Grace and Peace

Ed’s quote is dead on point when we think about personal holiness (righteousness).  Sometimes Christians declare their righteousness by asserting which groups they will not fellowship with.  It reminds me of the old rhyme, “I don’t smoke, drink, or chew nor hang around with girls that do.” 

Bobby Jones was immensely popular and is remembered as a great sportsman and gentleman.  Yet, early on Jones was known for his temper.  Legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice once said Jones had the “face of an angel and the temper of a timber wolf.”  It was Jones’ uncle who probably saved his career.  The uncle gave Jones this priceless advice, “Bobby, your problem is you’ve mastered the game of golf, but you haven’t mastered your emotions and until you master your emotions, you’ll never be a champion in golf.”  Robert Tyre Jones, Jr. did master his emotions and won the first of thirteen major tournament championships in 1923.

In the incursion into the city, Struecker and his comrades were ambushed and faced a hailstorm of bullets.  One Ranger was killed in the fire fight.  The Humvee in which Jeff rode was covered with blood as they retreated from the city with their dead and wounded comrades.

Back at the compound, they received news that a helicopter had been shot down in the very area where their squad had been ambushed. Struecker’s team was ordered to return to the city to rescue their stranded comrades.  As Jeff prepared to lead his men back into action,  he began to talk to the Lord.  “I thought I was going to die,” he said.  Feeling his fear grow, he began to ask God to protect him and his men, but his prayer soon changed:

“I’ll never forget this for the rest of my life.  A scene appeared in the landscape of my mind.  The scene was Jesus in the Garden.  He clearly and honestly knew that He was going to die.  He also showed that He did not want to go to that cross and die.  And I knew that I didn’t want to die that night.  But Jesus courageously said, ‘God, not my will, but yours be done.’”

It was then that Jeff said to the Lord, “If I die tonight, that’s fine, as long as your will is done.”  For the first time in his life Struecker, who had been a Christian since age 13, was prepared to die.

“God spoke to my mind and my heart and said, ‘I’ve been protecting you every day of your life.’ He did not tell me, ‘You will live through the night.’  He simply showed me my life has always been in his hands.”
 
Struecker and his men returned to the field of battle in Mogadishu that night and fought with a God-given courage.

“I fought differently that night, because of my faith.  God gave me a supernatural peace in the midst of further firefights and an ambush that nearly blew our Humvee off the road.  I began to understand God’s omnipotent power. He was orchestrating every single bullet that was fired that night.  The peace that I had was not only for my own life, but for the lives of my soldiers.  If any of them were to get shot, then that was part of God’s sovereign plan.”
 
In the city streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, Jeff faced his greatest fears and was forced to rely on his skills and his “bullet-proof faith” in his Lord and Saviour to bring him through some of the most intense combat the U.S. Military had faced (at that time) since the Vietnam War. God spared Sgt. Struecker and he was later awarded the Bronze Star medal (with ”V” device for valor, 3rd award). 
 
But that is not the end of Jeff Stuecker’s story.   He was later called to the ministry while serving with the 75th Ranger Regiment in Ft. Benning, Georgia.  In preparation for that call, he went to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY to prepare for the chaplaincy.  Chaplain Struecker today serves both God and country as a chaplain in the 82nd Airborne.