syria, and he was sort of troubled for this thing. And he called his servant and said to them, Will you not show me which is for the king of Israel? Who is the traitor?

Who is the traitor? And one of his servants said, No, my Lord, no. But Elisha the prophet that is in Israel tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedchamber. And so he said, Well, go and spy where he is, and I may fetch him. And it was told him he is in Dothan, the smaller towns in the city.

Therefore he sent through their horses and chariots, and a great host, and they came by night, and compassed about the city. And when the servant of the man of God was arisen early, and gone forth, behold, the host compassed the city with both horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, Alas, my master, what shall we do? Can you imagine what the servant was thinking? Hey, boss, God told you every place these people were going to be, why didn't he tell you they were coming here? What's wrong? Why didn't he let us know?

We're surrounded. We're in trouble. Why? We're alone. And he answered, Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And he's probably thinking, Are you nuts? Look at this little town. What do you mean more of us than them?

Are you crazy? Elisha prayed, verse 17, Lord, I pray you, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened his eyes for the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha. Do we see the chariots of fire around us? Do we see God's hand helping us? Do we see the angels in this room? In your mind's eye, you should.

They're here. Do we know that God will supply our needs? Do we see that? Do we understand? Elisha saw it. He didn't have to see it, but the young man did. He often wished we could see that. We'd build our faith. But they're around us, and he will supply our needs. Ted Jomon waited for help. Some supplies did land near them. Get some chocolate bars and things. It was minimal, but enough. And I asked him again, how did you survive, Bastog? Because he still had his toes, even. I said, how did you survive? I didn't know what he would say, but he said, socks.

What do you mean, socks? He said, they saved my feet. He'd gotten a care package from home, right after care in town, during that small little time that they were available. And in that, his mom had sent two pair of wool socks. And they'd only been issued cotton socks, which absorbed water and froze, and wool socks didn't. He said, those socks saved me. Saved my feet. Saved my life.

Sometimes it's another person that gives comfort. Sometimes it's a kind word, a small gift, a pair of socks, a scripture that helps us through, like Romans 8.28, where it says, all things work together for the good of those who love God, that are called according to His purpose. And you're called by His purpose. Every day that I washed her dad's feet, showered him and cleaned him in the morning at night, I saw his feet and I saw his toes.

Yeah, he had trench foot, this got thick toes, and a couple of them are black and stuff, but he has them. No one else in this company did. When I saw him, I remember the stone. I thought about the price he paid for the freedom for our country. And more than that, I saw Christ washing the disciples' feet and the price He paid for us.

Turn to John 20. And as I saw his feet, it was easy to believe what he went through, because you saw them every morning and every night. This is about doubting Thomas. Poor Thomas. They all doubted. They all left for a time. Thomas got singled out. John 20, verse 24. But Thomas, one of the twelve called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. John 20, 25. The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the Lord. He said to them, Except I see in the hands, the print of the nails, and put my finger into those prints and those nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

That man was dead. He was buried. Verse 26, after eight days, again his disciples were with him and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus. The doors being shut and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. If Christ dropped here in front of us without coming through the doors, it would be easy to believe. And Thomas, I'm sure, was thinking, Oh my! Because he turned to Thomas in verse 27. Okay, Thomas, I heard you. I know what you said. Put your finger in. Look at my hands here.

Look at it. Reach in. Touch my hands. Thrust your hand into my side. Be not faithless, but believing. He saw it. He knew it. Jesus said to him, Thomas, or Thomas answered him, and said, My Lord and my God. Christ answered him and said, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. Those of us who see it in our mind's eye and know he's there. Seeing is believing. It does remind us, but we should be believing without seeing.

The faith to know that God is really there. If this wasn't enough for Ted Jomone, the 101st next order was to go into Germany. His next challenge was not being shot at, not freezing, not starving. But it was here that he was on a scouting patrol leading his little squad, and he found one of the death camps. He said it made him sick. He had seen enough of death, but he couldn't understand how man could do this to other men. They pulled out the food they had, tried to feed them.

