The second weekend of October, my team was blessed with the opportunity to visit Greece. A fun “holiday” was far more than I could have possibly imagined. Both in luxury and discovery.
On our first day, we drove down to Thessaloniki, visited a few different sights, and stayed in a hotel. The next morning, a few teammates woke up to watch the sunrise on the beach before hopping in the van on the road to Philippi. The only thing I had heard about Philippi was that it was the place where Lydia was baptized.. So I looked it up and read Acts 16.
The first thing that caught my eye was that during Paul’s voyage, they were actually “forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.”
Whaaat? Forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word?? This helped me realize that the Holy Spirit leads us in ways that don’t always make sense to us. If the Word is good, you would think it should be shared everywhere every time. But God sees a picture bigger than ours. He sees what would happen if they actually did stop and share. He also sees what and WHO they would miss if they
weren’t obedient.
So they kept on moving.
Eventually they meet Lydia, she is baptized (along with her household wooo!), she invites them to stay, and eventually they go on their way again. Well after they leave, Paul and Silas are thrown into prison.. to find out why, look up verses 16-21. But don’t stop there, it gets better!
Before they are arrested, they are publicly stripped of their clothes and beaten with rods! And what were they doing at midnight in prison with their feet fastened in stocks? They were praying and singing hymns to God (verse 25).
Praying and singing to the Lord after being stripped of their clothes, beaten, and thrown into prison.
I kid you not, a few weeks ago I had a flesh fit when my sweet teammate woke me up to eat a hot breakfast….. For no reason I got upset. These men were BEATEN PUBLICLY and they are still singing praises.
As the other prisoners listened, BAM! An earthquake! Not just a little rumble, one that shook the foundations to the point of opening the doors and loosening their shackles. Coincidence? I think not.
Well the jailer wakes up and is about to kill himself, assuming that the prisoners escaped, but Paul cries out “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
WHAT!?!??? If I was in prison, worshiping God, and He shakes the earth, setting me FREE… my first instinct is NOT to hang around for the jailer! But they didn’t run. And with that, the Jailer and his whole household came to believe in Jesus and were baptized.
Good story right?
It’s. Not. Over.
Police come the next morning saying that they may be released and Paul… ohhhh Paul says “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.”
I was flabbergasted! Now they get the green light to leave and Paul, instead of hightailing it out of there like most would, says NO! He demands for the magistrates to come themselves and set them free.
And guess what.. they did! Not only that, they apologized.
Then they made their way to Thesoloniki.. where we had just left!
Reading it was awesome.. it shined some good light on obedience and trusting God. It also changed the way I looked at the drive.
The road to Philippi was beautiful. I sat looking out the window at the mountains that we weaved through and realized that Paul didn’t have the luxury of riding in the back of a big van. It was great looking at all of God’s creation and trying to imagine what it looked like when Paul walked through. What was a few hour drive through mountains for us was not a simple day trip for these men.
We got to Philippi and I saw a sign! Literally.. there was a sign. I stopped to read it and saw different information on the history and time frames of different events and then there it was.. the earthquake that apparently didn’t just shake the foundation of the prison, but the whole city.
Walking around Philippi was incredible. Yes, I’ve known he Bible as truth, but seeing the historical sight and the history behind the earthquake just changed everything. It became just a little more real.
They’re not just stories, I was able to walk where Paul and Silas walked. To see the set up behind different buildings and the physical layout to the story I read.
I’ve heard many people express a desire to go to Israel.. but I never really shared the same interest. Not until my eyes were opened just a little wider to be able to see where some of these things played out. It was incredible to see where Paul walked.. but Jesus? I cannot fathom what it would be like to follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ, my Savior and friend.
In a weekend that I was blessed with to relax and celebrate my teammate, Melissa’s birthday, I found so much more.
As far as the luxury I mentioned earlier.. I mean that I stayed in the nicest place I will probably ever stay in for the rest of my life. I watched the sun rise on the coast of the North Aegean Sea, laid on the beach reading my Bible, and even swam in the sea.
I can still hardly grasp the reality of it all. It was far more than I ever could have dreamed.
