By now much time had passed, and the voyage was already dangerous. Since the Day of Atonement was already over, Paul gave his advice and told them, “Men, I can see that this voyage is headed toward disaster and heavy loss, not only of the cargo and the ship but also of our lives.” (Acts 27:9-10)
In today’s passage in Acts 27, Paul is being transported to Rome. As Paul and the others are on this voyage, Paul gives his advice to the one in charge that the ship is entering into trouble and disaster awaits. The centurion, Julius, ignored Paul’s advice and instead chose to listen to the captain of the boat in continuing with their journey. Did the centurion not know that Paul was shipwrecked three times? So Paul would have known that sailing during this season of the year was dangerous. We will find out what happens to the men on the boat during tomorrow’s reading.
For a word of encouragement to us today, I want us to be faithful to tell people that God puts in our path daily the love that Christ has for us and how he transforms us. We know that God is in control of who does and doesn’t believe in His son, Jesus. Yet, God uses us to be his messengers of spreading the Good News of what Jesus did for us on the cross. God calls each of us, His children to share His truth and what we have experienced from being followers of Jesus. When my wife and I were missionaries in Asia, we tried to share the Gospel abundantly with complete strangers. We faced lots of rejection, but God had already prepared the hearts of some of these complete strangers to hear the Gospel and choose to believe in Jesus. It was great to see these individuals be transformed by the Gospel, and then start to share the Good News of Jesus with people they knew like family, friends, and co-workers. As they shared what God did to them, people who knew them before saw a change for the better, and they, too, started to believe in Jesus. All it took was seizing the opportunity to share what they knew and experienced, and to allow God to do the rest.