A couple of people died right there because they couldn't digest the food, and they had to hold back because they couldn't take strong food. They were simply too weak. But they still clung to him, he said. Even though they wouldn't give him, they clung to him. They're liberators begging for help. We are spiritual soldiers. We are being trained to liberate, just as they are.

Zechariah 8, 23. God says, in those days which will come to pass, the ten men will take hold of all the languages of the nations. Even shall take hold of the skirt of him that's a Jew, saying, we will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. Freedom from the sin, from the world. Those people that he dealt with yearn for physical food, the people that we will work with, need to yearn for spiritual food.

Are you prepared? Every day that we learn and read and study. We have to see that in our mind's eye and know that we're doing it. Tejamon didn't do these things for reward. He got five bronze stars, bronze arrowhead, purple hearts. He got the medal of pollen, the medal of Paris, the medal of that, the different campaign medals. There's a pretty good list on his thing, but heroes don't talk about those things.

True heroes, they don't brag about it. They often suppress it. There are a lot of fakes out there, people that want to make themselves heroes. You can't make yourself a spiritual hero. It's not something you can buy. Simon Magus wanted to buy the power.

Remember? He came to Peter and saw that the power of the Holy Spirit came by laying on of hands and offered them money. There's always been people who want to be seen for their own reasons. They're doing it for power or for notoriety or whatever. Matthew 6, Christ taught us something different. Matthew 6, verse 1, here's what Christ taught us to do. You want to be a spiritual hero.

If you want to do things the way God recognizes them, take heed that you do not your alms before men, to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward of your Father, which is in heaven. When you do your alms, do not sound the trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues. And in the streets, they may have glory of men. Rarely I say to you, they have their reward. Give your alms a secret. God will reward you openly. Same when you pray. Verse 5, don't let everybody know, that you're praying to God. Verse 17, when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face. Don't appear to men to fast.

A lot of people you know when they're fasting. It's pretty obvious. Go over to Jerusalem on the wall, see the men crying out. God knows what you're doing. Verse 19, lay up not for yourself treasures on earth, where moths and rust corrupt. Where thieves break in and steal, lay up treasure in heaven, where moth and rust can't corrupt it. Where thieves can't break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also. True Christians do this. A lot of times we don't recognize it.

It may seem like Tejamon was a giant. In some ways he was a war hero, no question about it. When I looked at all the different things he went through and what he did. But like all, he had weaknesses. Because even heroes can have weakness. Weaknesses come out in war as well. Besides not being able to swim, which I consider a weakness as a paratrooper, Tejamon was a sleepwalker. He told me to wake him up next to a windmill in Holland, by himself. It was about two o'clock in the morning. He said he didn't know what to do. He knew the Germans were on one side, he knew the Americans were on the other, he knew if he walked either direction, he'd be shot. So he sat there, shivering and awake, waiting for the sunrise. Not knowing whether to go forward or to go back.

It was difficult. He had to analyze. We also have choices sometimes to go forward or back, and sometimes we're in a bit of a fog in a day, if we don't really know who's right, who's wrong. We have to analyze. We live in a world of compromise. A world where we can't always see things as clearly as we'd like to. How many times do our weaknesses, our humanity, are making heroes of men, instead of heroes of God and Christ?

Lead us astray. I've seen men follow men right off the deep end. Men who did things right for a while and then changed. Sometimes we are put in the middle, and we have to understand and be close enough to God. And if you go the wrong way, I've supported people that were wrong a few times, but when you learn that they're wrong, what do you do? Do you change? It was interesting for me to see the reactions of the veterans when they saw his record, because we had to go in the veterans office a number of times because we were trying to get hate for him, and we managed to after a couple of years.

It took us a long time to investigate and do all these things. So many people go to the veterans to get help, people with simple flushing, people trying to just get money. So many people just, you know, like I call the John Kerrys, who get the blood blister and get a Purple Heart for it and do all these things to get out of fighting and various things. A lot of people do.

