Lets Honor Our Veterans (252)

0:00 I want to welcome you to the Quality Christian Living Podcast. I am your host, David Friend. We've been in a series dealing with success, prospering, and abundant living, but I'm taking a break for two weeks and going to do two podcasts dealing with the issues that our veterans face today. So today's podcast is entitled, Let's Honor Our Veterans. So I want to thank all the veterans who are listening in today. May God richly bless you. Thank you for your service. Today, I want to address how our military veterans feel about their service to their country. Why do veterans seem to be quiet about their experiences that they had in a combat zone? Is post-traumatic stress disorder an issue with all veterans?

0:42 And also, we're going to talk about how can we help our veterans? Before we get into that, let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for those who are listening in. I pray that you would bless it. You would bless everything that takes place in this podcast today. I ask the Holy Spirit to come in now and take complete control, take charge of everything that's said and done. And I want to pray especially for our veterans who are listening in and those who are family members, spouses, or children of our veterans. I pray that you would bless them all, that you would protect them all. I pray your hand of protection be upon all those who are serving across this world today and in our nation. I want to pray especially for those veterans who served in combat areas, that you would bless them and help them and adjust to the life that you want them to live.

1:24 And that they would live the purpose that you have for them and the plan that you have for their life. I pray blessing on all those who are struggling with maybe illnesses, or injuries that took place from their service, that you would bless them and help them. And I pray that our country would reach out and do even more for our veterans, even though they've done a lot, there's a lot yet to be done. I pray blessings upon this podcast help me, Lord, to bring a message that will touch people and help those who have a veteran in their family, or if they are a veteran of one of the many services in this country. Now bless this and I'll be careful to give you the praise for it. Now thank you for all this now. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Well, I want to say how proud I am of our American veterans.

2:06 They are the best trained soldiers in the history of the world. To those of you listening today who are veterans and have served in one of the branches of military, the Army, the Marines, the Navy, Air Force, Merchant Marines, or the Coast Guard, I want to say thank you so very much for your service to our country. You deserve the best help our country can provide for you. As a veteran, I served with the United States Army during the Vietnam War. I had to spend one year of my life over there. As a matter of fact, it was shortly after my wife and I had gotten married that I received my orders to go to the Republic of Vietnam. It was something very shocking and was something that you just have no way to know how to deal with it.

2:48 I wasn't a Christian so I wasn't prepared spiritually to know how to handle those issues. But I thank God that He brought me back to my beautiful wife and my country that I live so very much. As I mentioned earlier, I was not a Christian when I served in Vietnam, but I knew that God was looking over me. As a matter of fact, I would pray something like this. When something difficult was happening or if a sniper was shooting at us or whatever it might be, I would say, Father, if you just get me through this, I promise I'll go to church. I didn't really know how else to pray and so that's about the only thing that I could say during that time. But once again, I just thank God for bringing us back safely and for His hand of protection over me and over those that came back from that war. My heart goes out to those who lost a loved one, who lost a mom or a dad or a spouse.

3:32 I just pray that God will bless you and comfort you and help you through this difficult time. And though even many of you lost that person maybe decades ago, I just pray that God will continue to help you and heal the hurt that took place in your life. Now during my time of service, especially in Vietnam, I was always aware of the fact that God was around someplace, somehow, some way. But I just didn't know how to receive Him, how to go to Him and how to go for help. But once again, even though I wasn't serving Him and I had not accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, God still put out His hand of protection and I believe that He'll do. He'll do the same thing for you and for those of you who have family members who are serving in the military. Today, I give honor to our vets.

4:14 I honor those who were married to a veteran and those who were the child or the children of a veteran. We honor vets by thanking them for their service. Because the Vietnam vets were not welcomed home when they came back from that war, you might want to add a little more to your kindness to them by saying, thank you for your service and add a little welcome home. I tell you, as a Vietnam veteran, those are the two of the greatest words that I ever heard when I came back to this country. Let me give you a scripture I think that will help and comfort those veterans who need maybe a little word of encouragement from time to time. It's found in Romans chapter 13 verse 7. It's in the New King James Version.

4:55 Let me read it and just receive this as I speak it into you. Render therefore to all their due. That means be kind to those who are due to receive something that deserve to receive something. It says, anyone on to say taxes to whom taxes are due and customs to whom customs are due or fear to whom fear is due. But here's the important part, but give honor to whom honor is due. And so at this time, I honor our veterans. I thank you for your service. Welcome home. Thank you for serving your country and putting your country on a higher level than you did your own thoughts and your own life. Thank you so much for that. You know, God's word has information about veterans.

