December 5, 2024 • 30 mins
We pray that every battle in your spiritual, personal, and physical life is won, as we follow Christ, who is our Commanding Officer in this field called LIFE. Whether you are here for spiritual encouragement, information on veteran benefits, PTSD, suicide prevention, or want to know the latest military news, we are here to serve you. Website: VeteransInChrist.net Email: VeteransInChrist@Mail.com Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/VeteransinChrist/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to all who have served, are serving, and will
serve in the armed services to the veterans. In Christ
Podcast with your host, doctor and Navy veteran k l Rich,
we pray that every battle in your spiritual, personal, and
physical life is one as we follow Christ, who is
our commanding officer.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
In this field called life.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Whether you are here for spiritual encouragement, information on veteran benefits, PTSD,
suicide prevention, or want to know the latest military news,
we are.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Here to serve you.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Now Here is your host, doctor k l Rich.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Hi, and thanks for tuning in today. This is doctor
ko Rich and I am your host for today and
your Navy veteran, and I pray that you all are tremendously,
tremendously blessed. How you are doing today, you know what?
I pray that you are having just a blessed day
(01:02):
in the Lord and that the rest of this week
will continue to be blessed for you as well. One
of the things we do here is we honor your
service to the nation, telling you of God's love and salvation,
give you information that you can use. Rather a veteran,
active duty reservist, first responder, or family member of someone
(01:24):
wearing dress whites, greens, or blues. And if this is you,
then thank you for tuning in and welcome to today's podcast.
Now I want you to do one more thing. Just
share this with someone. If you have tuned in and
you have been blessed by what you have been hearing,
and this may be your first time, and if you have,
(01:47):
if you are blessed by what you hear today, then
please take a moment to share that with your fellow veteran, comrade,
family member of someone that you may be serving, or
you may know someone that's in the service, and please
share this podcast with them. Well, today's not going to
(02:08):
be a long podcast. I have to mean, I'm very tired.
I did not get a lot of sleep. I didn't
get any sleep last night. I don't know what was
going on, just totally woke. I don't know if it
was a coffee or what could have been a coffee.
But anyway, this is gonna be a brief podcast today.
(02:28):
And speaking of brief, I normally have my podcast about
forty minutes long, but today is gonna be a little brief.
But even so, it's still going to be a powerful podcast.
And before we go into Today's word, and we're gonna
talk about love. And because we're in the holiday season
right now, there are so many ways to share love.
(02:52):
But love is not just for Christmas or just for Thanksgiving,
on New Year's or Birthday. As veterans in christ to
sure love with everyone, and if your active duty, you're
giving your service to our country. But we also want
to just go just a little stup beyond and show
(03:14):
love to everyone. And one of the ways that we
can show love to people is by keeping them in
our prayers. As always say, prayer is the best weapon
that we have against the enemy. And just as when
you go out to battle, for those who may have
been in the service, and you may have been stationed
(03:37):
in Iraq or Iran or I'm not Iran, but Iraq
or Afghanistan or other or some that may have served
in what was it my mind is feeling me right now,
But you may have for those who were served in
World War two or THURSDAYNY veterans left from World War
two or Vietnam era. You know what I'm talking about.
(03:59):
You can't go out to battle and think you're gonna
win without being appropriately dressed and appropriately having the appropriate
weapons to use. So prayer is that weapon for us.
And then also it's our communication align with Christ. You know,
the Bible says that no one comes to the Father
(04:20):
but through Jesus, and we can always speak to Jesus
all times of day, any time of year, and He's
never closed. And so therefore, let us this morning, whatever
it is that you may be dealing with, whatever it
is you may be faced, and let us talk to
the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavening Father, God, Lord, we
(04:43):
just thank you God for allowing us to come before
your presence this morning. Lord. We thank you, Lord, that
you are so good to us. Lord. We thank you
for everything that you've done for us, everything that you've
been to us. We thank you forgiving your life life
for us so that we may have life. We thank
(05:03):
you for giving the ultimate sacrifice. Lord. We thank you
that you didn't leave us to die in our sins,
but you took the debt that we owed, and you
took it for us. And we just thank you. Lord.
We thank you Lord for allowing us to be able
to serve our country. Lord, those of us who have served,
(05:23):
those of us who are serving, those of us who
may be family members of those who have or are serving, Lord,
we thank you for that privileged Lord. And Lord, we
ask that as we have served, or those who are
still serving, Lord, we ask Lord, that they would do
so in honor of you, Lord, and they would serve
(05:45):
one another as you came and served your father and
our father our Lord. Lord, we just thank you for
the ability to be able to show kindness to others,
to show love to others, and we ask Lord that
you will allow us to show your love that you
(06:06):
have for all of us. Lord, we asked it we
would be able to show that love to others, and
those who are not say that they will come into
the acknowledgement of who you are and they will see
you shining on the inside of us. Lord. We pray
for every veteran right now. Lord, we pray for their
family's Lord. We pray Lord for every active duty Lord.
