Family Talk

Dr. James Dobson: Welcome everyone to Family Talk. It's a ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute, supported by listeners just like you. I'm Dr. James Dobson and I'm thrilled that you've joined us.

Roger Marsh: Well, welcome to Family Talk, the broadcast ministry of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. I'm Roger Marsh. You know, sometimes the most powerful stories of faith come from people from whom you'd least expect them. On today's Family Talk broadcast, we're going to hear from Lieutenant Colonel Don Cobble, a hardened military man whose life, marriage, and family were transformed in ways that he could have never imagined. Now, Dr. Dobson originally introduced this unforgettable testimony himself, and so we wanted you to hear it just as he presented it. Here now is Dr. James Dobson to set the stage for today's Family Talk broadcast.

Dr. James Dobson: Well, hello everyone. I'm Dr. James Dobson, and I have a recorded message for you today that will make you laugh, and it'll also inspire you with this personal account. The speaker's name is Don Cobble. He spent many years in the US Army. Uh he became a crusty old Lieutenant Colonel who was invited to attend the church service for the first time in his life. I'd like you today to just lean back and enjoy this personal presentation uh from the heart of a man who shares his journey of faith. I have heard this message many times.

It 's been in my library for more than 20 years, but it's still relevant. It's still powerful, and I think you're going to enjoy it, too. There was 12 of us kids in our family. My dad usually called a roll when we come to supper. But uh we had a had a lot of fun down there a lot growing up as a as a youngster, and we didn't have a whole lot uh as far as a material things, but uh uh I really loved my dad. And uh my dad always took time for me. Always.

And uh he taught me a lot of things. When I was 13 years old, my dad dropped dead of a heart attack. And we made a lot of plans together, and that wasn't in it. My dad had taught me a lot of things. He taught me how to skin a rabbit and drive a nail, saw a board, a lot of things. And I really loved that man. And I didn't have him anymore, and it took me about 6 months before I could come to grips with that. I just it just absolutely destroyed me. And I felt cheated.

I got angry at the world. And so I struck out in rebellion. Nobody led me into sin. There wasn't any wrong crowd that come and gotten me. I built the wrong crowd and went and got others. And I really went into some bad things and and uh really broke my mother's heart and and just struck out at the world. And uh I got caught up in it and we were had a little home brew project down the gym. And uh principal didn't think a lot of that and so I got expelled. So then I got into uh a group that was even worse than that and and things really got bad and and finally I got old enough why good friend of mine uh decided that maybe I ought to try the service.

He was the deputy sheriff. And uh he he allowed to tell that probably was a good plan, and after he got through talking with me, I thought it was probably a good plan and I thought, well, I'll teach him something cuz I knew pretty much everything. I'd done about everything, and those things I hadn't done I had told it that I'd done it. I believed it myself and so I went to the service, got on the Greyhound bus, and I sizing everybody up to see what's going on. We got on down there to the place where the they're going to do basic training on us.

And uh outside and got up and there was fellow out there hollering everybody line up and fall in and all that and we're horsing around, you know, I was playing the role as a big gunner. And this fellow come over and said uh young man, you hear me? I said fall in. I said I'll be there in a minute. He hit me. I hit the ground. I looking up at that fellow and he was he was a a good size fellow, about an 18 1/2 in neck. And he picked me up and put me in the line there and and uh he got in front of us and he said, man, I want to tell you something.

He said, I'll be your mother, your father, your girlfriend, your chaplain. I'm everything to you. And I believed him. And the thought crossed my mind at that time that maybe there was one or two things I hadn't learned yet. So I tried to pay attention and I I went on about my business down in the Army, but it really took a hold of me and I it was it was the dynamic that I needed, discipline. My father's a disciplinarian. My dad never begged this or coerced or anything. He just spoke once and if we didn't respond, we's usually in a heap over to the side somewhere.

And you don't have to roll across the living room more than about twice to you can you can train a monkey. And I I had missed a lot of that and uh uh so I appreciated this sergeant and became my DI. And he taught me a lot of things, a lot of things. And one thing he taught me shut my mouth. And he taught me how to make a bed and to peel potatoes and scrub pots and I never so glad to leave a man in my life. I was that so I worked hard and tried to pay attention and finally got out of basic not dying and got on into the service and uh really tried to make something of myself and after my first hitch out of well, that's it.

I've told him about all I can here and I guess I better going back. So I went on back home and uh when I got off the bus, there was my dear friend. And so me and Deputy got in his car and we went down to went down and had some coffee and he said we cleaned up a lot of places around here in the 3 years and he went on to tell me a lot of things and convinced me that I really wasn't needed there any longer. And it ought to go out and further the education of other communities.

