Review - A Table in the Presence by LT. Carey H. Cash

From Barnes and Noble:

"“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”
–Psalm 23:5

There are some places where you just don’t expect to find God. For the men of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, downtown Baghdad was one of those places. Moving into the heart of Iraq and ever deeper into enemy territory, they found themselves face-to-face with the ruthless Iraqi Republican Guard and Fedayeen militia. But when the smoke cleared, God’s touch was clearly visible.

Serving as a chaplain to the U.S. Marines, Lieutenant Carey Cash had witnessed the miracles that began in the desert of northern Kuwait, and found their culmination in one of the fiercest battles of Operation Iraqi Freedom. With vivid detail and gripping emotion, Lt. Cash gives a firsthand account of this amazing story–how the men of an entire battalion found God in the presence of their enemies."

We have had this book for a long time. My husband read it years ago and has been telling me that I needed to read it since he read it. I'm not exactly sure why but I just could never finish it. (I had to start Harry Potter at least 3 times.)
One of my goals for the year is to read more nonfiction. For nonfiction I have to go no further than the husband's side of the book shelves. Again he urged me to read it and this time I stuck to it. I am so glad.
I loved this book. You expect to see God in church or at Bible study. Sometimes you are surprised to find Him in WalMart or driving down the road. You do not expect to see God in the middle of a war in the middle of Iraq. You hope. You hope that God is there, but to see it so beautifully is pretty rare.
Cash has such a way with bringing everything together. He did an outstanding job of pulling out the pieces that are so special and showing them to you. I see God in big and small ways. It's the small ways that always make me know, but some people need the big stuff. I am thankful to God every weekend that he gave me a husband that I love and actually like to spend time with. Enjoying a drive in the middle of nowhere seems small, but to me it's so big.
The big's, the "Don't make me come down there's!" often times are lost on me. But I can see how men, warrior men especially, would need that. And the fact that he does what we need in order to be able to see is just amazing. I love that Cash showed us a little of both.
This is and is not a typical military book. It has your scene's of gripping war action. It didn't leave out the gritty parts of war. But it was not ABOUT the war or the battles. It was about God, it was about providence.
God has so much to show us everyday, I am so glad that I saw what he has to say through Cash and this book.
Here are a few of my favorites:

He uses a portion of the Marine Corps Devotional Book that I absolutely love:

"O God, for another day, for another morning, for another minute, for another chance to live and serve You, I am truly grateful.
Do....this day free me:
from all fear of the future
from all anxiety about tomorrow,
from all bitterness towards anyone,
from all cowardice in the face of danger, 
from all laziness in the face of work,
from all failure before opportunity,
from all weakness when Your power is at hand.
But fill me
with Love that knows no barrier,
with Sympathy that reaches all,
with Courage that cannot be shaken,
with Faith strong enough for the darkness,
with Strength sufficient for my tasks,
with Loyalty to Your Kingdom's goal,
with Wisdom to meet life's complexities,
with Power to lift me to you.
Be with me for another day, and use me as You will. Amen."

I love this so much, I am so glad to have read it.

"Using the tailgate of my vehicle as an altar, together we sought the Lord. We prayed together, heard God's Word together, shared communion together. The men would come to receive the body of Christ with their heads bowed in reverence, their hands cuppsed together and lifted up - hands that were filthy, sometimes even bloody, but hearts that were pure. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for, they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). And we saw God. We saw Him move in our lives."

"I have always tried to remind our men that as military personnel they have a unique role in the world. Theirs is not merely a job but a calling, a vocation. I remember saying that the Bible only speaks of three institutions that are specifically ordained of God as having special and sacred worth to society: the family, the church, and the government. Throughout the Bible, these institutions are elevated above all others. I have even joked with a few interested men once, saying that when they'd joined the Marine Corps, in some sense, whether they knew it or not, they had entered the ministry."

And from one of the letters they received wraps up everything very nicely:

"From a little boy:

Dear Marine,
My name is Isaiah. I am four. We are proud of you. I play G.I. Joe at Home. The good guy always wins."

I was blessed by this book.