Lessons in Sacrifice

See a lot of warriors in here. We're all warriors. We all fought the same battles. Just different places, different pieces of information. You find out things that happened, and your life changes so much. Michelle and I never expect to have children. It was so funny when AJ came along. Since you gave me all the sermon at that time and everything else, I'm waiting for the warm-up for the sermon at the special music, and I'm kind of... just kind of quick. But that's alright. We'll be in good shape. Like my daughter always says, the sermon that quits early is a great sermon. But it was funny because, you know, Mr. Arch A lot of us in the old times thought we thought Mr. Arch would be able to crash return. We'd been in place of safety, and Michelle and I, since we served him, he wanted us to have children. He said, the greatest thing that ever happened when I had children, when are you going to have children? Of course, that time my wife wasn't flying. I was gone. I just said, when are you going to quit flying? He never answered me, and I never answered him.

But it was funny because AJ, Michelle got pregnant before he died. We know when it happened. I was only home about one night last six months, but we're not sure how, because we weren't trying to have children still. And she was upset because she thought she was pregnant, and she didn't know if she was trying to keep going. And I was at his house all the time, and she didn't want to be pregnant. Of course, she wanted to be in great health and everything, and she was 33. It was going to be 34 for me, and didn't want to give back in shape. But it was funny because she finally went to the doctor, and now you're pregnant. So I was able to tell him before he died in January. A few weeks before he died, I told him that Michelle was pregnant, so he was really excited, because for 12 years flying with him, he always wanted to have kids. And so the funny thing is, a couple weeks before he died, she started bleeding, and it turned out the doctor actually missed her. You're not pregnant. And she was crying, because she was pregnant, because she was pregnant, and now she's crying because she miscarried. I got used to crying during this period before I was born. But in fact, I love that song where it says, I'll never make you cry. I said, boy, any man that could not make his wife cry at one point is married, just not married. I think women were made that way. I mean, you can't be done. But it was funny because she was still, she wasn't pregnant anymore. And so I never told Mr. Arnshan, I didn't want to break his heart, because he was so excited about that. So I never told him that she wasn't pregnant anymore. And then Mr. Vakoch, first thing he did is he sent us over to Asia to make the ties between the transition. And Michelle was still sick, and she thought she had the flu, and so she didn't leave with me. She came and joined me a little later. And so she felt a little better. So she was still over there. We're over in Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and all these garden spots of the world that are full of diseases and whatever. And the whole time she's there, she's kind of sick and couldn't really shake it and wonder what was wrong with her. And so we come back from the trip after about four weeks, and she goes into the doctor to find out what's wrong with her. And he looks at her and he says, oh, you're sixteen weeks pregnant. You want to hear the heartbeat? Oh, okay. You're four months along already. I didn't even know you were pregnant.

And it was so funny because I came home and she's crying again.

Because over in Nepal, especially, they had malaria plague and so on, and so they were spraying DDT in the hallways up and down the room to kill the mosquitoes and things. And so she figured our son was poisoned. So if you act strange on it, it's all you know why. And she thought she had damaged our son and wondered what she was going to have for her baby. And so she was crying for the next few weeks over all the places she took him.

And then she had her baby shower about a month before he was due. And I'd be on a bunch of these ladies over there, and they're all cards, as his friends were. Anyway, I come back and the lady comes out, oh, your wife's water broke. Can I have her baby? I thought, yeah, ha, ha, ha, baby shower water broke. Yeah, sure enough it had. And so we went to the hospital. I guess it's appropriate, baby shower water. I mean, no, of course.

And we're in the hospital there, and she's trying to have natural childbirth. And they say, well, you delighted. You annihilated one millimeter. There's a little chart, one millimeter, about the size of the end of the sentence, period. I thought, nothing's going to come through to that. And they went on and on and on. And the birthdays, you hear about labor. And I was watching The Meters, and when you have a labor pay, they just spike up a little bit. So you see a little spike, and I say, how'd they feel? I think I had one. So anyway, she ended up having a C-section, which was interesting. I got to watch it from the backside. And it was an incredible experience to watch a C-section. And it was interesting, because I was up by her head holding her, and they gave her an epidural, and she was shaking her hands with some of these things. And they started doing the cutting. I don't want to go bad with blood, but with education, I'm okay one time around. The second time, I probably passed out. But the doctor reaches in to get the baby, and he says, ghastly. You kind of think, what's in there?

And he'd grab the hold of her root carrier, and something wouldn't come out. He wouldn't let go. He liked it in there, I guess. Which, after saying the world as it is, I probably would have wanted to stay, too. But he pulls it out, and then he didn't want to breathe. And they'd hold him up there, and you're going, you know, you're holding your breath for the kid.

I could have passed back. That's what it looked like. And finally, he breathed a little bit, and it was all okay. So we got through it. Then the, oops, in my class, I told my class about the birth. She said, well, did you get to hold the baby? I said, well, actually, that's the girl. She was shaking like this. They couldn't give her the baby.

She probably beat him to death. And I was there, trying to hold her down, make sure I had a choice. I had to hold her down, and the girls get hit. And to hold her down was a better choice. But that's how our son was born. It's an interesting, interesting story. Play the least. August 12th. And then, three years later, three years and 13 minutes, I told my wife, I wanted her two years apart, she wanted her three, and I said, okay, but no more. And so she cheated.

She was 13 minutes late on three years. But both of our kids were born August 12th, so they share a birthday which they enjoy now. They did not like that as children. Sharing as children you like to have your own things. None of us were like that. But that's how we came to have our two children. It was a wonderful, wonderful thing. It changed a lot of things that we had believed, you know?

He died before Christ returned, and so we got to have children. And that was one of the things that he made me promise to us. We issued a God to the aid. I said, I want to have a family and children. No, no, you've got to be his aid. You've got to be his aid. Someone knows what I do. You've got to help him. You've got to do this. And I said, well, he has his own staff. And boy, Mr. Armstrong, I know it. His staff is not coming up with him.

He turned to us with a couch and says, Your staff is not coming up. And when I look back now, I think of the Old Testament prophets and the kings of Israel talking about it because the prophets say, If you do this, God will bless you.

If you do this, God will curse you. And he said, Mr. Armstrong, you bring your staff there, they'll send you astray. You'll lose out. And it was just by the letter. And anybody who knows it, they'll pass it into what happened. All the changes came from the staff. And that's where it all came from. And when I said to go through those promises and to see what happened and why God did it, there's a number of sermons I've given on that before.

And that's not what I'm giving today. This is my sermon out. So I warmed myself up for the sermon. And the life that when you're in the room and you know what was promised, you know what was said, you know what was done, and why it was done. And with me, I told him, I didn't want this. And he made me promise, and promise he'll tell me when he's wrong. And so for the next 12 years, I told him every time he was wrong, which he didn't seem to appreciate the fact that we were Mr.

Armstrong did. But in fact, I told Mr. Armstrong, you're asking me to tell my future boss when he's wrong. And Mr. Armstrong said, well, you did me. Which at the time, the guy took me back, but probably the best compliment he ever gave me, was the fact that I was willing to tell him the truth, you know, no matter how unpopular.

But it was funny to watch the changes happen, and to think, what should you do? And you couldn't go public with any of them. Mr. Armstrong made me promise I'd tell him. And so I kept it private, except for telling him. Unless people called me directly, and I made it right, I'd tell a guy, I'd create a guy, and he'd ask someone who called me directly, and ask me about some of these doctrines and things.

I was just going to tell him the truth. But other than that, until he died, I stayed and tried to help. Tried to help God, but change things around. But he was testing. Mr. Armstrong said the next day, the purification of the bride, and everybody in the Church, top to bottom, had to say, what do I believe? What am I willing to die for? Will I go along, or will I believe the book? Am I in the corporation, or am I in the Church, the spiritual body? And the spiritual body is the critical part of that.

