Begin with 2 minutes of stillness and silence before God.

I saw a video of an American evangelist who was telling of his experiences in China. Students would travel for hours just to sit on the floor in a hot room for hours to hear the gospel. If they are caught, it usually means prison time. He passed out Bibles to the students to read from only to realize there are not enough for everyone. He called on students to read scripture and noticed that some were recalling whole chapters without the book in front of them. He asked the students, “How many of you have been arrested for reading the bible?” Nearly everyone in the room raised their hand. He inquired how they were able to recall such lengthy sections of scripture. Turns out you have lots of time to memorize scripture in prison. He asked, “Won’t the jailers confiscate your Bible pages if you're caught?” One student replied, “Yes. That’s why you have to memorize quickly.” He asked the students for prayer requests and one student raised his hand. The student asked, “Could you pray that one day we will be like you (Americans)?” The evangelist replied, “No I will not.” He goes on to tell the student that we only memorize a couple of verses in Sunday School as children. If the thermostat is not set exactly how we want it, we complain. If we have to drive more than 30 minutes to church, we don’t go. The evangelist then said, “I will pray that our churches become more like you”.

In these verses, Paul, Silas, and Timothy have just been driven from Thessalonica and into Berea. What looks like another escape from the mob turns into another stop along the way for ministry. We see throughout Paul’s ministry that he never really gets sidetracked or derailed. I picture Paul saying these sarcastic replies to circumstances :

“Oh no! We couldn’t go to Asia and now we're in Philippi. Lydia, have you heard of Jesus, and do you have a bathing suit by chance?”

“Oh no! I am in prison. Silas, crank up the tunes, and let’s worship”

“Oh no! We got chased to Berea. Timothy and Silas, stay here and tell these people who died for their sins.”

Paul, Silas, and Timothy have one mission and that is to tell everyone they know about Jesus and what he has done. The beauty of the Gospel is that you don’t have to have the perfect circumstances to tell people about it. The students in China aren’t waiting for churches to be built to have church. They are waiting on their last breaths to STOP preaching the Gospel. Until then all systems are a go. What are we waiting on? Squeeze every drop out of the lemons in your life to make that lemonade. You will find yourself hunting another pitcher to fill up with all the juice you make.

Take 2 minutes to reflect in silence.

Reflection:

• Don’t ever take for granted the freedoms we experience every day to live out our religious freedoms. What can we do to leverage those freedoms for the Kingdom of God?
  
• Invite someone to a Sunday experience or to house church. Cultivate relationships and then use that familiarity to start a Gospel conversation.
• This week leading up to Mother's Day, we want to honor women in our church who have made it a mission to encourage and invest in their family, friends, and community to make known the name of Jesus. Check out their stories of leveraging motherhood into a ministry. Read them here or on Venture Live on Facebook or Instagram. 
• Prayer: God, we pray for protection over the believers in this world who risk the greatest sacrifices daily to preach Your Gospel. Fill us with Your Spirit that we may go out and turn our lemons into lemonade in every circumstance. We love You.