Archive for month: May, 2022

Hi  GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Acts 27:27-44.  Let’s go!

Acts 27:27-32 (NIV)
27  On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land.
28  They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet deep.
29  Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.
30  In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow.
31  Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.”
32  So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it fall away.
 
On verses 27-32:  Knowing that the ship was soon going to crash into land, some sailors try to secretly let a lifeboat down into the sea to save themselves.  But for the sake of everyone’s safety including the sailors trying to escape, Paul warns the centurion and soldiers that everyone needs to stay with the ship if they want any hope of being saved. 
 

Hi  GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Acts 27:13-26.  Let’s go!

Acts 27:13-26 (NIV)
13  When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete.
14  Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the “northeaster,” swept down from the island.
15  The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along.
16  As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure.
17  When the men had hoisted it aboard, they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along…..

On verses 13-26:  As Paul and about 270 others sail to Rome, their ship is caught in the middle of a storm of hurricane proportions called a northeaster.  After many days of fearing for their lives, Paul stands up and addresses everyone on the ship, telling them that to keep up their courage, because God spoke to Paul and assured him that he would go to Rome to testify before Caesar and that not one person on this ship would be lost.

Hi  GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Acts 27:1-12.  Let’s go!

Acts 27:1-12 (NIV)
1  When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment.
2  We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us.
3  The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs.
4  From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us.
5  When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia.
6  There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board…..

On verses 1-12:  Paul and other prisoners are heading for Rome and these verses detail the first stages of their voyage.  Notice that when the winds were especially strong, Paul’s ship would head toward the “lee” of a nearby island, in one case the “lee” of Cyprus (v4), in another case the “lee” of Crete (v7).  What is a “lee”?  A “lee” is the sheltered side of something, the side that is away from the wind.  When the winds were strong, Paul’s shipmates would look for a lee and go to it for shelter from the storm.  In fact, we see a contrast here between the lees that provided shelter for Paul’s ship (v4, 7) and a harbor in Crete that was not suitable for Paul’s ship to stay in (v12).