Sorry about being a total pansy last week, but Dave didn't bring his laptop, so I will do two chapters a day throughout this week. We will be going right into Romans tomorrow.
27:10/27:22 - In verse 10 we see Paul looking at the situation from a human perspective. There are no doubts that Paul is a wise man and he sees that the weather is going to get bad if they sail out, so he tries to convince the men to stay in Fair Havens. The men refuse to listen to Paul and sail out anyway...into what Paul assumes is sure death. Paul has his ideas about what is going to happen, but God has a different plan. In verse 22 Paul completely changes his tune, saying that God has told him that every man on board will be saved. What changed? Well initially Paul was only listening to the voice of human reason - which told him that sailing out was a suicidie mission. Eventually an angel comes to Paul and Paul gets clue in to God's plan. God's plan is that Paul get a chance to speak before Caesar...God's plan is that Paul show his faith to the sailors through a storm...God's plan is that they shipwreck on the isle of Malta and Paul gets an opportunity to share the gospel with those people...God's plan is huge! I hope that I will not allow human "wisdom" to get in the way of the work that God wants to do in my life. I, like Paul, want to hear the voice of God even through the storms of this world...I want to put my trust in the God who has huge plans (plan that I cannot even fathom)...at work in my life and the lives of His people all over the world.
28:4 - The people of Malta hold to a punishment/belief system that goes like this - if you sin, bad things will happen to you. They believe that Paul is a murderer because he is bitten by the viper (Very simple equation: murder = viper bite, puffing up and then slowing choking to death). There are people that get caught up in this kind of belief system even today...even in the church. There are two huge downsides to this system: 1.) You start to believe that anything that goes badly in your life is a direct punishment from God (See Job's friends comments in the book of Job), for some sin that you have committed. 2.) You believe that you are in control of the things that happen to you...that you can save yourself through good behavior. Both of these downsides fly completely in the face of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus gave his life for our sins so that we would not get what we deserve, and there is no one good enough to save themselves. Paul is a godly man who is allowed to go through tough situations, because he remains faithful and uses those tough situations as opportunities to draw attention to the gospel of Jesus. It is in our weakness that God's strength is made known. It is in our failure that his message is brought to life and we can understand the awesomeness of His mercy.
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Just thinking about this statement, "in our weakness, God is stronger." The logical person would say, "Duh! Of course when we are weak, others will be stronger." I think that when we make this statement, we don't do it justice. It is our weakness that allows us to give God a chance. Here's what happens: the end result of letting God go to work in our weakness is greater than the end result of when we are strong alone. Would it not be better for us to simply let God take over and not wait for us to be weak? Father, I pray that I not be the one who waits till I am weak before I turn to you. Thanks you so much for everything!
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