Acts 27-28 Do You see what I see

November 23rd, Acts 27-28

       We all have a worldview. It shapes how we see events and interpret them into "facts." Todays's text is a classic illustration.
       In America in 2013... we see someone get bit by a poisonous snake, we come up with reasons why someone didn't die. We imagine it was a snake that bit other things today and has run out of venom, something is broke so the delivery of venom failed. Maybe Paul has been bit several times over his life and built up an immunity to snake bite, or maybe it's an old tired snake, no longer able to kill.
       Our worldview says, if we see something we can't explain we come up with a rational explanation for it. It couldn't be a miracle, we need to explain God out of this.
       Backpedal short of 2,000 years ago and there is another explanation. Another worldview that makes this story simple to understand. Paul gathered firewood and got struck by a snake and didn't die. The natives on the island of Malta had an easy understanding of how this happened. Plain and simple, Paul was obviously a god. Now that's the last conclusion any of us here in America would land on. Their preconceived notion led them to their version of a "fact" that to them was unarguable.
       So a simple caution is thrown out our way. How much of our worldview keeps us from seeing the way God sees? How much do we need to be in the Word of God to interpret our world through the lense of God? How far off can we get in what we claim to know. Was Paul a god, lucky or miraculously protected  by the hand of God?