And Mr. Armstrong understood that. He would yell at Ralph Huggy, the lawyer, come in and say, Well, why, Church of the Odd? He said, No, the Church of the Odd is the board members. The Church is the spiritual body. We didn't separate the two very well. And so it came time that things were going away from the Bible. That split loyalty is staying in the Church, you know, keeping the corporate name versus the beliefs. We're called to a set of beliefs into the spiritual body. And Mr. Cots never really understood that, I don't think either. And then at the college, I was able to help people there because I wasn't a theology faculty. I was a business faculty, which is fun because of accreditation protection because it couldn't...

If I gave anybody any type of biblical teachings, it was just my opinion. Because my career was in business. So they couldn't fire me for a side of this free counseling with all the kids coming through all the time to ask, What's the truth? What's going on here? So it was nice to go help them until the college closed. And then at that point, Mr.

Cots had died, and I was free to go follow the beliefs as they were and figure out where I should be, what I should do to help people. The Mary Provence helped the bride.

The bride got scattered up to so many places in the last 20 years that that's been difficult, but I've answered a lot of emails and a lot of questions. For people in every group, basically, I don't even ask them where they're from when they ask questions. I just tell them, answer the question, this is what happened, this is where we were, this is how it was, and this is what people attribute to it, motive-wise. So it's been good to help people understand. All of us, we need closure. It's not like half a story, it's like getting half a joke, never heard in the end. How did it wind up and why?

But I think we've all gotten stronger spiritually, although we've lost friends and things, and we've got people that we pray for, and we've learned a lot from it. But it's painful because when you used to be at a church of 300 or 400 and lots of people, and all of a sudden you're down to 20, 30 people, or 40, or less, or more, it's a different feeling.

And your feasts, some of our feast sites are smaller than some of our church areas. But then again, were they ever with us? Mr. Armstrong is saying, half of you don't get it, and now we know which half, which is sad. But again, my prayer, like most of yours probably, is that they never were called, and therefore they'll call from the Second Resurrection. That's why I tell people, don't get mad at anybody.

How would you like to lose your salvation and find out the person you lost it over comes up in the Second Resurrection? So you lose your chance of salvation, and they never had God's Spirit to start with. So, you get upset, think about that so you can clear the air. Because you're only responsible for you, not the other person, in that sense. And you're friends with them, you love them, and you might even die for them. But your salvation, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

But it's, again, it's a long journey we're having. All of us have some history we can look back, and history helps you with the future. And that's really where we all are, is looking for that. Again, I'm glad to be here because A.J.'s graduation. I don't know if he'll end up staying out here or go somewhere.

The job market will determine that. But I hope to come out here more often than I did. But I got waylaid a couple of times there and didn't get a chance to come out. But maybe in my agricultural things, out here you grow things, I might get out again sometimes. Appreciate the opportunity when I am here. The sermon today, I tell some more stories in a sense, but a little different in light of this one.

We talk about sacrifice and how we learn things. It's interesting that how you look at situations is very critical to how you react to them. A man wrote a book years ago, Victor Freichel. He was a Jew in the concentration camp in Nazi Germany. He wrote a book in search of meaning, I believe his name is. It's fairly well known, but he decided in his mind, he lived there for three years or so. I mean, much longer than almost anybody else in the concentration camp, say, alive. But he had peace of mind, the fact that they can do what they want to do to me physically.

But it's how I choose to react to it that he worked with. He was able to survive by doing that. Again, do we always expect everything to be pleasant? Do we see the glass half empty or half full? Or if it's totally full in your life?

Some people say, it's so wonderful and going so well. I read the Psalms, David and the different people, why do the wicked prosper? Why does this happen? Why does that happen? I tell people, I said, if you expect it all to be pleasant, you're kind of like Job's friends, who when Job was in trouble, and his friends are saying, well, God is good and you're suffering, so you must have something bad, because God rewards good behavior.

Therefore, there's some secret in your life. Basically, they determine that you must have done. Of course, God said Job was righteous, and is there anybody more like Job? But Job had obviously learned his lesson from the standpoint of, that we understand self-righteousness and things, but it would be nice to be as righteous as Job was, even with the self-righteousness part of it. But if you think everything is good, always then, if the wicked prosper, you might ask yourself which side of the fence you're on.

Because God gives all of us challenges and things to help us to grow and understand. But we, when we have these things that happen that are unpleasant, how do we choose to react to them? How do we look at them? And that is our choice, how you react. Something doesn't go your way, and you get angry, you get upset, or you just say, okay, God, it's in your hands.

And so we look at different things that happen in our life. That's interesting. With all stories, when you tell them, it's the way you tell them that can make a difference, even with the things in the Armstrong. There are a lot of, I spend a lot of time sitting in hotel rooms, sitting in airports, waiting for meetings and things, and you can talk about that. You can talk about these wonderful countries you went to, the beautiful places, or you can talk about being in a country and only seeing an airport and a hotel and lobby, and a meeting room and then flying out.

You can talk about the education, or I can talk about the four of the first seven years that I wasn't with my wife, because she didn't fly and we were gone all the time. In 1975, the logbook, the airplane was out of the country, 312 days. And all the crew, if we'd had our wives in Paris, we'd have seen them five days more than we did at home. And that's not a lot of fun. Not the way to build a marriage, not too good a thing. And it could have been done different at the time, but there were people around the train, a train on the schedule, saying things that basically had reason to keep them away.

In the 80s, when I was going to scheduling finally, we didn't take any trips or log in about three weeks. And I tried to get the crew home as much as possible and cover as much ground in a short time, which God's plan to let us do. But you can tell them how you see them. A lot of things are difficult in life. Taking care of people and having people die, people get sick, and things like that are tough.

But I think Philippians 4-8, you probably all memorize that. You can write that down and turn it if you want to, but you probably memorize it where it says, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, that are lovely, a lot of things are of good report. He said that there may be any virtue, there may be any praise, think on these things. But it does help to think on good things.

Even in times of trouble, to think on good things. Well, how do you do this? How do you think in tough times are difficult? And what do you do when things are bad? We just had Passover and Unleavened Bread recently. Think about Christ on the cross, going through the crucifixion. And what does he say? He says, John says, Behold your mother, and let's take care of my mom.

And he says, Forgive them, Father, they don't know what they're doing. I mean, thinking of other people, at a time when it was incredible that his reaction to the situation, would it be our reaction? It's interesting that Michelle and I had an opportunity or difficulty, which is why you look at it, for a couple of years. Her father lived with us because he had a stroke. He's back up in Pennsylvania now.

It's funny, my wife had always said, because her parents were very health conscious, didn't eat a lot of red meat, they'd fish a lot, juice vegetables, everything raw, natural, organic. And she always said, Well, never if they were about taking care of my parents. And the old adage, never say never, because her dad was out working on his house, and he was 83 at the time, 84 now.

And he always painted his house every year. It was kind of an annual ritual. I think he always just started one and worked straight around, just kind of kept doing it each year. Probably the house probably weighed more in paint than it did in wood and mortar. But he was cleaning it in the summer, in July it was hot, and he came inside and passed out. And actually what happened was he was dehydrated.

But they take him to the hospital, and his heartbeat was only 42 or 46. I forget exactly what it was, but in the low 40s. And so the doctors decided, Oh, something's wrong, they got to do something, and so they put a pacemack right. And they didn't bother to check that for the last 25-30 years of records they had from his doctor, that he had... That was his heartbeat. That was his working heartbeat. And so they didn't get everything balanced out with the blood and the acumen he wasn't taking.

And so two months later he had a stroke, and paralyzed the whole left side of his body. He couldn't walk, the bowel function, everything kind of locked up. So here's a man who's totally healthy out, climbing ladders, cleaning things, doing this. And now all of a sudden, paralyzed. And unable to do it, he can move his right arm and right leg, but unable to do anything for himself, basically.

