A Navy Chaplain’S Devotions for Afloat and Ashore

By Benny J. Hornsby

As a longtime US Navy and Marine Corps Chaplain, afloat and ashore, author Benny J. Hornsby is familiar with both the realities of the battlefield and the challenges of everyday living. A Navy Chaplains Devotions for Afloat and Ashore seeks to provide inspiration for military personnel as well as anyone who is lonely, depressed, or far from home. This volume is also a valuable source of real-world illustrations for ministers and other public speakers.

Hornsby wrote these devotions over the course of a thirty-six-year career on active duty in the US Navy Chaplain Corps, including extended duty on six different Navy ships and several shore installations. These devotions were presented onboard ship; at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; and in Navy and Marine Corps chapels, hospitals, and prisons around the world. While most were presented in formal religious settings, some appeared in newspapers, magazine articles, unit newsletters, computer bulletin boards, and impromptu Bible studies in difficult places, such as the battle zones of Vietnam, Panama, and Lebanon, as well as on the radio program Brother Benny, Your Radio Pastor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512724295

Benny J. Hornsby

Benny J. Hornsby, a native of Mississippi, retired from military service in 1996 and currently serves as an instructor of sociology and as chair of the social sciences department at the Hattiesburg, Mississippi, campus of Pearl River Community College.

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Copyright © 2016 Benny J. Hornsby.

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Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-2387-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-2429-5 (e)

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WestBow Press rev. date: 01/11/2016

CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

Overcoming Adversity

Dealing With Stress

Living in the Moment

Church Life

Holidays

Stars and Stripes

A Nautical Miscellany

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Benny J. Hornsby, a native of Mississippi, spent 36 years on active duty in the Navy and Marine Corps, including 18 years at sea and visiting over 100 foreign countries. He enlisted as a Seaman Apprentice and retired in 1996 as a Captain (O-6). His military decorations include the Legion of Merit, the Combat Action Ribbon for service in Vietnam, and the Navy and Marine Corps Parachutist Insignia.

He is a graduate of Pearl River Community College, the University of Southern Mississippi, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Rhode Island, San Diego State University, and New Mexico State University, as well as New Orleans Baptist and Fuller Theological Seminaries.

Dr. Hornsby currently serves as an Instructor of Sociology and as Chair of the Social Sciences Department at the Hattiesburg, Mississippi, campus of Pearl River Community College, where he was recently selected as the Humanities Teacher of the Year. He also teaches online in the Mississippi Virtual Community College, and he is an adjunct faculty member at William Carey University.

He is President of Mississippi Professional Educators (2012-2013), the largest teacher organization in the state with over 10,600 members, and he is a deacon at Temple Baptist Church in Hattiesburg.

He is married to the former June Gallagher, who is a Professor of Education at William Carey University, and they have two children, Benjy and Jena, as well as four granddaughters: Ashlyn, Abby, Ryanne, and Reagan.

This book is

dedicated to the men and women of

America’s Armed Forces who provide the blanket

of freedom that we sleep under each night.

INTRODUCTION

T his updated collection of devotions for Navy and Marine Corps personnel, afloat or ashore, was written by the author during a thirty-six year career on active duty in the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps, including extended duty on six different Navy ships and several shore installations.

They were presented onboard ship, at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and in Navy and Marine Corps chapels, hospitals, and prisons around the world. While most were presented in formal religious settings, some appeared in newspapers, magazine articles, unit newsletters, computer bulletin boards, impromptu Bible studies in difficult places, such as the battle zones of Vietnam, Panama, and Lebanon, and on the radio program Brother Benny, Your Radio Pastor. While initially addressed to military personnel, these devotions are appropriate for anyone who is lonely, depressed, overwhelmed by the challenges of life, or who simply needs encouragement.

Religion is still very important to many military personnel, especially those in harm’s way. The old adage, There are no atheists in foxholes remains essentially true today. The central place of religion in modern Navy life is illustrated by the photograph of the Church Pennant on the cover of this volume. The Christian and Jewish Church Pennants are only flown during religious services on commissioned Navy ships underway, and are the only flags or pennants authorized to be flown above the national ensign of the United States.

