Ridgell's Originals

 Toward the end of Acts, Paul is on a ship that is in a storm and in real danger.  Paul assures everyone that they will be saved but that they must "run aground on some island."  So here is my question...

Was Paul saying that here is the sequence of events?  You will run aground on an island but you will be saved.  

Or, was Paul saying that they need to find an island to run aground on because that is how they would be saved?

Depends on how you read it.  I wonder if they spent a lot of time debating the meaning of Paul's words.  Did they start looking for an island?  Did they see the island and they understand this was what was about to happen?  And by the way, the text just indicates that when they saw the island, they immediately began to jettison cargo and prepared to run aground.  

Does it even matter?  They knew that Paul said they would be saved.  They knew he said they would run aground on an island first.  So when they saw the island, they were ready.

I wonder if we ever get so caught up in trying to decide exactly what the means that we miss the whole point.  Trying to make Scripture fit into our preconceptions and arguing to the bitter end that we are right.  And if not careful, failing to let Scripture have any impact in our lives.  

Trying so hard to get everything right (sorry if that offends my conservative brethren) or trying so hard to make Scripture fit what we think is right (sorry if that offends my liberal brethren) that we miss the whole point.

You know ... like the whole "who is my neighbor" debate.  Pretty easy to miss the point.

Arguing so much about worship that we don't worship.

Debating who can be an elder so much that nobody shepherds anyone.

Trying to be sure every point of baptism is understood to the point that we forget it is about dying with Jesus and living a new life.  Making it a legalistic to-do step.  Or saying it really doesn't matter.  

I am trying really hard this year to read my Bible in a way that changes how I live.

So...

I don't know how they exactly heard Paul.  I just know that when they saw the island, they were ready.

And they were savcd.

# posted by Steve @ 5:00 AM