Which is really a tough situation. So Michelle and I offered, he was up there, he was in a couple nursing homes, they were trying to take him around. And he'd gotten medsores and various things, and one home wasn't that good. And they were giving him medications, which Michelle, being as natural as she is, was looking up. And they're trying to give him therapy in his legs, but one of the medications, the side effect is weak legs. And another one, they're trying to talk to him and do things.

And one medication, the side effect is kind of like Alzheimer's. You don't remember things. So the medications were counteracting everything that he was trying to do. So we agreed to take him down in our house for six months and try to see if we could do some rehabilitation. Because Michelle's brother and sister weren't in a position to do anything. And her mom, who was a few years younger, but she was still 78, she wasn't able to, you know, she's 80 pounds when she's wet. And 4'10", so she couldn't do a whole lot, because her dad was 6' tall and 165 pounds or so.

So we decided we would take him down there. Well, it was interesting because for two years it was rather a pretty incredible ordeal in some ways. You don't really have any idea what it's like until you do it. Some of you are probably doing some of those things or have done it. Some of you know exactly what it's like. Some people think they know what it's like, and other people have no idea what it's like to take care of someone who is paralyzed and what it means.

And so for us, after six months we realized that this was going to be an ongoing thing. And so we started trying to get our routines together and do things for him. But I thought of Hebrews 5'8", you know, you turn there and it says that, "... though he were a son, yet he learned obedience by the things he suffered." And you think, you know, you're going through some of these trials and you're trying to...

And I get my travel kind of cutting out at that point, because I was doing the morning and evening things to pick him up and take care of all the bathroom needs and various things, and Michelle would take care of him in the daytime and do the cooking and the vitamins and the medications, whatever things he was on.

And so you're suffering, but you're learning. At the same time, Christ speaks of joy. And you think, well, when you're going through suffering, how do you understand joy? And John 15, 11 says, "... these things I've spoken to you that my joy might be full and remain in you, and your joy will be full." How can you be joyful when you're getting ready for such trauma or going through something that's that difficult? So when you're taking care of someone, these scriptures go through your head, these various things that come to mind that help you to do the things that you need to do.

And there's so many needs a person like this has that, you know, if you keep your attitude right, scriptures pop up to help you to get through it. And then also really make you want the kingdom of God, what we have to offer for humanity. You know, as far as the message of Christ and the Holy Days, and the last great day when everybody has a chance, it makes you really yearn for that. And then you also look at scriptures like Philippians 2.3. Philippians 2.3 says, "... nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in the lowliness of mind, let each esteem the other greater than themselves." And when you take care of someone who's handicapped, you know, trying to esteem them, trying to help them, trying to keep everybody where they are, and your attitude of service, it can be difficult.

You really understand foot washing when you take care of someone who can't take care of themselves. It's more than just a ritual. You know, I'm fascinated when I was growing up, the church was so large, you go to a Passover service where you had over a thousand people taking Passover, and you're trying to do it in two hours. And it's almost like a cattle car, you know, running people through, you know, get in. It's not, you know, in our society, nobody washes people feet, so you don't understand the lowliness of the job and what it meant for Christ, our God, to do that.

And so it's a ritual. But it's no longer a ritual when you're actually doing that on a daily basis. You don't know what makes up another person, you know, and therefore the grace of God go to any of us. There's something like this where it happened to us. And so during that time of taking care of Dad, I had a lot of lessons that my wife and I learned, and things that I never really knew about her dad that I was able to learn.

I want to relate some of this today because it was funny to come up to that point in the 34 years of marriage, and I'm getting ready for our 35th anniversary now. But her dad had never told me a war story. Her dad was in World War II. I knew it on the first airborne. I knew a couple things about him and such, but he never talked about it.

And I suppose he intentionally suppressed the memories and didn't talk about it for various reasons that people don't. But now with the brain damage he had because of the stroke, his ability to hold back what happened when we talk about it was gone. And so he freely told me some of the things that he was going through as I would talk to him and ask questions about that. And again, the spiritual things would come to mind whenever he'd tell me what he did in the war. There are so many incredible things. I mean, people tell war stories, and people really tell war stories just because they like to.

Usually they didn't really go through what they did. They embellished them, and we've got a lot of famous people that have done that in our past and in history. In her case, because we were trying to get help from the veterans, after the first six months we realized we were going to have them for a while, so we started working with the veterans to try to get help and aid for them.

But because of that, we had to go check up on the stories. We had to read and verify. Of course, the first thing they said is tell us, get his friends to write letters about what he did. Well, the man was 84 years old, and he was the youngest guy in his troop, and you're trying to get letters from people. It was really a mess.

But we managed to go to the records, so if he was never AWOL, then you'd go to the records and look up the various things that he did, because again, we had to prove this. And so I learned that what he did, the things he said were true, and the veracity was there. And it was a sacrifice for him to be in the war, a sacrifice for anyone to go to war, to be willing to die for your country.

And I thought of Romans 12.1, where it says, I beseech you, brethren, to become a living sacrifice, and present your body as that living sacrifice acceptable to God. And to understand someone who'd gone through a war, not sacrifice for God, but for his country, yet it came to mind, do we really believe the promise is enough that we would sacrifice in the same way that he did for his country or that Christ did for us? Is your cause worth dying for? More importantly, is your cause worth living for?

It's harder to be a living sacrifice sometimes than it is to die. My parents, they're the church 50-some years or so. They always want to be here while Christ returns. And you get up in your 80s, all of a sudden you start thinking, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to, instead of being among those who rise to meet Christ, to be one of those who the dead in Christ tries first, to start thinking maybe that's a little easier route than it may be. Again, with the things he went through, I had to ask myself, can I understand what I have been called to do?

When he joined the war, he was 17 years old when he signed up. He had a real duty, sense of duty for his country. He and his two other brothers signed up together at 17. He joined what would prove to be the most elite unit of the war, the 101st Airborne Division, the Screaming Eagles, as they were known. A lot of the old-timers in there know who the Screaming Eagles were, the 101st.

He thought it was a great deal because he got $50 extra hazard pay a month. And he thought, man, this is great. He didn't really know how hazardous it was going to be. He didn't fully understand what he would go through. But his division, General Eisenhower, awarded the 101st Airborne the Distinguished Unit Citation. It's the only time ever that a whole division has been awarded a medal. Interesting. He became a paratrooper.

He dropped from airplanes at night or whatever, whatever they said, landing in whatever conditions he would be landing in. He had a 125-pound pack on his back that they carried. They tied ammunition to their legs because they knew they'd need extra ammunition behind enemy lines they couldn't get to under resupply. And the fascinating thing to me was he couldn't swim. I can't imagine jumping out of an airplane in the dark of night over other countries not being able to swim. I mean, you're carrying a 125-pound pack on your back and on your leg. You land in a lake, you're in trouble.

But he signed up, braved, didn't understand all the dangers. When I think of my baptism, I didn't really know what I would go through when I got baptized. I knew I had to trust and obey God. I knew he'd be there. You hear the sermons and God will do that. When I signed up, was I scared?

No. No, it was a wonderful thing. Kind of like your dad enlisting. I didn't want to miss war. Look at the church. There are so many things. There are the schools and the colleges and the camps and the people. Everything was wonderful.

You promised salvation and eternity. This is a good deal. And if you sinned, someone else paid the penalty for you. You repent. All you have to do is keep the Ten Commandments and try to live like God wants you to live. It was a good deal to sign up in the First Resurrection, the better Resurrection. But scared? Later on, in times of testing, there were times when I was scared. You wonder, God, how are you going to deliver me? How is this going to work?

Did I see all the things I would go through? You know, and Michelle and I, in our careers, I've had my life threatened. I've had to leave town. I've had to jump motels. I know there are a lot of things that are kind of strange, being in the Church, which helped me understand the Book of Acts, because people there were killed and had their lives threatened.

So it helped me, but that wasn't what you expect when you get baptized. You join this warm body of people that are going to be good and friends. Don't expect that. I'm scared. I'm wondering, would God always be there? Where would He drop me? Whether I could swim or not, where would God drop me in His plan to make me one of His children?