While most military personnel address the Chaplain simply as Padre, the author, true to his Southern Baptist roots, encouraged the personnel of his parishes, afloat or ashore, to call him by the sobriquet Brother Benny. He is often referred to as such in the following devotions, but usually speaking of himself in the third person and from the point of view of an interested and compassionate observer of human events.

A sincere effort has been made to cite original sources when known, and all errors are the author’s alone. As far as humanly possible, such errors are sins of omission rather than commission.

OVERCOMING ADVERSITY

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USS New Jersey (BB-62) Sailing in Company with USS America (CV-66)

LIVING IN THE BONUS

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

I was thinking last night about all of the close calls I’ve had in my life – moments when death was only a breath or a few inches away; moments when the Grim Reaper had me in his sights but for some reason chose to look away. Not to bore you with my stories, because I know you have yours, but here are a few examples:

On a pitch black night in Rome, I was one step away from walking into the path of what must have been the quietest street car in the world. But something held me back.

Once while being high lined by boatswain chair between two ships steaming alongside in rough seas, the ships came closer together than they should have, slacking the line, and I was dunked and submerged for about as long as I could hold my breath. But I did.

In Vietnam, a mortar shell exploded about twenty feet from me, but the shrapnel which saturated the area where I was lying inextricably missed me. Who knows why, but I didn’t get a scratch.

Lining up for a parachute jump, the kid behind me checking my gear found a problem with the packing of my chute, called it to the attention of the jump master, and probably saved my life. But he saw it.

Flying the holy helo enroute to conduct church services on small boys in the formation and being lowed to the deck on the hoist, I’ve been dropped down garbage chutes, banged against gun mounts and flag staffs, and severely shocked when the flight deck personnel failed to ground me properly. But I lived again to do it all over again the next Sunday.

When I was enlisted and in the Armed Forces Police in New York City, we were called out one night to break up a riot of military personnel at the Peppermint Lounge of twist dance fame. Some civilian pulled out a gun and shot at me, but he missed.

Once when flying from Guam to the Philippines and skirting the edge of a typhoon, the twin-engine propeller plane we were in was flipped over by a gust of wind, and we are all hanging upside down. But the pilot managed to get us right side up and leveled out.

When the terrorist bomber blew up the barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, and killed those 252 Marines, I had exited the building about 20 minutes before the blast. But I did.

Even as a civilian I’ve had close calls. When I was in college, I was riding this bull named Try Me in a rodeo in Wilmer, Alabama, and when he bucked me off, his back hooves landed a few inches from my head. But they didn’t hit me.

I could have died in any of these occurrences, but it apparently wasn’t my time. I still had things to do on this earth. So, it seems to me that most of the years of my life I have been in the bonus. Think about your own close calls. Was it divine intervention that saved you? If so, for what? The Bible says very clearly that we are not promised one more day. The question is, what are we going to do with these extra days that God permits us to have? Ask yourself these questions: are you making a difference in someone’s life? Is the world a better place because you are still in it? Are you taking, or are you giving. It’s questions that all of us in the bonus need to consider.

DRIFTING

"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters." (Psalm 107:23)

I ’ve often heard that the early Jews as recorded in the Bible were not particularly sea-going people. I was looking through my concordance last night, kind of a master index to biblical words and phrases, and it appears that while they might not have been sailors as such, they were very familiar with the sea, and the Bible is, in fact, full of sea stories and imagery. I counted no less than 307 examples. Often the sea is used as a metaphor for separation, crisis, or alienation from God. Psalm 42:7, for example, warns " Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me . And there’s that cautionary passage in Amos 8:12, which says, And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the North even to the East, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. " Perhaps they shared this lack of affinity for the sea with the ancient Greeks. The poet, Homer, in his Odyssey , which recounts the journey of the protagonist, Odysseus, back from the Trojan War to his family on the isle of Ithaca, quotes the hero as saying as soon as he killed Penelope’s suitors, he would put an oar on his shoulder and walk inland until he found a people who didn’t know what it was. He had been to sea long enough.

The ocean is probably referred to in Genesis 1; but the largest body of water known to the Jews was the Mediterranean Sea, which is probably cited in Deuteronomy 11:24. Exodus 15:4 shows us that they knew of the Red Sea; and the Salt Sea, or Dead Sea, is mentioned in several passages. Some sea-related stories in the Bible that come readily to mind include Noah’s ark; Jonah in the belly of the whale; Jesus driving the demons, as swine, into the sea; Jesus walking on the water; and the Apostles fishing in the Sea of Galilee. The Apostle Paul, although recorded as having been shipwrecked, probably had more sea time than most biblical characters.

