I really think that I have done enough reading for my Medicines & Therapeutics exam tomorrow. My mind cannot take in any more new information from my other lectures.
Anyway..
So many events happened in chapter 16, the beginning of this chapter was the start of Paul's second missionary journey with Timothy, Silas and Luke. Here is the rough summary:
V. 1-5: Paul met Timothy when he came to Derbe and Lystra and took him with him in his mission.
V. 6-10: Paul had a vision that led him to preach in Macedonia.
V. 11-15: A faithful woman of God called Lydia was baptised together with her family in Philippi.
V. 16-24: Paul drove out an evil spirit from a sorceress which resulted to the imprisonment of Paul and Silas
V. 25-34: A Philippian jailer was saved. Read these verses.. quite interesting ;)
V. 35-40: The magistrates were compelled to bring Paul and Silas out and freed them.
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Let us talk about the Philippian jailer. How much faith do you think did it take the jailer to decide to accept Jesus? Do you think it was only a spur of the moment for him because he got too scared? If the earthquake did not happen, do you think he would still choose to believe? Answers to these questions do not matter really. What happened was God's will, and it was His will for the jailer to respond to His calling.
Jesus in Luke 17:6 says, If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.
Personally, I think that jailer did not have any faith at all until he saw Paul and Silas' broken chains and the prison doors laid open. And then we witnessed how he got convicted when he saw P & S never left the prison despite everything. The jailer fell down trembling... and said, "Sirs what must I do to be saved?" (v29-30). This must have been a very momentous occasion for the jailer.
I have hope for my friends.. my friends back in the Philippines - high school and college, my relatives who constantly refuse to acknowledge Him and all my close acquaintances including my pharmacy colleagues. I specifically pray for my uni friends, I won't say their names here but God knows who they are. It has been three years since I have known and hung out with them and I know.. their faith are so much bigger than a mustard seed. I cannot be a Paul or Silas to my friends because speaking, im afraid, is not my forte. But, I strongly believe that actions do speak louder than words. Paul and Silas did not need to preach to the jailer to get him to believe anyway ;)
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