The first drop that Ted Jomone made, Michelle's father-in-law, was in Normandy. He was there at Normandy when they dropped. They flew out of the plane. They were going too fast. Many of you have watched Band of Brothers. Some of the war movies know that the Germans are sending so much stuff up in the air that most of the planes didn't get to their designated spot. I watched Band of Brothers with their father, and he was telling me where every troop was posted to land.

They got like in the movie, they said, everybody has to know everybody else's spot. He'd sit there and tell me where Company A and B and C and D and E and H were landing. But they didn't get to their spot because the strapping was so much, the planes, the side of them had gotten blown out of the sky, and so their pilot had done what a lot of them did, put on the green light. They weren't there, they weren't down to altitude, and they were going too fast.

But if you got hit and the plane, you all die. The pilot said, I'm not going to have 28 guys die in this airplane. They were close enough, put the green light on, and they jumped out. And he, like most of the men who jumped out of that plane, the first thing that happened was the bag tied to the leg ripped off. And as they were falling, they were pulling their parachutes, and the Germans were shooting at them. He said, the bullets scared you, but he said, the tracer bullets scared you more.

Because the tracer bullets were fired, and the chutes were of silk. And if the fire hit your silk parachute, it caught on fire. And you were going down. He landed in a swamp.

Thankfully, it was only up to his thighs. They were not sure about the swimming. But I'm sure when he hit and it was water, I'm sure what went through his head probably scared him to death. And he managed to land, and had his pack on still, at least, and survived that. It was interesting. He was supposed to round it with his troop. He had no idea where he was, and like most other people, he had to find his way to where his company was supposed to meet.

On the ground. In the dark. And they had these little instruments that they gave all over the war. It was called a cricket. And you squeezed on it and made this clicking noise. And that way the Americans, if you heard a noise, something would click. And the other person clicked, you knew it would be an American. And so he was there. He heard some noise. Saw something there, and clicked his clicker, and nothing happened.

So he pulled his gun out the chute. And something told him not to shoot. He was going out of the glint of the uniform or something, but he yelled out in English something. And the man yelled back. Another young man. 18 years old, scared to death. First man he almost shot was another American. And he said, why didn't you click? And the guy said, scared. Well, they were all scared. He was scared. And so they got some other people together and managed to get away. The clickers weren't that good, of course, because the Germans figured out real quickly what that clicking noise was.

And they could take the bolts of their guns and pull it back and forth and make it make sense. Same sound. So a lot of Americans were killed because they'd click their clicker and hear a clicker stand up and get shot. They didn't know who the enemy was. We can mistake people trying to help us for the enemy at times, because we don't know.

Sometimes we try to help people, and we may not do it quite the right way or something, and people take offense. So easy today it seems to take offense. And that's one of the sad things, because we have to learn to not be offended so easily as we do things. Turn to 2 Corinthians 11. We can create enemies for ourselves that aren't really enemies, and we can think we have friends that aren't really friends. And we can be stuck, but there is a real enemy that we face.

2 Corinthians 11, 13. There are people that would have you believe that you don't have to do anything. You don't have to keep God's block. You don't have to try it. Christ did it all for you. There are people that teach you that you can put Christ's name on things and do things that He doesn't want you to do. Verse 13 of 2 Corinthians 11, for such are false apostles.

Deceitful workers transformed themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness, whose ends shall be according to their works.

There are people out there that can lead your strength. That's why it's so important that you know the book. You know the manual. And you're close to God. The soldiers in World War II knew their manual. They knew what they needed to do. Ted Gemonte's company was Company H of the 101st Airborne, the 502nd Paratree Infantry Regiment. And his 70-some, 75-something guys and his troop, Company H.

They'd been pinned down by German snipers. There was a minefield there, and the lieutenant, Lieutenant Wysbowski, had got shot in the leg and couldn't walk. And if they were shooting him, Ted Gemonte went over and grabbed him and drug him 100 yards across fire to take him to safety. He was put in for a silver star, trying to save his lieutenant. And his lieutenant said, no, this thing, you know, the army can't move forward if we don't take that.

And he said, Gemonte says, you're lucky. And he says, you're young and you're lucky. He says, go take it out. So he ran through a minefield and took out a pillbox while they were shooting at him. Scared? I'm sure he was. But he did it. He didn't do it for a war. He didn't do it for a silver star. He didn't do it for anything. He did it because it was the right thing to do. That's what he was ordered to do. And he did it. I don't know why God protected him. Maybe it was chance, maybe not. His sense of duty was so admirable in what he did. But I wondered, do I have the same sense of duty for God? God asked me to do something that I don't want to do that might kill me. What am I doing? Do I really obey even when it seems hopeless? Do I do what needs to be done? Does our cause let us cast aside fear and doubt? It has for others. We're all familiar with Hebrews 12.1. You know, Hebrews 11, the faith chapter of all the people listening in. In Hebrews 12.1, where it says, we're compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Why? So we can lay aside every way, as it says, and every sin which does easily beset us, and run with patience the races before us. But look at that. The example is before us. As a child, again, with 12 years of Imperial school, I had Bible class every day. And it was good. We did more of the Old Testament in those classes because the Old Testament stories had people that were saved from all sorts of traumatic things. When God did things, it was miraculous and marvelous. You know, Samson, David, Goliath, Gideon, Ruth, and Astra, I mean all of them. Wonderful thing. And those people, for me, were witnesses. And they were examples that I grew up with. They gave me a simple faith to realize that we have to do the little things. And that God, it's not always about the big things. It's all the little things that we do. The race is usually little things. But some people are too important to do the little things. You know, all of us like to slay Goliath. Everybody in the whole country sees you doing it. They know you did that. And everybody wants to take a bullet and be a hero. But it's the little things, the little minefields, the little things we're to do that are tough. Do we have a sense of spiritual duty that sends them human ability, that allows us to think as God thinks, to do things the way God would do them? Do you have the humility to do what you're asked to do when it's time? Turn again to Romans 12. I quoted the first verse. I'm going to read a couple more verses there in Romans. When Paul is writing. And again, they were a soldier of Christ. That was to be Paul. Verse 1, he said, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, you present your bodies a living sacrifice. We are. We are a sacrifice. We're in a world that doesn't like what we believe. Holy. Acceptable to God. Which is reasonable service. Things you're asked to do are reasonable. The cause of the cause. Romans 12.2, Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

When you're put in a situation, you have to believe that God put you there, and He's giving you something that's going to help you be what you're supposed to be. Verse 3, For though 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. It's really easy to think too highly of yourself. Pride, lack of humility is a major obstacle in this world, especially today, where they teach you to, you know, everybody has equal voice, everybody's just as good as the next person. But God deals with a measure of faith that allows us to be humble, to do things that we have to do.

What is your measure of faith? Do you pick yourself up? Is your cause worth it? Are you important enough in understanding God's plan to run through the minefield? Do you really believe the promises God gives you that you can step out on the faith that you need? And do you pick yourself up after a battle, or maybe you've fallen to go on for the next battle?

For Ted Jomone, the next battle from Normandy was the mission of Karen Tan. It was on June of 1944. Karen Tan, the highway there, was known as Purple Heart Lane because of the number of men who were injured or killed in that battle.

They had to take it, since the crossroads had no choice, but they were outgunned, outmanned. It was interesting because we were watching again Band of Brothers, and they talked and they said, well, now the soldiers are going to Karen Tan, and my dad looked at the points of TV and said, Purple Heart Lane. So that was tough. The next thing they announced was that the soldiers knew this was Purple Heart Lane. It was funny to watch them just narrate this thing for me as we went through it.

But Karen Tan was where they were pinned down, but they had to take it out to advance. And so there was a man, Colonel Cole of San Antonio, a fellow Texan. These stories are nice to give her Texans. They're nice and patriotic and do more than they're sure of the fighting and the Alamo on. But Colonel Cole from San Antonio, he saw the unit was running short on ammunition. They were going to have enough bullets to fight conventionally with them.