5:36 There's quite a few scriptures I found probably 20 or more that would give comfort and guidance. But I chose a couple that I'll use in this podcast in John chapter 15 verse 13 in the New International Version. These words say this, greater love has no in than this, but to lay down one's life for one's friends. You see, when our veterans go to the war, they don't really know what they're facing. When they go into a combat zone, they don't know what they're facing. If they get into the military and they're not in a combat zone, they still do not know or may not be aware of a time when someone may come against our country. And they'll be forced into a difficult, very challenging, very dangerous situation. So thank God for our veterans and thank God for his word that gives comfort to those who've served this great nation.

6:20 The word of God has numerous references to protection and help for others. And I believe that we can apply those words of help and comfort to our veterans. I think of Psalm 46 verse 1 that says that God is a very present help in times of trouble. I think of Proverbs 3-5, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he'll direct your path. I thank God for Matthew 6-33 that says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. That's the comfort that we needed. You know, I wish so much that I would have been a Christian when I went to Vietnam. When I served in the military, since I wasn't a Christian, I didn't really understand the word of God.

7:03 I didn't understand that there was guidance and comfort and direction in it. And so those of you who served in the military, be sure you get the word of God out and that you put at least something, maybe a verse or so, each day. And work on that and plan on that and receive that and claim it as a promise for you. That God is a very present help in times of trouble. That he is the one that has great understanding for you. That God's ways are higher and greater than our ways and our thoughts. So his word is filled with examples of comfort and hope and they apply not only to the average citizen, but they apply deeply to those who've served in the armed forces of the United States. Recently, I wrote an article for Quality Christian Living from my podcast in the Charisma Media Network System.

7:47 I believe it's on their online channel that they have and it was supposed to come out sometime around a day or two before Veterans Day. And I'm going to read you a paragraph that I wrote then and I would like to share it with you. I won't read much of it, but I just think maybe just one paragraph might be giving you an idea of what our veterans have faced throughout the existence of our country. From the American Revolution in 1775 to Afghanistan, over 41 million men and women have served their country in the military. They gave up careers, businesses, education, family and friends to serve our country. The Veterans Administration estimates that 4.9 million of all living veterans have some type of illness or injury connected to their service.

8:34 Excluding the Civil War, where there were hundreds of thousands of people who were killed in that war, but you have to exclude that from this number, nearly 650,000 American troops have died in combat. Over 30% of our veterans report chronic health conditions and sadly an average of 20 American veterans commit suicide every day. We need to reach out to our veterans. If you see one walking down the mall, they got a cap on that says United States Army or Air Force or Marines or whatever it might be, just say thank you for your service. You'll be amazed at the smile that you'll get. If you see someone maybe that you know in your family who served in the military at one time or another, what was the combat zone or not?

9:15 It doesn't matter. They served in the military and they basically they were protecting our country and protecting our lives and our freedom. Any time you run into one, would it be family, remember and not just thank them for their service? Don't take it for granted because it's quite a commitment they had made and just that reading I gave you tells you how many people have been affected. As a matter of fact, there are over 800,000 veterans living today who served in the Republic of Vietnam. Now that was 50 years ago when that thing ended and there's still about 800,000 Vietnam veterans walking around America today who are exposed to Agent Orange and may have multiple sicknesses or illnesses and are also suffering or could be suffering with PTSD, which is post traumatic stress disorder and something that is taking away the mental stability of so many veterans.

10:07 So with that, that's just a little clip, a little article or portion I should say of my article that I wrote. I'd like you to be sure and listen to that or read that it's in the Charisma Magazine online. Let me give you an answer to the four questions that I brought up at the beginning of this podcast. Remember, I said basically, you know, how do our veterans feel about their service and why do veterans who've served keep so quiet and don't want to talk about it, especially if they served in the combat zone and also is PTSD or what we call post traumatic stress disorder still active in our veterans. And finally, one of the other questions I asked was that we would cover in this podcast is how can we help our veterans and how should we do that.

