So What…

…does that mean for my family?

Where in the Word? Acts 8: 1-25 Confrontation With the World

Spotlight Verse: Acts 8:1

“On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles

were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.”

…do we need?

Bubbles

Your imagination

…can we pray for?

Let’s pray for the ability to persevere through hardships knowing that the perseverance will not be wasted. It will end up sharpening our character and it may allow us to reach farther than we ever thought.

…can we talk about?

Gather your family and your bubbles around you outside. Pull out just the bubble blower from the bubble solution.

Imagine yourself to be the bubble blower. You know that you are made to be a catalyst for spreading great smelling soap to all the ends of the earth, at least that’s what it says on your label. You’re okay with that, except that it sure is nice just sitting in your own bubble solution. It smells great, and after all, your deliciously aromatic soap is reaching the far outer limits of your own bottle. Things are going pretty well.

All of a sudden, you feel your bottle tip, and a grubby little finger grabs you out. You get blown on, spit on, and dropped in the dirt a few times. A small infant even tries to eat you! You get dunked and blown on and spit on even more. You never asked for that! But wait! The bubbles! They’re escaping! That sweet smelling soap is actually going farther than you could ever imagine! The label was right! You are reaching the far ends of the earth! You may have to endure suffering, but you are finally doing what you were made to do!!

Perhaps the early church was a little like the bubbles. God has said in Acts 1:8 that they would be His “witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” But so far they had stayed in Jerusalem. They didn’t scatter on their own. It took persecution to make them scatter. I think of that in my life. The times I have grown the most in my relationship with God are the times when I have gone through very difficult circumstances. In real persecution I think we finally get to the end of ourselves and know that we have to have God. We learn more about Him during those times, and He gives us a great testimony to spread to others who need to hear. I think it is when we are confronted with the world, and things are so contrary to what we think they should be that our faith is tested. But remember, all those circumstances that are intended for evil can turn out for good.

Sometimes it takes a bubble blower to get pretty beat up before all of its bubbles reach the far ends of the earth! Sometimes it might even get broken in the process, but the bubble blower can rest in the knowledge that it did what it was intended to do! The great Creator will not allow it to have been endured in vain!