WAR 1941, 2001, 2025

Twenty four years ago today, a band of radical Islamic jihadists made the most devastating attack on American soil in nearly sixty years. The death toll was 2,977 souls. That previous attack was perpetrated by Emperor Hirohito and his bloodthirsty Japanese Navy on December 7, 1941. That day, while Japanese emissaries were in Washington, D.C. making "peace negotiations,” aircraft launched from Japanese carrier ships attacked primarily the U.S. military facilities around Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands, and 2,403 perished. The result was that the United States entered the war in the Pacific theater of World War II, ultimately defeating the Japanese war machine, but not without the loss of countless more lives on both sides. 

We remember these horrifying days in history, because, well, they were horrifying, and they led to more war. On September 11, 2001, there was more than the usual unrest in the Middle East. Saddam Hussein, supreme leader of Iraq, having already murdered many of his own citizens, was reportedly threatening to unleash weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in his pursuit of Islamic jihad. Whether that was actually true seems to be a point of conjecture at this late date. Nevertheless, coupled with the attack on our homeland, it was enough that President George W. Bush sent troops into Iraq, a year and a half later. In both of these wars, the U.S. troops were part of a coalition of nations who participated. And in both wars many precious lives were lost. 

Yesterday, September 10, 2025, another horrific death was perpetrated on American soil. It was, in fact, an assassination. Thirty-one year old Charlie Kirk, a husband and father, a conservative activist and Christian apologist, was shot dead by an as yet unidentified sniper, while he was speaking at a public gathering on the campus of Utah Valley University, in Orem. Details are unclear, but apparently he was hit by one bullet to the neck and apparently bled out rather quickly. Although he was taken quickly to hospital, the blood loss was too rapid and too massive to be stopped before Charlie succumbed. 

Charlie Kirk was one of God’s warriors, not in the sense of taking up arms, but in the sense of fighting for the truth. He was apparently a gentle man with a sharp mind and an inquisitive spirit.  His following among young men and women, especially on college campuses, has been cited as a major factor in the re-election of conservatives to congress and the White House in 2024. Charlie’s approach was simple and compelling. He talked to people. His ministry, Turning Point USA, has a website here, and his personal website and podcast can be found here. 

At the rally yesterday, he was presenting his viewpoint and encouraging anyone and everyone to engage with him in conversation. “Prove Me Wrong” was reportedly printed on the canopy over the podium where he spoke.  He was not primarily interested in talking to people who think like he did; he, like Jesus, came to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37). Also like his Lord and Savior, Charlie met people where they live, so to speak.  He had no fear of debating with people of vastly different points of view.  Jesus told his disciples, "When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.” (Matthew 10:19) Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit bringing to their remembrance all that Jesus had taught them. (John 14:26) I believe that Charlie lived by that world view.  

We soldiers of the cross need to be obedient to our Commander in Chief, but like Charlie James Kirk we also need to trust that when He gives us a task, He will also prepare us for that task. How will the Holy Spirit bring to your remembrance what Jesus has taught you, unless you are conversant with His words as recorded in Scripture?  The Psalmist wrote, "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:11) That’s not a bad idea. Scripture memory is a powerful tool, when we engage in conversation about our Lord. But in order to meet people "where they live” we need to know where they live. I’m not talking about knocking on doors, here. Rather we need to understand the ideas that permeate our culture. Many of them are untrue, but we need to understand them, so like Charlie, we can show people the truth in a winsome but compelling way. 

There can be no doubt that the world is in the throes of a spiritual war. It always has been, since Adam ate that forbidden fruit. For that reason, the Lord has recruited a kind of army, His church. He has charged us with doing what is necessary to rescue our fellow men who have fallen captive to our enemy, Satan. I pray that Charlie Kirk’s legacy will be that more of us stand up and fight in that spiritual war. The answers to America’s problems do not lie in Washington, D.C.  They lie in the pages of Scripture. So, troops, let’s gird up our loins, put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20) and step up.  If not you and I, who will take the Lord’s truth to the captives? 

