Life Events

 

    Life is full of surprises.  As soon as your life starts to feel boring prepare yourself because life is never boring.  We need to make the most of the opportunities that we have.  It is wise to prepare yourself and make yourself strong to face life, but there will always be things that you just can't prepare for.  How will you handle them?

    After Paul's third trial, he was loaded onto the ship, Adramyttium, headed for Italy along with 275 other people.  The centurion that was in charge was Julius.  He showed Paul kindness.  The seas are a dangerous place, but there are certain times in the year that made them more dangerous.  Winter was almost upon them, so they had a small window to get to Italy safely.  

    They had unforeseen delays which slowed their voyage.  They even changed ships at one point, but they kept pushing forward against Paul's advice.  The captain was determined to make it to Crete to winter there.  While in the open sea an unexpected northeaster came upon them.  It is something similar to a hurricane.  

    They were not even able to see the stars in the sky for several days.  This means they had no way to navigate where they were going.  The open sea battered the ship violently and they were driven by the wind uncontrollably.  Eventually people began to give up hope on surviving.  They had to throw everything overboard that was not necessary.  Their food was gone or spoiled, so they had not eaten in days.  There was probably very little clean water if any.  It was a very dire situation.

    Paul did not give up hope.  God had told him he would have court in Rome, so he remembered that and knew he was not going to die no matter how bad things got.  His trust in God pushed him to encourage the others on the ship.  He told them to be courageous because an angel had come to him telling him he would make it to Rome.  

    After 14 nights they finally saw land.  The sailors lowered the anchors and waited for dawn, so that they could navigate.  At dawn they realized their best hope was to ground the ship.  The soldiers planned on killing the convicts aboard to stop any escape attempts.  The captain liked Paul, so he stopped the soldiers.  Throughout the grueling two weeks, everyone survived.  Paul encouraged everyone to eat what food they had to be strong to swim to shore and then he prayed.  Everyone made it to shore.

Acts 27