Biblical Counseling for Military Members and Veterans that relies entirely on Christ.

Military members and veterans face unique challenges and struggles that are often distinctly different than what the average person in the Unites States experiences. Often times this leaves them considering themselves as outcasts from society in many regards. As a three time combat veteran, I personally know this feeling very well. This is where Biblical counseling from a former military member and combat veteran can play a crucial role in providing hope, support, and guidance in how God's Word practically and personally speaks to the matters of military service, and it's effects on all aspects of life.

Where did the operation of our lives go so sideways, so as to drive toward some kind of abort criteria? We naturally, start searching for the source of enemy fire in the wrong places. We assess the situation with the wrong wisdom, naturally. We conduct our AAR (After Action Review) and never consider a starting place for our assessement, that is entirely outside of ourselves, an objective One. 

The VA estimates that over 80% of military veterans engage in psychotherapy and that percentage has increased over last year as it has over the last several years. 

In a national study over the last ten years, 33% or more of United States service members had at least one mental health visit. All of this seems wonderful. The active duty and veteran populations are calling for support and someone is there to help. But is this the wrong starting place for service members and former service members? 

Suicide rates have advanced upward consistently with each passing decade and yet many don't see the connection with the increased reliance upon psychotherapies. The "answers" from psychology are not driving back the enemy with lasting hope. The yearly situation reports should be evaluating these missions as desperately in need of some different lines of advance. Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen are dying while secular psychology sends them charging up the same man centered, philosophical hill decade, after decade as if we either can't properly interpret the intel or we are just not willing to accept what it says.

Are we seeing this from the C2 bird's perspective and are we using the wrong weapons? Some would say that we are trying to use human reasoning to conquer human reasoning. Maybe we need something outside of human reasoning, something more powerful, and objective with the power to conquer human reasoning. We need close air support; help from above with weapons more powerful than those of human reasoning.

God starts in a very different place than we naturally do. He starts with Himself. The first and last authors of the Bible function like bookends on the whole of the Bible. These human instruments of God both start in the same exact place. God in organizing and giving us His Word, the Bible, with both the first and last authors begining in the exact same place. With Him, God. We must start and end where He starts and ends. With Himself.

The first man that God enlisted into the operation of taking pen to paper begins our Christian Bibles with God’s starting place for everything.

“In the beginning God…”

Moses, God's first human instrument in recording Scripture starts with God.

God is the starting place for all things and yet this common expression clearly states how God is almost always our last frequency to call out on. “I guess all we can do now is pray.” Very sadly, this expresses captures well, the thinking of many people and even those who are in the American church to some extent. Our last author of Scripture is the Apostle John who was trained by Christ directly. In his Gospel, John begins with,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God            (John 1:1).”

God’s Word reveals God’s Person and God’s Person is our starting place!

These two men, Moses and John, through whom God breath out His Words to humanity, form book ends if you will. Moses the first human writer of the Bible and John the last human writer of the Bible. Additionally, each of these authors are used by God to record the central, “I AM” statements of God that magnify His Person expressed throughout the whole of Scripture.

Moses records God’s first, “I AM…” statement and it can be understood in its context as essentially meaning, “I will be who, I will be.” The rest of the book of Exodus and the Bible gives us the in action, through interaction with humanity explanation of who God is.

Likewise, the last author of Scripture, John, records for us the many, “I AM” statements of Jesus Christ as He walked among His people in real life, in action, through interaction with humanity explaining to us and showing us, who God is. Jesus is the perfect representation of the Person of God (Hebrews 1:3).

Each of these first and last authors, point us directly to the person of God as He communicates to mankind with, “I AM the starting place.” Lima Charlie, right? (Loud and clear if your a civilian) Or, as Jesus will say in the last book of the Bible’s opening and closing statements,

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Rev 1:8).’”

And

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Rev 22:13)”

(Alph and Omega are not just used as phonetic alphabet they are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and the entire Bible was written in Greek in Jesus day)

Jesus is saying in the opening and closing remarks of the final book of the Bible, Revelation, that He is the first and the last letter, the only one who is entirely self-sufficient, the only One who needs nothing and no one, the Only One who cannot be added to or taken from. He is evaluated by nothing but evaluates everything. He cannot learn, He does not change. He cannot lie. He cannot error. All of His ways are perfect and when we see them as otherwise, it is most certainly a problem with our perspective and not a problem with His Person.

