Jailbreak!

Okay today, we’re going to start with something completely different with what I
usually do. We’re going to read the passage first! Gasp!

Read Acts 16:16-34

In order to get a better understanding of this passage, we should place ourselves in the shoes (or sandals) of the jail guard. Imagine that you get up every morning, kiss your wife and little girl goodbye, and head out for the prison to work from 9AM – 5PM every day. Your job is fairly easy, save for the occasional jailbreaks, but it’s nothing your trusty government-issue sword can’t handle. One day, however, two men who have lash marks across their backs and faces so bruised you could barely tell the two apart are dragged into your prison. The magistrate (who’s pretty much your boss) orders you to guard them carefully. You know what will happen to you if you fail to do this. All of the sudden your job got really stressful. So you take the two, wincing at their wounds and trying not to feel pity, and lock them in the innermost cell, and fastening their feet in stocks so they can’t even walk around the cell. You’re pretty confident that these two aren’t going anywhere and that your career and life is no longer in jeopardy. You’d like to go home, but orders are orders, so you decide to pull up a chair and wait out the night until the magistrates come to pick up the odd pair. You don’t even know what they did wrong, but you figure it must have been bad seeing as they were flogged so badly. You shrug and lean back in your chair, content to know that everything is still going well for you and the next day it’s just the same thing again. You can’t wait for your paycheck and a chance to see your beautiful wife and adorable little princess. As you think about these, you start to doze off. It’s getting late, after all. But before you completely conk out, you hear the two singing and praying to someone they call their God. Their praises and their singing doesn’t bother you that much, but as you fall asleep you can’t help but to think, Who is this “God” they are singing to that can give them so much hope and joy in a prison? Then, you fall asleep completely.
RRRUUMBLLEEEEEE! You wake up immediately, and think “Rome gets earthquakes?! This wasn’t in my job description!” You look around and to your dismay, you see that all the jail cells have been completely opened and the chains are all broken. Nobody is around, so you know immediately that every prisoner, including the two mysterious men, is gone. You cry out in despair, and you know that you cannot live anymore. You draw your sword and are about to end it all, muttering a silent apology to your wife and daughter, when through the darkness and stillness a voice cries out, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” You are so relieved and shocked, you run out to get a torch, and while coming back, you know for sure that the two men must have called upon their God to be saved. You know that you need all the help you can get at this point, and maybe these two can help you salvage your career by performing some miracle, so you rush in and fall before the two, asking, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
But the two, who are called Paul and Silas, know about a saving power that extends beyond just keeping you out of trouble with the law. They reply to you, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.” You know now you are onto something good.
So in summary, the guard was living a life that seemed normal to him, going day to day about his job. But when the world (literally) came crashing down around his head, what did he have to turn to? Luckily, Paul and Silas were there to give him a good direction. So think about this, when you see someone whose life is crashing down around them, will you be their Paul and Silas? When your own life is crashing down around you, who will you turn to?

PRAYER CALENDAR
Thursday: Pray for the church (small c)
Thank God for the church, that he has provided us a place to gather and worship him