In the meantime, I encourage you to pray for the loved ones left behind by the horrors of war, spiritual or otherwise. We remember the heroes of Pearl Harbor. We remember the heroes of the World Trade Center. Let us remember another hero, Charlie Kirk, a remarkable man who gave his life in the pursuit of truth. And let us pray for those left behind in these and other battles. Their loss is heartbreaking. 

Thank God for leukemia

My history as a disciple of Christ is long and not very pretty. I was saved in high school at a meeting of Young Life Campaign. I was fifteen at the time. My family had never been inclined toward attending church. In fact, my dad, who was raised by an authoritarian father in the Methodist church, had declared his intention never to set foot in a church again, after his father divorced his mother and ran off with his secretary, who was twenty years his junior. My mom had been raised in the Episcopal church and was much more inclined toward her faith tradition, but in deference to her husband (see Ephesians 5:33b) she didn’t press the issue of church attendance. Occasionally, my brother and I were sent to church with some neighbors, because, I think, mom felt guilty about not providing us with spiritual training. Charlie and I didn’t enjoy that experience. 

When I was a sophomore in high school, there was a very popular freshman who invited me to a Young Life meeting at his home. I attended mainly because I knew the “cool” kids went to Young Life. To my surprise I found myself deeply moved by seeing kids I admired responding positively to the gospel message. I continued attending weekly throughout the rest of my high school career. One weekend in my senior year, I attended a Young Life retreat at the beach and surrendered to Christ. 

Surrender might be too strong a word. I decided to call myself a Christian, but I really didn’t have much of an idea of what I was getting into. Even after that retreat I didn’t feel compelled to attend church services, although I was a faithful Young Lifer. When I started college at an Ivy League university, I clung to my faith primarily as a buffer against the culture shock that hit me like a tidal wave, when I moved from little old Portland, Oregon, where I had been a top high school student and student council leader, to New Haven, Connecticut, where I rubbed elbows with people like William Howard Taft IV and Rock Brynner, son of actor Yul Brynner, not to mention scores of prep school graduates. 

My closest friend at Yale was a kid from Everett, Washington who also was a Christian and a public school grad. We attended church at Battell chapel on the campus. The pastor was William Sloane Coffin, who was deeply involved in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. My recollection is that most of his sermons were about getting involved in activism, rather than building up the congregation in the faith. Bob and I both resigned from Yale at the end of the first semester. 

Because I had been lauded by faculty and parents as a “leader” in high school, and I suppose, in part, because of Coffin’s emphasis, I began to fancy myself a little bit of a leader in my Christian life, too. I transferred from Yale to the University of Oregon, where I got involved in Young Life leadership. By my senior year I was, at age 20, the club leader of the South Eugene High School Young Life club. I lived in a boarding house, fondly known as “the Home,” which was run by a couple who headed up the local Young Life board. All of the residents, four men and three women, in addition to Mr. and Mrs. Green and their daughter Wendy, were Christians. It was a wonderful environment in which to grow my faith. 

Eventually, at the behest of Mrs. Green, most of the residents began attending an Assembly of God church that was headed up by a brother and sister team who billed themselves as Lead Pastor and Associate Pastor respectively. I was baffled by the charismatic nature of the Pentecostal church. The speaking in tongues, the dancing in the aisles and all was a little much for my rudimentary understanding of Christian doctrine. The Lead Pastor seemed to me to be taking advantage of the mostly blue collar and farm community congregation, and getting rich in the process. When Mrs. Green and the Associate Pastor ran off together to evangelize the world, leaving Mr. Green and his teenage daughter behind, I was devastated. I had no idea that Christians would act that way. 

No one was to blame except me, but at that point I began to have serious doubts about my faith, and by the time I graduated and headed off to dental school, I had rejected my faith. At that point I began to run away from God and kept running for about thirty years. In fact, debauchery became my lifestyle to the extent that it destroyed my marriage, shortly after my first wife and I adopted a son. 

