Forget Bruce Lee, Rambo, Vin Diesel, forget the dirty vested bloke in Die Hard … Want to know the biggest action hero? It’s Paul who used to be Saul. Honest. And this isn’t one of those moments where the Pastor compares Jesus to N-Dubz in order to sound ‘down’, cool or real.
‘But Paul shook the snake off into the fire…’ ACTS 28:5
In Acts 28 you will see Paul humiliating the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger the Terminator. Paul’s minding his own business, building a barbecue on the beach, when out of nowhere a deadly viper sinks it venomous teeth into his hand. Standard procedure would be to drop to the ground and die agonizingly within seconds. But Paul casually shakes the deadly killer off, straight into the fire. You’d almost wonder if he barbecued the thing and served it on a sesame seed bun. The lessons here:
1. When you know your place in God you can shake any attack off.
2. Paul should’ve died but God saved him because he still had work to do.
3. God will help you too, to shake off any attack that comes your way, no matter how venomous.
What now? Psalm 37 contains stirring words about God providing shelter and protection for us in times of danger. Try memorizing key verses of the psalm to recall the next time you are up against your own ‘deadly snakes’.
Pastor Ray
