SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/29/2018
6:35 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Shipwreck”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
27:27-44
Message of the
verses: I want to begin with a short
quote from John MacArthur’s commentary on the book of Acts to help us begin
right after what we looked at in the last SD.
“The next step was to find
a spot to run the ship on shore. But ‘when
day came, they could not recognize the land.’
However, ‘they did observe a certain bay with a beach, and they resolved
to drive the ship onto it if they could.’”
Now this step followed the steps of cutting away the lifeboat, and then
getting rid of as many things onboard as they could to make the ship ride
higher in the water in order to mix as many rocks as they could, and next we
read “At the same time they were loosening the ropes” that bound the “rudders” to
the sides of the ship. Then, “hosting
the foresail to the wind, they” headed “for the beach.” This was the idea of the crew to ditch the
boat kind of like a modern landing craft, the kind that the Navy has.
This
voyage has been filled with great problems and they were not over yet as we
read “Striking a reef where two seas met, they ran the vessel aground; and the
prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern began to be broken up by
the force of the waves.” What happened
is that the ship was stuck and the waves were beating it up and soon it would
be destroyed, so something had to be done soon, but remember what the Lord had
told Paul and the Lord will not go back on His promises. This has been a life and death situation for
the last couple of weeks as we have been following over the last few days. What can we learn from this that will help us
today in difficult situations? Well for
one thing we can learn to trust the Lord who for His own children will work out
things for our good and for His glory.
But there is more to learn when the Lord sees us through difficult
situations. “3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our
affliction so that we will be able to
comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we
ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours
in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted,
it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your
comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings
which we also suffer (2 Cor. 1:3-6).”
Paul went through a lot of affliction and it was not wasted by what he
went through as he could give comfort to those who were going through difficult
times.
What
was the next thing to be done by the 276 souls on board this ship, stuck to the
bottom of the beach? Well we read that
the soldiers were planning to kill all of the prisoners of which was the best
leader that was on board this ship in the person of Paul, but “The centurion,
wanting to bring Paul safely through, kept them from their intention.” The centurion trusted Paul and he knew that
they would not be in the position they were in now if not for Paul’s wonderful
leadership, so Julius “commanded that those who could swim should jump
overboard first and get to land, and the rest should follow, some on planks,
and others on various things from the ship.
And thus it happened that all” 276 people on board “were brought safely
to land”—just as God had promised. MacArthur adds “God’s power and providence
had triumphed, and His glory had been displayed.”
Now
in our next SD I will quote the ending remarks that John MacArthur writes in
his commentary as we have looked at all of the verses from the 27th
chapter of Acts, and he will give us some important things that we can review
and learn from.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “That no bone would be broken.”
Today’s Bible question: “Who said, ‘Break off the golden earrings…and
bring them to me?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/29/2018 7:00 PM
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