Patrick was about 14 when he came home from school one day and asked if he could go to the local church with a friend to play basketball. I said that would be fine, as long as he had his homework finished and was home at whatever time I specified.  The basketball games became a weekly ritual, and then I learned that, in addition, Patrick was attending a youth service after the basketball games. Later that year, he wanted to go to a youth retreat called Winter Youth that was sponsored by a number of churches in the state. He had a good time, and then began to attend the church youth group on Sundays. 

The following year he went to Winter Youth again, and shortly thereafter, he invited me to come and see him be baptized. Of course, I went to see this important rite of the church, not realizing that part of God’s plan was to draw me back to Himself. When Patrick emerged from the water after the baptism, the look on his face was one of total elation. He was almost aglow. I have always thought that was a little taste of what it was like when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with his face aglow. (Exodus 34:29)

At that point, God had me back. I spent the afternoon repenting, weeping and worshiping God. I found it easy to take up my faith walk again and was surprised by how much of Scripture I could remember. A few weeks later, God brought Jill into my life, telling me that we were to be married in order to minister together to strengthen families. Jill also heard from the Lord during our courtship. When she was finishing  her evening prayers one night, as she crawled into bed, she tells me that God told her, “You will get closer to Me [God] by marrying him [meaning me].”  

Once again I found myself in a leadership role, first as husband and later when we found ourselves involved in premarital counseling ministry. I’m afraid part of my motivation may have been that a leadership role was comfortable for me, and that it made me feel important.  Of course, that is a very dangerous mindset for a Christian. 

Jill and I ministered to families for many years, and we even started a marriage mentoring ministry in one church where we were members. Along the way, God taught us more about our marriage and about grace and humility than we taught any of our charges. That ministry eventually led me to a ministry to men who struggle with unwanted sexual behaviors. The men I met there taught me more about grace than any other human interactions I have ever had, with the possible exception of being married to Jill. 

When the pandemic came along, opportunities for ministry kind of dried up due to quarantine and the state’s closing of churches. And then about the time the pandemic was easing, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). That’s when I totally surrendered to Christ. I had no choice. I was powerless before this killer disease. 

When I did surrender, I finally was able to allow God to teach me to truly trust Him. A four year battle ensued, between me, the medical team, and the chemotherapy on one side and AML on the other. Of course, as we went along, I learned that God was carrying me in the palm of His hand. Most of the horrible things I was told to expect, fevers, nausea, vomiting, infections, hospitalizations, never happened. I’m not saying it was fun or easy, but it was obvious that God was in charge. Philippians 4:4-7 became my lifeline:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness[d]be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Throughout the whole battle, which culminated in my receiving a Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) on May 8, 2024, I experienced the most amazing sense of joy along with the peace that passes all understanding. Along the way, I also learned first hand James 4:2-4:

2 Count it all joy, my brothers,[b] when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

It really is true. In total surrender to Christ, there is unfathomable power and freedom, even in the face of devastating illness. 

Would I have chosen AML as a discipling tool? Not likely. Was it a walk in the park going through three and a half years of chemotherapy and a year of recovery from BMT? Not at all. But the other side of that coin is all of the wonderful Christian medical personnel I met. Not only that, but I was able to minister from my hospital bed to unbelievers who not only attended to me, but some of them would drop by just to chat with me and Jill. We were able to share the love of Christ without preaching or proselytizing. We simply lived out our faith and watched God do amazing things in people’s lives. 

While I was engaged in battle, I reconnected with an acquaintance from dental school who was also battling AML.  Brian was a believer, and together we shared many faith building conversations. God had different plans for Brian, whom He took home to be with Him for eternity last October. But I think Brian experienced the peace and the joy that God gave me. He was rooting for me to make full recovery from BMT, even as his medical team told him that they had nothing more to offer him except palliative care. I can remember three different occasions when Brian called essentially to say goodbye, because he thought he was at the end of his journey. But God sustained him a bit longer each time, maybe so he could see God’s miraculous work of curing me. It was shortly after I was clearly having a recovery that mirrored the uneventful treatments I had had prior to my BMT that, I like to think, the Lord told Brian, “I have some more stuff for Tom to do here, but I am bringing you home to be with Me.” 