Hear His call. Come to His starting place, “Come unto Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest (Matt 11:28)”  

Yes, He sends those whom He has already trained, to go out and call others to Himself by teaching His Word’s and arriving at His meaning for our lives. Hear His calling you to start with Him, through the pages of His Word. Hear His call through the people He is sending to you. See Him in His Word, the Bible, Start with Him! In all your assessments of life's circumstances, start with what He says and who He is.

Right now you can do something about the tragic suiside rates in American and among the miltary / veteran community. You can share your story about how He has helpped you see life through the knowing of His Person and the light that He brought to your life, through knowing Him. You can comment below or email your comments directly as give us permission to share them using your initials only.

You can support this operation more by adding your voice to the choir and praying for those who read your testamony. Of course you can support us by monthy financial gifts, but your words of hope followed by faithful prayer can do so much more (James 5:16)

Military Outreach: Sharing the Gospel with Veterans

Military Outreach: Sharing the Gospel with Veterans

Profound suffering (trauma) is not a military member only club as we shall see. This being said, many military personnel are well acquainted with suffering and due to a lack of training, they are taking their own lives!

You can help them!!!

Right here, and right now!

 If you have known great pain (military or civilian), your comments could give your great pain, great purpose.

Our unique and often painful life experiences can be used by God, that we might know the Gospel and the love of Christ for us more fully and personally! With great pain, God can bring great purpose, when we learn how to run to the Gospel with our pain. With your permission, I would like to show you how this is practically possible and how to practice a proven way of engaging with pain.

Training, like many of us received from the military, teaches us to ask the most important questions and give the most needed information in response to those questions. You may be familiar with asking for an ACE report. This ACE acronym teaches us to ask for the right information. What is the current situation of your troops regarding their Ammo, Causalities, and Equipment. 

Similarly, the SALUTE report taught us to give the most important information to our leaders when enemy troops were spotted in our AO (area of operations). Size, Activity, Location, Unit identification, Time, and Equipment. This was how we were taught to organize the needed information about a newly discovered enemy force.

When the bullets started “popping” as they made contact with your surroundings, we instinctively called out the “D’s” that we had drilled into our thinking for just such a moment. Direction of fire, Distance to the enemy force, etc…

These acronyms trained us to ask the best questions and give the most needed responses while under pressure on the battlefield with bullets flying. 

Let me give you a new and simple acronym to use, when you are facing the pain and pressures associated with the human experiences that are filled with sinful people, who make sinful choices that send bullets of pain ripping into your life. Let me use my training as a Biblical Counselor to help you on the battlefield of domestic life as well as the combat zones you are called into. Let me help you go to the cross of Jesus with your pain by asking the right question and focusing on the right details. 

CROSS,

Consider the Cross if Christ and His life.

Relate to His pain in your pain.

Observe His pain On your behalf.

Savor the knowing of Him in this special and painful way. 

Say you need His help and Say to others how He loves you.

Most of the time we have not learned to ask the right question. We ask, "How can God love me in the midst of all this pain?" The better question is, "What are God's good purposes in allowing pain? And Why would God put Himself through this type of pain on purpose?"

That’s right, God imagined the Cross and all its horrors before He created anything that exists (Revelation 13:8). Was God’s most beautiful way of demonstrating the nature and quality of His love to bring about the cross of Jesus with all its horrors? Yes!

The Cross of Christ that reveals the nature and quality of God's love for us, moves pain from pointless to purposeful and without the cross, all pain has little purpose. God could have organized the universe in any way He wanted. Why then did He allow so much pain in what He created? There are many good answers to this question but let me stick with the one at hand and leave the rest for now. God demonstrates the quality of His love for us by putting His Son through the same pain you are feeling right now and so much more pain! Jesus experienced every persons unique pain all in one short life. 

