Feast on the grain before it is tossed overboard.

Acts 27:33-38

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“Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have tarried and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it for your health. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” Acts 27:33-34

Just before dawn, just before the sandy shore of Malta! was in view, Paul encouraged everyone on the ship to eat. For fourteen days, the ship they were sailing on was being battered by the storm and could hardly stay afloat [Already, the cargo and tackle of the ship was thrown overboard to make the ship lighter and keep it afloat]. Those aboard the ship was not eating properly and health issues were a concern. Paul encouraged them to eat for the good of their health, and encouraged everyone that they would all survive the storm.

Today, we live in a storm-battered world where people in cities, states, and nations across the globe are not able to eat properly. There are food shortages, high prices, poverty, hunger, unsafe food ingredients, constant food recalls, flooding affecting the harvest of agriculture, sun scorched crops, wildfires, and even dinner partners not to be trusted. Not to mention unsafe drinking water. These concerns have been going on for a long time, but we need to eat. The storm-battered “ship” had not yet reached the sandy shore of the metaphorical Malta! and those sandy shores are described in the post on Acts 27:27-28 on the “Lowering of the water”. We need the people of God, in the name of Jesus Christ, to express the urgency of the people’s need to eat healthy food for the proper nourishment of the body. We need Holy Spirit filled people to speak the word of hope through Jesus Christ.

More than food for the physical body, the Holy Spirit wants us to know it is unhealthy to go “14 days” without nourishing the soul on the word of God. Jesus says, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4 This world is already seeing the sandy shore of “Malta!” and its essential our soul feeds on the word of God. In this storm-battered world, the Gospel of Christ is being battered, and people are going hungry for the food that nourishes the soul. As we can, which is seldom nowadays, we need Holy Spirit filled people to urge others to feed on belief in God through faith in Jesus Christ. We need to encourage others that there is life, eternal life, and not one single hair will perish, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

“After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. They were all of good cheer and ate some food themselves. Altogether there were 276 of us on board.” Acts 27:35-37

As followers of Jesus Christ, we want to express our thankfulness to God for the physical food we do have to eat, but especially for the food of the word of God that nourishes our soul. Even today, as we see the sandy shore of Malta! it becomes increasingly difficult to show our faith in God through Jesus Christ. “Malta!” is described as being an atheistic culture of humanism [posts on Malta from Acts 28:1-10]. Even a simple act of praying over our food becomes filled with insecurities about what might be laying on our plate or at the bottom of our drinking glass when we open our eyes. Or after the prayer, we taste the food, and it is oddly distasteful. Our Lord Jesus said the day would come when nobody will be able to work to share our faith, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.” John 9:4

“When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.” Acts 27:38

In America, and in other parts of the world, we were able to eat as much as we wanted, without any concerns about scarcity or what we might eat the next day. That is not so much true today as we saw scarcity from the COVID-19 pandemic, which we haven’t fully recovered from. On top of that, now there is always the concern about high food prices, mostly due to supply failure, other countries’ food shortages, tariffs, embargos, etc. In a sense, we are seeing the “grain” of the food supply being “thrown overboard” to lighten the “ship” of consumption. The scarcity and high prices are designed to drive the storm-battered people and nations to look to the United Nations to stabilize food supply. The United Nations are progressing in becoming the one world government, and as such will be the global storehouse and distributor of the world’s food supply.

Today’s global government, and its global culture, are directing and overseeing the supply of the word of God as it is thrown overboard. As we already see today, the churches have thrown the Gospel of Christ overboard, so has the government lawmakers by not including the values of the Bible in their laws and policies. The educational system has thrown the word of God overboard as the Bible is not allowed to be taught in the classrooms, and Christianity is not welcomed in any sector of society. We are right there at the sandy shores of “Malta!”

My grandmother said to me that a day is coming when we will need to hide the word of God within our heart because the Bible is tossed aside by this world. “To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat” Revelation 2:17 Overcomers will be those who feed from the Holy Spirit within our heart, soul, and mind. “In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” John 4:31-34

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1