The sea, as a literary symbol, is probably more attractive to modern Christians than the ancient Jews. We certainly have enough hymns about it. The only song I’ve ever sung in public was a duet with my wife about the sea entitled The Haven of Rest: I’ve anchored my soul in the haven of rest. I’ll ride the wild sea no more. The tempest may sweep over the wild stormy deep, but in Jesus I’m safe ever more." You are probably lucky you were not in attendance that day.

Most of the imagery in the religious sea songs that I’m familiar with warn about the danger of drifting away from God. Drifting at sea is a major cause of concern. A ship’s captain’s greatest fear, other than collision, is that his anchor will drag, and that his ship will run aground. In all my years at sea, I’ve never been on a ship that did run aground, but I was, back in 1963, on one that knocked down a pier. We came into Casablanca early one foggy morning, and the captain misjudged his speed and distance and overshot the pier. I can still see the poor members of the Royal Moroccan drum and bugle corps, who were playing a welcome song, running for their lives down the pier as it progressively collapsed behind them.

Each month, the Navy Safety Center in Norfolk, Virginia, publishes a summary of safety mishaps that occurred throughout the Navy. The list is always long and often very disconcerting. For example, last month they reported that five active duty Navy personnel lost their lives due to automobile accidents; there were twenty-eight explosive mishaps; there were six incidents of things falling off aircraft; and a barefoot Chief Petty Officer, wrestling with his children on the floor of his quarters, broke two toes. Of particular interest to me, however, was the account of three ships involved in incidents last month: one had hit a fueling pier and two had drifted aground. The navigator’s other bible, Dutton’s Navigation and Piloting, devotes an extensive section to the risk of drifting at anchorage because, as the safety report indicates, it is a significant problem.

Having said all of that, I really want to talk to you about another kind of drifting that is more insidious, more dangerous, than that of any ship. I am talking about an individual drifting away from God. There are many currents that cause us to drift away in our Christian lives. Let’s look at some of them, realizing that once we start to drift with any current, we often don’t even realize that we are moving until it’s too late.

1. To begin with, there is the current of the years. The mere passage of time changes all of us: Time and tide wait for no man. The passing years bring on mental changes, also. I’m not half as smart as I was when I was eighteen, for example. The spiritual changes over the years, however, are the most dangerous. We can become complacent, satisfied, and unaware that we are drifting away from God.

2. Next, we should beware the current of familiarity with the truth. Truth is not a relative thing, but there is always the encouragement, in our modern, high-tech society, to drift into compromise – even with the truth.

3. There is also the current of daily cares and anxieties. In our efforts to make a living, to be successful, to keep up with the neighbors, we often become too worldly and drift away from God, neglecting the great salvation that is ours.

4. A final current that we must avoid, and there are many others, is the current of bad companionship. What parent doesn’t warn their children about the company they keep? I saw an interesting bumper sticker on a car back in San Francisco the other day. It said, I’m the guy your mother warned you about. I have a daughter. It’s a free country, but he better not park that car in my driveway! It’s true; however, that we are generally as good or as bad as the company we keep. If we associate with upstanding, moral, Christian people, we will be the better for it.

The good news about all these dangerous currents of life is that we do not have to drift. A Christian has security. God has given us solid anchors, and he shows us the way. Remember the words of that old Baptist hymn:

"Brightly beams our Father’s mercy,

From his lighthouse, ever more;

But to us, he gives the keeping,

Of the lights along the shore."

As we keep the lights along the shore, we must make a sincere effort to fight the impulse to drift and give in to the forces that would drive us aground on the moral, ethical, and spiritual shoals of life. And, of course, a question: does your moral compass point true North?

ABOVE THE CLOUDS

A s I write this, the ship’s fog horn is sounding in the background, and we are cautiously creeping along through the foggy morning.

It has always been interesting to me, after some twelve years at sea, how ships can go in and out of fog and storms so fast – one minute visibility is zero and the next you are in bright sunshine.