Brian told me shortly before he went home that he had total peace and that he was very happy for me, because I was making an amazing recovery. 

Surrender. That’s not a word that soldiers take lightly. But for you, sergeant, surrender not to the enemy but to the Commander In Chief, Jesus Christ, is the road to victory. Is there anything you are holding back from the Lord? Jesus said it. Repent and believe for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Mark 1:14-16)

Keeping a civil tongue

 When my wife Jill and I had been married only a year or so, we were invited to become involved in a premarital counseling ministry at our church. Since we both had a background of divorce, we were frankly quite perplexed by this turn of events. What could we possibly have to offer to young people in love and planning to marry? After all, we had both had failed marriages. As the result of long discussions and a good deal of prayer, we decided to accept the invitation to attend a meeting of the premarital counseling ministry. 

Let me back up a bit. Although this invitation seemed to come out of the blue, in fact I believe it fit in with God’s plan for our young marriage. When Jill and I were courting, we both had some interesting encounters with God. During that time, the Lord impressed on me the message that He intended for me to marry Jill so that together we could minister to families for the purpose of strengthening marital and family bonds. This message resonated with both of us, since we had weathered the storm of marriages that ended in divorce, and we had seen our respective children grow up in the shadow of the uncertainty that is inherent in the lives of the children of divorced parents. 

During that same courting period, Jill told me that she had a message from the Lord in which He told her that she would “get closer to Me [God] through marriage to him [Tom].” Neither of us felt we had any detailed understanding of what these messages meant, but as we are told in the old hymn, we needed to 

Trust and obey, for there is no other way

To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. (source)

So, we attended a couple of ministry meetings, and then we agreed to undertake the training for the privilege of speaking into the lives of people who were interested in entering into the covenant of marriage. We met with a lot of couples. We attended a lot of weddings. Frankly, some of our most important interactions with couples manifested in their deciding NOT to marry. 

Eventually, I earned a masters degree in Biblical Counseling, and our ministry expanded to include counseling with married couples. Many of the couples we worked with were young and starry-eyed, and others were contemplating a second or even third marriage. Among the married couples we met, some just needed a little encouragement and advice. Others had very dark and discouraging histories including violence and betrayal. 

As you may imagine, the young starry-eyed couples were sometimes the most challenging, but others among them were the most uplifting and inspiring. They were the ones who were able to see past the stars in their eyes to the reality that marriage was more complex than simply saying, “I do,” and living happily ever after. 

Some of those young couples remain in our circle of close friends to this day. One of the husbands periodically challenges me with faith related questions or challenges. This morning, he texted me to say that he was challenged by some passages of Scripture. The first passage was Proverbs 13:3

Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life;
    he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.

At first glance, this passage seems to indicate that we should keep our big flapping mouths shut so we don’t come to ruin. But I think the meaning is more nuanced than that. God made us in His image, which means that we were designed to be communicators. Here is what I wrote in my reply to this young man. 

 My take on this one is that we need to be careful what we say and how we say it, not only for our own protection, but because of the damage we can do to others. James 3:5-9 - "How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,[a] and set on fire by hell.[b] 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God." Note verse 8: "no human can tame the tongue." Have you ever wished you could eat the words you just said? Once they are said, there is no undoing the damage of ungracious words. Our only hope to avoid such situations is a) abide in Christ and speak His words, and b) "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

I will address some more of the passages to which this thoughtful young man referred me in future posts. I guess my point today is that every soldier is trained in the proper use of his weapons, but that doesn’t mean that, in an unguarded moment, he can’t shoot himself in the foot. Now it is pretty normal when we injure, say, a finger to soothe it with our tongue. Perhaps, that is how we get the idiom about putting one’s foot in one’s mouth. Lock and load soldier, but keep the safety on until it is time to go into battle.