10:48 So let's just address question number one, how do our veterans feel about their service to our country? Before I cover that one, let me ask you maybe another question that's kind of important. Maybe it may be even more important and that is how does our country treat our veterans? It's one thing to think about how our veterans feel about their service. It's another thing to think about how our country is treating our veterans. It's getting better, but there's a long way to go yet. But let me just share with you in the answer to how what do our veterans feel? How do they feel when they come back? Well, as a veteran, as you know, I served in the military. I was proud to serve my country. Quite frankly, very proud to do that. I believe the vast majority of veterans were proud to serve.

11:30 However, they want their country to help them for the things that they're going through that they picked up while they were in service. Some of Americans veterans today have physical and mental issues that need to be healed. Most veterans want to be provided help and care that they need for the illnesses that they carry in their bodies, or the injuries or the limbs that they lost that was brought on. Those things were brought on while they were serving in the country. So let's be sure we write our congressmen and our senators and let them know that we need to care for our veterans. Veterans are not looking for a handout. They're just looking for a hand up for help to deal with the needs that they're facing. So with that, I want to give you a word of comfort. How do veterans feel?

12:11 That was a question I said about their service. The vast majority, they're proud to have served. Glad it's over, but proud to have served their country. Matthew 11 and verse number 28 has some wonderful comfort. Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens and I will give you rest. I'm just speaking that word into some today. I believe there are veterans out there today are family members of veterans who need to hear that, not just the veterans, but for the family members. You know, I went to Vietnam, but my wife stayed home. We were expecting a child when I went to Vietnam. And so she was home and had to go through her pregnancy by herself. And she wasn't a Christian. I wasn't a Christian. And it was a challenge. It was difficult.

12:51 And I think about the number of dependents of our veterans while they were serving in the military and going through difficult times and strenuous times and times that they did. They wanted to be with their family, but they needed to serve their country. Many of these veterans were going through difficult times, but the family members, the wives, the husbands, the children, the moms and dads, those individuals went through very difficult times and all of us can receive help. If you're going through a challenge from something you face through a veteran that has been difficult on you, take the words of Matthew chapter 11 and verse 28 and apply them to your life. Come to me, all who are weary and carry heavy burdens and I will give you rest.

13:32 Alright, question number two was, why do veterans who served in a combat arena seem to be quiet about their service? Here's a couple of reasons I'd like to give you. One is veterans who won't speak about their experiences, I believe are protecting those that they love and care for from hearing the comments and the things of what they face and what they went through. If they had an extremely difficult time, they just don't need to get into that. If they had a time that took them away from their loved ones, they don't particularly want to remember that and get into that either. They don't want to talk about those issues and seem like they're bragging or being proud of something they had in their life. And so we tend to be quiet. I know in my own case, I came back from Vietnam. I did not want to talk about it for many, many, many, many years.

14:14 I used a lot of many's there, but it's because it took me close to 50 years before I really wanted to discuss it. And it came about, the reason I was willing to talk about it was because my wife said, you know, you need to write a book about your experiences in Vietnam because they give help and comfort to other people. Well, see, I have been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, bone marrow cancer, because of my exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam. And I was given a basically a six month death sentence that said in about six months, you may be gone because you've got this so very, so very difficult and so serious in your body. But God healed me from that. And I'm still being treated, but I'm in, I consider pretty strong health and good health and thankful to God.

14:56 But because of that, because of that trial and trauma I went through, my wife was right. I did need to write about it. So I wrote a couple of books. One was on my experiences before or during an after Vietnam. And my second book was on how to get help for PTSD and exposure to Agent Orange. And that's a help book that people can get out. I'm not going to talk about it. I'm not trying to sell books right now. But I just want you to know those are books that I did write and they're on Amazon if people are interested in that. But you know, the important thing is, is that I had something to say that would help people. And so I was willing to open up. It was hard. And matter of fact, when I started writing, when I started getting back into expressing what took place in Vietnam, especially, I, my old nightmares came back, the old PTSD. It really came on strong on me.

15:42 And I had some very difficult nights for a number of months, but that lifted and God brought me through it. And I thank God for that. He gave me the peace of God that passed us all understanding that would guard my heart and guard my mind in Christ Jesus. So I thank God for that. But if you're a veteran and you're still struggling with things that you just don't want to talk about, there's nothing wrong with being quiet about them. But let me give you a scripture that'll give you comfort. And you might want to think about this when some of the trials of your service, you know, come to mind in Psalm chapter 56, verses three and four. Now, when I was in the military, I didn't know about these scriptures. I sure wish I would have known this one. So let me read this to you. Psalm chapter 56, verses three and four.