(06:29):
We pray for every reservist. We pray for everyone, Lord
that's a friend or loved one of someone who is
or have served. Lord, we ask that you will cover
the family's Lord, cover the active duty personnel, the reserves
personnail Lord, the veteran's. Lord. We pray Lord that you
would help us. Lord that we will honor you as
(06:52):
we wore the honor the uniform, honorably Lord, either in
the present or the past. Lord. We just thank you
for all you're doing right now, Lord, and we ask
though that we would be ready for your soon return,
whenever that day is. No man knows today, no man
knows the hour, but we know that we are to
(07:12):
always be at a state of readiness. Lord, and we
just ask all these things. And your son's name, Jesus,
you're sure a humma shick, Thank God. Amen. Amen. Well,
I pray that you all again are having a blessed
and wonderful day. And as I mentioned, this is not
(07:34):
gonna be a Longe podcast today, but I want to
talk about love and loving one another and there are
ways that we can serve one another in love. And
we're gonna talk a little bit about things you can
do for those that are serving in the military, because
oftentimes you will have for many that are active duty
(07:58):
that's not able, they're not able to be home for
the holidays, and they're sacrificing being away from their family
so that so that we can have the freedoms. And
we all experienced that if you were ever in the military,
there were times when you weren't able to be home
(08:18):
for the holidays. I know there was times that I
spent away from home from family and everything because I
was serving, and I wasn't always able to be home
for Thanksgiving. But I thank God that when I was
in that I had people around that were family away
from family, and so I will always be grateful to
(08:42):
those that took me in as a young teen and
bless my heart while I was away from home. And
one thing we find in the Bible, you know, the
Word of God talks to us about love, about love,
and so today I want to go to First Corinthians thirteen,
(09:06):
First Corinthians, chapter thirteen, and because one thing we see
in the world today is there is a lack of love.
And it is our job as veterans in Christ. If
your active duty, you're one day maybe a veteran when
you leave the military, and you're still going to be
(09:27):
a servant of God, regardless of if your active duty
or not. And one thing that doesn't cost anything for
us to do is to show love. And so in
First Corinthians chapter thirteen, and I often use this text
even when counseling clients, and it says, If I speak
(09:48):
in the tongues of men or of angels, but do
not have love, I am only a resounding goung or
a clanking symbol. If I have to give prophecy, and
can phantom all the mysteries and all the knowledge, and
if I have a faith, they can move mountains, but
do not have love, I am nothing. If I give
(10:10):
all I possess to the poor, and give my body
to hardship, that I may boast, but do not have love,
I gain nothing. Love is patient, Love is kind. It
does not envy, It does not boast. It is not proud,
It does not dishonor others. It is not self seeking,
(10:33):
It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delighten evil, but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love
never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will seize.
Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. Where there
(10:57):
is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part,
and we prophesy in part. But when completeness comes, what
is in part disappears. When I was a child, I
talk like a child I thought. I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child. When I became a man,
I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now
(11:19):
we see only reflection, as in the mirror. Then we
shall see face to face. Now I know in part.
Then I shall know fully even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain faith, hope, and love. But
the greatest of these is love. And one thing the
(11:44):
apostle Paul. He was saying in this text that we
can give all we can to others of the poor,
the needy. We can do we can do great works,
because you have a lot of people that they will
gild to charitable organizations, and they would do good things
for the accolades of man. But if you truly don't
(12:06):
have love in your heart towards your fellow man, regardless
of all the good things you do, because some people
do the right thing for the wrong reason. So I
can give myself, and I can donate myself, and I
can I can volunteer, and I can do all these things.
(12:27):
But if I don't have love in my heart. How
many of you have seen people that were the uniform,
But there are some of the meanings people there are.