So I decided the best thing for me to do is get back in the service. So I did and uh I hadn't been in back in long and I was a sergeant then and uh and uh the company commander called me in and said uh we're sending you to OCS. I said, no, I I don't want to go. He said, I didn't ask you that. You're going to OCS. It's pretty difficult to argue when you stand at attention. So I went on to OCS and I wouldn't go through that school again for brigadier general. I finally got down and got my commission and uh then I went on back home on furlough and spied this little girl that I'd tried to date.

In fact, she was a church person. And uh she uh her family was church people. Now they weren't saved, but they had a lot of religion, a lot of ritual, but nothing real. And uh she thought, well, I'll go ahead and marry this fellow. I'll change him, get him straight away, you know. And so we got married and and she made the tycoon mistake of thinking that she was going to change me. I was a heavy drinker by then and I I was really a workaholic. I worked very hard. I was very serious about my job.

I was serious about what I was doing and if I I'd been raised to believe that anything you do, you give it everything you got. And if it's not worth doing that, then just go on and lay down. And so that was the way I was raised and that's the way I was working in the service and I it became my god. And I worked very hard. One day I was at the Command General Staff College. I'd gone to Vietnam and uh and had survived that and uh came back and was promoted again and went to Command General Staff College.

And I was there working very hard wanting to make very good in the commandant's list in the top 10% of the class and didn't have time at all for my family. I just kind of used them. I didn't really have time. I hadn't told my wife I loved her since uh I come to preacher in Demarinas. And uh I didn't love her. I had affection for her. I had lust after her. She met the part of my life that I I needed companionship in, but I didn't love her. I didn't know how to love because I wore a great big mask.

You see, I loved my dad desperately. And as a result of that, when I lost him, I couldn't get hurt again. And so I put on a big mask and a big front. And I went back to Vietnam again and this time I had a little more rank and she uh before I had gone to Vietnam this last time, she tried to commit suicide. Praise God, she was unsuccessful. And the neighbor then a few days after the trauma wore off came over and presented Jesus Christ in a real way and she got saved. And she tried to tell me about her faith and her Lord and I didn't want to hear it.

I didn't have time for Jesus. One day she said, don't you think maybe you ought to get your kids to Sunday school? And I allowed to tell you I probably ought to do that and it's probably good for the career. I'm getting close to general and ought to have everything squared away. A lot of people that was an ego thing uh Don, you shouldn't share things like that. That's what went through my mind. My god was the Army. And it would have been that way if I was a welder or a ditch digger or whatever because I was from the 110% crowd.

Everything I did when we used to go out and get drunk, I'd first one there, cops last one to bring home. Whatever it was, I was 110%. So I thought, okay, we'll we'll really do this. So we went downtown and a little bitty church and got down there and went in and uh something scared me right away. There was some men in the church. Now I'd been in not a churches quite a bit. I used to date young girls. Their folks had never told them about guys like me. I'm going to churches real easy, no problem.

And I see a lot of women. See a man up there behind the thing and uh a lot of women uh uh some retired fellow maybe uh giving out bulletins and a real nice fellow, but I didn't see the uh the ruggedness of manhood that I had been trained that was a man. And I didn't see any men standing for their their faith. And so when I walked in this little church and here was two big dudes, remind me of that DI that had put me through it. And they said, welcome, how are you? One almost broke my hand, the other one dislocated my shoulder.

And it really bothered me. Well, these guys are men. What are they doing in a church? So I went over and sat down in my family and everybody there and in came this choir and and this fellow, white hair, crew cut, the great big Bible in his hand. They come in and and the choir did their thing and he opened the book and got up and started to preach. And he said, open up to John. And everybody's rustling. I looked around. Everyone of them men had a Bible. I'd never seen that before. And pretty soon I'm sitting there and one of these fellows come over and plop and there was a Bible in my hand now.

About halfway through the service before my son said, turn it over, turn it over. And I'm sweating, miserable like god's talking about Jesus Christ, paying the price for my sin and all my phoniness and all my rottenness already paid for, all that debt already canceled. And it scared me. And it made me miserable. And I got up and left. And after a while I was out there smoking, I looked like Kaiser Steel. It just miserable. Thought I'd have to get better to die. And finally she came out, everybody come out. I got in the car, laid some rubber out, went back to the fort.

I said, that man's crazy. Don't ever ask me to go back down here again. In the past she would have been on me like ugly on an ape. She just said, yes, dear. Fine. That made me mad and I just comment cussing and ranting and raving and I finally shut up when my children started crying. I was miserable that week. I was sick. That guy was crazy. He kept saying something about pilot, a fellow by the name of pilot and they have hanging Jesus on the cross. And he told the crowd, what are you going to do with this Jesus who is called Christ?

