Out of God's Salt Shaker

Psalm 22.9-31              Acts 8.1-25
1. God's shake-ups seem bad
2. God's shake-ups may be good
3. God shakes up evil
Have you ever had the feeling you have been through God's saltshaker?

He does put us through trials, hardships, testings, refinements of various kinds. Things out of our control occur to disrupt our normal life.

These seem like major disasters and are usually very unpleasant.

The early church community in Acts 8 suffered severe persecution and then dislocation. The whole kingdom work seemed to be endangered. Like salt out of a shaker they were scattered out of Jerusalem and disseminated all around the outlying regions.

Though their entire lives were turned upside down they kept a kingdom focus. They preached the word wherever they went. Thus out of the saltshaker appeared new seasoning as far as God's kingdom is concerned. He got His people out and about and he clarified what really mattered- the kingdom of God. This was a good result out of an unpleasant event.

We read in Romans 8.28: "we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose."  This good, of course, includes those bad shake-ups that come across our path.

Thus James amazingly says" Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of  many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.