There's a lot of people who are afraid. But it was interesting because they'd say, okay, go to the back of the line, and they'd pull up their papers. We had delivered, and they'd pull it up, and invariably they would call into the front of the line. They'd say, Ted, come to the front. And you'd hear little comments of people saying, wow, he's one of them, because there were so few of them that returned that went through those various battles.

And it was interesting because we had to go talk to them. As we talked to them, they said, well, you know, you get help if you're injured because of the war, and the war didn't cause a stroke. Obviously, you don't get a stroke 50 years later after a war because of the war, even though he had shrapnel in his head. And they asked him, where were you hit?

Where were you injured? And he touched his head, and there's still a scar there. He touched his shoulder here, and touched his side here, and touched down there in his leg, where he got his purple heart. And the funny thing, when you look at his leg, he healed over so well, you can't tell he was hit there.

The only scar he had, the only wound he got a purple heart for, he doesn't have a scar for. But it was interesting because they said, well, you know, they said to Michelle, and then to him too, but more to Michelle, they said, you know, we don't doubt, with his record, that all these things happen.

We're thinking maybe the shrapnel in his head and some things they could tie it together. We don't doubt anything, you say. But they said, if it's not in the book, it didn't happen. We've got to go by the book. It's not in the book. It didn't happen. The only injury he had was his leg. That was it. And I thought of that when they said that to him, because I heard him say, if it's not in the book, it didn't happen. They thought of Revelation 17. Revelation 17, at verse 8, starts talking about the beast, the end time, and what's going on.

It says, the beast that you saw was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was and is not, and yet is. Those Christians that are written in the book. Down to verse 14, These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of Lord and King of Kings, and they that are not with Him, excuse me, they that are with Him, are called and chosen and faithful.

They've gone through the wars. They've earned their stripes. That's you, called, chosen, and faithful. Turning over a couple pages to Revelation 20, verse 12. I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

You know, many, in fact, all mankind, have the chance to be written in the book of life. And many will, eventually, in the later chapters. But only a few, called now, are Christ's elite core of firstfruits. His 101st division of firstfruits. His Medal of Honor recipients. Because verse 6 of Revelation 20 says, Blessed is he that has part in the first resurrection.

Yeah, you're in the book of life. Others will be in the book of life later. What will be the reaction to us when people are resurrected? When we're spirit beings, and appear before them, and we show up in the room? I suppose people will light up when they see you, like they lit up when they saw His record. And they'll want to ask you questions. Questions like, how did you survive? And it won't be luck.

Because you'll be able to teach them how to be in the book of life. So that they can be written there. And you'll be able to teach them the way of peace. How not to learn war. And as we started in Micah 4, verse 2, and there's also Isaiah 2.4, where the nations will come and say, let us go to the mountain of the Lord.

We'll walk in His paths. And He'll teach us His ways. For the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He's going to judge among many people. Verse 3, And rebuke strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords and their plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. And nations shall not lift up a sword against nation, and they shall not learn war anymore. Yeah, it'll be forced on them. Peace. They can't fight. And some will learn and some will not, though. Revelation 20.13 talks about those. Revelation 20.13, The sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every man, according to their works.

And death and hell were cast in the lake of fire. This is the second death. Verse 15, Whosoever was not found, written in the book of life, was cast in the lake of fire. If you're not in the book, you didn't happen.

He learned a lot through service and sacrifice, through suffering, through yours or others. And yet, like Christ, though he were a son, yet he learned obedience by the things he suffered. Every morning and every night that I had to help my father-in-law the things that were not of his or my choosing, all the tasks were tedious. Many of them were very unpleasant. Some pay others to do it. Some refuse to do it. People tell me that I couldn't do that. You take that road and you miss out on some of the lessons of foot washing, lessons of Christianity, lessons of Christ's death.