And so he knew that they didn't take the hill. They couldn't get reinforcements. They couldn't get the army through it, that they would die. And it was so critical to the invasion that he took up his 750 men that he was over right there. He said, Men put on your bayonets. He says, We're going to charge this position. So his 750 men bayonets fixed to their rifles, charged up directly into the enemy stronghold in the hand-to-hand combat.

At the end of the charge, 125 men were left standing. Ted Jumone was one of those. It's hard to imagine what it would be like to charge in that situation. From the archives I read there, it says, The Purple Heart Lane Airborne Memorial Museum will be located in the northern side of Carrington, in the field where the 101st Airborne Division's first Medal of Honor recipient, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Cole, led the heroic bandit charge of the 502nd Paratreat Infantry Regiment. I asked her, Dad, why do you think you survived when so many others died?

I thought he'd probably say, Luck? Was this Lucky? He didn't say that. He said, Training. I said, What do you mean, Training? And in your military trade, he said, No, no. He said, My dad knew there was going to be a war, because he was in World War I, and he saw what was happening in Europe. So he trained us as teenagers, from the time I was 12-13 years on, how to use a bayonet.

I survived because my dad taught me how to use a bayonet. That's not something my dad taught me. It's not something most of your dad's probably taught you. But it wasn't luck. It was training. Past training gets you through a lot of things. And in his case, he and his two brothers were trained in bayonet usage. That saved his life, for what he did. How trained are we for the challenges that we have ahead of us?

Turn to 2 Timothy 3, if you would. 2 Timothy 3, 12 is where I'm going to. The older people here know that your training helps you through a lot. The younger people are learning that, because you go through training. My son's gone to college now. He's got the information, some training that he'll use to go through life. Once you go through the things that you've learned along the way, help you for the challenges you have ahead.

Sometimes they're extreme challenges. Depending on what God has in store for you, what you have to do. Your past training gets you through the history, the experiences. 2 Timothy 3, 12. Paul writing to a young Timothy, yes. And all the will of Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. It's not a bed of roses. He shall suffer something, persecution, difficulties. But evil men in seduce shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Today we have a plethora of people that are deceived and are deceiving. But for you, verse 14, but continue you in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you've learned them. We've got some sure words that we can prove from our Bible.

Not from men, but from God, that help us. And then from a child, verse 15, you've known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. That's why Christ talks about our training. That's why God, in the Old Testament, says, train up your children. Not just train, but diligently train.

Because it has to be ingrained in you to where you react. Because you've been trained. He cracked me once in a while. It was funny. One time he was doing something to me. He kind of backed off. He'd be a little tough on me. He says, you know, I don't mean to say that to you, but I'm responsible for you. I said, what do you mean?

He said, well, you had 12 years of imperil, 4 years of ambassador. If you don't get in the kingdom, I won't get in the kingdom. And I've got to make sure you're right. They're not like, okay, thank you. Appreciate the sentiment. Didn't always appreciate the correction. But he was right. All of us bear responsibility for others. We're here. You're helping each other. It's a fellowship about for each other, helping. And though he really ultimately wasn't responsible for me, I'm responsible for me.

But, you know, we can have those things around our neck that we've heard of the people. So you don't want that. So you've got to train. And again, the famous verse 16, All scriptures give them inspiration of God. God had His hand in all these scriptures. It's profitable for doctrine. We understand what we should believe. For a proof. Yeah. What we need to know. For correction. For instruction and righteousness. Which is what our calling is. Become righteous.

Become God. Why? That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished, unto good works. We have the Bible. We have the training. We have people that are examples around us. Ted Gomos' training, saved in McCarran Town. Our training will allow Christ's sacrifice to save us. And yet, we have to do a lot. Zico 1414 says that Daniel and Noah and Job were here. They can only save themselves. So you do have to work out your own salvation. But other people help you. Noah, Daniel, and Job are good stories for me that help me.

Their stories help me. They don't make me get in the Kingdom, but they help me. Training prepares for the next challenge. And as I've always prayed when I've gone through different challenges in my life. To God, please let this be my trial and not my preparation for one. Because each trial you go through is preparation for the next one. It's training for the next one. It's also examples you can give others to help them get through their next trial. What they have to go through. Stories give you strength in God's deliverance. Ted Gomos' next assignment, having gone through Normandy and Carrington, was Market Gardens, the invasion of Holland, September 1944.

It's interesting, when you look at that, from the World War II database, I'll read to you what it says there. It says, 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 on Einhoven and take the Canal Crossing at Mingau.

The Canal Road is also known as Hell's Highway. The airborne division had suffered heavily in the Normandy campaign. They 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% of their members would never leave Normandy coast or Carrington, resting in Allied cemeteries. On September 26, Montgomery ordered the 101st Airborne to break out of Arnhem and rejoin the Allied forces to the south. Out of 10,000 men dropped in Arnhem, 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 Gardens where Dad was one of those who came out. He told me about Market Gardens going into Holland. It was interesting because you look at the stories, and most of you probably heard the story of the 2nd Congressional Medal of Honor that was given out for the 101st. There was a young scout named Joe Mamm. Joe Mamm, as a scout, had to go up front and check things out. He was shooting some of the artillery positions that were shelling all of his bodies behind him. He was picking off some of these men. When he got shot, he got shot in both legs and arms. He couldn't move his arms or shoot his rifle anymore. So he was stuck there. The guys came up and got him and drug him back into the foxholes where they were. It was late in the evening. They were going to take him to the medics. He said, no, you guys will have to fight tomorrow and take this. He said, you need your sleep. He said, I'll stay here and stand guard. I can't shoot or anything, but I can yell and wake you up if anything needs to be done. So he saw us there tonight and I can go and just wrap me up in bandages and I'll go to the hospital tomorrow. The interesting thing about Joe Mamm was that the Germans attacked Creedon the next day. So they never were able to take him back to the hospital. So he was in the foxhole there and the men were fighting and the Germans were throwing grenades into the holes. And the Americans tried to grab him as quick as they could and throw him back out. One of the greats landed next to Joe Mamm. And, of course, his arms, he couldn't move. His legs, he couldn't do anything at all. And so, so, by Joe Mamm, he yelled over to the four other men in the hole and he said, I'll take it, Matt. And he rolled over and took the grenade, saved the men in the hole through lies. The interesting thing about this, you might ask, why do I talk about Joe Mamm? Ted Jammos in the foxhole with Joe Mamm. His life was saved. When you look at John 15, 12, when Christ said, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Do we have that love? Verse 13, Greater love hath no man than this than a man laid down his life for his friends. Yes, you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. Jesus is our friend. He laid down his life for us. Just like Joe Mamm laid down his life for the men in his hole. Hard to imagine what it would be like to be in a foxhole if someone does that for you.

Because of that, Ted Jammos made the squad leader. The squad leader had actually died. Only 20% of his unit at that point was still around. They lost more of them with the replacement units later on. Through the squad leader, the next day, when they were still fighting, one of his friends that he had gone to training with, the best friend in the army, known as the time he signed up, was there in the hole. He kept ticking his head up to look to see if the Germans were coming and throwing grenades because he was so afraid of what happened yesterday would happen again. Ted, the squad leader, said, no, stay in the hole. If they come in, we'll fall out. So his friend popped up again and he grabbed him and dragged him down. Just as he did, a sniper hit him in the head. His best friend died in his arms. When he told me that story, I could tell that probably, if all the things that happened affected him as much as anything, have your best friend die in your arms. To be the leader and feel responsible, in a sense, for it. I'm sure he asked himself some questions that others have asked. He said, why me? Why me? In Acts 12, turn to verse 2, Acts 12. I'm sure others have asked these same questions. Why me? You probably asked, why me? All of us in our column are, why me? Why did God see him needed? This could be better or special than others who seem even more dedicated to things they're causes that aren't even true than we are, sometimes to ours. James, the brother of John, is beheaded. Peter is going to escape. I'm sure he asked, why me? In Acts 12, verse 2, And he, Herod, killed James, the brother of John, with a sword. Because he sought, pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Then were the days of unleavened bread. He had apprehended Peter, put him in prison, delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Passover to bring him forth to the people, to kill him. And I'm sure Peter, sitting in that prison, I mean, James got killed. I'm next. You know, he knew what Christ said, that he was going to die. And I'm sure he thought, I'm going to die. Verse 5, Peter, therefore, was kept in prison. The prayer was made without ceasing of the church to God for him. And when Herod would have brought him forth the same night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and the keepers of the door kept in the prison. And behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, and a light shined into the prison. And he smote Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, arise quickly. And his chains fell from his hands.

