Paul is in chains again. Paul is before the king. Paul stays bold knowing by the law he could die, but by Jesus, he would be delivered. If Paul is not bold, he does not have the opportunity to go to Rome and shake the epicenter of the world by empowering them with the Good News of Jesus. Every time Paul faces opposition…he moves the Good News Forward. It is by being empowered in opposition that he empowers the early church to seismically shift the world.

Paul and Silas find themselves in prison for healing a girl and threatening a bad man’s way of life. Instead of sulking in their wrongful imprisonment, they worship God in such a manner that the literal ground shakes and changes the lives of the guards. When we worship in our pain, people find hope in their own despair.

Paul in Acts 17 goes to Athens and instead of judging them for their pagan worship, their gods, and their differing views, he took the opportunity to meet them on their turf, engage their “unknown God” and lead some of them to Jesus. He was willing to find common ground on their ground to shake the ground of their faith towards Jesus.

Saul, who will become Paul, is literally imprisoning and persecuting Christians. Then he has the earth-shaking and life-altering moment with Jesus. He will go from murderer to the Messiah. From destroyer to disciple-maker. From Killer to Convert. From Murderer To Miracle Worker. When you become a difference maker God will use your past mistakes to make something new.

When the church devotes itself to community, it shifts the community it is into seeing Jesus.

Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to scatter them throughout the world to reach as many people as possible. He tells them not to scatter until the Spirit comes on them. But when it does…it is going to shake the world to its core.

There is enough judgment in the world today. But we are called to be Hope dealers! A Hope dealer runs towards the hurting instead of running away from them. Hope dealers help heal the broken. Hope dealers are tasked to reconcile others to the Father! Hope Dealers help remove the grave clothes from others so that they may experience a new life in Christ.

People all around us are filled with despair and darkness (depression, anxiety, stress, addiction, trauma, sin, strongholds) and if you’re struggling with despair one of the first casualties is hope. Yet as people of faith, we have a hope that illuminates the darkness.

We must see people the way Jesus sees people…as opportunities to receive forgiveness and redemption. It is easy to get into our hopeless judgment of those living in sin and forget that we too are sinful.

When we are dealing hope, are we willing to do anything possible to get the world in front of Jesus?