The Devotional

Papa “J” says

One day; everyone will stand before the LORD to give an account of our personal actions. This might be hard for those people who always see the fault in others but not in themselves! Hebrews 9:27

In the days when I rode the ballistic missile submarines there were two crews. One, the blue crew and two, the gold. Two crews were necessary since these ships were on alert for the cold war and the vessels were always at sea. So the two crews would rotate this duty at sea and time away from homeport would be about 108 days, time at sea about 90 days. When things would go wrong because of overlooked maintenance or procedure, the ship had another crew called the “other crew”. The other crew was responsible for poor maintenance and faulty procedures simply because the blue and the gold crews were perfect in all things. For example; when the ship was limited to a depth of 700 feet because the “other crew” bounced the submarine off the bottom of the ocean, both the blue and gold crews claimed it was the “other crew's” fault. Someone from the other crew did not update the navigational charts. You see, it was the blue crew that bounce the submarine off the bottom. But it was the “other crew's” fault who failed to keep accurate charts for navigating in waters unfamiliar to the perfectly good; “blue crew”. And of course the “gold crew” now being limited to 700 feet. Knew it was the “other crews” fault too! Got it?

The Gospel of John

John 3:1-3 Three of the finest verses in the gospel of John. A question and an answer. The one who asks the question is sincere, the man Nicodemus is an educated man. It is significant that he goes to speak with Jesus at night, but the night time visit is not the subject. The statement of Nicodemus is not the the subject either.

We might see this better if we look at the statement of Nicodemus as he begins to speak to Jesus and the reply that Jesus gave. Jesus did not say something like; “Well you hit the nail on the head there Nick! Yes, me and a few of my friends belong to this new signs and wonders group. We do a lot of this on the Sabbath, so come on back then and we'll show you around!

The subject on the minds of both Jesus and Nicodemus is the soul. Jesus is God, lets not forget that He knows the people who come to Him. Jesus answered with these words: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” If we do not speak to the subject of the soul sent to us, by God. People will fail to get saved! Some of us are the blue crew and some are the gold, but for the soul that belongs to God. Don't leave it to the “other crew”!