You HAVE to hear this story! (with Guest Jeremy Stalnecker)

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The mortar rounds were getting closer and closer. I mean, so bad that as I stood outside of our vehicle and was on the handset of my radio trying to get help, you could feel the percussion, like from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head.

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It was terrible. But there we were. We were in a very bad situation. Things were getting much, much worse by the second.

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And you're forced in those moments of life to make a decision. We only have two choices here. We can stay where we are.

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We can do that. And that is a decision to die. The decision to stay where you are and die is a decision you're making.

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But there's a better decision. And the better decision is to put one foot in front of the other and march. Take the next step.

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Get out of the kill zone. Get to a place where you can better impact the enemy. And I hit the

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YouTube link. Don't say hit, that sounds violent. And I feel my troubles all melt away.

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Keith Foskey. He's not like most Calvinists.

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He's nice. Your Calvinist podcast is filmed before a live studio audience.

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Welcome back to Your Calvinist podcast. My name is Keith Foskey and I am your Calvinist and I'm glad to have you with me today.

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And as we begin the show, I want to remind you just about the partners that we have. First of all, this show is a ministry of Sovereign Grace Family Church.

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So if you're in the Jacksonville, Florida area, we would love to have you come and visit with us. And you can find out more about us on our brand new updated website, sgfcjacks .org.

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We're also a partner with tinybibles .com. I keep my little tiny Bible here with me all the time. It can go anywhere.

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It can be placed anywhere. It can be hidden just about anywhere. And these Bibles are available at tinybibles .com.

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They're also creating a new tiny gospel of John and it's available for preorder. You can go there and check it out on their website.

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I want to also remind you if you want to support the show, you can do so at buymeacoffee .com slash your Calvinist.

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Well, today we have with us in a, well, not in studio, unfortunately, we have it through the miracle of modern technology.

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A person that I'm coming to be familiar with have been over the last few weeks looking at his stuff and I'm excited to introduce him to you.

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Jeremy Stahlnecker seeks to help others answer one of the toughest questions we all face and that is how do

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I move forward when my world is falling apart? Jeremy is the co -founder of the

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Mighty Oaks Foundation dedicated to helping America's military warriors and their families who are suffering from the unseen wounds of combat, such as post -traumatic stress disorder.

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In addition to his current role, Jeremy has served as Marine Corps infantry officer and as a senior pastor.

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He's an accomplished author, inspirational speaker and a frequent guest on some of America's most prominent news networks.

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When he's not working, Jeremy enjoys spending time with his wife and four children training Brazilian jiu -jitsu, which is exciting for me because I love martial arts and getting ready for the upcoming ultra marathon.

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And as I bring him on, I'm going to ask him what exactly an ultra marathon is. Jeremy, what's an ultra marathon?

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An ultra marathon. So an ultra marathon technically is any, uh, foot race, any running race longer than a marathon.

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A marathon is 26 .2 miles. So ultra marathons span, you know, typically the first distance would be 50 kilometers, which is 30, uh, 31 miles.

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Um, but it goes up. I mean, there are ultra marathons that are, you know, multi -day events, but anything that's longer than 26 .2,

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I got into this a few years ago. I realized that I was getting old and that my, uh, my window for doing, uh, anything, uh, physically exciting was, uh, was coming to an end.

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So I started running these marathons and, um, yeah, it's been, it's been fun. I don't like running, but I like the, the atmosphere and the event of all of it.

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Yeah. I always joke. I tell people I'm training for my first half K but I think

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I can make it. I think you can. If you try hard enough and work hard enough, you can do it. I push myself.

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I can make that half K. Well, uh, it's so nice to have you on. You also mentioned

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Brazilian jujitsu. I didn't tell you beforehand, but, uh, I, I've been a martial arts student for 30 years.

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I teach karate. We have a karate club at our church and I know karate is not as cool as Brazilian jujitsu, but I did train for a couple of years and I did my one and only

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Brazilian jujitsu competition where I got smoked twice. So I respect you guys.

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I was in the white belt division. I was still getting smoked, but it's a wonderful way to, uh, to learn the,

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I almost say it's like magic, the magic of leverage and the magic of, but go ahead.

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Yeah, it is. I, you know, I started training, um, I was 39 when I started training jujitsu. So, uh, but I did because my kids,

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I got my kids into it. My son who's a police officer now, so he's, he's older now, but, um, he got into it and he was like getting good.

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And so we got in a wrestling match in our living room and he almost choked me out and I had to just about break his foot to keep him from choking me out.

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And that was my wake up call. I guess it's time to do something, but yeah, it's, it's a lot of fun, man.

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Those, those young kids get after it and us old guys just try to hang on, but it's a lot of fun. So what's your span for your kids?

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Uh, your age, age span. My oldest is 24. My daughter's 24. And then I have a 23 year old son.

