Skip to main content

Acts 27:39 - The end of part of Paul's journey to Rome - Day 221

Greetings my fellow pilgrims,

Just a few thoughts on the shipwreck on Malta.  WCF Chapter 5, Section 1 describes God's providence.  There is nothing outside of his control.  But reading and believing are two different things.  Being on a small ship in the midst of a storm is a challenge.

Blessings,

Jeff

These events make me wonder about the other 274 or possible just 74 people.  We know how things turned out for Paul and Luke, but the others were certainly impacted by the storm and shipwreck.  Sailors are famous for the sea stories about adventures on or under the water.  One of the expressions onboard submarines was "Days of boredom broken up by moments of sheer terror"  Somewhat like the voyage Paul was on.  Survivors of maritime disasters have a special perspective on God's providence.

So I wonder about these men.  Did they remember the shipwreck of did they remember Paul encouraging them the night before the wreck?  Did they ask Paul why he was a prisoner? How many of them became believers after this?  All things that for now are lost to history, but will be revealed at the last day.

Another thought.  While we don't have the spectacular experiences like this, every day has eternal significance.  The day God called me into the kingdom was a nice spring day in Evanston and I had no idea that by the end of the day I would be a Christian. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Revelation 22:3-5 Final and eternal restoration - Day 365

Dear saints in the Lord, Congratulations!  You made it.  We have been through much turmoil in the last year ('20-'21).  But God is faithful to His promises.  I trust that you have been blessed in your reading and have drawn closer to God.   Since we didn't get the blog up and running at the beginning of the challenge, I am going to go back and post entries to cover that first month or so.   Blessings, Jeff Nothing accursed in the city of God, the new Jerusalem.  The presence of sin will be gone.  I am working on memorizing Westminster Shorter Catechism and currently on question 82.  Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God but does daily break them in thought, word and deed. I think our passage today points to the truth of this question.  Do you notice how this answer is not exactly the same as the question. "Any man" bec...

Malachi 2:10-12 Here we go again!! Day 363

Good afternoon friends, As we draw to the end of the Old Testament, we see that Judah has rebuilt the temple and the walls of Jerusalem, but they are following in the footsteps of faithless fathers and not in the footsteps of Abraham and ultimately God.  The exile was a low point, but now a new low is about to happen.  The prophetic voice has once again become warning and not encouraging. Faithful reading and preaching of the word is all that keeps us from losing our way.  May we be faithful in our generation. Blessings, Jeff I am sure I have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.  The section summary, chapter and verse are not in the original language.  They are all rather modern inventions to help us.  For example, the section title here is "Judah profaned the Covenant".  That is OK as far as it goes, but which Covenant?  So let's take a look. Observations Starts with 3 questions but who is asking the questions and to whom are they addre...

2 Chronicles 33:7-9 Thoughts on Davidic covenant - Day 362

Good morning faithful readers, The finish line is in sight!!!  One of the themes of scripture is that God is a covenant keeping God.  There are many between God and man. Adam, Noah, David are examples.  Covenants are more than promises.  They are made between a superior and inferior with conditions for each side and blessing and penalties based on keeping the conditions.  These are covenants of works which fallen man was unable to keep.  Thanks be to God that the Father made a covenant of grace with Christ, the second Adam, which he fully kept. Blessings, Jeff The promise in v8 was made to David when he had planned to build the temple and God promised to build him a house forever. (2 Sam 7:10).  Seems like there are only two possibilities about Manasseh's disobedience.  Either he knew of this covenant that God had made with his 13th great grandfather and chose to disregard it, or he didn't know of it and was unaware of the penalty.  Let's con...