How is it that you were the uniform. And some
people have been abused, missedews by those very ones that
have been in uniform. How many of you have seen
(12:52):
people that claim to love God and they they show
anything but the love of God. And so this is
what Paul was saying here, is that you can do
all these great things. You can have the gift of prophecy,
where you can prophesy and tell people this and that,
and have all the knowledge in the world. You can
(13:14):
give your body over to be to suffer hardship. And
when we donate ourselves to the military, we signed that
dotted line, we say we're government property. That means I'm
giving myself to the government. But if you don't have love,
then all of that means nothing. And so I like
how Paul he breaks love down. And if you don't
(13:40):
know what love is, and I tell anyone, a couple
or anyone, if you really want to know, if you're
giving love and or receiving love, then all you have
to do is go to this chapter. Love is patient, kind,
does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, It
(14:00):
does not dishonor others. That means that when I'm serving
in the military. I want to serve honorably. I don't
want to come out with a dishonorable discharge because I'm
doing some things that are not honorable. It is not
self seeking. When you are serving, you want to make
(14:23):
sure that you're looking out for the welfare of the
team of your command, not just I. It's supposed to
be about helping others. Even when you're not serving, you've
put up the uniform, We're still to serve others right now.
I'm serving you right now because I'm trying to give
(14:45):
you a word of God that can help you to
be a service to others. As we all are to
serve one another, and most importantly, as we serve up,
we're serving God. Love does not delighting evil, but rejoices
(15:06):
in the truth. And there's a new allergen around, and
it's an allergen to the truth. But the Bible lets
us know that God, he is the spirit of truth.
It always protects, trust, hopes, and perseveres. That means that
(15:30):
when I love you, I'm gonna protect you. Not in
your wrong I'm gonna tell you that you're wrong, but
I'm gonna make sure that I'm not putting you in
Harm's way, You're gonna be If I love you, then
that means that I'm gonna earn your trust. You're gonna
be able to trust me. I'm gonna be hopeful for you.
(15:50):
I'm gonna persevere. That means that we Hey, we may
not always agree, but we're gonna learn to agree to disagree.
And that's something that many within the Body of Christ
do not do well, is agree to disagree. And Paul
he lets us know that, hey, love never fails. And
(16:14):
where prophecies will make one day sease, and tongues will
one day cease, and maybe words of knowledge and all
these things, the one thing that will remain is love.
You know, the Pharisees, they and there is spiritual leaders,
religious leaders during that time, they always tried to entrap
(16:37):
Jesus and they asked him, you know, which of the
commandments was the greatest. And so Jesus said, love God
and love one another. And when you do these too,
it encompasses all of the ten. Remember that when we
say we love God, we also must love one another.
(17:03):
And included in that forgiveness. I'm going to do a
podcast about forgiveness because you have so many people that's
carrying around grudges year after year, day after day. You
might be serving and you might be mad at your
commanding officer, or you might you might be mad at
your spouse, you might be mad at that coworker that
(17:26):
you're working alongside. But one thing we are always to
do is to forgive, no matter what the person has done.
It doesn't. See sometimes people feel like if I forgive,
then it gives a green light for them to continue
what they did wrong. But no, it doesn't. It frees
you and liberates you because what's important is having that
(17:53):
one on one relationship with God. And then it also
if you're able to help that person to know they're forgiven,
it lets them know the grace and the mercy of God.
God's grace and giving us what we don't deserve and
his mercy and not giving us the punishment that we
(18:16):
all deserve. We're going to take a quick break and
we're going to have some curls of some Christmas singing
from different military personnel and we'll be back in just
a moments. In each and they teas the sound cat answers.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Very many, very man.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I'm gonna girl, sweet silver bells. Awesome to see tres.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Christmas is here bringing good cheer. Top don't don't the hands,
there's some terrible all sisters of the chief everywhere the
country sing the sound all the time, because very well
(19:43):
the say songs on the chair christis.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Very very Christmas, very very merry Christmas.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Park has a bell, sweet silver bells all seem to
say thrown has away.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Christmas is here bringing the chair to young adult me
and the ball Dan Dunking Dong band is a song
mirture from green bark he rending one seems to hear
word of a cheer from.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Everywhere, feeling the air all the.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Pound, raising the sound orgulan telling the tring wild people
singing songs of the cheer.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Christmas this year very very every very very merry Christmas.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
The saucy to say it bodcas away Christmas is here
bringing a jew too young and old men. The bullding
County Tom Pound is a song with trickling or carolly.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Once everywhere.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Songs Christmas is very very very Christmas, very very very
very Christmas.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
Seem to say, brows away Christmas is here, bringing the
jew to young and old and the whole thing and
be going do It's the song danger for me longing
wants to hear words of good cheer from everywhere, feeling
about praising the song.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Of gay every Why you're.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Seeing songs of good year Christmas is very day every day?
