The Persuader

PASSAGE OF THE DAY:
Acts 27 (click the link)


KEY VERSE:
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.” After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. (Acts 27:34-35, NIV)


THE BIG IDEA:
Paul is once again on the move, this time by ship to Italy. He is being delivered for his appeal to Caesar who is in Rome. His trip with 276 others on the boat—the captain, a pilot, sailors, a centurion, soldiers and other prisoners—is a wild ride on the open sea.  Paul speaks to the danger ahead when the ship seeks harbor on the Isle of Crete.  But Julius, the centurion isn’t persuaded by Paul to winter in this harbor. Instead Julius listens to the Captain and the pilot and agrees to continue on the voyage.  In the midst of  a violent storm, Paul shares that an angel of the God to whom he serves stood before him and said Paul must stand before Caesar and that God has granted him all those sailing with him. All will be safe.  Paul tells the men to keep their courage up because he believes God and that all will turn out like he’s been told. Through the faith of Paul and his willingness to obey the Lord, they all make it safely to land—a certain island called Malta.


REFLECTIONS:
Recently I was part of team that installed a floating, locking floor. Sometimes the individual planks needed a little more help to completely “lock” into place and form a tight seam with the neighboring plank. A special name was bestowed upon the rubber mallets that aided the locking efforts, “THE PERSUADER.”  With a couple of gentle nudges from “the persuader” one plank would lock snuggly with its neighbor and you could watch the gap disappear.

Reflecting back on Chapter 26 of Acts, I kept grinning at King Agrippa’s reply to Paul after hearing Paul’s defense, “In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian.”

Now we don’t know for sure in Chapter 27 that Paul is proselytizing while aboard this ship, but I cannot imagine that Paul is being quiet. After all, we know that the 276 are on the ship for a long time… maybe 4-5 months and my guess is Paul was sharing Jesus and was persuading others along the way.

Toward the beginning of the journey, the centurion was more persuaded by the captain and pilot to continue the course to Italy than by Paul to winter in the harbor at Crete. I suspect as time went on, Paul’s encouragement to his shipmates to keep up courage and know that they were under God’s protection helped him gently nudge others on board in the way of this new gospel. Paul gave another prophetic message about the ship needing to run aground on a certain island. He even had influence on the centurion and soldiers when the ship’s sailors tried to escape from the ship once they had reached the shallow waters of Malta. By this time Paul’s influence on his shipmates was such that he led them in breaking bread together and gave thanks to God in the presence of all.

So, it seems to me that Paul persuaded all on the ship to commune with each other as they broke a 14 day vigilant watch over the rough seas without even taking a break to eat. A fast of sorts was broken with the fellowship of the Lord in breaking bread together.  Was the gap between centurion, soldier, captain, pilot, sailor, and prisoner disappearing? Were they coming along side of each other and giving thanks to God?

Things weren’t perfect on the ship and there isn’t evidence of smooth sailing. But Paul never changed his direction given by God to encourage and persuade and to “bear the Lord’s name before Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel…” (Acts 9:15).


POINT OF ACTION:
I like what Cinda Brooks said in her devotion last week, “Just do it!”  Paul knew to whom he belonged and to whom he served. Call upon the courage of the Lord, step boldly onto the ship, set sail and listen for the direction the Lord gives.


PRAYER:
Lord, provide me with a heart that is under your persuasion. Lord I want to be able to share the testimony You gave me and to be encouraged through my faith in You.


WHO AM I?
I am Gayle Norris and I am married to David and I get to be blessed by him everyday J

OK so this is kind of personal and a little vulnerable… I love getting lost in music.  I like music when it swells and I can feel it rattle in me.  There is a sense of being removed from the world and getting to be part of created sound.  That’s probably why I like live music so much.

Oh, and I really, really, really like chocolate chip mint ice cream. I do not keep it in the house. It’s way too dangerous!