MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - 26/11/2023

SUNDAY - 26TH NOVEMBER, 2023

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

BE WEANED OF YOUR MYTHS - Our Travelogue & Travails Series 002

Acts 28:4, KJV

"And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live".

We began by looking at the word "barbarous" and using some of its meanings to make definitions for our teaching. While we've been able to establish the Islanders of Melita as not being barbarous but kind men, yet there's another side that proves them so. This is what God wants us to be weaned of so that we might take a change from glory to glory until we eventually have His semblance. God will keep adjusting us in the mirror of His word until we take full dressing and are aligned to the properness of His mind. Irrespective of your growth or maturity in Christ, there'll still be weight or fat for you to shed off. If you'll follow Christ on, you must see with Him whenever He points them to you. 

The Islanders of Melita sure have their beliefs, culture and even myth. They don't stop inferring that's how something is because of something that they'd observed or thought to be. As the stick pretending to be snake fastened itself to Paul's hand, they theorize immediately from the multitude of their belief system that it is because Paul was a murderer. Though he has escaped the sea yet justice seems to still be seeking him out for vengeance. This is a myth and none of us would have believed it as myth until it was proven otherwise and the natives exposed as men of mere guesses who don't seek to find out real causes of things. If Paul had really swollen up and died from that viper's bite, the natives would have said, "they said so". However, things didn't go the way of their guess or belief at all. Without Paul being privy to what they had said of him. He shook the beast off into the fire. Even after that, they still awaited the poison to circulate, take effect on him that justice might be satisfied over Paul. They awaited his swelling up. However, it never came. They just didn't see such day. They were baffled.

Acts 28:5-6, KJV

"5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. 6 Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god".

You see, they were all proven wrong. Their myth was exposed. This is what makes any still barbarous. If you do not find the truth before you establish the fact, you're barbarous. It doesn't matter what city you live in, what city life you enjoy or what calibre of people flock around you. The moment you reduce yourself to wishful and easy thinking of causes of events without the due diligence of seeking out, laying bare, questioning, observing, interviewing, gathering witnesses' reports and even experimenting, you're no other but a barbarian. It might not show that fast but you'll soon be exposed to have been wrong all the while. The natives of Melita could have gotten away with their thesis. Those who heard what they said who also believe in God's justice system might as well believe justice was trying to get Paul considering the fact that he was even a prisoner. "Who knows if he is a murderer", they might have accented? However, they were all proven wrong. After they had waited long enough to prove the certainty of their guess and seeing nothing happen to Paul, the Bible records that, "they gave up and assumed Paul is a god."

Acts 28:6, KJV

"Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god".

Look at how quick they changed their minds again. That tells you their first thesis was not a grounded one. If it was, they wouldn't immediately agree they were wrong. They'll rather investigate why their findings didn't work. When you're given to suggesting and casting answers on life which have not been tested or proven, when you're suddenly proven wrong or when your principle refuses to work, you'll agree immediately at being wrong. I mean you'll easily be reproached and boxed to a side by a thesis that seems raving and acclaiming in the meanwhile and that'll be because you never gathered the assurance that stems from having done one's own due diligence. However, we ought to be noble men who won't just give in to compromise when defied and that'll be because we have a certain measure of confidence in our original findings having found it out indeed. 

Imagine this, "after they had looked a great while and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and say he was a god". On that wise, they were correct. Paul was a god in the human flesh. He has the divine blood running through him. He enjoys divine healing and protection. Having being bitten by that viper that fastens itself to his hand yet didn't swell up or fall down suddenly (as the natives have learnt and affirmed it should be to any who gets bitten by such snake) proves Paul indeed to be of a supernatural stock. Meanwhile, their calling Paul a god is not that they understood what made him a god. They didn't investigate that.  However, they felt he had supernatural powers. If not, he should have suffered the fate of the rest they had known. They only used the broader term, "a god" to excuse themselves from investigation and proper query again that could have given them much answers than they had applied and forced on Paul (though correct). Today, God is calling us all to become diligent investigators in our fields who do his due diligence and follow a process of testing to arrive at his answers. You may not follow a scientific method but give due diligence before you publish your results. If you're proven wrong, you might be forced to change your position and relinquish your claim. Anyway, you should be humble to do that and accept the defeat of having not given scholarship and diligence in research and fact finding. Those are the truly barbarous men!

PRAYER: Lord, give me the patience, diligence of an enquirer. Secret things belong to You but that which is revealed belong to us and our children forever. 

