Free Republic

        A HUMBLE SPIRIT It's always surprising to me when someone, in an honest and unguarded moment, confides that God could never use THEM. They may keep up appearances most of the time, but, down deep, they just don't feel worthy. Have you ever felt that way? If so, you're in luck; God places a high value on humility! In fact, your sincere recognition of your own need may just be the key that opens the door to a deeper, more genuine and rewarding spirituality. Isaiah wrote, "For thus says the High and Holy One Who...

        THE FIRST STEP IN RESOLVING INTERPERSONAL CONFLICTS C. W. Moore, in his book, The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict defines conflict as "struggles between two or more people over values, or competition for status, power, or scarce resources." Experts in conflict management believe that conflict is inevitable in any organization or relationship. Many strategies have been developed to mediate and resolve organizational and interpersonal conflicts. What is usually missing in these mediation processes is a biblical understanding of the nature and causes of conflict. James 4:1-2 indicates that the causes of fights and...

        THE PARABLE OF THE FENCE Once upon a time there was a little boy who was talented, creative, handsome, and extremely bright. A natural leader. The kind of person everyone would normally have wanted on their team or project. But he was also self-centered and had a very bad temper. When he got angry, he usually said, and often did, some very hurtful things. In fact, he seemed to have little regard for those around him. Even friends. So, naturally, he had few. "But," he told himself, "that just shows how stupid most people are!"...

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LOGISTICS AIRPORT, VICTORVILLE, Calif. (March 27, 2005) -- The sun crested over the sage brush and tumble weeds. Marines with nary a wink of slumber, due to the previous night’s mission, squirmed out of their sleeping bags and into the warmth of the morning sun. What made this morning different from any other at TRUEX 05-1, however, is that Marines weren’t waking to clear buildings or run convoys, typical Marine commitments in an urban combat environment. They chose to commit this morning to one of our nation's liberties: freedom of worship. A hasty field chapel, nothing more than...

Blessed be the Lord... Who trains my arms for battle. -- Psalm 144:1 The safest place for me to be is in the center of God's will, and if that is in the line of fire, that is where I will be. -- The Rev. Tim Vakoc, Army chaplain. War can bring out the worst in man. The crucible of combat tests one's faith in self, in fellow man -- even faith in God. It is particularly so in this war on terror -- where at any moment a brutal, suicidal and fanatical enemy can blow himself to pieces just...

        GOD WILL NOT LET YOU FALL My family and I went camping this past summer. We took several hikes down the little river bed as it flowed through the Cuyamaca State Park near our home in San Diego. We topped for a picnic lunch, and ate with our feet in the cool running water. As I ate my sandwich, I started tracing a trail through the rocks that shot up into the air in front of us. It was an old habit from days gone by of rock scrambling: no ropes, no hardware, no helmet,...

Continuing a 51-year relationship with a local orphanage, Marines and sailors at Camp Fuji plan to welcome almost 40 children Sunday for an Easter celebration. About 22 children and four teachers from Seishin Orphanage in Tanashi City, with 11 children and their parents from Idu Mama and several children of base employees, have been invited to the Easter egg hunt, egg toss and a visit from the Easter bunny (Gunnery Sgt. Brent Dorrough), said Fuji’s chaplain, Lt. j.g. Ned Alderman. “Our Marines love being with the kids,” Alderman said. The base welcomes the orphanage children to events throughout the year....

        Chaplain's Corner : Placing Trust in Our Strength So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. 1 Chronicles 21:14 When was the last time your overconfidence cost the lives of 70,000 men? That is exactly what happened to David. David made what might appear to be an innocent request of his general, Joab. But the minute Joab heard the request he cringed. He knew David was in big trouble for this one. You see to number the troops was a great sin in Israel because it was...

        "A CHEERFUL HEART IS GOOD MEDICINE." (Proverbs 17:22) Which came first the chicken or the egg? We may never know the answer to this question, but when it comes to living a fulfilled life, the joy proceeds the good feelings. As a matter of fact, the joy is the antidote to the woes of life. Humor is great medicine. Humor helps us to see the big picture. It provides us with a new context by which to view our situation. It gives us a different vantage point which we can use to reevaluate life. Humor...

        LIFEBOAT One of the great World War II films was LIFEBOAT, about the ordeal faced by survivors of a passenger ship that was sunk by a Nazi U-Boat in the middle of the Atlantic. The film details their struggle for survival in a small lifeboat, fighting the elements, thirst and then fighting against each other. Each person has their own ideas about how to navigate the little boat: they argue about who should be in charge; and they find little things to fight over even when they run out of things to fight over. Eventually...

        GOLDEN MOMENTS Once upon a time, there was a little boy from "the wrong side of the tracks" who grew up admiring a beautiful house high on the hill overlooking his town. Fortunately, he never lacked for any of the necessities of life. But he hated being "poor." He noticed that people treated him differently. And it pained him to see his parents work so hard just to make ends meet. It just didn't seem right that some should be so favored and others should have so little. But his parents has instilled some rather...

1870 African American congressman sworn in Hiram Rhoades Revels, a Republican from Natchez, Mississippi, is sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress. During the Civil War, Revels, a college-educated minister, helped form African American army regiments for the Union cause, started a school for freed men, and served as a chaplain for the Union army. Posted to Mississippi, Revels remained in the former Confederate state after the war and entered into Reconstruction-era Southern politics. In 1867, the first Reconstruction Act was passed by a Republican-dominated U.S. Congress, dividing the South into five...

Editor's note: As a special service for our readers, WND is running a series of dispatches from Allan Wall chronicling his transition from civilian life as he prepares to fight with his National Guard unit in Iraq. Allan will write for us as often as he is able in order to let our readers vicariously experience what people in his position are going through. We hope you will check regularly for Allan's dispatches and encourage your friends and family to do likewise. © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com In an earlier dispatch (Dispatch No. 18: "Target Practice") I described the Army firing ranges...

Fort Wainwright Army chaplain Capt. Herman Cheatham is preparing for spiritual battle. While infantry soldiers are honing combat skills, the chaplain is ordering religious supplies and co-teaching combat stress training. Cheatham, who expects to be deployed to Iraq with the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment sometime this summer, admits to experiencing pre-deployment jitters, just like the soldiers and military families he is counseling along with combat veteran chaplain Maj. Joe Melvin. It will be Cheatham's first experience in a combat zone. "At first I thought it (jitters) was a weakness on my part," Cheatham said, "but in talking to the...

        LEADERSHIP AND LISTENING "Listen to what I am saying," Job cried out to his "friends" in the biblical story. "That is all the comfort I ask from you. Give me a chance to speak, and then, when I am through, sneer if you like." Job didn't ask for much. But it was more than these colleagues were prepared to offer. Unfortunately, such encounters are far too frequent -- even among those we would expect to care about what we think or feel. Back in 1989, Admiral Carlisle Trost (then Chief of Naval Operations) asked a...

        HOW BIG IS ONE? As a man walked a desolate beach one cold, gray morning he began to see another figure, far in the distance. Slowly the two approached each other, and he could make out a local native who kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water. Time and again he hurled things into the ocean. As the distance between them continued to narrow, the man could see that the native was picking up starfish that had been washed upon the beach and, one at a time, was throwing...

The Labour government’s public religion and the reluctant chaplain. The Principal Defence Chaplain Julian Wagg admits that the Unknown Warrior may not have gone to heaven. In a telephone interview on Feb. 8, the principal defence chaplain Julian Wagg reluctantly admitted that the Unknown Soldier may not have gone to heaven at all if he had not been baptised and affiliated with a church. The necessary implication with that admission is that the soldier may have gone to hell instead. This is a surprising though refreshingly honest admission given the usual universalistic beliefs of the prominent churchmen (usually Anglican) who...

        JUST FOR TODAY As I go through some "troubles" in my own life, I've worked out this "formula" to help me be a useful and happy person. See if it doesn't work for you! JUST FOR TODAY: I will try to live through this day only, and not tackle my whole life problem at once. JUST FOR TODAY: I will be happy. I will assume to be true what Abraham Lincoln said: "Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be." JUST FOR TODAY: I will try to strengthen my mind....

        IN GENTLENESS THERE IS STRENGTH The parents were devastated. Their young adopted daughter had died in an unusual accident. She suffocated when the drawstring on the hood of her jacket became caught in a playground slide. It was later learned their child was not the first to die this way. Design flaws in both the hood and the slide made this an accident waiting to happen. Some people might have viewed this tragedy as an opportunity to sue the two major corporations for a lucrative settlement. The parents, however, refused. In an interview, the mother...

Southern Baptist chaplain calls for prayer for U.S. troops during Jan. 30 Iraqi elections SOUTHERN IRAQ (BP)--A Southern Baptist chaplain stationed in Iraq has requested special prayer for U.S. troops involved in the historic democratic elections scheduled Jan. 30 in that country. "Our troops will be delivering the voting machines and ballots to villages and cities throughout Iraq and are prime targets for the insurgents. Encourage your friends and family members and those within our churches to pray specifically for our soldiers and the electoral process," Capt. Lyle Schackelford asked in an e-mail to friends and family members. "The insurgents...