It was during my waiting period before going on my first patrol that I had a stretch of time in which Jesus made Himself known to me. The way He did this was not subtle nor do I revel in it. Blessed are they who believe and have not seen. I suppose in order to get my attention, it took a demonstration of power. Well, it worked.

My most memorable moment came during free time while I was sitting in the upper level missile compartment between multi-kiloton nuclear warheads reading scripture. Being reduced to tears as I read, I had every conceptual fact that I had learned about nuclear physics expounded to me by Moses. As a matter of fact, the relationship between light, matter and time, and what the relationship means is all explained. Moses saw it and wrote about it thousands of years ago.

I have learned, that while knowledge has increased, processing knowledge, and then rightly dividing it, has become a diminishing art. In the past thousands of years, people had brains and minds, just as capable as ours. But they developed the brain more, because there was very little in the way of artificial distraction. People were given to thought, as opposed to inundating the carnal senses with manufactured nonsense, in order to pass time and stave off boredom. What does the bible say? Physical exercise profits a little, but mental exercise toward God, profits much, in every way. Knowledge carries with it instructions about things which now are, as well as things to come.

One unique lesson I learned, did involve the carnal senses. In particular, it was the operation of the sense of smell. The brain takes all manner of imported signals from the senses, and it filters the bombardment of data into those bits deemed more important, or more pressing. It uses this to construct the mind, and the mind's present awareness. In the case of smell, we are capable of distinguishing approximately ten thousand smells. Our "nose" is constantly sending our brain a report of every perceived odor. Our brain pares this down to about three, and passes it on to the mind. Though we live in a never ending soup of smells, we are seldom consciously aware of more than a few smells. The brain will diminish a smell over time. If an individual puts on a nice perfume, later on in the day, that person will say that the scent has "worn off", because it will no longer be as prominent to the person wearing it. Yet when others enter the room, it will smell as if the individual wearing the perfume has just put it on.

On the submarine, we lived in a shell, in which few odors of the world at large, were present. The smell of machinery, of food being prepared, and of various smells associated with human beings was there. Compared to what my mind was used to, it was receiving a very limited input of odors. So the vigorous weeding out of odors was, to a large extent, idled. The result was very telling.

When a person returned from patrol and opened the hatch, he provided his brain with the smell of the earth...a soup of every odor present, which now required sorting out. In those first few minutes, you smelled the uncensored smell of the earth. The smell is very repulsive. In short, the earth stinks. and it borders on being nauseating. To not have the capacity of the mind to put it all in the unconscious background, would be a debilitating and a living nightmare.

In the garden of God, Adam was warned concerning the tree of knowledge of good and of evil, that in the day he ate of it, he would assuredly die. We know that in Adam all die, because everything was fashioned to bring forth after its kind. Not only was death passed on to all that should ever come out of Adam, but creation itself was made subject to vanity.

Adam ate of the fruit and while his carcass retained some expression of animation for nearly a thousand years he died in the day he ate of it. In eating the fruit, Adam created a race that does not fall... it is born fallen. Concerning the fact that animated flesh is nothing more than that, Jesus said, "Let the dead bury their own dead". There is a smell attendant with dead flesh.

The tabernacle which Moses built was very detailed and thought was given to pleasant odors, as opposed to unpleasant odors such as incense and anointing oils. One such oil was used to anoint Aaron and his sons when they entered within the confines of the tabernacle, to do their offices. The purpose of incense, oils, and ointments can take on a unique meaning if you will ask yourself what needed masking. Was it the odor of God's presence that needed to be covered, or was it the smell of flesh?

Paul describes the superior and eternal quality of the Priesthood of the risen Christ, by comparing it to the illegitimate priests and priesthood of men who need constant replacement because they die. In truth, without the Son, they are dead already.

We have a great treasure in earthen vessels. The Lord has made the vessels clean, as the art of the apothecary rendered Aaron and his son's presence tolerable. But every seed is not in finality free, until it puts away the vessel. Our great hope along with those who were altogether born in the region and shadow of death is that unto us was born a Savior, Christ the Lord. Now it is this same Christ in you, who is life unto life, a sweet savor unto God, and the resurrection out from among the dead. Consequently, in Adam all die, but on the other hand, in Christ all are made alive. Paul has found the answer to his question, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" First, Jesus has made clean the inside and has begotten us again to God in Himself. He has translated us from death into life and has prepared for us an everlasting habitation, which is a body fashioned like unto His glorious body. This permanent body replaces the skins he covered us with in Adam, a tent that waxes old with corruption.

Gen 27:26 And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, see, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed: Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.

Let there be no mistake about it. This blessing, and curse, pertains to One, and to everyone begotten to God in Him. Without dispute, Jesus and the children His Father has given Him are the Israel of God. Death has no more dominion over Christ, and over his people. Thanks to Him forever, who has lifted us from the stench! He has cleansed and anointed us, and ultimately taken us from a foul state, unto being partakers of the Divine Nature. In Christ, we are a sweet savor to God!