A Marine's Story

It was 1973, and our country was still involved in the war in Vietnam. The Marine Corps had sent me to Okinawa in May of 1972 and from there to patrol up and down the coast of Vietnam aboard our Landing Platform - Helicopter (LPH) ships. We busied ourselves going about our jobs with helicopters and the engineering equipment, such as bulldozers and forklifts, to which our shore party was given responsibility. In late January, it became my assignment to fly from Okinawa down to the Philippines and join another Battalion Landing Team (BLT) aboard ship. When I arrived at Cubi Point Naval Air Station, we found that the ship was en route from Singapore and would not be available for another four days. At the Christian Serviceman’s Center just outside the gate at Subic Bay Navel Base, I found that a retreat was available for servicemen who had at least a three days’ time available. Permission was secured, and off I went on a five-hour ride in a dilapidated bus packed with people, chickens, dogs and monkeys. We were going way up into the mountains to an old Air Force Base then being used as a resort near a little village called Baguio. The retreat was held in a Quonset Hut, and there were servicemen, missionaries and Christian leaders, 100 or so people present. Much of the sermon topics were centered on the Bible promises that Jesus Christ is to return “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52). I had been a churchgoer all my life and had been a Sunday School teacher for some time, but I was not a born-again Christian. I was probably a nice guy, but what I needed was not so much to be nice as I needed to be made new. “He that is not with Me is against Me” (Matthew 12:30). I began to see that I had not been made spiritually alive as yet through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. On the second day of the Bible conference, my heart was convinced of my need for a Savior who could rescue me from the penalty of my sin and save me from a much-deserved Hell. I repented of my sin and invited Jesus Christ to take up full-time residence in a glad heart. He (God) willingly made the transaction, and I was genuinely born again as a child of the living God. I had heard God’s Word preached, believed the gospel of salvation, trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior and the new birth was “sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13). Talk about “joy unspeakable and full of glory!” During that last week of January 1973, I had made the best decision of my life. God Bless, Captain Robert Hottle, USMC God made going to Heaven simple!Salvation is NOT found in religion or a church. It is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Jesus, God’s Son, loves you. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). He died and rose again to pay for your sins. “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He desires to come into your life and save you. “… He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life” (John 6:47). Call out to God! Ask Him to come into your life and save you from sin. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9).