Acts - Week 14 / Wednesday

Reading for today: Acts 28:1-10

Well, I wrote this blog for today once already, but for some reason it did not post, and in the process, I lost it. So, I am sorry about that, especially for all of you out there that are just dying to read these each day!

Once all 276 soaked survivors made it to shore safely, just as Paul had promised they would, they discovered they were on the island called Malta. The people of Malta were of Phoenician descent and probably spoke a dialect closely related to Hebrew. They were unusually kind to the survivors of this shipwreck, considering the fact that many of the survivors were prisoners.

The Maltese built a nice, warm fire to warm them up in the rainy, cold morning hours. Paul, being the servant that he was, gathered some wood for the fire. When he went to throw it on the fire, a cold-blooded snake was suddenly warmed and fastened himself unto Paul's hand. Paul immediately flicked the snake off his hand.

The islanders watched all this and immediately assumed that Paul must have done something wrong, like murder, to have this happen to him. They were convinced that he would swell up and die right before their eyes.

When that didn't happen, they jumped to another conclusion: Paul must be a god. Knowing Paul's history from the book of Acts, he would have done his best to dissuade the crowd from thinking he was a god.

It so happened that Publius, the #1 man on the island, had a sick father. Paul prayed for him and he was healed. When the word got out, all those on the island who were ill or diseased came and they, too, were cured.

Here's the interesting point in this story. God healed every person who was in need, except one---Paul himself. The man who prayed saw all those around him healed, but he was denied healing by God. That doesn't compute very well, does it? That is the enigma surrounding healing. God heals some, and He doesn't heal others. So, should we quit praying for healing? Never! All God asks of us is to pray in faith. The rest is up to Him. He does not hold us responsible for the results of our prayers, just the faithfulness of our prayers.

Tomorrow: Rome---finally!