Acts Twenty-Eight

Paul the Faithful

When the ship is broken on the rocks, Paul is washed up on the shores of Malta, but he is not “all washed up.” There to greet him were barbarians who built a fire with which he warmed himself. God always sees to it that someone will kindle a fire of kindness to take the chill out of some traumatic experience. Let us thank God for those who help us along the way.

Just when things look like they could not get worse, Paul is bitten by a snake. There are more ways than one to be snake bit. Sometimes we are bitten by evil men who are cold blooded. Sometimes we feel the fangs of evil sink into our helping hands or our hearts. Paul just shook it off. Those who watched were amazed. What we do when someone tries to harm us speaks volumes about our inner strength and faith in God. There is no poison strong enough to kill the spirit of the man or woman who loves God.

Even there on the isle of brokenness, Paul spoke of the goodness of God and of His kingdom. He spoke of Christ and some believed. The Book ends here but not the story. There are more than twenty eight chapters. The story continues with you and the story continues with me. The bottom line of Paul’s story was that Paul was faithful. That is because real faith is always faithful. The world may try to silence it, imprison it, punish it, or crucify it, but faith is faithful. We are not on our way to Rome. We are on our way to the Heavenly Jerusalem. There may be some hurts, and storms along the way. There may be some prison cells, and some troubled waters, but be assured no one and no thing can prevent you from going to what the Lord Jesus called the Father’s house.

Jesus died on a cross to purchase a place in heaven for us. He rose on the third day as evidence to the success of his mission to pay for our sins. He empowers us with the presence of the Holy Spirit and employs us to proclaim His message of hope and salvation. He has instructed us to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and in the uttermost parts of the earth. In the Bible, the Gospels come before Acts. In the world, how we Act is often more important than what we say. What we do today and tomorrow will be part of an eternal story of how we acted on our way to the Father's House.