Acts 27:27-44<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic\u00a0Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land.\u00a028\u00a0They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet\u00a0deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet\u00a0deep.\u00a029\u00a0Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.\u00a030\u00a0In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat\u00a0down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow.\u00a031\u00a0Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, \u201cUnless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.\u201d\u00a032\u00a0So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.\u00a0 33\u00a0Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. \u201cFor the last fourteen days,\u201d he said,\u00a0\u201cyou have been in constant suspense and have gone without food\u2014you\u00a0haven\u2019t eaten anything.\u00a034\u00a0Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive.\u00a0Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.\u201d\u00a035\u00a0After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it\u00a0and began to eat.\u00a036\u00a0They were all encouraged\u00a0and ate some food themselves.\u00a037\u00a0Altogether there were 276 of us on board.\u00a038\u00a0When they had\u00a0eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.\u00a0 39\u00a0When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach,\u00a0where they decided to run the ship aground if they could.\u00a040\u00a0Cutting loose the anchors,\u00a0they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach.\u00a041\u00a0But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf. 42\u00a0The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping.\u00a043\u00a0But the centurion wanted to spare Paul\u2019s life\u00a0and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land.\u00a044\u00a0The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship.\u00a0In this way everyone reached land safely.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cJust before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. \u201cFor the last fourteen days,\u201d he said,\u00a0\u201cyou have been in constant suspense and have gone without food\u2014you\u00a0haven\u2019t eaten anything.\u00a034\u00a0Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive.\u00a0Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0Paul had warned the centurion about men leaving the ship and so the centurion stopped that from happening.\u00a0\u00a0Now Paul offers these hardened sailors who were rightfully fearful because of the real danger they were in, to relax and eat something.\u00a0\u00a0Some think they hadn\u2019t eaten because they had been fasting and praying to their gods.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s possible.\u00a0\u00a0If they had been, it wasn\u2019t working and they had not been comforted in any way.\u00a0\u00a0Another idea is that, because of the storm and the extreme effort to save the ship, the men had been working day and night (the storm did not relent) and were more concerned about losing their lives to the storm than about eating.\u00a0\u00a0Both seem like reasonable possibilities.\u00a0\u00a0Paul offered to them what their gods, or their expert salesmanship, could not.\u00a0\u00a0A chance to believe that everything will be okay and to just relax and trust that God has everything in control.\u00a0\u00a0And in that freedom from worry and self-effort to enjoy a meal and be strengthened.\u00a0\u00a0He assured them that will live.<\/p>\n
Jesus has done that for all of us.\u00a0\u00a0All our efforts to save us from a real and unrelenting evil could not, and did not work.\u00a0\u00a0We were in very real danger.\u00a0\u00a0We were all going to perish in Hell unless someone saved us.\u00a0\u00a0False hopes in false god wouldn\u2019t save us.\u00a0\u00a0The most intelligent and learned men could not save us. Our own best efforts and applied experience could not save us.\u00a0\u00a0We were all doomed to be swallowed up in the sea of evil that we were born into.\u00a0\u00a0Yet \u201cBut God!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As these men could only be freed from the shackles of their fear (from their very real circumstances) by the One True God, so it is with us.\u00a0\u00a0The danger was real.\u00a0\u00a0The fear was correct.\u00a0\u00a0Indeed, we, like them, were helpless to help ourselves.\u00a0\u00a0So the Father sent Jesus to save us.\u00a0\u00a0Only He could.\u00a0\u00a0Only He could help those on the ship and only He could help us.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus did come and He did pay the price so that all who do not want to perish in Hell could go to Heaven through Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0We don\u2019t have to fear.\u00a0\u00a0We can eat and be merry.\u00a0\u00a0Our lives are free.\u00a0\u00a0We are safe.\u00a0\u00a0Our assurance is sure.\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!\u00a0\u00a0And this is offered to all who will humble themselves, acknowledge Jesus as Savior and live their lives with Him as their Lord.\u00a0\u00a0Easy Peasy because of Jesus! Thank you Jesus!\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!<\/p>\n
P<\/b><\/span>salm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.<\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; and what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Your God.<\/p>\n Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 27:27-44\u00a0–\u00a0On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic\u00a0Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land.\u00a028\u00a0They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet\u00a0deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet\u00a0deep.\u00a029\u00a0Fearing that we would be dashed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,94,1874,17],"class_list":["post-2220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2221,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220\/revisions\/2221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}