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Don't the song.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
Once to hear one of the cheer from everywhere? While
people singing songs of the cher Christmas is.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Time not.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Without every pole. Oh and that is from the PBS
News Hour. Military musicians sing curl of the bells, and
(22:27):
that was a variety of different branches and Marines, Navy,
and I believe the Air Force if I if I
saw the uniform right. Anyway, we're going to just talk
just a few minutes about some things that you can
(22:48):
do for the holidays for your servicemen and women. Now,
as you all know that many people are deployed, so
it can often be bittersweet being away from you know
once uh, their loved ones. And there's things that you
can do to brighten up someone's life and their heart
(23:10):
during this season. Now, if you want to help veterans,
there are so many different veteran organizations that you can
call contact go online. We don't have time to go
through all that today, but go online and you can do, uh,
maybe call the local VA hospital and see if you're
(23:33):
able to bring cards. And you need to call ahead
of time because what was it, I think it was
a year or two ago. There was something about, uh,
someone was trying to do something for us, helping, you know,
just bringing a smile to veteran faces, and it was
dealing with them bringing in Christian Christmas cards and there
(23:54):
was an issue. So call ahead of time, see what
the rules and regulations are are so that you won't
be caught up in a lot of times the anti
Christian spirit that's floating around in this nation right now.
So another thing you can do is you can send
(24:17):
a card or a care package to, uh, maybe the
family member of a service person if you know who
they are. Now you have to get you have to
actually if you're sending a care package to someone, you
have to actually know the person to whom you're sending
it with. That means that they have to have a
specific service number i'm sorry, to a specific service member.
(24:42):
So you can't just send it in general. From what
I have research, you have to actually have someone's name
attached to that particular care package and you have to
see if you're allowed to do so. So if they're overseas,
there's a lot of security that goes on with that.
So again, you wanna talk to uh someone that's UH.
(25:06):
If you know someone that is stationed overseas, then ask
that family member or if you're able to email that
person and write them and see if you're able to
send certain things and if so, what you are allowed
to do.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
UH.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Another thing, if you don't know anyone that's in the military,
or you do if you're listening to this podcast, you
probably know someone that's in the military, so UH. But
for those who may be just tuning in, you can
also if you're at a local church, most you know,
mostly all churches have someone that's either a veteran or
someone that's active duty and they may know someone and
(25:46):
so therefore you can ask for their information if they're
able to give it out and and find out what
they're allowed to have. Even if it's just a card
or or a l a letter or email, you can
send an online message to them find out their email
address if they're able to give that out. Another way
(26:08):
that you can show love, and this is not just
at this time of year, but throughout the year. But
if you're wanting to do something around this time of year,
help out a military family. Oftentimes you you have those
that are stationed overseas and so again they're not able
to be with their families. So do something for that
(26:31):
person that that may be taking care of the children
while their spouse is away overseas or whatever. And if
you're if you're able to cut their grass, then maybe
go cut their grass. A lot of single uh single
mothers have husbands that's overseas and so therefore they might
(26:53):
need some things fixed around the house, cut the grass.
The children might, you know, need some things even if
the child is present the play at school and their
father is not able or their mom is not able
to be present, or how great is it if people
come in and rally around that child and say, you
(27:14):
know what, your parent might be serving, but we're here
to fill in and step in and support you. That
that's something memorable that that child will always take the
heart and the parent or the garden, whoever is overseeing
that child while that parent is away. If it's a
(27:36):
even if it's a man and his wife is serving,
and he's taking care of the children while his wife
is serving, then guess what you know. You sometimes can
maybe see if it's okay to cook a dish, or
you know, maybe take the children for maybe a piece
of outing or something like that, if you know if
(27:56):
that's permitted by that parent, or just find out from
that parent. What can I do to help you while
your spouse is a way? Is there anything that you need,
anything that we can do, anything to help live your burden?
There are a lot of places that you can volunteer.
(28:17):
We're talking about showing love, and there are a lot
of places that you can volunteer doing over the holidays.
Veterans that you know sometime alone and they don't have
anyone to help them, or go to a veteran nursing
home where you have a lot of vets and they
may not have someone to visit them, or whatever. You
(28:39):
can maybe even make something. If you're a crafty person
you're gifted with making. It can be anything rather it's
knitting or maybe doing something with wood or whatever the
case may be. There are so many ways to help.
I'm not able to go through every single thing, but
(29:00):
what's most importantly to take from today is there are
so many ways to show love. And as we show
love to others. We're also showing that we love God.
All right, Well, we're out of here today, and I
pray that you uh have been blessed by today's podcast
(29:25):
and that regardless of the season, we're to always show
love to others. Rather your active duty veteran or first responder,
or the family member of either of the groups. One
of the groups, show love, show Jesus lives on the
(29:47):
inside of you. God bless This is doctor ko Rich.