Have you ever thought about how God organized the life of Jesus so that every human pain can be seen in the life of Jesus and His Cross? Have you been adopted as a child and feel the pain of this in your life, daily, so was Jesus, He felt this way too. In God’s perfect plan, Joseph is not the biological parent of Jesus (Matthew 1:24-25).

Are you lonely and longing for intimate companionship, so was Jesus in His humanity while walking the same earthly wildernesses and being peppered with Satanic assaults in His mind (Matthew 4 and Luke 4).

Have you lost a child and feel this pain every single day, so has God, and He organized the events of human history so that He might feel our pain for Himself, before we felt it. One of the reasons He allows pain to exist in the world is so that we might know the quality of His love for us and walk in relationship with Him (Matthew 3:17 and Romans 8:32).

Do you have as spouse who has been unfaithful to you, and you feel betrayed (as you should), so has Jesus (John 13:2). 

Maybe, like me you have experience all of these to some degree or another; betrayal of the closest and most intimate kind, loss of a children who has died or rejected you completely, loneliness and longing for friendship that lasted months, parents that abandoned you, and the list could go on and on as we share our painful lives around the campfires of life.

God so orchestrated the events recorded in the Bible, so that we can relate to the pain He went through, first. He put Himself through the pains we would feel and He lead the way in doing it not only first but to the greatest degree. We can know Him in our pain. The Apostle Paul endured severe pain and some of that pain is detailed in the Bible (2 Corinthians 11:23-28). How did he endure such a list of painful experiences? It seems like being rejected by people and having them stone you with rocks (not weed) would end your ministry career immediately and for good. Paul tells us how he endured the pain of not only rejections, stonings, beatings, imprisonments, but so much more, again and again. 

He took his pain to the Cross of Christ.

CROSS,

Consider the Cross if Christ and His life.

Relate to His pain in your pain.

Observe His pain On your behalf.

Savor the knowing of Him in this special and painful way. 

Say you need His help and Say to others how He loves you.

Here is what the Apostle Paul says to us about how he dealt with pain. I pray you see our CROSS acronym in his words! 

"But whatever things were gain to me (Paul), those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things (in this life) to be loss (garbage), in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the rigorousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain the resurrection from the dead;" – Philippians 3:7-11

We can see in Paul’s own words, how he related to Christ in his pain and made the pain of life purposeful. Let’s take a look now, at another, more recent sufferer’s experience.

Joni Erickson Tada was paralyzed from the neck down in a swimming accident in her teen years. In her book, “Joni An Unforgettable Story,” she talks candidly about the years where she asked family members to help her end her own life. Here is how she used our CROSS technique to give her great pain, great purpose and turn the corner from suicide to a life of beautiful purpose that now teaches us to turn that same corner in that same way and find purpose.

On pages 91-92 of her book she says,

“The Scriptures were encouraging, and I applied the reality and truth of them to my own special needs. During these difficult midnight hours, I’d visualize Jesus standing beside my Stryker. I imagined Him as a strong, comforting person with a deep, reassuring voice, saying specifically to me, ‘Lo I am with you always. If I loved you enough to die for you, don’t you think I know best how to run your life, even if it means you being paralyzed?’

This reality of the Scripture was, that He was with me now. Beside me in my own room! That was the comfort I needed.

I discovered that the Lord Jesus Christ could indeed empathize with my situation. On the cross for those agonizing, horrible hours, waiting for death, He was immobilized, helpless, paralyzed. Jesus did know what it was like not to be able to move – not to be able to scratch your nose, shift your weight, wipe your eyes. He was paralyzed on the cross. He could not move His arms or legs. Christ knew exactly how I felt (Joni).”

Like the Apostle Paul, Joni learned to Savor the love of God for her in the painful experiences that Christ suffered on her behalf. Because of her painful life experiences, of being paralyzed, she knows Christ in ways that most of us cannot. Because of your painful life experiences, you can know Christ in ways that others may not. You can know Him personally and intimately in your pain, that He knows so well!