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Who's the police officer. And then I have a 16 year old daughter and a 14 year old son. So I kind of have them at two different ends, but nice.

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Yeah. Yeah. We have, we have six, 26 years old down to two. Oh, wow.

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Yeah. God is hilarious. And he gave me a baby in my forties and uh, and I love him to death, but boy, he keeps me very tired.

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I always say parenting is a young man's game, but I guess it's not always a young man's game. My wife and I jokingly call each other

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Abraham and Sarah. The son of my old age. Well, um, you have an interesting life story.

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Like I said, I've been looking at your videos. I've been going through your material, uh, that I, that, you know, I had beforehand.

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And, and one of the things that interests me is the fact that not only are you a motivational speaker, not only are you a, uh, uh,

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I don't want to say former Marine, cause once Marine, always a Marine, but you're, you're a Marine and you're a, you're a, uh, you're a person who goes out and tries to help people, but you're also someone who is very firmly committed to your faith.

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And even though you're not perfect yet, because you're not a Calvinist, but you, you grew up in a situation where you were the son of a minister.

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So can you tell me just a little bit about what it was like and what, you know, what kind of church you were in, what kind of life you had?

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Because I, I find that interesting for my own children. Um, you know, hearing about other people's stories and how they saw their father, um, is a big thing for me.

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Yeah. Well, it's, it's interesting. And I know you've done even recently a couple episodes on, um, what would be an

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IFB church, independent fundamental Baptist church or an independent Baptist church. Uh, my dad was actually an independent

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Baptist pastor. In fact, you know, for those that are familiar with kind of that stream of churches came kind of from the

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Isles Anderson stream. And so, you know, very, very conservative. Um, and that was the kind of church that I grew up in.

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But when I was 13, 12, maybe 12 years old, my mom and dad moved from a ministry position, um, in Indiana moved out to California where I currently live and where they were both from.

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So my dad moved home to plant a church and started a church, an independent Baptist church in a very small community, kind of in rural

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California, a lot of cows and alfalfa farming and that kind of thing started that church. And, um,

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I mean, there's a lot I could say about that and people who come from kind of that stream of, of a church or whatever you call that would look at that as maybe a very legalistic or, you know, um, kind of an unpleasant, uh, type of, of church or denomination.

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My dad was not that way. He was very principled. Um, he, he definitely believed that, you know, that was the right thing for us and believed in what would be, you know, some of the normal hallmarks of, of an independent fundamental

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Baptist church. But, um, it was very kind and, and loved his family.

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And although he was very principled, man, you know,

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I've been asked this a lot, you know, about my dad, but there's no more influential person in my life than my father.

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And I think it's because, you know, going back and trying to examine that and understand it, it's because he never pretended to be perfect and he was at home what he was in public.

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And so for me growing up, there was never this hypocrisy. There was never this, you know, kind of, um, loss of, of identity, right?

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Like you're different at home than you are out in the real world. And so growing up, I knew I didn't want to be a pastor.

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And I always joke that the one thing you learn growing up in a pastor's home is that you don't want to be a pastor. That's the one thing I learned, but it wasn't because of God.

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It wasn't because of church. And I still loved God and I still love church. And I was still thankful for those things. Um, I just knew that God had a different plan and a different path for my life.

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But my dad led me to Christ when I was, I was pretty young and, um, really set a good example of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

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Like, like personally a follower of Jesus, which several years later is why

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I think primarily I left the Marine Corps and went into full -time ministry. So yeah, it was a, you know, not a time that was without difficulty for sure.

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And, and it's, I guess hard being a pastor's kid. It's hard being anybody's kid, I think, but being a pastor's kid, um, my mom and dad, you know, they planted the church.

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And so that meant my mom worked full time and my dad worked all night and then he'd come home and homeschool me and my sisters because my mom was, was working.

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He would homeschool us while he was, you know, doing all, doing visitation. And I started going on hospital visits with him when

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I was probably, you know, I was very young. And then when they started the church, every time he'd go out, he didn't have anyone to watch us.

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So, so we'd go with him if he was making visits or whatever he was doing. And so, um, I knew what it cost,

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I think, to do that. And I really didn't feel at that time, like that's what God wanted me to do. But, um, I'm very thankful for my parents.

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I, I, I know kids grow up in ministry homes and they complain about their parents, but I just had this conversation with my sister a couple of weeks ago.

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Actually, it's just crazy. I like, I can't think of anything. They weren't perfect. Right. But I can't think of anything. I'm like,

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God, that's the reason, you know, I shouldn't like God anymore. There was none of that. I just, I'm very thankful for them. Oh, praise

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God. I just, um, I, I got a little chill when you, when you said, um, that, you know, your dad was real at home as he was, you know, you didn't have a fake, right.

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A ministry dad who was different at home. Right. Right. And I so want that for my kids.

