recording now.
So once again, you're Jim Chiswick from That's For Jesus.
Yes.
So.
Yes.
Okay.
So here we are.
We're basically telling you today about a weekly Bible discussion that originally got a start in March of 2021.
And
Basically, we've been we've been meeting weekly since
then
and It's open to anybody who wants to attend we started out with a Focus on veterans
only
but now we have opened it up to both veterans and non veterans and So we want to reach the whole the whole family so that both
spouses and anybody who comes is presented the same material and they start to get on the same sheet of music in regards to, you know, what who God is and what God has said.
Yeah.
Oh, are we being interrupted at this moment?
Yeah, we will, but we can still record.
Okay, very good.
All right.
So,
And maybe this is an emergency broadcast for some of you out there.
Because our lives are ultimately in the hands of God and have everything to do with God.
Why?
Because we are His image bearers.
We bear the image of God.
And as image bearers, we have been given an eternal soul.
And
that eternal soul will live forever, location to be determined.
Right.
So, we basically, as vets for Jesus, we are embracing the one and only Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, as being God's solution to our sin problem.
And I am no better than anybody else at the meeting, okay?
I am my...
As my father would like to remind me, you know my poop is the same color as everybody
else's
And I need the blood of Christ just as much as you do in fact if not more in fact my my sin of these days After studying the word of God so intensely is usually
always much more heinous than the sin of others.
Why?
Because it's always against knowledge.
I've studied the Bible.
I know
what God's will is and what's right
and what's
wrong.
And so when I break God's holy commands and offend him, guess what?
Okay?
You know it.
I know it, man.
That's right.
And maybe some of you out there from time to time are more aware of
you know, your own sin before a holy God.
Well, what is the solution to that guilt, okay, and that estrangement you feel?
The solution is God's solution in Jesus Christ.
Jesus, the Heavenly Father has provided
everything for our salvation in Christ.
And we learn that through the Word of God.
And so in today's day and age, when the biblical content is lacking in our teaching in the churches, vets for Jesus as a para-church ministry, we're not a church.
We basically invite
anybody and everybody who is interested in learning about God's solution for our sin in
the
person of Christ.
Anybody who's interested in Jesus and having their sins washed away and be granted the gift of eternal life with Him in heaven.
Anybody who is interested in that and studying that,
Ken is certainly welcome to join us and come in for the discussion because we have people from, like I say, from all different backgrounds who come in.
engage.
Typically we'll read God's word and then a small portion of it and then discuss it around the table.
This summer we're trying something different where we have basically taking topical requests from those who attend.
And so one of the questions have been on what is the new birth?
What is total depravity?
In other words, how bad are we?
Has sin truly affected our entire makeup as human beings?
You
know, our mind, our will, our emotions.
Oh, yeah.
Oh,
yeah.
But God is able to restore to us absolutely everything we lost in the fall of
Adam.
So when you go to a meeting, do you have to bring your own Bibles?
Do you have Bibles there?
Do you have materials?
Let them take home.
People typically bring their own Bibles.
After all, it's a Bible study, okay?
But a lot of folks will simply bring it on their phone, you know,
one of these
Bible apps, which are great.
And others who come, we make available to all who come,
a study Bible which they may use and add to their reference library and take it home with them.
Those Bibles typically are given to us and we make them freely available to others.
Oh, nice.
Do you mind if I ask where they come from?
businesses that donate them?
We have gotten our study bibles from Ligonier Ministries, which has their own app on like, you know...
Google Play, okay?
Ligonier, L-I-G-O-N-I-E-R.
And they have been very generous with us in helping provide us with Bibles, but we are not an official Ligonier ministry.
We simply receive the Bible resources they make available to us.
And each year when Vets for Jesus has a table at the local vet fest, which typically attracts like over 800
veterans, right, you know, from the UP and beyond.
That at our table typically has lots of, you know, Ligonier literature.
Okay.
So.
All right.
So what, what inspired you to start it in this area?
I really
believe
The Spirit of God has laid this out on my heart since we moved up here in 2007.
My bride is active duty as well as, you know, I was a reservist and then in the Air National Guard a weekend warrior and then back in the reserves again.
So my four years of Air National Guard time was bookend.
bookended by Air Force Reserve Time.
And what's interesting is we both met and married while we were in uniform, okay?
And we both desired to have children.