I'm your Navy veteran until next time.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Thanks for too coming into Veterans in Christ. We pray
that you found today's podcast informative and we look forward
to being with you again during the next podcast.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
May the Lord bless and keep you going out and
coming in.
Welcome to all who have served, are serving, and will
serve in the armed services to the veterans. In Christ
Podcast with your host, doctor and Navy veteran k l Rich,
we pray that every battle in your spiritual, personal, and
physical life is one as we follow Christ, who is
our commanding officer.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
In this field called life.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Whether you are here for spiritual encouragement, information on veteran benefits, PTSD,
suicide prevention, or want to know the latest military news,
we are.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Here to serve you.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Now Here is your host, doctor k l Rich.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Hi, and thanks for tuning in today. This is doctor
ko Rich and I am your host for today and
your Navy veteran, and I pray that you all are tremendously,
tremendously blessed. How you are doing today, you know what?
I pray that you are having just a blessed day
(01:02):
in the Lord and that the rest of this week
will continue to be blessed for you as well. One
of the things we do here is we honor your
service to the nation, telling you of God's love and salvation,
give you information that you can use. Rather a veteran,
active duty reservist, first responder, or family member of someone
(01:24):
wearing dress whites, greens, or blues. And if this is you,
then thank you for tuning in and welcome to today's podcast.
Now I want you to do one more thing. Just
share this with someone. If you have tuned in and
you have been blessed by what you have been hearing,
and this may be your first time, and if you have,
(01:47):
if you are blessed by what you hear today, then
please take a moment to share that with your fellow veteran, comrade,
family member of someone that you may be serving, or
you may know someone that's in the service, and please
share this podcast with them. Well, today's not going to
(02:08):
be a long podcast. I have to mean, I'm very tired.
I did not get a lot of sleep. I didn't
get any sleep last night. I don't know what was
going on, just totally woke. I don't know if it
was a coffee or what could have been a coffee.
But anyway, this is gonna be a brief podcast today.
(02:28):
And speaking of brief, I normally have my podcast about
forty minutes long, but today is gonna be a little brief.
But even so, it's still going to be a powerful podcast.
And before we go into Today's word, and we're gonna
talk about love. And because we're in the holiday season
right now, there are so many ways to share love.
(02:52):
But love is not just for Christmas or just for Thanksgiving,
on New Year's or Birthday. As veterans in christ to
sure love with everyone, and if your active duty, you're
giving your service to our country. But we also want
to just go just a little stup beyond and show
(03:14):
love to everyone. And one of the ways that we
can show love to people is by keeping them in
our prayers. As always say, prayer is the best weapon
that we have against the enemy. And just as when
you go out to battle, for those who may have
been in the service, and you may have been stationed
(03:37):
in Iraq or Iran or I'm not Iran, but Iraq
or Afghanistan or other or some that may have served
in what was it my mind is feeling me right now,
But you may have for those who were served in
World War two or THURSDAYNY veterans left from World War
two or Vietnam era. You know what I'm talking about.
(03:59):
You can't go out to battle and think you're gonna
win without being appropriately dressed and appropriately having the appropriate
weapons to use. So prayer is that weapon for us.
And then also it's our communication align with Christ. You know,
the Bible says that no one comes to the Father
(04:20):
but through Jesus, and we can always speak to Jesus
all times of day, any time of year, and He's
never closed. And so therefore, let us this morning, whatever
it is that you may be dealing with, whatever it
is you may be faced, and let us talk to
the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavening Father, God, Lord, we
(04:43):
just thank you God for allowing us to come before
your presence this morning. Lord. We thank you, Lord, that
you are so good to us. Lord. We thank you
for everything that you've done for us, everything that you've
been to us. We thank you forgiving your life life
for us so that we may have life. We thank
(05:03):
you for giving the ultimate sacrifice. Lord. We thank you
that you didn't leave us to die in our sins,
but you took the debt that we owed, and you
took it for us. And we just thank you. Lord.
We thank you Lord for allowing us to be able
to serve our country. Lord, those of us who have served,
(05:23):
those of us who are serving, those of us who
may be family members of those who have or are serving, Lord,
we thank you for that privileged Lord. And Lord, we
ask that as we have served, or those who are
still serving, Lord, we ask Lord, that they would do
so in honor of you, Lord, and they would serve
(05:45):
one another as you came and served your father and
our father our Lord. Lord, we just thank you for
the ability to be able to show kindness to others,
to show love to others, and we ask Lord that
you will allow us to show your love that you
(06:06):
have for all of us. Lord, we asked it we
would be able to show that love to others, and
those who are not say that they will come into
the acknowledgement of who you are and they will see
you shining on the inside of us. Lord. We pray
for every veteran right now. Lord, we pray for their
family's Lord. We pray Lord for every active duty Lord.