No one exactly knows your unique pain like He does. But you must choose to run to the CROSS of Christ with your pain so that your great pain will have great purpose in knowing the Son of God who endured such pain on your behalf. Let the bullets of pain that make contact with you during your day be reminders of His love for you. Memorize the CROSS acronym and every time you feel the pain of your loss, turn your mind to His knowing of your pain. Turn your mind to His love for you that endured the same type of and more pain on purpose, for you! Like Jonie and Paul, saturate your thinking with the image of the Cross of Christ who wants you to know Him as He knows you. Follow the examples of Paul, Joni and countless others who find great comfort in the Person of Jesus, who loves them and grants them the fellowship of His sufferings.

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” – Hebrews 4:14-16

If you don't know the historical life of Jesus, I suggest you take a few hours and read the Gospel of John and read for the purpose of knowing His person and experiences. Read to know His pain. Read to know His love for you. Read to find purpoes for His pain and then yours. Read to bring the light of His Person into your life experiences.

We often use four letter words in response to pain. Here is a better four letter word for pain.

When this technique helps you navigate your pain, circle back to us, please! Share your personal pain, CROSS navigation story in the comments of this post and give great CROSS magnifying purpose to your pain in helping the next reader know Christ! Or write us an email, give us permission to share and tell us how this CROSS technique helps you navigate your specific pain.

We can post your story using only your initials.

Right now, you can do something about the suicide rate in America and among the veteran / military communities. Military or not, you can add your unique voice to the choir saying, “turn to Jesus with your pain.” More than monthly financially support for this operation or buying our T-shirt, you can give the next readers your testimony and your daily prayers! By sharing your life, you can join us, as we share the comfort God has given us with those in need of comfort. Help us help them by taking Jesus to them with us right now, in real practical ways, with real stories about real pain, and a very real Savior!

Tada, Joni Erickson, Joni An Unforgetable Story, Zondervan Books, Grand Rapids, MI, 1996, pp 92-92

All Scripture NASB95, The Lockman Foundation, 1995

Operational Experiences for Military: Finding God's Way, Truth, and Life. - John 14:6

As a military member or veteran, you are trained in the field. Jesus trains His disciples (You and I) in this same way!

As the founder of Operation Outcast, I pray the following article challenges you to take deeper dives into God's Word as a man, a leader of a family, and a soldier! It is written by a fine military veteran who is finishing Seminary training next year and what he has to say comes from some valuable operational field experience instructing men.

The Need to Challenge Men

“Men don’t do homework.”

Several years ago, I was preparing to start a small group study for men at my church. I had noticed that many men did not know how to lead their families in studying the Bible, so my aim was to help develop that skill among the circle of men I knew.

Before getting started, I met with a mentor who had been involved with men’s ministry for longer than I had been alive. I started talking to him about my plans, going through sample studies with him I had found online. At this point, he gave me a frank warning: “You can’t choose a study that requires the men to do work during the week between studies. Men don’t do homework.”

My church at the time had several weekly studies for women, all of which required varying levels of work to be completed between each session. Yet here I was being told that men, who should be the spiritual leaders in the home, do not do homework. There was no point in assigning it, according to my mentor, because it would not get done.

There is an epidemic of men checking out from church. When I led my church’s ministry for young families, I noticed that most women would come to church even if their husbands were sick, traveling, or absent for some other reason. But there were only a couple men who would come without their wives.

At some point, we as a collective have looked at the problem of men not being involved in church and decided the reason they do not get involved is because it is too hard. So, we made it easier. In an effort to get men plugged in, we have told them how little work it takes to follow God. “Just read the Bible 15 minutes a day.” “That’s too much? Just do 5 minutes.” “Just show up to church during the football offseason.” “Just come to the retreat for the fun events; you don’t have to participate in the study portion if you don’t want to.”

There are two significant problems with this approach. First, we get out of our relationship with God what we put into it, and if we are putting little in, we get little in return (Mark 4:24). Second, it ignores the fact that men are not attracted to easy solutions: deep down they want to be challenged.

Men are Wired to Desire a Challenge

President John F. Kennedy famously said, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” In the same way, men are naturally attracted to challenges, not in spite of being hard but because they are hard.