16:30 You see, if I'd have had that, it would have given me strength and hope. So I hope that's encouraging to you and maybe it gives you a little better understanding of why some of the veterans really don't want to talk about the experiences they went through. Question number three, is PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder active in our veterans? Yes, it is. I mentioned a comment earlier. There's 800,000 Vietnam veterans walking around who are exposed to Agent Orange and many of them have trials and challenges with PTSD. And if you know anyone that's having that, they need to call the Veterans Administration and seek help. They need to find a veterans clinic or hospital or somewhere where they can go get help and get advice and help and direction for that. Let me just give you a scripture that might help you on this.

17:12 It's Psalm 2911, the Lord gives strength to his people. The Lord blesses his people with peace. So if you're out there and you're struggling with PTSD and it's coming back on you, you just need to take your strength in the Lord. Go to your pastor and be prayed for and get others to help you and encourage you. And then you should start to encourage other people who are going through the same thing. I have a ministry that's called Vets Helping Vets. And that ministry was designed for one reason. That is to help veterans learn how to help other veterans. And I talk with veterans and I try to encourage them and I help them get help through the Veterans Administration or help for PTSD or for physical issues that they're going through in their life or emotional issues they're going through their life.

17:52 And I try to help them. And then when they get strong and they start to recover from that, I tell them, take what you've learned and share it with someone else and be a blessing to someone else. Let's move on to question number four. How can we help our veterans? That's kind of what I was just talking about. We need to show them that God loves them in His Word. We can help our veterans by thanking them for their service and not discussing their experiences. You know, when I first came home from Vietnam, people would walk up to me and say, I'm glad to see you did well and whatever. And almost always it seemed like it was constant. The first question they would ask me is, did you kill anybody? And I just can't imagine why anybody would ask somebody that question. I was in the Vietnam War.

18:33 I went through the Tet Offensive. It was horrible. It was an unbelievable experience. The last thing I need to be asked is, did I ever shoot anybody or kill anybody? And so please never bring that up. Young people are the ones that tend to ask that question, but let that go. Just drop that. Just simply, you can thank them for their service and don't discuss the experience that they had or ask them about the experiences they had. If they want to volunteer or talk about it, that's fine. But don't put them under that pressure. Let me give you the scripture found in Joshua chapter 1 and verse 9. Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed. For the Lord God is with you wherever you go.

19:14 That is what I want to leave you with today. I want to leave you with that encouragement that God is with you. God will never leave you and God will never forsake you. To wrap this up, I want to review very quickly the scriptures that God has given me to pass on to you for veterans and for those who are family members of veterans or friends of veterans, share these verses with them. Matthew 11, 28, Come to me, all you who are weary, and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Psalm 56, verses 3 and 4, When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust, and am not afraid of what merely mortal man can do to me.

19:54 In Psalm 29, 11, the Lord gives strength to his people. The Lord blesses his people with peace. In Joshua 1, verse 9, Strong, be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord God is with you wherever you go. Let me close this out by praying for you. Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity I've had to bring this podcast at this time to those who have an interest in helping veterans or their veterans themselves. I pray blessings upon them. For those veterans who might be struggling with various issues, I pray Father that you would give them peace, that you would help them and comfort them, that would find other veterans to speak to who would encourage them and bless them and comfort them.

20:34 I pray our families would reach out and bless a veteran. If there's one across the street, just walk across the street and just say, I just want to thank you for your service. I just pray, Lord, blessing upon our veterans now. Lord, I know many of them are going through physical challenges, and I pray that they would get help at the Veterans Administration, though they'll get help from a family doctor. I pray that peace I was referred to Mayo Clinic, but then Mayo Clinic told me that I could get help for some of the costs related to my treatments from the Veterans Administration, and I went there and I did. And I pray that you would help those going through difficult challenges now to receive the help wherever they can get it, Father, and that it will be made available to them.

21:14 I pray for our veterans, Father, who are currently in active service now. Those who are active military, I pray blessings upon them. That your hand of protection would be upon them. You'd keep them safe, Father, from any evil, from any danger and any harm. I pray blessings on them, on their families, Father, and everything, Lord, that they put their hand to. I pray that you would bless them and keep them and that your face would shine upon them and be gracious unto them, Lord. Well, I ask these things, Lord, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Well, I noticed that I've got a couple minutes left on this podcast, so let me read to you something I think that might be helpful. Just a couple of lines from the article that I wrote. This is something that I think the Lord gave me to share, and I know that not everybody who listens to the podcast will see the article in Charisma on their online service.

