�Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, �Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.� So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it fall away,� Acts 27:31,32.
�The rest were to get there on planks or on pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land in safety.� Acts:27:44
The Lord spoke very clearly and simply to me today. What you have means little, material wealth can be gone in a second. Obedience is worth a lot.
This is one of the last episodes we read about the adventures of Paul and it is crammed with so many good analogies and practical life lessons. But perhaps for me was the lesson I learned many years ago. Our house had been flooded four times in the space of two weeks. The first time the flood waters came through it was not good. The corps of engineers had made a drastic mistake by not giving the rain waters a place to drain, so when it rained all the run off caught in our little neighborhood. We were helpless to control the flow of the stream. The second time the water ran twice as high, because we had no place for any water to drain, because the ground was already saturated. The third time we had told them something needed to be done. The fourth time we were devastated and had been moved out of our homes. After the third time it flooded us we were driving down a rain entrenched road. A wave came up over the hood of my car and engulfed us. The car needed to be dried out and pushed to a nearby Circle K. I was so beside myself that I got a little coffee cup from the store and just started crying and dipping water from the car floors. My husband just sat there and watched not knowing what to do. I needed to do something to fight back. He kept telling me, its going to be okay, it really is Dorothy. I couldn�t do anything but cry and continue dipping. I finally became so worn out I quit and just sat down with my head in my hands. I was emotionally and physically exhausted from all that had happened.
We had returned to our house to continue cleaning up the floors, paint and clear the carpeting. A friend of mine, not knowing what had happened because she had been out of town, told me she felt impressed to call and tell me to hang on to a piece of driftwood and God would get me to the shore. I cried a long time. Driftwood was all I had left. The first time it had flooded us we had to take everything out of our dressers and had placed a lot of items on the floor in bags. The second flood had run through all our clothing and it could not be used again. Our carpets were ruined, our furniture soaked up to two feet. Our foundation on the house was sinking and all my pictures I had taken off the walls so they would escape the mold that had set in were also ruined in the third flood. My Christmas ornaments of salt dough that the kids and I had made every year since they were born were all stuck together and appliances would not work. It was devastating, but I kept thinking I am going to hang on to the only thing I have left, a piece of driftwood.
And because we were not in a flood plain and this was a man made disaster, our insurance would cover nothing. The Corps of engineers finally ended up paying the cost of drying up the house and replacing basic items but we did not come out ahead. We spent 8 weeks out of our home. Every time my 5 year old daughter heard the washing machine start after that she ran into the corner of the yard and hid, because she thought the waters were coming again. It was very traumatic for all of us.
Paul was a prisoner. He told them what to do to save themselves, but they would not listen, until things got so bad they were completely out of hand. They had not eaten in two weeks, they had tried everything to save their ship. The soldiers were ready to get into the lifeboat and sail off, leaving everyone else behind to die. They had jettisoned cargo. They had secured the ship. They had done everything they could do in their expert minds as sailors. And then they finally listened. Paul says they are to eat because they are weak from having had nothing. When you are in a crisis you forget about basic things. They had been fighting this storm for two weeks now and were exhausted. They are not to leave in the lifeboat or all will die. They are to cut the lifeboat free. Imagine, their only chance of survival and he says cut it free. Throw your belongings overboard. Lets eat now and be merry, for in their minds, tomorrow we die. Then he tells them when they have eaten to throw the remaining wheat overboard to lighten the load even further. Now they are to throw over their last bit of food? But in the morning they saw land. They were still not safe but were trying to save the ship and they ran aground. The ship was sinking. Finally, all the hands are going to abandon ship and leave the prisoners to die. Paul tells everyone, no one will be lost if you just listen. Cut the prisoners loose, let those who can jump and swim to the shore, do so. Let the others grab a plank (piece of driftwood) and float in. When all else fails grab a piece of the ruins of your life and trust God. And everyone got safely to land.
Are material possessions important when faced with life or death situations, no. When we find ourselves in perilous times we listen to those who will get us through. God always sends someone if we won�t listen, to let us know what we are to do. People need God when they are down and out. For some that is the only time they feel the need. But God wants us to come to Him before we get down and out.
If you are going through devastation today, be it emotional, physical or spiritual, God wants to deliver you. He wants to lighten your load so you can make it through. What we think is so vitally important, may not always be what God thinks is important. The material pleasures of life are not necessities. All of us have emotional baggage we carry as well. Not to use and overused phrase, but why not let go and let God. And if you don�t think you hear from God directly, then pray that He send a Paul into your life to help you decide what needs to be jettisoned.
It all comes down to this, we must decrease and He must increase. In every situation in life this holds true. When the enemy comes in like a flood, a standard is raised�and that standard is Jesus Christ. Take your eyes off the situation or the circumstances you find yourself in and look to Jesus, He will guide you through. And if for some reason you can�t seem to be able to get over the hump yourself ask Him to send you a Paul.
-revdlj |