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I want, I want them to know who I really am and not see a different me when

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I'm, when I'm at church. And, um, and so that, that was encouraging. And also my kids, my older kids know where all the nice waiting rooms are at the hospitals because all the good drink machines are, or all the good way to get because they've done just what you just said.

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They've been in the hospital with me and, uh, and man, that's great. And to speak well of your father, I hope is, is he still with us?

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Yeah, he is. Um, he pastored for 35 years and then, um, it is weird. He transitioned out of, you know, vocational ministry and ran a

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Christian law school for a Trinity law school for a number of years. And so, yeah, he's been involved in ministry and still, um, still is.

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So, um, yeah, it's a crazy thing, man. And, and I, you know, I do know,

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I've known a lot of pastors kids, right. And a lot of them are pretty messed up, but I, and we all make our own decisions,

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I guess. But the example that my parents set was that things are hard, but God is worth it.

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And, and I don't, and I don't know, you know, they never pretended like it was easy or whatever.

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It was just like, well, we do this because, because God and the great commission and what else would we do?

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Right. And so even talking to my dad when I was 14 about going into the Marine Corps and, and, you know, dad,

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I don't feel like God wants me to be in ministry. Um, there's like vocational ministry, meaning you get paid for it, but we're all called to be ministers.

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And I think that was my dad's perspective. It was, well, then go, you know, be the best ministry you can in the Marine Corps and see what

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God will do there. And so, yeah, tremendous example of my parents. Amen. Amen.

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I, well, I can talk to you about that all day. I do want to move on to some other things, but just, you know, praise

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God for your father, praise God for godly men who, who do what the scriptures say.

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And that is, you know, to, to manage their homes well, that's what a pastor is supposed to do. And, um, praise the

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Lord for that. Well, with that in mind, okay. So you, you go into the military, is it right out of high school or did it take some time or how long after did you go in?

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Yeah. So, you know, I did talk to my dad when I was 14 and said, Hey, would it be okay if I didn't go into ministry? It was the start of the question.

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I wasn't stupid. Right. So I started with the question and, uh, I knew he wanted me to be in ministry. And he said, son, you need to do whatever

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God wants you to do, which is the right answer. And I said, well, I think God wants me to enlist in the Marine Corps.

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Now, whether or not I thought God wanted me to do that, I don't know, but I thought it was soft on the blow. And, uh, he was like, there's no way

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God wants you to enlist in the Marine Corps. I can't be God. Maybe it's a, you know, some other spirit. Um, but we talked about it and he said,

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Hey, whatever God wants you to do, we're going to support. But we want you to go to college first. And so, you know, my mom and dad, my dad has a really interesting story.

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He was saved as a young person, um, accepted Christ, but, um, really didn't know anything about the church or that is a weird situation.

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So he got his education, you know, while he was working first as a youth pastor and some other things.

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And so he put himself through college as an adult with kids, my mom did the same. And so it was very important for them to have their kids go to college.

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That was a really long way of saying, I went to college first. And then I went through a commissioning program while I was in college, which is why, um,

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I became an officer. I would have enlisted, but they said, you need to go to the school first and then, um, and then you can do whatever

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God wants you to do. And so that's, it took a while for me to get there. Sure.

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Um, so you were saved before going in the military, correct? Yeah. Did you say your father led you to Christ when you were, how old were you?

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14 or no, I was, uh, I think I was five years old. Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. So you've the, the, the one blessing of living a life for Christ that starts young.

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Yeah, that's great. So, okay. So you go into the Marines, you go in as a Christian and, and, and this is,

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I know that this is, we haven't, we're not getting to march or die yet. I just have so many questions about your life. I hope these are okay.

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Cause I'm just interested in you as a person and I hope this helps people point to your, your other material.

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But you know, I have a son, who is in the air force. Okay. And, uh, he's been in the air force.

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Uh, we're not allowed to mock the air force, but we do, you know, we joke. I'm glad I didn't make that air force joke.

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I had loaded and ready to go. It's fine. Um, you know, they say that, that the stars on the, um, on, on, for, for other military branches are the stars that, you know, represent rank, but in the air force, it's the hotels they get to stay in.

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Yeah. That sounds right. That's more true than, you know, but yes.

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So, but he went into the air force. He served, uh, he's been in Germany. He just got back, uh, is now in New Mexico, but I know for him, uh, there has not been a huge, uh, positive godly influence in his life throughout his military time.

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As a Christian going into the military. I know, obviously there's chaplains. We have a wonderful chaplain who comes on our show sometime.

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His name is Jake Corn. He's an army chaplain. Did you have godly men around you or were you, did you feel very lonely and, and, and if it were maybe exposed as a believer to, to things that you didn't, you know, didn't want to be?

