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Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted Isa 53:4 |
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| Daily Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. 1/17/2025
Today's Passage :In the Aegean Sea Bible Verse:Acts 20:13-16 (BSB) "We went on ahead to the ship and sailed to Assos, where we were to take Paul aboard. He had arranged this because he was going there on foot. And when he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene. Sailing on from there, we arrived the next day opposite Chios. The day after that we arrived at Samos, and on the following day we came to Miletus. Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, because he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost." Message:
There is not much substance to today's verses. It is primarily a travel diary. The first and last places mentioned, Assos and Miletus, were Greek seaside towns on the east coast of Anatolia; the other three are Greek islands (Mitylene is a town on the large island of Lesbos).
The narrator is separated from Paul for a bit and recounts, for the first time, his own experience. The identity of the original narrator at this point is not certain. It is possible that Luke was traveling with Paul’s retinue; another possibility is that he simply copied this section from someone else’s travel journal — perhaps Timothy’s.
From the tone of the verses, specifying each day's location, it sounds as if Luke, Paul, Silas, et al., after so many years of hard work and danger, were ready to enjoy their cruise through the Greek Isles! I hope so. The route would have been as spectacular then as it is today.
We are left to guess why Paul wants to be in Jerusalem for Pentecost. There is no indication that he intends a “Christian” holiday celebration; we are a long time before the calendar of Feast Days here. But still; he uses the Greek word “Pentecost” rather than the name of the simultaneous Jewish holiday, Shavuot.
Remember, the coming of the Holy Spirit, which we call “Pentecost”, occurred on an important Jewish feast day, one of the three holidays where Jews traveled to Jerusalem. The word pentecost comes from the Greek for “fiftieth”, because the Jewish Festival of Shavuot occurs exactly fifty days after Passover.
So maybe Paul just wants to celebrate Shavuot! There is no prohibition against him participating in a Jewish holiday. But my guess is that he mostly wanted to have a crowd to preach to.
Meditation : Prayer : God of mercy, swift to help: as my lips pour forth your praise, fill my heart with the peace you give to those who wait for your salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord......Amen |
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