A Devotional Look at the Book #553

A Devotional Look at the Book #553

by Jesse Abel

A Thought for today by Papa “J”

Personal and National Sin: -- Psalm 119:96 Even when the decree or covenant of man is completed and all known errors are corrected and man has done his best. Even then, the Best is yet to be realized since the Commandment of God by His decree or covenant will; by length and berth, supersede.

Good Morning

March 2009 – Manama Bahrain – Do we even know where this place is? Unless you are tied to the Navy in some way, you do not know and maybe you do not even care! A collision at sea between a nuclear power submarine and a surface ship, both vessels belonging to the U.S. Navy; simply put, human error is the only reasonable conclusion. The decisions of the crew on board the submarine as in all Navy vessels fell to the responsibility of one; the Captain of the ship. Who without doubt was relieved of his authority as Captain within twenty four hours! The men involved were not a handful of five, but the whole crew; yet one man became the “scapegoat” for all the men. For this Captain, his career as Submarine Commander is over. As for the crew, they will be reprimanded, some will receive damaging letters to be placed in their service records and some will be re-assigned to subordinate duties. All will be able to re-build a troubled career, but to a lesser degree. This is human life's picture of sin too; sin has rammed us all into the bottomless pit, we have crashed and trash our world. Yet there is one who stands in the gap, even referred to in the Holy Bible as our “scapegoat”. He is better known to us as the LAMB (John 1:29), the sacrifice, the one for the many. He however is not like the captain of an ill fated moment in time. This Captain is He who willingly took our human error (SIN) and nailed it to the tree (Colossians 2:14). This Captain alone is our eternal salvation as the KJV puts it in Hebrews 2:10. His career did not end at Calvary, He is the author of eternal salvation; HE IS RISEN, HE IS ALIVE and you can follow HIM! For He alone has rescued us – one by one from the bottomless pit. Won't you let Him be your Captain? Jesus does not re-build lives... He gives new life by faith in Him through the grace of God His Father. Ephesians 2:1-10.

2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 5:14-17 – Romans 6:6 and Galatians 2:20 helps us to see that the life and death of the LORD Jesus has open the door for all that are saved to have purpose in life. The unsaved world around us has no purpose for living; even unto their own relative righteous standard. The constraint of God’s love is not a restriction to live our life in Christ under the Law, but is liberty to live life in the resurrection power of God while living in this earthen vessel.

The world around us lives life to die. Those who are saved, live life to live. Does this sound strange to you or do you fail to understand that life lived by the standard of the world is that of death. But life lived in truth that Jesus died and rose again meaning that we who by faith are living in the power of God; the power that raised Jesus for the dead. This same power will enable you and me to join Jesus in His resurrection Life, even though we do not see Him in this present life. This is comforting; since this present life is suffering and the life to come will be peace and joy with Jesus.

Living in this present life with the knowledge that we are His is a great joy; this joy is not the result of any work of righteousness that we have done. Simply put; if we were able to remake our life it would be like sowing a piece of new cloth on to an old shirt. The strength of the new would cause the old too tear ruining the patch Matthew 9:16. We must be willing to let God make a new creation out of this earthen vessel. All things are made new in Christ.