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Yeah. Well, so a couple of things, and I get asked this question a lot from Christian parents who have kids, you know, going into the military as Christians.

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And they're obviously very concerned about that as they should be. Right. And we know that going into that environment alone, but going into that environment with a lot of, you know, worldly people, unsaved people, uh, is going to expose their kids to things that they wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise.

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And it's interesting when I was going through my commissioning program through, um, when

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I was in college, I sat down with a friend of our families who was a Marine Corps officer at the time, very strong Christian.

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And I said, people are telling me, I can't be a Christian and a Marine at the same time. Is that true? And his statement to me was if we take the

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Christians out of the military, then we've taken the only light out of the darkness and all that's left is darkness. Right. And that, that really helps me at that time.

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But his encouragement to me though, was be a Christian when you get there, right?

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You need to influence others and not let them influence you. And so, you know, we even started talking about some very specific ways to do that, which was, you know, wherever you go, there's a church there.

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You need to get into that church and you need to be committed every Sunday. Um, whether you find a ride or the church has a way for you to get there, whatever it is, you need to be committed to finding a church.

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You need to, uh, if the chaplain has a Bible study, even if it's not the kind of chaplain you would go to, if he was your pastor, go to the

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Bible study. Right. And so it's very intentional about get yourself around those right positive influences, which, which thankfully

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I did because he told me to, and that helped a lot. But the other thing that I discovered in the

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Marine Corps, and you know, I think you see this in a, you know, a martial arts gym, right. Um, or in a sports program at a public school or something is if you're willing to be sincere and authentic in your faith and live it out, right.

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People will see that they may make fun of you. They may whatever, but the line is clear. The people that I saw have a hard time in the middle, in the

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Marine Corps as Christians were people who either weren't committed to their faith. So they were, you know, wishy -washy, they were all over the place.

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And so that brings ridicule, right. Not just mocking faith, but ridicule. You don't believe this, you know, that kind of thing and causes them to get into situations that really they shouldn't get into.

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And, and then people who were very loud about their faith and weren't very good at their jobs.

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What I found was if I was consistent, right, not perfect, I made a lot of mistakes, but if I was consistent,

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I am a Christian. So I'm not going to go to the strip club with you guys. I'm not going to go, you know, do that stuff. I'm not going to sit in this room while you're watching porn, right?

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Like these are real things, right? I'm not going to do that because I'm a Christian and you know that you guys do whatever you want, but that's not what

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I'm going to do. Okay. So I have a line. They know I'm going to go to church on Sunday. If there's an opportunity to go to church, if the chaplain's doing something,

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I'm probably going to be connected to it. Even though a lot of chaplains, you know, we would have very little in common, but they're doing something.

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And I'm good at my job. The thing that shuts people up is being good at your job. Right. And so I don't know.

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I think if you're a hard worker and you're diligent and you're sincere about your faith, then it,

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I've never seen those people have a hard time. The ones that have a hard time are the ones who are struggling in their own and their own faith life.

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Um, so yeah, I, I don't know. I, I've had this conversation an awful lot and I think the kids who struggle when they go into the military and the parents who say it was the military, most of the time it was the parents that didn't prepare that kid for the military.

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Yeah, no, that's a, that's a powerful thought and very good thought. Thank you. So I do want to move into the, um, talking about march or die.

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I know, I know you have several things, several, uh, subjects that you're proficient in, but this one caught my eye as I was looking at your material because I, one,

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I want to ask you where the title comes from. I kind of imagine like where it came from, but I want to get your story behind it cause

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I'm sure there's a story that goes along with it. But also I know you have some principles for people who are in a situation where they don't feel like they can move forward and they feel like they're in a situation where they're just, they're, they're, they're stuck.

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And, uh, I mean, I have some people in my own life that I know that are, that are stuck in different things and I think this can be beneficial for them to hear.

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So tell us where march or die comes from. And it is a book, right? You, you did a book. Yeah. I wrote a book called march or die and it was about, uh, our time in Iraq.

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I was in Iraq in, at the beginning of the war in Iraq, uh, the Marine infantry battalion that breached the berm between Kuwait and Iraq was our battalion, first battalion, fifth

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Marines, uh, secure the Southern objective. That was our, you know, our first objective. First, it was the, the first objective of the war and then made our way to Baghdad.

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Um, so a lot of things happened in that, in that time. And I wrote a book about that march or die.

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And it's some of the stories from our time, some of the combat stories, but then trying to pull in spiritual principles along with that.

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And, and using kind of the through line of Joshua and Caleb talking about, you know, some of the decisions they made in their lives.

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And so that, that title march or die, it actually comes from a, uh, a unit motto.

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When I checked in as a second Lieutenant to my, my unit, uh, every, every unit in the military,

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I'm sure, but definitely in the Marine Corps has its own motto, right? And they have a t -shirt that that is emblazoned on, and there's a skull and crossbones on there.

