Monday\u00a0we will finish the book of Acts and spend some time in the book of Jude.\u00a0\u00a0It is not a lengthy book but one with those verses that make you say \u201cWhat\u2019s Up With That.\u201d<\/p>\n
In verse 1 we see the pronoun we which indicates Luke who is the author of Acts has returned to the missionary journey with Paul.<\/p>\n
Paul is treated well by Julius and he is allowed to visit friends in Sidon.\u00a0\u00a0Paul was not some great criminal; his only crime is belief in the gospel, and for teaching it like he really believed the gospel.\u00a0\u00a0Many Christians never get in trouble because we believe the gospel is good enough for ourselves, but we really do not believe it is the only way.\u00a0\u00a0Today in the USA you are a radical Christian if you believe Jesus is the only way, and you take the scripture literally.<\/p>\n
The ship sets sail during a time of the year that most ships would not have sailed.\u00a0\u00a0It was those winter months where storms could develop at any time.\u00a0\u00a0Sure enough a storm did come and the ship was being tossed in the violent storm.\u00a0\u00a0Paul gave advice against this trip but the owners of the vessel would not listen to Paul.\u00a0\u00a0After many days in the storm Paul clears his voice and declares in verse 21, you should have listened to me.\u00a0\u00a0Godly men following God\u2019s Word should always be listened to.\u00a0\u00a0Paul again declares to those on the\u00a0ship that an angel talked with him and everyone will be okay.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But we must run the ship aground on a certain island.\u00a0\u00a0I guess it was an answer to prayer, but why not just calm the storm instead of just striving to calm me in the storm?\u00a0\u00a0Jump down to verse 31, Paul sees the sailors about to abandon ship, and he warns them that unless you stay in the ship you cannot be saved.\u00a0\u00a0Paul advises everyone to eat for they would need their strength for the ship wreck will happen soon.\u00a0\u00a0All 276 people on board where encouraged and broke bread with Paul.\u00a0\u00a0They found a beach to run aground and everyone was saved alive.<\/p>\n
The thought of God directing in the storm is very important.\u00a0\u00a0God could have stopped the storm but He chose to direct them in the storm.\u00a0\u00a0Because there may be storms in our life does not mean God has abandoned us.\u00a0\u00a0Secondly, they had to remain in the boat!\u00a0\u00a0We have to remain in the promises of God even when the storms of life come.\u00a0\u00a0We must remain under the umbrella of God\u2019s Word and ride out the storm to be saved alive.\u00a0\u00a0Thirdly, we must live in the storm.\u00a0\u00a0Live and be encouraged by breaking bread with one another.\u00a0\u00a0Now you can see how Baptist Paul was, in the middle of a storm a fellowship dinner breaks out.\u00a0\u00a0They all landed safely because they listened to the words of God given to them through Paul.\u00a0\u00a0Are you living in the promises of God?\u00a0\u00a0Come back into the boat and do not let the difficulties of life push you away from God\u2019s truth.<\/p>\n
We are praying for the storms of life to be few and brief, and for your faith to be strong as you hold onto the promises of God\u2019s ship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":1167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","filesize_raw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1245,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions\/1245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}