22:00 So let me just read this to you. I believe there's a scripture that applies precisely to Jesus, Christ, and veterans. The article that I wrote is called, What Jesus and Veterans Share, and this is my opening paragraph on that. They share something with Jesus. The Apostle John, being led by the Holy Spirit, wrote these words in John chapter 15 and verse 13 in the New Living Translation. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. Now, this passage tells us that when Jesus went into ministry, he was willing to sacrifice his life for the benefit of others. And when our American veterans sign up to serve their country, they are willing to go wherever they are sent by giving an oath to protect our country with their life.

22:47 I hope that that blesses you, and I hope that it will strengthen you and lift up those who are maybe going through some difficult times right now. I hope this has been a blessing to you and a help. I would encourage you to tune into the following next podcast that I'm going to be doing shortly, and that podcast, once again, has to deal with our veterans. I'm going to talk about God's word in veterans, about the Constitution in our veterans, and just simply about how America needs to deal with their veterans. So I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to talk about the podcast that I have never done before, but it's something I want to do because every year, I take two podcasts out around November, around Veterans Day, and just give a couple of podcasts to reach out to our veterans and give them some help.

23:29 If any of you would like to know more about quality Christian living, you can do that by going to my webpage at davidcfriendauthor.com. And when you pull up that webpage, you'll see on the very front page a link to all the podcasts that I've done. Now, prior to this podcast, I did a series, and I'm still in the middle of one, I'll get back to that after this couple of series on veteran issues, and I'll get back to that. And the series we're in is called Success, Prospering, and Abundant Living. Prior to that, I did a series of podcasts on how to develop a business, how to grow a business, how to start a business as a Christian. We talked about the gifts of the Spirit, the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. We did a series of messages dealing with faith, a series of messages dealing with miracles and hope, and I think that's about the purpose and this plan for our lives.

24:13 I did a series of messages on our finances, on experience the joy of debt-free living, so there's quite a list. Matter of fact, there's 200, and I believe 52 podcasts that are there for you to listen to. So I would encourage you to go to them. In addition to that, you can scroll down on that webpage, and as you get down to the next page, as you scroll, you'll find a reference to five books that I've written on Amazon. One is called Vietnam, before, during, and after, a Young Man's Journey, and that's my journey. Before I went to Vietnam, while I was there and when I came back, there were the issues that my wife and I had to face. In addition to that, we have a book there for veterans dealing with PTSD and Agent Orange, and how to receive help and get the assistance and help that you might need.

24:58 Also, there's a book there that I've written to help you with your finances. The title is Experience the Joy of Debt-Free Living, and I believe if you'll follow the teaching there the Lord gave me, you can get yourself in a position to be out of debt very quickly, a lot sooner than you would even imagine or think. In addition to that, I have a book there, Dealing with Faith, and it's called Receive Everything from What We Call Nothing, based upon the teachings of the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans, where he talks about Abraham. When God told him he wouldn't be the father of many nations, and Abraham and Sarah said, not a chance, we're just too old, but God showed him he would bring life into things that were dead, and he would bring life into things that we've given up on. And I believe that book will be a very positive encouragement for you.

25:41 And finally, there's a book there entitled Generosity What's In It for Me, and it talks about how giving brings forth blessings in our life, and I just believe that it'll be a blessing to you. So with that, I would encourage you to get those. Now, don't forget, my next podcast will be dealing with veterans and how to help veterans understand the relationship that veterans have with God, with our country, and quite frankly, with their walk with God and their purpose for being here. So I believe it'll be a blessing to you, and it's something that the Lord put upon my heart to bring out during this time where we honor our veterans. I'm going to thank you again for listening in, so let me just close with these words. May the Lord bless you and keep you, may his face shine upon you. May he be gracious to you and give you peace.

26:21 May you prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers. So until next time, may God richly bless you. And all of you veterans out there, or those who are related to veterans, I pray blessing upon you, comfort and peace, that it may follow you all the days of your life. Thank you once again for listening in. This has been podcast number 252, entitled, Let's Honor Our Veterans. I am your host, David Fren. Thank you for listening in to Quality Christian Living. God bless you.