I can remember steaming in the clear sunshine and seeing at least two different storms raging off in the distance. I can also remember sudden squalls which came out of nowhere and whose rain clouds extended like a curtain down to the water’s edge.

The Bible has a great deal to say about clouds, for they sometimes symbolize the spiritual forces which obscure the face of God. The Bible indicates that clouds are given to us for a purpose and that there is glory in the clouds and that every cloud has a silver lining.

I want to remind you of some of the clouds that hide us from the beautiful face of God.

First, there is the cloud of suffering. The Bible teaches that human suffering is inescapable. We must accept it as an integral part of life. Job said, "Man that is born of woman is of a few days, and full of trouble. (Job 14:1) Life has its beginning in suffering, and life’s span is marked by pain, tragedy, disappointment, and our lives terminate with the enemy called death." The person who expects to escape the pangs of suffering and disappointment simply has no knowledge of the Bible, of history, or of life.

Another cloud that comes to us is the cloud of discouragement. Many of the great Bible characters became discouraged. Discouragement is not new. It is as old as the history of man. Discouragement is the very opposite of faith. The Bible says, "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait I say, on the Lord." (Psalm 24:17)

Finally, there is the cloud of disappointment. There have been times during disappointments when I felt that life no longer seemed worth living. We must remember, however, that we are called according to God’s purpose and, if we love God, all things work together for good. The Psalmist said, ". . . and he guided them by the skillfulness of his hands." (Psalm 78:72)

Yes, clouds will come. They are part of the fabric of life. But, by God’s grace, we need not be depressed by their presence. The sunlight of his love can shine into the darkest part of our lives. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12)

A ROSE BY ANOTHER NAME

T he inhabitants of Brother Benny’s adopted hometown, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, were very upset this past weekend over a brutal double murder which took place in the adjacent community of Mahned. The sheriff caught the killers immediately, and the local news next weekend will probably be just as tragic and just as soon forgotten.

The unfortunate event did, however, get me to thinking about names in general and the name Mahned in particular. It seems that the little community was founded by a Civil War veteran whose name was Denham. Since there was already another Denham in Mississippi, he decided to name his town Mahned, which is Denham spelled backwards. There’s also a rumor that he was a Yankee who wanted to hide his identity.

You may say, So what; a name is a name. But Brother Benny would argue that names are important. For example, parents need to be sensitive to the implications of the names they give their children - - we all know the troubles experienced by a boy named Sue. I had an Army chaplain in class last week in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, whose given name is Sir Walter Raleigh (no kidding). I ended up calling the young man Chaplain, because I didn’t know whether to call him Sir, or Sir Walter, or what. Be careful what you name your kids, because they are stuck with the name long after you are gone.

A few American companies have also learned that it can be treacherous to translate some well-known brand names and slogans into certain foreign languages. General Motors is a case in point. They had a hard time selling Chevrolet Novas in Latin American countries because no va in Spanish is roughly no go, not a reassuring name for an automobile. In Chinese, I’m told that the word, Coca-Cola, means bite the wax tadpole (Have a tadpole that refreshes?). Coke, not surprisingly, has adopted a new name which translates as May the mouth rejoice. Pepsi also had its problems in Asia. In Thailand, the slogan, Come Alive, You are in the Pepsi Generation, means Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead. Brother Benny could go on, but you get the point – names do mean something. How many mothers name their sons Judas, for example?

Of course, you see where Brother Benny is going with this. The Scripture that comes to mind is Philippians 2:9-11: "Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every other name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father."

A FRESH START

"And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And prayed unto him: and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God." (2 Chronicles 33:12-13)

A young man was driving an old worn-out car on a desolate road in a downpour when the engine died. As he coasted to the side of the road, another car stopped and the driver got out and asked what was wrong. The stranger opened the hood, tinkered with something, and signaled the driver to turn the ignition key. When the car started, the amazed driver shouted, Thanks, I was afraid the engine had failed for the last time.

The rescuer replied, Every car has at least one more start in it if you can get a spark. The same principle applies to people. Someday you will have the occasion to apply this knowledge. Remember, as long as a spark of life remains, it’s not too late for anyone to make a fresh start.

Thirty years later, this once-stranded driver is a chaplain in a large prison. He testifies that those words about a fresh start have come back to him again and again. Just as God gave Manasseh a new start when he repented, this chaplain has seen God work miracles with