I tried to give dignity to her father as we took care of him. He couldn't do much. He saw at times when he made a mess. If he didn't notice something that happened wrong, he tried to cover it over with a towel or something to make sure he didn't see it. Because he felt bad. He could tell no one wants to be in that position. No one wants to need help.

Someone who's a proud man, having gone through everything he's gone through and done all the things he's done, a successful man. I tried to give him dignity. I'd take him outside with me in his wheelchair and I'd put the hose in his hand and let him rinse off water plants. If I washed tables, I'd have him rinse them off and do things. I took him to the Home Club, Home Depot, and he'd blow his in places so he could look at tools. He loved tools, like most guys.

He did things to make it better. But as you did those things, you learned. Even though they're unpleasant, sometimes seemingly impossible things you have to do, you have to see us in honor, not as a punishment. An opportunity, not as a difficulty.

As a spiritual war that we fight to learn peace and learn to esteem others. Because each of us has our normandies. All of us get dropped in places where we don't know where we're going to land. What will I have to do? We all have our care and tans where we charge the enemy without bullets. We don't know. We know God will deliver us, but we don't know how. We have his word and we have faith and hope. We all have our market gardens where someone else's courage maybe takes up a grenade to save you, to go on.

Where someone's willing to die for you. And our story can help someone else to go on spiritually. We all have our best owns where it seems that we're alone with the enemy and the elements are against us and perhaps all we have is a pair of socks that we're given and a promise. And we're finding and trying to liberate this world. The needs of truth. A world that's held captive by Satan. A world that doesn't even know it's lost. And really does have to be spoon-fed spiritual truths to understand. And we all have our sleepwalking to windmills where we have weaknesses that we have to overcome.

And maybe no one but God knows the war that you fought, but he's the only one that needs to know. He's the only one that really holds that in his hand to put you in the book. Live or die, you can win. And we need to help each other to win. Paul writes in Philippians 4, verse 9, Paul learned a lot of things because he probably suffered more than anybody in history over a longer period of time.

Philippians 4 and 9, those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do. My example, where it's been good, do those. And the God of peace will be with you. It's about peace. Even in suffering, it's about peace. You see, it's more than just not learning war anymore.

The physical killing you can stop with brute force. You know, you've got kids in the back seat, don't touch me, don't. You can separate them. You can put up that wall. And in war, you can physically win and force people to be at peace. But we have to learn more than that. Because we can stop the force, but we can't stop the hatred. That's why Christ magnified the law when he said, the law says, don't kill, I tell you, don't hate.

Because it's got to be up here in your mind and in your heart. That's where it has to stop. It's the spiritual plane. Not just the physical. If we only stop people from physically fighting by turning their swords into plows and their spears into pruning hooks, Cain slew Abel. He didn't have a sword. We have to push those thoughts out of our mind, because when we can do things at the speed of thought, if we haven't gotten rid of those thoughts of hate, if we haven't controlled our mind, then we haven't gotten to where we don't learn war anymore.

We have to learn that way of peace. Physical things will be changed in the millennium, no question about it. But the changing in the mind is really and truly, they shall not learn war anymore. And our millennium of its sense is now, because spiritually, when the millennium comes, as firstfruits, we'll be spirit beings. It won't matter whether a lion eats you or not. It doesn't make any difference. Have a bite. You're spiritual. The world will be physical, and we actually have our millennium at the feast, because ours is a different set-up.

And we'll have to teach, and we'll have the power that comes with eternal life. And we will have to be in control of our minds. And we'll have to know God's love, and His mercy, and His judgment. Do you want to be in God's book of life? Because if you're not in the book, you didn't happen. There's only one way to be in His book, and that's to trust God with all your mind, and your heart, and your soul.

And always remember that you can't do it alone. We need each other. We need those socks. We need that help. And more importantly, we need Christ. Like the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4.13, when I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. Because if you don't have Him, you won't be in the book. In Him alone can you and I with mind, and heart, and soul truly come to the point where we can say, neither shall we learn war anymore.