A Devotional Look at the Book #514

A Devotional Look at the Book #514

by Jesse Abel

A Thought for today by Papa “J”

The rejection of God in the soul of mankind is limited to volume and space. Since God has placed eternity in the heart of mankind; time is his only valued measurement and without God’s eternal input; is flawed. Ecclesiastes 3:9-15.

A DAY IN THE PAST, THE PRESENT OR THE FUTURE

During my career in the Navy I was stationed on several destroyers; one of them the USS Forest Sherman DD-931. The ship was the first of her class, thus she was dubbed; “The first and the finest!” There were eighteen destroyers in total of this class: Forrest Sherman · John Paul Jones · Barry · Decatur · Davis · Jonas Ingram · Manley · Du Pont · Bigelow · Blandy · Mullinnix · Hull · Edson · Somers · Morton · Parsons · Richard S. Edwards · Turner Joy. I had the opportunity to go aboard several of these ships because many of them were stationed at Newport, RI along with the Forest Sherman. The structural engineering of these ships was unlike any destroyer before or after these ships since the superstructures were made of soft metals; mostly aluminum and magnesium, or non-ferrous metals (no iron). The idea was to have a super structure that could be penetrated by an armor piercing shell, but that the shell would not explode inside the ship since the metal would be so soft that the shell would past through both structural walls and out the other side before it recognized that it had hit something and explode. Good idea? Not so fast! When the ships would fire those big guns mounted on the stem and stern of these destroyers the vibrations were so strong that large holes would rip the soft superstructure and cause major damage. During my three year tour of duty aboard this ship we made two trips to the Boston Naval Shipyard and one to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for these types of repair. Here is the point! The only armor that never needs repair is: The belt of Truth; The Breastplate of Righteousness; The Battle Shoes of Peace; The Shield of Faith; The Helmet of Salvation; The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God and Good Communications with God. Ephesians 6:10-18.

2 Peter

2 Peter 3:10 – Read any interesting secular book and we can nearly feel the action that the writer intended for us to feel. Is it possible to grieve or quench the Holy Spirit in us by failing to get involved with the Word of God as He speaks to us? Yes, I believe we do this more often than not, for example; here in this verse we should come to attention over several concerns. The LORD of heaven and earth is coming again! “Well, I know that so what’s the big deal?” Okay! He is coming as a thief in the night and shouldn’t we be involved and prepared?

At a time when the guard is relaxed and with a great NOISE the elements of volume, space and time will melt and what we thought we were confident of will be NO MORE! The noise of any intruder is alarming; ask anyone who has had this experience. Notice too that the earth with its entire works will be laid bare and not be found ever again. These works are not the works of a nation, a religion or a culture. These are the works of all nations; all religions and all cultures. Be alarmed if you are an unbeliever because this is God’s extreme makeover; but without YOU!

2 Peter 3:11 – If verse ten is true (and it is) then what should we be doing with our manner of conduct. Without a personal relationship with the LORD of heaven and earth there is NO HOPE! For the rest of us, our conduct should be Spiritually convincing; a godly example of holiness that those with NO HOPE might come to Him and be delivered from this death to life in Christ. Acts 4:10-12. See the context of Peter’s message; Acts 3:1-26 through Acts 4:1-12.