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
Powered by Morning Wings Ministries. Share with others in English, French, Arabic, Swahili and Chinese. Enquire or counsel through +234 80 77 63 85 50 or +234 8137 04 68 12 II morningwingministry@gmail.com & Blog @ www.morningwingsministry.blogspot.com
