Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Merciful (07/25/24)
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TITLE: A Perfect Storm, Cowards, and an Asp | Previous Challenge Entry
By Evelyn Alexander
08/01/24 -
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But all still seemed hopeless.
Thoughts of doom haunted their minds, while extreme weariness was spawning an ever-growing feeling of despair among them and the passengers.
But that my friends, is just the beginning of this amazing true story, and how they all, 276 of them, survived with absolutely no lives lost. All because of an odd prisoner’s visions and dreams.
It’s an unforgettable story that might center around an unrelenting, pounding storm, but it eventually leads to their ship breaking apart … the ship’s crew almost committing a cowardly deed … a smart Centurion … and one of his prisoners with an invaluable connection to God, who was amazingly instrumental in saving them all. Then when all from the ship were safe, he was bit by a poisonous asp as witnessed by many of the islanders where they landed. Yet shockingly, he never sickened or died!
Even while writing about this amazing story that’s recorded in history, it reads more like a story of dramatic fiction than actual happenings. But since all 276 lives were saved from the pounding sea, as promised by God through the prisoner … whom now were also witnesses … and the many islanders witnessed the prisoner being bitten yet surviving … all together it can’t help but make the whole story undeniable.
I’m personally intrigued the most by what happened toward the end of the story, when the prisoner was bit by the asp. He had been helping to keep their much-needed fire going when he reached for more wood to throw into the fire. A deadly asp then bit him and stayed attached to his hand! But he surprised everyone who saw what happened, when all he did was calmly shake it off into the fire.
It’s not too hard to imagine all the gasps and shocked whispers that must have circulating in the air.
At first the Islanders thought that the God of Justice must have wanted him to die to pay for his seemingly obvious sins – since he was a prisoner. But that thought soon changed when he didn’t swell up and die as expected. They then thought he must be a god.
I wonder if his throat tightened at the thought of what he really was. By his own words later, he saw himself as the lowest of all men, who it’s only through God’s grace he was now a totally changed man. Was he picturing some of the hundreds of faces of men, women and children whom he had tracked down to be killed? simply because they followed the teaching of Jesus.
Did this prisoner (whom today we know was Paul, the greatest Apostle and servant of Jesus of all time) have to force his thoughts back to the present so he could urgently tell them no, he was not. Then in a humbled voice tell them, “You’re wrong. I’m nothing special. In fact…” his voice increasingly raised as he declared, “I am the chiefest of sinners, saved from my God’s wrath only because He is merciful.”
Looking at the gathered islanders and all the many faces of his fellow survivors, who now surrounded him and stared in awe and anticipation, Paul began telling them the greatest true story of all time.
“It all starts with believing ….”
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This mildly embellished telling is based on a real, amazing story. You can read it for yourself in Acts 27:1 – 28:6. John 20:31, and Romans 10:9 are companion verses. The story and His Word are powerful examples of God’s merciful grace, and how He can change you and me too, if we let them take hold in our lives like Paul did.
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I kinda wished you stayed in story mode...
Blessings