And that kept wake me up at night. I couldn't get that out of my mind. What do you do with Jesus who is called Christ? And all week long it just bugged me and and just tore my guts out and I was miserable. Finally woke up Sunday morning just clear as a bell. Went in and started fixing breakfast. The family come in. So what are you doing, dad? I said, I'm getting breakfast. He said, I'll come. I said, we're going to church. I looked around Man, I didn't want to go to church. That was the last place I wanted to go.

I couldn't help myself. My wife didn't say, well, I told you so. I knew we'd get you. She never said any of that. She just said, hey, that that's fine, honey. If that's what you like to do and that made me angry and We ate and I went down there and we even beat the preacher to the church. I sitting there and that voice kept telling me, Cobble, you dumb guy, get out of here. Get out of here. It's about a foot or so from my hand to the keys. I didn't have the power to turn the key on.

I couldn't move my hand. I couldn't leave. I wanted to leave. I couldn't. Finally the preacher come. And I thought I was the only guy in there and I was miserable. My tie got all tight and I sweating. And I didn't my tie. I did the best I could to get up and I couldn't do it. And he said that Jesus Christ was the bridge between me and god. And all the religion in the world wouldn't get me right with god. And if I didn't have Christ, I was going to hell because the Bible said that you can't get into heaven unless you're holy.

But I knew that ruled me out because I wasn't holy. I'd lived a lie so long. I believed it myself. And he went on and preached and I don't remember a lot of other things he said, but then he went on and he said, what are you going to do with this Jesus who is called the Christ? And that triggered what had been inside my head for a week. And he said, if you want to get your heart right with god, I ask you to come right now because if you're not serious enough about it to do it publicly, then it's another lie.

I had a very prestigious job. I traveled all over the world. I was in now the Pentagon every 2 weeks. I went to NATO shape headquarters. And I everybody knew me and knew who I was and I didn't care and I got up there and here's this old fellow up there he said, what do you want, young man? I said, I want to do what you said. He said, what's that? He made it awful hard on me. I said, I want to get right with god. I I I want to have Jesus. I didn't know what to say.

He said, you want to be saved? I said, yes, sir, I do. He said, are you willing to put Jesus Christ in control of your life? I said, yes, I am. He said, then on that basis let's go to Calvary. We knelt right there while they were singing Amazing Grace. And I asked Christ into my heart this fantastic experience. Got home, ran and looked in the mirror. I looked the same. And I looked that guy told me a bill of goods. And my wife asked me what the problem was and I told her. I said, I don't look any different.

And she said, it's inside. Jesus is inside. And then she started sharing with me and then I I felt all right. So we got down to business and I first thing god did is take away my x-rated mouth. And I had to fish for words and and everything and it was kind of weird. I'd be in a little circle of people and everybody be talking that talk and I'd try not to talk that talk and then pretty soon they'd quiet down and it was kind of weird cuz I wasn't talking that talk. And they'd start stumbling around.

We'd all be stumbling around with trying to talk to one another. And uh then god worked on the booze angle. I had a private bar in my home and about $300 worth of booze. Kept it stocked and I thought, well, Lord, all right, I'll I'll give that up and I'll I'll give it to my neighbor. The Lord just seemed to tell me, well, if it ain't good for you, it ain't good for him. So I started pouring it down the sink and my wife come in from grocery shopping and seen me pouring all this booze down and we got happy and the Lord commence crying and we both just poured all that booze down quarter after quarter of it.

I know the garbage man that next Monday he said, well, he did it again. But god delivered me. And then god did something fantastic. He gave me a love for my woman. I'd never experienced it before. It was fantastic. I loved her just like she was. I'm so thankful for that woman. And I couldn't tell her enough how much I loved her. It just was just overwhelming and I loved my kids. But I didn't love my kids until I went through the deep water with them. I was one of them kind of guys that uh made a federal case out of most everything.

And when I told my children to be home 9:00, it didn't mean 1 minute after. You could come in 5 minutes early. Wouldn't be penalized too hard for that, but don't ever be late. And I told my oldest son, uh you be home 9:00 and he came in about 10 minutes after and I was out in the garage and he came in and he said, I'm sorry, I'm late, dad. And I reached over and backhanded that boy, knocked him off his bike and over into the wall. And he said, daddy, I love you. And I fell to my knees and I asked forgiveness from god and of that boy.

And through that Jesus taught me to love. And I praise god for the love that he's given me. And then I I started growing and I expected too much too soon. Pretty soon my life became a roller coaster. Up down all around and I was losing my peace. I was losing my joy. And then I noticed the old mask started coming trying to get back on me. And I was comparing myself with other people. And I found that that's wrong. And I searched the word of god and and the thing that kept coming into my mind was, what shall I do with this Jesus who is called Christ?

