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Monday, February 6, 2012

The Devotional – A Look at the Book #642


by Jesse Abel


Meditate on this!
“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 3:35-36 Just as one cannot alter the course of the sun so no one can alter the absolute truth of this statement; the powerful truth of this is backed by God’s love for His Son.

Thoughts about Life
I am still waiting for a response from a friend in Ukraine, but I know that the winter there has been hard with lots of snow, sort of like our winter last year; only a bit worse. At breakfast one morning Sergei, the pastor of God’s Mercy Baptist Church and I began a conversation about our military life. Sergei was a radioman on a missile submarine in the Russian Navy and I was a storekeeper on American submarines. Now how ironic is that? With Alexander as our interpreter we were able to determine that both of us were in the North Atlantic at the same time one year. We determined that at one specific time were no more than a few thousand yards from each other; now here we were sitting in this man’s home sharing military stories as (brothers in Christ) yet national enemies at one time. It is not hard for me to cry, a song or cantata, a new born baby, a wedding and even a section of scripture while one is in a devotional moment. These events where the Hand of the LORD is evident are all moments in time when God is noticeable and close and such was that time with Sergei. We need these moments when God is near; whether alone or with another brother or sister in the LORD we need these moments and God knows just the right time to show up, Matthew 28:18-20; the gospel of God is the same where ever you are on this planet. Acts 1:7-8.

Ecclesiastes 12
Verses 1 – “Enjoy yourself, its later than you think, enjoy yourself while you’re still in the pink; the years go by as quickly as a wink” you know the song… yes you do! But when you are young and pink with radiant life you are not concerned about the difficult days too come. One of the first foundations placed on the sidelines is God. There are only three left; family, husband/wife relationship and national heritage; these foundations when abused destroy the personal and national future of living under the sun.

Verse 2-5 – Before you cannot recognize the natural revelation of God for absolute truth; before the fluids of growing dry up and your body becomes brittle and your brain becomes cloudy. Before the bones start hurting and before you can no longer control the shaking of your body; even before you can no longer stand up straight and even before you are no longer able to eat corn on the cob or a piece of steak because your teeth are few. When you can no longer get out of bed at the routine hour or when your ears refuse to hear the lower frequencies. Also… when you become afraid of height (and you will) and afraid of self defense. Afraid of weeding the garden, afraid of bugs… afraid, afraid, afraid; and before desire fails (any desire you can think of). Even before you die and your friends and loved ones go about mourning you need too do this.

Verse 6-8 – REMEMBER YOUR CREATOR: before the silver cord of health is broken; before the ability to earn a living has dissolved to a fixed income, before the house can no longer be repaired by your own hands and even before you can no longer fetch a cool drink from the well. No matter how high you sore in life, the dust of your dead body will settle once again to the ground and your spirit will return to the LORD who created if for Himself. Notice this life is vain… without God all is vanity; but there is hope, tune in tomorrow if the LORD permits.

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