Thursday, April 18, 2013 - 4:05 pm

I read through the last 2 chapters of Acts today, and saw how Paul had faith in the middle of difficult and troublesome circumstances. In Acts 27, in the middle of a violent storm, Paul is a prisoner on his way to Rome, where he can expect trial and death, if only he can survive the inevitable wreck of the ship he's traveling on. The danger from the storm is not his doing, he advised them not to set out and they ignored his advice. Then one night in the middle of all this danger, an angel comes to Paul from God, bringing the promise that he will live to stand trial in Rome, and that everyone on the doomed ship will survive the wreck. What does Paul do? He doesn't get bitter that God is saving him only to have him remain a prisoner and stand trial, in fact that thought motivates him, since it will allow him to share the gospel in Rome. He stands up and encourages all the others on the ship, trusting God for their lives. Now I've heard our supposedly post-Christian society compared to a sinking ship, and if that is an accurate analogy spiritually, what should we do about it? Well, the first thing that Paul did was try to persuade the men not to set out on that doomed voyage. If, as Jesus claimed, we are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13), then we ought to be doing all we can to preserve the world, in this case I suggest that is done by trying to persuade our culture not to set out on a doomed voyage. What if the world doesn't listen? What if, as Paul did, we find ourselves in the middle of a storm, not of our own making, from which there is no hope of salvaging the ship? Do we 'polish the brass railings'? Do we try to make things look as nice as possible, while speeding toward certain destruction? Well, what does Paul do next? Everyone else is trying to save the ship, he listens to God and acknowledges that the ship is about to wreck. From that point on, he makes every effort to preserve the lives of the people on board, regardless of who they are. Just because the ship is doomed, doesn't have to mean that the people are. If our culture is indeed about to wreck, that doesn't have to mean that the individuals we know and influence must perish in that wreck. Whatever stage we find ourselves in, we ought to be preserving those around us, not writing them off. Paul finally did make it to Rome, and in the time before his trial he continued doing what he did best. Acts 28:30-31 says, "For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. / Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ." That's the kind of attitude I want to have - preaching the kingdom of God, even in the face of death, and teaching through words and actions what Jesus is like, reflecting His light into the world around me.