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The motto of Charlie company, first battalion, fifth Marines, where I first checked in was march or die.

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And, uh, I didn't learn until much later. That was the, the motto of the French foreign Legion many, many years ago.

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But I love it because it's like Marine proof. It's, it's two things. There aren't a thousand things here.

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You can stay where you are and die or you can march. And I, I liked it when

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I first heard it, but it became very meaningful to me. When we were in Iraq, we were making our way toward an objective.

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And this is the story that I tell that I pull these principles from, um, because I often talk about resilience and what it means to be resilient and pushing past the difficulties that come into our lives, whether that's, you know, a relationship or financial or whatever it is.

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We all have these things, these obstacles, uh, what we might call enemies that come into our lives that prevent us from moving forward.

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And, and so I, I pull out these five principles from this one story. We were making our way toward an objective.

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It was the middle of the day. Uh, we were going to secure a bridge. Uh, this bridge was supposed to be unsecured.

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There weren't, we were told there were no, um, uh, military there, no, uh, soldiers there.

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And so it was a middle of the day movement. It was going to be a very easy thing. We'd get there, set up security and other units would come through, uh, through us and continue forward.

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The bridge was significant only because of where it was and it made passing across this canal possible.

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And so we were going to set up security there. I was the second vehicle back in our column. I was navigating for our battalion, a battalion for people that don't know is probably 1200

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Marines, 1200 plus Marines. So this thing was stretched out over several miles, right? So we're on this road making our way on the second vehicle back.

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And as we get to our objective, as we get to this bridge, uh, it was elevated.

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It was up on top of a berm, but on the near side of the berm, there were dug into that position, uh, an enemy machine gun position.

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So they started to engage us, mortar rounds started to fall around us. Needless to say, it became very clear that there was indeed an enemy there, right?

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So military intelligence let us down once again, as is their reputation. Um, and we found ourselves in a fight.

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And so, you know, as we make our way through this fight, there are some principles that I learned. And the first one is this, and this is, you know,

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I think where all of us start, you have to understand that the biggest battles in your life often come when you least expect them.

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The biggest fights in your life come when you least expect them. It's amazing how many of us we get knocked down because of something we didn't see coming.

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Could be a relationship thing. Could be a thing with our kids. Could be, you know, a financial setback or, you know, whatever.

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We all have these, these obstacles, these things that pop into our lives that we didn't see coming. We never thought it was a possibility.

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And I like to make the statement that some people are so overwhelmed by the unexpected that they become the lifelong victims of a one -time event.

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That thing was so unexpected and so overwhelming that now that frames their whole life.

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We have to know that it is when we least expect it, that some of the most difficult things will come into our lives.

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And this isn't as simple as expect the unexpected. It's just don't be surprised when these things happen, right?

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Don't be surprised when it happens. That's how life works. And we found ourselves in this firefight that we didn't expect, but we weren't victims of that situation.

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We got to decide how we were going to fight. And this is, you know, another one of those principles is you may not get to pick the fight.

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Maybe you're in a fight you didn't expect. Someone else brought this to you. You're dealing with an enemy you didn't see coming. You don't have a responsibility for that, but you get to decide now how you will fight.

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And this is the difference between being a victim and taking control over that situation.

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You know, so many examples we could give in scripture, but the Bible talks again and again about, you know, following God by faith and trusting

26:43

God by faith. I was asked this question earlier today. What do you do in your life when things seem to be out of control and it's going on much longer than you expected and you can't figure out how it's going to end?

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What are you supposed to do? You continue to trust God because you've already made a decision before you got into that situation that regardless of what happens in your life, you're committed to trusting

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God. You make the decision to do the right thing, to fight honorably long before you ever find yourself in that situation.

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For us, we didn't know that there were going to be machine guns there that day. I had been with that unit, that platoon, for two years.

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So we had trained hundreds of times and hundreds of scenarios so that when we found ourselves in that fight, the decision was already made.

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We already knew what we were going to do. And one of the most powerful things you can do is pre -decide.

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A great example of this, I think, just in my own life, is married life. I've been married 26 years, my wife and I.

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As I mentioned, we have four kids, so we've had good times and some not so good times, and we've had some really difficult conversations and what some might call arguments.

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But as bad as things have ever gotten in my relationship with my wife, I've never, ever felt like this is going to be the one that's going to end it.

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This is the one where she walks away. Well, why is that? I didn't expect that fight necessarily, but here we are.

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But we decided 26 years ago that regardless of what we find ourselves in, we're in this for the long haul.

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And so you make that decision. There's so much power in that. You get to decide how you're going to fight. So number one is the biggest fights in your life, biggest battles in your life come when you least expect them.

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Number two, you may not get to pick the fight, but you always get to decide how to fight. And don't let anyone take that away from you.

