Going To The Other Side | Breakfast For Your Soul

We’re GOING to the other side!

Written by FAVORED1 on February 22, 2010 – 2:55 pm -

Monday, February 22, 2010

Once everyone was accounted for and we realized we had all made it, we learned that we were on the island of Malta. The natives went out of their way to be friendly to us. The day was rainy and cold and we were already soaked to the bone, but they built a huge bonfire and gathered us around it. Paul pitched in and helped. He had gathered up a bundle of sticks, but when he put it on the fire, a venomous snake, roused from its torpor by the heat, struck his hand and held on. Seeing the snake hanging from Paul’s hand like that, the natives jumped to the conclusion that he was a murderer getting his just deserts. Paul shook the snake off into the fire, none the worse for wear. They kept expecting him to drop dead, but when it was obvious he wasn’t going to, they jumped to the conclusion that he was a god! The head man in that part of the island was Publius. He took us into his home as his guests, drying us out and putting us up in fine style for the next three days. Publius’s father was sick at the time, down with a high fever and dysentery. Paul went to the old man’s room, and when he laid hands on him and prayed, the man was healed. Word of the healing got around fast, and soon everyone on the island who was sick came and got healed.

{Acts 28:1-9 Message Bible}

Good Afternoon Beloved,

Ooooohhhhh! I couldn’t wait to write this today’s offering. This has been percolating like brewing coffee in my spirit since Saturday. Shouting in my heart I hear, YOU HAVE AN ASSIGNMENT, AND IT WILL BE COMPLETED! Paul, went through. No… Paul went “through-through”! Oftentimes we hear of Job’s suffering and triumph, but Paul’s life consisted of one catastrophe after another. In this instance, he had just came through shipwreck. As they are sitting around a fire trying to dry out and get warm, a venomous snake latches onto the his hand. Some versions call it a “viper”, the King James calls it a “beast”. A BEAST… there was a ‘Beast’ on his hand. Paul shook it off into the fire and kept doing what he was doing. The natives, were waiting for him to die. When he didn’t, they naturally assumed he had to have been some sort of ‘god’. They had never seen anything like this before. That was only one portion of Paul’s testimony. Remember 2 Corinthians 11? He was an Israelite.. a Hebrew, and servant of Christ who had been whipped many times, five different times the Jewish leaders gave him 39 lashes. Three times he was beaten with rods. He was put in prison and faced death many times. Once he was stoned. He was shipwrecked 3 times. He had faced danger from rivers and from robbers, from his own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. He faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. He faced danger from men who claim to be believers but were not. He worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. He suffered hunger and thirst. He experienced the cold, without enough clothing to keep him warm. He had the daily burden of his concern for all of the churches. This is not even including his initial “meeting” with the Lord when He was knocked off his horse and experienced 3 days of blindness (Acts 9:9). Yet, he could boldly state in 2 Corinthians 12:10 ~

So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

What a statement! Some of us lose it when the cable goes out! … Not you, but some people I heard about somewhere on the planet. Paul went through, indescribable agony, but in his heart and mind, he had one thing that kept him… a WORD from the Lord! He knew that he could not die until he went to Rome. Paul was human. I’m sure he felt how we would have felt in his position, but his trust was in the God of his salvation. His encounter with Jesus on the road that day forever sealed in his mind his destiny. He became a servant of the Living God. This was a man who was looked upon as a great intellectual, upper class in his society. He was well respected, revered and feared, but at one point he made the statement that:

“…Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ…” {Philippians 3:8}

We will get to the other side… no matter what “beast” tries to attach itself to us or hinder us. Shake it off. Our mission will be accomplished. Smash through every stumbling block, speak to every mountain, lay aside every weight until your purpose is fulfilled. Some go through more than others. That is why it is essential that we pray for one another and help each other.

“…For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.”
[Ecclesiastes 4:10]

What is a “successful” life? In God’s eyes, it is finishing the task He gave us

. Together, with the help of our beautiful Savior, we will make it!