The Holy Hand Grenade

Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will by My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Acts 8:4 "Those who had been scattered preached the Word wherever they went."

Jesus had told the disciples that they would go to these places and be living testimonies of the truth. The problem is that they were staying in their comfort zone of Jerusalem, so God used persecution to explode them into the other regions. After the stoning of Stephen, Philip gets blown into Samaria. I can imagine him standing in the streets going, "What in the world am I doing in this place?"

To their credit, wherever they find themselves they immediately begin preaching the Word. They don't sit around moaning about the circumstances that brought them there. They begin advancing God's kingdom where He wanted them in the first place.

This happened to me several years ago, where God took me out of a place I was very secure in and I found myself working in a school that was not on my radar. I submitted it to His sovereignty and He molded me and used me in ways that I could never have imagined.

Sometimes God will use tough circumstances like a hand grenade and "explode" you into a place that you weren't planning on going to. But in His plan, He needs you there, and you weren't going on your own. When this happens, we need to respond like the people of the early church - spreading the Word there, not complaining about how we got there and how we'd rather still be in the comfort zone of our own Jerusalems.

Again: Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven!