WELS Military Devotions podcast

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<div class='avia-iframe-wrap'><iframe title="February 28, 2025 – Military Devotion – The Big Picture" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1060955103?dnt=1&app_id=122963&autoplay=0&loop=0&controls=1&muted=0" width="1500" height="844" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media"></iframe></div> Watch the Devotion Based on Luke 9:28-36 So, where are you going? Where is your next duty station? These are questions I’ve been asking our military members as the PCS season is fast approaching. Are you looking to fill a billet, a slot, and hoping and praying that for one of your top five billets your name is on the top of that list? Where would you like to land? I know some of you would like to fill a billet that advances your career, or perhaps puts you closer to family or friends, or takes you to a part of the country or the world you’ve never been to before. Maybe it’s your final duty station. You’ve already begun working on that paperwork as you transition out of military life to civilian life. For some, you know exactly how the next few years will play out for you. It’s been mapped out. For others, you’re not so sure. Wouldn’t it be would helpful if the all-knowing God stood you on top of a mountain and pointed down to a path coming down that mountain, and on that path God has laid out everything for you: every PCS, every deployment, every redeployment, every school, every training, all of the difficult times that lie ahead so you can prepare for them, and every joy so that you can rejoice in them? Wouldn’t that be nice? Well, he does. Walk with me up a mountain with three of Jesus’ friends: John and his brother James, and their buddy Peter. Follow Jesus up a mountain. Watch and listen as he prays. And then look! See him transfigured before your eyes. The lowly, ordinary Jesus, the Jew from Nazareth, is suddenly transfigured. You can read this story in Luke chapter 9. There Luke describes Jesus’ clothes as they became bright as a flash of lightning. His face shines like the sun. It is so glorious that the disciples grovel in the dirt, sinners who realize they are standing in the presence of the divine. Jesus is transformed into something glorious, like God . . . because that’s who he was and is: God in the flesh. But here on the mountain he pulls back the curtain on his humanity and allows his disciples and us, through their eyewitness testimony, to see Jesus for who he is: God for us. While the disciples are shielding their eyes, two prophets from Old Testament appear with Jesus—Moses and Elijah—and they are chatting with Jesus. Luke tells us they are talking “about [Jesus’] departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). They discussed his departure . . . his death on the cross and his glorious resurrection from the dead and his glorious ascension back into heaven. The all-knowing God stands us on the mountain and points to a path leading down the mountain. He points to all of the hardships and joys of your life and shows you their glorious end: a grave—your grave—a vacated grave. The end includes a glorious resurrection, a glorious eternity in heaven, where you will behold the face of Jesus in all of its glory without shielding your eyes, without groveling in the dirt, because you are covered in his glory, in his righteousness. This is the big picture. God reveals it to you. No matter what this PCS season brings, no matter which billet you fill, no matter which duty station you get or don’t get, no matter the length of the deployment cycle, no matter where you land after your discharge from the military—God has shown you the big picture. Jesus is still God. Jesus is still glorious. Jesus knows the path you will walk. Jesus knows the hardships and the joys you will experience. Jesus knows the glorious end of your life’s journey. It ends the same way it begins. With him. See the big picture. Know that Jesus is your big picture. Prayer: Lord God, before the suffering and death of your one and only Son, you revealed his glory on the holy mountain. Grant that we who bear his cross on earth may behold by faith the light of his heavenly glory and so be changed into his likeness. This week, Lord, we celebrate with both the Navy Reserve and Seabees, who celebrate birthdays this week. Since 1915 you have provided faithful men and women who are willing to serve in their civilian vocations and train as sailors at the same time, ready and willing to deploy wherever their country needs them. For the past 83 years through our Seabees, you have provided miles of bridges, roads, bases, and airfields around the world as our Navy’s construction force. Continue to bless our nation’s defense forces through the men and women who serve in our Navy. Lord Jesus, in your name we pray. Amen. Written and recorded by Rev. Paul Horn, WELS National Civilian Chaplain to the Military, San Diego, California. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. Note: Scripture reading footnotes are clickable only in the web version.…

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Go to War. Love Your Enemies – February 21, 2025 9:52

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<div class='avia-iframe-wrap'><iframe loading="lazy" title="February 21, 2025 – Military Devotion – Go to War. Love Your Enemies." src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1058667469?dnt=1&app_id=122963&autoplay=0&loop=0&controls=1&muted=0" width="1500" height="844" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media"></iframe></div> Watch the Devotion Based on Romans 12:14-21; 13:4 If you currently serve or have served in our nation’s military as a warfighter or a service member, do you know how God describes you in the Bible? He says in Romans 13:4 that you are “agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” Because you are employed by our government, God has given the government the sword. In Romans 13, Paul says that the servant of God, the government, does not bear the sword for nothing. You are an extension of God’s hand through the government. You are to bring punishment on evil people, to bring punishment on wicked people, which means you are to be “Army Strong,” to “Ranger Up,” to be “Forged by the Sea,” to “Aim High,” to be “Always Faithful,” to be “Always Prepared,” Semper Fidelis, Semper Paratus . You are to bring punishment on the enemy. You are also to be a deterrent, which is why we have units and squadrons and battalion stations strategically all over the United States to tell our near-peer competitors, “Listen, if you step out of line, you know what waits for you.” And at the same time, this is how God talks to us in the same letter to the Romans, in 12:17-21. He says, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Some years ago, when I served a congregation that was located near a military installation, I had a U.S. Army soldier come up to me after church and say, “Pastor, I really struggled with your prayer this morning.” This soldier had recently redeployed from the war zone, and I had prayed for our enemies. And as a U.S. Army medic, he had treated the wounded and the dying, his battle buddies, his friends in arms, his brothers in arms. And he had seen what the enemy had done to his friends. So he said, “Pastor, I don’t really pray that prayer. I really stick to the imprecatory psalms.” These are psalms that talk about dashing the enemy’s head against rocks and bathing our feet in our enemy’s blood. King David prayed these prayers. So how do we reconcile that? Love our enemies. And the job that you are called to do is to serve as an agent of wrath. Look to Christ. Look to Jesus on the cross as he is being put to death, as he’s being murdered at the hands of wicked men, and listen to what he says: “Father, forgive them.” Look to Christ. When a royal official—a man who worked for a pagan, hedonistic government ruler—went to Jesus because his son was dying, Jesus didn’t question him. He went and he healed his son. Actually, Jesus didn’t even go! He just said the word and this man’s son was healed. Another time a Roman centurion came to Jesus. This is a company commander of men who knew how to kill. They were agents of wrath, right? He came to Jesus because one of his servants was dying, and Jesus said the word and he healed the servant. When Roman soldiers went to John the Baptizer, John didn’t say, “Hey, you need to find a new profession.” He said, “Carry out your vocation faithfully and honestly and with integrity.” Look to Christ when you struggle to reconcile these two truths that seem to contradict each other at times. Go to the cross, and there you will find forgiveness for your anger, for words of vengeance, for thoughts of revenge, for when you have spoken hateful words about other human beings. Bring that all to the cross and know that you are forgiven for that. Then bring that cross with you as you carry out your vocation as a warfighter, so that you know why you were called to do what you do. Then go carry out your vocation as a warfighter, a service member, a pencil pusher, a support staff person, a grunt, a pilot, an aviator, an officer. And do it faithfully and give glory to God for it in all that you do. Rely on him to be your strength to carry it out. And if it means that you must go to war, then go do that. Go and carry out your missions and your sorties and do it in good conscience, for God has called you to do it. He sends you to punish the evildoer, to protect the good, to preserve peace. Martin Luther once said, “If the sword were not on guard to preserve peace, everything in the world must go to ruin because of lack of peace.” Pray for successful missions and sorties. Pray that God would suppress evil people who wish to bring to the world rape and murder and robbery and chaos and terror and destruction and corruption and every other wickedness that threatens peace. Everything that threatens the prosperity and spread of the gospel. Everything that prevents citizens from their ability to earn their daily bread by carrying out their vocations in society. And at the same time, follow your Savior, pray for your enemies, pray that they hear the gospel, pray that they repent, pray that they come to faith, and pray that they may be saved and not die but live. For that is God’s will too—that all people be saved. That all people come to a knowledge of the truth and not die but live. So go to war and love your enemies. Be the sword. And if you struggle with that and if you wrestle with that, continue to go to the cross and live in peace knowing that God is at peace with you because of what he has already done. The war has already been won for you in Christ Jesus. So go to war and love your enemies. Prayer: O almighty and everlasting God, through your own Son you have commanded us to love our enemies, to do good to them that hate us, and to pray for those that persecute us. We pray that by your divine providence they may be led to true repentance and be of one mind and heart with us and with your whole church. I also pray for the naval aviators whose aircraft crashed in the San Diego harbor. I thank you that you have kept them safe, that they were able to eject from their aircraft safely. I thank you for the civilian boat in the harbor that was there to pull them out of the water in less than a minute from when they hit the water. I thank you for the Coast Guard that has also come to help. I thank you for those that have contained the oil and fuel that has been spilled into the harbor. We pray that you be with all pilots and aviators, mechanics, air traffic controllers, and the instructors who train the men and women who dare the eagles’ flight. Send your holy angels to keep them safe, O Lord. In your name I pray. Amen. Written and recorded by Rev. Paul Horn, WELS National Civilian Chaplain to the Military, San Diego, California. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. Note: Scripture reading footnotes are clickable only in the web version.…

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Enough Is Enough! – February 14, 2025 9:52

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<div class='avia-iframe-wrap'><iframe loading="lazy" title="February 14, 2025 – Military Devotion – Enough Is Enough" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1055630035?dnt=1&app_id=122963&autoplay=0&loop=0&controls=1&muted=0" width="1500" height="844" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media"></iframe></div> Watch the Devotion Based on 2 Corinthians 12:7b-10 Recently, a Marine Corps gunnery sergeant’s wife reached out to me and said, “Chaplain Horn, my husband is dealing with some things. He has been deployed in the past, and he’s seen some things and experienced some things. He’s seen the death of our enemy combatants. He has seen the pain and suffering of civilians in that country. He has seen the pain and suffering of his battle buddies, and he feels that pain and suffering in himself. And he’s asking the question, ‘Where does God fit into the reality of our human suffering?’ ” He’s not alone, is he? A U.S. Army colonel recently reached out to me and said, “Chaplain Horn, my teenage daughter is suffering and in pain and is dealing with some things and she’s asking me some questions that I don’t have the answers to. Namely, where does God—a good, holy, just, loving God—fit into the reality of our human suffering?” They’re not alone, are they? The apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Christians in Corinth, and in this second letter to the Corinthians, in chapters 11 and 12, Paul talks about pain and suffering. He specifically talks about the pain and the suffering he went through as an apostle for Jesus. In chapter 12 Paul talks about specific pain and suffering and describes it as a thorn in his side—literally a sharp thing, a messenger of Satan to torment him, to vex him, to irritate him. And it’s so bad that Paul finally says, “Enough is enough.” He prays to the Lord Jesus to take it away. He literally says, “Three times I begged God to take it away from me.” So what is it for you? This pain in your side, this thorn in your flesh, this messenger of Satan to torment you and vex you? The apostle Paul never explained what the thorn in his side was—whether it was physical, mental, emotional, psychological, or spiritual. Maybe it was all of the above, and that’s good. Because then you and I can put our names into this story too and say, “Hey, we get it.” We’ve suffered mentally, emotionally, physically, psychologically, spiritually—all of the above—and we’ve prayed to God maybe more than three times. We’ve begged God for weeks, months, maybe even years to take it away. And how does God answer the apostle Paul? He says this: “Enough is enough. Enough is my grace for you.” Jesus answered Paul, “Enough is my grace for you. Sufficient is my grace for you. Adequate is my grace for you. This love that you have not earned, that you have not asked for—it is undeserved. This is enough for you, Paul, in your suffering and in your pain.” Why was God’s love for Paul enough? Because Jesus said to him, “For my power is made perfect in weakness” (1 Corinthians 12:9). “This well-known power of mine reaches its goal in weakness.” We see that in Jesus’ own life, don’t we? We see Jesus’ weakness on the cross, being tormented in body, mind, and soul as he bore the guilt of the world. That weight must have weighed down on his soul and on his mind. The shame and the embarrassment. The weakness of dying as a criminal on the cross. But through it God reaches his goal, through the pain and suffering of his Son, Jesus. The goal was the forgiveness