When There Is Neither Sun Or Star In The Sky

And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. Act 27:20 

And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land. Act 27:44 

Paul as a prisoner was on ship travelling to Rome with others, to meet Caesar to whom he had personally appealed for the hearing of his case in Acts Twenty Five. It is then, while at sea, that the winds became “contrary,” Indeed it became so tempestuous that at one time they had to lighten the ship by throwing overboard some of their cargo. It is then that Paul remarks “And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.”

But though they were in such dire straits, Paul never lost hope, telling his colleagues: “I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship.”

You’re probably at sea too at present, my brother and my sister. The elements seem to have conspired against you. The wind has become contrary and the sea storms rough. You are in the water and it has reached your neck. You are in awe of another mishap, because you will drown.

May be it is the marriage. It is at sea. Or it is a relationship. It is floundering. The waves are beating it from all directions. Gusts from the wind have torn the sails and now your ship is let loose at sea. The sky is overcast. The looming darkness is oppressive. The world looks like it is coming to an end. Probably you are saying with Paul “And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.”  Don’t lose hope. Hold on there.

Or it’s the work. There is no hope in it. The bills are rising up in stacks, threatening to go through the roof. And the threat you will lose it if you don’t deliver looms large. Probably it is the health. It has depleted your body. It is torn and the wound is suppurating. The air is suffocating. The savings are depleted. The assaults on your body and mind are crushing.

The strength ebbs and your feeble hands attempt to fight back in vain. The sky is black and overcast. The gloom oppressive. Earth and heaven seem to be in league and their bands sound like they are upheaving for the encore. And neither sun nor stars have appeared to you in many days. And all hope you should be saved is gone.

Such a time visited Paul and his colleagues. And such a time is probably visiting you now. Take courage. Many of the Lord’s saints have traversed that valley of the shadow of death. They had lost hope. But “it came to pass, and they all escaped safely to the land.” You will get there too. Don’t let go of the rein. Hold on.

Paul does not hide that life even for Christians is not without hardships. “For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.” These things happen to Christians. At times we despair even of life itself. But no matter what state he was in Paul never lost hope, never lost faith, “for by faith ye stand.”

Paul never looked at the rock he was standing on. He looked to another rock which was higher than himself, even The Rock of Ages, which is Christ Jesus. He looked to it alone and he was saved. He trusted to it alone and he was saved. He believed in it alone and he was saved. “Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.” It is on faith that we stand. On faith alone that we walk. By faith alone that we see.  

God says, “Look to me. Don’t look at the immensity of your trouble. ‘Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?” God still asks us that question today. He stands waiting to hear your own answer to that.

Peter once asked His Master, “if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.” Jesus said, “Come…” And Peter did. He walked on water. But then he turned his eyes from the One who said, “Come.” He looked down at the immensity of the water lapping below him. And at that instant Peter began to sink.

So yours is quite heavy and unbearable too? Don't look down. Look straight at the One who says, “Come.” He sees and He hears. When he saw he was sinking Peter did not trouble to remember he was a man. He cried to Jesus to save him. And Jesus did that. Have you tried Him? Please do. He is merciful to hear us, and mighty to save us. “A bruised reed shall he not break.” No. “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

Paul and his colleagues had not eaten for two weeks. They had lost their luggage. Neither the sun nor the stars had appeared. Then their ship sunk.

Your relationship is over. Your business is out. Your debtors have come and washed you clean. Your health has depleted your energy and your savings. You have nothing. You are at sea and now the ship has sunk. Pick what is left and get to the shore.  “And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land… some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship.” You will get there too my brother. You will get there too my sister. It may be on a board or a broken piece but you will get there.

The Cracked Looking Glass Of Human Freedom

In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Jdg 17:6 

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Joh 8:36 

At one time a long time ago men were actually free. They could do anything they liked and no one did them the offensive duty of preaching to them.

Meaning to pursue life after the Epicurean fashion, they soon sunk into an insufferable ennui. They devised many other inventions, as they still do. But their towers come crumbling down every time they reach the first heaven.  

Total happiness is still a mirage here under the sun. “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” The Preacher opined. The Good News version makes no bones about it. “It is useless, useless, said the Philosopher. Life is useless, all useless.” God meant for a higher purpose or higher calling for us on this side of Jordan - than money, sex, food and drink. And so we miss the boat by a mile every day, as the world flies away and everything in it.

But we asked for it, we demanded it, it was our right.  So God gave it to us, and we mistook that for love. It is spiritual judgment. “God gave them up.” That is a terrible road to be riding on.

So our inner eyes have closed and we hardly behold our own ugliness, and our rampant greediness. We have seared the conscience with a hot iron, and it is sealed. Hence “it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.” We are slaves. Men and women in shackles. The chains ring loud, ominously announcing that the truth is out there, in the street.”

But we don’t see. “We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.”  

Modern slavery is no longer of the scale of spatial plantation. The plantations are now in our minds and we work at them daily. And factories for manufacturing our happiness raise up smoke and fog in our cities day and night, clouding our vision so we can hardly see clearly anymore.

Lights glitter and dazzle us at night. “Free yourself. Let it play. Let it ride.” “For the man who knows what he wants in a woman.” “Don’t scratch it. Don’t rub it.” There will never be true freedom and happiness when the urge is forced upon us by the chimera of market.