(06:29):
We pray for every reservist. We pray for everyone, Lord
that's a friend or loved one of someone who is
or have served. Lord, we ask that you will cover
the family's Lord, cover the active duty personnel, the reserves
personnail Lord, the veteran's. Lord. We pray Lord that you
would help us. Lord that we will honor you as
(06:52):
we wore the honor the uniform, honorably Lord, either in
the present or the past. Lord. We just thank you
for all you're doing right now, Lord, and we ask
though that we would be ready for your soon return,
whenever that day is. No man knows today, no man
knows the hour, but we know that we are to
(07:12):
always be at a state of readiness. Lord, and we
just ask all these things. And your son's name, Jesus,
you're sure a humma shick, Thank God. Amen. Amen. Well,
I pray that you all again are having a blessed
and wonderful day. And as I mentioned, this is not
(07:34):
gonna be a Longe podcast today, but I want to
talk about love and loving one another and there are
ways that we can serve one another in love. And
we're gonna talk a little bit about things you can
do for those that are serving in the military, because
oftentimes you will have for many that are active duty
(07:58):
that's not able, they're not able to be home for
the holidays, and they're sacrificing being away from their family
so that so that we can have the freedoms. And
we all experienced that if you were ever in the military,
there were times when you weren't able to be home
(08:18):
for the holidays. I know there was times that I
spent away from home from family and everything because I
was serving, and I wasn't always able to be home
for Thanksgiving. But I thank God that when I was
in that I had people around that were family away
from family, and so I will always be grateful to
(08:42):
those that took me in as a young teen and
bless my heart while I was away from home. And
one thing we find in the Bible, you know, the
Word of God talks to us about love, about love,
and so today I want to go to First Corinthians thirteen,
(09:06):
First Corinthians, chapter thirteen, and because one thing we see
in the world today is there is a lack of love.
And it is our job as veterans in Christ. If
your active duty, you're one day maybe a veteran when
you leave the military, and you're still going to be
(09:27):
a servant of God, regardless of if your active duty
or not. And one thing that doesn't cost anything for
us to do is to show love. And so in
First Corinthians chapter thirteen, and I often use this text
even when counseling clients, and it says, If I speak
(09:48):
in the tongues of men or of angels, but do
not have love, I am only a resounding goung or
a clanking symbol. If I have to give prophecy, and
can phantom all the mysteries and all the knowledge, and
if I have a faith, they can move mountains, but
do not have love, I am nothing. If I give
(10:10):
all I possess to the poor, and give my body
to hardship, that I may boast, but do not have love,
I gain nothing. Love is patient, Love is kind. It
does not envy, It does not boast. It is not proud,
It does not dishonor others. It is not self seeking,
(10:33):
It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delighten evil, but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love
never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will seize.
Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. Where there
(10:57):
is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part,
and we prophesy in part. But when completeness comes, what
is in part disappears. When I was a child, I
talk like a child I thought. I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child. When I became a man,
I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now
(11:19):
we see only reflection, as in the mirror. Then we
shall see face to face. Now I know in part.
Then I shall know fully even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain faith, hope, and love. But
the greatest of these is love. And one thing the
(11:44):
apostle Paul. He was saying in this text that we
can give all we can to others of the poor,
the needy. We can do we can do great works,
because you have a lot of people that they will
gild to charitable organizations, and they would do good things
for the accolades of man. But if you truly don't
(12:06):
have love in your heart towards your fellow man, regardless
of all the good things you do, because some people
do the right thing for the wrong reason. So I
can give myself, and I can donate myself, and I
can I can volunteer, and I can do all these things.
(12:27):
But if I don't have love in my heart. How
many of you have seen people that were the uniform,
But there are some of the meanings people there are.
How is it that you were the uniform. And some
people have been abused, missedews by those very ones that
have been in uniform. How many of you have seen
(12:52):
people that claim to love God and they they show
anything but the love of God. And so this is
what Paul was saying here, is that you can do
all these great things. You can have the gift of prophecy,
where you can prophesy and tell people this and that,
and have all the knowledge in the world. You can
(13:14):
give your body over to be to suffer hardship. And
when we donate ourselves to the military, we signed that
dotted line, we say we're government property. That means I'm
giving myself to the government. But if you don't have love,
then all of that means nothing. And so I like
how Paul he breaks love down. And if you don't
(13:40):
know what love is, and I tell anyone, a couple
or anyone, if you really want to know, if you're
giving love and or receiving love, then all you have
to do is go to this chapter. Love is patient, kind,
does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, It
(14:00):
does not dishonor others. That means that when I'm serving
in the military. I want to serve honorably. I don't
want to come out with a dishonorable discharge because I'm
doing some things that are not honorable. It is not
self seeking. When you are serving, you want to make
(14:23):
sure that you're looking out for the welfare of the
team of your command, not just I. It's supposed to
be about helping others. Even when you're not serving, you've
put up the uniform, We're still to serve others right now.