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Daniel 2:24-3:30; 1 Peter 4:7-5:14; Psalm 119:81-96; Proverbs 28:15-16

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MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE 25/11/2023

SATURDAY - 25TH NOVEMBER, 2023

MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO

THEY CALLED THEM BARBAROUS PEOPLE - Our Travelogue & Travails Series 001

Acts 28:1-2, KJV

"1And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita. 2 And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold".

The word "barbarous" has many meanings and we shall begin to teach and consider some truths right from some of these. 

Our evangelism and making of disciples never end. God is the One who locates us in the next field to till. He sees right and so allocates us rightly. How Paul got to the Island of Melita was something not planned by him. It's something more of God's providence than man's foreknowledge. Though God had told him, "they'll be cast on a certain island" after escaping the sea and its turbulence, yet Paul and others wouldn't have wanted to be shipwrecked or be diverted from their course (Acts 27:23-26). Paul couldn't have imagined what he met there. As a matter of fact, what he saw there far outweighs the imagination of any missionary if he were called to testify. 

They didn't know what Island they were cast until they had arrived ashore. In that angel's revelation to Paul, the name of the Island was not given. The Island is obviously a cut off from the thorough touch of civilization for we read that the people are barbarous - uncivilized and uncultured. If they are uncivilized, there's a manner they might have been expected to behave. They might have been expected to be unfriendly, violent and rude. However, these islanders and natives proved to be otherwise. For we read that as soon as they were cast on the Island, they made fire for them, took them in so that the escapees could have shelter from the present rain and the consequence of cold. 

It's God who justifies us even when men wrongly thinks of us. It's not your business to seek to speak for yourself. That may even be lack of humility at times. However, He that sees it all can as well win all and sooner or later, men's opinion of you would be different. We should be free from, "what do they think or are saying about me?" It's a bad snare that'll make you obedient to men instead of God. You'll be engulfed turning men pleasers. 

The Bible reports them to be "barbarous" or "barbarians". They are not different from the Piraha people in the Amazon world of Brazil that Evangelist and Missionary Linguist, Daniel Everette once went to convert. The Piraha people are mostly untouched. Though, there had been a delegate of missionaries to them - to live with them, learn their language and translate the Bible into their language so that when preached to, they might be converted, yet all failed until Daniel Everette was sent. He became the first to break the code and understand the Piraha language. Though he failed to have them converted but his contact of the Piraha people is no different from Paul's contact of the people of Melita. The two natives could be both described as "uncivilized". They are cut off from the often touch of the general world. They rather live by their own beliefs, cultures and myths - untainted by the world around them. 

You know the Melita people are lost in their own beliefs and myths considering what they thought Paul must have done wrong for vengeance of death to still have sought him despite having escaped the sea (Acts 28:4-6). This is nothing but a myth. They expected him to swell up from the viper's bite and give up the ghost. However, that never happened. Like I afore said, don't speak for yourself. Let God speak for you. His sole voice will drown a thousand voices with preconceptions or wrong notions of you. Your defence can't do much. It'll only raise more arguments and doubts. I know a God who clears men and makes him welcomed in people's mind. 

Today, the barbarous are no longer uncivilized. It is the civilized that have become barbarous. We should be weary of calling ourselves Christians without Christ like characters or fruits to establish same (Gal.5:22-23). That makes us barbarians! Also, how often do we think the rough would be the unrefined? Only to discover that he is a gold wrapped in rag and a gift to humanity. This is who the Islanders of Melita are. Contrary to the opinion of men about them [considering they were cut off from the regular touch of men], they were called, "barbarous". However, they proved not to be one. Their act of kindness proved everybody who had called them barbarous or might have expected them to act uncivilized wrong. Let us all fight with acts and not with mere speech. One echoes louder and wins without arguments. The Bible has spoken conclusively on this when it says we should be doers [instead of mere hearers] - James 1:22. How often do you do the Word of God so that men may see your good work, be converted and give glory to your Father who's in heaven. 

This is Day 1 of this series. You're welcome to the Island of Melita where they said the barbarous people live. We have found the barbarous to be friendly anyway. This is our experience so far in our journey and encounter with men as we preach Christ. God always surprises and surpasses our imagination as what we thought difficult and hard are cracked and opened nuts at our arrival. Today, I pray for you, you'll meet it differently. Trusting God for all missionaries at distant, isolated and forsaken lands, God will shut the mouths of lions for you. The barbarous will become friendly with you and they shall give ears to the gospel. 

PRAYER: Father, let us meet it differently. Let the unfriendly become our friends. We have a better testimony. Your gospel is preached and men are discipled. 

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Jeremiah 2:31-4:18, Colossians 1:1-17, Psalm 76:1-12, Proverbs 24:21-22

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