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Don't let anyone take that away from you. We started a fight. We dealt with the machine gun position.

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The mortar rounds kept falling and we had to move. Our objective, what I was told to do was to get us to the bridge and stop.

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But had we stopped right there, we were in a kill zone. Things were going to go from bad to worse. And they actually did, but we had to move.

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The situation was changing. And it's one of those things in life. Before you find yourself in the fight, you do the best you can with the information that you have.

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And that's what we did. You make the best decisions you can with the information that you have. You can't regret what you did with the best information that you had, but in the middle of the fight, the enemy gets a say.

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And so, you know, the third principle is things change.

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Don't be surprised when they do right in life, things change. Don't be surprised when they do.

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Why are we always so surprised when things change, when they don't work out the way we thought they would? And that day things changed.

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We had to change with it. We had to move to a different position and you never change who you are.

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You never change what you're about, but as the battle unfolds, you need to adjust to an evolving battlefield situation.

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And we had to do that that day. So we moved to a place where we could better impact the enemy. And sometimes we dig our heels in and we say, this is where I am.

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And what we mean by that often is this is where I'm going to die. And we have to be willing to adjust.

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And so we adjusted that day. We got up to the top of the bridge. It was a good thing to adjust.

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It was a bad thing where we stopped. And I put us and I didn't realize this at the time, obviously, but I put us in a kill zone.

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Those mortar rounds that were falling on us on the road now were on that pre -planned target where we were on top of the bridge.

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And so, man, things were getting really bad. We had an anti -aircraft gun that was an enemy anti -aircraft gun that was on the other side of the bridge that started to swing our direction.

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The mortar rounds were getting closer and closer. I mean, so bad that as I stood outside of our vehicle and was on the handset of my radio trying to get help, you could feel the percussion, like from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head.

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It was terrible. The fact that we made it out of there without anyone dying is just God.

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I mean, that's there's no other explanation. But there we were. We were in a very bad situation.

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Things were getting much, much worse by the second. And you're forced in those moments of life to make a decision.

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This is where that march or die comes in. Again, I learned this many years before this, but but it became real in that moment.

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We only have two choices here. We can stay where we are. We can do that. And that is a decision to die, stay where we are and die.

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We think that the enemy has more power than the enemy has when we throw our hands up and say something like,

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I can't do anything here. I have no other options. You always have another option.

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The decision to stay where you are and die is a decision you're making. No one's making that for you.

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You're making that decision. But there's a better decision. And the better decision is to put one foot in front of the other in March.

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Take the next step. Get out of the kill zone. Get to a place where you can better impact the enemy.

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And on that day we did, you know, and it's crazy to even think back to.

32:11

Yeah, I can't. I mean, just just you describing it. And when you said that, you know, the percussion, feeling the percussion around you,

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I mean, just knowing that any one of those a stray round or a piece of shrapnel or something could end your life in an instant.

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Yeah, that has to bring. And that's something else you deal with. I don't want to jump to this, but you deal with guys who are dealing with legitimate

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PTSD and things like that because they've been in that moment. Right. And that's one of the things you try to help with through your ministry is help men who are who are going through that.

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I can't imagine. Yeah. And, you know, again, I mean, as I even as I sit here and tell the story,

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I can, you know, picture that that day. And it's amazing how your brain works, right?

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Yeah. Picture that and feel it and think about. So I had eight vehicles basically bunched up together on top of this bridge.

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Again, terrible. Right. It was in the heat of the thing, but terrible. The fact that not one of those mortar rounds hit a vehicle, hit a hit a

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Marine. There is no explanation other than God. The ground where we were was soft enough that those rounds would go into the ground and explode.

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So that's why you could feel the percussion and taste the smoke and so forth. But the shrapnel was contained underground.

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And so it's amazing. So, yeah. So you're in that situation. What do you do? Well, you can stay where you are and die or you can march.

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And, you know, again, we didn't have a big conversation about it, but we got off that kill zone. We took the next step. We got to a place where we could impact the enemy.

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And thankfully, we did. You know, and that really is probably the biggest principle that I've learned and that I kind of view the world through is

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I can stay here. I can move. I can stay here. I can move. I don't know where I'm going to end up. I don't know how this ends.

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I don't know what this all looks like, but I'm going to take one faith filled step after another and keep moving and let

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God do what only God can do. And then the last principle, I guess, is that victory doesn't come to the perfect, but to the persistent.

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I don't think I coined that phrase, but man, it doesn't. We think we have to be perfect. We think we have to have it all figured out.

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I made a bad decision in a very bad situation, but then we kept moving. Right.

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You don't have to be perfect, but you do need to be persistent. And it's amazing how many people are smarter than me, more capable than me.

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You know, on and on we could go. And we all know people like this, but somewhere along the line, they just give up. Persistence is like a superpower.