I'm serving you right now because I'm trying to give
(14:45):
you a word of God that can help you to
be a service to others. As we all are to
serve one another, and most importantly, as we serve up,
we're serving God. Love does not delighting evil, but rejoices
(15:06):
in the truth. And there's a new allergen around, and
it's an allergen to the truth. But the Bible lets
us know that God, he is the spirit of truth.
It always protects, trust, hopes, and perseveres. That means that
(15:30):
when I love you, I'm gonna protect you. Not in
your wrong I'm gonna tell you that you're wrong, but
I'm gonna make sure that I'm not putting you in
Harm's way, You're gonna be If I love you, then
that means that I'm gonna earn your trust. You're gonna
be able to trust me. I'm gonna be hopeful for you.
(15:50):
I'm gonna persevere. That means that we Hey, we may
not always agree, but we're gonna learn to agree to disagree.
And that's something that many within the Body of Christ
do not do well, is agree to disagree. And Paul
he lets us know that, hey, love never fails. And
(16:14):
where prophecies will make one day sease, and tongues will
one day cease, and maybe words of knowledge and all
these things, the one thing that will remain is love.
You know, the Pharisees, they and there is spiritual leaders,
religious leaders during that time, they always tried to entrap
(16:37):
Jesus and they asked him, you know, which of the
commandments was the greatest. And so Jesus said, love God
and love one another. And when you do these too,
it encompasses all of the ten. Remember that when we
say we love God, we also must love one another.
(17:03):
And included in that forgiveness. I'm going to do a
podcast about forgiveness because you have so many people that's
carrying around grudges year after year, day after day. You
might be serving and you might be mad at your
commanding officer, or you might you might be mad at
your spouse, you might be mad at that coworker that
(17:26):
you're working alongside. But one thing we are always to
do is to forgive, no matter what the person has done.
It doesn't. See sometimes people feel like if I forgive,
then it gives a green light for them to continue
what they did wrong. But no, it doesn't. It frees
you and liberates you because what's important is having that
(17:53):
one on one relationship with God. And then it also
if you're able to help that person to know they're forgiven,
it lets them know the grace and the mercy of God.
God's grace and giving us what we don't deserve and
his mercy and not giving us the punishment that we
(18:16):
all deserve. We're going to take a quick break and
we're going to have some curls of some Christmas singing
from different military personnel and we'll be back in just
a moments. In each and they teas the sound cat answers.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Very many, very man.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I'm gonna girl, sweet silver bells. Awesome to see tres.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Christmas is here bringing good cheer. Top don't don't the hands,
there's some terrible all sisters of the chief everywhere the
country sing the sound all the time, because very well
(19:43):
the say songs on the chair christis.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Very very Christmas, very very merry Christmas.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Park has a bell, sweet silver bells all seem to
say thrown has away.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Christmas is here bringing the chair to young adult me
and the ball Dan Dunking Dong band is a song
mirture from green bark he rending one seems to hear
word of a cheer from.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Everywhere, feeling the air all the.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Pound, raising the sound orgulan telling the tring wild people
singing songs of the cheer.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Christmas this year very very every very very merry Christmas.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
The saucy to say it bodcas away Christmas is here
bringing a jew too young and old men. The bullding
County Tom Pound is a song with trickling or carolly.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Once everywhere.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Songs Christmas is very very very Christmas, very very very
very Christmas.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
Seem to say, brows away Christmas is here, bringing the
jew to young and old and the whole thing and
be going do It's the song danger for me longing
wants to hear words of good cheer from everywhere, feeling
about praising the song.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Of gay every Why you're.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Seeing songs of good year Christmas is very day every day?
