Author: missionspaul

Going bald

Acts 27:34 “Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.”

How comforting! “No one will go bald during this tough time”! Experts say that anxiety can cause the loss of hair. If that is true then for the last several years my anxiety has been rising!

We all know that the storms of life can have effects upon our body, we understand this and so we try not to worry, which is often impossible especially if your ship is sinking.

What was Paul saying? He was using a Jewish expression (see also 2 Samuel 14:11; 1 Kings 1:52; Luke 21:18) which meant that you will live and that God will save you.

They had lost cargo, furniture, they had lost personal belongings, they had even lost the lifeboat but they would not lose their life.

How comforting indeed. We may lose everything in this world. I have sat with the poorest of the poor over the years. I have had the privilege of holding lepers, sitting with the scarred and listening to those who have been victims of war crime. I have been in hiding with those in fear of their lives and I have been with the hopeless where their demise is simply inevitable. It is a world far removed from many who think the level of their spirituality is based on how much stuff they have accumulated in their life which equals how much God has blessed them. Someone has to tell these believers they are deceived and that it is all rubbish in terms of the kingdom of God. They teach me nothing. They have nothing to say though they always seem to dictate the conversations. The broken storm-beaten believers in the forgotten world who have nothing to offer but their radiant smiles teach me that the one all-important truth of life, the one solid foundational purpose is that God saves and if their whole life is a storm and if they go down with the ship then He who promised them they will live will indeed cause them to rise into new life.

This is all that matters.

We don’t lose.

Even if some of us do go bald.

Before dawn

Acts 27:33 “Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything.”

Before anything else happens; the distractions of the day, the demanding voices, the ringing phones, the pinging of texts and the mountaineering of the emails.

Before you have to face life all over again; with the repetitiveness of yesterday, the humdrum of today and the unchanging story of your world.

Before the fear grips like a vice again; preventing you being what you are supposed to be or doing what you once had freedom to do.

Before it all; before the next moment, now, before the dawn, before it all begins again, you need to do that one thing. What is it? Is it to pray? Is it to plan? Is it to make that decision?

Don’t stumble into this day, don’t just let things happen. Take control of it, get there early, don’t press snooze and wake up in the middle of the chaos, demand the attention of the day. Stand up, be counted, state your case, make it happen.

 

The lifeboat is cut

Acts 27:32 “So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.”

The sailors had tried to escape the sinking ship by letting the lifeboat down trying to pretend they were letting the anchors down. Only Paul spotted them and he told the centurion and the soldiers reminding them that everyone needs to stay with the ship to be saved. The soldiers acted and by doing so …

They wasted no time: they didn’t untie the ropes, this wasn’t a tidy finish, they did what was necessary; there was no process, no planning. DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO.

There was no way back: they were now committed to the ship; their security net was gone; they now moved into a psychological storm. THE BIGGEST BATTLE IS ALWAYS IN YOUR MIND.

Everyone became equal: prisoner, sailor, soldier all on the sinking ship, there were now no privileges for titles; there was nothing left for anyone to hatch another plot of escape. WHEN EVERTHING IS REDUCED TO ZERO IT MATTERS NOT WHAT YOU HAVE OR WHO YOU ARE BUT WHO YOU KNOW.

 

 

Find your voice

Acts 27:31 “Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.”

We learn so much through this storm but Paul learns more. It seems Paul grows in his own authority from within this storm, he rises in confidence and now we see him commanding Julius and his soldiers. Life’s difficulties create a bigger platform as you continue through them. In each chapter you need to find your voice.

Paul is also wiser. The Roman soldiers are not aware of the sailor’s secret plan to escape, but Paul could see what they were doing. Wisdom can sometimes look like suspicion and even scepticism; we ignore those thoughts at our peril.

So why did Paul point out what he was seeing?

1. He needed their expertise. People of experience (sailors) are more important in a storm than people of authority and command (soldiers).
2. He had received the message that everyone would be saved. This ship was certainly not the equivalent of Noah’s Ark! Except for this one detail if God says you will be saved then you will be saved. God had said the ship would be lost but they would be saved. Paul understood that to mean everyone had to stay on board. The understanding and application of what God has said is everything.

Paul was more confident, wiser and was holding on what God had said. Those 3 things held him when everything and everyone were breaking apart.

Don’t think of saving yourself

Acts 27:30 “In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow.”

It seems that there is a human instinct in all of us to survive. That certainly is true for the sailors. They had previously let down the anchors at the stern, at the back of the ship. It would be obvious to think that letting the anchors down at the front of the ship was the right thing to do to give extra security. However, they were not thinking of that kind of security, they were thinking of themselves.

The moment you think of yourself someone suffers.

Of course no one benefits if you do not live healthily, if you do not take care of yourself and if you don’t sleep properly etc. But if you decide ‘to hell with everyone’ and ‘I am going to look after me for a change’, then that is the point of no return because people will be brought so low with that attitude that they may never recover.

I have lost friends who used to walk with me because at a given moment they looked around and saw the ship, the people on board and the rocks that seem to be coming ever closer and said, “I put myself first” and at that moment though I thought they were taking care of everyone, they didn’t, they fooled everyone, they tried saving themselves, but ended up losing everything.

However I have gained friends who understand ‘love and sacrifice’ and they will be the last one off the ship making sure I would go before them.

That is who I am also trying to be, this is my life’s aim, others first, stay on board.

 

Drop the anchors from the stern

Acts 27:29 “Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.”

