The Devotional - A Look at the Book #796

by Jesse Abel

A Word from Papa “J”

 

There once was a man from Trent, who did little and lived in a tent. The tent was dirty and plain and yet, it had weathered the storms and the rain. Inside the tent, it was peaceful and cozy and warm, like being at home, away from the wilderness roam. 2 Corinthians 5:1

 

Good Morning

 

Before I went to submarines in 1975 I was what the Bible calls an, “unbeliever” but this does not mean that I was an atheist; it simply means my religion and focus on life had no meaning or purpose. I was a part of the world system that avoids God and like all who do, do not believe that Jesus Christ is the incarnate (God and man) Creator of the Universe.

 

Unbelieving people go through life on the surface, or we could say that what is in front of their face is believable but that the rest of life involving faith is of no intrinsic value. This being so; unbelievers open the door to believing everything therefore they have no direction, fulfillment of soul is lost, goals of life are destroyed and promises of friends and loved ones become nothing and faith is destroyed. Basically life is not fair and the scales of justice favor others and life is out of balance.

 

I am so thankful to God to be saved now. This is what the Bible calls a, “believer”. This change was not as a result of going from surface ships to submarines, I simply use the radical change from service on surface ships to service on submarines to reveal the radical shift from one type of sailor to another.

Believing in Jesus who bore the sin of the world; past, present and future is a radical, revolutionary and iconoclastic shift in the life of any person. God in His wisdom and mercy helps as in 2 Corinthians 10:1-6.

 

Believing in Jesus is a change that goes against the natural and traditional thinking of mankind. It is a change that God has to guide us to, a change that has permanent and positive eternal results.

 

Jesus puts it this way. “I and my Father are ONE.” John 10:30.This being true, then to have a purpose in life and a direction to follow is found in our need of Jesus, He takes us from just knowing God, to a personal connection with God. John 14:1-6. And like the man from Trent, our tents are tarnished and torn, but with Jesus inside there is peace and joy that cannot be explained; you can only experience this truth by faith. Hebrews 11:6