SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/28/2018 8:24 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The Shipwreck”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
27:27-44
Message of the verses: We ended our first SD on this section by
giving a quote from F. F. Bruce who was actually quoting from a book written by
James Smith, a 19th century British yachtsman who wrote a book
entitled “The Voyage and Shipwreck of St.
Paul.” We begin our SD today by
looking at verse 28 “They took soundings and found it
to be twenty fathoms; and a little farther on they took another sounding
and found it to be fifteen fathoms.” Twenty fathoms is 120 feet and fifteen
fathoms is 90 feet, so they knew that they were getting closer to land and this
actually frightened them, however if they would have listened to Paul they
would have understood that this is exactly what he said would happen.
Verse
29-30 “29 Fearing that we might run aground somewhere
on the rocks, they cast four anchors from the stern and wished for daybreak. 30 But as the sailors were trying to escape
from the ship and had let down the ship’s boat into the sea, on the
pretense of intending to lay out anchors from the bow.” We see here that the shipmates were taking
things into their own hands as they feared running into the rocks, and as
stated they were not listening to Paul.
They were actually untying the life boat and trying to get in it and go
to the land.
Paul
was ever alert and in verse 31 we read “31 Paul said to the centurion and to
the soldiers, "Unless these men remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot
be saved."” God’s promise is seen
in verse 24 “saying, ’Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and
behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.’” This promise was only good if all stayed on
the boat and so we read in verse 32 “Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of
the ship’s boat and let it fall away.”
We can see from this verse that the soldiers believed Paul and so they
took the correct action. We mentioned at
the beginning of this entire section consisting of chapter 27 what it took to
be a good leader, and we can see throughout this voyage that Paul was
fulfilling what it takes to be a good leader.
The
long night of anxious waiting ended “33 Until the day was about to dawn, Paul
was encouraging them all to take some food, saying, "Today is the
fourteenth day that you have been constantly watching and going without eating,
having taken nothing. 34 “Therefore I encourage you to take some food, for this
is for your preservation, for not a hair from the head of any of you will
perish.’” Paul, the constant leader,
begins to once again speak to those on board telling them to eat some food, for
they had nothing for 14 days, and we can be sure that they needed food to
continue to survive. He also said that
they would all be saved from this horrific event that they were going through. I can say that I have fasted a couple of
times and in order to fast one has to prepare themselves unlike what was going
on with these men, and so that is why I say that they were hungry, for it is
provable that they did have a little food while going through this difficult
time onboard this ship.
We
see in verse 35 that Paul is leading by example “35 Having said this, he took bread
and gave thanks to God in
the presence of all, and he broke it and began to eat.” Whenever I see in Scripture “the breaking of
bread” my mind goes to two places. The
first of course is the “Last Supper,” that Jesus ate with His disciples, and
the second is from the 24th chapter of Luke’s gospel as the risen
Savior broke bread with the two who had been on the road with Him, and then He
vanished.
We
will look at verses 36-38 “36 All of
them were encouraged and they themselves also took food. 37 All of us in the
ship were two hundred and seventy-six persons. 38 When they had eaten enough,
they began to lighten the ship by throwing out the wheat into the sea.” We see here
that they took Paul’s advice and were encouraged as they finally got some food
in their system, and so they begin to prepare the ship for what would be the
crashing into the rocks of this island.
They began to throw everything that they could into the sea, and as we read
the number of those onboard we can see that they had many hands to accomplish
this task. By doing this the ship would
ride higher on the sea and this would help them when they came upon the rocks
near the shore.
In
our next SD I hope to finish this last section of chapter 27 and we first of
all will continue to look at the preparation by the crew to crash the ship onto
this island. After our next SD we will
only have one more chapter in the book of Acts to look at. In his commentary John MacArthur breaks up
chapter 28 into two chapters so it will take a little while to finish up the
book of Acts. My prayer is to seek the
Lord in finding out what we will study next.
My thoughts are either the books that John has written, 1-3rd
John, or to go through the book of Ephesians.
Ephesians is a very difficult book to study and although it is short,
some six chapters it would take us a fairly long time to cover it. I can say that it is one of the most
important epistles found in the Word of God and would be well worth our time in
looking at it. I will continue to pray
about this.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have many good leaders to follow in our
church, with many in our Sunday school class, and it is my desire to listen to
them.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord with an issue that has been
going on for a while now, that the Lord will speak to my wife’s heart along
with mine to give us understanding to resolve this issue.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “In everything give thanks.”
Today’s Bible question: “What prophecy concerning the Crucifixion was
given in Psalm 34:20 and was fulfilled in John 19:36?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/28/2018 9:12 AM
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