by Doug Dalzell, USMC E-4 Corporal, Land Mine Warfare & Demolition

Epilogue by Ray Heck

Testimony of Doug Dalzell Fall 2021

I grew up with a very challenging life involving sexual and physical abuse, surrounded by family dragged down by drugs, alcohol, and other sin. At the age of seventeen after graduating from high school, I joined the Marine Corps.

I left for boot camp feeling that nobody could ever hurt me again as they had when I was a child. When I was twenty years old, I was sent off to war. My job in the Corps was landmine warfare and demolition.

Combat changed my life in such a negative and devastating way. It destroyed my life, both directly and indirectly. During the next several years, I lashed out at everything and everyone who loved and cared for me.

I became an alcoholic to mask my pain, and suicidal thoughts went through my mind every day. I was sent to the VA psychologists and hospitals and the Road Home program in Chicago.

by Pastor Will Lohnes, DMIn, ACBC & IABC Certified Biblical Counselor

I would like to ask you to consider a method and manner of biblical counseling that uses the principles and truths of the Scriptures to develop the counselees as disciples and not just corrected and cured Christians. My history explains how I came to realize the importance of this.

irst learned of biblical counseling while a counselor at a Christian camp. We visited conferences, churches, and learned curricula that would produce godliness in the soul if obeyed, submitted to, and believed in without exception. I journeyed through the labyrinth of counseling hundreds of counselees during the last forty years. Eventually I realized I may have missed a major emphasis in the Scriptures when it came to making disciples through biblical counseling. I had been taught early on that the Spirit in the Scriptures has all that is needed for godliness (2 Peter 1:3), but was I using Scripture correctly, completely, and consistently with the direction presented to me by Jesus in the Great Commission? Could I use biblical counseling to fix a problem and then stop short of making a disciple because I was averse to relationship?

by Pastor Neal Grogan, OEF Marine Combat Veteran

Epilogue by Mike Ruff, Colonel, USAF, Retired & ACBC

To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
 – Ephesians 4:22–24 ESV

When I was nine years old, I was being bullied at school. They hurt me, disrespected me, and treated me like an outsider. One day during recess one when of these kids started to throw rocks at me, I snapped. I punched the bully and stopped him in that moment.

Recognizing that anger had provided my desired result, I submitted to a pattern of life in dealing with my issues from then on. If I felt hurt, disrespected, or attacked, I would respond in anger and stop the thing I didn’t like. I would have control at all costs. This cheap and reliable fuel source served me as a child to get what I desired ( control and approval) and it would further serve me in the United States Marine Corps. Tapping into my desire for control and approval, I used anger to deal with whatever issues I had. In Afghanistan, I exacted rage on my enemies. With my Marines, I would use anger to get them to do what I desired. Anger is a cheap and reliable fuel source, but it destroys the engine it powers.