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You just keep going. Yeah. And that got us to the other side of that. And, you know, I'm not a

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Calvinist, but but I do believe in the sovereignty of God. And I'll tell you, the first time I thought about God's sovereignty was on that road after that firefight.

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Firefight ended. A lot of things happened that day and around that story. But when it was all over,

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I remember standing on the road next to the bridge. You know, that kind of went across the bridge, but next to the bridge. And it was like a weight dropped on top of me and like a physical thing.

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And for the first time in my life, I had the thought and I accepted Christ when I was I was young.

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But for the first time in my life, I had the thought the enemy does not care who I am, doesn't care where I came from, what

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I look like, where I went to school, who my parents are, doesn't care. The enemy wants to kill me. That's all. And there's nothing

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I can do about that. My responsibility, and this is a process that I went through that day, but then over many years thinking back to it, my responsibility is to steward well over what

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God has given to me. I need to control what I can control. We could say it that way. I can need to control what

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I can control. But the rest of it, that's God's. It's not mine. I don't get to decide how this thing ends.

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Only God can do that. Only God is bigger than the situation in this circumstance.

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I have a responsibility to steward well over what God's put in my hands. But God is responsible for what happens here.

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And I don't know why it took that event to bring me to that understanding. But just the reality of all of that.

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I think it was just, I mean, there were several times that day I should have not made it. And you just keep pushing and keep doing what you do.

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And God does what He can do. And then, you know, on the other side of that, you just learn to trust

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God and that I'll be responsible and let God be God. Amen. Well, I can tell why people seek you out, because this is definitely an encouragement.

36:42

I mean, honestly, it's an encouragement to me. And I mean, I'm looking at this at a,

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I guess, in somewhat of a different way. Just thinking of as a pastor in ministry trials that I go through, you know, and how easy it is to just want to pack up and leave or pack up and go home and just give up, rather than keeping on moving forward.

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And man, I think this is hugely practical for marriages. I think this is practical for people having difficulty with their children or people having difficulty with other people, reconciliation.

37:19

I think the, I mean, I definitely encourage people to get the book and read it and hear your story.

37:26

I mean, military is so unique in that there's nothing quite like being in the military and having to face what you faced.

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And my dad was in Vietnam. And he tells stories that are just, you know, he's 77 now.

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So his memories, you know, not what it once was, but he still tells stories of things that he faced and things that he had to see.

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And I mean, it changes your life. But they become metaphors for other things.

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And you being on that bridge is a metaphor for so many people where they are right now. I think, you know, one of the, probably the most important parts to me about that phrase, march or die, one is there's a decision that can be made and you can decide to die, right?

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And death is not always physical. It can be emotional, spiritual, relational. You've given up.

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You're not moving forward in any meaningful way. You may be breathing, but you're not really alive, right? So there's that. But that word march, it just means put one foot in front of the other.

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And this is where I find encouragement because I become discouraged when

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I have a problem. And I go to someone, they give me 12 things I need to do, right? Dude, I'm overwhelmed.

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Getting out of bed today was hard. And you just gave me 12 things I need to do to get through this.

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Well, what you really need to do is just take the next step. And then take the one after that.

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And then take the one after that. Marching, you don't always even know where you're going. You just know you're going over there and you're gonna do it one step at a time.

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And it's not gonna be fast. And that's, to me, when I look at Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, run with patience, the race set before you, that's to me what it is, right?

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Looking unto Jesus, certainly we're following Jesus, but it's just one step after another.

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One step after another. Just keep moving. And if you'll do that in your relationships, if you'll do that with your kids, if you'll do that in your faith life, you do that in your professional life, get up tomorrow and take the next step.

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There's so much power in that because your confidence is in God, not yourself, and you're trusting Him for all of that.

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That, to me, is probably the most important part of that whole story, is just take the next step.

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Just take the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after that. You don't even have to know where you're going. Just keep moving forward.

39:48

Amen, amen. Well, Jeremy, I appreciate you sharing that one riveting story, but also very encouraging words with me and with our audience.

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I do want to ask you, as we begin to move toward the ending of this, I want to ask you about some of the other things that you do, just sort of maybe a shorter rundown.

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So you do work with people who have PTSD, things like that.

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You minister to that. How can people find what you do?

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Obviously, we're going to post some things in the description of this video, but I know you have a

40:29

YouTube page, but websites, things like that? Yeah, probably the best website to find out about the work that we do is

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MightyOaksPrograms .org. Our organization is called the Mighty Oaks Foundation. So MightyOaksPrograms .org,

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and there you'll find out about what we do. We work with veterans, active duty service members, first responders, and spouses.

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We have week -long programs that we invite folks to come and be a part of. We cover the cost of the program.

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We cover the cost of travel to get to the program. We just want to help those who need the help. We've had over 5 ,000 people come to our programs, and so we've been doing this for a long time.