of all of your sins. The goal is that through weakness and pain, Jesus does away with weakness and pain forever because he rises from the dead, never to suffer or be in pain ever again, never to die again. So Jesus promises that through your pain and through your weakness, God will reach his goal. His grace is sufficient for you. God’s love for you is enough in your pain and your suffering. God loves you enough to allow pain and suffering to come into your life because it’s going to reach its goal. You’re going to realize that you are weak, that you are beyond your ability to endure, just like Paul said. You’re going to say, “Enough is enough.” Maybe you’ve said that once, twice, three times, or even more than that in your lifetime. “Enough is enough, Lord.” But God says, “My grace is sufficient for you. Enough is my grace for you. Because my power is made perfect in your weakness. I’m going to do something great and glorious through your pain and through your weakness. You’re going to realize you can’t do this by yourself, that you have to rely on me when you are weak. Then you are strong because my power rests on you.” And so we can say, “Yes, I’m beyond my ability to endure.” Just like that gunnery sergeant. Just like that colonel’s daughter. Just like the apostle Paul. We can say, “I’ve had enough, but God is my strength, he is my power, and so then I am strong when I’m weak, because God is strong enough for me.” I may not often understand why I suffer, or why others suffer, but God gives me the answer in his Word: “My power, my grace, is sufficient for you.” So when we ask the question, Where does God—a loving, just, and holy God—fit into the picture of suffering? Sometimes we don’t always have the specific answers to those questions, but God comes back and says, “You know what? Not yet. The pain and the suffering will go away someday when I bring you home to heaven. But for now, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in your weakness.” And so with the apostle Paul, we can say, “Well, I delight in my weaknesses. I’m glad in my hardships and persecutions and difficulties. For when I’m weak, then I am strong, for God promises to be my power and my strength.” He promises to be your power and your strength to get you through the suffering. He will be with you in the suffering to bring you through to its end, which is a resurrection from the dead and life eternal in heaven—where he will wipe away the tears forever, where we will be happy and glad and rejoice all the days of our life for eternity. Enough is enough. Enough is God’s grace for you. Prayer: O God of power and might, you know that we live in the midst of many great dangers, and in our frailty we cannot stand upright. Give us strength and protection to support us in all peril and carry us through all temptations. Lord, this week we celebrate with the Coast Guard Reserve, which celebrates its birthday on February 19th. Since 1941, the Coast Guard Reserve has provided a trained force of officers who are ready to serve during emergencies. And so, Lord, we ask that you keep reservists proficient and ready in their skills so that they may faithfully provide homeland security, serve as national defense, and save lives during domestic disaster operations. We recommend them to your care, O Lord. Amen. Written and recorded by Rev. Paul Horn, WELS National Civilian Chaplain to the Military, San Diego, California. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. Note: Scripture reading footnotes are clickable only in the web version.…

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Military Devotion – Here Am I. Send Me! – February 7, 2025 9:52