Do you ever ask why me? I'm sure Peter thought right then, why me? Why am I delivered? Why did he do this for James? But Peter's life wasn't through. God had more work for him. You're not alone. Like Peter and James, the people, he was pleasing the people by killing him. There are times when people rejoice in our troubles. Sadly, it happens. But you're not alone. Good deeds and character come out in times of trouble. They come out in warfare. Some of the deeds are recognized, some are not. Sometimes only God knows what you go through. Do we allow God's Spirit to bring our deeds out in our spiritual warfare? Or do we get tired and want to stop? Yeah, we do. I've gotten tired a few times. Sometimes I was flying when some things really went bad. When there were some people that wanted power and some difficulties in our own history. I thought, suicide would be good. If God let you kill yourself, I had a good insurance policy. My wife would be taken care of. She was young and good-looking, when they were fighting somebody else. But that wasn't what God had in the cards. And then you realize that that's not what it's about. You go to Elijah. A fire comes out from heaven, and three weeks later he's out in the woods saying, God, take my life. I don't want to do it anymore. And you think about that, okay, God, that's what you want. We'll see where this trail goes. What's the next battle that I'll have to go through, God? What do you want? You would think this would be enough for one man, what Ted Givin went through, but his next stop was the Battle of the Bulge, more particularly Bastog. Because he was still healthy and not shot up too badly, still functioning. He got called out to go to the Battle of the Bulge. I'll read again from the record.

The battle lasted from mid-December 1994 to 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, in which the division and its comrades and arms stopped 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 was recognized by both sides as being surrounded. The American soldiers were outnumbered. They were lacking in cold weather gear, lacking in ammunition, lacking in food, lacking in medical supplies, and in leadership, as the officers, including the 101st commander, Major General Maxwell Taylor, were elsewhere. Due to some of the worst winter weather in years, the surrounded U.S. forces could not be resupplied by air, nor was tactical air support available to them. The most famous quote of the battle came from the 101st acting commander, Brigadier General McAuliffe. When confronted with the written request of the German General Lutzwitt to surrender Bastogne, he replied nuts. Famous line that many of you have heard. After the battle, the newspapers referred to the division as the battered bastards of Bastogne. Ask your dad about Bastogne. He got his purple heart from Bastogne. He said it was hell.

Anything was hell, he said Bastogne was hell. He got shrapnel wounds. He had scars. He said the tree bursts were so scary. It hit the trees and the trees that fall on you, and you get pieces of wood shoved through your leg. He had scars on his head, scars on his arms and things from the shrapnel wounds. He didn't rest with a scar on his leg, but he got the purple heart for it. It was the only time he got dragged back where he actually recognized that he had so much... He should have gotten a dozen purple hearts, but he only ended up with one.

But it was funny because he said, just watching the men die around you. And then he said it was so cold. It was just so cold. He said, you know, everybody, their feet were freezing. In fact, Trent Fripp took more casualties than that than the fighting did. And they wanted to amputate his toes. It was very difficult. And so he got his purple heart there. He begged him not to cut off his toes. And he still has his toes. But I think he's the only man probably in the unit that had all these toes. They were funny looking. His toenails were misshapen and sack and from the trench foot and things even to this day. They were waiting for supplies. They wanted help. They didn't have enough bullets. They were counting rounds when they shot them at that time. And they were in their cotton uniforms and things. That's all they had because they were planning to be home by Christmas as all the soldiers thought they'd be. And they couldn't get resupplied. And they were freezing. And they felt alone because of the clouds there, the planes that fly over. They dropped things. They didn't have the guidance systems. We had the GPSs and things. They'd fly over, dropped stuff, and he said the Germans got most of the supplies. They didn't. Occasionally something would get through. But they felt alone. But a lot of people felt like that. 2 Kings 6, he had turned there. It's interesting because how do you look at things?

He knew they were there. He knew they were trying to help and dropped things in the war, but couldn't see them because of the clouds. But it's been that way in the past. This is the story of Elisha and his servant. Because a lot of the people who served God and served other people, they had fears. As far as we know, we were at the Knights of the Columbus speaking to a Catholic group once. And all of a sudden, Mr. Armstrong got into the pope and the beast and the false prophet. I thought we weren't going to get out of there. I was in there, please God. And we managed to live through it. But here the king of Syria is warring against Israel in verse 8, 2 Kings 6. He says, He said, He said, He said, He said, He said, He said, He said, He said, He said, He said, He said, He said, He said, He said, He said, He said, He said, He said, He had given himself Not once, Not twice, But several times! He'd kind of chased the Creator. He'd chased them around. The enemy knows him. Where they are Therefore, The heart of the king of Syria was sort of troubled at this thing. And he called his servant And he said, Will you not show me Which of us is for the King of Israel? Which of us is for the King of Israel? Whose the traitor here? There was We are desk to watch this story. And who is it?

Verse 15, And he answered him and said, verse 16, And he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots and fire around Abodilatia. My dad and my father-in-law would have loved to have seen something like that around Bastogne. I'm not so sure it wasn't there because God wanted us to win that war. But could we see what's around us? Are those chariots the fire and the angels and the hosts of heaven that are protecting us visible in our minds' eye? I wish I could say, look up here and see the angels in the room. If you saw them, it gave you courage. It would help. You'd have to see it. Do we see those chariots around us? Do we know God will supply our need that His hand is always there to help us? Not in the big things, always. Sometimes the little things. Most of the things God does for it, we don't necessarily even know when He helps you. There's a few miracles here and there that you know are absolute, but most of the time it's not. It's the small things. He supplies our need. As Ted Gombe waited for help in Fastone, occasionally some supplies did land there. They were minimal, but there were enough. And again, I ask Him, because so many men died, how did you survive? How did you make it? I expect Him to say, again, luck. Because that's what most soldiers say, just lucky, I guess. But He didn't say that. He said socks. I said, what? His socks. He said, I have my toes. They saved my feet. So, during that one week we went off. We went back to England before going over. My mom had sent a care package, and in that care package were two pair of wool socks. I was saved by socks. Now, most of us don't want care packages full of socks, but that's what saved his life. That's what he needed. He'd gotten a care package. He was saved by socks from his mom. How often are we saved by socks? Do we give comfort? Sometimes another person that gives comfort, kind words, small gift. It's been comfort for Michelle, and I to know that you people are here. My son, my lovely daughter-in-law came here. The comfort of knowing there'd be people here that would take them in. That would be kind to them. Comforting, small word, pair of socks. You have to count on that and know it's there. Like it says in Romans 8, 28, we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God. Do we love God? Are we called according to His purpose? Yeah, He called us. We're here. We've got to do some wars. You're here because of that. Every day that I washed and cleaned my father-in-law, I saw his feet, I saw his toes. And the curled-up nails and what he went through. I thought of the socks that his mom gave him, and I thought of the price he paid in the war in investment. And I saw Christ when I would wash his feet because there's no way you couldn't think about Christ washing the disciples' feet and the price that Christ paid for us in the same way. I thought of Dowdy Thomas, turn to John 20. You know the story, but it's interesting because you read these things differently when you go through experiences that bring them to your mind. John 20, verse 24, and they all doubted Christ. Thomas is singled out here, but they all deserted him. But certain ones get the special honor of being biblically named as having something that they didn't realize what they were doing.

