Hitting the Ground Hard - And Making a Well

Acts 1:8 "You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth."

Acts 8:4,5 "Now those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there."

Okay, it's official -the news is bad and getting worse, and jobs are being lost at a rate we haven't seen in decades. People are finding themselves forced to make decisions that otherwise wouldn't even be in their thought process. Jobs, homes and even ministries have exploded and the next thing you know you're standing on new ground thinking, "How in the world did I get here?"

It happened in the early church. They had been told that they would be witnesses in Jerusalem and then they would spread out to Judea, Samaria and the rest of the world. But a funny thing happened on their way out of Jerusalem - they never went. As uncomfortable as it was becoming, it was better than either the unknown or the unliked (Samaria). So they stayed, even through persecution and jailings, because it was their comfort zone.

So God basically set off a bomb (the stoning of Stephen) that exploded them into places that they would not have gone into on their own. Philip finds himself standing in Samaria, probably wondering what he was doing there. And now He's doing it to our churches.

But here's the thing: They didn't waste time trying to figure out how it happened, they went right to work. They immediately hit whatever ground they found themselves on - and they hit it hard. They dug a spiritual well wherever they were. There was no complaining, no discontentment, just the spreading of the Word. Discontentment leads to grumbling which leads to inactivity, and we simply do not have time to be inactive. The world can't wait for us to come to grips with our circumstances.

Psalm 84 says that a true pilgrim will make each place that he sets his foot a "place of springs." that he will go from "strength to strength" not crisis to crisis.

If circumstances have forced you into a place you never would have gone to on your own, don't just stand there, dig a well, reach out your hand, proclaim the Word. This economic meltdown, whatever the cause, is like the persecution bomb that scattered the disciples in Acts 8. We are all being forced into places we never planned. It's okay to take some time to retrench, but not to retreat. Hit the ground, dig deep into Jesus, and make a well that heals the land.