SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/5/2018 9:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Promise Honored
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
28:12-15
Message of the verses: “12 After we put in
at Syracuse, we stayed there for three days. 13 From there we sailed around and
arrived at Rhegium, and a day later a south wind sprang up, and on the second
day we came to Puteoli. 14 There we found some brethren, and were
invited to stay with them for seven days; and thus we came to Rome. 15 And the
brethren, when they heard about us, came from there as far as the Market of
Appius and Three Inns to meet us; and when Paul saw them, he thanked God and
took courage.”
The
first stop that the ship made was at Syracuse, which 100 miles from Malta and
is on the southeastern shore of Sicily.
John MacArthur writes that “according to tradition, Paul founded a
church in Syracuse during the three days the ship stopped there.” After the three days the travelers sail
around (tacked against the wind) “and arrived at Rhegium,” which is on the
southern tip of the Italian peninsula.
They then waited there for a favorable wind in order to take the ships
through the Straits of Messina, and this is what separates Sicily from the
Italian mainland. They only had to wait
one day as we read that the next “day a south wind sprang up, and on the second
day” after they left Rhegium, the ship arrived at “Puteoli,” which now the
modern city of Pozzuoli. Puteoli was the
most important commercial port in Italy even though it was almost 150 miles
from Rome; it was the capital’s chief seaport.
MacArthur adds “Ostia, an artificial harbor near Rome, had already been
built. It would not significantly affect
Puteoli’s trade, however until early in the second century.” He goes on to writes “Located on the bay of
Naples near Neapolis (modern Naples) and the doomed city of Pompeii, Puteoli in
Paul’s day as a city of 100,000 people.
It is thought to have been the chief port for the Egyptian grain fleet.”
Seeing
the size of this city it is not unexpected that Paul found some believers
there, and I suppose that this would have thrilled the hearts of those
believers to see the Apostle Paul, and talk to him. As we see in the text that these believers
invited Paul and the other believers to stay with them.
Luke
then gives a brief description of their final journey in order to get to Rome,
where the Lord had promised to Paul that he would get there. Paul, as we see was thankful as he thanked
God and “took courage.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: One of the things that bothers me is when I
forget to praise the Lord when He answerers a prayer that I have been praying
about for some time. I have to catch
myself and then give the Lord praise for answering my prayers. As a believer this should give me courage to
continue my walk with the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Give glory to the Lord for answered prayer
and be encouraged in the Lord when He answers my prayers.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “I will never eat meat again” (1
Corinthians 8:13).
Today’s Bible question: “What kind of animal did Jesus send two
disciples to get?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/5/2018 9:39 AM
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