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<div class='avia-iframe-wrap'><iframe loading="lazy" title="February 7, 2025 – Military Devotion – Here Am I. Send Me!" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1054557371?dnt=1&app_id=122963&autoplay=0&loop=0&controls=1&muted=0" width="1500" height="844" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media"></iframe></div> Watch the Devotion Based on Isaiah 6:1-8 Some years ago, I was privileged to attend the graduation for the U.S. Army Rangers at Fort Benning, now Fort Moore, in Georgia. At that graduation, one of the speakers quoted Isaiah 6:8: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ ” The purpose for that quotation and its use among the U.S. Army Rangers is that it reflects the Rangers’ ability to complete tasks with little to no prompting, to engage in violence of action. And those who wear the Ranger tab are qualified to carry out those types of missions. I’m not a U.S. Army Ranger. I’ve not been qualified in any type of the Special Operations Command training with their weapons or their tactics. I am unqualified in close quarters battle. That’s not something that I’ve been called to do. And I don’t know about you. Maybe some of you are qualified in that, and I thank you for doing that on our behalf. And maybe for some of you, that’s not your vocation either. You are a military service member. You are a warrior. And maybe you’re not a warfighter, but you are somebody who supports the warfighters. You also have other callings from God—other vocations. Maybe you are a son or a daughter to your parents, and you’re called to love and care for your mom and your dad. Maybe you are a husband or a wife, and you’re called to love your spouse. Maybe you are a father or a mother, and you are called to love your children. Maybe you are someone who is not in the military world, but you’re on the civilian side, but you’re still called to serve those that you interact with on a day-to-day basis. And still there may be some of you who have one foot on the military side and one foot on the civilian side as you serve in our Guard or as a reservist. This is where God has put you, and what he has called you to do is to love and serve those people at this time and at this place. So my question to you is this: How is it going? Do you feel qualified to serve those people at this time in your life and at that place? I don’t know about you, but I often don’t feel qualified to carry out the vocations that God has called me to carry out. I often disappoint my spouse and my children and my friends and my colleagues with promises made and promises not kept. And I often find myself with a self-serving attitude rather than a self-sacrificing attitude. And it reminds me of a part of the Ranger Creed that says, “Never shall I fail my comrades.” Well, I am often guilty of that. I don’t do those things. I often feel unqualified to carry out the vocations that God has called me to do. What about you? Well, you’re not alone. The prophet Isaiah felt that way as he stood in the presence of a holy God. He acknowledged that he was sinful and unclean, unqualified to do the work that God was going to call him to do. But in Isaiah 6, that same chapter that that U.S. Army Ranger quoted at that Ranger tab pinning ceremony, God said to Isaiah, “Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for” (verse 7). And by faith Isaiah believed that. His Savior would not take on human flesh for another 700 years. But Isaiah believed that that’s what God had done. He had taken away his guilt. He had atoned for his sin. And the same is true for you and for me. Our Lord Jesus has taken away our guilt by becoming our guilt. For all those times that we were self-serving and not self-sacrificing, Jesus sacrificed himself perfectly for you and for me. He said to you and me, “You are innocent. You are not guilty.” Jesus paid the ultimate price by laying down his life for yours and mine. He has atoned for your sin, which means he has made that payment of life blood for you and for me. And it was after the Lord had proclaimed that forgiveness to Isaiah and asked him, “Who shall go for us? And whom shall we send?” Isaiah raised his hand and said, “Here am I. Send me!” Whatever vocation God has called you to at this time and this place to love and serve other people, we can confidently say to God, “Yes! Here am I. Send me! You have called me to love and serve these people.” The reason we can do that is because he has taken away our guilt. He has atoned for our sin. So go! Go and serve confidently and say to the Lord, “Here am I. Send me!” Prayer: Lord, with heavy hearts we come before you on behalf of the families of those U.S. Army soldiers, Rebecca Lobach, Ryan Austin O’Hara, and Andrew Eaves, the U.S. Army flight crew who died in that helicopter crash in Washington, D.C. We also pray for the family members of the 64 individuals on that commercial aircraft who also perished. You tell us in your Word in Isaiah’s book that your ways are higher than our ways and your thoughts are not our thoughts, and sometimes we struggle to understand a tragedy like this, Lord. When we suffer and when we are sad, you point us to your promises in Christ Jesus to grant peace and to give the hope of eternal life into heaven and to strengthen us on our way there. And so, Father in heaven, we ask that you grant that peace, that hope of eternal life, that strength to the survivors, that you provide faithful Christian pastors and chaplains and family members and friends to comfort them in the weeks and months ahead. And so also, Father, we pray for all of our service members who are training around the world. Send your holy angels to watch over them and to protect them. Keep them faithful to their training. Keep them alert and aware. Keep them safe, Lord, by your grace. Amen. Written and recorded by Rev. Paul Horn, WELS National Civilian Chaplain to the Military, San Diego, California. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. Note: Scripture reading footnotes are clickable only in the web version.…

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Military Devotion – The Perfect Marriage – January 31, 2025 9:52

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