Verse 24, Thomas, one of the twelve called Didabus, was not with them when Jesus came.

And the other disciples therefore said to him, We've seen the Lord.

He said to them, Except I see his hands, the print of the nails, put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. I saw him on the cross. He was dead.

These were his disciples, people that were with him. I won't believe. John 20, verse 26, after eight days, again the disciples were with him, and Thomas was with him this time.

Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in their midst, came through the walls.

Ooh, that'll make a believer out of you. And he said, Peace be to you. And he said to Thomas, Hang on. He heard what Thomas said. He went right to Thomas and said, Reach hither your finger, behold my hands, reach hither your hand, put it in my side, be not faithless, but be leaving.

And Thomas, after, and said, They have my Lord and my God. Jesus said to Thomas, Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those that have not seen, and yet have believed, all those who haven't seen the hosts of heaven for real in our eyes, those who didn't see Christ from the miracles firsthand.

Seeing is believing. Seeing my father lost feet made me think of those things. It's easy to believe someone's in a war when you see injuries they carry throughout their life. But we shouldn't believe without seeing. That's what faith is about. It's believing. It reminds us when we see things.

This wasn't enough for the 101st Airborne. They were now ordered to go into Germany.

Ted Gomos' next challenge was not being shot at, not freezing, not starving.

His next challenge was a scouting patrol he was on, where he found one of the death camps.

His squad actually found Dachau. He said it made him sick. They tried to help people there, so they took their candy bars out in the food they had and started feeding them.

But he said the people were so weak, you saw them die in front of you, they couldn't handle food.

And they had to stop, pull them back. And the people were grabbing a hold and clinging to them.

But they couldn't kill them, because if they gave them the food, they would die.

And you want to help. They didn't know what to do. They were simply too weak.

But they clung on to them. They're liberators.

They begged for help. And they were there to help them.

But they didn't have what they needed at that point.

We're spiritual soldiers. We're called to liberate mankind, in a sense, by following Christ in His way. We were called to learn a way of life. Why do we have to learn the way of life? Turn to Zechariah 8, if you would. We read the scriptures using the feasts, but I'll read some today. We're called to teach. Zechariah 8, 23. Thus says the Lord of hosts, In those days, the Serk into the past, the ten men shall take hold of all the languages of the nations. Even shall take hold of the skirt of him that's the Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. These people hung on to their liberators for physical food. People will come thus eventually for spiritual food. They might not even know, in today's society, that you're liberators. Most people deny what we know is true, is difficult. But that's what we're learning. That's what our goal is. We have a challenge ahead of us, is greater than any challenge of the past. It's more rewarding than any challenge of the past. It's going to really, truly free mankind from warfare. Not like World War II did, not like Ted Jameau was fighting for. He didn't do it for the reward. He didn't do it for his five bronze stars. He didn't do it for the Purple Heart. He didn't do it for the... We looked up his thing, and it was a whole paragraph long. The Medal of France, the Medal of Holland, the Medal of this and that, and whatever. There's so many things written in there. He didn't do it to be seen.

Most heroes don't. Most heroes don't brag about what they did. Most of them seldom ever talk about it. It's like him. If I remember the stroke, I wouldn't have known any of these stories.

There are a lot of fakes out there. People want you to think that they've done heroic things for their own aggrandizement. Again, not the humility of Christ. You can't make yourself a spiritual hero. Simon Magus tried that. What do you do? You cancel the Peter when he saw them. You see the shadow of healing people. You see the miracle. And you see the Holy Spirit counting because laying on hands. He said, give me that. I want that. For the wrong reason. He didn't want to serve people. He wanted to raise himself up. There have always been people like that that want to be seen. Turn to Matthew 6. You know people like that? A lot of people who didn't stay with the truth did a lot of things to be seen of men, to rise in the ranks for whatever position or power.

It's sad. And they'll do certain things to look the part of a Christian. I said, Satan's ministers will look like that. Christ didn't teach us to do things to be seen. Matthew 6, verse 1, Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise, you have no reward of your Father in heaven. Don't want to be seen. When you do your alms, do not sound the trumpet before you. As the hypocrites do in the synagogues in the streets, they may go have glory of men. Barely I say to you, they have the reward. When you do your alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand does. Just do it because it's the right thing to do. Because that's it.

When you pray, verse 5, you should not be as the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues in the corners of the streets. They may be seen of them. I want to be the hero. I'm the best prayer. I'm that. Never been like that. Barely I say to you, verse 5, they have the reward. When you pray, go into your closet. When you have shut your door, pray to your father, which is in secret. Your father would seize in secret, shall reward you openly.

Skip down to verse 17, but you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that you appear not to fast to men, but unto your father, which is in secret, and your father would seize you in secret, will reward you openly. Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust do corrupt, where thieves break through and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, where thieves do not break through or steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. It may seem like Tejumon was a giant. He was a hero. No question about that. But he, like all people, had weaknesses. I told you the one, when he didn't know how to swim, certainly a weakness for a parent's group. But he had another weakness that he told me about in another story, when he was in Holland. His weakness was that he was a sleepwalker. Sleepwalking during war is not a good thing. And one night, he started walking in his sleep, and he woke up next to a windmill.

And he was halfway between the Germans on this side and the Americans on that side.

And it was pitch black, and he couldn't go either way without being shot. So he huddled up under the windmill and just stayed there all night to light so that he could get out of that place.

He didn't know what he would do until he could be recognized. Couldn't go forward, he couldn't go back. It was difficult. And sometimes we're in that position. We're not really sure where we are.

Which way do we go? How many times does our humanity and our weakness put us in the middle?

Well, we don't really know. I've been in the middle of a war that was interesting, flying in Israel one time down the Red Sea. And there was a lot of animosity between Israel and Egypt that time. And we had the Miks flying off one wing on one side, and we had the Phantom, American Phantom flying to the side. Egyptian Air Force and the Israeli Air Force. And they're both kind of going along. And if you veer either way, you're going to get shot down. So you just spread that needle, that little blue strip of land, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. And then they finally peeled off. But it's an interesting feeling to be stuck in the middle. And of course, they weren't shooting at us. I can imagine what they were. Interesting times. But we're caught in those positions sometimes where we're not really sure. Either way we go, we get shot. It's up to God to bring the light, shine it on so we can see our way. And He does that. It's interesting for me to see the reaction of the Veterans Administration after seeing His record. So many people are in there trying to get money for things. And I refer to like this big deal later about John Kerry's three Purple Hearts. I'm not sure he did the shoot himself in the foot to get the third one to get home. And there are a lot of people in the war who got a lot of Purple Hearts, you know. Her dad, when he went in, he asked, well, where are your injuries? And I said, he'd stay right here, and he'd scar there. Now it's not written down, you know. And they said, what else? He said, well, over here is scar, like that. Well, over here, the leg. And here it says, you got hit in the leg. Yeah, and he pulled his cap there, and the leg is all he left. It's only scar he had that you can't see, is this Purple Hearts scar. But it was fascinating to me that when he was showing all these things, and again, he had a stroke, and it's kind of hard to prove a stroke is war-related, 60 years after war. But it was interesting because when you first go in, they think you're trying to get something from him, but they'd look at his record. And the first thing you'd see, this kind of, wow, he was one of them. And all of a sudden, he moved up and lied. And people couldn't believe that he was one of them that went through these things. Well, what's funny to me was when they said, it was not in the book, it didn't happen. In fact, you go, scar there? Okay, fine. We believe you, but it's not in the book. And it was not in the book, it didn't happen.