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Don't the song.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
Once to hear one of the cheer from everywhere? While
people singing songs of the cher Christmas is.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Time not.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Without every pole. Oh and that is from the PBS
News Hour. Military musicians sing curl of the bells, and
(22:27):
that was a variety of different branches and Marines, Navy,
and I believe the Air Force if I if I
saw the uniform right. Anyway, we're going to just talk
just a few minutes about some things that you can
(22:48):
do for the holidays for your servicemen and women. Now,
as you all know that many people are deployed, so
it can often be bittersweet being away from you know
once uh, their loved ones. And there's things that you
can do to brighten up someone's life and their heart
(23:10):
during this season. Now, if you want to help veterans,
there are so many different veteran organizations that you can
call contact go online. We don't have time to go
through all that today, but go online and you can do, uh,
maybe call the local VA hospital and see if you're
(23:33):
able to bring cards. And you need to call ahead
of time because what was it, I think it was
a year or two ago. There was something about, uh,
someone was trying to do something for us, helping, you know,
just bringing a smile to veteran faces, and it was
dealing with them bringing in Christian Christmas cards and there
(23:54):
was an issue. So call ahead of time, see what
the rules and regulations are are so that you won't
be caught up in a lot of times the anti
Christian spirit that's floating around in this nation right now.
So another thing you can do is you can send
(24:17):
a card or a care package to, uh, maybe the
family member of a service person if you know who
they are. Now you have to get you have to
actually if you're sending a care package to someone, you
have to actually know the person to whom you're sending
it with. That means that they have to have a
specific service number i'm sorry, to a specific service member.
(24:42):
So you can't just send it in general. From what
I have research, you have to actually have someone's name
attached to that particular care package and you have to
see if you're allowed to do so. So if they're overseas,
there's a lot of security that goes on with that.
So again, you wanna talk to uh someone that's UH.
(25:06):
If you know someone that is stationed overseas, then ask
that family member or if you're able to email that
person and write them and see if you're able to
send certain things and if so, what you are allowed
to do.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
UH.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Another thing, if you don't know anyone that's in the military,
or you do if you're listening to this podcast, you
probably know someone that's in the military, so UH. But
for those who may be just tuning in, you can
also if you're at a local church, most you know,
mostly all churches have someone that's either a veteran or
someone that's active duty and they may know someone and
(25:46):
so therefore you can ask for their information if they're
able to give it out and and find out what
they're allowed to have. Even if it's just a card
or or a l a letter or email, you can
send an online message to them find out their email
address if they're able to give that out. Another way
(26:08):
that you can show love, and this is not just
at this time of year, but throughout the year. But
if you're wanting to do something around this time of year,
help out a military family. Oftentimes you you have those
that are stationed overseas and so again they're not able
to be with their families. So do something for that
(26:31):
person that that may be taking care of the children
while their spouse is away overseas or whatever. And if
you're if you're able to cut their grass, then maybe
go cut their grass. A lot of single uh single
mothers have husbands that's overseas and so therefore they might
(26:53):
need some things fixed around the house, cut the grass.
The children might, you know, need some things even if
the child is present the play at school and their
father is not able or their mom is not able
to be present, or how great is it if people
come in and rally around that child and say, you
(27:14):
know what, your parent might be serving, but we're here
to fill in and step in and support you. That
that's something memorable that that child will always take the
heart and the parent or the garden, whoever is overseeing
that child while that parent is away. If it's a
(27:36):
even if it's a man and his wife is serving,
and he's taking care of the children while his wife
is serving, then guess what you know. You sometimes can
maybe see if it's okay to cook a dish, or
you know, maybe take the children for maybe a piece
of outing or something like that, if you know if
(27:56):
that's permitted by that parent, or just find out from
that parent. What can I do to help you while
your spouse is a way? Is there anything that you need,
anything that we can do, anything to help live your burden?
There are a lot of places that you can volunteer.
(28:17):
We're talking about showing love, and there are a lot
of places that you can volunteer doing over the holidays.
Veterans that you know sometime alone and they don't have
anyone to help them, or go to a veteran nursing
home where you have a lot of vets and they
may not have someone to visit them, or whatever. You
(28:39):
can maybe even make something. If you're a crafty person
you're gifted with making. It can be anything rather it's
knitting or maybe doing something with wood or whatever the
case may be. There are so many ways to help.
I'm not able to go through every single thing, but
(29:00):
what's most importantly to take from today is there are
so many ways to show love. And as we show
love to others. We're also showing that we love God.
All right, Well, we're out of here today, and I
pray that you uh have been blessed by today's podcast
(29:25):
and that regardless of the season, we're to always show
love to others. Rather your active duty veteran or first responder,
or the family member of either of the groups. One
of the groups, show love, show Jesus lives on the
(29:47):
inside of you. God bless This is doctor ko Rich.
I'm your Navy veteran until next time.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Thanks for too coming into Veterans in Christ. We pray
that you found today's podcast informative and we look forward
to being with you again during the next podcast.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
May the Lord bless and keep you going out and
coming in.
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