Remember the Sacrifice

We could hear the sounds of the firefight from our company position. The sounds of M16s and the distinctive, kack, kack, kack of the AK47s. It was our 1st Platoon who had been on patrol that day. They had walked into a squad or platoon of NVA (no one was ever able to determine the size of the NVA unit). I was in 3rd Platoon and we were immediately told to get ready to go and support the 1st Platoon.

As we moved out, the firing had ceased and we continued to the position of the 1st Platoon and they were informed we were coming. We walked up to their position, where they had engaged the enemy, and right away we noticed a covered body on the ground. I asked who it was and someone told me, "It's Foster." I leaned down and pulled back the poncho which was covering his body and immediately recognized Mark Foster.

Mark Foster and I had gone through infantry training together at Camp Geiger ( a part of Camp Lejeune) and staging at Camp Pendleton. We arrived in Vietnam at the same time and were assigned to the same infantry company. He went to 1st Platoon and I went to 3rd. We knew each other but were never close friends but we didn't have to be. In Vietnam, we were all close in some way or another. I can still see Mark lying there on the ground covered with that poncho. I'll never forget that day or that sight.

That was on February 2 1970 and he and I had been in country about 7 months. After 7 months of seeing stuff like that, you almost became numb to it. I was saddened when I saw his body but then we moved on to take care of business. There was no time for mourning the dead or you might be next so we didn't dwell on it. But I will never forget the price Mark Foster paid while involved in that very unpopular war. He gave his life in that miserable place and I will continue to tell people about his sacrifice.

On November 13 1969, we were on a company size patrol in the Arizona Territory, in north central Vietnam. The patrol had been uneventful and we were ready to turn around and head back to our position. Then, we hard the sound that none of us wanted to hear; a booby trap had exploded and we knew someone was down. We were really ticked off because this patrol had gone so smooth and we were not that far from our next position (ticked because someone was hurt).

It was Baldwin from 2nd Platoon. He had tripped an M26 booby trap and was hurt really bad. We all thought he had died that day but he lasted until December 23 and he died as a result of the injuries from the booby trap. I knew Baldwin slightly and probably had spoke to him a few times. He would have stood out among us because he was 29 years old and we were all 18 and 19 years old. He would have been considered a 'pappy' to us youngsters. He left behind a 6 year old daughter and I can't imagine what that would be like to lose your father at that young age. Sanders Baldwin was a good guy and I will always remember his sacrifice.

When I returned home from Vietnam, I was released by the Marines and tried to forget the previous year of my life. I just thought I would go home and put that nightmare behind me and get on with my life. But there were too many reminders; people at work, the media and friends wanting to know what it was like. I couldn't put it out of my mind because of all the attention the war was getting. The war protesters and the things they said about us would just make me want to choke one of them.

To me, they had no respect whatsoever for the men who had lost their lives or had been seriously wounded or lost arms and legs. I was living with my sister and she encouraged me not to watch the news or anything which showed those spoiled brats spewing garbage from their mouths. Did they really think that going to Vietnam was at the top of our list of things to do following high school?

I had made progress in getting on with my life and forgetting the war and then I got a letter from a friend I had been in Vietnam with. He was still there and had wrote to tell me that my good friend Ray Maninger had died as a result of wounds from a grenade. Oh no, I almost lost it right there in the kitchen of my sister's home. I had to struggle to hold back the emotion and tears formed in my eyes and I couldn't hold back. The war had followed me home and just when I thought I had put it behind me, there it was again, right in my face telling me I had lost a good friend.

We called Ray Maninger 'Goober' because he looked like Goober on the Andy Griffith Show. It was all in fun and he accepted the nick name. He had a young wife in Jacksonville FLA who used to send him "for his eye only' photos of herself. Ray was a machine gunner in our platoon and was a very likeable person. I will never forget Ray Maninger and the sacrifice he made by dying in Vietnam.