And when the first child came, we tried to do the, you know,
pass off the newborn to daycare
and
pursue our careers.
But oh, God did not give us
a piece about
that.
No.
So one of us had to give up our career for a time and the lot fell to me.
I was Mr. Mom
for five years.
And ladies, let me tell you
my respect for what you do as a homemaker, as a mother, my respect for you.
sky high because I walked in your shoes so
many years
I'll tell you and man out there you better respect what your wives do for your kids and
the
sacrifice they make because you know just like you're out there you know bringing home the bacon they are providing a vital vital service to your kids yeah
And
I'm sure the wives should respect the husbands for what they do.
Your wife now has a new look at life.
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
So that was a great experience to, you know, have that break in service.
Judy was able to complete her 20, you know, in the Air Force actually, she went 23.
So that was great.
And, you know, we were able to raise three.
children and when she retired in 07, we moved up here as a halfway point between our elderly parents.
And so now we were within one day's drive of either set of parents.
Her mom was alive, and both my parents were alive at the time.
Now they're all with the Lord, okay?
But in 2007, the roles changed back to a traditional role, and she became, you know, the stay-at-home homemaker.
One of the reasons we're not going to meet in August is because I need to make some hay for her goats.
But it's not all bad.
So anyways, yeah.
So where were your parents living?
Were they in?
My parents were small town folks to begin with, coming from Cacona and Mayville, but they
met.
Where's that Wisconsin?
Yes, and
then they lived in...
the Milwaukee area for
about
40 years.
And so that's where basically I grew up
in the
Milwaukee area, hence the accent.
do absorb some of the the you per lingo, you know,
a
but
I know you guys will understand me.
If I if I if I could, you know, speak,
you know, Milwaukee and
I, Milwaukeeans get teased as, you know, for pronouncing every syllable, you know, of
you know, the word and sounding like a news anchor basically,
but I
don't care.
The important thing is that when we speak, you know, to speak clearly and be understood.
Right.
And hers were from?
Urbana, Illinois.
Okay.
Yes.
Yeah.
She kind of grew up 10, 10 miles outside the city and just has this love for gardening and God's creation.
Yeah.
Oh, she volunteer teaches.
She's the best person on earth that I know of.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you brought your Bibles with you today?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was hoping to share a word from Romans 5 in verse 10.
It says, for speaking to believers now,
For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son.
Think of that.
Okay?
For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Okay?
This speaks of the believer knowing.
in this life, this present day,
that
he has eternal life.
In other words, full assurance of salvation should be standard fare for the believer today.
And it grieves my heart that it's so rare.
One of the primary reasons that vets for Jesus exist is to increase the faith.
and the biblical content of that faith in the believer.
And I don't care what denomination you come from.
Your faith in Christ can grow.
Your
trust in Him can grow.
And as it grows, your confidence to face your final hour should be just hugely...
increased, okay?
But why?
Because the scripture comes down clearly, and this is not presumption, as many would like to say in the Christian world.
Oh,
you think you can know you can be saved?
Okay?
That's presumption.
Okay?
Wait a minute, okay?
Based on the Word of God, who cannot lie, he who has the Son has the life.
He who does not have the Son does not have the life.
Friends, that's cut and dried, okay?
And God knows whether you have the Son or not, and He certainly is able to give Christ to you,
to
all who call upon Him, okay?
And my invitation today to everybody out there is to, with the words of Christ,
all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
You and I continually seek to find our lives in other things besides Christ, but Christ is our life.
Okay?
He is Almighty God in human flesh, and as Almighty God, He knows all things, all things about you.
all things about this world.
And he knows what's possible and what's not possible for you.
And best of all, he knows what's best.
And he will lead you in the way that is best for your life if you come to him
and
keep coming.
Come unto me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Even if you feel yourself to be an enemy,
of his at this moment.
Okay.
His love for you is that strong.
Yep.
So at this point, I think I need to pay some bills.
Okay.
There.
So that's for Jesus.
Where did you start
out?
We started out at post 4624 of the VFW in Hubble.
Okay.
And from there, we went to a storefront.
in Hancock that was freely made available to us.
And that didn't last long.
I know that.
Right, right.
Yeah.
And that basically we had
you know, some building issues that needed to be addressed over time longer than I was willing to wait.
And so we basically looked around and we began to meet in the Memorial Union building since that is open to the public.
