Talk about a cliff hanger

Paul's shipwreck and arrival at Rome (Acts 27-28)

    It was God's will that on the way to Rome Paul end up in a shipwreck. These are the kind of things that come into our life and cause us to ask, "Why Lord". Paul could have said, "Haven't I suffered enough? Do you have to add shipwreck to it? But that is not the way he looked at it.
    You see, "Why Lord" is not a bad question, but it depends on how you ask it. To say "Why Lord" and mean, how could you let this happen, displays a lack of trust in God. To say, "Why Lord" and mean, I want to understand your purpose here, displays complete trust in God. Paul found himself in several bad situations, but he always seemed to turn them into ministry opportunities. I firmly believe it was because he knew that even the negative things that happened in his life were under God's control and he had a reason for allowing it to happen, in this case the three months of ministry on the Island of Malta and maybe other reason we could not know.
    Paul survives the ship wreck but then gets snake bit. Another negative, but God used it to give him the attention of the islanders. By the way if there is any question about it, God never told us to handle snakes. What happened to Paul here is a good physical example of what Jesus was talking about in Mark 16:18. There are probably spiritual applications to the idea of taking up serpents. I will try to remember to write about that when we Journey through Mark.
    Funny thing is that after Paul gets to Rome. He gets a chance to sit in a comfortable house and have people come to him for ministry for two whole years. But the book ends on a cliff hanger, not telling us what happened to him. We do know that eventually he was killed  at the hands of Nero, but we don't know if it happened at this imprisonment. There seems to be evidence that he was released and allowed to minister freely for a few more years before his death. Let's all ask him when we get to heaven.