It was unusual to drop the anchors from the back of the ship when it was normally done from the front. But this would have kept them progressing further onto the rocks.

There are times when you just need to stop moving. That’s what you can do.

And then pray.

Do it today.

Stop.

Pray.

Get Measured

Acts 27: 28 “They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet deep.”

The Amplified Bible helps us in understanding what is going on here. A weighted line is thrown down and probably with grease at the end it picks up the debris off the bottom of the seabed and the sailors then can measure the depth, an indicator of how far they are away from the land and in their case the danger of the rocks.

Psalm 119:59 “I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes”.

2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”

Throughout the Bible we have verses like the ones above, telling us to take soundings of our life.

In a storm it is essential to do so. When you are being pushed around, when things are just not ‘normal’ for you then you are in danger of not only drifting but being shipwrecked. Today are you where you should be? The fact that you are at least reading a devotional blog suggests that you do have a measure of spiritual depth.

You can easily download these days from the internet a list of questions that will help you ascertain the depth of your spirituality. The problem with some of these questions leads to ‘if I do a, b and c then I will be fine’ which often doesn’t help because it can lead to good works.

A friend or a loved one is usually the better way to test your depth. Being held accountable is so important. There is a lot of talk about accountability but not much is practiced. When a friend says to the other “I am seeing a rising anger in your life, let us talk about that” then it takes humility, wisdom and a desire to be all you can be to respond favourably. Not many do, they kick against the comment and take it as mere criticism. Many shipwrecks could have been avoided if accountability was operating.

Luke wrote, “They took soundings …” and perhaps a true measure of where a person is at can never be found alone, everyone needs someone to help measure the depth of their life.

We need facts and we need notions

Acts 27:27 “On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land.”

In any storm of life we need facts and we need notions.

Facts may not be many.

It is the 14^th night since they set off, Luke had been counting.

The ship is still out of control, driven by the storm not by their desire.

They are somewhere in the Adriatic Sea.

It is around midnight.

Sometimes there are only basic facts available: We are still in the storm of life, we know what day it is today, we don’t know where we are exactly but we know it is the middle of the night.

But then there are notions, ideas that come from experience.

Farmers know how to spot the changes of weather.

Sailors know how to spot the approaching land because of the waves and the sound of the sea.

Similarly we also need to understand the times we are in (1 Chronicles 12:32).  The wisdom to know what to do springs out of the knowledge of where we are.

This knowledge isn’t necessarily hard facts; they can be simply signs, small notions, ‘It looks like’ moments. It takes for us to be spiritually alert, listening, inquisitive people.

So what are the facts of your life today? State them. What do you know is true?

Now ask the Spirit to help you spot things that others miss especially what He is doing or about to do or even what the enemy is trying to stir up. Ask the Spirit to help you see.

 

Remember what comes before your ‘nevertheless’.

Acts 27:26 “Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”

Even though the end result is good news in that He saves us, nevertheless, we are going to be shipwrecked onto an island we had never planned to visit.

Some days are shipwreck days. Some days we are pushed by storms into places we never wanted to be. However, focus is everything, let me show you something and it is centred on the word ‘nevertheless’.

He saves us nevertheless we get shipwrecked.

Or

We get shipwrecked nevertheless He saves us.

The latter sentence structure is more comforting than the first.

It is like when Jesus told his disciples in John 16:33 “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” The comfort is in the fact that the positive is at the end of the sentence, the focus is there.

However there are days when we have to go down unknown paths so much so that, ‘He saves us’ loses its impact. It doesn’t appear in the sentence, it doesn’t have the impact that it should and it is of no help. Our whole attention is now on the bad news. This is the point, sometimes your nevertheless is so huge you lose sight of what has previously been promised to you. Focus is everything.

Today if you are facing a shipwreck, if you are being told you are going down unfamiliar paths and it is causing fear then do not lose focus on what has also previously been told you. That Jesus is your Saviour, your Healer, your Restorer and your Guide. It is the other side of your ‘nevertheless’ so you need to bring it to you, you need to recall them to you, you need to hold that truth when you simply ‘must run aground on some island.’

Courageous Leadership

Acts 27: 25 “So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.”

There are times when someone has to stand up and say “I have heard from God. Don’t give up. We will come through this.” It is courageous leadership.

Anyone can lead when all is well.

But when the ship is sinking and everything has been thrown overboard, when all hope is lost and everyone around is afraid, that is when courageous leadership rises above all others.

When do people need a leader the most? It is in times of uncertainty.

When is it the most difficult to lead people? It is in times of uncertainty.

On the morning of 11/09/01 Rudy Giuliani was facing failure on all levels. He had cancer; he had committed adultery; he was a mayor with a divided city of New York. But by the end of that day he was calming a frightened and anxious nation. He had truly stepped into courageous leadership.

What happens when people are uncertain? They look for security. They reach out for hope. They also do nothing, they freeze.

What do courageous leaders do? They give everything. Giuliani that evening read the words of Churchill: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

Leaders give hope to others. The day after the event Giuliani said, “We’re going to come out of this stronger, politically stronger, and economically stronger.”

Leaders show courage to others. Courage is being afraid, but then doing what you have to do anyway. He said, “We will strive to save as many people as possible and send the message that we are stronger than any barbaric terrorists.”

Paul was a courageous leader. See how in this one verse today:

1. He commanded courage
2. He revealed the weakness of man and the power of God.
3. He made his choice who to trust.
4. He had been with God.
5. He was carrying a promise of destiny.

Are you following a courageous leader in times of uncertainty, are you one?