There were other Marines who paid with their lives during my tour in Vietnam with B Company 1/5 Marines but these three are those who come to my mind as I write this. I don't ask, "Why them and not me?" because I believe God is in control of all things and it's His business to control life and death. I also don't consider myself as a favorite of God's because He brought me home alive and in one piece. When I received that letter telling me about Ray's death, part of my anger was, I was home and he was dead. At that time, I wasn't a Christian and didn't understand God's sovereignty and it was hard for me to accept.

These events were 50 years ago and I can still remember these details and what happened as if it were yesterday. I will never forget these men and many others who paid with their lives. It was not their first choice in life to run off to Vietnam with the Marines but that's how life, and death, turned out for them. I simply ask that you never forget the sacrifice these men made regardless of your political views or opinion of war. A lot of us didn't have a choice (and running to Canada wasn't a choice).

In the years since my war, I have become a follower of Jesus Christ and understand and know the sacrifice He made for me and the entire human race, past, present and future. He put Himself on a cross to die for our sin. He paid the price which we couldn't for the forgiveness of our sin. By faith, knowing and understanding that He is the only way to salvation, will save us from our sin and eternal death. It is by His grace we are saved and not by anything we can do. I also understand that not every person can understand or accept this. I can't make anyone come to Jesus and be saved but I ask that you consider it and know the alternatives. Remember the sacrifice.

The Sin in Our Lives

Before I even get into this, I want to first say that I am as guilty of this as anyone else who is a Christian. So, here we go; are we unrepentant of our sin? What I mean is, do we seriously understand that our sin, or the sin in our lives, deeply offends God. We are always so busy with our daily lives and our prayers are a hit and run, drive by type of 'give me' and 'I need' requests and we never stop to consider the thing we did yesterday or earlier today which was sinful. We need to take an inventory of our lives and consider what we have done which is sinful and has offended our Lord.


I want to go to a scripture passage from Ezra which shows how we should react to sin in our lives or even in our immediate family. Ezra returned from exile in Babylon to Jerusalem and was serving in what we would relate to today as Israel’s spiritual leader or maybe a pastor. He was officially a scribe and a student of God’s word and he was a teacher of the Law. After receiving information about certain men and women of Israel intermarrying with people from other nations, he reacted in this manner.

When I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled some of the hair from my head and my beard, and sat down appalled.  Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles gathered to me, and I sat appalled until the evening offering.

But at the evening offering I arose from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the Lord my God;  and I said, “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.

When Ezra says, ‘I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to you...’ that should have a powerful impact on our own sinful lives. When I read this in my daily reading the other day, it hit me hard and I had to go back and keep reading it over and over. I knew right then that I was extremely guilty of this; oh, I ask God to forgive me when I know I have sinned but is my attitude always as that of Ezra’s? I can answer that quickly, “No.” And that is my point; we ask God to forgive us but what is our attitude at that moment? Is our heart broken by this sin in our life?


I sincerely believe the Church in our society and current time has lost it’s focus on what God expects from us and how we view our Lord. Jesus sacrificed His own life and died on a cross for our sin. He didn’t have to do that; He could have said no and returned to His throne in heaven. But Jesus loved us so much that He knew it was our only way to salvation and freedom from sin. Do we think about this when we ask Him to forgive us? Are we specific about our sins when we ask Him to forgive us or, do we just bundle them all together and simply ask for forgiveness?


When we commit a sin, and we are well aware of it, it should break our hearts and we should immediately ask God to forgive us. And, we should know and understand the seriousness of the sin and how it offends our Lord. If we just throw up a request for forgiveness in a very nonchalant manner, we don’t understand the seriousness of our sin and we haven’t grasped the full understanding of the sacrifice Jesus made for us. As we continue in this way of treating our sin, our hearts become harder, not softer, in our relationship with God.


Why are some Christians so ignorant to the seriousness of our sin and the manner in which we ask God to forgive us? Well, I can’t speak to every Christian’s heart condition but I have an idea of why so many are caught in this relaxed mode of serving God. The Church in this country is so laid back in its worship of God. By laid back, I’m not talking about the way people dress or the type of music in a worship service. I’m talking about what is being delivered from the pulpit. I grew up in ministry learning the only way to convey the message of God’s word was to teach the scriptures. My personal preference was to teach verse by verse, chapter by chapter and book by book. How can a Christian learn from the Bible if it is never taught or preached from the pulpit?


