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A Marine’s Son by Paul Gilberston

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Before I was born, my dad was in the Marines.  Once a Marine always a Marine.  Many of you have met my dad, and he is, and never was a drill instructor as a father, but he loved to teach my brother and me things he was taught in the Corps.  One of those things was how to make a bed (or in his words a bunk) in the Marine fashion.  He taught us to make sure the sheets and blanket where pulled tight so a quarter would bounce.  So after my brother and I would finish making our beds, we would call him in so he could flip a quarter onto our beds to see if it would bounce.  If it didn’t, we would remake our beds until we got it to bounce.

He would also tell us how the drill instructor would break each of the cadets down so they could be built into a Marine.  I have always remembered that, and it reminds me of how God is with us.  God allows us to reach bottom so he can build us up and shape us in His image.  He wants us to focus and rely only on Him when we are at that point (and always).  He is the immovable rock that we can grab hold of.  He wants us to know that He will always be there in our time of need.

We see throughout the Bible where He uses people who are broken and at their lowest point to show how powerful and loving He is.  Once these broken people rely only on God, He uses them mightily and for His glory.  We see it in Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers only to save the Israelites from a drought throughout the land.  We see it in Moses, who after fleeing Egypt for his life, comes back to free the people from the slavery they have endured.  We can’t forget about David who was fleeing for his life from King Saul.  The whole army of the king was after David, and he had nowhere to turn except to God, and the Psalms reflect that.  There are many more examples of ordinary people put in a position in which only God could save them.

We all go through the refiner’s fire at some point in our lives.  We need to have our old self melted away so God’s image can be shown through us.  If you feel the things you have done are so bad that God cannot love you, please remember that we all have sinned and deserve nothing from God.  That is why, because of His grace, He sent his only Son to die on the cross so that we can be washed of our sins.  It truly is an amazing thing that the God of this universe loves us that much and has shown us that much grace.  Please turn to Him today and hang on to the one true Rock.  Let Him rebuild you in His image.

Romans 6:20-23 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Blessings,
Paul Gilbertson

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