Money, sex, food, and drink will not free you.  Look carefully again. “There is a hole in the bucket.” So you will keep drawing water and returning again to the well.

These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.  Jude 12-13.

Saying “it is my nature” is escapist. You are escaping from the mirror.

It is like saying I take poison because it is in my nature. Sin is in our nature, it enslaves us, and blinds us. “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” But we can obey a higher thing than that which is inside us.

There is a higher thing, a higher Being. His name is God. Being wise is to know Him, to learn of Him and to understand Him. Know what you believe and why you believe. The benefits are legion. Self-assurance, peace, joy, love and liberty.

When we love God first, everything else falls into place, it will spill over in every facet of our lives. We don’t so much benefit God but ourselves. It is not God who gets peace but us. It is not God who gets “free” and healthy but us. It is not God who dies but us. These blessings are unto us, and unto our children.

Jesus did not only stand for what he believed. He died for it. That is principal. What this world sorely misses are men and women of conviction. The world we live in consists of two main ingredients only, the innocuous applause or jeer. So called winners and losers.

But what do they win? What do they lose? Get substance. Get value. The Disciples of Christ were only fishermen. There were a lot wealthy men in their time, men of renown, huge… but the world hardly remembers them anymore. But Christ I know, and Peter, and John, and James and Paul. These I know and many others know them as I know. Their names are writ in blood.  But as long as the ephemera is “set in great dignity” here, this excitement will continue to build, rising and falling like a breath. The applause will burst and die. The house will come down. The glass mirror will disintegrate in a thousand splinters. And there will be no remembrance of it anymore. Nor of the house.  

In a Fallen World, We are all Greedy!

The story is told of a man who did his arithmetic early before entering church, like we all do. He reached into his wallet and removed a thousand shilling note. This he set aside for “the business of men.” So he put it in the left pocket. Then he removed a fifty shilling note, crumpled it as if it was stolen, then he put it in his right pocket. This was his gift for God.

When the time for giving offering came he quickly reached into his pocket without thinking much. Apparently the man had forgotten his earlier division of his wealth into what was God’s and what was his. The shock hit him outside, after the service, when he reached into his left pocket to discover it was empty. Holding his breath he dipped into his right hand side pocket to discover a crumpled fifty shilling note. God had robbed him!

It is tragic when it is not a physical disease that afflicts one, but the “disease” of money. Notice when one borrows a pound and is given not one but two. Immediately one is beset with a sinking feeling of failure. Pray, why hadn’t he asked for three pounds?

Others ask for help, and in their estimation they expect to be given something commensurate with the donor’s worth. Woe is when the donor does not give in relation to his wealth. It is then you hear the one being helped asking with a sneer, “Is this all he is worth?” or “How can he give me something like this? It is better if he had kept it!” Some “beggars” though are principled, though they be only beggars. These believe it is beneath their dignity to accept help below a certain amount, therefore they politely return it, with thanks.

Greed begets jealousy. Take suffering for example. When one moans it is too much, it is usually in relative to others. Why are they not suffering, or why is their suffering “small”? The Swahili have a saying that “Kifo cha wengi ni arusi.” The death of many is like a wedding. It may be misery but at least many are in it, and that gives everyone comfort. Likewise friends may be won or lost if it is only one individual who is continually succeeding, and the other not. It is better if they were all failing, or they were all succeeding. That way the soul of a natural man is comforted. Misery makes strange bedfellows of all us. When it comes to all men then people see the hand of God in it. But when it comes to only one person like Job then people see the hand of witchcraft at work.

In the Parable of the Workers in Matthew Twenty, some laborers “went out early in the morning” to a rich man to ask for work in his vineyard. “And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.” In the third hour he found some workers lingering idle in the market. He sent them also in his vineyard. He said he would give them whatever was right by him. So they agreed and went. “Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle…” He sent them also in his vineyard.

Now trouble came in the evening when guys lined up to receive what was their due. Then the rich man gave a pound to each, from the first to the last. The first guys read mischief and they were not amused. They murmured at the rich man for his “injustice.” They felt piqued that guys who had come for only “one hour” should be made equal with them.

The rich man had his time in “court” too. He rebuked his workers for their insolence in attempting to direct his affairs. The laborers’ sounded like criminals complaining to the judge, “Why have you let the others free?” The rich man growled,  “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good”? The prophet Jeremiah bemoaned that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”. Again it is written that “everyone is given to covetousness”, and that “from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.” God was right then and He is still right today.

And so He drives in that lesson that “the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.” This parable has very wide application, but I will stick to greed, whether it be in the ministry or in the world. It should humble us that God is no debtor to man. That God is not a Capitalist, or a human-shark, out to gain as much profit from you – but contrary His grace (his undeserved mercy), and his love to all, is clearly revealed here. That it is sufficient for all. Let us not be jealous of others’ ministries, or enterprises, or good fortune!

It’s not how we begin but how we end that matters. Will your zeal be as strong as when you began, or will it flounder at last? Finally ye that are unthankful, murmurers, remember to be thankful for everything, even the little, “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 The 5:18). So learn to be content with what you have, for murmuring shows unthankfulness, and God considers that as rebellion. Elsewhere He likens it to the sin of witchcraft.