Which is sad because when we were there, we saw some other young men who were involved with covert operations. And I called my cousin, I called my cousin immediately after this, and I said, Randy, get your buddies that are still alive, because you're the Navy SEAL. Everything he did was behind lines, enemy lines and things. And if you looked at his record, it looked like he was a desk jockey. And because nothing was written in the book. And these guys, sadly, who had some of the worst fighting, aren't in the book. And they try to get help, and it's not in the book, it didn't happen. Can't help you. Which is sad because it's not in the book, it didn't happen.

Of course, that takes me to Revelation 17, because of the book we want to be written in.

Because if we're not in the book, it didn't happen.

Revelation 17a talks about the beast that you saw. Part of the prophecy at the end of the time, the book's mentioned there several places. I was picking a couple.

Verse 8, The beast that you saw was and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottom of his pit, and go into perdition. May the dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life, for the foundation of the world. When they behold the beast that was and is not, yet is. A beast is soon to rise. That's something that's going to happen the next few years down the road. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. For he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful. You and me, and those of our scattered brethren, the spiritual body of Christ. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were open. Another book was open, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things that were written in the books, according to their works. Many will eventually be written into the book of life, some in later chapters. God wants all mankind to be saved.

There are those who won't be, but the majority, I imagine, will when they see it all. But there's only a few of Christ's elite that are called to be the firstfruits. We have Pentecost coming up in a few weeks. We are those firstfruits. If you want to, you know, we're the ones that are going to receive the Distinguished Medal Citation. You know, he was part of the Screaming Eagles of the 101st.

Let's say we're part of the Screaming Eagles of the First Resurrection.

We have things that we go through that no one else will have to go through.

We're going to be Christ's Medal of Honor recipients.

Revelation 26, a couple pages over, blessed is he that has part in the First Resurrection, which is where our calling lies, which is where we are, part of the First Resurrection.

What will people's reaction be to us?

I suppose at that time, people will light up when they see you.

They want to ask you questions. They're going to ask you, how did you survive?

It won't be luck. You can teach them how to get into the Book of Life, what Christ's sacrifice was about, what the Holy Days were. And you can show them Revelation 20.14 if they don't believe.

Where it says, death and hell were cast in the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast in the lake of fire.

Because it was not in the Book, it didn't happen.

Yes, we learn a lot. Your service and sacrifice through suffering, either your own suffering or the suffering of others.

You learn both ways.

And like Christ in Hebrews 5.8, he learned by the things he suffered.

He learned obedience.

Every morning, every night, when I had to help my father-in-law with the things that were not of his choosing nor of mine, all the tasks were tedious.

Many were very unpleasant.

I think of other people who won't do it.

Some people pay other people to do it for them.

Some people refuse to do it.

If you take that road, you miss out on a lot of the lessons of foot washing, the lessons of Christ's sacrifice, the lessons of what Christianity is about.

Christ does not recognize the hero when he died.

He's certainly the world's greatest hero forever.

He died alone, even as disciples left him.

He died without dignity on the cross.

I tried to give dignity to her father as I took care of him. I tried to cover over any mess he would make so he wouldn't see it, because he saw it. He'd feel bad about himself, because he couldn't control everything.

When I'd go down to the lower patio and have him hold the hose, while I washed the thing, let him hose off things and water plants from his wheelchair, and he could do it in his right hand to make him feel part of it.

Because we're all in the same boat, because we all could be in that position.

But you need to try to give dignity and make sure that we don't make Christ's sacrifice in vain.

That we do the unpleasant things, the things that are difficult, and some of the things that even seem impossible, because we've got all things are possible.

You have to see things as an honor and not a punishment, for the chance to learn what sacrifice is really about.

We don't know where we'll be. Our spiritual warfare is a little bit at a time.

It's difficult, no question.

But you need to make other people understand, give them dignity, make them look good.

I was surprised and honored. Never thought I would get some of the honors I've gotten. But just when Mr. Armstrong died, the letters that came to me from other leaders that knew him, that knew that it would be a difficult situation for me and for my wife. But the fact that they wrote down little things that they saw us do for him, that they said, we don't find people like that very much.

We noticed when you opened the door for him, it wasn't a matter if he's an old man and can't see and stuff, and, oh, yeah, let me help you right in front of him. That you would walk far enough ahead, it was like a Marine honor guard opening the door for a general.

And then when I worked with the King of Thailand, we'd play a password game that they would ask the question. And if he didn't understand, I would note it and answer the question in a way that he would understand. Because the King couldn't talk loud, and why you can't talk loud, the people that are deaf is beyond me, but certain protocols. And so if they'd ask him a question, I would… and I couldn't look at Mr. Armstrong, and I couldn't yell the question. That would be embarrassing and wrong, too. And so I would just start answering the King and say, your majesty, Mr. Armstrong, is… and I would build the question into my response.

Because without the accident, he could understand me. And then I would back away, and he said, we'd notice that you would just say, just enough that he would understand the question, and he would take on. In one case, he even wrote and asked if I might be interested in training some of their staff. Because, like, you don't realize that people know this stuff. I guess people in office, I mean, God certainly says that Jesus knows exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it. But people that are the rules of this world, because they have so many people playing up to him all the time, that when you do the little things that you think no one's noticing, they notice it. How many of the little things that you do, the socks you give, the kind words, are noticed by God, even if no one else knows? That's what happens. It's not about trying to look good for yourself. It's about trying to make things work, to the benefit of all, to make your boss look good. In our case, spiritually, Jesus Christ, our Lord and God the Father.

As we do those things, it's an honor. It's difficult. And, of course, Pentecost is coming up, and God gives us his Spirit to be able to do that. Because it's really impossible to do the things that God, without the Spirit of God, understands. Oh, you can do service off the tree of knowledge of good and evil. You can be very, very good, but you can also have evil mixed with it. The tree of life, everything is done there from unselfishness. Everything done there is done from the point of view of righteousness. Everything there doesn't have self-motivation tied to it.

But he's given us in 1 Timothy 1.7. He talks about the Spirit of power, not of fear, but of a sound mind. That's what his Spirit gives us, of the sound mind.

It helps us to know that God will be there. And even though you're surrounded by the army, they're bigger than we are. The hosts of heaven are out there helping you. And you see them in your eye, and you know they're there.

Because each of us have our normanies, for we are dropped, for we don't know what we're going to land in, what the cards are going to be done to us. We all have our care in hands, where we charge the enemy without physical bullets. We got a Bible, and we have God in Christ. That's all we have.

We all have those moments. We all have our market gardens. Perhaps for someone else's courage, taking a grenade or setting an example, gives you the courage to go on.

And we all have our best stones, where it seems like we're alone with the enemy, and the elements are against us. And perhaps all we have is a pair of socks to help us save our toes, save our lives.

Difficult. We have that in our Bibles, to comfort us, the Word of God.

And we all have our sleepwalking at Woodmills, where we don't know which way to go.

We have to rely on God in Christ to help us. Things that we need to overcome, so we don't walk into things that put us between the enemy and God. It's difficult. We can, and we do help each other. And maybe no one but you and God in Christ know the wars you fought. But He's the only one that needs to know. He's the only one that counts. Live or die, you can win. We can help each other. And when we ask God, why me? As Paul wrote, when he said, not you, he says, I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. In Christ, he said, I only do the will of my Father. We can help each other, no question. Philippians 4.9, when Paul writes, those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you. We have a God of peace, even in times of war or sacrifice or difficulty. That peace and that joy that Christ gave us is knowing the truth, knowing the end of the story, knowing the first resurrection is our resurrection. And being able to help others and serve is what we're about. It means a lot to us.

There's only one way that you can get in the book, and it has to be written in the book.

And that is to trust God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind.

Always remember that you can't do it alone. You really can't do it alone. When Pentecost came around, they had God's Spirit. They were motivated, and God helped them do it as He helps you and He helps me. And you have to really trust God. I mean, really, really trust God. And always remember what Paul said in Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

It's the only way to win the war. We are spiritual soldiers. We signed up, and we might have been bright-eyed and mushy-tailed, and we signed up. We may not have known, but God is with you.

And you can win that war, and you will be written in His book.