On Azimuth

  28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:28-29 English Standard Version                As a new lieutenant, I caught an unusual assignment. I reported to the 327 th Signal Company, headquartered in Kaiserslautern, Germany. This was during the “Cold War.” The 327 th Signal Company was part of the Defense Communications System, a communications network that stretched across the globe, providing secure voice and data from the White House to deployed field commanders. It was a heady assignment full of technical challenges, for which I was manifestly unprepared. But that is the way of the Army, they assign officers as they see fit, expecting them to adapt to challenging circumstances and learn quickly. After serving a couple of years as a platoon leader...

  22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:22-24 English Standard Version I fumed, unable to say a word as my Battalion Commander and CSM (command sergeant major) returned to their HMMWV and drove off in a cloud of dust. It was 1996 at Fort Cavasos (then Fort Hood) and I was a captain and company commander. LTC (Lieutenant Colonel) Winthrop had replaced LTC Reynolds radically changing my life. LTC Reynolds had been quite pleased with my performance as Company Commander, remarking to the Operations Officer that it was nice to have an HHC Commander with a pair of balls. LTC Reynolds allowed me to try new things as a commander without penalty when they did not work as pl...

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14-15 English Standard Version                When I first deployed to Iraq, I thought my enemy would come at me with IEDs, RPGs, and mortars, and they did. But I also found that there was an enemy within that sought my failure and the destruction of my career. They were assigned as an excess officer to the division and connived to subvert me at every opportunity. Our chief of staff, susceptible to their machinations, soon developed an antagonistic attitude towards me savaging me publicly at every opportunity. Eventually, I sought relief and refuge outside the Forward Operating Base (FOB) as often as I could. Fortunately for me, I transferred to another unit when the division redeployed, and my career survived th...

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:28 English Standard Version I grew up in the age of paper porn. We either had an uncle or older brother with a questionable subscription, or we had to summon the courage to go into a convenience store to purchase one, hoping that the clerk did not care about the laws regarding age…or that they were not a woman. That alone kept most of us from imbibing in large amounts of porn. Then came the internet and things changed. Suddenly porn became something accessed from the privacy of your own dark bedroom. Many of us, self-included, fell into a deep dark depraved “pornnado.” We whiled away hours degrading ourselves and our ability to engage in Godly sex, and all in relative anonymity with no monetary cost. Sadly, the cost comes in marital relationships bereft of one of God’s greatest gifts, true intimacy. Here are some thoughts regarding the effects of por...

  Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. II Timothy 2:15 English Standard Version                I sighed as I scanned my email inbox. I recognized the name on one of the messages and knew without reading what the author, a helicopter parent, had said. I was teaching a dual-credit English Literature class and had just posted the grades for a major paper. Their student, a young lady with serious struggles, had begged to be allowed into the class. I had said no, which ignited an extended back and forth, ultimately landing on the desk of the principal. Eventually with misgivings, I relented. I should have insisted. The student struggled from the first day. They seriously underestimated the amount of work the course required. There was an extensive reading requirement, many short essays, and several long papers to compose....

  16 These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; 17 do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.” Zechariah 8:16-17 English Standard Version                Sergeant Montgomery sat across from me looking downcast and dejected. He and I knew that his promising career as a soldier was coming to an abrupt and ignominious end. He was not overweight. He’d not been passed over for promotion. He was not guilty of driving while intoxicated, or any of the other common career ending infractions. He was guilty of one of the oldest human failures, that of engaging in an extramarital affair and then lying about it to cover it up. I was a lieutenant and his platoon leader. I’d found out about his indiscretion and asked him about it. He’d lied, denyi...

  1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 Revised Standard Version                We live on a dirt road in a home surrounded by forest. While I’m not sure exactly where it begins, our home is quite close to the Lincoln National Forest. A short hike down an abandoned forest road brings you into the national forest. While we are not “off the grid,” I enjoy living surrounded by nature. This morning I watched a small herd of elk meander across our yard, foraging in the snow, as they went. Elk are impressive large creatures. While I cannot be s...

  3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. I John 5:3 English Standard Version                “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I wish I was back in Russia,” yelled my youngest son fists clenched at his sides, eyes wild and staring at me defiantly.                I was not surprised by his outburst. I’d expected it. We’d adopted him from far eastern Russia, on the Sino-Russian border. He was four and a half when we adopted him. I’d always wondered what adoption was like for him. We swooped in and met him one day, went to court, came back the next, and whisked him away to an entirely new life. No one asked him if he wanted to go. Everyone assumed that belonging to a family was better than life as an orphan in a Russian institution; but, the change must have been radically ...