The food court in the Memorial Union building is open to the public.
And so we began to meet there.
We have no budget.
Okay,
okay.
We have no bank account, right?
Okay, we we hardly ever ever take an offering for anything I We basically do this out of love for Christ and love for his word Okay, so we are trying very hard to keep it that way.
Okay, and so We we need a
facility that is suitable for us that's freely available.
What we do could take place in a local restaurant.
And I'm sure if we ever moved to a local restaurant, the Lord would bless that restaurant.
I'm just telling you that we meet in public spaces.
And currently, it's the Memorial Union building at 6.30 on Tuesday nights.
And we will have our last meeting of the summer tomorrow night.
And it will be one of these topical requests where we're discussing the effect of sin upon our lives, okay?
How Adam's first sin infected us through our inheriting his sinful nature, basically disabling us from being able to do anything meritoriously good in God's sight.
Okay,
when it comes to salvation, all we bring to the table is our sin.
Okay, but it's to God's credit to God's glory alone.
He provides.
absolutely everything that we need.
And
if you have a Bible today out there in Radio Land, you really ought to read John 3.
Why?
Because a famous teacher of the Jews of the day, Nicodemus, comes to Jesus by night and he says to him, Teacher, we know that you are a man sent from God because nobody can do these things.
that you do unless God were with him.
That makes complete rational sense.
And Nicodemus recognizes this, that Jesus is a bona fide, certified
Man sent from God because nobody could make the lame walk or make the blind see or raise back You know the dead back to life.
He actually stopped a funeral procession in
front
Yes, for the only son of a widow, okay, stops the funeral procession, okay, and raises the son back to life and restores him to his mother, okay, and Lazarus was stinking dead in, you know, four days, you know, in the grave,
okay,
and people are telling him, Lord, he
stinketh,
okay, you know, remove the stone.
Jesus says
okay
Lazarus come
forth
and and the dead man Came forth Lazarus came back to life Jesus has the has doesn't it as as being truly God Okay, and truly man of course, but as truly God, okay his power Does not change.
Okay, and he has the ability today
in 2026 to give new life to us when we are dead in trespasses and sins.
And so we're gonna be looking at...
the effect of sin upon our lives tomorrow night at 6 30 at the Memorial Union building and We're in the food court.
Just look for you know a crowd of people with some open books and yeah It's a small crowd and the nice thing about vets for Jesus if you're a person who doesn't like to be around crowds Okay, this is a place to get your spiritual food
you know, to feed on God's word without having that button pushed in your life, okay?
And that is something the Lord has used, okay?
Because, you know, veterans sometimes suffer from what's called PTSD, okay?
Yeah, and that can basically trigger you when you are totally, you know, on its...
expecting,
you know,
not expecting to be triggered, just wham out of nowhere.
And, you know, the deja vu of the past hurt, the past trauma is just thrust upon you.
And sometimes that comes about in big crowds, but vets for Jesus is usually in the, you know, four, 10, 12 people, you know,
gather.
We've had as many as 16, but that's unusual.
This is a small crowd, and the rules of the game are this.
We're going to read a couple of verses from God's Word, and then it's a free-for-all.
You're free to comment on the verse.
In
fact, I've described it as a drive-by commentary.
People can take their best shot at interpreting what Jesus meant when he said X, Y, or Z.
Do you have people that come in and you're using the best shot?
scenario.
You have people come in that say, well, this can't be and totally cut it down.
Of course, of
course.
And that's perfectly appropriate for the naysayer to come in
and
say nay.
After all, I
you know, one of the things I thought for was the freedom of speech, okay?
Which as an American, I hold dearly,
okay?
And you have a right to challenge what is said or how the Bible is interpreted, okay?
However, okay?
Others share that same right.
And it's an equal playing field,
okay?
When it comes to
of religion in America, what the founders set up was a level playing field where spiritual truth and spiritual falsehood
may exist side by side.
Okay.
Well, how do you tell the difference between what is true and what is false regarding God?
Well, hey, he has given us his word and God does not lie.
Okay.
Jesus, remember the certified miracle worker?
Okay.
He relied upon the Bible of his day.
Okay.
He would say like, say things like it is written and then quote, you
know,
a passage from Isaiah.
one
of his
favorite books or something like that.
When the religious leaders of the day were in error, he would say, you err because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God.