What I am getting at is many churches don’t even teach from the Bible during a service, be it Sunday or any other day of the week. And, if it is taught, it is given in such a watered down way that any true Biblical meaning is lost. Christians can’t learn by hearing an opinionated lecture on problems in our society or how to feel good about yourself. Also, they will not be encouraged to read the Bible on their own by this method. Yes, Christians have to read and study the Bible on their own time as well as hearing it from the pulpit. But if they are not encouraged to do that, you have a bunch of Bible illiterate Christians.


If a Christian does not know what the Bible says or teaches us, how can he/she be expected to understand the seriousness of our sin or how much it offends God? I am talking about people who are saved and not a person who attends church because it makes him/her feel good. This person doesn’t even have a personal relationship with Jesus so how could he/she ever understand the seriousness of their sin unless they hear it from the pulpit and get saved. That’s a topic for a different time.


It’s not hard to see why Christians in some churches are deficient in their lack of Bible study or knowledge of what the Bibles says. When we have pastors jumping out of airplanes and onto the church grounds while trying to preach a sermon or pastors buying $200,000 cars for their wives (and it doesn’t matter where the money came from) or wearing $4000 sneakers while on the platform on a Sunday morning, where is the attention of the congregants? When a pastor steps into the pulpit and uses a string of curse words or some other type of profanity, how can anyone present consider the seriousness of sin? If the pastor doesn’t have a contrite heart, how can anyone else in that fellowship have one? And, how do we expect nonbelievers to take Jesus and Christianity serious when they hear and see this?


If church is all about fashion, glitter and entertainment, how can those in attendance be fed by the word of God? Now, understand that not every church in this country conducts church services in this manner but so many do. The mega church is such an attraction to our society because it’s bright and flashy and entertaining. Everything on the platform is attractive to the eye and the music, in many cases, is a strong reflection of our culture (I am a big follower of contemporary worship but not a rock concert). Some churches have gone as far as to play secular music before the service begins. I guess this to make visitors feel more relaxed and welcomed?

In his book, Letters to the Church, Francis Chan makes this suggestion,

Imagine you find yourself stranded on a desert island with nothing but a copy of the Bible. You have no experience with Christianity whatsoever and all you know about the Church will come from your reading of the Bible. How would you imagine a church to function? Seriously. Close your eyes for two minutes and try to picture “Church” as you would know it. Now, think about your current church experience. Is it even close? Can you live with that?

If you are in a local church that preaches and teaches the Bible, great. If you are a Christian who understands the seriousness of sin and how it offends and breaks God’s heart, great. But if you are a Christian who feels God is a sugar daddy and someone to make you feel good or to move all the speed bumps in your life, you need to back up, take a serious look at your Christian faith and seriously seek God’s forgiveness with a broken heart. If you are attending a church that does anything other than teach the Bible, start looking for another church that does. And finally, begin to read and study the Bible and understand how serious our sin is and how serious it is for us to be broken by it and ask God’s forgiveness knowing how that sin has broken His heart as well.


We serve an all loving, all forgiving God who only wants what is best for each of us but we must remember that He does not honor a sinful heart or a heart that has been clogged by sin which we consider harmless.

 If I had not confessed the sin in my heart,
    the Lord would not have listened.  PS 66:18

Preaching the Gospel

The following is an excerpt from a book I am writing on Acts or The Book of Acts. Paul and Barnabas set out from Antioch of Syria to take the gospel to the Gentile nations. In Acts 13:44-52, we see Paul preaching the gospel in the local synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia and the results of that preaching from both the Jews and the Gentiles. As was Paul's custom, if there was a synagogue in the city where he was, he would go there first and preach to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. We will see in this passage that he and Barnabas are left with no option but to preach to the Gentiles following the reaction of the Jewish leaders.