And I started searching the word of god. And I found out in these blessed scriptures that there is a plan to be god's man. Jesus said in John the 12th chapter, I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me. And where I am, my servant also will be.

And my father will honor the one who serves me. What are you going to do with this Jesus who is called Christ? Don Cobble, I had to die to self. I had to die to my own desires. You see, I'd used the Lord kind of like an overcoat. When things got bad and the weather turned foul, I put him on. But when the sunshine come out, I hung him back up on the peg and went on my way. I had to make a decision. If you're here today and you don't know him in a living personal real way, my dear friend, I don't believe that you want to hear us because the Bible says you have to have fruit, fruit.

And Jesus said that there isn't any fruit that comes from the thorn bush. And I found in my own life that until he was Lord of all, he wasn't Lord at all. What are you going to do with this Jesus who is called the Christ? What do you stand your wife, fellows? God's got the power to heal your marriage. I don't care what's wrong. We were headed for divorce court. My wife tried to kill herself. I don't care what it is. Jesus Christ has got the power if you've got the desire. But it has to start with you.

The security of your whole family rests on you. What a glorious privilege that is. God wants all of us. That's all he wants. If you're here today and you don't know him as your personal savior, I'm going to ask you today. Don't get caught up in some religion. You can have ritual running out your ears. But unless you have the real thing, your life won't be changed. All of these dynamics of becoming god's man is simply getting our priorities together, the Lord Jesus Christ, my woman, my children, and everything else. Well, that was Lieutenant Colonel Don Cobble speaking some years ago about his introduction to Jesus Christ.

What an incredible story this is about a hard-drinking tough military guy on his way to hell and how god loved him and forgave his sins and made him a new creation in Jesus Christ. And I ask you the same question that Don Cobble's pastor asked him. What are you going to do with Jesus who is the Christ? But I know if you open your heart to the savior, he'll do the same thing for you that he did for Don Cobble. There may be a wife or a mother or a father out there who's been praying for you for many years.

Your life may have run aground like it did for Don. Maybe your marriage has fallen apart or uh you might be a heavy drinker or you're involved in other sinful activity. In fact, let's admit it. We've all fallen short of the glory of god. There's a better way of living and it begins with a prayer for forgiveness. That's all that is required to make you clean and whole again. Let me tell you how that can happen. I was interviewing a very well-known minister named Luis Palau many years ago. I'm sure there are many people listening to us who know of him or know him.

He's led many thousands of people to Christ and I love him like a brother. I invited him to be a guest on my program and uh at the end of that interview I said, Luis, there may be someone listening to us who is driving down the freeway perhaps and that person has been touched by your words today. That individual is wondering how to go about finding a relationship with Jesus Christ. The words that have been spoken today have touched the heart of that person and something resonated inside. And I asked Dr. Palau if he would tell uh that person and many others what to do specifically to establish a relationship with this Jesus.

Dr. Palau suggested that that person pull off the road and uh perhaps find a parking lot someplace where uh he or she could pray a simple prayer for forgiveness and to ask for uh reconciliation with Jesus. That's what Christians call it. That's what the Bible calls it and that means this restoration that I've been talking about. That is all that's required. You don't have to do anything to earn this relationship. All you have to do is yield yourself to the love of the savior. Well, we found out later that there was indeed a man who was listening to us that day.

He was driving down the freeway and what he heard touched him and he pulled off the road at the next ramp and he prayed a sinner's prayer and he became a believer in Christ on that day. And his name is Jim Talent. He became a United States senator with major influence in Washington. And I was in the halls of Congress 1 day and this was years later and he recognized me and he came up and told me what had happened that day after hearing Dr. Palau and me. And uh he says about it, that was the day I passed from death unto life.

This transformation that occurred in his life could also happen to others out there who have heard Don Cobble on our program today. And if you're one of them, this could be the greatest day of your life. Well, thanks for listening to our program today. We're calling it softening a crusty heart.

Roger Marsh: It's a powerful principle indeed. And if you made a decision to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, we would love to hear from you. You can reach out to a member of our constituent care team. That number is 877-732-6825. That's 877-732-6825. You can also write to us directly online at drjamesdobson.org. If it's easier, just type in those initials jdfi.org. Those websites are one in the same. And if you'd like to write to us through the US Postal Service, our ministry mailing address is the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, PO Box 39000, Colorado Springs, Colorado, the zip code 80949.

Well, I'm Roger Marsh and on behalf of all of us here at Family Talk and the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, thanks so much for joining us today. Be sure to tune in again next time right here for another edition of Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk, the voice you trust for the family you love.

Dr. James Dobson: This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.