Acts 28:11-16
English
Standard Version (ESV)
11 After three months we set sail in a
ship that had wintered in the island, a ship of Alexandria, with the twin gods[a] as a figurehead. 12 Putting
in at Syracuse, we stayed there for three days. 13 And from
there we made a circuit and arrived at Rhegium. And after one day a south wind
sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli. 14 There
we found brothers[b] and were invited to stay with them for
seven days. And so we came to Rome. 15 And the brothers there,
when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns
to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. 16 And
when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier
who guarded him.
As I read this I
sensed that there was a bit of excitement in the writer’s words when I read,
“There we found brothers”. I did not
sense the excitement because of a punctuation mark, there are no annotations
that tell me of the excitement, I cannot read tone of voice in this, so how did
I sense excitement? Just by knowing that
Paul and the one traveling with him had not had any interaction with any
believers other than each other, for quite some time, tells me that they must
have been excited. In addition to that,
they were allowed to stay with them.
Being around
those that love and know the Lord can be so uplifting. I cannot imagine not being able to fellowship
with other believers. However, often
times we take that for granted. We begin
to become so accustomed to having other believers around us that we can tend to
forget the importance of it. It is a sad
time when we begin to dread going to church rather than rejoicing that we
can. When our focus becomes on others
rather than on Christ, when that happens, we have missed the point of
fellowshipping together.
As I seek Him
today, I thank Him for those people in my life who I find joy in fellowshipping
together with. I thank Him for a church
family to love on and who love me just the way I am. I thank Him for a Pastor who guides Christ’s
flock. I thank Him for a country that He
has allowed me to call home where I can worship freely with other
believers. I thank Him for a husband and
family that love the Lord. I do not want
to take this all in stride; He has blessed me so very much. Yet at times I forget these are privileges
that He has afforded me and I want to give Him the glory for them.
As you seek Him
today, remember the privileges He has given you, maybe they are the same as
mine but one is the same for sure, He has given all of us the opportunity to
believe in Him and have fellowship with other believers in some way or another,
either secretly or in public, either in a blog or in person, He has blessed us,
now let us not forget to thank Him for those blessings.
Seeking Him with
all my heart,
Sheila
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