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We're not a clinical program. We're a faith -focused program, meaning we believe that trauma, trials, and difficulties, and all those things happen for sure.

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But when we understand God, the creator, has a purpose for our lives, and we can move into that, and those things don't keep a hold on us anymore.

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So all of that can be found on our website, MightyOaksPrograms .org. That's amazing.

41:29

And the fact that you cover the cost for people who are in need. I'm assuming it's all military people, right?

41:38

So it's funny. One of the things that makes us unique is that everyone who is a part of our program, as a student and a part of our program on the leadership side, have all of our leaderships come through as students.

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All of the students are either veterans, first responders, or are currently active -duty service members.

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It's a really unique environment where the walls and the facade that is off and up goes down, because we're all kind of in this together.

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We all have a similar background, and we're working together to move forward. It's a powerful time.

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I didn't even think about first responders. Obviously, they're in there too, as far as the struggle.

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But we have in our church two police officers, one community service officer, which is like a police officer, but they don't carry a gun.

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They're community service. But then we have a firefighter who works on trauma one, which is a flight.

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He flies and helps in his stories when he comes and talks to me.

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By God's grace, he is a well -adjusted, godly young man, father, and husband.

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But the things that he's seen, the things that he shared with me, it's amazing, the things that he has to go through. The first responders, too, are police and fire.

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As a veteran, you deal with a lot of things, and it's a very acute trauma. It's a lot all at once. But then you come home.

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Police officers, firefighters, they deal with that stuff today. Then they go home to their wife and kids, hopefully, maybe some community thing they're doing.

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They sleep, and then they get up and do it again tomorrow. It's just day after day. People describe it as a slow drip over a career.

43:26

You've never really dealt with anything, which is why the mortality rate for folks in the first responder community within five years of retiring is so high.

43:34

Yeah, it's crazy. Suicide rates are off the charts. Those in the first responder community, those folks need a lot of support and a lot of help.

43:42

Yeah, well, certainly very thankful for what you're doing and the fact that you're including them.

43:47

It's not just limited. Including first responders is a wonderful thing and something

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I'm definitely going to keep in mind as I work with people and different things. Well, brother, is there anything on the horizon that you've got coming?

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Any new programs, books, or media that you're putting out that you want to tell us about? Yeah, no, nothing new.

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We're continuing to do what we do and looking for ways to do more. It's crazy.

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The wars have largely ended. We still have people engaged in wars around the world, but Iraq, Afghanistan, those things have ended.

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We have 22 million veterans in the United States and a lot of people that need help, and so continuing to look for opportunities to have more programs.

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This year, we'll have 39 weeks of week -long sessions. That's a lot of sessions.

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About a thousand people will come through the programs, so just looking for ways to continue to reach people. It's amazing, man.

44:43

You know this, and you do such a good job of communicating this, but the foundation of faith, that relationship with God through Christ, that is the thing that changes everything.

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There are a lot of other good programs and a lot of other good things out there, but until you understand who you are before God, the rest of us are going to fall short at some point.

45:04

So yeah, it's powerful. I'm going to ask you one last question.

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Is there one thing other than prayer, and that's what we always ask people to pray, and prayer is the number one thing, but is there one thing that people could do to help what you're doing?

45:21

Is there a way to support what you're doing? Because I think this is the type of thing that many people could get behind and say, hey, we want to be on Jeremy's team.

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We want to help, because not everybody has the capacity to do what you're doing, but like sending a missionary, we can do things to help.

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What's one way that people can best help do what you do? Yeah, well, we're able to send people across the country.

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We cover the cost of everything that's involved with our program because of supporters who get behind us financially, and so that's a huge thing.

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We could not do what we do if it weren't for a lot of very consistent, concerned, wonderful people who get behind that, and so that would be the one thing.

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You said one thing, I'll give you a second thing, is just share the content with people in your life who need it.

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Again, it doesn't cost anything, so you can get behind it and support us. That would be wonderful, but if you know people who need this kind of help, let them know we exist, and we cover everything.

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We take care of logistics and all the planning and everything else, but people need to know that we're there for them, so share that out with them.

46:30

Absolutely. Well, I'm super excited to share this with people, and I hope that this becomes a benefit to you guys that as people see this show, it gets shared around and people say, hey, here's this guy who's doing this wonderful thing for people who are desperately in need of that thing that he's doing.

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I pray that God will bless you, and I pray that the ministry continue to expand and help more people to the glory of God.

46:52

Thank you, Keith. Really appreciate it. Absolutely, sir, and thank you for being on the show. I want to thank you guys all for being a part of the program today.

46:59

Remember, if you want to reach out to Jeremy and his ministry, all of the links will be in the description below. Thank you again for listening to Your Calvinist Podcast.