This past summer, my six year old son has been learning to swim. He continually pushes the limit. If he can swim in the shallow end, he wants to learn to swim in the deep. If he can dive down and grab a sinking toy on the pool floor, he wants to push it deeper. I never taught him this; his natural bent is to do things that challenge him.

The secular world knows this. Social media is full of men challenging others to plank for two minutes a day, or to only eat whole foods for a month. The ads for Spartan Races are all about how hard it is – and people pay money to do it.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the military. Men often join in the first place because they want to be challenged and push themselves. Once in the military, they compete to go to specialty schools, not because the experience will be easy, but because they will be excruciatingly hard.

Yet in the church, we avoid challenging men, afraid that if we do so they will stop coming. What if the real reason they do not come is because it is too easy?

During a course I took on Christian Formation, the professor told my class that he reads five Psalms a day, in addition to his other daily prayer and Scripture reading. At that rate, one goes through the entire book of Psalms every month. The professor spaced the five Psalms throughout the day: one upon waking, one at breakfast, one at lunch, one at dinner, and one before bed. This way, the messages of the Psalms were constantly on his mind. He then challenged the class to do the same.

This seemed impossible to me. I had a hard enough time doing daily quiet time, there was no way I could add five Psalms every single day to that. But, that was what intrigued me the most. It seemed so impossible that I could not get it out of my head. I wanted to try it.

The Bible Challenges Men

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that following God is easy and only takes 15 minutes a day. The Bible tell us to take up our cross and follow Jesus, completely dying to our own desires (Matthew 16:24). The Bible tells us to love our wives as ourselves (Ephesians 5:25). These are challenges. These are impossibly hard. Yet the Bible commands us to do it.

What if we truly challenged men in our ministries? Instead of telling men to memorize one Bible verse a week (and then giving them a pass when they do not), what if we challenged the men in our ministry to memorize an entire book of the Bible? How many men in your study could memorize a book of the Bible in a week? Probably none. It would take months of effort. Some would give up, but not all.

Challenging Men Forces them to Rely on God

During the early days of my time in the Army, a leader told me that the Army will always give you more than you can handle, because that is the only way for you to accomplish more than you thought you could accomplish.

In II Corinthians 12:9, Paul tells us that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. When we are able to do things that we could not do on our own, that is evidence of God working through us. But how will we ever do that if we only do the things we are already able to do? We cannot learn to rely on God’s strength if we only do things we can do with our own.

It is key to remember that God is the goal of our pursuit, and provides the strength for us to pursue Him, and even provides our motivation to do so. In some examples I mentioned earlier, men take on challenges with the motivation of looking good in front of others. The bent of the natural man is to run away from God, so when man desires to pursue God, that itself is evidence of God working in them. Men who desire God are ready to be challenged, not to be told they should be content in the shallow end of the pool.

After taking that Christian Formation class, I decided to try the professor’s recommendation of reading five Psalms a day. I tend to skim things when I read, so I also committed to reading them out loud to force myself to read each word. That habit, which I continue to this day, changed my life. I had never been a fan of the Psalms because I had trouble understanding and applying them, but the more time I spent in them, the more I saw how rich they are. Reading them time and time again, I internalized them. Also, reading Scripture throughout the day kept God on the forefront of my mind. My anger, which had been one of my greatest struggles, started to come under control. Not because I was specifically reading Psalms about anger, but because I was constantly in the Word throughout the day.

Was it challenging? You bet. I would frequently forget to do the lunch Psalm and have to do two at dinner. Some days I would miss entirely and then have 10 Psalms for the next day. I came to dread dinner on the 24th, since that is the day I would do Psalm 119 (which, for the record, only takes about 20 minutes – not the two hours you would expect). I daresay that in the years I have now done this, there is not a single month when I have done it perfectly, and many months I fail to finish all 150 by the end.

But that is the point of a challenge.

Do men do homework? I cannot say for sure, but I can definitively say that they will not do homework if none is assigned. And they will not grow if we do not challenge them to.

JMB is pursuing his Master of Divinity at SWBTS and expects to graduate in December 2025. His counseling focus includes veterans and caregivers. He can be reached at jmbbiblicalcounseling@gmail.com.