After Paul's invitation to speak in the synagogue the first week, he is almost begged to return the following week to tell them more about the gospel. It should be noted that it was customary for visiting Jews to be asked if they had anything to share. When Paul was asked, he seized the opportunity to tell them about Jesus and teach them from the word of God. He received no opposition during that first speaking and some begged him and Barnabas to return the following week, which they did.

Billy Graham held his first major revival in Los Angeles in 1949. The team had planned for only a three week stay but ended up staying for eight weeks. Billy Graham spoke to 350,000 people during that time and 3000 were saved. I’m sure this was far beyond the expectations of anyone involved. We see a similar situation take place following Paul’s initial sermon in this synagogue. The following week the whole town showed up to hear this man speak about the gospel. I don’t think Paul ever had any expectations of what might happen anywhere he went to speak about Jesus. I believe he just wanted to tell as many people as he could about the Lord and His offer of salvation.

When Paul and Barnabas returned the following week, almost the whole town showed up to hear them. That would be something to see; you go into a strange town (somewhere you have not been before) and you are invited to speak and you tell the people about Jesus and the salvation from sin He has freely offered. You are asked to speak again the following week and the whole town shows up to hear you! I would be taken back by this, initially, and then allow the Holy Spirit to take over. The worst thing you could do is allow this showing to go to you head and allow pride to take over instead of the Holy Spirit.

As Paul began to teach the word of God, some of the Jews, most likely the Jewish leaders, saw the vast crowd and became jealous. In the first week, there was no opposition as Paul spoke in the synagogue but now, since nearly the entire population of the city was present and listening intently to what Paul was saying, it didn’t sit well with their pride and egos. So, these Jews began to argue with Paul about what he was teaching. So, again, I would ask you to consider this situation, if it was you who was invited to speak a second time and now you are interrupted and questioned about what you are saying. How would you respond? Would it rattle you and cause you to lose your train of thought? Well, it didn’t rattle or intimidate Paul and Barnabas one little bit. It was the Holy Spirit who was in charge of the message and the interrupted arguing of the Jews.

Paul boldly told them he believed it was necessary to preach this message of the gospel to the Jews first. Why would he say that? God had entrusted the truth of His word, concerning the coming Messiah, for hundreds of years. Jesus, the Messiah, was born a Jew and His ministry was to Jews because He had trusted them to tell the world about Him and the gospel message. They were chosen to deliver this message to the world. The Church was birthed in Jerusalem and was headed and led by Jews. They were given the initial responsibility of delivering the gospel message to the world, regardless of Jew or Gentile.

So now, Paul tells them since they don’t want to hear it, he will take it to the Gentiles. Paul’s actual words to them are very bold and should have had a startling effect on them. He told them,

 Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.  13:46

The NLT says it this way, ‘since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life’, Those are some pretty harsh words. Now, not all the Jews listening rejected the message as we read earlier about those in the synagogue who begged these two men to return. These Jewish leaders had allowed a jealous rage to take over and disrupt Paul’s message. They were jealous of the size of the crowd and the interest the people had in what Paul was saying.

Our sinful nature has a whole bag full of tools and jealousy is just one of them. Some would say that Satan stirred their hearts to do this but I think he gets credit for more than he actually deserves. He may need to nudge just a little and the sinful nature takes it from there. Have you ever allowed this to happen to you? It has happened to me and I’m not proud to admit it but it happens to a lot of Christians. I’ve seen this jealousy thing with pastors; yes, with pastors of a church who don’t really care for a guest speaker getting more attention than him. I’ve seen it in a pastor who was jealous of assistant pastors getting more attention them him.

This is ridicules because it does not honor and glorify God. It deters any spiritual growth and spreads an unhealthy atmosphere within the church.

I have never been part of leadership in any church where the message was so wrong that the pastor had to be interrupted and stopped. I have never been interrupted and stopped from teaching the message of Jesus. I’m sure Satan had nudged one of these Jewish leaders and stirred his sinful nature to interrupt Paul and stop his message.