And so vets for Jesus serves to call people back to the content of their faith, namely,
the person and work of God in Jesus Christ, and he is God in human flesh.
Why?
Because even the name, Emmanuel, means what?
God
with
us.
God
with us,
okay?
And
nothing less than God with us, okay?
You know, he who has seen me has seen the Father, okay?
And Hebrews 1, you know, the Lord spoke to us through his prophets at many times and many ways.
But in these last days, he has spoken through his Son, who is the exact representation of his being.
You want to get to know who God is.
what God is like, what his attitude is toward you, take a hard look at Jesus Christ.
It
is absolutely no different,
okay?
You might fear in your heart because right now you know you have cancer, you are on the verge of death, and you're wondering what is it going to be like when you come to appear before God?
He will be nothing different than Jesus Christ.
Get to know him love him love his word Trust in him obey him.
He's the one who is able to give you eternal life forever and take care of your sin problem.
Mm-hmm Yeah, so is God is yeah, that's for Jesus.
Yes, is that does that have a Like a 401
four, three, CB Bible, three, whatever.
We are, we are.
Yeah.
Um, yeah.
Um, I, we, we have other nonprofits that, that are 501, three C certified.
Actually one other destitute orphans, uh, dot org.
Okay.
And I'd say we, I mean, Judy and myself,
and,
uh, there's like three other guys who sit on the board.
Uh,
primarily from Rugged Cross, where
we
attend worship up on 41, you know, just north
of
town here in Hancock.
We at Vets for Jesus are not yet an official nonprofit.
We would like to be, because son of a gun, you know, those Bibles that we hand out, we would like to get more of them, okay?
Perhaps take donations, you know
so
that we can give out more of them and and the literature the booklets are helpful to you know,
yeah
Yeah, so
so at this point do you accept donations toward?
like for literature?
Right now, it would be a bit awkward,
but
ask me in, you know, in September,
okay?
And perhaps we'd be set up to do that.
Right now, we're basically people getting together to learn about Christ from His word.
Who is He, okay?
What are we talking about?
We're talking about somebody who claimed to be God.
And those who crucified him said, we do not crucify you for these good works,
but
because you being a mere man claim
to be God.
And
what I'm telling you folks out there and everybody is that consider a moment that he actually was.
Okay, okay, and and you may think oh blow this off as religious myth, but hey as we speak fully one-third of the world I would think almost Claims to be some form of Christian within the umbrella of Christendom, okay, yeah, and You know you may have your other religions, but think Jesus rose from the dead and he's alive today
and he stands ready to help you and me.
You
know, the reason you and I have personality, okay?
Well, it's because there is an ultimate source of personality.
One divine person, and he has expressed himself as father, son, and spirit.
And these three persons, okay,
form the holy trinity.
So
that's where Jesus is a trinitarian ministry, fully in line with historic Christianity.
So one more question.
Do you do pastoral care at the rugged cross?
No, I'm just a guy in the crowd.
Like I say, we have people from all sorts of different
Christian denominations
show
up at Vets for Jesus.
And I'm one of them.
I'm actually kind of the odd man out.
Why?
Because I'm a Bible thumping Presbyterian.
And let me tell you, I didn't start out that way.
I was raised in the ELCA.
But the more I read and read and read God's Word, the more I realized that the truth that it teaches has
a name that's probably called something else.
They're reformational truths.
You remember Martin Luther started, he was teaching from the book of Romans
to his
seminary students, and the Lord grabbed him through the biblical idea that being justified before God
was on the basis of faith alone, because that justification was a righteousness alien to him.
It was God's righteousness, and it was given to him on the basis
of
faith alone.
And as he realized that his salvation was all of God from the beginning, from the inception,
of faith.
He realized that this is the gospel that actually once was taught back in the first thousand years of Christianity, Martin Luther revived it.
The idea that salvation.
We're talking about the
receive, you know, having your sins totally forgiven
and
receiving the gift of eternal life as a totally free gift on the basis of faith alone, Martin Luther rediscovered that and it turned the world upside
down.
And
he didn't mean to.
No, that was an accident.
That's right.
That's right.
But
at that, I am out of time.
Oh.
I'm so sorry.
That's
okay.
I just want to invite people to come Tuesday nights at 6 30 at the Memorial Union building for vats for Jesus.
You don't have to be a veteran.
Okay.