Paul was very clear in his statement that he would now take the gospel message to the Gentiles. This was Paul’s and Barnabas’ call when they left Antioch of Syria. The Holy Spirit called them to take the gospel message to these Gentile nations but if there were Jews present, Paul would always take the gospel to them first. As we proceed through Acts, we will see the pattern continue but it is the Gentiles who are God’s priority for these journeys. Paul quotes Isaiah 49:6 to drive this point home. He knows these Jews are familiar with this writing and he uses it to emphasize what he has told them.

I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles,
That You may bring salvation to the end of the earth.

The Jews might have been spurned by these comments by Paul but the Gentiles loved it. They rejoiced and gave glory to the Lord and thanked Him for His word. Now, the latter part of verse 48 has been a subject of controversy down through the years. Does God choose some and not others for salvation? Luke says, ‘as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.’ Understanding sentence structure and how this is written in the original Greek, the way the NASB, as stated above, says it, is correct and as well as many other modern translations. It doesn’t say, ‘as many as believed were appointed to eternal life.’ So, understanding the sentence structure in the Greek and how it is properly translated into English tells us that all those who were present who were appointed, ordained or set for eternal life, believed.

Again, understanding the sentence structure is so important here and also the word, appoint or ordain which is used in earlier translations. The word in the Greek is tasso and has the meaning, ‘to appoint, set in place, order or ordain or arrange.’ In this verse, 48, the word is translated appointed from appoint. So, to sum up what this verse is saying, all those who were appointed for eternal life, believed. Remember the sentence structure; it doesn’t say that those who believed were appointed for eternal life but those who were appointed for eternal life, believed.

I know there are many Christians who will strongly disagree with this and argue until we are all receiving our eternal destination but when you break it down correctly, it can only say it one way. It would be very easy for someone to write a paraphrased version and turn this verse around to say what is not correct. That’s why I always warn newer Christians to stay away from paraphrase Bibles until they are capable of understanding what the word of God really says.

We have to remember that God is sovereign and He calls the shots, not us. We were all born doomed by our sinful nature. We all deserve to be condemned for eternity but by the love and grace of God, He sent His Son to die in our place and be the ultimate sacrifice for our sin. Jesus didn’t have to die for our sin on that cross; He could have stopped at any time and returned to His throne in heaven. The point is this: Why do some find it so hard to believe that God makes all the calls and that includes our salvation.

The hard to hear truth is some will not accept the free gift of salvation and spend eternity in torment and suffering. And yet, some just can’t accept that truth. “God is not fair.” That’s what they say but God is fair and just. Sin cannot stand in the presence of the Lord and those who have not been cleansed by the blood of Jesus and received His righteousness, continue with their original sin and if they die with that sin, they cannot stand in the presence of God. That is the cold, hard truth. Read this from Charles R. Erdman,

The sovereignty of God is absolute; yet it is never exercised in condemning men who ought to be saved, but rather has resulted in the salvation of men who ought to be lost.[1]

The fire had been lit and the word of God spread throughout that region. The Gentiles had received the word of God and people were getting saved. Their hearts were on fire for Jesus and they were telling others and many were hearing and getting saved. It was a regional revival and as the word spread, the Jews become more infuriated. They stirred the hearts of the influential religious women and city leaders and put together a mob and Paul and Barnabas were run out of town.

In Luke 9:5, Jesus instructed His disciples with the following,

“And as for those who do not receive you, as you go out from that city, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

This is what Paul and Barnabas did as they departed from Antioch of Pisidia; the Jews knew what this meant and Paul and Barnabas were telling the Jews since they rejected Jesus and the gospel, they wanted nothing to do with them. Some have said the message to the Jews was they were no better than pagans and were not a true part of Israel. Regardless, they were determined to get rid of Paul and Barnabas but they couldn’t stop the gospel message which was spreading like gasoline on a fire. The Gentiles were filled with the Holy Spirit and with joy. Jesus had come to another Antioch and He was there to stay.

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[1] Charles R. Erdman, The epistle of Paul to the Romans, p. 109